"Faster, gelding," the sister shouted at me as I struggled under the weight of the cart full of holy artifacts. Her rod stung my flank, again and again. No matter how hard I cried, she would not let up her assault.

Then I collapsed. Unable to move, coughing and sobbing as she continued to beat me. Then it stopped.

She bucked me to the side and called another gelding to pull the cart. An younger, stronger one. Another sister grabbed my tail in her mouth and pulled me away to another section of the Night Mother's temple. To the room no gelding ever returns from.

The priestess of this temple, Priestess Tome appeared to have been waiting for me. "Yes, I felt you were no longer of any physical use."

I didn't have the strength to speak. Not that I would. No gelding was allowed to speak in service of the Night Mother. There has only been one willing gelding in her service, and that had caused quite a stir amongst the sisters all over Equestria.

I, on the other hoof, was an orphan whose caretakers felt he was too rowdy and brought him to this temple where they smashed my testicles with a "sacred stone" and beat the happiness out of me. No, really. No gelding in the Night Mother's service was allowed to be happy. If I were to so much as smile, they would gang up and beat me. If it persisted, they would starve me, even if it meant starving to death. I had seen it.

A mother had once brought her twin colts to the priestess in exchange for a blessing from the Night Mother. What Blessing? I don't know. Anyway, she departed, smiling, even as her sons screamed for her to take them with her. After their castration, they did what children would do, tried to keep each others spirits up.

The sister's hadn't liked that. The poor colts were starved until they could no longer move. The sisters saw that they were no longer useful and dragged them off to this room, never to be seen or heard from again. Now, it appeared it was my time.

"Prepare his body," Priestess Tome ordered the sisters.

They descended upon me swiftly... and gently? I did not understand. I had long forgotten the sensation of kindness. Was anyone ever kind to me?

They were cleaning my wounds, and dressing my fur, mane and tail. Mesmerized, I just froze and just let them continue. It felt... wonderful.

"This is the only time a gelding of the Night Mother is permitted happiness," Priestess Tome explained as she observed the sisters' work. "After a lifetime of misery, bearing the burdens of the world, we shall finally release you to her bosom. Your suffering, gelding, is what sets you apart from the sisters."

I turned to look at her, she was smiling at me.

"Your destiny and purpose is to be filled with the world's misery so that the Night Mother may drink it from your veins," continued the priestess. "Consumed, your soul shall be no more. Your sacrifice shall ensure the Night Mother has the strength to protect the dreams of ponykind."

She approached me and slip a hoof over my aged cheek. "However, I must apologize. A sacred artifact was stolen from Priestess Hymn's temple. A weapon of terrible power. The Night Mother needs your screams to give her more strength so that we may find who stole it."

I was too weak to protest or struggle. The sisters, done with making me presentable, picked up from the stone floor and carried me to an alter. Unlike the alter of castration, this one was slanted so that the blood would run down into a basin at the base. The Cup of the Night Mother.

Laying me up the alter the stepped back, heads bowed respectfully. There was no need to strap me down. I was too weak to run, and besides, I wanted to die. Above the alter were six heavy stones, held up by chains connected to a mechanism on the on other side of the room, where stood the priestess.

"When a gelding is sacrificed," she began while the sisters began chanting, "we would normally release all the stones as to swiftly end your suffering. When a gelded foal falls and cannot rise again, we only need one stone to stamp out its life. An adult requires all six. The older the gelding, the more stones that are required."

Why was she telling me this? I just wanted to die. To be released from this misery.

"Today, because we need a greater blessing, they shall be dropped one by one. Your suffering is what the Night Mother craves, she has no mercy for the geldings of her order. The brief kindness you have been given is only permitted due to our order's founder promising the Night Mother the sacrifice of foals to sate her thirsts.

"Now, even when criminals are far and few between, mothers may bring their sons in exchange for the Night Mother's blessing. This allows us to feed her regularly, even if the taste is not wholly to her liking." She placed a hoof upon one of six levers. "But, when we need a special blessing, we can forgo mercy."

She pulled the lever and one of the stones dropped, crushing my hind hooves beyond recognition. I screamed and convulsed in pain. The sisters never let up their chanting, used to the cries of sacrificial geldings. The priestess waited until my screams were little more than choked sobs before pulling the next lever.

This stone crushed my cannon and splint bones. My screams were renewed as was the plan. They were going to draw this out as long as possible. It made me wonder, which would kill me first? Blood loss? Shock? Or the stones themselves? I just prayed that I would die soon.

But, then, no one listens to the prayers of a lowly gelding.