Her lab was a safe place, Twilight had established. Spike wouldn't knock if he thought she was doing anything important, and of course she wouldn't put the sign up if she wasn't doing something ground-breaking. Or earth-shattering.

Giggling as she locked the door again, Twilight walked with a prancing step that only Mistress would inspire to her couch. Comfortable, if needing regular cleaning now, the couch cradled her as she climbed up on it.

Today, Twilight Sparkle was after something a little different. Flicking through the pages, she stopped and opened the book fully to read the title. With a smile that could have covered a multitude of sins, Twilight Sparkle cast her spell again.

Freedom

by The Queen

The story started and, predictably, Twilight was shackled and bridled. She wanted to complain about the bridling, but fear of the griffons around her struck that idea from her head. When one bird-cat raked the cage Twilight was in with a talon, Twilight shied to the back and tried to huddle.

It was horrible. Day in, day out. New slaves were caught, kept in the cage for a while, then sold. It broke Twilight's spirit to see ponies reduced to such an existence.

Then a young filly was shoved into the cage. Something broke in Twilight's mind. She watched as one griffon uncoiled a whip to lash at the filly, but Twilight's magic flared. It was like the world suddenly caught fire and breathed with her. Magic rolled around the enclosure as Twilight Sparkle stepped over the filly to take the lash for them.

At the last second before the whip made contact, Twilight spread her wings—new wings—and grabbed the whip with her telekinesis. "No!" Twilight stalked to the gate of the cage and sent a flood of magic to shatter bars that were meant to be hardened against pony magic. She yanked the whip from the grip of the griffon and stomped up to them.

"Never again. You will not hurt a pony. You will not enslave a pony. You will listen to every word ponies say and it will be your law!"

Power rushed through Twilight Sparkle's words and shot into the air in a spray of purple threads. Here and there it darted in one ear of a griffon and out the other. Some turned toward Twilight Sparkle, others sank to their bellies and kissed the ground.

This was right, this was how things should be. The threads of magic weren't done, of course, for they also found pony heads—pony ears. Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies broke from their own cages and joined the griffons at Twilight Sparkle's hooves.

"A new order, a new way. You will all see. This will be better!" Twilight Sparkle said.

"Better…" the griffons and ponies around her replied.

Building the griffon encampment up had been simple under Twilight's rule. Griffons and ponies working together—magic, flight, strength, and talons all united behind Twilight Sparkle's words.

But it wasn't long before other griffon clans wanted prosperity for themselves. Twilight spun magic between the newcomers. They dropped their weapons and joined her perfect society.

But Twilight Sparkle had favorites. She could spend her days devising plans for her obedient host to carry out, but at night she called on her harem to please her. And please her they did. There was nothing better than—

Twilight wrenched herself out of the story, panting, her eyes narrowed to pinpricks. The scenario hadn't felt good to her at all, and not at all for the dominant side of things. Forcefully taking over wasn't Twilight's cup of molasses at all.

She stood up in a daze, knowing only that she needed somepony to hug her and tell her everything would be alright. As luck would have it there came a knock at the castle's front doors.

Her wobbly, erratic movement bore Twilight Sparkle to the front doors and her hoof pulled them open.

Derpy Hooves held out a letter to the princess, but she could see something was wrong. "Are you alright?" It was obvious Twilight wasn't alright, even to Derpy. Shucking out of her mailbag, Derpy reached out to Twilight Sparkle. "You're okay."

The waters broke within Twilight, and she started to cry. Weeping, sobbing, she clung to Derpy and worked to dismiss the horrible feelings the story had left her with.

"Just like my Dinky after a nightmare. Come on." Derpy Hooves guided Twilight to the first room she could find, which happened to be the map room. Leading the way toward the biggest seat—Twilight's of course—Derpy climbed up and pulled Twilight onto her lap. It wasn't dignified to haul a princess that was bigger than you onto your lap like a child, but Derpy's mothering instinct had been triggered in spades.

Twilight wrapped her legs around Derpy and pulled herself as tight to the other mare as she could, and didn't want to leave that spot.

When Twilight woke, she was still laying on Derpy, though at some point they had moved to Twilight's bedroom. Twilight had always assumed that having somepony this close to her would involve something sexual, but Derpy Hooves seemed content to just cradle Twilight under one wing.

"You can sleep some more," Derpy said. "I won't let the nightmares chase you any more than Princess Luna would."

Twilight Sparkle's mouth curved into a smile at the simple promise, but a sudden yawn caught her off-guard. Before she knew it, Twilight was snuggling back up to Derpy without a dazed look or worshiping face in her dreams.

Author's Note

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
CrimsonPhoenix
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Javarod
Lazyreader19
Nils
Sirion123

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