The Town of Friendship

Twilight Sparkle walked over the broken streets of her home city, desperately needing to return to her small room and rest. Her joints ached and her small body screamed with every step. Just touching the cobblestones that were left caused pain to shoot through every fiber of her being and she had to stop herself from crying aloud. The intricacies of her personality, once vibrant and filled with as much life as anypony else, had become just as broken as the windows around her. She was no longer a cheerful filly, joyfully ignorant to the demise of the world around her. Now, she was an adult mare with nopony else to lean on in these horrific times.

Canterlot had been ravaged by Saddle Arabian forces in the great war of the past ten years, and Queen Lilly was not helping matters by forcing more and more brave stallions into battle. The mares were left home, destined to become whatever Lilly commanded them to be. Some mares were lucky and became secretaries or housekeepers in her palace. But others, like Twilight, were destined to become prostitutes, escorts, or some other disgusting, degrading line of work. Every single day was a complete fight for survival, and a lot of ponies had been defeated. The population of Equestria was in a state of chronic depression, and they were all complacent with it. What else could they do? They had no answer to the cancer that now ruled them, and Twilight was just another victim.

She practically crawled back into her brothel, where her only friend, Rose Hoof, worked as the secretary. She tried to sit up when she arrived at Rose’s desk, but found even this simple action to be quite impossible. Her bones seemed to creak like old doors when she moved them, and her muscles were giving her fits from being forcibly used all day. Her breaths were shallow, and she deposited a bucket of saliva with each one. Somehow, someway, she finally managed to haul herself onto her haunches and presented the small bag of bits she had been paid for her services.

“I’m so, so sorry, Twi,” Rose said in a voice that betrayed her Manehattan heritage. She felt awful for the poor pony in front of her, just as she did for every mare who passed her way after a long day of work, and she wished with all her heart that she could do something to help her. She saw the dull, faraway look in Twilight’s eyes, and realized that she had been completely ravaged by more than a few ponies that day. “How many?” She asked, referring to the number of clients Twilight had.

“Fifteen,” was all that came out of Twilight’s mouth.

“Fifteen?!” Rose exclaimed, “you poor thing! No wonder you’re so tired! Here, let me help you back to your room.”

“No, Rose,” Twilight panted, “I’ve got this…”

“No, you don’t, Twi,” Rose contradicted, “you’ve just had sex with fifteen different ponies in a twelve-hour period. You need to sleep. Come on.”

“I need to stand on my own four hooves,” Twilight complained, “how am I supposed to do that when I need your help just to return to my quarters?”

“Accepting somepony else’s help isn’t a sign of weakness, Twilight,” Rose said as she gently placed her friend on her back and trotted up the stairs towards the living area, “it’s a sign that you know your limits and can use somepony else to help you over the finish line. Sometimes, it just has to be this way.”

Twilight couldn’t reply, even though she wanted to. Her mind was in a daze of different mares and stallions that she had committed licentious acts with throughout the day. If she had not performed her task and made money, she would have been tossed into prison with the rest of the ponies who had taken a stand against Queen Lilly and her evil imperial nature. Her heart ached for her fillyhood, when she had been so innocent and carefree. She didn’t realize that taking a simple sip of the cup of life could be so drastically disheartening and violently disturbing.

Rose gently lay her on the small pallet provided for her and quietly left the room, shutting the door behind her. What she had done was technically illegal, as friendship, trust, and self-autonomy had been outlawed in favor of everypony leaning on the government. Private businesses had been destroyed, and everything had been publicized. All money went directly into Lilly’s personal storehouse, and none of the pony workers ever saw a bit of it. Lilly was the only rich pony in the land, and everypony else was miserable. This just can’t be the way, Twilight thought, there has to be something better than this.

She had kept her friendship with Rose a secret from everypony else, and she knew of underground networks of friends who had been decimated by the privacy violating raids Lilly called “purges.” “To purge Equestria of all that is detrimental to it,” their ruler had announced in a grandiose speech, “we must be willing to sacrifice everything. Equestria must progress! It must move forward! The backwards thinking of those who came before must be eliminated, and we must all join in this bountiful machine of thrilling happiness! Only by uniting as one, with everypony serving his or her set role in society, can we reap the benefits of everlasting truth and joy!”

“Truth and joy, my rump,” Twilight grumbled to herself as she lay looking up at the ceiling. It was made out of the cheapest materials, in order to satisfy Lilly’s quest for spending money on herself and on different pork barrel legislations that benefitted nopony. This government is a joke, Twilight thought, they’ve forced mares to become prostitutes, most of the stallions are either conscripted into military service or sent to mine gold in the far northern mountains, and everypony is miserable.

She sighed as she thought of the stories she had been told growing up. She couldn’t help but put forward a small smile as the beautiful memories were projected on the inside of her mind. Her parents had told her, in secret, of the two wonderful and benevolent princesses, Celestia and Luna, who used to rule the land. She had heard of how kind and generous they were, of how they allowed everypony to chase their dreams and succeed at their own pace, and of how they supported the ponies in times of crisis. She wished with all her heart that they might return and Equestria might grow strong in friendship and valor once again.

But for now, things were what they were and she needed to keep going in order to survive. She had promised her brother, Shining Armor, before he was conscripted that she would press on, no matter what the circumstances. She was bound and determined to keep that promise, for she loved her brother more than anypony else she knew. Don’t worry, Shining Armor, she told herself, I swear to you that I won’t ever stop. I will continue living, no matter what.