Shadow fluttered down onto a branch, looking down into the clearing with concern until she saw just what her dumbass big sister had gotten herself into.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…” Shadow muttered, rolling her eyes.

A moment later, Fox appeared on the branch next to her in a burst of amber light, coaxing a terrified squeal out of the poor filly. Shadow promptly scrambled away from him, slipping off of the branch and hanging on for dear life by her forehooves.

“What did I miss?” Fox asked, helping his little marefriend back up.

“Shut up…” Shadow mumbled, batting the colt away and hauling her own flanks back onto the branch.

“Um...is that…?” Fox frowned, looking down at the monster as it wrapped Sky in half a dozen slimy limbs.

“Yeah, it is…” Shadow nodded, giving a long-suffering sigh. “Fox, I don’t think you’re old enough to see this sort of shit.”

“I’m as old as you are!” Fox protested, staring down at the scene below.

“Exactly, and I wasn’t old enough for this shit when it happened last time,” Shadow deadpanned.

“Oh Celestia, this has happened before?”

“Yeah,” Shadow huffed, blowing her mane out of her face, “only back then she was on her own and she had to fuck it to death. I guess Rat’s gonna bail her ass this time.”

“Because Rat’s going to be so horrified when he sees her like this,” Fox sighed sarcastically.

“Well, whatever. She’s getting her own ass out of there. I’m not helping her this time...and stop watching, damn it!” Shadow added, grabbing Fox by the ear and dragging him away.

“Eeep! Hey! Not my ear! Leave me alone! I was just curious, okay?”

“Yahuh, sure you are…” Shadow growled. “Come on, let’s be curious somewhere else.”

“Is that a hint of jealousy I hear?” Fox giggled.

“N...no! I’m not jealous! I just don’t want you checking out my sister...or worse, imagining me in that position” Shadow blustered, “in fact, if you could just stop being a big stupid overgrown colt for two seconds, that’d be great.”

“I...I wasn’t thinking anything like that” Fox squeaked, hiding his head in his hooves, “you’re paranoid!”

“Oh Luna, you were, weren’t you?” Shadow cringed, tugging him along.

“N...no! I wasn’t…”

“That’s disgusting, Foxy. Like, you’re charting whole new galaxies of gross right now…” Shadow groaned.

“I didn’t mean anything by it!” Fox yelped.

“Sure you didn’t…” Shadow grumbled. “You’re sleeping on the couch tonight, buster.”

“We don’t even have a couch!”

“Exactly.”

Sky wasn’t entirely certain how she kept getting into situations like this. It occurred to her that she should perhaps cry for help, and she’d certainly shouted herself hoarse trying to get Rat’s attention. Judging by the sound of someone blundering through the undergrowth, however, Rat had already heard her.

Good… thought Sky, I’d hate for him to miss out on this!

“Watch out for the…” Sky began, as Rat burst into the clearing, making a leap towards her before promptly tumbling down the same bank that Sky had fallen down. He grunted as he rolled head over hooves, finally kicking up leaves and soil as he skidded to a halt before the monster.

“Ow…”

“Yeah, there’s a bank there…” Sky giggled, ‘but hey, Rat! You’re just in time! Look what I found!”

The little red unicorn shook his head, finally taking in the scene before him. Whatever the hell it was that lurked in the clearing had a slimy tentacle around each of Sky’s legs, a fifth around the base of her tail and a sixth holding her by the neck. Somewhere in its tiny monster brain, the unknowable Lovecraftian horror that held Sky up knew that something was wrong, that nopony should be this happy about what was about to happen. It was more used to ponies squealing in terror, freaking out or, in some cases, trying to bargain with it. Still, Sky was the first pony who’d blundered into its trap in months, and it did fancy a little fun…

“Sky, what the hell are you doing?” Rat gasped, looking up at his marefriend as the monster spread her hind legs by force, raising her tail.

“I told you I’d find one!” Sky beamed. “You’ve gotta do the cheerleader thing! You’re gonna look so silly!”

“Really?” Rat yelped urgently, “you’re about to get raped by a tentacle monster like some kind of Neighponese cartoon and that’s all that you’re thinking about right now?”

