The Sun and Moon are Harsh Mistresses (a MLP story)

	Sunlight shined through the stained glass windows in golden, sparkling beams.  Then, they slowly dimmed,  fading to a meager, colorless glow in the windows.  The court was silent, except for the ruckus, which was so loud it could be heard indistinctly from several chambers away.  Indignant shouting, hooves clopping and dragging on the enameled stone tile, and the occasional whistle and pop of fireworks.  The princesses waited until the imposing double doors leading into the court were thrown open.
	“-an outrage!  No!  No!  Get your filthy hooves off of Trixie!” the blue unicorn shouted as she thrashed around in the royal guards' grips.  The armored unicorns on either side of her held a foreleg each, and doggedly carried her along into the court, trying hard to maintain their composure as she struggled, firing magical fireworks aimlessly in the air, her hind hooves scooting along the floor as she tried to stand her ground.  When they had dragged her far enough, they simultaneously shoved her the rest of the way forward, making her yelp and stumble onto all fours.  She sat on her haunches, glancing back at the guards through snooty, half-lidded eyes.  Both of the guards were bowed forward in a kowtow, practically kissing the ground.  With a huff, she turned back forwards with her nose in the air, dusting her forelegs off with her hooves.  This went on for a few seconds before she felt one of the guards' hooves roughly plant itself on the back of her head and force her down into a bow.  “Wha- hey!” she said, annoyed.  “If this is somepony's idea of a joke, Trixie is not pleased!” she shouted, her voice echoing in the large court.
	“Rise.”
a new voice boomed, echoing in the court so loud and hard the air seemed to ripple from it.  Trixie immediately shut her mouth, her eyes getting wide.  She slowly turned her head up, and she noticed for the first time the judge's bench in front of her.  She was in the royal court.  Her gaze continued up, and so did the bench.  It was a monstrous thing that just kept extending up, and up, and up, and standing at the top on either side, towering over the small blue unicorn, were the royal sisters themselves.  They seemed enormous; the dim, overcast light glinting off of their horseshoes, their legs stretching up into the shadows, formless, sparkling manes waving in the dark, piercing, judgmental eyes glowing white.  On cue, lightning struck outside, briefly illuminating them in stark, white light, before rain started patting on the windows.  Trixie gulped, all of her confidence having quickly bled out of her.
	“Guards.  Dismissed.”
a voice commanded as loudly as before.  From which of the princesses the voice came, Trixie couldn't tell.  Without rising an inch, the royal guards scuttled back out of the room with their noses to the floor, slamming the double doors behind them.  The loud slam echoed for a long time in the large, sparsely furnished chamber.  Trixie nervously watched them go, and now couldn't help but notice the bountiful, shadowy, empty space around her.
	“Trixie Lulamoon.”
a royal Canterlot voice said.
	“Huh, wha-?” Trixie stammered, turning frightfully back up to them, trembling.  Somehow, being called by name made things so much worse.  These weren't the kind and benevolent princesses that the songs and poems spoke of.  These were the wrathful, judging princesses that misbehaving fillies in boarding school were warned and lectured about at length when they bullied their classmates and showed off.
	“You did, knowingly, speak untruths unto, and harass your fellow ponies?”
one of the voices said, and Trixie could see it was the smaller one speaking, “And, on the ninth day of the Fruit Moon, you did unleash a wild ursa minor on the town of Ponyville?”
	“What?  B-b-but that wasn't me!  I didn't bring that monster into town!  It was some idiotic residents of Ponyville, I swear!” she said, trembling and shriveling in the princesses' gaze.
	“Be Silent.”
the voice boomed.  Trixie obeyed.
	“You have been a very bad pony, Trixie Lulamoon.”
the bigger one said.
	“Bad?”
	“How do you plead?”
	“Plead?  That thing destroyed my carriage!  Trixie is innocent!” she said.  The princesses watched her in silence for a moment, before turning to each other.  Trixie anxiously watched them as they looked at each other without exhanging a word.  The bigger one gave a small nod, and the smaller one nodded back, before they turned back to Trixie.
	“By royal decree, we, the princesses of day and night, find you...guilty of all charges.”
	“G-guilty?” she squeaked, her heart sinking, and with a sudden jingling sound, two halves of a metal collar clapped on either side of her neck, secure in place.  Her hooves shot up, feeling the cold, metal thing in a panic.  “Wait!”
	“You are hereby sentenced to the royal punishment, until release or pardon.”
	“Wait!  Wait!” Trixie said, reaching out to them pleadingly, as a magical chain sprouted out of the back of the collar and levitated towards the double doors, where it was received by a waiting royal guard.  “Trixie demands a mistriiiiiiaaaaaaallll!” she screamed, being dragged away clawing at the smooth tile floor with her hooves.  The royal sisters passively watched her go until they slammed the door in her face.

	“Save it for the princesses.” said one of the annoyed royal guards as they hurled Trixie into the cell.
	“Oof!” she said, landing roughly on the flagstone.  “Wait!” she shouted, as they slammed the cell door shut.
	“Can you believe this kid?” one of the guards muttered to the other as they casually walked down the cell block.
	“Sheesh.  If only she could make my headache disappear.” said the other, and they both chuckled under their breath.  She ran up to the bars, her forelegs curling around a couple of them.
	“You can't just leave Trixie in here!  Trixie demands justice!” she said, not noticing the metal chain rising up behind her like a snake about to strike.  “Trixie is innocent!  Innocent!  Whulk!” she croaked as she was violently tugged backwards by the collar around her neck.  “Wha-?  What's this?” she asked, feeling the back of her collar, which was now attached to a new chain.  Holding it up in her hoof, she pulled it taught, and saw where it connected to one of the bricks on the wall by a metal loop.  Trixie sunk onto her haunches, giving an exasperated sigh out of her flapping lips.  “Grand.  Just perfect.” she said, tossing the chain away as far as she could before it swung back, jingling on the floor.

	Trixie laid sprawled across the floor, bored, her horn glowing with light pink-colored magic, watching a display of twinkling pinkish sparks in the air arranging and re-arranging themselves into a shooting star, a crescent moon, and other shapes.  She groaned, scattering the sparks into nothing with a wave, and moved to the back wall.  Trixie slumped her hindquarters on the floor, moping, and leaned against the wall, angrily watching the rain out of her window.  Then, in the silence, the wall suddenly lurched against her.
	“Huh?” she wondered aloud, quickly standing on all fours as the muffled clanking of machinery rumbled just beneath the flagstones under her hooves.  Stone scraped against stone and she heard a jingling sound.  She looked around, dumbfounded, and saw her chain lifting itself off of the floor.  The brick in the wall it was attached to was sinking backwards.  She approached it excitedly and looked in the empty space it left.  It retreated further and further into the wall, down a polished stone tunnel that was about as tall and wide as the brick itself.
	“Yes!  Trixie always knew that no prison could contain her.” she said proudly, bouncing her mane on her hoof.  Then, she hunkered down and tried to climb in.  “Hhhnnnngggrrrrg...” she groaned, sticking her whole foreleg in, trying to squeeze in shoulder-first, to no avail.  She tried going head-first, but her head was just too big.  She stood on her hind legs and examined the wall.  “Come on!  There has to be some way to get through this dumb wall...” she said.  Then, she heard a jingling noise that made her look back down.  The length of chain attached to her collar was almost completely in the wall, and steadily getting pulled in further.  Trixie gasped and frantically grabbed the chain with both forehooves, pulling it outwards, but the chain didn't give at all.  Her hind hooves slid across the flagstone as the chain pulled her closer and closer to the hole.  She let go and tried to run away, panting, but her hooves slid harmlessly on the floor and the chain dragged her backwards.  She felt her rump plug up the hole in the wall.  She yipped and tried to gallop faster, but her hooves wiggled uselessly in the air.  She cringed as the chain tried to pull her neck backwards, but her rump was blocking her way, and her body trembled and resisted.  Then, with a sound like an aluminum can getting crunched, her body buckled and started to compress inwards.  Her legs lifted themselves up as the chain struggled to slide onward, cramming her into the small opening, and once she was about halfway through, her whole body trembled, and with a pop she slipped completely inside.

