The filly knocked tentatively on the door to their room, although she wasn't sure why. "Hell-oo-oo? Anypony ho-ome?" she sang. There was no answer so she pushed the door open and went in just to find the room empty save for their belongings, part of which seemed to be making a weird rhythmic buzzing sound.

Maybe they got lost? the filly reasoned, although she knew that probably wasn't true. She left the room and headed back towards the ballroom, hoping to find somepony who wasn't a guest and might know what was what. Eventually she found a red stallion wearing a black suit that didn't look like a guest. "Excuse me? I don't suppose you've seen a couple of-uh... ladies of negotiable virtue around here?"

"Ladies of what?" the stallion said confusedly. The filly rolled her eyes. Clearly she was going to have to make this simple.

"Prostitutes, whores, ladies of the night, street walkers, escorts, hookers, harlots, strumpets. Your mother was probably one."

"Hey! You take that back! My mother was a saint and a proper lady!"

"Fine, your mother wasn't a total whore. Doesn't matter though, I'm looking for a couple of hookers that might have wandered by here."

"Why the hell would a filly need a prostitute, let alone two? Heck, I'm still trying to work out what you're doing here at all!"

"I had to find the idiot," the filly muttered to herself. Louder she said, "Because one isn't enough to satisfy if you must know." She smirked at the stallion as he squirmed with the thought she had put in his head.

"B-b-but you're a filly!"

"So? I still have needs." The stallion stammered a bit more and after a few seconds she took pity on him, "I'm a hoofmaid to Lady Aramon and the two prostitutes are her favourites. She was expecting them to join her at the ball but they haven't come so I was sent to find them."

He narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion, "You're not lying to me are you?"

"You're right, you caught me. We're actually here as part of a terrorist rebel cell and we're going to attempt to assassinate everypony on board by means of sinking the boat thus damaging the Dukes' hold over the country. What do you think?"

"Oh har har, if these ladies of negotiable virtue, as you call them, were trying to get into the ball chances are they were stopped and taken to the harem instead."

Uh oh. "And where is this 'harem?' Can you take me there?"

The stallion groaned and rolled his eyes, "Come on," he grunted.

"What are you doing?" Trixie asked Fleur as she watched Fleur smudge her makeup and roughen her mane a bit. The end result was Fleur looked tired and haggard and more than a little used.

"I'm trying to make myself look unappealing, if you must know," Fleur said while she used her magic to rumple her dress in places and to roughen her tail up. "Believe it or not I have no desire to be used by anypony tonight. Perhaps you ought to try it as well?"

"I wouldn't need to if you had actually thought this through. I'm almost ready to beg Twilight's forgiveness for doubting her because she would never have proposed a stupid plan like dressing up as whores!"

"Keep it down would you, ponies can hear you! Besides, how was I meant to know th-" Fleur stopped talking as another 'caller,' as the matron called them, entered the harem and looked about with interest. So far Trixie and Fleur had gotten lucky in not being picked but that luck wasn't likely to last all night.

"Good evening my lord," the matron said in greeting from behind her desk. "Anypony in particular take your fancy?"

"You do seem to have some very attractive specimens here but I would like a closer look before I choose."

"Of course my lord, I'll be here if you require any assistance." The stallion approached the circle of cushions and went about inspecting the various mares on display, most of which did their best to catch his attention. He circled around them in a more literal description of a sexual predator, occasionally praising a pony for her appearance, or tutting in disapproval if he saw something he didn't like. He stopped at Fleur who did her best to look tired, and it must have worked as she noticed a flash of disgust cross his face. He quickly moved on to Trixie who defiantly looked him in the eyes.

"Hmm, you seem to have a bit of fire to you. What's your name girl?"

"Trixie. Trixie Lulamoon." Trixie glared at him and the stallion grinned nastily at her.

"Maybe a little too much fire, hmm? Perhaps I ought to smother it. Matron, I have made my choice."

"Very good my lord, room eight is available." The stallion waited until Trixie hauled herself to her hooves before leading the way to the room. As she passed Fleur, Trixie narrowed her eyes into a look that promised retribution for what she was about to go through. Unable to meet Trixie's glare, Fleur looked away guiltily.

Like a true gentlepony, the stallion held the door open for Trixie, giving her a chance to take in her surroundings. In the center of the room was a large bed, which Trixie was loathe to touch considering what exactly went on in these rooms. To the left of the bed was a well-stocked mini bar, and to the right was a cabinet stocked with every sex toy imaginable, including several that Trixie considered to be physically impossible to use.

"See anything you like?" the stallion asked before running his nose up the side of her neck, breathing in her scent. It was as much as she could do to not shudder.

"N-no my... uh, my lord. Nothing more than you." Her eyes twitched from side to side as she desperately sought a way out of her predicament. "Perhaps I could prepare you a drink while you strip off," she purred. "We wouldn't want to make a mess of your nice clothes would we?" The stallion winked at her and turned to the bed to undress while Trixie selected two glasses and picked up a bottle of whatever was nearest to fill them.

The bottle shook in her magic, betraying her nerves as her heart tried to fight its way out through her mouth. She managed to fill the first glass and was about to fill the second when she stopped and considered the bottle in her magic. She hefted it a few times and shrugged before turning around and clocking the stallion around the back of the head, the bottle making a pleasing 'poink' sound on contact. The stallion slumped over without making a sound, landing half on the bed. Trixie tossed the bottle up in the air and caught it again before inspecting the bottom of the bottle, noting with glee that it hadn't even cracked.

