//------------------------------// // Ministrations // Story: The Abduction of Luna // by 97xxfastbike //------------------------------// Tiara used her magic to gently lift Luna’s right hind hoof and shackle a decimeter—the limit of the chain—then dipped her head to peer all around the shackle and inspect the burn underneath. “Second degree burns, Princess.” Tiara cast a glance at Luna’s head, which Luna no longer raised from her granite bed, but drunkenly rolled back and forth on her poll. “This looks the same as all the rest.” “Law’num.” Luna drawled in the manner of the inebriated. Tiara drew in a slow breath and exhaled through pursed lips. “I have already given you more than you should have had. I can’t give you any more.” Tiara’s lips closed on the tweezers and picked up a sterile swab. The clink of the metal tweezers against the glass jar of ointment made Luna start to sob. “Laud’num!” She cried desperately. Tiara shut her eyes and breathed through her nose. “I know it hurts, Princess, but I can’t give you any more.” “Please, please!” Luna sobbed. It was silly. Tiara told herself. She shouldn't feel anything towards this privileged traitor. This wannabe tyrant. Yet all she could see at that moment was a lonely, scared, young mare in terrible pain. Tiara shook her head. Either way, there was still a job that needed to be done. She set the tweezers and swab in the ointment jar. “If I could give you more laudanum I would, but I can’t. I won’t make that mistake again. So stop your crying so we can be done with this!” Tiara picked up the tweezers again. “What do you mean you won’t make that mistake again?” Tiara’s eyes flew open and the tweezers fell from her lips. Her head whipped around to face Luna. “What did you say?” Luna lifted her head off the floor and let it drop with a fleshy sounding thump. “Are thy ears defective? Or has this cave’s ekh’ho—” Luna head rocked back and forth like she was leafing through an imaginary book. “—confounded thy comprehension.” Tiara’s eyes narrowed. “What. Did. You. Say?” “Doth thou truly desire to torture?” Luna sobbed. “Give me laud’num or finish thy hellish ministration!” Tiara hesitated, she was certain that she had heard Luna speak a question clearly. “We will lie still. We—I …I swear to thee!” Luna’s voice quivered. “Please, complete thy task, I beseech thee, lest our pain become intolerable.” Tiara picked up her tweezers and dipped another clean swab into the ointment. “Are you ready?” She asked with the tweezers in her lips and a sideways glance back at Luna. Luna’s head lifted and dropped twice on the granite. “Proceed.” “There!” Tiara exhaled and gently set Luna’s hoof down. All four of Luna’s pasterns had a fresh bandage showing above and below the shackles, giving her legs the striped appearance of a sprinter wearing supportive wraps for a race. “You can relax now; we are done.” Tiara rolled her head back and moaned as she felt the satisfying pops of her joints. Luna too exhaled, but short. “We…I thank thee for thy ministration. However, I have another…pressing…concern, that I need addressed.” Tiara got to her hooves and grabbed a nearby broom so she could gather the soiled dressings and sweep them aside. Then the jar of ointment, tweezers, and the bottle of laudanum were levitated to a hollowed spot on the cave wall that had become a storage shelf. The four null orbs made that normally simple task feel twenty times more difficult. “I need you to stand, Princess. Unless you desire to soil the spot where you lie.” Luna moved with the caution of somepony surrounded by broken glass. Every motion was slow and deliberate. Her breaths were slow exhales punctuated by abrupt intakes of air through clenched teeth. When she had finally rolled onto her hooves, she stood quickly, but perhaps too quickly. She faltered and nearly fell due to the restricted movement allowed by her leg chains interfering with her attempts to balance herself, but Tiara shot forward and used her body to brace Luna. “I got you,” Tiara whispered as she felt Luna’s chest and neck press against her own. In her panic to prevent her fall, Luna had even hooked her head over Tiara’s back. “There, Princess are you okay?” Luna’s breaths were hot and fast on her flank as she gathered her hooves under her and regained her balance. “Indeed, We—I am.” Tiara felt Luna’s muzzle trace its way up her shoulder, over her withers, and then along her neck. It was not at all unlike what a lover would do. Tiara blushed at the thought. “Um, Princess?” Luna pulled away at the sound of her discomfort. “We ask—I ask for your pardon, Silver Chalice. It has been some time since I felt…pony affection.” Tiara cleared her throat. “Um, yes well, I’m sure that you have some understanding of the effects laudanum can have on balance as well as other...areas of a pony’s control. Now, do you still need to pee?” “Yes, we must answer the call of nature, but we—I must express my…concern over how—“ “A chamber pot.” Tiara interrupted. “A what?” Tiara bit her lower lip. She hadn’t expected Luna to require an explanation. “It’s a similar to the toilets you have in the palace, but smaller, and it requires more…participation…on your part.” Even wearing a bridle and blinders, Luna’s concern was easily read. “Participation…how?” “You need to sit on it.” Luna’s head jerked up and her eyebrows