Learning To Laugh Again
A Cupcake Chronicles Side Story Series
by milesprower06

Part 8

“Come on, sweetheart. Come on back.”

The grogginess and the fog began to lift away. Rainbow felt like she'd been in a deep sleep for days. She gave out a groan.

“AJ...?”

“At first I was afraid I had given you too much of that potion that Twilight brewed up for me. You were dead weight the entire time I strung you up there.”

Applejack's words made Rainbow shake off more of the potion's lingering effects, and realize what position she was in; suspended in the air.

She was in the center of the apple cellar, hanging by her front hooves from a pulley on the center ceiling rafter. More rope had been wrapped securely around her midsection, restraining her wings firmly in their folded position against her body. Going lower still, she felt the egg vibrator in her, currently off, but nonetheless there. She felt a weight on her tail. Looking down, she saw that Applejack had tied a small sack of apples, that perfectly simulated her tail being pulled. Lastly, her back legs were forced apart with a spreader bar.

“Applejack...what's going on?” she asked, a hint of fear in her voice.

“Relax, hun. You're safe. I just thought that this might be an effective way of getting some answers out of you.”

“Answers?”

“Yup, you ain't been rightly honest with me, Rainbow Dash. I noticed that our first time trying this in Las Pegasus, that you didn't ask for a safe word. When you first asked me to do this with you all those months ago, you knew more about dominance and submission than I did, before Twilight gave me this book to read. Safe words are one of the most common practices in this.” Applejack said, holding up the book that she had acquired all her domination knowledge from.

“Yet you didn't ask for one. You didn't ask again when we got back to Ponyville for a second time, and I actually managed to spank you to tears that time. If I recall, you actually managed to squirt a little on my bed, not to mention the bruises I left that thankfully faded by morning. When I mentioned that I'd like to know why you enjoy being treated like this, you had fallen asleep...or pretended to.”

Applejack's accusation shined clearly through her words. She opened her book to where the bookmark ribbon separated the pages, and read aloud.

“A safe word is a word or phrase that is given to a sub so he or she may maintain a minimal degree of control. This is not to take power away from the dom, but to ensure that the sub may stop the session at any time, due to feeling unsafe, unsure, hurt, or another mental or physical barrier that may be crossed or broken. Safe words are encouraged and recommended for all but the most experienced couples.”

Applejack closed the book.

“Do we look like an experienced couple?”

When Rainbow didn't offer an answer, AJ's expression became more stern.

“I asked you a question, pet.” Applejack told the restrained Pegasus, making sure she knew her place for this conversation.

“N-no,” Rainbow answered, shaking her head.

“That's right, we're not. We've only done this three times in three weeks. We're very new at this. Don't you think we need a safe word to make sure no one gets hurt?”

Again, Rainbow didn't offer an immediate answer, choosing to mull the question over in her head silently.

Applejack was in no mood for games. She got up, took a step forward and lashed out with the leather strap. It snapped across Rainbow's left flank with a sharp crack. She let out a yelp. With the blizzard howling outside, she knew Applejack wasn't the least bit worried about being heard out here.

“I-I don't know! No, I didn't think we needed one!” she offered, now fully aware that Applejack wasn't happy.

“I don't know why you think we wouldn't, with how inexperienced both of us are at this.”

Applejack tossed the book back to her chair, and began to slowly circle her prisoner, strap in hoof.

“So now the second issue: You haven't told me why you enjoy me treating you like this, and it's pretty obvious that you don't want to tell me.”

“I really enjoy being controlled by y-ah!”

Talking without being asked a direct question earned Rainbow another lash with the strap.

“No, that's what you enjoy, not why. You and I have known each other for five years now. I have never seen you act so submissively until three weeks ago, and doing so makes you wetter than I've ever seen you since we've been with each other. It's not a new development, either; you asked me to do this to you out of the blue six months ago. I want to know where this mindset came from. You know me, Rainbow. I can't stand liars. To me, withholding the truth is every bit as bad as lying. So, are you going to tell me your mistress why you enjoy this?”

