Appledashery

by Just Essay

A Dumb Miracle

“Fraulein Firefly is uber beautiful in zis light...” Photo hiccuped, her dull blue eyes sparkling for a brief moment in the secret room's light. “She deserfes some fine shtallion to dance vith, ja?”

“Photo! I'm so glad you're awake!” Rainbow darted over to the mare's side, lifting her up in a sitting position. “Talk to me, girl!”

“Hrmmf...” Lancie folded his arms. “You're welcome, Lady Sparkavere...”

“Heh... am I, Photo Finish, seeink squirrels vis antlers or is it ze beer talkink?”

“Never mind all of that, Photo!” Rainbow shook the mare. “Look at me! Concentrate! The code...”

“Hmmmf?” Photo blinked wearily. She felt like a burlap bag of wet noodles in Rainbow's grip. “Vat code...?”

“To the safe! The vault! The bigflank lockbox thingy behind us!”

Photo squinted. “But... but vhy?” Photo's head nodded, drifted. “Meine schon masterpiece...”

“Photo... listen to me.” Rainbow clenched her teeth. “Don Canter... alright? Don Canter has sent his henchguys to do their henching here and they won't stop until we get that thing open and cough up the shard that's inside it!”

“Don... Canter...”

“They've threatened you... they've threatened me... they've threatened your kids. They won't leave the damn party until they get what they want! So help me get them out of here and off your back, Photo! Tell me the code to open the vault so I can give them the damn shard.”

“Shard...?”

“You know what I'm talking about. Just about everypony who pretends to be nopony knows about it. So quit beating around the bush!”

“Hmmm...” Photo gave a tipsy smile. “Fraulein...”

“Please, Photo. You... y-you've been very, very kind to me.” Rainbow gulped. “I may still be able to fix things.”

Photo stroked Rainbow's cheek. “Zere... is nosink to fix. Only to beautify. Zat is how ze art magiks vork. Efen imperfections can glitter when snapped in ze right light.”

Rainbow sighed, clenching her eyes shut. “Photo... the code. Please. You can rest afterwards. I just need—”

“Someday, sooner zan later, I vill be restink eternally.” Photo slowly shook her head. “Vhat I do to surfife makes little difference.” She gulps. “It's vhere and how I am vhen I die zat vill determine meine legacy. Not just for me... but for meine darlink Hanzes.”

“Photo, there won't be any Hanzes if you don't let me inside the vault—”

“Sky blue.”

Rainbow blinked. “Huh?”

“Ve are both ze same color, ja?” Photo giggled—hiccuped—and reeled in Rainbow's grasp. “Hmmmm... like long lost sisters. I look in your face, Fraulein, and I see myself... before ze sickness...” She tensed briefly. “...before meine husband.”

Rainbow bit her lip.

“I understand it all now...” Photo giggled, and her eyes fluttered shut. “Somesink to meditate on in dreams. Mmmmm... ja...”

“Photo... Photo!” Rainbow gnashed her teeth as the mare went limp.

Lancie fidgeted. “Uhm... want me to run to the nearest funeral shop? I bet there's a discount on funeral drums this time of year.”

“Can it, ya stone turd.” Rainbow sighed, gently laying Photo back down. “She's just sleeping... again.”

“Wow, if this party doesn't scare you sober, Sparky—heheh—I don't know what will!”

Rainbow flashed him a glare. “Are you kidding?”

He held a talon up, lingered, then shrugged. “You know what? I'm not sure anymore.”

Rainbow looked like she was about to say something. Instead, she sighed, slumping onto all fours as she stared closely at Photo's unconscious body.

The photographer looked paper thin, with her joint bones appearing noticeably pronounced beneath her fuzzy coat.

“For a moment there, it seemed like you were wanting to open the vault just to give up the shard,” Lancie said.

“Jee, nothing gets past you,” Rainbow slurred.

“Sparky...” Lancie strolled over. “I need those pieces back. But we both know it isn't just about that. Neither is it just about fixing up Frecklestrogen's farm.” His stone eyes narrowed. “If those Frolicking Ford Cloppola thugs get ahold of Photo's shard, there's no telling what sort of unsexy stuff they might unleash on the denizens of the Manehattan underground.” He examined his talon. “Not that I care...” He looked up. “But you sure as Tartarus do.”

“You're damn right,” Rainbow grunted. “And I know that I can't just hand it over to Don Canter... or to Romulus... or to this other mare...”

