//------------------------------//
// Where The Rainbow Starts 
// Story: Overgrown Rainbow 
// by Cytotoxin 
//------------------------------//

	"...Are you alright?" - a strange question to ask. No, she was definitely not alright. It would be inane to assume anypony could be alright after seeing their parent fall into the cauldron of boiling raw rainbow. She turned around, looking plainly at the pony who asked this. An aging stallion pegasus with a cloud scoop for a cutie mark. One of the rainbow factory workers, no doubt. "No, I am not." - she answered clearly, - "I need help." He lurched forward, scooping filly up in his hooves. "Hang on, sport... It will be OK, I promise." - he rasped, flying down the corridor quickly. Rainbow Dash recognised the corridor. She was carried to the infirmary. Good enough.

An hour later, she was curled up on the couch, when her mother came barreling into the room. "What happened? Where`s Rainbow Dash?" - granted, Sunbeam had a cause to worry, but there was no point in screeching like that, now was there? Dash raised her hoof languidly, offering - "I`m here, mother." She was feeling very slow, dim. Probably the effect of the sedative nurse gave her earlier. Silly pony. Dash did not need to be calmed. Apparently, Sunbeam thought the same, because she was currently haranguing the aforementioned nurse for giving her precious foal "the drugs".

Rainbow yawned. She honestly couldn`t figure why "drugs" were supposed to be bad. After all, her parents kept giving her some other drugs. But those other drugs were not like these. They were terribly spicy and she always wanted to drink after taking them. Nurse`s "drugs" were bland and made her want to sleep instead. Maybe that was the problem. Oh well. Let the adults sort it out. She knew she could use more rest - her plans needed carrying out, and she had nopony to rely on.

"Come on, Rainbow Dash. We`re leaving!" - her mother`s announcement was... less than welcome, but Dash bore with it. Patience, patience and more patience. She knew she had to be patient and bade her time. As filly tried to follow, however, she fell over, her hooves tangled together. Huh. So that`s why nurse`s "drugs" were considered bad. She frowned. "Look what you did! Poor dear is stoned!" - apparently, that was her mother`s line. Stoned? But she wasn`t a statue...?

Rainbow Dash awoke with a start. She felt awful. Headache, throbbing hooves, aching wings. But at least, everything worked. Sort of. She patted her neck with hoof and winced. Of course. Fresh cut. Another pint down the drain. She swore to herself that would be the last one. It was simply too much to ask of her! Rainbow Dash was a good filly! Never protested when it was time to be harvested. But it wasn`t supposed to happen so often! It was too much. Too painful.

Gathering hooves under herself gingerly, she looked around. Her own room. Good. Sunbeam would be somewhere around the house. Time to put the end to all of this. She trotted to the door, and pushed it open. Calendar on the wall. And the day of Equinox marked in red red ink. She would be twelve the day before Equinox. And the day later, she was slated to die. Was. Rainbow Dash was amending the plan.

She crept to the opening to the first floor. Pegasi had no stairs in the house, for obvious reasons. Where... a-ha. She spied her mother puttering around the stove. Of course. Even the death of her husband wouldn`t dissuade Sunbeam from sticking to their plan. Preparing the extract, of course. Rainbow Dash fought back the gagging as she caught the whiff from the pot on the stove. It`s been happening for years. Once in a month, her parents would drain a about a pint of rainbowy liquid that was her blood. Then they`d cook it somehow, until it became a shiny flat disk. Disk that reflected any light into the purest rainbow anypony ever seen. She was OK with that. Was. But lately, they started doing it more often, taking more, and she could tell it was killing her. And then she overheard this discussion, late at night. Rainbow Cult. Her parents were the cultists. It was obvious, in retrospect.

Rainbow Dash was never the eggheadest of ponies, but she knew how to read and how to look for a book in library. And so she did. Reading about Rainbow Cult chilled her to the bone - and in the same time explained a whole lot of weird things that happened to her. 'Sevenfold the seven of purest lens, let them cast the light upon the sacrifice of twelve when the sun and moon stand equal.' - allegory, but the annotations were pretty clear.  And that was why Rainbow Dash had pushed her father into that boiling cauldron, in cold blood and clear conscience. He had no time to think, no time to even scream - she was planning this for weeks now.

Ducking back, she nudged the door to her room open again, nosing the bedding carefully. Under the cloudfluff was a sock. She stole that sock from her friend, Fluttershy. And stuffed it full of bits that she saved one by one - until the sock was thick and heavy with metal. Grasping it with teeth, she chewed on the sock until it was taut - no sound must be allowed. And then, she trotted back out.

