****

Chrissy

It has been four days since Ari ‘went for a walk’.

I felt my control breaking once again, one push away from breaking down into hysterics…Again. So, I was more than a little depressed.

“Chrissy?” Lyric asked quietly from beside me, ears splayed, and eyes raw like mine most likely were.

Tears hadn’t helped me, but they still came with little effort, there was a lot for me to cry about in life. From the beginning ‘life’ seemed to want to challenge my family, my species.

Only by ‘life’ I meant Equestrians, the princesses to be exact, even when I was a nymph they were hard at work. I only knew of this after mother had died, it had occurred when I was just a nymph, before I could even form words or lasting memories. It was our first attempt at peace since the war five centuries prior, father had gone with a small group of dignitaries to propose new treaties with the Equestrian kingdom. At that time it was just Sunbutt on the throne, now a monarchy, she had sent her own sister to the moon.

“Hello? Equis to Chrissy?” I looked away from her, she probably wanted to try and make me believe her sweet words again.

Well, for some reason my father and his dignitaries were met with misunderstanding and hostility by the guards. Why was that strange? He had been exchanging letters with the princess herself for weeks, she was expecting them.

One thing led to another and before they knew it one of my very estranged cousins was dead, beheaded in the throne room, defending my father of course. Understandably when the princess finally made her appearance things were already out of control. A rogue spell had reflected back from our shields and killed two unicorn guards. That is what she saw when she entered: two dead Equestrians and the ‘peaceful’ party she was to meet. Not listening to my father’s ‘vile lies’ she sentenced him to death as retribution for the murders, the other option she gave was war. He chose to die rather than risk our lives.

“Chrissy?!” Lyric was trying to get my attention by nibbling at my ear now, while it did feel nice, it just reminded me that Ari used to do that.

Perhaps my perception of these events is due to the fact that I’m just a little depressed and scared for my, no, our future.

But after that it seemed to have just gone downhill. Until most recently I was given a hope. A stallion that loved me, he could grow old with me, and our foal. It was all too perfect…

“CHRISSY!” Lyric was determined to talk apparently, nothing good had come of her pep talks the last fifty times, but I think they weren’t for me at this point. I knew exactly where my family was while she was stuck in a perpetual limbo. Who knows where that mirror led?

Might as well play along, I wasn’t allowed to do anything anyway, not that I felt up to moving around.

“Y-yes…” My voice was cracking from the hours of disuse after I finished screaming, more fresh tears threatening to spill over as my sorrow came back, thinking of why I was distressed.

Where was he?

Lyric shifted against me, putting her neck over mine as she tried to think loving thoughts for me. But the bitter, throat drying taste of sorrow, worry, and sadness clung to her like a shadow. Even if she had been happier, I needed more love than she could give through her passive contact.

“She will find something, he wouldn’t just disappear. You saw how excited Ari was at the news of our foals!”

I didn’t respond to her words, as I said, this was the fiftieth time today she had said that or a variant or it. Her words were half hearted at this point, like her hope for her family’s return it was more a lullaby to soothe her nerves. She doubted it. But my herd mate didn’t know what else to say in this situation, like me. What could be said? A loving, happy stallion that is expecting foals just disappears. It was wrong; it made no sense to any pony. Even Kapera, the cranky old Mongofu was suspicious about it. She had seen his reaction, the honesty in it.

Below us a door closed, Kapera wished another customer well before it opened again, another customer. I could faintly hear Kapera curse in Zebrican under her breath as the faint click of claws echoed down below, another browser. I would have enjoyed her karma a little if not for the fact that she was running the store alone today was due to Dinari searching the town for our stallion.

Why weren’t we out there looking for our stallion? I’m sure you must be wondering why we are camped out on the second floor of the shop in front of a fireplace, acting like mares in distress? Well it wasn’t our choice, trust me.

If I wasn’t so weak right now I could have taken her, started my own brand of searching…And probably sent the town into a complete panic as well, I couldn’t manage a disguise right now.

Taking to the streets in search of Ari was our first reaction when he didn’t come back that night. But as our hosts pointed out, no pony wandered the streets at night, we were with foal, and Ari might have just gotten lost and had some nice citizen put him up for the night.

