Maid to Last

Chapters

A Choice Maid
A Maid Mare (Epilogue)
Maidance (Epilogue)
Participation Maidal (Deleted Scenes)

A Choice Maid

For most maids in the Crystal Palace, daily toil was tedious, exhausting, and thankless. For Lowly Servant, all of these were even more so. She was not the prettiest or most graceful of the palace’s maid staff, but for the simple reason of her quick obedience and near-constant lust, she was the most available, and it was this that caused her more missed deadlines and late working hours than anything else—her work day was routinely derailed into sexual services.

It didn’t end when her shift did, either. Though eight years had worn away the novelty of her completely submissive nature, other maids among the staff still took frequent advantage of Lowly. They had their own reasons—whether it was to feel a small measure of the power so lacking in their lives as maids, to vent the frustrations of an unfulfilling career and abusive servant hierarchy, or merely to slake the day’s lusts on another pony they perceived as willing—but most took her for granted, and none ever paused to consider her need for sleep.

And why would they? Lowly Servant always said yes, and normal ponies knew and respected their own limits; it wasn’t unreasonable for them to expect the same of her. They couldn’t know that powerful magic compelled her to obedience, no matter how tired. She couldn’t tell them, and she couldn’t say no; her very mind was held in bondage. So she worked, and she fucked, and in her fleeting spare moments, she prayed for the Princess of Love, the princess she loved, to finally notice and save her.

Because it hadn’t always been like this, the broken maid thought bitterly. Once, she’d had power. Once, she’d held esteem. Once, she’d had a family who… well, her family hadn’t been that great, had they? A drunk, violent mother and a drunk, absent father had left her to starve with her sister in the middle of a Manehattan slum. As a filly of eleven years, she’d tried to pimp herself out for a few scraps of food; it was by blind luck the pony she approached had completely misunderstood her advances and awkward, childish innuendos. She’d wound up cleaning floors at—

No, that was wrong. The grey mare shifted her legs uncomfortably atop her meager bedding. The spell’s influence was still getting worse. At first, it had been content to eat at her emotions and actions, turning her into the obedient, feminine, and borderline-neurotic laborer she was now. But it hadn’t stopped. The order, the compulsion to be Lowly Servant had moved on, wearing away more and more deeply at her mind, at the fabric of her identity, her goals, and even her very memories.

It wasn’t all take, take, take. When a letter from the real Lowly Servant’s sister had arrived, Lowly had gained a whole host of new memories and feelings about a wonderful little sister, one who had been her motivation and light in a depressing and fearful foalhood. Even as the spell and the deadly set of commands had first taken hold, it had given her everything her new role in life needed—skills in washing, in cleaning, in tidying, in dusting, in knowing just how to be out of ponies’ way as she worked, in taking proper care of herself as a mare.

If anything, all of this just made it worse. The skills she’d gained were real enough, but she had no way to test her memories, old or new—not without leaving the subtlest hints that she doubted them, that she’d ever been another pony. It all left her feeling… resigned.

Who she had been was gone—there was so little left that the pony she had become could summon no more than a token resistance; life probably wouldn’t hurt as much when she finally lost her grip on what little the spell and orders hadn’t yet overwritten. And that wasn’t even her foremost trouble—

“Servant!” Miss Martinette’s screeching bellow startled Lowly out of her weary reverie. Even thinking of the devil would summon her, it seemed.

“Y-yes, Miss Martinette—” Lowly started, rolling onto her belly and ducking to avoid banging her head against the bottom of the upper bunk. She would have stood up, but Martinette was blocking her way off the bed.

“Don’t you ever think of sassing me with what I’ve told you to say, Servant!” The bear of a mare bore a scowl that only grew with every word. “The Crystal Guard is looking for you! What do you have to say for yourself?!”

“W-what? Why?! Why are they—”

“That’s what you’re going to tell me, Servant! Right now!”

“I-I don’t—”

“I don’t care! If you don’t know—fat chance of that—you’ll get off your lazy flank and turn yourself in this moment!”

“Yes, Miss Martinette.” Lowly moved to get up. Obedience was no longer a drag on her; years of conditioning left her perfectly prepared to move in lock-step with her magical compulsions. And to her surprise, Martinette didn’t make a power game out of getting out of the way. “I’ll need to leave the b-barracks to find a guard, ma’am.”

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable!” the bear-mare raged. “Fine, Servant. I’ll unlock the door, but if I hear anything was even slightly out of order, I will have you fired! Do you understand me?!”

Lowly shuddered, blurting out a “Yes, ma’am!” faster than she could think. Firing was the ultimate threat. Something in her took even the emptiest threat of losing her maiding career as seriously as the most credible threat of murder, and she wasn’t sure it was wrong. As she followed Miss Martinette to the locked door that separated the Servants’ Quarters from the rest of the Crystal Palace, the grey mare did her best to let the irritable glares from the other maids—who had probably been sleeping just fine until she did something to upset their overseer—distract her from thoughts of the consequences of a mare in her peculiar position losing her job.

It didn’t take long for Lowly to find a member of the guard patrolling the palace with a partner, get fucked from both ends at once in an open hallway thanks to the night’s inactivity and her reputation, do a quick but acceptable job of cleaning herself and the floor, and be marched straight to the royal quarters—the bedchambers of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, rulers of the Crystal Empire, themselves.

“We’ve brought her,” one of the guards announced at the door. After a few moments, the door responded by opening in a shimmering aura of pale blue magic. Lowly uttered her routine servile offering and dropped to grovel on the floor before she could even register that the face of the pony behind the door was none other than the beautiful Princess Cadance herself.

“Oh, wonderful!” The voice of the Princess in such close proximity was music to Lowly’s ears. Finally, finally! “You two have certainly… taken your time with her, so leave us. The night won’t be young much longer.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the guards said in stiff unison before turning and marching away. Once they were gone, Lowly suddenly found her downcast vision filled with soft pink hooves.

“And you don’t have to bow to me like that, dear,” Cadance said, her voice turning tender. “Stand and come in! We have a lot to talk about.”

Lowly’s heart, having dwelt so long in the icy pit of her stomach, leapt into her chest for joy. She knew. She knew! The Princess had found out what had happened and she was going to fix everything at last! The little grey mare bounced to her hooves and dashed into the room behind her Cadance. Finally, things would be set right!

The twin doors shut with a hollow, dooming slam. Cadance turned back to her maid and spoke.

“So, how have you enjoyed your vacation, my love?”

Lowly’s mouth opened. Her heart quavered in its new position. She sat down hard. After a few tries, she managed to stammer a single, incredulous word to encourage repetition, to prove it wasn’t what it sounded like the first time.

“What?”

A touch of concern found its way onto Cadance’s muzzle. “I asked how you’ve been enjoying your vacation.”

No.

“Of course I want you to have your fun, but I’ve missed the real you, Shiny.”

This wasn’t happening.

“It’s been a few years, if you lost track. I know how time flies when you’re having fun…”

No… No, it wasn’t happening.

“But I need you back now. I need my Shiny,” Cadance said. She added, in a low and sultry purr, “And I need you inside of me, love. Your stand-in is good, but he just doesn’t touch me quite the same way you did.”

Of course it wasn’t happening; it couldn’t be. Lowly smiled weakly.

“That’s—it’s very funny, milady,” the maid said, though her tone held as much humor as it usually did, which was none. She wasn’t allowed to make jokes. “B-but if you don’t need anything cleaned, or have any other orders, I have to go. Miss Martinette is going to have my head if she thinks I’m trying to short myself on sleep so I can shirk my duties tomorrow.”

“That spell,” Cadance muttered. “I’ll have to counter it later. I appreciate your attempt to maintain character, but you are not afraid to speak freely now.”

The words barely registered over the pounding blood in her ears and the growing screams of denial in Lowly’s head, and she missed the rustling of sheets in the royal bed. “Maintaining character” wasn’t her choice, wasn’t a choice; she couldn’t stop thinking of herself as the depressed whore of a maid called Lowly Servant, or even bring to mind the name of the pony she had been before. There was nopony else she could be, not without His Lordship’s intervention. And this was supposed to be a vacation?

“N-no…” Lowly whispered.

“What was that?”

“No,” she answered, automatically. No! Princess Cadance couldn’t have done this; the Princess loved her, even if she was just a maid! This had to be a bad—

The powerful vibrator spell enchanted into Lowly’s sex kicked on without warning, pulsing intense thrills of pleasure through her pussy and forcing an involuntary cry past her lips before she could bite them shut. Even years after its casting, there was no getting used to the magical stimulation. It was as powerful, irresistible, and nearly-overwhelming as ever. Silently, with what of her mind wasn’t occupied with the intensity of the sudden sensations in her snatch, Lowly was grateful. What had once felt like an inconvenience at all the wrong times had become the only thing keeping her distracted from some of her worst moments.

Still, she couldn’t afford to completely forget herself. She had standards, or maybe it was orders. Her memories weren’t entirely clear on that, but she knew she didn’t want to go moaning and squealing like a whore in front of the Princess, even if she was a whore in all but pay. She shut her mouth firmly, though she couldn’t force the heat and color in her muzzle back down.

Cadance’s lips curled in a smirk. “Oh, you naughty little thing. You tempt me, you really do.” Her horn flashed as she settled comfortably atop her sheets, and the vibrations abruptly stopped, leaving Lowly panting lightly. The Princess allowed the maid to get her breath back before speaking again. “Now, I know you’ve been enjoying your vacation…” The Princess left the words hanging, and fixed Lowly with an intent stare.

Lowly swallowed.

“I-I don’t understand,” the grey mare said. She blinked at herself in surprise; the words came more easily than she’d feared, though her nervous stammer remained by habit. “Please, Princess. Please t-tell me you don’t mean that.”

“What?” It was Cadance’s turn to blink. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Lowly caught herself instinctively shifting on the carpet, dragging her wetness across it for just a little more stimulation, and forced herself to stop, stand up, and position her tail to prevent any dripping or trickling. She’d have to clean that spot soon, before it dried. “I n-need permission to go and get a towel for the floor.”

“No,” Cadance said firmly. “Stay, and tell me what’s the matter.”

Lowly Servant swallowed again as her hooves seemed to root themselves to the floor. It was an order. She couldn’t evade, or hesitate, or resist orders. She opened her mouth.

“I-I’ve lived out every day for the past eight years without faltering n-not just because I had to, but because I could hold onto the hope that you didn’t know how bad things were, a-and you’d figure it out and fix everything,” she said, hanging her head to avoid the Princess’s reaction. Her Highness was going to be so disappointed! “M-more than anything else, that hope is what’s carried me through each day. Is… is it true?”

There was no immediate reply. After a few moments, Lowly dared to look up, and found Princess Cadance staring down from her bed, her mouth half-open and eyes wide.

“But—” the Princess squeaked. Then she took a long breath, and her eyes shifted from shock to pleading. “But it was the perfect fantasy! It was a mistake at first, but you enjoyed it—” Lowly flinched “—I know you did! The entire palace knows how freely you’ve indulged! Not that they know it was you, but you were having fun!”

By now, the sensation was familiar. Things in the maid’s head began to shift, and as her mouth opened again, the words that came out weren’t quite her own.

“I—Yes, Princess, I-I won’t deny it could be fun, but—” But you enjoyed it. Lowly shuddered. All the pain, and the fear, and the nightmares, and the backbreaking work, and the sexual torment, and what had started as rape before she gave up trying to think of ways to stop it—and looking back, you enjoyed it. She hung her head and choked on the shame, and on the sob she had to suppress. This wasn’t what she had hoped for. It wasn’t supposed to go like—like this! “P-please, Your Highness, I j-just want to go back to work.”

“Honey?” That was a different voice. It was one Lowly had grown to love and fear at once.

“Oh, finally!” Cadance said, lowering her head to nuzzle her husband’s where it lay amidst the pillows. Lowly didn’t speak up—royalty was talking now. “I thought you were going to sleep through this whole thing, Shining.”

