Quite a pickle. Let's assess;

Rarity is here. You know, the one with the annoying voice you should be plotting to eventually murder? Anyway, you look very different than you did the last time she saw you. Hope you either have a good excuse or a good plan to dispose of her very quickly! Also Zecora has woken up and you don't know if she forgives you. Maybe she does and she sympathizes. Maybe she doesn't and it's time to see how sharp that horn of yours is. If she does forgive you, maybe she can come up with an excuse for your differing appearance for you. Oh, and let's not forget the state of the hut. Messy, to say the least.

So, there are several options here. They basically boil down to two overarching options; one being jump through hoops you probably can't possibly jump through and hope your awful luck consents to smile, or you find a way to quickly and efficiently murder every witness and hide their bodies. You're not good at murdering. You're not good at lying and charming. You're not good at being lucky. You're not... well, you're not good at anything. Really, the voices in your soft little noggin are probably the only reason your worthless life has been preserved thus far.

With this in mind, allow me to relay a message from all of us here at Voices In Your Head Incorporated.

DON'T SCREW THIS UP.

I'd much prefer you learn from your incompetence, not get killed or imprisoned because of it. The show must go on, and you are not about to ruin my entertainment.

Frustrated regards, Seth Speth of the Death Neth

Should you prove yourself incompetent you should already know what to do. BURN THEM ALL ALIVE!!! SCOURCH THEM FROM THIS PLAIN WITH YOUR CLEANSING FLAME!!! SHOW THEM NO MERCY!!! THAT IS ALL YOU MISERABLE WELP!!!

Rarity was at the door. Rarity was at the bucking door. You couldn't look up. You couldn't move. You couldn't do anything but shake and cry because of the bucking dirt in your eyes and the damn fact that the damn unicorn was right outside of the damn bucking door! This was it! You were out of time! You were dead now, DEAD!

You could barely breath. Your head was swimming. You wanted to cry and puke and laugh at the same time. You had the crying part down but the laughter just wasn't coming out. You thanked what little slivers of your dignity remained that the puking part wasn't either.

Your breath was coming quick. You could hear your heart pounding in your chest, sweat was breaking out on your skin and your brain was shattering in your skull! Your thoughts began to go wild, began to dash and race! You felt crazy! You felt insane! Because obviously the only solution now was to kill them all! Yes, yes you had Zecora tied up, you could ram her through the heart with your horn and make the blood pump out! Thump-da-thump-da-thump! Squirt-da-squirt-da-squirt! Hahahaha! Then you'd do the same to Rarity, and, and then you'd drag her body in, and slice Trixie's throat for good measure! Then light the place on fire! Burn the whole bucking place down! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Then, then you'd be okay right!? YOU'D BE OKAY!!! YOU'D BE-

"You would..." not, bucking, panic, again. Every time you let you emotions make short term decisions you screw shit up. This is not to say emotions are an eo ipso bad thing. They define your goals, what you adulate or abhor, but after you know what you want you method of acquisition needs to be driven by cool pragmatism. Speaking of which, once you have a moment to think you really need to sit down a determine your long term objectives.

Still, small crisis to resolve.

Situation: Tied-up and dirt covered zebra mare, Marshmallow Pone at the door, pissed-off Planimal trying to escape, Showmare cleaned-up and still unconscious. Still ignorant of Zecora's current attitude toward us, and last night's misadventure. Rarity ignorant of, well, pretty much everything.

Mission: Primary objectives: 1) Keep control of the situation (this should be you goal above all else). 2) Keep Rare ignorant of what transpired. 3) Keep you two Mares.

Secondary objectives: 1) Regain Zecora's approval (listed as secondary because if we keep control, approval can be a work in progress). 2) Enslave Marshmallow.

Tertiary objectives: 1) Keep Trixie ignorant of what transpired (as a general rule, if you can keep ponies in the dark about something, do so).

