“Applejack keeps a diary?” read Starlight’s word sign, even as Twilight picked up the dust covered volume.

“Not too many ponies know about it, but most farmers do keep journals of one sort or another,” Twilight wrote back, carefully examining the volume to make sure that opening it would do damage to the contents. “They keep one to follow trends in weather, or crops, or harvests, or anything that needs to be followed from year to year.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Starlight replied, her words bright in the gloom of the cellar they were in. “I just never saw Applejack as the most literary of ponies.”

“All of my friends have depths to them most ponies don’t realize,” Twilight said, as she brushed off the top of the journal with feather light touches of magic.

“I’ll just go over here and sit,” Starlight said, shoulders and ears drooping in dejection as she turned and began to move toward where the pair of skeletal bodies lay. Before she made more than a step though, a cord of magic reached out, latched onto her silver control collar and dragged her head and body back around.

“All of my friends have depths to them most ponies don’t realize,” Twilight repeated and underlined, drawing a yielding Starlight close. “Especially the ones that I own.”

With her suit covering nearly all of her head, including her muzzle, most ponies would have been hard pressed to see any emotional change in Starlight. Twilight however was not most ponies and immediately saw the light come back to her pony’s eyes, along with the sudden shift of Starlight’s entire posture from beaten down to uplifted.

“Sorry,” Starlight signed. “I just sort of assumed.”

“That you aren’t one of my friends?” Twilight supplied, before adding in lavender script, “Starlight, you are one of my closest friends. Somepony that I’ve been with through things most other ponies can’t even dream about. Somepony who has challenged me to dig deep and find strengths and abilities in myself that I never thought were possible.”

“Somepony,” Twilight added, pulling Starlight close enough that the alicorn was able to rub a latex covered muzzle with her own, “that has put their life and more in my hooves because they trust me so much. I am, and shall always be, your friend.”

Starlight’s response was to move her body into an elegant curtsy of submission to Twilight, her closely held leash forcing her to keep her head up to look into the eyes of the pony she had given herself over to.

“Good pony,” Twilight signed, dispelling the leash she had conjured into being. “I want you to look at this with me and try to catch anything I might miss.”

“As you wish,” Starlight responded, moving to sit beside Twilight as she gently cracked open the volume to examine its contents.

Twilight, first and foremost, was a scholar and bibliophile of the highest order. As such she did not rapidly flip through the book until she found passages she was looking for. Methodically the alicorn moved from one page to the next, scanning the text quickly but thoroughly, and being sure to check that her companion had also had a chance to digest the revealed writings before turning the page and moving on.

The natural downside to being thorough and methodical however, is that it takes extensive amounts of time. Time that could have been used for other things, but it was time that Twilight never begrudged spending, even if Rainbow Dash often mocked her for being an “overprepared egghead.” And so, it was almost two hours later that as Twilight reached the three-quarters mark in the tome’s pages, that she came to the part of this Applejack’s life account that she had been seeking.

Not sure whats up in town, but folks are jumpier than a timberwolf with wood ticks. Tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration and the Princess was supposed to be here when she raises up the sun for the longest day of the year. It was gonna be a big deal for a little place like Ponyville.

Instead, she cancelled at the last second, and when Mayor Mare asked why the princess dang near bit her head off. Being on edge I can understand, but this is the Princess we’re talking about. Makes no dang sense at all.

To top it off, the next thing we know, its like the whole Royal Guard decided to set down with us instead of the Princess. I never seen so many guards in my whole life. And they’re all lead by this big noisy colt called “Shining Armor”. Fool name for a dang blasted fool, if you ask me.

Starts ordering folks around, telling us all to make sure we all have at least three days of food and water stored up. Won’t tell anypony why. Keeps asking ponies if they’ve ever heard of something called “Nightmare Moon.” Wouldn’t shut up about it either. Least until the local weather pony, Rainbow Dash, got in his face about how rude he was being.

