II

by adcoon

II.18 - Taking Charge

The door was shut. Rainbow leaned her shoulder against it and pushed with all her strength, but the door remained defiant. Stepping back, she grit her teeth and turned around, scraping the ground to get a solid footing before bucking it as hard as she could. The force of the kick hit the door and shot right back down her legs, making her cry out. And the door stayed shut. Rainbow fell back on her haunches and sat in front of the door, glaring at it as if willing it to open or fall to pieces before her.

“Are you me or what?”

The muscles of her legs and shoulders tensed. She pressed her hoof hard against the stone floor, as if to direct all her anger into the unyielding stone. “I am,” she said aloud to herself in the stillness of the hall. She willed herself to relax and continued in a louder voice. “I am Rainbow Dash. I would never let my friends down. And I'm going to find a way if it kills me!”

All the life and light had gone out of the place, leaving an empty and desolate ruin now lit by torches which Flix and her brother had dug up somewhere. Wherever Eden was it was not here, and it was not behind this door, but that was the only place Rainbow could think to go right now. Perhaps the well held answers. She had to know.

She looked over her shoulder at the deep darkness of the hall behind her. Something moved soundlessly like a shadow behind a pillar. They were even more unnerving now, creeping around in the dead darkness. Rainbow didn't know why they hadn't vanished with Eden. They were her servants, were they not? Or were they a part of the place that Eden had simply made use of?

An idea struck Rainbow and made her shiver. But she was going to find a way, and that meant trying everything. She stood up and approached the darkness and the ghostly wisp she knew drifted around in the shadows. She nearly screamed, but then quickly composed herself, as it appeared as if out of nowhere and passed right through her body. The sensation was something she resolved to purge from her mind immediately.

Rainbow shivered again and spun around. “Open the door to the well!” she commanded in the most steady voice she could summon. To her surprise, the wisp turned immediately from its prior purpose and drifted towards the locked door. Rainbow punched the air with a hoof and grinned. “Yes!”

There was a gentle glow from around the wisp, then it faded as the door gave a little click and swung open without a sound. Beyond lay the well, as empty and eerily still as the rest of the castle. Rainbow picked up a torch off the wall and entered uncertainly, looking at the calm, cold waters. The light mist and clouds had gone, leaving the room clear as a winter's day.

She hovered over the water and looked into its depths. There was nothing there to be seen, no helpful visions waiting for her to find them. Just dark waters and her own flickering reflection in the light of the torch. She hung there for a long time, hoping something would happen, then sighed and turned back around. So this had been for nothing, then?

Rainbow stopped. She barely dared to move for fear of losing the slight glitter out of sight. Slowly she turned while keeping her eyes fixed on the spot. A glitter of something had caught her eye just as she turned. She moved the torch a little closer and peered back into the water.

There was something glittering at the bottom of the well. Something small and made of metal. Rainbow hesitated. Eden had told her not to touch the water. But that had been then, and this was now. More importantly, Eden wasn't here now.

It was just water.

Right?

Rainbow looked around, as if expecting Eden to be lurking among the roots, then reached out a hoof and very carefully touched the surface. The water was cold. She pulled her hoof back up and turned it around in the light. Nothing. Just wet, and a bit cold.

It was just water, then.

Rainbow returned the torch to its place on the wall in the other room, then went back to the dark well. She reached out for the glittering object—

Just water.

—and stuck her head in the pond.

***

The pain struck her again, worse than before. She wanted to scream but the fire coursing down through her body ripped her voice from her chest, and all she could do was sob helplessly. Tears soaked her cheeks as voices urged her on and blood filled her vision.

Then a cry filled the air …

***

… and her lungs swelled with the breath of life.

Rainbow opened her eyes and stared right into a harsh, black face as it pulled away from her and looked back at her with the blue, shining eyes of an insect. “D-Doodle?” she said and shivered at the cold trying to creep into her bones.

