> Slaves to Darkness:  A Bridle Path story
>  by Penalt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Holes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a warm summer day in Ponyville, birds chirping in the trees and a slight breeze keeping things from getting too warm.  A pair of mares, one alabaster white, one lavender purple, were making their way along one of the roads in town toward a well-known boutique.  What not everyone knew however, is that there were not two mares on the road at that moment, but three.  The third pony being a mare of the mind.  That mare, Valiente, had been created by dark magic as a completely separate entity within Rarity for the purpose of enslaving her: mind, body and soul.  Valiente had repudiated that purpose and now the two shared their one body as sisters.

“Rarity,” said Twilight as they walked along.  “All I’m asking for is one more trip into your mindscape.  You do realize that you two are completely unique in the annals of pony mental health?  What’s going on with you and Valiente is like disassociative identity disorder but you both have a level of coordination and even cooperation that is astounding.” 

“Twilight,” replied Rarity.  “You’re getting that look in your eyes again.”  Indeed Twilight was.  Her eyes were beginning to glaze over as she warmed to her subject material, but Rarity could see how Twilight’s classic manic devotion to learning was off somehow, as if she was just going through the motions.  Rarity pondered this even as they reached the Boutique and went inside.  

“I mean the level of communication between your two personalities is incredible,” said Twilight, looking around and noting that they were alone in the Boutique.  “I really have to insist on one more chance to study something that is so absolutely, positively unprecedented, Rarity.”

“Do you want me to handle this, dear Heart?” came the inner voice of Rarity’s sister of the mind, Valiente.  Rarity thought for a moment.  Rarity knew she had yet to fully heal, after she had sacrificed herself to give Valiente the chance for the kill shot on their mutual enemy, Sombra.  Plus, Valiente had a gift for dealing with emotions and emotional turmoil, being a creature of thought.  What was more, even Rarity could feel something was off with their friend, Twilight.  

At the start of the climactic battle in the Badlands—of Sombra and his dog soldiers, versus Luna, Twilight, herself and the Moon Dogs—Twilight had sacrificed her mind to save Luna from a terrible weapon.  Though she managed to hold the effects off until after the battle, Twilight had been reduced to a blank slate, or, "Tabula Rasa", as that meek, submissive pony had called herself afterwards.  It had taken a full-scale intervention, requiring both Luna and Celestia, all of Twilight’s friends, and one of their greatest enemies to restore Twilight.  Few realized that, in spite of that heroic effort, Twilight was still a deeply-wounded pony.  

“Yes dear,” thought Rarity to Valiente.  “I do think you should take over.  Something is not right with our dear Twilight.  She is pushing too hard on this, trying to distract herself from something.  I have a feeling that maybe, if we do this right, she may finally open up.  Nudge her that way, if you can.”  With that Rarity turned her focus and “fell” backwards.  As she did she felt Valiente moving past her, giving an affectionate mental nuzzle as she passed by.  Suddenly, Rarity was a spectator in her own body and mind as Valiente took control of their shared body with a firm hoof.

“Darling,” said Valiente, in those liquid syllables that marked her speech.  “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Wh-What do you mean, Valiente?” asked Twilight, clearly taken aback by the sudden change of topic and conversation partner.  

“Dear, sweet Twilight,” said Valiente in a comforting voice as she reached out to stroke the side of Twilight’s face.  “Even Rarity can tell something is wrong.  Talk to us.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Twilight.  But even as she said the words she turned her head away from Valiente, who could see the glisten of the unshed tears that were suddenly in Twilight’s eyes.  

Valiente stepped around the table and embraced Twilight, placing the head of the lavender alicorn on her shoulder.  The wordless comfort being given proved to be the blow that broke Twilight’s reserve, and suddenly Valiente’s shoulder was soaked as Twilight sobbed and her tears flowed.  Valiente just held her friend, stroking the back of Twilight’s head and making comforting noises.  Simply being there for Twilight.  

“Finally,” huffed Rarity from inside.  “Nearly two months it’s taken for her to finally acknowledge how badly she was hurt.  This won’t be a short cry or a pretty one.”

“I know,” replied Valiente.  “We weren’t any better when we finally opened up.  Just stay close, in case I need some help.”  In response, she felt a wave of support and encouragement from Rarity.  Twilight never noticed the split seconds the unhearable conversation between the soul sisters had taken, and continued to sob and cry into the white shoulder of her friend.  Many minutes later, Twilight’s gulping sobs had finally quieted to sniffles, and Valiente leaned back a bit to look her friend in her tear reddened eyes.

“Are you ready to talk now, or do you need a few more minutes?” Valiente asked.

“How, how did you know?” Twilight asked between sniffles, not moving away an inch.

“Oh, dear Twilight,” said Valiente.  “Rarity and I have been through something similar.  She and I have been expecting something like this from you for weeks now.”

“Both of...Oh!” gasped Twilight as an ornately-engraved and fur-tight silver collar materialized around the throat of the alabaster unicorn who held her close.  “Your collar...because of me?”  

Valiente knew what Twilight meant.  The silver collar that had appeared around Valiente’s neck only came into being when both she and Rarity were both fully focused on the same thing.  When the two acted as one, their abilities increased exponentially.  That synergy had given them the power to kill Sombra, and to put Chrysalis at their mercy.  Now that terrible power was centered on the goal of helping their friend begin her own healing.

“Yes, Twilight,” said Valiente, touching a hoof to the collar.  “Both of us.  You know we both love you as a sister, and we were there when you pulled Luna out of the way of Sombra’s weapon.  I was there when your mind finally broke to that weapon’s power.  I took care of the broken mare you became, in the aftermath.  I was there, in your mind, when we brought you back from being Tabula Rasa, the blank slate.  So, believe me when I say, Rarity and I have been waiting for you to finally break down and admit how badly you were hurt.”

“It’s just,” Twilight sniffled and continued, “It’s just everyone sees me as a princess, they see me as a hero but...but.”

“But they don’t see how badly you’re still hurting,” finished Valiente.  To which Twilight nodded.

“There are...holes in me,” said Twilight in a small voice.  “Places where there should be memories, things I’ve done and seen with my friends.  And they are just, just gone.  Every time I run across one, it hurts.  Every time Pinkie or AJ or Rainbow, or even Celestia has to remind me of something I knew, it just reminds me of how broken I am.  Like I’m this useless thing, a shell, a husk of a...”  Twilight broke off as she descended into sobs again.  Valiente wordlessly gathered her friend back into a hug and let Twilight cry herself out.  

“Any ideas how we can help her?” Valiente asked Rarity.  “Thinking and planning are your areas of expertise, after all.” 

“We do what we do best,” said Rarity, firmly. “We give of ourselves to help our friends.”  With that, she showed Valiente her thoughts.

“Of course,” said Valiente aloud, even as she ignited their horn and her azure power enveloped both ponies.  Twilight had a moment to utter a startled “What?” before Valiente’s communion spell pulled Twilight from her own mind and into the shared mindscape of Valiente and Rarity.  

“Oh,” said Twilight in a breathy voice.  “I’m here.  You pulled me in.”  The soft undulations of Rarity’s mindscape laid out before her.  

“Yes, darling,” came Rarity’s voice from behind Twilight.  “We did.  Welcome to our mental realm.”  Twilight turned in place to see both Rarity and Valiente behind her.  For the first time Twilight saw both mares simultaneously, and now that she could, the differences in stance, carriage and gait between the two were obvious.  

“Thank you for bringing me in,” said Twilight with gratitude, as the gesture the two alabaster mares had made warmed her heart.  To willingly let somepony into your mind was one of the greatest gestures of trust a pony could make to another.  Then Twilight actually looked at the two mares and thought perhaps they weren’t so trusting.

“Um, Rarity, Valiente, what is that?” Twilight asked.  Rarity and Valiente were both manifesting the silver collars that symbolized their bond, and their power.  What was surprising was the fact that there was a length of light silver chain, about six feet long, connecting the two mares, leashing them to each other.  Halfway along the chain leash a third collar lay open.  As the two mares approached Twilight, they did so in a manner that would put them on either side of Twilight.  It was blatantly obvious to Twilight that the third collar was meant for her.

“I’ve always wanted to see you in a collar, dear Twilight,” said Valiente, her voice purring in the mindscape.  “Go ahead, put it on.”  

“It will keep you safe between us as we travel the mindscape, among other things,” said Rarity.  “Go ahead, Twilight, put the collar on.”  Twilight lifted the anodized blue-black collar.  It was functional steel, with rounded edges that would allow it to be worn for a long time - if need be.  Delicately engraved scrollwork ran along the top and bottom edge.  

“Okay,” said Twilight, as she positioned herself between Valiente and Rarity.  “I trust you both, completely.”  As she said the words Twilight closed the collar around her throat, which fit perfectly.  It locked with an authoritative click, and Twilight felt her knees go weak for a moment as she realized she had just yoked herself in inescapable steel.  Then Twilight realized that what she was feeling wasn’t desire but fear.  A sudden image of a mountainside rushing at her filled her mind.  Twilight shuddered and fell to her knees, overcome by the moment of vivid memory.

“What was that?” asked Rarity, looking with concern at the unexpectedly kneeling pony beside her.  

“A flash of memory and feeling,” said Twilight, pushing herself back onto her hooves.  “It’s what makes them so hard to deal with.  I get these brief flashes of memory and emotion.  Maybe a second or two’s worth – and then nothing.  No context, nothing to put the memory in its proper place.”

“No wonder it’s been so hard for you to deal with, you poor dear” said Valiente.  “Feelings without knowing where they are from or why they are there.”  She shuddered dramatically and gave Twilight a quick nuzzle.  

“Why didn’t you tell anyone sooner?” asked Rarity.  “You know any of us would be more than willing to help you.”  She also gave Twilight a comforting nuzzle from the other side.

“It’s just that most of those flashes,” said Twilight, as she leaned into the comforting touch of her friends.  “They almost always involve you or the rest of our friends in some way.  So, it sort of has been making me not want to – VALIENTE!”  Valiente had turned the chaste nuzzle into a swift but erotic lick and nibble on Twilight’s ear.  

“Darling mine,” said Rarity.  “I thought you always had considered Twilight something of a little sister?  At least that is the impression I’ve always gotten from you.”

“What makes you think I still don’t?  She might be the most adorable little sister ever, but she is also the sexiest alicorn alive.”  Valiente leaned back into a stunned Twilight and nuzzling the nibbled ear said, “Don’t tell Cadance that, please?”

“Cadance?  What was that about Cadance?” Rarity asked.

Valiente tossed her mane sending the connecting leash jangling and with a sigh, went off on a tangent with a dreamy look, saying, “I bet Shining is the top between them.  The way he moves in that armor, that strength and control.  Oh drat, now we’re horny.”

“VALIENTE!” Rarity yelled, her voice echoing across the mindscape.  “Focus, please.”

“Sorry, but Twilight is such a natural submissive, I couldn’t help but think of doing things with her,” purred Valiente.

“I am not a natural submissive,” Twilight protested.  “I may have gaps in my memory but I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that.”

“Says the mare wearing a collar, and in the chains that she willingly locked onto herself without protest,” said Valiente.  Twilight blushed, and tugged slightly on the chains connecting her to the two other mares.  Neither collar nor chain leashes relaxed their grip as Valiente continued, “Relax, darling.  You are only submissive toward authority figures, and after my taking care of you while you were Tabula, I qualify.  Now, let’s get going.  Rarity, if you would lead off.”

With that, the three mages headed off into the bewildering mass of colours and patterns of the mindscape.  Images swirled and danced before Twilight, and the confusing mass of colour began to be too much for her to comprehend.  After a few minutes of trying to deal with the sensory overload, she staggered against Rarity, no longer able to even walk in a straight line.

“Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths dear,” said Rarity, as she let Twilight lean against her for support.  Valiente had automatically paused with them as soon as she had noticed Twilight’s distress.

“What...what is going on?” asked Twilight as she obeyed Rarity.  Closing her eyes helped.  Without the swirling colours throwing off her sense of perspective, her balance returned and she was able to stop leaning on Rarity.

“Our defences, Twilight,” said Rarity.  “I deal in fashion, so naturally I guard the core of our mind with patterns of colour and movement.  Their purpose here is to distract, confuse and mesmerize an intruder.”

“We suspected you would be affected like this, darling,” said Valiente in Twilight’s ear.  “To be honest it is the main reason we offered you the collar and leashes, so we could safely guide you through the maelstrom, even though you do look amazing wearing them.  Just keep your eyes closed, and let us guide you.” 

The trio began to move forward again, but at a slower pace, and Twilight found the going was indeed easier.  All she had to do was walk forward, keep her eyes closed and respond to the left or right tugs of the leashes as they came.  Once, she accidentally opened her eyes by mistake, and the swirling colours nearly hypnotized her.  

“Twilight, while we walk, could you explain where these holes in your memory came from?” asked Valiente.  “From what I heard at the time, the ‘Chained Moon’ bridle wasn’t supposed to erase a mind, only reshape it.”

“You’re right, Valiente,” said Twilight, as she kept herself balanced between the two leashes.  “’Chained Moon’ was meant to reshape Luna into a submissive and needy brood mare for Sombra to get an alicorn foal on.  Had it managed to hit her with its magic she would have been remade instantly.”  Twilight paused as she was pulled into a sweeping turn.  “When I let the bridle hit me instead of her, its enchantment needed time to adapt to me.  I used that time, in part, to create a contingency spell.”

“What sort of contingency spell?” asked Valiente.

“I knew what sort of mare I was going to be made into,” said Twilight, “and I know...knew too much about Equestria’s defences.  So the contingency spell was created to erase any memory I had, of anything related to those defences, so Tabula couldn’t give anything away to Equestria’s enemies.”

“The spell went too far?” asked Rarity from the other side.

“Not as such, Rarity,” said Twilight.  “It’s just that at the time, I hadn’t realized how much of the past five or six years we’ve spent stopping various threats.  I’ve lost about half of the events of those years.”

“Well, darling,” said Valiente.  “Rarity and I are going to fix that.  We’ve reached our destination, open your eyes.”  Twilight opened her eyes and saw a vast door of white marble in front of her.  The door was set in a silver framework and Rarity’s cutie mark was engraved on it.

“What is it?” asked Twilight.  Twilight could feel the quiet power radiating from the door.  The steady strength of an active and able mind.  Whatever was behind that door, it was at the core of Rarity and Valiente’s personalities.  No wonder there were defences in place.  

“This, darling,” said Valiente.  “Is the entrance to our Hall of Memories.  The place where every memory we have, of every thought and action since we were born, is stored.”

“Exactly,” said Rarity.  “As you well know Twilight, a mare is the sum of her memories.  To have lost so many of yours...well, to have borne that pain without complaint, for as long as you have, speaks highly of your character and strength of will.”

“I just didn’t know what to do,” said Twilight, hanging her head down.  “Celestia and Luna are still working on helping the Diamond Dogs, and none of our friends know anything about neuromancy.”

“What about us, dear Twilight?” asked Valiente, lifting Twilight’s chin with a hoof to look into the lavender eyes of her friend. 

“You and Rarity were still getting used to each other,” said Twilight.  “Plus you were having those nightly meetings with Princess Luna to learn to control when the two of you are in synergy.  And Luna had to break Rarity's conditioning around her name.  How did she do that anyway?"  Rarity's only response was a massive blush.

"Oh, look at her blush," Valiente giggled.  "Do you remember what the training bridle did to Rarity, Twilight, with regards to her name?"

"Yes," said Twilight, "every time she or someone else said her name, the bridle shocked her.  A fairly potent shock as I remember."

"Exactly, darling," said Valiente.  "It was meant to drive her away from her identity, to make her not want to be Rarity anymore, and allow me to take over that much easier."

"And," said Rarity, joining the conversation, "It also pared off part of my mind and gave it to Valiente so that she could cage me within my own mind.  But she fought back against that purpose, she worked with me, she saved me."  Rarity looked at Valiente with unalloyed love and affection.  "I don't think I'll ever be able to thank her enough for that."

"Well, thank you," said Valiente, a little embarrassed herself.  "To get back to the topic though, the bridle used pain to push Rarity away from her name and identity.  Even after the bridle was removed, the conditioning it had enforced kept Rarity feeling pain whenever she heard her name.  What is the opposite of pain, Twilight?"

"Pleasure," said Twilight immediately.  "Oh, you don't mean Luna..."  Twilight trailed off as Rarity's blush returned, this time covering nearly half her body. 

"She most certainly did, Twilight," said Valiente, with a broad smile.  "She would repeatedly bring Rarity to orgasm while having me chant Rarity's name in her ear.  You wouldn't believe some of the things our Mistress knows how to do...and then things got interesting."

"Interesting?" asked Twilight.  "How so?"

"Mistress discovered we are multi-orgasmic," said Valiente.  "What was the record for number of orgasms in a single session, dear Rarity?"  Rarity's entire body had gone red as she mumbled some sort of answer.

"Speak up, Darling," insisted Valiente.  "How many was it?"

"Nineteen!" yelled Rarity suddenly.  "She made me come nineteen times in a row, and when it was over, hearing my name finally felt good again."

"Well, my point stands," said Twilight.  "You both were too...busy, to be able to help me."	

“Twilight,” Rarity gently chided.  “Even before Valiente wonderfully complicated my life, I have always had time for a friend.  With her, there are now two of us to handle life’s challenges.”

“You’re right,” sighed Twilight.  “I should have opened up to you or the girls sooner.”

“It’s quite alright, my sweet Twilight,” said Valiente.  “It only makes you more lovely in our eyes.”  Twilight blushed at the compliment.

“So, what’s the plan?” Twilight asked.

“Quite simple,” said Rarity.  “We are going to give you a gift.”

“What sort of gift?” asked Twilight with some apprehension in her voice as she raised an eyebrow.  She noticed that Rarity and Valiente had somehow detached their ends of the leashes from their collars and, simply by touching them to the door frame, fastened them there.  The leashes were still attached on Twilight’s end, effectively tethering Twilight in the center of the doorway. 

The door began to open and a vast light shone forth, bathing the lavender alicorn in its light.  Twilight instinctively tried to back up but was prevented by the tethers.  

“The gift of Memory,” said Rarity and Valiente simultaneously.  The two alabaster mares began to glow with light and power.  Twilight could barely look at them.  From all around her the unified voice of her friends came.

“Twilight Sparkle, we offer you this gift of ourselves,” said Rarity/Valiente as a single great voice.  “Our memories of you, every moment, every word, every thought.  For you, our friend.  Will you accept this gift of our friendship and love?”

Twilight could scarcely believe the magnitude of the gift she was being offered.  That Rarity and Valiente would even offer it, that they even could...then she shook her head, “NO!  I will not accept this.  Not if it diminishes you, my friends.  Not at the cost of hurting you.  I would rather suffer a thousand years then give you my pain for even a single day.”

“Dearest Twilight, you are indeed a true, true friend,” said the combined voice of the mares.  “We will not be harmed by this.  We should have been clearer.  We offer you copies of our memories of you and the means to summon them again at your choosing.  But this is mind magic, and we cannot force this upon you without walking the dark path.  So, we ask again, will you accept our gift, freely?”

“As long as you won’t be harmed by it, I accept,” said Twilight.  “What do you need me to do?”

“Simply open your mind to us,” said Rarity/Valiente.  The two had almost merged now, or perhaps one was in front of the other.  Twilight couldn’t tell, the light from the doorway and her friends was so bright.  But she did as she was asked and lowered her mental defences to her friends, trusting them completely.  

As Twilight did that, the light pouring off the alabaster mares and from the doorway suddenly became like a living thing, focusing on Twilight’s head and upper body.  Images, words, thoughts all poured into Twilight’s mind in a sudden stream.  Flashes of memory flowed past her and she could feel some of the gaps in her mind closing, healing, as there was finally structure to fill those terrible holes.  Faster and faster poured the stream until Twilight could no longer comprehend what was happening and consciousness failed her as her mind overloaded.

Twilight woke lying on the floor of the boutique, its hard wooden surface pressing against her cheek.  She decided to simply look around initially, and the first sight she saw was the quiet form of Rarity lying beside her.  Rarity was a sweat matted mess, looking like she had just finished the Running of the Leaves twice in a row.  Despite that, her eyes were open and looking at Twilight.  

"Rarity?” asked Twilight.  “Are you okay?”

“Just exhausted,” Rarity replied.  “Valiente really doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘limitations’.  Every time she and I do this sort of thing she takes us past what should be our maximum ability.  I can’t complain though, we get done what has to be done.  And helping you had to be done.  I'm glad to see that it worked.”

“What worked?” asked Twilight, still laying on her side.  

“Think about...oh, Tirek,” said Rarity as she rolled from her side up to her chest.  

“Who?” asked Twilight as she rolled to match and face her friend.  “Oh...Oh!”  Memory flowed through her mind.  A battle, a giant centaur ranged against her – and her wielding the power of four alicorns.  Twilight watched the battle, as seen from Rarity’s point of view, raging back and forth across the landscape.  No wonder she had erased this memory, the power she was wielding, the desperation of the battle, Twilight could feel the gap in her mind as the memory flowed across it.  It wasn’t a perfect patch or even a strong one, but it was there.

Rarity smiled and reached out to tap the steel collar around her friend’s throat with a hoof.  “All the memories Valiente and I gave you are stored here.  Just touch your hoof to the collar and slide it along my section.  The memories will play back out in your mind again.”

“H-How?” stammered Twilight.  “The collar was in the mindscape, it wasn’t real.”

“Twilight,” said Rarity.  “You should know better than anyone that if you pour enough power into a magical construct it can be made real.  Why do you think I can’t even stand up right now?”

“Oh,” said Twilight.  “I’m so sorry!  Just lay still and I’ll get you into bed.”  With that Twilight got up to her hooves and levitated her friend off of the ground.

“You don’t have to do this Twilight,” said Rarity.  “I’m sure my strength will recover in a few minutes."

“Hush,” said Twilight as she carried Rarity into her bedroom.  “Let me do this for you.  Besides, after what you and Valiente did your body needs a rest.”  Pulling aside the covers Twilight gently laid her friend onto the soft bedding.

“Perhaps you are right,” said Rarity tiredly, as Twilight pulled the covers back up over Rarity’s body.  “Tomorrow we can go visit our other friends, and ask them to add their memories to the collar.”

“Of course,” said Twilight after a moment’s thought.  “Now that you’ve laid down the basic matrix, adding to it shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

“Precisely,” said Rarity, who was visibly trying to keep from yawning.  “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you were right and I really do need to rest.  I can barely keep my eyes open.  Be a dear, and lock up behind yourself when you leave.”

“Of course,” said Twilight, as she laid a peck on Rarity’s cheek.  “Have a good sleep, and thank you again.  I’ll see you tomorrow.”  Rarity just mumbled something, already mostly asleep, as her exhausted body clubbed her mind into submission.  Twilight made sure the curtains were drawn to keep the sunlight out and crept out of the bedroom as quietly as she could. Easing the door shut, she made her way down the stairs to the main level of the boutique.  She was ghosting her way through the boutique when a gleam of light from a mirror caught her eye.

Approaching the mirror Twilight saw that the gleam had come from the steel collar around her throat.  Looking closely, Twilight could see the two bands of scrollwork from before, but now there was a third line of engraving, with room for others.  Squinting at the mirror Twilight could just make out tiny, intricate etchings of various scenes in the engravings on the new line. 

“I see,” Twilight said softly to herself.  “The etchings are just like the windows in Canterlot, only these are showing scenes from memories.”  Twilight turned the collar around her neck, looking at the various scenes.  As she did, she noticed something rather disturbing.  The collar had neither hinge, nor lock.  It was a single seamless piece of steel that had been formed around her neck.  There was no way to remove it, short of cutting it off.  But to be honest, considering what it was doing for her, Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted to take it off at all, if ever.  

Smiling, Twilight stepped away from the mirror and, after flipping the shop’s sign to “Closed”, locked the main door of the Carousel Boutique behind her.  She had barely taken five steps for home when Spike came running up toward her.

“Easy Spike,” said Twilight, to her number-one assistant.  “Rarity and Valiente wore themselves out helping me, they’re taking a nap right now.”

“Good to know, Twilight,” said Spike, breathing deeply after his run.  “But I was actually looking for you.”

“What’s up, Spike?” asked Twilight.

“I just got an urgent message from the Princesses,” said Spike.  “They want you in Canterlot right away.  Chrysalis is coming for Celestia.”
	
	

	

	

	






	


	








	


> Names
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 	         “Chrysalis is coming for Celestia.”

The words struck like a thunderbolt in Twilight Sparkle’s head. She knew the deal Celestia had made with Chrysalis when the latter had offered a way to restore Twilight to her former self. Leave it to a race of mind benders to know how to fix the broken thing that had been Tabula Rasa. Twilight’s mentor had offered up herself on a platter to the changeling’s hunger, in exchange for the chance to restore her beloved student, and Chrysalis had gleefully accepted.

“How long ago did the message come in?” asked Twilight, as she began to move off at a brisk trot toward her castle. She felt the electric vitality of a purpose, the depth of will to carry through with a plan and the bedrock solid knowledge that her friends were by her side. It felt good to feel, to be, that way again.

“About twenty minutes ago,” said Spike, his two legs moving at double time to keep up with Twilight’s four. “It took me a little bit to find you after you had left for your walk.”

“Okay, I’ll head to the castle, you go get the rest of the girls,” ordered Twilight. “Except Rarity, she’s too exhausted right now for anything. We should let her nap for now and let her know what’s going on in a couple of hours.”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” said Spike, peeling off toward Sugarcube Corner with a good enough turn of speed to raise dust in his wake. Both knew Pinkie Pie could be found there during these hours of the week.

Twilight spared some thoughts for her number one assistant as she increased her speed to a canter. Spike had grown so much over the years and the past couple of months had only showcased that emotional growth. First the pony he adored, then his surrogate mother, had been broken in mind and spirit by diamond dogs. He had kept himself and the castle running, had coordinated the rest of their friends and then kept things going until first Rarity and then Twilight had been healed.

“And after all of that,” thought Twilight to herself as she dodged around a few ponies. “After all that, he was still willing to forgive the diamond dogs and has really helped with getting the refugees sent to Ponyville settled.” Twilight slowed her pace as her castle drew near. The large double doors of the castle were open, and several diamond dogs were walking in and out under the watchful eye of a pair of guard ponies, who were on loan from the Royal Guard.

With the Badlands poisoned by the dark crystals Sombra had scattered throughout them, the Diamond Dogs had become a nation of refugees, and Twilight had opened her home to as many as her castle could accommodate. There was initially only enough room for sleeping a dozen families. But as the days went by Twilight’s castle surprised her by growing a school room, a dining hall and enough bathing and bathroom facilities for everyone. Twilight slowed further to a walk as she began to approach the doors.

Several dogs were walking along the main path to the castle doors on various errands and each nodded respectfully to Twilight as she passed. She could hear each of them say something in a respectful tone as she passed by, but couldn’t quite make out the words. She was still trying to figure out what they said when a small pack of pups blocked her path at the door itself. They were small, barely chest high on her, and cute as any puppy could be.

“Um, excuse me,” said Twilight politely to the young dogs. “Is there something I can help you with?” The young dogs looked down at their feet, shyness rampant among them and none seemed willing to speak up. Twilight looked around helplessly, not sure what to do. She looked at the guards ponies for help, but they just shrugged, indicating they had no idea what the pups wanted either. Fortunately for all concerned, one of the apparent mothers of the group poked her head out the doors and took in the situation with a single glance.

“Spud, go ahead,” said the female dog, encouragingly, in the normal high pitched gravel of a diamond dog. “Give the Princess your present.” Emboldened by his mother’s command, one of the youngest pups shyly pulled out a rolled up parchment and held out to Twilight.

“Thank you very much...Spud,” said Twilight, with a smile of thanks as she grasped the parchment with her magic and unrolled it to look at the contents. It was a drawing, crudely done, but quite good considering the youth of the artist. Three ponies were depicted in a battle stance with horns blazing. Twilight easily recognized Luna on the right and Rarity on the left of the drawing, but the central place of honour was held by...herself! Her lavender coat and dark blue mane were clearly visible on the unicorn in the middle. Beneath her depiction was a title, and as Twilight read it her mind immediately snapped to the muttered words she had heard from the adult dogs she had passed. “Dona Martilla” it read.

“Dona Martilla?” Twilight asked the mother dog. “What does it mean?”

“Lady Hammer,” said the dog, who then turned to the pups. “Okay, you gave the Princess your gift. Off you go now, the Lady is busy.” The pups scattered outside to the castle grounds, their happy yips betraying their joy at being out from adult supervision for awhile. Twilight most definitely did not reprimand the guards for smiling at the boisterous happiness of the pups. She knew they would be keeping an eye on the pups, making sure they did not get into too much trouble. Which is pretty much what the other guards in her castle did. Making sure that none of the refugees got into too much trouble by getting into things and places they should not.

“Thank you for sorting that out,” Twilight said to the dog, “Miss?”

