Shining Armor woke to complete and total blackness. He struggled for a few moments, trying to reach around for the light in his bedroom, wondering why his hooves didn’t seem to want to work. It wasn’t until he attempted to channel light from his horn and instead of light there was a powerful vibration in his ass, that he remembered what had happened.

He had found the Nightmare, and instead of the old friend of his sister, the lovely and generous fashionista known as Rarity, he had found a powerful mare whose abilities with latex and rubber were on a par with that of an alicorn. He had found the Nightmare, had challenged her, and had been soundly defeated by her.

And he was hers.

“Oh, is somepony awake?” purred a velvet voice in his ear, as if in response to his thoughts. “So needy, so virile, so mine.”

Shining Armor didn’t say anything. He was fully hooded, muzzled, and gagged. His tongue was completely pinned in place by a rubber plate over it, the plate held in place by the muzzle whose straps he could feel pressing tightly against his head, and the whole held in place by the latex hood that covered his eyes and all of his head except for his ears and nostrils.

The rest of him was similarly bound, the latex symbiote suit covering his body, with a rubber harness clamping down on top of it that both held his hooves tight against his body and maintained the position of his “second tail” in his body. Shining Armor held still as the tail plug slowly ran down to a stop, resisting the urge to groan or moan at the sensations.

“Oh We can’t have broken you that quickly,” chuckled the Nightmare, stroking Shining’s back all the way to his dock and causing his tail to rise involuntarily in its cuff. The fashionista that was part of his captor knew how a pony’s body moved and reacted, and knew how to manipulate those reactions. Combined with its total command of the symbiotes under her control, it made for a potent combination.

“Are you broken?” the Nightmare demanded, and Shining could hear the anger in her voice as a moment later she added, “answer me!”

Shining continued to keep still and quiet. He might be completely in Nightmare Rarity’s power, but that didn’t mean he belonged to her. If he couldn’t resist her physically, he could fight back in other ways. A determination that ended with the sound of something large swishing through the air followed a moment later by an explosive pain against his rump.

“WE SAID, ‘Are you broken yet?’,” the Nightmare demanded again, followed by another swish and crack of a whip exploding its cargo of agony on his ass.

“Nhh! Nhh!” Shining managed to grunt out, shaking his head as much as his bonds allowed him to.

“Good boy,” relented the Nightmare, rubbing the impact point; and the stallion could feel the pain ease into a warmth that he knew would soon be traveling directly to his balls. “And as much as We would love to keep playing with you, We have a promise to keep.”

Shining felt motion against the back of his head, followed by a loosening of the hood covering his face. Moments later cool night air drifted through his mane as the hood was removed entirely, and the stallion blinked as Luna’s moon shone down on the prairie, as bright as any sun to a pony whose eyes had seen no light for days.

“Glyk,” gasped the stallion, as the muzzle with its massive bit and gag were removed from his mouth. Shining made no attempt to move or speak, merely working his jaw and swallowing freely for the first time in what felt forever.

“You may speak, Shining Armor,” said the Nightmare, with an enigmatic smile beneath her cat-slitted teal eyes. “A promise is a promise, after all.”

“Buh… “ Shining began, swallowing again and taking another moment to remind his tongue. “But I failed. You were able to make me cum.”

“My dear Shining Armor, did you forget that We set a time limit?” the Nightmare asked, chuckling. Shining Armor could see the dangerously beautiful mare ignite her horn, but couldn’t see what she was doing.

“We did, but you woAAAAAAAnnnn,” Shining Armor whinnied out as the Nightmare slid the plug out of his ass and triggering a reaction that left the stallion at full mast and panting for breath.

“We did not. You lasted more than double the time requirement,” admitted the mare, cleaning the fat plug with her magic and giving its full rich tail a quick brush before putting it to one side. “You have earned the right to speak your piece.”

“So why have you been keeping me like this then?” Shining asked, as the Nightmare continued to unbind him, removing the shackles from his fetlocks.

“We said We would allow you to speak. To make your attempt to convince us to return with you, or to convince part of us to leave our union,” answered the Nightmare, whose eyes suddenly shifted to Rarity’s clear azure orbs. “We did not say when.”

“Rarity?” Shining asked, as the harness was lifted away from his body and put alongside the rest of the tack he had been wearing. “Is that you?”

“I’m here,” came Rarity’s voice from the mouth of the Nightmare’s form. “I’m why the Nightmare was willing to give you a chance in the first place. I’m why she’s not rampaging around the countryside, or why she’s not trying to go after Celestia or Luna.”

