Midnight Glow woke to the beeping of her alarm with a groan. The lights of her small apartment came on, causing her to blink her eyes at the sudden change in light. The time to wake up came too soon.

"Good morning thestral mare 7849927190, designation Midnight Glow. Sensors report you're in the parameters of good health today. You're currently due to report to your assigned station in two hours; starting count down now. Food rations for Ocid are at acceptable levels currently and you've been provided appropriate meal bars for today. Please remember to be prompt to your duties so that no disciplinary action must be taken. Ocid survives." The computer's disembodied voice was as grating as ever.

"Ocid survives," Midnight Glow muttered sleepily as she pulled herself out of bed.

For the millionth time she looked at her never removed black plastic suit and sighed. Was there a cutie mark on her flank beneath the suit? Did she have some other purpose in her life? She would never know. She was strapped into this suit when she was seventeen, having not earned a cutie mark yet, and she would die in this suit. Someday it would determine she was no longer healthy enough, and then she would end up as part of a batch of meal bars. Only a few parts of her body remained exposed to remind the world she was a living, breathing pony: her wings, her neck and head, her tail, her hooves, and openings for more personal areas. Everything else was covered in the computerized suit that marked her as an acolyte. There were worse suits to be trapped in at least.

She took her meal bars from the dispenser in the wall and quickly ate, took a brief shower, then made her way out the door into the city beyond.

Her apartment exited out onto a railed walkway that stretched far in each direction. There were elevators available every few hundred pony lengths to move ponies up and down the building. One of the perks of being a Thestral was she could glide down to the street below. Not many Thestrals really took to actually flying through the city, the stink of it rose up and accumulated like a cloud beneath the Dome, and the smell of it was too much for most, including her.

The entire city, the entire nation just about, was bathed in artificial light from the Dome above. The fact that the light had to pass through the fumes of the city caused everything to have a sickly look. The Dome was constant pushing fresh air into the city and filtering the fumes out, but not fast enough to ever get rid of the smoggy cloud. Midnight Glow didn't even know what the roof looked like, as that ever-present cloud thoroughly obscured it. Below were labyrinths of buildings with neon lights, metal walkways, and drab dirty exteriors. The city streets at the bottom were always dark except for the lights of the neon signs, and the glow of the television monitors that prattled off news and advertisements endlessly. The only concept of night and day were the times the computer told you about. This was the district of Night's Heart, and this was what most of Ocid was, too.

Midnight Glow launched herself from the railing and navigated her glide to the street below, careful to avoid gliding into any of the many walkways that branched between buildings. She landed safely on the grey dust covered street and took a moment to take a breath. The air here stank of piss, feces, alcohol, pipe smoke, the smallest hint of blood, and a multitude of other drugs. Growing up in the city she had turned the smells out, they were all she knew. That changed when she was taken to from Foal Services to be an acolyte, she had been exposed to clean air for the first time, and she learned the extent of the stench she lived in.

She wished she could handle the smell up above, the walk to work had her pass through too many stark reminders of the misery she was lucky to avoid after being chosen as one of the acolytes. She had a much easier job than just about any pony in Ocid. Most days she just had to give the morning report to her alicorn and then just keep her alicorn company the rest of the day. On occasion she would be commanded to do some small task or asked her opinion on something by her alicorn, but frequently it was just keep by her alicorn's side.

That was a far cry from the life she could be leading. As she walked down the street she passed one of the many brothels. Most of the prostitutes were unicorn mares, all the unicorn mares were mandated to be prostitutes, breeding more unicorns was considered too high a priority. The city needed the power the unicorn stallions produced to power its weapons, factories, and everything else; they were a resource to be exploited. But there were crystal pony mares and Thestral mares among the prostitutes as well. Ponies that didn't demonstrate any capabilities in other important areas, they were only considered worthwhile as breeding stock. Stallions were not considered for breeding stock because it increased the probability of inbreeding, something that was already too much of a problem. Past use of stallions as prostitutes was believed to be one of the reasons their was a sharp decline in unicorn births.

Midnight Glow feared that if she had not been taken as an acolyte she would have ended up assigned as just another prostitute in a brothel. That would have been her life instead until her body had given out from having given birth more than it could bear, or she was no longer capable of having foals any more, then she would just be a meal bar.

"Hey, honey, want to have some fun? It's a slow morning and we can give a mare a good time if you have the bitcredits," one of the prostitutes, a unicorn mare, called out to her.

"Not today, thank you." Or any other day for that matter, she thought. "Can't be late for work. I know you understand."

"We can be quick, but we understand. No pony wants to end up taking a trip to the Bakery. Perhaps some other time," the prostitute replied and lit up a narcotic of some sort as she waited for another passerby with her fellows.

There was one thing and only one thing Midnight Glow envied the prostitutes in: prostitute suits exposed far more of their bodies. It would be so nice to be able to feel the fur on many of those places again. The prostitutes' suits left them nearly naked, granted you couldn't see their cutie marks, but they still looked much more free.

She paused beneath one of the many monitors as a news broadcast was about to begin. She had time to watch it, and it would give her some idea what to be expecting as she gathered information for her morning report to her Alicorn.

"Good morning citizens of Ocid," the crystal pony reporter on the screen began. The central computer could just as well make these announcements, but ponies felt better receiving them from another pony. Some conspiracy theorists claimed that the reporters were just projections from the computer. Midnight Glow knew better. This particular reporter had been in Foal Services with her. Midnight Glow had been there the day they strapped her into her suit, after a previous reporter had a mental breakdown and was deemed no longer capable of doing his job. She was put to reporting the very next day. Midnight Glow couldn't actually recall the Pony's name and she never gave it during her reports. It wasn't her job to give her name.

