Rainbow Dash woke up on a cot in a small room. The room was blank with the exception of the cot, a door, and a toilet. She had bandages on the part of her head where she was hit. As she stood up, RD noticed that she couldn't move her wings. When she looked back at them, she saw that they were locked in a mechanism that kept them in the open position. No mater how many times she tried to get it off, it stayed in the same position. After many failed attempts, Rainbow walked over to the door and peered out of the bars that made up a small window. Outside her room was a blank hallway with even more doors that looked exactly like the one in front of her, and they lined the walls for as far as she could see.
Rainbow called out: "Hello, is anypony there, and why am I in here?"
A colt's voice answered her from the room next to her: "Your in here for the same resin I am." He sounded sad as well as suppressed to hear someone else.
"Again, why am I in here? One minute I was talking to the mayor, and the next minute he knocked me out because-"
"Because you wouldn't follow him blindly, or you rejected his ideals.Same thing happened to me. Which one was it?"
"He wanted me to command some army to attack Equestria, and-"
"He wanted you to do what?!" The colt sounded scared and confused.
"I was to be his general, then I saw who I would be fighting against."
"For me, I was one of the leading engineers that worked for him. Heck, half of those Zeppelins out there are my design. Once I found out that they would be used in war, and I didn't want to be involved in war. I thought I was constructing them to act as transportation, not a weapon. Maybe that is why he wanted be to make them cloud based rather than use helium."
"Huh?"
"Let me explain, normal air ships use helium to keep them in the air, but it causes them to be very touchy at times. So he wanted me to use clouds instead of helium. My design also made it so that it was able to turn faster and be more precise. But I never thought it would be used against others. I told him that I was quitting, but he said that he might need me in the future. So he had his guards arrest me. Also, I was wondering?"
"Ya?"
"Why did he want you to be his general? I would imagine that he would want to have complete control rather than having somepony else do it for him."
"He said that I knew the 'enemy skies' better than enypony else, and he saw me at the best young flyer's contest."
"Are you a Wonder Bolt? Because that could make sense."
"I wish I was. I'm actually non other that Rainbow Dash! THE BEST FLYER IN ALL OF EQUESTRIA!" Rainbow's ego hit the ceiling after saying that.
"Well, now let me introduce myself. I'm Lightning Dash. The best engineer in Cloudsdale." The mentioning that his last name was Dash caught her attention. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to ask him; because, two well armed ponies entered the hallway.
"I think the guards are coming" Lightning said. As predicted, two guards walked up to Rainbow's room and opened the door.
One of them said: "You are to come with us right now. We are authorized to use force!" Rainbow knew better than to fight two armed guards in this state, so she went with them. Who knows, they might be letting her go.
As she passed by Lighting's room, he said: "When this all blows over, I hope we meet up and have a normal conversation." Unfortunately, she was too far away to respond.
After walking down hallway after hallway, they entered a double door room. There was several lights that covered the ceiling, and a metal chair that sat in the middle. RD was pushed down into the seat, and more clamps were placed on her to prevent escape. The two guards walked over to the door and opened it for a doctor and two nurses to enter. The doctor wore a white suit with some red stains on it. His fur was a dull orange, and he had a scalpel as a cutie mark. The nurses wore similar uniforms, but there were more red stains on the sleeves and covered most of their bodies. They were wheeling in tables with all sorts of medical supplies and machinery. Rainbow could only look in horror of what was about to happen.
The doctor got really close to her and said: "Mis. Rainbow Dash... I see that you visit with our glorious leader didn't go over to well, but I am here to help correct it. You seem to be blind to the fact that they are all beneath us both metaphorical and physical. They much off of our greatness, and were keeping us down. You were to lead us to victory, but you denied shuck an honor! Why?"
"I wouldn't attack my own friends! Your insane!" Rainbow started to get angry at him.
"QUIET!" He smacked her across the face with brut force, and it did its job in getting her to stop. "Now, our leader has instructed me to help you see the truth, and to make sure you follow his orders down to the T, but conventional methods won't be suitable for this. I have to do something a little more drastic, but it will held the bast results in the end."
