Fluttershy's Love

Story: Fluttershy's Love
Chapter 8: Getting Hitched Without A Hitch
Word Count: 2674

Author: Zachedwrad94
Co-Author: DropDeadThenDance

WARNING: Torture, Gore, Dismemberment, Sexual Themes, Canibalism, and Rape

SIDE WARNING: Minimal Gore and Torture?

The sun glistened beautifully in the afternoon sky, Ponyville enjoying another fantastic summer day. The breeze was delicate, dancing through Applejack’s mane as she trotted through town. She hadn’t been the same since her brother and sister disappeared, but for the sake of her friends and family, she tried her best to keep her emotions restrained and buried inside.

She inhaled slowly as her harness tugged against her hind quarters, the large baskets of apples shuddering a bit when the cart came to a stop. She shook the harness free of herself, sighing a little as she walked around the cart. She kicked it gently with her hind leg, the decorative green awnings falling free from the impact, and she nodded once to herself before she set to work adjusting the baskets.

Her work felt sluggish as she attempted to set the baskets up just right, her motivation elsewhere, and she cursed quietly as one of the baskets tilted a bit too far one way. A few apples tumbled out, rolling across the ground with surprising speed, and Applejack sighed again as she walked weakly after them. She scooped up one and tossed it in her saddle bag then kept walking, the second apple still rolling.

She went to grab it, but another hoof reached down and snatched it up. The blonde mare brought her head up, about to thank the stranger for picking up her stray cargo, but as she came eye to eye with the stranger she inhaled sharply, eyes widening with shock. She jumped up, throwing her legs around Big Mac’s neck and began to sob. “Thank Celestia! We’ve been lookin’ everywhere for ya!” she cried happily. “I thought I lost ya!”

Big Mac smiled at Applejack as his sister trotted around him, smiling, and randomly hugging him, while tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m sorry baby sis,” he offered and then cuddled up against his sister, having missed her as well. “I didn’t wanna be gone so long, I swear, but darn if I didn’t run into just about anything and everything,” Big Mac explained and Applejack paused, looking at him with a confused expression.

“Wait… You left?” she asked and her brother nodded. The apple bottomed pony bit her lip softly, almost afraid to ask her question. “Applebloom… ain’t with you, is she?”

Big Mac frowned a little, a look of confusion crossing his face. “No… Where’s she at?” Big Mac asked slowly and then glanced over his shoulder at Fluttershy who had been quietly approaching. “I’d like to see her,” he said, his head craning for a moment before he looked back at his sister.

Applejack rested her head against her brother’s shoulder, falling silent. She couldn’t say it, she couldn’t bring herself to admit that Applebloom might be gone forever; to her salvation, Big Mac sensed her sadness and rested his head along his sister’s neck, his internal thoughts thinking only of the crippled young filly in Fluttershy’s guest room…

“Where’d you go and disappear to Big Macintosh, and what for?” Applejack questioned, curious of why her brother would take off, and wondered if their sister’s disappearance was linked to his in some way… Applebloom and her two missing friends would try just about anything to get their cutiemarks… Maybe they thought they’d get them by tracking down the stallion.

“Well, I reckon ya’ll remember the love poison them troublesome little fillies cooked up?” Big Mac
asked as a small crowd gathered around, most happy to see him, but all wondering where the Sweet Apple Acres Stallion had disappeared to. Big Mac could sense this in all of them, and so continued his story as a brilliant plan began spinning its way into his mind. “See, my baby sis and her friends break that spell they cast on Cheerilee and I, but they did me a mighty big heap of damage… See, turns out Cheerilee had a hankering to be with me, but my heart was set on another mare altogether…”

Big Mac paused for just a moment. “That night, the love of my life didn’t show, and I was rightly devastated, so I stumbled on out of Ponyville… Not intending to ever come back,” he lied smoothly, conveying sadness that stung some small pangs of truth; it was true that Fluttershy never came, and that he had been devastated, but his actual whereabouts were just a bit… Altered. He kicked a pebble, his eyes downcast, as he worked up the rest of his lie. “While I was away, I ran into all sorts of trouble… Even tussled with a Manticore, got hurt something fierce as you can see,” he continued than lifted his front leg, displaying his bandages for all to see.

Applejack had begun to cry, having noticed how mangled and cut up her brother was. “So why’d you come back then?” she murmured through light sobs. She had known that Big Mac and Cheerilee would never work out, and she understood his pain, but then why would he come back?

