//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: You Spelled it Wrong // by Ex-Ed //------------------------------// Rainbow Factory Basement Rainbow Dash’s shrinking team journeyed through the basement of the Rainbow Factory. The atmosphere was dark and dim, with only a few scattered light bulbs illuminating the damp place. The many shelves were filled with jars of experimental rainbow substances, some even visibly boiling. Rainbow Dash was nervous for the first time in a great while. She had never been this far into the Rainbow Factory when she had worked here. It was getting really creepy, even for the unstoppable Rainbow Dash. Was Leeroy even in here? If he was captured, he would've surely been calling out for help, lest he be... The pegasus shook her head. That was one thought that she wouldn't allow to cross her mind. They continued their walk down the corridor, occasionally dodging spilt rainbow juice or bright neon splatters on the floor. It seemed to go on for miles with no end in sight, mainly because of the lack of proper lighting. "How long does this go on for?" Soarin' complained with a very bored tone. "We must've been walking for hours." "It's only been twenty minutes, Soarin'." Spitfire replied. She turned to the other female pegasus at her side. "He's really impatient." Rainbow's ears perked up, but not from Spitfire's comment. She had heard something else, but what was it? It sounded like a thump, or light crash. "Shh," she said, listening more acutely. Thump "There's something around here," she told her comrades. "And whatever it is, it's alive." Spitfire nodded and Soarin' bit his lip before nodding as well. "But, where's it coming from?" Spitfire asked. Rainbow Dash's ears perked up again, listening for the sound. "I don't know," she whispered. Thump "It's coming from down that way." Rainbow Dash said, pointing towards the direction they were already walking towards. "If we can hear something, we must be getting close to the end. Come on!" She sped into a gallop, the other two following closely behind. The thumps were getting louder and more frequent. The light bulbs were starting to become more distant from each other and rainbow juice was now all over the floor, causing their hooves to color with every step. Finally after so long, a door came into view with a single, dull light bulb shining over it. Engraved onto the door was "Do Not Enter." By now the rainbow juice was really accumulating; even the door was covered in the rainbow juice. Thump Thump Thump "Finally," Soarin' said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Let's get Leeroy outta here. This place is really giving me the chills." Rainbow Dash got up on her hind legs to kick the door down. With a splash of the rainbow from the door, it fell forward, giving the ponies a look on what was inside. It was a small room, only about the size of a regular bedroom, but the horror in it was enormous. Inverted Rainbow juice was spilt even more on the floor, to the point where the floor was invisible. A rainbow-colored pod was on the other side of the room, holding an unconscious Leeroy in it. There was a large generator next to Leeroy's cell, producing more and more rainbow liquid. A hoard of rainbow bombs was lying idly in the corner, ready to detonate at any moment. Huge blotches of rainbow were on the ceiling, practically dripping onto the ponies. But most disturbingly, were a pile of dead animals in the other corner, all covered with rainbow juice. It caressed their lifeless bodies and shamelessly dripped of them slowly. Rainbow Dash gasped. "Dear sweet Celestia... what is this nightmare?" Her party slowly walked into the room, too horrified to move fast. Rainbow Dash inspected Leeroy's pod. The rainbow glass would be easy to break, but what about the bombs? Were they sound-detonated? Or would they start ticking when they made a break for it? "D-Dash!" Soarin' called out. "You better see this!" Rainbow Dash turned to the other pegasi, who were staring at the wall. Somehow, a great deal of rainbow juice was moving on its own, and started spelling things on the wall. TERRIBLE MISTAKES YOU'VE MADE "Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow Dash asked the rainbow. It rearranged itself again. COMING HERE IS SUICIDE The pegasus gulped. Just what the heck was controlling the rainbow juice? Her pulse was racing and her hairs stood up. "Y-Yeah?" She said with bravado. "W-Well I'm not scared of whatever you are!" It rearranged itself again. YOU'RE ALL ALONE "What?" Rainbow Dash asked. She turned around, to see that her allies were gone. Her eyes widened in fear. "W-W-WHAT DID YOU DO?!" She screamed at the writing. It spelled something else. THEY'LL BE OKAY PEGASI DON'T LAST LONG ANYWAY Rainbow Dash was visibly breathing, panic taking over. Suddenly, she felt a wet, cold, and very tight embrace of something on her. She looked to see a large, rainbow hand from the ceiling trying to crush her. "Let go let go let go!" She cried, trying to fight off the rainbow. She opened her wings and flailed wildly in its grasp. After almost a minute of frantic struggling, the