“Chewn,” answered the dog. “I’m the teacher here.”

“Oh,” said Twilight. “I would have thought that the pups would have been going to the school in Ponyville.”

“There have been integration problems,” Chewn replied. “Until your Miss Cheerilee and I can come up with a unified study program, we have to have separate classes.”

“I would like to talk more to you about this and how you are getting on,” said Twilight. “But for now, I’m afraid I really am busy.”

“As you wish, Your Highness,” said Chewn, who dropped into a curtsy. Twilight smiled to the dog and left quickly, a little embarrassed at the display of respect. Chewn, for her part, headed onto the grounds to see what mischief her charges had managed to get into already.

As Twilight headed to the Cutie Map room, she mused over how busy the castle was these days. Initially, it had just been her and Spike. But then Starlight had joined them as Twilight’s student, and now they had all the diamond dog refugees. Her castle had become a busy, bustling place, full of activity and Twilight found that she was coming to like it that way. The castle felt alive in a way no other place she had lived in had, not even Canterlot Castle. Maybe because this castle was her castle, and belonged to no other. She reached the map room and addressed the guards at the door who were there to keep the curious away.

“When my friends arrive, send them right in,” she said to the guards, who gave her a couple of terse, “Yes, Ma’am’s” as she went in, another change. She didn’t used to have or need guards, but then again, the guards were here not so much for her protection but as protection for the refugees. For the most part, diamond dogs were brave, loyal and industrious. But they were also curious to a fault. and there were some things in the castle Twilight would rather they didn’t poke their noses into.

As she was musing over that, when Pinkie Pie made her way in through the door.

“Hey Twilight,” said the party pony as she bounced in. “What’s up?”

“Let’s wait until the others get here,” said Twilight. “I’d like to only have to explain things once.”

“Okey dokey lokey,” said Pinkie. “Mind if I grab everypony some snacks?”

“That’s a great idea, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “You always know how to make ponies feel comfortable.”

“It’s what I do,” said Pinkie, as she headed toward the door that went to the kitchens. “By the way, I like your necklace.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight softly, to empty air, “I like it too.” She put a hoof to the collar while Pinkie was gone and savored another memory Rarity had given her. This one was about the six of them confronting a dragon on a mountaintop. Twilight chuckled a bit as, in her mind’s eye, she saw Fluttershy using her Stare on the dragon, making it back down from its aggressive stance toward them. Twilight blinked as she realized that Fluttershy was actually in front of her.

“Oh, hi Fluttershy,” said Twilight, “Pinkie is grabbing us all some snacks before the others get here.

“That’s nice of her,” said Fluttershy, who gave Twilight an odd look before heading to her seat by the map table. Over the next ten minutes Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both arrived and took their seats. They also gave Twilight a second look as they came in. Pinkie’s timing, as usual was near perfect as she came back a minute later with lemonade and cupcakes for everyone.

“Okay, now that everypony is here--” began Twilight.

“Hold on a second, Twi,” said Applejack, by way of interruption. “You’ve gone and forgotten Rarity. Or is Valiente running things today?”

“Actually,” said Twilight, “they are doing things as something of a team effort today, and we will let them know what is going on in a couple of hours. Right now, they are passed out in bed.”

“Oh, are they okay?” asked Fluttershy.

“They’re fine, just exhausted,” said Twilight. “They helped me out with something and they basically tired themselves out.” Twilight noticed that Applejack was flushing for some reason at her comment and didn’t want to look up. An empty silence suddenly filled the room.

“Well, if nopony else is going to ask, I will,” said Rainbow Dash. “Just what the hay was she, um…they, doing with you that exhausted them, and does it have anything to do with you suddenly wearing a collar?”

“Yes, it does, Rainbow,” said Twilight, smiling, “but not in the way you might be thinking.” Then, Twilight explained to the other four how Rarity and Valiente had worked out what was wrong with their friend and how the collar was in reality a device to share memories with.

“I really need to throw Valiente a super special party for that,” said Pinkie Pie. “Twilight, do you know when her birthday is?”

“No, not really,” said Twilight.

“Darn, oh well. I’ll just have to figure it out,” said Pinkie in a bubbly voice.

“Anyway girls, before we got sidetracked with collars and stuff,” said Twilight. “I called you here because we need to get to Canterlot before tomorrow. Chrysalis is coming to take Celestia away as her payment for helping me and Rarity tomorrow morning.” The other four ponies started talking at once, the overall tone being “Oh, hell no.”

“Celestia gave her word,” said Twilight, cutting the others off. “If there is one thing a princess has to do, it is to keep their word.”

“Fair enough, Twilight,” said Applejack. “But why do they need us there?”

“Isn’t obvious?” asked Rainbow Dash, leaning forward. “We need to be there just in case Chrysalis tries any funny stuff.”

“Exactly,” said Twilight. “Also, we should be there to offer moral support to Princess Celestia and whatever direct help we can give to Mistress Luna.”

“Twilight, you did it again,” said Pinkie, with a grin.

“What? Oh, pony feathers,” cursed Twilight. “Sorry everypony, it’s that silly dark magic ownership bond Luna and I have. It keeps compelling me to submit to her and acknowledge her as my owner.”

“Any luck on breaking that?” asked Applejack with evident concern.

“No,” sighed Twilight. “The only way either of us have found to break it is to have somepony else channel dark magic, to take over the ownership bond from Miss...Princess Luna. Which would still leave me as an owned pony.”

“Well, if you have to be owned, at least Princess Luna is a kind owner,” said Fluttershy. “I mean, if you are going to be somepony’s pet anyway.”

“I am not a pet!” exclaimed Twilight.

“Twi, far be it for me to argue with you,” said Applejack with a raised eyebrow. “But yer the one sitting there wearing a collar and calling the Princess, ‘Mistress.’”

Fine,” sighed Twilight, realizing the futility of arguing against the reality of the situation. “I’m Luna’s pet, but at least she has me on a very long leash.” Her friends just grinned at her embarrassment.

“I think you make a fine pet, Twilight. If Princess Luna asks I can give you a nice bath, groom your mane, and then preen your feathers for you,” said Fluttershy, who might have been teasing her friend ever so slightly. “But in the meantime, I think we should get ready to catch the train.”

“Right,” said Rainbow Dash. “Before we do that though, Twilight, did you wanna do that memory share thing with the rest of us?”

“Not today, Rainbow,” said Twilight. “If Rarity is any indication, that spell takes a lot out of a pony, so I should only do it to one pony a day. And I think Spike should be the first of my friends I do it with.”

“Makes sense,” said Applejack, nodding in agreement. “Spike’s been with you the longest, out of all of us. He probably has the most memories to share.”

“Alright then,” said Rainbow. “We meet at the train station in three hours. I’ll swing by Rarity’s in a couple of hours and bring her up to speed.”

“Sounds good, everypony,” said Twilight. “I’ll see you all at the train station.” Twilight’s friends said their goodbyes and Twilight called out for her number one assistant.





----------ooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooo----------




Five hours later, the seven friends were on their way to Canterlot. The late afternoon sun streaming in through the train’s windows made it a warm place to be. The warmth, combined with the rocking motion of the train had almost everyone in the car either asleep or nearly so. Twilight was awake, barely, in a window seat, with Rarity lying against her, snoring softly. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, both out cold, were on the seat opposite, which left Applejack and Pinkie Pie to sit across the train aisle. Applejack was slumped in place, her ever present Stetson pulled over her face. Pinkie was awake and seemed to be amusing herself with some sort of toothpick sculpture.

The rest of the train car was fairly full. Several ponies as well as a few diamond dogs were on board. They were becoming a much more common sight in Equestria with the influx of refugees and the emptying of the Badlands. Twilight woke fully, carefully stretching so as not to wake Rarity, and again brushed her hoof along the gift her Two-Fold friend had given her. As her hoof moved along the newest line of engraving on the collar, a series of images appeared in her mind’s eye. Her and Spike running through the Crystal Castle in search of the Crystal Heart, as seen from Spike’s perspective. She felt both his fear and his faith in her as the two of them solved Sombra’s puzzles together.

“Thanks, Spike,” she murmured, “and thank you, Rarity.”

“Hmm?” asked Rarity, sleepily.

“Oh, sorry to wake you,” said Twilight. Rarity waved it off and sat up, looking around.

“How long until we reach Canterlot?” asked Rarity.

“We should get there about an hour after sunset,” said Twilight. “We’re invited for dinner at the palace.”

Twilight paused as an absolutely massive diamond dog walked in from an adjacent car on the train. The dog was tall and powerfully built, perhaps as well built as Big MacIntosh. He might have been a handsome dog at one point, but the barely healed seam of a terrible wound ran across his head diagonally, from his missing right ear, across a scar-sealed right eye, to end at an indented upper and lower lip.

In spite of that terrible scarring wound, the dog stood with confidence and strength. As if he had faced the worst that the world could throw at him and he had come out the other side bloodied but unbowed. Rarity noted the direction of Twilight’s gaze and took in the dog at the end of the car. She noted his absolutely immaculate vest, and the well tooled weapons belt holding a sword with an elaborate peace bond on it. She was wondering why he was allowed to carry weapons at all, when she spotted the night black collar with its white crescent moon on his throat. There was only one kind of dog who would wear that, while carrying weapons in public.

“Girls,” said Rarity in a tight whisper, “he’s a Moon Dog.”

Moon Dogs were diamond dogs who had personally sworn themselves to the service of Princess Luna. At the Battle of the Camp, some four hundred dogs had declared themselves for Luna. She had gratefully accepted their service and declared them her “Moon Dogs”. In the subsequent battle, a full third of them had been killed, with another third wounded to one degree or another. This then, was obviously one of the ones who had been wounded in that desperate battle.

The dog scanned the crowd with his one good eye until it fell upon the six friends and he started forward down the aisle towards them with obvious intent. Rarity kicked Rainbow Dash awake, who in turn woke Fluttershy. Pinkie, for her part, was about to nudge Applejack when Applejack, without moving an inch said, “Ah see him, no worries.”

“Hello,” said the dog in a deep voice, carrying the accent of Stalliongrad. “I must ask, but are you-” The dog paused, as if searching for the right words, “Rarity and Twilight?”

“Yes, we are,” said Rarity, leaning forward slightly. “May I ask why you are inquiring after us?” To the astonishment of everyone in the car, the great dog got down on his knees before the six mares, and bowed down so that his forehead touched the floor of the train car.

“Holy Valiente, Dona Martilla,” said the dog, his voice somewhat muffled by his position. “I vish to beg your attention for a favour.” Twilight and Rarity were both speechless at the display of abject worship by the dog, directed at them. Fortunately, they were not alone by themselves on the train.

“Now just hold on there a minute, little doggie,” drawled Applejack. “Your embarrassing mah friends an awful lot. Get on up, have a seat and explain yourself.”

“I am not vorthy to sit with the two great warriors of light, or their companions,” said the dog.

“For Pete’s sake,” said Rainbow Dash. “That’s a load and everyone knows it.” The dog’s head finally came up at that and he looked Rainbow Dash in the eye. Twilight could see more than a little indignation at Rainbow Dash’s classic in-your-face approach.

“You fought for the Princess,” continued Dash. “You didn’t have magic, you couldn’t fly and you were outnumbered big time. None of that stopped you, did it?

“Nyet,” the dog admitted.

“Exactly,” said Dash, puffing out her chest a bit. “You had our friend’s backs when we couldn’t be there. So sit up and be proud that you were awesome.”

“I...I,” the dog stuttered, clearly confused at the unexpected praise.

“You can sit beside me,” said Fluttershy, demurely, as she slid over a bit to make room for the dog.

“If it is okay with Holy Valiente and Dona Martilla?” he asked, looking toward Rarity and Twilight for permission.

“On one condition,” said Twilight. “You explain why you are addressing Rarity and myself that way.” The dog got off his knees, much to everypony’s relief, and sat down beside Fluttershy. Who promptly pulled a grooming kit from her saddlebags and began brushing down the dog. The dog looked back at Fluttershy with a mixture of indignation, surprise, embarrassment, enjoyment and appreciation.

“You should just lean back and enjoy it,” said Pinkie, with a grin. “It’s not a party, but Fluttershy is pretty good at making folks who aren’t ponies feel good.”

“So, what is your name?” asked Twilight, as she drew the dog further out of his shell.

“I’m called ‘Mouse’,” said the dog, holding up a paw. “Da, I have heard all the jokes. Fuzzbarge, Woolly Chammoth, Dogasaurus, and so forth. My parents did not know I would grow to this size when they named me.”

“Not a problem, Moon Dog Mouse,” said Twilight. “Now, I believe I asked you a question?” Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a look and a small smile. This was the most assertive they had heard their friend be in weeks, and it sounded good on her. Twilight had always been something of the de facto leader of their group, and they had all badly missed her being in charge.

“Our priests have struggled to find meaning in what has befallen us over the past few years,” began Mouse. “They finally decided last week on how to interpret the events from the viewpoint of the faith.” He paused as Fluttershy began to work out a particularly tough knot in his coat.

“The dog priests say that a demon of darkness had clouded our eyes to Luna’s holy light, and that Valiente was sent to us as a test,” said Mouse. “Ve failed in that test. Ve tried to unmake Luna’s servant, ve laid low Twilight Sparkle, the Redeemer. Ve took them as captives, ve tried to break them, to enslave them. But as the moon vanes and vaxes, so to do the servants of Luna. Vat rose in their place vas not a pair of broken slave mares, but Dona Martillo, Lady Hammer. She who guarded Luna’s back in the battle, smiting Luna’s enemies with her hammers of light. On Luna’s other side, was Holy Valiente, who gave half of her own soul in order to craft the spear of light, with which she smote down the Dark One.”

“Mouse,” said Applejack, “Ah’ve heard descriptions of the battle before. But Ah have to say Ah’ve never it talked about quite so...” Applejack groped for the right word.

“Poetic,” supplied Fluttershy.

“Ya, that’s it,” said Applejack, with a nod of thanks. “Never heard it talked about it so poetic like.”

“Poetic or not,” said Mouse. “This is vat the priests are now teaching. More and more, you will be coming across dogs using those names. I think I heard talk of a statue of the three of you together. Luna in the middle and the two of you on either side of her.” 

Twilight facehoofed at this revelation and slowly dragged it down across her face, groaning.

“Well,” said Rarity. “While I’m all in favour of a little recognition, this seems a tad excessive.”

“I have answered your question,” said Mouse. “May I ask my favour?”

“Go ahead,” sighed Twilight, almost dreading what she was going to be asked.

“I was heading to Canterlot to ask Princess Luna for permission, but I should ask you as vell,” said Mouse. “You and Valiente, at least until recently, have had no guards at your home. No pony to personally protect you. No pony to guard your back and stand at your side as you did Princess Luna. I ask of you, I beg of you, let me be the shield at your back. As I did it once before for Holy Valiente, when I got this.” He gestured toward his ruined eye and missing ear.

“You got that...” Rarity said, tears manifesting in her eyes. “You took that wound, protecting me?”

“Yes, Holy Valiente,” said Mouse, in a matter of fact tone. “I vas covering your retreat with Raarg, about twenty or so feet to your left. Two dogs were coming at you on your blind side, and I put myself in their way, stopping them long enough for you to get clear. I stopped them, but they also stopped me.” As Fluttershy gasped in horror at Mouse’s revelation, Rarity flung herself across the aisle and hugged the dog, tears pouring from her eyes.

“I never knew,” she cried. “I’m sorry, I never knew.”

“Shh,” said Mouse, leaning down and stroking Rarity’s mane. “Be at ease, Holy Valiente. Never, ever blame yourself for my wound or for vat happened to any dog else that day. None of us blame you, not a single one of us. Ve blame the Dark One, not you. Never you. But, if you need to hear it, then, yes, ve forgive you. I, Mouse, forgive you.”    

“Mouse,” said Twilight, still sitting in her seat, “you couldn’t know this, but for weeks after the battle, Rarity blamed herself for what happened to you, and the other dogs. She gave herself the most terrible punishments she could think of and locked herself away from the world. Valiente had be in charge constantly.” Twilight looked at her friend who was drying her eyes with a tissue.

“That you told her you don’t blame her, and that you forgive her, is probably one of the best things you could have done for her,” said Twilight, as the dog smiled broadly. “In light of that and pending Princess Luna’s approval...I am willing to take you on as our personal guard dog.” Mouse’s eyes shone and his throat worked, but it seemed all he could do was to nod his thanks.
    

    

    

   
> Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The train from Ponyville arrived just as Celestia was bringing down the sun for the day and as the train came to a stop the group of friends, and their escort all rose from their seats; save Rarity, who didn’t move at all.

Rarity, dear, Valiente said to her sister, why aren’t you getting us up?

I’m sorry, Valiente, Rarity replied, but I’m afraid meeting Mouse shook me rather badly.  Could you take over, at least for awhile?”

You aren’t going to hide yourself again, Rarity, Valiente said, firmly.  Not after all the trouble we went through before to bring you back.

I just need to settle myself for a bit, Rarity said, trying to assure her other half.

Rarity, Valiente said, warningly.  We are not going to move an inch until I’m sure you have no intention of hiding from the world again.

“Fine, Rarity said, and she moved her consciousness to a very particular spot in the mindscape she and Valiente shared.  A spot Valiente recognized, as Rarity whisked aside a dust cover to reveal a very sturdy looking, pony sized cage, complete with shackles and collar on chain tethers.

You don’t have to do this, Valiente said, shocked.  That cage was meant for me, not you.

How soon we forget, dear, Rarity replied, as she crawled into the cage.  The shackles immediately moved, locking themselves onto Rarity’s limbs and throat.  This is the cage I would have been trapped in forever, had you not decided to go against what you were meant to do.  For one of the very few times in her short life Valiente was utterly speechless.

Now, Rarity said with a slight smile, let me get some rest and pull myself back together.  This cage was meant to hold me, no matter how much I struggled, so you can be assured that I’m not going anywhere and that I can’t hide on you.  To emphasize her point Rarity jerked a hoof a few times, demonstrating that she was inescapably bound by chains and cage both.

Very well, but only until you are ready to come out again, Valiente said, as she turned her focus outward and took control of their shared body, opening her eyes.

“Rares?” Applejack asked, looking into the face of her friend.  “We’re here, ya’ll doing okay there?”

“Just fine, darling Applejack,” Valiente said, reaching up to slide a hoof along the side of the orange mare’s strong face in a gentle caress, and the earth pony responded almost instantly with a furious blush.

“Val,” Applejack said, pushing away the hoof, “you cut that nonsense out.  Ah’ve told you before ah’m not the kind of pony that should turn your head.”

“Dear Applejack,” Valiente said, looking up coquettishly, “that is where you are entirely wrong and one day I hope to prove it to you, but now is not the time, is it?”

“Almost everypony’s off the train,” Applejack said, backing up a bit, “and Princess Luna’s waiting for us on the platform, but ah came back when ah noticed you hadn’t left yet.”

“Then we’d best not keep her waiting,” Valiente said, getting up from the seat.

“Where’s Rarity?” Applejack asked as the two walked up the train car’s aisle.

“The encounter with Mouse upset her even more than she let on,” Valiente said.  “She asked me to handle things for awhile until she’s feeling better.”

“Okay--” Applejack began to say, before a very loud voice echoed through the wall of the train car from the outside.

“WHO HAS DARED TO PLACE THEIR COLLAR UPON YOU?” Luna’s voice demanded, in full Canterlot Voice volume.

“Oh Criminy,” Applejack said, in a low voice.  “Somepony dun put the Princess’s tail in a wringer.”  

“Oh dear,” Valiente said, putting two and two together and getting an upset princess.  “I think I’m in a bit of trouble.  Applejack, whatever happens next, please do not interfere with how my mistress decides to discipline me.”

“Say what?” Applejack said, as Valiente breezed by her and stepped out onto the train platform.  Princess Luna was there, a cringing Twilight Sparkle on the ground before her.  Nearby stood Mouse, who had placed himself between the two princesses and Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.  Two Moon Dogs also stood behind Luna, obviously guards of some sort as neither of them were interfering in the situation either.

“WHO?” Luna demanded again, fury on her face, her body poised to strike and lash out at whatever target drew her eye.

“Mistress,” Valiente said, in a meek and humble voice.  “May I approach?”  Luna said nothing, only giving a curt nod.  Valiente walked slowly up to where Twilight Sparkle lay on the platform and then fully supplicated herself before Luna.

“Great Princess of the Night,” Valiente began formally, “my Mistress, owner of both my body and souls, I beg thee to not be wroth with thy hoofmaiden Twilight.  The collar upon her throat is but a tool to aid your servant in the recovery of her memories.  I, and my other half, placed the collar upon her for this purpose and not to usurp your claim on her.”

“I...ah,” Luna said, suddenly blinking and her posture relaxed into one of confusion as Valiente’s words penetrated her anger.  Luna’s aggressive stance of a moment ago relaxed and her face began to shift from furious to confused.  Valiente seized on that moment of confusion and pressed on.

“Please forgive me, Mistress,” Valiente said, bowing her head until the back of her neck was exposed.  “Rarity and I have overstepped ourselves and we throw ourselves on your mercy.  Beat us, whip us, chain us as you will, as we have earned your wrath and not gentle Twilight.  Let your anger fall upon those responsible, namely myself and Rarity.”

Valiente could not see Luna’s face, bowed as her head was.  She could not see Luna’s anger fully shift to confusion then chagrined realization at her loss of control.  But Valiente could hear the creak of wood underhoof as Luna stepped close and she tensed herself in anticipation of a blow.  Only to feel herself suddenly swept up in a hug along with Twilight, as Luna clasped them both to her chest.

“There is nothing for me to forgive,” Luna said.  “Rather, it is I who must beg your forgiveness.  I can only plead stress over what will happen with my sister tomorrow.  Can you forgive a worried mare who wrongly lashed out at those she cares for?”

“Of course, Princess,” Twilight said, hugging back.  “I should have realized this is a hard time for you and written ahead to let you know.”

“It’s okay, everypony!” Pinkie Pie shouted, jumping into the hug.  “It’s just the Princess getting rid of the grumpy grumps!”

“Um, yes, as you say Pinkie,” Luna said, extricating herself from the party mare’s grip.  “Shall we walk to the castle?”  Everypony agreed and the now large group, made their way toward the great castle of Canterlot.  Twilight and Valiente made a point of walking to either side of Luna and a pace back of her, and it grieved Luna to see their deference to her.  Not as a friend, not as a princess, but once again as their Mistress and their owner.  A position she had been uncomfortable with at best, even when they had relied on her for their care.  

Why did I react with such anger at seeing that collar on my Twilight? Luna pondered, as she walked along.  No, be honest at least with thyself.  It was not anger, but unthinking rage that somepony would dare lay claim to them, to take that which is mine.  Even when they needed me to hold their reins I never thought of them as mine.  Friends yes, companions into danger certainly, but not as my bondmares, not as my owned chattel.  Why do I feel like this now?  Why did the thought of them being owned by another fill me with such rage?  Luna tried to reflect more on her feelings but her thoughts were interrupted as she realized that her and her group were walking through a silent city.

“Where is everypony?” Luna asked in general, looking around.  The other ponies all paused and looked around as well.  Silence greeted them, and despite the deepening shadows as twilight began to transition to night, not a single light could be seen.  As the seconds passed the quiet grew threatening, and the group slowly clustered into a circle around Luna, as much for her protection as to protect her.  

Finally, an earth pony walked by, a lantern shining from a ring on a harness she wore.  The pony was also armed with a sheathed sword also slung from the equipment harness.

“You there, my little pony,” Luna called.  “Why is the city suddenly so quiet, and why do you carry a weapon?”  The pony, seeing the Princess, came to a halt several feet away.

“I’m on my way to the vigil,” the mare said simply, as if the answer was obvious.

“What vigil?” Rainbow Dash asked.  “What’s going on?”

“Everypony is going to the castle,” the earth mare said firmly.  “We want to show Princess Celestia how much we love her and that Chrysalis won’t take her without a fight.”

“Um, lead on, please,” Luna said, and the group followed the pony.  Fifteen minutes later they reached the edge of the great courtyard leading to the gates of Canterlot Castle.  There, with torches, candles, lanterns and anything else that would shed light, was the assembled populace of the city.  Each and everyone of them was armed, even if in some cases it was only with a wooden club.  Nopony said anything.  Not the crowd, nor the guards at the gate.  

Luna, Twilight, Valiente and the others stood at the edge of the crowd, not saying anything or drawing attention to themselves.  From somewhere, Mouse and the two guards who had come with Luna produced lights of their own, and passed extras to the rest as they all stood there in silence.  Ten minutes later, the expectant crowd seemed to sigh as one, when the gates to the castle opened wide and Princess Celestia appeared in the gateway, dressed informally with neither crown nor peytral and she looked oddly naked without them.

“My dear little ponies,” she began.  “Thank you for this.  You have truly given me a great gift of your love and affection, but please, do not spoil it with threats of violence.  What I do tomorrow is something that I have chosen to do, on behalf of a friend.  Please, return to your homes and businesses with my thanks for what you have done tonight.  I shall remember it for a long time to come.”

The crowd seemed to give a little sigh at that and as one, the crowd of assembled ponies knelt to the solar diarch in a show of respect.  Luna’s group were the only ponies still standing and she slowly began to lead them through the crowd toward her sister.  Some ponies looked at her with annoyance as she passed, until they saw who was walking by, and they bowed their head in respect as the lunar princess moved to join her sister.

“‘Tia,” Luna said, as she drew near.  “I have brought Twilight and the others with me.”

“Let’s go back inside,” Celestia said to her sister, and then she raised her voice again to the crowd.  “We will see each other again in the morning, my little ponies.  Again, my thanks to you all.  Until the morning, go in peace and friendship.”  Celestia then turned and led everypony back inside the gates, which the guards closed behind them.

“Are you alright, sister?” Luna asked, as she followed Celestia back toward the castle proper.  “You are without your regalia.”

“I’ve had it put in your room, Lulu,” Celestia said.  “There are certain enchantments on them that you may find useful in case I don’t...”  Her breath hitched for a moment.  “In case I don’t come back from what Chrysalis does to me.  I need to be sure...”  Celestia managed to say no more as she was tackled and hugged, first by her sister, then by the other six mares present.  For a solid couple of minutes the mass hug went on, and finally Celestia, bolstered by the love and friendship of her sister and the others felt able to speak again.

“Thank you for that.  I admit to being a little nervous about tomorrow, and...” Celestia broke off, as she noticed Twilight’s collar for the first time.  “Luna, you collared Twilight?”

“Not I,” Luna said, gesturing toward the alabaster unicorn in the pile.  “Valiente and Rarity did that.”

“Why did you do that, Rarity?” Celestia asked, getting back to her feet and nuzzling Twilight as she did so.

“Rarity is taking a rest for awhile, Your Highness,” Valiente said, bowing her head.  “She and I made nothing more than a way for us to give Twilight a copy of our memories of her.  A way for her to know the parts of her that she has lost.”  Celestia nodded in understanding.  

“Valiente, to be honest,” Celestia said, as her horn began to glow in preparation for a spell, “when I first learned of your existence it worried me.  I feared you might be some aberrant creation secretly bent on destroying a pony I care for.”  Power flowed from Celestia’s horn to wrap around Twilight’s neck, setting the collar on the lavender pony glowing.  “But since the moment we first met you have been nothing but a kind and generous pony, if maybe a little more...physical in her generosity than Rarity.”  

A new, densely packed line of fresh engraving appeared on Twilight's collar, as Celestia’s memories of Twilight joined the others and she concluded saying, “With this action, you have laid to rest any worries I may still have had, thank you for doing this for Twilight. Now, enough serious talk, let’s go have some dinner.”  

The group made their way into the castle proper, where a feast had been lain out in a banquet hall, featuring all of Celestia’s favorite foods and treats.  Valiente, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack surged forward toward the food.  It had been a long day and all of them were hungry.  Only Mouse and Twilight held back with the princesses. 

“Mistress, may I go eat?” Twilight asked, addressing Luna and biting her lip anxiously.  Celestia shot a surprised look at her sister.

“Please Twilight,” Luna said, ears drooping sadly.  “Act as you will, you are a free mare.”

“Mis...Princess,” Twilight said.  “We both know that isn’t true.  I thought spending some time away from you might weaken the hold you have on me, but it hasn’t.  When you got mad at me on the train platform, I...”  Twilight trailed off, unable to finish.

“I know, Twilight,” Luna said, and impulsively hugged the lavender alicorn again.  “I would do anything to set you free from the dark magic that has bound us together and I am sorry I became angry at you today.  You did nothing wrong, I was the one at fault.”  Luna noticed Mouse standing protectively nearby and an idea occurred to her.

“Did she accept you as her protector as we had discussed, Mouse?” Luna asked the Moon Dog, who nodded his assent.

