A double knock sounded on the carriage door. Without opening it, the pony outside called, "Princess Twilight? We will be arriving in Canterlot in the next few minutes."

"Thank you, Clock Watcher," Twilight replied loudly enough to be heard over the gentle creak and rattle of the train in motion, without looking away from the landscape passing by her window. She rested in a heap of cushions and blankets that she'd piled into a bottomlessly soft nest, sprawling over several seats.

She could afford to take the room. Aside from herself, the carriage was empty. As was the next, and the one after that.

To her slightly guilty relief, she'd found that what she needed, really, really needed, was a little time apart from everypony. Especially anypony she'd enthralled and invited to worship and obey her. There were times when the sheer pressure of their happiness at being with her was itself hard to bear, and though they'd done nothing wrong, she'd felt herself getting a little low on patience.

She'd not been a Princess very long, but already she was finding that her initial objections to some of the comforts that came with the rank - like a luxuriously appointed private train, the one Celestia had teasingly sent to meet her before their confrontation - had simply melted away. It was possible she should feel bad about that, but given all of the temptations of absolute power she'd been holding at arm's length, a long, quiet ride from Ponyville to Canterlot in a few carriages of her own wasn't remotely worth worrying about.

Once the train had gotten underway, she'd asked for it to slow down, too, to make the journey last longer. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to take a tour of Equestria by train, and just not get out very much at the stops.

The soft clatter of the wheels over the tracks was slowing perceptibly. The outskirts of Canterlot swept by beyond the wide strip of grassy, open space that bordered the line, and the carriage shuddered as the train drew to a gentle stop. Twilight sighed softly, and pushed herself out of her nest of cushions. Picking up her small travelling bag, she slung it over one shoulder, and moved to the carriage door. The instant her hand touched the handle, it was drawn open from the outside, and Clock Watcher bowed low as she stepped out.

"Princess!"

"It's the Princess!"

"Princess Twilight!"

A sudden rush of voices greeted her from the crowd of ponies thronging the platform, all craning their necks to see her, though held back by the vast, imposing bulk of Autumn in his violet armour. Before her, Diorite and Trixie waited on the platform, looking impassive and desperately eager respectively. Trixie had forgone her star-spangled hat today, though her billowing purple cloak and short, tight blue dress showed she had no intention of simply blending into the crowd.

Twilight paused by the doorway, and said gently, "Thank you very much, Clock Watcher. Please give my thanks to the train staff. I really needed this peaceful journey, and I'd like to ride this train again very soon."

The young-looking colt swelled visibly with pride, nodding vigorously. "We're very happy to carry you, Princess! Thank you!"

Stepping towards her Guard Captain and her slave, Twilight did her best not to feel flustered by the rumble of voices murmuring her name, and greeted them, "Good afternoon, Diorite. Hello, Trixie."

"Welcome home, Princess." Diorite saluted crisply, her face perfectly impassive.

Impassivity not being Trixie's strongest suit, she chose instead to lunge forward and seize Twilight's hand in both of hers, looking as though she was barely restraining herself from dropping to her knees and kissing Twilight's feet. "The Great and Powerful Trixie welcomes you back to Canterlot! You must have suffered terribly without her devoted assistance and perfect body. She is here now, the nightmare is over."

Twilight's lips quirked into a smile, gazing intently at Trixie as she tried to figure out whether the powder blue pony was serious. Good grief, she actually might be. "It's good to see you, both of you. Autumn, too. Thank you for meeting me."

"It's our duty to look after you, Princess. As we would have in Ponyville, if you'd allowed us to accompany you." Diorite's voice was a shade reproachful as she turned towards the exit from the platform, and beckoned Autumn with a brief hand signal to bring up the rear.

"I'm sorry about that," Twilight apologised. She wanted to add an explanation - she didn't want her guards in Ponyville because she was trying to keep her life there as normal as possible, or the more honest but less diplomatic truth that she'd really rather not be surrounded by guards for the rest of her potentially indefinite life - but any kind of explanation invited a counter-argument. Better to stick to just the apology, since she had no intention of changing her mind.

Diorite snorted, but quietly. Waving the ponies entering the station to one side, Diorite led them out into the street, where a coach waited. "Your carriage, Princess," she said in brief explanation.

"-oh. A carriage, for me?" Twilight blinked. "I usually just walk."

"Would you prefer to lead a parade back to the castle, Princess?" Diorite asked the question with a bland lack of inflection, but a flick of her eyes indicated the growing crowd piling up behind Autumn, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of Twilight.

Twilight's face coloured with embarrassment, and she self-consciously straightened under the renewed pressure of dozens of eyes, trying not to fiddle nervously with her mane. Somewhere in the growing crowd, a camera levitated up over the heads of the ponies around her, and the flash cast a brief, actinic glare. "I - yes. I understand. I'd like the carriage, please."

Trixie swept past Twilight, letting one of the carriage ponies open the door for her with the air of a gently put-upon monarch graciously deigning to notice one of her subjects. Sighing, Twilight followed her, pausing to smile gratefully at the carriage pony, and murmur, "Thank you very much." Diorite shut the door behind the two, and she and Autumn hopped onto the back of the carriage as the running team took up the strain and began to move.

Trixie rolled her eyes, flopping sideways and laying her head in Twilight's lap. "Honestly, the slutty and submissive Trixie thought she'd never be alone with you again. It's been days since she could kneel in front of you and debase her glorious body the way you trained her, and it's been awful. Simply awful."

Rolling her eyes, Twilight let her fingers sink in Trixie's mane, stroking gently. "I've missed you too, Trixie," she said gently, and found that she meant it sincerely. "I'm sorry you had to stay behind."

"Your perfect, submissive slut had work to do for you, work that no one else could do." Trixie signed winsomely. "It's the burden of being incredibly talented. At least she has you all to herself, now. Unless... are any of the others coming today?" She couldn't hide the hopefulness in her voice that they wouldn't.

"You and both Princesses," Twilight reminded her. "There isn't anypony else coming for a few days, though. Zecora really didn't want to be apart from me, but she has to go and do all the things she does to keep the Everfree soothed, so it doesn't get too stirred up. Rainbow has weather duty rota to take that she's been avoiding, and she has to keep an eye on Scootaloo, too. Even Spike needs to take a few days to make sure the library is in a good state, and give the Cake family some help. Everypony has a life of their own, and while they're incredibly important to me, I can't take them away from all the ponies that care for them and rely on them."

It didn't occur to Twilight what she was implying before she looked down and saw Trixie's expression had become fixed. A sudden rush of shame and awkwardness flooded her, like a weight dropping into her chest, and she added quickly, "I didn't mean-"

"Trixie understands," Trixie cut across Twilight's hasty words, just a little too quickly. She opened her mouth to say something more, hesitated, then obviously changed her mind and said instead, "Did you enjoy Ponyville, Mistress? Your time could have been much better spent here, of course. Trixie didn't expect you to follow your fawning rabble out of Canterlot."

Considering the misstep she'd just made, Twilight decided to let 'fawning rabble' go. Sighing, she slid her hand behind Trixie's head and drew the smaller pony to lay her head against Twilight's shoulder, gently rubbing the back of her neck. "It didn't go the way I'd hoped, honestly. I thought that if I left Canterlot, everything would be the way it always was. But it wasn't, not really. Everypony in town knew I was coming, the station was packed. I had to make a speech before I could even go home! Every time I stepped outside, there were ponies all over the place suddenly, wanting to talk to me, and - and I'm grateful that they care," she continued wretchedly, "I really don't want to seem ungrateful, but I wish they'd treat me more like - more like just me. The way they did before."

"The devoted and desperate Trixie doesn't care that you're an alicorn, Mistress. She already worshipped you. It does make your splendid and slutty slave proud to be the possession of such a powerful pony, though. Once you have full control of your powers, nothing in Equestria can stand before you! What new secrets have you unravelled in her absence?" Trixie nuzzled her cheek against Twilight's shoulder, kissing the bare skin where the neckline of her Mistress's loose top exposed the curve of her neck.

Twilight rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "I didn't have time to do any experimenting at all! Even when I stayed inside, I couldn't sit down and think for five minutes without visitors knocking on the door, and even with Spike trying to fend them off, I mostly had to deal with it myself. I've no idea how scrambled my magic is right now, and when I levitated an orange to take a bite out of it, I squashed it flat."

She coughed. "So flat that juice and pips went everywhere. Orange juice really stings when you get it in your eyes. I've had to do everything with my fingers. I have to get up, and move around all the time, and I keep running out of hands, and the mess my writing is in, when I have to hold the quill..." Twilight shook her head, frowning.

"Your devoted slave Trixie will scribe for you," Trixie offered. Her hand creeping up Twilight's thigh, she asked more softly, "What does it feel like to be the Princess of Magic? All that power."

The yearning fascination on Trixie's face was obvious. However much she'd become devoted to Twilight, the desire for her own power was still in there, somewhere. Refocused, perhaps, as desire to be stronger for her Mistress, but the alteration to her mind wasn't going to last forever...

Twilight closed her eyes, resting her head against Trixie's, and let herself relax, searching her feelings. Quietly, over the creaking of the carriage and the soft rattle of wheels on cobbles, she said, "I don't feel powerful right now. I can't trust my own magic. It's scary, and kind of sad. I feel... pressure. Pressure inside me, not bad, or good, but just - there."

Reaching up to Twilight's chest, Trixie gently stroked the radiating bars and symbols just visible over the neckline of her shirt. "You will master it, and then you'll be more perfect than ever. Trixie is fascinated by you, Mistress." Her fingertips caressed the curve of the ink across Twilight's skin. "You're so strong. You've always been strong. Strong enough to take all of Luna's power when you were just a unicorn! Trixie would have burnt herself up, if she'd tried that."

Twilight blinked. Humility, from Trixie? "I'm surprised to hear you say that," she confessed.

