The music beat in everypony’s chests as each couple swayed to the beat, held in one another’s hooves. Every slow twang of the piano playing from the speakers seemed to make each couple hold one another a bit closer, clenching one another a bit more tightly, but for one couple in particular.

Trixie and Sethy gazed lovingly into one another’s eyes. After a week of absolute chaos, heart-rending disasters, and light hypnosis, they had found each other all over again. Now, it was time for the Great and Powerful Trixie to reap her reward. And still, something nagged at the back of her mind. She sighed, peering out the corner of her eye at the lavender unicorn sitting at the table, laughing with her friends with that adorable little giggle. “Can’t always get what you want,” she mumbled under her breath.

“What?” Sethy asked, thankfully oblivious to her little eye-corner peering.

She gazed back at him, looking into those rich, gray eyes and seeing more love than she’d ever thought possible. But was she worth it? Did a mare whose heart could be so unrestricted deserve this kind of love? How could she stay with somepony so loving if she was never quite able to give 100% of herself to him?

“Trixie, what’s wrong?” He asked, honestly concerned. She opened her mouth, ready to just spill it all out in front of him, but then a strange smile spread across his face, far more confident than any she’d ever seen there before. “Hey now, whatever it is, it can’t be all bad. After what we just survived, do you really think anything could hurt us?”

Oh, if you only knew… she wanted to sob, but she kept her muzzle tight. Here was the stallion who had looked into the eyes of a tyrant and slaver and seen something worth saving, worth being with, worth preserving. In that instant, she wanted to do everything in her power to make sure this unicorn never had to suffer like that again, never would feel that heartache again, never would want for anything again.

And if that’s not love… she realized, her lips closing over his before she nuzzled deep into his chest. …then I don’t know what is.

“It’s nothing, I just love you,” she replied. “You know that, right?”

She expected another one of his sweet little nothings whispered into her ear. Instead, she got: “Blech! I knew you little ponies were corny when it came to affairs of the heart, but that…that was wretched!”

She balked and took a few steps back, staring up at the draconequus standing in Sethisto’s place. “Discord, how…” she finally took a good look around. The piano music and turntables at the outer edges of the bar had been replaced with a chicken coop, a bunch of chickens inside all pecking their little heads out to play an assorment of out-of-tune bagpipes. The other guests were now an assortment of wookies, tutu-wearing buffalo, and disco-loving androids shaking their groove-thangs to the best of their gyroscopic flexors’ abilities.

“Oh, this is a dream,” she replied dryly.

“Not quiiiite,” he replied, his snake-like body uncoiling in the air as he drifted lazily by her head. Trixie shivered at the sight. A few months of so-called “reformation” only did so much when talking about a creature that had descended into lore as a tyrannical, chaotic monster for thousands of years. “This is just a little dream-bubble I have crafted for private conversations. Your body’s still going on auto-pilot, so don’t worry: as far as little Sethy’s concerned, you’re just a bit less talkative right now.”

“What do you want?” She asked fearfully, probably a bit more so than she meant, but you never knew how to act with him.

“Now, what’s with the widdle scaredy pony?” He asked, pinching her cheeks in his claws and stretching them out as far as his arms would go, like they were latex rubber. “I’m reformed, didntcha know? I just wanted to check up on one of Celestia’s citizens.”

“What?” She asked.

“Now, I couldn’t help but notice a certain longing you had for a certain sparkle-butt,” he said, drifting through the air in a hovering rowboat.

"What!?"

"Oh, you know," he whipped his hand out, now colored purple and with a little horn on it, looking more like a purple snake than a unicorn. "'Herr therr, Ehr'm Twerlert Sperkle, an' Ah ferkin' lerve berks.'" He said, moving the puppets lips out of sync with his voice.

His hand popping back to normal in a burst of confetti, he turned to her as she tried very hard not to laugh. "That Sparkle."

