> Ever Onward
>  by Mini Minrie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I peeked around the crumbling marble wall, trying to ignore the shiver that ran up my spine as I pressed against the sludge-caked wall, and it was all I could do to keep my heart from leaping into my throat. I snapped back against the wall, creeping as far from the corner as I could without making noise, and sank to the floor with a hand to my chest.

“That bad, Mary?”

Her voice was nothing more than a whisper, but between my hammering heart and the blood pulsing in my head, it sounded like she was screaming to the world. “Shhh!” Shakily, I climbed back to my feet and slid the dagger she'd given me out of my belt. “There's like, a million, corpses out there… Are you sure this is the only way into the castle, princess?”

“Well, yeah, for you and the rest of us that can't fly,” the dragon whispered as he crept up to the corner and snuck a look for himself. With a sigh, muffled by the tiny cloth bandana he wore, he shot a glare at me that I could only describe as incredulous. “A million? Really? There's like, ten at most. Maybe two more around the next corner.”

“That's ten too many!” I slapped a hand to my mouth, eyes wide, as the adolescent dragon, princess, and the rest of our small group glared daggers at me. “Maybe they didn't-”

“...kill…”

I screamed and swung the dagger, shivering as the blade sank into the undead pony's skull. It wasn't particularly well-aimed, or aimed at all, really, but a dagger to the head was a dagger to the head. I gagged as the rotting stallion-- Yup, stallion, definitely a stallion, oh god whydidIlook!?-- sank to the ground in a growing pool of viscous sludge that had once been its blood.

The rest of the team took up their arms and rushed to meet the swarming mob of undead. I tried not to watch as swords, magic, spears, and a hammer tore through what had once been living ponies, but grim fascination won over as usual. Despite my reservations about fighting myself, it was still pretty fascinating to watch a battle this close, no matter how one-sided it was to watch a group of pretty well-trained fighters and mages apply their trade. The reanimated corpses fell in moments, overwhelmed by the presence of mind that actual life granted, and left us to clean up.

“Shouldn't we…?”

The princess frowned and inspected the undead. “We can't. We don't have enough time.” Her ears folded back as she turned back to me. “I want to do something for them, too, but… We can't risk lighting a fire. We have to get away before the next bell tolls.”

“R-right. Yeah, I know…” I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and turned away. “Okay… Okay! The courtyard should be safe now that we've got all of those out of the way.” I scanned the small group gathered around me and took a deep breath. “I-if we're going, I guess we should g-go now.” They all watched me expectantly, even the princess, waiting for my command. “L-let's finish this…”

I turned back and crept around the sludge-stained wall, careful to stay in the shadows as my friends followed behind me. My hand traced the marble at my side as my heart pounded in my ears until the nine of us stopped at the great golden doors to the castle's throne room. My breath hitched, growing shallow as I reached for the faded, golden handles. This was it, the end of it all, right behind these doors. I can't believe I'm doing this. Why am I doing this? Have I gone mad? Where did my life go wrong?







I groaned, scratching at the tangled, greasy mess of orange curls that stuck to my face just like the three-day-old, grimy tee shirt that clung to my body. Not that I particularly cared, mind you. I didn't have any plans to leave my room, let alone my house, for more than a few minutes at a time, just as I hadn't yesterday or the day before, so there wasn't any real need to clean up. Besides, I wasn't even that dirty to begin with. It's not like I went outside or exercised or did anything really strenuous to work up a sweat.

I leaned back in the pleather of my computer chair, grunting as I shifted and unstuck my legs from where they'd been sitting. I wasn't really doing anything at the moment, just sitting and waiting for the time to pass while my favorite game was updating. None of my friends were online, all of them either at work or off doing something else while the game was down for maintenance, so I was left to browse and idle until somebody popped up to chat with.

I hated maintenance days and the boredom that came with them. I had an entire library of other games to play, most of them I'd bought, installed, and never touched, and shelves, both digital and physical, of books that I'd picked up but never started to read or started and never finished. I could practice drawing, or maybe get back into writing, get off my ass and actually try and better myself. I had a world of possibilities, and wanted to do at least some of them, but…

Every time I thought about actually doing it… The interest was gone.

I sighed again, staring at my meager reflection in the computer screen, and opened a new window. Well, if none of that appeals, then there's at least one thing that I could do to pass the time. My fingers danced as I browsed, scanning the videos that pulled up and watching the auto-play previews until I found one that suited my desires for the moment, then carefully, gingerly, pulled my panties down around my ankles.

The girls on screen were talking, one an amazon of a woman easily over six-and-a-half feet towering over a girl barely taller than my five and an one. The dialogue was probably cheesy, and would have been typical of videos like this if I'd had the video unmuted, and I would have skipped it to get right into the fun, but the behemoth woman had the tiny girl up against the wall at eye height in a grip that made my thighs twinge. I took a deep breath, dragging my fingers across my thigh.

“Mary?”

I gasped, smashing the close shortcut as fast as my shaking hands would allow, just as my mom opened the door at the top of the basement stairs. “Mom! I swear to Raptor Jesus if you don't fucking knock!”

“Marilynne Rose! Don't you threaten me!” I groaned as she descended the stairs, trying not to make the underwear around my ankles as conspicuous as I knew they were. “If you don't want me to catch you jilling, then lock your door first.”

“Mom!” My face burned. It wasn't like this was the first time she'd barged in on me while I was trying to masturbate, and I really didn't care if people caught me naked considering I didn't have a whole lot to show off, but there was always something embarrassing about being caught doing something the whole world tells you to hide. “What do you want?”

My mom shook her head with a smile, tossing about the carroty-curls that I had inherited from her. “What'll I ever do with you?” I glared, pulling my shirt further down my legs, and she laughed. “You know I used to wipe poop out of-”

“Mom, I swear to fucking god!”

“Fine, fine. Could you run to the store for me? I need some beef for dinner tonight and I'd go myself, but…”

She held a hand to her stomach, swollen with child, and I knew that I didn't quite have a choice in the matter. Even if I didn't want to go, even if I hated my mom, which I didn't, I couldn't force her to walk to the market like that. “Fine. Whatever. Could you leave now? I need to take a shower first anyway.”

She chuckled and leaned down to kiss my forehead despite how much I squirmed away and tightened my shirt against between my legs. “Thanks, sweetie. I'll leave the money on the counter. Do take your time in the shower though, honey. You might wipe down every time, but that doesn't stop you from smelling like sex.”

“MOM!”

I glared the entire time it took my mom to hobble up the stairs, ignoring the shame burning in my cheeks. I love my mom, I really do, but sometimes… I groaned, kicking my panties away, and stood with a stretch. “Well, I can always finish when I get back.” I glanced at the door and took a tentative sniff under my arm. “And I guess she's right…”

It took some effort to find clean clothes, the majority of my laundry sitting in a haphazard pile in the corner of my room, but after sifting through the clean clothes in my laundry basket I was at least able to find something that kinda matched. Short sleeved, white blouse, bought by my mother; a decidedly cute, pleated skirt in plaid, also bought by my mother; white socks, graciously borrowed from my mother's supply; and fresh panties with little colorful flowers bought in bulk for cheap by my mother. Sure, they were cutesy and childish, but they fit and were comfortable. Besides, it's not like I had anybody I was planning on showing them to.

Bundle of clothes in hand, I made the quick journey up the stairs and to the bathroom, thankful that whatever mom had been doing before coming to embarrass me was once again occupying her time. Probably sending faxes and filling out paperwork.

I let a small smile creep up, a rarity in recent days. I was glad that her job had been so understanding and allowed her to work from home with a borrowed fax machine. If they hadn't… I don't think we would have made it on just her maternity pay alone. I gave her shit, but I really did love my mom. She understood and supported me when I dropped out of university. She never forced the subject of getting a job and only asked me to help her with shopping when Miss Jasmine from next door wasn't available…

The bathroom door closed behind me with a click, closing me in the only other sanctum I had other than my room. I dropped the clothes on the counter, carefully avoiding the little puddles of water splashed around the sink, and kicked the shower on to full blast through the fogged shower door. With the water heating up, I was once more left alone with my thoughts, so I tossed off the dirty tee and stared at myself in the slowly fogging mirror.

It was amazing how much I took after my mom. Same high cheekbones and round face, freckles literally everywhere, and curly orange hair marking me forever soulless. Wistfully, I poked at the budding mounds of flesh on my chest. Well, mounds was a strong word. I may not have gotten her breasts, barely even able to call the little peaks more than just a nipple, but… I slapped my ass and laughed as it jiggled. “Thank you, mom, for this at least.” I slapped myself again, biting my lip as the sting sent sparks to my thighs, then frowned as the fog finally consumed the whole of the mirror. “Fine, take away all the fun.”

The shower was quick, mostly because I knew that, if I indulged for too long I'd inevitably devolve into finishing the job from earlier, but it got the job done and a quick towelling and dressing left me ready to face the day. A quick trip back to my basement to don a pair of sneakers that didn't fit my ensemble at all, but were much more comfortable for the walk to the corner market than my loafers, and to stuff my phone in one of my skirt pockets and I was set to leave. I resurfaced from my lair back up in the relative freshness of the rest of the house, resolving to clean up and aerate the room once I got home.

“Hey, mom! You need anything else while I'm there? Don't wanna have to go again since… You know…”

A flash of orange peeked around the corner as she slid back on her office chair, a bright smile lifting the corners of my mouth up with it. “No, dear, but you really should wear a bra with that shirt. You know how much dark nipples show through.”

“For fuck's sake, mom! I'm tryna be nice and you're just embarrassing me!” I glared at her, but not before glancing down at the pair of dark splotches just barely outlined in the plain white of my blouse. “Jesus, I hate you!”

“I love you too, Sweetie. And, hey, if you don't care, maybe that girl that you keep calling cute will be working the checkout.” She winked and I burned. “You never know. She might enjoy the show.”

“Fuck you, I'm leaving! Don't complain if I die of embarrassment on the way there!”

“I love you, Mary!”

I frowned, just about to slam the front door as I stuffed the twenty and house keys from the counter in my skirt pocket. “Love ya too, Mom.”

I sighed and locked the door behind me. “God I really wanna strangle her sometimes.”

I glanced up and down the street, thankful that it was calm and quiet. The trip to the store wouldn't take more than an hour around, but it wasn't exactly the time I was worried about… “Sometimes, I hate that you love me so much, Mom.”





“Oh, hey Mary. Running errands for Missus Rose today?” I nodded as the register beeped, scanning in the five pounds of beef I'd walked all the way here for, and cursed my mom's terrible luck. “That's so sweet of you. You must really care for her. I know I'd be lost without my parents.” She laughed and I felt my stomach tighten. Why did she have to be so damn nice and cute and just…

“Ugh.” I glanced up, eyes wide, and had to hold back a sigh of relief that she hadn't heard that. God, how could I have almost messed up a conversation with the one person that was nice to me. “Yeah, she's great.”

“Oh, I know. Your mom is such a sweetheart. I love mine to death, but I'd gladly trade her for yours.” She laughed again, the soft, sonorous giggle making me blush. I glanced up as she rang up the can of citrus energy drink I'd graciously decided to splurge on with the extra five I'd found buried in my pocket, and dropped my gaze immediately. Catherine, or Cathy as her nametag read, was everything I'd never be. Tall, light-haired, and beautiful with lightly-tanned skin as smooth as silk. She had a perfect hourglass figure, and, even if her butt didn't quite match up with mine, her breasts… I dreamed of being able to bury my face between them and just doze forever. “Is that all, Mary?”

“Yeah…” She smiled as I handed her the twenty.

“Your change'll be thirteen twenty-seven.” She counted out the bills even as she kept talking, and I watched the plump, crimson-stained lips through my bangs. “You should join me at the karaoke bar sometime. I go with friends all the time, but I'd love to have you join me. I bet you'd have a wonderful singing voice.”

“M-maybe… I, uhm…”

“Well, you give it some thought and tell Missus Rose I said hello.”

I frowned, but nodded, still keeping my head down. “Y-yeah. I will.” I swept up the grocery bag, ignoring the shake in my hands, and rushed out the automatic doors and back into the warm spring air. “God, I'm fucking worthless.” A shuddering sigh hissed through my teeth as I took that first step home, keeping my eyes down and watching the sidewalk at my feet. “Can't even look her in the eye and I think I could ever have anything more?”

The concrete of the parking lot gave way to the bright green of newly growing grass as my brisk walk carried me into the little suburban residences that would eventually lead me back home. A quick glance up as I came to a crosswalk showed the quaint, uniform rows of houses that came practically point for point in every lower-middle-class subdivision across the country, barring the few individuals that had the money to expand and rebuild that occasionally dotted the identical rows. “M-maybe…” I mocked, my voice high and nasally. “For fuck's sake, Mary. Can't even talk to her. Why don't you just fucking shoot yourself?” I sighed, reaching into the bag and pulling out the energy drink.

At that, I smiled. It wasn't often you find cash in your pocket when you rarely had your own spending money to stash in them, so getting to treat yourself once in a while without pleading to your struggling mom felt pretty good. A lump formed in my throat. “Fuck… Goddamnit, I should've just…” It took everything I had not to let the burning in my eyes build any further. Of course, I hadn't thought to just give it to mom. Why would I? I'm just a selfish, anti-social girl who can't think of anything but herself.

I took in a deep breath, shoving the thoughts deep down as usual, and popped open the tab. “Well, I may be a worthless piece of shit, but I do what I can.” I took a sip and smiled. “At least you taste good enough to drown away the sorrow.” My foot hit pavement again as a shadow loomed, and the only warning I had before I hit the sidewalk was the shriek of a horn as a bright red pickup tore past me.

I screamed, the driver swerved, then peeled off down the street, horn still blaring. Tears blurred my vision as I stared, dumbstruck. “Fuck you cuntbag! Y-you almost fucking killed me!” I screamed again, stumbled to my feet, and threw the spilled can of citrus at where the truck had fled to. It bounced harmlessly down the road, and I was left shaking and crying. “Fuck you…”

My breath hitched as I swallowed air. “C-calm down… Calm down, Mary.” I wiped my face with my now-free hand, clutching my left and the bag of groceries to my chest. “Can't let mom know. Sh-she's got enough shit…” I sucked in a lungful of air and exhaled slowly. “Come on, you're almost home. Don't fuck this up.”

The rest of the walk went by quickly as I practically ran back to the safety of home and by the time I reached the door I was out of breath. “Okay... Put on... a face and... don't tell mom.”

The door unlocked and mom's face greeted me with a smile. “You okay, sweetie? You're panting.”

“Y-yeah, I'm fine.” I chuckled and pushed past her to set the bag, the change, and my five on the kitchen counter. “Just… Got nervous and hurried home. You know how it is.”

“Of course.” She sighed and hugged me from behind. “I'm sorry. I know you don't like going out alone and I wouldn't ask you if I had any other choice.”

I swallowed to stop my stomach from churning and forced a laugh. “I know. A-and. I don't mind. You know I wanna help.” Another chuckle, awkward and strained, and I pointed out the extra five. “I, uhm, found a five in my pocket and bought a drink. I hope you don't care.”

My mom pulled away and turned me around, and I hoped that I hadn't been crying enough to have my eyes start to puff. “Mary. You know that you don't have to ask. I give you extra money 'cause I want you to get something for yourself.” She smiled and I looked down. “It's okay, sweetie. I know you're just worried, but it's okay. We're not that poor.” I smiled, and a genuine laugh teased out. “There we go. Now go on back and finish what you were up to. I'll have dinner ready in an hour.”

“Mom! For fuck's sake!”





The basement door slammed shut as I stomped down and kicked off my sneakers. Having a nice fucking moment and she ruins it. I huffed and fell into my chair, yanking a bottle of water from the mega-pack settled off to the side of my desk, and sank into the plush pleather. I had the urge to reopen the closed window and actually continue, but I couldn't bring myself to actually follow through. Something about being told to finish rubbing one out by your mom after failing to have a decent conversation with the girl you liked followed by nearly getting creamed by a retard in a pickup just killed the mood.

“Fuck. This is just fucking great. Now I'm bored and I can't even masturbate to pass the time.” I leaned back, glaring at the cement ceiling and crossbeams. “Where did it all go fucking wrong?”

I coughed, biting back the tears again. “Maybe I should've been hit by the truck. At least then mom wouldn't have to deal with a failure like me. Too scared to talk to a cute cashier, too scared to go out in public for any length of time, too scared to fucking find a job to help the one person that gives a shit.” I squeezed my eyes shut, biting back a sob, and rubbed my face with a hand. “No, mom would be fucking devastated if anything happened. Guess I just get to be a fucking worthless sack of shit until I can finally get my shit together.”

I sighed, listening to the hum of my computer in the background as my anger swirled in my head. “Such a goddamn coward.” I cracked my eyes and almost lurched in my chair as the ceiling spun, swirling together almost as if it was bleeding into a mass.

“What the fuck…?”

“Do you... ...work?”

My stomach heaved, the colors around me fading as whispers teased at my hearing. “Mom? Mom! I-” I choked as I stood, and had to stop to breathe to not vomit. “M-Mom! I-I… Something's…”

“It has… ...anything… ...can do…”

“Mom! Help!”

“Look, something’s happening!”

The room spun one final time, all color and definition gone, before a flash of color and flickering light seemed to almost pop into existence. My body felt like lead as I dropped to my knees and puked, heaving up what little food I had eaten the day before into the softest grass I'd ever felt. My vision swam, my head throbbed, and it took all that I was not to fall face-first into the pool of bile I was dry heaving into.

“Oh my, I didn't think it would have this kind of effect on them. Please, somepony get them some water!”

I tried to look up, to search for that strange, ephemeral voice swimming about my head, but every little shift nearly sent me careening to the floor.

“Don't worry, you'll be okay. The effects of the spell should wear off shortly and then you'll be right as rain again.”

I squinted, holding myself still, enough that I could finally somewhat figure out where the voice was coming from, and slowly, carefully lifted my head.

“Oh! Thanks, Spike! I can always count on you.”

I wobbled back onto my rear, shivering as more grass, damp grass, tickled my thighs. My eyes still swivelled, trying to focus, as a blur of purple reached out towards me. I strained, squinting harder, until the purple became less and less fuzzy and muddled, and followed it up a lanky arm to a strange purple face. It smiled, razor sharp teeth glinting in the flickering light, and my stomach dropped. I shook, tearing up again as warmth trickled down my legs and onto the grass, as the very large, very terrifying monster reached for me.

“I think it's trying to say-”

“eeeeeeeEEEAAAAAUGGHHGAAAAAAAAAA-”




> Chapter One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What happened?”

My head throbbed and stomach churned as I slowly cracked my eyes. It was dark, which wasn't all that weird for my room even in the middle of the day, but even then I should have at least still had the soft glow of my computer's screensaver or the internal LEDs to provide at least some light.

“I think Spike scared her and she fainted.”

I groaned, trying to sit up despite the unbearable effort it took. Who the fuck was talking outside my door? Did mom have company over? I sighed, shuffling groggily to my feet and shivered at the cold  stone underneath. I really should ask mom to get me some carpet, or at least start wearing socks to bed.

“M-Mom? Could you guys be a little more quiet? I've got a killer fucking headache.”

“Oh! I think she's awake. Wait out here and I'll go greet her.”

“Hello? Mom?” I hissed, clutching my head, and walked towards the stairs only to bust my toe against solid rock. “Fuck! My! Ass!”

Light flooded my dark room from behind me, blinding me and forcing me to squeeze my eyes shut when it sent needles through my already throbbing head.

“Oh no! Are you okay!?”

 “Mom, why are you letting random people into my room!?”

“I, uhm… I'm sorry, but I don't think this is where you think it is.”

“What the fuck do you mean? I'm in my room, so why wouldn't… I…” I blinked, squinting tightly to try and get my eyes to adjust and see just who Mom had decided was okay to just barge into my room only to stumble back up against the wall as a short, lavender horse stepped towards me, backlit by the flickering flame from a torch hung on a wall behind her. The door she was standing in wasn't my door. It was thick, heavy, and rough, made of a weird black wood. The walls weren't the concrete filling of a house's foundation, but strange, rough stone, and my queen-size bed was nothing more than a cot on a raised stone slab.

My chest tightened as she walked toward me, her hooves clicking on the stone floor. Her mouth moved, but I couldn't hear her over the pulse pounding in my ears. Was this for fucking real? Was I dreaming? My head swam, and I nearly toppled over, but a magenta glow surrounded my body, a glow that matched the one around a short, rounded horn on the horse's head, and held me like a blanket just above the not quite smooth floor. My vision blurred as the horse rushed over to me, her hooves touching me and sending sharp tingles through my skin like my limbs were just resuming their blood circulation after having been slept on for an hour.

I tried to focus on the horse, but every time I looked away from the magenta glow on the floor and into her overly large lavender eyes my throat tightened, threatening to suffocate me. It was the only thing keeping me from screaming as her mouth kept moving, her words jumbling together between the ringing and pounding in my ears.

“Oh Celestia, are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?”

Her hooves moved all over my body and I flinched every time they touched me, trying to cringe away, but the magenta glow held me fast. I was trapped, barely able to even twitch. “G-go…”

“Go? Go what?”

I could just barely make out what she was saying, but it didn't make the constricting in my chest lessen at all. Just imagining a horse speaking like it was some cartoon made my skin crawl. I wanted her gone. I wanted to be alone. I wanted my mom. “G-go aw-w-way. M-mom…” I darted my eyes to the door as a shadowed passed by it, saw something vaguely human backlit by the torch on the wall. It was tall, dark, but it wasn't some freaky talking horse. “H-help!”

It was a weak shout. I couldn't even hear it and, if it hadn't been for the fact that I felt the word come out, I would have assumed that I had imagined saying it, but the horse backed off, her horn still glowing and holding me captive. I was terrified, the sensation surging as the tall person stopped next to the pony. Their words were muffled by my throbbing headache and lightning pulse, but it was obvious that they knew each other. Worse, though, was that whatever this person was, whoever they were, they weren't human.

In the magenta glow, I saw a dog, huge, sleek black, and sharp-toothed, and staring at me with hungry, blue eyes. I'd signed my death away and, as it came closer, my vision faded just as my hearing did. Hot tears stung my eyes as I tried to suck in air, panic constricting my throat further. I was going to die, eaten alive by some freakish werewolf dog thing and crazed, horned horse. I couldn't move, held completely immobile by some freaky magic bubble that made my skin itch the longer it held me. I felt the dog-thing put its huge hands around my arms and sobbed out my last breath.

“M-m-mom. M-mommy. Mommy p-please…”

Then, the tingling itch stopped and I sagged, the beast's hands the only things holding me up. I wanted to crack my eyes open, but I was too scared to watch myself being torn apart. I just wanted to go home, away from whatever hellscape this was, and be back in my basement so my mom could tell me dinner was ready.

When the hands wrapped around my shoulders, I finally screamed, the hoarse cry sounding like somebody had thrown my voice through a grinder over the fog in my ears. I tensed, screaming and crying as I waited for the werebeast to rip my body apart, but it just squeezed me tighter. Was it going to crush me to death? Was it going to suffocate me? I was already having trouble breathing, but it wasn't squeezing hard enough to make it worse.

I finally cracked an eye open, just enough to see my impending doom, but all I got was a face full of black fur. Sharp nails scraped across my back through my blouse, pressing just hard enough that I could tell that they were there, but not enough to be uncomfortable, and the hands they were attached to rubbed my back almost as if they were trying to soothe a child.

“Shhh… Shhhhh…”

I tentatively wrapped my arms around the black-furred body, flinched when it tensed, and squeezed it tightly. I don't know if it was the gentle petting, the softness of this dog person's voice, or some mind fuckery that it and the horse were using, but there was something oddly calming about the hug it was giving me. If I could ignore the tickling of its fur, I could almost imagine my mom holding me after a particularly bad night and whispering platitudes into my ear. I sobbed into the beast's chest, matting the black hair to my face, but if it cared it didn't show. It just held me, petting and hugging and cooing softly until I finally stopped weeping and just sniffled into its fur.

I never imagined that, at any time in my life, I would be comforted by a dog monster in some nightmare dreamworld, but here I was holding onto one as if my life depended on it. And it might have. I don't know what the horse was doing, what it had been doing, if it had been trying to kill me or not, but, whatever this dog person was, it had come and saved me.

I rubbed my face into its fur, took a deep breath, and pulled away. It seemed reluctant to let me go, at first, and would have been more than able to keep me from moving if the way its hold easily stopped me, but relented when I pushed harder. I looked up into its eyes, its large, bright blue eyes, and tried to smile, but all I could manage was a grimace. Even after being held like a child to its mother, I couldn't stop the fear from swelling in my chest. The dog person was huge, even kneeling down with me, almost half my height taller than me, and its doberman-like face and large pointed ears didn't instill any less worry. Even if its face was creased with humanlike worry, it still looked like it could kill me without any effort.

I tried to say something, but my voice choked and I had to look back down at the floor. Fresh tears streaked down my cheeks. This wasn't home. I wasn't home. I don't know where I was or how I got here, but I know I wasn't home. “Are you okay, little one?”

I jumped at the deep, feminine voice, glanced up at the dog-pers- dog-woman, and dropped my gaze again. Her hand wiped my face, her sharp-nailed thumb swiping at the tears as they formed at the corners of my eyes. I was shaking like a leaf, too scared to move despite how gentle she was being, and mustered up everything I could to shake my head. “Is Lulabelle scaring you? Would you like Lulabelle to leave?”

I peeked around the dog-lady and to the horse still watching from the back of the room. She was just sitting there, horn dull and face twisted in a grimace, but even looking at her doing nothing made my chest clench. I nodded jerkily, dropping my gaze to my lap, and the dog let out a short sigh. “Very well. Lulabelle apologizes for upsetting you, little one. Lulabelle did not mean to scare you.” The dog stood up and turned away, but instead of telling the horse, Lulabelle, to leave, started to walk away herself.

I scrambled to catch hold of her leg, barely grabbing the bottom of her paw and nearly tripping her, but she kept her balance and looked back at me, confusion clear on her face. I flinched again, still unable to meet her gaze, but being with her was better than whatever the horse would do to me if I was left alone with it again. I pointed a shaky finger in the horse's direction.

“Oh.” She paused and turned, forcing me to let go of her foot. “Princess Sparkle, Lulabelle thinks she-”

“Y-yeah…” The horse's voice was quiet and thick. “I'm sorry if I scared you, I was just-” A hoof touched my shoulder and I jumped away, and watched her horn as she took a step back before finally walking to the door. She looked hurt, if the weird human-like emotions on her face were genuine, but I didn't trust her. How could I trust anything that could keep me from doing anything with just a light from a horn? “I'll be in the atrium if you two need anything, Lulu.”

She was gone before anybody could respond, leaving the dog, Lulabelle, and me, alone. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling all that comforted by her presence anymore. I was stuck in this room, defenseless and nearly paralyzed by fear, with an animal that could easily tear my throat out without even breaking a sweat. I crawled back into a corner, facing away from the towering dog-woman. The floor was cold, stinging my bare butt and making me all too aware that I was missing important clothing, but that shame came second fiddle to the terror gnawing away at my heart. Any second now, Lulabelle would do what I'd expected her to do the moment she'd turned her canine eyes on me and gorge herself on my flesh. I didn't think I'd be much of a meal, being as thin as I was, but would a weredog even care?

I yelped when her hands gripped my shoulders and tried to wrench away, but her hold was firm. “Lulabelle apologizes for scaring you, little one. Lulabelle does not mean you any harm.” Her voice was soft and her hands trailed warmly down my arms until I felt her body press against my back. She wrapped her arms around my chest, hugging me gingerly, and eased me back until I was resting flush against her body. “Would you tell Lulabelle your name?”

I hesitated. Was it safe to tell her? Even with her lovingly holding me, could I trust her? What would she do if she knew? What if, like that horse, she had some freaky powers that she could use if she had my name like the fae in fantasy? “It's fine if you do not wish to share. Lulabelle would just like to get to know you. Ah! Lulabelle's name is Lulabelle, by the way, though others sometimes shorten it to Lulu.”

I couldn't stop the giggle that crept its way out. There was just something hilarious about a seven foot tall dog woman saying her name over and over again to refer to herself instead of just saying I or my. “Did Lulabelle do something funny?”

I shook my head and curled my fingers around her forearms and rested my chin there. “M-my name's… M-Marilynne R-rose.”

“Marilynne Rose is a lovely name.”

She shifted against me and I tensed, but then her legs slid up beside mine, encasing me in a full-bodied embrace, like a big, warm, furry cocoon, like I was snuggled up against a giant dog and not some bipedal canine hybrid. Like this, unable to see anything from her but her arms, it was easy to let my fear slip away. “Y-you can… call me Mary… I-if you w-want.”

“Lulabelle cannot.” What little happiness I was getting out of the conversation, stunted as it was on my side, seeped away and I sagged, but the dog squeezed me gently and nuzzled her chin into my hair. “It is improper for a dog from Lulabelle's pack to refer to another so intimately, so do not fret. It does not mean Lulabelle dislikes you.” It was odd, being relieved at that, especially since I didn't know shit about her other than her name, but the anxiety from thinking I'd already overstepped some boundary with a stranger, even if that stranger was cradling me like a child, had quickly crept up. “Are you feeling any better, Miss Rose?”

“Y-yeah…” I wasn't, not with the fear still roiling around in my brain and the pounding in my skull, but how could I dump my problems on her? I didn't know her and she didn't know me. Why would she care about some whiney loser's headache?

“You're trembling. Are you still scared? Cold?”

I tensed, but it didn't stop the shaking. “C-cold…” I was burning up, her body heat more than enough to keep me hot in a blizzard, but cold could be fixed and there wasn't anything Lulabelle could do to stop the creeping terror. I had no idea what was going on, where I was, or what was going to happen to me and I was too terrified to even ask. Maybe it was all a dream, like some hyper lucid nightmare, and I'd wake up eventually, but what if it wasn't? What if this was real, what if I wasn't at home passed out in my computer chair? I could still imagine it was all fake if I just didn't know.

“Come. Lulabelle will take you upstairs and get you a proper bed.” I looked at the little raised slab of stone and flimsy cushion that I'd woken up on. It barely even counted as a cot. “We are sorry for the poor conditions, but when you fainted you started running a fever and this was the coolest place in the mansion. Princess Sparkle has had Miss Palefeather doing everything she could to break the fever.”

“O-oh… How l-long was I…?”

The weight of Lulabelle's chin lifted from my head and I glanced back to find her staring up at the ceiling as if she was searching for something and quickly looked away before she noticed. “Almost a day, Lulabelle thinks.” I shuddered, trying not to imagine everything that could have happened to me while I was comatose for nearly a day, and she hugged me tighter. “Come, let's get you somewhere warmer, Miss Rose. You are shaking like a leaf.”

I nodded and Lulabelle rose to her feet, letting me know just how chilly the room was compared to being held next to her nearly sweltering body heat, and held out her hand. I stared at it, hesitating. She'd been so nice to me, some random girl she'd never met that was too afraid of her to even say so, but even still I couldn't bring myself to trust her or look her in the eye. I tried to get up on my own, but my legs didn't want to cooperate, weighing me down like lead as I tried to leverage myself on the wall to no avail. “I-I…” Tears formed at the corners of my eyes as I stared at her dog-like feet. I was a pathetic, worthless little mess and now I'd just shit on the one person who'd shown me nothing but kindness for nothing what? “I c-can't…”

I waited for her to get angry, cringed back when I saw her move closer, but she just knelt back down and slipped her arms under my legs and around my back. She didn't even grunt or strain as I was lifted like a princess from the cold floor. I could feel the cords of her muscles under my thighs and on my back, powerful arms on a titanic dog-woman, and couldn't stop the blush that crept across my face while she smiled down at me. I wanted to apologize, for being useless and shunning her offered hand, but no matter how much I moved my mouth, nothing came out. Whatever fear had been welling inside of me trickled out as fire spread across my cheeks.

“Lulabelle does not mind if you are afraid of her, Miss Rose.” Her smile was bright and warm, the frown that I'd caused evaporated like ice in the hot desert sand, and I turned my face down in shame. “Lulabelle only wants you to feel safe.”

I finally found my voice voice again after nearly a minute of silent muttering to myself, but it was nothing more than a choked whisper. “Wh-why?”

The dog didn't answer for a moment, instead opting to start carrying me through the torchlit door and into a short hallway lined with four other entrances that dead ended on one side and travelled upward on a curving stone staircase on the other. It looked like the dungeon in some medieval castle and, judging by the barren room I'd been kept in until now, I'd say that it might not have been far from the truth. The stairs circled around twice before ending at another large, wooden door, held together by strips of metal plating further sinking in the fact that this was probably once a jailer's dungeon, that opened up into a surprisingly bright and richly furnished hallway.

The stone walls, unlike in the basement, were adorned with brightly colored, if somewhat faded, tapestries and paintings of varying horses, most of them unicorns, either posing like a medieval baron in a portrait or depicted in scenes of fantastical fights. There were paintings of hundreds of armored horses, each wielding a weapon in their hooves in a bizarre display of dexterity or floating around them in a bubble much like the horse had held me in earlier. There were paintings of monsters being slain, of scholarly mares and stallions pouring over books as thick as my head, and wizened old horses with wizard-like facial hair that no horse should have ever had scribbling on a scroll with a floating quill. Wilted and dead flowers lined the walls in between doors fogged windows in vases sat upon little wooden tables. It was freaky, like I was in some bizarro world like the planet of the apes where all human monuments and art had been replaced by horses.

Sure, it was beautiful, but it filled me with a not insignificant amount of unease.

“Lulabelle will admit that she first comforted you out of duty, Miss Rose, but…” I chanced a glance up at her, startled by her sudden talking after the pregnant lapse, and dropped my eyes back down with a blush. There was something about the dog-woman's smile that made my heart beat faster. As goofy as it would have looked on an actual dog, it was surprisingly pretty on her and that played all kinds of issues through my head. “To be honest, there is just something about you that makes Lulabelle happy. Lulabelle does not know what it is, but she likes you.”

“O-oh.” It wasn't what I was expecting, but it wasn't like I could shut it down. Being carried like a bride through a castle was really messing with me, especially when it made me feel so safe.

“Plus, Lulabelle thinks you are cute.”

“O-oh!” My face burned brighter and I squirmed in her arms, trying to do everything that I could not to let her see my face. Nobody had ever called me cute before, nobody my age, at least, and I couldn't deny that it filled my stomach with butterflies. Was she my age?

“Here. This is the room Princess Sparkle had prepared for you before you arrived.”

I jumped again when she spoke and looked at the rich wooden doors. These ones, unlike the plain wood leading to the dungeon, looked masterfully carved and maintained, though they also had the faded look of age like everything else. The door opened to a lavishly furnished bedroom complete with massive armoire, a desk topped with a full vanity, a writing desk, and a massive canopy bed missing its drapery. The bedclothes and room's trappings were a rich maroon, age-worn as was everything else, and seemed recently cleaned. It was a room fit for a queen and I felt a well of shame build up knowing that it was being wasted on me. Even if I hadn't been kidnapped, this was far beyond my worth.

Lulabelle strode through the door and right up to the bed and settled me down on it as gently as a woman of her stature could. I sank into the comforter and the pillowy softness of the mattress, the downy cushions embracing me like a cloud. It was so much more extravagant than my bed back home.

“If you need anything, Lulabelle is staying in the room directly to the left with Miss Ysayle, so feel free to-” She started to turn and leave and a surge of panic made my heart thunder. Before I even realized it, I was hanging off the bed and holding onto her hand and, as her fingers squeezed around mine, the mounting fear eased back down. I felt like a baby, freaking out without her security blanket, but she just smiled and settled me properly back on the bed and sat next to me. My face was on fire with a mix of shame and embarrassment, but she just kept on grinning. “Very well. Lulabelle supposes she can stay with you for now, Miss Rose. Are you feeling unwell?”

Unwell was an understatement. Even with Lulabelle's weirdly calming presence, my heart was still racing. Everything was so wrong, nothing made sense. One moment I was trying to relax in my room before dinner and then the next I was waking up in some medieval dungeon and being manhandled by a horse with a glowing horn. Then I was being hugged by a weredog and now I was being treated like a princess in what seemed like a castle. I was scared and confused and had no idea what was going to happen to me next. All I wanted was to be home, and I kept hoping that the next time I closed my eyes to blink I'd wake back up in my computer chair and it all would have been a freakish nightmare, but every blink, every passing moment, and each warm body that I felt worked to solidify the truth that, whatever the fuck this was, it was real.

“I-I'm… s-scared…” I clenched my eyes shut and tried to fight off the tears that were threatening to pool in their corners. I didn't want to cry again, but my anxiety had other plans. “I-I-I don't know wh-what to d-do…”

Lulabelle's big, strong arms lifted me off the blankets and pressed me against her chest and, this time, I wrapped my arms around her eagerly. No matter how terrified I was of her, something deep inside of me told me that I could trust her. “Lulabelle is so sorry, Miss Rose. Lulabelle wishes she knew what she could do for you, but Lulabelle only has herself.”

I pressed my face as far into her short fur as I could. I wanted to tell her that even just this hug meant more to me than she could ever know, especially with the roiling emotions storming in my gut, and that it would be enough, but I couldn't find the words and I knew that it wouldn't be. What I wanted, what I needed, was for this all to be over, but that wasn't going to happen. So, instead, I just held onto her like the was a single buoy in a maelstrom.

“Hey Lulu, you in here?”

I flinched as the high-pitched voice pierced through my wracking sobs, but Lulabelle didn't seem to react much at all. I felt her shift slightly, then shivered as her deep, womanly voice rumbled through her chest. “Lulabelle is here, Miss Ysayle. Is there something you needed?”

“I heard the little lady was awake! Do you wanna go-” The voice cut off as it got closer and it sucked in air in a surprisingly adorable little gasp. “Oh! It's her!” There was a pressure on the bed then a soft, cool, squishy body pressed up against my side. “Ohhh, she's cute… Hey, are you okay?”

I turned just enough to look under Lulabelle's arm and came face to face with the frown-crossed face of a giant crimson lizard. Her large, green eyes were wide with concern and her sharp-nailed fingers were gripping my shirt like a child holding onto their mother. Even through my teary vision, I could tell that whatever this was was cute, for a lizard. “Miss Rose is not feeling well, Miss Ysayle. She is having a difficult time trying to adjust to what's happened to her.”

The lizard just kept staring up at me, her shimmering emerald eyes piercing into my faded green, until she let go of my shirt and pressed her hands against my cheeks. I flinched, not expecting the touch, but it didn't hurt, and the scales on her hands felt more like skin than the rough scales of any liard I'd ever held before. “She's really pretty…”

I felt Lulabelle laughed against me as I turned my head away and blushed. I was getting way too much attention, and, even if it felt good, it was making me feel beyond awkward. “Yes, Miss Rose has something of a charm to her.”

“And she's so warm.” My face burned brighter when the lizard squeezed in closer, pressing herself between me and Lulabelle. “She’s so squishy, too. I wanna kiss her. Do you wanna kiss?”

Now my whole body was burning and I responded the only way I knew, curling up on myself and shutting out the world. All of the attention was setting my nerves on ends, even if it made my brain buzz and heart flutter. I wasn't used to being the center of attention like this, let alone the subject of any affection, even if it was probably just teasing, and the fact that neither of them were human didn't help. “St-stop…”

“Ohhh! She's shy!”

There was a sound of fur meeting skin and a muffled ouch and I felt Lulabelle's hand stroke through my hair. “Leave her be, Miss Ysayle. You're making her uncomfortable.”

There was a moment of silence before the lizard's squeaky voice cut through the flimsy protection my curly hair provided. “Sorry… You're just really pretty!” A part of me felt guilty for reacting so poorly to clearly well-meant flattery, but the larger, much more pronounced well of anxiety that I'd built up over years of near isolation crushed it down. My nerves were firing at maximum and it took everything I had not to just curl up and hide away like a turtle. “I'mma go let Sparky know that she's up! She'll wanna know!”

“No!” I was up and panting before the lizard could even try to crawl off the bed, and finally got a good look at her. She was tiny, about two feet shorter than my five, and had a tail almost as long as she was tall connected to the base of her spine at a pair of wide hips. Her legs, like Lulabelle's, were digitigrade, but unlike the thinner, muscular legs of a runner, the lizard's were thicker and her toes were capped by sharp, curved nails. Her arms were slender, her face short and almost beaked with three fleshy spines flaring out from the sides and moved with her expression almost like a dog's ears. She was definitely cute but that did little to assuage the fear that had clenched at my heart. “I… I don't…”

“Lulabelle thinks that Miss Rose is scared of her.”

I dropped my eyes and nodded. “I, uhm… I don't like how… how she… keeps me still…”

“Keeps you still?” It felt weird holding a conversation, even stunted as it was, with a lizard and a dog. “Ohhhh… She held ya with her magic, huh?” The lizard chuckled and patted my leg, the tiny hand plat-ing softly against my thigh. “It feels a little weird, huh? But ya don't gotta worry! Twilight's the nicest!” Just hearing the word magic used so casually would have left me dumbstruck if it wasn't for all the other weird shit I was surrounded by. What was magic in a fantasy land of talking animals?

“M-magic?”

“Oh, yeah! Everybody's got magic!” The lizard stood on the bed, wobbling when the cushy mattress made it difficult to stay upright, and grinned. “Not everybody can use it like Twilight can, but everybody has some magic in 'em! I bet you do, too!”

That thought made my heart seize up and I had to swallow the lump that lodged itself in my throat. Me? Have magic? I could admit that it'd be cool to be able to cast spells, but… there was something terrifying about suddenly having powers that I had no idea how to control. “I-I d-don't…”

“I mean, you'd hafta learn how to use it and figure out what your affinity would be, but I'm sure ya can learn!” Her beaming grin was wide as she gripped my shoulders. “You look like you'd be a good conjurer!”

“I… What even is-?”

She sidled up to me, pressing her soft cheek against mine, and waved a hand through the air. “I bet ya could have all the familiars ya wanted! Didja know that my great-grandsire was a conjurer?” I cringed away, but she just pressed closer and draped herself off my shoulder. She wasn’t heavy, probably weighed little more than a full school backpack, but the close proximity was setting my nerves on end. Sweat was beading on my forehead and it was getting harder to breathe. “He wasn't all that good, but he liked to show off for my sister and I when we were hatchlings! He used to call up-”

“Miss Ysayle… Please, you're upsetting Miss Rose.”

The lizard girl looked at me, gasped, then hopped away, eyes downcast. “Oh, sorry… I'm just excited, yannow?” Her grin came back, more subdued than before, and a surge of guilt twisted my gut. She was being friendly. She wasn't trying to hurt me, or make fun of me, but my brain kept summoning up every scenario that ended with me alone and in tears. I was better off just being by myself and not getting my hopes up. They'd leave me just like- “I mean, it's not everyday you meet somebody as pretty as her, right Lulu?” My eyes flicked over to the dog and I flushed when she smiled and nodded. “Right!”

“I-I'm not…”

A soft black hand touched my cheek, and my face burned hotter. “You are a lovely girl, Miss Rose, and don't let anybody tell you differently.” She grinned wider as her hand trailed down my face to caress my shoulder. “Lulabelle would love spending some time with you, if you'd have her.”

The black dog's thumb rubbed gently across my collarbone, sending shivers down my back and butterflies into my gut. “W-what do-?” 

“Ysa, too!”

The crimson lizard girl scurried into my lap and pressed her back against my chest. Her spines teased at my breasts as she rubbed herself against me, but I couldn't tell if she'd done it on purpose or not. What were they doing? Were they trying to…? “A-are you… tryna f-fuck… me…?” A surge of pleasure welled from my core at the thought alongside a mote of shame. They were animals! This wasn't okay, even if they were being nice! I'd never had sex before! A million thoughts raced through my brain as my face caught fire. I wasn't ready for this!

Lulabelle chuckled, and the sound doused the fire in my gut. Ah, of course… I don't know why I was so disappointed, or why I'd gotten my hopes up like I'd just told myself not to. Of course they wouldn't actually want to have anything to do with me, be in any way attracted to me. I was just some plain, boring little ginger for everybody to make fun of. Anger welled in my breast, and tears threatened to sting at my eyes again, but the dog's other hand cupped my chin and her thumb traced my lips. My lips tingled at the touch and my brain stopped.

“Lulabelle wouldn't have been quite as crass, but yes, Lulabelle would love to have you in her bed…”

The dog's husky voice burned my ears and, suddenly, Ysa's squirming weight meant something entirely different. She might not have meant to tease my chest, but the way her tail tickled just inside of my thighs was definitely deliberate. “I-I…” I couldn't deny that I liked the attention. My body was heating up, and my breath was coming in shorter gasps, but… “I-I… c-can't…” They were animals. This was wrong. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine them as just cute girls after my attention, even if that was hard enough to believe in itself, but every time I felt them touch me or peeked in their direction, my brain yelled at me to stop. “I can't. I…”

Neither of them put up a fuss. Lulabelle's hands pulled away, though it felt like there was some reluctance in the action, and Ysa, even if she stayed in my lap, stopped wiggling and teasing my thigh with her tail. The abrupt halt was jarring, but it gave me a much needed moment to steady my breathing. Panic had been starting to swell, but I was in control again. “You okay, Rose?”

Ysa's voice brought me out of my mind and I glanced down at her to find her looking backwards and up into my face. I started to nod, but stopped halfway. “Y-yeah…”

“You can talk to us if you need, Miss Rose.” Lulabelle's voice was soft and gentle, and I glanced over to see a face full of worry. It was baffling. I'd just spurned her advances, legitimate or not, and she was worried about me. “Lulabelle was not lying when she said that there was something about you that attracted her, if that is what you are concerned over.”

The smile that spread across her muzzle, while somewhat uncanny, was bright and genuine. My brain told me she was lying just so she could turn it around on me later, but the warmth in her face burned that thought away. Maybe… Maybe she wasn't… Maybe I could… “I j-just… I d-don't know… y-you…” It wasn't a complete lie, and I wanted to beat myself for not just admitting that I was scared and freaked out, but the words had already come out.

Ysa giggled in my lap, stretched, then wrapped her tiny arms around my neck as her head pressed into my chin. “Oh! Yeah, I guess that'd make sense, huh? Spent too much time around all the ponies, right Lu?”

The weredog laughed as well. “Lulabelle supposes that may be true.” Confusion must have crossed my face, because Lulabelle answered my thoughts immediately. “The ponies are, shall we say, promiscuous.”