Execution: First, tell Rare wait you be there shortly. Then untie Zecora, see if you can distill remorse into a facial expression (yes I know you pony-skills suck diamond-dog gonads, work with me). Let Marshmallow in and ask her to make herself comfortable while you a Zecora get cleaned-up. Go do that. While getting clean, talk to Zecora, no tears, no rage, no bucking panic. The impression you're going for is deep regret. Try to make her think you blame yourself for this (clearly you don't, but she doesn't need that information confusing her) and don't know how you can make it up to her. Go back to Rare, fresh and clean, and receive new trench coat. Ensure to tell Rarity that you'll look her up the next time you need clothes.

Actions-On: Zecora opens her mouth before you go have a bath: Pay attention to what she's saying. What she says to Rare should tell you what she thinks she remembers from last night. Regardless be prepared to jump in if it looks like she's going to say something foolish.

Marshmallow asks what happened: Sigh, apologise that it's an incredibly long story and could it wait until after your wash.

You come back from getting clean and Rare has seen Trix: Settle in for a long story. Probably after breaking up a fight. (I'd suggest watching the fight for a while first, but a certain black and white mare is probably pissed-off enough already)

Rare's cleaned up in your absence: This is basically a given, thank her profusely and insist she didn't have to do that.

General Notes: Be polite, courteous, and above all, look for ways to worm your desires into Rare's head. You'll have to be subtle about it. Zecora will be standing right next to you after all. But there's no harm in having manners, or suggesting that you should drop by and see her when you get the chance.

do as he says it is as I said have long term plans.

Demon snake Lord Scoro

Well...this could be better. Let's try something basic, we need to get a straight story. It should follow this pattern...let Zecora out first and stall for time so you two can talk.

Rarity: my goodness, what happened here?

You: (look left, look right) zecora and had a fight...it was mostly outdoors last night....it got a LOT of mud inside

After that...play off of Zecora...if she forgives you. If not, time to test that slave bite theory on Rarity.

Nomad

Listen to what this voice said, Blank. Rein in your emotions. Let them work for you, not the other way round. You're not doing anypony any favours with panicking, least of all yourself. As you already worked out, you can do this. You'll win all the things you want: Your home, your power, your importance, your herd. If you play your cards right, this herd will include the magnificent piece of plot currently waiting at the door.

In order to do that, you need to keep her trust. So, as was suggested, tell her to wait just a bit longer while you clear the situation with your striped, probably injured, possibly angry Zebra. You'll have to gauge her reaction and see what she remembers. You don't want Rarity to think you're dangerous—other than "dangerous lover" perhaps—so make sure she doesn't. You would rather not have to hurt her, too. Hurting Zecora hasn't been all that useful up until now, and probably won't help with Rarity at this moment either. A vivacious sexpot like Rares must have dozens of acquaintances, you'd rather not have them inclined to hate you!

Rarity herself looks like the old-fashioned type. She likes polite, courteous, confident, noble behaviour. Try to be that! If you're going to be Vampony Count of the Everfree one day, you could use the practice when claiming your demesne openly! Rarara is very likely also inclined to be a bit submissive when faced with a proper gentlecolt, judging from her ladylike bearings. That indeed makes her even more attractive, doesn't it? Think about it:

No, no, no, no, deep breaths, keep the calm, embrace the calm, BE the calm. Panic reactions have never worked out for you before and they weren't going to start now, so don't give in to them. Just become the calm... and instead of going with knee-jerk responses to events beyond your control try and cess out what you really want. Because nopony but you could give you a rudder with which to navigate the tides of chaos... you had to be the one to master yourself if you wanted to get everything you ever dreamed of.

Your heartbeat slowed down. Your breath steadied. And as you began to get yourself back under control, you heard the mare's voice coming from beyond the door again.

"Zecora? Mister Slate? Are you home?" Came the slightly concerned sounding query of the unicorn's outside, followed by a sound coming from the door, the hinges starting to squeak as she began to push from the other side and-

"Oh! Well certainly darlings, I'll just, um, wait a moment, until you're ready!" Came the voice, slightly uncertain, but mostly gracious, and the tiny sliver of the door that had opened up closed again, hoof no longer pressing against it from behind.

