Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to see a big, bubbly, green nothing. Again.
It was the same thing every time she opened her eyes. Every. Single. Time. Just the inside of her prison cocoon. The green goop that somehow fed and hydrated her for weeks at a time while still letting her breathe. If it wasn’t for her molting, she could probably stay in the cocoon for years.
It was not as cool as it might have sounded. She had absolutely nothing to do. No-one to speak to. Nothing to watch. She couldn’t even sleep through it all. Heck, she couldn’t even dream when she did sleep. She could safely say that Twilight and Applejack were wrong when they accused these cocoons of planting subliminal suggestions in the minds of the prisoners. Tartarus, pro-changeling propaganda would at least be something!
She couldn’t even go insane with boredom.
Rainbow had to hoof it to the changeling king. He could certainly come up with the best punishment for her or anypony else. But she wouldn’t take any of it back. Oh no. She was strong. She was loyal—to both Celestia and Twilight. She was not going to…
Huh? The green stuff turned blue…oh. It was that time again. Rainbow didn’t quite know what it was that flooded her cocoon. Liquid laziness? Apathy? Tiredness? Whatever it was, she just couldn’t bring herself to fight the guards that brought her out of the cocoon. She just went along as they pushed her down the dark halls of the prison nest.
She only snapped out of the fugue when the changelings had brought her to another room in the prison nest. There was really nothing to say about this room. It was as blank as the rest of the prison. Her feet were secured to the floor with strong chains to ensure she wouldn’t fly away or begin fighting.
Rainbow smirked. “What, don’t ya trust me?”
One of the guards hissed in response. They usually just ignored her. Huh. Crankier than usual.
“Good afternoon, Miss Dash.” An unfamiliar voice reached Dash’s ears, and she looked up to see a dark unicorn stallion walk into the area. His cutie mark was a stylized eyeball, his regular eyes disturbingly piercing. Rainbow Dash had to avert her eyes from the stranger’s gaze.
“You’re not Dr. Tenderhooves,” she remarked.
“No,” the stallion admitted, an odd accent in his voice. “Dr. Tenderhooves is busy with…a recent patient that requires his attention. I’m his replacement, Dr. Nimale.”
“Weird name.”
“I suppose. Well then, shall we begin?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and slowly spread her wings. They ached slightly as she stretched them out. She winced as she felt Nimale’s less than comfortable magic settle over them, and the down was carefully plucked at. “I hate this.” She muttered under her breath. “I should be doing this by flying.”
Although the changeling pods could sustain a pony’s muscles surprisingly well, feathered wings required special care. They needed to molt every month or so, and falling feathers would contaminate the cocoon or possibly drift into the prisoner’s throat. Pegasus prisoners needed to leave their cocoons in order to molt safely, often under the supervision of a unicorn doctor to prevent self-harm, and guards to prevent escape attempts. Of course, the doctors had another reason to be there.
“So go ahead.” Rainbow snorted as Nimale continued to pluck her useless feathers. “Ask already.”
Nimale’s eyebrow rose. “Ask what?”
“Ask if I’ve been thinking about what I did. Ask if I want to take back what happened. Ask if I repent my crime. Well, here’s your answer. I don’t. I don’t regret anything. I’d have done it again in a heartbeat.”
“Stop pretending you’re some sort of martyr.” The changeling guard hissed. Rainbow decided to call him Hissy. “You got drunk and assaulted the ruler.”
Nimale seemed unimpressed as well. “No regrets, Miss Dash? Not even your escape attempts? You realize that if you hadn’t tried to break out, you would be flying today.”
Dash snorted. “What, you mean those outdoor exercises? I was on a LEASH!”
“No, I meant that you would have been released today. An assault charge, even someone like the King, carries a fairly short sentence. Attempting to escape custody aggravated your sentence.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. I would’ve been freed today? That thought gave her pause. Okaaaay, maybe I do regret something. But it doesn’t matter. I did what I did for the cause. For Twilight. For Celestia.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Nimale turned his attention away from the prisoner. Using his telekinesis, he brought a wheeled tray and parked it right in front of Dash. “These were delivered for you.” Rainbow looked down to see a small tray of cookies. Right next to it was a note that was unmistakably Pinkie’s hoofwriting.
Keep smiling!
Hissy snorted. “She still wishes to associate with you? Unbelievable.”
A sigh escaped Rainbow’s lips. It did seem strange. Especially after what she’d said when she found out Pinkie had converted. She still wants to be friends? Rainbow had to will her tears back into her eyes. I do too. When I get out, the first thing I’m gonna do is talk to her…and Fluttershy…I swear…
Dash shook her head clear. She couldn’t let the doctor or the guards see her like this. Instead, her face took on a skeptical expression. “How do I know you didn’t spike these with…what? Liquid guilt? Huh?”
Nimale sighed. “No, Miss Dash. I assure you that they haven’t been touched. You and Miss Sparkle made sure of that years ago, as I recall.”
“Don’t speak of her.” Hissy snarled.
He spoke the word her with such loathing that Dash took notice. “You got something to say about Twilight, bucko?”
Hissy took a step forward at that challenge. “You still defend that witch?! Her ridiculous accusations are the reason you’re in here!”
