Rainbow Dash turned around slowly to face the middle of the throne room. As she did so, two bright spheres of light appeared, one pure white, the other a navy blue. They grew in size and brightness, and from them rose Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
Both of them had become corrupted, but the black markings seemed less chaotic and more focused on specific parts of their bodies. Their eyes still had the iris, but lacked a pupil. Both princesses stood still, looking right at her.
‘This is not good. Two more doors, but the princesses raise and lower the sun and moon. How can I trick them, when they have a thousand years of experience at least?’ Rainbow thought aloud frantically.
Rainbow watched as the markings on Princess Celestia ran down her legs, formed a circle, which then made bars around the princess. Princess Celestia closed her eyes and remained perfectly still inside the bars, while Princess Luna took to the air. Magical circles appeared around her, and from these small fireballs flew towards Rainbow Dash, who only just avoided getting hit.
“Twilight, help! How can I lock them up?” Rainbow yelled, as Princess Luna darkened the room. Shadow claws begun reaching out for Rainbow Dash as she flew around.
“I don’t know!” Twilight replied, completely at a loss, a confused look on her face.
Rainbow kept flying around, avoiding each new attack Princess Luna used. She knew that eventually, she would be unable to avoid any attacks, and that would be it for her. Looking to the middle of the room, Rainbow saw Princess Luna start change her shape, making herself taller, darker and her hair more flowing and like the night. The sight of Princess Luna now appearing as Nightmare Moon unnerved Rainbow a little.
From where she stood, Nightmare Moon flared her wings, and red symbols appeared on the ceiling. As they begun to pulse and glow brighter, rocks fell from them, striking the floor where they disappeared on impact. Rainbow had to pay careful attention during the attack to avoid being struck by any of the rocks.
As the barrage of rocks stopped, Princess Luna changed out of her Nightmare Moon form. She flew straight into the air, her right front hoof held high. Behind her, white shapes that looked like small stars formed, and shot straight ahead of her, following Rainbow for ten seconds, before exploding. Rainbow cursed slightly, thankful she was faster than the white stars. Princess Luna stared at Rainbow Dash, her white eyes emotionless, and remaining in the air, she begun to fly after Rainbow.
‘I can’t try to trick her, or pretend to charge her. I don’t know what will work.’ Rainbow thought hopelessly, flying over to one of the remaining open rooms. She looked inside, and found nothing that could help her. Rainbow Dash turned around and ran out of the room, and saw Princess Luna flying at her at high speed. Without thinking, Rainbow ducked out of the way.
She looked behind her a second later, and her jaw dropped. Crashed, and slightly dazed against the far wall, was Princess Luna. Quickly, Rainbow Dash bucked the door closed. That had been easier than even tricking Pinkie Pie and Rarity. But still left her with the problem of Princess Celestia.
She looked back where Princess Celestia had surrounded herself with bars made from the markings that had been on her. Rapidly, the bars returned to the ground, and in turn, the markings returned to where they had been before on Princess Celestia.
“Now you will see why I am to be feared.” Princess Celestia said softly and coldly.
Rainbow Dash begun to sweat, as Princess Celestia raised the temperature of the room. Around the throne room, random objects caught on fire. Slowly, Rainbow Dash backed up against the door Princess Luna had been locked behind.
“You’re one of my sister’s student’s friends right?” Princess Luna asked, making Rainbow Dash jump. She hadn’t been expecting the Princess to speak.
“Um, yeah. I’m afraid the chat will have to wait, your sister is kind of out of her mind and trying to kill me.” Rainbow Dash replied frantically. She shivered a little suddenly, and looked around. Objects that had burst into flame nearby, such as potted plants and banners, now were suddenly going out, and the room felt a little cooler.
“It’s not much, since whatever has happened has weakened me, but this part of the room is safe. Even if my sister walks nearby, she won’t be able to heat the air here again.” Princess Luna said, smiling. Rainbow Dash smiled in reply for a second, but then looked on as Princess Celestia summoned fire made versions of Rainbow Dash and her friends.
