"Pinkie, uhm, I don't mean to be rude but Ummm. Stepping on my toe!" Fluttershy hissed, trying not to cry.
"Shh!" Came the simultaneous response from the other eight people crouched in the bushes beside her. Shining Armor and Rarity had broken out the face paint, and all were camouflaged in an attempt to conceal themselves.
The veteran peered through his night vision goggles at the camp and saw several guards circling near the cabins. "Too much security. Your visit must have made them nervous. We need to. . . Why did you bring her?" He asked, pointing to the still unconscious Rainbow Dash slung between Sunset and Pinkie's shoulders.
Pinkie groaned and stretched after letting the limp frame slip quietly to the ground. "Why did you bring her?" She asked, pointing to the INFANT STRAPPED TO HIS CHEST.
He looked lovingly down at his daughter sleeping soundly in her Kevlar harness. "You expect me to go anywhere without my widdle point defense officer?" He hugged the baby and cooed softly.
"Well it's a good thing we didn't leave any of them in the cars!" Rarity hissed punting to the several security guards shining flashlights into their various vehicles.
Shining rolled his eyes. "Well there goes the element of surprise." He cocked the charging handle of his grenade launcher.
"What are we going to do now?" Twilight stage whispered.
Shining Armor grinned as he casually shot off a grenade. "Distraction." He covered his daughter's ears and the night was lit up in a bright flash and a deafening boom. Immediately the guards surrounding the cars sprinted towards the source of the noise. "Now, let's get your friend and get out before they cone back!" They broke cover and ran, still crouched, towards the cabin. Shining used the blade of his bayonet to peek inside the cabin. "Are you sure this is the right cabin?"
Both Pinkie and Rarity pointed towards the trench formed by Applejack super slapping Rainbow. "Yes, why?"
Shining peered around a corner and whispered. "Because it's empty."
Each exclaimed in turn and Twilight pulled herself up to peak over the windowsill. With the aid of the bright full moonlight coming in through the widow she could see that the place was deserted. "Where could she be?" Shining Armor silently signaled that they should carefully spread out and search the semi circle of cabins around them. Each looked and saw that the whole row of cabins was deserted.
"Where do we look. . . now?" Fluttershy asked as she noticed an ominous green glow pouring out of the windows of the large central building. "Oh. . . Uhmm, never mind. Sorry." They looked and saw the security guards still trying to put out the small fire started by the grenade and they silently slunk to the main building. They peered through the cracks in the blinds and gasped in horror at what they saw.
Inside they saw more than a dozen green glowing tubes each containing a teenager getting visibly grayer by the second. In one of the tubes lay a miserable Applejack, tears streaming down her dreamlike face. Hoses ran from the tubes and connected to a large black throne in the center of the room where upon sat a woman covered in black chitin with phosphorescent green eyes. They saw the love pulsating through the tubes to the throne where the monster that sat there fed upon it like a conquering vandal at a bloody feast.
The creature cackled viciously as she gloated over her glut. "Delicious. The love from these pathetic fools is enough to feed an army!" She grinned maliciously. "But soon! Soon I'll start enough camps to conquer this whole realm! My brood will be unstoppable!" She screamed a laugh of sadistic triumph!
Pinkie backed away from the widow and an odd thoughtfulness stole over her. "Ya know. It's weird. For a minute I was worried we were trespassing and attempting kidnap from a completely normal camp, but somehow I'm actually relieved there's a big evil monster trying to eat the world's love, and somehow I don't think I should be."
Cadence for her part was fuming. "Come into MY WORLD and steal MY LOVE! I waited TOO LONG to get that GOOD LOVE, and I am NOT letting Her take that away from me!" She kicked the double doors open and charged in.
Shining Armor couldn't help but grin as he moved to cover her. "I love that woman.
"Isn't she just a queen among women?" Rarity fawned.
"Shame she's married." Sunset said, nudging Fluttershy with her hip.
"Can we PLEASE stop horning over my brother's wife please?!" Twilight growled. They all poured into the room and barricaded the door behind them. Pinkie and Sunset gently lay the unconscious athlete down beside the door.
Cadence bellowed in her best heroine voice. "Stop right there you monster. You're evil plan ends now! You haven't earned that love! Let them go!"
The monster on the throne laughed an evil cackle and purred in a facetious calm. "If you insist." The tubes opened and the teenagers lumbered slowly out, their eyes glowing green with malice. "Slaves! Capture them! Their love will fuel my hordes!" The teenagers rushed at them, ready to drag them kicking and screaming to have their love stolen from them.
Shining Armor raised his eyebrow in confusion and brandished his rifle, but Cadence quickly pulled the barrel down. "Shiny no! They're children!" The veteran sighed hard in annoyance and quickly removed the combat harness, leaning his rifle against the wall. He carefully laid Flurry Heart on Rainbow's gently rising and falling chest and kissed his beloved daughter on the forehead. He then roared like a warrior and charged onto the fray, planting each boot on the face of a mind controlled teenager with a flying tackle.
