"For crying out loud, mare, loosen up that sphincter a little! Napkin, we should've brought the lubricant!" Soufflé groaned, glowering at his partner-in-crime, his hips unmoving.

"We ran out on the last mare, remember? We'll just have to do without," Napkin snapped, glaring back. His gaze shifted to Anna, whose head had drooped again, this time with her entire mane falling forward and overshadowing her face. "Is Windwood even awake?" he asked.

"Might need to jolt her again," Soufflé replied, turning back to the mare he was currently accosting. Anna jumped in place, eyes wide as her head rapidly shook. "Whoa, calm down! Don't hit me with your ponytails!"

"Go ahead and undo her mane. That particular hairstyle's going to cause you problems later on if not dealt with now," Napkin sighed, slumping against Natalie for a moment—only to stiffen as she inhaled deeply, as if preparing to shriek for all it was worth. His horn glowed, and from a flash of magic a ball gag appeared. The accursed object wrapped around Natalie's muzzle again, lodging the red sphere between her teeth once more before another sound could come out. "Sincerest apologies, Starcovert, but I'd rather you didn't howl."

"Wow, her mane goes down to her front knees!" Chocolate exclaimed as he undid the first ponytail and trussed it up a bit to make it adhere more to gravity. He used his hooves to undo the rest of the ponytails, juggling in his magic what had held them in place. "By Celestia's sunburnt asscheeks, she had enchanted baubles on her!"

Napkin turned to his fellow stallion and went wide-eyed. He eyed four golden baubles, held in the air by a dark-green aura that provided levitation. A faint rippling of lighter green mana swept across the glimmering pearls, sparking with some kind of power. His wide-eyed look turned into a sneer. "Set those aside for now. Besides, you haven't worked on her ass yet," he stated.

Soufflé nodded and summoned a small pouch of leather, stuffing the baubles in it before tying it up and setting it on the floor nearby. He leaned his head close as Anna's started to lower again, and grabbed a thick viridian lock with his teeth, tugging back and pulling his hips away at the same time. He roughly thrust forward with all the strength he could muster, pulling at the lock of hair harder, grinning as the tan-beige mare released a long and muffled shriek of agony.

"Yeesh, why do you always have to fuck a mare so roughly? At least give her a break or two," Napkin sighed, his hips moving slowly. "Otherwise, she'll burst a lung trying to screech through that gag."

"Not my fault she can't take it," Soufflé retorted through the bit of mane he still held with his mouth, sending the other stallion a wicked smirk as he thrust again. His smirk fell as Anna jerked, throwing her head back in a desperate attempt to clock him, only to cease when a hoof shot up to push it back down. "Where are the others? We're gonna need more than just lightning magic to keep Windwood still!"

Napkin sighed and shook his head as he made a thrust. "I hope they're not dealing with the rest of the Fantasians. For all I know, they could be making their way down here right now," he replied with a shrug. His horn glowed again, and a flash of magic conjured a small whip with multiple tails. He handed it to the other stallion and added, "Thwack her with that. Might as well discipline her."

"Hold that thought for a moment," Chocolate stated, taking hold of the whip in his magic. He sent it flying through the air, hitting Maria square on the rump with it as she put one of her binds in her mouth. "I saw you trying to break those leather straps with your teeth, missy! Don't make me come over there and hit you again!"

The mares jerked their gazes to the filly, whose face had scrunched with pain. Maria grit her teeth, claws still clenched as red marks started showing through her coat. "I-I'm gonna t-tell on you," she whimpered, ears folding back as the whip raked across her body once more with a sharp crack, this time hitting her right between the wings.

Magic gripped her bonds and tightened them a little, causing her to wince. "Ah, ah, ah, you'll do no such thing with that potty mouth of yours. Besides, our friends have yet to show up—perhaps they could keep you occupied while we deal with these fine unicorns," Napkin scolded, his remark sending unpleasant shivers down the spines of the Fantasian mares.