hand released her. She noticed that the writing changed during her attempted escape. BET YOU WISH YOU TOOK ROID RAGE WITH YOU "LEAVE ME ALONE!" The pegasus cried. She immediately jumped and flew out the door, but was horrified to see that the rainbows were now plaguing the walls, ceiling, and the floor. It was all those six colors. "Spitfire!" She called out. "Soarin'!" The writing crawled onto the floor. Its last message appeared. GOODBYE HAVE A NICE DAY She felt the rainbow juices running up her legs to encase her. Her journey had gone from bad to horrifying. She desperately fought off the rainbows in vain. She couldn't move, but was not going to give up her fight. She freed her hind legs again and stomped hard on the juices, hoping that it might cause some pain to whatever was trying to kill her. As she raised her back hooves to stomp again, the ceiling grabbed her back legs and raised her up to the ceiling, with her lower half in the air and her front half on the ground. More and more rainbow juice covered her body, threatening to drown her. Her legs were swallowed up by it, followed by her torso and wings, up to her neck. "Get off!" She shouted, shaking off the juice. She was out of options and out of comrades. "Gah! Somepony help!" Everfree Forest "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Big Macintosh yelled at himself as he bucked down trees with his front hooves. "How big of a blockhead do ya have ta be ta leave Fluttershy on her own?!" The stallion had soon realized that he had left the poor mare unattended, and quickly rushed back. But he couldn't find her in the endless forest. "Where in Sam's Hill is she?" He roared. "Ah know she's 'round here somewhere!" He wasn't stupid, he knew that. But he in love with the mare, and... well, love makes you blind, and Big Macintosh learned that the hard way. But that wasn't the only reason he was so hard on himself. Who knows what could happen to her without his eye on her? He was practically his guardian protector for all that he was concerned, and he was failing her, big time. In the middle of his furious stomps, he heard the roar of a distant animal, a booming pound, and then the sound of a tree falling. "Great, now we find what's makin' tha animals all wound up." He rushed towards the sound of the animal, the sounds of the beast getting louder and the mini-earthquakes from it getting stronger. He got to an emptier area and quickly dove into a pile of bushes. And then the monster came. He jumped at the sight of the raging minotaur, trying to stay hidden. He noticed that it was seemingly mindlessly smashing tree after tree. He looked up and gasped at the sight of the panicking Fluttershy, hopping from tree to tree, trying to avoid becoming its next meal. "If I'd never left, she wouldn't be in this mess!" He thought shamefully. He kept looking at Fluttershy as she yelped and screamed at every vibration, looking everywhere for a sign to help her. In the middle of her frantic searching, she noticed the red stallion and stared longingly back at him with desperate, tear-stained eyes. He was her only hope of escaping the minotaur, and they both knew it. Big Macintosh put on a brave face and stepped out of the bushes. He ran up to the beast, quickly turned and kicked its back with much strength. The heavy monster was pushed down to the ground, but quickly got back up. Its sights were now set on Big Macintosh. It snorted and then got into a charging stance, ready to trample the pony. The stallion jumped back from the angry animal and got into a charging stance himself. They charged at each other as Fluttershy averted her eyes. Big Macintosh suddenly jumped over the minotaur and onto its back. He stomped on it several times before it started flailing its arms, trying to swat the pony. Apparently, love also made ponies extremely agile. The bulky stallion was not fast enough to dodge a particularly hard smack that sent him flying into a tree. The vibrations of the tree were strong enough to break a large branch off that hit his head. "Gah..." He grumbled as he got back up. He growled viciously at the animal and charged at it again, this time smashing his front hooves against the beast's stomach once in range. The minotaur clutched its paining stomach, which gave Big Macintosh the opportunity to quickly follow up with a blow to the head. The minotaur was definitely hurt by his assault, but it wasn't good enough. Big Macintosh quickly dodged another fist and charged into the minotaur's chest, hearing a distinctive crack that did not come from his head. With the opening available, he followed with several hoof attacks before crashing his head into the minotaur's chest again. Finally fed up with being beaten by a pony, the minotaur roared loudly, enough to push Big Macintosh against a tree and disorientate him. The monster grabbed a thin tree and ripped it out of the ground. It swung its new weapon at Big Macintosh, who was still too stunned to react. He was knocked to the ground and soon met the tree again as it was used to smash his body into the earth. Fluttershy couldn't watch this terrible