### THE PREFACE Hi, nice work on making it to the end of the fic. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is gonna be me, Glimbrain, offering some closing thoughts on the story of Pink Haze, clarifying what needs clarifying, expounding upon my own intentions and interpretations, and so on. Fair warning, a lot of this is gonna be self-indulgent wank on my part; this entire Afterword was mainly an excuse for me to get my musings out in the open and provide some closure for myself as a writer. You also can consider this whole thing to be supplementary reading material for the world and characters of Pink Haze. Oh, but feel free to take anything you read here with a grain of salt. I might have been the one to write this thing, but (You) are the one who read it—and at the end of the day, I believe the reader's takeaway to be the most important factor of a story. (So if you think this story's total trash, that's perfectly fine, lol.) Still, I hope to fill in some gaps here and there, and if any of this proves entertaining and informative to you in some way, then I'd be all the more pleased for it. Incidentally, if you somehow ended up on this unlisted paste by mistake and have no idea what Pink Haze even is, then I shall kindly direct you to the first part of this fic: https://ponepaste.org/10656 (And yes—I am *well* aware of how big the word count is on this Afterword. If you're curious as to why it's so chunky, it's because I spend most of it yapping about all the chapters I wrote.) ___ ### TABLE OF CONTENTS So, I'm not gonna lie, this 80k~ word document on my unfiltered thoughts is gonna look pretty damn disorganised no matter which way I slice it. However, I'll nonetheless try my best to make this thing as readable as possible to anyone who wishes to brave it. To start things off, have a listed index of what's to come. (This list is hyperlinked to the appropriate section, but the links don't actually work in ponepaste, so…uh…just use your trusty ctrl + f if you want to skip ahead.) [1. The Introduction](#1-the-introduction) (Is what it is) [2. The Background](#2-the-background) (Goes over why I chose to write this fic) [3. The Journey](#3-the-journey) (Goes over my brief thoughts on what it was like to write a fic this long) [4. The Collar](#4-the-collar) (Goes over how the collar works) [5. The Broader Themes](#5-the-broader-themes) (This one's mostly me waffling about stuff that I found interesting but couldn't fit anywhere else) [6. The Characters](#6-the-characters) (Goes over my thoughts on the main characters) [7. The Chapters](#7-the-chapters) (Goes over my thoughts on all 38 chapters) [8. The Sequel](#8-the-sequel) (Goes over how I think a sequel to this fic would go) [9. The Bonus](#9-the-bonus) (Contains links to a few scrapped greens) [10. The End](#10-the-end) (Yep) ___ ### 1. THE INTRODUCTION Alright, let's begin this Afterword by answering a simple question—what was the purpose and scope of this fic? Well, basically, it's: "Anon acquires a mind-controlled harem of three lovingly evil mares." At its core, the purpose of Pink Haze was to be a waifu harem fic that anyone could self-insert into, while the scope of this story was to have Anon slowly acquire a loving herd of three pony bitches that would do absolutely anything for him. He would start out by enslaving their minds, but he would later win over their hearts in turn—transforming them into his wholly willing slaves. Luster Dawn and Cozy Glow already possessed some manner of pre-existing affection towards Anon, which is why they acted the way that they did. Flurry Heart, on the other hand, didn't care much for Anon at first, but she soon came to fall deeply in love with him as the story progressed. Make no mistake, this green is pure wish fulfilment on my part—I fucking love evil mares—but I also wrote this with the intention that anyone could enjoy this story and imagine themselves with a harem of villainous marewives. In a way, you can also consider this to be a villainous origin story of sorts; Anon and his herd may have claimed the Crystal Empire for themselves, but the rest of Equestria is just waiting—no, *begging* to be conquered. ___ ### 2. THE BACKGROUND I first started writing this green waaay back in July 2024. My goals were to: >Write a harem story. I've always been a fan of monogamous man-on-mare romance, but for this fic, I wanted to write what it would be like to have multiple marewives at once. >Write a story featuring Flurry Heart, Cozy Glow, and Luster Dawn. This ties in with the above goal quite well. Because Luster Dawn was involved, I made the three of them adult mares so that their friendship would make a little more sense. Because Cozy Glow was involved, I decided to put a more villainous spin on the story, thus ensuring that this pegasus would have her cravings for criminality satisfied. Because Flurry Heart was involved, I got to write an obsessive yandere mare who would have her affections wholly reciprocated by an accepting Anon. >Write a complete longfic. This also ties in with the above goal, for it gave me more room to fully flesh out each of these three mares and make their affection towards Anon feel more substantial (in my eyes, anyway). In the end, this fic's complete word count totalled around 370k~ words, so I like to think this longfic succeeded in being suitably "long." >Write a fetishy story. At first, I focused primarily on mind control, but I soon branched out and started experimenting with a bunch of different fetishes. It was fun, and I think I may have developed a few extra fetishes as a result of this kinky odyssey (namely, an appreciation for feeding chubby mares and writing mare-on-mare intimacy). Overall, I think it all came together quite well. At the very least, I've finally managed to get this specific harem fantasy out of my head and into the virtual world. ___ ### 3. THE JOURNEY Before I even began work on writing Pink Haze, I ended up writing and later scrapping two other stories: >The first was a SFW filly harem fic, blending raunchy humour with utter absurdism through Anonymous's slice-of-life shenanigans with his harem of eight fillywives. I was planning to post this fic in /mlp/'s filly thread if I had finished it. >The second was a SFW triple yandere fic, featuring a trio of three extremely possessive mares working together to ensnare a blissfully unaware Anonymous within their web of lies. At one point, I described this particular fic as "pushing 30+ posts worth of green" in /mlp/'s greentext general. To anyone who remembers that post—yeah, sorry that story didn't come to pass. I wrote these two fics in the time period around May-June 2024, and I was able to finish a prologue for each of them. However, for one reason or another, I was struggling to continue these stories past that point. I didn't want to leave these greens as mere prologues, so I ultimately ended up scrapping them. This was my motivation towards making Pink Haze a complete longfic, and it was also the main reason why I chose to work on this story in silence until I had finished the first full draft, as that way, even if I were to lose heart and give up on this story, it wouldn't have mattered—since no-one would've seen it anyway. Thankfully, though, I was able to finish the first draft of Pink Haze back in January 2025. And from there, I slowly proofread and edited the fic as I steadily uploaded it to ponepaste. As of writing this Afterword, it is now late May 2025, which means that I effectively spent an entire year working on this fic. It's a…strange feeling, to say the least, but I don't regret it. I consider the act of writing to be in itself therapeutic, so whether a story ends up being scrapped or not doesn't really bother me that much. (But it does feel pretty damn good to finally finish a fic after a year.) That being said, I also find that the decision to write an entire longfic in one go is placing a huge gamble on yourself as a writer. The way I see it, the first draft of a complete story is a bit of like a wobbly Jenga tower; feedback posted after the fact is useful, yes, but it's hard to meaningfully integrate it into the fic without the whole thing toppling over. In other words, if I mess up somewhere—it's likely gonna stay messed up for the rest of the story. And truth be told, I did mess up more than once. The green made perfect sense in my head, but I must admit that there were more than a few times where what happens in the story isn't really conveyed to the reader in a clear fashion; sometimes, it was intentional obfuscation—but other times, it was an honest mistake. However, cheeky bastard that I am, I'm not gonna point out which is which. Still, I found it to be a ton of fun writing a story like this; it makes you feel like a green hermit living in a mountain shack on the outskirts of /mlp/, only heading down once in a blue moon to drop a link to the weird smut fic you made. …This methodology probably isn't for everyone, lol. But personally, I wouldn't mind writing more fics this way in the future. (Another reason I wrote this green in one go was so that I could be sure all the words within it 100% came from *my* head. This is a slightly more selfish reason, of course—but hey, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: this whole fic is basically the result of me trying to turn my personal fap fantasy into a legible story. I had a *vision* for this story, y'know? I wanted to see where my brain would take me with this one, and ultimately, I'm pretty happy with the end result.) ___ ### 4. THE COLLAR In this section, I'll go over the collar and how it works (or, at least, how I view it). When it comes to the mares who serve under Anon, the collar's influence functions as a softer and subtler kind of mind control, gently compelling them to serve under Anon and obey his every command. And whenever they act according to his Masterly will, they become filled with warm fuzzy feelings, granting them a deep sense of emotional fulfilment and mareish contentment. Make no mistake, these are *very* good feelings; get a mare hooked on them—and she'd be more than happy to betray Equestria so she can keep getting her fix. However, it isn't like they've been brainwashed into mindless sex slaves or anything like that—these mares are still very much themselves at the end of the day. If they find themselves strongly disagreeing with one of Anon's Masterly directives, they may very well argue against his decision and put forward their own viewpoint on the matter. That being said, if Anon truly willed it so, he has the power to firmly exert his influence over his mares' minds and force them to obey his command. Indeed, by making his orders absolute, it would be near impossible for his slaves to disobey him—but given that Anon has now come to deeply care for his mares and value their insight, he's unlikely to do something like this without very good reason. When it comes to those who served under Cozy, though, things took a much darker and more domineering turn. Cozy could and would exert total control over her slaves whenever she so pleased, giving them very little choice but to obey her every whim and want. Cozy's collared dominion was also far stronger and more intense than Anon's softer serfdom, which meant that her word easily superseded the human's paltry influence when their commands came to a head during Chapter 32. But thanks to Flurry's counterspell in Chapter 33, Cozy's extreme influence was magically nullified. It's not completely gone—as the pegasus's profane lifeblood continues to be what fuels the collar in the first place—but its effects have been safely mitigated to the point where Flurry and Luster will unanimously obey Anon's word over Cozy's. So, why was Cozy control over the collar stronger than Anon's? To answer that, let's go back to the collar's origins. As Cozy explained in Chapter 2, the collar is a magical mind-control device that was originally developed for use by King Sombra during the days he reigned over the Crystal Empire. This collar was meant to serve as a more covert manner of acquiring new slaves, as it aimed to quietly sink into the victim's flesh and thoroughly subjugate their mind, leaving absolutely no physical trace behind. However, complications arose when Sombra was unable to force his prospective slaves to "willingly" submit and accept the collar's magic, compelling him to discontinue production of these stealthy accessories and instead focus on more direct means of dominating ponies (such as his helmets). (Despite being associated with shadows, Sombra was never that good at being subtle, it seems.) And as Cozy further expounded upon in Chapter 32, the crimson crystals embedded within the collar are what power it. In order for the collar to properly function, these crystals need to be infused with the blood of a truly evil individual—somepony who possesses the ambition to claim and conquer without restraint. The domineering will of this individual is what drives the collar's subjugating spell; thus, whoever falls under its influence shall also fall under their complete control. In the past, it was Sombra's vile blood that powered these crystals. But here in the present, Cozy Glow was able to reproduce these collars while using her own blood as a suitable medium—with great success on her part. This means that whoever puts on Cozy's collar actually becomes Cozy's slave, and indeed, once Anon managed to place this collar around Flurry's neck in Chapter 3, Flurry swiftly fell under Cozy's total dominion, becoming wholly unable to betray or even think of acting against the pegasus. That being said, Cozy happens to be a very crafty mare, and part of her "master" plan was to make sure that Anon feel like *he* was the one in control; that way, he would happily continue to do the pegasus's dirty work for her—eventually bringing Luster Dawn under Cozy Glow's dominion just like he did with Flurry Heart. To that end, Cozy willed the malignant blood within her collar to accept her Nonny's command as if it were her own. Thus, Anon was temporarily granted the role of Flurry and Luster's Master for as long as Cozy wished it so. (This all sounds very fantastical, I'm sure. But I like to believe that Cozy's existence is twisted enough that she's capable of pulling off such sanguine feats.) Basically, because Cozy was the original "Master" of these mares, that made her influence the strongest. Anon's influence, on the other hand, was essentially "diluted" through Cozy's, giving him a much softer degree of control over "his" slaves. So, with all that preamble out of the way, what does it take for the victim to actually accept the collar's magic? Simply put, they need to offer zero mental resistance towards its magical influence. There are quite a few ways to achieve this, but the most straightforward way to make a mare your mind-controlled slave is to fully relax her body with a nice massage—then, slip the collar around her neck while she remains wholly unaware of its presence. This is the method that Anon used to enslave Flurry in Chapter 3. (That being said, Flurry wasn't *entirely* unaware as to what he was doing; indeed, she could feel him put something around her neck, and she even questioned him on it. However, Anon's skills as a masseur, plus the fact that his presence managed to somehow soothe Flurry on a deeply instinctual level, convinced her to metaphorically switch her brain off and let him do whatever he had to do—she's pretty good at that kind of thing, after all.) An alternate method to null the victim's mental resistance would be to soften them into a highly malleable state of mind using external magic. This the method that Luster was going to use on Anon in Chapter 12, as he was already totally under her potent influence by the time she made the domineering decision to collar her humie. (Going back to Sombra for a second, his mind-control magic worked by exploiting the victim's fears. This firmly placed his slaves under his influence, yet it also paradoxically forced them into a defensive state of mind. This is why he struggled to utilise these collars effectively and ultimately chose to abandon them, for his slaves would never accept its influence while they were suffering from his terrifying dark magic. And yes, I really *am* being that pedantic about a throwaway line uttered by Cozy in Chapter 2—mind-control lore is serious business.) (Luster, on the other hoof, used a subtler, more pervasive form of mind-control magic on Anon; it serenaded his suggestible psyche with pleasant thoughts of her and soothed him into submission, making him a perfectly pliant humie hubby for her depraved needs. This is why I believe that if Luster had actually managed to collar Anon back in Chapter 12, its subjugating magic would've succeeded in enslaving him.) Now, quickly going over the other successful applications of the collar, we have: >In Chapter 14, Luster was mentally broken down to the point of utter desperation. Luster had been afflicted with a lethal love curse that steadily deteriorated her brain, ruthlessly subjugated by Flurry's light-blue "love" magic and placed into a susceptible state of mind, and then forced to watch Flurry herself gleefully fuck the human of her dreams right before her eyes. Thus, when Anon later came over to Luster's despairing self and ordered her to become his sow, she latched onto his command with zero hesitation, completely unwilling to be rendered a mindless vegetable by her love curse—and completely unwilling to lose him again. >In Chapter 20, Luster was made to horngasm most of the magical energy out of her body. This left Luster in a unique state of magic depletion. While in this deprived state, she was rendered highly receptive to any external sources of magic—such as the subjugating spell of a mind-control collar, for example. Thus, once Anon managed to slip said collar around her neck, she would've had no choice but to eventually give into the spell and become Anon's slave. However, instead of simply leaving Luster to her subjugated fate, Anon chose to ease Luster into her own submission. From here, he basically love bombed her into willing servitude, promising her that he'd make her the happiest mare in the world if she accepts the collar's influence. Taking his words to heart, Luster decided to embrace Anon's dominion and let the collar in, becoming his loyal sow in both the dream world and the real world—thus fortifying their Master-slave bond and making it grow stronger than ever before. (Chapter 20's scenario is admittedly quite a special case—given that it takes place within a magical dream realm and manifests a collar embedded with pink crystals rather than the usual red. There's a lot of room for individual interpretation here, so I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to decide whether it's actually possible to make a unicorn horngasm out all of their magical resistance in the waking world.) >In Chapter 32, Anon was mentally broken down from the shock of losing his two mares to Cozy's cruel command. Everything he had been working towards was savagely snatched away from him in an instant, while half his heart had been hidden away from him as part of Flurry's risky gambit. It's no wonder that Anon fell into a truly despondent state of mind. He simply couldn't bring himself to care any more—which made him the perfect target for the collar to reshape his psyche according to Cozy's needs. >In Chapter 35, Cozy had already fully accepted that becoming Anon's slave with grace was the best possible outcome for her. Given that she was currently being cornered by both Flurry and Luster, she understood that there was no other way out but forward. Thus, Cozy's decision to embrace the collar's magic was a pragmatic one, but it was also one tinted with earnest endearment towards her Nonny—and perhaps a certain degree of respect towards the fact that she had been totally outplayed. (…Okay, I'm gonna be real here; I definitely played hard and fast with collar's prerequisites throughout this story. Back in Chapter 2, Cozy explained to Anon that the victim needs to be fully relaxed for the collar to take effect—but truthfully, they just need to not be actively resisting its influence.) Alright, onto the next aspect of the collar—what's up with the pink? Ultimately, Luster and Cozy both chose to fall under the collar's spell for the same reason; they both loved Anon and wished to become his mare—and so they implicitly accepted *Anon* as their Master, not the collar itself. And through embracing the collar's influence in this way, the normally crimson crystals in the collar turned pink, symbolising their complete acceptance of Anon's dominion over their minds. Indeed, even though Cozy had only assigned Anon a temporary role as a Master, he was able to temper the collars' magic with these mares' pre-existing affection, strengthening his command over both the collar and the mare who wears it—thus making these two mares truly his own. This essentially means that Anon no longer needs Cozy's sanguine "approval" to exert his Masterly influence upon the minds of his mares, and he may now order them however he pleases, free from any "dilution" of control. (As for Flurry, I like to believe that she also came to internally accept Anon's influence in much the same way.) Also, because of Flurry's counterspell in Chapter 33, Cozy's domineering influence was weakened to negligible levels, which in turn made Anon the *true* Master of this herd. And yet, despite his now-incontestable authority over his three mares, his Masterly influence over their minds remains as a softer and subtler variety which rewards their continued compliance with warm fuzzy feelings. After all, this is intrinsically how Anon prefers to "control" his mares—and unless he suddenly changes his outlook on how they should be treated, this is how he shall continue to "control" them for his foreseeable reign. (Also, I don't think I addressed this within the story, but the reason that Flurry doesn't develop a counterspell for Anon's influence is because: 1. She doesn't want to, and 2. Even though Anon's pink-tinted influence may be less commanding than Cozy's crimson control, it has become *far* more ingrained into its victim's servile psyches, making the act of nullifying it far more difficult—nigh impossible, even.) Basically, when these pink bitches are under Anon's collared control, it's a consensual affair between both parties. Despite any initial struggles during the enslavement process, each slave has come to wholly accept Anon's rightful dominion over their mind; thus, each slave will happily become his loyal broodmare, serve as a fully obedient extension of his Masterly will—and utterly subjugate all of Equestria in his Kingly name. So, since we're on the topic of good mares turning bad, now's the perfect time to bring up another deep-seated feature of Cozy's collars. This is something I chose to leave out of any of the kink lists—as it's technically a spoiler—but one of the main fetishes of this fic is corruption. If you recall the scene in Chapter 32 where Cozy affixes her collar around Anon's neck, as well as the scene in Chapter 35 where Flurry magically removes Cozy's collar from Anon's system, you may notice that the collar's influence does a lot more than merely control the mind; indeed, it utterly infests the victim's body at the same time, aggressively contaminating their pure pony essence with malicious magic. Cozy's blood is what powers the collar's crystals, which means that once the collar sinks into its victim's flesh and disseminates throughout their system—Cozy's evil blood begins to flow freely through their veins. Because of this, Flurry and Luster have now become more "Cozy-like" under the collar's control. It's not to the point where their personalities are at risk of being overwritten or anything like that, but it does mean that they've become a lot more comfortable with the idea of performing vile acts of utmost villainy—like sealing your parents away and attempting to conquer Equestria, for example. This spiteful influence also happens to make these mares far more prone to violent outbursts of possessive jealousy, which can seen in Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 19; whenever Flurry and Luster lose control of their emotions and start channelling malicious crimson magic, that's Cozy's blood—her sanguine spite towards the world that abandoned her—assuming direct control. But despite this endless well of destructive rage lurking within the collar, it absolutely refuses to harm Anon, even should he step into its line of fire. Thankfully, Anon is also able to placate these outbursts whenever they crop up, owing to his ability to soothe the venomous vitriol lingering within that pegasus's plasma—and perhaps shining a light on why the real Cozy desires him so. However, that's not the only source of corruption present within Cozy's collars. There's another element at play here—and it's one that was briefly alluded to by Cozy herself in Chapter 32. Just before slipping her own personalised collar around Anon's neck, she confided in him another curious fact about the collar: she added a little something "extra" into Flurry and Luster's collars before she hoofed them over to Anon—something to remind her of two "old friends" of hers. If you know Cozy Glow's role in the FiM cartoon, then you probably already have a good idea of who these "old friends" are; after all, we also saw their statuesque presence within Chapter 23's hedge maze scene. Guided by a faint sense of sentimentality, Cozy Glow managed to acquire some scraps of DNA from Queen Chrysalis and Lord Tirek; she then infused these scraps into the crystals of the collars that were used to enslave Flurry and Luster, respectively. One villain to one mare. (I never explained exactly *how* she got these "scraps" in the story, but personally, I like to believe that at some point, Cozy went back to the "Legion of Doom" where she and her cohorts all hung out together; there, she would've picked up some lingering DNA samples of those bygone villains. For Chrysalis, this would've been a shed piece of black chitin, and for Tirek, it'd be one of his leftover toenail clippings. After that, she would've ground these samples into a fine powder and infused them into the collars that way.) (Of course, feel free to come up with your own explanation if you don't like this one; it's entirely possible that she might have just chipped something off from their statue instead.) Much like how Cozy's blood corrupted those mares' minds, these extra traces of villainous DNA served to twist Flurry and Luster even further. In Flurry's case, Chrysalis's DNA is steadily corrupting her physical form and mental state into that of a Changeling Queen's. This onset corruption only hastens in response to the deep, protective love she feels towards Anon, as her newly buggy instincts compel her to see him as a treasured King to build a sprawling hive with. This is also what birthed her "Queenly" persona, which I'll go into in more detail during the Character Section. In Luster's case, Tirek's DNA has instilled within her a gluttonous desire to consume all of Equestria's magic. Luster's corruption isn't as severe as Flurry's, for it only affects her appetite; however, this is also part of the reason why Luster expressed an interest in stealing Princess Twilight's magic in Chapter 30. Luster might not know it yet, but she also now possesses the innate ability to consume an individual's magic, much like how Tirek could in the show. Such an ability shall undoubtedly prove to be quite the boon in Luster's future endeavours—particularly when a certain mentor comes into play… As for Cozy herself, her collar is free of any external villainy, so the collar hasn't corrupted her body in any way. She's already pure evil—and you can't improve upon perfection. (Unless you add *more* perfection…) ___ ### 5. THE BROADER THEMES In this section, I'll go over some broader themes of the story that I thought were neat. #### Titles Have Power The characters within this fic spend a awful lot of time referring to each other through titles rather than their names, don't they? These titles happen to have strong meaning in and of themselves, and I'm gonna go over a few of them here—note that whether they begin with an uppercase letter or not is also important. Flurry initially refers to Anon as a "pleb" in Chapter 1 and 2; here, it's used as a derisive denomination to indicate that she thinks very little of him. During the dreamy what-if scenario presented in Chapter 22, Flurry continues to refer to Anon as a "pleb." However, it appears that she's started to use it as a term of earnest endearment towards the human manservant she keeps by her side at all times. Luster refers to Anon as a "humie" starting from Chapter 1 and all the way up until the moment where she's collared; unlike with Flurry, though, this term carries some personal vitriol within it, as Luster utters it with full intention to piss Anon off and let him know she has no intention of using his actual name. However, during the dreamy what-if scenario presented in Chapter 20, Anon chooses to turn the tables on Luster Dawn. He treats her like a VIP, lavishing her with both love and care. And it's through this unforeseen burst of affection that Luster finds herself letting her guard down around the human she can't help but care so heavily for; thus, she begins referring to Anon by his actual name instead of her insulting moniker. Cozy has a whole colourful array of pet names to call Anon by. She initially refers to Anon as "Mister" during Chapters 1 and 2, but she drops this title entirely once she no longer has any reason to feign unfamiliarity with him. Before Anon collars her, Cozy frequently uses the lowercase term "master" to refer to him in a somewhat mocking manner, indicating that she cares very little about the title he's bestowed upon himself. Another lowercase title she likes to use is "partner"—which was another subtle sign that she didn't really consider the partnership between her and him to be one worth respecting. Her favoured nickname for him, however, is "Nonny." It's one that she uses as early as Chapter 4, and she continues using it even while she has him enslaved in Chapter 32—and even while she has her mind temporarily fried by Flurry's magic in Chapter 35. Once these mares come under the collar's influence, though, they begin addressing Anon by a more Masterly moniker. At Anon's command, both Flurry and Luster soon come to acknowledge Anon as their "Master," only rarely referring to him by his actual name during particularly pivotal moments (e.g. Luster attempting to resonate her heart with Anon's during Chapter 21) Cozy also begins referring to Anon as the uppercase "Master" once she becomes collared. This wasn't done under his direct order, but rather from the fact that her brain was utterly blasted by Flurry's and Luster's slavish memories in Chapter 35; this firmly instilled her recuperating mind with the implicit knowledge that the human currently hilted up to her babymaker is her Master and should be referred to as such. Of course, she could've opted to reject this knowledge if she so pleased, but she ultimately chose to accept it, as the feeling of giving into her submissive impulses and simply becoming this man's mare was something that just felt so wholly *right* to her. As for Anon himself, the way he referred to his slaves gradually changed over the course of the story, showcasing his growing respect and care towards the mares under his command. These sentiments were often mirrored by his mares, showcasing their willingness to love and regard him as more than just their Master. In the case of Anon towards Flurry Heart, he started by simply calling her his "slave" in Chapter 2. He would only occasionally refer to by name, depending on his mood. However, in Chapter 10, Anon openly mused about making Flurry Heart his "Queen," as he had grown quite fond of her during the week they spent together. And by the time Chapter 14 rolled around, he was fully on board with her new Queenly moniker. In the case of Flurry Heart towards Anon, she very quickly latched onto the idea of being his "Queen" in Chapter 10, and she just-as-quickly started to refer to him as her "King" in turn. And once Flurry bound her heart to Anon's in Chapter 26, they both started referring to one another as "Soulmates"—a sign that they each implicitly understood the eternal bond that they now shared. Also, during the moments in Chapters 28 and 36 where Anon mentally submits to Flurry's royal pheromones, he exclusively refers to Flurry as his Queen—not even referring to her by name; this is to showcase his complete and utter capitulation towards this domineering royal. In the case of Anon towards Luster Dawn, he denominated her as merely his "sow" in Chapter 14, and she stayed that way for a good long while—though he did frequently refer to her by name when needed. It was only until Chapter 29 came around that Anon realised how important Luster Dawn was to him; from there, he formally christened her as his "Mated Sow"—which could also just be shortened to an uppercase "Sow." (And yes, the fact that "Mated Sow" is kinda an inverse of "Soulmate" is very much intentional. Wordplay is fun.) In the case of Luster Dawn towards Anon, she began referring to him as her "Boar" as early as Chapter 16. She already cared deeply for him, so she saw no shame in giving him this very affectionate, if rather animalistic, moniker. In the case of Anon towards Cozy Glow, he found himself internally referring to her as his "ex-partner" during Chapters 33 and 34, indicating that he didn't think very highly of her betrayal. But once the two reconciled in Chapter 35, he started to think of her as his "partner" again. In the case of Cozy Glow towards Anon, she stopped referring to Anon as her "Nonny" when he collared her in Chapter 35, choosing simply to call him her "Master" for the time being. However, in Chapter 38, once she found herself seated at the very height of power within the Crystal Empire, she came to understand just how much of a boon her newfound Partnership with Anon really was. Thus, she began referring to Anon as her "Partner"—in uppercase, this time—showcasing the warm, earnest trust that she now freely places in him. Anon, of course, began referring to Cozy as his "Partner" in turn, wholly understanding and appreciating just how much of a help she'd been during his Masterly journey. I must admit, I may have overdone it at points, but I figured that giving emphasis towards how the characters refer to each other would be a fun way to showcase the ever-changing relationships within the story. #### Heart, Body, and Mind Anon may have been able to claim the virtues of these three mares and make them all a part of his loyal herd, but they have each managed to claim something from him in turn—making him theirs just as much as they are his. Throughout the fic, each mare has generally been associated with one of these three "somethings." And I'm going to expound upon them here. >HEART refers to the spiritual aspect of the self, though there is a fair amount of overlap with other aspects, too, for it also refers to one's physical, beating heart—as well as our unconscious mind. (I tend to use the terms "Heart" and "Soul" interchangeably throughout the fic, because for the purposes of this story—they essentially mean the same thing. Alternatively, you could say that Flurry, being the giga stacy of an Alpha Mare that she is, has managed to claim *two* fundamental aspects of her Master instead of just the one.) Flurry Heart was able to magically bind her immortal alicorn heart with Anon's mortal human heart in Chapter 26, forever linking the two together as eternal Soulmates. Through this deep-seated connection, Anon is able to feel her powerful horsey heart beating at the exact same rate as his, for their hearts have completely synchronised. The feeling is akin to having a heartbeat that's about two-to-three times as strong. It's constant, yet it's also incredibly calming, and both Soulmates feel an instinctual sense of emotional fulfilment whenever they hone in on each other's heartbeats like this. Spiritually, Flurry's divine soul is now indelibly bound to Anon's, allowing the alicorn to hone in on Anon's location at all times—and ensuring that there is truly no escape from the mare he once considered his slave. Physically, Flurry's immortal alicorn blood freely flows through Anon's veins, pumping him full of limitless life and ensuring that these two Soulmates now share the same eternal lifespan. Mentally, Flurry's current emotional state can also faintly be felt within Anon's mind; it's not exact, but he now has a pretty good idea as to how his Soulmate is generally feeling at any given moment. Incidentally, under times of duress, Flurry is capable of pumping powerful chemical messages directly into Anon's blood stream, instructing him on best how to act for their combined benefit (as seen in Chapter 28). The influential potency of these hormones is partially due to the dominating nature of her Changeling Queen blood—but also because she's a very moody horse with very strong mood swings. Anon is capable of offering some degree of mental resistance towards these chemical messages, but it's still in his best interest to calm his moody horsewife down ASAP before he finds himself impelled to obey her instinctual impulses. (Incidentally, the fact that Flurry is becoming a Changeling Queen doesn't change the fact that she's still immortal. Indeed, Anon gets to have his eternally buggy cake *and* eat it.) (As an aside, you might be wondering if the combination of evil pegasus blood and Changeling Queen DNA that runs through Cozy's collar and into Flurry's body is affecting Anon in any way—I wish to leave this part up the reader's personal interpretation. And in general, if I neglect to mention a certain element within the fic, you can assume that I either forgot about it or want you to come up with your own answer.) >BODY refers to the physical aspect of the self; however, it encompasses one's destiny, too—as a pony's cutie mark is also considered part of their body. ` ` In Chapter 14, Anon was able to claim Luster Dawn's destiny as his own via imprinting a symbol of his virile Masterliness—a question mark—upon her cutie mark. Luster's body implicitly accepted Anon's claim over her, as she dearly wished to be by his side above all else. However, a pony's cutie mark is an incredibly magical and powerful thing; it's not something you can just overwrite haphazardly with zero consequence. Think of how Trouble Shoes's cutie mark gave him a constant stream of unnaturally bad luck (poor guy), or how the 5 sparkles around Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark symbolised the fellow Elements of Harmony she was destined to one day become best friends with. Anon may not have realised it at the time, but by claiming Luster's cutie mark as his property, he had irrevocably merged their destinies together so as to become husband and marewife. Sure, she is now destined to be his, but he is also now destined to be with her—it's a two-way street. This shared destiny also extends towards how they now see each other; on a purely primal level, Anon and Luster recognise one another as the ideal partner to settle down and start a family with. Everything about Luster Dawn, from the stimulating sight of her unabashedly fecund form, to the addictive smell of her natural unwashed scent, to the pliant feel of her soft chubby belly, to the soothing sound of her harsh raspy voice, to the hay-ish taste of her thick squash soup—instinctually registers in Anon's human brain as qualities that belong to his ideal marewife. Thus, his body naturally gravitates towards hers, and he wants to make sure his perfect mate feels loved and pampered at all times. Of course, Luster carries these very same sentiments towards him. Thus, her body naturally gravitates towards his—while her fertile pigwomb is constantly hard at work in making sure that she's always ready to carry on his humanity to the next generation. In a way, you could say that Luster was able to entrap Anon within her own destiny. By modifying her cutie mark in such a deeply visceral manner, she has ensured that she will always be the ideal mother of his kids—and that she will *always* have a place by his side, no matter what. >MIND refers to the mental aspect of the self. No surprises there. ` ` During Chapter 32, Cozy collared Anon and exerted total control over his mind, seemingly making him her brainwashed slave; however, thanks to Flurry's mental ward, Anon's innermost psyche was able to stay safeguarded from Cozy's influence—and thanks to some additional magic from Flurry in Chapter 35, Anon was able to have Cozy's collar completely removed from his system, thus fully freeing him from the pegasus's dominion. So, with all that said—how was Cozy *truly* able to claim Anon's mind in the end? Well, throughout the fic, it was heavily implied that Anon, Flurry, and Luster would have been perfectly happy living their lives without any villainous inclinations had it not been for that pegasus's intervention. During the bath scene in Chapter 16, Luster confided in Anon her earnest desire to elope with him out to the countryside, free from any personal responsibilities or Kingly ambitions. Indeed, even as his prize sow, she never truly wanted to conquer Equestria—she simply wished to settle down with her Boar and start a family with him. And during Chapter 22, we were shown a glimpse into the kind of life Flurry and Anon would have lived had he never managed to collar her; without any Masterly authority to keep her in check, Flurry would've instead taken that strange bipedal alien under her well-preened wing and made him her personal manservant, and the two of them would've lived a life of lavish royal comfort together—with nary an evil impulse on the menu. As for Anon himself, all he ever wanted was to make it big in life. This was indeed a grand ambition for the common man, yes, but conquering Equestria wasn't exactly what he had in mind when it came towards achieving this goal. However, after he was utterly humiliated at the hooves of three pink ponies—and after one of said pink ponies later visited him armed with honeyed words and a brainwashing collar—Anon suddenly found himself being enticed down a very dark path; it was a path paved by promises of vengeance, lit by the flames of Kingly ambition, and scented with the sugary sweet smell of untouched royal horsepussy. And once he succeeded in both enslaving and deflowering the Crown Princess of the Crystal Empire, there was truly no going back for him—it was all or nothing from then on out. Also, going back to the collar's corruptive capabilities from earlier, Cozy's malignant blood flowed freely throughout Flurry and Luster's bodies, gradually twisting their virtuous (though admittedly still quite bitchy and sadistic) psyches into more villainous ones. By Chapter 29, Luster had already fully given herself over to the side of wanton evil, even going as far as to suggest turning Equestria into Anon's personal pigpen. At this point, she would do anything to see her Boar succeed—for she now truly believed that every womb in Equestria was his by right. Flurry's mind overwent a similar transformation to Luster, but her goals as a villain ended up differing quite heavily to her herd sister's; Chapters 28 and 36 both provide ample windows into Flurry's Queenly compulsions. Whereas Luster ultimately seeks to have her Boar conquer Equestria one pregnant belly at a time, Flurry wishes to turn her Crystal Castle into a sprawling changeling hive. To do this, she would spawn an innumerable army of apex changelings using the blessed seed of her beloved King; this insurmountable broodling army of hers would then be ordered to pillage and conquer the land of Equestria, bringing everything under the glorious banner of the Crystal Heart—and offering very little mercy towards those who exist outside of her purview. (Although, as we will later read on, it wasn't *just* the collar's corruption that instilled Flurry with this sanguine desire to take over the world; there was another force at play here. However, it's safe to say that this pegasus's plasma definitely had a hoof in sharpening this desire in the first place—as otherwise, Flurry likely would've opted to safeguard her Empire's future in a more benign manner instead.) Thanks to healthy medium that Cozy's hateful blood provided, both Flurry and Luster ended up blossoming into quite the overly ambitious evildoers, while Anon himself was guided and goaded by Cozy into desiring even more power. Indeed, it was at Cozy's meticulous machinations that Anon and his herd came to claim the lavish throne of the Crystal Empire. And once he succeeded in doing so—once he found himself seated at the very height of power within this gleaming castle—Cozy sat her pert little rump right on top of her Partner's warm lap, deeply relishing the comfort and security of a throne that had been so-indubitably delivered to her on a loving platter. This is the reason why Cozy offered no further resistance to Anon once he had deflowered her in Chapter 35—and it's why she even implored him to collar her and make her a part of his herd, for she realised that she already won the long con. (Yes, I might be a bit of a Cozy Glow simp. Who knows, maybe this whole fic was just an excuse to give her a happier ending—you didn't hear this from me, though.) Incidentally, Cozy's goals as a villain are fairly tame by comparison to her herd sisters; she simply wishes to rule Equestria (and maybe acquire even *more* power…), but now that she has a trusted herd of like-minded