Pathway to Oblivion

by supersaiyanmikito

F3

Twilight and Applejack ascended the staircase reaching the 3rd floor of the castle. AJ approached the door but stopped noticing Twilight not following. “What’s holding ya sugarcube?”

“Oh, well I was just thinking about what you said back there... It’s probably something I should put in my next Friendship Report.”

“Sounds like a mighty good plan.”

Twilight pulled out a large stack of papers from her bag. “I still have all my research from back before we came here. I should have some blank papers I can use…” Twilight look through her papers then a look of terror appeared on her face. “No…”

“What is it?”

“No! NONONONO!!! ALL MY HARD WORK!” Twilight was in complete panic.

“What is going on!? You’re making no sense!”

“All my research is GONE! G. O. N. E. GONE!” Twilight quickly begins flipping through all the pages but to no avail. Every single piece of paper was untouched. “Ohhhhhh… I think I’m going to be sick…”

Applejack slowly eyes each corner of the hallway. “What in tarnation is up with this place?”

“Ohhhhh… If only Spike came along then I might have been able to send them before entering this castle but he is off on business to the Crystal Empire.”

“Let’s just find our friends and get the heck out of this place.”

“Right…” Twilight pulls out the four remaining cards. “So what do we do next?”

“This one.” Applejack grabs the card with floating cloud house. “This one clearly belongs to Rainbow Dash.” Applejack turns back and ascends the tiny staircase. “Rainbow should be easy for me to handle. We’ll have her out of there in no time.” Applejack held the card up high and the door opened.

The two ponies appeared in what appeared to be the main square of Ponyville. No really clear indication of what event the memory was of. “Alright, stay on the lookout for Rainbow or any of the others.” Twilight said. They explored the streets of ponyville but nothing really seemed out of the ordinary. After a good few minutes of search they came up to Sugar Cube Corner which seemed to have quite a large number of ponies inside. The two ponies went inside to find a bunch of fillies and colts all watching Rainbow Dash on a stage.

“And then, I zoomed into the well. I knew it would be dark and dangerous, but I didn't let that stop me. Danger's my middle name. Rainbow 'Danger' Dash. Thinking back on it, I acted pretty awesomely heroic that day.”

“Oh pony feathers…” Applejack sighed. “It’s THIS memory…”

“That… Day…” Spike whispered to himself as he wrote on a piece of paper.

“Awesomely arrogant…”

Rainbow quickly grabbed Applejack and pulled her in. “Hey Applejack. How’d you like to be immortalized as my friend?”

“Rainbow, you feeling ok?”

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Oh, nothing…” A bunch of ponies with camera suddenly came up and started taking pictures but Applejack quickly broke away. While Rainbow was distracted, she leaned in close to Twilight. “So what’s the deal? You know more about this Castle then I do. Why is Rainbow acting like this?”

“No idea…” Twilight looked at all the others and everyone seemed to have the same face of annoyance. “It can’t be anyone else. Maybe something is wrong with Dash?”

“Who knows, I say we just play along and start our little ‘Mare-Do-Well’ thing we had going on last time. Maybe something will come up eventually.”

“I agree.”

Couple hours later, Rainbow Dash was out in the middle of town signing autographs. Unknown to her, Twi and AJ were watching her from a rooftop. Applejack was already dressed in the Mare-Do-Well costume prepared for the first appearance of the super hero. “Ok AJ, any second now that balloon will fall, Rainbow will take a short bit signing and you save the pony making Mare-Do-Well famous.”

“Right…”

They watched as Rainbow finished signing a little white filly’s poster. “Someday, I wanna be just like you!”

Then Applejack noticed something. Rainbow’s ear twitched for a second before she bolted into the air without saying a word. “What the hay is she doing!?” Suddenly there was a scream in the air as the expected hot-air balloon fell. Applejack scrambled to get into position. “She started much earlier than she did normally!” Rainbow had seen it coming and jumped the gun. Not only did she get a head start on the Mare-Do-Well, but he was using her full speed. No fancy flying or showboating. She flew up and grabbed the pink pony from the balloon bringing her safely down. Applejack and Twilight were speechless. Rainbow managed to save the pony before the Mare-Do-Well even showed up.

