"Now Twilight, you seemed to enjoy my little history lesson earlier, so I thought you might enjoy a closer view at another point in history. A more interactive look, if you will."

Twilight and Luna were standing on a high cloud bank, overlooking what seemed to be the forested mountains of eastern Equestria. The sun was high, and Twilight could make out some sort of city below her.

"Sounds lovely. What period were you thinking of?"

The cloud began to descend.

"The griffon wars had astonishingly far-reaching impacts on Equestria that are hard to see from history books. While the border nations took the brunt of the fighting, the wars twisted society in the other Equestrian nations as well. Today, we are going to take a look at the social structure that was in place well behind the front lines."

"Hmm. From what I recall, the eastern nations that were not focused on the wars were mostly magiocracies. One archmage who was the supreme ruler, served by a few dozen noble unicorns, and they in turn ordered about the pegasi who enslaved the earth ponies."

A few pegasi flew over to the cloud, but when they saw Twilight and Luna, they saluted sharply and turned away quickly.

"Things were a little more complex than that, but you have the essence of it. The magiocracies started out as benign institutions, the powerful unicorns protecting the other ponies with great shields or golems and such like. Over time, they seized more and more political power and started to think themselves superior."

"They were overthrown eventually, weren't they? I think every magiocracy was brought down either by griffons or internal rebellion."

"Eventually they fell, yes. Some survived, severely weakened, until my sister and I began the reunification, but by then the unicorn princes and princesses were merely figureheads. Our setting is the Hoofington Magiocracy, at the zenith of its power. Hundreds of thousands of ponies living under the rule of the Hoofington archmage Iron Rod."

"Iron Rod? History books paint him as, well, evil. Were they wrong?"

"Oh no, they were absolutely right. He was cruel, cunning and powerful. No pony dared gainsay his word. His power waned in his old age and he was finally overthrown, but in our scene any sane pony would sooner chew off their own hoof than raise it against him, for what he could do to his enemies was far worse."

The city was getting closer, and Twilight could make out the great shield surrounding it, similar to but weaker than the one her brother could conjure.

"Sounds horrible. So in this setting, you are the evil Iron Rod and I am the plucky heroine who attempts to overthrow you?"

Luna laughed, "Oh no, Twilight. Iron Rod shall not be overthrown today, I promise you that."

"Then what did you have in mind? Am I a slave in his harem? He did have a harem, right?"

"Oh yes. Dozens of mares, representatives of every tribe, each competing desperately for his attention. Each one selected from his kingdom for her grace and beauty."

Inside the bubble, Twilight could make out a castle. Clearly built for defence against aerial attackers, it was protected with ballistae, catapults and archers. The walls encircled the city, and the city was in the castle's shadow. The cloud passed through the shield and made a heading for the great tower.

"So I will be competing with other mares for your affections and my reward for victory will be being used for an evil pony's pleasure? It sounds a challenging role."

Luna laughed. Her horn flashed and Twilight was briefly paralysed as Luna's magic played over her body with incredible power. Twilight's head swum as everything changed. She felt herself twisting and growing, and a tremendous burning joy in her loins made her want to buck her hips. The dizziness passed and Twilight felt different. Free to move once more she sat down and stared at her belly. His belly. Twilight was now a steel-grey coated stallion.

"No, Twilight, today you shall not be the plucky heroine, nor shall you be the submissive slave. Today you shall be playing the evil overlord. Were you born in these times I assure you that you would have risen to these heights, so it seems only fair that you get a taste of what could have been."

"What?! You want me to be Iron Rod?"

"You haven't played as a stallion before. I thought it would be a nice change. You shall be Iron Rod, ruler of absolute power, with a harem that was the envy of the world. My challenge shall be to switch between roles to ensure that you are served as befitting a stallion of your stature."

"You want me to be evil?"

"Twilight, you have asked repeatedly that I play with you as the Other. If you wish me to play with evil, show me that you are willing to do the same. You need not attempt to replicate Iron Rod's atrocities, just give in a little to your darker side," Luna suddenly grinned, "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

"Uh, I'll try. 'Evil overlord'. Should be easy enough, after all lots of ponies have managed to do it by accident."

