"So how'd you end up in Ponyville?  Pegasi aren't the most common ponies down here."  Twilight slowly walked alongside Thunderhead, keeping pace with and trusting the direction of his own nervous steps as they pushed deeper into Ponyville's underside.

"Oh, my family was never really into the whole cloud-making thing.  They were kinda rebellious and decided to come down here and work the farms with the earth ponies."  Thunderhead kept glancing around, but they'd been on a pretty directed course ever since they Ponyville's Main-Street.

"That's... definitely bizarre.  Not totally unheard of, though."  

"Oh?  I honestly thought my parents were the only ones that have ever done such a thing."

"Well that's certainly not true.  I have this friend, Fluttershy, who's a pegasus and has been in Ponyville since she was just a filly.  She's kinda the veterinarian around here, hanging out with all the sick animals and nursing them back to health...  Her heart is a little bigger than her mind sometimes, but I love her to death."

"Sounds like something mom would have done...  She didn't like the physical labor and industrial feel of making clouds in a factory and wanted to work outside.  That and she always loved the smell of grass, which we didn't have in Cloudsdale.  Dad felt the same way, so without as much as a thought they just moved down here."

"Well I can't say I've ever seen you, and in such a small town that's a little unheard of.  But who am I kidding?  I rarely ever leave my library anyhow."

"Well if it makes you feel better I was home-schooled all my life and then stuck to the farm.  I only recently moved into town because I just couldn't deal with the isolation anymore.  Problem is, and I didn't realize this until I got here, I don't really have the social skills to interact with all of these strange ponies.  I'm just isolated in a populated place... kinda ironic I think."

"Hey, I know how you feel.  I only moved here from Canterlot two years ago or so, and I came from Celestia's school for gifted unicorns so you can imagine how social I am."

"Well you don't exactly seem to be having much trouble talking with me."

"I could say the same about you...  Either way, I'm not about to jump up on the fountain and start quoting ancient playwrights."

"I suppose that would be a little odd, especially considering it's almost ten-o'-clock."

"I'll wait until at least noon before I start spouting lines from the tragedy of Julius Courser"

"Nothing quite like being woken up in the middle of the night by 'Et tu, Brumbeé?', eh Twilight?"

The two shared a laugh at the notion and made a left down a dark street.  They were headed into the deeper parts of downtown Ponyville; not the most threatening place exactly, but certainly more so than the rest of the little town.  Twilight continued to walk along with the exact same confidence as she had picked up earlier, but the pegasus next to her seemed to grow more and more nervous the closer they got to his home.

"I have to admit, I usually fly home.  This is kind of a bad part of town."

"Oh it doesn't seem that bad, Canterlot is so much worse at night."

"Heh, I bet, but still..."

"Well don't worry, I'll protect you if we get mugged."  Twilight flashed the pegasus a wink, but he didn't seem to notice it.  His eyes were fixed on a dingy little building that was rapidly approaching.

"T-thanks, Twilight.  Anyway, this is the place, up here on the right... by the street lamp."  

Twilight didn't say anything as they stepped into the alleyway behind the building.  About halfway down there was a narrow staircase leading up to a dimly lit door, which led into a small apartment that obviously belonged to a bachelor.  Several dirty dishes sat in the sink, as well as at least a half dozen empty liquor bottles on a tiny, ring-stained coffee table.  It wasn't exactly pleasant, and Twilight wanted to set the place on fire if only to sanitize it.  The strange part was that she actually had to seriously think about whether or not to do so.

"I'm really sorry about the mess...  I didn't really think I'd be coming home with anypony that needed a first impression."

"Oh it's... It's not that bad.  I've definitely seen worse."

"Still, I kinda feel bad...  Would you, uhm, like something to drink?"

"We just got here from a bar."

"Oh yeah... heh, sorry I'm just a little..."  Thunderhead seemed to stumble over his words and, on one occasion, stumble over an empty vodka bottle on the floor.  He was nervously trying to clean up a little bit (if only by kicking some of the refuse out of sight), so Twilight used the distraction to sneak up behind him.  "I really wish I had cleaned u--"  In the middle of his sentence, as he turned his face to speak nervously in Twilight's direction, he got a little surprise.  Twilight's muzzle pressed up against his, and her foreleg draped over his withers in a very light hug.  

