• Published 2nd Jul 2012
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Silent Ponyville: Duet Of Sorrow - KillerSteel



The call of Silent Ponyville reaches out to all guilty souls...and now it's time for Dash to answer

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Chapter 15 Part 2: Glorious Agony

“Run me through it again.” A shadow wearing armor constructed from the scales of long-dead dragons says from his golden throne, his throne room still as dimly lit as ever. A small shadow sighs from the bottom of the steps, looking up at him. Their red eyes seem to glow in the dark.

“Is your memory getting bad, old man? I already told you the plan when we entered into this. There are three tests, obviously, until that kid gets to where she needs to be. Those tests concern her, and her alone, and though some ponies, and Hemorans, want to help her, it comes down to her in the end, right?” The short shadow asks, sounding like Dash, only a few years older.

“True, true. And she’s now approaching that second ‘gate’…I’ve always questioned this method, however…” The tall shadow says, laying against the armrest of his throne, his voice sounding like a warped version of Sehn.

“Your method would’ve just up and killed everypony here, and you know that.” The short shadow replies, half-closing her eyes. “That’s not good for either of us.”

“True…but it’s oh-so much more fun.” The armored shadow smiles, chuckling. “I don’t know you waste your time though…why so many precautions?”

“She has to be ready before I can do what I need to. That’s why it’s all taking so long; she’s a resilient one, but no less what I’d expect.” Dash’s twin replies, smirking. The room seems to light up slightly, revealing the two shadows as the twins of Sehn and Rainbow, the gleaming throne made up of golden fencing and creeping ichor, while the stairwell is a roll of red carpet over a rusty fence staircase.

“Don’t go forgetting what she’s capable of…” Sehn’s twin says, sitting upright in his throne, staring down at his counterpart. “You may end up in a somewhat…bad position.”

“I’d never forget an enemy’s capabilities…though it is starting to annoy me with just how tough she is.”

“You’re well aware of what she did in the past…this shouldn’t be a surprise.”

“I know her better than anypony, so that should make this easy. Ahhh…doesn’t matter, she’ll be here soon.” Dash’s twin says, turning to the gate behind her. “This is your show now…don’t screw up, Colonel.”

“You have nothing to fear, Major. She’ll be a blubbering pile of muk by the time you come back…” Sehn’s twin grows an evil smile, chuckling. Major Dash walks off under the stair well, the sound of a gate creaking open below the throne echoing through the room. A slam quickly follows, and the Colonel stands up from his throne.

“Well then, little Rainbow…let’s see just how well your vibrant colors can stand up to the storm that’s coming for you…” The Colonel smiles, chuckling.


“Where…?” Rainbow mutters to herself, muffled sounds surrounding her. She manages to pull her eyes open, the world a complete blur around her. “Where am I?” She asks herself, even her voice a muffled echo in her mind. The smell of smoke enters her mind first, then a bright blob of red next to her. The world sharpens to reveal what’s around her, and she takes it in with a numb expression.

Buildings, all on fire, either toppled over in horrid ruins or completely vanished from their foundations, bits of brick and mortar litter the rocky streets around her. Her hearing sharpens next, the muffled sounds being cries of pain, screams of agony. Bodies cover the street, very few are still moving, the ones that are are mangled and broken, but their look seems to be worlds better than the dead around Rainbow.

The dead are either simple bloody patterns on the ground and walls of the destroyed structures, or torn limbs from torsos, many are simply blown clean apart, torsos torn in half. The bodies are comprised of both Hemorans and Equestrians. “Wh-what happened here?!” Rainbow says to herself, her feeling coming back as she feels a burn coming from her cheeks. She wipes her eyes, finding tears, but the chaos around her simply replaces the removed tears with new ones. She quickly runs over to a pony who’s leaning against a structure, leg torn off but hanging by a strand of muscle, the bone snapped in two. His coat is light green, but so covered in his own blood that it’s barely noticeable, while his mane is a dark brown.

“Y-You…why…why did…” He gasps out, Rainbow looking over him for any wounds should could stop the bleeding at. His leg was too far gone, but she could at least stop the cuts from killing him. She quickly looks around for some kind of cloth, but instead just plants her hooves against the two biggest cuts she could find, trying to stop the bleeding. “What happened here?!” She asks, looking up from the streams of red, pushing harder than she’d want to in a panic. The grown pony shouts in agony, staring at her with a look that can only be read as bloodthirsty hate.

“You know…exactly what happened…”, he says as he hacks up blood, holding the stump of his leg. “Don’t try…and ask me what happened…as if you don’t know!” He growls, blood seeping out from between his teeth.

“Please, I don’t know what happened here! I-I just want to know!” Rainbow stutters, the pony in front of her laughing between gasps.

“You? Help? You’ve done…enough ‘helping’ to last…an afterlife!” He gasps, having a slight spasm. Rainbow looks up at him in both worry and shock, and sees him open his mouth, a glob of blood flying straight into her face. She yelps, yanking a hoof off to wipe the blood away while pressing down way too hard, hearing something crunch as the stallion lets out the loudest scream she’s ever heard. He looks at her with a frantic panic, looking around as if the situation that some devil had tried to help him just hit home, and he locks on to something on Rainbow’s right. “HERE!!! OVER HERE!!! DH…IT’S HER…SHE DID IT!!!” He shouts, Rainbow looking over.

Running towards her is a squadron of Hemoran soldiers, about 30 of them, being led by a red hedgehog, his spikes radiating outwards. He starts giving orders, pointing in different directions as units from his squad break off to help the ones who are still breathing, as he and two other soldiers run over to Rainbow. “What the hell is a Pegasus doing here?! Imira, start first aid on this Equestrian, Jones, get this Pegasus away!”

“Yes sir!” A white hedgehog says, sounding like a rather young female, almost too young to be serving in any military unit, and her white robe flutters over her military fatigues as she kneels down next to the severely wounded stallion, taking out a first aid kit. “Don’t worry, we’re here to help…hold up your stump, please!” She says, the stallion doing so.

“I’ll have words for you later.” The red hedgehog says to Rainbow, venom in his voice. A green hedgehog with an almost warped discoloration in his spikes, resulting in a blurred mix of red and green, grabs Rainbow from behind and lifts her off the ground by her forelegs. Rainbow struggles in panic to get away from her captor before something flies into her stomach with shockingly massive strength. All the wind in her lungs is pounded out of her as she looks down, seeing the red hedgehog’s fist almost buried in her gut.

“You aren’t struggling your way out of this.” He hisses to her, turning around to the one he called Imira. “Lieutenant, how is he?”

“Dying sir, I’ve tried to stop the bleeding but there’s massive internal damage…” She says with a solemn sigh, trying as hard as she can to bandage up the wounds and stop the bleeding. The stallion looks slowly over at Rainbow, bloodshot veins running around his green irises. “You…m…mu…murderer…” He whispers out, just loud enough for the group to hear. He makes one final convulsion, curling slightly before collapsing against the wall, eyes shut as his final breath escapes the body.

“Oh Celestia…w…what’s going on?!” Rainbow says, her tears still flowing. The red hedgehog looks back at her with almost renewed identification, and he looks her up and down. “The famous Equestrian…huh, so the reports of a massive shockwave radiating outwards from here aren’t false after all…Jones, place her under arrest. General Trak will want to hear about this…and he’s not going to be happy.”

“Yes sir, Captain Tyrus, sir!” Jones says, Rainbow immediately recognizing the name. “C-Captain!? Wait, aren’t you a Maj-“ She gets cut off by a rough chop to the back of the neck, sending her mind reeling and numbing her body.

“Night night…” Jones says as Rainbow falls slack, and the black void takes her again.


“I sentence you to DEATH!” A gruff shout echoes out over the courtroom as Rainbow comes back into consciousness, looking around. “EXECUTIONER!!!”

“WHAT?! W-wait, wha-what’s going on?!” Rainbow shouts, looking around with renewed panic. The court room, all the Hemorans standing around her, the Judge…the Hemoran walking up to her with his blade drawn…it’s her nightmare all over again. “STOP! I-I DON’T KNOW WHAT I DID!!!” Dash screams at her executioner, the red hedgehog named Tyrus. He raises his blade over his head, staring down at her, nothing but fury in his eyes.

“Begone from my land, wretched monster…” He hisses, before a voice echoes out from the side of the room. It sounds familiar, but the words are muffled…but whatever he said, it caused everyone to look his way. Rainbow follows their gazes, her vision blurring, but just being able to make out a set of silver spikes on a head, and brown eyes looking back at her, before the blur descends into black, and she’s out again.


“AH!!” Rainbow shouts with a start, getting to her hooves and looking around. The smell of rot enters her mind, and the last of a siren echoing out dies away. She cringes as her body reacts from the jump, closing one eye while continuing her survey. All around her, that creeping flesh crawls along the fences, but the room seems to draw itself in a circle. A black doorway stands in front of Rainbow, with a statue standing next to it. The statue looks like an Equestrian with a dragon’s skull as a helmet, opened enough to see its closed eyes, and in its hooves are two axes, held upright.

