Applejack Through the Ages

by Paradise Oasis

The Toxic beast

The Toxic beast

The three mares continued down the shaft, following the trail of poison towards it's source. As they tread deeper and deeper into the slime filled maze, the sound of a loud throbbing noise filled their ears, as if a great machine was running someplace far above their heads.

"What the hay is that?" Applejack asked, as the source of the noise became louder and louder. "It almost sounds like some kind of wild animal!"

"I dunno," Minty replied, squinting her eyes as she looked ahead. "But I think I see some light up there!"

The three ponies came out in a small cave, and were horrified by the sight before them. A large, spherical metal behemoth, the size of a large castle, sat on the ground before them. Massive pipes and tubes stuck out of the over sized monstrosity, sticking into the surrounding ground and river, spewing out black poisons and filth into both the land and water all around them. To the horrified ponies observing the terrifying sight. it looked more life some kind of terrifying monster was sucking the life out of all the land around it, completely oblivious to all of the horrible damage it was causing.

"Oh no! What is that terrible thing?!?" Waterfire exclaimed, looking upon the abomination before her in utter terror. "Girls, we have got to find a way to stop this thing, before it poisons all of Ponyville!"

Applejack nodded her head in agreement, then began trotting towards the structure. Seeing that the coast was clear, she motioned for the other two ponies to follow.

...

"Spike, come quick!" The cry came from outside celebration castle, the small palace that the dragon had come to call home. "Something terrible has happened!"

Rushing out across the open drawbridge, where he found an anxious Apple Spice dancing and prancing about. The worried pony motioned for the little dragon to follow her, and the two raced their way over towards the town clinic. Spike expected any number of problems to have occurred here in Ponyville- from Scootaloo getting into a wreck and bumping her head again, to Minty getting her hoof caught in a peanut butter jar again. But the sight that greeted his eyes was one the little dragon had not expected.

"Oh my words!" The pygmy dragon exclaimed. "What in the world has happened here!?"

Mares and stallions were scattered all over the room, lying on cots and groaning in agony. Spring Fever, Ponyville's resident physician who operated the clinic, was putting a cold compress on Wysteria's head, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie ran around the floor, wearing nurse's caps and dresses.

"Oh, Spike! Thank goodness you're here!" Spring Fever exclaimed, pulling a blanket over a mare who had the hot and cold shivers. "All of these ponies have suddenly fallen ill, and I have my hooves full with all these patients!"

The dragon looked around in disbelief, staring blankly at all the patients with thermometers in their mouths, and sweat running down their bodies. "How... how did this happen?"

"It was the water, darling! Every pony who's drunken from the town's water supply has gotten sick like this!" Rainbow dash exclaimed, putting a bedpan down so Sunny Daze could throw up into it. "We were hoping you could find out what the cause was, and stop this bloody illness before it gets out of control!"

"I don't feel so good..." Sunny exclaimed, as her face turned a bright purple. "BLEEECCCHHHHHH!"

"Ew, Sunny!" Rainbow Dash shrieked, as the gunk spewed all over her face. "You got that gunk all over me and my dress!"

"Sorry, Dashie...." Sunny Daze replied weakly, her head falling back against the pillow. "I really can't help it..."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Darling!" Rainbow exclaimed, wiping the vomit off of her face. "You just try to rest there, and I'll go get you a glass of water!"

On the other side of the room, Pinkie Pie stood over the shivering form of Twilight Twinkle.

"Here, Twilight. Take some of this medicine." Pinkie said sadly, trying to put a spoonful into the pony's mouth. "It'll make you feel better!"

The stallion weakly took the spoonful of medicine, before quickly coughing it back up onto the blanket that was covering him. "Pinkie, I....Ugh...agh... hack!"

"Oh no! Twilight!" The pink mare exclaimed. "Try to not to speak, just try to rest..."

Spike looked over the whole scene, horrified at what was happening to his friends.

"I-I'll see what I can do." The small dragon replied. "I'll need to get a sample of water from the river, and see if I can mix up a cure."

The small blue dragon ran back out to the Ponyville River, only too see the foul and slimy brown goo gushing it's way through what had once been crystal clear water. Seeing the dead flowers and plants all along the river bank, Spike realized that this filth was the cause of all the town's problems.

