Appledashery

by Just Essay


My Little Champion

A shuddering burst came from Rainbow Dash's chest. It was like waking up from a falling nightmare for the twentieth time in a row, only she couldn't remember falling asleep. She didn't even remember going to bed.

All she saw was darkness, and yet she knew that she was somehow moving through it. Sparks of understanding came to her through the onyx waves. She had little glimpses of a nightmarish scenario before the dreaming began. Someone had put here there—in the heart of eternal darkness—and she was powerless to do anything about it.

She was always powerless. In the mortal realm, she was a limp sack of meat. Why would she have to be any stronger in the unfathomable depths beyond?

"I wish... I w-wish..."

She was even powerless to love.

Whimpering, the mare curled in, hugging herself as she twirled through the endless ether.

"Please no. Please no. Oh Celestia please no no no no no no..."

The more she stammered, the more echoes she heard. Things were surching her way—things that were darker than darkness itself. She clenched her eyes shut in hope that they would stop... that she would stop... that everything would stop.

She was wrong on all counts.

"I don't belong here. Not yet. I've gotta save her. She's everything... she's my everything..."

The mare cried. The mare sobbed. The darkness shifted. On the crest of pained howls, the strange bodies came closer across the obsidian veil. They sought heat and order, and she was a tasty morsel adrift in desolation.

"I can come here later. But I need to save her. I just have to. Please... please... n-no..."

They closed in. They sounded like rabin wolves now. Rainbow could even feel their breaths—colder than frost on the eve of Winter Wrap-Up.

"N-no! Not yet! Goddess, please!" Rainbow Dash flinched and flailed like a lost infant. She felt frigid coats brushing up against her, surrounding, engulfing. "I need to go back! Send me back! I have to save her!"

The shrieks doubled... tripled. They were everywhere she turned, suffocating her.

"Mrmmmf... it's not my time! It's nopony's time! Dang it!" Rainbow growled for a brief moment, exhaling alien warmth into the emptiness. "Get away from me!"

They drew away... but grew angrier. They swarmed as one, coming towards Rainbow as a solid mass that she could somehow make out amidst the rest of the nothingness. For a brief moment, she thought she could see—and feel—a wide set of serrated jaws.

And that's when a set of warm limbs hugged Rainbow Dash from behind.

She gasped, her ears instantly curling back. An indecipherable squeak of ear escaped her lungs. She could only watch as the deathly mass lunged at her.

But whoever was hugging her yelled over her shoulder, and the force of his exclamation dashed the attacking phantoms into a million wriggling pieces. An invisible fire blazed across the immortal expanse, and soon Rainbow was being carried swiftly across the universal abyss.

"How... but..." Rainbow wheezed. "...who...?"

"You were always biting off more than you could chew, Champ." At first, the most surprising thing to Rainbow was how young the voice sounded. It took all of her concentration to pay attention to the next few words. "It's what I've always admired about you. You can do anything you set your heart to, Rainbow, but if you're not careful it will be the end of you."

"I..." Rainbow whimpered, growing limp and nuzzling deeper into his embrace. "I don't understand," she lied, if only to hear his voice speak more.

He did. "If your life should come to an end, let it happen in way that'll make you happy," he said, carrying the two of them towards a bright slit floating in nothingness. The semblance of a door formed before Rainbow's twitching eyes. "Just like you made me happy... when I ended... knowing full well I had left something awesome and beautiful in Equestria that would make history."

Rainbow's face grimaced as tears formed in her eyes. "Dad...?" she hiccuped.

"I'm so proud of you, my little Champ. But now it's time to work on making yourself proud." The two came to a stop before the floating panel. "What do you feel more than anything else in life?"

Rainbow sniffled, and she clenched her jaws tight. "Love."

"Thatta girl..." And she felt herself tossed towards the brightness. "...don't ever stop winning."


FLASH!

"Unnngh!" Rainbow Dash collapsed on the floor of Shindig Tower. She crawled away from the black door lined with brass pipes. She rolled over, wheezing and hissing for breath. Her body twitched, and she fought to put herself in a standing position.

Quivers ran across the pegasus' figure, and she felt a noticeable discomfort all over.

So, with a breathy grunt, she sat back on her haunches, fiddled with her corset, and finally pulled at the leather strings fastening the brown article together. It had barely gotten halfway unraveled when—

Riiiiiip!

—the corset exploded altogether, burst apart by a strong pair of wings from underneath. Rainbow's blue feathers glinted in the torchlight, reflecting against the blackness of the door behind her. She stretched the appendages out, finally managing a full breath. Slowly, she rose, every muscle stretched and rejuvenated.

"Hrmmmmmmfff..." The mare's nostrils flared as she clenched her eyes shut in concentration. Then, several moments later, her eyes opened, and she stared ahead with a devilish smirk. "Hmmmf..." Her muzzle curved. "...awesome."

POWW! Rainbow took off, soaring straight ahead. The walls of the Tower were suddenly no obstacle, and the barriers of the dreamscape melted around her glowing sapphire frame as she made a bee-line for the heart of Philanthropy.