R.3.A.R.

by Wand3r3r3

Rating: teen
Tags: Profanity, Adventure, Violence, Pinkie Pie, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 12780

The Cutie Mark Crusaders form a not-so-secret swat team devoted to battling an unknown attack.

I'm rewriting this story, essentially. As such, you see a lot less than there actually is. If you're curious about the story, PM me and I'll show you the rest. And even more, if you'd like to help me out, I would so greatly appreciate it.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders have regrouped after a personal hiatus; after about a year. Two out of the three live their lives according to new—and really not the best—kinds of 'philosophies', but the other member, Apple Bloom, remains totally faithful to her friends and her family.

However, her family isn't in the best shape right now: all of the metaphorical glue that held it together is gone now, and the Apple name doesn't have nearly as great of a reputation as it did years ago, before Apple Bloom was even born. But even more so—Apple Jack is missing, and the Crusaders come to find out that she's in deep trouble.

A powerful, psychic force doesn't make Apple Bloom's life easier during this time of confusion, as it begins to stalk her after she witnesses an event that, while she already questions so much about her life as of late, makes her question reality itself. As the Crusaders' group efforts to find the truth about Apple Jack reach higher and higher grounds, so does the threat that the force poses.

It wants something from Apple Bloom, it seems...and it wants whatever justice it so desires. It won't stop.

Published 2012-05-17 20:24:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-01-29 00:50:47 UTC

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***R.E.A.R.

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As AppleBloom followed along with Mr. and Mrs. Cake to the park of all places, she wondered endlessly; questioning their insistence on the simple trip to the park, close to her old school.

The couple was silent, though she was told otherwise.

She didn't know what to think anymore, but she just went with her gut feeling and trotted alongside the two adults.

The school AppleBloom attended a year back had been torn down quite recently. Except, it was more like it was burned down: a victim of arson, it was.

She walked on by while examining the fresh rubble, when suddenly, her tail started to vibrate. AppleBloom stopped in her tracks and kneeled down, bending her head downward, and out slid a small electronic device, namely proven as it was the cause of the vibration.

It was still vibrating on the ground, but the Cakes didn't seem to notice. The couple only continued to walk, and that’s when AppleBloom’s childish instincts kicked in. The noticeable filly quickly picked up the device with the cleft of her left hoof and pretended to breathe on her right leg, reaching it across her face as she did. She expected the Cakes to look back at her; seeing that she had fallen behind, but they never noticed the absence of her presence. But even so, she kept her position as a precaution. She then lightly touched the blank, black screen, which then resulted in the display of an image.

SweetieBelle’s image appeared, signifying that AppleBloom had received a phone call from the white Unicorn. The image was portrayed as a sexual tease, with Sweetie was lying down on her back; forelegs behind her head as her corresponding legs were open, revealing her young genitalia. She never looked at it directly--she never had gotten up to changing her picture, though all of the others were just other 'enticing' pictures of her.

She looked forward to seeing what Sweetie had to say (and hopefully, it was important), and she immediately pressed a button on the top of the phone, resulting in a microphone to mechanically protrude from the bottom. Finally, she held the convenient speaker to her ear, clipping the soft elastic grip onto it, which ended up leaving her legs free to advance onward.

“Zzzzt...AppleBloo...” It was Scootaloo's voice instead, and AppleBloom felt a little more comfortable. However, distortion in her voice was imminent, as the receiver had experienced this not too long ago. In fact, her device started to act up only a week ago, but even still, it was a strange, unexplainable flaw in the technology.

“What’s goin- on? I've b--- try---g to zzzzzt-rea---you. ZZZZZZZ...ZZZZp-----me?” The call was dropped.

“Oppph, gosh darn it!”

Even the strong and sudden wind blowing in her ear as she ran forward couldn't match the blatant annoyance that was Scoot’s message. And as such, she removed her phone from her ear and hid it back into her mane with some difficulty.

“Stupid thing,” was muttered.

She finally passed the school’s miserable scene and made way to see Mr. and Mrs. Cake stopped in position. Once she got closer, AppleBloom saw that they were staring at the ground, and she still had a way to go until she met them again.

As she was beginning to look over the hill she was rising over, she saw more and more ponies that seemed to be surrounding some kind of black, half open box in a compact circle. She also noticed one half of a contrast being worn by most ponies. And that half was black.

AppleBloom immediately slowed her pace after she was noticed by many of the members of the ritual. She knew what this was.

This was a funeral...at the park...

Why the park?

“Come,” said Mrs. Cake. “Everyone would appreciate it if you’d pay your due respects.”

“Uh...okay.” AppleBloom had many more questions flowing through her mind by now.

Who was this for? Why wasn't Mr. Cake sobbing out of apparent control anymore? As of the moment AppleBloom walked closer to the couple, he developed a serious look on his face. His previously shed tears seemed to have just disappeared. And Mrs. Cake wasn't much different from the stallion. Instead of staring at the box in the center of the circle with a bland look like him, she urged AppleBloom to approach, even though the action was in the process of being fulfilled.

Flowers were thoroughly scattered across the ground, which gave AppleBloom a path to follow upon it's directory. Eventually, she reached the end of the black casket where the edge of it was opened. She knew how these things went, as she had attended her grandmother’s funeral a few weeks back. Finally, she gathered up the strength to look at the body inside...

It didn't even take her a split second to close her halfway close her eyes and weep.

"No..!" she slurred through a concoction of overwhelming sadness and muffled cries "You can't!!"

The once endlessly jovial mare; an element to the entire world that was Pinkie Pie...was finally laid to rest. Her bright pink coat and slightly varied mane had lost most of their hue and color. In fact, her body seemed to be decomposing at the very scene of which AppleBloom had been slowly but surely witnessing. And even though Pinkie’s fluffy mane was still its namely visual, it seemed to have diminished with the ever-approaching wind of a horrible discovery. It deflated.

AppleBloom felt like puking as Pinkie’s face began to physically deteriorate into a transparent mold of flesh. From this she noticed the sun was setting right behind her

...But that was hours ago.

It was now a perfect dark; no moon was present in the starry sky. AppleBloom was still leaning over Pinkie’s deathbed, stranded. AppleBloom was stuck in the position that she had been in for the past few hours, at least, judging by the time of day. But she couldn't move at all during that time; her mind was drained of all possible coherent thoughts.

Pretty much, she was frozen for an unexplainable reason until nightfall.

“W-whe...re?” AppleBloom opened her eyes, only to see chaos. Red and orange were among the only colors she noticed when she got up on her hooves and looked around in all horizontal directions, frantically. “Huh-hello?” she called out. “Hello?!”

She was growing more panicked by what she was witnessing by the second. There were no longer any other ponies around to even give AppleBloom the feeling, or thought, of comfort. Instead, the circle of the citizens who surrounded the future burial site was replaced by a wall of fire, hence encompassing her.

“AAAHHH!” AppleBloom screamed as she was suddenly able to recognize the temperature. The intense heat came to her as she regained the last of her strangely missing senses. “Aaahow! Aow. AAAHH!”

Abruptly, something from the ground suddenly caught AppleBloom’s eye, somehow taking her mind slightly off of the pain from the flames that were touching her. The dangerously close flames highlighted a trail of blood and gore on the ground, disgustingly mixed together. She vomited, only adding to the dirt on the black floor that was apparently the ground.

This...mess must have been replaced with the beautiful flowers the AppleBloom remembered seeing while-

“While the world was normal...” AppleBloom realized something. She had had a dream similar to this several nights back, after her grandmother passed:

She had dreamed that she was trapped in a seemingly endless maze of mirrors. Luckily, she was able to escape, as a trail of broken glass was the only way out of the organized confusion. Her dream was extremely short, as if depicting it as a premonition... It provided a realization for AppleBloom to unravel, and as quickly as she managed to do so, she took up the action she had been thinking over; whether she should take a leap of faith through the flames.

The trail of blood ended directly at the point where Mr. and Mrs. Cake stood. AppleBloom knew this for a fact because, in the ground base of the fire, she saw bones; remains. However, they were buried in the flames as they grew ever closer.

AppleBloom had no more time to waste.

It was now or never.