"For our news for this morning: last night there was a large attack by the undead horde on a farm in sector four. Our valiant military was able to fight back the abominations with acceptable losses." Midnight Glow wondered what the body count that was considered “acceptable” would be this time; she would find out when she gathered information for her report.

"We want to remind citizens that breeding is a duty and an obligation," the reporter continued. "Our farms cannot be maintained without a constant influx of new workers. Our breeders are working hard to keep those numbers up, but it's every pony's duty to breed. If you're a stallion please take the time to visit our breeding facilities on a regular basis, and young mares working in other industries please remember that you must produce a foal of your own by your twenty-fifth birthday." The reporter herself was obviously pregnant.

Midnight Glow sighed and raised her foreleg to see the various vital information the suit displayed there. Among that information was her own countdown till her twenty-fifth birthday. Six-hundred-twelve days, fourteen hours, and thirteen minutes left; she still had time, but the clock was ticking. Failure meant a trip to the Bakery and some other pony would get a job as an acolyte.

"In other news," the reporter continued, "a factory for weapons production had work halted last night due to riots. Military was dispatched and brought the riots to an end. Production will begin again as soon as new workers from Foal Services are trained in their duties. An anonymous message from an escaped protester claims factory conditions were too unsafe. Ponymother Peridot issued a statement saying that conditions will be looked into at the factory, but sedition won't be tolerated. We cannot survive if we war with ourselves. Citizens please, if you have concerns with your workplace, use proper channels to communicate those concerns."

Midnight Glow knew full well from her own reports that more often than not those concerns went unaddressed. Ponies that regularly sent in reports of problems tended to have their factory bosses increase their demands on the pony, giving poorer and poorer reviews of their performance, until finally that pony was sent off to the Bakery. She dreaded reading the detailed report on the riot, and having to report it to her Alicorn.

"In final news for this morning," the reporter said, "drones report that there's a massive build-up of undead forces near the Klugian border. We've received transmissions of calls for aid from the Klugian capital at Mount Aeris. Ponymother Peridot has authorized a major military assault into the Dead Lands to try to weaken the undead forces. The Ponymother gave the statement that we cannot afford to have Klugia fall and must do what's necessary to help them maintain their survival against our common enemy. Far too much has been swallowed up by the Dead Lands, we must fight to prevent the Necromancer from taking another hoofstep of land. This completes our news report for this morning. Ocid survives."

"Ocid survives," Midnight Glow muttered. "For what that's worth."

She resumed her walk towards the Crystal Spire. Once upon a time within the Spire there was a crystal heart that had protected this land from dangers. The heart was still there, but it had long since grown cold. It kept back the snows still, but did little else. It needed hope and happiness and that was not to be found in Ocid. Ponykind was dying and every pony knew it. The pegasi and earth ponies were all dust or just reanimated bodies in the Necromancer's army. Where once ponies lived happily under the sun and moon from one end of the continent to the other, now only Ocid remained. If a pony didn't slave away on a farm they never saw the sun and moon, just the Dome.

Midnight Glow was different from most ponies in the aspect that she eagerly listened to the tales of before. Most ponies either dismissed them as fairy tales, or at best memories of a time that needed to be forgotten so you could accept the world as it now was. She couldn't help but think that this is what earned her a spot as an acolyte instead of a breeder. This place was so full of misery, some ponies had to take the time to remember there was something better once.

She approached a commotion in front of an apartment building. There was a panicking older thestral stallion being hauled from the apartment building by a group of armed guards. She didn't need to hear exactly what was going on to know what was happening. He was being taken to the Bakery.

"I can work! I've made it to every one of my shifts on time without fail! Please don't take me to the Bakery! I'll do better, you’ll see!" The stallion continued to struggle as he shouted. Beating his wings against the guards. It looked like the guards had already broken one of his wings so he couldn't fly off.

"Come on, you old bat. Have some dignity and stop struggling," one of the guards snarled at him.

Onlookers were pretending they weren't watching, and most ponies were just getting away from the area. Midnight would have to walk by, there was no avoiding it. She lowered her head and tried to shut out the sound of what was happening. She couldn't though, this was the thing that all ponies lived in fear of. She wanted to stop it, but she had no power to do so.

"This's horseshit," one of the guards finally growled in frustration. "Hold the bastard so I can take a clear shot at him. We tried doing this the easy dignified way, now we just have to do this the messy hard way."

"Please...no," the old thestral whimpered.

"Save your damned shot, soldier!" His commanding officer barked at him. Then the officer walked over to the older Thestral and then a narrow hoofblade extend from his uniform that he quickly shoved it straight into the old thestral's left eye. He pulled the blade free quickly, splattering blood on the soldiers holding the now dead thestral, on himself, and on the street. The blade retracted into his uniform just as quickly as it had extended.

"Shot is a resource, we don't waste it," the officer instructed. "Now get his body into the shuttle so we can get him to the Bakery. Damn bastard, old ones should know this is coming and be ready to just come along."

Midnight Glow just kept walking with tears in her eyes that the world was so cruel.

