CHAPTER 10—Memories
A ringing in her ears brought Rainbow Dash back from the darkness. The oil and machines of her environment glistened in the dim light, the pipes hissing as if welcoming her back to reality. Back to this little game.
Rainbow Dash slowly stood back up. She felt dizzy and groggy, her tongue thick and her mouth dry; her head heavy and her legs weak. She was thirsty. As she licked the roof of her mouth trying to get rid of the bad taste, she looked about.
She wasn’t in a room, as it was more of a cell. There was only one door—the one right in front of her, which had a wheel for a knob—and the room itself was perhaps only eight feet in all directions.
She had a throbbing, irritating pain in her right ear and scratched at it, only to remember it was that stupid earpiece. Rainbow Dash removed it and looked it over. Still didn’t look like anything she’d want to put in her head. Her right ear felt like it was hissing angrily, and she scratched at it again.
As much as she didn’t want to, Rainbow Dash felt she may still need the earpiece. She placed it into her left ear until it fit comfortably.
Good evening, Rainbow Dash.
“Hey,” Rainbow Dash grunted.
You sound perturbed.
“Kinda hard to stay in a good mood when you’re stuck in a maze full of crazed killers.”
I understand. That is why there is no testing to be done, at least not for now. Why not leave this room? You must be thirsty. There is water in the room across the hall.
He hadn’t lied to her yet, which, thinking about it now actually kind of surprised Rainbow Dash. She surmised it might be due to her “test subject” status. He DID say he wanted to keep her in top shape for his experiments (again, what were these for?).
Rainbow Dash suppressed a tired groan. This was almost like being in an abusive relationship: one is controlling and always watching, the other helpless to escape him even if she wanted. When she complained, he would make threats and exercise the reason he’s stronger than she is. He was only nice to her when he wanted something out of her, taking care of her to continue his abuse.
Celestia’s shining wings, how she wanted to leave. Escape. Go back to her home in the clouds. To her bed. To her life. It felt like it was a hundred years ago she daydreamed of joining the Wonderbolts or had fun, like a thousand years had passed since her time in Ponyville. Every day, her hope of ever going home diminished.
She didn’t like the idea, but it was true. Her will was beginning to break. Rainbow Dash—the Rainbow Dash within her that wasn’t afraid of anything, that loved to have fun and race about the clouds, the pegasus who was very much admired by others—was withering.
*****
Out in the next hall, she was kind of surprised. It looked like she had walked out of the belly of the robo-whale and into a mansion: soft blue carpets lined the wood floor, red wallpaper with light fixtures lining the walls. There were four doors here: two on the wall to her left, one on the other end of the hall, and the one she just exited. She looked to the wall on the right, seeing paintings decorating the place.
Rainbow Dash blinked. Those weren’t paintings. Those were photos.
She walked closer to them, her thirst forgotten momentarily. On the first photograph was a Wonderbolt—a rather sleek specimen, not all that muscular, but perfectly aerodynamic. For a moment, Rainbow Dash wondered how well he’d do in a race.
The second photograph—which was much larger than the first—had the same pegasus, but this time out of costume. His coat was an attractive chestnut color, his mane thick, black and curly. While slender for a stallion, he still looked strong; his deep brown eyes contained a quiet clout unlike anything Rainbow Dash had felt before. He was wearing an awkward smile, apparently not all that confident outside of his Wonderbolt costume. He looked like the kind of stallion Rainbow Dash would have liked to get to know a bit better…
She suddenly felt her wings, outstretched and stiff. She looked at them, her face red, completely betrayed by her own anatomy. Time and place for everything, ladies! she thought.
The other pictures were of the same stallion, doing different things. A treasure trove of memories, lining the wall.
I take it the gallery strikes your interest?
Rainbow Dash put two and two together. “Are these… is this, you?”
Yes. When I was young, I was a Wonderbolt. I thought you would be interested.
She thought this over more carefully. “How do I know this isn’t some other pegasus? Why show me all this? So that I’ll trust you more?”
First, there was silence. It lasted longer than Rainbow Dash was comfortable with.
I do not ask you to trust me, Rainbow Dash. I merely wanted to show you that we both shared the same dream.
