Author's Note

Here is a Christmas update for you all. Hope you all enjoy it!

Next update will bring a close to the story, and I hope that all of you that stuck out this long enjoy how the story ends. Until then, hope you have a wonderful holiday.

The Worst Night Ever: Part 5

Mac was speechless for a multitude of reasons. It was not everyday that one was directly approached by one of the rulers of Equestria; having spoken with the king two times before failed to dull the impact of it. The idea that royalty, the prince of the Crystal Empire, would not only want to start a casual conversation but knew him by name… He wasn’t sure if he should be flattered or repulsed with himself for doing whatever it was that got the attention of a despot like this stallion.

Perhaps his opinion of the other stallion was a bit harsh though. Shining Armor hadn’t always been this way, or at least as far as he had heard. AJ, before the caribou takeover, would often recount the tales of her adventures and Shining Armor was a topic that came up more than once. Her descriptions of him was that of a noble stallion who pushed himself beyond what most would have to protect Canterlot from a looming changeling threat. The changelings knew his one weakness though, his love for Princess Cadence, which was one of the few things that outshone even the duty of his old post as Captain of the Royal Guard.

With Shining and Cadence’s combined power of love, they managed to repel the invaders and save the kingdom when all seemed lost, even when the efforts of AJ and the other elements failed. Later, the couple once more aided in saving a different realm from certain doom by repelling the evil King Sombra from the Crystal Empire long enough for Twilight to locate and recover the lost Crystal Heart, and later by not allowing the Heart and Spike, its carrier, to fall into the mad king's hands shortly before the artifact was used to vanquish the dark lord once and for all.

That was then though, and as Mac saw him now, the prince no longer lived up to this benevolent depiction. This opinion of the stallion not only came from the fact that it was Shining Armor that ensured the victory over Canterlot by trapping everyone in the city within the dome of his trademark shield, but in the very way he held himself. The visage that he displayed seemed arrogant, a heavy amount of unjustified pride in his royal status that he exhibited in the way that he adjusted the small grey circlet atop his head as if he wanted to draw attention to it. And there was that look he held, much like that of many stallions Mac interacted with, what could only be called misogynistic smugness. With his power and authority, he could have any mare in the kingdom he wanted, and probably did.

If it had been any other pony Mac would have ignored them and walked away. After what had happened with Ivangir it was probably not a good idea to piss off even more of the hierarchy.

“So you’re Shining Armor,” he said after what what felt like an eternity of silence, but was more like a minute, “Ah suppose your sister told ya about me.” It was the only way that Mac could think of that Shining could know his name. Not ‘Macintosh’, as he could have heard that from Gunne or any number of other sources at the party, but his nickname of ‘Big Macintosh’ that only his friends and family called him by.

The prince gave a nod, “Twilight spoke of you a few times, usually when talking about that mare burying her face in her snatch. I think it’s wonderful that our sisters get along with one another so well.”

“And so ya felt that since they are such good friends that, we should get acquainted with one another too,” Mac said, doing his best not to come off as bitter but felt that he was failing.

“It’s more that I’m curious about a stallion who is so eager to get his mare back to work, but then walks away when the good part starts,” Shining answered. “And pick the brain of a stallion who would stand up to Lord Ivangir without an ounce of fear in his eyes.”

As far as Mac could tell, Shining Armor didn’t seem to know about the reputation of disability the caribou had placed upon him. His duties in the Crystal Empire must have kept him away from the rest of the world, and it’s not like Mac’s condition was some big topic plastered all over the news. Most outside of Ponyville wouldn’t give Mac a second look if they saw him strolling down the street, save for his greater size than most other stallions.

“Ah would love to oblige, really Ah would…”

“But?” Shining inquired.

“But Ah really should keep an eye on mah slave.” Mac answered, “Gotta make sure Ivangir doesn’t try to hit her again.”

Shining gave Mac an awkward look, finding something blatantly wrong in what Mac said. “Are you trying to avoid talking to me?”

“Of course not,” Mac lied. “What would make you think that?”

“Well, wouldn’t it have been better to watch your slave at the front of the crowd instead of coming all the way back here where you can’t see anything?”

There was no denying that Shining had a point. If Mac was going to lie, he could have done better. Now he had put himself into a spot where his words lost a bit of believability. He could have taken a step back, said that he wasn’t really in the mood for talking, and went about his business, but he was still worried about the consequences of outright snubbing a member of royalty. So instead of taking the smart route, he chose to go all-in on the mistake.

“Well ya see…” He started, his mind racing to grasp for something, anything he could use to persuade the unicorn prince that what his actions and his words lined up. “It’s not in my interests be up close and personal to all that… action.”

“What do you mean?” Shining Armor was having a bit of trouble figuring out how any stallion couldn’t tolerate a mare cleaning another mare’s pussy with her tongue. “Aren’t you into mares?”

“Yes, of course Ah am,” Mac replied, not wanting there to be any confusion on his gender preferences. He needed a bunch of guys with minds open to bisexuality asking him if he wanted to find a room for quickie as much as he needed his gender switched. “It’s more about…. uh… voyeurism?”

Anyone would have noticed the uncertainty in what Mac had said, but Shining found another reason to nitpick the clydesdale’s statement. “Voyeurism?”

“Well... yeah… you know…” Mac started, pushing just a little more of his dignity down to be able to say what he was about to, “Watching ponies get naked or have sex without them knowing about it. It’s… thrilling to think that they have no clue that you’re spying on them. The idea that you could get caught, and get in trouble for being a peeping tom. It’s not something that a pony can really do anymore, is it?”

“I think I get what you’re saying,” said Shining. “The way things are now, there’s really not much room for that particular fetish, is there? I’m surprised though, this is the first time I heard of anyone being into that in a while. Never really struck me as something men would care about with the ability to look out their window and see some mare walking around naked. I guess that’s a part of the problem when you think of it, it takes some of the excitement out of it when there is no risk.”

“Right… so Ah have ta take what Ah can get when Ah can…” Embarrassing didn’t begin to express how Mac felt. He was always a respectful stallion, the kind that would knock on a bathroom door before entering, and now he was placing himself in the ranks of perverts who had too much free time on their hands in order to fit in. Going to such lengths to keep up with a facade to a stallion that he might never see again past this night, he might as well toss out the rest of his credibility as an decent and ethical pony as well.

“Well don’t worry,” Shining Armor said in clear support of Mac’s quirky fetish, “I have a place where we can sit and talk, and give you a clear view of all the action. Come on, I’ll show you.”

“Sure,” Mac said, caving in to Shining’s relentless determination, “Lead the way…”

The two stallions made their way through the party, Mac followed behind as they strolled past the various other events of the gala, catching several mares that were strapped to tables while being used as serving plates for stallions and their loyal red collars to eat food directly off them along the way, as well as an odd display of art using several other mares who were painted completely grey from head to hoof and bound into positions to act as statues for onlookers to gawk at. As interesting as both activities could have been on some level if done consensually, the looks of discomfort and irritation displayed on those forced into the situations tainted any curiosity Mac had about them.

The further they went away from AJ, the more unnerved the clydesdale became that he left AJ with Ivangir, not being helped by a small line up of mares Shining led him by that were bound and balanced atop a set of wooden wedges. With both Applejack and those mares on his mind, he accidentally overlaid the image of his sister over the bodies of one of the tortured girls, imagining it was her straddling those wood spikes, having them dig into her privates with every slight motion. The sympathy he felt for his sister spread over to the tormented mares, but with no authority to remove them for those dreadful devices he just moved along as Shining led him on.

The two eventually ended up back near the entrance of the room, far away from where AJ was currently. “So… if Ah might ask… where are ya taking me again?”

Shining’s smugness visibly increased, “One of the best seats in the house. Take a look.” The unicorn pointed upwards, and while Mac didn’t understand right away, he eventually tilted his head back to see a rather large balcony booth. “You should feel privileged; that booth is one reserved for only the finest of the Equestrian elite, but you’re gonna be able to get up there just because I like ya.”

“Are ya sure it’s gonna be okay?” Mac asked, worried that it might actually be an issue if he went up there without being on some sort of list.

“It’ll be fine, and except for maybe where King Dainn is seated there’s no better view of the party.”

The two stallions went over to a couple of pegasus guards off to the side of the entrance, protecting a doorway to a set of stairs. Shining Armor walked right past, unabated in his stride, but when Mac tried to do the same they both extended one wing to block the way.

“Only royalty and specially permitted guests allowed through here,” One of the guards announced, “And judging by that tux, I don’t think you are on the list.”

Mac fought the urge to push through the feathery wings. He didn’t want to act too rash, but it was frustration brought on by this night was starting to get to him. Shining Armor wouldn’t have wasted the time to drag him this far for nothing though, and he knew if he just waited the problem would be resolved.

As he assumed, Shining came back when he noticed that Mac was no longer behind him. “It’s ok guys, he’s with me.”

Hearing the prince say that the earth stallion was fine to pass, the two pegasi retracted their wings. He had been the respected captain of the guard before he got to the royal rank he had now, so no pony guardsmen would argue with an order given by Shining Armor. They went so far as to give a brief apology and bid Mac a pleasant evening as he went by them.

After climbing the small inclined of steps, Mac and Shining Armor made it into the VIP booth. There was no one else in it at the time, with rows of seats left empty as their intended occupants were still out enjoying themselves, which was fine with Mac. The less people that he’d have to keep assumed, the more comfortable he would be, and the booth did get him a good distance from rest of the sex driven activities while allowing him to see everything going on.

From here he could see Princess Luna, still acting as centerpiece of the gala, but having been rebound from her earlier pose. As she was now, her arms and legs were put into something similar to a hogtie, held within a steel bar with four ring cuffs shackled to it. As she dangled, the weight of her body straining her appendages, two caribou stags took the liberty of penetrating her at both ends, relentlessly thrusting as if their very lives depended on getting off inside princess of the night. Needless to say, Mac didn’t linger on the mistreatment too long before looking for something else to watch from his vantage point.

He moved on to what he was really interested in seeing, his own sister. His worry for her hadn’t diminished in the slightest; as the one thing he had some small amount of control over in this, she stood out as the one thing he could really invest a great deal of his attention in. Remembering where he had left her, Mac traced back to those odd bondage chairs and picked her out from the void between a crowd of ponies. Within the short time of his absence, she had moved from cleaning out Ivangir’s cum from Twilight’s pussy, and had gone to sucking and groping her friend’s tits instead. It was a bit more acceptable for Mac to see this, as Twilight’s breasts had to be more sanitary than her crotch, but Mac didn’t believe for a moment that his sister had chosen to proceed this way on her own. AJ tended not to put too much thought in the methods of her sexual acts, as much as she put sheer effort into what it was she was doing. It was more likely that she just heard someone in the crowd, or Ivangir himself, mention they would like to see her wrap her lips around Twlight’s nipples, and then did it to please to onlookers.

“Does this please your inner voyeur?” asked Shining Armor, noting on how intensely the clydesdale was staring at their siblings.

Mac gave a slight nod in response. He was happy to be able to see exactly what AJ was doing without a bunch of bodies in the way, and even more so that AJ was doing well to keep up the facade under Ivangir’s scrutiny, but there was a terrible trade off to this. From this distance, should Ivangir attempt to hurt her again, it would be much harder for him to get to her in time before the stag caused some damage. He had to repeat to himself over and over that a red collar shouldn’t be in danger of being harmed, and that AJ was smart enough that she wouldn’t purposefully put herself in danger.

“Then please, have a seat.” Shining Armor said taking one of his own, plopping down into it hard and crossing his legs as he leaned back and relaxed, “It should only be us up here for a while.”

Mac moved away from the balcony, and took the seat next to Shining. It was a larger seat that easily accommodated his own size, and thus Mac assumed it belonged to one of the caribou, one of the council, maybe even Ivangir himself. He didn’t really care about that, or at least not as much as the other things littering the booth. There were evident signs that the booth had been occupied that day, as uncleaned splotches of cum were covering certain areas of it. There were a few strewn out chains lying about, bolted to the sides of the seat so those who had the misfortune of being attached to them couldn’t wander away too far from the one who put them there. Each seat had one such chain on either side, enough to accommodate two slaves, but Shining’s seat had a small addition that the others didn’t. Placed on the floor, near Mac’s hoof, was a pink throw pillow with the name “Cadance” sewn into it with purple thread.