As the flaming circle of flames imploded from the ground up, AppleBloom dove into the wall that no longer existed. If she stayed in her previous position any longer, she would have been toast, literally.

“Yer the only chicken ah know, Scootaloo!” She barked confidently while watching the ashes burn up, which inevitably resulted in darkness to shadow over her.

She hated darkness, as it was her biggest, and worst fear. She couldn't stand it; she was afraid to even move a muscle, but she remembered what options she had. She bent her neck down and touched another button on her mobile gadget that she managed to keep during that accursed version of her dream. An extremely bright light emitted from the end of the device that was following her view as she released the button.

The light punctured the black blanket that only seemed to grow darker and darker. Soon enough, she was only able to see about seven feet in any and all directions she turned to face. And in each of those directions, nothing was seen beyond her seven-foot radius of sight.

"I hear voices...” AppleBloom froze in place as her spine chilled down to its core. Something was talking to her, but she insisted that what she was hearing was her extreme fear of darkness messing with her head. ”Who are they?”

“Wh...ooo now?” AppleBloom silently and slowly responded. Fear crept into her mind, as well as her body long ago, but, to follow up to her question, she once again flashed her light left and right. But, she still saw nothing.

"They say they know you...”

“Who...are you..?” She gradually gained a monumental amount of courage, considering numerous failures in other situations like this.

"They say you killed me..."

At that point, AppleBloom was frantic, stuck in the darkness with little sight. She turned around...where the voice was now prolonging its echo. She saw nothing at first, but as she fixated her vision according to the darkness, she managed to see something in the far distance.

She quivered in place.

It just stood there--a pink, quadrupedal figure with it's mane flat and depressed, hanging over one side of its face. It’s one and only visible eye was huge and white, and its pupils were unable to be seen, but not because of the disadvantage of distance. A piercing white shrill of a smile was directly visible after about a minute of staring at it. This sent AppleBloom her own processed message:

Get the hell out of there...

Luckily, the darkness entirely disappeared at that time, allowing AppleBloom to flee the scene that she so desperately hoped was imaginary. She retraced her steps from before and headed toward her treehouse, looking behind her every few seconds.

She was afraid, and she had every natural, and supernatural reason to be.

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R.E.A.R.

{----- [[[[[-Interval+01: ACCUSATION-]]]]] -----}

AppleBloom was running; sprinting away from something. She had no idea what she had encountered, but whatever it was, it scared her to death. She ran away, far away from where she was before, passing the ruptured schoolgrounds. She continued the only action she had in mind for minutes, but stopped when she bumped into something seconds later.

Something...plush.

“AppleBloom!” yelled SweetieBelle. She had rammed head-first into SweetieBelle’s rear end; her tail swung to the side at the worst possible time.

“Huh? SweetieBelle??!” AppleBloom couldn't believe that she actually saw one of her best friends alive. She thought the whole world had gone straight to hell. SweetieBelle stared at her temporarily fallen friend.

“Do that again,” she sensually asked of her, with a sly grin to associate with the request. AppleBloom got back up on all fours and panted a little bit, wanting to warn Sweetie about what she had experienced.

“Se2... Don’t go...that way.” She weakly pointed her foreleg in the direction she came from. “The school...ah think it’s haunted!”

SweetieBelle just laughed and made fun at her ridiculous assumption.

“I bet I know why it’s haunted...” she started. AppleBloom knew that it couldn't be serious. “Big Mac and Cheerilee did it in the school, and his dripped babies were unborn, and now they want-“ SweetieBelle emphasized her conclusion with her impression of her version of what a ghost was supposed to sound like.

“REEEEVVVVVEEEEEEEEEENGE!”

AppleBloom swore she heard something while Sweetie misinterpreted a spiritual figure. She freaked out and plugged Sweetie’s mouth with her right forehoof. She dragged Sweetie along with her, continuing to move in her desired direction.

“Do you hear that?” The echo of the frightening whispers haunted her. And the fact that she was tired as all hell didn't help either.

“Yeah,” SweetieBelle managed to blurt out. “Kinky!” She proceeded to suck on AppleBloom’s hoof.

"Actually, it might not be the school that's haunted..."

“And then Big Mac kept going. He was pounding Cheerilee’s ass!"

“...Shut up...”

AppleBloom was hilariously frustrated with SweetieBelle as she continued to rant on about her ‘theory’. Eventually, the two fillies reached the near grounds of their clubhouse. Scootaloo was the first pony she saw aside from the hallway of their home extending far above the other trees.

“Scootaloo!” AppleBloom had to forcefully pull her hoof out of Sweetie's mouth.

“Seriously?” Sweetie called.

AppleBloom didn't hear her; she was already closing in on Scootaloo.

“You taste pretty good!” she called again, keeping her stance.

“Scootaloo! I’m sooo glad to see you!”

“...Shut up..." She was busy.

Scootaloo was on her own personal phone this time; AppleBloom could tell because the back casing of it was decorated with the image of the Cutie Mark of a mare which she adored so deeply, even with the additional three years counted onto the filly. It would be expected for her interests to change, but she still adored Rainbow Dash to her core.

“Yeah? ...Okay, so lemme get this straight. I’ll meet you behind Sugarcube Corner tonight and you’ll have my money, right?”

“What the? Scootaloo come on, this is serious!”

“Hang on... Yeah, hang on a second, baby.” Scootaloo covered the microphone’s slot so that her voice would not enter through. “What’s up? I’m trying to make some money here.” She freaked out again as she had to recall the scene for Scootaloo.

“Pinkie Pie...dead. Ghost…following me... THIS. IS. BAD!”

“...Yeahuh. Hold on.” She went back to talking on the phone as SweetieBelle suddenly rammed into AppleBloom’s butt instead.

“Hey! What the hay, Sweetie?!”

“What? I’m just returning the favor. When you did it to me, it felt really good!” SweetieBelle was excited by the fact that she could play with AppleBloom all she wanted again, but she simply wouldn't get to. The country filly had only one person in mind when it came to love...

She also knew that he would probably the only one who would listen to, and believe her. But either way, having a relationship or not wasn't at all important to her.

“Ugh, Se2... When are ya gunna admit that you’ll never get any?”

“Look who’s talking, miss virgin,” Sweetie unintelligibly told AppleBloom.

“Listen, ah don’t have any interest in doin' any of that sexy stuff an’ you know it.”

“Why not? Sweetie's left ear twitched, not so surprised at what she was hearing. Sure, SweetieBelle was the ultimate pervert, but she still had a heart, and she knew how to use it. “Listen... I’m sorry if I keep acting this way, but I’m only cracking jokes, and I’m only doing it to try and cheer you up.”

“Cuz’a Granny, Ah, know..."

Scootaloo dropped the call immediately after overhearing her friends’ conversation. She walked toward AppleBloom, stopping and laying a hoof on her back.

“Hey, nothing’s more important to us than you,” reassured Scootaloo.

“And it goes for the rest of us, ‘cause we know you care about everypony,” SweetieBelle concurred.

“Thanks, guys...” AppleBloom shed a tear or two. “You’re the best friends anypony could ever have.”

They both hugged AppleBloom. “Sorry we gave you such a hard time since she passed, App. Seriously.” Scootaloo apologized; they both did.

“Yeah, seriously.”

“Guys...” AppleBloom fought back further tears and embraced the thought that she still had true family in her life. None of her blood relatives, except Applejack, was there for her when she needed a parental figure, or even a friend. But these two ‘friends’, Scootaloo and SweetieBelle were always there for her, through thick and thin, for better or worse.

They were friends till the end...

“Now, what’s this crazy talk about a ghost following you?”

“...Then I saw something, like another pony or somethin’. Ah couldn’ see its face, I only saw one eye, and it was Zap Apple grey-white...er-whatever.”

SweetieBelle plopped up from her seat on the floor. “Keep going. I’m gonna look this up.”

“I can’t believe Pinkie’s gone...” mourned Scootaloo as SweetieBelle took a seat and flipped open a nearby laptop on a table. It immediately opened up a box to enter a few characters in.

“I still can’t believe you were gone for like, five or six days!”

