Celestia was tired.

Laying naked on her soft comfortable bed, the tall white skinned woman felt the duvet beneath her and she sighed. It was a very long, very drawn out sigh. Without really seeing, she looked up at the ceiling of her bedroom. She paid no heed to the lengthening shadows that crept over the walls signifying the oncoming evening with the lowering of the sun.

Just like she paid no heed to the state of her room. Clothes, both washed and unwashed, were left in growing piles where they lay on her dresser and on her floor. She saw no need to move them. It wasn’t as if anyone but her ever came in here anyway. Several cold cups of jasmine tea stood forgotten on her nightstand beside the bed. The oldest of which had mold on its surface.

She cared about this as much as she cared about the dirty clothes spilling over her floor. There were paths tracked where she could get out to the bathroom, so she wasn’t much bothered. What did it matter, if she was the only one to see it?

She was so very tired.

Having just bathed, her skin was ever so slightly damp, making the fifty year old principal shiver. She didn’t really care about that. Just like she didn’t care about her long pastel coloured hair as it lay hastily brushed around her like an unruly pink, blue and green mane.

Celestia yawned, but otherwise she lay unmoving on her bed. ‘I should get up,’ she thought lazily to herself. Still, she didn’t move. ‘What’s the point? I’ll just lay here.’ She supposed she should get dressed, but she couldn’t be bothered to do that either. It was only the two of them, her sister and herself, in the house they shared and they’d seen each other naked enough times.

‘Cheerilee isn’t due over tonight, though Lulu might invite her anyway,’ Celestia thought, still not urged to move. Even if her sister did get her girlfriend over she doubted she’d do more than don a bathrobe, if she left her bedroom at all.

Celestia was so tired. She wasn’t just tired. She was worn out, exhausted. She was at the end of a very long, much frayed rope. This past year had been…well, it had been…she didn’t have words to adequately describe what this year had been. Fiasco sprung to her mind. ‘Although; disaster, catastrophe, shambles, debacle or mess would suffice too,’ she thought without a trace of outward emotion on her face other than a twitch of her left eye.

She found she was doing that a lot recently, twitching her left eye, whenever she thought about the past year. Quickly she ran through them in her tired mind. ‘Sunset Shimmer bullying the whole school, Sunset Shimmer turning into a raging she-demon and brainwashing said school. Having to acknowledge and accept the existence of a parallel world full of magic ponies…’ Celestia sighed internally for what felt like the millionth time as she carried on her mental checklist. ‘Then there was the Musical Showcase, the Sirens, being brainwashed…again, more magical nonsense…’

Celestia knew this was why she felt so tired and worn out. After all that there was the Friendship Games with Crystal Prep Academy. She had hoped with the start of the games that all the magic malarkey was over. ‘Ha! Fat chance…’ she thought miserably. If anything there had been more. As well as another she-demon, portals opening everywhere and worst of all, her.

Celestia shuddered at the thought of Abacus Cinch. A shudder that had nothing whatever to do with how cold she felt. The other magical instances had at least happened at her school, with just her students. Now, a whole other school had witnessed it all as well.

Again, Celestia sighed. Cadance may have taken over as temporary principal of Crystal Prep – a definite improvement in her opinion, but that didn’t stop Cinch reporting Canterlot High and its students to every single government body she could think of.

Between trying to keep a lid on all the otherworldly magical…nonsense and placating the school board, the police, national guard, the welfare committee and heaven knows what other agency would come knocking next, it was no wonder Celestia felt as wrung out as she did.

Not that anyone cared about her feelings on that one. ‘No,’ she thought somewhat bitterly, ‘the Rainbooms get all the thanks and the adoration from the students, I get to fend off the school board.’ Idly she wondered that she’d rather face the she-demons. ‘Less bloodthirsty, anyway,’ she thought, which did succeed in raising a small smile.

Luna hadn’t helped either. Not in the slightest.

Her sister’s solution to her stress was to book her into a course of deep tissue massages at the day spa. That hadn’t helped, despite Lotus and Aloe’s very best efforts she was still knotted up six ways to Sunday. Her next idea had been to prank her in an effort to make her smile and relieve tension that way.

That had gone well.

Luna, possessing exactly zero skill in the kitchen, had gotten Cheerilee to bake her a cake. A triple layered chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce and frosting. It had been the best, and it had certainly lifted Celestia’s spirits just a little, until it had exploded all over her in what was surely a hilarious ‘joke’ the two lovebirds had cooked up. Literally.

‘That’s why I had to use Luna’s bathroom,’ Celestia thought glumly on her bed, still staring intently at her now darkened ceiling. Celestia didn’t like her sister’s bathroom. ‘Who the hell has a mirrored ceiling in their bathroom anyway?’ she thought miserably. The answer was Luna, obviously. ‘Why? Why of all things, a mirrored ceiling in the bathroom?’ she knew exactly why, and that just made her blush horribly.

‘Yeah…that’s why.’ At least, Cheerilee didn’t seem to mind the mirrored ceiling.