“So… where is your… pet?” Mac asked, somewhat curious that Shining didn’t have the former princess of love at his side.

“Which one?” The unicorn joked, “Don’t answer that, I’m sure you mean my sexy and slutty alicorn slave. She’s out there, having her fun. She is insatiable, that one.” That last bit was spoken in a very whimsical fashion, like he was picturing the countless times he had stuck his dick inside his perverted pink princess, “She’s usually so frisky I have to shackle her wrists to her ankles just to get a good night’s rest, but she always sleeps like a foal when I give her permission to let loose.”

“Is that why you’re taking a break from the party?” Mac asked, focusing on how Shining implied that he was getting so much sex it was interfering with his rest. The stallion, now that Mac looking at him closely, was covered in sweat. His princely outfit had a few darker spots on it from the perspiration, as well as a few white splotches on his pants. He had seen his share of action that night, enough that Mac felt even he would have been unable to keep up without collapsing.

“Huh? Oh, well after twenty or so times anyone would need a rest.” Shining answered, basking in his own sexual prowess, having lost count of the number of women that he had wrapped around his dick since his arrival to the castle. “But I didn’t bring you up here to talk about myself.”

“Then what did you bring me up here for?” Mac was happy to feign ignorance, pretending to have forgotten what Shining had said earlier. He had few interactions with the upper crust of Equestria, but if Filthy Rich and Gunne were any indication, they liked to believe they were the smartest people in the room.

Shining took a deep breath, “Heh, you are an odd one Big Macintosh. You are the first stallion I’ve ever seen who can be surrounded by lusty, attractive mares, and look miserable about it. Do you know how much attention you’ve gained by acting gloomy while everyone else is having a good time?”

“Ah wasn’t trying to, trust me,” Mac answered.

“Yeah, I figured that,” said Shining, “Hard not to pick up on your animosity when you wear it on your sleeve. You’d have to be pretty oblivious not to notice when a person acts annoyed every time they open their mouth.”

This line of dialog was starting to head down a path Mac wasn’t liking, an ominous feeling starting to rise inside him, making goosebumps form on his skin, “Okay then… If ya understand that Ah wanted to be alone, then why are we here?”

“I’ll be upfront with you,” Shining said, aiming his eyes directly at the clydesdale, “As prince of the Crystal Empire it is my duty to uphold the law, keep the peace and to ensure events like this don’t fall into chaos because someone is having a bad day. So how about you Big Macintosh? Will I have to detain you for the safety of everyone else here?”

“Is that what this is about?” Mac asked, glad to hear that Shining was only asking if he should be removed from the party to cool down, and not that he wanted to arrest him. He was just acting as peace keeper, just as Gunne would if he thought Mac was about to cause a scene. “I’m fine… Just didn’t like seeing that caribou hitting mah sister. You can understand that, right?”

“‘That caribou is a person who helped to liberate this kingdom, and he deserves respect,” Shining said to correct the earth stallion’s attitude towards Ivangir, but then his facial features softened, “But I will agree that if someone punished my slaves without getting my permission first, I would be pissed off too. I might’ve gone a bit further than you did, which is why I had to make sure you weren’t planning to do something stupid.”

“So you’re gonna believe me, just like that?”

“I don’t see why not.” Shining replied, pretty sure of himself, “You seem like an upstanding stallion, and you handled yourself well enough back there. Plus there has been a certain caribou magistrate who has been vouching for you all night. But if you want, you can stay up here and cool your head for as long as you need to. I could even send you up some red collars if that would make you feel better.”

“Ah… think I’m fine… but maybe…” A wild idea popped into Mac’s head, one formed out of curiosity about Shining Armor. There had to be something more than just the promise of power and women that changed this once noble stallion into the what he had become, and while any answer he received would never be good enough to account for Shining’s actions, it would at least allow Mac to know how the caribou pulled Shining’s loyalty away from the princesses and to them. “While Ah got ya here… could Ah ask you a few questions?”

“Sure, if that will help you out? What would you like to know?”

The amount of questions one could have for a stallion who so easily betrayed Equestria were insurmountable, but while the amount of things to ask were nearly limitless, his time with Shining wasn’t. It would be good for him to be direct and concise, but if he was too direct on a touchy subject then Shining might refuse to answer him. However, if his talks with Gunne had taught him anything, it was that people were more willing to discuss things they usually wouldn’t if you took your time to get to know them. Where to start though, what topic would be a good ice breaker?

Beyond what AJ had told him about Shining Armor’s past, Mac only knew common knowledge about him. That he was one of the ‘heroes’ of the caribou’s takeover. That he had joined with them to aid in the takeover of Canterlot, using his shielding magic to entrap everypony inside as the caribou did their thing. Of all the ponies to ally themselves with the caribou before that time, Shining Armor and his pet princess were some of the first notable ponies to start adhering to the caribou’s way of life.

Deciding on his first step in the conversation, Mac started on his line of questioning. “Well pardon a simple farm pony for not knowing what’s going on in the rest of the world, but how are things going where you’re at?”

“You want to know about the magnificent Crystal Empire and how it has prospered under my rule.” Shining took to the question well, happy to inform the inquisitive stallion, “Everyday living there is wonderful. I get woken up from my slumber by the pleasant feeling of one of my many slaves licking my dick to erection before I reward them with the taste of my cum. Then, me and my Cadance go to the throne room balcony where we look out onto my shimmering city while I fuck her for all my loyal subjects to view and admire. The cool morning air hitting our bodies as she bounces on my cock with her vice-like cunt.”

“That’s quite a picture you’re painting,” said Mac, “But Ah was wondering more about the city and the ponies that live in it.” Being considered ‘royalty’, Mac already had a good idea of how extravagant Shining’s sex life was.

“The crystal ponies? They are having the time of their lives.” Shining answered, his pride surfacing again as he talked of the citizens of his kingdom, “To them the kingdom is paradise. Every crystal mare enthusiastically offers their bodies and will to the supremacy of men, and as you might expect their devotion has gone over well with the crystal stallions. Everyday to them is something to be celebrated, and we frequently have parties that would rival the one we are attending here, just without so many mares of the quality we have here.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way… but that just doesn’t sound right to me.” Mac said, a few of the things Shining told him coming off as embellishments instead of fact.

“Maybe living in a small town like Ponyville limits your concept of what other cities can be like then.” Shining replied in a matter of fact way, “The caribou help to make sure that the Crystal Empire gets what it needs to stay prosperous, and things go much smoother in a city where everyone is happy.”

“That’s one of the issues Ah was thinkin’ about, there was something else that makes me scratch mah head. You said that all the crystal mares are happy to be sex slaves?”

“The ones I see are,” said Shining with a certainty that was akin to if he was asked if the sky was blue, “We did a census and the only black collars in the kingdom are ones we have to import in. If there are black collar crystal mares, they don’t live in my kingdom.”

“Then it’s really hard for me to wrap mah head around how a people who had been enslaved before, and in a way that traumatized the lot of them from what Ah heard, could want had something like that be such a big part of their lives now.”

“Come on, you can’t really relate being forced to mine for crystals to the mutual benefits that comes from a slave and master relationship.”

“Actually, Ah think Ah can,” Having seen enough farms in Equestria to discern how they were commonly operated, as well as the general mistreatment of black collars, purple collars, and even red collars as far as he was concerned, it was very easy to see the connection.

Shining sighed, “Well maybe if you look at it in an extremely pessimistic light, you might be able to say that. Then again, the crystal ponies were the first ones to receive the caribou’s cure, and they took to it exceptionally well.”

Mac paused at the mention of the caribou's cure, the same one that changed most other stallions while leaving him as he had always been. It was always an assumption of his that any stallion mistreating a mare was somehow under its influence, and that in many ways that was why they couldn't be reasoned with in a logical debate. Listening to the unicorn and putting two and two together gave him a sneaking suspicion. The crystal ponies might have been amongst the first receive what the caribou had as far as Shining Armor knew, but that didn't mean that was actually the case.

He considered bringing up his newly formed theory to Shining, but then thought of the repercussions of doing so. Even if he was right, it seemed to only lead to negative results. It would be a simple for Shining to handwave the accusation away, and even simpler to accuse Mac of being part of the rebellion and that he was trying to recruit a high ranking official. It was irritating, but to protect those he loved, as well as himself, he had to keep his ideas to himself. Making Shining aware that he could have been manipulated just wasn't worth the risk, as it wouldn't really mean anything if it did work out as he would hope. It's not like Shining Armor, should a best case scenario happen, had the power to go against someone like Dainn, of whom even the rumors of his ability and strength made him sound invincible.

However, that didn't mean that he had to clam up completely. He couldn't directly claim that the caribou had done something terrible, but he could imply that maybe the caribou didn't have Shining's best interest in mind in a more subtle way. Just give him something to think about when he was plowing those in his harem of slaves that weren't active participants in his debaucherous acts.

"Then you would agree that Sombra character was doing the wrong thing by holing up all those ponies in his mines?" the clydesdale asked, hoping that Shining would something close to what he wanted him to say.

"Well of course," Shining replied, "He was an evil creature made of shadows, who caused pain and misery to an innocent race of ponies." For a moment Shining didn't recognize how his answer applied to anything else in the conversation, but after a few seconds of silence from Mac it started to dawn on him, "Now wait a second, you're not trying to imply that stallions nowadays act like he did, are you? If so, I've heard this argument before, and I'll let you know that the ones who tried to use it never win."

It appeared that Mac had gone a bit too far in this discussion, the slightest insinuation that the caribou or the stallion that acted under their rule were doing something morally wrong sending up red flags. Fortunately, he did have something that might get him out of trouble, though it would also lower Shining's opinion on what he had to say from that point on.

"Look, you were upfront with me earlier, so I'll be the same with you," Mac said, sitting up straight in his seat, "I'm what the caribou would call a 'mentally deficient' stallion. I'm sure ya have heard about them before."

Shining Armor did of course, being the leader of one of Equestria's kingdoms. Suddenly things were starting to add up, allowing him to understand why Mac was acting the way he was, "So you’re two steps shy of being someone I'd have to ship off to be switched." He said, making his apprehension be known.

"Ah already said that Ah don't intend to cause any trouble, and what Ah have is a recognized mental illness that I've been working through with the help of Gunne."

"Right... the magistrate of Ponyville. He did vouch for you..." Shining acknowledged the validity of Mac's condition, even if it still bothered him to have a stallion of the clydesdale's mind frame so close.

"So now that we got that all straightened out, mind if Ah ask you a few more questions. Gunne told me that it would help if Ah talked to an authority figure about the thoughts Ah have to get another perspective on the subject."

"I suppose as the prince of the Crystal Empire, it is my duty to correct the seditious thoughts of a stallion who sees fault in our benevolent king's rule." Mac was glad to hear Shining Armor say he could continue, but wary of the serious expression he that was forming on the unicorn's face, "But I'm not going to stand for you insinuating I’m some evil tyrant like Sombra was, and I won’t allow you to try that with the king or any of the council members either. If I feel that the conversation is heading in that direction again, then it’s over. Understand?”

“Ah understand." Shining Armor was refusing to allow anyone to speak ill of the people who could be held responsible for corrupting Equestria, and if Mac made so much as a word towards that idea then the unicorn was going to walk. It was a hard rule to follow, but not impossible. He just had to approach this from another angle. “Then if ah may be a bit rude askin’ ya this, could ya tell me exactly what made you join the caribou?”

“Now that’s a question I don’t mind answering,” crossing his arms together, Shining reflected on how he and Dainn met, “The king came to the Crystal Empire over a year ago and sent a message of his arrival to me through my second in command, Orestes. After learning of the caribou, and their return to our lands after what might have been a millennium, me, Orestes, and my lovely pet went with him to an encampment his people had set up to see how they did things.”

