The infinite corridor of dreams stretched out before Luna, ebbing and flowing, both as solid as stone beneath her feet, and as mutable as a thought. She was aware of doors falling away, doors never having been, to be replaced by new doors, moment by moment, as dreams rose and fell. She drifted, as light as air, letting the great flow of unconsciousness brush past her thoughts. It was akin to running soft, incredibly fine sand through her fingers, feeling for sharp little spikes of unhappiness or fear.

Such things were natural, and at times she let them play out as they needed to, but at times, they could be eased. Soothed, into a gentler shape. She knew that the great mass of Ponykind had slept better since her return, and it warmed her to her very heart to know that she was making things better. That she made a difference.

It was her duty, and she welcomed it.

This evening, however, was a gentle night. While some small spikes of anxiety slipped through her fingers, none of them felt wrong, or hurtful. It was better to let such dreams go. Perhaps she could truly and in good conscience let the night proceed for a few hours without her. Perhaps even take a glimpse at Twilight's dreams this eve. She smiled fondly to herself.

As if from a distance, she heard the sound of a door opening. For a moment she tried to seek the source of the sound in the dreamscape, before realisation struck.

Luna opened her eyes. She stood upon a balcony, high over Canterlot and the forest beyond, the lights of the city glittering like a reflection on water of the stars above. The moon shone with a pure silver light, casting gossamer shadows across the ground. For a moment, a haze of dreams clung to everything she saw, painting the world with unreal shades and impossible distances, before solidity reasserted itself.

She was not alone. Another mare stood facing her, her pale blue hair burnished silver by the moonlight. A nightgown draped her body, embroidered with stars and moons.

"Good eve, Trixie," Luna said softly. "Should not thou be abed at this hour?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie wasn't sleeping."

Her frown deepening at the flat tone in Trixie's voice, Luna took a step closer to her. A fitful breeze blew, shaping Trixie's thin gown against her body. She looked cold, though she didn't seem to be noticing it. "Trixie, is there something the matter?"

Silence. Trixie glanced up at Luna, then out over the balcony, moving to the railing and gripping it with both hands. Gripping it hard, Luna noticed. Getting Trixie to speak wasn't usually difficult, but at that moment, she seemed strangely reticent.

"...Trixie?" Luna probed gently. She was familiar with Trixie's brand of sulks, and this was the opposite of her customary fountain of petty complaints and grievances.

The showmare clenched her teeth, staring out into the darkness for a moment longer before finally turning her head, and skewering Luna with a cold glare. "Trixie hates you," she said abruptly.

Luna maintained her reserved expression, though beneath it, Trixie's words stung. She'd really thought that she was overcoming Trixie's resentment of being stranded in the forest, especially after they'd found common ground in their embarrassment at being caught by Ember.

"I'm sorry to hear you say that, Trixie," Luna replied after a moment. She caught herself drawing up straighter, crossing her arms defensively and hitching up her wings, and tried to slowly undo all of it. Her sister had always been so much better at seeming untroubled by anything she heard. "Is that why you came out to speak to me?"

"...no. Trixie was-" she cut herself off and turned her stare out towards the darkness again, her shoulders knotted with tension. Her lips worked soundlessly as she sought the words to fit to her feelings. Finally, she burst out, "The Great and Powerful Trixie hates competing with you for Mistress's attention! She hates that Mistress says she loves you, and she hates competing with a Princess, it isn't fair! Trixie has worked really hard!" Her tone was bitterly accusatory, though Trixie didn't turn around from the railing, still gripping the metal tightly.

"It doesn't have to be a competition, Trixie," Luna said quietly. A strange, tight guilt curled in her chest at the accusation, unable to stop herself wanting Twilight to love her more than anypony else, but shamed by the other mare's obvious distress. "Twilight cares for you as well, I am sure. She has often said in my hearing how hard you have worked, and she is proud of all you have learned. You make a good pupil."

"Well, if Twilight cares for her so much, why is she sending Trixie away?!" The words came out fast and jagged, freighted with misery, as if escaping under great pressure.

Oh, manure. Luna felt a sudden, horrible certainty that she knew what Trixie was talking about, but she nonetheless took a step closer to the other mare. Dipping her horn, she cast a small charm for warmth around Trixie, concerned about the goosebumps rising on the other pony's arms. With the utmost care, she asked, "Why do you believe Twilight is sending you away?"

"She told Trixie!" the showpony replied miserably. "She's only keeping Trixie for six months, and then Mistress is going to make her go away. She's going to ruin everything!"

"...Trixie," Luna began carefully, "you know that there are things that you feel that are imposed by Twilight, don't you? She has changed you, considerably in some ways. It wouldn't be fair to you to change you forever. It wasn't really fair of her to do it at all."

"She asked first! She made a deal with Trixie!" Her purple eyes were wide as she looked up at Luna, as if trying to convince the taller mare by sheer force of desperation.

"She didn't tell you she would enslave you, Trixie. You would never have agreed to that," Luna contradicted her softly. "I've seen the commands she laid upon you. She ordered you to be her sex slave, and to constantly humiliate yourself. Your true self wouldn't stand for it."

"Well, what does that stupid mare know anyway?!" Trixie demanded in a near-shout. "I know what she's going to do! She's going to hate Twilight for everything, and she already hated Twilight for the most stupid, stupid reasons, and she's going to throw everything that happened in Mistress's face, and she's going to stomp off, and she's going to be lonely forever and never be loved, and never get taught anything, and she'll hate herself, but she'll still do it, because the Great and Powerful Trixie was stupid and spiteful and selfish and never had any friends, and-"

The rest was muffled by Luna's chest as she gathered the smaller mare against her and hugged her tightly. A pang of terrible sympathy shot through her, all the more potent because she knew how it felt to be afraid of one's self, to fear that she could give in to a darker part of her and make all the very worst choices. But in this case, the Trixie that she was holding was an unnatural one, and the selfish Trixie the real personality.

She should never have let Twilight put Trixie in this position.

"I'm sorry, Trixie. I know something of thy fear. Twilight once told me that she was to remove all commands she had laid upon me, at some indeterminate future time, and I found the uncertainty unbearable."

Trixie looked up at Luna, her eyeliner forming dark streaks down her cheeks and her eyes red. "What did you do?" she asked urgently. "What did Twilight do?"

"I... insisted that Twilight brought forward the moment of judgement, rather than postpone it. She agreed."

Trixie's mouth dropped open, then she clenched her fists and shook her head. "What use is that to the adoring and worshipful Trixie? That would only make everything go wrong faster! I don't understand why she won't just keep me!"

Luna winced. This was not going to be a comfortable conversation, and she felt her jaw tense, trying not to give voice to the words. But, still... "That is because of me, Trixie."

Trixie pulled out of Luna's embrace and took a step backwards, staring upwards. Her voice was small. "...what?"

"It is my task to serve as Twilight's conscience, when her own is insufficient. I have allowed her far more latitude than perhaps I should have. Nonetheless, I would not allow her to alter thy mind indefinitely as punishment for what you sought to do to her. I would allow her no more than six months, and even that was with reluctance."

Like a new star flashing to life in the heavens, twin sparks of fury flared in Trixie's eyes. Luna flinched, struck by a tangible wave of hatred, and it was her turn to take a step backwards as Trixie hissed venomously, "It's your fault?"

"Trixie," Luna began, only to be cut off by a peal of sharp laughter, the edges gleaming like broken glass.

"Ha! Of course! Now it makes sense. Mistress is perfectly happy to throw Trixie away, because you told her to. And she loves you. She has a Princess of her very own to fuck. She has two! And all her stupid friends! They were always showing off how disgustingly wholesome they were, and wasn't that a lie. Trixie's never met such perverts in her entire life! Trixie isn't even sure how many fucktoys Twilight has picked up by now, because obviously Trixie isn't being told everything, so what's one more or less?"

Trixie's balled fists thumped her thighs, her body radiating an incandescent rage far too great to be contained within her modest frame. "You told her to do this! She would have kept Trixie! Trixie wouldn't be afraid for who she is, knowing it's all going to end, every day and every night!"

The torrent of bile pouring from the younger pony seemed to have no end, and Luna swayed back, dismayed by the force of it. "Trixie, it isn't right what has been done to you. Twilight-"

"Shut your gaping mouth, Nightmare! You've done enough damage already!" Trixie spat.

Luna's mouth snapped closed, shocked beyond words. It had been some time since anyone had used that name for her, and unbidden, a flood of bone-deep guilt rose up in her, summoned by the name. Her eyes glistened wetly in the moonlight. There was nothing she could say.

"Do you have any idea what will happen? What I'll wake up thinking?" Trixie demanded. Her voice changed in pitch slightly, but the underlying savagery was the same. "'I hate Twilight! She humiliated me! I want to destroy her, and everything she's ever done, and humiliate her, and ruin her!' Do you think I want to go back to that?"

Despite herself, Luna inhaled sharply. "I know that you cannot lie, Trixie, and so you must believe what you are saying, but-"

"I can say things that aren't true to you, you stupid blue moron," Trixie snapped. "It's only Twilight that Trixie can't lie to. The moon is made of cheese! I'm a hundred feet tall! You are a caring and considerate pony!"

Luna's shoulders flinched, as if struck. "Trixie, please. You must calm yourself. We can talk this through."

"That's why I came to you, for help! I didn't know that it was your fault that Twilight is doing this to me! You hypocrite! She enslaved you, and here you are, serving her like a good dog, while you're saying I can't stay!" She dashed tears from her eyes angrily. "I've tried to think of so many ways to force her to keep me like this, but every time I think I've found a way, I know that I'd have to confess it to her before I did anything! Nothing works!"

"Trixie!" Luna seized the younger mare's shoulders with both hands, her voice rising despite herself. "That is enough!" Trixie went rigid under Luna's hands, a flash of fear on her face as her mane streamed backwards from the force of the Princess's voice.

There was a moment of silence. Then, lowering her tone to a less deafening level, Luna added, "I am more than willing to help thee, but it must not be at the price of destroying who you were."

Her voice weary and resigned, her body slumping in Luna's grasp, Trixie let her gaze fall to the floor and replied exhaustedly, "The pony Trixie was will never accept this."

"Are you so sure?" Luna took a deep breath. For a moment, she hesitated. She didn't feel very much like sharing her inner feelings, not when Trixie had just been screaming at her. But if the young mare was hurting like this, and it was even partly her fault - which it was - it was her duty to do all she could. That meant telling the truth. The complete truth.

"Trixie, if Twilight had not conquered me with her spell, I would not be in this relationship with her. I have not said as much to her, but it is true. I would have shied away if she had professed love for me, unable to accept it so easily. I would never have agreed to submit to her the way that I have. I would have considered it perverse. It was her spell that compelled me. But I am not under her thrall now. I am not forced to find these things acceptable."

Luna's grip on Trixie's shoulders loosened, and she lowered her arms. "In truth, when I was given a chance to truly reflect on all I had experienced, I discovered that what I had once thought was wrong. Twilight was capable of loving me. I remembered lying in bed with her, and being held. I was under the spell's compulsion to do as she wished, but I was not ordered to feel... safe. Better. More whole. I remembered being touched and kissed, all of the pleasures I had felt, when I gave myself to Twilight. It was so... freeing, to trust in her and to cease making decisions of my own. Not always - I do not crave to be a puppet - but sometimes. And so, when I truly thought upon all I had felt, I chose to live this way of my own volition."