"That is an excellent attitude. I suggest that on arrival you order that you be led to your harem, so that the high courtesan can show you how to use your new equipment. After you've had some fun, feel free to explore the castle and city. There shall be many opportunities to demonstrate your power."

With that, Luna leapt off the cloud and gracefully glided out of sight. The cloud docked at the highest tower moments later.

"Whelp, better get started," said Twilight as he raised his head high, affected an appropriate sneer and stepped off the cloud towards the respectfully waiting guards.

This was the first time that Twilight tried walking with his new, larger, body and it didn't go well. Tripping on the edge of the battlements, he fell forward. He tried to catch his fall with flailing hooves, but only managed to land on his knees before the forward motion of his body propelled him further forward. Twisting in place, Twilight ended up on his back, his hind legs hanging over the battlements and all remaining shards of his dignity shattered by the fall.

With an awkward grin at the guards, Twilight struggled to rise to his hooves. The guards rushed forward to help him back upright, but seemed very reluctant to actually touch him, offering instead limbs for him to cling to.

It took a couple of tries, but Twilight managed to climb to his hooves. Now that he wasn't looking at the fearsome guards upside-down, he now noticed that they were terrified. They way that they fell to their knees before him was the first hint.

"My lord! We saw nothing!" the pony who said this, a pegasi that looked to be a full head taller than Twilight, seemed to be their captain, but he seemed to be no less afraid of his master.

"Oh no, it's quite alright. I'm just not used to these legs. Thank you kind sirs for your concern," Twilight looked down at his bloody knees and his horn flashed, "See? I remembered to use a healing spell this time! No harm done!"

The scene before her froze. The winds stopped blowing, the banners stopped mid-flutter, and amongst the guards, only the captain showed signs of animation. Twilight was disturbed to hear the captain speak with Luna's voice, "Excellent start, Twilight. I can see that you understand the true heart of evil."

Luna always did have a strong grasp of sarcasm.

"Oops, sorry Luna. The fall caught me off-guard. Let me try that again."

The flags on the tower started fluttering again in the wind. Twilight straightened and stared down at the captain of the guard.

"Miserable creature! Of course you saw nothing. Now lead me to the harem and I shall permit you to keep your skin. Cretin!"

The captain blinked and then unsteadily rose to his hooves. With a deep bow and unseemly haste he flew to the tower door and opened it for the overlord.

Twilight strode through imperiously and then coldly waited for the guard to take the lead. As the captain lead Twilight through the corridors of the castle, he spoke again, in Luna's voice.

"Uh, Twilight, I promise I'll stop breaking character, but you do know the difference between 'evil' and 'stupid', right? Threatening and insulting the captain of your guard in front of his men isn't a great way to keep him loyal, you know."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just... It's just that I haven't met that many evil people and the ones I have met have tended to be rather stupid. Um, yourself excepted, of course. You were really smart."

"Twilight, when I was possessed by the Nightmare I tried to bring about eternal night in order to encourage ponies to sleep more. 'Stupid' would be a generous term to describe the Other. Which rather supports your point. Never mind."

Luna fell silent and the captain soon brought Twilight to a gilded door flanked by a couple of unicorn guards, who snapped to attention. Twilight considered apologising to the captain but decided that it would further diminish his evil demeanour.

"Good job. Dismissed," he sniffed.

The guard bolted as fast as his wings could take him. One of the two guards opened the door for him, and Twilight stepped through, enticed by a strange new smell. It awoke strange feelings inside him; a need that had hitherto been dormant. It seemed vaguely familiar, but he was sure that it had never had an impact on him like this.

He ignored the door closing behind him, the opulence of the anteroom he walked through, the sounds of laughter ahead. He only knew that he was going in the right direction because the smell was getting stronger.

The great room he entered was supported by many pillars. Great - barred - skylights let in bright sunlight that illuminated cushions, curtains, wall hangings and plants all strategically arranged to make the room look warm, comfortable and intimate.

Many beautiful mares were lounging around on cushions or standing chatting in alcoves; it seemed that there was a chess match going on in one corner and a hoofball game at the far end. Twilight drank the sight in with his eyes, his heart pounding.

