Like something out of the old tales, the Twilight Guard thundered through the skies on their way toward Canterlot, with Dashiel and the princess in the lead. The afternoon sun glinted off both their barding and the armour of the sky chariots being used to carry along the earth ponies and unicorns of Twilight’s force, until they looked like a stream of stars in a daylit sky.

“You sure you want us to be this obvious?” Dashiel asked, as she flew in formation with Twilight. The pegasus’ eyes were looking all around, scanning both air and ground for threats.

“I want us to look like we’re here to help, not attack,” was Twilight’s reply, her eyes locked on the gleaming city on the mountainside. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be ready for a fight.”

“Odds are we are going to have to fight at some point, Ma’am,” Dashiel replied, and Twilight could hear the caution in Dashiel’s experienced voice. “No sense in letting the other pony have an advantage if we don’t have to give them one.”

“We don’t know what we’ll be— “ Twilight broke off as a pale blue light flashed up from below. The light blinked in a steady pattern meant to catch the eye.

“Captain—” Twilight began.

“I see it,” Dashiel replied instantly, and with a single motion ordered the force of armed and armored ponies down toward the flashing signal.

“Thank goodness you spotted my light,” Princess Cadance was saying, barely a minute later as she hugged Twilight with latex coated forelegs.

“I told you she’d come this way,” Shining Armor added smugly, his own symbiote suit contrasting boldly with his white fur.

Cadance had been wearing one of the suits almost since Twilight had first brought them back, using it to spice up her love life after she’d learned that they were one of the only things capable of restraining her even when she fully exerted herself. Shining’s suit however, had been a “gift” from Nightmare Rarity, who had become the second mare of their triad relationship and possibly, marriage.

“I was told you had been sent back to the Crystal Empire,” Twilight said, extending her hug to include her brother. “You know, by Regent Rarity?”

“She did tell us to leave and we decided to obey to give her a chance to settle what we could tell was an inner conflict between herself and the Nightmare,” Cadance replied, dropping the hug. “She kept on flipping between one extreme and the other, and we could feel whatever was affecting her starting to work on us, so we got out while we still could.”

“Things have been strange in Ponyville as well,” Twilight responded, before launching into a recounting of everything that had gone since she had last seen the pair.

“Cubes of vacuum sealed latex, combined with near total sensory deprivation?” Cadance asked, eyes going wide at Twilight’s confirming nod. “Twilight, more than anything else you’ve been through, that could have broken you, broken any pony. You’re very lucky Beatrix was there to give you at least some sensory input.”

“And now that we know the Self-Directing Rewriter works, we can use it on other ponies the suits have broken in one way or another,” Shining Armor declared, prancing a bit at how well his device had worked.

“We’ll see,” Twilight replied, feeling the by now familiar nugget of anger forming in her breast.

“Twilight? What’s wrong?” Cadance asked, head tilting in curiosity and concern.

“My ponies,” was the growled reply, followed by a very shocked looking Twilight at what had just come out of her own mouth. “I mean, uh… I’m sorry, that just sort of slipped out.”

“Twilight, have you been feeling… possessive, lately?’ Cadance asked, looking over at her husband.

“Yeah,” the younger alicorn admitted, scuffing a hoof in embarrassment. “I just keep getting these thoughts. That everyone in Ponyville belongs to me, and I’m responsible for them, and how dare somepony do something to MY ponies WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!”

Twilight slammed a hoof over her mouth as she realized she’d shouted the last part aloud. Shouted it into the face of her brother and his wife. Two of the ponies that she loved most in the world.

“It’s okay,” Cadance assured her sister-in-law. “It sort of fits with what we were seeing in Canterlot. Everypony seemed to have picked an emotion associated with desire and taken it to the extreme. Lust, joy, rage, possession, dominance, submission… all of it.”

“And you think I’ve been affected by this as well?” Twilight asked, drawing nods from both ponies.

“We’ve all been affected, just in different amounts,“ Shining stated. “The one good thing about Noxy being in charge is that her suits have kept things from going from strange to dangerous.“

Twilight barely managed to avoid a giggle at the nickname.

“What’s really strange is that before we left I could swear I was picking up traces of changeling magic everywhere,” Cadance added, smiling as she saw Twilight holding back a laugh. “This isn’t Chrysalis’ style though, and believe me, I spent enough time wearing her chains to know. Her schemes don’t usually involve so many ponies.”

