Applejacked, ch8: Epilogues and teasers

Canterlot Castle was a large edifice filled with vacant spaces few ponies other than the cleaning staff ever visited. Even though it had been built after Luna had been banished to the moon it had been constructed to hold two entirely separate royal courts, the day court and the night court.

Despite having her own designated dwelling Luna had declined to move into her section of the castle. Instead she took a suite of rooms in her sister’s section. The idea of rattling around in a mostly vacant part of the castle had held little attraction to her after her return from banishment. Eventually she knew she would accumulate staff and need the extra space but for the time being it was unnecessary and she far preferred to minimize the distance between her and Tia.

Now Luna had a good reason to make use of that largely vacant section of the castle.

Keeping the existence of her sister’s condition a secret from Equestria in general, and the government in particular, was absolutely vital. The chaos that would result if they were to find out that the pony who had lead them for three thousand years was no longer capable of doing so did not bear thinking of.

Dis and Jot, her sister’s personal guards had whisked Tia to the suite of rooms that had been set aside for when Luna eventually decided she wanted to make use of her personal court. They were clean and fully supplied. The linen on the beds was changed weekly and the small pantry and kitchen kept stocked with non-perishable snacks.

Luna stood next to one of the massive beds that were provided with the suite looking down at the teenage earth pony laying on top of the covers The pony was dressed in Celestia’s dress, which enveloped her like a blanket. The young pony had a soft golden hide, the color of a perfect summer day, and her mane and tail were russet with streaks of darker gold. She was exquisite but except for the dress there was nothing that would make anyone think she was the Princess of the Sun. Which in truth, seeing as she was no longer an alicorn, she was not.

The change had been anticipated, along with several other possibilities, many of them far more dire than the current one. The truly puzzling thing to Luna was why Tia was an earth pony. Her sister had been born a unicorn and in this case the loss of her alicorn magic should have returned her to that state.

As if she was reading Luna’s mind Dis, the unicorn guard blurted out, “I don’t understand. Why did the princess change,” This earned her a disgusted look from her partner, Jot the pegasus, for her lack of control.

Luna was not usually one to talk merely to fill a silence but she felt the need to explain, if only to take her mind off of the reality in front of her for a few moments and her fear that Tia might never wake up. “You need several things to become an Alicorn,” she said in a detached tone of voice. “The first is the blood of all three pony races. That was very rare when my sister and I were born. Secondly to perform some act of great will, courage, or skill, in order to attract the attention of an orphan mana cluster.”

Seeing the puzzled looks that last statement got from the two guards, Luna explained. “No pony knows for sure just where Mana clusters come from. Starswirl the Bearded speculated that when a god fades away or dies their magic often remains. A cohesive collection of magic with a limited amount of self-awareness. In the early days every tribe had their own gods, sometimes hundreds of them. As those earlier tribes formed into larger groups and nations many of those gods were no longer needed or remembered and they faded away, leaving only the magic that had once given them form.

“The theory goes that It is possible to attract the attention of such an energy collective by resonating with some aspect of the original owner. It takes a pony with a very powerful will to do so.”

Luna paused, her face twisting into a grimace of remembered pain. “The last requirement is the ability to survive attracting that attention. It is why my sister spent so much effort preparing Princess Twilight for her ascension.”

Luna sighed at the mention of her sister. “It was the loss of her mana collective that did this to my sister. My sister, foolishly, allowed a geis, a magical contract, to be attached to her source energy. If she violated the conditions, in this case using her magic outside of Equestria, it caused the dispersal of that energy. She is now as she was the day she first ascended to Alicorn status.” Luna saw no reason to complicate the issue by mentioning Tia’s former unicorn nature.

“Will she recover?” Jot asked anxiously, and then flushed at her temerity.

“She will die,” Luna said flatly. Both guards looked stricken. Luna waited a moment before continuing so that they would for at least a moment understand her pain “In another seventy or eighty years.”

“But that’s--” Dis started to say, but was cut off by Luna.

“A normal pony lifespan. I will have her for a scant handful of years more and then I’ll lose her, forever.”

“No you won’t,” the young earth pony said suddenly, her eyes popping open and a slightly manic grin appearing on her face. All three ponies surrounding her bed startled backward slightly at her sudden resurrection, and the expression on her face.

“Tia?” Luna asked. Her mind filled with questions caused by her sister’s statement.

“It worked, Luna. It actually worked. I’m so sorry I couldn’t tell you. The odds were so slim, but it worked. It really did,” Celestia babbled, her words coming a mile a minute while if anything the wild look in her eyes increased.

“Yes Tia. We know. Applejack is safe and with her brother now.” Luna said, keeping her voice in the talking to crazy people range.

For a moment the young pony on the bed looked puzzled, then her expression cleared as she raised herself up so she was kneeling on her bed. “I knew that, sister. It was a very close thing, but for some reason King Duneyrr had attached some form of jewelry to Applejack that allowed me to sense her far more easily than I otherwise would have been able to.”

Tia, acting very much like the young teenager she now appeared fairly bounced on the bed from impatience as she continued. “That’s not what I meant. My magic! It wasn’t dispersed as we feared it would be! Duneyrr’s trap collected and contained it! All I have to do is get to it and I can re-absorb it. I can restore myself. Best of all I will no longer have the restriction of the geis holding me back. That means I’ll be able to operate with impunity in Caridoon.”

For a moment Luna didn’t understand fully what her sister was saying. She just felt a sense of relief that her sister was not going to be taken away from her anytime soon. Then the full implication of Tia’s words hit her. Anger at her sister for not letting her in on this part of her plan, no matter how slim the chances of success had been, flooded through her. She’d been eating herself up with anticipated grief ever since Tia had revealed her intentions. For nothing. A grim faced Luna suddenly remembered the promise she had made to her sister the day before.