“And when ya got there ya weren’t surprised with what ya saw? If Ah had seen a caribou village when Celestia was still in charge, Ah would have been too mortified to move.”

“That was one of the old problems with her in charge, wasn’t it? Everyone was too prudish to recognize a good time when it was in front of them.” That response got Mac to raise a confused eyebrow, “Sorry, I try not to think too much about the time when her incompetence was what led us. Reminds me to much of how blindly I followed her. To answer your question though, sure. Me and Cadence were shocked at what we saw at first, but we got over it really quick. Cadence took to it like a fish to water though. You should have seen how excited she got when she saw the caribou’s cows serving their owners, acting as communal sluts to any guy horny enough to grab them by the collar and fuck them on the spot. It was like she knew that was the kind of life she wanted to have.”

“It’s nice that she found something she could enjoy, but Ah don’t think that really answered mah first question. What made ya join the caribou in their takeover of Equestria?” If he didn’t stress the point, Mac felt Shining would have gone through every little detail of what happen when he met Dainn, and he only wanted to hear the part that applied to what he was asking.

“It wasn’t something like bribery or the promise to rule the Crystal Empire when they took over, if you’re trying to insinuate that.” said Shining, Mac wondering if that was the unicorn’s way of saying he getting close to breaking the established rules, “I was running the Crystal Empire with Cadence from the moment we settled in there. I was even working on putting together a team for the Equestrian Games before Dainn came along and more important things happened. No, what convinced me that the king was the right side to be on was our conversations with one another. He’d ask me something about some rumor he heard, then I told him what happen and he tell me his opinions on the matter.”

“And Ah could hazard a guess that it was somethin’ like he was saying during his speech earlier.”

“Pretty much. The king would often point out the flaws in Celestia’s rule. How when things were going to shit, she would just sit back and do nothing, and even when she did try to do something she would fail miserably. If not for our enemies being just as incompetent as she was, then we would have fallen into ruin a long time ago. A real leader should be able to protect their kingdom, and that is not something a woman can hope to do”

“Hmmm..." Shining looked satisfied with himself, perhaps thinking that the king’s point had been made through him, but Mac was having trouble following the logic. “Okay, ya think that Celestia wasn’t a good leader. Ah could understand how ya could feel that way with some of the things that have happened just before the caribou arrived, but did ya have to go and make all the mares into sex slaves just to remove her from power?”

“Didn’t have to, but it was a pleasant perk to it all.” A light laugh escaped the unicorn’s muzzle, but the clydesdale sitting next to him found his little joke in poor taste, “King Dainn felt it would be better if stallions took their place as the dominant gender, and as long as we continued to let mares think they were useful, there was always the chance that another ‘Celestia’ could come along and ruin everything again. Celestia, as bad as she was, was the best woman we could have had in charge. Could you imagine what it would be like if a lesser mare tried to take a seat of power?”

He didn’t have to imagine it, he lived it. Mayor Mare had governed over Ponyville for years, and Mac never saw how she ran things as terrible. There was the occasional hiccup here or there, or something big happened that she couldn’t handle since they were beyond her abilities, but those didn’t reflect on her overall performance as the mayor. In his own personal opinion, as much as he liked Gunne, he believed the former mayor did a better job managing the town.

Of course, he couldn’t tell that to Shining. That would be going too far into 'female sympathizer’ territory for him to feel comfortable, even with his excuse. This did bring up one of the other points that Mac thought was wrong about what Shining said before, but how to address it?

“Shining Armor, I’m not really sure Ah agree that women are only useful as slaves.”

“That is the nature of your disability...” Shining Armor replied.

“Bear with me a minute, I’m almost done. Ah promise.”

“Fine... go ahead with whatever you want to get off your chest.”

Mac dug deeply for the words he would need to make his point. He wanted to form his argument the best that he could, but he was never really the talkative type. He still didn‘t believe that it would get him anywhere in the long run, but if he could leave Shining Armor without the ability to make a decent rebuttal, then that alone would be success in his book.

“Well correct me if I’m wrong,” he started, thinking back on every little detail AJ had ever told him about her adventures, “But didn’t it take a group of mares to save the kingdom you now rule over.”

“Where did you hear... Ah, I get it. Must have been your sister embellishing her importance when it came to the restoration of the Crystal Empire.”

“Actually, she said that her part was helping to keep the crystal ponies calm and distracted from Sombra’s encroachment on the kingdom. Are ya gonna call mah sister a liar?” Mac would dare the unicorn to besmirch Applejack’s good name in that manner. Throughout all of this, her honesty was one of the few shreds of dignity she had managed to keep.

“I suppose that is true,” Shining conceded, but only to give a retort to Mac‘s claim by saying, “But I hope she remembered to tell you that it was Spike who ending up saving the kingdom, by delivering the Crystal He- excuse me, the Crystal Cock, back to where it belonged.”

“She did,” Mac shot right back, ready for that reply, “But the only reason he had ahold of it was because your sister found it in the first place.”

For the first time since he had met the stallion, Shining Armor didn’t have an immediate answer for what Mac had presented. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as had the appearance of a man searching his mind for an answer to a difficult puzzle, placing his chin in his hand as he paced over the events of that distant incident. Knowing that this was a rare opportunity, Mac pressed his advantage.

“Now this is just second hand information from your sister to mine and then to me, but the only reason the Crystal Heart could be found was because Twilight was taught some spell by Celestia to get into where the heart was being kept. Now we can’t say for sure, but Ah was under the assumption that if ya didn’t get that pretty looking stone, then ya would have been up the creek without a paddle and Sombra would be the one in charge of the Crystal Empire now. So it would’ve been a darn shame if either of them had their horns removed at the time like they are now, wouldn’t ya agree?”

Shining lifted his head from the palm of his hand. Mac thought that he was going to get chewed out, or that Shining was going to get up and walk away, but he didn’t. Instead the unicorn grew a proud smile across his muzzle.

“My sister always was smart, for a female at least. Always ahead of all the rest of those mares. She might’ve been deceived by Celestia, like the rest of them, but she always knew her purpose.”

“What are ya getting at?” Mac asked, confused why Shining’s voice had a tinge of nostalgia in it.

“Big Macintosh, what do you think that incident with Sombra proves? That mares don’t need us acting as their masters? That they can take care of themselves? If so, I’m not convinced.” Shining lend back, now completely relaxed and sure of how he would counter Mac’s argument, “I’m glad you reminded me of all this, because it makes me see even more now that King Dainn was, and still is, right.”

“But ya can’t ignore that-”

“My sister was performing the duties of a diligent servant?” Shining said with enough smarm to fill the entirety of the banquet hall. “A simple task of fetching something for those better than herself. If she was capable of doing so at the time, I’m sure she would have brought the Crystal Cock back to me so I could use it to defeat Sombra, but when she realized she was incapable of completing such an important task, she gave it to someone she knew would be able to do what she couldn’t. Spike, the man that would eventually be her master. Even before the caribou came along, Twilight was doing everything she was supposed to like the good mare she is.”

“But what about the spell? She had to do that to find the Crystal Heart.”

“Who says that she had to do it? I had left for the Crystal Empire some time before she did, and if Celestia had just shown me how to do it myself there is a good chance that Twilight wouldn’t have had to put herself in danger.”

Mac didn’t believe that it was that simple. While he couldn’t say for sure why Celestia chose not to teach either Shining Armor or Cadence the spell that unlocked the pathway to the Crystal Heart, he assumed that it was because Shining couldn’t cast such a spell. It’s not like unicorns can learn every spell that any other unicorn can cast, else Shining Armor’s unique shielding magic would be something every unicorn guard would know. Regardless, the prince didn’t appear to acknowledge this as a valid argument, so Mac saw no choice but to move on.

“And what about the Elements of Harmony?” Mac said, going to his next thing on his list, “The real ones. There were a few times that they were needed to fix something that no one else could handle, and only our sisters and their friends were able to use them.”

Shining shook his head with a shrug, “You’re going on assumptions again. The elements were used to defeat a few of our enemies, and I’ll remind you that one of them was Luna, but who's to say they were needed? With enough force, strategic thinking, or simply circumstances falling into place, it is possible that ‘Nightmare Moon’ could have been subdued without the Elements.”

“And what about the other problem they solved?” Mac said, becoming slightly apprehensive as he recalled the other person that was defeated with the Elements, “Discord.... Do ya really think that he could be dealt with in the same way?”

“Well... it’s possible. Though I don’t think we have to worry about him anymore. You do know that he’s one of our allies now, right?”

“That’s another thing Ah don’t understand. If ya believe that Dainn is a great leader, that’s fine, but Discord tried to throw Equestria into complete chaos.” Recalling his own personal experience with the draconequus, Mac could remember a short period where he was made to believe he was a dog. He doubted that any of the caribou would have appreciated if the same had happened to one of them. “He was a danger to both mares and stallions, and now he’s out there doing whatever he likes. Can ya explain that one to me?”

“Well, obviously King Dainn managed to reform Discord. That’s not too hard to believe , is it?”

It was pretty hard for Mac to believe actually, “Ah happen to remember someone else trying to reform him before...”

“Then it’s just another thing that proves that men are better than women,” replied Shining, knowing where Mac was heading with this, “And thus you’ve disproved your point yet again. I’m sorry, but this is getting too sad to let continue. I have to ask you to stop just to spare you the embarrassment of having such a wrong opinion.”

“Now hold up,” Mac said, “Ya jumped the gun so soon ya didn’t even let me say what Ah wanted to. Let me ask ya this though, it’s a fairly easy question. Would ya say that Celestia’s plan to reform Discord from being evil succeeded?”

“Of course not,” Shining said without giving a second thought, “To assume that any of her plans bore positive results would be stupid. If anything she made things... worse... What is with that look you’re giving me?”

Now Mac was the one to show a bit of smugness on his face. Shining, by giving the default answer that pretty much any stallion would give on a question concerning Celestia’s rule, had walked right into the clydesdale’s trap. “So ya would say that Celestia, by trying to reform Discord, did something stupid?”

Shining took a step back in the conversation, thinking that he wasn’t too far in to adjust what he said, “You’re not understanding what I meant when I say that. It’s not a bad thing to want to reform Discord, but the methods that Celestia used were just further proof of how she mismanaged Equestria. While she never did anything to change Discord for the better, King Dainn has had great results.”

Mac could tell that Shining believed he was out of the woods, but he knew better. The point of this was not if Discord could be reformed, or even if Dainn was a better influence. “What if Ah told ya that Ah don’t think that Celestia had much of an influence on Discord either?”

“Then I’d say it was the first sensible thing you’ve said since we started this.”

“Good, then we are on the same page.” said Mac, setting up everything he needed to proceed, “Personally Ah don’t think people like Discord can just change overnight. Ah might even say that Ah don’t think anyone can change that much so quickly. So Ah have to ask mahself what our benevolent king is doing making deals with a despicable person like Discord.”

“Excuse me?” It was Shining’s turn to feel uncomfortable about where the conversation was heading, though he didn’t understand why just yet.

“Well it might just be my farm bred thinking narrowing it to the simplest way of looking at it, but if Discord wasn’t reformed by the time he met Dainn, then it goes without saying that he would have been evil at the time, and mah granny always told me that someone can tell how rotten an apple is by the other apples lying on the ground with it.”

Mac had just broke the rule of not implying Dainn of being as bad as someone like Discord, but he didn’t care. The look of confusion and anger on Shining’s face as he tried to piece everything together would be worth him walking off at this point. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen, not while Mac was still ahead.

“Well then maybe we misjudged Discord from the very beginning. Maybe he wasn’t a danger and Celestia embellished his actions to put him in a bad light.”

The clydesdale shook his head, “Ah saw what he did to Ponyville when he paid it a little visit. He was about as dangerous as they come.”

“Then perhaps he just didn’t come off that way to the king, and then realized the error of his ways as things went along.”

“Did ya happen to see Discord before the caribou took over Canterlot? He seemed to make it pretty clear what side he was on. I’d even say he was happy to let everyone know he was evil.”