"I-ahem," she pointed her nose upwards. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I am merely interested in Twilight because she is an interesting, intelligent pony, and Trixie would love having her for a friend."

"Oh, really?" With a snap of his fingers, a whole section of the wall vanished, making way for a heart-shaped bed with frilly little pillows and lace covers. Atop the bed lay a whole menagerie of ballgags, leather handcuffs, dog collars, and other fetish gear, all resting next to a certain unicorn in socks.

"Oh, Triiixie..." the Twilight clone called, smacking a hoof against her flank as her eyelids fluttered seductively. For a few moments, the little blue unicorn in the room became the little red unicorn in the room.

"Your subconscious would beg to differ," Discord winked as the Twilight on the bed shot them a saucy little wink, revealing magenta eyeliner on each of her eyelids. "Among other things. Good lord, is that a dildo in the shape of a dragon's fist I see? And people say I'm depraved!"

"Dear sweet Celestia..." Trixie gasped, nearly swooning to the floor in embarrassment.

"Oh, but what's this? Another desire?" Snapping his fingers, an image of Sethisto popped up at the bed's side, also clad in socks.

"Trixiiiiee! We're both waiting for you!" He called, crawling into the bed and laying on his back.

"Don't leave us waiting too long now, Trixie!" Twilight called, voice oozing with lust.

Eyes locked wide in horror and shame, she finally shook her head. "Alright! Enough, please! I admit it!"

"Wonderful, admitting is the first step towards recovery," the draconequus said, holding her shoulders comfortingly as he donned a plaid jacket, glasses, and a bubble-spewing cigar pipe.

"Wha-what!?" She sobbed.

"I dunno, sounded like something Freud would say."

"Who!?"

"Y'know, asking questions is only supposed to help if they're intelligent and well-thought out!" He huffed.

"Well, excuse me for not feeling very intelligent and thoughtful right now! I'm kind've getting all my repressed urges and deepest, darkest thoughts shoved in my face!" She cried.

At that, a little smile played at the draconequus's lips. She turned away from him, tears dribbling off her snout and trickling to the floor. Of course, the oppressive silence that followed only served to amplify the animalistic grunts from the pair on the bed, still sitting there at one end of the dance floor.

"Could you at least get rid of those two? The…noises are very distracting," she whimpered.

"Of course," he replied, and with a snap of his fingers the pair of unicorns, the bed, and the terrible assortment of fetish toys disappeared.

"Why do you even care about this, anyway? It's just some unicorn's stupid, impossible fantasy." She mumbled, just barely loud enough for him to hear.

"Well, contrary to popular belief, I do have a soft spot for Tia's little ponies," he said, strolling in front of her, hands clasped behind his back. "Especially ones as brave as thou."

The unicorn opened her eyes. Did the God of Chaos just pay her a compliment?

"So, tell ya what: we're gonna get you a few things you've been wishing for, and hopefully that'll satisfy a few curiosities, both yours and mine."

"What?"

His expression soured. Suddenly, he reared back, his mane forming into a large, black afro. "Say what again. I dare you, naw, I double-dog dare you, muthahfuckah!"

She whimpered and cowered into a little ball on the floor.

"Not a Tarantino fan, hmm? Eh, don't worry, he can't be everyone's cup of tea," he sighed, dropkicking the afro into the corner, where it exploded in a rainbow-colored burst of clouds.

"Look, Mr. Discord…" she sighed.

"It's just 'Dissy' to ones such as you, my little pony," he said with a warm smile.

She blinked a few times. "Alright, Dissy, I am very tired right now, a-and I still need to find a train for me and Sethy to take home before I can rest in my own bed again, so please, whatever this is, c-could you wrap it up?”

“You ponies are always in such a hurry, never taking time to stop and molest the roses,” he sighed, shaking his head as a rosebush materialized behind him. He turned and sashayed across the floor, a claw trailing across the bush, which promptly giggled and blushed. Trixie rubbed at her eyes, and the impossible bush was gone. “Very well. I just wantcha to know I had a certain…reward in mind for doing such a wonderful job.”

