Rainbow Dash
“Alright, What’s wrong with you?” Celestia asked. It’s been about four hours since I signed the contract, and shortly after bringing Scootaloo here, Celestia asked for me alone to help her deal with Fluttershy.
“I-I don’t know. I-It’s like we’re losing the t-thing that keeps us separate! Hehe… T-The control I had on h-her powers is slipping into claws! Hehe...” Fluttershy giggled as she wagged what looked to be a scraggly wolf’s paw mixed with a dragon claw, like it was somewhere in between. Her coat had turned to a strange, sickly looking fur at that spot, one that I remembered all too well.
“How long has this been going on?” I asked.
“I-It started about a m-month ago, after our long awaited r-reunion hehe…” she half said half giggled like a school filly. I’ve met the beast once before… long ago.
“Well, luckily, I remember how I fixed this the first time it happened. Well, at least I hope this works.” I concentrated and formed a small crystal out of my blood. I took the crystal with my wing and held it out for Fluttershy. “Eat this. Once my blood starts working, it should separate your personalities again… or at least make you normal.” The red eye looked to smile while the blue-green seemed to frown.
“E-Eat… your blood?” she said half excited and half afraid. I nodded.
“I don’t know what causes it, or why it works, but this is what separated you the first time it happened. Take it or don’t.” The red eye looked to Celestia, who nodded in response and she just about chomped down on my feathers along with the crystal. The beast cracked and chewed the crystal with her pointed teeth and fangs like a dog and a slab of meat. She swallowed the pieces and just after a few seconds, she fell to the floor and started convulsing. Celestia moved, but I stopped her. “Give it a second.” Her body continued to shake as the paralysis started to spread, and then finally, like nothing ever happened, it all settled.
“You have to be careful not to get any blood on her skin, that’s what triggers the full transformation. She bit me when she lost it back when we were foals. I guess she must’ve swallowed some of my blood when she did, and then she fell to the ground convulsing like that. She went back to normal shortly after. I wouldn’t actually learn how toxic my blood is until several years down the road, but this was the first sign that I had powers.” Fluttershy blinked a few times, looked to Celestia, then looked at me. Both her eyes were back to being green-blue like they should be. She moved so fast that I couldn’t react, and suddenly I found myself in a hug.
“I-I can’t believe you’re really here! I-I thought you died that day… W-what happened, Fire? Y-You… you never came b-back… and your parents…” I pushed her off and I shook my head.
“That’s… not my name anymore, and it’s part of the whole story. I owe it to Scootaloo more than anypony else, since she’s part of it too.” I looked to Celestia and asked, “Do you think she’s about ready to wake up now?” Her horn began to glow with a soft golden light and then she nodded.
“The sleep spell will wear off in about ten minutes. I doubt she’ll feel very well, but I trust her ears will have healed enough. Her body is simply a marvel. By the time I got to her, her right eardrum had already recovered from the damage and her left wasn’t completely busted. I’m sure you heard the sound that thing made, and she was just meters away from it. Even Goose sustained some damage because of that, and he was wearing protection.” Celestia said that with a hint of childlike awe in her voice. She looked as if she were staring away into the distance, then shook herself out of it. “I’m sorry. As you might know by fighting her yourself, she’s more than just a special breed.” I’ll say. Her strength is unreal and the fact that she managed to dodge my sword at my best is more than just skill. Whatever magic she was taught to do that trump card thing must have some kind of crazy backlash if it broke her legs to pieces.
“You got that right. So uh… I don’t know if I should be asking this, but the things I’m about to talk about can’t be used in court against me, right?” I asked with a nervous laugh. Celestia sighed and shook her head.
“No. As with the other members of Harmony, you and Scootaloo will be protected and managed directly by the royal family, or: myself, my sister and Twilight. But I assume you figured that out on your own.” So they are related! But if that’s the case, which one’s the mother? Or better yet, who’s the father?
“I see. Well, I guess I’ll go mentally prepare myself to tell my little sister all the truths that I’ve been lying about for the past four years,” I muttered through a sigh. I felt a warm wing around my shoulder.