"N-n... y-you won't m-make me a c-cocksleeve," she hissed defiantly, earning herself another whack across the back. "Y-y-you're gonna g-get it."

"I'm tempted to stick an apple in her mouth. We've already shut these two up," Soufflé scoffed, a firm frown set into his face. He glowered at the foal and let go of the bundle of hair in his mouth, still thrusting at a rough and steady pace. He added, "If she makes me pull out now..."

"What I'm worried is the fact that she knows what a cock is," Napkin noted, shaking his head. "If this filly manages to escape, and this is only theoretical, then we'll be in very hot water."

"Good thing the others took her, too. Remind me to get some sewing thread and needles—that trap needs to be shut," Soufflé agreed, his voice turning raspy and riddled with pants. He turned his attention back to Anna, using his magic to hover the whip in front of her muzzle tauntingly. "Y-you don't l-loosen up, the f-filly'll get it."

Anna's irises shrank, ears folding back against her head. The whip swung in front of her like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. Left, right, left, right. She flinched when the thrusting stopped, the pain flaring tenfold as the stallion raping her grabbed her mane with his magic and jerked it so fast she could've sworn she felt some strands breaking near the roots. "W-well?" Soufflé hissed in a low voice. "W-would you rather i-it be I-Icedraft?"

She weighed the options, tears prickling her eyes and trailing down her cheeks. She shut her eyelids tightly, tilting her head forward as much as she was able, and started charging a spell. Several jolts ran through her own body as the ring on her horn did its work, muscles twitching and screaming as current after current ran through her.

"The fuck is she—" Napkin started, but stopped as Natalie did the same thing. He pulled out and backed away, with Soufflé following suit as both mares began rocking on their own accord. A moment after the spell-casting ceased, the two Fantasians' heads dropped like lead weights had been tied to their muzzles, with their manes covering their faces like cloth rags.

After taking a moment to process what had happened, the stallions trotted to the mares, dicks throbbing painfully as they approached. Front hooves trailed over pulse points, and Napkin shook his head. "Starcovert's unconscious," he murmured, eyes narrowing low.

"So's Windwood. Now what?" Soufflé growled, hitting Anna's rear with the whip over and over, as though that could wake her up.

"We punish them while they're out cold. Find the most painful thing you can stick up their orifices, or ginger if we have some handy. That way, they sho—" Napkin stopped mid-sentence as he heard a leather strap breaking—a soft noise, accompanied by a gentle creak. He turned to the mares, only to find that their rocking had ceased.

Another strap-sounding thing broke, and he trotted around the two unconscious mares to the third dead one, finding that Maria had managed to break free of her bonds by slicing through the leather straps somehow. The orange unicorn let off a wordless howl and used his magic to grab her, and the loose entrails of the corpse, shaking the innards free of maggots before using them to bind the foal in a fleshy straightjacket.

"You were saying?" Soufflé piped up, garnering the attention of Napkin as he bound the filly's rear legs.

"Just... find something to punish the Fantasians with. And buckets of ice water, if there are any left," Napkin snapped as he finished binding Maria, replacing her on the back of the corpse. He trotted to his partner-in-crime, and both slipped out of the halo of light, the darkness looking as if it merely absorbed them into its shadowy mist.

Maria unclenched one talon, feeling its claws poke clean holes in the entrails like the innards were little more than paper. She looked despondently at Anna and Natalie's out-cold forms, and started wriggling as silently as she could. "Bad... ponies a-are g-gonna feel s-sorry," she murmured to herself as her claws went to work.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"No, they're not in our room, either," Armin answered, shaking his head with his horn aglow. Lance stood with him in the hall, glowering so much his crimson eyes seemed to burn with roiling flames.

"Maybe they're toying with magic again," Lance growled, rubbing a hoof roughly into the carpet.

"If that's the case, I'd have picked it up," Armin replied, sighing as the glow dissipated. "Maybe Maria wanted something and pestered them to hell and back."

