Rarity woke to the feel of her body being handled. The gag had already been removed from her mouth so Raarg’s pack heard her as she moaned.

“Don’t try to move, pony,” said a voice. A very, very loud sounding voice. Obviously the ear plugs had been taken out as well. She was so weak. She could feel that she was lying on the ground again. But her muscles refused to respond. As the dogs worked on her she could feel them unlace the hood from the body tube she was in, but they kept the hood fastened to her head. Then slowly, ever so slowly, Rarity was pulled from the tube and her legs unbound.

Rarity tried to roll to her hooves to push herself up but muscles that had seen no use for nearly a full day refused to respond. They hadn’t had to do anything in that time and combined with the remnants of the sleep root, Rarity could barely even tell that they were there at all.

“Hood?” Rarity weakly asked.

“Not yet, pony,” said little Growf in his high pitched and still too loud voice. “When you can sit up, we try.” Rarity recognized the wisdom in the advice. She could barely even control her head, much less her legs. With a limp body to work with the dogs soon had her free of all her bonds save the hood which still cut off sight and smell.

“How is she?” came Raarg’s voice. Rarity could hear a roughness in his voice. Like someone who damaged their throat with smoking, strong alcohol and tears. Her still overly sensitive ears could hear the damage he had done to himself as plainly as when Octavia missed a note. Rare as that was.

“Weak,” said Chopper, “her body needs to remember to work again.”

“Fine,” replied Raarg, “take all morning if you need to, but she needs to be ready for training this afternoon. Valiente is going to perform for the Alpha tomorrow and needs to be ready so she can impress him. An impressed Alpha will be good for all of us, including Valiente.” Several acknowledging yips came from the surrounding dogs. “If you need me I will be with Den Leader Howl. The Alpha is due to arrive before dinner and Howl is going nuts trying to find spaces to bivouac a thousand troops,” Rarity heard him say as his footfalls began to retreat.

It took the better part of two hours, a complete body massage, food, water and a slow re-introduction to light but the dogs got Rarity back onto her hooves and walking. In fact, other than a bruised tush from the paddle, Rarity felt surprisingly invigorated and energetic. She was allowed to trot unrestrained around the training area at the end of her stretching and was practically prancing as she had moved.

But, as she moved about the training area, Rarity noted that Raarg’s pack never once took their eyes off her. At least one paw was always on a whip or a lariat, ready to lash out if Rarity made any attempt to flee and at least two of them were always within range to bring her down if she tried it. Long Strider was due to come for her in thirty-six hours. She needed them to be complacent, not attentive. She needed them convinced that her experience of the past day had broken her of the idea of running. It meant acting as meek and obedient as possible to get them away from the hair trigger they were on.

To that end she trotted up to within a few feet of Chopper, who seemed to be Raarg’s number two dog. Kneeling down on her front legs before him, she cast down her eyes toward his feet so as to add to the appearance of submission, and as meekly as she could said, “Master Chopper, did you wish to leash Valiente or attach the lead to her bridle now?” The bridle’s power pulsed through her as she said the name. It was worth it though, to see Chopper’s eyes go wide and see his ready paw move away from his whip.

“Perhaps Master would prefer to hobble Valiente?” she said, rolling to her side and putting out her hooves in easy position for the hobbles. “Master Raarg has taught Valiente that running away is bad, so Valiente will not run.” Rarity felt the bridle’s pulse again. Better that than the excruciating shocks it could deliver. Even better was seeing Chopper’s body take on a relaxed posture.

“No need,” said Chopper as he drew close and physically rolled Rarity back to her front. “Get up, follow me to pen. We get you cleaned up.”

“Perfect,” Rarity thought to herself as she stood up and began to follow Chopper back to her pen. The rest of the dogs around the training area were all now much more relaxed in their body language. It seemed her exchange with Chopper had convinced the rest of the dogs she was not a flight risk, at least for the moment. If she kept this up, getting loose when Long Strider came shouldn’t be a problem.

“Indeed. Well done,” came a whisper from inside her mind.

“Valiente?” Rarity whispered back.

“Who else?” the voice giggled.

Valiente had said that she could manifest to Rarity’s waking mind but Rarity certainly hadn’t been expecting this!

“Later, when we are alone,” whispered Rarity, into the vault of her mind.

“Your mind, your decision,” Rarity heard and felt a sense of retreat in her mind.

“Valiente,” Two-Fang, the pack’s healer asked, “you say something?”

“No master, coming master.”