He was still staring into the room when one of the mares saw him and gasped, "Master!"

The mares turned as one and a number of them rushed forward to fawn at Twilight. Others bowed in obeisance or hovered nervously at a respectful distance. Twilight was now the centre of attention amongst a herd of attractive mares and the smell was getting stronger.

An athletic unicorn mare hurriedly pushed her way through the adoring herd. Her coat was golden, her silver mane streaked with with black. She was breathing hard from recent exercise, sweat forming beads on her coat. The way the other ponies gave way around her told Twilight that she held high status in the seraglio.

Prostrating herself before Twilight, the unicorn spoke, "My lord! I beg your mercy for not being at the entrance to welcome you. You were not expected until later, and I was playing hoofball in an attempt to escape my heat..."

Looking down on the mare, Twilight finally placed the smell: the unicorn was in heat. This familiar smell was now a delightful symphony of odours, driving rational thought away from him. Stirrings between his hind legs and a feeling of expansion told him that his equipment, as Luna put it, was ready.

She was facing the wrong way. Frustration. Words were fighting their way through the thickening funk that was overwhelming him. "Turn!" was the best he could bark out, but thankfully the mare obeyed, turning her rear towards him, tail held away to fully expose her marehood.

Leaning in, he breathed deep of the wonderful smell coming from her marehood. The mare was ready. There were no other stallions around. Guided by ancient instinct, Twilight reared up and mounted the mare, whose hooves skittered on the stone floor until she found purchase.

With a triumphal roar he thrust his hips forward, and missed his target completely. The tip of Twilight's rod bounced off the mare's flower and slipped along her stomach. He howled with frustration, she groaned with pain and need.

He pulled back, and this time he felt an aura guide his sword into its intended sheaf as he thrust forward again. Twilight had never felt anything like this before. It was almost an inversion of her usual experience, where previously the experience was a slowly building crescendo, here the intensity of the feeling took his breath away.

The thrusts of his hips quickened and the mare slip forward under the powerful force of his need. She gripped hold of his rod with her body and grunted with satisfaction in time with his thrusts as she tried to brace her hoofing. His grunts matched hers and he was gasping for breath each time he drew back. Neither pony paid any attention to their audience.

The intensity of the new experience was overwhelming, and Twilight did not know how to hold back from the rapidly approaching brink. Some subconscious thought said hold on, and he tried, but it wasn't working, as each thrust drove him further from reason.

Unable to hold back any longer, Twilight's orgasm took hold of him, and he felt his lower body spasming as it pumped his load into the mare. For a breathless moment he was in ecstasy, and then he collapsed fully on the mare, exhausted.

Once he had taken a few gasping breaths to regain his strength, he dismounted and the mare sighed deeply. The delectable smell that had pulled him into the room had lost its hold on him for now, and as his senses returned he became aware of his surroundings. In particular he noticed the lustful stares of the small herd of ponies surrounding him.

"Eeep!" Twilight blushed furiously, and looked around for somewhere to hide. All he could see were admiring eyes.

The mare whom he had mounted turned to face him and approached. Her head was held high, her air of authority undeniable and all of it was wasted due to the grin that seemed to be plastered to her face. She bowed to Twilight and spoke.

"My lord, thank you for your mercy and your blessing. Would you care to share your blessing with any other of your chattels?", she waved her hoof at the eager throng.

"Phew, that was intense. And fun. Let's do it again!"

"Yesss!", "Yay!", "Whoo!" the mares exclaimed their delight.

Twilight cast his eye about and picked a graceful earth pony with chocolate brown coat, honey mane and azure eyes. As the other mares looked on enviously, he turned her around and mounted her. Thrusting his hips forward, he found that something wasn't quite right.

"Umm..."

"My lord, even your prodigious potency will need a while to recover, unless you bring you magic to bear."

"Oh yes! Use my magic to recover my potency. Of course, silly me. Um, could you maybe talk me through it? It's, um, been a while," Twilight laughed embarrassedly.

The chief courtesan hacehoofed and then started speaking with Luna's voice as the other mares froze.

"Twilight, are you telling me that you haven't read the Karmare Sutra? You?"