SweetieBelle easily navigated through the treehouse, as the front of it was still the same. But almost nopony sees the extension that they had all added about a year ago. Their once innocently demeaning hangout was now something similar to a small intelligence base. It was all inspired by their experience in their former schools’ newspaper line.

The long aerial hall whose exterior was previously noticed by AppleBloom was really a miniature base of operations for the gang. Scootaloo’s extreme interest in the upbringing of technology had brought about various devices such as the iMad, the ClopTop, and the SmartDrone, which is what had saved AppleBloom’s life once before.

Such are only examples of her extreme talent, but incredibly popular and powerful nonetheless.

“Ah know, right?” agreed AppleBloom. “Now everything’s horrible and bad...It really makes a difference, you know? But yeah, I stared at that thing, and a few minutes later it smiled at me, not a friendly one, I can tell you that.”

“Fuck my life, that sounds so freaky. Almost fun!”

SweetieBelle entered her password, and the screen displayed the last browsed website. But, because this was Sweetie’s computer, she had been browsing through some naughty things...

Porn, to say the least.

SweetieBelle went ahead and downloaded the intriguing video at lightning fast speed, then simply closed the web tab and began a new internet session.

Apparently, Spitfire, former captain of the nationwide-known Wonderbolts, had started her own online company under the name ‘SPitfYreFOXX’. Sweetie had nothing to worry about when it came to viruses from her activities. Use of the web browser was backed by endless spyware protection, as well as antivirus and Malware barriers. It was expensive for only a year’s service, but with Sweetie, it was more than worth it. And one of the best features about the program was that It was voice operated.

“Pinkie...Pie.” Sweetie announced, through her voice instead of her hooves. She had to speak fluently as the program was fairly sensitive. In less than a split second, millions of results appeared on screen, with the most recent post being at the top of a long line of lists. Sweetie glanced at it, squinting her eyes, as she had forgotten to enlarge the text display from before.

“Guys.” she called out, worrying two friends with the tone of her voice, therefore getting their attention without a hitch. “Get over here...”

“Sup?” called Scootaloo as she viewed the screen. Her pupils soon shrunk after she took a few seconds to read the on-screen text.

AppleBloom was the last to visit the computer. “What the buck!!”

“APPLEJACK TAKEN INTO MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON!??” The aforementioned relative would never have been caught in the scenario according to her youngest sister. “This thing’s gotta be wrong. Waaaay wrong!”

“Flare’s never wrong, App, I’m sorry to say.” SweetieBloom failed to assure AppleBloom, though she honestly doubted the news herself. Scootaloo breathed in deep and read what she saw on-screen.

“Rainbow...Dash testifies in Applejack’s favor as she denies that the accused…killer?” She paused for a second, exchanging defiant looks with her friends. then she continued. “That the accused killer had to have been her sister...APPLEBLOOM??”

She couldn't believe what she was reading, yet she pressed on to reading more personalized comments. “’There’s a reason AppleBloom was gone for a week...’ proves reporter Featherweight, an alumni from an elementary school not too far from where the murder occurred. He has been able to report, more or less, seven days of the convicted country filly playing continuous a game with poor Pinkie. She leaned over an open casket with the mare inside of it and...disintegrated her with her-” She chuckled in disgust at the following conclusion.

"Laser vision?? Really? What the fuck!? That’s not even possible! These guys have nothing on you, App!” If anything, both Scootaloo and Applebloom were furious at the reporter. “Who in the hell can actually believe this to the point where they would actually believe this?!”

“Hey Scoots.” SweetieBelle chimed. “Who was that guy you were talking to earlier?”

“Huh? Oh, boy, I’m never one to remember names of clients, but I think it was...” She was caught a little off guard. “I wanna say Dave? Why do you ask? Can't you see we've got a crisis, here?"

SweetieBelle suddenly piped up as to her own surprise. “We went to school with that guy, remember?!”

Both Scootaloo and AppleBloom stared blankly at her for a few seconds before looking back at each other. “We did?”

"Wait, why is that important now?!"

Luckily, Sweetie’s memory was one of her strongest abilities. “You know, the guy who had his Cutie Mark before anyone else in our class! The pencil?” she hinted. “His pencil was always pretty hot...” However, her sexual jokes and remarks were also among her strong points. Scootaloo was seen smacking her hoof in front of her face as a response. AppleBloom and Scootaloo knew that the news was false anyway.

“Ohhhh, him!” shouted AppleBloom. “Danger Dave! He knew everything!”

“Yeah!” SweetieBelle bounced up in the air with joy.

Scootaloo dragged her leg away from her mouth and reluctantly agreed with the other two. “Yep...it’s all comin’ back to me...”

“Hey, what’s up, Scoots?” asked AppleBloom.

“I know what Sweetie wants to do..."

“What?”

Sweetie stared at Scootaloo excitedly. “She wants to meet up with the guy I was gonna earn a little money from...and it's never good whenever she does. Only happened once, and I ain't lettin' it happen again."

“Yeah, what's the problem? If you won't let me, then maybe you can ask him if HE wrote that article in the paper!Cuz I betcha he did!"

“I hope you’re right, cuz if you are, I’ll not only do him, I’ll do him so hard his dick’l fall off!” Scootaloo was certain she wasn't seriously going to kill him, but she was still pretty shocked at the said article she had read about a half hour ago. “Well, maybe I’ll just...bruise it or something. Bruise it really bad... Yeah, something like that."

“So come on!” AppleBloom climbed up from the polished wood floor and joined SweetieBelle as they both headed out the entrance. The suns strong surprise caused Sweetie to trip over the fence along the roof of the clubhouse. AppleBloom soon came to her aid.

“I’d better get paid in the end...” Scootaloo sighed humorously as she bumped into the table that supported the laptop. Scootaloo opened her saddlebag, and the computer fell straight into it. She kept the pouch open to allow the internal fans to breathe, and out the door she went.

“Damn sun.”

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By the time the three not-so-little fillies made it over to Sugarcube Corner, the sky was beginning to take on a shade of navy blue. AppleBloom swore this was coincise to what happened to her a while back. She tried to forget about the heart stopping experience with the dead mare--

At least, she assumed that Pinkie was following her...

“Well, we’re here. Just gotta go to the back. Follow me,” strangely ordered Scootaloo.

Sweetie got behind AppleBloom, and the country girl kept her file behind Scootaloo.

“Darn. If only I had a strap-on..." SweetieBelle complained, alarming AppleBloom in the process

“Well, what do you mean follow you? I think me and Se2 know how to-“

Scootaloo gently pushed her hoof against AppleBloom’s mouth as she slowly pulled out a hidden clump of metal objects. AppleBloom understood now; she nodded in agreement.

“ I don’t trust anyone.” Scootaloo concealed the knives once more. “You know me. Not even a paying client... Good lesson to learn.” She teased AppleBloom for her gullibility when it came to trust.

AppleBloom had…trust issues. But instead of someone breaking what she had given anypony, she had never given any in the first place.

See, since she pretty much lived on her own while living with her ‘family’, as she oh-so denies them to be. She couldn’t have any better reason to consider as such.

Macintosh, AppleBloom’s big brother, was a bully after his three years of nonstop service to Sweet Apple Acres. He only considered the family as a paycheck to him; he didn't treat them like family, at least, behind their backs...

After those three years, he had it.

He knew that there wasn't any point in continuing his miserable life working on a farm. And so, along with the final incoming funds from Sweet Apple Acres, Macintosh was gone. He had taken everything the family ever lived for, and thus, they were left with nothing. He was nothing but a scammer; a fraud.

And AppleJack, both a sister to Macintosh and as AppleBloom was inspired by him to finally break away from the family. At least she still cared for them. But she couldn't live with the family anymore after Macintosh screwed them all over. All the others had left before her...

AppleJack took her sister under her hat, and tried her damndest to care for AppleBloom.

She did the best she could, but the very first night that she promised to always be by her side, thought thick and thin, for better or worse-

She abandoned her, even after such a promise.

AppleJack, the Element of honesty, a national savior...

How could she do such a thing...?

For unexplainable reasons, that one memory came back to her at that moment, and not because of SweetieBelle’s shortly hilarious joke.

“I’m on it.” AppleBloom simply relied to Scootaloo in a calm fashion. She was already way ahead of her...

