Sunrise awoke an indeterminate time later to a slap against her ass. Her new position was now across Vestri’s lap while his hand rested on her rump. His fingers tickled over the mare’s folds. She yelped and sat upright, nearly banging her head against Vestri’s elbow. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Sunrise noticed the various caribou leaving their seats and exiting the building, muttering amongst themselves. Vestri himself stood and wrapped the leash around his wrist, giving Sunrise a short enough lead that she was forced to crawl next to him. At least this time he walked at a slower pace.

They exited the dining hall together and made their way down yet another different street. Sunrise flinched with each jab of a rock and mourned the damage she must be inflicting to her fingernails. The next time she got to use the bathroom to freshen up, she’d have to cut them down to fix them.

The usual chatter a town had instead gave way to silence, then the sounds of tools, not being used but instead being moved. Sunrise sucked her breath in. Was this about the contraption? She nearly balked, but somehow knew that if she did Vestri would drag her along anyway. It kept her crawling. Eventually, they turned the corner and came to a smithy.

“Stop!” barked the caribou taking down smaller pony-sized tools and setting his far larger ones in place. “She will not come in here on all fours. Let her stand.”

Sunrise stared in confusion until she saw the floor. Fragments of coal, metal shavings, and jagged pebbles strewn the floor. Whoever owned this smithy must have been caught while he was working into the night. She guessed even festivals didn’t mean everypony got time off. Sun found herself internally grateful she would not be walking across the debris on all fours. Maybe not all the caribou were cruel?

Vestri nodded down at her. Sun brightened up at the chance to finally stand and gathered her legs beneath her. Partway up, however, she stumbled and grasped Vestri’s arm to lift herself the rest of the way. Oh fucking Celestia’s flaming tits her ass hurt! The pain in her rear flared up and left her panting and tensing her body. It was far worse than the plug the night before! Vestri slipped himself into the smithy, Sunrise barely hanging off his arm while she took uncertain steps.

He suddenly dragged her in front of him and looked about the shop. “I need a custom collar. Fitted and comfortable. Satin padding on the inside. Red lacquer finish with flowing gold script. Her name is Sunny. You can do the runes?” he asked, not looking at the mare in his hands.

The blacksmith grabbed a measuring tape from a nearby wall and held it out at Sunrise, taking in the measurements of her neck. “As well as any of the other smiths. They’re taking up residence in the other smithies. Some are doubling up. Need anything specific?” he answered and asked back.

“Just the usual. Complete mesh, no seams. Add in a pleasure rune for good measure,” Vestri squeezed Sunrise’s arms and pulled her back, her pain-inflamed rump pressing into him.

She ignored the pain, instead experiencing a head rush. A custom Red collar for her? She flushed and almost felt giddy. Things were going to be alright! Vestri wasn’t too mad at her. However, her thoughts of victory came too soon.

“In fact, make a custom black, too. Dull paint, uncomfortable as you can make it. Same runes, except add one that makes it feel like she fell in stinging nettles. I feel I may need it,” Vestri added.

Sunrise’s smile died and she flattened her ears. A black? She looked up at her master in alarm, receiving only an imperceptible expression in return. She deflated visibly, realizing that Vestri may never forgive her. Did she really destroy her one shot at finding any sort of happiness in her situation?

“I will see what I can do. We have numerous things that need made, and these ponies at least had a good supply of various metals,” the smith commented, waving his hand at a storage shed. “Since it comes straight from you, I’ll make sure it’s the first completed. Come back in the morning.”

Vestri nodded and stepped out of the smithy, Sunrise in tow. Without being asked or ordered, she obediently lowered herself to her hands and knees, biting her tongue against the pain through the entire process. Whatever Vestri thought about it, he gave no indication.

