//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Awakening // Story: Turbulence // by Rainbow Hyphen //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash was laying on the muddy ground of the forest. Her body, bloody, bruised, and beaten. Many of her bones had been broken from the fall and she was completely unable to move. Her right wing was twisted at an abnormal shape and was coated in dark blood. The other major injury she sustained was the massive burn on her forehead from where the lightning struck. The only mercy that was granted too her was that she was unconscious. Still, she wasn't going to last much longer. The injures she sustained were far too severe. The rain continuously pelted her dying body. Her chest was rising and falling, though, it was beginning to slow with each breath. Then, from out of the shadows, a silhouette of a stallion approached her. He was big, even slightly bigger than Big Mac. He carefully picked up the dying mare and slowly hoisted her to his back. She wasn't a heavy pony by any means but the stallion had no trouble regardless. As the lightning lit up the area once more, the stallion was gone, having traveled back into the forest. The feel of a soft silk blanket and sheets were completely unexpected for Rainbow Dash. After she was struck by the lightning, she hadn't thought she'd ever see the light of another day. Slowly opening her eyes, she found herself in a castle-like room, the floors were hard wood and the walls were of a strong stone. The bed she was sleeping in was massive, taking up most of the space in the area. In front of her on the wall opposite her bed was a fireplace with burning logs inside. Above that was a portrait of a military stallion. The eyes of the stallion were strong and... a little creepy Dash thought to herself. It was as if they were watching her. She slowly got out of bed and looked around the room. Beside her bed was a dresser. On it was her Wonderbolts uniform... There was a burn mark on the forehead, not to mention it had rips and holes all over it. Each rip was stained with her blood. The pony wearing that uniform should be dead... yet here she was. Her right wing was in a hard cast that prevented it from moving even in the slightest of ways. Dash suddenly felt tears coming to her as he rubbed her destroyed wing with one of her hooves. She collapsed on the floor next to the dresser and sniffed trying to hold her tears back. She failed... Her whole life was flying... she loved it more than anything. Now... would she ever fly again? Tears escaped her eyes and fell to the floor, she wished the fall had killed her. A life without flying wasn't life at all for Rainbow Dash. After all the tears were out of her she got up and walked to the window. The sun was setting... "setting?" Dash thought to herself. How long had she slept? A day? Two days? A week? Dash looked away from the sunset and to the yard below. There was a garden... no, a hedge maze. In the center lay a fountain, the water spraying upward then splashing down to its pool below. "Whoever owns this place must be loaded" Dash said to herself. Suddenly she seen something move in the maze. It was only for a second, but Dash was certain something was down there. Rainbow's eyes moved from one side of the maze to the next... nothing. She turned away from the window as a cold shiver shot through her. Something wasn't right about that maze. She slowly walked over to the fireplace and warmed herself up from the mysterious chill the maze had given her. But no matter how warm the fire was... something still chilled her to the bone. She felt like somepony was watching her. She suddenly jerked her head towards the military stallion in the portrait above the fireplace. The pony in the portraits eyes seem to peer into her soul... She lifted her hoof and slowly reached for the picture. As it grew closer and closer every bit of her conscience said to stop. Just before she touched the portrait, the door to her room clicked. Something had opened it. Rainbow Dash began to feel uneasy. Everything about this place creped her out and she had only been in one room! Against her better judgment Rainbow Dash inched ahead towards the door. Every strand of fur on her coat was up. She felt extremely cold, like she was standing in a freezer. She placed her hoof on the door handle then stopped before turning it. She noticed her hoof was shaking. Then she also felt that she herself was shivering. She closed her eyes and thought back to Ponyville. The warm summers with clear blue skies with birds and butterflies flying freely with her in the warm summer air. She swore she could smell the newly blooming flowers. She re-opened her eyes to find she was back in the cold castle. Instead of summer birds tweeting, all she could hear was the crackle of scorched wood in the fireplace. Instead of flying freely through the warm summer air, she was grounded to the creaky wooden floors. She peered up at her hoof on the doors knob... she wasn't shivering anymore. Dash knew what was next, opening it. Taking a deep breath and before she could stop herself, she flung open the door hastily. Her new setting was a wide hallway. The walls and ceiling were similar to that of her room's, a strong stone built to endure. The floors were sturdy oak with a long red carpet placed in the center running the length of the hall to show guests were to go. She began slowly walking along the red carpets length, each step bringing a slight creaking sound from the floor boards as they moaned below her hooves. That wasn't what caught her attention though. On the walls were more paintings. They were of stallions, some big & muscular, some slender & short, but there were two things each portrait shared. Each of the stallions featured in the paintings was in armor... and something else. The armored stallions were all posing close to the mangled, blood covered corpse of another pony. Dash grimmest as she passed each portrait. How could someone like this?! She felt a little sick the further she walked, luckily she was approaching the end of the hall. That's when she saw it... The biggest, and goriest, painting of them all. The picture was huge, perhaps even the size of her. It's border was decorated with four large blood-rubies, one of them in each of the painting's four corners. She looked it over. There was yet again a stallion in armor, but this one's armor was of a royal design. He was sitting on a throne with two dead stallions to his left and right. Each of their throats had been slit and blood was leaking down there cold, dead, bodies. Dash began to look away but stopped when she noticed something. The stallion featured in this looked familiar. Dash narrowed her vision then saw it... ...the stallion from her room, the one in the painting over her fireplace... they were the same pony! Dash's concentration was soon broken. She heard a noise and turned to her right, noticing a narrow staircase leading down. She would have noticed it earlier if not for the massive painting. She slowly approached the stairs. Then took the first step onto the cold stone platforms. As soon as her hoof touched down, Dash froze. She thought about an old saying she once was told. "Curiosity killed the cat." Dash gulped, and against her better judgment, she took another step down the narrow staircase and said to herself jokingly. "Good thing I'm a pony."