You gathered the courage to lift up your head and look to Zecora... and couldn't see a bucking thing because of the dirt and tears in your eyes. You brought your right foreleg up to wipe at your eyes as you sniffled, doing your best to get the dust out, before blinking a few times more and looking to Zecora again. Your vision was once again clear enough to make her out and aside from matted and dirty she just looked... tired. Very tired. Her eyes were heavy and her expression was... ... well, kind of depressed actually.

Spoke Zecora simply, lifting up her forelegs towards you. Blinking slightly you sniffled a bit more, nodded, and stood up wobbly on your legs to stagger over to the zebra. Awkwardly, you moved your right foorehoof over to the ropes and began to tug and pull, loosening them until they came undone and fell from Zecora's hooves into a small heap on the floor.

Zecora massaged her forehooves, grimacing slightly as she did so... maybe you'd made the ropes a little tighter than you'd intended? You hoped not. Zecora had gone through a lot recently, due to circumstances that were totally not your fault, and sore forehooves would be just another straw on the striped mammal's back so to speak. You offered your right forehoof to Zecora, heart beating fast in your chest once more, looking down to her with the fear still inside you that you'd lost her and everything else despite her stalling tactic with Rarity. She looked up to you, meeting your eyes with her own exhausted gaze... and calmly took your hoof as she finished rubbing hers. Letting you help pull her up onto her legs.

Zecora looked you in the eyes as she came up, and then spoke, her voice calm and level.

You blinked, a little surprised at the question, before shaking your head slightly.

"Um, still asleep I'm pw-pretty sure." You spoke, gulping down again. It looked like Zecora was moving from emotional issues straight to ordering and fixing things. And one of those things seemed to include your left shoulder as Zecora turned her gaze to it. Zecora lifted her right forehoof up, stretched it forward, and calmly poked you in said left shoulder. You blinked... ... That was pretty much the only reaction. It didn't hurt at all. You were fairly sure the damage had healed up some time ago. Zecora seemed to come to a similar conclusion, as she grasped a bandage with her forehoof, lifted it up, and twirled her hoof clockwise with your bandages on the end of it.

The bandages didn't come off so much as dance off of your leg and shoulder, twirling up into the air and falling into the floor in spiral patterns, releasing your leg from it's constraints. It was fine... well, of course your leg was fine as that had never been what was damaged in the first place. The shoulder was good too though, scar-marks from the Planimal's teeth set remaining on the skin and preventing the growth of new coat, a few more scars to add to your consistently growing collection of bodily mutilations acquired over all of, what, three-four days? ... ... You were pretty sure that if you didn't heal wounds like a super-pony, you'd be dead twenty times over by now.

Zecora leaned forward and looked your shoulder over as you stood there, leg returned to your service, once again touching the floor... and reminding you how good it felt to be able to disperse all your weight across your legs. Not that you'd ever had much weight... but you'd also never had much leg-strength so overall it worked out. Zecora poked your shoulder again slightly, before nodding to herself.

Spoke Zecora, before turning, and calmly moving down towards the bedroom. Your gut was in knots as she did so. Would she notice the cut? Probably. Would she be mad? Probably. Would that cause a whole new set of problems? Probably. But did you have time to worry about that? Not really. You had a unicorn to allow into the mud stained house that she had just cleaned the last time she was here... oh joy.

Taking a deep breath you turned, and moved over towards the door, closing your eyes, breathing in, slowly counting up from one... and then reaching with your right forehoof to the door and pulling it open.

"Um, cwu-come on in, Mu-Miss Rarity." Spoke, offering your fanged smile...

