Rainbow Savior Chapter 5
Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes, her head pounding like she’d challenged Applejack to a drinking contest, minus the taste of blood in her mouth. As she regained her eyesight, her other senses came flooding back to her and she came to two very definitive conclusions, the first being the pungent smell of rotten flesh, and the second being that fact that she was strapped down to a bucking table! As she struggled to pry her legs free, Dash heard a familiar chuckle in the darkness. “Look at you; writhing like a worm in the air, it’s actually kind of cute.”
“Why not come out and face me Gilda?!” Dash bellowed back, partly hoping her shouting would be loud enough to draw attention from anypony outside, but aside from a few dim light bulbs, she couldn’t see a single window.
However, she was promptly met muzzle-to-beak with her former flight academy friend. “Oh Dash, it’s been so long.” Gilda said in mock happiness, hugging Dash. “Oh, I guess I should show you what I made for you while I waited.” she chirped, wheeling Dash, table and all around until she found herself staring at a dusty old tarp.
“I was going to wait until Scootaloo got here, so she could see that her little contribution to my little project hadn’t gone to waste, just like the contributions of the other foals, but I figure I can show her later.” Gilda said with a casual shrug, throwing the tarp to the floor.
At that moment, Dash almost immediately began vomiting as the smell alone was enough to almost knock her out. Before her eyes was a grisly tapestry of rotted flesh and maggots in the shape of a pony, eerily similar to the dummies Rarity used in her shop, only this one was made of decaying flesh of multiple colors, had empty eye sockets with multi-colored hair stapled on to the flank and head, and seemed to be overrun with maggots, which squirmed some much that the lifeless creation almost appeared to move, occasionally having several maggots fall out of the mouth or eyes. Gilda smiled at her creation, then gave Rainbow Dash a concerned look, lifting her vomit-covered muzzle up to face it. “What’s wrong, don’t you like my little homage to my best friend?” Gilda asked nonchalantly.
Dash steeled her nerves, and her stomach. “You mean, you murdered all of those foals just to create some sick statue of me?” Dash groaned as Gilda grabbed her jaw. “Hey, it’s not sick. Granted, it’s not an exact replica, but overall I think I did my best.” Gilda let go of Dash’s jaw, letting the pony gasp for air. “But now that the real thing is here, I guess we can move on to the final act of this story.” Gilda stated with a sad sigh.
As she started to walk towards Dash, Dash suddenly stopped her with one question. “Why?
Gilda playfully scratched her feathers, than sat down next to Rainbow Dash, laying her head on her stomach, staring her in the eyes. “Well, I guess I can tell you, you know, if you’ve got the time.” She said. Dash subtly rolled her eyes. “I have oodles.” Gilda’s eyes perked up. “Ok then.” She stated with a disturbing amount of glee before beginning.
“Well, after that whole fiasco with Pinkie Pie, I was devastated and depressed. I took a long flight back to the griffin empire, hooked up with an old griff-friend, and about 5 months later, became a momma. Now, you might think that would make me happy, but really, I just felt empty. So, one night, as the egg-donor slept, I bashed his brains in with a rock, just smashed them right the buck in and threw body and all into our big ice chest. Now, obviously, I couldn’t just leave our little chicks without their parents, so before I decided to come back to find you, I took care of those little brats too. You have no idea how easy it is to kill a baby griffin, let alone two. I mean, their bones are like crispy hay fries. They even make the same crunching sound too.” Gilda stated with an overly pleasant smile on her face. “I hope I’m not going too fast for you.”
Dash looked down at Gilda through clenched teeth. “Nope, I’m good.”
Gilda grinned. “Goodie. Now, like I said, once I was far beyond the borders of the Griffin Empire, I stopped off in Manehatten, but not the nice, ritzy area, but rather the dark, shady part of town where a griffin like me could open up a flight school almost overnight and nopony would be the wiser. One by one, town after town, I managed to seduce the little foals with promises of making their dreams of flight come true, and while I didn’t kill every foal I taught, once I found the one I wanted, you guessed it, they became my parts store. Of course, it also helped that they were all orphans, so if I went a little overboard or needed a light snack, none of them would be missed. Eventually, I came here and found your little runt. She was so gullible.”