That pegasus stuck up for the town in the face of the whole dang Royal Guard and didn’t back down an inch. Stuck up unicorn was about to clap the girl in irons for “interfering with the Crown in time of crisis” or some stupid stuff, when the Mayor finally jumped in and got the weather pony to back off. Anyway, after that folks just kinda went back to their homes.

Now, the whole town is on edge and there’s guards just about everywhere. I dunno what they’re expecting, but it can’t be good.

Summer Sun Celebration Day

Welp, I was right. It wasn’t good. In fact, things are about as bad as they could be. Lemme explain.

Everyone in town got up before dawn for the Summer Sun Celebration, like they always do. All those idiot guards were still around, some of them looking like they had been up all day AND all night. Even that bossy unicorn that was in charge was looking pretty run down.

So, the sun comes up, just like it always does, and I tell you, every one of those guardsponies was fixin’ to have a killin’. Weapons out, looking around like something was gonna jump outta the shadows at them. So, when nothing happened they all looked pretty stupid, I’ll tell you. Seems that they weren’t being stupid, though. They were just in the wrong place.

So, every townspony is celebrating the day, and then there’s this big boom sound from the north. We all turn to look and there’s a funny looking cloud rising up from Canterlot. It’s so big, it starts covering over the Canterhorn, which has, I swear, a BITE out of it. I’m serious. It’s like somepony was hungry and bit a chunk out of the whole mountain.

Mayor Mare starts yelling for everypony to take shelter, and we all start moving out. Everypony was calm. Worried, but calm. That was until Rainbow Dash crashed to the ground right in front of everypony. Poor thing was all busted up and burnt. Looked like she’d flown through an inferno.

Said the sky was on fire over Canterlot and it was heading this way. Well, everypony panicked at that point and ran for it. I’m not ashamed to say that I grabbed Applebloom and hightailed it out of there without worrying about anypony but Granny and Big Mac.

Was a good thing too.

We saw this big cloud coming hard and fast just as we got back to the edge of Sweet Apple Acres. The wind was blowing hard enough that trees were starting to fall over, and I knew we weren’t going to make it to the storm cellar by the house. So I ran here, to our seed vault. Good thing to, cause just as me and Applebloom got the door open, the big boom hit.

It got so bright out that I swear I can still see the outline of where my shadow was on the far wall. There was a godawful noise and something plowed into me knocking me and Applebloom down the ramp. It was Big Mac and Granny. That big cloud had hit carrying all kinds of stuff with it, and some of that stuff had plowed into Big Mac. He plowed into Granny and the two of them plowed into us.

Me and Mac got Applebloom settled and saw to Granny. I’ll tell you I was plumb sick to my stomach when I got a look at her face and that her eyes had gone all white. Granny told us that she had been looking back toward Canterlot when that big flash hit, and that just sorta burned her ability to see away. Everything was black now, and she was glad.

That’s when Big Mac, my brother, the big solid lug of the family, keeled over sideways. At first I didn’t know what was wrong, and then my hoof stepped in something wet. It was Mac’s blood, pouring out of his back left leg.

Or what was left of it.

His… I can barely even write it. His lower leg was just gone. Everything from the cannon on down had been sliced off as smooth as anything. The big red doofus had just ignored the pain and the blood loss as long as he could while we took care of Granny. He’d held out until the job was done before he fell, and it almost killed him.

I was able to stop the bleeding after a bit. They’re all asleep now, even with that howling wind still going on overhead. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. Can’t be much worse.

Three Days after the Summer Sun Celebration

Things ain’t good. Could be worse, but they ain’t good. It’s been a couple of days now and the only thing we could hear outside up til now is that terrible roaring. I tried cracking open the door to take a look and the wind ripped it open. Dust and smoke filled the cellar and it was all me and Mac could do to close her again.

Speaking of Mac. He’s doing okay, except when he forgets a chunk of one of his legs is gone and he tries to walk on it. Or when he bumps it into something. Or one of us bumps into it. Forget I said that. He’s surviving, but that’s all any of us are doing. Granny is trying to cheer us up. Keeps telling us not to worry and that’s she was going blind anyway, so what’s the fuss?