The stallion was absolutely stunned, and Twilight was loving the fact that she could have that effect so easily.  "Just relax...  I don't judge a book by its cover."

"W-wull my bedroom's a whole lot worse..."

"So go lay down on the couch."  Twilight pulled back and gave a sly grin.  The poor stallion was so captured by her beauty and apparent interest in him that he was practically wrapped around her hoof.  He didn't hesitate to walk briskly over to the couch, using his wing to brush some debris off of it before dropping down on his back.  Twilight sat down on the cushion and leaned over Thunderhead, brushing his mane away from his eyes and smiling down to him.  He was nervous, so much so that he was actually lightly shaking, and that told Twilight one thing: he was a weak, innocent little pony.

Twilight leaned forward and met her lips with his once more, this time propping her weight up on the couch and hiking her leg over him, joining him completely on the shallow sofa.  She placed her hooves on his shoulders and effectively pinned the stallion down, sitting up in her straddling position and letting her long mane hang down and drape over the side of the couch.  Any time the gray stallion tried to speak, she simply kissed him to shut the stuttering noise up.  Eventually, though, Thunderhead was allowed to voice something (albeit shaky and nervous due to what he thought was a genuine attraction).

"I, uhm...  I... This is my f-first..."

"Heh, believe it or not it's mine too."  The unicorn's revelation seemed to baffle her partner, but he decided not to ask too many questions.  "Just relax, Thunderhead.  I hear tell that nervous guys tend to have... problems."

The pegasus's eyes glanced away from Twilight's gaze and his cheeks flushed deep red.  "I-I-I don't really think I'm having that problem."  Twilight cocked her head a little to the side and moved back a little.  She didn't have to go very far to feel what he meant, and it prompted a smirk from his lavender lover.  She reached her hoof back and stroked a little bit, watching his face as he quickly lost himself to lust driven enslavement.  

Twilight leaned forward and gave the stallion another kiss, using the motion to grind back and 'engage' with him.  His size wasn't anything special, but he was a decent fit and didn't slow Twilight down at all.  She immediately sat up and held her hooves firmly against his shoulders, performing a quick and rough job that Thunderhead clearly wasn't expecting.  Twilight hadn't ever felt anything like that before, and she quickly saw how easily one could lose themselves in the moment.  The friction, the tingling sensation crawling up her back, the jolts of a deep pleasure surging through her nerves.  She felt none of the pain that was rumored to be typical of a 'first-timer', though she knew that was a result of her new body's state.  The feelings of carnal bliss continued to keep time with her own set rhythm, but she refused to lose her concentration to such a primal enjoyment.

Twilight kept perfect focus on the stallion below her as well as her surroundings.  She continued to read his facial cues (not to mention the low noises he was making), looking for the precise moment where she could break him mentally with so much as a word.  His resolve had melted away quickly, but Twilight could still see a little spirit reflecting from his eyes.  

The unicorn definitely felt alive; she was taking what she wanted from a lesser being, and she was so in tune with her own body that every single thrust felt like the softest silk gliding over every nerve in her body.  She made sure to tilt her head and toss her mane in such a way that she thought was enjoyable to watch.  Thunderhead was a slave and, from the looks of him, not prepared to last much longer.  Twilight adjusted her hips and changed the rhythm a little, dragging her hooves down his chest and shifting her weight, knowing instinctively what to do through a prior knowledge of pony anatomy.  Twilight could feel her own peak approaching and sped up, driving herself forward and treating the stallion like a tool for her own pleasure.  He didn't mind, of course, and Twilight could tell that he had already finished (from a brief but noticeable curling of his knees and tensing of the muscles in his lower body).  

Twilight, methodical as always, did everything she knew to do in order to make her 'big moment' feel as great as possible.  She kept her rhythm and, at the very peak of the climax, dropped herself down onto the stallion, holding there and releasing a calm, quiet moan.  She kept her position on top of him and slowly tilted her head down, looking at Thunderhead and examining his body language.  He wasn't exactly in a position to talk, but she got plenty of information from the way he was lying there.  His head had turned to the side, he was breathing very heavily, and his eyes were shut.  Not a single muscle in his body was tense, and he seemed as drained as he could possibly be.  Twilight used her hoof to guide his muzzle back up to face her, then kissed him.  This one wasn't quite as deep or passionate as the first few, but she only needed his attention at this point.  