Rainbow walks towards the doorway, looking around the brightly lit room, the light seeming to come from nowhere. She reaches for her knife, drawing it out of its holster as she approaches the door. She eyes the statue, slowing her approach and staying off to its side, unsure if this one would come to life or not, but it stays still as Rainbow finally comes to within a few feet of the door. The door looks like it’s the door to a castle vault, grand, imposing, and incredibly strong, but with no visible way to open it. She raises an eyebrow to it, walking up and putting her hoof on the smooth metal surface, looking over its design. It has a crest of two wings on it, a lightning bolt striking down between them, the wings colored gold while the bolt is cyan blue.

“…Why can’t this world ever be normal for once?” Rainbow mutters to herself as she looks up, the ceiling of flesh very clear to her. She taps her hoof on the flesh below her, sheathing the knife, the walkie talkie not acting up. She walks away from the door towards the center of the room, thinking of how to get out. “Locked in on all sides, the only way out blocked by a door with a statue next to it…no notes around…” She mumbles before turning her head to the statue, noticing something written at its base. She trots over to it and looks at it, throwing glances up to the statue to make sure it wasn’t moving.

Stand before us, and pay the price of Loyalty.

“Pay…the price?” Rainbow blinks at the message, stepping back from the statue. As she does so, something echoes into the room; a blood-curdling, high pitched screech. Rainbow immediately jumps into action, leaping to the center of the room and drawing her knife, looking all around her.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” The scream cries out again, jamming itself like a needle into Rainbow’s mind, forcing her to cover her ears. “DASHIE!!!” The voice cries out, and Rainbow snaps her eyes open. “Pinkie?!” She says, looking around, panicked. First Fluttershy, now Pinkie Pie!? Just how many are coming in to help her?!

“Dashie!!! Help!!!” She screams, the voice coming from every direction, fear and sadness pervading its every note. “Where are you, Pinkie?!” Rainbow shouts through her knife, looking around, hoping to see a flash of pink in front of her with whatever’s troubling her at knife striking distance. The pink mare never appears in Rainbow’s vision, and another voice joins hers.

“Rainbow Dash! For the love of all that’s HOLY, dear, HELP!!!” Rarity cries out, her regal tone immediately familiar, and Rainbow’s spirit only sinks. Three of her friends are in now, one’s already dead and the other two are in danger, and Dash is completely helpless in her cell of rot. “RAINBOW DASH!!!” Rarity cries out again, screaming in agony right afterwards, and Dash’s pupils shrink as she can hear a blade slice through flesh.

“R-Rarity! RARITY! ANSWER ME!!!” Rainbow screams out to the room, now reaching the end of her rope. “D-Dash…help…!” Rarity says, sounding like she’s just had the snot beat out of her. Rainbow turns to her right, the whimper for help sounding like it came from there, but all she lays eyes on is the statue and the vault door. “What can I do to help!? I-I can’t see you!” Rainbow shouts out, before another voice joins in the song of anguish.

“Dash! Help me! PLEASE!” Twilight screams out, “No, no, get away! Get away!!!” She screams to some invisible tormentor, before the sound of a blade being drawn pierces Dash’s hearing. “No…no…no no no, no, no no no no NO!!!!” Dash screams out, Twilight screaming with her before the sound of a body being sliced open echoes like an explosion in the room, and all the screams of her friends fall silent, Dash’s along with them, and she stares at the room, trembling. “No…oh Celestia, no…” She whimpers, feeling her tears roll once more, against all belief that she’d dried her tears since that horrid dream. She walks over to the vault door, looking over the wings and lightning bolt, and three marks join it, drawing a triangle design around it.

Three multi-colored balloons form the left point, three diamonds marking the right, and a purple-and-pink star marks the top point. The Cutie Marks of her three friends, the three voices that were silenced by that dreaded sound of steel. Rainbow simply punches the door with her foreleg, putting her head against it and punching it again. She keeps slugging away at it until her foreleg can take no more, and it falls slack under her. “Why…why do you all have to come and try to help me…?” Rainbow sobs, sniffling against the surprisingly warm steel of the door. She looks over at the statue, and its eyes have changed from their closed state, the helmet with them.

The center of the helmet seems to be adorned with a diamond, immaculate in its cut and design, and the eyes have turned purple and a bright blue. She walks in front of it, looking down at the inscription, reading it over in her head. “The price of Loyalty…” She mutters, and a voice echoes out in response.

“Dashie…”

“P-Pinkie?!” Dash’s spirit immediately lifts, and she looks around, nearly dropping the knife out of her mouth with a wide grin. “Where are you?! Are you alright!?”

“Dashie…we’re…we’re not alright, no…” Pinkie replies with a solemn sound that could only come up if she’d been stabbed in the back by somepony. “You…we came to help you…but now we’re stuck in here…” She whimpers, all the bravado of the pony whose now visited this fogged Hell three times vanishing into thin air.

“I know! I’m stuck too! How can I help?! I’ll do anything!” Dash cries out, desperate to help her friend. Rarity answers for her.

“Dash, my dear, it’s something…important…but I’m not sure if you’ll go through with it.” She says, coughing slightly, spitting out what Dash can only guess is blood.

“I said I’ll do anything! Just please, tell me you’re alright! Tell me you’ll live!” Dash shouts, every prayer in her heart going to the wish for her friends’ safety.

“We…we don’t have a lot of time…” Twilight answers in place of Rarity, the voice sounding much closer than before. Rainbow turns to her side, seeing nothing, but the voice is definitely originating from where she’s looking. “Twi’, for the love of Celestia tell me there’s SOMETHING I can do!!” Rainbow shouts to the empty space in front of her.

“Th-there is…but…after everything that’s happened…” She replies, doubt in her voice along with pain. Pinkie lets out a hard cough, sounding like she’s about to vomit.

“TWI’! STOP BEATING AROUND THE BUSH AND TELL ME!!!” Rainbow shouts with all the volume she can muster, the room echoing with it. Twilight simply replies quietly, unshaken by the shout, “You…backstabbed us, Rainbow…we’re stuck here because of you.” The words bounce around in Rainbow’s mind, stinging worse than being impaled by a heated sword, but she shakes her head. “I-I didn’t mean to bring you all into this! I want to help you, I really do! Never doubt that!! Please, tell me if I can do something, anything! I can’t…I can’t go on with all your blood on my hooves!” Rainbow shouts, her voice now beginning to tremble. Her eyes sting from the random bouts of crying, her cheeks burning with their trails. All three answer this time, in perfect unison.

“The price of Loyalty…the price to prove your loyalty to us.”

Rainbow suddenly feels afraid, the fear for her friends’ lives is certainly there, but another fear creeps up and sits just below it; what’s this price they’re talking about?

“…What…what’s the price?” Rainbow finally asks, the tears finally stopping their fall as she furrows her brow, staring at the statue in front of her. The purple eye lights up, and Twilight’s voice speaks to her from everywhere.

“It’s…what you hold dear to yourself.” The eye seems to shimmer as Twilight speaks, and the light fades to be replaced with the light blue lighting up.

“It’s…something you can’t live without.” Pinkie says, the eye glowing, and Rainbow starts to feel her second fear creeping ever higher in her throat, surpassing the one for her friends. The diamond lights up.

“The one thing you hold on a higher pedestal than us…” Rarity says. All three share the same tone; one of deep sadness and pain, as if asking Rainbow to pay this price was going to shave off their lives as well.

“I…I haven’t got anything that I think is more important than my friends…” Rainbow mutters, staring up at the statue’s head, and the purple eye lights up again.

“You do…we all know it.” Twilight says, coughing slightly, and blood begins to run from under the purple eye. The blue eye lights up next, the purple one staying lit.

“Yeah. Without it, you wouldn’t be with us right now…” Pinkie says, her crushed spirit like glass fragments under Rainbow’s hooves. The eyes stay lit as the diamond now lights up.

“You hold it higher than anything in the world, my dear…” Rarity says, and the statue begins to grind. It had been using the battle axes to prop itself up, but now it was beginning to stand tall, raising the axes above its head. Both eyes and the diamond stay lit, and blood begins to leak out of all three. “We’re…running short…on time…” All three say.

“J-Just tell me the price! If it means you’ll live, I’ll p-“

“It’s your ability to fly, Dash…” All three cut her off, and Rainbow’s eyes immediately widen and her pupils shrink. Her mind flushes completely, her second fear, the one of the price, now the only thing in her mind. “M…M-my…ability to fly…?” Rainbow stutters in a whisper, stunned.

“…I knew it…” Pinkie says. “I knew she couldn’t…”

“Don’t give up hope, Pinkie, Dash has never let us down before…well…except against Discord, but that’s understandable, right?” Twilight says, trying to cheer her up.