Wrinkling her nose, Trixie shifted her head slightly against Twilight's shoulder, not looking directly at her face. "The submissive slave Trixie isn't stupid, Mistress. She remembers the amulet. She's not allowed to damage your property like that again."

This time, Twilight managed to hide her reaction a little better, and simply stroked Trixie's hair as her thoughts whirled. Trixie's enslavement was stopping her from taking risks with herself? What did that mean for when Trixie was released? If she took it badly, she could go right back to taking the very worst kind of chances, seeking some way of getting revenge.

It wasn't nice to think of what she was doing right now as something somepony would one day want to take revenge for, either.

"...I'm sorry that-"

The carriage lurched to a halt, and Trixie straightened quickly, seizing Twilight's hand. "This way, Mistress! The slutty and fuckab- the Great and Powerful Trixie has something she wants to show you at once," Trixie corrected herself as the carriage door swung open, and her words became audible to Diorite. Tugging Twilight out after her, she added quickly, "This way, this way, they can put the carriage away, that's what they're for."

Twilight winced again at Trixie's casual rudeness, and dug her heels in this time. Dragging Trixie to a stop, she turned to the carriage ponies and said firmly, "Trixie, that wasn't polite. I'd like you to say sorry."

The nearer of the two carriage ponies looked awkward, and in a sheepish bass rumble, muttered, "Princess, you don't have to do that."

"You see? Even they agree with the Great and Powerful Trixie, and she has something to show you, so-"

"Trixie." Twilight tugged her hand free, and crossed her arms across her chest.

With a loud sigh, Trixie rolled her eyes and turned back to the two carriage ponies, now shifting uncomfortably under the scrutiny. "The sincere and contrite Trixie apologises for - being rude." The momentary pause betrayed the fact she wasn't even aware of what she was apologising for, but general rudeness was usually a pretty safe bet.

Well, that was probably as good as it was going to get. Addressing the two ponies herself, Twilight told them, "Thank you very much for taking me home. I hope I can ride with you again." Turning, she added to Diorite and Autumn, "Thank you for meeting me at the station, I really appreciate it. I'd like to talk to you later, Diorite, so I can hear how things have gone in my absence. I'll also want to talk to Argent about the Seekers later, please."

"As you wish, Princess." Diorite saluted, as did Autumn with hearty enthusiasm.

"Now can we go, Mistress?" Trixie rolled her eyes, and walked off without waiting for an answer.

Leaving the carriage behind before things could get any more awkward, Twilight followed Trixie into the gentle shade of the castle. The silver haired pony grinned smugly as she glanced back at Twilight, all but skipping down the halls ahead of her.

At first, she thought Trixie was heading for her own suite of rooms, but a descending spiral staircase led down into the deep basements of the castle instead. As her footsteps rang on the stone steps and the murmur of voices and movement diminished overhead, she couldn't keep herself from asking, "Trixie, where are we going? There's nothing but food storage down here."

"It's a shame to be so wrong, Mistress. The benevolent and helpful Trixie will help you understand."

Twilight paused at the foot of the stairs, a smile on her lips at the other pony's effrontery. "Trixie-"

"No more questions, Mistress! She isn't going to say a single word more until she's ready to." Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Trixie turned off down a corridor with a low, arched roof, a space that felt more like a tunnel than a passageway. Stopping in front of an anonymous wooden door set into the gently curving wall, she seized hold of the wide iron ring set into the aged, time-blackened timbers and paused for dramatic effect.

"Mistress, the splendid and submissive Trixie is always thinking of how to please you. It must have been hard to be separated from her, but she was thinking of you the whole time, and she's prepared a surprise to welcome you back to Canterlot!" Tossing her hair, she added casually, "You may feel free to lavish praise upon her, now." With a firm push, the door swung inwards on surprisingly silent hinges, and she stepped aside to allow Twilight to go first.

If Twilight wasn't certain that she'd locked Trixie out of using the charm without her express permission, she'd expect there to be a naked pony inside the door. Or several. With a slightly wary glance at Trixie's gleeful expression of self-satisfaction, Twilight stepped past her and through the archway.

Her lips parted in surprise.

A long, broad chamber stretched out before her, much larger than she'd expected. The floor was paved with grey flagstones, worn with time, though they'd mostly been covered by colourful rugs. Great ribs of unadorned white stone supported the gently vaulted ceiling, barely the height of a normal room at the edges but half as high again in the centre. Short, wide windows like horizontal slits studded one wall, high up and near the ceiling, revealing a hint of blue sky, but the main sources of light were cleanly-glowing magical lanterns. Flat topped stone platforms, waist height, occupied the majority of the room in three neat rows of five, narrow ends aligned with the length of the chamber. Bright, shiny new stools of rich brown wood sat beside them in pairs. At the very far end, a large rolling blackboard had been set up, next to a wooden desk and a complicated wooden chair that looked as though it swivelled.

"Trixie! You did this?"

Stepping in beside Twilight, Trixie closed the door behind them with a flick of her horn, glowing with pride. "Isn't it perfect, Mistress? You can use it for magical experimentation, and your Seekers can study here, and it's yours. She had it formally made yours. Trixie spoke to the Princesses, and didn't even mention the time that she played with Princess Celestia's breasts, nor did she go so far as to remind her that she snores."

Twilight laughed gently, shaking her head. "It's beautiful," she told Trixie sincerely. Stepping down the couple of steps onto the chamber floor, she danced down the central aisle delightedly, running her hands over the smooth stone platforms and touching the magical lanterns with her fingertips. A giddy delight came over her, and she grabbed Trixie's hands, tugging the other pony after her. "Oh, it's wonderful! Everywhere upstairs is for living in, there's nowhere I can really practice without worrying I'll break something. You've done so, so well. What was this place?"

Trixie let herself be drawn after Twilight, her eyes sparkling with joy at her Mistress's reaction, and a high blush on her cheeks. "Trixie found - it was an unused storeroom, Mistress! It was dusty, and disgusting, and full of broken furniture, and she could hardly get the door open, and she just knew - because your slave is perceptive, and intelligent, and simply perfect in every way - that you could make much better use of it. So she cleaned everything and had new lanterns put in, and all the furniture, and got rid of all the mess. She wasn't the efficient and hard-working Clean Sweep for nothing!"

It occurred to Twilight - a small thought in the back of her mind, as she laughed again - that she really was enjoying being in Trixie's company again. She was ridiculous, in her puffed-up arrogance, true, but there was a note of humour to it that hadn't been there before. Resting her ass against her new desk, flicking up her tail to lie across it in a broad ribbon of colour, she faced Trixie and took the other pony's hands in hers. A warm smile curled her lips.

A subtle change touched Trixie's expression as her gaze met Twilight's, her eyes widening slightly and her lips parting.

"Ssh. Don't say anything, Trixie. Let me look at you," Twilight said softly. Silence settled across the room, not a sound from the castle above making it through the layers of thick stone. Only the faint, soft sound of wind against the cliff face outside coloured the faint hiss of no sound at all. That, and the soft, almost imperceptible sounds of two mares, barely breathing. She drank in every detail of Trixie's face, suddenly aware of all the subtleties that her eye had glided past without noticing before. Trixie's lips were a little wider than she remembered, soft and inviting, with a coat of some pale blue lipstick that highlighted them against her slightly darker blue skin. Sparkling eye shadow coloured her eyelids, and dark flecks of mascara decorated her eyelashes. A couple of small, darker spots of pastel blue flecked her smooth skin.

Had Trixie always worn makeup like this, or had she put this on specially, knowing Twilight was coming? There was longing in Trixie's wide, purple eyes that couldn't be camouflaged, a quickness of her breath that brought hints of pink-purple to her cheeks. Her tongue brushed her lips, a quick, nervous flick of pink.

"...you're beautiful," Twilight murmured, almost as though realising it for the first time, letting go of one of Trixie's hands to stroke her fingers across the other pony's blushing cheek.

Trixie's eyes fluttered, a subtle quiver running through her as she leant into Twilight's hand. A tremble in her voice, she whispered, "She wanted to be beautiful for you."

"You are," Twilight replied softly. "Do you find me beautiful, Trixie?" Of course the other pony's opinion was twisted by the orders she'd been given. She was enslaved by the magic in her head, and even if Twilight had never commanded her to find her new Mistress attractive, the feelings that she did have imposed on her would give rise to others. It was foolish to put any weight in what Trixie thought of her, given how hopelessly compromised her judgement was.

Trixie gave a small, jerky nod, her eyes not leaving Twilight's face for an instant. "Yes. Oh, yes. Yes, Mistress. Please." Her hands trembled at her sides, wanting to reach out but unsure she was allowed to.

Foolish or not, Twilight's heart beat faster. "Did you... were you ever attracted to me, before I... charmed you?" The words, barely a whisper, were scarcely audible even in the absolute quiet of the chamber.

Trixie swallowed. "The slutty and submissive Trixie - before you made her what she is - she used to think about you a lot. Vengefully. She wanted to humiliate you, make you bow before her might. She had... fantasies, about making you have sex with her."

Slowly leaning closer, Twilight murmured, "It makes me happy that you wanted me, even then." Was it wrong that the thought of putting Trixie through exactly those degrading experiences made her body tingle? Her nipples thrust against the soft fabric of her loose top, the lacy bra beneath doing nothing to hide them.

A soft, subtle thrill of power ran down her spine as she whispered, "I made you my slave." Twilight's lips met Trixie's, forcefully, needful, and all at once, she was embracing the other pony, holding her tight. Her tongue slid into Trixie's mouth, exploring the hotness of it, the taste of her. Their bodies pressed together, and in a flash of urgent possessiveness, Twilight broke the kiss to say in a low, husky tone, "Mine. You're mine."

Dizzily, her eyes slightly glazed, Trixie moaned in response, "She's yours, Mistress, she's your bitch, your fucktoy, abuse Trixie, keep her, make her yours forever..."

