Again there was the rush of wind, both real and magical, as Twilight Sparkle once more traveled the space between spaces with a companion in tow. Again the impressions of moving through a cosmos made up, not of time and space, but of concepts. Concepts that moved and flowed like ocean currents until they gathered up into a whirlpool ahead of the two traveling mages, and spat them out onto their destination.

“HA!” Twilight shouted triumphantly, as she made a perfect four point landing on the sandy ground around the stone table that was the remains of the Cutie Mark Map on this world.

Starlight, being almost as experienced as Twilight, made a rough if serviceable landing, bending her knees and using her magic to absorb the shock of landing.

“Nothing’s changed,” Starlight declared, looking around at the blasted landscape she had seen the last time they had been there.

Intellectually, the pair knew they were on the outskirts of Ponyville, but there was no sign of anything resembling the town the pair had come to call home. The ground they stood on was as dead as the stone of the map table itself. Starlight took a moment to bring up a hooffull of dirt to her face, only to watch it blow away like ash.

“Hostile environment detected,” came the recorded voice of Alyss from their suits’ control collars. “Engaging measures to protect Flim-Flam property.”

“Counter—” Twilight Sparkle began to order, only to have her voice cut off by a muzzle forming from her suit’s rapidly expanding living latex. A moment later, her nose was covered and the alicorn felt herself begin to panic as her ability to breathe was completely cut off. A glance over at her companion showed that Starlight was no better off, but seemed to be passively accepting the situation instead of trying to fight against it.

Twilight drew power into her horn, intent on blasting the latex symbiote off of her, when her concentration was disrupted by the suit extruding a familiar intruder into her ass. As the medical probe swelled and humped its way into Twilight’s forbidden passage, she couldn’t help but give a lusty moan. Part of her wondered why the suit was allowing her to make any noise at all. A question that was answered a moment later as a second intrusive shaft invaded Twilight’s mouth, pinning her tongue in place and utterly silencing her.

Spitroasted by her own outerwear, the mare struggled to regain the concentration needed to use her magic and get herself out of her suit before it was too late, and the thing suffocated her. However, her struggles were rendered unnecessary a moment later as cool, clean air began to flow from the cock gag irresistibly lodged in her mouth and Twilight was able to take her first breath in nearly a minute.

Starlight tapped Twilight on the shoulder to gain her attention, the glowing power conduits on her leg telling Twilight that her companion’s suit as just as active as hers. Glowing words appeared over Starlight’s head.

“These survival suits are supposed to kick in when they pick up a dangerous environment,” Twilight read, as her thoughts considered possibilities. “I must have missed some stuff when I transferred the programming over from the training suits.”

“Ya THINK so?” Twilight replied, her own words much larger than Starlights. Purely for emphasis, of course. “I’m really starting to get tired of my own clothing literally fucking around with me. I swear, when we get back—”

“Twilight, please calm down,” waved Starlight’s frantic words. “You might trigger one of the subsystems.”

“—I’m going to tear these things down to the molecular level,” continued the moving line of Twilight’s rant. “And what the hay do you mean, ‘subsystems’?”

“Property is panicking, wasting resources in emergency situation,” came the voice from the collar. “Initiating calming routine.”

Twilight’s muzzle swiftly expanded to cover her entire face, blindfolding her, but instead of darkness, the inside of the hood began to display a swirling pattern of geometric shapes that flowed and undulated across Twilight’s visual field. Trying to avoid being entranced by the hypnotic light show, she barely felt the tiny earphones that were shoved in her ears.

“Calm. Relax. Peace,” chanted the pre-recorded voice of Starlight Glimmer. The familiar tones had a strange sort of echo to them. “Your owners will come for you. You will be safe. Trust in your suit. Calm. Relax. Peace.”

In spite of most definitely not wanting to calm down and relax, Twilight felt the swirling lights and harmonic sounds begin to drain the anger from her. She began to find it hard to remember why she had been so upset, or what she had wanted to use her magic on anyway. It was easy to just relax and give in to the personal light show that was dancing in her eyes. So easy just sink into the gentle words that caressed her mind, like the loving hoof of an owner along the fur of their pet.

