Flashback (Prologue)
“Pinkie Pie! Get down to the engine room, and see what you can do to fix the problem before we all have a one-way trip to Tartarus!” Applejack yelled over the fast current of wind blowing at her face to her pink maned friend, but her words touched deaf ears.
Pinkie was currently in her own little world, completely oblivious to the panicked yelling of her captain, the unnaturally fast current blowing at her hair, or even the airship descending out of the sky at a dangerous rate. Even when all of those events were happening, Pinkie just continued to hum her merry tune and rock her head back and forth in rhythm.
Applejack snorted in umbrage at the engineer’s rattlebrained personality. Even in the most intense situations, like this one, that mare would always be playing around with her mechanical alligator, dubbed Gummy because of its lack of teeth, or tuning out, which was an annoyance to everypony on the ship.
“Fine! Ah’ll go check it out for ma self!” With that, Applejack raced with the direction of the wind to the metal door that led down to the engineering room. When she got within range, she took ahold of the knob and pulled. However, with the elements against her, it wouldn’t budge. She put a hind hoof against the oak frame of it and heaved with all the god-given might that she could muster, but the door held its ground.
Applejack put her leg back down and tried thinking of a way to get the door open.
Maybe Ah could- Naw, it would’n work. Or maybe...no, not tha’ either. Applejack blasted down every idea that came across, leaving her with little next to nothing. She was about to find another way through when a frantic cry touched the base of her eardrums.
“AJ! Look out for that propellor!”
Applejack turned around to identify the voice when she saw an incoming, large piece of debris flying towards her at maximum speed. She immediately dropped on her belly, feeling small shards of metal pierce her belly. The broken propellor flew just over her head, barely touching the edge of her Stetson.
Suddenly, the air was filled with the ear shattering sound of screeching metal and broken hinges. Applejack got up and turned around to see an assortment of metal and glass recklessly bunched together, almost as if a gigantic baby foal had smashed its hooves against the material, easily breaking through it. Her mind took in the fact that she could’ve been hurt, or worse, killed, if she hadn’t evaded it. In fact, she couldn’t have even survived if it wasn’t for...
Applejack twisted her head around to faintly catch a glimpse of Pinkie Pie with her hooves crossed together and a somewhat smug look on her face.
“What?”
“And you call me ignorant.”
Applejack shook her head in amusement at the pink engineer’s comment. She always knew Pinkie could lighten the mood in even the most darkest of situations, and this was no exception. She looked back towards the steps leading down toward the engine room, trying not to think of the worst, but failing horribly. Her thoughts began to get clouded with dark thoughts, each one worse than the last.
Her mind may have foretold dark scenarios awaiting her, but her heart told her that her friends were down there, possibly holding on to dear life, while at the same time trying save her and the whole crews’ asses. With rock-hard determination settling inside of her, she began to trek down the stairs but was interrupted by Pinkie calling out to her.
“Hey Applejack!”
“Yeah?” she yelled back, hoping to reach her throughout the noise of the totaled engine tank and the current.
“Before you come back up, do ya think you could grab Gummy? He needs some sunlight, it’s important for him!”
Shaking her head again at her childlike behavior, Applejack replied, “Alright! Will do!” And with that said and done, she began to quickly descend down the stairs with the slight hope of her friends still breathing air. Maybe not the freshest kind at this moment since the air in the surrounding area was currently becoming contaminated from the smoke emanating from within the broken turbine, but air all the same.
When she was a few steps in, she started to notice the surface of each step of the staircase started to heat up little by little. That wasn’t much of a surprise since the engine room was pretty damn hot most of the time, but something wasn’t right. It just felt a bit too hot. Taking this in, her mind automatically swirled with even darker thoughts than before, ranging from dead bodies scattered throughout the room with blisters on every spot of their being to the whole room catching fire and eventually catching her friends on fire. First their hair, then their tails, and then reaching their stomachs, making them scream out as best as they could in pure agony...she couldn’t take it anymore.