lovers by her side—she couldn't be happier. Near the end of Chapter 38, Anon muses that it's unlikely that anyone else will get as close to him as his three mares have; after all, with his heart, body, and mind already spoken for—he basically has nothing left to offer his future conquests. (Plus, I think three is a very good number to have when it comes to living with a tight-knit herd of lightly mind-controlled mares. Any more than that—and I fear the dynamics may become diluted.) #### All of the three heroines are virgins?! Whaaa?! (This'll be a bit of a sillier "theme" to cap off this section.) Yes! It's an idealistic work of fiction focusing on a man acquiring three waifus, so I figured why not, lol. Truth be told, I did wrack my brain over this for a hot minute; I wasn't sure how viable it'd be to have all *three* of these mares be inexperienced—but in the end, I like to think I provided some convincing-enough reasons for their mutual maidenhood. Flurry is a Princess of Love, and she was raised under extremely strict discipline from her mother to respect and uphold the virtues of Love. As such, Flurry firmly believes that casual flings are a sin, and that you should *only* consider establishing a romantic relationship with another pony if they managed to satisfy the divine principle of "love at first sight." It's a noble mantra to follow, certainly, yet it probably comes as no surprise to any of you that this prissy alicorn also has unreasonably high standards in stallions. (Plus, you can imagine that her callously bratty nature tends to ward most potential suitors off, anyway.) Still, none of the above should count if you're simply *practising* with your alien manservant, right? Luster is a stinky nerd who didn't have time for any of that "sex" stuff. Initially, she was the kind of mare who solely preferred pleasure of a more literary kind—but once she started crushing on Anon, he was the only one she could see herself being with. Cozy is a hopeless marecel (probably why she's so angry at the world tbh) who also has very strange tastes in men. The jarring combination of her overly cutesy appearance, her intimating musculature, and villainous past means that pretty much everyone gives her a wide berth. However, that's perfectly fine with her, as she's always been one to plan for the future rather than live in the now—and it just so happens that a certain extradimensional alien has managed to catch her eye, how intriguing… (Also, I never outright stated this in the fic itself, but I did enjoy entertaining the idea that Cozy sometimes snuck into Anon's bedroom in the dead of night and sucked his dick while he slept—you know, just to keep herself well and properly motivated for the day that she'd eventually make him hers. Whether this is "canon" or not, though, I shall leave up to your own discretion.) ___ ### 6. THE CHARACTERS In this section, I'll go over the characters. This is gonna get pretty waffley, but maybe it'll offer some interesting insights as my general intentions when writing said characters. #### Anon Race: Human Sex: Male Age: (You)r age Associated colour: Pink (Indeed, he's pink on the inside, while his mares are pink on the outside. Perhaps this complementary quality of his is why he's such a magnet for pink bitches.) Everything else: Literally (You) The self-insert himself. I wrote him to be as easy a reader stand-in as possible, so I made sure to leave his features nondescript where I could. (I did end up giving him hair at a few points, though. Sorry guys; you can imagine that he's wearing a wig if you want.) In terms of character traits, he's basically a horny loser that's just trying to make something in this horsey horse world; in other words—he's a certified mare enjoyer™. He can be vengeful, which is what spurred him into enslaving Flurry to begin with, but he's also not one to bear a grudge for too long—hence why he quickly warmed to his mares despite the humiliation they put him through. I also wrote him to be a bit of a power-hungry asshole; that way, when he got utterly dominated in various Chapters like 12 and 32, you could kinda feel like he deserved it. I'm not sure how well that worked out from a reading perspective. From the feedback I've read, I know there was at least one person who disliked how Chapter 12 went—but as a writer, I've always been a fan of bullying Anon in my greens, lol. When it came to this fic in particular, I liked to imagined Anon as the protagonist of a harem VN while I wrote him—because that's what he pretty much is. He's the somewhat mundane guy who acts as the pillar of emotional support towards his harem of ponies with bombastic personalities. He's the mediator that steps in whenever his herd starts to quarrel with each other. He's the reactive to their proactive. And he's the human with three loyal marewives. Since Anon is also the main protagonist from which this second-person story is told, I tried to make his inner narration be both interesting and informative to read; because of this, he ended up being a very introspective guy, frequently reflecting on the story's events as they happened. (Hopefully these descriptive monologues of his didn't intrude on the story's pacing too much.) #### Flurry Heart Race: Alicorn Sex: Female Age: Middle of the pack Associated colour: Light blue Height: A head taller than most mares Build: Slender Coat colour: Light pink Eye colour: Light blue Magic colour: Light yellow (regular). Light blue (changeling) Manestyle: Short pink-and-purple swirls with a blue streak running through it Breath smell: Like cotton candy floss. But from Chapter 36 onwards, her breath starts to take on subtle sour undertones, highlighting the steady growing progression of her corruption into a changeling Squash taste: Sugary sweet; also, marepiss Teat size: Modest Princess Flurry Heart is a mare who is *extremely* in tune with her own emotions; whenever she feels strongly about something, she doesn't half-ass things—she goes full throttle and all the way. One good example of this would be her reflexive decision to zap her best friend with a deadly love curse because she saw said friend harming her Master, while another example would be her calculated ploy to carry out a forbidden ritual that permanently bound her heart with her Master's because she absolutely refused to outlive him. As mentioned earlier in the Afterword—Flurry is indeed a very yandere mare; in fact, I believe that the best term to describe a pony like her would be "Yandere in a Bottle." She's somepony who can appear quite aloof and uncaring at first, but once she finally finds "The One"—she'll be all over him, and she'll quickly decide to dedicate her entire life to him with no take backs. (Three guesses as to who that "One" is.) Flurry is a deeply jealous mare who yearns to be the centre of attention at all times. And between the three bitches who humiliated Anon back in Chapter 1, Flurry was definitely the Queen Bee of the group. While Flurry initially didn't care much for Anon or his weird alien appearance, this human somehow had a strangely soothing effect on the alicorn; not only that, but she also deeply loved the way he handled her wings. Thus, when she visited his parlour all by her lonesome in Chapter 3, she soon became comfortable enough to totally relax while in his presence—to the point where she let him slip a curious-feeling collar around her neck with little fuss. There are two sides to the mare known as Flurry Heart. The first is a bratty, standoffish side that she readily displays towards anyone she doesn't really care for—which just so happens to be nearly the entire population of Equestria. The second is a bubbly, chipper, kinda ditzy side that she's only comfortable showing around those within her inner circle—i.e. her best friends and her Master. (There also exists a third side to this mare—her Queenly Persona—but I'll save that part of her for a later section.) The reason that Flurry experiences such a drastic personality shift once Anon had collared her in Chapter 3 is because her brain effectively switched from one side to the other. Before the collaring, Flurry was keeping Anon at a distance; she was willing to relax around him, yes. But at that point, she still saw him as little else but a potential pet to claim ownership over. Once he collared her, though, all the emotional barriers Flurry had put up to distance herself from Anon instantly crumpled. This sudden mental whiplash put her in a somewhat stupefied state of mind, but after a little bit of breathy back and forth between man and mare to gently ease her into her new role, Flurry quickly came to recognise and accept Anon as her beloved Master—someone to fawn over without restraint. Thus, when she officially became his slave, she saw very little issue with following his every command; in fact, she really enjoyed it—she loved the feeling of being put in her place and made subservient to him. Her only desire in return was that she'd be at the forefront of his mind during every waking hour. With that, Flurry latched onto Anon, and she latched on HARD. She saw him as her everything. She wanted to be his Queen. She wished to kill that bitch who dared lay a hoof upon her Master. She desired to be number one in his heart and be with him forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and— Owing to her naturally cold nature, Flurry unsurprisingly doesn't have many friends, and her parents are more focused on running the Crystal Empire rather than coddling their now-adult daughter. The two friends that Flurry *does* have are Cozy Glow and Luster Dawn. And yet, despite the fact that she considers both of these mares her "besties"—she happens to see each of them in entirely different ways. The relationship between Flurry Heart and Cozy Glow is one you've likely already seen in many a different fanfic; some time after the events of S9E25, Flurry saw great injustice in Cozy's petrified imprisonment and personally advocated for her release, even going as far as to declare that *she* would be the one to watch over Cozy and monitor the status of her ongoing rehabilitation. Soon after that, Cozy was formally released from her stony woes, given bed and board within the Crystal Castle, and the two pink mares promptly hit it off from there. Alas, Cozy's silver tongue was as sharp as ever, and her peskily puckish nature caused no end of problems within the alicorn's pampered life; thus, instead of overseeing this pegasus's redemption like she initially planned, Flurry instead found herself covering for her ex-villain of a bestie more often than not. Still, despite the numerous problems that this pegasus brought with her, Flurry Heart couldn't help but feel a deep sense of camaraderie with Cozy Glow; she was the only pony who really *got* her, you know? And it's not like Cozy was causing trouble *all* of the time. She never went too far with her pranks, and it's not like she ever hurt anypony—well, never *succeeded,* anyway. Anyway, Flurry chose to believe that Cozy's attitude would only improve with time; after all, this was only just the pegasus's way of letting off some steam due to being cooped up within a stone prison for so long, right? … Flurry soon found herself settling into a rhythm of constantly putting up with and excusing Cozy's bullshit. As awkward as this relationship was, Flurry could never find the courage to break this rhythm—for she had come to value Cozy's friendship far too much to ever truly challenge this pegasus on her bad behaviour. Cozy, for her part, never pushed her luck too far, ever careful not to disrupt the comfy status quo she now found herself in—yet wholly unable to let go of her villainous vendetta. The relationship between Flurry Heart and Luster Dawn is one with more sparks behind it, for These two magical mares were introduced to each other by Princess Twilight herself. And with a little bit of scheduling from the Ruler of Equestria, Flurry and Luster soon found themselves taking magic lessons together. From there, these two mares quickly developed a friendly rivalry with one another, and during their joint tutoring sessions, they were ever eager to out-do the other in both magical knowledge and sorcerous prowess—much to the chagrin of whoever was unlucky enough to teach them at the time. Many tutors defeatedly resigned from their roles amidst the chaos, but two mares bonded through it all. And soon enough, Flurry and Luster considered themselves besties through their shared experiences—yet they never gave up that rivalry of theirs. Flurry Heart is inherently curious and a quick learner, while her alicorn heritage has bestowed upon her an immense font of innate magical power; however, when it came to actually harnessing and applying said magic, she always found herself falling short in comparison to Luster Dawn—who was a natural prodigy in every sense of the phrase. Sure, Flurry had more raw power, but Luster was the clear winner in skill. Thus, more often than not, Flurry found herself emerging the loser in any magical competitions they had. Naturally, this left a few cuts in her pride as an "all-powerful alicorn," but she didn't let it bother her too much, as she still dearly valued Luster as her bestie. However, a certain scheming pegasus, who soon came to know Luster through having Flurry as a mutual friend, wasn't fond of the unicorn in the slightest. Indeed, Cozy Glow instantly distrusted and disliked Luster from a single sharp glance, seeing her association to Princess Twilight as anything but a good sign. Not only that, but she saw Luster herself as a threat to her various plots and plans. After all, while Cozy effectively had Flurry dancing in the frog of her hoof, Luster was *far* more sceptical whenever Cozy opened her mouth—and Cozy hated that. …Plus, the fact that Flurry and Luster were able to bond so much over their magical capabilities might have had Cozy feeling a little left out—but it's not like Cozy actually cared about being best friends with these mares, or anything. They were both just tools to her, nothing more. In any case, Cozy didn't want Luster putting any strange ideas in Flurry's head regarding this pegasus's potential for perniciousness, so Cozy decided to strike first; all it took were a few choice words from bestie to bestie about how much more talented Luster was than Flurry, about how Auntie Twilight *clearly* prefers Luster over Flurry, about how Luster was probably just friends with Flurry because it'd make the unicorn look better in everypony else's eyes—and those aforementioned cuts in the alicorn's royal pride soon festered into the gaping gashes of an inferiority complex. Cozy's sly words may not have been enough to outright break the friendship that these three mares fostered, but the seeds of doubt had now been planted—and Cozy only had to sit back and enjoy watching the cracks that would inevitably form between her two "besties." Fast forward to Flurry's tenure as Anon's slave, and the creeping feelings of bitter inferiority Flurry felt towards Luster ended up being heavily amplified through the collar's spiteful influence. And once Flurry saw Luster as a direct threat to her Master's safety, her jealous vitriol quickly boiled over into seething hatred, causing her to deeply relish the idea of humiliating her "bestie" and making her suffer during the events of Chapter 14. One betrayal between besties later, and a devastatingly wide gulf of mareish hostility was left in the wake of their now-fractured friendship, resulting in frequent petty spats between Queen and sow—a fact which could not be overlooked by their herd's Master. However, both mares were eventually able to find common ground thanks to Anon's intervention. Thus, Flurry and Luster chose to bury the hatchet for their Master's sake and rekindle their fierce rivalry into a friendly competition between herd sisters. But this time, they now know to be more honest with each other regarding any insecurities that linger deep within their hearts, and if either of them are ever in need of an understanding mediator to lend an ear to their emotional woes—their Master shall always be there for them. (Basically, a strong male presence can work wonders in providing stability to a herd full of horsey bitches. But make no mistake, even by the end of Pink Haze, Flurry and Luster still have a bunch of deep-seated issues that they'll need to work out together at a later date—for now, though, they'll happily tolerate each other's presence so that they may both serve their Master more effectively. The worst of their spats have passed, yet there's plenty of room for some low-stakes drama in the future.) The overall vibe I wanted to evoke with Flurry was "Mare who's a total cunt to everyone but is utterly sweet on (You)." She's also incredibly racist, but once again, (You)'re one of the good ones—or rather, the *only* good one. And even though she might steadily be turning into a Changeling Queen—she's still an alicorn at heart. She loves acting horsey whenever able, and she also absolutely loves the idea of being Anon's Queenly steed as they ride off into battle together. Out of the three mares that Anon enslaved, Flurry was certainly the easiest one to claim; however, owing to her yandere nature, I wanted readers to initially think "Huh, that was easy," and then gradually realise "Oh, she's actually fucking crazy." (Truthfully, all three mares are kinda yandere in their own way, but Flurry is definitely the most overt one about it.) Also, for those who want a clearer visualisation of what I had in mind when describing Flurry's appearance and royal regalia within the story, I'll quickly go over my inspirations here: >Her manestyle is short and swirly. There are plenty of images I could point to for this, but I think this particular picture is both a pretty cute and fairly accurate depiction of her overall appearance within the fic (ignoring the cutie mark): https://twibooru.org/1191221 Her crystal crown was taken from the Gameloft depiction of an adult Flurry Heart: https://twibooru.org/3237059 Finally, in regards to her cutie mark, I believe that she would use the Gameloft design https://twibooru.org/2746671 ` ` #### Luster Dawn Race: Unicorn Sex: Female Age: Youngest of the trio Associated colour: Amber Height: Medium height Build: Pudgy Coat colour: Cerise pink Eye colour: Amber Magic colour: Amber Manestyle: Frizzy orange-and-yellow mane with a long, loopy forelock. During Chapters 1-20, the back of Luster's mane is tied up into a ponytail using a red hairband; however, in Chapter 29, she officially chooses to ditch this hairband and let her locks flow freely. Thus, from this point onwards, the back of her mane comes to resemble the likes of Starlight Glimmer or Sunset Shimmer's style, with the bottom of it naturally curving around the side of her neck to give her a slightly more "wilder" appearance. Basically, something along the lines of: https://twibooru.org/3385641 Breath smell: Earthy and greasy, strong scent of hay and fast food Squash taste: Strong hay-ish flavour with a subtle juicy (mango) tang; also, marepiss Magic taste and smell: Mango Teat size: Big enough to comfortably spill out around one's palm. Milk taste: Strawberry Delightfully chubby and surprisingly sadistic, Luster Dawn was an interesting character to write for this story, and she was also one that I really wanted to include in some fashion. Truthfully, I had no shortage of ideas involving a duo of Flurry and Cozy interacting with Anon, but I really wanted to make that duo a trio, you know? Plus, there are very few greens out there featuring Luster and Anon. And—as far as I know—there are *zero* other fics out there where Anon forms a herd with Flurry, Luster, and Cozy, so I wanted to contribute something new in that regard. It took a good deal of brainstorming, but I eventually was able to figure out a way to insert Luster in the story while having her stand out as her own character; the tradeoff is that I had to take a *lot* of liberties with her personality—after all, she basically acts nothing like the mare we briefly saw in S9E26—but I tried to justify her new attitude as best I could. Through the brief flashbacks seen in Chapters 11 and 13, we learn that Luster Dawn was a shy, nerdy mare who had a not-so-subtle crush on Anon. Her initial attraction to him stemmed from the fact that she's a xenophiliac freak who loves furiously jilling herself silly to Alien X Mare books. With that in mind, the sight of an alien biped unexpectedly falling out of a spontaneously formed portal right before her eyes was basically a dream come true for this introverted unicorn—and it's what gave her the courage to go up to him, introduce herself, and help onboard him in regards to Equestrian life. From there, Anon began his steady acclimation into the Crystal Empire thanks to this unicorn's eager guidance. The time Luster that spent with Anon (or, perhaps more accurately, awkwardly accosting him at random points during the day) gave ample room for that initial attraction of hers to simmer into something more substantial, and at some point, she started seriously seeing this human as someone to settle down and start a family with. Unfortunately, Luster, naturally asocial as she was, totally lacked the confidence needed to directly confess her honest feelings towards her human crush—while Anon himself was completely oblivious to his peer's pinings. Thus, Luster eventually had to return to Canterlot's School of Magic so she could finish up her studies, leaving her no choice but to stew in her own unspoken affection. Back in Canterlot, Luster found herself occasionally venting to her mentor about a particular stallion that she just couldn't work up the courage to confess to, and her mentor—who just so happened to be the Ruling Princess of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle—took it upon herself to support her student in overcoming her confidence-lacking woes, for she greatly empathised with Luster's plight on a personal level. At some point, Twilight ended up hoofing Luster a particular off-the-shelves book: one that was sure to contain "confidence-enhancing spells with surefire results." Luster jumped at this opportunity, and quickly set about hypnotising herself with an incantation that would eventually transform her meek demeanour into swinish swagger. Despite this total mental shift into proud piggishness, though, the shy nerd that Luster once was still lurks deep within her mind, and if she ever finds herself crumpling under pressure—or shown a mind-shortingly immense amount of affection by her beloved Boar—this meeker side of her is sure to show itself. That being said, Luster is perfectly happy with being the fat hog of a mare that she is now, and she's even more gratified to be mated with her Master at the end of the day. This was all explained in Chapters 14 and 18. Still, I am aware that this entire scenario is probably one of the most contrived parts of the fic, but I also loved the idea of a shy, sweet-natured nerd willingly twisting her personality into that of a fat, mean-spirited bully—it's really fucking hot—so I went for it anyway. Incidentally, writing Luster this way meant that I could write in a fun dynamic where Luster and Flurry are basically polar opposites to each other throughout Pink Haze. I won't go over *every* way that they directly contrast one another, but I'll note down a few for funsies: >Luster is a total slob who cares little for personal hygiene, while Flurry is a pampered princess who has her own morning routine to look as pretty as possible. Luster is chubby, while Flurry is slender. Luster loved Anon before the story started, while Flurry only started loving him after it begun. When it comes to their goals as villains, Luster wishes for her Boarish Master to go out and conquer the many multicultural wombs of Equestria, while Flurry would much rather her Kingly Soulmate stay shacked up with her in her castle so that she may comfily sire an army with him. ` ` I've already gone over Flurry and Luster's relationship in the Flurry section. However, when it comes to Luster's side of things, she never had Cozy whispering provocative remarks into her ear, which meant that this unicorn never had any reason to dislike or distrust Flurry until Chapter 14 rolled around. But once Luster realised the bottomless depths of that alicorn's twisted spite, she quickly became utterly terrified of the mare she had considered her former bestie. Said terror rapidly compounded with the hurt and anger Luster felt at being betrayed, cruelly cuckqueaned, and nearly killed—thus becoming a crimson-hued cocktail of hateful emotions. It was only at Anon's intervention that Luster was able to reconcile with her herdmate. (Also, this was never mentioned in the fic directly, but Luster was never particularly fond of the "Lustie" moniker that Flurry had given her, for it reminds this unicorn of when Anon thoughtfully referred to her as "Lusty Prawn" back during Chapter 13's flashback—which is a "nickname" she absolutely despised on every level. Alas, Luster has never been able to muster up the courage to directly confront her friend on this. Maybe in the future.) As for Luster and Cozy's relationship pre-collaring, Luster didn't hate Cozy, but she knew that this pegasus happened to have quite the villainous portfolio under her belt; this caused Luster to constantly regard Cozy with a wary eye, ensuring that this unicorn was always ready to call the pegasus out on her bullshit when necessary. Obviously, Cozy herself wasn't pleased with this level of scrutiny. After Cozy's callous command caused Luster to nearly lose her memories of Master permanently in Chapter 32, Luster swiftly came to regard the awful actions of that pesky pegasus with righteous rage, and she made sure to spend *plenty* of time unloading her swinish sentiments upon her former friend's capitulated body and hypnotised mind all throughout Chapter 34. By the end of it all, though, Luster found herself growing rather fond of her new pegasian pig—and she was more than happy to permanently break Cozy in as the herd's second sow; alas, it wasn't meant to be. Still, now that Luster has had the chance to properly reconcile with her Boar and thoroughly unleash her frustrations upon the mare who most-definitely deserved it, she has come to regard her newest herd sister with an honest, jovial warmth, having mostly forgiven her for her past transgressions—that being said, she certainly wouldn't mind making Cozy eat her ass again. Since Luster is the chubby mare of the group, I made sure to include plenty of scenes where Anon could properly appreciate such chubbiness. As a result of this plump paradigm, Anon ended up becoming quite the experienced belly rubber and hand-feeder by the end of this fic, wouldn't you say? (Also, whenever I use the term "chubby mare," this is the kind of gropeable heft I have in mind: https://twibooru.org/1369283 — this a Flurry Heart image, but I feel that it perfectly captures the essence of a cute pudgy nerd nonetheless.) As mentioned earlier, I really like the idea of a nice mare turning real mean—especially when the catalyst is that of unrequited love steadily growing rancid over time. Indeed, it was precisely because of this unrequited love that Luster bullied Anon in such a depraved manner, yet all this mare ever truly wanted was to have her festering affection fully reciprocated by her human. Thus, I wrote the pre-collar interactions between Anon and Luster with the idea that if Anon stopped being such a dense fucking idiot for one second and actually acknowledged Luster's feelings at any point, she would've completely folded on him—hell, she may have even apologised for her rude behaviour. Moreover, if he had chosen to simply level with this lovesick unicorn and earnestly asked her to become his loyal marewife, she would've said yes with no hesitation, and the two of them would've lived happily ever after. (This type of unspoken tension is really fun to think about when rereading earlier sections of the fic. I'm imagining a version of Pink Haze where Anon actually has a functioning memory, meaning that he instantly recognises Luster as soon as she walks through the front door in Chapter 1. Once those other two pink bitches head down the hall, Anon would confront Luster on how much he missed her, she would immediately drop her crass act—and the two of them would start making passionate love right then and there on the reception counter, much to Flurry and Cozy's chagrin.) Incidentally, any references to bat ponies and their love of mangos are purely coincidental. The reason I associated Luster's amber magic (and later her mare juice) primarily with mangos was because of their similar colour and the fact that mangos seemed like a suitably "sweaty" fruit. (…Still, the idea of Luster happening to have a bit of bat pony in her blood has its own appeal, so I'm not gonna write off the concept entirely.) The strawberry taste of her maremilk, on the other hand, was primarily derived from her cerise-pink coat colour. As a result of these many fruity qualities, Luster ended up with quite the diverse flavour palette in comparison to her cohorts—but I think that's just another one of her sweet charms. A little known fact about Luster Dawn is that she's actually short-sighted; thus, she requires her trusty set of red reading glasses whenever she plans to hit the books. We can see her don these spectacles during Chapters 8 and 30. (More importantly, I think the idea of this cute chubby mare playing the role of a sexy librarian is appealing in so many different ways. So I gave her this character trait as a way of showcasing another surprisingly vulnerable side to the brash unicorn.) Owing to her raunchy nature, Luster turned out to be the fic's fetish magnet, so it's no surprise that the part that primarily focused on her (Part 2) ended up having the fattest kink list of the set. She also tends to get bullied a lot throughout the fic; call it karma for what she did in Chapter 12. As a result of said bullying, though, Anon is given plenty of chances to console, comfort, and cherish his hog of a mare; these intimately tender moments between Boar and Sow serve to both lift Luster's spirits and renew her resolve, causing her to rise stronger than ever before. Indeed, by having her fat ego continually lavished with unconditional praise—Luster reclaims her piggish pep, further fortifies her own steadfast loyalty to her Master, and becomes even more willing to perform vile deeds in his Boarish name. (Plus, I just really like the idea of reaffirming and reassuring an extremely egotistical mare whenever she's hit a low point in her life; yes, I'm very Trixie-pilled.) Luster is an extremely talented magical prodigy, but she's also self-centred, cowardly, and craven. This, combined with her lecherous proclivities and sadistic inclinations, makes it *extra* humiliating for any who are unfortunate enough to find themselves submitting to her, as Luster will painstakingly ensure that whoever serves underneath her shall *thoroughly* understand just how superior she is to them. Make no mistake, this Alpha Sow aims to leave a lasting impression upon the minds of her "lesser pigs"—while her ideal world is that of a global pigsty where her beloved Boar *always* has the premium pick of the litter when it comes to this land's many waiting wombs. (Basically, Luster's ultimate goal is to mentally regress everyone on the planet into obediently oinking pigs so that they may all be freely used for her Master's Boarish pleasure. Despite her jovial demeanour, Anon is still the only one that Luster feels any real loyalty to, so if she ever ended up becoming his Alpha Mare, she'd gladly use her newfound authority to decree that both of her herd sisters should be mindbroken in much the same way. Luster loves her besties, but she also thinks they'd be much happier as simple-minded pigs who exist only to be bred by their Boar. In her Equestria, only the top two pigs deserve thinking privileges.) And on a final note—yes, I intentionally left the details of her parentage vague throughout the story. I invite you to fill in the blanks on this one. (But if your answer happens to be anything other than futa Moondancer knocking up Trixie, then I'm afraid you're simply wrong, sorry.) #### Cozy Glow Race: Pegasus Sex: Female Age: Oldest of the trio Associated colour: Scarlet Height: A head smaller than most mares Build: Toned Coat colour: Salmon pink Eye colour: Scarlet Magic colour: She doesn't possess the natural ability to cast magic, but if she did—it'd likely be crimson (working off of S9E24 and S9E25) Manestyle: Baby-blue ringlets; also, her mane and tail are each usually tied off with a cute cream bow Breath smell: Cinnamon Squash taste: Cinnamon; also, marepiss Teat size: Mosquito bites Wingpit smell: Sweat and cinnamon An enigmatic schemer of a mare, Cozy Glow is perfectly willing to manipulate and gaslight everyone and anyone in order to get what she wants; despite all of this, though, she truly *does* love Anon—even it's in her own twisted way. Despite being granted a second shot at life thanks to Flurry's efforts, Cozy never gave up on her dark ambition to conquer Equestria; she saw this world as a deeply flawed one when not under her dominion, and so she wished to acquire the tremendous power needed to make her dreams a reality. In terms of relationships, her widely known villainous past had left her wholly unable to reconnect with society at large, as there were many out there who still regarded this mare with deep distrust—and plenty who would prefer her be resealed within her stone tomb. Flurry and Luster were her only friends. Flurry was an easily manipulated fool who'd go along with most anything Cozy says; thus, Cozy saw Flurry as a total bimbo…but not totally awful. Luster, on the other hoof, was a total thorn in Cozy's side; truthfully, she would've loved to get rid of that pesky unicorn for good—but at the same time, Luster's power and connections could've proven to be quite the future boon had Cozy somehow managed to bring this magical mare under the pegasus's sway. Now that she considers these two mares her fellow sisters in villainy, Cozy finds herself trusting Flurry and Luster a little more than she did previously—just a little, though. During the days that she spent living in this opulent Crystal Castle, Cozy felt like a complete outcast to this world; she was lacking in positive role models, and the time she spent petrified certainly didn't help matters. Thus, with nopony truly willing and able to set this pegasus on the right path in life, she simply chose to follow her villainous nature, secretly planning and stealthily plotting for the day when she'd be able to definitively conquer Equestria. One day, however, her attention had been piqued by a strange extradimensional alien in the news; apparently, he had been displaced from his own world through a spontaneously formed portal. He was a curious one. An outcast—just like her. …Yes, he should be able to serve her needs, she thought. Cozy bears a toned body that's been blessed with a marely six-pack. Of course, whether she actually *owns* a horse gym membership is a topic that's up for some hot debate. As for why she puts so much effort into staying ripped, Cozy happens to be a mare who enjoys power in all its forms—thus, honing her form to its physical peak and maintaining her musculature has been one of her key goals ever since she was released from imprisonment. (…Plus, she might also be taking inspiration from a certain gains-chasing centaur—she'd never admit that, though.) On a more thematic level, I thought a toned mare would make the perfect third body type to complement a slender alicorn and a chubby unicorn. Despite her domineering nature and imposing exterior, Cozy is actually quite the submissive freak deep inside; we see plenty of indicators of this throughout the story. Take Chapter 31, for example: when Anon brings up both the black chokers and bite marks he has on his mares' necks, Cozy is quick to chide her partner for his tactlessness, yet her body language displays clear approval towards the way he physically marks his slaves as his own. Truthfully, she *really* likes the look of these accessories—and there's a creeping part of her that wouldn't mind being human-owned herself. Make no mistake, Cozy is more than happy to take full control whenever the opportunity presents itself—yet she also instinctually yearns to relinquish her power around that one individual she truly trusts and allow herself to simply feel safe within his arms. Cozy herself isn't even really aware of this desire until Chapter 35, but once she experiences the inherent comfort of merely being Anon's mare for the first time, she instantly realises that any further resistance to his rightful dominion would directly go against her own mareish needs and wants. This is part of the reason why she willingly submits to him in the end, for she instinctually understands that her Nonny will treat her right. (There's still pragmatism in this, of course, but Cozy's heartfelt endearment towards her partner definitely softened the blow of her own defeat.) (Not a whole lot to say about Cozy compared to the other two, but that's just how she likes it. Plus, I figure that I've already gone over her nature plenty in the earlier sections; no need to dawdle.) #### Flurry's Queenly Persona Race: A buzzing swarm of emergent changeling instincts given shape by a Greater Purpose. Sex: Queen Associated colour: Light blue (Same as Flurry herself) I said I'd go over this later, so here it is—Flurry's Queenly instincts were born of Chrysalis's DNA, nurtured by Anon's potent human love, and tempered by the Crystal Heart itself. These instincts started as mere buggy impulses, but over the course of Pink Haze, they were slowly given shape, and they eventually coalesced into a split personality that exists within Flurry's mind; in this sense, you can consider Flurry's Queenly Persona to be the "Nightmare Moon" to the princess's "Luna." Both sides of Flurry Heart share the same memories and aspirations—and naturally, the Queenly half of her loves Anon just as much as the regular half; however, this side is also *far* more assertive than the rest of her, to the point where "Queen Flurry" is able to supersede the collar's subjugating sway and utterly dominate Anon if she so desires (as seen in Chapter 36). That being said, this Queen can also be tamed into chittering servitude should her King choose to whether this strong-willed storm head on. There's a definite push and pull to this royal relationship, yes, but as a budding Changeling Queen, Flurry absolutely adores her human King; her instincts drive her to both protect him and propagate with him, and she will happily defer to him whenever she can. Though if she ever feels threatened or particularly needy, then she'll be ever so quick to take the reins and attempt to steer her King her way. Whenever that happens, it'll be up to said King to respond appropriately. (Basically, if this Queen ever gets seriously riled up, expect to use lots of smooches, nuzzles, and "I love you"'s in order to properly calm her down—and maybe give her a few womb-filling creampies after the fact to make sure her compliant mood sticks.) The light-blue magic that we see Flurry using throughout the fic is actually her changeling magic; it's directly powered by the love that Anon continuously feeds her, and by focusing her thoughts on him, she is able to harness it to a fine point, making it both more reliable and more powerful than her regular light-yellow magic. (I'm a big fan of the concept that human love is both an extremely potent and effectively limitless source of energy for a changeling. Thus, by being spiritually and eternally linked to the boundless mana battery known as Anon, Flurry could very well be the strongest entity within Equestria until the end of time. Powerful mares are hot.) Her Queenly body also explains the various phenomena associated with her throughout the fic—such as her unnaturally long tongue, her tendency to "cocoon" her King in a world meant only for the two of them, and her ability to veil her bonded heartbeat from Anon's in Chapter 32 (which she heavily disliked doing). Despite these characteristics, though, Flurry's transformation is still incomplete, as she has yet to become a true Changeling Queen. In order to finish her royal ascension, she needs to spend an extended amount of time snugly cocooned up with her King so she may safely metamorphise in his loving presence. This is something she almost successfully set up in Chapter 36—before Cozy chose to stop her. But make no mistake, if Flurry were to fully awaken, she wouldn't turn into some garish skittle-coloured changeling—rather, she'd grow to full horsey proportions and become a pureblood black bug. Owing to the Queenly DNA within her collar, her sturdy chitin would come to bear an almost-stygian shade of black, while her multicoloured mane would shift into a silky sea of purely light-blue follicles. Basically, think Chrysalis—but with no holes in her body; a light-blue mane, tail, carapace, and wings; and topped off with Flurry's swirly manestyle (which would have grown longer with her new size). (The "Reverse Chrysalis" that's seen in the comics is a pretty good representation of what I'm going for—just remove the glasses, change the carapace and eye colour to light blue, imagine her with a more terrifying presence that would activate your fight-or-flight response at a glance, and there you go: https://twibooru.org/3038749 ) (As for the "terrifying presence" in question, this next image is one of a regular Chrysalis, but it's the kind of aura I imagine Queen Flurry having: https://twibooru.org/2566737 ) Flurry was initially very embarrassed of her buggy characteristics, being ashamed at her inability to control her instincts while also being in some level of denial about the whole thing; however, thanks to Anon's earnest reassurance in Chapter 30, she eventually chose to embrace this other side of herself, knowing that her King will always be there to support her no matter what she ends up becoming. Thus, Flurry and her Queenly Persona now coexist in harmonious tandem with one another. Even if Flurry were to complete her transformation into a true Changeling Queen, there is zero risk of either personality overwriting the other. Whichever side of her takes primary control in the moment, the other half is smoothly placed into a semi-inactive state of "mind," having partial awareness of what's happening around her while also being ready to reclaim the helm when needed. (Basically, you get to have your slimy cake and eat it too. This Queenly Persona was never meant to pose a threat to Flurry's sense of self—rather, the *real* challenge of this dual arrangement lies in the fact that Anon essentially has to deal with *two* extremely moody wives for the price of one.) On the matter of her sour breath, when Anon examines Flurry's Queenly features in Chapter 36, he notes how her sweet breath has now taken on some subtle sour undertones. This sour smell is something that will only become stronger as her body grows buggier, for it is meant to be an olfactory indicator of just how far her changeling corruption is progressing. Oh, and just to clarify, the sourness of Flurry's breath is directly tied to the steady corruption of her alicorn body—it's unrelated to whether her Queenly Persona is assuming the helm or not. This means that a fully buggy Flurry with her "main" personality at the wheel will still have fully sour breath. That being said, if she really wanted to, then she could easily use her changeling biology to change the smell of her breath at will—her "default" breath will always remain sharply sour, though. (Still, as eye-wateringly acerbic as it might be, it'd be well worth Anon's time to learn how to appreciate Flurry's natural bugstink and praise his shapeshifting Soulmate for who she truly is—otherwise, he's quite liable to end up with a very self-conscious Queen.) (Also, I think that Flurry having sour breath better sets her apart from Cozy's cinnamon-scented breath, as it establishes a piquant contrast of sourness vs spiciness between the two mares.) Thanks to her deep connection with the Crystal Heart, both Flurry and her Queenly Persona are able to interface with the Crystal Empire's crystal pony populace like a hivemind. By Chapter 38, Flurry has embraced her changeling instincts, which has allowed her to become the "Queen" of this hivemind; thus, if she so pleases, she is able to place every single one of her subjects under a trance-like state of mind and get them all to lay down their lives for her. Also, owing to her potently buzzing instincts, all crystal ponies under Flurry's hivemind feel inherently deferential towards their King—Anon—even while out of trance. This deference isn't as direct as the collar's command, so don't expect Anon to be able to get away with plapping an untranced crystal pony in broad daylight. However, what this *does* mean is that every crystal pony now implicitly accepts Anon and Flurry as their new rulers without questioning what happened to the old ones. (That being said, it would also be prudent of Flurry to have her hivemind believe that Cadance and Shining Armor still rule the Crystal Empire in order to keep the truth of the matter hush-hush from outsiders.) Because of this implicit acceptance, Anon is free to wander around the Crystal Castle without rousing any undue suspicion—hell, if he wanted, he could even walk up to any one of the crystal pony Royal Guard, call them a cutesy pet name, and start heavily petting them with zero pushback. (Obviously, sexual assault would be going a step too far—but if you were to place them