Applebloom is bored mainly, and hungry. We didn’t bring a whole lot of food down here with us and eating apple seeds will kill ya if ya eat enough of them. We ain’t that hungry, yet.

Fourth night after the Summer Sun celebration

We were all sleeping and got woken up to roar so loud, I swear a dragon was flying by. Next we know we hear this crackling sound and we could smell wood smoke. The roar went away, but we can hear the noise still and the smoke is sweet, and its wood smoke.

Sweet Apple Acres is on fire.

Day five after Summer Sun

We hit a stroke of luck. Applebloom got bored and decided to count all the barrels and while she was doing that, she found one that looked funny to her. Mac limped over to take a look, and we found out our Crusader had gone and found us a barrel full of dried apple pieces. Good thing too, we were about to run out of grub. Now we’ve got about a month’s worth.

Haven’t told anyone we only got about a week’s worth of water left, though.

One week after summer sun

I don’t think anypony is coming for us.

Eight days after the Summer Sun Celebration.

Sorry about that last entry. Things were looking darker than the inside of a boot there, but then the dang impossible happened. We was all just sitting around, kinda giving up when one wall of the cellar opens up with a hole in it all of a sudden, and there were a pony standing there!

Recognized her after a second. It was Pinkie Pie, she’s a baker over at Sugar Cube Corner. Gal can make some of the best fritters you ever tasted, and she’s also one of the best there is when it comes to cheering a pony up, boy howdy did we ever need that.

She weren’t alone neither. Had Rarity Belle and her sister with her too. I make a point of watching my step around Rarity. See her shop is called the “Bridle Boutique'' and she makes and sells stuff that um, well. Well, it’s stuff for ponies who like their adult stuff a little more adult than most. Me, I’m all for a good ruttin’ every now and then, but the stuff that Rarity sells…

Well, I wouldn’t tell anypony else this, but this is my diary, so what the hay.

Rarity convinced me to model some stuff for her once. She asked me what I was okay with her doing with me, and I said, “Anything at all you want is fine by me.” And the next thing I know there’s stuff I can’t get off no matter how hard I try, and she’s got me comin' and goin' so hard I don’t know which way was up or down, who or even what I was. Soon as she undid the locks I got myself out of there, I’ll tell you.

Kept the collar though. That was a nice bit of leather work that was.

Anyhow, Applebloom is real good friends with her little sister. Sweetie Belle is her name, and she’s a right darling little filly, and it’s because of that friendship that I still let myself inside of a lasso length of Rarity let alone having anything to do with her.

We all settled down some and got to talking. Near as Pinkie could tell there weren’t nothing left of the town. She tunneled her way to a lot of pony’s basements and cellars, her being an Earth pony and all. Besides the Belles, she also found Bon Bon, the town candy maker.

Seems Bon Bon’s marefriend Lyra had died, and she weren’t gonna leave her friend to go to the Summerlands alone. Apparently Bon Bon was some sorta retired spy for the Crown, and knew about a network of secret bunkers that the Princess had built in case some sort of super disaster hit. Always knew our Princess prepared ahead, and it seems she saw this a-comin’.

After giving Pinkie a map to get there, the mare went and ate some kinda almond candy and just died right then and there. Pinkie said it was a right peaceful death, and the mare went with a smile on her face. May Harmony watch over her and see her to the Summerlands.

Upshot of all this is that Pinkie is fixing to hunker down another day or two until things calm down a bit more and then strike out for the bunker with the Belles in tow. She wants us to go with her.

Ten days after Summer Sun.

Applebloom is gone. It’s just me, Mac and Granny now.

Pinkie wanted us to go with her, but neither Granny or Mac is in any shape to travel. They wanted me and Applebloom to go with Pinkie and the Belles, but I know they wouldn’t last more than a day or two without me taking care of them.