“Very well, Mouse,” Luna said.  “From now on you are to protect her from me as well.  If I begin to act toward Twilight as her owner and not as her friend you are to place yourself between us.  To keep both of us safe.”  Mouse nodded and slowly drew Twilight away toward the food.  The moment they were out of earshot Celestia rounded on her sister.

“Luna, just what in Tartarus was all that about?” Celestia quietly demanded.  “Even when she was Tabula Rasa you kept things right between the two of you.  Now she can barely move without your permission.”

“It is the bond, sister,” Luna said, hanging her head.  “I had thought time would weaken its hold on Twilight and myself, but it has not.  It keeps driving down her will anytime she’s around me, and worse, it keeps pushing me to treat her as mine.”

“What do you mean, yours?” Celestia asked, less angry now that it was obvious her sister felt guilty over what was going on.

“Must I spell it out?” Luna said, sadly, looking toward where Twilight’s arrival at the buffet was greeted with smiles and laughter.  “I want her, sister.  I want her, at my hooves in chains, serving me wine.  I want her dressed in silks, prancing before me in offering. I want her in my bed, leashed and collared, shuddering with pleasure as I take her and mark her as my own ”

“Why didn’t you tell me it was that bad sooner?” Celestia asked.  “You know I’d be more than willing to help you with this.”

“Until this evening, and Twilight’s return to Canterlot,” Luna said, “I had truly thought it was getting better, but as we have seen, it has not.  With Chrysalis coming for you tomorrow there is no time to deal with this, so I will just have to do my best to resist until your return.”

“That’s why you told that Moon Dog to protect Twilight from you,” Celestia said, as she realized how much her sister cared for Twilight.  “In case you slip, or break all the way.  Somepony to stop you, just in case.”  Luna nodded, and Celestia said, “When I return, and am back up to speed, we will find a way to break this curse.  I swear it, sister.”

“Thank you,” Luna said, with feeling, then she noticed Valiente staring at them.  “We should make our way to the tables now, as someponies are beginning to notice we aren’t with the others.”  Together the two alicorns made their way to the others, Celestia with a wing over her sister offering silent comfort and acknowledgement of the struggle Luna was facing.

Dinner and afterward went well as the group of friends talked far into the evening.  Twilight and her friends all promised Celestia that they would do their best to help Luna govern in Celestia’s absence, to be there when Celestia came back, and to bring her back by force if necessary.  Finally, it came time to rest, as tomorrow promised to be eventful.

“I’m afraid we all need to be off to our beds,” Celestia said, and then turned to Twilight.  “Would you like to spend the night with me, my faithful student?”  Twilight looked at her former mentor in surprise.

“But, what about Luna?” Twilight asked, ears raised at Celestia's question.  “Don’t you want to spend these hours with her?”

“Luna and I have already said everything we need to say to each other,” Celestia said with a smile.  “She knows how much I love her and I know that she loves me from crest to cannon.”  Luna smiled and blushed a bit.  “Tomorrow will be serious but tonight, I would just like some quiet time curled up with a good friend, like many nights before.”  It was Twilight’s turn to blush, even as she nuzzled Celestia’s side and her friends all “d’awwed.”  Together teacher and former student left the dining room, with Mouse trailing at a respectful distance, and Luna turned to the others.

“I’ve arranged for rooms for all of you in the castle.  As well as wake-up calls for breakfast,” Luna said, with a small smile.  “The guards can show you the way and I will see you all in the morning.”  The others gave her a quick hug and said their goodnight’s to her.  Once the others were gone, Luna left and made her way toward the kitchens, for a late pot of tea.  Occupied with her thoughts, Luna didn’t notice the alabaster ghost shadowing her until she entered the kitchens themselves. 

Tea secured in her magic, Luna made her way back to her rooms and lit a single pair of candles on arrival, preferring soft, gentle light to something more garish.  The dim light concealed the length of light chain padlocked around one of the legs of her bed as it curled underneath.  Luna took no note of the chain as she climbed onto her bed.  In fact, it wasn’t until she took the first sips of tea that she heard the faint “clink” of one link of chain hitting another.

Luna flung her tea one way, while leaping in the other direction out of her bed.  She hit the floor, spun and aimed her ignited horn at her bed, “Whoever you are, come out now.  Slowly.”  The soft sound of links of light chain clinking against each other came from under the bed as Valiente’s muzzle and eyes peeked out from underneath.

“May I come...out all the way, Mistress?” Valiente asked.  Her eyes might have been lowered submissively but the words were delivered in a sultry, sensuous tone. 

“Valiente,” Luna huffed out.  “You scared the wind out of me.  Yes, please come...”  Luna’s voice trailed off as the alabaster mare belly crawled out from under the bed, revealing that she wore a gold collar locked to her throat, with several feet of golden chain firmly and securely leashing her to the foot of Luna’s bed.

“I listened in on you and Princess Celestia,” Valiente confessed.  “I heard you tell her what you want to do to Twilight, what the bond is pushing you to do.  It occurred to me that if you could only release those urges, on somepony that trusts you, that maybe the bond would give you some peace at least for awhile.”  Luna swallowed as she realized that Valiente knew the dark urges Luna was trying to control and even so, here she was offering herself.

“Valiente, where is the key to the locks on that chain?” Luna asked, drawing a step or two closer, in spite of herself.

“You mean this chain, Mistress?” Valiente asked rhetorically, as she wrapped a few lengths of the chain around her body and strained against the links.  The golden links showed off her legs and barrel to good effect, while also demonstrating that she stood no chance of escape.

“Yes, Valiente,” Luna said, now standing over the leashed mare before her.  “Where is the key?”

“I flung it out the window,” Valiente said, stepping out of the links wrapped around her and placing a length of the chain in Luna’s hoof.  “I’ve been a very bad mare, and my mistress should punish me.”  

Luna slowly drew the chain upward, pulling on Valiente’s collar and forcing her to stand on the tips of her hooves.  A sense of power and fulfillment filled Luna, as the white mare in her clutches began to move as Luna desired.  Still holding the leash tight, Luna drew her nose from the hollow of Valiente’s throat up to the point of her jaw, deeply inhaling the captive mare’s scent as she did.

“You are playing a dangerous game,” Luna growled, letting off the chain and allowing the alabaster mare to stand normally.  “Does Rarity know what you are doing, or what you obviously intend?”

“She knows and approves,” Valiente said, as she pivoted in the collar to grind her flank against one of Luna’s legs.  “We both know you need to release the rage from your system.  To become the savage Alpha mare, even if it is just for tonight.  Of all your friends, who love you very much, I am the best suited for this.”

Luna could feel her control fraying as desire warred with loving concern, “If I do this, I won’t be able to hold back.  I...I could hurt you, maybe even break you.  I don’t think I could stand to hurt you.”

“Mistress, I trust you not to permanently break your toy,” Valiente said, turning to nibble delicately at Luna’s chest fur.  “More, Rarity trusts you.  She always has trusted you.”  Luna felt the heat growing in her, the fire, the burning need to take the mare before her and keep taking her until she submitted to her dominance.  Luna fought the desire down, mastering it, but it was like holding a balloon filled to capacity.  The slightest bump could make it explode.

“You have my permission to do as you will with me,” Valiente said, turning to face the bed and flagging her tail as she did so.  “I am yours, take...eep!”  Valiente squeaked as Luna lunged forward and grabbed Valiente’s crest with her teeth.  Valiente went limp in the grip of the larger pony as Luna half-carried, half-dragged her onto the bed, the chain leash dragging behind them with a *skirring* sound.  

Luna’s vision was fully occupied by her captive, and she opened her jaws allowing Valiente to drop onto the bed covers.  She had wanted this mare for so very long.  She had desired her, lusted for her and dreamed of her on many a night, when she was curled on a cushion in this very room, and a tingling fire danced along her limbs as at long last, alabaster perfection lay between her hooves.  

“You,” Luna growled, standing over her prey, “are mine.”

“Yours,” Valiente agreed, pulling her leash tight, to show she was indeed captive to the dark beauty that was her mistress.  Who moved her head forward kissing and biting the line of flesh directly above the collar.  Valiente lifted her chin a little, giving Luna better access to her throat, moaning with pleasure as the heat coming from Luna began to ignite a fire within her own belly.   

“Yesss,” Valiente hissed in pleasure.  This was the fulfillment of what she had been made for.  To be controlled, to be taken, to be fully under the dominance of an owner who desired and needed her.  Luna flipped Valiente over onto her belly and continued the line of bites and kisses, collaring Valiente again with a line of soft welts.

The fire of need inside of Luna raged out of control, her passion and desire for Valiente sinking into her core.  She drew a line down the mare’s back as she inhaled her scent, heading for what she could tell was a molten core within her pony.  She pulled firmly back on the leash as she reached the hindquarters, forcing Valiente into a taut bow.  Maintaining the pull, Luna dipped her nose into Valiente’s moist, fragrant nethers.

P-please,” Valiente gasped, air nearly cut off from the collar digging into her neck.  “Please taste me.  Taste how much I want you.”  The moist treasure beckoned to Luna and she dragged her tongue along the soft, wet folds, feeling Valiente shudder and gasp as she did so.

“Yes, my little pony,” Luna said, the taste of the well-aroused mare invigorated her.  This is what she wanted.  To be given her due, her right.  To fully possess and use a strong, powerful, beautiful mare in the manner that the strong always took what they desired, and the mare wearing her chains fit all those categories. But yet, it would not do to damage such a possession, and Luna let the leash slacken.  Valiente forequarters dropped in gratitude, her chest heaving and drawing in air, as the collar stopped compressing her airway.

Luna slackened the chain all way and pushed the white mare’s head down to the covers, eliciting a small moan from her.  Luna slid her hooves slowly back along Valiente’s flanks, scoring lines of fire along the soft barrel until they arrived at the hips, where they dug in and Luna used the purchase to draw Valiente’s slit toward her waiting muzzle. 

Soft wetness greeted Luna as she nosed aside the outer folds and she began to lap at the growing moisture.  She licked and nibbled all along the folds, and the moans of her collared captive grew louder and more frequent.  Luna drove her muzzle forward, parting the inner lips and her tongue began to delve into the revealed slick passage.  

“M-Mistress, have mercy on a poor mare,” Valiente begged as her body became wracked by spasms.  “Finish me off, please.”

“Whose are you?” Luna demanded, as she lifted her muzzle away from the treasure it had found and she jerked the chain leash.

“Yours, Mistress,” Valiente cried out.  “Yours, in all things!”

“What part of you is mine?” Luna asked, her voice becoming low and hungry.

“All of me,” Valiente said, pleading.  “My body, minds and souls are yours.”

“Yes,” Luna said, and the hungry growl was back.  “Which means for you, there will be no mercy.”  Valiente’s despairing wail swiftly turned back to aroused moans as Luna dove back into her tasty meal, tongue delving deep as the moisture flowed from Valiente, thick and fast.  Luna continued to lap and nibble and drive her tongue deep, as Valiente’s arousal filled her senses.  Then Luna found the pearl of the sensual mare and she latched onto the delicate nub, tonguing and sucking at it as if it were a teat to draw milk from.

Valiente’s moans turned to wordless cries as Luna flogged the nub without mercy.  After some minutes, Valiente could stand no more.  “Luna!” Valiente cried out, as she came hard, soaking Luna’s muzzle with her wetness, even as her body spasmed over and over again in orgasm.  The orgasm went on, rolling through Valiente for almost a full minute and at the end of it she lay gasping for air.  

Luna gave her prize some moments to pull her shattered body and mind back together, and she noted that Valiente may have been right.  She was able to think more clearly now, but she wasn’t even close to finished yet.  To that end, she pulled Valiente’s hindquarters off of the bed, but left her barrel and forequarters supported.

“W-what are you doing to me, Mistress?” Valiente asked, her breathing returning to normal.

“Why preparing you for my pleasure, as you offered,” Luna said, a wicked smile playing on her lips, while a whimper escaped Valiente’s as she realized that her mistress was far from done with her.  “Now that you are fully warmed up we can proceed to the main event.”  Valiente didn’t try to fight or struggle, she merely bowed her head and to Luna’s surprise, smiled slightly.

“Something amuses you, my pony?” Luna asked, as she cast an old, old spell, and felt its familiar tingle in her loins.  

“Just that I am finally going to get something I’ve wanted since the day I came to be,” Valiente said.  “Do not be gentle with me, Mistress.  Take me with all the fury and power of an alicorn because I need it as much as you need to give it.”

“As you wish,” Luna said, as she reared up, coming  down with her forehooves on either side of Valiente’s shoulders, her belly scraping along the submissive mare’s spine, and Valiente felt something begin to poke and prod at her folds.

“Mistress, what do you ha...oh, my,” Valiente said, as she glanced behind her and saw that Luna, her mistress, was now sporting a very impressive stallionhood.  A very, very impressive stallionhood that Luna was beginning to slowly push into her.

“Yes, my pony,” Luna said, “I do have one, and I’m going to fill you with it.”  The cock was magically lubricated and combined with the juices still dripping from Valiente it encountered almost no resistance to its entry.  Even so, Luna paused halfway in to allow her mare a chance to get used to the fullness.  

“Oh, stars above,” Valiente moaned.  “So good, Mistress.  Fill me, breed me.”  The words gave Luna an idea and a pair of cords snaked out to snare Valiente’s rear legs to the bedposts and hold them open.  At the same time the leash locked to her collar was pulled forward and wrapped around the bed frame to secure it there.  

“Since you wish to be bred, bred you shall be,” Luna said, as she slowly began to thrust in and out of her bound captive.  To say that Valiente wanted this would be like saying water was wet.  She had originally been created from the sexual, sensual, submissive side of Rarity and although the two of them had been through many adventures, those things remained at her core.  To be inescapably bound, and taken by a strong, dominant master or mistress was something she desired above all else.

Luna set a steady pace at first, rocking back and forth in a steady rhythm.  Slowly, Valiente began to push back against the thrusts, and Luna took this as her cue to drive deeper and deeper with her magical member.  The thrusts became deeper and faster, Valiente’s moans and cries of pleasure urging Luna on.  At last, Luna hilted fully in the mare beneath her and paused.  Valiente, caught off guard by Luna stopping, tried to rock back and forth to give herself the last few iotas of friction she needed to reach her peak.  Almost weeping with frustration she burst out, “Just buck me already!”

“So, the servant presumes to command the Mistress,” Luna purred in Valiente’s ear.  “Perhaps I should just stop entirely and lock a chastity belt on you.”

“Please no, Mistress,” Valiente begged, almost instantly.  “I’m sorry, I’ll be good.”

“You do feel good around me, writhing and shuddering,” Luna said, into Valiente’s ear, even as the submissive mare quivered beneath her.  “But as you said, you’ve been very naughty and it is time to punish you.  Are you ready to accept your punishment?”

“Yes Mistress,” Valiente said, almost weeping with the need to cum.  “Whatever you do, I am yours.”

“Indeed,” Luna said, pulling most of the way out and her horn flared again with magic.  “Prepare yourself to be used fully.”  Valiente’s only reply was a whimper that changed to a gasp, as she felt something begin to ease its way into her rosebud.

“B-but you are already inside of me...how?” Valiente said, as she tried to look behind her.  The collar and leash pulling her head forward prevented her sight of Luna’s second cock, as it breached her anal defences.  With excruciating slowness Luna pushed forward until she once again and driven herself in up to the hilt.  Or in this case, hilts.  Valiente’s mind began to shut down as the incredible fullness of being double penetrated fired every pleasure center the double mare had.

Safe and secured in her mind cage, Rarity briefly considered trying to break free to take control but quickly decided to ride out the storm of pleasure that was tearing through their shared mindscape in the safety of her cage.  A storm that rose to an ever higher pitch as Luna began to piston back and forth, rubbing the sensitive wall of flesh that separated the cocks within Valiente’s body, and even Rarity herself was starting to regret not doing this sooner, with their owner and mistress.

Luna could hear the moans and gasps from her mare, as she worked her twin cocks in and out of her captive concubine. Rarely in her long life had Luna felt so alive, with such power, so wanton and wonderful.  It was all she had ever wanted and the simple power of possession filled her even as she continued to pound Valiente.  Valiente was gone completely to the rut, mindlessly pushing her hips back at Luna in time with each thrust, wordless noises of ecstasy coming from her mouth.  Luna could feel Valiente’s internal muscles spasming against the cocks filling both her passages, trying to milk them and Luna tried to resist her own orgasm.

Instinct and dark desire had other plans though and instead of slowing down, Luna gave into those desires and sped up, pounding Valiente’s plot even harder, even faster, and a tingling heaviness began to grow in her.  Like the stallions of old she would take this mare who had offered herself to Luna, take her, possess her and breed her as a broodmare for her herd.  Need rising to a fever pitch, she grabbed onto Valiente’s shoulders and began to buck the mare under her for all she was worth.

There was no longer any room for thought in either mare, both now were running on pure instinct and the pounding rhythm of flesh on flesh filled the room.  For long minutes that rhythm and the sound of gasping breaths were the only sounds.  With a final, exultant cry Luna drove forward one last time and hilted deep inside her mare.  As she did so both of her cocks exploded together inside of Valiente, filling her with creamy, magical cum.  As the tingling magic hit Valiente’s inner walls it triggered her and she came as well, her walls clamping down on the cocks in both her passages and drawing out every drop they could.

The rippling, tugging muscles working on her cocks caused Luna to explode again in a second orgasm and Valiente was filled to overflowing.  The captive mare was just starting to come down from her most recent orgasm when the fullness filling every inch of her threw her into another.  Completely spent, Luna collapsed to the bed, pulling Valiente down and into her belly.  She had just enough presence of mind to loosen the leash and break the ropes holding Valiente’s rear hooves in place.  Still intimately connected the two lay on the bed, sweat cooling in the fur of both, and Valiente continued to shudder with aftershocks, pleasantly vibrating around Luna’s slowly collapsing cocks.

“Thank you, Valiente,” Luna whispered into her mare's ear.  “That was simply glorious.”  Valiente heard the words and she slowly moved back into control as she felt Rarity’s pride and approval at how they had helped their princess and mistress.

“Has Valiente been punished enough, Mistress?” Valiente asked softly.

“Valiente has been wonderful,” Luna said, and Valiente could hear the pleased tiredness in her mistress’ voice.  “But it is time to rest, so the last of your punishment is to remain here with me tonight.”

“I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to,” Valiente said with a small giggle, as she snuggled deeper into Luna’s belly fur.  “You worked me over quite well, Mistress.  I’m likely going to have some difficulty moving come the morning, and I’m still chained to your bed, after all.”

“So you are.  Rest now, and know you have my gratitude,” Luna said, extinguishing the candles and closing her eyes.

“One last thing, if I may Mistress?” Valiente asked, even as the soft warmth around her began to drag her toward sleep.

“Mhmm”

“Mistress...exactly how fertile are you?”
> Sunset
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As she had done every morning of her reign, Princess Celestia raised the sun at the appropriate hour.  Her joy in this task magnified with her sister at her side, who lowered the moon in concert with the sun rising.  With deep satisfaction Celestia felt the solar body start on its measured course and with a soft smile turned to Luna.

    “I’m going to miss that,” Celestia said, to her sister and the group of friends and hangers-on who had come to watch.  One delicate eyebrow rose as she noticed that one of her friends was wearing a close silver collar with a chain leash that was held firmly in Luna’s grasp.  Luna watched Celestia’s gaze travel from Valiente’s collar, along the shimmering leash, to herself, and began to blush furiously.

    “Valiente had an idea… that is she… I,” Luna sputtered trying to explain.

    “Please forgive our Mistress, Princess Celestia,” Rarity said, her cultured and professional voice proclaiming that she was the one in charge of the body she shared with her mind sister.  “Valiente came up with an idea to help reduce the stresses of the ownership bond between herself and Twilight.  Last night, with my approval, she enacted the plan.”

    “Did it work?” Twilight Sparkle asked, coming around her mentor with hesitant steps.  The smaller purple alicorn looked at Luna for a moment, then away quickly expecting the power of the ownership bond to drive her to her hooves once more.

    “Twilight?” Celestia asked, looking at her former pupil with concern.  “How are you feeling?”

    “I think,” Twilight said, still standing, “I think I’m okay.  I think it worked!”  Celestia and Twilight shared a happy hug as the others looked on.  Mouse, the loyal Moon Dog, was breathing a particularly deep sigh of relief.

    “Yes, and all it took was me being rutted to the point where I can barely stand,” Rarity murmured to no one in particular.

    Oh, don’t be like that, Valiente said, her laughter bubbling out of the cage that held her in its thrall.  You loved it as much as I did.  Our Mistress was so strong, so masterfull…

    “So vigorous you mean,” Rarity said, rolling her eyes.  “My legs are as stiff as starched cotton and my plot is so sore I can’t even sit properly.”

    “What in tarnation?” Applejack exclaimed, and Rarity realized she had spoken the last sentence aloud.

    “Oh dear,” Rarity said, blushing.  “That was supposed to be my inside voice.  I’m so sorry everypony.”  Everypony on the balcony chucked at Rarity’s embarrassment.

    “Rarity,” Luna said, in mock severity as she drew the leash taut.  “A good chattel knows when to… damn.”

    Rarity looked over her shoulder to see that Twilight Sparkle was again prostrating herself to Luna.  Forelegs flat to the ground, haunches high, marehood exposed, and tail flagging, in the classic pose of a slavemare offering herself for whatever use her owner deemed fit.  A deep sigh came from Luna.

    “It was a good try, Rarity,” Luna said, waving Mouse in and facing Twilight directly.  “Rise, Twilight.  You have done nothing wrong.”

    “Sorry Princess Luna,” Twilight said, getting back up with Mouse's assistance.  “As soon as I heard that tone of voice, there was nothing I could do.”

    “Think nothing of it, Twilight,” Luna said.  Whatever else Luna was going to say was drowned out by the sound of a trumpet from a lookout stationed up at the top of one of the Canterlot Castle’s towers.

    “Oh, that big meany pants Chrysalis is here,” Pinkie Pie said, pulling out a telescope herself from somewhere and looking to the horizon.  “Wow, she’s got a whooooole lot of changelings with her too.”

    “Luna, we haven’t much time, come here,” Celestia said, and when Luna complied she touched her horn to that of her sister and ignited her magic.  “I, Celestia, Sol Invictus and Princess of Equestria do hereby pass my title, power and authority to my sister, Luna, Noctis Regina Filia, and Princess of Equestria.  She is to hold these powers in trust for me until she deems it safe for me to take up my mantle again.”

    “I, Luna, Noctis Regina Filia, accept this charge and vow to discharge the responsibility given to the best of my ability,” Luna said, in pronouncement, and in that moment the Princess of the Night seemed to become more than she had been before.  Celestia stepped back and bowed her head to her sister, who fairly radiated power.

    “With permission, Your Majesty,” Celestia said, keeping her words formal.  “I shall withdraw so that I may keep my appointment with the changeling queen.”

    “Light go with you,” Luna said, hugging her sister.  Celestia turned, paused, and then hurried away with a couple of guards trying to keep up with her.

    “What the hay just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking askance.  “Should we go after her?”

    “No,” Luna said, and her voice held an extra depth to it that none of them had heard before.  “She goes to prepare herself for her seven days as Chrysalis’ plaything.  It will likely not be easy for her, and there are good odds that Chrysalis will break my sister.  Which is why she invested me with her titles and power.”

    “What does that mean?” Fluttershy asked, shy curiosity flaring.

    “It means that for at least the next seven days Equestria is a monarchy instead of a diarchy,” Twilight Sparkle said.  “Instead of two princesses, we have one.”







    “How long do you think we are going to have to wait, Rosin?” Chrysalis asked her general.  “Think we’re going to have to try to invade again?”

    “A head-on assault, against a prepared position like Canterlot?” the battle scarred veteran said.  “It would be a slaughter for the ages.”

    “That’s the spirit!” Chrysalis said, thumping her battle commander on the back.

    “No, Your Majesty,” Rosin said, stepping back to where he had been standing before the blow.  “It would be our slaughter.  Bards would sing of the insanity of the Changelings for a thousand years.”

    “Nothing like being remembered, eh?” Chrysalis asked rhetorically, a broad smile on her face.  Rosin looked at his queen and wondered if she had gone mad at long last. 
    
    “Being remembered would be a fine thing, your Majesty,” Rosin said, trying not to look like he was backing away from his queen.  “But being remembered and being alive at the same time is a better thing.”

    “Are all the decoy troops in place?” Chrysalis asked, watching the distant battlements for any sign of movement.

    “Yes, my Queen,” Rosin said, nodding.  “As far as anypony can tell we have 30,000 troops with us.”

    “And we actually have?” Chrysalis asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

    “A little over 3,000,” Rosin said, with a grimace.

    “It will be enough, to deter any pursuit,” Chrysalis said, scoffing at the bit of sweat she saw on her general’s shell.  “It WILL be enough.  Celestia is a mare of her word, after all.  She will be here and then we are going to get to know each other very well indeed.  “

    “You’re right, my Queen,” Rosin said, peering through a telescope.  “There appears to be movement at the front gate.”

    “Of course I’m right,” Chrysalis said.  “I’m always right.  Have the crates holding Celestia’s tack brought up.  We have to make sure the princess is dressed for the occasion.”

    






    “You didn’t have to come with me, Twilight,” Celestia said, as the great gates of Canterlot closed behind them.  “One of the others, or even one of the guards could have come with me.”

    “I wanted to come,” Twilight said, as the two alicorns made their way toward the waiting horde.  “Besides, I know Mi… your sister, can’t come and as her prop— friend I should come in her place.”

    “I’m sorry I ever sent you on that mission to the Badlands,” Celestia said, laying an ivory wing over her former student.  “You paid the price for a mistake I made, and you’re still paying it.”

    “To save a friend, it was a price worth paying,” Twilight said, a half-smile on her lips.  “And being owned isn’t all that bad a thing, especially when the owner is someone like your sister.”

    “Luna is a good pony, thanks to you,” Celestia said, as the road began to rise to the small hill where Chrysalis waited with her troops.  “I know she’ll do right by you.”

    “Thank you, Princess,” Twilight said, hugging her mentor.  “And it really is getting better.  Every time another pony gives me a copy of their memories of me, it’s like I get a little bit of myself back.”

    “In that case,” Celestia said, stopping a full hundred yards from where Chrysalis waited.  “I was going to wait to do this until I got back, but I think now is the time."

    Celestia lit her horn, and every changeling on the nearby ridge grabbed for their weapons, but the solar alicorn did not send her power at any of them.  Instead, a band of shimmering golden light stretched out and wrapped itself around the neck of the lavender alicorn, compressing and tightening until it lay full against the collar fused around Twilight’s throat.  Another row of engraving appeared on the steel band, this one so thick with details as to be almost a solid line.  Memories started to flood into Twilight’s mind.  Her magic running wild at her initial exam, meetings with the Princess, her studies, her becoming an alicorn.  Each memory filled with love, pride and the joy in seeing a young pony come into her own.

    Then, a more sinister memory demanded attention.  Twilight was suddenly bombarded by a series of images.  A guarded and hidden vault, ponies sworn to secrecy, weapons and plans waiting in place for the dreaded day they might be used.  Most of all, a particular vault containing a pair of works of master craftsponyship.  Two exquisite bridles that were deadly weapons against the two mightiest ponies of all.  

    In Twilight’s minds eye she saw one of the bridles rise up and hover before her.  Dyed white unicorn hide, set with sunstones, and of breathtaking beauty.  The bridle was not only made to capture the wearer, but to enhance their allure as well.  Across the brow band of the bridle, in gold thread, were the words “Conquered Sun.”  Twilight remembered now.  This was one of the memories she had made sure she had removed from herself. Celestia had kept the bridle so that there would always be a way to stop her if she ran amok, and it was as dangerous to Celestia as it was lovely.

    “Yes Twilight,” Celestia said, softly.  “Remember.  If she manages to change me, you know what to do.”

    “Princess Celestia… “Twilight said, her voice trailing off.  She knew Celestia was right.  A good ruler protected her subjects from all dangers, including herself.

    “Just go,” Celestia said, hugging Twilight one more time.  “Go, and know that I love you, my ever faithful Twilight.”  The two shared the embrace for a few more seconds, before Celestia broke it off and began to step resolutely forward.  

    “I love you too… Celestia,” Twilight said, under her breath as she followed the command she had been given and turned back toward Canterlot. 

    “Hello Celestia,” Chrysalis said, a minute later as the white alicorn came up to stand before her.  “Or should I call you ‘Toy’?”

    “I’m here to honour our agreement, Chrysalis,” Celestia said, frowning.  “As part of that, you can name me whatever you like.  For the next seven days.”

    “I’m a little disappointed that you came alone,” Chrysalis said, smirking as she motioned her changelings in to surround the white alicorn.  “I was so looking forward to tasting Double Snack again.”

    “You are never getting close to Rarity again, not if I ever have anything to say about it,” Celestia declared, and then sighed as she saw the changelings closing on her with ropes, straps and chains.  “How do you want me?”

