“The strong rule, and the weak serve.”

Chrysalis sat there, wreathed in the intangible, irresistible power that comes with having made a dramatic entrance. Sitting astride her mount she was both wonderful and terrifying in her aspect. Every viridescent black curve of her body spoke of power and the willing exercise of it in pursuit of her goals. Drawing tightly on the reins she held, Chrysalis pulled her mount’s head close to her mouth and spoke a single word into a snow white ear:

“Kneel”

The creature that had been Celestia, Princess of the Dawn knelt at the command her owner had given her, and such was the strength behind that single word that four of the six Elements went to their knees with her.

“How dare you enter my city and my castle unbidden?” Mistress Moon demanded with a hiss, as the foe of all ponies slid from her perch to stand proudly on the floor.

“I dare, because I am strong, and I do what I want. When I want and to who I want,” Chrysalis stated, wrapping her mount’s reins to a nearby overturned table so she would not stray. “I took your sister, broke her to my will and made her mine, because I am strong.”

“And you expected to come here and do the same to me, did you?” Moon asked, drawing power to herself. “A fatal mistake.”

“Peace, Mistress of the Moon, and Canterlot,” Chrysalis replied, dipping her head slightly in respect. It was the tip of the head that one gave to a peer, and the dark alicorn was versed enough in protocol to recognize it. “I’ll admit, I had come here expecting to leave with a pair of alicorns to draw my chariot. Imagine my surprise when I reached Canterlot and discovered that you had not only realized your true strength, but seized on it with a speed and passion I couldn’t help but admire.”

“Perhaps I should see how well a bridle sits upon thy head Chrysalis,” Mistress Moon commented, her magic weaving together gossamer strands of power into the beginnings of a web of straps. “Watching your tongue try to wind its way past a bit would be a vision most fetching.”

“You are welcome to try, but with what I have drained from your sister, combined with the ambient love and lust in the air here, I would say we are well matched at the moment,” Chrysalis responded, and the power and vitality glowing from the monarch gave veracity to her words. “Besides, I have a proposal for you.”

“I will admit, having a shapeshifting paramour would be intriguing,” Moon noted, her eyes taking on a predatory gleam. “You could be anything I desired. Any height, shape, sex, species or size.”

“That isn’t why—” Chrysalis began.

“I know, you have come to propose an alliance. Because I am strong, because you know you cannot beat me in battle,” Moon stated, a grim smile on her lips as she allowed the half-conjured bridle dissipate back into the aether. “You came to get inside my guard, so that you can take me unawares and some moment when I am vulnerable.”

The air in the room near Moon began to take on the cool crisp snap of cold air as more power was drawn to fill the reservoirs of alicorn strength and might, contrasting with the near fetid warmth that hung around Chrysalis. A miasma of power that waited only for the right moment to lash forth.

“I did, and I intend to betray you the first chance I get,” Chrysalis replied, her voice giving no sign she was aware of just how close the room was into erupting into a magical battle such as Equestria had not since since the Banishment. “The first moment you give me an opening I plan on fitting you with something to match your sister.”

“This is normally the point where I am supposed to cry, ‘How darest thou’ and leap for thy throat. But thy stance and calm assertion of thy intent says to me that this is not the time for such,” Mistress Moon said, relaxing but not releasing her hold on her magic. “True?”

“Strength,” Chrysalis began, and she took a moment to caress the tack on each member of Moon’s harem with her eyes, “and restraint. That is what makes us different from the monsters. We have power, and we have restraint.”

The room seemed to relax slightly, with the Elements of Ecstacy regaining their hooves and moving closer to their Mistress, while Toy moved next to her Owner to give a loving nuzzle to a dark shoulder.

“If I am ever able to betray you, to bind you and take you like I have Celestia, that will mean that you aren’t strong anymore. That you are weak. That you are prey,” Chrysalis continued, reaching up to the stroke a bridled muzzle. “And if you are ever able to do the same to me, then I will have deserved it and everything that you do to me afterwards.”

“This is thy proposal then?” Moon asked, arching an eyebrow in surprise. “A union of convenience, where either party stands ready to enslave the other. But for what purpose would I expose myself to such treachery? The easiest way to not be snared is to not step into the trap in the first place.”

“Domination,” Chrysalis declared, naked lust in her voice. “Control. Safety. Every want and need satisfied by slaves. Slaves to our darkness, to our power.”

