Amethyst’s Christmas Tales 2024
The Spy: Caught

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)
Commissioned by Dark Straw

“Unff…”

Dark Straw blinked, the zebra swinging back and forth as she hung upside down. But Dark was not in any kind of position she at all wanted to be in, her striped coat mostly covered by the latex outfit she’d used to conceal herself while infiltrating Canterlot Castle.

The unicorn guard clenched his jaw before her, his white coat of fur altogether looking more “royal” than she did, even though the unicorns were not all royals, of course. The guards could have been regular ponies, like most of the citizens of Equestria. But she could not be just like them, even the common ponies, with her striped mane and the smirk pulling at her lips.

“Oh, but I got so far before you found me in your midst,” Dark Straw all but purred. “How do you know that this isn’t all part of my plan?”

The guard eyed her as another, a unicorn mare, came up alongside them, with a darker grey coat. They were joined by a third in white, though their mane and defining features were hidden by the helm, as usual.

The three of them against Dark Straw, well… The zebra spy never truly had a chance. 

“Because you, spy, aren’t going anywhere.”

The grey-coated guard took charge, their horn glowing blue as they formed new latex, sweeping it up and over her head. That was not unfamiliar to the zebra, who still believed she was getting out of there alive, and she swung a little back and forth, even if she drew back from the pull of magic. 

“Mmph!”

The latex clamped around her muzzle, sealing away her cries, though it was not tight enough to restrict her from breathing, even though it covered her nostrils. The zebra rolled her eyes, though she couldn’t even see the guards anymore with the hood in place, completely covering her face.

A collar tightened around her neck, though even that didn’t worry the mare. She kicked a little, testing her bonds, hooves pointing towards the ceiling. She seemed to be down in the barracks, but that didn’t concern her either. Dark Straw, after all, was going to get out of there.

Or was she?

The white-furred unicorn guard, the one who had come up to the scene last after her capture, set their jaw. It was not a job they took pleasure in doing, but the spy had been trying to get into the chambers of the princess and they had intel that there was an uprising coming – with a direct threat on the life of the princess. The zebra had been armed with all kinds of poisons and weapons – any of which would have been more than enough to end the princess’ life.

So, it was only right that she was eradicated, that the threat was wiped out and never even reached the ears of the princess. 

Yet Dark Straw expected an interrogation, waiting on it, though she scoffed inwardly at their rather pathetic attempts at intimidating her so far. As if she was going to fall for any of their ridiculous tricks! Yet something was wrong, very wrong, as the collar around her neck tightened and tightened, squeezing along the sides of her windpipe.

“Wheeeessss… Wheeeeessss…”

She wheezed, straining for breath, lips moving against the hood. The zebra’s brow furrowed, under the hood, yet there was no one there that cared bearing witness to her struggles. Every breath came with a greater struggle than the last, though the collar put the most pressure on her windpipe rather than the artery in her neck, which could have otherwise cut off the blood flow to her brain.

“Nnnggghhh…”

She groaned, eyelids fluttering, worry only then beginning to nibble at the pit of her stomach. They were going to interrogate her, she was sure, but she could get out of that. She already had several plans in mind to escape and only needed them to move on to the next stage of their silly little plans.

Only…nothing changes. The pressure around her neck increased, the collar biting into both the latex and her flesh as she gasped and wheezed. Although Dark took in a little air, it was nowhere near enough to ease the tight band around her lungs, her breasts heaving within the latex outfit for breath that simply would not come.

Swinging more urgently, she kicked, unable to stop the natural reactions of her body. Dark Star sank into her own mind, clenching her teeth and chewing less than quietly under the gag, yet there was no way to stop the adrenaline from pumping through her body. Instinct told her she was in grave danger – and the only way she could get out of that was to hold on, to stay the course.

The guards would never really hurt me, she thought, blinking away wateriness in her eyes, strain lancing through her whole body. They’re royal Canterlot guards, these ponies don’t know how to take out an opponent, not really. They barely even managed to knock the Changelings back a pace.

They’re just going in hard on me from the start, thinking this will get me to talk.

But nothing changed. No one around Dark Straw spoke as the zebra swung and jolted back and forth, the lack of air setting off warning systems in her body. She gasped and mouthed at the latex hood, though it only tightened further to clamp her mouth shut, stopping her from even taking that much for herself. 

Her ears tried to twitch, but the latex hood covered them too, holding them fast in place. She tried to flare her nostrils, yet the latex clung to them, as if even that was trying to sink into her nasal passages, slinking through every part of her body it could reach.

“Nnnggghhhh… Nnnngggghhhh!”

She tried to shout “no” – as if that would do her any good. The guards shuffled, seeming uncomfortable, though she thrashed and fought. If she wasn’t going to be freed from being as quiet as she could while her body strained for air, any air, then fighting it with every ounce of frightened energy in her body, surely, had to be the next best thing.