The changeling looked relieved as he moved off of her and helped her to sit up. “Are you alright? Do you … feel well?” he asked, looking frazzled despite his relief to see her alive. “What were you thinking!?” he added.

Rainbow shivered as she sat up and looked around. A large keyring hung around her hoof and gleamed in the light of a nearby torch. She held it up to study it. There was a single key dangling from the ring. She held it up towards Doodlebug. “T-this was at the bottom … I think.”

Doodlebug sighed and wrapped his hooves around her, pulling her close in an effort to warm her. “You just lay there in the water. I thought you were dead. I bet you're lucky you don't breathe, or you would have been.” He hugged her a little tighter. “Didn't Eden tell you not to touch the water?”

“Yeah, but I … I thought …” She fell silent and looked at the changeling holding her. “Why are you … Why don't you look like a pony, I mean?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, looking at her and then at himself.

Rainbow reached out to touch his smooth, black body, his dark blue carapace and membranous wings. She hesitated and reached up to touch his horn. “You look like a changeling.”

“I … do?” he seemed shocked and turned to better look down at himself. There was a green glow of ethereal flames and he looked back up at her. “Now?”

She studied his face. “The water …” she said and shivered again as a bit of cold returned. “It must have done something to my eyes. I can't see you any other way than how you really are.”

Doodlebug looked horrified. “But … I'm a pony! I-I want you to see me like a pony, not … not like this.”

He was not exactly comely like this, Rainbow had to admit to herself. But it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be, especially once she got used to it. He looked almost like a pony in black armor, if she willed herself to see it. She reached out again to stroke his smooth shoulder. Her hoof settled over his heart. There was a pony in there, she knew. He had a pony's heart, it was just trapped in a changeling's body.

“Rainbow?” Doodlebug shook her slightly.

She looked up at him and blinked. “What?”

“You sort of spaced out,” he said, looking at her with concern. “Are you okay? What did the water do to you?”

“I …” Her brow furrowed in an effort to remember. “I don't know.” She held up a hoof to her eyes. It looked normal, only wet. “Maybe my eyes will return to normal once I get dry.” She didn't believe that, but it was always possible. “But … I saw something down there.” She turned her hoof in front of her and looked down at herself. She was soaked and cold.

Doodlebug helped her back on her legs. “What did you see?”

She stopped. “I don't remember. I just … I don't know.” It was impossible to explain. She looked at him again, searching for words. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Finally she said, “I need time. Just … give me time, I know I can figure all this out.”

He nodded, still looking worried and a little sad as he led her across the hall. “I'll make you some tea.”

Rainbow took a few steps, then stopped again. She turned around to face him. Before he could say anything she leaned over to kiss him.

***

“Are you sure about this?” Flix stopped in front of the door and turned to look at Rainbow. “They aren't exactly on our side. Who knows what they'll do.”

“I know.” Rainbow stopped as well and looked at the changeling. “But it's got to be where the keys fit. It's the only room in this place which needs keys, other than the well, and Eden did make a promise out there in the forest. I bet she intended me to find the keys. I don't think she would break a promise even now, so I'm keeping it for her.”

Flix's wings twitched uncertainly, as they always did when she was nervous or bored. “If you're sure you know what you're doing.”

Rainbow paused. It was as if part of her mind remembered seeing something in the water, but it wasn't a part of her mind inclined to give her any details. It was as if part of her mind kept saying “Just trust me on this one, kid.” She frowned and picked up the key in her mouth. “If I don't, then I really hope Eden did.”

Flix stepped aside and stood behind her as she pushed the door open and walked inside. Frostfell and Blaze both looked up at her, and noticed the key. Then they noticed Flix and their initial hope looked a bit dashed. Rainbow stepped up to the bars. “I'm here to let you go,” she said.

“The Quin be gone, aye? An' ye found the key,” Frostfell said and rose up from where she had been resting. “But I reck'n ye dinnae be comin' with us?” she said, glancing at Flix as if the changeling answered the question.