"Oh, my stars," Twilight breathed, her head swimming. One hand moved down to Trixie's ass, squeezing firmly and pulling the other pony harder against her. Twilight's horn ignited, a sheen of violet magic rippling along it. An incandescent glow flared around the fastenings of Trixie's tight blue dress, flickered, then steadied.

In a single moment of blurred motion, the dress tore apart into a dozen fluttering pieces, rags settling around her like pale blue snow. Trixie gasped aloud at the violence of her stripping, abruptly nude but for stockings and garter belt, and the purple cloak which danced and fluttered as though in a gale.

Twilight froze, the glow around her horn dying instantly, an appalled look on her face. "I - I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Stupid! She'd gotten so carried away that for a moment, she'd forgotten how dangerous her magic was, how easily it could hurt somepony.

Breathing heavily, Trixie nodded shakily. Her bare breasts heaving, she managed, "Yes, I'm - she's fine. You're so powerful, so dangerous..." The tone of her voice shifted slowly, growing husky as she continued, "You ripped her clothes off without even trying..."

Shaking her head, Twilight protested, "That wasn't safe!"

"Oh, she knows..." Pushing her body roughly against Twilight, grinding her chest against her Mistress, she hissed, "Fuck her. Strip her. The slutty and submissive Trixie is your slave."

Belatedly, the part of Twilight that always watched the rest of her, even when she was lost in lust, pointed out that Trixie had an exceptionally poor track record of making decisions involving powerful magic. The rest of her was being rapidly seduced all over again by the urgency of Trixie's body. As long as she didn't try to use any more magic... that would be okay, wouldn't it?

Twilight's fingers slid along the tender surface of Trixie's skin, slipping under the edges of her panties and digging into tender flesh. "Yes. You're mine."

Warm lips and hot tongues came together with rough need, and words were a thing of the past. Trixie's hands fumbled urgently at Twilight's shirt, tugging it up and over the swell of her breasts. Struggling with the lacy bra for a moment, Trixie gave up and broke the kiss to tug the crumpled shirt over Twilight's head and pull her bra free down her arms.

Small whimpers of desire escaped Trixie's parted lips as she threw the unwanted clothes aside, panting, "Want you, want you," before pushing Twilight down onto the desk and crawling up to straddle her legs. Ducking her head, she began kissing and licking Twilight's soft breasts, gently biting at her stiff nipples with eager, hungry desire.

"Oh, oh, oh..." breathed Twilight, letting her head sink back against the polished wood. Her back arched, her body feeling hot and tight, her skin taut. Her hands slid under the purple cape and explored Trixie's smooth back, gently clawing at the other mare's skin. The pressure of her damp panties against her increasingly damp skin was becoming unbearable, and she gasped, "Trixie! Lick me!"

"Yes, Mistress!" Trixie's face was flushed, her hair in disarray, a glowing smile on her lips as she lifted her head. Wriggling down Twilight's body, she pushed up the pleated skirt with an urgency matched only by the tenderness with which she slid her fingers into the waistband of Twilight's panties, and slowly tugged them down her Owner's slim legs.

Twilight shifted, turning to lay her body lengthwise along the desk, and parted her legs wide. Trixie crawled between them, on her hands and knees, ass in the air, and planted a long trail of yearning kisses up Twilight's inner thighs. Hot breath tickling Twilight's skin, she slowly, tremblingly, drew her tongue up the slick, glistening folds.

Both mares gasped in unison, perspiration-slick bodies arching. Twilight's hands swept up to cup her own breasts, still marvelling at the way that they filled her hands, and kneaded them roughly. Head tilted back, she closed her eyes and gave in to the sensation of Trixie's mouth on her tender sex. It felt so good! Every swipe of her slave's tongue made her jerk against the smooth wood beneath her, her fingers capturing and delicately twisting and flicking her rigid, deep violet nipples. Whines and moans coloured the air, given a resonance by the echoing stone walls.

It was like... like fucking in a classroom. Twilight's thighs squeezed together slightly, the thought sending an extra little tingle down her as she arched her body and thrust her dripping cunt harder against her slave's mouth. Fucking on the teacher's desk, so depraved. It made her think of Cheerilee, and her red lips, and her wine-coloured breasts, being forced to lick her out, both of them just pawns in Celestia's hands, and she should resent that, but it had been so darn hot...

A fresh shudder wracked her body as Trixie's tongue hit a particularly sensitive spot, and she whimpered aloud. Cheerilee probably had no idea she'd fucked Twilight. Or, maybe more likely, she remembered dressing Twilight in a depraved mockery of a school outfit, remembered spanking her and Twilight's mouth between her legs, and nothing seemed unusual about that to her at all. Oh, stars, that was so hot. Maybe Cheerilee could be talked into something like that again. Maybe she and Celestia could be the naughty students for teacher Twilight...

Trixie was murmuring something. She'd been doing it for a while, Twilight realised, but she hadn't been paying attention, and the words were muffled, barely audible. Now that she listened, though, she could just make out the words that Trixie was breathing into her body between licks.

"Keep me... keep me... keep me..."

Twilight's breath caught. One hand moving down to cradle the back of Trixie's head, she panted raggedly, "I do want to keep you, Trixie, I want to teach you, and keep you near, and I need your help, and I wouldn't be here like this without you..."

Trixie's fingers slid into Twilight's molten cunt, her free hand working urgently between her own legs. Lifting her head just a little, she breathed with desperate sincerity, "Slutty fucktoy Trixie needs you, obeys you, never let her go, Mistress, Mistress, please-"

"My Trixie, my Trixie, my-" gasped Twilight in response, too hot to think straight, wanting nothing more than to hold her slave against her, to writhe against her mouth, to own her completely. A quivering shock flashed through her, pushing her tremblingly close to the edge, and she embraced the feeling with all her heart. Pleasure blossomed within her like a vast firework, an explosion of light that rippled with aftershocks, drowning everything else.

Slowly, little by little, the world ebbed back. The warm length of Trixie's body lay against hers, the other mare's head nestling against her chest.

Silence, again.

Twilight's hand slid over Trixie's hip, her fingers circling the other mane's tail, and began gently stroking the tangles out. Trixie shifted gently against Twilight, then spoke with casual confidence. "You see? The erotically talented Trixie is nothing but a pure pleasure to embrace. She's beautiful, elegant, delicious, endlessly skilled in bed-" She cut herself off, squirming slightly, before she finished, "She's the perfect slave."

A smile touched Twilight's lips. All of Trixie's exaggeration was coming perilously close to triggering her orders to apologise for her lies, but she was obviously getting better at realising when the conditioning was about to trigger and backing off.

More meaningful was the note of uncertainty under Trixie's brash words. Even if she'd convinced herself that exaggeration didn't count as lying, she didn't believe she was as perfect as she claimed.

Keep me.

"You're wonderful, Trixie," Twilight murmured. "Stay here with me for a little while."

"Yes, Mistress!" Trixie snuggled a little closer, planting a kiss on Twilight's skin.

Twilight lay on the smooth wood of the desk, the damp sheen on her skin drying slowly, and cradled the other pony in her arms. Had she promised to keep Trixie, in the heat of her passion? She didn't think so, but it was hard to remember...

Because she couldn't keep Trixie. That was the deal. Six months.

Less than that, now.

Kissing Trixie's forehead beside her horn, Twilight said gently, "Come up to my room, Trixie. I'd like to take you to bed for a while. You can tell me how things have been while I've been away."

"The sensuous and slutty Trixie would be proud to strut her magnificent body nude down the halls for you, Mistress."

Oh. Yes. "...I'll go and get you some clothes."

Buried deep in the enveloping cushions of the deepest armchair, Spike lounged full-length, a comic spread out beside him. Once again, the citizens of Maretropolis were under threat, and only the Power Ponies could save them!

...admittedly, he didn't enjoy the comic in quite the same way as he had before. How many times had he nurtured fond dreams of Rarity in Radiance's gem-spangled costume? In his mind's eye, he'd swept her off her feet a hundred times - he was always taller in these dreams - and told her smoothly not to worry, she was safe now. Twilight had kind of spoiled that.

He pushed the thought away. Rarity was never really going to have dated him. If she had to date somepony, wasn't it better it was Twilight? He was trying really, really hard to believe that.

He sighed hugely, a little streamer of green fire curling through the air. Picking up another cake, he bit into it and turned his attention back to the page. A little frown touched his face, and one claw tapped the page lightly. Now he looked at it, this one panel almost looked like Mare-velous was going to kiss the Masked Matter-Horn. Of course, they weren't, but...

Well, if he happened to imagine all the Power Ponies kissing, it wasn't like that was wrong, or anything. It wasn't like they were Twilight, and the others, even if they kind of resembled them. They were just in comics, he told himself virtuously, so that was okay.

The latch clicked. The door swung open.

"T-Twilight!" stammered Spike, his breath catching in his throat. Flooded with guilty panic, he babbled, "I was just going to get on with tidying everything, like you said. Cakes? What cakes? Oh, these cakes. Well, they were... going to go off, if they were left here, so by eating them, I was... tidying up. Yeah, that's it. So I was so busy tidying that I needed to sit down for a minute. I wasn't thinking anything weird!"

Twilight just stood there in the doorway, an odd, wary expression on her face. "Spike?"

"Uh - yes?" Spike frowned as realisation overtook panic. "What are you doing back? I thought you'd gone to the train station. You know, to go to Canterlot without me?" With a surge of hope, he leaned forward and asked quickly, "Did you change your mind? Are you here to get me?"

A second's pause, then Twilight shook her head and smiled. "I'm sorry, Spike, but you're needed here. I just forgot something, so I had to come back and get it before I left. I think it's in my room somewhere."

Crashing disappointment. His voice dropping, he replied, "Oh. I see." Sighing, he made an effort, and asked, "Do you want me to find it?"

"Oh - no, that's okay, Spike. I'll find it. You just carry on with your tidying, okay? Make sure you don't leave any cakes to go stale."

Spike blinked. What, that line worked? Still, no point arguing. "Well, if you say so."