Rainbow Dash looked at the photos again. In one frame was a newspaper whose headline was “SPEEDING BULLET SHOOTS TO STARDOM”, and was dated to have been published nearly fifty years ago. Her eyes went wide.
“Speeding Bullet?!” Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. “You were the fastest member of the Wonderbolts, like, EVER! You broke, what, ten different records! Oh, wow! This is, wow!” Rainbow Dash slowed down and sat on the floor, taking in her surprise, absorbing its impact.
There had never been very many photos of Speeding Bullet, she had read, as he considered himself not very photogenic. From his awkward “home” photos where he wasn’t in costume, she could kind of see from his point of view—but it was the cute kind of goofy.
Her face fell as she remembered reading something else. “But…” Her eyes fell on another newspaper piece. Its headline confirmed her memory. “… but you had an accident.”
I caused an accident.
Rainbow Dash blinked. “… Bullet?” she asked quietly.
Read the clip.
She walked over to the newspaper clip to get a better view.
Monday, October 17th, XXXX.
“Today is a day that will live on in infamy,” says Wonderbolts manager Soundbreak. Stretchers carry both the broken and dead to ambulences as onlookers stand by, horrified by the outcome of the tragic accident that occurred earlier this afternoon.
The Wonderbolts put on a show that wowed spectators, the same way they have done for every year since XXXX. Their proud history of military service and entertaining the hearts and minds of young and old alike has put them in a high respect of the ponies of Equestria.
Until today. With 19 confirmed dead and more than a hundred injured, Equestrian citizens are outraged by…
Rainbow Dash stopped reading. Her heart fell. The accident… the Great Fall that caused the injury of many ponies… was caused by Speeding Bullet? How didn’t she know? Did she forget that too?
My years of stardom had been behind me, even at that point. The lineup that year was almost nothing but new talent—fresh, young stars. I was… old. My wings did not carry me as far as they used to.
Rainbow felt tears welling up in her eyes.
I was too slow to react. I crashed. The stadium began to fall apart from the impact.
“How did you survive?” As soon as she asked, Rainbow Dash regretted it.
I did not. Now, I am merely a ghost, haunting a shell. I am more… machine now, than stallion.
Her eyes went back to the pictures hanging on the wall. She saw that his problems started long before the accident: a picture on the wall of Speeding Bullet being married to a beautiful blue unicorn. A picture of Speeding Bullet with his wife and children. A newspaper blurb about their divorce. A picture of Speeding Bullet, alone, waiting by a bus stop. A picture of Speeding Bullet at a pub with friends. Rainbow Dash took note of how many empty bottles of beer there were littering the table around Speeding Bullet.
At first, Rainbow Dash didn’t really know what to say. The accident… the accident that the Wonderbolts as a group tried to forget, to put out of the populace’s mind… She couldn’t imagine how it felt, all that guilt. She knew that if she had been responsible for such a catastrophe, she would probably die from the shame alone.
“Why are you showing me this?” she asked again, slowly, this time really wanting to know.
We shared the same dream, as I said. I have lived it. Died in it. You have yet to even be born into it. We are more alike than we think, you and I.
This again. Rainbow Dash felt like yelling at Bullet, swearing at him. Why was he so adamant about proving how they weren’t all that different? The difference between them was simple and glaringly obvious: she actually had morals. Speeding Bullet was a monster; once a beauty, now a beast. She’d never be like him!
Never!
But…
But he wasn’t always a monster. He was a hero. What happened to him… wasn’t fair. But that doesn’t excuse what he’d done! It didn’t excuse kidnapping ponies and putting them through sick experiments. It didn’t excuse his current torment of…
Wait a minute.
Rainbow Dash’s mind hit a snag. If he was a professional athlete, why was he now a scientist? Well, a mad scientist, but a scientist nonetheless. This accident had been about thirty years ago, hadn’t it? Was the “shell” he was encased in really some kind of eternal capsule that prevented the dead from dying? Did he end up having enough time on his hooves to explore the world of science and machinery? Did being encaged like that drive him insane? Is that what drove him to…
Even with this revelation (and what a revelation it was!), Rainbow Dash was still just as confused as she was when she woke up in the first room. While some of this mystery was coming together, all it formed was an even bigger mystery. And although Rainbow Dash loved the mysteries Daring Do solved in order to discover priceless relics of forgotten history, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to solve this particular puzzle, nor did she want to think about what she might discover as a result.