“I betcha Scoots is gonna RAPE this guy!”

The three now had absolutely no light to help guide them through the alleyway. Ironically, loitering around Sugarcube Corner was extremely dangerous at anytime of the day.

Loitering was dangerous anywhere at any time in Ponyville actually. The town was becoming so violent so fast, becoming less known and less cared for by each and every one who heard the news about the death of the mare who brought happiness to the entire world.

“Okay, guys.” Scootaloo whispered to the other two fillies. “...Wait, Sweetie! You know what he looks like. You identify him.” She quickly gave her a small microchip that would be used to record the discussion Sweetie and this stranger would have. The data would be sent by Sweetie via inverse wireless communications and by her own sexual arousal (In reality, it was foolproof).

The Unicorn put the device in her mane and tangled it inside afterward; she had to follow her mission statement of getting him to admit his crime...and then have a night in bed with him. Scootaloo opened her ClopTop and was ready to monitor the situation that would go down. Sweetie, afterward, happily pranced up to the front of their short line, actually skipping high up in the air as she made it in front of Scootaloo.

The three had reached the end of the building, sliding their backs against the cold brick backside of the building. The last thing they wanted was to be victims of rape or anything dark of the sort.

Criminals lurked everywhere, especially in the alleys, but Scootaloo and AppleBloom were certain that Sweeite wouldn't mind getting raped anyway.

...Whore...

Soon enough, Sweetie confirmed that the colt (whose ass) she saw was in fact the aforementioned Dave, or Davey... Or Davy-with-an-'E'. They never did decide on a name for him.

She retracted her head from her view around the corner. “Yep, that’s him!” She silently informed Scootaloo. “That’s the guy with the pencil!” AppleBloom slapped her face with her hoof only due to growing fact that Sweetie would not shut up at this point, as she could only bear with it for so long.

“Lemme see, Sweetie. I know the looks of these kinds a guys too.” She just felt like she had to do something. “You know, just to make sure...”

"But I already hooked everything up anyway." Regardless, Scootaloo allowed her to take time to see for herself. Davy wasn't going anywhere anyway. AppleBloom knew this when she saw a colt standing up on its hind legs, leaning against the backside of the building with one leg bent, pressed up against the same wall.

“Oooooohh...” AppleBloom, at that moment, suddenly received an incredible irritation in her head. She didn't understand why she started getting these monstrous amount of pain; it had only happened once before. But even as that may have been, this one was causing her to feel extremely weak. “Mmmpph...” Her legs started to wobble, and before she knew it, she was on the ground.

Crying...

What she had seen around that corner was not as it seemed anymore. The colt leaning on the building was the only thing in her sight; a dense cloud of pure black fog was approaching the individual. The guy showed no fear and just waited there. AppleBloom watched this scene in her darkened mind, as it was the only thing she could do.

Scootaloo was very reluctant, with what was happening to AppleBloom, but she took initiative into her own hooves and decided to pursue Davy on her own.

“Se2, keep an eye on App,” she silently instructed, and further continued.

“Make sure she does not. Go. Anywhere. ”

Sweetie gave a concerned look to AppleBloom. “I don’t think she’s going anywhere...but you got it!” Once Sweetie was given an order, no matter how much time it would take for her, she would get it done with no problem. She was like...an immediate nurse. She cared for everyone, even through her perverted demeanor.

When the fog was about to consume the stallion, he launched himself forward with a push of his hoof off of the wall. His kept his bipedal position as his arms carried the momentum gained from the push.

AppleBloom was stuck on the ground, held in place by some powerful force. She had no choice to watch the suddenly menacing figure approach her, other than to just close her eyes and die.

But, she noticed something in the background...

The barn, the Apple family’s barn.

It was blowing away with the wind, straight from the top...the ashes disappeared into nothingness.

Scootaloo burst out of her hiding and prepared to extract the subject that was their former classmate, Davy. Knives drawn, she wasn't too surprised to see that there was nopony in sight--he might have already caught onto their objective. Even so, she kept her guard up when she walked toward the depths of the back alleyway...

In a series of dark flashes in AppleBloom’s already corrupted vision, the bipedal stallion approached her body ever so quickly.

With each darkening blink she took, the now defined monster dramatically increased his proximity according to each flash, losing ligaments as it did, which dissipated into numerous, microscopic gray squares. Soon enough, the monster was in plain sight. It crept its neck down for its death resembling head to meet AppleBloom.

The barn was gone...

The monster had no eyes or mouth, it seemed. Black blood leaked out of all of its empty sockets and places where its arms and legs should have been. It was a thin beast; its ribcage broken and sticking out from its body. Blood was evidently flowing through its bones as the same fluid dripped out of the protruding anatomy.

Its hooves were very long, further proving its malnourishment.

AppleBloom cried as the monster kept it's empty eyes on her the entire time since it had approached her.

It was hungry...

Scootaloo checked back on SweetieBelle, only to see that she was gone. She panicked, and she retrieved from the inside of her ear the same device she had used earlier in the day. Her SmartDrone flashed its light to conquer the darkness completely. It was such a blinding light that adjusted to the level of light that the sun gave off to the Earth. And even then, she saw nothing.

“Sweetie!" She knew for a fact that something was really wrong. Now both of her friends were missing. "Where the fuck are you, YOU COWARD!”

Moments after Scootaloo called out for this coward, Davy as he was known, SweetieBelle rolled out of the shadows, taking on a defensive stance.

“Se2?! What are you doing?! Protect A-“Scootaloo was cut off as something tapped her on her shoulers. She was prepared to defend herself instead.

“Oh my god...”

Scootaloo did not...

She could not possibly believe what she saw.

AppleBloom... She was the head. Her body was the head of a beast, a quadrupedal monster. But suddenly, the bastard of a monster that assumingly killed AppleBloom turned to face Scootaloo. And, looking behind herself as she felt something press on her neck, she only vaguely saw another familiar looking monster behind her as it pushed her down to the ground, toppling her.

The other one...the one that wore AppleBloom’s deceased body as a playful mask--It walked slowly toward the fallen filly as she was held down by a surprising amount of weight, considering the creature’s size. The next thing Scootaloo knew, she was once again, face to face with the AppleBloom puppeteer. This time, the same beast that attacked the helpless filly in her nightmares was able to see its prey, and it sure looked delicious...

But, because this thing was able to see, it meant that Scootaloo could use her wits here.

SweetieBelle apparently ran into more of these…things, but their faces were naked. They pursued her as she backed away from them, striking them with her quick blows from her legs' hooves as she did. They didn't flinch, however. Blood was heard splattering against the walls, but they just kept coming at her. There was about five of them in front, and unbeknownst to her, five behind her, with quite a distance even as they pursued.

“GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!"

And even more of these things surrounded Scootaloo as she was held to the ground. AppleBloom’s eyes, those of which were staring into Scootaloo’s secretly terrified and disgusted eyes, met them in the attempt. Her mouth opened right above her sight, and her jaw stretched out, far surpassing the size of Scootaloo’s head.

She saw that one of the monster’s legs was beside her, and its position. She took initiative action by slamming her head against its hoof, distracting it. And with that action, she was able to operate her SmartDrone, giving off an ultra-bright light from the polished microscopic bulb inside.

The dark beings around her all screamed as if they were in agony mimicking something similar to a siren, only with the innocent sound of a child gasping for oxygen. The larger, now blinded monstrosity must have been the leader of the pack.

Scootaloo rolled out of the beasts weakened trap and made contact with an even colder concrete ground. She allowed herself the privilege of taking to her hooves again, as she used on of her forelegs to push off of the ground while she rolled. The sudden launch propelled her high into the air with the help of her wings.

She still couldn't fly.

Both of her back legs struck the chin of the beast that used AppleBloom for its head. It cried out again, but this time, Scootaloo felt a violent force conquer the air as she softly landed on her feet, away from danger.

She remembered what she did earlier and aimed her light back at the puppeteer, which resulted in its sluggish movement towards her. Even the others were chronologically hindered, giving Scootaloo the chance to rescue Sweetie.

SweetieBelle was corned by these things now. Both to her left and her right was an everlasting cloud of darkness that shrouded the monster’s bodies inside it--she didn't have her Drone on her to help her see. But in the distance, she did manage to see Scootaloo’s silhouette in the dank distance.

