This was a tragedy! An emergency! Probably the worst thing to ever happen in her life!

Fluttershy was begging the snake to reconsider, but his decision was to hold firm, ignoring the yellow mare’s pleas no matter how drastic they became. Fluttershy tried to urge him about how dire of a situation this was, how this could result in tragedy for generations to come, but all the snake would think about was himself and his insatiable appetite. With a gulp, begging that he wouldn’t do what she was afraid he would do, Fluttershy closed her eyes, shaking behind her hooves, and that’s when he did it. He ate her. Gobbled her up in one bite, and he was damn proud of it.

“You spit her back out right this instant!” Fluttershy demanded, to which the snake looked the other way while a creature wiggled around in his esophagus. “Oh, dear. Don’t worry, Mrs. Duvall! We’ll get you out of there! Oh, my goodness.”

The animal inside the snake wriggled again, which was admittedly good news, but Fluttershy knew that it would only be a matter of time before she was digested. She had to resort to drastic measures, and fast!

“Oh, Mr. Noodle! If you don’t spit Mrs. Duvall right now, I’m going to have to give you… the stare!”

The snake’s eyes went wide, but in the next second, he quickly squeezed his eyelids shut, trying to enjoy the wonderful meal in his belly without getting nagged on by some pony. Fluttershy, however, wasn’t about to be dealt with this rudely.

“Oh, Mr. Nooooodllllle! You’ll never guess what just scampered into a view! A nice, tasty aardvark! Yum!”

Fluttershy didn’t have the highest of hopes that her plan would work, seeing as how the snake had literally just eaten more than his body knew what to do with. Luckily for her, though, the snakes eyes immediately opened up, and when they did, she was glaring straight into his pupils with the most fierce scowl she could muster, hypnotizing the snake while making him shrink in shame. He looked like he didn’t want to give in, but Fluttershy’s stare always got the better of him, leaving him with an existential dread that wouldn’t stop until Fluttershy’s glower came to an end.

Finally, heaving his head back, the snake began to gag, coughing from the belly up until finally, a large desert tortoise made its way out of his belly, spinning on the ground until a very scared turtle poked her head out of its safety. “Oh, my goodness! Shelley! Are you alright?”

The turtle slowly blinked its eyes in confusion, turning her head to the side to see Fluttershy as snake saliva dripped down her shell. It was a sad sight for Fluttershy to see, which only made her more upset, and as they both turned their heads towards the snake, he began to lower his head even more in shame.

“Mr. Noodle, do you have any idea what you could have done?!” He sadly shook his head. “Mrs. Duvall is a very rare breed of tortoise which is expected to go extinct in the near future! We need her eggs in order to continue to proliferate her species, but you wanted to eat her as a snack!”

Mr. Noodle hung his head in shame again, this time turning away from her entirely as a small tear dripped down his scaly nose. It was obvious that he had learned his lesson, and with her scowl turning into a sympathetic smile, Fluttershy hovered over to her snake friend and wrapped her hoof around his long neck.

“It’s OK, Mr. Noodle. Shelley forgives you, don’t you, Shelley?” The tortoise slowly blinked her eyes again, seemingly still confused as to what was going on, but in Fluttershy’s mind, silence meant that she agreed. “Now the two of you can go back to being friends! Just so long as you don’t try and eat her again. Deal?”

The snake nodded his head, and with a small smile, Fluttershy hugged both reptiles, happy that she was able to bring her special talent to good use. She couldn’t imagine what would happen to all of her friends when she eventually had to move on, when she would no longer be able to take care of them anymore. Maybe she’d have a successor who would walk in her hoofprints, who would be just as kind and caring for wildlife if not even more so than her. Until then, though, she knew that she was the only pony who could bring balance to the forest, who could take care of and protect the circle of life from swinging out of control. She was the only one who could do it…

...and it was slowly killing her on the inside.

