Rarity was forced awake as she heard a bunch of steam whistle out somewhere aboard this messy airship. She grumbled and carefully slipped off the bed, trying to preserve any beauty she had left. She still wore her red dress, the only difference was that it was a bit torn on multiple sides. She was still peeved at Vinyl Scratch for ruining her almost perfect life and dragging her to a dirt town. She rose to her full height and slammed her head against the low ceiling of her living quarters. Her scream of pain was loud enough to wake up her bunkmate, Octavia suddenly enough for her to bang her own head against the ceiling and let out a grunt.
“Would it kill her to find more adequate rooms for us. I am a lady, I’m not used to such barbaric living quarters such as this,” Rarity complaining.
Octavia rolled her eyes and groaned, “Stop whining Rarity, it isn’t going to get you what you want this time around. Plus, whining won’t work on Vinyl, trust me I have tried before.”
Rarity let out a huff and folded her arms while grumbling, “I’m not whining, I’m complaining!”
Octavia facepalmed and groaned out, “Not this argument again!”
Rarity huffed again and looked around. Bare walls, with lots of pipes on the low ceilings; empty of any artistic value and smelled too much like smoke and burning coal. If you told her that this situation would happen to her a few weeks ago as she was preparing for yet another wondrous performance, she would politely laugh it off and walk away. This, though, was not at all a matter that should be laughed at. Rarity magicked a mirror out of nowhere and looked at it to observe her dirty face and frazzled hair. She then magicked some makeup and a brush and levitated all the items in her possession in front of her. She brushed her hair back to its original perfect form and then applied all her makeup and smiled at herself when it was done and she was re-beautified. She would shriek and drop her mirror, causing it to shatter, as the door to their room was slammed open and a dirty, grimy grey earthling maintenance worker showed up and yelled, “WAKE UP! MISS SCRATCH WANTS YOU TWO TO REPORT TO HER ON THE DECK IMMEDIATELY!” before leaving.
Octavia was quick to comment on the events with, “Talk about a wakeup call!”
“Before we ‘indulge’ Miss Scratch; we are still in need of a conversation and I am in need of some answers right now!” Rarity demanded, closing the door the deckhand rudely left open; giving the two some privacy from any unwanting ears.
“Yes. Yes, of course. I do owe you that much, Rarity. Okay, lay your questions on me” as she dramatically pointed to herself with her eyes closed.
“How long have you been a part of the rebellion?”
“15 years ago. Vinyl told me they make a great difference with their guerrilla tactics of disrupting caravans, destroying automaton/weapon factories and assassinating anyone close to the Queen. Since I was her personal musician, I was immediately let in, with the addition of Vinyl’s word, and have been given them information since that time. I was the one who gave them the information to break Pinkamena from the queens crystal grip. Took us 14 years.”
Rarity soaked in all the information. So, since ever we’ve become friends she sadly realized. She had to continue the questioning though, “How did you meet Miss Vinyl Scratch? You seem rather fond of her friendship and everything.”
“We are childhood friends a little before the war and became famous in our own rights when we were invaded. I don’t remember exactly how we met but we were very quick friends!” Octavia smiled at the fond memories that she had shared with Vinyl, even getting stuck in a daydream because of it. When Rarity broke her from it, Octavia blushed and was quick to apologize. Rarity, loving the art of romance and reading lots of novels on the subject, cocked a knowing eyebrow.
Octavia seized up when she got the implication of said eyebrow and got very flustered. “N-no! I-it’s not like that! N-not like that at at all1 Don’t g-give me that smug look!”
“Ooo, sounds like someone has a little crush! Do you have a thing for Vinyl Scratch my dear?” Rarity got very giddy, she loved gossip like this.
Octavia’s eyes darted around the room and when she felt safe enough, she walked up to Rarity. She leaned over and whispered into her ear, “Yes.”
Speaking of the devil; Vinyl busted open the door and yelled, “Hey! We’re here! Get your sorry butts outta this room and head out.” before leaving.
“Well, time to head out!” Octavia quickly said, taking advantage of the distraction as she darted out the open door full of embarrassment. Rarity looked at where Octavia was and sighed. I guess conversation’s over and followed her friend out the door.
