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Original Description:
 
For a woman like Inky Rose, things really hadn’t changed. She certainly hadn’t. Nobody had wanted her to. While the idea of putting her into the box of ‘goth’, let alone putting that in the ‘nerd’ category was rather dubious, it did mean she was a free woman able to follow her own interests and use her talents as she always had. The goal was simply to help show on the outside the exquisite disrepair that any sensible pony should have on the inside.
 
That was what brought her here. To the Midnight Facility. Or rather to the local Canterlot annex. A smaller building set at the outskirts of the city, nestled in between a few of the more run down old shops along the way. Apparently it had once been the home of some Luna cultists. A small house and book shop with a large set of natural caves underneith perfect for those who followed the lady of the moon to congregate and plan their revenge.
 
With that revenge now taken, it had been annexed to one of Princess Luna’s pet projects. The book shelves replaced with a small show room where slaves in various types of packaging and boxes stood motionless and terrified. The victims of their own past hubris and chipper ‘sunny’ dispositions. It brought a smile to Inky’s face as she strode past. Her restrained enthusiasm cut only slightly as she realized that almost every offering there was utterly naked. At best a few sporting some off-the-rack latex or a set of knee socks.
 
It simply wouldn’t do at all. Something had to change.
 
Two figures stood waiting for her behind the counter. One was a rather plump and chubby yak with thick brown braids and a pair of metal rimmed glasses. She leaned heavily against the counter with one hand pressed against a stack of paper and the other running a finger though lines of script, looking as if she was having difficulty deciphering the details.
 
That figure was strange. The other… It was almost hard to tell at first. A sunny yellow pelt and soft purple hair. It was so familiar, yet the braces and crossed eyes were both clearly new. As was teh defeated slump of heavy anxiety.
 
“Lily Lace?” Inky Rose tilted her head a bit and reached her fingers out to delicately cup the now stooped unicorn’s cheek.
 
Her former fashion rival blushed, looked away and bit her lip hard enough it looked as if she’d draw blood. Lily nodded ever so slightly and glanced off to one side, a rather awkward effort given how her eyes were now both pointed inwards. The strain alone looking particularly unpleasant.
 
“I wondered what happened to you.” Inky smiled softly. The smile only growing as she saw the blushing girl flinch. Inky Rose didn’t know much about the Nerdification process. But she knew a girl like Lily Lace absolutely wasn’t going to end up on the right side of the new order.
 
“Oh, you know this thrall pony?” The yak blinked. She glanced at the sun-pelted cross-eyed girl standing meekly behind the counter. “Pony doesn’t have an owner yet, but was brought in to be processed last week.” The yak said eagerly. Her arm half-wrapped aorund Lily’s slender frame forcing the poor girl to struggle as she fought to stay standing. “Yona feel bad at first. Ponies all being hunted and captured. But these Ponies not put up fight. Not struggle. Not protect themselves. Yona thinks they deserve to be thralls. This one especially.”
 
“I see.” Inky Rose nodded “And will she be my subject for this audition? I am to understand I keep the subject no matter what. Correct?”
 
The way the unicorn shook her head was too cute. Frizzy splitting hairs tossing this way and that. Her heart practically thudding out of her chest. The once vapid and materialistic girl now utterly overwealmed and terrified of anyone and anything around her. A far cry from what Inky would have done. But it was a start. A very pleasing start.
 
“No. But Yona can put her down on layaway if dark pony wishes. Boss says that anyone who works for Midnight facility needs to break fresh material. Is like fashion show. Is very important.”
 
“I see.” Inky nodded. “Then who?”
 
The Yak shook her head “Yona not know mare. But she make good material for you.”
 
The look in inky’s eyes, the small hint of dark warmth shattering the cold ice of her gaze seeming to tell Lily things that needed no words. wonderful ‘threats’ that caused the poor girl to nearly break down and collapse to her knees. Once she’d taken her fill of her former rival’s discomfort, Inky Rose turned her attention back to the yak and let herself smile, just a touch. Just the barest of polite gestures. “I trust you will be able to help me with the devices? I wasn’t aware I’d need to operate them myself.”
 
The yank nodded and offered a nice big grin. “Yona only part timer, but she knows how to operate most of the devices. Material kept downstairs in cave. Deliveries go in there. Helps ponies feel helpless. I have helper slave go get.”
 
There was a small flash though Inky’s stony, dour demeanor. The pegasus took a few steps towards the yellow unicorn and gripped her cheek, leaning in to plant a sudden, forceful, and utterly unexpected kiss right on those lips. Slipping her tongue in and forcing the once snotty pony to nearly fall over as she bent back to accommodate the much taller girls advances. When she finally pulled away Inky still had the same scowl. Only her eyes showed any hint that she was satisfied. She cast them at the girl and ran a thumb along her cheek. Then looked to the yak. “If you can start getting her ready, I think I’d rather work downstairs. There’s always been something magical about caves. Don’t you think?”
 
Yona shrugged a bit Her eyes passing between the two catching sight of the spark there. “Yona can do this. But is dark pony sure? Might be best to wait until job is secured, yes?”
 
“No, I’m sure.” Inky nodded “But if you have one, I’d like her in a doll box. A real doll box. like an old porcelain doll.”
 
With that said, Inky turned and started her way down the stairs into the basement, and from there through the once-hidden door into the cave complex below. There wasn’t much to speak of. A cage of sedated ponies off to one side. Most wrapped up in heavy rubber gimp suits to keep them from getting any sensory input that wasn’t wanted. Inky had seen the pictures of the proper facility set up in Phillydelphia and what she saw here certainly didn’t compare. Not that it mattered much to her. Her only job was to capture the essence of what these dolls should be. They were, as the yak had said, material. Like so much cloth and thread.
 
Indeed, a ‘bolt’ of that material stood there now, waiting for her. Another familiar pony bound and struggling. Resting with her arms tied together and strapped to a hand truck. The read-headed Pegasus spat and grumbled obscenities at Inky. Whatever fear the caves were intended to instill, it had either not set in yet or passed long ago. Right now there was only defiance.
 
But then, maybe it was better that way.
 
“Oh great. First the fat-ass yak, now you? Listen, you’d better let me out of here right now. Whatever you think you’re doing I didn’t ask to be here. If you try to lay one hand on me…”
 
The fervor of the woman slowly started to die when she began realizing that the dark pony woman wasn’t paying attention to her.
 
Quietly, Inky Rose began to open her bag. Bit by bit laying out items from it. Her scissors, her rolling cutter, fabric pens and her own extra-long measuring tape. Slowly she began to arrange the items out on the large desk taking up one corner of the room. Something that once may have been a makeshift alter.
 
Eventually Inky Rose finally made her way up to the other woman. Looking her over. The bright breezy summer colors. The short sporty haircut. The gaudy golden jewelry draped over her. The rage was gone now. Her material instead starting to panic. Aggression melting into fear as the Valley girl pony glanced at the shiny steel scissors resting in Inky’s hand.
 
“Stay away from me.” The blue pegasus muttered fearfully, turning her face away.
 
Instead Inky grabbed her subject by the chin and tilted it one side to the next, Carefully taking in her features, then letting go and turning back to her tools. “It looks like the Midnight Facility is going to make me the new designer for slave clothes. But first they said I need to show them how it looks on a newly broken slave. It seems like I have to prove I can do it myself. It’s a union regulation.”
 
The red headed pony squealed and screamed. It sounded like some accusation of Inky being insane. It didn’t matter. None of this mattered. Nothing, save for her art.
 
“The good news is I get to keep you as the advance on my commission. Even if they go with someone else.”