under a drone-like trance…) Right at the beginning of this section, I mentioned that Flurry's Queenly Persona was "tempered by the Crystal Heart." To elaborate on this further, her Queenly half happens to be more keenly attuned to the will of the Crystal Heart than her regular half—and it is through this attunement that she acts as its direct emissary. In other words, Queen Flurry Heart is in fact the Crystal Heart itself. Yes, you heard that right—the Crystal Heart does indeed possess a will of its own. Through the dangers that it's faced in the past, plus the uncertainty that it now faces in the present, the Crystal Heart came to grow concerned over the future of both itself and the Crystal Empire it presides over. No longer wishing to float idly by and risk future subjugation by another cruel conqueror (did you see the way Sombra's dark crystal spikes punctured it in S9E01? Shit must've hurt), the Crystal Heart decided to take matters into its own contours; thus, whenever Flurry's Queenly instincts take hold of her mind, it is the Crystal Heart—acting directly through the connection of Flurry's cutie mark—taking control of her body and using this corrupted princess as a vessel for its divine will. Its true intentions are to use Flurry's body as a seedbed with which to birth a boundless army of apex changelings. These innumerable changelings—plus the mentally commandeered Crystal Guard—shall serve as the Empire's vanguard. And from there, they shall advance past its borders, seeking to bring the entirety of Equestria's under the heart's heel. Of course, none of this will be possible without its chosen King by its side. And so this Queen is to protect her King at all costs. He is the rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire, the father of its blessed army—and it is he who the Crystal Heart's light shines brightest for. Once Flurry Heart had no more reason to fear her buggier aspects, she soon sought to understand her Queenly side in greater detail. And by Chapter 38, she both wholly realised and fully accepted what the Crystal Heart desired from her, for Flurry empathises with the Heart's fears and woes more than anypony else—and she knows that the Heart loves Anon just as much as she does. After all, Anon is perfect for its needs; he has *always* been perfect for its needs—and he shall make a fine King. (The above segment might sound pretty out there, but the concept of an incredibly powerful magical artefact gaining sapience and deciding that (You) are the entity it treasures most is a very enticing idea I wished to explore.) Also, to close things off, I figure that this'll be a good time to go over the effects and intents of Flurry's hormones vs her pheromones, which both primarily featured in Chapter 28. They were both used in an attempt to subjugate a King's mind to his Queen's will, but the methodology involved is different between them: >Flurry's horsey hormones are internal chemical factors pumped all throughout her bloodstream, and they can be freely shared with her Soulmate thanks to the bond established between their hearts in Chapter 26. These hormones are able to carry all sorts of messages from Flurry's system to Anon's, which can have a variety of effects—such as inflaming his fight-or-flight response, or informing him of her emotional cravings. As implied by them being called "horsey hormones," these chemical messages aren't necessarily tied to Flurry's nature as a Changeling Queen; even if she was just a regular pony, her emphatic heart would still beat right next to his, ensuring that man and mare always have at least a vague idea as to their bonded Soulmate's general intent. However, because Flurry *does* possess the inherent qualities of a Changeling Queen, her hormones are a lot more potent, a lot more direct, and allow a Queen to directly instruct her King on how he should act in the moment so that he may better serve her buggy needs (i.e. instead of simply inflaming his fight-or-flight response, she could command him to seek safety within her wings while she "takes care" of any immediate threats). Also, Anon possesses the ability to pump his own human hormones into Flurry's Queenly system. Alas, his chemical factors are nowhere near as strong as hers, being that she's a horse-shaped succubus of obsessive love—while he is merely a man. (Still, if Anon manages to apply himself, perhaps he could "learn" how to best utilise his heartbeat in order to properly corral his Queen in the future…) >Flurry's Queenly pheromones are external chemical factors secreted out from her body, and since the ones we primarily see in this story are centralised within her fluffy chest tuft, we'll go over those. These particular pheromones are meant purely to muddy a King's mind during breeding time. They make him pliant and breedy, serving to soften up his brain while ensuring that his body focuses on pumping blood down to his lower region. These chemical compounds only grow increasingly potent at greater concentrations, meaning that the more Anon huffs up Flurry's potent pheromones, the stronger an effect they have on his mind—and the more he turns into her submissive breeding stud. Owing to their name as "Queenly pheromones," these scented signals only exist due to Flurry's gradual corruption into a Changeling Queen. Adding to this, these specific pheromones are clearly meant only for her King—as he is the only one she'd ever force face-first into her musky tuft while he ploughs her horsey bugpussy missionary style. (Incidentally, while Luster may not possess a Queen's characteristics, I could still see her extremely well-endowed floof having a similar muddying effect on Anon's mind through pure nerdy marestink alone.) #### The Second Cozy Glow Race: Pegasus? Sex: Female? Associated colour: Crimson Sir, a second Golly has hit the Pink Haze. As you may recall within the fic itself, Cozy Glow made a few choice appearances during Chapters 21, 23, and 28. During these moments, her actions were unsettling, her words were cryptic, and her motives were a total mystery. However, you may also recall that these three appearances all took place within the magical dream realm that Flurry Heart crafted for herself, Anon, and Luster Dawn. Cozy Glow was never a recipient of this spell—so how is it possible that she managed to sneak herself in? Well, as the filly herself quite plainly admitted near the end of Chapter 23—despite her cute cream bow and sugary sweet demeanour, this conniving apparition wasn't actually the real Cozy Glow; thus, I'm going to be calling this doppelganger "Phantom Cozy" from here on out. As mentioned earlier in the Afterword, Cozy's collars are powered via the pegasus's vile blood. When Anon collared Flurry and Luster, this blood melded into their flesh and intermingled with their essence—and it through this forbidden union that Phantom Cozy was born. She lurks within their blood, always watching, yet rarely interfering. Thanks to Flurry's heart magic during Chapters 20 to 28, Phantom Cozy was given the opportunity to directly manifest herself into the dream realm. And from there, she could interact with its denizens however she so pleased. I'll try not to go into too much detail about this one—I think it's more fun when she's an unpredictable enigma—but I will put down a few key points that I think are worth mentioning. >She is the source of the crimson magic seen throughout the fic. As seen in Chapter 28, Phantom Cozy possesses the ability to "disentangle" entities within the dream realm and reconstitute them into their proper forms, sparing them from a most-uncomfortable fate. Phantom Cozy possesses all of the real Cozy Glow's memories, so she's kind of like a mental backup in that sense. Once Anon collared his soon-to-be partner, both Cozys were able to "synchronise" with each other. In this chapter, there's a book titled: "The Secret Life of Princess Cadance." In Chapter 22, while trying to convince Anon that he's duty bound to have sex with her, Flurry offhoofedly mentions a "weird-looking whip" she found in her mom's closet. When you put all of these gags together, it becomes pretty clear that Princess Cadance and Shining Armor get up to some *really* naughty fun in the bedroom together. Perhaps the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree… (Incidentally, I saw a comment on this story that expected the moment in Chapter 14 to foreshadow something greater. Yeah, whoever that was, I hope I didn't disappoint you too hard with the lack of any meaningful follow-up on this. I just thought it'd be fun to depict the Reigning Princess of Love as a total succubus in the sack. After all, Flurry had to have acquired her lewd proclivities from somewhere—it can't *just* have been the collar's changeling DNA that made this pink alicorn a natural predator of human penis.) Once Anon retrieves his history books and hastily turns away from Luster, she stealthily jolts him with a spell that slightly puts him under her sway while lowering his mental resistance to any more of her spells. This essentially provided her with a "magical backdoor" of sorts, which is something she would later utilise in Chapter 12. (Also, if you're wondering why Luster didn't just rape Anon right then and there—it's because she didn't want to push her luck. She was mainly testing the waters to see how far Anon had fallen under her sway from a singular spell. Now that she had left some of her lingering influence within his psyche, though, she would be ready to take things further in the future.) #### Chapter 9: the bastard smooth claws (1k~ words) Another short slice-of-life chapter, this one featuring Anon's detestable business rival. I wanted to capture a "Dinkleberg" energy with Smooth Claws; he's a overly friendly neighbour who utterly mogs Anon in every way. And his brief presence in this story is meant to showcase that Anon happens to be nursing quite the inferiority complex when it comes to highly successful dragons. This bitter jealousy is something that Flurry Heart can heavily relate to in regards to her own rivalry with Luster Dawn—and it's thanks to this chapter's events that Flurry realises that she's found a spiteful kindred spirit in Anon, strengthening their Master-slave bond all the more. #### Chapter 10: the flurry baking (5k~ words) This chapter is kind of a three-for-one—as it features a reading scene, a baking scene, and a prone bone scene. I know, I know, I truly spoiled you guys with this one. While reading his book of villainy, Anon spies a photo of a certain evil filly within its storied pages. Naturally, said evil filly is Cozy Glow in her golden years, and it is this picturesque observation that inspires Anon to confront the pegasus herself on her nefarious past in Chapter 11. (Also, I threw in a couple subtle jabs at the IDW comics by decanonising its events and declaring Sombra as simply a unicorn with a penchant for dark magic. I never got around to reading the comics—so miss me with that "umbrum" nonsense or whatever Sombra goes through in there.) Near the end of this chapter, Anon declares Flurry his Queen, which is a title that stimulates the growth of her budding changeling instincts and shapes them into something more matriarchal—more Queenly. Indeed, this flattering interaction has this alicorn's lovestruck mind buzzing with newfound ambition. Once Anon heads to bed with his slave, Flurry takes the opportunity to lay peck after predatory peck up along her King's sensitive skin, drinking in his vulnerability while staking her Queenly claim on him. And when she reaches his ear, she huskily whispers into his canal and bids him goodnight before entering hibernatio—er, *sleeping* with him. Anon, for his part, is far too sleepy to understand what just went on, so he writes off her assertive actions as his mind simply playing tricks on him. If only he knew… (Actually, if Anon *did* have the full story on Flurry's lovebug corruption, then he'd probably choose to supercharge her into a Level 100 Changeling Queen the very next day. Gg no re Equestria.) #### Chapter 11: the cozy visits (6k~ words) This chapter brings the "Bake Flurry a Cake" subplot to a close. Anon and Flurry's Master-slave bond is stronger than ever at this point—so it's only right that Cozy tears it all down on a selfish whim. The flashback at the beginning of this chapter depicts Anon and Luster's first meeting within the Crystal Empire; incidentally, the scene of their first meeting just so happens to be when Anon was suddenly displaced from his old world and thrust into this one. Fancy that. Also, in regards to the Crystal Empire's multicultural citizenry acting rather nonchalant about Anon's unexplained appearance: I like to view "nuQuestria" as a place that is wholly unperturbed with spontaneous magical happenings—this is the same world where a being like *Discord* is allowed to exist, after all. With that in mind, the sight of a strange-looking creature falling out of a portal and dropping into a sprawling street populated by a diverse population of other strange-looking creatures isn't actually that big a deal to the average Equestrian joe. Anyway, Anon is understandably discombobulated from having just lost everything and everyone that he had ever known. Luster, on the other hoof, is an incredibly xeno-curious unicorn, and the sight of a never-before-seen alien enough for her to temporarily overcome her social anxieties and ask this human what's up. Alas, this particular memory is cut short before we can even get Luster's name. But I wanted to spark a sense of intrigue in the reader with this flashback; could that "horned quadruped" with a pink-and-orange colour scheme and a raspy voice *really* have been Luster Dawn? And if she was—why did she act so different from how we've seen her thus far? These are the kind of questions I wanted the reader to be asking. Back in the present day, however, and Cozy has successfully sowed great doubt within Anon's mind regarding his love for Princess Flurry Heart. Cozy's dialogue during this scene is driven by her desire to remain the most important mare for Anon. There's pragmatism in this; after all, her Nonny is less likely to think of betraying her when he's made to understand that he *needs* her—and a loyally dependant Nonny is far easier to manipulate for her own ends. That being said, her words are also fuelled by jealousy in this moment. Cozy is perfectly fine with Anon treating her best friend like a sex slave, but the idea of him actually falling in love with that pink bimbo pisses this pegasus off something fierce. To Cozy, Anon is *her* Nonny, and she intends to keep it that way. (Cozy was planning to collar and brainwash Anon regardless, so you could argue that it didn't really matter how he felt about his villain of a partner. Alas, Cozy has a habit of acting irrationally whenever mareish emotion takes ahold of her; she's still quite immature in that regard.) Cozy's sugary sharp words happen to leave quite the impact on Anon, and once Flurry re-enters the room, Anon chooses to turn a cold shoulder to his slave, wishing to prevent any further heartache. Make no mistake, though, the emotions running through Anon's head are far more complicated than a binary "I love Flurry" or "I hate Flurry." He still likes her, obviously, as indicated by the fact that he'll continue to spend plenty of time worrying about her during Chapter 12, but he also feels incredibly hurt by the idea that Flurry Heart may have only been treating him so kindly because of her brainwashing collar. Thus, he chooses to distance himself from her for the time being, using this isolation as an opportunity to clear his own head and focus primarily on tomorrow's task of enslaving Luster Dawn. (It doesn't work.) Flurry, on the other hoof, truly *does* love Anon—collar's influence be damned. Alas, she cannot will herself to disobey his word when he orders her to stay in her lane. At least, not yet. (I really liked the concept of Cozy using her silver tongue to bring Anon back under her psychological sway in this chapter. However, I think I could've done a much better job of conveying the complex internal conflicts at play here. In lieu of that, I figured I'd take the chance to clear up any ambiguity with the character motivations during this moment) #### Chapter 12: the luster dominates (18k~ words) This chapter is far longer than any of the previous ones, and that's by design. I wanted to make the reader feel uncomfortable, powerless, and fatigued as they watch Luster slowly seize more and more control over the situation. Personally, as both a domination-loss enjoyer and femdom enjoyer, I really loved writing and rereading this. There's just something so viscerally hot about a fat nerdy mare smugly forcing her way into (You)r life and indubitably claiming (You) as her husband while taking (You)r home as her own. Of course, when said nerdy mare also happens to be a magical prodigy with royal connections, that means there's basically nothing (You) can do to stop her from making (You) her pliant humie hubby—save a spot of "divine" intervention, that is. When Anon turns his back to Luster Dawn so he can retrieve her store-bought blueberry muffin from a nearby cabinet, she jolts him with another spell (that "sparkling, tingling sensation") while he's distracted. This spell softens his mind up a little more—essentially "widening" the magical backdoor she made in Chapter 8—which allows her to move in for the kill once she unleashes her mango-scented horngasm. After Luster successfully places Anon under her orgasmic sway, she takes a moment to peer into his eyes and confirm her imbued influence; once she finds satisfaction in what she sees, she lets out a sly: "…Heh." I wanted to instil the reader with a sense of "Oh shit. He's fucked now" in this very moment. After all, this is Luster's chapter, and *she's* the one in control. (Between the kitchen scene and the bedroom scene, I initially planned to have a scene after this where Anon slowly carries Luster up the stairs. Along the way, he would get distracted by her chubby body and clumsily trip on a step—forcing Luster to magically catch the two of them in midair. After being set upright, Anon would profusely apologise for his tardiness, yet Luster would be quick to forgive and console him, showing that despite her potent dominion over his mind, she still deeply cares about him.) Even though I scrapped the above scene, I still enjoyed characterising Luster Dawn as a gentle but very pervasive dom all throughout this chapter; she loves Anon and doesn't want to hurt him, but she also desires to debase him, to bring him down to her level and *thoroughly* imprint herself on his subjugated psyche. Indeed, her goal during this chapter is to transform Anon's malleable mind into that of her agreeable alien husband—and then make a bunch of foals with him afterwards. (In the bedroom scene, I initially contemplated having where Luster would sniff out the scent of another mare in Anon's bed. The scent would be too diluted to make out who it was, but it would nonetheless cause Luster to act more aggressively. She would proudly declare her intent to stake her claim on her human here and now—while later planning to fuck him right in front of whoever this other mare was.) (However, I decided to scrap this aspect in favour of having Luster act more confident and caring towards Anon, as she would instead believe herself to be the first mare that he's been with. That being said, I did carry over the idea of one mare cuckqueaning another into Chapter 14—but it would be Flurry doing it to Luster, and not the other way around.) When all is about to be said and done, Anon is saved from his imminent collaring by divine intervention—also known as a sizzling off-screen spell spat out by Princess Flurry Heart. (In his delirium, Anon seems to mistake Flurry Heart for Jimmy Cart. How strange.) (Incidentally, the spell Flurry hits Luster with here is the "Love Cage" curse mentioned in Chapter 14. Indeed, Flurry must've really wanted her bestie to suffer with this one.) The reason Flurry was able to pull off this daring rescue is because she directly disobeyed her Master's command to stay put at her own castle—how is that possible? Well, as mentioned in her "buggier" character bio, Flurry's Queenly compulsions are incredibly assertive, and it is through following these assertive impulses that this Queen is able to supersede the collar's "diluted" control if she deems it necessary to protect her King. (It's worth noting that Cozy's domineering command in Chapter 32 is far more compulsory than Anon's, so these same principles can't be applied there.) (Also, jumping ahead a little more: once Anon becomes the "Primary Master" of the collars from Chapter 33 onwards, it becomes far more difficult for Flurry to disobey him at this point. However, thanks to the spiritual and emotional link that she's come to share with her Master, she now possesses the ability to directly interface with his decision-making process using her own heartfelt feelings. This makes it so that these two Soulmates are basically on the same page for eternity, and it's improbable that Anon will ever feel the need to issue Flurry an "absolute order" from here on out. Instead, it's far more likely that this Queen will instinctually comply and conform to her King's innermost desires, or that this King will implicitly understand and accept his Queen's honest viewpoint on the matter.) (Basically, Flurry is still under Anon's collared control, but she also has a lot more freedom at the same time.) I'm gonna go over what exactly happened during the final moments of this chapter. As a natural-born alicorn and a Princess of Love, Flurry Heart's feelings are *incredibly* potent. Even as a baby, her volatile mood was fully capable of messing with magical artefacts—after all, just look at how she shattered the Crystal Heart by wailing out loud in S6E01. And much like in S6E01, Flurry loses control of her emotions once she confirms the sorry state of her Master's mind in this chapter. This powerful outburst of affective alicorn sentiments violently reacts with the collar's sanguine magic and results in more than one phenomena occurring: >The first phenomenon is the exponential growth of Flurry's changeling corruption. The sudden explosion of protective love she feels towards her King has stimulated her Queenly instincts to fast-track her buggy metamorphosis into something beyond an elongated tongue. This isn't a complete transformation by any means, but her buzzing desire to safeguard her King has granted her the ability to cocoon him up within her wings; not only that, but it has also unlocked the usage of her love-reliant changeling magic so that she may personally tend to him with the best care possible. >The second phenomenon is the "awakening" of the collar itself. The boiling anger that Flurry feels towards Luster right now has served to stimulate the growth of an entirely different entity within that bileful blood. Anon feels this resonant rage nearly drown him in its emergent hate as it freely shares with him the boiling spite it feels towards the whole world, before eventually relenting so that he may recover from it all. Indeed, it is through an alicorn's unstable sensibilities that this magical malignance was given sapience to its surroundings—in other words, Phantom Cozy has just been born. In any case, this chapter draws to a close as Flurry acts on pure Queenly instinct and prepares to use her newfound power to "heal" her King. #### Chapter 13: the wing dimension (5k~ words) This chapter serves as an intimate interlude between the femdom-focused Chapter 12 and the maledom-focused Chapter 14; in it, Anon and Flurry are able to reconcile in a world that's only meant for them. Incidentally, this chapter is also the last chapter of Part 1. I think it's a good stopping point—though more so because I think Chapter 14 is a great start to Part 2 than anything else. At the beginning of this chapter, we are given the second and final flashback depicting Anon and Luster's past interactions within the Crystal Empire. This particular scene showcases their last interaction before Luster has to return to Canterlot so that she may finish her studies. There's a part of Luster that wants to ask Anon to come move in with her as her alien roommate—after all, she'd certainly appreciate the exotic company during those long nights she spends studying magic for her exams. Unfortunately for her, this asocial unicorn simply can't work up the courage to try and ask this displaced human to once again relocate to an unfamiliar place, and so the two unceremoniously part ways, leaving "Lusty Prawn" feeling both forlorn and loveless. Ugh, if only she was more confident… (I think this was a good spot to put this flashback. In the previous chapter, the reader bore witness to the base sight of Luster utterly degrading and mentally breaking Anon for her own selfish ends. So here, I wanted to give the reader some partial insight as to why this unicorn is acting the way that she is—and perhaps get (You) feeling a little more sympathetic to her unspoken sentiments.) Also, In regards to Anon's detached behaviour during that flashback: he wasn't *trying* to be a callous cunt towards Luster, but rather, the sudden displacement from his own world to this highly colourful land of talking pastel ponies had left him feeling very frazzled. The constant influx of new information regarding the laws of this realm made it difficult for him to properly commit any particular individual to memory. Even after having spent a few weeks living here, he's still adjusting. Alas, once he finally got settled in to the point where he could stop and smell the roses, Luster had already long left for Canterlot. And her unannounced absence from Anon's life ensured that she'd remain nothing more than an unremarkable footnote in his hazy memory—just another pastel pony among a sea of pastel ponies. However, this near-mindbreak experience was able to unravel some of these earlier memories buried deep inside Anon's psyche, revealing this flashback to his mind's eye—and causing the human himself to start seeing Luster in a softer light, despite what she just did to him. (The fact that Anon almost mentally refers to Luster as "Lusty" right after the flashback is an indicator that he viewed this memory too—it wasn't just a reader-exclusive scene.) The rest of this chapter takes place inside Flurry's "Wing Dimension." Naturally, this is actually a changeling cocoon that Flurry was able to form around both herself and her King. This has placed the two of them in an intimately vulnerable state of mutual recovery, thus allowing a Queen to personally tend to her King. Anon views this cocoon as a realm of endless pink feathers, yet his senses have been completely shrouded to the world beyond his Queen—in reality, this cocoon is actually pretty blue and slimy. Flurry herself isn't even fully aware of what it is she's doing; in her eyes, she operated purely on Queenly instinct and cocooned the two of them together without thinking about it. There is a small part of her that *is* curious as to where exactly these new powers are coming from—but a greater part of her is deeply afraid of the potentially buggy answers she might find, so she chooses to live in ignorant denial for now. Also, Flurry mentions casting a emotionally charged magical ward on Anon's mind during this chapter, which is something that would later save his mental bacon in Chapter 32. #### Chapter 14: the luster dominated (26k~ words) This is the largest chapter in the whole fic, though this wasn't always the case; fun fact, before I started proofreading and editing this one, it stood at "only" 20k~ words. I had quite a bit to add during the P&E process. Most notably, I fleshed out the cuckquean scene, the scene where Anon christens Luster as his sow, and I added in an additional restraint in the form of a tail dock ring. (Originally, I had left Luster's tail free to move about as it pleased, which I realised was no good.) The beginning of this chapter seemingly shifts perspectives to a third-person one that focuses on Flurry. However, we later learn that we're actually still seeing things from Anon's second-person perspective—he's just invisible at the moment. I had fun pulling that little narrative trick. This chapter's entire opening was built around the idea of this story slyly pretending to be something that it isn't—and then slapping the reader with some sharp whiplash when you realise that "Oh yeah, this is Pink Haze." (I have this funny mental image of someone choosing to start reading this story from the beginning of the second part for whatever reason, getting to the part where Anon reveals himself, and thinking "wtf"—though I doubt this will ever actually happen, lol.) Flurry's dominant nature throughout this chapter is due to her Queenly instincts taking centre stage in her highly vindictive psyche. Currently, her chittering impulses are still in a "larval state" and unable to function as a proper split personality, so they instead bolster this alicorn's confidence to assertively high levels. In this buggier state of mind, Flurry simply relishes the warm buzzy feeling of being her King's Queen while also cruelly enjoying the delightful catharsis that comes from punishing the treacherous unicorn she once considered to be her bestie. Also, believe it or not, I originally had an extra 10k~ word extension for this chapter that would've taken place immediately after where it currently ends. This was written back while I was still writing the story, so if I chose to leave it in, this version of Chapter would've turned out to be 30k~ words in total—a very chunky chapter. To give a (not-so-brief) summary of its events: >After biting down on Luster's neck and cumming inside of her pigwomb, Anon would lie down in bed next to Flurry as he recovers. Anon would reject her proposal, feeling that it's "not the time," instead wishing to exercise a sense of Kingly prudence before rushing headlong into things. Anon, however, would not be having any of this upstart impudence from his slave—Queen or not. Thus, he would sternly reprimand Flurry and tell her to stand down, which would make her meekly acquiesce to his absolute authority. Anon would accept Flurry's apology, bringing a smile back to her face. Mood quickly turning dour at her sow's insolence, Flurry would firmly press the frog of her hindhoof against Luster's forehead—and she'd then boot the piggish unicorn in the face, sending her flying across the bedspread and causing her to limply land upon the bed's edge. (Luster would still be alive; just, uh, unconscious.) Flurry would fire back by imploring her Master to remember what Luster did to him back in Chapter 12. After blinking on his words for a bit, Flurry would reluctantly agree with her King's judgement, temporarily pushing her vindictive misgivings to the side for the time being. Anon, indelicate dumbfuck that he is, would casually brush off Flurry's poetic pinings by simply stating that she's doing a great job thus far—and that she's his "good girl." (In his mind, he thinks that calling her by her favourite moniker would be more than enough to placate her.) Sensing her incensed passion, Anon would quickly submit to Flurry's oral onslaught, implicitly understanding this to be an unwinnable battle for him. He would then sputter out an earnest apology for his heedless words while also declaring this mare to be the victory of this smoochy bout. She would then forcefully push past his lips and utterly dominate him in another tongue-coiling French kiss, further driving home her Queenly discipline. After pulling away from her deep kiss, she would ardently whisper against his lips, vowing to forever support him as his eternally loyal Queen of Love. Flurry would silence his queries with another assertive smooch, before pulling back and assuring him that she will always devote her everything to him—and that this spell was but another way to bring them "even closer." Moving on, Flurry would walk over to Luster, harshly jab her into consciousness, and bring her back to Anon. Luster would take to her new lowly duties like a pig in…well, y'know—oinking with subservient glee as she delves deep into Mankind's darkest dungeon. Luster would soon locate Anon's p-spot, and she would take this discovery as a chance to happily tongue-punch her Master until he sees stars. Flurry would then harshly boot Luster across the bed once more. (This alicorn's continued cruelty towards her "bestie" would be a bit of a running gag during this sequence.) Anon would be ever quick to forgive his beloved Queen, already knowing that she only wished to spice things up in the bedroom and provide her King with even greater pleasures. (Also, the main reason that Flurry set this up this in the first place was to make Luster repent for her actions back in Chapter 1.) Once said canoodling finishes, Flurry would earnestly entreat her Master with a heartfelt request—claim her cutie mark just like he did Luster's. Flurry would say yes, sincerely stating that her royal birthright rightfully belongs in his human hands. … Flurry, for her part, would seem glum at first—but she would quickly cheer up after the fact, proudly proclaiming that she's Anon's Queen no matter what her mark says. The chapter would finally end at this point, effectively "fading to black" as Anon muses over the two pink mares that are now indubitably his. ` ` Admittedly, that *was* a pretty long summary—but hey, it was also 10k~ words, so this kind of length is to be expected, I think. I remember feeling pretty happy with how I wrote this extension at the time, but once I started writing Chapter 15, I soon realised that I had front-loaded *way* too much plot onto this sequence—to the point where it felt almost impossible to follow up on the magnitude of everything that happened back there. Basically, I had written myself into a corner. But you know the great thing about pre-writing a story all in one go? If you write yourself into a corner at any point, you can just go back and rewrite things, and your readers will be none the wiser. (…Unless you happen to be reading this Afterword, of course, then…um…hey there. Hope you're having a swell day while reading my self-indulgent musings.) Still, it does kinda sting when you have to scrap 10k words just like that, but it was for the greater good in the end. And it was all thanks to this decision that I was able to give the monumental act of enslaving Luster Dawn some much-needed room to breathe by itself. (That being said, the idea of Flurry binding her soul to Anon's *was* pretty hot, which why I chose to later dedicate a whole chapter to the concept.) #### Chapter 15: the flurry and luster double blowjob (5k~ words) This chapter was basically a way to temporarily write Flurry out of the story. I wanted to dedicate these new few chapters solely to building upon Anon and Luster's Master-slave relationship (or Boar-sow bond, as it would later turn out). My main intention here was to cement Luster are the more "reliable" mare of Anon's two slaves. Flurry is lovingly loyal, yes, but she's also emotionally erratic and magically volatile. After all, through her actions during these previous three chapters, we now know that she's fully capable of disobeying her Master's orders on a Queenly whim and exerting her own brand of dominance over him if she deems it a necessity. Luster, on the other hoof, has turned into a *far* more agreeable mare now that she's under Anon's direct dominion. Sure, she can be pretty jovial with her Master, but she knows how to follow a command and stick with it. She's also far less pushy when it comes to conquering the Empire, for she's more than content enough to simply be with Anon. Ultimately, it was my hope that I could gradually turn the reader around on this lovably chubby mare and have them consider her to be a welcome part of Anon's growing herd by the end of this chapter sequence. As will be later stated by Deena in Chapter 17, at least some of the royal dignitaries visiting the Crystal Castle today are yaks from the neighbouring kingdom of Yakyakistan. (Coincidentally, Flurry will make her general distaste for yaks known to Anon once she returns in Chapter 18.) (Also, while we're looking over Flurry's poetic pinings towards Anon, I think this is as good a time as any to address how flowery the dialogue can feel at times. In my head, the reason why Anon and Flurry both have a tendency to dip into overly eloquent speech is because they each love the "role" of playing King and Queen—it makes the two of them feel grandiose and important.) (…That being said, I must admit—a good chunk of the reason they speak so pompously is because I have a pretty bad habit of letting this excessively verbose narration "leak" into the character-to-character dialogue. So yeah, if the wordplay felt like a bit much at times, sorry about that, lol.) After the oinkstravaganza that was Chapter 14, Luster (mostly) begins speaking normally from this point onwards. (The "oinking" shtick was fun and all, but since Luster is one of the main heroines of this harem story, then she needs to be able to express her thoughts and feelings in a suitably wordy manner—sorry folks, #Oinkgate has now been put into place.) When Luster excitedly lists off three prospective punishments that Anon could inflict upon her for her swinish impudence, the first stuttered letter from each of her lines spells out SUB—kudos to you if you caught that. Luster is really fond of being bridal carried. This is, after all, the signature carrying pose depicted upon the cover of her favourite book: "Kissing the Cosmos." So the fact that Anon does it by choice near the end of this chapter means a lot to her. #### Chapter 16: the luster bath (5k~ words) This is a comfy bath chapter with comfy bath sex. Luster enters this chapter feeling very unconfident about herself, so it's up to her Master to softly pamper and tenderly breed her until she feels like a loud and proud hog again. This is also where Luster passionately proclaims Anon to be her "boar." The reason why this title is uncapitalised during this particular chapter is becase it was uttered out in the heat of the moment, and Anon had yet to "officiate" the title within his mind. By the time Chapter 17 rolls around, though, Anon will already heartily embrace his role as Luster's Boar, causing him to view this term not with lackadaisical lowercase—but with confident capitalisation. (I really enjoyed writing this concept of "mutual debasement" between pigs. When Anon was reduced to Luster's mind-controlled thrall, it was meant to be utterly humiliating for the human. But when man and mare both submit to their base instincts at the exact same time—becoming nothing more than snorting, grunting pigs—there's a certain…romance to it, you know? Despite this animalistic depravity, these two individuals trust each other enough to cast aside everything that they are and snuggle up to one another as simple-minded porcine mates.) (With all that in mind, I figured this beastly fantasy to be one well worth exploring. Once I had Anon denominate Luster as his fat sow back in Chapter 14, writing the rest of this hog-on-hog relationship just came naturally to me.) #### Chapter 17: the luster teats (4k~ words) This chapter is a milkier one. I love fat crotchboobs. Incidentally, the "Milky Mare of the Magazine" happens to be a certain well-endowed OC named Milky Way—also known as the bane of janitors everywhere. I thought it'd be fun to give this OC a brief cameo within the fic. (Also, while we're here, I'll take this chance to expound upon why Anon isn't constantly being distracted by the sagging sight of Luster's fat milkers swaying from side to side whenever she walks.) (Simply put, I like to imagine Equestria in my stories as a world that functions on cartoon logic, and part of this logic dictates that an individual's naughty parts will naturally censor themselves if the current situation lacks any sexual energy—basically, if neither Anon nor Luster are in the mood at the moment, then Luster's horsepussy and crotchboobs will appear both featureless and flat to his eyes.) (However, since Anon himself is technically an "outsider" to this realm, its censoring effects do not properly apply to him, so he still has to wear clothes to cover up his dangly bits.) (I contemplated bringing up this universal quirk within the chapter itself, but I got the feeling that going into detail on such mundane minutiae would've taken away from the fat heft of Luster's milkers. Plus, I'm sure that the reader has their own way of rationalising things when it comes to situations like this. I'm just offering my personal perspective.) Deena makes her named appearance in this chapter. Much like how Violet Gleam was meant to mirror Flurry's bipolar nature, and how Smooth Claws was meant to exemplify Anon's inferiority complex—Deena is meant to remind the reader of Luster's boisterous confidence. And to drive this resemblance even further, Deena *also* happens to be best friends with a princess; sure, this "Princess Esmeralda" might be a "yak" princess—but she's royalty nonetheless. Deena is also sharper than her barbaric appearance might first suggest, for she already saw that Anon was sucking on a fat unicorn teat from the moment she entered his reception. She just thought it'd be fun to mess with him a little. At the end of this chapter, Anon solemnly bids farewell to the "Mare in the Magazine." This is, after all, the last time we'll see that Playcolt magazine in the story of Pink Haze, so I thought it only right that Anon pay it the proper respects. (Indeed, there will be no more saucy pictures of an adult Sweetie Belle from this point onwards. But…perhaps the real deal could make an appearance in a potential sequel?) #### Chapter 18: the luster jill-off (5k~ words) This is a pretty gross chapter with an emphasis on mushy foodplay—and that's by design, as it is fully meant to capture the stinky snowpity of a disgustingly slobby mare. It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed writing it, for it showcases yet another instance of Anon willingly "sinking into the muck" with his beloved sow. …Oh yeah, "beloved" sow. It's only been about a day, but Anon and Luster have warmed up to each other really quickly, haven't they? This is because Anon already feels a pre-existing sense of responsibility to cherish the mare who held a candle for him for so long. And indeed, Anon's sense of responsibility would only further deepen once Luster expounds upon her self-hypnosis in this chapter. However, that's not the only reason that these pigs have gotten so snuggly with each other, for you can also chalk this mutual intimacy up to their shared destiny now giving them a natural affinity to one another. Thus, their bodies naturally seek each other out, while their minds implicitly seek to be on the same page as a mated pair. For Luster Dawn, establishing this unbreakable bond with her human Boar has been the best possible outcome for her, so you'll hear no complaints from her. The strawberry-flavoured milk that Anon is using for his cereal is, of course, directly sourced from Luster's fat teats. You can thank her magically induced lactation from the previous chapter for that. (Fun fact, I actually *did* forget about the cereal bowl when I first wrote this, so I ended up adding a small interaction where Luster uses her magic to put it on the nightstand for Anon, much to his appreciation.) #### Chapter 19: the herd drama (5k~ words) This chapter sets up the upcoming "Dream Arc." It also goes into how herds work in the world of Pink Haze, which is a topic I very much enjoyed delving into. Truthfully, Flurry is wilfully obfuscating the finer details of what her "heart spell" actually entails. This is partially because she doesn't have the full picture on what she's doing—she's merely following her heart and hoping for the best. But it's also because she's trying her best to convince her Master to willingly step into her magical realm; that way, he'll be perfectly primed for her soul-bonding ritual in Chapter 26. (So, she's not exactly lying, and she's not being vague out of any malicious intent. She's only doing this because she sees it as the right thing to do for both herself and her Master.) (Also, the reason she still doesn't have the full picture on her own "love magic" is because she'd rather remain in blissful ignorance in regards to its buggy origins. For now, she's happy enough simply seeing it as a blessing granted to her by the Crystal Heart itself.) On a narrative level, I wanted the reader to come to their own conclusions on how the dream world operates. Since we're here, though, let's go over some footnotes of how it *actually* works: >Flurry will envelop herself, Anon, and Luster all into the same slimy changeling cocoon, making the three of them "participants" in the same magical dream. The cocoon's goopy medium will render all three participants highly permeable to each other's influence, allowing their bodies to synchronise and their hearts to bond together under the right conditions. However, this permeability also carries numerous potential risks with it, as there is an ever-present possibility that the dream's participants could bond *too* intimately with each other, which could result in, among other things—permanent disfigurement, lack of solidity, and a mental singularity (all of which briefly happens "off-screen" in Chapter 28—before Phantom Cozy swiftly sets about fixing things). Because of the permeability provided by this magical cocoon, the collar's influence will temporarily exit the minds of Flurry and Luster. In doing so, it will coalesce into its own distinct entity—Phantom Cozy. This entity is effectively