The sun shined down on the desert near Appleloosa, the sand was nice and warm. It never got so hot that one's health could be in danger, which was good for an earth pony currently tied to stakes in an x-position out there. Applejack could only stare up at the sky as she recalled how this had happened. She was coming to Appleloosa to take part in another rodeo, and since she would be competeing against Braeburn they decided to make a little friendly bet.
There was a lasso contest that let one try to rope the other, whoever got caught would be staked out on the sand in the desert just a couple miles away from the town until they could escape the situation or ask to be let go. Not only that they could be subjected to tickle torture as well, she had almost caught Braeburn but was tricked and got caught instead. So now here she was, it was fine since she enjoyed either option. Only she also had to put up with her cousin's ego.
Right now Braeburn had gone into town to refill the special water they had for whenever they played these games. It would stay cold regardless of the temperature of the desert, it was made by a really powerful unicorn though the sun's heat made it difficult to think too hard. The hottest it got around the town was 80 degrees so there was no danger in doing this for a long period of time, of course her body was still soaked in sweat from the heat. She was so tired she could barely move, she has been out there for three days now. Of course even despite this she still had a weak but very happy smile on her face. She would'nt have offered this if she was'nt ok with the results if she lost, and she knew Braeburn would'nt complain either. Her ears picked up the sound of hooves approaching, she tried lifting her head up but it just dropped back down onto the sand. Her half drooped eyes finally met the sight of Braeburn's grinning face.
"Ah doubt you'll be getting out of this one cousin." Braeburn smirked playfully.
"O-oh jus-st you w-wait, I-I'll b-be free by the end of t-the week." Applejack smiled tiredly.
"So exhuasted, but you still stay strong. That's what I love about you Aj."
Braeburn set the huge bottle of water down beside Applejack's head, the straw was placed just barely where it could be reached by his cousin's mouth. When they first started these games Braeburn was alot more worried, but he eventually realized that Applejack simply enjoyed this and was partly doing this to make him grow more confident. It worked too, because he would start coming up with new things to add like having to work to get to the water, and the limit went from two days to until the captive could escape at his suggestion. Of course if Aj truly couldn't escape and wanted to be let go he would happily release his cousin and it was the same the other way around. He had brought a small wagon with him, with a bag of tickle tools waiting inside of it.
"Now then, it's time for another tickle session." Braeburn smirked.
"Hah the la-ast one wa-as barely t-orture." Applejack grinned weakly.
"Oh, then it's a good thing I had to take a trip back then huh."
Braeburn walks over to he bag and opens it up, digging through it to look for a specific tool he loved to use on Applejack. Finally he found a blue padded handle, his hoof takes it and pulls it up out of the bag. at the top of this pole were three metal bars attached to it, one on the top, another at the bottom left and the last toward he bottom right, looking sorta like a triangle. This was know as the belly digger.
"N-no not the b-belly digger." Applejack gulped cutely.
"My my, does this make you nervous cousin." Braeburn smiled mischviously.
"M-maybe a l-little."
Her body twitched in place as she felt the bars her sweat soaked belly, for a few agonizing seconds Braeburn simply let her stare at it making her weakly squirm under it, then she watched her cousin's hoof flick a switch and then the bars began scrubbing along the poor skin. It instantly got laughter to bellow out of her as she flopped in place. Her resistance had been broken within the first few hours of this whole thing. Which pleased her captor greatly.
"OHHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOH PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEHASE NOT MY BEHEHEHEHEHEHLLY" Applejack begged rather cutely.
"Aww but it's so vulnerable right now cousin, and that shine just screams tickle me you know." Braeburn teased playfully.
This was true, being out here so long and sweating so much eventually got her belly to start shinning under the sunlight. She actually liked that very much, and so did Braeburn. Her cousin loved her rather round belly so much and it was one of the reasons Braeburn enjoyed these games so much. The fact that it was the most ticklish spot of her body was a bonus to her cousin.
Her body and hooves weakly moved back and forth in attempt to escape, but of course there was no mercy for her poor belly. Then the most intense part began, the bars began to vibrate rapidly making the torment so much worse. Her laughter grew in strength and her body shook helplessly under them.
"AH CAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHN'T TAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAKE IT" Applejack begged out of reflex.
"Aww the big strong Applejack is reduced to a begging ticklish mess, ah should send a picture to Rainbow. I'm sure she'd love this." Braeburn teased playfully.
"YOUHOHOHHOHOHOHOHOHOH WOULD'NT DAREHEEHHEEHEH"
This little outburst made a blue beam start to charge up in the center of the top of the bar. It fired down at the center of her helpless belly. The result of this forced really adorable squeals out of Applejack. Her body trembled almost at insane speeds because it wanted so badly to arch up but could'n do to how exhausted she was. Her cute laughter increased in strength as she writhed on the sand slowly and weakly.
"Now what was that?" Braeburn smirked.
