9 Months Ago

“Alright boss, what's on the schedule today?” Ruby asked when we entered the briefing room. Brutus stood at the front, looking way more serious than I'd have expected. Crackshot, Lily and two others I didn't know sat around a table. “Oh, sorry, are we late?' Ruby asked, looking embarrassed now.

“No, we're just starting,” Lily said before Brutus could say otherwise, “now sit down, this is apparently important.”

We sat quickly and Brutus cleared his throat. “Alright, so we have gotten a request for aid from a group of slaves,” he started, “it seems there is an old mansion about two hours flight north by northwest of here that is a brutal training facility. This request is coming from the Changeling Chrystaline. It seems that after she refused the Enclave they sold her into slavery. She escaped and came to us to beg our help saving the others in the facility, some of them still very young.”

“So what's the plan?” Crackshot asked.

“We're going to pose as a slaves being brought in by a slaver, looking to have them trained properly,” he sighed softly, looking away from Lily, who had the strangest look of glee on her face, “they are sex slave trainers.”

Ruby gasped softly and shook her head. “Nope, nope nope nope nope!” She said, wheeling back from her seat, almost falling to the floor before she remembered her wings and caught herself. “I refuse. I cannot pose as a slave, let alone a sex slave.” She sounded terrified, and justifiably so.

“Ruby, calm down.” Brutus said, coming over and putting his forelegs on her shoulders, sitting her back in her chair. “You don't have to be a slave. Cane and I are going to be the slaves.”

“WHAT?!” Ruby, Crackshot and I all exclaimed, and Lily cracked up.

“They train males to serve female owners.” Brutus said, standing back in front of the group. “Lily is going to pose as our owner. Cane you're going to be a preexisting slave, I'm going to pose as a new acquisition that Lily is mad isn't into mares.” Lily was still laughing. “LIL!” Brutus snapped and she straightened up. “Sorry hon...it's just...BAHAHAHA!” She fell out of her chair laughing again and Brutus rolled his eyes, throwing a magic bubble over her, muting her laughter.

“We're going to be outfitted with customized slave collars that we can use as weapons, we're going to get in and we're going to start a hell of a fireworks show and we're going to break as many slaves out as we can.”

“And we're going to get away how?” I asked, not impressed that this was all planned with no consultation from me before the decisions were made.

“These two.” Brutus said, gesturing to the two bucks that had said nothing this whole time. “This is Dead Shot,” he pointed to the first, a unicorn with a scar over his left cheek and some kind of red glowing cybernetic replacement in place of his eye, “and Bulls Eye,” he was also a unicorn, but his horn was gone, shaved down to nothing more than a simple raised bump on his forehead, a targeting sight carved into the flattened surface of his horn. “They're two of the best snipers in the wasteland. They were...conscripted...by The Pyros back in the day, and we're calling in their debt to us from saving them. They're going to cover our escape route from the roof of the sky wagon. Ruby I'd like you to pilot but you don't have to have any part in this if you don't want to.”

“No no...I can fly, just so long as I'm not being asked to participate in the plan itself I'm fine.”

“Okay good. So you and Lily will pilot our arrival and our escape. We're going to use one of the larger transports that we acquired from the Pyros. We can carry 40 ponies comfortably, and almost triple that uncomfortably if they don't mind standing and sharing.”

“Do we have the resources to take on that many new bodies?” Crackshot asked.

“We're hoping to have them under our care for no more than a day or two. Ever since Red Eye and his organization was destroyed by the Stable Dweller a few months ago the slavery game has been in chaos, and there have been massive strides made in the reunification of slaves with their families and friends. Ditzy Doo has been travelling the wasteland doing shipping runs and selling her Wasteland Survival Guide, and she has started carrying an ever growing database of ponies, both those looking for former slaves and those who are former slaves. Names, Cutie Marks, where they can be found, whole thing. Cane acquired a copy of the list for The Collective archives so hopefully we'll be able to use it to reunite a lot of ponies.”

Crackshot nodded, happy with that answer.

“Alright any questions?” Brutus asked. I could think of a number of half questions, but nothing solid.

“Alright perfect, Lily, Ruby, you two go with Dead Shot and Bulls Eye so they can prep the top of the sky wagon to be their sniper perch, and you can prep the sky wagon at the same time. Cane you come with me and Crackshot and we're going to get ready.

The group split up and headed out of the room.

