****

Ari

After being blown back and knocked unconscious by those bars I had woken up on my back, surrounded by mares, not in the a room full of mares sense either, although that was accurate as well. No, I was, for lack of a better term, I was in a pony pile, with me being the bottom and center of it, and it was uncomfortable on many levels.

Seeing as all I have is pain and time, let me enlighten you.

The sexual harassment was pretty consistent for starters, despite their ‘weakened’ state quite a few zebras had started to get grabby, which is why I’m on my stomach now. That and the pegasi are really into preening right now; touching too.

But in general, the eleven equestrians here are not taking this whole captivity bit well, not just the pegasi.

Myself? I am pretty calm in comparison about being locked in the hull of a ship, but only because I know I can escape…Somehow, I’m still working on that part of the escaping plan.

Anyway, like I was saying. This was lots of touching, both the calming type and the unwanted type, it would seem im a giant Alicorn teddy bear/pillow/bed. Apparently zebras have all the same instincts as ponies. That and my theory that stallions must be in short supply there as well. I just don’t know how else there happened to be a room full of just mares. If they did separate by genders I wouldn’t have been tied up in here, with the mares…Unless that bastard of a god could intervene like this too…I wouldn’t put it past him.

Then the typical twenty questions began, starting with the obvious one, go on guess it.

“S-so you are really an Alicorn?” A timid voice spoke from under my wing.

No, I’m just a unicorn. This wing over you, it's not real! You were preening thin air!

Sorry I'm just a tad bit angry at being captured, tied up, and separated from my mare, again. Calm was relative, it depended what I focused on.

Looking over two zebras I saw the source of the question: a light green pegasis. She was one of the three that had rushed to me earlier. “Yes, and not to be presumptuous but everyone asks me these questions, so here goes. I am an Alicorn. But I am not royalty or a leader of anything really. Oh and most importantly, I’m not from here so please explain everything to me. Don’t assume I know what you mean.”

All eyes were on me now…Maybe I was too presumptuous? It just was getting a little old, the whole ‘Alicorn shock’ and ‘from another world’ explanations, I really just needed to make a pamphlet for this or something.

The staring was really creepy though.

There was five pegasi, six regular ponies, and forty nine zebras…I felt like I was making a report or something, ears splaying a little, it was making my book reports in high school look easy. That had been only thirty people at least, not sixty, not that I was afraid of public speaking. It was more than just awkward, like I never knew if I was saying the right thing. Although, now it was practically impossible to say the wrong thing, I mean, I have already accidently brought one to orgasm, it can’t get much more damning than that.

“So where are you from then? Oh! Are you from across the endless sea?” Ayodele piped up from spot on my back, scooting forward slightly to rest her head on my withers, brushing the bases of my wings in the process. Tingles ran up my spine and my wings couldn’t help but twitch from the sensations, I was a little sensitive there.

“C-could you not move around up there?” She giggled and nodded, something tells me she knew exactly what she did though, a gut instinct if you will. “And no, I am not from across the Endless Sea. In fact I’m not even from this planet. Which is no one here has probably heard of me, I just got here…two weeks ago, maybe three now. How long was I out?”

“Four days,” Ayodele responded, “They parked the boat and next thing we know they are hauling in your handsome body. The scumbag of a captain really did a number on you…” She gave me a nuzzle as my ears folded back.

I had been knocked out for four days…

My brain forgot what I was going to tell them as my heart dropped. My mares really must be worried sick. Chrissy must be starving…Shit, trying to turn back and look at my cling on, I felt rage building again, my ears back for a different reason now. “Wait, so he was the one that knocked me out?”

I couldn’t fathom how he would have, heck I didn’t even know what he looked like, but I was clearly alone on the beach.

“Maybe, I really don’t know? He likes to talk so I just sort of tuned him out half way through, what I do remember is that he said you were practically gift wrapped. But seriously, you were soo out of it! He kicked you for quite awhile before he left, you didn’t even twitch a muscle during it!”