“They'll just mate wherever they are! I bet Iron and Brass are goin’ at it right now!”

“Yes, it's as Miss Ysayle says.”

I tried not to picture two horses going to town, but my brain conjured up the images before I could even stop them and I flushed, embarrassed. “O-oh…”

“Yes. Lulabelle apologizes if she seemed too forward.” The dog bowed her head slightly and I dipped mine in response, unsure of what to say. The attention, even if it made my gut squirm, was appreciated. “Lulabelle is serious in her request, however, so if you do change your mind…”

I gasped and covered my face with my hands to hide my embarrassment and the pair just laughed. It was awkward, being the center of attention, but even through the ever-present weight of anxiety in my gut, I couldn't stop the smile that split my face.

“So, ya wanna know about us?” I nodded, but didn't pull my hands away. I didn't need to see the lizard girl's face to know she was grinning at me with her tiny, sharp teeth. “Well, ya already know my name, but I'll tell ya again anyway! I’m Ysayle, but ya can call me Ysa! I'm eight years old and wanna find my mate!”

“E-eight!?” I gasped, the shock wiping away any shame that I'd had. I was being propositioned by a child!

“Yeah! Momma had me when she was six, so I'm slacking. Just wanna find the right one, yannow?” Her grin smile was bright and innocent. “How 'bout you?”

It took me a moment to snap my mouth shut. “I'm… nineteen.” The pair gasped, and I looked between them, caught completely off guard by their reaction. Ysa was eight, for Christ's sake, and they were shocked by me being nineteen!? “Wh-what?”

“Nothing, just…” Lulabelle coughed awkwardly, clearing her throat. “Lulabelle just didn't expect…”

“You’re so old!”

I scowled, turning my attention back to the lizard, and glared down at her. “I'm not old! Look at me! I'm barely an adult!” I turned my glare to Lulabelle, finally catching on to what she'd tried dancing around. “So? What about you? How old are you?”

The dog woman shuffled awkwardly, and a surge of triumph welled in my chest. I was right! She was about to call me old, too! “Lu-Lulabelle is… seven…” And then it all came to a fizzle.

“Seven…” Just hearing that come out of a girl as large as her and with a voices as deep as hers baffled me. “Seven…”

“Yes.”

“You're seven…” Lulabelle nodded. “And eight…” Ysa shook her head rapidly, her grin wide and toothy. “I need… Wow. Uhm… I don't know if I can… hang around you anymore…” I averted my gaze from Lula, suddenly very aware of her exposed breasts. Small as they were, the fact that they were on display for somebody not even half my age was quickly making me very uncomfortable.

“What!?” Ysa jumped up and looked me right in my face, but I looked away as fast as I could. “Hey! Just cuz you're old doesn't mean ya hafta leave! I still think you're cute even if you're practically a grandma!”

I turned back and gaped at her. “Grandma!?” I was on my feet before I noticed and staring down at the dog and lizard. “I'm not a grandma! You-! You're kids!”

“I am not! Being old is no reason to be cranky!” She huffed and jumped to her feet, glaring up at me as if she wasn't half my height. “I could go out and start a family right now if I wanted to! I bet you couldn't even lay a single egg if you had every bull in the world!”

“Egg!?” I jabbed an index in her face, intent on lecturing her about human reproduction, but she snapped at it, forcing me to yank my hand back. “Hey! Don't fucking bite me you overgrown gecko!”

“Then don't poke at me!” She jabbed  her own finger into my gut and I slapped it away. “And I'm not a gecko, I'm a kobold you naked monkey!”

“Kobold, gecko, whatever you are, doesn't matter, cuz you're just a big lizard! Why don't you go slurp up some flies, scalie-girl!?”

“Why, I-! I'll have you know that-”

“Ladies, please! Could you-?”

“What!?” “Huh!?” Lulabelle flinched back as we turned on her and quickly raised her hands. It was so absurd, this amazonian dog woman jumping back in surprise from two people she could easily crush with little effort, that I couldn't stop the snort of laughter that bubbled up.

I fell back and burst out laughing, clutching my gut as I tried to breathe through my mirth. Soon after, another peal of giggling filled the air, high-pitched and bubbly and I felt Ysa collapse on top of me, knocking the wind out of me as our laughter combined. It took several minutes for me to calm down, as every time I looked at Lulabelle through my tear blurred vision her confused stare ignited a new explosion of laughter, but when my mirth finally petered down to light, sporadic chuckles I leaned up and gently eased Ysa off my stomach.

“What?”

“N-nothing, I just…” A choked back another giggle and grinned at the dog-girl. “Your face was just… funny. God, I feel like I just crawled out of a cartoon.” I took a deep breath, stared up at the ceiling as I suppressed my bright grin, and looked back at her. “I haven't laughed like that in ages, so… Thanks.”

“You are… welcome? Lulabelle is still unsure of what she did.”

“Nothing, nothing.” I grinned at her then looked over at the kobold slowly coming to her senses. “Hey, uhm… Sorry for yelling at you. I don't know why I got so mad, but… Sorry.”

Ysa giggled and rubbed her cheeks. “I'm sorry too, Rose. I thought it was a game at first, but then I got angry too, and…”

I chuckled and patted her head, smushing her spines down only for them to spring back up when I pulled my hand away. “It's fine… Oh, and you can call my Mary, if you want. Rose is my last name.”

“Ohhhh! Mary is a pretty name too!” The kobold clapped her hands, the scales making little plats with each clap. “And I like your laugh too! It's really cute.”

I flushed again and had to push down the giddiness that it filled me with. “Look, I, uhm, appreciate the compliments. Really, I do, but… It's not really appropriate, don't you think? I mean, you guys are practically kindergartners! Well, Lulabelle could technically pass for an adult, but…”

Lulabelle tilted her head, a clear sign that she was thinking, then opened her mouth in a little ‘o’. “Lulabelle thinks we are having a bit of a misunderstanding.”

“What? How?”

“Lulabelle is a desert dog, and we become sexually mature around our fifth year. We can have pups sooner, but most wait until they've had about six years before settling down with a mate.”

I stared at her as I tried to process the information. It made some sense, in a bizarre sort of way. I mean, regular dogs could, and would, breed when they were a year or two old, so why would it be much different with her? It didn't make the sound of the age any less uncomfortable to think about, but it made sense. I turned to Ysa and she just grinned up at me.

“Kobolds usually start their clutch at three! I guess my mother and I are a bit weird.” She giggled as I pressed a hand to my pounding head. I felt like if I thought about it much more the headache would just get worse.

“What about your kind, Miss Rose?”

“Ten to t-twelve…” I sighed, massaging my temples, then looked between them. “Well, that's when we start to be capable of having kids, but most people wait until they're in their twenties and thirties.”

“Wow… Why would you have kids so late!? You're almost halfway to the grave by then!”

“A, rude, and B, not really?” I chuckled. Who'd have thought that I'd be teaching animal people about the lifespans and workings of humans? “Unless they do something stupid, or just get really sick, most of us live till we're about eighty. Well, in the more modern countries, at least. Plus, it's illegal to have sex under the age of sixteen in most modern countries, too.”

“Well that's just dumb!” Ysa huffed and crossed her arms, her tail swishing noisily against the comforter. “Who'd wanna live in a place that didn't let ya have sex whenever you want?”

“Wait, do you guys-?”

“As long as the partners understand what is going on, then most places are very open about sexuality here.” She chuckled as I gaped at her, completely dumbfounded.

“Do you guys really…” I lowered my voice and leaned in. I hadn't seen anybody, but the door was still open. “Do you really… diddle kids?”

Ysa giggled and slapped my thigh. “Never heard diddled before!”

Lulabelle sighed, shook her head at the kobold, and just smiled at me. “Most species teach their young about sexuality at an early age, ponies and canines like Lulabelle especially, because we have very potent breeding cycles. Pups are curious, especially when their bodies are telling them they need to mate, so we give them all the tools they need to stay safe.” Her grin softened. “Back when Lulabelle was just a pup and her first heat cycle came, Lulabelle and her sister Roxie relieved each other whenever we had the chance. If she hadn't grown apart and found a mate, Lulabelle might still be with her.”

“Kids and incest…” Yup, this was getting really hard to wrap my mind around. I could understand, from the point of view of an animal, but it was really hard getting my human brain and human morals to look at it objectively. Everything I knew screamed at me that it was very much wrong. I mean, kids couldn't consent, but that was human kids. Could dogs and lizards and horses consent in the wild? They just fucked whenever they were ready, so… I shook my head. This was too much. I couldn't deal with this right now.

“Okay, well, that's… a lot to think about.”

“Wanna give it a try?”

“No!” I coughed, averting my eyes, and glanced back up at the crimson-scaled kobold. “I mean… Look… You're nice, both of you…” I didn’t have to force the smile that cracked across my lips. They'd been nothing but wonderful to me, even after I'd yelled and freaked out at them. “But… If I ignore the numbers, I guess I can think of you as adults, even if everything in my brain is screaming at me otherwise, but I'm a human.” They both just looked at me as if I was trying to explain quantum theory to a middle schooler. “I'm human, and you're not. Don't you think that’s… weird?”

Ysa just shrugged. “Not really.”

I looked over to Lulabelle, but all I got was a look of slight confusion. “I'm human and you're… animals? Well, maybe not animal animals, but… you're not human!”

“Interspecies relations are not unheard-of.” Lulabelle scooted closer to me and I couldn't help the blush that crept across my face as she wrapped me in closer. Now that they'd made a pass, it was really hard to ignore her blatant nudity. “Roxie wedded a young gryphon bull. Even if Lulabelle is upset that he took her sister, they are good for each other.”

“Ohhh! My little brother shacked up with a Saddle Arabian!” Her grin turned wicked. “You should have seen that stallion's face when he asked him out! You could just tell that the big guy was trying to figure out how it would fit!”

It was all just too much. Nothing about this place made sense to me. Horses were banging lizards, animals talked, gryphons existed. There was just too much shit to think about, to process, and, to top it all off, I had an overgrown lizard and bipedal dog lady trying to get under my skirt. I heaved a sigh, shoved all of my swirling thoughts deep down, and fell back onto the bed. I didn't want anything to do with any of it anymore. The sun was still up, but I just wanted to go to sleep and hope everything would be normal again when I woke up.

“Are you okay, Miss Rose?”

“No…”

“Are you feeling ill? Lulabelle can go get Miss Palefeather if you need-”

“I'm not sick…” I pressed my thumbs to my temples, trying to massage away the headache that hadn't left me since I woke up, but to no avail. “Well, I've got a migraine, but… I'm just tired…”

“Would you like us to stay with you while you sleep?”

I took a moment to ponder the offer. It felt weird, talking with these two so openly and easily. Sure, I still felt a little awkward whenever I looked at them and whenever we made eye contact. I still worried that I'd slip up and say something that would destroy whatever little bit of… whatever this was that we'd built in this short time, but… I glanced at Lulabelle, saw the worry plain on her face, and felt my heart soar. They seemed genuine. It'd been years since I'd had friends, not since… back then, and, no matter how much I told myself that I didn't need them, finally having somebody to talk to without stumbling over every other word was just… It was hard to imagine not having this. It was small, but I felt genuinely happy, albeit annoyed by the absurdity of everything.

Still, that didn't stop the anxiety entirely. My angry outburst had thrown a blanket over it, but now that I was calm and thinking more clearly it was harder to ignore. Being around people, even a pair of girls as nice as Ysa and Lulu, still set my nerves on fire, and it was getting harder to look them in the eyes again, but every time I took a surreptitious glance towards the bedroom's open door my stomach clenched. Being around people I trusted, even infinitesimally, was better than being alone and at the mercy of a world I didn't.

I peeked up at Lulabelle and cracked a nervous smile. “C-could…” I wanted to curse myself as I choked on my words, but the desert dog's warm hand cupped my cheek and banished the thoughts before they could sink their insidious teeth.

“Of course we can, Miss Rose.” Ysa squealed and slid back up into my lap, pressing herself against my chest with all pretense of a previous row of words gone. “Let Lulabelle close the door and we'll let you get some rest.”

As Lulu climbed from the bed and strode across the spacious room, I tentatively slid my arms under the kobold’s and around her middle. She giggled, grabbed my hands, and squeezed herself as tightly as she could with them, snuggling up against my stomach while her tail curled around my elbow. I blushed, ashamed that I'd hesitated in my anxiety, but having somebody close to me like this, taking my half-assed, nervous attempt at a hug and kicking it up to the maximum, made my heart thunder.

“Hurry up, Lu, or I'mma keep her all to myself!”

Lulabelle laughed as the door closed with a heavy clunk and rejoined us on the bed just as quickly as she'd gotten up. Her much larger weight sank into the mattress as she crawled up behind me and I practically fell back into her lap. She was so gentle as she positioned herself against my back, enveloping Ysa and me in her strong arms and resting her muzzle in my hair. Sandwiched between Ysa and Lulabelle, it felt like I was being cocooned, protected from everything and everybody. I wasn't home, but I felt safe, comforted, and wanted. I thought of my childhood, what little I could remember of it, and the times my mom would just hold me and how, no matter what was happening, good or bad, just having her show me affection would brighten the day.

So, yes, I was anxious about getting close to Ysa and Lulu, and scared that this would turn out like everything else in my life. There were a multitude of scenarios that I couldn't even fathom that could ruin everything, but every time I felt Ysa get more comfortable in my arms or Lulabelle pull us both closer those thoughts seeped away until I finally relaxed and… 



...flinched, jolting myself upright to keep from falling as my heart raced and lungs heaved. It was hard to see in the dark, made even more so by the fog of sleep that blurred my vision, but there was at least a little bit of light spilling in from an open window. I squinted in the darkness, trying to figure out where I was while my heart tried to settle. The place wasn't familiar, it wasn't my room, and a sense of panic threatened to overwhelm me before a tiny, warm hand tightened around my wrist.

I looked down at the crimson form of a sleeping kobold and everything clicked into place. My thoughts slowed, my heart rate calmed, and I took a deep, soothing breath. I wasn't home, but I was safe… Kinda. I was with Ysa and Lulabelle and they weren't going to hurt me… Probably.

For the next couple of minutes, I just watched the two sleep as if they didn't have a care in the world, their chests rising and falling in even strokes, and felt not quite at ease, but… comfortable enough? It was a hard feeling to describe, but the terror from before was mostly gone and that was enough for me. At least, that is, until nature heightened its call.

I'd tried to ignore it, but the clenching pain in my bladder was growing persistently more present. I glanced between the two, debating on whether or not it'd be okay to wake them, weighing the odds of them being okay with it over my brain screaming at me that it'd be the wrong thing to do, before finally deciding to gently extricate myself from their entwined limbs and climb out of bed. Their missing presence was felt immediately as the chill night air passed between my legs, reminding me intimately of my missing unmentionables, and, embarrassing as it was, I made a mental note to ask what happened to them.

The door opened with the creak of slightly rusty hinges and I stepped out into the hallway that Lulu had carried me through before. Immediately I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place, a literal mansion compared to my little one storey home, and I regretted not paying attention to things along the way no matter how shit of a state I was in mentally before. Just from this little section of the place, I could see two different branching hallways and a set of grand stairs leading up to higher levels with over a dozen doors leading to who knows where and the sheer enormity of it left me dizzy, but the clench of my thighs and threat of wetting myself forced me on.

I at least knew that the room to my left was just another bedroom, so I turned instead to the right and started walking. It was tough trying to move slow enough that I didn't jostle myself too much yet also keep up a pace that would hopefully ensure my safe arrival at a bathroom, but I was determined. I wouldn't make a fool of myself already.

The first door seemed like just a storeroom, empty and dusty save for a rusted bucket and some ancient looking rope, and the next was an empty bedroom. The furniture was covered by faded white cloth, everything looked like it hadn't been touched in ages, and a veritable cloud of dust floated in the pale moonlight filtering in through a crack in the closed curtains and the flickering orange light of the hallway's torches. Two more bedrooms, furnished and abandoned like the first, followed, filling me with an eerie sense of dread, like I was walking through some haunted castle after being separated from the rest of the group. I couldn't stop the chill shiver that crawled up my spine at the thought, but, as I came to the last door before the turn, I noticed the flicker of light seeping out from the threshold.

I was nervous, almost scared stiff at the thought of having to face somebody I'd probably never met, let alone the purple horse from before, but my needs outweighed my fears, so I knocked lightly on the heavy wooden frame. Seconds crawled by agonizingly slowly, punctuated heavily by the growing need to relieve myself, but no answer came. I knocked again, a little harder, and received no reply again, so, swallowing the lump in my throat, I pushed the door open and was immediately hit by the husky moans and heady scent of sex.

I tried to stop the door and avert my eyes, but my blind reach for the corner failed and I crashed with a yelp to the floor. Immediately, the wet sounds of sex stopped as I groaned and picked myself up from the floor only to come face to ass with the thick, dark yellow lips of a very equine, very aroused vulva. I stared, stunned, as a sparkling blue aura dropped a vaguely penis-shaped length of glass to the carpeted floor and flinched as the slightly parted lips twitched open, flashing pink and sprinkling my face with moisture.

“I-I-I…”

“My, my, dear… Awfully bold of you to barge into a lady's room so late in the night.”

My whole body burned in shame as I slid back and away on the carpet from the sultry, winded voice and winking vagina. I tried to look everywhere but the off-white horse, but I couldn't resist the urge to stare like a bystander at the scene of a horrific car crash. “Oh… Oh G-God…”

The mare rose to her hooves and I clasped my hands over my face, but it didn't stop the tell-tale sounds of her hooves clopping unsteadily against the stone floor as she came, undoubtedly, to hurt me. “You know, dear, it's quite rude to interrupt a lady when she's relaxing…”

A faint glow surrounded my hands, the same sparkling blue that'd held her dildo, and panic surged through me as the tingling sensation forced them down and into my lap. I whimpered, tears pooling, and tried not to think of how I was going to be torn apart. “P-please… Pl-please d-don't…”

“Oh my, are you all right? Here, allow me to…” The tingling on my hands ceased and I looked up to see the spread of sheets that the mare had been laying on float over dab at my cheeks, soaking up the streaking tears. She worked cautiously as if she was making sure that she was trying not to spook a frightened animal and I felt shame well up in my chest. I was heaving for air and crying and she was trying her best to appear as non-threatening as possible. My brain still told me I was in danger, screaming at me that, at any moment, that blue glow would be turned on me again, but the mare's careful smile and slow, deliberate motions set my heart at ease.

“Harmony, though, you sure surprised me.” Her voice still held that husky, sultry tone, with a slight posh affect and it sent shivers down my spine. It reminded me of a young queen from fantasy games, experienced yet still youthful, and would have set my loins into overdrive if it didn't come from a horse and I hadn't just nearly wet myself. She looked up at me with curious eyes, having to crane her neck to stare into my eyes even with my meager four and a half feet. I felt like a giant until I remembered Lulabelle and that short burst of elation came crashing down. “I am a mite disappointed that I was not able to finish, but…” Her soft smile turned wicked and she bounced her curly mane with a flick of her head. “I would not be averse to having you join me in trying again.”

Embarrassment filled my cheeks and I stammered out a rebuttal, but the mare didn't even seem to notice, she started circling around me, her eyes roaming all over my body, and I pressed my skirt between my legs earning a tut of disappointment. “I have been wanting to meet you ever since the summoning. Never have I seen such an exotic creature like you before and I cannot deny that you have piqued my interest in more ways than one.” She stopped back in front of me and I tried to ignore the flame burning in my cheeks as she gasped and held a hoof to her mouth in exaggerated shock. “Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Silk Strand, textile manufacturer and heiress to the Silver Strand Textile Company.” She dipped her head in an odd equine mimicry of a curtsy and smiled up at me as if waiting.

I blinked, staring at her, until her smile dipped and my brain kicked back into gear. “O-oh!” I looked at my feet and rubbed my elbow. “M-my name's M-Marilynne… or M-Mary…”

I flinched as my hand was enveloped in that blue glow again and squeaked as she kissed my knuckles. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mary.” Her voice dropped again and I felt my body flush once more. It was amazing what her sultry voice did to me when it was so easy to picture it coming from a beautiful, full-bodied woman. “A pleasure indeed.” She giggled at my reaction, and turned back to the sheets and abandoned toy, sweeping them up in her aura and depositing them back on the bed. “So, love, what brings you to my room? However much I wish for it, I doubt you came here to ogle at my marehood.”

“I… I, uhm…” I shuffled in place before her aura took hold of my hand once more and gently guided me to join her on her bed.

“No need to be shy, love. I will not judge somebody as beautiful as you.”

“S-sorry…” I turned my gaze down as I sat on a mattress just as plush as the one in my room and fiddled with the hem of my skirt. “I, uhm… I was t-trying t-to… find the b-bathroom…”

“Oh!” She tittered softly and I felt shame sting my cheeks again, but she just nudged my hip with her own, her smile never fading. “Sorry, Mary. I simply was not expecting your late night wanderings to be something so mundane. Why, if I had suddenly found myself in a strange new world, I would be exploring it to find out all about its little secrets.”

“A new world…? S-so this isn't… Th-this isn't Earth?”

“Oh, love…” She gasped and pressed a hoof against my arm. Even if she didn't answer, her tone would have told me everything I needed to know. “I have never heard of this Earth, and I doubt you mean soil. No, you are on Equus at the fringes of Equestria, love.”

My heart sank at those words. A new world. A strange country named after horses. So that was it. I had no chance of getting home unless they could somehow reverse whatever it was that had happened to get me here. Silk had said I was summoned. Had they done it on purpose? Could I be unsummoned? Was it even a possibility? Fresh moisture streaked down my cheeks and the mare gasped. I flinched as she pressed back up against my side, but I didn't have the energy to pull away.

I sat there, crying, until I heard Silk's soft voice whispering to something that obviously wasn't me.

“No, Daisy, she is not feeling well. She is scared and upset.” She paused, and I glanced at her to see her gaze turned behind me. “Well, certainly. Everybody appreciates genuine concern.”

“Wh-who are you t-talking t-to…? Is there s-somebody else…?” I looked behind us, but didn't see anybody and a sense of unease settled in my stomach.

Silk smiled and turned back to me. “Oh, just one of my girls.” I flinched at that. Her girls? There wasn't anybody else in the room. Had she lost children and was now hallucinating them? “Go on, Daisy. I am certain she would love to meet you as well.”

A cold shiver crawled up my spine, and I opened my mouth to protest, but the sensation of several large, thin things pressing into my hair locked my body. The things settled onto my scalp, two, then four, then more pressed against my back and arms. I didn't want to look, didn't want to confirm what my brain was screaming at me, but my body didn’t listen and I turned agonizingly slowly to see the iridescent, jagged body of a spider easily as big as my head.

“Mary, meet Daisy. She is the eldest of my girls and loves to meet new people…” My breathing sped up as I watched the spider crawl its way down my back and to the bed at my left. My head started to swim, my vision losing focus as it crept slowly onto my thighs, its semi-sheer body glistening in the room's torchlight and legs sending muted tingles through my body every time they touched me. “Mary…? Are you…? Oh Harmony!” Hot wetness soaked my thighs and under my backside as my vision went white and Silk's barely audible words faded in and out, indiscernible from the pounding in my head.

I was vaguely aware of tingling all along my body and a feeling of prolonged weightlessness, before the shock of cold water in my face had me gasping and wiping my eyes. I shivered, searching the dull grey room frantically for the giant spider, but the only other thing around was a panicking Silk.

“Goodness, I am so glad you are okay!” I blinked, felt the hairs on the back of my neck bristle at the thought of being crept up on again, and whirled around to find nothing but a bare wall and ceiling. “I am terribly sorry, love! I did not think that Daisy would cause you such fright! Could you ever forgive us?”

I sucked in air, breathing as deeply as I could as if I was making up for lost time, and looked back at the unicorn, but never long enough to give anything else a chance to creep behind me. “Wh-what… w-was…”

“Oh, I really, truly am sorry! Daisy just adores meeting new people and I simply did not think that some are afeared of spiders.”

“Th-that… was a s-spider?”

I watched the door carefully as the mare nodded. “Oh yes, though not just any spider!” She smiled briefly before it morphed back into a worried frown. “You are all right, are you not?”

My heart was racing, brain throbbing, and ears pounding, I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up, and the hot wetness on my thighs told me I'd panicked and pissed myself. No, I was very far from all right, and, judging by the deepening creases on Silk's brow, my silence was telling her exactly that.

“Love, we are so sorry! We did not mean any harm, Daisy least of all! We simply wished to cheer you up and get to know you better.”

“Y-you keep… s-saying w-w-we…”

She nodded her head fervently, another slip of a smile crossing her lips. “Most definitely, love. Daisy and I, and the other girls, want nothing more than to get to know you. Well, I might not object to something a little more, but…” I shot a stern glare her way and she at least had the decency to act ashamed. “Really though, we just wanted to get closer with our little saviour.”

“S-Saviour?” I didn't like the sound of that. Everything was beginning to pile up, problems on top of problems, and they were quickly becoming too much to handle. “Wh-what do you m-mean?”

The mare gasped and placed a hoof to her chest like a surprised southern belle. “Oh Harmony, has nobody told you anything?” I dipped my head and she let out a breath. “Goodness, that is… Well, I suppose the princess would know best, and yet…”

She watched me, concern evident in her wan frown. “Wh-what?”

“I suppose I could explain a little, but… You really should ask Princess Twilight to explain everything. She was the one that cast the spell, after all.”

She offered a small smile, but I paid it little attention. The purple horse was the one that cast the spell? She was the one that ripped me from my home to keep me prisoner here? I lost my home, my life, my mom and all for what? I clenched my fists and stared at the only door in the room, wishing with all of my heart that the horse in question would walk through so I could beat her to death. Sure, I probably wouldn't actually do any real damage, especially when she could easily just immobilize and do whatever she wanted with me with just a flash of her horn, but I could at least get one good swing in. A pale green fog crept in at the corners of my vision the more I thought about it and each passing second eased the pounding in my head until it was nothing more than a dull throb. It got harder and harder to breathe, forcing me to take in larger and larger draws of air and I might have passed out if a soft hoof didn't press against my shoulder and startle me out of my roiling, furious thoughts.

I stared at Silk, my eyes wide and gasping for air, as she looked me over, mouth moving yet without sound and it was then that I noticed the piercing ringing in my ears. I blinked, pressed my hands to my temples, and groaned as the migraine came back full force and everything else seemed to come back into focus.

“Oh Harmony, are you alright? What happened? Please tell me you do not suffer from seizures! I do not know how to handle those! Just stay here for a moment and I will-”

She stopped talking as soon as I grabbed her hoof. “I'm… f-fine. Headache…”

Silk watched me for several long moments, her eyes searching over my body as if she was trying to find something out of place, then heaved a relieved sigh and sank back to her haunches. “Thank Harmony… Goodness, you truly gave me a fright and twice in one night, to boot. I am beginning to rethink my little proposal, you know.” A nervous giggle escaped her lips.

I dropped my head and stared at my feet dangling over the side of a large bowl. “S-sorry… I'm just…”

She tittered again, this time much more confidently, and pressed up against my side. “I am merely teasing, love. I would never give up on somebody as enticing as you…”

Her sultry voice and obvious intentions made my body burn and I was thankful that I was covered, even if my skirt was wet. “Wait… Why are my c-clothes…” I yelped when I noticed just where my skirt was soaked and the conspicuous absence of my need to pee and covered my face in shame. “Oh fuck, I can't believe I… God just fucking kill me now.”

“Goodness, quite the mouth you have on you, love.” She snickered, and I tried to pull away, to spare her from touching somebody as disgusting as me, but she held onto my arm with her hooves. “Mary, there is no need to fret, everybody has little accidents now and then and, truly, I cannot fault you for yours after my little Daisy made you faint. Truth be told, that wasn't the first time you wet yourself, either.”

“Wh-what!?” I stared at her, trying to find words to yell at her to no avail, and she just giggled as if nothing was wrong with pissing yourself twice.

“Yes, love. When you were first summoned, you, uhm, were surprised by Mister Spike and…” She laughed more heartily, trying and failing to hide her mirth behind her hoof when I glared balefully at her. “I am so sorry, love. It is just… Really, twice in exactly the same way. Spike startled you so much that you screamed and fainted and when your body relaxed… Well, we discarded your strange undergarments since they were quite old and did not seem like they would survive a river washing. These, though…” Her sparkling blue aura lifted the hem of my skirt as she admired it. “We can wash these and have them back to you in the morning.”

I flushed at the thought of climbing back into bed with Ysa and Lulu without the thin layer of protection that my clothes provided. I'd only shared the bed with them for a few hours, known them for fewer, and they'd already proven very handsy. I very much doubted that they'd be less so when there was nothing between us but ourselves. “I, uhm… D-do you have…? Are there any…?”

“Mmm, yes?” She angled her head and I blushed, twisting my shirt nervously between my hands. “Oh! Goodness, you are nervous about taking your clothes off, are you not? That is quite adorable, if I must say.” She tittered softly and I felt my body light up like a Christmas tree. “No need to be embarrassed, love. Sure, we may find it odd, but some of us do wear clothes from time to time, but… To answer your not quite a question, no, none of us have clothes that will fit you.” I frowned, but she tapped my nose with her hoof and laughed. “That is not to say that we cannot make you some. As I said, I am a textiler and make fabric with the help of my girls, and my partner, Goldie, is a fashion designer and clothing manufacturer. If you give us a little time, we could easily make you the belle of the ball.”

Something about the idea of wearing clothes made from the silk of giant spiders sent goose pimples up my arms, but I couldn't deny that I would very much like something else to wear at some point… Especially if shit like this kept happening. “Th-thanks…”

“No need to thank me, Mary. I would have done it even if you had not asked.” She leaned in, her snout getting increasingly closer to my neck and sending fire into the pit of my stomach. “Anything for a beautiful girl…” And now I was definitely not considering letting this horse have her way with my. Why did this place have to be so fucking openly sexual? Nobody paid me the time of day back home and now every not-quite-an-animal under the sun was trying to get under my skirt. I refused to be seduced by a horse and, thankfully, Silk seemed willing to change the subject. “Now! I suppose it would not be sanitary to leave you soaking in yourself, so let us get you out of those clothes and cleaned up!”

Or, maybe not. “I, uhm… I d-don't…”

“Come on, love. No need to be shy. I will not do anything you do not want me to, but we simply cannot leave you dirty before sending you back to bed. Goodness knows Daliah would be cross.” She clopped her forehooves together and began undoing the buttons on my blouse. “Chop chop, Mary. The sooner you get undressed, the sooner we can get these clean and you back to sleep.”

I tried to protest, to hold onto my clothes, but her ability to manipulate things with her aura proved much superior to my futile efforts and I was quickly left divested of my decency and covering myself with trembling hands. “I-I-I'm really not c-comfortable with th-this…”

“O-oh… my…” The mare giggled, pressed a hoof to her mouth as she blushed, and stared at my naked body. “Y-you know… You are much more beautiful like this. Just look at those hips and that slender body. Why must you cover such tantalizing things with such a loose clothing? You really ought to flaunt what you have, love.”

I shuffled and stared down at my feet, shame burning in my face. “I-I'm n-not… that p-pretty…”

“Nonsense!” The mare trotted up to me, placed a hoof on my thigh, and gently urged me back and into the giant bowl in the floor. “You are a beautiful young lady and do not dare let anybody tell you otherwise. You may not be a pony, but any of us would kill to have a body like yours. Why, you look just like a copper-haired Fleur-de-lis back in her prime. Slim, foal-bearing hips, tall and curly hair… Would you consider being a model for Goldie's next fashion line?”

“M-model!?” Just the thought of somebody considering me even remotely pretty enough to be a model made my heart soar. My entire life I'd been picked on for being a flat, short ginger but here I was in some parallel universe where everybody was some sapient animal and were practically throwing themselves at me. If it wasn't for the fact that they are animals, I can't say that I would have refused them, and each passing remark made it that much harder to not just say 'fuck it’ and give in. I was terrified of what the future held in store for me, but I couldn't deny the growing pool of giddiness filling up in my chest.

“Yes, love. I cannot say that everybody will approve of you as a model, but fie on them.” She smiled and pressed her cheek on mine as she helped me recline on a ledge in the basin. “Now, how do you like your water?”

“L-like a bath?” She nodded and I took a moment to really look at the bowl and the rest of the room. The more that I thought about it, I should have realized that I was in some sort of bathroom, but given the situation and my fraying mental state, I couldn't blame myself for not realizing it sooner. The bowl was very obviously a tub, like some strange Japanese bath built into the ground, and looked to be filled by the pull of a pair of ropes from the ceiling and a wooden slat that would open at their command. Against the wall was another long pit, wide enough to easily prevent a mess yet not too wide that somebody couldn't squat over it like a strange yet functional toilet. There wasn't a sink, but considering the place's apparent age and that it was built by ponies it wasn't all too strange to assume that you could just use the water from the tub. It was, overall, strange, but only in the sense that I'd never seen anything quite like it before.

“Mary?”

I jumped, startled out of my thoughts, and gave her a nervous chuckle. “S-sorry… I got, uhm, d-distracted.”

“Ohh, thinking about little ole me getting in with you, huh? I would not mind a nice relaxing soak with a beautiful lady.” I made to protest, but she was quick to giggle and plant a chaste kiss on my cheek with a look that promised more could be had. “I am teasing, love. Now, about the water?”

“H-hot, pl-please… B-but not t-too hot?”

“I understand. Tolerable, correct?” I nodded and she mirrored it before reaching out with her shimmering magic and grasped the pull-ropes. “Mind you legs, love. The first bit can be quite a shock.”

I curled myself into a ball and yelped as the torrent of hot and cold water splashed against my toes, hesitated to actually dip my feet into the steaming water, then eased myself into it with a sigh when it quickly came up to lap at my backside. The hot water sent painful prickles up my legs, but soon eased into perfect comfort as I sank as much of myself into the water as I could without slipping wholly into the basin. It was a wonder that I could even breathe with the suffocating heat, but that melted away right along with the stress that had been building and building ever since I arrived in… Equus. For once, I could relax and relax I did, letting my body and worries go and float up to the surface of the water and away with the steam wafting out of the open window.

“Not too hot, love?”

“Mnh…”

A soft giggle sounded from behind me before I felt the tingling touch of her magic at the back of my neck. I tensed at the touch but quickly melted back into the tub as soon as the grasping aura dug into my muscles and worked its all-encompassing grasp over my shoulders. “I figured you would be a girl that enjoyed her baths. And Harmony, the knots in your muscles. I may not know anything about whatever you are, but I very much doubt that anything should be this tense. How do you even move?”

Another grunt was all she got in response as she worked deeper and deeper with each pass, working out kinks in muscles I didn't even know I had. Each twist, every touch of pressure, burned and ached, but that fire blossomed away into sweet bliss that soon had me drifting off, eyes slipping closed. Despite the freakish world, regardless of the talking animals and their weird brazenly open sexual nature, I was relaxed and content. I didn't even care that I was naked around a horse that had quite literally offered to go to town on me despite my brain screaming at me that I should definitely be worried. Sure, maybe the first horse still scared the piss out of me, and Silk was definitely crazed for keeping spiders as big as my head as pets, but, just like Ysa and Lulu, something told me I could trust her.

“So, Mary, how would you feel about relieving some of that stress?” I felt warmth that wasn't from the water trickle through my veins.  “I may not be all that experienced in the art of lovemaking, having only ever shared a bed with Goldie and my own toys, but I am certain we could learn many things from each other…”

The touch of her aura trailed lower, tickled across my stomach and teased at the curls of my pubes before my brain caught up with the sensation and I tried to jump up, but slipped at my lack of footing. I floundered, splashing as I tried to find my feet in the water and pull myself above the surface before Silk's magic eased me back onto the seat. The mare was laughing so hard that I could barely hear my own racing gasps. “Harmony, I simply cannot get enough of you.”

“Th-that-! I-! Wh-why would you-!?”

“I am sorry! So sorry, love! I just-” She held up a hoof as I glared at her and took a moment to compose herself. Her mane was plastered to her face, soaked from my panicked splashing, no doubt, and her fur dripped with water, but she didn't seem the least bit annoyed by it. “Sorry… Sorry. I could not let the opportunity slip by, though.”

“I-it's not okay! I…” I looked down. Sure, the touch had been unexpected, and I'd already been warring with myself over whether it was even okay for animals to be thinking about sex like I did, but goddamnit did it feel nice. “L-look… It f-felt good, but… ask, o-okay?” I hated that I was even considering it now after only a day. Was my resolve that fucking weak, or was I just a sucker for peer pressure and a wet pussy? I didn't want to be the weirdo in my family… More than I already was, at least.

“Mary, I was teasing.” She glanced up and away for just a second. “Sort of…” She let out a coy giggle hidden behind her hoof, then eased herself into the water next to me. Sitting at her full height, it came up to her shoulders making her just barely short of my upper body. “In all seriousness, I was testing the waters. You seemed interested, in a way, so I thought I would see if you were just playing hard to get, but it is very obvious that you are serious.”

I looked down, shame welling in my gut. “S-sorry, I just-”

“Ah! No!” Her hoof pressed against my lips and, had she not just been soaking in the water next to me, I might have gagged at the thought of having a horse's foot on my mouth. “No. Do not apologize. It was my fault for being too aggressive when I should have eased off. You are scared and I will not blame you for being nervous around a mare as forceful in her courting as I am. I will endeavour to be more mindful of your reservations, but…” I gasped as her lips pressed against mine, her hoof pressed under my chin to pull me ever so slightly closer, and pulled back with a smouldering grin, “do not think that I will give up.

“I will leave you be for now, love, but if you ever need me, well, my room is right around the corner and I am certain you know how to get there now.” She winked at me as she climbed out of the tub, her hair and fur pooling water on the floor before she wrang it out with a flourish of magic and wrapped several towels around herself, then gathered up my soiled clothes and sauntered out of the bathroom, tail raised the entire way.

It took me entirely too long to come back to my senses, too wrapped up in the softness of her lips to even think about the kiss itself, but when I did it was with an entirely new panic. This would be the fucking end of me. Not crazed purple princess horses, not giant spiders big enough to string me from the rafters, or whatever other freakish monsters that I don't know about yet, but embarrassment from enjoying attention from animals. Was I really that fucking desperate that I was actually thinking about a serious relationship with a dog, a horse, and a lizard? And the worst part was that my body was, very brazenly, telling me that I need to take care of it. It'd already been days since I'd diddled myself and now I was being teased.

I needed an out, a sense of normalcy, but where would I find it. I couldn't run away, I had no idea what was beyond this place's walls, but could I even stay here? I didn't have many choices and those that I had weren't very promising. Sure, I had a few people I could call friends, and one that I wasn't sure I ever wanted to see again, but would that be okay?

I sighed and grabbed what looked like a bottle of probably soap in a cluster of five at the edge of the tub, and popping the weird crystal stopper off the top filled the air with a flowery scent. I couldn’t read the weird hieroglyphs on it, but neither could I understand the others either, so it would have to work. It looked and felt like soap as it lathered in my hands and on my body, and it didn't burn, so I washed myself as quickly as I could before my thoughts caught back up with me. I was deluding myself by thinking I had a choice. Really, could I do anything other than trust Lulabelle and Ysa to take care of me and explain things that I didn't know? I was alone in a world I'd never known existed and there was no way I would survive on my own. I needed them and I had to hope that they wouldn't abandon me like…



Finding my way back to my room was much easier than trying to find the bathroom, especially now that I had a better point of reference to guide me. The excitement, if that's what you could call what my encounter with Silk and her 'girls’ had been, had worn off long ago and left me dragging myself through the hall, and by the time I closed the door behind me I was practically dead on my feet. There'd just been too much shit for me to deal with in one day and all I wanted now was to crawl back into bed and pass out, but there was just one more dilemma to face. It'd been easier to deal with Silk's advances, somewhat, even though she'd been much more forward about them, because, by the end of our little talk, she'd gone back to her room and ultimately left me to my own devices, but… 

I sat at the edge of the bed and watched Ysa and Lulu sleep, their chests rising and falling with each even breath. I'd say I liked them much better when they were sleeping, but that little mote of loneliness that had taken up roots in my heart ever since Lulabelle lat- no- since I latched on to Lulabelle had me yearning for their company. It'd been years since I'd had any close relationship with somebody that wasn't my only nearby family member and I'd forgotten how great it felt and, now that I had the opportunity for that again, I was pretty excited to know them, but…

But there is always that fear. I know that they're going to see exactly how fucking awful and useless I am eventually, and then what? I'll be back to square one, except this time I won't have my mom to go running to. I'll be trapped in a new world that doesn't love me, with people that couldn't care less if I died or not, and there won't be anybody to stop me fro…

I sniffled and wiped my face with the corner of a blanket. Really, I'd be better off finding another room to sleep in, since I couldn't stop myself from asking them to stay here earlier, but that same insistent seed in my heart screamed at me that it'd be a mistake. I'd be throwing away the one thing that I really want in life because I was scared of losing it. I'd tear it up by its roots before it even had the chance to sprout and be burned away later, and that made my heart race even faster and sent my pounding headache into overdrive.

So, instead of doing what my brain told me would be best, I crawled across the bed as carefully as I could and squeezed back between the dozing kobold and dog, ready to cry myself to sleep at how desperate and terrible I was, so deprived of human interaction that I eagerly cozied up to the first things to show me anything close to genuine attention in years. I closed my eyes, tried my best not to sniffle and shake too much, only to gasp as two pairs of arms curled around me.

“Nature's call, Miss Rose?” I didn't trust my voice, so I just nodded against the chest pressed into the back of my head. Lulu hummed in acknowledgement, the sound just as languid and soft as if it was coming from a dream, and pulled me tighter. “Lulabelle… hopes you found the washroom without…”

Her breathing evened out again, but her grip didn't ease a bit and it took everything I had not to break down and cry as I clutched Ysa to my chest and waited for sleep to…
> Chapter Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I groaned as light pierced through my eyelids, pulling me from sleep's weakening grasp. I was still way too tired to be awake, so I tried to squeeze my eyes tighter shut to block it out, but to no avail. Next would have been pulling my blankets over my head, but they were conspicuously missing, probably due to the fact that I was practically sweating from the heat around me, so, instead, I did the next best thing.

“Mo~om… Turn off the light… I'm tired…”

I threw my arms up over my face, and that helped a little, but small reaches of light still slipped through the crooks of my arms. I waited for Mom's response, for the click of my overhead light as it turned off, but, as the seconds ticked by into minutes, no report came in return. Frustrated, I groaned and sat up, rubbing my eyes as they slowly grew accustomed to the brightness of my room, and had to bite my lips to stop my yelp.

This wasn't my room, I wasn't at home. Yesterday's happenings crept back to me like a venomous snake and sank its teeth into my brain. I wasn't home. I wasn't going home. I sucked in a shuddering breath, clenched my hands against my chest, then let it out as slowly as I could. I wouldn't panic. I wouldn't panic. I will not freak the fuck out. Several breaths, in then out, in then out, as deep and even as I could.

Eventually my heart settled back to a normal pace and I was able to lessen the shaking of my hands down to more manageable levels. I wasn't home, but I was okay… Mostly. I was safe. I wasn't…

I jerked and looked to the bed beside me and let out a relieved sigh. I wasn't alone. Sure, Lulabelle wasn't in bed anymore, and I was somewhat grateful for that considering my still very noticeable lack of clothing, but Ysa was still curled up next to where I had been laying just seconds before, her tail quite conspicuously draped across my leg. In my previous life, back home, I probably would have panicked at that, an all-but stranger curled up next to me in a bed I barely remembered falling asleep in, but now? Sure, my nerves were starting to fray at the edges, but knowing that somebody was nearby in case I needed them was almost the pinnacle of relief. I couldn't imagine what I would have done if Ysa and Lulu hadn't done everything they could to make me comfortable last night, to keep me company. If I hadn't had anybody to rely on…

I took another breath, eased it out, then laid back across the bed. The response from the kobold was almost immediate, her tiny hands curling around my upturned arm, and I couldn't stop the smile that turned my lips, not thatI wanted to. It was cute and sweet, filling me with a warmth that had nothing to do with the probably summer sun shining bright through the open window and I would have been content to stay here like this all day if the moment wasn't spoiled by the door opening. I worked quickly to cover myself with whatever sheets I could grab from where they'd been tossed to the side just as Silk peeked her head in the door, a bright smile on her muzzle, then trotted in with Lulabelle at her heels.

“Harmony, that bedhead is adorable.” I flushed and combed my fingers through my hair, catching in the knotted curls, but that only made her giggle harder. “No need to make yourself presentable to me, love. I am just here to deliver your clothes, freshly cleaned of course, and to invite you to lunch seeing as how you slept through breakfast.”

True to her word, her horn lit up and my clothes floated up and out of the bags she had cinched across her back. I took them and held them close, revelling in their warmth as if they'd just come out of the dryer. “Th-thanks…” I hid my smile behind the clothes and tried to meet her gaze, but every time I looked into her eyes my nerves took over again. “I… uhm… Maybe…?”

Her smile didn't falter despite my non-committal answer. Instead, she bowed her head. “Of course. Lulu here explained that you were shy, so you are not obligated to come if you do not want to, but I would greatly enjoy talking with you some more. Last night was quite pleasant. If you need me, I will be around.” I nodded jerkily, ashamed that I was too embarrassed to talk to somebody that had shown they could be trusted. “Lulabelle. Ysa.” She nodded to both of them before turning to leave and closed the door behind her, leaving the three of us alone once again.

The kobold yawned and stretched, squeaking out a groan, then beamed up at me. “Silk's so nice. Ya know, if she was more into kobolds, I'da let her poke my cloac a long time ago.”

I flushed and shoved Ysa away. “Stop. You're terrible.”

“What? Just sayin’, ya know?”

I sighed and clutched my clothes closer. “Yeah…”

“Ohhhh… Don't tell me you're gonna leave us high and dry and hitch up with Silk. We were here first!” 

She laughed and climbed on my back, resting her chin on my head, and I laughed as I tried to dislodge her to no avail. “'Course not… Don't think I c-could…”

“Why not? If you like her, then we truly would not mind. You should know that Lulabelle does not consider you hers. Lulabelle would not be upset if you wished to court Lady Strand.”

“Yeah, me neither. I'm just teasin’.” Ysa ran her fingers through my hair, her nails scratching at my scalp and sending tingles down my spine. “I'd definitely be jealous, though.”