Instead of saying anything, Rainbow Dash merely remembered she was thirsty. (Past experience with Bullet’s temper told her making him mad with her questions right now was not a good idea.) She walked toward the room across the hall where her promised drink was. She opened the door to find a washroom.
The color white never looked this unassuming, yet at the same time slightly creepy. Everything was immaculate and sterile, yet she could detect a slightly rotten smell in the air. There was a painting of flowers on the right wall, with a towel hanging from a rung just underneath it. Rainbow Dash wondered who was it that kept the place so clean, despite the occupational hazard that was the Freaks. Sniffing at the air, she got a bigger whiff of that awful smell. She walked over to the sink, where a mirror cabinet was.
Rainbow Dash took another good look at herself: she looked worn down. Bags under her eyes, her rainbow hair a mess. She started the water and drank from the faucet, relishing the awful irony aftertaste. Closing her eyes, she gulped and slurped at the rushing water, sucking at it greedily.
When her thirst was at last washed away, she threw her head back up to look at the mirror again, at this bizarre pony who looked kind of like her—only horrendously battered by current circumstances. She stuck her hooves under the rushing water and splashed it in her face, rubbing it into her skin.
Afterward, Rainbow Dash dried off her face with a nearby towel hanging on the wall. Again, she turned to that mirror cabinet. The door behind her was still open, as she had left it. She didn’t trust this at all. Rainbow Dash had seen enough horror movies to know that, as soon as she opened and closed that cabinet, something would appear behind her in the reflection.
But what could investigating the interior of the cabinet hurt?
Rainbow Dash closed the door (out of habit, as she was going to use the toilet anyway), and checked behind the bathtub and the toilet, just to make absolutely sure no slasher villain was hiding there. She looked up at the ceiling—plain white ceiling, air vent about as big as one’s hoof in diameter. There wasn’t anything in here that she could identify as dangerous, although that lingering scent (while fading, as most smells do over time) still bothered her slightly.
She was safe in here.
Reasonably courageous, Rainbow Dash reached over and pulled open the cabinet
she burst out of the washroom, gasping at the sight. She crawled backward, still looking at the decapitated pony head she’d found staring back at her in the mirror cabinet. Its red eyes were probably very lovely in life, but now, they were bloated and yellowed; the coat of fur and the mane had been shaved off. The skin was green with rot and bloated with pus, and there was no jaw—although for some reason, a bluish tongue hung out from underneath it. For some sick reason, Rainbow Dash felt that she had seen this before.
A few seconds ran by—and so did something else. Rainbow Dash snapped up to get a better look at what had just skittered by. She was expecting to see a Freak, but saw nothing. She sat there, back against the wall, for well over ten minutes, expecting whatever creature she saw to just attack her. To end it now. To just take her head and
take her head and
her head
HER HEAD
NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO
There was a reason that head carried an odd familiarity.
It was her own.
Rainbow Dash finally let it out, a shriek that rattled her throat and bounced around the hall, filling it with the sound of sheer terror and shock. Her shriek had slowed down, simmering at a gurgle, which finally ended after an eternity. She had her eyes covered with her forehooves, her body drawn completely together, shaking as though it expected to be torn apart.
She had thought she had seen it all: big scary laboratories, foreboding hallways, creepy voices that watched her no matter what she was doing, ponies turned into monsters… But this. Oh, Celestia’s sweet merciful wings, THIS. There were no words for this.
Rainbow Dash lowered her forehooves, regaining some of her courage. Her body was still shaking in terror, threatening to contort and convulse if it sustained much more.
The decapitated head still sat there in the cabinet, looking at Rainbow Dash as if it wanted to replace her “new head”, become part of her again. Well it had—it had become a memory she could never get rid of.
… A memory.
… No.
… NO!
Her mind jumped—
—NO NO DON’T WANNA REMEMBER—
—back to the time when she—
—STOP PLEASE STOP PLEASE PLEASE STOP—
—had kidnapped a pony.