“I’ve been awake.” There was a rustling and a creak as Prince Shining Armor sat up in bed next to his wife. In comparison to the Princess’s, the nuzzle he returned to Cadance was efficient and mechanical, though she didn’t seem to notice. His eyes briefly flicked towards Lowly as he did so, but his expression was unreadable. “Honey, I know eight years isn’t much for you, but it sounds like this was your perfect fantasy.”

While Her Highness sputtered and fumbled for words, Lowly brought herself to look at her master, her Lord Shining Armor—to truly look at him. She hadn’t seen much of His Highness and Hers together. He’d usually called on her when he had time and privacy to continue his affair, to continue to dominate and violate her and remind her just how wretched she had become—a doppleganger’s fuck toy. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed it—she hadn’t—oh Celestia, she had!—but it had left her little time to see just how he was around the wife she’d come to accept was his.

He was more than alert. He was tense—rigid, even. His eyes and ears worked together to follow everything at once. Lowly knew the sort—many of the Royal Guard had become so in the weeks following the Changeling attack on Canterlot. They’d reported nightmares and a tendency to flee from sudden noises and the sounds of insects. Sometime in the past few years her master had been hurt, and only in the presence of Her Highness did it show. There had been no great enough disaster to justify it any other way.

The maid’s heart fell back to the chill in her belly. She had known that Her Highness had attempted to recreate Shining Armor—his lordship had told her so himself—but somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong. And whatever else he may have gained for the Princess’s efforts, he must not have had Lowly’s raw ability to endure.

Was it just like how wrong things went for her? Had her master even had a choice? Had the Princess known what he had done? She had to. Keeping him so close, the Princess had to know what Lord Shining Armor had done—and probably commanded it, too. Which meant…

“Milady?” the maid said.

“I-I…” Cadance started. Then, she slipped gracefully off the royal bed and took a deep breath, placing her right forehoof against her chest, then holding it straight ahead. After that, she set it back down, and gave Lowly a calm smile. “Please, whatever it is, enough with the formality. I want you to call me by name again.”

“Yes, C-Cadance.” Lowly shuffled her hooves uncomfortably, trying not to choke on the word. Addressing Her Highness in such a familiar manner was simply wrong, and she had to take a moment to breathe, herself. “I-if milord may speak freely?”

“What?” Both of Their Highnesses were looking at Lowly now, though it took only a moment for her master’s inquisitive look to turn to gratitude, then to neutral as he looked up from the bed at Princess Cadance, whose eyes widened slightly before nodding to him. “Of—Of course. It’s almost time, anyway. You can say and do as you see fit, within reason.”

“Really?” Shining Armor said. His voice was suddenly unfamiliar, almost alien to the one Lowly knew. Then again, he wasn’t yelling at her to suck cock. “I mean, thank you. Forgive me.”

“Forgive you?” Cadance started, as Shining’s horn flared bright magenta, lighting up the room far brighter than its enchanted crystals from the effort of a spell. “Forgive—What are you—” The Princess’s mouth continued for a few moments as the built-up magic struck her. Her voice, however, did not.

“You’ve got a habit of saying things that change us as normal conversation, Cady love,” Shining said, rubbing his forehead. “I’ll lift the spell as soon as I’m done, I promise. Please, sit down.”

As Cadance complied, her husband climbed out of bed and shook his mane straight. Lowly looked up to him, and he gave her a brief smile before walking around the bed to his wife.

“I love you, Cady,” he said. His tone was still alien, but gentle. “I really do. My heart, my love, my life—all of it revolves around you. I care for you, and I trust you, and ideally, I’d spend the rest of my life with you, though I understand that’s not going to happen.”

He paused to give the Princess a nuzzle. She returned the gesture, but cautiously. Lowly understood; she couldn’t tell what her master was getting at either.

“I think our little maid here loves you just the same, in spite of all that’s happened. And that’s the problem, honey.” Shining began pacing back and forth across the floor. “I like the privileges I’ve enjoyed as Shining Armor. I like where I stand in our relationship and I love all your crazy ideas. I even appreciate what you’ve done for me.”

Abruptly, he stopped in front of Cadance, looking down at her. Lowly could see her swallow.

“I could deal with that. I wasn’t anypony important and I understand my place. But just now, you did the same to her,” he said, gesturing back at the maid with his right forehoof. Cadance’s ears suddenly drooped, and she mouthed something short that ended in no. “For me, it’s a bit like living in a gilded cage, Cady love. I don’t mind; it’s good enough. It’s certainly better than working in the scullery. You’re helpful, caring, sexy, not too demanding, and so much better than dealing with Miss Martinette every day.”

Shining Armor sat down in front of the Princess, and Lowly took that as a sign to seat herself as well—on her tail, this time. But even on it, she squirmed. Where was he taking this?

Cadance seemed to know something Lowly didn’t, though, as she hung her head and mouthed… something, her wings slumping away from her sides.

“But love, when were you going to ask us to love you? You may be long-lived, and you may have the example of Aunt—Princess Celestia’s own time off, but how many years were you going to wait before asking what we wanted, or at least what she did?”

Cadance’s mouth opened, then closed. Then she opened it again before, hanging her head further, shutting her mouth again and turning away. She closed her eyes, unable to meet anypony else’s, and Shining Armor’s gentle tone saddened.

“You… you really didn’t consider that?” he said.

There was a flurry of pink motion, then a brilliant flash of aquamarine magic, and Lowly was forced to look away and cover her eyes with her right foreleg.

“Shit! Cady!” Shining said. “Damn it!”

When the bright afterimages faded from Lowly’s vision, she saw a much gentler magenta glow radiating from the Prince’s horn.

“Teleported. Blast, why couldn’t it just be invisibility?” he muttered, terminating his spell. Then he turned sharply towards her. “You, stay right there. Tell anypony who asks that I said so.”

Like clockwork, Lowly Servant stirred at two minutes before six o’clock. Eight years of practice meant not having to worry that there was no window in the barracks to show her the Crystal Empire’s late pre-dawn light; her body was in motion, rolling her off the simple bed she slept in, before she was even awake enough to realize it.

When her legs found firm fuzziness instead of empty space to fall into, Lowly lifted her head, forcing her eyes open and trying to blink away her grogginess. An inquisitive feeling surfaced, too primitive and unawake to form a word. After a few seconds of staring, the looming threat of Miss Martinette pulled her together and up on her hooves.

This… this was not her bed in the maids’ barracks. As she looked around, Lowly found she was lying on the carpet in the royal quarters. She finally gave voice to her confusion.

“What?” It didn’t take her long to remember, though. His Highness had left and not returned after the Princess teleported away, and Lowly wasn’t sure what she had expected. She couldn’t go anywhere, though—not so much as a step away from her spot. She’d been told to stay right there, and she was going to stay right there until she starved if she had to. The spells and orders wouldn’t likely let her do otherwise.

She had grown hungry, and she was already tired after her usual hard day of work and hard night of giving pleasure to the other maids. When she realized her master wasn’t going to return any time soon, she had given in to her weariness, set her uniform aside in a neatly-folded pile, and slept. That didn’t interfere with her orders, though she was sure Miss Martinette would shout at her to sleep only in her chosen bed in the barracks once she found out. Thinking about it, she hadn’t had the opportunity to sleep anywhere else in years.

It was another three days before her Master returned, and Lowly’s excuse seemed adequate for the maid assigned to the royal bedchamber to leave her undisturbed in that time. She even provided Lowly a small ration of water and oatmeal, along with a fresh uniform, during cleaning on the second and third day. She also—unofficially—exacted sexual payments from Lowly for her trouble, but that was preferable to a more equitable experience. Having to pretend she could get off on any mare’s efforts was one of the parts of mutual service the grey maid found most irritating.

When Shining Armor did return, Lowly could tell immediately; the falls of his hoofsteps were nothing like those of the other maids, who always knew how to walk as quietly and unobtrusively as was practical. Lowly was instantly up on her hooves, curtseying towards the door with her head bowed low.

“It would be my pleasure to serve you, milord!” The customary, servile greeting popped out of her mouth without a thought.

Shining Armor surrounded the chamber doors in the telekinetic aura of his magic and swung them shut. Then, with a sigh, he slumped into an exhausted, slouching posture.

“I—Also, milord, I apologize,” Lowly continued, shifting her posture from grovelling to attentive as she spoke. Her Master’s face was full of weary bags and lined with irritation. Oh, this wouldn’t go over well. “I d-disobeyed you. I was forced to abandon the spot you ordered me to s-stay on when you left.”

“Daily necessities, I presume. Don’t answer.” Shining Armor still didn’t sound quite himself, the maid thought; he reminded her more of a very tired Miss Martinette. As he trotted around the bed, he added, “Lie down with me.”

Oh! Oh thank goodness! Lowly sprang free of her spot on the carpet, fighting to keep her eagerness restrained to a dignified trot. Days of unfulfilled torment from her vibration enchantment leapt to the fore, but she slipped into bed with care. Her attempt to burrow under the sheet and bring her muzzle between her Master’s hind legs found a swift, blocking knee instead.

“No,” Shining said gently. With hooves and weak levitation, he turned his maid around and pulled her into a close, spooning hug. “I haven’t slept. Hold still and let me rest.”

Lowly Servant suppressed a whine. With how closely she was pulled into her Master’s body, she could feel how his cock was completely flaccid, tucked neatly inside its sheath. It took everything in her to obey, to hold still instead of wiggling her rump between Shining’s hind legs and coaxing him out, teasing him into wanting her again—

The maid couldn’t go on thinking like this, but it was just too good. His Lordship never turned down her sexual advances before, and coming from not a spell but a living, breathing, sexual pony who knew exactly what she needed, the denial only stoked the growing fire in her face and hindquarters. As Lowly’s breaths grew short and ragged, though, her Master just buried his muzzle in her mane, and his own breathing turned to the slow steadiness of sleep in mere minutes.

The grey mare finally managed to fall asleep some time after nightfall, when her inner clock knew Miss Martinette would haul her to bed if needed. She was going to get in so much trouble for sleeping in her uniform, but it couldn’t be helped; His Lordship’s orders came before all others.

“Wake up.”

At the sound of Shining Armor’s voice, Lowly Servant sat upright with a gasp, struggling to come around all at once.

“You are excused from all your cleaning duties today, and for the past five as well,” her Master continued. “Wash up, place your uniform with the rest of the laundry, eat breakfast with the other maids, and meet me at the royal study in an hour.”

“Yes, milord,” Lowly slurred, still groggy. Her legs swung together off the side of the bed on automatic, and she trotted towards the door.

“We really must talk, ‘Lowly Servant,’ ” Shining said, still standing over the bed. His voice had slipped again to the unfamiliar, but not unpleasant, tone that the maid was struggling to get used to.

“Yes, milord. It was my p-pleasure to serve you.”

“You did what?!”

“I—I sat on the floor, right where His Highness said, and waited f-for him to come back, M-Miss Martinette,” Lowly said.

“For how long?!” the bear-mare screeched again.

“A-almost four days. Ma’am.” Lowly Servant gulped. Having a royal order on her side was turning out to be less helpful than she had hoped, but at least between the order and some decent rest, she had more of her composure than usual.

“Are you an idiot?!” Martinette’s voice was just below a scream now, and other maids had cleared out, leaving their co-worker to fend for herself against their supervisor.

“Yes, ma’am,” Lowly said. And also under magical compulsion, but she couldn’t say so, and spending the entire time just sitting around and waiting looked either stupid or lazy to anypony else. Lazy meant being fired. She shuddered.

“You are demoted back to the lowest of the lower servants, and you’re working three extra hours every day for a full moon to make up for this! Do you understand me?!” Martinette roared, breaking through Lowly’s composure to flatten her ears against the sides of her head.

“Y-yes, Miss Martinette,” Lowly said. It wasn’t as bad as she might have feared, at least. The extra work was welcome; to her, longer shifts only meant the other maids had less time to bother her for sex after work. And after so much practice with both, real cleaning work was often less strenuous than what was demanded of her in bed.

“Good. Go dress, eat, and do as His Highness ordered.”

“Yes, Miss Martinette.”