The crowd roared and cheered. “RAINBOW DASH! RAINBOW DASH! RAINBOW DASH!”

The little white filly from before showed up. “You are the coolest Rainbow Dash!”

“Maybe someday you will even be as cool as me!” The crowd continued to cheer for Rainbow Dash. Of course, Twilight and Applejack were dumb struck at what just happened.

“WHAT WAS THAT!?” Twilight yelled. “That is NOTHING like it happened originally!”

“Something tells me that is the real Rainbow Dash…” Applejack replied.

“Of course, Mare-Do-Well stole her spotlight last time. Now that she has a second chance, she is making absolute sure to never let the Mare-Do-Well take her place. I’m kind of impressed honestly…”

“So what do we do then? We can’t beat her unless we stop the accidents even earlier then her.”

“Somehow I think the Mare-Do-Well plan blew up in our face…”

“What do you propose then?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “I doubt she is going to listen to us when she has the advantage now.”

“Not to mention she knows we are Mare-Do-Well. She’ll think we are making up lies to get her to stop bragging and being a super hero. She probably thinks we are the same ponies from that day anyway. Remember how the others had no idea what I was talking about when I explained to them about the black coats?”

“We need to find some way to get Mare-Do-Well popular again so we can get Rainbow Dash out of this place.” Twilight continued to think before sighing. “Oh Celestia, I promised I would never do this again but I have no choice…”

“What is it Twi?”

“There was one accident I am 100% sure Dash can’t stop but I can, the dam.”

“But wasn’t Rainbow the cause of that one?” Applejack looked Twilight in the eye. She could see how nervous Twilight was. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…” She thought for second. “So wait, you are going to ‘break’ the dam and then fix it?”

“I’m afraid so. I know that there is no way Rainbow can stop this one but I can.”

“Alright Twi, let’s go break that dam…”

Twilight stood perched on a log down the river completely dressed in her Mare-Do-Well costume. She held up her hoof giving the signal to Applejack who was stationed up at the dam. She was hidden from view holding a small rock. She closed one eye and aimed just perfect. She threw the rock as hard as she could and nailed the crack in dam. The crack slowly spread until the dam burst letting out an obscene amount of water.

Twilight was still and ready as the water approached, she looked up and saw Rainbow Dash hovering overhead. That was her queue; she lifted off her hat and began the reconstruction magic. The rocks soared through the air and swirled around the giant hole slowly clogging up the water. Within a few seconds the dam was completely restored.

The ponyvillians all cheered for the new hero. “Wow! Just who was that pony?”

“She fixed that dam like it was nothing!”

“She is amazing!”

The major approached the group of ponies with a confused look. “Just what is going on here?”

“The dam broke and then some pony came out of nowhere and fixed it!”

“She saved the town!”

The Mayor looked at the Mare-Do-Well hopped up onto a tree branch. “Oh my!” The ‘hero’ waved to the crowd and flew off. “Well now, this is quite an interesting change. It looks like Ponyville has a new hero! A mysterious mare that has done well by our fair city today. I dub this new masked hero 'The Mysterious Mare Do Well'!

As the crowd cheered, Applejack simply fist pumped. “Yes! It worked!” She looked up and saw Rainbow Dash glaring down at the crowd. She was too far away to for Applejack to see much more but somehow, she could feel her eye peering right into her.

All of Ponyville had gathered together in the town square for an organized parade for their new ‘hero’. Most of the ponies were waiting in anticipation, all but one. Rainbow was sitting in the center of the crowd with a look of pure rage at she watched the stage.

“Welcome to Ponyville's first, but surely not last, thank you parade, in honor of our city's greatest hero, the mysterious Mare Do Well!” As the Mayor finished, Applejack jumped through the large poster of the Mare-Do-Well in her own costume. The crowd became eccentric seeing their new hero.

Applejack just waved to the crowd. Their plan was a success yet again. She waited for the moment when Rainbow would come up on stage and try to unmask her. She waited and waited but Rainbow didn’t come. Applejack scanned the crowd. Finally she saw Rainbow far in the back. Her eyes were beat red, almost like she was crying but Rainbow doesn’t cry, right? Applejack gave a small motion to Rainbow. Suddenly a fire burned in Rainbow’s eyes as she charged forward and pulling back right hoof. Within a second she was in front of Applejack where swung her hoof socking Applejack right in the jaw, HARD.

