Rainbow Dash flew as fast as she could through the darkness. She could feel her wings straining, the sweat trickling down her brow, the tiredness seeping into her body, but she had to keep flying.
The pegasus glanced behind her, seeing only her rainbow-hued trail sparkle behind as it faded in the inky blackness that surrounded her. But Rainbow knew it was coming, she knew that that thing was still there, coming ever closer and closer.
She tried to keep on flying, but eventually it was too much. Her wings gave out, making her fall out of the air like a broken kite and roll across the ground. Rainbow breathed heavily as she regained her footing and peered out into the darkness. The sound began to emanate out from the void once more, the sound that she hated.
Her breath came out faster and faster as Rainbow felt the presence of the thing envelope her. She could feel it looming over her. Then, Rainbow froze as she heard the voice.
“It’s over, you failed.”
The sound of the thing became louder as it's raspy voice clawed its way through Rainbow’s ears.
“Everyone you know is gone, will be gone. Nothing more than extra puppets to add to the hive.”
Rainbow didn’t want to turn around, but she knew it was behind her. She clapped her hooves over her ears, trying to block off the sound, but the rhythmic thumping became louder and louder. The heartbeat of the hive. The heartbeat of the queen.
“And it’s all your fault Rainbow Dash. Because you are a failure.”
Rainbow couldn’t take it anymore.
“Shut up!” she screamed, spinning around to face the thing. She stared up at the silhouette of the queen, a complete blackness even amidst the darkness. She pointed a shaking hoof at the thing, “You don’t know anything! You’re gone! You’ve been gone!”
The silhouette didn’t move, but the voice gave out a shrill laugh like claws on a chalkboard as the heartbeat became louder.
“But I do know everything, they told me everything.”
Rainbow gasped with abject terror as a spot of light appeared. But not a spot, two spots. A pair of eyes in the darkness. Blank, white eyes that stared right through her. Rainbow tried to move, but she found her hooves frozen in place. Her quick breaths became raspy as she found it harder to breathe as more pairs of lifeless eyes appeared around her. Dozens, hundreds of eyes staring at her, each belonging to a pony she knew.
“They told me how you weren’t good enough. How you failed them. And now they’re ours.”
More spots of light appeared, bright neon colors that stood out lightlessness. Rainbow felt her throat clamp shut as she watched as a luminescent goo began oozing from each pony’s mouth. The slime pooled on the ground, gathering in a rainbow of colors in shades that matched those of Rainbow’s own mane. Slowly but surely, the rainbow mockery spread across the ground, closing in around Rainbow’s hooves.
“There’s no point Rainbow, there’s no point to do anything,” The voice of the queen lowered to guttural hiss, “Because you’re a failure. You’re nothing.”
The heartbeat of the hive grew even louder, each thump resounding in Rainbow’s ears. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t act, she was stuck. Stuck in place as the rainbow goo pooled around her and began to climb up her legs. Rainbow couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move, all she could do was scream.
“GAH!”
Rainbow screamed as she bolted upright in bed.
The pegasus clutched her chest, taking a moment to catch her breath. She wiped the cold sweat off her brow and looked around. Everything was normal. The cloudominium was normal. The twilight night sky that casted a blue hue across Equestria was normal.
Rainbow let out a loud sigh of relief, relaxing her body in the cloudy bed. She shifted her gaze across the room.
Sitting underneath her assortment of wonderbolt gear was Tank. The tortoise must have been awoken by her shouts. But now, Tank sat still, his neck extended, casting his look of gentle concern at her.
"Did it happen again? Did you have another nightmare?” Tank seemed to ask with his beady eyes.
Rainbow scoffed at her pet, “No way! I just um- I woke up ‘cause I just needed to use the bathroom!”
“You know very well I know you better than that,” Tank appeared to answer, “I understand if these things upset you, but it would be best for you if you were honest. You can tell me anything.”
