This is so strange. When I open my eyes, all I see is darkness. Just black. I can feel somepony else here, but I don't know who they are. I do know that they're hostile though. This soul is trying to crush me. I can almost feel my body giving out. It's strange, but I somehow know how this will end. My body will be crushed. My soul with it. I'm going to die. I have no regrets, I'm definitely at peace. Except for one thing. One thing that I will never be able to speak of is my love. I just wish that I could tell him how I feel before I go. I have to tell Soa-, wait a second. There's purple in the darkness. Was that there before? Well, no matter. I'm just going to die here anyway. No point in wondering what that purple thing is that is getting closer. And closer. And closer! Wait! Is that-
As Rainbow Dash was finshing her thought, she suddenly felt free. As if the darkness had simply let go of her. She began to fall, but soon found herself on a solid surface, what she assumed to be a floor in this black nothingness. As she opened her eyes wider to see the situation, she saw Twilight there. She had saved her! But who was that she was facing? It must be the one who held her there! She began to get up, ready to help Twilight, but suddenly, she fell short. All her muscles failed and she collapsed to the floor.
"Don't move!" shouted Twilight. "Keep yourself still. You've already used too much energy, and using more could kill you." At hearing this, the cyan pegasis let herself relax on the floor. What else could she do? She couldn't move, and she certainly couldn't do that energy burst she had done earlier. That would surely kill her.
"King Sombre, I should've guessed you would try something like this. Stealing a whole body with a soul though, that was dangerous for you. You've nearly killed this poor mare! I could've given you a second chance, but this is taking it too far!"
The King simply growled at Twilight's attempt to scold him. Then, he charged.
Twilight felt his soul hit hers, and it felt like a brick wall. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, she couldn't use magic. She was stuck with no hope of escape.
*tock* A rock bounced off of King Sombre's head. As he turned to see his attacker, he saw Rainbow Dash. He thought he destroyed her soul beyond repair! How could she be... Then it hit him. Again. Another rock hit him. As he looked into Rainbow's eyes, there was something missing. Like essence. Ha! She had knocked herself unconscious so she wouldn't feel pain. How clever. And foolish! Now, he just had to claim her body and be done with it. Squeazing the last bit of life out of her would be easy. Letting go of Twilight, he began to drift toward Rainbow's soul, which still stared with emotionless eyes. As he aproached however, he felt pain in his stomach. As he looked down at himself, he saw a hole. About 1 foot in diameter, a charred hole was in him. He regenerated quickly and, as such, didn't feel a thing. As he looked up, he noticed something odd. Rainbow was super charged with energy. Her body radiating the stuff. As Twilight came to, she noticed the change. "Rainbow, no..." and she collapsed again. She understood what had happened. Rainbow Dash gave up her soul to kill King Sombre once and for all, so that he would never resurface. But that's just what Rainbow had done. Sacrificed her soul. It was now no more that a husk. A husk of dying energy just waiting to burn out. She charged another energy burst ready to kill the vile king.
And boy, did she release it. It practically destroyed her soul, spreading cracks into her very being. She became so fragile that the slightest touch would make her crumble. But she killed him. Blew a hole right through his head. No blood. No guts. No gore. A clean vaporized skull. Without his brain, he couldn't regenerate his soul again, so fell apart for good.
For Rainbow Dash, it seemed over. It sure seemed that way when Twilight woke up. They were in a hospital room, with different chemicals hooked up to Rainbow via IV bags. Her body looked almost ok again, with her skin and mane re-colored and missing the bags under her eyes. She still had shallow breathing though, which worried Twilight. She certainly wasn't dead, because she was still breathing. But how damaged was her soul? Would she remember the ponies? Could she still wield her element? Those questions greatly bothered Twilight, and the possible answers even more so. A nurse came in, saw that she was awake, and motioned for her to come out of the room. She did so, and outside, she received a report for Rainbow's condition. After several scans and a quick blood test, the results were in. She was doing terrible, still. She still had major muscle damage which wouldn't recover for a week, and she wouldn't wake up. No matter what the nurses tried to wake up Rainbow Dash, she still slept.