The crowd gasped at Rainbow’s sudden burst of anger. “RAINBOW DASH! WHAT IN EQUESTRIA ARE YOU DOING!?” The Mayor screamed.

“Mare-Do-Well is no hero…” Rainbow tore off her mask to reveal Applejack who simply spit out a tooth.

“Applejack!?”

“Not just her, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and even Fluttershy all had a hand in this. Just to make me feel like a worthless pile of NOTHING!”

“If you knew it was me why did you punch me!?”

“Because…” As Rainbow cracked one of her hooves, a black aura surrounded her. “I thought you were my friend but your nothing but a backstabbing jerk. I WON’T STAND FOR THIS!”

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” The crowd cheered.

Twilight stood watching from the roof of a house, struck with horror at the current situation. “This is awful, why is Rainbow acting like this?” Another thought crossed her mind. “Why is ponyville encouraging this behavior!? This is downright horrible!” Then she thought back to the last floor.

‘I just remember you and the others would never quit with all the questions.’

“Is… Is this really how Rainbow Dash thinks of Ponyville…? And us?”

The large crowd had formed a circle around Rainbow and Applejack. Rainbow had taken on a fighting stance. Before Applejack could even move, Rainbow completely vanished. Then in a flash, she was right next her and punched AJ in the side. She quickly began to vanish and reappear over and over again punching and kicking, juggling AJ in the air like a rag doll. Applejack was beaten and bruised just floating in the air when Rainbow shot up as high as she could go before dive bombing right into AJ chest slamming her hard into the dirt.

“APPLEJACK!” Twilight screamed from the roof. She jumped down into the center of the crowd where Applejack was laying. “Oh AJ, please be ok…”

“That’s not Rainbow…”

“What?”

“Look at her eyes…”

Twilight looked up Rainbow who had started panting she had a creepy smile on her face, like she was enjoying this. Like Applejack before her, Twilight saw absolutely nothing. Her eyes were soulless and the dark energy was burning hot. She turned back to Applejack. “Get out of here. I’ll find a way to break through to her.” Applejack slowly stood up and limped out of the circle. “Rainbow, you need to stop this!”

“Why should I? All I see in front of me is a backstabber.”

“None of this is real! You’re just reliving a bad memory! Your mind is playing tricks on you!”

“So what?” Twilight recoiled. “Every night it’s the same thing, the nightmares about the Mare-Do-Well. Every time I try, I get beaten. You five are all just ‘You should be more humble.’ ‘Oh you shouldn’t brag.’ I’M SICK OF IT! That hurt Twilight, what you five did to me has scarred me for the rest of my life. Knowing how easy it is for you to just take away everything I have worked for!”

“But… We only wanted to teach you to not brag…”

“Well, WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY SOMETHING!?” Twilight flinched at Rainbow’s words. “If you wanted me to stop, why didn’t you talk to me? Heck you didn’t even TRY! The first thing… THE FIRST THING you try is to ruin my reputation? Some friend you are.”

“I’m sorry Rainbow, I truly am...”

Rainbow huffed. “So let me get this straight… You said I am just reliving a memory right?”

“Yes, this place is nothing but an illusion created from your memories. I’m trying to save you and the others!”

“If that’s the case, then why did you feel the need to break the dam ‘just’ to make the Mare-Do-Well famous?”

“You knew?”

“Yeah, I overheard your little conversation with Applejack after I saved the pony from the hot-air balloon. Being put into this situation again gave me an idea…” Twilight was confused. “I thought that perhaps when Ponyville was not in danger I would spy on you a bit to figure out what the hay you were thinking during this whole thing. So, instead of trying to talk to me, like before you decide to just completely ignore any possible talking what-so-ever and just go straight into humiliating me again!?”