She took a mouthful out of the bottle and set it down before hauling the stallion the rest of the way onto the bed and rolling him onto his back. Humming a cheerful tune, mostly due to sheer relief as the adrenaline started to wear off, she went to the cabinet and picked out four hoof cuffs and used them to secure his hooves to the bed before picking up a gag with straps which she shoved in his mouth and tied around the back of his head. She also briefly considered inserting a little something up his tail hole but decided against it, mostly because she couldn't find any lube and to do it without was too much effort.

Once she was done she stole the pillows off the bed and put them on the floor and picked a bottle of bourbon up off the bar before laying down. She raised the bottle to stallion before taking a large gulp, savouring the warm sensation it made on the way down.

"Trixie has more fire than you could ever handle. Asshole." she said, the shaking of her hooves betraying her nerves.

Fleur felt sick. Trixie hadn't been lying when she said this was Fleur's stupid plan and now Trixie was suffering through Celestia knows what all because Fleur got a bit too caught up in her own ideas and thought it would be fun to disguise themselves as prostitutes.

"Are you okay?" Tulula asked her. "You look a little ill." Fleur considered pretending to be ill after Tulula had asked but decided not to. There was no way she was going to run away pretending to be ill while Trixie took one for the team.

"I'm fine," she lied since she did feel sick, even if from worry. "Don't worry about me." Tulula shrugged and went back to talking to one of the other ponies waiting there while Fleur focused her gaze on the harem entrance and was greatly surprised to see the filly approaching in the company of a stallion. She watched as the filly said something to the stallion who proceeded to turn around and leave while the filly entered the harem.

"What are you doing here?" the matron immediately snapped at her.

"Looking for a good time," was the filly's cheeky reply. "Actually I'm looking for a couple of unicorns, a big white one and a blue one. I was told they'd probably be in here."

"The white one's over there," the matron told her, pointing at Fleur. "The blue one's working so you won't be seeing her until she's done with her client."

The filly took a few cautious steps towards Fleur and since the matron didn't stop her she trotted over the rest of the way. Fleur gave her a weak smile before nuzzling her, "Hey."

"Hi, soooo... I'm guessing you done goofed." Fleur got up and led the filly to a corner of the room where they could have a little more privacy.

"You could say that. I can't believe I was so stupid to think this would work."

"Meh, nopony's perfect. Besides, maybe a little action will go a long way towards loosening Trixie up."

"Don't say that! The stallion that picked her up was a complete asshole. Said something about 'smothering her fire' or something."

"Let me guess, she was Trixie at him wasn't she?"

"Trixie's a verb now? Ugh, never mind. The point is she's in there having goodness knows what done to her and it's all my fault!"

"And you're sat out here whining about it instead of doing something... because?"

"Because I don't want to compromise the mission. Doing something rash could ruin all our efforts here. Trixie knew what was at stake when she agreed to this."

"Did she say she knows what's at stake? Did she say 'Fleur, if we get stuck being actual hookers I want you to know that if a stallion ties me down and shoves his cock so far up my ass I can taste it, that I won't hold it against you because it's for the mission.' It was your idea to do this. That, and how helpful do you think you're being to your mission when you're sat here moping?"

"What do you know about it! Nothing!" Fleur snarled before pinning her ears back in shame. "I- I... Sorry, I-I didn't mean to snap like that." Fleur sank onto the floor until her nose touched the carpet and a few tears escaped, running down her nose until they met the floor.

The filly regarded her coolly, as if trying to decide something. "Do you know what I like about you Fleur?" Fleur shook her head gently. "It's the fact that you seemed like nothing could stop you. Prance burning down? You took that in your stride. This? This is pathetic."

"That's different. Prance was about survival and I'm good at surviving. This? This is different because Trixie got hurt because of my stupid plan."

"And your response is to sit here and cry like a little filly?"

Fleur barked a single laugh, "Can't believe I'm being told that by a little filly."

"I'm not that much of a filly. I mean yeah I cried a bit when I thought of my friends dying in Prance, and when we got to Whiplash, and especially when you guys were just going to leave me because I thought I had something with you guys and suddenly having that torn away... hurt. Other than those few occasions I don't exactly cry much, and you crying over a mistake doesn't even compare in my books. Seriously, stop whining, get up, and do something about it."

"But they're watching me. I can't just wander off to her room."

The filly rolled her eyes and grinned at Fleur, "Fine, you get one distraction and one distraction only. Don't waste it. I'm gonna head back to Twilight after so don't worry about me. By the way, Twilight got in the ball and is doing her best to schmooze, Octavia's fine, and I got to eat myself sick at a buffet so, y'know, your plan ain't all bad." The filly gave Fleur a moment to compose herself before heading over to the desk where the matron eyed her suspiciously. "Say, what would it take for me to get all these fillies into a room for an orgy? I'd be willing to pay if it helps."

The matrons eyes boggled for a moment before she managed to find some words. "B-b-b-but you're just a filly!"

"You'd be surprised at how many times I've been reminded of that today." Fleur stared at the filly for several seconds before she realised her mouth was hanging open and that she had somewhere she needed to be. She headed up the corridor until she found the right room and was about to burst in when she hesitated. Instead she put her ear to the door and listened, but all she could hear was some indistinct humming.

She took a step back and prepared herself to fight the stallion before charging through the door. "Get your filthy hooves off her you... bastard?" She was met by the angry glare of a stallion that was gagged and tied spread-eagle on a bed while next to the bed, laying on her back on a couple of pillows, was Trixie, throwing an empty bottle in the air using her magic and catching it again before it hit her in the face. She was also humming the Equestrian national anthem. "Trixie?"

"Hey Fleur," Trixie said, slurring slightly.

"You're okay?"

"Mmhmm, was there ever any doubt?"

