“Talk to me, Shield,” said Stronghooves, trotting alongside his partner through the detention block. “How’s she reacting to the antipsychotics?”

“She won’t stop screaming,” Shield replied slowly, his voice strangely serene as he glanced sidelong at his master. “Those drugs are having an effect on her, all right, but she keeps asking where her damn sister is.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Stronghooves said with a smile, patting his mind-broken slave on the shoulder. “You focus on following my commands and getting ready to begin the treatment, and I’ll calm Sky down to make her more receptive, got it?”

“What...what happens when Daybreak gets back and sees this?”

“Again, I’ll take care of that,” said Stronghooves as they arrived at a heavy armoured cell door. He peeked in through the viewing window at his younger sister, who stood with her forelegs chained to the ceiling. Every time she drew breath, she let out an ear-splitting scream, tugging on her chains as her eyes darted around in search of a filly who would never come.

“Keep an eye out for her,” the captain said, unlocking the door. “I’m going to have a talk to my little sister.”

Stronghooves stepped into the cell, sealing the door closed behind him and approaching his captive sister with a weak smile.

“Hello, Sky,” he said softly, placing a forehoof on her cheek. “You really ought to stop screaming, you know. Nopony’s coming to save you.”

“It’s...a...right sight better...than letting you save me…” Sky growled, taking deep heaving breaths as she glared at Stronghooves with pure malice.

The stallion huffed quietly, placing his hoof under her chin and meeting her gaze without a trace of fright. “You really believe I’m going to kill you, don’t you? Is that what you’re afraid of?”

“No,” Sky whispered back. “I’m worried that you won’t.”

“Your words cut me deep, you know,” he muttered sarcastically. “What happened, Sky? What turned you from such a promising little filly into something so...hateful?”

“I grew up,” Sky shrugged. “I saw you for the sack of shit you really are. You’re manipulative, you’re mean, you’re fucking insane and every time somepony calls you out on it, you hurt them or kill them off. Can’t you see that?”

“You’re bitter over Rat and Shadow, aren’t you?” Stronghooves asked, pacing around her and letting out a frustrated sigh.

“You...bastard…” Sky growled. “Why the hell do you think I’m bitter, you shitstain?”

“Language, Sky.” Stronghooves warned. “You may be an adult now, but you’re still my little sister, and little sisters don’t talk like that.”

“Bite me,” Sky whispered, looking away. “I stopped being your sister ages ago, and trying to take away the ponies I care about won’t make me take you back. You’re a lying, conniving shitstain, and that’s all you’ll ever be to me.”

“Trying to? Sky, I’ve taken away Shadow and Rat, and those casualties were for your own good. Do you think I like killing? Do you think I enjoy hurting you? Why, if you’d never become a burglar, I’d never have had to hurt them in the first place!”

“If I hadn’t become a burglar, Shadow would’ve never found me and I’d never have had the chance to see what a monster you really are.”

“Shadow didn’t make it, Sky,” Stronghooves said quietly, pacing around in front of her and looking her in the eye once more. “You got her killed back in Canterlot. Your negligence, the way you led her down that criminal path...you are completely responsible for that poor filly’s death, all because you took advantage of how impressionable she was.”

“We’ll see who’s right when she busts in here and we kick your ass together, buster.”

“Sky...stop it,” Stronghooves whispered with a sigh, brushing her tattered mane out of her eyes. “She’s not coming. She’s never coming back. Shadow’s been dead for five years, and you’ve been living in a dream world because you can’t take responsibility for it. Don’t you see that?”

“You’re full of it, Hoovesie,” Sky spat at him, looking away. “Either let me go or get the fuck out of my face, because I’m through with you and your bullshit.”

“Sky…” Stronghooves hissed, his voice rising to a horrible shriek as he clutched his sister by the throat, “STOP… SWEARING!”

The two of them fell silent, not a single sound in the cell besides their laboured breathing for the longest time. Stronghooves held her up by the throat, staring into her eyes and searching for a sign of defiance, something that he could use to contrive more reasons to strangle her. What he saw, however, was heartbreaking.

Sky looked right back at him with dead eyes, none of the fire and determination she’d once prided herself on remaining. The weight of all of her losses bore down on her, crushing her spirit and her psyche. The longer Stronghooves stared into her eyes, the less of that strength he saw, as if it were visibly draining from her body. Finally, Sky blinked, letting a single tear run down her cheek.

“Don’t worry, little sister,” he whispered. “I’ll save you, and this time there won’t be any mistakes. No more killing, no more pain. You’re going to be reborn as a much happier pony, you’ll see.”

He lowered his hoof, letting Sky slump in her chains as he turned his back on her.

“Shield, get the collar.”

Stronghooves’s compatriot nodded, producing a large collar riddled with tubes and syringes, designed in such a way as to penetrate a wearer’s major neck arteries from four or five different angles at a time. Stronghooves took the contraption from Shield, fastening it around his sister’s neck and watching her cringe against the pain. Little rivulets of blood ran down her neck, staining her fur and dripping onto the cold stone floor. Stronghooves pulled a little lever on the collar’s exterior, forcing the injector needles deep into Sky’s major arteries.