Midnight Glow entered her small office in the Crystal Spire. Time to face more tragedy. She sat down at the computer and started gathering information onto her wing held tablet. Reports on casualties from all the events she had heard reported on the news, reports on casualties from events the news failed to mention. Information on estimated numbers on what forces the Klugians faced, and what their current defensive capabilities seemed to be. Gathered information on food production and other industry reports. She researched the current statistics on the population at large. The grim task of researching possible replacements for herself among the ponies minors, should it be determined she or one of the other acolytes needed replacing. Last, but likely the most important, she looked for anything that might bring a smile to her alicorn's face.

This was Midnight's daily morning tasks. She was allowed one day off every ten days for herself, tomorrow would be that day. She should probably spend it looking for a stallion to impregnate her, but she would likely spend it just sleeping again. The dread feeling that she would likely end up in the Bakery for failing to produce foal should have motivated her, but somehow it failed to be more enticing than a day in bed alone. There was always the next day off, or the next, until there were no more next days.

The issue of the foal did play at her mind a lot today though. If she did produce a foal in time would she keep it or give it to Foal Services? Parents were allowed to keep one foal themselves to raise and she was only required to produce one. It seemed a nightmarish thing to keep a foal. You spend seventeen years raising it, pouring all that love into it, and chances are they will get taken off to some job they would be miserable in or shortly die in. Yeah, you did get to visit them still, provided they weren't taken out to the farms, but for a mare like her she wasn't sure she could stand that. She had a job where she had a legitimate chance of living to her sixties if she did everything right, perhaps seventies. The chances she would outlive her offspring were high. Best to know nothing about them and save herself the hurt.

It was just one of the reasons she wasn't in a hurry to find a stallion for that. Another was she had basically no desire for sex. She wasn't alone in this, reports said more and more mares and stallions lacked any such drive, and more than nine out of ten mares did not get an estrus cycle to hormonally drive them to it, herself included among those. It was like genetics was trying to tell them it was time to stop trying to carry on and just let Ponykind die out.

Midnight finished gathering her data for her report. She had been unsuccessful in finding any good news to bring. That wasn't the end of the world for her, it wasn't part of her job description, just something she tried to do. She sighed at her failure to find anything though.

She left her tiny office and made her way to her alicorn's quarters, computer tablet tucked under her wing. Being a thestral was considered being a prerequisite to the job of acolyte for that one small reason sadly. Crystal ponies had a harder time manipulating the computer tablets, and the powers that be didn't think it worth the time, or effort, to make it easier for them. An unfair reason to not consider a pony for this position, but one that had likely earned her this spot over others.

The guards standing at her alicorn's door did a quick scan of her suit to verify her identity and that she was supposed to be there. Never mind she had been doing this nine out of ten days for the last six years, procedure was procedure. They confirmed her identity and opened the doors for her.

Midnight stepped into the familiar chamber. Within were walls of monitors, each displaying a different portion of the city and a few that displayed areas outside it. There were a few computer consoles on the walls, the normal food dispenser, and a large shower. There was another set of doors on the far end of the room that led to an elevator, which in turn could take a pony outside the roof of the Dome. Midnight had been up there three times during her service, and each time had been burned into her memory.

In the center of the room sat a large bed, and lounging on the bed was her mistress, Sunset Shimmer. The alicorn was a pony of terrible beauty. Her mane seemed to be made of fire but it burned nothing. She had a horn longer than any unicorn's and feathered wings like the now extinct pegasi tribe. She was bigger than any other pony as well, save the Ponymother, and her fellow alicorn Water Shadow. She was also stark naked, as it would be an insult to put a suit on an alicorn. The nakedness might make some ponies think she somehow had a childlike innocence, but Sunset was the wisest and eldest of all Ponykind. Not even Water Shadow was as old as Sunset Shimmer and the Ponymother was but a foal when you compared their ages. Sunset had walked this planet over seven thousand years; the Ponymother, by comparison, was only a little over a millennia.

Also in the room was Midnight's fellow acolyte, Moon Fury. Moon Fury was a stallion in his thirties, a thestral like her of course, and never had much to say. Midnight often wondered what his reports to Sunset were like. He looked like an older, male version of Midnight, with his grey fur and purple mane. The third acolyte of their trio, who wasn't present, was a mare by the name of Night Mist. She looked like a much older version of Midnight. Sunset never said it, but seemed to prefer a certain uniformity to her acolytes' appearances.

Moon Fury bowed his head in silent acknowledgement of Midnight's taking over duties for the shift, and made his exit as Midnight walked forward to stand before her alicorn. Sunset looked upon the youngest of her acolytes and smiled.

"Midnight, you're looking well as ever," Sunset said. "You have the day off tomorrow as I recall. Please, tell me you intend to do something about your lack of pregnancy with your free day. I cannot protect you if you end up delaying too long."

Midnight gave an internal groan at Sunset's greeting. It was actually expected. For the last year Sunset had brought the matter up without fail every time Midnight was due to have a day off. The Alicorn had made it clear that she had no desire to lose any of her current acolytes, especially to something they had the power to prevent.

"It's been on my mind a lot today actually," Midnight confessed. "I'm not sure if it'll be tomorrow, but soon."

"Soon is about all the time you have left, my little pony," Sunset said, no longer smiling. "Visit a brothel, excuse me, breeding center tomorrow and get some lustwort. The centers always have that drug in high supply, use it on your days off in the coming month. It'll cause your body to react as if you're in severe estrus. That is a direct order. I know you're very uncomfortable with intercourse, but I'm not going to lose you to this. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, mistress," Midnight said solemnly. She had no choice, disobeying a direct order from her alicorn was yet another thing that would cause her to end up in the Bakery. Sunset might not report her disobedience herself, but her suit knew that she had been ordered, and would inform the authorities of disobedience. She knew Sunset was doing this to protect her, but it still felt cruel.

