“I can’t believe you dared to lay a hoof on me, Twilight! And you did so much more. You beat on me!”

“Mmm, if you’re observant you can already detect some resolutions taking place. Your speech patterns are improving. I always hated how you referred to yourself in the third person, and now you’re talking almost like a normal pony. No more Trixie this and Trixie that.”

“You’ve crossed the line, Twilight.”

“...And yet, you don’t seem to be grateful for my accomplishment.”

“You’ve crossed it by a fucking mile! What in Tartarus is wrong with you?”

“This may seem out of my character to you, Trixie, but I assure you, I needed to do this, for my and your sake.” I slowly circled around her, caressing her body with a wing while I stepped by her side.

“You’ve really hurt me, Twilight! I don’t think you even get it. You’ve actually gone ahead and literally hurt me. You’ve hurt me for realz.”

“You’ve hurt ponies too, Trixie.”

“I’ve never beaten on anypony!”

“You’ve endangered lives and today you wanted to discard mine. That’s infinitely worse than what I’m committing you to.”

“What you’re doing is wrong! Just stop for a second and think. You know it’s wrong, right? Right?”

“It was your actions that were in the wrong. I’m just balancing karma. What you wrought has to be addressed.”

She shook her head, then focused on me with her big eyes. “Look, Twilight, I may have made a mistake in my past, but hurting me won’t fix it. It won't fix anything.”

“It will fix you, Trixie. It will prevent the future you from hurting any more ponies.”

“Twilight, I don’t think I like where you’re going with this. How about you let me go and we can both forget about all this?” She slightly nodded at me.

“No, Trixie. I cannot do that.”

“Well, why the fuck not?”

“Fluttershy taught me this lesson. If you see an injured bird, you should help it. The more the critter suffers, the more afraid it will be of you and the more it will struggle in an attempt to escape. But that just means you have to work extra hard to help it.”

“I wasn’t hurt until you started to beat on me!”

“Oh, but you were, Trixie. In here.” I knocked on her head with a hoof.

“I just want all this to stop. Tell me what I have to do to make you stop and I’ll do it.”

“And here I thought we already covered that lesson. You’re not the only pony in Equestria, Trixie. This isn’t just about what you want. You have to take others into consideration too. But you’re not doing that. You’re pushing your own agenda on me again.

“Following your perverted dreams and desires is what got you into this mess. I’ll teach you to abandon them. I can see you want to give in to your instincts. You just want to run away without taking any responsibility. But I’m not going to let you relapse. If you’re incapable of keeping your urges under control, I’ll have to trample them for you.

“You were a slave to your own desires. But here, in my sanctuary, you can finally be free.”

“You’re killing me here, Twilight!”

“Oh, and don’t hope for Death’s embrace. I know what your body can handle and where the hard limits are. In fact, I’ll measure them precisely. You can put your fears to rest because nopony will give heed to them in your new home that is this basement. Your whole world will consist of me and my toys.”

Her tail whipped from side to side.

“Even though there may be some discomfort on your end, there won’t be any permanent damage to your body, except for the scars and burns. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, you know? Do you feel content and secured yet, my pet?”

“Of course I don’t!” Her head bowed. “You don’t like me, Twilight. I get it. Almost everypony hates me. But it doesn’t even matter. You don’t need to fix what we have between us. We can solve everything right now if you just let me go. You’ll never have to see my sorry face again, I promise.”

“But that would mean you wouldn’t get my forgiveness. I couldn’t do that to you, Trixie!”

“I’d be okay with that. Really!”

“I wouldn’t be.”

“But—”

“No!” I exclaimed.

She continued with a lowered voice, “Twilight, I’ve been thinking—”

I struck her with my scepter.

“Auch! Why’d you do that for?”

“Sorry about that, preemptive strike. Next time I’ll try to wait for you to express your stupid ideas before hitting you. Go on, pet.” I lifted up the scepter in a position for another strike. “Express yourself freely.”

“You’ve proven your point, Twilight. Can we just stop all this now?”

“I cannot stop until you get what you deserve.”

“Okay… How about this, Twilight. I really want to be punished according to my supposed crime. Can you tell Celestia that you’ve captured me so she can come here and look at the state of things? I’d like to accept judgment from her.”

“No need, she mostly handles global affairs, I’m entrusted to keep order locally.”

“But I am a global affair. My actions could have resulted in angering an Ursa Major. That had the potential for a catastrophe.”

“Yes, you make a valid point, but we still better not involve her.”

“Please.”

“Trust me, you don’t want that. She doesn’t react kindly to her ponies being put in danger. I haven’t told Celestia about your invasion of Ponyville, not to the full extent. I didn’t hide the truth just for your benefit, of course. She has charged me to keep this zone under control, and I didn’t want to tell her that I failed to prevent the incident.

Let’s just say that if she heard the whole truth, she wouldn’t react kindly to it. There’s a reason why I didn’t want Starlight Glimmer bringing you over to a dinner with Celestia. You wouldn’t go unscathed if she learned about all of your escapades in Ponyville. But tell you what, Trixie, I’ll punish you in her name as well.”

“Fuck!”

“I guess you’re worried about the damage to your body. Well, I’ll have you know that I’m developing a healing balm based on Zecora’s healing potion. It will have major healing effects with only a minor chance of causing cancer.”

“Fuck! Fuck!”

“It should be developed by the next full moon. Until then, I’ll just have to take it easy on you.”

“Phew. That’s a relief. For a moment there, I thought you were losing it and were about to hurt me. I’m glad we’re back to just talking.”

“Oh, we’re going to do much more than just talk. But don’t worry too much. I never lose control of myself. I don’t! I know the stress each bone in your body can take without breaking. I have complete confidence in my self-control. Surely, I won’t rip you apart, even if I’ll feel like doing just that.”

“No! No! No! Fuck, no!”

Author's Note

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