	Somewhere else, somewhere deeper inside the castle, in a dark cell, a brick in the wall was missing.
	“Oof!  Ow!  Hrngh!” grunted Trixie, her voice distant and echoing.  Slowly, she slid out of the hole and filled it, compressed to the size and shape of a light blue brick.  She came right to the brink and stopped, cringing as her square-shaped body flexed outwards before popping out, bouncing on the dirty floor and then settling, the chain swinging and jingling behind her, attached to a brick that slid into the empty spot in the wall and locked into place.  She blinked and looked around from her brick-shaped body in the middle of her new cell.  She was in another cell, but this one was dirtier, and the cell block was darker, and it felt like it was much deeper in the castle.  She closed her eyes tight and her flattened horn glowed with pale, pink-colored magic, and her compressed body suddenly popped outwards, sitting and teetering uneasily.  She huffed and brushed her coat off again, looking across the circular cell block, but all the cells she could see were empty.  Her eye was caught by something glowing and colorful by the ceiling.  Her eyes narrowed suspiciously and she approached the bars of her cell to examine it closer, and she saw it was a stained glass window, depicting the royal princesses hanging scarves and other fashion items on a statue of what looked like some kind of goat-headed-dragon thing.  Next to it was a window depicting the princesses bending and molding some giant ponies made out of different natural elements into shapes and building a palace out of them.  Next to that one, the princesses were forcing a regal-looking seapony to drink water, swelling her up like a balloon.  And next to that, Princess Celestia was alone, sitting on some kind of half-squished ball or mound of some sort, and upon closer inspection the thing she was sitting on looked like Nightmare Moon.  Trixie gasped and recoiled away from the bars a little as she realized just how many stained glass windows there were.  There were dozens of windows like this, and they all depicted the princesses, or sometimes just Celestia, tormenting somepony, and there was plenty of empty space on the domed ceiling to expand to.  Trixie craned her head next to the bars to try to see around her cell walls.
	“Fascinating, aren't-
	“WHAAAH!” Trixie screamed, scooting away from the bars where it had come from.  There, standing on the opposite side of her bars, was Princess Celestia, and her reclusive sister Princess Luna.  They sat there, grinning at Trixie.  Trixie quickly regained her composure, sticking her chest out and glaring at the princesses.  Here, even in the gloomy light, she could see the color of their coats and manes, see their faces.  There was no fanfare regaling their presence or thrones for them to sit on, and their jewelry couldn't gleam in the sun or moonlight.  They were tall, but they looked much smaller now, sitting out in the open.  They both giggled softly, watching Trixie through the bars.
	“Sorry if we startled you, Trixie Lulamoon.”  said Celestia, smiling good-naturedly.
	“Hmph.” said Trixie.  “Please.  The Great and Powerful Trixie does not startle.  She just needed room to breathe.”  she said, proudly.  The princess' mouths curled up, trying not to laugh, and shared an aside glance with one another.
	“We think we made the correct verdict, sister.  This one promises to be most entertaining!” said Luna.
	“I couldn't agree more.” said Celestia.
	“Enough talk!  Trixie demands you release her at once!”
	“Oh?  And why would we do that?”
	“Trixie was framed.  Trixie is innocent.  If there's anypony you should arrest, it should be that...that bookworm with the bony thighs and that ridiculous stripe in her mane.  Trixie does not remember her name, but if there's anypony that should be thrown in this horrid dungeon, it should be he-uuurrrkk!” she croaked, as she suddenly felt an immense pressure pushing down on her.  Celestia stood outside the bars, smiling pleasantly with her eyes closed, and a golden magic aura glowed around her horn.  “What is thi-hhhhnnngh!  Trixie dema-nnnggrrh!” Trixie grunted as she was forcibly squatted lower and lower to the ground, her forehooves pushing to keep her upright.
	“I believe you're talking about Twilight Sparkle, who is a very good friend of mine.” she said.  The gate to the cell opened.  Trixie sat flat on her rump, hunched down, one foreleg on her head, the other reaching towards the open gate.
	“Hngh!  Just a bi-mmmppphh!” she grunted, shutting her eyes tight as her body started to smoosh downwards like blue dough.
	“Twilight told me all about you.” Celestia said, walking into the cell towards the flattening Trixie, “What you said, how you treated everypony...but despite everything, she asked me not to punish you.  Wasn't that nice of her?” she asked.  The chain connected to Trixie's collar magically popped off, and Trixie struggled to feel what happened on the back of her collar as she squashed further and further into the floor, her body spreading outwards and her legs squeezing shorter.  She coughed, unable to muster up the strength to say anything.
	“The fault of our sister's protege, if it can be called a fault,” said Luna, walking into the cell after Celestia, “is that she is modest.  She is a good pony.”
	“She didn't want to say you were a bully...” said Celestia
	“But, a bully is was we see.”
	“My sister and I have encountered our fair share of bullies over our reign.” she said, her gaze wandering up to the stained glass murals, of the dragon-goat-statue thing, a dark-colored unicorn with shadows ebbing around him, and the seapony, bedecked in a sparkling crown and jewelry.  “Some more serious than others.”
	“But, do not think yourself different, Trixie Lulamoon.  Discounting the scale of their bullying, they are each and every one of them the same.  And we have found that the most efficacious way to deal with bullies...”
	“... is Punishment.”
	“Satisfaction!” Luna shouted excitedly.  Trixie could hardly see straight, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, as her whole body  had been squished to a knee-length height from the floor.  She was staring, unfocused, at the ceiling, when a face sprang into her view, coat and mane as deep and dark as the night sky, and a couple of hooves pressed deeply in her soft form, squashing her down further.  “How does it feel, Trixie Lulamoon?  Presently, you impress us as being neither great, nor powerful!” she said, as Trixie flattened to the thickness, and shape, of a pancake, her wide eyes staring nervously at the princess.  “The only impression you give us hence...is that of an impression!” she said, before her hooves let off and her head left Trixie's view.  She turned around and hunkered down, hovering her rump over Trixie and giving it a little wiggle, just long enough for Trixie's eyes to widen as she realized what she was looking at, and then plopped down, sitting right on top of her, giggling.  Celestia happily rolled her eyes at her sister's lame joke.
	“You'll have to excuse my sister,” Princess Celestia said, pacing in a circle around them while Luna adjusted her position, her hooves kicking happily back and forth, “Adjusting to modern times has not been easy for her, and I'm doing my best to make her as comfortable as possible.  So, I've made a point of getting back into our old hobby again.  She always gets a bit excited when there's a new prisoner to punish.”
	“We've not had a new prisoner for weeks!”
	“But, you will be happy to know that our justice system, which, admittedly, has not been updated in over a thousand years, has a very high success rate.  Either you face your punishments and come out of it reformed, like my sister here, or, we'll keep you hidden away, where Equestria will be safe from you for a thousand years.  And after that, more punishment!  So.  The choice is yours.” she said, lowering her regal behind and sitting on Trixie, back-to-back with Luna.
	“Hmmm...sister, pray tell, if we must imprison her for 1,000 years, howsoever shall we go about  it?  Shall we just place her in the statue garden with the others?” asked Luna, prompting a muffled whimper from the blue pancake they were sitting on.
	“No, it's been a while since we've done something unique.  Something...appropriate.”
	“Well, she has not given us much to go on.  Are we going to turn her into fireworks?”
	“Ooooh, excellent idea!  I think not, but keep that in mind for later!  Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Something tells me that our prisoner here would rather accept the punishment.” she said, bending down to their seat.  “Now, Trixie, you might be thinking, 'what punishment do they have planned for me'?  Well, my sister and I never think that far ahead.  So, until one of us comes up with an idea, we're going to have to amuse ourselves somehow...and we can't have you spending all day in this dark, dirty dungeon!  Even prisoners need fresh air and exercise!”
	“Oooooooh!  Sister, we've just gotten a capital idea!”
	“Oh?” Celestia said, raising an eyebrow.  She stooped down again to address their flat blue seat. “The same goes for you, too, Trixie.” she said, tapping her hoof on Trixie, making soft squishing noises as she did so, “Feel free to speak up if you get any ideas.”
	“Why do we not take the prisoner out for a nice ball game?”
	“I think I like this idea, Luna.” Celestia said.  Luna looked up at the windows, rain pattering on them from the outside.
	“Sister, perhaps you could command the weather patrol to clear the storm up?  Now that the prisoner is captive, it is not necessary to scare her any further?”
	“I wish I could.  Once the storm has started, it can't be stopped until the clouds have shed all of their rain.  But don't worry, little sister, we can use the banquet hall!”
	“Ah!  Playing ball indoors!” Luna said, giggling.  They both got off of Trixie, whose flattened face looked up from her squashed, round body, frozen in shock.  “On your hooves, prisoner!” Luna said, her horn glowing with dark blue magic.  Trixie's body became surrounded with Luna's magic, jittering on the ground, before suddenly
POP
she popped back up in the air, fully restored.  She landed hard on her hooves, staggering dizzily around from the sudden change in her body.  The chain connecting her to the wall disconnected, and a new chain grew from the collar, slithering through the air towards Celestia, who took it with a waiting hoof.
	“Alright, Trixie, let's go.” Celestia said pleasantly.
	“Let's...go?” Trixie said, confused.  She reached a hoof to the back of her collar, feeling the chain, and her hoof followed it down to where it hung in front of her.  She held it up, inspecting it, and followed it down to Celestia's hoof.  Trixie scoffed.  “You cannot be serious.” she said, bemused.  The royal sisters looked at one another and then back at Trixie.
	“Yes, we want you to come with us.” Celestia said, tugging on the chain.  The gesture looked casual, but Trixie was jerked forward with surprising force, making her stumble forward and rotating her collar around until the chain was facing forward, like a leash.  Trixie looked back and forth between the princesses and the chain, appalled.
	“You expect The Great and Powerful Trixie to be...walked?  Trixie is not your pet!”
	“Well, you are our prisoner, so you really have to do what we tell you to.” Celestia said, nonchalantly.
	“No!  Trixie shall not!” Trixie said, plunking down on her haunches and thrusting her nose high in the air, defiantly.  Luna giggled.
	“We shall happily accommodate the prisoner into something more easily transportable, if need be...” Luna said, and both of their horns glowed with magic.  Trixie's eyes shot open.  She nervously looked back and forth between the princesses and the cell floor, as she slowly sagged down onto all fours, fear and shame slowly overriding her other emotions.  She quickly cantered out, chain jingling behind her, hanging her head low.  The magic surrounding the princess' horns faded, and the cell door closed itself behind her.
	“There you go!  Good prisoner!” Celestia said, teasingly, giving Trixie a quick rub on the cheek.  Trixie avoided eye contact, crinkling her nose as she held back what she was going to say, her face steaming hot from embarrassment.  “Come now, Trixie.” Celestia said, giving the chain a tug which jerked Trixie forward a bit.  She looked down at the chain dangling out in front of her.  Hesitantly, she started walking forward, slowly.
	“Haste!” Luna said excitedly behind her, bending down and nudging her horn forward.  Trixie felt a sharp prick on her rump that made her cry out and jump forward.  She looked behind her to see Luna straighten back upwards and trot happily next to her sister and prisoner.  Trixie grumbled and kept pace with them.

	They emerged from a hidden door and made their way through the royal castle together.  The rooms were big and empty, but an army of housekeepers populated it.  Guards stood on duty at almost every doorway, attendants and chambermaids bustled around, cleaning the sparse chambers.  Trixie was amazed at how large and regal the castle was, but no matter where they went, she was the center of attention, and as soon as any of the staff saw the three of them walking together, they quickly averted their eyes and quietly left the room.  A nervous pit was sinking in Trixie's stomach as she watched the castle become increasingly empty, and she soon found herself standing between the two princesses in front of a very large set of double doors.  The royal sisters' horns lit up with magic and the doors flew open, revealing a huge, empty banquet hall.  Luna ran forward and slid across the checkerboarded tile, ready for Celestia, who turned to the sentry at the door.
	“No visitors.” she said, winking.  The guard bowed obediently, and Celestia led Trixie, tugging on her makeshift leash, through the doorway.  The doors slammed shut behind them.  “Okay, Luna,” she said, “we shall play ball now.”  Trixie gave a soft sigh out of her nose and rolled her eyes.
	“You two have fun.” she said, “If Trixie is needed, she'll be over in this corner.” she said, casually walking away from Celestia.  She got a few steps away before the chain on her collar drew tight, stopping her in her tracks.  Her eyes widened, confused.  She looked back.  Celestia hadn't moved, she was casually holding the chain in one hoof, smiling mischievously.
	“Ugh.  Fine.  Trixie will assist in your...ball game.  What do you need Trixie to doooaaahh...” she trailed off, uneasily, as she was enveloped by an aura of golden magic.  She felt her grip on the floor lighten, and she was floating upwards.  She nervously looked all around her at the sinking floor, wiggling her hooves, when all the sudden she felt them get overtaken by a magical force.  “Whah!” she cried out as her legs were all yanked outward, pulling her upright, spread-eagled.  “What are you doing?  Trixie demands to know what you are doing!” she shouted nervously, but Princess Celestia just sat and watched her, a sly and playful smile on her face.  The chain shrunk back into the collar, disappearing.  Suddenly, the magical force on all of her legs pushed inwards.  Trixie yipped and grunted, pushing back.  With a little effort, she was able to push her hooves back out, resisting the push of the magic, but right before she could extend them all the way, the pressure suddenly increased, pushing inwards again.  She grunted, pushing outwards with more and more effort, and right as she had started to push her legs out again – the pressure increased, pushing them back in.  Trixie gritted her teeth, shaking and sweating, and got the distinct feeling that she was being toyed with, right before the pushing became too much and her legs buckled.  Immediately, her limbs collapsed against her body as she nearly folded in half, surrounded on all sides by a shrinking, squeezing, field of golden magic.  She groaned, trying to resist, but she couldn't.  And suddenly, she was moving.
	“Catch!” Celestia shouted, happily, and Trixie was flying through the air, flipping end over end.  She screamed, trying to pop herself back out, but the pressure had been so great that her limbs and body didn't immediately respond, and they slowly, sluggishly, started uncrumpling.  Her horn lit up with magic, trying to concentrate so she could pop back to normal and land on all fours.  She flipped, and flipped, and flipped, and saw Luna approaching with each revolution, and right before she made contact with her, Trixie froze in mid-air, staring right at Luna's grinning face.  Trixie blinked confusedly, her eyes searching around.  The surprise had made her lose her concentration, the magic around the horn flickering to nothing.  She was surrounded by a navy blue magic field, exerting just enough pressure to keep her contained.  Then, suddenly, more.
	“Hurk!” she gasped, her eyes bugging out, as she scrunched up lengthwise, her face and rump pulling towards each other, squishing everything else in between.  She weakly, ineffectually wiggled her legs around, her bulging eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
	“Catch!” Luna shouted, and Trixie was flying through the air again.  She flipped, and flipped, and froze midair, staring at Celestia.  She let out a soft whimper as she was squashed horizontally, and thrown back to Luna, who caught Trixie mid-air with crushing pressure, pressing her into a perfectly spherical shape, like a ball.  Her flattened face was on the surface, her eyes darting nervously back and forth.  Luna gave her a couple of experimental bounces on the floor with her magic before holding her up again, her eyes boggling confusedly around, clearly rattled from the impact.  Then, she flew the air again, bouncing on the ground, and was thrown back, and the sound of two sisters playing filled the big, empty banquet hall.

