Chapter 8: THEM!
Fluttershy stood still in terror. She could barely believe what she heard. “What do could you mean by that? . . . Dave, what happened to you?”
I didn’t bother turning around. “Just go home. Thank you for everything, really, but you know what’ll happen if I go back.”
“No! Don’t worry about that. I’ll make sure no pony tries to hurt you again. I promise.”
“Heh, it’s the ponies that’ll have to worry about getting hurt. I’m better off staying here.” I sat back down behind the same throne.
“B-but you’ll die out here!”
I called out from my resting spot, “Good!” Everything remained silent for a few seconds before I let out a sigh, “All I want now is to see my friends. I should’ve never come here. I should’ve spat in that guy’s face or something. I should’ve died with them. I... I really wish I did.”
Fluttershy remained silent after that. I could hear her hooves rhythmically hit the ground as she drew closer to me.
Fluttershy sat next to me watched as I covered my face with both hands. I knew she was there, but right now, I didn’t care about anything. I continued my rant, “Do you have any idea what that’s like?” I turned my head towards Fluttershy, and removed my hands. Fluttershy could probably see every detail on my pathetic face. “Do you know how it feels to lose EVERYTHING!!?”
I had yelled in Fluttershy’s face, but she did not react in the slightest. Instead, she moved closer and wrapped a hoof around my back. “Absolutely everything was taken from me. My home, my country, my family, my friends. Not only that, but everything I’ve ever done is also wasted. Twenty plus years of my life down the drain. All of it.”
Fluttershy didn’t say anything. Right now she just sat and listened. Truth be told, some part of me wanted her to stay, “I could’ve died like the rest of them. Would’ve been so easy to kill me, and a hundred different ways, too. They could shoot me in the eye, or slit my throat, or beat my skull in for all I care, but nooooooo. The evil doctor had to tie me down to his special new invention and blow me to this hellhole!!”
Fluttershy waited a few moments before speaking, “Dave, I didn’t know.”
Her silky and caring voice helped to greatly calm me down, “Well, who gives a rat’s ass anyway? I don’t belong here.”
Fluttershy lifted my chin with a hoof. She made sure I could see her caring face. “You shouldn’t think like that. Maybe you lost your home, but that’s all the reason to make a new one. I can’t say I understand you. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my animal friends, let alone all of Equestria and everypony in it. If there’s anyplace you can make a new life, its Ponyville. It’s always been the place of equality and second chances.”
I looked at her in the eye and raised a brow, “Second chances?” My voice dripped with sarcasm, “So that’s why they tried to hang me, it all makes perfect sense now.”
Fluttershy lost eye contact with me and I could swear she was about to blush. “Well, that might've been a bad example.” She looked back up at me, “But everypony is nice so long as you’re not on their bad side.” She softly punched me in the shoulder, “And I bet you’re the same story.”
That helped me make a weak smile. “I guess your right. I shouldn’t be bothered with the past. I should always move on, no matter the case.”
I got up on my feet, “Thank you. Really, it means a lot to me.”
Fluttershy looked up at me and spoke, “So, does this mean you’re coming back?”
I shook my head, “Not if all those ponies are still out to get me. Hell, I bet they’re still looking for me.”
“I’m sure we can clear your name. Some of those charges were for trying to hurt my friend, Twilight Sparkle. You remember her, don’t you?”
“Is she the purple one?”
“Yes. Anyway, I watched you save us and she trusts me. If she tells everypony that you’re her savior and not her assassin, I bet everypony would be willing to give you a second chance.” Fluttershy turned for a second; her eyes lost focus as she though to herself. I could barely hear her whisper, “Well, maybe…”
I could see her uncertainty, “I’m not one to take chances.”
RUMBLE*
The entire castle suddenly vibrates. I had to shift my footing just to stay standing. I turn to find, in the center of the throne room, a giant hole opening on the floor. I looked at it only for a few seconds before slowing walking towards it. I noticed that, while the smell lingered, the body of the chimera was now gone. I assumed it just fell down the hole, but I drew my knife anyway, expecting the worst.