“You don't think it might have been a good idea to at least consult me on this plan before implementing it?” I asked Brutus as we walked down the hallway.

“Told ya he'd be mad.” Crackshot smirked.

“Look Cane I'm in charge of this team and I don't wanna pull rank...” He started but I cut him off.

“You CAN'T pull rank, I'm not only the same RANK as you, I'm the head of the tech department for the whole organization and despite Venture's abilities with the systems they are still my custom built works and he can run into problems he can't fix without me.”

“I'm aware of that but there was no time to bring everypony in on the planning, we had to act quickly...”

“And what about CB?” I continued, “what if I die on this mission? She'll never forgive you if you got me killed and I had no chance to talk to her. She's on that class trip right now, they're going to the store we raided to see how the storage conversion is going and learn about how markets are set up, it's not like I can just go pull her out and say goodbye, if you'd talked me ahead of time or consulted me I could have talked to her up front too, and that's to say nothing of the foal growing in your best friend's stomach who might never know it's father, or it's uncle if we really fuck up and you get killed too.”

“Yeah but...”

“No buts, I understand the gravity of the situation and I'm going to go along with this because it's the right thing to do, but you better think before you commit me to something this risky next time.”

He didn't say anything more as we walked down the hall and into the armoury.

“Ahh, about time.” An older pony stood up from a desk off to the side of the room. Dozens of weapons lined the walls in locked cases, along with some strange looking things laid out on tables. I recognized some of it as disassembled weapons and components.

“Sorry sir.” Brutus said, standing at attention at the desk.

“Oh relax Brute Force,” The buck laughed, “I'm here to serve you, not the other way around.”

He got up and walked around us slowly. “Alright perfect, I can work with this. Lose the armour and the saddlebags, and you,” he pointed at me, “lose the pipbuck. Slaves don't get pipbucks where you're going.”

We stepped back and pulled off our armour, setting it down. Crackshot rounded it up for us and put it in a locker.

“Now a little make up.” He pushed us on to a small shower area that looked like it had been swiped from a decontamination room. We both stood in the tiled alcove and water started to pour down for just a moment before stopping again. “Alright and part two, hold your breath.”

“Wha..?” I was cut off as a massive cloud of dust shot up at us from the floor and down from the ceiling at the same time. “ACK!” I got a mouthful of dust, coughing and spitting.

“Good job dumb ass.” Brutus laughed, shaking off the excess dust as hard as he could, leaving him looking like he was caked with grime and grossness. I did the same and was surprised to have achieved a similar effect.

We stepped out of the stall and Crackshot and the other pony started hitting us with towels, knocking off the extra excess dust and making it look less faked.

“Again, not what I was expecting...” I sighed, looking at my nice blue coat, all dull and dusty and gross.

“Oh quit your belly aching melon head.” Crackshot said, flapping the towel in my face. “You can have a nice long shower with your loving marefriend as soon as you get back.”

“Now here is the part that you really need to pay attention to.” The buck said, moving to a table covered with random electronic parts. He pulled three slave collars from the mess and moved to a clear table.

“These are Amazonian slave collars. They were a slaver group about 10 years ago; before they were absorbed by Red Eye. Most of the ponies you're likely to encounter out there are going to be former members of that group. They might actually be reforming the group now that Red Eye's organization has dissolved. They specialized in male training much like this group claims to so it's a good bet.”

The collars were heavy duty metal with three indicator lights, one green, one blue, one red. on the side and a locking clasp at the back with a padlock on it. No pony could ever hope to pick a lock like that if they were wearing the collar, the design made it impossible to get a clear view of it.

“So normally the collar would be locked into place on the neck,” he flipped one open and showed us how the hinge in the front swung open, dozens of wires and gems were visible inside the collar. “This one is unmodified. It's controlled remotely or by pressing on one of the lights, which double as buttons. The collar also has magic suppression built into it so a unicorn can't escape. Now you're going to want to make sure you remember this next part. We've modified your collars, obviously, we've removed the magic suppression and we've dialled back the punishment system.” He paused when the door opened and we looked up to see Ruby and Lily coming into the room.

“Oh would you look at our handsome bucks.” Lily giggled, coming over and looking us over. “You do good work Quartermaster.” She grinned at the older buck, and I realized I hadn't heard his name until now.

