Rainbow in the Dark

by BaeroRemedy


Land of Confusion

Rainbow Dash had been moved from the hospital room she had woken up into a large room dominated by a long onyx table and multiple towering windows. The afternoon sun streamed in and reflected off of the crystalline table, bringing an almost ethereal atmosphere to the space.

She had been in the castle’s personal medical area, the King’s Hospital they called it. It was mostly for staff, as the doctors and nurses assured her that King Sombra himself never got sick or needed medical attention. Sounded like a bunch of nonsense, as even Twilight got sick from time to time.

Now here she was, alone with King Sombra. The unicorn king sat at one end of the table, right in front of one of the windows, while Rainbow Dash opted to sit all the way across from him. Magenta eyes full of fire and mistrust never once left the stallion as letting him out of her sight was a monumentally bad idea in her mind.

“How’s your wing, Rainbow Dash?” He had been prodding her with questions since Spitifre left them alone. All of them she had refused to answer and this one was no different. Her wing was missing, it wasn’t fine. Yeah it was better than it was the last time she was awake because it was at least bandaged and treated, but it wasn’t fine.

“I don’t know what you’re up to or how you did this, but we will stop you.” Dash reaffirmed with a growl. “You got a hold of the map and changed the past, probably. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter because Twilight will figure out how to fix this and we’ll kick your butt back to where you belong!”

“Rainbow Dash, please.” Sombra responded with a deep sigh. The stallion brought a hoof up to his face to rub the bridge of his nose as his magic undid the cape on his back and draped it across the back of his chair. “Can you be civil for a few minutes and just talk with me? I’m not… whatever you think I am. Whatever they put in your head are nothing but falsehoods, I assure you.”

“Maybe not time travel.” Rainbow completely ignored the plea from the stallion as she tried to figure out the game he was playing. “I bet you’re using your weird fear powers on me and all of this is some sort of trick!” She stood up and slammed her hooves onto the table, ignoring the pain that shot up both of her legs from the act. “I can break free, I know I can! You can’t hold me in here forever!”

“Oh for—” King Sombra stood up from his chair and strode across the length of the room in a few seconds. “I am not evil and I am not controlling you!” He stood right over Rainbow Dash now, looking down at her and baring his fangs in frustration. The mare shrunk down just a bit as he leaned in, causing the stallion to close his eyes and sigh once more. “I’m sorry.” Sombra’s tone softened and he looked down at the floor. “This situation has made me very frustrated since you went missing. I thought once you were returned things would be back to normal, but that seems to not be the case.”

“Yeah I’m not buying the whole ‘sad guy’ schtick, sorry.” Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and kept her glare trained on him. “If this is real, and I mean a real big IF, then how did I go missing? What happened to me?”

There was a tiny part of Dash, deep deep down, that thought all of this might be real. It wasn’t a dream, that was for certain. She could read things and feel pain, so it couldn’t be a dream. That left a few possibilities; time travel nonsense, Sombra’s fear magic, or that this was one-hundred percent real and had always been.

The last option was impossible, so it had to be one of the first two.

A knock at the door drew both of the ponies from their respective thoughts. King Sombra’s horn flashed with red as the cape from the chair was teleported onto his back again. He stood up and straightened his posture as his eyes hardened once more and his throat cleared.

“Enter.”

“Sorry for the disturbance, Your Majesty.” A unicorn mare with a brilliant amber coat and a mane of crimson and yellow tied into a bun entered the room. She carried several manilla folders in a baby blue aura. “Captain Spitfire retrieved Rainbow Dash’s file and a few others you requested. There are a few more she is having slight trouble getting a hold of, but I will inform you when she has them.” The unicorn’s cyan eyes regarded Rainbow Dash with utter disdain as she glanced momentarily at the pegasus.

Cyan eyes crimson with rage
“I know you’re using him.
Nothing but a gold digging bird-brain.”

She never wanted this.

Rainbow doubled over as yet another flash shot through her head. It forced her eyes closed and she buried her head in her hooves. It was a migraine that lasted for only a few seconds, but it was enough to bring the usually tough pony to the brink of tears. When it passed and she brought her head up again, she found both Sombra and the mare staring at her.

“Sorry…” Rainbow muttered as she brought her wing up to fix the glasses on her muzzle that had become crooked. “Just some weird pain.” She shook her head and looked towards the mare with squinted eyes. “I know you.” Dash couldn’t shake that feeling that the mare was somepony she was familiar with, somepony on the fringes of her chaotic life. No name came to her, but the face was definitely there.

“Rainbow Dash, you know Sunset Shimmer.” Sombra nodded at the mare, who sat the stack of folders onto the table in front of them. “My personal assistant and the pony who helps keep the country running.” A chuckle escaped from Sombra’s lips as he smiled at Sunset.

