//------------------------------// // When is an unfinished television series like a little puppy? // Story: Rainbow Of Fate // by Lord Drayvon22 //------------------------------// During the confrontation in the Castle of the Two Sisters, Ponyvile Hospital During the chaos surrounding the collapse of Ponyvile's shield, Scootaloo had been transported to the nearest medical facility in the hopes to do literally anything to try and help her. Of course, given the protective spell placed by Luna earlier, it had taken several of the more resilient Shadows a while to actually get her there but better later than never. Considering everything else that's happened over the last day or so, things seem relatively normal on such a wonderfully sunny morning. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle have gotten up bright and early to try and visit her. With the night shift having ended, the nurse on duty at the front desk is a blue Earth Pony mare with a bright orange mane. Despite being muzzle deep in a stack of paperwork, she looks up,with a smile when the door effortlessly swings open with a light green glow. “Good morning and welcome to Ponyvile General Hospital. How can I help you?" Apple Bloom nods with a friendly smile. "Gud mornin', Nurse Aider. We heard Scootaloo wus moved here las' night. Is she okay? Can we visit her?" Nurse Aider's face appears to switch to being very sad for a moment but soon settles on professional and welcoming. "We aren't sure if she's improved yet, I'm afraid. If she's awake and willing to speak to you though, I don't see why you can't visit. Follow me." She leads the two down a side corridor until they come to a rather unremarkable looking door albeit one guarded by two formidable looking Shadows. "She's in there." The Crusaders move to enter but she stops them with a low voice. "Please remember that she might still be asleep and I have to warn you to not wake her or make too much noise this early in the morning. It may be almost noon but some of our patients still need the rest and I really don't want to have to ask you both to leave." The two Crusaders nod sincerely. "We promise." Nurse Aider gives them a suspicious gaze, knowing thier tendency to cause trouble all too well, before letting them by and turning to go back to the front desk. She only gets halfway down the corridor before hearing two piercing screams so she rushes back. "I warned you. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to l-" She trails off as she sees the Crusaders staring at a Scootaloo sized depression in the bed but without a Scootaloo actually in it. She turns to inform the Guards but one has already flown off to find help. Within five minutes of the Princesses teleporting to Canterlot, Nightmare Moon walks into the hospital room looking displeased. "Can either of you tell me how a filly, that can't even move, can just vanish from a heavily guarded hospital room?" The two Shadows look rather guilty as her glare harshens. "I won't be asking twice." The shadow on the right is visibly shaking. "W-we don't know, your highness. We've been standing here this whole time and heard nothing." After a few moments of glaring in disgust at her minions, Nightmare Moon closes her eyes and draws on the shadows in the room. Where did the filly in this room go? Darkness is here. It is coming. Beware the shadows that breathe and the darkness that can move. Not really understanding the message, but getting a very bad feeling, Nightmare Moon turns to the guards. "Assemble the Shadows immediately and have them ready to leave in half an hour. We have a new problem." "Yes, our Queen." As they fly away as quickly as possible, Nightmare Moon can't shake off a feeling of both déjà vu and impending doom. Flare's house, after the meeting For a moment, Flare's brain seems to completely shut down before rebooting and she chuckles. "Good one, I thought for a moment there that you said she's disappeared from right under our faces." Nightmare Moon doesn't crack a smile. "I did." Despite her growing worry, and being able to feel the being's sincerity through thier connection, Flare glares at her in disbelief. "But Scootaloo can't even..." She gulps. "How could she be kidnapped without us even noticing?” Nightmare Moon huffs. "All I know for certain is that, to get past out wards and guards, it has to be powerful and unnatural." Flare grows more worried. "But why would anything go after her? What did she do to them?" Nightmare Moon resists the urge to face-hoof. Some things will never change. "You're kidding, right? Since you first wielded the Elements, without counting myself, you've made enemies of Discord, Sombra, Chrysalis and her entire army of Changelings. If they can't get to any of you, who better to target than a close friend of one of thier enemies? And what's a more perfect time than when the kingdom's in disarray?" Dash's eyes go wide at the thought. "Where is she?" Nightmare Moon responds with a grim look. "The good news is that I can track her using the suspension spells I applied last night. They won't wear off until tonight and they say she’s somewhere near Griffonstone." Flare almost doesn't want to ask the next question. "And the bad news?" The present, the edge of Canterlot After the rather disastrous couple of days that they've had, the Princesses are running very low on energy; Princess Luna being the worst off after having gotten no sleep whatsoever the precious night. Still, for