The Adventures of the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well!

“Sunset, are you there? Please say something! The cops will be there any minute.” Red’s voice sounded more like a distant mumble, unregistered in my fading mind. As Applejack stood there like a frightened child walking in on a crime, her along with the rest of the world was fuzzy and blurred in my eyes. The only thing that I could really hear at this moment was the pathetic attempts of my lungs trying to capture air. Damnit...I have to get up, I repeated to myself, and I tried to roll over, slamming my knuckles into the ground for support to pick my body up. But every time I attempted to get off of the ground, I would hack out a lump of blood from my mouth and nostrils, and the pain everywhere became unbearable. Eventually AJ snapped out of it, and she found herself next to me, with one arm around me and another gently under my stomach, slowly lifting me up off of the ground.

“Easy sugar cube, just take it nice and slow. You’re bleeding everywhere Sunset,” she said, her voice becoming clearer as she stood me up and leaned me against the side of the truck. Once my vision cleared, my hearing returned and my breathing stabilized, I stood up straight, gesturing her to let me go. Hesitantly, she did, still eyeing me up and down in complete horror, occasionally she would glance down at her now blood-soaked hands, trembling a bit as the overwhelming pressure of reality was starting to dawn on her. All the while I was just trying to regain my senses.

“Applejack,” I started to say through pauses of coughing up more blood. “You... you have to get out of here... cops are on their way...” But as I was trying to speak, AJ just kept staring at me as if what I was saying was entering through one ear and exiting out the other.

“Sunset I... I had my suspicions after that night... but... oh my God, why? What are you doing? This... Sunset what is this?” It sounded more like she was talking to herself then she was to me. The entire time Red kept trying to speak, asking me why Applejack was calling me by name. But the only sound I was really paying attention to at the moment was the rumbling coming from within the main factory. I didn’t have time for this, so I grabbed AJs shoulders and slapped her across the face, snapping her out of her own thoughts.

“DAMNIT APPLEJACK, JUST SHUT THE HELL UP AND LISTEN TO ME,” I shouted. She stopped talking to herself and looked at me with wide, attentive eyes. After confirming that she was indeed in the same universe as me, I took a deep sigh, hating myself for raising my voice like that at her. Lowering my voice, I continued. “Listen, I know you have questions, and I promise I’ll answer them, but right now there’s a damn twenty-foot-tall robot being controlled by two very pissed off psychopaths. I need you to calm down, and get out of here while I deal with it. Can you do that for me?” For the first time during this entire exchange, AJ gave me a sensible look as opposed to the shock she was just displaying. unfortunately, it wasn’t a look of agreement. It was one of her iconic ‘are you serious right now?’ mugs that was usually reserved for Rarity, Rainbow or Applebloom. Only now she looked more irritated than I’d ever seen her look before.

“Are you crazy Sunset? If you really think I’m just gonna high tail it out of here and leave you, then you’re stupider than that silly costume you have on right now. For God sakes, look at yourself, your completely covered in blood.” I looked down to the rest of my body, grimacing a bit at the state I was in. She wasn’t wrong, I did look, and especially felt, like hammered shit. My entire left sleeve was torn off, along with the entire right pant leg and mid-section of the costume, exposing my midriff. I couldn’t even feel my cloak anymore because the whole thing was burnt off, leaving only a small tether of it flowing just a little below my shoulders. The parts of my skin that were exposed were drenched in blood and ash, if it wasn’t for the light strands of my hair sticking out, you really couldn’t tell who was underneath this piece of shit right now. Still, I didn’t want to argue this with her. But... damn I was having a really hard time not only staying conscious, but staying alive as well. Truth was, I really didn’t know how I was going to beat the brothers. That’s when my eyes fell onto the broken shards of glass from the truck's door, and slowly an idea was starting to pop into my head. After thinking about it for a moment, I looked behind us at the other side of the factory where the two large plant chimneys were, and the cluster of ladders, pipes, stairways and beams surrounded it like some kind of nightmare jungle gym. In the distance just passed the fence, I saw a mobile operating crane parked in the factories deteriorating parking lot.

“Alright fine, but listen to what I’m about to say very carefully. I think I know how we can stop them,” I said, spitting out more strands of blood. But AJ just shook her head.

“No, stop. If the police are on their way, then we’re going to get out of here together or hide until they show up. They’ll handle the Flim Flam brothers. But right now we need to get you to a hospital or stay put before you kill yourself,” protested AJ.

“I can’t do that. They're going to obliterate the first responders that come down that road. How many cops do you think will get killed before they can somehow take them down?”

“I hope none, but frankly that ain't our job, its law enforcements job, now come on, get in the truck,” AJ said, beginning to put her arm back around me to support my swaying body. But I grabbed her arm, holding it tightly to stop her. She looked at me with bewilderment, taken aback by the action while I glared at her.