“Okay… “ Shining replied, thinking carefully and realizing that everypony had been laboring under a massive misconception. Everypony believed that Rarity was just being influenced by the Nightmare or that she was being controlled by it, much as Luna had been during her time as Nightmare Moon, but the truth seemed to be that the two had actually fused into a composite being. Two active minds sharing an augmented body with powerful magic.

“First off, how should I address you?” Shining asked, buying a bit of time with the question.

“Nightmare Rarity is the name We have chosen to represent our merging, and Our chosen pronouns are ‘We’ and ‘Us’ as We are a true diarchy. Two minds controlling and commanding a whole in synchronicity,” explained the mare as her eyes resumed their teal slit-pupiled appearance, and Shining’s own eyes went wide as Nightmare Rarity floated the flat circle of a suit’s control collar in front of him. “Lift your chin please.”

“Why collar me now?” Shining asked, but doing as he was bid. The silver circle becoming a solid pressure as it fused in place around his neck and the stallion felt a pulse of what felt like static electricity course over the whole of his body.

“Because the suit has been on you for more than three days now,” Nightmare Rarity responded, and Shining nodded as he realized the implications.

“It's bonded to me,” he stated, taking a moment to hold a foreleg in front of him to look at the mobile prison that would likely hold him for the rest of his life.

“Indeed,” confirmed the Nightmare, taking a moment to nip delicately on the tip of Shining’s ear before adding, with a sultry whisper, “And were you to leave our presence without a control collar your suit would revert to its default commands, binding you in place until somepony did collar you and make you theirs. As it is, this collar is one of Twilight’s reprogrammed ones, allowing you to command your own sheathe.”

“Thank you,” Shining Armor said, meaning it. “But why?”

“What do you mean, ‘Why?’ We have no particular hatred of you, and part of us has always considered you a fine stallion,” the mare’s breath was hot along the back of Shining Armor’s neck, and he schooled his cock to immobility as an image flashed into his mind of the powerful mare settling over his back and taking him again.

“Strong, virile, honourable and brave,” continued the mare standing over his prone body. “Though, as much as part of us had wished to leave you stumbling through the countryside in ignorance, another part of us is a predator, a hunter. And you do make for delicious prey.”

Shining shuddered as Nightmare Rarity deliberately slid her body back along the top of his own, her powerful forelegs compressing his barrel slightly as she moved back towards his thighs. A quick nip to his dock made him briefly clench his buttocks and served to stop his thinking processes while she moved back into his field of vision.

The mare knew exactly what she was doing to Shining Armor, and he could read it in the confident, powerful smile and the predatory glint in her eyes. She knew exactly what she wanted and had both the power and will to take whatever she desired. And she desired him.

“Why keep your promise to let me talk to you? Why not keep me bound and bridled as your plaything? You said it yourself, that I make for good prey,” Shining asked, keeping himself prone in case his words triggered something.

“DO NOT QUESTION OUR WORD,” thundered Nightmare Rarity, power crackling around her horn and coursing its way down to the ground along her body while no less than fifty symbiotes reared up in response to the sudden fury of their mistress. “WE SAID THAT WE WOULD ALLOW YOU TO SPEAK IF YOU MET OUR CONDITIONS. DO NOT MAKE US REGRET THAT.”

“Hey look, I’m sorry. But I had to be sure,” soothed the stallion.

“Sure of what?” shot back the still furious mare, shifting her weight from side to side like a fighter about to enter a bout.

“Sure that it really is two of you in that body. That you are both Rarity Belle and the Nightmare of Nightmare Moon,” the mare reared up as if to stomp the impudent pony at her hooves so Shining quickly added, “You’re a complete unknown to Equestria. Even Luna didn’t have any idea what you would be like. I had to be sure.”

“And now?” replied the Mistress of Symbiotes, arching an eyebrow at him. Shining Armor chose his next words very carefully.

“And now I’m sure that both of you are working together, each affecting the other. Becoming something that neither one of you was before,” he said, breathing a mental sigh of relief as the beautiful mare visibly calmed down even further. “Can I ask a question, so I can explain things to Twilight?”

“You may,” agreed the mare, and Shining was puzzled to see that strong and sure countenance show a brief flash of what looked like embarrassment.

“I get what Rarity got from you two coming together. Strength, power and protection of her mind, but did the Nightmare get?” Shining Armor asked.

