//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Rainbow Dash Underground // Story: Twilight Sparkle and the Witch Baby // by Brony_Fife //------------------------------// CHAPTER 5: Rainbow Dash Underground There was no time here. No life. No faith. It seemed as though Rainbow Dash had been… subtracted from the real world, and was placed in this pipe-ridden purgatory, where demonic metal ponies walked, screamed, hunted. But mostly, screamed. Rainbow Dash stared up at the ceiling. She was in bed—a different bed. After running a few mazes, solving a few puzzles, and hiding from the Freaks, the Voice had offered for her to take a break in this bedroom, this "Safe Room"; it was literally not any different from the original bedroom she had woken up in. Same nightstand, same radio, same tacky choice in music… almost right down to the air vent she had tried to break through. However, she had found on her bed a large platter of all kinds of delicious fruits and vegetables: onions, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, apples, cauliflower, and even some grass lining the bottom of the platter dish to help her digestion. She had sucked it all down, not realizing how hungry she was. Be sure to eat everything the Voice had said. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to be told twice. But after laying in this bed for hours, sleep refused to come, the Sand-Pony apparently on vacation. Rainbow Dash’s mind floated back to earlier… Run run run run run Can’t go flying around, that gets their attention—oh crap, I think it saw me “UbooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” Hide hide find a place to hide Found one Wait for it to leave, wait for it to leave Scratch, scratch, giggle, scratch, mumble, scratch Gasping, gasping, gurgling Another Freak entered the room, oh crap… Oh… Oh Celestia’s mane… they… they’re tearing each other apart!! I can’t watch Get the blood off me, get the BLOOD OFF ME FOR CELESTIA’S SAKE Hide in the shadows STAY IN THE SHADOWS UNTIL IT GOES AWAY Stay in the shadows…. ***** Rainbow Dash looked about, listening intently. She heard no sounds of any kinds of Freaks. Very good, Rainbow Dash. You are adapting to your new environment wonderfully. Rainbow Dash felt like cussing out the Voice, but was afraid to attract any attention. She slithered about, trying to find her way to the exit. She had the feeling she still had some ways to go. It didn’t help that many doors she found were locked, and the Voice had told her she needed to find keys to open them. (Seriously? Really? This is starting to sound like a bad video game.) Quiet you, not in the middle of my narration! Anyway, after some hunting around and avoiding Freaks, she had come across a room in which there was a compartment that housed a card-shaped object that glowed a bright green. Thinking she had finally found a key or at least something of equal value, Rainbow Dash trotted forth to pick it up—only for the compartment to shut in her face. She let out an exasperated groan. I hope you did not think I would make this easy, Rainbow Dash. Want—hurt you—so—BAD Keep it together, Rainbow Dash told herself. Just keep it together, girl. Just calm down, figure this out. Rainbow Dash looked around the room. Same as every other room: creepy lighting, hissing pipes, air vents, furnace gates… Her eyes fell to the floor. Same metal flooring. There didn’t seem to be any panels that triggered the compartment door. Rainbow Dash turned and began to walk back to the door when suddenly, she heard the compartment door open again. She turned around—and it closed. She repeated this process, turning around, then back again. Open, close, open, close… Rainbow Dash had figured it out. With her back turned to the compartment, and not looking in the direction of the key, she lifted her back right leg into the compartment and knocked the green key out of it. She turned around and picked up the key with her mouth. Very good, Rainbow Dash, you solved this puzzle faster than I thought you would. You are performing well. Rainbow Dash puffed her chest in pride. Your reward is more Freaks wandering the halls. Have fun. She nearly dropped the key when her jaw hit the floor. ***** Not only had she figured out that Freaks have poor eyesight, she had figured out they were attracted to loud noises. They were also hostile to each other as well as herself. After putting these facts together, she had concocted a working plan: by making sounds to attract the attention of some of them, she could lead Freaks to each other—and she would leave them to battle it out amongst themselves. It was in this way that she managed to find her way back to the green door. Whittling down the numbers of Freaks to more manageable numbers was easier than she realized, but coming across the end result would remind her how high the stakes were. After about an hour, Rainbow Dash came across the locked door from before. She looked about for any key holes, hoping this wouldn’t be another one of the Voice’s puzzles. Having some trouble, Rainbow Dash? It is a door. You have the key. Open it. It didn’t help that her “key” looked more like a card—and how the heck a card could open a door was beyond her. Maybe she could slide it through the crack…? No, nothing happened. She looked a little more closely at the walls around the door and noticed a slot in the wall next to it. It certainly took you long enough to know it was there. Slide the card through the reader. Rainbow Dash was becoming more irritated. She put down the card and whispered angrily, OK, look. I know you’re some kind of all-seeing, all-knowing robot or whatever. But I should remind you that YOU put me in a place I don’t know, YOU’RE the one setting up all this stuff, and YOU’RE the only one of the two of us who’s familiar with everything here. If you think I’m taking too long to solve your bucking puzzles—while at the same time trying to hide from monsters YOU created—that’s just too, damn, bad. So you can just SHOVE it. A few seconds of silence. Rainbow Dash regretted saying all