I slid my hooves over the black, shiny fabric clinging onto Trixie Lulamoon.

She cringed.

“Did a cockatrice bite off your tongue, Trixie? I thought you were all about talking big and giving speeches. Let’s hear it. Give me a speech, he-he.” I snickered.

“This isn’t happening...”

“Welcome to my classroom.” I pointed a hoof across all of the basement. “We’re going to learn so much here.”

“How did I get myself into this situation? Everything was going so well...”

I ignored her blabbering. “But first, the ground rules. As long as you’re here, you won’t use your magic without my permission. Do you understand?”

“Fuck this shit!” Her horn charged up. “Trixie’s getting out of here.”

“Shut it off!” I exclaimed, lifting a forehoof in the air.

“You’ll see just how limitless Trixie is. Behold the mistress of escape. You’re about to witness a fury of the Great and Powerful—”

I banged on her horn.

“Ouch!” Her body shook, and the magical aura flickered away.

“You were saying?” A smirky smile crept my lips while I charged my magic. “I see you’ve already forgotten just how escape-proof this construction you’re in is. But I remember... I remember everything, and I know what you did!”

“Twilight, what the fuck?” She yelped. “You hit my freaking horn!”

I cast a charged aura around her horn. “I forbid you using magic, Trixie. Just don’t do it. I can’t accentuate this enough. Don’t even think about using magic!”

“Well screw that and screw you, Twilight! First, Trixie’s getting out of this trapping construction and inequanely tight clothes, and then this mare is out of here.”

Her horn lit up again. The charged aura sparked and a flash of light enveloped the basement. “Aaa!” A smell of charred skin rose from the smoke enveloped boney surface.

“My horn! It hurts! It hurts so bad! What did you do, Twilight? What the fuck did you just do?”

“I cast a supercharged magic chamber. When you touched the aura with your channels it transferred all the gathered energy to your horn. I’m pretty sure there’s no permanent damage, but you won’t be able to use your horn for a while. Not until the energies stabilize inside its core.”

“It stings so bad!”

“I told you not to do it!”

“Fuck!”

“Play nice now.”

“Trixie hates you, Twilight. Trixie hates your basement, and Trixie hates your invasive clothes!”

“Good thing Rarity can’t hear you right now. Badmouthing her design like that...” I rubbed a forehoof on her shiny flank. “The clothes aren’t an issue here, though; you are!” The fabric slid on the coat beneath it as I wrinkled it. “How does it feel inside? Does the tightness of your encompassing cocoon steal your freedom that you love so much? Every part of your body; trapped. Like a hundred hooves constantly touching you all at once. I wonder, with your mistrust for closed spaces, how are you even bearing it all? You said you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this tight outfit. Yet, here you are, caught, and not even dead yet.”

She swung back and forth in the construction. “I don’t want to be here.” Her head shook from side to side, but she couldn’t break free. The restraints held her fixed to the spot.

“What’s the matter, Trixie? Do you have claustrophobia or something?”

Her body shook again. After a yelp, she looked up at me with eyes widespread. “Mhm...” She nodded slightly.

The corners of my mouth drifted back as a fun idea struck me. “Ugh, did you feel that?” I stopped moving and perked my ears as if I was listening. “I think something is very wrong!”

“Wha… What is it?”

“That deep rumbling… It can only mean one thing…”

“What rumbling? What’s going on?”

“The whole place is coming down. I need to get out of here right now!” I bottled my urge to laugh and looked at her with the most serious face I could muster. “I’m leaving you behind, Trixie. It’s everypony for herself.”

“Aaa!” She cried out as she looked toward the ceiling. “Don’t leave Trixie down here! Please don’t abandon Trixie! Aaa!”

I couldn’t take it anymore. With a hoof on my chest, I burst into laughter as I crumpled on my tush. I waved the other forehoof at her. “You’re too easy!”

“That wasn’t funny!” She screamed, her eyes still darting across the basement.

“Why am I laughing then?”

“Because you’re sick, that’s why!” She continued whispering to herself, “I’m not in any danger! I’m not getting crushed! It’s just a stupid cellar. Breathe, Trixie! Breathe!”

“You’re obviously the sick one here, Trixie.” I stood up on all fours. “I think I’m meant to help you, though. It’s my purpose in serving the Greater Good.”

“Yes, Twilight, help Trixie. Unstrap the restraints. That’s how you can help Trixie right now.”

“No, not like that. You see, Trixie, you being here can’t be a mere coincidence. Accidents like that don’t just happen. I believe it was preordained.”

“Preordained?”

“Yes. Why else would the Tree of Harmony create dungeons in my castle if they weren’t meant to be used? It wanted bad ponies to be put here, so I could help them. I’m certain of it.”

“You really are insane.”

”No, no, you’re the one with a mental problem, and it is my duty as a Princess to help you with it. We both need to work on it and make you better. It’s obvious that your issues go way deeper than just your fear of closed spaces. Your motivations are way off balance. Maybe it’s your past that influences you badly. Let’s break that down first.”