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When Rarity stepped out of the ugly airship; she found herself in an uglier town. There were several towering factories that were all decaying and covered with dirt and grime. She looked around more and saw where the people were living. They were disheveled one-story quarter houses with no windows to grant them privacy whatsoever. The people inside them looked absolutely miserable. They wore tattered and ragged clothing and had bad cuts and muck all over their faces that could very easily lead to serious infections without medical attention which seemed to be as there were none. Some of the people were amputees; missing fingers, hands, parts of their wings, even whole wings and entire arms that were probably caused by accidents due to working in the unforgiving factories. Some were eating small scraps of disgusting looking foods that rats would try to repeatedly steal and even worse; the food were not on any cutlery and was eaten with bare hands. She looked up at the sky and instead of the nice clear skies in Canterlot; she was greeted with a sky full of grey clouds and felt a dirty haze had overtaken the town. The clouds were so thick from steam and smoke that barely any sunlight could penetrate them.
And even more worse; in front of the factory entrances were lines of earthlings and pegasi being pushed, shoved and being even stabbed by golden plated soldiers like cattle to a slaughterhouse. Rarity inhaled some air and nearly died of a coughing fit; noticing the air wasn’t fresh at all and could easily damage your lungs if not careful enough or if you’re not used to it at all.
She couldn’t believe this at all. Was she so naive of the suffering of these poor people. Guilt overridden her systems, she should of seen it. She knew that Queen Crystalline was a bitch; but not a cruel tyrant who had no regard for these people’s safety at all. She thought they were treated like the nobles were in Canterlot, but she knew deep in heart that this was never going to be the case. Anger welled up in Rarity; making her horn sparkle with the energy of an oncoming magical surge. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and whipped her head around and faced the sad yet comforting eyes of Octavia. Any anger in her quickly dissipated upon looking at her expression so Rarity instead let out a long and sad sigh. She looked up at her friend’s eyes and whispered, “These poor people.”
Octavia forced a smile on her face as she hugged her sad friend and whispered into her ear, “It’s okay, you didn’t know.”
Rarity quickly pulled back and began; “I was so naive! I was drowning myself in fame, fortune and the attention they gave me while these people are forced into something no short of slavery and having them work on those dreadful factories. Back in Celestia’s rule: they had a choice whether to work in those factories and were being paid for it, but they don’t know. I thought the worse thing in life was not finding someone to appreciate me for who I am and love me like I want them to. But these people’s lives are a millions times worse to what I had thought! How selfish I’ve been! How uncaring…”
After her little speech, she broke down into tears; not caring if it was causing her mascara to run and ruin her beautiful face she put time into perfecting again. Octavia held her closer, trying to comfort her extremely hurt friend. Vinyl had just stepped off the airship and saw the scene of the two girls hugging while one was crying. Vinyl could quickly guess why this scene was unfolding and how it had unfolded. Rarity was a person who whom had just been subjected to the horror of the factory cities. Vinyl felt a pang in her heart as she realized she may have been too harsh towards the fashionista for how she acted. Rarity was not used to things such as this at all. She sadly hung her head and walked over to them and whispered, “I’m sorry” to the weeping girl.
Rarity heard the apology and let go of Octavia to face the remorseful looking Vinyl Scratch and whispered back in a comforting tone, “There’s no reason to be sorry. I should actually thank you for bringing me along and for helping remove my stupid naivete. I’m with you… both of you all the way!” When she finished, she wrapped Vinyl up into a hug; surprising the hardened mercenary until she smiled and hug back. Octavia smiled at the new unfolding scene and walked over to join in on the hug.
Wadsworth had just came out of the Base Cannon and went over to the hugging trio and cleared his throat. When he had grabbed their attention and they had stopped hugging each other, he told Vinyl, “Sorry for interrupting your little hugging session, but we are low on coal reserves and need some more immediately if we are ever going to take off again.”
Vinyl stiffened up and marched over to Wadsworth with a scown on her face and yelled, “WHAT THE HELL! I thought we had enough to travel around Equestria fifteen times!?”
Wadsworth kept his ground like he usually did when Vinyl got this mad at him or anything her crew had done wrong and calmly stated, “Its seems as though it has all vanished without a trace. I am highly suspecting that someone stole them from right underneath our noses.”
Vinyl eyed Wadsworth and asked, “You think we have a spy in our midst?”
“Indeed, thankfully someone told me or we wouldn’t have gotten out of a sticky situation if the guards ever found you out. We should also thank that airships are allowed here unlike Canterlot and the Crystal Empire!”
“Okay. Good job Wadsworth! Keep an eye out and if you see anything suspicious among our crew; notify and alert me to it immediately!” commanded Vinyl. Nodding at the order; Wadsworth bowed and made his merry way back on board Vinyl’s airship. Vinyl turned around to the other two and ordered, “Time to do what we came here to do, ladies!”