What followed was two hours of some of the most intensive body care Rarity had ever enjoyed. A rinse, followed by a very hot, very sudsy bath where she was scrubbed until every speck of dirt was gone from her body. Then another rinse, followed by conditioner, rinse and then a towel dry. Once she was dry, every inch of her was curried, combed and brushed until her coat gleamed and shone with health and vitality. Looking down her body Rarity could see that her privations had the side benefit of having added lean muscle and definition to her form.

With her body cared for, the attention moved on to her hooves, then her mane and tail; whose braids were brushed out before receiving a hundred long brush strokes each. Then they were braided again, with golden ribbons woven into the braids along with bells that chimed and rang with every move of either Rarity’s head or tail. Next, a belled harness was strapped to Rarity’s form. Lines of bells stretched along her back, across her withers and shoulders. Finally, a set of belled hoof cuffs were attached to her legs.

Rarity, belled, cleaned and coiffed, was then led through the encampment by the pack. They were spread out in a circle around her but otherwise she was loose to move as she willed within that guide and guard. It was a vast improvement from being led by a leash or lead. As the group walked Rarity noticed two things. First, the groups of bells on her were all slightly different. Each set rang in slightly different tones but harmonized into a rhythmic whole. Second, she was attracting more than a few stares and looks of open admiration at her appearance.

Rarity realized that likely none of these dogs had been with a mare,...er female, in some time. She certainly wasn’t going to use that word even if Twilight would say it was an accurate description of a "female dog". Science could be so impolite at times. Regardless though, some of the looks she was getting were making her very, very happy she had an escort.

About fifteen minutes of walking brought Rarity and her escort to a large, low rectangular building. As they entered Rarity noted the large open interior, the skylight allowing the high sun to brilliantly light the room and the floor to ceiling mirror that stretched along one wall.

“It’s a dance studio!” thought Rarity. “Why do Diamond Dogs have a dance studio?" As she wondered about that, an elderly dog walked up, grizzled with age and heavily leaning on a cane.

“Greetings unicorn,” said the old dog, completely ignoring the dogs around Rarity. “I am Yowl-E and I have the honor to be your dance master.” He laid aside his cane and bowed to her, holding his left fore paw covering his fisted right. Rarity recognized the gesture from her time in the Equido salle. It was the ritual gesture of one practitioner to another showing they intended no harm.

Rarity reared to her rear legs in a clangor of bells and matched the bow and gesture saying, “Greetings Dance Master, I have the honor to be your student this day.”

Yowl-E smiled saying, “I heard of your fight against these pups and thought you might follow the ‘Way of the Open Paw’.”

“It is called Equido or ‘Open Hoof’ among ponies,” Rarity answered as she lowered herself to all fours.

“Hoof or Paw,” gently corrected the dance master, “it is still the Way.” Rarity bowed her head, acknowledging the point. “But you are here today to learn the dance. And perhaps have some tea. You do drink tea, yes?” asked Yowl-E.

“Of course.”

“Good, let us first get to work,” said the dance master. With that he began to explain to Rarity how her body would be both a visual component of the dance and one of the three instruments playing the music. He began by showing her how each of the seven sets of bells on her could be sounded on their own, then by demonstrating their sound. The first hour of practice was simply Rarity learning how to sound them individually. Front hooves, rear hooves, tail, withers, back, shoulders, mane. Back and forth, forth and back. Then another hour learning to move so that she could sound the needed bells in the right order. Then a break for tea.

Yowl-E made a wonderfully fragrant tea. Rarity was reaching for a cup when she stopped and looked over to Chopper.

"Master?" she asked, drawing back her hooves and looking at the dog.

Chopper got up for the first time in two hours and firmly said, “Good. Pony know not drink for herself. We feed pony.”

“Chopper,” said Yowl-E gravely, “this is my studio. I am dance master. My students will drink their tea on their own.”

“But…,” Chopper tried to interrupt.

“I am dance master. This is my domain. Not Raarg’s, not Howl’s, not the Alpha’s,” said Yowl-E in a stern voice. “If they have a problem with my student drinking her own tea they can come complain to me. In the meantime, make yourselves useful and go patrol the outside of the studio.” Chopper grumbled but was silenced by an arch look from the dance master. He and the other dogs went outside.

“Now then, my dear,” said Yowl-E, “drink your tea. Don’t mind them. They are good pups but they need to be steered away from bad choices sometimes.”

“Is that what happened to Long Strider and now Raarg?” Rarity asked taking a sip. It really was good tea. “They made bad choices?”

“You have to understand unicorn, that someone does not become a monster overnight,” said the dance master sagely. “One does not wake up and say ‘oh, today I will kill innocents’ or ‘today I will use dark rituals to gain power'.”