“We do not like to speak of it, but the mare you knew says that We should be truthful to you,” the mare said, and again there was a moment when the poise and confidence gave way to something akin to… fear.

“Thank you for trusting me enough to talk about it,” Shining replied, in the calming voice he used around many of Cadance’s patients.

Restlessly, the mare paced back and forth in front of him. Uncertainty now clearly showing on her face, even as the gorgeous mass of the unicorn’s white streaked lilac tail lashed in clear agitation. Shining kept himself quiet and still, yet attentive. He was confident that the creature before him would speak, but only when she felt ready to.

“What We are about say is only for the ears of alicorns,” began the mare at last, stopping in her pacing to stand directly in front of the stallion. “We give you dispensation to hear these words as you are the consort of an alicorn and have aided in the creation of another.”

“I understand,” said Shining Armor. “Only myself, Twilight, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can know.”

“Correct,” stated the mare. “We do not like this. But We shall speak it. As you said, our joining with Rarity Belle was in answer to her plea for succor, as the foul enchantments of the symbiote that holds this body began to unravel her mind.”

“Wait,” interrupted Shining, tilting his head in curiosity. “Are you telling me that you’re trapped in a suit as well?”

“Indeed. And though our power gives us complete control over it, still is it bound to us as firmly as Rarity and the Nightmare are bound to each other,” replied the dark enchantress. “Now, if I may continue?”

“Please,” responded the stallion, gesturing with a hoof.

“Thank you,” said the mare, archly. “As We were saying; We answered Rarity’s call for aid, striking a bargain with her so that We could enable our fondest desire.”

“Which is?” Shining asked, unable to help himself.

“Ex— “ began Nightmare Rarity, before suddenly pausing and looking up into the clear night sky.

“What is –mMRph!” garbled Shining, in muffled protest as his own suit suddenly gagged him and bound his legs again.

“My apologies, we will have to discuss this later, for it seems we have a visitor,” replied the elegant mare, and Shining saw that all traces of uncertainty or fear had vanished. To be replaced by the returned look of a predator sighting prey.

“LET MY HUSBAND GO!” demanded Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, appearing suddenly in the air above the small area Shining Armor and Nightmare Rarity had spent the last few days.

“Come and take him,” replied the Nightmare, smiling broadly but stepping back from the bound stallion. “If you can.”

“Darn right I’m taking him,” Cadance fired back, descending into the small gulch, horn aglow and at the ready. “Don’t worry Honey, I’m h—urk!”

The moment that Cadance had descended to the point where she was even with the top of the gulch, a hundred thin black tentacles had shot toward the mare at lightning speed, wrapping around her limbs and body like a hundred steel cables. Cables which tightened until the Princess of Love was fully spread-eagled, with even her wings forced into a splayed out position.

“Let me go!” Cadance furiously shouted as she tried to thrash in her bonds, which stretched slightly but did not break.

“We doubt that would be advisable for our continued survival,” Nightmare Rarity calmly stated, and with a wave of her hoof another pair of tendrils wove their way around Cadance’s throat. “Surrender, before We are forced to hurt you.”

“Never!” Cadance yelled back, trying to charge her horn for a blast. A charge of magic that was drained away by the symbiotes almost faster than Cadance could summon it.

“Yield,” Nightmare Rarity commanded, and Shining thrashed in his own bonds, trying to come to the aid of his wife.

“Stronger than you have tried,” murmured the latex sorceress, as the symbiotes under her control began to lower their prize toward the floor of the gulch, even as they slowly tightened their grasp around the long slim throat of the pink alicorn.

“Yield, before We cut off your breath entirely,” Nightmare Rarity advised Cadance, stepping carefully to avoid the myriad taut tethers holding the alicorn as she was lowered to just above the ground.

“Ne—” Cadance managed to gasp out before the loops around her throat tightened to their fullest, cutting off the alicorn’s air.

“Surrender,” commanded the statuesque unicorn, even as her captive made a last desperate series of struggles. “Surrender before you pass out and the point is moot.”

Cadance gave one last mighty heave, stretching each of the hundred lines holding her, only to slump back down and nod in frantic surrender as the last of her air petered out. Gracious in victory, the predatory unicorn caused the strangling nooses around the alicorn’s throat to loosen, but only enough to allow her newest captive the ability to breathe.