“It’s not rape if I’m up for it!” Sky giggled. “Besides, I just wanted to see the look on your fa…”

Sky let out a loud squeal as she was interrupted, one of the prehensile limbs pressing against her pussy lips before driving as deep into her marehood as it could go. She was swiftly winded as the blunt trauma hit her diaphragm, panting desperately with her tongue hanging out.

“Sky? Are you...are you okay?” Rat asked, taking a step closer.

“Ya...yahuuuuuh…” Sky moaned softly, as the monster started to pound away at her, slowly at first. “Oh...Ra…Rat...you should try this…”

“I’ll pass, thanks!” Rat shook his head. “Come on! We’ve got a job to do here! You can’t just go fucking random monsters you find in the woods!”

“Ca...can...too…” Sky murmured, wiggling her flanks and pushing back against the tentacle as it started to speed up. A second limb pressed against her plot, coaxing a pained little groan out of her.

Rat pouted as he watched his new marefriend suspended in the air, trying his best to dispel the feelings of overwhelming jealousy that ran through his mind and his heart. Seriously, he’d just gone and told Sky how he’d felt about her all along, and now this?

“Sky, you’re such a slut…” he groaned, looking around for anything he could use to free her from the trap, “seriously, only you could find a horny monster in the middle of the deep, dark woods…”

“Sh...shit…this is harder...than...I remember it being…” Sky grumbled, looking around at Rat as best she could. Through her dim vision, she could see her favourite little red unicorn desperately trying to find a vine to throw her, anything that would get her out of this frankly ridiculous situation.

Wow… Sky thought to herself, frowning, he must really care about me…

She let out a loud squeal as a second tentacle pushed deep into her plot, stretching her wide and knocking the wind out of her yet again. Still, she found herself enjoying it far less than she had before. Of course, it was amazing fun and it felt so good to be fucked like this, as deep as the tentacles could go without doing something unpleasant to her cervix, and her pussy dripped with a mixture of her own juices and the strange clear lubrication excreted by each limb.

So why aren’t I enjoying this as much as I used to?

Sky twitched and moaned as both of the tentacles synchronised their movements, fucking her in both of her holes at once. Her ass was far tighter, making for a much less comfortable fit, but she couldn’t deny that it felt great. The lubrication from the tentacles began to work on her body, a plethora of powerful pheromones taking control of her mind and relaxing her muscles. It was like being overcome by the most powerful lust formula in existence, and Sky found herself crying out louder and louder, struggling with a mixture of overpowering lust and dull guilt.

“RAT!” She finally cried out, arching her back and climaxing for the first time. Her tongue hang uselessly out of her mouth as a mixture of fluids dripped down onto the forest floor. She hadn’t cried for help.

Rat Racer’s ears perked, and the stallion looked around and up at her with a little smile. “Aww, look at you! You could stop getting fucked for just long enough to remember my name!”

“I’m...sorry...I didn’t mean...to...upset you…” Sky wheezed, as the tentacles squeezed her legs a little tighter to hold her in place. “Just...wanted...to...win...bet…”

“Yeah, yeah, we can have our first ever relationship argument once we get you free…” Rat rolled his eyes, “now, there’s gotta be something I can use to get you out of this situation...a stick, a vine, something...”

Rat was interrupted by a rustling in the leaves below him, not unlike the passage of a snake through the undergrowth. All of a sudden, a vine shot out of the leaves, wrapping around Rat’s forehoof. The stallion swiftly pulled away before the vine’s grip could tighten on his leg, yelping with fright.

“What the fuck was that?” He squealed, backing away and flaring his horn to scare the plant off.

Sky would have answered, but the pheromones acting on her body had rendered her unable to speak, reducing her to a gibbering, panting pony. Another tentacle pushed itself into her mouth, forcing her to breathe raggedly through her nose. Rat didn’t have much time.

“Da...damn it, Sky…” Rat growled, looking at his forehoof where the vine had struck him. A thin film of goo clung to his fur, not at all unlike the stuff that those tentacles were leaking…

Rat grinned. He had an absolutely fantastic idea…

“Oh, look at me!” He chuckled, trotting back and forth and doing his best to look innocent. “I sure hope that no angry carnivorous plants jump out and try to eat me! Whatever would I do?”

