The Cutie Mark Crusaders' New Lives

The glow around Apple Bloom’s hooves had disappeared around a minute ago. Yet, she refused to stop running. Her lungs screamed for her to stop, to rest, but she ignored it. Branches whipped by her as she ran, tearing at her fur and flesh. She was bleeding from several of the cuts she’d received, but she would not stop running. She periodically checked behind her to see if she had a follower, and after a few minutes of more running, this proved a valid worry. There, only a few hundred paces behind her, was a stallion. She couldn’t tell which one, and she really didn’t care. She didn’t know she had it in herself, but somehow, she sprinted even faster.

The clop of hooves following her was all the motivation she needed to keep up her panicked pace. There was a particularly dense group of bushes ahead. Without slowing down, she burst through them, and was greeted with an interesting sight.

Was that…? Lights! Street lights! She could see the silhouettes of houses too. It didn’t look like Ponyville, but she couldn’t care less. Salvation was so close, Apple Bloom opened her mouth to scream for help. Her mind on the lights, she didn’t notice the root until it was too late. Her leg twisted sickeningly, and she screamed in pain as she fell onto the dense forest floor. She managed to twist her body during the fall so that her shoulder took the brunt of the impact, and despite the searing pain, got back up and did her best to limp towards town. With her slowed pace, the figure behind to catch up to her, but she still had a good lead. As she got closer, Apple Bloom realized that she actually recognized this town. It was Colton. Her great aunt Honeycrisp lived here. She was too far away from their home to move straight towards it though, so Apple Bloom limped up to the first building, and hammered on the door.

“Help! Please, somepony!” The figure behind her was much closer now, so she leaped away from the door, wincing as she landed, and moved to the next house. “Somepony! Please, wake up!” She turned to see the figure close in, and he was suddenly cast in light. It was Tinker, and from the way the light bathed him Apple Bloom realized that a light must have gone on in the house behind her. Down the road, another house lit up, and then another. Tinker was stuck in place, briefly unsure of what to do. The door that Apple Bloom had just been banging on swung open, and a young mare stood in the entry way. Seeing Apple Bloom, her hair a mess and bleeding from the forest run, her eyes went wide in shock. Apple Bloom looked to her, hope beginning to find its place in her again. “Please, please help me.” Ponies were shuffling out of their homes, rubbing sleep from their eyes. It was then that Tinker finally snapped out of his shock, and began running. The mare, vaguely understanding that Tinker had been trying to attack Apple Bloom yelled out to the ponies in the street.

“Stop him! Stop that stallion.” Tinker blasted past the ponies before any of them could process what they were hearing, and ran towards the edge of town. A few of the ponies gave chase, but he was too far ahead. He had nearly reached the forest line when a particularly fast mare ran past him. Before Tinker could respond, the mare hunched down, and her hooves went flying back into Tinker’s face. There was a horrid cracking noise, as Tinker’s jaw shattered. The stallion collapsed to the ground, immediately unconscious. Apple Bloom, who had watched the whole thing unfold from the patio of the mare who’d raised the alarm, felt tears form in her eyes as the mare that had stopped Tinker approached her. Ignoring her injured leg, she sprinted forward, and tackled the mare into a hug.

“Hey there Sugarcube.” Apple Bloom couldn’t even respond. Her face was buried into her sister’s chest, her tears matting Applejack’s fur. Applejack wasn’t doing much better. She had her little sister squeezed into her chest, her eyes were glistening as she looked at the disheveled filly. “I was…I.” She sniffed, as her forehead rested lovingly on Apple Bloom’s own. Apple Bloom sniffed as she tried, desperately to speak to her older sibling. As she held Apple Bloom to her, Applejack looked down at her sister and noticed the matted fur around her legs. Applejack pet her mane gently, but her voice took on a darker tone. “Apple Bloom, what did they do to you?” Her sister’s crying just worsened in response, as a newfound rage burned in Applejack’s soul.

“I’m fine now sis. I’m…I’m going to be ok now.” Apple Bloom said, barely daring to believe that it was actually true. She saw from the corner of her eyes as the other ponies in town were securing Tinker, to keep him from escaping, and it snapped her back to the immediate problem. She forced Applejack to let her go as she looked up at her big sister. “Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are still out in the woods. They…they were chasing us, and we split up. You have….” Applejack interrupted her sister.

“I can’t just leave you here. I just found you again. You’re never leaving my hooves again.” Apple Bloom just stared back at her, and Applejack let her hooves fall to that ground, her sense returning.

“I’ll be fine.” Apple Bloom responded. “I’ll just go stay with Aunt Honeycrisp until you get back. I’ll be safe here. Please, go save Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.” Applejack rubbed the last of her tears out of her eyes as she nodded. Getting up to her feet, she turned to the ponies who were still gathered in the street.

