Equestria and the Machine

by SapphireRose87

13) Hi Loyalty! It's so nice to see you again!

{Rainbow Dash}

The next morning I woke up in a cold sweat. I had a feeling the reason for it was I yet again I had another memory and of course it had something with the Wonderbolts! I remember practicing for my Wonderbolt audition. Somehow I lost my flight pattern and did a crash landing! After that, I woke up. I realized that Oliver was holding me like I was a baby and I had a really bad headache. It felt like I had crashed into the nearby wall like I did when I got that electric shock to my ear.

“Well,” I said, “at least there aren’t any trash cans around!”

“That’s not funny!” Oliver said.

“Why do I feel like I crashed into a wall?” I asked. “I can’t fly right now, so how did that happen?”

“Apparently you sleepwalk,” Oliver replied.

“What!” I gasped. “There’s no way I do that! I didn’t do it before! Nobody told me I did it! When did that start happening?”

“It just happened today,” Oliver said. “What were you dreaming about to make you crash into a wall?”

“I had another memory,” I said, “and I did a crash landing again! Thanks to Agent Grace, I’ve done that a couple of times on my assignment! I guess that’s why the nickname Rainbow Crash stuck with me and it still keeps following me around!”

After I said the name Rainbow Crash, Oliver went from being concerned to rolling on his stomach in laughter.

I rolled my eyes, “I’m glad I’m entertaining. I was wondering about something though. Why did you keep your original name you were assigned to me?”

Oliver smiled, “It’s about time you asked that question, why didn’t you ask it before?”

“Somehow I was afraid to know the answer,” I replied.

Oliver nodded, “I was supposed to be bait for the seekers to them from going after you. They were supposed to be after me considering what I did to the 7th Gate! I don’t think that worked because they still went after you after all. I’m going to assume that since you were the last element of harmony that was still inside the Machine, it was desperately trying to keep you inside. I mean it sent a Firewall to pose as your brother! It’s safe to say that plan failed. So after you were broken out Samantha thought it was best for me to go back into hiding again. I’m not sure that’s going to keep the Machine from going after me or you.”

"Oh," I said, “The question is what we do about me? How do I keep myself from crashing into walls in my sleep?”

Oliver shrugged, “The answer to both those questions I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine!”

* * *

My assignment was to get past the Firewall at the gates. We were still trying to do damage to the 5th Gate. As usual, my fake brother Eli would pull up in his motorcycle and announce his name and blah, blah; which really annoyed me! Not to mention the whole ‘if you value your lives! Turn back now!’ line. This time when Eli pulled up instead of being annoyed like usual he just laughed when he saw us.

“What’s funny, fake brother?” I growled.

“You guys are!” Eli smirked. “Just keep trying to kill me or whatever you’re trying to do it’s not going to work! Or it would’ve by now. I’m not surprised coming from Loyalty here! The Lord getting very annoyed with you three! Especially with you, Loyalty!”

I’m really tired of Eli calling me Loyalty!

“You look lost in thought Loyalty!” Eli taunted. “What’s the matter?”

“As if I’d tell you!” I snapped.

“Fine then,” Eli said, “it’s your funeral! And for real this time! You three pests are getting on my nerves!”

“You should be the one to talk!” Agent Grace snapped at him. She then turned to me and Agent Emma and nodded, “you guys know what to do.”

“Just don’t call me Rainbow Crash this time!” I said. “I really don’t feel like doing another crash landing just to take Eli out!”

“Oh come on Agent RD!” Agent Grace teased. “I won’t call you that anymore. Actually, that last time was a prank and it almost worked. You almost took out Firewall Eli in the process!”

“Really Agent Grace! Fighting a Firewall is not time for-” Agent Emma scolded.

I guess Eli had gotten annoyed with us and decided to attack us while we were distracted. He put up one of his barriers and charged at us.

At least they got distracted from teasing me!

When Eli got close to me, I did a backflip in mid-air to dodge him. I looked over at Agent Grace and I could tell she really wanted to call me Rainbow Crash again! If she did do it, I just might stomp on her head instead of Eli’s and do him a favor of eliminating one of us! After a while much to my surprise, Eli had to pause along with us to catch his breath this time.

“I didn’t know Firewalls needed to breathe!” I taunted. “You sure didn’t look like you needed to last time!”

“Awe I’m touched,” Eli said with sarcasm, “thanks for the compliment! You three look like you’re running out of steam. It should be easy to kill you this time!”

I rolled my eyes, “This time? You couldn’t kill us even if you wanted to! And you’ve been wanting to lately! Good luck trying to do that!”