"Now, since we've dealt with that unpleasant business, let's hear the morning’s unpleasantness," Sunset sighed.

"Yes, mistress," Midnight said, with renewed energy in her voice. "I'm sure you've already seen the news reports about the factory riot, casualties were ten ponies, all factory workers. The grievances stemmed from the foundry. The foundry for the plant frequently spilled molten metal out on the factory floor, and many workers had stations that put them in harm's way frequently."

"I'll speak to Peridot about making an example of the factory boss there. We can't find all the problems in all the factories ourselves, but we can possibly scare the managers into making sure they do a better job at addressing safety concerns. I'm sure if there was a problem as bad as that unaddressed there were many other lesser problems as well," Sunset said. "Next item of business."

"The attacks on the Klugian border..." Midnight began.

"I'm likely more informed than you on the that matter, please move on to the next item that's not dealing with our undead neighbors," Sunset interrupted.

"The monthly report on incest rates of ponies related by at least a generation are in," Midnight continued. "They're up a full percent. The computer is advising that some action be taken to reduce possible inbreeding and is warning this could lead to additional health problems if this trend continues."

"That means higher regulation of the breeding facilities," Sunset sighed yet again. "I'm not sure how to easily do that, perhaps we can require the computer to do a genetic scan of each prostitute and stallion before they do what they do. But that is the best I can think of, and I'm not sure if that is enforceable without reprogramming the software in the breeders' suits, and possibly requiring upgrades on the hardware. Hardware upgrades are always messy, and can only be practically applied to new wearers with fresh suits. I'll see what can be done about upgrading future generations to do genetic scans to give warning of too close a match. Hopefully that'll be enough. A one percent rise in a single month is a troubling increase, it was already uncomfortably high."

Sunset looked up at the monitors for a minute, just watching silently.

"Is there any other news that is urgent in nature? And is there any positive news?" Sunset said quietly.

"Most other things can be dismissed for now, ongoing problems that solutions are still being worked on mainly. I was unfortunately unable to find any particularly good news. Undead attacks are down overall, but we know that's because they're massing on Klugia. You'd know before I would if drones had located the Mare of Shadow's current operating base."

"It's likely too deep in the Dead Lands anyway. I suspect somewhere near the ruins of Vanhoov, but it's impossible to get an army out that far, and doubtful it would be effective against that necromancer if we did manage an assault on her," Sunset lowered her head. Her mane lost some of its brightness with a depressed mood. "Come sit with me Midnight and let's talk."

Midnight did a quick leap up on the massive bed and sat beside the much larger pony.

"I know I've told the other two this before, but I haven't told you. This is a secret that you do not reveal, do you understand?" Sunset said.

"Yes, mistress," Midnight said, both eager and fearful to hear what this secret knowledge might be.

"If we put everything we had against the Mare of Shadows including the full power of both me and Water Shadow we would fail, she's simply too strong. At some point she'll overcome our defenses and Ocid will fall," Sunset said as she gazed at a monitor displaying a section of the undead horde. "It's not a matter of if it will happen but when. At least as things stand."

This really wasn't a secret. Every pony knew that they were in a losing fight. Too many other nations had fallen already. Midnight saw the reports every day of what went on in Ocid and knew that the society was a machine that was bound to break down eventually. It might carry on for a few more centuries, maybe, but it would fail.

"Water Shadow and I do put some input into who shall be chosen as our acolytes'" Sunset continued. "Do you know why you were chosen?"

"I can guess at some of the criteria, but not actually, mistress," Midnight replied.

"You have some small throwback in your character to what ponies once were," Sunset replied. "There are others of course, there can only be so many acolytes, but you keep the memory of that better time alive. Never lose that and keep other ponies from losing that where you can. It was not relative ease of our lives back then that made our race great, it was things like compassion, kindness, empathy, generosity, and laughter. Loyalty wasn't to our nation but to one another. Care about your fellow ponies, not as resources, but as individuals.

"I know the way our system is now discourages such things," Sunset said with tears in her eyes. "Water Shadow and I spend so many days trying to think of how I can foster such things in a place such as this. Perhaps if some of the other alicorns were alive still they would know better, but I think they lost track of those things themselves before they fell. Flurry Heart was the last alicorn to die and she had lost track of those things as well. She gave her power over to Peridot before ending herself, but I fear Peridot is so focused on our survival that she has forgotten what living is. She's not fit for the power given her and is leading us to ruin."

"What can I do, mistress?" Midnight asked. Talk of Peridot's lack of fitness was definitely something she would not discuss with any pony. Such talk bordered on sedition. An Alicorn could get away with such talk, a pony such as Midnight Glow had no such freedom though.

"I talk to you for the moment as another pony not your alicorn. When I speak to you this way address me as you would another pony," Sunset said.

"Alright, mistr--Sunset, what am I supposed to do? It seems like everything that I could possibly do would just end with me in the Bakery," Midnight said with a steadily rising tone. "I passed by a pony being hauled off to the Bakery today. I felt so helpless. If I said or did anything I would face the same fate and he would still be some pony's meal bars now. I've been feeling especially troubled by what it means to have a foal in this place. I can't even raise him or her because I know they'll likely be hauled away to the Bakery before I am, so I have to send them to Foal Services, because I can't take that hurt, but I don't want to do that either!" Midnight's voice was at a shout towards the end. She caught herself, and looked at her Alicorn in horror, fearing she had overstepped herself raising her voice to her mistress.

