//------------------------------// // Demons VII // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash didn’t like to admit to being afraid of anything. She was strong, tough, courageous, and she liked to think that even when her awesome friends were in a scary situation that she could always be the one pony they could look to who would never be scared herself. However, when Heartless looked her in the eyes, Rainbow Dash felt her blood turn to ice. Crush narrowed his eyes at the pink pony he didn’t recognize. “Another outsider? And you two know each other… but how did you even get up here?” “I climbed through the vents to find Rainbow Dash. I could feel her somewhere in the city,” Heartless happily told him without moving her eyes from Rainbow Dash. “Climbed through the vents? That’s impossible,” Crush shook his head and the other four security ponies gathered around him. “The ventilation leading from the lower levels to the upper levels is too narrow, there are too many twists and turns, not to mention boilers and furnaces throughout the inner workings, along with spinning fans and barred off passages. There’s no way to climb through it at all.” Heartless shrugged and for the first time glanced over at him. “Wasn’t much of a problem to get through it.” “Whatever. You’re not helping Rainbow Dash,” Crush scowled and motioned to the others. “Grab and restrain her too.” The four other security officers ran over to Heartless and Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “No! Wait! She’s not my friend, stay away from her!” She yelled after them in warning. Crush glanced at her with a suspicious look on his face but the others didn’t regard her at all. The four ponies pulled out their batons to try and dissuade Heartless from trying anything. The mare just smiled as she watched them come walking towards her, taking some light steps of her own as she strode in the direction of Rainbow Dash. In another step the group of security ponies were close enough to reach for and apprehend her. Four light touches. Four ponies fell to the ground without a sound. “Wha-” Crush backed away in fear as Heartless took the life from his subordinates, the pink mare standing in a circle of the fallen ponies. “Small lives like these feel like practically nothing now,” Heartless said as she glanced down at each dead pony. “No...” Rainbow Dash glared at Heartless with an intense hatred from her bound position on the ground. “What happened?! What did you do to them?!” Crush angrily shouted at her. Rainbow Dash quickly looked over at him. “Crush, don’t! Stay away from her and don’t let her touch you! Help me out of these stupid restraints and get away from her!” He wasn’t listening at that point, the security chief had pulled out his own baton and carried it in his magic as he strode towards Heartless. Rainbow Dash could only watch. Heartless tilted her head at him. “I don’t care about you. I just want Rainbow Dash.” Crush swung the baton hard and hit Heartless across the face with it. She was staggered by the blow, though not as much as you’d expect from a pony her size to be after a powerful hit like that, and quickly stood back up and faced him like normal. Her smile was still on her face, there was no bruising, it was like he didn’t hit her at all. Crush’s mouth dropped open in surprise and Heartless merely blinked. She took one step towards him. “I don’t mind though,” Heartless said as she reached out her hoof towards Crush. Crush backed up and dropped his baton from his magical hold, if he was afraid he did a good job overcoming it quickly. His eyes narrowed and he refocused his magic to the tip of his horn. Rainbow Dash had seen things like this before from Twilight and Starlight, she knew what was coming next. With a grunt he fired a concentrated beam of red energy at Heartless. It hit her directly in the center of the chest and knocked her back a bit, making her knees wobble, but otherwise she seemed fine again. “But-But my stun ray should paralyze a full-grown pony for hours!” Crush gasped in shock. “I don’t feel anything,” Heartless shook her head and kept walking towards him. He didn’t just give up so easily though even when she was only a step or two away from him. His horn lit back up and Heartless was grasped in a red aura that covered her entire body. “There!” Crush said as he levitated her up. Now all she could do was flail about in the air. Heartless examined her body that was stuck in his magic, moving her legs, swishing her tail, peeking her head around. And she never lost that smile. “Hmm.” Then, to the horror of both Crush and Rainbow Dash, the magic slowly dissolved around her. No—that wasn’t accurate—it was absorbed into her body. That’s what had happened. Heartless calmly dropped back to the floor with her face right int front of Crush’s. Her smile was somewhat disappointed now though. “Even that doesn’t feel as good as it used to before I felt Rainbow Dash’s life. Your life will be the same too, completely unfulfilling.” She lifted up her hoof to Crush’s cheek as he stood there like a statue. “Don’t!” Rainbow Dash yelled. The pink pony didn’t stop. With just as light a touch as ever she briefly pushed her hoof against Crush’s bare skin. He gasped and fell over onto his side like his entire body had gone numb, all the strength had left it at once. Unlike the others though he didn’t die immediately, there was still some life left in him. “Oh, you’re a little stronger than most,” Heartless blinked down at him once before turning her head and smiling happily again at Rainbow Dash. “Nothing like Rainbow Dash though.” She started to walk over to the pegasus still stuck struggling on the ground, trying her best to get out of the cuffs and bindings. “You travel fast, it took longer to find you than I wanted, but I could always tell exactly where you were. And now here you are for me.” Heartless paused above her and looked down at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was sweating and glaring right back at her as fiercely as she could. The smile widened on Heartless’s face as she lifted up her pink right front hoof. “It’s bliss.” Crush was still watching her though. He saw the monster preparing to do the same thing to Rainbow Dash and knew he had to do something. Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was the last bit of good will in him. But he drew up every last bit of magic he had to save Rainbow Dash. His horn weakly lit up but it was all he needed, even if magic mostly didn’t do anything to this pony he had still been able to grab and lift her and what he was doing now would take far less effort and force than that. His red magic grabbed the tip of her sparkly white tail and yanked her away from Rainbow Dash, pulling her back into the storage room and past the perimeter. “Hm?” Heartless let out a questioning little hum as she was pulled back, almost as if she was amused. When it had stopped and Crush’s magic dissipated she glanced over at him. “I didn’t think you still had the strength to do anything, but it’s all pointless.” Crush wasn’t finished though, once Heartless started to walk over to them again he reached out and grabbed his baton that was lying on the floor. This was the last thing he could do so he had to make it count. From his prone position he looked up at the open panel; the button was still there and ready to be pressed. Crush heaved his baton as hard as he could at the number 1 button while both Rainbow Dash and Heartless watched. It struck dead on. The button was pressed and heavy steel bars shot down from the ceiling directly in front of Heartless, separating her and them. Heartless stepped up to the bars with a slight frown and put her face right up to them. She didn’t seem angry, more like a child upset at having their favorite toy taken away. “Aww.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “Nice one, Crush.” She shot a victorious look at Heartless. “You’re stuck in there now.” “Heeheehee,” Heartless giggled, bringing up a hoof to her mouth before stopping and smiling again at Dash. “This isn’t going to delay me for long. I’ll find a way through the vents to get out of here.” “No...” Crush wheezed. The other two looked at him, he was weakly shaking his head on the ground before glancing at Rainbow Dash. “Section… cut off after that first button… trapped for now. P-Press the second button and then pull the lever… shoot her off the mountain. Bars… are on the inside, they’ll go with the section… keep her trapped… even when the section hits the ground.” Rainbow Dash nodded and wobbled about on the ground, struggling to inch her way over to the panel on the wall. Crush waved her over to him. “Here… come to me first. Master key for cuffs… and security locks… razor blade for the bindings that you can use… in my pocket.” “Thanks, Crush.” Heartless watched in patient amusement as her target made its way over to Crush and fished the key and blade out of the pockets of his uniform while he wheezed about on death’s door. She even kept smiling when Rainbow Dash freed herself from the cuffs and cut the bindings keeping her limbs and wings down. Rainbow Dash stretched and groaned for a bit before angrily glaring at Heartless and walked over to the panel, her hoof hovering above the number 2 button. “Guess this is it, Heartless.” Rainbow Dash said to her. Heartless couldn’t help but shake her head and smile. “Even this won’t stop me for long, I’ll keep coming after you no matter what.” Rainbow Dash paused. She stared hard at that pink pony, who looked so normal on the outside, before dropping her hoof and walking over to the bars. She stopped in front of them, carefully still out of reach of Heartless’s hooves, and just looked in disbelief at the pony. “Just… what even are you?” “Hm...” Heartless playfully touched her hoof to her chin and looked up at the ceiling for a moment as if she was actually deep in thought. Finally, she shrugged. “You know, I’ve been asked that question so many times but I still don’t have a good answer. I look like a normal pony, my parents were normal ponies, but I’m not one, am I? Guess I’m some kind of monster. Been called that plenty of times.” “How did you even get up here into this city? How are you still chasing me at all?” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I flew!” “You… flew?” “Mhm,” Heartless eagerly nodded. “I walked for a while and then flew up here when I felt your life in the mountain.” “You don’t have wings!” Rainbow Dash angrily flared hers in response. Heartless shrugged. “Don’t expect me to tell you how it works, like I told you I don’t even know what I am. I couldn’t always fly, I think I just started to be able to after all the lives of pegasi, griffons, and other flying creatures I took. It’s the same with magic from unicorns! I can feel it in me but I don’t know how to use it, maybe because I don’t have a horn.” She tapped her forehead. Rainbow Dash felt her stomach churn. “How can you just talk about that so casually...” “Talk about what?” Heartless tilted her head, genuinely confused. That just made Rainbow even angrier than she already was. “Killing ponies! Killing other creatures! Don’t you get it? Don’t you see that that’s wrong and horrible?!” “It’s just… what I’ve always