A door swung open, and Matt trotted out of the room. "Lance, I found something," he stated, turning back around and re-entering the room. The pegasus followed him, spotting a small waste bin on the table. The unicorn pointed at something on the floor, and the red-eyed stallion followed the hoof to find something very unusual.

"What the..." Lance murmured, leaning in close to the anomaly. It was another hole in the carpet, but very distinct in that it had a suspicious curve to it. He set his hoof on it and rubbed it for a bit before gaping. "That... someone tore into the carpet with their hoof?"

"Either one of the girls, or somepony else," Matt confirmed with a nod. "But there's more." He trotted past the pegasus and made a beeline for the table, picking up the small waste bin with a magical aura. Lance turned to him with a brow raised, and went wide-eyed as the magic lifted up a white rag from the bin. "It has a distinctly sweet smell to it."

The eyes of the pegasus narrowed, irises shrinking to little pinpricks. "Chloroform..." he murmured. He spread his wings and stomped a hoof. "We're going to scour this entire building up and down, and if the girls and Maria aren't in another room or on another floor..."

Armin stepped into the room. "Want me to get the guards, sir?" he asked, garnering the attention of the pegasus.

"Yes. Take Alexander and Katie with you. Bring Sarah and Fenrir in here before you go," he replied in a low tone. The changeling nodded and skedaddled into the hall, and a moment after, the hippogryph mare and the diamond dog scrambled into the room. "Matt found evidence."

"Of...?" Fenrir trailed off, a brow raised.

Matt waved the rag before throwing it into the bin for emphasis. "At least one of the girls got drugged and dragged away, that much we know," he replied.

Sarah's eyes widened. "Oh no..." she murmured before her face set in a scowl. "Godcat knows what might be happening to my sister and the other two at this moment. We can't afford to stand here quibbling."

"I got the top floor. Matt, scour this floor. Sarah, get any floors in between. Fenrir, let us know if you smell or hear anything even slightly off," Lance rattled off. A meow caught his attention, and he jerked his gaze to the floor as NoLegs scooted between Sarah's claws to approach him. "And you, NoLegs, get all of the nooks and crannies that we can't fit through." The others, cat included, nodded, and everyone except Matt scrambled out of the room to find any trace of Anna, Natalie, Maria, or whatever might have procured the chloroform rag.

Matt took the bin with him, making it vanish in a flash of light. He scoured up and down the room, even going so far as to overturn the mattresses to look for anything else that might have been amiss. Having seen nothing out of the ordinary, he returned the beds as they were before entering the hall, where Fenrir waited for him.

"Anything?" Matt asked.

Fenrir shook his head. "Alas, not smell nor sound has reached my senses yet," he replied. "It appears our mysterious chemist has covered their tracks well."

"Not well enough, considering I found the cloth rag," Matt retorted, dashing into the other room and essentially tearing the place apart before re-assembling it when nothing came up. He returned to the hall in short order and selected another room to barge through, but when he tried to open the door with a hoof, the knob briefly glowed with runes and the contraption did not budge. "Oh, you're just asking me to kick you down," he growled, turning around and rearing up on his back legs.

Only to drop to all fours when a shrill cry hit his ears. It sounded young, pained, riddled with sadness—"Maria!" he cried, jerking his head down one end of the hall.

Fenrir also jerked his head upon hearing the shriek, face setting with a scowl. "What has the foal gotten into now?" he snarled, bounding forward on all fours, ears perked as he followed the scream. Matt rushed after the diamond dog, galloping as fast as he could, rounding the corner of a T-intersection when Fenrir veered to the left.

After a few moments of running down another hall, they stopped. A dead end greeted them, and as they turned around, they spotted a suited earth pony stallion with a blue mane and yellow coat exiting another room. He turned to the dog-and-pony duo with a brow raised. "Was it me, or did I hear something?" he asked, tilting his head.

"It wasn't you—" Matt paused mid-reply as another scream echoed into the hall, this time much softer. "—we heard it too."