Cadance hung limply in her bonds, gasping as she pulled air into oxygen starved lungs. Panting as the wraps around her throat further encased her neck, growing and thickening until they merged into a rigid collar that gripped her firmly from the top of her collarbones to the bottom of her jaw. The newly minted posture collar forced Cadance to look up toward her captor, who licked her lips in anticipation.

“You look so delicious like that,” purred the Nightmare, taking a moment to stroke Cadance’s mane, one of the few parts of her that remained unbound. “Don’t you agree, Prince Armor?”

A growled protest was all that came from the prostrate form of the stallion, though in truth, he always thought that Cadance looked wonderful in bondage. Some of the best sex they had shared was with her wearing a bridle and him holding the reins. To see her like this, stretched out and trapped like a fly in a web, made his cock twitch. A twitch that Nightmare Rarity was instantly aware of.

“Like that do you?” purred the dark unicorn, the glints in her slitted eyes matched by the glint of an angular silver crown she wore in her mane. “Perhaps We can reward you for being a good stallion.”

A moment later, the suit wrapped around Shining Armor’s body began to tug and stroke at his stallionhood, teasing it from its sheath into the waiting latex pocket that the suit had made for it. Shining tried to fight down the sensations, tried to school his cock into sinking back into his body, but after three days in Nightmare Rarity’s clutches both she and the suit Shining wore knew his body almost as well as he did, and it was only a minute or so later that his black coated maleness stood out from his body like some dark dagger, eager to plunge into warm flesh.

“Leave him alone. All we wanted to do was talk,” Cadance protested, having recovered enough air to speak.

“No,” countered the unicorn, leaning close to look Cadance directly in the face. “You came to separate Us. You came to destroy our bond and to kill the part of me that you hate and fear.”

“We came to bring back our friend! To bring Rarity back to the ponies who love her,” Cadance again protested, but noticing that Shining Armor was being dragged to a position directly beneath her.

“We believe you are lying, but We are no longer the sort of pony that kills or destroys just because We think We are right,” stated the dangerously beautiful pony, malice and beautiful elegance combined in every movement of her glorious mane.

“What are you going to—” Cadance’s words were cut off as Nightmare Rarity struck, driving forward to silence her captive with her own mouth.

The kiss was long, deep and powerful. Cadance was no stranger to the use of her tongue in a kiss or how others used theirs, but the oral muscle of Nightmare Rarity was on an entirely different level. The creature absolutely dominated the small arena the two of them fought in, binding and controlling Cadance’s tongue with her own.

Teasing and stroking every sensitive place in the alicorn’s mouth, while taking care not to probe too deeply and risk destroying the heavenly sensations with an accidental touch on the gag reflex. Were this another place and another time, Cadance would have happily surrendered herself to hours of kisses like this.

“We intend to fuck your brains out,” Nightmare Rarity said, drawing away slightly when she was done with the kiss. A thin string of saliva connected the two. “We want to fuck you until you are an obedient, biddable toy who has no thought other than to please her Mistress and only speak the deepest truths to her.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Cadance fired back, doing her best to ignore the fact that the kiss alone had kindled a fire in her loins.

“Why, thank you,” responded the unicorn, before driving back in to plunder Cadance’s mouth anew. The kiss was just as overwhelmingly pleasurable as the first one was, and this time Cadance didn’t even try to hold back her moaned response. It wasn’t until the very end of the kiss that a round something intruded and the alicorn remembered what Nightmare Rarity had said she was going to do to her.

“Athhh wath uu oo?” Cadance demanded, trying to pronounce words and failing, her mouth held in the open position by a ring of reinforced latex that had formed behind her front teeth.

“That ring gag will keep your mouth open and available until We are ready to use it, without all that mindless chatter you seem to enjoy,” Nightmare Rarity answered, as the strap holding the gag in place tightened into immovability and centered its black ring around a flickering pink tongue.

“And if We are going to be playing games with your mouth at some point, best We allow your head some movement,” continued the unicorn, reducing the tethers around the captive mare’s throat to a single wide band.

Once more able to move her neck, Cadance looked down to where her husband lay. Nightmare Rarity had full control of his suit and he now lay fully beneath her, facing upwards so that the two could look at each other. The alicorn gave Shining Armor a slight nod of reassurance and to her surprise he winked back up at her.

A moment later though Cadance gasped in surprise as something thick, meaty and familiar began to probe at her folds. A quick look back down and Cadance could see her husband give a small shake of his head, followed a second later by his eyes half-rolling back into his head, and Cadance aspirated a protest at what Nightmare Rarity was doing to them.

