Chapter 1: Leather or Knot
“Hey Rarity, what’s up?” Applejack asked, as she slid into a booth seat opposite that of her old friend.
The diner they were in was a classic one for the big city. A stereotypical greasy spoon in a slightly out of the way spot that catered to people looking for decent food at a cheap price. It was definitely a place that Applejack would patronize, but the young woman found it very odd that her prim and proper friend had asked to meet here.
“Here’s your usual, Rarity,” said a middle-aged waitress, sliding a tea bag laden cup in front of the fashionista, along with a small steaming pot and a slice of apple pie. “Lemon tea and fresh apple pie.”
“Thank you Amelia,” Rarity replied, with a small smile.
“Anything for you?” the waitress asked Applejack, who was feeling a little stunned at what she was seeing.
“Uh… Ah’ll have what she’s having,” Applejack responded.
“Be right back,” said the waitress, leaving the table with a smooth motion.
“Rarity, what’s going on? And why are we meeting here?” Applejack asked. “This is nowhere near the kind of place you like.”
“It’s the kind of place I can afford, Applejack,” Rarity replied, a small sigh colouring her words. “We all had such big plans when we graduated from Canterlot High two years ago, and much as I do love all of our friends and our monthly get togethers, there are some things I can’t share with them.”
“What happened, Rares?” Applejack asked, with a voice full of empathy. Last year’s downturn in the economy had hit everyone pretty hard. Applejack had been forced to stop taking agronomy courses at the local community college, while Pinkie and Fluttershy had both had to drop out of their chosen colleges for financial reasons as well.
Luckily, Twilight and Rainbow Dash both had full-ride scholarships, while Sunset was keeping her head afloat as a motocross racer and occasional trader in not entirely legal diamonds, imported as they were from Equestria. As of three weeks ago, Applejack would have sworn that Rarity was doing okay while working for a fashion magazine and going to school herself.
But here she was in a diner she never would have set foot in when they were teenagers, let alone be here often enough for the staff to know her by name or have a regular order.
“Well, you know that I was funding fashion school with my employment at ‘Hot Trots Magazine’?” Rarity asked, to which Applejack nodded in the affirmative. “The problem is that six months ago my probationary contract with them expired, and while they were willing to continue the relationship, it was as an unpaid intern.”
“What a bunch of idiots,” Applejack burst out, rolling her eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You aren’t the only stubborn one in our little group,” Rarity replied, with a rueful smile. “Regardless, I was left with two options. Either drop out of school entirely, or find new employment.
“Well, ya didn’t drop out of school so… “ Applejack stated, letting her words trail off so Rarity could fill the gaps. The two of them were very different, but sometimes they seemed to fit together perfectly. Like now.
“So I cut back on my expenses, reduced my expenditures to the minimum and found new employment with a somewhat less savory employer,” Rarity explained, and Applejack was a little surprised to see a blush appear on her friend’s cheeks. “I’m well paid for what I do, and I even get to design the odd little thing, but it’s a very… adult place of work.”
“Rarity,” Applejack replied, putting her hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder. “You aren’t selling yerself, are you?”
“No, just my dignity,” Rarity answered, her blush deepening. “What I do is legal. As is the store I work for, but… “
“But what?” pressed Applejack, letting her hand fall away. “Ah get having to make sacrifices to make ends meet, and if what yer doing is legal-like Ah don’t get why yer in such a tizzy about all of it.”
“This is why I came to you, Applejack,” Rarity said, and the purple haired woman’s relief was palpable. “Out of all of us, you understand practicality more than most. It’s just… “
“Just what?” Applejack asked, pushing harder. “C’mon, spit it out.”
“I help design and make leather bondage and fetish gear,” Rarity blurted out, blushing furiously at how Applejack’s eyebrows tried to climb through her hairline.
“Hoo wee, you don’t do things by halves, do ya?” Applejack finally managed to say, before asking. “What sorta stuff?”
