What I planned with chapter was just really fucking boring. Seriously, after the previous chapter I feel this was a real let down.
Do you know what happens when they're 10?
They go to their grandparents house and Dash is taught the violin.
That's it.
Like, seriously, how boring is that?!
I mean, there's a little more than that but that's the gist of it.
Like, it's a tradition for the eldest Rainbow mare to learn when they become 10, and Swirl just can't do it, but Dash has some knack for it.
I don't like this. I decided this when I was first planning this story about 6 years ago, when I thought Dash being able to play violin was cool, but it's not really.
I am planning on using it though, that's why I'm mentioning it here. The fact that Dash can play the violin at some point becomes relevant to the story as some character building thing.
Was gonna have a little story about how Blaze and Thunder met, but I have since pulled that out of this pony bullshit and am actually using it with humans, as the fact they are ponies doesn't really affect the story. I'm sure you're totally disappointed not hearing it, as it's really quite lovely, but tough. I'm not trapping other ideas in this pony fan fic hole. I'm glad I got a couple freed.
Seen my story 'Apple “Buck” Season'? Well I took that and made it absolutely amazing and it has nothing to do with ponies (of the Little variety, there's still horses)! I'm hoping Netflix will take it up once I finish it.
I was gonna do some nice little “fun facts” about this story. Like, what inspired me? Why the long hiatus? Why did I come back to it? What the fuck am I doing with my life?
You know, just the usual questions.
But I had a better idea. A little couple stories that got in my head. A little bit more character about Rainbow, because, let's face it, this story was always about her, and I managed to come up with a character scary enough to actually wake me up in a semi-lucid dream I had last night. Anyway, let's have a couple nightmares.
(WARNING: The following section features gore)
It was late. So late that some might even call it early. Dash couldn't sleep. All night she tossed and turned this way and that. Nothing was comfortable enough, no matter how tired she was.
Every slight noise roared in her ears. The birds in the distance whistling at the first rays of the sun. The gentle breeze running through the leaves of the tree in the back garden. The boiler gently purring in the small room between her and her mother's bedroom. It was all so quiet, but not for her.
The bed was lumpy. The quilt was itchy. The cuddly toy was on the floor, and her exhausted body couldn't reach it. She gave up. She resided herself to a sleepless night and just relaxed her body and hope sleep would eventually find her.
The door creaked. She thought nothing of it. Most likely Swirl was trying to sneak to the bathroom. It closed again. Among the quiet came a slightly louder noise,like breathing, but deeper, yet it was hidden within the noise from the boiler so it couldn't quite be heard.
She was motionless. Sleep was finally washing over her but was snatched away. The mattress springs crunched beneath her as a large weight was placed on it. The breathing was louder. Dash didn't want to look. She kept her eyes shut tight and held her breath.
It got louder and louder until she could feel the hairs on the back of her ears waft in it. Her curiosity got the better of her. All she saw was a flash of black, lifeless eyes before she felt its teeth dig into her tongue. She was blind from pain. Only feeling her tongue getting ripped from her mouth, dragging her throat with it.
She sat bolt upright. Hoof firmly clamped over her mouth, checking her tongue was still there. It was.
It was still pitch black. No light through the curtains of the early morning sun, Just the gentle glow of the alarm clock and the light from the cracks in the bathroom door spilling slightly through the open door to the bedroom. It must have been Swirl going to the loo.
Her breath shook and her body was drenched in a cold sweat. Her eyes scanned the darkness for any sign of something out of the ordinary. There was nothing. The bedroom was the same and the boiler was doing its own thing.
She reached for the glass of water on the bedside table, but knocked it to the floor with a clatter.
With a panicked gasp of air she went to pick it up. The floor was soaked, how one little glass could have got the carpet that wet didn't make sense.
She looked up over the small gap between the two beds and saw that the wood was dripping quietly with something dark. She could make out Swirl lying on her bed with some huge creature atop her.
Suddenly the slight noises she dismissed as nothing were all too loud in her ears. The sound of her sister choking, gargling on her own blood. The sound of a horrid squelching as the beast slid its tongue down her throat. The sound of it sliding out.