Fleur walked over to Trixie and stood looking down at her, eye to eye. "And you've spent the entire time in here drinking?"

"Yup."

Fleur jumped onto Trixie and wrestled her into a hug, "I fucking love you Trixie."

"Hey! You're in my space! Get outta my space!"

Twilight sat at the bar, staring at the drips of condensation running down the side of her glass of Sweet Apple cider. She was also somewhat incensed that they had Sweet Apple cider here at all, and had concluded to drink as much of it as she could because nopony else at the party deserved to. too bad it's not the hard stuff.

The cider was also a small reminder of home, and of how much she missed her friends. She wished so badly that they could be here right now. Rarity would outshine everypony else with a dress she had made, Rainbow Dash and Applejack would probably have invented some way to compete against each other while Pinkie egged them on, and Twilight had to admit that Fluttershy would probably be hiding in a corner somewhere, bless her.

Feeling nostalgic as she was, Twilight was woefully unprepared for when somepony tapped her on the back. "Ahh!" she cried before cramming her hooves over her mouth and wilting under the amused stares of several ponies nearby.

"Apologies Twilight, I didn't realise you were so engrossed in your drink."

"Octavia! You scared me!"

"Sorry, I was trying to get your attention but you seemed to be in a world of your own. Is something wrong?"

"No," she smiled in an attempt to assure Octavia who didn't look convinced at all. "Yes," she confessed, slumping slightly. "My friend Applejack makes this cider back home in Ponyville and I guess I got a bit homesick. I'm also annoyed that they have it here at all, and I know Applejack would hate the idea of these ponies drinking it."

Octavia gave her a small smile and hug before sitting on the next seat over on Twilight's right, "Do you mind if I have one? We've finally had a chance for a breather and I have to admit a glass of cider would go down nicely."

"Go ahead, you're one of the four other ponies on this ship that has any right to drink this stuff." Octavia ordered her drink and tasted it, nodding in approval.

"I can see why you like this stuff." She took another sip and sighed contentedly. "I guess we should talk business since we have a moment. For starters I feel I should mention that I haven't heard a single thing about Prance."

"Really? Not a single thing?" Twilight thought back to the conversations she'd had and overheard through the night and had to admit she hadn't heard anything either. "I wonder why though? It's not like that's something you can keep secret."

"Unless they can. I wouldn't put it past the Duke to try and suppress all knowledge of what happened in Prance. Personally I was thinking that Prance is very much on the list of topics that can't be talked about. How about you? Learnt anything?"

"I learnt what the relationship is between Mareitania and Equestria."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and I would talk about it but we're not in the best company right now and I'd rather discuss it with Trixie and Fleur as well."

Octavia looked around, "Speaking of, where are Trixie and Fleur?"

"Bit of a funny story actually," said a voice from the left of Twilight. Twilight yelped and span around to see the filly sitting beside her, looking at her intently.

"What is with ponies trying to give me a heart attack?" Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself, "What's this funny story then?"

"Hmm? Oh, well it turns out there's a harem on board. Can you imagine it? An entire section of this ship dedicated to extramarital relations! Anyway, rather than get in here, Trixie and Fleur were stopped and taken there instead."

"Are they okay?" Twilight asked while in her mind she started plotting ways to get them out of there.

"Trixie might not be. Or she might be, depends entirely on how it goes. But Fleur's kinda gone to pieces over it and it took me a while to convince her that sitting around moping was pretty pathetic."

Twilight shared a look with Octavia who looked just as worried as she felt. "What did she do?"

"Don't know. All I did was provide a small distraction so she could go help Trixie." The filly shrugged and slid Twilight's drink over to herself before taking a sip. "No pony's panicking so I’m guessing what she did was pretty benign."

Twilight didn't know whether to be relieved or to go help them, and one glance at Octavia was all it took to tell her she wasn't alone. "Are you sure they're okay?"

"As okay as they can be which means you don't need to go do anything stupid. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go collapse somewhere upstairs because somepony made me walk all around this effing boat and now my tummy hurts." The filly slid off the stool and trotted off.

"I hope she's right about them being okay," said Octavia.

"I should have said something about their disguise. I knew it was a bad idea but I didn't want to say anything because after Prance I- I just couldn't, I didn't have the right." Twilight went to grab her glass but was faintly surprised to find it was gone.

"Not to put too fine a point on it Twilight, but you're not allowed to blame yourself for not talking Fleur out of that patently stupid idea. Right now I'm more concerned about Trixie than anything else, but unfortunately we have a job to do. I'm also concerned about that weird stallion that's been walking around the edge of the ballroom for most of the night." She pointed to where a mottled brown stallion in a scruffy dinner jacket and what looked like an oversized pirates hat turned in to a mask was staring into space. "Anyway my set's starting again in a few minutes so I need to head off." Octavia downed the remainder of her drink, patted Twilight on the shoulder and headed back to the stage.

Twilight ordered another drink and remained at the bar, not feeling particularly enthused about getting up off her rump and doing her job. So far all she had learnt was something interesting but not useful. Octavia was the same. Trixie had been... Twilight didn't even want to think about it, and as cruel and selfish as she felt to think it, Fleur was getting a taste of her own medicine. Here's to another rousing success. She raised her glass in a silent toast and was about to take a sip when an incredibly drunk mare stumbled into her, making Twilight spill her drink down herself.

"Oh I'm so very, terribly sorry," the mare slurred at her. The mare grabbed a cloth off the bar in her hooves and started to pat Twilight down in completely the wrong place despite Twilight's best efforts to stop her.

"It's fine, really. You don't need to do that," insisted Twilight as she tried to gently push the mare off.

