During the night Long Strider had laid out his plans for getting Rarity home. They would run hard, fast and light. With as little gear as possible to keep their endurance, especially Rarity’s, up. Supply caches with water and salt licks every couple of hours travel would be laid out, plus he would try to leave word at the border of their intent. After that, they had chatted about neutral subjects, except for one.

The bridle on her. Rarity had asked Long Strider if he could remove the bridle. Even for a couple of hours. His answer had chilled her. “Ah’m sorry, girl, if Ah could, Ah would,” Long Strider had said, “but to remove the bridle from you, without the proper release crystal, would kill you. To say it fancy, the thing is fastened on to your soul. The only other way the bridle will also come off, is on its own. That happens when it breaks your will or you give yourself up to being Valiente. Side Slip, he didn’t give, he broke.”

Long Strider had brought Rarity back to the training area at dawn, just as Raarg’s pack was beginning to discover that their charge was no longer where they had left her. Together, he and Rarity had trotted up to the training pen as if nothing was wrong. But Rarity could see the frantic motions of Raarg’s pack searching for her and it made her a little happy to see her captors in a panic.

“Well, boys,” said Long Strider broadly as he walked up, Rarity in tow on the improvised lead, “it would appear that y’all seem to have somethin’ go missing. Maybe myself and this lovely mare should go take a look for it?” The fearful cry of “NO!” was all Rarity could have wished for. At least until Raarg arrived a few minutes later.

Rarity had wondered where Raarg had been overnight. Her wonder grew as she took in the disheveled mess that was Raarg this morning. Even during the chase and fight with her, Raarg had always been clean, neat, even fastidious. Not once had she ever doubted that he was a leader. Everything about his carriage, speech and dress had put forward the image of a confident, determined individual. Rarity might hate what he was trying to do to her, but she had respect for him as an individual.

This Raarg, however, was nothing like the dog she had come to know. Unkempt, his fur a mess. His eyes were red and rheumy. Worse, he smelled. He smelled of cheap alcohol and vomit. Worst of all, was the despair that was gathered around him like a thundercloud.

“By Luna, Raarg,” gasped Long Strider, “what’s happened?” Wordlessly, Raarg passed Long Strider a folded up, tear stained piece of paper. Long Strider unfolded the paper and read the contents. Tears suddenly filled his eyes and began to flow down his face.

“May they always find water and shade,” he said, “may our parents always be guided by Luna’s light, may they run forever in Elysium.” It was an epitaph.

“Fuck Luna,” cursed Raarg in a bitter voice, astonishing everyone around him. “Fuck her, and fuck us for being in awe of her. Luna neither knows or cares that we exist and it’s high time we acted like dogs not ponies. The Alpha was right, the only thing a pony is good for, is being our property.” He swiped the lead to Rarity out of Long Strider’s numb paw and turned toward the pens, dragging a now frightened Rarity with him.

“By the way, Long,” Raarg said over his shoulder, “The dog who killed them had been driven berserk by the Blight. He died an hour later, foaming at the mouth. There isn’t even anyone to take vengeance on. Now get out of here. I don’t want to see you again.” Long Strider hurried off, his face a mask of grief and pain.

Rarity had literally dug in her heels after Raarg had taken her lead. She had seen the despair in his eyes and carriage turn to rage. And it scared her. Raarg realized he was literally dragging Rarity along on her hooves and walked back to the terrified mare.

“You said you would not run and yet you are found wandering the camp. I am very disappointed in you….Rarity,” he said evenly. As the trigger word was said, the bridle once more crackled with eldritch power, smiting the unicorn off her feet. As the shock began to wear off Raarg bent down and said, “Are you going to be obedient...Rarity?”

For a second time the lightnings danced and crackled around the mare. Rarity’s universe was a white expanse of agony as she shook and convulsed on the ground. Then, with exaggerated slowness Raarg bent close for yet a third time saying, “Are you going to run anymore…Rar-”

“NO!”, screamed Rarity, interrupting Raarg, “Please, Raarg, no. I won’t run. I will be-”

Raarg put a hand over her muzzle and said in a harsh voice, “I will give you one chance to say that properly. Because I am kind.”