peeked above her blinders. “Surely thou jest!” Tiara couldn't repress her giggles. “Thou insist on this degradation?” Tiara sobered quickly at seeing Luna’s indignation. “Princess, a chamber pot is still used by many ponies in the fringes of your realm. Not everypony can afford or accommodate indoor plumbing. I think it is well past time that your privileged, royal hindquarters learn how the other half lives.” Luna’s head turned to the left and right. “Very well, remove our shackles so that we may remove our undertail.” She sighed with resignation. “No.” Luna’s head faced her. “Pray tell, how thee expects us to relieve ourselves? Tiara picked up a scissors and clapped them open and shut. Luna’s head jerked up again. “Now we are convinced that ye planned this humiliation! Indeed, thou intends for us to remain naked until released?" “Yes.” Luna leaned her head forward, pinned her ears back and hissed. “Take thyself to Tartarus!” “As you wish, Princess, and while I am on my trip, you can stand here and regally soil thyself!” Tiara turned for the entrance. “Silver, wait.” Tiara kept walking. “Slilver Chalice, wait! We pray thee.” “What. Is it?” Tiara spat her ire at Luna. “Silver, we ask for thy pardon. We did speak in haste.” Luna’s head dropped. “We—I have lost so much, I had hoped to retain my modesty.” The pang of sympathy Tiara had been suppressing rose up in her again and lodged in her throat. “Princess, there is nopony in this cave but us.” Tiara picked up the scissors and walked up to Luna and pressed her shoulder against hers. “By your leave, Princess?” She didn't know what made her say it, but she couldn't bring herself to cut Luna’s garment until she did. Tiara slid the bottom blade of the scissors under the thin coat-matched strap of Luna’s undertail. Tiara felt Luna swallow. “Proceed.” The scissors clapped shut. Tiara stepped forward undid the dock-clasp, letting Luna’s most intimate garment go limp and fall down her opposite leg. Another clap of the scissors and it was over. Tiara reached under her and picked up the relatively small bit of cloth that meant so much and lay it at Luna’s fore hooves. “Here you are.” Luna tried to lower her head to her undertail, but her bridle restraint prevented it. “Ye speak truly, Silver Chalice.” Luna stroked the fabric with a hoof. “Indeed, here I am, as broken and unwanted as this piece of cloth.” Tiara felt her eyes go wet. “The chamber pot is behind you, Princess.” Tiara went through the simple but important features and procedures of using the chamber pot with Luna. Soon, Luna was seated properly, albeit with a visible level of uneasiness. “You may relieve yourself now, Princess.” Tiara said after a silence had stretched into awkwardness. “We have been trying!” Luna snarled. “We are close to bursting and yet we cannot find release!” Tiara walked to the water barrel and picked up the dipper ladle hanging on the barrel's edge and ladled water into a bucket, making sure the water streamed and splashed. After a few ladles, she heard the familiar sound of water pouring into a thin metal pot and the grateful sighs of the pony doing the pouring. Tiara finished filling the water bucket and brought it to Luna. “Are you finished, Princess?” Luna’s ears lay flat out from her head. “We, uh…I also desire…to have a movement, but I cannot.” “The laudanum has a slowing effect on the digestive tract and can cause constipation.” Tiara explained, “You can either sit there and strain, or just wait until after dinner. We will have hot oatmeal with brown sugar and walnuts. The heat will help…uh…move things along. Until then, Princess, I suggest you drink plenty of water.” “I think I shall wait.” Luna stood up and moved a hind hoof to close the lid of the chamber pot as she had been instructed, but hesitated. “That is, if it is all the same to you?” Luna’s head darted around as though looking for Tiara. “In this matter, Princess, I will serve you.” Tiara bent down, closed the lid, bit the handle of the chamber pot and pulled it out from under the seat. “Why do you still call me ‘princess’?” Tiara’s eyes widened and she froze. She let go of the pot. “I suppose it could just be force of habit, but I just don’t feel right calling you anything else.” “You have never called me anything other than ‘princess’?” Tiara was glad Luna couldn’t see her, but she was sure she could hear her face flush in the brief silence. “You must know by now that I am not that loyal, Princess.” Luna smiled a pleasant, amused smile that turned sad. “Such honesty. This is truly not thy occupation, yet ye are their governor. Why the paradox?” Tiara felt her whole body flash with cold and then heat. “I think I have said enough for now, Princess.” Tiara bent down and picked up the chamber pot. “Silver?” Luna said as she groped about with her head and hoof, but Tiara had shifted out of her reach. “Silver Chalice?” Luna called again. Tiara trotted to the cave entrance. “Silver Chalice, I entreat thee to stay.” Tiara set the pot down. "I’ll be back to bring you a straw mat for you to lie on, Princess.” Tiara picked up the chamber pot again and started making her way through the tight rock face switchbacks. “Silver Chalice? Silver Chalice!” Luna called out from behind her, each time sounding more and more alone. Tiara was glad that she also sounded further and further away.