"No no no, it’s my fault entirely. I would offer to buy you another drink but all the drinks are freeeee!!" The mare went back to patting Twilight down when her hoof landed directly on Twilight's wing, and even in her drunken haze she could tell something wasn't right. She felt around Twilight's wing, "What are you hiding in there deary? It feels like a wing!"

Twilight tried to laugh it off but once again her nerves got the better of her and she ended up stammering a load of nonsense. "Th-th-that's stupid! W-what w-w-would I be d-doing with w-wings?"

The mare turned to her equally drunk friend who was propping herself up on the bar, "Tutti darling, I think this mare's a pegasus! Come feel this wing!"

The other mare pushed herself up and took a few steps towards Twilight before falling onto her and hugging her. "She's nice. She's a nice fluffy pegasus. A nice, pretty, purple pegasus..." The mare's grip slackened and she slid onto the floor in a heap at Twilight's hooves. Not that Twilight noticed as she locked up with panic as other ponies around her started to take notice.

"Hey everypony! Look at me!" Twilight immediately looked up to where the voice had come from and she was surprised to see the filly balancing on her rear legs on the rail of the balcony opposite. Twilight's immediate reaction was to want to yell at her to get down from there but her words froze in her throat when the filly began to spin around on one hoof and sing.

"If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never take a pretty mare for a wife,
If you want my personal point of view,
Get an ugly mare to marry you!"

The filly repeated the verse a couple of times, the crowd cheering and booing her in equal measure. Some even started to throw things at her which she either dodged with ease, or got fancy and back flipped over. Twilight couldn't help but be amazed at the filly's skills.

"A pretty mare makes her husband look small,
And very often causes his downfall,
As soon as he married her and then she starts,
To do the things that will break his heart,

But if you make an ugly mare your wife,
A-you'll be happy for the rest of your life,
An ug-a-ly mare cooks meals on time,
And she'll always give you peace of mind,"

Suddenly the band started playing, led by a hugely grinning Octavia as the filly continued her silly dance. Slowly it occurred to Twilight that maybe she should take this opportunity to sneak off. She carefully stepped over the mare collapsed on the floor, who was humming along with the song, before sneaking off up the stairs to the balcony opposite the filly's performance.

"Don't let your friends say you have no taste,
Go ahead and marry anyway,
Though her face is ugly, her eyes don't match,
Take it from me she's a better catch,

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never take a pretty mare for a wife,
If you want my personal point of view,
Get an ugly mare to marry you!"

Suddenly the filly back flipped off the railing into the gloom out of sight, leaving the guests to stomp their approval. Twilight slowly headed along the balcony to where the filly had been dancing and searched around until she found the filly behind a chair, curled up in a fetal position and clutching her stomach.

"That hurt so much," the filly said without acknowledging Twilight's arrival. "You're welcome."

"That was amazing!" Twilight blurted.

"I could see those mares were bothering you. Honestly though, I hadn't expected that to be so... energetic, or painful."

"You did scare me though. What if you had fallen?"

"Then I hope somepony would have caught me." The filly crawled out from behind the chair, still clutching her stomach. "Seriously though, this hurts so bad."

"You're not used to eating so much so I'm not surprised it hurts. Hold on." Twilight surreptitiously looked around before lighting her still invisible horn and pressing it to the filly's stomach. "It's just a little something to help with the indigestion. Not sure it'll help if you've pulled something though."

"Before now I've been in pain from not eating. I'll take being in pain from eating too much as a big win for me." The filly climbed onto the chair and curled up on her side, "Yay victory..."

"Yeah, you can stay here if you want. I'll try to not get into any more trouble-" Twilight jolted as a scream rang through the ballroom, followed by many more.

"He's got a knife!" Twilight ran to the edge of the balcony and tried to find out what was happening. A white stallion was pushing through the crowd, a knife in his mouth, and was making a beeline straight for the Viscount and his cronies. From the corners of the room other ponies were trying to push through, although Twilight thought they were more likely guards than other assailants, and it looked like they weren't going to stop the attacker in time.

"Cly 'ou 'athted!" the stallion shouted from around the knife in his mouth. He leapt for the Viscount, who gave a very ladylike scream, at the exact same moment that Twilight, purely on instinct, formed a shield around the Viscount. The stallion smacked into the shield with a wet slap where he stuck for a few seconds before sliding down onto the floor, after which the guards swiftly piled on him.

Twilight cancelled the spell and took a step back from the edge of the balcony, hoping to hell that nopony had seen her do anything. The filly joined her in watching the guards' swiftly escort the Viscount and Ivory Spire away. "Pierre sends his regards!" the stallion shouted at the retreating ponies.

"As a matter of security I suggest that you all return to your rooms!" one of the guards shouted, and nopony seemed to want to argue as they started filing out of the room as fast as they could. Twilight crouched down, allowing the filly to clamber on her back, but waited as long as she could to watch the guards drag their new prisoner somewhere.

"I wonder who Pierre is?" Twilight mused as she started to head down stairs, although in her head she was quietly freaking out a bit.

"Who cares? I'm disappointed it wasn't that weirdo that was wandering around staring at everypony."

"That's your biggest concern? I'll admit he seemed a bit strange and I do wonder why he was doing that... Ooh..." Twilight had turned the corner of the stairs and came face to face with the stallion in question being escorted by another, older stallion.

"You thought Penfold would do something like that?" asked the older of the two, before chuckling heartily. "Penfold's harmless aren't you Penfold?"

"Smash the beetles! Smash 'em!"

"See? Wouldn't harm a fly!" The stallion re-evaluated what he had just said. "Okay... maybe he would hurt a fly, but not a pony, that's for sure."