Another way of placating us, Kapera was a little too considerate of the foals sometimes. I mean there wasn’t much to damage yet, I wasn’t even two weeks along. I had at least thirty weeks left, at the most I had forty six weeks.

We would find him before then.

When he didn’t wander in by the morning of the second day we were near hysterical with worry, this was not Ari at all. Kapera thought he might be pulling a prank on us, sure he jokes around but this wasn’t his type of joke. Kapera started to look a little guilty then, as she should. She was the one who hadn’t removed the magic inhibitor, and…No, something had definitely happened to him, that was the only answer that made sense to me, that we could accept.

Yesterday Dinari had started combing the streets, looking for any trace of Ari, and had returned with nothing. The west side of the city was clear and no being there had seen him.

Today she was checking the east side, a more slightly more grey area of Shallow Shale, home to questionable shops and services. Hopefully it held some answers.

Kapera was preparing dinner when Dinari returned.

“So find anything new out there Dinny?” Kapera looked up at her apprentice, looking very subdued as she dished out dinner.

Dinari looked thoughtful, scratching her chin, not responding for a minute. This made us look up from our pile by the fire. “Well…I have a theory, but it doesn’t make any sense in some ways.”

I cleared my throat, “Any theory right now is better than nothing, please Dinari!” It was the truth; I didn’t care if she suggested he got sent home to Earth, anything was better than not knowing. It would at least stop my imagination, and give me direction.

The Minotaur folded her ears back and took a seat, “I think some being killed him.”

A small squeak escaped my throat as my tears overflowed, the bitterness choked me as Lyric felt the same despair at her words. That was the one option that made sense, we both had refused to say it, but it explained his long absence.

But what could kill an Alicorn?

Kapera slammed her mug on to the table, “DINNY! Don’t start spouting that sort of stuff without explaining yourself! You…Think of the foals, you’re stressing them!”

“Well, I started asking all the merchants if they had seen him and one had. The day before Ari went missing he had worked for a fritter stall,-” I wanted to face hoof despite my sadness, of course he would have been where food was, “-helping to repair it. A rogue hay wagon had literally rolled over your stallion’s back before hitting the stall,” We all quirked an eyebrow while looking at the uncharacteristically talkative heifer, coincidence perhaps, wagons aren’t always easy to control. “If Ari hadn’t been hunched over picking a dropped bit his head would have been plowed into the street-.”

“So what’s your point Dinny? He was very lucky-.”

“That was the same day the scaffolding almost crushed us…The same scaffolding that looked brand new, not a scrap of rust, nor a dent in it. So I went down to the Seaside market to talk to the crew about that. Do you know what they said?!” We all stared at her, my brain already having an idea where she was going. “The scaffolding was cut, sabotaged! Something had cut a clean chunk of metal out of the supports.”

“Shit…” Kapera took a seat, looking exactly how I felt, but it wouldn’t help him now.

Something wet landed on my chitin, startling me out of my own tears. I followed its path up and saw Lyric silently crying. ‘Shit’ didn’t begin to even cover this. My heart was racing as I tried to calm down, breath again.

It sounded like somepony was out to get our stallion…Perhaps they already had since he hadn’t returned.

But maybe I was just trying to jump on any reason, no matter how bad, Alicorns were really hard to kill. They had won the Great War after all. “Was it just those two instances? That seems more like coincidence. You wouldn’t believe how bad our luck can be-.”

“No. There was more, when I met Ari at a café, a gentlecolt had brought him a drink. Strange thing was we never saw the fellow. When we looked at the table he wasn’t there, he hadn’t even ordered a drink for himself.”

“Wait a minute Dinny. I know we are progressive now a days. But a stallion buying a stallion a drink? That sounds like-.”

Dinari snorted at her mentor, interrupting her. “As I was saying, the waitress told me she thought it must be a colt because she had never seen a mare wear such a hideous cloak nor keep such bad hygiene. He kept the hood down, and didn’t talk once to her. He just pointed at the drink and Ari before giving her some bits.”

I frowned at that, my composure returning somewhat, that colt was definitely suspicious. Why would a stallion buy another stallion a drink only to not stick around to receive any thanks?