Lowly was to have no respite; perhaps the past few days had depleted her cosmic allowance. As she sat down at the long, shared table with her oatmeal and Feather Whisk—the maid who had attended the royal bed chamber and brought food and water while Shining Armor was away—scooted over and leaned in, keeping a low, conspiratorial tone and nudging Lowly with her right wing.

“So, how is he?”

Lowly sputtered on her first bite of oatmeal. “W-what?!”

“The Prince! Don’t tell me you didn’t. Everypony suspected, and now everypony knows,” Feather said. A few nearby ears perked towards the pair. “You were in their room for days, and another one after he came back. That’s a huge privilege, and a huge, uh, what’s the expression?”

“The fire behind the smoke of rumors?” Lowly suggested, keeping her voice low. She grimaced when she got a nod in response. “That’s not how it is. And you can’t just say these things about His Lordship!”

“Not out in public, no!” Feather giggled giddily. “Never with a royal affair! But we’re not really in public here. So spill!”

Lowly opened her mouth. Shuddering, she realized that her too-recent demotion meant Feather was unquestionably her superior. Fortunately, His Highness had made it quite clear to whom the final word, the highest authority, belonged. Lowly silenced herself by tucking into her thin oatmeal, and relished the opportunity to ignore repeated orders to tell all while she ate.

When her bowl was empty, she gave the still-insistent Feather a nervous smile, hoping not to upset the newer maid who was now above her.

“N-nothing happened last night. I’m sure it would be an—” the next word stuck in her throat for a moment “—honor and pleasure if it had.” While she pondered what else to say, Lowly picked up her bowl and stacked it with a few other empty ones to make clearing the table just a little quicker for whoever had that duty this morning. “But it’s n-not appropriate for a pony like me to even think about His Lordship like that.”

“But—But—What?!” Lowly Servant struggled to hold her breathing in check. No no no no no! What had she done so wrong? She wasn’t late. She wasn’t dirty. Her uniform was on straight, and she was fed, groomed, and energized for the day. Was it somehow her fault the Princess wasn’t back yet? Had she done something wrong in bed last night? How had it come to this?!

“I said you’re fired, Lowly Servant,” Shining Armor said. His tone was gentle, and as he spoke, he wrote something with a quill pen at his desk. “During the next, oh, three hours, you cannot panic over the consequences of this. Instead, whenever you begin to panic, you will feel calm and collected. Now, take a deep breath.”

The spell’s compulsion washed over the ex-maid. Her breathing slowed. She drew in a long, heavy breath. Things seemed… clear. Obviously, His Highness would not fire her on a whim. Or maybe he would, but then why bother doing so in person? There had to be something more going on.

After counting to five, Lowly let her breath back out.

“Yes, milord.”

Shining Armor nodded. “You’re a good m—a good pony. I want to give you better options than continuing to live under Miss Martinette’s hoof. We’re going to talk. All orders Cadance gave you are suspended, and all orders I have given you except for the following are also suspended.

“Your order to never try to harm yourself or myself is not suspended. Your order to remain discreet and keep what has happened between us secret is not suspended. Your orders to remain calm and to obey my orders above all others are not suspended.

“Additionally, everything that anypony has said in the past eight years and two months that was not explicitly an order, but which you had to take as an order, is suspended.” The Prince paused to take a heavy breath, letting it out in a sigh. “I’m sorry. I can’t just let you jump out a window, blab, or start following somepony else’s orders while I’m trying to talk to you.”

Lowly gulped. “I… I understand, milord.” No, she didn’t. She truly didn’t. How was firing her good? How else could she continue to exist within the relative safety of the castle without her job? She couldn’t just become a freeloader; this was the home, court, and fortress of the rulers of the Crystal Empire! And beyond that, one thing in all of this stood out to simply baffle her. “M-milord? Why are you being n-nice to me?”

“Because you deserve it, I’ve wanted to, and now I can. But I suspended the order regarding how you are to address me.” Shining Armor set down his quill and looked up for the first time since Lowly had entered the room. In the instant before she deferentially looked down and away, Lowly was struck by how weary his eyes were.

“So, just who are you?” he asked her.

Lowly opened her mouth to answer. But… no. His Lordship knew her name, and he—perhaps better than anypony else—knew her occupation and habits. He knew her, because he had done much to make her the pony she was now. So what was he asking?

“I d-don’t understand the question, milord.” She shrank back in her seat. It was… strange, answering like this. She wasn’t compelled to say anything; the words had to be her own, and she had to push them out herself. It had been most of a decade since she’d had to do this in speaking to anypony but a lower-ranking maid, of which there had been precious few, and the feeling it left behind sat poorly in her chest.

“I’m not sure how to make it clearer,” Shining Armor said, levitating his quill back off his desk. “Maybe I can explain a little. A pony is something more than just their experiences and job and cutie mark and feelings and achievements, and from how she instructed me, I’m not sure Cadance knew—no, no. Nevermind.” The stallion sighed. “There’s something at the core of who you are that makes you you. That’s what I want to know about.”

Lowly bowed her head, letting herself stare deep into the opaque crystal floor and ignoring the grey reflection that stared back. A tiny part of her still wanted to lift her head in defiance, glare into her Master’s eyes, and declare that she was Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire.

That part of her tripped over remembering not His Lordship’s sister, but her own, her loving little Humble Pie, the filly she would give up anything for. She didn’t remember Shining Armor’s life and schooling; she remembered getting her cutie mark while working in the Royal Guard Training Barracks where he slept, with his cutie mark within hers—on the bucket, specifically—entwining their destinies. She remembered her sister’s tears when she said her application to work at Shining Armor’s new post in the Crystal Empire was finally accepted, but it meant she would be going away for a long time.

Lowly looked up. “Milord? Is my family real?”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at that. “What do you mean?”

“I… remember things, milord," the grey mare said. "I have a little sister named Humble P-Pie, who worked at a dry-cleaner in Canterlot last I knew. On my eighth birthday, my m-mother just gave me a beer, said it was precious a-and I was lucky she d-didn’t hit me with it, and I spent the rest of the day throwing it up.”

Lowly Servant began pacing. It didn’t ease her nerves, but she kept it up anyway. “My p-parents are Spit Take and Chamber Pot, and when—when they abandoned us for good I provided for myself and my sister by cleaning floors. Later on, I hid my b-blank flank, lied about my age, and got work tidying the Royal Guard Training Barracks outside F-Fillydelphia. I saw you for the first time there, m-my cutie mark appeared shortly afterwards, a-and my excitement over it nearly got me caught and fired.”

She paused to swallow a knot. “I… I just want to know if any of that is true.”

Shining Armor opened his mouth, then shut it again. He hung his head. “It was the order to be Lowly Servant, wasn’t it,” he said.

“Y-yes, milord.” Lowly shifted uneasily on her hooves, waiting for her answer. Pushing was possible for once, but it wouldn’t be like her, and it would probably be uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry. I never meant to do that to you, but once I had time to think...” Shining Armor could no longer meet the maid’s slightly-averted eyes. “I only had to help Cadance with her little fantasy, and I used the wrong words and… I’m sorry. I—Do you remember being Shining Armor at all?”

“It was my name. My…” Lowly swallowed. “My n-name was Shining Armor. I was… you?” She blinked several times. She could say that. She could finally say that, except now, it felt weird. “I was you. Except, I d-don’t know very much about you. You’re the Prince of the Crystal Empire, a-and your sister is Princess Twilight Sparkle. That… I… I remember a few other things like a stupid birthday prank a-and getting very drunk once, but I don’t know any more, milord.”

“Then…” Shining tapped a hind hoof against the floor. “Who are you?”

“W-well, milord, if Lowly Servant is a real p-pony, that’s probably who I am.” Lowly sighed, feeling a part of herself uncoil, letting go of something. “If not, I—I don’t know, but I am not Shining Armor.”

Shining Armor took a deep breath, then sighed. “Very well. Be Lowly Servant, then. That makes things a little simpler.” He straightened in his seat and met Lowly’s eyes again; the grey mare averted hers further. “Lowly Servant was a real pony. She was scheduled to begin work the day that you did instead, and the records I found show that she was related to a Humble Pie, Spit Take, and Chamber Pot.”

Lowly’s heart did not soar. Instead, it cautiously looked up, then began climbing steadily towards her chest.

“I don’t know if any of the details are true. I… that’s not how things worked for me.” Shining sighed again and levitated his quill back over his papers. “Cadance’s spells did something terrible. Or, I think they did. I’m not even sure which one caused it, but when they made you, they… I think they made sure there was only one.” He swallowed. “Lowly Servant’s train to the Crystal Empire derailed and was destroyed during the night before I became Prince.”

“Did… did I live?” Lowly wasn’t sure what to hope for.

“Officially? You’re a very lucky pony.” Shining looked away again. “But… probably not. There wasn’t enough left of anything to be sure.”

Lowly Servant sat down sharply on the floor. This wasn’t what she had expected to learn. She had hoped she really had a life, a family—or a wonderful sister, anyway. The cost? Somepony had died. On a long, open stretch of track through the icy countryside around the Crystal Empire, she had woken to a jolt, a thud, and then everything had gone everywhere and she—

Oh merciful Celestia.

“I… I remember it. W-why—How can I remember that? I—I—I...” She gulped, and continued in a tiny voice just above a whisper, “I remember dying.”

At least it had been quick, and then… she had woken up, confused, at the center of a weird sex game in the Crystal Palace. She’d barely remembered her own name, but had somehow stumbled through the night and her introduction to the palace staff. Her work ethic and compulsion to obey had made up for how unprepared she was for such a heavy workload and such a different dormitory; she kept her new job.

And then, for more than eight years, she had always been too busy, too tired, or too afraid to write home, even when she received the occasional letter from her sister. She would have to set that right as soon as this was over.

Shining Armor lowered his head, his ears drooping. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for what’s been done to you, and I’m especially sorry for what I’ve done to you. None of this should have happened.” He straightened again. “And it won’t happen again. The following two statements will take effect as soon as I have finished speaking both of them, and until I have made them, you will stand still and be silent.”

Lowly gulped. She could only listen while His Highness talked.

“First: you will always have the free will to obey or disobey future orders, unless the order begins with ‘Cady commands,’ in which case you will obey without resistance or hesitation,” Shining said. He gave the former maid a weary smile before continuing. “Second: your identity and personality cannot be magically changed by any statement or order, and the order to ‘be Lowly Servant’ cannot by any means be terminated, modified, suspended, or overridden.”

The Prince took a deep breath, levitated all the papers off his desk, and set them back down in a neat stack. “Hopefully I will only have to worry about one of us, now,” he muttered, and Lowly barely caught it. Returning to his normal tone, Shining Armor continued. “If you don’t have any questions, you’re dismissed. You’ll be staying in the guest room my sister uses when she comes over. I think you know the one, but if not, ask a servant to show you the way. I will have an offer for you tomorrow.”

Lowly Servant bowed. “Yes, milord.” She hesitated. Things could have gone better, but at least she was almost her own mare now. Though the cost was her job, she owed her Prince her gratitude. “And… thank you. I h-haven’t had the opportunity to say that enough.”

At the door, the mare added her usual curtsey. “It was my pleasure to serve you, milord.” For once, it was true.

Author's Note

Epilogue coming soon.

Special thanks to TwistedSpectrum for inspiration and pre-reading, Canary in the Coal Mine for months of brainstorming, Damaged for editing, and Lise Eclaire for moral support. Check out their work!

A Maid Mare (Epilogue)

Lowly Servant moaned softly. It was dark, or perhaps it was light; the grey mare knew no difference under the blindfold. Her sense of time had passed; now she was simply saving her strength. The only constants were the darkness, the silent thrumming sensations between her hind legs, and the aches all through her body as she was held in a bipedal position by her unseen bonds.

Shining Armor didn’t have the raw magical power necessary to remove it, but he had learned to manipulate Lowly’s vibrator spell. Most days, he left it off. Today… today he had woken her up by turning it on. He left it that way through breakfast, steadily intensifying throughout the morning until her every step sagged from the weakness of her knees and every breath came as a gasp.

That was when he had blindfolded her, bound her up in her own closet—her own closet, she had a room to herself!—and left her with the vibration enchantment at its most powerful to struggle and stew while he took care of a visit from Princesses Celestia and Luna. She couldn’t remember what about. She could barely think as she moaned weakly for release.

