Aklopalips Now
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The effect wasn’t instantaneous. Rarity walked into the portal one moment only to find herself in a kaleidoscope of colors before emerging from the other side into her friend’s hind quarters. She bonked her nose and rubbed it. “Ow, is there a reason you didn’t move?” Mare Do-Well was stiff. Something about her posture made Rarity uncomfortable. But something else made her even more uncomfortable. She gagged as the smell hit her. Like rotten eggs burned to cinders. “Gah! What is that stench?”
“Sulfur,” the stoic mare replied. Rarity held her mouth and nose trying to get a better look at the landscape through watery eyes. She didn’t have to try hard as the dry air seemed to suck the moisture directly from her tear ducts.
“Wh- What is this?” she asked in disbelief at the scene in front of her.
Mare Do-Well dug her hooves into the red earth. “Hell.”
They stood on the edge of a tall red cliff that looked out over a wasteland of red and black. Chasms and crags spiderwebbed the land like chapped mouths begging for water. Superimposed upon this scenery were pipelines and machines of nightmarish architecture that seemed to do nothing but produce more pollution and fire to spew into the air. And it certainly didn’t seem to need any help in that regard. Giant pits in the earth expelled red hot jets of flame that rocketed into the sky like skyscrapers. The heat was almost unbearable.
“How can anypony survive like this?” Rarity muttered.
“Sh!” Mare Do-Well hushed her and grabbed her neck, ducking down behind a rock. She wordlessly pointed to the sky.
Rarity tried to narrow her eyes at what she was pointing at but it was too small. A black dot in the distance. Then another. And another. Pretty soon something like a flock of dots cut through the sky. Birds?
Rarity paled as they flew closer finally coming into view. “What in the…” she whispered. Pale hairless pegasi in golden armor dotted the sky like crows carrying spears and pitchforks. In place of their eyes she could see two glowing red outlets that seemed to scan the ground below. No, they couldn’t be ponies. Something had happened to them or been done to them to take that away some time ago.
Rarity grabbed her mouth and nose tighter, this time trying to hold back a retch. Mare Do-Well grabbed her head and pulled her further down, taking a bottle of water from her belt and handing it to her. “Drink and calm yourself down. Not too much though, we might need it.”
Rarity couldn’t believe the mare’s cool attitude to what they were seeing. Yet she welcomed the comfort she gave. With a trembling hoof she took the bottle and gulped. “Thank you.” Mare Do-Well was still focused on the creatures above. Something about her stare and preparedness struck Rarity as odd. Not to say that Twilight hadn’t shown herself capable wherever they went, but there was something more to this. A personal vibe in the way she looked at them. “Are you… familiar with this place?”
Mare Do-Well took a moment to answer, waiting until the creatures had turned out of sight. “No. Never been here.”
A loud boom rang out behind them and they spun. A swirling green vortex opened up and a small army of the same creatures from before walked out, spying them. They pointed and let out an unearthly screech before flying toward them. At first Rarity expected Twilight to grab her and go but after a short moment she turned to the mare. The superhero was stock still staring down the oncoming horde and the swirling vortex behind them mirrored in her lenses. She didn’t know what the mare would do next.
Rarity played it safe and grabbed her. “Come on! We have to move!” Mare Do-Well relented easily and they jumped from the cliff sliding down the steep incline. Rocks and hard sharp objects scratched beneath her making her cry in surprise but she persevered. They hit the ground and began running as the monsters behind them flew above and tried to cut them off. “I really wish Rainbow Dash was here now!” She looked to Mare Do-Well for support. “Twilight! Twilight, do something!”
Mare Do-Well shook her head and regained her composure. She was breathing heavily but it didn’t seem to be from the running. With a quick stop she spun on the dirt and faced the flying horde. She grabbed a pinned canister from her belt and pulled the tab before tossing it into the swarm. They slowed briefly to avoid the canister but did not stop coming as it detonated. A yellow foam exploded in their midst encasing close to ten before hardening and making them plummet to the earth. The rest behind them stopped for a moment to stare in confusion.
“That’s good!” Rarity shouted as they continued to run. “So how many more do you have of those?”
“Not enough!”
They were so focused on the enemy behind them that both didn’t even notice a covered hole open up ahead. Two pairs of hooves shot out from below and grabbed their legs, pulling them down before any of the creatures could notice. Immediately after, the hooves grabbed a displaced manhole cover and reset it above.