Thunderhead opened his eyes and Twilight looked down into them, leaning forward and hovering just above his face.  Something seemed off with her depth perception, though: his face seemed to be very large and very far away, rather than up close and the usual size of a normal pony's head.  Twilight, though seeing this, reached her foreleg out toward the large, dilated brown eye.  Her hoof seemed small in her vision, and actually touched the lens on Thunderhead's eye, though he didn't flinch in the slightest.  This surreal effect didn't phase the unicorn whatsoever and she didn't even realize the inconsistencies of the logic.  It was as if she had fallen into a dream: not knowing how she got there, where she was, nor what was happening (and not questioning the logic of her surroundings) but just going along with the situation.  Twilight, curious as ever, pushed forward and felt her entire foreleg push its way into his eye, though it was small enough to slip into the pupil with plenty of space all around.

Twilight leaned forward and felt her whole body sink in.  She didn't find it the least bit strange, though, and swam through into his optic nerve.  Her body melded with the tissue, or so it seemed, and traveled along the nerve like an impulse, picking up the signals that he was seeing all the while.  Every part of the nerve that her body touched seemed to 'feel' what he was seeing.  A mild case of synesthesia took over and gave Twilight the sensation of sight over her entire body.  She didn't ever want to stop.  

The unicorn continued down the nerve until she hit Thunderhead's optic chiasm where she escaped out into the rest of his brain.  Twilight had a very intimate understanding of how the generic pony brain was supposed to look, and so could identify many of the problems and misrepresentations of her current vision, but chose to continue along with it.  She seemed to be suspended in a liquid, and promptly swam through it up to exactly where she wanted to go.

Twilight found the stallion's sensory cortex and immediately wedged herself into it.  Her hypothesis that she'd experience the feelings that Thunderhead was receiving was proven to be more than could have hoped for: she was almost overloaded with sensation.  The experience was almost sexual for Twilight, due in part to the fact that Thunderhead's brain was still flooded with endorphins from their recent interaction, but also to the fact that she was directly connecting herself with the end result of every feeling that her host could gain with his entire body.  

She felt herself falling away from reality, but didn't fight it.  Twilight disappeared into the gray matter of a metaphorical brain, sinking down into its core and emerging into another sheltered zone of fluid and outstanding nerves.  The unicorn knew that this wasn't a 'real' part of the brain, but she appreciated its beauty and its manifestation just the same.  She was inside of what seemed like a sphere, with a cord of nervous tissue connecting the poles and standing out as the only real structure to the entire place.  Twilight approached the cord and very quickly came to know what it was meant to represent.  The thing had an energy about it, seeming to cast a warm light out into the surrounding darkness and pulse with a familiar feel and sound.  Twilight got close enough to touch her hoof to it, bringing her a new feeling that she hadn't gotten yet.  She could feel a tingle like blood was just pumping into a numb limb, as well as a calm and rhythmic pulse.  This cord was throbbing with pure life.  

The closer Twilight was to the nerve, the more alive she felt.  For the first time in weeks, she gave in purely to a primal desire: wrapping her legs around it and pulling herself close.  She let her tongue loll out and brush against the nerve, arcing energy between it and the cord.  The taste was absolutely divine, though she couldn't exactly pin down what it was.  She could feel a transfer into her body, feeling life and power pulled directly out of the nerve and placed raw into her very being.  Twilight couldn't pull herself away from the fragile thing, and was doing her best to be sure it wouldn't snap from the handling.  She felt as though she could never get her fill, but was still rational enough to realize that she needed to leave that place.  She followed the nerve to the top of her enclosure, and burst out through the top.  As she swam, the sphere became the inside of Thunderhead's eye again, and the lens birthed her out and back into her own consciousness.  

Twilight took a deep, raspy breath, still straddling Thunderhead on his couch, and slowly regained composure of her body.  She looked down to see the stallion cowering, clenching his eyes shut and shivering violently.  She hiked her leg back over and stood up; Thunderhead immediately took the opportunity to curl into the fetal position and stare blankly at the wall, shivering and sniveling like a frightened child.  Twilight smiled and reached her hoof down to stroke his cheek, but he only flinched and pulled away.  He was broken, and while Twilight didn't know exactly what happened, she knew that she could do it again with a little instruction.  

