A good stallion may know the truth about somepony, but a great stallion knows when to reveal it. Quote from Don Calamum ictu the fourth, beloved writer from the 600th-year solo reign of Princess Celestia.
Rainbow Dash was taken aback from what she was seeing. Nopony-not anypony- may be able to handle what was running through their mind. How could they? They can't; not even the once cold and heartless, the dark and deceptive, Rainbow Dash, was able to. And to think, this mare was the one responsible for the deaths of countless ponies, never once caring for their original lives, family and friends or anything else, just for the the sake of keeping the factory running. And to be brought down to her hooves in a matter of seconds, just by two simple pictures of the past.
"But...but...how can this be?" Stuttered the helpless mare, her body limp and hanging down from the strong chains, as if they gave up on herself, and her eyes sore from tears. Her voice thick with sorrow and despair, with the ever-vigilant Soarin staring down into her eyes and into her soul. He had won. His emotionless face somehow showing that.
"You tell me." Soarin replied, his voice as deadpan as ever.
"Why....why...why did he.....what about my...." Rainbow Dash tried to say, finding the words being caught in her throat. She was trying to find the right question to say to him; answers are needed for her, being the only thing she could have in her situation.
"I don't know" he sighed, facing down to the floor, "there's no point asking me these questions." Not wanting to meet her gaze, he threw the picture of the mare's past across the room, not caring where it will land.
"But you knew about-"
"I only knew that!" He said quickly, cutting her off, his eyes still staring down to the floor. "If you wanna know more, you're asking the wrong pony."
"But-"
"But nothing!" He sighed. "But. Nothing." And after finishing this, he moved away, walking calmly towards the wall on his left and leaving the mare on her own.
"Where are you going?" she asked as she noticed him walking away, any hint of anger or hatred in her voice was now drowned out by sorrow and confusion.
"Here" Soarin said as he stopped short of the wall, leaning his body against a rusted panel on the wall. The panel bearing two visible, albeit old and in near-unusable conditioned, levers. "What are you going to with those?" she asked as he placed his hoof over one of the levers.
"I'm going to relieve you" he replied simply.
"I see" Rainbow Dash said, a small smile suddenly appearing on her face. "Why are you smiling?" Soarin asked quizzically as he noticed her face.
"Do it!" she yelled abruptly "Do to now! Kill me! End my life! I don't deserve to live! I don't....deserve.....her..." Rainbow Dash's swift and unforeseen ordering soon became a saddened revelation. Soarin, on the other hoof, just stared at her in utter confusion, mouth agape, as if ready to tell her wrong. But nothing came up, and instead he just placed his eyes back towards the lever his hoof still clung on to, and placed his other front hoof over it as well, ready to pull.
"Rainbow Dash" Soarin said, attracting her attention.
"I'm sorry" and promptly his strength to pull the lever down with force.
"Bye" the mare whispered out, and clenched her body in the immediate action that was about to befall her.She was ready. Almost. There was still one last thing she wanted to do, to say but she knew there was no chance of that happening; not now, not ever.....
*Clunk*
*Grind*
*Whir*
Those are not the sounds the mare had expected to hear. Instead, she had only expected to hear just two sounds; the sound of electricity coursing through her veins, and sound of her own voice yelling in agony as her body was dying from the shock. These were not those sounds.
Before she had a chance to react, her body was almost flung forward as she fell down onto the hard floor. Her mind in utter confusion over what just transpired. She struggled to push her body off the ground as she found her hooves were weak and strained from the hours of being hung to the wall previously.
"What...happened?" the mare asked "Why...why am I still here?". She eyed her own hooves, seeing there are still trapped by the chain's shackles, but were now loose enough for her to move, if by not much. Her wings were still wrapped, though, as they were not connected to the the others.
"What do you mean?" Soarin said quizzically. He had apparently moved away from the levers on the wall and stood just a pony-body length away from the mare. "What did you expect to happen?"
"I EXPECTED TO DIE, WHAT DID YOU THINK I THOUGHT!?" she yelled in disbelief "I JUST REALIZED I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF.....OF......CELESTIA'S KNOWS HOW MANY POOR PONIES! DOESN'T IT MAKE SENSE TO EXECUTE ME FOR WHAT I'VE DONE!?" She finished. Despite her shouting in protest, Soarin knew there wasn't a trace of anger in her tone, just sadness. "I'm a monster. I'm a murderer; a heartless, cold-blooded killing machine. I'm no different to those contraptions in the factory. No difference, other than flesh and blood. No, just flesh." She cried, wiping her eyes with her spectrum mane, sobbing down on the floor with defeat.
Soarin didn't talk back to her, and showed no sign of response. Instead, he faced away to her and to his left, eyeing the two fallen picture's on the floor. Staring at them, he moved over and scooped them up in his wing, contemplating, just for a second, what he should do.
And he new what he had to do.
Turning back, he walked across the floor of the room, and stood just inches away from the fallen mare. "Here." He ordered offering the two photos towards her. "Have these" he offered.
"Wha-what?"
"Take them" he said warmly. And for the first time in years, she saw the one thing she never expected to see again. A smile. A real smile; the sincere kind of smile. And she never, ever expected to see it come from him, even from the short time she knew him. "They are yours now. And I ain't taking 'no' for an answer." And with that said, she reached forward with her left hoof and grabbed them, staring wide-eyed at the photo's, tears still falling down her cyan face.
Soarin turned round silently and made his way to the stairs, felling a small sense of pride in himself as he as about to leave.
"Are you gonna tell her?" she called out meekly, attracting his attention and causing him to pause mid-step.
"No" he replied simply and continued to walked back-up across the stairs. "You are" and shut the door behind me, leaving her alone in the dark once again; with but her mind and the now-hers photo's. Hugging them dearly, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, ushering out only three words:
"I'm sorry."
"Sister."