She had been warped into a house in Ponyville, a servant for a unicorn sporting a heinous smile. She reached over, plucking the foal from his bed—
—NO, no, no… please… no…
All at once, Rainbow Dash remembered. The memories not only returned; they flooded her mind all at once, like a raging storm angry that she had forgotten it. The memories battered her, tore at her will, assaulted her courage, savaged her spirit. Rainbow Dash…
… was a killer.
*****
It was an hour or so when she came to. Although she was aware of her surroundings again, she had no desire to continue. Her wings might as well have been plucked from her back. Her legs had become a jelly that had somehow attached itself to her body.
It was an hour or so when she decided to sit back up. Her mind was still barely functional. Rainbow Dash looked toward the washroom, in the direction of the mirror cabinet.
It was slightly ajar, the mirror cracked.
Rainbow Dash slowly, hesitantly stood back up on her hooves. She stood there, looking at the mirror cabinet, at her shattered reflection.
She noticed something about it, something horrible.
She moved closer to it to get a closer look. No. No, no. That’s…
Her hair had lost its color. The entire spectrum, her natural hair colors, had vanished—almost as though the storm of memories had stolen them. There were faded traces of her original colors, but it was as grey as the dead.
Her eyes were in horrible shape: bulging and yellowed, red veins roping across the whites as though they were cracks in an egg filled with blood. The bags under them were a deep purple. The cracks in the mirror were a perfect emotional reflection, showing Rainbow Dash her own fractured spirit as well as her destroyed physical appearance.
She shook her head, not believing her reflection. It was lying! It was a lie! She ran the faucet again, turning it on, scrubbing her face, looking at the broken mirror. The lines in her face remained, the sagging under her eyes could not be washed away. Her eyes became hollower the more she stared into them, and her hair remained gray and lifeless.
She turned off the faucet, and leaned over onto the sink. Tears began to roll down her face. She sniffled, her mind shattered by the memories that had buffeted her not a few hours before.
(“Hit him, would you kindly.”
She obeyed.
“Would you kindly knock some of his teeth out.”
Again, she obeyed.
“Break his legs, would you kindly. All of ‘em!”
Although the colt’s screaming rattled her ears, she tuned him out. As she looked into the colt’s face while she worked his legs into unrecognizable shapes, she strangely felt nothing. Unattached to the world around her. Complete disinterest in what she was doing. The only interest she held currently was pleasing her master.
After the deed had been done, she picked up the colt and held him up by the scruff of his neck with her teeth, showing the results of her work to her master. Did I do a good job? she thought. Have I been a “good girl”?
Her master was like a horrible Clown, smiling, his long and false grin stretching over his white skin as though it were an entity all by itself. His eyes agreed with that smile, those two menacing, red-rimmed coals. He looked over the colt as he sobbed, broken. “I w-want my momma-hah-huh-uhhh!” the colt bawled.
This horrible, pale, thin creature before Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and smacked her across her face so hard, she dropped the colt. “You didn’t do a good enough job!” he yelled. “He’s still able to talk! HE SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO TALK!!!” )
Rainbow Dash shot right out of her flashback. She could never forget the rest, but cared not to dwell on it. She remained on the sink, her head in its basin and resting against the faucet. Her back shivered, the sobs escaping her in clumps, as if her soul were vomiting. The sink’s basin was soon stained with tears.
For the first time in her life, Rainbow Dash had no idea what she should do. Even if she left, there would be no way for her to just return to her old self. To once again become a paragon of everything awesome. To once again dare against danger, lead a devil-may-care adventurous life. To fly through the clean and breathable air, instead of the oppressive, cramped atmosphere of this maze.
She couldn’t go back to her old life, not after all that she’d done. Her friends—whoever they were—would never accept her back. Not after what she had become.
There, maybe, was a way out of this place. But what did it matter anymore? Where would she go? Who could she turn to? There would be no way to return home, even if she escaped.
For the first time in her life, Rainbow Dash felt totally, completely ripped apart. She was defeated. The broken pegasus slid down from the sink onto the washroom floor. It was time, she felt, to throw in the towel.
Speeding Bullet had won.