It was an odd little logical paradox that could only exist in the caribou’s society. If Celestia’s attempt to rehabilitate Discord was indeed fruitless, then Dainn accepting a creature like him as an ally during the planning of his takeover was questionable at best. On the other hand, one could say that Celestia’s plan to reform him worked. It would absolve Dainn of any accusations of associating with a clearly evil being, but it would also be an admittance that Celestia wasn’t as incompetent as the caribou had implied, and saying that it was her order that caused such a change in the draconequus would be no small admittance.

Shining wracked his brain for several minutes to come up with something that could escape this problem, but found himself coming up short. He couldn’t find a way that Discord could have not come off as a mischievous and devious creature to someone as intelligent as Dainn without Celestia having a hand in it, and that wasn’t something he was going to permit himself to even think. In the end, he gave the only reply that he could.

“I can’t speak for the king’s actions, but I can speak for the results. He has never steered us wrong, and I trust that he knows what’s best. It’s not like I’ve always agreed with every decision he’s made, his choice of what to do with a certain changeling bitch being one thing I was against, but I trust that he is making the right choices. I might not be able to understand the long term results of his choices, but I know that in the end everything will be fine as long as we follow him.”

The reply was a cop out, and Mac knew it. It might’ve shown how loyal he was to the caribou king, but it also showed that he had no answers for this particular moral dilemma except that he trusted in Dainn’s judgment. From the looks of it, Shining knew it too, though he didn’t like that he couldn’t dismiss this like everything else Mac said that night.

“Okay, I think I’ve humored you enough,” Shining said, breaking the silence shared between the two stallions, “Now it’s time you listened to something I have to say about this.”

“Ah... suppose that’s fair,” Mac couldn’t refuse to hear Shining Armor out after having him sit through all the things he had to say, “Go ahead, but Ah wouldn’t expect what ya have to say to have any more effect on me than what Ah said had on you.”

“Actually, I think you’ll find what I’m about to tell you very compelling,” Shining leading forward, placing his arms on the ledge of the balcony, “I have a feeling that I understand where all these crazy ideas of yours are coming from. You see, believe it or not, it’s a trait I think I share with you.”

Mac remembered hearing something like this before, from Gunne, the first time he was called into his office. It made him wonder if this was a coincidence, or if it was standard practice for trying to reason with an incurable stallion to say that they were more alike to you than they assumed. It was always easier to approach someone when you did so from a point that they could identify with, but in this case Mac felt the other stallion was just blowing smoke. “You’re a unicorn who grew up in Canterlot, became the captain of the royal guard, married a princess, and then helped to remove the one you had served under for most of your life from power. Ah really don’t see how you can relate to a simple farm pony like me.”

“Then you’re letting your predisposition towards me get in the way of seeing the obvious,” said Shining, “I’ve been watching you for a while now. I see how your eyes drift away from me every few seconds, looking out into the party, like you’re trying to keep track of something going on out there. It’s not hard to guess what it is.”

The clydesdale couldn’t deny that Shining Armor was right about his assumption, he hadn’t really been trying to conceal his motives. He had been watching Applejack’s movements closely ever since he took his seat, ready to bolt from it the minute something bad happened so he could minimize the damage as much as he could.

“You might not believe me when I say this, but I can share your feelings for not wanting to see someone you love get hurt. When all of this started I was so worried for Twilight, since I knew how deeply she believed in Celestia. I wasn’t sure if she was going to catch on as quickly as she did, and there was a point where I thought I’d have to personally put a black collar around her neck. You can’t believe how relieved I was when the new regime was firmly established, and I learned that all the women in my family made the right choice.”

“So ya think that we have some sort of bond just because we would rather our sister’s obey rather than be hurt?” That was a bit of a stretch when it came to similarities, and Mac really wasn’t buying it.

“Let me put it this way,” Shining continued, “If for some reason Ivangir had tried to kick Twilight instead of your sister, I would’ve stepped in just like you did, at least to figure out if she really deserved that kind of punishment.”

“How noble of ya,” Mac said in slight sarcasm as Shining’s words implied that he would allow such a beating to continue if he thought the situation warranted it.

Shining noticed the clydesdale’s mocking tone, but ignored it so he could get to his point, “This is where I see our connection. No matter what happens, we want what is best for our sisters. I mean look at you; you have about as negative an outlook to the changes that happened to Equestria as I’d expect from a stallion immune to the cure, but you’ve still let your sister give in to her desires and become a red collar.”

“Pardon me?” Mac said, Shining’s words coming as a surprise.

“Well I have to believe you weren’t the one pushing for her to be a red, not with how you’ve been acting about the regime, so she must’ve broke down and made the right choice by herself.” Shining said, pointing out to the red collared, orange mare who had been relocated near the refreshment tables over the course their long conversation, “If you were a selfish and uncaring brother, you would’ve put your hoof down and made her a stay black collar under the idea that red collars are ‘evil’, or some nonsense like that. Not only have you let her follow what she knew was right in her heart, but Gunne said that you personally helped her like a good brother, and a good master, should.”

“I… I…” Mac really didn’t know what to say to that. The entire premise behind AJ being a red collar hinged on people believing she had converted, and that she was doing what her caribou masters wanted her to do with the aid of her handler. Arguing that point would turn the whole facade into one big muddled mess. “Ah just want her to be happy.”

“And that is where we see eye to eye,” said Shining with absolute sincerity, “We both want our sisters to be happy. We might have completely different opinions about the way things have changed, but in this we are in agreement.”

Mac’s eyes fixated on the unicorn, trying to discern any form of deceit behind what his words. A slight change in expression, a twitch of a nerve or an incorrect crease of a lip that would reveal the straight faced statement as a lie. He couldn’t find any though, and when one of your family’s most important principles is honesty you can pick up when someone is trying to sell you snake oil.

“I’ve always had this idea about all these black collars out there,” Shining added, “How after all this, when mares like Celestia and Twilight have chosen to submit, and when they have been shown over and over the consequences of fighting this, that they choose to be stupid. I think they believe it’s expected of them. That because of the incurable stallions convincing them to rebel, and the other equally misled black collars perpetuating this absurd notion that they will be happier if they keep pretending that they can act independently. All of these ponies selfishly cling onto a failed system and are dragging as many as they can down with them. I mean just look at that Applejack of yours.”

At Shining’s request, Mac gave his sister another look. She was kneeling in front of a stallion, grasping his dick in her hand as she ran her tongue across it. He had seen her do this many times before, fulfilling her obligations to the caribou, but there was something different this time. It was hard to make out from this distance, but Mac could make out a showing of teeth every time she took a moment to stop and look up at the man she was pleasuring. He wanted to remove the image from his mind, pretend it didn’t happen, but Shining Armor wouldn’t let him do so. At least, not before adding his thoughts on the matter.

“Big Macintosh, have you ever thought that maybe your sister was a black collar for so long because she was trying to live up to your expectations of her? That because she knew you had this mental image of her being a strong, independent mare, that she couldn’t let go of her inhibitions, even though everything else told her to? It’s just a theory I came up with, but maybe you were the only reason she held out so long.”

That just couldn’t be right. There was no way that AJ really wanted to be a sex slave, that she would be happy being treated like some sort of sub-sentient creature who only understood pleasure, pain, and the absurd concept that she was something to be owned. And yet, as he watched her continue, saw her take the stallions shaft into her mouth, deep enough to have it travel down her throat despite being forbidden by Ivangir to let anyone enter her orifices, Shining’s words begun to make a bit of sense.

It wasn’t that he thought that his sister was secretly some cock-hungry slut, his mind wouldn’t let him believe that, but perhaps she did enjoy things more than she let on. Thinking back to when he shared Gunne’s plan to her, she had shown outrage at first, but not even an hour had passed before she came back with a more open mind. As far as he knew, nothing had changed in that short time that would’ve made her more accepting of the idea, but then what could have changed her mind? Was it something as simple as finding the best of a bad situation, was she sick and tired of having to be constantly bound day in and day out, or did she feel that it was just better to just give up?

If it was the latter she had never shown it, but that just played into what Shining was talking about. This could have just been an easy out for her, a way to stop resisting while pretending that wasn’t the case to those closest to her. That was a bleak thought indeed, but one that Mac could understand. The hopelessness of her situation was enough to make even the strongest of mares consider surrendering to it, and accept the pleasure of submission over the agony of defiance. If faced with the same kind of hopelessness, what would he do? At the very least it was something worth talking about when they got home, and if she had truly been holding out for his sake, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to relieve her of that burden.

A hot shot of spunk poured into AJ’s mouth, the unicorn in front of her emitting a few magical sparks from his horn as he came. The farm mare looked up at his pleased expression, her muzzle agape and full of cum, her face covered in thick trails of semen that hung off it and mixed with the messy remains of her makeup.

The unicorn, a little winded from the mare’s oral expertise, returned the gaze he was given by the pretty earth mare using her hand to aim his penis to her cum catcher of a mouth. “That… was… wonderful!” he said through a few light pants, “Go ahead and swallow, you earned it.”

Applejack did as she was told, and gulped down the contents of her mouth in one hard swallow. The sound of the creamy cum traveling down her esophagus was nearly audible, the semi-solid sperm sticking to the sides of it as it slowly worked its way to her stomach. The farm mare managed to down it all eventually though, and presented a cleaned-out oral cavity, opening her mouth as wide as she could and sticking her tongue out.

Being completely satisfied by the lowly dirt mare’s treatment of his cock, the unicorn stuffed it in his pants and moved on to another part of the banquet hall to allow another stallion, a pegasus, to move into place with his exposed penis pointing right at the mare’s face.

“How may Ah serve ya, sir?” AJ asked as politely as she could, he jaw aching as she talked from having it open for a while.

The pegasus sneered, “You know what I fucking want slut, now stop your yapping and get to sucking.” The stallion hadn’t even finished the second part of his sentence before he had taken hold of the base of AJ’s knotted braid so he could push her face into his erection.

AJ didn’t give so much as a snide remark, and offered the stallion gripping her mane a pleasant smile before letting her tongue hang from her bottom lip and wrapping her lips around the bottom of his shaft. Her saliva-slick tongue slid along the underpart of his dick, her face moving up and down along its length at her own volition. The pegasus gave a joyful flap up his wings, the attention the farm mare was giving to his sexual organ feeling wonderful as she took careful consideration to press her tongue along the curvatures of his plump, blood-filled veins, running it slowly along each line teasingly before moving to the next. He couldn’t contain his desire to push himself inside her mouth, and so he didn’t.

With a quick turn of his hips, and a strong thrust, his cock head pushed past her teeth and up to the entrance of her throat.The tongue that had been working so hard to push him to his limits was now acting as a delightfully soft pillow for his organ, the earth pony’s inner cheeks enveloping it like a sleeve, that gasp of surprise pulling cool air across it before he blocked the passage to her lungs. Every part of this got his blood pumping, and made his dick swell to the point of bursting. He wanted to feel more, his desire gradually growing as his cock stayed motionless in position.

Since his hand still held her braided mane, he felt the increasing urge to use it to his advantage. With it he could easily direct her head to bob on his penis and allow himself to go hilt deep into her vulnerable throat. All it would had taken was a simple pull back and push forward to get things started, but before he could, she started moving on her own. It was like she was reading his mind as she pulled herself back, took a deep breath, and plunged herself down so hard that her nose pressed up against his stomach and her lower lips touched the base of his sack.

“Aaaaawwww yeah,” the pegasus said as his wings went full span from the mare downing his dick, “Swallow it you greedy bitch.”

Applejack complied with his command, moving off of the flesh rod in her mouth. She let the head of it touch the middle section of her tongue before replacing it in her esophagus. She repeated the process, allowing her natural gag reflexes to take care of most of the work by massaging his shaft with her spasming throat muscles. With her hands unoccupied, she brought them to her breasts and roughly moved them around in circular motions to further entertain the stallion she was servicing, as well as the ones watching her from a distance.