“I’m sure she’ll forgive you. It could be worse, after all. You didn’t have to tell your daughter that she’s to be a prisoner because of a mistake you made that affected the whole populace,” She whispered. I looked up to see her eyes and felt a kind of bond in them. So you’re the mother. Now I have to wonder… did you do? I nodded in her reassurance and made my way to the round table at the center of the living room, followed by Celestia and Fluttershy. Since all six of the main chairs had occupants, I just took a folding chair for scoots and I and put them between Applejack and Goose’s chair. I took a seat and then shut everything else out to figure out where I’m gonna start this. I realized that Fluttershy was kind of being kept in quarantine and that my story might conflict with what she wants.
“Um… Princess?” She stopped on her way to the bedroom hall.
“Yes?”
“So… my story starts when I was real young, and meeting Fluttershy changed my life, literally… but I met… both of them. Should I…?” Celestia nodded.
“If you feel that it’s important, then they should know. I keep it a secret at her request and as an agreement with the Beast. What about you? I suppose this is the truth that you’ve been trying to hide. Are you prepared to let them know?” Fluttershy shrugged.
“F- er, R-Rainbow knows the whole story, I-I couldn’t hide it from G-Goose and he knows more than s-she does, and Applejack nearly got s-stabbed by her, so that’s h-half the group already. I-If Rarity knows more than s-she should, then I don’t know about it. T-The only ones I can say are t-truly in the dark are the usuals.” That’s more like it. I can’t believe she still remembers my old name after all these years. Heh. I wonder if she has a copy of that game lying around somewhere? That’d bring back some memories.
“I suppose that would be a yes then. The things you say here will never leave this room, provided my sister cares not enough to know your past,” Celestia said in a bitter tone. She huffed and shook her head. “Never mind. I’ll go check on Applejack… and most likely Goose. Gather the rest and tell them you’re ready to start.” Then she disappeared down the hall.
“Well, lead the way. I still don’t really know this place all that well,” I said as I motioned toward Fluttershy. She stood and stretched herself out, then beckoned me to follow her down the hall at the back of the living room.
“So, before I start this, I’d like to thank you guys for letting us in. I know we weren’t always on the same side, and… I haven’t really been a good guy for a long time, but I’m glad I’m getting the chance to change that.” Scoots tilted her head.
“What do you mean ‘haven’t been the good guy?’” I sighed. So it begins.
“I’ll get there, but I’ll just go ahead and say that you’re… probably not gonna like this. The image you have of me and who I really am are two completely different ponies… literally. Rainbow Dash… isn’t even my real name,” I admitted. Scootaloo raised an eyebrow and just stared at me.
“Really. With a mane like that, you’re telling me that your name isn’t really ‘Rainbow?’” she said sarcastically. I nodded.
“Well, to be fair, my dad’s mane is just like this, and his name isn’t ‘rainbow’ either. But, I suppose that isn’t relevant or important right now.” I looked back to the rest of the group and Blur… er, Pinkie was raising her hoof. “Uh… yes?” I asked.
“Is this gonna be another sad story? Because let me tell you, there’s plenty of those around here. This isn’t really gonna be a fun night if that’s the case.” I put my hoof to my chin and ran through it again.
“Hmm… not really? I mean, well kinda. It has sad parts? I don’t really think about it like that. All the things that I’ve gone through make me who I am today, so if none of this ever happened, then I wouldn’t be the same pony. Sure, it’s probably not the best outcome, but it’s the one I got, so I’ll own it as mine.” Applejack raised her good hoof to me for a hoof bump.
“That’s what Ah like ta hear, even if it does sound strangely distant and kinda fuzzy. That’s the magic doin’ that right?” she uncertainly asked the princess, who nodded in response. “Good. Also, somethin’ somethin’, protection ain’t shit when yer me.” She stuck her tongue out at Goose.
“Oh, what-ever, you know that you’re just lucky you didn’t lose half your hearing. Next time, we’re going to prepare for this kinda shit,” Goose shot back.