The suited stallion shrugged and trotted down the other end of the hall, continuing to go on straight and ignoring the path the Fantasians came from. Matt and Fenrir exchanged a glance and let the stallion trot on for a bit before following him, making sure to keep their hooves and paws silent so as to not attract more attention to themselves. After a few moments of nothing but trotting, the stallion did something that should not have been possible; he turned towards a blank wall and walked through, as if it weren't really there.

Matt hesitated for a moment before trotting to the blank wall, glancing around to ensure that nobody else but Fenrir watched his every move. Ensured that he was only one of two souls present, he rose a hoof and attempted to push at the wall.

His limb traveled right through it, seeming to be nothing more than thin air.

"What is it?" Fenrir asked, walking to the phenomenon.

The unicorn's horn glowed, the aura embracing the wall—or lack thereof. The blasted thing immediately crumbled like glass when the magic hit it, disappearing into tiny little glimmers that faded from sight, revealing a dark place beyond with a set of stairs going down. "Oh, hello... looks like we had some illusion magic going on here," he mumbled, setting a hoof on the first step and poking it left and right before stopping when he found solid wood. His horn glowed again, but only for the barest of instants.

Another scream echoed, this time twice as loud, forcing Matt to stop his spell and take the first few steps downward. The two went as slow as they could, as much of the wood had aged and creaked like rusty door hinges beneath them as they moved. After another moment or so, they came upon a dark, wet, musty room.

"After her! She's getting away!" a masculine voice cried out in a soft echo, followed by the sound of hooves hitting on the ground.

"You just had to take the filly, didn't you?" another scolded, again followed by hooves as they hit the floor, the second set fading into the darkness just the same.

Matt's horn softly glowed, a tiny spark of light shining forth and casting away a small sphere of darkness. He frowned when the first thing he saw were wooden crates stacked atop the other in towers reaching the ceiling, some covered with mold and mildew and others leaking some kind of dark fluid. These very stacks made for a very narrow passage; so narrow, in fact, that Fenrir had to shift his form so he could effectively walk sideways.

After exchanging another glance, the two went forward. After three minutes of yet more walking, they came upon a vast room that had been darkened, save for a hanging light that shone a wide halo above the corpse of a dead pony tied up to look like a rotting rocking horse. Entrails were strewn about, along with dark blood stains, and the innards looked as though someone took a knife to hack them into ribbons.

Fenrir opened his mouth to say something, but a pained and muffled whimper cut him off before he could utter a word. He bounded forward on swift but silent paws, and upon entering the light and seeing up close the full scene, his eyes widened. He gestured with a paw for the unicorn to come forward as his eyelids slanted, and a small frown came unto his muzzle. Kneeling forward, he reached out with his other paw, the blond-maned stallion trotting towards him as another muffled groan echoed into the room.

Matt's heart fell as he saw Natalie and Anna, both tied up like the corpse and beaten, but still alive. The mares had reddened faces and bloodshot eyes, ears folded back against their heads and gags tied over their mouths. Anna seemed to have received the harsher treatment, with red welts swelling on her rear, stretching clean across one of her cutie marks, and her loose disheveled mane sported tangles, knots, and some split ends. He saw Fenrir's paw grab one of the straps of the gag in Natalie's mouth, and he swiftly and painlessly removed it.

"They... they..." Natalie croaked as soon as she could speak again, her voice hoarse, faltering, and riddled with hiccups. The digit of a paw rose up and hovered over her lips, silencing her on the spot, save for her hitched and pained breathing. With his other paw, Fenrir motioned zipping his lips—'better to be silent,' he seemed to say.

Matt jumped forward, his horn glowing brighter, magic embracing the two mares. He undid the straps on their legs and slid them out of their bonds, pupils shrinking as he immediately noticed they had turned blue. Gently laying them on the floor and spotting the accursed horn rings, he pried those and Anna's gag away, earning a pained yelp from the archer in doing so.

