//------------------------------// // Leaf and Let Dragon // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash crawled her way deeper into the heart of the castle. She let the clarity of the draconian voices be her guide, leading her through careening corridors and collapsed walls. The entire time she proceeded, a dim smattering of torchlight grew brighter and brighter. The mare's ears twitched as she attempted to make out the voices. Perched on her backside, Lancie leaned forward, similarly intent on making the grumbling conversation out. "Whoever's chatting up ahead—they sure don't sound too happy," Rainbow muttered. "You'd think that—with a flying castle and all—you'd be pretty darn content with the way things were." "You'd be surpised how some of us can't allow ourselves to enjoy something that's right in front of us," Lancie said. A few seconds later, he smirked. "Actually, I forgot who I was talking to." Rainbow groaned. "Lancie, this is not the time for—" Something sharp scraped at her shoulder. "Ouch!" "What?" Lancie droned. "Did you stub your hoof on your own irony?" "N-no!" Rainbow's voice cracked as she rubbed her shoulder. "Can hardly see in this place. I just brushed past—" She paused in mid-speech, her head tilting towards the right as her eyes narrowed. "Uhhhhh..." "What is it now?" Lancie muttered. "Good question." Rainbow found herself staring at a partially-collapsed room, in the center of which was an enormous tree seemingly planted into the floor. Clumps of rich soil and dirt spilled out of the bricklaid surface beneath it. Despite the fantastic location of the tree's rooting, it had evidently seen better days. The trunk was savagely bent, its bark charred and singed in several places. The branches had lost all their leaves, and several of the boughs sagged and trailed off into gnarled wooden tresses. There was no doubt the tree had died, but somehow Rainbow perceived that it was a slow death... a needless death. Furthermore, the closer she studied the branches, the more she noticed extremely odd details. There were what looked like wooden planks and baskets resting within the crooks of various tree limbs. From these tiny structures, Rainbow Dash saw random bits of artificial detritus hanging out, as if the branches were populated by miniature houses that had been burnt out and ransacked. "How many different kinds of creatures lived in this friggin' castle?" Rainbow Dash remarked. "Beats me, Sparky," Lancie remarked. He pointed down a hallway with a granite claw. "But looks like some tenants were enjoying the high life at some time." "Huh?" Rainbow turned to squint down an adjacent corridor. Through a dragon-shaped hole in the wall, she saw a long hallway filled with tree after planted tree. All of the branches had similar structures hanging off of them, and every single specimen was in disrepair. "Wanna bet a hundred bits that the dragons cleared the Breezies out of here?" "The what?" Lancie belched. "Heh..." Rainbow smirked slightly as she continued towards the torchlight. "That must have been something that evolved after your time." "Evidently I've missed a lot." "Eh... not much, really," Rainbow muttered. "Perhaps the dragons here took up horticulture?" "But dragons suck at gardening." "Precisely." "Shhhh!" Rainbow squatted low, clinging to the corner of a hallway junction with almost feline grace. "They're right up ahead!" "Why are we whispering?" "Because I don't want to end up like those trees back there!" Rainbow rasped. "With the way those dragons are filling their ears with snarls, I doubt they can hear anything else." "Will you just hush up, Lancie, and let me listen?" Rainbow craned her fuzzy ear towards the next chamber. From beyond, several angry voices resonated in a half-circle, aimed away from Rainbow Dash. "...is definitely happening, Big Boss. The further we take this lair of yours towards Morsel Lands, the more we keep running into things."