a omnipotent god within this dream world, meaning that she's capable of doing anything she damn-well pleases to its participants. That being said, her true motivations also happen to be a total enigma, as she strangely seems more than content enough to simply watch events play out without her direct interference—only stepping in if she deems it absolutely necessary. ` ` We're about to move into the 100k~ word "Dream Arc" now, and I'll be honest—I did *not* expect for it to go on as long as it did. Still, I've got no regrets in having seen this arc through to this conclusion. As a writer, I've always loved exploring alternate possibilities for the characters I write about, and Flurry's magical dream gave me the perfect opportunity to do so while also keeping everything "canon" to the story itself. After all, even though the events that take place here don't occur in the "real world"—Anon, Flurry, and Luster still all remember these lived experiences as their own. Thus, everything that they go through in this place ultimately serves to heighten their understanding of one another while bringing the three of them closer than ever before. Plus, it gave me the chance to write a bunch of kinky butt fun, so I consider that to be an absolute win. #### Chapter 20: the luster dream (21k~ words) This dreamy chapter depicts an alternate scenario where Luster would've been the one to become Anon's first slave instead of Flurry. …First thing's first, though, you may have noticed the disclaimer that I put at the top of this chapter within the story itself. I put it there because…well, I might've gotten a little "lost in the sauce" while writing this one. I know I tagged this whole thing as a fetish story, but between the cheesy horn smegma and the wanton worship of a mare's stinky unwashed ponut, I figured that it'd be fair to give any of this fic's more squeamish readers a healthy heads up before proceeding onwards with this debauched tale. Anyway, going back to my footnotes from earlier, this chapter has essentially rewound the clock so as to take place during the same time as Pink Haze's Chapter 3; however, there are a few key differences this time around. >Both Anon and Luster have had their memories of Chapters 3-19 temporarily sealed away so that they may play out their "assigned roles," meaning that they no longer treat each other as Master and sow (for now). Luster herself still feels very bitter towards Anon; thus, she initially comes into his parlour with full intent to harass and brainwash him into her submissive humie hubby. Once he starts being really nice to her by treating her like his personal VIP, though, she begins to have second thoughts on the matter, and this version of Luster starts to believe—to hope—that there could be another way the two may reconcile. In Chapter 12, Anon starts out by standing on the right side of the massage table, and by the end of this massage, he will have been made into Luster's mentally malleable toy; at this point, she can do absolutely anything she likes to him, and he'll accept it all like the good humie that he is. Luster's wavering resolve in regards to mindbreaking Anon made her spell weaker. Anon directly swallowing the spell instead of letting it disseminate into the air made its effects weaker. Flurry's mental ward is still protecting Anon's mind even in the dream realm, making Luster's spell weaker. The first time they turn pink is after Anon steals her first kiss. The third and final time they turn pink is once Anon confesses to her that he remembers her as the kind and wonderful mare who helped him get settled into Equestria. Despite the fact that he's also trying to mentally enslave her during that third and final time, Anon's earnest praise and proclamation of love towards Luster is basically an instant KO to her defiant will. At that moment, she emotionally submits to him, which ends up making her a lot more willing to listen to his words and accept his Boarish dominion over her swinish mind. (It's true that Luster loved Anon deeply even before the events of this chapter; however, there was also an unspoken tension that existed between the two as a result of their unresolved past. By the end of this chapter, though, her heart will finally "heal"—and she'll wholly become his mare with no more regrets or lingering resentment.) Also, since we're on the topic of eyes, it only makes sense to address Luster's pink irises as well, for this phenomena is linked specifically to the pink-crystalled collar's magic; it temporarily blinds her, placing her in an incredibly vulnerable state of mind where she needs Anon to verbally confirm that he's still with her. I won't go into too much detail on how the pink irises work (because honestly, it's dream magic fuckery that exists only to this particular chapter) just know that the pink iris phenomenon is different to the pink pupil phenomenon. (I mainly wrote it in because I liked the idea of holding a blind mare's hoof and reassuring her that (You) are still there for her.) In the bedroom, there's a short interaction between man and mare right after Luster's pupils turn pink for the second time. Anon takes a moment to ponder the pink for a moment, before Luster impatiently prods him on the "happily ever after" he's been tantalising her with. Not wishing to disappoint his VIP client, Anon acquiesces to her desires; before that, though, he takes the time to examine her face, noting her natural mareish cuteness. And when he lays eyes upon her soft lips, an intimate impulse suddenly takes hold of him, compelling him to swiftly steal a smooch from his mare. Luster is surprisingly quick to receive her humie's precipitous affection, puckering up just in time to reciprocate his kiss. When Anon pulls away from this brief burst of amorous affinity, he leaves his client feeling warm and fuzzy inside. And as a result of said good feelings, she girlishly giggles to herself while happily swishing her tail about behind her. (This little impromptu smooch is something that sticks with me every time I reread this scene. In fact, I'm confident in saying that this is my favourite interaction throughout the whole chapter. After all, despite their murky past, Anon and Luster have now comfortably reached the point where they can freely joke around with each other and share a casual smooch together with zero fanfare.) (The other thing I really like about this interaction is how "at ease" Luster has become around Anon, to the point where she sees no shame in revealing the unexpectedly innocent and girly side of herself that she normally has tucked away underneath her brash exterior. Indeed, these two lovebirds may as well be husband and marewife at this point. And it is getting to be pretty clear that neither of them ever needed to mind control the other; all they really needed to do was find common ground in the same comfy bed, get snuggly with one another—and start making plans on how to raise a great big family together.) (…Yeah, that was a big-ass tangent, but I'm not sorry in the slightest. Writing this fic has definitely awakened a few things within me—one of which being the honest desire to pamper a mean bully mare and turn her into a happily giggling marewife. I might have to re-explore this concept in another fic one day—it's really good.) Personally, I think the beginning and middle parts of this chapter are great. However, I must admit that the final parts of this chapter (where Anon suddenly turns the tables on Luster and decides to collar her once and for all) are a bit weirdly paced. We go from indulgent ass worship, to brutal anal rape; from Anon being a maledom extraordinaire who asserts dominance over ponuts everywhere, to Anon genuinely being concerned over his soon-to-be slave's feelings; and from Luster fiercely resisting Anon's dominion, to Luster wilfully repeating Anon's Masterly moniker to herself over and over so that she can make sure his dominion sticks in her mind. Indeed, the last section of this chapter is just as much of a mess as that last sentence was. I still think there's some good bits in there—but I also can't deny that the pacing is totally whack and the dialogue is kinda funky. The main reason I wrote the end of the chapter this way was because I wanted to include an anal rape scene where Anon furiously goes to town on Luster's ponut. To me, it felt like the entire chapter was gradually leading up to that moment. Sure, Anon could've simply accepted his new life as Luster's humie hubby—or, hell, he probably could've even amiably convinced her to willingly wear the mind-control collar right after the ponut worship scene, but I felt like I'd be "betraying" the spirit of this chapter if I tried to take it in any direction other than surprise butt sex. So I made the executive decision to include said surprise butt sex. Anyway, despite its weird pacing, I'm ultimately happy with how things panned out. This whole chapter takes place in a dream world, after all, so I'm not gonna get too anal about what happens here. #### Chapter 21: the luster dream after (8k~ words) This one's a comfily lewd chapter that takes a sudden uncomfy turn near the end. Incidentally, this is also the final chapter of Part 2's ponepaste, which I think is a great stopping point, as it introduced Luster into Anon's herd, gave her plenty of fetish-filled time to shine, and pushes her back to the sidelines just in time for Flurry to once again take centre stage for the upcoming chapters. At the very beginning of this chapter, Anon mentions that he's now on "day eight" of living with Luster Dawn, meaning that the events of this chapter technically run parallel to Chapter 11 of the "canon timeline." (Chapter 11 is the one where Flurry gives Anon breakfast in bed, just in case you forgot.) While the timelines have now diverged to the point where Anon's dream-world interactions with Luster greatly differ from his real-world interactions with Flurry, there's a certain winged invader who just so *loves* to stay punctual—no matter the reality that she's in… The main theme of this chapter is "lazily assertive slaves." Now that Anon has successfully "enslaved" Luster Dawn, she's made herself right at home in his home. And even though she's supposed to be subservient to him (and she is, most of the time) she now enjoys a lavish lifestyle where her Boar personally pampers her every day. This was a really fun power dynamic to write about: on one end, we have a slave who would rather stay in bed all day, snuggled up to her Master—and on the other end, we have a Master who can't help but prioritise all of his slave's whims and wants while humouring her "mandatory morning rituals." Make no mistake, Anon may be the Master in this relationship, but Luster is the one who wears the pants in this pigsty of a household (and sniffs them, too). During Anon and Luster's third morning ritual, he calls his attention-seeking sow "insatiable," which prompts her to lightly chide him for his past choices by playfully informing him that collaring a pig of a mare like her has consequences. And indeed, it is because of these very consequences that Anon's days now centre around his sow's natural needs. She has assumed complete control of his life. He, on the other hand, has failed to truly tame this hog—and thus got hogtied in swinish matrimony instead. In some ways, you could consider this scenario to be a "Bad End" for Anon. Personally, though, I'd consider it more of a "Lazy End," as Anon isn't being brainwashed in any way; he just feels a strong instinctual obligation to care for his beloved sow at all times—and seeing her happy makes him happy. Still, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Luster has effectively tamed her Boar at this point. And because neither Anon nor Luster have anypony to rein in their carnal vices, their ultimate fate in this timeline is to spend the rest of their life fucking, eating, and sleeping. That being said, these two mated pigs truly *do* love each other—and they'll also make sure to share that love with each and every piglet they bring into this world as a result of their frequent breeding sessions. (Of course, since this is just a dream, such a scenario would never come to pass. Still, it's a lot of fun to fantasise about nonetheless.) Anyway, as Anon is about to cum in his sow, he suddenly sits upright, embraces Luster in a full-body hug, and plants his lips against hers—surprising her yet also soothing her at the same time. The warm fuzzy familiarity of this intimately linked lotus position is enough to make one of Luster's sealed memories steadily resurface, as it causes her to remember the very same lotus position that she and Anon held at the end of Chapter 19 while Flurry enveloped all three of them within her wings. And it is from this single memory that a mental chain reaction occurs, forcing the rest of Luster's sealed memories to unseal themselves all at once and furiously flood into her brain. This swift recollection of past events grants her full knowledge of her true goal—yet also hits her with a pretty nasty migraine. Anon—who is still oblivious to his own true memories—is quick to check up on his sow and make sure she's alright. Luster responds that she's "good," but when her eyes fall upon the Boar of a man that she'll happily dedicate her everything to, she instantly realises what she has to do. With a husky whisper, Luster asks Anon to share some breath with her, as she admits that doing so always helps clear her head. (Anon would later use this knowledge to help calm Luster down during Chapter 28) As this scene progresses, Luster totally synchronises her pony heart rate with Anon's human one as these two pigs share in a deeply intimate heart-to-heart together. So, the million-bit question here is—would Luster have succeeded in bonding her heart to Anon's if she wasn't interrupted by Phantom Cozy? My answer is: yes—and she wouldn't have even needed a forbidden ritual to do it, either. Here me out; Luster's claimed cutie mark ensures that these two pigs share the same destiny, and it is because of this shared destiny that their bodies now recognise each other as ideal mates—hearts included. The dreamy cocoon that Flurry has placed Anon and Luster in has provided them with the perfect environment to marry their hearts together. And when you combine this perfect environment with the natural affinity that these two mated pigs possess towards each other—it's all but guaranteed that they'll become soulbonded if left to their own devices. You may recall the confidence that Flurry exuded just before she placed Anon and Luster in her cocoon. Indeed, Flurry Heart fully expected to secure Anon's heart by the end of this dreamy encounter, and she saw Luster Dawn as nothing than common rabble that Anon would quickly cast aside in favour of his Queen. However, it's important to note that Flurry also is a deluded yandere of a mare; she completely underestimated her bestie—and if it wasn't for the surprise intervention of her *other* bestie, than Flurry would've come out of this thing a total loser. Oh, and Luster would've *absolutely* made sure to rub her victory in Flurry's face. In fact, she almost certainly would've used her newly earned position as the herd's Alpha Mare to turn Flurry into a lesser pig. I can see Luster thoroughly stamping out every last bit of alicorn pride Flurry has, making her nothing more than a meekly oinking sow who lives to serve the *true* hogs of the herd. And to top it all off—this surprisingly sadistic unicorn would probably embed a degrading nose ring through the submissive alicorn's septum, too. There's a lot of dark fetishy potential in this alternate outcome. And I must admit, it is a fun scenario to fantasise about from time to time. Although, if one were to take this route and acquire a more hoglike harem, there would still be Cozy's gambit in Chapters 31-32 to worry about, so Anon and Luster would have to deal with her appropriately. On the other hand, if the events of Pink Haze were allowed to play out as they normally would, then it is still quite possible that Luster Dawn could usurp the position of Alpha Mare later down the line. And in that case, she would very likely assert her own brand of swinish dominance upon Anon's herd. She'd turn Flurry *and* Cozy into lesser pigs, making sure that they both understood their new position underneath their Alpha Sow. And once Luster manages to achieve immortal alicornhood and becomes Anon's loyal Queen of Swine, she'd go on to subjugate and debase all of Equestria in her beloved Boar's name. Again, it's a super hot scenario to think about. If you think of Flurry Heart as this story's "Vanilla/Hive Queen Route," then Luster Dawn becoming Anon's Alpha Mare would be this story's "Depraved Fetish Route." Cozy Glow, on the other hand, would likely lead Anon down a path of even darker villainy if she became the herd's Alpha Mare—a "True Evil Route," perhaps? (This was a pretty long tangent, but I felt it was one worth going on.) Unfortunately for Luster, her tender heart-to-heart with her Boar is cut short by a sudden appearance from Phantom Cozy—who then promptly begins to do and say Cozy things. (And yes, Phantom Cozy *did* enter through the alarm clock that had been ominously looming over the narrative.) At some point, Luster loses her temper and impulsively releases a shockwave spell, thus accidentally splattering Anon against the wall. She swiftly realises the dire magnitude of her mistake after the fact—but it's too late; the damage has already been done. A faint pink aura paralyses Luster in this moment. Pink magic in this fic tends to represent Anon himself, and indeed, the pink aura currently surrounding Luster's body is actually a result of Anon's heart instinctually rejecting her for what she just did. Once Luster is removed from the scene, Phantom Cozy daintily touches down in front of Anon, and—after teasing him a little bit—she wings him a pink envelope and tells him that Flurry is "expecting him." (Incidentally, the contents of this envelope appear to "bulge out" the pink paper, indicating that something substantial should be in there. However, when Anon opens the envelope in Chapter 22, it only contains a single pink feather. Phantom Cozy happens to possess the distinct ability to manipulate the dream realm however she so pleases, so it's entirely possible that this envelope did indeed have a collar inside of it at first, only for Cozy to later remove it as a way to fuck with Anon, the reader—and me too, apparently.) After that, Cozy leaves Anon to his morbid fate, giving the human some time to reflect as he melts down into a warm feathery abyss. (What's essentially happening here is that Anon's heart is reconstituting itself while a feathery force steadily transports him into a dream realm made for him and Flurry.) Overall, I greatly enjoyed writing the muddied power dynamics during this chapter. The setup of a slave lazily asserting control over her Master is just ridiculously hot to think about. Incidentally, because of how easily Luster Dawn was able to dominate Anon's life and make it all about her, this chapter has made it crystal clear that Anon desperately needs a slave like Flurry Heart to keep that chubby sow in line. Flurry is far from the most responsible slave, certainly, but her rivalry with her herdmate works wonders in motivating Luster to strive for better and greater things beyond simply trying to keep her Boar in bed all day. It turns out that Anon was quite fortunate to have made Flurry his first slave in the "canon timeline." This alicorn might be an overeager one, but she was loyal to a tee. And while she served as his sole slave, she was more than willing to let her Master steer the course of both their lives. Of course, once Flurry's Queenly instincts start to kick in, she becomes a bit more of a handful to deal with—but even then, if it's just her and her King, she's still perfectly fine with him taking full charge. It's only when she feels like her love is being challenged (i.e. if another mare is competing for her King's attention) does this Queen begin behaving erratically. Basically: Anon + Flurry = Easy mode. A highly obedient slave that's eager to serve—perfect for any novice Master. Anon + Luster = Dante Must Die mode. Will most likely turn (You) into her Boar that lives solely for her needs. Anon + Flurry + Luster = Extremely hectic combination with plenty of herd drama, but surprisingly workable, as these two mares kinda keep each other in check if (You) manage them properly. Anon + Flurry + Luster + Cozy = And they all lived happily ever after. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but Cozy essentially becomes the herd's tard wrangler, as she'll help keep the whole herd in check and focused on the important tasks ahead—such as conquering the rest of Equestria. #### Chapter 22: the flurry dream (18k~ words) This chapter depicts an alternate scenario where an indentured alien finds himself serving a bratty princess. Much like how Chapter 20 depicted an alternate timeline where Luster became Anon's first slave instead of Flurry, Chapter 22 depicts an alternate timeline where Anon was unable to collar Flurry when she visited him in Chapter 3—and thus, she was free to follow through with her initial plans for the human and turn him into her personal manservant. Also like Chapter 20, Anon and Flurry's memories were sealed away so that they could play out their assigned roles. In Anon's case, this means that his experiences in Chapters 20 and 21 were sealed away with the rest of his memories, and in their place, he only has a vague recollection of Cozy hoofing him a pink envelope instead of a collar during this timeline's version of Chapter 2. The current state of this dream realm was solely given shape by Flurry's overpoweringly heartfelt desire to make Anon belong to her. She still loves being his slave in the real world, of course. But here, the combination of her extremely possessive nature and powerful alicorn emotions has caused quite the reversal of roles to occur. When Flurry enters Anon's parlour at the beginning, eagle-eyed readers may notice that her dress code (or the lack thereof) differs between this chapter and the one it runs parallel to. >In Chapter 3, Flurry enters Anon's parlour as a bare mare, hinting at how unexpectedly comfortable she would be in revealing her vulnerable side around her soon-to-be Master. "One day, I'm going to beat you at kissing." >You blink, momentarily dumbfounded. "Whoa now, kissing isn't a competi—" >"I'm going to destroy you." >You promptly shut up. >"I'm going to utterly defeat you at your own game," she continues. "And when that finally happens, that's when I'll…" ``` She trails off here, but she would've ended her statement with something along the lines of: "That's when I'll claim you as my prince." In this royal brat's eyes, if she utterly dominates her pleb's mouth, if she leaves him haplessly addicted to her plush lips and dextrous tongue, if she succeeds in totally *ruining* her human for any other mare, then he'll have no choice but to stay with her and become her prince—and he'll be hers forever. …That's her rationale, anyway. The mind of a mare like her is riddled with possessive desires and needy impulses. She loves her pleb—but she also needs him to need her. This instinctual bond she's formed with her human is actually a one-sided one, and she knows it, so she yearns to place him in a position where the act of ever leaving her would be simply unthinkable for him. Incidentally, you can consider this scene to be foreshadowing for the throat-swabbing Flurry will put him through in Chapter 26. The rest of this chapter is fairly self-explanatory, I feel, for it depicts the intimate awkwardness between an aloof human pleb and his needily demanding princess. She bosses him around a lot and demands his attention at all times, but it's clear she deeply cares for him and wants him to feel as comfortable around her as she does around him. Once Anon penetrates Flurry's hymen, though, he effectively "breaks the seal" on this mare, causing her to regard him with an even more earnest fondness. Her alicorn body also instantly synchronises with his human loins, instinctually recognising her beloved pleb to be the future father of her foals. (Another one of the reasons I wrote this chapter was to give Anon and Flurry a more romantic "first time." I thought they deserved it.) Her mareish brain surges with a warm confidence during this moment—prompting her to suddenly straddle her pleb and pepper his lips with plush pecks. All the while, she snortily whinnies against his face, demanding to be "tamed" by her bonded human. Anon answers her animalistic call for intimacy by continually caressing her upper back, thus soothing her snorty impulses into whickering contentment. She takes this heated opportunity to huskily growl that he's "hers"—which is a fact that Anon could never bring himself to deny. Once their steamy session draws to a close, Anon and Flurry take several breathy moments to enjoy this afterglow as man and mare. Flurry still lies atop Anon's bare body, genitals still intimately connected, but she takes the chance to rest her head right next to his on the pillow, angling her face so that she can lovingly gaze at him while she silently ponders their future together. As for Anon, his eyes are currently directed up towards the baldachin, while his sense of smell is wholly inundated by the sexual stink of a satisfied mare. He's done good. But he's hesitant to think about what happens next now that he's finished fucking his princess raw. Man and mare clearly love each other, yet neither of them can bring themselves to say the magic words for fear of how it might affect their relationship. They've both comfortably settled into this paradigm of princess and servant; to upend it now would invite uncertainty in and around their life. Thus, Anon and Flurry each hold their tongue for the time being, content enough to enjoy the undeniably intimate bond they share in the current moment. Flurry may not have made Anon her prince this night, but what they've done together simply cannot be undone. He's made her his mare, and she has zero intention of letting him get away from this scott-free. And so she utilises her absolute authority as his royal mistress to proudly declare that she's gonna be fucking him from now on. (Or rather, "practising.") Anon quickly agrees to her decree with no complaints, being fully ready to take responsibility for his mare. His unconditional acceptance is something that fills Flurry with deep relief; even though she bosses her bonded human around a lot, she instinctually yearns for his honest approval on every one of her decisions—for this is the much-coveted approval of her beloved future husband. With the two of them now unofficially a lovey-dovey couple, Anon and Flurry both relocate to the other, cleaner side of the bed and get snuggly with each other. They also exchange friendly small talk with one another, the topic of which making it extra clear that Flurry holds her pleb in much higher esteem compared to everypony else. The chapter draws to a close as man and mare drift off to sleep together. Once Flurry thinks Anon is fast asleep, she takes the time to tell her human what she *truly* thinks of him: ``` >"Good night, Anon." >*Mwah* >"I love you~" ``` And with those magic words, this chapter finally ends. Overall, I really liked this one! Although you could probably tell with how in-depth I went on it during this retrospective, lol. Admittedly, this probably isn't the kind of scenario you'd think of when reading a mind-control harem story, but sappy man-on-mare romance like this is a personal favourite of mine, so I couldn't help myself. Incidentally, having this chapter be placed right at the beginning of Part 3 was a tactical decision on my part. That way, if any readers out there were interested in a romantic oneshot where a human manservant lovingly takes the first time of his royal pony mistress, they could just read this decently sized 18k~ word chapter and then move on with their day. I intentionally made this chapter feel as "standalone" as possible for that specific purpose, and it's also partially the reason why I made Part 4 unlisted, as it serves to give Part 3 a bit more visibility (by making it the seemingly "last part") for any vanilla Anon X Flurry Heart enjoyers out there. That being said, if I were to continue this standalone scenario and turn it into a full-fledged story. I would most likely proceed with these thoughts in mind: >Even though they aren't an official couple, Anon and Flurry's relationship would obviously become a lot more intimate from that point forward. Flurry would command her pleb to "practise" making babies with her every night before bed; needless to say—there'd be plenty of nuzzles, cuddles, and kisses involved all throughout this lovey-dovey practise. Flurry would begin referring to Anon by his real name more often. She'd still keep calling him a pleb, of course—because he's *her* pleb—but she'd also utter his name as a sign of growing respect towards her human; plus, it'd be good practise for when she'll have to start calling him "Prince Anon" in the future. The left corridor ends in a stairwell that heads down, representing Luster Dawn. Her route is one of descension, as she seeks to turn Anon into an oinking Boar so that she may roll around in the muck with him as his mated sow. (Such a path may have lead him back to Flurry's bedchamber, where a bound, barely visible Luster awaits.) The middle corridor "seemingly" leads to a complete dead end, representing Cozy Glow (specifically, Phantom Cozy, as it is her "existence" that is resonating with everyone else's hearts). Her route is one of total ambiguity, as even though her corridor appears to mark the absolute terminus to one's journey, there's something strangely enticing about this path all the same. In fact, who's to say that this hall *truly* leads to a dead end? Perhaps (You) are simply being misguided by your own negative preconceptions, and if (You) actually decide to fully follow through with this route in spite of its unfavourable connotations—then (You) may find yourself rewarded by the strongest, most loyal Partner of all. (Of course, (You) may also find yourself walking face-first into solid crystal wall—but hey, what's a rewarding route without a little risk, am I right?) In any case, Anon finds himself drawn to the middle corridor of the three (good man), for he can see a door that emits curious scarlet light out from its gaps. (The door is on the right side of the corridor, which is also intentional, as it's more "Flurry-sided" while still being on the "Cozy route.") Upon examining this door close up, he notes that its top panel is engraved with the wooden carving of a tight bundle of thorny brambles. (Naturally, this carving represents the hedge maze he is about to be transported into.) He then opens the door and is consumed by the scarlet light. From here, Anon finds himself in a mysterious maze with towering hedge walls and extremely tight passageways. (The world is no longer tinted blue here, indicating that he has moved out of Flurry's dream domain and is now in Phantom Cozy's realm.) (I was tempted to have the night sky be coloured an ominous crimson here, as it would reflect the red sky that Cozy pulled Luster into Chapter 22. However, I decided to make this sky simply "cloudy," instead, as I felt that a skyline of darkly opaque clouds would better suit the spookily foggy mystery of a mysterious hedge haze.) After a bit of maze wandering, Anon eventually finds his way to a clearing. He decides to use this open space as a place where he can both catch his breath and clear his head. Incidentally, there happen to be plenty of flower patches within this clearing. Anon can see scarlet roses, light-blue hydrangeas, and amber gladioli. These flowers are associated with the three main heroines of this story. The flowers correspond with their eye colour—so roses = Cozy Glow, hydrangeas = Flurry Heart, and gladioli = Luster Dawn. There are also plenty of stone statues within this clearing, too. And of these imposing monuments, there is a particularly villainous statue that manages to catch Anon's discerning eye. prompting him to walk up it so that he may examine it more closely. This statue depicts Tirek and Chrysalis in their final moments right before being turned to stone in S9E25. Anon, being an outsider to this world who has also had his memories magically sealed away, doesn't recognise them at all, and so he assumes that their impressively lifelike expressions of fear and anger are simply the masterworks of an expert sculptor. (There's definitely some dramatic irony to be found in how much of an uninformed doofus Anon is—but to be fair, it's not his fault in this specific case.) These two stony figures bear flower crowns upon their heads. Tirek wears a headdress of amber gladioli (representing Luster), while Chrysalis wears a headdress of light-blue hydrangeas (representing Flurry). The lively colours of these flower crowns indicate that somepony had recently placed those them there. (Obviously, it was Phantom Cozy who adorned her former friends' heads with decorative blooms. There's a lot to potentially infer from her actions here—tender sentiments, villainous inheritance, and what not—but more conclusively, this gives us the first direct association between Flurry Heart and Queen Chrysalis, thus shining a limelight on some of our Crown Princess's more "buggier" attributes.) (Oh yeah, and Luster is linked to Tirek here, too—though she won't start bearing any real resemblance to the bullish centaur himself until her nose-ringed reappearance in Chapter 28 and her magic-stealing desires in Chapter 30.) (All in all, this flowery vista serves as both foreshadowing and subtle foreshadowing to the real Cozy's reveal that she put "something" in Flurry and Luster's collars in Chapter 32.) One final thing to note here is that Chrysalis's statue is cracked in multiple places, contrasting the Tirek statue's relative smoothness; this is meant to indicate that Flurry's corruption has progressed further than Luster's—and that the Queen inside this alicorn is just *yearning* to awaken. At this point, Anon's ears catch on to the sound of Phantom Cozy humming the song "Better Way to Be Bad" from S9E08. Her voice is coming from behind the statue, so Anon strafes around the stone pedestal and soon confronts the…filly? (Phantom Cozy was a full-grown mare in Chapter 21, but from this point onwards, she's a cute little filly that perfectly resembles her counterpart from the show. The reason that Cozy has shrunk in this dream is linked to Flurry's growth spurt that we'll see in Chapter 24.) Phantom Cozy soon notices the befuddled human calling out to her, and she greets him with a wide grin and a cheery tone. Much like in Chapter 21, an ominous red vapour continuously emanates off her body, indicating that she is an unnatural being of pure evi—I mean, perfect adorableness. (She has this "aura" on all throughout the dream, indicating that despite her cuteness, she doesn't quite belong.) From here, the two engage in casual banter with one another. Since Phantom Cozy is a character who excels under the veil of an unspoken mystery, I won't go into the deeper meaning of what she's saying (if there's even any deeper meaning at all) in lieu of leaving it up to the reader's interpretation. One thing I will go over, though, is the rose she slips into Anon's bathrobe pocket. This red rose, representing Phantom Cozy herself, is absolutely mired in her influence, and it's her way of keeping a very close eye on her Nonny once he leaves the hedge maze. You can think of it as a personal fragment of herself—which means that Anon is effectively keeping a tiny Cozy Glow in his bathrobe pocket from this point onwards. (The mental image of a smug "Pocket Golly" tagging along with Anon on his dreamy journey is something I absolutely fell in love with while I was writing the next few chapters. And there was zero chance of me finishing this chapter's retrospective without bestowing said adorable imagery upon whoever's still bothering to read this thing. It's dangerous to go alone—take this!) The conversation between Anon and Phantom Cozy eventually concludes, and Cozy helpfully informs Anon to think about Flurry if he wishes to find his way back to her. Anon soon exits the clearing and continues on his merry way—Pocket Golly™ now in tow. As Anon proceeds through the hedge maze once more, he mentally muses over his beloved princess, taking the chance to introspect on the parts of her that he loves the most. His affective thoughts quickly bear fruit—or rather, bear blossoms—as he begins to notice the presence of light-blue hydrangeas sprouting out of the hedge walls. We've already established that these particular blooms represent Flurry Heart herself, so it stands to reason that following in their direction can only bring good tidings for our dear Anon. That is, unless some floral-based cryptid bursts out of the hedges and attempts to devour his flesh. …Yeah, don't think that. Thankfully, Anon doesn't meet any additional monsters—for the one currently residing in his front pocket is *more* than enough—and so his idle thoughts take to wandering once more (while mentally orbiting around the topic of Flurry Heart, of course). He muses over his well worn shoes, which were custom ordered by Flurry Heart herself. Strangely enough, Anon really had to push for the privilege of owning footwear while under his princess's employ, as she was both weirdly reluctant to let him cover up his soles and very cagey on explaining why. Luckily, though, he was eventually able to convince her that shoes and socks were a basic human right—and he's been keeping his extremities protected ever since. (Okay, I'm just gonna say it: Flurry is a disgusting degenerate who's *really* interested in Anon's bare human feet. It's why she was more than happy to grovel before him and get stepped on by him during Chapters 3 and 4, and it's also why Anon feels a potent twinge of jealousy within his bonded heart while Cozy licks his feet during Chapter 34. Despite her depravity, however, Flurry recognises the utter ignominy of such a lowly act, which makes her extremely hesitant to bring the matter up to her Master—and *especially* her pleb. Thus, no matter how much she earnestly wishes to sniff and lick and worship his sexy feetie weeties, she *must* contain herself, else she risks Anon seeing this noble princess as the pathetic pervert she really is.) (That all being said, I was tempted to include a scene somewhere in the fic where Anon finds out about his alicorn slave's weird kink and, instead of shaming or admonishing her for it, chooses to accept his deviant Soulmate for who she really is while allowing her to freely indulge in her human foot fetish—much to her mouthy appreciation. Alas, I wasn't able to find a good spot to place such a scene chronologically; also, I felt like "saving" this particular kink for Cozy's hypnotised humiliation in Chapter 34 would ultimately serve to give the act greater impact. Still, if I ever decide to continue the story of Pink Haze, I think there's great potential in a scene where both Flurry *and* Cozy worship Anon's feet at the same time as mutually debauched herd sisters.) #### Chapter 24: the dream balcony (6k~ words) This chapter has Anon reconvene with a Celestia-sized Flurry Heart. Horseback riding ensues. (You can imagine Flurry looking like https://twibooru.org/2362135 from Chapter 24 to Chapter 28; add in her trademark crystal crown, change her cutie mark a little bit—and you have a pretty good representation of how I see her horsey form.) The reason Flurry looks like this is due to her own heartfelt desires resonating with the dream realm. Basically, because she really wished to show her future husband what she'll look like once she grows older, Flurry unconsciously accepted Phantom Cozy's energy into her heart and let it augment her alicorn form. Thus, she was able to grow up to horsier proportions while also reclaiming her complete suite of sealed memories, becoming a Flurry Heart who has lived the lives of both a human's owner and a human's property. (As mentioned in the Chapter 23 Section, this transformation is also why Phantom Cozy turned into a filly.) Flurry may not fully understand the semantics of how she got like this, but she now knows that she's currently within a temporary dream realm, and that her goal is to convince Anon's heart to accept hers as his Alpha Mare. Incidentally, she also happens to be incredibly jubilant regarding her newfound size; after all, while she's like this, not only can Flurry be her Master's royal marewife—but she can be his loyal steed, too. Anon walks up to a cogitative Flurry and addresses her by name, which startles her out of her stupor, yet it also fills her with giddy glee once she realises that she's been reunited with her beloved Master. In her excitement, Flurry almost refers to Anon by his Masterly moniker, but quickly stops herself, and uses his name instead. (Flurry is already aware that her dream realm temporarily seals away memories, so she's playing things safe for now out of genuine concern for her "incomplete" Master. She wants to enjoy these tender moments with him, regardless of his current state of mind, which means the absolute last thing she wants to do is to mentally overwhelm him and cause undue panic.) (…Plus, a subtler, more sinister side of her implicitly understands that her Master is much more malleable while he's like this—which will make him *far* more agreeable to her selfishly mareish needs.) Anon apologises for being tardy to his royal reunion with his princess; Flurry amicably responds by telling him that it's perfectly okay, and admits that she was gonna come get him anyway. (She just wanted to stretch her wings a little, but got distracted while gazing at the pure brilliance of her blue city.) Anon then brings up how he had a "helping hoof" to point him in the right direction. Flurry is initially confused by his inference, but as her eyes drift down to his patented Pocket Golly™®, she seemingly gets it. (Flurry realises that the rose in Anon's pocket must be tied to "Glowie" in some way. Make no mistake, the spaciously placed cogs in this airhead's head are indeed turning, but she decides not to question things too much in this uncertain dream realm and instead roll with the punches.) Immediately after this exchange, Flurry notices the finger that Anon had pricked back in the previous chapter, and the sight of her Master's blood—dried though it may be—makes her protective instincts instantly flare up to a Queenly degree; thus, she swiftly asserts total control of the situation, and even chastises her Master when he tries to downplay his flesh wound. With her mind now fully on "Heal Master" mode, Flurry magically lifts Anon's pricked finger up to her snout, gives it a few tentative sniffs, and then swirls her long, flexible tongue around the length of his bony digit, utterly lathering it with her Queenly saliva. Flurry happily huffs and throatily moans while sloppily slathering up his finger—finding deep, instinctual satisfaction in the intimate act of caring for her King. Once she's finished wetting his wound, she releases his digit from her clammy coil and pulls away—though not before giving his "boo-boo" an affectionate peck for good luck and good love. Anon is totally taken aback by all of this, yet he's even *more* taken aback when he sees his finger cut completely close up after the fact; could it be…her saliva actually has healing properties? That it does—and this is all thanks to her gradual corruption into a Changeling Queen of Love. At this current moment, Flurry is trying very hard to hide her Queenly qualities from Anon, choosing instead to present herself as a noble alicorn steed before his eyes. The reason she does so is because she's both in deep denial about her true nature and feels great shame over her buggy transformation. However, as an emergent Changeling Queen, Flurry's protective priorities and personal feelings compel her to shield her King and ensure his continued well being at all costs, for he is her treasured lifeline of love—as well as the one-and-only sire of her future sprawling hive. Thus, if she sees him wounded in any way, her Queenly instincts supersede her shame and take full hold of her brain, impelling her to direct her immediate efforts towards healing her King and safeguarding him from further threats. To that end, her changeling blood has specifically adapted her equine saliva so that it can regenerate and fortify the damaged tissue cells of her beloved human King. This restorative effect is exclusive to him, though, as to those she deems unworthy—her slimy spit becomes boilingly caustic, rotting through flesh and burning the bone. (As an addendum to that last point: Luster, for all of the bitter grief that Flurry gives her, isn't considered "unworthy" in this Queen's eyes, so her Queenly saliva merely works as a harmless adhesive on the unicorn.) Also, you might be wondering how Flurry is even able to hide the Queenly part of her personality to begin with; after all, this dreamy realm of honest hearts should make it impossible to conceal one's true nature, right? Well, yes. The heartfelt sentiments of Anon and Luster are indeed laid out in the open while they're in this dream—hence why their shared fantasy turned out the way it did and ended up making them both into simple oinking pigs. However, Flurry's corrupted heart is a special case, for if we jump forward to her exposition in Chapter 33, you may recall that she was somehow able to hide her own heartbeat from her bonded Soulmate