Stopping midway, she looked down the swirling whirlpool of metal to catch a glimmer of light from the bottom, supposedly from the fire within. She thought for a moment and caught wind of an idea. A simple, yet useful idea. She searched through the accessories that she was currently sporting on at the moment, from her goggles to her Stetson, finding nothing except for a pebble that had wound up in her cloth undershirt. Only Celestia knows how it did, though.
Bringing the pebble up to her mouth and biting down on it with her teeth, she bent her head over the stair case and let it drop. She listened to it clank down once or twice against the spiraling steps, not missing a beat until she finally heard a sound that was louder that the clanking, obviously indicating that it had reached the floor. Counting how long it took to reach the bottom minus the obstacles, she smiled at the number and took in a deep breath before diving down with it.
Barely missing a few scrapes and bumps, she landed on the floor, unscathed. She inwardly patted herself on the back for her quick brilliance. It wasn’t everyday that she could think up stuff like that on the spot, even if it was a bit, as said before, simple.
Her successful experiment was short lived when she heard the voice of a certain lavender unicorn reached her hearing range.
“Damn it Rainbow! I told you to not add too much steam into the turbine! Now the ship is going to flip over!”
“Shut it, egghead! I don’t see your ass doing crap! You have a high variety of magic, why don’t you use it, for Celestia’s sake?!”
A second voice boomed in a provoked tone over the audible sound of a dim whistling in the background, slowly becoming louder and louder with each passing second. Applejack sighed with relief at the sounds of her friends bickering with each other but was curious about the whistling. Was it bad? Was it just natural? Did her friends hear it as well?
Fed up with waiting in suspense, Applejack pushed her hoof against the door, making the whole thing fall, which caused her to jump back even though it fell out. She looked down at it and noticed that it looked as if it had been through Tartarus and back. Its hinges were still in the door but had fallen off the wall, there were scorch marks inscribed all over it, and it was rent in the corners.
She looked back up and saw that the engine room was even in worse shape. Pipes, shrapnel, and other oddities were scattered out on the floor, scorch marks that matched the door’s were burned all over the place, on the floor, ceiling, and even her on her crew members. To top it all off, the air was contaminated with a mixture of hot steam and engine fluids, so she instantly plugged up her nose and mouth.
“Wha’ in the name of Celestia are ya’ll doin’ down here?” Applejack mumbled through her hooves, flinching as the intensity of the steam was wrapping around her body, slowly starting to scorch her. She could feel it bore into her and successfully but painfully held in a yelp. Twilight’s horn enveloped into a violet aura and slowly moved its way towards Applejack, slowly encasing her within itself. Applejack could feel the scorching feeling and the gases flow away from her senses, and she let her hooves down, taking in a giant breath of clean air.
“Thank ya kindly Twi,” Applejack acknowledged, her breathing returning to its normal state.
“No problem, and about your question, well, one of the turbines has hit...something, and the propellor-”
“...broke off and got ditched somewhere?” Applejack finished.
Shocked by her information, Twilight nodded, “Yeah, how did you know?”
Instead of telling them, Applejack raised herself on her hind hooves and showed them the small scratches on her belly from where she ducked down.
“Oh yeah, and ya might wanna check the door to the staircase, too.”
“I told you that’s what it was, but you didn’t believe me!” Twilight said over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash, who then proceeded to stick her tongue out at her. Twilight noticed this out of peripheral vision and returned the gesture, also scrunching up her face a bit. Applejack couldn’t help but laugh at how they, too, her childish, even in the most extreme situations.
“Ah’ll right, how about this here engine?”
“Well, there’s not much to say other than it’s totally...well, totaled,” Twilight replied, looking over at the engine with pity as if it were some hurt puppy. Applejack followed Twilight’s gaze toward the engine, and also gave it a saddened look. Even if it was just an engine, look thing had been with them for a long time and had experienced a lot in its life. Damn shame it had to go...with the god damned propellor! She frowned in disappointment at its passing and sighed. They will both be missed.