He moved off, and by the looks of the sun over the ocean, they were heading for the docks. She crawled beside him silently, her head hung low. A black? For those that fought or were unwilling to accept their place. She accepted her place, though! Didn’t she? She looked back to that morning and the night before. The Runemaster had removed her magic. That should have been an indication to her that she wasn’t permitted to use it. The plug? She knew she should have slipped it back in, but she was so happy at the time she didn’t think there would be consequences for not. The masturbation, or in her case orgasm, what if Vestri was waiting to use that as a reward? That was what everything boiled down to: Sunrise didn’t think.

She whimpered, drawing Vestri’s gaze. “We will see tomorrow which you earn, pet. For now, I think a little bit of minor punishment is in store. I am required to do some of my duties. I think placing with you with the other captured ponies will do you some good, just to see how well you have it,” Vestri mused with a chuckle.

Sunrise blanched and faltered. Oh no. Oh no no no! She recalled that pony jumping out at her, the other ones calling her traitor. Vestri tugged the leash, the collar choking her. He dragged her along a couple feet, scraping Sunrise’s hands and knees raw before she continued crawling alongside him. He was leaving her with them!? Numerous ideas of what they may do to her passed through her mind. She was going to be lucky to make it out alive! She opened her mouth to beg, to plead, something. Her master’s command to stay quiet floated to the fore of her mind.

She had little time to think of anything else before the various shops and residences broke away and warehouses rose up before them. Caribou were everywhere, as were piles of crates, some strewn haphazardly with their contents spilled. One was nearly upended with sacks of grain spilling out beneath it. Another held blankets, presumably for trading or winter.

Most of the males just conversed with each other, looking decidedly bored. Others, however, stood around the warehouses, obviously guarding them from without. Or maybe from within? While the warehouses weren’t large compared to some of the ones in Canterlot, some were of a good size.

Vestri led her to the side entrance of one in particular and nodded to the guards. They both drew out strange batons and held them at the ready. Are those the shock batons I heard about? Sunrise didn’t feel the need to experience their touch. When they approached the door, Vestri bent down and unlatched her leash, then grabbed the back of her collar and lifted her into the air. The pain in Sun’s flanks became second to the collar cutting off her air. Her master pushed open the door with the two guards at the ready and threw her unceremoniously in.

Sunrise tumbled and caught herself before her face hit the wooden floor. Turning abruptly, she caught Vestri as he turned away and the door was closed. She heard the click of the lock and her heart fell. He left her here with all the other ponies. Sunrise really was fucked. Maybe even that red collar had been another punishment? See what you could have had? Too bad, you’re getting this instead. She sat upright, only to notice a great many ponies staring at her. All of them were nude, and most had collars around their necks. She couldn’t tell much, since it seemed one of the lights was dead.

Some were talking amongst themselves normally, a few glanced at her and whispered to their compatriots. In the background, multiple ponies were crying, and more than a few glared at her. One even yelled out, “Sunrise is here!”

Whoever or whatever that was to, Sunrise found out a moment later as a mare pushed past all the ponies. Sunrise stared incredulously at her mother.

The light-yellow mare with an orange mane ran over and knelt down to enwrap Sunrise with a hug. Sunrise had her eyes. “They all kept telling me you were with them, that you helped them,” Sun Streamer whispered into her ear, then glared back at the other ponies and yelled, “And it seems that it was not true.”

Ignoring the fact her mother was nude, Sunrise buried her face into Sun Streamer’s shoulder and let out all her anguish at once, sobbing just like she were a filly again. Sunrise lost track of the time she spent crying with her mother, listening to her coo and tell her things will be alright. But they won’t. The thought of that black collar around her neck and Ivangir becoming her new master scared her like nothing else.

“Here, let me get you stood up while you tell me what happened,” Sun Streamer said warmly in her ear. Just the simple act of being helped upright inflamed her rear, causing Sunrise to gasp in pain and rub her backside. “Did they do this to you?” Streamer asked. Sunrise simply nodded while Streamer helped her over to a crate to sit on, other ponies moving aside. The flare of pain in Sunrise’s backside had tears in the corner of her eyes, but she ignored it so her mother wouldn’t worry over her further. Several came over to watch, interested or worried, though Sunrise mostly ignored them for now.