"Please forgive me," Midnight begged. "I don't know why I even brought that up."

"Forgive you for what?" Sunset said while raising an eyebrow. "Perhaps it was a little off topic, but not completely. You clearly have a lot of emotion invested in this. I had wondered at your delay and this explains it better. It's a sign you have an emotional connection to your future foal and it isn't just an obligation. I don't rescind my order on seeing to it you get with the foal making, but do not feel like you will be punished for saying your mind to me, even if it comes out harshly. I want you to be a being of emotions, not some drone."

Sunset drew herself up to her hooves and looked down on Midnight.

"I think you should think on what it means to be a being of emotion and how you can maintain that. It's Peridot's great failing that she has forged a system that stymied such things in ponies," the Alicorn said. "I'm going to eat, shower, and sleep. Keep an eye on the monitors as I sleep and wake me if anything major happens on the Klugian front. If anything else happens use your best judgement on whether it's something I need to be woken for or can be reported to me after I wake up."

"Yes, mistress," Midnight said with a bow of her head.

Midnight Glow made her way back home. There hadn't been anything worthy of waking the Alicorn by the time she had left, and she had left with Sunset still asleep. This left her with a lot of time to think, primarily about having a foal, and how she should feel about said foal. Based on what Sunset had told her, she likely should keep the foal, rather than give it over to Foal Services. That was a pretty big commitment in itself. There wasn't a ban on bringing foals to work, the general understanding being that you were responsible for whatever trouble they might get into when at work. A pony could bring a foal to one of those dangerous factories if they really needed to, but if the foal got hurt then the parent was responsible. Midnight's job wasn't a dangerous one, the biggest concern would be whether she would have a crying foal wake her Alicorn when Sunset was trying to nap. She doubted Sunset would mind otherwise.

In her heart she knew she wanted to keep her foal. She just dreaded the prospect of trying to take care of it, and she dreaded the day that her foal was officially declared an adult and forced into a career. No matter how much she prepared them they may still end up in a position in one of those factories, or worse the farms or brothels. There were better jobs, but they were based on what was needed at the time. They didn't usually force a pony into a suit immediately at seventeen years old, but they would definitely be in one by the time they were eighteen. If you had aptitudes for better jobs they would try to save you for those, but if one didn't come available before you were eighteen you were given one that had the highest need at that particular moment. Not for the first time Midnight shivered at the fact that she had luckily avoided a brothel.

Midnight came upon another commotion in the street as she approached the same brothel she had that morning. This time it wasn't the same types of guards that dragged you off to the Bakery thankfully. No, this was Foal Services, and they were busy trying to drag a naked green Unicorn mare with a yellow mane into the brothel. There was a middle-aged crystal pony mare pleading with the Foal Services officials and trying to soothe the Unicorn mare.

"Come on, you knew this was coming, stop struggling. We need to get you suited up, and get you to work. You already were allowed to wait until your eighteenth birthday, for reasons I can not begin to guess at, but time's up," a thestral mare in a Foal Services uniform was shouting at the Unicorn mare.

"I don't want to! I’ll do anything else! I'll even go to the farms, but not this!" the unicorn cried, still trying to fight to escape.

"Please, she is terrified! Let me talk to her. She is my daughter, she'll listen to me," the crystal mare begged the Foal Service agents.

"No pony is stopping you from talking, ma'am, but she's getting strapped up now. Talk to her all you want while that happens," the lead agent replied.

Midnight once again was caught up in the horror of Ocid and this time she couldn't look away. It was too closely tied to her own worries of the moment. This crystal pony had had a unicorn foal and had kept her. She had to know that this was coming. Every unicorn mare ended up in the brothels, breeding unicorns was too much a priority. They had far lower birth rates even with two unicorn parents, and it took aggressive breeding to keep their numbers up. They were needed for providing power to the city. Midnight knew that there had been discussions about whether the unicorn stallions should have the same done with them again, despite the fact they had genetic defects in high numbers from the stallions parenting. What would she do in that kind of position? What would she do if she had a unicorn foal? The merciful thing would be to give them over to Foal Services. Foal Services would prepare them for the idea of what would be coming, and Midnight didn't know if she could deal with being in this poor crystal pony mare's position right now, watching her foal taken to be raped most likely until she accepted her lot in life.

"Mama, make them stop, please!" the unicorn cried out again. She was lashing out with her magic, something that was only possible before being suited. After today all she would be able to do is feed machines with power and basic levitation. The Foal Service agents were doing their best not to hurt her, again she was too valuable, but they were clearly getting angry.

"Sweet Pea, please calm down. I know this is wrong, but we have to accept it. It tears my heart out to know this is happening to you. You need to be brave. I will visit you whenever we can arrange it," the crystal pony cried.

"Mama, I can't do this. I'm too scared," the unicorn blubbered. She was either losing her will to fight or was getting too tired to fight, as her lashing was getting less intense.

"Just be brave," the crystal mare said through tears. She looked at her foreleg and let out another sob. "I...I...have to go. If I don't I'll be late for my shift. I'll find time to visit you as soon as we can."

The crystal mare didn't wait for her daughter to answer. She lowered her head and turned away, running to get to her shift and crying as she went.

"Mama..." the unicorn cried one last time. The fight went out of her and she was literally dragged into the brothel. A Foal Service agent that had lagged behind took what Midnight knew to be a folded-up suit and followed in after the others.