As I stepped closer, I could here the sounds of wings flapping, growing louder and louder. I halted my approach and immediately learn it wasn’t just getting louder because I was getting closer, something was coming out. I held my arms up in a combat stance, stepping backwards now. I peaked over my shoulder to look for Fluttershy. She had taken cover behind one of the thrones, leaning a little to the side and watching with one eye.
I returned my attention to the large hole in front of us. I listened as the flapping sound grew louder and louder. As expected, something flew out of the hole. What I didn’t expect was a blue, flying pony. It held a lit torch in its mouth and only managed to fly a few more yards before collapsing to the floor. It crawled behind one of the columns. Even from where I stood, I could here its heavy breathing.
I heard Fluttershy’s hooves as she sprinted from her cover towards the exhausted pony and cried out, “Rainbow Dash!!”
I relaxed, sheathed my blade, and walked towards the ponies. The blue one, Rainbow Dash I guess her name is, had her back leaned against the stone column, away from the large hole she emerged from. She looked very familiar to me. I quickly shook off the déjà vu; I probably saw her in the crowd or something. Her wings fell unnaturally limp at her sides and she dropped the torch by her side. It was still burning at the tip.
Fluttershy stood in front of her friend, inspecting her. “Dash, what happened? Are you alright?”
Rainbow Dash either didn’t notice me or didn’t care. Not only did she looked out of breath, but mortified, so it was hard to tell. She could barely speak between breaths, “Fluttershy? – is – that – you?”
“Yes, Dashie, it’s me. Please tell me; what happened to you?”
“We – We have to – get out – of here.”
That was a disturbing bit of information. As Fluttershy responded, I picked the torch up from the floor.
“It’s okay Dash, I’m here, your safe.”
I walked over to the giant hole in the floor.
“No-NO! They’re - still coming - we’re – we’re not safe. - We have - to get - out of here - NOW!!”
I looked down. I noticed that the hole was not just a hole. I was a large, spiral staircase. It was made of stone and each step simply stuck out of the wall. There was no railing or anything to prevent one from tripping and falling into the empty spaced that dominated the center. The evening sun did not provide enough light for me to see very far.
“Dash! What’s coming?!”
I threw the torch down the staircase.
“THEM!!”
Just as soon as she said ‘them’, the falling torched helped bring light to the short-lived mystery. I saw the giant, dark staircase was filled with ‘them’.
***
Earlier...
Rainbow Dash watched from her view thirty or so feet off the ground. It felt a little wrong to see the human die, but both her logical and irrational side agreed it was for the best. It brought little comfort to know the death would be quick and painless.
Now was the human’s final moments. The pony chosen for execution wore a black robe to cover his or her entire body, as well as masked his or her own voice. Nopony knew who he or she was and that was probably for the best. The executioner wrapped the noose tight around the human’s small neck.
But something about all this felt wrong. Very wrong.
The executioner asked the human, “Any last words, human?”
“Yeah, you all suck at knots!!”
Rainbow’s stomach dropped like an anvil. Her head filled with an odd mixture of rage and worry. The human spun in a blur and landed on his feet. The noose was severed as well as any binds to his limbs. The ponies had gotten closer to watch the hanging, but now they stood vulnerable to and terrified of the free human.
Rainbow Dash knew she couldn’t let him get away. She Dashed towards the human as fast as she could, leaving her signature rainbow trail.
Just as they were trained to do, the guard jumped at the human and attempted to apprehend him. The human ignored them and jumped into the crowed, but just as he did, a giant smoke screen rapidly filled the area.
The smoke hit Rainbow Dash just as she got close. She held up a hoof she shield her face from the smoke, but lost sight of the ground and crashed. She quickly got back up, spit the dirt out, and shook off the impact. She desperately looked around, but the smoke was thick. She could barely make out the silhouettes of ponies running either from or towards the human.