Touching Trixie's arm again, Luna finished softly, "If you truly believe your former self would be violently against the life you now lead, I will believe you. I am not certain what to do. But consider, first, whether her feelings may have changed."

Trixie looked up at Luna, her eyes reddened. Several times, she began to speak, then stopped, and started over, the words coming out with painful slowness. "The other Trixie would like that she's appreciated around the palace. Ponies listen to her. She is treated with respect. She... I had fun, with Twilight. With the spell researching, I mean. Trixie has never had anypony work with her like that. I... wanted so much to impress her." She sniffled, rubbing at her face with one hand. "I want to stay. I feel - I want to stay. I don't want to be alone. Why are you making me leave?"

"Will not your original self want to stay?" asked Luna softly. "Was she not lonely too?"

"You just - you don't understand what she's like," said Trixie wretchedly. "What I'm like. Because... Trixie is brilliant. She is smart, and powerful, and she can fool any ten stupid backwater hick ponies without even breaking a sweat, and that makes her feel on top of the world!"

A hint of her customary braggadocio leaked back into her voice as she spoke, then it faded as she went on, "That was - is - what makes Trixie special. Then stupid Twilight ruined everything, she sneered at Trixie and made her into a joke, and made everyone think that she was just an embarrassment, and a fraud... and then, and then Trixie had to prove she wasn't a fraud, so she tracked down anything that would give her power, because she was better than stupid Twilight and had to prove it. Then... then when I was more powerful than Twilight, I... lost, anyway. And she forgave me. That really hurt."

A jerk of unexpected fellow feeling ran through Luna. She wanted to ask why Trixie felt that way, wanted to pretend she didn't understand, but she did. Trixie seemed almost startled when Luna spoke, as though she'd forgotten she wasn't alone.

"I know of that pain. I was forgiven for all I had done, when I returned. When I was defeated, by Twilight. I wish I had been punished. If she had castigated me, I would have deserved it. But she didn't, and I still deserved it. So the responsibility to punish me for my misdeeds fell upon me, myself. And that is a terrible weight to bear."

"...which she do you mean? Twilight, or - or Princess Celestia?" Trixie asked, after a moment's silence.

Luna's lips twitched into a wry smile. "I didn't specify? Perhaps I meant both of them, in my heart. Twilight has commanded me to torture myself no longer, but it is not so easy."

Trixie sighed. The frantic, furious energy seemed to have drained out of her entirely, leaving her shoulders slumped and her face tired. "What am I going to do, Luna? Why did you make things be this way?"

"...because I didn't want Twilight to become a monster, as I did. As she could have. You do not realise how close she came to losing herself completely to the intoxication of this power, Trixie. Now that she is the Princess of Magic, I fear that were she to do so again, there would be no stopping her."

"Well, she's not!" burst out Trixie. "She's not a monster. She could have used the charm on Ember, couldn't she? And - and I was cross with her for not doing it! Because Ember saw Trixie exposed, and... and Twilight is supposed to protect her. From feeling bad, and judged. But she... she seduced Ember, and that was... Trixie can't really believe that happened, but if Ember had just left, Twilight would have let her go. She's not a bad pony, Luna! Can't you just... let her have this? Have me?"

Luna sighed, deeply. It had been so much easier to allow Twilight this before Trixie had brought the consequences of it so clearly before her. "I am proud of her for that. I have heard much of how she came to enthrall those around her, and under similar circumstances, she acted in haste. She has learned restraint." Her lips pressed together, and she hesitated for a moment. What she was about to say was only her supposition, and it could make things worse.

Nonetheless, she continued semi-unwillingly, "Even so... I suspect that she hopes to keep you. That Twilight intends to make your time with her so enjoyable that your true self will not wish to leave, even when the commands are lifted. I do not believe she intends to let you go easily."

"That's not fair." Trixie's lips parted, and her eyes filled, glistening in the silvery moonlight. Her voice was shaky as she asked huskily, "Are you lying to Trixie? Are you just trying to make her feel better?"

"No. I swear to thee, Twilight feels a great affection for you, and she fought me upon the subject. She did not agree gladly to the restrictions I imposed upon her, and I am certain that whilst she intends to stick to the letter of what we have agreed, she will seek thy loyalty and companionship nonetheless. She is not casting you aside, Trixie. She cares for you. I vow it."

Trixie gave a half-hiccup, half-sob, and rubbed her face with both hands. "Trixie wanted to believe, so much. I was - if she really didn't want me, if she was treating me like this and she was just going to throw me away, I would have hated her so much, for making me feel this way and not even caring or feeling anything back."

Luna bit her lip, her heart aching for the younger mare. She badly wanted to reach out and hold her, but Trixie had pushed away from her only a moment ago. She saw Luna as the architect of all her ills. Perhaps she was right to. Tentatively, she reached out to touch Trixie's shoulder. "I truly want to help you. It may be that you do not care for me, Trixie, but I do not..." She hesitated, then finished more slowly, "I do not want to see you hurt. If there is a way that I can believe in, a way that is fair to the pony you were, I would see you stay."

"You keep saying that! Just - tell me what I'm supposed to do!" Trixie leaned into Luna's hand, and reached out to touch the Princess in return. "Please!"

"I don't-" began Luna, then stopped herself. It was no use at all saying that she didn't know what to do. Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her thoughts of the cloying guilt and sympathetic sadness. "You do not know for certain how your original self will react to what you have seen, and done. You assume the worst. Twilight can allow you to speak with her. You may share your experiences with her, so that she understands what you have felt."

"But - she'll just-"

"You do not know for sure, Trixie. And you may find out that you are wrong. At worst, you will find that what you already believe is true."

"And what if it is? What then? What will you do?" demanded Trixie.

"I... do not know." It was a useless answer, Luna knew it even as she spoke it, but it was all she could give.

Trixie sniffled, lowering her head again and resting against Luna. "Okay."

The young mare felt very small in Luna's arms. Luna hugged her more tightly, the twin aches of guilt and sympathy carving out a hollow in her chest. Despite everything that separated them, there was something painfully familiar about Trixie's suffering. "...thy bed is very cold and lonely without her, isn't it," she said, after a moment.

Wordlessly, the other pony nodded once, a tiny movement of her head.

"If you wish, you can stay here, with me. And when I retire to my bed, you may accompany me."

Her voice small, Trixie murmured again, "...okay."

Twilight hummed happily to herself as she descended the staircase of the tree house, combing out her mane with a long-handled brush. The young alicorn wore a pair of black tights that clung with dedication to her longer legs, and a skirt that was now rather shorter, proportionally, than it once had been. A once-loose cream and purple t-shirt was filled out nicely by her bust. She looked, and felt, wonderful. Despite all of the amenities in Canterlot Castle, none of them quite matched the comfort of her own personal shower, where she'd spent years perfecting the right flow and temperature. There was nothing like that feeling of steaming hot water cascading down her body to make her feel refreshed and awake, ready to face the day.

"Has Zecora arrived yet?" she asked pleasantly.

Celestia was sat by a window, sunlight cascading across the warm wood of the writing desk before her, a long quill pen wafting back and forth as she wrote. That much was a familiar sight. Where it grew a little more unusual was that Celestia wore a tiny white blouse that was obviously far too small for her, unbuttoned to the point that her heavy tits had spilled out. Each pink nipple was clamped firmly, silver clips joined by a chain that swayed with her every movement. Below the waist, she wore a tiny navy skirt that did nothing to cover her garter belt and stockings. Her cunt was on full display, spread wide by the thick bulk of a dildo, and her ethereal mane was gathered up in two thick, billowing pigtails that completed the image of a fetishised schoolfilly. It was little wonder that Twilight had applied one-way charms to the windows, making sure no passing pony witnessed her depravity.

Still, despite her latest punishment, Celestia's voice was almost challengingly calm and level as she paused in her work and replied, "She is yet to arrive, Empress. Your slave is simply catching up on some documentation from Canterlot."

"It's really very hard to make you stop working, isn't it," Twilight mock-complained, a pleasant tingle of lust thrumming through her body at the sight of her mentor. She looked so good.

"I may be being punished, but the business of Equestria continues," Celestia replied, with the faintest note of reproach. "There are matters of state I should tend to."

"You're still sending all of your correspondence through Luna? And you're checking everypony that knocks before you let them in?"

"As you commanded. I literally can't disobey," the princess answered, with a touch of wryness.

"That's good. Luna is in charge right now, after all." Twilight glanced over Celestia's shoulder at the parchment, and grinned to herself.

...am my Empress's horny, depraved slut. I deserve to be fucked over and over in every hole. I am her fat-assed bitch. She controls my mind. My cunt is so full. My tits ache every time she pulls on my clamps. I'm making this seat wet with my dripping juices. I must obey. I must...

"It looks like you're making good progress," Twilight added with a giggle.

Celestia's eyes narrowed in suspicion. She looked down at her letter, then back at Twilight, then down at her letter again. "...there is something wrong with my letter, isn't there," she said finally.

"I don't see anything wrong," Twilight replied lightly. "It all seems true to me."

Staring at the parchment again, Celestia visibly scanned it, trying to pick out what was wrong, and just as obviously failed. "...Twilight."

"Keyword: moment of clarity," Twilight said pleasantly, leaning forward. She watched Celestia's eyes flick back to her letter, and - wait for it - there. The look of resigned annoyance that flashed across her mentor's face simply lit up Twilight's whole morning.

"I... see." Celestia lifted up a sheet of parchment, then another. "It's addressed to Ambassador I am a Horny Bitch. I suppose if it found its destination, she'd appreciate the content. And the other letters I've sent this morning?"

"Luna is receiving some wonderful progress reports from you on your state of mind." Twilight's grin couldn't have been wider.

Exhaling, the Princess gave Twilight a sideways look. "I'm not going to be permitted to write anything, am I."

"Of course you can! If what you're writing is a long essay on all the ways you've been naughty and need punishing. But other than that, no, not a thing." She grinned at Celestia's expression, then added more sincerely, "Luna can handle it, Celestia, really, she can. I want her to get used to running things a little bit; she needs to feel like she can look after Equestria in the day as well as at night."

Celestia tilted her head, her features taking on the agelessly calm look that she instinctively adopted when she hadn't decided how to react to something. "Is that what this extended punishment is about?"

Crossing the room in two quick steps, Twilight placed her hand on Celestia's shoulder, then leant down and kissed her. The Princess's mouth was warm and yielding under hers, and for a moment, Twilight simply lost herself in the pure, simple joy of being free to do this whenever she wanted. Shaking her head with a fond smile, she broke away to answer, "No, I'm punishing you because you are a giant pain in the tail, and you deserve to be stripped, humiliated, fucked and made to degrade yourself for just as long as I want you to. I'm loving punishing you. You don't get to get away with all your little games, Celestia. You get bent over and paddled until your ass is red."

"...I do have a lot to be punished for," Celestia conceded, with a small, tentative smile.

"You-" Twilight flicked the chain linking Celestia's nipple clamps, forcing a sudden gasp and whimper from the elder mare, "-are being silly. I'm not fucking you into a sloppy, dripping mess because I want to distract you. I mean, I do have to literally chain you down to make you turn over any responsibility for the kingdom, and I want Luna to feel trusted, but none of that changes the fact that you're a naughty little slut that I'm not done fucking."