	Trixie flew into her cell and bounced across the floor, rolling to a stop as the door slammed shut.  “Uuuuunngh...” Trixie groaned as she surrounded herself with a field of light pink magic, and she popped back to normal, awkwardly resting on her head and shoulders, her body leaning limply in the air above her.  She stirred to her hooves, the magical chain reconnecting to her collar and tethering her to the wall.
	“You're done.  For the day.” said Celestia, yawning.
	“You worked us quite out, Trixie.  We very much look forward to tomorrow!  But it is night, and we have official occupations to return to.  You make sure to acquire plenty of sleep.” said Luna.  Trixie rose up and struck a confident pose with her nose thrust high into the air.  She smoothed her mane over and casually held a hoof in front of her face, inspecting it for dirt.  Celestia leaned in close to her sister.
	“So, are you still gonna...?” she asked, under her breath.
	“Sshhh, sh, verily, sister, we will arrange everything!” she quietly replied, her voice playful and excited, giving a sly glance to the prisoner.  Trixie returned the look, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.  Celestia yawned again and started giggling, Luna shooing her away with both forehooves.  “You get plenty of sleep as well!” she said, smiling.  Celestia walked away and Luna turned to follow her.  Trixie looked away in a dignified manner, pretending not to care in the slightest.  “Good evening.” Luna said.  Trixie looked back at her again.  “Pleasant dreams.” Luna said, winking, and trotted after her sister.
	“Hmph!” Trixie hmphed, turning away again, eyes shut.  She heard the princesses walk away, their horseshoes clopping on the stone as they left the dungeon, and then the mechanical clanking and scraping of stone of the hidden door shutting, and it was silent.  Trixie opened one eye and peered at the door to her cell.  Nothing.  She opened both eyes and crept forward, her chain gently jingling, making sure the coast was clear.  She rushed to the back wall in a panic and grabbed the chain in both hooves, violently tugging it away in desperation, any appearances of dignity she displayed long gone.  She spun in circles and fumbled with the collar on her neck, feeling around it with both hooves, trying to tug it up and over her head, before grabbing the chain itself and gnawing on it with her teeth.  She ran up to the bars of her cell, grabbing them and pulling, pushing, trying to make any of them wiggle in their spot.  Her horn glowed with magic and she hunched down, touching the tip to the chain and a bright light and shower of sparks flew from the point of contact.  She sat up, looking down at the chain excitedly, but the metal simply glowed red hot before fading back to its dull black finish.  With a groan, Trixie collapsed onto her stomach, defeated.  The chain took a couple of seconds to settle down after that.
	“Oh, Trixie.  This isn't happening.” she said to herself.  “Tomorrow, you'll wake up, and you'll be back in your carriage.” she said, closing her eyes.  “You'll be parked outside Hoofington and everything will be fine.”

	It was a warm and sunny afternoon in Ponyville.  The fountains babbled, the birds sang...
CRASH
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!
The citizens of Ponyville ran and screamed in a panic.  Among the crowd of ponies, a pinkish-colored earth pony stumbled and fell, the crowd parting and running past her.  She shakily started getting back up, looking behind her.  Her eyes grew wide in horror and she slowly looked up and over her.  She gasped and started screaming, before a giant, blue hoof slammed down on her, cutting her scream short and squashing her flat.  Trixie looked down, grinning menacingly, before throwing her head back in evil laughter.  She had grown enormous, towering over the pitiful, normal-sized citizens of ponyville, and left a trail of squished and flattened ponies in her wake.
	“Yes!  Run, my little ponies!  Run!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” she laughed, crushing a few more underhoof with ease.  “Run The Great and Powerful Trixie out of town, will you?  Take this!  Laugh at Trixie will you?  Take that!  You think you're so great, so powerful, destroying Trixie's carriage?  Framing Trixie for your crimes?  Take this!  And that!  And this!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
	“That's enough, Trixie!” shouted a nasally and annoying voice that Trixie recognized at once.  “Leave Ponyville alone!”  Trixie grinned wickedly.  She turned, and there was that insufferable know-it-all, standing next to the tiny carriage in which she lived, a six-pointed star adorning the door to match her cutie mark.  She stood with her hooves far apart, ready for battle, and her face was set with determination.
	“Well, well, well.” said Trixie, sauntering towards the purple unicorn, crushing more helpless ponies on the way without even trying.  “I was wondering when you'd show your cowardly face, miss Purplesmart.” she said, inspecting the bottom of one of her hooves, before scraping the flattened pony off of it on the back of a nearby bench.
	“My name is Twilight Sparkle!  And I can only go so long before getting too jealous of your amazing talent and ruining everything!  So leave quietly, or else!” she said.
	“Hmmm...I thiiiiiink...not!” Trixie said, rearing one of her forehooves back and bearing it down on the tiny unicorn.  She yelped and dove out of the way at the last second, and Trixie's hoof smashed her tiny carriage to pieces with one stomp.  “Uuurrrgghh...stand still!” she said, pulling her hoof out of the wreckage and shaking pieces of debris off of her hoof.  She angrily turned to where Twilight jumped, rearing her hoof back and swinging it back down, ready to crush the tiny ponyvillian, but her eye was caught by something that made her freeze mid-stomp.  Her eyebrows unfurrowed and she shook her head in surprise.  Standing here Twilight should have been was Trixie, wearing her pointed hat and cape.
	“Noooooooooooo!” the tiny blue unicorn cried as she collapsed onto her haunches, one hoof outstretched pitifully towards the wreckage of the carriage.  “My home!  My props!  Nooooooo!” she shouted, tears in her eyes.
	“...Huh?” asked Trixie, her hoof still frozen in the air.  She was speechless.  Deep, dark clouds boiled above her, darkening the sky and rumbling with distant thunder.  A heavy wind started to blow.
	“What am I gonna do?” the tiny Trixie said, sobbing into her hooves, “Where am I supposed to go?  What am I gonna do?”  Suddenly, Twilight Sparkle dashed out in front of the crying blue unicorn, standing between her and Trixie.
	“Get behind me!” she ordered, her hooves spread wide and an angry, determined look on her face, her mane blowing in the wind.  Trixie growled, magical energy building up on her horn.
	“This is your fault!” she shouted, and a bright, bolt of lightning fired out of her horn at the unicorn.  Twilight was engulfed in the crackling, sparkling energy, and Trixie smiled menacingly.  She maintained the beam for more than long enough to leave nothing more than a scorch on the cobblestone, at which point she eased off, but the energy disappeared in the sheen of a protective bubble around Twilight and the sobbing blue unicorn behind her.  Twilight cringed, then shook it off and resumed her determined stance.  “Uuuuurgh!  Twilight Sparkle!” she shouted again, raising her hoof up and smashing it down on her, but her giant hoof clanged solidly on the force field, her hoof ringing painfully like a bell.  Trixie's eyes immediately shot open and her mouth curled shut.  “Ah-hah-hooooooow!  Mmmmmnnnggghh!” she shouted and groaned, shaking her hoof and taking hissing breaths in through her teeth.
	“Don't worry, I've dealt with beasts like these before.” Twilight said to the unicorn.  The forcefield faded away and she closed her eyes tight, magic glowing and sparkling around her horn.  Trixie didn't realize, but the wind picked up in a different direction, and as it traveled by her ears, she thought she heard music.  She stopped what she was doing and listened more intently, and calm, soothing tones came with the wind that seemed to burrow through her ears and roll around in her brain.  She couldn't move, the music gripped her and made her tingle all over.  Twilight's magic engulfed a water tower, tearing the tank off of the top and emptying the water out, before levitating it to a nearby barn.  Trixie was transfixed, and the music overtook her, and she started to shrink.  She could feel Twilight's magic engulf her and lift her off her feet.
	“Wait...” she said, looking at her hooves.  She looked up and saw the water tower tank floating towards her, filled with milk and held together with Twilight's magic.  “Wait!” she shouted, flailing her hooves around, but the tank carried on anyways, the pointed top shoving itself in her mouth.
ULP!  GLUK GLUK GLUK GLUK GLUK GLUK GLUK!
She swallowed the warm milk, her cheeks puffing up, her stomach filling and slowly bulging outwards.  She struggled, beating her hooves against the metal tank, but it was useless.  She slowly plumped up, bigger and bigger, her belly expanding, pressing into the cold metal tank.  Her bloated midsection and haunches stretched like rubber and grew rounder, her widening rump gently supported by Twilight's magic, and she started getting carried off somewhere.  She heard laughter.  She looked down and saw all the citizens of Ponyville, including the ones she'd flattened that hadn't yet been restored, pointing and laughing at her.  She screamed for help, cheeks puffy and full, a magical force holding her mouth on the opening, waving her increasingly pudgy legs as she swelled up like a big, blue water balloon, grown almost half as large as the tank was.  The ponies laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and she blushed with tears in her eyes.  She could feel every eye in Ponyville on her humongous, inflating body.  She glanced to the side and spotted the royal sisters sitting on a secluded bench.  They were both sharing a carton of popcorn and they both waved at her when she spotted them.  She blinked in disbelief and floated on, carried by Twilight's magic, beyond the outskirts of Ponyville.  The laughing faded away to crickets chirping as she floated towards the Everfree forest, gulping the warm milk uncontrollably.  She shut her eyes tight, her belly squeezing and growing around the curve of the metal tank, groaning like overtaxed rubber, slowly pumping her up bigger, and rounder, and fuller, her expanding, sloshy bulk approaching the size of the tank itself.  Shadows overtook her as her humongous body floated helplessly into the darkness of the forest.  She heard a sinister growling.  “Mmph?” she asked, scared, and looked as far ahead as she could see.  A pair of menacing red eyes illuminated in the darkness.  “Mmmpphh!” she screamed, gulping down milk, waggling her helplessly swollen legs as defensively as she could, as a bright, pointed star shape appeared above the eyes.  She floated closer and closer, drinking and drinking, bulging and billowing outwards, squeaking and groaning like a balloon, and she could see its teeth by the dim starlight coming from its body, and it roared, and right as her huge, round body floated to it, it raised one of its massive paws in the air, sharp, yellow claws gleaming and swung it down-
	“GAAAAAH!” screamed Trixie, bolting upright.
She stared blankly ahead of her, her trembling forelegs holding her up, sweat running down her hide.  She panted, and reality started to soak its way back into Trixie's mind.  She remembered where she was and what she was doing here.  More importantly, she realized that it was just a dream.  “Uuuuugggghhhhh...” she groaned, partly out of relief, mostly out of exasperation, and collapsed belly-first on the stone floor of the cell, the chain attached to her collar jingling.  “I have to get out of heeere...” Trixie moaned to herself, defeated, blowing a lock of her mane out of her face.  She heard the hidden door open and the princesses approach, and gave them a scowl as they walked in front of her cell.
	“Sleep well?” Celestia asked, pleasantly.  Trixie's tired eyes narrowed in anger.