Rarity looked into Raarg’s eyes and saw no pity, no kindness. Whatever regrets or misgivings he had felt before regarding his duties was gone. It had been slowly eaten away by the darkness of his task and blotted away by personal tragedy. With the death of Raarg’s conscience, so too died any sympathy Rarity held for the dog. All she could do now was try to survive his attentions. Which meant acting for all she was worth.

In the weakest, most pitiful voice she could muster Rarity said, “Please master. Valiente will be good and obey master. Valiente will not run.” She stretched her fore hoofs out to just touch the paws Raarg was standing on. “Please do not punish Valiente further master,” she begged. “Master has taught Valiente not to run.” She barely even noticed the echoes and pulses from the bridle now, as it reinforced Valiente through her own words.

“I do not believe you, Rar-,” Raarg paused and smiled as Rarity cringed at the opening syllable of her name, “...Valiente. But, I am kind and you have begged well for my forgiveness.” He turned from the cringing mare lying upon the ground to his pack. “Valiente needs time to consider her disobedience,” he told them. “Cocoon her.”

Raarg’s pack looked as if they were as afraid of their leader as Rarity felt. His change in temperament clearly had them spooked despite their sympathy for his loss. The habit of obedience to orders soon had them in motion though. Rarity quickly found herself bound. Not that she intended to give even a token resistance. Her legs were bound to each other and as she passively lay in place the dogs began to stretch and work what seemed to be a large rubber tube covered in straps and laces over her body.

The tube had a large hole for her to enter through and a smaller one that her head and neck emerged from. The tube squeezed and compressed all over her, further binding her legs to her body. Her braided tail was taken and folded up over the back of the tube and secured in place. Her sex and anus were now fully exposed and she was helpless to do anything about it.

The dogs were far from finished though. Rarity’s mouth was opened and some sort of tasteless rubber tube was inserted. It held her tongue down, rendering speech impossible, all while holding her jaws open to permit steady breathing. The gag was then attached to the bridle to hold it in place. Rarity’s curiosity at why this was done vanished as one dog began to insert plugs into her nostrils. Despite her intention to not resist, her instinctual struggles overrode her mind at that point. All she succeeded in doing though was to rock a bit from side to side.

A cloth hood was then pulled over her head and down to the bottom of her neck cutting off her sight. She could feel laces being used to merge the neck hole of the body tube with the bottom of the hood. As the hood snugged down and became a solid piece with the tube it was also tightened with laces until it’s fit to her head and face was skin tight and her ears popped through holes in the hood meant for the purpose.

“You will stay in the cocoon until tomorrow morning,” came Raarg’s voice. “At which point you will given a chance to demonstrate your obedience. Until then you will be chastised every so often to remind you of the price of disobedience.” He handed one of his pack a wide, flat board, “Use this paddle. At least ten strokes at a time.”

With that Raarg placed a pair of earplugs into Rarity’s ears. The mare was now deaf, blind, dumb and had no sense of smell. All she could taste was the rubber of the gag in her mouth. All she could feel was the rubber cocoon and cloth hood pressing firmly and uniformly against her entire body. Except for her groin area. Where the cool air breezed against her exposed sex. Which someone then began to spank.

Ten hard strikes in a measured cadence landed full on Rarity’s sex and buttocks. A heavy thudding pain with enough force to push Rarity a little forward with each stroke. The pain was enough to light up her vision but slowly faded to a stinging pain which slowly translated into a burning warmth. With no other sensory input that burn became her world over the next few minutes until it too began to fade. As the burning faded away Rarity felt herself being lifted and carried somewhere. She felt some tugs around her body and felt her cocoon taking up her weight as something held it and her, in mid-air. Now, she did not even have a pressure of the ground under her as a reference point.

The hours then slowly passed. The only sounds were those of her heart beating and air going in and out of her lungs. There was no smell, no sound, and no light to see by. Nothing could be tasted and she could feel exactly two things. The press against almost her entire body of the bonds that held her and the coolness of air against her exposed and presented marehood and anus.