Yet they did nothing. The only indicator Dark had that the guards were still around her was the shift of their hooves, sometimes scuffing more noisily over the stone. Their armour shifted on their bodies too with a subtle, metallic grate, though it was mild.

She would have had to cease her thrashing to hear that, however. And that was something the zebra very much could not do.

She twisted, heaving for breath that simply wouldn’t come – until something bit into her nipples. Dark gasped raggedly, a howl building in her chest that she couldn’t let out, though her arms strained behind her, bound and locked away where her hands were useless to her. Solid latex mitts covered them completely, giving her hands the appearance that she had hooves and was a quadrupedal zebra rather than a bipedal one.

“Tighten it again.”

Magic crackled around the collar and it pulled harder around her neck, leaving her without any semblance of an air supply at all. Dark’s eyes bulged within the hood, though there was no one there to see it, not as someone unzipped the latex slowly, with magic too, over her breasts. They sprung out, no longer contained, as cool air brushed over her chest. Dark Straw heaved back as much as she could, though the bite of nipple clamps sinking into her newly exposed tits sent a hot chill through her.

“Is that necessary?”

“Her thrashing is disturbing.”

The guards spoke as if it was all a normal activity, though one of the guards seemed a little more shaken than the others. But Dark couldn’t see any of that as something dragged her nipples out, locking them to the ground, so her thrashing was, at least somewhat, contained.

That ripped pain through her breasts, however, her body heaving and fighting for life, for air – but she wasn’t allowed that luxury of movement. Dark jerked, her tail flicking furiously back and forth, yet that was just one little pull of defiance and the ghost of control that she didn’t really have to give.

Air! She needed air! Her heart pounded and her lungs burned as if they had been set alight, though the zebra spy burned from the inside out. There was no fresh air for her, not as her chest constricted, not as her abs tightened and every fibre of her being screamed, in some form or another, for beautiful, aching release.

There was only one form that release would take, the corners of her eyes damp with tears that were never truly to be shed. Yet Dark Straw was not ready for it yet, not as her stomach lurched and rolled, her body straining with all its might to fight back against the inevitable end.

“I didn’t think a pony could last this long without air.”

“She’s a zebra.”

“A spy. We can’t have her survive.”

Dark tried to gape, the world spinning around her. Slowly, darkness pressed in on her and it was not the kind of darkness brought on by the hood.

It was deeper, more insidious. It sank into her psyche and dragged her down.

Pain was one thing, her body heaving and thrashing, nipples straining out viciously against the bite of the clamps, which held her in place better than anything she could have imagined in less dire situations. Her breasts trembled with illicit heat, flesh burning where it was exposed, but that white-hot blistering sear remained, cutting through her body and stripping it down to nothing, from head to hoof.

And there was nothing she could do about it, forced to jerk and twitch, not even allowed to thrash. The nipple clamps were connected to chains that the unicorn guard had fixed to the stone floor with magic, ensuring that her swinging would not disturb them. Yet Dark Straw fought and fought, jerking and jolting, her breasts straining as the pain faded to a dull, claiming burn.

As if the pain was pushing against her skin from the inside out, Dark Straw faded, slowly but surely losing her grip on reality. She groaned, though could never be sure whether she actually made the sound.

Darkness pressed in around her, closing in, taking her where she had never wanted to go. Her spy mission had taken a dark, forever turn that would never again be turned back, her body twitching and fighting even as her will to live faded with every second that passed. There was only so far she could go, after all, before the tight closure of the collar on her throat felt comforting, like the fingers of a lover gently stroking her.

“This is the punishment you deserve.”

She thought that might have been the unicorn guard saying that, but she couldn’t be sure. Her body didn’t feel like hers anymore, yet it was as if she was being squeezed from every side of her body, the latex adding that pressure to her. It had been a good spy outfit once, allowing her to use her abilities to slip through the shadows. In a way, it was fitting that it was the outfit she died in too.

She lost sensation, one thing after the other. The tug of the latex on her fur. The tight pull of the collar closing off her windpipe, strangling her. The snap of the nipple clamps digging into her tits. Everything fell away, leaving only the surge for life, the longing to live at all costs.

And the burn, the ache, the push of her body through those wretched lungs, snatching at air that was no longer hers to take. She lurched as much as she could in her upside-down bonds, breasts rolling with that longing for breath.

Yet it was not to be. Not then, never again. 

Down and down and down… No air, no hope. Her lips grew numb, coolness spreading through her. The strain was still there, though the jerking and twitching didn’t feel like her anymore, not in a way Dark Straw could influence in the slightest. She rocked vaguely back and forth as a ringing swelled against her eardrums, the guards’ talking lost in the resulting buzz.

As she was asphyxiated, fading from the living world, Dark Straw, the spy, took her end.