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?