	Trixie trudged behind the princesses, staring angrily at the floor as they made their way through the castle.  They went through the rather modest entrance to the royal laundry room and shut the door behind them.  Trixie looked up at the surprisingly quaint and normal-looking laundry room, with sheets and tapestries laying in bins and a washtub full of sudsy water in the middle of the room, with a wringer and washboard on the side.
	“Now.  We have a busy day planned ahead of us, Trixie.” said Celestia.
	“But, it is necessary for you to use this wringer first.” said Luna, smiling giddily.  Trixie gave the princesses an annoyed look, and looked at the wringer.  She gave a long, irritated sigh.
	“Well, go on then.” Celestia said, giving the chain a tug, jerking Trixie forward a bit, but she didn't move.
	“Haste!” said Luna, poking Trixie in the rump with her horn.  Trixie cringed and stumbled a bit, but didn't move.
	“Trixie, are we doing this the easy way or the fun way?” Celestia asked, with a touch of mischief in her voice.  Trixie blinked slowly, her eyes wandering over to the corner to the room.  There, coiled in the corner, was a long rope.  A devilish smile slowly spread across Trixie's face, and she started walking.  “There we go.” Celestia said, and they followed her, eagerly watching her approach the washtub.  Magic started to glow around Trixie's horn.
	“How exciting!  We think first, we shall use her as a place mat and have lunch on her, sister!” said Luna.
	“Mmmhmmmm.” Celestia said, watching her sister having her fun.
	“And then, perhaps we can make a hammock of her for the afternoon!”
	“Mmmmhmmm.”
	“Sister, why has she ceased moving?”
	“Hmmm?” Celestia asked, stopping in her tracks.  Both sisters stopped moving and stared at Trixie in surprise.  Trixie faced them, standing defiantly in front of the washtub.  She was breathing heavily through a wicked smile.
	“We do believe she would prefer to do things the 'fun' way.” Luna said, smiling.  A rope slithered across the ground like a long, thin snake, circling around the princess' hooves, and they both watched it in amusement.
	“Ooh, what exactly are you planning, Luna?” Celestia said, watching the rope go around and around.
	“Something grand, but we're curious to see what you do with this rope first, sister.”  Luna said. Celestia chuckled.
	“Very funny.  I'll wait and see what you do with it, first.” she said.
	“But...we are not manipulating it, sister, you are.”
	“Me?  I thought you were.”  she said.  Both of their smiles faded as they watched the rope wind around and around and around them.
	“But if we are not responsible, than who-” Luna started, and abruptly cut herself off, her eyes wide.  They both looked at Trixie, magic flaring around her horn, smiling madly.
	“-Oh.” The princesses said at the same time, before the rope sprang up around them and cinched together.  The princesses were quickly pulled together in the restricting rope, binding their legs and wings firmly against their bodies, criss-crossing their faces, mashing them together cheek-to-cheek, grunting and groaning as the rope squeezed tighter and tighter.
	“Ha ha ha!  Ha ha ha ha!  Yyyyyes!” Trixie yelled triumphantly, with a victorious leap in the air.  The princess' hooves started to lose touch with the floor as they levitated upwards.  Luna's horn glowed with magic, but flickered and died.
	“Sister!  Hnnnggg...we can't...” she started, fighting for breath.
	“Too...strong...how...?” Celestia said, equally powerless.  They floated completely free of the ground and drifted across the room, over the checkered tile, slowly carried towards the wringer.  Trixie's magic glowed in the mechanism on the side, and it spun to life, the rollers spinning ominously.  The sisters looked up fearfully as they floated closer and closer, unable to escape, and the tips of their horns were inserted into the rollers together.  They gasped as their long, regal horns got painfully squished in the wringer; narrow, paper-thin cutouts coming loosely out of the other side.  Their bodies slowly floated closer, squealing in discomfort and struggling to use magic with their flattened horns, but the rollers worked their way down to the princess' heads, cringing and grimacing as they were crushed flat, silencing their cries and emerging on the other side as thin as cardboard, stuck together in profile, each princess' respective exposed eye spinning dizzily around.
	Trixie watched eagerly as the alicorns squirmed and struggled in their bindings, feeding them, inch by inch, to the insatiable machine.  In went to their neck and shoulders, down to their forelegs, their wings and stomachs.  Their noses touched the floor on the other side, their flattened bodies starting to fold and crumple as one, their exposed eyes looking around in a panic.  They squeezed and squished through, looking like a strange cardboard cutout of themselves until finally, the end of their long, sparkly tails came through and they dislodged from the wringer, drifting back and forth in the air before gracefully smoothing out on the ground, as light as a sheet of paper.  Celestia was on top, completely covering her flattened sister.  A pair of blue hooves stamped down on either side of their flattened forms, and her exposed eye darted around, spotting the forelegs and following them up to their source.
	“Ha!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!  In!  Your!  Faces!” Trixie said, jabbing a hoof towards them for emphasis.  Celestia's eye narrowed, annoyed.  Trixie tipped their heads up with one hoof, turning it this way and that, their eyes looking around confusedly.  “How does it feel?  Fun, I hope?” she asked.  She felt a force on the back of her collar, the chain magically retracting back into it.  “Ha ha ha ha!” she laughed, excitedly, “Oh, this is wonderful!  Well, it's been just grand being your royal plaything, but Trixie is done with you two for now.” she said, turning and walking out.  Her horn glowed and her magic enveloped the door.  “Everything's looking up Tri-” she started, freezing after she opened the door.  Standing in the doorway in front of her were the princesses, fully restored somehow.  And they didn't look happy.  She stared at them, dumbfounded, and slowly looked behind her.  There was a loose tangle of rope laying in the middle of the floor, unattended.  She slowly looked back at the princesses.  They stared back at her, angrily.  Her face slowly stretched into a nervous smile.  “Eh heh heh heh...that is to say...that's what Trixie would say...if she wasn't...so loyal to the crown.  And your royal highness'...um...wisdom...and judgment.  Heh heh.”  The princesses didn't budge.  Trixie slowly backed up until her rump bumped up against something.  She quickly glanced behind her and saw that she had run into the washtub, the rollers on the wringer still spinning on their own.  She looked back at the princesses and uneasily smiled, lifting her tail up in one hoof and feeding it into the wringer.  “Just doing my royal du-HOOT-!” she yelped, biting her lip and taking a sucking gasp through her teeth, “OOH, Luna, that hurts!  Oh, oh!  Hmm...I mean...” she said, nervously smiling as her hooves scooted backwards along the tile floor, “A thousand pardons for...ngh...using your name in vain, your...hng...highness, I was just...mph...” she grunted, as the wringer swallowed its way down to the base of her tail, her hind legs starting to lift off the ground, bending outwards over the lip of the washtub, “Heh heh, heh heh...oooh...” she croaked, her rump and flanks disappearing into the spinning rollers, “Please...mmmnnngghh...” she moaned, her midsection going through alongside the hooves of her awkwardly-bent hind legs, “Please forgive...Trixie...hulp!...” she pleaded, her forelegs sticking straight out, as she squeezed in, crushed up to her neck.  The princesses didn't move, and didn't say a word.  “Hlk!...Great...and Power...fngh...” she sputtered out as her head and horn disappeared through the rollers and she was silent.  The princesses walked around the washtub, looking down at the flat blue shape at their hooves.
	“Pray tell, where did you say this one came from, sister?” Luna asked.
	“Nowhere.  She doesn't have a file in the archives, and I couldn't find anypony who knew her.  Either she's been traveling outside of Equestria for most of her life, or Trixie Lulamoon is a fake name.”
	“Hmph.  We would have believed she was one of yours.  Apologies, sister, but we feel we have lost our appetite for punishment, hence.” she said, her nose in the air, running a hoof along her wavy, sparkling mane.
	“I was thinking the same thing.” Celestia said.  Trixie's flattened body glowed with the princess' magic and popped off the ground, fully restored.  She staggered on her hooves before shaking it off, looking at the princesses with surprise before awkwardly looking downward.
	“Well, if you say so, your royal highness, it's back to the old cell for Trixie to think about what she's done...” she said, cantering between them towards the door.  The chain sprouted out of Trixie's collar and glowed with Celestia's magic, and Trixie found herself held back, her hooves treading in place on the tile before she was dragged backwards, sliding across the floor.
	“Not so fast.” Celestia said, the slight grin returning to her face, “You've lost your basic mobility privileges.”.  Her entire body was enveloped in dark blue magic and she felt the magical force lift her off her hooves.  She flailed her legs, trying to reach the ground, and looked up at her in dread, quickly turning to face Luna, who was looking up at her with a calm, threatening look in her eye.  A small glass jar floated up to her, enveloped in her magic.  The princess' mouth slowly turned into a wicked grin.
	“Wait!  No!  Trixie is sorrummpphhh!” she yelled as her muzzle was forced into the jar.  It got a little way past the mouth of the jar, but her head was far too big to fit inside.  That didn't seem to stop Luna, though.  The magic pushed and pushed and pushed, her face pinching shut as her hide squeezed further and further in, and with a
POP
her head was inside, filling the entire jar.  She flailed her legs around, unable to make a sound, as her head was crammed in the confines of the jar, clearly too small, but it seemed Luna wanted her to make room for all the rest as well.  The magic pushed and shoved, and her body started to mush like dough, her shoulders squeezing past the small mouth of the jar, her forelegs wiggling against the side of her body as she slowly crammed inside.  Her face was pressed on the bottom of the glass and along the side, cringing as her midsection squeezed in, the hooves of her forelegs wiggling and slipping past the rim.  Luna grimaced, Trixie's body showing an inconvenient amount of resistance.
	“Sister, pray assist us?” Luna asked.  Celestia closed her eyes and her horn glowed.  Trixie's flanks and kicking legs were all that was sticking out of the comparatively tiny jar, and the magical energy surrounding them slowly faded from dark blue to golden yellow.  Two hooves planted themselves on Trixie's rump.  Luna pushed her down until the jar clinked on the ground, Trixie's hind legs kicking confusedly, and she shoved downwards with all her strength.  Slowly, Trixie's wide, round flanks squeezed through, her cutie mark disappearing into the jar.  There was nothing left to press down on, and Luna wrapped one foreleg around Trixie's hind legs and tail, bundling them up, and put her other hoof on top, forcing her down.  Down, down, down, Luna's forelegs trembling at the pressure, and Trixie weakly struggled as her hind legs disappeared down into the jar, her tail going in completely, and all that was left sticking out were her two hind hooves.  Luna put a hoof on one of them and
POP
shoved it in, the other one quickly filling the gap, and
POP
she shoved that one in, too.  She smiled with satisfaction and levitated the lid over and fit it over the mouth of the jar, but it wouldn't sit on straight.  Confused, she looked down and saw a tiny bit of Trixie's light blue hide bulging out of it.  Frustrated, Luna's horn lit up with magic, and she exerted herself, Trixie's form squishing down in the jar, making a sound that sounded somewhat like a muffled squeal of discomfort, leaving ample room below the top.  She screwed the lid on tightly, and then her magic eased up.  Instantly, Trixie's compacted body spread upwards, filling what empty space there was to fill.  The jar plinked down on the tile, wobbling around on its base like a coin before settling down.  Celestia lifted the jar up, and looked Trixie in her wide eyes.
	“That's better.  Can't do much trouble in there, can you?” she asked, tapping on the glass with one of her hooves.  Trixie's compacted eyes darted around, searching Celestia's face in response.  “She's all yours, sister.” she said, handing her to Luna, who clapped her hooves together excitedly, taking her with her magic.
	“Oh, how exciting!” she said, giddily.  She tucked Trixie under one of her wings and followed after her sister.

