“What do you need, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked demurely. All trace of the pony known as Submission seemingly gone from her, but Twilight knew that what Fluttershy had been made into was a dark reflection of a hidden part of the normally shy pony.

“I need the Elements of Harmony, now,” Twilight insisted, putting some heat into her voice.

“Easy there, sugarcube. We’re on it,” Applejack responded, and concentrating for a moment summoned Honesty to her. As it came into being around her neck, so too did Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity and Laughter. As Magic settled onto Twilight's head on it’s golden crown, its Bearer gave Rarity a worried look.

“Whatever you are going to do Twilight, you need to do it fast,” Rarity said, meeting Twilight’s look. “Valiente doesn’t have much longer.”

“Right girls, just like when I ascended. Give me everything you’ve got,” Twilight commanded.

Corusating lances of energy leaped out from the five elements toward the one that both commanded and depended on them. As each uniquely coloured and shaped steam of power bore onto Twilight, they merged into the rainbow halo of power that was the might of Equestria made manifest, the power and magic of Friendship.

Wreathed in the power that had once reshaped a unicorn into an alicorn, Twilight lowered her head and touched it to the Chained Moon bridle still bound about Rarity’s head.

“Girls, do you trust me?” Twilight asked, the power within her seeking the path to success.

“We’d never leave you hangin’,” Rainbow Dash assured her friend. “Whatever you need, you got it.”

“Even if it means giving up a part of yourselves to save Valiente?” Twilight asked, as the path she needed to take became clear.

“Yupperoni,” Pinkie Pie declared. “You can’t have a party without friends, and you can’t have friends without giving them some of yourself.”

“Whatever you need Twilight. We trust you,” Fluttershy added.

“You’ve trusted us enough times, only fair we trust you too,” Applejack confirmed.

“All my heart. All my soul,” was all Rarity whispered.

“So be it,” Twilight intoned, as magic exploded out from her.

The six ponies disappeared in that flare of energy, to be replaced by six balls of glowing light surrounding a seventh. The lights of the circle each burned with a colour of the Elements of Harmony, from orange Honesty to purple Magic, while the dimmer light in the center was that of pure white light.

A pure light, but a fading one.

“Valiente, I can only save you by bringing you out into the world. I can twist Sombra’s bridle so that it creates, instead of destroys. But the cost is you’ll never be entirely free to make your own decisions. Somepony will always hold your reins, and you will always be at their beck and call,” came Twilight’s voice from the ring of coloured lights.

“How many times do I have to remind you that I’m a submissive,” laughed Valiente, even as the glow of her life ebbed even further. “A life bound to someone who cares for me sounds like my kind of heaven.”

“What about us?” the yellow light of Fluttershy asked. “You said we would have to give up part of ourselves?”

“A life for a life, but I can split up that life between the six—,” Twilight said.

“Seven,” interrupted Luna, bowing her head. “If you would have me, Mistress. It would be eight were my sister in her right mind.”

“She will be,” Twilight assured her servant. “I came back, so can Celestia.”

“NO!” came a scream from below the rubble of a wall, which burst aside to reveal the changeling queen.

Chrysalis was battered and bruised with one wing sitting at an odd angle, but that didn’t stop her from radiating an emerald menace that was powered by the strength of her rage.

“Mistress, if you would permit me to take care of this?” Luna asked, turning to face the foe.

“As you wish, my servant,” Twilight answered. “Do not kill her. Capture her or drive her off.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Luna responded, dropping into a crouch and flaring her wings in challenge.

“Oh,” Twilight added, almost as an afterthought, “you are not allowed to die, or allow yourself to be killed. Understood?”

Luna’s wings drooped for only a moment before straightening and the alicorn replied, “You are a harsh mistress.”

“Carry out my commands,” Twilight finished, turning back to the problem at hand.

“Bring it, lunar bitch!” hissed Chrysalis, dropping into her own fighting stance.

“Little free with the whole ‘Mistress’ thing there. Eh Twilight?” the orange light of Applejack asked, with honest criticism.

“It’s what Luna expects from me, so that’s what I’m giving her,” answered the alicorn. “Later on we’ll have a good long talk, but right now we’ve got a life to save. Ready girls?”

“Ready!” came the immediate response, and each of Twilight’s friends opened themselves to her.

With the power of Harmony and the Magic of Friendship backing her, Twilight carved off a portion of the vital essence of each of her friends. Merging it into a single well of power at her side, Twilight then dove for the nearly spent ball of light that was Valiente.

As the sensual mind mare had said, she never had truly been real. She had never had a physical body and only her ability to take control of Rarity’s body had allowed her to touch the outside world and make the friends, and lovers, that she had.

Valiente may have never had a body of her own, she may have “only” been a mental construct, but in all the ways that mattered she was “real”. Having been brought into existence as a tool meant to break Rarity and usurp her body, Valiente had instead become a friend and companion, willing to sacrifice herself to save the unicorn she had been created to destroy.

“Sweet Celestia, you’re gorgeous,” Valiante commented. “If I’m dying, at least I got to see a goddess before I go.”

“Flatterer,” commented Twilight. “Ready to be a real pony?”

“Do it and I’ll teach you how to use that wonderful tongue of yours for more than long words,” Valiente asked.