I smiled, still holding my clothes to my chest. I really didn't deserve all this attention. “I… I dunno. I d-d-don't think I could…”

“Oh yeah, cuz we aren't like ya.” I felt her shrug against the back of my head. “Well, I dunno about you guys, but I'm hungry!”

“Lulabelle has not eaten yet.”

They both looked to me, waiting for my answer, but my stomach groaned, replying in my stead. “S-sorry…”

“No need to apologize, silly.”

“Lulabelle agrees. Lulabelle is surprised you hadn't said anything prior. You haven't eaten since you arrived.”

“I… I don't eat m-much.”

“Well we'll just hafta fix that, huh? You're like a twig!” She leaned over my head, grinning widely. “Don't you worry your pretty little head. Daliah with fatten you right up!”

“Th-thanks.”

“It’s our pleasure, Miss Rose.”

“Yeah! Now let's hurry so we can eat with Silk! Dunno why ya didn't just say yeah. You’re a weird one.”





I was practically dragged out of the room the moment I redressed, hand-led by an overeager kobold through the elaborately decorated halls of a mansion I couldn't have even dreamed of owning in my lifetime. The place was obviously ancient considering the faded colors on the paintings and tapestries, but it had been very well maintained. The whole place was clean for the most part, barring some dustiness, and nothing that I could see was damaged. Whatever this place was, there was no doubt that it was well-loved.

“You know… I n-never asked…” Both of my companions turned to me. “O-oh, uhm… Nevermind…”

“What is it, Miss Rose?”

“I w-was just curious… about this place.” I looked around so I wouldn't have to think about feeling stupid for asking dumb questions. “I-is it important?”

“Oh yeah!” Ysa stopped leading me, forcing me to slide to a stop so I didn't run her down, and pointed a clawed finger at a picture of a silver-maned old mare wearing a regal purple cape. “This was Princess Platinum's home back before the banishing of the Wendigoes!”

“We-wendigoes? What's a wendigo?”

“They were terrible creatures of ice and born into the world through hatred.” Lulabelle shivered and a sense of unease welled in my gut. If somebody as big and tough-looking as her was afraid, then I couldn't even imagine what a wendigo could be like. “They covered the lands here with ice and snow, taking countless lives and growing stronger and stronger as resentment grew.”

“Yeah… But!” Ysa crawled up my front and I had to cradle her in my arms. “Ya see, Clover the Clever, Smart Cookie, and Private Pansy beat them back with love right when they were about to freeze to death!”

“O-oh. B-but what does that have to d-do with Princess Pl-Platinum?”

“Clover the Clever was the princess’ advisor and, together with the other founders, they formed Equestria.”

“So she's really important th-then…” Ysa nodded and Lulu dipped her head as well. “Guess that'd explain why this place is so well-kept.”

“Yeah, the ponies tried really hard to keep this place open for the history of it, but…”

“But?”

“Well, I wasn't born back then, but, after the last changeling war, Twilight decided it'd be safer if it was abandoned.”

“Wh-why? Why are we here now if it isn't safe?”

“It's safe now, but back then we didn't have much choice.” I yelped and jumped, almost dropping Ysa in the process, as a new voice sounded from behind me and turned to glare at the little purple horse. “Oh, sorry. I just saw you guys talking and thought I'd chime in. Because I know about it. Because I was, you know, there.”

“Good afternoon, Princess Sparkle.”

“Heyo Twilight! You spooked me good!”

“I'm really sorry about that, I didn't mean to. I thought for sure that you'd hear my hooves clopping on the floor.” She smiled and some of that fear from our first encounter eased. My heart still raced whenever I thought about being held powerless in her magic, but she didn't seem like she wanted to hurt me… and Lulabelle and Ysa vouched for her. “So, are you interested in learning about Equestria? If you are, then I'd love to teach you! I've spent my whole life learning under Princess Celestia and she was around during the times of the founding, so I'm sure I can answer any questions you have!”

“I, uhm… N-not really, b-but… It's safe?”

The princess’ ears drooped and shame welled up in my breast, but she shook it off and replaced her smile. “It's fine, not everybody is as excited to learn as I am, but yes. It's safer here than nearly anywhere else right now. Nobody's heard from the changelings since… Well, since Grogar resurfaced, so we think that he may have had something to do with that.” It was faint, but there was a hitch in her voice as she spoke about the changelings, whatever they were, but she made no effort to even acknowledge it, so neither did I. It was hard enough trying to keep talking with her.

“Uhm… S-sorry to ask, b-but… Who's Grogar?”

She blinked, surprise plain on her face as she looked to Lulabelle and Ysa. “You didn't tell her?”

“Lulabelle thought it would be more prudent for you to explain our situation.”

The princess sighed, shook her head, then looked to me with a grim smile that set me on edge. I'd only seen that smile once before, ten years ago, when mom told me that-

“Well, I suppose we should, but let's go somewhere a little more comfortable.”

“We were goin’ to get lunch!”

“B-brunch…”

The next smile was genuine, if still a little strained. “That'll work. I'm rather hungry myself.”

The rest of the walk to the double doors, as short as it was, was hard to focus on. I didn't like the feeling I got whenever I thought of the pony's reaction. For all that Twilight had said we were safe in this castle, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was about to learn something terrible and that made my stomach turn. Outside of my brush with that asshole driver, I was nice and safe at home. I didn't have to worry about my anxiety too much, nor had I been concerned with 'Changelings’ or other baddies that could threaten what little safety I'd had. But now…

Twilight pushed open a pair of large double doors to an expansive hall lined with large wooden tables. Most were covered by plain white sheets, clearly abandoned for ages, but two, situated by what was probably the entrance to the kitchen considering the doors’ odd asymmetrical positioning compared to the two pairs at each end of the hall, showed clear signs of use. One was still piled with soiled dishes and cloths, while the other was occupied by a pair of ponies and another giant lizard chatting animatedly. One of the ponies was Silk, her crystal-like voice and striking looks making it obvious, but I didn't recognize the other two.

“Oh! Hi Goldie! Heya Spike!”

The trio turned to look at us and my heart lodged itself in my throat. There were getting to be too many people. I was having a hard enough time maintaining my composure around the few I trusted and now Twilight, but this was…

“I am so glad you decided to join us, Mary! For a moment, I was worried that you would not accept my invitation, but it seems my fears, as small as they were, were unfounded.” She beamed at me and I felt some of my trepidation melt away. It would still be awkward, and I'm sure I'll thoroughly embarrass myself, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad. “Come! Come! Sit! Daliah will be out with brunch in just a moment.”

The few seconds it took to cross the distance between the dining hall's entrance and the table felt like an eternity, the expanse stretching on into infinity, but I eventually settled in next to Silk who promptly pulled me closer to her side with an awkward looking pull of her hoof as Ysa sidled up on my right. It shouldn't have been a tight fit, but being sandwiched between two very affectionate people made it more than a little stifling not to mention how much their proximity made my face flush. I stared down at my hands in my lap as the others conversed around me, catching snippets of sentences every now and then whenever I happened to be paying enough attention. It likely would have been easier to not actively ignore them, but-

“So, are you going to introduce yourself?”

I flinched at the raspy voice of a teenager and peeked out from under my bangs at the purple and green lizard seated next to Twilight across the table, then dropped my gaze back to my wringing hands. “Spike! Don't be rude.”

“What? I'm sorry, she's just been quiet, so I thought-”

“Well, she's clearly uncomfortable. Give her time and she'll-”

“M-Mary…!”

I swallowed nervously, shooting furtive looks all around the table, waiting for the judgement, but everybody was waiting patiently. Quietly. A soft nudge from my left made me jumped, but Silk offered a soft smile and a mouthed ‘Go on’.

“M-my name's M-Marilynne… Ro-Rose…”

“Nice to meet you, Marilynne.” A scaled claw thrust itself into my vision and I stared at it for several long seconds, waiting for something to happen, then finally shook it with a weak, quick grasp. “Well, I guess we've technically met before, but you-”

“Spike! Not at the table! Besides, I doubt she wants to remember what happened when I summoned her. I can only imagine how traumatic it was for her to react like that.” The unicorn sighed. “I'm sorry for Spike, Mary. He means well, but he is still just a child.”

“Hey! I'm almost as old as you are!”

“Then act like it.”

There was a ‘humph’ from the other side of the table and I couldn't help the giggle that fought its way out. They acted just like all the siblings I saw in cartoons and movies. I couldn't wait for my own…

And just like that, what little mirth I'd had building was washed away, reminding me all too well that I wasn't home anymore. I hadn't really had a lot of time to think about it since I'd gotten here what with all of the crazy shit I'd been seeing. I'd been able to put it out of my mind with each new experience and person I'd met, but now…

“Miss Rose?”

I started again as tiny fingers laced themselves in with mine and looked up through blurry eyes as everybody present watched me with varying levels of concern. “Wh-what?” My voice was thick and I cursed myself.

“Are you alright, Mary? You were not responding and we-”

“I-I'm f-fine.”

“Are ya sure? Ya know ya can tell us-”

I squeezed her hand tighter, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill down my cheeks. I expected her to try and squirm out of my grasp, but she just leaned in closer and stared up at me with her big, green eyes. That was the last crack needed before the dam broke and poured out the pain I'd been trying to ignore like a raging flood. The whole table fell completely silent as I bawled into my free hand, keeping one clenched firmly around Ysa's. I felt like such a piece of shit, ruining the mood for everybody while I broke down like some worthless pile of garbage, but what else could I do? I wasn't some strong pillar that could hold up the world. I was just some loser girl that lived with her mom because she was too terrified of others and their judgement to survive on my own and now I didn't even have my mom to fall back on.

I was here, in Equistra or whatever the hell it was called, with people I could only tentatively call friends. I'll never be able to tell mom how much I loved her and needed her and how thankful I am for everything she's done. I'll never see my baby sister be born, be there for any of her birthdays, or help her learn to talk or count or walk. I'll never be a part of any of their lives again if I don't find some way back home. Everything had gone to shit for me and I didn't even know why.

“I… I…” I jumped out of my seat and sprinted out the doors, ignoring the shouts from behind me. I didn't know where I was going as I tore through the halls and ducked into a room, and knew that they'd probably find me faster than I could get lost, but I didn't want to be around anybody right then. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to be back home. 

“I w-want m-m-my M-mommy…”

“Miss Rose…” I jumped, prepared to run again, but Lulabelle's arms pulled me in against her soft chest and stroked my back softly. Lovingly. Just like- “Lulabelle is so sorry. We didn't think about what would happen when we summoned you, we simply…” I leaned into her and wept, burying my face in her fur and squeezing myself as tightly around her as I could. I had wanted to be alone, but now that somebody was here, I couldn't let go or push her away.

“Lulu, did you-?”

“Shhh…” I sniffled as the sound of hooves echoed against the stone behind Lulabelle, choking back the next bout of tears only for her to run a hand through my hair and draw them out. “It's alright, Miss Rose. You don't need to hold back.”

“B-but I-”

I tried to protest, but I couldn't get more than a few words before breaking down and weeping harder. It'd been so long since I'd wept like this, just succumbed to the pure, wretched outpouring of emotion that'd I'd spent years trying to crush down into non-existence. Sure, I'd lost my composure and cried, especially recently, but this? Full-bodied, wracking sobs rocked my core as I wailed into Lulu's chest, surely making me look like the worthless child that I was, but I was too far gone to care anymore. I didn't have to be strong for my mom anymore, because, even if it wasn't explicitly said, something told me that I would never see home again, and that only made it worse. I could only imagine what she would think when she came to fetch me for dinner and I wasn't there, would never be there ever again. She would search, and panic, and worry, and cry herself to sleep wondering what had happened and that thought made the flood of pain surge into a monsoon.

She'd spend the rest of her life wondering if I was okay, if I was still alive, and I'd never be able to give her that answer.

“I-I-I…”

“Shhh…”

I could feel a wing, likely the princess’, settle over my back and I wanted to be angry, to turn my overwhelming sorrow into a rage that I could funnel at somebody, at Lulabelle, Ysa, and the others for allowing this to happen to me, or Twilight for being the one that brought me here, but I couldn't. No matter how much I screamed into Lulu's breast, the anger wouldn't come. What would even be the point? I'd just spend the rest of my life miserable and alone, even more so than I'd been before, and without my mom to keep me afloat I'd sink and drown…





An eternity later, I finally calmed down enough to stop clinging to the Anubian dog and sit on my own pitiful strength. I was a wreck, that much was obvious judging by the pitying looks I got from the pair that had found me, but I felt… not better, but… numb. I'd cried all that I could, got out every bit of sorrow that I could muster, and now there was nothing left. I was here and there wasn't anything I could do about it, so I would just go along with whatever. What else could I do?

“Feeling better?” Twilight's voice was soft, careful, like if she spoke too loud or pried too hard I'd break again and I couldn't claim for certain that I wouldn't.

I nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I shook my head slightly, just a jerk, but that was obviously enough for her. “It's alright, we won't force it, but if you ever do, then… we'll be here for you. And if you don't want to talk to somebody else, then I'm certain Lulabelle would be more than glad to listen.” I felt the desert dog nod through the muscles in her chest. “Well, if you're feeling up for it, I'm sure Daliah is done preparing bru- well, lunch now, and I know everybody else is worried about you. Why don't we go back to the dining hall and eat? You'll feel better.”

I didn't have the energy to protest, and my growling stomach would have revealed any lie I told about not being hungry, so I simply nodded and let Lulu help me up onto my feet. I felt weak, like I'd just spent a lifetime in bed, so I once more relied on the ever-giving dog to keep me standing. At this point, I was surprised that she hadn't just opted to carry me back, but maybe she'd somehow known that it wasn't what I wanted. I already felt like a waste of space, so the last thing I needed was to be hefted around like the leech I was. I was thankful that I had kept at least a modicum of my dignity by walking back into the dining hall on my own feet.

The moment I stepped back into the room I was bombarded by Ysa and Silk, both of them fretting over me like I'd just come back from the brink of death. I couldn't blame them, nor did I want them to stop. The attention helped to mask the feeling of emptiness, if only for a little while, and what their fawning couldn't cover up could be drowned out in the sea of food overflowing from the various plates and platters covering the dining table I'd fled from.

Everything from steamed and roasted veggies to broiled, baked, and grilled meat that only vaguely looked like steak wafted their tantalizing scent through the air and sent my starved stomach into overdrive. What had been ignorable hunger pangs transformed into agonizing clenches demanding me to gorge myself and I had no desire to turn them down despite the fact that the small group that had been here when I'd fled had grown into a near mob. It was difficult not to notice everybody's’ gazes whether they were concerned or curious, but an encouraging bump from Silk and Ysa's comforting hold on my hand made it easier.

I ate quietly, slowly, while everybody around me chatted, and that was fine with me. It was hard enough even being surrounded by strangers. I doubted that I could even hold a conversation without having a mental breakdown, but none of them seemed to mind, and I used the time to fit names with faces. Other than the two horses I'd met, there were four more, five if you counted the zebra Zunira. Brass Horn and Iron Rod were both stallions, one a unicorn and the other a pegasus. Golden Feather was a pegasus mare and Loam a regular stallion. Then there were the gryphon twins Lorie and Raimie and the minotaurs Rockhide and Daliah.

Every little story I'd read growing up was turning into a reality in front of my eyes and it was staggering. Talking ponies were one thing, considering every other cartoon and movie made had talking animals in them, but mythical beasts like gryphons and minotaurs and dragons? If it hadn't been for my frayed nerves, I'd have likely been gaping in awe at everybody here. And, to top it all off, they had a camaraderie that I found myself envious of. Sure, Ysa and Lulu and Silk were quite friendly with me, but that paled in comparison to the joviality spread across the table and passing between all but the quiet zebra sitting slightly apart from Daliah at the end of the table.

I poked at my 'steak'-covered salad with the little three pronged fork I'd been given, casting what I hoped was furtive glances down the table at Zunira from my place at the other side of the table and barely suppressed a flinch when Silk leaned over to whisper to me. "You can go talk to her if you wish. She is quiet and a mite frigid, but she is the most fiercely protective of all of us."

"N-no, I… I was just thinking that she's… a lot like…"

"Like you?" I nodded, my face burning. "I can see where you would come to that conclusion." She smiled at me and nudged me into Ysa who was listening raptly. "She talks little, but I would not call her shy. More… standoffish? You would have to ask her for details, but she prefers not to waste words."

"Ohhh, you should see her fight, though! Ya wouldn't think such a thin mare would pack much power, but I watched her take down a cragodile all on her own last week. Pulverized its skull, which is crazy, because they're made of stone."

I giggled as she gestured wildly, miming Zunira's actions as she explained them to me. Comical though the retelling was, the thought that a zebra could fight off, let alone kill, a thirty feet long, half a ton crocodile made of rocks was the epitome of amazing while I couldn't even imagine holding a regular gator at an interactive zoo.

"I recognize that look." Silk grinned turned hawkish. "Oh, woe is me to lose you to Zunira. Ysa, you shall take responsibility for driving her into the arms of another by finding us a new potential lover."

"I-!" They laughed harder as I swatted at them, my face aflame. "I a-am not! It's j-just… c-cool!"

"We are teasing, love." Silk brushed away my hands as I tried to push her back and pressed right back up on my side, her tail swishing back and swatting across my butt. "But it is good to know we do not have more competition, right Ysa?"

"Oh yeah, Zuni is a tough cookie! If she took ya, we'd never get ya back!"

I squirmed in my spot, wringing my hands in my lap, only for Silk to cling to my arm and beam up at me with the most beatific smile. "We are glad you seem to be feeling better. We were worried about you." It hurt knowing that my childish, pathetic insecurities weren't just causing trouble for myself, but seeping out like a sick miasma. I'd caused my mom untold stress, though she did her best not to show it, and now I was already infecting my first friends in an eternity. "Mary?" I flinched, wiped my eyes, and threw on the best smile I could muster with a muttered 'I'm fine', but, if the dip of her smile was any indication, the unicorn wasn't convinced. "If you are still not feeling well, we will gladly escort you back to your room."

I glanced around the room, at all the furtive looks shot my way while the others tried to hold their own conversations so as not to look too preoccupied with me, and once more felt that clenching in my gut and tightness in my chest that had left me in shambles earlier. No matter how much I told myself that they weren't judging me, that my fears were irrational and unfounded, I couldn't stop the panic from welling up. My breathing was getting harder and faster, sweat streaking down my face, and I was preparing to do something, anything to get away from their piercing stares when a large, warm hand settled in my shoulder and shocked me out of my spiraling thoughts.

"Miss Rose isn't feeling well, so Lulabelle will escort her back to her room to rest." I stared up at her, hoping that the relief I felt washing over me wasn't showing too plainly on my face. "Miss Daliah, you wouldn't mind if we took some leftovers for when Miss Rose is better?"

The minotaur that had served as our hostess blinked, caught off guard for a moment, then gave a soft chuckle as she waved a dismissive hand our way. "Of course, dearie. Think nothing of it." She flashed me the warmest, most loving smile I'd seen since I'd been here. "And don't'cha worry yourself about dinner, dearie. If ya aren't feeling in tip-top shape then I'll come and feed ya myself."

She laughed heartily as Lulu helped me to my feet and, despite the shame settled in my breast, I couldn't help but to crack a smile at the thought. My Mom hadn't hand fed me since I was little, not even when I was down with the flu, and the thought of a half-cow woman over twice my height and likely over twice my age holding me like a child and spoon-feeding me was beyond comical. My grin grew until the laughter bubbling in my chest spilled forth into a snort. It really shouldn't have been that funny, I'd seen stranger things on the internet, but maybe it was the idea of it happening to me instead that just booked the dam.

I doubled over, laughing harder than I had in years, and was only kept on my feet by the grace of Lulu's strength. It was a struggle to breathe, and every time I tried to stop to catch my breath I looked up and saw her concerned smile I imagined it all over and the laughter would begin anew. It took several long minutes for me to finally calm myself, and even then I was still giggling through my attempts to breathe again while everybody just stared at me with a mix of concern and amusement playing across their faces. Lulu, as usual, was the first to make sure I was fine, and, ignoring the obvious issues that my mood swings were bringing to light, I honestly was. Whatever that was, whatever had caused the fit, it helped immensely.

"I'm okay…" I chuckled and Lulu made to escort me back out towards the hallway, but I stopped her with a squeeze of her arm. "I, uhm… C-can we stay a little l-longer? I'm feeling b-better."

She stared long and hard, her worry as plain on her face as the midday sun. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Y-yeah…"

I took my spot next to Silk once more, Ysa sliding into my lap to make room for Lulabelle, and, even with everybody's watchful eyes on me, I relaxed in their combined presence. The chatter resumed shortly after, the awkward silence broken once more, and a weight lifted off my chest. "Lulabelle is proud of you, Miss Rose."

I flushed, hugged Ysa closer, hiding my smile against the back of her head as she hummed in agreement. "I didn't d-do anything."

"Nonsense, love. I know you have been struggling to grow comfortable with just us, but here you are surrounded by more people you have never met. You know you do not have to prove anything to us, but I do appreciate that you are making an effort to accustom yourself to everybody."

Silk nuzzled against my side as Twilight leaned in closer from across the table. "If it makes you feel better, Mary, I had a friend many years back that struggled with meeting new people and crowds." Her smile was warm with a subtle twinge of melancholy as she regarded me, her eyes not quite seeing me. "Her name was Fluttershy and, well, she was just as her name implies. Scared of her own shadow, literally once, but she was the sweetest, most kind pony I've ever known." Tears welled in the lavender mare's eyes and Spike rested a claw on her shoulder that she leaned in to. "Thanks Spike, but I'm okay. I just miss them."

"Wh-why don't you t-tell me about them?"

Twilight's face lit up, as she perked back up. "I'd love to! If you don't mind, of course."

I smiled, felt Ysa squeeze my arms, and hugged her tighter. "I-I'd love to hear ab-bout them."

Watching Twilight talk about the ponies that she had shared her younger days with was easily the most enchanting thing I'd bore witness to. The way her face lit up as she recalled each adventure they'd had and all of the adversity they'd overcome was breathtaking. The way she talked about them, how her smile kept growing and growing even as her eyes watered, and how Spike would chime in with his own memories, told me all that I needed to know about these ponies. I would never be able to meet them, but hearing their story and how they'd affected Twilight's life and helped her grow to who she was today was more than enough.

I thought I'd be envious, but the whole time I held onto Ysa, leaning on Lulu as Silk leaned on me and, for once in my life, I wasn't consumed by the ever present miasma of loneliness that I'd tried to ignore for so many years. It was strange. I'd just met these three and knew next to nothing about them, but with them around I felt complete. Was this what Twilight was describing? I didn't feel like I had the right to compare it to the lifelong bond that she had shared with her dearest friends, but it wasn't hurting anybody to hope, was it?

As Twilight's story came to a close, she took a deep, shuddering breath and wiped the moisture from her bright, joyful eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to go on so long, but-"

"I-it's fine!" I grinned and took one of her hooves in hand. "You really lo-loved them, huh?"

She nodded, sniffling. "I miss them so much." She took a deep breath, leaning into Spike's offered support, and let it out slowly. "Back when this," she motioned to her wings, "happened, I thought that the Elements would make them immortal as well, but then…" She turned away, looking towards something none of us could see, then turned back to us, fresh tears pooling in her eyes. "They kept getting older and older, but I… I just grew a few inches. I was there with all of them when they finally passed on to Elysium, I wasn't going to abandon them to save myself some pain, but every time I lost one of my friends it was like a part of me died with them."

"That, uhm… I'm sorry…"

Twilight chuckled softly and shook her head. "It's okay, I love talking about them even if it hurts. I'd rather miss them forever than ever forget them." She took another deep, long breath and wiped her eyes. "Enough about that, though. Since we're all done eating, I figure it would be prudent to go over our plans for the future and help Mary understand what's happening and why she's here."

Though few, any eyes that hadn't been on her during her story now turned her way as she stood from her seat and cleared her throat. "Since it wouldn't be fair to Mary, and since her volunteer caretakers have deigned to keep her in the dark," she cast a teasing grin our way, then sobered back up, dropping a weight into my gut in doing so, "I'm going to explain the situation first. I'm going to be frank here, because it would be doing you a disservice otherwise… We are in dire need of help. I know everybody acts like nothing is happening and we're doing well, but… you've seen most of the mansion. Normally there's guards and housekeepers here to keep the place tidy and secure, but the maids have been sent into hiding and the guards are deployed as relief soldiers."

I swallowed, trying to calm my thundering heart before I started hyperventilating. "Wh-why?"

Twilight looked down, her ears folding back against her head, and I immediately regretted asking. I wanted to take my question back, to go back to feeling awkward whenever Ysa, Lulu, or Silk made passes at me instead of being filled with dread at the pained grimace on the pony's face. "Most of Equestria's been lost. The Solar and Lunar legions have done everything they can to evacuate as much of the citizenry as possible and are fighting back however they can with Luna at their head, but Grogar's magic makes it impossible to gain any ground. And, to make everything worse, Princess Celestia was lost in the initial invasion. She gave herself up so that Luna and I could escape with as much of Canterlot's citizenry that we could save and Luna thinks that Grogar is keeping her to supplement his magic."

"A-and wh-what do you w-want me f-for?" That was the crux of this whole thing. They summoned me for something, but for what? What could I do? I barely had the strength to carry a thirty pound lizard that was helping to support herself, so how could I go up against some magic casting super villain? "I c-can't fight. I have panic attacks when I get too nervous… I f-fucking pissed myself twice already!" I sucked in deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart. "I'm j-just a normal gi-girl. Why'd it have to be m-me?"

Fresh tears drew rivulets down my cheeks as I waited for an answer and, if it wasn't for the three girls clustered around me keeping me grounded, I might have fled again, but Ysa squeezed my hand and the green haze that had been clouding my vision faded away. As the silence dragged on, uneasiness grew until, finally, Twilight broke the pregnant pause.

"I'm… not entirely sure, Mary, and for what it's worth I'm so sorry that I summoned you, but Harmony chose you for a reason. I don't have a clue why, but It wouldn't have given us the spell if we didn't need it." She looked around the table and I followed her gaze, glancing at each somber face as they nodded in agreement, even Lulabelle, Ysa, and Silk. "We were desperate. Believe me when I say that we never would have even considered dragging anybody here without their consent if we'd had any other choice."

"And what gives you the right to now!?" Ysa flinched in my grip as I stood to tower over the little mare. I obviously wasn't much of a threat, but my superior stature made me feel stronger. "Harmony, or whatever the fuck you're talking about, screwed you! I don't have any fancy powers! I'm not really smart! You summoned a worthless piece of shit and for what!?"

A hand settled on my arm and I jerked away, glaring daggers at whoever dared touch me. All of my anger seeped away, regret eagerly taking its place, as I settled on Lulu's hurt face, and I sank back into my seat. "I'm useless…"

There was silence for several minutes while everybody stared at me, but I cared little as I watched Lulabelle out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to reach out to her, to apologize, but I couldn't put to voice the words rolling around in my head. Unfortunately, Twilight was the first to break the silence. "I'm really, truly sorry, Mary, but we didn't have a choice. You can hate me if you want, but please don't turn your anger to everybody else. They may have agreed to using the spell, but I'm the one that cast it. Ultimately, the decision was mine."

Shame burned like coals in my gut as tears spilled down my cheeks. I was frustrated, angry, and wanted nothing more than for everything to just end, for everyone to go away and leave me alone, but more than that I was scared, terrified, of actually having it happen. I'd finally gotten a taste of what it was like to have somebody genuinely care about me that wasn't obligated to through any other reason than their own desire, but I'd thrown it back in their faces in my fit of fury. My lip quivered as I looked to Lulu, not quite meeting her eyes, and I tried to eke out an apology, but my throat tightened and I choked on the words.

I jumped when I felt Ysa squeeze my hands and looked down into her large, wavering eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat. "I-I-I'm s-sorry, I-"

"No, Miss Rose, we are sorry." I finally worked up the courage to actually look into Lulabelle's eyes and wished I hadn't. Hurt was plain on her face, her ears folded back, and I wanted to take my outburst back, but she continued on. "It is as Princess Sparkle said, we were desperate, but it is not fair of us, to you, to expect you to do what we want of you."

"Lulu's, right." Twilight heaved a breath and looked up to me and, though I did regardless, I was loathe to meet her gaze. "It is ultimately your choice to help us or not and nobody thought to even give you the choice. We all assumed you'd go along with it, because we'd already made up our minds to fight, but now… Well," she stared at me, serious, but hopeful,"would you be willing to join our cause and help us save our loved ones?"

I watched her for several long moments then turned and scanned all the faces, meeting their eager, pleading gazes with my fearful, tear-filled eyes. "H-how? The only th-thing I've had since co-coming here is a he-headache."

"We have medicine for that!" One of the gryphons, the female, waved her claw to get my attention. If she hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to tell which of the twins had talked. "You could've said something, you know?"

I hung my head, but Twilight spoke up again. "It could be a side effect of Harmony's blessing. If that's the case, then medicine won't have any effect. I could help you diagnose it if you'd like, Mary, and, if it is magical, then I can help you learn how to use it."

There was excitement in her voice and that set my nerves on edge. "I don't w-want that. D-do you know ho-how fr-freaky it is? I've ne-never had ma-magic before a-and I don't want it n-now."

"I'm not saying it is, per se, just that it's a possibility. And, if it is, I'm prepared to help you."

I huffed, hating where this conversation was headed. I didn't want anything to do with whatever this Grogar thing was, especially with how ominous they'd made it sound and even less so considering I'd had no choice in having my life ripped apart, but they were expecting me to. I would be the bad guy here, because they'd already made their own choices and assumptions. "A-and why do you n-need me anyway? Why is this Grogar such trouble?" 

Silenced settled again like a weight over the tables, making it all the more obvious that it was a question that I didn't want an answer to. "Grogar is… It's not just that he's powerful, but that…"

Twilight trailed off and it was Zunira that picked up in her stead. "He is a monstah dat turns our loved ones against us. Dose he kills are brought back as his slaves in eternal unlife. Dey know not pain nor fatigue, and he uses dem ta prey on our sentiments."

Her sensual, heavily accented voice was offset by the acidic tone with which she spoke, but it was hard to imagine how this Grogar guy had caused as much trouble as he had. "So… zombies? They're already de-dead, just… p-put them out of their mi-misery."

Hooves slammed on the table as Zunira rose in her seat, her bright, sapphire eyes burning with fury. "Do not tink ta lecture us, child! I was forced ta watch as my own fadda slaughtahed my brudda! I was forced to kill dem again wit' my own hooves! It is not as simple as jus' killin' dem again!"

I cringed back as Twilight stood taller and turned a pleading look the zebra's way. "Zunira, please. It's obvious that she doesn't understand what's going on. Give her a chance to explain herself?"

"I… I don't get it. They're dead, r-right?" The words were mumbled, unsure as I was if I should even speak them, but the hissed breath assured me that I was heard. "B-back home, we have all this sh-shit, like mo-movies and stuff, about the de-dead coming back. The people that d-die are the ones that hesitate." I stared down at the top of Ysa's head and tried to ignore Zunira's cutting glare. Why were they so hung up on it? "Is it because they get stronger? Are they harder to ki-kill?"

The zebra slammed her hooves on the table then stood to leave. "Are we sure dat she is not jus' like him?" 

It stung to be compared to a monster that was causing everybody so much duress, but I couldn't take the words back nor did I feel like I had to. I didn't say anything wrong, but even I could feel the tension that had fallen over everybody with Zunira's departure. Something I'd said upset them, but why? Thankfully, Twilight cleared her throat and chest through the silence again.

"I think that's enough for now. Mary, you don't have to give an answer right away, but it's only a matter of time before something happens." She tried to smile, but it, too, was obviously strained.

I gave a half-hearted nod and the rest of the group began the cleanup. It took only moments for the tables to be cleared, Twilight's, Iron's, and Silk's magic making short work of the cluttered and soiled tableware, while I sat staring awkwardly down at my lap. There was still idle talk, but it was more subdued, a necessity to keep it from being dead silent, but it did nothing to ease the building sense of guilt from running a perfectly good brunch by just being… me.

"Hey, don't let it get to you, yeah?" I half screamed as I practically jumped out of my skin at the touch on my shoulder and spun to face one of the gryphons, their weird beaky grin somehow turning impish. I'd never thought a beak could be so expressive, but here I was face to face with a mischievous-looking bird-lion hybrid grinning its face off. "Didn't mean to startle you, I swear." Its- her tone seemed sincere, but the mirth in her voice made it dubious. "I just wanted to say that I get what you're saying. Raimie and I come from a military family, so we've always known that one day we might have to see somebody we love die, but… it's different when you have to do it yourself, yeah?" She paused for several long seconds and it was only after her smile slipped and she started speaking again that I realized she was waiting for a response. "Just… take it easy, yeah?"

I nodded curtly and she smiled before joining her brother as he made his way out of the dining hall, leaving myself and Silk as the only two not busy with the remaining cleanup or off to do some other duty. I was thankful that most of the tension had left the room with most everybody's departure, but silence still hung over Silk and me like a butcher's blade, a silence I'd give anything to break if I could only think of something to say.

"I say we leave the rest up to the others, what say you, Mary?" I looked up and cracked a weak smile that she returned much more eagerly. "Care to join me in my room? I promise Daisy will keep to herself."

Shivers ran up my spine at the mention of the gargantuan spider, but I'd rather not be alone and I felt awkward just waiting around for Ysa and Lulu to come back. So, I swallowed my nerves and gave a curt nod. "Splendid! I was planning on spinning some of the girls' silk today while Goldie fashions you up some new clothes and I simply cannot abide the disaster area she calls her work station, so I greatly appreciate you keeping me company." She grinned beatifically at me, making me flush. "The girls are wonderful, but one cannot blame a lady for desiring more… desirable company."

Another shiver ran down my spine, but this one settled in my loins. "I, uhm… You're no-not upset with m-me?"

Silk's horn lit, talking hold of my hand like she had one of her own, and helped me stand and tower over her. "Love, I do not think anybody is truly upset about anything you have said today, simply… frustrated. You are not wrong, it is just an… emotional issue. Most of us have lost loved ones recently to Grogar's invasion, though not so dearly as Zunira." I shuffled nervously and she rubbed her cheek up against my thigh. "Put the thought out of your mind, love. Zunira will come around in time and, until then, you will have my adoration to keep you satiated."

A giggle bubbled up as Silk winked at me from over her shoulder, leading me by the hand through the halls with her magic as she was. When I first arrived, and somewhat still, all the attention was stressful, even if it made my heart soar at how genuine it seemed, but now… It was crazy how quickly I was growing used to the compliments and advances, even if they still stirred up the butterflies in my gut and set my libido aflame.

The worst part was that, in their own animal way, they were pretty attractive. I'd never considered bestiality or thought myself a furry, but… the smouldering gazes Silk kept throwing at me, Lulu's curved, toned body, and Ysa's playful, clingy flirting made it increasingly difficult to not want to succumb to their wiles. Silk looked back, flashed a grin, and a shiver ran up my arm from where her magic had ahold and down my spine straight down below.

"God, I need to Jill so fucking bad…"

"You say something, love?" My face burned as I vigorously shook my head. "Marilynne, are you imagining lewd things about me, you naughty girl?" She laughed, her sensual chortles filling the hall until she finally pulled me back into the room where we first met.

Any hint of our first encounter had been cleared out, leaving the place pristine and any untoward scents replaced by a fresh spring breeze, a flowery smell I chalked up to a fancy perfume. The place was nice, furnished almost exactly like the room I'd been assigned with Ysa and Lulu, save for a trio of metal cages and some large something covered with a plain canvas cloth. I eyed the cages warily, suspecting I knew exactly what they contained. Silk must've caught my gaze because sidled up next to me and nuzzled up against my thigh.

"Worry not, love. The girls will stay in their cages until I am ready to spin their silk and then they will be too busy to bother you. If it makes you feel better, though…" She clopped over to the bed and climbed atop the sheets, patting the spot next to her. "You can sit tight, right here, while I tend to the girls in the corner. Would that be acceptable? If not, then I will understand, though Daisy will certainly be disappointed."

I flinched, glanced at the cages again, and tried to keep my eyes firmly on Silk's gleaming yellow eyes. "Di-disappointed? Why?"

"She has taken quite a liking to you. Honestly, she just will not stop chittering away about your… aura, was it, love?" I followed her gaze to the metal bars and shook off an unwelcome quake as the definitely-a-spider-in-it clicked in response. "Yes, your aura. Goodness knows what she is talking about, Crystal Spiders have magicks that not even us ponies understand, after all, but she has a discerning eye for character nonetheless. Silkworm and Lariat are simply too friendly for their own good, though."

"A-are they the, uhm…"

"Other two?" I nodded, and she shook her head. "Do not judge me on their names, now. I found them when I was but a filly and they like them, right girls?" There was a chorus of clicking, each completely different from the others, and all of it sounding, as strange and creepy as it seems, excited.

It was certainly fascinating if you could get past how terrifying the idea of spiders as big as your torso was, and I certainly was nowhere even close to that. I watched as she chatted away with the clicking cages, replying to and carrying a conversation that only made sense one way. It brought to mind last night and how she had been talking to… Daisy?… before I fainted again. "Uh- uhm…"

Silk turned away from the cages, all smiles that made my heart flutter. "Yes, love?"

I swallowed the lump that had wedged itself in my throat. "Do you actually, uhm, understand the-them?"

"Wholly and completely." The pride in her voice was obvious. Whatever reason there was for this ability, she relished in it. "Do you want to know how I met my girls and earned my cutie mark?"

"Cutie mark?"

"Oh! I forget that you would not know." Her smile turned sultry as she lifted her rump and turned it to me, sending a flush across my face. "This, love," she pointed a hoof at the silvery spider web tattooed on her butt, "is my cutie mark. It is a visual representation that every pony gets when they discover their special talent, the one thing that helps define them as a pony. Mine, as you may have noticed, is my ability to understand the crystal spiders, though it has a deeper meaning than just that.

"You see," she shifted closer to me and rested her head on my side. "When I was a filly, my mother was something of a higher class socialite and often spent time travelling the world dragging father and I along wherever she went, until she decided to finally settle down in the Crystal Empire."

"W-was?"

She hesitated for a second, but kept her smile. "She passed not long after our move to the Empire." I gasped and made to apologize, but Silk squeezed my thigh with a hoof, distracting me not just with the absurdity of the mechanics of the action. "It is fine, Mary. You had no reason to know and, that aside, I learned to accept it years ago. Death is a part of life, love, and to deny it is to become what we have sworn to fight against.

"Still, we have gotten off topic." She giggled and nuzzled up against me again. "When we first moved to the Empire, I was having a rough time of it. You see, before we moved, I finally had the chance to make some real friends at school back in Canterlot, and as soon as I finally grew accustomed to living in one place with fillies my age we had to pack up and move." She sighed, snuggling up closer and wrapping her hooves around my arm, her proximity warming me more than her body heat ever would. "I will admit that I was rather cross with my mother for a while, but then… One evening, after a rather frightful row with mother, I stormed out into the streets and quickly got lost.

"The hours dragged on until darkness had truly settled. Now, there is never truly full darkness in the Crystal Empire, as the Crystal Palace and Crystal Heart illuminate the night, but remember that I was just a silly little filly alone and frightened with no way of knowing which way was home." She chuckled, shook her head, and sighed. "Well, Daisy says she heard me crying, calling for my mother, and decided that she would be the one to comfort me since nopony else was around to do so. So, she called out to me from the dark."

The largest cage clicked and shook and Silk laughed. "Oh no, I absolutely will tell her."

I tilted my head and Silk just shook hers. "Tell me what?"

"Well, you see… when I say that I was just a filly and it was dark, you must understand that hearing a voice come out of a dark corner in a pitch black alley is one of the most absolutely terrifying things that could possibly occur. And that is exactly what happened. Daisy here just chitters at me from the dark and, no matter how much I love her, she sounds like terror incarnate." The crate clicked and shook and Silk huffed. "Oh hush, love. You know I mean it only in the most loving way possible. Besides, if I am going to share my shame, then I will embarrass you as well."

She rolled her eyes and I laughed, making the mare's smile gleam. "What happened next?"

"Well, Daisy called out to me and said," Silk lowered her voice and made it as scratchy as her sultry tone could be, "Do not fret child of Equus, there is no need to fear. Come to me and I will hold you dear." She cleared her throat and laughed. "When I heard that, all I could think of was the tales that my father told me of the little demons that would snatch up bad little fillies and colts and gobble them up."

I leaned closer, waiting with bated breath, and Silk seemed to take delight in her long pause. "Well?"

The cages rattled and clicked and she laughed up a storm. "Fine. Fine. You girls have no sense of drama. Well, I did what any self-respecting little filly of near noble upbringing would do when confronted with what she thought was a demon ready to swallow her whole. I let loose the most dignified scream I could, which was more akin to a banshee's howl, and soiled my brand new dress."

I blinked and looked into Silk's bright yellow eyes and her straight, innocuous smile. "You… pissed yourself?"

"Well, I would not put it so crassly. I am a lady, after all."

"You pissed in your dress?" She nodded, her perfect smile never slipping. I gestured, stumbling over my words while trying to articulate the thoughts running through my head. It was hard to imagine Silk having ever done anything like that. Shit, I still couldn't believe that I had pissed myself twice since I've been here, but her? "B-but you're… You're-"

"Prim and proper? The very definition of a lady, through and through?" She held her nose up, eyes closed in the picture perfect representation of the lords and ladies from those old-timey, Renaissance era paintings, then cracked open an eye, her smile splitting her lips again as I nodded. "Certainly now, I would say, but I was a filly." She tittered softly into a hoof and rubbed herself against me. "Now you see why I cared little for the mess you made." I flushed, embarrassed, but, thankfully, she didn't point it out. Not that I had expected her to, but it was still nice. "Everybody makes a mess of things, but what truly matters is how it is handled after the fact. Needless to say, I did not handle being that terrified all too well. I nearly fainted on the spot, but then Daisy came skittering out of the shadows, apologizing profusely and all aglow in the light of the Crystal Palace."

"I… That would've scared me even more."

Silk giggled and nodded. "Oh, she was certainly frightening, but… did you have a good look at her?" I shook my head. I had caught a glimpse of her, but the whole incident was a blur. "You will have plenty of time to watch them while I process their silk, but… they are easily the most beautiful creatures in the world, especially under the light of the Crystal Heart in the Empire. She scurried up to me, glowing crystal and chittering apologies in her creepy voice, and I was immediately mesmerized. Never in my life had I seen something as enchanting her. When she and her sisters spun their beautiful webs for me that night and kept me calm until the Empire's guards were able to find me, I just knew that I would spend the rest of my life with them."

There was another bout of chittering, subdued compared to before and I had a feeling I could guess what was going on. "Is she embarrassed?"

Silk's face lit up as she gasped and practically pounced on me. "Can you understand her as well?"

A nervous chuckle escaped me as I liked away, trying to ignore how close she was getting. "N-no, I just… She sounded… shy? I d-dunno, it was j-just a guess."

Silk nodded sagely, settling back down, and smiled over at the cages. "Yes, that is a mite more probable, though still amazing nonetheless. Most cannot discern tone or intent from the girls, but for you to catch something as subtle as that, why… mayhaps you are growing more accustomed to their presence? Would you like to meet them? As less of a surprise this time around, of course."

A chill ran up my spine at the thought, but the terror was gone. After hearing the story, it was hard to equate the thought of Daisy with a horrible monster, but was I used to them? Would I be able to come face to… face?… with the trio of oversized spiders and not freak out? I doubted it, but then… The look on Silk's face, the way her ears splayed back and eyes searched, cut deep into me. I liked her, as a friend at least if not more, and I knew that she, and Lulu and Ysa, had great affection for me, and I wanted to grow closer to them even if I wouldn't be able to live up to whatever expectations they had for me. And that meant I'd have to get used to 'the girls' eventually. Spiders or not, they were clearly intelligent and it wasn't fair to keep them locked in those cages just for my own sanity. I wasn't even scared of spiders, per se, it was just… different, you know?… when they were bigger than a quarter.

"I…" I glanced at the cages. They were calm, the chittering having died down with the story, and that helped put my mind at ease, but how would I react when they were free? I know how much of a pussy I am, and I didn't want to upset Silk by freaking out again, but… "Okay, b-but… one at a time?"

Silk's squeal as she tackled me to the bed and peppered my face with kisses was easily the cutest thing I'd heard, and I would've loved to hear it again and again if I wasn't struggling simultaneously with the heat growing between my thighs. Thankfully, she relented, but, as she hovered over me, breath coming in pants and mane tussled, her lovely grin turned predatory. "Harmony, Mary, are you in heat? I can taste you in the air and you are… intoxicating. Goodness, I desire you so fiercely."

She leaned down, her sweet breath playing across my face, and my own came in quick little gasps. Wetness, thick and hot, dripped onto my stomach where it had been exposed, quickly pooling. I sucked in a breath, getting a lungful of heady musk that made my head spin, and it was then that Silk made her move.

She lunged forward, pressing her lips to mine and kissed me deeply. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before, not even comparing to those embarrassing times where I practiced by myself with slices of fruit. Her tongue was like fire as it slipped into me, coiling with mine and wrestling against me. I could taste the fruity breakfast she'd had this morning alongside something… else, and I was soon struggling to keep my breath held, but Silk quickly relented, panting and flushed. Her grin was absolutely smouldering, enough to make my loins burn with need, and I couldn't deny anymore that I found her and Lulu and Ysa attractive… but doubts still crept in. Was I ready for this? Sure, I'd been yearning for sex since I was ten and first discovered porn and masturbation, but was I really ready to take that step? If I did, then I couldn't take it back. If I rushed and didn't like it, then there would be no do-over.

And, in an instant, the fire in Silk's golden gleaming eyes dimmed to embers as she took a step back with her ears splayed back, no longer straddling my stomach. "I am so, terribly sorry, love. I… do not know what came over me. I did not mean to force myself on you like that."

I gasped and shot upright, cursing myself for hesitating. Of course I couldn't keep my thoughts off my face, I'd always had a shit poker face and now it was biting me in the ass again. "N-no! I wa-wasn't… Shit, I-"

"It is all right, Mary. I can see it in your eyes." Her smile was soft and knowing, like she could see into my soul. "You do not need to explain yourself. I did not stop because you seemed hesitant, though if I ever come on too strongly do not hold back your concern. I could see the fear in your eyes."