Midnight did not keep walking after that. Instead she just sat and stared at the brothel that the terrified mare had just been dragged into. She knew that even now the unicorn was being put in the suit that would chain her to her profession for the rest of her life. The injustice of it was something she was normally numb to, but today it hit her hard.

Without knowing why, she went into the brothel. Inside was a simple dirty lobby, and in one corner six unicorn fillies played with dolls as a pregnant unicorn prostitute sat watching over them. The pregnant mare glanced up at Midnight as she entered but quickly turned her attention back to the fillies. In the center of the room was the brothel boss, an older crystal pony mare. Each of the three walls other than the entrance's had had a connecting hallway that stretched a long-distance and had staircases visible on the far end of each.

"Welcome to our breeding facility," the older crystal mare said. "Here for some pleasure? We have a lot of unoccupied mares at the moment waiting for some action that wouldn't mind earning some bitcredits and you look like you have them."

"There was a freshly brought in unicorn just a moment ago, is she able to take clients yet?" Midnight asked.

"The new meat?" The crystal mare's eyebrows rose. "You want to be the one to break her in, eh? Yeah, as soon as the Foal Service agents return and say she is strapped up she is technically ready. I warn you though, that one's not been properly conditioned for this yet, so she's likely to be less than cooperative until we have gotten lustwort in her system. I have plenty of others available now who'll be much more to your liking."

"No, it needs to be her," Midnight insisted.

"Well then, let me make something clear. You don't go breaking anything on her or bloodying her up, you hear?" The mare said sternly. "She needs to be able to perform her duties. You can get rough if you need, but she needs to be intact and pretty. I'll have one of the others come in there in a few minutes with some lustwort that should help make her cooperative, though no promises it will. It'll be five credits and you get an hour. There is no refund if you can't get any action out of her, she ain't no veteran at this so she gets some leway for now."

Midnight held a foreleg over the counter and a scanner took the credits from her. She then sat down and waited for the return of the Foal Service agents. She didn't have to wait long. They exited a room on the first floor down the left hallway and quickly left the brothel. They didn't even say a word to the brothel boss.

"Seems she's ready now," the boss said to Midnight. "I'd tell you the room number, but I think you saw where. You have one hour. Expect an interruption from some pony coming in to see she gets some lustwort, we want to get that going in her system quickly."

Midnight made her way over to the room without a word to the boss. She stood in front of the door for a minute questioning what in Tartarus she was doing. She wasn't here for sex, she just wanted to talk to the unicorn. It only now occurred to her she had no idea what she was supposed to say or do. She was tempted to just abandon the entire thing and just leave.

Instead Midnight took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the door. As the door opened a gasp could be heard inside and a quick blur of motion as the occupant ran to cower in a far corner. Midnight walked in and then shut the door behind her. The unicorn was in the far corner of the room, no longer naked. She was doing her best to hide her suit from view, though that was an impossibility.

"You’re here to rape me aren't you?" The terrified mare asked, clearly trying to hold back tears.

"No, I'm not," Midnight told her calmly. "I just want to talk."

"Just talk?" The unicorn seemed confused but still extremely cautious. "You aren't just saying that to calm me down so you can do it later?"

"I don't really have any sex drive. Don't worry, I just want to talk, I promise," Midnight told her as soothingly as she could.

The newly suited prostitute relaxed a little more and looked down at her suit sadly. She started crying as she looked herself over. That kind of suit was very distinctive, and every pony who looked at her would know what she had for a job. She would have to see it on herself every waking minute for the rest of her life, foalhood was over.

Midnight was stuck now not knowing what to say. She just sat watching the newly marked adult as the unicorn wept. Eventually the prostitute looked over at Midnight curiously.

"For wanting to talk you don't say much," the unicorn accused.

"Not sure what to say, to be honest," Midnight admitted. "I guess I can introduce myself. I am Midnight Glow, acolyte to Sunset Shimmer."

"I'm Sweet Pea, I guess I'm...this," she gestured with a leg at her new suit, apparently not willing to say her job title yet. "Acolyte? What's that?"

"Acolyte is a personal servant to one the alicorns," Midnight replied. "I give morning reports, watch over her as she naps, keep her company, and do whatever tasks she commands me."

"Did she command you to come here?" Sweet Pea asked. Her voice perked up slightly.

"Yes and no," Midnight replied with a shuffle of her hooves. "I was ordered to go to a brothel and get some lustwort, but the reason I'm here now is I saw you being taken in here off the street, and I just felt compelled to talk to you."

"Oh," Sweet Pea hung her head in disappointment. Midnight felt a pang of guilt at dashing the poor mare's brief moment of hope that she would get a last-minute reprieve. No such thing would be coming though.

The data display on her foreleg caught Sweet Pea's eye, and she lifted it to look at it. She read over all the data and chuckled bitterly.

"This has a countdown on how long I have to produce a foal," Sweet Pea said quietly. "Honestly with this job it won't take a fraction of that time. I don't even understand all the health information on this thing. It says I have four bitcredits, which I guess is my fee for having you here. Also tells me that I have over seven hours left in my shift, and that you have forty-five minutes left with me. Everything I'm supposed to worry about in my life reduced to numbers that I carry with me everywhere. I looked at my mama's many times before, but it somehow feels unreal looking at the same types of things attached to me. I'm just a cog in a machine."

"Are you angry with your mother?" Midnight asked her. It just occurred to Midnight that it was important and that was a big part of why she had come here.

"Why would I be angry at my mama?" Sweet Pea said in confusion.