"Um, well, the Ponyville library is very small you see. Very rustic. It doesn't have a copy. Not that I've looked. Um, more than three times."

"And as you were growing up, with unrestricted access to the Canterlot Library? The largest library in Equestria? Surely it has a copy?"

"Um, well, it used to have a copy."

"Used to?" asked Luna in a resigned tone.

"I'm Princess Celestia's personal student. I must be beyond approach, a model of decorum. I can't be seen reading a book like that. So, uh, I kind of snuck into the library one night-"

"You stole it?"

"Of course not! I couldn't do a thing like that! I just took it down to read. And I was about half way through the section on mares when one of the custodians surprised me. I was rather engrossed, you see. I was, um, performing an experiment based on some of the concepts it presented t-to better understand the material."

"A custodian caught you masturbating to the Karmare Sutra?"

"Well, almost. I panicked. And teleported. And I hadn't really mastered teleportation at that point. And you know you shouldn't teleport when you're not calm, because you can get a little singed. I was very not calm. I got very singed. The book, the book didn't get off quite so lightly. But I wasn't caught.

"I couldn't just tell the librarians what happened. And I couldn't off-hoofedly mention that their copy of the Karmare Sutra was missing from the restricted reading section. So I, um, didn't tell anyone that it was, um, gone."

Luna sighed, "All right. I'll get you a copy. Now isn't a good time to 'talk you through' the spell as it would take a while. Get off that poor mare and we'll get you a nice warm bath."

"Thank you. Sorry..."

"Evil Overlord, remember?"

"Oh yes, sorry. I- I mean, I'm not sorry. Arrgh!"

Luna giggled.

The mares came back to life. Twilight dismounted, and his chosen mate whined in disappointment. He allowed himself to be guided to a marble-lined shallow pool of hot water, where he gingerly lowered himself in with a sigh. He soon got comfortable reclining on his back.

The chief courtesan joined him in the water, kneeling submissively in front of him. A pale pink pegasus handed him a large, cool drink that smelled fruity and was clearly alcoholic. Twilight sighed with pleasure as the courtesan began massaging his hooves and legs.

"So, how long does recovery take for a stallion, without magical assistance?"

Luna decided to continue speaking out of character in her voice as she tenderly kneaded his muscles. "For an earth pony teenage colt? Not long. For an adult unicorn stallion who has just had a very satisfying encounter, half an hour is not unlikely."

"Half an hour?! How do the other races put up with it?"

"It's not as if they have much choice, Twilight. They just try to make the most of the fun while it's happening. I should also point out that we tend to mate rather more often than the average couple."

"Well, we've both been holding it in for a while and you are the goddess of that sort of thing, so..."

Luna laughed, "'Goddess of that sort of thing'? I shall have to add that to my list of titles. I do not say that we do it too much, just that most couples take their time and enjoy the ride.

"Stallions are encouraged to hold off for as long as possible, so that the mare has a chance of satisfaction. If I weren't playing a mare in heat, our encounter would not have been very fulfilling."

"Ouch. Sorry. Arggh! Not sorry. Not sorry."

Luna giggled, "The 'evil overlord' persona does not come naturally to you, it seems."

"No, it doesn't. Still, are you telling me that this is a close replica of an actual evil overlord's seraglio?" Twilight waved a hoof at the beautiful simpering mares, the luxurious surroundings and the garden beyond.

Luna sighed, and her eyes took on a distant look as she shook her head, "No, it isn't. You wouldn't like the real thing. I liberated a few seraglios during the reunification and they made me very angry. This is the ideal, the little fantasy for colts. I wanted your first time as a stallion to be fun."

"Thank you, then, for this," said Twilight, leaning forward and kissing Luna's nose.

"You're welcome," smiled Luna. Her massaging hooves had worked their way up Twilight's legs and were now reaching interesting territory.

"Mmmm, that's nice."

"Thank you, my lord."

"Do you like serving an evil creature who has no consideration for you?"

"I have my fantasies, just like- ahhh," Luna was interrupted as Twilight playfully rubbed a hoof between Luna's legs under the water. Impressed by the result, Twilight kept gently pressing his hoof against her as Luna reflexively moved her hips, rubbing herself against him.

