The Plot Device Shop
Chapter 3: The Heart of the Matter
The cyan pegasus opened an eye hesitantly, before shouting in triumph; she’d done it! Even after all of her past blunders, she’d finally done it! Checking to make sure nopony- or, in this case, dragon- was lurking in the shadows, she cautiously trotted towards the pedestal in the center of the room. She’d much rather fly, but after the last time she’d tried that, she’d stick with the pressure-plate riddled ground.
Looking at said ground, she decided to do what many ponies had said she couldn’t: think. “Hmm, let’s see. The floor panels here all have different patterns of dots, kinda like the ones on the walls. Thank goodness I know how to read Braylle!” She turned her head towards the first wall, reading the inscription aloud to make sure she got it right. “W…A…T…C…H… Y…O…U…R… H…E…A…D… I…F… T…H…E… L…I…O…N… F…A…L…L…S… T…H…E...N… Y…O…U… A…R…E... D…E…A…D…” She turned again to the first section of the floor, seeing that the tiles could spell words if hit in the correct order. “Alright, I just can’t let the lion ‘fall’ for the first part. Piece of cake!” The adventurer leapt for a tile marked with a braylle ‘L’. She could do this.
~~~
Finally, after a circuitous elliptical, she was in the center of the room. Wiping some sweat off of her brow, she made her way up the steps towards the item of her quest: The Dragon Emperor’s Geon. The Geon was a supposedly hypothetical electromagnetic field that’s held together by its own gravitational attraction, or something like that. Bolt knew the truth, though. The Geon was a capsule containing one of the most magically powerful objects ever: the Heart of a Dragon Emperor.
This specific Dragon Emperor had died in the Chaotic Era, helping to protect the world from being destroyed by the chaotic God, Discord. He had taken his own heart and soul and had fractured it into six crystals of immense power, not even matched by Star Swirl himself!
Momentarily, Bolt wondered how much he’d be willing to pay for it… Darn it. Not even her financial needs were enough to tempt her into selling it. This belonged in the Sisters’ Chapel, not some big-time pony’s personal rock collection. The Princesses were paying a lot of money for the finding and protecting of these so-called ‘soul shards’, much more than any other pony could possibly pay.
A sudden, loud click was enough to startle the pegasus, and make her look up. A small purple and green form was approaching her across the trap-riddled floor, not caring at all as he was plunged into pools of lava or hit by arrows, even their iron-tipped shafts unable to penetrate the thick, scaly hide that covered his body. “Oh, buck!” Bolt grabbed the Geon in her mouth and jumped into the air. She thrust her wings downwards, and took off down the passageway as more and more dragons started snarling and roaring in the distance. She needed to get away, and get away now. She only hoped Daring Do was close by, otherwise she might as well tan her own hide.
Flapping her wings all the harder, she weaved her way through the hallways and corridors, taking only moments to pass traps that were activating in one long chain behind her; there was a reason the temple was called ‘the grounded gauntlet,’ taking to the air was like signing your own death sentence.
Grating gears and the sound of stone scraping against stone was heard in the distance; the only problem was that it was between her and her escape. Swerving to the right down an unfamiliar passageway while narrowly avoiding the lava pouring from the ceiling, Bolt prayed for another way out.
Her answer came in the form of a nearby explosion. There was no way a temple for dragons would have a self-destruct mechanism; they were too fond of the hoarded jewels within to want its destruction. That could only mean one thing: “DARING! I’M OVER HERE!” She could only hope Daring had heard her and would get to her in time. The dragons tailing her were trying to turn her into fried chicken, and if the smell of burnt hair was any indication, they weren’t too far from succeeding.
Rainbow Dash got up from her desk and stretched, yawning widely. “Whew! Another chapter done, and thank Celestia for it! I’m gonna have to take an extra-long nap during work today if I’m gonna be able to function at all!”
Daring Do swung through the jungle on the vine, her eyes locked on those of her friend, wishing that her mouth was free so that it could join with those supple cyan lips. The sunset filled the Galloppalachian Mountains with a rosy light; the trees of its jungle-encroached sides tinted a ruddy color. Daring Do let go of the vine right as it reached the upwards crest of its swing, flapping her wings slightly so as to not hit the ground too hard. She looked into the eyes of the injured cyan pegasus, both of their eyes filled with longing and passion. She opened her mouth to speak as she caressed her partner’s cheek. “Rainbow Dash, whatcha writin’?”
“Gyah!” Rainbow fell from her chair with a thud. “P-Pinkie Pie?! Wh-what are you doing here?!” Rainbow Dash looked around her spacious bedroom, her bedroom, made of clouds. “Better question: how are you here?”
“Oh, silly Dashie! I got a ticket from the Plot Device Shop, and it said for me to come here!”
Rainbow Dash cocked an eyebrow, but decided that whatever was left of her insanity was perfectly fine as it was: intact. She was not going to ask Pinkie about “what the hay’s a plot device shop?”