This smoke had to go.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t see exactly where she was, but she still knew which way was up. She dashed into the air, taking some of the smoke with her, but not all of it. Rainbow looped around in the air, picking up speed with every passing second. When she finished her loop, she flew only a few feet from the ground and aimed right for the smoke screen. When she passed right through it, the draft caused the rest of the smoke to follow her and clear away.
The Ponyville Guard made no delay in looking for the human. Pegasi searched the sky while grounded units searched the street and buildings. The commander himself teleported from place to place. Dash, along with many more of Ponyville’s residents, aided the search. In only a few minutes of the combined effort, every inch had been searched twice. Each passing second made the truth heavier and heavier.
Several continued their search, but Rainbow Dash rested on a rooftop when she could no longer deny the truth. The human was gone. The human was free. The human could bring more havoc and put the lives of anypony in danger whenever it feels like it.
Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of defeat and rested her body, but not her mind. She couldn’t give up, nor could she just fly off in a random direction and expect to find him. No. She had to think, she had to plan.
“Think Rainbow Dash, Think. What would Daring Do do?”
She shook her head at herself, “No…What could Ahuizotl do?” She taped a hoof to her chin and gazed off into nothing. “Hmm, if Ahuizotl was captured by Daring Do, but got away, where would he go?”
Dash worked her brain for a few more moments, ‘hmm’-ing to herself before an epiphany hit her, “He’d go back to his hideout! Ok, but where would the human’s hideout be?”
It took another moment before another epiphany hit her. She turned to look towards the Everfree forest. “Celestia’s old castle! Its good shelter, not far from Ponyville, but still isolated from anypony. Plus, that where he went the last time he was running from ponies. It’s the perfect hideout.”
Dash took to the skies, “Watch out human! Your dastardly deeds are about to come to an end by the famous Rainbow Dash!”
***
In less than a minute, Rainbow Dash was in the airspace above the Everfree forest. She was no fool. If she came in loud and fast, the human would see her. Instead, Rainbow Dash took a nearby Everfree cloud and wrapped her legs around it, lying on top and staying out of sight from anypony or anything on the ground. She used her wings to push the cloud and herself forward. Being of Everfree origin, the cloud was a bit resistant, but moved nonetheless with enough force.
She moved slowly, trying to avoid any attention the oddly moving cloud might bring. She descended and landed just outside the small ravine that surrounded most of the castle. She looked left and right, but it was all clear and silent. With little effort, she hovered and flew across the gorge. Dash did not take the direct route, but instead, flew through a broken window at the side of the old castle.
She spun her head left and right, looking down each end of the hall. It was empty of any life and so quiet Dash could hear her own steady heartbeat. The one side of the hall held dozens of decorative windows, but most were shattered or otherwise destroyed by time. On the other side, various sets of paintings hung on the walls. The windows once shielded them, but since they were broken long ago, storms and wind had plenty of time to wither away at the artworks. Each one was now just a smudge of various hues and shades, but every ruined painting still held their abstract attribute.
Rainbow Dash held her head low sneaked slowly down the hall, careful to make sure she didn’t make any noise with her hooves. She turned to walk another hall, deeper into the castle. Without windows, this hall had many of these everlasting torches on the walls. They weren’t real torches, but rather a gem full of arcane energy on a stick. The fire it created was just an illusion, but it was nessesary because the gem itself was still hot enough to start a fire, or burn the coat off anypony foolish enough to touch it.
Now that Dash had time to think, reality sunk in. She really didn’t think this thing through. She wasn’t even sure this was the human’s hideout. Even if it was, she was lost before she even got here. She had no idea where to go or what to do.
She whispered to herself, “Dang it, Rainbow Dash, what’re you thinking. This isn’t a Daring Do book. You’re not going to pull a secret lever and just-so-happen to find the secret passageway Ahuizotl never expected you to find.”
Dash rolled her eyes, but just to amuse herself, she leaned her front hooves on the wall, reaching up to pull a torch.
