"Shoot it!"

"I can't get a clear shot!"

"Do it!"

"I can't! I'll hit her!"

"Can someone find a rope? Anyone?"

"Are there any other unicorns here? Someone find another unicorn!"

"The drones?"

"It's not out of the cage. They won't know what to shoot!"

I could hear the people up above on the catwalks shouting, trying to find a way to help me, but in my heart I knew it would be over before they could find a way to reach me. I could see the long, octopus-like tentacles twitching around in the shadows between the cage bars. In my mind I saw them touching that poor goat again, only this time it was me, and I saw myself screaming in agony as my eye was pulled messily from-

I staggered drunkenly to the side, just as a WHOOMPH sound came from behind. A slap on my rump left me tingling as the weighted tip of a net flew past, grazing my butt and barely missing me to whack harmlessly against the goatlicker's cage and fall to the ground. I could feel the evil glee of the monster controlling my body, laughing at my near escape. The tiniest surge of hope tugged at my trembling heart.

Maybe James has another net?

"Shit," James exclaimed behind me. "I don't have another net!"

Crap.

I was very close now, and one of the tentacles slipped lazily between the bars to wave tauntingly at me. At this distance, it looked even more disgusting and horrific, with dozens, hundreds, thousands of little slimy feet waving back and forth on the underside like some kind of vile starfish, each ready to sink into my poor flesh and tear me into miserable, agonized pieces.

Then I stopped, and clumsily turned back to face my friends. Mia's hands were held out towards me, her arms shaking. Even from here I could see her tears. "Oh Eris. Please fight it."

The thing in my mind snickered again, and I realized what it was doing, why it was having me sit like this.

It wanted to make my friends and I suffer more. It wanted them to watch as it did unspeakably terrible things to my body, basking luxuriously in our combined pain and misery. It was pure evil, and it had been a long time since it had played with anything more intelligent than a goat. Oh yes, it was going to make me a meal to remember, and it wanted to make sure they could see every exquisite bit of suffering in my eyes as it consumed me, little by little.

"Eris!"

"Mia!" I called back, hardly realizing the monster had given me back my voice.

"Eris, please! Come back to me!"

"I-I can't!!" I knew what it wanted, and I tried to resist it, to not show the sorrow it desired, but seeing Mia's distress broke me. "Don't watch!" I bawled, my voice breaking and tears pouring down my muzzle. "Please, Mia! Look away!"

"No! I can't. I won't! I'm coming to you!"

Yes come and hold me, save me! screamed a little selfish voice in my mind.

"No! Don't!" I sobbed out loud. "It'll take you too, Mia, please don't-"

And just like that I was voiceless again.

Mia moved forward. I expected James to stop her, but I was surprised when he moved towards me as well.

Mia stepped over the line, and I could immediately tell by her face that she was in a mental struggle with the goatlicker.

Abruptly, I felt the grip on me quiver and weaken the slightest bit. I pulled against it, finding myself able to gain an inch of ground back in the tug-of-war for my own body.

I jerkily lurched my body forward, almost falling on my nose. Mia stood just inside the danger line, her face contorted with concentration. James, still standing outside, had his hand on her shoulder.

"W-working," I gasped, shuffling ever so slowly towards her.

Mia grunted softly and stepped cautiously forward, James's hand firmly on her shoulder. He allowed himself to pass into the zone behind her, and I felt a further lessening of the tension as the goatlicker now tried to multitask between mental assaults on three intelligent adversaries. I tried to move towards my friends, but it was still like pulling against a heavy steel spring. Each step was increasingly more difficult, until I was again frozen in place.

Mia and James approached me, slowly coming closer. I could feel the building aggravation of the goatlicker as it desperately tried to slow them down while still keeping me a prisoner.

My friends kept moving towards my frozen form, until finally they knelt down and reached out to me, putting their hands on my sweaty, trembling body.

It was the most beautiful thing I could have hoped for, simply to feel their touch again, and simultaneously the physical contact unified us on some instinctive, subconscious level.

As we connected, the invisible steel bands holding me melted into thick mud. The combined force of our three wills pushed back against the beast, and I heard a loud bang and a hiss from the cage behind me. Evidently the creature within was angered beyond description by this turn of events. It swung at us, so close I could feel the loathsome wind from those savage tentacles as they swept by.

"Don't let go," I mumbled. "Stay... together."

Crawling beside me, they each kept an arm around my neck.

"Leaving... harder," Mia wheezed.

"Almost there," James encouraged weakly.

"Hold tight." I plodded forward, half dragging my friends. Their weight did not hold me back, but the endless, increasingly frenzied mental assaults of the creature behind us made every inch as punishing as a fight against hurricane winds.

"Come on! You can do it! Just a little further!"

I could see a group of security personnel had collected at the edge of the danger zone, cheering us on in our eerily silent struggle.

l strained forward, pushing hard, focused only on the line marking the edge of the safe area. Closer... Closer...

A lot of hands and hooves reached out and grabbed us, pulling us quickly to safety.

"Are you guys alright?"

"Medic! Medic!"

"Someone get a stretcher!"

I lay on the floor, blinking slowly, tangled up with James and Mia. I noticed some people in exo suits had joined the group. I idly guessed backup had finally made it downstairs.

While I continued to sprawl on the floor, some guy rushed up in front of my nose. I lay and stared at his boots, lacking the energy even to turn my head.

"Hey guys! I found rope and another net gun..." he trailed off. "Oh, good. They're okay."

I wanted to chuckle, but instead I wheezed and everything went dark.