‘At least they have the bodies for mirrored ceilings…’ Celestia thought despondently, resenting the fact that at thirty eight and thirty five respectively, Luna and Cheerilee had very nice, slim, perky and disgustingly slim toned bodies whereas she, at fifty, did not. Looking back at her from the mirrored ceiling – why, again? – was a lived in body with the beginnings of a pot belly that refused to go away no matter how hard she exercised, things drooping and expanding in places where they shouldn’t and the worst thing, the absolute worst thing, wrinkles on her face and grey streaks in her hair.

Celestia sighed.

Between the Fall Formal, the Musical Showcase / Battle of the Bands, the Friendship Games, Equestria, the school board, the government, her sister, her girlfriend and the fact that she hadn’t gotten laid properly in over ten years while Luna was at it like the proverbial rabbit, she was feeling very tired indeed.

So very, very tired and worn out.

‘Old.’ She thought morosely as she yawned, on the way to a restless sleep. ‘I feel old, worn out, fol-de-rol…’ it wasn’t long afterwards, with that thought playing around in her head, along with taunting thoughts of she-demons and Sirens, Celestia drifted into sleep.

~ ~ ~

Luna sat perched on her chair in her playroom, taking a moment to enjoy the sight before her. Cheerilee, her Cheerilee, kneeling before her on the six foot by four foot blue rubber mat. It was always a sight she enjoyed and she doubted she’d ever get tired of it. Especially not tonight. No, tonight was the first night of the summer holidays and she meant to enjoy them.

Cheerilee, for her part, couldn't see the excited look on her Mistress’s face due to the thick blindfold covering her eyes. She hadn't been expecting Luna to call tonight. She had hoped to get her marking out of the way and then enjoy the school holidays. As such, unprepared, she had been late showing up at Luna’s place.

That was naughty of her. Cheerilee liked being naughty, for the most part. It meant her Mistress would play with her. The thought made her smile in spite of her nervousness. As if her Luna needed an excuse to play with her.

Luna knew just how to play with her pet, too. She knew just what Cheerilee liked. Making her wait just a little longer – she knew the anticipation was unbearable – Luna cleared her throat loudly, louder than was necessary to get her pet’s attention. Cheerilee lifted up her head from her chest at the sound but she remained silent. She knew better than to speak without permission once the game had begun.

The minute she had crossed the threshold of her Mistress’s house and she had buckled the midnight blue collar around her fuchsia neck the game had begun. After so long together there was no time wasted on build up.

Luna slipped off her heeled shoe and ran her bare right foot slowly, teasingly up and down Cheerilee’s thigh. She of course knew about her pet’s propensity for feet, she could understand and see the appeal though she didn’t share the kink to the same level. Still, there was something unspeakably satisfying about having her lover under the soles of her feet, and Cheerilee did make an excellent foot stool.

Luna especially enjoyed the silent wordless moan her pet was making at the slightest touch of her toes on her upper thigh. She had dressed as ordered too, tight white tee shirt, yellow mini skirt and no shoes. Her per deserved a reward, even if she had kept her waiting. Then again, Luna had called her at the last minute for a reason…

Deciding she’d teased her pet enough, Luna tip-toed her right foot up Cheerilee’s body and tapped her nose with her toes. “Leelee, open your legs.” She commanded simply, affecting her best authoritative ‘vice-principal’ voice. Nodding silently, Cheerilee blushed a little at the use of her pet name as she obediently spread her thighs apart. She felt her short skirt ride up and expose her white cotton panties.

“That’s a good pet.” Luna smiled approvingly at how fast she had been obeyed. She liked that about Cheerilee. Always quick to do as she was told. Unless she was being naughty on purpose. She tapped her pet’s nose once more with her toes and she smiled as she started to lay delicate little kisses all up the sole of her foot. While Cheerilee did that, Luna kicked off her other shoe and gently stroked the bridge of it between the kneeling woman’s legs.

‘I couldn’t do this without my feet,’ Luna thought as her blindfolded pet attempted to hump her left foot. ‘She's obsessed with feet, she always has been. She's so…reserved, otherwise.’ Still, she couldn’t just allow her to hump her foot like that, not with how wet and see through her underwear had become in just a few moments. “Leelee, panties!”

As she was commanded, Cheerilee lowered her left hand and pulled aside her sodden panties. Luna then swapped her feet, choosing to offer up the one coated in her pet’s own juices to her mouth while she used the big toe of her other foot to flick and rub her exposed clitoris.

“Mmmm!” Cheerilee moaned. Unbidden though it was she couldn’t stop herself. She was tongue washing her Mistress’s foot while the other now brushed along the length of her slit. As she had three toes in her mouth sucking and tasting Luna’s heavenly sweaty taste, she had her labia spread apart by the foot she’d just kissed.

Cheerilee let out another loud squeak as the big toe and the one next to it entered her sopping wet pussy. She did however manage to control herself when she felt the foot pull out and plunge back, going deeper inside her this time. She knew what her Mistress expected, and she started to buck her hips. She knew Luna liked to watch her hump herself silly on her foot. "Pet! Harder!"