Something brushed her right hind leg, and Lowly let out a startled cry. She hadn’t heard a door open—but she’d been ordered to oil the chamber and closet doors for just that reason, hadn’t she? Focusing was so difficult… but she was able to force her breathing back under control.

“Who—Who’s there?” the grey mare croaked. Celestia, what she wouldn’t do for something to drink. The only response was the steady undoing of the knots that held her hoof and tail cuffs in place. Lowly Servant slumped into a puddle on the floor as her bonds loosened, her weary muscles refusing to operate any longer. The blindfold came away, but she had to shut her eyes against the light to compensate. Then a strong hoof held her head up, and a glass of water touched her lips. She gulped it down.

Near-silent hoofsteps left her alone again, and she groaned. It hadn’t been Shining Armor, then—only somepony acting on his orders. He would have at least eased the intensity of the vibrator spell a little. Probably. Maybe… No, probably not. As she’d discovered, he was evil when he was nice. That wasn’t a bad thing.

It was almost an hour of whimpering, moaning, and occasionally spasming on the floor before she could summon the energy to reach back and try to coax her body over the final threshold to orgasm. She knew it was useless, she knew from years of long experience that the spell would prevent her from getting off without the help of a stallion’s dick buried to the hilt in her dripping pussy—but she couldn’t help it. It was too agonisingly good to not bring her hoof back and stroke her clitoris, sending jolts of pleasure up her spine and down her twitching hind legs.

“Well,” a voice said, startling Lowly out of her horny trance and bringing an extra degree of fire to her muzzle.

“Master!” she squawked. She turned her head to see Shining Armor standing in the doorway with a lecherous grin on his face. It wasn’t quite enough to stop her useless attempts to orgasm.

“Somepony’s being naughty,” Shining said, stepping into her room and shutting the door. The sound of the bolt being set into place made the ex-maid shiver. “What have I told you about being naughty?” In a haze of lust, the words were difficult to recall exactly.

“Naughty Servants… get rewards?” Lowly guessed, hoping for the best. That got a chuckle.

“Close enough. Over the bed, my little slut.”

With reluctance, Lowly Servant extracted her hoof from between her hind legs, then pulled herself off the floor. After hours of exhausting bondage in the closet, her legs wanted to give out and stay out, but thanks to a whole morning of torment, the rest of her wanted satisfaction, and that side was able to drag her legs to her bed, where she could relax and let her rear half hang off the edge.

Lowly took it a step further. She needed this, and she needed to show him just how badly. Her involuntarily-raised tail and the trickling rivulets along the slick, matted fur of her inner thighs weren’t enough. She looked over her shoulder, and just as she let her eyelids droop and her lashes flutter she clenched her vaginal muscles, making her clitoris stick out at her Master in a wink.

“Oh, damn,” Shining muttered. It had worked. Or maybe walking in to see her desperately touching herself had worked. It didn’t matter, as Lowly felt his weight on her back press her further into the mattress. She laid her head down to rest and give him more space on top of her, and he sandwiched his hardening cock between her rump and his loins, where it throbbed against her with his heartbeat.

The vibration enchantment died as her Prince’s magic glowed pink in the upper edge of her vision, and she sighed, equal parts relief and disappointment. Sometimes her Master liked the illusion of prowess that would occur when he thrust into her with the enchantment active, as her first orgasm would come almost instantly. She liked the immediate gratification almost as much as she enjoyed being forced to climax over and over again beyond the point where ecstasy turned to agony, while Shining took his sweet time with his own pleasure.

Instead, his nibbling her right ear sent pleasant tingles along her scalp and told her that such an experience would have to wait for another time. Lowly let her sigh out as a moan. As ready as she was and had been for hours, her Prince usually needed time to warm up after dealing with Guard or royal court business. She would just have to endure and try not to beg too pathetically; he hated that.

“I’m ready when you are, Master,” Lowly purred. She forcibly restrained her words and tone, balancing sultry suggestiveness with enough discipline to keep from crying out for him to fill her sudden emptiness and fuck her silly. He responded by grinding his cock along her folds and biting harder into her tender ear, sending shocks of pain along her mane and tearing a cry of confused pleasure from her throat.

With how much she hated being beaten, why didn’t she hate this? Maybe she was just too aroused.

“Milord, I—” She cut herself off as he shifted his weight off of her, his loins away from hers. Oh no, no no no, what had she done? How had she offended— “Ah!”

“Naughty mares get spanked,” Shining Armor said. He brought down his hoof again, giving his mare another hard swat on the arse and drawing another cry. “It was very naughty of you to try to get yourself off.” Another stinging swat, and another cry that wasn’t entirely pain. “And it was especially naughty of you to call me something other than ‘Master’ during playtime, my toy.”

“I’m sorry, Master, I—” Lowly couldn’t stop another yelp as Shining’s hoof came down… gently, on her neck. He lowered his voice as he stroked her mane, and she sighed, letting the soothing tone and touch sink into her muscles and unwind them.

“Easy. Easy. You’re forgiven. Remember, we’re going easy,” he said, shifting his hind legs comfortably atop the sheets. “Especially with how new this is to you. I want to get to ten and stop, like we talked about. Just seven more.”

Lowly looked up at her Master and nodded. Despite the distraction of her stinging rear, she did remember. Shining had said Cadance had introduced him to the use of pain in sex while they were together, and as insane as the idea sounded to the little grey mare, she had eventually agreed to find out whether she was the right mare for the sadistic streak being flogged had awakened in him. He would try to help by making sure she was overwhelmingly turned on before trying anything, a departure from how he’d treated her in the past but normal for how things had turned around in the past six months.

With his freedom, he really was a different stallion from the one who had shouted and hit her for not sucking his cock just right, from the one who had told her to keep her eyes open while she blew him so she could see just what she was doing with her life. That the latter had been meant to hurt, now that she thought of it, made her position just a little ironic.

“Good pet,” he said. “Now, let’s test your memory. There’s a word you’re going to say if something I do ever hurts too much, or scares you too much, or if you need me to stop for any other reason, and if you say it, I’ll stop everything I’m doing and help you. Recite it.”

Her safety word—another new development. Permission to give or deny sexual consent at her whim had been novel to begin with; wrapping her head around the idea that she could revoke consent given to the ruler of the land because she was hurt by what he was doing with it had taken most of a week. It was an amazing concept. It had let her look forward to today with, for once, a degree of confidence.

“Scullery.” The one place she hated most. Toil around the Servants’ Quarters had been tedious but fulfilling, but the initial daily grind in the scullery was everything wrong with the world of housekeeping, everything wrong with her life. It was somewhere she would never see again, but would always remember—its mention was the perfect signal that something had gone horribly wrong.

“Good girl,” Shining said. “I’m going to start again now. You should try to count. In the future, I might start over if you get the number wrong. That was three.”

“Three—gah! F-four!” Lowly said, as her Master’s hoof came down hard on her arse, just millimeters away from striking her wet, puffed-up folds. He swatted her again, harder, on the other cheek, and she couldn’t restrain another cry. After a moment recovering, she was able to whimper out, “Fi-hi-hive.”

No. She didn’t like this. The stinging brought tears to her eyes as another smack sounded off her rear. She was tough, she could take it, but the way it kept building up, burning, alternating sides to keep her off-guard, making each blow more and more painful—

“Gyaah! Ei-eight!” Lowly cried, as another stroke came down. She looked back to see the same hoof rising again, the leering of her Master as he seemed to revel in her pain—and sobbed. It was too much; it was over.

“Armadillo!”

Lowly Servant blinked. The word hadn’t fallen out of her mouth. She looked back up to find a very different expression on Shining Armor’s face. His ears were pulled back and his mouth was pulled down at the corners; his brows were knit with worry.

Right, Lowly thought. That was his safe word. But why?

“I’m sorry,” Shining said.

He knew she hurt, and he was sorry. That was enough. Lowly pulled herself close to her Master, buried her muzzle in the warm muscle of his chest, and let her tears go. After a moment, Shining began stroking her mane in silence, and she was able to relax in his half-embrace.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I hate seeing ponies really hurt. I thought I might be able to teach you to like some spice with the sugar, like Cady taught me, but I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

Lowly didn’t answer at first. She didn’t have an answer, so she continued to cling to him and let the stinging pain in her rear ebb away. But… he hadn’t meant to hurt her, not like before, and that made it a lot more bearable. As the stinging faded, she was able to relax. Finally, she pulled her muzzle out of his chest.

“It was too much for me. I was just about to say my own safeword,” Lowly said. She pulled back in her embrace, unwilling to wholly let go, and raised her head to look up at him from the sheets. “I’m glad you could tell. I’m glad you stopped. It just makes me more g-glad I accepted your offer.”

That seemed to brighten her crestfallen Master’s features. “I honestly wasn’t sure you would. I wouldn’t blame you for backing out, then or now,” he said.

Lowly shook her head. The speed with which His Lordship could switch between attuned and oblivious to her feelings would be comical if it didn’t serve as a reminder of how different his world was from hers.

“Of course not, Master.” She finally let him go and rolled onto her belly, lying comfortably upright atop the covers. As he did the same next to her, she leaned gently into his side and closed her eyes, relishing how soft she felt against his warmth and the firmness of his muscles. “How things were, I was already your concubine except in name. But it’s n-nice that you did make it official. It’s done a lot for me and my sister both, besides the fun.”

Shining Armor sighed and stroked her mane. “I only wish Cadance would come back,” he muttered.

Lowly sighed too. As relaxing as the petting was, she could let it and the warmth and closeness lull her to sleep, despite the part of her that remembered the rest of the day and wished her Master would put his hoof somewhere more… interesting. But some things were still more important than pleasure.

“You still haven’t found the Princess?” she asked.

“No, that’s not the problem.” Shining shook his head, then turned it sharply towards her. “Cady commands that you tell nopony of what you learn here today. She’s been here in the palace this whole time. She assumed a false identity and joined the maid staff. And I can’t do anything about it.”

“What?” Lowly blinked. “I-I mean, why? I mean, it’s not my p-place to question what she wants to do, but wouldn’t somepony recognize her?”

“No. She’s used some spell to make herself appear as nopony special.” Shining huffed. “I wouldn’t even have known, but Noblebroom mentioned the name she uses in her diary when petitioning me for additional resources for the Servants’ Quarters. Then I heard she never speaks, and found traces of my magic lingering about her when I had her assigned to tidy my study.”

Lowly opened her eyes and started down at the sheets. Her Princess had been so close all this time, but… as much as she was relieved to know Her Highness was alive and well, something deep in her chest didn’t respond. Didn’t she love Princess Cadance? Hadn’t she once pinned all her hopes on the Princess finding her and loving her again?

Again…? Lowly tilted her head, then shook it clear. Maybe the strangely sexual game she’d found herself in when she’d first arrived in the Empire had warped her expectations, but in that case she had grown out of it by the time His Lordship claimed her. That must have been the talk of the month around the table in the maids’ barracks…

Wait, a maid who never talks?

“W-was that her earlier?” Lowly squeaked. She got a smirk in response. Oh Celestia, it had been, and the Princess had found her in the closet, moaning in her bondage and dripping with sweat and the scent of unbridled lust—

Shining Armor let out a weak chuckle. “Oh yes. The only thing I don’t understand is why she won’t utter a sound. My mute spell couldn’t have lasted longer than twenty minutes or so. Unless… Maybe she wants to punish herself, but just because I can’t stop her doing whatever she wills doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun.

“Yes, I did arrange for her to ‘accidentally’ find you. I left written instructions—dictated, she knows my writing—suggesting you had done it to yourself—” Lowly squeaked again and hid her face in her hooves as her Master continued “—but that’s just a warm-up. She’ll see through the game, of course. She’ll know that I know, and then either play along or come back.”

Then he ran the tip of his muzzle along the edge of her left ear, breathing heated air across every centimeter. Lowly shivered, her ear flicking involuntarily but always returning.

“So, does your sister blush like that too?” Shining said.

