Siblings
Chapter 7
Two heartbeats sound in unison. One is of Rainbow Dash. The other is unknown. She listens. She feels her heartbeat beating against her chest. But the other? Where is it from?
She looks around. Trying to find the beat. The beat begins to slow. She is frantic. Her mane whips in front of her face as her head darts from side to side. No sign. The beat gets slower. She moves her hooves in an effort to find it. It slows and slows and slows.
The beating stops, and in front of her lies Scootaloo. It was as if she was there all along. In her reach. She looks down at her. There is no beat. She weeps over the filly as her heartbeat begins to slow...
Rainbow jolted up in her bed. Sweat streamed down her forehead and she breathed heavily and quickly. It took her a moment to realize that she was in the motel room the three of them rented the night before. Rainbow rubbed her eyes. I hate getting that dream, she said to herself. Outside the window the streets were still dimly lit by the lanterns. Rainbow laid back down. Still dark out. Gives me time to rest some more.
Not long after that thought, Rarity opened the motel room door carrying a tray of pancakes, eggs, and orange juice. Applejack followed behind her. Rainbow sat up again. "Rarity? Applejack?" said Rainbow perplexedly. "w-what are, I mean, wha-"
"Oh! Goodness, Rainbow, I forgot you were here," said Rarity with surprise.
"Good mornin' Sugarcube!" chimed Applejack, "glad to see yer finally awake!"
"Morning?" Rainbow was still confused. "But it's still dark outside."
"Yer underneath a floating city, remember?"
Rainbow put a hoof on her forehead. "Oh. Yeah. Forgot that."
Rarity set the tray down at the foot of the bed. "Now, before we have our breakfast," she began, "I do believe we should go over our, what you say, 'plan of attack' for this afternoon."
"Yeah. Good idea." Rainbow got out of the covers and shuffled to the edge of the bed. "From what I was able to gather, the old office building is about several miles west of this town."
"Right."
"Now, getting through the town itself will be easy. What we will have to look out for is the guards who will more than likely be guarding the building. Our plan of approach is...oh shoot. What was it, Rarity?"
"'Passive-aggressive' force." she replied.
"Exactly! It'll be like a surprise attack, except we wait longer for the surprise and focus everything else on the attack. It's covert and contact all in one. And after that, we pretty much just need to beat up the bad guys and find the fillies." Rainbow looked at the two. "That's about it. Did I miss anything?"
"Nope."
"I don't believe so, darling."
"Awesome. Let's eat."
Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity were walking to the entrance of the path that would lead them to the office building. The town behind glowed softly against the eternal darkness.
Rainbow looked over at Applejack and said to her, "You know something, AJ?"
"What?" she looked back at her.
"The more I think about how dangerous this is getting for us, the more I think about how dangerous this is getting for the fillies."
Applejack let the words digest in her mind before replying, "It is a very scary thought, I have to say. However, I'm not too concerned."
"Why's that?"
Applejack smiled and said, "'Cause we're about to knock on their door."
Rarity heard her and said, "Well, it's technically not knocking on their door if we're going in covertly. It's not like the 'direct approach' method you suggested earlier."
"Hey, it's just as good as any plan of attack as the other ideas we came up with, like your 'leave-no-trace' approach."
"I believed that a good covert mission entails us to make sure our tracks are covered. That's something I'm sure you'd agree on, am I right?"
As Rarity and Applejack were arguing, Rainbow thought about what Applejack had said. True, their still not going in head first, but they still have the same notion as before. They're going to save the CMC. Rainbow felt more confident, and she figured that she'd thank Applejack for reassuring her after she's done arguing with Rarity.
The three walked for half an hour before getting to the edge of the shadow of Cloudsdale. Rainbow looked up and saw the sun just barely peaking over the edge of the city. Well, it's definitely going to be easier to see now, she said to herself.
She turned around and looked forward. Just above the hill she saw a clearing of the trees. This must be it. "Alright girls," she said to them, "we're almost there."
They started walking up the hill as Rainbow took off ten feet in the air to get a firsthand look at the building. Sure enough, it was there. She began to fly over, but stopped herself. Something seemed odd about it. She dropped down and stared at the building. In a way, it almost looked distorted. Like something was covering it. She also took notice that she didn't see any guards around. Not by the clearing or by the building itself. She turned around and saw her friends catching up to her.
"Hoo-wee!" said Applejack, "We made it!" She took a look at the structure and frowned. "I was expectin' a bit more...protection."
"I agree," said Rarity, "I was expecting a fence or something around those lines."
"Personally, I was expectin' a giant metal cage surroundin' the whole thing." Something clicked in Rainbow's head. A cage. Not a metal cage, but maybe....
"Well, no matter," Applejack walked foreward, "this sure makes our job a heck of a lot easi-"
"APPLEJACK! WAIT!" But Rainbow was too late. The force field had caught Applejack right in her face, and a zap of high electricity sent her flying ten feet from where she was standing. Rainbow and Rarity ran over to her. Her eyes were shot open and her breath was staggered and light.
"AJ! AJ, can you hear me!" shouted Rainbow.