“Hey,” she said. The Voice did not respond. “Hey!” she called again. Still no answer. She poked her hoof into her left ear—only to notice that the earpiece was missing.
She got back up and checked the bathroom. Behind the tub, behind the toilet. Not there. She looked back out into the hallway; not there, either, although some of the pictures had been knocked off the wall.
That’s when she noticed it: there was no longer an awful smell.
She sniffed at the air, but all she could smell was the “interior home” scent that came with places like these. Rainbow Dash turned back to the mirror cabinet. Out of curiosity, she opened it, slowly.
Inside was the earpiece.
Rainbow Dash looked it over curiously, and noticed that there were some bite marks on it. She put it back in her ear, and closed the cabinet door.
There was a Freak standing out in the hall behind her, its purple pony face pulled back far enough by the needles in its head to mutate any expression it made into a cross between a grimace and a smile. It stood on its hind legs, which were, bent by its metallic additions, now apelike. Its arms were nothing but long, black, barbed blades stuck to elbow-hooks.
Rainbow Dash quickly looked behind her. However, the Freak was… not… there. As if it was just apart of her imagination. She looked back to the mirror and again saw it coming for her. Not knowing what else to do, she shut the door and locked it, breathing heavily.
Suddenly, the long blade stabbed straight through the door, the tip of the blade not even an inch from Rainbow Dash’s nose. She only knew this because she was looking at the reflection in the mirror; the blade itself, much like its owner, was completely invisible. She squeaked and rolled over to the toilet. The Voice returned.
This was not supposed to happen, Rainbow Dash. One of my Griffin-Freaks got loose.
“Oh, really? Ya don’t say?”
A kick came at the door, shaking it hard. On the other side, Rainbow Dash heard an echoey, high-pitched, rattling laugh that sounded more like marbles and teeth being shaken up in a jar.
I was going to send in a Counter-Freak, but I am curious as to how you will get out of this situation.
“Not letting any of your failures go to complete waste, huh, Bullet?” Rainbow Dash sneered. “Bucking typical.”
More crashing. As the blade was still sticking through the door, Rainbow Dash assumed it was trying to work it loose, and merely kicked at the door in a childish attempt to make it let go. She thought fast. What could she do? Obviously it was stuck—and only a few seconds until it would un-stick itself.
She got up on her hind legs and punched at the blade with her forelegs. Rainbow Dash expected the blade to break, only to bend it (?) instead, causing the creature on the other end to scream. She then ducked, as she counted on the other blade to get put through as well (which it did).
Then she went to work bending the blades in weird directions that guaranteed the Freak wouldn’t be able to easily remove them. His kicks didn’t do more outside rattling the door.
(“Break his legs, would you kindly. ALL of them!”)
The horrible whispers of the past tickled her ear in its playful cruelty. It took a few seconds for Rainbow Dash to snap back to reality.
Rainbow Dash looked about, looking for an exit—but, duh, she was already aware that the only air vent in the bathroom was only big enough for a small animal. (Air vents were quickly becoming a nuisance to Rainbow Dash.) The only way out was the same way in.
She looked again to the bent blades sticking out of the door, which was kicked every few seconds, the rattling marbles filling her ears. She thought about it a few seconds and realized how easy she had made this situation.
Rainbow Dash opened the bathroom door, pushing it open so fast and hard, the Freak stuck to the other side was smashed into the wall with a satisfying thump. She quickly jumped out of the bathroom before the Freak, still desiring to kill her, ran back forward—which only accomplished again closing the bathroom door his blades were stuck in.
Looking behind her, she couldn’t see the Freak—but Celestia’s good graces, she could still hear the thing’s rattling laugh. She could feel its invisible eyes as it likely turned its head to look at her.
She thought over her recent encounter. What had she learned about this kind of Freak? First, knowing Speeding Bullet, there were more like this one—invisible. Their only give-away was that instead of sobbing or screaming, they tended to laugh (Or so she hoped). The only way to see them was by looking into a reflective surface. They probably didn’t all have arm-blades like the specimen she ran into.
Rainbow Dash made mental notes quickly as she decided to explore the other two doors. They both seemed to lead into the same room: a train station.