“W-what?!” What was her Master—oh. Lowly sat up sharply. “I-I mean no! I mean, I don’t know! I didn’t do any of those awful things you said when I saw her last month!” She took a deep breath and forced the sickening mental images of compliance out of her head, replacing them with the best glare she could summon. It was a work in progress. “She’s my sister and I love her and—”

“Whoa, whoa.” Her Master held up a hoof, silencing her. “I’m teasing. I like the idea of watching the two of you, but I know it won’t happen.”

The grey mare settled back onto the sheets and huffed. “You’re lucky you’re so good in bed.” But he was a lot more than that, wasn’t he? After a moment, she muttered, “And responsible. And caring. And snuggly. A-and powerful. And gentle.” With each word, her glare melted and she burrowed back into his side a little more. “Besides, she’s still angry.”

“So if she wasn’t angry—”

“No!” Lowly rolled her eyes. He’d have to do a lot more than torture her with the vibrator spell all day to budge her on that. More like all—no, there would be no price, no matter how it was framed. Although… She lifted her tail slightly. His Lordship was most welcome to try.

What she got was a gentle nuzzle. “But thank you,” Shining murmured in her ear. Straightening, he continued, “You’ve told me a few times how grateful you are for… what you say I’ve given you. I’ve not told you enough times how glad I am to have your support. Without Cady… I feel like the whole world is laid across my withers, and you’re the only pony left to trust.”

Well, the tail-raise had been a good attempt. The grey mare looked up at her Master and smiled. She knew her Prince didn’t love her, not really. She was useful, a very well-paid whore one day and a confidant the next, but His Highness’s heart lay with the missing Princess. Sometimes, though, he knew just the right things to say to keep her heart warm. It was an arrangement, but a comfortable one, and she got far more out of it than bits or room and board.

“I know I can trust the other Princesses,” Shining said, “except for Celestia being on vacation again. I guess I mean you’re the only normal—well, relatively—oh, nevermind. I’m making an arse of myself.”

Lowly smirked. “E-excuse you, milord.” Then she relaxed her smile. “No, I understand. B-but you said Princess Celestia is on vacation? Didn’t she visit for a s-speech today?”

Shining shook his head. “I never told you, did I? Celestia’s years-long vacations are possible because she took on a changeling to temporarily fill her shoes a few decades ago. It’s what gave Cady the idea for…” He hesitated, looking down at her with an odd quirk of the eyebrow and turn of the mouth, then sighed and looked away. “I guess you wouldn’t understand anymore.”

“S-sorry, milord.” Sometimes it was difficult for the grey mare to remind herself that the world had once known her differently. Sometimes the world reminded her with a strange jolt like this. She was learning to brush it off.

“You… are forgiven. You couldn’t know.”

There was nothing left to say. After a moment, Lowly nuzzled up under Shining’s chin, then laid her head down on the sheets. He would understand if she felt a little lazy after her hours of torment, let alone the spanking and conversation afterwards, wouldn’t he?

His Lordship must have felt the same way; he settled down next to her without a word, laying his neck along hers and pulling her onto her side in a gentle, spooning embrace. Lowly snuggled backwards into it, pressing her back into Shining Armor’s chest and belly.

Shining tightened his hold on her, a powerful and breathtaking reminder of what his snuggles almost always meant in the end, just as she felt the broad head of his cock pushing out of its sheath and rubbing up against her thigh. Her pulse quickened, and the heat in her muzzle and nethers re-emerged from its embers. She turned her head to show him a sultry smile and fluttered her eyelashes. It was probably not very late in the afternoon, and he had promised to make his experiment worth it…

As she soaked in the royal bath, Shining Armor, as she had come to be known, restrained a sigh. Her orders had been different from Lowly Servant’s, and on the inside, she was still every bit the mare she’d been before Princess Cadance happened to her life. But she no longer held the silly fantasy of owning a castle and ruling its lands; she was living what little was real of that dream. Princess Celestia made it look easy, but it was work, work, and more work.

That was on top of having to continuously struggle to improve her focus with unicorn magic while simultaneously hiding how little of it she had; transforming from earth pony mare to unicorn stallion hadn’t changed the makeup of her predominantly earth pony magic, and neither had eight and a half years of practice. She was simply never going to be a complete replacement for the original Shining Armor. Shining lowered herself further into the too-hot water, letting it loosen what tension remained in her muscles.

At least on days like today, when she could arrange tutoring and activities for little Flurry Heart almost from dawn to evening, it was still possible to take care of herself. A professional nanny, carefully selected from candidates recommended by ponies she could trust, like Princess Twilight, wasn’t enough. And despite the facts—Flurry Heart was actually the old Shining Armor’s, not hers—convincing “Lowly Servant” that she had fathered the foal before the accident-turned-”vacation” was impossible. As far as poor Lowly was concerned, she had always been a mare. The former maid was a decent caretaker, but with Cadance out of the picture, Flurry Heart was left without a real parent.

Shining sighed. She wasn’t even that lucky; she still remembered what it was to be the struggling but hard-working maid called Lemon Fresh. It would be easier if she didn’t—easier if she only knew herself as Shining Armor, and easier for the little Princess Flurry if she had a father who thought of herself as such. Despite Cadance’s past help, the filly was starting to ask questions.

It wasn’t all so bad, though. While it had been difficult at first, mutual needs and Lowly Servant’s earnest and straightforward nature had conquered most of her lingering issues from her time as, essentially, Princess Cadance’s sex slave. It would never stop bothering her that her first time with Lowly had been an inexcusable crime, but ever since she’d been free to do so, Shining had given the grey mare every opportunity not only to not have sex, but to not have anything to do with her at all.

Lowly had refused to leave her in either sense, and for the time being Shining Armor was grateful; the grey mare was her only remaining physical and emotional comfort. In a palace full of liars, flatterers, sycophants, and blackmailers, Lowly was the only pony she could relax and be herself with. Sometimes things happened—the one time Lowly had tried playing “top,” Shining had started screaming out all the terror of Cadance’s dominance and the chamber guards had broken the door down to “save” her—but otherwise her bedroom had become comfortable.

Ruling the Crystal Empire wasn’t all bad, either. It was a lot of work—but she was used to lots of work, and it was good work. Well, the part that didn’t involve warding off the demands of undeserving yet entitled nobles was good work. Managing the real meat of the Empire’s affairs, when it was beyond the officials she and Cadance had delegated most lesser concerns to, was a satisfying challenge. So was continuing to lead the preparedness exercises of the Crystal Guard, which had finally been detached from the Equestrian Royal Guard at her insistence.

None of this was perfect. But as she was, she couldn’t risk interfering with the one thing that held her back: Cadance’s absence. As much as she wanted to simply use her power within the palace to retrieve the Princess and find a way to fix things, she didn’t have the magic to follow through by stripping her “wife’s” disguise. She’d only make a fool of herself; crossing Cadance’s will was still effectively impossible.

She didn’t stand to gain anything, either. Relief from her duties couldn’t happen; Lowly Servant had truly become Lowly Servant, and Shining would die before making anypony suffer through that kind of change again. But somepony had to be Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire, and Cadance was so… misdirected that if she returned and was truly contrite, one of her first acts would likely be to put Lowly back on the throne. Worse, Cadance’s return could instead mean Shining Armor would spend the rest of her life kissing and sexually submitting to the mare who had caused all of her nightmares.

Did she really want the Princess to come back?

It was a few more minutes before Shining would have to return to her daily work, if only to finish running little Flurry out of energy and put her to bed—the nanny’s schedule and “Celestia” and Luna’s visit were the only things that hadn’t lined up to let her take the day completely off. And once daddy duties were taken care of, she would probably be overrun by worthless nobles trying to catch her weary and with her guard down at the end of the day.

What remained of Lemon Fresh whimpered and sank into the steaming water until only her muzzle remained above the surface. What a mess things had turned out to be...

Cleaning herself up had taken the rest of Lowly Servant’s afternoon; it was so much more complicated when she was a lady of the palace. The past few months had taught her why royals and their guests always left so much work for the staff—cleaning up after themselves would simply take too long. The sheets just had to be changed, however, and she had left the dirty ones piled conveniently at the foot of her bed.

With the musk of His Highness’s sex and her own replaced by the light lavender scent of her shampoo, and covered by her favorite dress—a simple, modest black one that reminded Lowly of her old uniform—she was free to go about the business her lengthy bathing and styling had given her time to plan.

While the grey mare did come across a few of the maids and other staff, she ran into none of the palace nobles as she made her way towards the Servants’ Quarters, allowing her to relax instead of reluctantly adopting their upturned muzzle and strutting stride. Her path through the rough-hewn walls of the service wing brought her to the small office still occupied by Noblebroom and a maid. There had been shouting from the maid before the door opened, but it turned to awkward silence as Lowly squeezed herself into the cramped space. That was just lovely, she thought; the best she could do was let him dismiss the other mare. Those two could deal with each other later.

“Now, ah, Lady Servant,” Noblebroom said, once the office was clear. His voice contained no recognition of the irony in his form of address and he smiled, briefly. “What brings you to my humble desk?”

Lowly caught a hint of a stammer in his voice—she was probably not a well-known quantity to him now, was she? Or perhaps he was worried that his dinner staff wasn’t living up to expectations. She offered the nervous pink crystal stallion a reassuring smile of her own. It was a pity she didn’t know him as well as some of the maids; she would have to use the artificial speech His Highness had been teaching her until she understood how to connect with him.

“Noblebroom. I’ve just had a lovely bath and supper.” She glanced briefly at her front hooves; as she’d felt, they were still completely clean. “Now, I walked here all the way from my q-quarters, and my hooves are still clean enough to eat off of. You’ve obviously been putting your overdue promotion to good effect. I c-can’t believe you manage the entire palace staff from this dismal little hole—this place should be a closet.”

“This is what I was given, milady.” Noblebroom gulped and pulled himself up in his seat. “I make it work, but if I had more space, I could spend less time finding and sorting paperwork and more time doing my job.”

“I’ll have to speak to somepony.” Lowly nodded, glancing over the stacks of papers lying everywhere. Perhaps the steward, or His Lordship; from her contact with the working staff, she probably knew more about his efforts than either of them. He was as humorless as ever, but his work was exemplary in its efficiency, and while his argument was convincing, she simply felt he had earned a better workplace. Every servant had, but one step at a time. “In the meantime, s-see that you pass along my appreciation to everypony responsible.”

Noblebroom gave her a strange look, one that was at once perplexed, inquisitive, and calculating. It was one she was growing familiar with—the look of a high-ranking pony trying to figure out what game she was playing. That was another burden of life among the lords and ladies of the palace; everypony assumed she was performing some kind of intrigue, when in reality she was only trying to make everything work better.

“I’ll be sure to do that, milady,” the stallion finally said. He unfurrowed his brow. “You wanted something from me?”

“I do, but I hope it isn’t much. I only wish to know everypony who has joined the maid staff in the past eight months or so.”

As it turned out, only one pony who joined the service staff in the past year had stayed on. Her name was Amore Heart, and it had taken every bit of Lowly’s discipline to refrain from saying something exasperated and revealing in front of Noblebroom. It was such an obvious alias, and the least service-oriented name for a maid she’d ever heard—though perhaps, being Lowly Servant and somehow elevated to the status of royal concubine, she had no room to talk.

Instead, she had walked it off, and eventually made her way to the maids’ barracks, where Miss Martinette was screaming at a cowering mare right up until the moment Lowly cleared her throat. At that, the ogre-mare’s ears flicked away from her victim and she turned in fury on the intruder—only to awkwardly curtsey when she saw who it was.

“Lady Servant,” Martinette grunted. Then she straightened up. “I didn’t expect you here. You miss washing floors and chamber pots already?”

Lowly didn’t bother to make her smile more genuine as the larger mare’s target fled. Though Martinette had been hired a week after the reappearance of the Crystal Empire, she was a relic of everything wrong with the system King Sombra’s staff had run and nopony had bothered to fix. Her bile was intense and short-fused; it seemed the pressure Lowly had exerted through Noblebroom for the past month had only made the old bear worse.