Rarity and Mare Do-Well sat in darkness, a hoof around both their mouths as their captors didn’t move or make any noise in the heated dark. Mare Do-Well struggled and grabbed her captors arm twisting it. “Yeowch! Would you mind not doing that!” The western twang was unmistakable.
“Applejack?” Mare Do-Well asked. Rarity looked up at the face of her captor and widened her eyes. Flutterbat bore her full fanged smile and a strip of cloth wrapped around her nose and mouth. “What are you-”
Applejack put a hoof to Mare Do-Well’s lips and pointed up insistently. They could still hear the sound of flapping wings. The four stayed silent long enough until they couldn’t hear the creatures anymore. AJ and Flutterbat let out a sigh and released the two.
Rarity hugged Flutterbat tightly and she responded. “Oh, I thought we’d never see you again!” Flutterbat mewed in delight and she took a better look at the cloth wrapped around her nose. “Oh, this smell must be awful for you, huh?” Flutterbat nodded mournfully.
Applejack walked over to the wall and kicked a small glowing node. Floodlights turned on one by one going both ways down an incredibly long pipeline. Tubes and metal hoses of all kinds snaked across the top and sides of the tunnel ending at the small river of sewage that flowed below.
“To think out of all the places in existence, you’d land here?” Mare Do-Well muttered.
“We didn’t,” Applejack answered her. “Flutterbat and Ah came here on our own lookin’ for you.”
“We weren’t here,” Rarity replied. “We came here looking for you.”
Both AJ and Mare Do-Well didn’t look very pleased with this information. “So do you think Rainbow and Pinkie are here somewhere?” AJ asked.
“Possible,” Mare Do-Well muttered. “But I don’t like it. This all seems to be too much of a coincidence.”
“How so?” Rarity asked.
Mare Do-Well paused and shrugged. “Anyway, we need to see if Rainbow and Fili-Second are here and then get out as quick as we can.”
“Ah’m all for that,” Applejack responded. “You would not believe the day we’ve had gettin’ here.”
They all began to walk down the pipeline. “Tell us about it. It might be good to trade information.”
<___|=o
The change was abrupt. One second, Applejack was in a warehouse with no color the next she landed on her face in a sea of burning red rock. Flutterbat scrunched her nose and whined at the sudden rush of horrid smells. Applejack copied her, keeping a hoof over her mouth. “You think they’re here then?” Flutterbat shrugged. “Ah can tell you one thing. Ah wouldn’t want to be here.”
An explosion sounded behind them and the two turned to find the gates to a giant hellish metal stadium behind them. For the moment it didn’t appear anypony inside had noticed them. “Let’s get out while the gettin’s good.”
They turned only to be stopped by a giant mace that flew down in front of them and created a crater in their path. Applejack coughed the dust away and turned sharply drawing her sword as well. Atop the gates to the infernal stadium stood three figures. One was all black with white cords and ribbons wrapping her body. The same ribbons replaced her tail, swaying in all different directions as if with minds of their own. To her right was a small mare with a yellow coat and green mane that jutted everywhere. She smiled manically with razor sharp teeth and scratched the sharp edges of her gauntlets enthusiastically against the stadium wall. To the left stood a tall silent pony who stood a good two or three heads over the rest. She wore blue chainmail, complimented with yellow armor and a headdress that made her look like she had horns. She was staring at them with dead eyes.
“Well, what do we have here?” the black one cooed in a sultry voice. “And just where might you ducklings have come from?” The small yellow one laughed like a hyena in agreement.
Wearily, since every instinct in her was saying not to let her guard down, AJ tapped her blade so it’d be easier to grab. “We don’t want a fight. Just came lookin’ for a few friends.”
“Friends, she says,” the black one echoed mockingly and snapped her tail. “Well, then, why don’t you enter? Everypony is friends here, if Nanny says so.”
Nanny? Flutterbat gave her a confused look as well. Applejack replied to it with a look that said, ‘I don’t want to stay long enough to find out.’ Flutterbat nodded. “If it’s alright with you, Ah think we’ll just look somewhere else.”
She turned again but the mare’s tail from above lashed out and whipped the air in front of her. How did she reach that far? AJ grabbed her katana in her teeth and prepared for a fight, Flutterbat getting low as well.
The three jumped down from the lip of the stadium and paced toward them. “You want to throw away Nanny’s kindness? How awful of you,” the black one grinned. She held a hoof up and then pointed to them. “Girls, get them.”
