The Bounty and the Hunter
The three mugs slammed together with a clunk, sloshing some of the contents over the table before the trio could take a deep swig of their winnings. The unicorn stopped first, holding a hand to her mouth to stay her dainty belch, followed by the pegasus who had to stop after downing seven-tenths of her mug, leaving the earth pony to down the entire contents of her drink before slamming the empty container onto the table victoriously. She celebrated with a loud, unrestrained belch.
"Thanks for the free drinks," she called out to the bartender, who had barely started serving another table. "Another one, if ya could, Berry."
"The second round isn't free," the bartender warned, heading back to the barrel behind the bar and grabbing three more mugs. "The first round was thanks for stopping those bandits extorting me, but I still need to make a living, you know."
"Don't fret nothin' of it," the earth pony replied, beaming over her shoulder. "We're just doin' our bit to keep Ponyville safe an' sound. All we need is the thanks."
"In that case, perhaps you'd like to pay for the first round?" Berry pressed.
"What Apple Bloom means is that we fully intend to pay for every drink you serve us from now on," the pegasus jumped in, hurriedly finishing her own meagre remnants. "Thank you very much for your kindness."
Berry Punch rolled her eyes as she brought over the drinks, placing them on the table and holding out her hand expectantly. Coins floated over and piled themselves neatly in the mare's palm, the magic hue fading away once they'd been stacked. Giving a nod to the unicorn, the barmare returned to her duties, serving the rest of the customers, and leaving the trio to their private conversation.
"What next?" the unicorn asked, eyeing the posters on the wall, sipping her drink tepidly.
"Are you already thinking about the next quest?" the pegasus groaned. "We just finished one. Can't we take a break before we go off and fight evil and stuff?"
"Sweetie Belle's just thinkin' ahead," Apple Bloom remarked. "We're gonna have our break in this here tavern, an' by tomorrow mornin', half our pay's gonna be gone. We gotta think 'bout our next move while we can still think clearly." She turned around to view the poster wall too. "Somethin' that'll keep us funded for a while..."
"A dragon?"
"No, Scootaloo, we ain't fightin' a dragon."
"You always say that," the pegasus grumbled, swirling her drink in her mug. "At least let's go for something better than some dumb bandits camped ten steps away from a road this time."
"We could collect ingredients from the Everfree Forest," Sweetie suggested. "An alchemist needs plants and she's willing to pay anypony who collects them."
"Sounds too fetchy," Scootaloo dismissed, wrinkling her nose.
"Somepony wants a group to go to Hollow Shades," Apple Bloom read out. "Worried 'bout the loss of contact with the village."
"Sounds long and boring," Scootaloo griped.
"What are you expecting?" Sweetie complained, scowling at the orange mare. "You don't want bandits, you don't want fetch-quests, you don't want exploration quests; what exactly do you want that we can actually accomplish?"
"That right there," the pegasus said, without a second's hesitation, pointing to a poster in the centre of the board. The other two looked, quirking eyebrows at one another.
"I thought you said you didn't want to fight bandits?" the unicorn queried.
"That's not a bandit, that's an outlaw."
"What in the hay is the difference between a bandit and an outlaw?"
"Bandits are nameless goons, ponies who figure they can live an easy life robbing and stealing and doing basic goon stuff," Scootaloo explained. "They're basic and dumb, and they always come in groups. They'll have knives and iron swords, and they'll just shout basic commands at you to drop your possessions, or tell you that you shouldn't have come here. Outlaws have worked for their reputation. They're wanted specifically. How many bandits do you know on a first-name basis, huh? Outlaws have got that prestige, they've been named and towns cry out for some heroes to come and stop their lawless ravaging."
"That still sounds like a bandit," Sweetie remarked, earning a scowl from the pegasus.
"Look," Scootaloo continued, "Outlaws are known, they have notoriety, and they can't just be taken down by common folks, right? That means that if we take them down, we'll have fame and fortune thrown our way. The ponies who take down nameless bandits remain nameless, but everypony knows the heroes who defeat great villains. Don't you girls want to be prestigious? We've got a reputation to build, and it starts with taking down a named outlaw."
Apple Bloom pursed her lips and nodded slowly. "Ah'll be damned, Scootaloo's got a point," she commented. "Well, if we're sure we can handle it, ah'm in." She received a grin from Scootaloo, who turned to the white mare still looking doubtful.
"I...I mean, can we handle it?" Sweetie asked. "We've done quests before, but we've never had to take on an outlaw like this."
"Come on, we've handled plenty of bandits."
"You just said bandits are different from outlaws."
"That's not the point. If we can take out bandits, we can take out one pony together, right? There's nothing we can't do if we're together. If we don't believe that, why are we even together?"
The unicorn pulled a number of faces, glancing between her two companions. She looked at the wall, at the rewards printed in bold numbers - 100 bits for ingredients, 300 bits for making contact, 10,000 bits for bringing an outlaw to justice - and sighed as Scootaloo's words rolled around her mind. Finally, she nodded.
"Yeah, I'm in too."
"Alright!" Scootaloo cheered, raising her mug and thumping it against her two companions' own. "Crusaders, let's get planning!" She stood up and stalked over to the poster board, yanking the bounty from the wall and returning to the table with it. "Let's see...it says here the outlaw is known as the Spectral Spectre, and her whereabouts are somewhere around the Everfree Forest."
"Known to target Ponyville and Cloudsdale," Sweetie read. "She must be a pegasus then, right?"
"Or a unicorn," Apple Bloom pointed out, pressing her finger on the next line. "It says she wields a powerful artefact known as the Sceptre of Loyalty which commands total obedience in anycreature struck by its effect. Who's to say she can't levitate herself to Cloudsdale?"
