Sympathy For The Devil

by Closer-To-The-Sun

Chapter 2: Rainbow Dash

Chapter 2: Rainbow Dash

Celestia’s sun rose, marking the first day of Applebloom’s new part-time job.

Being both eager to start and not wanting to upset her new boss, the little filly hurried to the storefront. Once there, she looked at its exterior. The building looked new, but that’s not what caught Applebloom’s eye. Rather, it looked strangely creepy, as if something out of a horror story. The architecture, the windows, the building material, and even the aura felt as if it was not of Equestria.

The front door opened, revealing Morning Star. “Applebloom! Come on and get in here, I got a list of tasks for you to get started on!” he called out from the doorframe.

“Y-Yessir!” the frightened Applebloom hurried inside.

The shop was creepy as it was when Applebloom first entered. Piles of strange items from Celestia-knows-where, a layer of dust blanketing everything, spiders making their cobwebs in any nook and cranny they can find, and Applebloom couldn’t be completely sure but she felt that some sort of creature was staring at her as it hid itself amongst the shelves.

Morning Star was at the counter, holding some sort of cloth in his hooves, “You’re early. I like seeing that in a worker.” He looked exactly as he did when Applebloom first saw him. Golden mane that was elegantly styled, a white coat, a black coat wrapped around his body, and those piercing red eyes.

“Ah always do mah best, Mr. Morning Star, sir,” Applebloom’s voice wasn’t shaking, but she certainly was. She was still scared of him, and nopony could blame her.

“Excellent,” Morning Star tossed the cloth to the filly who caught it, “Go ahead and suit up. Your first task is to start dusting the entire shop.”

Applebloom unraveled the cloth to reveal it was an apron. It was a mixture of red, white, and pink in a checkered pattern. It would look pretty good on her and compliment her mane and the bow that rested on it. “Wait,” she thought for a moment, “ya want me ta dust the entire store?”

“That’s correct.”

“But that’ll take forever!” the filly was in disbelief.

The stallion chuckled a bit, “Then you best get started then.” He offered her a feather duster.

Applebloom put the apron on and let out a groan. She grabbed the duster and started to get to work. As she started, the front door’s bell jingled.

“Hello? Anypony here?” a light blue pegasus mare called into the store.

As if he was summoned, Morning Star trotted towards the front of the store, “Welcome, welcome to Tchort’s Trinkets!”

“Whoa, this store is a bit weirder than I thought,” she commented.

“Looks can be quite deceiving, my friend,” the stallion insisted as he welcomed the pegasus in.

“Don’t call me your friend, my name’s Rainbow Dash,” she pointed out, “perhaps you’ve heard of how awesome I am?”

Morning Star nodded, “But of course! The flying marvel herself! To what do I owe the pleasure of having you in my store?”

“I don’t know, I’m just looking around,” Dash admitted as she started to wander through the store. She looked at all of the odd items that were stacked dangerously upon each other.

“Perhaps there is something that I could interest you in?” Morning Star had a devious smile on his face.

This caught Dash’s attention, “Like what?”

“Well, are you a fan of literature, Ms. Rainbow Dash?”

The pegasus scoffed, “Are you kidding? I’m only the biggest Daring Do fan ever! Just don’t tell Twilight I said that, she’d argue about that.”

“Well, my dear, I believe I have something for you. Follow me,” Morning Star motioned for the pegasus to follow him.

The two passed Applebloom, who was still dusting and cleaning around the shop. She was having a little difficulty with her task, kicking up dust with her cleaning. This caused her to sneeze a few times, almost wreaking havoc and causing an avalanche of various items.

As for Morning Star, he went behind the counter and pulled an item out and placed it on the surface, it was an old, rough-looking typewriter. “I have here, a wonderful machine. Tell me, Rainbow Dash, have you ever wanted to try your hoof at writing novels?”

Rainbow seemed a little surprised at the question, “Me? Write? Well, sure, I guess. Who hasn’t wondered what it would be like to write something cool?”

“In that case, this typewriter once belonged to a famed murder mystery author. He was very talented, selling countless books all across Equestria. When he used this machine, he claimed it was as if the stories wrote themselves, and with this, you could do the same,” Morning Star explained. His words seemed full of deceitful, but if Rainbow Dash noticed, it didn’t show.

“I could be a writer?” she asked.

“Think of it, Rainbow Dash. You will be known for writing the best mysterious novels ever. Everypony will love your work. Even A.K. Yearling will be envious of your amazing works,” the stallion edged on.

“I’ll take it!” Rainbow said with conviction, hitting her hoof on the countertop to exclaim the statement, “What do I owe ya?”

“It’s free of charge,” Morning Star insisted, “Just remember us little people when you’re famous.” He ended with a chuckle.

Grabbing the machine with her front limbs, Rainbow started to walk out of the shop. It was heavier than she expected, causing her to go a bit slower, “Thank you so much, mister! I’ll be sure to give you a copy of my first book!” With her new prize, she left.

Applebloom, who watched the entire event, spoke up, “Mr. Morning Star, why did ya just give that typewriter ta Rainbow Dash? Don’t ya need ta sell it so ya can make money?”

Morning Star trotted toward the little filly, “Sweet Applebloom, she did pay for it. Or rather she will. Everything has a price. She didn’t have to pay for it now, but she certainly will.” He chuckled deviously for a moment before sneezing, “Saints alive, you call this dusting? The goal of dusting is to wipe an area free of dust, not to kick it up into the air.”

