Written by RandomString, Proofread by Knight of Cerebus

Twilight awoke with a yawn. The sun would be rising soon, so she slipped out of bed without waking Li'l Twi and trotted out to her balcony.

Settling down to face the sun, the chill autumn air slowly robbing her of the heat she had stolen from the bed, Twilight waited for the dawn.

She was rewarded by the early rosy glow of the rising sun reaching into the sky, setting the underside of the nocturnal clouds ablaze with light. The clouds, which Rainbow's team had put out yesterday evening to keep Ponyville tolerably warm, were going to be burned off by the sun soon enough. The pegasi would clear any stragglers away in a few hours, but until then Twilight could enjoy the glorious sight.

She was so lost in wonder at the beauty of the dawn that she didn't see Midnight settle down beside her. She only became aware of her presence when the aroma of a mug of fresh ground coffee wafted by her nose and she turned her head.

Accepting her mug with surprised thanks, Twilight watched as Midnight sipped from her own. She didn't notice the magic aura that told any who cared that Midnight was no ordinary pegasus, all Twilight noticed was the beautiful face, the elegant neck, the relaxed grace of the mare beside her.

The slight ruffle of a wing caught Twilight's eye, and she watched with adoring silence as it stretched out to protect Twilight from the cool breeze coming in from the north. Twilight sighed and shifted in close to her lover, who nickered with approval.

If Twilight spent more time admiring the figure beside her than the dawn, neither pony seemed to mind.

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

"It's different. The day is it its most beautiful at dawn and dusk. That's when the light is at its most majestic, the colours strongest. Nighttime is completely different; moon rise is breathtaking, but the glory of the night is when the moon is full and the land is coated in silver and shadows. Just because I love the dawn doesn't mean I don't appreciate the night."

"Hmph."

"Aww, don't be like that Luna. I'll tell you what, after this week is over and Ponyville shuts down for winter, I'll shift my sleep cycle to match yours and you can show me all the ways I'm wrong. How does that sound?"

"Do you truly believe I will be mollified by you stroking my wings? Do you really think I am that easy to manipulate?"

"Yes. Didn't you read all the contents of that letter Princess Celestia sent me yesterday?"

"Aaah. Curse my sister for telling you all my secrets. I shall have my revenge. Mmmm, that is good. Do not stop what you are doing and I shall forgive you your love of the dawn. Keep it up and I shall even forgive you that smirk you are wearing now."

"Be careful what you say, Luna, or I'll break out the belly rubs."

"Mmmmmm. Tia torments me from afar by teaching my lover how to please me. There is no end to my sister's cunning. I am defeated."

"Very poetic. Now, would you like your torment to include scratches behind your ears?"

"Mmmmmmmm"

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

Luna escaped from her blissful repose when needs of the flesh took away her hoofmaiden. Stretching luxuriously, wings spread at their full expanse, she held a perfect pose for a breath and then relaxed. Turning her back on her sister's work, she set about finding breakfast.

Twilight returned to the bedroom to find Luna gone. Twilight headed for the stairs in search of her but stopped when a squawking sound of disapproval came from Li'l Twi. The now tightly-tethered filly had found herself dragged from both sleep and the bed by Twilight's movement down the hall, and she was glaring at Twilight for her betrayal. Bally was rolling in small, agitated circles around her.

Twilight scratched behind Li'l Twi's ears in apology, the begrudging acceptance of which was slow in coming, and then headed downstairs to find Luna.

Twilight found her downstairs, sharing breakfast with Spike. Luna was teaching him how to make breakfast waffles without pre-made batter, and they were enjoying eating the mistakes slathered in honey.

"Good morning, Twilight. Luna- I mean Midnight is teaching me how to cook fresh waffles! You sit there and you can have the good ones. Midnight and I will eat all the ones that don't come out right."

Luna and Spike were stuffed by the time that Twilight considered herself properly fed. Luna held cooking to be an art and insisted that Spike work to a very high standard. If she ended up with far more waffles this way, it was surely a coincidence.

Once properly prepared for the day, Spike left for his second day off with Twilight's blessing. Said blessing included bodily lifting him and depositing him outside the library front door when he dithered about leaving Twilight to fend for herself all day for two days in a row.

Twilight came back to the kitchen to start the washing up only to find Luna already doing it, with her hooves.

"Luna, you don't need to do that. You cooked, so I should wash. And we're alone, so you can use magic, you know."

"This is fine, thank you, Twilight Sparkle. It has been a long time since I have done these chores. They bring back good memories."

"Oh?" asked Twilight as she moved alongside Luna to dry the plates with a dishcloth.

"Oh yes. I mentioned my relationship with Starswirl previously, did I not? When court life grew too much for us, we would escape for a while to a hut in the woods. We shared the chores as well as the bed. It was a good time."

"Starswirl. Wow. You did mention him before, but I didn't think about it. Did he- I mean, was he- Um. Am I any good?"