"How are we meant to defeat a pony who could either be a pegasus - in which case neither me nor Bloom can get to her - or a unicorn, in which case she could put us under a spell?" Sweetie wrinkled her nose unhappily.
"Well, that's easy," Scootaloo boasted, downing her drink in a gulp that lasted several seconds. When she slammed the empty vessel on the table, she looked back to her two companions. "Tonight, we drink ourselves into a stupor. Tomorrow, we go shopping for the supplies we need, and then..."
Apple Bloom's armour clanked softly as she stepped carefully into the courtyard ruins, her drawn sword reflecting the white light of the full moon overhead. She glanced over every stone, watching for movement or disruption to indicate the presence of her quarry. Her ears swivelled, sticking out from her half-helm and focusing on any out-of-place noise, any crack or sudden shift. Reaching the centre, she turned in a slow circle, casting her eyes over the decrepit remains of a once great castle. Her golden cuirass expanded with her chest as she took a breath, filling her lungs.
"Spectral Spectre!" she bellowed, shouting into the night sky. "Ah know you're here! In the name of the Kingdom of Equestria, on behalf of the throne of the sun an' moon, ah summon you! Come out an' face justice for all you've done! Come out an' answer for your crimes to Ponyville an' to Cloudsdale!" Her voice echoed from the stones, reverberating from the walls and fading into the open sky. She turned her head to the left, to the right, and looked over her shoulder. There was no movement, no indication that anyone had heard her command.
"You will be tried fairly," she shouted once more. "You'll be given all the rights your dignity deserves, but you will not be goin' free today! You will never terrorise the good subjects of this kingdom ever again!" Her announcement dissipated into the night, leaving her alone and without any response. "If you run, you'll never be safe. Ah'll find you, an' ah'll pursue you to the ends of the world if ah have to. You-"
The blur was too fast to register, and it was only reflexes and muscle memory that allowed Apple Bloom to turn her shield towards the incoming threat and adopt a defensive posture in time. The blur impacted her shield with a ringing clang, striking with the force of a runaway cart, and even her planted hooves couldn't stop the mare being thrown backwards into a column, grunting as the surface dented. Her half-helm prevented her head smashing into the stone, her cuirass kept most of the wind in her lungs, and her greaves prevented her knees from injury as she fell forward, but the ache persisted nonetheless. She took deep breaths, ignoring the protest from her diaphragm, and focused on the world immediately in front of her.
Hoofsteps, getting closer.
With a savage grunt, the earth pony lurched to her hooves and swung her sword in an upward arc, cleaving through empty air. She leapt forward, jabbing aggressively ahead, her target stepping back an equal distance, stopping when she did. Raising her shield and holding her blade close, Apple Bloom eyed up the figure who had attacked her.
A black roughspun tunic and leggings covered the figure's body, a hood raised over their head and a mask drawn up over their muzzle. Cerise eyes glared back at her, shining with a malicious delight. Blue wings extended behind the figure, twitching with eagerness.
"And who are you, hotshot?" a raspy female voice asked, the figure's head tilting.
"Apple Bloom of Ponyville," the earth pony answered, gripping the hilt of her blade more tightly. "Ah'm here to bring you to justice, Spectral Spectre. It only took three days for me to find you, an' takin' you in ain't gonna be harder than that. Surrender now, and this don't need to be harder than it already is."
"You sound confident," the pegasus purred, her eyes narrowing in cocky mirth. Apple Bloom ignored the discomfort from how those cerise irises wandered up and down, observing the earth pony's figure and seeming to penetrate the armour she wore. "You must be pretty new to adventuring. You don't look very old. Let me guess; you've dealt with a few bandits here, a few timberwolves there, and you figured you were strong enough to bring in a bounty more worth your spectacular skill?"
"Ah ain't playin' games," Bloom snarled, raising her shield across her torso. "Surrender now, and ah'll be fair."
"That doesn't sound like a 'no' to me," the pegasus retorted, a low chuckle flowing through the mask. "It doesn't seem fair, really. I tell you what; hand over that shield, and I'll let you go. That's a fair price for your freedom, right? Come back when you've got a bit more experience under your belt, and we'll see if you're got what it takes to bring me in then."
"Ah'm bringin' you in tonight." She fixed the pegasus with a determined gaze, inching closer to the robed mare.
"Come on, champ; you're in over your head. I like your confidence, but confidence can only get you so far. You need skill, too. Toss the shield, and I swear I'll let you go. Cross my heart and hope to fly. You can't take me."
Apple Bloom's jab and swing were swift, delivered in a clean slice through the space in front of her. Timberwolves had fallen prey to it, as had bandits and monstrosities made of fruit, any and all she'd faced before. The jab was short and quick, the slash accompanied by a leap to catch off-guard anycreature which tried to retreat, and she always landed her mark. The pegasus, however, remained unaffected. She ducked back, so suddenly and sharply it was as if she had simply manifested out of harm's way. The next swing, outward across the earth pony's body, fared no better, and this time, before she could recover, the pegasus had closed the gap, grabbing Bloom's sword-hand and forcing it away from both of them.
"Not bad," the Spectral Spectre commented, as if assessing a dance routine. She leaned in, forcing Bloom to bend backward, keeping her off balance and sapping her strong posture of its usefulness. "Great hoofwork, quick swing - you're a good swordspony. Give it a year or two, you might even be able to take me on." The words burrowed under the earth pony's skin, and she tensed her arm further, willing the blade to turn. "Oooh, strong, too. Were you a farmer before you became an adventurer? Didn't you say your name was...Apple Blosom? Something like that? You're not related to Applejack, are you? Sweet Apple Acres? I haven't been there for a while, maybe-"
It wasn't a good position from which to launch a kick, but the mention of her sister and her home filled Bloom with equal measures of dread and anger, and she twisted her body enough for her knee to make contact with the pegasus' back. Not as strong as she would've liked, but given her lack of balance, it was the best she could hope for, and it forced the Spectral Spectre away with an 'oof'. Bloom raised her shield and sword once more, eyes narrowed and fixed on the bounty she'd come to claim.