“Ladies, would you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes?” Luna said to the two guards.

While Luna’s request was voiced as a question neither guard was under any illusion that they had any choice in the matter. Luna turned to her sister and asked, “Tia do you recall what I promised to do to you for forcing me to accept this stupid plan?

As the two guards hastily left the room they heard princess Celestia cry out. “Luna, what are you doing? Luna, no, you can’t.”

“Oh, do you really think so? I think I can, Tia. Let’s see which of us is right.”

Just as the door closed behind the two guards they heard the distinctive sound of an open palm splatting against a bare ass cheek followed by a cry of pain and mortification.

“Was that okay?” Dis asked. “Leaving Princess Celestia alone with her? Princess Luna looked pretty mad.”

“Think, Dis. What did they tell us at the academy about getting into the middle of a domestic dispute when there was no obvious risk to life or limb?”

Dis thought for a moment, and then tentatively said, “Don’t?”

“Exactly,” Jot said.

Dis was more than familiar enough with her partner to detect that Jot was repressing serious annoyance, and a certain amount of satisfaction. Thinking about how devastated she herself had been for the last hour; something she would have been spared if only the Princess of the Sun had been more open about what she intended, Dis found that she was not as sympathetic as she might have been in regard to Princess Celestia’s current plight.

“You idiot,” Lord Rasmus railed at his father as the much older Unicorn sat in his throne with an ice pack held against the base of his newly blackened horn. It had been two days since he had hauled his father’s sorry ass out of ‘that’ room. Neither he nor any other male had been in it since.

“What are you going on about, Rasmus? And, please, do try to keep it down.”

“I’m going on about you making your big score, and costing us everything. We’ve lost the farm pony. Caridoon is shut off from the outside world for who knows how long. And to top off this shit sandwich the magic you did manage to steal is useless. It rejected you. It rejects everyone.” He looked at his father’s blackened and distorted horn with loathing as he said this. “Don’t even think of asking me to try and access it after what it did to you,” Rasmus added, gesturing toward his father’s deformed horn. “And don’t ask me or any other male to enter that room again.” Rasmus shuddered. Things happened to males who entered that place. Terrible things.” He squirmed in memory of the wedgie he had received while dragging his father out. He’d been picking linen out of his ass crack for hours afterwards.

“Rasmus, Rasmus. Why is it you can never see the big picture. This is why none of your plans extend beyond getting your hands on the next interesting slave girl to debauch.”

“Father, father. How about letting me in on the big picture for once,” Rasmus mocked the king.

“All you have to do is look at what we have accomplished. We have taken the abomination out of the picture. She was the only true obstacle to our goals. Maybe we can’t use the magic, But she can’t either. That is, if she even survived the loss of such a large proportion of herself.”

Rasmus looked disgusted. “You act like this was all part of some grand scheme of yours. I think you’re just claiming credit for whatever happens and trying to make it all seems like it’s all going according to plan.”

“Really? Do you remember that tale I told you about the last major gryphon war? The one where they ate Celestia’s diplomatic representatives?”

“Of course. I don’t know why you insisted on telling it to me. Or insisting I throw it in her face during our first meeting. The whole thing was a waste of good female flesh. They should have made the mares their bitches and spent the next dozen years filling them with gryphon sperm instead of filling their bellies once.”

“Quiet. You wanted to know if I really plan in the long term. What would you say if I told you the entire revolution came about after one of my representatives slipped a little something into the aerie master’s drink, and a few words into the ear of his main opponent?”

“I’d call bullshit. What could you possibly gain from that?”

“I could scare the crap out of every country that surrounds Equestria. I could make their leaders more than interested in a proposal that the abomination neuter her ability to use her magic outside her country. A proposal they acted on, and the foolish abomination, who was filled with self-loathing at the time, agreed to. That all led to this point in time when she activated that magical contract by using her magic inside Caridoon. The result of which was the total loss of her power, and my gaining it. That is what long range planning can do for you.”

“So why all the other schemes and plans when you had this perfect plan in motion?” Rasmus said sarcastically.

“Because anyone of them might have worked, and given us an even greater advantage. Just as the war I instigated with the Gryphons could have resulted in a lucky arrow taking the abomination out of the picture. Never put all your eggs in one basket. Never rely on just one grand throw of the dice winner take all because if you throw craps you lose it all. Even now, other moves I put into action decades ago are coming into play to take advantage of the abomination no longer being on the throne. Even with that bitch of a sister back in the picture the populace will be desperate for a strong leader they can trust.”

“Yes. What about the sister? I never met her, but the ponies who dropped by my suite to screw my slave girl were scared to death of her. According to them she’s not nearly as nice as her sister.”

“Oh she is a nasty piece of work. No mistake about that. But I have a little trump card all ready for that little slave slut. Something she won’t be expecting until I slip it around her neck and reclaim my property.”

“And what is that?”

“A collar woven from her own tail and mane hair, and soaked in her blood and sexual juices. With caribou and zebra magic woven throughout it. Once it’s around her neck she’ll be mine again. And this collar she won’t find so easy to shred.”

“And how are you going to get it on her? She’s in Equestria, and we’re trapped here in Caridoon for the next fifty or more years.”

“Oh, please. I have her sister’s magic. She’s an alicorn and she’s motivated. We just scared the crap out of her. There is no way she can just let that slide. I expect it will be less than a decade before she cracks the barrier trapping us all in this valley like an eggshell.”