“Well, that won’t save me in the long term. She’s still trying to kill me. What do I do now?” Rainbow Dash sounded hopeless as she said this.
“You’re a pegasus. Do something she won’t be expecting.” Princess Luna offered.
Rainbow Dash looked around. The fire versions of her and the others stood near Princess Celestia, who seemed to be focusing and preparing another attack. The random fires across the room were beginning to get bigger, and threatened to spread and fill the whole throne room.
The idea hit her. While Princess Celestia was relying on Rainbow Dash to stay on the ground and not risk getting burned, she wouldn’t expect her to use the fire against her. It was highly risky pulling fire up into a tornado, and dangerous for her to stay in it to guide the wind direction. As dangerous as it was, Rainbow had very little choice, she gulped and took flight.
It worked as expected at first. Princess Celestia hadn’t expected Rainbow Dash to take flight. Nor actually whip up winds and pull any fire she could get into a vortex. The Princess changed plans and begun magically throwing fireballs at Rainbow, but these only served to help Rainbow Dash’s plan.
Rainbow kept spinning around faster and faster, the small vortex quickly becoming a small tornado that she could keep control over. She adjusted her flight path and led the fire tornado over to Princess Celestia, who instinctively begun to try and run out of the way. The Princess however, couldn’t outrun it, and soon, she became trapped in the middle of it, screaming as the fires lashed against her body.
A final flight adjustment by Rainbow Dash sent the fire tornado barrelling over to the final open door, the winds being strong enough to close the door behind the Princess. Rainbow Dash smiled, as she sat down, tired out from the work she had put in. From the direction of the door Princess Luna was behind, the cooling air she had made to protect Rainbow Dash earlier spread out and filled the room, clearing away the heat.
Rainbow Dash sighed with relief and stood up. Across the room, behind the doors they were locked in, her friends cheered for her, making Rainbow smile.
She walked slowly up to the door Princess Celestia was now behind and looked in, expecting the princess to still be heavily affected by whatever had changed her personality so much. The sight that met her gave Rainbow some hope.
Princess Celestia now looked like her normal self, the black markings that had been on her now gone, and she was now looking at Rainbow Dash, very confused.
“What is going on?” Princess Celestia asked, her voice was normal once more, warm and kind, but held a tone of worry.
“It’s a long story Princess. Somehow, you, Princess Luna and all earth ponies and unicorns got corrupted by something. Canterlot and Ponyville are in ruins, and I’ve just done my best to get you all locked up behind these doors, which somehow made you go back to normal.” Rainbow Dash replied.
Rainbow looked confused as Princess Celestia seemed shocked by something. Then yelped, as something kicked her hard against the door. Rainbow Dash crumpled to the floor, tears forming in her eyes from the sudden pain. Slowly, Rainbow Dash shifted. And gasped in shock.
Standing above her was a shadow copy of herself, the blue coat was darkened to a navy blue, the rainbow mane also held darker colours of the ones in Rainbow’s own mane, the Element of Loyalty on its golden choker, smirking down at her. A second later, it bucked her in the stomach, forcing her to cough up a small bit of blood. As the world spun, all Rainbow Dash could hear was the sobbing of her friend Fluttershy. She guessed Fluttershy had seen the remains of the dead birds, and was crying over them. Rainbow could also hear other sounds too, but they sounded so far away.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash got to her hooves as the shadow looked at her with disgust. Rainbow almost collapsed when she was finally up, but looked angry at it.
“I’m supposed to take you over? You are pathetic.” It said at her, disdainfully. The shadow sounded less scratchy than Rainbow’s own, but at the same time, it sounded distant, as if it wasn’t coming from the shadow itself.
“Are you why everything’s going bad?” Rainbow asked it. The shadow grinned with pleasure.
“Yes, yes I did, I even made that green unicorn believe she wasn’t fully corrupted, to lead you here when you took your time doing so otherwise. And when I take over your body, I’ll recorrupt the princesses and your friends. Everything you just did was for nothing!” it gloated and turned away from Rainbow.