“That’s right, my tasty morsel. We are going to use your own husband as our tool to break and tame you to our service,” purred the sensual sorceress, guiding Shining Armor’s painfully erect cock toward her entrance.

Both husband and wife tried to struggle, to escape, to do anything other than what the Nightmare had planned for them, but it was useless. Cadance’s body was still held in its network of straps and cables, while Shining was all but fully encased in the latex symbiote around him, and both were under Nightmare Rarity’s complete control.

Cadance gasped and whinnied as Shining’s thick, strong cock spread apart her folds with ease and her body began to react as it had a thousand times before to the powerful presence that given her a foal and so many, many hours of pleasure. If anything Shining felt even thicker than he ever had before.

“Like that do you?” crooned Nightmare Rarity, stroking the outside of Cadance’s hips, as Shining Armor began to sink deeper and deeper into his princess.

Cadance writhed and shuddered as her husband’s strong and virile maleness began to probe her depths. Involuntarily, she pushed herself further down on that wonderful shaft and was rewarded by the latex covering around his cock starting to pulse and vibrate. Cadance whinnied in protest as Shining’s stallionhood briefly retreated, only to whinny again in joy as her husband pushed back into her.

Cadance looked down at her husband, saw the slightly glazed over look in his eyes, and knew that his mind was retreating into the mindlessness of the rut, the pure act of a stallion mating his mare. How could he not? He was already pressed halfway into his deeply loved wife, and not only was he feeling her body welcome him, but the latex around him was driving his body to react in the exact way that it wanted to go.

“Yes. Shining obeys us, and We have commanded that he shall be our tool in your breaking and taming,” declared the dark unicorn, settling her own hips behind the pair, even as her mental commands caused the latex around the duo to bind them together.

“You will obey us,” whispered Nightmare Rarity, and Cadance would have voiced a protest, but at that moment her husband chose to drive his medial ring through her entrance, driving the thought from her mind.

Cadance felt her own mind beginning to sink into the special place it went whenever she and Shining had a truly special time together. The place she went where there was no Cadance, no Mi Amore Cadenza, no Princess of Love. Just a mare giving herself to her stallion in the ancient dance of male and female that had started when the world was young and would hopefully continue long after it was dust among the stars.

Shining was thrusting with steady purpose now, driving a little deeper with each push, spreading her a little wider with every forward press of his vibrating love tool. Each time he pressed forward he drove Cadance’s mind a little lower, a little further toward the growing vision in her mind of a submissive and ready mare willingly giving herself to the attentions of her lord and master, the stallion covering her.

Except… wasn’t Shining under her, and Nightmare Rarity on top of her?

“Time to concentrate your mind,” breathed the Nightmare, and Cadance’s vision went black as a tide of latex flowed upwards from her collar to cover her entire head, except for her mouth and nose.

The sudden loss of vision, combined with the steady fucking she was receiving, completely undid whatever coherent thoughts Cadance had been trying form as she tried to maintain her mental equilibrium. A balance that was even further titled toward mindlessness when she felt her head being pulled down. There was a pressure against her lips, a sudden “click” sensation, and a warm and wet tongue greeted her own as it ventured out past its own guardian ring of latex.

Cadance knew the taste of that tongue, even as she knew the feel of the cock that was now pumping its full length into her. Her stallion has now fully connected to her, by mouth and by cock. She might not be able to see, her sense of smell might be blocked by the odour of latex, but her body knew the taste and touch of the stallion, and where the body went, the mind began to follow.

“Obey,” came the command in her ear, as a second source of pressure began to make itself known at her delicate rosebud. The mare tried to whinny again in response, but the connection of her gag to that of her stallion muffled the sound greatly as a steadily thickening shaft began to flow down her forbidden passage, matching the thick pulsing cock that was driving her toward ecstasy.

“Obey,” whispered the voice, sliding its way past lowered defences, infiltrating bastions of will, riding the tides of pleasure that had the mind of the double dicked mare awash in a sea of erotic bondage.

“Obey,” whispered the voice again, as the second shaft began to pump in and out in time with the first, grinding the thin wall of flesh between them, and igniting the nerves there into a bonfire of pleasure.

“Obey,” gently commanded the voice of the mare’s mistress, as it took command of the bound alicorn, mind and body both, orgiastic pleasure surging through all three ponies as together they reached for their peaks.