“Quite right, Twilight…Rainbow Dash will do this for her friends…r-right, dear?” Rarity says, and the blood streams only thicken, small drops beginning to pool under the statue. Rainbow simply stares up at the axe heads, unable to even move, let alone speak. The price for her friends’ lives was her own life, the only things that made her who she is; her wings. Every accomplishment, every worthwhile event, everything she lived for and dreamed of…they all rode on her wings.

“My wings…t-the price to pay…is…is my wings…?” Rainbow stutters, staring up at the statue, praying for some other price to be paid.

“Dash…we’re lost…we want to know…that we can still trust you…that we can still have hope that you’ll save us.” Twilight says, Rarity and Pinkie vocally nodding in agreement. “Rainbow…you care about us, right?”

“Of course I do! It’s just…I…my wings are everything to me…” Rainbow says to the statue, looking at the two wings on her sides. The price she’s about to pay is going to save her friends…and they’ll help her get through this.

“That’s why it’s the only price…please Rainbow. Just…open your wings, close your eyes…and it’ll all be over in a flash, I promise.” Pinkie says, sounding like something Twilight would say. Rainbow looks up at the axe heads one last time, then looks down at the flesh under her and opens her wings, closing her eyes.

“Good…thanks, Dashie…we’ll be waiting for you.” Pinkie says, finally sounding a little happier as the statue begins to grind again. Rainbow grits her teeth, repeating one thought in her mind, one sound as a continuous echo through her soul; it’s for my friends, it’s for my friends, it’s for my friends, it’s for-


CRUNCH.

Rainbow’s sides suddenly light up in the most intense inferno she’s ever felt, and she screams in near-death agony as both her vision and mind burn red and white. The room seems to shake under the cry, and the cry is punctuated by two thuds against the ground. Liquid runs down Rainbow’s sides, just under where her wings are, but she dares not look at what might have happened. She opens her eyes, seeing the statue with its arms around her, axes off to her sides. It begins grinding again, bringing the axes back to its base and using them to prop itself up again, the blood on the edges of the blades being all Rainbow needed.

The inferno dies down into a hot burn as the bleeding clots and Rainbow’s nerves calm down, but every muscle in her body is locked. Will she turn around, see the extent of the damage? Her friends haven’t spoken to her yet…maybe the statue missed…? Rainbow shivers as she slowly turns her head to the left, keeping her eyes closed. Two thoughts clash in her mind, warring over which is more important; that the statue missed her wings, leaving her with at least some ability to fly, or that the price was paid and she could move on to save her friends. What Rainbow saw as she opened her eyes confirmed the second thought.

A full Pegasus wing lies on the ground next to her, twitching and leaking blood, the stump on Rainbow showing a very clean slice from the axe, despite its old appearance. She trembles, her heart plummeting even further, beyond what she thought possible for depression. Her stunts, her job, her hobby…her dream, all gone with the single swing of an axe…Rainbow’s hind legs collapse under her, and her rear slams down with a wet slap, and she simply stares at the ground. She should tend her two new wounds…she could still feel them bleeding. She reaches over to her saddle bag and pops it open, pulling out the small medkit. Popping it open, the supply seems good for one more use.

The next six minutes are mostly Rainbow crying, either from the pain of having her wings cut off, or the disinfectant burning the open wounds, or simply having her life taken away without killing her. She stares up at the statue, seeing the light all gone from the two eyes and diamond, the blood also gone. Rainbow stands up, testing the last of the bandage wrap on her skin, making sure she can still move properly, before moving over to the door. On it rests a note, nailed into the vault impossibly well on a rusty nail. She wipes her eyes before reading it.


Thy price named by thy friends,
One most perilous to pay.
Thou hast made the ultimate sacrifice,
One short of ending thy own life for them.

A soul most valiant is needed,
A spirit most loyal.
Thou hast paid their named price,
And have earned thy chance to save them.


Rainbow simply blinks at the note with half closed eyes. So long as it meant she could leave this room and help her friends, no amount of weird riddles or stupid puzzles would stop her. She looks over the three marks creating the triangle, now seeing that the Cutie Marks have become incomplete. Twilight’s is missing the radiant center of hers, while Pinkie’s is missing the center balloon of hers, and Rarity is missing the right most diamond of hers. Rainbow looks over at the statue, moving over to its front, and looks at the eyes and diamond.

“Seems…ow…seems pretty obvious.” She mutters to herself, shivering slightly from a shock of pain from her side, walking closer to the helmet. “Now how do I get them out of the head…?”

Rainbow looks down at the knife on her leg, drawing it out of its holster and instinctively moving her wings out to fly up to the helmet, but no response comes back from the wings. She sighs, walking up to the base of the statue before climbing onto its arms, then placing her forelegs on the shoulder of the statue. The two strangely-colored eyes stare back at her from only a few inches away, catching the light that seems to refract inside the eyes. “Gems…so that’s why they glowed?” Rainbow mutters through the knife before lifting herself up further, looking at the diamond in the helmet.

“You’re first, Rarity…” She thinks as she turns her head to the side slightly, planting the edge into a groove between the diamond and the helmet. The edge slips in easily, levering the diamond out of its socket, and it pops out with a satisfying ‘click’, falling down and hitting the arm of the statue before falling to the base of it between Rainbow’s hind legs. “Hoo…Rarity’d kill me if I got any of her jewels dirty, ‘specially here.” Rainbow mutters, smirking as she turns her attention to the two eyes in the statue. “Alright you two…you’re coming out as well.” She says to the eyes, adjusting the knife in her mouth so the edge points up, and she takes aim with the point of the knife. With a quick jab, she sinks the point into the purple eye to her left, the edge slipping in behind it. Blood starts to leak out as Rainbow pulls, grunting with a bit of strain as the stone grinds.

The gem comes out with some effort, the pop being accompanied by a blood-chilling shriek of agony…Twilight. “Oh God, TWILIGHT! A-Are you OK!?” Rainbow shouts, looking around, the knife nearly flying out of her mouth as she does so. No response after the scream ends, and Rainbow returns her sight to the eye socket, blood flowing out like a fountain. “Oh...oh no, these…these aren’t connected to them, are they?” Rainbow’s eyes widen at the prospect of her friends’ eyes flying out as she pulls the gems out of the statue. “And Rarity didn’t scream when I pulled out the diamond…d-does that mean…?” She mutters, then shuts her eyes and shakes her head hard. “NO! I’m not gonna believe she’s dead until I see it…!” Rainbow thinks as she turns her attention to the blue eye in the statue.

“Bear with me, Pinkie…this might hurt…a lot.” She says under her breath, hopping off the statue and grabbing the knife in her hooves, turning it around so she can hold it in a different direction. She hops back up onto the shoulders of the statue, taking aim with the point of the knife. Her breathing quickens as she hesitates, the tip just centimeters away from the gem. “Please be ok, Pinkie…” She mutters as she closes her eyes and jams the knife into the eye, the tip slipping in behind it. She pulls hard, and way faster than the other eye, the blade almost bending under the strain. The gem pops out and flies away from the statue, blood bursting out of the socket as Pinkie’s scream echoes through the room, it almost quaking under her cry.

“I’m sorry, Pinkie!!!” Rainbow shouts, covering her ears to block out the scream. It quickly ends with a few sobs from Pinkie, before the voice fades completely. Rainbow takes a few quick, deep breaths before hopping off the statue, looking down at the base. The diamond and purple gem lie there in a pool of blood, and she looks around the room for the third gem. The blue glints against the red and pink of the flesh, easily identifiable, and Rainbow runs over while sheathing her knife, picking up the gem in her mouth. “Alright, got em…now we just have to tend to the door.” She says to herself before turning around, walking back over to the statue. Both of the eye sockets and the hole the diamond was lodged in are now leaking red, the blood slowly dripping off the helmet onto the base of the statue.

“Please be ok, guys…I’m coming.” She says, looking up at the blood before turning her attention to the door, looking across the symbols. She locks her eyes on Pinkie’s Cutie Mark in the bottom left of the triangle on the door, and sticks the gem into the socket with the missing balloon. It clicks in and begins glowing, and Rainbow nods to herself before moving back over to the two other gems. She picks up the diamond next, walking back over to the door and placing it into the socket, it beginning to glow. Rainbow walks back just as the light from the two gems dies out and they fall out of the door.

“What the? Oh, you sons of…don’t start messing with me NOW!” Rainbow shouts at the two jewels, now lightly spattered with blood from the fleshy floor. Rainbow growls, looking back up at the door, the note now having two nails in it. “Wait a minute…” Rainbow mutters, reading over the note, realizing it’s different from before.


The chance to save them has been offered,
The jewels you hold are the key.
Each one offers a want of salvation,
A savior to help each in need.

Place them in, one at a time,
To a new trial they will send you.
Everyone’s waiting for you,
The time to act is now.