At Luna’s command, Cheerilee bucked her hips downwards and she humped herself harder, even managing to get all the toes of her Mistress’s foot deep in her dripping pussy. "Breasts!” Luna commanded sharply. “Now, pet." Obligingly the fuchsia submissive used her free right hand to yank up the hem of her tight white tee, exposing her pert breasts which, Luna was pleased to see, where not constrained in a bra.

“Mistress...” Cheerilee moaned, her toes curling underneath her a sure fire sign that she was close, as her owner teased her breasts with her foot, tweaking the hard nipples between her skilful toes. “AAaaAAAAH...aaaaaah please, please can I cum?”

Luna smirked. She loved her pet’s obedient silence, but she loved to hear her beg as well. “Not yet my pet, take my foot deeper first!” Immediately Cheerilee did as she was told, she spread her knees as far apart on the rubber mat as she could physically manage, sinking right down on Luna's foot just as her nipples were squeezed hard between her toes. “AAAaaaAAH!” she pulled off of the toes in her mouth to let loose the throaty scream. “I love your feet, Mistress!”

“What do you love, pet?” Luna asked with a teasing smile in her voice. She was grateful, not for the first time that her sister’s bedroom was at the opposite end of their house. Still, she fancied Celestia could hear them playing.

“Nggh…MMmmMMM I love kissing them, I love licking them!” Cheerilee panted breathlessly, hovering on the verge of her climax. “MMMM! I love licking the sweat and cum from your perfect feet, Mistress!”

So very proud of her lover, her soulmate and her pet, Luna nodded even though she was blindfolded. “You may cum, my lovely pet.”

“AAaaaAAAAA YEEEEEEES!” Cheerilee screamed as she came, squirting all over her Mistress’s foot and the rubber mat while Luna lightly smacked her breasts with the sole of her other foot.

Luna enjoyed the view as her pet slowly came down from her climax. When she opened her eyes, the vice-principal tutted. “Tsk, tsk Leelee, you went and made an awful mess.” To accentuate her point, Luna swirled her toes in the pool of cum spreading out on the mat around her pet’s knees. “Please clean it up. Now.”

Luna felt such a wave of pride and love for her submissive girlfriend as without question she got her face down onto the rubber mat and started to lick it clean. She was in no doubt she’d do it even from the floor, but there was no need to test that theory. She knew her Leelee worshipped her. “MMmmm that’s good, pet,” Luna breathed when the mat was clean, “But you were a naughty pet weren’t you? Making me wait like that. Now, panties off, turn around and bend over.”

Obediently, Cheerilee stood up just long enough to shimmy her wet panties down to the mat and as she stepped out of them she turned her back to her lover and knelt blindly back down, her knees spread wide and – with the yellow mini skirt doing nothing to cover her – she held her now naked ass high in the air facing towards her Mistress.

Slowly, torturously slowly, Luna ran the bridge of her foot along Cheerilee's crotch, keeping her subdued and bent over with her other foot on the small of her back. “Were you naughty, Leelee?”

“Yes Mistress!”

Luna stroked her foot harder now, grinding the bridge into Cheerilee’s pussy. “What did you do?”

“I was late Mistress. I kept you waiting.” Cheerilee’s face burned with a fierce blush. She knew there was nothing she could’ve done about getting here sooner, but she wasn’t about to argue. A good pet is ready for her Mistress at all times. That was the rule and this was the game. And she liked how they played.

“You are a very naughty pet!” Luna barked, fully immersed in her role. She knew how her lover liked to be punished, with the very feet that gave her pleasure. Lifting up her left foot, Luna brought it down as hard as she could to spank her perfect round ass cheeks. “I want you to count, Leelee.”

“One,” Cheerilee gasped as pain flourished across her raised butt. “One, Mistress!”

“Very good. Keep count now, pet.” Luna’s voice was even as she raised her other foot and landed a firm slap on her pet’s other cheek.

“Two, Mistress!” Cheerilee squeaked into the mat. She could feel her ass already start to sting.

“Hmm...” Luna pretended to think aloud. “Let’s see if we can go all the way to ten today, Leelee.” As Cheerilee quivered silently into the rubber mat, Luna deftly landed two swift glancing spanks on both of her reddening ass cheeks.

“Three...f-four...AAaaaAAAAH!” Cheerilee squealed in pain, her reddened ass getting a much darker shade, welts and bruises starting to appear. “F-FiiiIIIiiIIIIVE! S-SIX!”

As soon as she said ‘six’, Luna raised up both of her feet together and she placed a very hard spank on both of her pet’s bruised cheeks. “SEEEEEVEN!” Cheerilee screamed a very real scream as her girlfriend hit two spots already hurting. “AaaaAAAA FUUUUUCK! EEEEEEIGHT!”

“Mmmm…” Luna murmured, using the sound to mask the fact she was looking over her pet’s tenderised behind. She knew how far to push her, and she knew she wouldn’t take much more of this. She also knew her pet liked to push herself to please her. ‘Just a couple more, then we can snuggle.’ “We're nearly there now, pet.”