Sunrise averted her eyes from her mother’s gaze and stayed quiet, though. I have to be good.

“Sunny? Why aren’t you talking? Please, tell me what’s wrong,” her mom pleaded.

Sunrise flinched at the name, took a deep breath, and whispered to Sun Streamer, “My Mas-Vestri. Vestri said I wasn’t allowed to speak. He’ll punish me if he finds out.” I have to behave.

Sun Streamer pulled Sunrise against her chest and makes sounds of reassurance. “Don’t worry, Sunny. We won’t tell. What happened? I thought I saw you at the festival, leashed by one of those… things!”

“I-I…” Sunrise attempted to say. She gathered her courage beneath her. She was already damned, wasn’t she? Vestri was going to give her the Black. He was just mocking her, punishing her by showing her what she couldn’t have. “I was coming back from my house and I overheard strange talking in a nearby building. So I listened in. It was the mayor and a couple caribou…” Sunrise shut her eyes tightly and shuddered. Embellishment might help her case.

A larger group of ponies gathered around the two mares, many of them exchanging worried glances at the mention of the mayor. “Go on,” Sun Streamer encouraged.

“They were talking about how nopony got into the town, or out. They were captured. Then about some sort of deal. He was in on it the entire time,” Sunrise drew her knees to her chest and choked. “I was caught eavesdropping by Vestri, one of Dainn’s Council. He took me as his pet and was going to take care of me. I messed up, and that’s why I’m here.”

Sun Streamer looked up at the various others, then back down at Sunrise, “You’ll be safe with us, my little sunshine.”

Sunrise shivered and shook her head frantically, wailing, “No, I won’t! He’s going to put me in a black collar and hand me over to Ivangir!”

The other mare looked at Sunrise in alarm, but asked, “Black collar? Ivangir? Sunny, what’s going on?”

She glanced up at her mother and took a breath to calm herself, as little good as it did. Her Canterlot calm and poise refused to come to her. “Vestri owns me. He and Ivangir are two of Dainn’s Council. I was there when they were discussing what to do with us. We’re their slaves, mother, and they plan to do horrible things!” Sunrise gasped out.

“We all gathered they had some kind of plans for us, Sunrise. That’s why we’re planning to escape. I don’t think they know about the cellars we store wine and such in,” Streamer explained, planting a reassuring kiss on Sunrise’s forehead.

The image of her entire family wearing black collars and beaten by Ivangir froze her blood. Sunrise waved her arms and pleaded, “No no no! They’re ready for that! They know that a lot of us aren’t going to sit idle.” She groaned and shifted positions to allow her aching rear have some rest.

“What should we do?” one of the stallions asked.

Sunrise grimaced. They weren’t going to like this, none of them. But if she knew anything, it was that they would not be punished if they knew their place. She swallowed and replied, “Don’t do anything. I saw what they were capable of and some of what they had planned. In Canterlot there’s a saying: ‘Know your opponent’s hand before you bet all your bits.’ What I saw is that they planned this. Nobody will know that something’s wrong, something about wards and runestones showing everything is fine.”

The ponies were silent a moment and exchanged glances. Sun Streamer stared at Sunrise oddly until one mare cried out, “You expect us to do nothing!? Those monsters took my friend and raped her and other mares like her! I don’t want to wake up one morning to find them balls deep in my rump, thank you!”

Several others, all bolstered by the mare’s outcry raised their own.

“I want be safe with my wife!”

“I knew it, she did turn traitor on us!”

“I don’t know what they teach you in Canterlot, but this is Lindisbarne, we don’t stand for this! We are nopony’s slaves!”

Other voices joined in, turning all the remarks into a jumble of words until Sun Streamer waved everybody down and calmed them. “Sunny, my Sunrise. You don’t honestly believe that, do you?” she asked with concern.

