//------------------------------// // Shattered Dreams Production // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash looked left. Blue rooftops and blue rooftops. Rainbow Dash looked right. Polished marble and granite bastions. Rainbow Dash looked forward. She gulped as a thin layer of sweat formed on her fuzzy blue brow. Swiftly, without losing her pace, she flew straight through the heart of Canterlot airspace, hovering low over the rooftops as she approached the palace. The arrival time was slated for ten o'clock in the morning—something that terribly vexxed her. She was showing up in broad daylight. Surely there had to be a guard patrol of some kind that would have reasons to object a fully grown pegasus hauling an empty wagon straight over the Royal Palace walls. Nevertheless, she pressed on in full faith. Each darting shadow frightened her, causing a spasm to erupt in her limbs. Out of the peripheral of her vision, she could have sworn on multiple occasions that she saw fully-armored pegasi with glaring faces pulling up beside her. Instead, she only spotted blue jays, cardinals, and maybe a darting butterfly or two. The only ponies to be seen below consisted of the usual posh populace of the mountain maretropolis, and barely anyone took notice of Rainbow's conspiculously low-flying figure. Taking several deep breaths, Rainbow Dash forced a nervous smile and murmured to herself, "Okay, girl. You've made it this far. Easy does it. Just... drop on down and pick up whatever it is you came here for." So, stretching her wings straight out, she turned her flight into a glide and coasted down towards a patch of grass that made up the Royal Palace's West Lawn. At last, she made contact, skidding to a stop beside the tiny white building indicated on the map. When she finally came to a stop—including the rattling chariot behind her—she took one swift look of her surroundings and felt her entire bloodstream freeze. This was the Castle Garden, a place reserved only for the Princesses and visiting Royal Dignitaries. She was standing on hallowed ground, and she wasn't entirely confident that a lone envelope pilfered from the cloak of a nefarious griffon that was given to him by a shady pony could somehow validate her presence there—and in broad daylight, no less. "Just don't freak out. Just don't freak out. Just don't freak out. Just don't..." Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-ramble. Her head swiveled to the left as she squinted at row upon row of green hedges. "Huh... why does this stuff look... familiar?" She blinked, then glanced towards the other end of the garden. Several sculptures stretched in the sunny air, their alabaster surfaces glinting in the morning light. Rainbow Dash saw marble ponies holding banners, granite unicorns in mid-prance, and concrete pegasi with their wings spread. "Huh... they sure keep this place tidy, don't they?" Rainbow pivoted her head again. She saw something odd, forcing her to squint. One pedestal stood in the center of the garden, placed at an even distance from the rest of the platforms, only it was completely devoid of a sculpture altogether. Rainbow blinked at that, and in that blink she saw Applejack smiling at her with the stars shining behind the mare's windblown mane. "Nnnngh..." Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes shut. She rubbed her face, then rubbed her face again. "What... th-the hay...?" She batted her eyes open... ...just in time to see a stallion poking his head out of the tiny white building flanking the garden. With a rattling helmet, the stallion glanced left, glanced right, then looked staight forward. Upon seeing Rainbow, the pony gasped, then rushed back in through the tiny door of the shack. Rainbow stared, dead silent. Fumbling, the stallion reemerged, opening the door all the way. He glanced all around the gardens once more, then slid back out, this time shoving a giant wooden barrel stuffed full with a bulky gray canvas bag. He grunted and hissed, struggling with his petite body to push the hulking weight of the thing up towards Rainbow's chariot. As he came closer, Rainbow saw a flash of an orange coat with matching feathers from beneath the stallion's steel armor. "Uhhhhh..." Rainbow dripped. At last, the stallion shoved the junk to a stop. Rainbow heard the clattering of rocky pebbles. Panting, the stallion stood up and wiped his brow. A hint of blue bangs dipped below the edge of his helmet. "Okay..." He panted and wheezed, clearly three times as frazzled as he was exhausted. "My sh-shift doesn't last that much longer, so you gotta stuff all this into the chariot and take off before the next guard takes my place!" "Okaaaaaaaaay..." Rainbow squinted. "Wowsers, kiddo." "Huh?" "You're really friggin' young, y'know that?" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "I mean it. You can't be more than eighteen winters. What, is the Guard drafting stallions straight out of flight camp?" "Huh?!" The stallion leaned back, shivering violently with horrified eyes. "What?! Why?! Who have you talked to?!" "No one, dude! Just calling it like I see it—" "Aren't you Romulus?" "What? Oh! Totally! Romulus! That's me!" Rainbow grinned crookedly. "Sister to... uh... Remule." "I paid my whole life's savings for you to make this delivery and to be quiet about it!" the stallion hissed. He turned to look over his shoulder. Rainbow caught a glance of a shield with a lightning bolt for a cutie mark. "Look..." He turned back towards her. "I'm no coward. But I have two grandparents to feed and a little sister to put through school a-and I can't afford to let one st-stupid little screwup ruin everypony's lives just because—" "What stupid little screwup?!" Rainbow's smile twitched. "I wasn't even here!" The stallion's body slumped as he exhaled with relief. "Oh, thank Celestia. Glad to know we're on the same page." "Eeyup." "Cuz I heard stories of your reputation, and it's nice to know that they were all hogwash." "Eeyup." "'The Great Romulus, Bloody Scourge of the Squirrel Clans.'" "Eey—wait, what?" "Hrrnnnnngh!" The stallion heaved, attempting to hoist the barrel with the bagged junk into the back of the chariot. "Here, buddy!" Rainbow Dash unhitched herself and lent him a hoof. "Lemme help ya!" Together, the two lifted the rattling mess into the wagon. The sound of knocking stones echoed thunderously in the air, and a piece of the bag almost slipped loose. "Watch it!" The stallion hissed, scrambling to stuff the bag deeper into the hollow of the barrel. "Whew... you have no idea how dangerous this is..." Rainbow's ears drooped. "Uhhhh... do I want to know?" "Nothing you couldn't handle, of course." "Oh! Pffft! Of course not!" Rainbow waved a hoof. "'Romulus the Squirrel Molester, remember?" "This is nothing to shrug off," the stallion said with a brief glare. "It is imperative that you get this to the Pit as soon as possible." "The Pit...?" "I placed the spot on the map I sent in case you don't know about it. Word is—you're used to working griffon territory, so I can't blame you for not knowing." "Uhhhh..." "But whatever you do...and this is the most important thing..." The guard leaned in until his glaring face was even with hers. "Do not... and I repeat do not lose any of the pieces. If one single strip or chunk gets separated from the others... well... I don't want to be around on the same continent when that happens. Do I make myself clear?" "Come on, buddy. I've got this in the bag." Rainbow Dash winked and motioned back at the chariot. "Literally." The stallion exhaled... then exhaled again. "Alright. Alright, yeah." He smiled, backtrotting with a relieved breath, as if the greater distance between him and the junk was filling him with renewed life and vigor. "You know what you're doing. We all know what we're doing... except for those who don't need to know what we're doing... who don't need to know anything..." "I... uh... c-couldn't have said it any better, kid!" "Oh thank Celestia..." He nearly sobbed with joy, limping away as he pulled his helmet off and ran a hoof through his bright blue mane. "Oh thank Celestia Almighty, it's gone! It's gone it's gone it's gone..." Rainbow watched as the stallion drifted away. She blinked, then spread her wings. "Alrighty then. Piece of—" The barreled bag rattled loudly behind her. She jerked a look over her shoulder. A pause. "—piece of cake! We're gone!" And she flew out of the Castle Gardens, ascending swiftly into the clouds as she turned about and headed towards the western deserts beyond the heart of Ponyville.