Changing it up, Luna unexpectedly dropped her left foot to rest on the mat between her pet’s spread open legs and, bringing it up sharply, unexpectedly, earning herself a satisfyingly wet smacking sound as she kicked Cheerilee’s pussy hard. “GaaaaAAAAH!” Blindfolded, Cheerilee never saw the kick coming. Her dark world erupted in pain from her abused groin. She kicked her legs on the mat and pounded it with her balled up hands. OOoooOW OOOOW! OOooOOOW!” she wailed, clutching her hands to her sopping wet crotch.

Luna watched her lover’s reaction carefully, gauging how far to go next. She noted, with a wry smile, her pet hadn’t counted the last number. “Number, pet!” she demanded firmly when she was sure she was in a fit state to continue.

“AAAAH...OOW!” Cheerilee moaned, still not letting go of her crotch. She could feel her labia swelling with blood from the force of the kick she had received. “Pleeeeeeease Mistress!” while she had discussed with Luna about going this far before, it had still been a damn shock when she couldn’t see it coming.

Luna ignored her whimpering pleas. “I said number, pet!”

“AAH...I...I d-don't kn-know!” this much was definitely true. With all the pain she was currently experiencing, Cheerilee had completely lost count. She wouldn’t even know what number to guess.

“Then we start over from one.” Luna said simply as she rested her foot back at Cheerilee's crotch, readying another kick.

“N-No M-Mistress pleeease no!”

“Ready pet, from one.” Luna smiled. She knew her lover would use her safeword if things got too much. She had a hunch though she wouldn’t be long, if her body language was anything to go by. Teasingly she rubbed her foot along her pet’s puffy labia and menacingly she dropped her foot.

Cheerilee didn’t hesitate. As soon as Luna lowered her foot she knew she’d had enough. The pain wasn’t fun anymore. She knew what to do, what she had to do. “Daffodils!” she called out clearly, making sure she was heard.

Luna was ready for the safeword. As soon as the first part of the word left her pet's lips she was off her chair and on her knees beside her on the mat. A second later and she had the tear stained blindfold removed and she was cuddling her girlfriend’s head in her lap. Cheerilee was crying, that was to be expected. Their sessions were always intense. Luna lovingly stroked her hair in that way she knew calmed her. “Shh my love…Lulu’s here, it’s alright, you did well tonight,” she kissed her ear, “I’m proud of you.”

Unfortunately, there was no chance to say what she wanted to say next, as right at that moment they both heard anguished terrified screams coming from the other end of the house. Cheerilee jerked her head up from Luna’s lap and the two women shared a very knowing, very alarmed look. They both recognised those screams.

“Lulu…” Cheerilee breathed as she was hefted up to her bare feet, “she’s having the dream again!”

“I know,” Luna replied tersely as she led the way at a brisk jog out of her playroom and down the hall to her sister’s bedroom, “it’s been the same every night this week!” Luna’s face was set and grim. This was the fifth night in a row now that her sister had been tormented by this same dream, and on and off she’d been having it ever since the Friendship Games. Something had to be done. She only hoped as they ran to her aid that Celestia was alright.

~ ~ ~

Celestia was running. She was running harder and faster than she had done in a very long time. Panting hard, her breath came in short ragged gasps, her exhalations appearing visibly before her eyes.

“Gah!” She gasped out as a deep striking pain hit her in the side of her belly. She didn’t want to, but she stopped running and, bending almost double she rested her right forearm against the nearest twisted tree trunk for support. ‘A tree…’ she thought, fighting down a wave of nausea. ‘I’m in a forest…why am I in a forest? Wait, why am I naked?’ she realised she was in fact stark naked as she looked down at her slightly pudgy belly and her long legs.

Definitely naked.

‘Okay, I’m in a forest, naked, running, and naked. What, why am I running?’ as she looked around, which was somewhat hard to do in the half-light gloom she found herself in, she tried to get her bearings. The forest, deep dark and foreboding, was scary but somehow strangely familiar, like she’d been here before but not for a long time.

Suddenly, the question of why she was running was rather abruptly answered when a glowing green fireball shot past her naked shoulder and ignited the tree she was using for support. “Aaaah!” With a scream, she backed off and began to run again as the very tall, very red demonic form of Sunset Shimmer flew after her between the trees.

“Celestia! Come out and play!”

Celestia however did not stop. Fighting down a very sick feeling growing in the pit of her gut she ran faster, her large sagging breasts slapping against her chest as she ran between the trees, trying to put as much distance between herself and her pursuer as she could.

“Celeeeeeeestia! Where aaaaaare you?” Sunset Shimmer lazily flapped her wide leathery wings as she hovered through the twisting gnarled trees. With an evil glint in her eyes she caught sight of her fleeing prey. Summoning her dark magic she readied two fireballs in the palms of her clawed hands and sent them both flying at once towards their target.

Celestia however did not stop running, nor did she leave the cover of the trees. Pushing herself ever harder she crashed into the undergrowth, ignoring the pain she felt as her bare feet were cut many times over by sharp rocks and bracken. Instinctively she ducked and one fireball went over where her head had just been to explode a tree in front of her. Panicked, she turned to the left only for the second magical missile to burn the ground where she wanted to go.