“The Lord will be so pleased when I drop your dead body in front of him!” Eli said.

I raised an eyebrow, “The Lord? The Machine needs a Lord? Now that’s funny!”

Eli growled, "I was wondering why didn’t you three didn't bring Agent Oliver with you this time? I’m sure he would love to join in the fun!”

“Fighting you is fun, how?” Agent Grace said sarcastically.

“Actually this is pretty entertaining for The Lord to watch!” Eli laughed.

“Yeah, I’m not doing stand-up comedy with you either,” I said, “unless this The Lord guy wants to pay me for it!”

Eli found that comment really amusing because he couldn’t hold in his laughter. “Stand-up comedy? Really? To me, it was a stand-up comedy when you got together with Silas!”

“Oh no you didn’t just joke about that!” I snapped. “That guy was a jerk and you know it! And you would’ve been just as bad if you were there when Silas assaulted me!”

I was seething with rage at the very mention of Silas! The fact that Eli even had the nerve to mention it now, I was about ready to go stomp on his head just for saying that. I was trying so hard to hold myself back and Agent Grace and Agent Emma weren’t happy about what Eli just said.

“What is he talking about, Agent RD?” Agent Grace said.

I sighed, “It’s a long story. Let’s say that thanks to that jerk Silas, I got pregnant with Jude! After I broke out of the Machine I left him behind. Jude might’ve happened because of a code but he’s still my son. I didn’t give him away because that idea didn’t sit well with me at all. And now that I left him behind, I have no idea where he is! Or who’s taking care of him. Not to mention it was his first birthday a couple of weeks ago…”

Agent Grace and Agent Emma looked heartbroken to hear what I just said.

“We didn’t know Agent RD!” Agent Grace said. “Why didn’t you tell us?"

"Because you didn't know about my personal life!" I snapped at her.

At this point, Agent Grace was really getting on my nerves again. I had half a mind to ask Samantha for a different assignment. I was snapped out of my thoughts when Eli took out of his pocket what looked like one of those watches Finn had shown me. It was the color of copper but it looked like it couldn’t be opened and it wasn’t to look at what time it was.

If he asks another stupid watch question, I am so not going to answer it. I’m not going into Phase 4 that’s for sure!

When I saw Agent Emma’s eyes go wide in terror when she saw the watch I was puzzled by it. “Uh-oh!”

Agent Grace looked in horror when she saw what Eli had in his hand. "Great! This is not good!"

Agent Emma gulped, “I’ve heard horror stories about that thing! It’s called a Copper! Many agents of the Sixth have died from it! That’s why this is a top-ranking assignment!”

“You chose to tell us about this now?” I said. “Really! You need to get help when we get back to the Sixth!”

“That is if we get back!” Agent Grace said. “I know of that thing too!”

“Why wasn’t I informed about this?” I asked.

“Because you’re a new agent,” said Agent Grace, “when a new agent gets to their assignment, they don’t need to know the dangers of it so they can fight to their full potential!”

I looked at Eli with horror when I saw the huge grin on his face.

“Well now,” said Eli, “at least your other teammates are informed about this. I wonder, Loyalty are you scared now?”

I wasn’t afraid of that stupid Copper! Not one little bit! As soon as I found out about it, I wanted to kill Eli even more. Especially since he keeps calling me Loyalty. I didn’t know which was worse: being called Loyalty, or Rainbow Crash.

“My name is not Loyalty!” I snarled at him. “I could care less about danger! I was a Wonderbolt back in Equestria for crying out loud! That was definitely the most dangerous job back there! If my friends are in danger, I could care less about my safety over theirs!”

“Don’t let that thing hit you!” Agent Emma said with terror in her voice.

As Eli threw the Copper at Agent Grace, I dove in front of her to get her out of the way. As I pushed Agent Grace out of the way I looked down to see that there was blood dripping from my chest. I didn’t realize that I had been hurt when Eli put his watch away and smiled at me.

“Looks like it’s mission complete for me!” Eli said.

“What are you talking about?” Agent Grace said. “You were going after all three of us!”

“Actually,” said Eli, “I was going after Loyalty! The Lord wanted to make sure she didn’t get her element of harmony back! Now that she’s dead, there's no way she can get her element back! Now that I have done my job, I'm out of here!”

When Eli left there was a bright light that surrounded me and the next thing I knew, Agent Grace and Agent Emma faded away from my viewpoint.

* * *

I opened my eyes. I could see only darkness and I had no idea where I was. I floated on my back in what felt like a pool of water. Looking around, I saw no end to the water and no way to get out of it. It reminded me of when I completed Phase 3 of breaking out of the Machine.