She could see her sister's life drain from her body as her blood poured from her mouth. She could see the monster pull back, retracting its tongue, pulling something with it. She could see the bulge in her sister's throat as her heart was ripped from her chest through her mouth.
It bit down on the heart and swallowed.
It saw her below. Its jaw cracked and lips quivered in anticipation before it lunged at her.
Dash didn't scream, as that would let it in. Instead she locked her hoof against her mouth. It stopped dead in its tracks.
It was big. Bigger than her mum. Bigger than the room. Legs scrawny, like about to snap. Its skin was putrid and strecthed over its body so taught you could see the pulsing of its veins and bulging of what muscles it had. Eyes glinted black and souless. Its mouth full of crooked, razor sharp teeth stained with old and fresh blood.
Dash stared, panting but not breathing. She felt its long, barbed tongue trace around her face, traling her sister's blood over her cheek. It was waiting for her, and it wouldn't stop. It knew Dash was tired and all it had to do was wait for her to fell asleep and open her mouth.
But the bathroom light clicked off and the door shut to her mother's room. The monster looked away and followed it.
Dash didn't move. Terrified that anything could bring it back here, to her. But she saw her sister's lifeless corpse and couldn't bear the thought of that happening to her mother. Carefully she followed the monster.
It was gone. Nowhere to be seen. How did something so huge disappear without a sound?
She stood by her mother's door and knocked.
“Mummy?” she asked, voice cracking with fear. Pushed the door open. Rainbow was laying there, just rolled over to face Dash.
“What is it Sweetie?” Rainbow groaned through tired throat and blurry eyes.
“There's a monster. It got Swirl and I don't want it to get you too.”
Rainbow jumped back and screamed. Over Dash's head the monster launched itself at Rainbow, pinning her to the bed. She tried to force herself free but it was too strong.
Dash jumped up to help. “Cover you mouth!”
But Rainbow couldn't. The monster lowered its face to hers.
“GET OFF MUMMY!” Dash shouted, but instead of scaring it off it only looked at her and her unprotected, open mouth. It advanced on her, neck snapping towards her and she had no time to act.
Seconds away from death she was saved as Rainbow had wrenched a hoof free and snapped its head to face hers. She knew she couldn't fight it, but while it busied itself with her she knew Dash could run away, far away, to safety.
But Dash couldn't move. She was pinned under the monster's jagged hoof, digging its way into her spine. Not able to look away she was forced to watch it.
Its head fell onto Rainbow's and it latched its mouth around her, teeth stabbing through her tongue. With a strong tug it pulled back slowly, ripping her tongue from her. She could feel the blood begin to pool in her throat but there was nothing she could do. Soon she started choking and gagging, trying everything she could to get another breath.
Its tongue fell from its mouth, glistening wet with blood and spit, and played it down Rainbow's throat. Blood spurted around, fired from Rainbow's mouth, as it went deeper and deeper, its barbs cutting as it went. It stopped halfway down, lingering as if it was enjoying it. It retracted slightly before slamming it further inside, its head an inch from hers. The sharp point of the tongue pierced her throat, her lungs, and wrapped itself around her heart, digging in for a tight grip.
This is when she felt it. Life was leaving her. She could do nothing but feel the immense pain of her heart being ripped from its place, the veins and arteries exploding in her chest, the air pulled from her lungs and replaced with a torrent of blood. She could feel it as it tugged slowly back out, the monster savouring the sensation of fighting the faling muscles in her body.
The last thing she saw before it all went dark and she was no more was her dripping heart being pulled up into the mouth of the beast. And the last thing she thought was how her daughter was next.
Rainbow woke up screaming, loud as though she was about to die. In a panic she exploded from the room and into her daughters'. The light flicked on and she saw them in their beds, sat up, wondering what was happening.
“What's happening, Mummy?” Dash asked.
“Was that you waking us up?” Swirl asked grumpily.
Rainbow didn't say anything. The relief of seeing her daughters alive after watching them die was overwhelming. Quickly she grabbed them both and squeezed them as hard as she could.
“It's okay. Everything is okay. You're alive and that's all that matters,” she mumbled on repeat to herself. Her fillies were still confused, as was Jet who followed her in.
“Are you okay?” Jet asked.