As much effort as she was putting into the act, making sure that the men that came to her one by one got what they wanted, AJ was finding it all but impossible to really get in the mood herself. It was only through her own ability to fake a smile and perform her sexual acts regardless if she was aroused or not that was getting her through this night. After Mac’s interference and Twilight’s reward for pleasing Ivangir, the caribou decided to remove the ban on her use, at least when it came to oral. That was all it took to bring the men back in droves, and since then she had been putting her all into sucking off each one.

She was not doing it to make it through the night alone, but because of another reason that arose. Ever since she was made to run her tongue over Twilight’s body, AJ had been left very close to the alicorn. As she pushed herself through throat fucking herself with the pegasus stallion’s dick, Twilight was mere feet away doing the same to a stallion of her own, with another underneath her taking advantage of her available pussy. The alicorn looked to be on the verge of exhaustion from the sheer amount of partners she had been with thus far, both stallions and mares, and it was AJ’s hope that she could stay close to her friend by acting so slutty that she’d take anyone on the spot. With each stallion that came in her muzzle, she would close the gap a little more by moving to the next closest stallion to Twilight. If she could time it just right, and be near Twilight when they had no other choice but to allow her some rest, then maybe she could finally get some answers.

Her head was thrust forward one last time, this time with the assistance of the pegasus despite her being an active participant, and held into place so a few spurts of goop could be deposited down her throat. Seemed that Twilight wasn’t the only one whose endurance was about up for the night, and this had started to become a trend. The men had been fucking every woman they could get their hands on before she even arrived to the party, and they had their limits too. AJ, on the other hand, was still fairly fresh, her own earth pony stamina assisted by being brought in later and having restrictions placed on her body. It helped her immensely when she had started, allowing her to take three stallions at a time with the combination of her mouth and hands, and was the only reason she felt her plan to approach Twilight would work.

With the pegasus’ cum stored within the earth mare’s stomach, joining and mixing with that of the rest of the stallions she had sucked off before him, he released the braid in his hand and moved away, a strand of saliva connecting them until it became too thin to hold. The broken line of spit indicated to Applejack that she had to move, and so she looked towards the next closest stallion to Twilight, practically leaping at him from her kneeling position.

“Hey!” yelled a new pegasus that was standing just behind the one just behind the one that had just used AJ’s mouth as a cum receptacle, “I was up next!”

The other stallion gave this pegasus a sly smirk, assisting the farm mare as she devoured his cock on the spot, “Looks like the the dirt mare thought my dick looked like a tastier treat. I don’t see a reason to deprive her of it.”

Not wanting to be denied himself, the pegasus walked up beside the other stallion and presented his dick to the mare, “Then the impatient cunt can take us both a the same time.”

Refusing to let the other stallion object, the pegasus shoved himself into Applejack as the other male was pulling himself back for another thrust. “Whatever, you’re just pissed she picked me over you.” said the stallion with a roll of his eyes.

AJ mentally gave her own roll, but continued on with the task. In some ways this show of masculine rivalry was more pleasant than the single stallion by himself, since they were both competing for the space in her mouth. Neither would make way for the other to enter the pipe leading to her stomach, and that made it much easier to breath since there was always at least a little bit of space in the crevice between their two shafts. Applejack even used the movements they were making to her advantage by lifting her tongue and slipping into that space, and letting the two cylinders of meat roll it around as they moved in and out. With the combination of their own thrusts, the wildly moving oral organ, and the look she gave them both as her cheeks filled and deflated again and again, the two released themselves in a matter of minutes. Their combined cum blasts were so sudden and plentiful that AJ had no time to try to drink any of it before it ended up spilling out of the opening of her mouth and onto the floor.

Lacking the one advantage of having the cum poured right into her throat, the fluid threatened to go into AJ’s windpipe, and thus she had to pull away to keep from choking. Coughing, sputtering, placing her hands on the floor to keep herself from falling over as she took a few deep breaths, the rest of the cum that was in her mouth spilled out into a small puddle. The rest of what the two stallions had left in them spurted out and landed on her face, leaving their nasty gunk in the short layer of fur that covered her face. Normally her first priority would have been to wipe it off before it made a mess, but as she looked back to Twilight she saw her window of opportunity finally open.

The alicorn looked to be wrapping up her set of stallions, with two more having come to her sides to have the purple mare make good use of her hands, stroking the plump cocks vigorously while her throat and pussy continued to get pounded. The speed of every participant was beginning to rapidly increase, a clear sign that everyone was pushing themselves to climax. AJ felt this was her one chance, but she had to be quick.

Before anyone else could approach her to demand another blow job, she got to her hooves and headed over to Twilight. While a few of the remaining stallions that had been waiting were a bit irked to see her walk off, they were also curious to see what she was going to do. The last time lead to her sucking off two ponies at once, who knew what silly antics the dumb dirt mare would get herself into this time. Perhaps she was about to do something just as amusing.

The group watched as the mare brazenly walked over to her fellow Element of Harmony, coming from behind the alicorn and getting back on her knees as she positioned herself between the purple pony and one of the stallions she was masturbating. Twilight was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice that her friend’s cum-covered face had come up beside her until AJ grabbed the dick she was jerking and pulled it from her hand. It was enough of a distraction to make the alicorn aware with Applejack’s existence, the farm mare noticing a purple iris turn her direction.

She paid it no mind, and proceeded to point the newly acquired dick in her direction. With an offhanded brush across her face to push an out of place strand of blonde hair out from in front of her eye, she went to work. Tightly squeezing the meat in her hand, she could feel the heat radiating off it in this state of full erection. This hot, throbbing mass felt like a solid rod with a soft, movable coating wrapped around it, and a plumped up head that was somewhere between firm and pillowy.

Just as she had done countless times before, she moved her hands up and down the male pony’s dick, gripping it perhaps a little too strongly and moving her wrist as fast as she could manage. She didn’t really care if he was enjoying it, just that she could get him cum as quickly as possible. He didn’t seem to mind the somewhat rough treatment, or at least he didn’t say anything about the level of tenacity she was putting into this handjob. He was probably past the point of caring, lost in his own sensations, to notice anything to complain about.

Either way, she found that speed alone wasn’t cutting it. It figured, seeing how late in the night it was. This man was perhaps far past spent, having cum who knows how many times prior, and was still coming back for more. So when her hands failed, she once more resorted to her mouth. A few simple licks at first; focusing on the head while trying not to hit herself in the nose from the ferocity of her strokes. She ran her tongue over it to assure that the inflated tip got wet, the flavor of numerous other women he had fucked earlier hitting her taste buds in a mixture of sour flavors. It was revolting, but her determination made the process tolerable to her senses.

With the dick properly prepared with her saliva, AJ needed to add one last ingredient to this cocktail of sensations. Inhaling deeply, she paused her rapid rubbings for just a moment and let out a stream of hot air from her lungs onto the moistened part of his penis. Through her hand she could feel a very clear movement of throb, and a release of clear precum let her know that this was working. She took another deep breath, exhaling harder than the last time to have the hot air wash over the phallus. Again it made a strong twitch in approval, but it still held back on its load. She decided to give this method one last shot, believing that the third time would be the charm, and once more she filled her lungs while using her hands to push his penis to the point of pleasure. If he had anything left in him, this would get it out.

With a final heavy, controlled release of breath, AJ let the heat created from her body to flow over the stallion’s penis, this time the sensations pushed him over the edge and into orgasm. Several small shots of white burst from his cock, finding resistance in the air pushing in opposition to it trajectory, making it fall short of the mare’s mouth and land in splatterings across the earth mare’s chest. AJ had gotten past her obstacle, the stallion’s solid dick deflating and retreating into his sheath. The question was if she had timed it to match the mare aside her.

Thankfully, a string of male groans and garling cries of ecstasy sounded out aside her, and she knew she had hit her mark; Twilight and the stallions she was servicing had cum. AJ steered her attention to the mare, checking to see if her assumption from before was correct. As she suspected, Twilight was at the verge of complete exhaustion, hardly capable of lifting her own body after going through more men in a single evening than AJ went through in a week. When the stallion she was straddling moved out from under her body, her legs struggled to keep her upright, trembling until finally she fell over.

AJ reacted as fast as she could, and grabbed the tired alicorn before she hit the banquet hall’s marble floor. She held the sperm-soaked mare for a few seconds, making sure she hadn’t pushed herself to dangerous degrees in her pursuit of greater heights of pleasure. Twilight was taking sharp, heavy breathes that made her chest heave with every inhale, and her body had become a quivering mess of dripping sexual fluids. There was hardly a part of her that wasn’t matted in a shower of semen, with much of it spreading over to AJ while Twilight rested against her.

“She didn’t last nearly as long as she said she would,” a random stallion from the crowd said aloud, making AJ cringe a little in detest for the callous statement, “She didn’t even make it through half of us and she can hardly move.”

“That dirt mare isn’t doing much better,” said another, ”Listen to the way she’s huffing just from sucking off a few dozen guys.” AJ’s breathing had become rapid, but it wasn’t from fatigue. It was part of her plan all along to pretend to be as tired as Twilight in hopes that the stallions would leave them both alone while they recuperated, and yet that wasn’t the full reason for her labored breaths. It was mostly coming from the restriction of her building rage, her anger increasing rapidly at how the male dismissed Twilight not being able to fuck everyone at the party, pushing herself till she almost passed out again, as a failure on the alicorn’s part. AJ might not have appreciated Twilight being a red collar, but she at least understood and in some way respected the kind of effort that she had put forth to please as many men as she managed to.

“And the king said they thought they were heroes?” another random voice stated from the crowd of onlookers, “I don’t see it. If they couldn’t handle something as simple as fucking, how could they protect Equestria?”

AJ felt Twilight stir in her arms, the alicorn weakly pulling herself upright. “I can… still go on,” she declare, her tired voice barely loud enough to be heard. “I can still serve… Please… Use me.”

Bringing herself back to her knees, Twilight let her hands wander to her sensitive areas, cupping one of her tits with one and burying the fingers of the other inside her sloppy sex. She caressed and fingered her body in a way that she hoped would allure the males so they would partake of her body once more, but with each small motion came a shudder as her muscles demanded she stop, and the horny stallions could see that she was going to be a dead fuck.

“Come on,” said the one who just recently occupied Twilight’s mouth with his cock, “Let’s find some more lively females to fuck.”

The area around the alicorn became much more empty in a matter of seconds, with only a few staying close to watch Twilight’s pathetic display as they went on to the the next piece of ass they could find. The former princess eventually gave up with a soft whine, both weariness and a sense of abandonment making her aware that it would be a while before anyone would ease her undying lust. The only person who had still cared about Twilight in her defeated state was Applejack, having not moved an inch from the mare’s side.

They were not alone for long though, as there was still one more person who had at least some interest in the pair. AJ didn’t even notice as a lone caribou approached them from behind, too focused on Twilight to acknowledge anything else.

“Applejack!” The caribou said loud enough to startle both of the unsuspecting mares. The earth mare’s whole body jumped, and her head spun around to see who dared to get her attention at a time like this. It wasn’t the first person she had expected, but it was far from the last.

“Gunne…” she said coldly, her anger still simmering after the unappreciative stallions left. The caribou, knowing the mare, picked up on her attitude and sent her a cutting glare to remind her she needed to show respect to those above her status. AJ bowed her head slightly as she got the message, though she choose to interpret it as ‘you need to stay in character’. “Ah meant to say is how can Ah help ya, sir?”

The caribou shifted his eyes from the earth mare to the alicorn beside her. The purple mare was covered in sweat and jism, mane ruffled and unkempt, and looked to be half asleep. The golden headdress she had borrowed from the royal treasury was gone, perhaps removed by one of the guests and tossed aside when it started getting in the way, and her makeup was nothing but smears across her face. She was in no state to continue her duties at the moment, pushing herself beyond the point that even most red collars would willingly.

Twilight still didn’t see it that way though. “I’m sorry Master Gunne. I didn’t mean to slack off in my duties. I’ll give myself to the next stallion that passes by. I’ll treat him like a king, and I’ll-” The alicorn tried to get to her hooves as she gave her apology and made her promises, but her strained leg muscles wouldn’t permit her to do so, and she buckled under her own weight into AJ’s waiting arms.