“Fine!” Rainbow sighed, “Yes! I had another nightmare!” She tossed the covers of the bed aside and hopped off the bed. “But it really isn’t a big deal! I mean, everypony has a bad dream once in a while! Even a wonderbolt as awesome as me can have a bad dream sometimes! So what if I have a few bad dreams! I probably just need to cut down on the sweets or something.” She stopped, noticing she had begun pacing back and forth mid-air.
Flapping back down with a nervous chuckle, Rainbow looked at Tank. “But maybe you should talk to somepony about this,” Rainbow assumed he would answer, “I’m sure your friends would understand. You don’t need to hide anything from them, not anymore.”
“You’re right,” Rainbow relented.
Maybe the old Rainbow Dash may have hidden her issues, but that was long ago. She and her friends had been through so much, learned so many things, they had changed and matured since that first day in Ponyville.
“I should talk to somepony about this,” she continued, “I don’t know who specifically, but it should help.” She tapped a light blue hoof on her chin, deciding the proper way for her to calm down later in the day, or “chillax” as she liked to refer.
Ever the quick thinker, Rainbow was quick to reach a decision. But she would have to fit it in later in the day. After all, she had a full schedule of wonderbolt, friendship school, and weather team work to do.
But for now, Rainbow zipped around the room, quickly speeding through her morning routine, however late it was. Rainbow Dash was a busy pony after all, and with all her experience, Rainbow had no shortage of things to prepare for.
Within seconds Rainbow dashed through the air, stopping in front of Tank. He looked up to his owner in her wonderbolt uniform, precariously balancing a stack of papers in her hooves.
“See you later buddy!” Rainbow cheerfully said, patting the tortoise on the head with one of her free legs, “I got a super busy day today you know, better get started bright and early!” Then in a second, she was gone, leaving nothing behind except a few friendship lessons fluttering in the air.
Tank calmly caught the errant papers, placing them in their proper place before he slowly turned his scaly head to the window. The telltale rainbow trail of Rainbow Dash sped across the purple twilight sky. Tank blinked, turning his head to look at a nearby clock; it was three in the morning.
The sun had only just risen in Ponyville by the time Rainbow Dash finished her work. It wasn’t as much as she told Tank; Rainbow really just needed an excuse to get out because she knew she wouldn’t be able to get any more sleep that night. Now, Rainbow had the rest of the day to chill out and relax, maybe actually talk to a friend like she had agreed to herself previously.
She had mentally convinced herself to do this several times before, but Rainbow was never able to go through it. After all, a bad dream wasn’t that much of a problem. Leaving the School of Friendship, Rainbow took her planned detour to the nearby Castle of Friendship.
Pushing open the door, Rainbow stepped into the empty main hall. Her hoofsteps echoed throughout the crystalline castle. It was quiet, no one else could be seen.
Slowly she walked through the halls, simply taking in the castle. She reminisced on all the things that had happened there, the things that had happened in the Golden Oaks Library as well. Fond memories, some not so fond memories, things that Rainbow could never forget.
As she rounded a corner, Rainbow stopped. She let out a quiet exhale, it was the doorway. The doorway to the castle’s lower tunnels. Back during the rainbow plague, it had served as an entrance point for an infected Starlight Glimmer and a host of other zomponies. Twilight had sealed off the entrance and nobody had entered it since.
The sight of the doorway brought back memories in Rainbow’s mind, unpleasant memories. A dullness came over her mind, an ill feeling in her stomach, but Rainbow shook it off, quickly turning tail and walking away from the doorway.
The ill feeling went away as quickly as it arrived as Rainbow trotted back to the main hall.
“Oh hey Rainbow Dash!”
“Huh?” Rainbow snapped out of her mind and looked up. Approaching her was Starlight Glimmer, a reformed magic user and close friend. The pastel unicorn seemingly just awoke, for she still blinked the vestiges of tiredness out of her eyes and was wearing her fluffy, pink bedroom slippers.
“I said hi!” Starlight repeated, “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, especially not this early in the day.”
