It had been another warm day in the sun for Sparkles. She’d had a wonderful time playing on the terrace, then going for a walk, and finishing it up with a bowl of her favourite food, diced hayburger. The only time Sparkles wasn’t happy was when she had to sit in her cage waiting for her Owner to come back.

Warm feelings filled the pet’s heart as she held the image of her beautiful, caring and wise Owner in her mind. If there was any pony that -------- knew would take good care of her, it would be Celestia. Celestia had watched over the pony nation for over a millennia and keeping an eye on Sparkles would be foal’s play in comparison.

Sparkles wondered where her Owner was at the moment. It was almost time for their evening walk in the gardens, where the pet would spend a little time behind a few strategic bushes before laying at Celestia’s feet as she brought down the sun and brought about the official close of the Equestrian day.

The door opened and Sparkles’ head came up in anticipation, only to give a small “whuff” of frustration as the pony at the door turned out to be the blue unicorn guard who carried a sword. Sparkles’ frustration was turned to curiosity however, as the guard proceeded to wheel in a cage that was twice the size of the one that Sparkles was kept in.

When the guard was finished with her task, Sparkles was overjoyed to see her Owner walk into the room, greeting her by enthusiastically jumping up and down while rubbing up against the bars of her own cage in mute request to be let out for a proper welcoming.

“Will that be all, Princess?” asked the blue guard, and some part of Sparkles seemed to want to answer that question, only for Celestia to do it for her.

“That will be all, Trixie. You should go back to Ponyville and get some rest,” advised Celestia. “I can handle things from here.”

“With respect, Princess Celestia, Trixie will return to Ponyville with her princess, or not at all,” the blue mare responded, eyes defiant and proud.

“-------- chose well when she made you her knight,” Celestia said, taking no offense from the guard’s bold speech. “Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Princess Celestia. Good night, Princess --------,” the blue mare answered, becoming visibly annoyed at herself a moment later and dropping her eyes before saying, “I mean, good night ‘Sparkles’. Trixie will see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Trixie,” Celestia said, nodding her dismissal of the blue pony before turning her attention back to her beloved Sparkles. “Well Sparkles, let's get you moved into your bigger home. I have a surprise for you.”

Sparkles tilted her head one way and then the other in curiosity as her Owner first opened the door to her cage, then locked a leash to her collar. Obediently, Sparkles stepped out, the tension on her collar akin to the feeling of a gentle hoof on her back, and giving rise to similar feelings.

The door to the larger cage was opened and Sparkles was led inside, where her Owner surprised the pet by anchoring her leash closely to the cage wall, allowing Sparkles only enough slack to lay in place where she was. A much more strict leashing than the pet was used to and the metal of Sparkles’ collar was pulled against her throat as she tried to find her new limits of motion.

“Now, don’t worry Sparkles, I just needed to make sure you wouldn’t overreact when you saw what’s coming,” Celestia commented, and as Sparkles looked up she saw her Owner levitating a second leash and begin pulling something into the room from out in the corridor.

Whatever was on the far end of that leash did not want to come into the room, causing Celestia to have to heave and pull on the silver chain, but after about a minute, a bound pony was pulled into the doorway.

The second leashed mare danced and reared back as much as she could against the chain locked to the tall leather collar she wore, but her efforts were limited by the golden hobbles attached to each of her four fetlocks. In addition to the chains binding her front and rear hooves, broad black straps flowed outward from the mare’s collar to form a body harness whose breaching straps declared that the purpose of the harness was not to frame the pony’s body, which it did very well, but to aid in the pulling of heavy loads.

In this case however, the harness was equally up to the job of pulling its wearer along, leaving the mare only with verbal protests as a means of stopping Celestia from dragging her forward. Unfortunately for the mare, somepony had already thought of that option and had prevented it with the aid of a close fitting muzzle attached to a bridle that was fitted in place with the aid of several golden locks.

“This is ‘Dancer’,” Celestia explained, with a grunt of effort as she drew her newest possession all the way into the room and locked the door behind the mare. “She—”

Celestia stopped in her explanation as a clink of chains announced that Sparkles had thrown herself forward to the very short limit of her leash and was even now straining against it.

“Cadance!” wordlessly formed on Twilight's lips and Celestia saw the sudden joy in her newest captive’s eyes as “Dancer’s” suspicions were confirmed.

“Easy, Sparkles. Don’t worry, you’re safe,” Celestia assured her pet, and carrying through with the script she had been given. “Dancer was wild until only a few days ago, and completely untrained, which is why she’s hobbled and muzzled. I don’t want her kicking or biting anypony. Isn’t that right, Dancer?”