"That was a cheap shot," the outlaw complained, rubbing at her ribcage. "I'm not in a position to criticise, I guess, but a paragon of virtue and law should be above that, shouldn't she? I guess you're still a newbie, but you might wanna work on that."
"Last chance," Apple Bloom warned. "Spectral Spectre, do you yield?"
"Really, kid?" the mare responded. She didn't sound proud, but incredulous. "After all that, you're still gonna try and play hero? You've got a way out, you've yet to actually hit me in any meaningful way, and you're talking as if I'm on the ropes? There's a line between bravery and stupidity, and I've been trying to show you the door because I like the challenge of fighting brave heroes who can handle themselves, but at some point I am gonna have to just take you down. You know that, right?" The earth pony fixed the outlaw with a resolved glare and banged her shield three times with her sword. The pegasus sighed. "I'm not a fan of beating up naive young mares, but fine. Just don't blame me when-"
Apple Bloom didn't see Scootaloo's speeding approach from the shadowy recesses of the ruins before she planted both hooves in the Spectral Spectre's back. The impact jolted the outlaw forward, shock still morphing on what could be seen of the robed pony's face as she stumbled into range of Bloom's reach. The earth pony thrusted her shield forward, smashing the staggered foe with an almighty thump. Scootaloo shot forward and kicked out at the Spectral Spectre's legs, her hooves biting into the latter's calves and her momentum carrying her onward. With her legs folding and her body swept over the chaotic cannonball that was the orange pegasus, the Spectre landed heavily on the ground, grunting as the air was knocked from her. Her eyes fixed on the two adventurers, and she rolled onto her front to scramble to her hooves with a surprising amount of readiness.
A flash of light from the darkness sprang forward, fizzing through the air with an electric buzz, whizzing across the courtyard. It struck the rising mare in the chest, and she fell straight down, folding like a dropped pile of laundry as she hit the ground once again. Apple Bloom stepped closer, one hoof at a time, carefully approaching her defeated quarry. At her side, Scootaloo followed, and from the other side of the courtyard, Sweetie emerged from the shadows, anxiously edging closer to the unmoving body. They encircled her, eyes fixated on the prone pony, scarcely breathing lest it shatter the imprisoning silence, until Scootaloo nudged the body with a hoof, then delivered a kick to its leg.
"We got her!" the pegasus cheered, pumping her fist and hooting at the sky. "We did it! We actually took down an outlaw! Nice casting, Sweetie!"
"I was worried I was going to hit one of you!" Sweetie proclaimed, bouncing excitedly in place. "I had to lower my head to cast, and I thought I'd missed, then I looked up and I saw I'd hit her!"
"Real nice shot," Apple Bloom agreed. "Well done, both of ya; I really appreciate y'all havin' my back tonight."
"Pfft, it's what we're here for," Scootaloo scoffed, handwaving the gratitude. "Crusaders forever, right?"
"Besides, you're the one who took the risk," the unicorn pointed out. "It's you we should be thanking."
"I love both of ya, but we can sort out all the back-pattin' an' celebratin' later," the earth pony insisted, focusing them. "We tie her up, make sure she ain't got the sceptre on her, and haul her back to camp. We take turns guardin' her 'til dawn, then we bring her into town and claim our reward. Ah'll take first shift guardin' her, an' when we get back, drinks are on me. Who's got the rope?"
The trio glanced between one another, their visages switching from ecstatic to concerned, and then sheepish. Several long seconds passed, a few coughs emitted from one of the girls, and finally, they sighed.
"I'll get her right arm, you get her left."
"Eeyup."
"How are we going to keep her still now?"
"We'll tie her when we get back to camp."
"What if she wakes up before then?"
"What if we don't have any rope at the camp?"
"I packed rope, I just didn't bring it to the ambush."
"The plan was that you would bring the rope with you to the ambush! What if you also didn't bring it with you to the camp?"
"Girls!" Apple Bloom interrupted firmly, and drawing all eyes to her. "We ain't gettin' any closer to solvin' this by arguin'. Either there's rope at the camp or there ain't, an' if there ain't, then we gotta solve that too. If y'all wanna argue, y'all can argue when we hand her over to the town. Until then, we deal with what's in front of us. Y'all got that?" The other two stared wordlessly, their eyes wide and their expressions that of shared dread. Had she been too forceful with them?
"What about dealing with what's behind you?"
The raspy voice sent a chill through the mare. The words were spoken from behind, right behind her, so close that she could feel the breath against her ear. She had no idea how the Spectre had recovered so fast, nor got up so swiftly and silently, but that didn't change the fact that she was right there.
Her sword cut through open air as she spun and slashed, already foreseeing the inevitable failure but refusing to simply remain inactive. She didn't even see the Spectre's evasion, remaining ignorant as to whether she darted to the side or leapt over her head, and by the time she recovered, spinning back to face her two friends, she had just enough time to see the robed pony duck to the side, and a bright light lance straight through the space the Spectre had previously occupied. With no one to block it, Sweetie's spell continued on its uninterrupted path, straight towards Apple Bloom.
The impact didn't hurt so much as deaden her senses. She collapsed, her limbs sluggishly and sloppily responding to her commands, her sword and shield clattering noisily to the ground. She barely kept herself upright, fighting against the rapid onset of pins and needles through gritted teeth. Lifting her head, she sought out their quarry, spotting only Sweetie lashing at the sky with bright magic, launching missiles into the heavens above. Scootaloo wasn't with her. Lifting her head higher, Apple Bloom craned her neck, catching sight of two dark silhouettes dancing high above them, twirling and jabbing at one another. They were both fast, each flurry segueing into the next before Bloom's brain had fully processed all the movements they'd conducted.