“Now...we have a few methods when it comes to rehabilitation. Obviously the more orthodox ones...failed.” Stronghooves said, picking up a little canister and jamming a length of surgical tube into its feed nozzle. When he stuck the other end into one of the injector ports, the canister pumped a strange dark green fluid into Sky’s neck. Sky felt her breath coming in short, sharp gasps as the chemicals overwhelmed her and began to shut her nervous system down. A peaceful, damning numbness ran up all four of her legs, starting at her very hooves. As time went on, Sky found herself completely paralysed, unable to resist or even wiggle her limbs in an effort to break free.

Stronghooves stared at her as the formula took hold, watching his sister slump in her bonds until the only remaining noise was her sharp, short, desperate breathing. She didn’t even raise her head to look at him as he picked up another canister, plugging it into another needle and sinking it into her flesh.

“This is a distilled formula from a vine monster in the Everfree Forest,” he explained, as the bright orange sap flowed through the surgical tubing into her body. “I assume you’ve already run into it at some point in your travels. I think you’ll find it debilitating...all the better to prevent any escape attempts and aid in your rehab.”

Paralysed and overcome by the pheromones in the sap, Sky looked down with a low groan and watched as her pussy soaked her inner thighs. Though her body was ready for breeding, she felt nothing, not pain nor pleasure nor even the faint tingle of oncoming lust. Between the depressants and the loss she’d experienced, Sky couldn’t feel a thing anymore.

“Strange,” Stronghooves whispered, sitting back and watching his sister submit completely. “I would’ve expected you to try and break out by now, speaking of escape attempts. Don’t tell me that the great Sky Runner has been broken?”

Sky glanced up at him, bleary-eyed. She couldn’t summon the strength to tell him to fuck off even if she wanted to, her brain too full of fog and crippling despair for her to even consider resisting. Her hoof twitched, but she could barely move at all, and eventually slumped back in her restraints.

“Oh, Sky…” Stronghooves crooned, running a heavy hoof through her mane. “Don’t worry...we’ll get rid of whatever’s left of that self-destructive personality of yours, and in time we’ll look at rehabilitating you completely, making a brand new you, so to speak.”

Shield stepped forward, grabbing the mare by the mane and jerking her head back to look him in the eye. He stared at her uncertainly for a time, as if he was resisting the commands that Stronghooves had instilled in him. It was difficult to match up the cheekiest, sexiest burglar in Canterlot to the shattered mess before him.

“Help...me…” Sky croaked.

“Don’t worry, he will.” Stronghooves said with a soft grin, nodding to Shield. “Begin the treatment.”

In a flash, the seed of doubt in Shield’s eyes disappeared completely, replaced by unfeeling, implacable submission. He pressed his lips to Sky’s, slipping his tongue into her unresisting mouth and playing with his own. Sky found herself struggling a little more in her chains, but it was no use. The venom from the vine monster had completely sapped her strength away and shut down her nervous system. She could neither feel nor move, and to the little white mare it was as if she’d been swept out of her body and invited to spectate her own torture. Shield slammed her against the wall, coaxing a weak little squeak from her as he grinded against her.

As he drew away, Sky heard herself gasp two little words, too breathless for Shield to hear.

“Please...don’t…”

Shield pressed her against the wall again, running a hoof down to her soaking crotch and rubbing her as roughly as he could, as if there was any chance of her feeling pleasure or pain through the numbing cocktail. Her body shook out of impulse rather than anything else as he pushed his hard hoof against her pussy, little rivulets of blood mixing with her lube as it dripped onto the floor. Sky’s wings sprung out in spite of herself, twitching a little from arousal even as her conscious self tried dimly to think of ways to escape.

Come on, Sky...you know you can get out of this. You can get out of anything, right?

The little white mare gritted her teeth, looking away from Shield as he pulled his hoof away to force her legs apart.

I know I can, she answered herself, but...do I want to? I mean, I can run, but where do I run to? Who do I run to? Rat’s dead because of me, and Shadow...Stronghooves and Rat seemed to think that she’s gone forever...I didn’t really get her killed during the Elements Job, did I?

She was barely aware of Shield’s hard cock pressing against her soaked, bleeding pussy lips, nor the sensation of having a third syringe jammed into her neck.

If I did...then they’re all dead because of me… she thought, gulping as the needle pumped some unknowable formula into her jugular. It’s my fault...it’s all my damn fault…

Shield drew back and slammed his cock right into her, filling her up. Sky never felt a thing, too lost in her own thoughts to even be humiliated.

Stronghooves closed his eyes, reaching out with his magic as Shield began to pick up speed. Tendrils of influence wrapped around Sky’s brain, digging deep inside of it and jolting her from her thoughts. Her very last sanctuary breached, she could only watch as he moved his lips and spoke inside of her mind.

“Now, Sky Runner,” he growled softly, “your mind and your body belong to me.”

With that, the numbness disappeared in one sudden flash, replaced by crippling, blinding pain that threatened to hurl her into madness. Shield’s fierce kiss muffled her screams.