	Holding the top and bottom of the jar between her hooves, Luna shook the jar with Trixie inside excitedly.  Holding the lid away from her, she began carefully unscrewing it.  With one last, tiny twist, the lid shot off, ricocheting off the far wall, and Trixie sprang out of it, spewing out of the jar in a long, narrow, cylindrical shape, before she hit the floor, compacting back to her normal form, and tumbled to a halt, coughing and panting.
	“You are certain it still works?” asked Luna.
	“Of course it does.  Go on, sister, I'll catch up with you.” said Celestia.  Luna's hoofsteps echoed  as she made her way out of the dungeon.
	“Good news, Trixie.” Celestia said.  Trixie was staring, transfixed, at the ceiling, barely listening to her.  Then, she felt her collar move.  She looked down in surprise as it unlatched and levitated off of her neck, floating up in front of her face and away from her.  She stared at it, dumbfounded.  Her hooves shot to her bare neck, feeling it to make sure it wasn't some kind of trick.  Her horn glowed, and a thin, wispy square drew itself in the air before her, before it filled in with an image of her face, turning into a magic mirror.  She turned her head this way and that, and sure enough, there was a stripe around her throat of lighter-colored, cleaner fur where the collar had been.
	“Well then!” Trixie said, getting to her hooves, the magic mirror hovering in front of her face the whole way, “This is something Trixie could get used to.” she said, bouncing her mane glamorously on her hoof, checking her reflection.
	“Enjoy it while it lasts.” Celestia said.  Trixie leaned over, peaking past the magic mirror, and saw she was levitating something that looked like a solid metal cheese wheel.
	“What in Equestria is that thing?” Trixie asked, incredulously.  Celestia took a deep breath and blew on it, a huge moat of dust puffing off into a cloud.
	“Your little talent show in the laundry room earned you an upgrade.” she said, good-naturedly.  The great, circular thing hovered over to Trixie, who leaned away from it uneasily, and it opened up like a hungry beast's mouth and clamped around her neck.  She gave a squeak of surprise and blinked in confusion.  She looked in the magic mirror, and saw it was covered in dust and inscriptions she didn't recognize and couldn't read, and the thing clanked and hung unevenly off of her neck, clearly too big for her.  It looked like a ruff that ponies in historical paintings wore, and it looked ugly.  Then, the magic mirror flickered in the air.
	“Huh?” Trixie said, concentrating to maintain the spell, but as soon as she tried, there was a pop from the tip of her horn and she winced in pain as some sparks issued out of it and the magic mirror disappeared.  She tenderly rubbed her horn with one of her hooves as a thin trail of light pink smoke floated up from it, and she tried to use her magic, gently this time, and couldn't.  Like a balloon with the air leaking out of it, she sensed a dullness wash over her, sapping her strength and making her eyelids heavy.  “Wh...what'd ya do to me?” she asked, her words slurring with fatigue.
	“Put an anti-magic collar on you.  Just a precaution.” she said, her eyes closed in satisfaction.  A chain sprouted out of the back of it, snaking through the air and attaching to the wall.  “Now then.  Hopefully that will put an end to your little-
	“HRAGH!” Trixie bellowed, and Celestia quickly dodged backwards in surprise, Trixie's swinging hoof just missing her face.  She clenched onto the bars with one hoof and stuck the other forehoof through, reaching and swinging it around.  “Trixie doesn't need magic to...hngh!...The Great and Powerful Trixie can escape without a single spark from her glorious horn!  Ungh!  Hmph!” she grunted, taking wild swings at the princess.
	“Hmm.” said Celestia, thoughtfully.  “We're gonna have to shorten that chain as well.” she said, her horn glowing.  Trixie was tugged backward, holding onto the bars with both hooves, but her strength was gone and she couldn't resist the pulling, and instead tried one last, desperate flail at Celestia with both hooves, missing by a wide margin.  She collapsed onto her back, panting.  “You know, Twilight told me about your skill with magic, but I thought she was exaggerating.  That was very impressive, what you did.” she said.  Trixie calmly got to her haunches and dusted her forelegs off.  “Where did you learn how to do that?” she asked.  Trixie paused, gave Celestia a long, annoyed look, and then resumed dusting herself off.  Celestia smiled, sweetly.  “Alright, let me put it this way.  Do you know why that collar was so dusty?  Hmm?” she asked.  No response from Trixie.  “Because the last time I had to use it was over 200 years ago.  And the pony I used it on was trying to take over Equestria.” she said.  Trixie's ears perked up and she gave a slight pause, her eyes staring blankly as wheels turned over in her head, and then resumed preening herself, more slowly.  “I only use the anti-magic collar when I'm afraid.  You're no ordinary unicorn, Trixie.” she said.  Trixie tossed her mane with a flick of her head, the smallest hint of a smirk on the edges of her mouth.  “You have a lot of talent, but that talent is a big responsibility.  Twilight also asked me not to punish you for what you did, because she saw the potential for good in you.  She believes that, in the end, you will do the right thing.  Unfortunately, my protege is young, and has much to learn.  She has never seen somepony with great power and potential squander their talent on petty self-interest.  She hasn't seen that all it takes is one poor decision...” she said, her gaze turning up to the mural of her and Nightmare Moon.  She looked up at it silently, closing her eyes and giving a soft sigh out of her nose.  “So please.  Let go of your hatred.  You must understand why we punish you.” she said.  Trixie sprang forward, suddenly.
	“And you must und- ACK!” she said, suddenly coming to the end of her length of chain.  She winced, tugging and adjusting the bulky collar around her neck, before she took a couple more careful steps towards the bars, and was just able to perch on them with her front hooves.  “You must understand that Trixie shouldn't even be here!  Those backwoods yokels from Ponyville brought a beast from the Everfree forest that smashed my carriage, and nearly mauled me!  That tale has spread like magic fire all throughout Equestria!  Trixie hasn't found a single venue she wasn't booed out of without making a profit!  Trixie has had no place to live, no bits to her name, having to rely on the condescending generosity of strangers like an animal, and what does that little bookworm get for her misdeeds?  Nothing!  Praise, adoration, freedom!  It should be her in this cage!  IT SHOULD BE HER!”  she screamed, shaking the bars as hard as she could.  She panted, staring at Celestia furiously.  Celestia stood there with her eyes closed, in silence.
	“I can't tell you how to feel.” said Celestia.  “I can only ask that you change your mind.” she said, simply, and walked away.  Trixie watched the princess of the sun with contempt.  She slowly made her way to the center of the cell, her legs wobbling with fatigue, and sat down.  She closed her eyes, trying to conjure a simple puff of sparks, but a fuzzy blankness closed in around her head and a pinching ache flared up in her horn.  She winced, sucking air through her teeth and rubbed it.  She slowly collapsed onto her side and settled on her back, staring at the ceiling.  Her muscles ached and her clouded mind settled to a rest.

	“Oooooooooh!” went the crowd of ponies, in awe.  Trixie lorded over them, brights lights shining on her from the stage.
	“And now, The Great and Powerful Trixie offers this simple challenge to you- anything you can do, The Great and Powerful Trixie can do better!  Any takers?  Anypony?  Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine that has ever li-” she boasted, suddenly cutting herself off as the stage rumbled beneath her feet.  “Wh-what's going on?” Trixie asked, shocked, as her audience murmured nervously amongst themselves.  Suddenly, Trixie's right foreleg shot up, of its own accord.  “Gah!” she yelped, looking at it in confusion.  “Huh?” she gasped, as the other one shot up and out as well, leaving her standing upright on her hind hooves.  She tried to move them, but she couldn't.  Then, they started wiggling around on their own.  “What's going on?” she asked, her voice wavering and frightened, and suddenly her hind legs started moving too, and she was involuntarily dancing in a gangly, ungainly manner.  She looked out to the audience for help, but they were all laughing at her as she bounced and dangled around the stage.  She looked out to her foreleg and saw the sheen of a thin, nearly invisible string coming out of it and trailing up.  Her expression changed to one of grim understanding, and she followed the string up to a huge, monstrous beast hunched over her stage.  It held her strings in its gigantic hooves and the tips of all four of its massive wings.  It had two giant heads with glowing, judgmental eyes, a dark blue one and a white one, long, gnarled horns protruding from their skulls, and swirling, thundering storm clouds where their manes should be.  The dark blue one's mouth was twisted back in a cruel smile, and it laughed maniacally, its laughter booming and echoing, while the white head just stared, silently judging.  Trixie stared at the beast in horror and screamed as she cavorted around the stage, painfully bending this way and that, while the audience laughed, and laughed, and started to throw vegetables at her.  “Help!  I can't do anything, help!  Somepony help meeeeee!” she cried, looking at the audience with tears in her eyes.
	As she said that, suddenly, she stopped, her fore and hind legs on her left side suddenly collapsing, and she regained control of them, awkwardly balanced on her right hind leg.  She looked up in surprise.  The white head had averted its piercing gaze, and was whispering into the other head's ear, using its hoof to cover its mouth in a surprisingly civilized mannerism for such a monstrous creature.  The dark blue head stopped laughing and paused, one eyebrow cocked as she listened intently to the other one, its smile slowly fading.  Trixie, and the entire crowd, stood in silence, watching the monstrous beast consult with itself.  They couldn't make out the whispers of the white one, but the dark blue head kept its severe gaze locked on Trixie, flashes of lightning and booming thunder in its mane.  The white head finished whispering and joined the blue one, staring down at the unicorn.
	“...Very well.” the dark blue head said, its voice loud and pounding.  Trixie's remaining limbs freed up and she collapsed on the stage, quickly turning to her haunches and scuttling fearfully away from the beast, backwards, until she reached the end of the stage.  “We have grown tired of this insect.” it said, its four huge wings unfurling in the sky.  “We feel it should be disposed of!” it said, raising its massive dark blue hoof high in the air, and sending it hurtling down.  Trixie looked up in panic and fear and could only cringe and turn away, waiting for the impact.  The shadow descended over her, and she felt hooves pound on the stage over her, and a loud impact of magical force.  She opened her eyes, and she was unharmed, the shadow hanging over her.
	“Huh?” she asked, confused, and looked up.  Standing over her was that purple know-it-all, facing down the beast, a magical, magenta-colored bubble surrounding them.  “You!?” Trixie said, aghast, her eyes narrowing.
	“Get behind me!” the purple unicorn said, tilting her head to the side in acknowledgment as she said it, magic flaring and bursting from her horn.
	“You!” Trixie shouted, angrily getting to her hooves.
	“You cannot defend this insect forever, Twilight Sparkle.” the beast said, both of its voices booming simultaneously.
	“Hrngh!  I know I can't!  But we both can!” Twilight said, giving Trixie a smile.  Trixie straightened her pointy hat, fuming.  “I can't hold her back forever!  But if we both- whuuaaah!” she cried, as Trixie shoved her off of her hooves.  She cringed as she landed on the stage, the magic on her horn fizzling and fading.
	“The Great and Powerful Trixie has some choice words to give you, Sparklight Twinkle.”
	“It's Twilight!  Twilight Sparkle!” she shouted, frustrated, while she grimaced, trying to concentrate on her magic, and failed.
	“Whatever!  The Great and Powerful-” she started, as the bubble around her faded away.  She paused, her eyes wide, and looked up in fear.  A great, big hoof still hovered right over her.  “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” she screamed as it reared up, and-

SQUASH!