The unicorn was, as might be expected, waiting outside the door. She was wearing her pale pink saddle-bags with the blue diamond emblems. The right saddle-bag seemed to be a little more... full than last time. And this time she was not without attire of her own. A woven wide-brimmed straw hat with a pink bow tied at the right side was situated on her head, and purple rimmed glasses with dark glass tints and what looked like tiny glittering diamonds embedded into the frames were on her nose. The hat was fastened to her head by a pink cloth, coming from underneath the hat and wrapping around to below her chin, keeping it steady on her head. You weren't entirely sure why she needed such a get-up, hat to block the sun's rays, tinted glasses... perhaps it was an especially bright day in Ponyville. The Everfree forest was usually shaded so it'd be hard to tell.

Rarity was actually looking off to the left, appearing a little anxious, a little awkward at being kept waiting at the door. She looked back to you when you spoke though, all polite-like, and proceeded to gasp. Her eyes widened as her horn glistened and levitated the tinted glasses off of her nose in her blue aura, folding them in the air and revealing her widening eyes as her right forehoof moved up to hover in front of her mouth, covering it for a moment as a shocked expression overtook her face.

"Oh my goodness! Mister Slate, whatever happened to you!?" She asked, her expression absolutely aghast.

"Uhm-"

"You look positively dreadful! Your coat! Your mane! And- are those fangs!?" Asked the flabbergasted unicorn, her shock only increasing as she examined your open mouth, before she closed her eyes and shook her head a bit, apparently trying to clear her thoughts.

"Well I suppose that part's understandable given your condition and all." Before snapping her eyes open again, her orbs filled with a passionate fire that... well, kind of scared you to be honest. You slunk back a bit as she continued on.

"But still your APPEARANCE darling!? However did you let yourself get so... so... Agh! My dear Mister Slate I cannot even formulate a WORD for how distressful your appearance has become! It is a crime against not only fashion, but all of Fabulosity! You cannot put on your brand new trenchcoat looking like THIS!" Spoke the mare, flailing around her left forehoof for emphasis. Under normal circumstances, you might have felt a bit offended by all these theatrics. But in this particular case, she probably had a point. And she was also kind of scary at the moment, so it was probably best to not even try and fight back on this.

"No no no, you CANNOT be allowed to remain in such a state!" Spoke the unicorn, apparently requiring no further contribution from you as she began to trot forward, right past you through the door.

"We must get you presentable right away! Does Zecora have... a... brush..." Rarity's voice trailed off as she walked in to see the hut... ... Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she dropped back onto her plot, as she gaped like a gulping fish.

"I-wha-bwuh-huh!?" Came her voice as she looked to the left, then to the right, then up, then down, eyes snapping to the shelves, to the floor, to the cauldron, to the table, even to the planimal!

"Uwhuh-guh-suh... huh!?" The mare was rendered speechless. Apparently. You got the impression that that was not an easy feat to accomplish, but you had nonetheless managed to make happen. You awkwardly cleared your throat, turning towards the mare and moving over to her as she sat with her jaw agape. As you reached her you moved your right forehoof around her left, and tugged her up gently.

That she even let you touch her was a testament to exactly how far-gone she was as of this moment.

"As you can sw-see Miss Rarity things are uh-a little... disorganized right nwow. Come on, let's gwe-get you over to the table." You spoke, starting to guide Rarity over towards the eating table. That she even allowed you to touch her in your current state, and also that her only response was-

"Gwuh?"

Showed just how much the sight of the entire hut reduced to such a state rocked her. You couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her... though you did feel that she might be overplaying things a bit... In any event, you helped the slack-jawed mare over towards the table, guiding her to a sitting position while Zecora saw to Trixie.

Blank your life is over unless you can in slave Raity she looks like the type who sees vamponies as god. Oh who am I bucking kidding you need to use all your powers to solve this so use your brain for once and get a plan and make it a long term felixible one because all the ones so far are short terms that always fail. Life is unfair so add that in for once.

The snake demon scoro

I agree make rarity into a fledgling and make trixie into a addicted blood doll

Boy on the problem of the tailor whore in slave her.