Breathing quickly, Celestia swallowed, nodding. Reaching up to gently rub her hand over her breast, she murmured submissively, "As you wish, Empress. I serve at your pleasure."

"Mm, that's right. And you know what would please me?" Twilight gazed into Celestia's eyes, and said sweetly, "Keyword: go fuck yourself."

"Wha-" Celestia began questioningly, then gasped as her hand reached between her legs without her conscious intervention, and grabbed the base of the dildo. Pulling the smooth shaft half-way out of her, she took a firmer grip and thrust it back into her cunt again, forcing a whimper from her lips. She grabbed at the chair arm with her free hand to steady herself as she helplessly found herself riding the thick toy, her possessed arm roughly shoving it in and out of her.

"That should keep you entertained for a while. Like I said, do let Zecora in when she arrives!"

"Twilight!" Celestia groaned in protest, her thighs spreading wider.

"I'll be upstairs!"

Twilight skipped up the stairs, followed by the sound of her mentor's thick groans. As fun as it was to keep adding triggers to her ponies - the 'keyword' prefix was really working well to prevent accidents - she really ought to write them all down properly. She had a lot of notes to make from her time in Canterlot, in fact, and it was probably time to transfer her secret journal to somewhere more secure in the capital. Just because she was enjoying herself didn't mean there was any excuse to be getting sloppy.

Pushing open her bedroom door, she sighed happily as she surveyed her neat, tidy room. There was something to be said for all the space the Princess suite offered her, of course there was, and sleeping in her old bedroom tower was really nice, but... this had become her home. The more time she spent in Ponyville, the more ponies would get over her change in status, and go back to treating her as - well, as just Twilight. That would be nice.

Hauling her old telescope case out from its carefully anonymous resting place amongst her other things, she began disarming the lock spells on it one by one. She'd have to recast the ultimate locking spell she and Trixie had developed on it, too, that would certainly stop anypony from... tampering...

The thought trailed off, and she paused, then frowned. Something was wrong.

The locking spells she'd laid on her telescope case were supposed to be disarmed in order of complexity, simplest first, then getting into the interesting ones. The first couple of layers had peeled off okay, but the last disarming charm had done - well, nothing. No answering tingle of magic, no flicker of colour. She cast the disarming spell again, to be sure. No response.

Could she have forgotten to include that one, when she locked it last? That wasn't like her. Keeping her notes secure was important. Her frown deepening, she ran through the remainder of her unlocking spells.

Of the other five spells she expected to be on the box, three didn't seem to be active.

Her heart thumped in her chest, a tense constriction making it suddenly hard to breathe. Probing with her horn, she couldn't pick up any remaining lock spells or traps, and so, with great care, she unsnapped the catches and levered the wooden case open.

Her notes lay there, innocently undisturbed.

With spasmodic urgency, she flicked through them, making sure every sheet of parchment was where it should be, and only when she was certain that not a single page was missing did she let her breath go, and take a gulp of fresh air.

She had to stop panicking, and think about this clearly.

First option. It wasn't impossible that she'd really, really messed up the locking process the last time she'd put her notes away. She couldn't remember exactly when that had been, but she'd probably been in the middle of having sex with somepony. That wasn't really conducive to clear thought.

Second option. Somepony had been trying to get into her box, and managed to disarm several of the locking spells without triggering the incineration fail-safe. That was worrying. It implied that somepony knew where her notes were, and how important they were.

Third option, and the worst: somepony had succeeded in breaking into the box, read or copied everything, then put it all back the way it was to start with, locked it with as many of the original spells as they had access to, and hoped she wouldn't notice the missing spells.

Okay. Running with the worst case scenario: how bad would it be if somepony had access to her notes? If the instructions to cast the charm had still been in there, it would have been catastrophic, but she'd destroyed the original, as well as all of her own notes about the variant charm she'd created. That kind of knowledge was simply too dangerous to exist anywhere outside her own mind; even the other mares that knew how to cast the charm had had that information carefully blocked from their memories.

Without the charm itself, what the notes conveyed was an in-depth understanding of what the charm could and couldn't do, together with a complete list of all the ponies that were afflicted by it. The interconnecting pattern of charms was there, showing the links between her and the other Princesses. ...oh, and it was also a thorough confession of all the terrible things she'd personally done, as well as some of the things that Celestia had done too.

If that knowledge got out, was made public...

No pony would believe it. Surely. No pony would believe that Celestia was using magic to carry out weird, kinky sex games. Although there were probably ponies that would enjoy making snide remarks in her presence, never quite accusing her, but talking obliquely about the shocking stories circulating in the press... there really were some awful ponies in the nobility. And the ponies of Equestria really didn't know all that much about the new Princess of Magic, they probably would believe it of her. After all, it was true, it matched up with all the weird behaviour between the Elements that was increasingly impossible to hide, and the ponies in the castle had at least occasionally come across things that would be hard to explain, like forgotten sex toys that weren't quite put away.

For that matter, they might believe it of Luna, too - which was wildly unfair, she was the only one out of the three of them that had actually held onto her moral compass - and it'd be incredibly hurtful to her.

Could that really be it? Somepony trying to find out more about the new Princess of Magic, and stumbling over a treasure trove of secrets that they couldn't have dreamed of? She'd certainly made a big impact, and it wasn't like it was hard to find out where she lived. But...

But, but, but. She just didn't have enough information. For all she knew, she was getting paranoid over something she'd messed up herself, when she was tired or horny and distracted. It wasn't like she'd never made a mistake before.

She probably shouldn’t say anything. Not until she was sure.

From downstairs, a murmur of voices filtered up. Twilight reacted without pausing to think, thrusting her papers back into the telescope case and slamming it shut. A faint thrumming sound pulsed through the air as her horn swept back and forth, weaving the vast, merged locking spell she and Trixie had created. Ethereal bolts and clamps materialised around the box, wrapping it in chain, before the locks and bonds faded from sight. Let anypony try to open that, or even move it, and not only would they find it proof against almost any magical assault, she'd know the instant they tried.

All the same, it was with a certain reluctance that she pushed the box back into place among her things, and slowly descended the stairs, leaving it behind.

"Vigorous self-fucking and a bare chest are the best way to welcome a guest," Zecora remarked from below, her voice amused, and tinged with arousal.

"The responsibility is Twilight's," Celestia replied, her voice strained and shivery. "If you would like to express your gratitude, she is upstairs."

"I'm right here," Twilight contradicted her, stepping down onto the polished oak floor. Her violet eyes glittered as she drank in the sight of Celestia, dishevelled, her heavy tits jiggling and the chain swaying as she helplessly fucked herself, her cheeks a heated pink and her lips flushed and full. Zecora was obviously just as enamoured by the sight, still swathed in her battered green travelling cloak, and she only tore her gaze away from the Solar Princess with an effort.

"My Mistress true, it is my pleasure to greet you," Zecora addressed Twilight, a smile on her lips. With another glance at Celestia, she added with a trace of huskiness, "I would have made more haste to depart, had I known I would see such a work of art."

"You didn't hurry just to see me?" Twilight retorted playfully. "I may have to punish you for that. Off with your cloak, Zecora. I want to see my gorgeous zebra slave."

A subtle quiver ran through Zecora at the word 'slave', and she nodded jerkily. "As you say, I must obey," she replied softly, her eyes focused only on Twilight now, and she reached up to unfasten the catch over her collarbone. The green cloth rustled as it fell loose from her shoulders, pooling around her feet. Beneath, she was completely, utterly naked, thick golden rings decorating her permanently jutting nipples, and a sheen of dampness between her thighs. Intricate patterns swirled over her nude body, darker grey on grey, in a display that drew the eye near-obsessively to trace them as they curled around thigh and flank. Striking a pose, arms straight and wrists crossed behind her, she arched her back and breathed, "My body is on display."

Twilight stood stock still, struck dumb by the sight. There was something about Zecora's sheer self-possession and lack of self-consciousness that reminded her of Celestia, and her body was simply glorious. When she finally let out a breath, it emerged as a long, low sigh of appreciation. "You were naked under your cloak all the way here?"

"Yes. I kept my cloak tightly closed, but it excites me to be so exposed. Forgive my words if I am too blunt-" Zecora breathed, stepping closer to Twilight, her chest rising and falling rapidly, "-but I love to feel the breeze on my tits and cunt."

There was a soft whimper. For an instant, Twilight thought it had fallen from her own lips, but as she glanced to her left, it was plain that Celestia could barely stand. Her right hand drove the dildo in and out of her mercilessly, pistoning back and forth, and as she shuddered, she grabbed at her soft, exposed tits with the hand she still controlled. "Twilight, please," she gasped, pupils huge and dark.

Twilight giggled. Slinking closer to her mentor, she reached out and ran her fingers lightly up Celestia's thigh, over the famous sunburst cutie mark, up and around to grab a handful of her bare ass, openly exposed by her tiny schoolfilly skirt. Kneading possessively, Twilight purred innocently, "Please what, Celestia? Is there a request you'd like to make?"

Celestia panted a hot gasp, but didn't reply, a flicker of stubbornness on the demigoddess's face, though it came across as more petulant through the heavy, cheap-looking makeup that she wore.

"Aww, don't want to say? Well, I can always take Zecora and go out for a while-"

"Please let me stop fucking myself!" the Princess of the Sun burst out, the slick dildo in her grip pounding in and out of her. "Or just let me cum! Empress!"

"Oh, you feel more sensitive than usual?" Twilight asked lightly. Deliciously aware of her audience, she gripped Celestia's tail and jerked it upwards, making her ageless mentor whimper loudly as the Princess rammed the dildo into herself again. "Your body is aching with every thrust? Your nipples are tingling under your clamps, and your cunt is drooling over your fingers, but you can't seem to cum? Goodness. And you can't stop yourself? Why is that?"

"You ordered me to!" Celestia blurted, her knees quivering, her wings twitching and shivering in jerky little motions, her hips bucking helplessly against the plunging movements of the sex toy.

"And why can't you disobey? Be clear," Twilight breathed, pushing her lips against Celestia's neck and kissing the side of her throat hungrily. It was glorious seeing the Princess losing control like this, barely able to even speak; obviously her mind had interpreted the charmed command to be more sensitive with more intensity than Twilight had expected.

Closing her eyes, her lower lip quivering, Celestia managed to get a grip on herself. When she spoke, it was in a husky, urgent tone, filled with the harmonics of desperation. "I can't, hnn, disobey you. You have total, haah, control of my – my mind and body, Empress, and I must obey. I'm helpless beneath your will, I can't – hnng! Can't resist, so please, please Empress, let me – let me cum for you!"

Twilight pressed herself urgently against Celestia and gave her tail another tug, forcing a sharp gasp from the taller pony's lips. The feeling of power was incredible, every brush of her hand and flick of her tongue prompting barely contained shudders from her captive, over-sexed slave. "I could keep you like this," Twilight whispered hotly into her pointed ear. "I could keep you trembling on the edge of orgasm, being fucked and used, for hours. Days. I could make you lose your mind. What do you think… Zecora?" Her gaze flicked to the zebra, a flash of cruel, conspiratorial merriment in her eyes.

Zecora looked back at her with hazy, unfocused eyes, lips parted, a look of raw, naked lust on her face. Her cheeks flushed darker red under her grey patterning, grinding the heel of her palm against her clit, she panted roughly, "Whether you accept or deny her plea, it is wondrous to see. I urge you to do the same to me."