*Foooamp-THUMP*
To her absolute surprise, the entire wall spun around and threw her into a secret passage. This hall was dark and damp. The only lighting was the torch on the wall that spun around with her. Rainbow Dash took the opportunity for what it was as well as the torch behind her and moved on.
Even after suffering the wrath of time, the stone hall was still deceptive to its true age. Dash hadn’t made it very far, but the floor began to shift and weaken.
Rainbow Dash tied to step back, but she was too slow, “No-no-no-no-no-no-AHHH NOOOOOO!!”
The floor gave way under her hooves, and Dash fell. Instinct and practice took over as her wings unfolded and quickly controller her decent, barely. She landed on her hooves hard. She let go off the torch while screaming, but luckily it fell down with her.
Dash pick the torch back up and looked around. She was in another hall, but this one was simply a dirt tunnel rather than a stone corridor. She looked up, but the hall above her was just as dark as it was down here. She couldn’t see a thing nor guess how far down she fell. She looked forward again, but her heart almost froze.
That spider statue wasn’t there before.
Right in the middle of the floor was an absolute random statue of a spider. It was large, almost as big as her. Aside from the size, it looked very realistic. It was covered on thin, dark brown fur. It had four blood-red eyes. One looked to each side, while two stared straight into her soul.
Rainbow Dash had a very ominous feeling about this statue. She stepped closer to it, but that was exactly what the spider was waiting for. In an instant, the spider pounced at Rainbow Dash, its mandibles open an poised for the kill.
Dash barely reacted in time. Her wings opened up, and with a quick, powerful flap, she jumped back and avoided the many fangs.
Before landing back on the ground, she spun around in mid-air and yelled, “NOPE!” She dashed away from the spider. She could hear the spider hiss and scream through the tunnel.
Dash still had the torch, but could barely see where she was going. Soon enough, she could see light coming from the end of the tunnel. She immediately regret that decision.
The light was actually emanating from a room the tunnel connected to the tunnel. She turned to enter it, and Dash’s heart almost froze again. The room was nothing short of gigantic and covered in a heavy layer of webs on all sides. On the floor, was the body of a full sized dragon. The dragon lay on the floor, trapped and weaved into the white carpet. Aside from the webs, many large eggs littered the corpse. Standing above the dragon was giant black spider just as big as the dragon.
Then the walls started to move.
Dozens of pony-sized spiders crawled off the wall, towards the single pony. Looking around at all of them, she noticed another tunnel connected to this gigantic cave room. She dashed through the air towards the new tunnel, screaming and shaking her head along the way, “Nope-nope-nope-nope-nope!!” She could hear hundreds of legs skitter and pursue her.
The torch provided light, but the tunnel seemed to absorb the light. She could only see a few yards in front of her. The tunnel would end, and by the time she could see it, it was always too late. As she kept slamming into walls, the tunnels seemed to continue on in another direction. She would run, hit a wall, dash away and repeat. There had to be a way out of here, there just had to be.
After running and slamming for several minutes, she slammed into one more wall. But as she recovered, the torch helped her see this was different. This wall curved, but didn’t open up at any place other than where she came from. It only took a second of searching to realize she was in an open room, but it was a dead end. That second was just enough time for the spiders to catch up to her.
*RUMBLE!!*
Rainbow Dash ignored that, she had more immediate problems to attend to.
One spider jumped again, and this time hit its target. Rainbow Dash was knocked out of the air and onto the cold dirt floor. The spider bit at her left foreleg. Dash screamed, “AHHH!! GET OFF ME!!” She used her free hoof to smash at the spiders face and knock it off her. As she got back up, she noticed she could now clearly see all the spiders as they flooded the room and surrounded her. Light was coming from above.
She went the only other direction open to her: up. She took flight one more time, but immediately she knew something was very wrong. Her entire body felt heavier and heavier with each passing second. Her hope of escape was only a few dozen feet tall, but by the time she reached the top, she was too exhausted to fly.