I hissed a breath, torn. I knew she was right, knew that I was scared of taking the step now that I was confronted with it, but… I also wanted it. A lot. Animal or not. She found me attractive and there were definitely things that I already adored about her, but…

Tears stung my eyes. "Oh, Mary… Fret not, love. I do not think any less of you for being worried, nor should you. Us ponies may be very sexually expressive, but that does not mean that all of us jump at every opportunity to get our rocks off as the twins are fond of saying." She grinned bemusedly and opened her forelegs, a gesture that I immediately accepted, and hugged me tightly. "That said, should you ever decide that you want me, all you need to do is ask and I will gladly raise my tail for you."

I could feel her giggle against my chest and that was all that I needed to join in. Our laughter bubbled up until we were a giggling mess of limbs and bodies, ultimately leaving us breathless and hot in the middle of the bed. "Y-you… really know h-how to cut through the m-mood, h-huh?"

"What can I say, love? I have a way with words that has the ladies falling into my embrace." She sighed, grin splitting her face, and nuzzled up against my neck. "That said, love, if you do need to, ah, relieve some tension, then feel free to use my bath for as long as you wish. I shall be releasing the girls and starting their spinning."

I flushed brightly, but shook my head as Silk climbed from the bed, her tail tucked conspicuously over her rump, and unlatched the cages. I sucked in a breath, eyes wide, as a trio of glimmering, crystalline spiders, long-legged and sleek, clicked out into the open room. All of their myriad eyes were on me, shining gems of amethyst, emerald, and topaz capturing me in their reflective surfaces, but none made to move any closer than right at Silk's hooves. The middle clicked and chittered, it's- her chelicerae rubbing together, and the unicorn at her side cast me a shy smile.

"Daisy says that she apologizes for last night and would love to be the first to get to know you." I stared at Daisy, who watched me in turn, and slowly nodded.

A fresh twinge of fear pressed into my mind as she reared up, front legs clinking together, and jumped in place, almost as if she was… "D-did she just… jump for joy?"

"Oh yes, love, Daisy is easily the most excitable of her sisters, but she knows that she must be on her best behaviour, correct?" Silk stared the spider down, and, with a click that almost sounded disappointed, Daisy calmed back down and looked back at me. She chittered softly and Silk smiled. "She wants to know if she may sit with you. Unlike other arachnids, crystal spiders are rather fond of warm, moist places. They especially like body heat and you, love, are quite the little blast furnace."

"I am not! I'm cold all the time!" I pouted at her, but she tilted her head down and gave me the most 'are you sure about that?' look I've ever seen in my life. "Fine! I-I might be warm, but I don't ever feel it. That's wh-why I like being so close to y-you and Lulu." I took a second, thought about what I said, and felt the flames race across my cheeks, doubly so when both Silk and the trio of spiders cooed at me.

"Mary, love, you make it awfully difficult not to just pounce on you and ravage your body, you know?" She shot me a sultry smile then turned to Daisy. "Go on, love, just… do not rush it, all right?"

I swallowed, keeping my eyes trained on the giant spider clicking her way across the stone floor towards my place on the bed. She paused, shifting in place, and for a second I thought I could see concern in her shining, amethyst eyes. Was she worried? Could she see my fear like Silk had, or was she just being cautious like she'd been told to? Either way, I shrugged off the chills that crept up my spine and, shakily, held out a hand. I watched with bated breath as the crystal spider closed the distance between her and the bed and carefully reached out one of its claw-tipped feet and placed it in my palm. Tingles ran up my arm from where we touched and filled me with a strange warmth that I wouldn't have expected from the cool, almost cold, feeling emanating from Daisy's touch.

I gasped, wrapped my hand around the appendage, and offered a shaky smile. "N-nice to m-m-meet you, Daisy. You're, uhm… pretty cold." Seeing her chitter and click right up close was significantly creepier than from across the room, but… even with that oddness, and my initial terror finally subsiding, it was clear that Daisy and her sisters were, easily, some of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. They could easily pass off as glass sculptures in an antique shop if they, you know, never moved again. "You're re-really pretty, too. L-like a sculpture."

Daisy's eyes glimmered and she almost seemed to glow with an inner light as she chittered and shifted in place, and, for a second, I thought I had done something wrong when Silk burst into a fit of laughter. "You made her blush! Oh goodness, it has been ages since I saw her so embarrassed." Silk took a deep breath as I watched Daisy slowly calm back down and settle back into her usual reflective luminescence. "Harmony, Mary, I knew I had chosen well when I decided to court you, but now I must say that I am truly jealous that I must share you with Ysa and Lulabelle. Oh, I would give anything to have you all to myself, but alas… I have seen the way you look at them as well, thus I must resign myself to stealing you away whenever I am able." She threw her hoof against her head and feigned faintness all while grinning brightly.

"Truly though, love, I am ever so happy that you seem more accustomed to Daisy already. Nothing brings me greater joy than knowing that the lady I have my eyes on gets on well with the most important girls in my life." I returned her smile and looked back down at the spider just off my lap.

Silk was right. Daisy and her sisters were gorgeous, a fact that would have been nigh impossible to reconcile with my first encounter with them if I hadn't taken that first step and opened myself up to Silk. Then there was Ysa and Lulu. Just thinking about them made my heart beat faster, an anomaly I'd previously reserved for Cathy and the scant few other girls that didn't torment me relentlessly back home. It wasn't hard to tell, nor was it particularly surprising, especially with all the attention they've been showering upon me, that I was crushing pretty hard.

Still, despite their obvious, and continuously stated and presented, interest, I had doubts. Doubts that the interest was genuine. Doubts that I was worth the affection. Doubts that, as soon as they got what they wanted, they would still keep me around. Even with Silk's constant attention, flashing me doting smiles and lascivious grins, as she set up what looks like an old-timey spinning wheel, it was difficult to keep those thoughts from my mind for long. And all because of…

"No, it d-doesn't ma-matter anym-more…"

"You say something love?"

Silk had stopped her setup, floating a brilliant ruby above a small inlet, to watch me curiously, so I smiled and shook my head and turned back to Daisy. "I'm okay. Just talking to myself." I held out my hands and Daisy took the invitation, crawling up the makeshift ramp, her myriad eyes seemingly locked with mine, and settled in like a rucksack on my back. Her presence sent tingles all through my back, but they were pleasant, like a magical reminder that she was there, that Silk, Lulu, and Ysa would be here. For me. I would be fine.
> Chapter Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I spent several hours with Silk, watching her carefully thread lines of shimmering silk straight from the girls' twitching spinnerets all while she translated each click and chitter the sisters threw my way. It was soothing, spending time with them and learning about their interests and sharing my own, though it quickly became apparent that my hobbies weren't something I'd be able to enjoy here.

Daisy apparently enjoyed operatic music, though she'd had little chance to indulge recently. Silkworm had an affinity for small animals, enough so that, when Silk was a filly, she had had to get her a, rather well worn at this point, stuffed kitten so that she would stop sneaking out to kidnap terrified forest critters. And Lariat… Well, I should have expected that one of them would be into stranger stuff, considering she had grown up with Silk and her, and ponies' in general, rather brazen lack of modesty when it came to their sexuality, but I was still somewhat taken aback by her admittance to participating whenever Silk's previous partners had allowed.  The thought of being spun into submission while Silk had her way with me had sent tingles into my gut, but I didn't think I had the nerves to consider it.

By the time Silk had finished with Daisy, I was lying on my back watching the evening sun set behind the courtyard walls with both Silkworm and Lariat resting on me, their bulky bodies little more than leggy pillows in my lap. If I ignored my ruined chance to lose my v-card and the anxiety of first meeting the crystal sisters, it had been a much needed, relaxing afternoon overall. My only qualm was that, with Silk's joining me on the bed, it was almost certainly coming to an end.

"All done?"

"Indeed. I have extracted and threaded enough silk to relieve my girls and keep us stocked in the case of emergencies." She smiled and laid her head on my stomach while Daisy clung to her back. "If you like, I could quite easily convince Goldie to whip you up an ensemble that will surely knock Lulabelle and Ysa dead. Plus…" her voice dropped and her heated gaze made my face blossom, "I would not mind seeing what you look like in lacy lingerie."

"I-I'll think about it."

She kept her burning eyes on me for several long seconds, forcing me to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat, and started to creep her way up closer to me when a knock sounded at the door. "Come in, it is open!" She shot me a look, a promise that she would definitely continue this later, then looked up as the doors opened. "Oh, Ysa, to what do I owe this visit?"

"I was lookin' for Mary 'cause it's dinner time and Goldie said she was with ya."

The mare chuckled and motioned with her hoof to me, trapped as I was under her and the girls. "Well, I must say that your timing is impeccable. I just finished tending to my darlings and am feeling a mite peckish. What say you, love?"

I glanced at Ysa, face red at having been caught underneath somebody even if our position wasn't exactly suggestive of anything, but shook my head. I wasn't particularly hungry, but, more than that, I didn't want to go back and face everybody again. It was all too easy for me to imagine myself saying something that would set Zunira off again and… I didn't want to even think about what would happen if I fucked up again. "I'm n-not hungry. I'll, uhm… I'll wait in m-my r-room"

A pout formed on Silk's face as a whine built in her throat, ending in a huff. "Just as we were beginning to grow comfortable with each other, too! Unfortunately, love, no matter how much I wish to stay behind and keep you company, I cannot deny my body its needs. Plus, I am on cleanup duty this evening and I cannot shirk those duties lest I risk Daliah's ire."

Disappointment welled in my breast, but I couldn't blame her. I was the one too scared to face what was, eventually, going to be inevitable, but that didn't stop me from feeling a little bitter at having to be alone.

"That's okay! I'll gladly stay with ya!" Ysa beamed at us from where she'd climbed upon the bed while we were distracted.

"A-aren't you hungry?"

The kobold shrugged, tail swishing. "Nah, look at me! I'm done growin'. I could eat once a week and be fine!" She grinned, leaned in, and whispered loud enough so that anybody else that happened to walk by the room would be able to hear. "I don't think I could go that long, though."

I giggled, shaking my head. "That's not a secret…" I shifted my gaze, voice lowered. "Thank you. I know I'm be-being selfish, b-but…"

"Psh, as if I'd care. Yer a cutie and I like ya!" She looked down, shifting and wringing her hands. "Plus… I'm a little jealous, yannow? I wanna spend all the time with ya."

Silk cooed and dragged the little lizard girl down with us, squeezing her between the two of us much to Ysa's delight. "Oh, you are simply too adorable. Have no fear, though, I have quite the feeling that I could never monopolize Mary's time no matter how much I wished." She winked and I chuckled, hugging the kobold to me.

"Plus ya smell like sex, and that's just not fair! You were s'posed to tell Lulu and me!"

I flushed, stuttering over a denial, but Silk tapped my cheek and hopped off the bed. "Not to worry, Ysa. I may have stolen a kiss from her, but her purity is still intact."

"S-Silk!"

My face burned even brighter, and Ysa took the opportunity to turn her large, emerald eyes on me, her chin planted in my chest. "Good! I wanted ta be her first!"

"Ysa!" I groaned, covering my face while everybody else, the sisters included in their own chittering way, laughed. "Sto~op."

A soft tap on my shoulder brought my hands down to see Silk smiling upside down at me from the side of the bed. "Do not forget, love, that you can always come to me if you need. I am right around the corner, after all."

She ran her hoof through my hair, her smile angelic, in a way reminiscent of how my mom used to back when I was little. She would stroke my hair, fingers gently scratching my scalp as she hummed some manner of lullaby or songs from her childhood. I would just lay there, listening to her soft, soothing voice until I eventually dozed off in her lap without a care in the world. I missed those moments so damn much and wished that I would wake up one morning and learn that everything after my last lap-top-nap was all some horrible, sick nightmare that my overactive imagination had conjured up while I lay curled up in my mother's embrace. But, each day I woke up and I was still miserable, still terrified, and still wishing it was all a dream.

"Mary?" I jumped, coming back out of my thoughts to find Ysa staring from right above me, concern plain in her large, expressive eyes. "Are ya okay? You were cryin'."

"H-huh?" I wiped my eyes, cringing as moisture smeared across my arms, and sucked in a shuddering breath. "Y-yeah, I'm… I'll be o-okay."

"Do you wish to talk about it, love? I am certain that Daliah and the others will understand if I am a little late to dinner."

I cursed myself, hating that I was so fucking bad at keeping my emotions to myself, and rubbed the rest of the tears away while waving my hand to shoo Silk away. "N-no, I'm fine, really, just…" I took a deep breath to calm myself and plastered on as genuine a smile I could muster. "I th-thought I was o-over being trapped here, but I still… It's nothing. G-go eat."

"Are you quite certain? I am sure I can-"

"Please? I'll be fine, I can deal with it. And Ysa's here, too."

Silk bit her lip, looked between the two of us, and only seemed to relent with a sigh after Ysa gave her an affirmative nod. "Alright, I understand, but… really, love, do not hesitate to find me if you need me. Promise?"

At that, my smile was genuine. "P-promise."

She kept an eye on me for just a few more moments, then spun on her hooves. "Behave yourselves, girls, and I will see about convincing the princess to charge a gem for you." There was excited shuffling on my lap as the trio of spiders chittered between themselves while Silk leaned up on the bed one more time. "You as well, love. Anything at all and I will be right here. You will ensure that she does, right?"

I frowned, but Ysa patted my chest, grinning brightly. "'Course! No Mary will be down on our watch!"

Silk watched me, concern plain in her frown, but sighed and bobbed her head. "Very well. I will come find you once I have completed my chores for the night."

"Have fun, Silk!"

"D-don't work too h-hard."

The mare turned and sashayed out the door, tail raised and on obvious display for me to see. "Ohhh, yer a naughty girl, leavin' poor Silkie all hot and bothered like that."

"I-I didn't-! I didn't mean to!" I buried my face in my hands as Ysa cuddled up against me, tail snaking around my thigh. "We were r-really getting i-into it and…" I took a deep breath, easily bringing to mind Silk's hot, flushed face as she stared into my eyes while she caught her breath and then the flash of worry tinged just briefly by disappointment. "I'm j-just… scared, I guess."

"Well, I know it's not cuz ya don't wanna. I can smell ya." She grinned at my groan, giggling while I peeked at her through my fingers. "Are ya in heat?"

"Humans d-don't go into heat." I shuddered at the thought. "G-God that would b-be shit." Ysa giggled. "Really! I-I'm already horny all the t-time! A-and it doesn't help that I c-can't… m-masturbate… whenever I w-want…" 

I mumbled the rest, face burning, but I had little doubt that Ysa had heard me, especially when she flashed me a hooded smile. "Yannow, ya don't hafta hold back. Lulu won't care and I sure don't. I like yer smell, and all." She took a deep sniff of my shirt, her tiny nails digging into the cotton. "And I can help ya." Her tail teased my thigh, sending electricity straight into my gut, as she nuzzled up into my neck, tongue tracing the line of my collar. "I'll smother your heat…"

I gasped as she kissed me and gave in to it much faster than before, especially now that I was ready and expecting it. Her tongue was much different than Silk's broad, flat muscle. It twisted into my mouth, coiling around mine like a snake as Ysa practically swallowed my mouth. I gagged as she forced her way down my throat, eyes watering at the sudden panic that overtook me, and was about to shove her off so I could breathe again, but she acted first.

Ysa jumped off me, her face twisted in fear as I coughed and retched, not quite vomiting but still feeling too close for comfort. She squeaked out apologies, her voice low, and rubbed my back, whatever forceful initiative she'd had that had been turning my Venusian cleft into a swamp of my arousal disappeared into the aether. I tried to croak out a question, to ask her why she'd literally shoved her tongue down my throat, but all I could muster was a cough. "I'm so sorry, Mary! I got too excited and- It’s a kobold thing and-!"

I nodded as best I could, hopefully assuaging her concern despite my own heart still thundering a million beats a minute, and took a deep, shaky breath. I don't know why I felt like such shit for choking like that, especially since I knew it wasn't my fault, but the way she was panicking over my safety instead of… Well, I knew why I felt like such fucking garbage, but… I didn't want to think about it. I was soaking through the bedclothes and, if I didn't do something about it, I was gonna go crazy, but now I was feeling self-conscious. I wanted to continue, but I was terrified of her doing something I wasn't expecting and freaking out again. What if the next time I panic and hurt her? I wouldn't be able to face her again, but…

"Ugh!" I stood up and the little kobold tumbled to the bed, confusion plain on her face.

"Mary?" She crawled onto her hands and knees and watched me as I stalked over to the bathroom in Silk's room. "You, uhm, ya aren't mad are ya?"

I paused, clenched my fists and slapped them across my thighs. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" Shit. Goddamnit. I needed to take care of myself, but I didn't want Ysa to think I wanted nothing to do with her, nor did I want to turn around and see her cute little face twisted up in worry and risk throwing myself to her whims and whatever little fuck ups that would come from my nerves and fears, so I pulled the door open and spoke softly over my shoulder. "Could… Could you tell me a story through the door?"

I didn't wait for her to answer, instead just stepping inside and sliding down the door as I closed it behind me. I could just barely hear her nails clicking on the stone as I settled my ass on the cold floor, my skirt hiked up around my waist, and I sighed in mixed relief and anxiety as she settled up on the other side of the door. I could hear her breathing, as soft as it was, so I knew that she'd easily hear any noise I made, but I couldn't hold back anymore.

There wasn't any need for me to wet my fingers before sliding them through the copper nest below my belt line, and I groaned throatily as I finally dipped into my honeypot. Just the pair of simple fingers, barely even past the first knuckles, that I'd parted myself around felt like I'd reached heaven after the constant teasing and building over the past twenty-four hours, and I couldn't stop the little gasp that escaped. I was trying to be quiet, both in the hopes that Ysa wouldn't hear me and to listen to her as she kept me company through the door, but it was hard. I was beyond sexually frustrated, having rarely gone more than a day without rubbing one out and I'd never ignored the urge when I'd exposed myself to porn or other similarly arousing stimuli.

I was working through a massive backlog of my favorite chore.

"So, there I was, just my brother and me, sitting in a puddle of jelly. We had no idea how the bottle had broken, but I'll tell ya, we were freaking out. It was our Mama's favorite jelly ever, after all." The kobold giggled and a twinge in my loins made me crush my index and middle fingers. God, she was so cute. I wanted to just yank the door off its hinges and bury my crotch in her face, let the tongue she'd choked me with ravage my body, but just the thought sent tremors of fear through me, so instead I added my other hand to the mix and slipped it up my shirt. My nipples were like rocks jutting out against my blouse, the dark peaks so starkly visible through the sweat-soaked fabric, and they tingled as I pinched them between my fingers and kneaded the nearly non-existent bumps that were my breasts.

"And then Mom was like, Ah cannae believe ya spillt ye Ma's fav'rit jam. She gon' flay ye skin chil'! See, Mom is from a highland tribe, so she talks funny, and it makes her sound angry, but really Mom is the nicest 'bold you'll ever meet." I could hear her grin even if I couldn't see it and that just further blossomed the warmth in my gut. She sounded as happy as can be reminiscing like this and, despite the growing stickiness between my thighs and the fog of desire building around my thoughts, it was easy to find myself getting lost in her story.

"Whuh… What haah-happened?"

I bit my lip, squealing softly while I squeezed my legs together, my body shuddering as I rubbed brusquely against my hood. I was getting close already and it was getting harder and harder to contain my voice as I slid down onto the floor and gyrated my hips against nothing. I squeezed my eyes shut, a long, heady growl slipping out as Ysa's voice grew louder and more excited. Fuck, I wanted her between my legs so bad.

"Mom tried to cover for us, but ya know Mama was way too good at reading her and Mom never was a good liar…" I nodded. She couldn't see it, but I understood and felt like I should at least acknowledge it in some way even if I was too lost in my lust for any verbal affirmation. Her mom sounded sweet and I assumed that she'd spent a lot of time with her. It explained why she was as nice and fun to be around as she was. "Mama was super angry… and I thought that maybe… we'd get in biiiig trouble, but… she just said…" Ysa's voice had dropped, her typical squeakiness subdued like she was trying to talk softer, and it seemed like she was a lot closer, but it was harder to hear her through the cloud of lust hanging over my head.

My fingers plunged through my pubes, spearing into my plump lips while my palm rubbed my pleasure pearl raw. I worked and worked, my attempts at muffling myself lost to the hot, heavy pants and high-pitched cries that eked out as I fought vigorously to push myself up and over that plateau that kept my from mounting my peak. I was so fucking close, I just needed a little extra push. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to have the kobold choke my womb like she had my throat and another shudder ran through my body. Her little hands would be the perfect size to just grab my cleft and spread me open to expose the pink hidden between my plump lips. She could easily fit all of me in her mouth like a slider and I groaned at the thought of feeling her teeth pricking at my sensitive flesh while she sucked on my fat mound and gently gnawed on me. Maybe she would even slip her tongue down further and tease at my rose before spearing into my ass. "You smell so good…"

"Whuh?"

That seemed like a strange turn to the story and, through my delirious haze, I thought that Ysa had said that from right below, but that didn't make any sense, even through my addling. I'd locked the door, hadn't I? "Mary, I wanna…" My eyes shot open at the sound of my name and I caught just a glimpse of the little red lizard over my raised hips before white hot pleasure exploded in my brain. She hadn't given me any time to react before, like in my quickly quashed fantasy, her beakish maw clamped over my mound and her long, writhing tongue plunged into me. I would have screamed out in ecstasy had my voice not choked out in my throat, strangled into a keening, gurgling whine as she whirled and coiled in depths I'd never reached before. My little bullet vibes and dildos couldn't even hold a candle to the way she probed and filled my tunnel, her twisting tongue creating a chain reaction of sensory overload that left all of my body numb and nigh unresponsive outside of the almost painful clenching and spasming in my pussy.

She didn't let up even as I tried to reach down and push her away, but each time she dove deeper and teased at the entrance to my womb my body would tense and spasm into a never-ending loop of brain melting pleasure until my legs just couldn't hold me up anymore, even through their locked muscles, and I collapsed, spent, on the bathroom floor. My body felt like mush, just a pile of flesh that I happened to be inhabiting if I ignored the occasional jerk between my thighs after Ysa finally slipped out of me. I could just vaguely see her pleased, sodden face through unfocused eyes and I watched her lick her chops and hum happily to herself, and I supposed I understood that. I couldn't deny that that had been, by far, the best orgasm that I'd ever had in my life. No fantasy I'd ever come up with, no toy I'd ever used could even think to stand on the same plane of existence to having her almost literally eat me out and scrape my insides out with her tongue, but…

There was a part of me that felt violated. I'd been terrified of what would happen if I actually gave in to my desires, so I tried to keep to myself and take care of my problem, but even despite that she had still crept in to watch and taken my first oral experience without asking. Yes, I enjoyed it, loved it even, and I had definitely wanted it, but… It didn't make sense. I liked her, I wanted her, so why was I feeling like this?

"Mary? Mary are you cry-?" She squeaked and I scrambled to wipe my face off with what little energy I had left in my arms, but it was too late. She'd already seen me. I couldn't play it off and just try to bottle it up and deal with it on my own. Her little hands grabbed hold of mine, sharp nails biting gently against my fingers. "Oh Harmony, Mary… Did… Did I go too far? I thought… You were saying my name and…" Now she was weeping and struggling to talk, and a boulder of lead dropped into my stomach. I shouldn't feel this bad, because I didn't do anything wrong, did I? "I-I-I-I… I'm s-s-sorry! I didn't-!"

She threw herself on me, smearing her tears on my sweaty blouse as she clung to me and nuzzled into my chest. I was torn. That small part of my mind that was screaming at me that I'd been molested against my will, but then… I hadn't even confronted the kobold about what she'd done and she was infinitely more distraught about it that I was even as my own wetness streaked down my cheeks. 

"Y-Ysa… Wh… why?" I sucked in a breath, trying to steady my stutter, but my thoughts were racing and heart thundering. I wanted to get Ysa off me and wash off this little niggling feeling of disgust inside of me, but I also dreaded pushing her away. "I… I closed the d-d-door. I th-thought you wou-ould know…"

"I know!" She sniffled and snuffled, her words thick with emotion. "I was tellin' ya 'bout Mom and Mama, trying to ignore ya, but ya started… Ya started moaning my name." She shivered on my chest, laying flat along my body and looked into my eyes, her huge emeralds cloudy with tears. "I tried the door a-and it just opened, b-but I wasn't sure if ya wa-wanted me to do anything, so I just watched and was gonna go back out but then ya spread your legs and stuff and really called me. I thought that… that you knew I was there and when I said ya smelled good you thrust at me… I just… I thought you were… I'm sorry, I really am. I'll leave."

She tried to get up, inadvertently pressing into my breasts, but I muffled a scream into my hands before grabbing her hands and yanking her back down to my chest. It made sense, really it did, and, even if it didn't completely clear that feeling of being violated, I could tell, or at least I hoped I could tell, that she was being sincere. She stiffened in my arms, probably because I was squeezing her just a little too tightly, but didn't offer up any resistance. I laid there, staring up at the stone ceiling, breathing heavily as I fought off that sickening feeling of betrayal in my gut and just wondered at what my life had become.

Here I was in a brand new world with a gaggle of girls itching to throw themselves on me, girls that I quickly found myself desiring despite their animalistic features, but I couldn't bring myself to make the jump. Silk had already tried to bridge that gap, but my fucking insecurities had dashed that against the rocks, and now I was, for a sound reason, doing the same with Ysa. I didn't want that. I would be a liar if I said I hadn't wanted her to shove her face in my crotch, because I very clearly fantasized about it before she'd actually done it, but… Did I moan out her name? Was I, in my lusted delirium, calling out to her? I was trying to think back to her story, trying to remember what she'd been telling me while I was stuffing my fingers knuckle deep into my muff, but all I could recall were snippets. Did I even acknowledge her story at all?

"I'm really sorry, Mary." I felt her shiver against me, a little choked hiccup muffled against my breast as she slowly eased away from her steady stream of tears that I was still trying to figure back myself. "I didn't wanna f-force ya, r-really! I really th-thought that… that ya changed your mind and I got too excited."

Already, fresh tears were pooling in her eyes and that was just too much for me. I squeezed her plush cheeks between my hands and stared into her eyes while I swallowed the frog lodged in my throat. "I… Did I really…?" She nodded, limited as it was with her gently squished between my palms. "I…" It was going to be hard, now, to look everybody in the eye when I talked to them. I'd gotten a taste of what it'd be like to lay with them, and now my body craved it while my mind screamed at me that I wasn't ready and my heart whispered in my ear to let them in and take it one step at a time. My entire being was at war with itself and, to top it all off, the more I thought about it the worse my headache got.

"Mary?"

I jumped, snapping back to the present only to realize that I'd let my hands fall back to my sides and was just gazing unfocused up at the ceiling while Ysa watched me with a mix of concern and trepidation on her cute face. She was waiting for something, an answer that I really didn't have, but everything in my life was already fucked to shit and I didn't want to lose one of the few good things I had. Was it an illogical decision after she had unknowingly forced herself on me? Possibly, but… I didn't really have any other choice if I wanted to preserve my sanity. It was pathetic, but I couldn't survive on my own.

"I f-f-forgive y-you…" Her grin went wide as she gasped cutely and nuzzled up under my chin like a cat. I reciprocated as best as I could, but it quickly became obvious that she had noticed my hesitation when she eased back and caught my gaze with tilt of her head. I looked away, shame filling my gut. "I just… Fuck, I like you, but… I'll…" What could I even say? I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted, so how was I supposed to even handle this? My forgiving her was sincere, but it tasted like ash in my mouth knowing that I was still somewhat afraid of it happening. I shouldn't be, it felt amazing, and I'd been jilling myself to the thought of her before I'd apparently cried out for her, and-

"I won't do anything to ya if ya don't tell me to, 'kay?" She squirmed in my lap, wringing her claws in her own, and looked down at me, her head dipped as if in shame. "I got too excited and assumed and hurt ya and I don't wanna hurt ya! You're really nice and pretty and I like ya and I want ya ta like me too, yannow?"

I sighed and, finally, cracked a smile through my tears. "You really kn-know just what t-t-to say. If I… didn't know b-better, I'd c-c-call you… a c-con artist."

The kobold gasped, her four spines folding back like a dog's ears. "I'd never! I just want everybody ta be happy! Really!"

I laughed and held out my arms which she eagerly fell into. That twinge of disgust sent a tremor down my back, but I shoved the feeling down and did my best to focus just on Ysa. She had calmed down and was grinning contentedly as she lay on my chest, a stark contrast to the storm roiling inside me. Still, I would weather this storm, no matter how difficult, because I needed Ysa.

"Miss Rose, are you here?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sudden voice, yelping loud enough to wake the dead, and flushed red when Ysa burst out into giggles. "We're in the bathroom, Lu'!"

I heard Lulabelle's padded feet on the stone before I saw her and stared up into her sapphire eyes when she poked her head through the door and blinked down at me. "H-hi…"

"If you are tired, Miss Strand's bed would be much more comfortable than her floor." Ysa laughed harder as I rolled my eyes, both to hide the sudden rush of pleasure I felt at seeing her again and to let her know what I thought of her smartass remark. The canine sniffed once then looked down at us. "Lulabelle smells sweat and sex. Did Lulabelle catch you at an inopportune time? Lulabelle can come back later if you want to finish, or gladly help if you wish."

My eyes went wide, my breath hitching, and my brain screamed while my thighs twinged, but I couldn't find an answer for her. Like with Ysa, my body and heart yearned for her, but something in the back of my mind told me I shouldn't. Was I even ready for it? I couldn't have imagined having anybody be interested in me, but now I had a whole menagerie asking after me. I wasn't prepared. I'd fuck it up. I'd-

"Nah, Mary was just diddling herself. She's been pent up!" Ysa giggled and I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. It was embarrassing being put on blast like that, but it saved me from having to explain what had just happened. I didn't want anybody to think poorly of Ysa for something she didn't mean, so it was a relief that she'd covered for me. "How was dinner?"

"It was pleasant, Miss Ysayle, though Miss Palebeak was asking after you and Miss Rose."

"M-me?"

The canine smiled and nodded before reaching a hand down for me. I flushed, just remembering I was laying, sweaty, disheveled, and half covered in a bathroom floor, and gladly let her help me to my feet. "Yes, you."

"Why?"

"'Cause she likes ya, silly. Ya left quite the impression with everybody!" Ysa grinned and took my free hand once I was steady, or as steady as I could be while my legs still shook. She must've seen my apprehension, though, because she squeezed my fingers and nudged my hip with her shoulder. "She's the best! I love having fun and making people happy, but she's a party animal!"

I smiled softly and sat on the edge of the bed where I was quickly swarmed by the crystal sisters who chittered and clicked almost as if they were fussing over me. "I'm f-fine you guys. R-really…"

Both Ysa and Lulu looked at me, their heads tilted. "Can ya understand them, too, Mary? That's pretty crazy! Can ya teach me?"

"I d-don't!" My cheeks tingled as I stuffed my hands in my lap and squirmed. "I mean, it just seemed like th-they were, y'know, w-worried. It was j-j-just a g-guess."

It was Lulabelle that drew me to her breast, smushing my face up against her very plush mounds, and patted me softly. "There's no need to feel embarrassed, Miss Rose. We were just surprised that you seemed to be able to speak to them." I nodded jerkily. I knew she was right, really, but years of self doubt and social isolation made it hard to really take it to heart. I still felt like I should be worried of standing out even if I thought, knew even, that neither of them would think poorly of me for it, so I closed in on myself again and instead played with my skirt. "Lulabelle has an idea. Miss Rose, would you like to join Ysa and Lulabelle in the courtyard to watch us spar? Lulabelle thinks that it should help take your mind off whatever's troubling you, at least for a little while."

"Oh! That's a great idea!" The kobold jumped to her feet on the bed, her little hands plap'ing together, and grinned excitedly at me.

It was a heartwarming display, to be sure, and the idea of seeing the two of them fight was beyond intriguing. I've always loved medieval era movies, especially the intense battles where a pair of knights or warriors clashed in a fight to the death, their honor on the line, and the thought of seeing something like that in person got my blood pumping in excitement, so much so that I jumped to my feet and shouted in agreement only to flush and squirm when the kobold and canine laughed. Even the spider sisters seemed to join in.

"D-don't laugh! I just… really l-like…" I trailed off, mumbling under my breath, only to be pulled back into Lulu's breast. My insecurity seemed to ease off me as her body heat suffused my whole being, and I loosened the tension in my jaw. "I'll c-come…"

There was an excited cheer, just a cute little squeaky noise from the kobold, before her negligible weight jumped onto my back and she nuzzled into the back of my neck. "I'll win for ya, Mary, and then I'll let ya sweep me off my claws and we'll live happily ever after!"

I chuckled alongside Lulu, and I could practically hear the desert dog's eyes roll. "Miss Ysayle, we both know that it shall be Lulabelle that will sweep Miss Rose off her feet."

They broke out into an argument more akin to playful banter than any outright hostility while Lulabelle led me out of the room, a burning heat in my face and gut. I'd never wanted to continue being the center of attention any more in my life than with the two girls declaring their intentions to prove their martial prowess for my honor. I'd never had anybody fight over me before and I'd be lying through my teeth if I denied that it was doing wonders for my piss poor confidence. It felt good to be wanted like this, even if there was a chance that the desire was just superficial.

The walk through the mansion was short, considerably more so since Silk's room was as close to the main entrance as one could be without it being in the place's grand entryway, and God, what a fucking entryway it was. The room was nearly three stories tall and easily large enough to fit a small circus, each level was sectioned off into different tiers by marble arches and pillars and stairs to make a cascading wave of opulence. The second tier, where the living quarters and main halls I'd seen were connected and where we arrived from, was flanked on both sides by a matching pair of half circle staircases around a near pristine marble statue of a unicorn, its mane done up in a spectacular braided bob and adorned with a crown that would have dazzled in the light of the gems carved into it weren't made of the same stone as the rest. Those stairs drew up to a balcony of sorts that branched off into another section of the mansion that I hadn't been through, but, judging by the way the doors leading into either wing were decorated, seemed to lead directly into a library on the left and maybe a throne room or something pertaining to royalty on the right.

On the opposite side of the room, where Lulabelle was now currently half dragging me towards as I stared in wonder at the place, was a pair of straight staircases that led into a greeting area. It was obvious that it had once been a place to welcome guests, a place where a butler or some form of head of staff would take coats and baggage and invite them in on behalf of their employer, but now it had been turned into more of a reception area. A fine wooden counter had been built off to the right of the entrance, clearly much newer than the rest of the stonework and other finery, and held several stands that looked like they had, at some point, held informational brochures. Overall, it was clear that this part of the mansion had been well taken care of, especially so when I considered what Twilight had told me about it being a museum of sorts. First impressions and all that.

The grand oaken doors, decorated with carvings of unicorns in resplendent looking armor rearing with weapons drawn, opened up to a massive courtyard with long, winding, paved roads leading out into a forest that seemed to ring the building in a natural barricade against intruders. Hedges surrounded a multitude of small gardens, some of them still planted with dazzling flowers in rainbow hues while others had been cleared out and replanted with sod that had grown into pristine, albeit slightly overgrown due to neglect, grass rings. In one of the rings, the most central and easily the largest of them, was a rack of medieval weapons that glinted in the late evening sun, and the mansion…

Never in my life have I seen a building so opulent outside of religious structures. What had seemed big from the inside, with its long hallways and high ceilings, was colossal from without. What I had considered, and been told was, a mansion was actually more akin to a sprawling fortress. Sure, the stone was hewn marble and had been colored the deep red of mahogany to more resemble a house as opposed to a castle, but the architecture was undeniably Victorian, a strange cross of ancient castle and Gothic design. The roof was slanted, angled up into red-clay wedges from pale cream walls that were lined with the large, open windows I'd grown used to with myriad chimneys, all of them inert for the season save for one, reaching up into the sky like thick fingers.

The only word that came to mind was spectacular. I'd spent a large chunk of my life admiring European architecture through the blue-light glare of my computer monitor and in virtual representations in games, but seeing something like this up close was nothing short of breathtaking.

"It's beautiful, is it not?"

I yelped, nearly jumping out of my skin as I was suddenly reminded that I wasn't the only one out here, and turned, rosy-cheeked, towards Lulu. "Yeah, it's pretty damn… pretty. S-s-sorry, I'm not… great with words…"

"It's okay! The place is really crazy fancy!" Ysa giggled, covering her muzzle to pretend like she was trying to hold it in, and bumped my hip. "Us kobolds have nothing like this in our homeland. It's pretty much just the ponies that build fancy stuff like this."

Lulu, from my left side, slipped her hand along my lower back that sent shivers up my spine and goosepimples down my legs. "Not even the minotaurs builds structures like this and most of them are crafters and artisans." I swallowed and nodded, my wonder for the sprawling mansion building. Not only was this unbelievable palace more grand than anything I'd ever seen before, but it had been built by quadrupedal horses forever ago.

"Ready to watch me kick Lulu's tail?" Ysa tugged my hand toward the central hedge ring and I couldn't help my laugh as the big black dessert dog once more growled at her, this time taking a mock swing of her hand that swiped just over the kobold's expressive red spines.

The three foot lizard laughed and danced, tauntingly dodging the dog's half-hearted swipes, until we were all passing through a leafy archway and into a field nearly thirty feet in diameter. It was clear that, like the other hedge gardens, this one had once been planted with beautiful flowers, but now it was just a circle of grass that had been nearly trampled down flat, the cause made obvious by the makeshift rack of weapons set up against the hedge wall. They'd been using it to train and spar for quite a while, it seemed.

"So, Miss Ysayle, shall we go for a three point match?" Lulabelle strode over to the rack and grabbed what looked to be nothing more than a long, straight stick.

"Just don't cry when I win and steal Mary all for myself!"

"Don't I get a say in what happens?" The pair glanced at me while Ysa grabbed a pair of wooden practice swords, the carved sticks looking more akin to hunting knives than actual martial weapons, and rolled my eyes, chuckling as they raised their brows in the most 'you're kidding, right?' looks I've ever seen. "'course not. Uhm, do your best?"

Ysa and Lulu took up stances in the middle of the ring, the kobold bringing herself low to the ground, long knives held in front of her, while Lulabelle gripped her weapon in both hands near the base and angled the long end down towards her opponent. They stood there, facing each other down for several long seconds, building the tension in my gut as I waited for one of them to make the first strike. I blinked, wondering why they were just standing there as my anticipation waned, before the towering canine angled her head my way, a warm smile tilting the corners of get muzzle up. "Would you count us off, Miss Rose?"

I stared at her, my mouth open in a silent 'oh', and flushed bright red. "I-I'm sorry, I… I didn't-"

"It's alright, Miss Rose. There's no need to worry." She flashed me one last smile, Ysa giggling away to my right, before they both sobered back up. "Count us down?"

I stood straighter, trying to fight off the shame, unfounded though it was. "R-right! Uhm, three…" They steadied their stances, hands gripping their gear tighter. "Two…" I watched their bodies subtly tense, the muscles in their backs going taught and legs tightening, making it more apparent that they'd spent a lot of time toning their bodies. "One…" Their eyes narrowed and I had to swallow the lump that formed in my throat as I hesitated for just a moment. They looked like they were ready to murder each other. "Go!"

Like coiled springs, the two leapt into action, all of the tension leaving their bodies as the clashed together. Ysa's knives lashed out towards Lulabelle's legs, aiming for the sensitive flesh of the canine's shin, but her attack was shut out when she was forced to contort herself like a gymnast around the much taller girl's staff as it spun in a circle and arced up at her chin. Even from the side of the circle, I could hear the whistle of wind as her staff continued in its arc and cringed at the thought of how powerful a blow it would have been if it had connected, but Ysa didn't even seem to give it a second thought as she used her tail as a counter balance, waving it to her right, to bring her momentum around for another slash at the black fur of Lulu's legs.

The knives grazed at the fur, parting the hair ever so slightly as Lulabelle hopped back and brought her staff in a spinning slash aimed at the side of the kobold's head, but Ysa was already leaning into her attack and rolled forward under whoosh of air. I bit my lip, no idea if I should be worried or cheering, or even who I should be cheering for if I did cheer, when Ysa lashed out one more time from between the six and a half foot dog's legs and clipped her on the back of the calf. I yelped, pressing my hands over my eyes at the meaty thwap as wood met leg, and cringed at Lulu's grunt of pain, but the sounds of fighting continued even while I wasn't watching.

I peeked through my fingers just in time to see Lulu spin around on a backswing. The end of the staff slipped through Ysa's desperate attempt to block it and cracked her loudly in the side and sent her rolling through the grass with a squeaky yelp and a hiss of pain.

"Ysa!" I was about to rush to her, but she rolled out of the tumble, knives back at the ready with a look of determination on her face. "A-are you-?"

Instead of responding, she just grit her teeth and lunged at Lulabelle as the black dog made another sweeping pass at her. Using her short, lithe body to slide across the grass and under the swipe, Ysa smacked the staff with a loud, wooden clack and finished her slide with a roll that brought her right behind Lulu again, primed for another slash at the back of the dog's knees. The kobold didn't have nearly enough upper body strength to actually block one Lulu's swings, but the half deflection had thrown off the swipe just enough to leave her open.

Or so I had thought. The moment Ysa's knives smacked against the soft rear of Lulabelle's knees, a smirk on her crimson muzzle, the desert dog lashed out like a snake with her staff as she was brought to her knees. The staff connected with Ysa's skull hard, the dull thunk making my stomach turn as the kobold staggered around, her eyes unfocused, and I took a step out to stop the fight. I'd seen what a hit like that could do. I could vividly recall the fight on the outskirts of my high school football field and the quarterback star standing over the motionless body of some poor freshman that'd committed the ultimate sin of standing up for himself. I had visions of Ysa in her bed, blood oozing from her long, pointed ears, unresponsive as her brain hemorrhaged, but by the time I had finally willed my body into action Ysa was already steady.

She glanced over to me, a bright grin on her face. "I'm okay!" I wanted to tell them to just stop. Whatever excitement I'd had had been wiped out entirely. I was terrified. It had been romantic, in a way, to have them duel in my name, to keep me entertained, but now I was even more stressed than before.

"One more for the match, Miss Ysayle."

The kobold giggled and dropped into her ready stance, knees bent and knives forward. "I'mma get ya in the face for smackin' me!"

My heart was in my throat as I watched them both tense up again before lunging at each other for what I hoped was going to be the last time. There was a fire in their eyes that set my nerves on edge and twisted my gut, like they were craving the fight, but before I could protest further they were rushing at one another once more.

Ysa lashed out with a high pitched cry, forcing Lulu to hop back on the defensive, and pushed forward, aiming her slashes high. Each swipe was blocked or dodged, every stab knocked aside with seeming ease, but even with my limited martial knowledge, it seemed that the flurry of blows was taking all of Lulabelle's concentration to keep track of. The kobold continued her press, barely even reacting to the force of the parries, a manic grin splitting her muzzle as she pushed Lulu up against the hedge. Her mania turned to confidence when she realized that the canine had nowhere else to go, and slashed at Lulu's weapon with all of her strength. Her grin became a triumphant smirk as the weredog staggered, caught off guard by the sudden jump in force behind the kobold's attack, then, while her opponent was still reeling, Ysa launched herself into the air with a kick of her short, taut-muscled legs, wooden knives aimed right at Lulabelle's muzzle for her promised payback.

Time seemed to slow as the kobold  lashed out, assured of her victory, but she couldn't see the change in her opponent's stance. It was subtle at first, I hadn't even realised it was happening before Ysa had gone for the finishing blow, but as the kobold closed the distance between them, Lulu shifted more and more. Her stagger, obviously a feint in hindsight, turned into a swivel, giving her leverage to bring her staff in for an upward arc, and I watched in mixed fascination, awe, and worry as she turned her apparent disadvantage into what would likely be her win. There wasn't any way for Ysa to dodge this swing. Not only could she not see it coming, her entire focus centered on Lulu's face and her seeming inevitable win, but she wouldn't have the proper momentum to do so even if she could. She'd put her entire stock in this one, final attack, ensuring that she'd have the leverage and force behind her movements to see it through.

There was a trio of near simultaneous cracks as both of their attacks meet their marks, Ysa's swings knocking Lulabelle's head sideways in a sickening snap only for her to send the kobold flying up and over the hedge, out of sight. I screamed when I heard her hit the ground with another gut-wrenching snap, and rushed to the break in the hedge near where they'd finished their fight, but Lulabelle held out her left hand and caught me before I passed as she rubbed her muzzle with her right.

"Why are-!? Let me-! She could be-!" My mind was a jumbled mess and it was getting harder and harder to string together the rushing thoughts into coherent words as I tried to force myself past Lulu.

"Miss Ysayle is fine, Miss Rose."

I wanted to scream my frustration at her, but all I could get out as I struggled weakly against her was unintelligible mumblings about the crack I heard when she landed. All of that struggle came to a halt, however, when Ysa limped through the part in the hedge, favoring her right leg and carrying her wooden knives, one of them snapped in half. I sank to my knees at the sight of her, whatever surge of adrenaline that had been coursing through me evaporating into nothing as relief flooded my brain.

"I can't believe ya threw me like that but ya were too slow! I definitely won this time!"

"Lulabelle seriously doubts that. As much as it hurt, you were lucky to even hit Lulabelle. If you had even been half a second slower, you would have missed completely."

Ysa huffed and ineffectually stomped her uninjured clawed foot in the grass. "That's a load of apples and ya know it! Feint or not, ya barely hit me fast enough to even come close to a win!" She glared, hands on her hips and knives jutting out awkwardly. "Mary was watching! She'll know I won!" I blinked, my brain finally catching up with the argument when they both turned to me, and just gaped in disbelief. "Did ya see, Mary? I won, right?"

My mouth moved, but words failed me. I was dumbstruck, both by the absurdity of the argument in light of my worry and suddenness of being pulled into the middle of it. They watched for several seconds, stances tense, before they eased up as tears started to spill down my face. "Miss Rose, are you-?"

"I thought… Y-you… I-I H-heard-" I sucked in a deep breath and glared at the pair of them. "I don't care who won! I-I-I-I f-fucking thought you w-were really h-hurt, b-but you just- And you!" I took a steadying breath, but it did nothing to calm my thundering heart or the pounding in my head as a haze crept across the edge of my vision. "You c-could've… You coulda really hurt her!" I stared at them for several long seconds before putting my face in my hands and muffling a scream into them.

"Mary… I'm sorry, I didn't realize ya were so worried…" Ysa's voice was soft and, over my panting, I could hear the rustling of grass where she was standing. "All of us spar all the time and we all know how much we can take…"

I felt Lulu's big hand settle on my shoulder and heaved a stuttered, hiccup-broken sigh as I reluctantly looked up at her and my anger ebbed away. "You were so excited to watch us, we didn't think it would frighten you so much."