“I’m tryin’ mah best, honest!”

-----

Back at Rainbow Dash’s home, she struggled to maneuver with the heavy machine. Moving carefully, but as quickly as she could, she finally placed it down on the desk in her room.

She was panting, “Oh my Celestia, that was heavier that I could of imagined….I moved boxes of bricks that here lighter than that,” she complained as she stretched her body around, trying to relieve the soreness. As she did this, Dash’s pet tortoise, Tank, entered in, floating in on his copter.

“Oh, hey Tank. Guess what I got today?”

The tortoise was silent.

“I got this awesome old typewriter that’s gonna help me write awesome novels! And some old pony just gave it to me! It’s gonna be so rad. Wanna help me write the first chapter?” Rainbow pulled up a chair and loaded paper into the typewriter, preparing herself to start.

As Tank continued to float around on his copter, Rainbow started to hit the keys on the keyboard. While it felt a little weird at first, she was getting used to it.

“How does this sound for an opening, Tank? ‘It was a dark night in Ponyville, the thunderstorm enveloped the city and was refusing to let go. In a dark alley, drenched in water, a body was lying face down as the police started to tape off the area.’ How does that sound?” Rainbow eagerly asked. Her pet didn’t answer but that didn’t stop her excitement, “Oh, this is soooo cool! That stallion was right, it’s like if the typewriter is doing a lot of the writing! It’s coming so naturally!”

The clattering of the keys echoed through her house.

“I bet A.K. Yearling would so hoofbump me if she saw what I’m writing here! This is just so awesome!”

Rainbow continued to type away at the typewriter at a hurried pace. It seemed that she couldn’t keep up with how fast her hooves were going, as if she was possessed or something of the sort. She continued to work into the night.

That night, clouds blanketed the land and a storm occurred in Ponyville.

----

The next morning, Morning Star and Applebloom were in the shop, starting out off a new day of business.

Morning Star was at his seat behind the back counter. “Applebloom, could you please go and turn the sign to ‘open’?” he asked, not looking up from the newspaper.

“Yessir,” Applebloom said, typing her apron on. She did like how it looked on her. Grabbing the sign with her hoof, Applebloom turned it so that the ‘open’ portion was facing outward. She noticed that there was still some rainwater on the window glass from last night’s storm.

A chuckle came from the back. It was Morning Star at something he saw in the newspaper.

“What’cha laughin’ at? Is it the funnies?” the yellow filly asked as she trotted back toward her boss.

“It’s not that, rather it’s this,” he laid the paper down, revealing a headline and photo. The image was of a pony’s body covered up by a blanket with the headline nearby reading: ‘Unicorn murdered in Ponyville alley, no suspects yet.’

Applebloom didn’t like what she just saw, “That’s not very nice ta be findin’ that funny, Mr. Morning Star.”

“Oh, but it is. Remember that typewriter we gave to Rainbow Dash yesterday?”

The filly nodded.

“This is just the beginning. For you see, that typewriter is evil, possessing the writer,” Morning Star explained as he folded the paper back to its normal form, “The typewriter causes whatever is typed out to happen in real the real world. And, that particular typewriter his an evil machine, so whatever it forced Rainbow to type last night has started to take place.”

“But why would ya give her somethin’ that’s evil?” Applebloom asked.

Morning Star laughed, “I told you this already, Applebloom, I’m the master of evil.”

His laughter was interrupted by the bell of the opening front door. It was the same customer from yesterday.

“Ah, welcome back, Rainbow Dash,” he greeted as he trotted around from the counter and up to the pegasus.

“Hey, I came back to return this,” it was after she spoke that Applebloom and Morning Star noticed she was pulling the typewriter in a wagon.

“Pardon? Why do you wish to return this? Does it not work properly?” Morning Star was puzzled.

Rainbow shook her head, “Oh, no that’s not it. Heck, it worked amazingly well when I started last night.”

“I know, I read about it in this morning’s paper,” the stallion commented.

“What was that?” the pegasus was confused with what he meant.

“Never mind, but what was the problem?”

The pegasus just shrugged, “I just got bored with it. Maybe I’m not cut out for being a writer.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Morning Star asked.

“What do you mean what do I mean? I told ya, I just got bored with it. I think I’m more for reading books than writing,” Rainbow pulled the wagon up closer to Morning Star, “Here, you can gave it back.” She turned around and headed back to the door.

The stallion called out to Rainbow as she headed out the door, “Wait, you can keep it! No charge!” He followed her out the door, to which he continued shouting, “It’ll get better, I promise! Just think of the fame! You can’t do this to me!”

Applebloom followed Morning Star out the door. She just listened as he continued shouting.

“Who do you think you are?! Don’t you know who I am?! “I am the fallen one! I am Louis Cypher! Old Scratch! Damian! Beelzebub! Lucius Heinous VII! The master of puppets! I am the Prince of Darkness! I am Mephistopheles!” His volume grew with each statement.

“Mr. Morning Star,” Applebloom interrupted, “she’s gone.”

He hung his head in sadness, “I know….”

Comments

[neoxflash]

This is proving exceedingly enjoyable. Morning Star is a very charming character!

[The Cryptic Cipher]

Applebloom couldn’t be completely sure but she felt that some sort of creature was staring at her

Oh I thought my 4th wall was fixed? Never mind I'll find pinkie in the morning.
Also I loved the top-notch banter.

~T.MC