A distant-sounding voice echoed, “Raaainbow Daaash…” as I floated along.

As I was floating a memory flashed before my eyes. It was the memory that I had after I had met my Predictor for the first time. I guess my brain decided to finish the memory once and for all.

I was swimming in a cloud, relaxing on my day off from work. A little while in my swim, I heard a foal cry out for help in the well that was underneath this cloud.

As I prepared to jump off the cloud to rescue the foal, I heard that voice calling me again, “ Raaainbow Daaash…”

I ignored the voice just like I ignored the doorbell. Of course, when I started to fly down into the well I heard the voice calling me once again, “Raaainbow Daaash…”

I stopped flying and looked around, “Where in the heck is that voice coming from? Oh well, I need to save that foal!”

I got halfway down into the well feeling desperation to save the foal at all costs.

Right as I got into the well the voice called again, “Raaainbow Daaash…”

“Seriously!” I paused. “That voice again! Where is it coming from?”

When I got close to where I was certain the foal was, I didn’t see the foal; I just saw a bright light. After I saw the bright light I didn’t realize that I had flown right into it. I was back to floating again in the never-ending pool of water with no escape.

If I’m back in Phase 3, then where is that mirror that I was floating under afterward?

I heard the voice again, “Raaainbow Daaash…”

“Okay stupid voice!” I growled. “Whatever you’re connected to, show yourself! Or I’m gonna…”

I heard the stupid voice once again, “Raaainbow Daaash…”

“If this is a joke,” I said, “I’m not playing along!”

There was a bright flash of light and I was surprised to see where the voice was coming from. It was a red stone that looked like a ruby in the shape of a lightning bolt just like my cutie mark was.

“Rainbow Dash…” I heard the voice say once again but this time without the echo. I looked to see that the voice was coming from the stone and every time it said something, it glowed.

I looked at the stone in annoyance and tried to flick my tail at it when I realized I was still floating on my back in the never-ending pool of water. I was finally able to stand up somehow with the help of the water that I was floating in.

“Rainbow Dash…” The stone said again. This time I was able to flick my tail in annoyance.

“Is Rainbow Dash the only two words you can say?” I growled. “If it is, I don’t want to talk to you!”

The stone began chuckling, causing its glow to pulse intermittently as it laughed, “Rainbow Dash…”

“That’s not funny you stupid stone!” I snapped.

“Rainbow Dash…” The stone said again as if it were taunting me. “Are you listening?”

I did a face hoof and then I shook my head, “Well it’s about time! At least you’re not calling me Rainbow Crash! At this point, I’d rather be called Rainbow Dash instead!”

The stone must’ve gotten a real kick out of my reaction because it laughed again, this time its flashes glowed brighter and pulsed even faster. I would say it was laughing so hard it couldn’t breathe but I didn’t know if it was alive or not.

“Okay…” I said. “Who are you? Or what are you? And are you alive? I don’t get it.”

“That, stupid Machine!” The stone growled or at least I think it growled if it’s even an it. Maybe the stone was a girl or boy? I’m not sure about that one.

“So what am I supposed to be listening to you for?” I said.

“You’re supposed to be listening because I’m your element of harmony!” The stone said. “My name is Loyalty! Oh in case you’re wondering, I’m not a he, I’m not a she, I prefer to be called an it.”

“Okay?” I said. “And why do you prefer to be called an it?”

“Because I’m a stone, duh!” said Loyalty.

“So are you a living thing?” I said. “What are you?”

Loyalty made a sound. It gave me the comical picture of Loyalty facehoofing and groaning.

“I’m obviously a what,” said Loyalty, “I’m not really living you know! But my magic makes it look like I have emotions and stuff like that. Probably so you can relate to me.”

“O...Kay?” I said. “I’m not getting any of this!”

Loyalty started to laugh again. I crossed my hooves and scoffed at it.

“Great,” I said to myself, “I’m doing stand-up comedy with a stone!”

“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash,” Loyalty said, “no it’s not stand-up comedy night! If any pony would do stand-up comedy it would be Pinkie Pie. Although she hasn’t laughed very much lately and it happened shortly after you and your friends discovered us!”

I gritted my teeth. “Yeah, that stupid engagement party where I said no to her! Of course, everyone took Pinkie Pie’s side on it.”

“Yeah we know,” said Loyalty, “all of the elements of harmony tried to reason with her but Pinkie Pie is a total knucklehead!”

Now it was my time to laugh. The very thought of a stone calling Pinkie Pie a knucklehead!