	Trixie's eyes shot wide open, bloodshot, and stared up at the ceiling as she lay there on her back, sweating.  The hidden door rumbled and scraped open, and Trixie slowly and stiffly creaked her head towards the cell door.  The princesses both approached her, glamorous as ever, with smiles on their faces.
	“Arouse from your slumber, prisoner!” Luna said cheerily.  Trixie's wide-eyed expression remained unchanged, and she slowly blinked at them, looking like she'd seen a ghost.

	“Oh, what shall we do today?  Perhaps we can resume where we left off yesterday and have a picnic on her!” said Luna, bouncing on her hooves, while Trixie slowly crept out of her cell, led by her chain, staring blankly at the floor.  “Or perhaps let the children of Canterlot have their way with her!  Or, maybe use her to clean the plumbing?  Music!  We can make her into an instrument of some fashion, and host a party!” she said.
	“...Cleaning...” Trixie muttered.
	“Streamers!  Pardon, did you say something, prisoner?”
	“Um...” Trixie said, knocking her hooves together nervously, “Perhaps...Trixie could...clean the castle today?  Give your staff the day off?” she asked, with a fearful, hopeful smile.  The princesses both blinked at her, stunned.  Then, Celestia's gaze slowly found its way over to Luna, her mouth edging up into a tiny grin so smug it could only result from having won a bet.  Luna looked back at Celestia with indignation, her nose crinkling, the two seemingly having an entire argument without saying a word.  Celestia sat down, crossing her front legs, her expression unchanging.  Luna sat down and crossed her front legs as well.  She looked away, pouting.  There was a long, awkward pause, and Trixie looked back and forth between the princesses, confused.  Then, Luna reached one of her forelegs out and dismissively waved her hoof in a shooing motion.  Celestia smiled wider and returned her gaze to Trixie.
	“We feel like this is sufficient enough punishment for the day.” she said.
	“Really!?” gasped Trixie, excitedly, before clearing her throat and regaining her composure.  “I mean...if I must...” she said, weakly.
	“Come, now.” Celestia said, leading them out of the dungeon.

	The sisters showed her around the castle, instructed her carefully, and showed her the supply room.  The housekeepers each thanked Trixie in turn, leaving with smiles on their faces.  After they had shown her around the grounds, they started leading her back to the dungeon.  Trixie became afraid again, looking back and forth between the princesses for clarity.
	“In addition to the castle grounds, we have another job for you, Trixie.” said Celestia, “A very important job; if you think you can handle the responsibility.” she said.
	“Wh- oh!  Yes, yes, of course, your highness!” Trixie said, meekly as Celestia pulled on the candelabra that opened the secret door to the dungeon.
	“Our castle staff doesn't know about this dungeon, so there is one fixture in particular that has gone uncleaned for...gosh, decades?” she asked.
	“At the very least.” replied Luna, whose mood had brightened a little.
	“In any case.  We would like it if you would clean it.  It's a big responsibility, but, one we feel we can trust you with.” said Celestia, as she reached out a hoof and depressed one of the bricks in the far wall, which gave and clicked like a button.  With a grinding, mechanical noise, the two rearmost cells started rising, dust cascading down from the crevices in the ceiling as the stones rumbled.
	“Well, you can trust Trixie, you needn't worry your wise, generous, and virtuous- WHAT IN THE BLUE BLAZES OF NIGHTMARE MOON'S PRISON IS THAT!?” she shouted, recoiling in horror.  Luna gave her a brief, slightly annoyed glance for the profanity, and looked back forward, her nose proudly in the air.  Before them, sitting in the middle of a beautiful, secluded garden, was a monstrous, horrible-looking machine, with pipes, valves, and conveyor belts twisting, winding, and bending around at seemingly impossible angles, choked with an endless variety of weaponized torture devices.
	“Do you like it?” Celestia asked, walking past the horrified Trixie.  “This machine was invented a long time ago by a great enemy of ours.  You may have heard of him in myths and legends, you may have not.  It was centuries ago, but all you need to know is that he doesn't need it anymore.” she said, blowing a large cloud of dust off of an odd bit that stuck out.  “He made this just to use on us, originally.  He was as capricious as he was cruel, and tormenting us manually was too much work, so with just a snap of his claw, this popped into existence.  Whoever is inside gets ran through a constant torment, only to come around to the beginning and start all over again.”
	“But this...enemy...was not one to sit and watch the same repeating routine over and over, no...” Luna said, stepping forward.  “It is ever shifting and changing, like a living thing.  The torment is never the same, always repeating, forever.  While his faults are many, we must admire his ingenuity.” Luna said, looking the thing over.
	“We used to dust it off when we had too many prisoners and too little time.  But, it's been awhile since it's ran, and we would like it if you had a look and  cleared some of the cobwebs out.” she said, and both princesses smiled sweetly at her.  Trixie's face was frozen in horrified confusion.  She looked back and forth at the two monarchs, thinking how the songs never mentioned anything like this.
	“I...you want Trixie...” she stammered.
	“Of course, if we want any results at all, this is gonna have to come off...” Celestia said, and Trixie felt the clunky collar around her neck move and unlatch, hovering away from her neck.  She looked at it, surprised, and felt the magic flow back into her like a light breeze, her posture slightly improving as it did so.
	“If you can handle the responsibility, that is...” Celestia said, winking.  Trixie continued staring at the collar, hovering a short distance away from her.
	“O-of course!  Trixie can be trusted!” she said excitedly.
	“Then here you go.” Celestia said, a feather duster floating over to Trixie.  She held her hooves up and caught it as it fell, then levitated it off of her hooves again with her own unikinesis.  She smiled.  “There are more supplies in the corner, and the rest are in the supply room.  If you finish early, maybe you can join Luna and I for supper...” Celestia said cheerily and the princesses left the room.  Trixie stood staring, transfixed at the feather duster she was hovering in front of her.  She looked back, and the princesses were gone.  She was alone.  With no collar on.  She had a responsibility.  She felt great!  She trotted over to the pile of supplies in the corner, digging through them with her magic, and then paused.  Slowly, a long coil of hempen rope levitated its way out of the pile of supplies.  Trixie floated it closer, blinking at it in surprise.  She slowly looked behind her at the ancient, imposing machine standing up in the middle of the garden.  A very clever, very evil idea bloomed in her head.  She turned her head quickly back to the rope and the feather duster, both hovering in front of her.  She bit her lip nervously, looking back and forth between them.  She looked back at the machine again, just sitting there.  Slowly, her face fell into a devilish smile, the feather duster flinging itself aside.
	Celestia backed away from the edge of the opening, having watched the whole thing unfold, with a look of disappointment on her face, and hunched back against the wall, hiding with her sister in the shadows.  Luna, meanwhile, very slowly and deliberately crossed her forelegs, beaming a smile nearly half as wide and twice as smug as the one Celestia had given her earlier.  She didn't say anything.  Celestia gave a soft sigh and raised her eyebrows, shrugging.
	“Well...” she said, a smile starting to return to her mouth, “There's always next time.”

	The castle was completely empty, and silent, except when Trixie ran through, cackling with malicious laughter, trailing rope behind her.  Back and forth, and around the castle she went, her laughter raising and falling, echoing in the big, empty chambers, not making any attempt to hide her intentions.