“N-no, Miss Martinette.” The mare no longer terrified her. Being on the receiving end of her intensifying nastiness only brought pity to her heart. “When I was first hired, I was going through a lot of personal difficulties, a-and having you to ground me in the moment’s labor helped immensely.” She stepped forward and gave the shocked draft mare a quick hug before continuing. The words were so twisted away from the pity and anger she really felt that they made her insides knot unpleasantly, but they were what had to be said.

“It’s my turn to help you, now.” She took a breath and sighed it out. “Martinette… g-go home. You’re done here.”

“W-what?” For a moment, the air of fury around Miss Martinette burst. In the screaming monster’s place stood a confused, scared, little mare.

Lowly wished the monster hadn’t gone; she would feel better getting rid of that than something that more closely resembled a real pony with feelings and insecurities. She would have to comfort herself by knowing that what she was saying was genuinely the best advice she could think of.

“You’re hurting yourself here, and hurting everypony who works here.” Lowly glanced about; there was nopony else in immediate earshot, as was often the case when Martinette started ranting. She lowered her voice anyway. “I made sure you’d have the means; please, m-make time to take care of yourself. There’s enough in your severance pay for a counselor—”

“How dare you?” The monster was back. “You insolent little cunt! Who do you think you are? I’ll—”

“Martinette!” Lowly suppressed a smile as the other mare recoiled in surprise. Nopony ever expected her to raise her voice. She dropped it again as she continued, “You don’t work here, and you have no business with the court. I know you can see yourself out of the palace. Please do so before the Guard has to help you.”

The bear-mare opened her mouth. Lowly swallowed. If this escalated any further, it would be violent, and she would have to hope somepony brought the Guard quickly enough to keep her from being too badly mauled.

Miss Martinette closed her mouth, threw down her keyring, and stormed away. Lowly let out the breath she’d held. Thank goodness. Now she just had to arrange for a replacement. It didn’t take her long to find the maid who had been singled out for a tirade a minute before hiding in the service kitchen, and now that she had a look at her, the mare wasn’t one Lowly recognized. She knew all the staff by sight, if not by name.

“Amore Heart?”

The maid looked up at Lowly Servant. A flash of recognition blossomed and lingered in her eyes, and she nodded, a little too quickly and sharply. Lowly trotted her reassuring smile back out, and began lying like a cheetah.

“I was reading your papers earlier. You were a m-manager where you worked in Manehattan before coming here? You lost your voice in an accident there?” She got a hesitant nod again. Apparently, the disguised Princess hadn’t even considered her background before this point; Lowly would have to ask Noblebroom how he had been convinced to hire a pony without a history. Maybe she had sucked her way to the bottom? Noblebroom did seem a little gross, and if the Princess really was punishing herself…

Lowly shook her head clear. “So you have the experience to know a capable leader when you work with one.” Another tentative nod, but she already knew that Princess Cadance knew what a good leader looked like. “G-good. Please take me to the pony you think would best fill Miss Martinette’s shoes.”

Lowly Servant soon found herself in the scullery, restraining herself from shuddering too often. The place was every bit as dim and dismal as she remembered it, save for the smile of the maid working there, who was just finishing up with scrubbing the floor for the night.

“Milady!” The face and chirpy voice belonged to Squeaky Clean. Lowly remembered the topaz mare as being repeatedly demoted—by Miss Martinette, of course—for her attitude; the Princess’s pick made sense if that attitude and energy extended to her team efforts.

“It would be my pleasure to serve you.” The maid’s curtsey was a touch slow, and every part of her seemed to sag with weariness, but she—as always—bore the effort with the grace of a mare who truly loved her job and the radiance of a crystal pony who was, at the very least, content. “And it’s wonderful to know you haven’t forgotten the rest of us. What may I do for you?”

Lowly was out of energy for beating around the bush. “Miss Martinette has left the staff. Starting in the morning, I want you to fill in for her until Noblebroom decides you deserve the position.” There was no other reason for her to completely trust the opinion of “Amore Heart” besides the knowledge that she was secretly the missing Princess; Her Highness would quickly realize she’d been discovered. That was going to happen anyway with Shining Armor’s games, though, and whatever kept him from interfering with Princess Cadance’s self-imposed whatever-this-was held no sway over her.

“Congratulations,” she added.

Squeaky Clean’s mouth opened, and her jaw hung that way for a few seconds. She blinked her composure back into place quickly, however. “Y-yes milady!” Her earlier smile was replaced with a broader one and a delighted little squee. “I won’t let you down!”

Lowly nodded. “I’m sure you won’t.” And she was reasonably sure. The mare was Princess Cadance’s pick, after all. “A-and since you’re the one to ask now, please make sure the newest maids—” meaning Her Highness “—get more experience working in the House. It did me a lot of g-good when I was first hired here.” That would ensure the Princess was more available to His Highness, and ensure there was more opportunity for the Princess to see what effect she was having on the ponies around her, especially the Prince. Maybe, hopefully, something good could come of that.

Pretending it was an afterthought, she glanced to her side at the Princess-turned-maid. “Oh, and you are dismissed.”

With everything finally taken care of, Lowly began the trek back to her quarters. She had been tired before from all the sexual games of the day, and after that evening, she was exhausted. All she wanted to do now was collapse atop her sheets, let the vibrator spell have its way with her—it had activated again while she was explaining Martinette to Noblebroom—and sleep. But chipping away at the remaining post-Return problems of the Crystal Palace was worth it, and she bore her weariness with pride. King Sombra and Princess Cadance had left quite the lasting mess in their wakes, and few ponies were better qualified or in a better position to untangle the lot.

After all, cleaning up other ponies’ messes was Lowly Servant’s special talent.

Author's Note

This chapter edited by Damaged and pre-read by TwistedSpectrum. Thanks again!

Stay tuned for one last piece of the story. I think you can guess whose.

The idea of Cadance being inspired by Celestia's occasionally replacing herself with a changeling to go on vacation was inspired by another story that I'll link once I can find it again.

Maidance (Epilogue)

The crystal pony maid Amore Heart—or Cadance, as she knew herself, and formerly Princess Mi Amore Cadenza to the nobles—had been demoted again. She hadn’t done a good job cleaning up the rooms of two different nobles that week. It was her fault, and she knew it; she would be out of a job and out of the Palace if Miss Martinette were still in charge, so she wasn’t going to contest the decision.

Not that she could say anything at all. She had found out the hard way that the transformation spell she used on both of her Shining Armors had the property of melding with other active enchantments. The false Shining Armor’s mute spell had become part of the pony she was now. Her voice wasn’t suppressed at all; she simply didn’t have one.

In retrospect, it was poetic justice, Cadance thought as she set to cleaning the scullery floors for the evening. Her fake Shining was right—she was too careless with her words. She hadn’t been mindful of anything beyond the tip of her muzzle, really. She wouldn’t be wrapped in a cute little maid uniform and struggling to keep a job in the service wing of the Crystal Palace if she had been careful about anything she’d done in the past few years. But one mistake had led to another, and in a whirlwind of pain and impulsiveness, she had trapped herself here.

She wasn’t held here by a binding of her will, like the Persona spell had done to the husband she had loved too carelessly. She was glad for one last act of carelessness: She had been too lost in a fit of self-flagellatory passion to think of using that abomination of magic on herself. Instead, she transformed herself and ran off to join the maid staff that had helped her destroy her husband.

It was a good thing, in retrospect. Growing up under the watchful eye of Princess Celestia, she had taken one message to heart: Whatever you do, make sure it can teach you something. And when there was no spell forcing her to do everything she was told, she had to put her own will into everything she was told to do as a maid. If nothing else, lacking the ability to argue or talk back or even explain her failures meant she was receiving a crash course in humility and hard work.

What trapped Cadance, instead, was her next-to-last act of utter thoughtlessness. She had transformed herself to a crystal pony, to better fit in among the citizens of her city-state Empire. She hadn’t stopped to gain a more thorough understanding of the transformation spell when she was horny for her final night with the real Shining Armor, and she hadn’t stopped to study the spell when she was desperate to find an appropriate punishment. She hadn’t known, until she tried to escape it, that the transformation was as real as such things came.

Thus, while she still held tremendous, alicorn-level reserves of unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony magics, she hadn’t the right hooves, wings, or horn to channel any of them; crystal ponies had their own unique magic, of which she hadn’t even a drop.

Not only was she trapped, she was only marginally useful. Six and a half months of hellish toil had finally brought her up to par for one humble task, though, and six and a half months of scolding and near-uselessness had even brought her pride in her accomplishment: She was finally good enough to keep the dismal little scullery, and all the dishes and laundry within, spotlessly clean.

Cadance paused for a moment to give her reflection in the wet floor a wan smile. The dull aquamarine mare in the puddle smiled back, right up until a quick slosh of the mop pushed the water along to clean the next stretch of floor.

She really had fallen. But it was for the best. She deserved a humble, humbling life after she—she had—

The right word was too harsh to admit, but she had learned enough to face the monster she was. Her husband, her real Shining Armor, her knight, her prince, her love, had tried to refuse her. She had been horny, and angry over their missed anniversary; she hadn’t listened, had barely even heard him. She hadn’t even stopped there, turning her initial offense into an even worse “vacation,” but the former, if nothing else, justified what she had done to herself, and it justified accepting that she was stuck.

Besides, she thought as she hefted the soaked mop and rinsed it in the bucket, the labor was good for her. Besides the lessons she was learning by making herself do whatever she was told, it had been so long since her premature ascension to alicornhood had near-forcibly excused her from physical labor that she’d forgotten how good it felt to do hard work with her hooves. Even if the work was exhausting, demanding, and sometimes demeaning, she’d seldom rested better than on the simple, hard beds in the maids’ barracks.

Well, there had been the nightmares…

Cadance paused for a moment to shudder before continuing with her work. Of course, the content of the nightmares had caught Luna’s attention, and the older princess had been thrilled to see her adopted niece again once the terrors had been dispelled and the dream turned lucid. She had very nearly tried to force Cadance to reveal where she’d gone.

“Please, Aunt Luna, don’t tell anypony. Don’t come and find me,” Cadance had begged. At least in the dream world, she could still speak. “I don’t deserve it. Not now.”

Luna had finally relented, after extracting several promises that Cadance was safe and her nightmares were only nightmares, not the construct of some horrible creature like the Tantibus. That had been followed by the revelation that the Night Princess already knew the gist of what Cadance had done, thanks to the false Shining Armor’s nightmares—which Cadance realized she should have expected.

“You will do what you must.” The structure of Luna’s dream-self had rippled unpleasantly as she reached her conclusion. “I do not like it, and I do not approve. But if you are truly safe, for as long as I believe you are not needlessly harming yourself or other ponies and you are instead learning your lesson, Celestia and I shall be the only ones to know. I will cease my efforts to locate and arrest you only because the greatest fears to torment you here were not of retribution, but of repetition of your crimes.”

It had been that incident, two months after her disappearance, which finally grounded Cadance. Her efforts prior to that had been focused on punishing herself; ever since, she had turned to learning. Not that it made her any more worthy of the throne she’d left vacant; even if she could change herself back and claim it, there was a long journey between the pony who stood on her horseshoes and the pony who deserved to rule.

But Luna hadn’t been the only one to find her, and unfortunately, she wasn’t difficult to read; it didn’t help that when a crystal pony didn’t glitter and shine with a beautiful inner light, anypony could tell something was wrong just by looking at her. Fending off the well-meaning questions of the maids or the rare observant noble without being able to speak was difficult on its own, and they didn’t even intend to find her out. Both of Cadance’s once-lovers, both Shining Armors, had probably seen through her facade altogether.

The false stallion was particularly likely to have made her; he’d been finding more and more ways and opportunities to involve the Princess in various sexual games he would never play with another mare. On the most blatant occasion, he had enchanted her with a terribly weak, but always-on, version of the vibrator spell she had found. He had made her suffer for hours before the magic dissipated, tormenting her with vibrations that just weren’t strong enough to give her release, while she struggled to tidy his bedchamber.

She couldn’t break down and beg for more or touch herself, either. There was still the chance he was just misbehaving, for which she didn’t blame him. Besides, his casual manner and orders to simply clean up—despite the erection he’d tried to hide by lying down with a book—made it clear that she would “lose” whatever the game was if she lost control.

