//------------------------------// // The End of Rainbow Dash // Story: The One Pony You Never Prank // by Deep //------------------------------// The gravity of the situation ripped Dash in two. She stumbled back into the bush with only thought in mind. This. Can Not. Be Real. Her body numbed and head spun. “This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real,” she kept on repeating. She closed and reopened her eyes after every repeat. Surely this had to be a dream she thought. After all, this wouldn’t have been the first time she had a nightmare like this. Always striving to be the best, knowing that she could fail—Dash practically had a love affair with nightmares, and in a way used them as another tool to better herself. They always involved her doing something stupid and ruining her life, which was just more proof that this was all a wild dream. So why then couldn’t Dash get rid of the feeling gnawing at her from the inside? The feeling was like a whisper, impossible to ignore and impossible to get rid of. Dash tried to fight back, but there was no denying the truth that was right in front of her. This was real, and there was nothing she could do about it. The surrounding area, up to a few hundred feet away, was covered in cake gunk. The trees, the dirt, the animals—everything. It was all one blob of pink and brown, with a few sprinkles every here and there. Inside it, and as pink and brown as the rest, was Princess Celestia. Every part of her, from the tip of her horn to her ever flowing tail, was covered. She stumbled around like a giant cake monster and kept on slipping from the gunk below her. She fell flat on her face every time, which only further transformed her into a cake filled monstrosity. The Princess’s royal chariot was just as hit by Dash’s stupidity as she was. Its golden and finely woven royal purple exterior was now nothing but dripping cake slop, ruining an over one thousand year old national treasure. Every drop that fell hit Dash like a slap to the face, reminding her of just how real the situation around her was. The royal guards were also covered in gunk. They all tried to use each other as support to stand up but ended up just bumping each other to the floor. One of them refused to fall however and ran in circles with his hooves stuck to his face by the now drying gunk. “My eyes. My eyes,” he screamed. He slammed his head on everything he could find, including the chariot, but still the cake didn’t come off. The guard dropped to his knees and slammed his head on the ground. He crawled to Dash and held her hooves. “It won't come off. It buuuuurns,” he screamed. He slammed his face into Dash’s hooves. His face and hooves were still one. Dash kicked him away. She didn't scream as the shock of the situation had removed all ability for her to speak. The royal guard crawled back to her. Dash stepped backwards. She put her hooves over her ears, trying to tune out the ringing inside her head. Every second Dash stayed the ringing got louder until it felt like the world itself was screaming. In the flash of a second Dash saw all of her dreams—the Wonderbolts, her friends, her future—burn up in flames, with only darkness remaining. That was now her future. Dash flew off into the sky. She sucked in as much air as she could with each breath and was so disoriented that she flew as if she was on poison joke. She didn’t have a destination in mind other than anywhere but the crime scene. The trees underneath her became thicker and more packed together until she was over the outer layer of the Everfree Forest. She touched down and tried to catch her breath. She looked in every direction. She was alone, or at least as alone as you could be in the Everfree Forest. The once self-proclaimed toughest pony in all of Equestria fell to the floor, on the verge of tears. "This can't be happening. I'm done for,” Dash said. Dash kicked a tree and growled. The tree snapped in two. “The Princess’ll never forgive this. She’s probably planning my punishment right now.” An image formed in Dash’s head. She saw herself inside a dungeon with fifty layers of bars. Outside was all of Equestria, including Dash’s friends. They all shook their heads and looked at her with scorn in their eyes. Dash slapped the image out of her head. “Snap out of it Dash.” She took a deep and relaxing breath. “Come on. This is Princess Celestia we’re talking about. She’s cool…” Dash chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah. I mean, she wasn’t even mad that time we all destroyed the Gala.” Dash’s body relaxed. She started to smile, but just barely. “Ahhh, I knew I was getting myself all worked up over nothing. Dungeon. Ha. I crack myself up sometimes.” She got up. “The Princess is probably laughing right now. She’ll probably even congratulate me for getting her so good. Might even give me a medal or something.” Dash froze. Her eyes popped to twice their normal size and every strand of hair on her body stood erect. “But if she doesn’t? What if I pushed her too far and now she’s out for revenge?” Dash jumped into a bush and looked around again. “This is Princess Celestia we’re talking about after all. She banished her own sister to the moon for a thousand