//------------------------------// // Closer To The Heart // Story: Rainbow in the Dark // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash flew above the castle and looked out towards the horizon. Beyond the streets of Canterlot, at least from up here, everything looked normal. She could see Ponyville and Cloudsdale in the distance, looking the same as she left them…well, minus Twilight’s castle and the friendship school. Those, like so many other things, didn’t have the chance to exist yet. Doing her best not to dwell on her dual homes, she rolled backwards and went into a dive. She had spent not just her morning, but her entire afternoon up here. She was training her stamina bit by bit, getting stronger and stronger. Even just a day after she failed to finish the race against Spitfire she felt more confident with her wings. It was like walking, or breathing. It was something that came so naturally to her that all she needed was time. She pulled up far before she met the ground and flew just above the rooftops of the guard barracks. The tips of her hooves clattered along the shingles as she slalomed along the top of the building, really just flying for the sake of it. She wasn’t building up her speed or doing any fancy training. She was sticking with the basics until her flight muscles were back at full strength and she could make certain that she wouldn’t collapse mid-flight. She had not really spent much time inside of the castle since King Sombra’s little admission. Even today she had eaten breakfast and left immediately to fly. She didn’t even go out through the main doors, she opened one of the windows in the apartment and threw herself out of it. Anything to make sure she wouldn’t run into Sombra or Sunset Shimmer. The urge to fly outside the confines of the castle walls and out into Equestria proper, to just explore, was so great. Rainbow Dash had promised Spitfire that she would stay close and stay safe for now, but that didn’t diminish how much she wanted to leave. She wanted to see Cloudsdale and Ponyville and see the ponies who lived there to see how they differed from her memories. “How’s it handling?!” A shout came from the ground from Sunburst. She had seen him come out of the castle in the periphery of her vision but hadn’t paid him any mind until he called out. Dash spiraled towards the ground and landed beside the mage, tucking her wings against her sides as she did so. “It’s good.” She nodded and looked at the metal wing before giving it a shake. “I was having trouble with tight turns yesterday but I think that was me.” The metal wing extended and rotated around as its sharp metal feathers spread out. “It’s better now, I just had to adjust.” “Yes…” Sunburst’s horn lit up and he steadied the wing in his magical grasp as he studied it. “Good integrity on the crystals, they’re holding the spells well. No scuffing so the protection wards have held up too…Rarity does know her gems, I’ll give her that.” Sunburst muttered. “Do you mind if I take it off of you for a few hours? I just want to do some fine tuning on a few things.” “I do need to eat dinner soon.” A growling stomach reinforced the need for a meal as soon as possible. “Can you get it back to me in like an hour and a half?” “Yeah, I think so.” Sunburst nodded as his magic slipped into the cracks of the metal appendage and popped it free from Rainbow’s side. “I’ll have it delivered to Spitfire’s apartment when I’m done.” The stallion began to walk away but stopped in his tracks and turned back to Dash. “Oh yes, I believe Sunset was looking for you too. Something urgent, I’m not sure.” He chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. “I kind of tuned her out, sorry.” “Can’t blame you.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Guess I’ll look for her and then go get dinner.” The two ponies went their separate ways, Sunburst likely off to a dingy room full of books and spells and Rainbow off to find Sunset Shimmer. Her first inclination was to take to the skies and fly towards Sunset’s office to take a peek through the window, then she remembered that she was down to one wing again. With a grumble she headed into the castle proper and started to meander through the halls towards the administrative wing. “Oh Rainbow Dash! I’m so glad I ran into you, darling!” Rainbow spun on her hooves to face Rarity who was rapidly approaching her from down a hall. The married mare was walking as fast as she could without breaking into a gallop, probably just out of respect for the castle itself. “Hey Rarity, what’s up?” “I wanted to catch you be—what happened to your wing?” Rarity leaned her head to the side to look at the nub of Rainbow’s missing wing. “You didn’t break it already, did you? We worked very hard on that, you know.” “I didn’t break it!” Rainbow defended herself and scoffed. “Sunburst said he wanted to tweak some things, he’ll have it back to me after dinner. Chill.” Rainbow rolled her eyes at Rarity and let out a sigh. “Right. Apologies for jumping to conclusions then.” Rarity cleared her throat and straightened her posture. “I actually came to find you to talk about dinner. Spitfire is taking me out tonight for a date night, so I’m afraid that you are quite on your own when it comes to food.” “Ah…” Rainbow’s disappointment swelled in her stomach and then settled like a rock that dragged her shoulders closer to the floor. She wanted to talk about flying with Spitfire tonight, about a stricter training regiment and maybe even training with the squad she had in this world. “I’m really sorry, darling.” Rarity reached out and placed a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “It’s just been…months since we’ve been able to do something like this with each other. When you were missing she wasn’t really in the mood for date nights and such.” “No no, it’s cool. I understand.” Rainbow