“What are you on about?”

“We both know what you did to me.” I threw the body-swapping charm down at her forehooves.

She cringed as it hit the floor.

“It’s the trinket you used to swap our bodies. You intended to keep me in this dungeon forever while taking over my life. Had I not short-circuited the amulet with my saliva, you’d still be defiling my body.” I caressed my wing with a hoof.

I looked back down on the trinket. “I’m guessing you had to work your ass off for at least a year on a rock farm to afford such a trinket.”

"D-Do not insult the powerful Trixie!" She tensed, gripping onto the restraints, groaning a little. She twitched ever so often, trying to get free, but to no avail. She was totally and utterly tied down. The contraption didn’t give her a hoof of free movement. “Those details do not concern you!"

“You know what. You're right. I don't even care. Whatever the case, I don’t think it was worth it!” I plunged a forehoof against the evil Sombra artifact with all the force I could muster. Sparks flew in all directions as it shattered.

“Nooo!” Her mouth stayed open. The stillness of her face was only hindered by the tears, rushing down her cheeks. “You don’t have the clue of the lengths Trixie went to get it!”

I raised the hoof from the shattered talisman on the floor. “Oh, you didn’t want me to smash it?” A grin snuck on my lips. “My bad.”

“The precious… One of the kind...” She sobbed. “Trixie bet everything on it!”

I softly wiped a hoof against her cheek and captured a tear. My eyes closed as if by themselves when I licked the sweet liquid off the hoof. “Mmm, this is interesting and rather unexpected. It seems I like it when you cry. Cry for me some more, Trixie!” I grinned at her.

She stared into my eyes. Her face twitched, her teeth were clenched. She forced her tears back. "T-Trixie does not cry when told!" She spat, growling.

“Trixie! What you did to me is unforgivable.”

Her body shook profoundly. “Trixie needs to get out of here!”

“Wait. Let me recalculate that.” I ran my estimates of quantities of moral, physical, mental, potential and collateral damage, forming a mental graph of all the relevant parameter influences.

“Let me rephrase myself. What you did to me is unforgivable, by the means of your suffering in a span of one day. That much punishment in such a narrow window of time would certainly kill you. And I could not forgive you if you died on me, especially since your previous baseline already necessitated high amounts of forgiveness requirements.”

It was as if she was frozen in place. With eyes wide open she stared immovably down at the floor.

“Don’t worry, Trixie. I know this looks bad from your perspective. Well, it looks that way because it really is bad. It’s very bad, actually. The amount of suffering I shall bestow upon you… Oh, I’m sorry. I digress. The good news is, that in the end, you will be forgiven.”

I caressed her head with a wing. “Actually, if you take the whole concept of my means of forgiving you into account, that really isn’t such good news for you.”

She cringed when I slapped her face with a wing. “In fact, it’s very bad news. Every minute of it you’ll be wishing…“ I waved with a hoof in the air. “Oh, getting ahead of myself yet again.”

“I haven’t been in such disarray since my magic kindergarten exam. I can hardly think straight. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that there was something wrong with my mind. Of course, that certainly can’t be the case. It would be too horrible to conceive. My brain is what I am and I know I am, so this is how I really am. Therefore, I’m as fine as a butterfly.”

“You don’t sound fine, Twilight.”

The gold scepter came into my view. It had a red gem embedded on the bottom of it and was topped with the head portraying me. I had brought it to the castle to test it for residual chaos energies, but all the tests confirmed that it was just normal matter.

My captive eyed the scepter. “You’ve got issues, Twilight. Why don’t you just deal with them yourself and leave Trixie out of it?”

“I can’t do that, Trixie. You’re the cause of my issues and in turn, they involve you. You see, I just want to hurt you—really bad. The majority of my brain is contemplating ways of maximizing your pain versus damage ratio right now. The rest of my cognitive processes are trying to resolve this burning feeling that the scepter could have some other uses besides being tested upon. Perhaps these thoughts could all be combined into one. Hmm...”

“You’re not fine at all!”

“But wait!” I lifted a hoof as an idea struck me. “Never mind all that. I have some really good news!”

“Do you?”

“It was wrong of me to say we can’t finish this in one day. Just now, the rational part of my brain thought out a way that involves you flying out of the castle, free as a bird.”

She sighed. “Finally, some rationality around here.”

“On top of that, I would forgive you for everything you’ve done. Isn’t that great? You’d really like that outcome, wouldn’t you?”

“Trixie will take it and promise she’ll run really, really far away. You will never see or hear from Trixie again, Just please, let Trixie go.”

“I’ll respect your decision, Trixie. Getting a saw now.”

“A saw?”