For this third time, Rainbow remained silent after a question. Applejack sighed.

“That's alright, sugar cube. I'd be a bit disappointed if I went through the good time and trouble of hanging you up there just to let you down right away. So whad'ya say we get started on our fourth session?”

Applejack looked up at Rainbow, who was still silent, but was beginning to become aroused, which her mistress smirked at. She went to the vibrator control strapped to Rainbow's left inner thigh, and set it to random. She heard the muffled buzzing coming from within her pet's snatch. Rainbow gasped, biting her lip immediately afterward. She let out a short moan of delight when Applejack made sure the sack tied to her tail was secure by giving it a few tugs.

“I know you're gonna enjoy this, pet. So it'll be my job to try and make sure the pleasure isn't as quite as intense as the pain. We'll be using a safe word tonight. Well, words, actually. If at any point you want me to stop, all you have to do is tell me the truth, okay?"

Rainbow stared down at her mistress, carefully avoiding her eyes. She didn't offer any other sign that she understood.

Applejack went behind Rainbow to where the pegasus couldn't see her, and cracked the strap on the concrete floor, making Rainbow jump. Then, she merely stood there for half a minute, watching her marefriend shudder in anticipation, wondering when the first blow would come, and already squirming from the toy inside her.

The first hit landed right above her tail, and she let out a yelp. AJ followed up immediately with a slightly harder hit to her right flank. As the lashes continued, Rainbow's painful cries became injected with ecstasy. Every time Applejack heard that, she increased the strength of her blows, making sure her yelps were more noticeable than her moans. Not even five minutes had passed before Rainbow was struggling to think straight. The immobility, her restrained wings, the toy buzzing inside her, and Applejack's relentless assault on her hindquarters combined to form an attack on her mind unlike anything she had experienced. With her spread legs and being suspended in the air, she was unable to thrust the air to usher her climax forward at a faster rate. Her body and release were completely at Applejack's mercy.

It was only a matter of time, however, and at the 9-minute mark, Rainbow gave out a slightly prolonged cry, as her orgasm finally overcame her, the results dripping out from between her legs down to the concrete floor. Her climax thankfully brought a reprieve, as Applejack came around to the front to inspect the results, running the tip of her hoof across the floor where Rainbow had ejaculated, then bringing it to her mouth to tenderly suck on.

"Mmm. Not bad, if just a tad sooner than I expected."

Rainbow averted her gaze to avoid looking her mistress in the eyes; not so much because of the rule, but because she knew this wasn't over, and looking AJ in the eyes would just make her more heated.

"Well I know there's more where that came from, so let's go for round two."

Applejack reached up to Rainbow's thigh and kicked the vibrator's random pulses up to a greater tempo. Rainbow protested the increase in intensity so soon after an orgasm in the form of a moaning whine, but Applejack paid it no mind, and opted to stay up front for the second set, wondering if Rainbow could maintain the lack of eye contact when she was facing her.

The blows came harder this time, the yelps louder, with more pain evident in them. Still, Rainbow managed to avoid Applejack's gaze by focusing on one part of the cellar. When the strap became too painful to be able to focus, she merely clenched her eyes shut. It was another five minutes before her second climax washed over her, sending more juices dripping down. Applejack came closer and brushed her inner thigh teasingly before backing the vibrator down, giving her a chance to breath, as she was already gasping. This had to be the most severe punishment yet. Rainbow had lost count, but she was confident that in these 15 minutes, they had to be around 90 blows or so, what with how Applejack maddeningly varied the pace, keeping it as unpredictable as possible.

"If...if you keep going...good...good luck on explaining the bruises away...Mistress..." Rainbow managed to say when she had finally caught her breath.

AJ's eyes widened, but she managed to keep her mouth from hanging open. Rainbow had never talked back in her sub mindset.