“…Of course this is going to be a puzzle. The jewels are the key…guess they each lead to where my friends are. Just…one at a time, though…it means I can only save them one at a time, and I’m already short on time as is!” Rainbow growls as she looks at the two gems on the ground, then over to the last gem on the base of the statue. “Who am I going after first…? Twilight’s got magic, crazy amounts of it…she’s also really smart. But if I leave Pinkie…and she’s…really wounded like that…but Twilight’s just as worse off. Then there’s Rarity who will probably be paralyzed here…” Rainbow grimaces at her last sentence.

“So who’s first…? I should save Twilight and Pinkie first, since they sounded like they were wounded the worst…” Rainbow mutters to herself, walking over to the amethyst on the base of the statue. She picks it up, walking back over to the door. She sticks the amethyst into Twilight’s incomplete Cutie Mark, taking the other two gems and placing them in her bag. After a moment, tumblers begin to roll and slam in the walls, the room rumbling under the mechanical activity. The door slowly lowers itself like a draw bridge, chains coming from seemingly nowhere.

“Fancy.” Rainbow says with a raise of her eyebrows, staring off into the hallway before her. “Twilight’s first…better make this fa-“Rainbow stops herself as she stares off into the hallway, it looking completely different from the room behind her.

Bookcases upon bookcases line the walls, stretching off into infinity, perfectly lit. The flooring is green carpeting with wooden flooring surrounding the bookcases. Thousands of novels, books, volumes and dictionaries fill the cases, enough written information to make Twilight jump out of her skin in excitement…and way more than enough to make Dash just feel nauseous. She focuses on the darkness at the end of the hall, sprinting across the door and into the library hallway.

“Twilight! Twilight, are you here?!” Rainbow shouts into the hall, the bookcases blurring passed as she runs down the hall. Hissing comes from the walkie talkie and quickly rises in volume, Rainbow skidding to a stop and looking around, panting. The sound of armor clanging against armor catches her attention, and she quickly turns to the right as a zombie soldier approaches in a mad sprint. Rainbow ducks down, drawing her knife, the rusty blade cutting through the air in a horizontal slash.

“You guys really don’t learn ANYTHING!” Rainbow shouts as she draws the knife and brings it up across the Equestrian soldier’s throat, the edge easily parting its windpipe. Black sludge leaks out as it jumps back and feebly grabs its throat, gurgling before collapsing. Rainbow growls, looking around herself at the four halls stretching off into the darkness. “Oh great…which way did I come from again?” She groans in frustration, looking around. “This isn’t a good time for me to get LOST, darn it!”

A cry from the hallway to Rainbow’s right catches her attention, and she immediately runs down it. “TWILIGHT!” She shouts, running as fast as she can. She comes to another intersection, and skids to a halt, staring into the center of it.

A pool of blood has stained the middle of the intersection, the four hallways again branching off in their different directions, but there’s nothing in the center of the blood pool. A few drops of blood come down from the ceiling, and Rainbow forces herself not to look up. A small whisper comes from above Rainbow, too weak to be legible, which is followed by a cough. Blood comes down and lands on Rainbow’s head, but she remains still, afraid to look up. Another whisper comes, now just loud enough to be understood.

“R…ain…bow…” The voice says, a meek tone. Rainbow blinks, staring forward at the drops of blood falling down, a light plip as they land echoing through the room. “R…ain…bow…i…is…that you…?” The voice asks, and something else falls down into the blood pool. A drop of water, hitting the pool with the same plip as all the other droplets of blood, which is followed by a short sob. Rainbow slowly looks up, the blood dripping by her vision.

Her eyes first settle on the pommel of a black sword, streams of red covering the the handle. The guard seems to have turned completely red, and thin streaks of rust can be seen along it. Three other pommels soon join it, arranged in a cross pattern. All four pommels extend into handles, guards, and finally into their blades, serrated edges coated with new and old blood. Pink hair can be seen falling past the blades as they extend for about a foot before showing what they’re stabbed into; a light yellow body, coat stained with blood and showing numerous cuts all across it.

Rainbow stops at the belly of whatever’s stuck up there, afraid to move across it. “…Wh…what…this isn’t…” she stutters, moving her eyes down the body towards the rear. The fourth sword at the bottom of the cross is stabbed clear into the ceiling just below the body’s pelvis, and its hind legs are held up by its guard. Three butterflies adorn the hip of the left leg. “No…” Rainbow whispers, moving her eyes back along the body to the head, the color of the coat alone telling her who it is.

“Fluttershy…this…this isn’t real, is it?” Rainbow looks at her marefriend’s face. Fluttershy’s eyes are bloodshot from crying, and her cheeks are wet with tears. Her mouth and teeth are caked with her blood, but she still looks back at Rainbow with that same caring smile, seeming overjoyed with seeing Dash again.

“It…really is…you…” Fluttershy says, not moving. The four swords have her pinned to the ceiling about ten feet off the floor, two blades stuck in her forelegs and one just below her chest, right through the stomach. Rainbow shakes at this sight, eyes wide and pupils near pinholes in her eyes. She slowly shakes her head, unable to process what’s above her. “What’s…wrong…?” Fluttershy asks, that smile not fading from her face.

“No…this…this isn’t real…h-how did…why are you here, Fluttershy!?” Rainbow shouts up to the mare stuck to the ceiling, Fluttershy’s smile still spread across her face.

“I was…looking for you…Rainbow…” Fluttershy whispers out, coughing as another glob of blood flies out of her mouth and hits Rainbow dead in the face. She doesn’t flinch, simply staring up at her. “Th…there’s…something I have…to tell you…”

“Who did this to you…?” Rainbow mutters, her own tears beginning to flow again. “What…monster did this to you?”

“That’s what…I have to tell you…Rainbow…” Fluttershy gasps, coughing hard. She slips down the blades slightly, pain flying through her body and exiting her mouth as a banshee’s shriek, Rainbow sharing in it. Dash grabs her stomach and vomits, feeling a torturous burn in her gut, almost as if she was impaled. Fluttershy coughs hard, gasping for air, though luckily not slipping further down the swords. Blood flows anew from her wounds, now a more constant dripping, far faster than before. “I…I don’t…have a lot of time…Dash…”

Rainbow looks up in a panic, “NO! NO! Y-you can’t die! Not here, Fluttershy!!” She screams, as if her shouts will close Fluttershy’s wounds and remove the blades from her body.

“Rainbow…I’m dying…there’s…nothing you can do…but there is…something…” Fluttershy whispers, her smile twitching as her life begins to fade away. “Listen to me…”

“I’ll slaughter the monster that did this to you! I swear it!” Rainbow shouts, her pain replaced with burning indignation and fury.

“Rainbow…T…Twilight…”

“What about her?”

“She…attacked me…stuck…stuck me up here…and ran away…” Fluttershy whispers, her smile vanishing by the end of the sentence as she starts sobbing. Rainbow’s newfound fury disappears just as quickly. “I…ran into her…and she…she looked at me…started mumbling…when I tried to…” Fluttershy coughs, her voice growing weak, “to…talk to her…she…she did…this…then ran…she was bleeding…” She says, barely a coherent whisper.

Rainbow could feel her mouth contorting into a look of anger. Fluttershy was trying to help Twilight…and she answered by doing this to Fluttershy? Anger welled up and quickly clouded reason, one question flashing in her mind before being buried in the red; what’s wrong with Twi’? Rainbow furrows her brow, looking around the room for a way to get up to Fluttershy. She runs over to a book case and sees a gap behind it, jamming her foreleg into it before tugging. It shifts forward easily, as if rolling on something below it. She shoves it forward a good few feet, moving her gaze back up to the mare nailed into the ceiling, gauging distances.

After moving it forward about six feet, she moves around to the front of it, and with a mighty kick, tips the bookcase and slams it into the wall, cracking the ornate oak behind it with the impact. She tests the strength of her makeshift ladder, making sure it doesn’t slip under her weight, then starts climbing it. “What…are you doing…?” Fluttershy asks, only her eyes following the Pegasus as she climbs up the bookcase, spotting the bandages that cover her wings. “Wh…what happened…to you?”

“No time, I’m getting you down from there.” Rainbow says, looking at the blades stuck in Fluttershy’s body. The one in her left foreleg looks rather close, just within grabbing distance. Rainbow reaches out for it, just tapping the pommel, as the blade lets go of Fluttershy’s leg and the ceiling and falls to the ground, making a loud clatter of metal against stone, despite the green carpet flooring. The tearing of the teeth makes Fluttershy scream out in pain, blood flowing like a stream from her open wound, the other swords losing their grip as well with this new weight on their blades. The blades lose their grip on the ceiling and Fluttershy falls, Rainbow racing past her in a mad sprint to the bottom of the book case. She jumps down to the floor and lands with a thud, turning around and catching Fluttershy.

“Oof!” They both let out as Rainbow collapses under Fluttershy’s weight, Rainbow landing on her back with Fluttershy’s side on her belly. The two blades rust away and disappear, leaving two open wounds behind, coated slightly with rust. Blood flows out of the two newly opened wounds in a thin stream, and Fluttershy weakly raises her head and looks Rainbow in the eye. Rainbow simply lowers her own eyes to the wounds, grimacing. She used the last of her medical supplies when she got her wings cut off, it was a blessing that the med kit she’d found all the way back at the library had even lasted her this long.

