Rest for the Wicked

by Embershade

Kindness is a Myth.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to a painful, blinding wall of white that obscured her entire field of vision. Then she blinked, and her eyes adjusted to the early afternoon light. She started to look around, but stopped with a shout when one of her injured wings was jostled. Wait a minute. Injured Wings? She looked over to each side frantically, ignoring the pain the action caused, and saw both of her beloved wings bound and splinted- they’d been broken. Dash closed her eyes again and prayed that it was a horrible dream and that this wasn’t happening. But, when she opened her eyes, the proof was still right there in front of her. She was strapped to a bed, her wings were broken, and she felt like she’d been hit by a steamroller.

She looked around, and slowly started to panic- she didn’t recognize this room at all. Where was she?! Before she could start to thrash against the covers and wriggle free, Fluttershy walked in and gasped. “Ohmygosh! Thank goodness, Rainbow Dash, I was so worried!” She said, practically launching herself across the room (and into mothering mode) to start fussing over Dash. Now Dash realized where she was- She’d never seen Fluttershy’s bedroom before, but it made sense now. The minimal decorations, the subdued colors of the bedspread, and the big windows letting in lots of sunlight- it all pointed quite clearly to Fluttershy. Speaking of the kind pegasus, she was staring at Rainbow Dash with an expression of concern.

Dash raised an eyebrow at her. "What? What's wrong?" She asked, looking at herself again in panic. But, upon hearing her speak, Fluttershy immediately began to look relieved.

She put her hooves on Dash's shoulders gently to keep her from jumping out of bed and smiled reassuringly. "I was worried you weren't able to talk anymore..." She said, prodding gently at the bandage on Dash's throat, making her wince. Fluttershy immediately began murmuring apologies and backed off, now satisfied that Dash wasn't going to try and take off.

Dash checked herself over again, trying to seem nonchalant as she went. "So... What all's wrong with me?" She asked, lifting up the blanket with the foreleg that wasn't splinted to look down at herself. Her entire midsection was bandaged, and she was pretty sure she could see a bandage on her tail, too- it certainly hurt like it needed one, at least.

The yellow pegasus ran a hoof through her mane nervously, looking down. "Um... Both of your wings are broken, your right foreleg might be broken too, you have at least two broken ribs, and it looks like somepon- er, something bit your tail. As for your throat..." Fluttershy shrugged helplessly, looking for all the world like she had been the one beaten. "I don't even know. It's like something stabbed you." She murmured, scuffing a hoof against the floor. Dash shook her head, stunned- she hadn't been hurt this bad since Flight school, when she'd missed the clouds and plummeted to the ground.

With a grim smile, she remembered that Fluttershy had been her doctor that time too. Suddenly, she remembered just what (or, rather, who) had put her into this situation, and snarled out loud, prompting Fluttershy to dive under the mattress with a strangled "eep!". After a moment of Dash staring at the foot of the bed, making her best "are you bucking kidding me?" face, Fluttershy reemerged, watching Dash carefully. The cyan colored pegasus took a moment to calm herself before she spoke. "So... did you find her?" She asked simply, knowing that Fluttershy would know to whom she was referring.

The kind pony shook her head, looking down. "I didn't chase her. I was so worried that you were gonna die..." She murmured, tears starting to run down her face at the memory. Dash reached out to comfort her- and found that she couldn't reach. Grumbling angrily to herself, she motioned for Fluttershy to come closer. When she did, Dash wrapped her unhurt foreleg around her and allowed the sobbing yellow pegasus to cry into her shoulder, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"Please, 'Shy. Like some chump's gonna kill me that easy." She boasted playfully, nuzzling into Fluttershy's mane comfortingly. "Besides," She said, pushing the still-shivering yellow pegasus away so that she could lock eyes with her. "With Doctor Fluttershy on the case, there was no way I wouldn't get better." She grinned, and after a moment, Fluttershy smiled back. The tears were still falling, but she was calming down so Dash patted her on the head awkwardly and pulled her foreleg from around the kind pony's shoulders.

Fluttershy stood and looked at Dash for a moment, then, as if she'd suddenly been hit by a train of realization, she shot up and out of the room, leaving Dash bewildered and alone. Then, as suddenly as she'd left, Fluttershy was back- with a bowl of assorted leafy greens and other vegetables. She sat it down gently and pushed it towards Dash, looking embarassed. "I'm sorry, Dash. I'm supposed to be making you feel better, not the other way around." She said, looking thoroughly embarrassed. Dash just shook her head and started eating- rather messily, one might add- until Fluttershy put a hoof on her shoulder again. "Slow down, Rainbow Dash. With your body like it is, you'll make yourself sick eating that fast." She advised, giving Dash what appeared to be an attempt at a stern look- though, it looked more like a pleading stare to Dash.