Of course I didn’t wake up from whatever bastard was kicking the shit out of me. I always have been a deep sleeper. I was the one that would fall asleep first usually at sleepovers and get pranked…But I still don’t know why I was unconscious in the first place. But now I know that it may or may not have been the captain, the captain that…

“Hold on a second here, he just had me strung up in this room, and you mares didn’t fight him?! You clearly out pony him, just a good buck in his berries and you could probably get him-OWWW!”

I received a lot of nips for that comment, still surrounded by mares.

“No we couldn’t! If he doesn’t deliver us to…,” She gulped and shuddered, “Well, then his associates will come looking for him, and our family will be next!” I cocked my head at that, why had she cut me down then? This triggered a sigh from on my back, “Rigghhhttt, you aren’t from here. Well here is the rundown for you then. A couple centuries ago Equestria ‘discovered’ Zebrica, trade opened up, and our nation prospered as our economics and technology grew. But eventually the princess, being the only one on the throne then, had to focus on other things, and we were soon just another report. But not by every being forgot about us, the explorers still came, with them came supply ships, and of course the pirates and slavers.” Ayodele pushed her muzzle deep into my mane, taking a deep breath.

What she said sunk in. “And why would your family be affected if you were caught, I mean, how would they even know who or where they were?”

Escaping was the last thing on my mind as I heard some mares break down, sobs cutting through the stagnant air, along with mournful outcries in their language. I understood this situation was bad, but why the tears?! They just brought back bad memories okay...

“Our country is a joke now. They run it now from the shadows and we can’t even hope to compete with their technology, the magic they possess. We are stuck in a cycle, we pay them to ‘protect’ us from other pirates, if we can’t afford their price…Or sometimes if they just need the numbers we end up here.”

“But you were freeing me for a reason right? To escape this ship and return home?”

The sobs tapered off again, “It was a foalish hope, you are an Alicorn and I thought, maybe, just maybe…” She trailed off, sighing. “But it doesn’t matter now. You can’t break the bars so what hope do we have of you freeing our country. I thought you must be different, looking for your special skill or something.” She tapped my blank flank with her hind hoof. “And I hated seeing you just hanging there…But even if we escaped they would only grab our family next, they have numbers to fill after all. So if you can’t help our country, then forget I even mentioned escaping. ”Her voice spoke the disgust and sorrow I felt.

This was just a business to them, a sick game with real lives, and it made me very, very angry.

“And then what happens to them, to us?” My heart was speeding up as their situation sunk in, they weren’t given any chance, and they were without aid from the country that had started the surge of trade.

Ayodele shook on me and the preening stopped, they all seemed to hold their breath, “Well, we are property now. Anything could happen…Some say slaves go to be worked in the mines, others say we are used as exotic sex slaves in Saddle Arabia, and some say we are dragon food.”

Well shit, fuck, I really don’t know what else to say. That really wasn’t much of a choice for me.

I had figured there had to be more to this slavery that kept popping up in this world, it couldn’t be just a coincidence or a small part of this world…And I was right, slavery was huge, a whole country essentially run by slavers…

“Wait! How have the princesses not noticed this? A whole country enslaved…How does no pony visiting notice and report back to them?!”

She gave a sad chuckle, “These Equestrians are the few visitors from that country, look where they ended up. The princesses never leave their country anymore.” I felt more tears soak my sides, “As to their ignorance? The princess has better things to do obviously. Why would she pay attention to the country she discovered by accident centuries ago? When all the treaties are signed and the cushy diplomats make appearances on occasion, all is well right? As for any of us complaining personally, well, I don’t want to be the one to tell her highness that, none of the brave ones that leave Zebrica ever return, and the last time Sunbutt was angry she sent her sister to the moon for a thousand years.”

That was nice to know, ignoring the fact that Moonbutt shouldn’t be alive after one thousand years without air, food, or water; that was huge. No wonder my mares were skeptical about me taking on the princesses. If that’s what Sunbutt does when she gets mad, even her own sister isn’t safe-

“T-that’s not the whole truth! Don’t lie to him.” The light green pegasi spoke up.