Her attention transferred from the busted piece to Rainbow Dash, who had been quiet this whole time. Her head was facing the moderately-sized window at the edge of the room so her expression was a bit hard to discern, but from her tense wings and small quaking, there was something supposedly interesting outside. Maybe the Wonderbolts? That is what she would act like whenever she saw Spitfire, except her wings would get huge and extended for some reason.
Approaching her, Applejack put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, a little surprised that she didn’t at least look around in surprise. Something was wrong.
“Rainbow, what’s a matter?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything. She just motioned for Applejack to peer out of the window with her.
Wondering what was startling the poor girl, she moved up closer and looked out the window.
“What are you so jumpy abou-” she could suddenly feel the color drain from her face as she silently knew what was ahead. There was a bundle of clouds attempting to shroud the horror, but anyone normal could see it.
The thing that they’ve been trying to avoid this whole time.
The thing that was their bane in existence while they soared high in the sky.
The thing that would be their undoing.
This thing was...the ground.
“Holy shit!” Applejack stumbled backwards, only to knock into Twilight. They both onto the cold floor with Applejack squishing poor booky Twilight.
“Applejack!” Twilight managed to huffed out, “What’s a matter?”
“We’re gettin’ a one way trip to Tartarus, that’s the matter!”
Twilight lifted Applejack up off of her with her magic and steadily set her down beside her, “What are you talking about?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion.
Angered by Twilight’s clueless behavior, she pointed to the window with her hoof.
“Look fer yourself, bookworm!”
Still confused by her sudden urgency, Twilight walked up to the window and looked through.
“What? I can’t see a...oh boy...”
Twilight turned back around to face Applejack and gave a wide eyed stare and gave her a silent message that even she could understand.
“There’s not way ta land this thing, is there?”
Twilight slowly nodded her head and meekly said, “The engine is too terminated to give us a safe landing and if we use that one turbine, we’ll be spinning like a washing machine before we even hit ground.”
Applejack’s heart dropped, all senses of hope dashed by this one sentence. So, this is how she was going out, by the thing she hated most, even though she was raised on it. She would die because technology had actually failed her for the first time ever. Technology, the only thing that she had loved, and that had loved her back. The only thing that had gotten her to the top and had saved her barn. The only thing that had given her a life which she loved to live every second. The thing that had saved her life once, and now, it was taking back what it had saved so many years ago.
She went over and took ahold of Twilight’s hoof in her own. Twilight looked up with tears in her eyes, knowing that she’ll never see her stubborn yet lovable captain in life again. Applejack nodded her head in determination and said,
“Twilight, I’m glad if I’m dying, I’m dying with you.”
“And I’m glad that I don’t have to face this alone either.”
“Hey, what about me?” a third voice made them both turn their heads to see Rainbow Dash with an irritated look on her face. Applejack giggled a bit before grabbing Twilight with one hoof and Rainbow in the other,
“And of course, how would I forget Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow smiled warmly at her comment and closed her eyes tightly, as did Twilight. Applejack, however, took in her surroundings, remembering all the good, bad, and goofy times on this ship. She loved this ship more than anything and would be saddened to see it go, but with her friends by her side, it would be worth it.
Closing her eyes tightly, and holding both mares closely, she awaited death to grip her and take her away. All of a sudden, her eyes flew open and looked up to the ceiling. She remembered something, something important. Or somepony. And as the ground came close and closer to the ship, a name repeated in her mind over and over.
Pinkie Pie.
Author's Note
Well, my second fan fiction. Feeling pretty decent. Hoping that this isn't terrible, and that my pacing has improved. All I have to say is thank god for proofreaders.
Enjoy!
~LL
(By the way, this is a flashback)
The burly stallion tapped his pencil against his desk in an iterative rhythm as his mind processed the story that had just been recounted to him. He stared back at the lovely mare that was sitting diligently with a small smile and batting eyelashes as if she could use her seduction to win the upper hand. Unfortunately for her, the stallion was trained in this sort of art, and knew almost every trick in the book, this one on the very first page.