Gilda chuckled, before doing her best Scootaloo impression. “Wow, you mean you can teach me to be just like Rainbow Dash?, Rainbow Dash is my hero., No, stop, why are you hurting me?, Somepony, help me!” she shouted, even holding her neck and sticking out her tongue in mock fear. “She was completely pathetic.” Gilda scoffed. “Ah, but now, we’ve had our fun, and it’s time for us to be together Dash.” Gilda stated in a sinister, soothing tone.
“Oh yeah, well before you do that, there’s something I’ve got to tell you.” She said, tilting her head so Gilda could get close to her. “Those straps are really weak.”
A look of shock crossed Gilda’s face, right before Rainbow Dash’s right hoof did, followed by her left hoof burying itself into Gilda’s chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her stumbling backwards. Dash kicked her back legs off the table and stood up, charging right at Gilda who was now charging at her. When the two collided, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to wrap her front legs around Gilda’s body and fly as fast as she could, smashing Gilda and Dash both through the basement roof, then again through the actual house roof, both pony and griffin slamming into the ground outside.
Gilda sprung to her feet and lunged at Dash, barely missing her throat, instead being met with a back hoof to her face, causing her to clutch her beak in pain. “Dammit Dash, why can’t you just die?!” Gilda snarled. “You know me, just too stubborn.” Dash replied, panting for air. Gilda gave Dash a pleading stare. “Please Dash, don’t make this any harder on yourself. You know, death is so much easier when you just accept it.”
Rainbow scoffed at Gilda. “Maybe, but kicking your flank into next week is so much more fun!” she shouted, lunging at Gilda with all the speed she could muster, pummeling her in the face and chest.
Slowly, the two fighters began to wear eachother down, Gilda clawing and biting at every spot she could find on Rainbow, and Rainbow trying her best to turn Gilda’s face into ground meat. With a final burst of speed, Gilda forced her talons around Dash’s throat, squeezing as hard as she could even with Dash kicking at her. “Now, we can be together.” Gilda declared, before a pair of hooves knocked her a good 20 feet back, smashing her through a stone well and knocking her for a loop.
Dash wheezed as she tried to stand up. Suddenly, she felt a familiar hoof lift her up off the ground and back on her hooves. Applejack gave Dash a small smile, and then glared at the still-woozy Gilda. “That’s for scarin’ ma little sister, ya damned buzzard!”: she shouted. Gilda slowly rose to her feet, snarled, and then dropped right back down to the ground.
When Gilda regained consciousness, she was deadlocked with the worst combination possible; Fluttershy’s infamous “stare”, Twilight and Rarities’ horns practically bursting with magical energy, a glaring Applejack, a growling Pinkie Pie, and all four Wonderbolts backed by a small squad of six royal guards, three night guards, and Princess Luna with her older sister descending from the sky. At this point, Gilda did the only thing she could do, curled into a fetal position and simply waited for death.
However, death never came; but rather, Gilda had opened her eyes to something much worse. “Gilda of the griffin empire!” the bellowing voice of Princess Luna erupted from her lips with a hurricane. “If it were our decision alone, then you would be locked away in the dungeons to suffer acts of depravity so unspeakable that they would make Tartarus itself seem like a place of heavenly bliss!”
Celestia cleared her throat, as Luna took a couple of steps back to compose herself before continuing.
“However, seeing as the times have changed, we are forced to restrain ourselves, but do not think you shall get off so easily.” If Gilda didn’t know any better, she would have sworn that Luna’s face had an almost demonic look to it. As the night princess stepped back, it was now Celestia’s turn to step forward. Gilda tried to crawl away, but quickly found herself wrenched from the ground into the air against her own will.