“I had a nightmare,” Rainbow told them as she caught a sob. She could still feel its tongue down her throat. “I had the worst nightmare, but its okay. But I need to sleep with you two tonight.”
She hugged her filles tighter. They were okay with this, given how many times Rainbow had done this for them they felt they should repay the favour.
All four of them lay in her bed. Rainbow didn't sleep, just in case the monster came back.
(WARNING: There is no more gore)
Well... that was better in my head, as all horror stuff is better in a visual format, especially that which relies heavily on a more gory, visceral nature.
Canonically I'm not sure when this takes place. I have put it here after Shine's death and when Jet has moved in, but to be honest it could have been before, just... I don't know. The point is that doesn't matter. The next one, however, does happen in this chapter canonically. Hopefully it's better too.
The beating on Rainbow's door by littler hooves was frantic and worrying, but it soon stopped as they burst in.
“Mum!” Dash said loudly as she dove onto the bed, and Swirl was just behind.
Rainbow turned and looked to them. A little disappointed that she was being interupted of her sleeping, totally her sleeping, definitely nothing involving waking Jet up. But she could see that they were worried about something. Something had frightened them enough to jump into her bed, despite being a little too old for it. So this had to be bad.
“What's wrong?” she asked as she gently stroked them.
“We had a bad dream,” Swirl told her.
“What? Both of you?”
“That's what makes it scarier,” Dash said. Normally she hated admitting she was scared of anything, but this was a little too much.
Rainbow snorted a little laugh. “Oh boo. Come here and tell me about it.”
Dash and Swirl looked to each other. Dash started. “Well, last night we was telling scary stories about a monster.”
“Like, for ages,” Swirl added. “It was nearly one in the morning.”
“Yeah, and we focused on this one monster. And it really scared me.”
“And me.”
“Yeah, and we didn't like it.”
Rainbow looked at them in disbelief. Both having a nightmare was possible, but dreaming of the same monster? “What did it look like?”
“It was big,” Dash said hurriedly, like she didn't enjoy talking about it.
“Really big. And black.”
“Yeah, like really black. Couldnt see it in the dark black. And full of holes.”
“Yeah, with bugs crawling through them. You could see it's heart through on of the patches sew on it.”
“And it had too many teeth and fangs.”
Rainbow had heard enough. She could see it, standing in the corner, neck bent as it tried to fit on the room, staring its mismatched eyes at her as its smile grew wider than possible.
“Hello, Rainbow. It's been a while.”
Rainbow felt her lungs squeeze and her heat beating like mad over her body. Mind blank yet racing as she watched the monster get closer. She scurried into the corner, dripping in a cold sweat, as it stepped onto her bed with its massive hoof.
It brought its face close to hers. She could smell its breath.
She screamed death.
The others tried to comfort her as the scream travelled beyond the house and down the street. They tried everything they knew, every trick there was to bringing Rainbow out of an attack, yet somehow it never worked. None of it. They were lost.
“We need Nanny!” Swirl demanded.
Dash was on it. Through the bedroom window she flew like a bullet for her grandparents' and knocked frantically on their window.
Thunder got up and looked outside, surprised and worried to see his dear granddaughter floating outside at this time of night.
“Dash?”
“Mum is screaming real bad and we can't get her to stop.”
Thunder stared, he didn't understand. “Why is she screaming?”
“We told her about a monster were dreamed of and she started screaming.”
Thunder's expression grew horrid, as if he knew and dreaded already the answer. “Was it big and full of holes?”
Dash nodded. “Yeah. How did you-?”
Thunder didn't let her finish. “Go get uncie. Tell him what you told me and he'll be able to help. We'll go to yours and help Rainbow the best we can.”
Dash nodded and did as she was told.
It wasn't long before the family were round. Rainbow was still screaming murder. The police were on their way after a call from a worrying neighbour.
“I got uncie!” Dash stated firmly, thinking this would solve everything, and she was right.
“Stand back, guys.” Star approached Rainbow as they about to try and calm her with the normal method of pinning her down and screaming her name, but as he drew close he started backing away, and somehow she followed him, being drawn by some mysterious force to follow. Perhaps it was a twin thing, none of them knew, but somehow it stopped her, as she knew the monster was behind her, and that, for some reason, allowed her to put it out of mind.