the sake of everypony else, they've drawn on thier last reserves of energy and some power from thier magical sources to give them just energy for a cross-nation pursuit and termination. "Is everypony ready, Captain?" Due to changing shifts and obvious fatigue, Aegis Shield has been replaced by his deputy Silent Knight whilst Solar Strike stays behind to lead the Guard staying in Canterlot. "Yes, Princess." Despite the fact that the only real ponies that can affect the Shadows are Unicorns or the three Alicorns, and all ten Guards that were going with them are Pegasi for the sake of speed and flexibility, over fifty Guards have volunteered for what could very well be a suicide operation. His expression turns nervous for a moment although only an expertly trained or very ancient eye could notice. "Sorry for asking but what's keeping the Elements from sealing us away as well? Sorry to ask but-" He is cut off by a proud smile from Celestia. "It's good that you asked, Captain. The Elements can tell good from evil, they'll just wash over you harmlessly." Silent Knight nods gratefully, hating to have to ask but feeling obliged to on behalf of his men. With a hoof signal, the entire wing take flight and soar towards the southeast. Presently, in the skies near Baltimare As Flare rockets in the general direction of the tracking spell, manifesting as a form of pressure in her head that shifts sides depending on the direction it's coming from, her worry can only grow. I just don't get it. What kinda creature would go after Scoots? Why not any of us? It's easier to grab a filly than a full grown mare and she can't move so she's easy to keep captive. There's- MOVE! NOW! Flare narrowly manages to avoid getting clearly cut in two by an enormous shining energy beam although the Shadows aren't as lucky. The instant that the beam strikes the mass, it utterly explodes as if a bomb had just went off with Shadows flying in all directions and Flare herself getting knocked back several hundred feet when one of them slams into her. "What the hay was that?!" As fifty three silhouettes approach with the Sun behind them, Flare feels her heart sink. No, not now. Of all the times, it just had to be now. Princess Celestia eyes the smaller Alicorn with an unreadable expression and speaks with the tone of a judge passing final sentence. "Rainbow Dash of Ponyvile; you are guilty of treason, kidnapping, slavery, assault on a filly, performing dark magic, assault on the Royal Guard, conspiracy to conquer Equestria and brainwashing. If you surrender, you will be spared banishment to the Sun." In that moment, Flare doesn't see Celestia; kind, benevolent and beloved Princess of Equestria. She sees Celestia; extremely protective and aggressive defender of Equestria as well as skurge of any and all evil. The living embodiment of the two heavenly bodies that keep the world in check and one of the most powerful and feared beings on Equus. She gets the feeling that this concession is only being offered because of her important role as a Bearer. Chuckling nervously, she begins inching her way backwards with a sheepish grin. "That's a very tempting offer, Princess, but Scootaloo needs my help real quick. I swear, I'll be right back." With that, she takes off like a bat out of Tartarus towards where the tracking spell is leading her. She knows that she has just made a major mistake but the alternative is being thrown in the dungeon where anyone would dismiss her worries for Scootaloo as attempts at manipulation. As the Shadows begin to recover though, the Princesses exchange looks of agreement before channelling thier magic in an all too familiar way. After just a few seconds, a familiar rainbow-like energy washes over the fields and Shadows below. For a brief few moments, as the Elemental Rainbow swirls around the Shadows and banished them, it seems like Flare has a chance but then it rockets towards Flare Having seen first-hoof how insanely fast those rainbows can travel, she knows that she has no hope of outrunning it but pure self-preservation instinct urges her forward. A mixture of fear, instinct, new-found Alicorn power and a desire to save Scootaloo allow her to break the sound barrier and Rainboom in record time but it still isn't enough. Almost on a whim, she barrels towards the woods and corkscrews several dozen times but the beam doesn't even bend; just passing straight through the trees harmlessly. Perhaps more concerningly, the beam isn’t even going that fast… relatively speaking. It’s going fast enough to keep up, which is still well over 800MPH, but not enough to overwhelm her as if it knows that the speeds Flare is travelling at cam only last for so long. Gradually running out of steam, since the Sonic Rainboom usually takes a lot of her energy to perform as well as the already considerable exertion and two days with no sleep. she decides that the best idea is to perform a wing-over. With some of her last reserves, Flare climbs as fast as possible straight into the air. With the beam following suit, she soars as high as her body can take the massive reduction in air pressure before pitching downwards at an almost 270 degree angle and skyrocketing away towards Baltimare itself. Understandably, the Baltimareons are more than a little surprised when a rainbow roars across the sky after a tiny black speck. Despite her best efforts however, the rainbow is relentless and the nearly completely vertical dive means