Appledashery

by Just Essay

If We Can Dream It...

Waves crashed and foamy currents of cider rolled up all around the inexplicable concrete island.

Gradually, Rainbow Dash managed to sit up, coughing and spitting out the last bits of ambrosia from the back of her throat. She was soaked thoroughly from mane to tail, but still in one piece. Nevertheless, this didn't stop her from pausing for a prolonged length in time, sitting on the sloped concrete shore as she basked in the warm, toasty sunlight from above.

Squinting, she tilted her head and stared upwards.

From her position, the sky looked perfectly blue, like a clear summer's day. Gone was any trace of a cider ocean looming above her—the ocean she had fallen out of. There was no telling just how dynamic or shifty this environment was, if one could even call it an environment. If Rainbow didn't know better, she'd guess she was on some sort of tropical island in the middle of a real sea. But could her senses be trusted? Could anything be trusted, such as her awareness of space? Time?

That was contemplation enough to force her to stand. Almost instantly, Rainbow Dash noticed a change. Blinking, she stretched her muscles, flexing her forelimbs back and forth. A curious shudder ran through her.

There was absolutely zero trace of numbness. All tingling and traces of atrophy were gone. Rainbow Dash felt as healthy as the day she was born, and it frightened her.

With a slight shiver, Rainbow Dash slowly twirled, peering across the deep orange ocean of rolling cider waves. The horizon undulated with yellow bands of ambrosiac currents as far as her eyes could see. Lulled by the crashing waves, she finally turned around to study the structure in front of her.

It was an enormous building, to say the least, shaped like a forward-leaning trapezoid with pronounced beige frames sloping towards the unseen rear. In a way, Rainbow almost felt as if she was looking at the front end of a gigantic concrete scuttle crab with geometric shell panels. That wasn't the weird part—the odd thing was a perfectly harmless patch of grass, flowers, and garden hedges partitioned off from the rest of the concrete environment. The landscaping looked purposefully constructed to add aesthetic relief to the location, as well as to lead the trained eye towards the front of the building.

Peering, Rainbow Dash saw what looked to be a sign situated directly in front of the building. It was an upside down trapezoidal solid, mimicking the angular frame of the building itself. Trotting up towards it, Rainbow squinted, spotting a line of words, perfectly legible: "If we can dream it, then we can do it."

The mare's blue brow furrowed. She looked up at the building looming above her. Then, with a deep breath, she trotted around the sign, past the garden landscaping, and approached the very front of the structure itself.

There, she found a solid line of glass windows, framed with brightly-painted orange concrete. Rainbow noticed that the ground beneath her was sloping upwards into the entrance at a very gradual grade. Because she was busy studying this, it completely and utterly startled her when sliding glass doors schwissshed open, blasting her with a cool burst of blissful air conditioning.

"Gaaie!" Rainbow Dash yelped, a bit too effiminately for her own liking. Clenching her teeth, the mare slowly, pensively trotted inside what turned out to be a dimly-lit lobby. The floor was a dark velvety carpet, and a cool blue aura filled the chamber, laced with ultraviolet dark lights. Rainbow Dash caught a faint neon glow in her peripheral vision. She looked up to see a marquis sign lit up from behind:

"Futureport" it read, then featured several columns labeled "Flight," "Destination," "Service," and so on. Rainbow Dash also spotted names such as "Mesa Verde," "Brava Centauri," and "Ciudad Atlantica," just to name a few.

Before she could completely register all of this, something bright and animated darted past her vision in a neon streak. It was accompanied with a literal bleeping sound, like one of Twilight Sparkle's laboratory machines was dribbling code and static into the air conditioned lobby, drowning out the waves from outside.

Rainbow spun, twirled, and finally latched her vision onto a geometric anomaly, a living, floating geodesic sphere that flitted about along the edge of the ceiling.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash barked.

The rotating grey object seemingly obeyed her, levitating to a stand-still just above the mare's soaked mane.

"Hold it right there!" she said, pointing a hoof.

The object shook, wobbled, and then morphed briefly into a yellow-orange solid. "YES" chimed a synthesized voice.

Rainbow squinted. "What do you mean 'yes?'"

The geodesic sphere floated around, following the edge of the lobby's ceiling, before once again expanding into the pastel solid: "YES."

"Is that all you can say?" Rainbow droned.

The sphere darted overhead, wobbled slightly, then dramatically morphed into a crimson star just long enough to crackle: "NO."

Rainbow arched an eyebrow. "Know anything else?"

"YES."

Rainbow exhaled with a shrug. "Postive and negative, huh?" she said. "You're a doofus."

"YES."

Sighing, Rainbow trotted past the marquis sign and down a long queue line laced with steel metal rails. "Well, where are your alicorns? Are they gonna miss ya?"

"NO."

"What am I? Your new alicorn or something?"

"YES."

The pegasus grumbled slightly to herself as the geodesic sphere followed close behind her flicking tail. "Another mouth to feed," she muttered.

"YES. YES. YES. YES. YES."

"Okay, you've gotta be more useful than that if you wanna be of any help to me..."

Comments

[Sharp Quill]

The object shook, wobbled, and then morphed briefly into a yellow-orange solid. "YES" chimed a synthesized voice.

Someone's been watching Tron recently.

[BabySkittleMonster]

Do you like this chapter?
YES
What about it do you like?
YES
... Okay, let's try something else. Do you like the Binary-Robot?
NO
I'd have thought you would!
YES
Yes you do? Or yes, I thought you would?
NO
Okay, you confuse me.
YES. YES. YES. NO. YES. NO.
Are you broken?
MAYBE

[Tchernobog]

5535803 We did just enter the Grid...

[TwilightUCrazy]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but... where's Lancie when you need him?

[Aatxe360]

The landscaping looked purposefully constructed to add aesthetic relief to the location, as well as to lead the trained eye towards the front of the building.

When did Rainbow learn advanced architecture?

The odd, yet aesthetic, landscaping drew Rainbow's eyes of their own accord to the front of the building.

[Lightning Bearer]

I'm loving this Tron/Epcot-style of surrealism here.

[Bulbajer]

5536031

Do you like the Binary-Robot?
NO
I'd have thought you would!
YES
Yes you do? Or yes, I thought you would?
NO

Good gravy, girl! What's wrong with ya?
... I DON'T WANNA TALK ABOUT IT.

[Jay_Baker]

YES!

[Sam the Anti-Ninja]

Still not the weirdest thing Dashie has seen while on the cider.

[Leftover of Saikano]

Rainbow Dash is taking this well.

[Clawder]

I'm sure Applejack will be in Rainbow's 'perfect world'.

[DeathFox4]

Ya know what? Buck this.

I'll be back in a hour or two.

[I Thought I Was Toast]

Oh my gosh... Really obscure original Tron reference. You officially win. Forever and at everything.

Also... A week of almost constant reading and no life... Gah this story is long.

[Snowdrifter]

RD had a 'bit' too much cider.
End of line...

[arancaytar]

"Mesa Verde," "Brava Centauri," and "Ciudad Atlantica," 

Whaaaat