Luna laughed, "It is good to see that I am not the only one struggling with jealousy, Twilight. Rest your fears. You are Twilight Sparkle. He was Starswirl. I will not belittle my relationships by comparing them. You are a most wonderful lover."

Both mares were lost in each other's eyes, but only briefly, as they were soon distracted by the retching noise coming from Li'l Twi.

"What? I'm tethered too tightly to leave the room when you two go all lovey-dovey. Only thing Bally and I can do is give some helpful commentary."

"'Helpful'?"

"Yup, I'm helpfully reminding you what you would have felt about all this when you were four. I can't leave your presence now, so all I can do is be as helpful as possible. Alongside helpfully letting you know what I think, I shall helpfully remind you of other things.

"Like, um, this kitchen. Do you remember how many cups, plates and saucers you've broken in here? Do you remember how each of the chips in that mug you're drying were formed? I'll remind you. I cannot escape you, but tether me and I shall become more helpful than you can possibly imagine!"

"It's for your own good, Li'l Twi! I don't want you fading away!"

"Better to fade away than be stuck here with you all the time!"

"Take that back!"

"PEACE!" shouted Luna, and there was peace.

Both Twilights were nose to nose and practically snorting at each other. As one they turned their heads to the goddess in the room.

"Please explain the nature of your argument, Twilight. No, I mean the other Twilight."

Twilight explained to Luna about the alterations she made to Li'l Twi's spell to stop the fading. Li'l Twi explained to Luna that Twilight was an over-protective doodyhead and that being tethered to Twilight all the time was no fun. Twilight explained to Luna that fun could be found anywhere, but life was precious. Luna explained to both ponies that they would both be quiet or she would banish them both to the moon.

"Twilight, you can't keep a little filly trapped in a library. They need to be free. In particular they need to be free to be elsewhere when your marefriend decides that she wants to be 'lovey-dovey'."

"I know that, Luna. This is just temporary, until I can work out a permanent solution."

"Let me see if I understand the problem. Li'l Twi is gaining independence and in doing so, she is no longer able to survive on your natural magical bleed."

"Yes."

"And your solution to this is to curtail her independence and growth?"

"Temporarily-"

"Twilight, this is a simple equation. Her life expectancy is inversely proportional to her growth and freedom. How do you envisage overcoming that problem?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" wailed Twilight, "But I don't want her to fade away!"

"May I offer another option?"

Twilight looked up hopefully.

"Ask for help. Consider her nature: a phantasmal construct of your subconscious. Can you think of any pony who would know much about such things?" Luna was smiling comfortingly at Twilight.

"You? You're saying that she's a dream?"

"She is not a dream, but I believe she could be. I would have to make arrangements, but the dreaming is large enough to support another permanent resident."

"I'm not leaving Bally! He can't survive on his own! He's just a little ball!", said Li'l Twi, rushing to Bally's side and clutching it protectively. Twilight refrained from pointing out the Bally was nearly the size of Li'l Twi.

"Your ball was already a denizen of the dreaming until you kidnapped it, Little Twilight. It will be welcome back home."

"Oh, that's right," said Li'l Twi, now hiding behind Bally in embarrassment.

"Hold on, if Li'l Twi moves to the dreaming, does that mean I'll only see her when I dream?"

"We may be able arrange occasional visits. While your own personality is divergent from hers, can you think of somepony whose personality is a closer match and who would be willing to support her?"

Twilight buried her head in her hooves and mumbled, "I'm an idiot."

Li'l Twi was less restrained, gleefully shouting "Rainbow Dash!" at the top of her small but effective lungs.

Li'l Twi grinned at the mares staring at her. The grin faltered. "What? Rainbow is awesome! Wait, did you mean Rarity? That would make more sense," Li'l Twi admitted with a hoof raised musingly to her chin, "she's all magically sparkly and is all generous and stuff."

"Now I know you're messing with us," said Twilight with a grin.

"I will need to consult your notes, Twilight, and make arrangements so that the other dreamwalkers will recognise her. We will also need to check that Miss Pie will be willing to support the filly when she visits Ponyville. All this is assuming that you are amenable, Little Twilight?"

"Are you kidding? I get to be a nightmare! Raaargh!," Li'l Twi reared onto two hooves and struck a pose that would not have struck fear in the most timid of Fluttershy's animal friends.

"Thank you Luna," said Twilight, embracing her lover, "let me get you my notes."

"You are welcome, Twilight Sparkle. Now it will take a few days to arrange, but at the rate of Little Twilight's fading, you should be able to allow her her freedom without worries."

"Yay!"

Twilight nodded and once again tried to adjust the fine details of the spell maintaining Li'l Twi. With a delicate touch that was difficult for her, she reduced the tether that was holding the filly back. She looked up to see if the change had the desired impact and recoiled with alarm.