Sunrise stared at the group and choked back a sob, “You don’t know how powerless you are until you’re on the end of one of their leashes, without a hint of magic, everything you do scrutinized by them and threatened with punishment at the slightest provocation. I don’t want my horn shattered!”

Several of the ponies looked away, suddenly ashamed, but the rest just appeared more adamant. One even called out, “So you just sit there and take it like a bitch. You don’t raise a hand for your freedom, don’t think that getting out of here and warning Princess Celestia is important?” Mumbles of agreement passed through the crowd, with some of the less adamant ponies slipping out of the group.

“What would you have me do?” Sunrise demanded.

Sun Streamer grasped Sunrise’s hands and answered, “Come with is. The more ponies we can get out, the more we can rescue from this existence! You won’t have to worry about this Vestri anymore.”

Sunrise looked away and squeezed her eyes shut, “I-I can’t! If I’m caught…” Ivangir clamping a black collar around her neck and forcing her to crawl in the dirt like a snake burned itself into her mind. She would avoid that at all costs.

“Leave her, they’ve already gotten to her,” a voice mumbled. Ponies strode away from the crowd until all that remained were Sun Streamer and her.

“When you change your mind, we’ll be here until we leave. I’ll try to get you help if you don’t come with us,” Sun Streamer whispered, worry tinging her voice.

Sunrise didn’t answer, even once Sun Streamer slipped off the crate and moved away. Once her mother left, she huddled back in the crates, attempting to hide herself. She wasn’t sure how long she remained there without a clock to go by, but her thoughts turned dark.

She was damned if she did, and damned if she didn’t. On one hand, if she ran with them, the scouts or whatever caribou were out there would find them. They’d be brought back, and she’d be handed over to Ivangir no questions asked. Maybe even after Vestri punished her. Then she got to look forward to whatever Ivangir had planned. On the other, she remained, alienated all the other ponies, and disappointed her mother. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Then there was the fact that Vestri ordered two collars for her. Maybe there’s still hope? Why would he go through all that effort just to have it made if I could never have it? The idea brightened her up somewhat, but it was like a match to a pitch dark night.

Whatever he planned, she could form the idea in her head. She was going to have to choose, or he would choose depending on her behavior. Maybe both. Obedience was key, not acting like this was Canterlot and her former place in society. She had a master now, and his will and word were her law. It was all a mess, no matter which way she looked at it.

Sunrise’s stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t anything to eat since her light lunch. By the looks of the high windows, dusk was beginning to fall. Would Vestri remember to let her eat? She laid her head down on her knees and sniffled. She should have stayed in Canterlot. Maybe then she’d still be happy, have all her friends, and not shunned by a bunch of strange ponies she didn’t know. The others were right, though. The Princesses needed to know. What if it didn’t stop here? The Crystal Empire ‘s borders were nearby, then the multitude of other small towns and villages around Equestria. The caribou could easily spread until they wished to reveal themselves. However, they weren’t terribly powerful. Once Princess Celestia found out, she’d come and stop them.

That gave her a moment’s peace until the lock rattled and clicked, then the door slid open. Ponies popped their heads up to see a caribou silhouetted by the setting sun. “Sunny, come,” she heard her master say.

Sunrise scrambled off the crates, gritting her teeth against the pain and dropped down to her hands and knees. Crawling to the door, she looked back and hung her head. The click of the leash sealed her fate, and Sunrise started the long and silent crawl back home. There was no going back. The other ponies wouldn’t forgive her. Her fear made sure of that.

Sunrise prayed to Celestia that her mother, as well as the rest of the ponies of Lindisbarne would not do anything foolish.

Vestri stayed silent the entire journey to their cottage. Once they reached it, he slammed the door behind them and undid the leash roughly. “You may stand now. Fix yourself a basic meal, then come upstairs. It’s time for your real punishment,” Vestri said simply without even glancing at her. Sunrise watched on while he strode up the stairs, his boots clomping on the wood.