The conversation paused as the waitress returned with Applejack’s pie and cup of tea and the farmer took a moment to sample the pastry, while Rarity took a steadying sip of her tea.
“Not a patch on Granny’s pies, but not bad,” Applejack concluded, nodding in satisfaction.
“It’s why I come here,” Rarity replied, eating a forkful of her own piece before continuing. “Anyway, I started working at the store simply being behind the counter as a salesperson. But then I noticed how atrocious the lining of their cuffs and collars were, especially with how closely they are supposed to sit next to the skin. And the color coordination. Ugh.”
“I made a few suggestions,” the future fashion designer continued. “Which led to the store’s proprietors asking me to demonstrate my ideas on a couple of pieces, and they were so impressed they asked me to work on more involved projects, such as harnesses and bridles.”
“Say what now?” Applejack asked, eyes going wide.
“There is… a particular fetish,” Rarity answered, as her blush returned in full force. “One that involves long-term bondage where one is treated like a pet, or a horse.”
“That’s… wow,” Applejack responded, trying to take it all in. It made her think of all the times she and her friends had “ponied up,” and making her briefly wonder if the seven of them were being viewed as…
“Why are you blushin’ so hard, Rares?” Applejack asked, locking eyes with her friend.
“Lyssa, that’s one of the proprietors, asked me to model some of the items. Just to see them on a living breathing person, as opposed to a lifeless mannequin,” Rarity explained, meeting her friend’s gaze with the candor Applejack was wordlessly demanding. “I was so happy with how well they came out that I inadvertently ponied up in front of her. Which had the effect of fully completing the illusion of my being a two-legged pony. A pony girl, if you will. Needless to say, her and Eris, the other person running the shop, were completely taken aback as well as extremely happy with how things looked.”
“You into that sort of thing?” pressed Applejack, feeling a stirring inside of herself. “I mean, you could always come to the farm. We’ve got all that sort of… “
Applejack broke off as she realized what she was saying, her own cheeks turning hot.
“I would be lying if I said the experience didn’t touch something deep inside of me,” Rarity admitted, putting her own slim hand over Applejack’s larger one. “Which is probably why I agreed to start modelling pieces for buyers after that episode. Plus the extra money has been rebuilding my finances quite nicely.”
“As for your offer. Let’s just say that’s another reason why I’m talking to you about this, dear Applejack,” Rarity added, allowing a small, sly smile to grace her mouth. “I need you.”
“Woah there!” Applejack exclaimed, startled. “Ah mean, Ah like you Rarity. Ah’ve always thought you were the prettiest of us, and sure maybe I’ve kinda thought that maybe…”
“Darling,” Rarity interrupted, placing a single finger on Applejack’s lips to silence her larger friend. “I didn’t mean what I said in that way. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t say ‘no’ at a future time.
Both young women took a moment to bring their emotions under control. A door between them had opened, but only time would tell if it stayed open.
“Maybe I should get to the point,” Rarity finally said.
“Yeah, that’d be a good plan,” was Applejack’s response, her chest rising and falling only slightly more than usual.
“I’ve been asked to model the complete ‘horse girl’ outfit next Saturday, but it won’t be for a single buyer,” Rarity explained, her voice lower than usual. “It will be an auction, not for the outfit, but for the rights to reproduce the design itself. As such the stakes are quite high, as will be the dollar values involved.”
“Dang,” Applejack responded, asking, “So why do you need me in all this?”
“As I said, the stakes are quite high in this, so the store’s backers have asked Lyssa and Eris if they could provide two models for the auction,” Rarity answered,” Two girls with different body types to fully demonstrate the look of the outfit and showcase how they completely restrain the wearer while still allowing them to move about.”
“You mean we’d be tied up,” Applejack replied.
“That’s a crude way to put it, as well as inaccurate,” Rarity corrected, putting a bit of a laugh in her voice to take the edge off her comment. “Our arms would be bound behind us, and our legs placed in boots made to look like horse hooves. Meanwhile we would be wearing bodysuits overlaid with a harness that would be locked onto us. Finally we would be wearing the equivalent of bridles on our heads, with gags that were made to resemble a bit for a horse.”