    “Writhing at my hooves,” Chrysalis said, before shouting, “NOW!”

    At the command of their queen the changelings leaped upon the ivory alicorn, who could have made them pay dearly for their affront had she chosen combat.  Straps were cinched down, ropes knotted and chains locked in place, as with a flurry of motion Celestia was borne down to the ground and reduced to being a helpless prisoner.  

    “Up you get, Toy,” Chrysalis said, pulling Celestia back up with a leash.  “Let’s see what you look like.”

    Celestia stood, and Chrysalis loosened off the leash enough to let her captive breathe.  The body of the white alicorn was now crisscrossed with gleaming, black rubber straps that had been cinched down tight enough to dig into Celestia's flesh.  

Down the line of her back ran a broad anchoring strap from which ran other lines that looped down and around her barrel.  One behind her forelegs, one in front of her hips and another tight against her belly.  All three were anchored to another strap that ran down from her throat and along her underside, before rising up between her thighs and cleaving her sex in two before attaching to a collar for her tail that held it high and upright.  

    Attached to the straps was a shining web of fine chains, that draped over Celestia’s body like a blanket.  The chains were festooned with bells, so that even the slightest twitch was a symphony of sound, and their tiny links seemed to grab at the individual hairs on Celestia’s coat, like a thousand tiny paws that grabbed and pulled at her.  The last touches were the golden hobbles that were locked to her hooves and chained together to limit her stride to a walk.

    “What, no bridle Chrysalis?” Celestia asked, mocking the changeling who was her acknowledged owner for the next week.  “Nothing to block my magic?”

    “No need, just yet” Chrysalis laughed in reply.  “All this is just for the benefit of your subjects watching from the castle walls, and besides, I know that your word binds you tighter than any rope or chain ever could.  Now hold still, there are still a few items left to add to your tack.”  

From a box, Chrysalis pulled out a pair of large, thick cylinders.  They were black in colour and covered with small nubs, and the green glow of changeling magic pulsed from their bases.  Celestia’s eyes widened as she saw the size of the dildos.

“Really, Chrysalis?” Celestia asked, trying and failing to keep a slight quaver from her voice.  “Did you have to start with this sort of thing right away?”  

“What and deny myself the pleasure?” Chrysalis asked, as she caressed the perfect folds of her alicorn.  The changeling seemed to know just where to touch Celestia, her touch sliding along the inner lips, gently rubbing the soft nub at their apex, and dipping deep to just along the entrance to the alicorn’s dampening passage.

Celestia tried to hold back the flush of warmth she felt, but she knew there was no point in attempting to stop the sensations the changeling was stoking in her.  Freed from the restraints of order and discipline Celestia’s pussy winked itself around the dark hoof in it.

“I’m so glad you’re enjoying yourself, Toy,” Chrysalis purred, and then pulling aside the anchor strap slid home the first dildo down through Celestia’s entire passage.  As the tip of the device bumped up against her cervix, Chrysalis’ new toy filled the small valley with the whinney of her pleasure.

“Where… did you get something like that?” Celestia gasped, quivering around the shaft filling her.

“How soon we forget, my Toy,” Chrysalis said, rubbing the second shaft around the base of the first and lubricating it with the juices that were beginning to flow.  “I had you in a pod.  I know all your measurements.  Inside and out.”  Chrysalis touched the base of the dildo with her magic and it flared to life inside Celestia, who sucked in a snorting breath.

“I can feel it rubbing and pushing against me inside,” Celestia gasped out, stomping a hoof and setting her chains and bells ringing.  “What is it doing to me?”

“What is it doing to me… Mistress?” Chrysalis reminded Celestia, touching the tip of the second shaft to her rosebud.  “Remember your oath.”

“What is it doing to me, Mistress?” Celestia asked again, and she looked back to see what Chrysalis was about to do with the second shaft.  “Please Mistress, that won’t fit.  Not with the other one there.”

“All your measurements,” Chrysalis repeated, and slowly worked the now well lubricated dildo in past the royal rosebud, sinking its nubbed surface deep into Celestia.  The now twinned shafts rubbed the narrow wall of flesh between them, and Celestia came in a flash of light and a thunderous whinney of pleasure that echoed off of Mount Canter itself.  A moment later there was a “pop” of air and a furious pink alicorn materialized twenty feet above the unfolding scene.

    “Stop that, right now Chrysalis!” Princess Cadance roared, her entire body aglow with her fury and power.  ”Or I swear, all that will be left of you is a burn mark on the ground.”

    “Hello again, Mine,” Chrysalis said, unperturbed.  “Come to kneel before me again, have you?  You can be a matched set with Toy here.”

    “Let her go, now!” Cadance demanded, shooting a blast of magic to scorch the earth in front of Chrysalis.  “I mean it!”

    “I believe you mean it.  One moment, please,” Chrysalis said, stepping around to lift up Celestia’s chin and looking her in the face.  “Is this how you intend to keep your promise to me, Toy?”  Celestia, still panting in recovery from her orgasm, shook her head free from Chrysalis to look up at Cadance.

    “... Gave my word, Cadance,” the white alicorn panted out.  “Whatever she wants to do… seven days.”

    “But, she’s… “ Cadance said, magic and fury dissipating as her words trailed off, and those present could barely hear her say, “She’s doing to you what she did to me.”

    “Indeed I am.  I still remember our time together in the Crystal Caves under Canterlot with great fondness,” Chrysalis said, a smirk of pure desire coming to her face.  “I am not without some mercy, Mine.  Kneel before me again, Cadance.  Take on the name ‘Mine’ again for five days, and I will take two days off of Toy’s time with me.”

    “Don’t, Cadance,” Celestia said, bringing herself back under control.  “Luna and Twilight need you.  I can handle anything she can do to me.”

    “I’m sure you think you can, my lovely Toy,” Chrysalis purred, stroking the side of Celestia’s muzzle.  “I look forward to seeing if you can’t.  Well, Cadance, what will it be?  Submissive pleasure kneeling before me again, going back to boring Canterlot to help your sister-in-law, or making Celestia into an oath breaker?”

    Cadance looked back and forth between the two, and she could see that Chrysalis was enjoying her indecision.  Gritting her teeth she said, “Fine, I’ll go.  But if Celestia comes back in any way less than how she left you will answer to me.”

    “Boring,” Chrysalis said, her voice mocking.  “If all you are going to do is make idle threats than you can keep your mouth shut.  Although, you can certainly stick around to watch.  Who knows, you might learn something.”  Cadance disappeared with a “pop” of imploding air as she teleported back to Canterlot.

    “A shame, I have a nice chariot to harness you to later, Toy, and a pair of alicorns would have been nice,” Chrysalis said, smiling.  “I still have all her old tack too.  Oh well, let’s be on our way.”  

Putting actions to words she clipped a lead rope to Celestia’s harness and gave a tug to urge her new possession forward.  Celestia took two steps forward and stopped, gasping as the muscles in her belly and hips flexed themselves against the intruders.

“What are those things doing in me, and why can’t I push them out?” Celestia said, looking at Chrysalis in accusation.  “What are you doing to me?”

“For now, making you feel,” Chrysalis said, pouring her words like honey into the alicorn’s ear.  “Making you endure the sensation of a couple of hard cocks, buried deep inside of you.  Stroking you, rubbing you, twisting away as they penetrate all your defenses.  No matter what you do, they’ll keep driving you into a frenzy of pleasure with every step you take.  Until all you can think about is the need to cum, and cum again, as those cocks learn what drives you mad.”

“What are you planning, Chrysalis?” Celestia said, shuddering as the nubs on the magical rods in her reached out to lick at the velvet walls around them.

“For now, I’m planning on seeing how many orgasms I can draw out of you,” Chrysalis said, tugging on the lead.  “Now, let’s get going, we have quite a ways to go yet.”

It was one of the most tortuous walks of Celestia’s long life.  With every step she took, she was aware of her filled sex and ass.  That would have been enough on its own to drive a mare wild, but as Chrysalis had said, the magical shafts she had jammed into Celestia were more than a just pair of simple dildos.  

Every step she took they would slide back and forth, alternating in depth and speed.  The nubs would vibrate, sometimes moving on their own to lick out at Celestia’s most delicate spots.  Trying to walk with her core being kept on the near edge of orgasm was torture as her body kept trying to clench around and milk the dildos.  So, when something actually splashed against her inner walls she exploded into helpless orgasm.  

“Enjoyed that did you?” Chrysalis asked, holding Celestia close.  “That was only the first one.”

“How?” Celestia garbled out, before steadying herself.  “How did it do that?  How did it know to do that?””

“That’s the beauty of these little devices,” Chrysalis laughed, slackening off the lead a touch.  “As they learn what drives you wild, they can keep you on edge or they can give you the most mind-blowing orgasm of your life.  Given enough time, I’ll be able to use them to make you cum at any moment with just a touch of my magic.  Now, come along, Toy.  We still have quite aways to go.”

Celestia got to her hooves and started walking again behind the changeling who held her leash.  As they travelled on, a pattern began to develop.  Celestia would walk for awhile, the driving shafts slowly building her up to a sexual peak, and then they would shove her over the edge, into another shuddering orgasm.  

The gap between orgasms began to grow shorter and shorter, proving the truth of Chrysalis’ words that the magical constructs were learning what made Tia tick.  After apparent hours of walking, with bursts of orgasms that sent her crashing down to the ground, Celestia suffered a climax from which she just could not get up from.  She lay, helpless on the ground as spasms and shudders coursed along the length of her body.  To her surprise, Chrysalis sat on the ground beside her, pillowing Celestia head in her own lap.

“Water,” Celestia croaked, futilely trying to bring calm to her body.  “Please.”

“As soon as something else is done, Toy,” Chrysalis said, locking eyes with the drones who were closest to them.  “Restrain her.”  Changelings ran to do her bidding, fastening Celestia hooves together and holding her down.

“What are you do—urk,” Celestia said, as a bit was driven to her mouth, trapping her tongue beneath a rounded metal plate coming off it.

“That will be enough talking from you, Toy,” Chrysalis said, buckling the strap of the gag tight.  Then a drone passed something to Chrysalis that made Celestia buck and thrash.  If Celestia was fresh, she could have bucked the changelings off of her.  If her mind hadn’t been  mazed from countless orgasms she could have brought forth her magic and destroyed her foes in an instant of fire and destruction.  Chrysalis had planned well though, and Celestia was unable to stop a bridle from being looped over her head and down onto her horn.

Celestia could feel the moment the magic blocking sheath attached to the bridle settled over her horn and cut off her connection to magic.  The straps were tightened down, and Celestia heard the snaps of locks sliding home, locking the controlling device to her.  Celestia thought Chrysalis was done until a needle pointed knife appeared in Chrysalis’ hoof.  Stabbing quickly, Chrysalis punctured her own carapace drawing forth a trickle of ichor.  

Celestia then felt a stinging sensation as the knife cut a line on her neck, and she could feel a trickle of her blood run down to one of the bridle straps.  Chrysalis pressed her oozing hoof to the wound and said, “From this day forth I am your Mistress.  From this day, until the day I free you or I pass the bond to another. I name thee, Toy, bound to Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings.” 

By the Light, Celestia thought, as she remembered the report that gave the words of Raarg, when he had bound Rarity to himself.  I’ve been bridled.





   
> Sun Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ivory alicorn slept.  Someone looking in would have wondered how anypony could rest bound and chained as thoroughly as this pony was.  From sheathed horn to wrapped dock Celestia’s body was captured and helpless.  Her bonds not just securing her body, but displaying and even accentuating her natural grace and beauty.  

Tightly cinched rubber harness straps contrasted boldly with white fur, separating and displaying different parts of equine beauty.  Fine golden chains were anchored to the straps so they could curve around limbs, flow alongside smooth flanks, and were even braided into a now still mane and tail.  Tiny bells attached to the chains chimed with tinkling music every time their wearer stirred in her sleep.  

    Even those slight movements, natural to anypony in their sleep, were held to a leashed limit.  Twinned reins came off the bridle locked to Celestia’s head and were fastened to a shackle on a nearby wooden wall.  Shining cuffs sealed around ivory fetlocks, were attached to each other with short chains that hobbled and humbled she who had been a princess.  

    “Time to wake up, my lazy pony,” a feminine voice purred, drawing no response.  “You’ve lain abed for hours now.  It’s time for your training to start.”

     Celestia’s only response was to crack an eye open and snort in annoyance at Chrysalis.  If Chrysalis wanted her to do something, Celestia was most definitely not going to make it easy for her.  A determination which held up for another ten seconds.  Which is how long it took for Chrysalis to make the tip of her whip lick against the curve of Celestia’s ass.  

    With a garbled yelp of pain, Celestia tried to roll upright only to find herself jerked short by the pair of chains that ran from her bridle to the wall.  It took a moment of scooting sideways with a series of chiming jangles before the alicorn was able to gain a position sitting up on her belly.  Celestia tried to protest her treatment, only to find that the evil bit Chrysalis had stuffed in her mouth still held her tongue trapped in its merciless grip.

    “Better,” Chrysalis said, with a smile as she sauntered into her captive’s stall.  

Celestia hadn’t even been given the dignity of a proper cell, but was simply chained inside of an open walled stall in a much larger room, as if the Princess of the Sun was a simple animal.  Celestia wasn’t sure what that larger room was, but she could see its distant sides over the wooden walls of her enclosure.  

She had been almost unconscious when they had finally reached the hive after what seemed hours of marching and hundreds of orgasms.  So, it was no real surprise to Celestia that she didn’t know where in the hive she was.  What was a surprise was that Chrysalis had kept her bitted even while slept, but thankfully she had removed the two intruders that had come to know Celestia very intimately.

    “Did you have a good sleep, Toy?” Chrysalis asked, coiling her whip by her side.  

    Celestia began to nod in automatic response, when an odd touch froze her into immobility.  A sudden comforting wash of sensation flowing down her from crest to croup, like the sudden first plunge into a cool pond on a hot day, or the touch of an owner along the back of a beloved pet.  

    “Ah, felt that did you?” Chrysalis commented with a smile, stepping further into the stall and unhooking the chains that formed Celestia’s reins from the wall.  “You’ll feel that, or something like it, every time I say your true name.  ‘Toy’.”

    This time, the phantom touch was like a lover or other intimate gently rubbing the ridge of one of her ears.  Like the last sensation, it only lasted for a moment or two, but it was enough to feel good.  As if hearing that name addressed to her was a reward of some sort, and Celestia realized that was indeed the intent.  

    Celestia growled from somewhere deep in her chest as her Owner approached, trying to threaten the monarch of the Changelings away from her.  Chrysalis’ response was simply to gather up her alicorn’s reins, holding Celestia’s head high as she drew close.  

    “Oh, you are simply adorable when you try to be threatening,” Chrysalis snickered, as she drew to within a hoof’s length of her prisoner.  “We both know you are utterly and completely mine.  Would my precious Toy like her bit removed?”

    For a third time Celestia felt the phantom touch.  This time, it was a fleeting caress across the tips of her nipples. Nothing overwhelming, nothing strong enough to fling her into orgasm or maze her mind with pleasure.  A touch just enough to send that first, tiny, lighting bolt of pleasure to her nethers and make the alicorn know that Chrysalis truly did mean to tame her with pleasure.

    Reins lifting her muzzle so that she had no choice but to look up at her trainer, Celestia gave a nod.  A small motion, but enough to set the chained bells in her mane chiming with a ripple of delicate sound.  The changeling smiled and reaching out with her emerald magic, unsnapped the bit from its mounting rings on the bridle and drew it, and the long spoon attached to it, out of the alicorn’s muzzle.  

    Celestia worked her tongue and mouth for several moments, trying to get the two reaquainted with each other after their hours of forced separation by the plate attached to the bit.  Her Owner, in a show of benevolence, gave her shiny new toy some slack in the reins to do so, before drawing them tight again.  

    “Watching that lovely tongue of yours at work was wonderful,” the Queen of the Changelings said with a smile, her tone hinting at far more intimate uses for Celestia’s mouth.  “But, you should not try to speak yet.  You’re lips are chapped a bit, telling me that you are quite dry.  Drink, my Toy.”

    The gliding touch along the inside of her right thigh distracted Celestia enough that she didn’t notice the drink being brought up to her mouth, until the tip of a straw slid between her open lips.  The alicorn closed her mouth and sucked in automatic reaction.  Cool water flowed over her parched gums and furred tongue with a relief so wonderful it was almost orgasmic in itself.  

    “Eat, you need your strength, Toy,” Chrysalis commanded after a minute, pulling away the drink and replacing it with a bucket of honeyed oats.  Celestia felt her face heating as she dipped her muzzle into the bucket.  Both from the inherent submissiveness of being fed and watered by her Owner, and by the loving caress along one cheek from the bridle meant to break her to her Owner’s will. 

    “Now then,” Chrysalis asked, once the bucket was emptied of food and wiping Celestia’s muzzle clean with a cloth, “what is your name?”

    “Celestia, Sol Invictus,” replied the bound alicorn, with a touch of smugness in her voice. 

    “Bad pony,” Chrysalis declared, pulling Celestia’s head forward by the reins and floating her whip into her Toy’s sight.  “Bad ponies get punished, and how do you think I should punish you, my Toy?”

    “I’m your captive, so it’s your choice,” Celestia reminded her Owner. “But I would remind you that you promised to return me in one piece.”

    “I promised to return you physically intact,” Chrysalis responded, her smile vicious as she dragged the coils of her whip along Celestia’s flank.  “Although I’m sure you could handle a good whipping, but there are other things I can do…”

    Celestia felt her heart chill as her Owner opened her mouth, and a golden mist began to flow from her toward her Owner.  The realization that she was being fed upon was overridden by the surge of mindless pleasure that was ignited in every sensitive nerve ending the alicorn had.  The rolling, pulsating tide of sensation went on for some indescribable period of time, and when it was over Celestia found herself gasping for breath while her Owner looked down on her with a lot of intense satisfaction.

    “Say my name,” Owner commanded.  “Go ahead, tell me the name of who holds your reins.”  The twin chains attached to the bridle jangled for a moment in reminder.

“Your name is ‘Owner’,” Celestia heard herself say, eyes widening in shock.  “You’re… my… Owner.  My Owner.”  

By the Light, I can’t say her name!  What has she done to me? Celestia thought, before realizing what had to be the source of her selective aphasia.

    “That’s right, Toy,” her Owner said, pleased with her captive’s reaction.  “The bridle Rarity wore was a crude tool.  Your bridle is far more selective and precise.  When I feed off of you, it lets me selectively edit small parts of your mind.”

    “You will never get away with this, My Owner!” Celestia cried out in shock, realizing that even in her outrage she was addressing her Owner by that subservient title.  

    “Go ahead, my Toy,” Celestia’s Owner purred, even as the use of the name her Owner had chosen for her, elicited a calming stroke along her crest from the accursed headgear.  “Try it in your mind.  Think of my name.”

    “Undo it!” Celestia ordered her Owner, after a few minutes of trying and failing to even think of the Queen of Changelings by any name other than “Owner” or “My Owner.”  Celestia knew she still knew the name, but it was locked away somehow in a corner of her mind.  “You said you wouldn’t do any mind-control or brainwashing on me or my sister!”

    “Oh, sweet gullible little Toy,” her Owner said with a smile.  “I lied.  It’s what I do.  But, truth be told, this isn’t either of those.  This is just bending your mind a bit and changing one word for another.  However, in light of this, I release you from your promise to behave.  Go ahead, you can try to escape now.”

    “You know I can’t,” Celestia growled, tossing her head defiantly and eliciting a clashing series of chimes from the bells and chains attached to her.  “You made sure I was completely in your power before you did this to me.”

    “Of course I did,” her Owner assured Celestia.  “Losing to you and your fellow princesses once was bad enough.  The only way to keep you is to make sure you never have even the slightest chance to break free.  So please, struggle some more.  I’ll enjoy it, and we have a few minutes before I need to begin your physical training.”

    “Damn you, Owner,” Celestia growled out, inwardly cursing at the editing the bridle bound to her had done to her speech patterns.  “Do what you want with me.  I won’t give you the satisfaction of pointless struggle.”

    “Good, good my Toy,” Celestia’s Owner gloated, much to the alicorn’s chagrin.  “Still brave, still spirited.  It will make it all the sweeter when you beg.”

    “I’ll never beg you for anything,” Celestia declared.  She felt something begin to poke at her nethers, but her Owner stopped her attempt to see what was there through a simple application of the reins.  “What are you doing back there?”

    “Reintroducing you to a couple of old friends,” Owner told her, smiling as she saw Celestia trying in vain to stop the magical shafts that had come to know every millimeter of her most sensitive passages.  

    Celestia’s Owner took her time and advanced the shafts into the bound pony’s pussy and ass a bare inch at a time, giving Celestia’s body time to recognize the return of the intruders and adjust to them.  In response, Celestia twitched and flinched, tried to clench her holes closed and even tried to bat the magical cocks away from her with her tail.

    Every attempt failed, and Celestia could only give a whinney of aroused frustration as first one, then the other shaft slid home and locked into place.  Once again, the twin agents of arousal had the alicorn at their mercy, and Celestia’s Owner was well prepared to use them to their fullest potential.

    “Up you get, Toy,” the changeling queen commanded, pulling up on the reins to encourage Celestia onto her hooves.  

    Not seeing any other option Celestia complied, even though doing so caused the shafts in her to move and shift.  Her captor surprised her for a moment by magically unlocking her hobbles and removing them.  A moment which ended as the evil metal bit was floated in front of the mare’s mouth with obvious intent.

    “You have to be— glrk,” Celestia choked out, as the bit was slid home and latched on in mid-sentence.

    “Look at it this way, my Toy,” her Owner commented as the bridle’s touch glided over one of Celestia’s flanks.  “While that is in, I won’t be asking you to tell me your proper name, will I?”

    Celestia growled and champed at the bit, trying to seat it into a more comfortable position but the device was just as inflexible as before.  Her tongue was well and truly trapped under the bit’s spoon, rendering any coherent speech impossible.  All the alicorn managed to do was work the bit itself into a slightly less uncomfortable position at the corners of her mouth.

    “Come along, now,” commanded the changeling, drawing Celestia forward and out of the stall.  Once clear of the wooden enclosure the mare could see that she was in a large room.  A room that had a large throne at one end, an entrance at the other, and her stall midway along the room’s length and to one side.  

    “That’s right,” commented Owner, seeing her captive checking out their surroundings.  “We’re in my throne room.  It’s the best possible place to both keep an eye on you and show you off if I need to.  Now, then… MOVE!”

    A sudden crack of the whip scant millimeters from Celestia’s flank, had her leaping up and into motion before she even had a chance to think about what she was doing.  Instinct had her moving up and away, right up to the point where one of the two reins attached to her bridle pulled taut, drawing her back toward her Owner.  

    A stinging flick against her near shoulder made Celestia pull away again, and another flick on her rump encouraged her to keep moving forward.  With no other option, Celestia began to move in an arcing curve around her changeling captor, orbiting her as the moon orbited Equestria.  Celestia worked to keep the one rein taut and not to fight against it, while all the while steady flicks of the whip against her flanks kept her moving forward.

    Her Owner was obviously well-practiced with a whip, landing strikes hard enough to sting, but not so hard as to actually cause harm.  Celestia trotted in a steady circle, finding her pace and the curving line she needed to follow to keep the stinging lash away from her flesh.  A task that was most definitely not made easier by the plugs buried deep within her sex and ass.  

    Those twin probes shifted and rolled about as Celestia trotted on.  They were jounced back and forth by the motion of Celestia’s hips, driven in and out through the action of her spine, and they rubbed wonderfully at the wall of flesh dividing them.  Celestia realized what her captor was up to, and what she was doing to Celestia in that moment.

    Training her to be obedient to the rein and whip.

    Her Owner had no need to try to break Celestia.  The bridle would do that for her if Celestia even once, even in the vault of her mind, said the word “T—”  Celestia blanked her mind before she finished the treacherous thought.  Thinking the word might not actually trigger the evil thing locked to her head, but there was no sense in taking even the slightest chance.  

    Crack

    Celestia might not have triggered the bridle, but her wool gathering had caused her pace to falter, and like clockwork the braided length of the whip had snaked out to bite the curve of one buttock.  Celestia gave a small forward bound to return to the pace her Owner wanted, and the lack of the whip returning seemed to indicate that Celestia was doing what she was intended to do.  Obey.

    They continued like that for a full ten orbits.  Celestia marking the point where she passed in front of her stall as one complete circuit.  She was beginning to think that all that her Owner intended was to trot her into exhaustion while keeping her moving in her measured manner, when the mis-shapen horn atop her Owner’s head began to glow green with its particular form of magic.  

    A moment later the shafts locked inside of Celestia came to life.  Independently and together the enchanted dildos began to vibrate and move around inside of her delicate passages.  During the previous day they had spent hours mapping out every erogenous zone and nerve ending inside of Celestia.  Today, they used that stored information to bring the alicorn to almost immediate arousal.

    Her Owner however, had no intention of allowing Celestia to move from arousal to orgasm.  The moment the alicorn’s hooves staggered out her trot or her hips began to shimmy and work against the locked-in lustful lengths, the never sufficiently damned whip would shoot out in a stinging reminder of who was in charge.  The rising tide of lust inside of Celestia would be cut off at the knees as she was forced to return to her circling trot only to have it start to build once again.  

    Over and over the cycle repeated.  Shafts massaging, rubbing and even licking at sensitive nerves and flesh.  Coordinated cycles of vibration stimulating clit and G-spot in an unending rising and falling cycle.  Arousal building to orgasm, only to be cut off at the last second by a cracking whip and a jerk at her reins.  

Finally, the pool of lust in Celestia had flowed into a vast rolling ocean of desire and need.  An ocean whose rising tide would not be denied, and would not be stopped by a length of braided leather or gleaming chain.  The tide rose, higher and higher in Celestia, and she gloried in the feel of that unstoppable heat, so like her beloved sun.  The tide rose, crested and began to crash into or—

Together, the dildos each released a powerful shock directly into Celestia’s primed and sensitive nerves, ruthlessly slaughtering her release a split second before it could happen.  The alicorn’s inarticulate scream of pain and frustration rang off the chamber’s walls, and Celestia turned to give her Owner a glare that promised mayhem and death for the bug that had dared short circuit her pleasure.  

“Oh that’s what I want to see,” Chrysalis said, her voice full of desire herself.  “The pure, primal alicorn.  No crowns, no trappings, just the raw beast inside.  Move, my Toy.  Unless you would rather feel that again.”

The whip tapped Celestia on her flank but she didn’t move.  It wasn’t until the torture devices pushed themselves a little deeper into her that the alicorn started moving again in the prescribed circle.  She wasn’t sure what, but something had happened just then.  Some sort of border had been crossed, and Celestia tried to sort out her thoughts to understand it.

A process that continued right up to the point where the dildos started their motion yet again.  Celestia’s mouth would have dropped open in shock at feeling the motions resume inside of her, had the chin strap of the bridle allowed it.  The cycle of rising arousal began all over again, and once again Celestia understood her Owner's purpose too late to prevent it. 

She’s trying to break me with pleasure, Celestia thought, in realization of what her captor was up to.  She’s trying to make me so desperate to cum that I’ll do or say anything to get release.  With this thing locked to my head, she just might be able to do it too.

Hours went by after that.  Celestia lost track of how many times she had trotted in a circle around the changeling queen, lost track of how many times she had felt the sting of the whip, of how many times her Owner had addressed her by the name she dared not even think.  

She had long since passed the point of begging, long passed the point of being willing to do anything her Owner asked of her.  She would have cried out to her Owner, begging for release or rest, but she could not.  The spooned bit stayed in place, keeping her words captive and keeping her safe from her own treacherous tongue.  She was a slave to the ebb and fall of arousal within her, and it was almost with joy that Celestia finally reached the end of her endurance and collapsed into darkness.  

Far too soon Celestia opened her eyes to find herself lying in her stall again, her legs shackled closely together once more and the chains of her reins reattached to the wall.  She looked up and found herself looking into the eyes of her Owner, who was twirling a gleaming golden circle in mid-air.  

“Awake again, my Toy?” the changeling asked, and Celestia groaned as she realized that the enchanted erotic engines of arousal were still carrying on their assault on her libido. 

“P-please, my Owner,” Celestia begged, no longer embarrassed by her use of the title the bridle had forced on her.  “Let me have release.  These things have taken me to the edge at least a hundred times by now.  I beg you, if you have any equinity in you at all.  Let me cum.”

“Begging suits you, my Toy,” Chrysalis purred, and this time the touch was a gliding caress across the entrance to her sex that made Celestia gasp in pleasure, now all too aware that the bit that had been keeping her safe was out.  “And I will be kind.  I will let you cum, and give you release and rest.  If you do one of two things for me.”

“What do you want me to do?” Celestia asked, licking her lips and all too aware of the wetness that soaked the inside of her rear legs from crotch to hock.