"It... hurts..." Anna moaned, a fresh wave of tears trailing down her cheeks. Fenrir reached out again and wiped a tear away, frowning when it was soon replaced by two more. His frown deepened when she made to stand, only for her still-blue legs to buckle and send her sprawling back into the floor just seconds later.

The dog approached them and knelt before the two, finding the saddles on their backs. He scooped up Anna and removed hers carefully, and turned away to scowl when he spotted her bleeding rectum, which leaked despite having had a glaringly obvious wad of ginger rammed into it. Matt undid the one on Natalie's back, and helped her sit up to embrace her when he found the same thing. Both mares began crying, held in hooves and paws while garbled words spilled from their mouths like water bursting from weak dams. Soon, though, they fell silent, save for their strangled sobs.

Several tense minutes passed, and the two were still crying when Lance, Sarah, and NoLegs hit the scene. The three rushed over with choked gasps and a startled mew, wings snapping wide open as the gravity of the mess set in.

"M-Maria... they... h-hurt..." Anna mumbled as Sarah rushed to her side and set a talon on her withers.

Sarah's irises looked to be lightly shaking in the white canvases, and her eyes prickled with tears as she saw up close and personal just how much damage had been done. "They hurt the foal?" she asked in a low tone, pupils dilating when the battered unicorn fervently nodded.

"W-whipped... b-bound..." Natalie confirmed, her muzzle buried into Matt's mane. "She... r-ran... w-we couldn't... do... a-anything to s-stop..."

Matt's horn softly glowed again for a moment or two before the aura died down. He rose a hoof to stroke Natalie's mane, but paused when the action caused her to stiffen a bit. NoLegs mewed and scooted up to the mare, frowning when she failed to pet him.

Lance trotted up to Fenrir, and rose a hoof to Anna's face to wipe a tear, but he retracted that hoof when her horn violently sparked with emerald magic. "Hey, I'm not going to hit you or anything..." he murmured, setting the hoof down before leaning in with his face to nuzzle her a bit.

Anna didn't say anything, but closed her eyes as the stallion rubbed one of her cheeks with the spot between his mouth and his nostrils. She frowned for a moment or so, but relaxed a little after the nuzzling had stopped.

"Why... didn't... you come sooner?" Natalie whimpered as her fit had started to die down a bit.

"They had illusions set up to fool us. If one of the employees didn't turn down the stairs where the illusion was at..." Fenrir trailed off, shaking his head glumly.

"Illusions... so that's why..." Lance murmured, turning to Fenrir with a scowl set firmly into his visage, eyes narrowed to crimson chips.

Sarah carefully pried Anna from Fenrir's arms, wrapping her claws and wings around her form, sitting down on her haunches as she did so. She pressed her closer as weakened front hooves returned the hug, gently shaking as blood flowed through the veins. "How... are your legs holding up?" she asked softly.

"B-bad," Anna replied in a wheeze, her front limbs falling slack again.

"I believe they won't be able to trot for a few hours at most. At least, not... steadily," Fenrir piped up, gently grabbing Anna and prying her from Sarah's claws. The green-maned unicorn made to keen in protest, but the noise died when she found herself resting on a backside, nestled between a pair of feathery wings. Another sound left her mouth as he slowly undid the wrappings on her tail, becoming a pained gasp as the mass of hair got trussed up a bit and fell down, with much of the base coming in contact with her still-aching rump. She yelped when he grabbed the nub of ginger and sharply tugged it out quick, only to groan as a worse ache started settling in.

Sarah stood up, using her wings to steady her sister on her back. She turned to Lance, a worried frown etched firmly into her face. "Should we go get the others, or find Maria?" the mare murmured.

Lance stayed silent, gaze briefly averting to Matt as he hefted Natalie onto his back, pried out the other nub of ginger, and undid the wrappings with magic in one go. His ears fell back, the scowl in his visage contorting just enough that his narrowed eyes widened a bit. After several tense seconds that felt like hours passed, he turned to Fenrir and said, "You, go get the others. We're staying with the girls."

