“What’s happening now?”

“It’s dark. In this timeline Nightmare Moon won.” Twilight kept her hands resting in her lap. Her skirt was hiked up, revealing striped blue panties underneath. Her eyes remained closed and her head hung down, totally limp. Spike sat next to her with his eyes closed as well, absorbing Twilight’s words.

“That sounds dangerous. Does Nightmare Moon capture you?” Starlight walked between them both and rested her hands on their shoulders.

The contact made Twilight gasp gently as she spoke. “Ahh...yes she does. We’re taken to the throne room. Oh no, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, they serve Nightmare Moon.”

“It’s okay.” Starlight whispered. “You’re so clever Twilight. You can find a way back to the map.”

“Yes. I can do it. Nightmare Moon...she insists I show her the time travel magic. I take her to the map and cast the spell before she can stop me.” A soft smile formed on Twilight’s lips as she experienced the thrill of her escape.

“Very well done.” Starlight purred into Twilight’s ear. “And just like before, travelling back in time makes you slip deeper.” Twilight and Spike both let out a long sigh as their minds let go a bit more. “And now you have to stop me.”

Starlight smiled as one of Twilight’s hands moved from her lap and began to stroke lightly against her panties. She turned to admire Spike. She’d been spying on him when Twilight and her friends had celebrated his adulthood ceremony, though it was the first time Starlight had seen him up close. He had a very fit, muscular physique held under a loose t-shirt, and he now sported an impressive tent in his jeans. The suggestion for them both to become aroused when thinking about Starlight was working well.

Starlight had been plotting revenge ever since Twilight had taken her village away. She'd considered everything, but plan after plan had run into the problem that Twilight would always have more magical power. Starlight may have been one of the strongest of all Magic Equestrians, or unicorns as the subspecies was commonly called, but Twilight was in a class of her own as an alicorn. She could surprise Twilight with a few tricks, but any plan requiring her to consistently out-magic Twilight would be a losing one. Then she finally came across a non-magical technique that could bring even a mighty alicorn to its knees, hypnosis.

The technique was powerful, but required calm and trust. Twilight would be neither calm nor trusting when she caught sight of Starlight again. She would have to distract Twilight somehow. That had been the purpose of the light show on top of the cutie map. Twilight was focused on the huge magical energies in front of her and didn’t notice the Fiducia Compelus spell that she had cast. It was a weak spell, only able to plant a small suggestion in someone’s mind. Starlight offered a simple suggestion, to focus on the lights and listen to her voice.

It had gone perfectly, and Starlight soon had them both sitting and deep in trance. Now she was weaving a new reality for them. Twilight and Spike were in a shared hallucination, going back in time trying to stop Starlight from changing the past. They would fail and come back to a ruined Equestria then try again, dropping deeper into trance and the hallucination each time.

Twilight ran through a litany of villains that ruined Equestria, even imagining singing con-men taking over, until finally she described a dead wasteland. At that point Starlight was satisfied that her words could reach the deepest part of their minds.

“Okay Twilight. I’m there in the wasteland with you. You took me with you to show me what I’ve done. Now I’m pulling us back in time to when I was young, before I received my cutie mark.” She started whispering a trite story about a friend getting their cutie mark first and being sent off to magic school. It was ridiculous, but Spike and Twilight were experiencing it in full detail. They would remember it all as really happening. And why not? Starlight was weaving a story of Twilight redeeming her. Once offered the satisfaction of spreading friendship to someone, Twilight's subconscious would embrace it with full force.

Twilight had a soft blush spreading over her face as thoughts of Starlight Glimmer made her fingers stroke a little faster. A small damp spot had formed on her panties. There would be plenty of time in the future to let Twilight go even further, but for now, Starlight needed to lay in the last of their suggestions. She idly stroked one of Spike’s pointed ears and ran her other hand along Twilight’s soft wings. “You’re both feeling so thankful that you’ve shown me the error of my ways and everything is back to normal. In just a moment I’m going to wake you from this wonderful deep trance. When you wake up, you won’t remember ever being in trance. You will only remember our adventure through time and that we’ve returned home with everything back to the way it was. Any little inconsistencies your mind brings up will soon be filled in and rationalized. Everything will be normal and as it should be.”

Starlight adjusted Twilight’s skirt and guided her hands to the armrests of her chair. “When you awaken you’ll realize that it’s important to keep me close to help teach me more about friendship. And the more you think about teaching me, the more you will realize that you need to take me as your pupil and let me live in your castle. Isn’t that right?”

Twilight murmured in assent.

“Now, there is a very special phrase I’m going to teach you both. When you hear this phrase you’ll sink back down and be open for my words. That special phrase is: Obedience is Magic. Repeat it for me.”

“Obedience is magic.” Twilight and Spike gently intoned.

“Very good. You won’t remember this special phrase any more than you remember the trance. It will all be in that deep murky part of your mind you can’t see. Now as I count to 3, you’re going to wake up, feeling so relieved that our adventure is done, and so happy to have me as a new friend. Ready to wake in 1….2…..”

Author's Note

A bit of a side project inspired by the fact Starlight Glimmer is now essentially the MLP patron saint of mind control.

In case there's any confusion, characters are all humanized with secondary racial characteristics, wings on pegasi, small horns on unicorns etc. The work of racoonkun would be the best visualization. Examples here, here, and here.