//------------------------------// // O, Villain, Villain, Smiling, Damned, Villain // Story: Hoofed by Your Own Petard // by Tortfeasor //------------------------------// Hoofed by Your Own Petard Disclaimer: Insert awesome disclaimer ->here<- Chapter Twelve: O, Villain, Villain, Smiling, Damned Villain! Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure who had set such a fast pace away from Manehatten, but with a sizeable army on their tails nopony was going to argue about putting distance between themselves and the city. They hadn’t seen any guards or Nightmare Children since leaving Manehatten, and they were all intending to keep it that way. Trixie had read about the Elements of Harmony and would know where they were going. If they gave her the chance she’d have guards and Nightmare Children shoulder to shoulder around the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. “Let’s take a water break,” Applejack said as they crested a hill. “This is as good a place as any, and we’ll start slowing down if go much longer without drinking.” Stopping, even for a water break, was a suggestion that didn’t bring any argument from the exhausted ponies. Within a few seconds they were all standing around, trying to catch their breath, and drinking deeply from their water bottles. They would have to start walking before long if they didn’t want to deal with cramps, but for now they could take a welcome rest. Twilight’s yawn was truly a full body yawn. “Am I the only one who’s about to fall asleep on her hooves?” “Not by a long shot,” Rainbow Dash said. “When was the last time any of us slept?” “We don’t really have a choice though,” Rarity pointed out. “If we want to beat Trixie and her army to the castle we have to move as fast as we possibly can.” “I know, I know,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I’d just like to get some sleep between Manehatten and Ponyville. Are we even going to stop there or are we just going to keep running?” “It depends on where Trixie is,” Twilight wiped her mouth. “None of us like dozing for fifteen minutes here and there. But between us being tired and eternal night across all Equestria I choose getting a bit more behind on my sleep. And speaking of Manehatten I’ve got a question for you Rainbow Dash?” “Oh?” Rainbow Dash had been to Manehatten once in her life. She was just leaving the city from that one visit. She wasn’t sure what Twilight expected her to know that would escape Applejack. “Well,” Twilight took a deep breath, “when we were escaping and you were providing air cover there was a gap of a few minutes when those ponies in those weird uniforms showed up. Now, even I can tell that they were clearly in a different league from the guards and Nightmare Children chasing us, and it makes sense that you’d want to lead ponies like those away from us so you could fight them with plenty of room. But Fluttershy saw you and those ponies hovering just out of view from where we were running looking rather friendly together. As in one of them was whispering in your ear and you seemed fine with it, even friendly. Either we have a super secret group of ponies looking out for us or I think there’s something you’d like to tell us. So go ahead Rainbow Dash.” Normally in such a situation Rainbow Dash would bite back numerous swears. Biting back swears however implied the ability to speak, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t get a word out to save her life. Her friends were all glaring daggers at her and she knew that the longer she stayed silent the deeper a hole she was digging for herself. “I…I… Look, you guys had more ponies chasing after you than I could flap my wings at. And Trixie and those unicorns were leveling whole city blocks trying to kill you, and Rarity had used up all her magic so it was just Twilight trying to hold all those ponies off. I thought we were all about to die and if that had happened it would have meant eternal night. And when the Shadowbolts, that’s their name by the way, offered to save your lives… I didn’t say yes! I just thought that if it meant eternal night either way at least we could all be alive and together. They were going to make me their captain; I could have kept anypony from hurting you girls. I know you don’t like Nightmare Moon, but I thought it would be worse to let you get killed! I’m not going to say I’m sorry for trying to save your lives.” Even though every word was the truth Rainbow Dash still somehow felt like she was lying to her friends. And from the looks on their faces they thought the same thing. “How selfish could you be?” Rarity started quietly but was shrieking by the finish. “Turning on us for a comfortable position? I thought you were better than this Rainbow Dash. But then I never thought Trixie would turn on Celestia either, so clearly I should rethink which ponies I put my trust in!” “Wait just a second!” Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof on the ground. “I would never turn on you girls. I only considered taking their offer because I thought it would save your lives. And the only reason I would have become their captain was because I thought I could help save you!” Rainbow Dash may have been better off speaking to a brick wall for all the good her protests did. Applejack had fixed her with a particularly cutting glare. “I’ve had lots of ponies lie to me lots of ways since I became a reporter, but this has to be one of the worst. Dragging us along while you plotted with Nightmare Moon to turn us in, and then claiming you were doing it to help us? If I hadn’t heard it straight from you I never would have believed it. But like Rarity said I think we should really be rethinking who we trust.” Rainbow Dash could only sputter indignantly as her friends twisted everything she said to mean the worst possible thing. It all felt like a bad dream but her friends kept coming. “This would all be funny if it weren’t true,” Pinkie Pie’s frown was actually rather scary. “But trying to betray your friends so you can get ahead isn’t funny at all. Why didn’t you do it Rainbow Dash? Did Twilight taking out all those ponies ruin your plans? Or are you holding out for a better deal from Nightmare Moon? Did you want to be captain of the royal guard and captain of these Shadowbolts? I can’t believe you’d do this to us. Weren’t we supposed to be your friends?” Pinkie Pie was right about one thing. This all would be really quite funny if it wasn’t real. Normally watching ponies completely ignore what another pony would be saying was a laughing matter. But it was anything but normal that the result of a pony being ignored would be not only losing her friends forever but being thought a traitor. “What about our promise to get our cutie marks fighting Nightmare Moon? Did that mean anything to you Rainbow Dash? I’ve never had friends like you girls in my whole life. I know you want to get ahead in life. I want to get ahead in life too. I wanted it so bad I took a job where I put on clothes just to take them off again. But I would have never thrown my friends under a cart like that just to get ahead. You always talk about never leaving ponies hanging but maybe you should have spent a little more time making sure you actually didn’t leave us hanging.” That hurt. The promise she’d made with Twilight meant a lot, and Rainbow Dash hadn’t forgotten it. But thinking that Twilight and the others could die she’d simply thought that she had to keep them alive. Of course she’d already made that argument, and like a bad comedy it had fallen on completely deaf ears. The only one of her friends who hadn’t abandoned her was Fluttershy. Her oldest and closest friend was silently staring at the ground. Rainbow Dash hadn’t liked the others speeches to put it mildly. But if Fluttershy thought she had betrayed her it could really break the rainbow maned pegasus. “I forgive you Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy looked up at her. “I think we should be willing to forgive when ponies make bad decisions. But I think it would be a bad decision to ignore what they did. I know you always had a hard time getting along with other ponies. During flight camp I don’t know how many times I patched you up after those fights you got into. It was probably the first time I thought about going into medicine. I always forgave you, but how many times did I tell you to stop getting into fights? And after flight camp when you met Gilda I thought she wasn’t a good griffon from the start but I still forgave you after all those ‘pranks’ she wanted to pull turned out to be very dangerous. But do you remember how I talked you out of some of them, or how I always tried to keep you from doing anything like that after you and Gilda stopped talking? So yes, I can forgive you for wanting to turn us in to Nightmare Moon, but I won’t ignore what you did. I don’t think you should be around us anymore because I don’t think we can trust you and I don’t think we’ll be able to trust you for a long time. You can stay at my house until we beat Nightmare Moon, but when I get back we’re going to have a long talk.” Rainbow Dash didn’t feel the first few tears. Once they started coming in a steady stream though she started angrily wiping them away. Her friends had so easily thought the worst of her and hadn’t listened to a word she’d said. Had they ever really been her friends, even Fluttershy? “Fine! I’ve spent most of my life alone anyways. If you don’t want me around anymore then I won’t bother you any longer!” Vision still blurred with tears Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and shot into the air. None of her friends could have caught her, but it