“Or even, ‘today I will foalnap ponies, break their wills and force them into slavery’,” said Rarity with a bitter edge to her voice.

“Even so, pony,” acknowledged Yowl-E. “But what I mean is that one can make a bad choice and not go too bad. But that choice can lead to another bad choice, then another and another. Before long, one is so far from the light they cannot see the way back. So it is with those brothers. Both made a bad choice, which lead to other bad choices. And now, one is filled with regret and the other seems resolved to his course.”

After that bit of insight, the two of them got back to it. Only now, Long Strider’s Grarf joined them with a small drum and began to beat a rhythm on it. To which Rarity began to dance a complicated series of steps and body movements.

"Yarrfh" Yowl-E's voice cut out sharply as Rarity made her first kick. "Srar!" She had kicked her other leg and, to her surprise, she realized what he was doing. He was naming the moves for her, he was teaching her dance as if it were an Equido kata. The drum was a compliment to the motions and the bells on her. She could hear how well the combined music sounded. The dance she moved in was very complicated, but it flowed. One motion seemed to naturally flow into another in the manner of a kata. The bells and drum merged into an ordered pattern of music and motion. But there was still something missing.

They broke for dinner.

After dinner Raarg’s pack all came back in. But this time they were all carrying long black whips which they uncoiled onto the floor. Their material gleaming with freshly applied oil. Rarity had a slight panic attack at seeing herself suddenly surrounded by the six lengths of leather and began to throw herself toward Yowl-E in an attempt to hide from what promised to be a horrific whipping.

“Easy pony,” said the dance master, “they are not here to whip you. Not unless you make a mistake that is. They are part of your dance and the music.” Yowl-E went on to explain that the whips would provide a percussion element to the music. They would also be a visual element. Her movements were prearranged so that as long as she kept precisely to the motions of the dance the whip strikes would pass over, under and to either side of her, while still looking like she was actively dodging them.

They did a dry run with the dogs merely moving their paws and saying ‘crack’ when the strikes would occur. It went well, but Rarity could tell she had missed a couple of steps. So, Rarity was very nervous as the dogs picked up their whips to use in earnest. The music began and Rarity began to move. Things began to go wrong almost immediately as within the first thirty seconds a whip struck directly on her cutie mark. Pain blew her out of the dance and a second whip struck her opposite flank before the dog there could stop himself.

They stopped and gave Rarity a minute to recover herself. Then they pressed on. A pattern began to repeat itself. Rarity would move well for awhile, then fear of the whip would push her a step too far one way, or step short and a whip would hit her. Over the next half hour she was struck on both hips, her flank, a cannon and her underbelly. It had begun to get dark so Yowl-E called for a short break for torches and time to try to calm his student.

“Unicorn,” he said as he stroked her head, recognizing that Rarity was struggling with her emotions, “be calm, breathe. You can do this. You have already done it.

“Okay,” said Rarity in an unconvincing voice. She tried to mentally concentrate on the dance steps and found herself gazing into a torch flame. As she sunk into the depths of the flame she heard the inner voice again.

“Let me help Rarity, just relax and listen to my voice, listen to it and the music and move,” came Valiente’s voice. As the drums began once more, Valiente's voice lifted, singing words that had little to do with the music, but they danced around the beat of the drums as surely as Rarity's own hooves started to dance with them. She closed her eyes, ignored the strikes of the whips that now no longer licked her flanks, the dance becoming all. Keep dancing, my Rarity, just dance.

Follow my hooves through the night
We are bound sisters of the light
We are bound daughters of sin
We are free laughter in the wind
Follow my hooves through the night
We are bound sisters of the light
We are born wild, we are free
Through the dark night, follow me!

I am here to break the chains and
I want you to be the song of mine
Follow me, Follow me, now
Follow me through the night…

On the song went, weaving through the notes as surely as Rarity was weaving through whip strikes that clove the air around her. Bell and drum, crack of whip and curve of hip. She was supple shadowed power, she was belled alabaster grace, her movements sure, swift and clean. The torchlight gleamed orange off the flashing whips. Their motion seeming to merely caress the air, so that they could highlight the movements of the Goddess of Dance that Rarity had become, as she pranced and curvetted above the whips cracking thunder.

Sensing something special was happening, the dogs surrounding Rarity reduced their margin of error to a scant few inches. All it did was increase the appearance that Rarity was literally dancing in midair. Once a dog missed his mark but all the whip did was flick a single bell off her harness. Rarity took no notice. She simply flowed lithely from one motion to the next. Finally, the dance was done. Rarity stood within a circle of dropped whips and fallen dogs, her own chest heaving. All the dogs were panting and all present knew they had just been witness to something special.