“Why yes, my final solution involves you, flying out of my castle with your cut off horn in your rectum. In order to produce the desired result, I need a saw. It would be inequine if I tried to remove it without any tools.” I paused to contemplate the words I uttered. “I know it sounds a bit extreme, but if you look past all that, it’s pretty much good news all the way.”

“Wait, no, please! Trixie changed her mind. Please don’t cut off Trixie’s horn. It’s the only thing Trixie has got left to show for. If you do that, Trixie won’t be able to go on. Please don’t harm Trixie’s horn.”

“Okay, you want the alternative then?”

“How much more, Twilight? How much time must Trixie endure your shit?” Her gaze shifted to the object in my magic field. “Twilight, what is that you hold in your hooves?”

“Shh.” I wanted to slide the item in her mouth, but she kept it closed.

“A-a!” she said between her clenched teeth.

I moderately hit on the bottom of her neck with a hoof and prompted a gag reflex. She opened her mouth just enough for the gag to slip between her teeth.

“N-n!” she shook her head.

Her eyes opened wide. She looked at me for a moment. Her body spasmed then stopped. She slowly nodded.

“I do really want to forgive you, Trixie. Honest. Sadly though, launching up some fireworks and running away in a puff of smoke just isn’t going to cut it this time around. Forgiveness is an old method that was proven to be ineffective in your case. I’m using new methods now. And don’t worry; they’ve been extensively tested on changeling prisoners. They work wonders for subduing their wild nature.

“You do understand that there is a lot for me to forgive you this time around, right? However, before I can do that, you’ll need to collect about—” I paused to run the calculations in my mind. “—a hundred and twenty forgiveness points.”

I stepped in front of her, sat down on the floor and took hold of her head with both forehooves as I looked in her reddish purple eyes. “After you’ve gathered a hundred and twenty forgiveness points, I will fully forgive you and let you go with your horn intact. Do you agree to this alternative?”

Both forehooves moved up and down as she nodded in the constraints of my embrace.

“Good, I’m guessing you’re eager to start earning them?”

She gagged. Drops of her saliva fell on the floor while she tried to mumble through the mouthpiece.

“Oh, what are forgiveness points you ask?”

She calmed down a bit and lifted her eyebrows as she looked at me.

“It’s really easy to collect those. You won’t even have to invest much active effort to obtain them. I’ll be doing most of the hard work on your account. All you have to do is hang around.

“For every day you keep me company, I’ll give you one forgiveness point. Simple, right?” I pulled out the gag and let it slip down her neck.

She spat the saliva that gathered in her mouth. “You won’t get away with this, Twilight!”

“It’s not like anypony will miss you.”

She yelped.

“Trixie doesn’t want to play your stupid games anymore, Twilight!”

“There’s a hard way to do this, Trixie—”

“—And an easy way, right? You want Trixie to apologize. Well, fuck you, Twilight, and fuck your self-righteous sadism; Trixie has nothing to be sorry for. Why do you get to have everything while Trixie has nothing? No home, no friends, no respect. It isn’t fair. Trixie just took what Trixie deserved.”

“I’m glad you don’t approve of the easy way out.” I bumped her on the nose. “I don’t approve of it either, that’s why I wasn’t going to offer it to you, anyway. There’s only the hard way.”

She cringed. “Wait, wait... If Trixie says she’s sorry, will you let Trixie go?”

“Eh, Trixie.” I sighed. “You’re not taking this seriously at all, are you?”

She whispered to herself, “I can’t believe this is really happening...”

“We’ll think of something more original later on, but right now I just want to pound on you until you beg me to stop and then keep pounding on you until I get my fill. You understand, right?”

“No, Twilight, Trixie doesn’t understand! What you’re saying is insane. You’re insane!”

“I want to fuck you up, Trixie. I want to ravage you so badly.”

“Twilight, you’re fucking mental. Please tell Trixie this is just some kind of a sick joke!”

“Your whole life was a joke, Trixie. But I’m ending the shenanigans. I’m going to get really serious with you.”

She looked away.

“I see that any more of my words would just be lost on you. You’re too thick to appreciate them. But there is another way for you to understand me.” When I repositioned the gag within her mouth, I floated up the golden scepter. “It’s called non-verbal communication; a universal language that everypony understands on an intuitive level.” My eyes shifted to her, “I bet you do, too.”

“N-ghh!”

“During your stay with me, I’ll help you keep track of your collected points. One point; one mark on the board. After you collect the assigned quota, I will forgive you in full, and you will be able to have a fresh start. Isn’t friendship magical?”

Aside from a snort, she gave no reaction in response.

I walked behind her. “Let me make it more real for you then.” Raising a hoof, I struck her flank.

“Nnn!”

“Mhm.” I nodded. “You know that dilemma I had before about the usage of my scepter in regards to you?” I looked at it then at her plot.

With wide-spread eyes, she stared at me until the pain brought forth by the scepter shut them close.

Author's Note

Don't forget to participate in the Comment section minigames when you're done reading this chapter.