“Because I am kind, I will give you a choice,” Celestia’s Owner said, as she slowed the golden ring in its motion so that it hung in mid-air between them.  “You may either say the name I so lovingly gave you, or place your neck into this.”  

The ring split apart into two half circles and Celestia realized it was a collar made of gold.   A collar that was the exact size and shape of the alicorn’s throat, and embedded into the metal were a series of emerald chips spelling out the words, “I belong to Chrysalis.”

“A slave collar!” Celestia shouted, and indignation gave her the energy to fight and buck against her bonds once more.  Her Owner didn’t even try to stop her, merely waiting until the fetters, chains and harness once again outlasted her Toy and reminded her that she was their helpless prisoner.

“Ah, my dear little pony,” cooed the Queen, running a hoof along Celestia’s jawline in a possessive gesture.  “This is no mere slave collar.  You deserve better than that.  This, is an ‘eternity collar.’  Once you put that lovely ivory throat in it and I snap it closed, it will be sealed in place for all eternity.  Powered by your own life force it will be a reminder for all time of who owns you.  The perfect adornment for my perfect slave mare.”

“I’ll never give in!” Celestia declared hotly, only to begin shuddering as the devilish devices deeply driven down into her derriere did their disruptive dance with even greater power than before, driving the mare into desperation. “Y-you can’t, can’t keep me forever.  I’ll g-get free, or hold out… Oh, goddesses.  Please.  Just once.  Let me cum j-just once.”

    “You can cum,” Celestia’s Owner reminded her, “when you either say the name, or place your neck into this lovely accessory.  Green and gold.  Double Snack would approve.”

    Celestia let out a wail of desperate frustration as the cocks in her shut down yet another impending orgasm with a pair of powerful shocks.  Her eyes flitted between the implacable face of her Owner and the equally implacable metal of the collar waiting to seize her throat in its eternal grip.  

As the cycle of pleasure and frustration began yet again, Celestia realized that Chrysalis had her.  She was going to give in, she could feel it.   It was only a matter of time now...

   
> Moon Rise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It was night in Canterlot and the grand banquet room of the royal castle was filled to overflowing.  The sound of stringed instruments twined their way around delicious smells of a hundred different savory dishes.  Torches lit the hall in shades of yellow and reddish gold as a throng of ponies danced, sang and feasted in a re-creation of barbaric splendor.

    “Make merry, my ponies!” Princess Luna cried out from her throne, silver jewelry flashing light from her ears and throat.  “Celebrate my sister!  Celebrate her bravery and courage!  Chrysalis seeks to have us mourn Celestia.  Instead of tears, let us send up a cry of gladness on behalf of my sister that shall shake the stars themselves!”

    All throughout the hall ponies raised their glasses and cheered out in agreement.  Even if the celebrations had to be helped along with liberal amounts of wine and several casks of Sweet Apple Acres best cider.  Still they were cries of gladness and not tears, for the dark alicorn felt a fierce joy well up inside of her.

    “Oh, my sweet Rarity,” Luna said, applying a gentle tension to a leash of gleaming gold.  “Have you ever seen such a thing?”

    “I have not, my Owner,” Rarity submissively replied, bowing her head as she and Valiente both reveled in the feel of their collar pressed up against their throat.  The unyielding metal circle was pulled tightly enough to just barely impinge on the twinned mare’s ability to breath.  A constant reminder of her willing status as Luna’s personal pleasure slave.

    “Are you resisting my will, Rarity?” Luna asked, eyebrow arching and lip curled in pleasure.  “Shall I drag you to my side, kicking and screaming?”

    “Screaming, perhaps,” Rarity replied, with a sly smile of her own, as Luna’s pull on her leash increased.  “But I would never kick.  That would not be seemly.”

    The collared unicorn moved toward her royal owner a split second before the strength of the alicorn would have overcome Rarity’s ability to hold her position.  Slowly, the slavemare allowed herself to be pulled toward her owner, one hooflength at a time until her collar was held fast by Luna.  

    “What ever shall I do with you?” Luna asked, rhetorically.  “I know.  I shall kiss you.”

    “As my Owner wishes,” Rarity replied, locking her lips to Luna’s as Valiente stoked Rarity’s passions from within.  

    Luna’s kiss was a burning echo of the night of driving lust where she had laid claim to Rarity, and her sister-of-the-mind, Valiente.  After Luna had drunk fully of the sweetness of Rarity’s lips, the alicorn left a trail of wet kisses down the length of her captive’s throat that left the unicorn gasping for air.  

    “Much… much more of that and we will have to leave early Princess,” Rarity murmured, as Luna’s mouth threatened to continue its course down the length of Rarity’s body.  

    “Mayhap I should just take thee right here and now?” Luna responded, halting her oral activities to look at her lovely possession.

    “Why, Princess,” Rarity responded, verbally and physically, pressing her body against Luna’s.  “Would you make me slave to such a scandal?”

    “You are my slave,” Luna stated, with a possessiveness that made Rarity’s loins clench in anticipation.  A purple smoke began to waft from Luna’s eyes with the heat of her passions. “And as mine you will be whatever manner I choose.”

    “Mistress,” came a small voice from beside the couple.  Two horned faces turned to face a third.  Twilight Sparkle, eyes downcast submissively, had approached the canoodling couple unnoticed and only now choosing to make her presence known.  

    “Speak, my Pet,” Luna replied, voice warm and honeyed.  “My beloved, and most cared for Pet.  Say what is on your mind.”

    “Should I really be here?” Twilight asked, trying to look anywhere but directly at Luna.  “You and Rarity seem kinda busy, and I’m too worried about Celestia to party.”

    “Brave Pet,” Luna said, forming a leash out of her magic and drawing Twilight close by it.  “Even damaged as thou art, still dost thou keep true faith and allegiance to my sister.  Know that you have made her very proud with all of thy many deeds.”

    “Thank you, M-mistress,” Twilight stuttered out, the dark bond between the alicorns pushing her obeisance yet again.  “I’d really rather—”

    “That you speak your wishes, and persist in them, despite the power that commands you to obey me… it speaks again of the power of your will,” Luna interrupted, “And I have been remiss in the aiding of your healing.”

    “I… really don’t mind being your Pet,” Twilight replied, keeping her head and her eyes down.  “You don’t really force me to do anything I don’t want to do.”

    “But you are no less a slave to your dark Mistress than Rarity is,” Luna stated, lifting Twilight’s chin so that the two could look smokey purple eye to clear violet eye.  “And Sombra’s magics took your ability to choose your own path in life from you.  The very least I can do is this.”

    Luna’s eyes went white with her power, briefly banishing the aura of purple that had been spreading from the lunar alicorn.  Energized, Luna reached out with a silver shod hoof, running it against the engraved steel surface of the formed collar that fit tightly around Twilight’s throat.  

    “By my Name, my Hoof, my Horn, and my Power,” Luna intoned, as the touched steel glowed in response.  “I give thee my Memory, my Thoughts, and all that I know and have heard of Thee, my well loved sister-of-battle.”

    A fine line of engraving appeared on the collar, and if one could have looked closely enough, a pony would be able to see tiny scenes sketched out there of all Luna’s memories of Twilight Sparkle.  Of their first meeting, of the Nightmare Night they had shared, of their stand against Sombra in the Badlands, and many, many, more.

    “Thank you, Mistress,” Twilight replied, before staggering to one side.  “Ohh, I feel a little dizzy.”

    “Why don’t you stand off to one side, Pet.  Have a small rest, and then you may attend me,” Luna commanded solicitously, dissipating the leash of magic that held the woozy pony in place.

    “If you say so, Luna,” Twilight murmured, stepping back and finding Applejack providing a supporting flank.  

    “Twi, you okay?” asked the orange earth pony, drawing her friend off toward a side table.  “You don’t look so good.“

    “Head feels funny, AJ,” the young alicorn murmured, allowing her friend to sit her down and press a cup of wine to her hooves.  “Like it’s full of bees.  So many voices…”

    As Twilight’s voice trailed off, Applejack gave her friend a once over.  Physically, her friend seemed okay.  For all intents and purposes Twilight just looked like a pony hunched over with a bad headache.  It was as the earth pony began to give her friend a gentle head rub that she spotted something that caught her eye.  

    The engravings on Twilight’s collar of dream steel were moving.

The multiple, overlapping bands of memories were spinning around the collar, counter-rotating to each other, like the gears of some sort of arcane mechanism that was working its magic on the pony that it held in its grasp.  Applejack was known for her honesty, and it was that honesty that compelled her to ask for advice about what she was seeing.  

“Hey Dash, c’mere and take a look at this,” Applejack called, to where her pegasus friend was retelling a story.  

“Sure thing, AJ,” Dash replied, and excusing herself made her way over.  The occupants of the table she left waved farewell, then began to shyly touch and stroke each other before embracing in a passionate kiss.

“Take a look at this,” AJ said, pointing a hoof to where the collar could be seen at the back of Twilight’s neck.  “Any idea what’s goin’ on?”

“Not a chance,” Dash responded, before giving Twilight a nudge.  “You okay there, egghead?”

“Not really, Rainbow,” Twilight answered, keeping her eyes closed.  “My mind’s having trouble processing all this information.”

“The what now?” AJ asked her friend, feeling a small hope fire in her heart.  That one sentence was more “Twilight” than almost anything she had said since her return.

“It’s like I’m reading from three different textbooks at once,” Twilight replied.  “Like I used to do whenever I had a test for Celestia the next day.”

“Hey girls,” said Fluttershy, who came up to the group with Pinkie at her side.  “Something strange is—”

“Hang on a sec, sugarcube,” interrupted Applejack, who continued by saying, “Go on, Twilight.  You were remembering something?”

“I can remember it now, I think,” Twilight said, a faint grin coming to her face.  “Celestia was showing me something… something important.”

“Girls, I think Fluttershy is right,” Pinkie chimed in, looking around at the spreading purple haze in the room.  “You reaaaally want to see this.”

“Not now, Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash insisted, her focus fully on her alicorn friend.  “Keep going.  What was Celestia showing you?”

“There’s a vault,” Twilight declared, and the engravings on her collar were a blur now.  “No… there’s a door to a vault in the castle.  And that vault is where Celestia keeps—”

“Aaaaah!” came the sudden cry from the royal dais.  All eyes turned to where Luna had thrown Rarity onto all fours and was enthusiastically rutting her.  To the astonishment of the others, the ponies gathered around the room were neither shocked nor outraged.  Instead they seemed to be cheering the coupling couple on.

“That just ain’t right,” Applejack stated, before raising her voice in a classic cry of, “What in tarnation is going on?”

“Is there a problem, fair Applejack?” Luna purred, arching her back as Rarity mewled with pleasure beneath her.  “Didst thou wish to join in?”

What?” asked Applejack, Luna’s response confusing her.  “No.  I mean, beggin’ yer pardon—”

“I think you wish you were captured in the same web of desire that thy friend is in,” Luna replied, her smile possessive and her eyes hungrily roving over the firm body of the earth pony mare.  “I think I will grant you your unspoken wish.”

“Uh, I’m fine.  Honest,” Applejack stammered out, her face growing hot under the royal regard.  

Luna’s horn lit with dark power and from the aether the alicorn conjured forth two masses of brilliant blue straps.  The two bundles spread apart in mid-air to reveal themselves as a harness and bridle, both with an apple motif at the joins of their straps.

“Seek,” Luna uttered, and the empowered items launched themselves directly toward the shocked mare like a pair of huge flyders.

“Whoa Nellie!” Applejack yelled, running away at top speed with the enchanted items in hot pursuit.  

“Just a minute there, Princess,” Rainbow Dash commanded hotly.  “What the hay gives you—”

“The right to show favorites?” interrupted Luna, and Rainbow Dash’s mouth dropped open in shock as the alicorn princess transfixed her with the same look of desire she had sent Applejack’s way only a few moment’s prior.  

“I really shouldn’t,” Luna added, her horn lighting again and three more sets of bondage gear came into being near her.  Each of the sets of straps were coloured and themed to match each of the remaining ponies, save for Twilight, who was lost in the recounting of her newly recovered memories.  

“Therefore I shall claim you and the rest of Twilight and Rarity’s friends as my most beloved possessions,” Luna declared, to the enthusiastic roars of the crowd.  All of whom now had green tinged eyes.  

“Harness and bridle my pets,” Luna commanded the flying pieces of bondage gear.  “Bind them to my will.”

“Everypony run for it!” Pinkie yelled, as the green harness and bridle meant for her closed in.  

Fluttershy was the first to be captured.  The yellow pegasus barely had time to decide in which direction to attempt to flee in, before the pink body harness meant for her wrapped itself around her attractive body.  

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked out as the harness bound itself to her, broad straps cinching up and tightening around chest, barrel and back.  The broad strap running down Fluttershy’s back briefly split into a leather collar for her dock, only to rejoin as it dived to cleave her sex in two.  The length of leather tightened and pressed itself between the lips there to rub tightly against her clit in with a delicious and inescapable friction.  

“Please, Prin—” was all the protest the pegasus was able to get out before the bridle arrived to claim her head.  

Once again, straps looped and tightened as they formed themselves into a pink cage around Fluttershy’s head, binding and controlling it.  A ring gag of gold was pulled in behind the mare’s teeth, rendering her incapable of speech, save for incoherent gasps.  Fluttershy’s tongue poked out through the ring as she tried to explore her oral restriction, only to gasp once more as the last bridle strap formed itself into a check rein.

Forced to keep her head high by the rein, the mare could only watch as a slow moving collar of blue reached her and locked itself around her throat.  A leash formed, connecting her to Luna’s throne, and the newly harnessed slave mare obediently began to follow the tightening length toward her intended place at her mistress’s hooves.

“I’ll save you, Flutters!” cried Rainbow Dash, swooping downwards to rescue her friend.  It was a bold move.  One in keeping with Dash’s brave, brash and loyal nature.  It was also a mistake as the cyan pegasus forgot to watch her back while she searched in vain for some way to remove the binding and teasing harness from her friend.

“Let me go!” Dash yelled, as an orange harness first gripped her barrel and then encircled her wings in several small straps, grounding the flier.  “Luna, this is crazy!”

“Crazy?” Luna asked, licking her lips in anticipation.  “The only thing insane here is the fact that I have not claimed you four as my own long before this.  Yield to thy Owner.”

“Screw that,” Dash yelled, as her own dock was encircled in a cuff, forcing her tail to flag high.  “You hear me!  Fu—gchk”

The bridle created especially for Rainbow arrived, and proved itself just as efficient as Fluttershy’s in controlling and silencing a pony.  Where the yellow pegasus had her voice cut off by a ring gag, Rainbow Dash experienced the frustration of a classic bit, only with a metal spoon balanced on it.  

The rounded end of the spoon rested benignly on the struggling pony’s tongue, not harming her, but making it impossible for her to form words.  Whenever Dash tried to speak however, her natural motions would push the spoon against the delicate parts of her upper mouth.  The boisterous pony was thus constantly reminded that silence on her part was both golden and painless.

As with Fluttershy before her the final steps in Rainbow’s bondage were a check rein, which kept her head submissively down, and a gleaming collar.  The orange collar fastened itself around a blue throat with an authoritative “click” and another leash began drawing a second slave mare to where her owner waited.

Pinkie and AJ, warned and determined, did their best to escape from the trap they found themselves in.  However, neither AJ’s strength nor Pinkie’s unpredictability seemed to be effective.  

Pinkie was captured as she tried to get some other ponies to shake off the “sexy crazies” as she called the strange obedient euphoria the rest of the banquet goers were in.  Applejack watched in shock, too busy running from her own attacking bondage to help, as four ponies stopped their rutting of each other to hold Pinkie down until a yellow harness and bridle caught up to her.  

The candy loving earth pony was bound just as tightly as her friends.  Her tail forced high, a strap rubbing against her most sensitive place, and a bridle with the unique additions of a cock gag and blindfold controlling her speech and vision.  Applejack turned to run back toward Twilight as a yellow collar closed around her friend’s throat and began drawing her in, where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy waited.  

“Twi!” Applejack shouted, just reaching Twilight as she felt the first slithering strap cross her breast.  “You’ve got to snap out of it!  Luna’s gone nuts.  She’s trying to make us all—gurk”

The full muzzle on AJ’s bridle was the first thing to lock into place on the struggling earth pony.  Like her other three friends she was quickly muzzled, harnessed, collared and leashed, but the defiant mare refused to allow herself to be drawn in towards Luna’s feet.  It wasn’t until the Princess of the Night added shackles that pulled the orange pony’s hooves up to her body that Applejack was forced to give up the fight and was dragged towards the throne.


“There was a bridle,” Twilight murmured, unseeing of the events around her as her own collar glowed bright, its light changing from white to lavender.  “No, not one bridle.  Two.”

“Now, I shall claim all five of you in the ancient way,” Luna declared, as the orgy wreathed in purple smoke continued all around her.  Setting actions to words, the princess again began to rut Rarity, the other four ponies bound at her feet mewling and writhing as their harnesses extruded dildos into them.  

“I can see them now,” Twilight said, rising to her feet.  “Sombra’s ultimate weapons.  ‘Conquered Sun’ and ‘Chained Moon’.  I... I was hit by one of them.  I remember it now.”

“Come to me, my Pet,” Luna called, an ethereal leash reaching out toward Twilight’s collar.  “Let me claim you, as I am claiming the others.”  

Even as Luna spoke, she continued to thrust her magically re-created cock into Rarity, reducing the alabaster mare into writhing ecstasy.  The other four bound mares struggled to overcome the pleasure that was dominating their minds, as the fake phalluses within them were linked to the one inside of their friend, matching its movements with their own.

“Come, Pet,” Luna ordered, as her leash of solid magic latched onto Twilight’s collar.  “Come and be mine, forever.”

“What?” Twilight asked, resisting the pull of the tether.  “Wait, what are you doing to my friends?”

“Making them my property,” Luna gasped out, her breath a little ragged as the pleasure of fucking five fine mares at once seared through her.  “Filling them with my essence.  Claiming them, body and soul.  As I have already claimed Rarity, and you.  Pet.”

“I don’t think so,” Twilight declared hotly, and with a sudden flare of her magic severed the leash connecting the two alicorns.  

“That was uncalled for, Pet,” Luna stated, pausing in her glorious task to glare at Twilight.  

“Stop calling me that!” Twilight yelled, scarlet flames beginning to lick along her mane and tail.  “That’s not my name!”

“You are my pet,” Luna said, dismounting off of her slave and igniting her own horn.  “Therefore, your name is ‘Pet’.  Now, my collared little slave, attend to your mistress.”

“You don’t want to say my name, do you?” Twilight asked, fury in her voice.  “You don’t want the reminder of what I was, what can be again, and what I am right now!”

Utter silence fell on the room, as the power of the confrontation punched through the addled sensibilities of the hundreds of ponies in the banquet halls.  Mares turned their hips sideways, stallions slunk aside in embarrassment, and everypony looked very, very embarrassed.  

    A sudden clang of steel rang out into that silence as Twilight’s collar, a single seamless piece of a dream made real, sprang open to fall upon the floor.  With its task complete, the artifact faded into the aether from whence it came, and in its wake stood a furious renewed, reinvigorated and reintegrated, Twilight Sparkle.  

“If you can’t say my name,” Twilight shouted, as her mane and tail became fully alight with her power.  “Then I’ll give you a different one.”

“Submit,” Luna ordered, sending out yet another set of enchanted bondage gear.

“I’LL GIVE YOU THE NAME OUR DOGS CALLED ME.  THE NAME THE DOGS WHO DIED AT OUR SIDE GAVE ME IN THEIR DYING BREATHS!” Twilight screamed, the incoming bridle and harness flashing into ash as the alicorn’s now incandescent fury reached them.  “THEY CALLED ME ’LADY HAMMER’!”

And Twilight blasted her enemy through the wall with a club of force the size of the Golden Oaks Library.  


 




    


   
> Twilight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The orgasm, when it finally came, was long, thunderous, and earth-shattering.  It seemed to go on forever and ever, and even as the pleasurable paroxysm began to dissipate, the mare who been its victim shuddered and ground her hips to keep the delicious aftershocks flowing.  Obligingly, mare’s owner gave a small twitch of her power, and the devilish devices she had used to drive and then bind the mare to her flowed into life again.

    “Wonderful, isn’t it,” murmured Chrysalis, Celestia’s head pillowed on her lap as the solar alicorn rolled into another orgasm.  “Isn’t it good to give in, to surrender, to acknowledge that you are owned?”

    “Yes,” gasped Celestia, neck arching as her peak of pleasure struck.  This time the orgasm went on for minutes as Chrysalis deliberately kept the magical cocks inside of her captive from slowing down or stopping.

    “Who owns you?” Chrysalis asked, when at long last Celestia’s body was still again.  

    “You do, my Owner,” was Celestia’s reply, feeling the metal circle of the eternal collar around her throat.  “You do.”

    “Indeed I do, though it took you far longer than I thought it would for you to acknowledge it,” Chrysalis noted, tapping her whip gently against a snow white cheek.  “And now for the true test.  What is your name?”

    “My name… “ Celestia began, pausing as she braced herself for the pain that was about to come.  “Is Celestia.”

    A pause.

    “Wait, I said my name,” commented the alicorn, confused.  “Your bridle is supposed to prevent that.  I shouldn’t be able to say my name.  It’s supposed to make me call myself ‘Toy’.”

    Celestia ended her ramble with a gasp of surprise and dread as she realized that she had said the trigger that her bridle was waiting, for so that it could break her mind and reduce her to nothing more than the plaything of her arch-nemesis.  Seconds ticked by in silence as Celestia waited in horrific anticipation of a mind shattering surge of magic.  An anticipation which slowly turned to outrage as nothing happened and continued to not happen.

    “What the devil are you playing at, Chrysalis?” demanded Celestia, outrage growing into anger.  “I said your actual name that time!  What in the name of Tartarus is going on?”

    Now truly angered, Celestia tried to surge up out of Chrysalis’s lap.  Only to find that the changeling monarch’s grip on her reins could not be broken, and that no matter what else had changed, Celestia’s body was still harnessed, hobbled and penetrated.  

    “Stop,” Chrysalis commanded, and her voice froze Celestia in mid-thrash.  “Still your body and lay your head back down.”

    The alicorn princess’ eyes went wide as her body obeyed automatically, softly lowering itself back to its former restful position.

    “Chrysalis,” Celestia asked, voice full of dread, “what have you done to me?”

    “Conditioned you to obey me, as your rightful Owner,” Chrysalis explained.  “Do you remember what I told you when I gave you the copies we had made of Sombra’s breaking bridles?”

    “That you couldn’t use the love of ponies who had been broken by them,” Celestia recalled.  “That the bridles were useless to you.”

    “Not quite,” corrected the verdant haired creature.  “I told you that they tasted bad, and the bridles spoiled the flavour.  So, with that in mind, what made you think I would put something like that on you?”

    “To destroy me, I assumed,” Celestia replied, thinking a moment.  “You certainly hate me enough to.”

    “Wrong,” Chrysalis responded, tapping Celestia hard enough with the whip to make her captive flinch a bit.  “Why would I destroy my greatest food source?  Try again.”

    “But isn’t Cadance your biggest food source?” the bound pony asked, trying to work out what her captor was guiding her towards.  “You even call her, ‘The Princess of Food’.”

    “You forget I had Cadance as my captive for weeks,” Chrysalis noted, gliding her forehoof down along her toy’s throat to play with the enchanted silver circle bound there.  “She was ‘Mine’, in body and spirit.  I know her better than she knows herself.  Her fears, her joys, her lusts and above all, I know how much she is loved.  And news flash, she isn’t the most loved pony in Equestria.  You are.”

    “Me?” Celestia asked, moving her head enough to earn a warning glance from her Owner.  “I know my ponies respect me, but love?  Twilight and her friends—”

    “On day, maybe,” Chrysalis allowed, giving a nod of approval as Celestia lay her head fully back down.  “But until then, you are the greatest source of food for my changelings, and my greatest priority is, and always will be making sure my children do not starve.”

    “And if you destroyed my mind, my ponies would feel only sadness and pity for me,” the alicorn reasoned.  “I wouldn’t be as… nutritious.”

    “Exactly,” Chrysalis replied, taking a moment to bend down and graze her fangs along her alicorn’s jawline, feeding on enough of the love there to draw a shuddering gasp from Celestia.  “But, if instead of destroying you.  I bind you to me with pleasure and conditioning, and then send you back…”

    “Then my ponies will still love me as much as they did before, and I’ll be compelled to allow you to feed on me regularly,” Celestia panted, recovering herself.  “Why wouldn’t I tell Luna, or Twilight, if she ever fully recovers from what her bridle did to her?  They could undo what you’ve done in seconds.”

    “Because, I’ve taught you that obedience to me is pleasure.  That being fed upon leads to orgasms unlike anything you’ve ever known,” Chrysalis countered, a triumphant smile on her face.  “Plus, for as long as this state between us is maintained, I will never have any reason to invade Equestria or threaten any of your subjects.  Pleasure for you, food for my children, safety for Equestria.  Everyone wins.”

    “And all I have to do is wear your collar and obey when you pull on the reins,” Celestia summed up.  “I accept your terms.  So long as they do not include meddling in Equestria’s day to day affairs.”

    “Oh no,” Chrysalis chuckled.  “I have no intention of doing anything that might disrupt your governance and undermine any of your ponies confidence in you.  If anything, I want you to rule wisely and well, making Equestria as good a place as possible for your subjects.”

    “Because that would increase the love they have for me,” Celestia added, before asking, “May I ask a question?”

    “Go right ahead, my Toy,” Chrysalis answered, noting with pleasure how Celestia clenched her nethers at the name.  

    “Why all this?” Celestia queried.  “Why the harness, the whipping, the training.  Why those damned, accursed dildos— which I should note are still twitching away inside me.  Why not just come out and ask me to be fed on in exchange for Equestria’s safety?”

    “Because changelings do not beg,” Chrysalis stated, and for a moment Celestia’s reins were very, very taut indeed.  “What we cannot steal through stealth, we take by force.  And you cannot deny that I’ve conquered you.”

    “You cheated,” was Celestia’s cheeky reply, daring to smirk slightly at her owner. 

    “Of course I cheated,” laughed Chrysalis.  “I was up against a nigh-immortal alicorn with the power to move the sun itself.  My only hope was to cheat, and I’ll have you know that years of planning went into making this moment a reality.  Years of studying you, your students, your habits… and your noted celibacy.”

    Celestia’s blush was like the rising of the sun.  

    “And even with all that, it took the arrival of Sombra and the Valiente Crisis, to catalyze the ingredients that would make it all possible,” Chrysalis concluded.  “And before you ask, yes.  I did consider breaking you completely once I found out about the bridles.  Of reducing you to nothing more than an animal, fit only to be a beast of burden, knowing nothing more than the need to obey.”

    “Thank you for that,” Celestia responded.  “I’d like to think that Equestria would carry on without me, but I’m glad that it doesn’t have to find out.”

    It was at that moment that a drone slung into the room, a scroll held in its green magic.

    “I said that I was to be left alone unless something earth shattering was going on!” Chrysalis yelled, dropping her subject to its knees through the power of her voice alone.

    “R-r-report for our spies in Canterlot,” the creature offered, both voice and scroll shaking.  “They bypassed the regular methods and used the emergency system.”

    “The emergency system?  But that’s for… “ trailed off the changeling monarch’s voice before snapping back into focus again.  “Give me that!”

    “Y-yes, my Queen,” stuttered the drone, running for the exit as Chrysalis ripped the scroll away to herself and began to read the contents.  

    “What is it?” Celestia asked, very conscious of the sudden tension and the muttered, “damn” from the one holding her reins.

    “As the old saying goes, ‘I have good news, and I have bad news’,” began Chrysalis, frustrated amusement in her voice.  “The good news is that it seems Twilight Sparkle has had a breakthrough and is fully recovered from the effects of the Chained Moon bridle.  The bad news is that she and Luna appear to have gone to war against each other.”







    “Everypony, get yourselves out of here,” Twilight Sparkle yelled, her credible imitation of the Royal Canterlot Voice shaking the walls.  “This is between me and Luna.”

    “No, it is not,” answered a voice from outside the hole.  “This is between the Mistress of the Night and her very naughty pet.”

    In punctuation of the words a lash of pure midnight materialized behind Twilight and slashed a line of cold fire across both of her buttocks.  

    “Hrngh,” grunted Twilight, before dispelling the lash even as it lined up for another chastising strike.  “That’s the last time you will ever touch me without my permission.”

    “Oh really?” Luna asked, stepping back into the banquet hall through the hole she had made on her way out.  “I think by the time this night is over you will lie at my feet, begging for my touch.”

    Twilight paused for a moment, her heart sinking as she saw that her friend Luna, the Princess of the Night, had changed and shifted into a very close amalgam of what she had looked like as Nightmare Moon.  Taller, stronger, with a coat of purest black that was overlain by sweeping silver armor that both protected the Mistress of the Night and enhanced the glamour of her supernatural beauty.  