“Huh, that’s quite the fancy get-up just for hookin’ up,” Applejack commented, taking on a thoughtful look. “Ya know, it might be interesting to see what these folks yer working for have, and how it measures up to the stuff we have on the farm.”
“And I haven’t mentioned yet how much we would be paid for doing this,” Rarity added, making a dramatic pause before saying, “Five thousand dollars. Each.”
“Hoo-wee!” Applejack exclaimed, startling the entire diner.
“Sorry folks,” the blonde apologized to the room in general, before continuing in a much quieter voice. “That sorta money would do the farm a lot of good. But it’d be real easy for someone to take advantage of us like that. You trust these folks?”
“I’ve worked with them for months now and everything’s been above board,” Rarity assured her friend. “They’ve always asked my permission for anything in advance and always respected my limits. So yes, I trust them.”
“All right, Ah’m in,” Applejack stated firmly, with a nod of her head. “What do we gotta do?”
“First, we need to head over to the shop and get you measured for your tack,” replied her purple maned friend.
“Sounds good,” Applejack agreed.
The pair quickly settled their small bill, with Rarity leaving an overly generous gratuity to Applejack’s way of thinking, before heading out the door and down the street.
Together the duo walked through a rundown retail district containing small stores interspersed with closed up shops showing “Out of Business” signs, and Applejack felt an empathetic pang as she thought of the sad stories behind each of those placards. There were several rough and ready types walking the streets, but all of them seemed to give the pair a wide berth.
“You ever have any trouble working down here?” Applejack asked, noting a tall man idly smoking a cigarette as he leaned against a wall.
“Well, there were a few incidents , but I was able to win over most of the local residents with a few kind words, an understanding ear, and the odd helping hand,” Rarity said, adding, “There were however a few ruffians who had to learn how much it hurts to punch a diamond wall.”
“Ha! You always did know when to take the gloves off,” Applejack exclaimed, throwing an arm around Rarity and pulling her into a brief sideways hug. “And I get that’s why you were never worried about the folks you work with doing any sort of funny stuff. One wrong move and Hoo-Wee!”
The two shared a laugh as Rarity guided Applejack around a corner to reveal a storefront that had no windows at all, and only a single, very solid looking door, with an intercom buzzer. Above the entrance however, there was a large sign that identified the building as, “The Bridle Path - Custom leather goods for discerning Adults.”
“Dang, they take this pretty seriously,” Applejack said, as Rarity calmly walked up to the intercom and pressed the call button.
“Rarity and friend,” the elegant young woman stated.
The pair were quickly buzzed in, and as Applejack entered she could feel her mouth hang open as her eyes took in the interior of the shop.
She had expected a somewhat dingy place, lined with old wire racks containing a library's worth of dirty magazines being perused by dirty old men in trench coats, with either a fat and lazy old man or an equally old harridan parked behind an old glass counter top holding various items of perversion.
What she got instead was a large room with a high ceiling, from which floated some sort of opera type Muzak, along with the subtle scents of jasmine and apple blossoms. A few men and women in expensive and well tailored clothing examined various pieces of leather goods laid out on parallel rows of spotless mannequins covered in green velvet.
The only thing that met up with Applejack’s expectations was the glass counter at the back of the store, but even there the apple farmer’s expectations had been wrong. Where she had expected some one was old, fat and lazy, there was instead a beautiful woman in her early thirties, with jet black hair that fell to her waist. A woman who was energetically waving Rarity and Applejack over.
“Rarity! You came back!” gushed the woman, as the duo approached. “Oh my, who is this?”
Applejack had heard the phrase, “undressing you with their eyes,” but this was the first time someone had done it to her. The unnamed woman bit her lip with obvious appreciation as she moved her gaze up from Applejack’s feet, along her legs, past the vee of her hips, in and out around the indent of the farmer’s waist and swell of her bosom, curling around the tree of her throat, before finally resting half-lidded blue eyes against Applejack’s green ones.