"Sweetie, stop castin'," she called to the unicorn. "Y'ain't gonna hit anythin' at this distance! Get Scootaloo down here so we can help her-"
The scream interrupted her instructions, and her gaze was once again wrenched towards the sky. Whether Scootaloo had let out her wail from pain or terror, Bloom didn't know, but one of the shapes was no longer treading air, and instead was hurtling towards the ground. All the earth pony could do was watch with horror as the figure flailed and spun chaotically, tumbling without control towards the unforgiving surface of the earth.
"Scootaloo!" Sweetie cried out, her horn glowing bright with a sap green surge of magic. Far above, the rapidly descending mare was engulfed in the same glow, the telekenetic grasp taking ahold of her and asserting its own force, counteracting the merciless pull of gravity. The unicorn grunted as she resisted Scootaloo's momentum, fighting against the pegasus' velocity in a desperate effort to keep her friend safe. The earth pony could only watch on, dreadful horror and anxious hope battling one another in a silent screaming match. The premonition of an awful, tragic fate meeting one of her closest friends was beginning to materialise, growing more vivid by the second, approaching reality at the same velocity as the pegasus herself. Sweetie was audibly straining, trying to grip Scootaloo firmly enough to halt her momentum, but the effect was gradual, and Apple Bloom felt her heart race to her throat as the orange mare came within a hundred feet...fifty...twenty...
Sweetie raised her arms and caught Scootaloo as she fell atop her, sending them both into a sprawling heap on the ground. The impact was soft enough to avoid injury from either of them, the vital deceleration saving the orange mare from her sudden halt on a far harder surface than the mage who'd grabbed her. Seeing them attempt to untangle themselves from one another, no worse for wear, Apple Bloom let out the breath she'd been holding in, feeling a little lightheaded from the neglect to her own respiration. Returning her gaze to the sky, she scanned for any sign of their target.
She didn't have to look far.
The cloud sitting not even twenty feet above them was dark grey, sagging with weight, the Spectral Spectre hovering directly atop it. The pegasus plunged down before Bloom could say anything, her hooves digging into what ought to have been an incorporeal surface, and sending a ripple through the cloud as if she'd just dropped a stone into a pond. In the blink of an eye, the grey drained from the cloud, dumping a torrent of water onto the ground below, dousing Sweetie and Scootaloo, and knocking them over once again. If the pair screamed, it was swept away by the crash of the water, and all they could do was sit up urgently, coughing and spluttering and flailing, wiping their clinging manes from their face. They were struggling to their hooves when the Spectre began to flap her wings more urgently, directing the airflow towards the drenched duo. They shivered, teeth chattering, and wrapped their arms around themselves, fighting back the chill being sent their way. The temperature in the ruins dropped, the artificial wind whistling and rising in pitch and fierceness.
And then, bringing her hands down, the Spectre smacked the cloud, sending it plummeting onto the wind-beaten pair beneath.
The impact was both softer and heavier than Bloom had anticipated; the cloud exploded in a puff of white, dissolving with a hefty THUMP! into billowing mist. The ground didn't shake, there was no grinding or rumbling of stones shaking loose, yet seeing it strike the ground and engulf her friends felt as if it had landed with the force of a boulder. Mercifully, she didn't have to wait to see the result of the collision, as the mist dissipated as quickly as it had formed, fizzing away into a swirl of transluecent white, chilling her as it passed by.
The unicorn and the pegasus were still in the pose they had been when the cloud hit them, rigid and unmoving. Through the thick sheet of ice that entombed them, their expressions were unchanged, locked in the confused and irritated frowns they bore at the time they were flash-frozen.
"You fiend!" Apple Bloom bellowed, gritting her teeth and throwing her head up at the sky. "You good for nothin', dispicable, rotten monster! Come down here an' fight me like a real mare!"
"Tried that, it wasn't much fun," the masked villain responded mockingly. "How about instead, you come up here, huh?" At the earth pony's glare, she shrugged. "Have it your way. Be right back." And with that, she was away, zipping into the sky, leaving the earth pony to curse impotently at the retreating dot. With no way to pursue her foe, she turned her attention back to her friends, hurrying over to them.
"Sweetie Belle!" she called out, waving her hand in front of the ice block. "Scootaloo! Can y'all hear me? I'm gonna get y'all out, you hear? Don't panic or nothin', ah ain't leavin' anypony behind." Returning her sword to her scabbard, she grabbed her shield in both hands and held it up over her head, bringing it down onto the glistening transluscence encapsulating the mares. The shield bit into the ice, chipping away a quarter of an inch at a time, but for all the downward jabs she made, progress seemed to elude her. She grunted in frustration, lashing out with a leg and sending a shallow spiderweb of cracks at the point of impact. "This is gonna take all damn night!"
"Not for me it won't," a raspy voice boasted, and the earth pony's blood chilled at the sound. Glancing up, she saw the flapping fiend she'd come to capture floating above her with another cloud, this one angry and black. The Spectre turned and drew her legs back to strike the cloud. Eyes widening, Bloom hoisted her shield over her head and skipped away, bracing for the deluge of water she was sure would be sent her way. Instead, there was an almighty crack as fierce and angry as a whip, and a boom which rattled her bones.
The shield did nothing to protect her from the lightning, and nor did her armour. The electricity passed through the metal and straight into the earth pony within, surging down her arm and running a full circuit of her body. Unlike Sweetie's stunning spell, this one did hurt, rummaging through her muscles and giving her the worst case of cramps she'd ever experienced. Everything tightened, tensing and spasming uncontrollably, and all the mare could do was yelp as her body once again lost control, this time with her limbs locked up and overwhelmed rather than relaxed and unresponsive. Brightness encompassed her, filling her vision as if the sun had suddenly risen and stolen sight from her. Every part of her was active, overworked, and unable to cope.