I watched them for just a moment, taking in the sincerity of the remorse on their faces, and sagged in defeat as I weakly reached out and tried to pull them close, both in an effort to get back to my feet and to lose myself in their comforting presence, no matter how frustrating they seem to sometimes be. Luckily, both Ysa and Lulabelle were more than eager to help in both regards, and I practically fell into their embraces hugged them tightly. "I… I don't think… I don't th-think I could w-watch something l-like that a-again…"

They both looked at me solemnly and Lulu pulled back to hold me at arm's length. "Miss Rose…" Her voice was soft and would have been comforting if not for the context of her tone. "We're exiled from our homes and will be fighting to take them back. We're going to get hurt and… maybe worse. It's inevitable."

"Th-that's not fair… I don't- You guys can't-"

"Hey, it's okay Mary. We've got plenty of time to prepare." Ysa's tiny claws gripped my fingers, the pads of hers squishing against mine. "We don't really hafta tussle. We just do it to stay fresh and for fun." She smiled and smiled, grinning up at me as I tried to sniffle back the tears. It was getting ridiculous now, crying all the time, because, even with how much of a wreck I was, I'd never been this emotional before and it made me think there really was something wrong with me, but luckily there was just something about Ysa's beaming grin that ate away at my gloom. "There ya go!" She laughed and snuggled up against my stomach, rubbing the side of her face and her spines into my blouse.

I let out my breath, easing my arms around the kobold, and hefted her up like a toddler on my hip and a grunt. "I-Is your leg okay?"

"Oh yeah! Lulu got me good, so I'll be walking funny for a bit, but it's prolly just a bruise."

I nodded, then turned to Lulabelle who was still rubbing and working her jaw. "Lulabelle is fine, Miss Rose, though Lulabelle does appreciate your concern." Her smile was warm, if a little stiff, assumedly because of Ysa's last attack. After a few, brief moments, the weredog took her staff from where she'd settled it up against the hedge after the fight and walked it and Ysa's one and a half knives back over to the makeshift weapon rack before looking up into the sky. "We should head back inside before it gets too dark. The skies are clear, but we're just coming out of a new moon and Lulabelle would rather not worry about you tripping over anything."

I followed her gaze up and took my first good look at the night sky since I got here. The sun was setting behind the mansion-castle, casting the previous blue expanse into a cascade of oranges and purples that was quick starting to be dotted here and there by sparkles of white light as the stars began their turn to dominate the field above, and, just off to what I assumed was about the northeast, was the slightest sliver of a moon that barely cast enough light to make its presence known. It was a breathtaking sight, one I'd never had the opportunity to see back home quite so vividly since, even in the suburbs, I was much too close to the city and its light pollution to have a clear night sky.

I wasn't quite sure how long I stood there and watched the colors above shift slowly away from the warm oranges and light purple to darker, more dusky tones before Lulu touched my arm and snapped me back to the present. I coughed, flushing a little with a muttered apology, and quickly stepped into line right beside her with Ysa in my arms clinging firmly to my blouse.

"It's really pretty, huh?"

I nodded and carefully hefted the kobold to readjust her on my hip. "Y-yeah, it's… pretty amazing. I, uhm, never saw anything like it back home. The stars and whatnot are too hard to see outside of little sprinklings."

"Well, Lulabelle is certain that Princess Luna would be pleased to hear that when you get the chance to meet her."

I looked at the canine, tilting my head just slightly as I tried to figure out what she meant. "Why… would she be happy? I mean, I'm guessing sh-she's like the night d-duty princess or something?" They both stared at me, Lulabelle standing in the entryway holding the front door open for us, and I shifted back and forth between them with what I imagined was as much confusion on my face as I saw in theirs. "What?"

"Princess Luna moves the moon and the stars. She brings out the night sky."

I narrowed my eyes at the kobold, trying to process what was said and, if I could, see if she was fucking with me, but there wasn't even the slightest hint of a grin. In fact, she seemed even more confused by the intensity of my scrutiny. "What do you… mean? Does she, like, ring a bell or… something?"

There was a moment of almost outrage on their faces before Ysa perked up. "Ohhh~ Mary, she literally moves the moon and stars. The princesses are like goddesses."

"They what!?" I almost dropped her in my surprise, but Ysa was holding on tightly and I scrambled to regain my grip on her. "Y-you're fucking with me, r-right? It's l-like some symbolic shit, right? That's… th-that's just… impossible!"

"The princesses are incredibly powerful, Princess Sparkle included, and have lived since before Equestria's founding."

"Not Twilight, though!"

Lulu chuckled and nodded. "Yes, not Princess Sparkle."

"Wait! Wait, wait, w-wait!" I held out my free hand, shaking it and cutting Lulabelle off right as she opened her mouth to continue, then rubbed the bridge of my nose. All of this was starting to make my headache pound harder. "H-how old is Twilight?"

"I dunno. I never asked her." Ysa shifted in my arms, swinging her head back and forth, and I had to hop her up again to keep her comfortably situated. "I think she's about a hundred and fifty though?"

"A hundred and…" I stared ahead, working my jaw as I tried to process that. There just wasn't any way it was possible. I mean, I wasn't a big horse person, but even I knew that horses only tended to live at most forty years if they were especially hardy, but Twilight was over… I mean, I remember her mentioning something about centuries, but I'd brushed it off. Who wouldn't? The idea of somebody living that long was absurd, let alone an animal, but now there were two more that were older way beyond that, too. It was ridiculous. It was stupid. It made my head spin. It… "I think… I'm gonna…"

I stumbled, tilting forward as the world turned around me, vaguely aware of the ground rushing up to meet me, and jolted as a pair of strong, black arms caught me. I glanced up, bleary-eyed, into Lulabelle's bright blue eyes, a pair of blurry orbs of color in a world of searing pain and indistinct shapes with vague hints of motion, only to drop my gaze back to what I could only hope to guess was the floor as my stomach churned. The only clues I had that I emptied my stomach right there on the front steps of the mansion was the sudden foul taste in my mouth and the horrible clenching pain in my gut.

I tried to apologize, but through my heaving stomach and fucked senses, I had no idea if I was even spitting anything more than gibbering noise. All I had was the piercing, searing pain throbbing in my skull and the world spinning around me. Sweat soaked through my shirt, matting it to my skin like a hot, sticky film, and my body felt heavy, like every muscle, organ, and bone had been replaced by lead. I couldn't move more than little shifts despite my efforts, and even that was a monumental task. It was like my body was being slowly crushed under a hydraulic press and I didn't have the faculties to do anything about it, and, if it wasn't for Lulabelle, I would've been sprawled out on the floor, likely drowning in my bile. As it was, the swirling masses were getting harder and harder to make out, my delirium making what was once semi-discernable shapes into nothing but almost colorless smudges that continued to twist and churn and make my stomach heave one last time before everything faded into nothingness.
> Chapter Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My eyes stung as I looked away from my computer and I blinked rapidly to try to adjust myself to hazy green light of my room. I always kept my little basement abode dimly lit, mostly so I didn't have any glare on my monitor, but it was times like these that I tended to regret the decision. Hours upon hours of staring at the harsh blue light was murder on my eyes and made it take damn near forever to accustom myself to something more comfortable. Honestly, I was surprised that I still had decent vision even if distant print was harder to read now than when compared to what I remembered as a little girl. Still, I wouldn't trade it for anything. My computer was the one escape I had to distract myself from the torments of my past.

My stomach gurgled, reminding very keenly of why I'd decided to take a break, so I pushed my chair away from my desk, rolling with a little spin across the concrete. My feet hit the floor as I slid out of my chair, the cold concrete against my bare toes making me wince, and I made quick little hopping steps up the stairs to my door, the hazy green fog gathered around my feet and in the edges of my vision wafting and swirling around me.

I wasn't exactly sure what time it was since I'd neglected to check my computer's clock before getting up but it had been a few hours since I got back from the store, so I was sure that Mom was done with dinner. She was a slow cooker, mostly because she took breaks in the food prep to get other work done, and I didn't mind. I even helped take over occasionally when she seemed especially busy or asked even if I wasn't the best chef. I knew she'd finish whenever she finished and I really wasn't in any position to complain either way. I might be a shit daughter and person, but I'm not ungrateful.

I stepped out into the hallway, wincing again as the bright light reflected off the haze and shocked my retinas. "Mom? Is dinner ready?" I waited for a few seconds, expecting a reply, and shrugged when one never came. She was probably in her room and didn't hear me. It wasn't ask that surprising, especially considering how pregnant she was. She was getting more and more tired, more and more sore, so I took shuffling steps towards the kitchen. If she was napping, then I could help out. It wasn't all out of kindness. I mean, I am hungry, but I love my mom, and I knew she needed sleep with how much work she was always putting in, so why not?

The kitchen wasn't far from my room, just down the opposite end of the hall from the living room and front door, and even my timid, shuffling steps covered the distance in just a couple seconds. I glanced at the bathroom just opposite the kitchen's door for a second, wondering not for the first time in my nineteen years why the dining room wasn't there instead, then pushed into hallway outside my bedroom.

The mansion-castle's stone halls were quiet as usual, not that odd since the size of the place and its thick, stone walls easily swallowed up any conversation or minor commotion. What was strange, though, was the distinct lack of somebody by my side. Sure, I'd only been here for a short while and there were a couple times where I'd been left alone, especially late at night like it was, but, looking over my shoulder, neither Ysa nor Lulabelle were asleep on my bed. The room was still, empty save for the lifeless furniture set about the space, and silent.

The soft slaps of my bare feet on the floor were like gunshots in the night, but there wasn't anybody around to disturb and nobody would hear them through their doors in their sleep. The fog swirled around my feet, so thick that it almost felt like I was wading through it, and, for just a moment, it almost felt like I could hear it. There were moments where the wisps swirling around my feet seemed to call out to me, almost like it was whispering to get my attention, but whenever I stopped to listen everything was silent.

It was eerie and set my nerves on end, but that wasn't really any different from the usual since I'd gotten here. I've been walking on eggshells, trying not to overstep my bounds and failing horribly at keeping my cool, and there's only been a few, short moments that my nerves hadn't been keeping me on edge. I was walking a fine line between sanity and straight up losing my mind, but luckily I've had Ysa, and Silk, and Lulabelle to help keep me grounded. Now, though…

The hallway seemed to go on forever as I shuffled down it, keeping close to the wall yet very carefully avoiding the extremely expensive looking vases and busts lining the corridor. The last thing I wanted was to break something important and cause more trouble than I already was by being here, but I also barely knew the few halls I'd been through and was very keen on finding my way to Silk's room. I frowned, furrowing my brow and pursing my lips.

Why was I trying to find Silk? She was definitely asleep considering how dark it was out the windows and, even if she probably wouldn't mind, I didn't want to wake her. I'd already taken up more than enough of her time. I didn't want to push my luck and burn the bridge she'd do kindly built for me, but…

The little hints of whispers were getting more pronounced, more prominent, and almost to the point that I could make out words. There was a chill to the air now, completely unlike the typically mild evenings I'd gotten used to, and it made the haze nip at my toes. My teeth chattered, the clicks echoing in my skull and in the air around me, almost as if the fog was more solid than just a soft green mist, but I pressed onward. I really needed to find Silk. Surely she'd know where Ysa and Lulu were and we could keep each other company until we fell back asleep. All together this time.

The mist called out my name, hints of shapes forming in the fog as I rushed through the hall, much less focused on keeping quiet now and more on finding the right door. My footsteps slapped against the stone as my eyes darted back and forth, searching for some sign of which door was Silk's. I couldn't remember which was which or even which side it was on, not with the clamoring for my attention from the fog around me. Little lengths of the green haze slithered along the walls beside me, keeping just in view and in pace in my peripherals but never staying in place whenever I tried to get a good look at it.

My heart was thundering in my chest now, pumping blood in my ears like a drum that played a frenzied duet with the clicking of my teeth, backed up by the staccato puffs of breath that frosted in the icy chill. My lungs burned, straining to filter the frigid air into something usable as I frantically looked around me, the sultry calling off my name from the fog growing more and more persistent with each passing moment, first from the left, then from the right, back and forth whenever I tried to get close to a door, and I shifted away from it each time in my sprint. I felt like I was being herded, like I was being led right where it wanted me, but I didn't dare stop to confront it, whatever it was. It was using the mansion's haze as a cover, using it to keep itself just out of my sight, and I didn't want to take the chance of letting it catch me.

My body screamed in protest from the prolonged flight, pleading with me in the form of fiery lungs and burning muscles as I desperately tried to escape my pursuer, when I noticed, finally, an open door up ahead, light pouring out of it and into the green fog. As I got closer, I could hear talking, most of it unintelligible, but above the static noise I could hear a more distinct voice. It was one I recognized, one I knew very well. Male, deep, and cruel. I could hear his mocking tone even if I couldn't quite understand what he was saying.

I froze in place, my body locking up instinctually, as memories I tried so very hard to suppress were dragged back to the surface just at the sound of him. Tears stung my eyes, but I couldn't do anything. I mean, I was just some plain, loser ginger and he…

My, my… You poor child… I think it is about time you… "-wake up!"

I flinched as the words drove a spike into my brain and groaned. Even with my eyes closed, the light was like a knife digging into my skull, and I tried to cover my face with my arms, but they refused to move and just lay at my side feeling like lengths of jelly. An attempt was made to ask for some sort of shade, but all I could manage was a painful croak like I was trying to gargle out words through glass.

There was a desperate squeal from my side that stabbed through my skull before I was swept up in tiny arms and my face was squished against a soft, slightly scaly chest. "She's awake! She's awake!" Ysa's voice was scratchy and thick as opposed to get usual bubbly, cutesy cheerfulness. "Twilight! Twilight, she's awake!"

There was a clatter and commotion from beside me, punctuated by a drowsy, muttered, "Huh?" before I felt a familiar tingle and a softly, but firmly whispered "Ysa, please talk more quietly. She's going to be extremely sensitive for a while." Then, after a slight pause, I felt the kobold get pried away and something soft and smooth wrap around my eyes. "Mary, can you hear me?" Her voice was even softer, but still felt like a needle in my brain, but I nodded. "Good…" There was a pause as a sigh tickled my neck. "Good. Thank Harmony. Okay."

There was another pause where Twilight muttered to herself, Ysa still clinging onto me though a little more loosely, and the tingling faded from around me as the fabric was secured and tied around my eyes. "I need you to leave this on and try to keep your eyes closed, okay? I'm sure you noticed when you woke up, but your senses are kicked up to an eleven right now… Except maybe touch? Though I'm almost certain that would've been too if we'd drained your excess magic more conventionally, but that might have taken too long and we couldn't risk any extra-"

"Twilight!" Ysa hissed, the harsh sound making me wince, as her body tensed against mine.

There was a sharp gasp, punctuated by a long pause, before Twilight sighed again. "I'm sorry, Mary. I'm just worried and… It was a really close call, Mary." I waited for Twilight to continue, but several long minutes passed before I realized that she was softly sniffling.

I swallowed hard, trying to get some semblance of moisture in my throat, and croaked out a strangled "…what…" that probably sounded more like a garbled cat being strangled, but the event was immediate.

Twilight was immediately right back next to me, her voice thick with emotion, and pressing something smooth and cool against my lips. "Harmony, Mary, you shouldn't be talking. You almost destroyed your vocal chords screaming. Drink this." She pressed the object closer to my lips, tilting it, and icy cold liquid lapped up against me. I sipped slowly at first, the chill burning in my aching throat, then started sucking down the water with vigor as she talked softly. "I suppose you should know what happened that way you can let us know when it's starting to get worse…" She sighed and placed a hoof on my thigh as I finished the glass and carefully pulled it away with a tinkle of magic and a clatter when it was deposited somewhere off to the side. "You were suffering from magic poisoning, pretty badly too. Normally, cases like this, especially as bad as yours are extremely rare, because most beings have ways of bleeding their excess magic, but…" Another sigh and she pulled away from me while Ysa clutched tighter, almost painfully so.

"You don't, as we just found out. You said you were having headaches, right?" I nodded when I realized she was pausing. "That's one of the first warning signs for those whose magic reserves are stored in the spine or nervous system like equines, cervids, and you. Other signs are dizziness, nausea, and possibly weakness, though none of those are guaranteed." Her tone was grim, but I swallowed and nodded. My heart was slamming against my chest and sweat soaking the sheets and beading on my brow. This wasn't a revelation that I wanted. I was already struggling enough with the changes in my life, but now the world was trying to kill me with magic I never wanted. "Typically, it takes months, sometimes years to build up enough magic to cause poisoning like that, but you were oversaturated in less than a week, which means that you've been taking in an exorbitant amount of aether."

"H… how?"

Twilight waited for a moment, and it sounded like she was shuffling in place, before whispering again. "Well, I'm guessing it's because of your emotional state, but it's really hard to tell. Magic is very closely tied to your thoughts and emotions and can be negatively and positively impacted by it for many different reasons, but in this case… I want to say that your mood changes have been making your body instinctively draw in magic to defend itself, doubly so since your body has been had magic before and doesn't know what to do with it."

I shook my head when she paused again, fear gripping my chest. I could already feel my chest tightening as panic welled back up in me, shortening my breath. The blindfold was making it hard to not feel trapped, and each sharp inhale scraped painfully through my throat. I needed to get out, I needed to leave, to get home. I needed-

There was a click and I jumped, head swiveling to find what was coming as wood and metal creaked before a low, womanly voice pierced through the thoughts racing through my brain. "Is Miss Rose…? Oh!" There was a rush of padded footsteps before I was painfully tackled to the bed, a big furry body crushing Ysa against. "Lulabelle was so worried! You collapsed and vomited this black tar, then started screaming. Lulabelle didn't know what to do, but Miss Ysayle was able to find Princess Sparkle and… Lulabelle is so glad you're okay."

I cringed as each word dug into my skull like a hot knife, but still relaxed as best as I could in the canine's embrace. It was definitely a relief to have her here with me, and already the tightness in my breast was beginning to loosen, my breath coming more evenly. It was amazing what Ysa's and Lulu's presence did for me. 

Twilight pressed her hoof against me once more and I glanced in its direction out of habit, still sightless with the blindfold. "Mary, I know it's been difficult for you, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again. If you experience anything strange, please let us know. I've had some experience with humans in the past, but you're a completely different breed than the ones I knew when I was younger, so it's going to be a lot of guesswork for you." I opened my mouth to try and choke out a question as to how they helped me, but there was a tingle as Twilight's magic pressed against my lips. "Please, save your voice and relax. You're going to need a few days to recover your strength and let the lingering effects of magic sickness wear off. If your headache comes back, let somebody know right away and we'll treat it immediately. Until then, blindfold on and no loud noises." Her hoof left my side and I heard the sound of hooves on stone as she walked away. "Lulabelle, Ysa, make sure that she stays put. Don't stress her out and try to encourage her to sleep. I'm going to let Silk and Daliah know that she's awake. Mary, Daliah will be by as soon as she can with some stew."

There were little sounds from Ysa and Lulu, letting Twilight know that they understood, before her hoofsteps continued away and silenced by the closing of a door. I stared blindly in the direction of where she'd gone for several short seconds before going limp in Lulabelle's arms. It was taking too much effort to even lean slightly forward to pretend to keep eye contact with them, and my aching, tired body was protesting vehemently against the action, so I just let the two of them embrace me and relished in the feeling of their bodies pressed close.

"Do ya need anything, Mary?"

As Twilight had asked, her voice was quiet and timid, still slightly thickened by emotion, and I tried to flash a grimacing smile as even that shook my brain. "…w-wa…"

There was a flurry of motion as the lizard slithered out from between Lulu and me, the sounds of glass clinking together and liquid being poured, then a soft "Here…" as the cup was placed against my lips once more. I drank more slowly this time, letting the cold water soothe the ragged fire in my throat as best as it could, and angled my face up to let Ysa know I was done. A little water still dribbled down my chin and soaked into my hair, but she was quick to pull the glass away before I made a mess and set it back wherever it'd been with a clack.

Silence filled the air again as Ysa climbed back up between us, snuggling her head up against my chin with her arms wrapped around my neck. It was nice, but there was a gnawing feeling in the back of my mind, a thought that I just couldn't let go of. Twilight had said something about an odd way of saving me and that that was the only reason my whole body wasn't screaming at the slightest touch. What had they done? I trusted Lulu and Ysa, and to an extent Twilight, and I figured they wouldn't do anything that would put me in any more danger than I was already, but it still worried me. Was there going to be lasting issues? I needed to know, so I shifted to get my friends' attention and mouthed out my question as best as I could when I felt them move.

"Lulabelle… doesn't understand? Are you asking what happened? Lulabelle is not good at reading lips."

"I think she's askin' about after she passed out. Right, Mary?" I winced, angling my head back and forth, then nodded. It wasn't quite right, but it should let me know anyway. "Well, ya collapsed and started barfing and screaming, and I didn't know what to do so I panicked and ran for help. It was a good thing, too, 'cause everybody was too far away to hear ya, but I found Twilight and we rushed back, but by then… by then…" She sniffled, and I felt hot tears splash against my neck as she squeezed me tighter and nuzzled up as close as she could get. "Yes were-"

"Miss Ysayle…" There was a shift of weight against me and Ysa nodded against my chin. "You were not doing well, Miss Rose, so Twilight sought out Miss Strand and, with her and Daisy's help they were able to stabilize you." Not doing well… Ysa had been about to say something, but Lulu had stopped her. Had I died and did they somehow bring me back? Was it going to happen again even with their help?

Wait, how did Daisy help?

"…h-ha…?"

There was a crash and I let out a gravelly yelp, as loud, heavy breaths filled the room. "Mary!" I cringed and whimpered as the cry pierced through and echoed in my skull before I was once again crushed by a new body slamming into me. "You're okay, you're okay, you're o-"

The was a tussle as Silk's words were strangled out, followed by a harsh, but infinitely quieter shh brought everything still once again. I was glad that Silk was worried about me, maybe not that I had caused the worry, but because it showed her concern had been genuine and her attention before hadn't been just physical, but that didn't lessen the awful agony ringing in my brain. It took a few heavy breaths, muffled by something, before she finally started talking again, much, much more softly.

"I was so terrified for you, love. When Twilight came rushing into my room telling about magic sickness and telling me to bring the girls, I… Well, I might have panicked a bit." There was a quick pause and I could almost imagine the shameful blush on her cute, pale yellow cheeks before she spoke up again. "Speaking of, I am terribly sorry I was not here with you when you came to. I checked in whenever I could, but I have been tending to Daisy for the past couple days and helping her process what she… uhm… Mary, are you…?"

I gaped at the sound of her voice, guilt quickly gnawing at my heart, the weight of what happened finally, truly settling in. I'd been out for a couple of days at least, maybe more, and they had to take care of me during that time, and, somehow, something had happened to Daisy because of me. Tears welled and soaked into the blindfold, making it stick to my face while I croaked out a strangled, painful whine. The three of them were up in an instant, their immediate presence gone as I felt scales, fur, and magic search up and down my body beneath the blankets, but that only made me cry harder.

"Mary? What's wrong? Did we hurt ya?"

I sobbed, pain wracking in my skull and throat, and futilely tried to wipe the moisture escaping from the cloth, but I could barely even get my arms to twitch at my command, so I resigned myself to a quick jerk of my head. "…m… sah…"

Anything else was choked out by searing pain in my throat and a swift plat of tiny fingers on my lips. "Mary! Twilight said no talking!"

"Love, are you… upset because of something we did? If you w-want us to-" It hurt like hell, but I shook my head vigorously, forcing back my tears. They were being too nice to me despite me already being nothing but a burden, but… no matter how guilty it made me feel, I didn't want them to stop. "Then why… Oh. Ohh… Marilynne! Do not dare think that you are imposing upon us at all, do you hear me?"

"What? Is that why you're…?" I could almost feel their eyes on me and shame weighed heavily on my heart, but it didn't make the feeling of inferiority, of uselessness fade. I nodded. "Aww, don't feel bad. We don't care about any of that." Ysa draped herself back across me again, any hint of her previous somber mood gone as she squeaked happily and nuzzled up under my chin.

"Miss Rose, what happened is not your fault and neither is anything else that you've been dragged into here. We, all of us, made a decision that pulled you from your home and from your life."

"Exactly, love. If it was not for us summoning you, you would have never suffered through any of this and you'd be happy and carefree with your family." I swallowed. It was partially true, though I couldn't expect them to understand when I wouldn't share my thoughts with them. I wasn't happy back home, bordering on depression, and every day was filled with mundane, repetitive tasks on my computer, watching the same old shows and playing the same games over and over to occupy my mind and keep me from thinking about what had cornered me in my home. I was lonely, even with my mom keeping an eye on me and trying her best to be a part of my life and be there for me, but now… I finally had friends. "And do not worry your little head about Daisy, if you were. She gladly offered to help and is just suffering from a rather large stomach ache. You, ah, were overfilling as she said and, not to be rude, she said your magic tasted rather awful straight from the source, which is strange because she has never disliked somebody's magic before and was rather fond of your ambient aether." Silk paused, shifted ever so slightly on me, then again but more pronounced as her front hooves lessened their pressure against me. "Nevertheless, fret not about Daisy. She is fine and would and will gladly do it again. It is just taking her some time to… digest, as it were."

I nodded, my lip quivering, and bit back my mounting tears just in time for a knock to sound at the door. It was soft and wouldn't have been audible had anybody still been talking, but the lull in our largely one-sided conversation was just enough for me to catch it. "It's open, Missus Daliah."

The door creaked open and I was immediately got with the thick, meaty smell of stew. My stomach growled, but that was thankfully covered by the sound of the matronly minotaur's admonishing voice, saving me at least a bit of embarrassment. "You three. Shame on you, get off the poor dear. She's supposed to be resting and she can't do that with you suffocating her, don't'cha know?" There was a shifting of bodies as all three of the guests on my bed dispersed with muttered apologies. I would have giggled if I could have gotten out anything more than a scraping wheeze. "Much better."

With their sudden absence from my side, the sudden shift in weight from Daliah as she climbed onto the bed was much more pronounced and I almost rolled towards her as the mattress sank to accommodate her. "Oh, surry dearie. I always forget that these beds aren't as firm as mine. Here, let me just…" I gasped when a thick, strong arm slipped beneath my shoulders and hefted me up out the divot without even a grunt of effort to pull me up against the most plush, warmest breast I'd ever felt in my life. Which, to be honest, wasn't all that many. What was once something that had taken all of my effort not to ogle at at the dinner table earlier in the week was now firmly cushioning my face which I was sure was beet red considering the giggling coming from around the room. "There we are. Now, the stew is hot and Princess Twilight said you would have trouble moving, so why don't'cha let me take care of that for ya, dearie?"

There was another round of giggling as Daliah removed her arm, making me yelp as I sank further into her bountiful titflesh and shiver as a nipple as thick as my middle finger pressed into my spine. There was a clatter of ceramic from my left, a light tink tink, then a few soft gusts of air before a warm spoon pressed against my lips and filled my nostrils with the mouthwatering scent of meat and gravy. "Open wide, dearie." I swallowed heavily, embarrassment burning heavily in my cheeks, and parted my lips.

I learned quickly that she was serious in her insistence for me to open wide when she firmly, but gently slid what was more akin to a bowl than a spoon into my mouth and, ever so carefully, filled my mouth with the most delicious, overwhelming mix of flavors I'd ever experienced. There were spices and flavors that I'd never tasted before, probably herbs local to Equisra, or whatever, but I could also taste carrots and potatoes and onions, chopped into perfect portions, mixed in with the not-quite-beef chunks that fell apart in my mouth. It was a festival of flavor with each act perfectly supporting the others without overshadowing one another so well that I almost gagged from trying to savor it too long, and when it went down it soothed my throat like a balm.

"That good, eh?" She chuckled, and I felt the bassy sound through her chest. "Well, that's good then, 'cause I brought plenty for ya." Before I could even motion to let her know I was ready for more, Daliah had the next spoonful right there for me. There was a level of comfort in being cradled in the minotaur's embrace and spoon-fed a delicious meal that had me almost in a trance and before I could even process it I was filled to bursting and still holding my mouth open for the next bite that didn't come.

I felt the woman chuckle against my back as the dish and spoon clinked together one last time off to the side. "Surry, Mary. I tried to bring ya more than ya could eat, but'cha just gobbled it all down as fast as I could feed ya!" She laughed again, this one more throaty and full-bodied, and I smiled along with her. "Gosh, I was worried that ya wouldn't like my food when ya barely ate anything last time, but it does my heart good to know that'cha liked my cooking. 'specially this dish. It was my daughter's favorite don't'cha know."

There was a hint of thickness in her voice as she spoke about her daughter and I would have asked about it if I could utilize my own voice for anything more than scratching glass, but it was gone without a trace as quickly as it had come. "I'll go get'cha some more, so you just rest here." She gently shifted me, easing me off her chest, and I took that scant moment to use what little working muscles I had to cover my stomach. There was a moment of silence where I hoped she had noticed, then Daliah laughed softly and laid her hands over mine. It was heavy despite her gentleness, and I was worried that I might lose some of the stew before she laid me back and stood. "Surry, dearie. I suppose we both got a little overeager there, eh?" I could already feel Silk, Lulu, and Ysa edging back over to me, but Daliah tsk'd and they all stopped. "I trust that you'll give her enough space and let her rest?"

It hurt to laugh, but I couldn't help the gravelly chuckle at their combined shuffling. It felt like they were squirming in place, caught in a scrutinizing glare. "Honestly, Daliah, do you think us so brutish to suffocate the poor dear while she is hurt?" At least Silk had the presence of mind to sound somewhat ashamed. "We will behave, I swear. The last thing we want to do is put too much stress on her, right girls?"

There was a small chorus of agreement and I could imagine minotaur tilting her distinctly feminine, bovine head in just that way that my mom did when she want quite sure she believed me. "Good. Mary, if they give ya any trouble, just let me know and I'll set them straight." Her voice was soft and instilled in me a warmth that I'd only ever felt from my mother. For just a moment, I could imagine that she was the one admonishing my friends and not the massive cow-woman, but just like most of my daydreams, that faded and left me once more with a longing for home.

The door opened and closed, signaling Daliah's departure with the soiled bowl and spoon. The trio at least had the decency to wait three whole seconds before crowding back around me, but I really didn't mind. I was already missing Daliah's presence pressed up against me, and the feeling of three other bodies against mine was a comfort I could quickly grow addicted to. Despite Daliah's mock concern, they weren't smothering in the slightest. They simply pressed their bodies in close to mine, enough to let their presence be felt, but still giving me enough space to shift and move if my body would've responded how I wanted it to.

"So, anything you wanna do?"

Even if I couldn't see anything, I still instinctively glanced down towards the voice of the kobold from her place on my chest and let the question bounce around in my head. I didn't have any plans for anything even before I was essentially given a magical aneurysm. I'd been spending my past few days just letting everybody drag me around on their whims. I wasn't upset by it, and I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't enjoyed most of my time here, but I didn't have anything that I could do without guidance. I didn't have my computer, though my inability to move or see would've made having it pointless, my phone was… somewhere back in my room, and I didn't have any books to read even if I could…

I paused, blinked, then glanced at Ysa. "Buh…" I coughed, pain searing my throat while Silk's magic tinkled and the sound of putting water met my ears once more. I drank deeply, the warming water still soothing, and smiled wanly in thanks before carefully mouthing out book while weakly pantomiming the turning of pages.

"I, uhm… What's she asking for?"

Ysa shuffled on my chest and Lulabelle laughed from my left. "Miss Rose wants us to read her a book. Is Lulabelle right?" My smile brightened and I nodded, immensely thankful that whatever had numbed my body left at least everything above my neck functioning mostly fine, even if I had a bit of a headache still. I struggled to bring my hands together and form them into a heart on my lap and mouthed romance at the desert dog and this time it was Silk that gasped.

"Ooh, love. Romance?" She cooed and snuggled in close, her cheek pressing right against mine and her mane tickling my nose. "You would get along seemingly with Goldie, I think. You see, while I just adore the idea of a true blue romance, Goldie is obsessed with it. You should have seen her library back before we had to flee Canterlot. There were whole walls filled with shelves in her room dedicated to reading material and, if I am not mistaken, most of them were those cheesy city mare meets wild stallion smutty novels." She pulled back for a split second before a tap of wetness pressed against my cheek and I felt her climb off the bed, leaving me burning in the face. "Stay put, love, and I will be back with something for you."

Her hooves rang out her motion on the stone, each step feeling like a wound up flick to my brain, before, just like Daliah, she was gone with a pair of clicks from the door. "That's not fair! I wanna kiss, too!"

I grinned, trying not to laugh through my red cheeks as the kobold slithered the rest of the way up my body and pressed her muzzle to my lips, her tongue flicking tentatively against them, before pulling away with a pleased-sounding hum. Embarrassing as it was, the pecks felt nice, they felt right, like it was something that was natural, and they were doing wonders for my mood. I wanted another, maybe one from Lulabelle, but I figured that the big canine wouldn't be as likely to try and steal kisses from me like the other two. Lulu was by far the most reserved of the two, even if that wasn't all too hard of a mark to fall under, and I had the distinct feeling that she wouldn't even think of acting without me asking… And I don't think I could do that.

"Miss Rose, are you comfortable? Not too hot or cold?"

I tilted my head, confused, then felt her hand on my hip, on my skin, and her question clicked into place. I felt my face light up to try and blend in with the coppery orange of my hair and only kinda cursed her for making me aware of the fact that they'd stripped me down again. I suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable, more so than I'd been when I thought I was just mostly paralyzed and blinded. I'm sure I would've noticed eventually, probably, and appreciated being made aware of it, but I definitely could've gone without the sudden shame of being made aware of how I'd been naked around a bunch of people for the past… hour? Not that I could've gotten an accurate reading from it, I couldn't see the sun to judge the passage of time, though I could still feel its warmth being filtered through something and onto my bare skin.

I wasn't hot, even with both Lulu and Ysa keeping my body heat close in, but I knew that if they pulled the blankets up it'd quickly become unbearable. I was feeling self-conscious, shame stinging in my eyes at the thought of them having to see my bony body and washboard chest. I hated that, even with them showing interest in me, my mind told me that I wasn't worth it with a voice that wasn't mine, like an insidious parasite sucking the joy out of my thoughts. I evidently paused for too long, or maybe my thoughts were showing on my face, because Lulabelle carefully pulled just the sheets up over my chest and tucked the edge up under my armpits, adding a gentle pat on my shoulder. I despised that I felt uncomfortable around people I liked and generally trusted, but I still turned a thankful smile her way. It didn't make me feel better, but I at least felt less vulnerable.

Then, as if busting through the tension in my thoughts, the door burst open, thankfully caught before it could make its full swing, and Silk's sing-song voice jabbed beautifully at my brain. "I am ba~ack!" The door was closed once more, with a lot less force than it was opened, and the mare's clopping hooves announced her approach until those were silenced by the plush mattress as she climbed back up and nestled herself against me. "Did you miss me, love?" There was a shuffle of fabric, an almost imperceptive click and then the rustling of pages as something small was dropped into my lap. "You will have to thank Goldie when you get the chance, because without her you would be here listening to me drone on and on about the history of the world." She paused, shifted ever so slightly. "Part One, I think Twilight said, before going off on a rant about there being no subsequent volumes that I graciously left her to."

She giggled, her sultry voice sounding like heaven to my ears, and shuffled through the book's pages while Lulabelle and Ysa adjusted themselves to accommodate the unicorn. There was a bit of whispered arguing between Ysa and Silk about who would be reading, which Silk kindly put to rest when she explained that she had the book. Ysa, instead, huffed and crawled up under the sheets, pressing her cool body against mine, and I could just imagine the smug look she flashed Silk when I heard the mare sigh and mutter out an "Honestly…" under her breath. Lulabelle, quiet, readjusted the sheets, making sure that both Ysa and me were now snugly wrapped in the blanket before cradling me against her. Her fur was as soft as clouds against what little skin was still exposed and did more to keep me warm than any amount of blankets ever would.

I smiled. The three girls were like a bastion around me, building up the walls in my mind that were fighting to keep my darker thoughts at bay, though that was an uphill battle. Still, it was nice to have people that aren't my mom around to care. After years of exclusion, isolation, and self-loathing, this was like a spa cruise vacation for my soul.

Silk's story was exactly as I expected and looked forward to, following the perspective of a young farmer's daughter, a pony mare named Petunia, that was suddenly thrust into a life of adventure and intrigue by a band of soldiers under the employ of the local Baron. She had been expected to serve the soldiers during their short stay there, but didn't expect to find a gem in the rough ore that was a band of soldiery. An officer, a pegasus mare named Windtunnel, to my pleasant surprise, flirted and teased her, offering to show her the world, and swept the little farm mare off her feet, or hooves, as it were.

Silk, in my opinion, was an amazing orator. She changed her voice for each character, though they obviously still held her husky sultriness, and voiced her dramatic pauses and intensified her words when something particularly interesting came into play. She knew exactly how to keep my attention, or maybe I just found her voice intoxicating, because I was caught off guard when I heard the gentle sound of squeaky snores coming from the kobold snuggled up on my chest.

There was a sound of pages turning before I heard Silk's magic cut out. "I think that is a good enough place to stop for now." I groaned. It was just getting to the juicy parts. "Now, now, love. We shall have plenty of time to continue this later, but for now you need your rest and I think Ysa and Lulabelle will agree." She paused, and, in the lapse of sound, I noticed that the desert dog's breathing was soft and even, her arm limp and heavy against my hip. I mouthed a silent Oh. "They have been keeping a very close eye on you and I must admit that I am a mite envious. I do wish I had the time to keep you company, but Daisy is still not fully recovered and it would not be fair to either of you if I did not tend to her."

There was a shift in the weight from her side, followed by an extended, pronounced groan, before I felt the pressure of a hoof on my shoulder. "Get some rest, Mary, and I will be back to read to you again later." The only warning I had before her lips met mine was the sudden wash of her hot breath against my face as she leaned in close. Her lips were as soft as I remembered from the last time as she melded our mouths together, and I found myself moaning into the dance her broad tongue played with mine. It was painful, each little gasp and groan burning in my throat, but it left me panting for more when she pulled away with a wet smack. "Hopefully that will leave you with sweet dreams while Princess Luna is occupied." She giggled softly, and hopped off before I could even think about getting my arms free. Not that I could have stopped her with my limited function, mind you, but the thought was there. She laughed all the way to the door, her sweet tittering echoing in my head, until the sound of the door closing shut her out and left me alone with the fresh desire burning in my loins.

I huffed, frustrated, and tried to shift around to find a more comfortable position to let some cooler air calm the fire between my legs, but with both Ysa and Lulabelle snuggled up so close and holding me so tightly, I couldn't even shift the blankets off my toes. I groaned in annoyance and meet my head fall back, using what few mental faculties that weren't being assigned to replay the feeling of Silk's sensual embrace in my mind, and put everything I had into falling asleep. It'd only been a couple hours, though.

Tonight was going to be a very long night.
> Chapter Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"…ry…"

I groaned and tried to roll over, but a weight at my side kept me from doing more than shift underneath my tightly tucked sheets. "...m ti…r'd… F've mr… Mom…"

It hurt to talk, both in my skull and in my throat, giving even more of a reason to want to stay in bed than just the general ache throughout my body, but the voice was quickly accompanied by a warm, gentle hand. "Mary, dearie… You need ta eat. I brought'cha more stew." It took my sluggish brain several seconds to process what was being said, but it soon resolved that, combined with the memories from the past almost week coming back to me, the deep, womanly voice didn't belong to my mom. I blinked awake, an action I quickly regretted as piercing light stung at my left eye and hissed as I clenched it back shut. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it had when I woke up… whenever it was before Silk had essentially read me a bedtime story, but it was still painful to even try and crack open my eyes. "Oh dear, it looks like your mask shifted in your sleep. Here, dearie, let me fix that for ya."

Daliah's fingers tugged at the cloth around my face, pulling the dark fabric back over my eyes and graciously shutting out the light that was trying to dig its way into my skull through my eyelid. "…ank… yuh…"

Her soft fingers brushed the curls of my hair out of my face and I could hear the smile in her voice as she talked. "Of course, dearie. The princess said you'd still be recovering for at least another day, so for now just sit tight. Are ya feeling any better?"

I groaned, stretching out and letting my sore muscles sing their relief at finally being able to move. Even if I'd been awake for less than a day of being bedridden, apparently three days of being immobile had taken its toll on my body. Everything hurt, my whole body feeling like I'd been put under a meat tenderizer, and my muscles struggled to lift me off my back, but even that small bit of movement was significantly easier than it'd been yesterday, so I nodded with a smile.

"Wonderful!" Just like before, Daliah's hands were gentle as she lifted me up and settled me against her breast, but, unlike last time, my body was distinctly more aware of what it was pressing up against. Her plush flesh felt like heaven against my back, and the thick peak of her nipple on my spine sent shivers running down to my toes. The sensation of her body against mine conflicted heavily with the motherliness she exuded with every action and I felt shame well up in me. She was doing her damnedest to make me feel safe and comfortable and I was imagining her body pressed against mine in a late night rendezvous. "Are ya feeling up ta eating, Mary?"

My stomach gurgled in response to the smell of meat and veggies in gravy, eagerly remembering yesterday's heavenly taste, causing the minotaur to chuckle deeply in my ear. "Oh yah, that's definitely a yes." My face burned, but I still prepared myself for the spoon as soon as I heard the clinking of porcelain, and hummed in appreciation as that first shovelful hit my tongue. The gravy was as soothing as last time, and the fillings melted in my mouth. I barely even had to chew to get it down and, in a matter of minutes, Daliah had the bowl set aside, "Scraped clean." I could hear the joy in her voice and it filled me with warmth. It wasn't much, but it felt good to give back even this little bit.

With the bowl cleaned out, I thought that Daliah would have to leave again, and I worried about what I would do if I was left alone with nothing but my thoughts, but the big woman seemed content to just sit there and gently rock me, humming a tune under her breath. I didn't recognize the melody, not that that surprised me, but it still held that universal sense of familiarity that all lullabies held. I wasn't tired before, but I still couldn't help the little yawn that escaped.

"So, dearie, have Ysa and Lulabelle been treating ya properly?" I flinched at the sudden volume change, but quickly settled back in against the minotaur and really thought about the question. I… I couldn't exactly tell her that they have been amazing to me, mostly because whenever I opened my mouth to talk all I got out were agonizing fragments of words with a small bit of choking on emotion. There was that little blip the other night that made my stomach clench, but every time I thought about it, regret seeped in. Everything inside me was telling me that I should have gone further, but then I think about how everything could end in one awkward moment and change my mind, and circle back to- "Mary?"

I tensed. There was a deep worry in her voice that made my stomach churn. How long had I been circling around and around in my head? "Mary, if ya aren't happy, then ya can tell me. Even if Ysa seems a little pushy, they all care for ya, don't'cha know." I gasped, winced at the sting in my throat, and vehemently shook my head. Once again, my uncertainty had caused a misunderstanding, but I wasn't going to let this one stand.

I took a deep breath and swallowed as much as I could while I shifted to look at where I guessed Daliah's face was. "I'm… okay…" I smiled weakly while gently rubbing my throat. "N-not… happy… really… but okay…"

I coughed and felt warmth speckle across the back of my hand, which the minotaur quickly reacted to. "Oh dear, please don't talk! You're gonna-" Her accent got thicker in her panic as she tried to settle me back down and wipe my hands with some cloth, but I grabbed her fingers in my feeble grip and held up a finger.

I waited for her to calm down, listening for something, and felt her shift next to me. Taking that for an affirmative, I nodded and continued. "I have… friends… now… I'm… better…" It hurt so fucking much to talk, each word feeling like jagged glass in my throat, but her little-for-her gasp made me think I got my point across. I wasn't happy, but… maybe I was getting there? This whole situation was a fucking mess, certainly, and, to me, I'd only been here for a couple days, but… Having people that I could call friends made an awful event bearable.

"Oh, Mary…" The huge woman's arms wrapped around me and crushed the breath out of me against her chest. I could feel her short muzzle brush against the top of my head as I gasped for air before she let me loose again and went about righting my suddenly much messier rat's nest of curly red hair. "Oh goodness, I don't… Dearie, if you…" I glanced up towards her shaky voice and grasped about for her moving hands until she entirely stopped brushing my hair and let me catch them. I couldn't see her face, but I stared at where I thought her eyes would probably be and tried to ask her what was wrong with just a look and a tilt of my head. "Mary, dearie, you talk in your sleep, don't'cha know?"

I flushed and looked back down at my lap, seeing only the blackness of my blindfold, and the tauric woman chuckled at me. "Don't be embarrassed, it's pretty common, dearie." She paused long enough to laugh just a bit more then sighed. "Ya called me 'Mom' when I came in and tried ta wake ya and… It made me think of my daughter. I… lost her recently and I've been dealing with it, see, but it's hard. I was thinking…" Realization dawned on me as I felt her shuffle in front of me and felt warmth splatter against the hand she'd grabbed onto so tightly. "I feel awful. I… I've been using everybody here, especially you recently, ta help me get over the loss, treating ya all like my own little children, but… I don't know what else ta do." She sniffled and the little splatter of wetness on my hand grew in volume as she wept more openly now.

My heart broke for her. I didn't know the pain of losing a daughter, nor could I even think I'd reach a point for that to happen considering my proclivities, but I knew the pain of never being able to see a loved one again. I knew what it felt like to know that you'd never see the one person in your life that meant the world to you, so I did the only thing I was able to in that moment. I dropped her hand, tossing and turning my body to face her properly, and threw my arms around her. It was a bit of an effort with her broad body and my inability to see, but I squeezed her as tightly as my weakened arms could manage and smiled through hot tears when she gasped then quickly swallowed me up in her bosom.

If she had been warm and soft just holding me and supporting me while we sat together and I ate, then her hug was like leaning into and being enveloped by a marshmallow that had been warmed by the sun. Hugging her felt like I was embracing Heaven itself, and that entity known as Heaven was infusing my body with its Holiness. For that brief moment, everything was right and proper, like I was back with my mom, snuggling up to her as a child on the couch and watching some silly cartoon after a rough day at school only for it to all come crashing back down as my own guilt welled up in me.

Less than a week.