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Rainbow Dash, ex-Lieutenant-General of the Wonderbolts in the EUP Army, ex-protector of Princess Twilight Sparkle, failure of a leader was now a retired soldier married to a farmer named Applejack who was part of the once-famous Apple Family before the Steampunk Revolution came. Her AJ managed to be rich enough to avoid the hard life of a factory slave as everyone was calling it nowadays. Rainbow Dash was also very lucky that she had married her; saving her from that fate too.
She was walking around with a cart attached to her that was full of different types of apples and were giving them for free to people who were overcome by hunger and couldn’t afford it themselves. The pegasus felt sorry for them, but she couldn’t do anything at the sake of her wife’s wellbeing. Her loyalties had been smashed, only feeling the need to worry about her family and to give information to an old friend she had failed all those years ago. Dash wondered why she went to the place she said she was going to go.
As she continued what she was doing; she slammed into a unicorn with a crazy hairstyle. She was being accompanied by another white unicorn in a messed up dress and way too much makeup on her face for Dash’s tastes and… “Octavia! The hell are you doing here?”
“Hello Rainbow,” Octavia simply greeted.
Rainbow being confused was a huge understatement; wasn’t the earthling supposed to be in Canterlot and spying on that queen who deserved to rot in hell for all eternity for what she has done? And who are these random two people doing with her? She saw a glint of a knife and eyed it and saw it was being wielded by the unicorn with the crazy hair. Dash quickly guessed she was a rebel soldier. She focused on the other unicorn and determined she must be some Canterlot noble… great! She hated nobles, even before the war finding them extremely annoying and more bossy than her own superior. Dash asked again, “What are you here for, Octavia? It must be important if you blew your own cover. Wasn’t it very important to the rebellion?!”
“It is, but we need to talk privately. Too many eyes and ears,” she whispered while eyeing the soldiers and nearby townsfolk.
“Ok,” Dash agreed, “Follow me!”
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After wading through the maze of alleyways and people; Dash finally led them to the Apple Ranch; though the acres surrounding it were now devoid of any trees because the air was too polluted for them to grow here. Rarity did her best to resist complaining about everything; knowing it was not at all their faults the town was like this at all. Anyways, it’s not like she’ll even regain her wondrous complexion after being subjugated to this nasty weather. She sighed and began wondering why fate had forced her into this journey to begin with. Was it to break her of her naivete? To make her see more of the sights this disgustingly beautiful world has to offer? Or was it that she would meet her true love on this little mission of theirs. She chuckled at the idea and the thought; finding it absolutely ridiculous. The non-Canterlot people she had seen had not been attractive to her. The only one here would be Octavia, but she had her eyes on a certain mercenary.
When they entered the kitchen; Rarity saw that it had much rustic farm decor. There were a lot of pots and pans, but the red walls were a bit cracked with a bit of the paint peeling off. It seemed rather huge, but seeing the family photo showed that the Apple Family was indeed huge.
Rainbow turned on the stove and put a tea kettle on top of it and asked, “Tea anyone?”
Everyone nodded their heads as Octavia began: “I know you are the last one to come into contact with the STEAMPUNK. She’s gone missing and we need to find her because it is extremely imperative!”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened out in shock and her wings quickly flared as she yelled out in panic, “WHAT! Pinkie is missing?! Of course I knew where she was headed! I’m one of the few people who ever knew her personally! Jeez, I can’t believe I failed her again!”
Rainbow’s panic was so extreme; she began knocking over everything as she distressfully flew around. An orange freckled earthling with a stetson on top of her head rushed in and pulled Dash down into a loving embrace to comfort the panicking pegasus. Dash quickly calmed down into her wife’s embrace; releasing most of her worries as she kissed the one she loved on the mouth.
Rarity couldn’t resist asking out in curiousity, “How did you fail the STEAMPUNK last time?”
Her question caused everyone to glare at her, Applejack giving her the hardest as she remembered what had happened when Dash told her the story, but Rainbow complied.
“Back to when I was Lieutenant-General of the Wonderbolts in the EUP Army; I had a fantastic completion record with very little collateral damage. It was second only to General Spitfire; the now current leader of the rebellion. I was the best friend to the great STEAMPUNK. When she would take breaks from creating and I wasn’t working, we would prank our colleagues. We were very young back then and disrupted all of the staff. Sometimes, the youngest of all the princesses; Princess Twilight Sparkle would join us whenever she wasn’t reading or practicing a spell. For a few months; I thought we were all great friends until I saw how much Pinkie and Twilight would stare at each other with lust in their eyes, blush at each other when they came in close contact, would let each other see the other one work. It wasn’t long before they fell in love and started dating. The media was all over it. The headlines were; The Steampunk and the Youngest Princess Dating? and whatever. They had a cute relationship that I was a bit jealous of. Then, two years later they married and I was the best pegasus. One day, Pinkie made me promise that I would help protect the princesses life with a damn Pinkie Promise and those are not to be broken, trust me but I stupidly said yes to her.” Rainbow started crying to which Applejack hugged her tighter and smothered her lover with kisses. The usually hardened earthling didn’t care if it made her and her wife look weak in front of the guests.