    “Oh Luna,” Twilight breathed, summoning into being her own armor of light gold as she spoke.  “What happened to you?”

    “I realized where my true destiny lies, dearest Pet,” Luna answered, magic flowing out of her to envelop each of Twilight’s erotically bound friends, sending them into paroxysms of helpless pleasure.  “To bind Equestria to my will, to control every pony with pleasure and joy, to subjugate them to my desires.  To be the Mistress of the Night in more than just name.”
    
    “And if a pony happens to not want to do what you want?” demanded Twilight, trying not to growl as she was called “Pet” yet again.  “What then?  Are you just going to enslave them, LIKE YOU HAVE MY FRIENDS?”

    “Why dearest Pet,” Mistress Night soothed, “They may have struggled at first, but now all they want is to serve my pleasure, at my pleasure.  Isn’t that right, my Elements of Ecstacy?”

    The caressing, teasing, titillating magic that was sweeping over Twilight’s friends bunched over their heads and deftly dispersed the bits and gags that had been keeping them from saying anything beyond moans, even as it kept working the copies of Luna’s shaft in them.

    “Y-yes Mis—tress,” gasped Fluttershy, body shuddering under the attention it was receiving.  “M-more please.”

    “Ah-ah-Ah’ll be good,” cried Applejack, limbs straining against the cuffs holding them close to her body as yet another orgasm rolled through the earth pony.  “Ah’ll be good.”

    “Best party ever,” croaked Pinkie Pie, after the cock gag was pulled out from her maw.  “More frosting please.”

    “Epiiiic,” groaned Rainbow Dash, grinding her hips against the shaft pounding into her.  “So epic.”

    “No… “ whispered Rarity, a sigh against the loud declarations of the others.

    “What?” Mistress Night asked, turning her attention to her first conquest.  “What do you mean, ‘No’?  I am your Owner, and your Mistress.  By your own hoof and will you gave yourself to me.  It was your actions that helped me understand my true nature, and now you dare say, ‘Nay’ to me?”

    “Ponies are allowed to change their minds,” Twilight stated, as she made sure the hall cleared of bystanders.  “It’s called ‘free will’.”

    “Once a pony bears my collar, their will is no longer free,” replied the Mistress of the Night, pushing a little more of her power into the defiant, though mewling, white mare.  “Her will is mine, as is her body and both her souls.”

    “N-no,” Rarity cried out, louder this time.  “W-we t-trusted you… to be g-good… n-not to be… another S-sombra.”

    “Another…” began Twilight, her voice trailing off as a terrible thought occurred to her.  A moment, and a quick scrying spell revealed the truth to her, even as what Luna had become dragged Rarity to her by her leash.  “Oh Luna… I’m so sorry.”

    “Oh, I see,” the jet black alicorn commented idly, once it had drawn the gasping unicorn to her.  “Valiente wishes to remain just as she is, bound to my will.  But you, Rarity, are having misgivings despite the fact that you willingly bound yourself to me.  Even threw yourself at me to be caught in my hooves and my chains.”

    “A lady… is allowed to change her mind,” Rarity replied, struggling to form the words against the sensations in her body and the humming pleasure of her mental twin.

    “A lady, yes.  But not a slave.  Not a bondsmare,” declared Rarity’s mistress.  “And certainly not a pony who is my personal, delicious, writhing, property.”

    A needle fine line of destructive magic seared between the two, neatly severing the chain leash holding Rarity in place.

    “No pony owns another,” countered Twilight, her horn still sheathed in power and watching in satisfaction as the Mistress of the Night turned her attention from Rarity to Twilight.  “No pony has the right to force another to give their body to them.  Not you, not me, and certainly not Erebros Sombra.”

    “I am not Sombra,” argued Mistress Night.  “I am not an agent of fear, nor do I make ponies fight each other as he did.  I am an agent of love and desire, and I bind ponies to me in unbreakable chains of ecstasy.  Mind and body both.”

    As if on cue, or perhaps exactly on cue, Rainbow Dash stood up.  The tight orange harness that was bound to her flexing and pressing against every erogenous spot on the pegasus’ lean athletic frame.  

    “Come on, Twi,” sighed Rainbow Dash, the spooned bit hanging from one side of her bridle.  “Ya gotta try this.  It’s like the best thing ever.”

    “What are you doing to them?” Twilight demanded, as the rest of her harnessed and bridle friends began to stand up.  

    “I bound their bodies with straps and chains and then filled them with my essence” explained Mistress Night.  “So now, their hearts and minds are bound to me as well.  Say hello to ‘Desire’, one of my Elements of Ecstasy.”

    “You’re just like Sombra, if not him reborn again somehow,” Twilight stated coldly.  “This is exactly what he did.  It’s mind control.”

    “Not if our Mistress gives us something we want,” Fluttershy responded, her blue collar so tight that Twilight could see it flex as the pegasus spoke and moved.  “She gives us joy, and all she asks is that we surrender to her.  Give in.  Surrender, Twilight.  Submit.”

    “Well said, ‘Submission’. Know that your mistress is pleased with you,” Mistress Night praised, causing the Fluttershy to blush slightly.

    “Y’all can call me ‘Wanton’,” proclaimed the pony that had been Applejack, still wearing cuffs on her fetlocks, but with their connecting chains gone.  “So, Mistress.  Ya want us to hogtie this rebellious little filly of yours, or what?”

    “What say you, ‘Euphoria’?” asked the ebony black alicorn, her own tail flagging in lustful anticipation of what was to come.  “Do you also wish to aid me in binding your naughty friend back to my side?”

    “Yupperoni,” agreed the former party pony, pulling a very long length of rope licorice from her mane and coiling it in preparation for use.  “Just say the word, Mistress and it’s ‘Twilight gets bound and gagged time.’  I’ve got a jawbreaker that would fit just right in her mouth.”

    “Damn you,” Twilight cursed, charging her horn.  Fighting Luna in her current form would be bad enough, but having to fight against four of her friends as well would be an order of magnitude harder.  So Twilight made a last attempt at reason.

    “Luna, this isn’t you.  You’ve got to see that, just like I can.  I can see Sombra’s mind magic all through you,” Twilight said, begging her friend to see reason.  “He must have touched you with it at some point when we fought him in the Badlands.  It’s been slowly changing you, corrupting you.  Making you think you have the right to take ponies and change them, like he did.”

    “Like he did?” purred the Mistress of the Night.  “No, no, no, my former and soon-to-be Pet.  Sombra only wanted to create fear.  He wanted only mindless slaves whose only thought was to praise him even as they died in his name.  I wish to create ecstatic joy, and love in my subjects.”

    “Equestria already has a Princess of Love,” Twilight reminded her foe, even as her mention of the fourth alicorn princess brought a chilling question to her mind.

    “Ah yes, you are likely wondering where your brother and his wife are just now,” commented the black alicorn, her pleased smile delighting in the words.  “A touch of ‘Aphro’ in their wine, combined with a bit of stamina potion.  Come the dawn, the two of them will likely still be rutting each other through a sexual encounter the bards will sing sonnets of for decades to come.”

    “I’m going to put a stop to this,” Twilight growled, planning to englobe her friends first in an unbreakable sphere, before striking at Luna with a beam of ice magic to freeze her in place.  

    “Say the word Mistress,” offered Wanton, a glowing hoof cuff in front of her.  “We’ll have her trussed up right and proper for ya.”

    “No need, Wanton,” demurred her owner, “One of my other worshipers will take on this task.”

    Twilight’s mind froze for a moment as she tried to work out who it was that Luna meant, before her questions were answered by a sudden weight on her back, and the emptying sensation of her magic leaving her due to the presence of a blocker ring appearing on her horn.  

    “Please do not fight, Lady Hammer,” asked Yowl-E, the Diamond Dog master of arms now astride Twilight, his rear legs tightly clamping Twilight’s wings to her side.  “Surrender to our goddess, she will be kind to you, as she was to us.”

    

   
> Costs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “Get off me,” Twilight growled, her wings impotently pushing against the legs of the diamond dog who sat on her back.  “You should be helping me instead of trying to hold me for Mistress Moon.”

    “I am sorry, Lady Hammer,” Yowl-E replied, and Twilight could feel one of his forepaws wrapping itself into her mane.  “You fought for us alongside our goddess, but she IS our goddess.  I cannot refuse her desire.”

    “Yowl-E is a good and brave dog,” Moon stated, taking a single step forward.  “He knows the will of his mistress and obeys.  As should you.”

    Twilight tensed her muscles for a moment, and felt the old warrior on her tighten his grip in response, his heels digging slightly into the hollows in front of her hips, weakening them slightly as the nerve centres were pressed in on.  It was the warning of one fighter to another.

    “Please, do not make me hurt you,” Yowl-E almost begged, pain in his voice.

    Twilight looked around and measured the odds.  Luna and four of her five friends were now raw sexual caricatures of themselves, with Luna in the lead as “Mistress Moon”.  As for Rarity, she was huddled in a corner, collar still around her throat, muttering to herself as she and Valiente argued about what to do.

Twilight was alone, held in the grip of a fighting dog whose entire life had been spent mastering combat, her magic was blocked and five ponies dear to her would be hurt no matter how gently she tried to fight back.

Which was still an option, Twilight realized.  Yes, Yowl-E was astride her, but a quick flare of her wings combined with a buck would loosen his grip, or at the least distract him while she unleashed the full fury of her magic.    And yes, there was a horn blocker on her, but there was no way a single ring would hold back an alicorn, least of all one who was the Element of Magic itself.

With her magic unfettered, things would be on an even keel again and the battle could be fought in earnest.  Twilight’s mind assessed power levels, abilities and available tactics with the skill of a pony who had grown up beside the stallion who had become one of the youngest Royal Guard captains in history.  Yes, she could take them, all of them.

But the cost…

“What about my friends?” Twilight demanded, bringing the approaching harem to a halt.  “If I surrender myself to you, what happens to them… Mistress Moon?” 

The pitch black mare of mesmerizing carnality took a moment to glide a lascivious caress along the bodies of the pairs of ponies on either side of her before responding with, “They shall be cherished and cared for as my prized possessions, just as you will be, my pet.”

“How do I know that some part of me won’t be screaming in agony?” Twilight pressed, sensing she was on to something.  “You changed my friends from what they were, into something different.  You might have twisted their minds into liking what you’ve done with them, but even when I was Tabula Rasa, I knew something was wrong.”

“Ah, I see the reason why you hesitate, my pet,” Mistress Moon soothed, the words like a gliding caress along Twilight’s ear.  “I have not unmade your friends in any way, merely brought out the qualities that were always inside of them to the surface.  Being in bondage to me has freed their passions and desires. Now, surrender to me, my pet.  Accept my collar and your rightful place at my hooves.”

The harem began to move forward again, and Twilight lost a few hairs to Yowl-E’s grip as she shouted, “WAIT!  What about Rarity?”

Everypony stopped again, and all eyes tracked Twilight’s pointing hoof to where the alabaster mare still sat, oblivious to all that was happening around her, having eyes and ears only for the raging debate between her two souls.  

“Valiene and Rarity must decide what they are going to be before they can become one of my Elements,” Mistress Moon allowed.  “For now, I am content to hold them in my collar and my power.”

“So if I didn’t know what I wanted, you couldn’t make me into one of your Elements?” pressed Twilight.  “Or into your pet?”

“Everypony has their inclinations and desires,” Mistress Moon assured her, and Twilight could feel the other alicorn’s lusts trying to worm their way into her mind to spark desires unplanned for.  “My essence would find the strongest of those and bring them forth.  Do not think you can slip your leash so easily, my pet.”

“But what about ponies who have no desire for physical love?” Twilight demanded, in an attempt to obtain every scrap of knowledge she could before the inevitable.  “You can’t create something that isn’t there!”

“Ponies such as those are far and few between,” Moon concluded, her voice growing stern and Twilight felt parts of her clench in response.  “And you are not one of them.  I know you have desires and lusts, along with a thirst for knowledge that I will satisfy in ways you cannot imagine as yet.  It is time to choose, my pet.  Either give yourself to me willingly, or be taken”

Mistress Moon and her harem began to move toward Twilight again, whose mind raced with all the speed and power that the personal student of Princess Celestia had been famous for.  Plans and counter plans shifted and altered with the speed of thought, but even with the power of that prodigious mind it took almost until Mistress Moon came within reach of her for Twilight to cry out,

“STOP!”

“No more hesitating, my pet,” Moon replied, her voice lush with anticipation.  “I have given much slack in your leash, perhaps too much.  One way or the other, it is time to pull you in.”

“I won’t fight you, or my friends,” Twilight stated, her voice steady as her eyes held the gaze of her subjugator.  “I yield me.”

“Excellent!” crowed Mistress Moon, and the mien of her Elements went from tense to joyful.  “Yowl-E, off of my pet.  From now on, I shall be the only one to ride her.”

“Thank you for not fighting,” whispered Yowl-E, sliding off of Twilight’s back and taking a quick moment to straighten her mane.  “I’m sorry I had to choose my goddess over you.”

“Get out of here,” Twilight whispered back, with as much command as she could muster.  “Go to Ponyville, now.”

“Yes, obey my pet,” Moon added, smiling triumphantly and tilting her head to one side.  “What? Is it surprising that I can hear the smallest sound that comes from you, smell the least change in your scent, or remember how the grain of your fur shifts over your various lovely parts?  I am your Owner, and I am in tune with thy body, mind and magic.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Twilight asked, watching as Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow encircled her.  

“Make you mine, in all of the best ways,” Mistress Moon answered, with a smile as she held out a padded steel collar of enamelled dark gold and blue.  “Place your lovely throat into this.  Show your total surrender to me with this token of ownership.”

“SUBMIT!” demanded Submission, and the power of her Stare had Twilight stepping forward in automatic response.

“I thought this was my choice?” Twilight asked, even as she pressed her windpipe into the padding of the collar’s front.  

“And you have made it,” answered Twilight’s Owner, fusing the steel of the collar around her neck into a single, unbroken band of metal.  “You have chosen to give yourself to me, but it does not mean that my Elements do not get to welcome their new sister as well.  Bind her.”

Twilight had been expecting something of the sort and so was ready when a pair of tethers reached out from the floor to attach themselves to her collar, holding her in place.  A whistling sound had caught alicorn turning her head in its binding in order to see Applejack, now become Wanton, twirling the business end of what looked like a very, very long lariat.

“Hold still sugarcube,” Wanton admonished, her hooves weaving the singing rope into complex aerial patterns over Twilight’s body.  “You ain’t getting away, no way no how, but if’n ya fret and struggle this won’t look good or feel as good.”

“Whatever you say, Applejack,” Twilight replied, seeing how the orange earth pony would react.

“Ah told ya, the name’s ‘Wanton’, '' responded the pony, chewing her lip in concentration.  “Now hold still.”

Having little choice, Twilight did as she was asked and for a moment her vision was completely blocked out as what seemed miles of rope passed before her eyes.  Seconds later her vision was clear, only to be replaced by the feeling of lines of pressure all over her body.

Looking down, she saw that Wanton had played a symphony of sisal over her body, weaving a tight, intricate harness over her body from neck to dock.  Lines of rope flowed over her chest, around her barrel, settling into the hollows behind her shoulders and in front of her hips.  Every junction of rope was marked with an intricate, flowing knot that was both decorative and complex enough to be near impossible to unravel, and as Twilight moved and shifted she could feel one of those knots sliding along between her lower lips.

There was a delicious friction there and it was all the young alicorn could do to stop herself from fighting the ropes around her in order to deliberately increase that delicate rubbing and grinding along her clit.  A start and stop that was not missed by Mistress Moon.

“Go ahead, my Pet,” cooed the Alicorn of Lust, her own desire rising. “Let Wanton’s gift prepare you for what is to come.  Or perhaps you would like another of your herd sister’s to give you a gift.  Euphoria?”

“Yupperoni!  I’m on it, Mistress!” Euphoria exuberantly declared, whipping out what looked like several pieces of gum out of her mane.  “These will make you super duper happy to be with us!”

Twilight barely had time to groan as her tail was lifted, a line attached to her dock dragging Wanton’s knot along her slit.  There was a feeling of pressure against her clit, followed by a heaviness and a stinging slap as Euphoria let the rope snap back into place against the entrance of her warming tunnel.

“What was that fo—oooooohhhhhh,” Twilight moaned, interrupted by the now vibrating piece of gum that Euphoria had glued to her clit.  With the knot that Wanton had created pressed hard against the source of vibration, the entire length of sisal in her pussy had come to life, not too mention what it was doing to the alicorn’s sensitive button.

“Hehehe,” the pink pony giggled, hooves sliding under Twilight to caress her bound and divided teats.  “And here’s some more party favours for you!”

Again the feeling of pressure, this time accompanied by a pinching sensation announced the attachment of weights to Twilight’s nipples.  The pain quickly faded, to be replaced by a pulling and tugging sensation that made Twilight want to stay completely still.  An urge that was at complete odds with the desire that the vibrating rope that was driving into her to shift and stir.  

She’s trying to overwhelm me with sensation Twilight realized, hearing self moan in spite of herself.  Break my ability to resist by filling me with conflicting physical feelings

A hard, sweet something filled Twilight's mouth, its width spreading her jaws wide and it’s length down her maw pinning her tongue in place, silencing her.

“Told you I had something to stuff in your mouth!” gleefully explained Euphoria, hauling back on the straps connecting the shaft in Twilight's mouth to the back of her head, where they were buckled and locked into place.  Sugary sap almost immediately filled the bound pony’s mouth and Twilight realized she was expected to either drool or suck on the hard candy cock that no amount of head shaking would dislodge.  

“Can I have a taste?  I really want some of that,” Desire, the pony who had been Rainbow Dash, asked.  “I mean, she’s practically gushing.  I bet she tastes awesome!”

“It seems my pet is indeed responding to our gifts,” Mistress Moon observed, ruffling Desire’s mane.  “Go ahead, Desire.  Slake your thirst with the juices of Our beloved pet.”

The feeling of sticky dampness along her thighs told Twilight that Desire was right and that her body was responding to the combined assault on her erogenous points.  It was becoming harder and harder to think clearly, to maintain her grip on herself and who she was.  A grip that was nearly lost when Desire drew her tongue along one side of a lavender lip in a long, sinuous lick.  

It’s just my body.  This is normal.  It’s just my body Twilight chanted to herself, trying to keep her growing arousal from running roughshod over her mind.  This is a normal response to stimuli-yi-yi.

Not even a mind as disciplined and organized as that of the personal student of Princess Celestia could hold coherent thoughts as Desire’s tongue pressed past the lips of her labia to slide along the entrance to the warm soft tunnel beyond.   And when that first erotic caress by a firm tongue was followed by another, and then a third, and then a fourth, Twilight felt her will begin to crumble.  

“SUBMIT!” ordered the pony who had once been Fluttershy, her Stare blazing against Twilight's mind with the power that had cowed ancient dragons into obedience.  

Twilight’s will started to crumble away under the assault.  Nopony could have resisted the combined attentions she was being given on all of her most erotic places.  Well, almost all.  Twilight remembered what Mistress Moon had said about “filling” Twilight’s friends with her power in order to convert them.  

If she fills me up like… uh, she did… umf, before.  Oh my, she really will convert me into her pet. Twilight managed to think to herself, her thoughts riding the crests of pleasure washing through her.  I won’t be that again.  Not unless I want it, and I don’t.

Twilight took those thoughts and emotions, bound them up in a fortress of will and determination, and then hid that citadel of thought deep inside of her mind where it could ride out the tide that was even now swamping her mental processes with an ocean's worth of endorphins.

“Oh, look at her, Mistress!” Euphoria cried out, causing Desire to pause her voracious assault on the flow coming from Twilight’s nethers.  “She’s making herself ready for you.”

Under the force of Submission’s Stare, Twilight had lowered her forequarters, presenting her rump to both Desire and Mistress Moon.  Even as her front went down however, her eyes remained locked to those of Submission.  Blue eyes holding violet in place with shackles of pure mental force.  

“Suck,” commanded Submission, and Twilight had no choice but to respond, the bend in her neck showing a rhythmic bulge as Twilight obediently began to suckle and pull her candy cock gag deep into her throat.  

“It seems my little pony has begun to enjoy herself,” cooed Mistress Moon, her voice plucking the ropes along Twilight’s body like guitar strings.  “Have another taste of Our pet, Desire, and tell me what you think.”

The athletic pony needed no further urging and dove her muzzle back into Twilight’s soft folds, tongue gliding along the delicate insides of the alicorn’s pussy and even daring to flick into the opening depths of her now sopping wet tunnel.  

“Dish ish like the mosh aweshome flavor ever!” declared Desire, her voice muffled by Twilight’s body.  “Mmmrph!”

Twilight had given up trying to resist, and as her mind became adrift in the tides of ecstasy her body muzzled the pony delving into sacred treasure by the simple expedient of pushing back against Desire and surrounding the azure pony’s muzzle with her own erotic flesh.

“Easy, my Desire,” ordered Mistress Moon, dragging the pony back by her collar.  Desire’s muzzle was utterly soaked with Twilight’s juices.  “It seems our pet is all warmed up and ready to be ridden.”  

Moon was right.  The clamps on Twilight’s teats, the buzzing vibrator stuck to her clit, the candy cock that urged her to suck, even the harness that was wrapped around her, had combined to drive all but the smallest bits of sane thought completely from the mind of the mystic mare.  The lust driven alicorn strained backwards against her tethers, trying to again capture Desire’s muzzle between her silken walls, only to feel a solid weight settle over her back.  

“Time to fill you with my power,” proclaimed Mistress Moon.  “My naughty little pet has stayed from my side, but no more.  Time for me to reclaim you in the ancient way.”

Twilight whinnied in a combination of lust and fear as the harness around her tightened to its utmost as the lines through her pussy were pushed aside by something large, warm and throbbing with power.  The captive alicorn knew what was coming, knew who was about to claim her and a very large part of her welcomed it.

“Oh, I have dreamed of this,” sighed Moon, easing her girth into Twilight with a surprising degree of gentleness.  “From the first moment I saw you in the Everfree, years ago, I desired you.  Wondered what it would be like to take you as mine own, and now, thanks to the awakening I have experienced, that day is here.”

Twilight felt herself being filled and stretched by the huge shaft making its way through her love tunnel, the sensations setting off a firestorm of pleasure in her mind that blotted out all thought.  All thought except for a tiny little voice in the back of her mind that assured her that all was well.  A voice that soon drowned out by the moaning and sucking noises that were the only sounds Twilight was able to make.  

“You sound as marvellous as you feel, my pet,” Moon praised, taking a moment to stroke the side of her newest conquest.  “Time to claim you at long last.”

Mistress Moon flared her dark magic, accented with shaded purples and greens, and sent it out into her captured prey.  Tendrils of orgasmic power threaded their way through Twilight’s body, up along her nerves and into her mind, where they wove a net of lust around the core of what was Twilight Sparkle.

At the same time Mistress Moon began to ride her pet with long even strokes.  The youngest princess of Equestria was no virgin.  Her obsessive need for knowledge had included time with some of Canterlot’s most discreet escorts, of both sexes, as well as a few carefully managed romances.  As such the Princess of Friendship was no stranger to sex, but what she was a stranger to, was how Mistress Moon was fucking her into the ground like a relentless machine pounding into her plot with slowly increasing strength and speed.

“Oh yes,” moaned Mistress Moon, thrusting harder and harder into Twilight.  “With you at my hooves of Equestria will bow to me.  At long last all ponies shall love the night.”

Had the Alicorn of Lust not prepared Twilight by having the Elements of Ecstasy work on her in advance, Twilight would have been crying in pain instead of moaning in pleasure.  Had Mistress Moon not taken the time to ready her pet for what was to come, Twilight would never have felt the rising tide of pleasure building toward orgasm.

But that was exactly what was happening.  The driving beat of Moon’s cock in her was perfectly matched by the pounding beat of her heart, both driving Twilight toward the moment when she would break, would surrender, would submit now and forever.  It both thrilled and terrified what few thinking processes she had left, and through it all whispered a small voice saying, it’s okay, let it happen.

Twilight rode the searing wave of joy higher and higher, mind drowning in the depths of pleasure, thoughts swamped in an orgasmic sea.  The tide of joy in her eclipsed all of her senses save the unabated jackhammer of Mistress Moon, until at long last Twilight reached the crest of ecstasy and just as she was about to come crashing down in orgasm…

Mistress Moon came.

Searing power blazed into Twilight, directly into her womb and from there spreading to every part of her.  The blazing flood in her deepest part triggered an orgasm which seemed to transcend both space and time, taking her consciousness and dropping it into the fiery heart of a star.  Every part of Twilight was caught up now in the bonds of pleasure Moon had wrapped around her mind, body and soul and so Twilight did the only thing she could do.

She melted.

As the Alicorn of Lust had intended, Twilight became flowing clay to be shaped and sculpted by her dark mind and magic.  Time passed as the Element of Magic was remade into an Element of Ecstasy, until the reshaped mind and body was then thrust back into the flames of yet another fiery orgasm on the heels of the first in order to set what had been remade into stone.  

Funny thing about clay though.  When it is raw and unfired it is plastic and malleable in the extreme, which is one of the qualities that makes it so easy to work with.  Clay loses that virtue however, when it is fired in a kiln and trades that ability to be molded into a rigid, if brittle, strength.  If any voids remain in the clay when it is fired, particularly any with liquid in them, the void will radically expand, often shattering the nascent ceramic into shards.

Which is exactly what Twilight had set up in advance. 

While she knew she could win a fight against her friends and Mistress Moon, the cost  would be paid in blood and bodies, and that was a cost the Princess of Friendship refused to pay.  Instead she had allowed herself to be taken and let Mistress Moon have her way with her, setting up a citadel of free will inside of herself that stayed quiet and hidden until this very moment, when it burst forth, shattering the mold that had been intended for her.  

Twilight had known she would never be able to prevent herself from being changed by the power being pumped into her, but what she could do was direct that change into a direction and form of her choosing.  She subverted the subversion of herself and made it what she wanted, locking it into place with a burst of power that bucked her owner off of her and shattered the candy cock in her throat.  

“Quite the explosive orgasm, my pet,” declared Mistress Moon, getting up from where she had landed along with her other followers.  

“As you say, my owner,” the purple alicorn replied, as the cloud of magic around her coalesced and settled into place around her.  “I am ready now.”

“This is not what I intended for you,” Moon commented, face wearing an expression of confusion as she saw what had become of her latest conquest.  “What is going on here.”

“What do you mean, Mistress?” the purple pony asked, turning around in a slow circle.  “Do you not like it?”

Whatever Moon had intended for Twilight was now gone.  In that pony’s place now curvetted the figure of a mare whose body was closely bound in a harness of diamond linked chains that accented the lush figure of the young adult pony.  The harness flowed down and along her body where it was anchored to the piece of tack that had surprised the Alicorn of Lust.

A chastity belt of gleaming silver was bound in place on the Moon’s pet.  Its broad belt of segmented silver links in front her hips was accented by a thorned moon design that flowed across the plate that went back up over her croup, onto the top of her buttocks, and continued with a hole in the middle for her tail, which also functioned as a tail cuff, holding her tail midway between flagging and laying loose.  Offering but at the same time denying a view of soft alicorn derriere.  

Another plate extended from the belt underneath her, curving up over her marehood, wide enough to press against her legs on either side, adding slight tension to her skin as it pressed up against the alicorn’s body. All the edges were rounded, with a slight ridge, such that they did not dig in or chafe.

The belt fit with a perfect tightness, not having even the slightest gap, and gave all the signs of having been designed by somepony who had planned out how such a belt should be a thousand times in her mind.  The only gap in the sexual shield was a small hole in the front, meant to allow fluid to drain out from the confines of the belt.  

The combined effect was to render the pony that had been Twilight Sparkle into the very epitome of a bound and forcibly chaste mare.  There not being a single lock or latch anywhere her tack.  

“You are not what We had intended you to be,” Moon stated, drawing power to herself.  “We command you to tell Us whose you are, and what is thy name.”

“I am yours, Mistress Moon,” replied the harnessed alicorn.  “I am one of your Elements of Ecstasy, and my name is ‘Consent’.”
> Consent
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “How dare you claim to be mine when you wear this… this abomination,” roared Luna, now transformed by her dark desires into the dread alicorn beauty that was Mistress Moon.  “Remove thy belt!  At once!”

    “Sorry, but I can’t do that,” replied Consent, lowering her eyes deferentially and curving her body so that her enforced chastity was on particular display.  

    “Can’t,” demanded Mistress Moon, dragging the harnessed mare to her by main force applied to the dark gold and blue collar around the throat of her newest Element of Ecstacy, “or won’t?”

    “Can’t,” came from the gasping throat of the mare who had been Twilight Sparkle.  “Bound by conditions of your magic.”

    “What conditions?” growled the midnight mare, releasing Consent to collapse onto the ground at her hooves.  “Thou had best not make an attempt to lie to your Mistress.”