"No help for you there," Twilight purred to Celestia. "Zecora is usually kind, and giving, but it seems that watching you suffer is just too hot for her to give up so easily." Twilight's hand slid to seize a handful of the Princess's soft, yielding ass again, and Celestia jerked, another desperate whimper escaping her lips. "Perhaps keeping you like this for a little longer is best. I am punishing you for all your bad behaviour, after all. And there's so, so much of it to punish you for. Maybe I should give you some time to think about all the times you've been impertinent to your Empress. I could gag you, and put you in a closet for a while. How does that sound?"

Once again, Celestia held her tongue for a moment, and Twilight's evil smile widened as she watched the struggle on her face, before the Princess visibly chose to stop fighting it. Shaking her head rapidly, her colourful, flowing mane gathered into ponytails that swayed back and forth with the motion, Celestia gasped, "Please not that, Empress!"

"Are you going to promise to be good?" Twilight teased her.

"You wouldn't - want me to, Empress," Celestia replied, her speech jerky as she bent forward, knees shaking. The scent of her arousal coloured the air, and perspiration glistened on her smooth, milk-white skin. Her eyes fluttering closed, hips bucking against her possessed hand, she managed to force out, "You like me to be, be badly behaved, and you know it-!"

"I wouldn't have believed you, even if you did promise," Twilight replied with satisfaction. "But you didn't lie to me about it, so- keyword: full release."

The words had barely left Twilight's mouth before a high-pitched scream of pleasure burst from Celestia's lips, her body snapping into a taut arc, head back, eyes rolled up. Her free hand frantically mauled her own breasts, accidentally tugging one of the clamps off her prominent, reddened nipples and causing her to cry out anew. Jamming the thick shaft as deep into her as she could manage, pressing the heel of her palm to her clit, her legs simply gave out from beneath her, dumping her to the floor in a shuddering, sticky, wordless mess. Her schoolfilly blouse was slightly torn, the victim of her long nails, and the silver chain trailed off her body from the one remaining clamp atop her heavy, curved breast. "Hnng, hnn, hnnn," she groaned as the storm slowly calmed, leaving her chest heaving for breath. Little aftershocks visibly thrummed through her, making her twitch and jerk against the polished floor.

Zecora's warm, nude body pressed gently up against Twilight's back, radiating heat. The zebra's voice was quivery as she whispered, "To witness that was beyond words. I long for the abuse that was so gloriously hers."

"Mm, yes. You do," Twilight breathed, turning to embrace Zecora. The look of glazed lust on the other mare's patterned face was just delicious, and Twilight couldn't help but feel her body react to it with a hungry desire of her own. "It's because I planted those thoughts in your head. Made you come and crawl to me, made you need me to fuck your mind."

She was treading dangerous ground, Twilight knew. Every single word she'd just said was completely true, and not something she should be proud of. Those deeds had come at the nadir of her self-control, when she'd forcibly enslaved Zecora simply because she could. She'd rewritten the zebra's memories to make her desperately lust to be controlled, conditioning her to be urgently aroused by the sight of Twilight controlling others. If Celestia hadn't stopped her, she wouldn't have stopped there, either. She couldn't let that happen, couldn't slip like that again.

But, if Twilight was completely honest with herself…

…the memory was thrilling. Shudderingly arousing. It should have been shameful, and it was, but dwelling on it only fanned the flames of her desire. That was the trap laid for her by the pony she'd been; remembering what she'd done involved remembering how good it had felt. And, like an inverted mirror, though Zecora was free of those commands now, she too remembered the unbridled pleasure she'd felt in their grip.

The zebra's eyes were wide, yearning, her pupils large and dark. "Yesss…" she hissed, her lower lip quivering, pressing her body more firmly against her Mistress. "Your words control and bind, I eagerly embrace them to fuck my mind. To be your puppet fills my loins with fire, I must fulfil your every desire."

"You're a pervert," whispered Twilight in sultry tones. "My pervert. You love being my depraved, entranced slut." Her hand slid up Zecora's flank, capturing a round, firm breast, and she tugged firmly on the thick golden ring through her nipple, forcing another quavering moan from the enslaved mare. "You love watching me turn my lovers into helpless thralls, obedient, mindless puppets… don't you?"

"Mmmh," groaned Zecora, biting her lower lip and nodding slowly. Her legs parted, and she pressed forward, grinding her slick cunt against Twilight's thigh. "More than anything, watching you make them your playthings."

"Oh, Celestia?" Twilight sang out, looking down at the crumpled figure of her mentor. "Obey your Empress."

Celestia's eyes snapped open, blank and unseeing, and she slowly pushed herself upright. Settling onto her knees, thighs spread and tits thrust out, chain dangling from her clamped nipple, she spoke in tones of divine calm. "This slave obeys."

"This slave obeys, in a mindless daze," echoed Zecora.

A sudden, explosive giggle escaped Twilight's lips as she met Zecora's empty gaze, leaning forward to kiss the zebra's motionless lips. "Oops! I should be more careful. Though I know, just know, you'd love to be abused as a mindless hypnotised doll."

"I am filled with joy to be your mindless toy," Zecora droned blankly.

"Yes…" breathed Twilight, capturing Zecora's lower lip and biting it gently. This was power, this was control… her softest word could transform any mare in Equestria into her helpless, eager slave. It was tempting to leave the compulsion as it was, at least for a little while, but altering Zecora wasn't the game today. Lowering her voice to the merest whisper, she spoke directly into Zecora's ear. "The command I just gave you is ended. I am satisfied."

The doll-like motionlessness of Zecora's body melted away, animation flashing over her features. Resuming rubbing herself slowly up and down against Twilight's stockinged thigh, she groaned eagerly, "The mesmerised Princess is a sight that fills my body with heated delight. Now that her thoughts are confined, what will you do to her mind?"

Nuzzling her cheek against Zecora's, Twilight whispered intimately, "I could do anything to her. Anything at all. Watch me transform her. Watch how easy it is." Raising her voice, she added conversationally, "Slave. You're a brainwashed whore."

"I am a brainwashed whore," Celestia repeated with blank lack of resistance. Her ethereal mane was dishevelled, half-escaping the ponytails, her thick makeup smeared.

"And such a cute one," Twilight giggled approvingly. Shaking her head, she countermanded herself, "No. Get up, on your feet. Celestia, you are a magical golem. I made you, right now. You're a thing, an object, that I made. You're a sex construct. You're soft and fuckable and made to be fucked in every hole. You will obey my every command without question or hesitation. You exist to obey me."

Slowly, with odd, mechanical smoothness, Celestia rose to her towering height, her arms dangling slackly at her sides. Her wide, empty eyes remained locked on Twilight, as though she were the only thing in the world. Her subtly aristocratic accent completely absent, words flatly functional, she recited, "I am a golem. You made me. I am a thing, an object, for sex. I am made to be fucked in every hole. I exist to obey you."

"Mm! That's right," Twilight told the elder Princess brightly, over Zecora's frantic whimpering. Cradling the zebra against her, she said firmly, "I am satisfied."

A small shiver ran through Celestia's body. Then, as though she'd practised a thousand times, her back straightened, pushing out her bare breasts, her arms straightened, held rigidly stiff at her sides, and her wings ruffled, then settled neatly against her back. Her expression was reminiscent of a guard at attention; a purposeful, attentive flatness.

"This object is ready to fuck, Creator," she declared, in calm, even tones. "Please state Your will."

"Oh, oh yes, please," panted Zecora, "force me to my knees!" Her body was trembling against Twilight's, her arms wound around her Mistress's waist, and she kept almost tugging at Twilight's clothes before forcing herself not to. Her thick, powerful thighs flexed as she ground her cunt against Twilight's leg, sharp gasps and whimpers forcing their way from her lips. "I submit, I obey, anything you say!"

"Construct," Twilight commanded, a shuddering heat adding a tremor to her voice, "Take this zebra, and fuck her."

"This object obeys," Celestia replied blankly. Reaching between her legs, she pulled the thick, dripping dildo from her pussy in one smooth movement, leaving her pink folds spread wide. Her long, elegant horn swept around in a spell that Twilight, to her surprise and sudden fascination, didn't recognise. Threads of golden energy curled around the base of the dildo, binding it to Celestia's hips and leaving the slick black sextoy jutting outwards obscenely under her tiny, schoolfilly skirt.

Then, with complete lack of hesitation, Celestia reached out, seized Zecora by the arm and the back of the neck, and yanked her away from Twilight with such force that the zebra squealed in surprise. Pivoting gracefully on one foot, Celestia thrust Zecora face first against the wall, stunning her. Before the striped mare could do so much as yelp, the thoughtlessly single-minded alicorn bent her over, and slammed the dildo straight into her soaked, glistening cunt.

"She's forceful, isn't she..." Twilight murmured with delighted approval. Stepping closer, she watched hungrily as the mesmerised pony took a firm grip of the back of Zecora's neck with one hand, seized her hip with the other, and began roughly fucking her captive, her hips thrusting back and forth in a quick, mechanically unstoppable rhythm. Zecora could only groan breathlessly with every thrust, bracing herself against the wall with both hands.

"You know," Twilight added conversationally, crouching beside Zecora to bring her face level with the zebra's, "I did this to Luna, once. By accident. I emptied her mind, and left her with only the words, 'I must fuck my sister'. My goodness. I found her pinning Celestia to her own bed, fucking her senseless. But even then, I don't think Luna was as firm with her as my construct is with you, now. Nothing can stop her, not without my order. Isn't that nice?"

"Nngh..." groaned Zecora as another thrust stole her breath, her patterned, grey on grey tits swaying beneath her as Celestia's hips slapped against hers. "Yes, she would do this all day! At your command, she is... fucking my mind away..." she gasped breathily. Her body jerked back and forth as the Princess thrust into her over and over, unstoppably. A rich crimson blush coloured her cheeks, a dazed, unfocused look in her eyes.

"Celestia's mane, I love to see that look on your face," breathed Twilight, sliding a hand between her legs. She simply watched for a couple of moments longer, letting her own slim fingertips flutter over her tingling, sensitive sex as she luxuriated in the sight, before the urge to reach out and touch the helpless, captive fucktoy before her became overwhelming. Sinking down to her knees, she leant under Zecora, and tilted her head, seeking out her slave's nipple with her lips. Twisting and kneading Zecora's other breast with her free hand, she began licking and sucking, tasting the cool metal of the other mare's golden nipple ring on her tongue. Instantly, Zecora's gasps and ragged moans grew more high pitched and desperate.

"Ha-have mercy, Mistress, it is too much! I cannot cope with her shaft and your lips and touch!" Zecora whimpered, her whole body quivering with every thrust.

Twilight's giggle was pure evil. "That's cute," she replied impishly, then gently nipped at Zecora's nipple with her teeth, twisting the ring through the other. There was a note of desperation in Zecora's wordless, animal sounds of pleasure, muffled as she bit her lower lip hard. All she needed was one more push...

"Construct!" Twilight called firmly, "Pinch her clit and keep fucking her!"

The zebra's cry of release was deafening, drowning the mesmerised Princess's words of compliance, an undulating wail that rose and fell as Celestia mindlessly thrust the shaft in and out of her. Her eyes rolled back in her head, lips gaping, Zecora eventually managed to force out the words, "Mercy, please, before I fall to my knees!"