"Smash the beetles! Kronk! Kronk! Kronk!" At that the two stallions headed off.

"We see the weirdest shit," the filly commented. "By the way... why does it feel like you have wings under this dress?"

"It's-uh... it's just part of the dress. You've seen me without the dress on, you know I don't have wings."

"You turned your horn invisible. Excus-ack!" The filly yelped when Twilight suddenly jigged and bounced her into the air. "Urgh..." she groaned as her landing on Twilight's back hurt her stomach, "What was that for?"

"You don't talk about a lady's business in front of strangers Ancilla."

"I'm telling you Trixie, one of these times you're going to fail to catch one of those and it's going to hurt. A lot."

"I don't- I don't- I don't-" Trixie belched loudly, and Fleur could smell the bourbon on her breath from six feet away. "Your face is stupid," Trixie concluded before throwing her two empty bottles in the air and catching them again. "Muh... my drunk is perfectly magic when I'm- when I'm good."

"Of course Trixie." Fleur sighed deeply and resumed her pacing. Once she had discovered that Trixie was okay, more than okay in fact, it had occurred to Fleur that they had nothing to do. They couldn't even discuss what to do since the stallion in the room probably didn't need to hear such things. Trixie had suggested joining her in the consumption of whiskey flavoured fun but Fleur had refused because two drunken ponies couldn't really carry each other home.

Fleur growled and set about completing another circuit of going back and forth when she overheard some excited talking coming from outside. A minute later a rose coloured mare poked her head through the door, shocking Trixie into missing one bottle that fell and landed on her horn disrupting her hold on the other bottle which proceeded to smack her on the chin.

"Aaahhh! Ah-ah-ha-ha-ow! Owie-owie-owie!"

The new comer stared at Trixie rolling around on the floor clutching her face and cursing. Then she stared at the stallion tied to the bed before turning her gaze to Fleur who scowled at her. "Can I help you?"

"What the hell have you been doing in here?" the mare asked before shaking her head. "Look, it doesn't matter. There's been an assassination attempt on the Viscount and we've all been ordered back to our rooms."

"You mean there's been a massinaton thingy on the Vi-*hic*-cunt and we missed it? This party sucks!"

Fleur bit her lip as she thought. Her initial worry was that Twilight had done something but quickly thought otherwise when she remembered there was no way Twilight would do something like that. or Octavia for that matter. She started nodding as another idea started to form in her mind. "Okay, let us finish up and we'll be out soon." The rose coloured mare gave them a nod and left.

After giving her thirty seconds Fleur cautiously looked out through the door and found that nopony was nearby. "Wait here," she told Trixie.

"Where you going? Trissie wanna come too!"

"No Trixie, you're drunk. Stay here and I'll be back real soon." Fleur left the room and headed towards the room at the end where the pegasus had been taken. She stopped outside to make sure no pony was looking before pressing her ear to the door to check if there was anypony else in there. All she could hear was the occasional whimper.

Fleur pushed the door open and entered the room, swiftly shutting the door behind her. The room was tiny with a bed on the right that the pegasus was lying on, her rear pointing towards the door. She was also chained to the wall via her collar and her wings were still bound as they were before. "Uh... hi?" Fleur said, not knowing what to say in this situation. She certainly didn't expect the response the pegasus gave her.

The pegasus, without moving her front, raised her rear into a standing position and flicked her tail aside, fully exposing herself to Fleur. Fleur gawked at the pegasus's rear for a moment, a part of her grimly noting the cum leaking out of both of her sore looking holes, before remembering that she should be doing something.

"No no no! I'm not here for that!" The pegasus lowered her rear back down and wrapped her tail around herself. Not expecting the pegasus to ignore her like she was Fleur thought desperately to find a way to make the pegasus engage with her. Her eyes settled on the ropes binding the pegasus's wings in their half open position.

"Uh, let me get those for you," she said, taking a step forward and noticing that the pegasus flinched when she did. Her magic deftly undid the ropes and dropped them on the floor but all the pegasus did was stretch her wings and fold them. Her head never moved the entire time.

Not wanting to lash out in frustration Fleur swallowed and tried to remain patient. "I know you must be scared but I'm honestly just trying to help you." Still, the pegasus remained silent. "Do you... Do you have a name?"

"Yes," the pegasus said, barely louder than a whisper. The pegasus said nothing more.

"Good, that's good. Could you-uh, possibly tell me your name?"

"Slut." The pegasus curled up a little tighter.

"Ooookay... I doubt that's your actual name-"

"It's what the guards and the others here call me, mistress."

"I wasn't asking what they call you, I was asking what you call you." The pegasus gave a small strangled cry and finally looked at Fleur, fear etched on her face.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry mistress, I didn't know what you meant! My name's Summer Skies." Summer held a hoof over her head and cowered away from Fleur, "Please don't hit me mistress, I'm sorry!"

"What? I'm not going to hit you!" Fleur held a hoof up to calm the pegasus but the gesture just made the pegasus scramble back and cower further. Fleur relented and backed up a few steps, giving the pegasus a bit of room to calm down. After a minute the pegasus peeked at Fleur who tried to smile reassuringly, "I'm not going to hit you. In fact I'm not going to hurt you in any way at all. Why do you think I would?"

"Because everypony does!" the pegasus wailed.

"Shh, keep it down!" Fleur hissed as she motioned with her hooves. Immediately the pegasus shut her mouth but started breathing rapidly to the point where Fleur thought she might pass out. "Look, Summer, I want you to stay still a moment, okay? I'm going to take your collar off and clean you up a bit. If you want me to stop, just say."