The small yellow mare moved with incredible speed and was in front of Applejack in a blink slashing at her. AJ barely parried it and was even thrown back, surprised at the tiny thing’s strength. But what surprised her more was the larger mare already behind her retrieving her mace. She caught it’s rising form from the crater in the corner of her eye and shrank down just in time to dodge a wide swing.
Flutterbat shot into the sky but AJ could immediately tell that was a bad idea. “Wait, don’t! She’s got-”
But she was cut off as the black mare flipped in the air and lashed her tails out wrapping them around Flutterbat and throwing her back to the ground. “Ah ah ah, no fighting dirty,” she crooned and lifted Flutterbat’s body with her long tail and spun her. “What do you say we send all that dirt flying?” She let go and sent Flutterbat’s body hurtling toward the tall one who readied her mace like a baseball bat.
“NO!” Applejack shouted and tried to slash at the giant but the tiny mare appeared before her grabbing her blade in its steel gloved hooves. Metal claws at the end retracted and grasped the blade refusing to let it go as she stared maniacally into Applejack’s eyes. But AJ was focused on Flutterbat’s body flipping through the air toward the mace.
She almost forced herself to look away as the two nearly connected but then Flutterbat’s wings moved and her path changed spinning her and bringing her under the swing of the bigger mare. She wrapped her arms and legs around the enormous foe’s arm and looked directly into its eyes before letting loose a sonic scream.
The giantess lifted her arms to her head in pain and attempted to free the Pegasus from her. Applejack let out a sigh and resumed her attention on the battle in front of her, and behind. As she struggled with the shorter enemy, the black mare approached quickly from behind, spinning her tails in the air behind her like a lasso. That gave her an idea, she hadn’t been on this quest and gained nothing. Time to use more than her own wits.
Applejack flipped her robe up to reveal the 3D Device beneath and maneuvered her body to be in position. She operated the machine and a metal cord shot out, amplified like a gun and pelted the annoying yellow mare in the gut sending her back. Her hoof slipped out of the gauntlet and Applejack quickly slid it off spinning around to face and slash at the tail ribbon the black one was whipping at her that instant. As she did, she kept her momentum, continuing to spin in a circle and confusing her opponent. Just then, the yellow mare, still attached by the 3D device, spun around with her and slammed into the black mare’s side. Applejack detached her improvised wrecking ball and let the two of them sprawl into the crater where the bigger one struggled.
Without missing a beat, Applejack whistled and caught Flutterbat’s attention. She unwrapped herself and flew out before the three collided noisily and joined her. Applejack then ran over to the crater and the dazed enemies, pulling out another trinket she’d gotten along the way. “Ah just hope this does everythin’ Pinkie said it could do.” She loosened the lasso of Mistress Marevelous and threw it around the three, pulling them tight together so they couldn’t move. They initially struggled but AJ just pulled tighter, and it was clear the rope, wouldn’t break. “Now Ah got some questions for you,” she said menacingly.
The black mare glared at her but the rope glowed a bright gold and her mouth moved against her wishes. “What… do you… want to know?”
---
“So we learned a little about this place,” Applejack concluded. “Turns out its call Aklopolips, home to a bunch of ponies that think their all high and mighty callin’ themselves gods. Every citizen of this world dedicates their lives and deaths to the ruler of this world. Slaves every one of them and Ah don’t think they care that they are.”
Rarity rubbed her chin worriedly. “What a horrible world. I hope Pinkie and Rainbow are alright.”
Mare Do-Well was oddly quiet as they walked, only now speaking up. “How did you get rid of those three?”
Applejack frowned. “Ah didn’t. Took some doin’ but after we got the information we knocked em out cold.”
Mare Do-Well stopped and shot a look at Applejack. “You shouldn’t have done that. They’ll be back now. They know your faces.”
Applejack got in her face. “Ah don’t care what they done. Far as Ah’m concerned everypony on this world is a victim. They don’t deserve to die for that.”
“And what if they have dogs? They could get your scent.”
“Do they have dogs?” Mare Do-Well was strangely quiet at this but kept her gaze on Applejack. A yellow hoof broke their stares and Flutterbat walked between them looking harsh.
“No fight,” she uttered matter-of-factly.
Mare Do-Well turned away and kept walking. “Either way we should keep on moving. And rub yourself with some of that sewage if you can.” She pointed to the trickling stream of green and gray gunk beside them.
Applejack looked to her and then the sewage. “Ah don’t mind getting’ down and dirty, but I’m not suicidal.” They continued to walk down the endless sewers toward whatever goal lay ahead and perhaps a way back home.