It was just as robotic as the maze, leaving the false coziness of the mansion behind her. The train car stationed here was shaped more like a bullet on wheels (evidently not steam-powered, like some of the automotives back home), and was probably painted silver at one time, despite its age covering it with rust. The tunnel behind it seemed to stretch on into an eternity of darkness, an oblivion.
Please board the train, Rainbow Dash.
Almost at his command, the doors to the train car opened with a hiss, revealing the inside of the car. It had passenger seats that were of brown leather, but outside that, everything else was metal and rusted.
Gingerly, Rainbow Dash boarded the train. As she stepped in, the door closed behind her. With a hollow scream of what Rainbow Dash assumed was a whistle, the train car lurched, almost throwing her to the floor. Afterward, she felt it actually move forward, slowly, into the darkness that desired to swallow her whole.
*****
Speeding Bullet felt he had made the right choice.
There needed to be a bond of trust between the two if his plan was to succeed. So of course he needed to show her who he was, if not what he was. He could show himself, if not his face, to his enemy, draw her closer to him.
Of course, having her arrive safe and sound to his door—but only after passing his experiments!—was a huge step, the most important step. Of course she might need some advice every now and again; as quick-witted and creative as she apparently was, he could always lend a hoof if need be. He felt she probably wouldn’t need it, at least not now.
He was still amazed by her progress, even now. When he had first put her in this maze, she was a hothead, who acted more on impulse than on planning or thinking. Now, she had become quite a strategist—thanks to his doing. He knew she needed to have a good balance of her own strength and a sense of strategy she didn’t have before, and she was quickly evening out.
In summary, Rainbow Dash was performing excellently, despite the odds growing against her. His boss would be pleased with these results.
Bullet looked again toward the hundreds of screens before him, an ocean of images that his omnipotent, ancient eyes cruised over—taking in every detail of Rainbow Dash’s progress. Several were merely different angles of the same room. Many lacked anything important currently going on. While his subject was in the train car from the North Side, what caught his attention was the camera he had built into the bathroom of his “mansion” area.
It was positioned almost unnoticeably, unless you looked very closely into the air vent. From there, Bullet’s eyes could see the mirror cabinet, the picture of flowers on the wall, and the door. He did not care to look at the tub or toilet, as even he held some actions as sacred.
However, he was rewinding and rewatching what he could not understand. He theorized that his subject Rainbow Dash had a nasty flashback, quite likely during the testing process Witching Hour and Happiness were directing. It began as soon as she opened the cabinet door to reveal…
… nothing.
Watching her from his camera in the Memory Hall made him worry more. He had not anticipated her reaction to be this bad: convulsions and shrieking, her wings flapping as if to carry her away from her night terrors. All it did was make her look like she was crawling on the walls, continuing her shrieking fit. She knocked a few of the pictures off the wall in her fright.
Her attack ended as she pulled out the earpiece, bit on it as if it was the cause of her problems, then threw it into the mirror cabinet and quickly slammed the cabinet door so hard the mirror cracked. She then stopped suddenly, and walked out of the bathroom slowly, until she collapsed out in the hallway again.
It was all so disturbing. Speeding Bullet wondered why Star Fall was seriously considering using such a spell. He was familiar with the mind control spell, but this more-powerful version seemed to have side-effects that were worse than was expected. He shrugged; after all, he was also responsible for doing some rather disturbing things himself.
He’d need to make a report of this finding and run it by Star Fall, not that it would dissuade him from using the final version of the spell. But still, it was protocol. Speeding Bullet drew a keyboard near him—it helped that he had several pointed fingers now—and began typing up his findings, intending to send also the recorded footage for future reference.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bullet caught something rather suspicious. The bathroom and hallway cameras. He removed himself from the keyboard for now, looking into the images.
The door had been broken.
*****
Just as Rainbow Dash managed to find a nice seat, she heard a jarring thump as the train car really began to motor forward. She jumped at the sound, and looked in its direction only to see nothing. The train must have just hit something on the rail.
Her mind floated again back to her misery. What was she going to do now? Evidently, from her encounter with the Griffin-Freak, she must have wanted to continue living. How could she want that? Could some part of her, dormant until then, want to keep going? Was any of this worth it?