that, but the overall stress of that day was weighing on her. It oddly felt good to finally give the Voice a piece of her mind. If she ever found the Voice’s source, she’d hand him the rest of it—along with his head. I do not like your tone of voice, Rainbow Dash. His monotone had broken. He sounded… angry. Rainbow Dash began to feel cold just from hearing this new, deeper, more menacing tone. I should not have to remind you that, YES, I DO control everything in this laboratory. And because you already know this, then you should also know that I can simply lock every door, disable every key, and just release more and more Freaks until there is no place you can hide. Your very life is in my hooves. Rainbow Dash shrunk a little upon hearing how such a previously serene Voice had emphasized his last sentence. She never thought the Voice could even emote at all, but here he was, expressing more than just anger: disgust, hatred, impatience… She began to realize just how little power she had. So you are going to be a good little pony, and you are going to perform my tests to the best of your abilities. I am not going to ask you to like any of this, as I do not care to hear what you think. But if you dare to raise your voice to me again, I will simply have to make these tests harder for you. Do you understand? Rainbow Dash nodded slowly, admitting defeat. (And to Rainbow Dash, admitting defeat was about as tantalizing as eating one’s own foot.) Very good. Now open. The bucking. Door. Rainbow Dash did as she was told. She stood there for a little while, taking everything in. Her situation seemed even more hopeless than it did before. The Voice may see this whole thing as a game or an experiment, but for Rainbow Dash, she was but a rat in a maze. She was now unsure of whether she could make it through all these “tests” of his in one piece—or if there was even an end to these tests. There was no guarantee, no promise of cake at the end of the tunnel. There were only Freaks. Looking up when she heard the tell-tale shriek, she realized she had walked down the hallway (Still and eerie blue) so deep in her own thoughts, she had not noticed she was still in the maze. She had a distinct feeling she knew somepony who could make that exact mistake. For some reason, the color purple flashed through her mind. Was she remembering a friend? NO TIME FOR THAT NOW INCOMING FREAK EVASIVE MANEUVERS Not knowing what else to do, Rainbow Dash flapped her prized wings and turned herself upside-down. With a soft plunk, she had managed to grab onto the ceiling, clinging to the pipes. The Freak—this one had long needles instead of legs, along with a bizarre contraption that seemed to burst from his back—ran by underneath her, as though he were blind. She didn’t get a good look at his face, but realized she probably was better off not seeing it. After the Freak had left, she dropped down from the ceiling and began to once again quietly sneak about. The hours passed: one minute Rainbow Dash was running from a Freak, the next she was solving a puzzle. What perplexed the Pegasus was that she had no idea what any of this was for. Don’t all factories and laboratories have a purpose? she thought. Factories and laboratories were meant to produce research results or some kind of necessity. All she saw were half-pony, half-machine monsters. What on earth had gone on here? Even worse, she began to wonder where all the ponies had come from. The Voice had told her that they were far beyond Celestia’s influence. Were they out of Equestria entirely? Were there ponies outside of Equestria? So many more questions than answers. Eventually, she found herself stuck upon a puzzle. In order to get the next key (The red one), she needed to move around several boxes. (Or rather, blocks; you at least kept things in boxes.) There were four switches and four blocks. Easy, right? Not at all. She had a limited time to push each block, first off; and if she didn’t go from one block to the other in the allotted time, the blocks would reset and teleport back to their starting points. Of course, this IS Rainbow Dash we’re talking about: for her, speed is a way of life. Still, it was a process of picking a block, pushing it, then going to the next block, push that one a little, and so on. She only had a few seconds between pushes, and had to exert enough force to move them (And those blocks were pretty heavy). After numerous attempts (The first few to figure out what was going on, the next few to figure out how long exactly she had between pushes before the blocks all reset, and the last hundred to actually attempt accomplishing the task), Rainbow Dash collected her key and sat down, exhausted and covered in the uninviting odor of sweat. Suddenly, her stomach growled. She just remembered: she hadn’t had anything to eat for a while. Rainbow Dash guessed she was too wound up and scared to think about food. Before she said anything, however, the Voice again spoke to her. Good evening, Rainbow Dash. I apologize for my outburst earlier. Rainbow Dash did a double-take. It was strange to hear someone as obviously hostile as the Voice apologize for exercising his power. Although I knew you were described as being fierce and stubborn, I must admit that I was unaware how fierce and stubborn you are. I apologize for my impatience. You must be hungry and tired by now. Please use the key to exit this part of the maze and enter the Safe Room. The Safe Room? Whatever, she’d take it. ***** Rainbow Dash thought over the events of today as she tried to sleep. She had no idea how much longer she’d have to be here. It had taken her what must have been days to get to the first Safe Room, with only a few hours of sleep between them. Who knew how long it would take to get any further? Are you not yet asleep, Rainbow Dash? The Voice nearly made her jump. She had forgotten she still had the earpiece on. “No,” Rainbow Dash answered, regaining her composure. “And I’m… sorry for yelling at you earlier.” It is forgivable. You have been placed in a bizarre and stressful situation. She