Celestia locked her eyes with Gilda, the souls of those Gilda had harmed in her psychotic obsession seeming to cry out to her. Without a word, Celestia blotted out the screams she knew were to come as she focused a small portion of her magic on the one thing Gilda prided herself on the most, the one thing she had used to manipulate those foal’s hopes and dreams with. “For the unspeakable acts you have committed, Gilda, we are left with no choice but to remove that which you hold most dear.”
At the sudden tugging of her wings, Gilda’s eyes instantly shot open in terror. “No, wait, I’ll tell you everything I know!” she pleaded.
Luna scoffed. “That will not be necessary, as Rainbow Dash has told us everything that you have told her.” A glimmer of darkness flickered in Luna’s eyes. “Now cease your stalling!”
“Wait, please, I’ll tell you the name of my contact. She was the reason I was able to get so close to those orphan foals in the first place!” Gilda shouted between sobs.
Celestia slowly brought Gilda’s face to her own, her magic seeming to seep into Gilda’s mind. “Cherry Blossom.” she stated bluntly, tilting her head slightly to Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts. “Get to the hospital, now!” she ordered, all five pegasi going as fast as their wings would take them.
Celestia’s eyes shifted slightly to Twilight. “If you and your friends are going to stay, then cover your eyes and plug your ears.” she said in a disturbingly cold manner, before she used her magic to hold Gilda’s wings out once again.
Gilda began panicking and screaming. “No, please, sweet Faust, no!” Gilda could feel the heat of invisible blades inches away from her wing joints. “You can’t do this you sadistic bitch!” Gilda looked into Celestia’s eyes, looking for a sign of mercy, and found only rage and pain. While the process was quick, to Gilda, the magical buzz saws simultaneously cutting off her wings and cauterizing the wounds shut felt like several minutes of slow, painful agony.
Once the wings were severed, Gilda was unapologetically dropped to the ground, which now felt so cold and alien to her. She tried to walk towards Celestia, but she was quick met with Luna’s gaze, before being overwhelmed with the sounds of the screams of her past victims, along with all of the pain she had caused them. Their suffering was now her suffering, their pain now her pain or at least that was all she could feel.
Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy stared in confusion at Gilda, who had been reduced to a sniveling, whimpering mess, clutching her sides and muttering about her wings being removed, though nopony could see the stubs she kept saying were there.
Finally, Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her. “Princess, what exactly happened to her?”
Celestia sighed. “Physically? Nothing harmed her. Mentally, however, she has been cursed to feel the loss of the one thing she used to manipulate those which she killed. Luna just threw in the added torment of her feeling the same pain she had caused others. As a result, she’ll be taken to a mental hospital until she can fight her way out of it and truly repent for the crimes she has committed.”
Twilight gasped in shock. “But, what if she never recovers?”
Celestia smiled warmly at her student. “Don’t worry, she will, in time. Others who have done far worse than her have come out of this a better individual. Right now, we should get to the hospital. I saw what they had planned.”
At the hospital, Scootaloo slept peacefully, mumbling softly to herself as she snuggled into her pillow. Suddenly, the sound of hooves on the tile floor woke her up rather abruptly. “Huh, what? Who’s there?”
Cherry Blossom stood at the foot of her bed, an empty syringe in her hoof. Scootaloo instantly panicked, hitting the nearest alarm as hard as she could, while Cherry Blossom just laughed.
“They’re not coming.” she stated.
Scootaloo looked behind Cherry Blossom and saw two dead guards outside of her room. Scootaloo backed herself into a corner, trying to kick at Cherry Blossom, who simply grabbed her leg and threw her to the ground, pinning her to the floor with her legs, the air-filled syringe held above her head. “You see, if Rainbow Dash had just died, then this wouldn’t have had to happen. But I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbles, isn’t it?” Cherry Blossom stated with a smirk. “Now, die you little brat!”
Scootaloo stopped struggling, closed her eyes, and waited for death to embrace her.