Li'l Twi was fading rapidly before her eyes, her mouth open in a soundless shout. Twilight dived forward to the phantom, but her hooves caught only air. Li'l Twi was gone.

"No!" shouted a shocked Twilight. She desperately checked the spell, but everything seemed to be correct-

She was distracted by a ball bouncing off the back of her head. Whipping her head around, she saw Li'l Twi sitting on top of the horsehead statue. Everything about her was only slightly faded, as intended, except her grin.

"You deserved that for tethering me, you meanie."

Relief gave a sharp edge to Twilight's laughter, but she nevertheless welcomed Li'l Twi into a nuzzling hug as Luna looked on fondly.

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

Never one to over-extend a sharing moment, Li'l Twi soon bolted for the door, Bally in tow, leaving a hasty "Out to play, 'bye!" in her wake.

Twilight gave an exasperated sigh and turned to hug Luna.

"Thank you Luna, I don't know what you would do without you."

"Read books and boss Spike around?" offered Luna.

Twilight laughed and shrugged, "Probably. Ooh. Talking about bossing ponies around, I believe it is your turn today and we have an hour before the library opens. Give me a moment."

Twilight rushed off before Luna could say a word. A few minutes later she trotted back into the room, grinning delightedly and wearing a pet collar. She was carrying a leash in her mouth and dropped it at Luna's hooves.

"Twilight, what is this?"

Twilight tried to purr and rub herself against Luna's leg. Luna stopped her with a hoof raised in a commanding fashion and a stern look.

"Mew?"

"Speak, Twilight."

Twilight sighed, "I'm sorry, I thought it was obvious. You don't have a pet and we couldn't find you one earlier, so I will be your pet for the day. See?"

Twilight leaned her head back to proudly display the tag on the pet collar which said, "I belong to Luna". The last word had clearly been scratched onto the tag by Twilight.

"Twilight-" sighed Luna, only to be interrupted by the mare in question.

"Now, I need to open and run the library today, because Spike has the day off, but I was hoping we could play a little now and more later when the library closes. You can teach me tricks, make me beg and if I'm obedient you can give me treats! There are some mini-cupcakes in the larder. If I'm bad, I'll need to be punished, of course. And at the end of the day, there are things that you can do to me that you're not allowed to do to pets," this last was said with a blush.

"Twilight, stop. It's not that I'm not interested, but I had something else in mind today."

Twilight cocked her head quizzically at Luna.

"Twilight, I am keenly aware that I have not been keeping up my end of our bargain."

"Oh?"

"We agreed that we would take turns, did we not? Since then, you have played with my horn. All our other encounters were either dominated by me, interrupted, or summarily cancelled. I set the tone for last night's dream and tried to put you in a position that you clearly did not enjoy.

"I must make amends and while I am not so foalish as to keep score, I think that if I act as your slave for the remainder of my holiday here, to be punished and rewarded at your whim, we may bring the account to balance."

Twilight stood frozen for a while, and then started smiling an evil smile that would have been perfect for the dream last night. Luna felt a delightful shiver run down her spine.

"So the first step would be to have me run the library, as yesterday."

"Are you sure? Yesterday didn't go so well, if you recall..."

"I am sure, thank you, Twilight. I need to come to terms with my anger and serving the general public anonymously seems ideal."

"In at the deep end?" laughed Twilight, "Alright, Luna. You will be my slave for the rest of the week. But! If you are having problems then you must ask me to take over or help. I don't want you to be overwhelmed."

"Thank you, Twilight. I shall obey your command. I suggest you remove the collar for now. Um, don't lose it though."

Twilight grinned at the rare disfluency that Luna displayed, and trotted away to hide the collar and fetch her notes.

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

"So what kind of pet were you trying to be anyway?"

"Well, I was going to start with something feline and then take my cues from your reaction and words."

"Twilight, no cat in history has taken a leash to its master to ask for a walk."

"I know, but that the leash was on special offer. Anyway, what pet would you prefer me to be?"

"I like the idea of a dog: Honest, loyal, playful. I can never have one because they need love and attention that I can't always give. But you can be my faithful hound."

"'Woof!' Well, ‘woof’ in an indeterminate time in the future, not today. Today you are mine. Seeing as you closed early yesterday, you're going to have to work extra hard today if you want a reward."

"Mmm, then I had better get work, mistress."

Twilight withdrew to her study, and mentally started laying out her day, which was enough to summon her little genie. Together they started to plan.

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

First was Twilight talking to Pinkie. This went as well as Twilight had expected.

"Li'l Twi! Where were you? I was going to explore up the toffee river to the fudge foothills, but I didn't have my loyal assistant!"