“A clever plan. I know your dying to learn how I pulled off world wide destruction just to take it over, because I'm dying to tell you. Simple really, I begun with the princesses here. I made them doubt and distrust each other, and when they realised what was going on,” it paused, almost dramatically, but it had begun to laugh, “it was too late. I could control what they did. And with the princesses, I corrupted their inner circle of unicorns, who in turn corrupted earth ponies that didn’t get away at first. Oh sure, they and pegasi tried to run from the corruption that spread among unicorns like wild fire, but the earth ponies eventually failed. And then, the plan didn’t exactly finish. Magic nor earth pony strength was able to corrupt any pegasi, that is, until one walked right in here. Unable to fight those she knew, the chance to finish my plan looked better. And now you are here, and soon, I shall rule the world.”
Rainbow Dash had no time to react. The shadow turned and kicked her in her face. While it didn’t knock her out, she collapsed to the floor again, stunned by the kick. The shadow stood over her, laughing.
“Hey there, meanie shadow Dashie!” Pinkie Pie said, hopping beside the shadow.
“What? How did you get out?” it snapped at the pink pony.
“Oh, I went over and got Fluttershy out, she seemed really upset,” Pinkie Pie held Fluttershy, looking sad herself, “but when I told her you seemed to be the reason for her being upset, she wanted to talk to you.”
Rainbow Dash and the shadow both stared at Pinkie Pie, both not believing what they had just heard. The shadow shook its head.
“NO! I asked how did you get out?” it snapped again, getting closer to Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie seemed to take a few seconds to think of the answer while the shadow tapped impatiently. Rainbow meanwhile noticed Fluttershy was using her stare on the shadow, which it had yet to seem to notice.
“I don’t know.” Pinkie Pie finally declared happily, “I just did.” The shadow’s jaw dropped, and facehooved. It looked at Fluttershy, finally noticing she was using her stare on it.
“Is there a problem yellow?” it asked mockingly.
“You corrupt all those ponies, destroy Ponyville, bring Canterlot to ruins, kill so many creatures, then harm my friend, and you think there wouldn’t be a problem?” she growled at the shadow and gave it her trademark stare, but the shadow didn’t seem impressed.
“You forget, I am Corrupted Element of Loyalty. When loyalty is corrupted, it becomes betrayal. Everything I did was to take over this pathetic excuse of a pegasus,” it kicked Rainbow Dash again, “and rule the world while the rest of you were mindless slaves. Except all Pegasus ponies don’t seem to have fallen to corruption. So, yellow, I don’t see anything you just said as a problem.” It smiled.
“My name.” Fluttershy had clearly reached breaking point.
“Come again?” the shadow asked.
“Use my name!” Fluttershy was now visibly struggling to hold back her rage, as her left eye twitched.
“Fine, Element of Kindness. Now, just go back to where you were locked up and let me do what I’ve planned.” The shadow begun to turn around.
Fluttershy snapped.
“My name, IS FLUTTERSHY!” she shouted. The words echoed around the room.
Rainbow Dash watched in slow motion as Fluttershy spun on the spot with her front hooves, her back hooves making contact with the choker around the shadow’s neck. The force of the kick had been enough to break it, and it fell in parts to the floor.
The shadow itself seemed to soundlessly yell in pain, as it deformed into a blob. This blob then shot underneath Rainbow, who, despite having been kicked several times and hurting badly, still took to the air fast. She flew in place for a minute before breathing a sigh of relief, and landing, laying flat on the ground.
Around her, Rainbow Dash could hear Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy approaching the other doors, unlocking them. She hadn’t asked how Pinkie had freed Fluttershy, and really, it didn’t matter. All she cared about was that her friends were fine and safe.
Rainbow only opened her eyes slightly when a pair of white legs wearing gold decorative horseshoes appeared in front of her.
“I’m sorry Princess Celestia, I’m a bit too weak to get up and bow…” Rainbow Dash mumbled, just loud enough to be heard.
“Rainbow Dash, after all you seem to have done today, you deserve some rest. Also, to your earlier confusion, the doors were to rooms of protection, each of them set up by Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Celestia replied, still standing near, but looking over at Twilight, “thank you, Twilight Sparkle. If your quick thinking hadn’t lead to the safety within the rooms, we would not be ourselves right now.”