"I'M SOHOHOHOHOHOHOHRY I'M SOOHHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHRRY" Applejack begged adorably.
"That's what I thought."
It seemed to go on for hours, and in fact it did as Braeburn kept up her torment until they were made aware that the sun was going down. Meaning that the session had gone since after lunch. He finally pulled the belly digger away from it's victim. Leaving a heavily panting Aj on the ground, her belly heaved up and down adorably slow from her big tired breathing. The heat and the tickling had worn her out so much, that she would drift to sleep at any minute now.
"Before you fall asleep, want any dinner?" Braeburn asked happily.
This was a required rule since the sessions were a lot longer now. The captor had to ask and make sure their captive wanted food or not. Applejack could hear her belly growl as her eyes fluttered to stay open. She thought about it for a couple of minutes considering it. She decided to make Braeburn happy, her hungry growling belly was always enjoying for her cousin to listen too.
"Ah'll be nice and skip dinner for ya." Applejack chuckled weakly.
"Aww, thanks Aj but are you sure?" Braeburn asked curiously.
"It;s just one night a-and y-ya gave me a big lunch anyways. Ah can endure it."
Upon saying this she felt hooves wrap around her in a hug from her cousin. Finding the energy she lifted up her tail and wrapped it around Braeburn's belly to return the hug. She got happy as her cousin's smile grew bigger. However she couldn't hold off sleep any longer and found herself driffting for a nap. Her eyes closed and her body went limp.
"Applejack ah'm glad ya'r my cousin." Braeburn smiled happily.
He placed a hoof on the slowly heaving belly which made it twitch a bit. It felt as nice and soft as it looked to him, and he was grateful Applejack let him play with it like this. Finally he took it off of the belly and made his way not to town, but to a cabin about ten miles away from where Aj was staked. No way was he leaving Applejack alone out in the desert at night, his bedroom had a perfect view of Aj from the window.They built it by his request and Aj had a warm smile when he explained the reason for why.
In the middle of the night, slowly Applejack's eyes began open as she found herself waking up. Her sight was greeted by a stary night sky, she yawned a bit. Some of her energy had come back from that nap, but not a whole lot of it. This was usually the case as Braeburn always worked her over good with the tickle sessions, and then the added heat sapped whatever was left of her energy. However if she was lucky enough to wake up at night, she knew she had a good chance to escape.
Tugging slowly on the ropes binding her, she felt the ones holding her front hooves began to slip. She smirked tiredly as she knew this was due to her sweat. It took some work, but she finally slipped her front hooves free of the ropes with one big pull. Sitting up she stretched out a bit before working on her hind hooves.
"S-sorry Braeburn b-but it looks like ya only got to torture me for three days this time." Applejack chuckled weakly.
Of course she thought about going back for the stuff she brought with her, but that was usually a good way to get recaptured as the captor was allowed to keep ones bags in the bedroom of the cabin. Anything that could be used against each other the captor got to keep, but personal stuff had to be returned. So she decided to draw a nice note for Braeburn in the sand, and then trotted rather slowly towards the forest to make the trip back to ponyville.
The sudden stormy skies of the forest, was beginning to make Applejack kinda regret not being staked in the desert anymore. The thunder boomed loudly and lightning flashed across the sky. She had found some apples to eat while walking so most of her energy had come back by now. She did still feel a little tired though. However something funny feeling touched her hoof, she looked down and her eyes widened at what it was.
"Blood, out here?" Applejack thought alarmingly.
Looking closer she noticed a trail of blood spots on the path she was on, following it she saw that the trail went off the path and into the forest towards the right side. There was little doubt in her mind, she walked on into the forest letting the blood guide her. After a few minutes of walking, she finally came to a small grassy area surrounded by trees. Her eyes looked on in horror at the sight she saw.
A young unicorn laying limp on his side, with blood dripping down from a broken horn. It looked jagged sorta resembling a broken stump. The unicorn's fur was colored red with blue colored hooves. The little guy seemed a bit older than a filly, but also alot younger then a full grown pony. Her guess was around age 13. Applejack rushed over to him and instantly placed a hoof on the side of his neck where his pulse was. A big sigh of relief came when she discovered that this young one was still alive.
"Don't ya worry, ah'll take of ya." Applejack assured calmly
Carefully and going as slow as possible. She was able to lift the unicorn onto her back and began following the trail back towards the path to ponyville. While walking she felt movement coming from the pony on her back, and looked to see the eyes start to open up a bit. It made Aj even more at ease and very determined to get back to ponyville fast.
"W-what is-s." The unicorn tried to speak.
"Shh just save ya'r strength for now. There will be plenty of time to talk once we get ya some help." Applejack smiled warmly.
It was feint to her, but she saw a small smile grow on the little guy's face before going back to sleep. She moved faster as she knew they were very close to Ponyville by now. Finally she saw Fluttershy's cottage insight assuring she was back. She glanced back at the sleeping unicorn, and was really glad that she woke up during the night when she did.