"What about Maria?" Fenrir replied, lowly growling as he spoke.

"I have a feeling she didn't get very far. Face it, she can't fly, and whoever did this might be bringing her back already," Lance retorted, shaking his head. "Thus, if our only able unicorn stays at least, he can get her and run like hell. If me and Sarah stay with him, we can hold off our culprits while Matt flees with the girls."

Fenrir's expression changed, from anger, to annoyance, and finally he nodded in understanding. "I'll return as swiftly as I am able," he stated, and with that, he bounded out of the room.

"Matt, Sarah, NoLegs, we're going to hide nearby," Lance added, earning wide-eyed looks from the three he addressed, in addition to a loud meow. He gestured with a hoof to the darkness the overhead light couldn't reach. "We won't go that far, just enough where the responsible party won't see us," he added.

The unicorn stallion and hippogryph mare exchanged a glance before they turned back to the pegasus and nodded in unison. Lance nodded back and turned, trotting around the corpse as silently as he could and seemingly vanishing into the darkness. Sarah and Matt followed suit, being as cautious as they could while still carrying living, aching cargo on their backsides. NoLegs went with, and soon the six were out of sight.

Minutes passed, and a tense silence fell upon the room. Lance fidgeted in his spot uncomfortably, gaze affixed where the overhead light still shined. His ears perked and started swiveling at random intervals, hoping to catch some kind of noise that'd mean one of two parties were returning.

Instead, he flinched as the loud crack of a whip echoed off the dark walls, followed by a strangled scream that sounded as though it came from a young child. Hoofbeats sounded not long after, and three stallions stepped into the light, two of them naked with their slightly-blue dicks swinging in the open air and the last a suited earth pony. Maria came into the light next, being propelled into the floor by unicorn magic.

Napkin turned to the corpse and his face turned a stark shade of crimson as soon as he noticed the absence of two mares and the things that had been tied to them strewn about the scene. "They... they escaped..." he growled, turning to the foal with a glower. "This is your fault, you little cunt!" he screamed, grabbing the foal with his magic and dragging her dangerously close to his rear legs. Before he could do anything, his eyes went wide and a pained choke left his throat as a talon shot up and cleanly pierced the flesh of his organ before pulling down and retracting, creating long gashes that oozed with rivers of red.

Soufflé lunged at Maria, only to stop when she moved and clawed him in the dick as well, doubling over with a pained howl as his member likewise began aching in a worse pain amplified tenfold. The earth pony managed to scoop her up with his front hooves, and quickly found himself getting small talons raked across his face—clean across both eyes, in fact. He dropped her with a shriek, and she ran past the corpse, chest heaving with pained pants.

The foal blundered into Lance, who grabbed her and held a hoof over her mouth as she began struggling. "It's me," he whispered lowly, "the nice pegasus with the hat." He sighed in relief as Maria relaxed in his grasp, watching with an impassive expression as the three ponies who had gotten scratched writhed for a few moments, desperately using hooves and magic in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

Hoofbeats echoed again, and before long another pony entered the fray. Lance blinked as he eyed the distinct purple armor and ice cold eyes of the fourth pony, noticing a wide-eyed look that quickly morphed into a scowl. "What in Celestia's name happened here!" Shining barked, his question catching the attention of the bleeding trio and causing them to go wide-eyed as soon as they noticed who strode in and glared at them.

"Let's see here... a corpse that's been gutted, three little ponies on the floor with bloodied wounds, and two throbbing dicks. Captain Armor, I think we may have found necrophiliacs," a raspy feminine voice answered, accompanied by the sound of buzzing wings. Katie flew into the light, hovering inches above the captain, eyes narrowed into a glare at the stallions on the floor.

"Not necrophiliacs, but I can capably understand how you might arrive at that conclusion," Fenrir remarked as he stepped out of the shadows. He rose a paw and snapped the digits after Armin and Alexander flanked him. "Captain Armor, if you would please look in the direction that the corpse faces," he stated.