nodded and took a deep breath before standing up straight. “It’s going to be my first night alone since I got back, but that’s probably important for me. I think.” She put the best brave face she could for her friend. “I’ll probably just go to the castle kitchen and see if they have anything and then go bug Sunburst after I talk to Sunset.” “A good idea.” Suddenly Rainbow was pulled into a warm embrace by the other mare. “We’ll see you later tonight or tomorrow morning, okay? Be safe, have a good night.” It took a few moments before Dash could react, she just wanted to melt into the hug. She wanted to take in that familiar perfume that Rarity wore and squeeze her tight, but she had to control herself here. “Yeah. You guys have fun. You deserve it.” They spoke for a minute or two more, just talking about how Dash was adjusting to the wing and to make sure that she wasn’t pushing herself. Then Rarity went off to get ready for the night out with her wife, leaving Dash to her own devices. “Right, Sunset first I guess.” Even though it was well past time for the work day to be over, Rainbow started by heading to Sunset’s office. It was up two flights of stairs and hidden in the depths of the Administration wing. One would think that somepony as important as the King’s personal assistant would be closer to the throne room or even next to the King’s bedroom. Not a whole floor or more removed from either and on the opposite side of the castle. Sure enough, the door was slightly ajar and light spilled from the interior of the room out into the hall. There was a light muttering coming from inside, like Sunset was talking to herself. Rainbow knocked on the door and opened it before she got a response back. The office inside was filled to the brim with stacks of boxes, all pushed to the walls to give room to walk around in. Her desk had stacks of papers and sticky notes all around it. To the pony who set it all up it might make sense, but to Rainbow it looked like a cluttered mess. “Ah, Rainbow Dash.” Sunset sat down the paper she had been reading and looked straight at Rainbow. “Nice of Sunburst to finally do as requested. Please, sit.” A chair was pulled from somewhere in the room and put in front of the desk. “Alright…” Rainbow did as she was requested and sat. “What’s this all about?” “The King has requested your presence.” There was a bitterness in her voice that seemed to be present every time she spoke about Rainbow and the King in the same sentence. “While I knew his intentions previously, I’m afraid I can’t comment on them this time. He’s been in the lower depths of the castle over the last few days, in places where nopony is allowed but him.” Sunset shuffled some papers and looked down at her desk. “What’s this about?” Sussing out Sunset’s motivations had been hard to say the least. It was obvious that she was jealous of Rainbow Dash for her relationship with Sombra. Did she want to be that close with him? Or was there something more? “Never in my entire life or in the lives of the five personal assistants before me who served him, did he ever bring somepony close to him.” Sunset looked right in Rainbow’s eyes and took a deep breath. “There are things that nopony alive could fathom that he knows about. Can you imagine all of that knowledge he holds? How much somepony could learn from him?” “So you are jealous.” Rainbow did her best to hold back the grin that was building but she let it slip just a little. “Yeah well…” Sunset grumbled and huffed before looking back up at Rainbow Dash. “I’ve spent my life studying and learning everything I could relating to Equestria, its history and King Sombra. To be so close and to still feel like you know nothing is…infuriating.” “Let me ask again—” Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. She was glad to have a little glimpse into Sunset’s state of mind and why the mare was so adversarial towards her, but none of it explained why she was telling this to Dash now. “—what is this about?” “He’s going to show you something.” Sunset pulled a folder from beneath her desk and sat it in front of her. “There’s always been rumors of what’s down there, we’ve all heard them: Celestia and Luna’s horns, Cadenza herself still alive, some old relics called the Elements of Harmony. Nopony knows, though.” Sunset tapped her hoof against her desk nervously. “I want you to tell me what’s down there.” “Yeah, sure.” All Rainbow needed to hear was the possibility of the Elements. Sombra knew who she was, what she was. He knew her connection to them, surely he wouldn’t be foolish enough to bring her close to them. Maybe if she could just interact with her element, it could set some things right. Maybe it would boot her back to the world she knew instead of this one. On the off chance it was something else, there was no harm in getting Sunset on her side. “I’m…surprised you agreed so quickly, but I won’t complain.” Sunset stood from her desk and motioned towards the door. “I’m supposed to escort you to the King now. We’ve kept him waiting for long enough.” The two walked in silence through the castle. Sunset Shimmer’s walls went back up as soon as they left her office, once again adopting the stone-faced and focused demeanor she always assumed in the halls. They made their way to the throne room on the first floor and went to the back of the cavernous room where a door stood flanked by two guards. The guards held up their hooves to Sunset and waved Rainbow Dash through. Through the door was a staircase that seemed to go down forever in front of her into an inky black abyss. The door closed behind her with a heavy thud and she stared into the depths ahead of her. It wasn’t completely dark, as the steps themselves glowed ever so slightly so she could always see them. She extended one of her rear legs and pushed on the door, only to find that it had somehow disappeared