Fleur stepped closer to pegasus whose breathing somehow became even more rapid the closer she got. The pegasus looked like a cornered animal that was ready to bolt and if it weren't for the fact that she was chained to the wall she might well have. Fleur studied the collar, noticing it wasn't like the collars weather ponies wore but was more like something you would put on a pet, albeit with some important differences.

That didn't mean it was going to be easy though. The padlock holding it shut looked like it could resist every effort of Fleur's to open it, but the strap was made of hardened leather. A fact unbeknownst to most ponies that weren't unicorns, was that telekinesis had more utility than merely lifting things. It could be turned into an edge that due to the intangible nature of magic, could be almost infinitely sharp. Provided you were good at magic.

Unfortunately, Fleur wasn't that good at magic and the edge she could form was only marginally sharper than the average spoon. Bearing that in mind, she started the slow process of sawing through the leather. Why did Trixie have to get pissed? Fleur thought as sweat started to bead on her forehead, her lock picking magic would have been damn useful about now!

After a couple of minutes of exhaustive sawing she finally broke through and pulled the collar off before collapsing in a heap. She grinned at the pegasus whom she expected to be sharing in her elation, but found the pegasus to be staring wide eyed at her own hooves.

Fleur stood back up and tore a strip off the bed sheet and was about to try and clean the pegasus up a bit when the pegasus spoke to her. "There's a bowl of w-water and a cloth un-un-under the bed mistress," the pegasus stammered in a tiny voice. Fleur looked under the bed and found that the pegasus was right, and more disgustingly, that the cloth and water hadn't been used.

"Why didn't you use it yourself?"

"I couldn't reach it," Summer said, hanging her head in shame.

Fleur soaked the cloth in the water and ran it out, "If at any point you want me to stop, just say so. Unless you'd rather do this yourself of course?" The pegasus gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of her head. "Okay then, I promise I'll be gentle."

Fleur rubbed the cloth down the inside of the pegasus's thighs, doing her best to wipe off the remaining fluids and putting some effort into scrubbing off those bits that had dried on. She then gently lifted the pegasus's tail and wiped the underside of that but quickly found it impossible to clean off with only a rag and water. She did the best she could though and moved onto the more intimate parts of Summer's anatomy.

She had barely touched the wet cloth to Summer's privates when the pegasus squealed and jumped away, hugging her tail between her legs. Immediately Fleur backed off, "It’s okay, I won't do anything if you don't want me to." She rinsed the cloth out and put it on the bed, "If you want to do it yourself, go ahead. I won't even look." Fleur turned her back to the pegasus and studied the door intently until a minute later when the pegasus squeaked "I'm done."

Fleur turned back to see the pegasus curled up in the far corner of the bed, watching her warily. Fleur gave her a gentle smile and moved over to the window and wrenched it open. "You can go now Summer," she said. "You're free."

"Free?" Summer said as if the concept was entirely new to her, "I-I-I... I can't! I can't go out there!"

"What? Why not? Don't you want to be free?" Fleur was a bit lost as she had been counting on the idea that any pegasus would want to be free and would go without looking back. Summer's reaction complicated things a bit.

"N-no, I'll be p-p-punished if I go out there! The guards will find me a-and hurt me and break my wings or something! I should... I should stay here..."

Fleur's mouth hung open is disbelief. What had these ponies done to this poor pegasus that made her too afraid to run away? Were all pegasi like this? Fleur didn't know what to do. Logically she should have thought of her own safety and got out of there, leaving Summer to her fate. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Fleur didn't have much love for logic and there was no way she was giving up now.

"I'm getting you out of here whether you like it or not," she muttered, not particularly caring whether the pegasus heard her or not. She stripped her outfit off, dress, gloves, stockings and all, and put it on the bed in front of Summer. "Put this on," she told the pegasus. Summer glanced nervously between Fleur and the outfit until Fleur couldn't take it anymore. "Now," she grunted, not really wanting to give orders.

"Yes mistress," Summer squeaked.

"And stop calling me mistress."

"Yes mistress!" Summer squeaked slightly louder. Fleur rolled her eyes and went to the window to get a breath of fresh air. The room reeked of intimacy, but the horrifically shameful kind, not the fun, loving kind. As much as she hated to admit it, she was starting to regret doing this for no other reason than Summer's submissive behaviour was getting on her nerves. Fleur had spent her life standing up for herself and to see Summer too afraid to give herself a chance at freedom was too much.

She took a calming breath and turned away from the window to find that Summer was cowering next to the clothes she hadn't put on. "I'm sorry mistress," Summer said without offering any explanation as to why she hadn't put them on.

Fleur nearly yelled but managed to rein in her annoyance and took a moment to think, which was long enough for her to work something out. "You've never worn clothes before have you Summer?"

"No mistress, only collars and wing binders."

"I really don't think those count as clothing," Fleur said quietly as she tried to work out how to dress an adult. "Okay, sit down, forelegs up, and wings folded." Summer complied and using her magic Fleur slipped the dress over Summer's head and into place. She then set about putting the other items of clothing on Summer and eventually she ended up with a blue and pink prostitute that could hopefully pass for an earth pony under casual inspection.

Summer hunched up slightly and cast her gaze downward, reminding Fleur of the modelling shots that model called Fluttershy did a while back. I wonder what became of her, Fleur mused. "Right," she said, addressing Summer, "Come with me."

"Yes mistress."

"And stop calling me mistress!"

"Sorry mistress!"

Fleur poked her head out through the door and was gratified to find nopony around. She walked out, making sure that Summer followed her, and went back into the room she and Trixie had occupied before. "Trixie? Come on, we need to go." Trixie responded by snoring loudly from down the side of the bed. "Trixie?" Fleur moved to where she could see Trixie and groaned when she found Trixie curled up, using an empty bottle as a teddy bear.