“This is Applejack, one of my best friends,” replied Rarity, smirking slightly as she noticed the other’s appraisal. “Applejack, this is Lyssa. She’s one of the store's proprietors, and my boss.”
“Pleased to meetcha,” Applejack said, sticking out her hand and fighting down a blush. She wasn’t used to being viewed as attractive for her looks. That was Rarity’s thing.
“Oh no, the pleasure is mine,” Lyssa purred, taking Applejack’s hand in her own, before turning it over to gasp in delight as she watched the play of muscles in the farmer’s forearm. “Oh, you are just the absolute epitome of the phrase, ‘healthy young woman’, aren’t you?”
“Well, I uh, that is to say,” stammered Applejack, before a tinkling laugh from Rarity cut her off, and the distraction allowed the farmer to snatch her hand back.
“Lyssa, stop teasing. Applejack is here to help,” Rarity said, smiling across the counter.
“She is?” Lyssa responded, her chipper expression lighting up even further. “Oh thank goodness. We were starting to get desperate. Rarity, why don’t you take your friend downstairs? Eris is there, working on your gear right now.”
Lyssa lifted up a section of the counter, allowing the friends to walk past and through what to Applejack was a bewildering and confusing array of straps, buckles, vibrators and fake phalluses of all shapes and colours. It only took Rarity a few moments to guide her friend past the ready sales stock toward a sloping ramp leading down into what appeared to be an impressively large basement.
“Dang, how big is this place?” Applejack asked, tilting her head over to Rarity as the pair made their way down some concrete stairs that had been built into one side of the ramp.
“Much bigger than it looks,” Rarity replied. “A couple of hundred years ago it was part of an old flour mill whose owners decided to have access to the docks without actually being on the docs. As such, the basement of this building is actually just part of a tunnel that leads out to the water.”
Applejack saw the truth of Rarity's statement less than a minute later as they finished their descent into a large vaulted room, whose brick lined far wall was an obvious means to separate this property from the rest of the underground passage.
“Rarity!” called out a tall and lean green haired woman, who was currently sitting at a table rubbing a cloth against a large conical piece of leather. Applejack’s nose easily detected the scent of a conditioning oil cutting through the jasmine and apple blossom perfume of the place.
“I’m just finishing up your armbinder for the show,” the woman continued, before noticing Rarity’s well built blonde companion. “Who do we have here?”
“Eris, this is Applejack,” explained the fashionista. “She’s agreed to help model the gear for next Saturday’s auction.”
“Really?” Eris asked, getting up and walking over to meet the pair. “Any experience modelling?”
“No Ma’am,” Applejack replied immediately, causing Eris to lift an inquiring eyebrow.
“Any experience with BDSM, bondage, domination, etcetera?” the woman asked, curiosity in her voice.
“No Ma’am,” was Applejack’s direct reply.
“You’re sure?” pressed Eris. “Calling someone ‘Ma’am’ or ‘Madam,’ is often a title submissives use to address their dominants.”
“Oh. OH!” exclaimed Applejack, with sudden, blushing realization. “Ah didn’t mean nothin’ like that. Just being polite is all.”
“I see,” Eris replied, pursing her lips in thought. “Any boyfriends, girlfriends, or significant others I should be speaking to as well?”
“Nothin’ steady, why you asking?” inquired Applejack, frowning slightly.
For several moments only the gentle strains of the store’s background music could be heard. A soothing, lilting piece that seemed to drain the slight tension that had appeared in the conversation.
“Applejack, if you agree to do this for us, you are going to be paraded in front of a group of strangers while being completely helpless to do anything about it,” Eris explained, in a matter-of-fact tone. “It will be a compromising position, to say the least, and while Lyssa and I have earned Rarity’s trust, we are complete strangers to you. Are you quite certain you're willing to place yourself in my hands? ”
“Rarity did say you respected boundaries and so on,” Applejack replied, nodding. “And just by asking that Ah can why she trusts you enough to truss her up and such.”