She was hoping that she could maybe distract a few of these beasts away from her to give her a little breathing room. But in the meantime, she fought for her life when she tried to climb some laundry posts against Sugarcube Corners’ wall.

She could only feel them, and as such, she pulled herself up upon the thick stakes. Only the first decided to reveal its blatant insecurity when it separated itself from the wall after Sweetie stepped off of it. The fallen piece of lumber, as heavy and sharp as it was impaled itself in one of the many surrounding attackers right in the dead center of its head. The stricken beast fell to the concrete, its weak scrawny legs collapsing and actually falling apart. The only thing left of it was its skull, that is, until it touched the ground.

It just disappeared.

Sweetie would be able to keep herself safe for only a bit longer. The heavy stake she was now comforting her grip around was wet. And the spout that rerouted water above its stability didn't help either. She looked at the directory above and saw that it was bent in another, unintentional direction.

“Scootaloo!” she cried. The attackers were now starting to lean against that base of the building, trying to climb up to her height. “SCOOTALOOooo...”

She literally started to cry, her tears immediately falling given her fearful, rapid glances at the swarm of monsters.

Her grip was giving out; and so was the stake. She finally slipped from it, but she kept herself airborne by wrapping her legs around it. It was a tight situation, but again, she held on for dear life.

Until that stake gave away.

SweetieBelle flinched and fell down like a bomb: head first and dangerous for its anatomy. She screamed, hoping she would attract any other of these things from Scootaloo as she was still in pursuit of rescuing her.

She was about to die anyway.

When she opened her eyes before impact, she was hanging from the wall, upside down. She looked above her stomach, in between her legs to find only a long, wide object pierced through her soaking wet tail.

And when she rolled her eyes upward after ceasing control of her vertebra, she had the urge to leap on fright. The Earthbound monsters were only inches away from taking a bite out of her head. Sweetie’s mane was thrown across her chin upon being provided a sudden safety net.

Now that she thought about it...

“What the hell happened?”

Scootaloo laid in a small puddle of blood, located in another corner of the alley.

She was weak, but still conscious.

“Apple...bloom!” All she could proficiently do at this point was treat her wound only by covering it up. She was bitten by one of those things, dead on the right side of her ass. She was bleeding profusely and it wouldn't stop, though its rate slowed down a bit from how it was gushing out before.

“Ugh...FUCK!” It pained her to speak. She hopelessly looked in her general forward direction as she heard something in front of her; one of those beasts was there to finish her off.

But her light was still in use, and, upon scanning the far scene she laid her weak vision on, she started to cry. Even a tough girl like her couldn't fight them away at this point.

“SweetieBelle. No...” Scootaloo fell unconscious as her given time expired. I’m sorry...”

“Hey...” It’ll be alright.”

Sweetie’s head was starting to concentrate with blood, and she started to get dizzy. However, the monsters’ constant moans kept her on the edge. She still kept her primary focus on the light, though.

She saw Scootaloo’s silhouette combat some of the same hostile figures that were on the very edge of tearing her own face off.

“I knew you could do it-“ She stopped herself from proper identification, as the hero in the light was starting to look...different.

“Scootaloo?”

Finally, AppleBloom joined the swarm surrounding SweetieBelle. Her eyes were now hyper-realistic; an even worse state that the possessed filly was in before. Her mouth was streaked in all directions with blood, complete by her lips being replaced by her teeth.

And to complete that? AppleBloom was shielded her front teeth with an orange colored piece of dripping flesh hanging from between them.

“Scootaloo, don’t! She bit you!” Sweetie advised Scootaloo of the danger that she assumed she knew she was getting herself into. As a witness, Sweetie watched as Scootaloo charged AppleBloom with the weight of her bipedal stance.

Why wasn't Scootaloo wearing her SmartDrone anymore? Or maybe she was, and she had no need for its guiding light now that there was another source of it.

“DIIIIIE!!!!!”

Sweetie’s mind finally clicked when she figured out that this was not Scootaloo. It was a stallion, proven only by his battle cry.

A loud slam against the building to her right caused her to quickly grind against Sugarcube Corner along with the tune of the vibration that occurred.

And with that, this new foe was out sight once again.

...Or was this guy a friend?

The monsters’ leader, AppleBloom--or at least the one that used her for a face--was being attacked. This drove the others to start dragging themselves over to the direction where this new guy took her.

After fifty-one seconds, SweetieBelle was alone. She was able to hear various violent sounds, such as the familiar screech from AppleBloom, and the sound of flesh being physically cut and torn from bodies, among others.

But by this point, Sweetie had hung upside down for too long. Blood overflowed within her head, and her grogginess only grew more intense as mere seconds passed.

Then, she was out.

And at that very moment, the light from afar, highlighting the crimson messed ground, flickered for a little while, and the bulb broke on its final flash.

(R)Interval+03_CONFRONTATION

Interval+03: EXTRACTION

***R.E.A.R.

---***

{----- [[[[[-Interval+03: EXTRACTION-]]]]] -----}

“David, get ‘em outta here!”

.............................................

“...Ugh...”

Scootaloo awoke with the sharp pain of wind cutting the outer muscles of her eyes. Her body was lightly being thrown up and down as time passed. The motion had been set even before she woke up.

In response to all this and more, she shut her eyes and did the only thing that came to her mind at that point.

Question the situation:

“What the hell…is going on?”

Even as exhausted as she was, she stiffened her muscles and expected combat. In her haunted mind, she was still seeing those...things that attacked her and SweetieBelle earlier in the same night she felt all over her body.

Scootaloo was cold; freezing.

“Hey, hold on!” Scootaloo was instructed-

No. She was ordered to create a tight hold on the suddenly discovered stallion she was riding upon. The wind continued to scar Scootaloo’s face at a microscopic scale; and still flinched, she wrapped her front legs around the stallion’s exposed ribs.

Whoever this guy was, he saved her life.

She didn’t know in her heart that this was her fate. “Th...ank you...”

-But she did know this stallion, though vaguely. It was the very same individual whom she had spoken to during the previous day.

Morning broke as the rising sun was seen climbing atop the far mountains that far surpassed the clouds.

This guy’s name was David, simple enough.

However, with Scootaloo’s dramatically diminished sense of recognition upon her previous beating, she could not determine the physical appearance of the brave male. The only way she knew of his identity was due to the feel of numerous gaping scars on any part of his body that she touched, something the recipient had informed her of previously.

Scootaloo was starting to catch onto unfamiliar feelings as she also began to cough profusely. She was feeling dizzy, among other things. But primarily, an overwhelming insecurity haunted her; and that was only an addition to what she was already trying to overcome.

Scootaloo noticed that, just before she was staring to drift away again, SweetieBelle was riding alongside her.

Well, in front of her, actually. Scootaoo was able to take a quick glance at her friend, however facing away from her.

SweetieBelle lay fainted on David’s neck, failing to weigh him down at the least. All four of her legs her hanging off to the side their savior. Her back looked as if that region’s coat had been scalped clean off. Her horn was barely visible as her wet mane was covered in filth, obscuring the definition that was eligible to call her a Unicorn.

Scootaloo was able to fight off her temptation to die. She was paranoid that if she were to drift off to a weak, unintentional slumber, she would never wake up.

And as she saw the divine sunlight puncture the thick clouds above her distant home, she tightly clamped Sweetie’s tail between her lips, in pure hope.

”Everything’s gonna be okay, Sweetie... Everything’s gonna be...

Alright...”

Eventually, Scootaloo drifted into that forsaken period of recovery that her body automatically began. But she wouldn’t be safe, and she knew it underneath her skin. Except... she couldn’t do a thing about it.

She was already in the darkness’s sticky little fingers.

................................................

Scootaloo was a mess...

She had been fighting off those monsters as they all swarmed her, surrounding her. Her close combat skills were clearly second to none; ripping off heads with swift slices of her hooves. Whenever a differentiated monstrosity would assault her, she would overcome it as if it was nothing.

Strangely, her virtual self was able to remember how poorly her encounter with...AppleBloom went. She could remember the outcome, miserable as it was.