“That idiot of a waitress! Who would serve such a- No,” Kapera took a deep breath, trying for once to control herself. “What matters now is how did stud react to the drink?”

“Well there is the thing: he never got to drink it, got so startled when I greeted him that he dropped it, after that I didn’t notice anything odd happen, except for the scaffolding the day seemed normal.”

“Alicorns don’t die that easily…” Lyric whispered, although we all heard her.

I agreed, nodding the best I could underneath her, “Exactly, he can’t be dead! Maybe he was just ponynapped?” That notion caused Lyric to nod rapidly on my and a giggle escaped me at her new attitude.

We were both feeling a new sense of purpose, something we could focus our efforts on.

“Hmm,” Kapera hummed, looking at our sorry state before looking back at her apprentice. “So now what mares, it sounds like your stallion has made some enemies already, any ideas who might want him dead?”

Isn’t that the million bit question?

My ears folded back as I considered who might want him dead. There were the Diamond dogs from the mountains. They knew what he looked like, and we had seen some in the city by the docks, although the likelihood of those dogs being from the same pack was highly unlikely. How would they know we would go to the coast? No, maybe-.

“Jabbar.” Lyric said his name quietly but with such fear that it hurt to listen to her. He really did a number on her.

“Ja-who? Is this fellow likely to come after Ari?” Kapera looked at Lyric as we all did, with patience and interest. The salty, bitter flavor of guilt stung at my taste buds.

She seemed unable to answer so I filled in the blanks for our hosts.

“Oh! So this bastard really hates Ari then. I can just imagine being a big strong bull and getting my rump handed to me by this cocky stallion, who is also an Alicorn. In a fight, even a weak Alicorn like Ari can easily handle a Minotaur, so he must have got outside help…But the question is, if he was unconscious last time you saw him how would he know where you went after you left?

The guilt I was receiving from Lyric was practically choking me now, “Well, I may have strung him up from the rooftop after you guys left…” I raised my eyebrow, and turned to look at her as best as I could from underneath her neck, that wouldn’t make him annoyed at all. “I-I also, may have bucked him around a little…” Kapera sighed at that, “He was just coming to when I realized how long I had taken…So I left him there to die while I followed your group.”

I face hoofed, she hadn’t mentioned this before. This would have been very nice to know earlier!

We may be a herd but we obviously needed to clear the air more often, get to know each other more, so more skeletons don’t fall on us from the closet…After we figure out where Ari is. He was an Alicorn, he couldn’t die, easily anyway…Right?

Kapera screeched in frustration as she looked at Lyric, “Anything else we should know, any other potential killers out there looking for you two and your stallion?!”

“Well, maybe that vildkatt we met at the docks the first day we got to the city. We didn’t really do anything to him, but he wanted to ‘help’ us. Although Ari did teleport us away from there before anything could happen. That’s all I can think of right now, we were trying to stay hidden.”

“Did that vildkatt give his name?”

Dinari got up and was slowly backing away from the Mongofu, as Lyric and I would have done if we were close to her. The master smith was looking at the butter knife a little too intently, her teeth bared, and the sound of her breathing increasing. She looked ready to kill something.

“HIS NAME?!”

Our ears folded back at her volume, “He said it was Arch.”

Like a switch had been hit she released her real feelings, and as worried as I was for Ari she terrified me more in that minute.

Kapera screamed a scream of anger, agony, emotions that broke our hearts and nearly our eardrums as she let them out. She grabbed the knife, causing us all to flinch as she broke out into a string of Zebrican curses, stabbing the table like it was the vildkatt, I assume that’s who she was picturing anyway. I gave up trying to follow her rant; sure I could speak a little Zebrican, as my mother had insisted I learn as many languages as possible. But it had been at least a hundred years since I practiced, and she was yelling them quite rapidly.

We all just stayed back until her anger left, dark eyes eventually getting a thousand yard stare, while her knife stilled in her table. That poor piece of furniture bearing quite a few new marks from her assault…I don’t want to be Arch right now.

