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"I think I'll look good there."
Applejack stops walking and looks up. "Excuse me?"
Rainbow's eyes roll up and down. "Were you even listening?"
She wasn't. She'd gotten distracted looking at the fields, and had lost track of what was being said. So she admits as much.
The pegasus shakes her head. She beats her wings a little slower, coming to float a little lower, and points a hoof at the tree up ahead, on top of the small hill.
It's a tall tree, an old tree. The only tree in sight, and the only source of shade in the sunny midsummer day. A stroke of brown and darker green between the sea of grass and the blue canvas of the sky, sat on a hill not taller than any house. She thinks it's a nice tree.
"See that branch there? The thick one, there on the right?" the pegasus explains.
Applejack squints, then nods. "It looks pretty sturdy."
"Yep. I was saying how I think I'd look good on that."
The mare looks away from the tree, and over the flying pony. "Like, perched on it or something? Like a cat?"
Rainbow Dash's face scrunches up, and she huffs. "Not like a cat! Posing, you know? Looking awesome." She stares back at the tree for a moment. "It prot... It comes out a little from the rest. It looks almost like it's made for me to pose on top of it!"
Applejack smiles, and she laughs. It's a joyful sound, like clear water running down a river. She looks up at the mare, framed by the blue sky behind her. And she smiles.
The pegasus' eyes snap back towards her, and she barks, "Hey, what is there to laugh at?"
Applejack slowly stops laughing, but she doesn't stop smiling. "Nothing," she says, shaking her head. "I'm sure you'd look great there. You always look great."
Rainbow's wings move slower for just a beat, then return to their rhythm. "Huh... Thank you," she says, rubbing the back of her neck. She shakes her head, and her expression goes back to housing her usual cocky attitude. "Wanna see it?"
Applejack doesn't get time to answer, the other has already zoomed past the rest of the road and is just now placing herself on the branch. The earth pony shakes her head again, and continues to smile.
"So? How do I look?" Rainbow Dash shouts as she poses on the branch. She stands leaning slightly forward, with one foreleg held up from the ground. Her muscles look tense, and ready to spring into action, but she doesn't seem tired or bothered. Her eyes stare in the distance, fierce, looking over some vast and unexplored unknown which isn't there.
Applejack is almost sure she's copying the pose from a book cover, or from a piece of Wonderbolts memorabilia. "You look great!" she shouts back.
"Think you can get a picture?"
Applejack gives a half-snort, her expression one of amused and only slightly annoyed bewilderment. "Do I look like I've got a camera on me? Or what should I do, paint you or something? I'm not a painter, you know?" And besides, she doubts Rainbow would be able to stay still long enough.
"Well why didn't you bring a camera? You knew you'd get the chance to capture my awesomeness, you should have prepared for it!"
Applejack laughs, and she hears Rainbow Dash laugh as well from where she is. "I'll remember next time, sugarcube," she says between giggles.
"You better!" Rainbow shouts back, while her voice cracks into chuckles. "So, are you coming here or what? ...Applejack?"
Applejack doesn't answer. She caught sight of something behind Rainbow, and now she's squinting to get a better look at it. It's hard to make out exactly what it is. It looks translucent, and fairly thin, she only saw it because the light hit it just right. It's almost like a spider's web, but it's not in a pattern. It's like a fishing line. It's...
It's a string. Many strings, actually, one connected to each of the pegasus' limbs, and one to her head.
Applejack's head jerks up, as she follows the strings with her eyes.
A series of gears and cogs, protruding from the sky. They tick and turn in perfect clockwork harmony, and move the blue mare below them like a puppet.
"Applejack?" Rainbow Dash calls her again, her voice sounding distant and mechanical, lifeless.
Applejack doesn't answer. She can't answer, she realises with a shiver. But it doesn't matter. Time has lost all meaning. There is just the grinding of the gears, and the play put on by them.
The mare studies the gears, unknown fear and admiration swelling within her in equal measure. They don't merely stick out from nowhere, as she'd originally thought. No, behind them is a machine, far greater and far more terrible than anything she's ever seen. It encompasses everything around her, a maddening ensemble of cogs and wheels running in perfectly calibrated motions.
The sky isn't real. Just a series of panels, rotating along with the gears to simulate the passage of time. Far enough to be out of reach, but so much lower than what she'd ever thought possible. How did she never see this before?
And the fields? The grass around her, the hills in the distance? All a lie. The horizon is no more than twelve steps away, simply painted to look like there's something there. The grass she sees in the fields is just drawn there, and all it takes is cocking her head to the side to see how it's not real.
Even the ground below her, the road she was walking on. A thin layer of dirt left for her to touch with her hooves, but she can see the lifeless white of the surface below it. It was right in front of her, yet she was blind. And the tree in the distance is no different, merely a prop that looks like a tree.
Applejack looks at herself, as her heart fills with dread. Strings, just as those on Rainbow's body, going up from her limbs. Connecting her to the machine. She can't move. She can't talk. But she can see now. Clarity for the first time in her life, and she sees what life truly is.
Then something else, something that sends a chill down her spine. She wishes she could breath faster, or scream, but she's paralysed there. She sees that shadow, standing in that corner, right outside of where she was supposed to look. And she knows she's not alone. She knows there's someone, something right behind her.
A small push. The pony's head clicks back into place, she snaps back into her designated path. She forgets.
"Applejack!"
The mare blinks, shaking her head. She'd gotten distracted again. "Sorry," she huffs out, and a moment later she shouts, "Coming!"
"About time," Rainbow replies, fluttering off the branch and landing on the ground.
"Sorry," Applejack repeats as she arrives at the foot of the tree. She adjusts her hat with a hoof, and a drop of sweat runs down her brow after the short run. The Sun is still high, and it's nice to be in the shade of the tree.
Rainbow Dash looks at her for a moment, and she seems to forget everything else. Then, she shakes her head, looks to the ground for a bit. And then she turns and starts to walk. "Pretty nice, huh?" she asks from the opposite side of the tree.
Applejack follows behind her. Her breath almost catches in her throat at the sight, previously hidden by the small hill. The fields softly roll down, and at the end there's a small lake. On the opposite side a town, the lively pink and white walls shimmering under the warm rays of the Sun and reflecting in the water. It looks almost like a painting.
"Yep," the mare admits, standing at Rainbow's side. "Pretty nice indeed." She looks at the pegasus, and asks, "Wanna have a race to down there?"
"Eh." The other shrugs, then turns back, walks to the tree and sits below it, lazily resting her head on its bark. "I'd rather stay here and relax for a bit."
Applejack looks at her. Wordlessly, she walks to the base of the tree and sits down next to her, leaning into her body.
The two ponies look at each other. And they smile.