done,” Heartless replied with her smile never leaving her face. “The lives of others call out to me, and I feel their warmth when I take it. I don’t see what’s wrong with following my heart.” “I… don’t even know how to talk to you. You really are just a monster,” Rainbow Dash shook her head, her lips pulled down in a sad frown. “Doesn’t matter. I’ve heard it all before,” Heartless paused for a moment and reached her hooves through the bars out towards Rainbow Dash. She was trying to grab and wrap them around her but she wasn’t within reach. “But it’s different now after you. You’re so bright, so warm, so powerful, your life outshines everything else I’ve ever felt! Normal ponies and creatures feel like nothing to me anymore after feeling your life. I realized it almost immediately, that I have to have your life no matter what. I have to feel it again. For so long I just drifted from place to place on a whim but now I have a true purpose: you.” Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything to the psycho pony so Heartless continued. “You’re like a beacon that calls out to me. I can feel and see you from anywhere now.” She lowered her hooves and smiled brightly at Rainbow Dash. “Nothing can stop me, not even something like being thrown down the mountain in this room.” “I’ll stop you,” Rainbow Dash suddenly stated. “If you keep coming after me then the next time we meet I’m going to make you regret it.” Heartless shrugged, not scared in the slightest. “You can try. But I think you’ve already seen that my body is a little different from a normal pony’s. Maybe it’s from all the life I’ve taken but nothing hurts me and nothing can kill me. I’ve been stabbed, bifurcated, decapitated, defenestrated, crushed, drowned, burned, strangled, poisoned, and electrocuted. Nothing sticks.” She pressed her face as close to the bars as she could to smile at Dash while her big blue eyes sparkled with excitement. “I don’t sleep, I don’t need to eat, drink, or even breathe, and I will never, ever, stop coming for you.” Rainbow Dash managed to not show any fear directly, and instead walked back over to the panel and put her hoof at the number 2 button. “Yeah? Fine. But you’re not going any further today.” She pressed the button and the separating wall came down to totally block off Heartless from them. Rainbow Dash looked over, she could still see Heartless in the little window waving at her. Rainbow Dash didn’t give her anymore satisfaction and just shook her head as she now pulled down on the heavy lever. Something about Heartless was so horrible to her that she couldn’t stomach being around her any longer, and she sincerely hoped she never saw her again. The explosive bolts detonated and the section was launched off the mountain in an instant. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath after the shaking stopped and then swiftly turned to Crush, she still had a lot of business to take care of. “Crush!” Rainbow Dash said as she skid over to him and rubbed his shoulder. “Hey, Crush!” “I… heard you the first time,” Crush groaned. “Sorry I can’t be a little gentler right now but we’ve gotta act fast, tell me the code right now so I can go save the ponies down there!” Crush looked up at her with one half-lidded eye. He was still breathing heavily as he regarded Rainbow Dash, still having an internal debate with himself. “You’re telling… the truth… aren’t you?” “Yes!” Rainbow angrily shouted. “Your sister shut off the power!” “18737… that’s the new code,” Crush wheezed and coughed after he answered her. “Great! Now get up and come with me, we could use your help. I think you know that you can’t just support your sister like this anymore,” Rainbow Dash told him and went to try and heft him up. Crush stopped her, waving her away and rolling over onto his other side. “No… I’m done...” “What… what do you mean, “done”?” Rainbow Dash questioned him, worry seeping into her voice. “I don’t have anything left… I can barely breath… it’s over for me. That… last bit of magic I used… that was the end,” Crush smiled weakly and started to chuckle before it became more coughing. “So you’re just going to quit?!” Rainbow shook him. He wheezed again. “I can feel my body… shutting down… and everything is getting dark.” “Crush...” Rainbow Dash stopped and slowly removed her hooves from him, seeming to now realize the severity of the situation. “You… care?” He asked with an amused smirk twitching on his face. “Of course I do! You don’t—you don’t deserve this!” She exploded, rage at Heartless, at him, at Resin and everything else going on, pouring out of her. “And don’t you want to see Resin again? Don’t you want to see your sister again and tell her you love her, try and convince her to stop all this?!” “It would… have been nice.” “Then don’t give up! Don’t die!” She started shaking him again but all he did was close his other eye and smirk. He let his head rest on the cold floor as his labored breathing grew weaker. “Rainbow Dash… please… go easy on her. She may not deserve it… but… she’s just a scared little filly… on the inside.” Crush let out one last shuddering breath and moved no more, the small smirk still on his face. “Hey...” Rainbow Dash nudged him. “Get up, Crush. Come on, you have to get up.” She nudged him harder but there was no reaction from him anymore and Rainbow Dash had to squeeze her eyes shut to keep herself from crying. “If you had only just...” Rainbow Dash shook her head and looked towards the stairwell she had recently flown up. It was time to move on, she had ponies to save and a tyrant to stop. And now a sacrifice she had to make sure wasn’t done in vain.