Fluttershy simply lets out a single ‘heh’, knowing what Rainbow can’t do. “It’d…be a waste…anyway…”

“Doing something just to keep you here longer, breathing…it’d never be a waste, ‘Shy.” Dash replies, not able to look Fluttershy in the face. Her marefriend was dying in her hooves, and no miracle in the world was going to stop that blood from flowing down…all that was left was to get Twilight to answer for this, even if it meant beating her to within an inch of her life. “I…I wish I could do something…anything to keep you here with me...” She shivers, a single tear rolling down her cheek, the waterworks now completely empty after so much emotional and physical torture. “Everypony…dies…at some point…” Fluttershy whispers, trying to soothe Dash’s spirit. Dash moves her eyes back to Fluttershy with a quick smile, seeing the light beginning to fade. “…Which way did Twilight go?”

“That…way…” Fluttershy weakly replies, moving her hoof and pointing to the hallway off to Rainbow’s right, a trail of blood marking the way. Rainbow nods, looking to the hallway, then back to Fluttershy. She can’t save her…no reason she can’t at least be sent off on a high note. “Fluttershy…” She says, the mare looking back at her before Dash leans in and locks lips with her. Dash holds her tight, closing her eyes tight. This was the last time she and Fluttershy were ever going to kiss; it may as well be right up until the last moment. Fluttershy closes her eyes as well, and leans in to it as much as her remaining strength can muster.

The embrace ends after a minute, with a final twitch from Fluttershy’s body as she falls slack. Rainbow breaks the kiss, staring down at the fallen mare with a contorted face of pain and despair. “I promise…that she’ll answer for this…either that or I die trying…” Dash whispers, holding Fluttershy in a tight hug. She gently moves the body off of her, placing it on the floor, looking around for something to offer a proper burial. She simply frowns when nothing comes to mind, and she simply looks back at her lover’s corpse.

“Worst place to die…worst way to die…worst time to die…nothing…nothing seems to go my way here…” Dash says with a quiet sob, unable to shed any more tears. “My marefriend’s dead, murdered by my best friend…that freakin’ Hemoran who tried to protect me from those monsters, he’s gone…my friends come in to help me and they all get stuck in here, put through Celestia-knows-what kind of bloody torture! Why can’t things go right for once?! WHY!?” Dash shouts to the room, to the blood, to her marefriend’s corpse, to anything that might offer some kind of answer or consoling words…but only silence comes back. Rainbow sniffs, trying to put resolve before her despair, and looks down the hallway with the blood trail. She slowly walks towards it, steeling what’s left of her shattered heart, and stares down the well-lit hall, seeing the blood trail draw a clear path forward.

She takes a step forward before thinking that she should take Fluttershy with her, but if she got into a fight, it would only put her in danger…monsters have been rather rare but always dangerous, especially with the skill exhibited by those zombies. Leaving her corpse here would only give it to those horrid abominations…but she has no way of carrying it without putting herself in mortal danger, simply out of respect for the dead. What happens when somepony dies in here, anyway? Do their bodies vanish, or are they actually moved into this world, physical body and all? Too much of this world was an unknown…

She shakes her head and grits her teeth, deciding to leave the body behind. “I’m sorry Fluttershy…I would if I could…but you can’t come with me.” Rainbow says, turning her head slightly, staring at the dead body just at the edge of the red pool. “I’ll…give you a proper burial once I’m out of here…” She says, her voice quieting to a whisper by the end, and she sprints off down the hall, following the trail of blood through its twists and turns. By the second intersection, Dash runs into a monster, one of those shadowy things, but she ignores it and runs by at full speed, only one of its phrases stabbing into the back of her mind; “You’re a horrible marefriend…”

She keeps running, and two intersections later down the line, she runs into two zombie soldiers, Hemoran, and they both draw their blades. Rainbow draws her knife mid sprint and leaps, slicing across the neck of one of the soldiers as the other’s blade cuts through the air she’d be in if she didn’t jump. The world seems to move slower for her, the adrenaline in her system keeping her alive beyond the aching pain of her wing stumps. Her thoughts go through the situations that could’ve occurred between Twilight and Fluttershy, all of them making Twilight the aggressor. In one, she sneaks up behind Fluttershy as she turns around to lead the way, and stabs her through the gut with a sword, and in another, she backs Fluttershy into a corner, waving a sword delicately in the air before stabbing her through both hooves.

Six more roll through Rainbow’s head, and they all serve to only heighten her rage, and her vision begins to tunnel. The cries of the dying Hemoran echo through the halls as she now speeds along the trail of blood at nearly twice her speed, not questioning the state she’s in. This rage is going to be her fuel, her weapon to use against her once-friend, the powerful unicorn capable of performing any kind of magic in the world. She will answer for her crime, and if it comes down to it, Rainbow will fight in a bloody war in order to make her feel the same suffering Fluttershy did.


Several more intersections and fights later finds Rainbow at a new kind of intersection, this one is a square room with a single hallway stretching forward. The room is empty except for a single desk in the middle of it, the carpeting a very thick, luscious deep blue. Rainbow moves into the room slowly, her vision now partially framed in by moving black. She looks around at the room, seeing nothing, not even another monster. Walking up to the desk, she brings herself up using her forelegs to look at the top of it, and sees a note. “Fantastic, another puzzle…” She grumbles through her knife as she reads the note to herself.


Your paths once branched in four,
But now they recede to one.
Your battle here is long,
But it’s only just begun.

The friend you consider close,
Blood is now on her hooves.
Her life hangs in the balance,
Whether the blade strikes,
The choice is yours.


“Whoever’s writing these must be really weird…this one isn’t a puzzle at all. It’s just some message to me…or about me anyway…” Rainbow thinks to herself, raising her eyes to the hallway. It extends a short distance before ending in a massive black vault door, taking up the whole back wall. Rainbow moves around the desk and towards the hall, looking back at the desk one last time. “A med kit?” She says to herself, looking at the small, simple white box under the desk with the recognizable red cross on it. She sheathes the knife and sticks her head under the desk, taking it in her mouth and placing it in her bag, looking back to find there were two Health Drinks sitting behind it.

“Well…seems the world can be nice once in a while.” Rainbow says with a slight smirk, taking the Health Drinks and placing them in her bag with the medkit. She turns around once again and heads down the hall, cautious in her approach as she draws the knife again. She looks at the walls as she walks forward, seeing that they aren’t quite moving as quickly as the floor she’s walking on, but continues forward anyway. The door she’s walking towards quickly grows in size, and as she finishes her approach, the door is vastly bigger than what she first anticipated, as well as the rest of the hallway.

“Holy cow…” She mumbles, looking around at the walls that have now jumped up to fifteen times their previous size, the door a great monolith blocking her way. Twilight’s Cutie Mark rests on the center of the door, two cyan wings extending away from it. Rainbow turns to look down the hallway, the room at the end with the desk seemingly miles away. “Just how far did I walk?” She asks herself, turning back to the door. She places a hoof on it, squints her eyes, and gives the door a push. Something clicks behind it, and it falls backwards on two incredibly thick chains like a drawbridge, lowering itself into the next room.


Rainbow walks across the door and into the room, looking around at it. It looks like the interior for a massive guard tower at the castle, with white brick making up most of the walls, thin windows built into the structure that let in limited rays of light. Her hooves hit stone as she walks off the end of the door, her hoof falling a good foot or so in the process. “That’s surprisingly thick for a vault door…” She mumbles to herself as she walks off it and looks forward, the focus of her attention right in front of her. She furrows her brow and takes a few steps forward before stopping, the tumblers and chains moving behind her as the door rises back into the wall, a final slam of a lock falling into place noting its permanent closure.

A lavender unicorn sits in the middle of the tower room, looking up. Spots of blood cover her coat, and she appears to be sitting in a small pool of blood. She doesn’t seem bothered by someone entering her room, but acknowledges Rainbow’s presence by looking down and to the wall in front of her, staring at the marble brick dimly reflecting the already limited light from the windows. “Twilight.” Rainbow says, the determination in her voice only barely cloaking the anger just below. “Do you know who I ran into on my way here?”

“I know exactly who you ran into…” Twilight replies just as directly, as if she doesn’t really know what Dash is talking about, despite saying she does. “Just so we’re on the same page though…enlighten me.”

“Fluttershy, stuck to the ceiling by four swords…you put her there.” Rainbow says with a growl, biting down hard on the handle of her knife.

“I did. And?” Twilight replies with a shrug, causing Dash to recoil in shock. “What of it, Rainbow Dash?”

“What the…what’s WRONG with you!? YOU MURDERED FLUTTERSHY AND YOU’RE JUST SHRUGGING IT OFF!?!?” Dash screams at the unicorn, all her restraint blowing away like a wooden wall in the face of a hurricane.

