Cutting Edge awoke in a vast sea of grey that stretched as far as the eye could see.

She cautiously got to her hooves, her footsteps echoing into the void. She didn't recall falling asleep, nor being transported here. For all she knew, she could be trapped inside an illusion, a virtual simulation, or some other mental memetic mechanism.

A snap and a flash interrupted her thoughts and relaxed her posture.

No, it wasn't anything dangerous—it was just... him. Discord.

Almost immediately, her mind dropped its mental barriers. Her body slumped, and her eyes sank into a deep daze as she awaited new programming from her master.

Discord swooped down, flying in a circle around Cutting and admiring his handiwork. "You haven't resisted a bit since the day I found you," he murmured. "Nice and obedient."

He materialized a couch and flopped lazily onto it. "I'm bored," he announced. "Things have been quiet around here lately. Too quiet—and not in the 'Oh, we've all fallen into some false sense of security before all Tartarus breaks loose' way. A simple draconequus simply cannot thrive in such circumstances." He pressed a paw to his forehead in a dramatic swoon. "Don't you agree, my dearest Tony?"

Silence. Cutting Edge had not yet been authorized to speak.

Discard blew a raspberry. "Pah! Too quiet, I said!" He snapped his claws, causing Cutting to blurt out a hasty "Yes, sir!" before he yawned dramatically and stretched out all his limbs like taffy onto the hard floor. "What do you say to a dance, for old times' sake? And not like any of those boring corporate dances where everypony downloads the moves into their brain in advance and spends the entire night sneaking nanobots into each other's drinks. Just you and me, hooves and legs moving to a steady beat." Expectantly, he glanced at Cutting Edge, who'd now been permitted to retain most of her mental faculties.

She adjusted her glasses professionally and nodded. "Of course, sir. But, if I may, I never learned how to dance. My moves may be a little… lacking."

Discord chuckled, rising from his couch with a flourish. "Nonsense! I'll teach you. Allow me to set the atmosphere. Lights!"—he snapped his fingers, and twin spotlights illuminated the couple—"Camera!"—a click came from afar, as a reel began to spin—"And action! Vamos, vamos!" A distant bandoneon began playing an energetic ditty as Discord leaned in close to Cutting's face. He firmly pressed a claw to her forehead, and her mind exploded into bliss.

It was as if Discord was transferring all the rhythm of the tune directly into her brain. As her mind reeled from overwhelming pleasure, her thoughts wove strands around intermittent bursts of violins, vibrated to the plucking of guitars, and thrummed to the persistent beat of a drum. Quickly, her eyes lost focus before bursting into the familiar spiral pattern that Discord had programmed into her—white, green, yellow, blue. Even as the colors glowed and pulsed through her vision, her consciousness was already long gone, replaced by the singular desire to submit, obey, and give in.

Discord knew best. Discord was her master, her love, her life. Every moment of his presence pulled her deeper into a helpless trance. She gazed at him longingly between the bursts of dual color and pleasure, weakly mumbling, "Dis…cord…"

He pressed a claw to her lips. "Shhh. No talk. Only dance," he whispered. "I'll teach you the beat, and you'll love dancing in my strings~"

With one swift swoop, he withdrew the claw from her forehead, slinging his arm skyward. With it, he flung a glowing wire that had attached itself to Cutting's forehead. It diligently followed his direction until it snapped taut, caught on some invisible, undefined point in space.

Discord gave a confident grin. "One," he counted.

As the string instruments hummed, Discord pointed his claw downward, and more strings shot down from the sky where the first had landed. With each pizzicato from the backing melody, a new string attached itself to Cutting's body.

As she half-stood, half-stumbled, propped up in the air by the string attached to her forehead, another string shot lightning quick toward her left hoof, wrapping itself firmly into a neat bow before also pulling taut.

"Two."

Another repeated the process around her right hoof, and collectively they yanked both her hooves upward, waving them above her head and leaving only her legs free. Another string slipped its way down her lower body, tickling at her fur before firmly securing itself on one of her back hooves.

"Three, and four," Discord continued.

Cutting's instinctive kicking only stopped as the last string found her other back hoof and tied it firmly in place, leaving her entire body at the complete mercy of the strings dangling from above. Her body fell limply as the magic within the strings spread throughout her, combining with the whispers in her hypnotized head, encouraging her to relax and simply follow Discord's lead.

"Five—ahí está!" Discord snapped his fingers one more time, and with a bright flash, Cutting's cutie mark disappeared, replaced by an image of Discord holding a marionette's cross.

Discord licked his lips, staring adoringly at his hypnotized mare. As the song began to broadcast in full swing, he took a step back, giving a formal bow to his puppeted partner. "Now," he said simply, "let us begin."

With the trill of the bandoneon, Cutting Edge's body moved. Her limp limbs obediently snapped into place as the strings stretched, pulling her into a bow opposite Discord's. Discord cupped her hooves in his hands, raised them up, and started the dance.

"Let me show you a little something from the Equestria I knew," Discord crooned. "It starts with a little—step right, step right, arms up—good girl." Cutting's limbs moved obediently to the beat, following wherever Discord's strings pulled them. "Back then," Discord continued, "turn, good—ponies did things like dance for fun, and for no reason at all. Can you imagine that?"

Cutting Edge was made to shake her head no.

