Day 4
Braeburn was right in his assumption that they would not be able to leave that night, the searches continued until the early hours of the morning. They quit their hunt, deciding that some mare from an opposing territory thought it would be funny to trick them into thinking there were males about.
Braeburn had been so emotionally exhausted from the events that transpired that he basically passed out on the floor half an hour after getting to the stallions holed up in the danger zone. Braeburn came to at about 2 in the morning. He wondered why they had not tried to rouse him, but when he yawned, he got his answer. An intense pain coursed through his face, causing him to yelp. His whole face throbbed in pain, he scrambled to his hooves. He galloped straight to the nearest mirror, gapping at the large bruise that covered the left side of his face. His entire jaw was swollen and he could hardly open it without whimpering in pain. The caked on makeup was still there, too, making him look like some battered boxer. He tried to curse, but it only resulted in pain and what sounded like “muffubupuh”
He plodded around the first floor of the house, looking for the gentlecolts who destroyed his face, not finding them, he went upstairs. They were seated near the window, the blue one looking out with a pair of large binoculars and sporting a bandage around his wing, the other leaning against the wall, looking bored. Braeburn stomped up to the stallions, clearing his throat.
The blue pegasi's ears perked up, “Hey, you're awake, that's aweSWEET CHEESE!” The stallion jumped back against the wall when he saw the mass of flesh that appeared to be some sort of a face. Thunderlane looked over to Braeburn and screamed, a high pitch scream that one would often associate with small fillies when confronted with Nightmare Moon. Thunderlane stared in horror at Braeburn's mangled muzzle, “We tried to wake him up too hard, Soarin! His face is applesauce!”
Hehe, Applesauce. But no time ta laugh about that now, Braeburn thought.
Soarin turned his head to the side and vomited, “My pie!” he cried, sadly looking at the vomit. He stuck his tongue out and inched closer to it, then thought better of it.
“Alright, what are we gonna do?” Thunderlane asked
“Wew habban bah tadah lububuhwuh,” Braeburn tried to say, flinching at the pain.
“Oh, right, your face. Let's get some ice on that.”
'Getting some ice on that' entailed having Braeburn sit in front of the icebox with his head inside, which for the most park was working. The swelling had gone down significantly and after washing the inches of makeup off his face, he did not look all too bad. The right side of his face was still significantly darker than the left and hurt like a mother when touched, but he could sufficiently talk.
“Welp, ow, ah think our next course o' action, ow, is ta somehow get back ta the library, ow. We got other stallions an' protection there, ouch. Here, any mare could just up an' walk in, y'all ain't got no barricades or nothin'!”
“We like to think that if we don't acknowledge it, nothing will happen,” Soarin said, matter-of-factly.
At that moment, they heard the front door smash open. Downstairs, 6 mares filed into the house. They were being led by the leader of that sector, Applejack. They all spread out and Applejack scanned the area, looking for be-cocked ponies. She pointed at one mare who was looking under a sofa.
“See what you did?” Thunderlane said, tsk-tsking Braeburn.
“You, check upstairs,” Applejack said to one of the mares, who saluted and trotted up the stairs.
The 3 stallions looked at each other, they then scattered. Thunderlane hid under a bed, Braeburn hid in the closet and Soarin hid behind the door leading into the room. The mare walked up to the door, pushing it open with a hoof. She looked around the room for any sign of life. As she looked to the bed, she noticed a tail poking out from the bottom of the bed, she smirked. She began casually cantering up to the bed.
“Oh no! It appears that there are no stallions up here! Darn my rotten luck, I guess I'll just have to–“
“Hoof Chop!”
Soarin's hoof chop hit the mare in the back of the head, knocking her out. She hit the ground with a 'Blerg'.
Applejack called from downstairs, “Everythin' alright up there, sugarcube?”
Soarin looked down at the unconscious mare.
Applejack stood at the base of the stairs, looking up through the open doorway. She heard the sound of hooves and from the side of the doorway, out poked the head of the mare who had went up there moments ago, her eyes closed.
“Oh yes, everything is just fine, nothing up here!” She said, somehow managing to say it without moving her mouth. Somehow, her voice had gotten much higher, too. Applejack blinked.
“Ifya say so!” Applejack said, walking away from the stairs, unbeknownst to the stallions and unconscious mare, she had quietly walked over to the rest of the mares.
In a harsh whispers, she said “There are stallions up there, ah can feel it in mah loins.”
They all looked back and forth, knowing what they had to do. They all began to whistle.
“Welp,” Applejack loudly said to nopony in particular, “Ah guess we'll be headin' out, then. We'll meetcha back at the center, ah s'ppose, seeee yaaaa” The mares all loudly stomped their hooves and progressively stomped them softer and softer, until they were standing still, silent.
Upstairs, Braeburn came out of the closet and Thunderlane crawled out from under the bed. Braeburn gathered them around and whispered, “ah'll go check ta see if it's clear”
They all nodded and Braeburn slowly descended the stairs, as he reached the bottom, he was suddenly jumped by sexually deprived mares who held him down as Applejack hogtied him.
“Applejack, stop, it's me, yah cousin Braeburn! Family don't go molestin' family!”
Applejack stuck her hoof in his mouth, silencing him, “Aw hush, it's prison rules, bitch,” With that, she threw Braeburn onto her back and trotted out of the house with him, the mares following her.