“Huh,” was Twilight’s response, chewing her inner lip in thought. “Dashiel, what do you think?”

“I think we need to get you into Canterlot, ASAP,” Dashiel stated plainly. “We need to get you on the throne running things, while the rest of us look for the Princesses, Derpy, and any changelings, or their artifacts.”

“Good thinking, Dashiel,” Shining replied, approvingly. “It doesn’t have to be changelings affecting ponies. It could just be something made by them.”

“Right, we should get going,” Twilight said, her Guard instantly ready to take back to the air. “Are you coming with us?”

“No, it’s best if we stay here as either a fallback position for you, or a backup in case you need more magic,” the former guard captain replied, shaking his head. “Feel free to send ponies our way if you need to though.”

“Thanks BBBFF,” Twilight said, hugging her brother once more. “I know I can always count on you.”

“Be safe,” Shining Armor whispered. “I’ve only got one LSBFF.”

“Uh, Shining?” Twilight asked, eyebrow raised. “Did you just poke me with your…”

“Sorry,” Shining Armor responded, with an embarrassed grimace. “Damn thing has been rising to the occasion everytime I get near a mare late— urk!”

Shining Armor’s words were cut off by the rubber bit attached to the bridle that Cadance was quickly and firmly wrapping around his head with her magic.

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Cadance stated, a lustful smile manifesting on her face as she clipped a pair of reins to her stallion’s headgear. “I’ve got this naughty boy well in hoof. He should be fine in a few minutes… Maybe an hour. Two, at most.”

The sound of Dashiel’s hoof striking her forehead made a “clop” sound that echoed across the clearing, as Twilight tried to decide if she wanted to die from embarrassment or laughter while the rest of her guard suddenly found very interesting things to look at in the sky or on the ground by their hooves.

“I’ll uh… let you take care of Shining,” Twilight said, before realizing how it sounded. “I mean things! Take care of things. Yes!”

Cadance sent Twilight a smouldering glance over her shoulder was she led Twilight’s very willing and obvious able brother back to her tent, “Any time you want to come by Twilight, I’ll be more than happy to take care of you too.”

Twilight leaped skyward, her Guard following close behind and no pony spoke a word until the capital city of Equestria drew near less than half an hour later..

“I don’t get it,” Twilight asked Dashiel, pointing to the nearly empty streets below them. “Where is everypony? For that matter, where are all the symbiotes that Nightmare Rarity controls?”

“Dead ahead!” yelled Dashiel, and Twilight jerked her gaze back upwards to see a phalanx of perhaps two dozen symbiotes gliding in towards them. The entities of living latex could reshape themselves into almost any configuration, but they lacked the muscularity of actual ponies, which meant while they could fly, they were far better gliders than powered fliers.

Thinking quickly, Twilight created a vast flyswatter with her magic and batted the oncoming group to the ground with a single swipe of the conjured tool. The symbiotes, having no real internal organs, took about as much damage from the impact as a sheet of paper fluttering to the ground would, which suited Twilight just fine.

“Left and right!” Dashiel called, pointing out two more groups of the ebony entities coming in from the sides. Even as Dashiel said the words though, both sets of symbiotes turned, appearing content to take up an escorting position alongside and some distance away from Twilight’s formation.

“We can take them down pretty easy,” Dashiel stated, waiting on his commander to give the order. “They could be waiting for more groups to close in on us.”

“We’ll be at the palace in another minute or two,” Twilight replied, a rare feral smile on her face. “They couldn’t stop us now even if they wanted to.”

Dashiel didn’t like it, but after nodding in acknowledgement she signalled the Guard to be ready for anything, and a bare ninety seconds later Twilight, Dashiel, along with Sun Spear and Shadow Shield, burst into the throne room through one of its many windows while the rest of Twilight's ponies flew cover overhead.

“Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up,” said the elegant nightmare unicorn, seated on Celestia’s throne. “Are you here to kick us out of this very comfortable chair?”

Nightmare Rarity was the fusion of Rarity’s sense of style and elegance, merged with the power and vitality of the Nightmare, giving the tall and elegant mare an unearthly beauty that drew every eye in the room. She was quite literally, bewitching.

“Don’t even try it,” Twilight growled, sensing rather than seeing a dozen latex symbiotes approaching from either side.

