The Rise of Passion

Over the next week, Twilight grew accustomed to her new life. It wasn't meant to last, as she would be granted more freedoms soon, but for the time being, she followed Gallus's commands, and was rewarded for her compliance. At first, it was just following his commands, no matter how silly or outlandish. She would be made to beg like a dog, present her pussy, and kiss his claws. That earned her the right to go upstairs to an actual suite and decide what she wanted to eat. It was humiliating, but if it was going to help her see her friends again, and Gallus said that it would, it was worth the discomfort.

Then came the opportunity to sleep in a bed, rather than on a tiny cot. The caveat here was that she had to sleep with Gallus wrapped around her. The first night, it was just a cuddle. But on the second night, he groped her, and on the third, he rested his dick between her thighs. The third night was particularly odd, as he called Sandbar in over the weekend and she had to share Gallus's chest with another pony, and a stallion, at that.

Other than that, her days actually seemed almost pleasant. It was like she'd been kidnapped from her job and made to go on a pleasure cruise, but exclusively with ponies she didn't like, sleeping in crowded bunks, and she still had to do some odd jobs that weren't physically taxing. Hells, she even found time to play shuffleboard with Flurry.

Speaking of, Sunburst was watching her a lot of the time. Both he and Gallus were regularly called in to repeat meetings with Cozy, leaving Twilight and Flurry under the watch of whoever was in charge. Gallus was stricter, but would still play with them, whereas Sunburst was more lax, but still protective. All in all, they weren't bad role models, per se. At least they weren't directly put under Cozy's hoof.

After having been there for eight days, she finally had the suite to herself, as Gallus had been called to a meeting. She tried for a bit to fall asleep, but after half an hour, she found herself craving Gallus's touch. She'd already grown accustomed to the warmth he provided, and the softness of his feathers. She was relieved when the bookcase opened and he walked in.

"What are all these meetings for?" she asked, pulling back the covers and inviting him in. "Surely you don't need this many. What are you planning out?"

Gallus climbed into the bed and brought his arm around Twilight's shoulders. "Would you like to attend the next one? Come face-to-face with Cozy Glow?"

Twilight thought for a moment and shook her head. "I don't want to attend the meeting; I just want to know what's going on. Can you just tell me?"

Gallus shook his head. "Not everything, but the general gist of it's pretty simple. We haven't really stated this yet, but our entire goal was to be rid of you. Cadance, Flurry and Shining Armor were disposed of only because they'd come to your aid in a heartbeat, as were your closest friends. Following Cozy's release, she opted to do what we asked, in exchange for your brother. So, he's going to stay in her care for the foreseeable future. It was by luck and sheer force of will that we were able to grab all of them in one night, as opposed to our original plan, which was to just snag Flurry and then Cadance, with Shining Armor being last."

"How'd you know I would appoint Starlight to watch over the empire, though?"

"We actually didn't," chuckled Gallus. "That was just a coincidence. We weren't planning on that, it just made it all the more fitting."

"I see..."

"Oh, don't be glum. It eliminated a possible enemy and gave us a sturdier point to launch from. It made it so we had to fight fewer ponies to attain our goals."

"I suppose that is a plus."

"Then we needed your friends out of the way. The original plan was to have Rabow and Fluttershy fawning over me, and we had a special potion brewed for that, but Zephyr Breeze kind of fucked that up. Which was fine by me, as that meant I could stay at the school and help with the other stuff. Rarity was easy enough, and we were going to do the two of them separately, but Pinkie volunteered, and we just had to proceed quicker than anticipated."

"What about Applejack?"

"For Applejack, we just had to separate her from everypony else. We're not going to be able to trick her into something because she can sniff out a liar with ease. I really had to be careful with my words to provoke her without looking like I was trying to."

"You failed at that."

"Very much so. I couldn't even fool you. But it's not necessary that everything goes according to the details, as long as we fell within the right parameters."

Twilight looked up at him. "Is that what all these meetings are about? Helping you stick to the plan?"

"No, no, no... I was just going over the many things that we had to do to reach you in order to bring up what it is we're going to do next. See if you can guess?"

Twilight thought for a moment. "You kidnapped Cadance, Flurry and Shining because you thought they'd try to rescue me right away, and because Cozy has a thing for my brother. They would try, too. Then you removed my friends because you thought they would try to rescue me."

"And as they become more powerless to do so, they can have some of their freedoms back," nodded Gallus.

"So, if the whole point was to capture me, then your next step would be to make sure nopony releases me from your bonds. That's either Spike, or..."

As realization dawned on her, she lowered herself into Gallus's embrace. She was suddenly very afraid of what Cozy was planning.

"There's a good chance they won't be harmed," assured Gallus, rubbing her back. "What we're trying to do is come up with a way of going to just the two of them. No collateral damage if we can avoid it."

"Are you sure? What if it doesn't work?"

Gallus smiled. "That's why we're having so many meetings. Cozy has a plan."