Each of them followed likewise and shouted as they charged. The melee was intense with cartoon violence the likes of which are barely tolerable with a Y7 rating. Cadence used her long leg to side kick a girl right in the diaphragm. Rarity imitated her idol by kicking one in the dangly bits. The two high fived proudly. It was the happiest moment of Rarity's life up to that point. Pinkie dodged several attempted grabs from a hulking mind slave, and quickly tied his shoelaces together.
Sunset Shimmer and Twilight both slammed trash cans down on the heads of two mind slaves and kicked them over. Fluttershy yelped and ducked and dodged and wove through the brawl until a mind slave that Shining was in a standing grapple with was backed up right into her. She crouched in terror and he was toppled backwards right over crouched form. Shining for his part was having the most fun he'd had since he received his honorable discharge. He grabbed a mind slave by the legs and slung him until another mind slave.
The brawl was going well, and they might have won, but right that second the security guards, alerted by the sounds of the melee, forced the door open. Each suddenly had a stout guard holding one of their arms, each unable to break their hold. The monster smirked. "Impressive, I must say, but ultimately pointless! Put them in the pods!" She barked.
One of the guards gave her an odd look. "Put them? . . . Lady, you might have hired us but we don't work for you. We're going to detain these trespassers until the sheriffs arrive to."
The monster burst into a ball of green flame. She snarled as she grew to be as tall as the high ceiling, her insectoid wings buzzing menacingly. Her fanged snout roared, "Do as I say!"
The guards went pale and one gained a conspicuous dark spot in the front of his trousers. The one who had spoken shrugged his shoulders and looked at Cadence. "Sorry lady. Boss's orders."
They dragged them to the pods and slowly the transparent lids slid closed around them, then the guards fled the chamber before the same could happen to them. The monster returned to her humanoid size and shape as she strut towards the unconscious pair laying by the door. "And what's this?" She said, turning Rainbow's unconscious face with one clawed hand. She sniffed the air around her like one inspecting a cut off meat and she grimaced. "Ugh! Nothing useful here! All her love is tainted with heartbreak." She noticed the baby in her carrier. "But this!"
She grabbed the vest by its back handle and raised it up to her face to look at it. "This on the other hand." Despite having slept soundly through an explosion, a long sneak, and a brawl, Flurry Heart woke up and noticed the grinning monster staring her in the face. She saw her beloved parent's faces in distress and this upset her greatly.
"Don't you dare touch my baby you ugly thing you!" Cadence screamed as she kicked impotently at the lid. Shining Armor bloodied his fists on the hard shell. Flurry Heart reached pitifully with her pudgy little arms towards her parents as she cried.
The monster grinned maliciously. "Oh so you love this thing. Well, good!" She placed a tube right in front of the two so they could see their baby's distress. "Oh the pure love of parents for their baby. The innocent love of a baby for its parents. How delightful!" She looked at the line of young women. "And what treats do you lot have in store for your queen?" She smelt the love of each as she passed. First Pinkie's pod. "Hrmm, the love of a boyfriend."
She passed Sunset and Fluttershy. "Girlfriends very ni. . ." She had to stop and shake her head when she finally absorbed the entirety of the flavor palate. "Why is it so spicy?!" Fluttershy blushed, but Sunset couldn't help but grin.
She reached Rarity and had to stop in surprise. "Damn white girl you get around!"
Rarity gasped in shock. "Well excuse me little Ms changeling monster or whatever you are!"
The monster reached Twilight and had to sniff hard to catch even the tracest scent of love. "Hrmm, not much from this one. Some family love for those three, her parents." She waved vaguely at the line of pods. "Quite a bit of love for you lot for whatever reason, but no real deep burning passionate romantic love." She grinned maliciously. "What's wrong little girl? Are you shy?" She growled in her most intimidating growl.
The monster sat on her throne and the extraction began. They all groaned in pain as they felt the love dragged out of them. "Yes!" The monster screamed in a sensual shout. "Oh your love is delicious!" Their color palettes began to grow muted and their eyes hollow. The monster cackled in triumph until an earth rending explosion threw her bodily from her seat. She snapped her head to see what had happened and there stood Rainbow Dash, holding Shining Armor's m16, grenade launcher still smoking. The captives in the tubes all sagged visibly in relief at the cessation of their love being stolen.
The furious girl brandished the gun barrel menacingly towards the monster crawling on the floor. "YOU!" She growled in a voice like molten lead. "You're the one! You're the one who stole my Apple Bottom from me!"
Pinkie called out, "woo-hoo! Go Rambo Dash!"
The monster saw her opening and grinned. "Oh! You're that Rainbow girl that I've heard so much about!" She slipped slowly to her feet. Rainbow followed the motion with the rifle, not giving her a chance to slip away. "You're the one who thinks she's got the right to her girlfriend's body."
Rainbow snarled. "Shut up!" The gun began to tremble in her hands.
The monster maintained her distance, but began circling the blue girl. "Oh don't deny it. How many times did she tell you to stop and you didn't? How many times did you make her have to pull your hands away? Why would she be here if you had respected her." With every accusation the gun drooped lower and lower. The accusations hit the trembling girl like physical blows, each bringing her lower and lower until she fell heavily to her knees, the gun barely pointed at the monster.