"Pinkie! I was grounded! Twilight wouldn't let me come out to play, the big meanie. I didn't even do anything wronger than usual, either. I was all, "I wanna go out an' play with my friends" and she was all, 'No! Friendship is not important! You-'"

"What?! I didn't say that-"

Li'l Twi raised her voice and talked over Twilight’s objection, "'Friendship is not important! You must stay next to me and be bored!' and I was like this," here Li'l Twi fell to her knees, clutching her fore-hooves together in supplication, tears welling in her eyes, "and she was like," Li'l Twi leapt to her hooves and struck a haughty and imperious pose, dismissing the little imaginary filly's imaginary pleas with a contemptuous wave of her hoof.

Pinkie was horrified and turned on Twilight, "Twilight! How could you?!"

"No! She's got it all wrong. I was trying to save her-"

"Save her from adventuring up a river of toffee? Oh Twilight, after all we've been through together and you still have no faith in my skills in wilderness exploration. I'm a baker, dammit! I can do this!"

Twilight facehoofed, "Pinkie, Li'l Twi was fading away. I needed to keep her close to reverse the fading."

Pinkie peered at the distinctly faded Li'l Twi and then looked worriedly at Twilight, "Uh, Twilight, I don't think it worked."

"Argh!"

"Don't worry, Pinkie! I'm going to turn into a nightmare! And a vampire! It's going to be awesome!"

"Does that mean that you and Twilight are going to be enemies, fighting a climactic battle that will ultimately tumble all Equestria into warfare and chaos? A cataclysmic fight that will eventually claim both your lives?"

"No! I wouldn't do that! She's, she's kinda, maybe, sorta, sometimes, um, alright,” Li’l Twi’s eyes opened with realisation, “I DIDN'T SAY THAT!"

"Awww!" said Pinkie as she watched Twilight grab Li'l Twi into a hug and the little filly try to twist free. Eventually the filly blinked away from the disappointed Twilight.

Seeing that any further attempt to hug the filly would be unwelcome, Twilight turned to Pinkie.

"Pinkie, Luna and I hope that Li'l Twi can become a dream, so she can join us when we sleep, but I'd like her to be able to manifest in Ponyville every now and then When she does so, she'll need to take just a little energy from someone whose personality matrix is concordant with hers, and we were hoping that you might be willing."

"Oh! Okay. Why didn't you just say that?"

Twilight managed to escape Sugar Cube Corner with most of her sanity intact. She hoped.

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

Next stop was a quick stop at the hardware shop. Twilight knew she wasn’t blushing, but she practically galloped out the shop in embarrassment the moment she had paid for her purchases.

Rather than lug the building materials around, she had arranged for everything to be delivered to the library. Hopefully Luna would be able to guess what some of the items were for and be mystified by other items, fuelling her anticipation.

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

“Hello, and welcome to the Carousel Boutique. Forgive me for not coming out, I just need to finish this seem and I shall be at your disposal, as it were.”

“Hello Rarity, no need to hurry on my account.”

“Twilight, darling- Oh bother! Oh well, I shall redo that seem later. Welcome back! Well, how did it go? Oh, I know I shouldn’t ask, but really, it’s all I could think about yesterday. Did- did she like it?”

“She loved it, thank you. We had a great time-”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!”

“Until Princess Celestia walked in through the door that Luna had left open.”

“What! Oooh!”

Twilight was glad to see that the drying spell in the book she had lent to Rarity had done wonders to Rarity’s divan: there was no sign of water damage whatsoever.

“Thankfully Princess Celestia approved of our relationship, which was a great relief. We had a lovely day in the city, before Luna pulled a prank on the Princess which caused us to flee.”

“Oh, how romantic! And now you’re a felon on the run, meeting up with your friends one last time before you disappear into the night with your forbidden love!”

Twilight noticed how much Rarity seemed to relish the prospect, and shivered.

“She made it seem as though the Princess, uh, flatuated on Argent Shield, one of her ladies-in-waiting. Luna’s spending a few days in Ponyville while the air clears. Um, I mean, while things calm down.”

“That’s- that’s not quite so romantic.”

“Um, sorry. I’ll be shifting my sleep cycle to match hers after tomorrow. Does that count?“

Rarity sighed, “Well, it’s better than nothing. Thank you. So, what brings you here? Come to trade inside royal Canterlot gossip for the news in Ponyville? You can give me a first-hoof account of Princess Celestia’s breakfast and I can tell you about Carrot Top’s new manestyle. An even trade, I’m sure.”

“Heh. I actually came to order a few things...”

“If this is a request for another indecent garment, well, um. I can put you to the front of the queue.”

“There’s a queue for naughty costumes now?”

“It turns out that your ‘naughty nurse’ outfit was spotted by another customer. Who told other people. Don’t worry! No-one knows it was yours. But I had a few enquiries after that, and they were offering scandalous amounts of money for scandalous outfits and I just couldn’t resist,” Rarity sighed, “It’s so hard being a responsible business mare,” she grinned, “and so much fun!”

“And not being able to gossip about who’s buying what?”