A dark dappled grey pegasi beside her added in an exasperated voice, “A little over simplified.”

“Oh hush Spring Dew, Feather Quill! It is true, she didn’t want her sun blocked and-.”

“NO! Her sister went crazy and wanted to plunge the world into eternal night! She had to do something.” The grey one, Feather Quill interjected, with Spring Dew nodding.

Well that adds a whole new issue, the mare in my dream used to be crazy, and has the power to make eternal night…Perhaps that god was onto something about stopping them, even if the world wasn’t in jeopardy that was essentially the lives of everyone she held in her power.

“How is she even alive still?! The moon has no air, no food, and no water!” I let my head fall onto my living pillow, really they were everywhere around me, it was unavoidable.

Ayodele stroked my mane, “Yah, that’s magic for you.”

“But her…own sister, I don’t have any siblings but even I wouldn’t send my family that far away!” The equestrians I could see didn’t even look up, “so I guess that means she must be pretty messed up?”

I struck a nerve with that last part, “NO! She had to or nightmare moon would have put the world into eternal night!”

“Yes I got that, although I think eternal night is the quicker death than the one coming…But my point is, she discovers a country but doesn’t put any effort into maintaining a invested relationship with it, doesn’t visit it. And she does that to her own flesh and blood! Frankly I am not looking forward to meeting her now.”

After that every pony was silent again, and I welcomed it, they had given me a lot to think over.

Well it lasted for a minute, “What do mean by the ‘quicker death’ and why are you meeting her?”

Ayodele sounded very nervous and I felt bad, she didn’t need to worry about this…But she didn’t deserve to be lied to either.

“Well, I didn’t come to this doomed planet by choice,” a round of gasps, “I was stolen from my bed and plopped here, told by a jackass of a god that I had to stop the princesses from accidentally destroying the planet. To put in the simplest terms, by moving the sun and moon around so unnaturally they had upset the natural balance. This has unleashed super storms across the continent and we can assume the globe, so I’m meeting with them to bring about that change. Any questions?”

“So that explains the tsunami last year…” she muttered from on my back.

“The rainstorms,” a mare in the crowd muttered.

“No, but I think that is the stupidest plan I have ever heard!” A brown mare with a cream mane was standing, squared up, and looking very much like she would like to sock me.

“You are assuming that I told you the whole plan, aren’t you?”

A stumped look came on her face. “You mean you didn’t?”

“Correct. Why would I tell equestrians my plan? When we escape you are just going to repeat it to the princesses and ruin it. Am I right?”

Ayodele squirmed on my back, “Escape? Wait, you did hear my explanation on why we can’t right? Unless...Does that-.”

The equestrian’s face shone in the dim lantern’s glow, tears, as she shook her head, interrupting the zebra. “No, I have waited for a month, A MONTH! They never came…No one even knows that I’m missing…” A couple of other equestrian mares nodded, looking dejected, similar situations no doubt. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when I’m free, but I certainly don’t think I could look them in the face right now, I just…want to do something mean to them. It hurts to be forgotten and…I never even considered this existed before. That there are dozens of other boats like this doing exactly the same thing...They don’t mention this in school.”

Another negative for the princesses, I think I’m going need to add anger management to my preparation steps for meeting with them after this.

“Well, I’m sorry you have had to experience a month of this shit, but that is just you that won’t tell-.”

A chorus of arguments rose above my voice, all saying the same thing; they all felt angry at the princesses. Not surprising considering they have been here awhile by the sounds of it and essentially have no help or support from the most powerful beings on the planet.

What happened to all those Zebras that went seeking help from the princess? Is there a mini prison on the moon or something?

“Okay then…Well, the plan is that I will visit them, drug them, and place magic inhibitors on them. Show them the damage they have caused and not return them till they truly understand the lives they have ruined. In fact, I was actually working on part of my plan when I was knocked out and captured. See this magic inhibitor? It is a specially forged prototype for an Alicorn grade version. Although I was on the beach trying to-.” I cut myself off; no way was I telling them that.