My real punishment? Sunrise thought with a whimper. She grasped the doorframe and pulled herself up, gritting her teeth. Constantly crawling was playing havoc on her joints, and it didn’t help that her backside was bruised from the numerous crop welts. Sun limped her way to the kitchen and eyed around what all she had to work with. Maybe something simple, she suddenly wasn’t all that hungry after hearing about her ‘real punishment’.

The crop, the threats of being given to Ivangir, the black collar, and being stuck with the other ponies wasn’t her punishment? What more could it be? Public humiliation? Forced to denounce the Princesses? Subjected to torturous practices? All her clothing shredded before her eyes? Each idea made her more sick to her stomach than the last until all she could do was look at the produce. I’m not hungry…

Holding her stomach, Sunrise turned away and made her journey up the stairs to the bedroom. She pushed open the door and slipped inside, shutting it with a click behind her. Inside, Vestri leaned on one of the dressers and stared out the window. Sunrise bit her lip and hunched her shoulders, stepping light and kneeling down behind her master. As each quiet moment added to the other, Sunrise bowed her head and folded back her ears. Was this the punishment? To be ignored?

Sun snapped her head up when Vestri’s voice startled her. “You have stayed quiet as you were told, but I could see you holding back everything you wished to say. Say it now,” he remarked neutrally.

Flicking her ears, Sunrise flitted her eyes all around, thinking of what exactly to say. So many things that she could say, but wouldn’t or couldn’t. A short silence followed before Sunrise finally spoke up. “I wish nothing more than to not disappoint and anger you. I was not thinking earlier, Master. I did not understand what permissions I had and did not have,” she attempted to explain as diplomatically as possible.

Vestri’s silence was several times longer than Sunrise’s. His words came out cold, “Of course you did not think, did not understand. You and the other females are nothing but animals!”

Sunrise shivered from the intensity of his voice and did her best to reply right away, “I-I do not wish to have a Black collar around my neck, Master. I tried so much today to behave, to not anger you. I want you to be proud of me!” Animals? Is that what the caribou thought of them? Or more likely, of mares?

Vestri stood to his full height and cracked his neck. His antlers scraped the ceiling when he turned his head to peer back at Sunrise. “Why would I be proud for you doing what you should have been doing in the first place? I will be proud of you when you go beyond that, when you prove to be more than just a well-behaved pet. You will decide tomorrow the kind you wish to be,” he growled. Vestri was silent again, except when Sunrise opened her mouth to answer, he ordered, “Bend over the bed, Sunny.”

Sunrise didn’t argue. She twisted about and crawled to the bed, pulling herself up over the comfortable surface. She knew what was coming. A real whipping. Probably more along her cutie marks than her ass this time. Her ears fell back at the same time she tightly shut her eyes, her entire body tense. Would she even be able to walk, much less crawl in the morning?

The sound of empty boots hitting the floor, followed by the jangle of Vestri’s scale loin-cloth alarmed Sunrise. Oh no. No no no! He can’t be thinking… She dared to look back, only to see her Master approaching her with a raging hardon and another of those butt plugs in his hand. Her eye twitched and she blanched, diving her face into the comforter and gripping the blanket in her hands. He is!

She felt her tail brushed aside, then the cool wetness of the plug touching against her pucker. He at least had the kindness of making sure the toy was thoroughly lubed. As before, Vestri left her no time to prepare, immediately pressing it against her ass. Remembering the pain from before, Sunrise forced herself to relax, though it was difficult knowing what was coming.

Sunrise bit into the sheets, her anal ring twitching and trying to fit the plug pushing into and past it. By the feel of it, it was significantly larger than the last. Just by the midpoint, Sunrise’s nails pressed into her palms through the blanket, and she felt like her teeth were going to shatter by how hard she bit down. There was pain, yes, but mostly it was the pressure doing her in, though as the plug pushed in further, the pain grew, leaving her gasping through her nostrils.