Big Mac glanced over to his sister, his eyes full of sympathy, but then turned in the direction of a pony whom no one had noticed was there. “I figured that I’d never be with her, less I came back and faced her like a stallion,” he said as he approached the quiet, creamy colored mare, who had no idea what he was planning. “Fluttershy,” he said gently, drawing the attention of every pony present. Big Mac reached down and took the mare’s hoof in his, then lowered his head till this lips nearly touched her leg. “I’d like to ask you to join the Apple family, and to be this here Stallion’s wife,” he said and then glanced up, looking her in the eye. “How about it?”

Fluttershy’s eyes had begun to sparkle, tears catching her eyelashes as she attempted to blink them free. She’d known they were going to be married, sure, but now she knew that he loved her… He loved her, wanted to be with her, with a doubt in his mind, and had proven it to her as well. She sniffled a little, inhaling, and then began to nod. “I… I will,” her voice squeaked delicately and Big Mac smiled at her.

The crowd around them offered comments of praise and some heavy shouts of joy and congratulations, embarrassing the two ponies in the center of the heap. It was done, they were now officially a couple in the eyes of the townsponies, and Big Mac had just started feeding them rotten fodder. He nuzzled Fluttershy’s nose for a moment then looked back to Applejack. “Now that I’m back, I ain’t gonna rest till we find Applebloom,” he offered his babysister, the blonde pony beginning to sob again as she hugged the red stallion.

The couple returned to Fluttershy’s cottage with lofty hearts, Fluttershy practically skipping on their way back to her abode. “Big Mac?” she asked gently as she began to hover just inches above. “If we give them Applebloom they won’t let us get married,” she said softly, staring at her fiancé with curious eyes.

Big Mac trotted alongside his hovering bride, smiling slightly. “Yeah, but it’ll be awfully hard for my family if Applebloom ain’t there to celebrate with us,” he explained, still confusing the yellow mare. “Don’t worry darlin’, I got a plan,” he explained with a wink of his eye, causing a thick pink blush to spread across Fluttershy’s pale complexion.

They made it back to the cottage, their spirits high, and their wedding plans finally in motion. They couldn’t have been happier, and Big Mac was looking forward to telling his baby sister about the role she’d be playing in the wedding; she wouldn’t refuse, he was sure, and a chance to see Applejack again after so long wouldn’t hurt their chances of persuading the filly into doing anything they asked.

He left Fluttershy downstairs, his mare saying she’d prepare some tea and cookies for him and the filly so they could talk over pleasant conditions. Big Mac smiled as he walked up the stairs, his body feeling remarkably well despite his condition. Soon, everything would be exactly the way it was meant to be, and he and Fluttershy could spend the rest of their lives together…

He found himself in front of the guestroom door, still smiling to himself as he knocked. “Applebloom?” he called through the door, his voice soft and warm. He tested the knob and, after undoing the lock, he pushed the door open and stepped over its threshold with the intention of fetching the filly he assumed to be sleeping.

The red stallion trotted over to the bed, seeing the little bump by the head board. “Come on now, little sis. Have ya been snoozing all day?” he asked as he grabbed the blankets, throwing them back with a broad smile; he froze then. He stared down at the fluffy pillow, a few dove white feathers sticking out of it, and he noticed the drops of blood that stained its pristine color.

Quickly, he rummaged through the room, casting aside blankets and moving furniture aside, knocking a chair to the floor as he became for and more frantic; the noise of the chair falling drew up his bride, and she assailed the room. “Honey?” she asked as she watched Big Mac look around under the bed. “What’s wrong, where’s Applebloom?” she asked as she glanced around the room, her pupils slowly shrinking.

They both tore apart the room, becoming more crazed as a terrible truth came to light in their dark minds. If the filly somehow escaped, then she’d no doubt be on her way towards Ponyville, or someone who would ruin all their plans, and they couldn’t have that. No, they had worked too hard, they had done too much, in hopes of sealing their love in a perfect union in front of their friends and family.

Fluttershy pulled her head out of a large wooden chest at the foot of the bed, the hair along her back standing on end and her mane being disrupted by a teasing stroke of the wind. She looked towards the only window in the room, seeing it hanging slightly ajar. “Big Mac,” she said harshly, drawing the stallion’s attention from the closet. He trotted over to his bride who stood by the now fully opened window, the mare’s beautiful blue eyes staring furiously down at the drops of blood along the frame. “She got outside,” Fluttershy said slowly, rage very evident in her tone.