“It’s driving me crazy!”

“Well, while I may take you up on your offer later, today I just want to purchase a roll of royal blue silk; a large, flawless diamond; and place an order for a plush spider. Rubies for eyes, please. It’s for Luna.”

“Well, the diamond is easy enough, here you go, take your pick. No, no, it’s free. I’ve got simply scads of the things lying around. No-one wants plain old diamonds when they can have more colourful gemstones.”

Twilight and Rarity negotiated a price for the plush toy and the bolt of silk. Somewhat disconcertingly, Rarity tried to talk down the price of the silk as Twilight extolled its virtues and tried to push the price up. Between them, they managed to reach something close to a fair price, before Twilight headed home with her purchases and her returned book. The spider would take a couple of days due to Rarity’s rush of orders.

On the way back she was accosted by a couple of ponies she had never met before. The stallion was young, slim and bespectacled and had an open book cutie mark. His companion was heavier than most ponies and she looked to be very happy about it. As one of Luna's bat-ponies, she stood out in rustic Ponyville.

"Hello there! You simply must be Miss Twilight Sparkle," said the stallion in a Canterlot accent, "It's an absolute honour to meet you. Here, this is for you. Think of it as an early Hearth's Warming Eve present. And a 'thank you', for, well, everything. No, no, don't open it here. Wait until you're alone. Have fun!"

Both ponies appeared to be delighted when Twilight uncertainly took the heavy, clinking, black velvet bag from their hooves.

Sharing a shrug with Li'l Twi, she continued to make her way back to the library, adding the bag to the load being carried by her aura. She hadn't gotten much further before a lone earth pony with a telescope cutie mark gave her smaller, lighter bag with similar instructions and a wink.

By the time she reached the library, she was heavily laden with mysterious gifts from strangely friendly strangers. She did recognise a couple of them as Canterlot academics who had moved to serve Princess Luna upon her return, whilst others were clearly some of Luna's fanatically loyal bat-ponies.

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

She found Midnight sitting, eyes closed, in a circle scattered with chunks of destroyed magazines. She was taking deep, slow breaths and looking very relaxed.

The library still had a few patrons, but they seemed to be eyeing Midnight nervously. Twilight sighed, which caught Midnight's attention. She looked up guiltily and started trying to clean up the mess she had made, picking up the chunks in her mouth to take to the bin.

Twilight would have none of it and used her magic to grab every piece, including the one in Midnight's mouth, and binned the lot of them. Midnight sat back down, looking sheepish. Twilight teleported the gifts and her purchases to the bedroom.

A hasty whispered conversation followed.

"Midnight, are you okay?"

"I just had some very annoying news. The book suggested venting anger on inanimate objects and your old magazines were the best things available. That calmed me down enough to use the breathing exercises."

"And so the reason the rest of my patrons are staring at you is that they saw you tear several magazines to shreds and are worried that you will do the same to them?"

"It is possible that they are slightly intimidated, despite my assurances that all is well. I was hoping that my meditative calm would cause them to relax."

"It doesn’t seem to be working, Luna. Let me drop off these things and I'll come out to help."

When she returned, Twilight sent Midnight to get food. The patrons were relaxed by the time Midnight returned and all was well again. The two mares worked side by side for the rest of the day, sorting shelves and dealing with customers as Twilight slowly teased out the reason for Midnight’s upset.

“Let me see if I understand. Princess Celestia has given your ponies the day, sorry, the night off?”

“Yes.”

“And told them that the traditional Ponyville Snowfall festival would be tomorrow. And hinted to them that if they happened to visit Ponyville, Midnight would be in the Ponyville library and could be ordered around for their amusement?”

Luna’s eyes flared with indignation, “I have been forced to find what passes for pornography in this town for no less than four different sniggering ponies. Ponies who work for me.”

“I was wondering why the ‘romance’ section was looking a little bare.”

“If this library had had a copy of the Karmare Sutra, it would have a long queue to check it out today. I, I made the mistake of telling the first of my subjects to broach the topic that there was not a copy in the building, without making a search for it. They interpreted my knowledge as proof that I had already looked for it.”

“Oh dear. I hope you won’t be too hard on them when you’re back to being Princess in Canterlot.”

“Once they had laughed at my embarrassment, they apologised and offered me congratulations on finding you and wished us both success. I was not aware of this, but it seems as though Midnight is relatively well liked. I- I will not hold their actions against them.”

“Good. Please keep that in mind when I tell you that several ponies that appeared to be associated with night court activities gave me mysterious gifts this morning. I strongly suspect the gifts to be sex toys, including restraints.”

Luna sighed, “That would explain some of the more obtuse comments I received today. I cannot claim either surprise or upset; I believe that they were merely jocular gifts.”

“I’m glad that you’re taking it so well. What aren’t you telling me?”

“I am sorry, could you please explain your question?”