She could remember the pain, she could remember the pleasure her best friend seemed to be partaking in. The poor manipulated filly couldn’t control a single thing she was doing.

She remembered everything...

Finally, after all the monsters were gone; beheaded and defeated, Scootaloo knelt on the blood-catered floor, in which the crimson shades were streaked precisely across. She collapsed on her knees because she had become weak, and suddenly too.

She didn’t understand. She was feeling plenty vigorous prior to the action she had taken, but all of a sudden, she was utterly exhausted. Even to the point of giving up her desire to be living at the time. Her body ached and her insides were crying...

She felt everything...

Then, she appeared, however unmaterialized.

“Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo comprehended the faraway voice as AppleBloom’s. It was so fluent, despite her diminishing accent. But it was also very rough, and that wasn’t usual. She had always used a clear, high octave tone in her voice.

Scootaloo?? questioned AppleBloom once again.

But the desired recipient was unable to respond. She was incapacitated with her own mental troubles.

The thing was...her head was aching all too powerful for even a strong filly like Scootaloo, physically and mentally, to bear. The pain that she was feeling was killing her, literally.

She was dying...

The simply described pain was ironically powerful. It was as if the very skin from her head was being scalped off.

Then, after some time seemed to have passed, the pain stopped, and Scootaloo was finally given a fair opportunity to recover, no matter how hard she struggled to even try.

But inevitably, she managed. She bit her outer lips and rose from the understandably transparent floor, however false.

Upon gaining height, she took another observation to the floor.

This was bad...

The floor was now covered...saturated.

It was flooded with the vital elixir. And it would; it should only decipher the message that life is beautiful upon that definition.

No, this was the exact opposite of beautiful. There’s no way hell could be beautiful.

The silence and the lack of pain concerned Scootaloo. She would have been able to assume that this was a scene straight out of a horror movie, but it just didn’t come to her. It was part of her far from quaint nightmare.

And it was became true nightmare when her somewhat clear sight of perception anguished her as it weakened. She tried to keep her line of sight even barely valid, and she succeeded to her own surprise.

And then, just before Scootaloo woke herself from all of this, a visionary closely resembling a face rushed up to her hastily diminishing sight.

………………………………………

Scootaloo reacted upon witnessing her nightmare’s end. Awaking with an instantaneous defensive stance; an uncontrollable reaction, she found herself an early departure from her status as a passenger.

And with SweetieBelle’s ridiculously layered tail between her lips, she dragged the white unicorn along with her, waking her in the frightening process.

Scootaloo cried out for her other sibling, and as such, released her tail from her lips’ hold. Sweetie went flying up above the Pegasus, ironically enough.

The two friends made contact with the sharp points of the rocky ground at lightning speed. SweetiBelle rolled across the blades along with her incredible momentum, while Scootaloo hit a soft patch of grass. Ironic again because of what she had witnessed, yet failed to comprehend in her subconscious mind.

Immediately after receiving shock from the violent impact. SweetieBelle was allowed to see her friend across an estimated five foot pool of shadow. Her peripheral vision was also available, letting her witness the rampant chaos brought upon Ponyville by...more of those things.

“SCOOTS!” she called for her, but to no avail. The two practical sisters were witnessing the beginning of the end.

They had only been carried out of the alleyway about a quarter mile by the stallion whom was not able to be seen any longer due to the thick shadows.

The town of Ponyville had pretty much already been wiped off the face of the Earth. Nothing in the establishment was left standing. Even now, flames consumed what little remains of homes and local business existed prior to this disaster.

Only a few surviving residents were seen attempting to flee the scene, but it was also to no avail. The innocent mares, fillies, and colts were killed upon their first few steps from the burning debris that were their only home.

The unforgettable monsters mauled them in small groups.

They didn’t stand a chance...

And all the while, with chaos and destruction; evaporation and disappearance, the morning sun only highlighted these events further.

The scene disappeared from their sight, which was now blinded by darkness. However, SweetieBelle saw the pool of dark but noticeable lavender shadow grow out of the corner of her eye.It gained height beyond comprehension to the two fillies.

It reached a certain height until it inevitably stopped and materialized, creating a solid body for itself. It wasn’t a surprise to Sweetie that the creature’s goal was to kill her, and she expected it to be another one of those hideous monstrosities.

“Help...”

But she saw that she was wrong...

The creature grabbed SweetieBelle by her neck; something that was impossible for another quadruped to do. She was immediately cut off from the tainted oxygen that she needed to breathe in. Strangely, four separate veins of hers were being clotted at once.

This thing threw her up in its mysterious type of appendage, cold as it was along with its actions. Its body was shrouded in darkness, as was everything else.

Scootaloo at this point. She was out of sight, perhaps existence.

“Scoo-“But even considering Scootaloo’s apparent absence, Sweetie latently forced half of her friend’s name through her throat. But she didn’t have to suffer for long...

The world suddenly came to life again when the revealed bipedal creature was struck by an orange object. It stumbled a bit, stiffly recovering its position as it kept its tightening grip on SweetieBelle. But before the thing was able to fully recover its original posture, it was struck again, but this time by a blue blurring object. Whatever followed the orange burst of brightness had toppled the creature over, in turn releasing SweetieBelle from its grasp.

She managed to fall on all four of her legs, immediately starting an investigation based on her previous observation:

She hoped to her God that the orange sphere wasn’t Scootaloo.

She could vaguely recall the sight of a little bit of purple following the object, which only caused her worries to exaggerate. She also kept the idea of caution towards the fallen oppressor, whatever it was.

“S...o2, she’s okay...” Scootaloo spoke the truth, jesting her head as well as her vision to the northeast.

Something fell from the sky just then, right on the top of the Pegasus's head. It was some kind of set of white cables.

“...See?”

Sure enough, SweetieBelle followed her leader’s orders, no matter the status. There, no more than four feet away from her, she stood.

The country filly...

“Ah ain’t...goin’ down without a...a fight!”

She climbed atop the downed attacker that namely assaulted SweetieBelle. She was carrying something on her foreleg, and Sweetie noticed this as she stopped and stood in clear view of her two sisters.

Scootaloo retrieved the polished chrome item in a hurry, then shook off the dangling piece atop her head, which she connected to the device via plug-in slot. She knew what this was, but she wasn’t used to any wires being involved.

Afterwards, she kept her sight solely on AppleBloom’s equipped gadget; something she hadn’t noticed before.

Whatever it was, it was something she had never seen before, which meant she was ultimately fascinated, considering its function unknown. And on AppleBloom’s face...

Instead of a blood curdled face, or even something similar to the sort of thing as such would be expected at this point, a confident smile manipulated her lips.

The device on her arm was basically an extension of her foreleg, assuming the user’s bipedal position. Two thick rods of steel connected to a balled joint, only to bend the aforementioned steel to curve in any direction the user wished.

At the end of the unit, four long but thin rods were outstretched to their maximum length, with an additional oblong shaped member.

Each component was individually operated as miniature versions of the primary body of the unit. They were each also individually controlled at whim by the user. This was accomplished as a result of internal wiring; feeding off of the user’s mental desires, no matter what they were.

AppleBloom must have hated this strange being. She must have sensed the mutual suspicions of this creature.

She hovered the mechanical appendage over the fallen attacker’s body. Scootaloo and SweetieBelle just watched her in awe, still amazed as well as shocked by her rapid recovery.

How did she even recover from her hellish figure in the first place?

How did she even take that form?

Blatantly, AppleBloom knew her friends had many, many questions for her. They both completely realized that she was truly back to their world when she impaled the head of the monster by just levitating the mechanical arm over it. Her face then became streaked with a thin but sloppy red correspondent to the victim’s wound.

But even still, Scootaloo couldn’t help but keep her suspicions about her, though only small fractions existed.

Everything she thought of her now was questionable. She just couldn’t decipher the kinds of things she was thinking into comprehendible reasoning.

It was like...wherever AppleBloom was, disaster would soon follow.

The claim she had in mind was only true during the past month. Every single sign she had shown during that period, as well as some vague hints during the past night...

Either AppleBloom was just innocently growing up, making innocent and coincidental mistakes.

Or was it something more...?