“Your dedication is commendable,” Gunne said, permitting Twilight a bit of credit where the lust fueled stallions had not, “But that kind of dedication makes you reckless. You’ve put your all into satisfying every penis given to you, but have allowed your eagerness to please drain you completely. You have no consideration for what else is expected of you tonight, and have wasted all your energy on this when you know there is something more important you will have to do.”

Applejack could identify the shame appearing in Twilight’s eyes, “I’m sorry Master Gunne, I suppose I let my urges get the better of me…”

“You are just lucky that there is time left.” With that said, Gunne returned his gaze to the earth mare, “Applejack, take the purple one over there.” The caribou pointed to an out of the way area of the room that was about as void of guests as it could be at a party such as the gala.

“What do ya want me to do with her there, sir?” AJ asked in reply as she put Twilight’s arm around her neck and lifted the alicorn to her hooves.

“You can help her get presentable,” Gunne explained, “I’ll get some of the castle staff to bring you a few buckets of water and some rags. That should be enough of a break for the both of you,” he added with a tone of condemnation, “I saw you were huffing and puffing as well near the end.”

“T-thanks…” said AJ, suddenly aware of how long she had been watched by the caribou. As much as he had been around her in Ponyville, he might’ve know exactly how far she could push herself if she wanted, and maybe he knew that what she had done so far at the gala was nowhere near her threshold. Nonetheless, he was going to allow her some rest, and guarantee some time alone with Twilight. If she had to be honest with herself, her plan had no contingency if someone would have wanted to tear her away from her friend after it went off. This was yet another thing she would have to add to her list of ‘things she begrudgingly thanked Gunne for’.

“Just don’t try to use this as an excuse to sit on your ass for the rest of the gala,” Gunne said as he headed off in the direction where Dainn was watching his party unfold, “I’ll go tell the king that I authorized small recess for the two of you.”

That was the last thing AJ heard the caribou say before getting out of earshot, and with him gone AJ was already heading to the spot he had pointed her towards. “Come on sugarcube, you’re takin’ a breather whether ya like it or not.” Twilight could only whine in protest as she was pulled aside and away from the males who could potentially make her their fuck toy.

With Gunne having permitted a break for the two mares, AJ took Twilight to where she had been directed and waited for the supplies needed to clean the alicorn. For a while she was left standing there next to Twilight, who had taken a seat on the ground next to a marble column as she did her best to recover from what she had put herself through. The wait seemed a bit longer than needed, with what should have taken a few short minutes to get to them taking what nearly felt like a half hour. As the items arrived though, Applejack could see what had caused the delay.

A trio of black collared maid mares, a pegasus, a earth mare, and a unicorn respectively, approached the farm mare carrying buckets of water, rags, and a couple of foot high stools. Each were dressed in uniforms that were clearly inspired by caribou design, the areas around the chest and skirt cut away to expose their privates to the world and allow easy access. The outfits came with a belt that went around their waists, which then had a single metal link on either side that connected to shackles attached to their wrists.

Applejack had no doubt that the servant girls had been made to fetch the items they held themselves, and the limitations placed on their arms meant that what should have been a simple task taking mere seconds instead was a troubling ordeal taking many minutes. One of the maid's fur and clothes was clearly soaked to the core, the already revealing cloth now showing even more of the mare's body. No doubt the poor girl spilled some on herself while trying to fill or pick up the bucket. AJ could only imagine the mocking roar of laughter the poor girl had to hear on account of the "dumb mare's clumsiness." It wouldn't surprise AJ in the slightest if the maid had gotten a slap or worse on top of that, as if the humiliation alone wasn't enough.

“Hey there,” AJ said motioning them over to her, “Ah think that there stuff is for me.”

She didn’t receive much of a response, the black collars giving a united collection of hateful glares in Applejack’s direction as they had to bend down to place the items on the floor. Though even if they have been in a talkative mood, their muzzles had been bound shut with silken straps fastened with several locks that gave the overall design a sense of symmetry, aiding the aesthetic design as much as they kept the objects tightly bound around their snouts and jaws.

“Uh, thanks for helping me out here. Ah realize that it must have been awfully inconvenient with all that stuff on y’all...”

Despite their own indignant attitudes towards her, the farm mare thanked them for their help. She of course couldn't blame them for their bitterness towards her; she knew they had every right to be angry at a red collar. They must have assumed that Applejack was having the time of her life at their expense, and that their misery was partially her fault for needing these items and making their night worse than it already was. Applejack could understand that sentiment better than anyone. It seemed like only yesterday when she was in a position not too dissimilar to theirs. She also assumed that, as unwilling slaves, they didn’t receive much genuine gratitude from anyone on the castle grounds.

Two of the mares seemed to appreciate the sentiment, and their demeanor seemed to lighten up ever so slightly, but the mare covered in wet clothing only gave a scoffing grunt at the very idea that a red collar would care about their mistreatment. Perhaps Applejack’s well-meaning gratitude had come off as disingenuous to her, maybe even as if she had been mocking her miserable position? She quickly set her buckets on the floor, and then spun around to make a beeline to the exit, with the other two quickly going after her so not to be separated.

Unfortunately, this only lead to them being discovered by a rowdy group of stags who mistook them as fresh entertainment. They were snatched up and dragged away to some unseen location, muffled grunts and cries barely audible over the laughs and jeers of the caribou. Appelejack could do little more than sigh regrettably at the sight of it, and helped Twilight get onto one of the stools before taking one of her own.

Applejack noted the chill of the water that had been brought to them as she dipped her rag into one of the buckets. It wasn’t going to be pleasant for Twilight, but it was all they had to work with. The alicorn was sitting in front of her on her stool, back turned her way so that AJ had to look at those horrid wing binders, partially unaware of what was to come.

It wasn’t going to be easy looking past those things as she did this, knowing that inside were the plucked remnants of a pair of beautiful wings. To her, what the caribou did to the other races was akin to if they would bind her legs together so all she could do is crawl, or to cut off one of her hands so it would be harder to get anything done. To lose the use of your wings or have your horn removed had to be the worst thing that ever happened to a mare who had to experience it, and Twilight had experienced both.

“Brace yourself, the water’s not warm,” AJ said as she applied the wet rag to the spot in between the two restrictive shells.

Twilight gave a shiver, the chill traveling through her spine. “I’ll be okay. Nothing a good dicking won’t make me forget about.”

AJ was glad that Twilight was facing away from her for the time being. She didn’t want to have to explain why she was looking so concerned for the alicorn, and she would rather not look her in the face as she talked about sex as ‘a cure for what ails you’. Silently, Applejack moved the rag through Twilight’s grimy fur, starting the process of cleaning the mare. Now that she had gotten her friend’s attention, with no one paying much attention to them, she was having trouble figuring out where to start. Should she ask about what really happened after they got separated a year ago in Canterlot? Should she focus on the events of Ponyville? Should she just go straight to the point and in what way she believed the caribou were worthy of her loyalty when they did things that made villains they used to protect Equestria from look like saints in comparison. She knew she couldn’t cause a scene, but in a way she wanted to if it had the remote chance of bringing Twilight to her senses.

For a while she just went on cleaning the alicorn’s back, listening to her light gasps and shudders. With the added sounds of her wing stubs hitting against the padded insides of their containers, it was hard for AJ to tell the difference between these ones and the ones Twilight might give under some more subdued sexual interactions.

“Are ya okay? It doesn’t hurt when your wings try to stretch out inside those things, does it?”

“Not at all,” Twilight answered, “The lining of my wing binders are really soft.”

“They never feel... trapped in there?” AJ said, failing to come up with a better way to say what she wanted.

“They get pretty stiff when I forget about them for a while, but that’s perfectly natural for a body part you have no use for.”

AJ didn’t see anything ‘natural’ about neglecting the use of one of your appendages, but perhaps her wings weren’t that big of a deal to her. She didn’t have them too long before the invasion started and might not have been as attached to them as pegasi who had lived with them their whole lives, but her horn was what she needed to cast magic, and magic was a core part of her very being. That had to have some sort of effect on her, and thus AJ had decided on a question she wanted to ask Twilight.

She didn’t come right out with it though, she wanted to bide her time just a little to not sound like she was prying about things that shouldn’t concern her. Instead she proceeded to wash Twilight’s backside, the disturbing sounds being made by the purple mare getting worse as the farm mare went lower with her rubbing, until it came to a head with a squeal of delight as the rag brushed against the entrance to the Alicorn’s ass.

“Ah think you are clean back here!” AJ exclaimed in embarrassment, her face turning red as the joyful noise drew several onlookers. It was not lost on her that the real reason Gunne had her bathe Twilight in the middle of the party was so the men could have another spectacle, but this sudden leap in notoriety made her incredibly self-conscious. After becoming used to the party, the sensation was rather unwelcome.

Twilight turned on her stool, and presented her front side to her earth pony friend. This part had gotten it much worse than the alicorn’s back and rear. There was hardly a single spot that hadn’t been hit. Dried patches of white dyed the fur on her face, breasts, and crotch, into a pale version of her normal color, and caused the short strands of hair to clump together into unflattering masses.

This was going to be a problem AJ would have to tackle one step at a time, starting with the part that was closest to her, Twilight’s breasts. There was no need to tell the alicorn to brace herself for what was to come, and AJ could feel her press into her hand just before the rag touched the mammaries. This incited a new string of coos and gasps from Twilight, along with a range of facial contortions that conveyed how the feeling of the cold washcloth against her sensitive body parts was both discomforting and exhilarating in its own individual ways. The sensations were a bit much for though with the strain she put on her body making it sore and sensitive, and she had to clench her eyes shut to endure it all.

AJ didn’t let the sounds bother her too much, the small winces from Twilight acting as odd source of reassurance. Each one allowed the farm mare to keep believing that somewhere deep inside her friend was still there, that this was all just an act of some sort like what she was doing.

“So, Twilight…” AJ said, forcing the nervousness building up inside her to stay hidden, “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to get together like this, hasn’t it?”

“I guess it has, hasn’t it?” Twilight opened one of her eyes to look at the mare before her, “But you know that I wasn’t avoiding you on purpose. The king has been keeping me incredibly busy with all the celebrations, my re-education on how to be a proper mare, the little projects he gives me to do with other mares.”

AJ had heard of some of these projects, experiments on black collar mares delivered right to Twilight’s doorstep to test out new drugs or whatever else the caribou asked her to do. The remainder of this gave Applejack pause, but she recovered quickly. She had to try and think the best of that situation, that maybe Twilight took up that responsibility so she could minimize the damage done. Twilight was a smart pony, and would be able to tell what would go beyond the limits of the average person. Was it beyond reason to think that Twilight would use this position to help people?

“It doesn’t help that Spike likes to ream my pussy whenever he gets the slightest glimpse of it,” Twilight went on to say, “He has become very assertive, and his dick is so big I-”

“And what about the others?” AJ interrupted, drawing the line at talking about Spike’s penis, “Do they see you more than I do?”

“A little more. We mostly stay in touch with letters, but we’ve had a few playdates between my obligations. Are you feeling left out AJ? If you want I could ask the king if he’d give us all some time to catch up, and I’d love to share some intimate moments with you.”

The alicorn must have seen what she said as a segue for her and AJ to start fucking, as she lifted herself off her seat and threw herself at the earth pony. Applejack was able to keep the mare at bay with the hand she already had planted on the alicorn’s chest, and a light push was all it took to put the mare’s rear back on her stool.

“Twi, we tryin’ to get ya clean, not dirty ya up some more.” AJ reminded Twilight, glad that Gunne had given her the perfect excuse to avoid having sex with her friend.

“Sorry…” Twilight apologized, “I lost myself there for a second, but you know how hard it is for a woman to keep their mind off fucking. If we didn’t have masters we’d be at it like wild animals. That reminds me, I wonder if Fluttershy ever made it out to the gardens.”