“One of the most important parts of this is trust,” Eris replied, drawing close, and Applejack felt the mismatched eyes locking onto her own, drawing a strange intimacy between the two. “So, before we do anything else you are going to tell me your safe word. A word, that if you say it, brings everything to a stop and we find out if you need to be gotten out of whatever you’re in, in a hurry.”
“So Ah get to stop things whenever Ah want?” Applejack asked.
“It’s meant for emergencies, or if you suddenly feel overwhelmed, or panicked. But essentially, yes,” Eris confirmed, placing her hands on Applejack’s shoulders. “The person bound is always the one controlling the stop button.”
“It’s the job of the individual doing the binding to take you right up to that limit, without stepping over the line,” Eris continued, her voice dropping. “As your handler, the one holding your reins, it will be my responsibility to keep you safe and the first part of that is knowing your safe word.”
“Pears,” Applejack blurted out. “If Ah say ‘Pears’ it means get me out.”
“Pears it is, my flaxen haired beauty,” Eris affirmed, her face only inches away from Applejack’s. “Take off your clothes.”
“Um… '' Applejack hesitated. Something in her wanted to let go and simply obey the command, but her stubborn nature reared its head.
“Leave your bra and panties on, of course,” Eris continued, a smile in her eyes as if Applejack had just done something that pleased her greatly. “Leather goods like our tack design isn’t just something you pull off a rack. It has to be custom made to fit properly, so we need your precise measurements.”
“Oh right,” Applejack replied, stepping back and pulling off her shirt with a strange sense of relief. It was as if something had been pressing down on her mind for a moment, and then had decided to let go.
“Lyssa, can you get one of the other salespeople to run the counter and come down here?” Eris said, into the intercom on her desk. “We need to get Applejack’s sizes, and while she’s here we may as well do an initial fitting of Rarity’s armbinder.”
“Be right down!” came the happy chirp from the speaker.
The tall farm woman took off her clothes with slow care, while Rarity stripped down to just her panties so fast it was almost supernatural. Applejack found herself momentarily distracted by the coral nubs on the tips of Rarity’s small, but pert and well-formed breasts.
“Much as I do love my brassiere, I find it does not do well under a harness,” Rarity stated, a small smirk on her face as she met her friend’s stare. Applejack diverted her gaze with a blush and finished pulling off her shirt as Lyssa came down from the upper level.
“Oh my, I do love a healthy body,” cooed the saleswoman, as she beheld the blonde’s well-muscled and near naked torso. Eris rolled her eyes with a snort.
“Light the incense and stop eye-humping Applejack,” Eris ordered, in a teasing tone while pulling another cone shaped piece of black leather off one of the several worktables scattered around the space. “Then come over here and help me with Rarity’s armbinder. Applejack, you may want to closer and see what this does to how she looks.”
“Alright,” Applejack replied, sliding her legs out of her jeans. Meanwhile Lyssa lit a stick of incense from a box labelled, 'Inspiration InScents' before moving over to help her partner with the odd garment.
As Applejack watched, Rarity’s arms were positioned behind her back before the cone of black leather was gently slid up and over her arms. There were a few side to side adjustments that made the purple haired woman’s breasts bounce in ways that made Applejack’s hands itch in strange ways, but eventually the garment found its resting point just under Rarity’s armpits.
Straps were then looped over her shoulders and then crossed between her breasts, before returning back to the main body of the device. Rarity made a small moan as the straps were tightened, pulling the armbinder a little further up and both compressing and raising her breasts slightly.
“All good?” Lyssa asked, brushing a few strands of Rarity’s hair back.
“All green,” Rarity replied, her breath coming a little deeper.
“Green means she’s okay,” Eris explained to Applejack, as she threaded a very long leather lace through a set of grommets that went from the top of the device down to a narrow neck that held Rarity’s wrists.
“MM-mhm,” Rarity confirmed, breathing picking up a bit more as Eris started tightening the lacing.