So, I made a deal. I told them to take Applebloom with them, seeing as she and Sweetie are friends, and I promised that the rest of us would follow as soon as we could.

I hate lying. Granny and Mac could rest up for a hundred days and neither one of them would survive the trip to Celestia’s bunker. I think Pinkie Pie knew it too, because the next thing I know she digs down in one corner of the cellar and hits water. Making us our own little well.

Then she looked me in the eye, passed me a copy of her map she’d made and told me, not Granny, me and Mac. Told me to follow as soon as I could.

They’re gone now. Down a tunnel Pinkie dug. Me, I’m staying as long as Granny and Mac need me. Maybe we’ll figure out something.

Two weeks after it all went to Hell.

This will be my last entry.

Granny and Big Mac are dead.

We’ve been arguing for the past couple of days. They wanted me to go follow Applebloom while I could, and I kept saying they needed me. By this time Mac and Granny had both figured out they were never leaving this cellar alive, barring more mercy than this blasted world seems to have left in it.

They kept telling me to leave em and go. I kept telling ‘em an Apple don’t leave family behind. So they took the choice out of my hooves by slipping me a Mickey Finn. While I was out cold, they went and ground up a whole barrels worth of apple seeds, mixed em with a bit of apple brandy Mac must have been saving, and downed the lot.

Apple seeds have a bit of poison in them to keep critters away. One won’t kill ya, but a whole barrel’s worth, condensed down with some Earth pony magic? Ya, that would take down Celestia herself. If she’s still with us, that is.

Anyway, woke up, and Granny and Mac were all peaceful… and… and gone.

First Ponyville, then Sweet Apple Acres, then Applebloom. Now Mac and Granny. There’s nothing left here for me anymore. Time I was going, and I’m down the tunnel as soon as I finish this last bit.. Whoever, or whatever finds this note, be kind to Mac and Granny. They were the best family a pony could ask for.

I’m leaving a copy of Pinkie’s map for you, and I’ll try to leave markers as I follow the trail. If I don’t make it, and you find my bones, do me a favor and bring me back here to lie with my kin.

Harmony have mercy on us all,
Applejack “Jacky” Apple

“May all the powers of Light and Harmony watch over you,” Starlight signed, bowing her head reverently to the bodies when she had finished reading the last words of the diary. “May they see you safe in the Summerlands, far away from this Vale of Tears.”

“Found it,” Twilight declared as she flipped to the back of the book. “Huh, not the best of maps. But it should be enough.”

“Twilight, what’s wrong with you?” Starlight demanded, shoving her words in Twilight’s face. “The bodies of ponies who were close to you are right there, and you’re checking out a map?”

“Starlight,” Twilight replied, setting the map down carefully and turning so that she was muzzle to muzzle with the other pony. “Inside, I’m crying my eyes out over what happened not only here, but all over this world. But I can’t let it affect me right now.”

“Why not?” Starlight wrote back, finding her old forcefulness and outrage. “If we can’t let ourselves react as ponies, then what’s the sense of living? Why not just die and get it all over with?”

“Do not go gentle into that good night,” Twilight quoted. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Starlight felt some of her fury dissipate at that, “Yeah. Why aren’t you angry about all this? Why aren’t you furious at me for causing all this?”

“Two reasons,” Twilight wrote back. “First, you aren’t the cause of this. I am. This is all on my hooves, not yours, because every time I fought back against you things got worse for the next world. If I had just surrendered to you, this world wouldn’t exist. None of this would have happened if I had just let you be.”

“Twilight, I was a mind-controlling, enslaving dictator using intimidation, manipulation and brainwashing to take over Equestria one town at a time.” Starlight scrawled hastily. “I had to be stopped.”

“Maybe,” Twilight replied. “And maybe I could have found a better way to stop you. Either way, the second reason is that while anger is what drives you harder, it makes me weaker.”

“What?” Starlight asked, a little confused.