---

When the sun finally went down by her cottage, Fluttershy limped her way back inside, carrying a family of bats as she walked through her front door. The bat family thanked her in their native language and flew up to the ceiling where they could play as a family without the harsh cold that came with Ponyville’s winter. Before Fluttershy came into town, they would normally just hibernate during this time of season, but now that she was here, they could enjoy Ponyville year round!

“I’m so glad you’re having fun,” Fluttershy said with a weak smile, “but could you keep the flapping down just a little bit tonight? I’m so exhausted that I might just go to bed right now.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”

“NO! You’re not being a pest! You’re always more than welcome to stay in my cottage! I just… need to lay down for right now.”

The bat family all looked at each other with hesitation, but Fluttershy didn’t watch any further than that. Instead, she plopped down on her bed and tossed her blanket over her entire body, covering her face down to her hooves as she laid there in her depressive state.

Once again, the thought of retiring came into her mind, a thought that she had been dealing with quite frequently, despite how much she knew that she wasn’t ready to let her animal friends go yet. They needed her, and she loved them too much to just move on with her life and have them fend for themselves again. By the same token, though, if she continued to have days like this, by the time she actually could retire, she would be too broken to do anything. She would be bedridden forever, stuck living in a vegetative state like the kind she was in right now, and then she’d really never be able to live out her dreams.

She then turned over onto her side, her blanket still covering the entirety of her body as she continued to mull over the thoughts in her head. She wasn’t actually thinking of leaving them, was she? She wasn’t really going to go through with this, running away and having them go through life without her, was she? No! She was better than that! It may be true that all the work she did on a daily basis exhausted her to no end, but she could never just abandon them to live out her dreams!

Never… seemed like such a long time, though...

*Crash!*

Fluttershy jumped, pulling the covers off of her head to see what was going on, and sure enough, one of the Beavertons had pulled off one of the legs to her kitchen table, causing it to wobble until everything collapsed onto one side.

“Seriously, Eddie?!” she shouted, sitting up in her bed.

The beaver by the now-collapsed table, however, looked up at her with large, sad eyes, slowly spitting out the wooden table leg from his mouth and feebly trying to put it back on. Then, seeing the sight in front of her, Fluttershy sighed to relax herself again so that she could speak calmly enough to reassess the situation. Shouting had never gotten her anywhere (not that she’d particularly tried many times), and it certainly wasn’t going to help her in this situation.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Beaverton. I didn’t mean to shout, but you really shouldn’t be taking ponies’ things without asking them first!”

“Chip, chip, chip!”

“You needed it for your dam? Goodness, Eddie! Wasn’t there some place else you could find some wood besides my kitchen?”

“Chip, chip, chip!”

“Well… if it’s really the perfect size, then I guess you can have it…”

The beaver then cheaped happily and scurried off with Fluttershy’s table leg in his mouth, making Fluttershy fall backwards again. Maybe her special talent wasn’t talking with animals as much as it was being a walking doormat for every creature that existed, from beavers and bats to mares and stallions. She hated to admit it, but she was good at it. It came so naturally to her just letting others treat her however they wanted with no regard to how it made her feel.

In fact, she had been dealing with it for so long that she had actually started to enjoy the feeling of being walked all over, like it somehow translated to making others happy and keeping herself from becoming a problem in somepony else’s life. She wanted to see just how poorly somepony could behave towards her just--for morbid curiosity, if for nothing else--so she could experience where that line was that separated happiness and her breaking point. She could never go through with that, though. That would just make her selfish, which in turn made the whole purpose of the experiment completely pointless. Plus, there was no way she would ever be able to do something that brash…

*Crash!*

“Chip, chip, chip, chip!”

...But then again, maybe she needed something brash right about now.