“And yet, I have just been given a passionate discourse on the joys of consent,” and the eyes of the Mistress fell warmly on the two, who even bound by her might, had stood against her strongly enough to raise questions in a mind that had seen and done more than nearly anyone else in the room. “And I have found their arguments… compelling.”

“You can’t be serious,” Chrysalis responded, her lust giving way to a blend of disappointed surprise. “Predators like us do not need the consent of prey.”

“And that is where we differ, Chrysalis,” Moon said, straightening. For a moment, a shaft of silver moonlight shone full down on the lunar alicorn, it’s argent glow making her seem as appear as something beyond mortal ken. “For above all else, I am a ruler. Not a predator. And the welfare of my ponies should come before the satisfaction of my desires.”

“You foalish hypocrite,” countered Chrysalis, running her hoof along the side of her mount, who whinnied in appreciation of the contact. “Satisfying desires is what makes us strong. I wanted Celestia. I took her. And my power has grown because of that. You wanted Rarity, you wanted Twilight, you wanted their friends. Acting on that desire has made you powerful. It made you Mistress of both Canterlot and Equestria.”

“And what next?” Moon asked, still wrapped in the light of the sun of the night.

“Then we conquer,” responded the queen of the changelings. “We conquer all who stand before us, until the world is ours.”

“And then what?” Moon demanded, her voice as hard as silver. “What is there after the world is either dead or slaves to us? What challenge is there when all bow down to us in slavish obedience? Where will be the wonder? The mystery? What joy of discovery will there be when all that is grovels under our hoof?”

“Then we live in a paradise of our own making,” Chrysalis said, moving away from the bound, bridled and broken Celestia who waited patiently on her tether. “But you don’t want that, do you?”

“What I want is to be free to make my own choices, and be sure that my choices are indeed my own and not ones pushed onto me by the dark influence that has brought me to this place,” Moon replied, touching a hoof to her breast. “I recognize it now. The shadow of Sombra’s intent and desires on my heart. I recognize it, thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of Rarity and my Consent, who will be Twilight again. I swear it.”

Consent and her Mistress shared a smile for a moment before the lunar monarch continued, “Sombra touched my heart with his darkness during our battle in the Badlands, and like a sickness it has slowly been growing within me. Robbing me of my control, even as I robbed my nearest and dearest of not just their freedom, but also of the things that made them wonderful. Sombra meant to make me into a queen fit to be his consort, or barring that, an alicorn molded to carry out his will. He meant me to be a slave to darkness, HIS darkness.”

Mistress Moon looked at the changeling ruler full in the eyes and said, “I am many things Chrysalis, but I am not a slave, nor will I be a slave owner. If I am to possess a pony, it will be only one who has given themselves to me, freely.”

“I see,” Chrysalis answered with a sigh, lowering her head. “I see that I wasted my talking to you and that you… are a fool.”

“Not as much as you. Or did you think I would not be enraged by what you have done to my sister?,” Moon asked, drawing herself up in readiness, and her ponies taking up stances on either side of her in a battle wedge. “My sister may have her faults, and we may have our disagreements, but she is still my sister. Release her.”

Chrysalis giggled. Then she snorted, and the snort turned into a full belly laugh that went on for a full minute, until the changeling was weeping with mirth. Mistress Moon and her six exchanged looks of confusion as the laughter went on and on.

“Is she loco in the coco?” Euphoria asked,

“Oh, I haven’t laughed like that since one of my drones suggested we share love with each other,” Chrysalis replied at last, wiping tears of mirth from her face. “Celestia is gone. Wiped away by days of being taught who her better is. Every bit of her has been washed away from being rutted constantly into a submissive puddle. All that is left now is my Toy. Isn’t that right, my little fuck muffin?”

“Last chance,” stated Moon through gritted teeth, as Chrysalis stroked her mount , who responded by flagging her tail in anticipation. The temperature of the room dipped several degrees and every pony knew that despite the initial cordial words between the two monarchs, fighting was about to break out, in earnest.

“Make me,” smirked Chrysalis, turning back to face the seven arrayed against her.

Mistress Moon wasted no more time on words, letting a beam of dark azure magic speak for her. A lance of power that was handily deflected by a sickly green shield that came and went in an instant.