Twilight disappeared off up the stairs, and he settled down to read his comic again. Still, he kept a claw between the pages, marking the panel to go back to later.

After a while, Twilight called down the stairs, "I can't find what I've done with it. Where would I have put something I wanted to keep really safe?"

Not like Twilight to forget where she's put things. She really does go to pieces when I'm not around. "The chest in the wardrobe? The hollow book on the mantelpiece?"

"No, I've looked at those. I thought I'd left it in my room, but maybe I left it somewhere else."

She sounded frustrated. Spike drummed his claws on the arm of the chair, picturing Twilight's room. Where might she put something she was trying to keep safe? "The telescope's been out of its case for months, and you usually put that away when you're not using it. Could there be something in there?"

Silence from above. Her footsteps moved away, then, a few moments later, she called out triumphantly, "Found it! You're right, Spike. How very useful you are."

Spike blew on his claws and buffed them on his loose shirt, grinning smugly to himself. Yup. Still got it. "I sure am. Maybe that's worth another cake, from Pinkie? I wouldn't want to get out of practice with my tidying."

"Have as many cakes as you want," called Twilight's voice from above. "But before you do... I want you to get together all the books we have about locking spells and put them in a bag, please. I have some reading to do."

"Sure thing, Twilight! Anything you say." Being praised by Twilight, getting all the cakes, getting more cakes to have with the other cakes... maybe today wouldn't turn out so bad after all. "Annnd... a new comic?" he called hopefully.

"Get two," replied Twilight's voice.

Beaming, he began tugging books off shelves.

Slowly, little by little, a violet glow gathered around the egg. With painfully intense care, it rose up onto its point, then floated gently into the air, rising until it found a steady level in mid-air. Seconds ticked past, and the egg floated steadily, unmoving.

"Well done, Mistress!"

Twilight yelped, jerking in surprise. The egg shot across the room, a blur of movement, and splattered against the chalkboard with a loud crack. Several other sprays of yolk and debris already marked the walls and ceiling, dripping slowly onto the stone benches below.

"Oh. The patient and helpful Trixie thought you had it, that time. Never mind, Mistress, there are always more eggs." Trixie stepped out of the doorway, descending the steps to the floor and closing the door behind her.

Sighing, Twilight rubbed the base of her horn with a finger. "Hello, Trixie. You have more testing materials for me?"

"She does! She brought some tomatoes and other soft fruit for variety."

"Oh, good. I can scrape a salad off the wall later," grumbled Twilight. She'd been practising for hours, and her horn ached from the amount of rigid control she'd been imposing on her rebellious, fluctuating magic. If she kept up this pace, in a few months, she'd have as much control over her magic as a foal. It just wasn't acceptable.

"Did you try the other spells?"

Wordlessly, Twilight gestured to a tangled mass of black hair in the corner that was going to be very difficult to dispose of.

"Moustache spell," sighed Twilight. "There's an egg in there somewhere."

"Oh. Well, the subservient and slutty Trixie is certain you'll master it again in no time. Surely the doors yielded to your will?"

"Look for yourself."

Trixie crossed the room to where a selection of doors leaned against the wall, surrounded by wooden doorframes. They had a selection of locks and handles, some neatly inset into the door, some with padlocks. Experimentally, Trixie tugged at one, and remarked brightly, "This one is locked, Mistress!"

"It's locked forever," replied Twilight sourly. "The insides are fused." Pointing at each door in turn, she recited, "Lock melted, door grew into the frame, keyhole disappeared, lock spits keys out, and there, where there isn't a door, the whole door vanished."

"Well, maybe it's locked where it is now?" suggested Trixie meekly.

Twilight gave Trixie a sideways look, and slumped onto a stool, rubbing her face with both hands. "I'm shaping the spell matrix the usual way, but I think I'm just putting too much force behind them. The intent is applied, but then it overwhelms the confines of the spell. I'm trying to do it gently, but I keep losing control."

Setting her bag of miscellaneous fruits down on a bench, Trixie padded over to Twilight's side and kissed her shoulder through her baggy jumper. "Don't worry, Mistress. The splendid, sensuous Trixie will help you. With her genius, and your power, there is nothing that can stand in her way."

Twilight nodded, staring at the stone bench morosely, and running her finger slowly across the broad slab. Raw power leaking out of her spells just wasn't safe, the effects were unpredictable. There had to be a way to dam the flow and only let out as much as she needed, but she just couldn't hold it.

"The beautiful and brilliant Trixie has it!"

Startled from her train of thought, Twilight looked at Trixie with a certain amount of weariness in her expression. "You do?"

Grinning smugly, Trixie replied, "Don't you see it, Mistress? She supposes not. Oh well, this is why you have Trixie, to think of things when you can't. She's always glad to help you with your little problems."

If Trixie didn't have an amazing idea, she was going to get spanked red. "...I'm listening, Trixie. Go on."

"You cannot restrain yourself enough to cast spells?" Trixie asked rhetorically. "Then stop trying, Mistress. Make new spells! Make spells that require vast amounts of magical power to work at all. Glue all the locking spells together, for instance."

Twilight hesitated. "Um. But then nopony would be able to cast those spells, Trixie. Nopony else, anyway. Making spells that specific isn't good magical practice."

Trixie make a rude noise with her lips. "Oh no, only you can cast the spell. Whatever will you do."

"Well..." Twilight paused, trying to rationalise her reluctance. Why did she think Trixie's idea was a bad one? Because it was the opposite of her usual approach; it was throwing uncontrolled amounts of magic into a problem instead of trying to control and understand it. Very Trixie, in other words. But that didn't mean she was wrong...

"You might be right. At least, I can put together a very extensive spell pattern which should soak up much more energy than normal, and see what happens. If that works, I could try working on something that doesn't do very much, it just soaks up excess spell energy, and attach it to the other spells I was trying..."

"The vastly intelligent and deliciously slutty Trixie will help you. Compared to creating the rune circle which protected you from Princess Celestia herself, a locking spell is trivial for a pony of her talents."

Twilight couldn't help smiling. Trixie got more elaborate and condescending the happier she felt. It was deserved though; her idea might be the key to regain control of the Alicorn magic for a while. Obviously, it wasn't a long term solution - that was still to gather control of herself and ensure that she only used as much magic as she intended - but while she was suffering from the frustratingly adolescent surges in her spells, it was a good stop-gap.

"All my books on locking spells are still in Ponyville," she thought aloud. "But there should be copies of the major texts here in the Canterlot library. Starswirl's work on stabilising magical contraflows is here too, we'll need that. And Ebony Dust's text on binding effects into complementary patterns - Synthesis and Balance - I had a fourth edition in my room." Pushing herself away from the stone bench, she stood up with growing excitement. "I'll go fetch them! Trixie, ask for some more locks to be brought down, and we'll need more ink, and redo the wards, just in case."

"You will be startled and amazed by Trixie's speed and efficiency! Her immense skill and exquisite talent!" Dashing over to the door, she paused and said archly, "Could your Apple-dolt help you do this, Mistress?" The door shut behind her before Twilight could reply, leaving her to groan, "Trixie..." to the empty room.

She'd definitely ordered Trixie to find it easy not to be jealous of the other slaves, hadn't she? Although, that did leave the loophole that Trixie could still be jealous if she really wanted to be. Looking at the records of her commands would help, but she didn't have those with her, either...

Never mind, she could always look them up when she got home. For now, she had research to do! Already consumed with thoughts of where to find the necessary texts in the Canterlot library, Twilight hurried out of the door after Trixie.

Princess Celestia had a way of entering a room. It didn't matter what was happening, who was talking, how heated the argument - her presence spread silence like ripples spreading out from a stone in a pond. When Celestia spoke, other ponies did not dare interrupt. She was the light of civilisation and the glory of the morning sun, clothed in delicate white silk.

Twilight barely noticed the door open, and didn't look up from the ranks of books open in overlapping piles around her. Consumed in what she was writing, Trixie didn't lift her head either.

Celestia considered this novel experience, then stepped down onto the flagstones. Pitching her voice low, she let it fill with resonance as she spoke. "Good evening, Twilight."

Rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, Twilight frowned. "Evening? It was only just lunchtime, wasn't it?"

"Seven hours ago, Twilight. Which you didn't eat." Celestia tilted her head slightly. "I asked Feather Touch to bring you some food, after that. I believe you ignored it."

Twilight's eyes strayed to a few covered plates on a tray, sitting off to one side on one of the stone plinths. "I'm sorry, Princess, I did mean to eat some of it, but I was working out a problem of energy flow resonance, and-"

"I asked her to come back a few hours ago, and insist you ate something. You told her to go away." Celestia's calm words bore a lightly chastising tone.

"...I did?" That didn't sound like her. Of course, there had been a time when somepony had opened the door... hadn't there? She'd been concentrating.

"Would you have told Princess Luna to go away, Twilight?"

"Um. No, Princess Celestia," replied Twilight sheepishly. She really should apologise to Feather Touch, whoever she was.

"As a matter of fact, you did. Not long after you dismissed Feather Touch. She didn't even get through the door. Does 'Not now, please' ring any bells?"

Twilight pushed back from her desk, with a guilty wince. "I have several apologies to make, don't I, Princess."

Celestia nodded with grave agreement. "That would be best. You mustn't neglect yourself, Twilight. Nor those that you control." Her pink eyes swept towards Trixie, who was still writing with urgent intensity.

"...oh." A wave of quiet guilt swept over Twilight. Now that she looked, Trixie's mane was frazzled, and she looked tired. Moving to her side, Twilight laid her hand gently on her shoulder and spoke softly. "Trixie. It's time to take a break."

"In a moment, Mistress - there's something here about solving the unbalanced flow..." Trixie muttered distractedly, gesturing with her horn at a book that was open in front of her. For a moment, Twilight leaned in closer to read the page, before she became aware of Celestia, standing behind her with her arms crossed.