The couple descended down the stairs with haste, both with different thoughts racing through their mind; Fluttershy was thinking of how much fun she’d have when she punished the filly for causing her trouble again, and Big Mac was thinking that he’d better get his hooves on Applebloom before his bride, or his baby sis wouldn’t be able to walk in time for their wedding.

They burst through the front door, the sun setting over the hills, and they rounded the cottage as quickly as their hooves would carry them. Fluttershy studied the ground, looking for any trace of her troublesome sister-in-law, and Big Mac studied the window, picking apart the route his sister would have had to of taken in order to get down; Applebloom had crawled from the window, managed to get across the gutter, and get herself safely atop of wooden aweing above the kitchen window. From there, she must have jumped, or fallen, to the ground and took off.

“Got it!” Fluttershy said suddenly and the Stallion turned to her, eyes wide and wild. The yellow mare pointed towards the forest, a small puddle of blood and hoof prints just inches away from her. “She went into the forest, looking for Zecora I bet,” Fluttershy conducted and then glanced at her soon-to-be husband, the colt of her dreams.

“Let’s go,” Big Mac said sternly and then headed into the forest without another word, Fluttershy trotting after him, her mind filled with malicious intent for the young filly they were searching for. They searched every crevice, den, and hollow they stumbled across in search of Applebloom, and they hoped she hadn’t made it to Zecora’s yet, or they would surely be doomed.

Applebloom couldn’t believe she could still walk; her left hind leg felt completely numb, her head was spinning in nauseating circles, and she vomited at least twice now. She shivered as the wind danced across her back, inducing a need to vomit again, but she held it down and stumbled on. Her knees felt like they might snap in half, but the safety of Zecora’s home called out to her, beckoned her, and she knew she could make it if she pressed on.

She was a cutiemark crusader, the last crusader, and it was her responsibility to get to Zecora’s; that was the only way to avenge her fallen friends, her soul mates, and the only ponies who had ever really understood her. “It ain’t much further now, girls,” she whispered to herself as she dragged her uselessly hind leg, not noticing the thin cut she’d gotten when climbing out the splintered window. She sniffled a little, her head still throbbing. “We… We are the… Cutiemark… Crusaders…” she murmured as she dragged on.

Applebloom continued her song, their song, and found new strength with each passing verse. She felt like they were there, nudging her on and pushing her forward and Applebloom knew if she could make it to Zecora’s, she’d be safe, along with the legacy of the Crusaders. She paused for a moment, her stomach churning again and she hurled, the memories of what had happened to her friends overtaking her system and making her sick.

She shook, her throat and nose burning from the stomach acids, but still she pressed on. Leafs cushioned each step, making the filly nearly silent as the wind curled about her mane and tail. It was pleasant, making her sleepy as she struggled against fatigue and hunger… Why was something so terrifying as the Everfree forest suddenly so peaceful?

Was it because of Fluttershy and Big Mac?

Applebloom stumbled and fell face first into a cushiony pillow of clover, her mind betraying how weak her body was. That’s it, thought the weak filly. I just ain’t afraid of it anymore, she concluded as she pushed herself up, taking in her surroundings; the scenery much more beautiful than she’d ever realized. The trees were full of crisp green leafs, the ground was blanketed in thick veils of clover and sweet grass, and the flowers that bloomed were brilliant reds, purples, and blues.

She laid there for a long time, just staring at everything around her, before she finally found the energy to stand again. It felt like her body was weighed down with cement, all of her legs becoming numb as she crawled forward, her head spinning. It didn’t matter how she felt, how dizzy or sick she became as her body went through the traumas she’d suffered; all she cared about was getting to Zecora’s and warning the rest of Ponyville about the insane duo.

“Holy hay,” she whispered as she stepped onto of a small mound, staring down the hill to see Zecora’s house just a few more yards away. She began the decent down the hill, her eyes transfixed upon the odd home of the town’s local zebra. Applebloom couldn’t believe it; she was just a few more steps away from her goal, from her friends…

Just a few more steps…

Something snatched her tail and she was about to scream, but a hoof was placed firmly over her mouth, and all she could do was kick and struggle as her captor dragged her backwards, pulling her away from the beacon of safety. She craned her neck, her head turning slightly in an attempt to see what had captured her.

She squealed as she stared up into Fluttershy’s mad blue eyes.