behind her. “Great. Magic staircase.” Rainbow Dash grumbled and started her way down. She supposed that was one way to keep ponies that somehow managed to get through the guards from getting out with whatever they found. For five minutes she plodded down the stairs, never seeing anything in front of her other than the never ending stairs and an infinite blackness. She stopped in place and thought for a moment. Surely she should’ve hit the bottom by now. Sure the castle was on top of a mountain, but there was no way a single staircase with no landings or turns went all the way to the bottom. “Lost?” A raspy baritone whispered right into her ear. “AH!” Rainbow Dash jumped out of her skin and flared her one wing as she spun around on the stairs to find out who that was. There was nothing behind her but darkness, not even the stairs going up were visible anymore. The darkness coalesced into a solid form in an instant, King Sombra soon stood before her with black smoke wafting off of his body like steam. He grinned down at the mare with his fangs poking from behind his lips and a knowing look in his piercing emerald eyes. “Can you not?!” Rainbow instinctively punched his shoulder with a hoof and huffed. What she had done flashed through her mind and she looked at the King in earnest regret. “Uh…sorry. I didn’t mean to…hit you.” “It didn’t hurt so you’re fine.” Sombra stepped around Rainbow Dash and looked down the staircase. “My question stands: are you lost?” “Well there’s no end to these stairs, so yeah. A little.” She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Let me guess, they’re magic or something.” “Or something.” Sombra concluded. “The door closes and it seals you in a singular point, infinitely repeating until you figure it out.” “Okay so you’re just going to magic us out, right?” Rainbow Dash knew he could turn into smoke, but could he teleport like Twilight could? He was old enough that it seemed like something he should know how to do. “Magic doesn’t work down here.” Sombra tapped his hoof against the stairs. “Specially constructed to nullify such things. I can still change my form as I please because that’s not magic, that’s just how I am. No magic down here, no flying, no cheating. The answer is practical, if esoteric.” Sombra stepped forward, but skipped a step. “Every other step and we’ll be onto the next room.” “Really? The trick is just taking two steps at a time?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked down at the crystalline floor. The steps themselves were narrow, barely big enough for her hoof to fit on. That coupled with the dim light of the stairwell discouraged taking two at a time. “Sure, why not.” They both started down the steps, skipping every other one as their eyes were fixed on their hooves. It didn’t take long for the two ponies to come to a rest on a landing, presumably at the bottom now. The whole trip, after implementing Sombra’s solution, had taken less than a minute. “See?” King Sombra rested a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder and shot her a smile that fully bared his teeth. A shiver shot up Rainbow’s back and she felt a blush creeping up her neck to her cheeks. Her wing twitched against her side and threatened to flare out, but she fought all of those urges. She forced those treacherous feelings down and just gave him a small nod. Before them now was a door, the same composition as the one that had been at the top of the staircase. The King opened it and held it open for Rainbow Dash to enter first. On the other side was a room that was made of the same exact material as the stairs, an opaque slightly glowing crystal. It was nothing more than a box with only the door she walked through in it. It lost even that as Sombra walked through and the door disappeared as it shut. “Let me guess, there’s another trick to this?” Rainbow Dash walked around the room and looked at the walls. “Like the door is just invisible in the exact same place where we came in?” She approached one of the walls, the one on the complete opposite side of the room from Sombra, and tapped on it with her hoof. “Not quite.” He took up a spot in the middle of the room and beckoned Dash to join him. “Please, come here.” She slowly approached the stallion, still wary of him and his intentions here. This looked a little too much like a jail cell, one he might try to trap her in. When she stood in front of him he gave her a warm smile and looked her straight in the eyes. “Do you trust me, Rainbow Dash? Please, answer honestly.” “No.” Rainbow Dash didn’t even need to think twice about that answer. “Well I need you to.” Sombra replied. “Not forever, just for now. In these moments where it’s just you and I down here alone…I need you to trust me, Rainbow Dash. Please.” His voice had lost its edge that it usually retained when around others and was now flowing into her ears like warm honey. Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded reluctantly. “Close your eyes, please.” She bit her lip and took a deep breath before closing her eyes. Her ears twitched and turned towards where Sombra was. He shifted, his metal adornments scraping against the crystals beneath them both. A hoof came up and rested against her cheek, the metal cool against her warm fur. “Imagine this room in your mind’s eye.” Sombra spoke softly. “Four walls, a floor and a ceiling. The whole thing is made of crystals that glow just enough to give the room form.” He paused. “Do you see it?” She nodded. “Imagine the space in front of you, beyond me. See the wall.” Sombra moved to her side and her ears rotated to follow. “Picture a door in the wall right in front of you. Once you have it, walk towards the door.” Rainbow Dash did as she was told and pictured a door in the wall in front of her. She pictured the same one that had been at either end of the staircase. The