during Chapter 32; she explained that this wasn't something a "regular alicorn" could do, but rather: it was a quirk of her unique "physiology." Indeed, Flurry possesses the adventitious ability to manipulate her own heart and thus veil her true intentions from the world—which is all thanks to this very same changeling blood that she currently despises. It is through utilising this ability within this present chapter that she's able to exemplify her horsier traits while extenuating her buggier side. This heart manipulation is also why her "dream domain" manages to look like a shifting Crystal Castle and not a straight-up changeling hive. (Flurry truly does love her King, of course, but right now, she wishes for him to see her as simply his mare, not his Queen.) That all being said, Flurry might be pretty good at hiding her Queenly nature—but she's totally terrible at not referring to Anon as her Master. This is because her implicit acceptance of his rightful dominion over her is deeply ingrained within her very heart, making it an uphill battle over her slavish conscious to conceal her real relationship with him. (One must imagine Flurry Heart happy, because that's exactly how she feels whenever she embraces blissful subservience to her beloved Master.) Incidentally, Anon introspects a *lot* both here and in the upcoming chapters, owing to his growing self-doubt and murky uncertainty about the world around him. While I was writing these chapters, I found myself having frequently having to rewrite or even scrap certain segments because I'd accidentally have Anon "think" too much, thus writing myself into a narrative hole where he'd turn into a overly sentimental doomer. There's definitely a balance to be struck here, I feel; if Anon introspects too much, then the story's pacing grinds to an overburdened halt—but if he introspects too little, then he comes off as a total airhead who doesn't care about anything, while the reader is given insufficient information as to why things are happening the way that they are. (While writing Pink Haze, I think I've been plenty guilty of letting the scales tip too far in either direction, but for this specific stretch of the story, I had to make the conscious decision to shear off some of Anon's brain cells so I could keep the plot consistently moving forward.) Brackets aside, Anon's dubious introspection is a narrative arc all its own, for it eventually culminates in him cutting through his doubts and accepting the Flurry Heart before him as the real deal—his beloved princess—in Chapter 26, despite the fantastical uncertainty of this dream world he finds himself in. This acceptance, of course, utterly exhilarates Flurry, fully inspiring her to proceed with the next step of her soul-binding plan. Back to this current chapter, though, Flurry cordially invites Anon to ride her horsey form bareback. Anon accepts this offer, mounts his mare, and the bonded pair take a few preliminary paces around the balcony to acclimate themselves. (I very much enjoyed writing these horse riding scenes. I did a bit of reading up on the topic beforehand, and this activity seemed like a real sweet way for a man and a mare to bond. Hopefully I managed to capture the comfy vibe of such an intimate experience, but if not—well, there's always next time, at least.) The magical medium of this dream realm fosters the formation of intrinsic connections between man and mare, so it doesn't take long until Anon and Flurry start feeling each other as natural extensions of their bodies; they soon become of the same mind—of the same soul. And even though Anon may be an inexperienced rider, and Flurry an unbroken steed, their instincts perfectly pair together to form an immaculately attuned duo. …That being said, the fact that he's riding an untrained horse with no saddle is resulting in some *painfully* bumpy feedback against his pelvic region—and so he ends up shouting for his steed to stop for the time being. The two take some time to address the seating situation, and Flurry soon comes up with an ingenious plan to layer a magical blanket across her back as a makeshift saddle. (If I wanted to go for a more fetishy angle, I could've had Flurry magically outfit her body with a kinky set of horse-themed bondage gear—bridle, saddle, stirrups, and all—to *truly* make herself Anon's rideable mare; however, I wanted this horse riding section to feel like a more tender moment between amateurish partners, so I decided to work with the assumption that Flurry has no idea what proper horse tack even looks like, which is why she simply conjures up a blanket as a way of making sure her rider stays comfortable.) (In a potential sequel, though. I think it's fully possible that Flurry could later come across a bondage-themed book from her late mother's private reading material, and from there, this impressionable princess would be able to learn how to look the part of a domesticated horse for her human Master.) With Anon's tush now properly protected, man and mare are now ready to ride like the wind. Anon places his full trust in his royal mount, inspiring Flurry to canter forth and leap from the balcony railing. And so this chapter ends. I had a lot of fun writing Flurry's horsey mannerisms during this part of the story. To me, her horseyness is indicative of her status as a tamed mare; even though Anon isn't mentally Flurry's Master right now, she still wholly heeds his command—and she does so entirely of her own volition. Indeed, she is as much his loyal steed as she is his proud Queen, and she so-dearly looks forward to the day where she may ride across the green fields of the real Crystal Empire with her bonded King mounted atop her back. Also, even when Flurry later accepts her true nature as a Changeling Queen, she never loses her desire to serve as Anon's steed. Sure, she might grow up to be a terrifyingly tall, chitin-covered monster, but her black buggy heart will always beat unconditional loyalty towards her King—and she'll always have a soft saddle in stock for whenever he wishes to ride his Queen. After all, Flurry isn't just a horse, nor is she just a bug; she's a bughorse, a bugbutt, a buglovebutt, a nice butt, and a great wife. #### Chapter 25: the dream riding (6k~ words) This is the chapter that features a lot of horseback riding. Said horse comes prepackaged with wings, so she can even fly, too. …Emphasis on *can,* though—for she's currently flailing around in a panic as she drops like a rock. (To be fair to the poor mare, she had no idea that having a different centre of gravity, an additional weight upon her back, and an entirely new body would change the way she should approach the avenue of flight.) Thankfully, Anon's quick reflexives take centre stage, and he firmly pulls back on her ethereal alicorn mane, using it as makeshift reins. This instantly awakens something deeply primal within Flurry, turning her wholly obedient and horsily responsive. She truly becomes Anon's steed in this moment, reverting to a more equine state of mind as she simply functions as her rider's legs and wings. Anon is able to direct his steed up into a horizontally oriented gliding position, thus slowing their descent and allowing them to safely touch down upon the crystal pavement. From there, Anon manages to steer a galloping Flurry away from a lamppost just in time, and the two ride off in the streets of the Crystal Empire together. (Adrenaline is absolutely rushing through Flurry's system right now, causing her to basically turn her brain off and wholly embrace her horsey instincts. She feels wild and free, yet she also unquestionably answers to her human rider, having been fully tamed by his firm hands and gentle presence. Thus, she implicitly obeys every unspoken directive he gives her, functioning purely as a physical extension of his will.) Even though this Anon is far more submissive then the one we've come to know. The act of riding *his* mare fills him with a strange surge of manly confidence—as if his Masterly instincts are at least partially awakening. (That's just one theory, though. Honestly, I think the act of pulling on a bratty mare's mane and riding her all throughout the empty streets of an wide open city is guaranteed to make even the subbiest guy feel on top of the world.) Eventually, Anon commands his mounted mistress to alight on the sidewalk and come to a complete stop. They now linger in front of someone's fenced-off yard, and a crystal streetlight warmly shines upon the duo. (Their current surroundings don't really mean anything; I just wanted to set the scene a little bit. That being said, I was tempted to expand this lewdness of this upcoming scene by having Flurry rub her horsey butt against the lamppost's pole as Anon calls her a good girl.) (I was also tempted to have Flurry—who would've been *fiercely* emboldened by the light-blue spell that she later casts—huskily growl for Anon to dismount her right this instant. Since his present mental state is that of her servile pleb, he would've obeyed her without question. Realising and remembering the absolute power she now holds over her "Master," Flurry would've used this golden opportunity to relieve some of her more mareish stresses upon her obedient human. She would've ordered him to kneel before her so that his face is level with her flanks; then, she would turn around, back up into him so that his face would be firmly squashed between the lamppost pole and her winking nethers—and force her pleb to eat out her sweltering horsepussy. After a good deal of grinding and licking and bumping and slurping, she'd cream straight down his throat and command him to drink her sweet soup. Once Anon finally finishes satisfying his mistress, she'd call him a "good pleb" for his service and demand that he remount her. And thus, the two of them would soon make their way over to the road to prepare for the takeoff scene, with Anon only feeling slightly demeaned by the whole experience.) (So…yeah. This hypothetical scenario was pretty damn vivid in my eyes—super sexy, too. I really loved the idea of a loyal steed suddenly asserting control over her rider in a moment of deeply mareish need and outright *demanding* that he tend to her needs before either of them continue any further. Plus, the fantasy of a full-grown horse pushing her powerful horse ass right into your face, shoving the back of your head against a solid object, and forcing you to eat her out is…whew. It's good stuff, man.) (However, I'm self-aware enough to admit this was absolutely an out-of-character coomer fantasy on my part. If I really wanted to, I *could* have rationalised this steamy scene by stating that the stimulative effects of Flurry's changeling magic were making her "act out" of sorts—but honestly, I don't think Flurry would ever do something this degrading to her Master; she respects him way too much for that. Indeed, when she *does* dominate him in Chapter 28, she does it with a most Queenly adoration, forcing her King to do her missionary style so that she may warmly embrace him within her wings while fondly gazing upon his pheromone-huffing features. She also softly strokes the back of his head with a forehoof all the while, making sure her King knows that he's her "good boy." Basically, Flurry is definitely more of a gentle mommydom kind of mare when it comes to lovingly subjugating her Master.) (Still, I wouldn't mind revisiting a steamy situation like this in another fic some day. Hell, I could even see it slotting somewhere withinin a potential sequel to Pink Haze. Though if you ask me, of the three mares in Anon's villainous herd, a full-grown Luster Dawn is the most likely one to force Anon's face between a solid wall and her fat ass, make him obediently slurp up her stinky horsepussy until she furiously soups down his compliantly gulping throat, and then sternly order him to French kiss her smelly, sweaty asshole until his humie brain registers it as his one-and-only wife. She'd probably ask him for permission before doing all of this, sure, but she'd also *totally* turn him into her personal ass-cleaning slut with zero regrets and a wide smirk upon her face. After that, she'd no doubt show her freshly tamed human off to her fellow herd sisters and smugly declare to the both of them that their beloved Master is now solely Luster-owned—which would then prompt Flurry and Cozy to team up and ruthlessly beat her ass into submission.) (…Or perhaps that's simply another coomer maredom fantasy from me. Anyway—moving on!) So, moving onto the *actual* scene that transpires: Anon and Flurry take some time to recuperate now that the royal steed has exerted most of her stamina galloping around the Crystal Empire. Flurry is in *full* horsey mode at the moment, and she even does that thing where she blows through her lips and makes them vibrate. (I couldn't resist including that mannerism in the fic while she's like this. It's really cute, and—I'm not gonna lie—pretty damn erotic when performed by a sapient mare. The level of base animalism that Flurry readily displays here gives her a distinctly equine appeal.) Later on this chapter, Anon and Flurry succeed in taking off from the ground; as they do so, you might notice that the pedestal under the castle is empty. This is where the Crystal Heart usually is, and it's a small bit of foreshadowing as to its relocation in Chapter 26. Anon notes how the all-encompassing blue tint has drowned out all of the other colours within the Crystal Empire, turning it into a city with a uniform hue. This particular hue signifies that this dream is currently Flurry's domain. However, there is additional meaning behind this visual filter, for it also represents her Queenly desire to make everything in *her* colour. In Flurry's ideal world, all lowly creatures would be purged from this land and thus no longer exist, for her perfect Equestria would consist solely of her, her human King, and their innumerable brood of apex changelings to serve as their loyal subjects. Regular ponies would be reduced to walking food sources that are under constant mind control, only existing to serve as emotional nutrition for Flurry's drones. Every single changeling would be immutably connected to Flurry's all-encompassing hivemind, and so every single changeling would display unconditional obedience towards their Queen and King, spreading out across the world to inherit it in their royal name. Such a life would be utter bliss for Queen Flurry Heart, which is why her heart readily displays this tranquil uniformity to her future King in the hopes of enticing him into making this dream a reality. Flurry asks Anon what he thinks of this city. And after he gives her an agreeable answer, she proudly declares that it belongs to the both of them. She continues by being surprisingly candid with Anon, admitting that she'll need his support and advice to help her in making big decisions once she ascends the throne. Thus, she implies that he may as well be ruling the Empire alongside her, despite his "plebby" position. Anon quickly picks up on this, and playfully puts forward the idea of him becoming her Royal Advisor. (He would come to take a far grander role than that. But funnily enough, Flurry would later appoint Cozy as the herd's Royal Advisor, so there's definitely some prestige in this title—enough to satisfy a power-hungry pegasus, at any rate.) Flurry giggles at her human's geniality, humouring his suggestion, but she swiftly adds in a stipulation that she still expects him to carry out *all* of his pre-existing royal obligations to his princess—he isn't getting out of his kissing practise and bedtime breeding duties that easily. (After having lived a life of being Anon's royal mistress, Flurry is now more naturally inclined to assert herself over her Master. She'll do it with love, of course, and she'll always be his loyal slave in the end, but she is also a Queen who yearns to have her voice acknowledged by her King.) Anon takes the time to muse over the "promised prince" title that Phantom Cozy whimsically bestowed upon him back in Chapter 23. (Okay, I'll be honest, there's not really any deeper meaning to this title. I mainly just threw it in here because I thought it sounded neat; also, I was in an Elden Ring mood at the time. For those who have played that game—specifically, the DLC—you probably remember that one dude who made that other dude his "Promised Consort." The title "promised prince" was a cheeky little reference to that. Bonus points for that whole situation *also* involving a lot of mind control and other mental fuckery in the name of righteous ascension. That being said, I'm pretty sure Flurry isn't a femboy—unless she's the absolute QUEEN of tucking—so the similarities end there.) Flurry then takes Anon on a tour of some of her favourite spots within the Crystal Empire: >The first is a public garden filled with crystalline flowers. This is Mistmane's Crystal Garden from S8E21; I've always liked the look of this place, so I wanted to reference it within the fic. The third is a library that "one of her friends" works at. Said friend is obviously Luster Dawn, but her omission was meant to further indicate that the unicorn's identity has been mostly wiped from Anon's plebby memories. The fifth is Smooth Claws's house. Flurry Heart happens to hate that repugnant scalebrain just as much as her Master does, so it's no surprise that she'd remember where he lives. "And, now that I've let you into my heart…" >Her smile widens ever so slightly. >"…it's only fair that you let me into yours, wouldn't you say?" ``` Flurry begins to seem more and more than a natural predator here—a maneater of a mare who both hungers and hankers for her beloved meal. That being said, this isn't exactly your typical predator-prey relationship. After all, Anon is a human, an omnivorous alien who can rightfully be considered an apex predator even in Equestria. While Flurry, despite her alicorn heritage and tremendous magical power, was once purely a prey animal with prey animal's instincts. Now, though, the collar's corruption is twisting Flurry into something much more sinister—she's becoming a Changeling Queen. Naturally, with a buggier body comes buggier instincts; however, Changeling Queens happen to be quite peculiar beings; not only can they function as an apex predator and stand at the top of the food chain—just like Anon—but they can also function as a parasitic species, too, for they possess the unsightly ability to drain any creature of its nourishing emotions, potentially leaving the poor thing a lifeless husk if said Queen feels particularly peckish. This Queen, though, instinctually recognises Anon to be a highly renewable source of nutrition, causing her to prioritise him as a creature worth keeping around. The reason she doesn't just cocoon him and leave it at that is because her Queenly instincts also recognise him to be a fellow apex predator, which fulfils her other biological imperative of finding a suitable mate to settle down and raise a large brood with. (In this version of Equestria, Changeling Kings aren't a thing, so Changeling Queens instinctively seek powerful mates that exist beyond their species in order to strengthen the gene pool of their chitinous spawn—also, Thorax doesn't count as a Changeling King cuz he's a lameass skittlebug BITCH.) From apex predator to apex parasite, this Queen intrinsically views Anon as an extremely valuable companion, someone worth forming a strong bond with so that she has a stable supply of food, a reliable mate to protect her, and a safe environment to set up her hive. Basically, even if this mare wasn't already madly in love with her human—her warmly buzzing instincts would be providing plenty of compelling arguments to shack up with him regardless.) In any case, that brings us to the here and now—where every single cell in Flurry's Queenly body and alicorn heart is currently screaming at her to make Anon her eternal life partner. And so she does. With Anon's real-world body being sustained inside Flurry's royal cocoon and his dream-world body standing right next to her crystallised heart, this human is now in the absolute perfect position for a Queen to finally exert her immutable claim on his mortal soul. Flurry presses her advantage on Anon, peppering him with plush kisses while whispering into his very core, proudly declaring her intent to make him hers forever. Faced with a domineering Queen, the only thing this plebby human knows how to do is submit before her. And so he does. What follows is a very sloppy kissing scene where Flurry utterly dominates Anon's mouth, fulfilling this bratty princess's practised pledge from Chapter 22; during which, she forces him to swallow her slimy excess of Queenly saliva as she lights up her horn and envelops his whole being within her potent changeling magic. With her magic applied, she then goes even further, thrusting her thick tongue straight down his tight throat and completely choking him out. Panic seizes his body. Anon can't breathe, escape, or even look away from Flurry's enchanting eyes. She truly has him right where she wants him. Unable to do anything else but breathlessly submit himself before his Queen's parasitic desire, Anon's very sense of self is ruthlessly violated by Flurry's magic. His body is turned into her pliant plaything, his mind is ruthlessly subjugated according to her Queenly will—and his heart becomes utterly infested with her immortal essence. She and him become one and the same. King and Queen, soul-bonded for eternity. (Flurry effectively soul-raped Anon here. I've always been fascinated by the concept of soul-bonding. It sounds incredibly romantic to link a part of yourself that's so spiritually esoteric yet firmly fundamental to the one you consider your "Soulmate." However, I also think that it would feel extremely violating to have a chunk of your own soul ripped away and replaced with someone else's, so I really wanted to try and capture the profane nature of such a forbidden ritual. Hopefully I did the idea some justice.) Now that their souls have been ineffably interlinked, Anon finds himself able to breathe through the Queenly tongue that is still deeply wedged inside his throat. (I wanted this whole experience to feel surreal and dreamlike, hence the unconventional respiration technique. Plus, Anon breathing through Flurry's tongue like it's a porous piece of muscle sounds very "changelingy." I like it.) Despite the breathless trauma he just suffered through, Flurry's horsey heartbeat serves as a comforting metronome for Anon's frazzled nerves, and it is through this metronome that a Queen conveys her honest appreciation towards her King. She may have forced himself upon him, but he earnestly accepted her in turn—and for that, she is truly grateful. (In a way, this whole situation kinda mirrors that of how Anon forced himself upon Flurry back in Chapter 3, huh?) Through familiarity and finality, Anon finds himself remembering who he truly is—a proud Master of two mares. However, that's not all, for he also recalls the animalistic memories he spent as Luster's Mated Boar, and he *also* retains the subservient memories he lived through as Flurry's precious pleb. Thus, not only does he once again own these two mares, but they now wholly own him in turn. This revelation would be an interesting one to ponder on—if only it wasn't a total headache to comprehend. As it turns out, having the memories of three different Anons stuffed into the same single noggin is head-splittingly disorienting. (You may recall that something similar happened to Luster when she recovered her own memories in Chapter 21. Back then, though, she only had two sets of memories to deal with—here, Anon has a whopping three sets to contend with, so it's no wonder our resident human is feeling super out of it.) Wholly unaware as to Anon's current mental plight, Flurry takes the chance to relish in her own Queenly success. She slowly, painstakingly draws her long, thick tongue out from her King's tight throat, savouring his submissive taste all the while. (Mares with extremely lengthy tongues are attractive, and the idea of one filling up (You)r throat with said tongue is really fucking hot. I'm glad I got to include a scene like this in the fic.) After fully pulling her tongue out of his throat (and sexily whipping it back through the air as she does), Flurry heartily sighs out in Queenly satisfaction; she then addresses Anon by his *true* Masterly moniker, feeling great relief over the fact that she may finally use his proper title. Anon responds by passing out. From here, the rest of this chapter is mainly a recap session on what Flurry did and how this dream realm works. (These recap segments are fairly fluffy, but I like using them as a way to have the characters interact with each other while contextualising the story's events. They halt the story's pacing for a bit, but I *do* want the reader to get a good grasp of what's actually happening in this waifu-harem fic, and I like to think these segments make a better compromise than simply having Anon intuitively understand everything that's going on through his inner monologue.) Flurry sincerely apologises for both her deception and her domination, feeling deep guilt over what she did, but she also rationalises it as something that *had* to be done—for this mare needs her human. (Just to be clear, she feels absolutely zero shame over the fact that she carried out a forbidden ritual to immutably link their souls together—but rather, it was how she had to breach his trust to do it that puts her ill at ease.) Of course, since one of Anon's core character traits is that he is a very forgiving individual when it comes to his mares, he's quick to understand Flurry's actions and accept her as his beloved Soulmate. He truly bears no grudge against her; in fact, he sees this whole experience as a suitable price to pay in regards to "taking responsibility" for his enslaved princess. (Flurry might be a total yandere, but Anon is a total yandere-enabler. Make no mistake—he is *down* for that shit.) Anon looks up the floating crystal heart that has come to know as Flurry's metaphysical heart, and he notes that it now bears two distinctly different hues; the left side of it is still light blue (representing Flurry), but the right side has now been recoloured a deep pink (representing Anon). (I think this two-toned heart is a pretty apt visual representation of what Flurry has done to Anon. She's basically ripped out half of his soul and replaced it with half of hers. This isn't some namby pamby bond of whimsy where you tie two souls together with a piece of magical string and call it a day, no; this is some hardcore mutual soul transplantation—we're going full Ships of Theseus on this bitch.) When Flurry goes over her motivation for making Anon her eternal Soulmate, we get this choice line: ``` >"But I don't give a griffon's fractured beak about the 'natural order' of things!" Flurry states with aplomb. "I only care about you, Master." ``` I'm pretty proud of that line. It contains an overtly anti-creature adage, yet it also clearly showcases that her devotion to Anon surpasses any desire to follow the rules. Peak Flurry Heart. Anon muses to himself over the shared heartbeat he now feels. Ba-Dump. Ba-Dump. Ba-Dump. (The fact that the "B" and the "D" of Ba-Dump are both capitalised here is to signify that this synchronised heartbeat is far more powerful than a regular one.) (Also, I absolutely love the concept of sharing someone's heartbeat like this. I see it as a constant reminder that the one you're bonded to is always there for you, which has both its positives and its negatives. On one hand, it's incredibly romantic; on the other, it's utterly violating, as this muscly metronome is something that you shall be stuck with for the rest of your unnaturally extended life—but hey, no-one ever said that taking responsibility for your immortal slave was gonna be a cakewalk.) Because she has now secured her place as both Anon's Soulmate and his Alpha Mare, Flurry is at peace; thus, the tempestuous winds that guarded her heart's stormy sanctum are no more, while the gloomy blue tint that once choked the atmosphere of this dreamy realm has weakened to the point where the orange rays of the morning sun may pierce through its veil, revealing a bright new future for the both of them. (The dawning sun is meant to evoke Luster Dawn, as well.) After a rather familiar scene where Anon and Flurry indirectly smile at each other through the dazzling veneer of a shiny crystal heart, Flurry cheerily points out Anon's pink collar, stating that she thinks it looks "super cute." Anon openly muses on his accessory's aesthetic appeal, before admitting that its message: "Belongs to Flurry Heart" is an objectively correct one; after all, with half of his heart under her direct dominion—he truly *does* belong to her now. Flurry is quick to agree with her Master on the matter, taking great pride over the fact that she's laid claim to him in such a deeply visceral way, yet she's just-as-quick to proclaim that she also belongs to him as well. And to visually accentuate the state of their mutual ownership over each other, Flurry uses her magic to conjure up a corresponding collar around her own neck; naturally, the message on her collar's buckle proudly declares: "Belongs to Anonymous." She initially makes her collar's colour silver, matching her royal regalia, but with another zap of her horn, she changes its pleather's pigment to pink, matching the collar around Anon's neck. She ultimately hooves the final say over to her Master, though, believing that it's only right that he is the one to decide the wardrobe of his soul-bonded slave. Between silver or pink—Anon picks green. (Green is an interesting colour, isn't it? Anon has been primarily associated with the colour pink in this story, so this "fey" decision of his may seem unprecedented at first. Truthfully, I wished to evoke the imagery of Chrysalis with this specific colour—and it's no coincidence that Anon begins to refer to Flurry as his Queen right after this. However, whether this chosen hue was actually a conscious connection made by Anon or not is up to you to decide. We know that he read a book on villains way back in Chapter 10, so he could have seen a green-carapaced Chrysalis in that book, subconsciously related her to the flower-crowned changeling statue he saw in Chapter 23, and associated the two Queens together that way. Alternatively, a cheeky little rose hiding in his bathrobe pocket might've beamed this fey thought into his head for funsies—or, even more alternatively, maybe Anon's favourite colour is actually green, and he just thought it'd make a nice fit.) Flurry is momentarily confused by his queer choice of colour, but she quickly sees the brilliance in his decision; after all, if her collar sticks out like a sore thumb, then everypony's eyes will naturally be drawn to its striking green hue—and thus the name of her owner upon it. Great idea, Master! After her magically charged outfitting, Flurry mentions that she wants to wear a collar just like this in the real world. (Specifically, she wants to wear it once they claim the throne. I like to imagine that Flurry will start wearing this coloured collar some time after the events of Chapter 38. She would see it as a symbol of high status and proud servitude; not only that, but its distinctive lime-green colour would also cleanly set her apart from her black-chokered herd sisters, thus clearly pinning Flurry Heart as the Alpha Mare of the three.) With their collared conundrum candidly concluded, Anon and Flurry are finally ready to get moving. Flurry conjures a comfy magical blanket upon her back, and Anon mounts his trusty steed once more. With a bit of horsey showmareship from Flurry, man and mare gallop across the spire's flat circular surface, leap from the edge, and fly off into the sunrise together—hearts and souls united as one. (Like I mentioned before, I tend to use the terms "heart" and "soul" interchangeably within this fic. But in this case, my intention was to link "heart" to the physical side of things, and "soul" to the spiritual side—plus, I just think this particular phrase sounds cool.) #### Chapter 27: the dream spire after (2k~ words) This chapter serves as a brisk breather before the absolute dick-flattener that is Chapter 28. Despite how short it is, there's a fair amount of introspection here, mostly on Anon musing about his plebby life—and him realising just how submissive and breedable his bratty mistress really was. That's all in the past now, though; it's time for him and Flurry to focus on the future. Fluttering in place, Flurry's eyes hone in on the Crystal Castle. After hummingly examining a certain section of it, she guilelessly asks Anon if he trusts her. Anon, who has had more than his fair share of close calls with this mare (and will have many more to come), sternly commands his Soulmate to tell him exactly what it is she's planning. With a nod, Flurry explains that she wishes to smash into her own dream castle. Well then. As Anon expresses an understandable amount of doubt at the prospect, Flurry reassures her Master by performing a prompt switchover of her magical aura; where she had once used her light-yellow magic to generate a bright searchlight, she now protects the both of them with a light-blue bubble shield—all the while, she continues to maintain her aforementioned searchlight, which has changed colour to match her shield. (The fact that she's able to effortlessly sustain two different spells at once here is an indicator of how much more potent her "love magic" is in comparison to her natural brand.) (Incidentally, it's worth noting that Flurry primarily utilises her changeling magic from this point onwards. Despite its buggy origins, it only makes sense in her Queenly head to prioritise using a stronger magic that is powered directly by her trusted Soulmate. After all, not only is it a more efficient source of magic—but it also serves as a way for Flurry to show her King just how comfortable she is with using his love's limitless energy in even the most mundane of tasks.) Ultimately, Anon decides to go along with Flurry's "plan," not wishing to take the long way around and risk getting lost in that labyrinthian castle again. (Come to think of it, Flurry should've been able to lead Anon through those hive-like castle corridors no problem. But it's not like Anon knew that, and Flurry herself is obviously interested in applying a headstrong approach.) What follows is a fun little sequence where Anon mentally copes with his incoming danger by imagining that he is a knight most noble; Flurry, by comparison, screams like a lunatic as she busts through solid crystal and skids across the floor. Still, they make it to their destination, and that's what matters in the end, right? Anon dismounts his steed. And during the aftermath of this assault on the Crystal Castle, Flurry nuzzles up to her King from behind and proudly proclaims her bloodthirsty desire to carry him into the fields of battle. (Flurry is currently basking in a Queenly battle high from her recent act of wanton destruction—also, evil mares that brim with villainous confidence are sexy.) The two of them then make their way over to the bedroom double doors. Much like the scene after the timeskip in Chapter 22, Anon rests his hand upon the leftmost door, ready to push it open for his princess. This time, however, his Queen rests her forehoof upon the rightmost door, ready to push these doors open along with her King and step forward into their new life together. (I thought this'd be a fun way to symbolise their new and improved relationship. No longer is Flurry a mere slave to Anon, and no longer is Anon a servile pleb to Flurry. Here, they are equals, both submitting to and dominating the other—they are King and Queen.) #### Chapter 28: the dream end (23k~ words) This chapter is actually my favourite one in the whole story. There's just so much going on here that the femdom-enjoyer in me really appreciates. So, fair warning, I'm gonna be gushing over this one *hard.* Upon entering the bedchamber, Anon quickly notices that Flurry's bed has now changed; whereas before it was wholly pink, it is now only pink on the left half while being light-blue on the right half. This bipartite arrangement of colours perfectly mirrors Flurry's crystal heart back on the spire. How curious. (The implication here is that this heart-shaped bed is actually the dreamy manifestation of Anon's heart. I didn't want to state it outright within the fic itself, but it definitely recontextualises the events of Chapter 22 when you realise that Anon and Flurry were getting snuggly and intimate right on top of the human's own heart.) Soon after that, Anon and Flurry both notice the unicorn lying haplessly bound on the right side of the bed; her cerise-pink body is illuminated by the orange rays of the morning coming in from the open windows over on the right, and her identity is that of Luster Dawn—Anon's sow. (The fact that Luster is lying on the "Flurry" side of the bed is an extra bit of cosmic cruelty for this poor pig. She has been directly shackled to Anon's heart all this time, hidden from prying eyes. Not only that, but she likely felt in real time how this side of Anon's heart steadily shifted into Flurry's; this would've caused Luster to lose whatever familiar warmth she was still clinging onto, and it would've indubitably signalled to this sow that her Boar had been tamed by a Queen.) Anon is shocked by Luster's sorry presence, while Flurry is more aloof over the matter, seeing her bestie's bound body as merely an idle answer to an unspoken curiosity. (I'll say this now: Anon's genuine concern and care he feels towards Luster has a way of seeping into Flurry's system through the emotional linkage between Soulmates. There are other factors at play here, of course—such as the strength and security Flurry now feels from being soul-bonded to her King—but Flurry now finds herself implicitly understanding and accepting why her Master loves his sow so.) Luster's current state is a direct result of Phantom Cozy's "punishment" mentioned near the end of Chapter 21; Flurry herself had no hoof in this. Her restraints are basically: blindfold, ball gag, nose ring, horn ring, horn cork, hoof shackles (tied to a small post staked into the bed), neck shackle, navel piercing, and nipple piercings. These bindings primarily possess a crimson colour scheme, indicating that they were conjured up from Phantom Cozy's "magic." Some extra notes: >The blindfold is black because I figured that it would better contrast the rest of Luster's red restraints. You can imagine Phantom Cozy just plucked this one from a nearby dream drawer. The pig-snout-shaped barbell piercing is obviously meant to denominate this mare as the pig she is. "Undress me, my King." ``` It feels **good.** From here, Anon undresses Flurry much like how he did in Chapter 22. (All the while, Luster can't help but feel a little left out…) At first, Flurry behaves quite amicably as Anon slowly removes her regalia. She quietly relishes the feeling of unspoken power over him throughout this pleasant process, knowing that this human—who had once broken her in and made her his loyal slave—now wholly belongs to *her.* Still, she can't help but fuss and fawn over him as he performs one of his many important royal duties; when he moves onto her peytral, she uses her light-blue magic to support its weight for him (it's not even that heavy), showing this Queen's natural inclination to aid her King, even while he's serving her. Once Anon sets his sights on Flurry's crown, though, the air around them becomes charged with a rather *intense* energy. After all, neither of them could ever forget how this pleb personally decrowned his princess every night before bed. Even back in Chapter 22, Flurry always harboured a secret hope that Anon would claim this crown for himself; indeed—it belonged to him just as much as the rest of her. Now that their memories have been fully restored, Flurry takes the chance to give this hope the voice it deserves when Anon takes her crown for the final time in this dream: ``` >"This crown belongs to us, my King." >Her lips curl upwards. >"It always has." ``` In unburdening his princess of her regalia, Anon has also unburdened his Queen of her inhibitions. And so this Queen sets her sharp sights upon her beloved King, ready to dominate him as he so desires. (Through the boundless energy made available to her through her Soulmate's loving heart, Flurry's buggier impulses have been able to freely gorge themselves on potent human affection and grow into something *far* more substantial. Thus, it is at this exact moment that Flurry's "Queenly instincts" manage to make their presence known as a distinctly dominant "Queenly Persona," temporarily taking over the alicorn's conscious mind so that a Queen may better direct her King.) From here, Flurry asserts complete control over the situation; she commands her King to stay put, magically levitates her own crown over to the dresser, and lightly presses her forehoof against his clothed crotch—utterly objectifying him as her personal property. Anon feels great shame in this, yet he also can't help but deeply enjoy it and want for even more. After all, with his vividly plebby memories, pre-existing submissive inclinations, and his Queen puissantly pumping implicit obedience throughout his bloodstream—who is he to say no? (The idea of being hoofily molested by a powerful mare is hot.) Flurry then pointedly commands Anon to "disrobe." The order she utters is the same one as in Chapter 22, yet the tone she addresses him with is completely different. In Chapter 22, this princess addressed her pleb with a perverse whimsy, playfully asserting her authority over him while enjoying the *stimulating* sight presented before her lecherous eyes. In this chapter, though, this Queen addresses her King with a sharp supremacy, all but demanding that he reveal the fruits of his virility before her piercing gaze and obediently present himself for their royal breeding session. ``` >"Hmph~" ``` Extremely satisfied with her King's *bulging* compliance, she uses her changeling magic to greedily grope at his groin, gleefully feeling up the very same seed sacks that shall one day sire all of the grubs in her hive. (The idea of being magically molested by a powerful mare is *really* hot.) Alas, this saucy scene is cut short by the shrill sound of a sow absolutely losing it. Anon and Flurry turn to the side to see Luster desperately struggling against her own shackles, oinking up a storm all the while. Luster's display of swinish aggression is quickly met with an act of Queenly possessiveness from Flurry; the alicorn quickly pulls Anon in with a wing and instinctually commands him to stay close as she…wants to blast Luster into giblets? Whoa now. (To be fair, Flurry never explicitly stated her desire to destroy Luster in this moment, but still—things could've gotten ugly here.) So, these next couple of scenes involve deeply primal instincts seizing hold of both ponies, causing the two of them to act both irrationally and territorially. Thus, it's up to Anon to calm his animalistic mares down with his soothing human presence while trying his best not to get utterly subjugated by his Queen's snorty will. (I'm not gonna lie, these scenes are pretty weird, but I also really like them, too. I love the idea of taming a belligerent mare by serenely sharing breath with her while she aggressively snorts in your face. It showcases a gentle power that Anon can exert over his herd, soothing them into submission.) Before we proceed, let's touch base and have a quick status check—why are these characters acting like this? Anon initially offered to remove Flurry's regalia for her as a show of mutual trust. This relatively innocent motive was tempered by his earnest desire to submit to his princess—and further fortified by the addictive feeling of his Queen's powerful heart pumping impelled obedience into his system. However, the animalistic outbursts of his herd snapped him out of his submissive state of mind, and he quickly realised that something had to be done. Flurry initially hesitated when Anon acted subservient before her, but a few choice words from the human soon had this princess changing her tune. From there, Flurry steadily found herself growing more confident—more *Queenly*—as her King showed more and more deference towards her. It didn't take much longer until her Queenly Persona fully took over and dominated the both the situation and her mind. Indeed, she was just about to turn her beloved King into her pliant breeding stud—but then that *impudent* sow had to ruin *everything!* That harsh cacophony of squeals and oinks vexes this Queen to no end, and the way she bestially leers at *her* King's precious jewels…! Ugh! That pig is an *obstacle!* She *needs* to be silenced! Flurry only needs her King's permission to carry out her righteous retribution. But no worry, he should be easy enough to *convince.