Doing so earned her a precisely-placed hit on her right udder, just above the nipple. Rainbow screamed out in pain. Being the most severe hit of the night, it finally brought the pegasus to tears.

"Who in tarnation do you think I am?!" Applejack snapped. "Golly, girl. As if I wouldn't have planned for you bein' so difficult."

With that Applejack went back beside the chair, and rummaged through the saddlebag. She came up with a jar of purple sparkling goop.

"Twilight calls it 'Bruise-B-Gone', an enchanted ointment guaranteed to remove any and all bruise marks from the skin and coat. Ya just have to apply it to the affected areas."

Applejack did just that while Rainbow attempted to sniffle her tears away. She twisted the lid off, got a hoof of the sparkling cream, and rubbed it directly onto Rainbow's much-abused flanks. Upon making contact, the cream began to glow, and several seconds later, that magic had done its work, and that section of Rainbow's posterior looks as good as new. She found out that the magical ointment was a visual aid only, because she still felt quite sore.

"This is the first time this punishment has been fitting even outside of a role playing sense. You're acting like such a foal. Like somepony who doesn't want to tell mommy why they drew on the wall. Just tell me the truth, and you're down from there. You and I are inside, together in bed, and out of this blizzard."

Rainbow looked down at her, just off of making eye contact.

"I...I...I just can't..." Rainbow cried, fresh tears running down her cheeks.

AJ let out a soft sigh, looking down at the ground, shaking her head.

"Yes you can. You just don't want to. But that'll change, sooner or later. Now, where were we?"

AJ did a walk around, making sure she got all of Rainbow's affected areas, then ran her hoof around Rainbow's inner thigh. She was amazed at despite what Rainbow had already endured and released, her marehood was still soaked and swollen, ready and wanting more. Applejack couldn't remember a time when she saw Rainbow more aroused.

"I can't help but wonder how long it'll be until your orgasms hurt too."

With that, she flicked the vibrator to its third highest pulse setting, producing more moans from the pegasus. She whipped her fresh flanks even harder, and bruises began to appear even sooner. The apple cellar became a symphony of cries, whines, moans, and cracking leather.

"Just one thing: the truth, and this is all over."

A couple minutes later, faster than before, Rainbow hit her third major peak, and the scream that came with it had more pain in it. Applejack knew that her body was reaching it's limits. But her confidence took a hit as she saw that despite the pain that came with this orgasm, Rainbow had managed to ejaculate more than she did on her second.

Applejack's patience began to wear dangerously thin. The most times she ever remembered Rainbow cumming was four times, out in the orchards right before the freak earthquake that rocked the town. Interrogating her was going to get considerably more difficult if her climaxes started knocking her out; that was something she had not prepared for.

Applejack dropped the 2-foot strap and went back to her saddlebags. Rainbow Dash, her chest heaving, wings straining, and pushing to get free of the rope, looked over at her mistress, and was overcome with dread when she saw her hoof come out of the bag with a full 6-foot whip. The switch was great for enclosed spaces where you would be concerned about noise. The strap was middle ground, increased noise and sting.

This, however...she was shocked that AJ even purchased something like this. A full whip was for the real masochist couples, those who wanted to endure a gauntlet of misery. Loud and deadly accurate in the right hooves, it could make short work of any sub.

"Appl...Applejack...please...no..."

"Don't give me 'please no'. You know exactly what you need to tell me if you don't want me to use this. I'm out of options, you stubborn slut. You've gotten three orgasms from me tonight, so now you're going to give me what I want, or you're going to pass out and wake up there tomorrow morning. Did you expect me to never get curious? That I'd just happily spank and fuck you without wanting to know why? Sure, maybe you're a little ashamed of whatever the reason it. But I'm getting a different vibe from this; a lack of respect. If you truly want me to treat you like a sex slave without ever wondering why in Equestria I'm doing these things to you, well, then I have a really hard time in figuring out just who the slave is in all this. So, one...last...time. Why?"

