//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 - ... and night 
// Story: Contact 
// by Gron 
//------------------------------//

Slowly Steve set one foot in front of each other, his feet sinking in a few centimetres into the freshly ploughed soil with every step as he stepped out of the unusually quiet forest and into an empty field. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath through his nostrils, filling his lungs with the scent of nature that surrounded him, enjoying the tranquillity and peace that he was immersed in. After a while, he opened his eyes again and began looking around, trying to spot something familiar. In the distance, at the end of the field, he was able to spot a large red barn as well as some other wooden buildings next to it.
 
Is that Sweet Apple Acres? How did I get here? And what am I even doing here? he asked himself, feeling bewildered as he trudged towards the farm, apple trees appearing at his sides as he trudged up the dirt road. He tried looking around, hoping to locate Ponyville in the distance but the glare of the sun seemed to increase rapidly, forcing him to turn his attention away. His question soon got an answer as he saw an orange pony galloping towards him from the line of apple trees to his right.

“Hey Applejack!” he called out to the mare, waving a hand at her direction as she got closer to him, a cloud of dust rising behind her from the high speed. When she arrived in front of him, she glared at him with a strange spark in her eyes, her mouth twisted in an ugly frown. He raised a brow in confusion. “Applejack? What’s going on -?”

Applejack gave him no time to even complete his sentence. Instead, she quickly spun around, every muscle in her body getting tense while she stabilized herself with her forelegs as she lashed out with her hind legs. It all happened too fast for Steve to react and the next thing he felt was immense pain as the pony’s legs hit him directly in the stomach.

He fell to the ground, writhing and groaning in pain as he held his trembling hands over his stomach, clutching it tightly. Tears shot into his eyes and he had to sharply breathe in air, trying to soothe the pain as much as he could. 
His eyes fell onto Applejack who had turned around again, slamming her hooves on the ground closely in front of his head, causing him to flinch in fright and looked down on him, her eyes filled with contempt.

With a loud cough, he tried clearing his throat and looked up at the mare, fighting the waves of agony that ran through his body. “What the fu…” he was able to press out under the pain before being cut off by Applejack.

“Whatch ya think yer doin’!?” she yelled at him, her voice filled with an anger he never heard from her before. It sounded dark, menacing even, holding the promise of pain if he made the wrong move. “Back on the fields with ya!”

The confusion he felt got overwhelmed by anger, the feeling surging through him, making him feel stronger. He opened it his mouth to curse her, but before he could even get a word out, Applejack had already pulled out a whip which was now being held in one of her hooves. “Don’t ya’ think about talking back to me now or you’ll see how a whip can cut through flesh.”

Any attempt he had in mind to retaliate from the pain Applejack just inflicted on him got annihilated as she cracked the whip close to his face, causing him to wince at the loud sound and as the small draft of wind passed over his face from the closeness of the weapon.

“Now, we’re going back to the fields, ya got me?” she snarled and held the whip ready. Without waiting for a reaction, she grabbed one of his arms with her mouth and roughly pulled him onto his legs.

His body had begun trembling uncontrollably, completely unable to understand anything that was going on right now, failing to notice the small but steady trickle of blood that had begun to fall from the wound where the farm pony had bitten him, its crimson thickness tainting the ground in small drops.

“Move,” she ordered in a tone that tolerated no dissent and pushed him forward. He almost fell on the ground again but was able to catch himself in time. He started to turn around again but the crack of the whip caused him to stop his motion.

“I ain’t gonna say it again. Move!” she repeated, her eyes boring into his, daring him to contradict her.

His mind was racing. Nothing made sense to him anymore. Although every fibre in his body was screaming at him, urging him to tackle the pony to the ground and shout at her till his lungs were burning while repaying her cruelty, he was too afraid of the whip that she still held in her hooves, so he had no other option than to comply and he started moving, his body still aching from the kick.

“Faster!” Applejack ordered and pushed him from behind, causing him to stumble a bit. “Yer lucky to get off this easy for trying to sneak off the fields.”

Shortly after they arrived at the fields Applejack had in target. Steve stood in terror as he witnessed the scenes unfurling right before his very eyes. A group of stallions were desperately trying to plough the field under the eyes of Applejack’s five friends, ponies Steve would never have thought to be so cruel and completely devoid of compassion as they all marched up and down the fields, surrounding the hapless stallions, each one brandishing a whip, either in their mouths or levitated by magic. The stallions all looked horrible, deep rings under their eyes, the bones in their malnourished bodies clearly visible underneath their fur, riddled with old scars and new wounds, judging from the puffy, raw-looking gashes that dominated their entire body as they desperately tried to pull the heavy plows behind them. As soon as one of them slowed down or even stopped, he was screamed at and felt the sting of a whip until he continued working again.

His frightened eyes, almost comical in the way they were so wide, fell on a smaller, light brown stallion, looking as though he had barely reached adulthood, seemed to be struggling more than the others, unable to pull a plough that was almost the same size as him through the fields. Silently he watched as the stallion grunted and strained, muscles heaving as sweat dripped down into his eyes as he tried desperately to advance forward, yet the plough would only budge forward ever so reluctantly. It wasn’t long before his body was overwhelmed by the effort, his trembling limbs unable to keep his body upright as he collapsed onto the soft dirt, his sides rising and falling harshly as he panted for air. His rest was short as Fluttershy appeared behind him, a scowl on her face. The otherwise demure mare began yelling something incomprehensible for Steve to understand, before she kicked the stallion in his sides. 