“Oh, I’m just doing my duty. It’s my pleasure to help in any way I can, Your Majesty. You know that.” Sunset Shimmer’s smile looked genuine enough, but Dash couldn’t help but feel there was an air of fakery about it. Something about it looked like it could turn into a sneer at a moment’s notice. “Now, about your schedule for the rest of the day.” Sunset levitated a clipboard in front of herself and began to read it off. “The weather council from Cloudsdale is still waiting on—”

“Cancel my meetings for the day, Sunset.” Sombra interrupted his secretary with a raised hoof. “I’m afraid this is much more important and requires all of my attention for the time being. Apologize to them all and reschedule.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” The reply was calm, but Rainbow could see Sunset Shimmer biting her lip and holding back more than a few words. “I’m sure we can fit them all in some other day.” There was an inaudible addition to that sentence that not even Dash could pick up despite being right next to the mare, but it surely was biting and sarcastic. “I’ll… leave you two alone. There are guards outside in case you need them.”

There was a curt nod from King Sombra as his assistant left the room, the heavy wooden door closing behind her. A heavy silence fell between the two ponies left alone, one that Rainbow Dash was more than happy to have. She didn’t want to talk with the villain before her or indulge this charade.

One of the folders was slid towards Rainbow Dash, her name stamped on the front in red ink. She placed a hoof on it and pulled it closer, her eyes darting over to Sombra before she flipped it open. Resting right inside was a typed document with a black and white picture of herself attached.

Rainbow read over the document again and again, just absorbing all of the information it contained. There were bits and pieces that were enough like her own life, but so much of it was wrong. Fluttershy going missing? Joining the Royal Guard? Legally blind? It was like looking into a very warped mirror.

“I believe you mentioned Fluttershy earlier.” Dash had been so engrossed in her own ‘past’ that she hadn’t noticed Sombra move behind her so he could read over her shoulder. “A fillyhood friend who went tragically missing, her file is included but it is quite short. Fell during some competition and was never found nor her body recovered, you’ve told me about her on a few occasions.”

“No, we went down there and found her! I remember it.” Rainbow Dash’s jaw clenched as she just kept scanning the document over and over and over again. None of this could be real, but it all felt so vaguely familiar that it was hard to discount any of it. “I went down into Whitetail Woods with the search party and found her myself, I remember.”

“As for the others…” Sombra’s magic levitated two more folders in front of Rainbow Dash and they opened. One had Twilight’s name on the front and Applejack’s on the other. “Twilight Sparkle is a well known tragedy here in Canterlot. Poor thing suffered an internal magic cascade while taking her exam for my school. Her parents perished with her and her brother was the only surviving family member.”

Rainbow Dash snatched Twilight’s file out of the air and straightened her glasses before reading. All of what Sombra said was right here in black and white, everything that the government knew about her and what exactly happened. That’s not how it happened, though. It wasn’t! Twilight survived and just turned her parents into plants, nopony died!

Right?

“As for Applejack, she’s a member of the Apple Family out of Ponyville.” Sombra brought the folder forward and read it aloud. “Mother Pear Butter, father Bright Macintosh, two siblings and a grandmother all living together. They have sold their cider at my Celebrated Crystal Carnival for the last decade, which you have become quite enamored with.” He chuckled and flipped the page, showing off several photos of the family together. This included Applejack’s parents, much older, and with the Applejack and Big Mac rainbow knew.

“No, her parents are dead. They died when—” Rainbow started to push back but another stab of pain in her brain put a stop to her words and drew a whimper from the mare.

“Hope y’all enjoy it, Your Majesty.”

Warm delicious amber liquid.
Drink after drink after drink.

She could drown in it and die happy.

She saw it all as clear as day in the little flash, Applejack standing by her whole family as she passed a mug right to Rainbow. Bright lights behind them and gleeful sounds surrounding them. It was clear as day and backed up everything in the file and what King Sombra had said.

The heart in Rainbow’s chest thundered against her ribcage like it wanted to get out. Sweat poured down her face and her one good wing twitched erratically against her side. None of this was real, it couldn’t be real. This wasn’t how things were! Fluttershy was okay! Applejack didn’t have parents, but she was happy! Twilight Sparkle wasn’t dead! She remembered them all so clearly and vividly that it couldn’t be fake! This was fake and she knew it, not the life that she remembered every detail of!

“Rainbow Dash, are you alright?” The files were sat down and an armored hoof rested on her shoulder tenderly. That was all it took to finally break the panicked mare. The pegasus threw the hoof off of her and jumped up from her chair, then she took off.

Her body, despite being better than it was in the dungeon, was still sore and raw. It protested when she slammed the massive wooden door open and screamed as she began sprinting through the halls of the castle. There were indistinct shouts from behind her, she both ignored and couldn’t even comprehend all of them. Her mind was too busy racing with the knowledge it had just been given.

This was a lie! All of it! She had to get out of here and find some way out of this nightmare world!