years. What is she gonna do to me?” Dash ran from bush to bush. Her eyes grew redder with every passing second. "She'll probably banish me into a deadly volcano, or turn me into a bug, or turn me into a bug and banish me into a volcano." Dash shivered with her hooves over her head. “Oh. Why do I always do this to myself?” There was something poking Dash from behind. It felt like a hoof. Dash screamed and fell to the ground. She squirmed around like a worm. There was another scream, but not from Dash. Another pony came into view and stumbled back, almost tripping from the mud and wet grass on the ground. It was Scootaloo. Dash relaxed herself. Her heartbeat was still audible. “Phew. It’s just you,” she said, catching her breath. Dash stayed on the ground for another ten seconds before getting up. “Yeah... it’s me,” Scootaloo said. “What’s with the screaming? And why are you so sweaty?" She stared at Dash without saying a word, as if inspecting her. “Hey Dash, are you…okay?” Dash stood shaking and with an on and off derp. She turned her head in every direction in a twitch like motion. “Yep. Never better,” she said. “Just came back from training for the Wonderbolts. What could be better than that?” Her head twisted in unnatural motions and positions. The scariest thing was that her neck didn’t even crack, it just moved from position to position like jelly. “Why? Don't I look okay?” Scootaloo kept on staring. “Well…you look like you just came of a…what’s the word? A loony barn. Should I be scared?” Dash continued to shake and twitch. She was lost in her own world and was even oblivious to the group of butterflies resting on her eyes. “Anyway…” Scootaloo said, looking weirded out. “Where have you been? The whole town’s looking for you.” Dash snapped back to reality. She twisted her head towards Scootaloo and rushed to her. Dash pressed her face against Scoot’s. “W-What?” She pressed harder. “Why?” Scootaloo stepped back. Dash tipped over and fell on her face, right into the mud. “Princess Celestia just came into town and said she wanted to talk to you. She said it was important and sent everypony in Ponyville to go find you. Something about teaching somepony a lesson." Dash felt as if she was having a heart attack. Every doubt she had was gone. Celestia was out for revenge, and there was nothing she could do. Dash stood still and silent. Scootaloo grabbed her hoof. “Let’s go. You don’t want to keep the whole town waiting do ya?” Scootaloo said. She jumped on her scooter and drove out of the area, dragging Dash along with her. Dash didn’t protest, fight back or really do anything at all. She was too lost in thought and busy counting down the seconds to her demise. It didn’t take Dash long to realize that suicide was now the best option; the only problem was choosing the best way out. There was no shortage of plants and monsters in the forest that would’ve loved to eat and rip her apart, but that just would’ve been too boring. If she was going to go out then it was going be on her terms—with a bang. One option was sonic rainbooming herself to the ground. Another was flying towards the vacuum and chill of space, something Dash had wanted to do since she was a filly. She could’ve tried to escape, but the life of Equestria’s most wanted fugitive was not the one Dash wanted to live. “Triple rainboom towards the sun it is then,” Dash said to herself. Scootaloo and Dash reached Ponyville. Right from the get go everypony stared at Dash. They all shook their heads and looked at her with scorn in their eyes. Many of them walked away the moment Dash came into view. One mare even kicked her daughter behind her. Dash just accepted it and looked down at the trail her plot left on the ground behind her. She held back her tears—she didn’t want to go out as a crybaby. Scootaloo kicked open the door to Sugarcube Corner. “I got her,” she said. She set Dash down on the floor and looked at her flank. It was as blank as ever.” Really?” Scootaloo sighed. “It’s just getting old now.” Dash slowly raised her head, keeping her eyes closed on the way up. She opened her eyes. Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie all stood at the room, looking so mad they were unrecognizable. They all looked down at Dash with a glare that ate her away from the inside. Dash had never seen them that mad before, not even at Discord. She was now just a low life criminal to her once best friends—nothing more. All the windows in the room were shut which left the corners and back in partial darkness. There were no drinks, food or even cake anywhere to be found. It was as if a party had never been planned at all. Even Mr. and Mrs. Cake were gone. A lone figure, twice the size of Dash, stood in the darkness behind Twilight, facing the other way. Dash gulped hard. “Thank you. You may leave now.” It was Princess Celestia. Her voice was harder than usual and lacked its trademark kind but wise tone. “Alright. Have fun you guys,” Scootaloo said. She ran out of the building. Celestia turned around. Her eyes glowed red in the darkness, like a pair of overgrown stars about to explode. She stepped out of the shadows and stared Dash right in the eye. Dash closed her eyes and prepared for the end.