Dancer responded by charging her new owner and attempting to gore Celestia with her horn. The cerise coloured mare got exactly two steps before her leash was pulled straight up, bringing Dancer’s charge to an abrupt halt and forcing her to stand on the tips of her hooves, lest she be strangled.

“Bad Dancer!” cried Celestia, striking the immobile mare on her flank with a blow that drew a muffled whinney of pained protest. “Bad!”

Celestia let the mare struggle for a few moments to allow her to realize that Celestia controlled her ability to breathe before asking, “Are you going to be good now?”

After a fractional nod, which was all that Dancer was capable of, Celestia released the tension on the chain leash, allowing her newest possession to breathe easy again; and with no further protest Dancer allowed herself to be led into the cage where she too was closely fastened to the wall, only the one on the opposite side from Sparkles.

“I was going to remove your muzzle before bed, but I don’t think you’ve earned that privilege,” Celestia informed the mare, who huffed out a breath through her nose in frustration before rubbing the side of her head against the bars, in a futile attempt to dislodge the offending piece of bondage.

“As for you, Sparkles,” Celestia continued, going around to the other side of the cage and unlocking her pet from her own leash. “Feel free to get to know your fellow pet, but be careful. As I said, Dancer is still wild and untrained and might lash out at you.”

Sparkles nodded empathetically and took a few half-steps toward Dancer, who growled and tried to jerk forward and attack, only to be brought up short almost instantly by her leash. Sparkles shied back in fear, wary of the larger pony, and only then came to realize that there was a heavy scent in the air.

It was a deep, rich musky smell. A smell that -------- was all too familiar with, and part of that awareness filtered down to Sparkles. Moving back and forth, Sparkles realized that the smell was coming from Dancer’s hindquarters, in particular from the very wet fur of the other mare’s inner thighs.

She likes this? Sparkles asked herself. Why would Cad—

Something hard and sad and firm clamped down on that train of thought, leaving only the instincts and reactions of an owned pet in their place. Sparkles shook her head in confusion for a moment, while Dancer watched her with wide and wary eyes. Carefully, a single step at a time and over the course of several minutes, Sparkles edged closer to the leashed pony, until she was close enough to lean forward and sniff Dancer’s exposed belly fur.

The smell of musk was still present, but it was fading rapidly and Sparkles could tell from Dancer’s slight trembling that the other pony was scared of what Sparkles could do to her as she lay hobbled and leashed. All Sparkles wanted to do was to make a friend, and so she sat herself down inside the circle of Dancer’s hooves and waited until the other’s breathing slowed and steadied.

With deliberate motions Sparkles lay her head down on her front hooves in a sleeping posture, and gradually, Dancer did the same. Sunset came, and darkness fell. But for the two caged mares there was only warmth, quiet, and finally, sleep.

“Aren’t you two just adorable?” asked a warm voice, and opening her eyes, Sparkles saw the face of her beloved Owner looking down on her two pets. Sparkles realized that she was laying against Dancer’s belly fur, who had wrapped herself around the smaller mare as best she could.

Dancer’s eyes flashed open in a sudden awakening as well, hastily pulling her legs back in close to her body and rolling to a sitting position as best she could.

“I think you’ve learned your lesson, Dancer,” Celestia stated, and golden magic flared behind Dancer’s head as Celestia unlocked and then removed Dancer’s muzzle.

Looking up at the other mare’s mouth, Sparkles was surprised to see that there was another layer of oral bondage beneath the first. Beneath her muzzle, Dancer had also been wearing a “U” shaped bit in her mouth, complete with both a strap that went behind her head and another that curled under and around her lower jaw, keeping the bit fixed in place over Dancer’s tongue.

“Aahn O,” breathed Dancer, as articulately as the bit allowed her to do.

“You are welcome, Dancer,” replied Celestia, who floated in two pairs of bowls for her pets. One with cool clean water, and the other with oatmeal. Dancer stuck her muzzle into the water bowl with a will, loudly slurping up water around her bit while Sparkles looked on in curiosity.

“I decided that seeing as you won’t let me try to heal your voice, that it wasn’t fair to you to let Dancer to be able to speak either,” Celestia informed Sparkles, correctly reading her pet’s curious look. “Besides, as a draught pony Dancer needs to get used to wearing a bit long term, so I decided that now was as good a time as any.”

