Apple Bound

After Rock Hound had dug out an escape tunnel for Applejack and Rarity, it had only taken a few more hours to come across the rail line that ran between Ponyville and Canterlot. From that point on it was almost ridiculously easy to flag down a passing train and free Rarity from her days long bondage using a pair of the bolt cutters that the train crew carried to break the seals on freight cars.

Rarity’s gasping shudder as the quivering metal shaft was removed from her nethers was a sound that Applejack would treasure for the rest of her life, as was the look that the unicorn gave Applejack when the hood of fine chainmail was lifted off her head. Which lasted all five seconds as Rarity realized what her face looked like after the better part of three days without any sort of care at all.

After a long grooming session with the train’s primitive facilities, Rarity barely said two words to Applejack about what they had gone through, choosing instead to politely deal with the incessant questions from both the train’s passengers and staff. Some of whom had caught a glimpse of Applejack leading of Rarity on the end of a pair of reins, and wanted to know more about what had happened, while one pony had shyly asked Applejack if she could take Rarity’s place.

Rarity’s face at that moment had been a crazy mix of embarrassment, masked desire, and what Applejack thought looked like a streak of pure out and out jealousy. Luckily, the train pulled into Canterlot just then and a contingent of Royal Guards piled on, the train crew having called ahead to let everypony know that the lost ponies had been found.

The train crew must have also mentioned something about the state the two ponies had been in, because the guards had arrived with orders to escort Applejack and Rarity directly to the castle, and they refused to take no for an answer. Once the two arrived at the palace, Rarity had been led off by a pair of ponies wearing medical caps, while Applejack was instead taken to a private audience with Princess Celestia, who was in the angriest mood the earth pony could ever remember seeing her sovereign in.

The solar monarch had demanded to know every bit of what the pair had been through, and Applejack had honestly replied to each and every question in full detail.

“So you don’t intend to pick up where Vermin… I mean Vermilion Apple left off?” Celestia asked at the end, her demeanor tense but calmer now.

“No ma’am,” Applejack had firmly answered. “No way, no how. Keepin’ other ponies as property just ain’t right.”

“I am very glad to hear that Applejack. Keeping ponies against their will is wrong. And as for the orichalcum, do you intend to make more of it?” Celestia queried, and the earth pony felt the briefest wisps of something sweet tickle her nose as the royal alicorn spoke.

“No ma’am. Ah ain’t got no idea how to make the stuff,” Applejack had replied, keeping to her policy of complete truthfulness. “Ah know what it is, but Ah ain’t got no idea how it’s made.”

“Then Vermilion did take that knowledge to his grave, as he promised he would,” Celestia said, nodding in satisfaction. “Very well. You may head home with a voucher for the train ride back. Rarity will be along as soon as the doctors clear her.”

Now, five days later, Applejack wondered if it had been all some sort of weird dream. The Royal Guard had gone into the cave system and had scoured it for every trace they could find of the ancient slaving operation, removing every piece of metal and scrap of wood, no matter how small. After which they had sealed over the shaft that Rarity and Applejack had fallen down and put up warning signs to avoid the area.

Applejack sighed as she worked oil into a pulling harness. Rarity had gotten back a few hours after Applejack and to all reports had disappeared into her boutique, sending Sweetie Belle out to do the shopping and refusing to talk to anypony about what had happened. Especially Applejack, who she avoided in particular.

As for Applejack’s family, Big Mac had kept his curiosity to himself, while Applebloom had asked some decidedly uncomfortable questions that Applejack had refused to answer. The last thing anypony in the family wanted was the Crusaders trying to get cutie marks in slavery. Granny Smith had taken Applejack aside the second night she had been back, asking probing questions that were decidedly embarrassing.

Questions that had ended with Granny telling Applejack that she had done right by Rarity and wouldn’t mind seeing the fancy pony around more.

“Do you still plan on going to work for Rock Hound at the end of next week?” asked a cultured voice from behind her, breaking through the memories Applejack had been replaying in her head.

Whirling around, Applejack saw Rarity standing in the barn’s doorway, her horn aglow with something, though all Applejack saw was the beauty of the white unicorn as she glided forward. Mutely, Applejack nodded as her throat was suddenly too tight for words.

“Good, I’d hate to make you a liar,” Rarity commented, and as she reached Applejack the earth pony finally noticed what the unicorn was carrying in her magic. Suspended in the field of blue were a harness and bridle with reins, as well as a blued steel collar.

“You had best harness and bridle your property,” Rarity said, putting the mentioned items on the railing beside Applejack, “and get to training her properly. After all, you’ve barely got a week to make sure she doesn’t bring shame to the Apple clan.”

“You… you sure you wanna do this?” Applejack asked, heart pounding in her chest. ”Me, keepin’ you, as mah property? As mah pony?”

“Read this,” Rarity replied, producing an envelope with Celestia’s sun symbol seal.

”Applejack,” began the letter. ”If you are reading this, it means that Rarity is offering herself to you as your property of her own free will, to do with as you choose and with my blessing. If you choose to accept, I will view this on the same level as a marriage, only with you being the one legally responsible for both of your well beings. Choose wisely, and remember to be honest with yourself as well. Celestia, Sol Invictus.”

“Well?” Rarity asked, a trifle nervously after Applejack had read the letter. “I did say that if I had to be owned, I could think of no better owner than—”

Rarity’s words were cut off by the closing of the steel collar around her throat. It was, of course, a perfect fit as befit something made by a master of her craft. The collar had been shaped and sized precisely to the neck it now surrounded, with a dangling name tag that simply said, “Rares.”

“This… this might take awhile,” Applejack said huskily, lifting up the white silk bridle with encrusted aquamarines and sliding it over Rarity’s… Rares’, muzzle.

“We have all the time in the world, darling,” Rares answered, shivering slightly as the headgear’s straps began to tighten. “All the time in the world.”