Sighing contentedly, her own arousal simmering pleasantly, Twilight cooed, "You'll have to make it up to me later..."

"Yes, yes, anything you desire! I swear to you, I am no liar!"

"Mm. You do sound very sincere." Twilight giggled again, then kissed each of Zecora's pretty breasts before squirming out from under the zebra. It was a delight all over again to see the blankly intent look on Celestia's face as she relentlessly fucked the other mare, deliciously incongruous in her half-destroyed schoolfilly outfit. "Construct, stop."

"This object obeys," repeated the Solar Princess calmly, immediately locking in place.

"Remove the shaft from Zecora, and dismiss the spell," Twilight went on. "Then pick her up, and carry her to my bed. You know where it is."

"This object obeys." She pulled back, the shaft sliding from Zecora's abused pussy, then clattering to the floor as the spell holding it to Celestia's hips dissolved. Bending down, she wrapped her arms around the shuddering zebra, then lifted her with seeming effortlessness and turned towards the stairs.

Twilight grinned at the stunned look on Zecora's face. "Yes, she's very strong. She just doesn't like to let ponies know it. Come along, fucktoys! I've got such ideas for you two..."

She was late.

Twilight hated being late.

She was late for three reasons. The first was that her magic was still kind of unpredictable, so she didn't dare use it for transportation yet. That left her with the second reason; she barely knew how to use her wings, and she was still terribly awkward with them. She'd meant to get training from Rainbow by now, but she was always so busy...

'Busy' encompassed a lot of activities, including the third reason: she was late because she'd fallen asleep in bed with Zecora and Celestia, and it wasn't a good idea to tell Rainbow she was late for their special date because she'd been snuggling with two of her other slaves.

Flapping in for a landing on the fluffy clouds surrounding Rainbow's house, Twilight wobbled dramatically, then managed to get her balance. Maybe Rainbow hadn't noticed her lateness. Right? Rainbow was hardly ever on time for anything. A nervous smile on her lips, she tugged her skirt straight, and carefully made her way over to the low, rambling bungalow.

The door flew open before she could even knock, and Rainbow Dash burst out, grabbing Twilight’s hand. The flier was gently dishevelled, as though she'd been exercising recently, and her colourful fringe hung over her eyes. "It’s about time! What happened to obsessively being on time for everything?"

Twilight winced. Being on time was important, and she was late. "I – I'm sorry, I was-"

"Doesn't matter! Come on, we've been waiting!" Impatiently, Rainbow yanked on Twilight's hand, dragging the young alicorn inside after her.

We?

"Dash? What's going on?" asked a half-familiar voice from inside.

Recognition struck Twilight at exactly the same moment as she was shoved through the inner doorway into the living room, finding herself nose to nose with Lightning Dust. The turquoise mare was wearing a light set of workout clothes that clung with dedication to her wiry body; she froze in surprise, and Twilight found herself doing the same.

The pegasus recovered from her paralysis first. "Princess? What – what are you doing here?"

"Lightning? I – sorry, I wasn't expecting anypony to be here. Rainbow knew I was coming, so-"

"Oh manure, this is one of those – you're here to be with – I didn't know, I'll go."

"I didn't know you were here, I can go, and you can-"

"No, no, you're – you're a Princess, I'll go-"

"Everypony shut up!" Rainbow yelled.

Silence descended.

"Okay, Twi, sit down there. Dusty, sit your ass down there, too." Rainbow pointed to her small couch. Lightning grinned nervously, and seemed about to make a joke, but after a moment's pause, simply sat down at one extreme of the couch. Twilight carefully sat down at the other end, feeling a tremor of nervous uncertainty that was mirrored on Lightning's face.

Rainbow nodded. "Right. You, and you, stay quiet and actually listen for a minute, okay?" She hesitated, and seemed to struggle for words briefly, before she tried, "Look. I'm a jerk, alright? Sometimes, I'm a jerk," she corrected quickly, holding up her hands to stop either of them saying anything. "Like, I don't always get it at the time, but when I look back, and I think about some of the stuff I've done then yeah, that was a jerk thing to do. So I know what being a jerk looks like. So… Twi?" Taking a deep breath, she concluded, "You were a pretty big jerk to Lightning."

"What? Hey, that's – that's not true!" For a second, Twilight thought she'd spoken the protest aloud, but it had actually come from Lightning's lips. Glancing nervously at Twilight, she added in a hiss, "That is the new Princess, Dash, it's fine, so just-mph!"

Rainbow Dash shut off her protests with characteristic swiftness, stepping close and kissing the other mare full on the mouth. Breaking away, Rainbow stroked Lightning's cheek and said very softly, "Trust me, okay? Let me talk."

Lightning's orange eyes were wide and vulnerable, and it strained Twilight's hearing to catch the words, "…okay. I trust you."

Biting her lip, Twilight managed not to say anything. An intimacy hung in the air between the two of them, a rightness, and for the first time since she'd discovered the charm, Twilight suddenly felt excluded from Rainbow's life. The two of them so obviously fit together, with the toned, wiry bodies of expert fliers. Obviously they'd been growing closer since the threesome they'd all shared in Canterlot, but Rainbow hadn't said anything, and… this. This had been happening, and she hadn't noticed.

She had no pony to blame for that but herself, either.

Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head slightly. An unpleasant ache lingered in the pit of her stomach, and there was a stiffness around her chest that made it difficult to inhale. Rainbow turned back to her, and Twilight looked up with a trace of reluctance.

Still keeping a hand on Lightning's shoulder, the flier spoke carefully, her words a little gentler than her usual brash rasp. "Twi, look. Yeah, I know you didn't know what her deal was before we were doing it, but you - we - took Lightning's first time, alright? We had it together. Whatever. Look, it meant a lot, alright? And then, after that, you flat dumped her on her ass. Didn't tell her so, but you didn't try to talk to her, and did you think she was gonna come and try to bother you about it? Seriously, you didn't. So that was that."

Lightning seemed about to protest again, but Rainbow quietened her with a squeeze of her shoulder, and went on, "Look, I get it. Seen this kind of thing before. Not like this, obviously-" she snorted, dismissing how ludicrous the whole situation was with a flap of her hand, "-but yeah, I've seen it happen when somepony suddenly gets really popular. Gets to be a Wonderbolt trainee, for instance. All of a sudden, they're the new hotness, and they sleep around a whole bunch because hey, they can now. So, yeah. You've been a jerk."

That stung. Of all the ponies Twilight had expected to get lectured by, Rainbow was probably near the bottom of the list, but with Lightning sat right there, it was impossible to look at her face and not feel bad. Because, well, everything Rainbow had said was true. She could have anypony she wanted, if she really chose to. She'd never felt so sexy, so intoxicated by her own sensuality, as she had since she'd mastered the charm. She couldn't have even imagined feeling like this, not so long ago.

Yes, she'd intended to come back to Lightning and see her again... at first. But as time had passed, and she'd been occupied with other things, she'd more or less let that thought go. But she hadn't told Lightning that. She hadn't even thought to contact Lightning and tell her where they stood. Buck. She was a jerk. Whatever happened to being the nicest pony around?

Forcing herself to take a deep breath, Twilight nodded. "...you're right. You're totally right. I should have made the time, and there isn't any excuse for it." Turning her gaze from Rainbow to Lightning, who had hunched her shoulders slightly in awkwardness, Twilight went on more softly, "You deserved much more than I gave you, Lightning. Please know it wasn't because I didn't think you were worth it. You were incredible, and I'm so glad that you and Rainbow have worked something out."

Lightning looked up uncertainly, sweeping a few strands of her fringe out of her eyes. "You are?"

No, not really.

Everything she'd said about Lightning deserving better, that was true. After all, what kind of jerk would someone's special first-time pony be if they didn't even bother to speak to them afterwards? Twilight's expression fossilised around the edges as the internal jab at herself hit home. But that wasn't the lie. No, it was that, despite knowing it was wrong, she felt jealous. Which was stupid. It was stupid. If dating all the ponies she'd been with had taught her anything, it should have been that love wasn't a zero-sum game, where somepony else's gains were your losses.

Rainbow deserved happiness. Lightning deserved happiness. Focus. "Of course I am," Twilight replied quietly.

"Hey, jerkface," Rainbow broke in, her scratchy voice deliberately light and teasing. Ruffling Lightning's mane, she added, "Didn't actually say sorry yet."

Buck! She actually hadn't! "Celestia's mane, I am so bad at this! I'm sorry, Lightning. Really, I am. Forgive me for being a jerk?" Twilight searched Lightning's eyes, trying to divine her reaction. The often brash pegasus was a good deal more subdued than Twilight was used to, and it really wasn't a fun feeling to know it was down to her own lack of care. Still, for the first time since she'd arrived, Lightning lifted her head and met Twilight's gaze, seeming to actually think about the question.

"...yeah, okay. Princess Jerk." Lightning's chest rose and fell once as she exhaled her tension, then she sat up straighter and smiled at Twilight. "If you'd left it any longer, that would totally have been too late, though, so you better thank Dash for kicking your ass."

Rainbow grinned widely, with more than a shade of relief. Taking Lightning's hand, she looked over at Twilight with a challenging look in her eyes and said in a leading tone, "Hey, hold on, Dusty. You want to forgive her that easy? Because I did have an idea how she could make it up to you. Doesn't involve kicking her ass, but it's near there."

Lightning cocked her head, looking up at her lover, then at Twilight again. A disbelieving look on her face, she replied with frank amusement, "No way. This is what this was all about?"

"No? Yeah, kinda. I figure the best way Twi can apologise is by sticking that royal ass in the air and getting royally spanked." Rainbow nodded firmly at Lightning, though both of them sneakily glanced from the corners of their eyes at her.

No way. The reaction was instant and automatic, and came far quicker than Twilight could find justification for it. Her reaction must have shown on her face, because Rainbow added, "Hey, I deserve to get my ass smacked for setting you both up today without telling you, fair's fair. But you first." The pegasus was grinning, still, and Lightning was beginning to look intrigued, too.

Twilight carefully kept herself from frowning, while interrogating her own feelings. Okay. Why not?

...well, because she was in charge, that was why. Empress Twilight, remember? No one spanked her, that was something that happened to her pets. Or, Twilight conceded internally, if she looked at it another way, it was because she was totally buying into her own 'Mistress of all she surveyed' thing and badly needed to be brought down a peg to maintain some perspective.

Frig.

And the thing was, Rainbow was suggesting all of it pretty lightly, but she was serious, too. She had Lightning to turn to; if Twilight showed she wasn't capable of getting a grip on her ego, they'd end up parting. Maybe not right away, but... eventually. It wasn't like Twilight had any way to stop her leaving. After all, if Rainbow said she didn't want to be part of the harem, but did want to keep sleeping with Applejack, could Twilight even tell her she couldn't? That would be down to Applejack - would have to be, because coming down heavy handed there could end up driving all of them away.

The worst possible thing would be to react with offended dignity. Or - no, actually, the worst thing would be to charm them both and make them surrender to her. She did need to be reminded what consequences felt like. And would it really be so bad to be on the receiving end voluntarily for once?