“If you really have had your suspicions, then you should already know.... this is my job now Applejack.” She stared at me with a mixture of uncertainty and exasperation, clearly unsure of what to make of my statement. She then looked over at the factory building where the rumblings were growing louder and louder, then back to me with a pissed off face.

“God damnit, you stupid stubborn fool... what’s your plan Sunset?” I grinned, before quickly telling her the bullshit I just pulled out of my ass a couple seconds ago. The entire time she was shaking her head in utter disbelief, but we both knew we didn’t have many options right now. At the end of my quick explanation, she backed away a few inches, eyes wide and mouth hung open, struggling to comprehend what I just asked her to do.

“You’re.... you’re insane,” she said just before the front of the factory exploded, kicking up dust and debris all into the air. Even behind the thick cloud of smoke, I could see the silhouette of the robot slowly emerging from the hole in the factory. Sighing, I stood up straight, ignoring the burning pain I felt everywhere.

“Trust me I know... you can tear me a new one about it later. Just get in the truck,” I grunted. AJ jumped over the broken door on the ground and hopped into her vehicle, starting the engine while glaring daggers at me.

“Oh believe me Shimmer, I am gonna tear you a new asshole after this. You better hope that thing works.” With that, she shifted the trucks gear and drove off past the factory’s rear gate, disappearing into the night. The robot stepped out of the smoke, turning to face me with its fogged clouded dome. Even if I couldn’t see them in there, I knew they were looking right at me.

“Come on you sons of bitches, come and get me.” With one foot stepping out of the smoke, it slammed into the ground, cracking the pavement under its ferocious step, followed by the next step, and the next. The rumbling around us along with the noise from the inner mechanisms of the bot was almost deafening. But I didn’t cover my ears, nor did I display any signs of exhaustion. Not in front of the enemy. After a few more steps, the robot stopped, now fully emerged from the smoke. As steam began to blow out from its exhaust pipes and shoulders, its arm raised, aiming right at me. Steam shot out from around its claw, and the robot's large gauntlet like wrist fanned out, followed by the emergence of two large miniguns on each side of its claw. A long ammo belt protruded out of the side of its upper arm. It was so long that the end of it plopped down onto the ground like a falling snake. The entire time I gritted my teeth and tensed up, fearing what kind of destructive power this new weapon would entail.

“It’s shocking you’re even still alive Mare-Do-Well, so let’s just see if you can survive this too. We’ll fill you up with holes until you look like a piece of cheese,” Flam said through the speaker. Without even waiting for the robot to make the first move, I turned around and darted into the other side of the factory where the two chimneys were, diving into the main plant's power site. Mere seconds following, the ear popping sound of both guns ignited into the air, and the sheer savagery of bullets trailing behind me could be felt as they tore apart the ground. I hopped onto an upper beam, swinging myself onto the plants second floor while the bullets tore through the bottom floors beam like it was carboard. With the spike of adrenaline washing over me, I ran across the second floor, wincing as I could feel the air shattering behind me as the tail of death grew closer and closer. Running up the stairs to the plants third floor, the bullets continued their relentless pursuit, and as I approached the fourth floor, they didn’t let up one bit. All the while the robot inched closer and closer to the factories power plant, raising its arm up higher and higher as its guns followed my every step of ascension. Eventually the firing stopped when I arrived on the eight floor, I was so high up on the infrastructure that I couldn’t see the robot anymore.

Panting heavily, I peeked over the floor down to the bottom, where much to my horror, I couldn’t see the damn thing. As my hearts beating intensified, I looked all over the place for any sign of the robot as dread filled me. But after a few intense seconds, the entire infrastructure began to shake so violently that I almost fell over the edge. That’s when the robots arm shot out from the floor as if it was emerging from the pits of hell, followed by the rest of the robot's upper half.

“Peak-a-boo,” said Flim, and the robot raised its arm towards me, opening its claw wide before it shot out like it did back inside the factories main building. I didn’t have any time to avoid the hit, and the claws top half clashed against my stomach, shooting me towards one of the large chimneys that were directly next to us.

“UGH,” I grunted out in pain as my back slammed against the rough concrete structure, while the metal claw pinned me up against it, digging deeper into my exposed midriff. I couldn’t move my hands or legs, yet I still squirmed around trying desperately to break free, regardless of how futile it was. I looked up to the towering structure, even this high up the chimney was still a good distance high.