‘I'm being herded!’ Celestia thought, quickly turning to the right now and running as fast as she could through the gloomy twisted trees. She had no doubt the she-demon chasing her could finish her off at any time should she choose to. Unfortunately the knowledge that she was being herded didn’t help much.

“Uh-uh!” Sunset Shimmer cried out the taunting warning as she sent more fireballs towards her quarry, now directing her to the left and straight ahead of her. “Not that way, Celly, c’mon, the game’s not over yet!”

Desperately panting now, Celestia faked one way then quickly turned the other, ducking behind a particularly large oak tree. Gasping for breath that just wouldn’t come, the naked woman glanced up at the tree and a shock of recognition coursed through her when she saw the ‘Celly & Lulu best sisters 4 eva!’ carved into the rough bark. She knew that tree. That meant she knew where she was.

“The Everfree Forest…” the moment she realised where she was, the dark forest seemed to brighten up. All of a sudden, as if the knowledge of the forest’s name bought everything into sharper brighter detail, Celestia found she could see further where she was being directed.

Unfortunately her respite didn’t last very long. In a shower of effervescent green magic the oak tree that was her brief sanctuary erupted, hurling the white-skinned woman forward into the brush. “Found you!” Sunset Shimmer crowed triumphantly as Celestia pulled herself to her feet. The breath she had managed to recover had been driven from her by the force of the impact, thorns, brambles and sharp stones resulting in numerous little cuts all over her thighs, belly and chest.

Another explosion of green magic behind her spurred her onwards, though she knew by now to where she was being herded. ‘Lookout Point’, she thought miserably as she ran on, heat burning her ankles and her back never allowing her to slow more than her pursuer wanted her to. She hated this part of the forest, she always had done, even as a kid back when she had been young.

“Ngggh…aaaaah!” she cried out as she tripped, her foot caught in a tree root. It didn’t help she was being chased uphill now. Lookout Point was a four hundred feet cliff overlooking Camp Everfree below it. You could see for hundreds of miles in every direction. If you liked heights, which Celestia did not. Not at all. Not in the slightest. Still, she had no choice. The she-demon’s fireballs kept her running.

Only…only they weren’t. It took Celestia five minutes of hard running before she realised she wasn’t being fired upon. Hesitantly she cast a glance over her shoulder back the way she had come and sure enough, she was alone. It was only now, after countless minutes of breathless running, as she started to breathe normally, did she try and take stock. It was Sunset. Sunset Shimmer, back in her demon form. Try as she might she couldn’t figure it out. Not here, not now. A more pressing concern was why was she naked?

Turning around, her chest still heaving, she made her mind up to get down to the camp below. Timber or Gloriosa would help. She knew them, and they wouldn’t pry too deep as to her current state of undress. She didn’t get very far. Celestia hadn’t taken more than two steps back down the slope when she found she couldn’t move her left foot. Looking down, she saw why. A thick black vine with vicious looking sharp thorns sprouting out of it had erupted from the ground and wrapped itself around her ankle.

“Wh-What the…oooow!” she squealed with pain as the vine tightened around her leg when she tried to move, digging the points of the thorns into her skin. “Gaaaah!” the more she struggled, the deeper they dug in, holding her fast. She hadn’t noticed a second vine wrapping itself around her right ankle as well. By the time she did notice, she realised she was trapped. Wincing as blood trickled from the multiple punctures, she looked around to find the source of the vines. She didn’t have to look far.

“Going somewhere, Celly?” A very dangerous, silky, voice rife with power and malice made her look up.

“Tw-Twilight?” Celestia gaped, her mouth hanging open and her eyes the size of dinner plates.

“You wish.” Hovering into view, floating a few inches above the rough broken ground, Midnight Sparkle smiled the smile of a snake teasing a cornered rodent.

Celestia didn’t want to accept this. First Sunset Shimmer back in her demon form and now this, her newest student had apparently, if her senses were to be believed, given in to her personal demon as well. “M-Mi-Midnight!”

“Bingo!”

As Midnight Sparkle hovered closer and closer, Celestia renewed her efforts to escape, blood flowing freely from the thorns piercing her white flesh. “N-No!” she was on the verge of a very big freak out. All her demons from the past year were haunting her here and now, in a place she had long considered safe. “Please! Let me go! Leave me alone!”

“Shh…” Midnight Sparkle lit her twisted horn and two more vines exploded from the earth to wrap themselves like steel cables around her wrists. The thorns there, while shorter were no less sharp and they immediately dug into her wrists, crimson liquid trickling down her hands.

“Twilight please! Let me go! Pleeeeease!” Celestia, in a panic, writhed in a futile attempt to get away. This of course just made the vines tighten their grip.

“It’s. Midnight. Sparkle.” the she-demon didn’t raise her voice. She did however keep her horn lit. She punctuated each word with a new vine. The first wove its way down from an overhead tree branch and wrapped around the struggling captive’s slender neck. The second came down with the first and wrapped itself around Celestia’s head like a spiked thorny gag, the thorns silencing her as they bit into her tongue.