The rather dour expression on Duneyrr’s face turned almost gleeful. “Unlike her sister, she won’t hesitate to charge right in without looking. With an army right behind her unless I miss my guess. They’ll have to go through the entire country to get to us. And is so doing they’ll face all the other tribes along the way. The ponies from Equestria won’t hesitate for an instant in attacking such evil wicked monsters. And just like that, all those tribes that despise us will be our new best friends. And just about that time Caridoon’s magic will start affecting Luna’s troops. If she’s stupid enough to bring in a mixed gender army most of her stallions will be raping the females before the first week is out. Making them easy prey for our new allies.

Luna is much like you. She’s going to think my trap room is my only ace. That if she comes cross-country at me she’ll be safe. Believe me, I have plans for that proud beauty she won’t see coming until after I’ve slipped my collar around her neck.

“And when that happens all those mercenaries that have been eating us out of house and home will march into an Equestria made defenseless by the loss of most of their army and make it mine. If those seeds I gave you have had a chance to mature, it will be all the easier. Any pony who’s eaten the fruit from those trees will already be a victim of Caridoon’s curse.”

Duneyrr smiled in satisfaction. “It’s all coming together. After centuries of planning I’ll finally correct the mistake my father made when he didn’t drown my mongrel of a half-sister at birth.” At Rasmus’s puzzled expression he laughed.

“That’s right. I never did tell you. The abomination is, or was, my half-sister. The viper that father took away from her earth pony hovel and brought into our very home when she was born a unicorn. The traitor who betrayed the Unicorn tribe after she manifested as the abomination.”

Rasmus could only stare at his father, not sure if he was being fed yet another line of total bullshit, or if what Duneyrr was saying was the actual truth.

“Is something the matter, Princess Luna?” Applejack asked. “You look a little green. Was I being too blunt?” Applejack had been talking with the princess for over two hours, going over her experience in Caridoon. Not just what had happened to her, but everything she had observed. She was embarrassed to realize she might have gotten a bit too explicit in her descriptions. She was a farm pony after all. Certain realities of life were common place for her. But the princess was, well a princess.

“No. No at all. I’ve found your information most informative. It must have been something I ate. My stomach just turned over for some reason. What about you? You look a bit flushed. Maybe it was the tea?”

Applejack was feeling a bit heated, and not just around the face. Reliving her experience had proven more stimulating that she was comfortable remembering. Especially as she tended to remember all her fantasies about her brother while discussing the events that had caused them. Not that she’d confessed using him in that way to the Princess. It was just that for the last two nights she’d had dreams where he featured prominently. No doubt caused in part because of what she knew he was getting up to with his own little personal sex-slave in the bedroom next to hers, thanks to walls that were not quite as thick as maybe they should have been.

And hadn’t that been a kick in the gut, to find out her girl-shy big brother had not only acquired a sex-slave but had every intention of keeping her. Well, that wasn’t the surprising part. He’d always been a sucker for injured Everfree critters. She wasn’t surprised he’d taken the waif like doe under his arm. What was shocking was that he was having sex with her. Loud, violent, frequent sex. That Applejack would never have believed possible.

Applejack would have liked to lie, to blame her flushed appearance on the temperature in the room, but it went against her inherent personal honesty. Besides, if anyone would not hold dark impulses against her, it would be the princess.

“No, twernt the tea, Princess,” Applejack said. “The truth is… well, the truth, I sort of get a bit excited remembering some of it.” She wasn’t just flushed now she felt like her face was about to catch fire. “They slipped me some sort of a drug while I was there and I guess it ain’t worked it’s way out just yet.”

“Interesting. Especially given what I’ve been reading in your medical report,” Luna said mildly.

Applejack was happy that the princess didn’t seem disgusted by her confession. But then she parsed what Luna had just said. “Mah medical report?” Applejack asked, feeling a sudden dread. The doctors here at the castle had poked and prodded every where she’d been poked and prodded in Caridoon, and then some. “Have they all found something wrong?” she asked in a voice laced with worry.

“It’s hard to say. They found enzymes in your body fluids they’ve only seen twice before. Bother, your brother’s… friend, has them as well. You may have noticed that Bother is a bit enthusiastic about physical contact?”

She’d screw a snake if it stood still long enough, was what Applejack wanted to say, but she settled on a wry, “Yeah, I’ve noticed she’s a might enthusiastic about doing the nasty with Big Mac.”

Thinking about those two, Applejack gave silent thanks that her big brother was more discreet than the males back in Caridoon and didn’t bend the horny little thing over the nearest object whenever the urge took him but went off to do whatever he and Bother did in private. Remembering that made Applejack think about what Luna had said, and her eyes widened. “Hold on, are you all saying these ensign things is making me hot to trot? Putting me into heat? It ain’t a drug?”

“Enzymes. And the doctors are not saying that just noting their presence. It is likely those chemical traces are not directly responsible, if anything at all is. They may merely be evidence of whatever is actually causing your condition.” Luna gave a sigh of frustration. “As you may have noticed, Doctors tend to dislike making definite statements of fact.

“But, from my interview with Bother, and now with you, it is clear that the males in Caridoon seem to have an unusually high sexual drive. Brother firmly believes that if a male does not get sexual relief several times a day he’ll suffer severe discomfort. That might just be her own indoctrination but from your own story it seems there might be some justification for her believing that. It is possible that living in Caridoon, eating the food, being affected by its magic, might be the reason for how they behave. It seems unlikely this could only affect the males. Therefore it is only logical to think that females would be affected in some way as well.”

Applejack wasn’t sure how to take that. On the one hand, it had been sort of a relief to be able to blame being constantly horny on some outside force. In this case a drug. But if it wasn’t a drug but something that was now a part of her now, was it ever going to get better? Or, would it only get worse? Did females in Caridoon have to have sex? Like the males did? “Does this mean I’ll get sick if I don’t get a regular dose of dick?” Applejack blurted out.