“How about we fry you again, little rodent,” said Flam. The claw began to warm up, and I started to breathe heavily as it got hotter and hotter. Eventually smoke began to emanate off my stomach, and I had to stop myself from screaming as the heat ramped up. After about ten seconds though, I couldn’t stop myself any longer. I let out a blood curdling scream as the heat turned into electricity, the robot powered on its electric shield like before, and just like before, I was helplessly stuck as I felt my insides cooking. But with the claw pressed against my exposed stomach as opposed to the underside of my boots, the pain from the electricity was much worst. My body began to spasm amidst the robot's tight grip, and I could feel my toes and fingers curling in all directions. My ear piece short circuited, sending out a mini shock into my ear canal, but with the unspeakable pain that was traveling all throughout my body, I didn’t even notice it. I guess my dying screams gave Applejack a signal, because the loud eruption of an engine from below caused the brothers to cease my prolonged torture, turning off the robot's electric shield.

“What was that,” asked Flim. My body fell limp as smoke exited through my mouth, nose and ears, and I could feel myself go completely numb. All the while, a blood covered grin was etched across my face.

“Heh... fry this you pricks.” Suddenly the large arm from the operating crane came crashing through the chimney’s base down below us, I could faintly see its hook swinging underneath the infrastructure by its cables, and just like that, the entire chimney began to fall forward, collapsing right onto the brothers and their damned robot. The robot stumbled back, before collapsing through the structure underneath it, more debris pounding it as it did so. Its claw went limp, releasing me from its restraint, peeling a chunk of my burnt skin off as it did so. I watched as the claw flew down into the cloud of smoke underneath us, and I now found myself following right behind it. As I fell, the world around me went mute, and the pieces of debris that fell with me seemed more like shooting stars in my mind. I think at this point I had just accepted death knowing that the robot would be buried under all that debris and the collapsed steel of the plants structure. Besides, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. So, I closed them right before I fell into the cloud of smoke down below. I couldn’t feel the hard landing I took when I fell onto the dirt ground, nor could I feel the waterfall of blood seeping out of my mouth as I laid there in the darkness. The red shine of the robots scattered pieces were disappearing as they were buried under the falling chunks of concrete... but miraculously nothing landed on me.

After the last pieces of the chimney touched the ground, the world became still and silent, the destroyed robot was no longer making any noises or movements. A couple yards away I could barely see the upper half of the robot buried under a pile of concrete and metal beams, its dome now shattered and depleted of the fog. Even after everything, I hoped that the brothers were still alive. As I let the silence overtake me in the comfort of the smoke cloud around us, my eyes were starting to close again. But that’s when I heard the sound of footsteps approaching towards me, and I saw Applejack standing over me, covering her mouth with her unbuttoned shirt. She kneeled down beside me, squeezing my limp hand while she placed my head on her lap. The warm drops of tears splashed on my face, and threw hazy vision I could see AJ crying, begging me to stay with her. But the whole thing was just a blur to me. Still, I could hear her voice as if it were a distant call.

“Stay with me Sunset. Please! Just stay with me!” With the remaining strength I had left, I let out a pathetic attempt of a sentence through dying whispers and gasps of air.

“Take... take me home.... doctor... at home,” was all I could say before I gave out, shutting my eyes as the world went to black.

***

Occasionally my eyes would open, I could see the world pass by through the window of AJ’s truck as she sped down the road back to the city. At the same time, I could feel the cool air of the outside world rush through us from the doorless opening on the driver side, and the shattered window in front of us. But the moments were sporadic as the entire time I kept swinging in and out of consciousness. Still, I was looking away from the window and over to AJ, who was driving as if someone's life depended on it. It was strange to me. I wanted to tell her to forget it and let me die, or tell me whether or not the cops apprehended the brothers, or tell her to keep her mouth shut about all of this. But through my dazed mind all I could really see right now was a girl who looked like an angel. Even covered in dust and dirt, hair all over the place and her face stained with tear trails...she looked great. AJ really was a wonderful person, someone who deserved nothing but happiness and love. I don’t know why the hell I’m thinking about this right now when I’m on the verge of death, but I think back to the story AJ told me about her mom, and I couldn’t help but smile. She looked over at me, and doing her best to not sound like a panicked mother, she spoke in a somewhat apprehensive voice.

“Hey sugar cube. You still with me? Just hang in there, we're almost home. What are you smiling about right now?” She said it so quickly that I could barely understand her, or maybe it was just because of the state I was in right now. But I just couldn’t stop smiling.

“Nothing... I’m just thinking about your mom... she sounds like a wonderful person.” I had my eyes closed, but I could tell that AJ was looking at me as if I were crazy. But she didn’t say anything. I could still feel the wind blow against my face, feeling myself going back into deaths clutches. With my eyes still closed, and my breathing slowly fading, I muttered one last thing.

“Applejack... I’m.... I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you... you’re truly a wonderful person.”