Wicked Bliss

Twilight had been trussed up just as Rainbow Dash had. She was splayed out on the very same desk top, on the very same bed frame. The same belts and cords had found use again, locking her in place. The gag was in. The blindfold was on. And now the Master took the latter off, grinning widely at her as she blinked in the yellow light. The room was as it had been at the start. The trolley was back in the left corner, and on it were the wrenches and knives, the needles and the rolling pin. The only difference in fact came from Rainbow Dash herself, who instead of being tied up as well was standing to the right of the Master with her head bowed, her eyes on her hooves as he spoke to Twilight.

‘Your Highness,’ said the Master softly, emphasising the final syllable with a happy hiss. ‘What an honour.’

Twilight’s eyes bulged as they registered Rainbow Dash. She fixed her gaze on her as though imploring her to recognise her, to realise that she was in danger. As the time went by, and Rainbow Dash neither moved nor raised her head, Twilight’s eyes began to grow watery, and the light, the urgency in them, faded fast. She turned them back onto the Master, sadness and pity written inside them. The Master grinned as he undid the gag.

‘Rainbow Dash,’ was Twilight’s first word once she’d coughed and swallowed spit. Rainbow Dash did not acknowledge her. Twilight eyes glistened with tears. ‘Rainbow Dash,’ she whispered urgently, begging her friend to take notice of her, simply to look at her. The Master chuckled.

‘She’s not at liberty just now,’ he said. ‘Not until I say so. Honestly, Princess Twilight, believe me when I say that no pony living has more appreciation for her than I do right now. She’s a special one, that Miss Dash. And it’s all thanks to her that you’re here with me today.’

Rainbow Dash didn’t acknowledge these words any more than she had Twilight’s, eyes still glued on the ground. The Master gave her a little pat on the shoulder.

‘Please,’ breathed Twilight, her wide eyes meeting the Master’s almond slits. ‘Let her go,’ she begged. ‘Keep me and let Rainbow Dash go. There won’t be any trouble. I’ll stay, but only if she goes.’

The Master responded with a vicious kick to her gut. Twilight looked appalled for a second, and then her eyes bulged and wrinkled with tears as she spluttered and wheezed, desperate to draw breath. She eventually found her voice to give a girlish squeak of pain.

‘I’m not making deals with you,’ he laughed. ‘You’re here because I want you here. Because I said to myself one day that I would have you, and now I do. What has transpired has nothing to do with you. You have no power in this place. You have no say in anything.’

‘P—please let Rainbow Dash go—’

A hook to her jaw displaced a tooth, and Twilight gave a squeal of anguish and hung her head, crying loudly like a hurt filly, tears flowing down her face much more readily than they ever had with Rainbow Dash.

‘That hurt, didn’t it, Your Highness,’ cackled the Master. ‘And it must hurt so much more knowing that your best friend, your old ally, helped me to bring you here. Stood by you and deceived you, lied to you! To your face! Knowing intimately, better than anypony, the fate that awaits you here! And still she did it! Now if that doesn’t hurt,’ he said triumphantly, swinging his hoof into her other side and snapping her neck back round. ‘I don’t know what does!’

‘P—please,’ cried Twilight, sobbing, ‘P—please …’

The Master was in his element, laughing with his awful, mocking snickers, stroking Twilight’s cheek, touching the tears he’d forced from her, raising his hoof to the light to admire them glistening. Rainbow Dash hadn’t taken so much as a step, and she hadn’t looked up either. She just stood there, hanging her head as though in a permanent pose of shame, a passive observer in the torment of her old friend.

‘And I’ll tell you why she did it,’ said the Master, smirking. ‘It’s because I’m persuasive, Princess Twilight. I’m a very persuasive pony. By the end of it all you’ll know that, and you’re going to love me for it. You’re going to sit at the end of my bed and feel indescribably fortunate that I allowed you so much as to brush the sheets.’ He grabbed her chin roughly and pulled up her head so that she could see his smile. ‘Welcome to your new life,’ he said gleefully, ‘a life of total subservience to your Master. That’s how it’s going to be. You look like you doubt me. You look as though you don’t believe me.’ He grinned at Twilight’s face, not defiant as Rainbow Dash’s had been but wide-eyed, tear-ridden, submissive. ‘Look,’ he said, dragging her chin upward, forcing her to look at Rainbow Dash. ‘Look!’ he shouted, his voice echoing off the empty walls. ‘Look at your friend! See her? That’s you now! My subject.’ He threw her head backward against the desk top. Twilight hit it with a cry, and her head drooped again, and she wept, shuddering, her face wet with tears.

‘P—please,’ she said. ‘I’m begging you …’

‘Begging doesn’t wash with me,’ said the Master. ‘I don’t care about your begging. You’re nothing to me. Nothing. A decoration on my wall. But I am artist, Twilight. You’ll see that about me. Once I’m through with you, you might actually amount to something. An artist should love his art after all.’

‘R—Rainbow Dash,’ gasped Twilight. For the first time the Master looked annoyed.

‘Don’t bother with her,’ he snapped. ‘Don’t waste your breath. You’re going to need it. Get me a knife,’ he snapped at Rainbow Dash without turning his gaze, filled with hatred, from Twilight. Rainbow Dash lurched into motion, shuffling like a zombie to the trolley. She paused for a moment then selected a long blade, turned on her hoof, and gave it dumbly to the Master, who smirked. Twilight’s eyes filled with new tears. She tried to meet Rainbow Dash’s as she returned to her stance of silent shame, but Rainbow Dash’s mane was covering her face now, as though she’d tossed it out intentionally to shield her from her friend’s pleas. The Master clapped her on the back, smirking. He pulled back her mane so that he could see her eyes. He wiped her sweaty face. He smiled, his eyes filled not with affection but a firm satisfaction.