    “Of course not,” responded Consent, taking a moment to rub her throat above and below her close fitting collar.  “As the Element of Consent my marehood is bound and sealed away until you ask for and obtain my consent to the things you want to do to me.”

    There was a long moment of silence as the words, delivered in the humblest of tones, rode defiantly into the alicorn’s mind.

    “Until you consent?” roared the outraged alicorn, “I am thy Owner and I neither need nor require the consent of one who is owned!  I shall tear this offending metal from thy loins and show thee thy place.”  

    “All you’ll do is make the belt stronger,” Consent advised, as she felt her owner’s power begin to wrench and pull at the enchanted silver that was curved around her hips.  “And even if you do manage to break it and pull it off of me, all you’ll wind up doing is killing me.”

    “How would removing this impediment slay thee?” asked Mistress Moon, pausing in her efforts and pulling the target of her lust back to her hooves.  “Speak… Consent.  In what manner would the removal of this belt slay thee?”

    “When you filled Twilight Sparkle with your power, she was able to guide some of what was done to her, “ Consent explained, laying her head against the night black chest of her owner in a gesture of submission.  “And the largest part of that was she empowered this belt with her- our- own lifeforce and the root of our magic.  Break the belt and you literally break me as well.”

    “Was Twilight  so willing to deny me that she would rather die than accept my touch?” Mistress Moon asked, grimacing as angry tears began to form.

    “No, Mistress,” countered Consent.  “She was willing to die rather than let herself be taken against her will.”

    “Then why do you stand at my breast, still breathing?” asked the older mare, anger held for the moment.  “I took Twilight, captured and conquered her.”

    “And she chose to let you do those things to her.  She gave her consent,” responded the pony of the name, nibbling delicately at ebon alicorn floof.  “Because she loved you, and her friends.  Although not maybe in quite the same way.”

    “Ah; then I have found the way in which to have what I want,” declared Mistress Moon, a fanged smile gracing her mouth as she looked down at the lovely lavender features of the pony at her breast. 

    “Euphoria,” called the Mistress, and the pink pony appeared as if teleported.  “Glue thy sister’s hooves to the ground.  Wanton, bridle her and rein her so that she cannot move her head.”

    “Yeehaw!  You be wantin’ a regular bit, or one of the special ones?” asked the orange pony, pulling out a mass of straps and buckles, even as Euphoria gummed down Consent’s hooves.

    “No bit for now,” declared Mistress Moon, pulling out a long whip.  “I want to hear her scream in ecstatic agony as she begs for me to take her.  Oh yes, she will give me her consent by the time we are done, and then we will see  how many times we need to remake a pony until she comes out the way she is supposed to.”

    “Forced consent isn’t consent,” cautioned Consent, nosing her way into the bridle in order to help Wanton sit the piece of tack into its proper place.  “If you try to make me give permission, all you’ll do is make the belt all that much stronger.”

    “And what if all I want to do is make you scream?  To punish you for your insolence at defying the one who holds your reins?” asked the mistress, flicking out the whip experimentally to get used to its weight and feel.

    “Mistress,” began Consent, trying to move her head and failing as Wanton took up the slack in the check reins.  “You’ve captured, collared and conquered me.  You've forced me to submit to you and  bound me to your will. You can kill me, rape me as I lay dying, beat and blind me. I can't stop you and I won't try. But if you want to have me in all the ways that matter... If you want me as your pet and not some piece of meat to use and discard, then you need to have me agree to it. You need my Consent. Only then will you get what you really want, Mistress Moon."

    “And what do I really want?” Moon asked, waving away Wanton and Euphoria.

    “You want what you’ve always wanted, what you once became Nightmare Moon to try to have, and what has driven you to become Mistress Moon now,” Consent explained, still trying and failing to move her head against the bridle’s restraint.  “You want to be loved and adored, just like any other pony does.”

    “I deserve the adoration of my subjects.  It is mine by right,” Mistress Moon stated, punctuating her words with a snap of her whip that was close enough to make Consent flinch.  “And four of your friends have already given me their love, with Rarity and Valiente soon to join them.  Followed by yourself.  Or have you forgotten on whose leash you dance?”

    “I’ve forgotten less than you have, Mistress,” the restrained alicorn responded, eyes tracking the curl of whip before her.  “You’ve forgotten that these four ponies aren’t my friends.  They’re what you turned my friends into.  You don’t have love, you have the slavish obedience of mind controlled slaves.”

    “LIES!” shrieked the Lunar Mistress, and this time the whip lashed out with intent, slashing a path of fire across Consent’s chest from left shoulder down to her right foreknee.  “Wanton, bind her tail to her bridle.  Make it tight.”

    “Of course, Mistress.  I love doin’ what ya tell me to,” replied the orange pony, busying herself with the task.  “Y’all should just do what our Mistress tells ya to.  Better that way.”

    “Applejack… Wanton, do you love your Mistress or do you love her because she tells you—urk tells you to?” Consent couldn’t help but give out a gasp as her tail was bent back over body, and with the help of a rope tied off to the back of her bridle, forcing her spine to bend in a downwards bow.

    “Both Ah reckon,” Wanton answered, taking a moment to plunder Consent’s mouth with a swift, but deep, kiss.  “Ah love her cause Ah’ve always liked her, and cause she tells me to.  Jes’ like Ah’ve always wanted to see you like this.”

    “Choose your next words carefully, Consent,” cautioned Mistress Moon, readying her whip for another strike.  “While I do not exactly enjoy whipping you, I will confess to a certain thrill in hearing you cry out.”

    “Wanton loves you because you tell her to,” Consent said, swiftly adding as her owner drew back the whip for a fresh strike,  “she liked you before, she respected you before.  The only reason she loves you now is because you made her that way.”

    “And that is love, which means you are wrong,” the dread alicorn responded, and the whip’s second strike across Consent’s chest made her cry out in pain.  “Submit, and cast off the chastity belt.”

    “Submit,” demanded the pony who had been Fluttershy, her power battering against Consent’s mind before being drained into the erotic armor around lavender hips, croup and dock.  

    “It’s not real love and you know it!” Consent cried out, closing her eyes against the Stare of Submission.  “It’s no more real than the love of a doll or a stuffed toy.  You want real love.  True love.  Like what Rarity gave you the other night.”

    “What?” Mistress Moon asked, dropping the whip in surprise.  

    “Rarity and Valiente came to you.  They gave themselves to you,” Consent replied, trying to use her eyes to look where her unicorn friend still remained, tethered by her own collar off to one side, still trapped in a seemingly endless debate with her sister of the mind.  “Do you remember what happened when you tried to push her away?”

    “She… she had collared herself, leashed herself to my bed so that I could not cast her away,” Moon replied, unsure of herself for the first time.  “She told me to do what I willed with her, and I did.”

    “And it was wonderful, wasn’t it?” Consent asked, as gently as she could in her strained position.  

    “It was, and I wanted more, which is why I embraced the dark desires in my heart and made you, her friends, into suitable concubines.  To be her sisters in bondage,” Mistress Moon stated, before closing the space between her and Consent, so that she could look the captive mare in the eyes.  “And all of them have willingly embraced their new destiny, except for you.”

    “But their love, the love that you’ve forced on them, it doesn’t feel as good as the love Rarity gave you.  Or what Valiente gave you, or what Twilight gave you.  Does it?” Consent gently asked.  

    “No, it does not,” Moon answered, turning her head away.  “It is bitter somehow.”

    “Submission is a gift given, not a prize won, or a deed demanded,” quoted Consent.  “You can force obedience, you can demand respect, but love can only be given freely.  If you want further proof, why don’t you ask Rarity and Valiente what they’re arguing about?”

    All eyes turned to the white unicorn tethered to one side of Mistress Moon’s impromptu throne.  Slowly and with surprising care, the sensual and terrible ruler drew forth the only pony in the room who had not transformed.  

    “Rarity,” began Mistress Moon, her voice gentle.  “You who were the first to give yourself to me.  Why is there discord between the halves that make thy whole?  You art mine, given freely, to do as I wished with thee.  Where is thy conflict?”

“But I am yours,” passionately declared the alabaster unicorn    .  “I am your eternal slave, and you can keep me, kill me, or do any one of a thousand terrible and wonderful things to me.  There isn’t any conflict at all!”

“Valiente,” replied the Mistress, recognizing the voice and body language of the mare in her hooves.  “It is good to hear thy declaration.  Is Rarity of the same mind?”

“Of course she is,” purred Valiente, nuzzling the ebony fur of the chest before her.  

“Then why is not Rarity speaking those words, as opposed to thee?” Moon asked, a small growl underscoring her question.

“Rarity… is a little tied up at the moment,” chuckled the submissive mare, dodging the question.

“Valiente,” growled Mistress Moon, no longer amused.  “Release thy soul sister and allow her to speak her own words.”

“But—” began the mare, pausing at the feel of a very firm grasp on her collar.

“Now.”

“As you command,” Valiente responded, features going slack for a mere heartbeat before the unicorn’s body posture stiffened and a familiar voice spoke once more.  “Hello Princess, thank you.”

“I thought I was thy Mistress as much as thy Princess?” Moon asked, recognizing that Rarity was once again in control of her shared body.

“I do believe I’ve more than adequately demonstrated the difference between kneeling to you as my princess, and my mistress,” Rarity explained, with a coquettish smile.  “Just like I’m two mares in one body, so are you. Just a little more metaphorically, of course.”

“Of course,” allowed Moon, arching an eyebrow.  “Now, explain the conflict that exists between thy halves.”

“Well, you’ve just summed it up,” replied the mare, arching her own eyebrow in unconscious mimicry.  

“Explain… further,” Moon commanded, taking a deep, calming breath between the words.

“Sometimes you are my princess.  Luna, the Lunar Alicorn and one-half of the Diarchy that I obey as a loyal Equestrian,” Rarity responded, before reaching up and drawing a hoof slowly over the curved metal at her throat.  “And sometimes you are my mistress, who puts me through both exquisite agony and the most wonderful ecstasy as I strive to obey your commands.”

“But I am both!” stated Mistress Moon, stomping a hoof.  “I am thy sovereign and thy mistress.”

“But not at the same time,” Rarity interjected, and the revelation was as profound as a bucket of water to the face.

“Yes, there are times when I would gladly crawl on my belly just for the privilege of kissing your hoof.  But there are also times when I need to stand before my sovereign and tell her, ‘No’,” Rarity continued, as Mistress Moon’s eyes and ears widened in shock at the words coming from her mare.  “There are times when I want a stern and loving owner, but there are also times when I have to stand tall and command the respect of a fellow pony.”

“You wear my collar, by your own choice,” Moon argued, confusion writ large on her face.  “You have given your agency and power to me, and as such I will decide when you are these things.”

“You can’t,” Consent chimed in, and both Rarity and Moon looked over to where the bound lavender alicorn stood.  “Not unless you follow her around all day, every day.  You can’t always be there to make those choices.  Rarity and Valiente have to make those choices for themselves if for no other reason than that they will be the ones who know the situation and how best to respond.”

“And that’s what Valiente and I have been fighting about,” Rarity added.  “I do want to be with you, but I want it to be as the mare who gave herself to you.  Not as somepony who was forced into the role.  I want to be somepony special to you, not just another piece of meat to use, abuse and forget.”

“I would never—” Moon retorted, before Rarity’s gentle words cut her off.

“That is what I’ll become if you take away my right to choose,” Rarity sadly said, going to her knees and bowing her head until her nose touched the floor, mane falling to one side to expose the rear of her collar and the vulnerable neck it encircled.  “Not today, not tomorrow, maybe not next week or even next month, but eventually…  Eventually I will become just another thing.  No more or less important to you than anything else.”

“Don’t listen to that hooie, Mistress!” exhorted Desire.  “It’s awesome that you make all the decisions for us.  Rarity’s just a big ‘fraidy cat.”

“I… I… “ Moon stuttered, looking at her four… five Elements in confusion rather than self-congratulation, realizing the caricatures she had made of some of her best friends.

“Before all this happened, do you know that Twilight had spent weeks researching the best way to ask you out on a date?” Consent asked.

“Twilight loves Celestia,” Mistress Moon fired back instantly, the energy of the response seeming to stabilize her.  “She always has.”

“Yes, as a mother figure,” Consent volleyed.  “Celestia practically raised Twilight from the moment she entered the School for Gifted Unicorns.  So, of course Twilight loves her.  But not romantically, cause that would be… just… ew.”

“I never knew,” whispered Mistress Moon, her fur lightening slightly and shifting to a very dark midnight blue.

“Twilight found you attractive on multiple levels,” Consent continued, ticking items off a very Twilight-like list.  “You have access to an entire realm of magic she would love to learn about.  You are more vulnerable and more approachable than your sister.  You are closer to her in size and stature. You fought back to back in the Badlands, and above all else, she trusted you.”

“Found.  Trusted,” Moon replied, ears flattening.  “Those are words that speak of the past.”

“Well, you unmade Twilight.  She doesn’t really exist anymore,” Consent calmly reminded the ruling alicorn, whose eyes grew wide with horrified memory.  “She was able to guide what you did to her, into making me, but almost all of her is gone.”

“Almost, you say,” Mistress Moon said, seizing on the word and Consent at the same time.  “Twilight can be restored?”

“As can the others,” Consent confirmed, nodding.  “But only if you allow it to be.  Only if you give the ponies who love you the right to choose what they want to be, when they want to be it.”

“And what of my wishes?  What of my rights?” Moon demanded, rallying her confidence as her fur returned to the purest shades of black.  “I rule.  I have mastery and dominion over this land and over you.”

“Luna… Mistress Moon,” Rarity asked, head still bowed in supplication.  “Would you rather I kneel before you because I wanted it just as much as you do, or because you forced me to?  Do you want my body freely offered on a platter, or dragged to the chopping block after having fought every step of the way?”

“I...  “ Moon began, again unsure of herself.

“Please, like there’s a difference,” declared a mocking voice, from beyond the sundered walls of the castle.  A moment later, Celestia, Princess of the Dawn flew in through the hole in the wall with Chrysalis astride her back.

“The strong rule, and the weak serve,” Chrysalis stated firmly in control of her mount as she touched down several paces away from the group.  “You’re like me.  We know what we want and we take it.  You’ve taken Equestria, and I’ve taken Celestia.  Let’s take the world together.”
> Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “The strong rule, and the weak serve.”

    Chrysalis sat there, wreathed in the intangible, irresistible power that comes with having made a dramatic entrance.  Sitting astride her mount she was both wonderful and terrifying in her aspect.  Every viridescent black curve of her body spoke of power and the willing exercise of it in pursuit of her goals.  Drawing tightly on the reins she held, Chrysalis pulled her mount’s head close to her mouth and spoke a single word into a snow white ear:

    “Kneel”

    The creature that had been Celestia, Princess of the Dawn knelt at the command her owner had given her, and such was the strength behind that single word that four of the six Elements went to their knees with her.

    “How dare you enter my city and my castle unbidden?” Mistress Moon demanded with a hiss, as the foe of all ponies slid from her perch to stand proudly on the floor.

    “I dare, because I am strong, and I do what I want.  When I want and to who I want,” Chrysalis stated, wrapping her mount’s reins to a nearby overturned table so she would not stray.  “I took your sister, broke her to my will and made her mine, because I am strong.”

    “And you expected to come here and do the same to me, did you?” Moon asked, drawing power to herself.  “A fatal mistake.”

    “Peace, Mistress of the Moon, and Canterlot,” Chrysalis replied, dipping her head slightly in respect.  It was the tip of the head that one gave to a peer, and the dark alicorn was versed enough in protocol to recognize it.  “I’ll admit, I had come here expecting to leave with a pair of alicorns to draw my chariot.  Imagine my surprise when I reached Canterlot and discovered that you had not only realized your true strength, but seized on it with a speed and passion I couldn’t help but admire.”

    “Perhaps I should see how well a bridle sits upon thy head Chrysalis,” Mistress Moon commented, her magic weaving together gossamer strands of power into the beginnings of a web of straps.  “Watching your tongue try to wind its way past a bit would be a vision most fetching.”

    “You are welcome to try, but with what I have drained from your sister, combined with the ambient love and lust in the air here, I would say we are well matched at the moment,” Chrysalis responded, and the power and vitality glowing from the monarch gave veracity to her words.  “Besides, I have a proposal for you.”

    “I will admit, having a shapeshifting paramour would be intriguing,” Moon noted, her eyes taking on a predatory gleam.  “You could be anything I desired.  Any height, shape, sex, species or size.” 

    “That isn’t why—” Chrysalis began.

    “I know, you have come to propose an alliance.  Because I am strong, because you know you cannot beat me in battle,” Moon stated, a grim smile on her lips as she allowed the half-conjured bridle dissipate back into the aether.  “You came to get inside my guard, so that you can take me unawares and some moment when I am vulnerable.”

    The air in the room near Moon began to take on the cool crisp snap of cold air as more power was drawn to fill the reservoirs of alicorn strength and might, contrasting with the near fetid warmth that hung around Chrysalis.  A miasma of power that waited only for the right moment to lash forth.

    “I did, and I intend to betray you the first chance I get,” Chrysalis replied, her voice giving no sign she was aware of just how close the room was into erupting into a magical battle such as Equestria had not since since the Banishment.  “The first moment you give me an opening I plan on fitting you with something to match your sister.”

    “This is normally the point where I am supposed to cry, ‘How darest thou’ and leap for thy throat.  But thy stance and calm assertion of thy intent says to me that this is not the time for such,” Mistress Moon said, relaxing but not releasing her hold on her magic.  “True?”

    “Strength,” Chrysalis began, and she took a moment to caress the tack on each member of Moon’s harem with her eyes, “and restraint.  That is what makes us different from the monsters.  We have power, and we have restraint.”

    The room seemed to relax slightly, with the Elements of Ecstacy regaining their hooves and moving closer to their Mistress, while Toy moved next to her Owner to give a loving nuzzle to a dark shoulder.

    “If I am ever able to betray you, to bind you and take you like I have Celestia, that will mean that you aren’t strong anymore.  That you are weak.  That you are prey,” Chrysalis continued, reaching up to the stroke a bridled muzzle.  “And if you are ever able to do the same to me, then I will have deserved it and everything that you do to me afterwards.”

    “This is thy proposal then?” Moon asked, arching an eyebrow in surprise.  “A union of convenience, where either party stands ready to enslave the other.  But for what purpose would I expose myself to such treachery?  The easiest way to not be snared is to not step into the trap in the first place.”

    “Domination,” Chrysalis declared, naked lust in her voice.  “Control.  Safety.  Every want and need satisfied by slaves.  Slaves to our darkness, to our power.”

    “And yet, I have just been given a passionate discourse on the joys of consent,” and the eyes of the Mistress fell warmly on the two, who even bound by her might, had stood against her strongly enough to raise questions in a mind that had seen and done more than nearly anyone else in the room.  “And I have found their arguments… compelling.”

    “You can’t be serious,” Chrysalis responded, her lust giving way to a blend of disappointed surprise.  “Predators like us do not need the consent of prey.”

    “And that is where we differ, Chrysalis,” Moon said, straightening.  For a moment, a shaft of silver moonlight shone full down on the lunar alicorn, it’s argent glow making her seem as appear as something beyond mortal ken.  “For above all else, I am a ruler.  Not a predator.  And the welfare of my ponies should come before the satisfaction of my desires.”

    “You foalish hypocrite,” countered Chrysalis, running her hoof along the side of her mount, who whinnied in appreciation of the contact.  “Satisfying desires is what makes us strong.  I wanted Celestia.  I took her.  And my power has grown because of that.   You wanted Rarity, you wanted Twilight, you wanted their friends.  Acting on that desire has made you powerful.  It made you Mistress of both Canterlot and Equestria.”

    “And what next?” Moon asked, still wrapped in the light of the sun of the night.   

    “Then we conquer,” responded the queen of the changelings.  “We conquer all who stand before us, until the world is ours.”

    “And then what?” Moon demanded, her voice as hard as silver.  “What is there after the world is either dead or slaves to us?  What challenge is there when all bow down to us in slavish obedience?  Where will be the wonder?  The mystery?  What joy of discovery will there be when all that is grovels under our hoof?”

    “Then we live in a paradise of our own making,” Chrysalis said, moving away from the bound, bridled and broken Celestia who waited patiently on her tether.  “But you don’t want that, do you?”

    “What I want is to be free to make my own choices, and be sure that my choices are indeed my own and not ones pushed onto me by the dark influence that has brought me to this place,” Moon replied, touching a hoof to her breast.  “I recognize it now.  The shadow of Sombra’s intent and desires on my heart.  I recognize it, thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of Rarity and my Consent, who will be Twilight again.  I swear it.”  

Consent and her Mistress shared a smile for a moment before the lunar monarch continued, “Sombra touched my heart with his darkness during our battle in the Badlands, and like a sickness it has slowly been growing within me.  Robbing me of my control, even as I robbed my nearest and dearest of not just their freedom, but also of the things that made them wonderful.  Sombra meant to make me into a queen fit to be his consort, or barring that, an alicorn molded to carry out his will.  He meant me to be a slave to darkness, HIS darkness.”

Mistress Moon looked at the changeling ruler full in the eyes and said, “I am many things Chrysalis, but I am not a slave, nor will I be a slave owner.  If I am to possess a pony, it will be only one who has given themselves to me, freely.”

“I see,” Chrysalis answered with a sigh, lowering her head.  “I see that I wasted my talking to you and that you… are a fool.”

“Not as much as you.  Or did you think I would not be enraged by what you have done to my sister?,” Moon asked, drawing herself up in readiness, and her ponies taking up stances on either side of her in a battle wedge.  “My sister may have her faults, and we may have our disagreements, but she is still my sister.  Release her.”

Chrysalis giggled.  Then she snorted, and the snort turned into a full belly laugh that went on for a full minute, until the changeling was weeping with mirth.  Mistress Moon and her six exchanged looks of confusion as the laughter went on and on.

“Is she loco in the coco?” Euphoria asked, 

“Oh, I haven’t laughed like that since one of my drones suggested we share love with each other,” Chrysalis replied at last, wiping tears of mirth from her face.  “Celestia is gone.  Wiped away by days of being taught who her better is.  Every bit of her has been washed away from being rutted constantly into a submissive puddle.  All that is left now is my Toy.  Isn’t that right, my little fuck muffin?”

“Last chance,” stated Moon through gritted teeth, as Chrysalis stroked her mount , who responded by flagging her tail in anticipation.  The temperature of the room dipped several degrees and every pony knew that despite the initial cordial words between the two monarchs, fighting was about to break out, in earnest.

“Make me,” smirked Chrysalis, turning back to face the seven arrayed against her.

Mistress Moon wasted no more time on words, letting a beam of dark azure magic speak for her.  A lance of power that was handily deflected by a sickly green shield that came and went in an instant.

Moon advanced on Chrysalis carefully, with Euphoria and Wanton in the lead, Rarity and Consent to her either flank, as Submission and Desire took aerial point.  Chrysalis matched their advance with a matching withdrawal, leaving her Toy to be slowly overtaken by grouped foes.

“Attack them, Toy!” commanded Chrysalis with a shout, and the harnessed mare reared upwards in a jingle of tack and bells, ready to strike.  Moon looked up in sudden fear at gold shod hooves that threatened to come down on the backs of two of her ponies, only to breathe a sigh of relief as a spark seemed to flare in the bound mare’s eyes and the Toy dropped back down to all fours, cuffs chiming.

“What are you waiting for!” screamed Chrysalis, frustrated that her Toy had wasted the opportunity for a flanking attack.  “Get them”

Toy’s only response was a full body shake, sitting down on her haunches in obvious confusion, bridle bells jangling merrily as she looked from Moon to Chrysalis and back again, unsure of what to do.

“Sit.  Rest,” Moon offered in a gentle voice.  “We will talk afterwards.”

“Get—” Chrysalis began, only to be interrupted as Submission swooped directly in front of her face, yellow wings flaring.

“SUBMIT”, commanded the blue collared pegasus, with all the force of her innate magic driving down on the changeling queen’s will.

“nNN-NEVER!” declared Chrysalis, her will empowered with the might of Equestria’s love for Celestia.  The tide of stolen power buttressed her mind and allowed her to erupt in a wave of power that ended with a butter winged pegasus being glued to the far wall, a tight translucent coating of resin holding her fast even as it highlighted every curve of the former model.

“Not cool!” called Desire, swooping in to avenge her friend.  A rash move that ended with her sealed under her own coating of inescapable resin.

“That should hold you two until I deal with your friends,” Chrysalis said, moving forward as she began to aggressively launch her own attacks of magic and binding resin both.

“Stay close, my ponies,” Moon commanded, shielding her two earth ponies from the resin, while  Rarity and Consent both used their own abilities to protect themselves.

“AGRBL” yelled Chrysalis in frustration as a Euphoria managed to land a direct hit on her muzzle with a massive wad of gum, gluing her jaws together.

“Time to rope us in a new filly!” called Wanton, leaping forward with her lasso already looping and curling a weave around the changeling.

“NO!” cried Chrysalis in denial, her unbound horn blasting out a wave of power that both freed her jaw and sent both earth ponies flying toward the nearest wall.  Upon impact both of them lay in a heap, stunned and with Wanton’s rope tangled around them both in a cat’s cradle of loops and half-formed knots.

“Yes,” said Consent softly, having snuck into range and coalescing her magic around Chrysalis’ hindquarters into the form of a golden chastity belt.

“How dare… nnngh… you,” demanded the queen, as the belt’s plugs slid home.

“On some level, you want this,” Consent said, stepping back.  “Otherwise I’d never have been able to touch you.”

Another inarticulate scream echoed through the dining hall as Chrysalis grabbed Consent with her magic and hurled her with crushing force back the way she came.   The lavender alicorn hurtled through the air at a breakneck speed guaranteed to cause injury or death upon impact.  At nearly the last second first Rarity and then Mistress Moon, intercepted the living missile with first their magic and then with their bodies.

All three impacted the wall with terrific force, but the cushioning layers of two ponies and two layers of magic prevented any permanent harm.  Barely conscious, all three lay groaning on the floor, their moans punctuated by Chrysalis dumping the bundle that was Wanton and Euphoria on top of them.

“Well, that takes care of that,” Chrysalis said in satisfaction, as seven bridles popped into existence behind her.  “Time for all of you to join my little herd, and don’t worry ‘Mistress Moon’, I’ll be sure to put you right beside your sister.”

“You let them go!” yelled Desire, still glued to the wall and unable to move a single feather.  

“And who is going to stop me?” laughed Chrysalis, as her bridles began to float toward their intended wearers.

“I am.”

Chrysalis turned in surprise at the sound of the last voice she ever expected to hear saying those words.  A voice she knew could not have said them.  A voice that she knew she had taken away forever, and that she had never, ever heard with the heat of barely restrained rage in it.

The voice of Celestia, Princess of the Sun, Sol Invictus.
> Conclusion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Celestia stood there, harnessed and belled, bridled and plugged, reins dangling free in front of the collar of solid metal that Chrysalis had formed into a single piece around her throat.  Every single inch of the alicorn screamed the word, “THREAT” to the changeling queen’s mind.

    “Kneel, Toy,” Chrysalis commanded, and it was not hard at all to hear the quaver in her voice.  “Be quiet.”

    “I saw a pale horse,” Celestia quoted, burning eyes fixed on Chrysalis.  “And Death was seated upon her.”

    Celestia’s mane ignited in a sheet of flame, burning away her bridle in moments, with her harness following in short order.  The thin metal of the fallen bells of her tack warped and melted away at her feet while the collar around her throat began to droop and sag.

    “That’s… that’s impossible!” Chrysalis gasped.  “You are MINE.  You are BROKEN to my will.  You’re my plaything.  My toy.”

    “How stupid do you think my sister and I are?” Celestia replied, quenching the flames of her body with a visible effort of will, as the collar around her throat, the collar supposedly bound directly to her life force, fell away from her neck with no visible effect beyond a strange squelching sound of impact with the marble floor.

    “Why aren’t you dead?” Chrysalis babbled, her mind desperately trying to process what she was seeing.  “That collar was a part of you.  I tied it directly into your life and your magic.  Why aren’t you dying?”

    “Let’s just get rid of these,” Celestia absently commented, ripping the seven bridles Chrysalis had summoned out of her grasp and tossing them off to the far side of the room.  “Chrysalis, how old am I?  How old is Luna?”

    “You’re both over a thousand years old,” Chrysalis replied, eyes wide in shock.

    “That’s right.  Over a thousand years of existing, of growing stronger, learning about ourselves and our magic.  Learning skills and spells that most ponies have forgotten, never mind know how to cast,” Celestia patiently lectured, taking her time to walk a wide arc around the changeling monarch toward her sister.


    “But I beat you before,” Chrysalis responded, anger starting to melt away at her shock.  “I beat you this past week.  You were a completely broken, submissive slave.”