Moon advanced on Chrysalis carefully, with Euphoria and Wanton in the lead, Rarity and Consent to her either flank, as Submission and Desire took aerial point. Chrysalis matched their advance with a matching withdrawal, leaving her Toy to be slowly overtaken by grouped foes.

“Attack them, Toy!” commanded Chrysalis with a shout, and the harnessed mare reared upwards in a jingle of tack and bells, ready to strike. Moon looked up in sudden fear at gold shod hooves that threatened to come down on the backs of two of her ponies, only to breathe a sigh of relief as a spark seemed to flare in the bound mare’s eyes and the Toy dropped back down to all fours, cuffs chiming.

“What are you waiting for!” screamed Chrysalis, frustrated that her Toy had wasted the opportunity for a flanking attack. “Get them”

Toy’s only response was a full body shake, sitting down on her haunches in obvious confusion, bridle bells jangling merrily as she looked from Moon to Chrysalis and back again, unsure of what to do.

“Sit. Rest,” Moon offered in a gentle voice. “We will talk afterwards.”

“Get—” Chrysalis began, only to be interrupted as Submission swooped directly in front of her face, yellow wings flaring.

“SUBMIT”, commanded the blue collared pegasus, with all the force of her innate magic driving down on the changeling queen’s will.

“nNN-NEVER!” declared Chrysalis, her will empowered with the might of Equestria’s love for Celestia. The tide of stolen power buttressed her mind and allowed her to erupt in a wave of power that ended with a butter winged pegasus being glued to the far wall, a tight translucent coating of resin holding her fast even as it highlighted every curve of the former model.

“Not cool!” called Desire, swooping in to avenge her friend. A rash move that ended with her sealed under her own coating of inescapable resin.

“That should hold you two until I deal with your friends,” Chrysalis said, moving forward as she began to aggressively launch her own attacks of magic and binding resin both.

“Stay close, my ponies,” Moon commanded, shielding her two earth ponies from the resin, while Rarity and Consent both used their own abilities to protect themselves.

“AGRBL” yelled Chrysalis in frustration as a Euphoria managed to land a direct hit on her muzzle with a massive wad of gum, gluing her jaws together.

“Time to rope us in a new filly!” called Wanton, leaping forward with her lasso already looping and curling a weave around the changeling.

“NO!” cried Chrysalis in denial, her unbound horn blasting out a wave of power that both freed her jaw and sent both earth ponies flying toward the nearest wall. Upon impact both of them lay in a heap, stunned and with Wanton’s rope tangled around them both in a cat’s cradle of loops and half-formed knots.

“Yes,” said Consent softly, having snuck into range and coalescing her magic around Chrysalis’ hindquarters into the form of a golden chastity belt.

“How dare… nnngh… you,” demanded the queen, as the belt’s plugs slid home.

“On some level, you want this,” Consent said, stepping back. “Otherwise I’d never have been able to touch you.”

Another inarticulate scream echoed through the dining hall as Chrysalis grabbed Consent with her magic and hurled her with crushing force back the way she came. The lavender alicorn hurtled through the air at a breakneck speed guaranteed to cause injury or death upon impact. At nearly the last second first Rarity and then Mistress Moon, intercepted the living missile with first their magic and then with their bodies.

All three impacted the wall with terrific force, but the cushioning layers of two ponies and two layers of magic prevented any permanent harm. Barely conscious, all three lay groaning on the floor, their moans punctuated by Chrysalis dumping the bundle that was Wanton and Euphoria on top of them.

“Well, that takes care of that,” Chrysalis said in satisfaction, as seven bridles popped into existence behind her. “Time for all of you to join my little herd, and don’t worry ‘Mistress Moon’, I’ll be sure to put you right beside your sister.”

“You let them go!” yelled Desire, still glued to the wall and unable to move a single feather.

“And who is going to stop me?” laughed Chrysalis, as her bridles began to float toward their intended wearers.

“I am.”

Chrysalis turned in surprise at the sound of the last voice she ever expected to hear saying those words. A voice she knew could not have said them. A voice that she knew she had taken away forever, and that she had never, ever heard with the heat of barely restrained rage in it.

The voice of Celestia, Princess of the Sun, Sol Invictus.

Author's Note

Apologies for the roughness of this chapter and the briefness of this afterword. I injured my hand at work making typing for any period of time painful. It's getting better, but slowly. The story nears its conclusion.