When SweetieBelle looked back down at the creature, she found that it was dead; there was no doubting it. Its mouth was open, and inside it, a tall, glowing blue tablet was protruding from its flesh. She assumed that the worst was over: that all of it was over.

“APPLEBLOOM!!” she cried for her attention as she seemed skate across the rough patchy field.

Scootaloo was just as happy for her return, but she couldn’t really process the maximum positive potential she was capable of. She just didn’t really know what to feel at this point in time. She threw the braided wires over her neck as an opportunity to take the first action toward her thoughts.

“Hey Se-oofff!” SweetieBelle didn’t mean tackle AppleBloom, but, well...Sweetie was always a major klutz, especially when she was excited about something.

Without hesitating, AppleBloom managed to shrug Sweetie’s deathgrip off from her neck, but she still carried extra weight in addition to her piece of equipment. She ended up dragging Sweetie along with her at her left hoof.

She walked towards Scootaloo with a similar grin from the one before. Soon, she came close to her, and Scootaloo, having completed her thoughts, opened her arms wide for her, awaiting her friend’s embrace.

“Hey Scoots.”

She walked right past her; a light brush of her filthy tail trailing her face in the wind... She ignored the sanctuary that Scootaloo would be so certain to remind her of; that AppleBloom was still in possession of.

Friends...

Scootaloo...

At that very moment, as AppleBloom slowly walked across from her (dragging SweetieBelle along with her), she felt, for the first time in her life, truly alone.

AppleBloom was always willing to accept open arms from anyone, preferably her friends. It gave Scootaloo a sense of belonging; a feeling that she was actually good at something. Something she had always wanted to be acknowledged for her whole life.

That essence, in general, was what she had been pursuing for years alongside the friend she had always held dear.

But Scootaloo couldn’t believe that she was letting her own possible fortune to get in the way of her true feelings.

As she was trying to find a way to react to AppleBloom, her own curiosity finally got to her.

But she couldn’t combat the action and words she had in mind, especially considering what her friend said before. It had been true.

Something really was after AppleBloom and it wasn’t a lie.

She had experienced its wrath firsthand, but whatever it was, it wasn’t playing around. It almost reminded her of the story of her own past, the one that she could not remember.

She was really scared to be honest, and that girl did not scare easily. However, she couldn’t seem to share that same fear with AppleBloom anymore, as depicted by her actions.

“Hey, App!” Scootaloo was quite frustrated with her due to her own disability when it came to processing, or even overthinking, her emotions.

She turned around; ultimately wishing to confront her inquires intentions. SweetieBelle must have been asleep at this point.

“You okay?” AppleBloom was seen assisting a fallen stallion. It wasn’t the same one that she remembered from before, hell no. This guy had unbelievably noticeable colors intact to his name, whatever it was.

“Scootaloo, give me those earphones, quick!” Feeling down, she obliged. AppleBloom used the attached extension on her foreleg to pinch the white wires strategically.

Scootaloo approached the colorful stallion as AppleBloom inserted each end of the cables into both of his ears. It was safe to say that he was a protagonist towards an unknown cause.

Excluding the fact that he was injured, he was in pretty good shape. He was curled up in a protective position with his forelegs over his head, and his back legs bent.

As known before, he was a stallion with a deep blue coat with only that one imperfection in his attractive colored coat.

His mane and tail, both red with fluorescent green streaks, shimmered in the approaching sunlight, and highlighted the darkness of the existent shadows upon his hair. The universal theme resembled a sawblade; with his hair curving down.

He was a Unicorn, and it looked like the tip of his horn was stained with blood. His left thigh held the image of a single quarter note, surrounded by several arcane symbols.

Soon after taking a comprehensive look at the sight, the white colt from before appeared, carrying something that Scootaloo noticed only out of the corner of her eye.

“Who are you?” He asked of AppleBloom. “What happened?!”

“Can ya give me that big thing you picked up too?”

Scootaloo held the requested device in her mane since she found it. She pulled it out of her hair and presented it to AppleBloom. She immediately grabbed it from her and inserted the other end of the white cable into the upper right side chrome machine. On its backside, an image was evident, but it was so withered away due to heavy abuse.

Upon that activity, the blue pony began to show signs of life.

“Looks like that got him...up and running!” proudly said Davy. He had not been introduced to AppleBloom yet, but apparently, the blue colt has.

He sat up, rubbed his face a bit, and spoke to her after putting the chrome tablet into his pocket.

“Hey...thanks for your help.”

“No.” She looked at his magenta tinted eyes. “Thanks for your help.”

Oh, that’s another thing about these guys.

They wore these strange garments on their legs, as the blue unicorn also proceeded to stand on them. The pieces of clothing were blue; long tube-like sections seeming like they were both cut a bit below the middle of his two ligaments. There was really nothing too complicated about them; not even the shallow insertions on each side of their waists.

The blue male also noticed the white Unicorn behind him. The target of his attention had faint scratches and cuts all over his body.

“So, it’s nice to see that you haven’t completely failed, Davy.”

Threads of fabric from the cut clothing swaying in the wind as David took the bag off of his body and presented it to Scootaloo.

“I do believe this is yours, miss.” She took it from him when he reached close. She looped the leather strap across her chest and buckled the two endlinks together. She adjusted the constriction to her liking, which meant it wasn’t going anywhere aside her company.

“Thanks.” The one word was all she was able to mutter out from her still wondering state for the moment.

Now that she could assess her sight as clear, he took a good look at her savior.

In addition to his white coat, several faint cuts were visible on all areas of his body. What’s even stranger is that they were all a rusted brown color. Aside from that only bodily flaw, he was a fairly handsome stallion. He wore a sleek brown theme for hair. His eyes were also of a mixture of brown and black, those of which were somewhat enlarged by the half-eyed bifocal glasses he wore.

On his flank there laid the image of a pencil. It was pretty basic, so she didn’t give it much thought.

“Hey, it’s the least ah could do, you know.” said AppleBloom as she began to blush in a blatant fashion. Scootaloo became distracted from her own yearning conversation when she heard her speak in a curious tone.

But ultimately, she asked the white Unicorn:

“What the hay...is going on? I feel...different.”

“That’s so weird. So do I.” David agreed with Scootaloo. Indeed, since light was brought back into everyone’s existence, the air felt quite different. Aside from the destruction of Ponyville, and everything that happened in between according to Scootaloo’s memory, she didn’t know how to describe the new sensation flowing through her mind.

She turned her attention to AppleBloom now.

Funny. She was being friendly to Scootaloo now that her ‘new friend’ was walking away. “Come on.” he called out to the group.

“I see you finally got your ass mark, Scoots...” She sounded kind of concerned, all while Scootaloo was smart enough not to fall for that joke anymore. It was a broken record at this point.

SweetieBelle finally released her hold on AppleBloom’s leg and piped up with her annoyingly loud voice, only applicable when she entered a discussion that appealed to her.

“What?? You got your Cutie Mark?” She was as excited as she could ever be. “Come on, spin around! Show me those moves that you used to use on poles!” Well, obviously.

Scootaloo gave in to the monotonous temptation and gave her thighs a look, as she always inevitably did. However this was no joke.

“It looks kind of familiar...” AppleBloom added.

“What the hell?! Why do I have...Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark??” It was obvious that Scootaloo was really freaked out upon witnessing it with her very own two eyes. “I’ve gotta be dreaming. About everything!”

The image on her once blank flank was that of a forgery of Rainbow Dash, her lifelong idol and role model. Being able to clear the sky in ten seconds flat was a job only she could do. Performing Sonic Rainbooms was something only she could do...

“You look like you could really use a drink.” Yup. SweetieBelle was back in their faces as usual. “Don’t’cha think so, App?”

“That sounds great, Se2. T’s like you read my mind.” What was she talking about? She couldn’t drink! And neither could Sweetie! Perhaps they were just cracking jokes, like the good friends they were.

Either way, Scootaloo didn’t care, she was always one to defy the rules and make her own, assuming she was feeling up to it.

“Hey, maybe you’re right. I do need a good drink.”

The three friends were finally united again after such a terrifying and confusing ordeal. Following the path of the two Unicorns’ path, they headed back in the direction of their home: the treehouse.