“No, silly,” Pinkie giggled, “not just a shop, but THE Plot Device Shop! The one and the only, unlike Macaroni~!”
Rainbow Dash groaned, her forehead resting against the frog of her hoof. The blood pounding in her head caused a staccato beat that did nothing to help her feel better.
Pinkie seemed content with ignoring her with whatever had caught the pink pony’s short attention span, so Rainbow Dash just grumped to her desk, resolving to get back to her Daring Do self-insert ship-fic.
Pinkie popped up next to her, and started reading over her shoulder. “Oooohhhh, ‘Daring Do and the Dashing Delinquent, Part four: The Pair’s Paradise’! Wow, Dashie! I didn’t know that you had written this series! And I can’t believe how many spin-offs and crossings with other existing fanfics have been generated from it, not to mention how hard it must be to incorporate as much as you do from those other stories into Canon! You must be able to do a sonic rainboom with your eyes to read that much!”
Rainbow looked at her longtime friend, the bags under her eyes almost too heavy to allow one of them to twitch with agitation. “Pinkie,” she growled through clenched teeth. “What do you want? I’m busy.”
“Yeah, I know! But I’m here to give you this, from The Plot Device Shop; you’ll need it veeerrrry soooon,” Pinkie cried in a sing-song voice before dropping an envelope onto the desk by Rainbow’s cloud-made typewriter and disappearing through the floor.
Rainbow Dash looked out the window to see Pinkie Pie floating back down to the ground under a group of balloons and just shook her head. Pinkie is as Pinkie does, and the reason why is just because. She chuckled at the sudden rhyme, and decided that she might put it in as something a Zebra could say in one of the later chapters. Hmm... Was Zircon, Zeke, or Zelda a better name?
Bolt Spectra and Daring Do were locked in a passionate embrace, their tongues caressing one another as they sank lower and lower into the quicksand. Tears streamed down their faces as they put all of their love and regret into that last action; there was nopony coming to save them, and no vines hanging within reach to help them.
Their lips broke apart, both mares gasping at the loss of contact, their eyes conveying what they couldn’t hope to form the words for. “I idolized you, you know. Thought you were just another hero out to show the world who’s boss. A pony who didn’t like the system, so didn’t bother living in it. Then… Then I got to know you, Daring. And I found something more than a hero, or a friend. I found a pony that I could love.” Daring Do blushed, her tears streaming down her face in shimmering cascades of rugged, lovely beauty.
“Oh, Bolty…” The two kissed once more before the quicksand came to their necks, forcing them to part one last time. “You know I hate goodbyes.”
“Heehee, So do I.” Daring and Bolt both relaxed as the sand crept up their necks and over their snouts, and the last thing either saw was the other before the sand veiled their eyes forever.
End of chapter 4
“Phew, I didn’t think I had it in me!” Rainbow Dash sighed as she busied herself with cracking her neck and getting rid of all the cricks and stiff joints that sitting upright and hunched over a desk had developed in her body. “Now, time to sleep. Tomorrow I gotta get some written for chapter five!” Rainbow yawned, settling into her bed. “Now,” she murmured softly to herself as she drifted off. “How the hay do I save them?”
~~~
It had been almost a month. Rainbow Dash was started to get extremely annoyed. She still didn’t have an idea to save the crusading couple! Rainbow Dash groaned and beat her head softly against her desk. Why couldn’t she think? It was too late to go back and edit the last chapter; she’d already sent it to the Fanservice Weekly Journal for publishing! She needed the next chapter out in three days. She hadn’t even started it yet!
Rainbow Dash groaned in defeat. Her spot in the ‘featured fic list’ was up for grabs, there was no way she could possibly get an idea in time to finish… What’s this?
Rainbow Dash sat up, her eyes still on the blank envelope; she’d completely forgotten about it. At some point during the month since Pinkie had brought the envelope, it had sunk into the desk; most likely from her pounding her hooves- and occasionally her head- in frustration.
She sighed and pulled it out; the desk popped back into its original flat-top design as if the envelope had never been inside it. Rainbow grabbed her letter opener between her teeth and swiped it beneath the flap.
Reaching in with her teeth, Dash grunted with agitation before finally just tearing off another side of the envelope and dumping the contents onto her desk. It was a small card, like a business card, but slightly thicker, and maybe longer.
Rainbow picked up the card and flipped it over to read what was on the front.
The Plot Device Shop
The character(s) wake(s) up in a secret passage.
The character(s) get(s) saved by a passing animal.
The character(s) is/are brought back because of a magic spell.
This was it! Dash’s wings unfurled slightly, her brain buzzing with ideas as she tried to decide which option she should choose for her story. “That’s it!” She knew exactly what she was going to do! She sprung back into action; chapter 5 wasn’t going to write itself!
Alright, here’s the end of the chapter. I need votes, people! How should they be saved! And read the comments, if you see a better one suggested there, then vote for that one! I’m open to any and all suggestions!