Lancie blinked. “'Other mare?'”

“Meh. That's what Romulus said. Probably to throw me off.”

“Then just what were you going to do?”

“Well, it doesn't matter now.” Rainbow sighed, gazing at the vault. “It doesn't matter to Photo if she's gonna screw up this party or her reputation or even her own kids. The poor mare's been sapped of hope for so dang long. She's liable to take her secret with her to her grave, and at this rate it won't be all too dang long from now. So maybe it's a merciful thing that Don Canter's thugs have come... knocking... so soon...” She lingered, her eyes narrowing.

“Hmmm?” Lancie blinked. “What is it?”

Rainbow looked at the vault, then at Photo Finish. She rubbed her chin in deep, deep thought.

“... … ...”

---

Photo smiled. She gazed across the floor at Rainbow Dash with thin eyes and spoke in an low, intimate tone.

“I had a fision... a vondrous hallucination of ze magiks. I kame to, and I saw meine hoof outstretched towards ze heavens... and I vas releasing doves—ja, an entire flock—and zey were fillink ze sky with brilliance and kolor. Such inexplicable birds, like klouds from ze core of meine lungs. I realized I, Photo Finish, shtill had vone final masterpiece to make. Zis next party at ze apartment... I vill impress eferypony... I vill make ze Hanses proud, efen if it's ze last sink zat I do...”

She smiled brighter, and her cheeks turned rosy, spilling life back into her frail figure.

---

Rainbow Dash's lips pursed. She stood up slowly.

Tilting her head down, she looked at her own blue hoof.

“Sparky...?” Lancie murmured, cocking his head to the side.

“Photo and I are very similar, Lancie,” Rainbow said. She gulped. “For all of our talk and all of our poise... we're still just hopeless romantics waiting for an impossible miracle to happen, dying all the way to the grand unveiling.”

“Well, that's poetically fluffy,” the statue said. “What's it got to do with the here and now.”

“I think...” Rainbow stumbled up towards the vault. “...I think I can show you.”

Lancie watched from afar, scratching his stone head.

Rainbow stopped just in front of the numberpad. Her eyes fixated on the liquid crystal display above the buttons. Slowly, she pivoted her head to the right, so that the thin letterbox display rotated ninety degrees to her vision.

Then, with quiet precision, she reached in and pressed four numbers: Seven, Three, Three, and Three.

“7333.”

Rainbow held her breath.

Beep-beep-beep! Whurrrrrrrrr-Cl-CLANK! With a hiss of depressurized air, the massive metal door to the vault cracked open.

Rainbow blinked, her eyes reflecting the first of several dazzling shapes from within. Lancie waddled up to her side, dumbfounded.

“But... but... what?!” He shrugged and looked up at her. “How...?”

“How else?” Rainbow smiled, glancing down at her forelimb. “A hoof releasing doves into the air?” She smirked at him. “Nothing less than a dumb miracle.”

Comments

[unknownbore]

Bwuh?

[RoboRed]

I don't...even?...

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

Okay, I'm now officially lost with this chapter.

[Lightning Bearer]

I guess when you're buddies with the god of chaos, leaving it up to chaos theory is bound to pay off.

Y'know, there's probably many valuable things in the safe. Is Rainbow completely certain that they're after the shard, and not one of the other treasures?

[Leftover of Saikano]

I can see how the 3s look like sideways birds. The 7 being a sideways hoof could be understandable, too. I am not a pony.

[Full-time_Introvert]

Lancie dumbfounded!?! Who would ever geuss?
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130303185715/mlp/images/4/48/FANMADE_Rainbow_Dash_shrug.jpg

[YoshiFawful64]

I... wasn't expecting that.
4912880 4912947 4912686
The code is a picture. The 7 is a hoof and the 3s are doves.

[unknownbore]

4913835 I understand that. The fact that Dash got it is my bwuh.

[Spinner of Tales]

Y'know, I'm loving this plot arc and everything, but it's seriously getting way too long. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I just think we should get something with Applejack soon. Is this still an AppleDash story?

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

4913835 Okay, got it.

[RoboRed]

4913835
Ah.

[HyperMonica]

YOU ARE A GENIUS. YOU HEAR ME? BRILLIANT.

[Jay_Baker]

I love you

[Boop-Happy Lass]

Holy moly... That was friggin' brilliant, JE...