fight go on. She couldn't just sit there and let that ferocious monster kill her... platonic-but-sort-of-wanting-to-be-intimate male companion. She finally decided to pony up and jump from her tree. Despite her fear, she started to fly around the angry minotaur, who was now no longer focusing on Big Macintosh and now more intent of swatting the pegasus away. Fluttershy, however, was too nimble for the minotaur to hit with its heavy tree. Fluttershy then proceeded to do something so far against her morals and beliefs she would've probably never trusted herself ever again: She flew wildly to the animal's face and flat out kicked it. In normal circumstances, she would've tried to reason with the creature, but these were not normal circumstances. This beast was trying to hurt both her and Big Macintosh, and that made her very mad. Big Macintosh got back up and shook his head, trying to refocus himself. He looked back up to see the minotaur clutching its nose in pain and Fluttershy coming right towards him. He was genuinely surprised, knowing what must have happened for those results to happen. She quickly descended and helped the stallion up. Before he could apologize, she pulled him into a quick hug. "You don't know how glad I am to see you!" She thank graciously. "I could just sing if it weren't for the minotaur trying to eat us." "Eeyup," Big Macintosh said. "C'mon, we need to ditch 'em quick!" The two were about to rush away, but the minotaur had caught up to the two and grabbed Fluttershy by her tail. This time, Big Macintosh stopped for the pegasus. The minotaur twirled the pegasus around until she was only a very fast blur and let go of her to go flying into a particularly hard tree. "Fluttershy!" Big Macintosh cried. Before he could mouth another word, the minotaur brought a fist to his head and he was blown back by the force. Big Macintosh tried to stand himself up, but was prevented when the minotaur grabbed him by his collar and slammed him against the ground and started rubbing him against the rough dirt. It finally finished by grabbing the stallion by his tail, and smashing him hard into a thick tree, making Fluttershy scream his name. When the stallion fell in defeat, he stayed down. The minotaur smirked, and then turned to Fluttershy, who was now incapitated with broken wings. "N-n-n-no!" She squeaked as the minotaur got closer, ready to kill. "Ohh... I don't know how Twilight, but please fix this soon!" She prayed. Canterlot Park "Didja find 'em yet, Rarity?" "For heaven's sake, Applejack, you've asked that three times!" The two mares were still searching for the princesses. They were currently digging through a particularly large pile of debris. Rarity had whined about getting bubblegum on her hooves at first, but after receiving an unfriendly stare by Applejack, she shrugged it off and decided to dig in the stickier pile anyway. Applejack lifted up another metal pipe. "How are we gonna find 'em? They could be anywhere in this rubbish!" "I'm not entirely sure," Rarity said, pushing several unidentifiable scraps away. "But I'm sure we can find them if we just devote some more effort into-" "Found 'em!" Rarity looked up. Applejack was holding both of the dazed princesses up by their tails. "Well, I suppose that worked well." "Mmm-hmm!" Applejack murmured in agreement through a full mouth. "Nrraagghh..." Celestia half-consciously moaned. Rarity put a hoof to her chin in concern. "We'd best get them back to the castle." "Huh... Wha..." Luna murmured dizzily. She fluttered her eyes open. "Huh? AHHH! Celly!" "Loo... Luna?" Celestia asked tiredly. "Everything is up-side down!" Applejack mentally sighed and put the fillies down. Hopefully, they won't run off on their own again. She looked up at the sky. Judging by the position (or lack of thereof) of the sun, it should have been morning, but considering how long it's been moving, it could be anytime had it been moving regularly instead of indecisively shifty. Luna looked around again. "It's fixed! Must be magic." While Luna celebrated the ability to stand right-side up, her sister looked around expectantly. Rarity walked up to the little filly, wondering what she was looking for. "Is something wrong?" "Where's the big metal thingie?" Celestia asked innocently. "I was in it, but then some colt with stupid hair flooded it with popcorn, then everything went dark and then..." Her speaking slowed. "I was under a bunch of stuff... Auntie Rarity, this junk everywhere isn't my metal monster, is it?" Rarity sighed. "The truth is hard, but yes. Your metal monster was destroyed in our attempts to keep you safe." "Wait... wait, wait..." Celestia said, suddenly serious. "Your attempts blew up my cannon on big wheels?" "Well, it's actually called a tank, but-" Celestia's brow furrowed and she suddenly looked very angry. "You killed my monster?" The sun rattled violently and was swaying from side to side. Rarity looked back at Applejack and loudly whispered, "Assistance, please!" Celestia growled viciously. "BAD, BAD, BAD!" In the fit of her tantrum, Celestia's eyes started to glow and she was surrounded by