Being so casually dominated and molested while she worked, without any means of escape or the slightest say in the matter, had lit a fire in her that made the rest of the day torture; it was like the worst of her pubescent estrus all over again. When her work was finally over—catching up on chores after taking so long with what had been her own bedroom kept her up for hours after her usual schedule—she had gone straight to bed and begun clopping herself silly.

And that, Cadance remembered as she returned to the maids’ barracks and collapsed atop her sheet, had led to her current arrangement—because she had forgotten to make sure the mare resting in the bunk across from hers was actually asleep.

That mare, Spit Shine, was as crude and vulgar as her name implied. She shamelessly abused her own interpretations of rules, and even her accent screamed “lowborn.” And by forgetting her privacy, Cadance had drawn her attention.

“Well, don’t you look a sight?” And speaking of the devil… Cadance turned over and looked up, just in time to have her head pinned to her mattress by a face full of pussy. “Now, I think you know the drill, love.”

The trapped Princess did know the drill, and while she couldn’t say no, she could always disobey. She had, the first time; as enjoyable as it had been trading sexes with her husband and fucking his newfound pussy in every way she could think of, she had still been too angry with herself to play with anypony when Spit Shine approached her, and another mare was only a little more fun than masturbating when she had a pussy of her own. It wasn’t as if mares felt or tasted bad, though, and as she obediently lifted her tongue to please the one sitting on her muzzle, she knew there was another, desperately-needed lesson buried in the act.

“Just a maid,” she’d said. The memory made her snort. She wasn’t above anypony.

She could live like this. She would live like this, despite the best efforts of her Shining Armors. All the alicorn magic trapped inside her did have one practical application: It would keep her alive, and even relatively young, for at least a few more centuries.

Perhaps in another standard lifetime or two she could be trusted with power and worthy of claiming the crown. More likely, another pony would sit on the throne by then, and that was probably for the best; she could retire to the palace of her royal aunts in Equestria, or possibly the crystal castle of her sister-in-law. Or maybe… maybe she would stay on as a maid for whomever ruled the Crystal Empire a few generations from now. She might even be a good one by then.

The only thing she was certain of was that she had to outlive both the real Shining Armor and the fake before she could think about coming out of hiding. They could forgive her, but she would never trust herself around them again.

Then the other maid derailed her thoughts with a well-placed tongue. Crude, rude, and oft-ungrateful as Spit Shine was, the touch reminded her that the mare always paid at least one orgasm for her own climax. That was their arrangement. And as the pussy covering her mouth began to twitch, the thighs straddling her head tightened to comfortably squash her face, and Spit Shine’s gasps built to a high and shameless cry of pleasure, Amore Heart took comfort in the knowledge that she could at least do one thing right.

Author's Note

Edited by Damaged and pre-read by TwistedSpectrum. Thanks again!

This chapter exists mainly because of Penalt, and draws inspiration from the epilogue to TwistedSpectrum's Royal Duties.

Participation Maidal (Deleted Scenes)

Author's Note

Put simply, making Maid to Last into a story required cutting a lot of interesting ideas that ultimately didn't fit what I wanted to do with it. Some ideas were a little on the absurd side, some didn't fit into the story's timeline or what the story was about, and others simply turned what was meant as an ending back into the beginning of a long series of dramas.

But I don't feel it's fair to deny all of these ideas the light of day forever just because I don't want to spend another year writing for this universe. Posted below are some of the ideas that didn't make the cut for one reason or another, but which I still found interesting or amusing enough to share.

Beware of minimal edits. None of this is canon to any story, and most entries are not canon to each other.

Participation Maidal (Deleted Scenes)

It was another three days before the royal couple returned. Even before she looked, Lowly Servant knew her Master's and Princess's hoofsteps: loud, relaxed, and confident. She turned and threw herself into a low bow.

“It would be my pleasure to serve you, milord and lady!” popped out of her mouth without a thought. Then she looked up—and whimpered.

Looking down at Lowly in amusement was a face she’d hoped never to see again. Its black, leathery, near-equine muzzle, its green eyes, and its wicked fangs belonged to Queen Chrysalis.

“Please just m-make it q-quick,” the maid added. She didn’t stand a chance against a regular changeling soldier, let alone the near-alicorn Queen. She couldn’t even run—no, she had to run, she couldn’t let herself be hurt, she had to tell a guard so her Master would know too—

“Ah, I was wondering what you did with the real Shining Armor,” Chrysalis said, chuckling. Lowly shuddered at the familiar dual-tone of the changeling’s voice.

“You’re lucky the guards avoid listening too closely when you and I go to our room together, Cadance.” Shining Armor, his voice returned to normal, stepped into view around Chrysalis. His horn glowed, and the doors swung closed again. “And that nopony was coming. What were you thinking, dropping the disguise before the doors were even shut?”

“A calculated risk, and one that would blow up in your face, not mine,” Chrysalis said, cackling. “Why? The Canterlot dungeon is as dull as it is lax.”

Lowly Servant blinked in confusion. “What?”

“You will not, in any way, communicate Chrysalis’ presence to anyone,” Shining Armor instructed. “You will not hint at it in any way, and you will act in every way as though she is Princess Cadance.”

“Y-Yes, milord. I—I’m terribly sorry for my display, P-Princess. I d-don’t know what came over me.” Lowly gulped. Every instinct still told her to flee, but was suppressed by her new order. She had hoped that doing her Master the favour of freeing him from his constraints of speech and action would help make things better, not… whatever this was.

“If you’re trying to ruin this for me, you’re not doing a very good job,” Chrysalis said. She rolled her eyes as she continued, “Shining Armor, servile and dressed to scrub chamber pots, is the funniest thing I’ve seen in nearly a decade. Not that the dungeons have set that bar very high.”

Lowly Servant flopped into what passed for her bed in the maids' quarters, her body aching, and shut her eyes. She'd had to move around far too many princess-size mattresses and jugs of heavy fluids while playing her part in eradicating an infestation of bedbugs. The effort had been successful, as determined by a unicorn overseeing the work, but it had drained her, and Miss Martinette hadn't cared enough to let Lowly off her remaining duties. She never did, not that Lowly was ever able to ask.

"Um, h-hey, sis..." The unfamiliar voice came from her side. There was a pause before the weary maid opened her eyes again and looked to its source. The speaker was a younger mare, her coat a pale, near-gray purple and her shoulder-length bob of mane a dull teal. She was wearing a maid's uniform identical to all the others, but what caught Lowly's attention were her eyes. They were light blue, and slightly flattened at the top—identical to her own.

"Who...?"

"Oh, come on!" the new pony whined. "Don't tell me you don't recognise me!"

"Then I w-won't," Lowly said, sighing at being forbidden to answer by the form of the question itself.

"...Sis, are you okay?" Why was this pony addressing her as family? It had to be a case of mistaken identity, and so bound to end in tears. Still, Lowly determined to go along with whatever she had to do and get some sleep. It wasn't as though she had alternatives.

"Y-yes, I'm okay."

"Good, because I... I'm not. Look, L-Lowie, do I really have to...?"

"H-Have to what?" Lowly said, blinking. The mare's tone had taken a terrified edge, and her words were coming more and more quickly. That couldn't be good.

"W-Well, one of the others said there's this—this ritual, for all the 'new girls...' "

Alarm broke through Lowly Servant's weariness—but at the same time, so did relief. A new girl. A new girl! That meant she wasn't the newest maid anymore. For the first time in over two years, there was somepony in the palace below her station.

"I know of it," Lowly said, cautiously. She restrained further comment, uncertain what her compulsions would allow her to say. There was the matter of who this pony was, too, and who she'd mistaken her for.

"I... I don't want to do it, Lowie!" the other mare whispered, bringing her muzzle down close to Lowly's ear, which flicked against the pony's rapid breaths. "It's just... it's too weird! But when I said we were related, Spit Shine just said that made her want to watch! I d-don't know what to do—you have to help me!"

A familiar Why me? passed through Lowly Servant's mind. "Y-you're sure you have the right pony?" she said, matching the stranger's low whisper. Her eyes wandered away from her visitor, around the small room that passed for a dormitory in the maids' barracks. Sight Seen, the only other maid present, had already dozed off in her usual spot, the bottom bunk opposite Lowly's. Nopony was paying attention.

"O-of course I'm sure! I'd recognise you anywhere, Lowly! Th-this isn't the time for a test, o-or whatever you're doing! I'm scared! I don't want to do this!"

That confirmed it. Whoever this pony was knew the real Lowly Servant. Better yet, this was apparently supposed to be her sister, and she'd probably end up forced to service her at some point. Lowly forced down a sob.

"I-I'm okay with that," Lowly murmured. But the other maids wouldn't be. Whatever she came up with—and she was being looked up to, to come up with something—would have to satisfy them as well. And the only thing that would satisfy them was knowing she'd... taken advantage of the new hire, the same way she had been used before and almost every night since.

Taking advantage of this filly wouldn't do anything for her, though. She knew this all too well—there were mares who would drive her mad, but only a stallion could give her release and fulfillment. Even if she'd wanted to use this mare—and the claim to be her sister made that idea even less appealing than it already was—she couldn't.

And then, she knew what had to be done. Sighing, she sat up and rolled off the mattress, standing next to her would-be sister in the cramped space between the beds.

"I'll help you. O-of course I'll try to help," Lowly whispered. "C-could you lie down on your back, and turn your m-muzzle towards the wall? Please? We have to m-make it look like we did..."

After a silent moment, the new girl nodded and climbed into bed, positioning herself as directed. Without ceremony, Lowly Servant got on top of her, plopped her rump down on the side of the poor pony's head, and pulled the sheets up around her hips to partially obscure the non-act.

After a minute, she began making moaning sounds. Faking pleasure was treading familiar ground—there had been mares, now and then, who weren't satisfied until she came too. She'd lost track of the times she'd had to put on a show before she would be left alone.

Fortunately, her "partner" picked up the idea quickly, and after profuse whispers of gratitude joined in the act, though she was nowhere near as good at it. It didn't matter.

Then the vibrator spell activated again, and some of the moans weren't fake anymore. That was when Spit Shine, Lowly's bunkmate and the first to exploit her, walked in.

"Now ain't the pair o' ye a sight?" she said with a chuckle. "Ye ought'a've said ye had such a pretty sister, love. Now ye take good care of her, if'n ye know what I mean. I'll be waiting for ye 'upstairs,' after."