"Oh, don't stop what you're doing with your hooves, courtesan. Do not forget your place."

It was Luna's turn to hum with pleasure, hips and hooves moving in synchrony. Soon her hooves were wrapped tight around Twilight's hardening member, the massage oils allowing them to move up and down his rod. Twilight put down his half-finished drink for fear of spilling it.

Twilight was as unfamiliar with this feeling as he had been with his first time as a stallion, but found the waves of building pleasure to be to his liking. He leaned back and closed his eyes, relishing in the sounds of pleasure coming from Luna and the feeling of her hooves on his shaft.

Luna's pace was increasing, the twisting motions of her hooves driving him wild, when suddenly she let go. Twilight was about to bark an order for her to continue when he found out why. Luna's head descended to engulf the length of his rod and she began to suck hard.

Twilight quickly concluded that Luna was as skilled at giving blow jobs as she was at giving horn jobs. Gasping, he pressed harder with his hoof into Luna's marehood as her wildly gyrating hips lost rhythm. Unfamiliar with his new body, he was desperately trying to find out how to resist his rapidly approaching orgasm.

"Luna!" he gasped in warning, but it was too late. As once again he felt his release flow energetically, this time into Luna's mouth. Luna seemed unsurprised by this, and started swallowing Twilight's gift. She pressed fiercely against his hoof, bringing her to the edge of her orgasm. She threw her head back when she came, releasing Twilight's stallionhood. She collapsed, trembling, into the pool, laying her head onto the marble lip.

Twilight might have stayed in the pool for the rest of the dream, drinking and being served by the mares, but Luna reminded him that she wanted to see his evil side, not his lazy one. Stung into action, Twilight imperiously marched out of the seraglio to explore the rest of his castle.

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

He was met outside the doors by a thin looking unicorn stallion with a quill and paper cutie mark.

"Welcome back, my lord. I am Arbitage. I was Twisted Quill's apprentice before his untimely death. If your lordship permits, I would be honoured to serve as your seneschal in his place."

"Thank you, Arbitage. I will permit you to attempt to take on his duties. As I have been gone a little while, I would like to tour the castle and check that it has been maintained properly in my absence. Show me that you know the layout of this place."

"Thank you, my liege. It shall be an honour. As you can see, the main atrium is in good condition and through here... the side garden is in good repair. Testimony to the diligence of your pegasi overseers, my lord. The mud ponies would not do a jot of decent work without constant supervision. Not their fault of course: all mud ponies are born half-wit and all-lazy, as my sainted mother would say."

Twilight's ear twitched as he repressed her urge to throw the unicorn over the castle walls. He could not bring himself to reply in character and so stayed silent.

"The statues that line the walk are a new addition, a humble gift from myself in tribute to your greatness. My dearly departed brother-in-law and his late wife had them on their estate in the south side of the city, but they were wasted there. They are a far better here, as reflections of your glory."

"Hmm, they do look good. Thank you."

"As you can see, the library roof took a little storm- My lord?"

Arbitage hurried to keep up with his lordship who was making a bee-line for the library.

"My lord! The tour is not yet finished. There will be time to examine your books later-" his voice suddenly switched from Arbitage's reedy drone to Luna's exasperated shout, "Twilight! Now is not the time to be lusting over books!"

Twilight turn to Luna with wide eyes, "Luna, this is an authentic archmage's library from the griffon wars period. Do you have any idea how much knowledge has been lost since that time? Just a few hours, pleeease?"

"Twilight, those puppy dog eyes may serve you well when you're an adorable mare, but on the face of one of the most evil ponies in Equestrian history they don't quite work. No books. The library has sent all its books to another city. For rebinding, or something."

"Awww..."

"Twilight, you really don't seem to be getting the hang of playing an evil-"

"No, I am not," said Twilight, suddenly annoyed, "I get that you want me to show you my darker side, but it isn't here. I'm not a handful of morals away from trying to overthrow Princess Celestia and yourself. I don't secretly dream of armies at my beck and call, I don't fantasise about harems and seraglios. This isn't me.