He stopped his tapping and placed the pencil on his desk, “So, Mrs...”
“Mrs. Rarity,” she answered him in her Mid-Atlantic accent, giving him a quick wink to try to ‘seal the deal’. His expression remained plastered on his face, completely immune to her stunning radiance.
“So Mrs. Rarity,” he said, acknowledging her, leaning back in his chair and propping his hind hooves up, “what makes you believe that I’ll just hand over the discount without questioning one thing?”
She widened her smile and accompanied it with a fluff of her mane, gaining an inward sigh from him. “Well, as you could tell from the story, the engine was mysteriously ravaged which sent the whole craft downwards and leaving all of four of them mortally wounded.”
“That’s not my fault that your friends couldn't take care of the engine like they were suppose to,” the stallion coldly remarked, the edge of victory corrupting his voice.
“Actually, from the scraps of broken engine that your search-and-rescue team could scavenge, they couldn’t clearly diagnose the problem because of its terrible condition, so the blame could very well be on your part,” she noted, mentally cheering herself for paying attention to the details.
“Just because what happened isn’t exactly precise doesn't mean it’s the company’s fault.”
“Don’t forget, dear. Your company made the ship and all of its part, including the engine, and if we can get a record of how well they took care of the ship, that discount may not be the only thing we receive.”
He raised an eyebrow at her remark. “Is that a threat?”
“Nope, it’s a promise that should be infixed in that little brain of yours,” she smirked at the baffled look that the stallion was currently sporting. Sadly, her small triumph was cut short when the look on his face slowly morphed into a small laugh then escalated into a hearty one. His laughing bounced off the white walls of his moderately small office room, enhancing the deranged noise into an echo.
Rarity winced at his sudden maniacal outburst.
“What’s a matter with you?”
He stifled most of the laughter that he could with his hoof and stared back at her with a small amount of tears in his eyes.
“Y-you think that anybody w-would believe your story?”
Rarity’s mouth dropped open in surprise at his statement. “What do you mean?”
“Seriously? You expect a story that has various holes throughout itself to be believed by even the most dimmest pony?” He took a moment for that to set in while he wiped a hoof against his eyes, clearing them of moisture. Rarity realized her mouth was still agape and quickly closed it, a glower towards the stallion following it.
“I’m sorry if you wanted more of an explanation, but that’s what Applejack told me-”
“...when she was in the infirmary room, recovering from an accident that probably knocked her head around a bit?” he finished for her, his smug smile returning. “Look, it’s not that I don’t believe you. Hell, from the look of the ship, you might be right, but there are too many questions left unanswered and without a reliable pony to answer them, we can’t be too sure.”
Rarity scrunched up her face in fury, “Applejack not reliable? What kind of world do you think you live in? Applejack is the Element of Honesty, for Celestia’s sake! She’s one of the most reliable ponies anybody could ask for!”
The stallion tilted his head down in growing exasperation. Why wouldn’t this mare see that even reliable ponies get a bit rattlebrained sometimes?
“Then answer me these questions,” he sat up straight in his chair and prepared his mind for the onslaught he was about to deliver, “how are they alive?”
“An experienced magic user, like Twilight, can create an indestructible force field around themselves or others,” she said, not even thinking about it.
“Alright then, how about the propeller? The blow of it against the door should’ve caused some debris to cling onto this supposed reliable Applejack.”
“The propeller slammed into the door that was on Applejack’s side so most of the debris and shrapnel flew inside of the ship, not outside, and if some had, it didn’t stick because the speed of them were slowed to almost a stop once they penetrated Applejack’s body. Simple science without the terms, really.”
The stallion gritted his teeth at her quick guessing. It seems like she either wrote any various questions that might be asked, or it was actually explained by Applejack. The former seemed a bit complex yet improbable, so a further investigation was in order.
Each question that he threw at her was simply hit back by Rarity’s fast reflexive thinking, giving him more reasons to believe her tale. There just had to be something to trip her up. There just had to be...
