Celestia allowed herself a small smile as she worked. It always gave her pleasure to be a part of the lives of her little ponies, and she could tell that although what Applejack and Rarity had been through had changed them, it had not damaged them. Applejack was still as open and honest as ever, while Rarity was still more than willing to give of herself to help others.

When word had first come of what Rarity had been wearing before her rescue, the solar princess had felt a rare chill go down her spine. The times of the earth pony pushback had come far too close to becoming a full scale rebellion for Celestia’s liking, and it had been decades before unicorns roamed the streets again without fear of being snatched up by Vermin and his slavers.

The reminder of those dark times had indeed been a foul memory of one of the eras where Celestia had made mistakes. She should have listened more back then, because if she had, she might have seen the building resentment and taken steps to nip it in the bud before over eight thousand unicorns had been captured, bound and sold into slavery to the various other races in and around Equestria.

At least Vermin had been true to his word once he had turned himself in. The pony behind it all had helped her dismantle the very criminal empire he himself had built up, as well as destroying the secret of how to make orichalcum. In return, the Apple family was given a clean slate, with all records of their involvement destroyed. All that had remained were a few links of the dread alloy, until today that is.

Celestia inhaled slightly as she continued to work on the chains held in her tools. So long as her magic did not directly touch the metal it would remain as simple chain, allowing her to create a safeguard she had long desired to have, but thought impossible. There simply hadn’t been enough orichalcum for what Celestia had wanted to create.

Now however, with the remnants of Rarity’s bindings, as well as the lengths that her guards had recovered from the tunnels, there was more than enough for a harness, collar and bridle large enough to fit her frame. Satisfied with her creation, the alicorn began to shrug herself into the bindings.

First came the harness. The chains tightening fiercely as the alicorn used simple padlocks for the last links, the orichalcum in contact with her body reacting to the barest touch of telekinesis. Next was the bridle, and the magic needed to secure the lock at the back of Celestia’s head, contracted the chains of her harness to the point that the alicorn nearly passed out from lack of air as it squeezed her body.

At the last there was the length of chain that would serve as her collar. Fortunately, Celestia was able to wind it around her throat and close its lock using only her hooves.

“Guard,” Celestia called cleanly through her door, not having equipped her bridle with a bit. “Please find Princess Luna and tell her I need to see her immediately.”

“Yes Princess,” replied the guard. “Is there anything else?”

“Yes. Do not allow anypony other than Princess Luna to enter. Is that understood?” Celestia asked, cheeks heating slightly at what the guards might think at seeing their princess in such a vulnerable position.

A few minutes later there was a soft knock at the door, followed by the voice of her dear sister asking to enter.

“Come in Luna, and close the door behind you,” Celestia replied.

“Very well, Sister,” Luna said, stepping into the room. “I do not see what was—”

Luna froze as her eyes registered the harnessed, bridled and collared form of her sister standing in the middle of the room. The eyes of the lunar alicorn darted all over the room, looking to see who had done this to her sister, and Celestia noted with some amusement that each veer aside was followed by a glance back at her chained body.

“Come in, shut the door, and put a privacy spell over it while you are at it,” Celestia gently ordered.

Luna did as she was bid, sealing the room before blurting out, “Sister, what has happened to thee? What is the meaning of this?”

It took more than a few minutes for Celestia to explain the entirety of things. Of Vermillion Apple, orichalcum, the near rebellion by earth ponies at being treated as second class citizens and of recent events.

“But Sister,” Luna complained, circling her sister to closely examine the chains that formed Celestia’s bindings. “None of this explains why you have bound yourself in this fashion.”

“Orichalcum is strong enough to hold either of us, and it doesn’t let us use our magic. Which means it’s the perfect material to keep either, or both of us, under control,” Celestia stated, as Luna picked up a pair of reins in her hooves, smoothing them in her grip.

“So thou art truly helpless in the grasp of these chains?” Luna asked, her expression becoming unreadable to her sister.

“Exactly. It means that if one of us goes… bad, again, we don’t have to be exiled to the moon, or worse,” Celestia continued. “With these chains on, I’m completely at your mercy if I become Daybreaker, or— Luna, what are you doing?”

While Celestia had been going on with her explanation, Luna had simply reached up and attached the reins to Celestia’s bridle. All it took was a slight tug on them to pull Celestia’s head toward Luna.

“And so, you are at my mercy now?” the dark alicorn asked, her voice husky. “In my power, to do with as I wish? Many times as Nightmare Moon, I dreamed of you bound like this. Unable to resist my strength. Forced to submit to the might of the Moon. And now, you have given yourself to me.”

“Um… yes?” the new solar slave answered hesitantly.

“Excellent,” Luna responded, her fur darkening to a pitch black as she pulled Celestia’s head close and whispered, “The safe word is ‘Cake Flank’. Remember it well, and use it if you have need.”

Author's Note

And that concludes a story idea I had kicking around my head for months. I'd like to thank my patrons for voting to allow me to get this story completely finished. Especially as it grew from a single, 4000-word chapter into this monstrosity.

I would also like to thank Lady Lightning Strike for stepping in at the last moment to help edit things for me.

I hope you have found it pleasing in some small way.

Every month my patrons get to vote on which story they would like to see me work on following, my commissioned story.

If you want a vote on what I write, join my Patreon and for as little as a dollar a month and cast your ballot for whichever story you would like to have me update. February's voting will begin on the 1st.