Okay, I got a lot of useful answers! Thanks bros!
A quick detour:
What's your favourite thing about AJ?
To be compleeeeetely honest... its that hat, and those little pigtails she wears her mane and tail in. Those are
adorable! I especially loved in the Season 2 finale, when she pulled out and put on her hat when Rarity wasn't looking. Damn, I just want to hug Applejack sometimes.
Did I mention I love Applejack? I don't think I did.
Now if they put them on leashes and make them eat out of bowls on the floor...
@Moe Here's the key. In your fic, if a Human wanted to walk away and be independent of their "owner", could they? If the answer is no, then it's slavery. Now, slavery existing in your story shouldn't be a problem, especially since you seem to be doing an AU type thing.
This is actually giving me some neat story ideas.
I was thinking: it depends on the pony. The first pony owner-of-a-human I've written is Surprise, who puts on a strict
act but is really quite lenient. But then the whole premise is that ponies basically kidnap humans they want to keep... surely not all ponies are nice to their pets. There's definitely a dark side to it.
And its mostly Dream Valley ponies who do this. I agree that Celestia probably wouldn't let this fly if she knew some owners were abusive, but she doesn't rule Dream Valley.