twisted the knife in her heart a little more when she glanced back and saw that none of them had even so much as raised a hoof to try to stop her. She’d go back to Fluttershy’s house, but she didn’t think she’d stay there long. For now though she just wanted to fly off her anger. She hadn’t had a chance to just fly since this whole mess started and even if she’d give anything to not have this chance she wasn’t going to waste it now that she had it. She didn’t know how long she flew for, long enough to stop crying, but eventually her wings started getting tired and she set down on a hill in the middle of a field. She didn’t know exactly where she’d flown to but without anypony bothering her it wouldn’t be too hard to find her way back to Fluttershy’s house. And then between heartbeats she wasn’t alone. “Oh my little pony, so betrayed, so alone.” Rainbow Dash whipped around to find herself facing none other than Nightmare Moon. Her worst enemy of nearly the last month was standing in front of her looking for all the world like she’d come to pay a visit. “What do you want?” Rainbow Dash flared her wings and dropped into a fighting stance. “Now, now,” Nightmare Moon chuckled, “I’m not here to fight you. You know that if I wanted you dead you’d already be a pile of bones on the ground. I’m here to talk. I know what your friends did to you, and I think it’s terribly unfair. I just wanted to help my friends all those years ago, and they called me a monster for it. I know exactly what you’re feeling Rainbow Dash.” “Why should I believe you?” “A fair question, but not the right one. My Shadowbolts have told you only the truth. I’m going to build a better Equestria, and I want you to help me do it Rainbow Dash. Your so called ‘friends’ are so wedded to their vision of what Equestria was that as soon as you stepped out of their happy little fantasy they branded you traitor and banished you. But did the ponies who serve me ever lash out at you because of their failings or call you a traitor because you stood up for what you believed in? The right question you should be asking is why shouldn’t you believe me?” Rainbow Dash was groping for a reply when suddenly she found herself lying on the ground with her vision filled with pink. She thrashed about until suddenly the pink lump rolled off of her and revealed itself to be Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow Dash groaned and rolled herself to her hooves. “What’s going on?” “Sorry Dashie,” Pinkie Pie smiled, “I had to use the bathroom, which was actually just a tree, and all these trees are blocking out a lot of moonlight, so it was hard to find my way to that tree. Since I needed something to make sure I didn’t get lost I looked for the brightest thing in camp, and that rainbow mane of yours is really bright. I just picked a tree that was close enough to camp that I could still see your mane, but I kind of had to step over you to get back to my blanket and well…” “Never mind,” Rainbow Dash groggily blinked. “I’m going to get something to drink and then see if I can get a bit more sleep before we have to get moving again.” “I hope so,” Pinkie Pie smiled, “because when I stepped over you the first time you looked like you were having a really bad dream. And ponies never sleep good if they have bad dreams, and if they don’t sleep good then they’re grumpy, and if they’re grumpy then they’re mean to other ponies, and ponies being mean to each other is just bad!” “Um yeah.” Rainbow Dash had started thinking about that dream. It had felt so real. From the sense of betrayal when her friends had disowned her to her conversation with Nightmare Moon she’d swear that if she’d pinched herself she wouldn’t have woken up. “Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie Pie poked her. “Was it a really bad dream? Do you want to talk about it?” Rainbow Dash wasn’t normally one to get all happy feely with what she was feeling, but that dream had just been wrong and she was sure it would keep eating away at her if she didn’t do something. “You girls were all yelling at me, and then I ran away, and Nightmare Moon showed up and she was saying how if I followed her she wouldn’t ever abandon me, and I think I was going to say yes.” “Well that was just mean of us!” Pinkie Pie’s shout jerked the others awake. “What were we even yelling at you about?” Rainbow Dash knew perfectly well what her friends had been yelling at her about, but just remembering that dream she didn’t dare say what she’d been doing to bring it about. “I don’t remember, but I think it was something I’d done that wasn’t very good.” That got the general sense across and that meant it wasn’t as bad a lie, right? “Well I’m sure whatever you did wasn’t that bad. And anyways it wasn’t real or anything. I mean come on, Nightmare Moon trying to be your friend? How silly is