“My place is with them,” Rainbow said flatly and turned to Flix. The changeling held out a pair of black hoods for her. Rainbow took them and turned back around. “You will have to wear these over your heads, and we will tie your wings too. We will then lead you to a safe distance from this place, spin you around a bunch of times, the usual drill, and then you will be free to leave on your own.”

Frostfell sighed and looked at Blaze. He shrugged. “We'll stay if it's all the same to you,” he said. “You look like you could use some help.”

Rainbow looked at Flix who merely shrugged as well.

“Oh aye, cannae be leavin' ye all alone with them bugs, noo can we?” Frostfell concurred. “Ye be a wielder of the Elements, that means we be honor bound tae keep ye safe, ye ken? Part of our oath.”

Rainbow shrugged and threw Flix the black hoods. “Your choice.”

Blaze stood up. “Look, let us out and we can help you,” he said. “Whatever comes next, you will need all the help you can get, am I right? We could be useful.”

“Very likely,” Flix hissed. “And your help will consist of a dagger in the back when we aren't looking.”

“You can have our word that we will not try to flee or kill you in your sleep,” Blaze said and stepped closer to the bars. “And we will follow where you say and do as you command.”

Rainbow held out a hoof to keep Flix back, then turned to regard Blaze. “I may be about to betray my friends and all of Equestria, for their own good and for the sake of all our futures. You would help me do that? You would defy the Princess? Why?”

“Tae keep ye an' the Element ye wield safe,” Frostfell repeated. “Whutever ye do is on yer own conscience, but if ye die an' we weren't thar, then yer death an' the loss of ye Element be on ours.”

Blaze gave a nod of agreement. “In a nutshell. Please allow us to help you.”

“They're up to something,” Flix said. “Don't listen to them. Just leave them in there, alright?”

Rainbow considered the wall for a time, then glanced around at Flix. “I trusted in you and your brother, even when every sane pony might have told me not to.” She looked back at the two prisoners. “Besides, I may have need of them.”

“You're making a mistake,” Flix said, her wings twitching.

“Yes yes.” Rainbow sighed and waved a dismissive hoof at Flix. “Blaze and Frostfell, if I open this door, do you swear to serve and follow me, the me who is standing in this room as we speak, without question until there are no longer two of me?”

“We swear,” they both said.

“You will not leave these ruins without my permission,” Rainbow continued. “And you will not do anything to hurt anyone within. Do you swear?”

“We do.”

“Aye.”

Rainbow considered them for a long time, then she smiled and added, “I want you to swear that on the other one's heart. Break it and you break their heart as well.”

Blaze and Frostfell looked each other in the eyes. There was a long silence, then Blaze spoke first. “I guess this is not what I had in mind, but … Frostfell, I swear by your heart and my love for you, that I will follow and serve the Rainbow Dash before me without question until there are no longer two of her, that I will not leave these ruins without her permission or lift a hoof to harm anyone within these halls.” He paused for a second and then knelt down. “And Frostfell, will you marry me once this is over?”

Frostfell looked like she had been hit by something. The normally headstrong mare stammered slightly as she replied in turn, “Blaze, I … I do swear by yer heart an' my love fer ye, that I too will follow an' serve the Rainbow Dash in front of me withoot question until there dinnae be two of her, that I will nae leave these ruins withoot her permission or lift a hoof tae harm anyone within these here halls.” She smiled. “And … aye. Aye, I will!”

Rainbow grinned. “Now seal it.”

“Ye have an evil mind, Rainbow Dash,” Frostfell said, her eyes never leaving Blaze's. “A right evil mind.”

Their eyes were locked for another second, then they both leaned forward together and their lips met.

Rainbow stuck the key in the lock and turned it with a click. “I know.”

***

“Hrm …”

The ground shook slightly and a wave of smoke billowed past Rainbow as Kin looked up. There was a sorrowful tone in his voice as he spoke, sighing occasionally.