All at once, Vestri popped the plug into her ass. Sunrise intook air sharply and squealed into the bed, tears springing to her eyes at the suddenly pain. Oh goddesses, the plug filled her up. Before the two plugs, she’d never taken anything up the rear, much less entertained the idea.

Vestri fiddled with the base of the plug. Suddenly, a brief shock passed through Sunrise’s body. Almost immediately, Sunrise felt lust come over her and her nethers becoming dampened. That can’t be right! What did Vestri do!?

The question went unanswered in Sunrise’s mind when her Master suddenly pressed his flare up against her folds. Sunrise unconsciously pressed herself up against him, her need clouding her mind. It wasn’t right, but for some reason she wanted it more than anything!

Vestri pressed in, lowering himself over the mare. It took three good pushes before Vestri’s cock slipped into Sunrise, stretching her wider around him than she’d ever been. She whimpered into the sheets, a shudder passing through her body at the surprisingly pleasing feeling of her Master within her. He started with small thrusts, each one pushing himself a little deeper into Sunrise until he bottomed out, leaving the mare to feel doubly filled from the plug and her Master’s length.

For a moment, Vestri remained there while Sunrise breathed heavily. Oh goddesses, how was this punishment? If this was just the start, Sunrise felt she’d be a well-fucked and pleased mare by the end. Her Master gripped her shoulders and withdrew himself, only to bottom himself out within her a second later, his hips slapping against her sore ass. Sunrise twitched and gasped, more from the thrust than the impact to her sore rear. She could feel every inch of him within her, from his flare to his medial ring. She still found it weird that caribou had equine-like cocks, but perhaps that was normal? Maybe ponies had caribou dicks?

That single thrust turned something on within Vestri, for no sooner had he thrust entirely into Sunrise did he pull out again and start a fairly quick paced fucking that left Sunrise panting and drooling her arousal across the bedsheets. The wet slaps of Vestri’s hips against her backside echoed through the room, with the poor mare gasping between both pleasure and the pain of her rump.

Sunrise felt so needy and enjoyed the rutting so much that she quickly approached the brink. However, even with the intense pleasure in her crotch and Vestri ramming himself into her cunt over and over, relief did not come. It was simply maddening to know she was right there and it wasn’t coming. With each thrust, her Master rocked her body forward, his grunts blowing air across Sunrise’s mane. It took only a short time for Vestri to bury himself in Sunrise’s snatch and rumble in his throat.

Sunrise gasped in surprise as she felt spurt after spurt of her master’s seed rush into her body and fill her to brim and beyond. After a good moment, Vestri lifted himself away from Sunrise, withdrawing from her body to allow a good bit of his cum to pour out from Sunrise and onto the bed. She was left panting, wishing for more and on the brink of relief. She felt her lust fading, but the need to finish grow. Whatever that plug did, it prevented her from cumming. Her face felt heated and flushed, and when Vestri left the room, Sunrise looked up. It… it wasn’t so bad. In fact, she rather enjoyed being rutted by her Master, outside of the inability to orgasm.

Sunrise slipped off the bed and stood, hissing at the soreness in her ass. A warm trickle of seed streamed down her leg. I am going to be SO sore in the morning… she thought unhappily. Sun limped to the closet and slid it open, grasping at a spare blanket and carrying it over to her bed of clothes. Flicking off the light, she groaned and settled herself out on her dresses and threw the blanket out over herself before curling up. Her hand twitched down toward her folds, but she barely held it back. Oh goddesses, what she wouldn’t give to be allowed to orgasm.

The mare shoved it to the back of her mind and stared into the darkness of the bedroom. Sunrise could hear Vestri moving about downstairs doing Celestia-knew-what. What did he mean by telling her that she would have to choose the next day? And what about the stallions? He said that females are animals. What about the males? Whatever the answers may be, Sunrise wouldn’t doubt she’d find them out the next day.

Gathering her undergarments into a makeshift pillow of silk and satin, Sunrise laid her head down and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the various ways Vestri would make love to her.