The truth was, they all felt something else, similar to what the fearless leader was experiencing. Attitudes seemed changed from what was previous, new faces were met that only seemed to worsen the issue.

Nothing was what it seemed anymore, but this was the dawn of a new day.

The sun revealed the grass on the ground, but though it was all covered in the dead greenery, it was still beautiful to see even possible life instead of death.

(R)Interval-01_TRANSLATION (prologue)

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R.E.A.R.

{----- [[[[[-Interval-01: TRANSLATION-]]]]] -----}

“Okay, Crusaders! We need to come up with a new plan!” A slam was heard against a table, echoing throughout the treehouse. The Pegasus filly stated the obvious... again. Complete silence reigned afterwards, but for only a few seconds as two friends thought for that time.

“Cutie Mark, uhm...pole dancers?” A fellow filly suggested, no matter how excruciatingly awful the idea was. The other two members at the scene were both confused, yet disgusted.

“Why would bring that up? I thought we wouldn't ever mention that again...”

—

AppleBloom, SweetieBelle, and the leader of their world renowned group ‘The Cutie Mark Crusaders’ had spent days; even weeks, trying to figure out their next plans for getting their endlessly desired Cutie Marks. Scootaloo herself was the most adamant about this fact, denying its truth as she knew that there was always something out there to try. She knew that they had to do something; as their reputation was on the line at all times.

See, whenever anypony needed any kind of help, or anything needed to be done regarding an attempt to earn their Marks, they would be called to the scene. But, over time, and what a time it was for them (two weeks), their inspiration began to die as they were never shown any signs of enjoying any task they have brought upon themselves to take.

Even SweetieBelle grew tired as she continued to pursue her hidden interest...of all things, *pole dancing... But hey, she was convinced that it was her talent, and her fellow Crusaders had agreed, from that moment on, to just accept her way of thinking, and move on.*

—

“Maybe I just have to make somepony fall head over hooves for me, maybe then I’ll get it!” SweetieBelle excitedly squealed.

“But ‘Se2’...” AppleBloom used Sweetie’s nickname. It was given to her considering the first letter in her name, as well as both parts of it containing two of the same letter. “Yer makin’ us look bad when ya do that. And everyone knows you’re a part of our group.”

“Well, there probably are a lot more possibilities in the same field...” pondered the Unicorn.

“Whoa whoa, hold on there, missy! You have to stop thinking like that!” Scootaloo walked up to SweetieBelle and gave her a rough nudge. “Stop talking about that, you're driving me nuts!”

“Hehe...”

“Crap,” Scootaloo replied to the perverted giggle. “Here she goes again.”

SweetieBelle, over time, has changed drastically. She was no longer the sweet, innocent unicorn that dreamed of being a ‘fabulous’ dress designer like her older sister. And once Fluttershy told the entire group about where baby fillies and baby colts came from, she was the only one out of the three who was completely fascinated with the disgusting truth.

She had grown to accept that truth, but now, not an hour goes by when she isn't sexually stable.

“I’m gonna drive these nuts in your face, Scootaloo,” joked Sweetie with her raised voice.

“Guys! Stop it! Everypony can hear us...”

Scootaloo did not respond to Sweetie as she expected herself to. “Well, maybe, maybe after we get our ass marks, then I’ll mingle with you as celebration.”

“Guys, please!" AppleBloom cried out to them. She would never get in between those two when they had entered a conflict, and she knew that’s where Scootaloo was going with her response. AppleBloom had also changed after she heard the same story that Sweetie did, though not as badly as her friend.

After the incident, AppleBloom dove into the world of sex by adopting Twilight Sparkle, a Unicorn with unmatched magical talent, as her new big sister, after her blood sister AppleJack suddenly disappeared one random day, and never came back.

She would ask Twilight if she could spend a few nights with her on a constant schedule. The real reason why AppleBloom knew she would agree was because the filly had a crush on Twilight’s assistant, Spike.

When night fell, and the two residents were asleep, she would sneak down to the library portion of the home and start reading mature stories and tales about the subject, which was—quite bluntly—sex. And it was for no horrid cause other than to give in to the curiosity she had for the matter. Nothing else.

“What?!” squealed Sweetie. “Seriously??”

“Yeah, I’d tap that ass again after all this time we've been together.”

“Hey, maybe we can get 'AB' in it, too!”

“Uhh, Se2. I don’t do three ways.”

“Then I’m stumped!”

AppleBloom couldn't take it anymore and proceeded to slam the windows shut. However, she could not do as such planned when she saw an unexpected crowd outside. She scanned the situation, then immediately—and pointlessly—called for her friends. Yet, as expected, no response was given; Scootaloo kept on flirting with her friend.

Scootaloo seemed to disregard the apparent traumatization that SweetieBelle and AppleBloom had gone through. She kept it in mind however, but she didn't show any signs of interest to anypony. As such, she became dramatically more mature than she previously was.

But Scootaloo had her own little secret upon learning the truth. She learned how to...pleasure herself, all by herself, too. One day, she went missing for an entire day, and SweetieBelle just happened to find her in their treehouse one night, masturbating, in what she thought was total secrecy She couldn't describe how embarrassed she was, but SweetieBelle understood her, as she shared the same interest.

That night was magical for those two young fillies...

However, unlike SweetieBelle, Scootaloo didn't obsess over the experience. Sure, it was the best night of her life thus far, but she chose not to talk about her knowledge about the subject.

Utterly frustrated, AppleBloom resisted the urge to swear, considering her nature. “S.O.2!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, managing to draw attention from her sometimes stubborn friends. She soon recovered and calmed down. “Get over here, guys!”

“AppleBloom...?” A member of the audience requested the return of her attention, and it was surely given. AppleBloom had a bad feeling about this gathering.

There actually weren't as many members as when she first saw the group. AppleBloom instantly recognized Mr. and Mrs. Cake from the background of the already scarce ponies. It looked like Mr. Cake was crying while his wife comforted him.

AppleBloom’s friends finally came to her side, also scanning the audience.

“Yeah?” She turned toward the pony below the windowsill, all the way down to the ground. “What’s up?”

“You are, doofus.” Scootaloo roughly rubbed her hoof on AppleBloom’s head, messing up her mane’s appearance. “The Cakes' are over there.”

AppleBloom listened to Scootaloo--something that she didn't often do--and it turns out she was right. There was nopony seen directly from her downward vision. She shook her head and focused on directing her vision to the far open distance. There, she saw the aforementioned couple; Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

AppleBloom...

The Apple filly responded, but not before her head started to ache. “Who's asking?”

“Come down here, please...” hesitatingly answered the wife.

Scootaloo was the first of the group to head outside, dragging SweetieBelle along with her. Sweetie was still fantasizing over the thought of Scootaloo ‘pleasing’ her. AppleBloom soon followed them as she rubbed her head in both confusion, and in pain.

However, though AppleBloom was the last one in line to leave the treehouse, she was the first one to meet the Cakes', as she was the target of their attention. She was followed by SweetieBelle, who was, in turn, dragging Scootaloo behind her. She had grown bored of Sweetie’s ranting about how much she would love to meet her dream pony, whether it be colt or filly.

“AppleBloom...” Mrs, Cake repeated as her husband's cries started in increase, anticipating what she was about to say. The filly finally reached her and stood still and silent a few seconds, waiting for another response from the adult.

“Come with us,” she sadly requested of the young filly. She still had much to learn about what the Cakes were about to tell her... “We’ll tell you on the way. We’re going to the park, but not to play..."

"Not to play," repeated Mr. Cake. "No..." Tears streamed down the wife's as well, much stronger than before.

Scootaloo broke free from SweetieBelle’s surprising grasp. “AppleBloom, what’s up?” she asked.

“Ah...ah don't know.” She was soon guided away by Mrs. Cake, who stayed silent as she comforted her husband even more considering its need. Her friends just watched as she walked away with the adults. They didn't know whether they should be concerned or scared, or anything like that. Even SweetieBelle put on her serious face upon seeing the dire question in AppleBloom’s face as she turned away for just a second.

But clearly, something serious happened if Scootaloo, the group’s leader receiver a bone paralyzing chill in her wings at the time...

Something...deathly serious.