"That she had to surrender you to this fate, that she didn't properly prepare you for this, that she had to leave," Midnight responded, desperate to know. She needed this insight, she needed to know if she was ever in that position if her foal would hate her for it.

"My…mother--I need to start using adult terms now I guess--loved me and still loves me," Sweet Pea asserted. "She kept the agents from taking me all the way up to today, my eighteenth birthday. She was always there for me. She'll come back to visit me. She can't help how things are, but she made my foalhood wonderful. It stung that she had to leave right then, but it would have hurt more to have her taken to the Bakery. I'm going to be brave for my mother."

Midnight sat and felt warmth at those words. After being carted off to be forced into prostitution Sweet Pea still had no hatred for her mother. It gave Midnight hope for her future foal. She didn't know what she could do for this Unicorn, but she was now glad she took the time to talk.

Just then the door opened and Midnight moved to stand clear of it. A Unicorn mare around Midnight's age came in, and looked to be just beginning to show signs of pregnancy, and was wearing a small bag in addition to her breeder's suit. The mare looked at both the other two with a quick questioning look.

"I don't smell any sex in here," the pregnant mare noted. "Guessing that means you're waiting on me to get some lustwort in our recruit."

"What's lustwort?" Sweet Pea asked while cowering again in her corner.

"Your mother really did leave you unprepared, didn't she?" The pregnant mare stated and then sighed. "I suppose Foal Services would've only mentioned it, our fillies here start using it regularly a full year before they're due to be suited so they will be eager to begin. Lustwort, in short, makes you really bloody damn horny and I ain't talking about the thing on your head."

"So, I'm going to be drugged into wanting sex?" Sweet Pea asked. "I don't even get to keep my free will?" Midnight felt disgusted at the idea as well.

"Hun, you can refuse it if you want," the older mare said with a motherly tone. "But before today is over, and for the rest of your life, you're going to have likely multiple stallions a day mounting you except for the periods you're pregnant. If it comes to you being raped, it'll still happen. I recommend just taking it so you don't get traumatized. Now, are you going to take it so you can do what you are paid to do with your client?"

"I really am just here to talk," Midnight explained again. The older mare gave her a brief glance and chuckled.

"Oh, you are one of those ones huh?" The elder mare said knowingly. "Well, you lucked out today, little lonely mare. An experienced breeder would take advantage of you, use the same lustwort to get you in bed, and then coming back for as many days as they can entice you. Got to earn bitcredits, and since stallions earn us very little we tend to try to get repeat customers out of mares. She doesn't know what she is doing yet, and you are being nice to her on a very bad day, so I'm being nice by warning you."

"Um, thank you, for letting me know," Midnight replied. Glad she wasn't going to be pulled into becoming some prostitute's plaything for who knew how long. She was also far warier of the drug, and her anxiety over being ordered to get some of it, and use it, rose to greater heights.

"I guess I'll take it, if it'll make this easier," Sweet Pea said, seeming to accept her fate. "At least it's my call to use it."

"Good, I hate having to check up on another mare and find she has been beaten bloody trying to resist a stallion's advances," the mare said. "We have a few different ways we can administer the drug. You can drink a tincture of it, but it takes longer to take effect that way, and isn't as strong an effect after it does start working. You can have it directly injected into you, that has the strongest and most immediate impact. The third way is to smoke it, that is best for maintaining it in your system once you get it going, but it takes a little longer to get you going if you are coming in dry. I would recommend an injection for right now."

"Whatever you think is best," Sweet Pea replied while crying.

It suddenly occurred to Midnight that her order from Sunset had been to come tomorrow, and following orders to the letter was part of her job. She silently cursed herself for being stupid and coming a day early. She would have to return tomorrow. She wouldn't mind talking to Sweet Pea again she supposed, just to see how she was doing.

The older mare had pulled out a filled hypodermic needle and syringe with her magic, and was making her way over to Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea involuntarily cringed as the mare approached her, but didn't try to fight her.

"Close your eyes and grit your teeth, I'm going to be injecting this in quick, and it is going to sting. After that it'll be over and we'll just have to make sure you maintain it in your system. You won't have to have a shot like this again, okay?" The mare kept her voice kind. Sweet Pea did was she was told and nodded silently.

The mare shoved the needle in quickly to some of the exposed area on Sweet Pea's side. The young mare let out a gasp as it went in, and whimpered as the drug was injected into her body. The older mare quickly withdrew the needle after she finished injecting the drug, and put it away in her pack.

"Alright, that wasn't so bad was it?" The older mare asked. "You can open your eyes now. You should start feeling the effects within a minute and have the full effect going within five minutes. It should last well over a full day on its own, but we will get you started on maintaining it later today. Just sit and relax for a few minutes while it takes hold. Have you had estrus before?"

"Yes," Sweet Pea replied.

"Well, it should be feeling like that any moment now and within five minutes it should feel like that only exponentially stronger," the older mare informed her. "My name is Soiled Satin by the way. I'm going to leave you two be now that I've gotten that done. I will be back later to see to the rest."

Soiled Satin left the room and Midnight Glow and Sweet Pea just sat in silence for a moment.

"Feeling any different?" Midnight asked the Unicorn.

"It's strange," Sweet Pea said in an uncertain voice. "Do you get estrus?" Midnight shook her head. "That'll make it harder for me to explain then, because that's what it feels like right now. Only now it's starting to get worse. My nether regions ache and are getting wet. I'm actually trying hard not to touch them in front of you, but I really want to just rub them right now. She said it will take five minutes to take full effect, it has only been about two. I think I would happily lift my tail for a stallion right now, and if this keeps getting stronger like it is I think I would lift my tail for any mare as well. The ache is really intense. I guess that's a good thing, all things considered."