She registered falling to the ground, but she didn't feel it. She registered the thunder cease, but the ringing in her ears persisted. She registered the absence of lighting striking at her, but a thousand fingers still prodded at her, scratching and tugging at her muscles and organs and nerves and sizzling fur.
Then everything went black, and she didn't register anything else.
Given the state she'd been in when she was rendered unconscious, Apple Bloom was amazed at how okay she felt when she woke up. Sure, she was still somewhat tender, her skin prickling and feeling warmer than it ought to, but she wasn't in pain, nor was she aching or burning or otherwise suffering. Wiggling her fingers, she felt them flex and respond to her without issue, but when she tried to move her legs and her arms, she found them unresponsive, meeting resistance to her intended motions. She grimaced internally, fearing she'd been grievously injured. Was that why she wasn't in pain? Had she lost all sensation to her limbs? No, that couldn't be it; her skin tingled, and she was laying down on something soft, so her nerves were fine. She could shift her body around, she just couldn't separate her ankles or her wrists. Almost like they were bound.
The realisation crept up upon her, along with the rest of her senses; she was naked, stripped of her armour and all other garments, and thick rope bound her arms and legs. She was laid on what felt like fur, comfortable in spite of her restraints. A warmth brushed her face and shoulders - flame, she realised, acknowledging the campfire crackling a few feet from her resting spot - and the soft sounds of night persisted, even as they parted around the invasive noises being thrown out by something nearby. It couldn't have been long since she was captured, Apple Bloom reasoned, given that it was still dark, though her captor had to have had enough time to start a fire, strip her down, and secure her. If she had a captor, then where was she? Where were the other captives - her friends?!
Both those questions were answered when her brain made a connection between the noises she was hearing and the shapes around her, both taking their place and registering as actual things rather than dissociated abstractions. Her head was still a little fuzzy from her ordeal, but she was recovering quickly, her thoughts straightening out and her perception reestablishing itself. As she did so, she realised where she was, and what was happening.
Scootaloo's face was a portrait of chaotic bliss, the sensations coursing through her body projected in perfect clarity onto a face rent with overwhelming pleasure, flushed red with a slack jaw and a lolling tongue. The pegasus didn't seem to care that her weight was resting on her shoulders and a squished cheek, her head turned sideways against the fur of the pelt beneath her, presumably identical to the one on which Apple Bloom was resting, and like Apple Bloom, her hands were tied tightly at the wrists with thick rope. The pegasus' wings were unfurled, but flopped lamely either side of her, as if all the energy had been sapped from the normally implacably vivacious mare. She was facing Apple Bloom head-on, her eyes pointed in the earth pony's direction, but the glazed, starry look indicated she wasn't seeing her lifelong friend.
The rapid fleshy wallops reached a crescendo, and with a final heavy smack, the bound pegasus let out an elongated groan, one that bled from her lips freely. Behind her, a figure uttered a satisfied, victorious grunt, adding her raspy tone to the orange mare's vivacious exhalation. Scootaloo didn't move as her utterances petered out, either unable or unwilling to change her position as the other figure shuffled back and let go of the bound pegasus, causing her to collapse fully onto the pelt. There was a wet sucking noise, a soft puff of air, and the naked figure behind Scootaloo raised from her knees to her hooves.
The Spectral Spectre was lean and lithe, her frame slim and toned. She had a flat belly, and her arms and legs were tight, her muscles apparent and enviable without being grotesque and bulging, enhancing rather than detracting from her femininity. Her mane and tail were a perfect tapestry of a rainbow, a prismatic series of stripes that didn't seem to fall out of place even during great bouts of activity. Even now, with sweat dampening her fur, the mare's polychromatic hairstyle on her head and at her hips remained immaculately preserved, cut into a tomboyish, devil-may-care trim. She was athletic, something that was visually obvious even if their earlier fight hadn't made such an observation superfluous, her body a work of pride and practice. None of that made Apple Bloom's eyes widen in shock and dismay, though.
What did that was the erection.
It was huge, jutting out from her groin and swaying heavily as she rose to her hooves. A thick glaze of semen coated her cock from base to tip, the inevitable washback from her tryst with the bound pegasus, which dully reflected the orange of the bright crackling fire. As Apple Bloom watched, the cyan mare turned and pulled another sitting figure up onto their knees, their head level with the male appendage. Without prompting, the kneeling figure opened their mouth, tilted their head back, and gazed up at the bedicked mare. Wrapping her hand around the kneeling pony's horn, the Spectral Spectre placed her crown against those open lips and pushed her hips forward.
"Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom gasped, watching as the pegasus shoved every inch of her malehood into her unicorn friend's gob. There was no resistance from the mare, even as her throat bulged and her nose was shoved against the Spectre's fuzzy loins, her lips kissing the mare's pelvis obscenely. They stayed joined like that, the only movement being from Sweetie as she swallowed with great difficulty and wiggled in place, doing her best to endure the obstruction lodged in her esophagus. Finally, the Spectre withdrew, dragging her meat back and giving the unicorn a chance to inhale deeply, drawing in a great lungful of oxygen before she was once again forced down. The Spectre moved Sweetie back and forth, pulling on her horn to force the white mare along her wang, each pass rendering the tumescence cleaner and cleaner, removing the sticky heaping of ball batter from her surface. Intermittently, the cyan mare would pull the unicorn all the way down to her root and hold her in place, waiting until Sweetie began to squirm and wretch before pulling all the way out to give her captive time to desperately suck in hasty breaths, before resuming the forced blowjob.