“The place feels so empty without her,” he rumbled. “Are you going to take over, then?”

Rainbow stared at the figure in the smoke, sitting among the ashes. “I'm taking charge,” her mouth spoke the words while her mind was trying to accept what her eyes was telling her.

Kin looked at her impassively and gave a long sigh. “I will wait, hrm. She will return one day and set me free. She promised.”

“I do not think she will,” Rainbow said, and believed it. “I could use your help, however.”

The gargoyle showed no change. “She will return.” It didn't matter if he believed it, he was going to hold on to that promise forever if need be, because it was all he had to hold on to.

Rainbow scowled. She could see the lie. It was nothing more, just a prison of the mind like Eden said. He wasn't much bigger than a pony, but he believed himself to be, and that belief made it real in the eyes of everyone who ever looked at him. He just looked big. It was some kind of magic, but it wasn't the truth. Rainbow wanted to buck the living daylight out of whoever had given him this belief, but they were long dead and gone now, of course, and only Kin remained down here in the dark. All because of a lie.

And it was so simple, wasn't it? She didn't need Twilight's magic or Eden's powers, all she needed was a bunch of hooey and some make-believe.

“Eden has left, and you need to get out too, right now,” she said and dug her hoof in the thick layer of ash and soot on the floor. With a dramatic gesture she dragged the ash across her face and around her eyes, then fixed the gargoyle in a stare. “Eden has told me how to make you small. It is an old zebra ritual from beyond the Everfree Forest.”

“Eden promised she would release me when I was ready,” the rock said. Dumb rock.

“I'm fulfilling her promises of late,” Rainbow said and dragged a sooty hoof down her chest, recalling everything she could about Zecora's little hut and the masks and drawings within. She needed all the inspiration she could get to make herself believe that it looked real. Belief was the key. “And I'm saying you're ready, because somepony damn well has to say it, and I can see it's not going to be you!”

Kin lifted his head slightly and his eyes glowed as he watched her dance back and forth on the spot like a boxer getting warmed up for the fight.

Rainbow looked around. There wasn't much to work with in this pony forsaken place. Some spooky masks and a big bubbling cauldron would have been a nice touch. All she had was smoke and no mirrors. Princesses damn it all, time to dust off those drama lessons she never took and hope like hay that Kin had never seen real zebra magic performed … or heard any of the traditional pegasus weather songs.

At least none of her friends were going to see this, or ever know about it. She closed her eyes, took a moment to collect herself, then launched into a slow dance around the not-so-giant gargoyle while singing under her breath. She began slowly, building herself up as she circled around Kin in the darkness, whirling up bits of smoke. She had to believe it looked pretty mystical and awesome from outside the circle.

The words she sang were a mix of ancient pegasus weather calls and improvised zebra mumbo jumbo that she kinda thought she had heard Zecora once chant over a bubbling cauldron. By complete chance it probably translated into something incredibly stupid, or naughty, but she had to believe it sounded pretty authentic if you weren't Zecora … or another pegasus.

She was getting into the mood now and picked up her pace. Smoke and ashes whipped around her as she spun and spread out her wings, raising her voice in an eerie chant which echoed and rumbled through the cavernous ruins. It was working! “I'm freakin' awesome, is what I am!” she thought to herself as she kicked up another cloud of ash and rose into the air, lost in the magic of the dance.

“Spirits!” she cried. The voice came out shrill and eerie, and rolled back in waves. Rainbow almost scared herself, but forced herself to continue chanting.

“To me!” She rose into the air above Kin, who was leaning his head back to stare up at her in the dark.

“I command you!” she roared under the stone ceiling. “Spirits of the stone! Spirits of the earth!”

A wind blew through the room, cold and haunting. Rainbow lifted her hooves in the air, and her voice came out in a whisper. “Dance with me!”

