Quashed

Ten minutes passed silently with Luna. Then twenty, then thirty. Celestia knew there would be retribution coming her way, but knew not when to expect it. After forty-five minutes, there was a knock at the door. A small crack formed as the doors were opened no more than an inch. "Majesties, are you decent?" came the call of a servant. "I've brought your dinner."

"We are," responded Celestia. "Come in, please."

The door opened further, and in strode a servant with a push cart. On top of the cart were five cloches, underneath was a collapsible folding table with chairs to match. None of this had drawn Celestia's attention, however, as her eyes were pulled instead to the minotaur behind the servant, wearing a big, smug grin. The table was quickly assembled in the center of the room and the cloches placed accordingly. A guard was present to confirm that the food had been untouched since the kitchens, as had the silverware. On top of that, there was a bottle of red wine whose seal was intact.

With a wave from Steelhorn, the servants and guards left the room and closed the door behind them. The minotaurs all took their seats, Scrimshaw being the only one who had yet to shower at that table.

"Surprised to see me?" chuckled Steelhorn, unfolding his napkin. "You were so sure we'd have preished in your little trap, weren't you?"

"How?" demanded Celestia. "How did you know?"

"A cornered rat will always fight for its life, Celestia. And you did just that. Your desperation showed at dinner, but you tripped in your execution this time. You smiled as you told us to enjoy our shower. A smug smile, as if you knew something would happen. I've lived long enough to know a trap when I see it. So I asked your attendant to go over any functionality your shower had." Steelhorn paused. "Are you not going to eat? Your dinner is growing cold."

Luna stood up to move to the table, but Celestia held her back. "That's how you knew what had happened?"

"Well, no. I suspected that something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Your attendant, by the way, is a very lovely mare. So wise in her craft and proud of her work. Rightfully so, too. You should absolutely apologize for what you did to her."

"You mean what you did."

Steelhorn shook his head. "I asked her about the shower. She showed me the mechanism in place for an herbal shower. Quite a lovely thought. And yet, when she looked in, she saw that something was wrong with the water. She tried to flush the tank, but saw some kind of foregn object in the water. She went to pull it out, and now she's in your infirmary. Boneshatter carried her himself."

"Will she be alright?" There was genuine concern in Luna's voice. "We would be very pleased to go and see her."

"She's going to be alright," answered Boneshatter. "Your physician said she's lucky to still have her hand, though it's too soon to tell if she'll ever be able to use it properly again. She should be in surgery now, and I'll be checking in on her after dinner."

Luna breathed a sigh of relief, and once again stood up. This time, Celestia allowed her to walk to the table. Luna had a seat across from Scrimshaw, next to Boneshatter. "We are rather surprised by your calmness in this, Chief Steelhorn. This is the first time we can recall that an enemy of Equestria cared so much as to look over its citzens' well-being."

Steelhorn finished his sandwich. "That may be because we are not truly enemies. I harbor no malice towards Equestria, and, as promised, once I've ensured that my people are safe, we shall negotiate a peace treaty."

"We look forward to the day when our kind and yours are not at odds," nodded Luna, starting in on her meal.

"It's not a day that's going to come, Luna," growled Celestia. "He has shown us that he has no intention of honouring that promise."

"Now, that's not fair," said Steelhorn, glancing at Celestia. "We've only failed to keep two promises that we've made to you, neither of which are valid arguments, as they've not reached their deadline yet. We promised a peace treaty after the war in my home. The war has yet to begin, and thus has yet to end."

Luna looked confused. "What was the other promise?"

Boneshatter gripped Luna's mane in his fist. "He promised that any harm your sister tried to inflict on us would come back to lash out at you and Twilight."

Luna began to tremble, but Steelhorn placed a finger to her lips to stop her from crying out. "I'm sure, because you seemed unsurprised to see us return, and surprised to hear of your bathroom attendant's injury, that you had nothing to do with that. However, you were complicit in trying to poison us at dinner. Celestia will be punished for your actions at dinner, but worry not, as she'll not suffer at all for the second attempt."

Luna swallowed hard and nodded as best she could.

"Of course, as both you and Celestia together committed three acts of attempted homicide against us, I can only imagine what manner of pain Princess Twilight will suffer as a result."

Celestia jumped to her feet, her bathrobe coming undone and displaying her lack of undergarments in the process. "You wouldn't!"

Steelhorn nodded. "I made a deal with you, Celestia. If you behaved, Princess Twilight would come to no harm. You did not keep your end of the bargain, so I'll have to be the bigger man and keep my end of the bargain. Princesses Twilight and Luna will be whipped because of your actions."

Luna shrank down. "Wh-whipped?"

Steelhorn pulled out the bullwhip he'd carried up to the room. "Princess Celestia must learn that we Hornburgers keep to our word. And so she will watch as you are taking your lashings."

Luna quivered in her chair.

"Now, I'm going to wait until you've finished eating, first, as you otherwise might refuse to eat after we're done. Celestia, that includes you. Sit down while you still can, and have some dinner."