“That bucker has crossed a line, stud was supposed to save the world! He-They,” Kapera snarled and looked at Lyric and I, “We got ourselves a killer to catch and hopefully he is…compliant. I would love to have a heart to heart talk that kimwili…” She trailed off looking at her knife, “It was a long time coming.”

****

Ari

Time was a funny thing, or should I say the perception of time is, even more specifically, the perception of time when pain is involved. Speaking from current experience I can say that pain draws out every minute to become an hour, every hour a day, and so forth. So if you asked me how long I had been like this I couldn’t rightly say, it felt like weeks though.

These are the first clear thoughts I can recall after what felt like quite some time, little sensations of memories and voices linger at the edge of my mind, but they mean very little to me right now. What matters is that the pain is now within a threshold that I am not in and out of consciousness constantly.

I would have celebrated this state had I been able to.

Tell me if you have heard this before. I go to sleep and wake up in a new location…You have?! So have I, like two other times in this world, and I haven’t even been here a month yet. Then you know the rest of the story, I wake up tied up and annoyed.

Where was I? No idea, I can’t really look around with this blindfold on, and moving around was just a joke at this point.

Taking stock of how I feel, the best description is that I feel like a thousand four year olds are screaming in my ears constantly. While they attempt to beat me with baseball bats, from the inside out, and I swing around like their piñata.

My stomach lurched as the world moved again, causing me to swing to the left suddenly. I felt like a giant Alicorn shaped piñata right now, post party obviously.

Still don’t know how I went from a beach to swinging around on a rope.

So to summarize: I can hear nothing, feel way too much, see nothing, and my mouth tastes like a shitty hangover. The only sense that has given me any clue where I might be is my sense of smell. Where ever I am smells like strongly of salt, iron, and feces. There were some undertones of urine, mares, and a strange herbal smell. But that didn’t tell me anything really, it could mean too many things still, although I was betting on a prison cell.

Where-

Something touched me.

What the hell?!

Something was here with me. I would have given nearly anything to see what was touching me. It felt a smooth surface on my sensitive fur, coasting a smooth edge along my neck. I know how this ends in the movies, hello swinging corpse draining out. No thank you!

So I attempted to flare my wings…They were bound…It hit me then that I didn’t have my cloak on, whoever had me knew I was an Alicorn.

“Lrkk…” My attempt at speaking to my captor was horrible at best. My throat was dry and felt stiff. That was the best word for it, like I hadn’t used it in a couple of days.

How much time had passed?

My ears twitched and strained, a faint murmur came into focus, added to the ringing. Someone was whispering something in my ear, a muzzle tickling my fur. “Kushikilia bado…” My panic eased a bit as I heard a feminine voice, replaced by apprehension as the smooth, cold object continued going up my neck, now going up the back of my head.

I think that must have meant goodbye, it was spoken so quietly and seriously-.

“ROOOWWWW!” The blade sliced through my fur and into my skin as the world felt like it was turning again, this time I was swung to the right. The smell of iron hit my nose and I began to shake my head rapidly.

“Plrease nru! Don’t krill mwe!” I sounded like I was across the room to my ears and horribly distorted still, but it was easier to form words at least.

Although it was not enough to persuade my captor for killing me, or torturing me, either way I was in for more pain. I stilled my head as I felt the blade touch down at the back of my head, seeming to line it up for a cut before creeping down…

My blindfold went slack over my eyes, before falling away like the blade, it was gone. The world returned me to a centered position as spots swam in my vision. I was finally able to see, although white seemed too brilliant for a second.

There was a lot of white before me.

I was in a room, planked walls to either side, and a wall of rusty bars at the farthest part of the room. It was dim in here though, my eyes were drawn to the few lanterns around the room. They were something that made sense. Sense made me feel safe, a feeling that I needed dearly with the upside down vision in front of me…

Zebras, zebras stood or lay as far as I could see, all the way to the bars. There was some equestrians mixed in as well but it was mostly zebras, and they were gazing right back at me.

They might have a different name here but to me they were still zebras. Standing at least a head taller than the Equestrian ponies, the zebras were striped black and white just like their earth counterparts. But I couldn’t help but stare at their rump. The rump closest to me in fact, it had a black and white version of a cutie mark, like a Rorschach blot, but I couldn’t quite understand what it was. It almost blended in with their coat. If it wasn’t for my knowledge that ponies had them I wouldn’t have thought to-

“Excuse me…” A heavily accented voice whispered above the ringing in my ears and I twisted my head to my left…There was the mare attached to the rump that I had just been staring at, somepony should slap me, of course there was a pony attached to the butt.