Shining quirked a brow and had done just that, just in time to see three forms emerge from the darkness, with three more laden on their backs. He spotted blood on Maria's talons, and the filly pointed at the wounded ponies on the floor. "Bad ponies hurt me and nice mares with their cocks and a whip," she hissed.

"Silence, you impudent brat!" Napkin seethed, magic sparking to life, only to stop as a magic inhibitor slid onto his and Soufflé's horns.

"Dammit!" Soufflé yelled, turning to the earth pony. "Rusty Pan, do something!"

Rusty rose onto his hooves, face still stained in crimson. He lunged at Shining, only to find himself pushed to the floor by a dark-coated gryphon wearing a narrow-eyed expression. "You want to have more wounds lining your body? I can provide just that," Alexander hissed, his talons locked around the stallion's throat.

"Shining... this is your fucking fault..." Natalie grunted, glaring at the white unicorn with a pained voice. "You led us here... and me and Anna... and Maria..."

"I'm sorry, I truly am," Shining began, cutting the mare off before she could finish. "I had no way of knowing this would happen. Your changelings told me everything after they allegedly received a telepathic message. I set up the guard post nearby because sketchy activity has been happening in this part of Canterlot well before you guys arrived."

"Then why didn't you act sooner? You could have prevented this!" Lance barked, glowering.

Shining's gaze fell onto the floor, his horn glowing and his magic lifting the two unicorn stallions into the air. "I could have arrested an innocent pony just as easily. Me and the other guards had nothing to work with. All we knew was that ponies vanished after trotting in this district, and little else. As captain of the guard, I can't afford to pin the mess on an innocent," he replied quietly.

"And... what happens when a pony, innocent or not, is found guilty of the crime in question?" Katie asked, descending until she hovered next to Shining, front legs crossed and a brow quirked.

"It depends on the crime, but the worst ones... the pony either gets executed, or banished," Shining answered, turning to the wraith with a hard frown. He gestured to the wounded stallions and added, "I can't see them getting free. If they're guilty of sexual assault, murder, foal abuse... at the least, they're going to be gelded and locked up for life."

"Captain Armor, we found evidence on the top floor," another voice spoke up as a royal pegasus guard trotted into the light, garnering the attention of the entire group.

"Evidence of what?" Fenrir asked before Shining could open his mouth.

"Evidence that the hotel staff disposes of bodies," the guard answered. As soon as he finished speaking, the bound corpse began rocking on its own accord, its form writhing and its head thrashing about, eye sockets glowing with a sea green light.

Katie flew to it, her own orbs widening to the size of saucers. The corpse let off a hideous, unearthly shriek as its fit died down, staring deep into the wraith's eyes when it stilled. "I'll... make them pay..." the bald pony hissed in a low, hollow tone, a few maggots sliding out of its mouth as it spoke.

"There... is no need," Katie replied, and when the corpse made to speak again, she pointed a hoof at Shining. The bound pony turned to the captain, holding its gaze on him for a moment before turning back to the pale changeling. "Do you... know what happened here?"

"Know?" the corpse scoffed before letting off a laugh that held no happiness. "I felt everything. I heard everything. I saw everything," it answered. "I even felt the foal as her claws slashed at my innards before she broke free. I'd hold that against her, but then... it seems everything is under control now. What's the point?"

Shining swallowed thickly before addressing the tied-up corpse, "Would... you like to..."

"Testify?" the skinned pony finished for him, turning its gaze in his direction with a huff. "What good would that do? Who'd have the heart to listen to a skinless pony whose organs have been spilled, aside from maybe the Princesses? No, I would like to die, thank you."

"Can you tell us your name... before we lay you to rest?" the guard asked in a hesitant tone, spreading a wing to reveal a knife secured in a leather holster at his side.

The bald corpse turned to him and stayed silent for a moment. "Silk Fabric," it replied, sea green orbs dimming as the pegasus guard unsheathed the knife.