picture of the altered room was now in her mind and she held it there. She moved across the room in as straight of a line as she could imagine and reached out when she was close to the edge. Her hoof, instead of hitting the flat wall, landed on a wooden door instead. She fumbled around for the doorknob and gave it a turn and a pull. Once it opened, so did her eyes. Just like that, an opened doorway was in front of her. She stepped through it hastily and Sombra was right behind her as she did so. Now they were both in an elongated hallway at which yet another door sat at the far end. “Okay.” Rainbow Dash finally let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in with a sigh. “What’s this room, then? Infinite hallway where we can’t touch the ground or something?” “Hmm…” Sombra closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. “No. We got lucky. This one is just a hallway.” Then he began walking. “The rooms change. Always three puzzles with different solutions and different room layouts. I believe this time we just got a lucky draw on room three. I’ll have to do some tweaking to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” “So…” The only sound was their hooves against the floor as they made their way down the hall. “...what’s exactly down here? Sunset said nopony really knows so it must be important, right?” “An understatement.” He mumbled somberly. “It’s the most important thing in the world, Rainbow Dash. A shackle of fate I’ve not been strong enough to cast aside yet. It’s something you need to see to understand and hopefully trust me again. Only myself and one other pony know what it is…you will be the third pony ever to know.” They both stopped before the final door. “I only ask that you let me explain and think before you react. That’s my one condition.” “I’ll…I’ll do my best.” Dash resolved. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try.” “That’s all any of us can do.” The door opened and led into what looked like one of the apartments up above. It was the same layout as Rarity and Spitfire’s at the very least. A small kitchenette was to the right as soon as they walked in and a small entryway opened up into a living space replete with a couch and a radio propped up on a table. “He must be busy…or napping.” King Sombra mused as he walked into the abode and looked down the hall where the bedrooms would be. “I have arrived for another inspection!” He shouted down the hallway. There was the sound of a creature scrambling some behind one of the doors and soon one of them flew open and a stallion careened down the hall. He was tall and meant to be burly, but his sterling white coat seemed to almost cling to his skin. There was still mostly muscle underneath that fur, but he was very lean as opposed to bulky. A two tone blue mane was on top of his head, almost the same length as Dash’s own. A horn protruded from his forehead and glowed pink as the stallion shut a door behind him. “King Sombra, Your Majesty.” The stallion bowed before the regent. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you…or…” He looked at Rainbow Dash. “...company.” “Shining Armor?” Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe the pony in front of her was the Captain of the Royal Guard from the other world. He looked so…small. So frail. The Shining Armor she knew was a magical powerhouse that could hold off an army even when he was mind-controlled, this one didn’t even look like he could fight her off. “Yes?” Shining replied. “I’m sorry, have we met?” “I told her about you on our way down.” Sombra smartly interjected himself in the conversation. “Shining Armor, this is Rainbow Dash. She’s here to join me for the inspection.” Shining Armor looked at Rainbow Dash critically and then gave an almost imperceptible shrug. “Is everything in order?” “Yes, Your Highness. I was actually just attending to it when you arrived. Dinner time, you know.” Shining Armor moved down the hall towards the door he had come out of. “Sh—” The stallion caught himself and took a deep breath. “—it…has been fine. As always.” There was a profoundly deep pain in his voice that Rainbow couldn’t place. It was almost like a kicked puppy. “Good. Please, to your quarters.” Sombra motioned Shining away. “I need to be alone with Rainbow Dash for a moment.” He waited until the unicorn had entered another room down the hall and turned back to his pegasus companion. “Understand that what I have done down here is not because I wanted to. These are not acts of malice. Everything I have done is a necessity for the stability of Equestria, I need you to understand that.” He opened the door. There should’ve been a simple bedroom behind it, but there wasn’t. Instead there was a massive cavernous and dimly lit room that had been carved out of the mountain itself. Purple crystals jutted from every surface and reflected the world around them, amplifying what little light there was by a few torches spread across the room. At the far end she could see a bed against the wall and something in the bed connected to the wall by a chain. “Hello?” A small shaking voice called out. “Y-you’re not Shiny…or Him.” The creature in the bed stood, it’s full height easily double that of Rainbow’s. A metal ring was fastened around its barrel to keep the twitching wings that sprouted from its back from moving at all. A long sharp horn also sprouted from its head and had a glistening piece of metal at its base. “Who are you?” The creature, the alicorn, stepped forward. She was about halfway across the room when the chain that connected her to the wall became taut and kept her from moving forward any further. Alicorns were always lanky creatures, but this one was different. She was mostly bone, no muscle or fat to be seen on her body. “I-I don’t get a lot of visitors.” The alicorn continued. “My name’s Twilight Sparkle, what’s yours?”