• Published 4th Dec 2013
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Appledashery - Just Essay



Rainbow Dash lives an exciting life and is swiftly becoming the most daring, awesome pegasus in all of Equestria. She would gladly give it all up, though, just to confess her love to Applejack.

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Rescues Are Fun

"Epcot!" Rainbow Dash grasped the chaperone's shoulders. "Are you okay? Talk to me!"

"Hehe!" Epcot smiled, tilting her prettied mane to the side. "To all who talk to this pony of joy, hope, and friendship, welcome! I was inspired the alicorns' creative vision! Through me, equine achivements are achieved through imagination, wonders of enterprise, and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits—"

"Okay... whew..." Rainbow smiled nervously. "You're still you."

"Well, I would like to think so!" Epcot winked. "I'm not programmed to be a squirrel, after all."

"I just thought that—judging from the way you look..." Rainbow Dash shuffled backwards, gawking at her frilly corset and skirts. "...that those punks might have done something to you or whatcrap."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, Rainbow Dash!" Epcot exclaimed. "Truth is, this is the first time I've rematerialized in my equine construct!"

"Wait..." Rainbow squinted. "You mean that the ball thingy is your natural form?"

"No, silly filly!" Epcot giggle-snorted. "My true astral form is of such trans-dimensional complexity that it would dumbfound your moral comprehension and overload your neural capacitors!"

"Er..."

"Don't you just love this corset?!" Epcot gave a little twirl and resumed fanning herself with an elegant wink. "It almost reminds me of this one sim a group of amorous alicorns made several hundred thousand years ago! Only, you know, without all the monstrously oversized genitalia."

"Hey, uhhh..." Donut Joe trotted over. "...sorry to interrupt such a riveting conversation, but, I really don't think we should stick around here for much longer."

Rainbow Dash glanced around at the bodies lying on the ground, moaning in pain.

"Err... yeah..." Rainbow grimaced. "Pastry chef is right. Epcot? Do you know the lay of the land at all?"

"If you're asking whether or not I have a mental record of this sim's construction, Rainbow Dash..." Epcot's muzzle scrunched. "...I am terribly sorry to disappoint. While I'm terribly glad that you and your other mortal companion here have rescued me from certain claustrophobic ickiness, I'm afraid that I'm currently incapable of performing my usual chaperone duties in this place."

"Huh?" Rainbow blinked. "Why's that?"

"Well, to put it lightly, whoever dreamed up this place are a bunch of meanie-heads!" Epcot stuck her tongue out. "And they really, really, really don't like to share!"

"All I noticed is that I can't seem to control the dream anymore!" Rainbow exclaimed. "I mean, look at me!" She plucked at the corset and leather gear encapsulating her. "It's like I'm stuck in a butcher's prison! My wings are gone and I can't find where the others are—"

"Shhhhh!" Donut Joe hissed, squatting low.

Rainbow frowned. "Darn it, Joe, I'm trying to do exposition with Epcot here—"

"No, I mean it!" Donut tugged at both mares, forcing them to hide behind a sheet of rusted metal. "Quiet! They're passing by!"

"Who's passing by?"

As soon as Rainbow Dash uttered that, she realized she was hearing the grinding of wheels—accompanied by grunting and yelping voices. She peered her head just around the metal wall of the shack they were all huddled in.

Right at that precise moment, a procession of wagons were being dragged down the underground street, accompanied by a group of earth ponies in blue police uniforms. The unfriendly equines looked left and right, dragging their billy cubs against the floor and metal shingles of the place, glaring at every impoverished citizen they passed. The residents of the grimy underbelly of Philanthropy shrinked away from sight, making themselves scarced.

But it was what was on board the wagons that stole Rainbow's attention. Each vehicle was a veritable cage on wheels, and the occupants thereof gripped the bars and sputtered, wheezed, or sobbed in misery. Rainbow saw donkey ears, wyverne manes, griffon beaks, and canine muzzles. Not a single member of the caged procession was equine.

"What in the buck...?" Rainbow muttered.

"It would seem to me that the ponies who rule this place aren't all too terribly favorable of non-equine species," Epcot quietly remarked. "That'll ruin your Saturday!"

"She's got a point there," Donut Joe said in a low tone. "Everypony who walks this stinkin' place is an earth pony. I mean... look at us!" He ran a hoof over his forehead. "I've got no horn! You're missing your wings...!"

"I guess some dream simulations got lost in the shuffle," Rainbow muttered, gazing at the cages as they passed by. "I don't get it, though."

"What's not to get?"

"Well, Serenity Shindig is a unicorn. So's her sons. So why bother stamping her hoof down on all other races...?" Just then, her eyes narrowed. "Hold the sound stone."

"Huh?" Donut Joe craned his neck.

As the last caged wagon rolled by, two depressed figures could be seen sitting with their backs to the rattling bars. A familiar mule and a pelican-beaked griffon lingered in silent, shuffling misery.

"Cream my filling!" Joe wheezed. "Mulia and Gustave!"

"Weeeee!" Epcot squealed. "Mortal party—!" A blue hoof covered her muzzle. "Mmmfff!"

"No, Epcot," Rainbow grunted. "Not a party. They're in big trouble, and we gotta pull them out of there somehow!" She turned to look at the chaperone. "I nearly died when I first materialized in this place! And I crashed so hard that I went unconscious... in a dream."

"Mrfmmm-fmmmfff!" Epcot gently pulled Rainbow's hoof off. "Holy Figment! That's not good at all!" Her white muzzle scrunched. "If things in this dream can hurt you, then it stands to reason that your mortal friends are quite susceptible... to mortality."

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Donut Joe asked, shifting where he stood. "We gotta spring them loose!"

"Not so fast!" Rainbow Dash hissed.

She craned her neck out into the grimy sub-basment alleyway, staring down the length of the corridor. She watched as the three caged wagons were rolled towards the front entrance of a seedy nightclub emblazoned with lanterns and electric lights. Across the front, a name loomed, framed with flickering light bulbs.

"The 'Midnight Reflection,'" Rainbow Dash murmured.

"Eugh..." Donut Joe winced. "That place?"

Rainbow glanced at him. "You've heard of it?"

"A bunch of creeps spat the name out multiple times while tryin' to bag me," Joe said. "I think it's where they were planning to take me and sell me to the highest bidder." He gulped. "Or something."

"Then it can't be a good thing that Mulia and Gustave have been taken there," Rainbow muttered. She gestured at the other two. "Come on, you two." Slowly, she crept out into the dirty alley. "The rescue game's ahoof again."

"Weeee!" Epcot cheered. "I love rescues! I mean, I've never done them before, but they sound fun!"

"A little less chatty, Epcot," Rainbow muttered.

"Right! Gotcha!" She winked. "'Woosh' time!" Woosh! She transformed back into a steamy ball of metal and brass, floating alongside the two as they snuck their way towards the Midnight Reflection.

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