"Take care of yourself, Thunderhead.  I had a nice time."  Twilight knew he wasn't in any condition to answer, but she mockingly addressed him as she headed for the door.  She looked back over her shoulder and noticed a small dark border around his cheap wooden coffee table.  On top of that, Thunderhead was so drenched in sweat that his fur seemed a full shade darker.  The smell of smoke permeated the room, but nothing was expressly on fire.  Curious but apathetic, Twilight left the dingy apartment and headed down the dark alley and back to the street.

Twilight didn't bother flying home, instead opting to walk the street and enjoy the night life.  Ponyville was more or less abandoned, especially in this portion of town, but lights flickered and shapes shifted around with seedy deals going on every which way.  The dregs of society had always interested Twilight, but she never had the courage to really explore around in a position to see behind the curtain.  She'd always wondered what could drive a pony to drug use or crime, and in her innocence she had neglected to look to sheer pleasure or desperation.  

"Iago, you there?"  Twilight asked out loud, not forgetting that she could simply think, but instead feeling the need to actually speak to someone.

Yes, Twilight?  Iago responded immediately, seeming far less distracted this time than he had been before.

"What exactly happened back there?"

Ahhh...  Where to start?  As you said before: when emotions run high, wills are weak.  "Thunderhead" as he calls himself was already an exceptionally weak individual, but you broke him down to his most basic sense of self.

"That much I know, but what happened to him?  To me even..."

To him?  Well, the invasion of one's mind is always a traumatic experience, especially in a moment when you've succumbed to primal urges and addictions.  You simply broke into his consciousness with your own and stole from him his own feelings.  He'll be fine eventually, but the scars left by your actions in his head will remain.  You could have killed him if you wanted to.

"Oh?  How could I have done that?"

It's simple really.  All living creatures have a consciousness, and a melding of mind and body creates the ability to live and experience all things.  If you invade the mind and sever that connection, they'll let their body die.  The heart and lungs are controlled by the medulla, and the medulla is controlled by the subconscious, so you can kill anyone you want with a simple attack to the right point in their mind.

"That's certainly an interesting prospect...  I don't imagine that's something that can just be done willy-nilly, though."

To invade anyone that isn't weak willed and relaxed takes practice and training, but I can help you if you wish to learn more.  Regardless, you're certainly an entity to be feared, even if these silly ponies don't understand that quite yet.

"You flatter me."  Twilight smiled to herself and turned the corner, seeing a long straightaway until she hit a familiar street.  She started to walk forward but was halted by a voice from over her shoulder.

"I've never seen you before."

Twilight turned her head to follow the source of the voice, finding that her gaze plunged into a shadow-cast alleyway to an earth pony leaning against the bare brick of the building next to him.  "That's because I've never been here before tonight."  She responded in a calm and condescending tone.

"I should say not.  A gorgeous unicorn mare who looks like something off the cover of a dirty magazine walking home alone and talking to herself is a very memorable thing.  You know that's dangerous, right?"  Twilight caught the gleam of steel down by the stallion's hoof: he was holding a knife.

"Dangerous?  To whom?"  Twilight stepped into the alley and made direct eye contact with the stranger, never losing her cool.  This surprised the hidden earth pony, but he'd been in enough of these situations to slough it off.

"Awfully brave for such a pretty gal.  Either you're too innocent for your own good, or so used to being protected by a great big stud that you've got an ego on ya.  Either way I'll enjoy it."

"Trust me when I say I've never had the need to be 'protected', sir.  Tell you what, I'm feeling charitable.  Why don't you just turn around and leave, hm?"  The earth pony's jaw fell open as Twilight threatened him, so he shifted his position against the brick wall and made absolutely sure that Twilight saw his knife.

"I don't think you're in any position to be making threats, sweetheart.  Now, if you have any money on you that you're willing to part with, maybe I'd consider letting you go."

"I'm afraid I don't have any money on me right now.  That's a pretty nice knife, by the way.  Where'd you get it?"

"What, this old thing?"  The stallion held it up so that the moon reflected off of the perfectly polished steel blade.  "I got this off of a dumb little colt who also didn't have any money on him.  He didn't part with it very easily, but that didn't exactly stop me."

"Shame, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me the blacksmith that made it."

"As entertaining as your 'courage' is to me, I'm getting a little impatient.  Either find some money, or figure out some other kind of payment for me before things get... violent."  The stallion, devoid of color in the black of night, stepped over to the stoic unicorn and smelled her neck.  He was confident, but Twilight was just toying with him at this point, knowing full well that he was about to bite off far more than he could chew.  She just needed the right cue.