Applejack didn’t miss how the slow constriction of Rarity’s arms seemed to fuel an upward swelling of her breasts. For all her physical attractiveness, Rarity’s cup size was well inside the middle range of Applejack’s friends, with Pinkie and Fluttershy being quite large, while Twilight and Rainbow Dash definitely occupied the smaller end of the spectrum.
It took almost five minutes for the lacing to be drawn tighter and tighter, until Rarity’s elbows came into contact inside the garment, which served to bring her relative bust size into something close to Applejack’s own well developed, “tracts of land.” By this time Rarity was almost swooning under the effects, breathing deeply as her eyes fluttered open and closed as she tried to center herself.
Applejack found it utterly mesmerizing, and as a coil of jasmine and apple blossom scented incense curled between the two friends, a shadowy fantasy started to rear up within the farmer’s mind. Of her putting a loop of rope around where the straps in front made an “X”. Of her leading Rarity, her Rarity, off to the…
“Okay, let’s start getting your measurements,” Eris stated, snapping Applejack out of her near trance she had fallen into.
“Uh, you just gonna leave Rares like that?” Applejack asked, as the leather worker approached her with a long measuring tape.
“That’s why I called Lyssa down, so that she could be Rarity’s handler for this fitting, part of which is to make sure the monoglove isn’t too much for her,” Eris replied, starting her measurements with Applejack’s left forearm, from wrist bones to elbow. “Safety first. Even though the design is meant for long-term wear, there’s nothing like making sure a pony isn’t going to be damaged by their tack by having them undergo a trial fitting.”
“Long term?” Applejack asked, lifting her chin so that Eris could check both her neck size and height.
“Indeed, depending on the dynamic between a couple, a pony could spend hours, days, even weeks in harness,” Eris replied, moving on to measuring Applejack’s brow.
“A pony? You mean like—” Applejack began, before Eris interrupted.
“Not like what your friend Rarity became,” glancing over to where Applejack’s friend was now moving around steadily on her feet, her occasional shrugs as she tried to slip her bondage doing very interesting things to her breasts. “I mean a human in the part of a horse. An owned and controlled animal, dependent on their handler… for everything.”
The last was said in a throaty purr that made Applejack’s insides clench for a moment.
“Ah… Ah kin do that too,” Applejack admitted, as the measuring tape circled lower and lower parts of her body. “We just usually need to be playing our music to make it happen.”
The air seemed like wine, and Applejack felt her mind starting to drift again on an incense powered fog.
“Fascinating,” Eris commented, measuring the farmer’s waist and hips. “You and her both seem to be taking to this like naturals. Would you mind if we tried an armbinder on you today? Nothing long term, just an initial fitting.”
“Ah… uh. Ah dunno if Ah can wear something like what Rares has got on,” Applejack replied, sliding her legs apart in automatic reflex as Eris measured her inseam.
“Oh definitely not, which is a good thing,” Eris said, noting how Applejack bit her lip when she measured the prospective model’s sensitive areas. “Hmm, we really should give the two of you ‘working’ names to help preserve your identities. How do you like ‘Flaxen’ for yourself?”
“Whatever you say, M-Ma’am,” Applejack responded, not sure what she was about to call Eris. The background music had changed. Something opera-ish, with a high pitched woman’s voice that she couldn’t quite make out. Something about being adored?
“Very well then. When I call you ‘Flaxen’, that’s your cue to begin acting like a horse under the control of your Master or Mistress,” Eris stated, standing up to look Applejack directly in the eyes. “Is that understood… Flaxen?”
Flaxen stood for a moment, unsure how to respond, until an idea hit her and she bobbed her head once or twice while pawing briefly at the ground with her left… hoof.
“Good girl, Flaxen,” Eris praised, before continuing. “Now as I was saying you are built differently than ‘Facet,’ which is what I think we should name Rarity. You have the build of a working pony, while Facet is most definitely a show or dressage pony. Which means your tack needs to be different.”
“Oh, sorry,” Flaxen apologized, before being silenced by a finger against her lips.