With great reluctance, Luna confessed,” That is a possibility I’m afraid. We have no way of knowing for sure, until you do or don’t suffer such ill effects. For now all I can tell you is to be aware of the possibility and how it might affect you when you’re around males you find attractive. You might consider finding yourself a coltfriend, or two, to take the edge off.”

A few days before Applejack would have felt outrage at being thought of as the sort of pony who’d keep more than one stallion on her leash, and only for the sex. Now she just winced as she imagined the months to come. Her all alone on the farm with nothing but her latest toy for company while next door in his room Big Mac was sticking his dick in Bother anywhere it would fit. Having a few stallions around to scratch her itch didn’t seem so shameless all of a sudden. Too bad there were no males in Ponyville that came anywhere close to matching Big Mac in terms of desirability, or potential.

“While we’re on the topic. I should likely talk about Big Mac,” Luna said.

Applejack gaped at the princess, for just a moment thinking the princess was talking about him in the context of a potential coltfriend. As if she already wasn’t walking on eggshells around him. Applejack quickly realized that couldn’t be the case. Could it?

To Applejack’s relief Luna point had nothing to do with using Big Mac as a source of her personal relief, as she explained, “This is a delicate subject but you do need to know about it. You know we intended; if it were necessary, for Big Mac to go to Caridoon and select an owner for you. In this case a male who would have accompanied him on the trip for that very reason. Unfortunately I decided that Big Mac would not be able to make the trip successfully given his mental state at that time. His shyness around mares is well known to anyone who has spent more than five minutes with him. Such an attitude in Caridoon would not make him many friends and he would have needed at least the respect, if not the friendship, of the males there to have any chance of saving you.

For that reason my sister and I were against allowing him to make the trip. Instead we merely intended to use his going there as a delaying tactic while we devised another means of rescuing you.” Luna’s face twisted in an an angry scowl. “In the end it didn’t even work as we intended, which was to force the King and Rasmus to keep their hands off of you. Well, I don’t have to tell you that.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Applejack, her tone filled with loathing for the oath-breakers who had violated her. “But, what about Big Mac?”

“Well, after we made it clear why a decent stallion would fare badly in Caridoon he followed me to my room and asked if there wasn’t something I could do to make him more suitable for the role.”

“Ah knew it. Ah knew there had to be some reason he was suddenly so frisky,” Applejack burst out.

“Yes. Well. Clearly you’ve guessed that I agreed to help him. Your brother is a very strong stallion with a very aggressive nature when his passion is roused. I think you can remember that incident from when he was working part time for Filthy Rich?”

Applejack flushed, remembering the six stallions who had tried to gang-rape her and what her brother had done to them. It had been terrifying seeing her brother lose it like that. But knowing it was all for her had fueled many a dream in the years since that incident. “Yeah, I can remember. “He took them apart like they weren’t nothing but a bunch of horseflies.”

“That incident, and the emotions it roused, scared your brother, and made him afraid of his own strength and what he might do to a mare if he got too excited. I helped him remove those barriers. I can assure you he no longer has any hesitation in that regard.”

“You don’t have to tell me. I’ve seen the way that little doe looks when she comes out of his bedroom,” Applejack said. “she looks like she was rode hard and put up wet,” she didn’t bother to add, and looked like she enjoyed every inch of it, the little slut.

“The problem is that a pony’s mind is not something you just fiddle with casually. I helped your brother remove mental blocks he had put up himself. I can’t simply replace them with one’s I’ve created. That would be a form of mind control. And not justified. Big Mac is still himself. He still loves his family. He still has a kind soul.

“But your brother no longer fears his sexuality and he’s unlikely to ignore any mare who waves her tail in his face trying to get a reaction from him. This would be bad enough if her intent was to actually bed him, but if her intent was to merely tease, she could find herself in trouble. You might want to keep an eye on him once you get back to the farm. I think Bother will do a good job of keeping him from going looking for mares. And I don’t think he’d actually rape anyone. Still, you might want to make sure he does not spend time alone with a mare you think might lure him into action he might regret later. At least until he’s had time to adjust to his new unrestrained urges.”

Applejack couldn’t help herself. Her mind wandered to all the times on the farm she could expect to be alone with her brother. Would he care if she was his sister? Would he be like the males in Caridoon? Would all she be to him was just be a convenient set of holes to sink his cock into? She hated the way that idea lodged in her brain as if it was something to be anticipated instead of dreaded.

“Applejack?” Luna said loudly, and the farm pony realized the princess had been trying to get her attention for a few moments.

Applejack shook off her dazed expression and returned from the place her imagination had suddenly sent her. “Right, right. I’ll keep an eye on Big Mac,and make sure he’s never alone in the barn with some cock-hungry mare. Less I’m sure she can handle what he’s got to dish out,” she couldn’t help adding.

Shaking her head to dispel her current thoughts, Applejack gave Luna a serious look. “I got one right important question, Princess. Are you going to let them git away with what they did? I ain’t asking for myself,” She hastily added. “I wouldn’t want any ponies getting themselves hurt maybe even killed on my account. But those bastards were aiming at Princess Celestia the whole time. And they got her, sort of. I reckon there ain’t no way you’re going to let that stand.”

Luna didn’t speak for a few seconds. She just looked at Applejack as if measuring her. At last she gave a nod and said. “I won’t ask you to conceal what happened to you from your friends. What you tell them is up to you. But I would ask that you keep this aspect of the situation from them. Yes. I am going to retaliate. But I wish most strongly to avoid using Twilight and your friends as part of it. I can think of no way we can send any pony into that country and not have them be infected with the same condition you now suffer from.”