Soarin and Thunderlane watched this transpire with dropped jaws. After all was said and done and the mares were in the process of carrying Braeburn off, Soarin looked to Thunderlane.
“Is it clear or not?”
“You think we should g–“
“Nope.”
“You're probably right.”
“I'll miss the guy”
“Me too”
“Well, live and let live, I guess.”
“Yep.”
Back across town in the library, Doctor Hooves watched in silent shock. He had been surveilling Braeburn's progress for the last hour or so, nothing very interesting developing until now. He was thrown out of his shock by Mac tapping him on the shoulder.
“Howzit look?”
“Good! Fine, all is fine. Nothing new, really. Just normal not bad things that are all fine. Nothing to report,” Hooves forced a large smile. Mac shrugged and went back to his board game with Spike, they were playing Scrabble and Mac was still on his first turn.
Hooves sighed in relief, No way am I going out there into the thick of it to save that bumpkin. No way, Po-nay.
Soarin and Thunderlane were certainly torn up about Braeburn being swept away to certain fornication, but not so much as to risk their own hides to save him. They would follow with the original plan, though. Getting to the library.
Seeing as all the mares in Discord's Alley would definitely be wherever Applejack (and in turn Braeburn) would be, it would be relatively easy to escape the area and get to the library. They quickly packed their saddlebags, bringing only the essentials. Thunderlane packed a first aid kit and the binoculars, while Soarin packed a few pies and a scarf, in case it got cold.
They then silently slipped out of the house into the night. They quickly and silently made there way towards the library, it was a straight shot. They would be there within 2 minutes if they flew, but Soarin' wing was kerfuffled the previous day, so together, they crept through the darkness. Unnoticeable in the darkness, like tears in the rain, they reached the fence now separating the Discord's Alley from The Library. As they climbed over the fence a library patrol mare turned a corner, spotting the stallions.
The mare was Flitter, a pegasi. As soon as she knew that there were males near here, she broke into a sprint, charging surprisingly fast towards Soarin and Thunderlane. Thunderlane quickly pulled Soarin the rest of the way over the fence and unfolded his own wings. He lifted off the ground, ready to fly away, but looked back to Soarin, who's wing was still bandaged. Thunderlane quickly landed next to him and lowered himself towards the ground.
“Get on,” He said to Soarin, who quickly obliged. They lifted off the ground, unsteadily at first. Thunderlane groaned under the weight of another pony on him. I don't know why these mares think it's so great, he thought as he rose high off the ground. He then leaned forward, moving as fast as one could with their entire weight on their back. They were moving, but not fast enough to outrun/fly Flitter. They needed something else, something to stop her in her tracks.
“The pie!” Thunderlane said to himself. He turned his head to Soarin, “You need to hit her with a pie”
“What!? No way! These are my pies, they are all I have left!” He cried, clutching the saddlebag.
“It's the pie or your junk, dude”
Soarin looked terribly conflicted, but flipped his saddlebag open, nonetheless. He withdrew an apple pie and looked at it, then to the mare following them. A single tear rolled down his cheek as he brought the pie to his face and kissed it goodbye, passionately
“Goddess-speed, you bold baked good,” He said, letting it slip from his grasp.
The pie plummeted toward the ground, on a collision course with Flitter. She watched the pie get closer to her, “What in tartarus... Sweet dongs and Wobbegongs!”
The pie struck her square in the face, knocking her onto her back, her legs flailing wildly.
Soarin morned for his pie, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he whispered as he shed silent tears.
The duo managed to fly the rest of the way to the library, staying out of sight the entire time. When they reached the library, they descended onto the balcony. Thunderlane tapped on the glass door.
Spike, who was in the middle of laying down his word in Scrabble, heard a hoof rapping on the balcony door, he quickly looked up, seeing it to be a stallion. He quickly jogged to the door, as he was too chunkers to run. He undid the latch and let them in, Thunderlane's legs giving out from under him.
Back from whence they came, a debate was about to begin.
When Applejack had brought Braeburn back to her ponies, he was thrown into a makeshift cage. The cage was placed next to a podium. Applejack stood behind the podium, now wearing a top hat. She flipped it off her head and held it in her hoof, rooting around inside of it. She pulled out a slip of paper, on it was her name.
“Well, looky here! Ah guess ah'll be the one to have mah way with 'em first!”
A rabble rose from the crowd about her picking her own name. Colgate climbed up behind the podium as well, taking the hat from Applejack. She pulled another slip of paper out, it also saying 'Applejack'. So did the next slip, and the next slip.
“I knew it! You are a terrible liar, Applejack. How could you cheat?”
“Aw, shucks. Y'all know it's prison rules!”
“Screw that, AJ. If you're gonna cheat, we might as well just fight for it!”
It? Braeburn thought
“If'n y'all wanna have ourselves a fight, then we'll have ourselves a fight!” Applejack yelled, cracking her neck.
Colgate got up in Applejack's face, “Fine. You. Me. Dawn. The field of battle!”
At that, the two separated; and with them, the whole crowd, not really worrying about when they would have a chance to copulate with their new prisoner.
As they dispersed, Braeburn sighed in relief. He was safe for one more night, but tomorrow, one way or another, he will be severely dehydrated. He would spend the next few hours sending prayers to the goddesses Celestia and Luna and the older gods who Braeburn knew little of, but the Necronomicon spoke of in volumes, another book he found in the library.
Braeburn would eventually doze off into an uneasy sleep, fearful of what (and who) would come.