“There. That’s better. Now we can talk, hmm?” Midnight Sparkle seemed very pleased with her efforts. She looked on approvingly as blood now seeped from her prisoner’s neck and the corners of her mouth. “Hmm, much better.” she hovered to within a few inches of Celestia’s face, her fingers stroking seductively down the principal’s face and to her shoulder.

“MmmMMPH! MMMM! UuuuUUUNAAAAAAA!” Celestia, in spite of her bonds, struggled until the vines grew so tight around her they threatened to choke her and cut her tongue in half. Blood mixed with drool to coat her chest.

“Hush.” Midnight Sparkle commanded and, just like that, silence fell on them both. “I’d hate to have to put out your eyes. I can do. Would you like that?”

Very carefully and slowly, Celestia shook her head.

“Good.” Midnight smiled as again she almost tenderly caressed her captive’s face. “After all, the others aren’t here yet. They’d hate to miss the show.”

‘Others?’ Celestia thought, her chest heaving as she tasted her own blood in her mouth. ‘What others? What’s going on here?’

Again, Celestia’s unspoken question was answered. Again, she didn’t like the answer. Not in the slightest. Flying through the air towards her were three Equestrian mer-creatures that made Celestia weep in sheer terror. She wanted to scream as the Sirens flew closer but thanks to Midnight Sparkle’s vines, no sound escaped her but for a guttural groan. Coming up on the other side was a maniacally grinning Sunset Shimmer.

In the circumstances, Celestia thought her body’s reaction to piss itself was entirely justified. Midnight and Sunset just laughed at this humiliating display, while the Sirens landed and Adagio Dazzle began to sing. ‘How?’ Celestia thought as her own hot pee turned the ground muddy around her feet. ‘How can they sing? They were beaten! They were all beaten!’

“Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
You didn't know that you fell.
Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Now that you're under our spell.”

Adagio Dazzle sang as she swayed ever closer to the bound Celestia who had at this point given up any and all attempts at getting free. Already, little tendrils of ethereal green energy were snaking their way from the lead Siren’s pendant over the floor to Celestia’s bleeding feet.

“Oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh
Captured in the web of my song.
Oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh
Soon you'll be singing along.”

Try as she might, Celestia just couldn’t not listen. She was as powerless to resist the deadly sweet soothing song now as she had been back at the Musical Showcase. Her eyes, which had been wide with fear and terror, glowed a dull green and went unfocussed. Her limbs went slack at her sides. Completely unnoticed by Celestia, the six vines that had been holding her captive released their hold, retreating to the ground and the tree from whence they came.

Celestia didn’t move. She didn’t make any attempt to get away. She was completely enthralled by the hypnotic song that Adagio Dazzle was singing. The exact same song she had sung all those months ago.

"Aw...poor little principal…” Adagio purred as Aria and Sonata behind her both picked up the song and continued to sing. Adagio ran her hoof along Celestia’s still-bleeding jaw. “You use clothing like armour against the world yet here you are, naked, exposed, vulnerable and ashamed…”

“Y-Yes Adagio.” Celestia’s voice was thick and slurred, as if drugged. She swayed on the spot in time with the Siren’s sinuous movements.

Smirking at just how easily her prey had been captured and ensnared, Adagio continued, “Running away from all your problems, hiding in your house, hiding behind your sister, hiding from the world…you’re weak, Celestia, a weak and tired old woman…”

“Yes, Adagio.” Celestia wanted to protest this, but she found she couldn’t. The thought died on its journey from her brain to her mouth. Instead she just agreed, because she knew it was true.

“You fear the loss of control so much,” Adagio purred in Celestia’s ear, licking her lobe. “You have such a fear of failure that you can barely keep hold of your sanity let alone your school.” Aria and Sonata changed the tempo of the song they were singing and, under its insidious influence, the principal turned around to face the cliff top of Lookout Point.

“If you want to run that badly, go ahead and run.”

Celestia blinked as she saw the cliff, her fear of heights cutting through the hypnotism of the Siren’s song. Seeing her prey’s hesitation, Adagio once more joined the song.

“Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Listen to the sound of my voice.
Oh-oh, whoa-oh-oh
Soon you'll find you don't have a choice.”

With Adagio’s voice in her mind washing over her like a soothing balm, Celestia’s body lost all its tension and she obeyed the Siren’s song. Moving one foot in front of the other she started to walk towards the cliff edge. In a few steps her stride had lengthened and just before the edge she was running.

Adagio smirked a nasty smirk and just as Celestia was one step away from the edge of the four hundred foot cliff face, she motioned for her sisters to stop singing.

Coming back to her senses just as her left foot was a step away from the edge, Celestia blinked, horrible realisation dawning upon her as her befuddled brain processed what was happening. By then it was of course too late. Despite trying to stop, her momentum carried her inexorably onwards.

One stride later and Celestia’s right foot hit nothing but air.

Her left foot followed suit.

