//------------------------------// // You Know, That *Is* a Good Name // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// "Guhhh... tight squeeze is tight..." Rainbow Dash winced to herself as she shimmied through the insanely narrow corridor. Her body stood upright as she slid along, bending her neck back and forward to avoid jutting spokes of raw, exposed rock. All the while, beams of eerie green light fountained around her, emanating from the monsterous eye dangling from the crook of her hoof. Soon, the passage bent in a zig-zag. Rainbow Dash grunted to herself, resorting to stretching her wings out so that she could push herself down the new angled course. "No way in heck the Slithering came through here." She frowned down at the "lantern" in her grasp. "This had better darn well be a shortcut... uhm... Squidgy," she muttered. The further she crept down the passage, the more her ears and mane hairs fluttered. She felt cool air increasing, multiplying with each inch that she wormed. At last, she came upon an open patch of cave. In her attempt to slip out, she jerked in place, anchored by the lantern being caught in a cleft of rocks. "Nnnngh..." She gritted her teeth, tugging and tugging. "Come on. Don't go all stupid on me now!" She kept pulling, causing the liquids inside the jar to slosh and bubble. The basilisk eye rotated, shimmering its ethereal spotlight on Rainbow's gaze. She went momentarily blind from the glow, and she tugged too hard. A chunk of rock broke loose, and she fell back with the lantern—plunging into a sudden black space. "Luna's nipple!" she squeaked, spreading her wings in mid-fall. She twirled, caught wind, and glided evenly just meters before she could splattered against the cavern floor. All four hooves scraped to a stop. Pebbles rattled still on either side of her. She winced, wings tensing—then relaxing. She blinked. She looked up. With a gasp, Rainbow Dash threw herself backwards, spread her forelimbs, and caught the eye-jar like a hoofball. "Httt!" She fell back on her blue flanks, panting into the emerald glow. The eye spun around and spun its pupil at her. She patted the jar and exhaled. "Thatta boy, Squidgy. Keep me on my toes." She stood up, flapped her wings, and hovered forward, squinting into the shadows. "As if I had toes..." Rainbow passed through an array of stalactites and stalagmites like a green ghost floating through a dark forest. Shadows danced from every stone structure as she carried the eye through. Gusts of unnaturally strong wind blew through the chamber, splattering Rainbow's wincing face with random sprays of moisture. The pegasus winced, gliding cautiously through the porous labyrinth, following the direct glow of the eye. "How come your brother isn't green and harmless like you, huh?" she murmured. The jar beneath her rattled and sloshed. She bit her lip. "Guess we all got bad blood, huh?" Rainbow saw the ground sloping upwards, approaching a steep cliff above. She paused, gazing at the ceiling, attempting to guage a safe path through the madness. "Why couldn't the buffalo just... I dunno... take the apple pies and move into the foothills? Basilisks are better built for all this indoor cave crap. Maybe the reason the Slithering's been taking the bison one by one is because he's tired of all the yelling. Celestia knows I am." The jar rattled as the eye-beam shot straight up. The corner of Rainbow's muzzle curved. "Yeah. What am I saying? You can't force apples on somepony." Her eyes blinked, and a flushed expression ran over her blue cheeks. "Hmmmm... as awesomes as that sounds..." she quietly cooed to the walls, her eyes sparkling. The jar shook again, louder this time. The green glow intensified. "Hmmm?" Rainbow glanced back up. A thick gray mass was rolling down at her. "Ackies!" Hissing in panic, she looked every which way, found a dark niche of rock, and swooped towards it. She curled up like a trembling foal in the fissure, but her every square inch of fuzz was still exposed by light. Gritting her teeth, she whooped her head like a windsock towards the jar, wrapping the length of her mane over its top. Her tail flicked towards the bottom half of the lantern, cutting out some more of the light. Scooching in a circle on her butt, she pivoted the masked light towards the wall and waited in dead silence. Not long after, the dark mass surged past her, causing every spoke and rod of rock around her to quiver and shake. Her ears folded around her head as she glanced over her shoulder with a wincing expression, hugging the lantern with all forelimbs. Through her peripheral vision, she saw leg after leg stomping into the stone floor. Tight scales flexed and unflexed. Then, with a twist of iron-wrought muscles, the Slithering curved around a chunk of rock and approached a dangling cluster ot sharp rocks. Rainbow saw a head twisting around like a giant serpent's. A slender snout with many clamped teeth stared at the rock shards closely. Nostrils flared, forming mist against the inky darkness. Then its eye opened wide, casting a pale gloss over the rocks. Rainbow winced, trying not to look directly into the basilisk's one eye. She heard the sound of cracking stone. Glancing back up, Rainbow saw that the monster had gripped the edge of one of the rocks in a pair of his front hand's claws. He examined the tiny lance of stone before his one eye. At last, the scaled edges to the beast's lips curved upwards, and he swiftly slithered back up towards the cliff from which he came, each razor-sharp appendage clinging to the rock like a giant reptilian centipede. The pegasus' brow furrowed. When at last the monster had slithered away, she uncurled her mane and tail and padded softly out of the niche with the lantern in her grasp. The green spotlight swam up, up, up the rockface until it highlighted the cliff, beyond which was a pale glow of flickering torchlight. "Hmmmm..." Rainbow Dash blinked. She glanced at the floating eye and the eye glanced back. "Well, Squidgy, looks like we're about to have a family reunion." Taking a deep breath, she spread her wings wide, flapped her feathers, and ascended the perilous wall. "It'll be a friggin' first for me..."