//------------------------------// // Take the Shot, Double-Oh Dash // Story: Appledashery // by Just Essay //------------------------------// "Okay... I give up..." Bon Bon blinked. Hard. "How do they do that?" "Do what?" Lyra asked. She looked back at the earth pony who had stopped in the middle of a cloudstone courtyard between towering casinos. "Is it a matter of how we're all floating super high above the ground? Cuz I think that was answered when we first got here, girl." "I think she's referring to that," Vinyl said, pointing at an inexplicable series of vertical fountains bursting up from the center of the courtyard. "Oooooooh..." Caramel smiled, ears twitching from random droplets of moisture from the display. "Pretty." "You... uh..." Bon Bon fidgeted. "You don't suppose Upper Las Pegasus sprung a leak, do you?" "I think we'd know that by now if that was the case," Vinyl remarked. "What are you all gawking at?" Rainbow asked, hovering over beside the group. "The fountain?" She stifled a yawn and pointed with a numb hoof. "We... like... capture a bunch of hot and cold winds, contain them, then shove them into a vertical pocket of air situated beneath a floating reservoir of stagnant precipication. It's what we pegasi do to create hail, only the water doesn't turn to ice this low in the atmosphere, so instead we get a nifty fountain thingy." "Cool!" Caramel said. "Well... eheh... not 'cool' enough, I suppose, since it isn't turning to hail and all. But... uhm... you know what I mean." "It's... slightly alarming that the very same platform that's turned to solid cloudstone beneath us can be filled with so many porous weather anomalies," Bon Bon remarked. "Eh..." Rainbow waved with a wing. "You get used to it." Just then, from behind... "Oh golly!" an old stallion stammered. "That's so amazing! Reminds me of geysers along the edge of the Zebrahara!" "The Zebrahara?!" an even older mare spat. "Pffft! You're getting your deserts mixed up!" "Whatever, mare! I mean that it looks like stuff we saw during our first retirement vacation!" "Hello, miss!" A graying mare with portly features waddled up to Rainbow Dash. "Would you be so kind as to take a photo of us before this here fountain?" Rainbow turned around. "Errr..." She blinked as a camera was thrust into her grasp. "Thank you so very kindly!" The mare smiled, backing up with the stallion. The elderly couple wore tropical t-shirts and faded baseball caps as they stood before the fountain, greening cheekishly. "Just aim it and press the little red button! Like so!" "Oh... uhm..." Rainbow gulped hard. "Sure! Easy peasy!" She bit her lip and struggled... struggled to lift the apparatus in shaky hooves. She was almost certain that she got the couple in frame, but taking the picture... "... ... ...is something wrong, ma'am?" "No, I just..." Rainbow fought the urge to sweat. Every time she tried pressing the red button, her forelimbs shook harder. The expensive camera rattled, threatening to slip entirely from her numb grip. "Just trying t-to find the best angle possible!" "Should be simple, hun! Just aim and shoot!" Rainbow bit her bottom lip. All of the sudden, she brightened. With a happy smirk, she stretched her wings forward and propped the camera in the frame of her feathertips. "Hey! Atta girl! Keep it nice and steady!" Rainbow exhaled calmly. At last—after a few tries—she was able to press the red button and take a shot. "There ya go! Worth a thousand words—" The camera fell out of her grip. "Aw nuts—!" The expensive apparatus fell to the cloudstone floor. Flash! A magenta cloud of telekinesis levitated it before it could smash to pieces. Vinyl Scratch trotted up, lifting the thing magically and floating it over to the elderly couple. "Here you go, sir and madame," Vinyl calmly said. "Well, thanks a'plenty!" The old mare said. "Equestria could use more charming youths like you ponies." "Don't mention it," Vinyl said. She then turned to squint suspiciously at Rainbow Dash. The unicor adjusted her shades, brow furrowed. Rainbow gulped, then pivoted about to avoid Vinyl's glare. She was only marginally successful. "So... uh... lunch?"