By the time the Spectre was satisfied, her cock was as clean as a whistle, the clinging cum gone and replaced by a veneer of saliva spread evenly across her organ. Unlike the thick, dense paste of the spunk that it had replaced, the spit glistened in the firelight like varnish, and as much as the earth pony felt disgust and repulsion at the display, a part of her couldn't look away. There was something grimly captivating about the size, the hardness, the way it was used, and now it was free of much of the mess obscuring her view, Apple Bloom had a much clearer view of it, and with Sweetie pushed down to slurp and lick at the pair of plump testicles beneath - the Spectre didn't want any of the dripping cream to go to waste, it seemed - the earth pony had plenty of time to observe it. It looked like it had both the length and girth of a forearm, the skin a mottled pink and black, a notable medial ring around its centre, and veins pulsing along its surface. It was a pretty normal horse phallus, notwithstanding that it belonged to a mare with no other outward appearances of being male.
"That'll do," the Spectre spoke at last, releasing Sweetie and stepping away. "Go and keep your orange friend occupied." She didn't pause to watch the unicorn scuttle over to Scootaloo and bury her face between the prone pony's legs, ignoring the whimpers and pants that resulted, and instead turned fully to face Apple Bloom. "Now, then, let's see to you. You said your name was Apple...something. Whatever. You probably know me as Spectral Spectre, don't you? That's a cool name, if I do say so myself. I might've had something to do with making it so awesome and feared around these parts. Since I'm gonna get to know you really personally in a minute, I figure it's only fair that you get to know who I really am. You're the biggest fan I've ever had, and that shouldn't count for nothing. My real name is Rainbow Dash, and this-" She slapped a hand down on her prick, the slap which was produced sounding meaty and heavy, and the log of an appendage dipped moderately, absorbing the impact with ease. "-is my Sceptre of Loyalty."
It was futile to try and break free, but Apple Bloom tried anyway. The ropes held fast, biting into her skin as she pulled, straining against the unyielding cords. She grunted with exertion, much to the amusement of her captor, who stepped onto the pelt. Bloom shuffled away instinctively, trying to put distance between herself and the pegasus, but there was nowhere to go, and the deceptively strong hands which grabbed her just dragged her right back to where she'd started. The earth pony kicked out, but the angle of her body prevented her from putting enough force into her strike, and the pegasus' position put her out of harm's way. The Spectre - this 'Rainbow Dash' - shoved Bloom's legs sideways, pinning her by her ankles to the ground, and brought her hand between the earth pony's legs.
"Well well well," Rainbow crooned, grinning as her quarry groaned and tried to shake free. "Looks like I don't have to get you ready, huh? Did watching your friend get railed really get you all riled up, or was it seeing your unicorn friend service me like the total whore I turned her into?" Retrieving her fingers, she held them up, admiring the slick coating she'd accrued from just a few moments of probing. Popping the fingers into her mouth, she sucked on them as she withdrew them, smacking her lips together as they emerged, clean once more, into the open air. "You didn't need convincing, did you?" With a grin, she pushed her meat down, the crown skimming against the bound mare's glutes.
"Wait," Apple Bloom breathed, her eyes widening and panic rising in her throat as the density pushed between her thighs and prodded at her vulva. "Wait, I-"
Rainbow shunted forward as soon as she was aligned, parting the earth pony's lips and sinking the first few inches into the mare's honeypot. Bloom gasped loudly, her plea quashed before she had time to utter even half of it, her back arching as she was spread. The penetration was swift and smooth, the pegasus gliding forward at a leisurely, measured pace, pushing more and more of her meat into the tied pony, who felt every inch of progress, every second of the hard brush of cockflesh against her own sensitive passage walls. It seemed to go on and on, inches stretching impossibly into feet as that broad, blunt tip gouged a path through her canal, and even when there was no more left to receive, the pegasus' groin pressed flush against her buttocks and glutes, the sensation continued, reverberating through her like an echo to a colossal crash.
She had only a few seconds to process the thrumming, throbbing buzz in her loins, the vivid stretch and the spreading heat that reached past her flesh and past her nerves to stir something deeper, before Rainbow pulled back and the sensations began anew. The cock was withdrawn all the way to the crown, the corona teasing at the threshold of her vagina before it sank back down to the base, the cyan mare ensuring in long and languid thrusts that Bloom experienced every inch of her schlong. The intensity of the intrusion had come first, and it was certainly the most potent of the sensations, causing her to gasp and wince as the admittedly exciting feeling had approached the point of becoming pain, but with every plunge and repetition, her tunnel adjusted, and that became secondary to the friction. She was soaked, thoroughly lubricated, but the appendage filled her in a way that matched her capacity to take it, and every stroke sent sparks through her.
The moans came uninvited, and after a brief period of resistance, they were unable to be abated. At first, she stifled herself by clenching her jaw, and then by biting her lip, but as the pegasus' lengthy rocking became a swift sawing, and then a hefty humping, she couldn't prevent the noises from bubbling forth, betraying her unwanted pleasure to the camp. The plap of flesh hitting flesh audibly measured a steady pace, but Apple Bloom's attention was split between the climbing pleasure prickling her nerves and tickling at her mind and the stubborn resistance to the unwanted intimacy she was receiving. It didn't matter how good it felt, how every shove of that thick cock into her drooling snatch sent an ever-increasing throb of fiery satisfaction through her body, nor how she couldn't stop herself from whimpering and cooing and groaning, she needed to escape, to put a stop to this outlaw, to rescue her friends-
Her eyes widened as an orgasm approached suddenly, engulfing her in a torrent with a scant few seconds' notice. She was pulled along, sinking into the roaring rapids and gasping as heat and energy pulsed through her, dousing her thoughts amidst a bubbling cacophony of mental noise and demanding sensations. When she resurfaced, dazed and trembling and red in the face, she saw the rainbow-haired scoundrel grinning smugly and knowingly down at her, and she felt shame and annoyance rise to the top of her disarrayed sense of self.
