Chapter 23 – Search and Rescue
Applejack, Twiggs, and Pilit couldn't be happier right now, the three of them had just entered into the old crashed ship in their yard and pressed onward into its depths. Pilit was there because she just couldn't hold her excitement, and she wanted to see the inside of the ship itself. "This place is spooky!" the little Treeopon said as she walked around, she had on what looked like a hard hat and had dressed like the two scroungers, a full-body suit that had many pockets. The other two could tell it was made by Rarity, because of the rainbow that streaked across the chest from the hip and connected to her shoulder.
"Ah'm just glad you and Writch are get'n along again." Applejack said as she pushed a door open.
"Seriously." Twiggs announced, "It's great you two patched {snort} things up." He then turned to Applejack, a curious look on his face, "Maybe I could talk with an accent {snort} like yours!"
Applejack simply lifted an eyebrow at him in curiosity, "I am too." Pilit admitted, "I knew she had that bias in her, but I thought she might have been doing it on purpose. And honestly, it would have hurt a lot worse if she had."
"She cares, she just got mixed up is all." Applejack said and made her way up what might have been stairs if the ship itself hadn't been tipped down, the stairs nearly pointed up.
"That's a doozy of a climb." Twiggs said trying to mimic the accent of his scrounger friend.
Applejack simply chucked at the attempt, "Eyup!" she said, and again pushed forward. The moment Pilit got to the top, she looked around.
"Wow." the Treeopon said and smiled, "This must be the crew quarters."
"Nothin left here but memories and {snort} bones." Twiggs told her.
"Did you go through their personal terminals?" she asked, getting Applejack and Twiggs to look at each other, and then back at her and shake their heads. "That's what I'm here for!" she said and pulled what looked to be a small screen from one of the pockets at her side. When she got into the room, she instantly pulled out a small stick of metal, a quick push of a single button and she placed it back into her pocket before kneeling down and grabbing a cord from the same pocket, suddenly the two scroungers could quickly hear the music of sorts. Nothing like anything Applejack had heard before, instead, it had heavy guitar and bass, a fast-hard beat, and no lyrics. Pilit started to nod her head to the beat as the music played, and she plugged the cord into the terminal, then to the pad in her hand.
Twiggs smiled a bit, then thought about the music, "Not bad." he said, and began nodding his head to the beat as well.
"It's too loud fer me." Applejack said, and turned away, "Ahm gonna keep lookin around." Then she left the room, letting the door close behind her and quiet the music. She walked down the hall, trying to keep her bearings as she searched the hall, not wanting to disappear from the sight of Twiggs, she kept to the halls, until they ended, and again a staircase presented itself. The way it tilted made it easy for her, they were as close to flat as they could be, the trouble she had was trying to find a good hoof hold so she didn't keep stumbling. "They just had to make it with holes at the back of the stairs huh?" she grumbled a bit, and somehow made it to the 'lower level' she was traveling to. "Is it just me or is this ship tiltin every day?" she asked, and suddenly heard the groan of metal as she could feel the ground beneath her rumble a bit. "Wish ah still had Tremor with me, those seismic sensors would come in handy." She then began thinking, remembering the time Zeral had tried to trick them with the hologram of their world exploding, and she chuckled a bit as she remembered how her NanoPack explained how she could tell it was fake. A single tear found its way to her cheek as she remembered those fond moments.
She had found herself distracted, so much in fact when she actually began to pay attention to her surroundings, she found herself lost. A large bay door in front of her and an unfamiliar hallway behind her, the stairs were nowhere in sight. "Uh oh." she said to herself, and turned around to face the hallway, then turned to face the bay. "Hallway's too narrow for another garage…" she said, and looked up, spying a very large plate with something carved into it. As usual, she couldn't read it, the letters in the ancient Treeopon language or something of the sort. She looked around a bit more, finding a regular door close by, one that seemed ready to come off of its hinges from something slamming into it. She used her hoof to grab the handle, and cautiously pulled it open, "Hope ah'm not on the other team's side of the line." she said, and pried the door open a bit, where the bend in the door was, the nose of a ship seemed to be. It stretched across the wall as it sat there, room underneath just enough for her to crawl underneath. "What the hey?" she asked herself, as she found herself finally free from having to crawl. Turning to the ship she found it a very familiar size, just slightly bigger than the Rainbow Trail, "Is this a racer?" she asked herself. The ship was a very streamlined style, one she had seen several of during the qualifying race. Rust covering nearly every inch of the hull and the backside of the ship nearly destroyed and burned, as if it had exploded. With a quick look inside the back, she could see that there was something inside where the engine was supposed to be, the inside lined with what looked like cyan-colored gunk that seemed to begin glowing the closer she got to it, but only faintly. She touched the gunk with her hoof, and found it solid and dry, "What is this stuff?" she asked herself, and turned again finding a large hole in the wall, an explanation as to why the ship itself was actually inside the room, even though it wasn't a garage of any kind. Again, she looked to the engine, and something clicked, "Wait…" she said, "Is that…?" but before she could even attempt to continue, the ground again began to shake and creak, enough that it once again began to shift, this time much more noticeable. "Oh, sweet Celestia!" she said in a panic and turned just as the ship that rested against the door fell, blocking the exit. She gulped as the much heavier ship slammed to the ground, and blocked her in, one of the wings folding under the weight of the collapse. The earth pony turned to the big hole in the wall and began the climb when the ground finally settled. Once she got to the actual breach in the wall, she grabbed onto the edge, and breathed a sigh of relief, only to have the ship once again shift.