Twilight reached out and plucked Trixie's quill out of the air, halting the busy scribble. It wasn't fair of her to push her obsessive behaviour onto Trixie. Especially if she was only working so hard because this Trixie, slave Trixie, was desperately trying to impress Twilight enough to keep her. "That's really good work, Trixie. I'd like to see it later-" she did, a lot, "-but for now, I'd like you to stop please. We need to eat."

"Is it dinner time already?" Trixie sat up and combed her mane back into shape with her fingers, then turned on her stool to find Princess Celestia standing behind her. "Ahhh!" she yelped, jerking back and nearly toppling over. "Princess! She - yes, the submissive sex toy Trixie knew you were there, all along, she was just - you -" Running out of words, Trixie subsided into silence.

Celestia's horn glowed softly, and Trixie's mane gently rearranged itself into its more customary neatness. "I'm grateful for the help you give Twilight. Don't let her overwork you."

"Yes, it is only natural that the great Princess Celestia sees the value of Trixie."

Twilight watched Celestia enviously, painfully aware that she wouldn't dare even try touching another pony with her magic for fear of hurting them. Still, it was amazing how quickly Trixie recovered from her panic, buoyed up by her irrepressible ego. She was quite resilient, in her own way.

She'd had to be, when nopony actually liked her.

Trixie looked up in surprise as she felt Twilight's fingers entwine with hers, squeezing her hand tightly, and she leaned against her Mistress. She nuzzled her head against the softness of Twilight's jumper, resting her head on her owner's shoulder, as Twilight spoke.

"We've been making progress on compensation for the uncontrolled magical surges, Princess. Would you like to see?"

Celestia tilted her head. "Compensating for, and not preventing?"

"Yes, that's right - it was Trixie's idea." She felt a little squirm of pride and happiness from the pony at her side. "The spell we're working on actually relies on there being unstable surges to fill out the matrix. It's not a solution, but it's a coping strategy until I can bring them under control."

Turning towards the row of doors - several more of them now blackened, misshapen or splintered - Twilight indicated the second door from the end. It was a stout door, made of thick wooden timbers with an intricate pattern of ironwork laid into the surface. The lock itself had a massive keyhole, large enough to put her finger into. "That one is locked, now. Would you like to try opening it with a spell, Princess?"

An amused smile touched the lips of the regal pony, and she glanced at Twilight. "Am I your faithful student now, Empress? Perhaps you'd like to play out some of the fantasies I held when our roles were reversed, and teach me how to pleasure my teacher properly? I have a spanking paddle suitable for errant students that are slow to learn their lesson, quite unused other than in my imagination."

A crimson blush filled up Twilight's cheeks, her skin suddenly hot and her jumper feeling a size too small and tight. "I - I, maybe, I'd like to-"

"Empress. Do I sense that you have had some fantasies of your own? Was I the stern teacher, or the spanked pupil?" Celestia asked the question with calm interest, only the sparkle of her eyes betraying her delight in teasing her owner. After a moment, she added winsomely, "You didn't include those details in any of your reports."

If it was possible to pass out from blushing, she was going to. Oh, sweet stars above, even Trixie was smirking at her now. In a strangled yelp, Twilight managed, "The door!"

"As you please, Empress. I am here to serve." Celestia turned her attention to the door, and lifted her horn. Watching her closely, Twilight recognised a common spell intended to unlock generic magical locks. The golden glow crawled over the door for an instant, then shattered as a pulse of neon-pink energy from the lock effortlessly blew the spell apart.

Celestia's brow shifted minutely. "Tamper resistant." Cocking her head thoughtfully for a moment, she tried another, more elaborate charm. The door thrummed, a single flat note of rejection that left the spell no purchase. "Hm. It wouldn't do to underestimate you again." Celestia lifted her head, and a spark of light kindled at the tip of her slender horn.

Twilight felt the shock of colliding energies as a searingly bright beam of energy leapt from the Princess's horn to the centre of the door, hanging in the air like a line of sun-fire. Pink-purple energy pulsed out in return, a sheen of light coating the door's timbers. Huge, exaggerated images of the hinges and lock hung in the air in neon lines of light, ethereal images of slid-home deadbolts forming around the edges of the door to reinforce every part of its connection to the frame. The whine of clashing energies grew louder and louder, before abruptly, Celestia broke off her assault. The ghostly images of locks and bolts pulsed, fading only slowly now the attack had ceased.

With a glance at her former pupil, Celestia asked, "You can unlock this ward, Twilight?"

A smile of mingled pride and something like embarrassment on her face, Twilight kissed Trixie on the head, then stepped over to the door and touched the lock with her finger. Immediately, the fading outlines of the locks and bolts flared again, shifting as the bolts withdrew, and an ethereal key rotated in the vast shape of the lock, passing through her fingers without harming them. The light faded, and the door swung open. "It's, um. It's not locked, for me."

"The locking spell contains a recognition charm?" Celestia drifted forward, running her hand over the lock with an intent, fascinated look on her face. "This is one spell, not many layered spells?"

"Oh, yes. Trixie and I, we've managed-"

"Through the diligent work of the beautiful, intelligent fucktoy Trixie!"

Twilight giggled at the outburst. "Yes, between us, we've managed to combine Starswirl's Personal Seal, June's Resilient Ward, Redcloak's Arcane Reinforcement, Gossamer's Fifteen Locks-"

"-the Ever-Present Ward, the Secret Wall," contributed Trixie.

"-yes, the Unsolvable Mechanism, the Impenetrable Seal, Magician's Vault, and the Bar of Arcadia. We're working on incorporating the Gordian Lock-"

"Trixie almost has the resolution for the interference patterns! If you'd look at her work-"

"I will. I will once we've eaten. I really think we can get it to mesh with the Vault patterns, if we tune it just right." Looking back up at her mentor, Twilight slowly became aware that Princess Celestia's mouth was hanging slightly open. "Um. That is alright, isn't it?"

Celestia shook herself. "You can cast a construct of that magnitude, Twilight?"

"Well - I did." Twilight gestured at the door, slightly sheepishly. "Oh, Princess. I mean - oh, Celestia. It's so nice to be able to cast something that works again. I know it's not a solution, and I promise, I'll practice every day to get better at controlling myself, but - it's good. This is good."

Nodding her agreement, Celestia smiled at them both. "It's a very impressive work of spellcraft. I'd like to have a copy of your notes. Once you have eaten."

It was dark.

Twilight lounged half-naked in a vast, throne-like chair, her mane spilling out from beneath a peaked black cap. A slender corset hugged her body intimately, cut low at the top to gently lift her breasts without covering them. Delicate stockings and garters sheathed her legs, baring her shaven sex. Every scrap of clothing on her body was midnight black, with a subtle sparkle that briefly shimmered like a spill of tiny stars as she moved. The fabric felt delicious on her sensitive inner thighs, and she lazily rubbed her legs together.

This felt good. She radiated power, hanging in the air like an aura around her, a deep, satiated dominance. It was good to be... wherever this was.

As if summoned, or created by the thought, a dim, golden glow filled the air. She was underground, surrounded by worked stone... she was in her classroom. Experimental room. Whatever it was. That chair was smaller than this one, though, wasn't it? The thought slipped away. This was better. Her violet body shifted against the intimate embrace of the ebony cushions. She felt good. She could just relax here, perfectly satisfied with the thrumming sensation of her own magnificence. But she wasn't alone, was she...

The ranks of stone platforms that occupied the room, were, yes, they were occupied. A nude, motionless pony lay atop each one on her back, gazing blankly upwards into the dimness that curled around the stone ribs above. Twilight was stood in front of the front row, beside the first platform, gazing down at the pony laid out before her.

Naturally, it was Applejack. Completely nude, her mane spilling off the side of the platform she lay on, her muscled body glistening in the light. She'd been oiled, head to toe. Twilight's fingers caressed her slave, stroked the ridges of her stomach, feeling the firmness beneath the soft, tanned skin. There was a delicious oily slickness beneath her fingertips. Applejack was... was a toy.

Twilight's finger gently touched the centre of Applejack's forehead.

"Fuck mah mouth. Ah'm a slave. Fuck mah mouth. Ah'm a slave. Fuck mah mouth." Her accented voice was blankly mindless, reciting steadily with no sign she'd ever stop. Twilight's fingers explored Applejack's lips, slurring her words, before Twilight withdrew them and wiped the saliva-wetness off across the enthralled pony's face. It felt so good to degrade this beautiful, strong-backed pony.

Who else? Rarity. Yes, Rarity was on the next platform, her blue eyes wide open and gazing into nothing. This time, Twilight's hand moved down to touch the smooth silkiness of Rarity's perfumed skin, directly over her heart. Immediately, Rarity's milk-white hands rose and began massaging her full, soft breasts in a looping sequence of five distinct movements, pulling them apart, crushing them together, and tugging her own nipples.

Twilight's finger touched the unicorn's forehead, and Rarity began to recite as blankly as Applejack had. "Use my tits for your pleasure. I exist to serve. Use my tits for your pleasure."

A soft, shuddering sigh of arousal escaped Twilight's barely parted lips, her nipples deliciously stiff, her cunt tingling. Her hands slid over her own body, trailing glistening trails of the oil that coated every slave's skin.

More. She wanted more.

She moved along the front row, her fingers touching and awakening each of her brainwashed friends. Pinkie; at a touch to her head and another to her heart, she began chanting, "Fuck my fat ass, Master," as a lube-slick candy cane slid in and out of her pussy. Rainbow arched and relaxed, arched and relaxed against the stone, repeating, "Make me eat your cunt. I'm your bitch. Make me eat your cunt." Finally, Fluttershy at the end of the row, lying face-down, her huge tits mashed against the stone beneath her, who lifted her ass into the air and began to hump against nothing at a touch, chanting in her soft, innocent voice, "I'm a dumb animal. Fuck me hard."