“But I already got that,” Applejack broke in. “Seems selfish for me to stay home safe when some other pony who ain’t yet caught a case of the hornies goes and gets it. You can count me in. When you decide where and when, you just let me know and I’ll be there.”

“I have already considered that point.” Luna said. “When my plans are made, I will give you a chance to be a part of it. If you still wish to at that time.”

“Oh, you can bet your last bit I’ll be still wanting a chance to kick some evil unicorn horn,” Applejack promised Luna with a grim look on her face.”

Big Mac sat nervously in his chair across from Princess Luna, afraid to move in case the fragile looking thing should splinter under his butt and drop him onto the floor.

“So, you see, Big Mac. While we can’t be sure, it is possible that your sister has been infected by whatever it is in Caridoon that makes the males so sexually aggressive. She has the same enzymes in her body fluids as Bother. We don’t think females in Caridoon have to have sex, but we’re not sure,” Luna said. The princess’s expression turned thoughtful and she suggested, “You could try not having sex with Bother for a week or so and see how she reacts?”

Big Mac winced. “Poor little bit be sure I was about to get rid of her if I did that, begging the princess’s pardon. Even if I explained why I don’t reckon it would make much difference. Tell the truth, Princess. I’m a might afraid of what she might do to convince me to keep her if I cut her off to that way.”

“I understand. Well, all I can say is keep an eye on your sister. I don’t like to suggest this, but if she shows signs of being desperate for sex maybe you could find a suitable male to scratch her itch? One who wouldn’t hold her need for rough sexual play against her.”

“Wait, what?” Big Mac exclaimed, as his mind tried to deal with two separate issues. One that he pimp out his sister, and the other that she’d need less than gentle loving if he did so.

“Ah, sorry, I hadn’t covered that with you yet. There has been some speculation that because of the sort of sex she experienced when the magic were introduced into her body it is possible she has imprinted on that sort of sex and will crave more of it. Please understand. It’s not her fault. Based on what scanty information we have it seems that whatever or whoever created Caridoon, they made sure the prisoners would be distracted from anything other than sex. Make love not war taken to the extreme.”

Big Mac didn’t really hear Luna’s last few sentences. His mind was far away, in the barn back home, standing behind his sister who was bent over a pile of hay bales, her shorts pulled down around her ankles as he lined his cock up on her drooling sex.

“Mac? Big Mac?”

“Ah, sorry. Was just trying to think if I know any male who’d be suitable,” Big Mac babbled, while shifting in his seat in an attempt to ease the tightness in his pants.

To distract himself from the images that kept trying to push into his head he asked, “Are you going to let them git away with what they did, to Applejack, and the Princess?”

“No, and I assume that you will want to be part of any retaliation I mount?. Even if the result would see you infected with the same condition as Bother and you sister?”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac said without a moment's hesitation.

Luna sat back in her chair after Big Mac had left and let out a sigh. “Well, that’s all I can do for them. Outside of out and out ordering them to screw each other till they can’t walk straight to get it out of their system.”

Sometimes having to hold what she learned in dreams totally confidential was a pain. It would have been so much easier to bring both ponies together and tell them. “Look, for the last two years I’ve been back all either one of you has been dreaming about is screwing each other senseless. Get yourself a room and get it out of your system for Equestria’s sake.”

Luna gave a sigh, and turned her mind to something far more important, in that it had potential consequences that could affect all of Equestria. Applejack had never asked her who besides Bother had the telltale enzymes. Saving Luna from having to confess that it was herself.

She’d had herself tested the moment the report on Applejack crossed her desk. And, just as she had feared, the telltale trace was there.

That could potentially be very bad. Or on the other hand, it might actually be a good thing. The evidence for both possibilities came from the same source. The Elements of Harmony had clearly not been able to purge the effects of being in Caridoon from her system. Which meant that there was no cure possible. But, if you looked at it another way. The Elements had not purged it because they had not seen it as anything corrupting and evil in its own right. In addition, it did not seem to be sexually transmitted. Despite how often Mac had seeded Bother in the last three days he showed no sign at all of the contamination. That was something she planned to have monitored to see if it changed.

Luna wasn’t actually positive the enzymes had any real effect other than proving a female had spent time in Caridoon. True the only three known carriers all had what normal ponies would call perverted sexual inclinations. But Bother was raised in Caridoon culture and Luna knew from Applejack’s dreams that she’d had such inclinations long before she’d been kidnapped. As for herself. While it was true she hadn’t been half the pervert her older sister was when she first visited Caridoon that experience might have just unlocked something that was already there not created it.

Still, there was Applejack’s behavior since being kidnapped. And for that matter Luna’s own since she had been cured of Nightmare Moon. The both of them seemed to take sexual violation in stride. She herself openly adored it. And Applejack’s reaction to her multiple rapes at the hand of Duneyrr and Rasmus seemed no more seriously than she would react to being scammed by Flim and Flam.

Mind you, some of the things that Applejack had dreamed about doing to Flim and Flam might have been judged a tad excessive by a guard pony if she ever actually did them. So maybe that was not a fair comparison.

But that did not change the fact that merely two days after escaping from sexual bondage Applejack was rather gleefully anticipating the possibility that her beloved big brother would rut her till she couldn’t walk. Not exactly a model of mental health if it were to be brought to the attention of the appropriate health professionals. Which Luna had no intention of doing. As far as she was concerned if there was no chance of offspring anything two consenting adult ponies got up to between themselves was no one's business except theirs.

However, benign as the effect seemed, at least as far as females were concerned, it was a cause of concern. When she managed to breach the barrier into Caridoon could she justify sending ponies into that land knowing they would be infected? It didn’t even take her a second to come to an answer. Yes. To save her sister and restore Tia to her former state she’d do anything. Even if in the end it resulted in her being banished back to the moon for abuse of her royal prerogative. If only her sister had been willing to wait. To take time to think up some other alternative. “Damn you, Tia. There had to be some other way. What if I save you and doom Equestria to turn into another Caridoon?”