The stallion stopped speaking and remembered that there was a report about the accident details in a folder that happened to be in one of his drawers. Pulling out the first one, he quickly spotted it since it was on top of the rest of the cluttered files, and he snatched it up and placed it on his desk in front of him.
He flipped it open to notice that on the first page was a picture of the devastated airship. Rarity was right, it was a mess, but so what? Most ships that are brought in are a wreck. He thoroughly flipped through most of the papers that were of little to no interest or were only proving Rarity’s tale to be true which he didn’t actually believe.
As Rarity sat there and smiled at his frantic searching, he continued through the file until a certain paper caught his eye. He turned back to it and discovered that it was a count of anything worth recovering and any injured or dead ponies found on board. He read through the decently long list: a captain’s log, a few flintlocks, a frightening amount of explosives, a stash of bits, three ponies recovered, a ste-
Wait, three ponies found? That sounds off for some reason. Let’s see...Applejack, of course, a pegasus named Rainbow Dash, and a unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle. Why does it sound like this report is missing something? It suddenly hit him.
He put the file down and glanced back over at Rarity, a devilish grin on his face.
“Okay, if the story is true, then where is the fourth?”
Taken back by the odd question, Rarity inquired, “What do you mean by fourth?”
“Oh? You didn’t know? They checked the whole crashed airship inside and out and found only three ponies in there, an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn, and nobody else. Can you figure it out now?”
Rarity furrowed her brow at his sudden air of triumph. What did he mean by fourth? Does he mean fourth sail? Fourth turbine? Fourth pony?
“Wait a minute...” She ran through the list in her head again and stopped once she got to the end. She could feel her stomach drop as the realization hit her like a wrecking ball. A spiked, obsidian wrecking ball.
“No...you can’t be serious!”
“Well, unless the reports are a lie, and I highly doubt that, then yes, I am.” Rarity could feel her blood boil because of his mocking tone. It infuriated her, because he didn’t care about the fourth pony that wasn’t found. The only thing he cared about was finding a reason to put their case to rest, and it seems like he’s found it.
Or so he thinks...
“Just because she wasn’t found in the wreckage doesn’t mean she isn’t real.” Rarity swore that she could see the stallion’s expression faltering for a quick second before he sneered back at her.
“Then how do you explain-”
“Her disappearance?” Rarity finished, “easy, she was on the deck of the ship, and it was falling at a pretty fast rate, so she could’ve fallen off, voluntarily or involuntarily, or she could’ve been hit with a piece of large debris and had been pushed off the ship completely without the possibility of getting back to it.” Every scenario that was said made Rarity a bit uneasy, because of the prospect of it actually happening, but she continued to harden her stare at him.
The stallion gulped and stifled a weak and nervous chuckle. The sad thing was that those were all possible, and if it was all true then that means the discount would practically be hers, but she would have to prove that this supposed pink pony was on the ship at the time of its crashing. If she was, then pretty much all of the information could be validated. If not, then it was all a lie and the price of repair would stand still.
“Okay, even if that happened, you would still need proof that she was on the ship at the time, and the other crew members are the only ones whose verifications won’t count,” he said, his smug look and victorious wind coming back to him in one swift move.
To his surprise, Rarity gave off an abrupt, hearty laugh, got up, and walked towards the door. Before opening it up, she turned her head back to look at him.
“I never caught your name. Pray tell, what was it?”
Snapping out of his confusion, he said, “Bolts. Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, I just want to tell all of Pinkie’s friends who you are, and that you don’t believe she exists. They won’t be too thrilled about that.” With that last statement settling in the air and Wrench’s face full of perplexity and a bit of unease, Rarity left him and his small cubicle to think about what he had said and done.
Author's Note
Well, your waiting can cease, because the new chapter is out!
I'm sorry that you've been waiting two weeks for something new to only get a seventeen hundred word chapter that has a bit of haggling in it, but the next chapter will have a small fight scene. I promise you that.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter!
~Tempered Metal
(Funny story behind this chapter. It only took me one day to write all of this, and that day was yesterday. Yeah, crazy, right?)
