"Make sure the pet behaves." Greasefire told his youngest daughter Starfade.

The filly nodded, smiling from ear to ear.

Greasfire turned to Gisela, the striped gryphon in her black and white maid outfit and heavy copper collar. His demeanour was far less cordial than it was with his filly.

"I expect her in bed by midnight. If I see one hair out of place or one stain on the carpet..." he threatened.

Gisela nodded quickly. Greasfire was very cruel to her in past incidents. She neglected to dust the top of a bookshelf, one that was hardly ever used or even noticed, and was sent to the Flim Flam Bros. Box of Betterment MK6 for five minutes. Five. Whole. Minutes. She made sure there was no dust to be found anywhere in the house.

Greasfire and his wife Starspark left the house, the door closing behind them with a click.

Gisel turned back to Starfade. The filly in the private school uniform looked up at her. Gisel never liked this kid. To say she had a mean streak would be an understatement. Starfade was a complete and utter psychopath. There was an incident involving the neighbours' gryphon slave. whatever happened, it got him sent off to the Bureau.

She had nightmares of being left alone with the filly.

"You're the family pet, so you have to do whatever I say, right?" Starfade asked innocently.

Gisel swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded slowly.

"Everything I say?" she asked, tilting her head, not breaking eye contact with the gryphon.

"Everything..."

Chills went down her spine. She could just see the pure insanity in this kid... she hoped, she prayed (though it was doubtful any gods were listening) that whatever she had in mind wouldn't get her sent to the Bureau.

The filly turned to the hall closet and took out a broomstick.

"I've already cleaned the house, miss Starfade. What do I-"

"Snap it in half." Starfade said shoving it into the gryphon's hands.

Gisel looked down at the broom, then back at Starfade. The filly's brow furrowed. "Snap it. In half." she commanded.

"I-I can't... master will-" Gisel stuttered before she was interrupted.

"SNAP IT! IN HALF!" she raised her voice, Gisel swore she could see a vein in her head.

Gisel knew what would happen to her if she disappointed the master: She'd be sent in the box or sent to the Bureau. This filly, on the other hand, was an enigma. She never saw the horrific things she did. Whatever this girl had in mind for her might make the gryphon PINE for the horrors of the Bureau, or the box.

Gisel snapped out of her hesitation and broke the broom over her knee with a loud crack. She looked back at Starfade. The slave entertained the notion of beating Starfade to death with the broom handle. A horrific creature like this did not deserve to live.

Her breathing quickened as she tried to work up the adrenaline, but that ever present weakness... that basic morality, held her frozen. She didn't have it in her to kill a child, even the child of her oppressor, and she knew it.

Starfade knew that too. She looked back at her with a smug smile. Daring the bird to bash her skull in. Go ahead! Do it. Clean up the bloodstains before daddy gets back! What would she tell daddy? Would daddy even believe her? No... she didn't think so.

What would she do? Pin it on someone else? Who? Another pony? Who would the authorities believe, a gryphon? Fat chance.

"Are you done trying to be scary?" Starfade said with psychotic confidence.

Gisel calmed down, and dropped the broom pieces on the floor. Defeated... by a little girl. Starfade pointed at the bare part of the broom handle.

"Pick it up!"

Gisel bent down to pick it up. Starfade grinned.

"Good... now, there is a spider on mommy's favourite vase in the hall. Go kill it." she said.

Starfade followed Gisel to the hallway. An elaborate blue and white vase stood on a fine, finished oaken table by the window. Rain covered the glass in running sheets of water. A flash of lightning lit up the hallway. A big black spider sat on the edge of the vase.
Gisel reached out to squish the spider with her hand, not disturbing the vase, but Starfade pulled the gryphon back by her tail.

"No. Smash it with the stick." she commanded.

"But the vase-"

"SMASH IT!" Starfade yelled.

As if she had control of the gryphon's brain, Gisel smashed the spider and the Vase with it. The ceramic shards flew onto the carpet, clinking lightly. Starfade's cackling sent more chills down the gryphon's spine.

"Now go deal with the spiders behind the bookshelf in the study!" Starfade mocked.

In scant seconds, Gisel had pulled the bookshelf back, looking for the spiders... but there was nothing there... suddenly she heard a creak. She turned her head to see the bookshelf was falling over, crushing the expensive cherry wood desk, kicking up a cloud of papers.

"Miss Starfade, Please! There has to be some... less destructive way to amuse yourself!" Gisel pleaded.

Starfade pried the stick out of Gisel's hand and cracked it against her beak. For a small child, she could hit very hard. Enough to make the gryphon recoil in agony and humiliation.

"You don't talk back to me, birdbrain. Now trash this whole house until I tell you to stop!" Starfade commanded.

The next hours were a nightmare for the gryphon. She tore couches, she smashed a window, she tore open foodstuffs in the pantry. She shattered furniture. She smoked her master's pipe. All the while Starfade laughed... and laughed... and laughed. As a slave, Gisel had no choice - she served ponies. No questions, no hesitations, and no thinking. If Starfade told her to hang herself, she'd have no choice. All she could hope for is that master would be merciful.

"Pet! Kitchen! Now!" Starfade yelled.

Gisel ran into the utterly destroyed kitchen. The table and chairs were the only furniture still standing in this wreckage. Cupboards were missing doors. Foods were scattered about the floor from the pantry.

Starfade pulled open a drawer and pulled out a butcher's knife. As if on queue, there was a lighning strike, shining off the pristine blade. Gisel was torn between horror and comfort. Knowing that this little shit would just stab her to death and save her from the horrors to come. She fell to her knees as Starfade stepped closer.

"Hold this." she said, holding the knife out to Gisel.

The weakened gryphon reached out to take the knife out of her hand. She stared at it in silence, seeing her own reflection... she didn't recognize the gryphon in the mirror; A few scant years ago, she was a free, happy girl in the skies above gryphonstone. What would she look like when this family was done with her?

The front door clicked open... oh fuck.

Starfade grinned malignantly... then let out an ear piercing scream and ran into the hall. Gisel came in after her to see the girl in her father's arms.

"Daddy! The pet wrecked the house and she was going to hurt me!" she sobbed.

Greasfire looked up at the dishevelled gryphon with the knife still in hand. He gently pushed his daughter aside and got a running start at the apparently ponicidal gryphon. Gisel was frozen in fear until Greasfire's fist met with her face, knocking her to the floor. Starfade pretended to cry in her mother's arms as her father stomped the helpless slave.

Gisel slipped into sweet unconciousness, hoping that he would beat her to death...

... needless to say, no luck.

Gisel sat out in the rain until her master's rage slept, or she died from hypothermia. She sighed, trying to shelter herself from the rain with her chained wings. It had been two whole weeks out in those chains in the cold autumn air. Originally it had been a week... but Starfade convinced master that Gisel was speaking ill of him behind his back.

She wondered why she didn't get sent off to the Bureau instead. Somehow Starfade convinced master not to send her away. Considering that Greasfire thought Gisel was about to murder his daughter after destroying the house, she must have told the most intricate, emotional lies to keep her around. The filly would not allow Gisel to slip into oblivion. Suffering was her lot in life.

There were wet hoofsteps on the cobblestone coming toward her, a figure in a black robe came closer out of the corner of her vision. "The grim reaper!", she thought. "Oh yes!" She beamed with hope seeing her release. The robed figure leaned down next to her.

"Look for Rainbow Dash." the figure said before walking off...

commission for hunter117x

Given an image and just a little bit of context, the writer in me wanders into very strange and dark places...