My brain was a little slow today.

It was not only a mare, but the mare with the sharp piece of metal. She had cut my blindfold off and I had ogled her butt.

“Rh-…Hello,” finally I had said something without sounding like damned Scooby Doo! I still felt my muzzle heat up with a blush though. What was I thinking staring at her butt?! Maybe she will be forgiving and explain where I am…

We were eye to eye as I swung slightly with the swaying of the room…Why was the room swaying? Clearing my throat I looked at the zebra, “So where exactly am I? Last thing I remember I was walking on a beach.”

A murmuring spread throughout the room, a mix of whatever language she had spoken in at first and Equus, and I felt a little nervous at her look. Green eyes looked at me with pity, sadness, as she ran a hoof through my mane. While that felt nice it still didn’t tell me where I was…Although I had a suspicion, but my presumption didn’t exactly give me hope.

“Ship of death,” was her curt reply as she stood up on her hind legs. The zebra mare reached up to my rope with the sharpened scrap of metal in one hoof. Her leg was a foot too short.

I saw what her plan was: cut down the Alicorn and escape. That would be my plan anyway, even with my magic shut off I could still buck and stab.

“Can somepony give her a boost? I could be a help us escape if I could actually move.” To my disappointment nopony stepped up. Not that many looked strong enough to support her really, most were pretty slim…Okay that was a understatement, some looked downright starved, those ones weren’t even standing anymore. ‘Ship of death’ seemed pretty accurate right now, I was going to guess slave ship but I guess that was the same thing. There was death on either one.

My helper pinned her ears back and snorted at the others before carefully placing the MacGyvered knife in her mouth.

“What are you-mmmmm!”

She had used my chest as a vaulting horse, bringing her onto my chest…And her marehood over my muzzle. A squeal echoed around the room as my attempt at talking...Stimulated her.

It also forced her to drop the sharp piece of metal on my chest. Shit! That was so close, it landed on its width thankfully, but having what was essentially a knife falling on my belly had nearly scared the shit out of me.

First I stare at her butt like some pervert, now I am muzzle deep in her marehood, I am making such a great impression on these mares. Yes I said mares, there wasn’t the scent of any stallions in this room…But in all seriousness, I’m going to be lucky if she doesn’t buck me in the balls after this. The others seemed to get a kick out of this though. Snickers echoed around the room as they observed our new predicament, however I clamped my muzzle shut, tasting her more was not going give her any better of a impression of me. Not that she tasted bad, but an erection wasn’t exactly easy to explain away or appropriate in such a situation.

Again, I did the wrong thing.

She had started to push herself up at the same time I had clamped my muzzle down, with my luck that meant her clit got caught in my muzzle as I closed it. It took me a second to realize I had something in my mouth, my eyes crossing as I tried to see what could be there; however my release of her clit triggered her release. Mare juice splattered my face as the room was filled with her squeal.

My pain was forgotten as the smell of fresh berries filled my nostrils and dripped into my mouth, causing a stirring down below. Closing my eyes I started thinking of disgusting things, willing my cock to stay in my sheath if it treasured its life.

Panting came from her as her back legs started flailing by my head, gaining purchase on my forearms to push her body all the way onto mine. I opened my eyes as my chest flared with pain. She was wobbling on me now, knees looking like they wanted to collapse, and I had a perfect view to her…Well, let’s just say she certainly is determined-.

“Oomph!”

The rope holding us up severed easily under her knife. It was the only thing keeping us up in the air, so with it severed we came crashing to the ground, more pain joining the pain party that was my body, and effectively killing any stirring down below. My legs spread out and I sighed in relief, I hadn’t realized how cramped they were being hog tied like that.

After a few seconds the prone mare on my chest rolled off of me, blushing as she searched for her ‘knife’. Looking around I spotted it. “It’s over there.” I pointed past my rump.