Twilight's breathing grew deep, a slow, soft pant of arousal, as her cunt grew wetter and wetter, alternately caressing herself and the naked, mindless mares around her. Her fingers slid into Fluttershy's spread pussy, letting the mare's programmed movements thrust back and forth against her hand for a few moments, before pulling Fluttershy's pink tail firmly and stepping back.

"So pretty," Twilight breathed huskily. "Mine. My slaves. My fucktoys." Her body was alight with the sheer delight of dominating, of owning, of seeing all of her friends made into sex toys ready for her use. The thrill of power was a livid crimson flame within her that obliterated all else. More. If those five lay on the first row, who lay on the second?

Trixie. Zecora.

Trixie lay nude, glistening wetly, a dildo gripped in her motionless hand. Twilight circled her slab, before reaching out and touching her forehead. The enthralled mare began chanting at once, repeating, "Trixie exists to grovel at your feet. Punish this bitch."

Giggling, Twilight lazily twisted Trixie's blue nipples, listening to her voice catch in the middle of a word. "Well, you were a very bad girl before I got you, Trixie. Let me give you a treat." A touch to the slope of her breast, over the heart, and Trixie's hand lifted, plunging the dildo into her own mouth. She began sucking it as she thrust it back and forth, still making muffled noises around the shaft.

Twilight leant down and rested her elbows on the edge of the stone platform, grinning impishly to herself as she watched the toy slide in and out of Trixie's mouth, before she added, "Aw, you're cute." Leaving her urgently sucking the dildo, Twilight stepped over to where Zecora lay motionless on her back, the tail of her mohawk flattened against the plinth. The zebra's striped skin gleamed in the light, the oil making her stripes appear darker, the skin between them lighter.

"You're so pretty oiled up, Zecora!" Twilight drew a fingernail along the stripes patterning the other mare's smooth stomach, then let her fingers wander down between Zecora's parted thighs to gently caress her bare sex. "What do you have to tell me?" she breathed in anticipation. Her fingers touched here and here, setting Zecora into motion. At once, her hand snaked down between her legs and began grinding back and forth against her cunt, her hips slowly bucking against her hand. Her monotone couldn't entirely hide her accent. "Fuck my mind, this I pray. Control my thoughts, make me obey."

Sighing softly with enjoyment, Twilight leaned down and flicked her tongue over the golden ring piercing one stiffly jutting nipple, tasting metal, skin and musk. "So pretty," she murmured again. Her finger slid slowly around the golden circle as she straightened, glancing towards the next plinth.

The next one was the middle plinth of the middle row, the one in the centre of the room, and as soon as she thought that, she knew who lay there.

"Mmmm," hummed Twilight appreciatively as she drifted closer. Unlike the others, two bodies lay on the platform, intimately entwined. Princess Celestia lay on her back, wings half-spread and dangling over the sides of the plinth. Her pure white skin glistened wetly, her lips slightly parted and eyes empty in a blank expression. Atop her lay Princess Luna, her head resting over Celestia's left shoulder, her ass in the air and her soft breasts mashed against her sister's. Webbing around her waist supported a strap-on, the shaft buried in the mindless pony beneath her. Their billowing manes and tails mingled, shifting slowly through the air.

Her fingers sliding between her legs, Twilight walked slowly around the two, taking in the delicious sight from every angle. It was so hot, so sensually delicious. The wet sounds of her finger sliding in and out of her cunt were just audible over the murmur of monotone voices from the other slabs, each chanting their own degrading mantra.

With her free hand, Twilight smacked Luna's ass firmly, the crack of skin on skin echoing around the room. "What do you have to say, Princess?" she asked rhetorically. Taking a step towards the head of the slab, she touched Luna's forehead with one finger.

Without lifting her head, the Princess began to steadily chant, "I must fuck my sister. I must fuck my sister. I must fuck my sister."

Shivering with delight, Twilight agreed huskily, "Mm, you must." Her hand slid between the two oiled bodies, and her fingertips sought out the heart of each pony.

Luna stirred into motion at once, planting her hands either side of Celestia's head and pushing herself up. As she rose, the fat silver rings through her nipples came into view, chained to identical gold rings piercing her sister's, and the chains swayed and danced as Luna began thrusting forcefully into the unresisting pony beneath her.

Celestia's tits bounced upwards with every thrust, her body arching in a programmed loop of arousal and pleasure. The slap of skin on skin was as regular as a metronome, Luna's hips meeting Celestia's soft thighs over and over. With another touch, Celestia's soft lips parted, and she began to chant with thoughtless, monotone urgency, "Fuck my cunt. I am your whore. Fuck my cunt."

Twilight bit her lip, rubbing her wet fingers over her own nipples, and spreading the oily residue from their bodies across her tingling sex. "That's right, that's right... so delicious, so wrong..." Her body quivered as she leant against the side of the plinth, watching hungrily as Celestia's pretty pink cunt was spread wide by her sister's black shaft. "Use her. Fuck her senseless. Not that she isn't senseless already," Twilight added to herself, and giggled.

Spinning away from the two, Twilight skipped over to the next plinth, where the wine-coloured body of Cheerilee lay nude and spread-legged for Twilight's inspection. A double touch of her fingers, and Cheerilee reached down to spread her cunt with one hand, urging in the blank tone of the helplessly enthralled, "I'm your student. Teach me to obey."

Stars above, Cheerilee was gorgeous. They were all so sexy, so sensual, so beautiful in their brainwashed singular purpose. Barely pausing to bite the school teacher's rigid nipples, Twilight danced on to the end of the row, where the firm, nude body of Vinyl Scratch rested for her inspection. Unlike the others, she retained a little clothing - her ever-present purple glasses, and her heavy headphones.

Surveying the nude DJ, Twilight let a hot shudder ripple through her at the memory of being fucked by her. "I really had to enslave you," she told the unheeding pony. "You're just so fuckable, Vinyl." Vinyl was her slave... wasn't she? Twilight dismissed the stray thought, and reached out to touch the prone pony's forehead.

Nothing. Vinyl's lips didn't move.

A puzzled frown touched Twilight's face. Wasn't that how this worked? Bending over Vinyl's body, letting her bare tits drag pleasantly against the naked mare, she put her ear to Vinyl's lips and listened. Still nothing... but there was the faint sound of a voice coming from somewhere, wasn't there? Twilight pulled one headphone off Vinyl's head, and the sound became clearly audible. It was a mare's voice, half-familiar. "I'm Twilight's bitch. I'm her cunt-licking fucktoy. I live to obey Twilight."

Purring with satisfied delight, Twilight settled the headphones back in place over Vinyl's ears. "How perfect. That's the way you should be all the time. I wonder what you do-"

"Twilight."

Twilight's head lifted at the sound of Luna's stern tone, a puzzled frown on her face. Half turning, she saw Luna standing just behind her, fully clothed. That wasn't right. "You're wrong," she told the apparition.

"I do not wish to intrude, Twilight, but this-"

"You should be naked. Why aren't you doing what you're meant to be doing?" It was puzzling. This wasn't how things worked.

"I have seen what you believe I should be doing. Twilight, this is not-"

Obviously Luna wasn't working right. She could fix that. "Obey your Empress, and go do it, then."

Luna froze as Twilight started to speak, then her eyes rolled back. She vanished.

Twilight frowned again. Luna wasn't supposed to vanish. But then, as she looked past where she'd stood, Twilight saw that Luna was still relentlessly thrusting her strap-on into Celestia, so that was okay. Everypony was where they were supposed to be.

And Cadance should be here, for her to play with.

The pink alicorn lay on her back, body limp, her soft, full breasts rising and falling steadily with her breathing. She was soft and beautiful, her curves gentle, red-pink nipples stiffly inviting a touch. Her cunt was coated in a fine down of purple and white hair, soaked with enforced arousal. Her mane lay in loosely tumbled strands over the side of the plinth she rested on. Glazed eyes saw nothing, gazing blankly at the ceiling.

Almost tiptoeing, without quite knowing why, Twilight approached her. Delicately, her fingers slid over Cadance's inner thigh, luxuriating in the soft, silken warmth of her skin, working slowly up to brush against the molten heat of her cunt. "Oh, Cadance. You're so wet for me. You feel so nice. I could lick your pretty cunt all day. Or I could make you do the same for me." Twilight giggled to herself. She should have pierced Cadance's nipples, like the other Princesses. But what colour? Celestia was gold, Luna was silver... rose gold, a nice reddish gold.

Cadance's nipples were pierced, with thick rose-gold rings, a golden lock in the shape of a heart dangling from each.

Leaning down over her body, Twilight curled her tongue around the lock and drew it into her mouth, tugging Cadance's nipple playfully. "So cute. Talk to me, Princess." She touched Cadance's face, just below her horn.

"I adore you. I need you. I must obey. I adore you. I need you. I must obey."

"That's right," cooed Twilight, kissing Cadance's unheeding lips as the enthralled pony continued to chant. A faint puzzled expression touched Twilight's face for a moment - briefly bothered by the sense she was forgetting something - then disappeared as the thought drifted away. Playfully flicking one of the locks decorating Cadance's firm tits, Twilight glanced down the row at the remaining four plinths. Three of them were empty, ready for her to choose who should lie there, but one more held a naked, brainwashed fucktoy ready for Twilight's attention. A very special fucktoy.

"Oh my goodness," she murmured reverentially. How could she have forgotten this slave? Slowly, step by step, she approached the pedestal.

An off-white mare lay there, her two-toned purple and white mane done up neatly. Her breasts were full and soft, tipped by purple nipples, and despite the subtle marks of middle age, she was still quite lovely. Her pussy was untrimmed, tiny droplets of wetness gleaming there that could have been the oil that made her skin malleable and slippery, or could have been programmed arousal.