The moment of quiet had stretched slightly too long; the expressions of the two mares were subtly rigid at the edges. Twilight shook her head, her mane shifting with the motion, and smiled wryly at them, feeling the coil of tension releasing within her. "Okay. I totally, totally deserve it."

Rainbow's relief was tangible, her shoulders slumping. "Yeah, you do. Get on over here, bend over the chair arm. We're gonna really make sure you feel this one."

Twilight stood up, and felt her smile settle into the smugly mischievous expression she'd seen so many times on Celestia's face since her enslavement. Just because she deserved it didn't mean she had to make it easy. "You don't have a spanking bench set up ready? Tsh. You should know how important it is to set up the right equipment before strenuous exercise. It is going to be a proper work out, won't it?" she asked with playful innocence. "You wouldn't want to waste your chance."

Lightning blinked, then looked to Rainbow for guidance. "There's the weight lifting bench, right?" she suggested tentatively.

"...yeah. Yeah!" Rainbow decided, nodding firmly. With a flap of her wings, she shot across the room, disappearing from sight only to return a moment later carrying a padded red bench. Shoving the coffee table aside with her foot, she dumped it in the middle of the floor, and waved at it. "That'll do. Face down and ass in the air, Twi."

"Whatever you say," Twilight purred, grinning inwardly. She had to admit, she could see the entertainment value in playing the smugly superior sub, knowing it was one of the most maddening things Celestia did. Strolling over to the bench, Twilight sank down to her knees - firmly crushing another flash of outraged pride that protested the motion - and bent forward, laying her upper body along the length of the bench. It was soft, and surprisingly comfortable, even though it did tend to compress her breasts under her. That never used to be a problem, not before the changes she'd gone through.

"Well?" She swayed her ass playfully, flicking her striped tail from side to side. "Time is wasting, Rainbow. When you're finished, you should know I am definitely going to spank you redder than Big Mac." Glancing over her shoulder, Twilight's smug smile widened as she saw Rainbow's appalled expression.

"No freaking way have you spanked Big Mac," she spluttered. "Applejack would - she wouldn't stand for it!"

Twilight paused, giving Rainbow an ambiguous smile. Waiting for the exact moment the pegasus opened her mouth to speak again, Twilight preempted her with a calm, "That was just an example. Of course I haven't." Rainbow's expression began to change, and again, she opened her mouth to speak, only to be interrupted with a pleasant little, "Yet."

Naturally, she didn't really intend to do anything of the sort, but the stunned look on Rainbow's face was more than worth it. No wonder Celestia had so much fun being a pain in the tail, it was a positive delight to-

Twilight's skirt and panties were yanked down in a single forceful motion, baring her sex to the cool air. "Eep!" she yelped involuntarily, twisting to look over her other shoulder. Lightning stood there, giving Twilight a look of laughing disbelief.

"Holy buck. You're a huge brat, aren't you Princess?"

Twilight gasped as Rainbow's hands suddenly seized hold of her ass, pushing her forward against the bench, and the familiar, scratchy voice agreed, "Oh, yeah, she totally is. She's really good at talking her way out of things, too. You're not gonna let her talk her way out of her punishment, though, right Dusty?"

Another touch, tentative at first but growing rapidly in assertiveness, joined Rainbow's. "Yeah, no. Like I'm gonna let you have all the fun. Besides, this is supposed to be her apology to me, remember?"

"Yeah, but I made it happen, so I totally get to have the first go-"

Breathing deeply, feeling her chest swelling against the bench with every inhalation, Twilight shivered pleasantly. There was something enjoyably exposing about feeling the two mares stroking and squeezing her smooth ass, and it was starting to make her tail flick involuntarily. Controlling her tone to keep it level and pleasant, she offered, "If I'm causing a disagreement, I could always reschedule. A week next Thursday perhaps?"

A stinging crack landed on her right asscheek, followed an instant later by another on the left. Despite herself, she gasped, biting her lip. "No?" she managed. "I could arrange something for the Tuesday-ah!" Another spank cracked loudly against her ass, and she couldn't hold back the instinctive yelp. "Perhaps you'd like to talk to my scheduler- aah!"

Lightning and Rainbow's differences had obviously been put aside in the face of her taunting. A torrent of blows rained down on her upturned ass, her hips squirming to push herself upwards, and she felt a firm grip yank her tail up and out of the way, exposing her completely. A rich red blush coloured her cheeks, her face growing hot, and to her embarrassment, she felt her body responding to the abuse. Her nipples were growing stiff, rubbing against the fabric of her bra each time she jerked against the bench.

If anything, it reminded her of that treacherous pleasure she'd felt under Vinyl's hands. Despite all the reasons not to be tempted – despite the fact she was in the middle of a lesson in why it was selfish and dangerous – she really wanted to get her hands on that mare again. Gently rocking back and forth against the bench, her tail twitching in the grip of whichever of the two ponies was holding it up, she hazily heard Rainbow say, "Hey, Dusty. Watch this."

Crack!

"Yeeeoww!" Twilight yelped, shocked out of her pleasant daze. "My ass!"

"See?" crowed Rainbow Dash, poking Twilight's tender skin. "Perfect handprint. You can see all the fingers, look. Reckon if I went a bit harder, I could even get the fingerprints."

"My ass," Twilight repeated, with incredulous indignation. "Do you have any idea how much that stings?" Her pert behind was on fire, burning and tingling in equal measure.

"Wow, yeah, that's pretty good," Lightning agreed, ignoring Twilight. "Oooh, I can even feel her skin is hotter there! Okay, loser, let me show you how a real Wonderbolt does it."

"Lightning, I swear, don't you dare," Twilight gasped, speaking rapidly as she gripped the sides of the bench with both hands, bracing herself. "I'll chain you to the wall – I'll crop your tits, I'll paddle you, I'll – nono, don't you even dare, that's my ass, I'll punish you, I'll- yaaagh!"

"There. That's a handprint."

"Sure, if you hadn't missed off half your thumb, dork. Also, we're both still trainees, so you're not a real Wonderbolt yet, either."

"She jerked!"

"She jerked when I smacked her too!"

"She wasn't expecting it the first time, you had it easy. Okay, watch this-"

"I will flog you naked through Ponyville!" Twilight threatened raggedly. Her ass really stung!

There was a second's pause. Then, Lightning asked, "Yeah, but she wouldn't really, right?"

"Nah."

"Didn't think so."

Twilight screeched again as Lightning's hand cracked across her ass, sending fireworks of sensation exploding up her spine. Her back arched and her thighs quivered, tugging on the grip holding her tail.

"I mean, she probably won't," went on Rainbow.

"Dash!"

"I figure, if she doesn't, you get to spank her good and get away with it, and if she does, I get to watch, so win-win."

"Dash!"

Sucking in deep breaths, Twilight tensed as she felt Rainbow's hand touch her skin again, but to her surprise, the flier's small fingers were gentle this time. Stroking and caressing where her skin burnt the hottest, Rainbow stroked the stinging away, joined after a moment by Lightning's touch. The relief was incredible, and the tension went out of her neck, leaving her head slumped to one side against the bench.

Then the gently caressing, exploring fingers began teasing her throbbing cunt.

A long, wordless moan escaped her as her sensitised, tingling body reacted to the delicate, expert touch. All of a sudden, the heat of her tender skin was throbbing in a different way, in time with her heartbeat, and no pony expected anything from her except to lie there and take it. Over and over again she'd seduced ponies with the sheer, simple pleasure of being her captive, not having to think or do anything except what they were told. Now she was on the receiving end, and despite her stubborn pride, it did feel good...

Rainbow spoke up, a smirk in her voice. "Yeah, this is totally a better look for you."

An instant flare of resistance stiffened Twilight's spine, and her head lifted. Still breathing deeply, she threatened breathily, "Enjoy it while you can, Rainbow Slut, because when I'm done apologising I'm going to spank you so hard you won't sit down for a week-"

A hot, dextrous tongue lapped up the length of her cunt. Twilight's words broke off, and she groaned, half in protest. That wasn't fair. Rainbow had always been the best with her tongue, it was just impossible to concentrate when she was nuzzling and licking like that...

"She's a pretty quick learner, huh?" Rainbow boasted proudly.

And apparently, in her own areas of specialisation, Rainbow was an excellent teacher. "Don't think... this gets you off... the hook... not either of you," Twilight gasped, her thighs quivering with every flick of Lightning's tongue. Soft kisses and cool licks teased her tender ass as Rainbow joined in with her protégé, and low groans hinted that the lithe fliers had begun touching each other. They had passed beyond words now, and there was only sensation, ebbing and surging, leaving Twilight bonelessly limp. Her eyes rolled up, and she shuddered spasmodically.

It felt like her body was melting, her grip on the bench loosening, then failing completely as her hands fell free to dangle below her. Her face rested against the soft, slick redness of the bench, her eyelids fluttering, lips scarcely parted. She might have sighed something encouraging; she didn't even know anymore. When her orgasm broke over her, it wasn't a sharp, sudden release; it was like being picked up by a broad wave, lifted from her feet and carried with the surge, going on and on. When it finally ebbed, she was left beached, limp and completely satiated.

Movement, sensed rather than seen, prompted her to slowly open her eyes. Rainbow and Lightning's faces came into focus, side by side, peering down at her with playful curiosity.

"Do you think we killed her?" Lightning asked, grinning impishly. It struck Twilight, forcefully, just how cute the pegasus was when she smiled like that.

"Nah," replied Rainbow, elbowing Lightning in the ribs. "You're not that good yet. Still got plenty to learn."

"Well, I sure didn't hear any complaints. How about it, Princess? Still alive?"

"Nyaarg..." managed Twilight, trying to assemble coherent words and failing miserably.

Lightning giggled, the sound mingling with Rainbow's raspier snigger. "See? I totally win. Again. Maybe it's you that needs the practice."

"Maybe you need this," retorted Rainbow, and caught Lightning in an inexpert headlock, roughly mussing her mane with her fist.

"Hey, get off! Lemme go, loser!"

"Make me, dweeb!"

Twilight's heart swelled in her chest, overwhelmed by a sudden surge of affection. Pushing herself up with one hand, she reached out and ruffled Rainbow's mane. "Shush," she told the two of them warmly. "Let her go, Rainbow."

"Psh." Rainbow snorted, but let go of Lightning, who straightened up and pushed into Rainbow's personal space, ending up nose to nose.

"Jerk," Lightning accused.

"Poser," Rainbow retorted.

Their lips met in a hungry kiss, their bodies drawing together. Rainbow's hand slid under Lightning's tight work-out top and pushed it up, baring the other flier's small, compact breasts. In return, Lightning slid her hands down to seize her lover's ass, kneading firmly. Small sighs and murmurs escaped them both, and for a moment, they seemed to completely forget their audience.

Pushing herself up off the bench, Twilight moved stiffly, her legs protesting. Shifting her body upright, she rested her weight on her tender, abused ass, and immediately yelped at the fresh wave of stinging sensation.

Rainbow broke away from the kiss to comment teasingly, "Sore ass, Twi? That's like, the least you deserved, you know it."

"Yes, that's actually true," Twilight acknowledged, then winced as she shifted position. Carefully standing up, she rubbed her ass gingerly, and added, "Ow. That doesn't mean-"

"Oh, yeah. I totally deserve it too," Rainbow agreed, catching her lower lip between her teeth. "Guess you'd have to beat me down extra hard, after all the spanking I gave you."