The young unicorn was out for a long time, but sure enough his eyes began to open up again. The first thing he noticed was that he was staring up at the ceiling belonging to a room. He felt bandages wrapped around the top of his head, mostly on his now broken horn. Glancing around he noticed that he was in a hospital room, and looking to his left he saw a pony with a cowboy hat on sitting on a red three seat couch with the same fur color as the one he vaguely saw during the walk. Upon realizing he was awake the pony got up and walked over to him, a big smile was spread across this mare's face.
"Howdy, ya feelin better kiddo?" Applejack asked.
"U-Um yeah, you were the one who saved me right? Thank you so much." The unicorn expressed happily.
"Aww, well ah'm just glad ah was able to find ya in time. If ya don't mind me asking, what happened to ya in there?"
The unicorn looked down at the bed sheets covering him and tried to think, he concentrated as much as he could on it. However his mind kept coming up blank and it made his horn throb in pain from the stress of it. He let out a sigh as he decided to let it go for now, a worried expression was on his face though.
"I'm sorry I don't remember, I can't even remember where I came from or how I got there in the first place." Red Flame let out sadly.
"Oh mah, ya got amnesia don't ya." Applejack gasped in horror.
"That would be correct." A voice called.
It came from a blue earth pony dressed in a long white coat, and a white hat on with a red cross in the front of it. The voice showed that this pony was a girl. She walked over to her patient with a frown on her face, showing her concern for the poor young unicorn. Dealing with amenisa was never an easy thing.
"My name is Doctor Ray Pulse. According to what we saw when we were treating you. Your broken horn has caused severe damage to your brain, and thus it gave you amnesia. I need to see how serious it is. So I'm going to ask you a few questions. First can you tell me your name?" The doctor asked.
"U-um yeah I can remember that, my name is Red Flame." The unicorn said rather relived.
The thought of having Amnesia was scary to him, but at the very least he could still remember his own name. Though he was kinda curious as to why, he certainly wasn't going to complain and at least was alive to figure it out later. He was snapped out of his thoughts when the doctor asked him another question.
"Do you remember what your cutie mark is supposed to mean?" Doctor Pulse asked.
Red Flame blinked and looked down at it, Applejack was quite amazed by it as well. It seemed to be two swords crossed together, with a feather in the middle of the blades. The feather in particular seemed to get her attention, of course considering she loved to play tickle games with her friends and family this was natural.
"Hm, it looks like it's got something to do with swords, other than that I don't really know." Red Flame answered honestly.
"I see it's ok." Doctor Pulse assured.
The Doctor procced to ask some questions that he already gave answers for to Applejack. In that he had no idea how he got in the forest or where he came from. The only vague memory he had of that night was being carried by the orange mare and that was it. It seemed the doctor had asked all of the questions and left. With a look of curiosity, he turned his head to Applejack.
"I'm curious though, how long was I out?" Red Flame asked
"About three days, ah was worried that ya might've been stuck in a coma." Applejack confessed.
Hearing this he couldn't help but let a big smile grow on his face. Regardless of the situation at least he was saved by a nice pony like this one. The next thing he felt was hooves wrapping around his body in a warm hug as well. Feeling much happier, he returned the hug to Applejack to show how grateful he was.
"So ah've got a little hunch about what the feather could mean." Applejack smirked playfully.
"Hm, what's the thought you've got." Red Flame wondered.
Suddenly he felt the blanket get tight around his waist, of course this was because Applejack was tying the blanket around his lower half while still in the hug. Since his forehooves were down they were pinned to his sides as a result of this as well. Applejack gently pushed him back on the bed, then gave the red belly a poke giving a cute giggle out of the unicorn.
"Oh good ya are ticklish, ah just figured ya could use some cheering up." Applejack smiled.
"Hey that was sneaky." Red Flame joked playfully.
"Nah mah friend Pinkie is the sneaky one."
With that being said, she lifted her tail up onto the red belly causing it to twitch from the touch. The tail began brushing up and down it, getting Red Flame to let out really cute laughter. His body pulling on the blanket trying to get free of it, but it held surprisingly firm to his body. That tail seemed to know exactly what it was doing as it brushed the skin. He couldn't really explain it, but the tickling really made him feel happy. It wasn't a forced feeling either, it seemed to greatly enjoy being tickled. Which might of been what the feather meant after all.
As Applejack's tail made a trip down to the center of the belly. She heard Red's laughter increase the further down it went, by the time it was at the target the unicorn was deep in the really adorable laughter she was extracting. The red body also was made to arch upward, most likely a reflex from being tickled there. While the torture went on, she was also thinking to herself.
Feeling really responsible for the life of this young one, she thought that maybe she could convince the others to take Red flame in. The pony hadn't really thought of what would happen if his memory came back or how the rest of her family would feel, but she wanted to help Red Flame the best that she could right now. So her mind was made up.
To be continued