    “And I enjoyed every minute of it,” Celestia commented, and the moltenness in her eyes wasn’t all rage and fury at that moment.  “Do you know how hard it is to find somepony, anypony who doesn’t see me as some sort of virgin goddess?  Let alone somepony who is willing to push me to my absolute sexual limits and then beyond?”

    “I… “ the changeling began, her mind still trying to adjust to the paradigm shifts in front of her.

    “It’s been centuries,” Celestia noted, carefully applying her magic to the resin gluing some of her ponies in place.  “So when Luna and I realized what you had planned for me, we made some plans of our own.”

    “Wait, you knew?!” Chrysalis demanded, anger again fueling her mind and helping it get up to speed.  “How?”

    “We aren’t stupid,” Celestia said, smiling down at Mistress Moon and helping her changed sister up to her hooves.  “We knew you were aware of how Sombra’s bridles worked.  You even told us that you had recreated them and used them on ponies yourself, and we knew how much you hated me.  How much you’ve wanted to dominate me and have me under your hoof.  So Luna and I took steps.”

    “What sort of steps?” asked the changeling, surreptitiously powering her magic to gather what resources she had to her.

    “Steps like locking away most of my power, most of my mind and magic,” Celestia turned, and the smile on her face was feral.  “What you broke to your will was just a fraction of what I really am.  Even so, I enjoyed myself thoroughly.  You were just as rough and unmerciful as I hoped you would be.” 

    “And now you’re back,” Chrysalis noted, confidence flaring up as her magic confirmed that the day could still be hers.  She could still have everything she wanted.  “You know, if you both submitted to me, we could have twice the fun.”

    “I’m afraid not.  Seeing my throne again was the trigger to bring me back to my full powers.  Again, thank you,” Celestia said, nodding in satisfaction at seeing her sister and her ponies all back on their hooves.

    “Well, I suppose I’ll just be on my way then,” Chrysalis said, turning as if to go, but then whirling back around to unleash everything she had in a titanic blast.

    Emerald green lanced out, only to be met by a twinned hemisphere of golden light and ebony darkness.  The combined shield held firm against the magical assault for nearly half a minute, while Chrysalis continued to hurl her energies into the beam, but at last, the changeling was spent and stood panting.  Nearly drained of every erg of magic she had.

    “How?” demanded the changeling, her words coming in gasps between pants.  “I beat you before, and I’m even stronger now than I was then.  Even two of you shouldn’t be a problem.”

    “Last time we fought you used the power of Shining Armor and Cadance’s love against me, and I will admit, you caught me by surprise with how much power you had,” Celestia answered.  “But this time—”

    “This time you were using energies you had stolen directly from my sister,” Mistress Moon filled in, her small harem at her side.  “You tried to use Celestia’s own strength against her.  She simply reabsorbed the power you flung at her, except for what was your own strength.”

    “Which was considerable, so I’m going to make you an offer, Chrysalis,” Celestia said, smoothly adding her words onto the end of her sister’s.  “Surrender, now.”

    “You must be joking,” the monarch replied, drawing herself up before her enemies.  She was outnumbered, apparently outgunned, but she stood tall and proud before the ponies.  Every inch the powerful monarch of a mighty nation.

 “A battle between us would wreck half of Canterlot, and bring down what’s left of the palace,” Celestia responded, catching her sister’s wince from the corner of her eye.  “Surrender, and you will be treated well.  Better than you treated me.”

“I will even ask Consent that she remove yon belt from thy loins,” Mistress Moon added, and Chrysalis’ blush was epic as Moon continued, “If you wish it, that is.”

“Come Chrysalis, time to put that neck of yours into my collar,” Celestia commanded, her magic reforming the collar she had worn into an open arc of gold before her.  

“I’ll never kneel to you,” Chrysalis hurled back, visibly drawing what scraps of power she could to herself.

“You say that like you have a choice,” Celestia said, summoning a whip of flame into being behind the changeling monarch. 

With a flick of her magic, Sol Invictus cracked the whip just behind Chrysalis’ hindquarters, startling her into a step forward and dissipating the concentration needed to keep her gathered magic intact.  A second crack of the whip caused another step, and a secondary lick of living flame touched the sealed chastity belt, setting the plugs within vibrating into life.

“What are you doing to me?” Chrysalis demanded, squirming while trying and failing to push the belt off her hips through main force.

“Training you,” Celestia said, as her sister beamed approval.  “Just like you trained me.”

A third whip crack nearly seared a burning line over the changeling’s rump, forcing her into another step toward where a sun goddess waited with infinite patience and an open collar.  To Chrysalis’ horror, she could feel the first pulls on her will, the beginnings of wondering if just giving in to the offered pleasure would be so bad, wondering what it would be like to serve instead of being served.  

In desperation she looked to the sky as an avenue of escape.

“Don’t even think about it, Chryssy,” Celestia said, burning golden lariats coming into being around her.  “You won’t get more than a few feet off the ground, and much as I’d like to give you some pain as payback, I’d rather not just yet.”

“You will never conquer ME!” Chrysalis screamed in challenge, and in desperation she drew power from her changelings to herself.  Usually it was she who was sending power to them in the way of love to keep them fed, but this was an emergency and she needed the strength of the hive to distract the Sisters while she played her ace in the hole.

Chrysalis split her magic into three streams, one clear and obvious stream went to the green and gold chastity belt locked around her hips.  The other two however, were shrouded and sunk into the ground, carrying with them a complex series of runes and counterspells, along with a single powerful teleport spell meant for a very specific target.  

Even as Chrysalis shrieked in pain as the plugs locked inside of her punished her for attempting to remove them, she felt a grim satisfaction as the magics she had sent into the ground penetrated the defences around her targets, latched onto them and teleported them back up to her.

“See?” Mistress Moon was asking, her voice dark and rich.  “You cannot remove the belt. You cannot escape.  Submit to my sister, and I will see that thou art well trained in both giving and receiving pleas—Wait, what is this we sense?”

“Is that—?” Celestia asked eyes wide as she too felt the presence of what Chrysalis had summoned, and for the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, the ponies of Equestria heard the sound of naked fear in the voice of their Princess. 

Behind Chrysalis, flanking her on either side there floated a bridle of beauty and power.  To the left floated a piece of midnight blue tack, set with moonstones and silver stitching that read out the words, “Chained Moon”.  On the right was its sister in design, only this bridle was white, set with ruby-red sunstones and emblazoned with the words, “Conquered Sun” in golden needlework.  

Consent recognized them from her recovered memories as Twilight Sparkle.  They were the two ultimate weapons crafted by Sombra during his war with the Sisters.  Twin pieces of binding headgear forged with a stolen portion of each of the ruling alicorns souls and meant for one singular purpose.  The complete and total domination of Celestia and Luna and their conversion into submissive and biddable broodmares suitable for the lusts of the King of Shadows.  

They were the pattern that every other magical breaking bridle had been based on. They were the masterworks of a twisted mind bent on control and domination.  They were archetype tools of misery and degradation.  They were powerful and nigh irresistible, especially against those they were made to be used on.

“Now I’ll give you one chance,” Chrysalis said with a smirk.  “Kneel.  Now.  And I might not use these on you.”

The power of the two bridles was already filling the room with weaponized submissive lust.  It easily seeped through the defences of both Luna and Celestia, where it began to gnaw against their willpower.  The minds of Desire, Wanton, Euphoria and Submission were all almost instantly swamped by the malefic erotic force, who after a few bare seconds of pairing off, began to rut each other with hedonistic abandon, their minds filled only with the desire to fuck and be fucked.

Only Consent and Rarity appeared to be relatively unaffected.

“H-how?” Celestia panted, arousal already starting to leak from her core.  All of the sun princess’ surging pride, power and even arrogance had been washed away in an instant by the power of the weapon made just for her.  It was all she could do not to beg Chrysalis to put the bridle on her, to bind her to the side of Queen Chrysalis forever.

“Silly pony,” Chrysalis responded, gloating.  “There is no secret that changelings can’t uncover.  We are infiltrators by our very nature.  I discovered your little vault and its treasure some time ago, but I had to be close to plunder it.  And I knew that I had to get you both at once.  Now… BEG!”

“Please Chrysalis,” Mistress Moon replied, giving a low curtsey as musky fluid ran down her thighs to the floor.  “Bridle me, make me yours.  I beseech thee.”

“Not quite the begging I was expecting, but it works,” the changeling said, with a smirk as she pushed a bit of magic into the weapons at her sides.  “Seek.”

At the command, both instruments of darkness leaped forward to satisfy their long delayed destiny.  Conquered Sun struck home in a flash, the noseband catching the front on Celestia’s muzzle with the headpiece looping around Celestia’s head and fusing together to form the bridle’s outer perimeter. The throatlatch and browband snugged in tight behind the point of the mare’s jaw and over the top of her head with a touch like a lover’s caress, ensuring mere physical force would never be able to remove the bridle.

In a flash it was done, and the sunstones on the bridle flashed as they unleashed their stored magic directly into the mind of Princess Celestia, which began to break down and reshape under the assault.

While this was happening, Chained Moon almost instantly closed the distance to Mistress Moon, but almost instantly is not quite instant and in that tiny moment of time a shape leapt into the path of the onrushing weapon.  The white shape of a unicorn mare, of the two-fold mare that was the combined body of Rarity and Valiente.  

“For Luna,” was the only words they had time to say as Valiente placed the point of their muzzle into the circle of the bridle’s noseband, allowing the weapon’s momentum to do the rest.  Straps whirled and wrapped, ends found each other and fused into an unbreakable whole as the body of Rarity Belle was once more captured in a bridle of Sombra’s design.

The moonstones along the bridle’s headband released their surge of magic at the mind below, and like the copy of this bridle had done before against Twilight Sparkle, the magic decided that the target was suitable for the glory of being Sombra’s mare and began to unravel that mind.

Valiente!, Rarity called out, in their shared mindscape.  

You’ll be okay,” replied Rarity’s sister-of-the-mind.  I took the strike for us both.

But… Rarity began, already seeing the spell represented as a massed coil of chains and cuffs, poised to strike over the curvaceous form of the sensual mare.

I was never really real, Valiente observed, accepting the first band of chain around her barrel with something like a sigh of pleasure.  The bridle the diamond dogs put on you back in the Badlands made me from you.  This one will unmake me, and what’s left should return to you.  You’ll be safe and whole, and so will Luna.  That’s what matters.

No, I refuse to accept this. Rarity demanded, trying to throw her mental body in the way as more straps and chains emerged from the spell’s mass, which ignored her in order to bind Valiente tighter.  I’m Generosity.  It should be my life for yours!

Then generously accept my gift, and tell the others that I loved them too. Valiente countered, smiling as a length of rope appeared and began to weave itself into a harness around her body.  Oh, and remind Applejack that if her crotch ropes are going to be that long, she needs to use four knots, not three.

NO! demanded Rarity, You hold on.  Don’t give in.  I’ll be right back. 

Riding the mind tides back up to consciousness and control of her body, Rarity opened her eyes to see that barely a moment had passed.  Celestia had gone to her knees, as her bridle began to overwhelm her mind while Mistress Moon was shaking her head to clear it from the lingering traces of the miasma that had been spread by the two, now used, bridles.

“Stop this Chrysalis!” Mistress Moon demanded, in a voice that shook the stones on the floor.  

“Even if I wanted to, I can’t,” laughed the black and green creature.  “In a few minutes, all that will be left of your sister is a needy creature that has no thoughts other than to please me.  Surrender to me and I’ll let you stay by her side.”

“Rarity, Valiente, how are you?  What is happening?” Moon asked, seeing Rarity’s eyes wide in desperation under the headgear that had been meant for her.

“It’s Valiente, she took the bridle’s magic on herself,” Rarity replied, horror in her voice.  “It’s eating her.”

“Twilight… Consent, can you stop this?” the lunar mistress asked of her herd member.  “Is there anything you can do?”

“I can’t,” Consent responded, curving toward she who owned her.  “But Twilight Sparkle could.”

“But thou ART Twilight Sparkle!”  Moon cried, while Chrysalis looked on, content to gloat while the defeated scurried about as they tried to stop the inevitable.

“I was Twilight, until you unmade her,” Consent explained, turning to show off the chastity belt that was the emblem of her change.

“But you said you altered the power I used on you, that Twilight can be restored, that all that she was lies within you,” Moon threw back, grabbing at Consent’s foreleg.  “Please, save my sister, and all things will be yours.  Even the throne, even myself.”

“By your power Consent was made,” the lavender mare reminded Moon.  “Your power would have to be undone to free her, causing me to be nothing more than a memory.”

“You would accept this?” Mistress Moon asked.

“I… We, would,” responded the last Element of Ecstacy.

“Then let it be so,” Moon declared, in a terrible voice of pain and regret, backed by the power of the moon itself.  “I foreswear myself.  Let me no more be Mistress Moon.  Let all my works and power be undone.  Let all things be undone and return to their rightful places, and let me swear unending service to Twilight Sparkle, worthy Mistress of Equestria.  This I swear by hoof, by wing, and by horn.”

“You wouldn’t,” gasped Chrysalis, in shock.  “Nopony would willingly give up that kind of power.”

“And believing that is why you don’t have any friends,” Moon replied, smiling for the last time.

Blackness seemed to fall away from the dark alicorn, pulling away from her like sheets of rain from a stormcloud.  The darkness retreated, and like called to like with streams of power pulling away from each of the Elements of Ecstasy as one by one each of Twilight’s friends resumed their normal appearances.

The full return of each of Twilight’s friends was punctuated by the sound of a broken collar striking the floor, and as the body of Mistress Moon once more became that of Luna, the last sound was that of a chastity belt striking the ground.

“Twilight, are you with us?” Luna asked, in a small voice.  “Are you with me?”

“I am,” Twilight confirmed, looking up to her foe.  “Hello Chrysalis.”

“You might be able to stop me, and you might be able to save them,” Chrysalis answered, recognizing what had happened and her keen mind added up the relative power levels, finding herself on the short end of the scale.  “But you can’t do both.”

“S-stop her,” Celestia interjected.  “F-forget me.  Save Equestria.  Then fuck your needy—”  Celestia managed to stop herself from begging, but it was clear that her mind was losing the battle. 

So Twilight pulled down the wall behind Chrysalis on top of her.

“Twi?” Applejack asked, still reeling from the effects of having been Wanton.  “You didn’t squish that bug, did ya?”

“She’s Queen of the Changelings,” Twilight answered, in a hard voice that was very unlike the Princess of Friendship.  “It would take more than that to kill her, but it was enough to put her out for the count.  Now let me have a look at Celestia.”

“Thank you,” Luna said.

“Right now I have things to deal with,” Twilight answered, in that same hard voice, “but later you and I are going to have a long talk.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Luna acknowledged, bowing her head low

“It’s a good thing you showed me these bridles once before, Princess,” Twilight said, approaching her former teacher.  “That and being hit by that copy the diamond dogs had showed me how this magic works.”

“C-can you slut—stop it?” Celestia begged.  “At least fuck me, I mean keep me from being hers.”

“I can’t heal you, not right now at least, but I can keep you from slipping deeper,” Twilight stated, her horn beginning to glow and everypony watching saw tendrils of lavender magic start to wrap around Celestia’s head like a crown of stars.  “But you are still going to need somepony to hold your leash.  Somepony is going to have to be your enslaver, your mistress.  At least for now.”

“I trust you, Twilight,” Celestia said, looking up at her dear student and friend.  “I trust you with my mind, my heart and my kingdom.”

“Then brace yourself.  Twisting magic that wasn’t meant to be twisted  and it’s going to need a lot of power,” Twilight cautioned, before taking a breath and tapping the deep strength that was her right as the Element of Magic.

Twilight’s mane became as ethereal as those of Luna and Celestia, and her eyes glowed pure white as her voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.  “I AM THY MISTRESS.  I AM TWILIGHT, AND YOU BELONG TO ME.”

“I am yours,” Celestia replied, laying a deep kiss on the lips of her owner as Twilight’s magic was allowed past the solar alicorn’s crumbling defences to engage Sombra’s magics in battle for ownership of the pony within.  When Twilight pulled back from the kiss of her slave, her eyes had returned to normal but the bridle binding Celestia to her had changed.

Instead of “Conquered Sun”, the headgear now simply read “Celestia” and instead of golden red sunstones, the bridle now bore large amethyst stones at each joining of the bridle's straps.  

“Please Mistress,” Celestia begged.  “Take me.  Screw me into the ground.  Rut me.  Breed me.”

“Control yourself for now,” Twilight mildly commanded.  “Your mistress still has much to do.  Go to your bedroom and wait for me there.  You aren’t to let any other pony have you. Understood?”

“Yes Mistress!” Celestia cried joyfully, and getting to her hooves rapidly galloped in search of her quarters.

“It’s going to be a long road back for her,” Twilight said to the others, who were nearly all in varying degrees of shock.  “But this is as far as she’ll drop.”

“Twilight,” Rarity said, pushing forward.  “I’m very happy you were able to help Celestia  and not to be a bother or anything, BUT THE OTHER HALF OF MY SOUL IS DYING!  Please, do something.”

Once more Twilight’s magic went deep into the mind of a pony, and what she saw nearly made her weep.

“Come to say goodbye, Twilight?” Valiente asked, her body nearly completely wrapped in ropes and chains.  “Other than Rarity, you always were my favorite.”

“Thank you for the collar, Valiente.  It did its job,” Twilight answered, trying and failing to free the mare from the chains that were starting to retract, pulling the mind mare into the darkness of oblivion.

“I’m glad,” Valiente replied, keeping her promise by trying to hold back the traction of the lines, but it was clear the magic was far more powerful than she was.  “A bridle made me, a bridle is killing me.  That’s good symmetry, remember that the next time you put Rainbow Dash into one of those shibari harnesses.”

“Heh,” Twilight laughed, cheeks colouring and thinking of all the worlds of possibility that Valiente had opened up to her and her friends.

It has been remarked before that the mind like that of Twilight Sparkle is a very rare thing indeed.  She is a universal polyglot of the sciences.  An expert on the genius level in multiple fields of knowledge and as such, in a unique position to make connections between those various branches of learning.  Such as the connections between various forms of magic…

“Hold on Valiente!” Twilight cried out, blasting some of the chain constructs to buy a little time.  “I’ve got an idea!”

Twilight pulled her awareness back up into the world to find her friends and Luna looking at her in curiosity.  

“Quick, I need everypony to summon the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight blurted out.  “I think I can save Valiente, but it’s going to take everything we’ve got!”












   
> Denoument
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “What do you need, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked demurely.  All trace of the pony known as Submission seemingly gone from her, but Twilight knew that what Fluttershy had been made into was a dark reflection of a hidden part of the normally shy pony.

    “I need the Elements of Harmony, now,” Twilight insisted, putting some heat into her voice.

    “Easy there, sugarcube.  We’re on it,” Applejack responded, and concentrating for a moment summoned Honesty to her.  As it came into being around her neck, so too did Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity and Laughter.  As Magic settled onto Twilight's head on it’s golden crown, its Bearer gave Rarity a worried look.

    “Whatever you are going to do Twilight, you need to do it fast,” Rarity said, meeting Twilight’s look.  “Valiente doesn’t have much longer.”

    “Right girls, just like when I ascended.  Give me everything you’ve got,” Twilight commanded.

    Corusating lances of energy leaped out from the five elements toward the one that both commanded and depended on them.  As each uniquely coloured and shaped steam of power bore onto Twilight, they merged into the rainbow halo of power that was the might of Equestria made manifest, the power and magic of Friendship.

    Wreathed in the power that had once reshaped a unicorn into an alicorn, Twilight lowered her head and touched it to the Chained Moon bridle still bound about Rarity’s head.

    “Girls, do you trust me?” Twilight asked, the power within her seeking the path to success.
    
    “We’d never leave you hangin’,” Rainbow Dash assured her friend.  “Whatever you need, you got it.”

    “Even if it means giving up a part of yourselves to save Valiente?” Twilight asked, as the path she needed to take became clear.  

    “Yupperoni,” Pinkie Pie declared.  “You can’t have a party without friends, and you can’t have friends without giving them some of yourself.”

    “Whatever you need Twilight.  We trust you,” Fluttershy added.

    “You’ve trusted us enough times, only fair we trust you too,” Applejack confirmed.

    “All my heart.  All my soul,” was all Rarity whispered.

    “So be it,” Twilight intoned, as magic exploded out from her.

    The six ponies disappeared in that flare of energy, to be replaced by six balls of glowing light surrounding a seventh.  The lights of the circle each burned with a colour of the Elements of Harmony, from orange Honesty to purple Magic, while the dimmer light in the center was that of pure white light.

    A pure light, but a fading one.

    “Valiente, I can only save you by bringing you out into the world.  I can twist Sombra’s bridle so that it creates, instead of destroys.  But the cost is you’ll never be entirely free to make your own decisions.  Somepony will always hold your reins, and you will always be at their beck and call,” came Twilight’s voice from the ring of coloured lights.

    “How many times do I have to remind you that I’m a submissive,” laughed Valiente, even as the glow of her life ebbed even further.  “A life bound to someone who cares for me sounds like my kind of heaven.” 

    “What about us?” the yellow light of Fluttershy asked.  “You said we would have to give up part of ourselves?”

    “A life for a life, but I can split up that life between the six—,” Twilight said. 

    “Seven,” interrupted Luna, bowing her head.  “If you would have me, Mistress.  It would be eight were my sister in her right mind.”

    “She will be,” Twilight assured her servant.  “I came back, so can Celestia.”

    “NO!” came a scream from below the rubble of a wall, which burst aside to reveal the changeling queen.

    Chrysalis was battered and bruised with one wing sitting at an odd angle, but that didn’t stop her from radiating an emerald menace that was powered by the strength of her rage.

    “Mistress, if you would permit me to take care of this?” Luna asked, turning to face the foe.

    “As you wish, my servant,” Twilight answered.  “Do not kill her.  Capture her or drive her off.”

    “Yes, Mistress,” Luna responded, dropping into a crouch and flaring her wings in challenge.

    “Oh,” Twilight added, almost as an afterthought, “you are not allowed to die, or allow yourself to be killed.  Understood?”

    Luna’s wings drooped for only a moment before straightening and the alicorn replied,  “You are a harsh mistress.”

    “Carry out my commands,” Twilight finished, turning back to the problem at hand.

“Bring it, lunar bitch!” hissed Chrysalis, dropping into her own fighting stance.  

“Little free with the whole ‘Mistress’ thing there.  Eh Twilight?” the orange light of Applejack asked, with honest criticism.

“It’s what Luna expects from me, so that’s what I’m giving her,” answered the alicorn.  “Later on we’ll have a good long talk, but right now we’ve got a life to save.  Ready girls?”

“Ready!” came the immediate response, and each of Twilight’s friends opened themselves to her.

With the power of Harmony and the Magic of Friendship backing her, Twilight carved off a portion of the vital essence of each of her friends.  Merging it into a single well of power at her side, Twilight then dove for the nearly spent ball of light that was Valiente.  

As the sensual mind mare had said, she never had truly been real.  She had never had a physical body and only her ability to take control of Rarity’s body had allowed her to touch the outside world and make the friends, and lovers, that she had.  

Valiente may have never had a body of her own, she may have “only” been a mental construct, but in all the ways that mattered she was “real”.  Having been brought into existence as a tool meant to break Rarity and usurp her body, Valiente had instead become a friend and companion, willing to sacrifice  herself to save the unicorn she had been created to destroy.

“Sweet Celestia, you’re gorgeous,” Valiante commented.  “If I’m dying, at least I got to see a goddess before I go.”

“Flatterer,” commented Twilight.  “Ready to be a real pony?”

“Do it and I’ll teach you how to use that wonderful tongue of yours for more than long words,” Valiente asked.

With a chuckle Twilight focused her magic on the mare, and instead of countering the myriad of spells that were destroying Valiente, Twilight instead pulled her out of them, draining her off like a siphon pulling water out of a jug.  As Twilight pulled the last dregs of Valiente free of Sombra’s trap, the dark enchantments collapsed on themselves and fell apart, considering their work done.  

“Sombra may have been a mad genius, but thankfully he always took the brute force approach,” Twilight said, to the small light she held in her hooves.  “Step one complete, now for step two.”

Twilight then took herself and Valiente and together plunged into the well of power that was the combined strength of her friends and their elements.  Twilight merged with the power, adding her own share of strength to the mix and then, at the moment when everything was perfect, she added the last spark.  The true Element of Ecstacy, Valiente.

Pulling free of the well Twilight looked back on her work and nudged the matrix of magic into accepting the pattern that was the willful and wanton personality of a creature born not of mare or stallion, but of magic.  Magic that had been cleansed of its taint of darkness by the power of friendship and love, by the purity of all that was good and right in the world.

The matrix welcomed the pattern of love that was Valiente, taking on a hue that was all colours yet none of them at the same time, and with that acceptance  there now were seven roiling spheres of energy where once there had stood six.  Seven spirits, seven souls, but only six bodies for them to call home.

“Step three,” intoned the voice of Twilight Sparkle once more, and the spiritual forms of Twilight’s friends began to return to their physical forms.  As the pure white form of Rarity began to resolve a smile of joy crossed her face as she realized that the Chained Moon bridle was no longer bound to her, but instead lying to one side.

“Soror Geminae!,” cried the Element of Magic, and as Rarity’s body came into being it shimmered and shook, as if not fully in focus.  A second outline of flesh and fur began to appear, one body appearing over the other.  Twilight poured more of her alicorn strength into the final spell, willing the camera of reality to show what she desired, no matter how impossible it was. 

The shapes of Rarity and her false outline continued to distance themselves, shuddering and shaking back and forth, until again the right moment came and Twilight lifted up Sombra’s bridle and used it to anchor the second Rarity in place apart from the original.

“Last step,” Twilight said, her voice barely audible as she drew on her last strengths, the strength of her friends, freely given in a good cause.  Twilight’s magic formed a funnel and through it she poured the magical matrix that was now Valiente, pouring it into the anchored vessel made from her soul sister, Rarity.

“Done,” was all Twilight could say as she slumped to the ground, utterly spent.

“Is… is this real?” Valiente asked, lifting a hoof and looking at it, then looking to Rarity.  “Are… are you real?”

“Yes,” Rarity answered, tears of joy filling her eyes.  “I’m real, and so are you.  Sister.”

There were no words between the two after that.  Only a cry of inarticulate joy as they swept each other into a ferocious embrace, to be followed a split second later by the envelopment of the rest of their friends.

“It’s real!  It’s real!” was the repeated cry of tearful joy from the pile.  “It’s really real!”

“Thou hast done well, my Mistress,” stated a bruised and bloodied Luna a minute later, dragging the bound form of a once again unconscious Chrysalis behind her.  “I have taken the liberty of fitting her with an inhibitor ring.”

“Mounted to a bridle.  Good irony there,” replied an exhausted Twilight, who had stayed apart from the pile of joyful welcome.

“Luna,” Twilight began, after a moment, “I don’t want to be—”

“Stop, my Mistress.  If I may be so bold as to command thee for a moment,” Luna interrupted.  “I have failed thee, and my sister, and Equestria.  I have caused destruction and chaos.  I have let my own desires control me once again and lead me off as a slave into darkness.  Only chance and the good hearts of thee and thy friends have saved us all.”

“I forgive you,” Twilight said, knowing even as she did that it wasn’t enough to ease the pain of the lunar alicorn.

“I know, but penance must be done to rectify these wrongs.  Let my service and servitude to you be my punishment,” Luna said, going to her knees before Twilight with only a few hisses of pain.  “Let me be as a slave to you, and not to the darkness within me.  Let me be thy bondsmare.  Be my gaoler and Mistress.  I beg thee.”

“Alright,” Twilight answered, nodding tiredly.  “But not forever, and when I do give you your parole, I expect you to accept it.”

“As you wish, Mistress,” Luna replied, and the two mares shared a smile.  “May I ask what thy plans are now?”

“Rebuild.  See how far Celestia was corrupted before we were able to stop things, and find out why Chrysalis did what she did,” Twilight said, exhaustion making her terse.

“She desires thee,” Luna replied, drawing an arched eyebrow from Twilight.  “She said it before.  You are the only pony to have seen through her deceptions and defeat her in battle.  She worships strength and power, and to her, you are both.”

“But why…” Twilight trailed off, waving a hoof around to indicate the whole of everything that had gone on.

“Had you not been able to stop her, she would have had Celestia as her concubine, myself in chains, and you at her hooves.  Defeated, she would be bound to who she sees as the strongest pony in Equestria,” Luna explained.  “There was no downside for her.  Either way, she would gain her desire.  T’is why she could not remove Consent’s belt, because she had accepted it as right that you would have power over her.”

“That’s weird,” Twilight noted, as her friends began to notice that they were missing someone.  

“Twilight?” Valiente asked, friends draped over and around her.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, and it’s good to see you in the flesh,” Twilight answered.  “Bridle and all.”

“It’s good to be seen,” the white mare noted.  “Walk the bridle path home with us?”

“Always.”