“Oh yeah,” Rainbow gave a half-hearted chuckle, “I just wanted to come here- to reminisce and stuff.”
Starlight suddenly gave Rainbow a somber look, “You miss Twilight too huh?”
Rainbow paused then nodded, “I guess, things have just felt different since she left for Canterlot.”
“I know right!” Starlight said with an exaggerated gesture, “This place is so quiet without her and Spike. It’s almost creepy in a way!” She paused, “Say, would you like to come have a morning coffee with me? We could just hang out and chat. It'll be nice!”
Rainbow nodded, “Actually, that’s why I came here. I wanted to talk with you about- something.”
In the kitchen of the castle, Rainbow sat idly by as Starlight used her magic to prepare a pot of coffee.
Rainbow herself wasn't much of a coffee pony, usually having more than enough energy on her own. But she was feeling a bit tired now, having gotten little sleep the previous night.
Looking down into the cup, Rainbow looked at her reflection in the brown liquid. She noticed the large bags under her eyes, how long had those been there?
“Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow looked up, “Wait, did you ask something?”
"So, you've been having dreams?" repeated Starlight as she sat down with her cup of coffee.
“Well not me exactly,” Rainbow began, stopping as she looked at Starlight, “But- actually yes, it's me. I’ve been having these- dreams."
“And how long has this been going on?” Starlight asked as she took a sip of coffee.
“Not that long, it's only been happening for like a week,” Rainbow replied. She stammered as she spoke, as she couldn’t help but shift her focus at Starlight’s horn. A thin, almost indistinguishable serrated line slithered its way around the horn. The part of where her horn had been broken off by Applejack during the rainbow plague. Starlight had her horn reattached shortly afterwards, but that thin scarring would always serve as a reminder of those events, at least it would for Rainbow, for whom the sight of the miniscule line gave her a feeling. A nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach that staved off any feelings of thirst for the coffee generously offered by Starlight.
Of course, Starlight didn’t know this, no one else did.
“A week? It’s been a week since Twilight’s coronation, maybe you’re just having trouble adjusting to the changes?” Starlight pondered, “After all, I’m sure all of us are having trouble getting used to all this change.”
“I guess so,” Rainbow shrugged, offering a quick look of sincerity.
“Now my time as a guidance counselor is over, but maybe your dreams mean something,” Starlight suggested as she finished another sip, “Tell me, what are in the bad dreams you’ve been having?”
“Oh, just stuff about Twilight,” Rainbow lied, she looked down, noticing that the coffee cup was shaking in her hoof. Clasping the cup with her other hoof, Rainbow continued, “Being left alone, everything changing, in retrospect the cause is kinda obvious.” She gulped, putting on the guise of her usual outgoing attitude, “But I’m not sure what I can do about this!”
“You could always just go out to Canterlot and talk to Twilight yourself,” Starlight suggested, “I’m certain she can take time for you! That's what I did when I had the same problem.”
“Wait. You had the same problem?”
Starlight coughed, looking a bit ashamed, “Oh it was a while ago. I’ve never really told anypony except Twilight about it. But yeah, I had some bad dreams as well, things about my, actions, in the past. But I found that opening up about it really helped me deal with it, which I guess is what you’re doing right now with me.”
“Yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed with a spurious smile, “I really should just plan and go talk to Twilight about this. Not that you’re no help Starlight. Really, thanks.”
“No problem!” Starlight answered as she finished off her coffee.
Rainbow’s coffee cup remained untouched, eventually becoming cold as the two ponies continued conversing about various subjects, wonderbolts, magic, among other things. But Rainbow couldn’t help but think to herself about Starlight.
As she had mentioned her own experience with nightmares, it made Rainbow remember her earliest experiences with Starlight. Yes, they were friends now, but Rainbow couldn’t help but recall some of the events. The mind control, the town, the stripping of her cutie mark. These memories replayed in her mind until Rainbow stopped paying attention and Starlight’s kind voice became white noise that echoed fruitlessly in deaf ears.