With a chuckle Twilight focused her magic on the mare, and instead of countering the myriad of spells that were destroying Valiente, Twilight instead pulled her out of them, draining her off like a siphon pulling water out of a jug. As Twilight pulled the last dregs of Valiente free of Sombra’s trap, the dark enchantments collapsed on themselves and fell apart, considering their work done.

“Sombra may have been a mad genius, but thankfully he always took the brute force approach,” Twilight said, to the small light she held in her hooves. “Step one complete, now for step two.”

Twilight then took herself and Valiente and together plunged into the well of power that was the combined strength of her friends and their elements. Twilight merged with the power, adding her own share of strength to the mix and then, at the moment when everything was perfect, she added the last spark. The true Element of Ecstacy, Valiente.

Pulling free of the well Twilight looked back on her work and nudged the matrix of magic into accepting the pattern that was the willful and wanton personality of a creature born not of mare or stallion, but of magic. Magic that had been cleansed of its taint of darkness by the power of friendship and love, by the purity of all that was good and right in the world.

The matrix welcomed the pattern of love that was Valiente, taking on a hue that was all colours yet none of them at the same time, and with that acceptance there now were seven roiling spheres of energy where once there had stood six. Seven spirits, seven souls, but only six bodies for them to call home.

“Step three,” intoned the voice of Twilight Sparkle once more, and the spiritual forms of Twilight’s friends began to return to their physical forms. As the pure white form of Rarity began to resolve a smile of joy crossed her face as she realized that the Chained Moon bridle was no longer bound to her, but instead lying to one side.

“Soror Geminae!,” cried the Element of Magic, and as Rarity’s body came into being it shimmered and shook, as if not fully in focus. A second outline of flesh and fur began to appear, one body appearing over the other. Twilight poured more of her alicorn strength into the final spell, willing the camera of reality to show what she desired, no matter how impossible it was.

The shapes of Rarity and her false outline continued to distance themselves, shuddering and shaking back and forth, until again the right moment came and Twilight lifted up Sombra’s bridle and used it to anchor the second Rarity in place apart from the original.

“Last step,” Twilight said, her voice barely audible as she drew on her last strengths, the strength of her friends, freely given in a good cause. Twilight’s magic formed a funnel and through it she poured the magical matrix that was now Valiente, pouring it into the anchored vessel made from her soul sister, Rarity.

“Done,” was all Twilight could say as she slumped to the ground, utterly spent.

“Is… is this real?” Valiente asked, lifting a hoof and looking at it, then looking to Rarity. “Are… are you real?”

“Yes,” Rarity answered, tears of joy filling her eyes. “I’m real, and so are you. Sister.”

There were no words between the two after that. Only a cry of inarticulate joy as they swept each other into a ferocious embrace, to be followed a split second later by the envelopment of the rest of their friends.

“It’s real! It’s real!” was the repeated cry of tearful joy from the pile. “It’s really real!”

“Thou hast done well, my Mistress,” stated a bruised and bloodied Luna a minute later, dragging the bound form of a once again unconscious Chrysalis behind her. “I have taken the liberty of fitting her with an inhibitor ring.”

“Mounted to a bridle. Good irony there,” replied an exhausted Twilight, who had stayed apart from the pile of joyful welcome.

“Luna,” Twilight began, after a moment, “I don’t want to be—”

“Stop, my Mistress. If I may be so bold as to command thee for a moment,” Luna interrupted. “I have failed thee, and my sister, and Equestria. I have caused destruction and chaos. I have let my own desires control me once again and lead me off as a slave into darkness. Only chance and the good hearts of thee and thy friends have saved us all.”

“I forgive you,” Twilight said, knowing even as she did that it wasn’t enough to ease the pain of the lunar alicorn.

“I know, but penance must be done to rectify these wrongs. Let my service and servitude to you be my punishment,” Luna said, going to her knees before Twilight with only a few hisses of pain. “Let me be as a slave to you, and not to the darkness within me. Let me be thy bondsmare. Be my gaoler and Mistress. I beg thee.”

“Alright,” Twilight answered, nodding tiredly. “But not forever, and when I do give you your parole, I expect you to accept it.”

“As you wish, Mistress,” Luna replied, and the two mares shared a smile. “May I ask what thy plans are now?”

“Rebuild. See how far Celestia was corrupted before we were able to stop things, and find out why Chrysalis did what she did,” Twilight said, exhaustion making her terse.

“She desires thee,” Luna replied, drawing an arched eyebrow from Twilight. “She said it before. You are the only pony to have seen through her deceptions and defeat her in battle. She worships strength and power, and to her, you are both.”

“But why…” Twilight trailed off, waving a hoof around to indicate the whole of everything that had gone on.

“Had you not been able to stop her, she would have had Celestia as her concubine, myself in chains, and you at her hooves. Defeated, she would be bound to who she sees as the strongest pony in Equestria,” Luna explained. “There was no downside for her. Either way, she would gain her desire. T’is why she could not remove Consent’s belt, because she had accepted it as right that you would have power over her.”

“That’s weird,” Twilight noted, as her friends began to notice that they were missing someone.

“Twilight?” Valiente asked, friends draped over and around her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, and it’s good to see you in the flesh,” Twilight answered. “Bridle and all.”

“It’s good to be seen,” the white mare noted. “Walk the bridle path home with us?”

“Always.”

Author's Note

When I was working on this last bit I ran across a song that summed up my feelings about the long overdue ending of this story. I invite you all to give a listen to it for the lyrics are very on point.

There are no further planned sequels to The Bridle Path.