“Re-reward?” She shivered at the thought of what the God of Chaos might consider a reward.

“Yes, Tia thinks I should take a more positive role in her ponies’ lives, so, here we are!” He spread his claws out. “And just so you know; turning down a gift can be a very rude gesture.”

“Umm…”

“So before you go, just remember one thing,” the draconequus swooped down head level with her, hissing right into her ear: “Have fun.”

“Have fun?”

“Have fun.” He grinned, then snapped his fingers. In an instant, she was back in Sethisto’s grip, swaying with him on the dance floor. No transition, no weird rushing sequence, she was in Discord’s strange little dreamworld one second, and dancing with Sethisto again the next.

Trixie’s head spun, and she stumbled suddenly, bumping right into another couple. “Hey, Trixie!” Sethisto gasped, catching her as the other couple glared at them. “What’s up?”

“Nuh-nothing,” she started. “Just tired, is all.”

“Should we leave?” He asked, motioning towards the door.

“Probably,” she shivered. Just what had Discord meant by a reward? And did she really want to find out? “Yes, we should go, we should definitely leave now.”

“Hey guys,” Twilight butt in, suddenly striding up to the dance floor. “I think I overheard you saying you needed someplace to stay?”

Trixie’s heart thudded in her chest. “Actually, we were just going to catch a train home tonight, which we should probably do really…”

“There aren’t any trains running out of Ponyville, though,” Twilight said.

Trixie could hear her pulse in her ears now. “Wh-what?”

“You completely sealed the town off for three days, remember? Rail lines included. There’s no way the rail depots will even know to send a train here until morning, at least.”

“Gosh, that’s such a shame,” Sethisto said. “I was really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.”

“Oh gosh…” Trixie said nervously, prancing from one hoof to the other. It was almost like fate was keeping her here, forcing her to see just what the draconequus had in store. “Oh gosh…”

“Well, if you’re that worried about a place to stay, I have some extra room up at the library,” Twilight offered.

“Oh…”

“Perfect!” Sethisto said, pulling Trixie in close. “That’s really nice of you, Twi!”

“Oh, it’s the least I can do after Trixie saved Equestria from an all-out war,” Twilight waved a hoof. “I mean, so long as you’re both okay with it.”

“We are more than okay,” Sethisto said, turning to his marefriend. For an instant, she could swear she saw that scraggly little patch of beard Discord tried to pass off as facial hair pasted to her stallionfriend’s face, but with a blink it was gone. “Aren’t we, dearie?”

“I…”

“Of course she is!” Twilight gushed enthusiastically, and for yet another instant, Trixie could swear the lavender unicorn’s eyes matched the red, mismatched pupils of the God of Chaos himself. “After all, she knows not to turn down a draconequus’s gift, right?”

Eyes widening in a mixture of fear and curiosity, she nodded dumbly. “Uh-huh…” she managed to choke out.

“Then it’s settled!” Twilight smiled and clapped her hooves together. “You two are staying with me tonight! Oh, it’ll be just like a sleepover!”

At the mention of “sleepover,” the image of Twi spread out on a heart-shaped bed, resting in between a large, black dildo and a pair of hoofcuffs covered in pink fur popped into Trixie’s head. Her entire body turned bright red again, starting at the cheeks. “I…I dunno…”

Ugh, do I have to do everything myself!? The draconequus’s voice snarled. Before Trixie knew what was happening, a claw ran through her mane and tapped against her forehead. She felt something stir within her as a bleak, gray chrome ran all over her body, starting where the claw had tapped her and consuming her entire form. Noo…we’re not looking for gray… the voice said thoughtfully, and with a snap of his fingers the gray snapped to a light pink. Trixie’s eyes went half-lidded. She bit her lower lip, her marehood suddenly giving an involuntary quiver as she turned back to the wide, dumb eyes of the unicorns with her.