“But Rainbow…”

“But nothing. First time was one thing but AGAIN!? You knew this ponyville was fake and you even knew I was taking advantage of the situation.” Rainbow Dash held her head low. She started to cry. “With how many times I have had this nightmare, for once I just wanted to win… I just wanted to feel like I am actually loved…”

“But we do love you Rainbow Dash…”

“You have a sick way of showing it…”

“Listen Rainbow, I’m sorry… Yeah, I understand I have not been the best friend lately but please understand that I care for you more than anything…”

“Like I am going to believe you after the stunt you pulled…” Rainbow readied her fight pose again.

“I’ve already hurt one friend; I don’t intend to hurt another…”

“Prepare yourself!” Rainbow erupted in dark energy and vanished again. She appeared right above Twilight as she put up barrier to block her attack. “Your magic won’t stop me!” Rainbow relentlessly slammed the barrier over and over again with same speed that took out Applejack. The barrier began to slowly crack when Rainbow flew up higher than ever before. She charged down with all her might building up more speed until a cone appeared her. The cone narrowed as Rainbow shattered the sound barrier. The loud bang was followed by a gigantic black and purple explosion surrounded by black lightning.

Rainbow continued to gain speed as she dive straight into Twilight’s barrier shattering it like glass. The impact erupted into a colorless rainbow mushroom cloud. Every form of black, white and grey imaginable. Took a few minutes for the smoke to clear. When it was gone, the ponies of ponyville were shocked to see both Rainbow and Twilight had vanished. Applejack was nowhere to be found either…

Applejack struggled to open the door. She was carrying the unconscious Twilight and Rainbow on her back. Both were beaten up pretty bad. She slowly limped over the left wall and let them off propping them up on the wall.

“Can’t believe this happened… Dash… Twi…” She sat down between them held her head low. “Were we wrong? Is our friendship really that strong?” She could see a small tear falling from Rainbow’s eye. “How could we have hurt you so bad? How could we have missed it so easily?” She leaned in close and gave her the biggest hug she possibly could. If Rainbow had been conscious, she would have only pushed her away. AJ would not miss this possibly one time opportunity, no matter what. Finally she let go and looked at Twilight. “Twi… Maybe you were right… Not just you. Maybe we have all failed each other…” She gave Twilight a hug just like she did Dash. “We will get through this, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.…”

She sat there for a few minutes, just trying to think. Think of anything that might make the situation better. “Dear Princess Celestia…” She covered her eyes and began to cry herself. She just wanted this to end. “Just give me a sign… Please, tell me what I should do? I don’t want to lose anypony…” Then she noticed something, Twilight’s bag. There was a blue card sticking out. She stood up and approached the bag taking the card out. She quickly realized who the card belonged to. “Is this what I should do Celestia?” She examined the walls, trying to find an answer. “I guess if there is anypony who can help me out here it’s her…”

Applejack approached the other ponies in the room. “I’ll be back, I just need to clear my head…” Without hesitation she removed her hat and placed it gently on Rainbow’s head. “If I don’t return…” She turned and started her way up the castle… Alone…

Xalun remained still as she stared into a crystal ball in the middle of the room. She watched Applejack leave her friends behind and continue herself. As the image vanish, a portal opened up in the room as another hooded pony walked in. “Think you overdid it a bit?” She asked the new figure.

“Rainbow Dash has kept all that anger bottled up ever since the Mare-Do-Well incident. She cares about her friends too much to ever actually do anything so I just gave her a little nudge in the right direction.” A small black flame sparked from her slightly revealed horn.

“Don’t forget, we need Twilight alive. She is useless to us dead.”

“She won’t die. As long as she is still breathing when the boss’s plan comes to fruition, all will be just fine.”

“I’m also a little concerned you may have jumped the gun. You think perhaps it would have been better to break them after all 6 have gathered together?”

The mysterious pony approached Xalun. “You don’t believe in my powers?”

“No, I just feel it would have been easier to just break them all at once.”

“Tsk tsk tsk, and that’s why are inferior to me. Even with all the experience you have with fighting your inner demons, you will never understand the concept of the pony mind. You’re thought process is to simply break them all at once and quickly, but me… I want to break them slow and painful… Make them feel like the worthless dirt they are…”

“My apologies… Now how are the preparations going?”

“Milady second-in-command is currently taking care of what will be the final nail in their coffins. When she is one with her little project, Twilight will be finished…”