a radiating glow. Her crossed expression was scary, even if she was a filly. Rarity backed away, scared. Applejack and Luna both came to the scene and saw Celestia's tantrum. "Gah! Whaddidya do, Rarity?!" Applejack said, panicked. "I-I-I didn't do anything!" Rarity stammered. She noticed something odd with the sky. "Look!" The other ponies looked. The sky was turning a reddish color and the sun turned into the most vibrant shade of red that either mare had ever seen. Black clouds partially obscured the sky. Applejack did not have a good feeling from the sudden sensation that the air became twenty degrees hotter. "CELESTIA MAD!" Celestia screamed, stomping her hooves onto the ground with all her might. The ground trembled on impact, knocking both mares and the now-crying Luna over. "P-P-Please Celly," Luna cried. "Y-You're scaring m-me!" "LEAVE ME ALONE!" The filly shouted at her sister. Heartbroken at her sister's response, Luna bawled harder and ran off, though, back towards the castle this time. Applejack got back up. Appalled by Celestia's reaction at her sister, she threw caution to the wind and confronted the filly again. "Don't ya dare talk ter yer sister like that!" "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs. That seemed to be the last straw. Celestia started to levitate into the air and the heat became more unbearable. The black clouds were striking everywhere with lightning and the ground continued to shake and vibrate. Applejack looked up again. The blood-red sun was heading straight for them. She was no scientist, but she knew that if the sun were to get too close to the planet, it would burn it up at an instant. "Stop!" Applejack pleaded. "Ya'll gonna kill us all!" Celestia ignored her guardian's request, still throwing her tantrum. Rarity looked back at Applejack. "This is a complete disaster!" She shouted over the booming thunder and earthquakes. It was getting hotter by the second, which was not a good sign. "No kiddin'!" Applejack retorted. "We gotta stop her from blowing up all of Equestria!" Rarity thumped her hoof against her head. "There's no reasoning with her. As much as I hate to say it, we'll have to use brute force!" Applejack would've laughed if it weren't for the whole "sun-about-to-kill-everypony" situation. "Piece o' apple pie!" With a running start, Applejack charged at the mad filly. She made a jump and quickly turned to kick her. Hopefully a quick hit or two would manage to prevent her from making the sun collide into the earth. The aura radiating from the filly bounced the earth pony back, causing her to flip several times before crashing into the ground. Rarity, not normally used to using her magic for such feats, tried to pick up a large, metal piece of debris. Luckily, she managed to pick the heavy item up, though at a struggle. With an audible gasp, she threw the object towards Celestia. This time, Celestia turned towards the metal item and swung her hoof at it. It was deflected straight back at Rarity at nearly five times the speed. Not being the most athletic pony, Rarity was unable to dodge in time and took the debris in the face and forced her far away into a building. Applejack, who had already recovered from her last hit, was readying a lasso to capture the princess. She threw her rope at the filly. The rope managed to tangle around Celestia, somehow not being affected by the aura. "Yes!" With a tug, she tried to pull the princess to the ground. Instead, Celestia just glared at the rope around her middle and it burst into flames. "Aww shoot." Applejack muttered, sweating madly. The filly growled again. "BURN!" She yelled in a very demon-possessed voice. Applejack felt dizzy and light-headed. She was dehydrating, fast. It wouldn't be long until she was out. She fell to the ground again from the earthquake. She couldn't get back up, she was too tired. She looked back at the unconscious Rarity several yards away. If they did combust from the heat, at least she wouldn't be awake to see it, at the very least. With a very tired sigh, Applejack looked back up at the sun, considerably closer now. As she slipped into unconsciousness, she could only think of one thing: Seriously Twilight, just how did ya manage to screw everything up using a portal spell? Canterlot Royal Garden The statue of Discord remained, though it was near breaking point. In fact, with all the chaos about, it is a wonder why he isn't out ye- Smash! Nevermind. "Feels good to be free again!" Discord laughed triumphantly, now free from his prison. "Now it's time to- Wait... is the sky red?" He put a finger to his chin, observing the oddly tinted sky. "What's been happening lately?" He picked up one of the shattered pieces of stone that formerly imprisoned him and with a dash of magic, turned it into a crystal ball. "Show me the past chaos." The crystal ball beeped several times before suddenly flashing practically everything that's been happening since Twilight's terrible spell mishap. Discord put the crystal ball down, a look of pure depression in his eyes. "These ponies don't even need me anymore... I need a gallon of chocolate milk."