//------------------------------// // Delivery Number One // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash huffed and puffed. She had flown for the better part of eight straight hours. Normally, this wouldn't have been that much of an exercise for her, only she was pulling a large wagon behind her in the air. Wincing, she pulled two sheets of paper out of her saddlebags with opposite hooves. In her left hoof, she held the lists of origins and destinations of the three deliveries. She looked at the time and place of the first one, then at a spot that she had circled on the map in her right hoof. Finally, after a digestive blink, she lowered both items, revealing a large swamp with steamy bogs looming below. Grimacing, she nevertheless lowered her altitude, swirling around to find a straightaway landing spot across the mosquito-buzzing marshes. At last, she found a spot of dry grass leading up to what looked like a series of abandoned wooden huts positioned on stilts. She landed without much mishap, although her wagon made a splashing sound as its wheels dipped briefly into a grimy puddle or two. She stood, waving a hoof in front of her nose as she tried to weather the stench of swamp gas. "Nnnngh... like Gilda's kitchen on a good day." Clearing her throat, she tilted her head towards the sky and shouted above the noise of buzzing insects. "Hello?! Somepony?! Anypony?! Speedy delivery here!" Silence. She grimaced and swatted her fuzzy neck, then swatted it again. "Hello?! I'm on time! I'm not being paid to be mosquito food!" More silence. Grumbling, she trotted forward, pulling the wagon through the muck behind her. The air had a green color to it, and it felt as if she was breathing in algae in gaseous form. She tried not to throw up. "You picked a bad time to be taking a nap! I'd knock on the doors to these huts, but from the looks of it I'd get mad splinters!" Just then, she heard a squeaking sound. Rainbow Dash flashed a look to her left. There was a large dark well fashioned out of tight black bricks. The wooden support beam positioned atop of it was quivering. A rope and pulley system retracted in front of her. Something was coming up, and it squeaked with each ascending foot. Rainbow Dash raised a curious eyebrow. The squeaking continued and continued. At last, it came to a stop, and a bald head poked up, a pair of red eyes leering. Rainbow Dash stood dead still. A second bald head appeared, this time with three eyes. There was a hushed sound, like the bass reverberation of multiple gurgling stomachs. Both heads ducked down. Two seconds later, a five-digit hand with two-inch long fingernails tossed something out of the well. Rainbow Dash flinched. The air split with a tiny whistle as a black object flew in an arc and landed perfectly in the mud before her. Kneeling down, Rainbow picked the object up in one forelimb. It was a black box—rectangular and slim in shape—like a tiny obelisk. "Uhhhh..." Rainbow's ears folded. "Okaaaaay. Do you have a package for this or...?" She looked back at the well. There was no sign of any heads. The rope was descending, the squeaking noise growing fainter with a higher pitch. Then all was silent. "You're welcome!" Rainbow Dash shouted, only to hear her own echo. More mosquitoes nipped at her neck, and she swatted her flesh with a grimacing expression. Turning about, she looked at the large wagon, then at the tiny box in her grasp. Sighing, she tossed the tiny thing into the container, flapped her wings, and took off for the hazy green sky. It was nighttime when Rainbow Dash arrived at her destination, a lone steep plateau surrounded on all sides by inhospitable pools of salt lakes. Plumes of deep thermal geysers flickered in the distance, giving the hellish landscape a constant roar of terrestrial turbulence. Even when she landed on the top of the plateau, she found it hard to keep her wagon from teetering with the constant vibrations. Unhitching herself, she trotted to the back of the chariot, reached in, fiddled around, and finally procured the tiny black box. "Mmmmf..." She glared at the thing with an incredulous expression. "I swear. I could friggin' swallow this thing if I wanted." She turned around to find a gray muzzle in her face. "Gaaah!" She nearly hopped off the edge of the platform, panting. "... ... ..." A pony stood, cloaked from head to heel. "Where... d-did you come from?" Slowly, the pony extended a hoof and spoke in a mare's voice. "You have the package?" Rainbow's eyes blinked across the darkness. Nervously, she took a step forward and leaned her body at a dramatic angle. As soon as the pony gripped the black container in her grasp, she jerked back with a nervous smile. The mare held the box before her, examining it closely. This went on for a full minute, when all of the sudden the box lit up from inside with several glowing blue lines. Black panels shot out from the box, casting a sheen of light across an emaciated face. The air filled with the sound of rattlesnakes and foalish sobs. Then, just as soon as it happened, the box shrunk back to its normal shape and the light disappeared, casting the plateau in to silence. After a long breath, the pony pocketed the box away and bowed towards Rainbow Dash. "We thank you." Turning around with a flounce of her cloak, she shuffled off into the night and disappeared. "Hey... uhm... don't mention it." Rainbow smiled, gulped, and smiled again. She heard more geysers erupting in the distance. Teeth rattling, she galloped back to the wagon and took off in the blink of an eye.