“Speakin’ of, Ah know that tonight is story night, but when are we gonna get inta what the rest of the kaiju are? Ah feel like that’s kinda important.” At this, Scootaloo’s ears perked up and she pulled a small device out of the bag she had with her.
“Ooh, that’s right! Uh… our friend? said to give this to you. It has all of the files on the Kaiju from… Persona’s hideout. Gosh, I don’t know why this is so hard to remember. Like, I know all this stuff, but then I can’t remember who told me everything,” Scoot said scratching her head. Well, if Celestia can just search around in my head and hear my thoughts if I’m not actively trying to block her out, then she could likely dig up a whole ton of information from you. If somepony finds out too early, then we’re screwed. Sweetie's Belle's sister, Rarity Belle, or Diamond Nodded in accord.
“Sounds like you had a run in with the same pony that helped me infiltrate the lower floors of Argent HQ. I can still remember the code she gave me to get into the basement for the elevator, even the words she said then, but her name and face are gone as if those memories are just missing a piece. Like a white fog is just cut out of them.”
“And this pony is your… partner, correct?” Celestia asked. I could feel my body tense up.
“Yeah, but just letting others know her face is a pretty big risk. The only reason she didn’t take anything from me is because she still needs me to be her liaison to you guys in the event she finds anything new.” And this is still the truth, it’s just not all of it. Celestia lowered her snout and returned to a sitting position next to Twilight. Geez, even their bodies are just about the same proportion wise. What, did the princess get drunk and have a one night stand with some random guard? Love children don’t look good for politician, and for the ageless princess, it’s almost like a betrayal of the ponies trust.
“Very well. I will trust your contact’s judgment. In any case, I think I’d like to know how you’ve come to be what you are. I always find that the stories of those who’ve lost and chose to improve their stance in life the most inspiring.” And I really hope that means she’s gonna drop it. Well, here we go.
“When I was born, I was not a healthy baby. There were complications from conception to birth, but somehow, I made it out alive. I’ve been anemic all my life, and when I was little, it was about a trip to the hospital a week, be it for a transfusion for my unusually low blood cell production, or I found a way to hurt myself and lost enough blood to pass out, even if it was just a little. I was born premature, and I’ve never been very big either. When you add all this up, you get a very frail, very small filly.
My parents tried their hardest to support me, and encouraged me at every turn, but I was just so weak that I couldn’t really ever do anything a normal foal my age could, and I spent half my days in the hospital. I knew more ponies at the Cloudsdale hospital than I did anywhere else. It got to the point where my medical bills were getting too expensive for just my dad to support us, so my mom had to go back to work. They couldn’t leave me alone, so I was sent to daycare, where this story really begins.
From that description, and who I am now, you’d probably think that there’s no way I could’ve become so strong with all the problems associated with my poor constitution, right? Truth is, I really didn’t. I wasn’t actually very healthy at all until I met Scootaloo here. Something about the transfusions I get from her just kinda fixed my frailty. As for my personality though… that was because of her.” I pointed at Fluttershy, who was not appreciative of the attention.
“Contrary to who she is now, Fluttershy was… kind of a bully back in the day.” Ninety percent of the room tilted their heads and Goose nodded.
“I figured, but I bet I know more than anypony else. Please, continue,” he said, waving a hoof. I looked at him, then at Fluttershy, who just shrugged and nodded.
“Oh… kay… Anyways, I met Fluttershy in daycare, about a year before we started school. She was a little weird and had a little following of ponies, and somepony she referred to as Fluffy, who we all thought was her imaginary friend. ‘Thought’ being the key word here. She was strangely large for her age, and kind of took advantage of that. In her defense, her parents are probably the pony equivalent of doormats, and her younger brother was more like her plaything than a pony. She got anything she ever asked for, and nopony had ever said ‘no’ to her, so she took offense when I did back then. We fought the first time, I got hurt and my parents caused a fuss, her parents disciplined her for the first time, and just like that, we hated each other.
Later down the road, after about a month of this went on, a new group of kids joined the daycare. Their names were Hoops, Spiral, and Kilogram, and they decided that the daycare was their place on the day they arrived. These colts were also big for their age, and strong enough to overpower Fluttershy when she fought back. It didn’t go well for anypony involved, honestly.