“I’m not shrugging it off, I’m deciding to not be sad about it. I killed her, end of…so what of it?” Twilight answers, not shaken by the display of anger, and not turning around to address Dash directly, as if she were on a different level of standing than Dash.

“I want to know WHY you did it! Just listening to you right now…it…it makes…”

“Makes what?”

“Makes me want to tear your leg off and beat you to death with it…” Rainbow hisses, the black tunnel closing in further. The world didn’t matter to her anymore, why she came to this world in the first place didn’t matter anymore, her nightmares, her Hell, all her worries and pains…nothing mattered when there was a pony sitting in front of Rainbow, the same one who killed her one real love in the world.

“That’s rather brutal of you, Rainbow…but why am I so guilty here? That’s what I want to know before I tell you why I killed her. Why is murder so bad, eh?” Twilight asks with a genuine sense of curiosity.

“Why is…what the hay are you on about?! You know EXACTLY why murder is as bad as it is!” Dash shouts back.

“Alright, but why do YOU think it’s so bad?” Twilight replies, her tone unchanged during this entire conversation, as if she were simply asking Spike about what he thinks of breakfast.

“Murder takes a pony away from everypony who loves them, who hangs out with them, and cares for them. An act done by some monster out of a want for revenge or some other stupid reason like that, or simply for fun. Murder takes somepony close to you out of this world, puts up a wall between you and them…just like what happened to me and Fluttershy because of YOU!” Dash shouts through the knife in her mouth. “So why’d you do it, huh?!”

“…Why did I do it…? Fluttershy is the kindest pony I’ve ever met…kind of pathetic with how shy she is, but I suppose that’s what makes her so likeable…she’ll just roll over and let you do whatever with her.” Twilight says with a verbal smile, and she chuckles as if she’d just heard a rather good joke. “Ahh, she didn’t even scream when I drew that blade from the zombie’s corpse…thought I was going to help her, when really, all I wanted to do was hear her shout out in pain for help…just like I did for you, Dash…she screamed your name at the top of her lungs as I slowly jammed the blade into her stomach, lifted her off the ground, and stabbed her into the ceiling…

She looked down at me, tears flowing freely, face twisted up in pain. It was like ecstasy, Dash…a real sense of control in a situation…magnificent! So yeah, I suppose that’s why I did it…” Twilight says, slowly turning around. “I killed her for fun!” She shouts as she fully faces Rainbow, Rainbow staring back at her with a new found sense of shock. Her right eye was missing, the eye lid closed over it but completely flat…blood trickled down from it. “Now guess who did THIS to me! Bet this is REALLY FAMILIAR TO YOU!” She shouts, her horn glowing with a new aura – her usual purple aura, now outlined with a bloody red – as a black sword fades in from seemingly nowhere.

“Y-your eye…! Then that scream…that was real?” Dash asks, her rage not completely gone, but rivaled by confusion.

“Yes, that WAS real! I could feel a knife digging in behind my right eye, and it just kept digging and pulling and moving…until…POP! OUT IT CAME, ALONG WITH THE CONTENTS OF MY BLADDER, IT HURT SO MUCH!!! The pain was UNBEARABLE…yet I LOVED it! The agony was something I’ve never felt before, and I wanted to bring it to everypony I met!” Twilight shouts, a sick grin spreading across her face. Her one good eye didn’t have that recognizable purple iris anymore, it seemed to be shifting between a sickly green and her typical purple, and the pupil had a red slit running down the middle.

“Then…that jewel I pulled out…”

“Oh! That was you? I was wondering why I heard a gem hitting stone when I saw my eyeball bouncing along the ground! I don’t wear false eyes, after all…thanks Dash! All thanks to you, I was able to experience the joy of mind-splitting pain…along with Fluttershy!” Twilight shouts, spinning the blade in the air as she looks over the edge, making sure it’s sharp. She scrapes it along the ground, the sword cutting through the stone flooring like a red-hot knife through warm butter. “And now, I’m going to give you the same pleasure, Dashie…” She hisses, looking up at Dash.

Rainbow’s confusion melts away as she grips the knife harder, lowering herself into a pouncing position. A lot of things seemed to point back to her in this place for some reason, but right now, she had a crazy unicorn to deal with…but could she do it? Could she really fight with her friend, a pony she’s known for so long? Was there no way to help her? Twilight murdered Fluttershy…that should be reason enough to send Dash headlong into a fight…but her eye, the gem, ‘the same pleasure’…no, she’s too far gone now. She can’t be helped…

“What’s wrong, Dashie? Afraid to charge head first into everything like you usually do? Or are you calculating a plan in that pretty head of yours, like some murderer stalking their prey?” Twilight says with a smirk, holding the blade just in front of her.

“You need help, Twilight!” Rainbow shouts through the knife, moving to the left. Twilight watches her move, keeping the blade between her and Rainbow, though not moving her own body. “And what makes you say that? I just found something that makes me happier than reading a simple book or learning a new ‘magic trick’! You should be proud of me, I’ve found something that suits my talent!”

“This isn’t right, and you know it! You killed Fluttershy, your FRIEND, in cold blood, for Celestia’s sake! How can you say that’s good?!” Rainbow shouts back, feeling her body begin to burn. Something flashes in her vision, surprising her slightly as it sends a light zap through her mind.

“Easy! ‘Killing Fluttershy was good!’ There, I said it. And you know what? It felt better than anything else to see her writhing in pain…it was like ECSTASY…but she just didn’t fight back. It was too easy, like butchering a fly or a mouse! At least you’ll fight for your life, right?” Twilight smiles, moving her sword as she cuts up Rainbow’s face in her mind, her smile growing with sick glee as she imagines her dear friend screaming in pain as the sword edge makes its way through her cheek…

“You’re sick, Twilight…and if…if…” Rainbow stutters, twitching slightly, images flashing by her vision. Flames, loud and high, an inferno surrounding a black shadow staring back at her, bleeding eyes staring straight through her soul. She blinks and the images vanish.

“If? If what?” Twilight raises an eyebrow.

“If…if I have to drag you out of here…a-and drag you to Canterlot myself…I’ll get you the help…you need!” Rainbow stutters, her mouth shaking. ‘What’s happening to me?’ She thinks, quickly looking over herself, finding nothing out of the ordinary besides the blood spatter on her fatigues’ ankles.

“Canterlot? What, you think Celestia is going to help you? Nah, she wouldn’t help…know why? I don’t need help! I’ve always WANTED a sensation like this, to discover something beyond simple magic! I finally have it, and you aren’t going to take it from me!”

“Calm down, Twilight! You…y-you need help! Something’s wrong with you!” Rainbow shouts back, something climbing from the back of her mind. Illegible whispers move through her head.

“I am calm, Dashie…” Twilight half-closes her eyes, smiling, and the blade rears back over her head. “Just how do you think you’re going to ‘help’ me anyway? I murdered a pony, something that’s not been heard of for over a hundred years, and you expect some psychiatrist to be all ‘Ok, let’s see what we can do about that!’ to me?! No. This choice has already been made, and I’m standing by it with all the glee in the world…” Twilight says, the blade rising into the air. Dash watches it go up, the purple aura intensifying around it, the sword seeming to shiver under the pressure of Twilight’s grip. “After you, everypony is going to feel this pain! And when I’m the last one standing, when all of Equestria has experienced my joy, I will join them!” Twilight shouts.

Rainbow keeps her eyes locked on the sword, as hooves slamming down onto the stone ground catches her attention. She looks down just as Twilight comes within inches of impaling Rainbow on her horn. Rainbow jumps out of the way, Twilight flying past her. Twilight turns her head, sneering, as the black sword comes slicing in just under Rainbow, flying between her legs. “I could have killed you there, so easily! Wake up, Dashie, this won’t be fun if you fall asleep!” Twilight shouts, continuing her sprint along the edge of the tower room, the sword flying along beside her, the back of the blade just above her shoulder.

Rainbow runs back into the center of the room, keeping her distance. Even without her wings, she was the fastest on the ground, matched only by AJ and Pinkie, and Twilight couldn’t even sprint a long distance. As long as she could watch the sword and anticipate any movements it made, the fight was hers. Twilight continues her run around the room, slowing to a jog as she watches her opponent, flipping the sword around beside her before flinging it up into the air. The aura disappears from it, the sword simply flying up higher and higher, Dash throwing a glance up to it before smirking and charging at Twilight.

Twilight smiles as the air beside her starts to warp, and her horn lights up again. Dash casts a glance up to the flying sword, and continues her charge. “What’s got you so happy?” Rainbow whispers to Twilight and herself, thinking. The bending air gives way to matter, forming from a bright white line into a black sword, the aura closing around it. A flash of purple catches Rainbow’s attention off to her right, and she immediately throws her eyes to it.