She leaned in her seat, the right side of her face looking into the window. It was caked with dust and smeary, but still reflective, somewhat. She looked into her own eye, noticing the redness was beginning to go away. The redness in those other eyes right behind her though were kind of cree—oh—but—ah—
The rattling laugh came from next to her ear, causing her to jump up into the air. Her wings flapped, carrying her away from where she assumed the Freak from before was standing. Rainbow Dash looked around, and clung to the corner of the car’s ceiling. Her four hooves pressed against the steel, keeping her in place.
She heard the laugh again, this time from before her. She could hear the click-clap of its uneven footsteps, feel the already rattling car shake from the Freak’s weight. Come on, think! Rainbow Dash thought. That thing has swords for hands! They’re bent now, but they’re still long! You can’t stay here…
Click, clap, click, clap, click, clap…
Its footsteps sounded like a clock hand ticking away the seconds, informing Rainbow Dash how much time she had left to make her move. Time was running out, and fast!
Thinking quickly, Dash kicked at the nearest window, causing it to crack. The laugh again, closer. She gave the window another kick, breaking it. She crawled out and onto the top of the car.
She crawled along the ceiling, crouched to avoid the overpassing girders above. The speed of the train car was enough to nearly force her off the car completely. Suddenly, the car ceiling before her erupted—a gash in the metal, coming straight up, flowering, and then screaming downward as the invisible blade was pulled back into the car.
Another, then another! Rainbow Dash, not daring to crawl forward, decided to climb over the side instead. Below her was a platform attachment, likely for the car’s maintenance. She dropped to it quickly as she heard the Freak stabbing at the ceiling again and held fast to the floor.
Stay low, stay quiet, stay alive! she thought to herself.
The noise of the car trumbling forth was deafening. She could not depend on her ears to keep tabs on the Freak inside the car, but she could guess it was still stabbing at the ceiling, going along the top from one end to the other. Eventually, it would run out of ceiling and wonder why it hadn’t stabbed anything.
She had to think, and fast. The Freak was only visible in reflective surfaces, and she couldn’t hear it over the noise of the train car. It was never a good idea to attack a Freak head-on, but there weren’t any other Freaks around to draw its attention away from her. This situation had grown so intense and so quickly; Rainbow Dash couldn’t hold it in anymore…
… Wait, that’s it. That’s it!
*****
Noises. Too many. Where is baby, baby mine? Why is baby running? Want baby, want her back.
Can’t hear baby. Where baby?
Not on top. Already checked. Where baby?
Look here, there, no baby.
Bad smell. Bad smell coming out window. Why window open?
Out window? Baby out window?
Out window, only puddle. Puddle smell.
Smelly puddle. Window too small. Break window, baby probably outside.
Outside now. Where baby?
Baby behind me, push me.
Falling off now. Hit rail. Hot, dying.
Why, baby mine?
Why?
*****
Too much had depended on a hunch—the hunch being that Freaks could smell. Still, it seemed her lure had worked. The rest depended on the strength of her kick—which she never doubted for a second could work—and whether or not urine counted as a reflective liquid in the right light.
The smell of her waste wafted into her nose. She wrinkled it in disgust and walked to the front of the train car’s platform, feeling the wind against her greyed mane. Rainbow Dash sat down in front of the train car door, resting her head on the side. She sighed.
You continue to amaze me, Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, where’d you go, Bullet?”
I attempted to issue a call for a Counter-Freak when I noticed the Griffin-Freak had broke free from the door. But it seems you have already taken care of the problem.
She then heard what sounded strangest to her all that day. Speeding Bullet was laughing. It was strange, for certain, but it was not an unwelcome sound. It seemed to ease Rainbow Dash’s mood.
Although I cannot say I had expected you to do it in the way you have.
He laughed some more, harder this time. Rainbow Dash joined in. It felt wonderful, like being cleansed of bad emotions. When was the last time she’d laughed?
Suddenly, her mind flashed pink. A color? Why?
Pink. Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie?
You know me, Dashie! Giggle at the ghostly, remember? Cackle at the creepy!