* (Even though Flurry had formally accepted Luster into the herd not long ago. Her base instincts still have a ways to go in that regard.) Luster has gone through a lot in this dream, and even though she had been "accepted" into the herd, she was still left in quite the delirious state of mind. She is a sow who has been deprived of her Boar for *far* too long, so when she saw him disrobe right in front of her eyes, and when she saw that glorious bulge of virility stretching out his boxers—just *begging* to be sniffed—she needed it she needed it needed it needed it needed it NEEDED IT. Furthermore, both mares are currently experiencing heightened emotions that impede their rational thought; this could be attributed to the unstable environment of a fading dream—or even the passive influence from a nearby scarlet rose… In any case, if Flurry were of sound mind right now, she wouldn't wish harm upon her newly accepted herdmate, while her Queenly Persona would recognise Luster to be a useful tool that's better kept breathing. Luster, on the other hoof, doesn't want to zap anypony at all—she just *really* wants to be with her Boar. Onto the scenes themselves, we first get Anon's narration describing how Flurry is furiously pumping her dominating emotions into his submissive system. (This is yet another quirk of the link between Soulmates. I loved describing the physical aspect of this bond—it's so romantically violating.) Anon then places his left hand on Flurry's right shoulder and rests his right hand against the left side of her neck as he attempts to soothe his Queen. (I love the placement of his hands here. If Anon was more dominant in this moment, he could directly cup her chin with both palms, force her to look at him, and assert himself over her that way. However, as he is currently under the heavy effects of hormonal subjugation, his mind has been wrenched into a shudderingly submissive state. And the fact that his digits are in a lower position than they could be indicates that this is going to be an uphill battle.) Flurry is not impressed by her King's defiance, and so she heatedly snorts in his face to put him in his place. (This is such a powerful gesture from a powerful horse. Really good stuff.) Anon is utterly steamed by his Queen's pugnacity, yet he is not one to give up so easily. He starts to quietly share breath with her, shakily enduring her aggressive snorts all the while. Slowly, her bellicose behaviour gives way to needy nickering and softer snorting. With her King's passivity continually impressing itself upon her Queenly presence, Flurry is steadily tamed into an amenable steed. Soon enough, this soothing session turns to warm breath sharing and plush lip smooching, signifying that a Queen has become contentedly calmed by her trusted King. (She may bear the qualities of a Changeling Queen, but she still possesses a horsey heart; thus, this steed is fully able to be retamed by her bonded rider.) At this point, Flurry's Queenly Persona takes to temporary slumber, leaving a princess to deal with the sharp guilt of having risen up against her Master. She apologises as such, but Anon is already quick to forgive her, being the lenient and accepting guy that he is. In order to show his Soulmate that he truly doesn't hold anything against her, he brings her in for another kissy encore while sharing some more breath. (Unlike before, he cups her chin here. That's the kind of subtle Masterly authority we love to see.) And so the two enjoy another round of face-to-face intimacy; not as King and Queen, but as Anon and Flurry. (She begins once again referring to him as Master, bringing her bubbly subservience back to the forefront of things.) So, that's one mare down—onto the next. (It turns out that doubling your slave count also doubles the problems you have to deal with; who would've thunk it.) (…Actually, given what we've witnessed thus far. I'd say it at least cubes your problems.) Luster is still in a delirious state of mind. She needs her Boar. Upon laying eyes on her oinking rival, a twinge of protective jealousy briefly takes hold of Flurry's heart. But, as this mare is now far more amenable to her Master's command, she quickly capitulates when Anon tells her that there's nothing to fear. As herdmates who pine for the same alien stallion, Flurry implicitly understands Luster's desire for intimacy; thus, she reluctantly detaches herself from her Master and implores him to do what's right. Anon walks up to his bedbound sow and examines her bestial, nose-ringed veneer. He then gives her chubby belly a few soft rubs, enticing her affections even further. Flurry chimes in, wishing to be useful, and advises her Master to kiss his sow for surefire results. (She's drawing from her own experiences and desires here. Not only that, but Flurry is basically offering Anon her explicit approval to smooch Luster as he pleases.) Anon has Flurry remove Luster's neck shackle, and Luster uses her newfound freedom to lunge at Anon's face—only to be held back by his hand. (The power dynamics are way different here. With Flurry, it was an uphill battle where a docile King had to assuage a dominant Queen. With Luster, though, Anon is a proud Master looking down upon his unruly sow—yet he is also willing to lower himself to her level and become her caringly assertive Boar.) Anon is ready to smooch his sow, yet he also can't help but remember some choice words she spoke to him back in Chapter 21: ``` >'…let's share some more breath, too. That always helps clear my head…' ``` That was right when Luster had recovered her true memories. The recollection hit her head like a bag of bricks, but the act of focusing in on her Boar's breath helped to stabilise her disoriented mind. Perhaps that same gesture will work here, too. Thus, Anon resolves to both lovingly smooch *and* softly share breath with his snorty sow. Before he gets into the thick of things, however, he harshly yanks up on her nose ring—which forces her snout upwards, causes her face to messily leak all manner of fluids, and makes her sloppy tongue haplessly loll out of her mouth. (This might seem a tad cruel, but I felt like I had include an interaction where Luster's nose ring is manhandled at least once. Anon's motivation for doing this lies in him wishing to assert control over his sow and make sure her nose ring doesn't jab him in the face. The narrative reason for doing this is to show that Luster is currently a disgustingly snotty animal; despite this, though, Anon wholly accepts this dirty pig as his cherished mate—he accepts all of her, both the good and the bad. From here, these two hogs suck face until the sow of the duo is soothed and satisfied. Luster needily smears her nasally mucus all over Anon's countenance while greedily snorting in and out of his nostrils, taking all that she can as she firmly reaffirms her connection with her beloved Boar. Anon, still feeling a bit subby from earlier, very briefly considers letting Luster assume full control of this face-to-face situation; however, he quickly banishes those thoughts to the ether, choosing to instead keep pace with his hungry pig and suckle her tongue into submission. He soon lets go of her nose ring, allowing the tip of it to rest against his forehead—placing them both under the same bond of steel. (I believe there's a certain degree of mutual debasement involved when you snort breath and twine tongues with a nose-ringed hog. Indeed, Anon has fully mired himself in her muck now.) Anon also takes the time to compare and contrast the breath sharing experiences between his mares. Luster is earthy and animalistic—while Flurry is gentle and romantic. (I admit that it might seem a bit odd to describe Flurry as "gentle and romantic" when considering her recent snorty actions. That being said, she really *is* a soft-hearted lover whenever she's at rest with her Master—this includes her Queenly Persona, too. It's just that she's *also* had a lot of reason to aggressively assert dominance over her King lately. But like I mentioned back in the Chapter 25 Section: Flurry's more of a mommydom mare if she can help it.) After finally soothing his sow, Anon pulls away from her face, stands up, turns around—and is suddenly pap pap papped in his own face by a magically levitating tissue. This is Flurry's doing, naturally. She saw the swinely snot staining her King's royal countenance as something that's highly beneath him and ought to be cleaned post-haste. (Anon, for his part, doesn't actually mind being messed up by his sow's fluids, but he's not going to risk potentially ruining his Queen's jovial mood over such a mucousy matter.) The rest of Luster's shackles are removed, Anon sits down next to her, she crawls onto his lap and happily sniffs at his bulge—and we soon move onto the anal bead scene. Flurry thinks that the string poking out of her bestie's butt is a red worm, proving that this alicorn is still quite the innocent mare; however, she's also *incredibly* curious as to what said "worm" could possibly be, showcasing her natural aptitude when it comes to learning about lewdness—and perhaps indicating that the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. (All in all, I figured that this scene would serve as a nice, light-hearted break between the two instances of Flurry attempting to subjugate Anon's mind—whether it be hormonally or pheromonally.) We also get a good look at Luster's chastity device here. It's coloured crimson, indicating Phantom Cozy's hoofwork, but there happens to be the symbol of a pink six-pointed star engraved upon the spot that covers up her clitoris. Curious. (This star is Princess Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark, and the fact that it's on Luster's chastity device is Phantom Cozy's way of further taunting and demeaning the unicorn. Phantom Cozy is basically saying that Luster Dawn, as she is now, may as well be Princess Twilight's personal property—a loyal lapdog that the Ruling Princess can eventually foist her own royal responsibilities unto like Princess Celestia did to her.) Anon then steadily pulls out nine golf-ball–sized anal beads from Luster's ass. Interestingly enough, they all bear that same starry symbol that was on the chastity device. (Why nine, you ask? Why, it's because there are nine seasons of MLP:FiM, of course!) (…Yes, I'm being serious. I just thought it'd be a fun little nod to how long the show went on for; after all, Luster Dawn herself showed up at the very last episode, so she has quite the legacy to live up to.) (There could also be a deeper narrative reason to the number nine, too. I did briefly consider the idea of it being related to the six Elements of Harmony within the show + the three pink mares within this story. But perhaps that would've been a little *too* abstract.) Flurry is in awe of the storage capacity that Luster's colon possesses, causing the alicorn's mind to buzz with potential butt-based punishments that she, as Alpha Mare, could rightfully inflict upon her unruly bestie. Anon, however, decides to stick up for his sow and tell Flurry not to "abuse" the knowledge that she's gleaned from the sight of this anal extradition. (He knows that his Queen has a dominant side. She's soft on him, sure—but he's worried about what she might do to Luster if the two were left alone.) Flurry is clearly caught out by her Master's sharp words, but quickly defers to his decree—and just-as-quickly changes the subject to something more sensual. Yes, it is indeed time for Anon to "ride his mare." Flurry makes herself comfortable on her heart-shaped bed—specifically, the pink-hued "Anon" half of this dreamy mattress. Anon himself is just about ready to come join her, but is stopped by a hoof weakly tugging at his thigh. It's Luster Dawn. And she wants him to stay with her. There's a slowly building tension in the air here. Flurry doesn't like what she's seeing, yet Luster can't help but express her earnest desire to become number one in Anon's heart, while her amber eyes sparkle with a fragile hope that he actually will choose her over Flurry. …Alas, Anon has no other choice but to shatter this unicorn's hopes as they are now. He attempts to let her down gently, but the reality of being cast aside like this crushes Luster's spirits. Maybe she really is just a dirty sow. (This was a small scene I added in during the proofreading and editing process. I figured that this interaction would be a good way to show why Luster is in the despondent state that she will be in Chapter 29.) (As for this chapter, Anon's quiet rejection has left Luster feeling both lowly and aimless. If her Boar belongs to his Queen—then this sow *also* belongs to her Queen. This is why Luster utterly submits to Flurry later, for she has zero will left to resist her.) Anon soon crawls over to Flurry's lying body and—after an obligatory baneposting reference—takes the time to appreciate her horsey form. (tl;dr big horse sexy) After positioning himself appropriately, Anon steadily penetrates her tight horsepussy—only to realise that her hymen has apparently regenerated. Flurry responds to his curiosity thus: ``` >"In this dream, anything is possible, Master~" ``` (She says it's because of this dream, but if you think about it: a changeling could probably regenerate their hymen in the real world, too.) From here, it's pretty clear that Flurry is steadily claiming control over this sexual encounter; her powerful horsepussy pistons Anon's human penis in and out, in and out—the only thing this "Master" can do is ride the tide. Funny, her teeth seem almost jagged at this angle, and that laugh: ``` >"Kehehe~" ``` It's unlike any he's ever heard before. He likes it. (Her Queenly Persona has once again fully taken over at this point.) This sex scene comes with a side of deep kissing, but eventually, King and Queen cum at the exact time, losing themselves in shared ecstasy. When it ends, though, Flurry pulls away from her kiss, and Anon takes the chance to lovingly gaze into his Queen's sanguine eyes. (I like the use of "sanguine" here. It could mean "cheerfully confident" or simply the colour red. There's a intentional sense of ambiguity as to its true meaning—which is perfect for the situation Anon now finds himself in.) During the afterglow, Anon falls face first into his Queen's fluffy tuft, and royal pheromones promptly flood his mind. Quickly realising how dangerous this part of her is, he tries to lift his head up and away from this floof zone—only to be gently pushed back down by a Queenly hoof. It all goes downhill from there. (Anon's inner narration exclusively refers to Flurry as his Queen for the rest of this scene, indicating his complete mental subjugation by her royal pheromones. He also does this the same thing in Chapter 36, too.) (Flurry also begins referring to Luster as simply "sow," as this is how her Queenly Persona views her.) Anon is mentally made into his Queen's royal breeding stud, while Luster comes to fulfil her assigned role as her King's royal ass cleaner. (In Flurry's head, making Luster worship Anon's ass is the alicorn's way making her bestie repent for how she treated him way back in Chapter 1.) From here, there's a lot of cumming, ass eating, tuft huffing, magical removal of refractory periods, cumming, squash soup drinking, total mental submission, royal breeding, cumming, and so on and so forth. (Also, there's this story's sole title drop somewhere in all of this. Kino.) Flurry has utterly dominated this scene and all those who participate in it, yet she is also being driven to delirium as she is relentlessly bred by her stud's Kingly fuckstick. Thus, she makes him cum, again and again and again and again. And because her libido is currently tied to his, she also cums, again and again and again and again. (Near the end of this segment, where Anon is made to cum multiple times in a row under duress of Luster's despoiling tongue and Flurry's pumping horsepussy, I decided to be cheeky with my wordplay and reference the four classical elements in the order: fire, earth, water, and wind—kudos to you if you caught that.) After that, this segment manages to turn even *more* flowery. The line between reality and ludicrous fuckery has been distorted quite heavily at this point, but this line: ``` >The three of you become closer than ever before, and the three of you become one, never to separate. ``` Is meant to be taken literally. Flurry's changeling cocoon made the three of them incredibly malleable to one another's influence—and at this point, they may as well have melted all together and formed one singular vat of primordial goop. Basically, they fucked up. Game over. … But the chapter's not over yet. Anon wakes up an indeterminate amount of time later, feeling utterly ravaged. There's no chance of him moving in this state—he can't even speak. His surroundings are soaked in an unfriendly gloom, and the world beyond this bed has been turned into a pitch-black void of stygian darkness. (This darkness is indicative of the dream ending very soon.) Looking down along his body, he notices his mares idly occupying themselves with his sweaty scrotum; Luster sniffs at his nuts, while Flurry cups the bottom of his sack with the pointed tips of her tongue and slimily massages his balls from below. (Yes, Flurry's tongue having pointed "tips" is intentional. Her Queenly transformation is more prominent than ever in this waning dream.) There's something different about these mares. Their pupils have returned to their natural blackness—while their irises are as red as blood and glow like an ominous beacon. (The redness indicates that they are now fully under Phantom Cozy's control. It seems that these two slaves never truly escaped the collar's dominion after all.) These mares both look and act robotic, emotionally working over Anon's sack with expressionless faces. There's no warmth in those eyes. However, there's a third pony here, too—or rather, the only filly in the mix. It's Phantom Cozy herself, and she has come to personally relish her Nonny's meat after a hard night's work. (In case it wasn't obvious from the rose petals sticking out of her totally tussled mane, she sprouted forth from Anon's companion bloom.) As mentioned at the end of the Chapter 19 Section, Phantom Cozy is effectively a god in this dream realm—she has always held all of the cards here. As such, the decision to let Flurry and Luster act independent of the collar's influence was one made at the pegasus's own "discretion." Because she can manipulate everyone and everything in this place as she pleases, it was foal's play for her to reconstitute Anon and his herd back into separate entities after they all merged together in a fit of passion. It was easy—but that doesn't mean she isn't disappointed in her Nonny for letting it happen. Thus, everything she does here is a way for her to relieve some spiritual stress and punish her favourite foalphile for being *such* a bad boy. To that end, after Phantom Cozy cheerily reintroduces herself to Anon, she gleefully makes "his mares" heatedly make out right in front of him. And these mares do indeed make out. (This was an…interesting scene to write. I wanted to make Anon, and by the extension the reader, feel utterly helpless during what transpires here. His two mares are essentially being stolen from him, both by each other and by Cozy's command. Because this is a waifu harem fic, I had no intention of including actual NTR or anything of the like; since this intimate interaction takes place within Anon's herd of mares, I don't think it's considered cheating. It is meant to feel uncomfortable, though.) At some point during this snorty snog, Flurry stuffs her whole tongue down Luster's throat and gradually chokes her out. The strangulatory sight makes Anon panic and fear for his sow's safety. He wants to stop Flurry and help Luster—he has to—but he can't. He's powerless. (This interaction between Flurry and Luster mirrors what Flurry did to Anon in Chapter 26, though with a much darker spin put on it.) It's then that Phantom Cozy calls for both mares to stop. As the primary aggressor in this throat-filling encounter, Flurry pulls away from Luster and leaves this sow utterly gasping for breath. Anon sees the impartiality of these ponies and wonders if these are even the same mares he remembers. Flurry, obviously, offers no verbal response to his unspoken question, for she is completely under Cozy's control. And yet…her extremely long tongue continues to hang from her laxly agape mouth, with its slimy length reaching all the way down to her neck's halfway point, and its forked tip idly lapping at the metal buckle of the green collar she still wears. With subtle movements unbeknownst to even a Phantom, Flurry spit shines her collar's buckle, making its message dimly glimmer in the dreary darkness. Anon can only barely make out its message, but he notes that it's the same one as before: "Belongs to Anonymous." (I didn't want to state the message outright within the chapter, because I believe that would've made the intent too obvious.) Flurry then flings a glob of Queenly spit right onto Anon's neck (where he still has his own collar), and recalls her tongue to lick at her sharp canines after the fact. (Basically, at least some part of Flurry is still calling out to him during all of this, letting him know that she will always belong to him, even in this state. And when she flings a glob of spit onto his neck, she's saying that *he* will always belong to *her*—this Queen shall not forget the bond she's forged with her King.) (The teeth licking afterwards is just her being sexy and Queenly. After all, she nearly made a meal of her herdmate back there. Flurry and Luster are currently unable to defy Phantom Cozy in any meaningful way, so all they can do is put their own meagre spin on how they carry out her orders.) (In Flurry's case, she chose to give her King a *real* show, making sure to assert complete and total dominance over her pig of a herdmate. Sure, she might have gone too far, but she also doesn't possess the cognitive capabilities required to second guess herself right now—so for Luster, it's either sink or swim.) (Speaking of Luster…well, actually, this sow has no "spin" to speak of. After everything she went through earlier in the dream, she can no longer muster up any kind of defiance towards her betters—so if her Queen aims to choke her out, so be it.) After this, Phantom Cozy praises her Nonny by saying that "we've" trained them well, and considering how this version of Cozy is a direct manifestation of the collar's magic—she's not exactly wrong. She then playfully muses aloud: ``` >"Who would've thought that Flurry-wurry over here—" She playfully gestures towards your Queen. "—had such a deep inferiority complex when it came to her bestie-westie?" >Widening her eyes and facing you, she lifts both forehooves and points them in towards her chest. >"Golly, well *I* certainly didn't!" >She innocently flutters her eyelids at you, doing so for perhaps a bit too long. ``` Could she be inferring something? Hm. (Well, if you've read the Cozy part of Flurry's Character Section, then you probably already know.) From here, it's a straight shot to the end of this chapter as Phantom Cozy uses her youthful wiles and pubescent tongue to deliver unto Anon a most devilish filly blowjob. (I tried, but despite the crimson glares and playful insults, I feel as if the "humiliation" aspect of this foalcon scene might've fallen a bit flat; then again, maybe it's just my own total lack of shame regarding the matter. Still, I think the fellatio itself is good stuff, so I can't complain there.) Once Anon busts a fat nut inside this filly's mouth, Phantom Cozy spends some more time teasing her partner over his proclivities, before she soon notices the encroaching darkness. Indeed, the dream is finally ending, and so is this chapter, for that matter. As Anon's vision dims into blurry somnolence, he hears Cozy blow a pulpy kiss his way, obviously not bothered by the abyss in the slightest. And thus the darkness claims him. (The last line here mirrors the one where Anon enters Cozy's hedge maze. Back then, he was "consumed by light"—but here, he's "claimed by darkness." So, while the beginning of this chapter is honestly a bit iffy (but ultimately functional), once Anon sets his rose down on Flurry's dresser, the rest of this chapter becomes a nonstop roller coaster of Queenly domination, animalistic intimacy, big mare sex, breeding studification, relentless mare-on-man anilingus, ludicrously sloppy mare-on-mare kissing, and some good old fashioned foalcon. All in all, I'm super happy with this one. One of my aims with this chapter's closing scene was to hit the reader the same way that it hit Anon—with a fatigued sentiment of "holy fuck…this chapter's still going…?" Personally, I'm pretty pleased with how things played out, as I feel that the marathon of intimacy perfectly sets up the narrative sledgehammer of commandeered control. On a final note, this chapter is surprisingly similar to Chapter 14, isn't it? >Both chapters take place in Flurry's bedroom. Both chapters feature Luster in bondage. Both chapters feature Flurry dominating her Master in a deep tongue-coiling kiss. Both chapters feature Anon doing Flurry missionary style as she wraps him up within her wings. Both chapters feature Luster putting that swinely tongue of hers to good use; in Chapter 14, she goes down on Flurry's creampied horsepussy—while in Chapter 28, she voraciously eats out Anon's virgin ass. ` ` But hey, what do you think? Is Chapter 28 a masterfully executed reflection of Chapter 14? Or am I just a hack writer who can't help but reuse the same story beats over and over? You decide! (…Although I think me saying that it was "surprisingly" similar was kinda a self-own in that regard, lol.) #### Chapter 29: the dream epilogue (13k~ words) This is a surprisingly long chapter that mainly serves as a recap of the dream's events. That said, I don't think this length is a bad thing. In fact, I think this relaxed, retrospective pacing serves as the perfect breather after what happened in the previous chapter. Throughout this chapter's events, Anon and Luster are able to convalesce in bed together while Flurry remains asleep. This provides Anon with an excellent opportunity to lift Luster's spirits after what she suffered through in the dream world. Luster herself is incredibly despondent at the start of this chapter. But through the act of casually recapping this dream's events with her Boar, she finds herself feeling more and more at ease cuddled up next to his soothing presence. (This is part of the reason why I think this chapter's length suits its intent; it wouldn't have felt right to have Anon pull Luster out of her downcast state with a simple 2k~ word chapter. In cases such as these, I believe some friendly fondling and amiable small talk is necessary to set the stage a little. It's filler with a purpose, basically.) Incidentally, this very beginning of this chapter mirrors that of Chapter 4. This is intentional, as it's meant to evoke a sense of familiarity within the reader; Anon has finally left Flurry's magical dream, and he's now returned to the real world—and to his real-world bedroom. (This is a very subtle difference, but Anon's pillow is "mildly damp" in Chapter 4, indicating that he might have drooled on it in his sleep or something. But in this chapter, Anon's pillow is "slightly slimy"—as in, changeling slime. His pillow's current slimy state is all thanks to lingering residue left by Flurry's changeling cocoon. Her cocoon has mostly disintegrated at this point, leaving no visible traces, yet faint vestiges of moisture can still be felt here and there.) Also, Luster herself harbours some suspicion regarding Flurry's true nature, which is subtly indicated by the "brief pursing pause" she takes when she refers to Flurry's spell (as well as the moment later on where she hesitantly states that Flurry is "powered by love"). That being said, Luster doesn't actually have any concrete evidence over this buggy matter; she's only operating on a curious hunch. But this hunch is what will inspire her to casually bring up changelings as a conversation point in Chapter 30. Once we get into the recap proper, Luster's recollection of the dream's events indicate that she viewed things through a slightly different lens—particularly when Phantom Cozy got involved. (It could have also been memory manipulation done after the fact at Phantom Cozy's behest. But honestly, this is one of those mysteries that doesn't require a concrete answer.) After Anon and Luster finish recapping the dream's events together, Anon decides that it's finally time to lift his sow's spirits as he planned. And so, after a rousing speech from Boarish human to swinely mare, Anon passionately christens Luster Dawn as his Mated Sow: a pig without equal—and a hog held close to his heart. (Incidentally, like I mentioned way earlier in this Afterword: Luster being Anon's "Mated Sow" is an inverse of Flurry being Anon's "Soulmate"—truly, a more fitting title could not have been chosen for Anon's beloved pet pig.) From this point onwards, Anon begins referring to his Sow with proper capitalisation, indicating his heightened respect for her piggish profession. Later on in this scene, Luster removes her red hairband, thus unravelling her nerdy ponytail and letting her locks flow as free as an untamed flame. She then tosses said band out of sight and out of mind, proudly proclaiming "No take backs~" after the fact. (You can consider this sudden change of manestyle to be Character Development™.) (Truth be told, I do quite like this mare's ponytail; it makes her look both cute and homely. Despite its clear charm, though, I also see great necessity in its symbolic sacrifice. After all, through removing her red hairband, Luster has just wilfully cast aside everything which holds her back—her upright morals, her propensity for good, and even her loyalty to her mentor—all so that she may become the perfect Queen of Swine for her Boarish King.) (At this point, Luster's loyalty belongs solely to her Master. His ambition is now *her* ambition, and she shall happily subjugate Equestria and all its wombs in her Boar's glorious name.) From here, Boar and Sow begin getting lovey-dovey with one another—messily so, in fact, as this is where they start lovingly licking the mucous and tears off of each other's faces. (Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, this *is* pretty gross, but this is a Luster Dawn scene—so graceless gestures like these shouldn't really surprise you at this point. In any case, I did try to be careful with my wordplay here in order to give this intimate act some semblance of elegance.) (To be honest, mucous-related matters like these aren't my fetish, yet I still can't help but see a certain romance in how base this behaviour is. These two mated pigs are basically performing pair bonding activities with each other, which I think is kinda heartwarming in its own filthy way.) Near the end of this chapter, the alarm clock beeps out its morning beeps, cutting Anon and Luster's raunchy revelries short—and prompting a slumbering Flurry to suddenly lift up that mechanical siren within her changeling magic and smash it against a nearby wall, ending its existence permanently. This marks the first meaningful character death of the story. Rest in peace, alarm clock-chan; you will be missed. (All throughout Pink Haze, this alarm clock was meant to evoke a "Cozy" feeling within the reader, hence why its numerics glowed red—and hence why Phantom Cozy popped out of Anon's clock during Chapter 21. In this way, Flurry's destructive display of snoozy spellcraft could be considered very subtle foreshadowing towards the fact that this dozy alicorn would end up thwarting her bestie's well-laid scheme in the end.) After utterly eradicating the source of those vexing beeps for good, Flurry sleepily snuggles up to her King's chest and mumbles out some very, er, buggy remarks. Luster, having seen and heard all of this, is currently thinking "Oh heck, Flurry might actually *be* a changeling." Anon, on the other hand, isn't thinking anything more than a "Well damn." That marks the end of this chapter, as well as the official end of the "Dream Arc." There's still a bit more of Part 3 to go, of course, but Chapters 30-37 are all going to take place in the same royal bedchamber, so buckle in and get comfy—'cause the "Cozy Arc" is about to begin. #### Chapter 30: the bedroom comfiness (13k~ words) You can consider this chapter to be the comfy calm before the Cozy Storm. At this point in the story, Flurry has begun to realise the buggy reality of her own changeling corruption. This is why she acts so unsure of herself—because she's worried that her King will hate her if he finds out that his Soulmate is steadily becoming a chitinous monster. This is also why she pleads for his trust during the massage scene; she's speaking directly from the heart here. Even though her mind may be full of self-doubt and self-distrust, she can't help but beg solace from her Soulmate, for she instinctively understands that his honest words will put her chittering soul at ease. When Anon warmly states to Flurry that she has his full implicit trust, she begins to mutter: ``` >"Full implicit trust…" she quietly repeats your words. >You mutely nod in response. >She slowly blinks, eyes slightly shimmering. >"Even…even if…" >She trails off into silence. ``` During this moment, Flurry was mentally debating whether she should tell him about the truth of her Queenly nature. She could very well have revealed herself here—alas, a studious interruption from Luster Dawn shoves Flurry's buzzing thoughts right to the back of her head. Luster soon joins Anon and Flurry, and from here: the topic turns to Princess Twilight Sparkle. I won't lie, these conversations are pure sequel bait; they don't have much to do with the story of Pink Haze other than giving Flurry and Luster a chance to amiably banter about various topics. However, I think the relative mundanity suits this particular chapter just fine; after all, these two mares were basically at each other's throats for a good chunk of the story, so it's nice to finally give their renewed relationship some time to breathe. (Of course, they still have a ways to go before they can once again consider each other proper besties. But hey—baby steps.) Later on in this chapter, Flurry goes off to write in her diary, leaving Anon and Luster to casually chat about what this chubby unicorn could become a princess of, should she eventually succeed in achieving alicornhood. The topic turns from Lust to Gluttony, and Anon coyly begins treating Luster like a piece of meat as he eyes up her bounteous body with a predator's gaze. The idea of being her Boar's mate while also being this human's next potential meal obviously crosses some *very* stimulating wires for Luster Dawn—and so she heartily accepts being her Master's loyal preywife. (This exchange was pretty hot, but I debated getting rid of it once I got to writing a similar "prey-focused" scene with Cozy in Chapter 35, as I initially felt like giving both Luster *and* Cozy a prey kink would be redundant.) (However, I ultimately decided to keep this scene in, as I believed it to be perfectly fine if two mares within the same herd both fantasise about being the prey animal to their strong sexy human predator. Hell, this shared kink could very well give Luster and Cozy something to bond over in the future.) (I can see it now: unicorn and pegasus both lying atop an oversized plastic dinner plate, their bellies sensually squished together, their bodies covered in delicious condiments, their mouths closed around opposite ends of the same red apple, their lovingly lidded eyes gazing up at their omnivorous Master ominously looming above the both of them—and their expressions silently begging him to take an indulgently large bite out of his two willing meals and sate his huge human appetite…) (…Ehem. Anyway. Even if both mares share the same prey kink, I think they'd each approach it in their own unique way.) (Luster would be a highly submissive prey, completely folding to her Boar's hunger should he ever desire to make a meal of his mate.) (Cozy, as we will later see in Chapter 35, would effectively be a "power bottom" prey. She would implicitly understand and accept her rightful place beneath her Partner on the food chain, yet she'd also make sure he knows where his chompers belong at all times. In other words—she's the kind of prey who'd assertively grab her predator by the sides of his head, forcibly shove his stupid face right up against her own vulnerable neck, and straight-up *command* him to slake his beastly hunger with her toned body until the *both* of them are satisfied.) (Flurry, on the other hoof, wouldn't be prey at all. Owing to her Queenly instincts, she would view herself and her King as bonded apex predators. She passively and actively feeds off of his love, sure, but she would instinctually recognise him as her one true equal nonetheless. Thus, while it's unlikely she'd ever offer herself as a meal for her Master—she'd be more than happy to team up with him as they greedily predate upon their "inferior" herdmates together.) (Uh, yeah. This was quite the strange tangent, wasn't it? But I figured it'd be worth jotting this fantasy down somewhere just in case it interests someone. Just to be clear, though, this isn't necessarily a vore thing. Rather, I see it more as a delectable extension of pre-existing herd dynamics; by denoting Anon and Flurry as the "predators," while Luster and Cozy become the "prey," an interesting hierarchy is established. It's not exactly the standard dom/sub dynamic we've come to expect from these individuals—after all, Cozy might be "prey," but she's still willing and able to assert dominance when needed—but I think this kind of dynamic could be something well worth exploring in a future foursome scene.) Let's take a moment to fully cleanse ourselves from that voracious wall of bracketed text. … Okay, good, let's move on. Back to this chapter, you might notice that Anon never directly confronts Flurry on whether she's a Changeling Queen or not; this is because he has no idea what a Changeling Queen even is, so he has no idea on how to bring up this particular topic with respect to his Soulmate's delicate sensibilities. (After all, simply asking Flurry: "Hey, are you secretly a freaky monster?" would be far too gauche of an approach—even for the likes of Anon.) Luster, though, knows *exactly* what a Changeling Queen is, for she has extensively studied all of her mentor's storied exploits during her own pursuits for worldly knowledge—thus, she's read about the likes of Queen Chrysalis and her black brood more than once. With all she's seen of her herdmate so far, Luster is more than a little curious as to Flurry's true nature; however, as Luster is also deeply afraid of incurring Flurry's full wrath, she made sure to hold her tongue up until this point. (Rule one of hanging out with Flurry Heart—NEVER compare her to a changeling if you value your life.) However, Anon's comforting presence and mutual curiosity in the matter is a major confidence booster for Luster; now that she knows she has her Boar backing her up, she feels a lot more comfortable in attempting to broach this buggy subject. And so, driven by interest and intrigue, Luster clumsily steers this conversation towards the volatile topic of changelingkind, hoping to coax a buggy confession out of her alicorn herdmate. It goes about as well as you'd expect—with Flurry shooting Luster a sharp glare, promptly shutting this Sow up. (That being said, I like to imagine Luster as embodying the spirit of the reader during this moment, getting right down to brass tacks and bringing up changelings directly. This unicorn is just as curious as we are.) Still, the wheels of this Queen's self-doubt have a way of spinning on their own, causing her to launch into a sombre tirade about how truly disgusting changelings are—and how her Master would hate her if she actually happened to be one. This is where Anon takes the chance to emphatically reassure his anxious Soulmate that he'd love her no matter what species she is. Flurry takes this speech to heart, implicitly knowing that her Soulmate means every word, and it's thanks to this heart-to-heart exchange that she receives a huge morale boost in regards to her Queenly nature. She's still a bit shaky about it, of course, but she has at long last been given the push she needed to stop living in denial and start accepting her buggier side as a genuine part of herself. To celebrate this newfound conviction, Flurry uses this opportunity to make her pupils contract to vertical slits right before her Master's eyes. Needless to say, this is a changeling characteristic, and Flurry knows it, too. She might not be enveloping her whole body in blue flame and revealing black chitin any time soon, but she's comfortable enough with showing her King a small sign of the Queen that lurks beneath, for she now knows that he shall always be there to support her. (Incidentally, Flurry would re-use this "parlour trick" on her mother during Chapter 38, showcasing just how far this Queen has come in regards to her own self-realisation.) That's enough of that, though—for it's high time for Cozy Glow to finally enter the fray. #### Chapter 31: the cozy enters (6k~ words) This chapter features Anon and Cozy chatting it up. The whole scene is basically one big setup to the punchline of an overly cocky Anon getting instant loss'd by Cozy in the very next chapter. I enjoyed writing the "tension" in this chapter. Both partners are obviously sussing each other out; Anon plans to betray Cozy, and Cozy plans to betray Anon. In Cozy's case, though, she plans to savour her moment of imminent victory first. Also, from pretty much the very moment Cozy enters Flurry's bedroom, the pegasus begins exerting a passive yet absolute dominion over both of Anon's mares. Thus, neither Flurry nor Luster can act against Cozy at this point, as each of their minds have been softened into a more placid and servile state. Flurry, owing to her strong Queenly instincts, is the only one who can even think of acting against Cozy's overpowering will. And if she so desired, Flurry could attempt to throw a Hail Mary through Cozy's constrictive dominion and take a magical potshot at the pegasus herself. However, Flurry really doesn't want to act rashly in this moment; not only because she knows that Cozy will retaliate hard and fast over the slightest misstep (see the pegasus's "memory wipe" command in Chapter 32, as well as her "self-destruct" command in Chapter 33), but also because she doesn't want to hurt Cozy. Instead, Flurry wishes to form a herd with her bestie, and to do that, she needs Cozy to accept Anon's influence just as she has. With all this in mind, Flurry's true plan throughout this chapter and the next is to steadily acclimate herself to Cozy's applied influence. And once her potent Queenly magic has been utterly inoculated by the collar's heightened subjugation, Flurry should be able to devise a catch-all counterspell that protects both herself and her herd from further thralldom. From there, it would've just been a matter of "convincing" Cozy to make her own matching collar, and Flurry would soon be welcoming her second bestie into the herd. (As it so happens, Cozy already brought her "matching collar" with her to this chapter. How thoughtful of her.) It's a risky gambit—one that ends up having Anon be totally humiliated and mentally subjugated by his partner—but it does pay off in the end. Flurry does eventually succeed in bringing these two partners together on equally amiable terms, and for that, this alicorn will feel extremely gratified. During the truffle scene, Flurry uses her magic to snatch up one of Cozy's truffles before the pegasus herself can reach for it. This act of impudence makes Cozy curtly narrow her eyes at the alicorn, but she soon moves on, not thinking much else of it. (This indirect infraction was a subtle indicator that Flurry wasn't fully under Cozy's control.) (That being said, you might be wondering *why* Flurry chose to undermine Cozy's influence in such a way; after all, as low-key as this defiance was, it still could've potentially blown the alicorn's cover and caused Cozy to take more drastic measures in controlling Anon's mares.) (Well, as alluded to in Chapter 33, Flurry was partially testing the limits of her latitude—but honestly, this was more of an emotional response from her; even though she's supposed to be playing the part of an aloof slave right now, she just really wanted to give her Master one of his favourite truffles.) There's a moment where Anon realises that Cozy actually lives in this Crystal Castle, which catches Anon off guard. (I wonder how much of a contrivance this feels like to the readers. Personally, I don't think it's that bad. Anon's main priority before this chapter was to conquer the Crystal Empire alongside his mares—dealing with Cozy Glow would've come after that. Thus, he never really felt the need to ask Flurry if she knew where Cozy lived.) (Also, when Anon says that he had been "meaning to visit Cozy ever since he collared Luster," this was meant to be more of an idle fantasy in his head than a serious thought.) At the very end of this chapter, Anon pulls out the jobber thumb; you love to see it. #### Chapter 32: the cozy dominates (12k~ words) This chapter features Cozy enslaving Anon and winning it all. Even back while I was first conceptualising this green, I wanted to have a "Bad End" where Cozy Glow would end up the ultimate victor. Initially, I planned to have such a scenario be completely separate from the main story, but after scrapping my "original vision" for this plot and setting forth on my "new vision" (I mentioned this waaay back in the Chapter 4 Section), I decided that it would be far more fitting if Anon was utterly humbled and humiliated by Cozy in a most canonical manner. This way, the reader is forced to witness just how ruthless Cozy can really be, which I think adds a lot to her villainous appeal. In the end, I'm super happy with how this one came out. Since we're here, let's have a fun little recap on what Cozy's plan was throughout Pink Haze from start to finish. @WORLD DOMINATION PLAN #652 — TITLE: PROJECT NONNY @Goal: Golly, to conquer Equestria, of course! @Method: To mindbreak her own friends into complete and utter servitude. It's far too risky for "rehabilitating" ex-villain like her to attempt this directly, so she'll instead have that stupidly gullible human do her dirty work for her—and then mindbreak him into her personal throne afterwards. Easy peasy. @Information Gathering: During this preliminary period, Cozy researched Sombra's mind-control collar and sought to reproduce it using her own blood. She also took it upon herself to learn as much as she could about her human patsy—n-not because she liked learning about him or anything, but purely because the more she knew about him, the easier it would be to manipulate him. That's all. @Collar Production #1: After many disheartening failures in the lab, Cozy finally succeeded in reproducing a mind-control collar of her very own. She carefully cut its crystals into perfectly spherical shapes, infused them with her malignant blood, and—guided by a faint sense of sentimentality—added in a sample of Chrysalis's DNA at the same time. Once she finished embedding these crystals into the collar itself, she had the perfect tool to break in a royal bimbo. Wonderful. @The Setup: Now that one of her tools was good to go, she only had to get the other one ready and revengeful. Fast forward to Chapter 1, where Cozy guided her two bitchy besties towards this slipshod massage parlour, watched the both of them utterly humiliate the human masseur inside, and walked away with a knowing smile upon her face. Mission accomplished. @The Partnership: From here, it was easy enough to get that gullible human to do her bidding. All it took was a few sweet treats and a liberal use of her silver tongue, and Cozy had her Nonny practically salivating at the thought of enslaving an alicorn. Thus, the collar was soon passed on from mare to man, and all Cozy had to do was watch and wait. @Flurry Enslaved: Success! It turned out that the collar actually does work after all. With this in mind, Cozy visited her partner to personally congratulate him before setting about crafting her second collar. @Collar Production #2: Same principle as the first collar; if it ain't broke, don't fix it. This time, though, she added in Tirek's DNA instead of Chrysalis's, wishing to spice things up a little—and perhaps ensure that both of her ex-cohorts' evil legacies are honoured in this pegasus's conquest. @The Continued Partnership: Cozy now had her second collar, and she also had her second target—Luster Dawn. Now, she only needed to pass said collar over to her partner and wait for the good news. @Luster Enslaved: Success! Sure, there were some…complications here and there, and Cozy had to lay low for a while after the setback that was Chapter 12 (however, let it be known that Cozy had at least five contingency plans ready to go had her Nonny ultimately failed to collar Luster), but thankfully, Cozy's partner proved his worth to her yet again. And with two slaves now under Anon's belt, Cozy only needed to keep her head down and get to work on crafting her third collar. @Collar Production #3: This one was designed specifically for her Nonny, and as such, she made sure to cut this collar's crystals into cute heart shapes, signifying her earnest endearment for her idiot partner. She also excluded any other villainous substances other than her own, too—as she wanted to make sure that he belonged to her and her alone. @The Transformed Partnership: With her third collar now in hoof, Cozy is finally ready to visit her Nonny and claim what she's owed… ` ` And this brings us up to Chapter 32, where Cozy is about to assert her hard-won victory over her Nonny and make him her slave. Flurry is once again playing dumb throughout this chapter, to the point where she has even willingly tapped into her changeling biology in order to hide her heartbeat from her Soulmate. This subterfuge of the soul happens to be extremely uncomfortable for her—both physically and emotionally. Physically, it feels to her like she's holding her breath for hours on end—and at this point, she lost all of her proverbial "oxygen" ages ago, leaving her with nothing but an asphyxiating tightness in her pained heart. Emotionally, she hates the idea of lying to her Master above all else, but in her eyes, she doesn't have any other option—this was the only way she could think of to safely get both Anon and Cozy on the page and in the same loving herd. Flurry truly thought that, as long as she pretended to be fully under her bestie's control, Cozy would harmlessly revel in her decisive victory for a little while longer, which would've allowed Flurry to secretly finish her counterspell with no added fuss. From there, Flurry could cast her counterspell, save her Master, subjugate Cozy Glow—and live happily ever after with her full herd of four. To Flurry's credit, this plan could very well have actually worked, but then…well, Luster happened. Luster, bless her swinish little heart, actually manages to resist Cozy's utterly domineering will, allowing her to partially act against the pegasus. It's admirable, really—a true testament to her steadfast loyalty towards her Boar. Unfortunately for both Luster and Flurry, though, Cozy despises insubordination of any kind, and so she orders her slaves to fully wipe clean their memories of Anon, thus stamping out any further defiance entirely. (If Luster had stayed quiet and not resisted at all, Cozy wouldn't have resorted to such a nuclear measure, while Flurry could've saved both the day and the herd—basically, Luster fucked up Flurry's initial plan. Bad pig.) With their memories of Anon now erased, Flurry and Luster promptly turn into far meaner mares, behaving completely different from the loyal slaves that we've come to know and love throughout Pink Haze. (Here, I wanted to evoke the cruel pink bitches that we saw from the very first chapter.) Flurry turns exceptionally cold towards Anon, seemingly seeing him as nothing more than a pleb. However, her heart still beats true for him, and it is this heartfelt loyalty towards her eternal Soulmate that allows her to unconsciously continue developing her counterspell in secret and outside of Cozy's mental influence. Alas, with the memories in her mind now gone, Flurry herself can do little else but feel a strange, abstract fondness for this "pleb" whenever she lays eyes on him. She doesn't exactly *dislike* him, per se, but she knows how to read the room, and she knows that feigning disinterest towards him while she remains under her Empress's appraisive eye is the best action to take for both him and herself. (This version of Flurry is a lot more reserved. She'll impassively obey every order received from her Empress, even if it involves punishing or humiliating Anon in some way. But if this alicorn is ever given some amount of alone time with Anon—she wouldn't be averse to showing him a few small acts of kindness here and there.) Luster, on the other hoof, turns heatedly sadistic towards Anon. She doesn't even regard him as a "humie" in this state, as to her, he's simply an "ape"—a rightless beast born only to be tamed by his betters. Under the dominion of this crimson collar, Luster's loyalty now belongs solely to Empress Cozy Glow, making this mare ever quick to defend her Empress's honour should any dissenters speak out of turn. But because of her shared destiny with Anon, Luster's body still recognises him to be her one true mate, yet without any pleasant memories or pre-existing fondness to temper her thoughts of him, she views him only as a prime piece of fuckmeat—something to *claim* and *ravage* and *breed.* (This version of Luster is basically her Chapter 1 interpretation cranked up to eleven. She'll gleefully follow her Empress's every command to the letter, especially if it involves debasing or degrading Anon in any way. And if this unicorn is ever given any amount of alone time with Anon—she'd absolutely violate him.) (Honestly, I do quite like entertaining the idea of an extended "Bad End" scenario where Flurry and Luster's memories were wiped for good and Cozy truly won. Anon's mind would've still been protected by Flurry's mental ward, of course, but he would've now had to live with the reality of Cozy's new regime and make the most of what he had.) (Ultimately, though, I deemed this extended scenario to be far outside the scope and theming of this fic—so I had Flurry develop her counterspell asap. Still, it's really fun to fantasise about. Hell, maybe I'll even write it as an AU green some day. I think there's a lot of potential in this.) (Actually, fuck it. Let's expand on this AU a little further; I'm envisioning a story where, in an alternate timeline where Chapter 32 truly *did* mark the end of Anon's Masterly journey, he now lives in utter servitude to his Empress and her two minions.) (Cozy would be incredibly capricious, treating her Nonny like a toy to be played with however she pleases. She'd regard him with an overall fondness, yet she also wouldn't hesitate to demean him for her own whimsical amusement, whether that be by using his stupid sittable face as her personal throne for most of the day—or by ordering either of her two minions to dominate and defile her Nonny right before her lecherous eyes.) (Side note on what I just said above: I know that Cozy is very possessive of her Nonny, but I also think it stands to reason that once Cozy gets both of her bestie-turned-slaves properly settled in under her absolute dominion, she'll start to consider them as tried and true "extensions" of herself; thus, she'll feel far more comfortable in having either Flurry or Luster fuck her Nonny in her stead. She may also consider their access to her Nonny's loins to be a suitable reward for her minions' obedience—alternatively, she's safely indulging in a repressed cuckquean kink. Take your pick.) (Luster would be incredibly cruel, treating her ape like a slab of meat to be used and abused at her perverse leisure. In this timeline, her moral code would've been completely corrupted by the collar's influence, turning her into an oppressively antagonistic force who takes great joy in seeing how low she can make Anon sink.) (Still, if this "ape" happens to be one who's willing to weather the brunt of her sadistic storm and attempt to reconnect with the mare inside, then…maybe…) (Flurry would be the only mare of the three to treat Anon with any humanity, but only when the two of them are alone together. Otherwise, she would coldly follow Cozy's command, perhaps bringing in some of her own magical BDSM knowledge into the mix to both impress her Empress and further humiliate Anon. However, outside of "Cozy hours," I can see Flurry taking the time to tend to Anon and make sure he's as comfortable as possible. She'd be a bit of a awkward switch during these moments, tentatively letting Anon release his built-up stresses and frustrations upon her willing body, yet also wishing to gently femdom him in return. These intimate yet experimental moments between Anon and Flurry would feel warm and welcoming in comparison to the rest of this proposed story—being a breath of fresh air from Cozy's whimsy and Luster's ruthlessness.) (Even though Flurry's original memories of Anon would be long gone at this point, her horsey heart would still earnestly beat right next to his, and there'd be a part of her that wishes *he* was her Master instead of Cozy Glow. If only there was a way for Flurry to make it so—maybe a spell to nullify Cozy's influence or something…?) (As mentioned earlier, Flurry's mental ward would still be active throughout this story, and thus it would still be constantly protecting his mind. This would safeguard him from any permanent effects that may come from the worst of Luster's mental pillaging, but it would also mean that he'd have to manually submit himself to his Empress whenever he's in her divine presence. "Thankfully," the collar's subjugating magic would continue to hold notable sway over his psyche, making it ever easy to accept her rightful dominion—yet ensuring that he remains his own person all no matter what.) (Now, as for the general plot of this AU story. I can see it primarily revolving around the day-to-day life of Anonymous as he involuntarily serves under Empress Cozy Glow. There'd be a ton of femdom mixed in with plenty of various fetishes throughout. The main narrative would focus on Anon and Flurry gradually rebuilding their relationship together, starting from apathetic fuckbuddies under Cozy's watchful eye and moving all the way up to close lovers who earnestly canoodle each other in secret. Along this smutty journey, Flurry would also learn of the counterspell that had she had long since unconsciously finished, but stashed deep away inside her heart. And at the climax of this story, Flurry would successfully cast this counterspell, finally freeing everypony from Cozy's dominion and thus hoofing the reins of Masterly control back to Anon once more. Add in a couple sex scenes after the fact to seal the deal—and there's your good ending.) (Alternatively, if you're the kind of a guy that prefers a much darker ending, perhaps the counterspell could end up failing. And Cozy, upon realising what Flurry had just tried to do, would *thoroughly* punish the alicorn; to do so, she'd briefly consider wiping the alicorn's memories again, but decide against it, choosing instead to break off Flurry's horn and place her in permanent bondage, seeing her continued insolence as an absolutely unforgivable sin. From there, Anon would be forced to watch both Cozy and Luster gleefully use and abuse a pitifully repentant Flurry just as they gleefully used and abused him, and he would be forced to live with the knowledge that it was *his* fault—*his* love—that doomed Flurry to this sordid fate. A part of Anon would irreparably die that day, and he would find it easier than ever to submit to Cozy's rightful dominion from then on out.) (…Yeesh. That *was* a bit dark, wasn't it? None of this is canon to Pink Haze, of course; these are all hypothetical scenarios, so I'm more than fine with spitballing a few obscene ideas here and there. Who knows—maybe it was enough to get *your* brain juices flowing.) Anyway, back to the story at hand; Cozy successfully collars Anon, placing him under her total control—or so she thinks. Now that Anon has "accepted" Cozy's cogent influence, Flurry's honest heart no longer has any reason to hide itself from its other half—and so Flurry's heart reveals itself to Anon's, ensuring that they both warmly beat in unison once more. It's at this point that Anon implicitly realises that his Queen had been playing the long con this entire time. He finds solace in this fact, while his heart wordlessly pledges to Flurry's that he'll play along so she may finish her counterspell undetected. Thus, Anon willingly subsumes himself in Cozy's subjugating sway, becoming the Nonny that she so craves—yet unbeknownst to the pegasus, his mind is actually being safeguarded by Flurry's mental ward right now, ensuring that her dominion can't dig its fangs in too deep. (To be clear, Anon still feels a *strong* compulsion to capitulate to his Empress—which is why his inner narration is describing this situation so submissively in this chapter—but it's not an absolute compulsion. It's kind of like stepping into a nice hot bath on a cool winter's day; it feels really, *really* good, but you can still pull yourself out of it with enough applied willpower—though you might as well enjoy a good soak while you're here, eh?) Just before Anon begins worshipping Cozy's hindhoof, we get this choice bit of narration right here: ``` >You look up at your Queen— >And you know that you must serve your Empress. ``` (Tooting my own horn here, but I'm pretty proud of these two lines; I think they're pretty slick.) The fact that Anon thinks of Flurry as his Queen here is a subtle indicator that he knows she isn't truly lost to him; after all, why else would he refer to one of Cozy's slaves with such a noble title? (Also, earlier on in this chapter when Cozy told Flurry to "let him have it," the fact that Flurry specifically referred to Anon as a "pleb" here is a subtle indicator that she still holds him near and dear to her heart. Admittedly, this familiar moniker might not mean much by itself, but when you directly compare it with how Luster had callously called Anon an "ape" moments ago—the contrast becomes ever more poignant.) The rest of this chapter is some pretty sexy femdom. Good stuff. Incidentally, this chapter marks the end of Part 3, which also makes this the last chapter of the last visible part on ponepaste. I wanted this "Bad End" to feel like a proper fake-out ending, but at the same time, I didn't wish to make the actual finale of this story needlessly obscure to locate. The compromise I chose was to make Part 4 an unlisted paste while also intentionally leaving it out of the "Links and Kinks" Section of the first three parts. That way, the only way that you'd reasonably find Part 4 is by scrolling down a little past the ***END**? of Part 3 and following the link at the bottom of the paste. (Or by following a third-party link found elsewhere, but that's neither here nor there.) Ultimately, I think this was a good call. Call me an anal bastard who loves surprises, but I wanted to maintain the sanctity of this fake-out ending as much as I could. Plus, as I mentioned in the Chapter 22 Section, by making Part 3 the last visible part, I think marginally more people will randomly happen across the cute Anon X Flurry Heart chapter right at the beginning. I like that chapter; it's good oneshot material. #### Chapter 33: the exposition (9k~ words) This one is…well, it's exposition. (More like Exposition 33, heh.) (…God, I wonder how dated that reference will be when people finally get around to reading this Afterword.) Not too much to say on this one. Its purpose is being self-explanatory, after all. Oh, but near the beginning of this chapter, while Cozy is fumbling with "her" crystal crown, a crimson-eyed Flurry Heart regards Anon with both a rising smirk and a sly wink. It's quite the flirty gesture, but perhaps not the most appropriate one to use when considering what Anon has just gone through. And Flurry herself would agree with that sentiment, because it wasn't her who did it—it was actually Phantom Cozy, who is temporarily puppeteering Flurry's body through her totally enthralled mind. This collar incarnate merely wished to tease her Nonny for a little bit before thwarting the well-laid scheme of her real-world counterpart. Later on, when Anon asks Flurry how she managed to get her memories out of her heart, Flurry responds with this: ``` >"You could say that I…" >Her wistful smile becomes more of a bashful one. >"…had a helping hoof." ``` This is meant to indicate that Phantom Cozy helped Flurry out, and that Flurry knows it was her. It's a very subtle reference, but Flurry's dialogue here is meant to mirror a certain interaction in Chapter 24; back then, when Flurry asked Anon how he reached the balcony, he responded with this: ``` "But don't worry; everything's cool now. Someone was kind enough to point me in the right direction." >"Huh?" She tilts her head. "Someone…pony?" >You nod, patting the upper left pocket of your bathrobe with your right hand. "Let's just say I had a helping hoof," you say with a smile. ``` Phantom Cozy is implicated in both exchanges, hence the connection. I wonder how many people caught onto that reference—or any of many other times that I've reused dialogue within this story to similar effect, such as mares "loving their secrets" or Anon and Cozy "always wanting more." Obviously, I won't go over all of them; that'd be a fool's errand for me and would take the fun out of locating them for you. (Also, I'm not gonna lie, I'm starting to forget some of this fic's finer details already.) Speaking of being honest…yeah, I won't deny that Flurry's whole scheme (and the ensuing Phantom Cozy assist) can feel a bit contrived. Still, I do quite like it. Sure, the whole "casting magic from the heart" thing might seem kinda out there at first, but don't forget—we had an entire 100k~ word "Dream Arc" dedicated to showing us the crazy shit that hearts can get up to, so I think it works out in the end. Plus, having Phantom Cozy be the one to save the day here gives her appearances in the "Dream Arc" more weight, I feel. It makes her more than just a throwaway character for that one quarter of the story, and gives her a greater overall presence within the world of Pink Haze. Anyway, after making up with Luster, we move on. #### Chapter 34: the luster dominates cozy (19k~ words) This is the chapter where Luster mind-controls Cozy, utterly humiliates and debases her, and nearly turns this pegasus into a dumb happy pig. We've been steadily building up to this exact chapter for a while now. Because truthfully, I think the power dynamic between Luster Dawn and Cozy Glow is absolute—*mwah*—chef's kiss. It's really good stuff. And in my eyes, Luster's dominant nature perfectly complements Cozy's submissive streak, making them an impeccable match-up in the bedroom. Hear me out on this: Luster is a stinky, slobby unicorn with access to powerful magic, while Cozy is a well-groomed, well-honed pegasus with no magic at all. Cozy absolutely despises Luster, while Luster would relish the chance to drag Cozy down to her level. Luster is taller than Cozy, has a thicker chest tuft than her, has wider hips than her, has fatter teats than her, and overall mogs the pegasus in pretty much every way except for musculature (which the unicorn would *really* love to ruin…) If Luster really wanted to, she could magically hypnotise Cozy and thorougly brainwash her into this unicorn's mentally malleable sexpet with very little counterplay from the pegasus. (And thanks to everything that Luster's gone through thanks to Cozy in this story, she's *really* coming around on that idea.) These two mares are basically Yin and Yang. Chubby on top of toned. Power-hungriness serving underneath natural talent. Swinish confidence versus sly coquetry. One hates the other, yet can't help but respect her magical prowess at the same time. The sexual tension in the air skyrockets whenever these pink cunts are around each other, and the potential for a nice and sweaty mare-on-mare hatefuck is just *begging* to be explored. God willing, if I wasn't holding myself back while writing this story—I'd have given Luster a fat futacock and have these two mares go at it for hours. (Yeah, I admit it; the idea of adding a futa kink to this fetish-centric smutfic did cross my mind more than once—particularly during this chapter. However, I ultimately decided against it, because despite the rampant degeneracy present in this green, I still consider it to be a waifu harem story at the end of the day. I wanted it to fulfil the self-indulgent fantasy of having three evil mares solely lusting after (You)r dick, and I feel like adding more dicks into the equation kinda muddles that fantasy somewhat.) If you recall Luster's segment during the Character Section of this Afterword, I gushed about how Luster and Flurry directly contrast each other throughout the story of Pink Haze. I see Luster and Flurry as perfectly contrasting rivals—mares who both fiercely compete for the top spot in their Master's heart. Sure, Flurry might be Anon's Soulmate, but Luster is Anon's Mated Sow; her swinely spirit burns brighter than ever before, and in the bedroom, this pig is sure to try and one-up her Queenly herd sister whenever possible. Expect competitive double blowjobs, aggressive snowballing, and getting your dick flattened between two winking marepussies. When it comes to Luster and Cozy, on the other hand, I see them as perfectly complementary bedmates. Both of them deeply love Anon—but Flurry Heart is the Alpha Mare of this herd, which means she's the one who has absolute priority over this herd's stallion. Thus, whenever this Queenly alicorn decrees her heartfelt desire to have some exclusive one-on-one time with her human King, Luster and Cozy have no choice but to satisfy their carnal cravings with each other's bodies in the meantime. Indeed, you could say that it'll become these two mares' shared duty to thoroughly and intimately "prepare" their loins for when their Master eventually focuses his attention on them. And since Cozy will be the latest addition to Anon's herd—that also makes her the bottom bitch, which is a fact that Luster is sure to remind her of every chance she gets. Expect soupy tribbing, deeply snorty mare-on-mare smooching, and a smugly dominant unicorn forcing an angrily submissive pegasus to eat out her swamp ass. (If I ever write a sequel to Pink Haze, expect a ton of lovey-dovey intimacy between these two mares as they come—and cum—to earnestly appreciate each other as smoochy, snuggly, nuzzly, nibbly herd sisters. After all, these villains have gotta learn to stick together—even in bed.) (Also, for any Anons out there who—for whatever reason—don't like the idea of Cozy being a total bottom bitch for a stinky, nerdy unicorn, then you can simply opt to make this conniving pegasus your Alpha Mare instead; that way, Cozy will promptly shoot to the top of the herd's totem pole, allowing her to reign over her herdmates uncontested and snuggle up to her Master whenever she pleases.) (Flurry might be a deeply jealous mare, but I can see her begrudgingly abiding by her Master's decision if he chose "Glowie" to lead the herd—just so long as he remembers to feed his alicorn's Queenly cravings from time to time.) (Luster would become the herd's new bottom bitch, unable to rightfully exert her swinely influence on anypony—at least until another mare enters the slave harem.) (Cozy, for her part, would be eternally grateful towards her Master for making the "right choice" in appointing her as this herd's *true* Alpha Mare. And she'd make sure to frequently "remind" him of said gratitude every chance rgat she gets—preferably while her firm rump is sat right on top of his comfy lap, of course.) To neatly round off this trio of mare-to-mare comparisons—when it comes to Flurry and Cozy…well, they're actually *not* perfect for each other. Flurry guilelessly fawns over Cozy, while Cozy takes advantage of Flurry's naivety whenever possible. Their relationship is built atop toxic foundations, and if I were to write a sequel to Pink Haze, Flurry and Cozy would at some point take a sober moment to genuinely address this toxicity, causing them to realise that the way they treat each other is bad for the both of them. From then on out, they would seek to rebuild their relationship on equal footing. Flurry would endeavour to hold Cozy more accountable for her actions, while Cozy would attempt to place more respect in Flurry's intelligence. There'd be hiccups along the way, naturally, but at least they'd be trying. Back to the main pairing of this particular chapter, I think Luster makes the ideal dom to draw out Cozy's submission. Everything about this chubby unicorn deeply irks Cozy in the most perfect way, making it all the more satisfying when this ambitious pegasus is forced to worship Luster's sweaty asshole and be mentally reduced to the lowly, sowly status of an oinking, snorting pig. By the end of Pink Haze, the relationship between these two mares will have become an uneasy one. Luster's brash confidence is promptly met by open resentment from Cozy—but in a potential sequel, I can see this pegasus's resentment gradually softening into a more tsundere attitude towards that overly cocky unicorn. Naturally, luridly lewd hatesex would be the name of the game with these two mares. (I'm envisioning a scene where Luster and Cozy are sitting side-by-side together on Flurry's bed. Luster would be absent-mindedly chuckling and snorting about some dumb joke she just said, while Cozy's gaze would be focused squarely on her herd sister's idiotic face, silently thinking about how stupid and smoochable she looks. Luster would then turn her head to look at Cozy and ask the pegasus for her thoughts on said dumb joke—only for Cozy to suddenly plant her lips against Luster's, surprising the unicorn and making her eyes bulge out. Their faces would linger together for a few brief moments, before both mares opt to slowly close their eyes and passionately make out with one another—which would soon devolve into a steamy, soupy snuggle session with *plenty* of mutual oinking involved.) I like to think that Luster's profane actions during this chapter will leave a profound impact in the roots of Cozy's psyche; there's a reason this pegasus wears an *orange* bow in Chapter 38—and it just might be related to the scene where Luster makes Cozy's favourite colour a certain hue… Deep down, there's a small depraved part of Cozy's brain that still recognises Luster as her Alpha Sow, and it's this very same part that may one day make the pegasus "accidentally" faceplant straight into her herd sister's sweaty ponut and take a *deep,* submissive whiff—and perhaps give it a few smooches, too. Of course, this'd all be accidental; Cozy would *never* admit to wanting to worship a chubby nerd's ponut, no matter how much Luster smugly yet lovingly teases her about it afterwards. (Pink Haze is still a waifu harem story, and Anon will always remain the number-one priority in these mares' hearts no matter what. However, through writing this green, I've really come to really appreciate the idea of smutty mare-on-mare action. And I think the intricately intimate herd dynamics established by the end of this fic provide an excellent springboard with which to further explore the topic of mares furiously lezzing out while remaining fully loyal to their Master. It's something to fantasise about, at any rate.) Anyway, onto what happens within the chapter itself. Luster knows a lot about hypnosis spells. She had to be fully prepared for her humie alien, after all. (Of course, during Chapter 12, she made sure to use the "softest" spell possible so that she wouldn't hurt him. I liked adding this little detail. It shows that even though Luster was an "antagonistic" force in that chapter, she still deeply cared for Anon, and wanted him to feel comfortable under her dominion.) The hypnotic trance that Luster places Cozy under is the kind of trance where the pegasus is completely locked out of controlling her own body yet fully aware of the debauchery she's being made to do. This humiliating experience is utter torture for Cozy, and she's constantly mentally fighting back against it throughout the entire chapter. Unfortunately for this enthralled pegasus, all it takes is one simple magical jolt from Luster to force Cozy back under the unicorn's swirly-eyed sway, making any hopes for escaping this servile fate a pretty grim prospect. (Hypnosis scenarios where the victim is wholly conscious of what's happening to them are really hot. Still, I wonder if I made Cozy's awareness of her own abasement clear enough to the reader. It's not something I wanted to state outright, owing to Anon's biased and unknowledgeable perspective on the matter, so I aimed to have the reader infer it by themselves.) There's a scene where Anon and Luster have a little heart-to-heart about *her* magic also being *his* magic. Thanks to their shared destiny and her collared dominion, Luster considers herself to be a direct extension of Anon's Masterly will. So having him earnestly reciprocate these heartfelt sentiments of hers truly gladdens this mare on a fundamental level. Despite her boisterously brazen exterior, Luster is actually quite the emotionally fragile mare deep down. She's liable to crack under pressure, and heavily relies on her Master for support. When Anon provides said support in spades, though, Luster becomes an unbreakable hog, and is more than willing to exert the full extent of her unbridled sadism in her beloved Boar's name. (Basically, it's thanks Anon's constant reassurance that Luster is such a confident dom. I really like this dynamic; even though Luster is doing most of the humiliation during this chapter, she's doing it solely because she wants to make (You) proud of her efforts, which I think is pretty cute.) From here, we have the foot fetish scene. It's pretty gross, but I think it's a fitting punishment for what Cozy did to Anon back in Chapter 32. What goes around comes around. (If Cozy wasn't already a degenerate foot-loving freak before, she'll definitely come to bear a penchant for this particular kink after the odorous events of this chapter. Like I mentioned back in the Chapter 23 Section, I think there's great potential for a future scene where both Flurry and Cozy meekly worship Anon's feet together—all while a smugly smirking Luster Dawn watches on, seeing this submissive sight as a prime opportunity to further debase and dominate her fellow herd sisters. While Flurry focuses her sole attention on Anon's wriggling foot, Luster would promptly mount her Alpha Mare from behind and begin bawdily humping her plush rump with shameless impunity, making doubly sure to verbally degrade the footlicking alicorn as she does. Flurry herself would be in a complete daze due to her current duties, and so she wouldn't offer any kind of pushback towards her belligerent herd sister, allowing Luster to molest and malign her Alpha Mare at her own swinely leisure. Of course, whether Anon would actually put a stop to this clear violation of the herd's hierarchy is totally up to him.) (…Also, yes, I'm fully aware that I keep going on utterly debauched tangents here. It's fun.) Once we get into the fellatio scene, there's a segment where Luster uses her magic to directly mess with Cozy's preferences—including making her favourite colour orange. I briefly mused on this interaction up above, but it wouldn't surprise me if these mental suggestions left *quite* the lasting impact on Cozy's psyche… (Personally, I think Cozy should stay off the hayburgers and keep her body toned; that way, she can maintain that unique "muscle mare" appeal amongst her pony peers. When it comes to the "penchant for worshipping butts," though? I'd say such a sweaty act suits this servile pegasus just fine—and Luster would certainly agree on the matter.) Speaking of "worshipping butts"—after this, we get the scene where Luster sits on Cozy's face. It's pretty gross, but man, I really like this one. The earlier footlicking and fellatio scenes came about as a result of me simply following my writer's whimsy—but this facesitting scene? This one was planned from the very start. Even back while I was writing the prologue of Pink Haze, I *knew* that I eventually had to have a scene where Luster mind controls Cozy, sits on the pegasus's face, and forces her to eat out the unicorn's swamp ass. It took several months to get to that point, but yeah, I'm fully happy with how it turned out. I'm also a big fan of the part where Luster rubs her fat sweaty teats across Cozy's submissive face. It's the perfect kind of degradation for a scheming "teatlet" like Cozy Glow. Partway through this scene, Luster asks Anon if he wants to pop Cozy's "pig cherry." Anon contemplates the idea for a moment, but ultimately decides against it in favour of fucking Cozy's muscly pegathighs instead. You might find his decision to be a curious one; after all, why pass up primo marepussy on a silver platter, right? Well, despite the rampant debauchery present within this chapter, Pink Haze is still a waifu harem story, and I wanted Cozy Glow's first time to be taken in a more "romantic" setting. So I chose to leave her maidenhood intact for the time being. (Then again, considering how she *actually* loses it in Chapter 35. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether "mentally infantilised" is more romantic than "ass-huffing pig.") Oh yeah, I can't *not* point out the part where Luster uses one of Cozy's curls to wipe her sweaty asscrack—and then lets those stanky locks fall right on top of the pegasus's agape face right afterwards. This is some top-notch debasement; truly, an Alpha Sow asserting swinish dominance over her lesser pig. Near the end of this chapter, Cozy suddenly breaks free of Luster's dominion and makes a break for it. Indeed, Luster may have had Cozy completely under her control for most of this chapter, but the pegasus was fiercely fighting her influence every step of the way—while the unicorn was growing gravely complacent when it came to reapplying her magical hypnosis. (…Yeah, I won't deny that I had to hit Luster with the "idiot bat" here, but I couldn't see any other option at the time. After all, if Luster were a more competent mindslaver, Cozy would've had absolutely zero chance to escape her pitifully hoggish fate—and she would've been thoroughly brainwashed and retrained into an oinking slampig for good.) (Actually, I could have also had Flurry put a stop to things before things went too far, but…eh, I feel like that would've been way more anticlimactic than having Cozy headbutt Luster in the face. Gotta have some action here and there, y'know?) Anyway, I do have Anon offer some brief rationale for Luster's negligence within the fic itself (near the beginning of Chapter 35), but the way I see it—Luster's brain was all fogged up from cumming so much, which caused her to forget that the mare beneath her was a highly defiant, mentally resistant supervillain. Thus, Luster's hypnosis eventually runs out thanks to her own lack of discretion, and she is given a broken nose for her heedlessness. Poor pig. #### Chapter 35: the flurry dominates cozy (22k~ words) This is the chapter where—thanks to Flurry's magical assistance—Cozy finally becomes part of Anon's Masterly herd. At the very beginning, you might notice that Cozy has been taken completely off guard by the presence of blue magic binding her body. Indeed, if you look back at the earlier chapters, you might notice that Flurry was always careful to use her light-yellow magic in front of Cozy Glow (even when she was under Cozy's influence in Chapter 31), only ever using her changeling magic while the pegasus wasn't looking. This was Flurry's way of ensuring that her bestie was kept in the dark regarding this alicorn's true nature and hidden potential. When Flurry successfully extracts Anon's collar from his system, Cozy is utterly mortified; both by the sight of her hard work being totally nullified—and from the fact that her Nonny has just been indisputably freed from her influence. Even back during the humiliation Cozy suffered through in Chapter 34, she was willing to struggle and push through it all, holding onto the fact that despite her irksome situation, she still technically had everypony under the collar's spell; this gave her room to believe that she could very well reassert control over all their minds, given enough time. However, upon realising just what Flurry's abhorrent blue magic is truly capable of, Cozy now feels fully cornered. Her meticulously-thought-out plan is in complete shambles—and this stupid fucking alicorn won't shut up about LOVE and FRIENDSHIP and STUPIDITY and GIVE NONNY BACK GIVE HIM BACK GIVE HIM BACK GIVE HIM— (…Ehem. That is to say, these would be the kind of thoughts running through Cozy's head right now. Her back is metaphorically against a wall, while her body is literally lying on the floor. And at this point, this firecracker of a pegasus is *far* more prone towards emotionally lashing out at everyone and everything. Indeed, to use a bit of modern slang—she's about to "crash out.") Speaking of modern slang, I'm gonna gas myself up here, because this segment "goes hard": ``` >"Yes, I suppose I *am* a monster, aren't I?" >Reaching out her left foreleg, Flurry rests her hoof against Cozy's right cheek. >"But so are you, Glowie." >Flurry gives Cozy's fearful face a tender stroke. >"And you'll be in good company here." ``` Thanks to Anon's constant encouragement, Flurry has pretty much fully accepted her Queenly side at this point. She's still a little worried about hurting him should she "give in"—but she's not gonna hide from her "monstrous" qualities any more. From here, Flurry and Luster work together to essentially ping-pong Cozy's freshly subjugated mind between their magically charged memories. This furious flood of slavish memories serves mainly to discombobulate rather than indoctrinate, so it's unlikely that Cozy will manage to retain any of them after the fact. (Still, it's not *impossible,* per se…) (I like to think of this whole situation akin to chucking equal amounts of light and dark laundry into the same washing machine and setting it to max—in this analogy, Cozy's poor brain would be the tide pod you threw into the mix.) Cozy's eyes flicker between (light) blue and amber several times—before settling on crimson. Naturally, this crimson hue represents Phantom Cozy—the will of the collar itself—and you can consider the sharp flash of this demonic colour to be the "killing blow" to Cozy Glow's defiant psyche. (Because the collar's influence is so pervasively deep-seated—yes, it can indeed be temporarily transmitted through an enthralled mare's magic. It's worth noting that this "magicborne" transmission of the collar's influence is both more fleeting and far weaker than being implanted with the collar directly. In this weakened form, its persuasive sway amounts to little more than a faint mental tug on a coherent psyche, and given enough time, it will dissipate entirely and leave no traces behind. But when it comes to Cozy Glow's currently dessicated mental state, Phantom Cozy has more than enough leeway to close in on her counterpart and do "what needs to be done.") (Incidentally, when Cozy Glow mutters: "S-stay back…! D-don't…!" to seemingly nopony in particular…well, one can only imagine what this pegasus is seeing at that very moment.) From here, Cozy regresses to an infantile state of mind, and she becomes a pony whose broken brain only has room for one thing—her Nonny. Indeed, the tag: "mindbreak" would be pretty apt for this moment. 