thought for a few seconds. Now that she had his attention again, she wanted to ask him a question or two. "Hey,” she began, “those Freaks. Um, they’re like… half-pony. What… what ARE they?” At first, she didn’t receive an answer. She didn’t think he wasn’t going to answer her; she could tell he was thinking over his answer very carefully. They were ponies. At one time. But that time is over now. They have been made into Freaks, due to… unforeseen misfortune. “You did this to them,” she reiterated. Rainbow Dash remembered why she didn’t like this guy. Playing with ponies like they were toys, breaking them and reconstructing them cruelly… She stood up in her bed. “Who do you think you are?” For reasons I cannot disclose to you, I experimented on them to ensure that a… certain product was operational. I failed many times. These Freaks are a result of my failures. I am merely using them as they are now so they do not go to complete waste. “Using them?!” Rainbow Dash began to flutter above her bed, more angry than she’d been earlier. “They were ponies! They were LIVING BEINGS! And you…!” Progress takes sacrifice, Rainbow Dash. “Don’t you gimme that! How could someone as obviously smart as you have no idea of right and wrong?!” Is it right to kill them, then? To end a life? All because I miscalculated? Or should I be like you and simply trick them into killing each other, so as to not get my own hooves dirty? Would that be right? His tone had becoming more agitated. Rainbow Dash couldn’t argue with him; deep down, she knew he made a good point. “I was… I was just trying to survive,” she argued meekly. Of course you were. You were making the best decision you could, based on what options you had at the time. It was not right, but it was not wrong either. The world, and life, is never that simple that it could easily be divided into right or wrong, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash disliked being lectured by this creep. What did he know? Sure, she had to kill them—only because he caused this situation to happen. What he did was evil, through and through. No amount of progress could be any good if the process was this twisted. “So how can you explain or excuse what you did?” I did what I did in order to create a machine for a… third party, who requested it be done. I was merely following my orders to the best of my abilities. I do feel shame that I failed so many times to produce the desired results. “Yet you don’t feel any shame about kidnapping ponies and performing experiments on them? Experiments you weren’t even sure would work?” Suddenly, the Voice became angry again; this time not only did his monotone and patience break, but his pitch and volume began to fluctuate. Listen. I was only doing my job. I am not at liberty to discuss every aspect of the situation that caused these Freaks to be made—especially not with some smarmy, self-righteous would-be athlete. You are here to be tested upon. That is your only purpose here. Be careful that I do not revoke that purpose. Rainbow Dash suddenly wanted to demand to know why she was being tested. Really, to what end, why was she being made to go through all this? If the Freaks were all failed experiments, the tests obviously aren’t meant to measure their effectiveness as foot soldiers for an army. These tests were for her. But why? But she said nothing. It sounded as if he was going to make good on his threats, and she cared not to strike out a third time. She curled up on the bed, above the sheets, trying to make herself comfortable again. She groaned, frustrated and sleepless. The night—however long it went on, as Rainbow Dash had no way of telling time here, outside of when the Voice decided to tell her—rolled on just like that. Never sleeping, but never being fully awake. Before she knew it, she was back in the maze, this time in another elevator, heading up to the next challenge. The Voice was not speaking to her, and she ignored his presence. In fact, she felt like just pulling out the earpiece and throwing it away. The problem was how the Voice would react if she did. Half of her felt like she couldn’t go on anyway. The other half was way too terrified of the Freaks to consider that option. As the elevator door opened, as if to spit her out, Rainbow Dash took a step forward—and promptly fell over, exhaustion finally outweighing her frustration and anxiety. The Voice demanded to know what was going on before he realized she had merely fainted on her way out of the elevator. ***** Watching her on his computer screen, Speeding Bullet groaned. He thought she had gotten plenty of sleep the night before. He settled down, thinking it over. The stress and anxiety of the situation, multiplied by its ambiguity, was probably a little too much for her. These tests were meant to measure her abilities. He needed to know if she could be trusted. He was told she was the Element of Loyalty, and that she was a firebrand, and that she was a quick thinker. He thought she would be perfect for the role he had set up for her. Speeding Bullet didn’t want to think he could be wrong. If she was the Element of Loyalty, she could do this. She could complete this test. She had a mission to complete, a destiny to fulfill. But there she was, passed out, like any other pony would. Maybe he just needed to rethink things. Every program had its bugs. For Rainbow Dash, it was her curiosity. She was asking too many questions he couldn’t answer—and like an idiot, he chose to argue with her instead of just telling her he couldn’t. He resolved to establish what kind of questions he could answer, and which ones he could not. If he couldn’t answer it, she was free to theorize. He lowered his hatch, and heard the low hum of his legs as they lifted his metal body to walking height. A spurt of steam left one of his exhaust pipes with a loud and sudden hiss as he left his Observation Deck to retrieve his test subject and bring her to a Safe Room. There would be no testing for today. There would be only rest for the pegasus, and re-strategizing for him.