“Oh, that sounds wonderful, my sexy, little ponies,” she said breathlessly, her heart thudding so hard in her chest that the others could almost hear it. “In fact, I have the most wonderful idea for some games we could play…”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“AJ! AJ, wake up!”

The earth pony groaned and turned over in her bed. “Five more minutes…” she grumbled, keeping her eyes firmly shut. If the stabbing migraine in her temple was any indication, she had a killer hangover from her drinking contest the night before with Rainbow, so the last thing she wanted to do was open her eyes. No, it would be much better to keep them nicely shut and in the dark, thank you very much.

“AJ! Please, it’s about Trixie!”

She bolted up in the bed, eyes springing open. “Whazzis about…ah-ow…” she grimaced and massaged her temple, head spinning, pain just starting to subside a bit. She was way too hung over to be dealing with this.

“Applejack, c’mon!” She gave a start at the lizard-like, emerald eyes peering up at her from the floor, thinking for a quick second that it was Chrysalis gazing up at her, then realizing how stupid that idea was as Spike crawled up on the bed with her.

“Spike?” She croaked, voice hoarse from a dry throat.

“Please! You hafta help! Pinkie and Rarity already laughed me off, you’re my only hope!” Spike pleaded.

“Hnngh…” she groaned, flopping back onto her pillow, the bedsprings beneath her complaining loudly. “Whatever it is, Ah’m sure it can wait ‘til mornin’.”

“Trixie has gone crazy again and she’s torturing Twilight and Sethisto in the library!” He spat out in one quick breath.

Applejack’s eyes bugged wide open. All sleepiness fled her body as she twisted in the bed, wrestling the covers off her body and belly-flopping on the hardwood floor. “Jeez, Spike, why didntcha say somethin’!?”

“I did say somethin’! Just now!” He screamed defensively, watching as she bucked the wall next to her bed, causing her trademark Stetson to fall off its hook and land right on her head.

“Ahh, right, consarn it…” she gasped, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she limped for the door. “Now real quick, why dontcha go over what’s happenin’?”

“Oh, it was awful!” He gasped, tears welling in his eyes. “There were whips and chains and ball-gags and…”

Applejack paused just short of throwing herself through her bedroom door. “Ball gags?”

“Yeah! And it was all setup in Twilight’s bedroom and…”

“Hold up,” she raised a hoof to quiet him down. “Why dontcha start from the beginnin’?”

“Well,” he sniffled, wiping at his nose with the side of his arm. “I was just straightening things up from the other night…”

“Other night?”

“Yeah, me and the Cutie Mark Crusaders tore the library apart trying to find something to beat the Alicorn Amulet the night Trixie first showed up,” he shook his head. “We didn’t find anything though.”

“Alraght, back t’what happened?”

“R-right, so I found this book on the floor called ’Potions and Poultices: The History of Alchemy in the Zebra Nations,’ and the thing is we have separate sections for Alchemy and Zebra History, so I just went upstairs to ask Twilight which one it should go to and I heard all these noises coming from her room and I saw…” his blabbering took a quick pause there. He let out a shaky breath. “I saw…”

“Whadja see, sugarcube?” She offered. “G’wan, tell me.”

“Oh, what’s the point?” He sank into the bed. “You’ll just start laughing and not be able to stop, like Pinkie. Or maybe you’ll turn red and faint like Rarity did when I told her.”

“Spike, ya really think Ah’m the jokin’ around, faintin’ type?” She asked, deadpanning.

Hope rising in his eyes, he sprang to his feet. “Okay, so I saw Twilight and Sethy and they were tied up in these leather straps, and they had ballgags in their mouths and blindfolds on, and Trixie had this weird corset on and she kept spanking them on their butts with this big paddle and she kept calling them ‘naughty little ponies’ and she had this big black thing that looked kinda like my…”

“Okay, stop raght there,” Applejack said, raising a hoof. She removed her hat and started fanning herself with it. “Land’s sakes…”

“W-will you help?” Spike asked.