I rolled onto my stomach and considered my situation again. Since I was on a ship it can be assumed that I can’t just walk out of here…Even if I could, how could I just leave all these ponies here? No, I needed to get free first, and then I could free them.

Wait…They weren’t even shackled up! I was the only that had been hog tied, although with flimsy ropes, but that doesn’t explain some things. How are they not storming the bars? There had to be at least sixty mares in here, most looked thin but if they worked together I’m sure they could bust down the wall.

My assistant was back at my side, “So why haven’t you guys just stormed the ship already? Those bars don’t look too hard to kick out.” She set to work on the ropes binding my wings, ignoring my question. “Look I’m sorry about staring at your flank…You see I have never seen a zebra before…And I’m sorry about that,” A blush returned to my muzzle. “I wasn’t expecting you to jump up on me. No hard feelings?”

The ropes fell away as she looked at me frowning, ears splayed, and a heavy blush. “I-I…It was not a problem…”

I was not going to read anything into that, my mares were waiting for me probably, and she probably just wanted to get to the escaping part of this plan. Why else would she cut me down if not to escape from the ‘ship of death’?

“The name is Ari by the way.”

“A pleasure to meet you Ari,” We shook hooves, “My name is Ayodele. And as to why we don’t break…” She trailed off and a couple of gasps echoed around the cell as I stretched my wings, my farthest tips brushing the tops of several mares’ heads.

‘Alicorn shock’ I think that’s what I’m going to have to start calling it. Everywhere I go its either attack, disbelieve, or awe, sometimes all three.

Hooves clattered on the wooden floor as three Equestrian’s rushed forward, pegasi, ducking under my extended wings. I blinked for a second before it hit me, the craving of touch, and another instinct I knew all too well.

I would have to keep my instincts in check here and pray no mare went into heat. Sure I had two mares I loved at home but the heat is a scary thing, the smell mares give off is almost hypnotizing, and I didn’t want to explain another foal to my herd.

Chrissy and Lyric must be worried sick.

My thoughts were interrupted as the pegasi huddled closer to me under my wings, their touch not unpleasant although not the same as my mares pressed to my sides. I felt bad for them though; their eyes were scrunched shut while shudders racked their thin frames, if they were anything like Azure and Barium then this must be a shock to their systems.

No pony princesses here.

“Some of them have been here awhile; I have only been here…Perhaps two weeks? It is hard to say, they feed us every second or third day, and hose us off every week I think.” Ayodele said, dropping her weapon before lying down beside me, well, beside the shaking pegasi under my wing.

“Every week,” a weak voice spoke up from the crowd, but I couldn’t pinpoint who said it. My ears still had a faint ringing to them, but it had improved dramatically since I was right side up.

I took that information in; it answered one question, if these ponies got fed. But I had other questions that needed answering. Like who was running this ship, why no pony had overpowered the measly wall separating them from the staircase? Why was just one mare willing to cut me down? Actually, why was this room just full of mares?

Shuffling my wings I looked at the faces around me, dull eyes, dirty coats, and emaciated bodies. “So I’m assuming you don’t storm the gate because you are all kept too weak?” Looking at Ayodele, I saw her scrunched up her muzzle.

“Not entirely…Even if we could get out of here we are in the middle of the sea, sea serpents and worse surrounding the ship, and the slavers.” A shudder passed through her. “Disgusting dogs and the captain…”

“I can handle them; I have killed Diamond dogs in this state before!” And I had, “They are dead as dead gets.”

Was Diamond dogs all this was? Been there, killed that.

Tucking my wings to my body, I ignored the whimpers from the pegasi as I stood up. The crowd cleared a path for me as I made my way to the gate; it swung outward which was perfect for this. I spun my rump around, lifting my hind leg and adjusting my distance from the door. I squared my front hooves, lowered my hind end, and let loose.

The world went dark.

I opened my eyes in confusion; the ceiling was above me now, the bars were across the room still looking as untouched as ever.

“W-what happened?”

Bodies shifted against mine as a pair of green eyes looked down at me with sadness, “The greatest enchanted bars to ever be forged are what happened, revolutionary enough to hide their own hum of magical discharge, and crafted by the best smith…Nothing can break them...”