Her Most Faithful Servant

Dear Princess Celestia,

If the previous lessons have been giving me a way to protect myself, today’s lesson was all about the offensive. Planning.

Planning is taking an end goal and slowly working your way towards it without making your intentions obvious. It takes a very keen sense of subtlety, patience, experience, unexpected directness, and all of the manipulation tactics I've learned up until this point to make a plan successful. Today, I was going to create a plan to manipulate a maid. It was my test to see if I’d learned my lessons properly.

Now, the first step of planning is to have an endgame. Usually, this is something specific. For instance, 'I want X item for free.' For my first plan, I wanted to start off small. I was going to have the maid pony do something special for me. Something that not every other guest would have the luxury to enjoy. The problem was… I didn’t know what I wanted yet. I was still figuring it out.

After this step, you need to decide what that pony needs to do in order for you to achieve your goal. This could involve them purchasing the something, making the item from scratch, or doing a specific task you want them to do. I wasn’t going to have my maid do anything risky enough to get her fired, but I did want her to bend the rules for me.

The next step is to consider how you need your target to feel in order to get them to act. This means putting yourself in their shoes and guessing how they will react to different things you will do to them. Do you guilt them or do you make accomplishing your endgame feel good to them?

Of course, there is one more important detail to keep in mind: What would stop them? What roadblocks, mental blocks, or opposing parties could interfere with who you are manipulating, and cause your plan to fail. Of course, the maid is going to feel like she’s breaking rules and doesn’t want to get in trouble. You assured me that I could namedrop you and convince any maid in the castle that Celestia wants her guest to be as comfortable as possible. Who knows, she could even be rewarded for her service.

Then, there is the meat and potatoes of the plan. It can be difficult to keep the other person on track and following the path you set for them, especially if they aren’t engaged. You have to push them to a point where your end goal isn't just the only option for them to take, but it's what they -want- to do. Plans don’t necessarily have to be about taking things from someone else either. They could also have external endgames, such as making someone else feel more confident come to think of it.

Now then, with crafting my first organized plan in mind, I headed up to my guest room. After being here over a week, I knew when the usual maid came in to do her work. Her name was Autumn Skye, likely for the gentle yellow shade of her long mane that contrasted against her robin’s egg colored fur. All of it fit very nicely with her black and white maid uniform. Standard issue for the castle. Nice choice, by the way.

She walked in, saw me, and immediately paused to back out, saying she’d come back later. I invited her in, saying now was fine, that is, if she didn’t mind company. The mare smiled and entered with her cleaning supplies. I started out simple, with kind introductory conversation. I learned her name, learned that she dreamed of living in the castle since she was a filly and that she loves her job. Of course, I complimented on how good of a job she does and how happy I’ve been with my room. The smile on her face was more than enough to tell me that my flattery was working. I was making her feel good about herself.

Which meant I could set my plan in motion. I needed to figure out what my endgame was, so I figured I would try a little…window shopping.

I told her that I’d bet she knew every little detail about all of the special rooms in the castle by now. Surprisingly, that was enough to open the floodgates. She was more than proud to tell me every single thing she knew. Blueblood’s teddy needed a washing every week. She mentioned you would have special sheets placed on your bed now and then. Oh, how I’d love to know more about that, but I’ll stay on point. What caught my attention was when she talked about Luna’s special pillows that help her sleep more restfully.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my pillows, but pillows fit for a Princess of the Night? How could I resist? I was sure there were plenty on hand for ‘just in case’ scenarios, and there was no way that any of the other maids would notice if one of the pillows went missing for a little while. I redoubled on the ‘pillow talk’ and mentioned that those sounded so nice. I offhandedly mentioned how I hadn’t been sleeping well and made a point to mention how it had been hurting my stay at the castle. Maybe because I just couldn’t get comfortable with what I had on my bed.

She gave me a questioning look and then a little smile curled on her lips.

“Hold on,” she said gently.

Jackpot.

She left the room and came back with two pillows, each one with little embroidered moons in the bottom-right corner. I laid my head on them and it was like placing my head on a cloud. No, better than a cloud. A cloud that would massage you and whisper sweet nothings in your ear as you fell asleep.

“Nopony would notice two missing for a week or so. We have plenty on hand... And you -are- Celestia’s special guest of honor after all,” she said.

I assured her that I would be putting in a very, very good word for her and her face lit up like I’d told her she’d won a million bits. She smiled, walking away from my room feeling like she’d gotten a new puppy, while I laid my head on one of my trophies, feeling the pride of sweet victory.

This feeling of power from subtly controlling others just gets better and better as days go by. Sure, today I successfully completed a small plan, but I’ll be aiming upward and trying something more daring next time. Plus, the beautiful part of it is...

If I do it right, you won’t even catch on until it’s too late.

Your Faithful Student,
Anon