She reminded herself to give her sister another paddling as soon as her new ‘little’ sister gave her an excuse. Say, by being alone with Luna.

“Thou were most cruel, Luna.” Tia said with a pout as she she squirmed on top of the two feather pillows that were all that were between her and the hard wooden chair Luna had ordered brought into Celestia’s former office. At least some of her annoyance could be ascribed to the fact that Luna was lounging in Celestia’s lovingly crafted, and so very comfortable, office chair.

“Ah, ah, ah. Remember your cover, Sunny Days. It’s Aunt Luna, or do you want another lesson in the proper deportment of a young lady who is not the ruler of Equestria?”

Tia flinched, her ass clenching as she remembered the spanking she’d received this morning when she’d causally ordered some royal guards to allow her passage to her former quarters.

It had been two days since Celestia had been transformed into a simple earth pony, and Luna had found reasons to paddle her bare bottom four times since then. Thankfully in private, though her perverse sister had told her very firmly that could change if Tia didn’t straighten up and get with the program.

It was very frustrating. Celestia knew that she should be able to pull of this imposture with ease. But she found herself constantly forgetting her changed circumstances and otherwise acting in a manner that was not at all like herself. She seemed to be constantly buffeted by surging emotions and wild mood swings. And Luna’s perverse nature seemed to be catching if Celestia’s reaction to her last spanking was any indication.

“I do not know why you must choose that manner of discipline, Aunty Luna. Surely all I need is a reminder that I have slipped out of character. Could you not do that with a quiet word?” Tia asked, flushing as she remembered the stirring between her legs when Luna had dragged her into an empty room for a chat. Celestia shied away from that line of thought. She liked stallions, even if it had been over a thousand years since she’d felt one between her legs.

“Ah, but then, Sunny, I would not have the pleasure of seeing that perfect golden ass of yours turn such a lovely shade of red. Or listen to you squeal in such a delightful manner,” Luna said, directing a predatory smile toward her niece that told the embarrassed pony her sister had not missed her reactions.

Finding herself unable to stop herself from blushing like the innocent filly she now appeared to be, Celestia blustered, “This is payback for my saying your plot was fat the other day, isn’t it, Luna?”

Luna’s grin only widened. “Maybe. Or maybe I’m more perverted than you ever knew,’ Luna replied, feeling amused at Tia’s obvious discomfort. She had never known playing the dom could be so much fun. While she still longed for Big Mac’s rough touch, she had to admit teasing her sister was a fun way to pass what little free time she currently had.

Luna let her smile turn wicked and she fell into the evil role-play that had turned out to be such a success at the last Nightmare Night in Ponyville. “It’s your own fault, Sunny. You don’t seem able to realize that you’re not in charge anymore. If you would just remember that little fact you would not find yourself in need of those pillows.”

Even as she enjoyed watching her little sister squirm Luna’s mind was on other matters. Luna could not help but think about how the excrement was about to hit the fan. Big Mac, Applejack and Bother would be arriving in Ponyville any time now and Luna was under no illusion that Applejack would be able to keep what had happened to her a secret for very long. [Though Luna hoped she’d spare her friends the more graphic details.] Once that came out Twilight would be livid that she had not been informed of the situation or given an opportunity to save Applejack.

Not that Twilight would vent properly. The self-effacing scholar would just repress her inclinations and protest in a very polite and conciliatory way. Really the girl needed to learn to cut loose on other occasions than when her back was against the wall. Mostly, Luna thought, the repressed librarian needed to get laid, thoroughly. But then she thought that about just about every pony she knew. Really, this modern age was so restrictive in regards to what were perfectly natural urges. Her sister being a prime example. What had happened to her lusty sister who used to take on all comers during the spring festival?

Luna’s train of prurient thought was interrupted when Celestia’s secretary, Sharp Pencil, hesitantly push open the door and peek inside. “Mistress Grey is here to see you, Princess Luna,” she said in quavering voice.

The poor dear had been rather traumatised the day before when he had come in without announcing himself and found Sunny Days draped over Luna’s lap as the Princess of the Night gave her spoiled niece a good firm bare-handed spanking.

That particular incident had been sparked by Luna’s discovery that Celestia had informed her secretary; two days before the events that had turned Tia into an earth pony, that she was finally taking the vacation she had been planning for the last fifty years. And that Luna would be in charge until she returned.

Learning just how far ahead of things her sister had planned, without informing Luna, had provided Luna with all the justification she needed to chastise her sister for her lack of sharing.

Her ire had been further aggravated when she’d learned that Tia’s youthful form had been anticipated. The staff had been told to expect a spoiled niece, distantly related, who had been sent to Canterlot to acquire some society polish. Explaining why she was an earth pony and not a unicorn as had been expected had taken some fast talking on Luna’s part. She didn’t really think she’d done a very good job of that. She had more than a sneaking suspicion that the poor prudish secretary thought Sunny was some mare Luna had picked up as a play-toy and decided to pass off as Sunny Days; who had elected to not come to Canterlot after all. Under normal circumstances Luna would have been able to get a lot of amusing mileage out of that. But things were too serious to waste time teasing the help, for now. Later she anticipated lots of fun with the situation.

Luna watched as Mistress Grey slipped silently into her office. If she hadn’t been expecting the mare there was a very good chance Mistress Grey would have been sitting in front of Luna’s desk before she was even aware she’d come in.

The nondescript pony lived up to her name. Neither her appearance or garments were in any way memorable. Her body language was one that would tend to make the eyes slid past her, even if she was the only one in the room with you. She was boredom incarnate.

