//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Ultimate Enemy 2: Return of Harmony // by LoganRyder //------------------------------// "Spike? Is that you?" Rainbow Dash said as she saw her young dragon friend. Spike however, simply looked away from her, leaving her a bit uneasy as Rainbow Dash gave a look of un-amusement. "S-Spike? Come on dude! This isn't funny anymore!" Rainbow Dash, slowly getting more creeped out. She began to head down and slowly walk behind Spike, who only looked away until her hoof touched his shoulder. With a quick turn, Spike turned and saw the blue Pegasus, giving an look of surprise. "Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?" Spike(?) asked in confusion "Me? I LIVE here Spike. What are you doing here? And how are you even in Cloudsdale?" Rainbow Dash asked in confusion "Twilight said she wanted me to see you and used a spell to teleport me to come get you. Come on, let's go." Spike(?) said as he turned However, the moment he turned and walked, Rainbow Dash immediately gave a look of confusion and worry and saw a red substance dripping from Spike(?)'s hands. Noticing the dripping red, Rainbow Dash said in a shaky tone while giving the baby dragon a frown "S...Spike? Why are your hands dripping red stuff?" Spike(?) only said in an disregarding tone "It's nothing, come on, we have to go." Rainbow Dash only gave a look of unconvinced fear as she was left pondering. Should she come or not? After a few moments of hesitation, she said "Ok. let's go Spike." Rainbow Dash complied As soon as she said this, Spike(?) left and headed his way, while Rainbow Dash only looked at him with an unsure expression and left her house before flying away from him. As she flew as fast as she could, she said deep in her thoughts. "Ok, something is definitely going on here, first I play some pranks on my friends and Spike and now Spike may or may not have tried to scare me or....kill me? No Rainbow Dash, Spike's your friend! He would never do that, especially after the whole incident with him, Starlight and that evil older Spike from another timeline......right? " Rainbow Dash thought, trying to find out why her friend was acting so amiss. As she flew away from her house, she was suddenly teleported away by an dark shadow flash from an all to familiar dark dragon. Rainbow Dash was on the ground, unconscious. She began to slowly wake up and gave a look of confusion. "What...? Where am I?" Rainbow Dash said and the moment she got up, the sight shocked her. She looked to be in the Everfree Forest, and the whole environment was on FIRE. "What in Celestia?! Why is the Everfree Forest on FIRE?!?!" Rainbow Dash shouted in shock. Rainbow Dash flew away from the area, desperately trying to avoid the flames from the burning trees. As she flew, an unknown voice was heard and said "WHERE ARE YOU?" Rainbow Dash only continued to fly, but as much faster as she could as she saw an unknown figure dashing at a high speed right at her. Rainbow managed to circled a nearby tree and flew down and landed near a safe part of the forest that wasn't burned yet. She managed to hide in a nearby tree and kept quiet for whoever was after her. She heard footsteps after a few seconds and gave an shocked look at who it was. (I Don't own artworks, they belong to rightful owners) The figure was revealed to be SPIKE. But he looked drastically different. His scales were more sharp, his eyes were more menacing and dark and his wings were more bigger and sharp. He emerged from a flaming forest pathway and said in an more dark and haunting voice of his own. "Darn it! How could I let her escape so easily?!....That stupid horse has to be here somewhere....." 'Spike' only laughed an deep and disturbing laugh and teleported away in green flames as Rainbow Dash was left frightened and said to herself. "Ok, Not a prank!, Not a prank! Spike is trying to KILL ME!" Rainbow panicked Rainbow Dash flew in fright away from the forest fire and desperately tried to reach Ponyville as soon as possible to warn her friends about what was going on. As she flew, she was unaware she was being observed by an familiar figure, revealing himself as 'Spike'. 