---

The next morning, before any of her animals friends had woken up, right when the bat family had latched onto a nice perch to fall asleep on, Fluttershy left a note on her door, making sure it was as clear as possible. She’d hate for any of the animals to misinterpret her instructions and end up getting lost or hungry, but she wouldn’t be around to make sure they understood the message clearly, maybe even for a couple of days. She couldn’t imagine being gone longer than that, but just to make sure, she contacted her friend Tree Hugger from the other side of Ponyville to check up on the animals until she got back. Luckily, Tree Hugger didn’t have a job and liked the smell of Fluttershy’s cottage for some reason, so it wasn’t like she was asking too much.

“I’m going to be gone for a little while, so please make sure none of you gets into any trouble!” she wrote. “I left lots of nuts out, but just in case you need more, the trees should be blooming with them this time of year. Make sure you all take your regular baths, and try to get along while I’m gone! XOXO”

She couldn’t tell them where exactly she was going, though, partly because she couldn’t stand the thought of telling them what was going through her head, and partly because she didn’t really know for herself where she was going. All she knew was that this time of day in the Everfree Forest, there was a group that nopony knew about, not even the community police. The Everfree Forest was dangerous enough to where nopony would even think of going near it, but since she lived in such close proximity, it was almost like Fluttershy’s own backyard. She knew everypony that went in and everypony that came out (or, on rare occasions, didn’t come out).

The group she was thinking of, however, was much more dangerous than any forest or any of the creatures that were inside it. As she made her way into the opening through the woods, she couldn’t help but gulp, second-guessing herself the moment she stepped inside, but she knew she had to go through with this. Step after timid step, she continued her path down through the multicolored grass and long vines, looking around for anything that could jump out and attack her. Even she wouldn’t be able to stop every creature the Everfree Forest had to offer.

“Hey you! Stop!”

The pink-maned mare jumped, freezing on the spot once she looked to her side, seeing a burly stallion with a glass eye and golden tooth.

“Whadda ya think you’s doin’ here?”

This was the time when Fluttershy would normally turn back and run with her tail between her legs. The last thing she wanted to do was get involved in confrontation, especially from somepony that looked like he meant business. At the same time, though, she knew that something like this was going to come up in the plan that she had, and taking a long breath to calm herself down, she slowly began walking towards the scary-faced stallion.

“Umm, h-hello, sir,” she said timidly. “I was wonder if y-you could help me with something.”

“Look, I ain’t got time for ponies like you, so why don’t you am-scray already?”

Again, Fluttershy wanted to turn around, but she held strong.

“I was actually hoping you could take me to your leader. King Pin is his name, r-right?”

The stallion narrowed his eyes, taking a few steps closer towards the yellow pegasus, causing her to take a few steps back before his face was pressing into hers. “Look, girlie. I don’t know how you found out about us, but I ain’t gonna tell you to leave again.”

“I have something that m-might be of interest to him.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

Fluttershy gulped. “S-servitude.”

The stallion blinked, apparently trying to interpret what she said in another way, but after a few moments of coming back to the same conclusion, he shook his head and said, “Come again?”

“I w-wanted to offer myself… as a servant… i-if that’s OK.”

“You know, the kinda servants we take here ain’t like some part time gig.”

“I know, b-but if it’s OK with King Pin, I’d like to do it.”

The stallion shook his head again. “What is this about? Money?”

“Oh, no! If you’re paying me, I’d just want my friends to have it. I’m just doing this for the experience.”

“Listen, girlie… You go through with this, you might not come back. You sure you wanna do this?”

The yellow mare shivered. She was worried what would happen if she didn’t come home. She feared how her friends would react to the idea of her disappearing without a trace, always wondering whether or not she was safe, and they had a good reason to worry! Fluttershy probably wouldn’t be safe! What she did know, however, was that she couldn’t just go on forever wondering what would have happened if she didn’t follow her dream. She’d already experienced what her other life would look like, and unless she made the decision now, that’s exactly how every day would look for the rest of her life.

With a deep breath, she looked confidently into the stallion’s eyes and said, “I’m positive! Please take me to King Pin!”