"Your Craz-" RD was smack again by the deranged doctor. He walked behind her and recline the chair so that she was lying flat, and the nurses brought the tables to either side. A breathing mask was placed on her and one of the nurses turned a knob.
The doctor continued: "I am going to put you under for a little bit while I sort out what is wrong with you, and correct it so that you will be the most obedient pony to grace the sky. And you will be our general against the menace." Rainbow was drifting off as he was talking, and she couldn't hear, see, smell, or feel anything by the end of it. Everything turned black when she felt a sharp pain from her forehead.
Applejack got up out of a chair after she woke up. She looked around her surrounding to figure out where she was taken. AJ was in Flim's office, except it look very different from the last time she was there. Papers, books, and writing utensils were scattered all over the floor. There were flasks of all sorts of chemicals on tables that were against the walls, and Flim was rushing around the room surveying various bits of data.
Flim took notice of Applejack and said quickly: "Oh good, your awake. I hope they weren't too rough on you."
The farm pony stepped towards him and asked angrily: "Why was I conked on the head, and what was going on in that room?"
He was shocked by her anger and asked: "How much did you see? It is very important! I-" He stopped to cringe at some sort of pain in his head, then he continued: "I need to know how much you saw, and what exactly you saw!" Applejack was somewhat intimidated by his response, and also curious about why he was in pain. She decided to tell him parts of what she saw in vague detail.
AJ answered: "I only saw two ponies going around carrying some stuff, nothing more. Then I was smacked on the head from behind!" Flim stopped and just starred at her long and hard. It was almost like he was waiting for something to happen.
His head twitted a bit, then replied: "Good! Grea-" He winced at the pain in his head again. "- The less you know the better. Now, I do have to fire you for leaving your post." Flim walked over to a table to retrieve a scroll, and returned to give it to Applejack. "Could you possibly give this to a colt that goes by the name: Sir. Cog Steam? It will help us all out a lot if you could." AJ took the scroll and just looked at it for a while. Then she tried to open it but Flim stopped her and said: "NO! not here... This is for him and HIM O-" Again, he stopped due to the pain in his head, but this time was more severe. He was gritting his teeth and holding a hoof to a spot on his head.
AJ decided to ask him: "Are you alright there? Ya'll seem to be in pain."
He replied instantly, and said in a rushed tone: "NO, I'M FINE! Now get out of here!" Applejack left as she was asked.
Rarity laid in a lounge chair at the edge of the hole looking down at the party pony and the baby dragon. They were both still digging, but they did manage to unearth some more of the strange object. The object seemed consistent in it's color, and i had flat sides with sharp edges and points. While they were digging,
Pinkie looked at her watch which just suddenly appeared and said in a normal happy go lucky tone: "GREAT! We are ahead of schedule! But we still need to figure out a way to move it after we uncover it!" Both Spike and Rarity looked at her in shock when she said those words.
Rarity asked still in shock: "You want to move this thing after we dig it up?! Pinkie, that this already looks too big to even get out of the basement!"
Pinkie responded still happy: "I already have an Idea, but it is a little risky."
Out of fear, Rarity asked: "What do you many risky?"
"Oh, I can't tell you. It'll ruin the surprise! Also I'm very sure we haven't even dug up half of it!" Spike and Rarity only looked at each other in utter confusion. Then they realized that it would be a lot easier it they didn't press the subject, and just went through with whatever type of plan she had in store for them. The unicorn laid back down hi her char as Spike continued to dig up the dirt surrounding the strange object. Pinkie decided to take a short break to join Rarity while Spike continued to work tirelessly in the hole that was now big enough to qualify as a large closet.
Rarity decided to ask Pinkie a question that has been bugging her for some time now: "Pinkie, can I ask you something?"
"Yep."
"Why did you want Spike and I to help you with this?"
"Oh that's really simple! Spike is naturally a hard worker, and he seems to work at a higher production rate if he is given or presented the right variables that would appeal to him. So I needed you to convince Spike to do your share of the digging for you, and that has made him work even faster and harder to both compensate for the work you are not doing, and to simultaneously try to impress you with his physical ability. I also like to hang out with you time to time." Rarity's mind wasn't able to process all that information at once, but she was able to catch that last part which made her happy.