"We agreed to take turns, the first night. We did. You said you didn't want me to be a pet. Luna, I appreciate that today was not a good day and you need to unwind, and I want to help with that, but this isn't working. You sprang this on me without any time to mentally prepare and I'm feeling really uncomfortable."

Luna, in the guise of Arbitage, looked desolate and remorseful. Twilight trotted up to him and hugged him close. Despite his proximity, he could barely hear Arbitage whisper, "I'm sorry."

Twilight kissed Luna.

"Don't be sorry. We'll do this again. Give me a little warning beforehand and I'll be ready, ruthless and, uh, revolting?"

Luna gave a little laugh, as intended, and relaxed a little.

"Let's give it one more try right now. You had something planned for court, right?"

"Yes, there are some petitioners..."

"Excellent. I'll have one more try today to be an evil overlord. Then we'll do this again another time and I'll ace it. I promise.

"Lead me to my court, my probably-murderous assistant!"

"Right this way, my lord. And all the judges agreed that the deaths were all unfortunate coincidences. Apart from Judge Tones, and after his unfortunate accident Judge Palms overturned his ruling on appeal."

"Well, it sounds like my new assistant is either very unlucky or very competent. This should be interesting either way. No, no, please take the lead. I shall follow behind."

--------

The Hoofington court was drably functional, in comparison to the seraglio. The sunlight coming through the great windows illuminated a short queue of bored ponies. Most business was obviously conducted elsewhere, behind closed doors.

"My lord, you have three petitioners today. High Merchant Dirty Money, Force Commander Sneak Attack and," here Arbitage's tone turned to disgust, "a charity case. Name of 'Bleeding Heart' or some such."

"Very well, I will hear their petitions."

The first petitioner was the merchant, sweating and bowing. He was a very nervous, fat unicorn, with a white coat and yellow mane. He had a set of scales laden with bits as his cutie mark, but Twilight noted that the scales were not in balance.

"A thousand thanks for hearing my petition, my lord. I would not normally trouble an august personage like yourself, but I have become aware of an opportunity that could enrich both our coffers. I beg that you allow your humble servant to explain."

"Continue, merchant, and be fast about it. Do not waste my time."

"Yes, of course. Well. As you know, the Manehattenites are slowly getting an upper hoof in their interminable war with the griffons. I fear that they may turn their gaze west if they win that war, and bring trouble to our doorstep.

"My family is extensive, and we have managed to make contact with representatives of the great griffon nation. They realise their predicament and are willing to purchase Hoofington forged magical weapons at an excellent rate.

"Our only problem is getting the weapons through Manehattan territories, and here I beg your aid. Your forces could escort the shipments, protecting them from the Manehattanites and ensuring that the griffons deal with us fairly. You would, of course, receive a portion of the profits."

"Hmm, this sounds interesting, but risky. I shall have to think about it..."

"I would be overwhelmed with gratitude, my lord, if you would accept a small advance of one hundred thousand bits were you to accept this proposal. By curious chance, I have just this amount of money with me, on this slave," he waved a hoof at a heavily burdened earth pony behind him.

"I shall get back to you momentarily, good merchant. Bide a while."

"At your command, my lord."

The next petitioner was the Flight Commander, an ageing pegasus with a proud military bearing, grey coat and mane, and a bloody spear on his flank. He saluted sharply to Twilight and spoke in crisp tones.

"Thank you for seeing me, my lord. I wish to bring to your attention two problems that your military forces have. Neither are urgent, my lord, but without forward planning, they could be disastrous."

"Of course, Flight Commander. Hoofington was built on military excellence and foresight, and I would not wish to see that tradition lost."

"Firstly, our troops have been at peace for too long. We perform military exercises, of course, but without real fighting, their skills will decay and we will lose our edge. Up until now we have had our campaign against the earth pony terrorists, but with your inspired tactics they are defeated. We need a war soon or we will lose the next one.

"Secondly, we have seen a downturn in recruits. Our tactics against the terrorist bases have been tremendously effective, but not without their cost. With the massive loss of life involved, we need more troops. It will take years to train them, but we need to start now.

"My lord, these issues do not require an immediate response, but as ever, we rely on your foresight and brilliance to see us through the difficult times we find ourselves in."