“Our orders from the Empress were to keep everything as it was,” purred the unicorn, the white and pale lilac cascade of her mane somehow empowering the dual mare’s words. “Just hold still and let our drones encase you in a world of infinite pleasure. We promise you will be well cared for.”

“Where’s Derpy?” Twilight demanded, letting the anger flow. “Where is Celestia and Luna? Tell me!”

“We don’t know,” replied Nightmare Rarity, getting off Celestia’s throne and levitating a virtual swarm of cuffs, shackles, hobbles and other bondage paraphernalia in her aura. “Thankfully, we know all of your sizes, so these should fit all of you perfectly.”

“NO!” shouted Twilight, manifesting a shield that stopped the incoming gear cold. “Maybe we should put them on you instead.”

“If you insist,” stated the Nightmare, bowing her head. “But none of these are in our size, or style.”

To Twilight’s shocked surprise the tall unicorn then placed a sack of white silk in front of Twilight’s shield.

“Now then, these have all been made to my size and taste,” Nightmare Rarity continued, in that throaty purr. “Enameled silver cuffs, collar, a full body harness, and naturally, a bridle. Ensuring that we only move in the ways that you desire.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked, completely confused by the sudden submissive turn of events.

“I… We, need you to stop us,” the Nightmare begged, appearing unsure and vulnerable for the first time in Twilight’s memory. “We don’t want to break the promise we made to our herd, but we were commanded to control everything, and we know how we are doing it isn’t right, but we don’t know any other way and our Rarity is trying to help but it’s so confus—”

The click of a tall silver collar set with diamonds closing around her jet black neck cut off the Nightmare’s increasingly incoherent ramble.

“Kneel,” Twilight commanded, embracing the feelings of dominance and control that had been filling her since she’d arrived in the throne room, but even she wasn’t sure if the strength in her voice came from her magic, her desires, or her need to gain control of the situation and the beautiful mare in front of her.

“Yes, Mistress,” acknowledged Nightmare Rarity, sinking down on her forelegs. It took less than a minute for Twilight to bind the beautiful unicorn in a web of silver and steel, and true to her word, the items fit perfectly and suited the unicorn's coloration and style, right down to the large amethysts set in the ends of the plugs that the now locked on harness was holding inside of her.

“Thank you, Mistress,” said the Nightmare, touching her nose to the floor. “We submit to you.”

“Good,” growled Twilight, noting that every symbiote that had been in the room was now gone. “Now, tell me where Derpy took the princesses, or barring that, where you think she might have gone with them.”

“We are unsure, but she may have—” the mare was cut off as two ponies entered the room, with Twilight's parents on the end of a leash.

“We found Twilight’s—” an exact copy of Sun Spear was saying, as he and a duplicate Shadow Shield dragged the suited and muzzled forms of Night Light and Twilight Velvet into the throne room.

Twilight’s mind froze as it tried to catch up with what her now very wide eyes were showing her. Both of her parents were encased in symbiotic latex control suits, complete with silver control collars, and from the sound of the moans escaping from both muzzles the suits were fully engaged in their standard protocol of breaking ponies into complete obedience through a cycle of sexual gratification and denial.

Dashiel reacted first, and using a pair of swift motions, sent the Sun Spear and Shadow Shield that Twilight had brought with her from Ponyville cascading head over hooves into their twins.

“Changelings,” hissed the experienced soldier, jump-starting Twilight’s brain as it recalled Cadance’s comment about sensing the slippery magic of the emotivoric species.

The doubled images of Sun Spear and Shadow Shield collided with each other, crashing into a heap, and as they did their forms melted and blurred into the forms of four red changeling drones.

“Red?” Twilight asked aloud, and even as she asked the question one of the drones put up a shield of scarlet energy.

“Quick!” exclaimed the one creating the shield. “Grab as many as you can and get out of here!”

The other three changelings lit their horns and from all around the throne room carmine flashes of light flared and popped as dozens of small crystals were teleported from their resting places around the throne room to land by the changelings' hooves.

“Wait! What is going on?” demanded Nightmare Rarity, suddenly standing tall in her harness and bridle. “Why are we wearing these… ung, things?”

The dark enchantress rearing upwards pulled sharply on the reins of her bridle, drawing Twilight off balance and causing her to stumble and nearly fall, before she managed to reassert her control over Nightmare Rarity through the leverage the reins and bridle gave her over the taller mare.