“This,” Twilight wrote, in glowing words over the map, “is my fury. This is my rage. Books are what drive me harder. Information gives me my rage against the night. It’s what kept me going when I was trapped in these suits before, slowly being turned into a loyal, obedient slave against my will.”

“When this is over, I plan on finding a quiet corner and having a good cry,” Twilight continued, pulling Starlight into a hug. “When that happens you’re welcome to join me, but until then, I have to keep focused on the goal of finding out what happened here and trying to fix it.”

“So what now?” Starlight asked, leaning into the hug and trying not to enjoy it too much.

“Now, we figure out how to eat and drink in these things,” Twilight responded. Putting aside the map with its large “Project Bolthole” title and tugging a bit on the living bondage wrapped around her. “You did say that they would take onhoof food and fed it to us.”

“Yeah, I did,” Starlight wrote, not meeting Twilight’s eyes.

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Twilight asked, in her lavender script.

“Depends,” Starlight responded. “On how good you are at sucking a cock.”

“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight wrote, realizing anew how well the symbiotic shaft in her mouth held her tongue captive. “You really need to get some of these things out of these suits. Fine, run me through the process before I try it.”

“First we grab a hoof-full of organic matter,” Starlight began. “Like these seeds here.”

Twilight’s fellow encapsulated pony reached into the open barrel in the room, drawing out a large amount of seeds. As Twilight watched, her companion put her other hoof on top of the pile of seeds and slowly brought her hooves together. When Starlight moved her hooves apart a few moments later, the seeds were gone.

“Now we give the suit a minute or so to process the food and remove anything dangerous,” said Starlight’s words, turning herself so she was side-on to her Owner. “And then we have to trigger the feeding response.”

As Twilight watched, the other mare lifted her chin and tilted her head back. Her cheeks indented in a clear indication of suction, and a moment or two later a gleam of light appeared on Starlight’s neck as the top of her throat bulged outward. Gulping sounds could be heard, and it was clear that Starlight was being fed by the suit. What confused Twilight though, was why the other mare’s eyes closed with an accompanying moan of passionate lust.

“Okay, you try,” Starlight shaky words said over a full minute later. Twilight didn’t like the look of her companion. Starlight looked very unsteady on her feet, with muscle tremors from her hips revealing themselves as rippling patterns of light off her suit. However, it was either follow in her pet’s hoof prints or starve it would seem.

Emulating the other pony, Twilight gathered up a hoof-full of seeds and was relieved to see that her suit absorbed the material as willingly as Starlight’s had. Then, the princess lifted her encased muzzle toward the ceiling and began to suck on the faux stallionhood in her maw. For a long time, nothing seemed to happen, but then Twilight remembered some of her lessons under Shaushka, and ran her tongue along the underside of the shaft while suckling on it as best she was able.

The reaction was immediate. Twilight felt the thick rod in her mouth slide forward along her slick tongue until she felt it glide partway down her throat, completely eliminating any choking hazard or possibility of resistance. At the same time, the plug in her ass came to life, vibrating and sliding back and forth in that forbidden passage.

A paste of food started being pumped down Twilight’s throat in pulses not unlike those when a stallion came under the ministrations of a mare’s tongue. The sensor shaft in the alicorn continued to mercilessly fuck her ass, driving her into ecstacy, and it became all too easy to imagine that she was sucking off one stallion while another was taking her from behind. Both servicing and being serviced at the same time.

The pulses of paste glided down her gullet, the delicious friction grew in her nethers and with a bolt of insight Twilight realized that her companion hadn’t been having muscle spasms earlier. Starlight had been cumming while the suit had destroyed her ass, as a reward for taking in nourishment to survive. An insight that was washed away as Twilight herself was driven over the edge and into a monumental orgasm.

“Mealtimes are fun times,” Starlight wrote to her, as soon as Twilight was able to comprehend language again. “Good thing we really only need to eat twice a day.”

“Let me guess,” Twilight wrote back. “Leftover training reward from the originals?”