"Dammit Trixie! Now is really not the time to do that!" She gave Trixie a sharp kick on the rump, followed by several more, until Trixie woke up.

"Why you kickin' m'?" Trixie mumbled.

"Because we need to get back to the room. Now."

"But we has a room. This's a room..." Trixie curled up a little tighter.

"For fuck sake..." Fleur lifted Trixie in her magic and draped the happily snoring unicorn over her back. Trixie was surprisingly heavy for a pony that wasn't all that big. Must be the ego. "Come on Summer, stay by me and don't keep staring at the floor."

"Why is he tied to the bed?" Summer asked in her tiny voice as she cautiously looked towards the stallion. "Was he a bad pony too?"

Fleur barked a single laugh but instantly felt ashamed, "Yeah, you could say that."

"You're... you're not going to do that to me are you? I promise I'll be good! I promise!"

Fleur shushed the panicking pegasus, "No we're not going to do that to you. We only did that to him because he wanted to... do bad things to Trixie, but Trixie didn't let him." Summer nodded emphatically, as clearly she knew what Fleur meant. "Come on, we need to go." Fleur led the way out and down the corridor and was faintly surprised, and relieved, to see that Tulula was the only pony left.

"There you are! I've been waiting ages, where've you been? And who's that?"

Fleur grinned slightly, thanking whatever deity was watching that it was Tulula here and not the Matron, because there was no way Tulula would have bothered to remember the pegasus from earlier. "I found her in one of the rooms. I think one of the callers were a bit rough with her and did some things that, well, shouldn't be done to a mare, so I gave her my dress to cover the marks. Why'd you wanna know anyway? Why are you still here?"

"The matron left and I had to stay to make sure you got this." She opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out two small bags of coins, "One hundred and ten for Trixie, and one hundred for you. There doesn't seem to be anything for you though you poor thing," she said to Summer. "And you Fleur, I can't believe you didn't get any callers all night..."

"Yeah... sure does suck to be me. We'll sort out her payment tomorrow or something." Fleur picked up the two bags and tucked them into Trixie's dress. "I'm surprised you didn't take the money and run though?"

Tulula gasped as though Fleur had insulted her, "I wouldn't do that to you! Us ladies have got to stick together.

"Uh-huh." Fleur made to leave but stopped when she remembered something, "By the way," Fleur waved Tulula closer so she could hear her whispering, "there's a stallion in room eight that's tied to the bed. If you could give us a ten minute head start I'd greatly appreciate it."

Dear Twilight

I have to admit that I hadn't really thought much about the sirens after the battle, and it certainly hadn't occurred to me that they might have been in trouble after losing their voices, so the girls and I did some snooping and you'll never guess what we learnt. The sirens are loaded! As in they're like millionaires! I guess a thousand years is plenty of time to make some smart investments.

That's not all though. Rather than just leave it we decided to approach the sirens and try to be friends with them. After what I did, you guys all stood by me so I figured I owed it to them to try and be friends with them.

Not my greatest plan. Aria gave me a split lip and Rainbow Dash has a bruise shaped like the bottom of a boot on her back, and I'm pretty sure Fluttershy broke Adagio's nose for that, but there might be a silver lining to all this. Sonata came to us after and apologized for what happened, and said she'd like to hang out some time because staying at home with the other two moping around was really bringing her down. She really wants to give being friends a go which is great because it means my face isn't hurting for nothing.

We haven't made any plans on what to do yet, but we swapped phone numbers so we can organise something. Hopefully it goes well. I'll keep you posted.

Your slightly pained friend

Sunset.

Twilight smiled grimly. While she was glad the sirens were okay she wasn't too happy that they had attacked her friends, and she was honestly surprised at Fluttershy. Sure she had her moments, but wow! At least it hadn't been for nothing. Maybe through Sonata they could make progress on befriending the others, and if not, at least Sonata was willing to try.

She returned the book to her bags and tried to get comfortable in the bunk she was occupying. They were pretty basic and lacked any kind of safety features meaning she was paranoid about falling out during the night. She had considered sleeping on the floor since there were only four bunks and five ponies, but had decided that maybe she could have a bed to herself for once.

She looked across to where Octavia and the filly were sleeping, with the filly claiming the other top bunk which Octavia was perfectly happy about. It hadn't taken long for either of them to fall asleep, leaving Twilight on her own to worry about Trixie and Fleur whom still hadn't returned.

Just as she was starting to think about going out and searching there was a timid knock at the door, "Twilight? You there? Please say you're there..."

"Fleur? Don't worry, I'm here."

"Thank goodness." Fleur opened the door and wobbled in, entering far enough to lean over and tip Trixie onto the floor; Trixie herself, not disturbed in the slightest, carried on snoring. Fleur stretched until her back popped, "Aaahhhh, that's better. Trixie is a surprisingly heavy pony."

"Is she okay?" Twilight asked, "You know, after what happened..."

"After what happened? Ooohh, you mean that. Yeah, she's fine. Clubbed the stallion over the head with a bottle and tied him to a bed. She then proceeded to drink best part of a litre of bourbon, so yeah, she's fine. Better than I would have been in that situation because I probably would have just grit my teeth and taken it."

"Well that's a relief. I was so worried after the filly told me what had happened. I wanted to come and get you guys but-"

"But the mission comes first, I know," Fleur said, interrupting Twilight. Fleur sat on the edge of the bunk when she suddenly remembered something. "Aww dammit..." She got up and went to the door, "Summer, get in here."