Sparkles merely bent her own head to her food, munching away as if her Owner hadn’t said anything at all. Celestia sighed and leaned down to stroke Sparkles’ head briefly before saying, in a tone of command, “614 suit, harness configuration, draught pony.”

Sparkles made small whimpering noises as her full body covering shifted into an almost twin of the harness Dancer was wearing, complete with breaching straps against her back legs and bindings for her wings.

“Now, now Sparkles, if the two of you are going to be equals together, it’s only fair you share in her training,” Celestia said, sharing a brief nuzzle through the cage’s bars with her beloved pet. “Eat up as well, you have a long day ahead of—”

A knock sounded on the door, interrupting the princess.

“Enter,” she called.

The door opened to reveal Trixie, armed and armoured as she had been every day that Sparkles had been with her Owner.

“Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire, here to see you, your Highness,” Trixie said, gravely.

“Thank you Trixie, please send him in,” replied Celestia, and Sparkles noticed the two mares share a long look that ended with Celestia shaking her head slightly.

“Yes Ma’am,” Trixie said, a slight tiredness entering her voice, before she stepped aside to allow the resplendent form of Shining Armor to enter.

“Good morning, Princess Celestia, “ said the well-built blue and white unicorn, by way of greeting. “I wanted to see how you and Dancer were faring, as well as give you my latest report.”

“Dancer is everything you said she would be,” Celestia said, smiling warmly to the prince. “Lovely in both body and lines. A true beauty in motion.”

“As well as willful, spirited, and ready to attack at a moment’s notice,” Shining Armor noted with a smile, his gaze falling on the pair of pets working on their breakfasts.

“Oh, she’s already learned her reins are held in tight check, and that she is on a short leash indeed,” Celestia replied, and something molten entered the monarch’s voice. “She seems quite responsive to the crop as well.”

Sparkles could not help but notice the richly dark scent of musk that momentarily filled the cage again.

“Which is exactly why I sold her to you once I’d captured her. But perhaps I should get on with my report?” Shining Armor asked, adjusting his hips somewhat.

“Perhaps we should at that,” Celestia noted, with a small smile. “What news of the suits? Do we have their spread under control?”

“Not even remotely. At this point we estimate at least five percent of the adult population of Equestria has encountered a suit or been forced to provide power for their reproduction,” the unicorn stated. “We have reports of isolated encounters from every corner of Equestria, except for one. Whinneyapolis.”

“Nightmare Rarity is supposedly in that area,” Celestia commented, tapping her lips in thought. “Do you think it possible she might be having something to do with it?”

“Considering everything we know about her powers, I think it very likely,” Shining Armor said, and Sparkles looked up from her empty food bowl to see the male’s gaze flow along Dancer’s body. “I’m headed out there now, to see if I can find her, and talk to her.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Celestia asked. “The last guard detachment I sent after her came back encased in latex pods and asking when they could rejoin their mistress.”

“They went to attack, I’m going out there to talk,” Shining Armor said, in an attempt to reassure the princess, and Sparkles noticed that Dancer was also hanging onto every word of the conversation. “Underneath everything, even the Nightmare, that’s still Rarity out there. She’ll honor civilized parley if it’s offered to her.”

“I guess all I can do is to wish you good luck, Prince Armor,” Celestia commented after a few moments thought. “Did you wish to say goodbye to Dancer before you left?”

“No. Dancer and I said our goodbye’s when I sold her to you,” Shining Armor stated, looking through Celestia more than at her. Only Celestia’s eyes revealed that the byplay in the room was a pleasant fiction and nothing more.

“Then I will let you get on with it,” Celestia replied, getting up and walking the stallion back to the door. “I wish you the best of luck Captain, I mean Prince Armor.”

“Thank you,” said the blue maned unicorn, and for a moment his masculine mask slipped to reveal the husband and brother beneath. “You’ll take good care of them?”

“What good is my power, if it cannot be used to care for the hurt or the helpless?” Celestia asked, adding, “They will be safe, they will be loved, and they will be cared for. I swear it on the Sun itself.”

“Thank you,” Shining Armor said, his voice rough. “I’ll be back, soon as I can.”

Celestia closed the door behind her one-time Captain of the Guard and turned to see two sets of eyes doing their best to bore straight into her soul. It took everything she had to keep her voice light and merry when she spoke next.

“Okay you two, I have three hours before Day Court which means once we get you two cleaned up and ready we have time for about two hours of training,” the solar alicorn informed her charges.

And so it came to be.