"Of course not," Discord teased, "because you're a serious business pony, Tony. I'll tell you what—it was fun. It was spontaneous… chaotic! It was right up the alley of yours truly. This genre was a favorite of mine. It's got aura"—he snapped, and a cloak materialized and wrapped around his back—"it's got mystique"—another snap, and Discord adorned himself with a top hat and mustache—"it's got energy, flair, and class. Most importantly, it's something I can write my personality all over." With a new pair of white gloves, he signed his name with invisible ink in the air, the letters vanishing in a single blink. "And that's something I haven't gotten to do in a long time, friend."

With every yank and tug of the strings on her body, Cutting Edge felt herself getting pummeled with wave after wave of bliss. Though her body wheeled and turned in the air, she never felt fear of hitting the ground—Discord would make sure it wouldn't happen. As long as she kept her body nice and limp for her master, he would not fail her.

And even in her entranced state, she could tell what it meant for Discord to reminisce. To hear her master out like this, to give him happiness, meant more than anything in the world for Cutting Edge.

Discord cleared his throat. "Step left, back, now give me a twirl. Very good girl. So eager to dance on my strings. Let's pick up the pace, hmm?" A wave of his hands, and the strings began fiddling a vibrant tune, weaving with the clash of a snare drum. "They call this a tango!" Discord shouted above the fracas. "There's something else I didn't tell you about this. More than anything, it's a dance of love. One partner can't complete it without the other—how romantic. Even though you're tied to strings"—he swept Cutting in a wide circle before reeling her in close for a tight embrace—"I'd look rather miserable attempting this by myself, and you'd be rather helpless without me. Just like this song would be nothing without its strings"—he snapped, and the strings ceased—"its bandoneon"—another snap, and it too vanished from the track—"and its drums." A final snap, and the room echoed with silence.

For a moment, Discord let go of Cutting Edge, seemingly in meditation. She was left dangling in place, the faint sound of their mutual heavy breathing the only thing breaking the quiet.

Finally, Discord snapped back to the present. "Are you having fun, dear Tony? You look like you're having fun." He wiped a strand of drool from Cutting's open mouth and admired her dazed look. "I think it's time for your reward, and for letting me string you along." He winked.

A wave of his hands, and the music resumed in full strength. Cutting Edge's body jerked to follow the rhythm again. "There's a saying that comes with songs like this," said Discord. "El tango no se baila con los pies… se baila con el corazón. Tango is not danced with the feet… it is danced with the heart. It takes two to tango, mi amigo. Thank you for being here for me."

As they approached the climax of the song, the instruments began to speed up, their footwork quickened, and their bodies swayed side by side, to and fro. Discord panted heavily as he spoke. "You know what's fun about a tango? I can do stuff like this!" With a flourish, he yanked the cape off his back and tossed it into the air, where it transformed into a large curtain that pulled back to reveal a momentous and intangible audience that cheered and stomped their hooves. "Arriba, arriba!" he cried. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply, before picking up his hat and tossing it into the crowd. He grinned as he watched abstract ponies make a mad dash to claim the accessory, causing a wave in the sea of intangible shadow. "Always a crowd pleaser," he remarked with a wink.

Throughout it all, he didn't miss a single step, and Cutting Edge continued to diligently mirror his pace. With every tug, every swirl, every pull on both her mind and body, her free will continued to slip away, leaving her a slave to the music. Succumbing to the pleasure, her breath came out in a series of short gasps and moans.

As the song reached its peak, the instruments played a fortepiano, and the room fell silent for a brief moment. Discord flicked his wrist, and where there had once been a glove, a red rose now bloomed, which he slid into his toothy smile. "Trust in me~" he singsonged, and let go of Cutting Edge.

As the puppet strings holding her up went slack and she began to fall backward, time seemed to slow to a crawl. She could feel every part of her body ragdolling toward the ground, dragged by gravity. She could feel every individual thought being slipped into or sucked out of her head. She could see each glowing spiral pass through her vision, clouding her thoughts and dulling her mind. She could hear her heartbeat pound in time with the instruments as their volume began to increase again.

Down she went, down, down.

Until, with a definitive whoomph, she landed in Discord's protective paw just before hitting the ground. The strings tightened once again, lifting one hind leg into the air while her front hooves rested gently in Discord's embrace as he dipped her backward. He leaned in, giving her a full view of his intense gaze. Though her vision remained unfocused and her mouth hung open, her heart fluttered at the adoring sight of her master. Discord, Discord, Discord…

As the final notes of the tango played, Discord leaned in and kissed her deeply, sending the intangible audience into a cheer. When he pulled away, Cutting Edge's posture was righted by the strings, and she was made to turn, bowing again and again to the thunderous applause.

Eventually, as the plaudits died down and the audience streamed away, Discord cut her strings with a pair of glowing scissors, and she softly fell to the ground in a heap. As her thoughts began to return and her dizzy mind began reorienting itself in the world, Discord scooped her up in his arms and carried her off into the vast grey void, searching for the exit while humming the little tune all over again.

===

Drawn by poprocks! Un-resized/un-compressed version here (if it doesn't load, just paste it into a Discord chat and the link will re-gen): https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1345429742794571859/1365512486274465862/1505.gif?ex=681cbd5a&is=681b6bda&hm=b89d7d6ede7b58bda8de9ef17717c9ad35ee428ced94bdf42bb0f8959211c179&