Horrified, Steve could only look on as Fluttershy mercilessly began pummelling the stallion with her hooves as the stallion lay there, unmoving, staring ahead blankly as the mare continued to rain blow upon his body. The screams of pain only came when she grabbed her whip and continued her assault on her victim that never raised a hoof in his defence, new welts covering the old ones. On and on it went, Fluttershy keeping a steady rhythm until she gradually slowed down and then stopped, grinning wildly as she surveyed her handiwork as the stallion lay at her hooves, trembling as blood slowly seeped from his wounds, whimpering to himself. She seemed to signal to one for one of the stallions, who had all continued to work relentlessly while making sure they avoided looking at their comrade. He shuffled forward as Fluttershy pointed him to the red barn. Nodding his head in obedience, he reached out and latched onto the broken stallion with his teeth and began dragging him in the direction of the barn, slowly at first until a whip to his back spurred him to move faster.

Not caring about the consequences and unable to contain himself any longer, he turned towards Applejack and yelled, “You sick bitch, how could…” He abruptly stopped as the enraged mare charged at him. He quickly threw his arms around his head as he braced for impact, narrowing his eyes. However, the blow didn’t come the way he expected; Applejack had instead galloped behind him and lashed out with her hind legs once again, kicking him in the back of his knee, causing him to tumble, before she sent him sprawling into the dirt with a quick swipe of her hoof to his head. She had already planted a firm hoof on his abdomen before he could even think about fighting back, looming over him ominously, her face darkening in rage at his actions.

“Why are you doing this?!” he yelled desperately, his eyes filling again, the pain from the blow to his head and tears blurring his vision.  “P-please… don’t…” he whimpered as Applejack raised her whip, ready to swing it. Shaking, he wiped his eyes as he noticed several shadows above him, blocking the harsh sunlight as they surrounded him.

“This one’s been giving you trouble?” came a voice he knew too well. Rainbow Dash, he thought, as she came into focus. She grinned at him, not the cocky smirk of pride he had known before, but one of pure malevolence as the rest of the mares came into view, sneering down at the wounded human as Applejack nodded her head in response to her question, but lowering the whip, much the relief of the human.

“He certainly doesn’t look like much,” Rarity said, snorting in disdain as he slowly tried to sit up from the dirt, making no effort to help him.

“Useless stallions shouldn’t be kept around for long,” Pinkie Pie growled. Steve stared at her, almost not recognizing her. Gone was the bubbly mare that wanted to throw him parties and hug him until his bones started to creak. Instead, she looked at him, her mane flat against her face and eyes utterly devoid of emotion, although a crooked smile was on her face as she reached into her saddlebags to pull out a knife. A knife, Steve observed faintly, that seemed to be crusted with old blood. Pinkie Pie noticed his stare and slowly, almost seductively, brought the knife to her face and began licking the blade clean, twirling her tongue in an erotic dance, seeming to take cruel delight at the horror etched upon Steve’s face.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say he’ll be completely useless,” Twilight said, as she trotted up to his prone body, swaying her hips. Gazing down at the human with half-lidded eyes, she began slowly rubbing her hoof up and down Steve’s battered body sensuously, smiling at him lasciviously as she drew the human closer. “If he can’t work the fields, he can always be used in differently. I can think of a few activities he and I can do that we would both find extremely….. pleasurable,” Twilight murmured, whispering the last sentence into his ear before taking a playful nibble at it.
 
That intimate contact finally spurred the shell-shocked human into actions, scrambling backwards on his hands and feet, trying desperately to create some distance between the group of mares and himself. It was a futile endeavour as once again Applejack stormed up to him and delivered another painful kick to his stomach, his agonized scream cut short as he began hacking up and spitting blood. Clutching his stomach, he turned towards his attacker, who once again brandished the whip for him to see.
 
“Please….. no more,” he wheezed, begging her with her eyes. Below him, the ground began to shake as he quivered in fear.

“It didn’t have tah come tah this, but ya asked for it,” she replied and swung her whip.

Terror filled his eyes as he saw the whip approaching him. The world began to slow down and he wanted to scream, hold his arms in front of his face, do something but he couldn’t. It was only a few heartbeats until the whip would hit him directly in the face…

The ground below him rumbled heavily, the land itself seeming to groan……

The sky above him glowed brighter, blotting out the background in its powerful glare….

And then, the whip made contact…


 
“AHHH!” Steve shouted and shot up in his bed. Panicked, he looked around in the darkness that was surrounding him frantically, panting heavily, a cascade of sweat running down his body. Oh thank god… it was just a dream, he thought, a trickle of relief flowing through his body as he tried to calm himself down. That was the third one already, he sighed and slowly sank back into the sweat soaked sheets of his bed. He slowly pulled them around his shaking body, resting a damp hand on his head, a dull headache already on its way to beating a rhythm inside his head. As much as he tried, he couldn’t stop the vivid images of his dreams from playing across in his mind, the horror and fear he felt in them still resonating. He sighed, a ragged, pitiful thing, and squirmed around, trying to make himself comfortable despite knowing that the chance of him actually falling asleep again were slim. Not that he wanted to, if those dreams were what awaited him.  Can’t get a single night of peace anymore…