It'd been less than a week and I was already trying to find a replacement for my mom. Was I really that desperate for Mom's attention and love? Yes, but… that was no excuse for shoving her still fresh memory to the wayside just for a moment of comfort. I felt sick with myself, and it seemed like Daliah noticed my hesitation as she eased me back and wiped my cheeks with her thick thumb.

I felt like I should have pulled away, separated myself from her and maintained a distance, but my heart and body yearned for the contact, and no matter how much I told myself that Mom wouldn't care, that she'd want me to be happy, my brain screamed at me for my betrayal. I was a disgrace of a daughter, quick to abandon nineteen years of love and care at the first sign of affection.

Tears spilled down my cheeks now, coming in rivulets as I ugly cried into my hands, and I only felt worse when Daliah swallowed her own tears to comfort me. I was such a selfish, attention seeking bitch. "Oh goodness, are ya alright, dearie?" She sniffled softly, an obvious sign that she still hadn't shed all the pain and guilt she'd needed to before I'd forced her to try and fix my mess. "I'm so surry, Mary. I didn't mean ta upset-"

I thrust my hands out, thankfully having the presence of mind to stop that line of thought before she could finish it, then brought my hands back to my chest and mouthed 'myself' as best as I could with quivering lips. Again, I found myself cursing the agony in my throat as I swallowed to try and soften the pain. "M-miss… Mom… Angry…" I pressed my hands tighter to my chest, squeezing them against me so hard that my sternum started to ache, and choked out one last word before I coughed up flecks of hot spittle into my palms. "…Bitch…"

The minotaur gasped and practically ripped my hands away from my chest. "You are not a bitch. Why would'ja even think that?" I choked out a mucousy, wracking sob and shook my head, but the gargantuan woman wiped my face without a second thought while I kept muttering out strangled, gravelly 'sorry's and 'Mom's. 

"Marilynne Rose!" Purely instinctually, I snapped to attention at the commanding, motherly voice that, even half-whispered, sent pangs through my skull, and looked, unseeing, up at its source. "Your mother would not be angry at ya for trying ta be happy." Futilely, I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could even grunt out a fiery croak Daliah pulled me between her breasts. "All us moms want is for our children ta be happy and safe. If ya could ask her, your mom would be relieved ta hear that you're trying ta make the best of it, don't'cha know. If… my little girl had just been lost… I'da been overjoyed ta know that she was alive even if she needed ta replace me ta do it." She sniffled again, the wetness in her voice growing thicker. "If she was alive… I'd give up anything for her ta be alive… I'm sure…"

Whatever else she had to say was cut off as she started weeping again, but this time the emotion was fuller, more visceral as she bawled out into the mostly empty room while holding onto me like her life depended on it. I squeezed her tightly, my own emotions and misgivings spilling down my cheeks, and snuggled into her pliant body.

It wasn't until several long, pain-filled minutes had passed, pregnant with the sounds of a girl and woman crying into each other, that Daliah finally pulled away and took several deep breaths, her tears spent. "Surry, Mary, I didn't mean ta-" I hugged her tighter, a monumental task considering my still-weakened body was even more feeble after our moment, and her apology died in her throat. Instead she chuckled softly and rubbed my back. "Ya really are a darling, don't'cha know." She breathed in heavily, the air coming in stuttered chunks, and ran her fingers through my hair. "I know… that I could never replace your mother, and I'd never want ta, but… I know it's selfish, but… could I… Would'ja let me take care of ya? I don't want ta forget about her, but it hurts ta have nothing ta think about but my daughter, and I don't have anything else but you. Uhm… No offense ta ya or everybody else, but they don't really need me ta mother 'em." There was a subtle flash of heat in Daliah's body that would've made me laugh if the mood wasn't so somber.

I didn't want to replace my mom, it felt like I was killing her to even think about it, but I also didn't want Daliah to suffer. I knew deep down that she was right, that Mom would just be happy that I was safe, and it helped to lessen the guilt a little. Just like my budding desire to be with Silk, Ysa, and Lulabelle, I wanted Daliah to treat me like my mother had, to take care of me and comfort me when everything got to be too much. To mother me.

My breath hissed out of me as I buried my face in her sternum, inadvertantly smearing tears and mucous into the valley of flesh, and gave a shaky nod. "…'kay."

There was a little gasp, her deep voice humming in a higher pitch, and she crushed me tight against her body. It was still a little embarrassing to be snuggled up naked against another nude, almost hairless upper body, but it wasn't like my mom and me hadn't seen each other naked before. It would be a little bit harder to disassociate Daliah's voluptuous body with my own preferences, but I didn't think of my own mom's like that… Much. 

I sighed, my face burning. This was going to be a goddamn chore, but… it would make Daliah happy and… it was something that I felt like I needed. I needed my mom. She had been the only thing keeping me together back home, but she wasn't here and, if my little episode was any indication, I wasn't holding up all that well without her.

"Oooohhhh~! Is Daliah tryna nab ya too?" I jumped at the sound of Ysa's voice and my face, thankfully still smothered between the woman's huge breasts, flamed brighter as the little dragonling scampered across the room and bed to snuggle up against my back. "Yer gonna hafta share, yannow."

The large tauress laughed, the bassy sound rumbling through her chest and against my face. "Goodness no, dearie. I think I'm far too old for her, don't'cha know. We were just bonding a little, right Mary?"

I pulled away from the minotaur enough so that I could face Ysa and started to nod only for my lips to be captured by the kobold's maw. I tensed, readying myself for her probing tongue to choke me again, only to sigh in surprised delight, and ashamedly a little disappointment, when she pulled away almost as quickly as she'd come, leaving my mouth tasting faintly of something similar to blueberries. "Well, if ya wanna then I won't mind, but ya gotta share, 'kay?"

Immediately, I thought of Daliah in bed with me, her large body hovering over my head, but through her massive mammaries all I could see was my mom, staring down at me with her kind, warm eyes. Shame burned my face at the image, and I started to squeal out the kobold's name, but could barely choke out an "Y-" before wracking coughs seared my throat.

"Mary! No talking!"

"Here, Mary. Drink up." A cool cup was placed against my lips and I breathed in before parting them and letting a flow of chilled water pass through and ease the flames in my throat as it poured into my mouth.

There was a moment for me to catch my breath as the cup was pulled away and I looked up with a slight grin as the familiar warmth of my mom's hug enveloped me from behind. "…Tha…s… M-" I blinked underneath the cloth blindfold, my mind catching up with my memories. "Dah...a…"

I caught myself, wondering if anybody else had heard my slip only to hear the quiet giggles of Ysa from her spot in my lap over the deep, pleased-sounding hum from the minotaur. "Ya called 'er mum! That's so cute!"

I rolled my eyes beneath the cloth, shook my head, huffed, and immediately regretted it as I grasped my throat and felt the cup press back against my lips. I drank the rest of the water while Daliah admonished Ysa for teasing me, albeit only half-heartedly. The glass was pulled away again, set somewhere off to my left, and the gentle arm was replaced around my middle with the kobold quickly snuggling back up to me. "Do ya need anything else, dearie? I'd love ta stay, but I've got other duties, too."

I nodded, understanding, and I did have another issue I needed taken care of, but it wasn't something I was comfortable having her help with. It really wasn't something I wanted Ysa to help me with either, as embarrassing as it was, but… at least Ysa had already had first hand experience down there. So, a little hastily, I shook my head and made a little shoo gesture with a hand that made the tauress chuckle as she extracted herself from me and the bed. "Okay then, Mary, just have Ysa come get me if ya need anything."

"'Kay! Lulu'll be comin' by soon, too, so ya don't hafta worry!" Daliah's heavy hoofsteps sounded against the stone before they were cut off by the closing of my door, after which the kobold immediately piped up. "Ya need a bath, stinky."

My face burned bright and I leaned down to smell under my arm, but I guess I was too used to my own smell, or it'd been so hyper focused before that it was dulled now, because I couldn't really tell if I smelled all that different from before. Still, bath or not, I needed to use the bathroom regardless, as it was getting harder to not squeeze my hands between my thighs and dance the dance of the needy.

"C'mon, Mary!" Her tiny hand took hold of my fingers and started tugging me to my feet before I could even think to protest about my lack of clothing, not that it would have mattered since I didn't think I could get out anything more than a strangled gasp. My feet hit the cold stone and a yelp cracked out of my throat as pins and needles shot up my legs like little fire ants nibbling on my flesh. I almost buckled, but Ysa was right there with me and, surprisingly, her little body supported me enough to keep me on my feet until the painful prickles subsided. "Oh, forgot that ya haven't been outta bed for a few days. Sorry, Mary." I hissed, shaking out my limbs, before flashing her a sweaty smile.

"Are ya ready?" I took a few more moments, making sure that I absolutely had my feet underneath me, then nodded. One hand in Ysa's, the other across my pitiful chest, I squeezed my legs together both to protect what little modesty I still had and to ease the clenching in my bladder and help me not to make another mess of myself. I stepped out the door, ready to take a right and head towards the general direction of Silk's room, but Ysa tugged my hand the other way. I looked in her direction, puzzled but following, only for her to stop just a few steps down the hall and open a door with a click. To say that I was confused was an understatement.

The kobold led me inside, me stumbling blindly and her toes clicking quietly on the stone. "Silk told me ya stumbled into her room lookin' for the bathroom." She giggled and my face burned as I cast a silent prayer out in the hopes that Silk didn't tell her what happened after. "Ya know ya coulda asked us where one was. Most rooms share one." Of course they did, because that made sense. I just happened to walk down the wrong hall in the mansion and found the side with all the fully provided rooms. Really, all I could do was sigh at that and that just made her laugh harder.

It took her a few seconds, but she eventually calmed down enough to guide me further. "Ready, stinky?" I could hear the sound of water flowing, then felt the splash of hot water across my feet as it sloshed into the stone basin, and, with it, a painful clench in my bladder. "Mary? Are ya-? Ohhh… C'mon." She was extra careful to lead me, bowlegged, around the water-filled basin and across the wet floor to what was apparently a second door in the back. It clicked open and swung on mostly quiet hinges, before I was gently tugged inside. "'Kay, walk with your legs wider. Wider. Little more. There! Now, take my hands and follow me."

It was slow going, especially considering I was extremely nervous about slipping into a toilet, but with both of Ysa's hands in mine, I was a little less worried about falling on my ass. She'd already proven that she could, at least, mostly hold my weight. After several awkward, tense steps, she stopped and gently let go before quickly placing her little, clawed fingers on my backside. "Yannow, I'm kinda glad that ya wanted me to do this. I was worried that I messed up too bad the other day…" She paused as my body glowed at the contact, before I felt what seemed to be her face pressing against my left hip from behind. "Ya did want my help and were just too shy to ask, right?" I nodded jerkily. Mostly right, but I definitely preferred her or Silk over Daliah for this. They'd at least been intimately familiar with me enough that it was slightly less embarrassing of an issue with them. It still made my spine crawl with nerves, however.

"I'm glad." Her tone was somber for a split second, and that mix of guilt and fear roiled back up, but it was quickly replaced by focus as she gently started guiding me down into a squat. "'Kay! Just ease down and I'll hold, ya, 'kay? Ya don't gotta worry about a thing." Her fingers were like an angel's on my ass, squeezing just enough to keep a decent hold in case I did slip, and I was only a little ashamed that not all of the moisture was from my business. There were moments where I was sure that she wasn't just supporting me, because I could feel her breath pick up across my back and the slight, almost imperceptible kneading of her fingers into the one area of fat on my body.

"All done?" At that, I was brought back to the situation at hand and my flush reasserted itself at my stilted nod. I heard the click of something above me, likely a similar handle to the one in Silk's bath chamber, and I gasped at the spray of warm water on my undercarriage. A new, deeper tingling grew before, all too soon, the flow stopped, replaced by the cool air, and then Ysa's gentle hand as she wiped me down. "There! Now bath time!" She lifted me back up and firmly ushered me back into the now-steaming bathroom, seemingly oblivious to the fire burning in my freckled cheeks as if she hadn't just watched me use the bathroom and make sure I was clean. Compared to that, the bath was tame. Sure, she still lathered me up and made sure to get every nook and cranny, and probably copped a few extra feels while I was lost in my embarrassment, but it was a significantly different situation. Still, compared to my first trip into Silk's room, this whole event was entirely… uneventful. It was over and done within a matter of minutes and we were back to guiding me naked through the short walk back to my room.

"Oh! Hold on!" Her grip on my hand disappeared and I leaned forward to catch it back, but she had already scampered off, her nails clicking with each step, and left me to stand, blind, somewhere in the room. I couldn't call out her name as she did… whatever she was up to, so I started shuffling over towards the commotion, one half-step at a time, until she eventually noticed. "Mary! Just sit still for a minute, 'kay? I'm changin' your sheets! Wouldn't want ya stinkin' yourself back up in your sweaty bed, would ya?"

My mouth opened in a silent 'Oh' and I stifled a giggle at the thought of the toddler-sized lizard trying to put on a fitting sheet for a bed that was much too large for even Daliah's Amazonian size. Much to my surprise, however, she was done not long after and already tugging me back onto the bed. I tripped over my own feet in my blind hurry, stumbled into the diminutive kobold, and fell on top of her on the plush, fresh-smelling bedclothes. All I could do was squeak out a raspy 'sorry' as I tried to crawl off her, but, while I was crawling onto my hands and knees, her little hands went to my hips and hot breath played across my stomach.

"Hey Mary?" I shuddered, swallowed, and glanced down at her, hoping that the fire in my face wasn't obvious. If her little titter was any tell, though, then it was. "Do ya… Do ya want me to lick ya again?"

I gasped as her nose pressed into my belly button before trailing further up, the fleshy scales almost ticklish against my stomach, and her tongue followed after, leaving a wet line in its wake. "Bu… you jus'… watch… me…"

I trailed off, both in my embarrassment and because of the ache welling back up in my throat, and there was a pregnant moment as she pulled her muzzle away, leaving me to try and guess where her face was before her hands traveled their way up to my cheeks and pulled me into another kiss, this one much more similar to her initial one, but with less throat-fucking. It was brief, but it still left me gasping for breath and hot in body. "Mary, I'mma kobold. We have cloacae, and ponies have buttholes just above their vaginas. We keep ourselves clean, and I know you're clean. If I really cared, then I wouldn't've cleaned ya myself." I opened my mouth to answer, closed it, furrowed my brow, went to reply again, then snapped my mouth shut again. I… really didn't have a response for that. "So what do ya say? I can smell ya thinkin' 'bout it and I like your taste. Want me to take care of ya?"

God, it felt weird hearing such thick innuendo coming from such a cutesy, squeaky voice, but the shudder that ran down my spine and into a growing tingle in my groin spoke volumes to its effect. There would likely be that one blip on my mind for a while to come, but I couldn't deny how much I wanted this. I'd dreamed for months before this about it being Cathy laying me down and taking that first, real dive between my legs, exploring areas that only my own fingers and toys had ever gone, but now it was hard not to think about it being Ysa, Silk, or Lulabelle spreading me open rocking my world. She was eager, I wanted it, but I was still nervous, and-

"Mary? Do ya-" I vigorously nodded, mostly trying to shake out my trepidation, and her reaction was immediate. She squealed, her little hands coming together in a soft plat, before starting to roam more freely across my body. "Thank Harmony! Ya have no idea how hard it is not ta jump ya all the time, yannow? Ya smell…" Her muzzle pressed against my neck, and I groaned when she kissed it, the feeling so much stronger than I thought it should be. "So good…" She nipped at my collarbone, making me tense and almost fall on top of her. "Like you're…" Her long, prehensile muscle slid across my tit and curled around the stiffening peak of my nipple. I writhed, gasping as shots of electricity prickled through my skin, and finally lost strength in my already weak arms. It took all of what little effort I could muster not to roll off to my side and not just collapse on top of Ysa, but the tiny kobold was latched on and followed me over.

Her hands kneaded where her mouth wasn't occupied, mashing and tweaking my free breast. She pulled away with a wet smack, and replaced her muzzle with her free hand. "Always in heat." That was said much more huskily, and shame stung my cheeks as I thought of just how horny I've been and how easily all of these pseudo-animals could smell me. "It's enough to drive a girl crazy, yannow?"

And with that she expedited her trail of toothy kisses down my now prone body, lingering to take a deep, panting breath from the thick, curly copper hair in my crotch, before nosing gingerly against my plump mound. My gasp was short, somehow startled despite expecting the touch, and I groaned and writhed while her tongue traced across my lips. Her breath was hot and heavy against me, coming in deep huffs and adding a slight, spine tingling chill when it cooled. "Harmony, Mary… Your smell is so strong…"

"Oh?" I gasped, squealed, and tried to cover myself, but Ysa's head was firmly planted between my legs. Instead, I just covered my face and tried to will my burning blush to set me aflame. "I would be upset with you, love, if you were not so adorable all splayed out for us like that." Soft hair caressed the inside of my thigh as Silk found her way across the bed and next to Ysa, and I shivered in delight when her hot breath mingled with the kobold's. "Goodness, Mary, you are absolutely sodden. Has Ysayle been ravaging you all morning?"

I groaned, face covered, but still shook my head. "Nope! She's been smellin' like this all mornin' though! Harmony, it's been hard tryin' not ta just eat her up in her sleep."

There was a melodic titter from Silk before, like Ysa, she pressed her nose into my muff and took a deep, somehow ladylike, breath, then drew a thick, broad tongue through my cleft. Somehow, having her do it was infinitely more embarrassing, but that powerful lick was a monumental distraction. My moan tore through my throat, searing my voice with pain while the first tastes of ecstasy burned in my core. It felt so much stronger than when I'd, mostly, gotten myself off the other day, and certainly more than any other time before, but whether that was because of the aftermath of my burnout, or that it was somebody else other than my hand or a toy, I couldn't tell.

"Mary, love, as much as it pleases me to know my actions are pleasurable for you, I cannot continue if I know you will hurt yourself." I felt Silk's mane brush my mound, tangling just slightly with my pubes, before she crawled up my body to lay across me, forehooves draped over my shoulders and hind legs grinding ever so slightly against my crotch. "I want to lay with you, as I am sure Ysa is champing at the bit for as well, but I must ask you to restrain your throes of pleasure for us." She paused, and when she spoke again I could hear the smirk in her voice, even if I couldn't see it. "No matter how masterful my ministrations, you will hold back for us, right?"

I bit my lip, hesitating for just a moment, then nodded. I knew it was a lie, especially after my run in with Ysa those scant few nights ago, but I justified it by telling myself that they both were as eager for this as I was. Fuck, I wanted them to ravish me, but I didn't-

My lips, and thoughts, were caught by the press of Silk's muzzle against me, and that wonderfully broad tongue that had set my pleasure sensors into overdrive below was now asserting its dominance over mine. She hummed into me and I returned the favor with as much awkward fervor as I could muster while the sound of her horn coming to life gently tinkled in the air. I would have gasped when her magic caressed my sex and spread me open with an audible squelch, but she had complete control of my mouth. It teased at my entire being, ever so slightly entering both holes and flicking against my nub, and, more importantly, presenting me to the very eager kobold waiting surprisingly patiently between my thighs.

The only warning I had before she dove into me was an excited squeal, and then an immediate glare of white in my brain. What had been a sudden flare of pleasure before was now a deep, raging inferno building inside of me as Ysa's long, coiling tongue sank into me. I moaned hoarsely into Silk's mouth, my breath escaping me as I arched my back and almost bucked her off my chest, but the unicorn planted herself more firmly and pulled away with a breathy sigh. "Mary, love, please do not-"

As if on cue, the wriggling tongue curled up on itself, filling me completely, and I writhed, screaming raggedly into the air. My toes curled, hands clawed at the bed, and chest heaved. It was stupid how quickly my brain has whited out, but the kobold wasn't done. Her maw opened wider, against me, her teeth combing through my carroty curls and applying just the perfect amount of sharp pressure on my mound as she practically deepthroated my pussy.

"Ysa! She is going to-" Silk rose up, probably trying to get to her hooves, but I lashed out and pulled her down on top of me and mashed my face against hers. Being currently blind, I painfully smashed my nose into her muzzle, but quickly found the right position and wormed my way between her lips, muffling my heaving cries into her mouth. There was a moment of hesitation in her before she relented and leaned back into me, deepening the kiss, but not before her tail lashed out and stung my thighs like hundreds of paper thin switches.

With that, though, I really didn't know what to do. It was nearly impossible to think with Ysa filling and gnawing on my pussy, and what little faculties that weren't focused below were being overwhelmed by the intensity of Silk's passionate kiss, so I just let my hands roam. My fingers traced along her sides, feeling her muscles tense around her shoulders and twitch with every inch closer to her haunches I crept until I found the thick, powerful muscles of her thighs. Her breath hitched and she pulled away when I grabbed her tail, but not before leaving a little nip on my bottom lip.

"I should be very cross with you, Mary, but- eep!" I traced below her dock, slipping a few fingers under her tail, and massaged into the thickest, most plush butthole I'd ever imagined. It squished and conformed under my fingers like a plump, warm donut, the wrinkled entrance puckering against my digits in little mock kisses until I took the plunge and slipped my middle finger inside. In an instant, it was crushed in a vice, Silk's voice eking out what little groan she couldn't hold in before planting her forehooves on my breasts and nuzzling into my face. "Mary, love, I am trying to admonish you for- hah… Breaking our agreement, but I cannot do that when- Ah!" I added my index to the mix and, with my free hand, started to knead the slickened teardrop around where I remembered it flashing at me from our first encounter while Ysa continued to flick her tongue deep inside of me.

She was reaching depths that I'd always been too scared to try, the tip of her muscle poking and prodding at my cervix. Every few plunges into me, she teased my entrance, pressing into me as if she was going to try and slip into my womb, before circling her tongue back like she was a hummingbird drawing out nectar from a feeder, then thrust back into me. My moans were getting more hoarse, coming in ragged staccato and punctuated by sharp gasps whenever Ysa entered me or pulled out to nip at the bud hidden in my thick cleft, but I kept my fingers working as well as I could. I was literally fumbling in the dark in Silk's nethers, working thumb and forefinger against the hot, flashing bulb whenever it flicked its wetness against me, and added a third finger to the pair vigorously plunging into and stretching the mare's pucker to what seemed like her mounting delight.

She was no longer holding herself up on top of me, having given up on that when she realized that I was too engrossed in feeling up what was, in all honesty, the first female I've ever touched in more than passing hugs between family and neighbors. It was strange to think that my first encounter, and almost certainly every interaction after this should there be any more, would be with people that weren't human, but at this point I didn't care anymore. They were showing me affection that I'd never had before, were willing to do things with me that I could have never seen myself doing outside of fantasy, and-

I bit my lip, my back arching, as I was torn out of my thoughts by the feeling of teeth gnawing on the lips of my pussy, moving back and forth between the sides as if they were children demanding equal attention from their mother while a trio of small fingers wormed their into my frothing, sodden mess, followed by a fourth, then, while I was caught in a gasping shriek after a particularly sharply pleasing bite, Ysa's tongue, like a striking snake, plunged up to my womb. All sound died in my throat as a silent scream tore through my throat and my muscles spasmed in blinding pleasure until they eventually gave out, leaving me a quivering, aching mess on the bed.

I panted, heaving for breath in a pool of sweaty sheets. My body felt both light and heavy, my muscles weak, but the pleasant glow in my core left me feeling weightless, and that was only amplified by the squirming and prodding of prehensile muscle deep inside of me. I didn't have the energy to tell her to stop, not that I actually wanted her to. I was still so sensitive, my mind still reeling from that explosion of pleasure, and I could feel it building itself back up again with each scraping of ridge and bump across my walls.

"Goodness, Mary, I am going to be sore later, thanks to you. It seems that, should we do this again, I must be cautious not to bring you to climax while you are inside of me." I blinked, trying to see what she was talking about before my foggy thoughts caught up with my instincts to remind me that I was blindfolded, then finally to the sensation of clenching heat and wetness around my fingers. I yelped, pulling them out of her ass and pussy, and tried to stutter out an apology only to find my mouth locked in a very sensual embrace. Her lips pressed gently into mine for what seemed like an eternity, just letting our soft flesh touch and part as she nipped and explored me, before finally entering my mouth and deepening the kiss. If I hadn't already been reinvigorated by Ysa's continuing plundering of my cavern, then this would have definitely relit the bonfire in my gut. Like every one before it, though, this kiss had to end eventually as well, and Silk pulled away from me, leaving me breathless again while she seemed to ever maintain her composure. "I saw you getting ready to apologize. Do not ever apologize for teaching me new things about myself, especially if they lead to such pleasurable sensations as that. Who would have guessed that I would enjoy having my tailhole tugged upon?"

She tittered at that, and with it, the sounds of her horn filled the air to mingle with the thickly wet schlup…schlup…schlup… of Ysa's probe plunging in and out of me. Then, there was a squeak, a long, scraping drag of the girl's length from my furthest depths that ended in a viscous pop that left me empty and clenching for something to take its place, and a cry of distress as a second weight was settled on my chest. I couldn't see her, but God could I feel just how aroused the poor girl was, and that left me feeling more than a little guilty. Just above her tail was what felt like a swimming pool of moisture that created a sticky, noisy half-suction between us whenever she shifted.

"Sii~lllk, I was jus' gettin' started! She tastes so good!"

The unicorn laughed softly at Ysa's little whine, followed it up with the quiet smack of a kiss, then slid back across my body until I felt her winking sex grind into my copper curls. "I shall take care of Mary, so you just sit back," the kobold's wetness trailed up my chest until I felt the base of her tail settle across my face, "and let her take care of you, hmm? Is that acceptable to you, Mary?"

I felt Ysa shift against me and flushed as it wafted her scent, a strange, almost spicy sweetness, up into my face, and nodded jerkily. I was nervous, worried that I would fumble my attempts and not be good enough, but I couldn't deny my excitement either. This was a new experience for me, one I could only dream of having up until now, and Ysa's squeaky little 'Really?' told me she was probably more eager than me.

"Wonderful, love!" I felt Silk grind against me and loosed a breathy gasp when she pressed against my mound. "I better not catch you lazing about while I am down here, understand?" She gave me half a second so she could chuckle before starting a firm, steady grind against my nethers. I could feel her equally plump lips dig into mine, spreading me open and slickening herself even further when I practically gushed against her.

I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning out again, and writhed with each panting thrust Silk made against me. "M-Mary… could ya…?" Ysa was grinding against my chest, her smooth legs scraping against the peaks of my tits, enough to send little shivers down my spine that coalesced into a fiery blaze where Silk and I met, and was leaving a trail of slime between my tiny mounds. I flashed a lopsided, shaky smile, felt around until my hands met the kobold's hips, and pulled her up to me. That spicy scent was stronger now, like cinnamon coated in sugar soaking right into my nostrils, and the overwhelming desire to taste it drove me to plunge face first into the long, thin slit splitting her tail and crotch.

I slipped my tongue inside of her, awkwardly fumbling around in a mixture of nerves and blindness, and hummed in delight at the flavor that stained my lips. I'd been slightly worried after the horror stories and garbage littering the internet back home, but Ysa was as delicious as she smelled, like spiced honey coating my tongue with each tentative draw. She squealed above me, leaning back and holding herself up with shaking claws against my stomach, and thrust herself against my face in time with my movements. I drank of her eagerly, relishing in her flavor and the adorable little moans that escaped her tiny body, and added my hands to my efforts. Her slit was long compared to where her entrances settled, spanning about five inches from partway down her tail to where her pubes would be if she'd had any, and she seemed to love every time I ran my tongue across its entire length. Each trail made her holes clench against me whenever I passed them, as if they were trying to hold me there, and my fingers rubbed at where I thought her clit might be. Did kobolds even have clits? She was shuddering and jerking and moaning like she did, so I must've been-

I jerked back when something, two somethings, slipped between my fingers and pressed into my cheeks. They throbbed in time to the clenching of Ysa's pussy, leaking little spurts of slime across my freckles. "Mary? Is somethin' wrong?"

She slid back, Silk stopping as well, and I felt those squishy prongs press against my chest. I swallowed, grabbed my throat with one hand, and reached down with my right to feel across the two lengths. They were smooth, coated in a thin film of mucous like the rest of her slit, and were probably each a little bigger than my middle fingers. I jerked my hand back and looked up in her direction. "I-is tha… Are y… a guy…? You di… t-tell…" 

"Mary? Love, is something the matter?"

Disgust was starting to well up in me, dizziness threatening to take over. My head swirled as flashes of my freshman year clawed at the edges of my thoughts, and with them came the onset of my headache. I could feel Ysa on top of me, Silk crawling up to my side, but all I could see was them. It was getting harder to breathe. The weight on my chest was getting heavier, too much to handle. What was holding me down? Why were they holding me down? What did I do wrong? I thought they were my friends, but they were holding me down so that-

I screamed as I felt him, it, press against my body, and it was that little surge of terror that gave me enough strength to throw my 'friends' off of me and scramble to my feet. I couldn't see because they'd blindfolded me to 'surprise' me, but that was easy enough to fix. I yanked the cloth off and screamed a harsh, ragged scream as light burned my eyes. I'd been in the dark for so long that the little bit of sunlight that came through the window of the school was like a direct flame pressed into my eye sockets, and I dropped to the floor to cover my head and try to blot out the searing pain that drilled its way into my skull.

By then, though, I could feel their hands on me again, trying to hold me down so that he could-

"No!" I lashed out again, squinted, and rushed to the door, thankful that I had an escape even if I'd be running topless through the halls. Somebody would help me, they had to. I didn't have any friends, but surely-

"Miss Rose? Is something-" A teacher!

"They're trying to-" I choked as my words were caught by the bloody rawness in my throat, and dropped to my knees as I coughed thick globs of red onto the floor.

Big, strong arms lifted me up, their soft fur tickling my skin, as the voices of my 'friends' started to pierce through the fading fog that my terror had laid. Edges of green slowly faded from my vision as my breathing calmed. I was safe, I would be protected, and everything would be okay.

"What's going on? What did you do to her?"

"We dunno! We were foolin' around and then she started panickin', blasted us with magic, and took off."

"Honest, Lulu. We were all indulging in each other until… I think she freaked out when she coaxed out Ysa's members. I do not believe she realized…"

My memories finally caught up to me and my breathing slowed to a more manageable rate, enough that I wasn't scarring my throat with every pant, and with that came some semblance of clarity. I could still barely see, as the light was still blindingly strong, but these weren't the hallways of my school, and I wasn't being held in the arms of a teacher. Lulabelle had me against her chest, and Ysa and Silk were next to us, trying to explain… something. My panic? I'd stopped listening while I tried to come to coherence.

"Are you alright, love? Ysa did not mean to surprise you. We all thought you knew."

I squinted at her, a blurry mess of pastel yellow and white, then at the light crimson form beside her. "I'm sorry, Mary. I didn't mean ta spook ya."

It was hard to tell, but I couldn't see any trace of any cocks on her. Did I imagine them? Were they just her fingers? I thought her hands had been on my stomach, but the past few minutes? Hour? It was all a haze of lust and panic that made it hard to be sure. They'd felt bigger that her fingers. "Do y… ha… dick…"

The kobold nodded and I watched her reach down and spread her slit, the thin stripe of emerald opening, and squeezed where I think I'd been rubbing around for a clit. Then, from that extended V and between her fingers, a twin pair of blurry, emerald shafts popped out and drooped just slightly toward the floor. "Yeah. All kobolds do. We've got 'em both. I thought ya knew."

I didn't know, hadn't known until now. How could I have known? I don't know shit about animals and especially not kobolds. If I'd know she was a dude… "Are y… guy?"

She chuckled, but it was weak, half-hearted, as she shuffled in place. "Nah, I'mma girl. Well, I'm both, but I'm a girl, yannow? Y'see, most of us tend ta go one way or the other. My sister and me are both girls, but I like other girls and she mostly likes guys. It's hard ta explain, yannow?"

I didn't know. I always thought this stuff was just things made up in porn to appeal to fetishes, and… I… I mean, I don't have a problem with penises. I've got dildos and I've jilled to more than my fair share of dickgirls in my life, but… This was different. This was real. "Kobolds are hermaphrodites, love, and they typically conform to a role while they are growing up. Ysa is female, correct?"

Silk turned to Ysa and the crimson blotch nodded. "Yup! I'mma girl and I like girls. I…" Her cheerfulness slackened. "If ya want me ta, I can keep my penises inside. I'm pretty good at keepin' 'em under control. I just… You were rubbin' my slit, and it felt so good, and I thought ya were tryna get 'em out, so I…" She trailed off into a mumble and looked at the floor, kicking her foot, and guilt swarmed my thoughts.

I'd had a very good reason to freak out, but she hasn't known. None of them could have known, because I hadn't told them. I… still don't think I could tell them, but it wasn't Ysa's fault. We were in the heat of the moment, and she didn't know.

I frowned, turned to look at Lulabelle, and the giant, furry Anubian dog set me down with what looked like a smile. As soon as my feet were on the floor, I stumbled over to Ysa and dropped to my knees in front of her. She glanced up to me, eyes wavering, then leaped into my arms when I spread them for her. She hit me harder than I'd been expecting and almost sent me onto my back, but I was able to stay up and wrapped her up in a big hug.

"'m sorry, Mary. Honest…"

I rubbed her back, letting her nuzzle against my neck, and just let her hug me for as long as she wanted. I didn't want her to think I was afraid of her.

"Are you feeling better, Miss Rose? Miss Ysayle?"

I nodded, but still waited for Ysa to nod herself and pull away before turning back to the canine. "Yeah, I'm okay. Was just worried, yannow? I wasn't expectin' ya to freak out so much… Uhm… Do ya wanna talk about it?" I tensed and she must've felt it, because her tiny arms wrapped around my neck immediately. "Ya don't gotta! I wanna know, cause I care, yannow? But ya don't gotta."

If there was one thing I absolutely didn't want to do, it was talk about my past. I'd spent the better part of five years shoving those thoughts and memories deep down so I wouldn't have to think about them any more, and the last thing I needed was another reminder. I wanted those years to disappear, never to return.

Instead of getting caught in a cyclical panic, though, I heard the soft tingle of magic before a swath of black cloth floated in front of me again. "Here, love. You look like you are struggling to see. Shall I put it back on?" I held up a hand and pushed it away, or as away as I could with it floating in the air by colorful sparkles, and tried to tell her no, but, by this point, my throat was fucked. That scream and panic was going to cost me a few more days of not being able to talk, if that. "Very well, but if you feel like you need it, just let us know. Do you wish to… get back to where we were?"

There was a saucy edge to her voice, and I could just barely see the desire in her blurry visage, and it definitely sounded appealing, especially with Lulu with us now, but… From where I was, I could feel the gentle swaying of Ysa's body, around her hips, like her tail was wagging, and I could clearly see Lulu's perked ears and active tail, and… I felt that familiar aching twinge in my loins. I was so used to getting off several times a day, but I've barely even gotten two in the past… week? And God knows that it would help me not think about shit…

I glanced back at her, gave a slight nod, then lifted a squealing, giggling Ysa up in my arms with… more than a little effort. My body was still tired, still sensitive, and each little shift she made in my arms, especially when she brushed my peaking nipples, sent electric shivers through my body. I hobbled over to the blurry mass of mattress and sheets that made up my bed and collapsed onto it, curling around Ysa while Silk and Lulabelle climbed on after me. My cheeks flared up again as my brain caught up with the idea of having three girls in my bed at once and I started to recede into myself before a large, fuzzy hand touched my shoulder and slowly traced its way down my side to rest against my hip.

"Are you sure, Miss Rose? Lulabelle will not be upset if she has to wait longer."

I rolled over, letting the kobold lay across my chest and peeked out at the canine through my fingers. Even though it was difficult to really make out her expression through my squinted, light sensitive eyes, the concern in her voice was evident. My panicked outburst she'd caught me in obviously had her worried, so I did the one thing I could to assuage those thoughts. I peeled my legs apart, the viscous mess of my arousal lightly sticking them together, and pulled one hand away from my face to reach for her.

Now that I could get a good look at myself, as blurred as it was, I could tell just how much of a mess Ysa, Silk, and I had made of me. My thick, curly orange pubes were soaked and matted with an indiscernible combination of saliva and a mixture of two different sources of femcum that stuck to my skin and thighs, especially around my entrance, and my chest had multiple snail trails of arousal marking me from neck to groin. I looked like I'd just gotten done being fucked silly despite our little tryst having been tame compared to most of the porn I've watched, but Lulu was still pristine.

I paused when my hand got close to her thigh, my nerves telling me that I was overstepping my boundaries, but as my fingers twitched in anticipation, the strong, black legs spread enough for me to, through my stunted vision, catch sight of what looked like a thick, black fortune cookie. I reached between her thighs, hesitating for just a moment longer as fire burned in my face and gut, then plunged my fingers into the pronounced, pliable triangle of engorged flesh. Her canine pussy was unbelievably soft, and it felt like I was stuffing my digits into a hot, wet jello cushion. She thrust ever so slightly against my hand, her breath catching for a second, before I slipped my three digits partway out of her, and that plush mound clung to my fingers, stretching slightly as I tugged away, before thrusting right back into her.

"Miss Rose…"

Her voice was thick, deeper and huskier than usual, and my body responded in kind with eager shudders. I'd never felt something so soft before, and the way her pussy gripped me made my own throb with desire. With the tantalizing flesh right there in view, I think I understood exactly what everybody else had been feeling when they talked about how I smelled. I needed to bury my face between her legs. It took some finagling, and a little help from Ysa and Silk, but I crawled, one hand still buried in Lulu's juicy cookie, underneath her. Light was blotted out as her dark legs surrounded my head, but I didn't need to see to tell where I needed to be. Even without my fingers plunging in and out of her quivering box, I would've been able to find my mark just by the musky, intoxicating smell coming filling my nostrils. It was so strong that it made my head spin, and I really only had one course of action.

I pulled my hand away, making Lulabelle groan in what sounded like frustration when she finally released them with a wet schlick, and wrapped my lips around her cunt. Her pussy was so small compared to her body, easily fitting into my mouth, and it took little effort to slip my tongue into her. Where Ysa was sweet and hinted at an underlying spice, Lulu was tangy and her flavor was so thick that it filled my sinuses, mingling with her potent scent.

There was a brief moment where the weredog tensed up, legs squeezing around my head just tight enough to be uncomfortable, then she relaxed and nearly dropped her entire weight on my face. She gyrated against my face, fucking herself on my tongue and barely giving me an opportunity to explore her, and I was mostly content to let her. I was satisfied knowing that, even as inexperienced as I was, I was doing something right, that all that porn I'd buried my thoughts in hadn't been a complete waste of time. It was easier to get into it, to ignore the shame and embarrassment that was ever present in my brain, when my senses were filled by Lulabelle's irresistible being, so I just poured myself into it.

Then I felt something soft and warm brush my thigh before a broad, strong tongue dragged across me from base to hidden hood. I groaned into Lulu's pussy and she shuddered above me, shifting, and I felt her gentle hands and sharp nails grab my raised knees. She pressed against my legs, angling me wider until I felt my lips part on their own, almost enough to make my pelvis burn in protest, before that tongue pressed against me again. This time, it found some purchase inside of me, slipping just slightly into my presented cunt, then pulled up my slit, tugging on my lips and dragging my curls with how hard it was pressing into me. I felt like I was being dragged onto my curling toes by the force of that lick as I raised my hips in response, instinctively trying to keep it on me for as long as possible until it was pulled away with a beautiful, throaty chuckle that made my spine tingle.

"Goodness, Mary, does it truly feel that good? I am certain I felt that moan through your gorgeous sex." I released Lulu, taking a deep breath of her heady aroma, then eased out from under her to cast what I hoped was a seductive smile at the unicorn between my legs. Whether I was successful or not, it earned me another sensual titter that further inflamed the inferno raging in my gut. "If I did not know better, I would assume that you were a virgin before today, but the way you so expertly toyed with my tailhole tells me otherwise." I flinched as she chuckled again, but then her laughter died down and a look as if she'd just discovered something completely outrageous settled across her gorgeous features while that ever familiar cheek-tinting heat rose in my face. "Mary, love… This was not your first, was it?"

My whole body burned under the shame of their judgmental stares as all three of the girls focused their attention on me. I'd been naked and spoonfed for the past few days, completely at their whims, and had even needed one of them to help me relieve myself, but somehow that didn't compare to the sting that I felt right now. It was just like then, like before, and fury and terror pounded in my temples like a storm beating at the shutters of a Florida home.

"Mary, that is amazing!" She beamed at me, her blurry smile as bright as the sun, and climbed through my legs as my anger petered out, its fire smothered when she nuzzled against my chest. "It should be obvious, but none of us could claim the same." Her laughter cleared the fading haze at the edges of my vision, and with it came a kiss and my own familiar taste. "Goodness, I wish I could have you all for my own, but I am so glad that you allowed us to share in your first regardless."

I felt a touch on my shoulder and it took all I had to pull my gaze away from the glistening pools of gold above me to the worried-looking emeralds to my left. "Why didn't ya tell us ya were a virgin? I thought ya were just shy and… I wouldn't've…" I grasped her hand in my right, my other going to my throat as I croaked out a grunt, then put on as much of a smile as my warring emotions would let me. It had been a surprise, scary at the time, but now that I was here, between all three of them, I'm glad that she gave me that little push. I never would have accepted this if she hadn't inadvertently made that first step.

"Lulabelle feels terrible asking this now, but you are okay with this, right, Miss Rose?" Now my sight turned up to the canine practically straddling my face. I nodded, no hesitation, and her muzzle pulled back in her creepy, warm, toothy smile. "Lulabelle is glad." She slid back, depriving me of the heavy scent of her sex, and leaned down to bless me with her lips. Unlike Silk, her kiss was much more forceful, and, like Ysa, her tongue pressed its way between my lips and took over my mouth. She was thick enough to fill me completely and her much larger maw turned to engulf my face. Drool spilled across my cheeks, down my chin, and between my legs as my knees grew weak. I slackened in her embrace and reached up to cup her face and pull her back when she started to pull away. Her teeth scraped against my cheeks again, sending electric tingles straight to my gut, before she pulled back again to leave me a quivering, saliva-soaked mess.

"Me! Me!" The moment I had my breath, the kobold was on me and probing my throat, just reaching that point where I would start to gag before pulling back and staring at me with the hottest smouldering grin her cute face could ever muster. "You're a really good kisser."

She leaned up and from this angle I was able to get an excellent view of her long, emerald slit as she presented herself to me, whether on purpose or just by the grace of her movement I couldn't really tell. For her size, it stretched long, and flushed a brighter red where she'd become engorged in what I knew, by the glistening moisture dripping onto my breasts and her heavier breaths, had to be arousal. The bright green of her cloaca peeked through her red flesh, parted slightly compared to the almost imperceptible tightness from before my episode.

I reached up and this time I watched her suck in her breath when I parted her with my thumbs. Her lips wrinkled and bunched around my digits as I took in the slimy length of her pussy. Looking at her now, it was obvious that she didn't have a clit and the 'hood' that I'd been coaxing her dicks out of had been a fold of flesh that hid all but the tips of her shafts. About an inch below, spaced less than an inch apart, were what I could only assume were her slot and ass, puckering and flashing lewd kisses at me in a mouthwatering invitation to indulge myself, and stretching another three inches below that, down part of her tail, was a strip of sensitive green membrane that sent quivers up her body when I traced my tongue against it.

Her high-pitched voice cracked into a moan when I scraped my organ along her length, and she doubled over my head when I lingered to press into her twin holes, alternating between them in little half circles while my nose dug into her hooded sheath. I breathed in her sweet, spicy scent, letting her tantalizing aroma burn itself into my senses. Her nails dug into my scalp and she tried to lock her short legs behind my head, but she barely had enough reach to twist her toes into the back of my hair. It was a struggle to breathe with her hugging my face, but it was nothing but bliss for me. I'd never liked hearing the actors and actresses in porn grunt and moan, but hearing her cute little squeaks and gasps sent my blood into a libidinous boil, and in them I found the strength to lift her up and, with a painful growl a few stands of ripped out hair, toss her onto the bed right next to a very surprised Silk.

"Mary? Did I- eep!" I pounced on her, spreading her wide and dragged my tongue across that little crevice and the twin peaks of her shafts, slathering the nubs with saliva while my fingers sank into her inviting holes. She tensed, her hips arching up to meet me, but still managed to hiss out a warning. "M-Mary, if ya keeeep doin' that, I'mma…" I looked up at her, not even bothering to stop trying to coax her out, and, with as much of a grin as I could maintain with my tongue out, slipped under the hood and slurped up the shafts surrounding my muscle.

Her eyes crossed ever so slightly as her little pricks stiffened and flinched around me, and I felt that insistent throb flare up deep in my core in response. Last time, she'd surprised me, caught me totally off-guard and unprepared, but now I knew they were there and I had a need that could only be quenched by her. Never in my life could I have imagined meeting with a real hermaphrodite, let alone one that wanted me, and my body wasn't going to let me waste this opportunity. She didn't exactly grow in my mouth like in the porn I'd watched, but I could feel her slipping across my tongue and coating my taste buds with a slightly more bitter cocktail of her flavor until her twin shafts were fully in my mouth. They were softer than what I expected, all of the dicks I'd seen… before seeming like fleshy, throbbing rods, but, despite how much they bent and conformed to the gentle curve of my mouth, there was still a powerful rigidness to them that was made all the more evident every time they pulsed with the kobold's excitement.

I pulled away from Ysa, letting her slip out of my mouth with a pop, and licked away the saliva trailing that had dribbled from between her pricks. Unlike her tongue, she wasn't big enough to make me gag, but there was enough of a bulge in the middle of her shafts to make a gap. I smiled down at her while I rose to straddle her hips, awkwardly squeezing and kneading her and her slit with my fingers. She squeaked an adorable little moan, matching my gravelly cry, when she scraped through my bush and parted my lips. Her little claws grabbed my knees while I positioned her at my entrance, then gripped like little vices, her nails digging into my skin, when I sank down onto her.

I let myself slide into her lap, feeling her bend just slightly as my weight settled on her, but squeezed instinctively when her dicks pressed against my entrance and almost collapsed on her when she slipped up and dug against my clit. "Mary, are you alright? You did not hurt yourself, did you?" I glanced up to Silk, pulled her toward me with a trembling hand, and kissed her softly which was, apparently, all she needed to know as she sat back to watch with the same rapturous attention that Lulabelle was giving us.