“You are holding something back, Luna. Why are you so annoyed with Princess Celestia’s prank?”

“Why? She is deliberately provoking me! She is sending my own ponies to embarrass me! She is interfering with my- with our holiday!”

“Keep going, Luna.”

“She told my ponies that she had banished me to my room!”

“Ah. Ouch.”

“She told them that as punishment for the breakfast prank and destroying her bedchamber doors, she has banished me to my room! I am not a little filly! The Night shall not be slighted!”

“Uh, Midnight, the customers are staring. Maybe you could stop your eyes from glowing like that and they’ll pretend it never happened? Oh, nevermind, we only had two patrons left and they’ve both run away.”

“Ah. I am sorry Twilight.”

“‘I am sorry, Mistress.’ Do get it right, slave.”

Luna hung her head and blushed with embarrassment.

“Please forgive me, mistress.”

Twilight sighed, and closed the library for the day.

“I take it, slave, that you saw my purchases from the hardware shop earlier?”

“Yes mistress. I had the delivery ponies put them in the root cellar.”

“Very good, slave. As I’m sure you guessed, I purchased those items for you. I was hoping to have the opportunity to reward you tonight. I am sure you can imagine my disappointment.”

“I am very sorry, mistress.”

“Well, slave. Let’s see. Yesterday, you closed the library early. Today you tore some of my magazines to shreds and intimidated my patrons. Do you want to guess on my review of your performance?”

“Poor, mistress?”

“Poor would be a considerable improvement on what you managed, slave. You very clearly need to be punished. You will go to the root cellar and you will sit quietly, in the dark, thinking about all you’ve done wrong and how sorry you are, until I find the time to punish you properly.”

“Yes, mistress.”

When the Golden Oak Library had been made, a great living tree had been hollowed out. The wood that had been moved to make the rooms had been sunk into the ground and used to create several large, wood-lined chambers. Twilight had turned one into her laboratory, dedicated one to book repair and storage and left the root cellar untouched.

The root cellar was mostly empty, with Twilight’s purchases neatly stacked in one corner. Neither Twilight nor Spike were in the habit of storing food as they grew up as guests in a castle and didn’t need to worry about such things.

Midnight settled down in the middle of the room without complaint. Twilight closed the door on her, plunging the room into complete darkness as she went to open her new gifts.

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

Dear Miss Sparkle,
Please forgive our naughty little prank. We were so delighted that Midnight had finally found a special somepony that we thought a little joke would would be fun. You can threaten her with these if she ever gets too boisterous. Ha ha! I wish we could see her face when she sees them, her blush would surely light up the room.
Yours affectionately,
Soft Almanac and Midnight Feast

The letter with the hoof restraints was fairly typical. There seemed to be a level of innocence exhibited by Luna’s subjects that Twilight didn’t expect and found quite charming. She looked forward to getting to know the rest of Luna’s personal subjects better.

Well aware that she had an alicorn waiting for her downstairs, an alicorn who had had a bad day and would be wanting some attention to take her mind off things at that, Twilight surveyed the gifts and selected a couple that looked to be suitable before hurrying back downstairs.

<Author’s note: just clop from here on in. There will be no plot, so you can stop reading at any time if you feel uncomfortable. Warnings: domination, mild verbal abuse, restricted movement, spanking>

Midnight was just where she had left her, facing away from the door. Twilight had a box of candles, which she lit and distributed around the outside edge of the room. Satisfied, Twilight shut the door and locked it with a loud click.

“Now we won’t be disturbed.”

She started walking around Luna, noting a slight fluttering in her wings, the first signs of arousal. When she reached Luna’s head, she noticed Luna following her with her eyes. Twilight gently grasped Luna’s head with her aura and held it to the floor.

“Slaves do not get look at their mistresses without permission.”

“I am sorry, mistress.”

“Hmph”

Twilight used her magic to cut a section of the blue silk from the bolt that Twilight had purchased. She wrapped the silk around Luna’s head as a blindfold and then released her.

“There. Wait, what’s this. Your wings are spreading out. Slave, are you enjoying this? You are. You, uh, are a filthy creature,” Twilight grinned as Luna’s wings spread further open, but kept the same tone of voice, “You enjoy being punished.”

“I am sorry, mistress, I cannot help it.”

“Hmpf. Present yourself.”

Luna obediently kept her forelegs on the ground, but raised her behind, lifting her tail out of the way. Twilight sniffed dismissively and slapped Luna’s buttock with her tail as she circled. The sound of the slap was satisfying, and Luna gave a little *huff*, which was promising.

Twilight fished out four of the eyebolts from the hardware store purchase. Too thick to just drive into the wood, Twilight had to magically meld the wood around the bolts until just the large eyelet protruded from the floor. Two were positioned in front of Luna, the other two at her hindquarters.