"Yes mistress." The blue and pink pegasus cautiously entered the room, her eyes never leaving the floor, and sat down in the center of the room.

"Uh... Fleur, who's this?"

"This is Summer Skies. She's a pegasus."

"A pegasus? Where the heck d' you find a pegasus!?" Summer shied away from Twilight, who instantly felt guilty for her outburst. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell, and it's not because you're a pegasus. I just wasn't expecting one to be here."

Summer squeaked something barely audible and Fleur tried to place a comforting hoof on her shoulder, but the pegasus shied away from the contact. "She was being forced to work in the harem, although it’s definitely more of a brothel, and she was part of something called the Viscount's challenge where the Viscount awards a thousand marcs to any pony willing to use her."

Twilight covered her mouth with her hooves, "That's horrible! How could anypony do that to another pony?"

"I know right? I couldn't leave her there, so when everypony was told to go back to their rooms I took a chance and rescued her. I was hoping I could get her free enough so she could fly away but she wouldn't because she was afraid the guards would catch her and do the nasty things they tend to do to escaped pegasi. In the end I did the only thing I could and brought her here."

"That's okay, you did the right thing." Twilight teleported from the bunk down to the floor, appearing in front of Summer in a bright purple flash that made the nervous pegasus squeal and back off until her rear hit the door. "Sorry! Sorry... I really should remember to not do that. Anyway, I'm Twilight Sparkle, it's nice to meet you"

Summer fell into a very clumsy bow, "It's my pleasure to serve you mistress," she said, surprising Twilight and making Fleur facehoof.

"Um... excuse me? You're not here to serve me or anypony. Why would think that?" Summer said nothing, but cringed like she was expecting to be struck. "Um... Fleur?"

"Yeah, I don't know what the ponies did to her here, or if this is a thing all pegasi get made to do, but she is totally subservient to everypony. Either way it's messed up."

"What do you mean all pegasi or just her?"

"Pegasi are born and bred to be weather ponies, which is the Duchies one and only interest in them. What I'm trying to say is that Summer here might be a rare example of a pegasus trained purely to be a slave, which is why she's like this. That, or all pegasi are trained like her to be utterly subservient which is not a good thing."

"I guess not." Twilight sighed and tried to put it to the back of her mind since it wasn’t something she needed to worry about right now. She turned to Summer and gave her a comforting smile, "I'm guessing you must be tired. You can have the top bunk there if you want."

"Yes mistress, thank you mistress." Summer started to climb up the ladder when Twilight stopped her.

"Why are you climbing the ladder? Wouldn't it be easier to fly up there?" Summer crept back down the few steps of the ladder she had gotten up and sat down in silence. "Did... did I say something wrong?" Twilight asked, "Did they do something to your wings? Are they clipped?" Summer shook her head. "May I see them?"

Summer nodded and started to remove the dress before Fleur impatiently yanked it and the rest of her clothes off her. "She's never worn clothes before," Fleur explained before Twilight had a chance to ask.

"Spread your wings please," Twilight said to the now undressed pegasus. Summer did so and Twilight ran a hoof over them, noticing that Summer shivered fearfully as she did. "They're not even clipped," Twilight observed, "so why can't you fly?"

"The guards hit me if I tried to," Summer explained, "and they said they'd break my wings if I kept trying, so I stopped.

"She was also chained to the wall and had her wings bound half open when I found her," Fleur added. "She couldn't have done it if she tried. I guess if they discouraged her it means that she's probably a one off."

"I see, I guess we'll have to teach you to fly then." Twilight smiled warmly at Summer who completely failed to reciprocate the gesture. "Anyway, you can go to bed if you want." Twilight watched as Summer clambered up the ladder into the bunk before turning to Fleur, "So, apart from rescuing her, did you learn anything?"

"Yeah, I'm an idiot that shouldn't be allowed within ten paces of planning. Dressing up as prostitutes," she growled, "what was I thinking?" She climbed into the spare bunk and buried her face in the threadbare pillow.

"You made a plan based on what you knew at the time," Twilight told her while being slightly miffed at being volunteered for the floor without being asked. "It's not your fault it didn't work out."

"I could've suggested that we go as serving mares or something. But no, I had to have fun forcing Trixie to dress up like that. Stupid stupid stupid!" Fleur groaned and rolled onto her side so she could look at Twilight, "So yeah, apart from that I got nothing. I did hear however, that a certain Viscount was almost assassinated. Get anything from that?"

"It was only one pony and he's being held onboard somewhere-"

"How'd he fail anyway?"

Twilight cringed. Fleur had asked the one question that she hoped she wouldn't. "Oh...uh... Somepony pushed him out of the way and, uh... saved him."

"Lying really isn't one of your strong points is it?"

"It really isn't. I didn't plan on saving him, I just saw the pony charging towards the Viscount with the knife and reacted."

"You're such a goody-goody Twilight." Fleur grinned teasingly at Twilight who shrugged without argument. "It doesn't matter though, last thing we need is something like that making our life harder, so it's probably a good thing he failed. Learn anything else?"

"Yeah, when the assassin was captured he shouted something, 'Pierre sends his regards.'"

"Why would he do that? Surely the identity of whoever sent him should be kept a secret?"

"Unless he thought that the Viscount would already know who Pierre is. Maybe it’s part of something bigger that we don't know about yet? I'm also wondering about what kind of name Pierre is, as it sounds griffish."

"Actually it's prench. Maybe this was some kind of revenge attack for what happened in Prance?"

"Maybe, I don't know. What I do know is that I would very much like to have a talk with this would be assassin."

Author's Notes:

Past the 100k word count, never thought I'd see that happen even though I planned on it being longer than that. My heads funny like that.