Unfortunately, Lowly Servant did know what Spit Shine meant—she knew it exactly. At least, Lowly thought as the white mare clambered up to the top bunk, nopony could see her face. She was free to cry while she obeyed.

~~~

"S-So that's...?"

The new maid was still trembling on the floor, but her tears had run dry by the time Lowly Servant finished servicing the others and returned, wordless, to her own bed. Lowly simply nodded. With the vibrator spell still active, she didn't trust herself to open her mouth.

"I... I didn't want to believe..."

There was a long silence, broken only by the soft breathing of the sleeping maids in the other three bunks and a rustle of sheets as Lowly tucked herself into her own.

"...Why? Why, Lee-Lee?" The mare heaved, a dry sobbing-retching sound tearing out of her throat. Lowly Servant couldn't answer. The words Because I had no choice! stuck in her throat, and the only things she could say without revealing herself were unpleasant justifications.

That she liked it, that she was just doing as suggested, that the poor mare had done something to deserve it, that she'd seen her squirming in pleasure so it couldn't have actually been bad—all the words she could use tasted vile. They were words that justified how the others treated her, not the horrible thing she had done.

Lowly decided to cry her eyes out later, once the other mare left to find somewhere to bed down, and for just the briefest moment, she was able to hate the spell she lived under.

"W-Why did you do that? Why did it feel g-g—" the newly-broken maid heaved another dry, sobbing retch "—g-good? What is wrong with me?!"

Oh no no. No. Lowly couldn't let her would-be sister blame herself. That was her job. She was the one who was responsible, and she would be the one to bear it. She was the one whose weight had held this pony down, forcing service upon her. She was the one who could still feel the mare struggling beneath her, hear the mare begging quietly for her to stop before lapsing into tears... just as she had once wished she could struggle and plead beneath Lord Shining Armor.

"N-nothing. I-I... I'm messed up," Lowly said, setting the Crystal Empire's new, unsung record for understatement. "I messed up. I-I'm sorry." Though there was no fear of rank with this pony, she still couldn't raise her eyes and look at her.

"You've... you've ch-changed, Lee-Lee. I shouldn't have tried to follow you here," the new maid said, her voice weak. "I sh-should have known. Y-you said you'd write and you didn't, a-and... and I should have known!"

"It's n-not your fault," Lowly said quietly. She swallowed a hard knot. "You couldn't have known I would... that I'd..."

Both of them lapsed into silence, broken occasionally by the mare's new bout of hiccups. Finally, Lowly worked up the courage to speak again.

“...Why did you follow me here?”

“B-Because I always looked up to you,” the filly muttered. She laid her head down on the floor, careless of the discomfort. “Always. I… I wish I had known..."

"Y-yeah!" Shining Armor grunted, thrusting his rod into Lowly Servant's throat. "Take it all the way, you little whore!"

"Take what all the way?" The new voice was familiar and unfamiliar at once. Princess Cadance's lips envenomed every word, and her muzzle twisted in a scowl.

"C-Cadance! It's not... well... no. It's exactly what it looks like," Shining said, hanging his head. Lowly Servant took that as her cue to get off his cock. She had already taken it all the way, so even if she wanted to do more, the thought she’d already managed to offend the Princess was terrifying enough to avoid further trouble.

"I see. You. Maid. Get out."

"Y-Yes Your Majesty!" Lowly hurried to comply, nearly tripping over herself in her scrambling efforts to get her cleaning supplies and sheets back onto the cart.

"Inform your supervisor I have personally forbidden you from ever servicing my bedchamber again. And you, Shining..."

As Lowly escorted her cart out of the room, her ears pinned back against her skull in humiliation, she caught a few last words before a soft blue magical aura slammed the door shut.

"I'm going to remind you why you sleep in my bed. Afterwards, you're sleeping in the Guard barracks."

Lowly Servant smiled to herself as she put the finishing touches of polish on the precious artifact, the literal heart of the Crystal Empire itself, and took several deep breaths, her eyes closed. The focus demanded of her had taken a great deal of energy, and she had been given no other tasks yet, so she was free to collect herself.

Her calm faded instantly when she opened her eyes. All around her was void, a field of stars and emptiness. Beneath her hooves was nothing, though it felt as solid as the floors of the Crystal Palace. Where was she? She had to get out of here, she was only going to take a minute's break before heading back to see Miss Martinette and find out if she was needed for anything else.

With the Crystal Heart concealed and in tow, of course. She hadn't forgotten Chrysalis's orders, and couldn't disobey them.

Maybe she had passed out, and now she was dreaming? She hadn't worked that hard...

A gentle voice interrupted Lowly Servant's thoughts, and the maid turned, gasped, and prostrated herself as the other pony spoke.

"This is certainly not what I expected after tea."

"P-Princess Celestia! It would be my honour and pleasure to serve you!"

The Princess of the Day loomed tall over the cowering maid, and smiled.

"Please, my little pony. We are alone. Stand, and call me by name."

"Y-yes, Celestia," Lowly said, climbing to her hooves. The words tasted... wrong. She was beneath this pony, beneath notice. Even speaking to her and addressing her by title was a privilege.

"Thank you, my little pony." Celestia seated herself comfortably on the floor in front of Lowly Servant, her forelegs tucked away beneath her. She still had the height to look down at Lowly as she asked, "May I know your name?"

"My n-name is Lowly Servant, Pri—Celestia."

The alicorn chuckled.

"As much as I appreciate it, now is not the time for humour, my little pony. There is much of import we must discuss. I see by your dress and your mark that you are a maid of the Crystal Palace staff; will you tell me your true name?"

"I... I d-don't know what to tell you, Your Ma—um. I don't tell jokes."

Celestia arched an eyebrow curiously. "Truly? I apologise, my little pony. Please, forgive me my doubt?"

Lowly Servant's mind screeched to a halt. What?! This was even more wrong than calling the Princess by name! Nopony asked a lowly maid's forgiveness for something so trivial as doubt! Even if her name had become part of who she truly was, there was no cause for such humility towards a mere servant! What was she supposed to do?

"...If I cannot have it, I shall take that as my burden. I truly am sorry, my little pony. I hope you will forgive me some day."

"I-I—what?! No no no, P-Princess, I completely forgive you, I d-didn't take it as an offense in the slightest! I—" Lowly covered her mouth with a hoof for a moment. She'd forgotten an order! "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to call you—I—"

Celestia smiled, though her eyes bore nothing but concern. "It is alright, Lowly Servant. Please, take deep breaths. As I said, there is much to discuss." As Lowly obeyed, the Princess continued.

"You are here as ordained by whatever scheme of Destiny draws you. Less than ten ponies have entered this place in the past thousand years; even fewer have ever left again, and only my sister and I possess the power to come and go as we desire. I think you do not know where you are, and I would like you to walk with me so that you may understand."

"Y-yes, Celestia."

The walk was silent, at first, save the sound of hoof-falls, echoing amongst the stars as if through an immense cavern. Soon, they came to a window—a simple glass sheet in a wooden frame—that defied all sense by hanging in space unsupported.

"Please, look within. What do you see?"

Lowly raised herself, her front hooves braced against the invisible sill, to peer through the glass.

Lowly blushed brightly.

Celestia's muzzle remained stoically pale and clear.

"I... I don't think..."

"I have yet to understand your appearance here myself, my little pony. I admit that is not something I ever expected to see here. Come, perhaps more shall come to light."

Lowly held her head lower than usual as she walked alongside Celestia. At least the Princess was gracious enough to keep her judgment silent.

More windows passed, showing scenes of Lowly Servant engaged in one or another of her daily activities, sexual and otherwise. One window even showed a nightmare. By the time they passed twelve windows, a touch of pink had crept across Celestia's face, and Lowly couldn't raise her eyes from the present-but-transparent floor.

"Finally, an answer," Celestia murmured, as though to herself. Lowly permitted a faint smile to touch her lips; perhaps her skill at being unobtrusive had left her presence forgotten. "The Crystal Heart. Of course... such immense power..."

Celestia resumed a conversational tone. "I am sure you remember this one."

Lowly took that as a command to look, and brought herself up to the mirror the Princess had stopped at. This memory was new—she'd been polishing the Crystal Heart just minutes ago!

"...What... What is this?"

Lowly turned to look at Celestia, who had already moved on to the next window. The maid swallowed a knot of dread as she trotted over to see. Even the first glance was enough to freeze her in place.

Cadie, I don't—!

I think I really don't like this.

Done?! We haven't even gotten to the good part yet! That was just the first transformation!

Celestia said nothing. Lowly Servant could not open her mouth as the Princess watched Cadance take her again, and again, and again.

WHY AM I MY SISTER?

I stole this from the Servants' Quarters...

The damning vision played on. Celestia glanced briefly at Lowly Servant as the final transformation took hold in the window, but said nothing, and quickly turned her attention back to the history being played out. Lowly couldn't even make herself beg the Princess to turn away; it was simply not her place.

The words that killed the original Shining Armor were spoken.

You're an obedient castle maid, and you do whatever your superiors tell you to do. Without resistance or question.

They didn't hurt anymore.

The window went dark, as all the others before it.

"Twice," Celestia said, her voice softened nearly to a whisper. "Twice now I should have listened."

"I d-don't understand."

"I did not listen to your sister when Cadance was taken by the Changelings. Now I have failed you both again. I owe you my deepest and most sincere apologies, Shining Armor. I am so sorry."

"B-But—"

"—But destiny brought you here for a reason. I know. And for the first time in a thousand years, I truly do not understand what lies before me. I must think deeply before I do anything at all, and I will not continue to torment you with these memories, so I will expedite your departure.

"You are here because something you have done caught the notice of the Crystal Heart itself. I will be plain: You are becoming an alicorn, and you will have all support my sister and I may offer. Once you have passed the last window, you will return to the Empire. I pray that you keep your peace until we have had a chance to speak again and understand the situation. You may also expect a visit from Luna during your next rest.

"...If you possess the strength of self to pass back to the world as you know it. Good luck, dear pony; there is nothing I can do to aid you. I must return to Canterlot and prepare."

As Celestia simply blinked out of existence, Lowly's downcast eyes crossed a tear on the void floor where the Princess had stood.

"B-But I'm not Shining Armor, Your Majesty," she mumbled to nopony.

"What?"

Lowly Servant looked up from the sexual waste she was scrubbing out of the royal bedchamber's carpet—lest its stain worsen—to see Princess Cadance standing in the doorway, still dressed up from a quick morning jog and looking down at her in bewilderment.

"M-milady!" Lowly stammered, rising just enough to give herself room to curtsey. "It would be my pleasure to serve you!"

"Deja'vu," Cadance murmured. Then, she said, "I am Princess Cadance, Lady of this palace and of the Crystal Empire. What is your name?"

"Lowly Servant, Your Highness." The maid dropped back to the floor to continue her cleaning. Lord Shining Armor had very specifically said he wanted this cleaned out of the carpet, and so she would fight it until it gave in to her cleaning fluids and elbow grease. She did not, of course, have all day, but yesterday's missed spatter of semen and her own fluids didn't know that.

"Surely you're joking," Cadance said flatly.

Lowly swallowed a nervous knot. She didn't want to contradict Her Majesty herself—it was an honour just to be in her presence—but Lowly Servant was the only name she had. What was she supposed to do or say? She had to give some kind of answer!

"I d-don't know what to tell you, milady."

"Then perhaps you can tell me something else. Why among all the stars is an alicorn, and one I've never even heard of, dressed like a maid and scrubbing my carpet?!" Cadance's look turned cross in an instant. "...Please tell me you're either Twilight or Luna, and the other put you up to this."

I give Cadance and my daughter the tired smile they need, and let them leave. Cadance says she'll be sure to visit again tomorrow, on her way out, and I tell her to come again the next day, too. She smiles and promises before shutting the door behind her.

I reach out with a weak spell and deactivate the room's ambient light magic, letting the darkness in, and make a silent wish. There's one more pony I want to see, one I can never ask for, one I can never tell the things I really wish she could know.

As much as I love Princess Cadance, first for elevating me from my life of servitude and then for the genuine romance that bloomed brightly afterwards, the pony I want to talk to is not some princess or noble. She's a humble, low-born earth-turned-crystal pony, a maid of my palace staff. She is the pony who lives the life I escaped. She is the pony who once lived my... happy life.

Lowly Servant, once Shining Armor—once me. I destroyed her, and I used her. I want her to be here. I want to tell her why.

But no. I cannot say to her, to anypony, how little she and I were different, how both of us had so little choice in our lives. And we were alike in this, even as I was made to doom her and even as I was made to rape her. I want to tell her how we both sought what little freedom we had—her, through sexuality, and myself, through my oft-sexual control of her.

I want to tell her I'm sorry that Cadance kept us from each other, from expressing what freedoms we had together. I want to say I understand. Before I close my eyes, knowing that I am less and less likely to wake up each morning, I want to be gentle to the poor soul. I want to hold—just hold, gently, perhaps even cradle if I still had the strength—her crystalline, soft, yet supple body one last time and tell her that though things may have become difficult, she'll be okay.

And I know that Cadance and the spell will never let me.

Cadance...

I sigh. Cadance means so well—nothing but the best—but though I've inherited many creature comforts from the pony who became Lowly Servant to fill my suddenly-empty shoes, they have grown so hollow. For as much as I love Cadance and am grateful for the life she's given me, I've been her prisoner and her conscript-at-arms as much as her lover, driving myself ever harder at her command without the slightest choice in the matter.

My beautiful princess may not know or may disavow her role, but that is how I've come to this bed, my last, so early in my life. The doctors told me to stop pushing myself so hard, that I was lucky I could still walk after the first heart attack, lucky I was still alive after the second.

My eyes close on one parting thought.

Was I?