The second try to get her inside me was an absolute failure as I came down and felt her spit-slick members shift back and slide between my ass cheeks. I groaned in frustration when they prodded at my backdoor, gave the idea of just taking her there a strong consideration, then reset myself with her at the ready. This time I took it slower, making sure that she was pressed right at my tunnel, spreading my plump mound and thick curls with one hand while my other held her firm at my entrance so that there could be no mistake, and pressed. Compared to the kobold's fingers and tongue, her twin peaks together were thick, even at their tips, and when they finally pierced my waiting pussy, I clamped down on them hard.

They weren't as long as her tongue, so they didn't quite reach most of my tunnel, and they weren't as big as my largest toy, but I used that so sparingly that, despite only hitting a little more than halfway inside me, I felt so much fuller than I had in ages. I cried out, letting the sensation of her cocks stretching me while she throbbed in response to my clenching suffuse my being before I started grinding back and forth along her hips. Ysa was practically catatonic below me, barely even managing her soft little gasps each time my thick lower lips dragged across her slit and tugged on her shafts, but the look on her face was one of utter bliss, like she'd died and gone to kobold heaven, not that I was faring much better.

Every little movement inside me was amplified by a… heat? A chill? A hunger? Something inside of me was urging me on, turning the slight ache of being filled more than I was used to into a searing rush of pleasure that spread from my clenching, sopping pussy to the tips of my extremities and into my brain until it and the desire, the need for more. I bounced on her dicks, moaning each time my hips met with Ysa's, and turned my eyes to Silk and Lulu. They moved almost immediately, as if they were reading my mind, and crawled across the bed to Ysa and me.

I reached out to Lulabelle, cupping my hands on her cheeks, and leaned into a quick, full kiss before trailing my hands down to her breasts. The fur on her chest was thinner than the thick, wolfish coat across the rest of her, and my fingers sank into the pliable, squishy flesh of her first pair of tits. As soon as I reached them, though, Lulu flinched back, surprised, and looked at me with curiosity dancing in her eyes. "Miss Rose, you know Lulabelle is not with puppies, right? Lulabelle cannot produce milk."

In lieu of a proper response, I just grinned and crushed her breasts beneath my hands. Her tits were unlike any breasts I'd seen before, shaping more like perky mountain peaks than the fleshy semi-orbs of humans, but the reaction I got when I squeezed and kneaded them was all the same. She pressed her chest harder into my palms while her tongue lolled out, panting as my bouncing helped scrape my hands against her nipples and guide my moulding. I traced further down her front, teasing and pinching each teat, while Ysa thrust her hips in a slightly asynchronous rhythm from my frenetic bouncing and grinding.

I was already clenching hard on Ysa's twin cocks, relishing in every little twitch they made while crushed in my tunnel, and that arhythmic, filling pleasure was making my tired muscles go numb from its combination with this new-ish exertion and turning my already clumsy attempts at reaching to slip into the cushy, malleable flesh into fumbling as I tried to keep a clear head to reciprocate. My trio of fingers dipped into her honeypot, sinking up to the knuckle into her hot, grasping sheath. I wriggled my digits in her, stirring up her insides, and grinned when she went rigid and leaned into me. Her body, usually akin to a space heater, was radiating an inferno against my sensitive skin and teased at the raised peaks of my breasts.

Teeth nipped at my ass, sending tingles surging up my spine, and pulled my attention away from Lulabelle's panting face. Silk looked up at me, her lips curling into a coy smile after planting a quick, wet kiss where she'd just bit me, then reared up to whisper in sensual sing-song right next to my ear. "Mary, love, do not forget about me~." Her breath tickled against my neck, making goosepimples run down my arms, only for it to play across my face when she gasped as I narrowed my eyes and home an arm under her barrel.

She yelped, giggling madly as I lifted her tail end, and danced on her forehooves to keep herself from falling on her face. It took a few moments, a time that I had to stop bouncing and grinding on Ysa's twins while she continued to pump against my thighs, but I pulled her hind legs up over my shoulders and stared right into the first thing I saw on our first meeting. Her thick, equine pussy flashed her pearlescent pink button in my face speckling her arousal on my lips. I gathered her flavor on my tongue, tasting her flowery, musky scent, then buried my face between her haunches. Her lips, soft and pliable, spread around my tongue as I dragged it from her fat pearl to the puckering rim of her doughnut, drawing out a moan that had me clenching on the dicks buried in me.

"Oh, Mary, not that I mind that divine tongue of yours, but this is a mite-"

She tensed and shuddered, whatever she was trying to say dying on her tongue, as I dove back into her folds and buried myself face-deep in her while I shifted and bounced on the kobold below me. I sucked on her entrance, my tongue digging into her tunnel while the hand buried to the knuckles in Lulabelle stirred the canine's cookie, and I relished in the combined grunts and moans of the three girls I'd surrounded myself with. My own panting pleasure was coming out in ragged groans with each matching thrust Ysa made into my depths, and I could feel the coiling of my release building in my core. My thoughts were growing cloudy, foggier than my already lust-hazed brain has been, and all I could focus on was the puckering ring of Silk's ass, the feeling of Lulabelle crushing my fingers as she fell upon me, and the fullness of my shallow cunt as Ysa frantically humped into my sore thighs.

She thrust once, twice, three more times, then held herself inside of me, sheathing herself to the hilt and crushing my fat mons against her slit. I was vaguely aware of her calling out my name, felt her nails dig into my hips, then went stock still as I felt a pair powerful, hot jets spray against the entrance of my womb. A second gush costed my cervix, starting to fill my mostly plugged tunnel, then a third and fourth, each one sending a shivering pulse of pleasure through me as I felt her ooze out around her to drip and run down my thighs, before she pulled out just slightly and made one last, powerful, cum-spraying thrust into me. The twin hers were nearly cut off as, this time, she had the perfect angle to slam against my cervix, concentrating the slackening streams on my entrance and pushing me over the edge to plummet into the ocean of my orgasm waiting below.

My body went rigid, my fingers curling tightly around Silk's flank and inside of Lulu, as I buried my face in the pony's pussy and let loose a hoarse, ragged scream inside of her. All sense of time died as my body shook, muscles tight, before they relaxed, losing their strength, and dropped me onto my back with the suffocating weight of pony pussy following to smothering my face. I was just vaguely aware of Ysa's pricks sliding out of me, freeing the partially trapped cum so it could flow out, down my ass, to pool on the bed below me in little gushing rivers as I clenched over and over in the aftershocks of ecstasy. Thankfully, Silk had at least some presence of mind to slide off my face, but her pressure against my body never left, and I bathed in the girls' combined presence. My brain was half melted, registering only the hot well of pleasure radiating from my core and sending tingles all throughout my body, and I just laid there, crushed under the weight of three girls, two of them oozing heat into my already burning, sweat soaked body, before the fog of my orgasm faded and the true weight of what had just happened settled into the slowly returning throb of a headache. 

I'd just technically lost my virginity. I mean, I'd technically lost it the other day when Ysa had snuck up on me, but… This time I'd meant for it to happen and had given myself eagerly over to them… and I hadn't been a disappointment… I think? I hope… They seemed like they'd enjoyed it as much as I had, and I was pretty sure that, outside of Ysa, I wasn't the only one that came. I mean, they could have been faking it just to make me feel better, but at least I knew that one of them, for sure, hadn't been faking it. Even with most of it now in a puddle in my ass crack, I could still feel hot, little pools of her cum settled inside of me, and…

My brain finally caught up with my orgasm addled thoughts and that pleasant giddiness quickly shifted into panic. My hand shook as I reached over Lulu's head, between my legs, and scooped out a stringy, pearly line of Ysa's jism. I stared at it, squishing it between my thumb and forefinger, and watched it sag until it finally dripped onto my tit. My breathing picked up pace, my brain racing at the implications that came with a pussy full of sperm, and it was only by the grace of Silk stirring and rising to her forehooves that I didn't freak outright.

"Mary, love, you are shaking like a leaf, are you all-" Her eyes went wide while tears filled mine, and she leaned over me, frantically searching for something. "Oh Harmony, Mary, are you okay!? What is wrong? Are you hurt? Please tell me we did not hurt you!"

Even if my throat hadn't been fucked, I doubt I would have been able to get any words out though the thick, hoarse blubbering as I openly cried, especially now that Ysa and Lulu were rousing from our combined panic and adding an extra layer of anxiety to my growing freakout, but I still tried to explain while the three fussed over me. I traced my hand over my belly, then into the frothy mess of my pubes, and finally again over my stomach, this time miming a mound for a pregnant belly. They watched carefully, eyes focused intently on me, then, like a bulb clicked on in each of their brains, realization dawned over their features. Ysa was the first to jump on me.

"Oh my gosh! I didn't think that- Can I get ya pregnant? I don't know if I can. Can I- Would I?" She turned to Silk and Lulu, head swiveling back and forth in rapid succession, then dove face first between my legs. I tensed, toes curling and fingers digging into the sheets as her tongue probed inside of my still sensitive passage scraping in and out against my walls before being drawn back into her mouth with a smack and a swallow, before Silk placed a hoof on her shoulder. The kobold pulled away, muzzle damp with a mixture of her and myself, and left me panting on the bed.

"Ysa, I do not believe that will work, no matter how well you perform." The unicorn looked back at me, her smile, while somewhat worried, still soft and warm. "Now, I am not the princess, but I do know that there are spells that can assist in situations such as these, and I am more than certain that, if we ask, she will be more than willing to help."

"Lulabelle is sure that everything will be fine." The dog's smile had returned as well, and both of their calm demeanors were like a soothing balm on my, and judging by her lessening panic, Ysa's nerves. Still, the desert dog leaned in, muzzle right above me, and pressed me into a kiss. This one was much less sloppy than the last, just a simple meeting of lips and snout, and then she leaned back every so slightly. "Now that we have joined together, Miss Rose, would you wish to do so again?"

My eyes went wide, my face burning, at that. I hadn't even considered that there was any possibility of this being more than just a one time thing. Sure, my heart told me that there was a chance, but my brain and my past, somewhere deep in my thoughts, told me that this would be it. I would be used, they'd get what they wanted, and then I'd be forced back into solitude. I was ecstatic at the idea, both in body and soul, but even that was dampened by the fear that settled, and originated, in my core.

My lip quivered as my hand touched my stomach, tears threatening to spill forth, and Ysa was immediately on her large-toed claws. "I'll go find Twilight!" She turned to leave, stopped, climbed over my chest to plant a warm, gentle kiss right over Lulu's, then sprinted off, not even stopping to close the bedroom door behind her.

"If it makes you feel any better, love," Silk looked back at me with a bright grin, but whether it was because of Ysa or was there to reassure me, I couldn't tell, "Most species can only breed between themselves… Though…" My eyes went wide as she looked up into the air, eyes twitching as if she was searching for something, then her smile widened and she cooed as she looked back in my direction. "Oh goodness, I can only imagine how adorable a child between the two of you would be. If…" I swallowed, not quite liking where this was headed. "If Princess Twilight cannot help with this, and you do end up pregnant, and we are able to put an end to Grogar, and… That is far too many ifs, but… If you do find yourself with child, I would love nothing more than to help you raise it."

"Lulabelle as well. Lulabelle would be lying if Lulabelle said that she is not interested in something more."

Silk's smile was beatific, radiant in its genuineness and brightness, and Lulabelle's equally so in her strange canine way, and I would have wept with joy if I wasn't so terrified of the thought of being a mother.  It felt so weird, so wonderful, and also equally terrifying to hear somebody, anybody, promise that kind of loyalty to me, but I couldn't get the thought of how terribly unprepared and awful I would be as a mom. I couldn't even take care of myself, so how in the fuck was I going to take care of a kid without fucking them up for life?

Right as the tears started to streak, unbidden, into my mane of coppery red hair, there was a pop and a surge of electricity in the air that made my hairs stand on end. "Mary!? Are you okay!? Ysa came to get me all panicky and-" There was a brief moment where both Twilight and I stared into each other's faces, mine quickly catching fire and hers shifting into a surprised 'oh', before her eyes trailed further south and lingered on the mess between my legs for the split second it took for my brain to process the situation to squeeze them together. I caught the barest hint of a smile before my hands were over my face in a vain attempt to hide my shame and embarrassment. "Oh. Well I'm glad you're getting along so well, but you really should be more careful if you're worried about pregnancy." I heard a chuckle as a familiar tingle of magic coursed across my body.

A quick surge of fear, a remnant of my first encounter with Twilight still tainting my thoughts, coursed through my veins and lingered for the few scant seconds that she has connected to me, then dissipated as she pulled her aura away. I waited with bated breath, hoping beyond hope that I hadn't royally fucked up everything for thirty minutes of indulging my libido, only for Ysa to burst back into the room right as Twilight started to talk.

"Is it okay, Twilight!? I didn't get her pregnant, did I!?"

I pulled my hands away from my eyes just enough so I could see my little kobold companion panting in a half panic as Twilight tittered softly into her hoof. "Firstly, no, that's not how fertilization works, Ysa. It can take up to six days for your sperm to reach and form a fully fertilized egg and then another possible four to fully implant itself in her uterine wall, so you'd have, hopefully, at least a few days to prepare a medicine or spell to prevent that zygote from implanting. Secondly, you don't have to worry about that." Twilight turned back to me while Ysa climbed back into the bed and draped herself across my chest, her tongue lolled out as she panted with a slight look of relief on her face. "The good news is that, at least with kobolds, your biology is incompatible for fertility which is definitely a good thing if you're looking to avoid pregnancy, because you are ovulating. I can't say for sure where other species are concerned considering I don't have samples currently available for testing, but it should be relatively safe to assume that you don't have to be worried about it from Silk or Lulu." Her smile was bright and genuine, and it only made the blush burning on my cheeks further sear my face like the unforgiving heat of the sun.

"Thank ya, Twi! Sorry we had to come get ya, but we weren't thinkin' and it felt so good and-" 

I scrambled to get my hands around Ysa's muzzle and had to force an embarrassed smile as the little lizard's tongue slobbered all over my fingers, much to the princess' amusement. "Well, if you girls need anything else, just let me know, okay?" Now, she looked right at me and it took everything I had not to turn away in shame. "I'm glad you're opening up, Mary. I was worried that you'd close in on yourself and not let anybody close, but it does my heart good to see that I was worried for nothing." She gave us each a smile in turn, then turned to leave, stopping just at the door to glance back one last time. "Oh! Daliah and Iron are preparing dinner. I'd love for you to join us tonight if you're feeling up to it, Mary."

The door closed with a final, resounding click finally letting me breathe, but doing nothing for the heat in my cheeks. Another coating of saliva on my hands reminded me to release the kobold's snout. She grinned up at me, her bright, sharp-toothed smile gleaming in the low light of the curtained window, and nuzzled up under my chin with the most pleased, relieved look in her face I've ever seen. "I'm glad we don't hafta worry about eggs, yannow? It means we can do it more!"

I blinked, looked at the unicorn and canine at my sides, then let out a breathy chuckle that quickly devolved into a fit of painful coughs. The girls were quick to make sure I was okay, but I waved them off as I wiped the pink-speckled spittle off on my sheets, because I was, for once, actually fine. Sure, my throat was fucked, but that would heal eventually if I just let it, but that didn't really matter. As embarrassing as it was 'getting caught in the act', and as nervous as I'd been at the start of my time here, I wouldn't want to share myself with anybody else as much as I did with these three. I was already looking forward to the next time, though-

I yawned, sucking in air through my raw throat. Maybe it'll have to wait till later.

"I do not know about you three, but I am certainly due for a shower." Silk grinned at me, her smile lascivious, and shook her ass at me while she climbed to her hooves on the mattress. "Care to join me?"

All too soon, there was a jolt of interest between my legs, and the way her nostrils flared told me that she smelled it as clear as day, but my legs were like jelly from the eager pounding Ysa had given my pelvis and the constant flexing and and flagging of my muscles through my multiple orgasms. I needed a while to rest.

Disappointment flashed on her face, but she shrugged it off just as quickly. "Do not worry yourself, love. I suppose I will simply have to settle for spending the evening with you. Oh, whatever shall I do with such limited time?" She threw her hoof over her head, feigning a faint as her smile peeked through the cracks of her facade. "I hope to at least see you for dinner?"

I nodded without hesitation, matching her smile with a lopsided grin of my own. "Perfect! Well then, I shall meet up with all of you shortly. She hopped off the bed, her hooves clicking softly on the stone floor, did a cute little equine curtsie, and sashayed out of the room, her tail held high to show off her winking sex all the way out and I stared, transfixed, all the way up until she magicked the door shut behind her.

"You're gonna make us jealous if ya keep ogling Silk like that, yannow?" I snapped back to my own thoughts and the red lizardling beaming up at me from my meagre chest, shame tinting my face. "I'm kidding. Gosh, she's adorable isn't she, Lu?"

"Quite." I was wrapped up in the canine's strong arms, pulled into a half-sit as she propped me up against her breast, and rubbed my tangled, bushy curls under her chin while she wrapped me up in what few unsoiled sheets remained on the bed. "Lulabelle will help you get somewhat presentable, Miss Rose, but then Lulabelle must go assist with dinner preparations. Miss Ysayle, can Lulabelle trust you to help her dress and not make more of a mess?"

The mischievous look on Ysa's face sent a fresh trickle of moisture running between my legs, but her grin was quickly replaced with a huff and an adorable pout. "Fine, I promise not to let her talk me into boinkin' her again."

I had to suppress a giggle and the slight disappointment at not being able to get a little quick round of action before dinner, a thought I'd only had for my hands and toys before, but Lulabelle nodded and helped me into a more comfortable, more upright arrangement with the tiny lizard girl nestled happily in my lap. "Lulabelle will be waiting for you two." She cast one more pointed glance at Ysa, then followed Silk's and Twilight's lead out of the room.

Ysa's angelic grin lasted up until the door shut, leaving us alone together, where she immediately turned to me, a wicked mischievousness in her eyes. "So, wanna go again? I never said I wouldn't ask."

This time, I held back my laughter only for the sake of my own health, allowing just the slightest of chuckles, before flashing Ysa the most awkward seductive grin in the history of flirting and parting the copper sea between my thighs.
> Chapter Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regret. 

Really, I don't know what I was thinking when I invited Ysa to fuck me senseless a second time, especially knowing that I wouldn't have the time to recover from an exercise that I had literally no experience in before now. Well, I know what I was thinking, but that doesn't change the fact that letting my libido do the thinking and relishing in the near numbness of my legs was a terrible idea.

I stretched, feeling Ysa's smooth body nestled up against me as fresh gouts of white oozed out of me with each post-orgasmic spasm, and smiled a goofy, happy smile. Mostly terrible idea. There was a strange sense of liberty knowing that, even if it was just sexually, I was wanted around in some capacity. There was a worry deep down that I'd do anything just for them to keep me around, even if it meant becoming nothing more than a hunk of flesh for them to relieve their sexual frustrations with whenever they inevitably grew tired of my depressed clinginess, but I crushed and bottled that down with every other thought of its kind. I didn't need them bothering me now, and Ysa wouldn't want to put up with my self deprecation.

"Mmm… I could hump ya all day…" I covered my face, putting a little extra pressure on my temples as the first traces of a headache throbbed in time with a fresh round of chuckles. "Sure ya don't wanna go again?" My hands were pulled away just enough to give her a very pointed look, tinged only slightly with my desire to just say 'fuck it' and let her have her way with me again, but I knew that she was mostly kidding, even if her innocent smile practically screamed to the world that she was completely serious. Besides, even if I had been prepared for another, I felt way too guilty about the implied promise I'd broken by indulging in that last round. "Ah well, s'pose we can't spend all night here. Lemme help ya get dressed."

Getting my clothes on was an endeavor in and of itself even considering the fact that I currently only owned two pieces of an outfit. First, we had to wipe me down again since our mingled fluids between my thighs were making a pungent cocktail that was having a very obvious effect on my kobold companion, and my titless chest was soaked in her saliva. Standing up to slide my skirt on was a chore with my legs feeling like gelatin and my knees knocking as they shook, and my hands were trembling too much to button my blouse, but, thankfully, Ysa's hands were still steady. I was dressed, eventually, and trying my best to ignore the trickle of warmth that left a sticky trail down my thigh while I prepared myself for another possible disaster while ignoring the growing pulse of pain trying to worm its way into my brain.

"Ready to go?" The little kobold's arms wrapped around my thigh, not so surreptitiously trailing her tongue up the inside of my leg and into the thickness of my bush and making me wonder if I'd opened a can of worms with her that I wasn't prepared for. I mean, I jilled several times a day back home, but she seemed insatiable.

Still, I very reluctantly coaxed her out of me and gave as much of a shaky smile and nod as I could. I'd thought I was ready when Twilight and Silk extended the offer to dine with everybody, but now that I was faced with actually going back and facing everybody, facing Zunira again, I was feeling a lot less confident than whatever meagre sense of it I'd had before. Regardless, Ysa's hand was in mine before I could change my mind and I was being guided towards the door on wobbly legs. I was tempted to just plant myself, try my best to explain away or find some excuse for my not wanting to go, but then I imagined the disappointment I'd see in Lulu, and Silk, and Daliah, and Twilight, and… I couldn't bring myself to go through with it. Most everybody had been so nice to me, so it just wouldn't feel right to keep avoiding them like I had been before. I'd just… sit and eat and… try not to open my mouth. If I didn't talk, I wouldn't say anything wrong and if I didn't say anything wrong then-

I flinched as the crashing sound of breaking glass sounded from somewhere beyond the door, an odd feat considering how thick the walls and doors were, but I assumed that it must've been pretty close, or a lot. I mean, it wasn't like the rooms were… soundproof. My face burned at the thought that, even as ragged and strangled as my moans would have been, anybody could have heard me cumming my brains out. God, I hope that nobody heard me or this little dinner will be awkward as-

"Don't move, 'kay?"

I stood stock still and looked down at the Kobold that had, until just a second ago, been right at my side and urging me on. Now, she was practically crawling on the floor, her horn-ish spines bristling up, and any previous desire to actually leave the room had been sufficiently quashed, buried under a growing feeling of unease that the crash hadn't aroused before Ysa reacted. I would have just chalked it up to one of the rambunctious gryphon twins, but her behaviour had shoved those thoughts aside.

She slithered toward the door, keeping low to the ground, and crawled over to the door while I watched from the middle of the room, my heart pounding in my chest. Just as she was about to pull open the wooden portal, Silk came crashing through, panting with her mane in disarray and a cluster of objects floating in her magical grasp. Three metal cages and a pair of elegant-looking steel sabres.

"Oh, thank goodness, you are both all right." I took a step back, panic welling quickly, as I wrung the hem of my skirt in my hands. I felt guilty knowing that we'd fucked when Ysa said she wouldn't, but that didn't warrant this kind of response, did it? We were only a few minutes late. I'm sure I looked as freaked out as I felt, because Silk immediately calmed down and took my hand with her hoof. "Mary, love, I am terribly sorry for causing you distress, and I know you have questions, but I need you to listen to me and follow my instructions, okay?" I nodded, my eyes flicking between her and Ysa who was watching the door, silent and still. "Perfect. Now, we are leaving, so I need you to follow Ysa. I will follow behind you, but you cannot, for any reason, stop moving, okay? It is important."

I swallowed, nodding again as a tightness formed in my chest. Something was wrong, terribly wrong, and I had a growing suspicion I knew what, but that couldn't be it, because Twilight had said it was safe. It was safe, right?

Apparently, my thoughts were easy to read, or the growing fear that was threatening to stop my heart was as readily apparent to Silk as my smell when I was when I was horny, because she squeezed my hand with the brightest of smiles. "You will be perfectly fine, love, just stay behind Ysa and nothing will happen." Silk let my hand go and I tried to take it back again, but she was already on the move, stepping over to Ysa and offering her one of the swords in her aura. "I pray that you are capable with a sabre, Ysa, because it is all I have. It will not be too heavy, will it?"

"Nah, I can two-claw it." She took the sword in her tiny hands, the blade nearly as long as she was tall, and rested its dull side on her shoulder. "Ya ready, Mary?"

I wanted to say yes, to lie and be brave like they wanted me to be, but I couldn't feel my hands as I wrung them into my skirt. All I could see was the swords, two sharp, blatant reminders that I wasn't safe at home, far away from whatever dangers were pounding at the doors here. Ringing screamed in my ears, a sharp, monotonous tone that made my headache drive nails further into my brain.

"Mary!" I jumped and stared wide-eyed at the tiny hand trying to pry mine away from my skirt, feeling faint as my breathing came back under control. "Mary… We need to go." I looked at the sword, swallowed, and gave a short, jerky nod. "Just follow me, 'kay? I'll keep ya safe. Promise."

Tears burned at my eyes, but I nodded and let her guide me out the door. It was clear that she had a destination in mind as she practically dragged me by the hand through the hall, and I could hear Silk's hooves clopping noisily on the stone behind us, but wherever she had planned to take us was no longer an option.

I had thought, in my unplaced bravado at the brunch, that my years of horror movies and survival games would have me wholly prepared for situations like this, had left me completely desensitized to gruesome imagery, but, as those first set of stumbling, offbeat hoofsteps echoed down the hall, and the flesh-dripping, disfigured pony stepped into view, I learned otherwise. The sagging, loose flesh, maggot infested and blackened with rot, was torn as if it had been chewed off by teeth not meant for ripping apart meat. Whoever this pony had been, they had died a horrible, painful death.

I froze in my tracks, sucking in a breath and gagging at the rancid, sickly-sweet smell of a long-since decaying corpse. Ysa kept moving, nearly yanking me from my feet in her haste, and Silk bumped into my backside. I could hear Ysa's insistent urgings and felt her tugging on my hand, but the only thing my brain could focus on was the thick, fresh blood dripping from the broken teeth in the horse's mouth and its milky, dead eyes locked onto mine as it angled toward us and picked up its pace. Each clop of its hooves was like the death toll of a cathedral's bell, echoing in my brain with a steady, powerful dong. It felt like I was slipping, darkness encroaching on my vision and leaving nothing but the pony's cruel eyes of death to keep me from sinking into the abyss and it was so close, almost here to save me…

I gasped for breath as the reanimated pegasus slumped to the ground, pooling black blood from its severed neck with Ysa standing over it, sabre stained. "Mary!" I jumped, staring wide-eyed at the unicorn at my side with my hand in her hoof shaking it frantically. "Oh, thank Harmony. You had us terrified, Mary. We thought we had lost you."

I swallowed hard, looking between my friends and the rotten, motionless body of the pony, thankful that I could no longer see its cold, putrid eyes. My stomach churned, clenching painfully, as I stared at the horrid corpse.

"Mary?"

I gagged once, then retched this morning's stew all over the carpeted stone at my feet, thankfully missing all of us. It felt like I was puking up tar with how thick the bile was and Ysa and Silk were quickly at my side to hold me up when my legs gave out beneath me. My mind was screaming that we didn't have time for this, pleading with my stomach to quit before another one of those abominations found us, but my stomach churned and heaved, ignorant of my pleas, and, when I finally stumbled back onto my own weight to look at the result, I wished that I could force up more.

What should have been a mix of my gastric fluids and what hadn't digested from this morning was instead a thick, black sludge more akin to the tar pits in cartoons about dinosaurs than anything that should have been in my stomach.

"G-goodness, Mary… Are you all right?" I didn't respond, unable to both because of my fucked throat and the fact that I was doing my best to clear the disgusting, rancid taste of whatever that foul shit was from my tongue. Silk placed a hoof on my thigh, and this time I looked her way as she eyed the filth warily. "I do not know what that is, but we can ask Twilight when we regroup with everybody, but for now we must keep moving. Is that acceptable?" I glanced at the corpse, shuddering at the thought of more, but still offered a weak nod. "Ysa, are you ready?"

"Yup."

It was upsetting, hearing no cheer in the little kobold's voice, but I understood why. There was no cheer to be found in running from danger and the ease with which she had slain the zombie belied the terror that had gripped me in the moment.

Silk's hoofsteps and the pitter-patter of our feet sounded out through the hall like the beating of war drums while we ran, and it was all I could do to ignore the looming threat of death that could be waiting around any bend. I didn't recognize the hall we were in, not that I would have been able to for any other hall, and the unfamiliarity made my mind race with a myriad of scenarios. It took more effort than I wanted to admit to not just curl up into a ball and cry to myself, but it didn't stop the tears from stinging my eyes as they trailed down my cheeks. Even over our noisome retreat I could hear the horrible groans and cursed utterings of the undead outside.

I hadn't noticed it while I was talking with Ysa or in that first mad dash from the room, but now it was impossible to ignore, deafening over my pounding head and gasping breaths. I couldn't see anything through the darkness outside, but I could almost feel the horde surrounding us. They were everywhere, just out of sight but never out of mind, and I found myself glancing back over my shoulder just to make sure there wasn't anything hounding our heels.

That was all it took for things to go terribly wrong. The moment I took my eyes off the hall ahead of us, something crashed through the window. I might have been able to avoid it if I had been paying attention, but by the time I had spun back around it was too late. The thing knocked me off my feet, tearing me away from Ysa as we tumbled across the carpet. It snapped at me, the ratlike creature's needle teeth clicking sharply with each bite aimed my way, and it was only by the grace of my size compared to its that it couldn't get to my neck, but it was quickly becoming obvious that it would last much longer than I would in this struggle. My arms were already shaking as it leaned into its full weight, and its broken nails scratched at my arms and thighs while I screamed for help.

If I had been alone, this would have been the end of me, but thankfully Silk was right there at my side. It took only moments for Silk to glide her sword through the creature's head and tear it off of me, but that lapse in time was all that was needed. More of those rat beasts crawled in through the broken window, the putrid, pus-filled bodies crawling all over and rushing us. 

Ysa leapt into action, sabre gripped in two tiny hands, and cleaved through the first three with ease, the razor sharp blade singing as it wheeled through the air, but the size of the sword was clearly a hindrance. The sweeping slash left her wide open and the next wave of rats would have overrun her had Silk not immediately been at her side, her own sabre glinting in the torchlight, and cut the nearest down with a flourish. They fought in near perfect sync, with one stepping in when the other needed, cleaning up each other's mistakes with nothing more than a glance.

It was a stark difference from the high class and perky pair I'd seen of them until now, once more showing off that skill in a fight that Ysa had shown in her duel with Lulabelle, and, if it hadn't been for the mortal danger we were in, I would have been incredibly turned on right now, but the paralyzing terror that was growing in my heart made it impossible to think of anything other than the fact that I was going to die tonight. Ysa and Silk were clearly experienced fighters, whether that was from a lifetime of training or recently learned wasn't obvious, but it did them little good with the sheer number of undead massed outside of the window and I was nothing but dead weight to them. I couldn't fight, could barely even hold off something not even half my size for more than a moment. I would only slow them down and I'm sure they knew it.

They would only be able to hold them off for so long and then they'd cut their losses and leave me to die. The rats were thinning, but in their place were larger creatures, ponies; gryphons; and what looked like disfigured deer; and I knew we wouldn't last long. I wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.

"Mary! Run!"

Silk was struggling to hold back the tide of undead, using the same magic she'd used to hold my hand to push against the tide crawling in the door, but it was clear from the sweat on her brow and the flickering blue aura spread thin across everything in her hold that she was nearing her last reserves.

"Mary, please. I cannot hold them forever and we cannot fight them all."

I swallowed, staring at the slavering horde held back only by the grace of Silk's waning magic and Ysa's trembling arms. If I left, they would die. They would die and then I'd be alone again. I didn't know where Lulabelle was, nor did I have any clue on how to find her, and if I took the time to search her out then it would only be a matter of when, not if, I would be found and ripped to shreds.

Tears blurred my vision as I shook my head. It was stupid. The last time I had grown attached to somebody it had ended with my life falling to shit. I'd thought that I would never let it happen again, but now I couldn't imagine leaving them to die. I'd gotten a taste of friendship again, and maybe something more, and my heart thundered at the thought of losing it once more.

"Mary, love… We cannot lose you. I do not wish to die, but I will gladly- hng!" She flinched as another rat pushed through the field only to be cleaved in two by the panting kobold. "If I could, I would lay my life down for yours over and over but- ah!" Her horn sparked and she lowered the sisters' cages to the ground, unlatching the doors when they were settled. "Could I ask you to watch over my girls for me?"

I shook my head, wishing I had the voice to tell her that we could all run and that we'd all be fine, but I couldn't even pretend the thought was anything other than a boldfaced lie. She frowned ever so slightly, winced again as another rat managed to get its head through just long enough to be cut clean through, then looked at the winded dragonling.

"Ysa, be a darling and take Mary to safety."

The trio of spiders climbed onto me, chittering softly, while Ysa pulled me to my feet, face grim. I tried to protest, but my voice died in my throat when Silk hissed in a breath and ran her sword through a pony's skull. "I can hold them for another few minutes, but if you do not leave now, then I cannot guarantee that the halls will be clear." She chuckled and shook her head. "Harmony, it feels like they are all trying to climb through this one window. There are other windows, you know!"

She turned to face us, her beautiful face twisted with strain and golden eyes glistening with tears while I stumbled on my feet, being pulled by the ever surprisingly strong Ysa. "I am so terribly sorry, Mary. I had hoped to spend the rest of your life together with you, but it seems that Harmony has chosen me to watch over you from Elysium. You will be well, will you not?"

Ysa tugged on my hand and I had to tear my eyes off Silk just to keep from breaking down. I couldn't do this. I didn't want to leave Silk to die. We could all make it out together, right? "Lulu and I will make sure she's okay, right Mary?"

She pulled me into action and my legs carried me along no matter how much my heart protested that I should do something, but what could I do? I was terrified of dying and the thought of fighting against these things made my heart seize. I was powerless to do anything for one of the first people I had cared about in years and she was prepared to throw her life away for mine without a moment's hesitation.

"I love you, Marilynne Rose! Never forget that!" I stopped, my heart clenching, and pulled myself away from Ysa, finally finding some strength of my own in my legs, and sprinted back to the mare. "Mary, what are you-?"

I pulled her face to mine, smashed my lips to hers, and kissed her hard and deep. The sensuality from before was gone, lost to fear and emotion, but the passion was still there. She leaned into me, and I her, for those few, wonderful seconds that we were connected, and for that brief moment nothing was wrong, but reality came crashing quickly back down upon us when she hissed and groaned against me, her horn flashing ominously.

"I-I…" I sucked in a shuddering breath, eyes clenched as the pain in my throat flared at even just that, but stared her right in her gorgeous, golden eyes. "I l-lo… y'too."

Her smile was so calm as she shoved me away with her magic, peaceful like the last breath of somebody passing in their sleep, but this time I couldn't fight back. Tears burned tracks down my cheeks like molten fire and Ysa was already at my side, urging me on. The screams that echoed through the hall made my stomach churn, but there was nothing that I could do. I couldn't stop, couldn't turn back, couldn't help. I could only continue fleeing on auto down an unknown hallway as the only thought in my mind kept clawing its way into my brain and through my heart.

I was the one that killed her.


The door that we stopped in front of was barely even that, just a few pieces of rotted wood hanging on rusted and half busted hinges, and had to be forced open with strength that Ysa and I barely had left between the pair of us. It opened to a tunnel that matched the door in terms of visible neglect with rotting, termite-bitten wooden supports sagging under the weight of the water-worn stone and multitudinous cobwebs spanning the length I could see. There were obvious signs of recent use, like the ripped and fluttering webs, but otherwise seemed like it had been forgotten by time for what had to have been centuries.

"This way, Mary."

I nodded, the knot in my stomach making anything more impossible and, even if my throat would let me, I didn't trust myself to speak without breaking down into a useless, blubbering mess. I envied Ysa in her ability to weather the loss of Silk, and wished that I could follow her example, but every time the sisters shifted to regain their grip on me, or whenever I let my thoughts slip from the monumental task of putting one foot in front of the other, I thought of her and the short time we had spent together and how much that time had meant to me. It made it almost impossible to not just give up and let the foul creatures that had taken her from me take me as well. The only things keeping me from it were her screams as she died and the sick feeling in my gut whenever I thought of letting her sacrifice be in vain.

The decrepit old tunnels opened up into a huge cave, brightly lit and significantly better kept. The walls were mostly smooth, lined with torches that flickered and wavered in salty wind coming in through one of the myriad other entryways connecting to more deceivingly disguised tunnels. Most important, however, was what stood in the center of the clearing.

"Miss Rose!" I sucked in a breath at the sight of the desert dog towering over all but the pair of minotaurs with her as she leaned on a hammer as tall as she was. My lip quivered and shoulders shook as she passed the weapon off to Rockhide, the bull, and closed the distance between us in a few long strides. I stared at the ground, trying to fight off the flood threatening to break down the dam of emotions I'd been barely keeping at bay, but when she wrapped me up in her arms and pulled me to her plush, comforting chest, I flung my arms around her as the walls cracked. "Lulabelle is so relieved that you are safe. We thought the worst when you and Miss Ysayle didn't join us in the dining hall, but it seems that Miss Strand reached you in time."

She smiled at me, eyes glistening, only for the joy to falter as she looked over me at the chittering spiders and to the kobold holding on to my skirt. I hiccuped, holding back a sob as realization dawned on her face. The question had been on her tongue, but she didn't need it asked as Twilight was right behind her. "Is Silk not with you?"

That was the final strike needed to shatter the dam as I slumped into Lulabelle's grasp and screamed into her fur, the horrible wail tearing through bloodied vocal chords. I had a brief thought that I would be heard back in the castle, but it was quickly drowned out by the pounding throb of the drums in my skull. Neither Ysa nor Lulu hesitated to envelop me completely, surrounding me in their soothing warmth, and for a moment I was safe from the demons in my brain as I cried out my anguish into Lulu's breast, but fate could never be so kind.

The sound of hooves clicking on stone behind me bristled the hairs on the back of my neck and I had to fight down the surge of pointless hope that rose in me as my treacherous brain tried to make me believe that Silk was there. Instead, I buried my face deeper into Lulu's chest and hoped that I wasn't hurting her with the death grip I had on her soft, black fur. "So dat's it? You finally undahstand now, but now you're goin' ta give up? All dat bravado was jus' dat? Pitiful." Never in my life, until this moment, had I ever felt the surge of emotion that coursed through my veins. It was a horrible feeling, the pure, unadulterated rage that pumped like molten fire through my body, but even as my vision tunneled on the zebra there was a small part of me, deep inside, that welcomed this fury. I could barely hear her over the sound of blood pounding in my ears as she kept talking, and I was vaguely aware of others around me, but I didn't have any care for them as I stood to my full height, still towering over the zebra by almost twice her size despite my own lacking in that department.

"I'm almost glad dat Silk died now so she didn't have ta see dis."

The sound of thunder echoed in my skull as I watched Zunira step back ever so slightly as my body moved. I barely even felt my arm lash out, only really noticing the motion because I saw my clenched, bleeding fist crack across the striped equine's skull. There was a split second where my rage-clouded brain had to pause to process what was going on while Zunira staggered back half a step then crumpled to the ground in a heap. I glared down at her, the body barely moving, as my breath heaved and the fog of green and red slowly faded before I noticed that the zebra wasn't the only one in front of me. Twilight had been standing just to Zunira's left, but now she was fretting over the zebra, her magic moving in waves across her prone form, while one of the gryphon twins rushed up from my right.

I looked down at my hands, at the blood seeping out of deep cuts in my palms, at the dark swelling of my right hand's knuckles, and at how they shook, before I realized that it wasn't just my hands that were trembling. My whole body was quaking, feeling icy cold, as my head throbbed and pulsed with the remnants of the adrenaline that was still coursing through my body. I looked down at Zunira's body, at the panic in Twilight's and the gryphon's actions, and then at the worry in Ysa's features as she stepped up to me while a growing pain radiated out from my knuckles. My thoughts finally caught up with the situation, replaying the past few seconds in slow motion back to me, and with it came the recognition of what I'd just done.

I just punched somebody. I got so angry that I lashed out and hit somebody and now they weren't moving and what if I had killed them? I've never hit anybody, let alone a horse, and my hand hurt so fucking bad. Please don't tell me I killed them. I hate her, but not that much, I didn't even want to punch her, I just… I'm just gonna…

I wavered on my feet, my vision spinning as motes of green crept in around me, then I bent forward, my stomach heaving, before everything went black.

---

My eyes fluttered open slowly, feeling like there were leaden weights trying to heavy-handedly convince me to stay asleep, but I didn't feel like I could sleep. My blood was pounding in my ears, filling me with a dreadful sense of urgency that I couldn't put reason to. The little garden circle I'd fallen asleep in was as serene and beautiful now as it was when I'd decided to lay my head for a few moments, but it didn't stop the warning bells sounding their cautionary toll.

Still, I crawled to my feet, disturbing the faint green mist that clung to my form like a blanket, and looked around. The little hedge clearing was quiet save for the sound of my breathing, but, despite that, I couldn't really relax. Not that I could tell that something was off, of course, but I had that feeling that you get when you're awake at night, alone in your dark house.

"Mary."

I jumped, my little blue sun dress bouncing with the movement, and spun around to look for who had spoken, but all I could see was the rose-lined opening in the hedge lit by the soft glow of the moon above. Even with the surprisingly ample, pale light, I couldn't see anybody in the pathway beyond, nor did it seem like the slightly overgrown grass had even been disturbed. I was about ready to shrug it off and try to calm the troubled feeling in my gut when the voice floated by me again.

"Mary, love…."

I gasped, a smile coming across my face, and stepped out of the clearing and into the neatly-trimmed pathway laid out by the bushes. "Silk? Where'd you go? I was expecting a kiss when I woke up." A small giggle slipped out as I found nothing but the fading echoes of her words, not a single strand of grey or egg white hair to be seen. "Si~lk! Come on, you know I don't know my way through this maze!"

"Ma~ry…"

The sing-song voice sent shivers down my spine and straight into my loins, igniting the waiting embers inside me. God, I loved the posh, flirty tone she always talked with, like she was one of those high-class courtesans from a medieval fantasy and I was the princess she'd been raised to serve. It hit a nerve in me that I didn't even know I had until I met her. "Fine. I suppose I could try and find you, but you better make it worth it!"

I laughed and started my walk through the towering foliage paths, listening for the unicorn's teasing calls to guide me to her. The soft grass crunched under my feet, tickling between my toes, and the rose-lined hedges continued on and on past every turn. There were more dead ends than I could count on this place, forcing me to double back more often than not. I tried to find some sort of hoofprints to guide me along Silk's path, but the hazy, green fog was too thick for me to even see my own feet this far into the hedge maze, so instead I had to rely on luck and the hope that I wasn't just walking in circles.

"You're getting close, love."

Another left and I was face to face with yet one more wall of leaves and thorny flowers. At this point my legs were getting tired, my feet growing sore from walking bare in lengths I hadn't done since I was a little girl, but I was almost there. She sounded close, too, like she was calling out from just a few rows further in, so I turned back around, ready to take the right I'd passed just before, and nearly ran head first into a wall of thorns and dead bramble. I took a deep breath, pushing down the surprise while I tried to piece together where I was.

"Mary? What's taking so long? I'm wait~ing!"

I stared at the impassable remains of the hedge, concern welling in my breast. That hadn't been there before… had it? I was pretty sure this path continued on for at least another couple yards and then branched off. I glanced around at the dead hedges, their sharp thorns practically gleaming like the surgeon's knife under the late night moon, but I didn't recognize where I was at all. The turns were all different, like the maze had shifted at that last dead end. I'd somehow gotten turned around and now I couldn't remember which way Silk was. Panic was starting to settle in as the silent night closed in around me, but I held it back as well as I could while the chilly, green fog clung around my ankles. It would be fine. I'd just have to wait a few more minutes until she called me again.

"Mary?" My breath caught in my throat, my chest squeezing, as the unicorn's call reached my ears. There was something strange about it, a tone to her voice that I'd never heard before. It seemed strained, like she was trying to force the words out through shortened breath, or maybe like she was exhausted and struggling to find the energy to get the words out. "Mary? Love? Where are you? Come back."

I turned to my left, towards where the voice was coming, and stared down the ugly, brown path laid out before me. The grass was dead and splotchy, leaving large patches of sodden mud where it had eroded away, and the overgrown hedges reached out with their jagged, gnarled fingers for the opportunity to grab and tear at whatever was in their reach. I swallowed, forcing my heart back down into my chest, and took the first step into the soggy, sucking muck. Something was wrong. Silk was worried about something and I wasn't going to let a spooky maze stop me from getting to her and doing what I could to help her.

I moved carefully through the mud and dead grass, stepping softly in case there were creeping brambles crawling their way through the underbrush. Inside the mansion, the worst I had to worry about was the cool stone chilling my feet, but out here is where I really lamented the fact that I hadn't been wearing my shoes when they summoned me to Equitra. I kept my movements measured, making sure I stayed as far from the overgrowth as I could, and gently pried my dress off the needles whenever they happened to catch. It was slow going, but not much more so than my earlier approach through the maze; the only real difference being that I was watching my footing instead of looking where I was going.

The further I got into the path, the closer the overgrowth encroached upon it. Even moving slowly, I couldn't avoid the thorns anymore and they tugged and tore at my dress, ripping tiny holes in it when they dug too deep, but it was a small price to pay. It was just a dress, and Silk's calls were getting more frequent, more worrisome, so much so that I almost didn't feel the nearly inch-long thorn that sank into the sole of my foot when her shriek pierced the night's eerie silence. I hissed, pausing just long enough to rip the needle from my foot and catch the faintest glimpse of red amongst the black mud caking it, then took off running. I recognized that shriek. I couldn't quite place where I'd heard her make it before, but even then I could tell that she was in trouble, and I couldn't just leave her like that, no matter how hard my heart was thumping from the mounting terror flooding through my veins. I couldn't just ignore it. I couldn't abandon somebody I lo-

"Mary!? Where are you!? Don't leave me! I'm scared!"

The raking grasp of the bushes tore into my skin, leaving intersecting, bloody roads across my arms and face, and my foot throbbed with each squelching step I took. My lungs burned with every heaving breath, my sides stitched, but no matter how hard I pushed myself down this long, winding hallway of brambles, Silk's voice seemed to be getting farther and farther away and I just didn't have it in me to keep going. I was grossly out of shape, just barely more than a walking twig, and hadn't done anything more vigorous than a short walk around the block to our local grocery in several years. I was flagging, struggling to breathe, and the burning from the multitudinous lacerations across my arms was seeping deep into my muscles.

"Mary!? Please! It hurts!"