With a soft sigh, the stallion mournfully turned his head and said, “Follow me,” leading the mare into a section of the tree beside them that would otherwise look like a shadow to the naked eye. Fluttershy could barely believe that this was actually happening, that he was actually allowing her in, and with a gulp, the yellow mare followed behind him, disappearing into the shadows of the hollow tree.

Immediately upon stepping inside, she felt her hoof fall quicker than she expected, making her yelp quickly until she felt herself stop upon reaching the next step. A staircase? It made sense that the boss had a headquarters larger than the width of a tree, but how much effort did these ponies go through to keep themselves hidden? The amount of work necessary to create a staircase inside a tree would definitely take the horsepower of more than one pony, which made her wonder just how many stallions were part of this organization.

Down and down and down they went, going beyond what Fluttershy thought had expected from a regular basement, but it made sense. The further underground they went, the better it would be for a secret criminal syndicate. She was just hoping that she knew what she was getting herself into. Then again, though, the only thing she knew for sure was that she had no idea what she had in store.

“Who’s this?”

The yellow pegasus froze. Sitting in front of her was no stallion, but a white mare not much older than herself with her cyan mane tied up in a ponytail, sitting behind a desk of the same bark made from the wood of the tree where they stood. The way she was sizing up Fluttershy made her feel like she could see each of her measurements just by glancing at her, which made the pink-maned mare shrink in self-consciousness.

This… was King Pin?

Then, humbly bowing, the stallion who brought her said, “Boss, this girl here wants to er… volunteer her services.”

The boss looked her up and down one more time, raising an eyebrow before she finally said, “Very well. Bring her in. I have a client in Marezambique who’s been looking for a pegasus about her size and shape. Have her sent to get her tail fixed and tracking device installed. Oh, and try to find a blue collar. Her buyer loves the color blue.”

Suddenly, as the stallion from earlier began pulling her away, Fluttershy’s eyes went wide. “M-my tail?” she said quizzically. “W-w-what’s going to happen to my tail?”

“You’ll see in a minute, girlie,” the stallion said, tugging her again for good measure. “C’mon. Those are the orders.”

“Actually, I’m not so sure I want to go through with this after all. Maybe I should just go back to my cottage.”

A loud ‘Thud!’ silenced the room. As Fluttershy’s eyes followed the origin of the sound, she was once again met with the white mare’s gaze, although now that her eyes had stopped analyzing her, she could see how much anger she held behind them.

“I think there may have been a misunderstanding,” she said, rising from her seat and approaching the pegasus, who shrank yet again. “You no longer get the option to make your own decisions, filly. You are a slave now. You’re never going to be allowed to go back to your cozy little cottage ever again. Whether you chose to be here or not, you are now our property, and you will do as we say. Have I made myself clear?”

“Y-yes, boss,” the stallion said, bowing again, which made Fluttershy reflexively mirror his posture, even though she probably should have been the one answering the question.

Finally, the mare’s glare came to an end, followed by a disgusted scoff. “Oh, shut up, Pawn Scum. Both of you get out of my sight.”

Both ponies were too frightened to say another word, but nevertheless, they both bowed as the stallion quietly led Fluttershy into another dark room where she would be prepped for her now involuntary servitude. As King Pin returned to her desk, organizing a pile of bits before typing into her calculator, she sent Fluttershy one last glance, which basically told her everything she needed to know about what she would be experiencing from here on out. She was never going to be treated well again. She was going to be used and considered as property, in every meaning of the word. She would never see her friends or the animals for the rest of her life, just because whoever owned her wouldn’t think she deserved the kind of care that a pony deserved.

The worst part, though, was that a small smile was creeping up in the back of her mind. She was brought to Equestria to be somepony’s doormat, after all, and maybe this just meant that she was really, truly going to live up to her potential.