Ayodele moved closer to my neck, “Go on, you were trying to?”

“I would rather not say.”

“Why?” The brown mare looked confused, really they all did.

Might as well get the laughing over with, “You understand that I’m not from here right? Well on my planet there is no magic.” Unsurprisingly gasps and ‘really’ rang out, “Yes, so when I arrived here I had to learn how to use magic. I’m currently learning to access my aetheratic channels…With no success so far, I just can’t find the ‘thrumming’.”

“You mean the tinkling?” Spring Dew spoke up, looking confused.

A pink mare responded, “No I think he meant the ‘beating’ of his channels.”

“I heard from my cousin’s friend that it sounded like water flowing!”

Sorry, but fuck! I pinned my ears back and snorted. Why can’t it just be easy for once? “You mean it sounds different for every pony?”

“Yup, you just have to find your sound deep inside!” Ayodele sounded really cheerful now, probably thinking this was a piece of cake.

She wasn’t the one that had to find it.

“Okay then, that’s my first order of business then. No point smashing through a wall or floor if I can't fight them at my full power right? I will be able to get us out for sure if I can access my magic. Just be nice and quiet while I try to break this inhibitor, okay?”

They all responded with affirmatives, sounding hopeful, eyes shining, and ears forward.

I tried to quiet my mind, but as soon as my eyes closed my new reality ran in circles in my mind.

There was slavery here, slavers practically running a country, and the most magically powerful creatures were ignorant of it…Well I hoped so, the other option painted a far more worrying reality. They were already unaware of the destruction that was occurring to the planet, to lives, and it sickened me.

This had to change.

Not only would I stop the extreme weather, but I had to find a way to free them from this slavery trap, this cycle of helping such despicable beings. But how to go about that, and where would I fit it in?

I was already in the middle of saving the planet, then I had to find a way to get to the mirror in…Shit, after I piss off the princesses I need to use their mirror to get Lyric’s family back, slight problem. There was no way I could explain the need for it before, if I even said siren I was willing to bet I would get some racist comments, and explaining how I even knew it existed was hard too. I was from another world, supposed to be clueless about their stuff.

That would require more thought.

Anyway, after that I promised them we would hide away for them to let their instincts run their course, have the foals, and figure what to do with my life. But that was looking to be bumped again. Slavery wasn’t going to wait for the foals to be born, not to mention we will have Lyric’s siren family back by then...That would be four extra sets of hooves to help and I’m sure they would understand, I wouldn’t think they would want grand foals in a world with slavers around.

However, before I could even start on that there was still the matter of escaping, and I had to stop thinking for a change. This called for action, for magic!

Feeling the aches around my body come into focus, I scrunched my eyes, settling my neck on my slightly boney mare pillow. Bodies shifted around me, clicking echoing faintly from above as I tried to focus inward.

Darkness around me, I tried to ignore the clicking above me, the breathing around me, and the swaying of the ship in the gentle waves as we moved steadily onward to our destination.

Step one was to clear my mind.

….

The sounds were fading to nothing but faint echoes as I breathed steadily, in and out.

Next I had to focus on the feeling inside, the feeling that should come when I’m performing magic. Chrissy said a thrumming, but now I knew it could be anything from the descriptions I received.

Which made all the noises I had been ignoring seem important again, and I didn’t know what to ignore. I guess I would have to sort through each one, one by one.

****

Chrissy

Lyric can really pull her weight in the herd.

I mean, of course I had heard the stories of how powerful sirens were but she was putting those tales to shame. Not only had she focused her mind magic to just affect the assassin. She controlled what he saw and it was amazing to watch. When Lyric let the assassin see her, that bastard looked like he was ready to keel over then and there. I just can’t help but be impressed when He didn’t even see Dinari, the eight foot giantess, standing behind him. Just ‘wow’ I was blown away.

Amazement aside, we had ourselves a killer to interrogate.