The monster loomed over the crying girl mockingly. "I didn't take your love away from you. She's right here." They looked and saw Applejack emerge from a pod, her entire body ashen grey, her eyes glowing a fell green.
Rainbow popped to her feet. "Applejack!" Before she could say another word the farm girl mind slave charged her, ripping the gun out of her hands with a wrenching grip. The other hand swung towards the girl's face with enough force to shatter a glacier. It was only Rainbow Dash's super speed that saved her life. Rainbow called out desperately as she dodged the hail of blows. "Wait, Applejack! It's me! It's your little Thunder Butt!"
Pinkie Pie couldn't help but snicker. "Ha! Thunder Butt!"
The mind slave stopped, Rainbow felt a glimpse of hope in her heart, until the gray woman growled. "Ah know who y'all are!" She swung again and only barely missed the girl's face. "Yer the one who used me! You lied to me! You made me think Ah was in love you you!"
Rainbow's shocked face turned to scowl of rage. "You do love me!" She screamed, pointing an accusing finger at the mind slave. "I know Applejack and Applejack doesn't lie!"
The gray woman waved a hand dismissively. "Ah never loved you! Y'all were just takin advantage uh mah whore moans, makin me act crazy! That weren't love, it was just lust dressed up with flowery words n pleasant lies!"
"No! Applejack loves me! She would save cider for me! She would let me win arm wrestles and I'd pretend not to notice. She would let me nap against her and she would embarrass the hell out of me by going on and on about how cute my snoring was! That's not lust Applejack, that's annoying, cutesy, wonderful love! So don't you dare try to say you don't love me." Rainbow shouted. The mind slave held her head as the memories tried to work their way into her heart. She roared and charged the defiant girl. Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "And you knocked me out, so I think I owe you this."
Rainbow's magic wings appeared and she flying kicked Applejack straight off of her feet. They flew all the way to the throne and Applejack hit the black stone seat with a tremendous thud that knocked the wind out of her. Rainbow super sped over to the pod holding Flurry Heart and removed her from the tactical vest. She freed Cadence and handed the baby to her. Cadence squeezed her baby, feeling unfathomable relief at being reunited with her child.
Cadence freed Shining Armor and he snatched up his rifle, pumping a grenade into the tubes connecting the pods to the throne. They each opened and the rest stumbled out. Rainbow shoved the tactical vest down over the dazed mind slave, holding her securely in place. Applejack squirmed and struggled, but she couldn't escape. "And I think about it's time you remembered that!" Rainbow solemnly entered the one remaining pod and it sealed around her.
"Rainbow no!" The rest called out.
The pod did its work and Rainbow's love began to feed into the girl trapped on the throne. The monster saw this and screamed, "No! Stop! What're you doing?!" She tried to run to the throne but Shining Armor stood guard with his rifle. Applejack squirmed and grunted but her mind became filled with visions of Rainbow Dash's love. She saw from Rainbow's perspective all the tender moments they'd shared. She could feel from the inside how much Rainbow was embarrassed that she loved Applejack's pet name for her.
Applejack felt the worried anticipation of Rainbow playing her girlfriend's song and how her heart leapt when she saw the sparkle in the farm girl's eyes. She felt how her wiggling her hips at her girlfriend's was a display of love, not a lewd gesture. Tears streamed down her face as all of Rainbow's love flowed into her. She gasped when she saw Rainbow's hand slip up her shirt. She felt the burning need to please Applejack, and the thought of pleasuring her by fondling her breasts. It was all for her. Every time she'd been lewd it had been an attempt to please her, not for some sexual gratification.
Every eye in the room had to clamp shut as Applejack began to glow with a blinding pink aura. She began to float into the air and the throne crumbled beneath her. The monster screamed as the love she had stolen was torn from her in a pink glow flowing from her chest. The love that had been stolen shot out from the crumbling stone and flew like a meteor shower back to the hearts that it came from. The Armor family all embraced in familial bliss. Sunset and Fluttershy kissed passionately. Pinkie crushed Rarity and Twilight around the waist with a toothy grin from ear to ear.
The pod opened and a glowing Rainbow Dash floated out. The two glowing lovers met and took each other's hands. They kissed solemnly at first, breaking into a passionate, clinging, desperate kiss. The monster slowly crumbled under the strain of having its love stolen from it until it dissolved away into a small black stone heart perforated with holes. As the last of the dust of the crumbled creature blew away the heart cracked in half. The love returned to each of the teenagers from whom it was stolen and they began to wake up slowly.
A girl in a flag twirlers uniform groggily got to her feet. "Huh, where am I? Where's Heisman?"
Sunset Shimmer smiled and gently took her hand. "Come on Twag. Let's get you home." The campers all piled into the various cars and they convoyed back to town. Twilight sat hunched uncomfortably over the steering wheel. Rainbow was perched in Applejack's lap as they loudly made out, whispering sweet nothings to each other as they ate each other's faces. It was a very long drive home.