“No, I’m here because that King of yours got Celestia killed!”
“HE DID NO SUCH THING!” Hissy bellowed with such force that it shook the room.
“Settle down, guard…” Nimale tried to intervene, but it wasn’t very effective.
“Oh really, huh?” Rainbow Dash was starting to feel a bit better. A good old-fashioned shouting match was just the thing to make her feel alive again. “You think it’s a coincidence that he took power right after your LAST queen murdered Celestia?”
Hissy chuckled dryly. “The pathetic theories of a bitter, misbegotten, paranoid unicorn. Do you honesty still believe anything that maniac said? Your three other friends saw sense.”
“Real friends stick by their friends, no matter what.” Rainbow retorted, but as she glanced down at the cookies, she had to admit those words were hollow. She hadn’t stuck by Pinkie when she converted, or Fluttershy when she had joined up with the nursery. She had stuck by Twilight and Applejack. That was worth something, right?
She looked up to see ‘Hissy’ walking towards her, glowering furiously. “Your loyalty is wasted on that wretch. After what she’s done, I’m amazed the King hasn’t ordered the insurgent’s head on a plate!”
Dash’s expression became even more furious. “What she’s done? Oh, you mean keeping your kind from completely taking over Equestria? Like you tried to do before?”
“Is THAT how you justify it?!” Hissy was right in front of Dash’s face now, and she could smell his breath. Her chains rattled uselessly as she tried to draw herself up to his level.
Nimale tried to intervene again. “Guard, please calm down, she doesn’t know…”
Hissy just grimaced, his horn lighting up. “Then it’s time she found out.”
Rainbow recognized the sparks coming from the horn. It was the memory spell Twilight had used to save them from Discord’s influence. Changelings could use it to share memories that they or the hivemind had experienced. They rarely did though, considering it was akin to telling a very personal secret. What memory could Hissy possibly—
“No, the-the hatchlings…please don’t…”
“Shut up, you animal.” That voice was too familiar…
Pain.
“What are you doing?! What…this is a nursery!”
“This is a den of monsters and liars! Burn it down!”
“HEEEEEEEEEEELP!”
“Let’s just crush this whiny little filly, blast this place and get outta here!”
More pain. Did she still have her eye?
An entire night of collectively shared experience was forced into Rainbow’s mind in the space of a single second. When it was over, her expression simply went dead. Her eyes widened, her face paled, and her jaw dropped. “Wh-wh-wh-what…”
Hissy stepped back, almost admiring his work. However, he couldn’t take much pride in the horrified expression on the prisoner’s face. Getting rid of that smug arrogance and martyr’s bravado wasn’t nearly as satisfying as he’d hoped it would be.
Rainbow Dash desperately tried to rationalize away what she just saw. “No…no…nonononononono, Twilight would never…she’s smart, she’s good, she’d…never…I…even if she wanted to, Applejack would’ve stopped her…”
Nimale shook his head. “They found Applejack an hour ago. She’s the patient Dr. Tenderhooves is currently treating.”
Rainbow Dash’s head shot up. “What?! Whuh…Is she okay?! What happened?!”
“She’d been badly beaten and may not ever fully recover. There’s residue of unicorn magic on her body, the same magic that killed the caretaker of the nursery.”
A few minutes ago, Rainbow Dash would’ve accused Nimale and Hissy of lying to try and turn her against Twilight. But the memory rang in her head like a siren. She couldn’t get the image out of her head. She saw Twilight, a grimace on her face that reminded her of the Smartypants incident. She saw Twilight threatening to kill Fluttershy…FLUTTERSHY, of all ponies! She felt that spell Twilight cast on the caretaker…
“I…I…I…” Rainbow felt her wings fall beside her…apparently Nimale had finished plucking while she and Hissy had been yelling at each other. She could feel the tears on her cheeks, but she didn’t care about how she looked the guards or Nimale. She didn’t care about what they were saying about tact and empathy. She didn’t care about anything anymore. Even the cookies felt like dust in her mouth.
How could Twilight do that? She’d resolved to stick with Twilight when the changelings showed up again. Dash had protected her from the more dangerous counter-protesters. Whenever things got rough, Rainbow would knock some heads to sort it all out. Twilight was the egghead, the one with the plan. Twilight had been getting really frustrated the months leading up to the girl’s night out, but could she really…no, she wouldn’t…could she even…Rainbow believed her when she said the King had gotten Celestia and Cadence killed, that was why she attacked him and got stuck in here…but now, she didn’t know what to believe.
She didn’t offer an ounce of resistance as Hissy and the other guard brought her back to the cocoon. She just kept staring at nothing, lost in her thoughts. She was almost looking forward to the emotion-damping green goop. Maybe then she could sort everything out in her head.
As the goop began refilling her cocoon, memories of her last night as a free mare came rushing back. The three of them had gone to Pony Joe’s, and were on their third mugs of beer. Applejack hadn’t said a word, not about Apple Bloom or anything else. Twilight kept rambling about how something had to be done about the changeling king, and Rainbow decided that she’d be the one to do it. It was the three of them against the world.
But now? She had never felt more alone in her life.