After finishing the last bites of breakfast and a quick brushing, both harnessed mares were brought out to an empty practice field, where they found their tack attached to a small wagon through a veritable web of straps, lines, and reins. Dancer and Sparkles both shared a look of unease as they were fully secured into their places as the driving forces of the wagon.

Both mares could tell that they were each thinking of what could happen should either of them fall. That their harnesses and attached gear could become a deadly web in a crash.

“Easy girls,” Celestia commanded, running a reassuring brush of magic along the manes of her ponies. “We won’t be running any races today, or any time soon. Today is just to get you used to the weight and feel of a wagon, and how to respond to my commands.”

For the next two hours Dancer and Sparkles did just that. Walking only a few paces at a time to get used to the amount of force it would take to get the wagon moving. Stopping to understand how hard it was to stop the wagon once it was in motion and to get used to the pressure against the backs of their thighs from the breeching straps.

For her part, Celestia was all the teacher and instructor that -------- remembered. Patient and gentle, taking her time to explain things, how to turn right to a call of “Come” and left to the word “Get”, and recognizing when high-strung Dancer had simply had enough and needed to simply run for a bit.

After training, there followed a wash down and a full currying, which Celestia began, but had to leave in the hooves of a yellow-maned grey pegasus when she was called away on urgent business. The pegasus, in purple and yellow hoofmaiden livery, took her time finishing the task, all while feeding both the harnessed mares bits of oat and blueberry muffins and keeping up a gentle patter of comforting sounds.

Afterwards, the pair were allowed to roam freely on the large garden terrace adjacent to Celestia’s room, taking the time to play a bit before settling down for a nap in the warm afternoon sun under the watchful eye of twin pegasus mares with prismatic manes. The only difference between the two watchful, but distant guard mares was that one of them had a silver wing, instead of the two blue ones of her sister.

After her nap, Sparkles woke to the sound of leather and metal being rubbed against wood. Looking around she saw Dancer had gotten up before she had and was busy stropping the side of her muzzle against the side of a tree in a vain effort to remove or at least detach the bit that was securely strapped over her tongue.

Approaching the other mare, Sparkles noticed that the inside of Dancer’s thighs were wet, and that the strange musk she had scented before was now filling the air around her bridled companion. Dancer seemed to take no notice of Sparkles’ approach, continuing to try to catch the corner of her bit on the tree she had chosen as a tool to attempt to free herself.

Closer Sparkles came to Dancer’s rear, and the mare’s scent began to fill her mind with compulsions and ideas that were absolutely foreign to Sparkles’ way of thinking. Foreign to the mind of Sparkles the Pet, but in no way strange to T-------, and enough of that other mind leaked through to Sparkles to encourage her to taste the liquid running down the left thigh of Dancer.

“WheeeAaaeee!” Dancer whinnied in surprise, taken unawares by the soft strong tongue that ran a full hoofwidth up her flesh before Dancer’s motion spun it away.

Sparkles cowered for several moments as the taller pony glared at her, waiting for a hoof to strike her or for a tail to lash across her muzzle. One breath passed, then two, and three, before Dancer’s chest muscles pushed against her harness in a deep, deep breath and then she turned to present her hindquarters to the huddled lavender pony.

The rich scent of the bitted mare filled Sparkles’ nostrils again, and almost against her will she pressed her muzzle again to the trail of ever-freshening nectar that was seeping from the soft inner core of Dancer, lapping away at both of the pink mare’s inner thighs.

Dancer drew in a shuddering breath and flagged her tail high to allow the smaller pet access to her, but even with the quickening pleasure firing in her, Dancer kept to her purpose and charged her horn with a low-powered spell that was all she could manage against the drain of the suit.

Light blue magic flowed out from one horn, gliding back over to the horn of another, where it made contact and linked the minds of the two ponies.

Hello Sparkles, came the thought from Dancer. Is this what you want?

I… was the gentle reply, and the pronoun made Cadance’s heart leap for joy. I don’t know.

Then let’s start there, Cadance responded, and began the task of bringing Twilight home. At long last.

First off, vast apologies for the delay in getting this completed. My mundane job has finally been hit by The Great Resignation and my crew is down 40%, which has meant back to back 6 day work weeks, leaving little time to write.

On top of that, my grandfather passed away last week at the age of 100. He had a long and full life. Husband, father, soldier, diplomat, businessman and world traveller. He was always the well rounded person I'm still striving to be, and I will miss him.

As for the story, here is where things begin to take a turn for the better for our heroine and next chapter will be happier indeed. Though we will be shifting our focus to Shining Armor's encounter with Nightmare Rarity for a good portion of it.