“Can we focus on what we were ordered to do?” AJ said as she removed the rag from her friend’s breasts and dipped it into a bucket to rinse it. “I’d hate to get punished for being disobedient.”

“Of course,” Twilight said as Applejack replaced the wet cloth and vigorously scrubbed her fur, “But I want to tell you again about how proud I am that you accepted your red collar. I was beginning to get worried. It was beginning to look like you’d be a black collar forever.”

“Would that have been such a bad thing?” AJ asked, the words slipping from her mouth before she could stop them, “What Ah mean is that plenty of our friends back in Ponyville are still black collars, and Ah don’t think any different of them after Ah got mah red collar than Ah did before it.”

“Applejack, I know you are going through your transitional period, but you can’t think things like that.” The understanding, even cheerful aspects of Twilight’s demeanor vanished, “Black collars represent everything that was wrong with how things used to be. They put their wants and their needs before anyone else’s and constantly harm those around them by doing so. They deserve the punishments they bring on themselves with their selfish, reckless and, above all else, stupid actions, and if they would only listen to reason then things would be better for every- WAH!”

Twilight was so wrapped up in her lecture that she didn’t notice that something was flying towards her head until it was too late. A heavy wetness splattered across her face as her vision was obstructed. A simple reach of her hand corrected this problem, as she removed a wet rag from her person.

“If yah got enough energy to start arguing, then ya got the energy to help me clean up.”

Twilight laughed, “You’re right, but I can’t help but get irritated when I think about how much trouble all those black collars cause. If only they’d understand…”

The two mares returned to the task assigned to them by Gunne, each directing their attention to a different part of the alicorn to get things done as soon as possible. Applejack put her focus on Twilight’s head and mane, since she would be able to get up every spot of grime that the alicorn couldn’t see herself, while Twilight took care of everything from the waist down.

AJ’s part was taking a lot less time, having less surface area to cover than Twilight, with only the bits that merged together parts of the purple mare’s striped hair causing some minor issues. Twilight was keeping up with her pace for the most part, doing her best to finish as quickly as she could so she could return to her duty as a servant to the kingdom, but every so often the farm mare caught her rubbing the rough fabric she held against the soft skin of her crotch in ways that went beyond what was needed to clean it off.

Inevitably, Applejack’s washing brought her back to the topic that thought about before, the severed horn atop her friend’s head. She made several passes around the stump, not getting anywhere near the maimed unicorn appendage. Touching it seemed almost taboo, like poking an open wound. If there was any time to ask her question, it was now.

“Twi, do ya mind me asking about… this?” AJ asked, still unsure if it was appropriate to ask any unicorn about their horn.

“About what?” Twilight asked back. “Is there something on my face?” The alicorn touched around her forehead, feeling for whatever it was AJ was talking about. She touched the horn stump several times in her search, until she finally realized what Applejack was looking at. “Oh! You mean my horn.” Twilight gave the earth pony an understanding smile. “Why of course. I’m sure you’re curious about what it was like to have it cut off.”

Applejack gave a nod. When it came down to it, the horror a unicorn felt when having their horn removed was something she could never understand, but she wanted to try if she could.

“Well to answer what I think your first question is; Yes, it did hurt when it was taken off.” The earth pony’s dread was clear at this revelation, but Twilight’s smile did not waver. “Don’t worry too much about it AJ. When I submitted to our masters, I knew and accepted that losing my horn was unavoidable. It was my choice to give it up, and I see the pain I felt as the first step to having the life I knew I wanted.”

“Does… does it still hurt?” AJ asked, thinking the stump to be akin to a scar or a scab.

“Not at all. It is a bit sensitive though. I get all sorts of feelings when it’s touched.”

“What kind of feelings?” AJ had a good idea where this was heading, but she still hoped that Twilight might say something more profound.

“It’s hard to describe,” said Twilight, “I want to say ‘happiness’ or ‘contentment’, but something about those words doesn’t seem right. When I do touch it though, I get a surge of emotions unlike anything else I ever feel. Sometimes I run my finger around the edge of the stump when I masturbate, and the feeling is so powerful that… that… Well it’s completely indescribable.”

AJ didn’t want this conversation to turn into the little quirks Twilight had when she touched herself, so she steered it back on track. “But don’t cha ever miss it?”

“Miss my horn?”

“Well… that and your magic. Ya use to be so proud of all the things ya could do with it, and it helped out so much when ya could use it.” Being the element of magic, this had to hit home to her more than anything else. She had poured most of her life into studying and expanding her magical talents, and one does not just toss years of work down the drain on a whim.

“It use to cause a lot of problems too,” Twilight answered, “Remember when those parasprites ate most of Ponyville?”

“Come on Twilight, that was an accident,” said AJ, “No one ever held that against ya. You were dealing with something you didn’t know anything about.”

“That’s just it, there were plenty of times that we rushed into a situation and didn’t have the first clue about how to handle it. Dragons, diamond dogs, hydras, all it would have taken was one mistake and things could have been disastrous.”

Twilight’s logic made Applejack scratch her head. While there were times where everything didn’t go to plan, times when any one of their group caused more trouble than good for the given situation, overall it usually worked out for the best. A single mistake could have ended things horribly, but if they had backed down every time a problem arose then things would have gone for the worst long before the caribou came along. It was a cowardly outlook, and one not befitting of one of her closest friends.

“The masters say that mares have no use casting spells that could harm themselves or others, and their word is law.” The way that Twilight stated that made it seem like that was her final say about the topic, but then a smirk started to grow on her face, “Though, it’s not like I don’t think about it every now and then.”

“Ya do?” AJ asked, believing she saw a small glimmer of hope for the alicorn she could latch onto.

“Well sure. If I still had my magic, then just imagine all the good I could have done helping mares adjust to their new roles. Who knows what kind of sexual spells I could have learned. It a shame I never got to experiment with anything like that when I still had my horn.”

AJ dipped her rag in her bucket one last time and wiped her own face with it, using it to hide her disappointment in her friend. While she still unsure about her opinion, these words did more harm than good to her mental image of the mare. If only she could ask some more serious questions without raising suspicion, but anything else she could think of felt too dangerous. If everything up to this point left her with a bad feeling about Twilight, then it wasn’t safe to pry too deeply. She was just going to have to take what she was given, and hope that some day things would change for the better.

A few minutes later, the two mares had finished. Both of them had gotten as clean as they were going to without a proper bath, and the guests were not in the right mindset to nitpick any remaining spots that could have been missed.

The last thing AJ did before tossing her rag into one of the buckets and setting them aside was remove the long since ruined makeup that covered her face. Its removal bore no real significance, but it felt nice to get it off regardless. If only removing all her problems were so easy.

“Well Twilight, that’s it,” said Applejack, seeing little more reason to stall for time, “What are ya goin’ to do now?”

Twilight rose from her stool, giving a cursory glance to her surroundings. “I was thinking about grabbing a bite to eat at the refreshments table. Wanna join me?”

That was the most normal thing AJ heard Twilight say all night, but after all that was said before the farm mare couldn’t help but think that there was some ploy behind it. Not necessarily directed at her, but there could have been another motivation behind it aside from getting food. “Ah think I’m gonna wander about, see if any stallions are left that want to use me.”

“Well then I’ll catch you later,” Twilight gave a wave goodbye, and within a few feet became lost within a sea of party guests.

Applejack got up from her own stool and walked off in the opposite direction, cursing herself for her own hesitance. How was she ever going to come to a decision about what to think of Twilight if she kept avoiding the issue altogether? A part of it was her own reluctance to do something that would stain the memory of the alicorn, but she couldn’t help think how this whole event would have been different if she was a black collar. If she didn’t have this secret hanging over her that made it nearly impossible to approach anything negative about the caribou, would she be able to muster up the courage to confront Twilight directly?

Then again, would she have even been allowed that close to Twilight to begin with? Was it possible that was part caribou’s plans? Applejack still knew nothing about how or why Twilight submitted, but what if the caribou believed that she was easily influenced by external forces. While it didn’t match up to the Twilight she knew, it did align with how caribou thought of women in general: naive, stupid, and easily controlled using the slightest of manipulation. The theory could be backed up by something else too; why Applejack hadn’t had any prolonged contact with the mare in a year, only being close to her when the caribou deemed it absolutely necessary. She would love for that to be the case, that all Twilight needed was someone to set her straight, but as things were she couldn’t be the pony to do it.

As her thoughts spun around the idea, and maybe how to implement it in a way that didn’t ruin everything she and Mac had worked for, she paid little attention to where she was heading. Any direction was pretty much as good as any other, and if anyone wanted her to act as a cock cleaner all they had to do was grab her. No one was really approaching her however, the night seeming to have died down a bit as the rampant orgy was slowly coming to a close. The men were still trying their best to make the most of the party, with many still fucking anything that had a pair of tits, but they were running out of steam. Even the most sexually active male had their limits.

The other women at the party were likewise drained of their stamina; those allowed to rest at this late hour gasping with heaving chests as they took in either the blissful ecstasy of being fucked in every way imaginable till their bodies became useless from overwhelming fatigue, or the horror that came from unwillfully being put through the same experience. The only ones with any sort of energy left, and thus the only ones not lying on the floor in a heap of exhaustion or dangling limply from in bonds meant to suspend them from the ground, were mostly earth mares whose stamina exceeded that of most other pony races. They seemed to comprise the majority of those still servicing the horny males, but even they were releasing pathetic whines and giving full body tremors that denoted that they could give out at any moment.

The only others in the room that showed the same kind of resilience to this test of sexual endurance were the caribou guests. It came as no surprise, really; their culture was one built on sexual activity, and events like this one appeared to be an average day to them. Still, they were not without limits themselves. They might have been the last men standing, but each of them had had an evening of chain fucking an assortment of the sexiest mares Equestria had to offer. That they were not coughing up a lung from exertion alone was a testament to their virility, as their inability to be satisfied with what they had already done was a testament to their endless lust.

Yet AJ could see that this night was reaching its inevitable close. She had no clue how much time had actually passed since the start of it, but this purgatorial night of disgrace and humiliation would end within the hour. Then she could go home, return to her work in the fields, and do her best to put this all behind her. She believed there was nothing left that could happen to worsen this night any further for her.

Of course, fate had a way of making things turn out as they were least suspected, and even in something as carefully planned as the Gala there were surprises to be had. As Applejack continued her wondering, thinking her next course of action was to either find her brother and remain near him till she was needed by the caribou for another display of their dominance, or to seek out Gunne to ask him directly what she should be doing, she caught glimpse of something that bothered her more than she believed it should.

Several caribou had found themselves a vacant space they could use to huddle around some red collared mare, treating her with as much respect and dignity as they did any woman as they did everything in their power to ruin her insides with their shafts. Even in their exhaustion, they were relentless. The mare, bent over while standing so she could have her mouth and ass filled at the same time, was hardly given time to take breaths as the two men inside her kept making what looking to be an effort to have their dick meet somewhere in the middle of her. Of course, being a red collar, she wasn't exactly being forced into participation, and was in fact the one putting in the energy to swallow the genitals of the stag in her muzzle, cock, testicles and all.

It was lewd, revolting, and indecent on many levels for the farm mare, but also par for the course when it came to the behavior of a red. She couldn’t help but be fixated on the display of open debauchery though, the reason why escaping her and thus making her even more intrigued as with each additional hip thrust made by the caribou at her backside. Surely it wasn’t the act itself that was irresistibly drawing her to keep watching like some sort of voyeur, but something about this group of stags and their earth pony whore raised an inexplicable curiosity.

As the caribou snickered and leered at the mare’s desperate attempt to milk their fellow stags’ dicks like their cum was the only thing that gave purpose to her existence, it began to dawn on Applejack that she had seen this mare somewhere before. She couldn’t place her finger on where, but she gradually became more and more certain that was what was bothering her. The question, though, was how she knew this mare and why every instinct was telling her it was important to figure out the answer to that question. Almost as if compelled, AJ risked getting closer to the mare and the caribou surrounding her.