Sighing mightily, the cyan pegasus slowed down obediently until Fluttershy thought her eating speed more appropriate and removed her hoof. Dash grumbled to herself as she ate, cursing everything from the food in front of her to Celestia herself that she had to have a mother figure for a doctor. Fluttershy merely averted her eyes and hummed a song loudly enough to drown out Dash's mutterings- she'd dealt with an injured Rainbow Dash more than once, and was used to the verbal abuse... and she knew (or hoped) that the athletic blue pegasus didn't mean what she said. After awhile, Dash sat back and pushed the bowl of food away, turning back to face Fluttershy once more. "So, how long am I going to have to stay in bed this time?" She asked, dreading the answer- she could feel in her battered body that it'd be longer than any hospital stay she'd had before.

Fluttershy winced a little at the question, and Dash really knew she was in for a long haul, even before the pink-maned pegasus spoke. "Um... well... about two weeks.." She mumbled, and Dash almost wished that she had a reason to yell at the shy pegasus. Fluttershy caught the look on the cyan pony's face and looked down, her eyes starting to fill with tears again. "I'll just... um... go get some of Twilight's 'Daring Do' books for you..." She said, leaving the room with her head down. Dash heard her start to sob before the front door shut, and she slapped a hoof into her own face.

Way to go, Dashie... She thought to herself, shaking her head in frustration. Just hurtin' your friends feelings. No biggie. The little nagging voice in her voice continued, prompting Rainbow to scowl. "Shut up, me." She muttered aloud before struggling her way out of bed and staggering to her feet. She walked slowly over to the window and looked out- she knew that Fluttershy would freak if she knew Dash was out of bed, but the athletic pegasus couldn't help it- sitting still for two weeks would kill her. Anyway, she was injured, not dead.

She hummed a dark little tune under her breath as she turned and started walking to the kitchen. "Now a Rainbow's tale isn't quite as nice as the story we knew of sugar and spice..." She sang to the same tune she'd been humming a few minutes earlier- rifling through Fluttershy's cupboards as she did so. She gave a triumphant little exclamation as she extracted a box of Cheerilio's cereal and a bottle of milk from the clutter and set about preparing a bowl. Pouring the milk was especially difficult it was hard to grasp the milk jug accurately with hooves, but Dash managed to do just that after spilling only half of the bowl's worth- much better than her usual three quarters. Eventually, exhausted from the uphill battle that preparing the cereal had been, Dash settled in front of her bowl and started enjoying her snack. While she ate, she thought back to the night before, trying to make sense of what she'd seen before she'd fought Embershade.

Rainbow Dash had never been happier- except on other occasions, when she'd been happier, of course- than she was when she alighted on the roof of somepony's house after successfully pulling off her best trick yet (with the exception of the sonic rainboom, of course). She yawned and stretched, now thoroughly exhausted, and cast about the sky for a good napping cloud. Just as she was about to take off, she heard voices in the alley below her- voices that sounded angry, maybe even violent- so naturally Dash needed to take a peek, just to make sure everything was okay. Stealthily peering down over the edge of the roof, she spied two pegasus ponies, one red with a black mane and the other a vibrant orange, with an almost equally vibrant orangey-red mane. They were almost nose to nose, tails bristling and wings tense, and their words were muttered and fierce; the red one spoke first.

"Enough, Ember! You started this, you could at least see it though with me." She said, shoving the pony that Dash now remembered was called Embershade. "Discord has shown me just how beautiful chaos is, and it's worth the things we'd lose!" The red pony continued, almost pleading with the pony she'd shoved just a few seconds prior. Embershade shook her head.

She turned away from the red mare, and scuffed at the dirt for a moment. "No, Feather... It's not. If it was, you wouldn't have sold yourself over to Discord just to free me from him." She said matter-of-factly, further confusing Dash- what did these two have to do with Discord? Why did they sound like they knew him personally? She was so lost in thought, she almost missed the next- and perhaps most important- part of the conversation.

The red pegasus- Feather, Dash reminded herself- grabbed Ember's fluffy red tail in her teeth and pulled her back before she could leave. Dash's tail twinged in sympathy as she remembered the many times Applejack had done that to her, and she again almost missed the words of the conversation. "Hypocrite!" The red mare hissed into Ember's face, almost spraying spittle. "You're the one that freed Discord in the first place, and now you're on the moral high road? You disgust me." She spat, for real this time, and launched herself into the air, leaving Embershade alone in the alley. At least, alone for a moment.

Dash hopped down into the alley way and into Red Feather's place, confronting Embershade. The orange pony blinked, confused, and took a moment before she spoke- either to find her voice or remember Dash's name. "Rainbow Dash, right? What're you doing here?" She asked, trying for all the world to appear innocent. Dash, for obvious reasons, didn't buy it.

"What did she mean, 'you freed Discord'?" Dash asked, subtly getting to the point- and also into Ember's face. The pony's sunset-colored eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and fear and she backed away from Dash slowly, only to have the cyan pegasus follow her nose-to-nose. Dash shoved Embershade roughly, causing her to stumble, and got even further up into the orange pony's personal space. "Well? What was she talking about?" She hissed viciously, causing Ember to wince.