Pale shadows danced in the smoke and ashes and surrounded Rainbow as she lowered herself between them, feeling like a goddess of old and swelling with imagined power. They really did follow her command. Hah! She let out a long cry and launched herself back into the dance, trailing ghostly ponies whose horns glowed and wings beat to her rhythm.

This was real …

She came to a stop with a low, drawn out hiss and knelt down, wings stretched out in front of the gargoyle. Flickering lights rose up all around him, casting long dancing shadows in the clouds of smoke.

The lights dimmed as the spirits faded back into the stone.

Kin lifted a glowing hand and considered it as the darkness flooded back into the room. “You are not all you appear to be,” he said, believing.

Rainbow grinned widely, her teeth gleaming in the last flickers of light, like a mask from the deep jungles of the south where dark magic called up ancient spirits and performed miracles of make-believe.

***

“You don't mind?”

Rainbow lay down on the pillows and stretched her legs. It was hard work being awesome, and all she wanted right now was to unwind and let someone else take over. Someling in particular. She turned her head and looked at him. “No,” she said.

“You don't find it—”

“No,” she repeated and closed her eyes. So many impressions and thoughts floated around her mind from these past few days, but whatever had happened in the well, she felt … clearer. She opened her eyes again and looked at him sadly. “I do not think I will survive this …” she said and patted the pillows with a hoof.

Doodlebug stood for a moment, looking lost, then he walked over and sat down by her side.

Rainbow sighed and closed her eyes as he stroked her mane. “No, scratch that, I am sure I will not survive this,” she said quietly. It stung her heart to think of it, but she needed to come to terms with it, and he as well. Better now, when they still had time to make the most of it. No delusions of living happily ever after. “Even if I survive, it won't be me … not the me who loves you, because that would mean I let the other me die to save myself.”

Doodlebug said nothing. His hoof caressed her neck and was joined by a second as he positioned himself into a more comfortable position and began to rub her shoulders.

Rainbow groaned with pleasure as his hooves skillfully worked the tenseness out of her back. “If this is all the time I get,” she said and let out a little sigh as she felt his touch between her wings, “then I don't want to think I wasted it, doubting or pitying myself, and I don't want to die without having loved. I …” her wings twitched slightly at the touch. “I love you, Doodle.”

His hooves stopped and settled on her back.

“I don't care if you look this way,” she continued. “I thought I would, and at first maybe I did, but …” She turned her head and looked up at him as best she could. He looked so sad just sitting there listening to her words. She lifted a wing and touched it against his heart. “I see a pony in there. A knight in black armor. Pretty cool, huh?”

A little smile crept over his face, making his eyes gleam as he lifted a hoof to hold her wing. “You're a very unusual pony, Rainbow Dash,” he said.

“I know, I know,” she grinned and turned her head back around, closing her eyes as she lay back down to relax. “I am pretty awesome. Pretty AND awesome, right?”

He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “The prettiest.”

Rainbow's chest filled with pride, if not air. “I know.” She felt his kiss on her cheek and sighed as he returned to massage her back.

He seemed to have something more on his mind as he worked his way down to her lower back and haunches. “You never told me your plan,” he said after a while. “You seem very confident.”

Rainbow was silent for a time, enjoying every stroke of his hoof. She didn't honestly feel confident, but she had to believe it anyway, believe herself when she said she was going to do it. “I'm going to steal the Elements,” she said. “I don't know what my friends are planning, but I know I don't want to find out what happens if they succeed. If they won't listen to me, then I have to take matters into my own hoof before it's too late. Maybe then they will be forced to see reason and give them up.”

Doodlebug hesitated slightly as if thinking, then moved on to work on her hind legs. “That will not be easy. I assume you will need my help?”

“Oh yes,” Rainbow said, as much at the massage as to his question. It felt divine. “You and Flix will be invaluable. But we must move quickly. We will start with the ones in Gloaming early tomorrow. We will sneak in while the princess is asleep, and hopefully Twilight and my double will be out at the time. Then we only have to deal with the guards.”