When Dash offered no answer, nearly vibrating in her binds in terror, Applejack moved no closer, and swung out with the whip.

The resulting sound seemed to take on mass, as the echo washed over Applejack. The sounds continued over the next twenty minutes as she whipped, teased, and tortured Rainbow to a fourth and fifth climax, along with two more applications of the magic ointment. Applejack, with such a deadly instrument of pain in her hoof, spaced the blows much farther apart, letting each one plant itself firmly in Rainbow's mind. Her yelps and cries became more desperate and painful, and Applejack, in her inexperience, was having trouble keeping the scales of pain and pleasure balanced. As her pet was nearing an incredible sixth orgasm, AJ was furious, and close to snapping. For all she knew, she was no closer to getting what she wanted out of Rainbow, whose cries and screams were tortuously close to sounding like the sounds echoing from the basement of Sugar Cube Corner that fateful night. AJ was now having trouble picking out the moans of pleasure, and each blow, each cry and yelp, was chipping away at her dominating demeanor, and also eating away at what little patience she had remaining. Why did Rainbow enjoy this? Why wouldn't she break? Why, why, why, why...

"Grr...just tell me the TRUTH!!!"

With that last word, Applejack swung harder than ever before, bringing the whip down on Rainbow's left cutie mark, and the impact was as loud as a cannon.

There was no pleasure in Rainbow's resulting scream. Applejack reared her front leg back in preparation for a follow up blow, and then paused mid-swing, realizing what she had done. She brought the whip close to her face, and her eyes widened in horror.

The end of the whip was dipped in crimson.

Applejack looked over at Rainbow, and saw that she had broken her skin, as a single drop of blood trickled down from a fresh cut just above her cutie mark.

Applejack's mindset melted away in an instant, and her heart shattered.

Rainbow's mind fought through the pain and pondered what had brought the abrupt pause. She then felt herself give way to gravity as the rope suspending her in midair dropped her to the floor. On the edge of a mind-numbing sixth climax, Rainbow found herself barely able to register a single thought, but pushed herself to look to the crank next to the stairs, where Applejack sat, her back to Rainbow, her entire body trembling.

"A...AJ...?" she barely managed to whisper, her voice hoarse and throat sore from all the crying.

Applejack turned to her, shoulders heaving, and tears flowing from her eyes.

"I...I gave you all my trust for this. At first I didn't care why you enjoyed me hitting you...hurting you. I just did it because I knew you liked it. I'll be honest. I started to like it too. But when I got curious as to why, you beat around the bush every time. You haven't returned my trust, Rainbow. Twilight gave me a truth serum along with that knock-out potion, but I didn't use it. Even if I had to coerce it out of you, I wanted it to be your choice. But for some reason, you obviously don't trust me with the truth. Do you actually think whatever the reason is would change anything between us? That me knowing why you enjoy this would make me love you any less?" the farmer sobbed.

Due to the chaotic mix of main and ecstasy her mind was in, Rainbow could not bring herself to answer.

Heartbroken, Applejack turned and ran up the stairs and out of the cellar out into the raging blizzard, her sobs quickly being overtaken by the storm before the howling winds slammed the door shut.

Rainbow made no move to either remove herself from her restraints, nor finish putting herself past her sixth peak of the night. Her submissive mindset fell to pieces in her head, as the stinging pain from the past hour of punishment continued echoing throughout her body. Regardless of what had just endured, her body would not back down, and her mind and marehood longed for one final release, but Rainbow was too confused, exhausted, sore, and now ashamed, to care. She lost track of the time passing as she faded in and out of consciousness numerous times, as she laid there among traces of her own ejaculate.

She was brought back to a half-conscious state by the sound of the cellar door opening again. She was made slightly more alert by the brief rush of cold air. She didn't have a clue how long she had been laying there. She looked to the stairs, and saw Applejack coming toward her. Rainbow was still restrained, save for her front legs, which she could move, but decided to remain still and see what her marefriend wanted.