Applejack bit her lip. Just how was she supposed to explain this to a baby dragon? “Spike, what you saw in there wasn’t Trixie torturin’ Twi an’ Sethisto.”

His eyebrows hunched in confusion. “No?”

“Naw, it’s…it was…a…” her eyes lit up. “A game!”

He looked at her suspiciously. “A game?”

“Yeah, a game grown-up ponies play sometimes when they’re feelin’…” her hoof traced a few figure-8s in the air as she searched for the right word. “…frisky.”

“Frisky?”

“Yeah,” she said, clamping her hooves down on the young dragon’s shoulders. “Now, this game is s’posed t’be real private, personal business fer the ponies playin’ it, so you need to make sure you never, EVER, talk about whatcha saw tonight t’anypony else, y’hear? Even t’me, Rares, an’ Pinkie.”

“Really?” His eyes widened. “What about Fluttershy?”

The farmpony nearly fell out of her horseshoes at the thought of Fluttershy’s reaction to Twilight’s little ‘midnight escapades’. “Especially Fluttershy.”

“Oh, wow, okay,” he scratched the fin on the top of his head. “I guess I could keep a secret if I have to.”

“Trust me, if y’want other ponies t’keep treatin’ Twi right, y’have to.”

“Alright,” he raised a hand, palm out, and placed the other on his chest. “I’ll even Pinkie Promise to it.”

“Stick a cupcake in yer eye?”

“Stick a cupcake in my eye.” He affirmed, tracing an ‘X’ across his chest with a claw.

“Good,” she smiled. “Now that’s settled, Ah think it’d be a good idea fer you to sleep over here while Twi finishes her…game. Y’all can take m’bed, Ah’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Aw, no, Applejack, I can just head back to the library!” He said, but the sudden way his head drooped and the little yawn he gave to punctuate his sentence told her he’d be lucky to even walk out the door under his own power, even if she wanted him anywhere near the library that night.

“No way, mister, yer tired as it is,” she scooped the dragon up in her powerful forelegs, cradling him as if he were her own foal. Now that the urgency of needing to ‘save’ Twilight was gone, he had drifted off almost instantly.

“But…I should…” he mumbled, obviously losing the battle against sleep.

“Whatcha should do is get some sleep,” she affirmed, tucking the little dragon in. “Ah’ll be right in the livin’ room if y’need anything.”

“Okay…AJ…whatever you…say…” the little dragon yawned and stretched his arms, scratching at his back before turning over in the bed and drifting away.

The farmpony smiled as she tip-hoofed out of the room. It was nice to see Spike could be so worried about his caretaker that he’d nearly collapse with exhaustion just to get her some help. Pulling some spare blankets down from the hallway closet, she made her way to the couch to make herself at home, fluffing up one of the pillows along one of the armrests and knocking the rest to the floor. She sighed contentedly as she settled in under the spare sheets she spread out for herself, just barely remembering to pull off her Stetson and leave it on the coffee table before her eyes drifted shut. Still, something nagged at the back of her mind, no matter how hard she fought to keep it down: the image of Twilight, all roped-up, probably suspended in mid-air, begging for release as drool rolled around her ball-gag. Not far away, Trixie would be standing with a paddle, her heart probably racing with anticipation as she cinched up her leather corset and reared back for…

In the darkness, a blush rose on the farmpony’s face. “Consarn it, why’s it always the quiet ones?” She grumbled, turning over on the couch and drifting off once again.

Author's Notes:

Welp, that's it then. After all this time, that's all the material I have for this story.

For anyone still out there and paying attention, I wanna thank you for sticking with it for so long, and so sorry for the long delay between chapters. I had figured any interest in seeing this alternate conclusion was pretty much gone, and between work and my other fics, this one just fell by the wayside. I honestly didn't think it important enough to even spend the effort it would take to post. So to all of you, thank you for sticking with it, and thanks for still being here. You rock, have a moustache.