Twilight didn’t even realize that she had sunk to her knees until she felt a stone on the ground poke against her belly as she began to lay over it. It wasn’t much of a stone, and the sheath around her body was a fine cushion, but the rock’s irritation was enough to wear away the mental straitjacket Twilight’s suit had wrapped around her emotions.

“Nyarf!” Twilight tried to yell out in protest, as her mind snapped into clear focus again. Again she drew magic to her horn with the intent of stripping the symbiotic latex off of her, but again a voice came from the suit’s control collar.

“Property still in a state of panic,” stated the emotionless voice. “Initiating stage two calming procedures.”

The alicorn had just enough time to worry about what her confinement’s next move would be, when it was demonstrated to her. The latex eased aside her soft nether lips and Twilight felt a firm softness glide up against her clit and bump up against the entrance to her sacred passage. Unseen beneath the hood, Twilight’s eyes spread just as widely as she realized what was about to happen.

And happen it did, a heartbeat later, as the mother of all vibrators attacked Twilight’s clit and brilliant orgasmic fire blinded the alicorn to all other considerations. All a worried Starlight could do was watch as her friend and mistress writhed and shuddered over the ground for what seemed an eternity.

Slowly, Twilight’s frantic struggles, grunts and moans tapered off and the powerful buzzing in her nethers came to a gradual halt. The hood withdrew and Starlight’s worries grew ten-fold as Twilight’s dazed eyes seemed to look right through her and into the distance.

“Twilight,” said the unicorn’s words, as she shoved them directly into Twilight’s face. “Are you okay?”

Nothing came from the alicorn but a sound that could only be described as a cross between a moan and a groan.

“Twilight, blink twice with your left eye if you can understand me,” Starlight’s words said, “Please?”

Twilight made a sound far more in keeping with that of a rational, thinking pony and blinked her right eye twice.

“Very funny,” Starlight shaped with her words, feeling great relief. “Just lie still for a couple of minutes and relax.”

Twilight nodded, before managing to scribe, “What happened?” in the air.

“I tried to warn you,” came the unicorn’s reply, “but you wouldn’t listen. One of the biggest killers in a survival situation is panic, so I put in a routine to stop anything like that before it could get going. I didn’t have time to set it up right so it tends to go off any time the wearer gets really stressed.”

“I get the… stimulation,” Twilight wrote as her reply. “But what was all that with the lights and your voice?”

“You mean the trancing and alpha waves?” Starlight asked, helping Twilight back up to her hooves. “Twilight, I’m a mind mage. Changing ponies minds with magic and other means is second nature to me. Remember what I did in Our Town?”

“I never really thought about it afterwards,” Twilight replied, and taking a quick self-assessment she realized that she actually was feeling calmer and more balanced. “Maybe I should have had you working on 143 all this time.”

“No!” Starlight’s reply was six inches tall, with an exclamation point. “I absolutely cannot be trusted with that sort of power over someone’s mind. Twilight, if I’d had access to anything like these suits when you and the girls first came to Our Town, you never would have left, except as my completely obedient missionaries of Equality.”

“Not even if I was to keep you completely under my hoof while you did it?” Twilight asked, trying to get her bearings. “I could make sure you didn’t try anything untoward.”

“Twilight,” Starlight paused for a moment before continuing. “You don’t get it. I’m dangerous. Even when I’m trying to do good, I’m a danger to ponies. Or have you forgotten that at the moment we’re both muzzled with a latex cock shoved up our asses and down our throats?”

“Good point,” Twilight responded, still trying in vain to see any sort of landmarks or even the sun’s disc. “Which reminds me. How do we get these things off us, and I thought they sucked away all our magic to power themselves.”

“They come off through voice commands,” Starlight responded. “All we have to do is say, ‘Off’ and off they come. As for magic, these suits can’t do as much as the originals. For instance, they can’t take over your body movements or enhance your strength, so they don’t drain off as much of your magic as the originals.”

“Starlight,” the alicorn said, feeling her temper rising again even though she knew what the consequences would be. “There’s a small problem with using voice commands when one is silenced with a muzzle and gag.”