that?” Rainbow Dash tried to smile but couldn’t. “That’s the thing Pinkie Pie. It felt real. I mean I’ve woken up I know it’s not real, and I’d still swear I was on that hill talking to Nightmare Moon.” “Talking to Nightmare Moon?” Applejack straggled over to them. “Why would Rainbow Dash be talking to Nightmare Moon?” “She was having a bad dream,” Pinkie Pie said, “and she’s letting it get to her. We were yelling at her and it made her run away. Nightmare Moon found her and she was being all friendly.” “Nightmare Moon, friendly?” Rarity laughed, “If that doesn’t say you’re in a dream I don’t know what would.” “I know,” Pinkie Pie giggled. “Come on Rainbow Dash, stop being all miss serious face and lighten up. Nightmare Moon isn’t anywhere near here and you’d have to try really, really hard to make us angry enough to yell at you. And we’d still forgive you. Now are you going to believe me, or a pony who was moving around Ponyville as a black poof of smoke?” Rainbow Dash finally started laughing. “I guess being friends with a poof of smoke is kind of silly.” “That’s the spirit!” Pinkie Pie’s smile split her face. “Tell all those scary bad thoughts to just take a hike and then laugh them away!” Once Rainbow Dash and the others began to laugh it was like all the fear and doubt she’d been harboring started to melt away. Thinking about bargaining with the Shadowbolts had been a bad idea but her friends would forgive her for it. Not that she was going to bring it up unless she had to or anything. Once the laughter died down they all silently agreed that they wouldn’t be going back to sleep and broke camp for another long night of travel. There was no way they would beat Trixie’s army to the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, but they’d broken into one place she was guarding and they could do it again. They walked for several hours before taking a break. The mountain that Canterlot rested on had crept over the edge of the horizon soon after they set off and they were angling themselves to keep it that way. The woods on the far side of Canterlot weren’t as bad as the Everfree Forest but ponies didn’t avoid them simply because the road to Manehatten ran on the other side of Canterlot. “What was that?” Applejack held up a hoof at the head of the line and everypony behind her stopped. “I thought I heard something up ahead. Rainbow Dash, go check it out. Be sure to make plenty of noise on your way back if it’s not friendly.” Rainbow Dash nodded and took off into the trees ahead. These woods weren’t wild like the Everfree Forest but they hadn’t been laid out in an orderly fashion and it had been some time since anypony made an effort to tend this forest. Even if Applejack hadn’t seen anything this wasn’t the kind of place to ignore the possibility of something unfriendly up ahead. “Hey there Rainbow Dash.” A gruff voice from the side made Rainbow Dash nearly fall out of the sky with surprise. Righting herself she turned to see a very familiar face sitting in a tree. “Gilda?” She still asked the question even though the griffon was right in front of her face. “What are you doing here?” “Following you, of course.” The griffon snorted. “I only recognize the yellow wimp but this looks like a group of grade-a losers you’ve fallen in with. Let’s ditch these lame-o’s and go have some fun. There’s no one telling us what to do so we can pull some awesome pranks.” Rainbow Dash’s suspicions flared immediately. She and her friends had gone about as far off the beaten path as a pony could, so how had Gilda found her? And then there was her asking Rainbow Dash to go off and pull more ‘pranks’ with her. It had been years since their rather epic falling out over Gilda wanting to pull ever more mean spirited pranks that could really hurt ponies. Even though her friends were close behind Rainbow Dash was treading on some very thin ice here. “Didn’t we have this conversation before?” Rainbow Dash preferred to tread the same minefields over again. “You didn’t come all this way just to tell me that I was right and you realized you were being a jerk all those years ago, did you?” “I see you’re still letting Fluttercry keep you in boring old nice to each other land. That crybaby could always make a wet stick seem like the life of a party. And it sounds like she’s still got you thinking that doing anything that could put a scratch on someone makes you some kind of serial killer or something.” “Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted with real anger. “Don’t you go talking about Fluttershy like that! Those pranks you were pulling by the end were downright dangerous and you were happy when ponies got hurt. I was just lucky I had a friend like Fluttershy who stuck by me long enough to get me to see that so I could get out before it was too late.” Gilda stuck a talon into her