A cunning plan was taking form in her mind as she spoke. “Once we have the first set of Elements, we must move quickly to Canterlot and get the other set before anypony notices anything amiss and alerts Princess Celestia. We will have to somehow convince her to open the vault for us, which will be tricky, but I know I can count on you and Flix. We can't really plan much, so we'll just have to wing it. Fortunately, I'm the world champ at winging it,” she grinned and sighed with delight. “They won't expect such a daring stunt. That's what I'm counting on.”

Doodlebug leaned over and kissed the back of her neck. Rainbow shivered at the touch. “Sounds like a plot worthy of Daring Do …” he whispered.

“Speaking of plots—” Rainbow smirked and turned around, placing a pair of hooves on his flanks “—perhaps you would close the door, mm?” She gave a nod towards the door where the flickering light of a torch shone through.

The changeling gave her a mischievous grin and stood up.

Rainbow watched him close the door and turn back around in the dark. “And then perhaps the black knight would like his princess,” she said.

Comments

[Listie The Scribe Maid]

(Joke) Alt. Title: raIInbow: The Sequel!

[Froglover06]

Epicness, and I'm glad you cut off that last part! :P

[adcoon]

2027427

Heh, except then it would have to have a prequel

2027480

I bet a lot of people are

[Astarea]

Oh my...

[x3racer]

Hmm. Having Dash officially betray her friends... She would no longer be Loyalty, correct? No, I'd think not. She (at least, this she) should no longer be connected to the Elements, if the need arose.

[adcoon]

2027633

Depends on how you look at it. She believes she's doing it to save them from themselves, and she's willing to sacrifice herself to make sure they live. She's determined to save them. She may be misguided or her actions may in fact be what saves them (we'll have to see), but it's still loyal.

[Rainbow87dash]

Actually the way I see it. The Rainbow with the heartbeat has the heart, the love and the courage
The Rainbow with the breath has the opposite, so she should DIE!

[adcoon]

2029553

Or you could say that the one with the heart is just a body without a soul, and thus without what makes Rainbow Dash who she is, while the one with the breath is everything Rainbow Dash is, excep the body. Or maybe it's not as simple as all that

[Rainbow87dash]

Nah my idea sounds better

[Froglover06]

2027487 Hey, I think my other comment predicted the beggining of the next chapter... Go down a bit beyond my last one and you'll see it.

[Timaeus]

As much as I love these philosophic debates and queries, I think I'm just gonna wait for the next chapter

Aaaaaand I'm still not sure what to make of Eden. At first I don't trust her at all (because who would, right?), then I start to believe what she's saying and start to doubt Luna, and now I'm right back to square one. Not keeping promises made to giant creatures that aren't really all that giant who have suffered for the greater part of their existence rubs me the wrong way. Not happy with you Eden Rainbow on the other hoof just got a whole lot more badass

[adcoon]

2036589

Ah, but who says she didn't keep her promise? She might have planned this all along when she dropped the key in the well for Rainbow to find

[Timaeus]

2036776

This...is fact. Okay, I'm calling it. No more trying to guess what Eden/Luna/Rainbow/Dash/ANYPONY meant by anything or trying to guess what's going to happen to them or I'll just give myself a headache

Still maintaining that Rainbow got a whole lot more badass though. That and congrats, I for once have very little inkling of where this story will go and what will happen next. Rainbow has a plan, great. But when do plans ever work out as planned? Or, it could work out. Who knows? Answer: you. And I look forward to the next chapter

[adcoon]

2036806

Hehe, yeah, Rainbow is awesome And oh yes, I know what's going to happen, and how it's all going to end. I'm glad that I can keep the suspense and mystery going, and it's always fun to see people speculate

[bvdwow]

WTH! Not again Rainbow! this is the second time! I hate and love this story and this chapter made me have mixed feeling cuz the beginning and middle were good then came the ending