Thunder and Blaze had taken the children and Jet downstairs, carrying with them a small box they had brough from
home.
“We were worried this might happen,” Blaze started. “It shouldn't have done, but I guess it was only a temporary fix.”
“What's going on?” Jet asked.
Thunder sighed. “Rainbow was a troubled child. Always she had nightmares. Always some horrible monster out to get her in some way. When she was five we figured out a way to solve it though.”
Blaze took a pile of papers out of the box, at least a reem full, all with drawings on. “She found it difficult to explain them, so we asked her to draw them. So she did, and she did so carefully, as she would normally, and got as much detail as possible. This one, this tentacle monster also tried to squeeze her eyes out. This, the heart eater, got your heart through your mouth. This blob could always find her no matter how well she hid and it trapped her from running away.”
There were more monsters drawn, all drawn amazingly, all centred around Rainbow, showing them what they did to her.
“It was as if drawing them meant they couldn't be in her dreams because they were in this box, so whenever she had a nightmare she would draw it and put it away, and the monster wouldn't bother her again. But then there's this one.”
Blaze took the one at the bottom of the pile. It wasn't like the others. It was barely more than a stick figure, drawn crudely with a crayon, the only detail being the red and green eyes and the fact it was black as the night.
“She couldn't draw this one.” Thunder said as he looked over it. “She tried, bless her, but this was as far as she ever got. And even this scared her. No. There was something different about this one. It was almost real.
“It didn't stay in her dreams. It followed her everywhere and would creep up on her when she didn't want it. We think it's what started her panic attacks. It was hard to manage. Only Star knows how to stop it.”
“We tried to get her help,” Blaze told them. “We went to the doctors and got her head scanned, but there was nothing abnormal. The physchiatrist couldn't find anything wrong either, said it was just her imagination. But we needed something, because she refused to sleep because it waited for her.
“That's when we tried hypnosis. There's a professional in Canterlot who deals in deep, psychotic issues like this, and what he did was bury it, lock it away behind so many barriers that it could never resurface. But it has. And that's the worrying thing. It came back, but through you.”
Thunder nodded. “Yeah. Something is not right about it. Something unnatural. Especially if it managed to get Rainbow through someone else.”
Dash grabbed a selection of drawings. It was unnerving to see such horrible images drawn by a child, some grotesque that made her stomach churn. But it came to this one, the scrawl of a stick figure, it sent a shiver of fear through her body. She could sense the fear and terror in the one who drew it just by how the crayon was used. It was evil.
Ugh...
Fuck it. It's not that interesting really is it? I drew this character once and I liked it, so I used it a little before realising it would work better in this form than the Changeling Prince that it was originally. Essentially a Changeling that ate fear, not love, as Chrysallis' first children were abominations.
They sort it out though. Don't really want to write it though so I'll just tell you.
Rainbow and Jet are walking to the appointment with the hypnotist, with Rainbow still a little hysterical and jumping at everything. They are near the Everfree Forest but are stopped by a young zebra coming the other way.
She stops them and inspects the situation, clearly sensing something evil about them. She convinces them to follow her into the forest where the trees are thicker.
Some weird smelling salts are used and Rainbow falls asleep. She draws odd lines in gunk over Jet's body, following the contours mostly with some artistic licence, and she makes him do the same to her, followed by both on Rainbow.
She places some incences around, giving off a hideous smell that fills the nostrils. With this everything goes black, except for the waves of smell and the neon colours given off by the body paints. It's an odd little ritual, spoken in some language Jet is not familiar with, but he's in a trance as he mimics the way her body is moving, it was very fluid.
Something evil comes from Rainbow, drawn out by the whole thing, and is placed in a bottle.
Zecora, because who else, slams the lid on the bottle. Light returns to the world. The paint is no longer glowing and the incence has burnt out. Rainbow stirs and wakes.
Both are very confused, but Zecora places the bottle carefully into her satchel and heads into the forest, not waiting for a thank you as she didn't need it.
Rainbow can remember the monster, but only it no longer has any power over her. It's not real anymore and can't bother her again.
They leave and head off home to wash off the paint.