Rúmcierr

by Matthais Unidostres

10

Applejack and the device reappeared within a room, and the pony was still running forward at the time. Applejack could see a wall in front of her, but it was only a second before she smacked into it face first.

Applejack’s vision spun, her eyes rolling in circles as she staggered around dizzily. She weakly reached out with her right foreleg for something to support herself. Her hoof landed on the end of a heavy barbell that lay on a nearby bench press, and her hoof struck down hard on the end of it. This caused the whole barbell to tip upwards and over, the long bar landing on her back and forcing her down on her stomach. The barbell then rolled forward a bit, stopping over her neck area as she lay on the floor.

“Ungh. What?” Applejack said groggily as she blinked her eyes several times. The dizziness had finally passed, and now she could take a better look at her surroundings. From what she could see, it was clear that she was inside a gym of some kind. However, it seemed to be completely empty at the moment.

Applejack then brought her attention back to the barbell on top of her. She tried to get up, but the bar, held down by the massive weights on either end, had her pinned down good. Applejack grumbled as she rolled over onto her back, and now the bar was under her chin. She then put her forehooves under the bar and pushed upwards with all her might, but the awkward position she was in rendered her unable to use her full strength to lift the weight that was holding her down.

“Aw, now this ain’t right,” Applejack complained as she let her forelegs fall down on either side of her. She stared up at the electric lights in the ceiling for a moment as she tried to think of a way out of her current predicament. She sighed as she tapped her right back hoof on the ground in thought.

Eventually, she came up with the idea of trying to roll the barbell off of her. She used her forelegs to push the barbell forward. However, the bar was too low to make it over her body and legs. She then tried to roll the barbell over her head, turning her head profile to let it get past her chin. This didn’t work either, as the bar ended up pushing uncomfortably against her face.

“Ow,” she moaned as she gently rubbed her face with her right fetlock. Suddenly, something caught her eye. There were a couple of slant boards nearby, all in a row.

A smile spread across Applejack’s face as the answer came to her. Using her hind legs, she crawled on her back while also rolling the barbell along with her. She moved backwards towards two of slant boards, and saw with delight that they were just the right distance apart. She then crawled backwards, using the two slant boards like ramps to move the barbell upwards.

Applejack gritted her teeth as she rolled and pushed the heavy barbell up behind her with her forehooves. She groaned in exertion as she finally managed to roll it over and past her head. Her forelegs were bent out over her head as she held the barbell up behind her with all her might. Then, after counting to three in her head, Applejack gave the barbell a mighty push, and then did a quick backflip to avoid it as it came rolling back down the slant boards.

Applejack landed back on all four hooves just in time to see the barbell crash into a stack of dumbbells with a loud clang. Applejack panted as she watched the barbell come apart, the weight rolling for a few feet before falling down like coins.

“Heh-heh! Weren’t that a show of strength!” Applejack said as she began to feel proud of herself for getting out of that minor predicament. She jogged in place for a moment as she stretched out the crick in her neck, and then turned around and pranced away from the pile of weights, her eyes closed in pride.

However, when Applejack felt the sensation of not moving forward, she opened her eyes and saw that she had stepped onto a large treadmill that adequately suited a pony of her size. The treadmill had started to move the moment she set hoof on it, and it was going rather quickly.

“Whoops,” Applejack said as she noticed the brisk pace at which the treadmill was moving. She looked up at the controls in front of her, and moaned. “Aw, sucks. More buttons and gizmos?” she said miserably.

The console of the treadmill had several rectangular buttons with various symbols on them, which were all arranged around a large red button in the middle. Seeing how none of the buttons were labeled, and not trusting the red button at all, Applejack decided to simply not touch anything.

“This ain’t really all that bad,” Applejack remarked as she jogged along, only slightly nervous, “It’ll probably stop on its own or something before too long.”

Immediately after saying this, the treadmill’s control panel emitted a loud beep, and Applejack could feel the treadmill increase in speed.

She gulped as she began to canter quickly along. Now getting more nervous, Applejack looked left and right, starting to wonder if maybe she could just jump off of the machine and hope she didn’t break anything.

The machine then let out another beep, and now Applejack was forced to go into a full gallop in order to keep up with the machine.

Panting heavily, Applejack stared at the wide array of buttons, trying to make sense of the symbols. Her eyes eventually fell upon a button that had what looked like a back arrow on it, and she put on a quick burst of speed to get close enough to the console, and hit the button with her nose.

To Applejack’s horror, not only did the treadmill not slow down, but then it began to move upwards at an angle, eventually stopping at 30 degrees.

Applejack’s eyes were wide as she pushed herself to keep going, while also realizing that she wouldn’t be able to keep it up for much longer. Her eyes drifted towards the red button on the control panel, and she knew she had no choice.

“Dang it, dang it, dang it, dang it,” Applejack repeated aloud as she gave it one final push to practically leap up the inclined treadmill to hit the red button with her nose.

The treadmill stopped immediately, sending Applejack straight into the panel, which bent slightly and pushed her backwards. The momentum threw Applejack several feet away from the machine and back first into the wall.

Applejack slid down the side of the wall, her hat laying on the ground a few feet in front of her, having come off due to the force of the impact. Applejack sat on her rear for a moment, breathing in and out loud and fast in order to catch her breath. Eventually, her breathing returned to normal, and she let out a long sigh of relief.

Applejack reached out to her hat, only to see it disappear in a flash of green light. Her eyes widened, and she turned to her right to see the strange, round device that was the cause of all her troubles. She had forgotten about it for the moment, but soon realized that she must have struck it with a hoof when the treadmill had bounced her back.

Applejack gaped at the device as it lay on its back, rocking back and forth gently as it had rolled a bit after it fell over. Then, Applejack shot it a nasty look, and then slammed her right forehoof down hard on it.

The device made itself and Applejack disappear.

Comments

[Aatxe360]

I do like the story is starting to slowly shift from her hat. Slowly.

[Matthais Unidostres]

8822451
The amount of focus on it will be more like the movement of high tide and low tide. Also, why did you hide it under a spoiler bar?

[Aatxe360]

8828766

To avoid spoilers.