//------------------------------// // Roboclop // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// THUNK! A knife embedded in the table above the left knee of the bound diamond dog. The crowd booed while the blindfolded stallion prepared another dagger. "Don't worry, folks! He still has eight more!" Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash motioned for Donut Joe and Epcot to creep into the Midnight Reflection's main chamber beside her. The three huddled behind a pile of overturned chairs. "Okay... so the stakes just got higher," Rainbow muttered. "I think we need to figure out a way to surround them." "Surround them?! There are only three of us!" "I mean to distract them!" Rainbow hissed. She pointed at the stage. "If I get up there, I think I can force the curtains to fall." "What good is that gonna do?" "Well, I'm hoping it'll give me the time I need to cut Mulia and Gustave loose." "They'll see you before you even get there on stage." "That's why I'm going to need a distraction." Rainbow looked aside. "Epcot?" "Hmmm?" The mare looked over, blinking. "When I get to the stage, I'm going to need you to come out of hiding and gather the stallions' attention. You think you can ball it up?" "Oh, Rainbow." The mare winked. "For you, I'd hypercube it." "Uhhh... sure." Rainbow took a deep breath and looked over at the stallion. "Meanwhile, Joe, you prepare to double back and meet us at the alleyway. We're going to need a swift exit, and you're our door pony. Got it? Now let's get moving." "What's the hurry?" He asked, shrugging. "So long as we're quiet, they won't catch us, right?" TH-THUNK! A bloody impact noise stifled the whimpering death rattle of a diamond dog. The entire room exploded with cheer and applause. Donut Joe grimaced. "Exactly..." Rainbow Dash slinked away. "Epcot, keep your eye on me and get ready." "Affirmativacon!" Rainbow vaulted over a dirty sofa, rolled, and squatted low—holding her breath. Out of the peripheral of her vision, she saw the stallion pivoting and setting up the second table in his sights. As another knife flew through the air, followed by disappointed grunts, she scurried her way to the stage. Soon, she squatted at the front of the room, her body flattened against a collapsed shelf. One more shuffling move, and she'd be within perfect eyesight of all the stallions in the room. It was then that she peaked her head out, made eye contact with a chaperone across the way, and nodded. Epcot saluted back, held her breath, and—FLASH!—flitted into the air on steam and enchantment. Twirling, the sphere soared over the heads of the stallions, forming a sharp whistle in the air as she zipped left and right. "YES. NO. YES. NO. YES." "The buck is that?!" The blindfolded stallion tilted his head up, grimacing. "I'm trying to skewer me a buffalo here!" "Holy crud, boys!" A stallion ducked as the sphere whizzed overhead. "It's gotta be one of the Queen's contraptions!" "Well smack it! Maybe it's got a functioning steam core we could scrap!" The stallions griped and grumbled, grabbing whatever they could and struggling to bat the object out of the air. Epcot merely flew higher and higher, causing the ponies to clamber and fight over each other. With a sharp breath, Rainbow Dash hopped onto the stage, rushing immediately for Gustave and Mulia. "Rainbow Dash!" Mulia Mild wheezed, eyes wide. "You... you..." She blinked. "...are you wearing leather." "No time to talk!" Rainbow galloped past her, fiddling with a series of ropes rigging the stage curtain to the ceiling. "I'm getting you out of here!" "My beak for a bowl of fudge putting!" Gustave wheezed, eyes rolling back. "With oceans of maple syrup!" Rainbow's muzzle scrunched as she fiddled with the coiled material. "The hay is his problem?" "He... never really acclimated since he was dragged out of his dreamworld," Mulia said, shuddering. "This rotten place has seen us shoveled from one terrible cage to another." "Well, suffer no more!" Rainbow grinned as she pulled the rope completely loose. "For the Blue Jay is here to—" THUD! The entire frame of the curtain fell, collapsing ineffectually to the stage's floor and exposing the group completely. "—rescue you." Rainbow blinked, ruby eyes wide. The six dozen stallions stopped trying to smack Epcot out of the air. At the sound of the intensely thudding curtain, they