...It was over. She did it. Rainbow Dash let go of the sock, letting it fall on the floor. It flew open, bits scattering over the hardened cloudfluff. Good. She`d need those bits to buy Fluttershy a new set of socks. She couldn`t return the bloodied sock, now could she? Nudging the floor in the corner of the room, she pulled up the trapdoor. Parents always forbade her to try and look into the "cellar". Their explanation was that cellar floor was not hardened and she could fall through it, down all the way to the ground. What a load of bull. She knew what REALLY was in the cellar. It was full of raw concentrated rainbow. Astonishing substance, really. After much nudging and dragging, she deposited the fresh cadaver into the cellar. She knew what would happen. Rainbow would dissolve Sunbeam`s body, break it down into base colors. Within a few days, it would vanish without a trace. This was not the first body that would be disposed of in this way. Factually, on the Equinox, Rainbow herself were supposed to end up down there... after being completely drained, of course.

She tossed the sock down and slammed the trapdoor shut. It faded out of view - anypony without prior knowledge would have no clue there`s something underneath the floor there. All that she had to do was to remove the possible spots and traces, and collect the bits. She needed them. Needed them lots. It would be a few days before anypony would get suspicious - she needed to be prepared. Hopefully, everypony would buy her story about being left there - her parents were always considered an odd bunch. Hopefully.. Very hopefully...

...Rainbow Dash woke up, panting, her hoof pawing around blindly until she slammed it into the lightswitch. Lamps flared up, illuminating her cabin. "...I`m on my ship." - she muttered, smiling goofily - "I`m not a little filly, I`m an admiral and I am on my ship." She grasped around the nighttable, coming up with an old-fashioned glass vial full of pills. Swallowing two dry, she momentarily winced at the rasping taste. Time to make a call. Standing up, she pulled open her personal communication panel. Crystals hummed to life as the sensor recognised her aura print. Habitually, Rainbow concentrated on the person she wanted to call. One Twilight Sparkle.

- ...Wha...  Huh, Rainbow Dash? What happened?
- I had a dream, Twi.
- ...Oh. Oh dear. How are you holding up?
- Could be better. But no ruckus this time, at least.
- Oh, good. Did you take your pills?
- Oh, yeah, took two.
- Are you sure? Had you really taken two?
- I swear, Twi... Buck it, I`ll Pinkie swear if it makes you feel better.
- ...Haha, no, no need to. I believe you.
- I`m tired of this, Twi. Will it ever end? I thought they`d go away, but... I`m still getting them.
- How often?
- ...Well, once in a few months now, I guess... Twi, why can`t this shit just go away!?
- I`m sorry, Dash, but... I don`t really know. You`re pretty unique case, you know. Nopony else ever survived a rainbow poisoning as acute or long as one you`ve endured. You`re bleeding rainbow liquid, for crying out loud.
- But why does it give me those psychotic dreams? I`m tired of dreaming about this, Twilight! I`m going nuts here. Why are the dreams all the same? Why am I dreaming about murdering my parents again and again and again!?
- ...I don`t know, Dash. I`m sorry. My best guess is that this is your subconscious reaction to their actions. They did poison you with rainbow, after all. Did that to you for years, until things were finally discovered. Anypony would feel bitter about it.
- I thought I got over that years ago. Forgive and forget and all that jazz.
- Forgive and forget? Not for us, Dash. You`re too smart for your own good. Forgive, yeah. You can do that. But forget? That`s the tough part.
- Aw, come on, Twi. You`ve got over your own beef with princess, didn`t you? If you can look past the fact she let you kill yourself, why can`t I?
- Well, simply because I didn`t forget that either. Sure, I forgave Celestia for letting me contract Arcanorum Veneficii, but forget? No, I`m going to remember this, you can bet on that.
- Well, you don`t dream about killing her, now do you?
- ...No, I don`t. Simply because undead don`t dream, if nothing else.

Rainbow Dash sighed as the awkward pause filled the air. That was a sore topic. She was one of the few who knew that Twilight Sparkle was dead. Had been dead for years. And at the moment, she felt particularly uncool for reminding Twilight of that regrettable fact. Granted, Twilight was a very cool lich at the moment, but still, it was... less then polite to point it out. Again.

- I`m sorry, Twi. I shouldn`t have brought that up.
- Heh. Really, it`s OK, Dash. I would go as far as to say I quite enjoy being what I am now. But... you know. Sore topic. Just like your poisoning.
- Oh, haha. Yeah, I suppose. Thanks, Twi. I feel tons better now.
- No problem. You know I always have time for my friends. Particularly now, when I don`t have to sleep anymore, heh. On unrelated topic, you`re going to be in Canterlot tomorrow, right?
- ...Well, yes, if nothing goes wrong. Why, that`s the matter?
- Fluttershy called while you were out on patrol. She has some interesting news.
- Oh buck. News?... Tell me it`s something personal, Twi. Please.
- Sorry, Dash. But if what she sent over is right, it`s news for admiral Dash, not buddy Dash.
- Discord touch it, what now!?
- Not over crystalline, Dash. You know it can be listened in.
- With the kind of encryption we have on it?
- Even with encryption, yes. It would make things harder, but not impossible.
- ...Fine, but I`m thinking you`re paranoid, Twi.
- Better safe then sorry, Dash. Remember?
- Yeah, yeah. Alright, see you tomorrow, miss archmage.
- Heh. See you tomorrow, miss admiral.