"Oh my goodness." whispered Rarity.
"AJ! Look at me! Look at me!"
"Oh my goodness!"
"Rarity!" Rainbow turned her head around. "Don't just stand there! Try to help-" she stopped as she saw the entire force field turn red. Through it she could roughly see two figures emerge from the front door. Rainbow had to act fast.
"Into the woods!" she said. "Help me get her in the woods!" Rarity levitated Applejack onto Rainbow's back, and they scurried into the brush. Once in, Rainbow looked to Rarity and said, "I need you to use that invisibility spell, now."
"W-what? But that was for the mission! I-I can only do it once, given I h-have enough magic a-and-"
"We don't have time for that!" The figures approached the edge of the force field. "Do it! Do it or they'll see us and kill us! Do it now!" Rarity focused the energy within her, and in seconds her horn glowed brightly before being covered by her spell. The three of them now looked like a part of the woods.
Rainbow held her breath. She looked through the trees and saw the guards walk right through the force field. One of the guards was a unicorn and other one was an earth pony. The unicorn had a bow and arrow strapped around his back, and the earth pony had two large knives on his saddlebags. She also noticed two red amulets around their necks. She thought for a moment and hypothesized that the amulets had some form of magic that allowed them to pass through. Whatever the case, she didn't feel like finding out at the moment.
She listened to the guards' conversation:
"Whatdya think it was?"
"Probably another bird. However, I'm not seeing much feathers lying about."
"A squirrel, maybe?"
"Probably. We've had those varmits come up three times this week."
"And those go 'POOF' into nothin', dude! I keep tellin' ya, that's why I think this thing is so cool!"
"A bit of an overkill, if you ask me. C'mon, let's get Boundry to clear up the force field again." The two guards walked back into the force field and into the building. A minute later, the redness disappeared and the force field was clear again.
Rarity's magic had worn off. She toppled a little after using that much magic in a short time.
"Good job Rarity!" said Rainbow Dash, "I think me and AJ here would agree that you've successfully saved our asses, right AJ?" Her friend laid limp on her back. "AJ?" She didn't respond. "Applejack?" Rainbow set her on the ground. She couldn't see her breathing.
"Oh no..." she heard Rarity saying.
"Applejack!" Rainbow shouted as loud as she could. "Wake up, AJ! C'mon! Wake up!" She shook her torso. "APPLEJACK!"
"Oh sweet Celestia," said Rarity, her eyes watering and her voice beginning to choke.
"Alright, stand back, Rarity!" Rainbow knelled beside Applejack and tilted the earth pony's head back. Rainbow pressed her mouth against her friend's mouth and breathed as much air into Applejack's lungs as she could. She sat up and began compressing against her chest. "C'mon! Damn it, work!" After thirty reps, she went back down and breathed into her again. The reps continued. Tears began coming out of Rainbow's eyes. "For Celesta's sake, DON'T DIE ON ME!"
As if on cue, Applejack began to cough. Rainbow backed away, eyes fixed on her friend. The coughs subsided and she took in large, heavy breaths, her chest rising high and low. She opened her eyes, sat up, and looked at her friends.
Applejack spoke between breaths, "What...happened? Did...did I...screw up...something?"
Rainbow Dash and Rarity couldn't respond but instead simultaneously gave her a big hug. Rarity was crying full out, but Rainbow choked back on her tears. She hates having Applejack see her cry.
Applejack returned the hug. She's still breathing heavy, Rainbow thought. but she's breathing, and that's all that matters.
It was an hour after the incident. Applejack was sipping on water that Rarity had given her. She was breathing normally again, but her chest felt as though it'd been bucked fifty times. She decided not to condemn Rainbow after saving her life.
The three didn't say much in that hour. Once they settled down, the only real conversation was Rainbow recapping the events to Applejack. Now, Applejack was sitting under a tree, Rarity sat close next to her, and Rainbow Dash looked at the building in the distance.
We can't do our passive-aggressive plan, Rainbow thought. Not anymore. We have to do it direct. They're gonna hate that. I need to convince them to do it.
Rainbow turned and looked at her friends. Rarity had her hoof around Applejack's shoulders and and was holding her close. Now I'm gonna hate myself for saying it. "Hey girls," she said to them. They looked up at her, "I think we should do a direct approach."
"I agree," said Applejack.
"Me too," said Rarity.
This took Rainbow Dash completely by surprise. "Wait, uh, you aren't protesting?"
"Nope," Applejack replied.
"Uh, well," she didn't know how to respond, "may I ask why?"
"Because," Applejack stood up, "I almost got killed in the most humiliating way I could think of. And that ain't gonna slip by me anytime soon if I just walk away. It is dangerous? Yes. Is it stupid? Probably. Is it gonna get back at those sons-of-bitches who took away our sisters and nearly killed me? Absolutely, partner."
Rainbow smiled. Even after looking at death straight in the face, Applejack's stubborn pride and spirit was still strong. They're going to need it if they want to survive.
"Alright then," said Rainbow, "what's the plan?"
Applejack looked at Rarity, then back at Rainbow. "Ah have somethin' in mind."