The saying goes, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ and in a strange twist of fate, Fluttershy and I teamed up to confront the bullies when the daycare workers were trading shifts. The fight started and got out of hoof way too quick. She was a little crazy back then, and grabbed a pair of scissors in an attempt to stab one of them. Her plan worked, to a degree, and she managed to cut one. This really pissed them off, and said pony punched her in the face, slinging his own blood on her skin.
Then Fluffy came out to play. Her body started to grow and change, her eyes became as red as blood and she looked like a monster. She slammed each of the bullies one after the other into the walls and floor, giving them injuries they wouldn’t soon forget. Once they were dealt with, Fluffy turned on me. I still remember her words.
‘I just wanted you to like me and you never did!’ she roared in my face. This brought the daycare workers back pretty quick, but she was far beyond the strength of the average adult like this. She planted both of them into the wall. I made an attempt to stand up to her, but then she got tired of me. She went for my neck with her teeth, and I was nowhere near fast enough to try and dodge it.” I rubbed at my collar and shook my head. “She bit me, and she bit me hard. I just about passed out from the shock and pain, but as soon as it had started, it stopped. Her teeth fell away and she started shaking wildly. I watched the gruesome transformation back to her pony form until I finally passed out myself. When next I woke up, the bite was gone entirely, like it’d never happened, and I was in my hospital bed. I’d been out for several hours, and nopony was sure if I would wake up. The daycare was closed, and I wouldn’t see Fluttershy again until school started.
Nopony ever figured out what happened at the daycare that day, and those involved thought it was just a bad dream, save for one pony. When I found out that Fluttershy and I were in class together on my first day of school, I tried my hardest, and failed, to avoid her. She caught me alone just after school had let out, and dragged me away to talk. To my surprise, she apologized for what happened at the daycare and thanked me for putting ‘Fluffy’ to sleep. What we would later learn is that when Fluttershy experiences extreme stress, the barrier that keeps her other personality separated starts to break and she gets these aggressive streaks until finally, she force activates her powers and triggers the transformation herself.
Why did we learn that though? Well, those bullies showed up again, even if a little further along. The event at the daycare had changed us completely, Fluttershy suddenly being afraid of becoming trapped within herself as a monster, and I became more focused on the idea of justice and heroes. The news of Red Hoof and other heroes started to reach Cloudsdale around that time, and that’s when I decided I wanted to be like them, like the hero who fought for the weak… like me.
Our personalities just about reversed, and the better qualities inside us more present, we became great friends and spent just about all our time together. Life was like this all the way til middle school started. I don’t know about any of you, but I was a late bloomer, so I wasn’t just the normal short that I am now, I was like a five year old in a world of preteens. I hated my height and everypony who could think of a mean spirited way to call me short did. Fluttershy was my saving grace, since she always stuck by me, but when flight training came around and she was… well, bad at it, she got the same kind of bullying that I did.
It didn’t go very well. Her stress kept building, and one day after school, she invited me to come hang out at a park just down the road. If you don’t know, pegasai have a strange magic that can turn clouds into something solid like stone or steel. You can make clouds into hard surfaces if the right pegasus forms it, and that’s how you don’t have random crap like plates and forks falling from the sky. They come in five grades: A, the hardest grade of cloud and something that can stop bullets, B, C, D, and E, which is what any pegasus turns a cloud into when they stand on it and can be destroyed just by stepping in the right place. Parks and structures like schools are all made of A grade cloud to prevent some psycho from just shooting one up.” I noticed Fluttershy look away and flatten her ears when I said that.
“Is… something wrong?” I asked. She sighed and shook her head.
“N-no, we’ll get there. I-It’s your turn right now,” She said, never taking her eyes off the ground. Well… that was weird.