By the time she arrived in the caravan where she would soon be shipped away, nopony she knew would have recognized her. The blue collar alone was enough to confuse her with somepony else, but her fur had been tattooed with various insignia that went with the golden rings that had been placed around her legs. Her tail had been cut to about half its length and braided in a way where it would intrinsically stick up, making it painful for her when she finally sat down to be shipped. The most painful part, though, and easily the most embarrassing, was that her new owner had specifically requested that her clitoris be pierced with his own insignia, essentially branding her as his own. She felt humiliated, but for some reason she didn’t yet understand, she couldn’t wait to get there.

“Here,” Pawn Scum said, handing a sheet of paper over to the pegasus. “The boss wants you to sign this. She feels bad for you.”

Fluttershy looked over the paper, which was ironically completely filled with legal jargon despite being the receipt for an illicitly illegal purchase. Upon reaching the bottom of the page, however, she saw a dotted line where the owner was to sign, and just beside that was the price the buyer was paying for her.

“Five hundred bits?” she said with an eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, but you’s technically still you’re own owner. You can still turn down the sale if you wanna.” Fluttershy couldn’t believe it. Her body, her life, every part of her being was being sold to a complete stranger for the same price as fifty cherries. “You should turn it down! I’ve never seen the boss give somepony the option to negotiate a deal before! Then again, I’ve never seen anypony volunteer themselves before either.”

As Pawn Scum attempted to persuade her away from the deal, however, Fluttershy grabbed a quill with her wing and immediately signed her name. Her freedom was gone, but now she had five hundred bits to use as she pleased.

“Can I just ask one favor, though?” she asked, to which Pawn Scum scratched at his head.

“Sure, but I dunno how I can help you at this point.”

“Can you make sure that my friends end up getting this? I have five of them back home, so it should work out for each of them to get the same amount.”

Pawn Scum scratched his head, shrugging in confusion. “I guess so. It is your money, after all, though I don’t really know how you’d go about usin’ it yourself considerin’... uh…”

Considering that she was a slave now. She even had the tattoos and piercing to prove it.

With her life signed away and the bits now under Pawn Scum’s control for him to hopefully disperse among her friends, they really didn’t have any need to continue waiting. The caravan itself was basically a regular transportation wagon with a tarp draped over them so that nopony could see what was inside, and as the stallion poked his head out to communicate with the driver, the wagon slowly began to move. This was it. In just a few hours, the life Fluttershy had enjoyed for years would come to an end forever.

---

The ride over was grueling, just because Fluttershy and Pawn Scum were completely alone together in complete silence with nothing but their thoughts to entertain them. Fluttershy couldn’t help but wonder, was Pawn Scum judging her for doing this? Did he pity her? She had always been self-conscious, but now that she was in a completely unfamiliar environment, she couldn’t help but feel like everything she did was going to make ponies think lowly of her. Then again… wasn’t that the point?

“We’re here,” the stallion said, opening up the caravan and pulling Fluttershy away from her thoughts. A bright light immediately shone through the opening of the tarp, causing the pegasus to shield her eyes from how much her pupils had acclimated to the dark ride there. As soon as she stepped out, the first thing she noticed was just how different this place was in comparison to anywhere else she’d been (and she could honestly say that she had been to a lot of places in Equestria).

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Marezambique. This is where you’re gonna be stayin’ from now on.”

They had arrived in nothing short of a jungle, surrounded by tall trees covered in vines and wooden huts along the dirt terrain. Then, coming out of a hut on top of one of the trees surrounding them, a large male zebra made his way into the light, smiling down on them as he descended down a rope bridge. He looked nothing short of a king, wearing a golden necklace around his neck and a blue robe that draped down his shoulders. He appeared to be about ten to fifteen years older than she was, but his build suggested that he was just as strong as any stallion half his age.

“So good it is to see you here!” the zebra said, approaching the two of them with a bow. “You made it safe, so it appears.”