“Obey!” shouted the voice, the body it was attached to hilting fully inside of the captured mare, even as the enslaved stallion matched the voice by driving as far as he could into his mate. All three ponies held themselves in that position for a long heartbeat, as every muscle locked in the glorious rictus of orgasm firing every single nerve of the trio simultaneously.

Despite being completely blindfolded, the bound mare was blinded by what seemed like
an explosion of light, and as that thunderous detonation behind her hooded eyes faded, it took the mare with it into gloriously sexually fulfilled unconsciousness, with her last thought a recognition of a single word spoken again into her ears.

“Obey.”

Cadance didn’t know how much time had passed while she was out, but she did know that the sun was up, though it had not risen high enough in the sky to cast its light into the bottom of the gulch. Instinctively, she tried to move, only to find that her every motion was resisted by springy latex cables that had been anchored to the ground all around and attached to a harness that had been woven about her body in an interlocking diamond pattern.

“Ah, our newest possession is awake at last,” said Nightmare Rarity, striding into view. “You and your stallion had a hard night, but you will find that We are not needlessly cruel.”

Looking to one side, Cadance saw her husband; he was also tethered to the ground as she was, but only by the silver control collar around his neck.

“Do not attempt to speak as yet,” commanded the mare of dark sensual arts, as she removed first Cadance’s and then Shining’s headgear, including bits and muzzles.

“Drink,” the mare ordered, and obediently both captive ponies allowed themselves to be watered by latex symbiotes forming themselves into walking bowls of water.

“Eat,” commanded their captor, and both ponies found honeyed oat cakes presented to their hungry mouths, which disappeared within seconds into empty stomachs.

“Now my Cadance, lift your neck so that We may collar you as part of our herd,” stated the dark unicorn, floating a silver collar with elegant filigree into Cadance’s sight. It was a lovely piece of jewelry combined with an understated solidness, and Cadance was sure that once around her neck, it would never come off again.

“No,” replied Princess Cadance, in an apologetic but polite tone of voice. “It’s very lovely, but Shining Armor is the only pony who can collar me.”

“What?!” replied the unicorn, cat-like eyes wide in shock. “But… but We broke you. Drove you into obedience to our will by mazing your mind with pleasure.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” replied Cadance, sitting easily and reveling in how the elastic harness she was wearing felt around her body. “Last night was some of the best sex I’ve ever had. And the way you marehandled me into obeying you? Loved every minute of it.”

“But… you are not broken to our will?” asked Nightmare Rarity once more, looking from one pony to the other.

“I’m the Princess of Love, and I’ve experienced more ways to make love than most ponies can ever dream of. It would take a lot more than a single night of sex to break me,” Cadance replied, before adding with a smoldering look, “no matter how mind blowing it was.”

“Like I said, we only came here to talk. And I now that I’ve had time to think, I notice that you’ve been asking ponies all along,” stated Shining Armor, smiling kindly. “You took me up on my challenge. You didn’t touch Caddy until she said she’d like to see you try to fuck her brains out. You’ve been asking ponies for permission to do things to them, and doing so, done your best to not be a monster.”

“We see,” replied the dark unicorn, power swirling around her, and both bound ponies could see something akin to panic in the otherworldly gaze in those nightmare eyes. “As you say, We are not a monster and as We are unwilling to slay you to protect ourselves, We shall flee back into the wilds, before Celestia or Luna come to end us.”

The dark herd gathered around their mistress as she began to turn away, save for two pony shaped symbiotes who took up positions on either side of the couple, and Shining and Cadance shared a look that carried an entire conversation in the space of a few seconds.

“Our symbiotes will release you once We have made our escape,“ the unicorn paused, the uncertainty in the lines of her body a terrible wrongness on a mare who up till now had been so strong and sure. “Tell Twilight that We miss her, and that part of us still loves her, while the other part respects her as a worthy foe.”

“Wait!” cried Cadance, straining against the elastic cords holding her to stretch out a hoof toward the creature who was both mare and nightmare. “Celestia and Luna are already here. They’ve been watching me ever since I got here.”

“What?” demanded the unicorn, silver highlights flashing as she looked around with something akin to panic.

“I made them swear not to interfere,” Cadance continued, the words pouring out of her mouth. “Made them promise not to do anything unless it either looked like you were going to kill us or you were going to run away again.”

“Then this is the end,” responded Nightmare Rarity, collapsing to the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut. “This is how We die.”