She was also the head of the Royal guard’s intelligence division. Mistress Grey was her title, not her real name. Occasionally there had been a Mister Grey, but not often.

Luna wasted no time. “A year ago you sent a proposal to my sister to establish a training facility to teach agents and other important individuals how to deal with captivity and intense interrogation.”

It wasn’t a question, but Mrs Gray replied as if it was. “That is correct, Ma’am.”

“You have read the reports on Caridoon?”

“Indeed. A most distressing situation. If I may say, it is a most disturbing culture based on the reports I have seen.”

“I intend to send a substantial infiltration force into it when I manage to breach their natural defenses. Note, I say when, not if.” Luna paused for effect. Mistress Grey’s only response was a calm node of her head.

Luna continued her commentary. “The natural flora of the region and its effect on sentient beings mean that they will require very intense and special training if they are to function, let alone pass, as natives. For a successful infiltration I will have to send in stallions, accompanied by at the very least an equal number of female volunteers to pose as their sex-slaves. They will need to be trained and conditioned and tested to see if they can handle the lifestyle they will need to live while gathering information.” Luna directed a steely gaze at Mistress Grey. “I can’t emphasize this enough. They can’t simply pretend. They will have to fully immerse themselves. Under no circumstances must they give any natives a reason to believe they are not what they seem to be. How soon can you have a facility set up?”

Tia; who had been listening in horror would have protested but she found her mouth clamped shut by Luna’s magic. Mrs Grey was taken aback and shocked, as shown by her eyebrows lifting a fraction of a centimeter. She visibly took control of herself and began considering Luna’s question.

“The Facility will be easy enough. The Corp of Engineers is practiced in setting up temporary army bases in less than a week. There will be special requirements, but we can access experts in the required field as to what those are. I would think we could have the physical aspects completed within two weeks. The real difficulty will be finding trainers, I don’t actually expect any shortage of volunteers for the infiltration itself. There are no shortage of ponies willing to lay down their lives for Equestria, no small number of those will likely be willing to undergo the training you describe.”

Luna gave a tight little smile. “I think you will find that most of your staff have enough experience in trade craft to pull of the role. After all they are not going to have to live the lifestyle full time like the trainees once they are inserted. If matters get too difficult I may be of some help in locating suitable training personnel myself.”

Luna’s expression turned grim. “This is a priority situation. You have leave to place all available resources into getting this facility into operation as soon as possible. As soon as I manage to breach the wall I want at least some ponies ready to go. We can’t insert a huge group at once, so structure the training to produce a dozen or so infiltrators a week once we are up and running.

Only after Mrs Grey had left did Luna let loose the magical binding she had used to silence Tia, who instantly tried to argue against the entire project.

“Luna,” Tia paused at Luna warning look, and then gritted her teeth and continued. “Aunty Luna you can’t! Think of what it will mean to the mares, and stallions, who will be exposed to the curse of that place. If what we suspect is true they’re never going to be able to fully rejoin Equestrian society again.”

Luna glared at her sister. “And yet you have every intention of walking into that viper's nest yourself. With no preparation.” Tia flushed at that shot, but the stubborn look on her face didn’t change. Luna gave a sigh and said, “Fine. Then we will have to be very careful in our selection. The more pair bonding and harem building we can do prior to insertion, the more likely they will be able to transition into at least a semblance of normal life afterwards. Perhaps we can enlist Cadence in matching partners?” Luna asked, more to herself than to her sister.

“No, Sunny,” Luna said when the golden pony would have protested further. “You know this is the only way. We can’t send in the regular guard troops. They’d be out of action within a week due to the nature of that place. We can’t even be sure that the pollen in the air wouldn’t affect them as well. Simply carrying in our own food supplies will not work. They would be easy fodder for the natives. Slow indoctrination and infiltration are the only way we can move a force sufficient for what we wish to do into the country. If we can recruit sufficiently powerful ponies, we should be able to keep the numbers low.”

“You’re going to send in Twilight and her friends aren’t you?” Sunny said in horror.

Luna looked honestly shocked. “Good heavens no! This time we’re going to let the professionals handle it. I intend to keep Twilight and her friends as far away from Caridoon as I can. Duneyrr has already proven he can drain an Alicorn. There is no reason to suppose he might not be able to do something similar with the magic Twilight shares with her friends as well as Twilight’s own personal power.”

“Then I wish to undergo this training as well,” Celestia said firmly. Her eyes lit up in anticipation of the thrill of going undercover on such a dangerous mission.

Luna rolled her eyes at her sister’s expression. Despite her real age, losing such a large part of her persona had left Tia every bit the teenage filly she looked like. All hormones and a certainty of her own invincibility. There was simply no way she could be part of the initial infiltration.

Luna would have to allow Tia into Caridoon eventually. It was the only way she could be restored. But she was damned if she’d allow her sister anywhere near that place before they had a proper infrastructure of infiltrators in place to assure she could simply walk into the room holding her magic without first having to make her way through a gauntlet of rapists.

Still? A thoughtful look crossed Luna’s face. Tia was going to be trouble if Luna tried to just stifle her. Making her think that Luna was going to allow her to participate was to her advantage. It might be a way to keep her sister under control. At least for a little while. “Very well. I will allow you to be trained,” Luna told Tia.

Tia face lit up. “I’ll pack my things right away. I want to be the first recruit at the facility and get a jump on everypony else.”

“Hold on there, niece,” Luna said, holding up a hand to stop Tia. I said I’d allow you to be trained. I did not say I would allow it to happen at the facility. There is too much of a risk that the truth about you might come out in that situation. No. I think it would be best if I oversaw your training myself.”

