//------------------------------// // Why Rainbow Runs // Story: Broken Swords and Battle Scars // by moonblossom131 //------------------------------// Chapter 2 Rainbow flew towards the Everfree forest. The twisted, sickly green leaves were plastered on the gnarled, rotting trees. As Rainbow landed at the entrance to the dark, dangerous place, she noticed that there were drag marks and bloodstains on the dirt next to her. She shivered as she saw a golden and blue helmet crushed at the top. One of her own soldiers had ventured to close to a predator. Based off the the twigs on the ground, a hungry timber wolf was the case. Rainbow protectively wrapped her pluming tail around her belly, fearful that her foal might be injured. She could just fly to the top of the forest and go over it, but she knew that tall dragons, Ursa majors, and even unthinkable monsters towered high above the trees. It was unsafe. She could dig a hole and go under it, but it would take too long and, ever since the war, and increasingly large amount of Diamond dogs had moved into Equestria, especially near the Everfree forest. Rainbow couldn’t go around it, because she knew the forest was miles long and wide, plus her destination was straight in the middle of the forest. She couldn’t go over it, she couldn’t go under it, and she couldn’t go around it, so she’d have to go through it. Rainbow smirked at her cliché-like logic. Going through the mist proved harder than the last few times Rainbow had travelled into the Everfree. The fog was tumbling and low on the ground. The humidity was overwhelming. Maybe it was because she was pregnant, but Rainbow felt very hot and very tired. She heard a scream from her left, and thunderous stomping followed. Rainbow jerked her head around quickly, her tail instinctively covering her stomach. The bushes and trees rustled and all was silent for a few minutes. But Rainbow felt in her gut that something was going to happen. All of the sudden, a white stallion with a golden mane and rusty armor ran through the bushes! His eyes were crazed, white, and the pupils were so small you could hardly see them. The veins popped out, bright red, in his dry, insane eyes. “Run!” the stallion screamed over his shoulder. “RUN!” Just as he had left the clearing, an ear-splitting scream cracked through the air. Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and jumped into the bushes, covering her ears tightly. The screech was a mix between metal-on-metal and dragon nails on a chalk-board. Rainbow had Spike to thank for that memory. An ominous shadow covered the hot sun, making Rainbow shiver in the shadows. The stallion’s voice screamed again as the shadow moved away from Rainbow’s hiding place. A blood-curling yelp rang out in the stallion’s voice. Fear washed over Rainbow like a wave, creeping from her ears to her tail. It felt like a colony of spiders were crawling over her skin. The raw fear was so real that Rainbow was crying. Silently crying, trying hard as she could to stay quiet. A sick type of squirting sound echoed in Rainbow’s head. A large thump sounded just outside of Rainbow’s bush. Thinking the creature was gone, and not noticing the shadow still over her, Rainbow uncovered her ears. Tears were still streaming through the dust and ashes on her face. The spider-like feeling was still sticking onto her skin like sweat. There was enough of that from the walk into the steaming forest. Rainbow waited forever. She silently crept out of the bushes and met the body lying just outside her cover. The white body of the stallion lay awkwardly on the forest floor. His stomach was touching the ground. Swallowing hard, Rainbow turned the stallion over. She gave a small whimper of pure, paralyzing terror as she saw the remains of the stallion. His whole insides had been ripped out. All that was left was a few bloody guts clinging to his ribcage. His head was at an awkward angle, and his tongue was hanging out. His eyes were glassy and one of them was cut through the middle. A clear liquid was flowing out of it. Rainbow shuddered. His good eye – metaphorically speaking – was slowly swelling as the skin around it turned black. Rainbow suddenly realized that something was moving in his chest. She painstakingly cracked the ribs open one-by-one to see a still-beating heart. It pumped slower and slower and slower. Rainbow gasped with horror and started the hyperventilate. This was all too real. This war had made the creatures even more dangerous. Rainbow realized the stallions mouth was moving. She tweaked her ear and leaned closer. “L-l-l-look be-be-be-behind…” he whispered so quietly it was nearly impossible to hear him. Rainbow turned around and stood up, looking high into the tree. What she saw was worse than the body. It made her open her mouth and scream so loud that she couldn’t even hear a thing. The monster was too horrible to even describe, but Rainbow tried her best. A giant, fur-covered creature stood above her. It’s grayish fur was matted and stained with brown and red. It had three eyes, one of them huge and unblinking, while the other two seemed glassy, located on either side of the large middle eye. Its hands were pale pink with long, yellow claws nearly the size of a carriage. It was smiling, its tongue hanging out. The tongue was gray and lifeless, twitching every so often. The teeth were long and ingrown, sharper than a knife and longer than the bell tower in Rainbow’s home. Inside its ears was brown and waxy, with little flecks of blood surrounding it. On the inside was fire, licking at the air, white-hot at the base, turning blue, and flaming into burning yellow. Its tail, rising above its head, was scaly, slimy, and green, on the end the skin bulged and out came a vein-covered bone, not touched by skin. Bruises covered the base and popped veins made little red spots, but what was worse was the pointed end. It was dripping red and sharper than the thing’s teeth. It was glowing green at the very end. Poison, Rainbow manically assumed. Her eyes grew wide. She was frozen, muttering a prayer to Celestia to save her. She did this for what seemed like forever. “If you do not spare me, spare my child, if you do not spare me, spare my child,” she repeated with wide eyes. The creature screamed again. It blasted Rainbow’s eardrums. She suddenly realized, with a deep, cold, shuddering fear, that Celestia would not save her. Luna would not save her. Soarin would actually save her, but right now he was chained in a cement room. If no one can save me, Rainbow thought quickly. Then I’ll save myself. Rainbow sped away, a high pitched screaming making her ears explode. Her vision was blurry, so she could only make out green, brown, and black blobs in front of her. She could hardly hear the thundering, booming footsteps chasing her. She flew faster than she thought possible. The screaming still echoed in her ears, the beating of her own heart was like someone pounding a drum right next to her head, and the whoosh of the air as she flew faster than sound, dodging trees and bushes, branches and birds. It was life and death. It would cost her everything to slow down. The familiar sensation of the air closing in a triangle around Rainbow’s body made her gasp with relief, and even after the exploding boom sounded behind her, Rainbow kept going faster and faster and faster! She suddenly felt something in her gut, telling her to stop. Rainbow paused in mid-air and fell abruptly to the ground. Her head was pounding, giving her a migraine, and the screaming was replaced with the overpowering sound of blood rushing to her head in her ears. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it might explode. Rainbow closed her eyes for a few minutes. She caught her breath. She was sweating so much that she could feel it sliding off of her like she was just done swimming. Her mane was swept backwards, so she quickly fixed it to its normal style. She didn’t bother with her tail. Rainbow spent a few minutes making sure everything was fine. The rushing in her head died down and the beating of her heart was steady enough to stand up. So she did. But it still felt like she was rushing through air faster than the speed of light. She instantly knew that the sonic rainboom was no sonic rainboom at all. It was something even more powerful. Not just faster than the speed of sound, but the speed of light itself. Rainbow suddenly felt like she was falling backwards but she soon regained her composure. She was breathing normally and her heartbeat was fine. The migraine was gone and felt only a little tired, having just experienced the most tormenting, horrifying fear in her entire life. But now she was fine. It was then when Rainbow looked up to see where she was. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a crumbling, gray, brick wall standing straight in front of her. Rainbow smiled. “Welcome to Everfree castle,” she muttered to herself.