	“All done!” Trixie said.  The princesses looked up from their parchments, sitting comfortably in their solar.  Trixie stood in the doorway, giving them a sweet, innocent smile.  The princesses exchanged a look.
	“Well, alright, let's go take a look!” said Celestia, and Trixie led them out.  As they walked through the castle, Trixie held a determined smirk on her face, while Celestia and Luna couldn't help but notice the rope stretched tightly around the corners and ceilings of some of the chambers.  She led them back to the dungeon, strolling confidently to the automated torture machine.  They both looked up and saw the rope run along the ceiling of the dungeon, then up and around a wooden beam stretching across the stone chamber of the secret garden, and going directly into the hopper of the machine.  A machine, which, to their genuine surprise, actually looked like she'd cleaned it.
	“As you can see, Trixie has cleaned your big thing.  If you doubt Trixie, you are obviously not looking close enough.”  The sisters looked at each other, shrugged, and walked up to the machine.  “Look and be amazed at the thoroughness of Trixie's cleaning!” she said.  She wasn't lying, she had been in and out of this machine, and it looked like new.  “Keeeeeep looking!” she said, and both the royal sisters flinched and started upright as they felt a pinch on their tails.  “Hold your gaze, and please, hold your compliments until you've finished gazing...” she said, her voice wavering as she concentrated.  The sisters both looked back and saw one end of a rope tied around both of their tails.  They looked at each other.
	Trixie hunched over the control panel to the machine, running her hoof down the side of it and looking carefully over the controls.  “Just keep looking...you shall appreciate it more...” she said, half-distracted.  Unbeknownst to her, the end of a rope slithered towards her blue-and-white tail, and slowly, delicately tied itself into a knot around it.  Luna was shaking with silent laughter, her hoof covering her mouth and her eyes shut tight, while Celestia silently shushed her with a hoof to her mouth, barely holding back laughter herself.  Trixie's horn glowed with magic.  “And here...you...go!” she shouted excitedly as her magic filled the control panel, and with some pounding, hissing, and whining, the machine roared to life, making Trixie flinch at the sudden violence of it.  The hopper opened up to dozens of toothed rollers which all spun quickly and busily around, immediately catching the rope and pulling into the machine angrily.  Trixie saw the rope tug downwards from the ground and giggled to herself.  “Well, princesses,” she started, as the rope tied around her tail suddenly snapped taught and pulled, taking her tail, haunches, and hind legs with it, but her midsection stretched easily like a rubber band, and she seemed oblivious to it, “it's been a pleasure, but I...” she trailed off, her nose crinkling uncomfortably.  She looked behind her, her eyes shooting wide open as she saw her body trailing off behind her and down into the dungeon.  She slowly raised her foreleg up and took a breath as if to say something, but then
ZIP!
She went flying off after the rope.  Her body snapped back together in the dungeon as she landed on her belly, sliding rump-first at a rapid clip.  She looked behind her in a panic, saw the rope going out of the dungeon entrance and stretching up, and the reality of the situation seemed to hit her.  She turned and screamed, pawing ineffectually at the flagstone with her hooves before shooting upwards out of the entrance, the princesses waving goodbye to her.
	She flew upwards, pulled through the air, and spun around a wooden rafter that the rope was wrapped around, before flying across the ceiling, whirring dizzily around another rafter, and flinging off, smacking back-first into a section of wall and flying downwards, landing painfully belly-first on the ground, before zipping backwards, screaming, through a doorway and up a staircase.
	“Ah!  Oof!  Ow!  Ow!  Ack!” she cried as she trundled up the stairs, smacking chin-first on each step going up.  The rope sucked her through two columns on the banister, and she corkscrewed around the hoofrail, swinging around and around, until she reached the top, and the rope swung her head-first into the ground.  She landed with a
WHAM!
on the back of her head and shoulders, cringing and biting her tongue, the rest of her body doubled over nearly backwards over her.  She laid like that, motionless, until she separated from the  floor with a sucking noise and scooted backwards, her rump pulling her into a backwards somersault that ended on her belly, squeaking on the polished stone floor as she picked up speed, and ran over a pile of rags that was set out for her.  She flailed around, skipping on the ground, getting tangled in the rags until they were wrapped around her, resembling a patchwork dress of some sort, and she slid along on her back, polishing the floor where she slid, examining the rags and then looking down where she going, tail-first.
CLANG!
She immediately came to a halt, wincing in pain, as her legs were wrapped around either side of a tall, ornate candle stand, which nestled right in the gap between them.  Her eye twitched and she squeaked as she spun off of it and collided with a bannister.  Her tail pulled tight between two columns and her body resisted, forcing itself in half and bending, squeezing between them.  She came out the other side as a rag-clothed cube, screaming as she flew down a story towards the long, ornate dining table, and hit the edge, instantly reforming and bending spine-backwards over the table, grunting, and then backflipping over it.  She grabbed the end of the table with her hooves, clinging on desperately as her body stretched and groaned like rubber, but her grip failed and her hooves raked over the pile of silverware that was set out for her, and the forks and knives all flew up in the air, coming down point-first in an arc directly towards her.  She flipped onto her back as she scooted across the table, buffing the finish as she did so, and screamed, recoiling away as the forks all dropped down.  The forks and knives all landed point-first, failing to penetrate the thick, old wood, and fell down exactly where they were supposed to be set, sparkling.
	“Ooh!  Ah!  Eeh!” she cried out, writhing around on the table, narrowly dodging all of the flying cutlery as they all missed and ended up in their proper place.  She flipped around to her belly, looking at the finished table and gave a surprised laugh at her fortune.
POIT!
She started up in pain, one last, unnecessary fork sticking out of her rump.  She looked back at it in dismay before she flew off the table, the fork left spinning in midair.
	“Oof!” she landed belly-first, scooting towards a tiny drainhole in the floor, the rope snaking down the open hole, zooming inside.  Her tail went down the tiny hole, which swung her around at the sudden change in momentum, and then she swirled around, and swinging around in a spiraling motion as her tail sunk down the drain, picking up speed and momentum until it had gone all the way through, and she swung upright onto her haunches and spun around and around like a top, her rags flying outwards, and she was sucked down the tiny opening.
	A bulge quickly traveled through the pipes of the royal castle, its forward momentum only halting with an impact at each twist and turn on its way.
CLANG!  “Ah!”  CLONG!  “Ow!” CLANG!  “Ungh!”
she went, working her way further and further downward.
	The rope twitched and pulled out of an opening in the wall, and an unmistakeable screaming became louder and louder, echoing out of the pipe, and with a sucking, popping sound, a thin, blue cylinder came out of the pipe, covered in filthy rags.  It blinked in dismay as it floated in midair for a bit before hitting the ground, popping her back into shape with a grunt, the dirty rags exploding off of her and landing in a couple of nearby laundry baskets, and she scooted rump-first along checkered tile towards the  swinging doors of the kitchen, leaving the interior of the pipe she had just come out of sparkling clean.  She turned on her belly and scrambled with her hooves, trying to find purchase on the smooth floor before she flew inside, and suddenly-
SNAP!  SNAPSNAP!  SNAP!  SNAPSNAP!
She twitched and writhed around as she went through a minefield of rat traps, yelping and squeaking as they pinched and snagged on her, the little wooden  devices clinging all over her body.  She emerged on the other side and went back-first over a rolling pin, which slipped under her and sent her airborne, right towards the open stove.
FWOOMPH!
	“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!” she cried, the rat traps immediately flying off of her body as her tail and rump were set ablaze, leaving a trail of thick, black smoke in her wake.  She flew forwards, her tail between her legs, and touched down on the counter top again.
KERSNAP!
She quickly brought her right forehoof up in a confused panic, and a cast-iron waffle iron was snapped shut over her right hoof, sizzling, with thin trails of smoke coming from the small gap.
	“AAAAAAAAAH!” she screamed in pain, staring at the waffle iron-
KERSNAP!
She quick brought her other forehoof up, caught in an identical sizzling waffle iron.
	“AAAAAAH!  AAAAAAAAAH!” she screamed, leaving three trails of smoke behind her, looking back and forth between the two waffle irons, before-
PING!  PANG!  PONG!  BANG!  TING!  BONG! CRASH!
She flew face-first through a row of hanging pots and pans, hitting each one painfully as she went through, and then-
WHAM!
Into the open door of a refrigerator, slamming it shut behind her.  The wooden fridge shook around, muffled clattering sounds coming from within it, before-
WHOOM!
The freezer door opened, and a solid block of ice came flying out on the end of the rope, Trixie staring wide-eyed with her teeth clenched, frozen in the middle of it.
SMASH!
She slammed into a wall, shattering the ice instantly and leaving her spread-eagled, back-first against the wall, grimacing in pain, and shot straight downwards.  She landed belly-first and looked up in panic as she was dragged out of the other sliding doors, whirled around a mooring point for chandalier ropes, and shot straight up a stairwell, screaming.  She was sent crashing into a chandalier, before-
ZZZTTT-BZZZZZZZZZZZT
thousands of volts of electricity shot through her body as she completed the circuit for the primitive arc lights on the chandelier, fireworks shooting uncontrollably out of her horn as her skeleton lit up, contorting and flailing around amidst the sparks and bolts of electricity.  The row of chandeliers going across the ceiling suddenly flickered to life, turning on, as she flew away down a hall, covered in soot, sparks flying off of her horn.  She stared upwards in a daze, her mane smoking and pink sparks fizzling at the end of her horn, and slowly, stiffly bent upright to look where she was going.  An ordinary, open door was in her way.  Upon closer inspection, the door was waggling back and forth a little, and the quickly zooming rope was partially caught underneath the door, one snag away from pulling it shut.
	“No, no, no, no, no, no-” Trixie pleaded as the door delicately teetered on top of the rope, “No, no, no, no-” and right before she went through, with a loud twang, the door slammed shut.  “AW, SHOOTING STARS AND MAGIC TRI-
WHAM!
Went the door, the rope twitching and pulling underneath it, extending down the hall.  It remained there, struggling to pull free from the door.
Sssssquuuuiiiiiisssssshhhhh...
A quiet squishing sound came from the door as it slowly, steadily pulled a pancake-thin blue-and-white tail from the other side of the door.  It pulled the whole thing through, and then some blue hindquarters came came with it, squashed flat and wiggling from the tension.  Next, her legs, her midsection, her shoulders and head, and her desperately grasping forelegs, as steadily as if it was a printing press.  As soon as she was clear from the doorway,
TWIP!
The rope took off again, pulling her flattened form along, flapping behind it.  The rope went underneath a  long, narrow rug, and her flat body easily slipped in after it, straightening out all the wrinkles and bunches and leaving it looking better than when she had entered it.  There were several rugs in a row, and she straightened each one out, flying through an open doorway and around a bannister, wrapping around it and making a flapping noise like a window shutter.
	The rope pulled her out between two columns, fully restored.  “Ack!  Ow!  Ow!  Oof!  Ah!” she was pulled down a staircase, hitting each step rump-first as she went down.  She looked to her side and realized that this was the other side of the same staircase she went up towards the beginning of her gauntlet of pain and humiliation.  She looked forward fearfully, knowing she was heading straight towards the dungeon again.  “AAAAAHHHHHHHH!” she screamed, slamming into a wall, sliding up it, whirring around a rafter, flying down the hall, spinning around the second rafter, before- “Oof!” she slammed back down on the ground, right in front of the hidden entrance.  She looked down in horror at the princesses, who were standing in plain sight of the entrance, in front of their torture machine, casually waving at her as she made her reappearance.  She flipped over in a panic as she rocketed down the empty dungeon, trying to get a hoofhold on something, a loose flagstone, anything.  Her hoof caught something solid, and she took hold.  She had managed to grab a bar on one of the cells, and her body immediately stretched outwards, creaking and groaning, and she lost her grip.  She half-panted, half-screamed, flailing her hooves around as she zoomed closer and closer to the garden.  Her other hoof caught something else, a loose stone in the wall, but she just as quickly lost her grip.  She saw the machine approaching from between her legs, and she was through the opening and in the garden, flying upwards, around the wooden beam, and-
CLOP!
She got ahold of the beam.  She looked, wide-eyed, out the top of the enclosed garden and clung on for dear life, her hooves digging into the wooden beam.  She panted and blew her breaths out carefully as she streeeeeeeeetched down towards the gaping mouth of the machine, which whirred and banged away below her.  Her hind legs kicked feebly as her body extended longer and longer, making a long, low groaning sound like heavy rubber.  The princesses both watched passively.
	“Huh.” said Celestia, “Didn't see that one coming.”
	“Come now, fall!  Fall!” cheered Luna, one of her hooves pumping in the air, “Fall!  Fall!  Fall!  Fall!”  Trixie grimaced and clenched her teeth, sweat running down her hide, as she gingerly adjusted her grip on the beam.  Despite her body's best efforts, she was now stretched out almost completely between the wooden beam and the machine, relentlessly pulling her further and further downwards into the hopper.  Her elongating tail was still getting pulled closer and closer to the rollers, her hind legs kicking up and down in protest.  Her forelegs and neck were stretching out, her body running out of elasticity.  She shut her eyes tight-
krrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
her tail pulled down, right into the rollers-
KKRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...
SNAP!
The knot suddenly slipped off of her tail, slingshotting the unicorn's stretched out body straight up like a bullet.  Her wide eyes teared up as she flew up the shaft at incredible speed, before coming out the top, soaring through the air.  She screamed, looking around at her incredible height, but stopped as she came to a realization.  She felt her tail, and it was naked, no rope tied around it.  She felt her throat, and there was no collar around her neck.
	“Heh.  Heh heh.  Trixie is free!  Heh heh heh!  TRIXIE IS FREE!” she shouted, fireworks shooting in the air spectacularly around her.  “Heh heh.  Heh.  TrixIE IS FRAAAAAAAAAH!” she screamed as she crested her arc and started falling down the incredible distance outside the royal castle.  She flailed her hooves around, headed right towards a large tree in the middle of a leaf-covered garden.  She quickly penetrated the outer layer of leaves and began pin-balling around the various tree branches, banging and whipping and snapping up, and down, and back, and forth, before her momentum started to wane, and she landed stomach first on a branch before slowly sliding down and landing back-first on a branch near the bottom, stiffening up with pain and coming to a complete stop.
	“Huuurk...Trixie...Trixie is still free...” she coughed, a weak smile coming to her face, before she slid off head-first towards the ground.  She fell a short distance, landing awkwardly on top of a piece of machinery, some apparatus lodging firmly in her mouth, and landed belly-first on the leaf-covered grass as the machine kicked to life with her magic, whirring busily and puffing her cheeks up with air.  “Hmmmph?” she muffled, pitifully, as she looked up at a magically-powered leaf blower, set aside for her to use.  “Hmmmph!?” she whimpered, her belly quickly filling with air, lifting her off the ground.  Her rump rose up behind her, her tail twirling around and around and around.  Her midsection ballooned outwards, her forelegs reaching out desperately towards the device, the hose jostling on the ground as her face rose higher and higher.  “Mmmmmph!  Mmmmmph!” she shouted, her hind legs kicking in circles, trying to gain traction.
FOOMP!
One hind leg stiffened outwards and inflated like a big, puffy marshmallow,
FOOMP!
Than the other one.  “Mmmmmmph!” she muffled, nervously, as her forelegs stuck out and
FOOMP!  FOOMP!
swelled up themselves.  “Mmmmmph!  MMMPPPHHH!  MMMMMMPPPPHHHHH!” she screamed as she blew up, and up, and up, her squeaking, bulging hide drifting gently off the ground.  Her magic flickered and faded, unable to affect the device, and she rose upwards, her big, bloated rump aiming squarely back at the tower she just came out of.  “MMMMPPHHHH!  MMMMPPPHHHHH!” she screamed, her cheeks blowing up nearly as big as her head, as her body creaked and groaned at the pressure.  She floated freely from the ground, tethered by the hose, and feebly wiggled her inflated appendages.  “MmmmmmmmMMMMMPPPPPPHHHHH!” she moaned, trembling as the pressure reached its climax, and then-
PWOOM!
PPPPPPHHHHBLTHLTBLTHLTBHLLTLTBHLTT--
her huge, inflated body went blasting off, careening around and twirling in the air.  She flew close to the ground, blowing a line of leaves off of the lawn, and then twirled around, creating a whirlwind that swept all the leaves in the air and blew them away, leaving the lawn looking immaculate.  She deflated upwards, darting around in the air, and flew up and over the opening to the secret garden.  The last of the air left her body, leaving her suspended in midair.  She paused, looked down, and saw the machine below her.  She screamed, flailing her hooves around, and only then did she begin falling.
	Down, down, down, she dropped, screaming, the hopper of the machine waiting for her, hungrily.  She screamed, falling, faster and faster, closer and closer and closer she got, and then
WHOOSH!
Right into the hopper she went-
	“Whoooooah!” Celestia said.  Trixie's eyes were shut tight.  She was right inside the rollers of the machine, she knew, but she didn't feel anything.  She opened one eye, looking around cautiously, and saw buzzing, whirring, spinning pain and torment all around her.  She opened the other eye in horror, screaming, and noticed that her body was surrounded by a field of sparkling, golden magic.  She looked over her whole body, in shock and disbelief, and saw her tail dangling just a hair's length above the rollers.  She squeaked and quickly tugged her tail up and out of the way, clutching it against her chest tightly.  She began to rise out of the machine.  “Well!  That was close.  What do you know, the old thing still works!” Celestia said, nonchalantly, as Trixie levitated, curled up and shivering, out of the machine.  With a great snapping sound, some alarm bells rang and the whole machine slowly wound down, whirring to a halt and then finally stopping, some pipes and valves hissing until everything was silent.  “There you go.” Celestia said, setting Trixie down on her haunches.  She hadn't moved at all, and she rolled onto her back like an egg, clutching and shivering, her wide eyes staring off into space.  “Well, then.  That was very impressive.” Celestia said.  “You cleaned the whole castle!”
	“The hallways are buffed,” said Luna, counting on her hooves, “The hoofrails in the foyer are polished, the table is cleaned and set, the pipes are cleaned, the rat traps put away, the kitchen is taken care of, the electric chandeliers are working again, the rugs in the apartment halls are straightened, you blew all the leaves out of the garden, and-” she said, rapping her hoof on the side of the machine, “you cleaned our machine, and got it working again.  Bravo.”  Luna said.  Trixie blinked, staring blankly off into space.
	“Bra...vo...” she said, a weary smile spreading across her face.  “Trixie did a g-g-good job?” she asked, slowly, shakily rising to her hooves.
	“Indeed.” said Luna.  Trixie's eyes lit up with excitement.
	“Exceeeept...” said Celestia, sticking her hoof out between them, “We asked you to clean the machine, not start it up and jump in.”
	“Wha-” Trixie said, sinking, “Bu- bu- bu-”
	“I don't think you've shown us that you're responsible enough to be trusted outside of your cell anymore.”
	“But I-  I went though- You can't-” she stammered, pointing in all directions with her hooves.
	“Not to mention...” Celestia said, silencing her, “That my sister and I were this close to going through all that ourselves.  Could you imagine?  Especially if somepony had done it on purpose?” she asked, her gaze piercing through Trixie.  Trixie shrunk down, biting back all of her words.  “I'm sorry, Trixie, but, the collar goes back on.” she said, the large, metal collar snapping back onto Trixie's neck.  She sank down where she was sitting, defeated, while the princesses giggled amongst each other.  Trixie's eyes narrowed.  Her teeth clenched.  Her hooves balled up.  A roaring-hot fire exploded from her stomach, traveled up her throat, and engulfed her brain.  She trembled.  Steam whistled out of her ears and nostrils.  Veins bulged on her forehead and neck.
	“NnnnNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOO!” she screamed, silencing the princesses and echoing throughout the empty castle.  Celestia and Luna froze, looked at each other, and looked at Trixie, who stood, panting, big gouts of steam puffing out of her nostrils with each breath.  “You have got...TO BE KIDDING ME!” she screamed.  “Trixie does not deserve this treatment!  Trixie is an innocent mare!  And Trixie did not just endure all of this pain, all of this humiliation, those nightmares- oh, yes, Trixie knows that was you too- so that she can be GIGGLED AT in the princess' SECRET TORTURE GARDEN!” she said, birds flying out of the trees outside the castle.
	“Sh-sh-sh, Trixie, please keep your voice do-
	“No!  Trixie has had enough following orders!  Maybe Trixie wants to give orders!  After all, everything you can do, The Great and Powerful Trixie can do better!  You run an empire?  Trixie can run an empire!  And The Great and Powerful Trixie's empire will be greater, and more powerfuler than yours ever was!  Oh, and Trixie knows right where she'll start...” Trixie said, her eyes hungry and sadistic, “Right in the middle of your precious Ponyville.  Yes, starting with your favorite egghead.  She'll be the first to be removed from Trixie's domain.  And then, the next town will fall...and the next town...and the next...all the way to Canterlot.” she said, panting and lightly drooling.  The princesses both blinked in surprise.
	“Trixie...” Celestia said, “...it would be wise not to add 'treason' onto your list of crimes.”
	“Crimes...Trixie committed no crimes...” she growled, “It is not Trixie's fault that she is the best.  The best, most magical unicorn in all of Equestria!  You said it yourself!”
	“Trixie...”
	“For it was I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, who vanquished an ursa major and saved Hoofington.  It was I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, who vanquished a (particularly large) ursa minor and saved Ponyville!  Trixie has gone from town to town, city to village to hamlet, and not ONE pony in all of Equestria has been able to outperform Trixie!  The greatest unicorn!  Me!  ME, ME, ME!” she screamed, pounding her hooves in the grass for emphasis.  She stood there, panting, and nopony said anything.  The princesses stared at her, speechless.  Trixie took a deep breath and cleared her throat, sitting calmly back down on her haunches.  Both of the sisters' mouths slowly crept up into smiles.  They looked at each other excitedly.
	“Are you thinking-”
	“-What we are thinking?” they said with hushed excitement.  Trixie gave them one look and scoffed, sticking her nose up in the air.
	“Trixie...I think we just decided on your punishment.” the princesses said.  Trixie glared at them both, angrily.