Luna gave Tia a shark like grin that sent a shiver down the brand new teenager’s back, and Celestia suddenly found herself wondering if placing Luna on the throne was one of her less clever ideas.

Her worry vanished a moment later when she felt a tickle inside her brain. A feeling of exaltation filled her. Yes! Her magic had retained enough coherence to act independently! What she was feeling could only mean her magic has managed a small breach in Caridoon’s defenses.

Celestia was about to inform Luna of this until her sore posterior reminded her that her sister was not reacting well to revelations of her unshared contingency problems. She decided it might be for the best to give Luna a little while to discover this breach on her own. After all, it was too small to threaten the status quo in Equestria as of yet.

The huge moon-mountain cat woke-up high in the branches of the tree where she had spent the night. The first thing she did, just as she had done every morning for the last five years, was to attempt to dislodge the hated collar that constricted her neck. And just like every other time she failed. She then half-heartedly began to groom her ragged pelt and pretend that she hadn’t been behaving like some stupid feral wild cat for ten minutes, scratching and clawing at the collar. Thus began another day of wandering the wood in search of prey, and trying to work up the nerve to let the male who had put the collar on her in the first place touch her again.

This morning there was something different, however. She sniffed the air and wrinkled her nose at the unmistakable stench of raw chaos. One of the things her kind were hardwired to watch for. But, there was something else as well. Entwined with the scent of chaos was the perfume of caring and a desire to help those in need, no matter what. Her muzzle wrinkled in confusion. The two scents just didn’t belong together.

Intrigued the cat followed the faint scent trace as it floated on the breeze. Her search eventually led her to a large deadfall where a forest giant had succumbed to age and size and fallen, taking down a dozen other large trees with it. The trail led her into the worst of this tangle and she squirmed and squeezed until at last she came to the source. A tiny pinprick of a magical gate. The cat was familiar with dimensional gates. They popped up here and there, never lasting long. Mostly because she, or one of her kind, would find it and lick it closed. That was what her instincts told her to do with this one. But that scent! It promised relief from her bondage. She reached out, and with claws that extended far beyond the physical, she cut open the edges of the gate. It ripped, growing up and down and then spreading until it was big enough that a very large feline could slip through. Which she did.

She emerged in a forest that was much cooler than the one she had left behind, and far less overgrown. In fact the area around her looked almost cultivated. There was no underbrush and no one tree crowded another for sunlight and nutrients. The cat didn’t care. She didn’t even notice. All she knew was there were no obstacles in her way as she bounded toward the scent that promised hope.

She soon reached the edge of a clearing and looked out at the source of the conflicting scents. A pale yellow pegasus with a pink mane was pinned under a vile chaos-creature. While she writhed and twisted in the grass he methodically drove his thick cock in and out of her over-stretched sex.

Lips pulled back from razor sharp fangs and the cat crouched, getting ready to spring to the rescue of the pony, who was the source of that scent of hope. But before she could launch her rescue the yellow pegasus gave a shrill cry and shoved violently against her rapist, rolling them both over so she was perched on top of him. Only instead of pulling free from him and trying to flee she began to frantically pump her hips up and down.

When the chaos-creature had been the one on top he had stroked himself in and out of the mare a mere two inches at time with a pace as regular as clockwork. Now the cat could see, graphically, that he was much better hung than his short strokes might have indicated. The pegasus’s hips rose and fell at a frantic pace as nearly a foot of thick male shaft slipped in and out of her body.

Suddenly, the mare’s pace redoubled, she dug her hands into what the chaos-creature used for shoulders and screamed out. “YOU WILL LOVE ME!” Just as she gave a violent shudder and spasmed violently on top of him, her entire body shaking with the force of her orgasm as she slumped down on top of the creature she had just ravaged.

The cat was so surprised by these events that she slipped back into the sparse cover of some bushes and waited for developments.

After a minute or so of the pegasus shuddering and squirming on top of her victim, she gave one last hip thrust and stilled. A moment later, she let out a gasp of dismay and sat up on top of the chaos-creature, her hands coming up to cover her mouth in shock.

“Oh! Oh, no, I did it again. I’m so, so, sorry Discord. Please tell me you’ll forgive me.”

The chaos-creature, Discord? twisted his head to the side. Small liquid crocodiles crawled out of his eyes and down his cheeks to vanish in the grass. “I just don’t know, Fluttershy. Each time you say you won’t do it again. And each time, here I am, violated brutally. I don’t know if I have it in me to forgive you again. Maybe we should go back to being just friends?”

“Oh, no. Please, Discord. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

Discord’s expression turned gleeful and his crocodile tears vanished in little puffs of steam. “Really? Anything?” he drawled out.

The cat gave a huge sigh and lay it’s heavy head down on her forepaws. It looked like she was going to have a wait before she could get her collar removed. If the pony who reeked of hope could even do it.

Author's Note

And thus we come to the end of the opening story arc of the Caridoon Project.

If you have gotten this far, and enjoyed the story. Think about giving it a thumbs up. Makes it much more likely I'll produce more material in this universe.

I confess I went down the rabbit hole on this. Getting way too involved in my world building and not focusing nearly as much on the plot and characters as I should. Also went a lot more Grim-dark than I ever intended.

But I needed something serious to justify the shake up in Equestria's placid culture that this universe needed.

Future material will be a lot less dark, some of it verging on comedy. Unless you the readers have objections I think I'll follow standard Clop practice and not spend so much time trying to justify why the characters are such horny little devils and simply allow them to have their fun. Not that I'll be able to avoid some justification, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

If you are not already a member of the The Caridoon Project group you might think about joining. I'm hoping to have some discussions on various shipping and fetish plots over there now that the readers have some idea of what sort of world this is going to be.