Softly, gently, Twilight's fingers curled around the prone mare's breasts, and lifted them in both hands. Crushing them together, she began rubbing the slippery curves against each other, fanning her fingers over the older mare's nipples. Breath catching, Twilight moved to the foot of the plinth and crawled up on top of it, her shiny boots creaking with each movement. Her bare breasts trailed over the slickly shiny body beneath her, growing damp with oil, until she came to rest straddling the mindless pony. Her tits slid and brushed against the other mare's larger breasts, nipples brushing in tiny collisions that sent sparks up Twilight's spine. Her tail lifted, hips shifting slowly side to side.

"That's right," Twilight murmured to herself, gazing down into the other pony's glazed, blank eyes. "Anything I want should be mine. It's hot to make ponies do things they'd never do. It's hot to make them wet and horny and submissive for me. Isn't that right?" She leant down and kissed the prone mare's forehead.

"I am my daughter's slut," Twilight Velvet responded at once. "I am her whore. Anything she commands. I am my daughter's slut."

"Yes," hissed Twilight, leaning down. Her mouth covered her mother's, muffling her slave-chant, and Twilight's tongue pushed into her slave's mouth. Her violet hips shifted more urgently, grinding her stockinged thighs against each other, molten sex tingling in the cool air. Pushing her body down harder, Twilight mashed her tits against her mother's, luxuriating in the slippery heat of their bodies rubbing against each other. She must have pushed against just the right spot, because Twilight Velvet suddenly began to move, a hand snaking between their bodies and working roughly at her own cunt as she fingered herself and pinched her nipples. Groaning in delight at the new sensation of rubbing her tingling cunt against the back of her mother's busy hand, Twilight urgently thrust her hips back and forth, the sound of myriad slaves reciting their mantras as they touched themselves filling the room.

It felt so good, so right, every perversion hotter than the last, filling her with hungry lust for more, for-

Twilight woke abruptly, her nose stinging, and Trixie's elbow in her face. Her sheets were twisted around her, damp with perspiration, and her body was embarrassingly tingly with arousal. The room was completely dark, silent other than Trixie's gentle snore.

Carefully pushing her slave's arm out of the way, Twilight untangled herself from her sheets and wriggled away a little across the vast expanse of her canopied bed, the fading tendrils of her dream still clinging to her thoughts. Already it was becoming vaguer, less clear, but it was impossible not to remember what she'd been doing. A dark blush of embarrassment coloured her cheeks.

Her mother?

It wasn't like most of her dream wasn't, well, accurate, to her desires and the things she wanted... she loved having her friends entranced, loved making them into pliable dolls, and the same went for Celestia and Luna. She'd thought a lot about whether she could seduce Vinyl or Cheerilee, or Nurse Redheart... she was kind of trying to seduce Diorite, even now. As for Cadance, she was her brother's wife, and that was the end of that, but she couldn't help the way her imagination strayed, sometimes...

Twilight slowly ran her hands over her body, and was vaguely surprised to find that she wasn't oily, the lingering remnant of the dream tricking her into expecting slickness under her fingers.

But the last part of her dream, that was just crazy. That was ridiculous. At least nopony would ever have to know. She probably couldn't look Celestia in the face if she'd ever learned about that.

How about Luna?

Twilight froze at the thought, memory flooding back. Luna had been there, not doing what she'd been told, not fitting in with the strange unlogic of the dream. Surely she hadn't...

Surely it hadn't been...

Her heart was thumping in her chest, her skin prickling. There was no way she could wait until morning; she had to go and find out for sure. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Twilight eased her bare feet down to the floor and rose. Trixie turned over, muttering an incoherent sound in her sleep.

So. Where to check first? Luna's room? Or... Celestia's?

Better check the worst case first. She could get there by secret passages, but even so, she couldn't quite bring herself to venture out of her room stark naked, so she crept over to the elaborate wardrobe in the corner. The door creaked softly as she opened it. Celestia had provided her with a collection of lacy undergarments to fit her new body, and so the first pair of panties she found were white, trimmed with delicate ruffles. She slipped them on, then tugged a translucent white nightgown over the top.

That would have to do. Hurrying over to the secret door, she released the catch with a metallic click.

"...Twilight?" murmured Trixie behind her, voice thick with sleep.

Freezing in her tracks, Twilight replied quickly, "I'm just stepping out for a few minutes. Go back to sleep, Trixie."

"...mmh. Okay."

Shutting the panel behind her, Twilight headed off towards Celestia's suite of rooms, bare feet padding softly against the flagstones. She was worrying over nothing, she reassured herself. She had had a kind of elaborate sex dream, that's all, and while it had gone to a kind of weird place in the end, that didn't mean anything. Nothing was wrong.

She moved a little faster.

The passageways weren't lit, light leaking out of hidden seams and cracks being a risk to betray the existence of the secret ways, so she moved in the pearly, fluctuating glow of her own horn light. At least if that got out of hand, it wasn't going to hurt anypony. The way to Celestia's bed chamber was increasingly familiar - how that thought would have made her blush and stammer, such a short time ago! - and it didn't take her long to find her way to the carefully sealed and warded entrances to the Princess's suite.

There were voices coming from Celestia's chamber. Heart sinking, Twilight fumbled at the wards with her magic, slipping and catching, before she managed to control herself enough to properly unlock the seals. Without stopping to try opening any of the observation holes, she shoved the secret doorway open with both hands, and lurched out into the room.

There was the sound of quick, heavy breathing, of muffled, ragged groans. And a voice, repeating with monotone urgency, "I must fuck my sister. I must fuck my sister."

The chamber door was flung wide, letting in a spill of light from the softly lit room beyond, illuminating the scene. Celestia's bed was in total disarray, the embroidered quilts tangled and tumbled off the sides.

Princess Celestia was pinned face down on the bed, held by an iron grip at the back of her neck, nightgown rucked around her hips and her generous ass in the air. Luna held her down, stark naked but for the webbing of the black strap-on she was vigorously thrusting into her captive sister's cunt, her entire being absorbed in the total, absolute focus on her task.

Celestia's cheeks were crimson, her fingers digging roughly into the tangled sheets, thrusting herself back against each movement of the shaft within her. Her dazed eyes focused on Twilight as the secret door revealed her, and she panted, "I imagine this was - your idea, Empress."

"I - I dreamed this, I didn't mean to make her really do it," stammered Twilight, unable to take her eyes off the spectacle.

"So Luna got caught up - oh! - in your dreams, and - hng! - was ordered to do this - mmph! - by accident? I will have to - to have her take more care," managed Celestia, her legendary composure cracking with every urgent thrust of Luna's hips.

Twilight didn't respond, riveted to the sight. Luna's gaze was fixed on Celestia's upturned ass, her lips shaping themselves thoughtlessly around the mantra that completely occupied her mind. Her midnight blue body glistened in the dim light with a faint sheen of perspiration, her proud breasts bouncing with each sharp, mechanically repetitive movement of her hips. Her dark hand dug into Celestia's thigh, fingers indenting and possessing the golden sunburst there, and her grip on her sister's neck conveyed a simple, brutal intensity of purpose that was breathtaking. Her hips slapped against Celestia's pale ass in a steady, unrelenting rhythm that matched Twilight's short breaths.

Eyes mostly closed, Celestia managed to ask with a semblance of normality, "Aren't you going to stop her?"

Look at her, Twilight's inner thoughts whispered. Look at her eyes. Her lips. Celestia's eyelids fluttered with each thrust, her body leaning back against the shaft in her. Her soft, full lips quivered, pressing together to suppress the groans trying to escape. The scent of desire perfumed the air.

"You're enjoying this," Twilight whispered.

"This was - was a mistake, wasn't it?" Celestia panted. "You should stop it."

"You're embarrassed. You love this. You love being taken, being fucked this roughly by somepony that doesn't care at all about your pleasure. You're being used." Every word Twilight spoke grew throatier, richer in lust and desire as she saw the answering truth on Celestia's face, spurring her on. "You're a... a hot, wet cunt to fuck. You can't persuade her to stop, but you haven't even tried, have you. She threw open the door, naked, already chanting, and she pinned you down, and you loved every second of it."

"I have no reason to be embarrassed," Celestia breathed, shaking her head slightly. Her fingers clawed deeper into the sheets.

"Yes, you do. Being embarrassed is part of it. It turns you on more. You always have to be so demure, so controlled in public, and you dream of being exposed." She felt her nipples ache with tingling stiffness, and knew they were clearly visible beneath her translucent white nightgown for Celestia to see. "But it's more than that. It's Luna. It's your beautiful, loving little sister, fucking you senseless. That makes you so horny. It's what you've wanted for such a long time."

"Twilight-"

"Do you want her to stop?" Twilight spoke the words with a lustful intensity that lit her eyes with a hungry light, in a tone that brooked no prevarication.

Celestia buried her face in the tangled blankets beneath her, back arching, her wings jerkily fluttering half-extended.

"Refusing to answer your Empress? That's very bad behaviour." Twilight gazed intently at Celestia, her horn lighting with magic. Thin golden ropes bound the drapes around Celestia's vast bed; one of them stirred, and softly, delicately, came untied. It drifted through the air, and settled in Twilight's open hand.

"You mislead me sometimes, but you try not to lie to me. So when you don't want to confess, and you can't think of a way to talk around it, all of a sudden you're quiet. But you've lied to me many times. Lies of omission still count. So how do I stop your silence from being a lie, Celestia? Look at me."

There was just a trace, the tiniest trace, of anger deep down in her, in the knowledge that she'd been manipulated and shaped all her life. It added an extra sharpness to the swelling sadistic pleasure growing within her, the hot, hard dominance that ached to squeeze Celestia's naked throat. To own the divine pony, utterly. She waited until Celestia slowly lifted her head, until the Princess's wide eyes were on her, before she slid her hands under her nightgown. Her fingertips slipped into the waistband of her white panties, damp against her skin, and slowly worked them down her thighs.

With an imperceptible whisper of cloth, the damp twist of white lace hit the ground. Twilight stepped out of her panties, and with the merest flick of her horn, they floated into her free hand. "Open."