Bloom's attempt to refocus was shattered when Rainbow Dash sped up again, pounding the frazzled pony with gleeful enthusiasm. The earth pony's thoughts, as well as her body, were jostled by the relentless ramming, particularly firm thrusts knocking loose ideas into the swirling storm that the mare's head had become and eroding the structure of her cohesion until that too began to wobble alarmingly. Every time something took form, or clawed above the tempest, it was scrambled and swept away by the flurry of shocks sent through her system.
The next orgasm wasn't so unexpected, but it was just as strong, and it truly washed away any organised thoughts she'd tried to keep. Her bastion of cognizance, her fortress from which she could resist the onslaught of the dickmare's violation, was buffeted until, with a mighty surge, like a tidal wave slamming against a rock and wrecking the construction atop, it was undone, dismantled and tossed aside in the roaring rush of her ecstasy. The aftershocks didn't fade before the following climax hit her, that one feeding into the next, and the next, until she lost track of when one started and the next began. Time seemed to loop back on itself, each flood of hormones and endorphins and hot wet pleasure flowing and ebbing and flooding her endlessly. Was it just the aftershocks? The echoes of each climax? Or was she experiencing a ceaseless finish, spinning without end? She didn't know, and she couldn't sew enough of her conscious thoughts together to muster the ability to properly worry.
Apple Bloom's ankles were untied, and she only acknowledged it when her waist was turned so her body was straightened out and her legs were swung one by one over Rainbow's shoulders. The pegasus adjusted herself, leaning down towards the earth pony so they were face-to-face. Her canal was ablaze with stimulation by then, running red-hot from the unrelenting abuse and the pleading clenches of her previous climaxes. Every squeeze felt like touching scalding iron, both in how unyeilding the mare's flesh-rod was, and the temperature it seemed to exude.
"Lucky you," the cyan mare sneered, her voice warbling and echoing, as if she were speaking in some large stone hall. Bloom blinked, her motions feeling sluggish, her captor's own movements possessing a delay that seemed to follow the actual motion. "Your pegasus friend had to keep her ass up, and your unicorn friend had to bounce in my lap, but you get to lay there and not have to worry about doing anything at all. Even better, you get to look at my awesome, handsome face as I make you mine. Isn't that great?"
Apple Bloom went to answer, even though the words hadn't even taken form in her head, nevermind her throat - probably something heroic and determined, an instinct retained by the last holdouts of her mind - but her chance was snatched from her as Rainbow drew back her hips, dragging that mighty beast from the depths of her marehood, and erasing her resistance in a flare of arousal and sharp pleasure. Rainbow didn't pull out all the way to the tip this time, leaving a few inches inside, but the change of direction and the downward drive showed why the difference didn't matter. The intensity of the stretching of her passage hit her as if this was the first time she'd been penetrated by the bedicked mare, her body crying out as she was once again stuffed full. Her muscles clenched tighter, her insides squeezing and straining to fit the appendage in this new position. Folded nearly in half, all she could do was endure the relentless hammering, each plunge striking at her core, deeper than anypony had ever touched her before.
Rainbow's pace never slowed, gradaully increasing as the fire inside Bloom grew hotter and more intense. She wasn't sure anymore if she was climaxing or if the rushing hotness was just the natural state she was to be subjected to; the pistoning prick grazed her walls and sent her nerves tingling, her muscles ached and yearned simultaneously, and her limbs tingled as if she had a finite capacity to experience sensations and the ability to feel was being redirected to her torso. Everything was tighter, hotter, wetter than it ought to be, hard and soft melding and redefining themselves as the pressure and pleasure coalesced. Rainbow hit so deep in her in this position, the mare's cockhead slamming into the end of her tunnel with the force of a blacksmith striking an anvil, with the same force and the same shower of sparks to accompany it. Apple Bloom knew - as little as she could know at this stage - that there were sparks. She could feel them, and if she squeezed her eyes tight shut, she could see them, a shower of brightness behind her lids.
"-at me!" The words registered to her addled mind at long last as a thumb and finger pinched around her muzzle, and she realised that Rainbow had been talking. "Look at me, Apple-whore. I want you to see me and nothing else. I want me to be the last thing you see. Are you ready?"
"Hwah?" the earth pony burbled. Something was different, but she didn't know quite what. Rainbow was still plowing her, folding her into a shape that suited her depraved needs, and the brutal smashing against the back of her canal was unaltered. The speed of the pegasus' sawing loins was lesser, but it was still constant and swift.
"That's good enough for me," Rainbow said, letting go of the mare's face and planting her hands flat against the pelt. "Don't you dare look away."
It was as the jackhammering began anew that Bloom figured it out. The stretching of her honeypot was greater, the thickness inside her broader, and more dense. The pegasus grunted and growled, far more feral than the smug confidence with which she'd previously been claiming her prize. The swelling, the throbbing, the flaring of that log inside her; Rainbow was close, she realised, and with that revelation, Apple Bloom realised she was too. Part of her wondered if she could find a way out, a way to escape, but it was buried beneath the swirling chaos of her mind, more of a memory or an echo than an actual thought or instict.
Everything snapped into sharp clarity for the briefest of moments when the pegasus hilted all the way inside her, the scant second before that promised, inevitable, inexorable release. Apple Bloom felt the coolness of the night air around her, the pelt softly supporting her tired body, the heat from the fire caressing her skin affectionately, the weight of the outlaw above her, the burn from the abuse her captor had dealt her marehood and the strain on her musculature. Every ache and pain, every pang and sweep of pleasure, every brush of the environment around her, no matter how momentary or constant, she witnessed and recognised all of it. All at once, every one of the sensations registerd to her, all playing through her head in a frozen moment in time, as she gazed into the cerise irises of the mare she'd come to capture. She swore she could see her own reflection, her own messy face, red with exertion and arousal and exhaustion, mirrored back to her.