I opened my eyes to the steady beeping of the medical equipment beside my bed, and Mia's sleeping face inches from my own.

"Hey, Eris. Good to have you back."

I turned to see the bed next to mine, and James gazed back at me tiredly.

I gave a small hoof wave. "Hey. What happened?"

He grinned. "We all took a nap. Apparently, fighting for your life against mind-controlling alien predators is very exhausting. Who knew."

"Mmm. James?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for coming after me. I was so scared, I-" I choked up with a sob.

James looked embarrassed. "You would have done the same thing. Besides, Mia went first."

"Uh, how did she end up on my hospital bed?"

James chuckled. "She threatened physical violence when they tried to separate her from you. I think her exact words were 'Leave me the fuck alone or I'll break that tranquilizer off in your ass.' They unanimously elected to leave her alone."

"Why does that not surprise me." I smiled slightly, reaching up and stroking her gently with my forehoof, running my telekinetic fingers through her hair. "Looks like you saved my neck again."

She murmured and opened her eyes, then gave me a squeeze, pulling me against her warm body. "Mmm. Hi baby."

I nuzzled her. "Thanks for saving my life, again," I whispered into her ear.

"You aren't getting away from me that easily, fuzzpoof."

"I'm feeling more and more like I'm on the wrong bed," James grumbled.

"Oh stop your whining, we'll take care of you later, right Eris?"

"Of course we will," I giggled. "I owe you both-" my voice suddenly cracked "a lot," I sobbed. Stupid emotional roller coaster.

Mia didn't seem to mind, folding her arms tightly around me. "There, there, you're safe now, baby."

"I-I know. I'll be okay," I sniffled. "I'm so happy to be alive right now. I was afraid I'd never-be with you guys-" I was sobbing again. I just gave up talking at that point, it wasn't going to work.

Mia just tucked my head against her chest and held me close until I pulled myself together.

"S-sorry," I finally said. "Oh my gosh."

"You've had a rough day," Mia said, rubbing my back.

"So have you."

"Maybe we all need a break."

"I sure need a break," said James.

"So do I," said the Equestrian doctor, coming into the room. "You guys are in here every day now." He approached the bed. "Miss Carson, would it be okay if I took a look at Miss Sky? I promise there are no needles involved for either of you."

Reluctantly, Mia let me go.

The doctor quickly checked my vitals. "Hmm. Well, nothing wrong with you that some rest won't fix. I was a bit worried you might be more seriously injured, after all I heard you took a dive onto your head, but it appears your thick skull was uninjured."

"Thanks?" I replied, unsure as to whether I'd just been insulted.

"Are we good to go?" James asked, sitting up in his bed.

"Well, maybe I'd like to keep you a couple days, I mean we don't often deal with people who have been under such strong psionic control..." the doctor trailed off, sounding almost wistful.

"So we're okay then?" James asked again, more forcefully. "I mean it's like what, right down the hall if we need to come back."

"I'd like to keep an eye on you, you know, in case anything goes wrong that we didn't foresee."

"There's three of us, we can keep an eye on each other," Mia butted in. "And we can do it from the comfort of our own rooms."

The doctor sighed heavily, disappointment etched on his features. "All right," he said. I felt a little bad for him, but I wasn't about to spend the night in the infirmary if I could help it.

"Sorry, doc," I said. "Look, if we get into trouble again, I promise we'll come visit you."

He groaned audibly.

We arrived back at our rooms, closed the door behind us, and dropped our gear in the common area kitchen. After a few glasses of water, we headed to our individual rooms to get cleaned up. My bedroom space didn't have much in it besides a twin bed, rug, desk, and holoterminal. Ignoring all of these, I headed straight to the little bathroom and spent the next few minutes between the toilet, the sink, and the shower. In short order I felt refreshed and somewhat presentable again. When I arrived back in the common area, it was empty.

"Hey Eris, over here," James called.

I turned to see James laying on Mia's bed with the sheets pushed down, his muscular chest peeking out of the red housecoat he was wearing. He had his arm around Mia, her body wrapped in some kind of short satin robe that barely reached mid thigh. They smiled at me, and Mia beckoned with her hand.

"I feel a bit under dressed," I admitted as I clopped lightly over to join them on the bed, crawling up to James.

He brushed my mane back from my face. "You always look perfect, babe." He then pulled me gently over his body and wedged me between the two of them.

I closed my eyes when he kissed me, and again when Mia kissed me as well. "I don't know how I got this lucky," I purred as I wiggled there, comfortably squashed by my two favorite aliens.

"I think the same thing all the time now," James replied, nibbling my ear.

I lay quietly for a moment, my ear idly flicking around while James played with it. After a moment, the tendrils of what had happened earlier played unbidden across my mind. I saw the look on Mia's face as she watched me walk towards my death, and I shuddered involuntary.

"Are you okay, honey?" Mia asked.

"I... Um, today was too close. I still, I mean I still feel..."

"Me too," she said, squeezing me close.. "I don't want to think about it."

"Me either. It's okay now though, right? Let's just enjoy being together." I said softly.

Mia and James slipped out of their clothes, then pulled the sheets and blanket up over us. The cozy feeling comforted me, and as the lights dimmed, I yawned. I could hear, in the distance, the nightly serenade of the horror hotel we kept downstairs, but tucked snugly between my two humans, I couldn't make myself care anymore, not tonight.

Next to the bed, our weapons sat ready.

I sleep every night with my shotgun by my bed. We all do.

It's a lot nicer when you do it together, though.

Author's Notes:

In memory of Hugh Hefner, 9 April 1926 - 27 September 2017.