"You really think you're scaring me, don't you?"  Twilight took a stoic stance and smirked at the stallion.  She could tell he was getting intensely frustrated and just kept pushing.  "That's just adorable.  I'll give you one more chance to go ho--"  Twilight was interrupted by a vicious slash across her nose.  The stallion had swung the knife from the top-right of her forehead all the way down to the bottom of her opposite cheek.

"Maybe with a great big gash in that pretty little face of yours you'll learn your place, bitch."  The stallion smiled sadistically as Twilight clutched her face and dropped to the ground, completely ignorant that she was only playing along.  His jaw nearly hit the floor as she stood up and the open wound healed completely, leaving no scar, no blood, and no evidence of its existence whatsoever.  

"Is that all you've got?"  Twilight advanced into the alley, finally picking up a nervous hesitation in the stallion's body language as he took a single step back.  "You certainly talk a lot, but that was such a pathetic swing..."

"G-Get the hell away from me...  I don't know how you did that but I've killed before and I'll do it again!"  The mysterious stranger brushed against the side wall of the alley and immediately felt cornered.  He still had several yards to go before he hit the back of the alley, but he swung again anyway.  Twilight stopped the knife this time, though, yanking it out of his hoof and holding it in front of her face with her telekinesis.  Awestruck, the stallion took a few more steps back, but Twilight closed the gap and grabbed the knife out of the air with her hoof.  

"Aww, now you're running away?  I gave you two chances... that's a whole lot more than I've given anypony else."

"Fuck you!  Damn unicorns always doing that magic bullshit."  The stallion nearly tripped over a loose brick, gathering his bearings and immediately grabbing it up.  He tried to be stealthy, but Twilight's night vision was absolutely perfect, so she watched everything that he was trying to do with a smile.  As he swung the brick at her head, she charged forward and shouldered the stallion, ramming him against the brick wall and driving the dagger up through the bottom of his muzzle.  The brick hit the ground and broke, producing the only other sound besides the organic grinding noise of steel on bone and the muffled whimper of a wounded pony with his mouth stuck shut on a blade.  

"Oh, you talk far too much.  This is a much better look for you."  Twilight looked into his frightened gaze.  She loved the feelings of power that she was taking; knowing that his life was in her hooves just like her pegasus friend.  "You pathetic little criminal...  You're an insect to me.  A horsefly.  Know what I do to flies that bite me?"  In the absence of any answer, Twilight twisted the knife.  She could hear the protrusion of skull that made up his muzzle crunch and splinter and coax a pained yowl out of the victim.  "Oh, now you don't have anything to say?  You just couldn't shut the hell up earlier!"  Twilight saw a tear escape his eye and pressed forward, exploiting every weakness and holding him against the brick wall with her foreleg, keeping her whole body tense.  She pushed on his head and scraped it against the bare brick, using her telekinesis to manipulate his body, but miming along with her hooves to give the illusion that she was much stronger than she was.  "I'll answer for you, then.  I crush flies that bite!"

With this, Twilight held her hoof against his chest and lifted him from that area with a telekinetic tether.  She threw him over her shoulder into a trio of empty trashcans while holding the knife and yanking it out in the same motion.  The clanging and groaning of twisting metal on top of another yell of agony was music to Twilight's ears.  She walked slowly and menacingly over to the wounded assailant, dragging the knife on the cobblestone below to add another source of intimidation.  She could see one of the crushed aluminum cylinders lazily roll away as he tried to stand, but Twilight reached him before he could get to any kind of stable position.  She just kicked him in the ribs and knocked him back down, out of breath and bleeding out of his mouth and nose.  He was gasping for air already, drowning on his own blood and wheezing from the punishment.

"How many ponies have you killed, hm?  How many poor souls have you put in this very situation?  Did you ever ask them to beg for their lives?"  Twilight hovered over the criminal, dangling the knife over his face and swinging it back and forth like a pendulum, taunting it at his already wounded nose and gauging the fear in his eyes.  "How many did you rob?  How many did you leave for dead on the curb?"  The pony tried to back away a little, but Twilight wouldn't have it at all.  She violently kicked him in the ribs again, crushing at least one of them by the sound of it.  "What?  You can taunt and kill and wound and rob but when you're put there you just cower and back away?  You pathetic little pony..."  The stallion crumpled into a ball and clutched his chest, coughing up sprays of blood onto the moonlit cobblestone.  Twilight was very sincerely enjoying this: breaking him down bit by bit until he begged for mercy.