‘Very soon,’ he breathed to her, ‘you shall have what I promised you. I am merciful,’ he added more loudly so that Twilight could hear too. ‘I am kind.’

Rainbow Dash was shuddering again as though her legs were struggling to hold her weight. Her eyes trembled in her sockets. She pawed at the Master as she always did at the onset of the desperation phase. He cackled at her. ‘Now, now!’ he said, slapping away her hooves. ‘I said soon!’ He turned back to Twilight, knife in hoof, grin stretching from ear to ear. He poked the tip into Twilight’s shoulder, just a centimetre of it, but it was enough that Twilight squealed and writhed.

‘Please!’ she shrieked.

‘If you think that’s anything worth making a fuss about,’ said the Master with a chuckle, ‘you’re going to have a really bad time over the next few days.’

‘P—please …’ sobbed Twilight with a tone of utter desperation. ‘L—let … my friend go …’

The Master was infuriated by that. He narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, face contorting with fury. He grabbed Twilight’s head by the mane and dragged her up, stuffed his face against hers so that he could scream into her. ‘You are a lying little shit!’ he bellowed. ‘I won’t hear your bullshit! I’m going to cut the cries out of you, going to hear you beg me to stop one way or another!’

He froze. A horrible grin slowly stretched across his face, his eyes flashing with a fresh excitement. ‘No,’ he breathed. ‘No. No, no, no!’ He cackled to himself, the room reverberating with his laugher. ‘I have a much, much better idea!’ He turned to Rainbow Dash, leering, nodding to himself. He beckoned her over, but with her head still facing down, she couldn’t see, so he kicked her, and she gave a jolt of surprise, looking up at him, eyes anguished and questioning. The Master leered at her, holding out the knife.

‘You’re going to do it,’ he breathed, beaming at her. ‘You’re going to cut Twilight into the most miserable pile of snivelling horseflesh, and I’m going to stand here and watch you do it. Oh, this is just perfect!’ he cackled, looking up to the ceiling as though praising the sky for his good fortune. He stood there, grinning, waiting. Rainbow Dash’s eyes twitched from his to Twilight’s hooves and back, wide with shock. The Master’s narrowed.

‘Get over here now,’ he hissed at her. Rainbow Dash lurched forward, standing beside him, head bowed. He thrust the knife toward her. She accepted it with a shaking hoof.

‘Face her,’ commanded the Master. But Rainbow Dash couldn’t bring herself to. The Master glared at her. He grabbed her, slapped her across the face. Rainbow Dash made a tiny noise, still trembling, drenched in sweat from the drug. ‘Face her!’ he roared, raising his hoof again.

Rainbow Dash cringed backward then slowly turned and walked over to Twilight, the knife clutched in her hooves as though she were holding a grenade ready to explode. Twilight, though the gag was out, seemed unable to speak, watching her old friend with a look of intense horror. She gave a sob as Rainbow Dash at last opened her eyes, bloodshot, stricken, and looked at her almost out of focus. The Master’s head was stretched out as though he were being pulled in magnetically by the sight, breathing loudly and quickly in anticipation. A tear formed and fell down Rainbow Dash’s cheek as she raised the knife. Blood had started in Twilight’s nose, her mouth half-open in silent dismay. Rainbow Dash brought the knife close, closer, almost touching Twilight’s mane.

‘Come on!’ squeaked the Master, unable to contain his excitement. ‘Do it!’ he yelped, eyes alight like a colt’s at Hearth’s Warming. Rainbow Dash sighed, a deep, rattling exhale. She swallowed.

The knife, though rather old and tarnished, was sharp enough that when it fizzed across the flesh of the neck, it cut into the windpipe. Blood appeared at once, flowing down the chest, dripping like baubles from the outstretched face. The Master was still half-smiling, but the width of his eyes, already at its maximum, changed subtly from delight to alarm. Before he could do much else, he’d fallen sideward. He hit the wall, smacked his head with a thunk similar to that which had so often come from Rainbow Dash’s head on the desk top, and slid to the floor beside the trolley. Though gurgles were issuing from his mouth, he didn’t seem to be trying to speak. His hooves were instead fumbling at the cut in his throat as though he was trying to scoop back in the blood that was leaking out. When the smile ultimately fell, it was replaced by a look of displeased puzzlement directed first at the opposite wall but ultimately to Rainbow Dash, as though she’d made a point in an argument that he couldn’t quite understand. It was the look his body was left with once his hooves had fallen to the floor, and he was lying like a tramp in the corner.

Twilight’s bonds fell into the spreading pool of blood followed swiftly by Rainbow Dash herself, the knife hitting the floor beside her with a clatter. Twilight reached out to catch her friend, her face taut, shocked, filled with a curious mixture of fear and relief, gratitude and concern. Rainbow Dash’s face was strained, desperate. She was pawing at Twilight, trying to form words as though she had in fact herself been stabbed, and this was her final chance to speak before death took her.

‘H—help me,’ she murmured before the sweat soaked her fur, and her voice resumed what had become its nightly ritual, screaming and screaming.