Another, very long stretch of silk was cut from the bolt, and formed into a couple of long, thin, ropes. Hearing only rustles of silk, Luna’s ears twitched nervously. Twilight wrapped a rope around one of Luna’s legs with her aura and secured the other end to an eyebolt, then did the same for the other leg, holding them slightly apart.

She stepped back to admire her work and noticed a slight problem: she was a lot shorter than Luna. Toying briefly with getting a box to stand on (she didn’t have a box of the right size and strength to hoof), fetching a ladder (unstable, unsafe, undignified) and making a small stand out of books (now she was just getting desperate), Twilight sighed. She then used her aura to pull at both ropes, spreading Luna’s legs much further apart, lowering her treasure to within easy reach.

Luna squawked in objection to the treatment, and Twilight decided that her legs looked a little unsteady. Thankfully the ceiling was wooden too, and Twilight had purchased quite a few eyebolts and a lot of silk. Once an eyebolt was in place and Luna’s tail was tied to a rope tied to the ceiling, bearing a portion of her weight, Twilight decided that the structure was sound enough.

She circled around to Luna’s front, trailing her tail along Luna’s side, and secured both forelegs in a similar fashion. Luna was breathing deeply and her wings were stretching out, making her excitement plain. Noting the arousal that Luna was displaying with her wings, Twilight moved on to the next stage of her plan.

Biting back an excited, nervous giggle, Twilight used another length from the bolt of silk to gently wrap up Luna’s wings. She twined the long stretch of cloth around both wings, crossing Luna’s back at the middle and leaving a reasonable length free at both ends. Luna stiffened, but made no objection.

Once Luna’s wings were wrapped in blue silk, Twilight took the bag of nails she had purchased earlier, and nailed the silk to the wooden floor. Each nail was driven into the floor by Twilight’s aura, one at a time, with a *thunk*. The silk was now taut, and Luna’s wings were held at their fullest stretch. Luna was fully restrained, to Twilight’s satisfaction.

“I hope that feels okay, Luna. I’m sure that having your wings pressed against your barrel when we’re having fun must be frustrating to you. As long as you don’t try to fold them, or fly, this should be fairly comfortable. If you don’t like it, shout out and I’ll pull out the nails. Or you can-”

“Mistress?”

“Oops, sorry. Uh, sorry, not sorry, argh!” Twilight caught herself, cleared her throat, and began again, “Slave. You are my property. I remind you that you are to make me aware should any of my property be in danger of becoming damaged. Even you.”

“Yes, mistress.”

“Good slave. Now let’s stop wasting time.”

Twilight walked to Luna’s head, the clop of her hooves the only noise in the room. With Luna’s blindfold, she had no way of seeing the aura that Twilight used to lift up the paddle she had brought in with her and the slap on her rump came as a complete surprise.

“Oh!”

“Just wanted to make sure you hadn’t fallen asleep on me, slave.”

“Never, mistress.”

Twilight grinned and slapped her rump again with the paddle, a touch harder.

“Ah!”

“You may not answer back. Do you understand?”

Luna was silent, but tried to nod her head. Twilight brought the paddle down again.

“Ah!”

“Do. You. Understand?” each word was punctuated by another slap from the paddle.

“Ah! Yes, mistress. I am sorry, mistress.”

“Good. So, let’s assess your workplace performance,” said Twilight, pacing in front of Luna as her paddle floated behind Luna, ignoring the bead of sweat that was forming on her back.

“I shall generously ignore a number of minor infractions and we shall focus on the most grievous offences. One, you closed the library early yesterday. That’s ten debits. Two, you tore up the library magazines. That’s another ten. Three, you intimidated the library patrons. That’s another ten. So that adds up to fifty debits.”

Luna made a strangled noise, which Twilight cheerfully pounced on, “What’s that slave? Do you think that you’re better at mathematics than your mistress?”

“No mistress! Never, mistress!”

“So how many debits have you earned?”

“Fifty, mistress.”

“Good slave.”

“Now, I don’t want to ignore the good work you did do. You managed to stay conscious for the entire time you were managing the library, and I know how hard that can be some days. That’s worth a bonus. And you didn’t banish anyone to the moon. That’s another bonus right there. Oh, and you looked really sexy at the front desk. That’s worth three. So in total, you earned two bonuses.”

Luna twitched, but said nothing.

“Say: ‘Thank you mistress’.”

“Thank you, mistress.”

“Very good,” said Twilight as she patted Luna’s head, “Let’s get started. Don’t lose count now, or we shall have to start over.”

Twilight delivered three quick strikes against Luna’s well-proportioned rump and and was rewarded with a short grunt with each one.

“I don’t hear any counting. We’re going to start over.”

Luna groaned.

Starting again, with Luna counting this time, Twilight worked to take Luna’s troubles away. Or at least those troubles that didn’t concern being tied up and thoroughly spanked.