"Y-y-you g-ge-get away fro-om me..."  The earth pony half begged and half demanded, kicking his back leg to try and push himself away.

"Oh no, you're mine now.  My little toy, to play with, to break, and to replace.  Twilight dropped down to her knees and buried one in his stomach, exploiting the broken rib and pushing what's left of the air in his lungs straight out, followed by a spray of blood.  "You're nothing...  The world won't miss you when you're gone.  The families you've stolen life and property from might cheer, but otherwise your memory will fade with time.  Everything about you is fragile...  Pathetic."

"C-cra-azy bitch!"

Twilight frowned at this defiance, finally putting her new blade to some use.  She sunk the point of the dagger into his right eye, piercing the eyelid as he shut it tight in reflex.  His screams, a symphony of raw anguish, were by far the most delightful noises that had ever graced Twilight's ears.  The small jet of vitreous humor that shot out of his ruined eye socket glimmered in the darkness and landed in a visible streak on the cobblestone and brick wall surrounding.  The unicorn then used the knife to scoop out what was left of his deflated eye and toss it to the side.  The would-be attacker struggled with every ounce of strength he hadn't lost to shock, but just couldn't escape Twilight's punishment.  Twilight could tell that her victim was getting delirious from his steady blood loss coupled with intense pain, so the unicorn tried to keep his attention by forcing his face up to view hers.  

"Tell me something.  Are you afraid?"  The stallion responded with a wet, bloody cough and a turning away of his remaining good eye.  Twilight continued to be annoyed by the refusal to answer, and so drove the knife into his shoulder until she felt it dig into the bone.  "Answer me!"  

At that point, he couldn't produce much else besides screams and whimpers.  The stallion tried his best to wrench free of Twilight's grip, so she decided to let him go to see what he would do.  The knife remained in his shoulder, but he didn't seem to realize it.  In an adrenaline and fear fueled stupor, the stallion stood up and limped toward the street, leaving Twilight standing next to the bent and upturned pile of old garbage cans to watch and be entertained.  He made it a few steps before crumpling from his wounded leg, not to mention a newly damaged sense of depth perception and the loss of several pints of blood.  Just as he tried weakly to stand again, Twilight materialized a telekinetic sphere above the stallion.  It was invisible, more or less, but distorted the light that passed through it to create an eerie black-hole type of illusion above the wounded earth pony.  Just as he seemed to think that Twilight was about to let him go, the unicorn mercilessly brought the object down on the small of his back.

The sound of shattering vertebrae echoed through the alley, followed immediately by a primal, blood curdling yell of agony.  The stallion's back legs were rendered completely useless as his back snapped under Twilight's attack, causing the tortured pony to drop to the cobblestone and writhe what was left controllable of his body in the most unrelenting pain he'd ever experienced.  Twilight grabbed onto his limp hind legs with invisible tethers and dragged him back through the alley, drawing a very loud scream of fear pleading her to leave him alone.  

The stallion looked up at what would be the last image he ever saw: Twilight Sparkle with the moon silhouetting her head, smiling wickedly down at him and reaching her hooves out to dig into his chest.  Twilight magically lifted the stallion by the skin, adding to his already intense pain and holding him up to the light.  "I'm done with you, insect.  I wonder how long you can hold your breath."  As Twilight spoke, she split the cobblestone below her with a churning of the earth beneath it.  The stranger looked down and watched in terror as the ground opened like a maw, causing him to strain himself in one last feeble attempt to fight for his life.  The unicorn threw her victim into the soft dirt, slowly letting the fissure close up over him and taking pleasure in his pointless attempts to claw his way out.  Soon, only his flailing forelegs stuck out from the flowing earth, so she closed the hole entirely, ignoring the scar in the cobblestone as well as the blood-splattered alley before she left.  Twilight did take some time to admire her methodology, laying her ear to the bare earth as if to listen for her victim's final breath.  

Twilight lightly dragged her hoof along the soil, smiling with her face to the ground and giving an eerily girlish giggle.  "That's right, insect.  Stop your struggling and let death steal you away.  It's far more than the likes of you deserve, but it's my little gift to a weak, pathetic little colt."