Applejack walked up to her, and rolled her onto her back. Just looking at her made Rainbow long for release again. Applejack wordless looked down to Rainbow's longing marehood, laid down between her legs, and gave her just what she was hoping for.

Though her sore and exhausted body tried to protest, her mind would have none of it as she moaned in pleasure as AJ silently ate her out. Due to her time out, the climb back to the peak was slow, the rising and falling pattern of her previous climaxes long since passed. But as Rainbow relaxed and immersed herself in the pleasure after so much torment, her mind began to realize that something was just a bit off. AJ could do it slow and sensual, or fast and intense, depending on the mood the two of them were in. But she was never...sloppy. Judging by her present work, it seemed as if AJ wanted to get this final climax over with and get them off to bed.

Rainbow risked a look at her marefriend that she had upset. AJ was intent on focusing purely on her work, staring right between her legs. That wasn't like her either...she always kept an eye on her face, either to make it hotter during normal times together, or to make sure Rainbow didn't look her in the eyes during role playing.

The way it felt...the way it looked...Rainbow couldn't shake the instinct that something was wrong here.

"AJ...? Applejack...? She asked softly.

The farmer ignored her name being called, and continued her work. As her climax came closer, Rainbow tried to slide away to see what was up, but Applejack responded by grabbing her flanks and holding her in place, ramping up the intensity of her licking. As Rainbow neared the point of no return, she let out a cry as her pussy squeezed Applejack's tongue, and just before going over the edge, she saw her lover's eyes glow green.

Rainbow's mind and body finally became one as they realized what was happening.

'That's not Applejack.' her brain screamed at her.

Forcing her mind to focus through the self-induced orgasm denial, Rainbow forced her rear legs up, overpowering her will to cum, and used the spreader bar still attached to clothesline the intruder. Effectively dazed, Rainbow quickly freed her front hooves from the rope, rolled over to all fours, and gave her a full force buck to the body, smashing her against the cobblestone wall of the cellar. Using the precious seconds she had, she quickly freed her wings from the rope, her back legs from the spreader bar, and her tail from the sack of apples. Now completely free, Rainbow's attention returned to the doppelganger, and was shocked at what she saw.

This...thing, had clearly reverted to its original state; black scaly skin, a horn that curved up and back from the forehead, and teal eyes and wings that looked like they belonged on an insect and not a pony. Lastly, the hooves had holes through them, missing sections that looked disturbingly natural.

'Think Rainbow, think.'

She dragged the unconscious creature to the center of the cellar, and used the rope used on her to restrain the wings and front hooves. Cranking it up into midair, she ran up the stairs into the blizzard, back towards the farmhouse. She ran in the front door, finding everything as she remembered it before AJ told her to drink the drugged cider. Her cup was still on the floor as well. Finding no trace of Applejack in the bedroom, Rainbow ran back through the snow to the cellar, where the creature was now awake and thrashing in the restraints.

"Where is she?" she demanded.

The creature looked at her and simply hissed and snarled.

"Applejack, the farmer you copied. I know you saw her because you looked just like her. Now where is she?!" she repeated, only to be answered by more hissing, and struggling to get free of its restraints. Rainbow had no idea if the creature could speak her language, but she figured if it had the capability to copy the look of a pony, then it was capable of communication, spoken, crude, or otherwise.

And yet it did not motion toward the door, or do anything except lunge angrily at its captor, snarling furiously. Rainbow was in no mood for games. She looked around the cellar for anything that could give this thing some incentive. For all she knew, Applejack was in grave danger, and this creature was the only link. She wasn't going to waste time going for help. It was going to tell her where AJ was, or...

She returned to the center of the cellar, and pressed the tip of a shovel against the creature's neck.

"Where...is...Applejack?"