From that point on, at random intervals the paddle would impact her again. Several strokes creating a thudding pain which settled into a deep ache. With no sensory input to ground her all Rarity could do was feel the pain of the impacts. A growing ache that was becoming more and more impossible to ignore. Rarity began to feel herself crumbling to the pain. Time passed.

Again, the blows rained down upon her rear. The pain rising and Rarity wanted to cry out. To beg Raarg for mercy. To submit to him in truth. Anything to stop the aching pain that seemed to fill the dark space which was her world. Then, just as she was about to begin to try to begin to beg for mercy she heard a soft voice.

“Rarity,” came the voice. She strained to her it. To focus on it. Anything to distract her from the pain of her inflamed buttocks and sex.

“Rarity,” again came the voice. Rarity realized that the voice wasn’t being heard by her ears but by her mind.

“Hello?” she called out.

“Rarity,” came the voice once more, “I can help you but you need to call my name.”

“Who?” Rarity began to ask, but then she realized to whom the voice had to belong to. “Valiente? Is that you?”

“Of course it is, darling,” Rarity could see a light begin to draw close. The light slowly resolved itself into the form of Valiente. The mare avatar of Rarity’s submissive side glowed with light as she pranced and curveted nearer. The chains of her hobbles enhancing rather than limiting her movements.

“Valiente, I don’t know how much more of this I can stand,” Rarity sobbed mentally to the other facet of her personality. “I think I may be breaking.”

Valiente drew close, “I can help you. But you need to do what I say.”

“Anything, Valiente,” cried Rarity as the another set of swats began to impact.

“Listen to me, Rarity, and repeat what I say,” said Valiente, holding Rarity’s head in both hooves. “You aren’t bound in a cocoon. You are being held by a stallion.”

“I-I’m being held by a stallion,” Rarity repeated.

“You aren’t gagged. You are pleasuring the stallion with your mouth. He loves it,” insisted Valiente.

“I’m not gagged,” Rarity repeated. “I am pleasuring a stallion and loves what I’m doing.”

“Yes, that’s it, girl,” said Valiente. “Now, most important. You aren’t being paddled. That’s the stallion trying to enter you. Trying to pleasure you in return. It feels good.”

“I’m not being paddled,” Rarity repeated. “My stallion is a little too vigorous but it feels good.”

“Yes! Repeat it, Rarity. Believe it,” insisted Valiente.

“I’m being held by a stallion, I’m pleasuring him, he is trying to pleasure me,” Rarity said.

“Repeat it!” Valiente commanded. “See it! Believe it!” Rarity began to repeat the phrase over and over. As she concentrated on the mantra she slowly began to see a stallion wrapped around her. Began to see the stallion’s maleness before her. Began to feel him trying to enter her. As she did, the pain began to fade as the fantasy began to take more and more of her concentration and thoughts. The fantasy combined with the flood of endorphins her body was pumping out to combat the pain combined to actually trigger an orgasm in the bound mare.

Her mind drifted even further in the aftermath. Floating within a warm, dark, velvet void she was immune to any pain the dogs might try to inflict. Valiente appeared beside her.

“Hello again, Valiente,” said Rarity, “thank you.”

“I am glad I could help,” replied Valiente. “This is what playing with a friend is supposed to feel like afterwards. Even if what happened before is not the way play should start.”

“It does feel delicious now,” agreed Rarity, “but I have to ask if my seeing you here means...that they’ve broken me?”

“Or, perhaps, that you have surrendered to me,” Valiente said warmly and nuzzled Rarity’s cheek, which reddened in response.

“Not yet, dear. But this is a decision point,” continued Valiente, who began to slowly nibble a line along the underside of Rarity’s jaw, and then down her neck, sending shock waves of pleasure through Rarity. “I am strong enough now that you can surrender to me if you truly wish to,” Valiente’s lips now nibbled ever so gently at the hollow of Rarity’s throat.

“Do you want to give yourself up to me now?” asked Valiente softly with a sly smile, stepping back. Rarity looked at Valiente, breathing heavily. The submissive facet reached up and undid the wide metal collar from her neck and held it open towards Rarity, “Once I lock this around your throat you can just rest and feel while I go play.”