As the zebra humbly continued to bow, Pawn Scum nudged Fluttershy and said as discreetly as he could, “You’d better bow back. Iqwarha is pretty important in these parts.” Fluttershy looked back at Pawn Scum in confusion, but once the message sunk in, she quickly lowered her head, keeping it close to the ground while she waited for the zebra to rise again.

“I believe you have received my fee, but it there more you need from me?”

“Naw, that’ll do it.” Pawn Scum then tapped Fluttershy in the back to communicate that she was allowed to stand up tall again, but she still looked up to meet eyes with the zebra before moving, just to make sure it was alright with him. “So uhh, this here’s Fluttershy. She’s gonna be your servant from now on.”

She still wasn’t sure what to do at this point, but she held out her hoof regardless, bowing her head humbly. “It’s a p-p-pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.” The zebra stood still for several moments, making Fluttershy’s heart race, but he soon erupted into a roar of laughter, once again confusing her as to what the cultural norms were for this place.

“I think I’m going to like this one. She seems like she’s lots of fun.” Fun? That word had never been used to describe her before, but she’d take it either way. “Although one problem I still see is what I’ll have your new name be.”

“N-new name?”

“Something a little more dignified, at least more so than Fluttershy. It’s time your old life disappeared so you can start your new life here.”

“O-OK, Mr. Iqwarha, sir. I mean--Your Highness.”

The zebra stallion put his hoof to his chin as he thought deeply, and then, with a large smile coming across his face, he beamed down at Fluttershy and said, “Farasi is the perfect name! It burns my heart with mighty flames!”

“Alright, then,” Pawn Scum said, giving Fluttershy--or rather, Farasi--one final look of pity. “I guess I’ll just eh… Leave you two get to know each other then.”

“You have given me a treat! It’s only sad you have to leave.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll let King Pin know you’re happy with the purchase. Take care, Iqwarha.”

The zebra then waved goodbye as Pawn Scum ducked his head and turned around, getting back into the caravan where he would never be seen again. Fluttershy’s heart was racing now more than ever. It was finally beginning to set in. She was going to live as this zebra’s slave for the rest of her life, and if he ever felt like he wasn’t satisfied with her, he could legitimately have her killed without any repercussions! She would have to consistently please him forever, but if he ever decided he wanted another slave--assuming he didn’t already have more than one--she would have to do everything she could to keep herself as his favorite. She had never been anypony’s favorite anything before!

She tried not to show it, but she was already starting to hyperventilate, breathing in and out of her nose at a rapid pace while she bit down on her lower lip to hide her anxiety. Unfortunately for her, however, she immediately realized how terrible she was at keeping her emotions on the inside as she felt Iqwarha’s hoof travel down her shoulder, rubbing up and down her foreleg before resting his hoof underneath her chin. With a gulp, Fluttershy’s gaze rose until she met his, framed perfectly with a seductive grin.

“We should leave here, little one, so the two of us can have some fun.”

As Iqwarha turned to head up the rope bridge to his hut, the yellow pegasus felt a cold shiver run down her spine. She had been in this faraway land for no more than five minutes, and he was already cutting to the chase? Even if in vain, Fluttershy was hoping he would at least let her wait until nighttime, especially considering the fact that she had to mentally prepare herself more than most mares! After all… this would be her first time...

Fluttershy followed quietly behind the zebra, looking around at all the inhabitants of Marezambique and immediately looking away when she made eye contact. They were all giving her the same sleazy grin, like they knew exactly what Iqwarha was going to do to her. Then, once they arrived into his chambers, she realized for herself how the two of them were going to be spending their night together. His room had a wide variety of instruments for each of his fantasies ranging from whips, a leash, blindfolds, hoofcuffs, and plenty more just like it.

Just as Fluttershy was beginning to sweat, Iqwarha slowly sniffed up the side of her neck with a satisfied sigh, making her tremble once more. Then, with a low chuckle, he said, “I cannot promise this won’t hurt, so I’ll let you choose what we do first.”

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