With the first touch of fluid against her interior, that protected moment collapsed, and she was undone. She screamed, she wailed, she hollered, and she fell into an explosive orgasm of her own. Her body couldn't contain the totality of the sensations that she was experiencing, those hefted onto her and those she exuded, the rush and the wetness and the heat and the movement and the stillness. Her head was awash with pleasure and discomfort, the two utterly indistinguishable to her as she was buffeted and jostled and thrown from one sensation to another, each one indescribable and unknown to her, yet all of them familiar in there completeness. She didn't have names for them, she didn't have any way to define or distinguish them, and she didn't care. Her body felt loose and receptive, and tight and yearning, one after another, and then both at once. The cock inside her pumped and pulsed and throbbed, its hardness giving way to softness, the difference between her flesh and that of her violator's reducing to nothing. There was wetness, a great flood, and heat, or maybe both, or neither. Was that sweat, drool, or tears running down her cheeks, wetting her fur, and matching her exterior to her interior, where semen or her femlube was pooling deep inside her?
Amidst it all, as her mind unravelled and her body spasmed and clenched, her corporeal form not meaning much to her any more, the one constant remained those deep, vivid cerise orbs, bright lakes of clarity and calmness and love among the typhoon that was all else. She lost herself in them, allowing herself to be subsumed, until they were all she saw. Even when the pegasus pulled away, withdrew her meat, and Scootaloo, now unbound, buried her face into her snatch to clean the steaming mess left behind, Apple Bloom still saw the brightness of those eyes. Her original purpose was forgotten, swept from her, and it no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered now was belonging to the mare who'd touched her soul, purified her, and showed her what she was always meant to be.
She should have surrendered when the Spectral Spectre first demanded it.
Rainbow Dash peered at the horizon, checking to see if the purple had progressed from the last time she'd checked. Sure enough, a redness had bloomed, beginning to sprout into an orange which marked the approaching dawn, and by extension, the new day. She had to be ready for that, and that meant calling a halt to her current activities. As much as she would've stayed where she was, waiting for them to finish of their own accord, she knew that wasn't wise. Heck, it wasn't even possible. That last thought made her smirk smugly.
"Okay girls," she spoke up, for the first time in the last hour or two. "It's been really good, but I need to get going. Adventurers aren't going to rob themselves."
"What?" Sweetie squeaked, her eyes widening. "You can't wait just a little longer?"
"Please?" Scootaloo added, batting her eyes up at the other pegasus.
"I'm not happy about it either," Rainbow told them. "But I've got to work with what I've got. Even the great Spectral Spectre can't stop the day from coming and going. I've got to make a living, and if I want to do that, I've got to get out there and be an outlaw."
"What if we gave you some stuff?" Apple Bloom asked, shifting her position so she could be better seen. "Ah could get some stuff you need from my sister, an' that way, ya won't need to leave to go an' get it yourself."
"Yeah!" Scootaloo agreed readily. "Sweetie can get some stuff from hers, too! That way, you can stay here with us, and you can get your stuff without leaving us all alone!"
"I don't know," Rainbow hummed, glancing at the horizon, which now bore a band of golden yellow. "Being an outlaw isn't just about getting money. It's also about building a reputation, living free and wild-"
"A good outlaw is one who remains mysterious," Sweetie argued. "If you make a regular routine, you'll be less scary. If you barely appear, everypony will be terrified when you finally do."
"...huh." The logic was sound, and Rainbow stopped to consider it. "That's actually a good point."
"So you'll stay?"
"I don't-"
"PLLLEEEAAASSSSEEEE?" the trio begged in unison, gazing up at her with pouting, pleading expressions.
"Fine," Rainbow sighed, her heartstrings tugging her towards a new plan for the day. "Get back to it, girls."
With a cheer, the ponies resumed their work, each of them assigned to a different part of the cyan pony's loins. Sweetie Belle lapped at the end of the shaft, licking up the pre-cum as it oozed from the dickmare's cockhole and swirling her tongue around the circle of Rainbow's glans. Scootaloo danced her lips, tongue, and hands over and around the shaft itself, making laps of the length and ensuring every vein, every square patch of cockflesh, every angle of the medial ring, was polished to perfection. Lastly, Apple Bloom smothered herself between the mare's nads, huffing and inhaling as she tonguebathed those productive orbs, switching from one to the other and nuzzling in between, ensuring they remained active and brewing up another tasty batch of spunk.
Rainbow gazed down at them, satisfied with her haul. This was the most she'd ever gotten for the least amount of work, and to think, they'd handed themselves to her on a platter. She hadn't expected three young mares to grace her humble stomping grounds, but here she was, training them to be perfect servants, and they excelled as students. They'd already milked several loads from her throughout the night, pressing themselves cheek-to-cheek as she rubbed herself to completion, spilling a hot, sticky load across their faces as they moaned whorishly. She hadn't taught them to lick each other clean before returning to servicing her, that was something they'd picked up themselves. As she watched them work, their manes matted with sweat and jizz, they faces awash with spittle and spunk, their cheeks rosy and their eyes glazed with endless lust and loyalty, she felt her nuts clench and pull towards her, a familiar pressure building inside her.
Damn, she'd struck gold with her wanted posters. All she'd really intended with creating and posting her own wanted posters was to lure experienced adventurers to her neck of the woods to rob them, but instead, she'd earned a little harem of her own dedicated dickwarmers. Looking up at the sun peeking over the horizon, she grinned, stroking her meat as her three servants took their positions to receive her gift once more.
Today was going to be a damn good day.