“Why have you bound us?” roared the tall unicorn.

“Because you sub—” Twilight began, growling in frustration as the quartet of imposters disappeared, having used the distraction to good advantage. “Because you submitted to me just now. Don’t you remember?”

“I… We… “ Nightmare Rarity began, harness tinkling as the mare shifted back and forth a bit. The tinkling grew into a regular chiming as the mare’s hips started to find a rhythm against the plugs the harness was holding inside of her. “Could you please get this off of us? It’s hard to think with… Please?”

“Seeing as you asked,” Twilight replied with a smile, feeling a lightness in her chest she realized she hadn’t felt in a good long while. “But the collar stays on until I say so.”

“Yes Missssssstresssss,” hissed the elegant mare, as Twilight’s magic pulled out one, then the second bejeweled shaft from their soft and sensitive homes.

“I’d normally give you a moment, but we need to know where Derpy, Luna and Celestia are as fast as possible,” Twilight gently insisted, carefully removing the rest of the Nightmare’s tack.

“Sun Spear and Shadow—” Nightmare Rarity began, before correcting herself. “The changelings. They suggested that the Empress and her slaves go to the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot. Looking back, we have no idea why any of us agreed with them. It just seemed natural to follow their suggestions.”

“They were messing with your head, right along with everypony else. Suggestions are harder to fight against than outright mind control,” Dashiel said, and Twilight could see that they were almost completely alone in the throne room now. “Something trying to get you to do something you would never do? You know to fight against that, but a suggestion? That slides in under your defences. Makes you think it was your own idea in the first place.”

“That doesn’t explain why we did the things we did however,” stated the Nightmare.

“You’re two mares in one,” Twilight explained, gaining a greater understanding now that she realized her own emotional and intellectual processes had been affected by the changeling devices. “Because you are both the Nightmare and Rarity, you kept flip flopping from one set of thoughts and desires to the other. Usually you come to either a decision or a compromise within yourself, but with those things working on all of us you weren’t able to do that.”

“But what did they want?” demanded the dark and lovely unicorn. “They could have placed all of us in those horrid pods of theirs, molding us into willing food for the whole of the changeling swarm and none of us would have raised a hoof in protest. Instead, turned all of us into some sort of unending cavalcade of sexual escapades.”

“Something I plan on asking them,” replied Twilight, feeling the anger grow in her breast again. This time however, it was an anger tempered by her insatiable curiosity.

“Have we your permission to recall the symbiotes that we are able to reach?” Nightmare Rarity asked, dipping her head deferentially.

“Why are you asking— oh!” replied Twilight, remembering that she had collared the dual entity before her. The Nightmare had proven in the past that she took her words seriously, allowing them to bind her as tightly as the harness had bound her body. “Yes, recall as many of them as you can reach. Thank you.”

“I’ve sent everypony on a sweep for more of those funky crystals,” Dashiel added. “I’m betting there’s a lot more of them all over Canterlot, and Ponyville as well.”

“Right, stand beside me Dashiel,” Twilight ordered, extending a wing. “I’ll teleport us both down to the caverns.”

“Yes Ma’am, but aren’t you forgetting something?” Dashiel asked, extending her war wing to point toward the still suited and muzzled forms of Twilight’s parents.

“Oh PONYFEATHERS!” Twilight exclaimed, her face going red from pure embarrassment.

“Go,” Nightmare Rarity said, waving a hoof. “We shall take care of them on your behalf.”

Fitting actions to words, the latex sorceress deftly used her magic to remove the muzzles from Twilight’s parents. Twilight’s eyes bulged slightly at the length of the gag that had been forced down her mother’s throat.

“Go on,” Night Light said, his own voice rough from the latex shaft that had been suppressing his own vocal cords for an unknown length of time. “We’ll be fine.”

“If anything happens to them… “ Twilight cautioned, which garnered rolling from a pair of sapphire eyes.

“The collar is still on,” Nightmare Rarity said with a smirk, tapping the diamond studded silver collar locked to her neck. “Though it cost us our lives, they shall be safe.”

Twilight’s only answer was a flash of her magic as she teleported herself and Dashiel to caverns where Princess Cadance had once been held captive by Chrysalis.

Wait... red changelings? Oh, this can't be good. Or can it?

Also, would write more of an afterword, but I have nasty cold and am typing this while surrounded by tissues, cold meds and hot drinks.