But now, the orange pony's eyes were filled with a flaming anger that made her eyes' impression of the setting sun even more believable. "What does it matter to you?" She asked, prodding a hoof into Dash's chest. "What difference does it make? I don't even know you." She growled, shoving the blue pony back and turning to leave- only to have someone's teeth seize her tail for the second time in an hour, yanking her back. She spun around to yell at the nosy pegasus- only to come, quite literally, face-to-face with her.

Rainbow Dash was mad now- she wanted the truth, not avoidance- and she wasn't thinking quite clearly when she shoved the orange pony onto her back and pinned her down. "It matters because it was me and my friends that had to beat that psycho!" She practically shouted into Ember's face. She was quite amazed when the pony beneath her began to laugh.

"You're one of the elements of harmony? Oh, that's hilarious." Ember giggled, somehow managing to growl at the same time. "I'm sorry, but I just can't tell... are you the element of brutish stupidity?" She asked, her angry frown smoothing into a self-satisfied smirk. Dash saw red- and not in the literal sense, though there was plenty of red in the bit of her mane that was hanging down in front of her face- and reared back. Ember barely had time to realize she'd gone too far before a cyan hoof smashed into the side of her face, knocking the rest of her snide remarks clean out of her head- along with a fair bit of her cheek.

---

"Hmm..." Dash mused, coming back to the present just as she finished the last of her cereal. The rest of the fight was a blur, right up until the point where Ember had dive-bombed an already downed Dash (probably the reason for her broken ribs, in retrospect) and proceeded to pin her to the ground and make fun of her. When Fluttershy showed up, Rainbow Dash had been so relieved that she passed out. Now thoroughly sure she'd caught up with the present, Dash limped into the sitting room and settled down in one of Fluttershy's chairs, deciding she'd rather deal with Fluttershy's fit sooner than later. No sooner than she'd gotten comfortable did the door ease open, revealing Fluttershy's silhouette outlined by the light of Celestia's sun behind her.

The silhouette spoke, but there was something oddly wrong about her voice. "Hey there, Rainbow Crash." She said in a small, cruel voice.

-----

Fluttershy was walking down the dirt road to her cottage, a 'Daring Do' book tucked under each wing, when she noticed the abnormal shape lying on the side of the road in the distance. Picking up speed in curiosity, the shy pegasus soon recognized the prone form to be a pony and was galloping toward it at full speed. Oh no, Oh no, Oh no! She whimpered internally as she reached the prone mare- a deep, scarlet coated mare with a blue black mane- and saw that she was unconscious. Carefully, she examined the mare and, finding nothing visibly wrong with her, slowly tried to prod the pony awake with her hoof. It took a few tries, but the red mare stirred and blinked her eyes open.

Fluttershy gasped at her eyes- they were an unhealthy shade of yellow, with bright red irises. Fluttershy waved a hoof in front of the pony's face. "Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay." The frightened yellow pony said, hopping anxiously from hoof to hoof, almost doing a nervous little dance. The mare nodded and smiled- somehow, the expression seemed sinister on her face.

"I'm just wonderful, Fluttershy." The strange red mare assured, in a strangely familiar and strangely male voice. "Frankly, my dear, I'm more worried about you. You give up your bed, food, and hours of sleep to take care of Rainbow Dash, and all she does is get angry and make you cry." The mare whispered in a strangely hypnotizing tone, staring directly into Fluttershy's eyes. The normally-timid pegasus found herself nodding in angry agreement, utterly taken in by the red mare's every word.

Finally, Fluttershy slapped a hoof over the red mare's mouth, having heard enough. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go give Rainbow Dash a piece of my mind." She said simply, before turning back and resuming her course for her home, albeit with a faster, more determined spring in her step.

----

Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably in her seat, wincing at the sound of her old school nickname. "Come on, Fluttershy, I know you told me not to get out of bed but is that really neces-" She started to ask before two buttery-yellow rear hooves smashed into her broken ribs and launched her halfway across Fluttershy's living room. She lay there in a pain-filled, breathless daze for a moment, staring up at the ceiling in shock. Suddenly, her entire body was wracked with agony as somepony deliberately stood on her already broken wings. A familiar face appeared over her, looking down at her as she screamed. The normally kind face was twisted into a sadistic sneer, and every time Rainbow screamed, Fluttershy stomped on her wings again. Eventually, Rainbow couldn't even scream anymore. She just stared up at Fluttershy in shock and pain, and just as she was about to pass out, her vision swimming with tears and exhaustion, Fluttershy smiled.

"Don't worry, Rainbow Dash. I'm going to take good care of you." She whispered into the cyan pegasus's ear as she drifted into unconsciousness.

Comments

[The mike]

well, this was looking good and interesting
at least for the first two chapters, but suddenly, in chapter three, it crashed.... hard
I don't know if I'll keep following it...

[Embershade]

389355 Yep. The glorious glory of writing while gloriously drunk. I'm working on something else, at the moment, and there's a good chance that this will simply get taken down. I botched it, hard.