"I really can't imagine it, I have no sex drive and never have. I never got estrus," Midnight confessed again. It was an alien idea to want to be touched that way.

"You really are only interested in talking aren't you?" Sweet Pea said with a smile. "I'm glad you are really just being a nice pony. That makes me feel like some pony cares. I admit though, the way I am feeling right now I am a little disappointed you don't want me for pleasure. I even know it is just the drug talking, but don't really care. It just really aches, but you likely can't understand. Thank you for being a good pony though."

"I think I'll leave before you get to the full effect," Midnight said. "I have to be back tomorrow. My command from my alicorn was for me to be here tomorrow and get some lustwort then. She's worried I won't have my foal, so she's ordering me to do something about it."

"So why were you here today then?" Sweet Pea asked.

"I just was watching what was happening and felt the need to talk to you. I don't really know what came over me," Midnight admitted.

"Well, I'm glad you did. Thank you, it was good to have my first client see me as a pony and not some object to screw," Sweet Pea said gratefully, then she gave an honest laugh. "Hurry on out now, before I start trying to find excuses to get you in bed. You have no idea how bad this ache is."

"I'll probably find out tomorrow after I get drugged, too," Midnight replied. "I'll stop and talk tomorrow again. I think I could use another friend to talk to."

"I'll be happy to be your friend, but hurry up and go now please," Sweet Pea said with a smile. "Ocid survives."

"Ocid survives," Midnight replied as she left.

Moon Fury sat patiently as Sunset Shimmer watched the monitor. On the screen Midnight Glow was making her exit from the brothel. The alicorn beside him sighed.

"I hate spying," Sunset said. "But I have been very concerned about her lately. I am glad to see her actually talking to other ponies though."

"She has a good heart, mistress," Moon Fury replied.

"She does, though I was worried that might be snuffed out by this damn place," Sunset replied. "I am still concerned about her doing what she has to do to not be consumed by the Bakery though. I hate enforcing it but have little choice. I am as much a prisoner of the system as any of you. I may not face consequences for my actions, but all of you do. I don't want my little ponies killed. Please, Moon, can you do what needs to be done to see that she gets with foal. I worry that she might get caught up with the brothel instead of with a stallion."

"Is that an order?" Moon Fury asked plainly.

"No, it is a request, and your choice. I won't force you to do so. I already feel bad enough forcing her to do this kind of thing. It is deplorable," Sunset said with lowered ears.

"I will do what I can," Moon Fury replied.

"Thank you," Sunset replied with another sigh. She turned her attention to another monitor. On this monitor Peridot Glow was visible, passed out in a drunken stupor at her desk in her office.

"Peridot is trying to escape reality again it seems," Sunset grumbled. "She built this absurd nation's system, but she has no more faith in it than I do. She is just trying to hold off the inevitable and despair."

"She does her best, mistress," Moon Fury replied in the same even voice. "We should be grateful we have persisted this long, the lands beyond the Dome are testament to how easy it is to fall."

"We have so many enemies beyond these walls," Sunset said sadly. "Not just the Mare of Shadows and her undead legions; Grogar to the far north, Lavan is assaulting the dragons and they are in their own struggle for survival against him. There are other lieutenants to the Elder Gods making war against life elsewhere, beyond where our drones can reach to see. Even if we were to somehow stop the Mare of Shadows, unlikely as that is, we would soon face some other high-ranking minion of the Elder Gods. We don't even understand the nature of the Elder Gods, or why they want us dead, so that we could know how to try to bargain for our lives. It isn't just Ponykind facing extinction, this world faces assault on all fronts."

The door opened behind them and Night Mist entered the room to begin her shift.

"Moon, before you leave for today send word to Water Shadow that I wish to discuss with her the Klugian front and what to do to motivate Peridot," Sunset commanded.

"Yes, mistress," Moon Fury said with a bow of his head as he walked backwards towards the exit.

When he had left the room and gotten some distance between himself and the guard he let his stiff exterior expression drop into a grimace. He grew so tired of the stiff formality and Sunset Shimmer could get so depressing. He sometimes had to remind himself that he was here for a reason. The order of this place was suffocating, how did these ponies manage it for centuries without going insane. Perhaps they were insane, but it wasn't a very amusing insane. The only thing worse was the endless death the Elder Gods brought, there was nothing fun about death.

He was by himself in the hallway and decided to risk a bit of magic. He created a little sphere that allowed him to look at Midnight Glow.

"Warning! Unknown magic of non-pony origin detected!" The computer announced.

"Oh hush, you detect nothing," Moon Fury sneered.

"Disregard warning, sensor error. Running diagnostics," the computer replied back.

"Hopefully none of these ponies heard that, wiping memories is depressing," Moon Fury said with a sigh. He then went back to considering the figure in his glowing sphere. Sunset's request to him did open up some possibilities. Pinkie Pie had done something of interest with producing offspring a few decades before her demise. It definitely gave some inspiration. This place needed something to break the order, something random, something chaotic. These ponies weren't going to do anything to better their situation on their own, it was time for him to play. Big things started off small after all.

The creature that called itself Moon Fury dismissed the globe and went about Sunset's wishes. He sometimes wondered how the alicorn failed to recognize his presence or see through his disguise. Sunset was paying less attention to things in her old age, becoming blind to things. She needed a bit of chaos in life to break the monotony and get back to form, and he was the one to provide it.