“Ponies don’t speak, unless they need to use their safeword, or are told they can talk,” cautioned Eris. “It’s all part of being an ‘animal’, and this is why I asked Rarity, I mean Facet, to find someone like you. Having you in our design will allow it to show off its effects on different body types, and hopefully trigger a bidding war for the design rights.”
“Now,” Eris continued, picking up a black cylinder of leather festooned with buckles and straps. “Trying to put you into an armbinder like Facet’s would only cause you short term pain, and possibly long term damage. So, instead of a classic design like hers we’ll go with a hybrid design for you. Arms behind your back please. Grab your elbows with the opposite hand.”
Flaxen did as she was asked, bracing herself as Eris pressed against her back while securing the tube of leather around Flaxen's forearms. As the limbs were turned into a single, immovable bar, their position forced Flaxen to push her chest up and out, in an attempt to balance things out.
“And now for the rest of it…” Eris murmured, pulling what felt like a large leather bag over the whole of Flaxen’s arms, welding them in place in and around the heavier piece holding her forearms. Flaxen watched passively as thick leather bands came over both her shoulders and then under her armpits, crossing in-between her breasts just like those on Facet had.
And just like that armbinder, these straps also framed Flaxen’s breasts, supporting them and pressing them upwards, making the now hard points of her nipples press against the fabric of her bra. Eris busied herself for another minute or so, loosening some straps, while tightening the vast majority of others. When it was done, Flaxen’s chest was rising and falling even more dramatically than Facet’s had.
“Flaxen, are you okay? Any pain? Anything pinching?” there was a pause before Eris added, “You may speak.”
“Ah… Ah think ‘green’?” Flaxen replied, her head truly swimming in deep waters now. “No pain, just tight. Feel kinda funny.”
“Good pony,” Eris praised again, brushing Flaxen’s hair back more than was absolutely necessary. “Those are endorphins. You’re riding a natural high. Just let it flow. You and Facet are safe here.”
As if to emphasize Eris’ words, Rarity, now Facet, came to stand alongside Flaxen, gently nuzzling at Flaxen’s upper arm. Both the exposed and leather bound portions of it. The contact creating a bubbling sensation inside the taller blonde, like a kettle just starting to steam.
“Go ahead, see if you can get out of that, Flaxen,” Eris ordered, stepping back a bit. “Give it a good stress test.”
As Facet took a step back, Flaxen proceeded to bend and twist as much as she could, trying to get her arms back in front of her, or barring that, finding a way to get them out of the strapped shut leather bag that she could see over her arms out of the corner of her eyes. The bag kept Flaxen from pulling her arms outwards, maintaining her forearms place in the cylinder that bound them together.
Leather creaked and buckles tinkled and sang, but no matter what the blond woman did, she couldn’t free her arms from her prison and it was a panting for breath woman on one knee who finally acknowledged that she was unable to escape her bonds.
Unless she tapped into the power held at her neck, whispered a thought.
“Good Flaxen,” Eris said, stroking the woman’s hair and the little thought was quiet again. “You did exactly what you were told to do. Now just relax, and let your handler take care of you.”
Breath slowing, the blonde woman felt fingers in her hair, undoing the wreck her struggles had made of her usual ponytail. Fingers rhythmically pulling across her scalp and through her mane as it was plaited into a long braid, lulled her back into the drifting state she had been in before she had been told to fight and struggle.
She was so pacified, so barely conscious of her surroundings, that she barely noticed her smaller partner beginning to rub her head against Flaxen’s fabric covered breasts. At least until the growing stimulation caused her to snort and take a step back.
“Oh, we need to keep that under control,” Eris said, and both leather bound women could hear the laughter in the leather worker's voice.
One that turned into a genuine laugh as something hard but with a soft lining closed around Flaxen’s waist from behind, pushing her forward and back into Facet’s range of action again. Looking down, Flaxen could see her waist was now captured by a bronzed metal belt with what looked like a rubber lining. A belt that was being tightened until a fingernail would barely squeeze past.