that she has to dodge buildings so Flare is rapidly losing momentum. Unfortunately for her, although Alicorns possess much greater stamina and endurance than your ordinary pony, thier wings can only take so much abuse which is exasperated by the winds which feels like dozens of brick walls repeatedly slamming into her Radius. Finally, about half a mile outside of Baltimare, Night-time Flare's wings cramp and lock-up so she begins a nosedive into the ground. She attempts to flap her wings but the only response that she gets is an excruciating pain; having completely sprained her coracoid. Seconds before her borderline ultrasonic speeds would have made her into a puddle though, the Elemental Rainbow washes over her and she finds herself being pulled upwards at an impossible speed. No, no, no, no, no! I'm needed here! I can’t leave yet!! She struggles with all of her energy, and with some lent by Nightmare Moon, until she reaches the edge of the atmosphere. She then immediately realises that, if Princess Luna couldn't escape the Elements for roughly a thousand years, then what chance does she have? As she reaches the edge of the Gildran Line, she very rapidly gains momentum until she is basically an incredibly fast pony-shaped rocket. Her final thoughts before slamming into the Sun are ones of regret. Scootaloo, I'm sorry that I failed you. Please be safe. Near Baltimare After almost five minutes of waiting, the Princesses can feel the rainbow finally catch Flare so they allow themselves to float down and catch thier breaths. Even for immensely powerful Alicorns, using the Elements (especially with the amount of energy required to banish such a large army) is akin to an intense and extremely thorough workout or a flight around the entirety of Equestria three times over. Being the least used to such a drain, only having really experienced such from her and Shining Armour's love nuke a year earlier, Princess Cadance is almost floored by the exertion. "Is... it... over?" As much as she'd like to mourn and move on, Celestia shakes her head. "No, we still have to decide on how to handle Ponyvile." The other two Princesses exchange sad looks only for both to notice Captain Silent Knight standing very defensively. "What's wrong, Captain?" He doesn't respond but Cadance's eyes especially go wide at a low pitched buzzing sound coming from nearby. "No." She immediately throws up a shield spell as several hundred familiar insectoid shells pop up around them. Not even Alicorns are likely to be capable of fighting hundreds if not potentially thousands of powerful enemies even when they aren’t worn out from two days of never ending stress and little to no sleep. Even so, the army doesn’t strike and instead parts to reveal an even more familiar sneering visage. "Hello, Celestia." The sheer amount of venom in that one word's delivery could kill six hundred ponies and a Discord five times over. For several long moments, there is nothing but silence. Whereas Princess Cadance is simultaneously enraged and extremely confused by Chrysalis' continued existence, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia seem only mildly surprised. After those moments pass, the Changeling Queen regards the youngest Princess with disdain. "I take it you never bothered to tell her that I was still alive? With such wisdom, it’s no wonder I got so close last year." She is forced back by an energy beam from Celestia before managing to effortlessly deflect it into a nearby tree after just three seconds. Instead of being angry at the affront though, Chrysalis has the same smug but slightly deadpan expression Cadance grew to hate so much during the wedding. "Really, Celestia? You're surrounded by hundreds of my children and you still want to attack me? After what happened before? It’s been almost two thousand years and so little has changed." Suddenly, something Luna said earlier clicks with Cadance and she turns to her aunt who just seems utterly disgusted by the Changeling. "What are you doing here, Chrysalis?" The Queen just looks at them blankly for a moment before scowling. "We live here or at least we used to. Your little war in Ponyvile has been causing the Guards to patrol constantly and they've come dangerously close to our hive." Her scowl turns into a foul, hungry, predatory smile. "Since you're trespassing on our home, and on my sovereignty, I see no reason why we can't defend our t-" Before she can finish, the Changelings find themselves blasted back by a powerful magical shock-wave; slamming hard into the nearby trees and being stunned for a few moments. Even Chrysalis herself is momentarily winded before everyling recovers to find the Guards and Princesses gone. "Humph, so be it. They who fight but run from a greater power may live to see one more hour." One of her lesser lieutenants approaches with a deep bow, practically kissing the dirt with how low he is bending. "What's next, my Queen?" Chrysalis just smiles. "What else, Pharynx? They're exhausted, depleted, divided, demoralised and thier precious trump card is now worthless whereas we are well rested and need a new home. Even for me, fighting all three at once is hopeless even if they are tired. For now, we will plan and organise but soon we'll have everything. When the time is right, we strike and Equestria will be ours at last." And then, for no other reason than because Chrysalis is Chrysalis, she lets out a long and vicious cackle for good measure.