About half way through Luna’s punishment, as Luna’s moans were turning insistent and her counting seemed to be getting eager, Twilight stopped. Luna whined in disappointment, but Twilight generously let that pass.

“Well, I think it’s time for one of those bonuses. Enjoy!”

Twilight giggled and trotted up to Luna’s glowing behind. She started by running a hoof in light, gentle circles around Luna’s inner thigh. The hoof drifted across her blazingly sensitive rump and down the other leg. Luna’s breathing was calming down now that the spanking had stopped, but Twilight was getting good at teasing her arousal.

As Luna’s already-damp marehood started to noticeably swell under Twilight’s ministrations, Twilight pulled her hoof away and started to lick. Long, slow, licks that drew groans of need and passion from Luna’s lips. Twilight explored the contours of Luna’s treasure with increasing pace and intensity, slipping between Luna’s lower lips and eliciting gasps and groans.

Establishing a rhythm that seemed to drive Luna wild, Twilight was relentless. Her own arousal was growing, her needs increasing at the sounds of pleasure coming from Luna, but she was dedicated to her role and didn’t let up to tend to her own needs. Once Luna seemed fully aroused and on the cusp of orgasm, Twilight pulled back.

“Well, I hope you enjoyed that.”

Luna practically howled in frustration.

“Good. Now’s let’s get back to the counting. Can you remember where we were at, or shall we have to start again at the beginning?”

Much to Twilight’s disappointment, Luna had miraculously managed to remember the count, but Twilight stayed good to her word and carried on from where they had left off. Seeing Luna’s arousal and hearing the need in her words, Twilight increased the force of each blow, most grateful that her magic meant that she was not exhausted by the work.

By the time that the count was done, Luna was panting in ecstasy. Twilight noted the drool around her muzzle and gave her a moment before speaking again.

“Well, slave, you managed to count very well. Very good work. Let’s give you that other bonus you earned.”

“Mistress, mercy,” murmured Luna.

“Hmm? Oh no! Luna! Did I go too far!? Did I hit you too hard?! You should have said! Or did you say and I was too caught up to notice? Argh!”

Twilight panicked, ripping the silken ropes to shreds in an attempt to release Luna from her bonds. Luna was forced to stir herself from her zone to calm Twilight down, pulling off her blindfold to find and hug Twilight in the dwindling candlelight.

“Twilight! No, it was wonderful! I would have told you if anything was wrong. It’s okay! It’s okay.”

“Really? Really okay?”

“Yes, Twilight. Really okay. And I loved it. But you love teasing me and I hate being teased. Until you stop teasing and make everything you’ve done up until then worth it all. So I asked for mercy, but wasn’t expecting any. Our safeword is ‘red’, remember?”

“Oh. Um. Sorry,” Twilight was feeling deeply embarrassed as she calmed down.

“It’s okay. For your first time playing this game, you were very good at it. Thank you.”

“And then I ruined the mood...”

Luna sighed.

“It happens. You’ll know better next time. Let’s tidy up here and go to bed. We can wind down nicely there.”

Twilight blinked as Luna’s magic surged, the room suddenly lit up blue with the light from her aura, even without a horn to centre on. The surviving shreds of the silk ropes untied themselves from the eyebolts and merged with the lengths that untied themselves from Luna’s hooves. Twilight watched in awe as the silk reassembled into a sheet and rejoined seamlessly with the original bolt. The nails and candles scattered across the floor were gathered, the candles extinguished, and neatly deposited next to the rest of the supplies. The eyebolts unscrewed themselves from the wood and joined the other items, the holes in the wood healing behind them. The paddle flew to hide itself underneath the other items.

Soon the only signs of their activities was the pool of fluid from under where Luna was standing, a smaller trail from Twilight and a funky smell, and then those signs too were gone. Twilight stood open mouthed, staring at Luna, who blushed.

“Wow.”

“Thank you. I have had a lot of time to practice my little tricks. Let’s go to bed.”

“Okay. And when we’re dreaming, you are teaching me magic. I know I will never be as adroit as you, but there’s so much more for me to learn.”

Luna laughed, and guided Twilight to the door. They were both smiling as they stepped into the main library room, where Spike was cleaning up a few bits of paper that Twilight had missed.

“Hi Twilight, Midnight. Have you been working on a project in the root cellar?”

“Hi Spike. Something like that,” said Twilight, furiously fighting her tendency to blush, desperately trying to keep the conversation casual, “Did you have a good day?”

“Oh yes, thank you. I was just tidying up here and then I’ll go to bed.”

“Thank you, Spike. Sleep well.”

Twilight felt relief wash over her as it became clear that Spike hadn’t spotted anything wrong and allowed Midnight to shepherd her to the stairs.

“Sleep well, Twilight, Midnight.”

They were halfway up the stairs before Spike called out curiously, “Uh, Twilight, why is there a blue silk rope tied to Midnight’s tail?”