'Tis only a temporary setback, though; she'll be back to "normal" soon enough. (This scene was an…interesting one to write. But I quite like how it turned out. There's just something deeply visceral about seeing a mare who's in this incredibly vulnerable state of mind. Despite her treachery, despite her cruelty, Anon can't help but wish to protect Cozy when he sees her like this.) Later on, the sharp pain of having her hymen pierced shocks Cozy's mind back into lucidity, but the soothing sensation of being held in her Nonny's arms is what pacifies her soul and satisfies her instincts. (So yes, if you're wondering exactly when it was that Cozy recovered her wits—it was when Anon deflowered her. The fact that she "carefully" unfurls her wings right afterwards implies that she now possesses a higher level of coherence.) Cozy eventually, gently closes her teeth around Anon's left ear. I wanted this to feel like a brief "oh shit" moment for both him and the reader. After all, this interaction is meant to be a subtle callback to Chapter 31 when Cozy said this to Anon: ``` >"Hmph, now all this flattery is just making me want to bite your ear off." ``` And now that she finally has the opportunity to bite said ear off…she chooses not to. Instead, she chooses to grant her Nonny mercy through measured nibbles and nasally breath. When she pulls away from this intimate display of clemency, she calls him "too soft," and she states that he "needs her," reiterating her smug speech from Chapter 31. This time, though, Anon wholeheartedly agrees with her, stating that he *does* need her—more than he could ever know. During which, his eyes flit to the right, and he sees the last surviving chocolate truffle floating in the air, held within Flurry's changeling magic. Anon picks said truffle up and offers it to his partner. His deference satisfies her. She takes a bite out of the top half and leaves the bottom half for him, signifying her unspoken desire to start a new partnership. Anon accepts this confectionary accord, and he downs the other half of their shared truffle. After a brief display of firm force and a small amount of soft chiding, Cozy implores Anon to collar her—to make her his. With a silent nod on his part, Anon places the collar around his partner's neck—and the crystals instantly turn pink. Cozy Glow is now his. (Paraphrasing doesn't do this scene justice, but I don't wanna quote the whole shebang here; let's just say that everything about this interaction is really, *really* good. I love it so much.) Earlier in this Afterword, I mused over a few reasons as to why Cozy accepted and even pushed for Anon to collar her: solemn resignation, cold pragmatism, graceful concession, calculated opportunism, begrudging respect—but let's be real here: She loves him. That's why. Cozy knows that she's a bad pony, a traitorous mare, and so she wishes to have her mind wholly subsumed by her Nonny's righteous will. That way, she'll simply become his slave, his property—his partner. Even though she's just come out of an infantilised daze and straight into indentured servitude, Cozy truly wants to become Anon's mare. This is why she asks him for his orders; she wants him to directly, *thoroughly* imprint his Masterly dominion over her naturally treacherous psyche, thus wrenching her malleable mind into a permanent state of constant, unbreakable loyalty. No more shall she seek or even think to backstab her Master. And always shall she use her cunning intellect solely for his sake. She implicitly accepts these commands as soon as she receives them—for this is both her honest vow of contrition and her heartfelt pledge of love towards her Nonny. Also, Flurry was on standby the entire time, but she had full faith that her bestie would willingly give herself over to Anon in the end—call it the natural intuition of a Princess of Love. Luster, on the other hoof, was likely watching all of this transpire with bated breath; ready to jump in at any moment, yet gingerly choosing to trust in her Alpha Mare's gut feeling. Cozy, at this point, has fully recovered from her earlier "mindbreak." Not only that, but she has also now "synchronised" with her collar-dwelling counterpart, which has given her a much deeper understanding over the inner workings of the collar itself. (Truthfully, this "synchronisation" doesn't actually mean much within the story of Pink Haze, but I really like the idea of both Cozys linking up with each other, so I threw this hat onto the pile for funsies.) (That being said, I'm gonna spitball an idea or two for a potential sequel here; I think that Cozy becoming one with the collar would give her the ability to directly interface with the mares of her herd like a hivemind. If you remember how in both Chapter 28 *and* Chapter 32, Cozy was able to assert total dominance over Flurry and Luster's minds and place them in a crimson-eyed trance of robotic obedience—this pegasus would be able to do that at will now.) (However, this time, Cozy's loyalty would wholly belong to Anon, so she wouldn't ever use this ability to betray him, but rather to spice things up in the bedroom and prove herself to him.) (I'm envisioning a scene where Anon and Cozy would be enjoying some tender one-on-one time together on Flurry's bed, only for Flurry and Luster to suddenly enter the bedchamber with robotic motions, blank expressions, and crimson irises. Anon would see this discomforting sight and immediately be on alert, but Cozy would quickly reassure her Master by informing him that this is all her doing, and that she wants to show him just how capable she can be in regards to leading this herd. From there, Cozy would command Flurry and Luster to coordinate a lewd performance together, while the pegasus herself would continue to candidly canoodle her Master while letting him know that there's truly nothing to be afraid of. Once said lewdness finishes, Cozy would willingly relinquish the crimson control she held over her herd and allow them to regain their regular faculties—though not before the pegasus herself honestly implores Anon to reconsider his trusty Partner for the prestigious position of this herd's Alpha Mare.) (Also, just in case you were wondering: the reason that Cozy's control would bypass Flurry's counterspell is because Cozy is now a direct part of the collar's crimson network. Thus, she would be able to control the herd not as a power-hungry "outsider"—but an intimately linked insider. Basically, it would be considered to be a different flavour of mare-on-mare dominion from what she did in Chapter 32, meaning that it falls outside of the counterspell's "effective range," so to speak.) (Now, as for whether Flurry could devise a *new* counterspell to defend against this type of control…eh, I still haven't fully decided on that one. But I'm leaning towards "no," as that would ensure it remains a constant "threat" in the story. After all, this crimson control over the herd technically wouldn't be Cozy Glow's power, but rather Phantom Cozy's—and who knows what *her* true goals are.) (Overall, I do kinda like this idea. Cozy being able to control the "hivemind" that is her collared herd would make an interesting contrast to how Flurry, as a Changeling Queen, will eventually be able to control her own hivemind of swarming broodlings and brainwashed crystal ponies. These hiveminds won't overlap, as Cozy's influence over Flurry's mind won't extend into the alicorn's buggy instincts, but I think there's a good deal of potential in this particular plot beat.) Anyway, another bracketed tangent done, and Anon is now the proud owner of *three* pony slaves. Wow! Cozy is irritated by the unwelcome presence of her herdmates interrupting her precious Nonny time, yet she also can't help but feel deep relief over the fact that she now has a trusted herd to feel safe and protected in. This mare might be a supervillain, but she's also, well, a mare. Herding up with fellow villains instils her with an intrinsic sense of mareish security; she could get used to this. After Flurry and Luster show up, we segue into an erotic encore where all three mares horsily whicker in unison as the newest addition to the herd gets lovingly impregnated by her human Master. (This scene just kinda came to me out of the blue as I was writing it. Personally, I think this one's a real almond activator. There's just something so unspeakably sexy about these three mares feeling so instinctually comfortable around their beloved human that they all naturally slip back into their neighing, snorty selves and simply become his bonded herd of female horses. It's especially hot when Cozy Glow does it, as up until this point, we've mainly seen her as either a master manipulator or a hypnotised slave, so to see her drop it all and just become a mere mare who happily nickers and honestly whinnies in response to her human's fat dick filling her up is…whew, it's good stuff. Mareish baseness like this is what I live and write for.) (Oh yeah, the "get pregnant" chant was pretty good too; can't forget that.) The rest of this chapter is essentially pillow talk. It's pleasant pillow talk, though. So, the chapter ends on a high note and…well, that's basically it then, isn't it? At this point, Anon has finally acquired his loving herd of three evil mares, and thus the scope of this story has been seen to its natural end. Indeed, the fic could end right now and I'm sure there'd be no complaints from anyone. Still, I did want to continue things for a little while longer; after all, Cozy Glow has only *just* become a part of Anon's herd after like 300k~ words of build-up. So I felt it only right to give this pegasus some more time in the limelight. In other words, these final few chapters are essentially a victory lap for Anon and his mares. With all this in mind, here's some quick rationale for why I wrote these upcoming chapters: Chapter 36: I wanted to give Flurry one final lewd scene before the story's end. Chapter 37: I wanted to give Cozy some more time to get cuddly and comfy with her Nonny. Chapter 38: I wanted to give this fic a general sense of closure. I'll go over these chapters in their individual sections—but yeah, this'll be a bit of a victory lap for the Afterword, too. (I wrote so many words for this stupid thing, holy crap. No regrets, though; it felt good to get these myriad ideas out there.) #### Chapter 36: the flurry goes queen mode (16k~ words) This chapter is where Flurry willingly hands the mental reins over to her Queenly Persona and lovingly ravishes her King. As mentioned up above, I was tempted to end this story once Anon had successfully enslaved Cozy Glow. But considering that Anon had blasted fat ropes inside Luster's swinely snatch in Chapter 34, and then thoroughly filled up Cozy's fertile pegawomb a couple times in Chapter 35. It only seemed right to me that Flurry also get her fair share of Masterly nut; she's the Alpha Mare of his herd, after all. But not only that, she was Anon's first ever slave, too—having been collared, controlled, and creampied from as early as Chapter 3. And if she's his first ever slave, then it's only fair that she also gets the last ever smut scene in Pink Haze, right? I certainly think so. However, rather than make this yet another one of the usual lovey-dovey vanilla scenes I'm admittedly quite fond of, I figured that this'd be the perfect opportunity to re-explore Flurry's Queenlier side. If you recall the pheromone-laden events of Chapter 28, then you might remember how things didn't end too well for Anon last time, as he was mentally subjugated into this Queen's obedient breeding stud and made to endlessly fill her buzzing womb until the two of them became one—in other words, it was kind of a "hard L" for our Masterly human. Here, though, things are different. Not only does Flurry have her fellow herdmates to support her should she ever lose control of her Queenly self, but Anon himself feels more assertive than ever before. Indeed, this King is fully ready to tame his Queen into chittering contentment should the situation require it. …Plus, he's *really* been yearning to take a *big* hit of her Queenly chest fluff ever since that scene in the dream. At this point, he doesn't even mind if her royal pheromones turn him into her personal fuckstick again—he's a total slut for musky mare tufts, no matter how buggy they might smell. Luster assures Flurry that she's got her back. What are herd sisters for, right? (Alas, Luster would later be intimidated into silence by Flurry's Queenly presence. And once the unicorn finally *does* work up the courage to speak up against her Alpha Mare—she would promptly take a slimy glob of changeling spit to the face for her efforts. Poor pig.) Cozy, on the other hoof, takes a more passive role during this chapter. Watching and waiting. (Much like Luster, Cozy also feels intrinsically intimidated by Flurry's Queenly presence, so she keeps her head down until the time is right. However, this is not the only reason for Cozy's deferential quietude, for she's also taking the chance to calmly observe her Alpha Mare's actions so she can ascertain the current state of this Queen's corruption.) (Back in Chapter 35, Cozy was both shocked and horrified by the unexpected existence of Flurry's light-blue magic, causing this pegasus to hysterically declare her bestie a "monster." Since then, though, Cozy has had the time to recompose herself, thus allowing her to take a second, more calculated look at things.) (Cozy is sure that whatever's happening to Princess Flurry Heart right now isn't natural; I mean, what kind of mare has access to *two* different hues of magic? Cozy herself can't even use the one! But anyway, Cozy holds a sneaking suspicion that Flurry's current behaviour and blue-tinted abilities *might* possibly perhaps be linked to the small sample of Chrysalis's DNA she whimsically infused into the alicorn's collar. In which case…uh, this pegasus might feel a slight sense of guilt over accidentally corrupting her friend into a changeling, maybe.) (Regardless, by the end of this chapter, Cozy will have confirmed to herself there's definitely something buggy going on in Flurry's brain. In the story of Pink Haze, this confirmation doesn't mean much, but in a potential sequel, I have an idea for a scene where Cozy would confide in both Flurry and Anon that she has a pretty good idea as to what's happening to this collared alicorn. From there, Cozy would promise to use her own firsthoof experience of working alongside an evil Changeling Queen to help Flurry gently acclimate to her new changeling lifestyle—consider this the pegasus's way of taking accountability for what she did.) Flurry herself initially feels quite nervous about unleashing her Queenly side in front of Anon, but thanks to the heartfelt reassurance of her King, she soon finds herself buzzing with warm confidence. Thus, she chooses to give in to her own chittering instincts, implicitly trusting that her Queenly Persona would never seek to seriously harm her King. And so she lets Queen Flurry Heart take the reins. (I like to think of this "shift of personalities" to be kind of like moving a slider. For example, when Flurry says: "I want your face back in my tuft right now"—this is about 75% Flurry, 25% Queen. Of course, once she starts monologuing about dominating Equestria with her boundless brood of sprawling younglings, she's 100% Queen at that point.) (Also, speaking of said villainous monologue, I realise that this kind of thing is pretty corny—but honestly, I found it really hot. There's just something so incredibly sexy about an evil Changeling Queen proudly bragging about how she's going to breed like fucking crazy and take over the world with her and (You)r children. It's good stuff, especially when she goes full Tyranid and starts talking about "taking to the very stars to conquer our conquest." God damn, I love aggressively expansionist bug queens so much.) Just like in Chapter 28, Anon's inner narration exclusively refers to Flurry as his Queen once his mind is fully subsumed by her royal pheromones. Not only that, but it also becomes harder for him to focus on the other mares around him, too. From here, we have the testicle expansion scene; this was a fun one to write. I was tempted to enlarge Anon's penis as well, but I decided that it would be more "romantic" if Queen Flurry preferred his human dick exactly the way it is now. (However, the potential is still there. Maybe in the future, Flurry could give her King a temporary monster cock so all three mares can worship his length at the same time.) The ball squeezing was really hot, too. Anon is basically treated like cattle during this segment—lovingly yet aggressively milked by his Queen. A running theme throughout this chapter is that despite her utter dominance, this Queen *will* listen to her King. When Luster speaks out of turn and asks if Flurry's "King" belongs to the rest of the herd, this Queen's countenance quickly twists into a hostile snarl, causing her territorial impulses to flare up—but with a few calming caresses from her King, her buzzing brain is soon soothed into lightly clicking neutrality, while her behaviour towards her insolent herdmates becomes far more lenient. (I really like the idea of a King being able to "tame" and "temper" his Queen like this. No matter how dominantly buggy Flurry gets, she will always respect her King's word at the end of the day, for he is the eternal sire of her boundless brood, and the absolute most important individual in her Queenly heart.) At some point, Flurry cocoons Anon within her wings and attempts to persuade him into "completing" his Queen. Throughout Pink Haze, Flurry has enveloped Anon and herself into the same winged cocoon three distinct times: >In Chapter 12, this cocoon was for Him, for this supportive shell was crucial in allowing a Queen to personally tend to her King and restore his ailing mind. In Chapter 36, this cocoon is for Her, for this proliferative pod is crucial in allowing a Queen to safely isolate herself along with her King so that she comfortably complete her transformation into a fullblood Changeling Queen at her own pace. (Rule of three, baby.) I did touch on this back during the Queen Flurry segment of the Character Section, but Flurry's corrupted transformation into a Changeling Queen is still incomplete. And right now, her buggy instincts are simply *begging* her to lead her King into a nice secluded corner, cocoon him and her together, and sleepily feed off of his potent human love as she focuses on metamorphosing into the buzzing beauty she was truly meant to be. (The pink plumed cocoon slowly turning blue here is meant to indicate its gradual shift into a proper changeling cocoon. These dulling feathers would've steadily lost their shape, turning into formless blue slime—and by that point, the cocoon would've become fully impenetrable until this Queen finished her metamorphosis. Thankfully, somepony put a stop to that before it could happen.) Indeed, I was actually tempted to have Flurry finish her transformation right here and now, but…I felt like it was too soon, you know? Now that Anon has finally collared Cozy and fulfilled the original scope of this story, I considered the plot to currently be in a state of "winding down." So I didn't want to rush things—especially something that would be so pivotal to Flurry's character development. Thus, I instead chose to put a pin on things for now and leave this Queen's future "completion" as sequel bait. And so, Cozy promptly puts a stop to Flurry's metamorphosis with a sharp jolt from a magic jammer. If you're wondering why Cozy would choose to do such a thing, it's because she *also* feels like such a transformation would be too soon. If Flurry were to become a true Changeling Queen right at this moment, then the scales of hierarchical dominance would tip to be completely in her favour, leaving Cozy with very little hope of challenging this magisterial bug for the position of Alpha Mare. …Plus, even if Flurry *were* to become a true Changeling Queen one day, Cozy would rather that the alicorn choose to do so out of conscious consent rather than insectoid instinct—she owes her corrupted bestie that much agency, at least. (I have an idea that it may in fact be possible to "reverse" Flurry's changeling corruption, provided the alicorn herself isn't too far gone. And because Flurry's buggy personality is tied directly to the Crystal Heart, doing this wouldn't "kill" the Queenly Persona—though it would certainly leave the Crystal Heart woefully deprived of a physical vessel with which it may intimately interact with its chosen King.) (Anyway, I consider this to be another potential path that could be taken in a theoretical sequel. Honestly, though, if I did choose to continue this story, I would most-definitely just have Flurry complete her transformation. I do quite like this side of her, and there's no reason why this Princess of Love and this Changeling Queen can't live in harmony with one another in the same headspace. After all, Flurry now heartily accepts her buggier qualities as an intrinsic part of herself, while the Heart itself earnestly wishes for this alicorn body to seize hold of the endless glory and human love that it rightfully deserves.) A quick side note on Cozy's magic jammer, she had it stashed inside of the cream bow atop her baby-blue mane—never leave home without it. (The fact that she can also shank a fool with it fits Cozy's insidious nature so well. I liked adding that sharp little detail.) (Incidentally, you might be wondering why she never whipped this thing out during the earlier chapters. Well, for starters, she had her limbs magically bound most of the time, and during the rare instances where she had freed herself, she was *far* too panicked to consider fumbling around through her mane for a lifeline. Indeed, this jammer isn't exactly something she can whip out on a reflex. She needs a little bit of prep time first.) The scene where torrents of potent human cum furiously jet out from Flurry's overfilled marepussy is…quite silly, I must admit, but I do like it. I think it showcases a very intimate and very embarrassing kind of vulnerability from this proud and noble Queen. Through this utterly unwelcome expulsion of her King's life-giving fluids, Flurry's body instinctively recognises that she's losing parts of her King—she's losing him. She hates this. She wants him back. She needs him back. She can't live without him. She'll beg if she has to. Please… Thankfully, Anon is quick to comfort and console his deflating Queen, reassuring her that he'll still be there for her, no matter what. This deeply soothes her buggy brain on a fundamental level, and she peaceably hooves the mental reins back to her main personality, satisfied that her King will always support his Queen when needed. (Moments ago, Queen Flurry's desire to cocoon her King was born out of instinctual desperation—but now, upon realising that there's no need for her to rush things, she takes to contented slumber, being more than happy to postpone her Queenly transformation until the time when both her mental counterpart and her soulbound King are truly comfortable with the idea.) (Again, this is going back to that running theme of a King being able to tame his Queen. Being that this is the last time we'll see Flurry in pure "Queen mode" during Pink Haze, I think this was a great way to cap off her Queenly "character arc." Back during Chapter 28, Anon was forced face first into this Queen's musky tuft and basically made into her personal breeding bitch. Here, though, despite the royal pheromones currently buzzing through his head, Anon is able to calm his distressing Queen down multiple times in a row, proving his worth to her as a reliable King, and convincing her to take things at a less overbearing and more relaxed pace. Of course, should her King ever desire to be mentally subjugated into her stud again—then she'll happily oblige.) Also, in regards to Anon's inhibited mental faculties, his mind is still quite clouded by Queenly pheromones at the moment, but the shock of being reflexively cocooned by his frantic Queen, and the fact that the potency of her pheromones are overall weaker than in Chapter 28, allowed this King to calm his Queen at his own discretion. Basically, he still feels incredibly subservient to her, but he's also capable of stringing together a good few sentences by the end of this chapter. (Despite the fact that his human brain has been twisted into "breeding stud" mode, I felt like it would've been pretty underwhelming if his inner narration reflected this state of mind—because otherwise, a good chunk of this chapter would've been nothing but "breed fuck cum breed Queen breed pussy Queen fuck." So I opted to maintain my usual verbosity as much as I could, figuring that it'd be a more satisfying experience for the reader.) After some heartfelt pillow talk between Anon, Flurry, and Cozy—this chapter draws to a close, the lewdness comes to an end, and it's nothing but wholesome villainy from here on out. #### Chapter 37: the wind down (11k~ words) This one is a very comfy chapter, split into two equally snug sections; the first involves some intimate one-on-one time between Anon and Cozy, while the second involves Anon getting cuddly with his whole herd. I like this. As I mentioned back in the Chapter 35 Section, I'm a big fan of having Cozy Glow completely drop her guard and simply become Anon's happily whickering mare. There's a moment where Cozy blurts out a suprisingly descriptive fantasy of her forcing him into her sweaty wingpit and keeping him there until he turns into her personal sniffslut—she quickly retracts this fantasy out of embarrassment afterwards, but there's no changing the fact that the knowledge is now out there. (Despite refined appearances, this pegasus is quite the kinky bitch deep down.) (Cozy is unfortunately lacking in the tuft department, but her wingpity game is unmatched. There's no denying that this pegasus would love to get her human hooked on her natural maresmell, so I think there's definitely some potential for a sniff-centric scene in a sequel somewhere.) Moving onto the herd snuggling scene, Anon and his mares are just about getting ready to head to sleep…in the afternoon. (Yeah, kinda weird, isn't it? I would say that a few hours max have passed from the beginning of Chapter 30 to now, but in narrative terms, it's been about 100k~ words since Flurry gave her Master that hoofy backrub. And a *ton* of stuff has happened since then—maybe not temporally, but…spiritually, you know? These characters ought to be dead tired at this point, so I felt like they had rightly earned their rest.) At some point, Flurry booms "THIRDLY!" in all caps. This is pretty goofy, but I also think it's totally on brand for this bubbly alicorn. She's bitterly cold to those she cares little for, but when she's with her loving herd of four—she couldn't be happier. Since there's not a whole lot to say on this chapter, I'm gonna take the chance to bring up a certain running theme throughout Pink Haze—it's a matter of orientation. One of my inspirations for writing these three mares together came from this particular image by coldbloodedtwilight: https://twibooru.org/3154547 I'm quite a fan of how these mares are arranged here; you've got Cozy Glow as the central "ringleader," while Luster Dawn and Flurry Heart smugly flank either side of her. There's a certain "looming" energy on display within this image, and in my goal to associate each mare with their own distinct directional heading, I decided to pay this illustration homage by positioning Anon's mares in a similar fashion. Thus, all throughout Pink Haze—Luster has generally been associated with "being on the left," Cozy has generally been associated with "being in the middle," and Flurry has generally been associated with "being on the right." (Cozy is a centrist? Golly!) There have been some exceptions to this, of course. But hey, while we're still here, why don't I go over a few fun examples and curious outliers of these orientations within the fic itself? >Chapter 1 is actually a notable outlier to this theme, as Flurry's need to be the absolute centre of attention at all times has her take the middle position more often than not within this chapter. During the massage scene, we have three massage tables all lined up in a horizontal row, and Luster is quick to try and call dibs on the middle table—only to be stopped and dropped onto the rightmost by Flurry's light-yellow magic. From there, Flurry proudly takes the middle table, Luster begrudgingly lies upon the rightmost table, and Cozy quietly contents herself with the leftmost table. While the positions here don't reflect the themed orientations, they *do* indicate Flurry Heart's desire to be the Queen Bee of her friend group, hence her asserting her position as middlemost mare, while Luster Dawn has no choice but to adopt the position forced upon her by her "bestie." Cozy Glow, on the other hoof, is perfectly fine with staying on the sidelines for now. After all, behind the scenes, she's the one *truly* running the show—and once it finally comes time for her to claim her rightful place and take centre stage, she shall do so with aplomb. ` ` During Chapter 23, when Anon aimlessly wanders the hivelike halls of that dreamy Crystal Castle all by his lonesome, he eventually comes across a fork in the path that splits into three nearly identical corridors. I've already gone over what these corridors signify back during the Chapter 23 Section of this Afterword—but basically, the left corridor represents Luster, the middle corridor represents Cozy, and right corridor represents Flurry. ` ` During Chapter 31, while Anon is having a pleasant chat with Cozy, he sits upon the bed's edge, looking down at the pegasus; Flurry sits by Anon's left, while Luster sits by Anon's right and…hey, wait—this is another outlier! Indeed, the fact that their relative alignments are intentionally flipped here is a subtle indicator to what's gonna happen to the poor guy… ` ` Skipping ahead a little bit, during Chapter 38—the epilogue—once Anon finally takes his cushy throne, Cozy Glow is quick to plonk her firm tush right on top of her Partner's comfy lap, taking the midmost spot and making an affectionate throne of the one she adores most in the world. And after all they've been through together, Anon isn't one to deny his Partner this intimate seat of utmost power. Later on, Flurry and Luster join their Master, and they each position themselves by his sides: Flurry by his right and Luster by his left. If you've been following along, then this must seem like quite the familiar arrangement to you. Indeed, while any incipient visitors to the throne room will witness this formation in a manner most mirrored, these pink mares are all perfectly oriented from their beloved Master's perspective—and that's just how they like it. ` ` Yeah. That's all you ask—just one more miracle. >And then you'll be living like a king. ``` And Chapter 37: ``` >For you are Anonymous. >And you are living like a King. ``` C'mon, I can't *not* jack myself off after writing pure kino like that. Anyway, you might be wondering: "hey, why did Luster hog all of the love at the end?" Well, if you recall, Chapter 36 was dedicated entirely to Flurry's Queenly cravings, while both the second half of Chapter 35 and the first half of Chapter 37 were Cozy-focused canoodlings; by comparison, Luster had received a fat helping of human dick back in Chapter 34, and a bit of sniffy-sniff during the first half of Chapter 35—but other than that, this Sow had found herself woefully wanting in regards to any recent Boarish affection. All three mares are equally important to this Master, so all three mares should be equally cherished—that'll be Anon's modus operandi going forward. Honestly, though, I just wanted to give this pig some much-needed loving. Flurry and Cozy are both amazing mares in their own right—but Luster has always been my favourite of the three to write about during this story. I adore this stinky nerd. Speaking of which, before we move onto the epilogue, I'd like to throw out one more poignant comparison between this chapter and the prologue; this one concerns Luster's dialogue back when she forced Anon's face into her unwashed ass crack and Luster's dialogue in the here and now. Chapter 1: ``` >All you can do is hold your breath to stem the tide of pervading ass musk. >You struggle to stand tall, the lack of oxygen sending your brain woozy. >At this rate… >"You…nff…you remembering to breathe, humie? Don't…hah…fight it. Take it all in…take in the scent of the mare who *owns* you~" >You would rather black out. ``` And Chapter 37: ``` >"Make sure to get a good whiff of my breath, Master…hhhffffff~" >She deeply and nasally exhales down your nostrils, ensuring that your lungs are totally topped up on your Sow's natural fragrance. >"Take it all in…" >You obediently comply, taking in her smelly breath with a hoggish hunger. >"Take in the scent of the Sow who *belongs* to you~" ``` Absolute cinema. #### Chapter 38: the epilogue (16k~ words) This is the final chapter of Pink Haze. I was initially uncertain about writing this one. Chapters 36 and 37 were extracurricular, sure, but this particular chapter extends pretty far beyond the story's scope of "Anon acquires a mind-controlled harem of three lovingly evil mares." Even though Anon had spent a good chunk of the story pontificating about conquering the Crystal Empire, my original plan was actually to save this usurpation for the opening chapter of a potential sequel. However, in the very possible event that I never get around to writing a sequel to this fic, I decided that it would be more fitting to give this story a more definitive ending—something to provide a satisfying capstone for everything that the main characters have gone through. Thus, that's why we have the epilogue here instead of later. Alright, so, let's expand the scope a bit here—what is this epilogue meant to accomplish for Pink Haze? A few things: >Provide closure for Anon's ambition to conquer the Crystal Empire. (As mentioned above, all that pontificating had to lead *somewhere,* right?) Provide closure for the fic in general. (Chapter 37 ended on a pretty high note, but I ultimately figured that the looming questions of "What will they do next?" and "How will the rest of the Royal Family react to their relationship?" were far too poignant to outright ignore. So I sought to answer them here.) Put the main characters in an highly advantageous position in regard to their future ambitions. (Basically—open-ended sequel bait.) ` ` Okay, that's enough reasoning and rationale; let's move onto the epilogue itself. We begin with what I consider to be some overly purple prose. I figured such descriptive storytelling would be a perfect fit for Anon's crowning moment. (Shout-outs to that stupid backrest.) This is what I used for my visual reference of the throne and its steps: https://files.catbox.moe/wues7m.png (Screenshot from S9E01) Some things to note: >There are three big steps leading up to the throne; the first one is about as tall as a stallion, with the subsequent steps decreasing in size as they go up. (This could also be a PoV thing, but…well, I'll stick with my interpretation for now; this throne is mad funky.) Seemingly no armrest for the throne. (Again, makes sense for a quadrupedal species.) I'll be honest, my exact knowledge of the show's setpieces is kinda spotty at the best of times, so I do rely on screenshots like these to refresh my memory. So I saw that screenshot, thought it looked good, and used it as my point of reference when describing the throne room. It's built by quadrupeds and made for quadrupeds; Anon would have to adjust a little, but there's also more than enough space on the throne's pillow for him and his mares. So, all's well that ends well, right? But hey, check out THIS shot from S6E16: https://files.catbox.moe/53j1so.png — I mean, really, look at this fucking shit. Look at those fucking baby-ass steps. Why are they so small? Sunburst in this scene mogs all three of them at once, and the throne itself looks like a God-damn miniature! Looking at this screenshot really threw me for a loop. I thought I had the throne room's appearance as close to canon as possible, but when the show's "canon" is so inconsistent like this…I don't even know any more. And then there's THIS shot from S9E01: https://files.catbox.moe/tsvgt0.png — apparently, you CAN use the throne's adjacent crystals as armrests; what the hell, man. Actually, how the fuck is Sombra even sitting like that? I thought the throne was a flat dais! Jesus, looking at this in conjunction with the other screenshots is making my head hurt. I'm never trusting a cartoon again. …Anyway, the point is, the way I described the throne in the epilogue is how I'll be sticking to it. Through writing this fic, I've realised that trying to stay one-to-one with the show's canon is a bit of a fool's errand (Hell, I have enough trouble staying one-to-one with myself). Obviously, there's no harm in copying over what you can—but when it comes to this ever-shifting mess of a throne room, I'll opt to simply follow my gut feeling instead. (Uh, yeah, this has been your autistic tirade with Glimbrain. Sorry, I just really had to vent this frustration out somehow.) Back to the epilogue, we finally see Cadance in the flesh for the first time in this fic—and she's just had her ass beat by her daughter. (I'm still very inexperienced in regards to describing fight scenes, so rather than potentially weigh this epilogue down with a shoddily written laser battle, I decided to have this chapter start right after Princess Cadance was defeated. I felt that it would have more impact that way.) The Crystal Heart itself gets a lot of love during this chapter. You might've been wondering why that is when you first read it—I don't blame you, the stroking and petting of this rock-hard object does get a bit weird at times—but when you take into consideration that the Crystal Heart is Queen Flurry Heart, well, these affectionate actions start to make a little more sense. (Anon himself is wholly unaware of this connection, but still, he can't help but appreciate the Heart nonetheless. Maybe he'll figure it out one day.) (Also, just before Cadance angrily calls out to him, Anon catches a glimpse of something "beloved" within the Crystal Heart—what could it have been? This is a question I decided to leave up to the reader, but perhaps it has something to do with what Flurry said in Chapter 26: about seeing your "one true love" deep inside the Heart. That's just a theory, though. **A mare theory.**) Moving on, Cozy and Luster enter the throne room with an unconscious Shining Armor in tow. (Luster off-screened Shining without much fuss, while Cozy was there to provide her herd sister with any assistance if need be.) When Cadance asks what happened to the non-pony members of the Royal Guard, Flurry answers that any *creatures* who served the crown have been dealt with "appropriately"—to which she then bursts out in a cackling fit of villainous laughter. (Flurry was certainly hamming it up here. However, what actually happened to those "diverse hires" is kept rather ambiguous within the fic itself. They were taken out of the equation, sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were murdered. Flurry is an emergent Changeling Queen who wishes to one day birth and feed a whole hive of apex 'lings with her beloved King—so she has *far* more uses for warm bodies than cold corpses.) There's a moment where Luster asks the herd about what they plan to do with Shining Armor, prompting Luster to look at Flurry, Flurry to look up at Cozy, and Luster to also look up at Cozy. (I thought this interaction was pretty funny. Still, you might think they came into this royal coup somewhat unprepared if they're asking that question *now,* and…I mean…maybe. But the way I see it, the herd's plan for Shining Armor during the brainstorming session was probably something along the lines of: "Eh, have Luster knock him out and bring him up to the throne room. We'll figure things out from there." Which is a fair enough plan, I think.) When Flurry proudly states to Cadance that she "shall become something the likes of which you could never even dream of," she forces that battered alicorn to look her in the eyes, and she shows her mother something that horrifies her on a fundamental level. If you're wondering that "something" is, it's the very same spectacle Flurry showed Anon near the end of Chapter 30: the sight of her pupils contracting to vertical slits—signifying the Queen that lies within. It was a demonstration that intrigued Anon—yet it utterly crushes Cadance in this present moment, for it's at this precise point that she knows her daughter is truly lost to her. Flurry then seals Cadance within the Crystal Heart, shackling her mother's alicorn soul to this Queen's pulsing core. Shining Armor, on the other hoof, has been turned into a decorative crystal statue—easy on the eyes, yet wholly stolen of his senses. …Yeah, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor get bullied kinda hard here, don't they? That being said, things definitely could've gone a lot worse for them, as inferred later on this chapter when Cozy states that she would've preferred to "off them." Despite this being a fairly bombastic epilogue, all things considered, I didn't want to go too far into the deep end while writing it. Honestly, Cadance is sexy as all hell, but I felt that it'd be incredibly ill-fitting for the fic's pacing to have her instantly brainwashed and slobbering over Anon's knob; plus, I…kinda didn't wanna cuck Shining Armor, y'know? That being said, I'm not *entirely* against the idea, but these kinds of things take time—a *lot* of time. Princess Cadance happens to be a Princess of Love just like her daughter, but unlike her daughter, she bears no fondness for Anon. And in my honest opinion, you can't break a mare like that within a single chapter (if you can even break her in at all). In any case, the closing chapter of a 370k~ word story is definitely not the right time nor place to suddenly start adding more members to Anon's three-mare slave harem, so I decided to push this freshly deposed royal duo over to the wayside for now. While Cadance and Shining get absolutely dunked on during this epilogue, they're still alive, which means that they can still be brought back if need be. I think this was a good decision for the fic's future, since it keeps things as open-ended as possible. That way, if (You) want to fantasise about bringing back Princess Cadance and brainwashing her into your personal free-use loveslut—you are perfectly within your imaginative bounds to do so. (On the other hand, if you instead wish to bring Shining Armor back so that you may break his sexuality in half by making him your mind-controlled buttslut in front of a mortified Princess Cadance—hey, I'm not gonna judge. Hell, why not go even further and make both of them your sex slaves? With Flurry, Cadance, and Shining all under your direct command, you'd have the full royal set on your Masterly hands. And it'll be a "happy" ending for everypony involved.) The scene where Flurry put her mother in a soulcage was admittedly pretty grim, so I thought it would lighten the mood to have these four villains happily enjoy their hard-won victory over the Empire together. And…yeah, that's about it! The rest of this chapter is fairly self-explanatory—Flurry feels fully at ease with her Master, Luster is totally tuckered out from both her magical and physical exertions, Cozy is as sly as ever, and Anon deeply loves all three of his mares. What more could you ask for? (At one point, Anon mentally muses about how Luster is "easily the lowest maintenance" mare of the three, and…well, I suppose this unicorn must seem like quite the chill pony when compared to the natural schemer and the hyperactive yandere—but Anon would do well to remember that this pig of a pony is a total handful in her own unique way. Indeed, no matter the mare, our resident Master is sure to find no shortage of excitement while managing his herd in the foreseeable future.) The final line of this epilogue mirrors the final line of Chapter 32; from Empress to King, and from "Bad End" to "True End," Anon's Masterly journey has been rife with smutty experiences and catty drama, but he got there in the end. He found his fortuitous miracle. He got his harem of evil mares. He claimed the throne of eternal wealth and power—and now… He's living like a King. #### Chapter END: final reflections So, that's the end of that. Writing Pink Haze was an interesting experience, to say the least. When you spend over a year working on a project, whether it be writing a story or anything else, I feel like it's inevitable that the mindset you held by the end of it will differ from the mindset you held at the beginning. In my case, I initially came into this story with the basic idea of "Anon acquires a mind-controlled harem" and the expectation that the plot wouldn't last any longer than 100k words. However, as I wrote more and more of Pink Haze, I found myself wanting to do these mares justice in my own perverted way; Flurry Heart, Cozy Glow, and especially Luster Dawn are uncommon sights in MLP fics—and when it comes the AiE genre in particular, they're a downright rarity—so I didn't want to write a simple "And they were all mindbroken into brainless sex pets. The end," kind of fic, as I felt like such a story would be both a waste and a disservice to their characters. Thus, I decided to take a more experimental and more "wholesome" approach to Pink Haze. And to achieve this, I ended up heavily fleshing out the characters of these pink bitches while giving them greatly increased agency within the green itself. This also gave me the opportunity to practise writing about kinks and concepts that exist beyond the focused realm of mind control—such as BDSM, soulbonding, corruption, dream sharing, literal horseplay, and so on. There were many different ways I could've handled this kind of story, and I know that the direction I ultimately ended up taking disappointed at least a couple of people who were following this fic, but still…I'm happy that I took the plunge and tried to write something new, regardless. Now, I'd like to take some time to muse over the Afterword itself. I started writing this thing sometime in the middle of April 2025, right after I finished proofreading the main story, and I originally planned for it to be a simple retrospective that I could just slap onto the end of Pink Haze Part 4 and call it a day; truthfully, I expected the length of this Afterword to be no longer than 10k words, but uh…yeah—you can see how *that* turned out, lol. This whole Afterword ended up being a writing project in and of itself. It was a chance to practise writing some pony-related prose as well as a way for me to contextualise everything that happened within Pink Haze into something (relatively) coherent. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Chapter Section turned out to be the chunkiest part of this word document. I'll let you guys in on a little secret—excluding this "final reflections" segment, you're actually viewing the fourth and final draft of the Afterword's Chapter Section. Yeah, I spent a *lot* of time rewriting this particular part of the Afterword. My main reason for doing so was to try and keep the word count of this document from reaching obscenely high levels. (Well, I'm not gonna lie, 80k+ words *is* pretty obscene—but hey, at least the word count is below the six-digit mark. I'll take my small victories where I see 'em). Another reason was to make sure the content in this section was as concise as I could possibly make it. (I did end up repeating a few things here and there, but honestly, I like to think I did alright in this regard.) For those who are interested, I'll give you guys a brief overview of what these other drafts entailed: >Draft 1: This first draft made it to the end of Chapter 28 before I stopped to take a critical look at how it was all going. At this point, the whole Afterword stood at 110k~ words—which was an absolute no-go for me, so I decided to scrap this section and start again. Draft 3: For this draft, I tried to axe the chapter-to-chapter approach entirely and focus more on "general story trivia" instead. However, this direction seemed kind of aimless to me, and by the time this Afterword hit 21k~ words, I realised that I wasn't really feeling it and decided to go back to a more linear structure for the Chapter Section. Anon: Wants to rule Equestria with his three loyal marewives by his side. Luster: Wants to dominate Equestria and convert it into her Boar's personal pigpen. Also wishes to freely feast upon this world's magic and utterly mindbreak every single living creature (except her Boar and herself) into the simple state of a dumb, happy, breedable pig. Adult Sweetie Belle. (Would be a fun callback.) Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. (Though this would have to be saved for *much* later.) "King" Sombra, forced into the body of a female crystal pony, thus becoming Queen Umbra. (This one's a bit of a deep cut, but I'm thinking about going for the Rule 63 angle here. Plus, I'm gonna be honest with you guys, Sombra seems like the kinda stallion who bats for the other team anyway, so a mare's body would suit him—er, *her* just fine.)