Rainbow Dash's life is full of colour: of sunrises and sunsets that dance, of skies so blue you can taste them, of prisms that fracture light and fill one's soul with rainbows. Truly, it is a life where she couldn't ask for more.
Why do ponies fear that? It's as if they're scared of beauty. Or maybe scared of her, possibly.
If only they'd let her enlighten them. But maybe today will be a luckier day...
I know I made promises about what my 50th fic would be. Trust me, I do have them in mind and I will finish writing and publish them, for your sakes and mine. I just didn't want to write two romance stories in a row, that's all, and I figured that I could shake things up a little and try something new.
Art commissioned from the ever-wonderful Cyonix!
Thanks to Flashgen for helping me write this. And my sincerest thanks to Hay Tea for making this possible.
Someone's come down with a bad case of fascination, too much Lantern. Not to worry, just needs a bit of shadow to dim the light, a touch of miserum to pull perspective back down to the ground. It's not a problem unless she's left to keep on stumbling into new influences...
What? I'm very, very intrigued
I'm flabbergasted, and that's not an emotion a story gives me often.
Then this dragon pfp gives me what might be lore and I need to know what's happening
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I want to say Venerable Ro is hinting at Cultist Simulator lore, but I couldn't get into that game far enough to really understand much.
I feel like the e tag is going to turn t real quick
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I don't know that game, so, well, yea.
toot toot on the what's going on train
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It's a very applicable game really. And our effervescing friend here is the very spitting image of one of the less desirable endings.
Ah yes, I see that Rainbow Dash has become an optimistic nihilist, which is the best kind of nihilist if you ask me.
"Hello, yes, I am normal Rainbow Dash, saying normal Rainbow Dash things. Is your skin comfortable?"
Fascinating and horrifying stuff thus far. Looking forward to seeing where it leads. And what state Twilight's in at the moment.
Wow. Beautifully written, even though I can't understand what's going on. Is Rainbow a ghost?
I'll follow and maybe I'll find out.
"I like this, it's strange, what is rainbow dash doing to ponys."
I'm serious, what the fuck did she do to the wonderbolt.
Peace,
-Ya Boi Satan
This needs a mystery tag. I'll be watching very closely xD
There is iridescent light, art, and copper wire under your skin.
wow
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Though that probability is still greater than zero.
Fascinating bit of horror. The loss of self in overwhelming, sanity-rending beauty is a rarely explored concept, and you execute it incredibly well here. Thank you for it.
Well, this second part was definitely worth the wait, so to speak, since I was definitely curious to know what would happen when Rainbow met with Twilight... not often you see a story from the perspective of someone slowly becoming corrupted into a monster, after all.
Nicely done, Petri. 
Well that was a fascinating critter and no mistake, very eldritch. And for once in a clear gemstone-geometry sort of way instead of gribbly with tentacles all over.
Complete??? Oh no! It was so fascinating!
Do these ideas come from folklore from somewhere, or did you come up with it yourself?
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These days? Stuff tends to come more from whatever I'm listening to than anything else in particular, and that's in more of a vibes-based sense than in a literal-translation-based sense. These days, I've been listening to Drum & Bass / Drumstep more than anything else in particular, hence things being a bit eclectic.
I should peruse folklore more often, though! I know it's not exactly the same thing, but I read a story recently that was modeled on a 19th-century ballad (which itself was modeled on 7th-century ballads and sans metatext was about a 13th-century event), and the whole thing had a feel to it that was simultaneously grounded and fantastical. Riveting stuff. I could learn something from it, I think.
In any case, sorry it wasn't longer! I hadn't intended for this to be a big, sweeping mystery-thing; just something that was meaty enough that it needed to be broken up into a couple of chunks for clarity's sake. Glad you (and all the other commenters here, for the record) liked it, though!
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So the idea was original with you? Wow! I could never come up with such a plot or such a creature/character.
Honestly this chapter felt more like a tearjerker than horror. Though I guess that tragedy tag must be there for a reason... oh no...
I thought we were just getting started :(
I read this and really liked it. I didn't really understand the fact that Rainbow was hurt and got magic sparkle vision from being healed.
I think everyday her memory resets for some reason, too, but it isn't implied.
Great work!
God this is still one of the most amazing stories I've read in a long, long, LONG time. Good job!
Oh god, Sheogorath has corrupted Rainbow! Soon she'll be asking for cheese!
Holy crap, that was one amazing read, short as it is.
It feels like I'm reading an epilogue to some Lovecraftian horror story. There's something wrong for sure, but Rainbow doesn't even know it, and I don't even know for sure how to approach it, and it doesn't seem like it's fixable, regressing more and more until there's nothing left of Rainbow but pure, distilled rainbow.
That was a fantastic little story. The ending line also reminded me of Somewhere Only We Know, which is kind of funny
Wow! This was such a great read. Has such a ripe amount of chill and mystery and intrigue. And perfectly encapsulated why disguised horror is my favorite kind of horror.
Loved it! Imma follow you.
Wow! This was so fascinating to read. I liked the mystery to it and that slowly developing sense of wrongness about Dash and how she was viewing the world was done so wonderfully. Felt so bad for Twilight during this chapter, but also terrified of the thoughts Dash kept having about her. Love how the foreboding ending clashed so well with her sunny/enthusiastic thoughts about her situation. Your word choices and sentence structure throughout the story also added so much to the overall vibe of the fic. Very awesome story! :)
Despite the plenty of sunlight and rainbows, the atmosphere of this story is really dark.
On the one hand there is a desire to read the sequel to see if Twilight could find a solution... But on the other hand the story works as it is.
poring
splendour
Where loyalty goes to die, the Incandescent light fills the void.
It feels like this sort of cut off, even slightly earlier then a cliffhanger should of. No real context on what Dash is really doing.
No real idea what what Twilight was surprised by or planning.
This really good story feels more like a concept piece then a open ended story, unless I missed some subtle details.
Ray Bradbury would approve.