Friendship Is Mind Control

Under the Sun

Twilight walked around the market, humming to herself. Her battery of tests complete, she'd had to part from both of them; Luna had had to leave to maintain the pretence that she was still touring Equestria, and she'd left Trixie in the cottage whilst she went out and bought some supplies for her. Ponyville still remembered Trixie's last visit, and Twilight didn't want to have her walking around the town drawing attention to her return just yet.

The first test had been trivial. The word 'awakened' didn't trigger the charm, and she was embarrassed not to have thought to test that before. The next had been far more interesting; first by speaking a word aloud, and then only by an effort of will, Trixie had been able to make herself unable to see Luna whenever she wished. Once, Twilight was almost certain, she'd spotted Luna sticking her tongue out at the oblivious pony.

The memory command had had mixed success. Trixie could deliberately make herself forget what Twilight had hidden under a cup, then after a full minute, it would come back to her. Letting Trixie see a clock had helped; without one, the memory returned somewhere between forty seconds and a hundred. However, when Twilight awakened her part-way through and commanded her to forget something else, that memory wasn't restored after the minute ended. It seemed the most recent command won, despite tricky wordings to delay instructions.

The instructions Twilight had written to protect herself now nestled in her head. She could almost feel them, trying to probe the mental command to hide or reveal Celestia like probing a sore tooth with her tongue. She'd have to go over them again with Trixie later, see if she could refine them and make them simpler, more flexible. Of course, it was all paranoia, really. The odds of Celestia coming down to Ponyville to play with her again weren't very high, not so soon after the classroom, and the dusting.

"...saw Celestia, he's sure."

"Here, in Ponyville? There hasn't been any announcement, or royal carriage. He's got to be wrong."

Twilight's expression went wooden. There was absolutely no way.

"Maybe you should ask the Mayor about it?"

The Mayor would have nothing to say but reassurances that Celestia wasn't in town, but if she was seen without her usual pomp and splendour, then she was probably trying to visit - yes, visit her loyal student, Twilight Sparkle, without a fuss, and she should be left alone. Twilight was suddenly, absolutely, certain.

Charming the mayor was the obvious thing to do. Anything strange that happened publicly would prompt somepony to go to the mayor, and she'd report directly to Celestia once she'd soothed their concerns. There might even be a unicorn in town whose task it was to charm people on Celestia's behalf if they noticed anything they weren't allowed to.Haystacks.

If Celestia was in town, and hiding, she was probably going to want to play with Twilight again. She could be at the tree house, or she could have sent a pony out to find her. Her eyes flicked around nervously. Who was about to give her a request?

"Oh, darling, there you are. I've been looking for you all morning."

Twilight turned towards the familiar voice, a frozen half-smile on her face. "Hello, Rarity. How are you?"

Rarity was stood in the shade of a fabric-selling tent, laden bags weighing down her arms. She'd forsworn a dress today, wearing slim, figure-hugging trousers and a white top that had tinges of corset to it. She was beautiful. Twilight couldn't help a dozen visions flashing by, of Rarity naked, or Rarity in her slave-maid's costume, of the softness of her large breasts and the way she'd cried out as she was fucked. All of that, hidden from Rarity, all of that forgotten.

Twilight became aware that she was staring, her lips parted and her heart beating faster, and wrestled control of herself. She absolutely couldn't act strange, not now, not if Celestia had taken Rarity as her pawn.