A blade cuts into her side, a deep slice through her skin, and she shouts out in pain, stumbling. She holds her footing stable and leaps to the left as a black sword cuts through the air just next to her. “So that was her plan…! Then…” Dash thinks to herself, looking up. Sure enough, the sword that was flying through the air is now mere meters away from her face, screaming through the air in a thrust. Dash leaps back as the sword comes down, slamming into the stone, crushing it and embedding half its length in the floor.

“Pretty good, wasn’t it?” Twilight says with a laugh, yanking the blade out of the ground. Dash watches it float back over to Twilight, three swords now assembled around her. Two of the swords are held in a cross in front of her as the third is held out in front. “Fake em out, injure them, then stab em through the spine. Nice little maneuver I came up with just now…much more fancy than just bringing a sword up and through somepony’s stomach.”

Rainbow twitches, biting down hard on her knife as another shock runs through her brain. Images flash through her vision, the inferno returning with the shadow at its center. It stares back at her, speaking in her voice without its mouth moving.

“Why do you hesitate?”

“Wha-“ Rainbow widens her eyes, Twilight watching her stare off into space. She tilts her head to the side, raising an eyebrow.

“Why do you hold back?”

“I’m not holding anything back! And who the hay are you?!” Rainbow shouts to the shadow, furrowing her brow. “Are you another enemy?!”

“I’m no more an enemy than you are an enemy to yourself. If you are not holding anything back, then why is the unicorn not a bloody smear on the wall yet?” The shadow asks, tilting its head slightly to the left.

“B-bloody sm- why would I do that to Twilight!? She’s my friend!”

“No she isn’t. She murdered your love, didn’t she? Not only that, she didn’t do it out of self-defense or a righteous cause, it was just a game to her.” The shadow replies in a matter-of-fact tone.

“She’s still my friend, and stop dodging my question! Who the hay are you?!” Rainbow shouts. The world is suddenly torn out of her vision, replaced with the tower room as two black swords race at Rainbow, both already raised to make a vertical slash on her head. She leaps to the side, both blades coming down into the stone. The right one stops half way through its swing and turns, moving towards Dash at a high speed. “Can’t dodge…!” Dash mutters, planting her hooves on the ground. She waits for the sword to come within feet of her, and moves quickly to the right, gliding the edge of her knife along the sword. She pushes up and angles the knife down to the left, pushing the sword away. The guard slams into the knife’s edge, the recoil from it forcing the handle out of Rainbow’s mouth. The knife gets torn away with the sword, flying away from her.

“Oh crap!” She shouts, watching the knife fly. She quickly turns around to the other sword as it flies into her leg, stabbing just enough to cause massive pain without ruining her calf muscle. She screams, the sword turning in the wound forcing her screams louder and higher, Twilight’s crazed laughter the only other sound in the room.

“How does it feel!? Magnificent, right?! I knew you’d enjoy it, just like she did! SCREAM FOR ME!” She shouts, and her laughter continues as the sword is removed from Rainbow’s leg, the leg collapsing under her. Dash crashes down onto her belly, gritting her teeth as the pain courses through every inch of her. She watches the sword fly back to rejoin its master, and its brother soon flies past Rainbow’s vision to join it. Twilight walks up to her, holding the swords around her, two on her sides and one on her back. She smiles with great satisfaction at the state she’s put Dash in, her eyes half-closed.

“That felt amazing, Dash. Hearing your screams after the fight…way better than Fluttershy.” She whispers, giggling. She leans down, looking Dash right in the eye as the sword on her back levitates off, the purple aura warping slightly into a green. “Let’s see…how else should I do this? I’ve already wrecked your leg…cut your side open…you already cut off your wings for me and the others.”

“Others…? Rarity…Pinkie…you…didn’t do anything to them, did you?” Dash asks, fighting through the cloud of red pain that is her leg.

“I haven’t had the chance to, no…but once you’re dead, I’m pretty sure this place will take me to them. I’ll just fake my way through it…maybe I’ll start with Pinkie!” Twilight grins. The visions return to Dash, fully taking the previous world from her sight, possessing it with the inferno and its shaded master.

“…Why isn’t she dead?” It asks, furrowing its brow.

“I said…she’s my friend…I’ll never kill a friend…I can’t…” Dash replies, cringing as another wave of pain moves up from her leg.

“You don’t have a choice in this situation, do you? Why not just let the hate flow, Rainbow Dash? Just let your soul go…release your thoughts…Fluttershy was murdered by her. You’ll never see her again…never hear her laugh, never be able to soothe her when she cries…” The shadow says, walking up from the center of the flames, reaching the edge. “Never see her smile or feel her touch again…”

“…Shut up…” Dash says, rolling onto her belly and standing up, tears once again flowing as the sting of Fluttershy’s death comes back to her. “I don’t need to be reminded about that…not now! It’s hard enough knowing I have to fight Twilight…hard enough that she’s hurting me and LAUGHING about it!”

“So why not retaliate? You have the power, and you know you do. You gave up your wings for Twilight, and how does she return that favor? With a ‘thank you’ and a hug? HA! No, she answers by trying to kill you!” The shadow laughs, as if this whole situation was a joke.

“I CAN’T KILL HER! No matter what she’s done…no matter what happens, I can’t kill one of my friends! It…I don’t have it in me to do that!”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong. Every single one of your friends has their own hidden power…AJ in her absurd strength, Pinkie in her capability to defeat any darkness with but a laugh, your love’s ability to reduce any creature to tears with only a look into her eyes, Twilight in her vast intelligence and magical prowess, and Rarity in her charm. But what do you have? Nothing? Right, you gave up your wings and everything you were just to be cut down by Twilight! How ironic! The price you had to pay to save them is what’s going to get you and them killed…”

“What are you talking about, and why do you sound like me!? I’d…I’d never…” Dash squints her eyes, feeling something crawling up inside her. Her vision begins to tunnel again, the black creeping up around her eyes. “I’d…n-never…never…” Dash stutters, unable to finish her sentence. Thoughts begin to plague her mind, visions of Twilight being brutally massacred by her, Dash’s revenge being taken out on her in a thousand different ways. Dash recoils from the thoughts, shaking her head.

“There’s no need to be afraid, Dash…this is a normal reaction in everypony. The simple fact that something dear to you was taken away…you want revenge. So why not let it happen? Just let me help you…” The shadow whispers, now inches away from Dash’s face. Dash looks back into the shadow’s eyes, her fear ebbing slightly. “That’s it…just calm yourself…”

The world is suddenly torn away by a flash of red and a great searing pain from Dash’s side. She screams out, moving her eyes down to where the pain came from, seeing a sword sticking out of her wing stump. Her eyes widen at the sight of it. She shakes in pain, her legs flailing as her cut right side grinds against the stone floor, sending even more agony through her.

“Jeeze, get out of Wonderland, Dashie! I’m trying to think of something fun while you’re just shouting at thin air!” Twilight grimaces, tapping Dash in the forehead. Dash looks up at her, furrowing her brow and gritting her teeth, and Twilight leaps back in shock. “WOAH! What the-“ Twilight stutters, dragging a fourth sword into the world as she rips the blade stuck in Rainbow’s wing stump out and brings it back to her side. She moves two swords in front of her in a cross, holding the other two spread out, and she stares at Dash with new fear.

“I can help you, Dash…you just have to let me.” Dash’s voice echoes in her head.

“…No…I don’t need your help…I just need a bit more strength…” Dash replies to herself in her thoughts, moving back towards her knife. Twilight doesn’t budge an inch, content with just watching her opponent pick up her weapon. Dash shakes slightly as pain shoots from a loose tooth in her mouth. She sits down, taking the knife out with her hooves and starts nudging the tooth with her tongue. After a bit of a fight, she yanks it out with her tongue and spits it out with a bit of blood, sucking on the wound slightly to get the healing going. She puts the knife back in her mouth and stands up.

“Strength? Either you accept my help or you’re on your own. Which is it going to be?” Dash asks herself.

“What…what’s going to happen if I accept it?” Dash asks back.

“All your anger will be released, all your hate will be focused. It will be up to you to control it. I just make sure the rage flows evenly in a flood.” Dash replies.

She blinks, considering the offer from her other side. She looks back at Twilight, the unicorn shaking and moving backwards slightly. Dash squints her eyes, shaking her head.

“No…” Dash thinks, staring at Twilight. “I…I can do this…I just have to make her snap out of it…”

“Hmph. Alright, you’ll come crawling back to me later, I’m sure.” Dash replies as the voice fades away. Something lifts from Rainbow’s spirits, and the tunnel recedes from her vision slightly. Twilight moves her swords, keeping the cross guard up while raising the two swords further off to her sides. “I don’t know what that was, but it seems it’s gone now…guess it’s time to finish this up, wouldn’t you agree?” Twilight smiles, furrowing her brow.

“Yeah…I’ll make you snap out of it, Twilight, even if I have to hurt you in order to do it!” Dash shouts, lowering herself back into a fighting position.