“Ponies, the fillies from the missing ponies posters I’ve been hanging around town are in these woods. I need your help; can I get a volunteer to go to Neighville and let a friend of mine know what’s going on?” The mare that had first opened the door for Apple Bloom raised her hoof. “Thank you. You’ll want to find a white mare with a fancy blue mane being shadowed by a baby dragon. Believe me, you won’t miss her.” The mare ran off as fast as she could. Colton wasn’t far, Apple Bloom remembered, and if Spike was with Rarity then informing her meant informing everypony. Applejack had by this point, organized the assembled ponies into four major search groups that were to scour the forest. They would travel in groups to ensure that they could overpower the kidnappers if they found them. Applejack would be traveling alone. “Apple Bloom, please, please stay safe.” Apple Bloom hugged her sister as she nodded in response, then Applejack turned to begin her search.

The trip from Neighville to Colton was a short one, but for Rarity it had felt like an eternity. After asking the few remaining ponies where she was going, she was directed to the home of one Honeycrisp. She hurried there, her little dragon companion following her closely. When the door swung open, Rarity could suppress a squeal of joy. There, curled up next to the fireplace, with a blanket over her huddled form was Apple Bloom.

“Oh, you must be Rarity and Spike.” An elderly red mare with an apple cutie mark walked slowly up to her. “Yes, she wanted to stay up and wait to hear how the search was going, but a few minutes by the fire and out she went.” She said in a sweet voice. “I haven’t seen sweet little Apple Bloom in years, shame about the circumstances.”

“About that miss…Honeycrisp correct?” The elderly mare nodded, and Rarity continued, “About that, I was hoping to help with the search as it were. Can you assist me? I need to know where I am going, and what happened to my sister.” The mare nodded to Rarity, as the fashionista turned to Spike, “Spike I want you to take down everything she says. Celestia is searching Canterlot with Rainbow Dash, and I imagine Dash will want to help.”

The sounds of a search party echoed behind Umber as he tried to haul an unconscious Sweetie Belle through the dense forest. There was no going back to the house, it would be found before too long. It was probably too risky to go looking for Onyx too. So, the only thing for it was to book it out of there as fast as he could. The search team was impressively organized, but the forest was truly massive. He could easily disappear into it. The sun was beginning to rise, he’d been on the run for hours by this point, and his back was starting to hurt. Listening closely, it didn’t sound like any of the would-be rescuers were very close. Bending down, he dumped Sweetie Belle onto the ground. With his magic, he pulled a roll of duct tape out of his back and tied the filly’s hooves together, and placed a piece over the unconscious filly’s mouth.

“You have been way more trouble than you’re worth. You know that brat?” His hoof slid down her sleeping body, and cupped her folds. “I’m going to destroy this once we get somewhere safe.” His attention was so focused on Sweetie Belle, that he didn’t notice that he was being watched. A crunching sound jerked the stallion to alertness as he flipped around to see a white mare standing across from him. Looking down, he saw a light glow around his hooves. “W-what? How?”

“When you ran out of your house after my sister and her friends, you left a pretty clear trail on the ground. You’re not the only pony that knows tracking spells.” Rarity spat at him, her horn glowing threateningly. ‘Sister….’ Umber thought, as he looked down to where his hoof was. He quickly pulled his hoof back, and leapt to his feet.

“Back off! You’re alone bitch, and I was an royal guard for ten years. I will f….” Umber was cut off as a branch ripped off a nearby tree, and slammed into his face. He was sent flying several feet away from Sweetie Belle’s still form. Blood running from his muzzle, and several teeth chipped, he rose back up. His horn glowed as he gripped a nearby rock. With as much force as he could manage, he hurled it at Rarity. However, as it neared her, her aura overtook his. The rock flipped back his direction, and before he could react, it his him straight in the chest. Umber fell to the ground and as he tried to rise a second branch hit him on the side of the head, snapping in half from the force of the blow, knocking him unconscious.

Rarity wasn’t sure how many bones of his she had broken, but it was almost certainly not enough. Turning to her unmoving sister, Rarity sprinted over, and cradled Sweetie Belle gently. As her hooves held the small figure, a cataclysmic *BOOM* punctured the air. Rarity looked up to see the slowly spreading through the sky. She couldn’t help the demented grin that spread across her face. Thunderous vengeance was coming down from the sky soon. Rarity held Sweetie Belle as the sounds of the search party finally reached them, and held her out into the waiting and helping hooves of Applejack.

Scootaloo’s eyes drifted open, only to be met with a blinding light. She tried to move her hooves, but predictably, they were tied together. There was also something over her mouth, it felt like tape. ‘Well that’s gonna suck to pull off.’ She thought. Looking around, she could see that she was on the back of the cart that had been out front of the abandoned house the day she was kidnapped. Looking behind her, she could see Canterlot Mountain in the distance. Her heart sank, it was a lot farther away than it had been. However, her eyes widened when she saw something, a bright streak of color. It was some ways off, but that had to be….

“Oh, you’re awake then?” She looked up and saw Onyx leading the cart. “I wondered when you’d wake up.”