“What?” Starlight replied, and Twilight could see the unicorn struggle to open her mouth enough to form words, and fail. “Crap. And we better not try to magic the suits off of us either. They might knock us out, in order to protect us.”

“How would they— Never mind, don’t answer that,” Twilight’s written reply was accompanied by a growl. One that was hastily cut off and replaced by steady breathing as Twilight’s living latex again began to nudge up against her clit.

“I might have set the sensitivity a little too high,” Starlight admitted, scuffing a hoof through the desiccated loam.

“Do you think so?” Twilight shot back, her own words vibrating in the air, and she calmed herself before her suit did more than twitch at her nethers. “Anyway, I’d like to see if we can find anything in Ponyville first. By the way, any idea what the suits are reacting against?”

“Let me cast a detection spell,” Starlight replied, and her horn lit up to launch a sweep of turquoise magic in an arc around them. “Oh, that’s not good.”

“What did you find out?” Twilight asked, as the two began to move forward. She both found it strange and gratifying that the two of them were already getting used to the odd mode of communication the two of them had been forced into. Ponies were an adaptable species.

“It’s really not good,” Starlight said, then hastily adding. “The temperature goes up, the higher you go. A lot higher. That’s why the ground and air are so dry. The moisture has been literally baked out of everything.”

“There’s more, isn’t there?” Twilight asked, as she saw the dry banks of a stream that had marked the boundary into the town proper from the outskirts.

“Yeah,” the unicorn replied, again casting her scrying sweep. “I’m not picking up any life at all nearby. Not even bugs. And there’s radiation too.”

“How much radiation?” Twilight prompted, slightly annoyed at having to drag the information out of Starlight one sentence at a time, but also realizing that the unicorn at her side was trying to process what she had found out.

“Thirty millithaums per hour,” Starlight commented, and Twilight could see how wide the unicorn’s eyes were. “That’s well into the danger zone. No wonder the suits’ survival functions kicked in. Twilight, if we take these things off we’ll have a lethal dose of magical radiation in a week to ten days. Tops.”

“What could have caused such a huge release of magical energy?” Twilight wondered, nudging Starlight to point out the stubby remains of a few bridge timbers poking up out of the old stream bed. “I don’t know of any spells that cause this kind of effect.”

“Me either, and I’m pretty good with magic,” Starlight added, picking her way into and out of the stream bed.

“Starlight, saying you’re pretty good at magic is like saying Rainbow Dash is pretty good at flying,” Twilight said, not missing an opportunity to bolster Starlight’s self-esteem. “You fought the Element of Magic to a standstill. Even going all out I couldn’t beat you.”

“Thanks, but I still have no idea what caused all this,” the unicorn replied. “I’m not even picking up any buildings. Everything’s been blasted flat.”

“Hmm, let me try something,” Twilight said, as she stomped a hoof and sent a pulse of Earth Pony magic through it and down into the friable soil below. “Hmm, the buildings may be gone, but a lot of the basements and cellars are still intact.”

“Do you really want to see if anyone survived this?” Starlight asked, looking at the devastation around them. “Why don’t we just go home and you can either turn me into ‘614’ for real or let me take care of things myself?”

“Not so fast,” Twilight countered. “Structures mean somepony could have survived, and the conditions here may only be a local phenomenon. We need to investigate and see what we can find out.”

“Are you always this determined to have your own way, or is this something new?” Starlight asked, wearily.

“You haven’t been with me and the girls on too many adventures, have you?” Twilight replied, and her smile was so strong it almost managed to defeat the muzzle attached to her. “I’m picking up fifteen reasonably intact basements and cellars, most of which are buried under drifts of this… soil.”

“That’s going to take quite a while,” Starlight replied, looking around at what was left of Ponyville’s town square. She could just make out some humps in the ground that roughly corresponded to familiar building locations.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight responded, summoning into being a map of Ponyville. “I’ve reduced the number of places we need to check to the three most likely locations for clues or survivors.”

