Rainbow's Lonesome Road

by Centurion Pike-Wall


Reflection (Pt. 1)

Void had been sitting in that cave, for almost three weeks. She had plenty of food, and due to all the rain, she also had water. No creature, sentient or not, had come to the cave. So, there was only one problem left for the scarred mare. There was nothing to do. At all.

Back in ponyville, she had two things she hated above all. One, was not being able to fly. She had grown accustomed to not being able to do this, thanks to her missing wing. But the other one was far worse for her. It was not being able to do something, or that something being boring. Sure, reading could be considered boring, but that didn't count in her eyes. If she had a book, any book, then it could be tolerable. Or, really anything to do.

She had done lots of things with what she had. She had made structures out of logs and empty cans. She had been throwing up and catching sticks. She had tried to figure out what to do with the packers of Flour-like stuff; she had found no uses. She had practised her fighting with the sword and knives on the cave wall. Hell, she had even began to take tickmarks on the wall like in Prison escape plays. However, she could not escape the sheer, unrelenting boredom.

Often she would just lay around, doing nothing. What chores she needed to do where not all that time consuming. As stated, food and water were taken care of. Her waste was taken care of by the latrine in the corner of the cave. This was ridiculous! She was Rainbow Dash! She was a mare of action! Not some mope, laying around waiting for her food to run out. But, here she was.

However, that one part of her statement upset her. Was, she Rainbow Dash? Who, or what, was she? She had been broken, and then forced back together in a new shape. She was far from the Energetic, brash, egotistical made who lived in a nice house in ponyville. She was now, little more then an animal. Doing what was needed to merely cling to life. A life that, well, wasn't anything important. She would just be a victim, one of the countless deaths of this harse, unforgiving land.

She then considered the Southlands. Sure, they were dangerous. And sure, the creatures here were a crazy, or opportunistic, or did what they had to. But, it had to have some use. Lots of metal armor was everywhere, and it had to come from somewhere. And she somehow doubted that it was imported from other places. Equestrian would never deal with them, and Griffonstone was in no condition to. Other nations were either down here, or had no reason too. So, this place had to have some mineral wealth. Lots of trees down here, too. Well, she didn't actually know where she was. But she had to guess she was still in the southlands, due to the lack of Pegasi and being unfamiliar with the plants.

But, back on topic. Who had she become? She called herself Void Streak, but she was still much like Rainbow. She had her mane, her coat, her eyes. But, rainbow was gone, killed little by little. She was very much a new pony. One who count onto life desperately. If anypony she once knew was in her place, they wouldn't draw breath. They were either too set in their ways, or simply not able to handle it.

She stood from her lying position, and grabbed the sword. She went over to her makeshift dummy, a stone stalagmite, and began to hit it. Thrust, swipe, swipe, downward slice, upward thrust, repeat. Thrust, swipe, swipe, downward slice, upward thrust, repeat. She would often come up with one of these routines, and practise it for as long as it took to do it fast. However, as she did so, she continued to think, her thoughts drifting to those who betrayed her.

Why had Celestia forsaken this place? It had its uses, plus more land if the population went up. The people were....not ideal. But some time and effort, then they could work with them. So, why leave this place to fall to anarchy and violence? The only reason she could see was other races. She had encountered ponies, yeah, but they were not as common as other creatures. On the same path, she had seen lots of Griffins, Diamond Dogs, Hippogriffs, what were called Changlings, and the bipedal lizard and fish like creatures. Did they even have a name? Not the point.

The more she thought about it, the more she began to believe it. Why else would it be abandoned? Why else would a massive desert be erected other then to keep them out? And the ponies of Equestria allowed this. Well,they didn't. They just didn't know. They were taught that there was nothing down here, other then pain and misery. Instead, while that wasn't false, it was more. A land of two types of creatures: the bullies who picked on others for fun, or those that were just trying to make a living down here.

She didn't notice, but she was changing. Not just mentally. Her coat, still a Light Cyan color, was slowly but surely passing even further, becoming a Light gray color. Her mane also became a lighter color, still maintaining its rainbow color, yet adopting a sandy quality. Her remaining Cutie mark began to fade, slowly but surely fading into just into another patch of pale fur. When she finally stopped, she looked down and took in the change.

Before, she would have been scared and confused out of her mind. But now, it sort made sense. She truly was a different pony. No longer the brash wonderbolt aspiree. Now, she was a New pony. Her now lack of a Cutie mark confused her, but she ultimately shrugged it off. She then went over toward the fire pit.

As she hadn't the resources to keep it going at all times, she allowed it to burn out during the night. It made her freezing in the mornings, but it was a small price. She would just start it up when necessary. Now was one of those times. She placed in some logs, struck one of the knives on a rock until a spark formed, blew on the spark until the fire got big enough. She then placed a piece of the canned stuff on the spit, and began to spin it.

Suddenly, she heard a clamor of activity outside the cave. She set down the knife, and reached for her short sword. Standing up, she listened again for the noise, but heard nothing. She walked toward the entrance, stopping just before puddles appeared on the ground. She stuck her head out a little further, and swiveled it around. She saw nothing except the pouring rain, waterlogged trees, and off in the distance, the worn path. Shrugging it off as likely just a loose bush or something like that, she went back into the cave.

A little while later, she heard more noise. This time it was louder, and was definitely not some piece of debris from the storm. Now more cautious, she once more picked up her sword and went toward the cave entrance. When she got to the entrance, her suspicions were proven correct. At the entrance of the cave stood a trip of stallions. It could not of been such a mismatched crew. One was light gray like her new coat, with a black mane. The next was the largest, and had a darker gray coat with a ginger mane. The final one was tan with a dark brown mane. They all wore drenched ponchos, and wore calm expressions.

They all seemed rather familiar to her, however she couldn't place it. She doubted they were the previous occupants of the cave. They didn't appear to be armed, and if they were, she figured they would have attacked her. Instead, they just stood there. So, she decided to find out what they were doing.

"Can I help you, gents? Or are you just gonna stand their and gawk?" She asked. Her response didn't come from any of them, however. It instead came from a forth stallion, tucked in behind them. It was a accented laugh, that once again rant with some familiarity. The stallions in front parted to reveal who had laughed. It was then when Void realized from where she recognized them.

"Greetings, Madame. My name is Dr. Caballeron, and these are my associates. Now, may I trouble you for some of your time?"