A Rainbow Rises

by xXOriginXx

Act 1 - Chapter 1: The Nightmare

Rainbow dash was running away from something, which was odd to her because if the mare was ever going to flee from anything, it would definitely be by wing and not hoof. What she was running away from eluded her but she tried hard to focus on whatever it was chasing her through the eerie forest. One thing she could determine was that it was night, which was rather obvious from the lack of light to be found.

She unknowingly paused in her run, staying completely still, staring down at the dirt below her hooves. She willed her legs to continue, to keep going but they refused to move an inch further. To her, it felt as if she was merely watching somepony else, like she wasn’t even in control of her own body and as she continued to try and figure out why exactly she was running around in the Everfree forest at night, her head jerked upward suddenly. She found herself looking up at the princess’s old castle, except something was off about the ancient place.

For one, most of the damage to the structure had been seemingly repaired; she would even go as far to say that the castle looked like it was brand new or as close as it could be to brand new. Another noticeable difference was the golden glow that emanated from the castle windows. It was strange but at the same time it felt familiar and before she knew it she found herself flying towards the castle, as she flew towards the royal place she could see a bright light flare, flashing every so often.

Eventually, by moving at top speed she quickly reached the looming entrance of the castle. She stopped at the castle doors, taking a quick scan of her surroundings; she noticed random pieces of golden armour and weapons strewn about the area. She figured some kind of battle had taken place recently and that one side had fared much worse than the other. Cautiously she walked through the open doors, the doors themselves being only just open enough to allow her to enter. Guided by some invisible force she moved through the castle rooms swiftly towards an unknown destination.

After a few minutes she found herself staring at the entrance to the castle’s throne room. It was only now that she noticed that the castle seemed to be a lot larger than she remembered, either that or she had somehow shrunk, she mused. She braced herself, preparing all her strength she pushed past the damaged door only to be blinded by a bright white light.

“STOP!” She screamed the word out to the air around her, it was the seventh time in two months that she had woken up in the middle of the night, all having her coming out of the same dream, or more accurately a nightmare, the only consolation for Dash was that she hadn’t rolled off of her bed this time. Shaking, she sat upright on her cloud bed. Normally with her friends around she would never be so afraid but right now, she was alone, sitting in the darkness of her cloud home. Her friends, she had originally thought about telling her friends about the nightmares when she first started having them but soon decided against the idea, hoping that they would go away after a little while. Now that hope had diminished significantly, she just hadn’t been able to ask for help from the others with all that had been going on, a small smile found its way onto her face at the thought of her adventures with her friends.

“Ugh...I’ll get help tomorrow” For the second time in only a few minutes, she had spoken to the cold air of her house. She couldn’t deny that she needed help any longer, something had to be done about the nightmares, she couldn’t afford to keep sleeping through the day to try and make up for the sleep lost to them. She sighed as she once again tried in vain to piece together what exactly her nightmare was about and once more was lost without answers; although it wasn’t something she enjoyed thinking about she had to admit that it seemed like it could be something important.

She glanced around her bedroom, looking out of her window she could see the sun barely rising above the horizon, she sighed at how early in the morning she had woken up, knowing that it would be impossible to return to sleep after one of her nightmares. As a distraction from her tired state, she began to think about all the change that had been going in her life recently. The thing that stood out the most in her mind was the awkward three weeks that had followed twilight’s coronation, adjusting to her friend’s new status didn’t go very smoothly and was quite awkward for the Pegasus, especially when she came to her for flying lessons. She grinned at the memory; it was the first time twilight had ever asked her to teach her anything.

Her reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet, scraping metal and footsteps moving in her direction. She instinctively moved into a fighting position, staying low to the ground ready to pounce forward on the intruder, she waited silently on top of her bed. The noises continued at a slow pace all the while still moving towards her. She wondered who or what exactly was currently moving around in her house and with that her mind began to fill with horrible possibilities, images of vile creatures plagued her mind. For once she wished she didn’t have such a vivid imagination. In a moment of doubt her stance faltered and she fell back onto her haunches.

“Who’s there?” it came out as only a little more than a whisper, which dash silently cursed herself for. She looked into the darkness that surrounded her and was met with a pair of glowing blue eyes. The two glowing blue orbs began to rise higher until they were at a height that was more than twice her own. Both eyes looked down at her, piercing her very soul, she wilted against the intense gaze.

“My apologies, I did not intend to disturb you” The voice was ghostly, sounding wise and knowing to the startled mare. Dash continued to stare at the shadowy figure in front of her, its eyes never looking away, never blinking.

“I must leave now, you will require your rest for today’s events” she inwardly questioned what exactly the creature meant by its words. It turned to leave through the same way it had came but turned back to face Dash before leaving.

“One more thing before I depart, I am sorry to say that you will soon experience an intense pain in your cranium, followed by a dull migraine for a few hours” And with that last message, the creature departed leaving no trace of the unknown intruder. Dash was left confused, tired and very annoyed. She had no idea what had just occurred or what the creature had been talking about.

“What in the hay was that!” She waved her hooves into the air, glaring angrily at her ceiling as she expressed her agitated mood. She placed her hooves back onto her colourful bed, sighing in defeat.

Dash then felt a slight itching sensation in centre of her forehead; she moved one of her hooves to rub the irritated spot while the other fell back onto the bed. No matter how hard she scratched the itch it wouldn’t stop, the itch then grew to a dull throb before becoming a full on searing pain. Dash reeled back onto her back at the terrible sensation, the blinding pain was unbearable and it only became worse as time slowly progressed. She could no longer keep quiet, she wailed and screamed for someone to help her but no one came.
She desperately tried to stop the debilitating pain that was working its way through her head as she rived and twisted on her bed. She managed to scream for help one more time before passing out into silence. The room grew quiet, nothing moved as rainbow dash began to sleep peacefully after her very recent traumatic experience. As she lay there, content with her dreams of adventure and friendship, a lone figure watched as she slept, smiling at the spectacle before him.

Author's Note:

This first chapter was admittedly rather bland and I know, however It is necessary story development and I needed to start somewhere, so here It is. I've really got no clue on the quality of this writing as It's not something I usually write about, first story so please be gentle.

Comments

[Crescent-087]

More! For the love of Celestia may i please have more!!??