“Die?” asked Shining Armor, somewhat confused. “Nopony wants to kill you. I’m not even sure you can be killed.”

“Shining Armor, before your wife intruded We were going to answer a question you posed to us. The question of what the Nightmare gained from the joining,” answered the unicorn, setting aside the elegant coronet she wore in her mane. “The answer is, ‘existence’. The part of us that is the Nightmare requires a host to exist. To think, to feel, to be. Without it, We are a formless spirit. Vaguely aware of the passage of time and the events of the world, but little else. It is not death. It is solitary confinement in a silent prison made of smoked glass and mirrors. It is a living death.”

“But Celestia—” began Cadance, only to be interrupted by the despondent creature before her.

“Wants to banish the part of us that is the Nightmare. Back to that unliving, undead hell of silence. Away from the life that We had for a thousand years with Luna. Away from the renewed life We have with Rarity,” sighing, the unicorn released both Cadance and Shining with a mere toss of her head. “They cannot use the Elements of Harmony on us, because one of the Bearers is part of us, which means they must slay one or both of us to rid the land of our presence.”

“Celestia and Luna aren’t vindictive. They don’t hate you,” Cadance said, standing up and taking a moment to help her husband up as well. “Well, Luna might hold a grudge, but she doesn’t want to kill you.”

“They are Princesses of Equestria, and they will do what they feel is best for the land,” replied Nightmare Rarity, and the eyes of Rarity looked back out at her friends from beneath the ethereal mane of the dark sorceress. “Call the princesses, Shining Armor. Let’s at least make it quick.”

“We are sorry, Rarity,” said the Nightmare aloud to its partner. “We have failed you.”

“What if there was another way?” Shining Armor asked, shooing aside symbiotes to lay beside the mare who had done wonderful and terrible things to him. Things that even now threatened to make his maleness rise to the occasion. “What if me and Cadance were to take responsibility for you?”

“We are who and what we are,” replied Nightmare Rarity, reaching out to glide a hoof along Shining’s jaw. “We shall miss this simple pleasure. But in the end, even We know We must be put down, for it is ever in our nature to attempt to conquer and rule, to dominate and control. When We are gone, tell Celestia and Luna We hold no malice towards them, and We absolve them of our deaths.”

“Hang on, you just said that you are driven to ‘dominate and control, to conquer and rule’,” said Cadance, moving to flank the statuesque unicorn on her other side. “But you’ve been running on your own for weeks now. You haven’t tried to do any of that, except with ponies that you asked to do it with.”

“In a bit of a domineering kind of way,” supplied Shining, with a laugh. “Cadance is right though. What if you came home… with us.”

“What are you saying, Shining Armor?” asked Nightmare Rarity, looking up with sudden hope.

“What my husband is saying, is what if you came home, as a partner in our marriage?” Cadance asked, and a sudden magical breeze sprung up out of nowhere, fey lights dancing in its currents.

“We cannot submit,” cautioned the unicorn, exquisite tail lashing. “It is not that We are unwilling, it is that We are simply unable.”

“Then we’ll submit to you,” Shining Armor stated, and Nightmare Rarity’s eyes went wide in shock.

“You would do this?” the unicorn asked, nay begged, as she looked from one pony to the other. “You would allow me to bind you, control you, collar you as our beloved possessions.”

“Within certain limits, of course,” Cadance smoothly replied, drawing a suspicious look from the unicorn. “I am a mother, and that has to come first. But other than that… did I mention that last night was some of the best sex I’ve ever had?”

“You did, and both of us find your limit more than reasonable,” responded Nightmare Rarity. “Are there any other requirements or restrictions?”

“There’s minor ones, like living in peace with Equestria, but the only other major one, is that you have to let us work on finding a way to separate the two of you that lets you both live full lives,” Shining Armor added. “Can you accept that?”

“Considering that the alternative is death and worse. Yes, We accept your terms,” stated the dark unicorn. “We place ourselves in your hooves.”

“We are yours to command, Mistress,” responded Cadance with a smile, as her magic levitated Nightmare Rarity’s discarded coronet and returned it to its place among the unicorn’s white and lilac tresses. “Let’s go home.”

Once again, a chapter of this story kicks my ass goes much longer than intended. This was mainly due to my wanting to resolve things as soon as possible. Well, less resolve than stabilize things. There will continue to be fallout from these events as Twilight's adventures continue to change her friends and her world.

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