Celestia's lips parted wordlessly, her eyes widening, and her gaze flicked up to Twilight's face before focusing on the tiny white bundle in her hand. Inhaling shakily, she passively let her former student force the scented fabric between her full lips. Twilight's agile fingers wound the golden cord around Celestia's head, parting her lips like a bit gag and pinning the fabric in place.

Shuddering excitement made Twilight's fingers tremble as she did up the knot, unable to stop staring at the degradation she'd forced upon her teacher and mentor. "Now your silence is my silence," she breathed huskily. A touch of coolness on her thighs betrayed the wetness between her legs, her whole body feeling tight and hot. In a sudden, abrupt movement, she pulled her nightgown off over her head, mussing her mane and catching briefly on her wings. Her hands swept over her bare breasts, cradling them and pushing them together.

"Celestia, I told you to look at me," Twilight breathed more softly as Celestia's eyes unfocused, half-lidded. "I want you to see me. The student you raised. You taught me to be strong. You taught me to care. You worked so hard to manoeuvre me into becoming an alicorn... you seeded these desires in me. You made me, to do this to you. Are you happy with the pony you made? Because now I'm here, and I have things I want, too."

Twilight's head lifted, and in her voice was the sudden lash of command. "Luna. Don't stop chanting. Turn this slave over and rip her nightgown off."

The metronome movement of Luna's hips slammed to a halt, and she shifted her grip, pulling hard on Celestia's shoulder. The gagged Princess gave a muffled gasp, yanked over and onto her back, the shaft slipping free of her pink, flushed cunt. She lifted her hands slightly, as if to fend off Luna, then shuddered and let them fall to the bed as her brainwashed sister seized double handfuls of her delicate nightgown and ripped it asunder, baring her milk-white body and huge, heaving tits.

Twilight seized one of the overstuffed pillows from the head of the bed and circled to Luna's side. Her hand ran down the Princess's bare back as she ordered, "Pull her hips to the edge of the bed, and prop this under her ass." The pillow floated from Twilight's hands in a nimbus of blue power, then was pushed forcefully under Celestia's ass as Luna effortlessly lifted her legs into the air and spread them wide. Celestia's cunt parted like a flower, bare and glistening, completely exposed.

"That's so pretty," murmured Twilight. "It's not fair. Every part of you is beautiful." Taking the base of Luna's jutting shaft in her hand, she carefully guided the tip of the wet toy back to the entrance of the helpless mare's pussy. Looking along the length of Celestia's body, her purple eyes bright and gleaming, she ordered, "Fuck her."

"Mrhnng!" Celestia moaned wordlessly into her gag, back arching into a taut curve, her nails digging into her palms as Luna rammed the shaft home. Her face burnt with crimson humiliation, guttural groans escaping her parted lips.

Twilight crawled up onto the bed beside her, leaning down to speak softly, intensely. "I'm watching you get fucked, Princess. I'm watching you writhe, and arch, the way your hips keep bucking against the shaft in your cunt. Your student, seeing you at your most depraved. Your student, learning to love the way these big, round tits jiggle every time Luna slams that toy into you. I pictured this. I wanted this. Think what your guards would think of you, if they saw your eager pussy spread around your sister's cock. You'd be so ashamed. So humiliated. So humiliated that you might cum just from feeling them looking at you."

Celestia's eyes rolled up briefly, with a thick, unintelligible slur of pleasured moans and attempts at words muffled by the panties bound in her mouth. Her breathing was a heavy rasp through her nostrils, her hands clenched at her sides.

"I could do that. I could show you off. Put you under a disguise spell, or make them forget what they'd seen. Do you remember how you felt when Rainbow was looking at you, when she'd forgotten who she was? How dirty you felt? How exposed?" The words spilled out of Twilight, each striking home like a flick to Celestia's clit, forcing short, sharp gasps from her divine captive.

In one decisive moment, Twilight swung her leg over the prone pony and straddled Celestia's stomach, planting her hands on the Princess's heaving breasts. Grinding her bare cunt against the other mare's silken skin with an urgency verging on desperation, Twilight caught Celestia's jutting pink nipples between her fingers and twisted.

"Mmrrgh!" Celestia bucked beneath Twilight, thrusting her hips back and forth with delirious need, eyes wide and staring. Her mane tossed and danced, her hands twisting into the sheets before she abruptly reached up for Twilight, seizing her former student's slim hips.

"Bad pony!" Twilight gasped, drawing back her hand and laying a stinging smack on Celestia's full, tender breasts, without trying to move Celestia's hands off her body.

A reddened handprint darkening on the perfect canvas of her chest, her hips moving forcefully, Celestia shuddered on the verge of a crashing orgasm. Eyes squeezing closed, she trembled with the force of her desire.

"You can't cum."

Celestia's eyes snapped open and stared at Twilight with horrified pleading, her face contorting around the gag. Twilight giggled aloud, a breathy, panting sound of sadistic amusement.

"Now you're being honest with me. It's okay, though," Twilight told her. "If you want to cum, all you have to do is make me cum first. Ooohh." Twilight closed her eyes, kneading handfuls of the older mare's tits as Celestia's slim hand delved under her and began rubbing her clit, the other cupping her ass and urging her to grind more roughly. Luna's brainwashed chant filled her ears, underscored by the heady scent of female arousal. "Oh, yes," she sighed breathily. "More... that's right. That's right..."

She felt dizzy; gloriously dizzy, as though the world spun around her and she was its axis, skilled fingers driving her ever-closer to her final surrender to the delicious tide rising within her, drowning her thoughts, obliterating everything. She was pleasure and triumph incarnate, she was lust and light, and she was cumming, cumming...

When her wits returned to her, Twilight was face down, slumped against Celestia's chest and shoulder. The Princess was breathing deeply through her nose, and Luna's steady chanting matched the rhythm that was gently rocking Twilight back and forth.

Awareness hit home like a sack of rocks. "Oh my gosh! I left you gagged!" Pushing herself up, Twilight propped herself on one arm while she hurriedly tugged the knot loose, pulling the rope from between Celestia's lips and plucking the sodden white fabric out of her mouth. Without looking around, she added hastily, "Luna, stop! Back away a step and wait for instructions."

Celestia panted for breath as the gag came free, licking her dry lips. A short, sharp gasp escaped her as Luna pulled out of her in one movement. The rope had left patterned indentations at the corners of her mouth, oddly pretty and delicately symmetrical, and her eyes were slow to focus again. "...thank you, Empress. You know me very well."

"That was amazing. But-" Glancing over her shoulder at Luna's motionless figure, Twilight asked softly, "Do you think - did I go too far?"

Shaking her head once, Celestia replied with quiet sincerity, "No, Twilight. Certainly, you have not offended or hurt me in any way. That felt... wonderful. Everything about it was wonderful."

"But what about Luna? Will she be upset that this happened by mistake? Is she going to be sore from all the-" Twilight stumbled for a moment, finding it far, far easier to be embarrassed in the aftermath, "-the sex?" Wriggling down Celestia's body, Twilight shifted to lie against her side, head on Celestia's chest.

Nodding once, Celestia sighed, "It may trouble her that she was caught by surprise in your dream. I will speak with her, and make her understand that I was not troubled by the way she came to me."

"I could... make her less likely to be upset...?" Twilight murmured the question, tentative. It seemed like the easy way out. But the easy way wasn't always the wrong way.

Celestia remained quiet for a moment, her hand rising to gently stroke the back of Twilight's head. "If you do, let her know that you have. Make the memories less intrusive, if you do anything at all."

"...okay. Princess Luna? Please lie down beside us, and hug me?"

"I shall lie down and hug thee," the enthralled mare replied with perfect calm, stepping forward and climbing onto the bed.

Twilight closed her eyes as the warmth of a second body snuggled up behind her, an arm wrapping around her stomach. It was comforting. She was going to have to word the commands very carefully, and ask Celestia to write them down, too. So, she shouldn't hide the memories, just diminish their emotional impact. Maybe let Luna decide to remove the block, if she wanted to, as well...

"Twilight," Celestia said softly. She paused, gazing at the young mare curled up against her, her eyes narrowing in thought, before she finally murmured, "I was very impressed by the spell the two of you constructed, today. You may one day discover entirely new principles of magic. I want you to know I'm proud."

Twilight's lips parted wordlessly. A surge of emotion overwhelmed her, tears springing to her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around Celestia, holding on tight. "Sometimes - sometimes I forget just how much your approval means to me," she murmured softly. Not just Celestia's approval. Luna's, too.

Her fears for Luna's happiness, the fear that she wouldn't be okay with what had just happened - it was a selfish fear. It was wrong to try to tamper with how she felt. "Luna?" Twilight said softly, without looking around. "I'm sorry about what I was thinking of doing. I hope you aren't upset that I didn't wake you right away, even though I didn't ask you first, and it wasn't meant to happen. I'd like you to remember all of this, okay? So... I am satisfied."

A small jerk ran through Luna as the trance released her, whether of surprise or something else, Twilight couldn't say. Rigid with nervous anticipation, Twilight waited for her first conscious words.

Luna's arms tightened around Twilight, squeezing her close. Her lips came to rest against Twilight's mane. "Thank you. For not doing what you considered."

Celestia looked over Twilight's head at her sister. Her gentle voice deepening a little, she asked almost diffidently, "Are you well?"

"Yes, sister. I am well. I shall speak more upon this, later, but for now -" A shimmering blue glow spread over the rumpled blankets, lifting them into the air and spreading them out. Pillows straightened, fluffing themselves as they settled back into place, and the sheets beneath them smoothed. Like a cloud coming to rest, the warm covers settled over them. "For now, I shall lie with the two whom I care for more than any other in this world, and be content."

This was more than she could have ever deserved, Twilight thought quietly, in the silence of her mind. Little by little, she surrendered her wakefulness, sinking slowly through the veil into sleep once more.

The last thing to go was the fear that after what she'd done, the mistakes she'd made, this couldn't last.

Author's Notes:

Uh oh.

-
Proofed by Djmill