Pilit and Twiggs each made it to the outside of the ship, Pilit jumping from the exit just as the ship once again tilted, moving from nearly laying down on a slope to resting nearly on its side and somehow stabilized, "Well, that could have been worse." Pilit said.
"Eyup!" Twiggs said and smiled, "Right Applejack?"
The two of them turned behind them, both confident that they would see the orange pony just standing there waiting for them, but each found nopony there. "Applejack?" Pilit asked as she walked forward a bit, looking all around the yard for her friend, "Oh no." she said as a thought came to her, "You don't think she's still in there do you?"
Twiggs turned to the wreckage, and without thinking, ran into the entrance to jump back into it and search for her. Pilit, a bit panicked, turned to him and reached out, then turned to the garage, then back to the ship, and ran into the building, turning the corner and shouting, "WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM!"
Everyone turned to her, Blade lifting his head from his welding task as he stopped the work, "What happened?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
Pilit started to hyperventilate as she tried to speak, "We were exploring the giant ship and then it moved so we ran out, but Applejack is still inside!"
"WHAT?" Blade asked as he threw his mask from his face and put the welder down.
"I think Applejack is in trouble, we got out of the ship before it rolled, but we didn't see Applejack, I think she's still inside." Pilit explained and just watched as all of the ponies ran or flew by her.
"Are you ok?" Tusks asked as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Her tears began to flow freely now that she was actually starting to let the situation sink in, and she didn't say a word instead she simply grabbed the larger Treeopon around his waist and cried, Writch coming up next to them and wrapping the two of them in an even bigger hug to comfort the smaller girl.
"Breeze, Rainbow Dash, go get Syls' team to help with the rescue." shouted Twilight as they all came to a stop at the opening of the ship, "We'll need everypony on deck for this."
The two of them nodded and Breeze disappeared as Rainbow Dash flew off. Suddenly Twiggs came out from the large door, "Half of the ship collapsed on impact, {snort} the way in is blocked!" he called.
"Twilight!" they all heard Blade call from above them. There he flew, right above the side of the ship, "Get up here!" Twilight focused hard, vanishing in a flash of light and reappearing close by.
"You got something?" she asked and looked to where he pointed his hoof, a large dented up garage door that looked like it led into the side of the ship. "You found a way in?" she asked and landed on the exposed metal. She landed and tried focusing on the door, "It won't budge." she said, "It's way too rusted."
"Then move aside, I'll get it open." Blade said, lifted into the air.
"WHAT IF SHE'S IN THERE!?" Twilight asked just as he dove down, and with only a few seconds to spare, she teleported out of the way, back into the air. She watched as he slammed himself into the door, the metal buckling under his pressure before folding and ripping from its frame, and then he turned in midair and tossed it through the opening. All of this without a hint of effort on his face. Twilight, in her own reflexes, used her magic to catch the destroyed door on its way down, and gently placed it aside, someplace it wouldn't hurt anyone. "BLADE?" she called out, "Are you hurt?"
"No!" he shouted back. Twilight's mind reeled, by all intent and purpose he should have at least been strained, but he sounded like he felt nothing at all.
"Can you see her?" Twilight called back, excusing the confusing thought before it overtook the importance of the situation.
"Not yet, just give me a second." he shouted back. Inside the ship, Blade stood there, his ears popped up at their highest and his focus as sharp as he could make it. He glanced around, his eyes catching every little detail as he scanned the room before glancing down into the giant hole in the ground. There he found a bit of rubble, and what looked like a ship that had been smashed in several places. He was afraid to call out to her just in case the ship wasn't stable, but when his scan came up empty, he opted for the very thing he didn't want to do, "APPLEJACK?" he called out, and again scanned the ground, he heard a groan, something very faint but it was there. So, gently, he fluttered down to the rubble and called out again, "APPLEJACK?" A single small piece of debris toppled from a pile, and with vigor, he tossed the larger pieces off of the pile. All the way down to a large piece of wall. He moved the piece effortlessly, and there she was, tucked into the burned-out compartment of the racer's engine, a small bit of blood flowing from her head and unconscious but alive. "I FOUND HER!" he shouted and pulled her from the compartment. With the most care he had given anyone, he lifted her into the air and pulled her out of the ship.