“Oh?” Starlight asked, curiosity somewhat restoring her energy, and she looked at the three indicated locations. “Okay, I recognize Mayor Mare’s office and the town hall, but what are the other two?”

“Pinkie Pie’s party planning cave that’s underneath Sugar Cube Corner and the cellar underneath Carousel Boutique,” Twilight replied, nodding towards where Ponyville’s town hall had once stood. “We’ll try here first, then the boutique, and then Pinkie Pie’s place.”

“Why that order?” Starlight asked, trying to understand the reasoning. “Rarity’s place is a lot further from here than Sugar Cube Corner.”

“Pinkie’s cave is deeper than the other two, so we’re most likely to find something there,” Twilight explained. “But it’s the least likely to have more than one pony there. Rarity’s storage cellar is bigger, but not as deep down, and the records vault at the town hall is really big, but it’s not much more than a basement. Not really a vault at all.”

“So you’re going in order of number of possible survivors, then,” Starlight replied, nodding and wincing as a sharp gust blew some grit into her eyes. “Which way?”

“Over here,” Twilight responded, indicating a greyish-black hillock that could just be seen a few dozen yards away.

“Right,” responded Starlight and together the two mares made their way over to wide mound and began excavating.

The going was very hard initially. No sooner had they removed anything more than a foot or so of material and either the sides of their excavation would collapse on their own, or the ever present wind would erode the upper edges down into the bottom of their dig. It wasn’t until Starlight hit on the idea of using the wind itself to dig with, combined with Twilight’s ability to shape the airflows that the two mages made any progress.

Within minutes of initiating their idea, the lower remains of the Ponyville’s town hall could be seen, and it was immediately clear that there would be no survivors here. The top of the records vault had collapsed under the weight of the falling building above it with some of the ragged ends of support beams being revealed as the ground was removed from it.

“I was really hoping we would find something here,” Twilight wrote, as the last of the building’s remains were revealed, along with a hooffull of desiccated skeletons. “Let’s just cover this back up and let these ponies rest in peace.”

“Hang on a moment,” Starlight interrupted, and a corona of magic pulled up something from beside a skeleton that was wearing a pair of half-rim glasses. The something turned out to be a small file holder from which the unicorn extracted a few sheets of dust covered paper with writing on them.

“Hmm,” Starlight hummed through her muzzle, scanning the pages before finding something of interest. “Bright flashes of light seen from Canterlot followed by a huge explosion. Weather team reports a wave of devastation heading this way. The mayor has ordered everypony to shelter in place until the wave passes.”

“So something definitely happened,” Twilight wrote, examining the paper herself. “It’s a shame this isn’t dated. Okay, great work Starlight. Now, let's leave these ponies in peace.”

The pair next made their way to the site of Rarity’s boutique. As with the town hall, the remains of Rarity’s home and shop was buried several feet underground. This time however the pair made quick work of the obstacle using the technique they had discovered to make the wind work for them, instead of against them. Both were overjoyed to see that, while the main level of the shop had been scoured away, the thick slab that formed the roof of the building’s cellar was intact.

“Wow, that’s heavy,” Twilight wrote in the air, as she grunted with the effort of shifting open a pair of ornate, wrought iron doors that covered the entrance to the lower level. “I can really feel the drain from the suits.”

“Told you,” was Starlight’s answer as she descended a stone ramp and into the gloom of the revealed sub-basement. “Holy crap! Twilight, you won’t believe what’s down here.”

“What? What’s down there?” Twilight wrote, and then rolled her eyes as she realized that if Starlight couldn’t see what she wrote there was no way for the unicorn to answer her.

Quickly trotting down the ramp herself, Twilight stopped in amazed surprise as she reached the bottom and looked around. All around here were various implements of “bedroom items.” Corsets, cuffs, collars, bridles and tack of a dozen different sizes and materials hung alongside of crops, whips and other instruments of erotic torture.

“Wow,” Twilight read in glowing words from Starlight. “I knew Rarity had a kinky side, but wow. Just wow.”

“Rarity once told me that she had once considered getting into ‘adult wear,’ as she called it,” Twilight replied. “She was going to name her business ‘Bridle Boutique’ and go in that direction because it’s more profitable.”