Twilight laid there for a while, breathing in the earthy smell from the freshly turned soil, feeling all of the stress and anger from the altercation melt away.  She stood up and dusted herself off, realizing that the knife had dislodged from her victim at some point before she buried him, so she took it.  It was a beautiful memento, clearly made by an experienced blacksmith and engraved with an expert filigree pattern on the handle.  She shook it a little to get the remaining blood and fluids off of it, and then kept it levitating by her side while she got back on track for home.  

Impressive handiwork, I have to say.  About halfway down the street Iago made his presence known.

I thought so too.  Though I never could get him to admit defeat.

If it makes you feel any better, he's still alive.  Coming to terms with his death, actually...  Just took a lungful of dirt and is waiting until the pain goes away.

I guess that's something at least...  I didn't have to do that, though.  I warned him.

I'm not blaming you for crushing him, Twilight.  As a matter of fact I support it entirely; these dregs should learn their place.  Even if it's only one measly life at a time.  Just, if you're going to start killing, I suggest waiting until you command everyone around you to bend at your will before making examples.  If you leave nothing behind but blood on the cobblestone there's no way for these blind citizens to know who to fear.

I guess that's true...  But I didn't do it to scare anyone... anyone but him... and not even that, really. he just had it coming.

You can lie to yourself, Twilight, but don't lie to me.  You enjoyed it.

Alright, fine, I did.  He was a worthless waste of life and I'm happy to have taken it away from him.

That's the spirit.  Just pour a little bleach in the gene pool until it's exactly the color you want it.

You all done up there?

Oh yes, I have been for a while.  I've just been watching you and confirming a few theories.

What's there to confirm?

Well, if you had paid a little more attention to your surroundings during your romp with Thunderhead and your altercation with Dusty--

His name was Dusty?

Yes...  Beautifully ironic, isn't it?  Anyway, if you had paid more attention to your surroundings, you would have noticed a significant change in temperature during those moments of passion.

I noticed that at the apartment, but what's that got to do with anything?

I'm sure you recall that I keep telling you to temper your emotions, yes?

How could I forget?  Twilight was a little sarcastic, but still sincere.  She had to come back from talking down to other ponies and then immediately addressing her instructor.

Well, this is a perfect example.  Passion is a very unstable thing, Twilight, whether it be driven by anger or pleasure or any other emotion you might be able to conjure.  A normal being experiences certain physiological changes relating to their cognitive function during moments of passion, but you're no normal being.  Since your body and mind draw energy from a place of limitless power, rather than from the world around you, moments of passion essentially turn you into a living heat-sink.  It's not always enough power flowing through you to cause any real damage, but it does radiate outward into the surrounding environment.  As a matter of fact, you actually started to melt the garbage cans that you were near in that alleyway.  I was worried that would happen, but it's certainly good to know.

Is it that big of a problem?  It seems like it could even be used to intimidate if nothing else.

Normally I'd agree with you, but you seem to be misunderstanding something fundamental about the way your universe works.  The Aether is not a 'place' in this plane of existence, but is instead its own place entirely.  When you draw energy from it to fuel your body, you disengage yourself from this universe's supply of energy for the limitless flow that is the Aether.  Your universe has a set and specific amount of energy.  It never goes away, and none of it is ever produced, it simply exists in different forms, some stored and some free, and is always changing with time and reaction.  When you draw too much power from the Aether and radiate it out into the surrounding universe, you're actually adding energy to something that should not be changing... ever.  It may only be a tiny bit compared to the vastness of your universe, but every little bit will contribute to the eventual decay of this plane, and since you plan to live forever, that will directly effect you at some point.

Alright, Iago, I'll keep that in mind.

Be sure that you do.  I respect you, Twilight, I really do, but I need you to pay careful attention to how you use the power I've given you.  If you aren't careful, you could destroy not only yourself, but also this world.  Perhaps even the universe if you're extraordinarily careless.

The gravity of everything had been slowly sinking in, finally rooting itself into Twilight's mind during this statement.  She simply caved in and gave her gratitude to her councilor.  Alright, Iago.  Thank you for the guidance, and please keep it coming.

I'll be the torchlight that guides you.  Just be sure to aim me in the right direction.

Heh...  Well it's been one damn eventful day.  I think I need to go home and just... rest.

You've certainly earned it, my student.  Rest well.