The King of Lies

by Jade Ring

Rainbow Dash

She shook off the pain of the snake's bite and looked around in annoyance. “Well?” She demanded of the darkness. “I'm waiting.”

The darkness took form and Belial appeared before her. “Such impertinence. You should know how unattractive a feature that is.”

“I'm just ready to get this stupid game over with and you on your way out of here.” She offered a savage grin, ready for any challenge. “So... where's my vision?”

Belial said nothing. He simply pointed his hoof, once again a claw, directly overhead.

Dash followed the direction and gasped at what she saw.

It was her... but she looked like she'd been through hell.

Her fur was ripped off in huge chunks revealing deep bleeding cuts all over her body. Her eyes were swollen with angry purple bruises. Attached to her hooves were strange gauntlets, each with three folding blades. Her wings...

“...Are gone, as you'll notice.” Belial seemed pleased as punch to see her earlier bravado reduced to nothing.

“...but... but how?” Dash whispered, staring in disbelief at the ragged stumps where her wings were supposed to be.

“That's not important, is it? Here you are, plummeting to your inevitable demise, nopony at all to catch you and save your vastly overrated life.” He smirked. “Or are you?”

She tore her gaze away from the plummeting vision of herself and glared at him.

“Well, Rainbow Dash? It it truth? Or is it lie?”

“It's a l...” She froze. There was an uncertainty in her heart that she was unfamiliar with, the fear that a sudden wrong answer could doom all of Equestria. She looked up again at the still falling image of herself and looked closer. There was something here she wasn't seeing...

The image of her future self was only a hundred feet above now.

She forced herself to look down... and saw what she needed to see.

“It's the truth.”

Belial's eyes widened momentarily before resuming their normal steady burn. “How did you know?”

Dash offered a devil-may-care smirk, spread her wings, and blasted into the air. She struck the hazy image of her own falling form and felt a supreme sense of satisfaction as it vanished into empty air. “Because I know there's somepony down there who'll be there to catch me no matter what.”

Standing where Dash had been standing just moments before, now clearly visible without Dash standing in the same spot, was a hazy image of Applejack. She was tensed, ready and waiting, to catch the falling mare she loved.

Belial, impressed despite himself, stamped his hoof to signal the end of the test.

Perhaps these ponies would provide a challenge after all.

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

Well, this is foreboding... yet heartwarming. Vive la Appledash! (And mayhap Big Mac's eyepatch wasn't a lie either....)

[mehperson]

4215258
It's Viva, i think

[rogueunicorn]

This chapter legit made me cry.

[vinyldash23]