"I intend to." Twilight's voice dropped a notch, to a deeper, huskier note, and she padded closer, her gaze seeking out and holding Rainbow's eyes as if transfixing the other mare. "I think you've gone too long without being shown your proper place as my obedient fucktoy. I'd be glad to remind you."

"Think you should," Rainbow breathed, her body visibly tensing up in anticipation. With a deep breath, she broke their locked gaze, and nodded off to the side. "Dusty could use a spanking too. I think so, anyway."

Twilight turned, taking in Lightning once more. The other pegasus had withdrawn a couple of steps, and there was a complicated expression on her face, one that owed something to awkwardness, longing and yes, a little nervous jealousy. Her eyes had widened at Rainbow's sudden mention of her, and as Twilight looked at her, she hesitantly met Twilight's eyes.

It was funny, really. Everypony in Twilight's harem was under a suggestion not to get jealous of the others, or at least, a carefully worded suggestion that made them inclined not to be jealous. But Twilight herself wasn't under any such command, and nor was Lightning. The two of them could each feel the full range of frustration and possessive longing. Twilight shook her head slightly; she had really messed up by leaving Lightning to languish on her own. And now Rainbow was suggesting that her marefriend submit to Twilight once again. Obviously hadn't discussed it with her, either.

Speaking more softly, Twilight asked, "Lightning? Is that something you want?"

Silence settled. Lightning awkwardly tugged her top back into place to cover her chest, not saying anything, leaving Twilight holding her breath as her tension grew. For once, Rainbow had the sense to stay quiet, her gaze flicking back and forth between them.

Finally, hesitantly, Lightning spoke. "I... look. It's not like I don't get it. From when you and I, and Rainbow, first got together. From then, I knew - Rainbow was really clear about it - I knew about the herd. That you and Rainbow were sleeping together, and with a whole bunch of other mares besides. I knew from the start," she repeated, looking down and to the side, not meeting their eyes, "but I did feel pretty left out after you never came back to me. Like Dash said, you're a jerk, Princess. So I stopped asking about what she did when she was with you."

Twilight took a step towards her, with a touch of trepidation. "Lightning-"

"Hey, hey, hey. Not finished," the pegasus interrupted her without rancour.

"Did I look like I was finished?" quoted Rainbow, in tones vaguely reminiscent of the clipped bark that Spitfire reserved for yelling at the ponies she was drilling.

Lightning grinned at the impression, nodding once, then her gaze turned back to Twilight. "Seriously, I do get it. I know you guys have been through a lot, and that makes you close. That's the way it goes with teams. I'm not gonna try to break you up, because if I tried, it wouldn't work. It's not just you, either. There's that big-ass farm pony that Dash can't stop gushing about, too, and all the rest of it. So if I can't have Dash all to myself-" she took a deep breath, "-then I want in. I'm done watching from the sidelines. I wanna be part of what you guys have. Okay?"

"...okay," replied Twilight gently. Completing her earlier motion, she moved up to Lightning and gently took the other mare's hands in hers, feeling the nervousness radiating from the pegasus. Seen from Lightning's point of view, of course she'd worry that Rainbow would dump her if she made too much of a fuss about Rainbow's other partners. Rainbow was a Princess's consort, after all, and together with the other elements, they'd all been together a long time before she, Lightning, had even met Rainbow. Every fear that had instinctively struck Twilight on learning of just how close the two were must have occurred to Lightning ages ago, and with considerably greater force. She deserved better than that.

All the same, Lightning had to believe, to know, that Twilight would never accept a slave out of sheer pity. Squeezing the aqua pony's fingers, Twilight met her gaze, and spoke sincerely. "Lightning, I didn't choose you on a whim. I chose you because I watched you compete with Rainbow Dash, and it was incredible to see the two of you together. You're toned, athletic, fit, gorgeous, and you're so fast you can give Rainbow a run for her bits." There was a snort from behind Twilight, which she chose to ignore. "I'm sorry I neglected you, I truly am. You deserved better. A lot better. But you always had meaning to me."

"Well... well, yeah. Yeah! That's right. Never doubted it for a minute. Dash told me that you'd picked me out, and brought her in on it. Obviously that was because you were blown away by me," replied Lightning, recovering some of her façade of cockiness.

"I was," agreed Twilight warmly. She didn't really want to get into all the things she wanted Lightning to agree to before formally becoming part of the harem - convincing her that she needed to be a mindless sex doll on command was going to take some doing - but it wasn't fair not to give her any warning at all, either, so she added, "There are some things we should talk about later, things that I ask of the ponies that give themselves up to me long term. But for right now-" she squeezed Lightning's fingers again, then released her hand and smiled at the slim mare. "-do you want to play?"

Lightning glanced at Rainbow Dash, who was shifting from one foot to the other in impatient eagerness, then took a deep breath. "Sure. I can take it. I can take whatever you dish out, Princess."

"You don't think you'll give up before Rainbow?" Twilight asked, teasing gently.

Lightning snorted, shaking her head. "Yeah, right. I can outlast any part-timer without breaking a sweat."

"You wanna get in my face and say that again?" challenged Rainbow, finally unable to keep quiet any longer. "You'll be squealing for mercy when I'm still saying, 'hey, have we started yet'."

"Then let's put that to the test, shall we?" asked Twilight pleasantly. Her heart beat faster as she consciously relaxed, and let her instincts take over. Her back straightened, and she drew herself up, suddenly towering over the two mares. A flare of magic coated her rumpled blouse, buttons slipping loose as she stripped herself, her bra unfastening to release her pleasantly firm, high breasts. Standing with legs parted, her tail flicking, glistening cunt on full display, she spoke again in a huskier, harder tone. "You will both be punished for your impertinence."

"Buck me," muttered Rainbow as she watched Twilight undress, "I forgot what a number that spell did on you. Did all the Princesses get a magic boobjob when they magicked up their alicorn bodies? Guess that'd explain a lot, actually. Celestia sure does have tits you could suffocate in, and Luna's not far behind."

Lightning blushed, elbowing Rainbow sharply in the side. "You don't talk about the Princesses like that!" she hissed, before a sudden look of sharp curiosity flashed over her face. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. You're not - there is no way you're pretending that you've actually seen Celestia's-"

"I said," Twilight interrupted, in tones of smooth menace, "that you will be punished. But it seems you're not paying attention. Stand to attention, and lift your arms above your head. Now." Oh, yes. Yes. This was it, this was the feeling that she knew she had grown hopelessly addicted to, the sensation of that sleek, sadistic cruelty flowing through her, filling her with the urge to dominate and control.

"Actually, I've totally seen-" Rainbow whispered to Lightning, before giving a sudden yelp as violet energy crackled around her wrists and jerked them over her head, pulling her onto her tiptoes. She instinctively struggled against the immovable grip for a moment, then relaxed, her breath growing fast and shallow. Beside her, Lightning was yanked into position in exactly the same way, wings instinctively fluttering as they tried to support her.

"There's something you should understand," Twilight went on calmly, a sharp gleam in her eyes. "When I decide to restrain you, you're helpless to resist me. You're my puppets. My dolls. Living, breathing playthings, utterly at my mercy." Reaching out to Rainbow, she stroked the back of her hand down the captive mare's cheek, then slapped her lightly across the face. "Got it?" she finished, with dangerous sweetness.

"G-got it!" gasped Rainbow, a pink flush rising on her cheeks and across the upper slopes of her chest where her low-cut tank top exposed her blue skin. Her nipples were already jutting through the thin fabric, and her wings were half-spread, jerking inwards as Twilight slapped her again.

"Good. Your name is Rainbow Slut. You seem to have forgotten that. I'm going to remind you. And as for you…" Twilight turned to Lightning, who hung from her magical restraints, eyes wide, and the naked dominatrix stepped closer, raking her nails down Lightning's bared stomach just firmly enough to leave pale scratches on her skin. "What do you think you are?"

Lightning jerked as Twilight's nails ran down her body, a shiver running through her. "I – I don't know, what should I be?" she stammered.

"You're my bitch," Twilight told her with soft firmness. Her smooth cunt glistened anew with fresh excitement, and she reached out to Rainbow with her other hand, stroking both of their firm, toned bodies through the scanty, exposing exercise clothes they'd never quite wriggled out of. "Isn't that right?" She punctuated her words with a jerk of the telekinetic force suspending the two of them, pulling them higher onto the tips of their toes.

"Yes! I'm your bitch, Princess, your Dust Bitch," Lightning panted, shivering again as her body swayed on tiptoe.

Her eyes narrowing, Twilight felt a cool, cruel smile spread across her lips. Leaning closer to Lightning, she said with soft, deliberate precision, "You're afraid right now. Aren't you."

Lightning's whole body tensed, and her mouth closed abruptly, as if she was afraid of the answer that might escape her lips.

Twilight giggled, and shook her head, leaning in to softly bite at the side of Lightning's neck. "It's okay. It's a good fear. You're nervous because you're helpless, completely in my grasp, at my mercy…" she breathed. "Your skin is prickling, your heart is pounding, you're sweating... your head feels light. You can't fight me. I control you. Every part of you belongs to me. Your cute, firm ass, your cunt, your pretty tits... everything."

"I'm not scared!" interrupted Rainbow, her body quivering. A delicious, shivery breathlessness in her voice, she panted, "I'm not scared of anything, neither of us are! You're just a bookworm that thinks she's way more important than she really is! We're Wonderbolts!"

Seizing on Rainbow's defiance, Lightning nodded quickly, her slim shoulders tensing as she tugged at the magic trapping her wrists above her. "Yeah! Nearly! Shouldn't you be writing a book about - about old ruins, or some junk, Princess Jerk?"

"Oh, really. Is that how you’d like it?" Twilight replied, with perfect, silky menace. Raising a finger, she twirled it once in the air. Both of them spun on the spot, twisted abruptly to face away from her, their yelps of surprise mingling as their feet slipped on the floor. Cupping Lightning’s toned, firm ass, Twilight squeezed firmly through her gym shorts, and added huskily, "Gorgeous. I'm going to enjoy punishing you."

"Do your worst!" cried out Rainbow, struggling with the energy clamping her wrists together over her head.

"Hey! That's my ass you're talking about!" Lightning hastily protested in an undertone.

"You can't show her you're scared of her!" hissed Rainbow back.

"Say that when it's your turn!" Raising her voice again, Lightning added loudly, "Yeah! Do your worst, with your feeble, noodle arms!"

"Noodle arms? Seriously, dweeb?"

"Shut up!"

With a considerable effort of will, Twilight managed not to snigger aloud. It was just as well they couldn't see her expression. Taking a deep breath, she asked in calm, pleasant tones, "Are you two done? Good. Then I'll begin." Sliding her fingers into the waistband of Lightning's shorts, she pulled down sharply, revealing the helpless mare's bare ass. Without giving her time to react, Twilight captured their smooth, warm curves in her hands, squeezing and kneading with possessive firmness.

"Hey-" Lightning began to protest, then groaned instead, her wings fluttering. Her legs kicked slightly, her shorts sliding the rest of the way down her slim legs and pooling around her feet, and she murmured, "…okay."

"It's a trick! She's luring you into a – a thing!"