“Yup,” said Loyalty, “anyway, I’m so happy to finally reconnect with you!”

“Connect?” I said. “You say that like you’re a long-lost friend.”

“I guess you could say that,” said Loyalty, “when I talk about connecting, it means to connect with your magic in order for us to do our job as an element of harmony! Us elements take our jobs as protectors very seriously! The ones that connect with us fit our namesake and we can attach to them! And you’re definitely loyal that’s for sure! The way you pushed Agent Grace out of harm's way says it all! And you’re also laughter material too. Actually, now that you think about it you have a personality that would be able to match with all of the elements! I called dibs and I got you first! So I win!”

I couldn’t help myself, I was laughing and smacking the water with my hoof. The thought of a stone calling dibs on somepony!

“It looks like I’m the one doing stand-up comedy huh Rainbow Dash?” Loyalty cracked up.

“You can say that again!” I said.

“I’m glad I finally talk to you again,” said Loyalty, “that stupid Machine kept me away from you for eight years! Sadly a lot of times if an element goes silent to their connections it means that connection is not identifying with the quality anymore of what they can attach to. So Honesty and Kindness have gone silent to their connections and they are looking for new ones so they can start using their powers again. Magic and Laughter are thinking about doing the same thing! It’s very sad to me that the only connections that are still talking are me and Generosity. I wonder if we can get your boyfriend Oliver in as a connection? Maybe he could be laughter’s connection?”

I smacked the water with both hooves as I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt.

“What’s so funny about that?” Loyalty said.

“I’m sorry,” I said laughing in between my words, “I don’t think Oliver's laughter material! He takes his job way too seriously!”

“Well,” said Loyalty, “maybe he could be Kindnesses' connection?”

“Okay…” I said. “Why are the elements so dead set on Oliver? I don’t think he has any magic!”

“He does!” Loyalty said. “It’s not much, but it’s strong enough for him to be a connection for an element of harmony!”

My jaw dropped when I heard that, “What!”

“I think I’ll let him tell you about that!” Loyalty said. “Now, you need to hurry, we don’t have much time!”

I titled my head, “Say what now?”

Loyalty groaned, “I can’t explain it, but you really should put your necklace on that has me in it! If you want to live again!”

“Live...Again?” I said in confusion.

“I’ll try to explain it to you later! Now hurry up!” Loyalty said.

“Okay, okay!” I said. I took Loyalty and put it around my neck. Just like what happened when Agent Emma and Agent Grace disappeared from my viewpoint a bright light surrounded me but only this time it was lights out.

* * *

When I woke up Agent Grace was holding me in her arms and sobbing. Agent Emma was sitting on the ground sobbing too. They weren’t looking at each other when I opened my eyes. When Agent Grace saw that I had opened my eyes her face lit up with joy. Agent Emma heard Agent Grace stop crying. She turned around to see why and her face lit up with joy.

“Uh...Agent Grace…” I croaked. “It’s kind of hard for me to breathe with you hugging me this tight!”

Agent Grace reminded me of Oliver when he’s trying to protect me and I don’t blame her because I just about died trying to save her.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Agent Grace kept saying over and over again.

“Okay,” I croaked again, “I’m alive now let me go!”

Agent Grace finally let me go and I sat up and coughed the remaining blood out of my mouth. Agent Emma looked at my neck with curiosity.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I said.

"The wound on your chest is almost healed already! I hope there are no internal injuries though. I suspect the reason you were saved is you have your element of harmony hanging around your neck!” Agent Emma said.

“How do you know that it’s an element of harmony?” I said.

“Our Predictor showed up a picture of what it looked like back in Equestria,” said Agent Grace, “I thought it might look a little bit different because of being stuck inside the Machine. But it’s exactly the same way it looked before it got taken!”

I tried to stand up but Agent Grace wasn’t having it.

“You’re not standing up right now,” said Agent Grace, “I think we should get you back to the Sixth to get you checked out!”

“And it’s safe to say,” said Agent Emma, “you won’t be flying anytime soon!”

I looked around and didn't see Eli anywhere. I must've been out longer than I thought. “Where’s Eli?”

“I don’t know what happened,” Agent Emma said. “He left soon after he hit you with the Copper!”

“We really need to get you back to the Sixth!” Agent Grace said. “And since you’re not going to be flying anytime soon…”

My eyes went wide. “Nope! No way! I’m not riding in one of those metal lunch boxes if I can help it! I’d rather walk thank you very much!”

“We’re finished here for now,” said Agent Emma, “and you’re going to ride in one of our ‘lunch boxes’ like it or not!”