“Thank you Lilith,” he nodded, “now as I was saying, we have dialled back the punishment system in the collars.” He continued from where he'd left off. “Put these on.” He held out two collars and Brutus and I each took one and put it on. It felt somewhat constrictive but it wasn't overly uncomfortable or anything. Of course if it had to be worn forever it was probably in the designers best interest to at least make it somewhat comfortable. “So, under normal circumstances the collar has a wide range of pain settings.”

He held up a remote and pressed a button on it. I saw the first light on Brutus's collar turn from green to yellow and I could see on his face that he saw the same, then another press turned it red, and another purple, then back to green.

“Green is a mild full body pain, we made it little more than a tickle.” He pushed the button and I felt the strangest rush of energy, but nothing unpleasant. “So fake some agonized groaning if you feel that.”

He changed it to yellow and pressed the button again, this time I felt the same sensation, stronger and kind of uncomfortable this time. “Actual pain, I'd suggest crying out.”

He switched it to red and I felt a real ache run through me, as though all my muscles were cramping at once. “You should collapse from that one, lie there panting and groaning.”

Finally it turned purple and he hit it and I felt real pain shoot through me, actually making me gasp loudly. “If you feel that, scream and play dead.” Quartermaster said bluntly. “It's the kill setting.”

“You got it boss.” I nodded, shifting uncomfortably, “what do the other lights mean?”

“The blue light is a reward system,” he explained, “since it's not painful we just left it as is.”

“How does it work?” Brutus asked.

“Lilith, come here.” Quartermaster said, she walked over slowly and he held the controller out to her, “point the controller at Brute Force and press that button.” He said with just the slightest of sly smiles.

Lily looked at the controller and grinned wickedly.

“What? What is it?” Brutus asked, looking concerned.

“Ruby come here...you gotta see this too.”

Ruby wandered over and looked at the controller and giggled softly. “Do it.” She nodded.

“Wait, what does it, AHHHH!” Brutus cried out and fell to his knees, whinnying softly, panting hard.

“Brutus?” I stepped towards him but Ruby turned the controller in Lily's grip to face me and she hit the button.

I...can't really describe it...imagine the purest bliss you've ever felt, total contentment, happiness and peace with the world, nothing to worry about, a total euphoria that could never be disrupted...mixed with the most mind numbing orgasm you've ever had...

I must have blanked out because I found myself in a heap against Brutus, panting just as hard as him, coming down from a blissful high the likes of which I had never known, both Lily and Ruby in a heap on the floor, laughing hysterically.

“You're...gonna pay...for that...” Brutus grumbled, pushing himself up slowly. I stayed where I was for a moment longer before I pushed myself to my hooves again, trying to bring my breathing down to a proper level again.

“Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way,” Quartermaster continued, pretending as though none of it had happened, “we have to discuss the last little feature of your new fashion accessories.” He reached up and pulled my collar off, not by the locked spot at the back, but by tugging on the sides, pulling it apart on the left and right instead of front and back. The collar came away in two pieces, all the interconnecting parts visible, but no wires or crystals like the real collar.

He spun one around and hit some small part inside the collar and a ruby bolt of laser energy fired out, scorching the wall.

“Holy shit.” Lily gasped, looking at it in amazement.

“They break apart into two laser pistols, equal in strength to the basic laser pistols you can find all over the wasteland. More than enough to hold your own in a fire fight, and borrowing some ideas from Doctor Cane's modified pistols we've incorporated Arcano-Kinetic rechargers so you can spin them to keep the clips charged instead of having to worry about reloading or running out of ammo while behind enemy lines.”

“Perfect.” Brutus nodded, snapping his own collar off the same way and studying it curiously, nodding to himself as he got a feel for the small holdout blasters.

“Alright I think that's everything.” Quartermaster nodded, sliding my collar back around my neck and into place. I took a moment to familiarize myself with unlocking it and bringing it to bear.

“Wait just one more thing.” Brutus said. He turned to me and let out a breath slowly.

“What are you...OW! YOU BASTARD!” I had been about to ask him what he was doing when he hauled off and clocked me in the face.

“Brutus what the hell?!” Lily snapped, throwing up a barrier between us.

“A little battle scarring.” He explained, “gotta have him looking well worn.”

“AGAIN WARN ME!” I bellowed, storming off away from him and starting for the door. “Thank you for the help Quartermaster. I'll try to return the collar intact.”

“Thank you,” he replied, “oh, and you can just call me Q.”

I nodded and stormed off out of the room.