“What happens now Princess? The whole of Equestria is in ruins…” Rainbow Dash tilted her head up to look at the Princess.
“Except, it doesn’t have to be.” Princess Celestia stated, leaving a silence between the two.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked confused, trying to get to her hooves.
“I wasn’t sure before, but when the shadow kept attacking you, something didn’t seem right with you, Rainbow Dash,” the princess paused to help Rainbow up before continuing, “simply put, you are both here and not.”
“Here and… what? How does that work?” Rainbow asked, her head spinning as she tried to understand.
“Physically, you are here, after the disaster that ruined Equestria. But mentally, you are both here and in the past before the disaster. Something or some pony has forced your spirit to be in the past and future at the same time.” The princess replied. This didn’t help Rainbow Dash to be any less confused.
“So, uh,” Rainbow was at a slight loss for words, as she still had no real idea what the princess was saying, “how do we fix it? Or don’t we?”
“Simply put, Rainbow Dash, I can undo it, but these events will come to pass if you let them. When you wake up back in the past, make sure that they don’t, if you can.” Princess Celestia stated, her wings extending to their full reach.
Rainbow Dash thought for a second, before remembering the notes she read in the hospital ruins days before.
“I know what it is, I blacked out and woke up in the hospital ruins, that must have been it. If I don’t get taken there, none of this will happen!” She stated excitedly. She blinked a few times, as everything faded to black, the last thing she saw, was her friends standing beside the Princesses, and all of them smiling at her.
--
The wind blew through her mane, and she slowly opened her eyes. Her head was facing towards the ground and it was moving. Slowly, she blinked and groaned, alerting those around her that she had woken up.
“Dashie! You’re ok!” Pinkie pie said happily
“What…” Rainbow begun.
“Ya fell out the sky, Rainbow. So we’re taking you to the hospital.” Applejack replied before Rainbow could even ask her question.
“No, take me to Twilight’s library, can’t go to the hospital.” Rainbow protested.
“No Rainbow, we’re taking you to the hospital and that’s final.” Twilight added.
“Please, it’s vital to everypony that I don’t go there!” Rainbow cried, and for her efforts, she begun coughing.
“Vital to your silly pride more like.” Rarity chimed.
“I’ll explain it if you take me to the library and get Nurse Redheart to come there instead.” Rainbow pleaded.
The sensation of moving stopped. Looking around weakly, she saw her friends had all come to a stop, and were now looking at her.
“Please?” she asked.
“Ugh, fine. For you, we’ll take you to the library. Rarity, go get Nurse Redheart, and we’ll meet you there.” Twilight said, as they begun to move again.
“Thanks Twilight, the world will be safe now.” Rainbow said, before passing out again.
--
Standing outside ponyville, a blue pony stood, its eyes fixed on the group of ponies currently walking towards the Ponyville library. It showed no emotion as it watched, and as the ponies went inside, it gained the look that suggested it was looking down on a rather vile and horrible group of insects.
“It has begun…” it muttered to itself, before walking away.
-------------------------------------
Author's notes;
To begin, I am still looking for a new editor to help with this fic. I often fail to catch big mistakes and plot holes, so I don't completely trust myself to find them. If you are interested in helping me, and have google docs, send me a message.
This chapter ends the first arc of Ruining Harmony. Before people complain and say "it was all a dream! how cheap!", re-read what Celestia says and what Dash works out. Incase that doesnt help, I'll take time to explain.
Due to her mysterious blackout (explained right at the end), the events did occur, but by waking up before any of the events occured, they no longer occur in the timeline Dash is now in. That isn't to say they never took place, they did. It makes sense if you understand time travel. Some events can't be prevented, while others can, in this case, the disaster that befalls Equestria just prior and during the previous six chapters.
The story isn't over yet, Dash's Delusion is Arc 1 in an Eight Arc story. Hopefully, I'll have an editor to help work on Arc 2; Pinkie's Phantasm.