I swiped at the curtain of thorns that blocked my path, preparing myself for the inevitable flash of pain, then screamed and pitched forward into it as a lance of fire blossomed from my foot and up my leg. I landed face first in the muck, hissing as a rock dug into my cheek, but could do nothing to pull myself out of it. Every movement I tried to make was slow coming, like my body was made of solid stone trying to tread through clinging tar, and what little I could move hurt. My whole body was aflame with pain, the lacerations almost indistinguishable from the throbbing ache of my overstrained muscles, and all I could do was listen as Silk's cries grew more frantic and panicked. She was in trouble, something terrible was happening, and I was powerless to help her. Like always, I was just the useless girl by the wayside. A letdown.

"Silk! Can you hear me!? I'm over here!" My throat burned from my extended run and tears stung my eyes as I clenched my fists, trying to pull myself up, but it wasn't happening. I didn't have it in me. I was actually fighting down the terror threatening to strangle my breath from my lungs, but I couldn't do anything more. Silk's screams were getting worse and worse, and just barely audible through them were the soft squeaks and chitters of what sounded like hundreds of rats. "Please! Can somebody help her? Anybody!? Lulabelle! Ysa! Please…"

I coughed into the emerald fog, trying to find some trace of anything that could help, and caught sight of the first sign that I wasn't alone in this maze. I caught the glint of moonlight off a pair of beady, black eyes staring at me from inside the brambles. Its form seemed to blend into the shadows of the hedge, the green haze clinging to its body as if it was oozing the fog, but even through that I could see the gleam of smooth scales. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stared into its leering eyes, trying not to burst into tears when Silk's screams died down into barely audible, gurgling whimpers, and worked my mouth while I tried to find my voice.

"P-please… Help her…"

Oh, you poor, poor child, so weak and helpless… I flinched as the deep, raspy, yet still somehow feminine voice whispered straight into my skull. It sent shivers down my spine, but, even as terrifying as it was, it felt… familiar. 

You can still save her. It's not too late. I stared into those beady eyes as its body shifted ever so slightly, but that slight twitch was enough to show just how truly massive this thing actually was. Now that I was made aware of it, its long, serpentine body wound its way through the branches of the hedge stretching far past where I could see before doubling back over and over, its bulk held up impossibly by the fragile twigs it was resting in. You do want to save her, right? Bring her back?

I swallowed, transfixed by the swirls of green and black in the massive serpent's eyes. It felt like I was floating in their grasp, being pulled into them with each passing moment. All you need to do is accept me, Mary, and I'll help you. I'll give you all the power you need to save her. Just accept me. I couldn't blink. Those enchanting eyes, big and green, were staring into me, bathing my entire being in their inviting warmth, and it felt like I should accept her. I needed to bring Silk back, right? That's all I'd need and everything would be fine again. I just have to-

I hissed as a sharp pain in the back of my neck shot fire through my veins, and I tensed as that fire was replaced by a freezing cold as all warmth was drawn out of me from the quickly numbed stabbing. The snake smiled at me, it's large, swirling eyes oozing emerald smoke as it and the world around me began to fade into unintelligible swirling masses. It seems our time is over now, but I'll be with you until the end. Reach out to me and I'll sa-

I watched as darkness encroached on the world around me, eating up the brambles with each pull of warmth from my extremities until, with one last draw, I was left cold and numb in the emptiness around me for the few short moments before my sight faded and...
> Chapter Seven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I groaned as I tried to shift under the weight on my chest, but I just couldn't find the will to manage even that, so instead I cracked open my eyes. It was dark, almost too dark to see, but the occasional shafts of pale light from overhead kept it from being the pitch blackness I'd gotten used to while wearing the blindfold. Still, even if I had been completely blind like before, the miniscule weight nestled against my breast and the furnace of soft, comforting fur and muscle beneath were unmistakable.

As was the feeling of spindly legs and cool crystal against my skin. I sniffled, trying not to think of what them being there meant, but their presence was too pronounced. Feeling the sisters nestled up against me, compounded by the traces of my dream still lingering on the edges of my thoughts, served as a stark reminder of what was missing, of who should be here with us. I wiped my face, trying to stave off the tears before they could come, but it was a futile effort. The salty streams poured down my cheeks, stinging little cuts I hadn't even realized were there before, and my wracking sobs and pitiful whimpers were more than enough to rouse the small, red bundle curled up on my breast.

Ysa's claws dug into my shirt as she stretched awake, her muzzle splitting open in a wide yawn, before she blinked, her spines twitching, and shot up to stare into my eyes. Her hands pressed at my cheeks, thumbs wiping what little of my tears away as they could, and held me still while I vainly tried to turn away. I didn't deserve to be touched like this, to be comforted or consoled. I got… I… I killed…

"Mary, are ya okay? Yes aren't hurt are ya? Oh jeez, Lu! Lulu! Wake up, somethin's wrong with Mary!"

The mass of fur underneath me shifted and Lulabelle's growling voice vibrated in my chest as she fumbled to wrap her arms around her in a freshly woken stupor. "Lulabelle is up. What's wrong?" Like Ysa, she paused, then her broad, strong arms crushed us both to her chest in a vice-like embrace. "Shhh, you're okay. You're safe."

Her muzzle pressed against the top of my head, but what should have been a soothing kiss just sent a fresh dagger into my heart. I shouldn't be the one here being comforted. I… I swallowed, hiccuping a wracking sob. I should have been the one… It should have been me. I wasn't worth her. She was so much better than I ever would be, but she… Silk had… It should…

"I-i-it sh-sh-shou-should have b-b-b-been m-"

There was a gasp from above me before a resounding crack of flesh hitting flesh echoed in the darkness of the night, and I blinked up at Ysa's teary emerald eyes as agonizing heat blossomed across my cheek. "Don't ever say that, ya hear me? Y-y-you almost died and I was so scared that ya weren't gonna pull through and…" She sniffled, wiping her face and snuggled up under my chin. "Silk wouldn't want ya to feel bad for her, yannow? She did what she did cuz she likes ya and she wants ya to live out your life." She sighed and cuddled tighter against me. "You're too important, yannow, but even if ya weren't our last hope we'd still do whatever we could to help ya, right Lu?"

The desert dog below me nuzzled into my hair, taking a deep breath, then slowly sat us all up. "Miss Ysayle is right. Miss Strand saw the same thing in you that all of us do and cared deeply about you." I winced at her mention and felt that sinking feeling in my gut. I could already guess what she was going to say next and it made my gut twist. "Miss Rose, you are more special than you know and though Lulabelle would like to spend all of her life with you, any of us would gladly-"

And that was it. "Stop!" I shuddered as my voice rang out through the dense trees, eyes searching for signs of movement, then took a deep, stuttering breath. "J-just fucking… Stop… I… I don't w-wa-wanna… I don't-" I choked out a sob and squeezed Ysa to my chest. I didn't want to hear it anymore. It was… not nice, but it made me feel wanted and important before, but now that I was forced to face the reality of the words… It made me sick to my stomach. Silk hadn't deserved to die like that. She didn't deserve to die because of me. She should be here with us. She should be here with me… "Don't s-say it…"

"Miss Rose, Lulabelle didn't-"

I screamed, cutting Lulabelle's words short, as a flash of magenta light filled the little copse the three of us were settled in, scrambling weakly to get away, before a panicked voice called out. "Are you okay!? I heard somebody yell!" Twilight scrambled over to us, her horn cutting through the night with its bright, raspberry corona and her eyes darting all over, searching, before she finally settled on us and heaved a deep, stress-filled sigh. "Thank Harmony you're all okay."

"We're sorry, Twilight. Didn't mean to make ya panic."

Twilight smiled at us, but it was strained, tired. "It's alright, Ysa. We're all just on edge now, especially now that we have to make up for two-" She stopped mid sentence, eyes flicking up and down us, before she parted her lips in a small 'oh'. That twisting feeling surged back up in my stomach. "Well, all that matters is that you're okay."

"Wh-what was th-that?" I stared at her as I shakily climbed to my feet and stood on unsteady, almost boneless legs. "T-t-t-two what?" Twilight's ears folded back while I watched her, but after a few moments of silence she hadn't offered anything up, so I turned to Ysa and Lulu who held that same look that the princess had, like a mix between frightened and concerned. I stared into their eyes, but neither of them could meet my gaze for more than a few seconds before turning away.

Why? What could they possibly be-

I blinked as a disgusting thought prodded at my mind and turned back to Twilight. "D-did… Did somebody else…?" The pegacorn turned away, her head low, but nodded, and with that my heart wrenched. I'd… I'd gotten another person killed. Somebody else had died and… "Who? Wh-who d-d-d…"

I couldn't even get the word out, my throat clenching whenever I thought about it, but nobody needed me to finish my thought too guess the obvious. Twilight looked back over her shoulder, meeting Daliah's and Golden's and the twins' gazes as they gathered around, various weaponry at the ready. "It was Loam. We didn't realize that Grogar's minions had found the escape tunnel. We fought as hard as we could, but…"

I swallowed in an attempt to keep the bile rising in my throat down and took a step back. This, none of this, was right. They'd lost somebody else because of me, but they were trying to keep me calm. I'd gotten him killed. Me. They wouldn't ever admit it, but I could see it in all of their eyes. That silent judgement, the underlying disdain in all of their gazes, was as clear to me as the weakness I was feeling in my legs. They hated me, all of them, for being that awkward shut-in girl that spent all of her time sitting alone in a corner. That was why my only friend had… It was why she had-

"Mary? Are ye-?"

"No!" I clamped my hands over my ears, screaming out into the night, and wrenched away from the touch that had settled over my shoulder. "Don't touch me! Y-you're just tr-tr-trying t-to…" I sucked in heaving breaths, glaring at the other students gathering around me. I wasn't going to be cornered again. Never again.

"Mary we aren't gonna let you say no." My breath hitched as Sarah stepped out from behind the others, her sneer dropping lead into my stomach. She used to be so nice, the only person that had even tried to get to know me, but it'd all been a fucking act. She'd never actually fucking cared; just wanted to get dirt on me and ruin my fucking life. She was the one that had pressured me to talk to him… and I wasn't going to let her fuck me over again.

"Mary, please… don't make this any harder than it had to be. It's not like you'd get any from anybody else."

I slapped her hand away as she reached for me again, pausing for just a second when it seemed much stronger than I'd been expecting from the unfit girl, and backed away from the mob of teenagers as they gathered and sneered around me.

"Stay away from me! Y-you're not g-gonna- Not again!" I stepped back into a green haze, feeling the almost non-existent wisps cling to me, invigorating wherever they touched. Just in the back of my consciousness, I swear I could hear a whisper, but I couldn't focus on it with the crowd closing in on me. I couldn't. I had to run. If I didn't, then… "N-n-not again…"

I spun on my heel and took off at a sprint through the woods, whipping through the brush as the frustrated voices yelled at me from behind. "Mary! You can't run from us! I'll show you what happens when you fucking ignore me!"

The disconnect between the tone of the voices almost gave me pause, but I kept running. I had to be imagining it. The first few words had sounded nothing like Sarah, or Joan, or Lacy, and the voices were familiar, but the biting, acidic words cemented their owners in my mind.

So I continued to run. The forest reached out to grab me, whipping and tearing at my arms and face and clothes. I felt the scratches and welts crawl across my skin. They hurt, but were nothing compared to what I had to get away from. If I had stayed this time, then he…

A disgusting chill ran down my back as I tore into a small clearing and finally stopped to take a breath. My lungs burned, struggling to take in enough oxygen to ease the stinging pain in my side as stitches tried to claw their way out, but I was safe. I couldn't hear anybody chasing after me, none of their shouts or jeers, nor much of anything other than my belaboured breathing. There were the faint sounds of wind through the trees and a modicum of moonlight peeking through the canopy that gave me just enough light to not be completely night blind, but that was it. No bugs buzzing around, no squirrels chasing each other through the trees, and nobody to help me now that I was lost in a forest I'd never been to before.

I tried to hold back that first little hiccup before the floodgates opened while I searched for the path I'd come through, but, just like the rivulets of salty moisture that carved their paths down my cheeks, it forced its way out. I couldn't tell where I'd run in from. Every direction looked the same and there wasn't any sign that I'd even broken into this little glade. The brush and trees looked undisturbed, as if I hadn't violently torn through them in my mad sprint to escape the bitches that had tormented me for most of my teenage years. I stumbled over to the wood's edge, nearly falling to my knees as they shook, the muscles strained.

"Lu-!" I coughed, still struggling to suck in air, an effort made that much harder now that I was on the verge of bawling my eyes out. "Lulu!? Ysa!?" I choked, coughing again, and dropped into the dew-damp grass.

It hadn't even crossed my mind when I started running that I was leaving my friends behind, that maybe they could have helped me. I was so focused on the twisting anger and fear roiling in my gut, and on getting away from their cause, that I hadn't thought of why they were here. I ran without thinking, not realizing that their being here meant that I might not be the only human that'd been called here… As if that even made a difference.

I wiped my face, trying and failing to force back the tears before I completely broke down, but it was a moot effort. I'd… I fucked up really bad this time.

"Y-Ysa?" I struggled to my feet, hissing as the scrapes and cuts I'd gotten running through the woods flared with stinging pain at the movement. My voice was weak, barely more than a desperate whisper, but I had nothing else I could do. I… I had to hope that somebody would be able to hear and find me. "Lu-Lu-Lulu!?" She'd found me before, in the castle, so she'd definitely be able to track me down again, right? "Lulu!" They'd find me. Of course they'd find me. They had to. If they didn't, then…

I yelped as something snapped behind me and spun around, eyes searching the near darkness, but the sound had passed and with it went what little calm I'd still had. It was getting harder to breathe, my chest feeling heavy and heart pounding in my ears, as my eyes shot back and forth, trying in vain to see through the brush and gloom. "Lu-Lulabelle?" I jumped at the sound of my own voice and moved away from where the sound had come from when nobody answered my call. It could have been anything. A broken branch falling from a tree. A deer. A rabbit. Whatever it was, it wasn't Lulu.

Another noise, like the rustling of leaves, to my right shot my heart into my throat and my eyes snapped towards it, but I could see nothing. That heavy, clawing weight of terror seized my throat and crushed my thundering heart as I took my first few steps into the tree line. "L-L-L…" Just over the sound of my heaving breath and the blood pounding in my ears I could hear panting and snuffling everywhere around me until one close to me stopped.

And growled.

Any sense of calm I'd had left, any rational thought I might have had all flew out the window as I screamed and terror-stricken instinct kicked in. I stumbled as I swung around, nearly falling flat on my face, but still managed to scramble into a sprint as a deep, bassy howl rang in my skull, followed by another, then two, then a dozen more before the cacophonous sound of uncountable heavy steps started to chase after me.

I would have screamed again, but I barely had the breath left to breathe as the burning in my lungs returned in full force.

Branches slapped my face, leaving stinging scratches on top of the ones from before, and sharp leaves and pine-like needles handed into the soft skin off my sole while I weaved between trees I could barely see in the near pitch darkness, but I didn't seem to be putting any distance between me and the beasts chasing me. They were getting closer, their panting growls creeping in on me slowly and I was already flagging. My feet still ached from the last run, my legs screamed out for relief, and that stitch in my side dug its fiery needle into me, making each step a struggle, every breath feel like it would be the last one my body could manage before it just gave up the ghost, but I had to keep going, ruin as far away as I could in the hopes that maybe they'd give up, or maybe I'd-

I screamed, wrenching to my left and crashing to the detritus-covered ground as my shoulder slammed into a tree. A raging inferno of pain lanced through my arm and chest, punctuated by a hot trickle of warmth that ran down to my fingers. I gasped and writhed in the grass and leaves, struggling to get to my feet, sure that at any second I'd be overrun and torn limb from limb by the pack of hungry wolves. A terrible shriek scratched at my throat when I put pressure on my right arm, but I powered through it. I had to. I had to, or else-

There was another howl, directly to my left, and I froze, paralyzed. I was trapped, surrounded, shaking and on the verge of losing my mind to terror. This was it. I was too slow. I closed my eyes, trying to will my body to run, or fight, or do anything, but it didn't want to respond, to creep even an inch closer to possible safety.

And then I heard a laugh, deep and nasally, followed by another, higher and equally nasal, until I was in a rising cacophony of terrible mirth. "She think she can run." The wheezing voice crept closer as it spoke, but I couldn't see anything through the daze of pain and almost complete darkness. Not that I would have wanted to see the source. It sounded disgusting, like a slavering monster out of my nightmares. "But we can smell her. The little bitch no get away."

I sucked in a breath, my blood running cold, as the silhouette of a massive, broad-shouldered monster stepped just into sight. The thing was easily as tall and broad as Daliah, standing hunched over at what seemed like seven or eight feet tall, and even from here I could smell its rancid odor. It leaned over me, taking a deep, horrid breath, and exhaled its sickening stench in my face. "We have her scent. No get away."

Something in the back of my mind, something deep and primal, told me that they weren't here to eat me, and that finally kick-started my brain again. I sucked in air, trying not to gag from this thing's smell, and lashed out with my foot, right between the thing's stubby legs, and met what felt like a furry pouch with a satisfying thud before scrambling to my feet and turning tail. The thing wheezed and retched before I lost all sense of it in the range of furious-sounding howls that sounded out behind me once more.

I ran and ran, ignoring the urge to vomit as I started to overheat, shutting out the pain suffusing my right shoulder and arm, until I finally broke through a tree line and into a wide-open clearing. The bright light of the moon shone down on the spotty grass and stone and backlit a towering range of mountains. It was a beautiful sight that I would have loved to take in and appreciate, but I had more urgent issues to worry about as I sprinted out into the open.

Rocks tore at my soles as I dashed over the half-barren field, but I pushed on while the sound of heavy bodies ripped through brush behind me. I knew I needed to just keep running, keep my eyes ahead and push myself to get away, but I couldn't resist the urge to look back and see what was chasing me. Well over twenty stocky creatures in sizes ranging from just under my height to towering goliaths, shaped almost like gorillas, lumbered after me, their faces squished and lower jaws protruding like a bulldog's. Their chests and forearms were large and thick, bound with muscle, that tapered down to stubby, almost misshapen looking legs, but that didn't stop their loping gait as they closed the distance between us.

I faced forward, pushing myself as hard as I could through the agony digging into my feet, the urgency to get away from these monsters pumping my heart near to bursting, and saw my escape. Just ahead of me was a pass, wide enough that I could squeeze through, but too slim for these things' broad bodies to fit into. I had my escape. If I could get into it, I'd be able to climb through and wait out until help arrived. Lulabelle, Twilight, Ysa, and everybody would be able to find me. They'd come and they'd deal with these things and I could apologize and beg for them to do forgive me for running away, then we could-

The ground dropped out beneath me as I neared the mountain path, and I fell face first into the rocky dirt, my teeth clicking together painfully as my head cracked against a rock. I tried to pull myself up, but the world was spinning around me and I felt myself slipping backwards into the pit. I struggled against my weight, wet warmth trickling into my eyes, and scrabbled at the loose earth with fingers that were quickly losing feeling, slipping ever further into the hole when a strong, thick hand wrapped around my arm and lifted me up into the air.

I groaned as I was dangled from the aching limb and turned to look through blurry eyes at my captor. From this close, it was obvious that this was some dog creature like Lulabelle, but unlike her this one was hideous, like an inbred cross between a gorilla, a bulldog, and a pug. I gagged as its breath washed over me, but could do little else as my head lolled to the left, feeling like a lead weight. 

"Little bitch shouldn't did that." My head snapped to the right, the left side flaring with pain as its hand cracked hard against my cheek, and I whimpered as it leaned in close. "We learn you place."

My vision swam as he lowered me to the ground, giving me stomach-churning glimpses of these things while they lumbered access the ground and disappeared into it. "Let's go. You got new home now."

The thing dragged me across the ground, scraping my ass and thighs with gravel until it reached a hole just like the one I'd almost fallen into. My head lolled back up to look at the moon and I blinked, trying to clear the agonizing fog in my brain, and opened my eyes to find myself being dragged through a large, poorly dug tunnel of stone. My backside hurt so much more now and I could swear that I felt something wet coating my butt and legs, but it was still so hard to focus. If I could clear my head and watch where I was going, then I could find a chance to shake free and run, so I squeezed my eyes shut to block out the swirling stone and opened them to a large chamber of dug out stone.

My arm, held above my head, throbbed, so I tried to pull it back, but I was stopped by the jingling of chains. It took so much effort just to lift my chin to look above me, the few inches of movement feeling like I was fighting through molasses, but I still looked up to see my right arm, covered in dark something, trapped in an iron band and chained to the wall of the cave. I gave my arm a tug and the chain came taught immediately. I wanted to cry, but the most I could muster was a weak whimper as I adjusted to get a little more slack and a peeling burn tore its way through the backs of my legs. It felt like I was sitting on broken glass and grit that I'd somehow been glued to.

I gasped, falling forward and clenched my eyes closed to block out the pain only to wrench them open with a piercing howl as a rough, wet something dragged across the backs of my thighs. I pulled away, leaning forward on my knees and pressed myself against the wall to escape the blindingly painful torture, but the thing scraped down my ass again, dragging out another choked shriek. My head dipped and I clenched my eyes, but a tiny, thin-fingered hand slapped gently across my cheek and startled me back up.

"Pale One no sleep. Pale One hurt. If Pale One close eyes, they maybe die." I looked down, my unfocused eyes desperately trying to zero in on the fuzzy grey mass situated between me and the wall, but it was so hard to make out details. My vision was still swimming, so I just needed to let my eyes rest for just a moment, then everything would right itself again, so I blinked slowly only for another, much firmer slap to force me to stare at the little face nearly pressed against mine.

"This One said no sleep! Pale One understand?" I whimpered, trying to focus on the little creature in front of me, but everything just hurt so much. My legs still felt like they'd been ripped to shreds, though the sensation of glass and gravel was gone, and my arm was long past losing most feeling. If it wasn't so dark in here I'd have been afraid to look up at it, so instead I leaned closer to the face only for it to shift away from me. I blinked, was slapped, then wrenched away only to realize that whatever kept slapping and talking to me was clinging to the shredded remnants of my blouse. "Pale One talk?"

I squinted at her, but my eyes were so heavy and I was so tired, so I let my eyes droop just for a moment, then snapped them back open when that tiny hand stung my cheek again. "Sssstop…" I wanted to glare at this thing for slapping me, but I was having trouble keeping my thoughts together long enough to even stay focused on it despite it literally clinging to me.

"Good-Good! Pale One talk This One! This One called Kikita. Who Pale One called?" I saw a flash of white in the beastly amorphous blob that was this grey creature before my head and body became too heavy to hold up and steady and I fell backwards only to be held up by the chain I could barely feel locked around my arm. I heard an urgent "No slee-" before I had to close my eyes again. The world spinning around me was making me sick and I had to shut it out, or I'd almost certainly vomit on this thing and all over myself and I didn't want that.

I opened my eyes again when I heard voices talking, one nasal and deep, the other cute, quiet, and squeaky, but I couldn't see what was making them and I just didn't have the strength to look around. There was a low growl from somewhere in this shittily lit room, then the deep voice, one I felt like I'd heard before, barked out, "We told you fix her! Gave you water and cloth, but she not fixed!"

The squeaky voice, quivering but surprisingly firm, shot back softly. "This One not nursemaid! Pale One hurt bad, not good. Pale One arm hurt, legs hurt, head hurt. Much pain. Ugly One need let go!"

There was a literal bark and squeak as a crack echoed around me, and I blinked slowly and opened my eyes and stared across the floor. The stone was almost freezing against my bare chest, my arm felt like there were needles trying to claw their way out of my skin, and the chill air bit at the raw, open skin on my backside, but, thankfully, there was something soft and warm I was resting my head against. It felt like the most wonderful pillow I'd ever rested my head against, plush with just enough firmness to keep me from sinking down too far, and it was wonderfully fuzzy, like one of those mink-fur jackets.

I groaned and tried to look around, but my body was too stiff, so I settled for staring at the bare, rough stone wall only to flinch when my pillow moved. "Pale One wake?" My eyes crossed as a small, grey face leaned right up in mine, and I had to blink several times to bring the blurry image into focus until I was staring into the big, bright-red eyes of a mouse. It was small, with big, membranous, pointed ears almost like a bat's, a long, tapered muzzle complete with tiny pink nose with whiskers and sharp buck teeth. It looked familiar, like I should recognize it from somewhere, but I couldn't focus my thoughts on why. They were distant and unclear, like I was trying to peek at them through a frosted window from across the road, so instead I blinked and forced my good arm underneath me to get just a little leverage and peel myself off the cold stone.

"No! Pale One stay. No move. Move bad. Pale One hurt. Head pain. No sleep, yes?" The high-pitched, squeaky voice sounded like I was hearing it through a cup held over my ears, but even as broken as the words and sentences were, I could at least understand it. Still, I couldn't piece together my thoughts enough to form a response, so I just stared up at the tiny mouse creature while my arm shook, struggling to hold me up, and got a real good look at it.

Her.

It was definitely a her. Her body was slim with dainty looking shoulders and thin arms that grew hairless and rough looking at her elbow down to her long, boney fingers. Her torso thickened out into plump, wide hips that were clearly shaped for birthing and her legs were wide and furry from her thighs down to the… knee? Then they thinned down into the almost scaley, thin-toed feet like her forearms. Looking over her and her worm tail, a thought occurred to me, and barring some more distinctly mousey details in the face, she looked like a grey-furred, red-eyed doppelganger to that field mouse from that one Don Bluth movie I'd seen as a kid, though from her current demeanor she seemed nowhere near as shy as that mouse had been.

The mouse tilted her head, then stood to her full height, a meager couple of feet, and squatted down right in front of me. "Pale One okay? Pale One talk?" From here, with her face once more right up in mine and as clearly in focus as it could be with my head still somewhat spinning, I could see a terrible looking gash on her right cheek that looked like it'd been poorly washed and still wet with blood.

"W-w-what happened…" I paused, wincing as even the vibrations of my voice shot needles into my skull, then took a breath. "Your f-fa-f-face?"

The mouse squeaked, putting one of her tiny hands to the cut, and sat back down before cupping my head and leading it down into her lap. "This One speak back. Punished." I winced as her fingers traced over a tender part in my hair. "You hurt more. Need water. Cloth. Clean. Feel better, yes?" I nodded, but I couldn't piece together why I was injured, why the backs of my legs felt like somebody had taken razors to them. I remembered running, but then…

It was all a blank. Still, I'd been helped and, even if I couldn't figure out what had happened, I appreciated what this mouse had done for me. "Th-th-thank you." I smiled and I'm sure it was a pitiful sight considering just how weak it felt, but the little thing still lit up like the sun. I settled back into my place on her lap, letting myself go slack, and closed my eyes only to receive a sharp slap across my cheek, then shot a sharp, and likely not intimidating, glare up at her. "H-hey, wh-what was th-th-that f-for?"

"Pale One no sleep. Hurt bad. Head hurt." She pointed at where she'd touched earlier, her eyes stern and voice gentle, but firm. "No. Sleep."

I wanted to roll my eyes at her, but couldn't really muster the effort. I knew that I was hurt, but why shouldn't I sleep? That's how you're supposed to weather out injuries. Despite still being exhausted, I didn't argue it, because I got the distinct feeling that if I tried to just sleep anyway I'd just earn myself another slap, so instead I tried to look around as much of this barren cave as I could with my limited range. "S-s-so where are we? H-ha-how'd I-I-I get h-here?"

The mouse tilted her head and scrunched her face up like she was thinking, then nodded quickly. "This Maushöhle. Home. Was home. No more…" Her voice dipped as she continued talking before trailing off completely and it hurt to hear.

"Wh-what h-hap-p-pened?"

Her big, expressive ears folded and a look of pure loss washed over her, but she still motioned with one of her thin hands and seemed to be working up the words before answering. "No know. Bad dogs come, This One help Other Ones run. This One stay. Get caught. Surrender. Let escape. This One give all for Other Ones. Little Ones. Always more queens. Other Ones important." At that, she smiled again, and I felt that little tug at my heart that I felt whenever Ysa and Lulu and… Whenever they smiled at me. It filled me with a comforting warmth, like they were telling me everything would be fine and that they'd do everything they could to be sure of it.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry." It was just a common platitude, meant to show her that I wanted to make her feel better like she'd been doing for me, but I didn't really feel like it was enough. She deserved more, so I reached out and patted her rat-like hand. "H-hey, I'm s-s-sure that they're d-doing o-o-o-okay. I-I-I b-bet that th-they…" I paused as I looked up at her, that little note of recognition finally clicking on in my brain. She was still just smiling down at me as beatifically, if a little tiredly, as before, but I couldn't bring myself to finish my thought. All I could see was the horde of rotting rats and mice climbing over themselves to get to Ysa, Silk, and me and what that meant for what this little mouse had done. She'd given up her freedom for them, but they'd…

"Pale One? You okay? Hurt?" I blinked immediately started wiping the tears off my face while the little grey mouse fretted over me, her tiny claws gently prodding in myriad places.

"N-no… I'm… n-n… okay." The words teasing like bile in my mouth, and the thought of what I knew that she didn't made my stomach heave, but I couldn't say anything. How was I supposed to tell her that she'd saved her people from captivity only for them to be killed and used like puppets? It would just be cruel.

And that thought turned me towards my own situation. I didn't know where I was, where my friends were, nor even how I'd gotten here. The whole… I blinked. How long had I been here? It couldn't have been long, because surely Lulu would have found me by now if it had been any extended period of time, and… Another darker thought wormed its way into my brain and I tried to block it out, but… I couldn't not humor it.

What if they couldn't find me? I had no idea where we were going to before my memory well just faded, and I couldn't remember why or where or how far I'd run off. What if I'd run somewhere they couldn't find me? What if whatever brought me here had dragged me for miles and miles? A pit formed in my stomach. What if… they had found me, but… whatever brought me here…

My gut wrenched and I barely had enough time to lean forward before I retched and spilled a foul, almost tar-like sludge across the stone next to the mouse's legs. She squeaked, the muscles in her thighs tensing up, then jumped to her feet and held my head as I vomited up another wave of bile into the growing pool on the ground.

"No-no! Not good! You sick? Come-come! Need move!" My stomach clenched as she struggled to drag me away from the pool, and I spit up one last glob of tar before she had me moved off a couple feet from it, panting heavily from the effort of moving my considerably larger mass. I felt like a sack of shit for making her do it, but I appreciated it nonetheless and it helped to distract me from…

Her hands cupped my cheeks while she crouched in front of me, turning my head this way and that before finally sighing with relief and dropping to her haunches. "No scare This One." She leaned back, tiny red eyes closing, before turning to stare at the foul-smelling puddle of sludge-covered… something I'd just spit up, concern very evident on her face. "That no good. Pale One very sick, yes? Need nursing?"

I leaned over and spit out a glob of rank, tainted saliva, then fell back into her hands and shook my head. "No, just…" I groaned. I didn't want to think about what happened, or might have happened, or will happen, but it was all I had to occupy my thoughts. I was fucking terrified and in agonizing pain from my right shoulder to my feet, and, on top of all of that, I could feel the creeping migraine worming its way into my skull, overpowering the dull throbbing from the wound on my head. "N-not good. I hurt… e-ev-everywh-where."

The girl nodded, frowning, then looked me over. "Arm okay?" She reached over, placing her hand against my shoulder and I winced as the feeling of needles multiplied tenfold. "Arm bad. This One make better, yes?" I wanted to protest, but she had already set my head gently against the cave floor. There was a little shuffling behind me, but before I could lift myself to turn around I felt my blouse being pulled off.

I yelped and grabbed at the sleeve as it was tugged down past my hand, but the mouse carefully pried my fingers apart. "Need cloth. Rest head." I didn't have much choice considering how easily she was able to manipulate my hand, but my incapability to stop her only made me feel more vulnerable, more exposed despite the fact that my shirt had already been torn and practically useless.

After a few seconds, she lifted my head back up and then settled me back down on my shirt, still dirty but folded enough that I wasn't going to be breathing in dirt. I mumbled out a pitiful "Thanks…"and got a squeak in return that sounded like she'd said 'bitter'. It was embarrassing to be exposed like this again, but… at least I wouldn't be wholly uncomfortable and the little extra cushion was already helping to alleviate the throbbing from my head wound. As soon as she had me settled, making sure I was as comfortable as possible, she scurried around out of sight. The only warning I had before the sensation of being repeatedly stabbed by molten nails down my arm was the faint popping of joints from my right.

She pressed her hands, tiny as they were, deep into my shoulder and I screamed in immediate agony, my vision spinning as stars burst behind my crushed shut eyelids. I could've swore that I had pleaded for her to stop, but she kept shoving her bony little digits into me like she couldn't hear a word I was saying and reached under me to get at the epicenter of the piercing, needling feeling. I almost blacked out as molten fire blossomed out across my breast, searing deep into the tissue. She moved down my arm, leaving a trail of blisteringly hot padprints wherever she pressed and kneaded, until she had my hand in hers, squeezing and rubbing circles into my palms.

I gasped and panted, sucking in air as my head spun, but the pain was over and, much to my surprise, the needling sensation in my arm had faded down to a slightly numbed throb. "Good?"

Her little face peeked down at me, concern marring the cuteness of her visage, and peeled my sweat matted hair out of my face. It took me several moments to find my voice again. "Wh-what… d-d-di-id you d-do?"

She smiled, a little sigh escaping her, and most of the concern eased out of her features, though there was still that trace there that any empathetic person would have when dealing with a child. "This One rub. Mother say This One rub good. Good, yes?"

I twitched my fingers, just barely grasping one of hers and finally feeling more in them than just pain, then offered up a slight nod. "Y-yeah… Better." I closed my eyes. It didn't make my growing migraine, the throb in my skull, or the sharp burn in my legs whenever I tensed up go away, but it was definitely better. Every little bit, right?

"No sleep." She didn't stop massaging my hand, but I still heard the authority in her voice that assured me that she would most certainly slap me awake again if she ever suspected that I was trying to doze off, so I bobbed my head.

My thoughts started to wander again now that I wasn't overwhelmed by the sensations in my body and I kept coming back to how I got here and how I'd get out, and those eventually turned back towards… I didn't want to think about any of those possibilities, but what else was there? I was alone again. Trapped. I… I'd had the thought before that, maybe, everything would end up okay with Ysa and Lulabelle and Silk with me, but… Looking around at this dark, barren cave, at the shadows of faint light flickering and dancing on the walls, and at what little of my beaten body that I could see with my limited movement, that little bit of hope for happiness I'd had was-

I snapped up, my body going rigid at the sound of raspy, nasal beating behind me and finally noticed the shuffling of bare feet across stone. I turned ever so slightly and looked up at the lumbering form of a misshapen dog, its face almost flat with a large, jutting lower jaw that housed disgusting yellowed canines. Its body was like an inverse pyramid with a thick, muscled torso and arms while its legs, though not atrophied, were short and stocky, almost looking like they shouldn't be able to carry this thing's obvious bulky weight. It wore an almost comically small cloak, tattered and torn as if it had been found in a dumpster a decade ago and never been tended to or even washed once. I might have even found it humorous if it didn't highlight just how huge this guy was… And how naked he was otherwise.

Like a moth to the flames, my eyes were inevitably drawn down to the hairy, almost bulbous package between his dirty-brown legs and the bit of red peeking out of its sheath. I could feel my throat tightening and breathing cooking short, shallow gasps as it stepped closer until it was standing over me, presenting right in my face. I must have whimpered or something, because the little mouse squeezed my hand tighter.

"You work now." He leaned over me, huge, thick nailed hand reaching out, and, grabbing me by my left arm, hefted me off the ground. I nearly blacked out as the room spun and my arm was practically pulled out of its socket. I dangled there for several seconds, dazed with pain, before my brain snapped back to the present and I kicked and squirmed, trying to find my footing.

"Put down! She no work! Hurt bad!" I almost couldn't hear the mouse's shrieking over the roar of pain pounding in my skull and it was only made worse by the jostling from the dog's movements as he held me.

"She no work, she be use other way."

My blood ran cold as he sniffed my hair and that sick, sinking feeling I had before from just looking at him nearly stopped my heart. "I'll work! P-pl-p-please… let m-m-me wo-work…"

As I dangled, I looked into this thing's eyes and pleaded with all the desperation I could muster in my half daze. I didn't know if it would recognize the terror seizing in my chest, but I had to have hope. The alternative was… I swallowed the lump in my throat and fought down the urge to vomit.

"She work." I couldn't stop the sigh as relief flooded through me. It didn't stop the tight ache of fear in my breast, nor did it unclench the sickening knot in my stomach. "You work, rat." The little mouse's ears dipped, but she still nodded. I felt terrible for her despite the terror squeezing my heart. She looked so detected, resigned to her fate. "Come."

The dog thing dropped me to my feet gracelessly and I had to struggle to keep my legs from buckling underneath me. My legs shook and my knees knocked together as I stood there and tried to catch my breath, but the beast had other plans. I stumbled and lost my footing as it snatched my arm back up and would have cracked my head on the stone floor if it didn't hold me off the ground. I screamed in pain as my arm twisted at the sudden stop and my knees scraped across the rocky ground as I was dragged towards this room's mouth.

"Halt! Stop now! You hurt Pale One!" I whimpered, thankful that I was given even a brief respite from having my knees torn apart, and it clicked in my brain just why the backs of my legs hurt so much.

The ugly dog-thing turned and glared at the mouse, and my body twisted, shoving my face into its foul-smelling fur, before I could get my feet under myself again. "Why should Hopper care? Little bitch just slave. You slave too."

It was surprising to see the tiny mouse girl, barely coming up to this brute's knee, standing firm in the face of its obvious power, but she still glared up at it defiantly. "No hurt. This One no make better too hurt. Too hurt no work." She paused, eyes flashing apologetically my way. "Too hurt no breed."

I swallowed the sickening feeling that rose in my throat while the breast growled menacingly. It was clearly thinking over her words, seemingly struggling between that and maintaining its threatening presence. Several long, tense seconds passed before the dog-thing lashed out with his free hand, striking the mouse across the face and knocking her to the floor. I yelped, tears stinging my eyes as she shakily tried to rise back to her feet, dazed. "No talk back. You work now." My captor yanked on me again, pulling me by the arm as I staggeringly followed behind. Though still forceful and clearly agitated, he was considerably gentler than before.

The fuzzy girl looked back at me and smiled lopsidedly, eyes unfocused as crimson strained her grey fur from a fresh cut across her cheek, then shuffled into line behind us. She seemed like she was having trouble staying steady, and I wanted to stop and try to help her, like she had by sticking up for me, but one look at the hulking mass of muscle tugging at me by my arm quashed those feelings of chivalry into the ground. I couldn't bring myself to face his ire. I didn't want him to hit me.

I was a fucking disgrace. Ysa and Lulabelle and Daliah were wrong. This little mouse had taken a blow to the head just to make sure I wasn't being treated like a hunk of meat, yet I was too fucking worried about myself, about what he might do to me, to even check to see if she was okay.

But that wasn't even the worst part of it. What stung even more was that I knew just how shitty I was being, that I could change it, but wouldn't for my own sake. It just drove the fact that I was a selfish coward even further home. After everything Ysa and Lulabelle and Daliah and Silk had done for me, I should be better than this, but… I wasn't. I couldn't be. I was terrified and in so much pain. I didn't think I'd even be able to do what this thing wanted me to do, but I was even more horrified by the alternative. Even thinking about it made the squirming weight in my gut go apeshit.

My thoughts were cut short when I finally stumbled into a new room, another cave much more massive than one I woke up in. The walls had been carved out to create a cavern big enough to fit a large village with a multitude of little nooks and crannies carved even further into the rock. There were signs that there had been things living here, like bits of torn cloth, tiny tools, and even a few things that looked like they could've, at some point, been some sort of toy, but those broken scraps were all that was left of this little glimpse of civilisation.

Now the place was clustered with carts and wagons filled with broken stone mined from the walls by the dozen or so doglike things like the one that had dragged me here. Many of them were at the walls, striking over and over against the rock with pickaxes, ruining the previously smooth walls and littering the floor with rock shards and dust. As we stepped into the middle of the room, next to a petite canine who, while still sharing the ugly and slightly malformed looking features of the rest of its kind, was clearly female, one of the dogs mining at the walls stopped, sniffed at the rocks he'd been working on, then barked. Others joined it, beginning to pick away at the cave wall, until the stone fell away to reveal a huge cluster of brilliant blue gemstones. They all rushed to work, chipping away at the rock around the cluster, while the dog that had pulled me in her thrust something against my chest.

I grunted as another pickaxe was dropped into my arms, and looked up at my captor. It pointed at an empty spot on the wall, between another female and a stumpy-looking male. "You work. Mine. Find gems."

I swallowed. The tool was heavy, easily weighing almost five pounds, and my arms shook just holding onto it. Just looking at it and the grueling effort the dog-things were putting in reinforced my fears. I wasn't going to last long. I couldn't even imagine lasting an hour before I-

I stumbled forward as the dog shoved me from behind and almost pitched face first into the ground as my head spun from the sudden rush. I swallowed my nausea, gripping the haft of the pickaxe in awkward hands, and shuffled over to the empty space. My hands shook as I looked around, trying to look for the little mouse, to have at least one slightly friendly face, but she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I turned back to watch how the others worked, trying to get at least some idea of what to do from them, while I fought down the panic creeping and clawing into my brain.

I was alone again, this time in a place with creatures that couldn't care less about me. They just wanted to use me, for work or… worse, and I had no avenue of escape. I didn't have any hint of how these caverns and tunnels were connected, or how they reached outside, and the little mouse girl, the only friendly thing here that might know where to go, didn't seem to have any desire to try and run. She'd resigned herself to this life, to slavery under these dogs, and…

I couldn't blame her.

They were terrifying. Each one, even the miniatures, rippled with muscle as they moved, a testament to just how much mining and digging they did. Many of them towered over me like monstrous gorillas, and all of them were larger than the poor mouse. They clearly knew these tunnels well considering how freely and nonchalantly they came and went with tools and carts in tow. They didn't seem smart, if the one that had fetched me was any indication, but that didn't mean anything when their sheer number could make up that difference. All of that was enough to convince my already terrified thoughts away from the possibility of escape, but what really cemented the hopelessness of any attempt, the most terrifying aspect of my situation, was just how little these things even cared about each other.

Whenever one of the dogs, an almost malnourished-looking thing barely taller than me, dropped his pick to massage his arms and rest, one of the overseers was on him immediately, barking orders to get back to work and beating him almost insensate when he didn't. If they treated each other like this, and the little mouse as poorly as they had just for talking back, then I didn't want to imagine-

Pain blossomed back up in my skull, quickly replacing the full throb that it had thankfully settled into, and I slammed against the cave wall with a breathless grunt. Above me, another overseer, an almost-brown-haired mutt comparable in size to the one that dragged me here, growled and pointed to my feet. I blearily looked down at where the pickaxe I'd been holding now lay and bent down to retrieve it, fighting back the sudden sense of vertigo that beastly sent me pitching forward onto my face and the tears stinging at my eyes.

The menacing beast watched as I hiccuped, turned back to the wall and, with shaking hands and tearful sniffles, lifted the tool above my head. I nearly stumbled back at the shift of weight, only catching myself by the grace of whatever terrible god was watching me struggle, then swung the pickaxe forward.

Tang.

The thing twisted in my weak grip, glancing off the stone and doing little more than flaking off some dust while the vibrations from the hit crawled up my arms.

I winced, gripping the haft more steadily so that I wouldn't drop it again, and took a deep, staggered breath. It hurt. I felt those vibrations in my skull still, rattling my brain and agitating the wound on my head, and my hands were already starting to burn where they were holding the old wood. I was right. I wasn't going to be able to do this. I was going to be…

Tink.

I gripped the handle low, lifted it high, then struck again. This time I hit somewhat solidly, the blunted tip peppering me with bits of stone and dust, and the vibrations were more subdued, but that burn in my palms was much more pronounced. This was bullshit. I shouldn't be here, forced to mine some cave for some stupid fucking dog things so they wouldn't ra… I swallowed, bringing the pick back to swing. I didn't want to even think it. I thought that maybe if I didn't say it, fully acknowledge it, it wouldn't be real. It wouldn't happen if I didn't tempt it, even if I didn't meet their standards here.

Tink.

The tool struck and the stinging fire in my hands grew into a burning ache in my arms and shoulders. I hissed, wanting to stop and soothe my palms, let my arms rest, but I knew what would happen if I did. Even if it didn't happen, they'd still beat me, and that'd be worse than this. That last smack had almost knocked me senseless and I didn't know if I could suffer another, so I grit my teeth and pulled back.

Tink.

The weight of the pickaxe was awkward, but luckily its own weight did most of the work for me on the downswing. The dust and chips pelted me again as sweat caked the spatterings of debris to my face and neck and breasts. Another swing and I barely had the faculties to even think of how exposed I was, but I was still thankful that nothing here seemed to notice or pay it any heed. I was already wallowing in the shame of just turning over for these things.

I should've been stronger than this. 

Tink.

My mom wouldn't have just given up like me. She would've stuck up for herself. Fought until she couldn't.

Tink.

Lulabelle and Ysa would have escaped by now. They were so cool and strong. These things wouldn't have stood a chance.

Tink.

I… I couldn't… I wasn't going to… I'm gonna be-

Clang.

My arms quaked, my shoulders shaking, as tears spilled down my face. My body was getting heavy, my arms turning to lead with each swing, and I couldn't get the thoughts out of my head. I dropped the pickaxe with a noisome clatter to wipe my face as I started to openly weep between a pair of surly-looking canine-things. This was it. I wasn't going to get out of this. Nobody was coming to rescue me. No matter how much Ysa, and Lulabelle, and Daliah said that they cared, I wasn't worth the risk of coming here to save. I wouldn't last and then they'd r-ra…

My vision went dark for a fraction of a second when something solid cracked hard against the back of my head, and I slumped against the wall while the muffled sounds of metal striking stone and incomprehensibly barked words continued around me. I felt like I was falling even though I could feel myself laying motionless against the solid stone.

I tasted blood as I was pulled back to my feet and wavered in place while I tried to reorient myself, but I didn't even get a chance to before the overseer was in my face barking at me, his rancid breath making my already-churning stomach do backflips to try and make me vomit all of the nothing left in me. 

"No whine! You work now!"

The pickaxe was thrust back into my already blistering hands, a monument to just how unfit for this I was, and I was forced back to work, trying to keep my crying quiet.

Tink.

My whole body shuddered and my throbbing skull flared. I could barely see straight, but I had to keep going. I didn't have a choice. They were going to make me.

Tink.

Or else.

Tink…

Tink…

…

Tink…

…

…

Tink…

…

…

Ti-clang…