“You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get rid of, or even change the original instruction set in these things,” Starlight drew in the air. “Every bit of the suits has a copy of what every other bit of the suit can do. They just can’t all do it at once. That’s what these power meridians are for.”

Starlight’s enveloped hoof glided along one of the glowing lines of power that ran from the inside of one thigh up to mid-chest, “They regulate what goes where and what parts of the suit are responsible for different things. They also mark the pathways of materials along the length of the suit.”

“Incredible,” was Twilight’s reply. “And sorry again for rushing you. You were right. These things weren’t ready for use, amazing though they are. I may be the Element of Magic, but this sort of half-living magic artifact is way beyond anything I could even dream of doing.”

“No, it’s not,” Starlight replied, dipping her hoof into the well of water that was in one corner of the large room.

“Wait, what?” Twilight demanded. “What do you mean? I’d never create something as diabolical as the original suits.”

“You,” Starlight wrote and underlined, “wouldn’t. But on that other world, the other ‘you’ did. I don’t know what drove that Twilight to it, but according to what I’ve found out, not only did your counterpart participate in the creation of the ‘Nightmare Seal’ as the first iterations were called, she actually headed up one of the primary design groups for it.”

The news hit Princess Twilight like a thunderbolt from the heavens. It made so much sense now that she thought about it. The suit itself had never been something that had bothered her, just the uses it had been put to by those who controlled them. Truth be told, she’d actually come to enjoy the dark slick embrace of the magical symbiote. The more she wore it, the more it felt like an old friend that had come back after a long journey, strange but familiar.

“When we get back, maybe I’ll give you a hoof and see if we can get these things to behave,” Twilight stated, after a long minute of thought. “We should try to get some rest. It’s been a long day and I want to get on Applejack’s trail as soon as we can.”

“You okay?” Starlight asked, concern showing in her eyes.

“Just realizing that maybe I’ve moved too fast in somethings,” Twilight wrote, looking for a place away from the bodies that was still close enough for comfort. “I’m doing a lot of things, becoming a lot of things, and I’m beginning to wonder if all the changes have been worth it.”

“Life is change, Twilight,” Starlight’s words read, her writing even and more legible than normal. “You and I have seen more change in our lives than any other pony except for maybe the princesses. Life only stops changing when we die, and even then there is one last change waiting for us all.”

“I don’t know if that’s waiting for me, Starlight,” Twilight replied, giving vent to one of her deepest worries. “Luna and Celestia are immortal, or the next closest thing to it. Am I going to be like them? Am I going to outlive all my friends?”

“Even if you are immortal there is no guarantee of that,” Starlight commented, dragging over a pile of empty sacks she had found. Together she and Twilight began to form them into a sleeping nest for the night. “All I can say is that if it happens, and you do outlive all of us, don’t do what I did. Don’t let the loss of your friends turn you from the good pony you are to something bitter and angry at the world.”

“And that’s just another reason why I need you to stay with me Starlight,” responded Twilight, laying down and nodding with satisfaction at the level of cushioning. “I need somepony to keep me grounded. A pony that doesn’t see a princess, or the Element of Magic, but a pony that sees me and is both willing and able to challenge me when I start going off the deep end.”

“I just go with what my gut tells me is the right thing to do,” Starlight wrote, dragging over the rest of the opened barrel of seeds and a bowl filled with water from the well in the corner. “Okay, that should do it.”

“Yup,” Twilight replied, lightly tugging on Starlight’s collar with her magic. “We both need some good solid sleep. Come here and keep your Owner warm.”

“Yes Mistress,” was Starlight’s smiling reply, latex squeaked on latex as she lay down and snuggled up against the alicorn.

Outside, an oppressive heat bore down and the wind howled, but inside all was quiet and cool as the two ponies drifted off to sleep. Neither pony was aware that their presence had been noticed by the shattered wreck of what had once been the epitome of beauty and grace. Nor were they aware of the hopeful plans that the broken being dusted off and began to put into action.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.