Maretropolis

Spike and Applejack followed Discord’s instructions and found the drop: a shuttered subway entrance in the bad part of the city.

On the way there, Spike and Applejack tried to think from Discord’s point of view. He was doing something for somebody. Park work, part favor. Worth “complete and utter chaos”, but not worth losing his friendship with the one person who had shown him any kindness: Fluttershy. It had to be someone higher up on one of the dangerous food chains. And it wasn’t Torch or Ember.

So, what was Discord involved in and with whom? And he may not have volunteered, but he could have been coerced into it by someone for some reason. And that raised the stakes.

Spike, using his Dragon strength, pried back the iron gates and they entered the abandoned station. The concrete was painted dirty white and there were pools of light and pools of darkness. The ceiling was high and there were fat square pillars holding it up.

Down in the tunnel, a train thundered past.

“Come on,” Applejack whispered as they scampered toward an old, stationary carriage.

Spike lifted Applejack and she pushed open the window. She peered inside and then climbed in with Spike close behind. The interior of the car had been transformed into a greenhouse. Rows and rows of red-violet flowers were incubating in very dry soil under indirect lights.

“Discord wasn’t lying,” Applejack whispered.

“Yeah, I’d say our ‘friend’ Strawberry Sunrise has cornered the market on Snapdragons,” said Spike.

Suddenly, a door opened at the far end of the car, and Spike and Applejack quickly hid under a table as a green-eyed woman with curly, red hair entered the room. They watched from under the table as she picked up a bucket and poured the contents into a compost tub.

She shut the lid and turned a dial on the side of the tub. As the machine whirred, red-violet liquid snaked along a system of interconnected tubes, rigged up to several glass beakers and flasks. The liquid in the last flask receded, passing into a small paint ball-like pellet the size of a small marble, which Strawberry placed onto the apparatus.

Once the harvesting process was complete, she held up the red-violet marble and examined it. Then, she walked over to her ringing cell phone.

Spike and Applejack snuck over to get a closer look at Strawberry Sunrise, who was standing in front of a subway map that was covered with pictures of various people.

“You’ve got Strawberry, what’s the mark?” she answered as she held her phone to her ear. “Uh-huh. Changeling in Celestia Square. Got it.”

She loaded the pellet into her gun and cocked it.

“Are you serious?” Strawberry Sunrise asked. “Yeah, I know they’re small and fast. I can hit ‘em. I hit a little old man through the open window of a moving car, didn’t I?”

Spike and Applejack shared a look. It was all becoming clear.

Looking at the map, they noticed that it was covered with pictures of all the people that had gone missing, including Stratus Shy and Steven Magnet.

Strawberry Sunrise had darted them with the serum from the Snapdragons, turning them into savage monsters.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the entrance of the car.

“Hey, Strawberry, open up! We’ve got your fruit salad!”

“All right. Plum and Raspberry are back, so I’m leaving now. Yeah, I’ll call you when it’s done. Or you’ll see it on the news. You know, whichever comes first. Out,” She finished the call. “Bitch,” she added to herself.

Strawberry put down her phone and went over to let her cohorts in. Applejack quietly got up from under the table and crept up behind her.

“What are you doing?” Spike whispered. “Get back here! She’s gonna see you! Whatever you’re thinking, stop! Applejack!”

Strawberry Sunrise opened the door.

“It better have the extra strawberries and no apples this time,” she said.

Upon hearing that, Applejack gritted her teeth and kicked Strawberry hard, in her ass (right between both cheeks) and out the door, knocking her into the other women. With them on the other side of the door, AJ locked it, shutting them out.

“What are you doing?” Spike shouted. “You just trapped us in here!”

“We need to get this evidence to the MPD!” Applejack told him.

“Okay. I got it!” Spike said, picking up the case with the gun and serum pellet inside.

“No. All of it!”

“What?”

Applejack ran into the driver’s compartment and started pressing all the buttons on the control desk.

“You’re a conductor now?” Spike asked. “It would take a miracle to get this rust-bucket moving!”

The engine fired up and the wheels of the disused train carriage creaked as it jerked and started to come alive.

“Well. Hallelujah,” Spike said.

Outside, Raspberry, one of Strawberry Sunrise’s accomplices, made a phone call.

“We’ve got a situation at the lab,” She saw the train move. “And it just got worse!”

She put her phone in her pocket and she and Plum chased after the train.

As the train sped up and began to race down the tracks, Spike finally allowed himself to smile.

Strawberry’s cronies jumped onto the carriage and Spike and Applejack heard their footsteps on the roof. Suddenly, Plum burst in through a hatch on the roof. Spike managed to close and lock the door between the lab and the driver’s compartment, but Plum continued to bang up against it.

Spike and AJ looked up to the ceiling and the other woman, Raspberry, appeared on the front window. She smashed the glass and tried to grab Applejack, and the train slowed down as Spike and Applejack tried to push her out.

Spike turned and saw Plum charging toward the door. He opened the door and she barreled through, knocking Raspberry and Applejack out the window. Applejack grabbed onto and pulled Plum’s hair as the subway car continued chugging down the track... after Raspberry.

“Applejack!” Spike cried.

“Don’t stop!” she shouted. “Keep going!”

“No, no! Please, stop!” Raspberry cried.

“Do not stop this car!” Applejack ordered.

Raspberry ran off the tracks and Plum tossed Applejack onto the roof of the carriage. With Spike at the controls, Plum punched through another window.

Still on the roof, Applejack saw an oncoming train. She spotted the track-switch lever below and shouted, “Speed up, Spike! Speed up!”

“There’s another train coming!”

“Trust me! Speed up!”

Spike groaned as he cranked the carriage to full speed.

A split second before the trains crashed into each other, Applejack kicked Plum off the front of the train, onto the track-switcher, and the subway car Spike and Applejack were riding in changed tracks!

Then the subway car derailed and fell onto its side, throwing up sparks.

Spike and Applejack saw the end of the line up ahead and dove off the subway car, and onto the platform, before it hit the wall.

“Okay, maybe some of the evidence survived,” Applejack said.

Flaming debris flew past their heads as the car exploded and all its contents, including the Snapdragons, burned to a crisp.

“It’s all gone. We’ve lost it all,” she said.

“Not all of it,” Spike said, holding up the gun case.

“Spike, you did it!” AJ exclaimed as she gave him a big hug. “Come on! We gotta get to the MPD! We’ll cut through the Natural History Museum!”