She found herself in the old throne room. She fell to the stone floor and let go of her torch. Dash tried to crawl away from the hole. She could barely drag herself behind one of the nearby columns. She laid her back on it to rest. Even breathing started to become difficult.
She could hear hooves as a yellow and pink pony galloped towards her screaming, “Rainbow Dash!”
The pony stood in front of Rainbow Dash. Now she could clearly see it was her friend, Fluttershy. Fluttershy continued, “Dash, what happened? Are you alright?”
It was difficult for Dash to stay awake; she had to take another breath with each word, “Fluttershy? – is – that – you?”
“Yes, Dashie, it’s me. Please tell me; what happened to you?”
“We – We have to – get out – of here.”
“It’s okay Dash, I’m here, your safe.”
Fear washed over Dash again. Fluttershy didn’t understand. “No-NO! They’re - still coming - we’re – we’re not safe. - We have - to get - out of here - NOW!!”
Fluttershy became obviously worried, “Dash! What’s coming?!”
“THEM!!”
***
Just as she said it, I could see all of ‘them’ crawling all over the giant staircase.
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Well crud. And me without my giant hammer...
Alright, a few things.
First, the chimera. That entire scene is almost like you forgot the Stare exists. After her friends are hurt, Fluttershy didn't even attempt her Stare. And it can't be because she's scared, because she Stares a Dragon in the show.
Second, that was not a courtroom scene, that was an entirely illegal lynch mob, and I'm surprised a member of the ruling class (who happens to study everything down to the smallest detail) doesn't know the difference. Twilight should have stepped in and, instead of pardoning him, had him tried by an impartial court in another town.
Finally, you've consistently used the word "rapped" where you actually wanted "wrapped". Some examples: "He rapped his knuckles on the door", "His voice was amazing as he rapped", "She wrapped her research up for the night, so she could get some sleep", "He was wrapped head to toe in a rug, and completely unable to move"
......what didn't twilight snatch away the knife? i mean, telekinesis.
3744403
Well, the word "rapped" does exist, and he did use it correctly in both of those examples. To rap means to strike a surface [to gain attention], so that wasn't wrong.
3744447
Well, she was for letting him escape, she did cause the smoke screen after all.
3744647
... those were examples I gave to show the correct useage.
3744650 meant chapter 1
3744775
.
Loldude, sorry, I couldn't remember reading those sentences in this story anyway
3744812
Well in that case...
Gravity.
3744953
3744403 about that 'wrapped' thing... I didn't know it was spelled liked that until a few days ago...
Plot-twist! yay!
"necessary"
It looks like the end of the chapter went missi
not to self: preview and edit a little slower next time...
3744403 I just realized I forgot a to reply on something.
Equestria is governed by a completely unchallenged monarchy. That being said, I can't see any government position or system in Equestria being as complicated as real life ones. Maybe it seems a bit brutal, but I truly think what I wrote would be more accurate idea of a court session than the ones in real life. Hell, Equestria is in a dark age without all the dark when you think about it.
3748105
Mate. You got it wrong. If it is an unchallenged monarchy then they have to do what "Princess" Twilight Sparkle say's. That is the most uncomplicated thing in the wolrd. Royal's rule! Not the court.
This fic pictures Twilight Sparkle a complete failure as a Princess(let alone the anarchy of Ponyville) and she is failing Celestia by not solving the issue nonviolent. I get the OOC'ness of the orher Elements of Harmony and that you want'd Celestia out of the picture but please can you decide what kind of gouverment is used here?
I enjoyed the rest though. Keep typing.
3662405
It's : flutterrage :.
Why you no finish chapter?
Chapters must always be finished, and are very important if you wa...
Annoying right? :P
3746601
3754348
sorry about that. I guess I messed up copying and pasting. No, you didn't miss a significant part of the story, just half a word you probably figure out anyway.
Sorry about that.
I could swear I fixed it yesterday though
3755412 Lol! 'Tis fine in my books!