“As our pony, we control everything about you Flaxen, including your desires,” Lyssa told her, as a curved metal plate was hooked onto the back of the belt and swung up between her hips, where it locked to the front of the belt with an audible “snap.”
Pressure pushed against Flaxen’s crotch, but it wasn’t a pressure that added to the steamy arousal that had been building inside of her. No, this was a pressure that locked down that arousal, keeping it from escaping, from breaking free. Just like the leather and steel around the rest of Flaxen's body kept her from breaking free.
“Ah, we forgot to measure your feet,” Lyssa stated, taking a moment to wind a long measuring tape around Flaxen’s throat. Flaxen tried to pull back again as Facet went to nibble at her breasts, only to be stopped as the measuring tape was tightened into a tight collar by the motion.
“C’mon Facet, time to get you out and bring Rarity back,” Eris said, gently taking the smaller woman in hand and pulling her away. “We are going to have a lot of work to do.”
It felt natural for Flaxen to follow the pull of the measuring tape toward a large gel pad on the floor. It felt good to be commanded to move left, or right, and to obey. The bubbling sensation locked away inside of her made her feel like she was floating on air, and it was with some shock and an unknowable amount of time later that she realized that she was both sitting down and unbound.
“Applejack?” Eris was asking, with a bit of concern on her face. “You with us, Applejack?”
“Y-yeah,” Applejack replied, looking around with more than a little confusion. “What the hay happened?”
“It’s called ‘subspace’ Applejack,” Rarity explained, placing her small hand over Applejack’s larger one. “Apparently it’s something that can happen when endorphins overrun the mind’s thinking processes, and it seems you really succumb to them. My fault I’m afraid.”
“Your fault?” Applejack asked, accepting a juice box with wordless thanks, noting the straw was already in place. “What did you do?”
“Welllllll,” Rarity replied, blushing again. “You see, as I somewhat hinted at back in the diner I’ve always had a bit of attraction towards you, and when I saw you helpless to resist me, and ‘floating’ a bit myself… I acted without thinking and pushed you into the deep end.”
“If anyone is at fault, it’s ours,” Eris said, grimacing. “As your handlers we are responsible for keeping you out of trouble when you are Flaxen and Facet. The pair of you were just so cute together we sort of got lost ourselves.”
“Well, Ah never told any of you to stop, and Rarity was right, y’all asked for permission for everything,” Applejack stated, taking a deep pull from the box. “Just give me a minute here and Ah’ll be right as rain.”
“Take as long as you need,” said Lyssa, sliding over a plate of store bought cookies. “You too, Rarity. Take the rest of the day.”
“But we still have to start on Apple— I mean Flaxen’s tack, and finish Facet’s!” Rarity protested.
“You need the time to recover, and I think, to talk with Applejack about your feelings,” Eris ordered. It was a command, but it was given with kindness. “Come back strong tomorrow. Just expect to put in some long days between now and next Saturday.
“Well, if you insist,” Rarity replied.
It wasn’t until hours later when the store was closed and the two proprietors could be sure that they were alone that they made the phone call.
“Hello,” said the woman’s voice over the speaker phone.
“We heed you, we need you,” Eris and Lyssa chanted in unison.
“Report,” the woman on the other end commanded, causing both Eris and Lyssa to drop to their knees with bowed heads.
“Everything worked as you said it would, Mistress,” Lyssa replied. “The incense, the music, all of it.”
“So, Rarity is almost within our grasp now,” mused the woman. “Who else?”
“Applejack is her name, Mistress Largo,” Eris supplied.
“Well done,” praised the pair’s mistress, causing them both to look up adoringly at the phone. “Soon three of the girls who made my life miserable will be mine to do with as I please.”
“Three?” questioned Eris. “But we only have the—”
“Three!” thundered the voice on the phone, and the proprietor’s to shrink back down. “You are only one part of my plan. A special part, but only one part. I will see you next Saturday, when you have earned your reward.”
“As you command, Mistress,” Lyssa answered, as the other end cut the connection.