beak and mimed gagging. “Spare me the touchy feely happy trip. I thought after your precious little sun princess got herself beaten up by a pony who deserves to be running the show around here you might have wised up. Guess that group of namby pamby wimps got their hoofs in you a lot more than I thought.” “Those ‘namby pamby wimps’ are my friends.” Rainbow Dash was hoofing the ground in anger. “So why are you really here Gilda?” “I think that’s obvious,” Gilda’s smile was not at all pleasant. “But I think we’re about to have company, so let’s have this conversation again after I kill your friends.” Rainbow Dash heard her friends crashing through the trees towards her but before she could shout a warning Gilda dove at her with talons stretched out. Thinking quickly Rainbow Dash flapped her wings just enough so her hoofs brushed Gilda’s wingtips. Another flap of her wings turned her around to see Gilda’s beak digging rather painfully into the dirt. Turning around also let her see her friend bursting through the trees clearly prepared for trouble. “Gilda!” Fluttershy squeaked upon seeing the griffon. “This is too easy,” Gilda smirked. “One down Dashie!” “Eek!” Fluttershy started to cringe as the griffon made yet another killing dive. Instead of meeting pegasus flesh that lunge was interrupted by an orange earth pony’s hoofs audibly connecting with the griffon. “Ha!” Applejack had a hint of a drawl in her voice from excitement. “I haven’t bucked something like that since the last time I came back to help out on the farm.” Gloating turned out to be a horrible mistake as Gilda recovered quite a bit faster than anypony had thought she would. Applejack’s first reaction to the claws raking across her wasn’t pain, but surprise. The pain became perfectly evident as she started collapsing to the ground with a cry. Not quite finished Gilda’s beak flashed down and Applejack gasped as her front right leg broke with a crack the others had no problem hearing. “Not who I was aiming for,” Gilda turned a cruel smile at Rainbow Dash, “but like I said, one down Dashie. Say anything you want to say to your loser friends soon because they’re going to be joining her.” Pegasus flight, even Rainbow Dash’s, was graceful. Gilda’s flight away from them was all raw power. Shocked out of their stupor at seeing Applejack hurt Twilight and Rarity sent numerous bolts of magic after the fleeing griffon. But like Rainbow Dash, Gilda was much too good a flier to get hit by so few ponies. Rainbow Dash tensed herself to pursue her now definitely former friend. But a low groan from behind snapped all thought of ripping Gilda apart feather by feather from her head. Her first thought was to rush to her friend’s aid but when she turned to do just that she saw Fluttershy already kneeling next to Applejack with her saddlebags open. Flapping her wings to go look for signs of Gilda, the guards, or Nightmare Children was one of the hardest things Rainbow Dash had ever done. But she knew that if Fluttershy was interrupted while treating Applejack it could mean the death of the earth pony. Fluttershy couldn’t have spent more than twenty minutes cleaning Applejack’s wounds, bandaging them, and setting her broken leg. It only felt like half a day to Rainbow Dash. Twenty minutes or half the day though Rainbow Dash didn’t see any signs of pursuit or Gilda turning around for another attempt on their lives. “I’ve done everything I can out here,” Rainbow Dash heard Fluttershy say through the trees. Twilight was the first to speak. “Good everything you can do, or bad everything you can do?” “I don’t think she’s in any immediate danger of dying,” Rainbow Dash nearly fell out of the sky with relief. “Her wounds look a lot worse than they really are. That’s probably why Gilda thought she’d killed Applejack. But she’s not going to get better without proper bed rest. The only place I can think of where we can stop for a few days to let her heal is her family’s farm outside Ponyville, but, um, I don’t remember the way.” “Oh, oh!” Pinkie Pie was jumping up and down waving her hooves in the air. “I still know the way! Pick me, pick me!” “That settles it then,” Twilight levitated Applejack’s saddlebags onto her own back. “Lead the way Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash, make sure we don’t have any more surprise visits. Rarity, you and I can take turns holding Applejack so she doesn’t get bounced around.” She knew Twilight couldn’t see her through the trees but Rainbow Dash still nodded. She circled slightly higher and started looking around for movement as they set off. It was going to be a long way back to Ponyville. Author's Note : I'll be out of town next week and likely won't have access to the internet. Therefore there will NOT be an update next Friday. Instead Chapter Thirteen will be released on Friday, June 15.