The next thing her brain processed was that she was falling. As she rotated in her fall, she saw on the crest of the cliff edge the laughing faces of Sunset Shimmer, the Sirens and Midnight Sparkle, her tormentors relishing in her impending doom. Downwards she fell, head first towards the very sharp, very pointy boulders below.

Celestia closed her eyes as she fell, she didn’t want to see the ground rushing towards her. She did however scream, and scream long and hard. She knew she had to go at some point, but not like this.

“Celestia!”

A voice she vaguely recognised called out her name in the darkness as the wind rushed past her on the way down.

“Celestia!”

That voice again. Still she didn’t open her eyes.

“Celestia!”

Strange. She didn’t feel like she was falling anymore. Had she already hit the boulders? Was she dead?

“Celestia! Celestia wake up!”

Celestia suddenly felt a rough jerk on her shoulders that definitely was not boulders and with another scream she sat bolt upright in her bed, covered in a sheen of sweat all over her naked body, her eyes wide open to see a very worried and scared Luna and Cheerilee looking back at her, each with a hand holding her own.

~ ~ ~

"What?" Celestia, now showered, dried and wearing her favourite fluffy white bathrobe and golden yellow slippers, asked her sister for what was the fifth time. Annoyingly, Luna had remained silent throughout the whole time since she had awoken from her nightmare. Her younger sister hadn’t said anything thus far. She hadn’t needed to. She’d quietly ordered her into the shower while with a few nods of her head she had ordered Cheerilee to tidy her bedroom.

Luna, for her part, merely studied her older sister intently as she had done for the past few moments since she had emerged from the shower wrapped in her bathrobe. She knew what was eating away at her, she could see the lines etched into her face and the grey in her hair that hadn’t been there before the incident with Sunset Shimmer. She knew full well about the nightmares that plagued her almost every day for the past two months since the Friendship Games.

What she didn’t know was what to do about it. Celestia was distracted and that bothered her greatly. As Luna looked at her, her sister instead looked at the bookcases, the TV, the stereo, the windows, anywhere except where Luna was sat in her leather arm chair.

“What?” Celestia asked again from her chair – a match for her sister’s own, her voice had a barely masked air of irritation now. “Lulu, what, already?”

Before Luna could reply, Cheerilee came bustling back into the living room from the kitchen. Naked but for the ever-present midnight blue collar around her neck, she stepped smartly despite the dull ache in her crotch, the after effects of her play time earlier. She carried a silver tray with a mug bearing a black coffee for her Mistress and a cup of jasmine tea for Celestia. “Mistress,” she said with a smile as she set the tray down on the coffee table between them, “the third load of laundry is in the washing machine, the first two are in the dryers and the dirty cups are all cleaned as you ordered.” she finished her report with a respectful bow.

“Very good, Leelee.” Luna nodded to her pet while Celestia rolled her eyes at having filled the washing machine three times over with the dirty clothes piling on her bedroom floor. “You’ve earned a rest.” Luna patted the side of the leather chair. “You may use your cushion.”

Again, Celestia rolled her eyes as Cheerilee scampered over to her sister’s chair and knelt down on the midnight blue cushion on the floor beside it. She tried her best to ignore the fact that her school librarian was naked. She admitted she didn’t ‘get’ the relationship she and Luna had, but, they were both happy and they kept it strictly private, so who was she to criticise? Not that she was jealous, not at all. ‘Oh no,’ she thought, ‘not at all…’

Luna reached for her mug and took a deep draught of her black coffee. Sitting back in her chair she tilted Cheerilee’s head up and, kissing her deeply she transferred some coffee to her fuchsia skinned lover. Looking up, she just caught sight of her sister’s third eye roll. ‘Right…I’m not having this!’ she thought as she gave Celestia a very serious look. “Celly. I sympathise with your nightmares, but that’s the third time you’ve rolled your eyes at my Leelee. I’ll ask you nicely once to stop it.”

‘Busted.’ Celestia fidgeted and perched herself on the edge of her chair. “Lulu, Cheerilee, I’m sorry.”

“Accepted.” Luna took another drink of her coffee and once again shared it with her pet before sitting back in her chair. She steepled her fingers together as she stared holes straight through her sister. “I’ve spoken with you already about these dreams and what they mean, what I believe their significance is and…”

“Lulu,” Celestia interrupted her younger sister before taking a sip of her jasmine tea, “I know you’ve been studying dream therapy and interpretation. Don’t lecture me, I’m not here for you to practise on.” the very moment the sentence left her lips, Celestia regretted it. She regretted it the very moment she saw the twitch in her sister’s right eye. “Luna, I’m sorry.”

“Accepted, again,” Luna replied tersely, before reaching for her coffee. This mouthful she didn’t share, it was more a move to allow her to compose her thoughts and not throw something at her sister. “Now, these nightmares. I’ve said before now what I think they mean, what they represent. I won’t repeat myself, but if I were to advise you, I’d say that as the summer holidays have just started…”

“A vacation!” without thinking, Cheerilee cut across her Mistress. She’d been listening quietly this whole time and she came to the logical conclusion the same time Luna had.