The ornately engraved collar gleamed and seemed to beckon to Rarity. "This is my collar,” said Valiente. “It is the one thing I truly own. But for you. My other half, my Intellect. For you I would give it up." Valiente paused and added, "Besides, you would look wonderful in it, you know." The temptation to simply give up and accept the collar was like a boulder. But with a shudder she pushed away the desire and looked away saying, “No Valiente, not yet. If we were somewhere safe, with someone we trusted, perhaps. But not here and not now.”

“As you wish,” said Valiente, who refastened the collar to her own throat with an authoritative snap from its lock. “Your mind, your decision. The bridle keeps strengthening me and after the last pair of shocks I am now strong enough to manifest to your waking mind. Just remember that if the moment comes and you need me, all you need do is call my name.”

“And from what Long Strider has told me,” said Rarity, “surrender on terms is likely better than breaking.” Rarity mused, “but again, not today, Valiente. And not here. You certainly are more playful now though.”

Valiente giggled at the subject change, “I’m a part of your emotions dear and I reflect your emotional state. You’re feeling a lot of pleasure right now and I reflect that as much as I want more of it. How or why isn’t something I worry about. That’s your job.”

It was at that moment though, that the outside world chose to intrude. Rarity suddenly felt paws at her ears which carefully removed the plugs that had been blocking out sound so well for the past hours. With a seeming roar, sound rushed into Rarity’s consciousness, washing away the pseudo dreamscape and the presence of Valiente with it. A voice spoke. Rarity could tell it was meant to be a soft whisper but after hours of silence it was as loud as a trumpet.

“Pony,” whispered little Growf in a high voice, “it is almost night. I can feed and water you now. I can put sleep root in your food so you no dream tonight but sleep to morning. Nod if that okay.”

Rarity thought for a second and nodded her assent.

“Okay,” said Growf, “I take gag out now but you no talk. Bad for us both if you do.” Again, Rarity nodded her understanding. Growf, with agile paws loosened the hood slightly and undid the rubber tube in Rarity’s mouth. She worked her jaw and tongue in relief as she had control over her mouth for the first time in hours. She felt something being held up to her mouth and realized it was a cup of water. She drank it, and more after it.

Then a spoon found its way into her mouth. It was the honeyed porridge she had eaten before. Growf was obviously spoon feeding her. As she ate Growf filled her in on events. Raarg had formally forsworn his faith and pledged personal allegiance to the Alpha. Who apparently was on his way here to personally have a look at Rarity, along with his entire retinue. Also, rumor had it that Celestia had appointed an ambassador who was even now on their way here. Finally, the Diamond Dogs were mustering their army as it appeared that the ponies were doing the same. Some minutes later after Rarity ate the last of the drugged food, Growf wiped off her muzzle and replaced the rubber tube gag.

“You rest pony,” whispered Growf, “void if you need to. I will clean any mess.” Rarity nodded her thanks and Growf then replaced the earplugs returning Rarity to her the dark soundless embrace of her bondage.

Her last conscious thoughts were, “I only need to make it through two more days of this.” Followed by, “Sweet Celestia, how much sleep root did he...” Deep dreamless sleep enfolded Rarity in its arms and carried her toward the trials yet to come.

.

Author's Note

First off, timeline note. This chapter occurs during the same day as Chapter 8

Too many people made too many good comments and suggestion for me not to do a rewrite on the chapter. Thank you all for holding me to the mark....

This was not an easy chapter to write. I really like Raarg, but his path has been set from the beginning. There is a saying that goes, "When you dance with the devil, you don't change the devil. The devil changes you." Raarg has changed. Only time, and the rest of the story will show if he can change back. Rarity is also at a low point and is beginning to consider surrendering to the bridle as a valid option.

Again, time and the rest of the story will tell if she can rise again.

Speaking of which. I've decided to focus exclusively on this completing this story before doing any more work on my other project. I simply don't have the ability to jump back and forth between two radically opposed genres, as yet. Which means that the chapters will be coming much faster from now until the end.

Thank you for reading.
p.s. I may have screwed up with an "its" or "it's" somewhere. If I have, let me know.