turned and gawked at the stage. "It's... it's..." "The Blue Jay!" "She's stealing our fun!" The knife-wielding stallion raised his blindfold, frowning. "She's meat." And, with a grunt, he readied an expert blade to be thrown in Rainbow's direction. "Nyeeeugh!" Donut Joe jumped up, tossing a chair across the lobby. TH-THAP! The stallion jolted from the impact, tossing the knife at random. CL-CLANK! It embedded into the floor just inches from Rainbow's hooves. "Yeah!" Donut Joe pumped his hoof in the air. "Canterlot, motherbucker—!" His ears drooped as his eyes reflected a sea of angry stallions and even angrier-looking weapons. "Awww poop puddles." "Get him!" Several stallions rushed forward. TH-THWISSH! Epcot flew down, ricocheting off several ponies' skulls. They collapsed with grunts while the others pounced on the ball, restraining it with their combined weight. "Epcot!" Rainbow's voice cracked. "What in Equestria is going on?!" Mulia stammered. Rainbow gulped. "Nothing good! Come on!" She yanked and pulled at the binds pinning the mule to the table, then rushed over to do wth same with Gustave. However, just as she got the two loose— "Gaaaugh! Lemme go!" Donut Joe snarled, trying to slam his hooves into the stallions dogpiling him. "Dirty punks! I'll knock your cream filling out!" "Joe!" Rainbow shouted. She turned and stared off the stage, frowning. "Let him go, ya melon fudges!" She flung her wings out to her side, glided out, and threw herself into the stallions wrestling Joe. With agile grace, she kicked several of them to the floor and hoisted Joe up to his side. "Okay, quick, we gotta fetch Epcot and—" Ch-Chtung! The first of several steam-powered rifles were aimed at Rainbow's skull. "You're not going anywhere, Blue Jay," a stallion in the center of the group said, smirking as his companions held the Epcot sphere to the floor. "As a matter of fact, I think you just made us incredibly rich today." Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. She looked up to the stage to see a quartet of stallions having rushed up to restrain Mulia and Gustave. "Goddess dang it..." "Pray to whoever you wish," the lead thug said, trotting closer. "I don't care what happens to your soul, so long as your skin is mine to pelt." He smirked, summoning several chuckles from his criminal compatriots. "If you were smart, girl, you would have left the Queen's city long before—" He stopped in mid-speech, for his body was shaking. Every ponies' bodies were shaking. As a matter of fact, the entire nightclub shook from its very foundation. Clumps of moldy roof material fell in a halo over the group, and several of the walls buckled. "What in the Hell...?!" the lead thug stammered. Rainbow Dash blinked, then turned to look towards the furthest wall. Just then, the building split in two, and a steaming metal behemoth burst through the walls. POWWW! Gustave and Mulia winced. Donut and the stallions around him wheezed from the rising dust. Within seconds, everypon heard a shrill scream. They looked up to see a group of guards being flung across the lobby, their limbs flailing. "Aaaaaaaagh!" Th-thap! "Oh for crying out loud..." The lead guard grunted. "First the Blue Jay... now the Red Rook!" "Huh?!" Rainbow Dash stammered as Epcot—now freed—flew up by her head. "Red Rook...?!" Stomp! Stomp! St-Stomp! A mechanical quadruped marched into the room, powered by steam and brass-studded hydraulics. Mists and compressed air vented out of the metal stallion's joints. At last, after groaning to a stop and extending a steam-powered gatling gun, the front of the mech peeled back, showing off a stallion's sweaty face. "Give up my friends or give up your organs, ya stinky faced jerks!" the stallion inside wheezed. Flash! Epcot materialized with a bright grin. "Hey! The gang's all here!" "Ah jeez..." Rainbow Dash grimaced. "...Stu? Stu, what in the heck are you wearing?" Stu's eyes darted to his machine rig, then back at the mare. "...awesomeness." WHURRRRR! He swung a metal hoof and flung clumps of furniture at the screaming thugs. Within a second, he charged forward, plowing through body after body and tossing the creeps against the walls of the place. "In the name of the Red Rook—lie down and surrender!" Rainbow Dash, Joe, and Epcot looked on as the melee tore past them through the lobby. "...he ain't kidding," Rainbow droned.