“Hmm…” Luna frowned and fetched her pet a sharp tap on her nose that made her eyes water. “When spoken to, Leelee.” she turned back to her sister with a tiny smile as her lover made a teeny little whimper at the tap she had received. “Leelee’s right, however. I was going to suggest a vacation to you. You need to get this out of your system, Celly, before it makes you seriously ill.”

Celestia took a moment to digest that as she drank the rest of her jasmine tea. Whatever she thought about Luna’s and Cheerilee’s relationship, odd though it was, she had to admit she made a good cup of tea. When her cup was emptied she sat back and for the first time looked at her sister. “I agree.”

“You do?” Luna couldn’t believe it had been that easy to talk her sister into a vacation. She’d been trying for years to do just that.

“Yes I do.” Celestia smiled as she watched her sister lovingly stroke her girlfriend’s ear. “I’ve been thinking, I’m going to take a week, and hike through the Everfree Forest.”

“I beg your pardon?” Cheerilee asked, well aware she might get another tap on her nose for speaking out but unable to stop herself. She knew as well as Luna the content of the nightmares that Celestia had been having. “I just wanted to know,” she continued quietly as she suddenly became the centre of attention, “of all the places, why there?”

“Leelee has a point, Celly,” Luna said gently. This time she didn’t reprimand her pet as she thought she did indeed have a good point. Instead she saved it up for a punishment later. She had just the one in mind for a talkative pet. “Why the Everfree Forest?”

“Well,” Celestia paused for a moment before she continued, “the nightmares have had different antagonists; Sunset Shimmer, the Sirens, Midnight Sparkle, but they’ve all shared the same location. Namely, the Everfree Forest. So, it stands to reason that whatever the cause is, it’s got something to do with the forest in some way.”

Luna snickered at that. “Are you sure it’s not to do with the rumours of monsters appearing in the forest that are going around CHS?”

Celestia actually smiled a genuine smile at her sister’s joke. “No, Lu, I don’t. Besides, we went camping up there in the forest every year with mother and father when we were little girls.”

“Yes, sister of mine,” Luna started, “but you aren’t a little girl anymore, are you?” the moment she said that she saw the twitch in her sibling’s eye and knew she’d said the wrong thing. Even Cheerilee had gently slapped her leg in admonishment for her slip of the tongue. “Forgive me, Celly, I just meant, I mean, I want…ugh…I’m concerned, I just want to know you’re up for it, physically…”

“I’m fine.”

“Celly…”

“I said, I’m fine.”

Luna sighed a deep sigh. She recognised she’d overstepped her boundaries and she especially knew when her sister had closed her borders, and she knew it was useless to pursue it. Instead she changed tack. “Besides which, don’t all your nightmares end with you jumping off of Lookout Point?”

Celestia bit back the response she wanted to throw back at her sister. Instead she took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Eventually she opened her eyes. “Then, I’ll stay away from Lookout Point. Perhaps I’ll go polish up our sundial in the camp instead?”

Luna frowned deeply at both at her sister and at her lover, who was laughing at her side. When Cheerilee saw Luna’s frown she stopped laughing. Celestia smiled, safe in the knowledge she’d got one over on her younger sister. “Tomorrow, or rather later today,” she amended when she remembered it was still only three a.m., “I’ll go to Guide Rope’s outdoors shop and get what I need then, this afternoon, I’ll set off for the Everfree Forest.”

“Oh, you’re going to Guide’s shop?” Luna asked sweetly. “In that case, would you be a dear and get me some rope too?”

This time when Celestia rolled her eyes it wasn’t challenged. “Lu, you have more than enough rope,” she replied, smirking a little when she saw the slightly worried look on Cheerilee’s face. “As well as enough other toys to set up your own shop,” she added quietly with a blush. Not that she was jealous. ‘No, not at all.’

“Hmm, that’s true.” Luna smirked with not the slightest trace of irony or shame in her voice. However when Cheerilee yawned beside her she was reminded of the lateness of the hour. “But, for now I suggest we all go to bed.” she shot her pet a devious smile. “After all, some pet has a long day ahead of her tomorrow…”

“Ugh…” at that, Celestia got up and, to the accompanying giggles from her sister and her girlfriend, she slouched her way to her now very clean bedroom. ‘I’m not jealous…not at all…’ she thought determinedly as she flopped onto her bed after kicking her door shut. ‘Yeah right,’ her brain thought rebelliously, ‘you’d love to be treated like that and you know it.’

“Shut up,” Celestia said out loud to her empty bedroom, before sighing at how useless that gesture was. ‘Damn it, I really need to get away from it all,’ she thought sadly as she closed her eyes. Then, she started to imagine everything that Cheerilee and her sister would be getting up to while she’d be away. That just made her feel hot and bothered in a very uncomfortable way.

‘Ugh…I so need a man!’

‘No,’ she thought to herself as she drifted on the edge of consciousness, ‘you need a man to treat you like Luna treats Cheerilee…to love you like she loves her…’

“Shut up,” she mumbled, half asleep. Still, she couldn’t deny herself. And, for the next seven hours, her dreams were very pleasant indeed.