Currently we were on our back to Kapera’s shop. Dinari had our smelly prisoner in her arms, unconscious and tied up. Lyric was pressed to my cloaked side, her own cloak back up as well, with a mix of happiness and regret coming from her. Kapera had the two nervous guards by the ears, the ponies fearing her more than Lyric and I at the moment.

“So why didn’t you do that when we faced the Hydra?”

“Well, it’s just not something you do lightly or often; it would be like asking you to use your ability for giggles…Ponies get scared when I do that and I didn’t want to scare away the stallion of my dreams. I’m sure you were like that at first with him.”

I shrugged my withers as we walked, taking a right. “Well, not really. I was starving so when I first met him I disguised myself and went in for the kiss.” I giggled, “It actually ended horribly, see he had just fell from the sky, just arrived on Equis. So there I was trying to flirt and get some love from him and he was busy freaking out, it was a bad combination. When I went in for the kiss he tucked his head and BAM,” The guards jumped, tails tucking between their legs. “We ended in smashing our heads together. He brought me to a cave and offered to feed me, the rest is history!”

“Wow, that is really…Generous of him? Suddenly I don’t feel as bad stalking him. OW!”

Chuckling, I looked away from her, she did need some discipline. I couldn’t let her get away with everything. “I don’t think stalking is much better.”

Before long we had made it back to the shop and Kapera sent the guards on their way, which they were more than happy to leave us. Convincing them to go along with the plan had taken some time, but that really does Mongofu know everything in this city. All she said was ‘the high tailed mink’ and they stopped all their arguments, she would have made a good changeling.

“So you think they will keep their word?”

Kapera laughed evilly as she set up our interrogation area, “Oh they will, if not, well, let’s just say their word won’t mean anything anymore.”

“Oh.” Something told me it was best not to ask how she was so good at this, I really should be just grateful she came up with a plan so fast.

I watched with Lyric as the living area on the second floor was transformed. Before where there had been a couch and chairs there was now a makeshift bonfire, it was situated on an enchanted sheet of metal, and above it a hook hung from the rafters.

Finally, with the fire crackling to life we could string up our prisoner.

Dinari stepped forward and placed the unconscious zebra before us, the smell coming off him was repulsive. Lyric cut off the colt’s cloak and tossed the offensive article into the fire.

“Well that’s something you don’t see every day!” Lyric said, cocking her head at the strange apparatus on the murderer, almost harness like in design.

“It’s a mare!” Kapera said scratching her head from her position by the rear, “A female assassin, you know, I wasn’t expecting that.”

And they were both correct, our would be killer was a Zebrican mare, wearing what looked like something out of a dominatrix clothing boutique: it was a collection of form fitting straps, with a second layer made into loops, most of the loops were filled.

Everything in the loops came out. There were daggers, ropes, wire, and vials of different substances. What stood out was the one bag she had strapped to her side. It bulged with something bulky in it, but upon removing it I found the contents to be strangely soft.

Looking at the others, I released the drawstring on it, everyone looking just as curious as I felt about the contents. Dumping the contents on the floor in front of me I felt the world slow down, though not from my famished state. A couple of feathers and a wrapped chunk of hair fell out of the pouch, they were black.

Emotions flooded my body, both my own and Lyric’s as this new reality sunk in. The urge to break down was present in my mind but I quickly pushed it back down, replacing it with a much more useful emotion: anger. Lyric channeling the same emotion beside me, the course of action was clear to us.

Faster than you could blink the zebra was enveloped in pink magic and strung up over the fire. Kapera and Dinari wisely stepped back from us as we stepped forward, the door glowed pink for a second, and my herd mate gave me a nod.

I hoped she screamed.

Wasting no time I punched our captive in the muzzle, her body swung back on the chain as her eyes flew open. My eyes locked with her hazel eyes as she swung closer to us again.

“Answer the questions quickly and it won’t hurt…” She nodded rapidly, her greasy, monochrome mane flopping wildly. “…Much.” Her face fell and her eyes closed, despair.