Blank you are going to listen to the advice of my fellow interlopers. You are going to do everything in your power to NOT FUCK THIS UP!!! WE NEED THESE INCOMPETENT PUPPETS AS FUEL FOR OUR PLANS!!! Like any fuel they will help our plans more rapidly grow into A BLAZING GOLDEN EMPIRE FOR YOU TO RAIN!!!

One exotic Zebra lover, who introduced you to the herd idea so that she can serve you alongside her friends; a poor, lost soul who's desperate for a strict master to give her life meaning; and perhaps, just perhaps, an elegant lady who wants nothing more than to sit at the hooves of her Lord like the Unicorn noblemares of old. What a wonderful picture..! You should thank Zecora for her idea of including Rarity in your herd next time she sleeps. Kinky little Zebra minx!

PS: Don't you wonder what would happen if you drank all of a unicorn's blood? Has me quite curious. If only there was a prissy, high-class unicorn nearby whose death you would benefit more from than if she were left alive. Ah, well.

You backed up from Rarity after you got her seated, looking at her as she continued to stare at the world around her, speechless and with her jaw hanging open in a very unladylike fashion. It was worth noting that even when she was COMPLETELY flabbergasted, she was still beautiful. One only had to contemplate the elegant curvature of her flank to come to that conclusion. Examine her curved elegant posh-pony rump, with the beautiful curled tail... You couldn't help but wonder what her marehood was like beneath that tail, what it looked like, what it smelled like, what it tasted like... Probably something fancy... maybe flavored with perfume... In any case, there was one thing you couldn't deny about Rarity, even if you had wanted to. She was one hot piece of flank.

Zecora was beautiful to of course, and tasted foreign, smelled exotic. And Trixie was 'pretty', didn't know how she tasted as you hadn't gotten to find out yet. However this fashionista unicorn had a just... just perfectly structured, prepared, and maintained attractiveness to her, actively preserved and embraced. She wasn't just beautiful because of her physical characteristics, she practically exuded beauty from her being. She made beauty her effort, her passion, her drive! While you couldn't quite shake the comparison to the dumb bimbos in Manehatten, you could put it aside easy enough. She didn't act anything like them after all. But you had always wondered what it would be like to plow one of those fancy mares that snubbed you and didn't even toss two bits your way on the street...

She WAS a fancy one after all. All ladylike with that 'darling' accent. Likely romantically focused, probably the type to get all into those vampony novels that presented them as super-creepy stalker-like blood abstainers... which... made them hot? Or something? ... You'd never really gotten that. Whatever speculation you might perform on her personality though there was no denying her physical attributes.

And for some reason, that led you to another thoughtline. How would this Rarity pony taste? No not her gash this time. Her blood. After all you had fangs and could get to the red stuff inside. And you'd been noticing more and more... liquid-based cravings in yourself as of recent. And taking unicorn blood had a tendency to empower you... what could you do if you took some from her? What could you do with HER if you drank from her in this state? After all, weren't vamponies supposed to be hypnotists of some sort? Weren't the bites supposed to be mystical, dominating things and all that shit? Just the thought of having this posh piece of pony meat in your harem, to do as you pleased... Your tongue ran over your fangs as you eyed the back of the stunned mare's neck, starting to feel a little... hungry...

Get the Everfree as your demesne. Any good vampony count has one. Try to empty your head and channel your earthpony magic through your horn. Use it to rip out the lifeforce of the plants around you, force your will on it and send it back into the plants around you. If it doesn't work that only means you must try something else.

Aedin the mage

Ps. SAVE THE PLANIMAL YOU TWIT!!! SHOULD YOU FLEE YOU WILL NEED THAT CREATURE TO CREATE YOUR NEW MINIONS!!!

Pss. Don't you want that foul Planimal to bow before you and bend to your will? If it obeyed you it would no longer be a threat AND would be a useful tool in conquering.. I mean impressing ponies.

As allways, your fiery fiend

PYRO THE RED

"Skreeeeeeee!!!"