“Okay… So, point of that; the park is made out of really hard cloud, like harder than steel cloud. When we got there, ponies that Fluttershy particularly didn’t like were having themselves a smoke. I’d noticed that she’d been acting weird lately, and on occasion I’d see a flash of red in her eyes. She hadn’t talked about Fluffy in years, so I thought that she might’ve just grown out of it. I was wrong. She started a fight, and she was good with a knife, which she happened to have hidden in her bag. She managed to cut two out of five before she finally got blood on her skin again.
The nightmare from all those years ago happened again and she beat the piss out of those poor kids. I made an attempt to stop her, and it worked, to a degree. She was about to kill one of them, I was sure of it, so I mustered all my strength and beat her over the head with a trashcan. She was so focused on her prey that I managed to beat her reflexes. I was just lucky that the city was too cheap to have a cloud artesian make trash cans too, otherwise I would’ve hit her with something that is harder than steel, but weighs about as much as a pencil.
I picked her up and ran away from the scene after she reverted, and since all those bullies were in pretty bad shape and unconscious, I called the police as soon as we got back to my place. They wouldn’t show up at school again for a few months, and when they came back, they avoided Fluttershy like the devil. I can’t really fault them for it either, even I was afraid of her for a while. But I knew that if I wasn’t around when it happens again, then she might actually kill somepony, and she really was my only friend at the time, so I wasn’t about to just up and abandon her.
Two more years passed without incident, I finally get my growth spurt, which isn’t much to my dismay, I’m accepted into the wonderbolts early training program, and I’m finally getting strong enough to defend myself. Things were great for a while… but good things never last. Final year of middle school, I’d just recently turned twelve since I was put in school kinda early, and things were looking great. It was a few days before we were let out for summer when those three bullies decided to pick a fight with us. They’d finally started their own growth spurts, and even though Fluttershy was freakishly tall for a preteen, no offense, they still met her eye to eye.
She’d been a little stir crazy and I’d managed to keep her calm all through the last couple years, so I was not about to have another incident. In defense of her, I challenged them to a race in hopes of hurting their pride and making them leave us alone. Last we raced, I had the best time, but I’d never been on a real track, and I didn’t know a lot about what all there is to real racing.
They liked the idea and I gave them the choice of where to do it, which was my first mistake. Kilogram’s dad just so happened to be the owner of a particularly famous race track in Cloudsdale known as the Mile High Cliff. If you don’t know, this has its name because of a drop in the track that is literally a mile almost straight down from one ring to another.
Things you should know before I go further: An average pegasus of my age at the time can handle speeds of around 60 mph before completely losing control. A talented pegasus can go faster without losing control, but only with training. They however, were a year older and more experienced with this track since they came to play on it all the time. Combine that with them being colts and just straight up having stronger bodies than I did, I was not in a good position. I should’ve objected here, but I didn’t since I knew I was a better flier than them. The race begins, I can’t keep up on the straights and out corner them at every turn, but the final stretch is just the drop and a straight back to the finish.
If I didn’t try to take the drop at full speed, then I was gonna lose. That would mean I have to be their lackey till the school year ends, and they’d probably pick on Fluttershy till she lost it and killed one or all of them. If you haven’t already figured it out, I never did finish that race. Going as fast as I did with bones as brittle as mine are, they couldn’t hold up to suddenly catching air and trying to lift upward. Instead, my left wing snapped clean off and tore all the skin and muscle holding it in place with it.
Since I passed out at this point, this is all information that my partner told me, but I kept falling faster and faster, then my powers activated for the first time. In a burst of crimson, my body accelerated down to earth and crash landed… in a forest… somewhere. My blood had formed a blanket to slow me down before I hit the ground, then covered me like a shield of magic to keep me from getting hurt too badly.
From there, I was rescued by my partner, who took it upon herself to care for me. She was an old teen at this point, and she was steadily losing her sight. I’d lost a wing and a considerable amount of blood in general, and I was not in good shape for a long time. A whole year would pass before I recovered completely and learned how to deal with my new lack of wing and sudden extension of my body in the form of a liquid. My partner had gone completely blind at this point, and I was finally in position to start trying to return the favor. It was on a trip to the store that I truly learned what my powers were capable of, and my young sense of justice became warped by the darkness that I’d fallen into.