//------------------------------// // That Caged In Feeling // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// “Rainbow...” With a gasp, she glanced left and right. Thundercloud stretched before her ruby eyes as far as the pegasus could see. “Applejack?!” she stammered. Once more, a faint voice drifted along the trailing darkness. “Rainbow...” She tried flapping her wings, but nothing she did could accelerate her movement. She simply drifted forward like a limp feather carried aloft in a dull breeze. “Applejack! I-I'm right here! Stay where you are! I just gotta...” She writhed and squirmed. “Nnngh! Why are my leg useless?! Zecora gave me a full dose! They should be working! They should be—” “Why do ya keep runnin', sugarcube?” “H-huh?!” Rainbow Dash looked around. The jagged rooftops of Canterlot loomed at awkward angles. The moon rose and fell in a blink. “Applejack, what do you mean?! I'm not running! I just... just...” “Just what, darlin'?” She gritted her teeth. “I can't sit still in a world where there's still a chance I could... I-I could win you...” She clutched her skull and stared down at the jagged streets and alleyways, seething. “Nnnngh... th-there's just so much I gotta do. So much I have to prove. I wish you could understand. I wish I-I could tell you everything... sh-show you everything. But I can't. I don't... I-I don't deserve...” “Happiness?” a voice drawled right in her ear. Rainbow Dash looked up. Her pupils shrank as a pair of orange forelimbs hugged her tight. “Darlin', don't you realize...?” Applejack's warm breath murmured against her ears as the farm filly nuzzled her close. “There ain't no joy in buckin' the tree whose apples will never fall.” Rainbow Dash sniffed. “AJ... I-I'm the one who's falling.” She clenched her eyes shut and reached both hooves forward. “I just keep wishing... k-keep hoping that someday you'll be the one to catch me...” “Hmmmmm...” Lancie's voice breathed in a dull tone. “How interesting it is to be pulled constantly in one direction.” “H-huh?!” Rainbow felt Applejack's arms and body crumbling like dust. She opened her eyes and stifled a shriek, for her forelimbs were covered with white ash. She looked ahead. Her body was sailing towards a jagged serpent statue standing in the center of a garden maze. “It's like gravity is forever against you,” Lancie's voice purred. “In this life and the next.” Whud! Rainbow slammed against the statue. She fell back on her haunches, wincing. When her vision returned, she gasped. Five piles of pale sediment surrounded her on all sides. She sensed a dark shadow and glanced up. The statue was falling over her, only this time—instead of Lancie—it was a contorted pegasus bearing the same antlers and wings. Smasssh! Upon the crushing impact, Rainbow Dash looked into a field of mirrors, and before the various barricades shattered, she witnessed an enormous reflection of eyes—billowing like red flame against a yellow sea. “Aaaaaugh!” Rainbow Dash sat up, drenched in cold sweat. She saw bars and more bars. Pale lanternlight flickered against her quivering muzzle. “She's awake...” “Poor thing...” “How long was she tossing and turning for?” “What... wh-what the buck... what the fr-friggin' buck was th-that...?” Rainbow heard herself mumur. She brought a hoof to her forehead, somehow surprised that she wasn't bleeding from there. She gritted her teeth, eyes darting left and right across the corners of a wooden cage. “Where... wh-where am I?” That's when she became aware of cloven hooves patting her reassuringly on the shoulder. “Gaaaie!” She hopped up to her hooves, spinning around with a snarl. Several deer, two goats, and an elk backed up, waving their forelimbs harmlessly. “Whoahhhh... whoah there, lady...” “We're not the bad guys... even if we smell terrible...” “The shape they brought you in, we're surprised you can even stand up in one piece!” “They... br-brought me in...?” Rainbow Dash blinked. She rolled her eyes and face-hoofed... hard. Smack! “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! I royally bucked it up, didn't I?” “Huh...?” “Iron Will and I...” Rainbow sighed. “We made it all the way to Top Dog. We almost had him against the ropes—” She went cross-eyed, shook her head, and restated, “We almost had him beaten! But then the B-Cubed whipped out some death ray thingy and knocked us on our flanks! Darn it! That chaos shard that Top Dog has is making him overpowered! There's gotta be a way to take it out!” “We appreciate all you've done for us, ma'am, but I'm not sure anything can be done at this point.” “Yeah...” Another deer nodded. “You were dragged here hours ago by the Diamond Dogs. From what we overheard, Iron Will was captured too.” “Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash wearily squinted. “Where'd they take him too?” “I dunno. But we heard something about Top Dog... erm... w-wanting to 'run some tests.'” “Ewwww...” Rainbow Dash winced. “Well, here's hoping he's still got his horns intact the next time I see him.” “Lady, I dunno if you've noticed, but you're not exactly going anywhere anytime soon.” “Pfft! Nuts to that!” Rainbow Dash took a galloping start. “There's not been a cage made yet that could keep me in one place for long—” “No! Don't—” Instead of flying, Rainbow Dash fell flat on her belly. “Ooof!” She winced, struggling to get up. “Guh... wh-what gives?!” She looked back at her sides, only to see that her wings were bound tightly by multiple loops of heavy chains all wrapped around her spine and ribcage. “Awwwwwwww poop. You gotta be kidding me?” “They spent the better part of an hour putting that on you, Miss,” a ram said. “We tried getting it off ourselves while you were asleep. I'm afraid the thing's bound tight.” “Meh...” Rainbow Dash kicked at a pebble and pressed her tired muzzle against the bars. “Well this is just great. Without my wings, I'm about half-awesome at best.” “It's... r-really not that bad once you get used to it.” “Hmm... what isn't?” “Working here,” a deer said with a shrug. “Sure, it stings when they whip you and the food could be better, but at least it's cozy and warm down here...” She winced slightly. “Sort of...” Rainbow turned and squinted over her shoulder. “How long have you been down here that you'd give up that easily?” Several of the slaves bowed their heads in the lanternlight. “T-too long,” a buck said. “Hrmmmm...” Rainbow Dash looked out the bars again. She saw the distant march of canines on patrol. “Friggin' A... I don't even have my darn saddlebag.” She seethed through clenched teeth. “Lancie, wherever you are, I hope you're keeping up your end of the bargain still...” “Uhm... ma'am?” a pensive elk spoke from the back of the cage. “What's a 'Lancie?'” “Mmmph... a doorstop,” Rainbow muttered. “And a pretty smelly, annoying one as well.”