“You think you know a pony,” Starlight mused, lifting a double ended strap-on up to take a look at it.

“Starlight,” flashed up in front of the unicorn, “come over here and take a look at this!”

Obediently, the unicorn trotted over to where Twilight was. By the alicorn Starlight could see a couple of mounds of dust covered cloth and a small pile of metal objects nearby.

“Okay,” Starlight signed, “what am I looking at?”

“A couple of sleeping spots, AND,” Twilight triumphantly emphasized, “what’s left of a few days worth of food. Eaten food.”

“So somepony did survive, at least for awhile,” Starlight replied, sweeping a light around with her magic. “Look! Is that a tunnel coming through that wall?” Starlight’s magic highlighted an obvious breach in the otherwise pristine northern wall of the basement.

“It’s too regular of an opening to be a collapse,” Twilight replied, moving over to examine the hole. “It almost looks like it was drilled through the ground from the outside. I bet this is Pinkie’s work.”

“Pinkie Pie can tunnel?” Starlight asked, actually managing to add a surprised sounding grunt along with her word sign.

“All the Pie’s have an affinity with the Earth, and that includes the ability to dig, really, really fast,” Twilight commented. “I bet if we followed this it would lead back to her party planning cave.”

“Let’s follow it,” Starlight suggested. “It beats walking up on the surface and I bet we’re getting less exposed to the radiation too.”

“Starlight, how long can the suits keep us alive?” Twilight asked, looking at the height of the tunnel. “And how do we eat and drink while they’ve got us like this?”

“Well, the um, cock, stuffed into our mouths will feed us and keep us watered as long as the suits have access to food or water,” Starlight wrote, taking a couple of tentative steps into the tunnel. “It was just supposed to be a little hose, not part of a cock gag. Sorry.”

“Much as I hate to admit it, I’ve kind of gotten used to being like this,” Twilight admitted. “And we did rush things.”

“I forced this,” Starlight said, moving down the tunnel with increasing confidence, Twilight on her heels. “I’m the one who has been trying to kill themselves. All you’ve done is try to be a good friend by being what I thought I needed.”

“I haven’t been that good of a friend either,” Twilight replied, closely following the unicorn and occasionally having to duck at a low section of tunnel. “I’ve been focusing on all the wonderful things we’ve been doing together and how good you’ve made me feel, instead of focusing on what you need and how you’ve been feeling. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks Twilight,” appeared Starlight’s words over her black clad rump. “Look, when we get back, I can’t promise anything, but I’m willing to give things another try.”

“That’s all anypony can ask, Starlight,” Twilight responded, reaching out and enfolding the unicorn in a quick hug. “And I’ll be with you every step of the way. As your friend.”

“Can I still call you ‘Mistress’ sometimes?” Starlight asked, snuggling back as best she could in the limited space.

“We’ll see,” Twilight wrote, and her chuckle was audible even through the muzzle and gag. “Let’s get moving.”

With the power of magic lighting their way, alicorn and unicorn traversed the winding passageway. Up, down, sometimes in what even seemed like corkscrews went the tunnel, until after what seemed to be hours, an opening appeared.

“This isn’t Pinkie’s party cave,” said Twilight’s word projection, as she crossed the threshold. “This place is huge.”

The pair had emerged into a somewhat low ceilinged but very large space. The floor of the room covered at least four times the space of Rarity’s basement, and the room itself was almost filled with barrels and sacks of all sizes. At the far end was a pair of angled doors that appeared to lead to the outside, and near the door there was also a large table.

“Twilight,” Starlight’s sign read. “I don’t think anypony got out of here.”

Twilight looked to where the unicorn was pointing. Off to one side, in what looked to be an improvised sleeping area, the bones of at least two ponies were poking out from beneath some tattered and forlorn looking blankets, which were adorned with a familiar horse collar and checked scarf. Moving over to where the two bodies lay Twilight spotted a book lying nearby. Holding the tome up so that Starlight could see it, both were able to read the writing on the cover.

Journal of Applejack Apple

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