"Thank you, Flight Commander. I shall think on your words. Please stay a while longer, I may have need of your stallions for a project that has recently been proposed to me."

"Yes Sir!"

The third petitioner was a small unicorn, young, timid and uncertain, with a smiling face cutie mark. He bowed low, and spoke fast, as if afraid that he might otherwise be unable to finish his statements.

"My lord, thank you for seeing me."

"Of course, Bleeding Heart, is it?"

"Uh, Blessed Heart, my lord. I work for the orphanage. The Hoofington Orphanage. We're really busy. Um, my lord, we have a lot of war orphans. More than we can feed. They're starving. My lord, could you please spare more resources so that we can tend for our charges properly? If you could see their suffering-"

"Enough!"

"Yes, my lord, thank you, my lord" said the unicorn, backing away from Twilight's throne.

Twilight thought for a moment, surveyed his petitioners, and smiled.

"Gentlecolts, I am happy to say that we can work together to resolve our different problems!"

Twilight ignored Arbitage's grimace.

"Dirty Money, I have a plan. If you sell the weapons to Manehattan, I shall send them with a sizeable fully armed escort to one of the border forts. My ponies shall then betray the Manehattenites, let the griffons into their fort and help with the slaughter. Once done, we get paid, my troops sneak back here to Hoofington and I shall blame their apparent loss on the griffons.

"We get paid twice for the weapons and extra by the griffons for turning the fort over to them and the Manehattan ponies will cease to be a nuisance for a long time, all the while thinking us friends!"

The merchant clapped his hooves with joy, "Bravo, my lord! Bravo!"

"Flight commander, this shall be the exercise that your stallions desperately need. We shall assist the griffon forces against Manehattan in a covert war. I'm sure we can rely on the griffons to betray us at some point as well, to keep things interesting."

"A war away from home, sir? Excellent. We shall draw up plans. It may be worthwhile to ensure that plenty of our earth pony blade fodder are included in the weapon shipment convoy. We will need a credible loss of life for your brilliant ruse to be truly accepted and the earth ponies are expendable."

"I'm glad to see you're already working on the details, Flight Commander. You are a credit to your uniform. Now, as to your other problem, Bleeding Heart here-"

"Uh, Blessed Heart, my lord."

"-Bleeding Heart is telling me that he has many feckless youths who would be only too willing to learn the discipline of military life. If we want killers, we need to start training them young. You may 'recruit' from his orphanage and similar institutions as you please."

"What! No, my lord! You cannot-"

"And take Bleeding Heart too. See if you can beat some stallionhood into him."

"With pleasure, my lord!" The Flight Commander was grinning evilly at the small unicorn. He gestured, and the bewildered unicorn was flanked by a couple of burly soldiers.

"Now, I understand you have half my advance for our venture here?"

Dirty Money blinked, but recovered admirably, "Half? Oh yes, of course. Half," he turned on the earth pony in anger, "Well, what are you waiting for, you idiot? Give his lordship his money so that we can go back and get the rest!"

Twilight turned to Arbitage, unable to hold back a grin at the look on his face., "Better?"

Arbitage shifted into Princess Luna, who looked very happy, "Much better. You can be despicable. Mmm..."

"Good," he turned back to the petitioners, "I've changed my mind. Flight Commander, your troops will join with the Manehattenites, fighting the griffons. Fight cleanly and do not throw away any lives. Even earth ponies'.

"Your new troops will come from the merchant classes, you may start with Dirty Money and his family. Blessed Heart, you are needed here in Hoofington. Take that chest of money on the earth pony over there and start feeding the orphans. In fact take the earth pony too and work with him to improve matters."

The petitioners were dumbstruck as Twilight trotted out, followed by Luna.

"Sorry Luna, I know it's just a dream, and I will do it properly next time, but this isn't easy for me."

"It's okay, Twilight. You still stole all that money from the merchant, enslaved him and started an expensive war, so you still did some evil."

"Ugh, thank you for making me feel better."

Luna laughed, "Well, if you want to feel better, why don't we head back to the seraglio and you can have your way with that earth pony you had your eye on earlier?" She shifted until the chocolate coated mare was trotting alongside him.

"Good idea, slave."

"Thank you, master," said Luna happily.