Yowl-E approached her and to Rarity's shock knelt to her. “Pony,” he said, “rarely have these old eyes been so blessed to such beauty in form and motion. If I could have you in my paws for a month you could become one of the greatest ever.” Rarity's answering blush was furious as it was sudden.

Together they practiced for another hour and each time the routine was clean and flawless. Rarity's movements were so precise, in fact, that a couple of the dogs actually began to intentionally flick bells off of her harness with their whips as she danced. For which Yowl-E chastised them for damaging valuable equipment. A few minutes later Raarg came into the studio to collect "his" Rarity and his pack. They immediately clustered around him, all of them talking at once to tell Raarg of how well things had gone.

Yowl-E narrowed his eyes at Raarg, noting his distraction and moved to Rarity with a speed that belied his age and apparent infirmity. Grasping her jaw he lifted her head so their eyes locked with each other. The dance master began to speak in a barely audible voice that still carried absolute authority.

“Unicorn, listen to my voice and look into my eyes.” he whispered and Rarity suddenly found she had no choice but to obey. “I do not have much time to talk while Raarg is distracted. You and Valiente worked together today and did something neither of you could have done alone. Raarg can break either one of you if you stand apart. But together you stand a chance. Valiente, show Unicorn how to bend like the willow tree which survives even great storms. Unicorn, be Valiente’s steel resolve. Show her how and when one must stand and fight.”

Yowl-E shot a glance over at the dogs surrounding Raarg. They were settling down. “And...when you get home. Go find your old teacher. Challenge for the black belt. You have found the inner harmony needed to claim it.”

Raarg finally broke free from the pack and came toward the pair. The dance master straightened and nodded, “Pack Leader.”

“Dance Master,” Raarg nodded back.

“I would like her back in the morning for another run through if possible,” said Yowl-E

“We will see,“ Raarg said as he clipped a lead to Rarity’s bridle. Not a lock, but a simple snap hook. Another good sign. Without another word Rarity was lead away into the deepening night. As they walked, Rarity made sure that she walked at a ‘heel’ position near Raarg that kept the lead slack. The camp was bustling. Dogs everywhere. Again, many of them were openly leering at Rarity. Chopper actually had to push one dog away. Rarity noted that the particular dog was armored and carried both blade and crossbow. Unlike Raarg's pack.

Finally, they reached the training area. Even here there were some dogs around stretching out on bedrolls and similar. It was late, and despite the fact that Rarity had already had dinner she was fed a second meal. Which she again had to eat from Raarg’s paws. Rarity kept up her submissive posture by making sure she licked Raarg’s paws clean. As she was lead into her pen she rolled onto her side in the clean hay and asked Raarg if he would like to hobble her.

“Not tonight, Valiente,” he said, “I think you have indeed learned your lesson.”

“Thank you for your mercy Master,” said Rarity looking up from the ground at Raarg’s feet and piling on with the impression of a thoroughly cowed mare. Raarg bent down and locked the chain lead to her bridle.

“Sleep well, my little pony,” and with that Raarg left, closing the door of the pen behind him.

Once Raarg was gone, Rarity rearranged the hay in the pen into a soft nest and lay back down onto it. It had been a long day and she was tired. As she closed her eyes Valiente appeared in her mental landscape.

“That dance master fellow was scary,” she said to Rarity. “I think he was actually talking directly to me as well as you.”

“He was Valiente, he was,” replied Rarity. “Do you think you can do what he asked? Be the willow to my steel?”

“Of course, sister,” came the immediate reply. “We are a part of each other. How could I not stand with myself?”

“Because my dear,” thought Rarity, “you’ve become more than just a facet of my personality. You’re pretty much an individual now. My using your name has made the bridle feed you a lot of power.”

“I know,” replied the mind mare, “And it is trying to push me to take over. To override your control and be in charge. But I don’t want to be in charge.” Valiente dragged a hoof over the "ground" as she said it.

“I know you don’t,” said Rarity comforting the mare, “and as long as you help me bend enough to look like I’m giving in, I will help you be strong enough to resist the bridle trying to make you take over.”

“Deal, sister,” said Valiente as the pair clopped hooves in agreement. “So, given any thought to who we might ‘play’ with once we get out of this?”

“Well, Applejack is probably VERY good with that rope of hers...”

Author's Note

Valiente's lyrics are adapted from Sisters of the Light by Xandria

Thanks to my beta readers. I think your contributions really help the story by helping me tell the story I actually want to tell and thanks to you I think this is one of my strongest chapters yet.

See you all in Chapter 11.