Celestia folded her arms, covering up her breasts, and sat defiantly on the bed. Luna, on the other hand, returned to her meal, eating slowly so as to hopefully postpone her punishment. She'd never been whipped before, but she had heard the lamentations emanating from the dungeons below. It was not a feeling she ever wanted to sympathise with.

After Luna was finished, Celestia had still refused to come to the table, leaving her dinner untouched. Luna stood, and walked over to where Steelhorn was standing. Boneshatter had released her mane, as she was now within Steelhorn's grasp. "We are ready," she said, steeling her resolve. "Please, make this quick. We do not wish to suffer any longer than we have to."

Steelhorn grasped her by the neck and shoulders, brought her down to her knees, and bent her over his knee. With a flick of his finger, he tossed aside the lower trim of her robe, exposing her bare arse. "First, for your behaviour in the dining hall." He brought down his hand. It connected to her buttocks, resulting in a loud slap. Luna brought her left hand up to her face, biting down on her knuckle to prevent yelping in pain. Another strike, and then another. Thirty-five strikes in total graced her backside, turning her blue flank to one of deep purple. Smoothing out her skirt and tail, Steelhorn helped her back to her feet. "Let this serve as a warning to you, and to your sister."

Luna nodded and wobbled over to Celestias's bed. As expected, she had some trouble sitting down.

"You're next," grunted Steelhorn, standing in front of Celestia. "Stand."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then Luna and Twilight will be punished once more tonight. Do you care nothing for your own sister?"

With a reluctant sigh, Celestia stood up. Steelhorn sat where she had been, dropping her to her knees and splaying her across his lap. Her robe was lifted, and again the sound of flesh being slapped rang out throughout the bedchamber, only being accented by Celestia's yelping. With every slap, Luna winced, as if a third of all the damage dealt to Celestia was falling on her. What made it worse was that she'd only agreed to the plan to poison them because Celestia assured her that these minotaurs were exceptionally stupid. She would make no such mistake again, as it now meant watching her sister suffer. The minotaurs were in charge now. She had to follow their rules.

With the same count of thirty-five, Celestia was returned to the bed. Just as the sisters were thinking they were done for the night, Boneshatter pulled out some rope. "Time for the second punishment," said Steelhorn, gesturing for Luna to stand. She didn't want to see Celestia's arse become any more red, so she did as she was told, despite the shaking of her legs. Luna was stripped down completely nude, and her wrists were bound to Celestia's bedposts. With a second length of rope, Celestia was bound so that she could not interfere. "It's such a terrible thing I must do now. You truly are a beautiful mare, Princess Luna."

The first lash shot across Luna's back, causing such immense pain to the mare that the only comparison she could make was to that of her banishment to the moon. The scream that she let out to follow it was the most painful sound Celestia had ever heard thus far. But the night wasn't over yet. A second lash crossed the first, sheeting Luna's entire back in immense suffering. Celestia turned away, but Scrimshaw held her head in orientation, and kept her eyes open. This was to be Celestia's punishment. She was not allowed to turn away.

At the tenth lash, Luna was barely able to keep herself up. She begged and pleaded for this to be the end, fluids of all varieties dripping from every orifice of her face, save for her ears. She promised to never do anything harmful to them again if only they would stop. Two more lashings, and she began to offer them her body as payment. Two more, and she was begging for death. Celestia, having seen her sister brought to such a level, was heartbroken. Her sister was suffering because of her. The bathroom attendant was suffering because of her. She was suffering by having to watch this tragedy.

Finally, the fifteenth crack of the whip rang out, and Celestia was mumbling incoherently through her sobbing. Steelhorn bound the whip back into its coil, stowing it away on his hip. With gentle hands, he untied Luna, laying her facedown on the table. With some ointment and gause, he ensured that her wounds from the lashing would heal properly before laying the whimpering princess in her sister's bed, kissing her forehead, and covering her up. The same was done to Celestia, though her hands remained bound for now.

"I will be back tomorrow morning," Steelhorn said. "Rest well, and we shall speak again over breakfast. Luna, you are not to undo the binding's on Celestia's wrists. Are we clear?" Luna nodded as best she could. "I hope you've learned your lessons. Good night, Princesses."

The minotaurs packed the table and chairs back into the cart and exited the room, making it clear to the guards that nopony was allowed in or out until he returned. Having witnessed three attempts at Celestia this week, the two deadliest being today, the guards were quite willing to agree to Steelhorn's commands.

After an hour, both of the princesses had calmed down enough to speak. "My dear Lulu," spoke Celestia. "Do not worry. I have a new plan that will--"

"No," rebuked Luna. "No more of your plans. I have a plan this time. The plan is, we don't piss off the obscenely powerful minotaurs that have dominion over us. The plan is, we go along with them for a bit. We see if this Chief Steelhorn really does what he says he can, and nopony else is hurt in the process."

"Luna, he just tortured you! You're bleeding! Are you really content to just sit there and let him do that?"

"It is precicely because we did what he asked that your punishment was not so severe," chided Luna. "We do not wish to feel the lash again. Can you behave yourself? For us? For Twilight?"

The room fell silent. Before long, the pain subsided a bit more, and the two fell asleep.