Your head snapped up to the planimal in it's cage as one of it's heads started unleashing the 'Skree'. Apparently, another one of the heads was biting on it, and the third was trying to bap them both, maybe to get them calmed down, or maybe to get them to back off. You weren't sure exactly why it had started this internal war between the heads, but then again you didn't really care. The thing just pissed you off either way.

You narrowed your eyes at the plant. You REALLY needed to figure out some way to take control of that thing... Maybe you could try to force it to bend to your will? Mix your Earthpony magic with your Unicorn magic some way? Not that that had worked out particularly well with the bringing your Earthpony magic to your horn last time... But you had confidence it'd be better if you had practice. Did a little training. And the trees of the Everfree seemed to be generally responsive to you as of recent. They allowed guided you through the Everfree now, acknowledging you as their lord and master. Perhaps you could do something with them? Or find a way to overpower rebellious plants? Because you were bucking tired of having to look at that thing and be worried about it. It'd be much better if you could tame it, or control it, or just use it somehow like you'd originally been planning to do.

My fellow voice already said everything of immediate importance.

So I can only advise you on things that you can do in your free time.

Remember to ask Trixie if she would teach you illusion magic. Mainly glamours to hide your appearance and illusionary voices to imitate other ponies.

ALSO TRAIN! TRAIN! TRAIN! NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS WITH THOSE PETTY KINDLING, TRAIN YOUR POWERS!!! I WANT YOU BREATHING FIRE BY TOMORROW AND BURNING VILAGES ATOP YOUR NEWLY TRAINED GIANT FIRE BREATHING PLANIMAL MONSTROSITY BY THE END OF THE WEEK!!!

Your Molten Master

PYRO THE RED

Boy keep that book the Liber Chaotica safe. It holds the means to become greater than ever before and can answer your questions.

Your attention distracted from Rarity for a moment, you let it wander again away from the distasteful plant... and fall onto the book from before, the one that was 'Liber' something or other, that you started to focus on before you got all distracted. You felt like it was supposed to be really important for some reason. Really useful for your training. You turned towards it, narrowing your eyes.

Well, while Zecora was fetching Trixie, whose own magical knowledge could potentially be put to use aiding you what with her being a showmare and knowing how to summon illusions and all, you could go ahead and grab that book. Start reading and see why you kept thinking that it was so important. You started moving towards the bookshelf, nearly there when you heard a-

"Huh?"

Come from Rarity. She'd made more than a few random noises as of recent, a couple gurgles, a few mumbles, and so you'd kind of ignored her. But this one seemed a bit more 'surprise' than anything else. You started to turn back towards her to find out what had brought on her commentary, and as you did so-

FLASH!!!

A brilliant purple light appeared in front of you, searing your eyes. You staggered back in surprise, blinded, hitting the bookshelf as Rarity sounded out a-

"Ah!" And a few moments later a-

ZAP!!!

Filled your ears, accompanied by the feeling of electricity hitting your body and coursing through. It didn't hurt. Your body had been altered to take this sort of thing without actual damage. Or at least, that's what you had thought. But after a few seconds of the electricity not hurting with your eyes still blinded, your head started to ache. And then it burst into pain! A full on migraine consumed your senses as you let out a-

"Gah!" And fell down forward onto your knees, forehooves moving up to your head and clutching it as you gritted your teeth, eyes closed, electricity humming through your bones as sound became distorted, and your head ached and ached and ached, the pain increasing until you couldn't take it anymore and-

... Blackness...

Author's Notes:

Okey dokey! The next chapter is very important for... everything. So read that first before making decisions here please! And this is still the place where you make decisions for The Host, go ahead and put his next actions here! And to be clear, Blank Slate is going to be out for about five minutes. This isn't a full-on unconscious go to brother-zone situation, however a bit of time will pass between this post and the next.

Also! A reminder. Brother questions now go in Chapter 28, Question and Answer #3. Anywhere else, they're not going to get counted. Host choices go in these action chapters! If they're anywhere else, I can't promise that they'll get counted! And the next chapter will be for it's own thing! Which you will see. Okay, be well!