The mare, at first glance, was just another earth mare. She had blonde, semi-striped hair and pink fur, with a set of dark green eyes that looked like they were devoid of any real intelligence, but there wasn’t anything too distinguishing outside of that. Her body was a bit more curvaceous than most perhaps, and her breasts looked to be too large for a pony of her size, putting her in strict competition the enlarged boobs Rarity had acquired, but that could all be easily explained by the many types of female ‘enhancing’ drugs the caribou had brought with them or started making in Equestria. None of it really answered why AJ had this dreadful feeling creeping up inside her. Of course, there was one thing that could solve this here and now. Even if the mare was someone that the farm pony knew who had her body altered to a point that it was only vaguely familiar, her cutie mark would be a dead giveaway as to her identity. With no other course of action save for simply leaving, and that option never even entering AJ’s mind, she circled around the group to get a good look at her backside and that identifying mark.

The mere sight of the cutie mark gave Applejack cause to back away from the mare entirely, shock overtaking her every thought. The mark was not familiar in any way, being unlike any cutie mark she had ever seen before in her life. The mark lacked any subtlety as to what this girl’s supposed special talent was, the symbolism clear to anyone who looked upon it. The first thing anyone would note about it was the poorly drawn dick that comprised most of the image, rigid as a pole and a few veins sketched onto it to denote how erect the drawn dick was suppose to be. It’s head had a bulbous flare, and what looked to be a waterfall of sperm was pouring out of it into a set of red, feminine lips.

Such a cutie mark was not a natural occurrence, and was the markings of a mare who had been blanked. Whatever mark she had originally had been stripped from this earth pony, along with everything else that defined who she once was. With this knowledge, Applejack understood why it was that the mare’s eyes seem devoid of thought. The caribou had drained it out of her and replaced with an undying urge to have sex. As loathsome as that was alone, the farm mare couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t the most terrible thing about this. Something else still filled her with an instinctual rage that AJ just couldn’t put her finger on.

She was unable to pull her gaze away from the tragic sight that played out before her. This mare had literally been transformed into a insatiable cock slut against her will, and was being fucked relentlessly by the very kind of people she fought against to receive such a punishment in the first place. Artificial joy gurgled from her gullet each time the pathway to her throat cleared, coming out in a string of incoherent slurs and gasps for breath.

The stag reciprocated his own enjoyment by giving the blanked mare an approving pat on the head for her efforts, placing his hand down gently a few times before clenching the blonde mane and thrusting his cock forward as hard as he could down. He aided the force of his thrusting hips with the power of his muscular arm, and got as much of himself inside of her as he could, smashing her face into his abs to squeeze a few more centimeters inside her moist orifice. A groan and a burst of cum from the mare’s muzzle soon followed, making the her vacant eyes shoot wide before raising her lower eyelids up to express the happiness she was programmed to express.

The stag made a few more slow movements of the mare’s head, sliding her lips along his shaft so she could pleasure him to even greater heights as he got milked for every drop he had, all the while his associate at the the earth pony’s backside refusing to relent his own piston thrusts. The utter violation of the blanked mare’s holes only ceased when the stag’s own biology took over, and retracted his cock into the flesh sheath on his crotch as it deflated from erection. The mare, however, didn’t want her visitor to leave, and tried to follow after it with her tongue. She licked and lapped at the hole that hid the dick her altered mind told her she craved, whining as she failed in her struggle to get it to come out.

“Please Mahster,” the mare croaked out, the odd way she said that word making Applejack’s ear twitch, “Give Sperm Slurper have more! She need more cummy in her tummy, it tastes so -GGGAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!”

The mare’s left eye spasmed, her body tensing every muscle as she clung tightly to the stag she sucked off. The other stag had finally reached climax, and the feeling of his hot cum pouring inside allowed the mare to do the same. Applejack could only describe what the mare was going through as agonizing bliss with how unnaturally her smile grew and stretched till it seemed she might tear her lips, her irises turning up into her skull and straining themselves to try to vanish completely. Occasionally she made a small twitch, a momentary twist of her spine, a flick of her leg, or a shudder of her head, creating a gruesome depiction of what happened when one’s own body was turned into a prison of pleasure.

The caribou pulled himself out of her vagina before it could retract on its own, and the blanked mare’s entire back half collapsed as if it had been the only thing supporting her, buckling her legs so that she was forced to sit on them as she remained latched to the caribou in front of her. “Peeaa…. mooorrr” her words became heavily slurred, her limply hanging tongue getting in the way of her own lips while attempting to plead for more of the pleasure that was wracking her body beyond its limits. “AAAAhhhhh neeeeeeeee eeeettttt…..” When the mere pleading for cock didn’t seem enough to entice the caribou, the earth pony weakly bounced her body as much as her tired muscles would allow, getting just enough momentum to get her oversized breasts to jiggle from use of gravity. As more desperation set in, she started to wiggle her tail, and shake her rump in one final attempt to convince the caribou that she was worth at least one more fucking, and thus momentarily ease her undying lust.

“I’ll give you more, you filthy rebel cunt,” said a new caribou that stepped up to the task of continuing this sadistic session of sex with the blanked mare. He took hold of her mane as the other released it, preventing her from falling to the floor and aiming her towards his crotch.

“Yeeeeeeaaaaaa- gurk,” Her final announcement of overflowing elation was cut off by the caribou’s member making its way down the used meat pipe of her throat.

Another caribou soon joined the first, and brought her now dangling arms together behind her back so he could lift her up again. He then took the base of her tail with his other hand, positioned her rear, and used the grip he had on her two appendages so he could make a full powered thrust into her cum filled pussy and begin anew with what had just made the mare collapse. She couldn’t even stay upright on her own accord, but the caribou saw it fit to continue their sexual assault on her limp form.

AJ remained frozen, stuck watching this punishment performed on a mare who had the knowledge of what crime she committed removed for some time now. In fact, Applejack knew how long this mare had been reduced to this repugnant state, as it finally hit her why this mare in particular had flooded her with a combined sense of anger, fear, and now self loathing. This blanked mare was her cousin, Apple Dumpling, one of two relatives she had who had been blanked for rebelling against the caribou, the same ones that Gunne accused AJ of being responsible for since her resistance acted as a spark for their own. What had finally tipped her off was the recognition of her cousin’s voice, and the slight country accent that slipped out a bit more in her pleas.

The farm mare could feel her heart sink more and more with each thrust the two men made into her cousin, the guilt of seeing the result of her own actions becoming unbearable. The knowledge of the blanking alone had caused her go against her own morality for the sake of letting something like this never happen again, but seeing it in person was nearly enough to cripple her.

“Man, these blanked sluts sure know how to suck a dick,” the caribou in Dumpling’s mouth said aloud, “She’s almost comatose, and she’s treating my shaft like it’s a water feeder.”

“Her cunt is still squeezing mine cock like a vice too,” said the other, “I’ve haven’t ever had a mare this well trained before, it makes me wonder why we don’t just blank the lot of them.”

“Oh come on, you want to take all the fun out of this?” replied another stag from the small group, “Sure, having your penis professionally milked is great, but these blanked bitches are boring when compared to breaking a black collar. We have enough cows that worship our dicks like this one, but hearing those pony sluts scream when you pin them down and stick it in is the best.”

“You mean like this?” The caribou at Dumpling’s backside said back, removing his fluid covered shaft from her wet pussy so he could shove it into her tight ass. The hole must have been under used, as the stretching of her hole brought about the scream he said it would from her half-conscious state, muffled and filled with a combination of suffering and satisfaction.

“You’re right, it is more fun to watch those stupid cunts cry and squirm. Would be a shame to lose that. Maybe we could figure out some sort of black collar breeding program. I’m sure the king would love it.”

Applejack wasn’t sure if the caribou were even aware, or even cared, she was listening in on them as they mocked at the mare’s plight. To them, this was the proper fate of any who mare who dared to defy their rule, to eventually turn them into a creature who desired, no craved, the abuse they offered by force when their conditioning didn’t take. Yet they themselves supported the continuance of the bad behavior because they found sport in taming mares and torturing them for their transgressions. The very notion was hypocritical in nature, and only served to give them an excuse to serve out their torment in the form of ‘disciplinary actions’.

She of course always knew that the caribou’s methods and ideals were cruel, vile, and above all else evil, but this pushed the boundaries of reason. To hear how these caribou were glad to have black collars stay black collars, to let them continue to live life day by day in pain, and even wished to spread that torment for generations to come, when ones like Gunne had always pushed the concepts of submission and servitude being the natural state of all females, appeared to contradict the very ideology that their race on the whole preached. It was possible that it was just something confined to this group alone, but AJ didn’t care. If one caribou approved of such barbarism, then they all might as well be guilty of it.

As her rage built up inside, Applejack began to question if what Gunne had convinced her of months ago in Sweet Apple Acres was true. Even if she had been a red collar before, or had simply cowered in the wake of the caribou’s rule like some other black collars did, would this outcome have been any different? Was it truly right to blame herself for what happened to her cousins when they were doing what they felt was right, what they probably would have felt if AJ had been removed from the equation entirely?

The answer she inevitably came to was ‘no’. As close as the Apple family was, as much as any of her cousins and siblings might have looked up to her and been proud of her actions as an Element of Harmony, she had no more influence over them than anyone else. Her extended family hadn’t suddenly started going on adventures and fighting monsters before the fall on some fool notion of emulating Applejack’s exploits, and her immediate family were more than willing to stay home at the farm and live out their normal pony lives despite sometimes being dragged into the situations she had to face with her friends. She was so willing to blame herself for her own failure that she never put any real thought into it until now, and now that she determined that her immediate submission wouldn’t have changed a thing there was only one party to blame for what had become of Apple Dumpling: the caribou.

With her self doubt starting to fade, something else began to grow, and she found herself walking right for that group of caribou. She was determined to put an end to what they were doing. She didn’t have a plan, and she knew attacking them would be fruitless, but something inside her told her if confronted the caribou everything would be okay. Some would call what she felt foolishness, but she preferred to call it courage.

However, whatever would have happened should she had made it up to that group wasn’t meant to be, as a heavy tug at her neck caught her off guard. She was pulled back a few steps, her leverage stolen as her back and shoulders got ahead of her hooves, and was cut off from Apple Dumpling and the caribou around her, the body of a caribou much larger than any of them blocking her view.

“Not so fast, little apple slut,” said Ivangir as he stood in the way of her objective. Applejack made a few attempts to get away, but the grip Ivangir held on her seamless collar was too strong, “I know you can’t wait to gargle down another gallon of cum, but you’ve had your fun for tonight. Now it’s my turn.”

Applejack couldn’t believe it. The first time in months she decided to do something she felt was right for change, and Ivangir picked it as an opportune moment to assert his authority. She wanted to hit the caribou to get him out of her way, but while there was a slim chance confronting her cousin’s rapists could bring about some kind of good result, fighting Ivangir at this moment seemed like it would only end poorly.

“Lord Ivangir...” she said, willing her not to say his title with sarcasm, “Can Ah please have just a few more minutes to mahself. Ah have to take care of somethin’.”

Ivangir let go of the farm mare’s collar, but not before taking her by the wrist so he could give a show of his power over her. He lifted his arm up, and with her the mare’s own until she was made to stand on her tippy hooves. “Yes, you have. Me.”

The caribou gave no time for AJ to even try to explain what she wanted to do with the time she was requesting, setting her back on the floor and dragging her away from from Apple Dumpling. She looked back one more time, and caught the group of caribou giving one last hurrah as the two fucking Apple Dumpling came simultaneously. Once they finished shooting what they had left into the mare’s unresponsive body, they both pulled out and allowed her to fall to the ground in a pool of sperm that had formed beneath her. They had gotten what they wanted from the blanked mare, and thus with no more use for her, walked away as she convulsed and leaked sexual fluids out both ends.

It equally infuriated and saddened the farm mare that she couldn’t do anything to help her relative, and filled her with one last important question. If other mares were going to be tortured, brainwashed, and discarded so flippantly as was displayed here, regardless of her own actions, were the benefits of pretending to submit really worth the cost?