//------------------------------// // Blue Pills, Red Pills // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash flew past the wagon where her potions were. She soared past the outhouse where a hidden Silver Shill pounded anxiously against the door. She flew immediately into the factory, past the metal door, and soared right up to the electrified contraption. Serenity Shindig rested comfortably and unconsciously inside her glass chamber, clutching ahold of the fragile urn with graceful hooves. However, above her calm face, her scarlet made, her entire body altogether, there was a tiny glass sphere—which was electrified on opposite ends by jolting pieces of sparkling blue electricity. Rainbow Dash hasn't bothered to look hard at this upper part of the machine before, but it was now clear to her that the energy was being channeled directly through it. If she looked close enough, she could see the pulsating source of the core rotating and twirling about, exposing all of its jagged and finely sculpted edges. "No way..." Rainbow grimaced. "No friggn' way..." Rainbow gnashed her teeth. "Lancie, did you know anything about this?" She shook her head, answering her own question. "No. He couldn't have. Nopony could have..." As the stone inside the chamber twirled again, Rainbow saw tell-tale sculptures of an ear, brow and parts of a goat-like mane. To an unknowing eye, it would have looked like just any random chunk of black stone. But, to the prismatic pegasus... "It's part of his head..." She cooed. "Part of whose head?" Stu wheezed, slumped in mid-air behind her. Rainbow spun to face him, her face blink. Stu gave her a concerned look. "Rainbow? Is... is everything okay?" "I..." She bit her lip. "I've seen this sort of stuff before." "What sort of stuff?" Stu squinted at the magically twirling substance inside the core. "It just looks like a dumb rock to me." He nevertheless blinked. "Perhaps some sort of magical crystal?" "Not so much magical as chaotic." "Huh?" "Stu, we're dealing with something really... really heavy here." "How so?" "I'm totally convinced now that the Shindig family is working on something legit here," Rainbow said with a cold shudder, descending towards the floor where Applejack and the other five rested on their gurneys. "Legit scary." "Well, that much is obvious!" "No, you don't get it, Stu!" Rainbow wheezed, touching down on weak forelimbs. "They're powering their machine up with something that's—like—the total opposite of Harmony." "Meaning?" "This is well beyond us." She gulped hard. "Beyond me." "So what?!" Stu floated up, frowning at the energy core as he raised an angry hoof. "Let's just smash the thing and be done with it!" "No! No!" Rainbow's voice cracked as she raised a hoof towards him. "That won't fix things!" "How do you know that?" "I don't!" Rainbow said. "But I'm not about to risk losing Applejack and the rest to that Alicorn hocus pocus forever!" She grimaced. "You read what Flim and Flam wanna do to get their father's ghost back!" Stu squinted at her. "Rainbow, since when were you not the kind of mare to smash stuff first and ask questions later?" She frowned. "Since my best friggin' friend got entangled in the damn thing! That's when!" Stu bit his lip. He fluttered down from the energy core, his ears folded. "I'm hating this more and more by the hour." "You're not alone, dude," Rainbow sighed, running a hoof through her mane. "I just can't believe they were able to go behind everypony's backs and... and do this sort of crud!" Stu exclaimed, touching down beside Rainbow. "I mean, what kind of an Equestria do we live in where this stuff can happen?" "It ain't as pretty a place as we all want it to be." Rainbow gulped. "Trust me." Stu looked softly at her. "Sometimes I think there's more to your words than you let on, Rainbow." "I wouldn't have it any other way," she muttered. "Or else I'd be less awesome." "If you insist." Stu gazed worrisomely at the contraption and the seven ponies fused to it. "If we can't smash the machine, and Shindig's got her hold on the 'applicants,' then what can be done?" "Whatever we do, I doubt we have much time to think about it," Rainbow said. "For all we know, Frederick and Felix could be choosing the 'heir' right as we speak." "So..." Stu shuffled in place, trembling slightly. "Do we... uhm..." "Hmmm?" Rainbow gazed at Applejack. With a soft breath, she stretched a hoof over towards the sleeping mare's freckled face. "Do we... y'know...?" Rainbow stopped her forelimb. She bit her lip, then turned towards Stu. Stu gazed at her. Rainbow gazed back. "Would it... be the two of us?" Stu asked. Rainbow gulped. "I still think it's a trap." "I wasn't even about to pretend that it'd be safe," the stallion said. "But... for Applejack?" Rainbow gazed once more at the mare. "And what if all of us get trapped? I mean, it's not even remotely our kind of frontier." "Neither was Fillyda, but we came all the way." "Stu..." Rainbow sighed. "Don't even pretend to make an analogy between—" "Rainbow, I'm doing my best to cling to hope, which is a lot easier when AJ herself is around. But with her gone..." He sighed, smiling weakly. "I'm leaning on you girl. You're the waking Element of Harmony here. What do you think should be done?" Rainbow bit her lip. She turned and gazed at the chaos shard inside the machine in silence. "... ... ..."