'Spike' only said with an sadistic grin on his face. "Yes....Run like you always have been. Your future is...inevitable." (In Ponyville) Rainbow Dash saw she was nearing Ponyville and gave a relieved look that the town had not been damaged by the forest fire, she had some minor bruises and burns, but they were not as fatal. "Oh thank Celestia! Ponyville is safe from the fire! I better warn the girls what's happening." Rainbow Dash said in a hurry. However, she saw an odd sight, the residents of Ponyville had looked to be in a zombified trance saying in an monotone voice "Cookiiiieeeeee." As Rainbow Dash gave a look of fright and said "What the hay?!", Dark Spike only watched the scene with glee and amusement. "I'll admit, I may have felt a bit of guilt from doing those pranks of mine to Rainbow Crash, but at the very least she can deal with it with dignity....or at least the what will remain of it when she sees my little 'surprise'" Dark Spike thought as he saw Rainbow Dash avoiding the ponies with messy mouths that were covered in rainbow like substances and was hiding everywhere she could, from trying to reach Twilight and Starlight to heading to Applejack's farm. (A few hours later) Rainbow was being cornered by the zombified ponies and was covering her eyes and said "Please! Stop! I never meant for this to happen! It was only a harmless prank and it was supposed to funny! But it wasn't" This made the ponies stop and give amused expressions as Pinkie said "Exactly!" "What?!..What's going on!?" Rainbow Dash said in confusion "Just delighting in pranking the prankster." Rarity said in response "So NONE of you were ever sick?" Rainbow asked "Of course not! Silly!" Pinkie said "GOTCHA!" The crowd said "So...This was all a prank?!" Rainbow said in surprise. "You can thank Pinkie Pie for that after she told us your plan to prank the entire town, she got everypony together and came up with an way to turn the tables on you." Applejack explained. "Aw! It was nothing!" Pinkie said bashfully As some of the ponies even shared some amusement, Rainbow said in dismay "Well I don't think it's funny! And I'm the one that got pranked! I was really scared especially after the whole forest thing and-" "Pranking whoever you like?" Twilight cut in "Without thinking about how they feel?" Fluttershy added "Or if they would enjoy it?" Rarity further pointed out "Or if it would be funny?" Applejack further notified Pinkie then told Rainbow Dash "Pranks can be alot of fun when everypony has a good time. I thought that you just needed to see what it's like when they don't" Rainbow gave a guilt-ridden look and said in agreement "I guess i did. I'm sorry, everypony. I haven't really been thinking about how other ponies felt." "Well, we hope you learned your lesson." Fluttershy agreed. However, Rainbow only gave look of confusion again and said "Hey wait a minute! If THIS was the prank, why did you all have Twilight send Spike in Cloudsdale to VANDALIZE my house and set the forest on fire?!" "What?!' The crowd said in confusion and surprise Pinkie said in protest "I didn't plan that!" Starlight also added in protest "Spike was with me and Twilight the whole time Rainbow Dash, don't just accuse him!" "Oh really?! then how do you explain that?!" Rainbow pointed to the half burned Everfree and further said "Spike even tried to KILL me when I was trapped there, he even burned half the forest and had weird red stuff on his hands!" Rainbow Dash further said in accusation. The situation began to spiral in confusion as the REAL Spike said in protest "But Rainbow Dash, I wasn't in the Everfree! I was with Twilight the whole time!" "Plus I never used a spell to send him to Cloudsdale!" Twilight refuted in defense This only left the blue pegasus more confused as she asked again while pointing her hoof at Spike "Then explain why you left a RED trail of liquids in my house and wrote mean things about me!" Spike only shook his hands in defense and said "Rainbow Dash, I don't know what your talking about!" Spike protested in defense "ENOUGH!" The crowd of ponies looked at an angry Twilight, who only looked at the blue pegasus and said in offesne "I'm surprised Rainbow Dash, we did this to teach you a lesson but having the nerve to accuse Spike to make and excuse?! This is low! even for you!" 'But-" "You know what?! Go. Just go home and cool down and tomorrow we can discuss this." Rainbow wanted to argue, but knew that her friends were a bit sick of hearing more accusations. With a stoic look, Rainbow simply left to go home. In the half-burned forest, an dark figure looked at the whole situation and said with amusement. "Looks like she got out, but next time....her and her friends will PAY...." With that, the dark figure vanished, leaving the half burned Everfree Forest.