"Oh dear, I hope I can figure out what this poison is!" The dragon pulled out a small beaker, and dipped it into the polluted water. The small dragon had a limited knowledge of chemistry and the other sciences (all of which he had learned from Twilight Sparkle, oh so long ago). But he was determined to help these little ponies, who meant so much to him.

"Maybe I can find something in the castle's books to help me." The dragon shook his head worriedly. "Oh, how I wish Princess Twilight were here..."

...

"Ew, Applejack! This place is gross!" Minty exclaimed, looking around at the leaky pipes and grinding gears. "What do ya suppose they do here?"

Finding an open entrance in the back of the foul-looking building, the three ponies trotted their way inside. Upon seeing the grimy soot and heard the loud humming of the machinery, the three came to realize they were inside a large factory. Cable and wires ran all along the walls and ceilings, and strange lights blinked on unidentifiable consoles. As they made their way through the endless labyrinth on passages and ducts, they found their way into a large room with all sorts of machinery busily at work.

"Wow, this place really, really stinks!" Minty exclaimed, covering her nose with her hoof. "It smells like machine oil and rotten food!"

"Really? I don't notice anything out of the ordinary." Waterfire shrugged. "Smells fine to me."

"That's because you practically live in a sewer, Fire." Applejack replied sarcastically. "But I am wondering what they do make here?"

The three ponies looked over the conveyor belts, and noticed several white bottles being run along the assembly line, the machines squirting a white and bad-smalling substance into the small bottles, then screwing orange caps onto the bottles.

"A glue factory?" AJ said in surprise. "But none of the trees that make glue sap grow in this part of Equestria. Unless they're importing it, how can they possibly make glue here?"

"Whhooahhh... whoaaahhhh!" It was at that point that Minty began to stumble around, tripping on a cable, and knocking into a half hidden door that was half hidden in the wall. The clumsy mare practically fell though the doorway, and fell onto the floor in the adjoining room of the factory.

"Minty, are you all right?" Waterfire started, as she and Applejack came through the door after her. "Honestly, you really need to watch... where... you're... going?"

All three mares ere stunned into silence, staring on in shock at the sight before them.

"Help me! Please help me!"

"Noooooooo!"

"Argahhhhhh!"

Up near the ceiling in the room, a long line of cages suspended by chains moved along the conveyor belt. In each cage was an unhappy-looking pony, and the moving cages were pulled along by a crane towards a large bubbling vat. As each cage moved over the disgusting looking liquid, the bottom of the cage opened up. The terrified pony was then dropped into the cauldron below, screaming in terror as they dissolved right before the eyes of the three horrified mares.

"Oh my B'zkere!" Waterfire exclaimed, trying not to throw up. "Are they... they can't be!"

"Th-they're making the glue..." A tearful Minty trailed off, unable to form the whole thought at the horror of what she was witnessing.

"..they're making it out of us!" AJ finished, feeling very ill herself.

"Hey, what are you three doing here!?" A deep and angry voice called out, as they heard a pair of bipedal feet came running down the stairs after them.

"Oh no! They found us!" Waterfire exclaimed. "Girls, make a run for it!"

But before they could even take a step, a whole swarm of the factory's guards quickly surrounded the three mares. The three ponies turned back to back, staring down the guards that were threatening them.

"I'd recommend not making any sudden moves, ladies!" One of the guards snarled, as several of his comrades pointed shock sticks at the three ponies. "Unless you want to be in a world of hurt!"

It was then that the three ponies discovered that the factory wasn't being run by ponies at all, as the guards who menaced them were clearly a very different sort of creature.

"Monkeys!?" Applejack sputtered in disbelief, staring at the bipedal primates surrounding her and her friends. "This place is run by MONKEYS!?"

"We prefer to be called gizmonks, pony!" One of the hairy beasts declared, pointing his weapon at AJ. "Now get you're hooves up, and get moving!"

Comments

[FleetlordAvatar]

Science gone mad, that is what the gizmooks are.

[Arxsys]

DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/049/6/1/you_maniacs__you_blew_it_up__by_standingleaf-d5vgltu.png

[keam]

WHAT IS THIS HORRIBLE STORY!?!? GLUE OUT OF PONIES?!?!

[KaijinZero]

oh my god ITS KRASTOS!

[Aatxe360]

I did not see this coming. Continue. Please.

I've been coping with personal things...

[Leave a Whisper]

The gizmonks. What else did I expect. Those poor ponies. :(