	“One cape...” the guard said.  Trixie was hunched over, a dark, smoldering look on her face.  She snatched it from him when he offered it.  “One...hat...” he said, and she snatched that, too.  “One coinpurse...empty...” he said, and she snatched it from his hooves.  “And, saddlebags...one pair.” he said.  Trixie levitated it onto her back easily, not weighing much from her few belongings.  “Oh, and by request of the princesses...a sack, containing, quote- 'earnings from performances rendered' last night.” he said, levitating a sack onto the table before letting it fell heavily, ringing and jingling with gilded bits.  A great, deep blush burned on Trixie's face and her eyes searched the sack, and back down, around the ground, avoiding eye contact.  The bulge on her hat where her horn stuck out glowed light pink, and she levitated the sack into one of her saddlebags. “Alright, you're all set.” the guard said.  Trixie turned around quickly and sulked away, down the hall, adjusting her heavier saddlebags.  She walked with heavy, plodding hoofsteps, her head hung low in anger.
	“You got what you wanted, didn't you?” asked Celestia.  Trixie immediately froze.  Her head slowly, stiffly turned towards the nearby doorway that Celestia and Luna were standing in, smiling pleasantly.  She stared at them with pure hatred, blush burning onto her face as she forced her mouth shut, the string of indignified cursing she wanted to throw their way held in her throat.  “A sold out show, a round of applause, and hooffulls of bits to show for it?”
	“Yes, but we were under the assumption that being full of hot air is what drove your audiences away in the first place, Trixie Lulamoon.” said Luna, grinning.  Trixie trembled.  “Mayhaps it is time to re-think your show?”
	“Or, if you're done performing, remember what I said, Trixie.  If you ever have a change of heart, or just want to repent, you're always welcome.  Stay as long as you want.” said Celestia, warmly.  Trixie took a deep breath and forced her head back forward, trudging her way back out the hallway.  The princesses both waved goodbye to her.  “Well.  That ought to be a fun mural to add to the others.  Do me a favor and make arrangements with the glass blowers, will you sister?” Celestia said.  Trixie stopped in her tracks, her ears perking up, and she turned her head ever-so-slightly back in the princess' direction, before shaking it off, stamping down the hallway more quickly than before and rounding a corner, disappearing from sight.  The princesses stopped waving and started walking back to their chambers.
	“I do say, that was rather exciting.  What was that she said about ruling her own empire, though, sister?”
	“Ah, I wouldn't worry about it, Luna.  It was probably nothing.”