Sure enough, the vine shot out from beneath the leaves at him again. Rat danced out of the way, laughing as it wrapped around one of the tentacles restraining Sky. A further three vines shot out towards him, and Rat found himself having to cast his weight-reducing spell to jump ever higher, leaping atop the branches overhanging the clearing and staring down at the scene below.

As the vine wrestled with one of the tentacles for supremacy, two others snaked up the tree towards Rat. He spotted them at the last second, leaping from the branch and launching himself down towards Sky. The vines shot after him, striking the slimy limbs instead as Rat dove out of the way again.

The unicorn skidded to a halt as he hit the ground, kicking up leaves and soil again as he looked back at the monster engulfing Sky. It wrestled with the vines, which themselves decided that those tentacles were just what it needed for nourishment, and both creatures dripped with high-strength paralysing pheromonal fluids. Rat let out a little squee of delight as the tentacles grew increasingly limp, sliding out of Sky’s body and letting her drop to the ground with a dull thud.

“Sky…” Rat whispered, galloping over and nuzzling her. “Hey, can you hear me?”

“More, please…” Sky mumbled weakly, eyes rolling in different directions.

“Close enough.” Rat sighed, hoisting the silly little pegasus onto his back and galloping out of reach of both predators. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?”

Sky didn’t say anything for a very long time, too dazed to come up with a witty response. The chemicals running through her body messed with her mind, slowing down her mental processes and giving her the most incredible buzzing sensation in her marehood, an insatiable hunger that was difficult to ignore.

“Yup.” She finally muttered. “‘m a dumb horse…”

“And what are you not going to do again?” Rat asked, trying his best to sound like a scolding adult.

“Hit on tentacle monsters…” Sky mumbled, “while you’re watching, anyway…”

Rat sighed, bucking his flanks a little to knock some sense back into his marefriend. “Close enough.” He conceded, smiling.

“Iwubyou…” Sky whispered, clinging tightly to the stallion as he made his way away from the clearing.

“You...what?” Rat asked, a little taken aback.

“I said Iwubyou…” Sky mumbled, no clearer than before.

Rat had a fair idea of just what she was trying to say, but dismissed it as the rambling of a hormonally charged bitch-pony for the time being. Still, as he carried her back to their makeshift campsite and lay down with the little mare across his back, he couldn’t help but blush at what she’d said.

“I wub you too, Sky.” He chuckled, putting on a rather silly voice to play it off as humour. “Are you gonna be alright?”

Sky lay on top of him, her brow furrowed as she held him tighter. She looked troubled all of a sudden.

“I...don’t...know…” She said slowly, nuzzling him. “I don’t...want…I don’t wanna get...left...behind. Nopony ever stays with me for long...just...Shadow…”

Rat frowned, realising that Sky was far less deflective in her current state. He gave her a little nuzzle, kissing her on the cheek.

“I promise that I’ll never leave you behind, toots. We’ll get this sorted out, head back to Canterlot together, and I guess I’ve gotta put on a cheerleader’s outfit for you, huh?” He snickered.

“Mhmm.” Sky nodded, giggling quietly. “And you’ve...gotta...do a proper cheer…”

Rat sighed. It seemed as if Sky was going to be all right after all. He rolled onto his back, wrapping his favourite little white pegasus in his hooves and kissing her on the forehead.

“You’ve got it,” he whispered, “on one condition.”

“Hmm?”

“You stay safe for me.”

Sky opened her eyes, meeting Rat’s gaze. For just a moment, he caught a glimpse of something real, something worlds away from the image she’d tried to project for as long as she’d known him. In this dazed state, Sky wasn’t able to maintain her cool confidence any longer, and at last she showed Rat how she was really feeling; frightened and confused beyond belief.

The little unicorn said nothing more, kissing her on the forehead and closing his eyes. There were no words that could make what had happened to her in the least bit okay, nothing to dispel the horrible things that she’d experienced. For now, he did the only thing he could, squeezing her tightly and letting her know that she was cared for.

“G’night, Rat…” She whispered.

“Goodnight, Sky.”