Lyric steadied the chain in her magic as I began.

“Let’s start with an easy one. What color is the sky?”

She blinked at me, confused at my question, taking several seconds to answer. “B-blue?”

“Correct,” I punched her in the stomach, a grunt coming from her. “But I’m expecting faster answers, now when I ask what color the sky is, you say?”

“Blue!”

Keeping my word I didn’t hit her this time, some trust had to be gained for this interrogation to work.

If there is one useful skill I learned from the prosecution of my species it is that fear has many uses. To get compliance this mare had to fear disobeying me, for an unaltered answer she had to fear focusing on anything other than the answer. And by following through on my rules she would learn to trust that they would always be the same, she would know what to expect and in turn what behavior was acceptable.

We did what we had to do to survive and I had no qualms going back to it, my stallion’s life was in question after all.

“Good…Do you understand why you are here?”

“Y-yes,” tears escaped her eyes as the zebra’s sobs returned.

“And why do you think you’re here…” I trailed off as Lyric nudged me, pointing a hoof at the damning evidence our would-be assailant carried.

Sobs shook the slim frame of the zebra as she tried to form the words, after ten seconds her sobbing slowed, “I-I-I k-killed the t-target and n-now…I am going to d-die.” I cranked her head back, punching her disgusting muzzle.

“Too slow,” I looked at her terrified, sad form. This was pathetic, she couldn’t have killed Ari. I wasn’t even using my full strength and she crying like a little filly, afraid that nightmare moon was going to eat her. “You may die at the end of this, but you also may not, it depends on how useful you are to us. Tell me; are these from your t-target?”

I pointed a hoof to the evidence of her work; Lyric was staring at it, caressing the hair slightly with a faraway look in her teary eyes.

“Y-yes!”

Taking a deep breath I forced the hysteria down, the crushing darkness, and focused on the more important questions. “How did you kill h- that target?”

“P-poison,” A sigh of relieve went through the room, Alicorns had ironclad immune systems. Ari was alive then, probably unconscious and in pain, but he was alive.

“Where is Ari then?” My heart raced as I asked the most pressing question, legs shaking.

Her eyes dilated and she started sobbing again, shaking her head franticly. “I-I’m s-sorry-.”

I nodded to Dinari, the clink of metal on wood echoed around the room.

“P-PLEASE NOOO, I REALLY DON’T KNOW!”

Another wooden clink sounded as the smell of burning hair and grease reached our nostrils.

We stayed silent as she screamed her head off, unintelligible Zebrican spewing forth from her muzzles as her mane continued catching on fire. Her screams didn’t make that emptiness disappear though, I was hoping to enjoy them more.

After most of it had caught on fire I signaled to the scowling heifer and she raised the blubbering mare to her original height above the flames.

“So what use to us are you then? You must be a pretty pathetic assassin, not even knowing where you kill your targets. Don’t you even have any guesses?” I struggled to keep my voice cool, sinister, all I wanted to do was bare my fangs at her, burn her. Pain, I wanted her to feel the pain we had felt the last four days, the damage she could be causing our foals.

But most of all I wanted Ari back.

“I-I was forced to l-leave the b-body in the Matumbawe c-cove, Arch and his crew were pulling in, and quite hostile. If he is still alive they would have-.”

The zebra halted her speaking. In fact we all stopped looking at her as Kapera blew a fuse when the vildkatt was mentioned. Her rage lasted nearly a minute before she calmed down.

“That fucker, no, it’s okay, we can track him. He has regular stops…And I’m going to call in a favor, this has to end. Dinny get the-.” Kapera stopped, looking behind us in confusion.

Dinari looked shocked and almost dropped the chain she was holding, the squeal of the mare bringing her attention back, “Gennady?”

Both Lyric and I turned around, confusion on our muzzles. I thought we locked the front door and why would Gennady be here?

That confusion didn’t linger on our muzzles for long as we locked eyes with quite possibly the worst possible creature to see us: a Thestral.