Controlling her raging emotions; she continued: “A year later after that; the damn war happened. Cities were easily captured by the Queen’s forces and I failed in protecting them. I flew to the princess and the steampunk and did my best to protect them. I tried so hard, but I failed yet again. Pinkie was usually a being full of happiness and joy around her many weird machine thingies but the same couldn’t be said then. I saw the happiness, joy, and cheer leave her eyes wh-when she saw the p-princess, h-her w-wife… publicly executed right in front of her as she was carried off by the crystal soldiers to the caravans which would take her to the Crystal Empire.” She tried to keep her composure, but it fell apart. Complete sadness was heavy in the room. Only crying and the whistling of the now-finished kettle was heard.
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It was dark outside and the three rebels had to rest at the Apple Ranch. Rarity couldn’t sleep in her nearly bare room, she tossed and turned underneath the cozy bed covers. When Rarity had heard Dash’s sad tale; she couldn’t help but relate. She had lost her young sister right in front of her and had to bare witness to a loved one dying too. She promised to herself, Pinkie Promised, that she would kill that damnable queen, now matter how unladylike that sounded. She pushed the apple-designed covers off herself as she dragged herself off the bed and went downstairs. She then proceeded right outside to stare at the very active town of Ponyville. She sighed at how out of control her life had become. She looked around and saw the Apple Bar and saw a light shining from behind the door.
Curious, she walked over to it and opened up the door to step inside. Once she did, she looked at the interior and gasped as her jaw dropped. The interior of the barn was not one would expect. Instead of wooden floors, there were dirt and grass where they should’ve been. Instead of wooden ceiling, there was a cloudless sky with a sun blazing its heat on her. Instead of the steam-powered farm equipment, there were apple trees. Rarity spotted Applejack on a white ladder picking apples off of a bunch of trees and throwing them into baskets.
AJ turned and saw the unexpected visitor and burst into a smile as she asked in a thick country accent, “I reckon ya couldn’t fall asleep no didn’t ya?”
Rarity could only blink in response as an unladylike squeak squeezed itself from her hanging open mouth. Applejack’s grin grew wider as she asked, “Now I bet yer wonderin’ how such a thing is actually possible? Honestly, I have no clue. That steampunk gal was speakin’ to weirdly for me ta understand what she was sayin’” as she shrugged her shoulders.
Rarity shook her head to regain her senses and walked over to the country girl. “This is crazy! But it's very beautiful too!”
“I know,” AJ simply said, looking at all her trees with her hands at her hips. “That gal did me a big favor! I harvest these here apples so Dash can them take ‘em to Ponyville so she can give them to people in need of food. The steampunk is mighty selfless; though a bit too weird fer ma tastes.”
Rarity smiled a bit; still in awe at whatever magnificent creation had created this unnatural beauty. Then she remembered what her mother told her about what the world was like before the Steampunk Revolution. This was indeed natural in an unnaturalistic wa; if that made any sense at all. She remembered after Dash’s sad story that she told them that the STEAMPUNK was sailing out to Crispin Sea and that she might be stranded on one of the islands.
“Y’know, ya could always sleep out here if ya want. You’ll get no quarrel from me, y’hear!”
“I think I’ll take you upon your offer,” said Rarity as she magicked a picnic cloth and laid on it. AJ smiled at her and resumed her work while the unicorn finally fell asleep; not knowing that a black cloud was peering inside.
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Sombra relayed the now known location of the steampunk that he had just probed from the mind of that fussy unicorn for his queen. Queen Crystalline chuckled while she used her magic to search for any lifeforms on those islands in the Crispin Sea and located which one the steampunk was now on.
She smiled as she felt the pure innocent aura the lifeform held as she easily recognized her beloved steampunk. She turned around and saw the stern face of the officer she was talking to and her evil smile even got wider.
“Hello Captain! Send out Automaton 459 in the morning. I want you to destroy all of Ponyville and the pathetic rebels it is now currently harboring.”
She let out an evil laugh that was heard throughout her entire empire and sent chills to the residents that were there, dreading for whatever the evil queen had planned.