“Mph! Mmm mmmm!” Scootaloo tried to taunt Onyx, but the stallion just laughed at her impossible to understand speech. He stopped walking, and came around the side of the cart. Scootaloo realized for the first time how empty the road was, while that was a good thing in terms of Rainbow Dash finding her, that also meant that Onyx probably wasn’t too worried about being seen by others on the road. Seeing the look in Onyx’s eyes, Scootaloo began frantically yanking on the tape holding her hooves together.

“It’s over. There is nowhere to run to where I won’t be spotted from the air.” Onyx said as he reached Scootaloo. He smacked her cheek hard enough to drop her onto the cart floor. “You and your friends ruined everything. I have been doing this for twenty-five years, I was always so damn cautious. All it takes is a single witness, and there goes everything.” He pushed her face into the floor, making Scootaloo yell through her gag in pain. “Well, if I’m going down, I’m going to at least get one last round in.”

Scootaloo tried to scream through her gag. It was pointless, she knew, but she prayed Rainbow Dash would hear her. The horrible feeling of Onyx lining himself up with her only made her struggle more. Scootaloo’s body was racked with sobs she felt him slide in and out of her.

“One more time honey. Maybe I’ll even get you pregnant. You finally get to go home, and you bring a piece of me back with you.” Scootaloo tried to say something, anything, but only managed a *mph* sound through the tape. She could feel her own juices coating her legs as the stallion pounded into her. Unable to fight back, Scootaloo just closed her eyes and let it happen. The pain was never as bad for her as it was for the other fillies, but it still hurt a bit every time he pushed into her. The feeling of his cock filling her body sent shivers of unwelcome pleasure through her as she grunted. Onyx had his eyes closed, just trying to enjoy one last run, drinking in this filly’s misery as she cried.

The sound of a resounding crash snapped Onyx out of his bliss. Before he could turn to look at the source of the sound, a force knocked into him, launching him out of Scootaloo and flat on his ass. His eyes only caught a brief glimpse of a rainbow-colored mane before a pair of hooves came crashing down on his face. Eyes dazed by the impact, he didn’t even see the next one coming, or the next one, or the next….

Scootaloo watched in a mix of admiration, joy, and horror, as Rainbow made Onyx’s face almost unrecognizable. Rainbow Dash was screaming in rage as she slammed her hooves into every part of him. Her last kick was to his balls, still wet with Scootaloo’s juices. From the stallions pained whimpers, Scootaloo could tell he was alive, but he probably wished he wasn’t. Rainbow grabbed the dropped roll of duct tape and secured the stallion thoroughly, and then came running back to Scootaloo.

“Squirt! Hey, Squirt, please tell me you’re alright.” She picked up Scootaloo, and rested her on her lap. She was desperately trying to keep from breaking down crying as she held her precious sister. “Are you OK?” Scootaloo *mmmed* into her gag, and Rainbow’s face turned a bit red. “Oh…right.” She quickly ripped the gag off.

“OW! Damn that hurts!” Scootaloo rubbed her mouth on her shoulder, as she sniffed a bit, still crying from her recent rape. Rainbow laughed, and held Scootaloo to her chest.

“I can’t believe it. When Rarity sent that letter saying that they’d found Apple Bloom, I just…I wanted to scream with joy.” Looking down at Scootaloo’s damp thighs her grip tightened. “I fucked him good. I can hit him more if you….” Scootaloo’s laughing interrupted Dash. She looked up at her big sister.

“Right now, I just want you to finish untying me.”

That night the three fillies slept piled in a heap around Honeycrisp’s fire. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash watched them sleep, each too overjoyed just to see their sisters alive to need anything else from this night. The stallions had been handed over to the royal guard for questioning. All three had need medical attention, Onyx most of all, to Rainbow’s great pride. The only one that anypony seemed to know was Umber, apparently, a former guard dismissed for “unmeritorious conduct.” Not that it mattered who they were really, they could rot in Tartarus for all the elder siblings cared.

“What do we do when they wake up?” Rarity finally broke the silence.

“What do you mean? We hug them so hard their brains pop out of their ears.” Rainbow replied laughing.

“Yes Sugarcube, but what I think she means is, what do we do to help them.” Applejack could see that Rainbow was confused, so she continued. “They will never forget this hon. This will change them, and it might be a very long time before they feel safe again.”

“Applejack is correct Darling. They’ve been scared every moment of every day since they were taken from us, and the things that were done to them….” Rarity scowled angrily. “I’d like to break another branch over that monster’s face.” Looking back up at Rainbow Dash, Rarity continued. “I, well, I don’t even know where to begin helping Sweetie Belle.”

“Be there for her.” Rainbow Dash replied simply.

“Now, Dash, it’s not going to be that simple….” Applejack started before Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

“I know that Applebrain, but, if you’re right, then we won’t know what we need to do until they let us know how they’re coping. Until then, we can be there for them. To let them know that we love them, that they’re safe around us.” Rainbow Dash looked at Scooloo’s sleeping form, watching her little chest rise and fall as her hooves gripped Apple Bloom’s leg tightly in her sleep. “They’ll be ok. You know these girls as well as I do. No matter how hard things will be after this, they’ll be ok.”