Memories of playing pranks on various ponies alongside a pink, frizzy-maned mare began to populate Rainbow Dash’s mind. She remembered the squeaky sound of her voice. The strange things she did. “Pinkie Pie, you’re so RANDOM!”
She recalled her more gruesome recent memories, however. What she did… would… would Pinkie Pie ever forgive her for what she’d done? Would her other friends understand? Would she, Rainbow Dash, ever understand?
Of course I’ll forgive you, silly! Rainbow Dash could imagine her friend say. It wasn’t your fault, you were under somepony’s control! You would have never done that to anypony if you were still you!
Wait a minute, why was…? Was Pinkie Pie talking to her right now?
Of course I am, Rainbow Dash! I’ll always be with you. And that’s because we’re friends! I’ll support you, no matter if you’re hurt and crying or filled with laughter! I wish I could hug you right now, but I’m currently in another chapter. I’m on a pirate ship that’s gonna get attacked by Imps and Fluttershy says hi!
Rainbow Dash stared, blankly. That was totally Pinkie Pie.
It was like Pinkie were right here. She wanted Pinkie here, Fluttershy too. She wanted all her friends here, right now. She wanted to hold them, tell them everything that’s happened, lay all her sins out on the table for them to see.
She wanted her friends back.
Rainbow Dash noticed that both she and Speeding Bullet were quiet for what felt like an hour. The laughter they shared had left her containing a glow she hadn’t felt in a long time. Goodness, it felt like forever since she’d last felt it.
The feeling of being loved and cherished, by those she loved and cherished.
For a moment, Rainbow Dash wondered if Speeding Bullet felt the same glow. “Hey,” she said, “Bullet, I’m… I’m sorry about what happened to you.”
She didn’t hear any response, but decided to carry on anyway.
“What happened to you… it wasn’t fair. Your family and addiction, and then the accident… now this…” She closed her eyes. “… I’m sorry you had… to be put through all that.”
She had changed a lot over the past few weeks. She had learned to quickly adapt and think on her feet; she remembered her sins and her friends. She wasn’t sure she could go back to being hard-headed, one-track minded Rainbow Dash.
But it felt good, actually; growing up. Rainbow Dash was no longer innocent, she realized, as that had been stripped of her by the world, by Speeding Bullet, by her other enemies. She was bare and vulnerable—two things she hated—but at the same time, she felt wiser and more complete.
She felt she could empathize with Speeding Bullet, if only a little. Sure, his life sucked, but he was a monster now, and he needed to be stopped.
She was suddenly very tired. Even though the wind whipped through her mane and tussled her tail, Rainbow Dash slept on that platform, more soundly than she had in a while.
*****
Speeding Bullet watched her on the screen, her form sleeping against the train car. She was almost at her destination (one more maze, this one much more carefully constructed), but Bullet decided she should get as much rest as she needed.
He looked more closely at her. Part of him was jealous she was still flesh and blood. The other part of him felt that’s what made her beautiful. Her ability to have actual blood run through her veins, keeping her warm. Her ability to have durable bones and soft flesh. He missed these things greatly, ever since—
Suddenly, a call came in from a nearby computer. He tapped the “Receive” button.
“Ah, Bullet, been a while,” said his boss. The voice was garbled and disguised, but it was certainly his boss; he was the only one with access to this frequency. Speeding Bullet said nothing, merely awaiting his instructions.
“How are the experiments coming along? Do you think she’s ready yet?”
She is performing far more excellently than I thought. She is not ready, but give me a few more days. She will be prepared. I will call you when she is fully prepared for your project.
And with that, the call ended. Bullet had spent all this time, all these weeks, into pushing Rainbow Dash to her limits, throwing her into situation after situation (although this last one demonstrated his clumsiness as well as her cleverness).
As he looked at her now, this mare who had gone through so much in such a short time, Speeding Bullet suddenly felt a nagging doubt. He felt a kind of kinship with her. He knew he wasn’t supposed to become emotionally involved with his subject, as that would jeopardize his assignment. (The constant mind-games of comparing himself to her were meant as tests, but he was surprised that they were working better on him than on her.)
Bullet was supposed to prepare Rainbow Dash for her destiny, and her destiny was coming faster and faster every passing day.
But, it did not change the fact that he did not want her to leave.