"A false sense of security?" asked Twilight mildly. Lightning's body truly did feel wonderful under her touch, with the tight, compact curves of a professional athlete. Of course, she loved the soft, full asses of several of her other slaves, too, and Applejack managed to combine muscular firmness with considerably more heft than either of the two fliers, but there was a lot to be said for variety… "Mmmh," she murmured, squeezing the other mare's cheeks together and feeling the pleasant urge to kiss them.

"Yeah, that," Rainbow said insistently, craning her neck to see what Twilight was doing. "That's what you're doing!"

Twilight sighed a soft sound of enjoyment, nodding once. "I suppose so," she agreed, straightening up. In a single short, sharp movement, her hand whipped back, and struck Lightning's ass with a resounding crack.

"Ahhh!" yelped Lightning, jerked from her pleasant reverie. "Ow! You – you total-"

Twilight cut her off with another firm smack, giggling. "What was that? I'm a total…" she trailed off suggestively, and as Lightning opened her mouth to reply, she spanked the captive mare firmly again, delighting in the way that it knocked Lightning right off her toes and left her swinging from her arms. Building a quick, forceful rhythm of open-palmed slaps and backhands, Twilight took a wicked, sadistic delight in the way Lightning's ass grew reddened under her rough care. "Well, Lightning? Do you have something to say?" she panted, her own body glistening with a sheen of perspiration, her breasts swaying with every strike.

"Ow! Ahh! You bitch! You evil-minded bitch!" Lightning yelped, desperately trying to squirm away from the fusillade of blows. All the same, even as she wriggled against her bonds, her toes skittering against the floor, her cheeks were growing as pink as her firm ass, and each gasp that escaped her lips was touched by more arousal than the last.

"Mmhm," Twilight agreed smoothly, "That's right." With a last smack that made the helpless mare yelp, she gently stroked her fingers over Lightning's reddened skin, feeling the heat radiating from her. Pressing closer, feeling the pleasant tickle of Lightning's feathers against her bare breasts and taut nipples, she purred intimately into her ear, "But that's what you get off on. Somepony that won't let you talk back to them. Somepony that will punish you. Somepony that will force you to obey, make you her whimpering, panting whore, crawling on the ground before her. Isn't that right? Say 'Yes, Ma'am'."

A deep, deep groan escaped Lightning's body, a new kind of tension coiling within her, her head tilting back and her eyes half-closing. "Yesss… yes, Ma'am," she breathed, her wings quivering.

"What about me?" protested Rainbow, struggling against her magical bonds without success. "I deserve to be punished more than her! Come on, dweeb, don't give in so easy!"

Twilight grinned, deliberately ignoring Rainbow's outburst. Her turn would come. As for Lightning, though, she definitely had a crush on Spitfire, or at least had done, and that left a perfect space in the captive mare's fantasies for her to step into. With a cruel smile playing about her lips, Twilight wrapped one arm around Lightning's waist, her fingertips gently drifting over her soaked, bare cunt. "Do you need to be touched, slave?" she asked archly.

The suspended mare jerked, a whimper escaping her. Trying to grind against Twilight's teasing fingers, Lightning panted, "Pleeease, Ma'am! Please!"

"I don't think you want this badly enough," replied Twilight calmly. "Perhaps I should go and punish Rainbow Slut instead."

"Yes!" cried out Rainbow, jerking back and forth in frantic frustration. "Do me! It's my turn!"

"Nonono, finger me, please!" begged Lightning. "I need it so bad!"

"Me!" Rainbow urged.

Slowly, deliberately, Twilight leant in and nibbled Lightning's earlobe, as she caressed her captive's cunt more forcefully. Delighting in the slick wetness under her fingers, she whispered intimately, "Degrade yourself, Wonderslut. Tell me all the delicious, terrible things you'll do for me... and as long as you do, I'll keep touching you."

"Yes!" whimpered Lightning, her body swaying as her thighs rubbed together. "I'll - I'll do whatever you want, Ma'am, I'll be your bitch, like you wanted. I'll obey, I'll obey orders-"

Seeking out Lightning's slick, tingling clit, Twilight pinched it between finger and thumb, urging a jerky yelp from the submissive mare's lips. "More degrading," the depraved Princess remarked pleasantly.

"I - I, I'll - I'll crawl on the floor, I'll be tied to the wall, where you can fuck me any time you want, I'll - haah, I'll be your whore, I will, me and Dash, we'll be your mewling bitches, please, please Ma'am, don't stop, don't stop!"

"Hey, I never said I'd be her-" Rainbow began, then gasped as Twilight's free hand cracked against her ass.

"But you will, Rainbow," Twilight told her huskily. She laid her head against the back of Lightning's, caressing and teasing her cunt with one hand as she squeezed and kneaded Rainbow's ass with the other. "You will. You gave yourself to me. No tricks, no accidents with spells – I chose you, and you chose me. You were the first pony that just gave herself to me, freely. You're special."

Rainbow sucked in a gulp of air as Twilight tugged her tail firmly, her eyes wide. In a smaller, quieter voice, almost drowned out by Lightning's ragged panting, she whispered, "I was the first?"

"That's right," Twilight agreed huskily. "You gave yourself to me, and I'm not ever letting you go." Her fingers moved between Rainbow's legs, the pegasus instinctively parting her thighs to give her Mistress greater access, and to her hungry delight, Rainbow was just as wet as her marefriend. Twin shudders ran through the two of them in perfect unison as Twilight slid a finger into each of them.

"I don't want you to!" Rainbow gasped, her voice livid with sudden sincerity. "Keep me!" Twisting her head towards Lightning, she added with a note of deep, heartfelt yearning, "Keep us?"

Shakily, struggling to find words, Lightning nodded, her head lolling. "W-want to, be part of it, want to share your whole life, please! Ma'am, keep us!"

An ache anchored itself deep within Twilight's chest, her heart swelling, and wetness glistened in her eyes, overwhelmed by the emotion crackling between her two captive slaves. "I will!" she promised, pressing more tightly against Lightning. "You're special, you're both so special and beautiful! I want to keep you at my side, loving each other, helping each other be better depraved fuckdolls at my feet. I want you to stay together, and be happy, and be mine!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" gasped Lightning, her voice breaking with emotion. "We will! I'll be hers, and she'll be mine and we'll be yours!" Her body quivered violently as Twilight's hand worked at her with increasing urgency, two slickly-coated fingers sliding in and out of her, the heel of her Mistress's palm grinding against her clit and near-tearfully, she panted, "I want to cum so badly!"

"I wanted all of us to be together too!" confessed Rainbow in a rush, her body straining towards Lightning's. Shuddering trembles wracked her, goosebumps rising on her arms, her nipples standing out like tiny rocks from her small tits. "I want this, I want to be fucked, and forced, and used, and – and I want you with me!"

With a convulsive shiver, Twilight slid her fingers out of her two suspended slaves, prompting a double gasp and groan of disappointment and need. Shakily, her chest heaving, she breathed, "Yes, you two should be together." With a gesture of her horn, the two twisted around to face each other, then were drawn inescapably together, slender bodies pressed against one another. The instant the two were in reach, their mouths met, kissing hungrily and urgently.

Embracing both of them, Twilight's hands slid firmly between their parted legs, finding the twinned molten heat of their glistening cunts once more. Kissing and softly biting at Rainbow's shoulder and neck, Twilight panted, "Mine, my pony, my fucktoy, my slave, my slaves, my pretty, athletic fuckdolls!"

"Mmmhf!" whimpered Rainbow into Lightning's mouth, lifting her legs and wrapping them around her partner's waist. The two of them ground frantically against each other, their mingled gasps indistinguishable from each other, growing louder and louder until their slim, firm bodies quaked and shuddered together, spasms within their cunts squeezing Twilight's fingers and coating them with fresh wetness.

Holding onto them both, her own body quivering with sympathetic echoes of their desperate pleasure, Twilight gently lowered their arms and released the magic binding them. Together, on quivering legs, the three of them crawled into Rainbow's small bed, overwhelming it with warm, nude bodies. By unspoken consent, Twilight lay in the centre, flat on her back, while the other two cuddled up either side of her, alternately pillowing their heads on her breasts and kissing each other with satiated passion.

Eventually, Twilight sighed with deep, quiet satisfaction. "My ass is still sore, you know," she complained lightly to the two of them.

"Mine too," Lightning agreed.

"Not mine," replied Rainbow with a smug look on her face.

"Only because she was focused on me," Lightning retorted.

"Yeah, well, she owes me. I taught her a friendship lesson and everything."

Twilight snorted a giggle, nodding her agreement. Gently playing with Rainbow's feathers, she replied, "It's true, you did. Thank you. Well, I don't think Celestia is in any state to reply to letters right now. Luna is still in Canterlot, though. I could write one to her!"

"Princess Luna!" Trixie strutted into the throne room, a letter curled tightly in her hand, and gestured grandly at the pair of courtiers addressing the seated Princess on her high throne. "Begone, menial ponies! The Great and Powerful Trixie must have words with the diarch!"

Luna gave Trixie a long look. She wasn't rolling her eyes, and she wasn't burying her face in her hands, but it was somehow tangible that she was doing neither of these things despite a distinct urge to do so. "Trixie. Is this an urgent matter?"

"The most urgent! Trixie would never interrupt you for something that wasn't important."

Luna's eyes narrowed slightly. "Such as the lack of cream cake in the kitchens?"

"Well, that was important. Just because Celestia isn't here, they think all of a sudden that they can go ahead and run out of cake with no consequences."

"Or thy trouble with the palace laundry," said Luna flatly.

"Her magnificent hat was foalnapped! Somepony must be punished severely, or else how can Canterlot Castle continue to even function?" Trixie demanded, drawing herself up straighter.

"Then what is it this time, Trixie Lulamoon? Please do not describe these hard working, invaluable ponies as menial. They are most valuable to the safe running of Equestria."

"Thank you, Princess. It is our honour to serve," replied the older of the two, with a sidelong glare at Trixie.

Snorting, Trixie dismissed them with a wave of her letter. "Yes, yes, of course, everypony is special in their own way. But she is serious. There is a letter passed on from Argent for Twilight! Two of her finders-"

"Seekers," murmured Luna.

"-sent word they found something suspicious! And then haven't sent any messages since! In Trixie's opinion," the mare said grandly, "the Great and Powerful Trixie, and Twilight, should go at once to rescue these feeble minions. They will be so grateful."

"I wish to see this letter," Luna replied with a small frown. Trixie approached, radiating smug superiority as she walked in front of the older, bearded courtier, and offered the letter upwards. It floated from her hand, unfurling before Luna's eyes.

"A whole village," Luna murmured after a moment, her frown deepening. "Ponies go missing, and arrive there, but never wish to leave. Obscured cutie-marks. A cult of personality? This is troubling." Focusing on Trixie, Luna met her gaze, holding it. "No foolishness, Trixie. What do you believe is happening?"

Trixie gestured extravagantly, opening her mouth to reply, then hesitated as Luna's stare bored into her. Lowering her hands, she paused, then replied in a more subdued tone, "Trixie isn't sure. Nothing good. It reminds her of the… amulet."

"I am forced to agree," Luna said slowly, looking the letter over again. "Trixie, please contact Twilight. At once."

Author's Notes:

Here we are! More mind control! More friendship!

Definitely more consequences.

I've missed putting this story out there, and I'm enjoying getting fully to grips with it again. It's off to Our Village!

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Proofed speedily and efficiently by Djmill
Additional proofing and suggestions by DbzOrDie