Another few days passed, with Celestia demanding progress from Twilight on Rainbow's condition. Everypony was back in town, with Rarity in the hospital too. No special care for her, just a safe place for her to fully recover. Twilight went into Rainbow's room along with Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy was spending time with Rarity below. "Hey Rainbow," said Twilight. She walked over to the vase with flowers in it that Twilight had brought her after she woke up. "I'm just here to replace the flowers, then I'll leave. Just please wake up soon." As she made her way over to the vase, she could here a grumbling sound coming from the bed. Rainbow's eyes popped open. She tried to fly up into the air, only to shriek in pain and fall back on the bed. Her muscles had healed enough for movement, just not without extreme pain.
"Ow, my head. What happened?" asked the damaged pegasis.
"Rainbow!" screamed Applejack as she ran up and hugged her best friend. "We thought you wouldn't make it!"
"Oh come on, Applejack. You musta had more faith in me than that." Applejack blushed and backed away. "Seriously though, what happened?" she said, rubbing her head with a hoof.
"I went into your soul to kill Sombre." said Twilight. "It seams that you beat him though. No doubt, you saved my life, Rainbow."
"Aw, shucks. It wasn't anything special. I wasn't even concious."
"Well, just keep resting. Celestia says they'll be here any day now."
"Who?"
"According to the princess, aliens." Hearing this sent shivers up Rainbow's spine. "Oddly enough though, they're ponies. Exact same races too. But no alicorns, which means they may not have a ruler."
"But isn't that odd? I mean, everypony has someone that rules them. Without that, it'd just be chaos on board their ship."
"Unless their leader is the captain," threw in Applejack. "If that's the case, then we could be dealin' with an escaped criminal or a group of rogue ponies. Maybe even the ruler him-or her-self."
"True. Those are definate possibilities," said Twilight. "But don't worry about that right now. Rainbow, I brought some books here yesterday for you to read if you wanted. Just focus on getting better. We need to resume our search. This was a major setback, and we have to find the ruins quickly."
"Ruins? What ruins? You never told the rest of us about any ruins." said Applejack. "Not even a mention of 'em. What are they?" Twilight asked Pinkie to gather everyone, and then she would explain.
And she did. They met in Rainbow's room, with Rarity just checking out of hers. "So, what you're saying is that Rainbow here is a super pony of sorts, and that the search has actually been for some ruins that could help her aquire that power? Why didn't ya tell us? If we knew what we were searchin' for, we coulda helped out!" yelled Applejack, feeling betrayed at not being told.
"Because I didn't want you to get jealous of Rainbow!" Her answer shocked everypony. "I was afraid that if you got jealous over it, then you would over react and not trust her anymore. We've all seen what power can do to a pony."
"But darling, what could make us hate Rainbow Dash? Why, she's one of our dearest friends!" said Rarity.
"The fact that she would be stronger than you and have more power than you." Everypony was silent for a minute. Then Pinkie broke the silence.
"So Dashie, what moves can you do?"
"What?"
"I said, what moves can you do? If you're some super pony, then you must have some kind of power."
"Huh. Now that you mention it, yeah. If I focus real hard, I can make this ball in my hoof." Putting out her hoof, she began drawing energy into her palm.
"Rainbow," said Twilight, trying to caution her.
"Relax Twi, I'll be fine." She kept drawing energy until she had a ball of energy that was the size of a baseball. Twilight created a target for her, which she blew apart with ease. "See? I told you nothing bad wou- AAAAaaaaahhhHHHH!"
"Rainbow!" everyone cried simultaniously. She began writhing in pain, and her element, which she was still wearing, started glowing for a few seconds. After Rainbow calmed down, her element stopped glowing. It had regained its color since the arrival at the hospital, but it had just lost some.
"See? I'm okay."
"Darnit Rainbow, that was too close!" shouted Twilight. "You almost killed yourself again! That power is too unstable to use in your condition. What would we have done if we had lost you huh? You could be the key to fighting those alien ponies!"
"Well, gee Twi. I guess I didn't think about that. I'm sorry." After a moment of silence, "I need some rest. Can you guys stop by tommorow?" Everone said there goodbyes and promissed to see her in the morning.
Except Twilight.
"Listen Rainbow, I'm sorry for yelling at you. But sometimes, you can be so rash. You don't even care for your own safety. *sigh* Just promise me that you'll stay in bed and recover. We really need you out there trying to find those ruins."
"Fine. But only if you run to the bookstore to pick up the new Daring Do book."
"Already done." She tossed the book to Rainbow and left the room. On her way out she whispered to herself, "Please Rainbow, rest up. Your the only one who can stop those monsters."