Friendship Is Mind Control

Key to the Kingdom

Vague, confusing images swirled around Twilight, recognisable one moment, and gone the next. They flowed through her without resistance, her sleeping mind too fragmented to allow more than transitory flashes of thought. These were her dreams, too chaotic, too partial, to be remembered when she woke.

Into this flickering maelstrom, a single sound intruded. The dream deepened, shaping itself around the sound; a regular, rhythmic clack, clack of heeled shoes on stone. Twilight slowly became aware of the world crystallising within her mind, and as she grew aware of herself, so she was there, standing on broad flagstones.

The room... no, chamber, wasn't one she recognised. It reminded her a little of Canterlot Castle, and a little of the Castle of Two Sisters, but wasn't really either. She was standing on a shallow dais, at the centre of a wide hall. Tall, arched windows lined the walls, looking out onto glorious stars, and between each window rose tall bookshelves. Purple pennants hung here and there, matching the broad avenue of carpet down the centre of the chamber. It was somewhere between a library and a throne room.

Of course.

Twilight sank back into the throne-like chair that she knew would be behind her, and waited. She knew it wasn't real, but she could scarcely convince her senses of that fact. The cushions of her wooden throne were soft and deep. It was a gift, all of it, and one that could only come from one pony.

Luna stepped out from between two avenues of bookshelves, the sharp sound of each footfall muffled as she stepped onto the carpet, and approached Twilight's throne. She wore a clinging black dress of an oddly archaic cut, her mane and tail billowing about her, filled with constellations. The small black tiara that she sometimes wore was missing, replaced by an equally elegant black collar around her neck with a single silver ring dangling at her throat.

She approached the foot of the throne, pausing at the edge of the dais, and sank down to one knee, her head bowed. "Twilight. I am at thy command."

Twilight took a deep, steadying breath, then murmured, "Wow." Raising her voice, she said warmly, "You look incredible, Luna. Come to me, please."

Luna lifted her head, stepping up onto the dais and standing near enough for Twilight to reach out and touch. A small smile touched her slightly stern features. "Thank you, Twilight. I had hoped this would please thee."

"More than that... this is amazing! You look... I don't know what to say." Twilight's fingers slid up Luna's chest to touch the cool metal of the ring that dangled at her throat. "Where did all this come from? This collar is beautiful."

Nodding, radiating warm satisfaction, Luna placed her hand on Twilight's own. "If I am thy slave, should I not dress as such? A collar is customary for those who choose to become property."

"How do you know that? Have you been reading the same kind of books that I have? ...oh." Twilight blushed, as the obvious answer occurred to her.

Luna's smile became conspiratorial. "Indeed, Twilight Sparkle. I hath witnessed the extremes of depravity that an entire realm is capable of, and I hath done so not for a single night, but for century upon century. You can scarce imagine the things I have witnessed."

"Can you... tell me, sometime? About some of it?" Twilight had never before considered just how many unspeakable things Luna must have seen as she watched over the dreamers of Equestria. She was seized with a desire to know more. To listen to that voice, dignified, strangely sexy in her archaic phrasing, lay out with delicate precision the lusts she had witnessed, the fucking, the twisted desires.

"Had any other asked me such a thing, I would have told them that some secrets are sacrosanct, and can never be shared. That I have a responsibility to those dreamers to never make them fear that their dreams might be judged by others."