‘Only question is…how? I can’t beat her up, not with those four blades around her. It’s hard enough for me to get a proper attack in, and I don’t have the air as my advantage. How do you attack a unicorn brainiac with four swords and a lust for blood…?’ Dash thinks to herself, staring down her opponent. ‘Maybe…no, no, that isn’t an option! Her death…me killing her, it can’t happen…I’d never live it down. But…maybe it’s the answer? This world has always pointed me in the direction of the most pain I could possibly endure…’

“Just think…is there a weak spot? Using four swords just means she has to divide her focus.” Rainbow mumbles to herself, looking over Twilight’s weaponry. She’s simply sitting there, with two blades crossed across her front in a defensive form, while the other two are extended outward, their tips pointed at Rainbow. The crossed blades seem to be a good distance away from Twilight, and the two swords off to her sides are kept close to her, a good two feet or so from her forelegs.

“She has a proper guard up…” Rainbow mumbles through her knife. Twilight smirks, staring at her.

“Squaring me up?” Twilight says, raising her nose with a confident smile.

“I know there’s some way to snap you out of this, Twi’. You know this isn’t just fun and games…you killed Fluttershy, something that nopony would ever do.”

“I did, didn’t I? I thought I already told you I killed her to hear her scream, to hear her cry…you’re smarter than this, Dash!”

“Smart enough to understand why Celestia’s own pupil would kill an innocent pony?! NOPONY is smart enough to understand that!”

“I am! And I’ll tell you why as I’m driving these swords through your legs…” Twilight says with a sick smile, and the two blades hovering off to her sides grind together, throwing sparks into the air. “Now come, Dash. We did say we were going to finish this…I’ll paint the walls with your blood as your screams echo out into a magnificent symphony of ecstasy…”

With a flick of her horn, one of the swords breaks away from the ear-piercing grind of steel and flies forward towards Rainbow. She leaps out of the way, the air ripping apart as the sword passes by, and it embeds itself in the stone wall behind her. The sound of a jet stream catches her attention as the second blade enters her sight. She ducks under it, the blade slicing through her mane, and it embeds itself in the wall. Rainbow manages a little smirk at the state of her opponent’s offense.

“Guess she isn’t as sharp a shot as I thought…” Rainbow says to herself, looking over at Twilight. The confident smile on her opponent’s face is the opposite of what Rainbow was expecting. “Something funny, ‘Twi’?”

“Just the fact that you look like you’ve won. I’ve still got two swords left, and I don’t need a defense against somepony at such a disadvantage…” Twilight says with an attitude many would regard as pompous, as the two blades crossed in front of her lift away. The purple aura surrounding these two blades grows stronger, brighter, seeming to cast rays of light to the stone around it. “Let’s see you dodge THIS!” She shouts as the two blades launch forward at an impossibly high speed, crossing the 20 feet between Twilight and Rainbow in mere moments.

Rainbow ducks under the first blade, and it slices through the edge of her ear. The pain is quickly replaced by the crash of her chin hitting the cobblestone flooring as the second blade meets her foreleg, crashing through muscle and bone as if it were simply air, and yanks her leg out from under her as the guard slams into her leg. The tip of the blade stabs itself into the front of her left hind leg, locking the movement of her left legs together like shackles and chain.

Rainbow lets out a dire scream of pain, Twilight screaming with her. The screams end with sobs from Dash and a hearty laugh from Twilight. “How was that?! Glorious, wasn’t it? You can feel your soul melting in the inferno, can’t you?! I know I can feel it…magnificent, isn’t it?” Twilight punctuates her words with laughter.

‘Can’t move my left legs…barely able to stand…been fighting for so long already…’ Rainbow thinks to herself through the red veil of searing agony from her legs. “Can…can I really win this?” The words fall out of her mouth and crash into her mind like a runaway train. Turning down that shadow, fighting without her wings, using a knife against Twilight’s magic and weapons; this was a fight she could never win. “I…I can’t win…”

”No, you can’t.”

Rainbow darts her eyes around, looking for the source of the voice. The black tunnel begins to circle her vision, and the images of the inferno return. The heat of the flames beats back her pain, and the veil of red leaves her. Calm sweeps over her as the familiar shadow comes forward from the destructive flames.

”You never could win this. You knew that…”

“I...I thought I could. I thought I could win without help…”

”Silly foal…put aside your pointless pride and let me help you. We can win this…we can still paint the floors with her blood…we can still take revenge for Fluttershy!”

“No! Killing her is the last thing Fluttershy would want!”

”Are you sure? You weren’t the one pinned to the ceiling out of the blue by your best friend…you weren’t the one leaving your marefriend behind for something you had no chance to stop. Would Fluttershy really not wish the same fate upon Twilight?”

Rainbow grits her teeth in anger at the shadow, snorting. “I’m 100% sure that she’d never even want me to HURT Twilight, let alone kill her! I’m only trying to bring her back!”

”You’re trying to SAVE Twilight?! Are you insane?! Look at what your efforts have done to you! Your loyalty has blinded you to what must be done!” The shadow shouts as it stomps the ground, quaking the world. “Are you so loyal to your friends, that you would sacrifice your own life in a useless attempt to ‘save’ her, and release her into the world?! THIS MUST BE DONE, DASH!”

“NO! I’m not going to kill her! I…I’m not going…to take this knife, and drive it in her heart, or slit her throat. This isn’t about loyalty, or pride, or any of that stuff! This…this is me trying to save my friend. Twilight would do the same for me if she were me right now,” Dash replies, furrowing her brow. “If you think that killing her is the only answer…then so be it. I’ll die here, knowing I tried to bring her back.”

”And you throw your friends to the wolves in the process. Stop being so damned naïve, Dash, your chivalry is only going to get you, Pinkie, Rarity, and everypony else KILLED. Celestia HERSELF will have to bring the headstallion’s axe down upon her neck, and it will be YOUR FAULT for not sparing everypony that fate! Think beyond yourself for FIVE SECONDS, you stupid foal!” The shadow roars, the earth under it rumbling under the weight of its voice. ”I ask you again…will you let me help you, and sacrifice her life for hundreds of others? If she dies here…”

“Then I’ll save lives…” Rainbow completes the shadow’s sentence, and looks at the ground. It’s right…if Twilight escaped in the state she’s in; she wouldn’t stop until every pony was dead under her hoof. She wouldn’t stop in Ponyville, or Manehatten, or Canterlot…”I bet she even wants to grind Celestia under her hoof…”

”You’re beginning to see the truth. It’s about time…what is your answer, Dash?” The shadow asks, its voice becoming clear, gaining a familiar gravelly tone, rising in pitch.

“I…I accept your offer…help me, please.” Dash says, and the world fades away, the flames growing in intensity.

”Ye shall ask…and ye shall receive.” The shadow says, Dash’s own voice clear as day, and the flames become a blinding red wall in her vision. The flames part into a tunnel, and her eyes lock with Twilight’s. “Alright. I’m done playing…letting you get away from here, when your mind is already so messed up…that’d be a selfish mistake.”

Twilight steps back, her horn glowing with intensity as metal grinding against stone quickly fills the room, the last sword ripping free of Rainbow’s leg. The four swords assemble themselves around her, assuming that perfect defense once more. The blade covered in Rainbow’s blood is almost melting, the edge white-hot. Behind the anger of Twilight’s eyes, behind all the confidence and pride, is a feeling that betrays all she’s thought during this fight; fear. “What…what happened to you…?” She asks, her voice shaking, her eyes and mind focusing fully on Dash.

“I realized the truth…that’s what. I still want to bring you back…and I’m not going to try and get you to forgive me, but letting you get even CLOSE to my friends is something I can’t let you do. Either you go back to normal, or so help me Celestia I’m GOING TO CARVE YOU UP AND SPRAY YOUR BLOOD ON THE WALLS!” Dash shouts, the tower quaking under the force. Her wounds, her lack of wings, the pain in her mouth, everything melts away to this blinding force of rage. She killed Fluttershy, she tried to kill Dash, she’s going to kill everypony Dash ever knew if she dies here. That. Can’t. Happen.

“Me? Die here? That skull of yours is more thick than I could’ve thought possible in a Pegasus! I’m going to be the one doing the carving here, and it’s YOUR blood that’s going to paint the walls!” Twilight shouts back, the shaking in her voice betraying her menacing words. She squints her eyes in concentration as the two blades grind a sparking circle in the ground. She flings them upward with a flick of her horn; Dash watches them as they go up for a good thirty feet before they sweep down in a slicing motion, aiming straight for her head.

“It won’t be my blood on the walls…” Dash whispers as she grips the knife in her mouth, and motions her wing muscles in a flap. She suddenly flies backwards, her hind legs crashing against the wall. She kicks off lightly, flying upwards. “And it won’t be yours either, so long as I have something to say about it! I’m going to bring you back, or we’re both gonna die, here and now!”

“How in the world did she get her wings back?!” Twilight asks in disbelief, her jaw falling. The Pegasus before her looks like a fallen angel from some story book, her wings of black flame holding her aloft; Her eyes are rimmed by thin black flames, and her pupils are split by a white line. Even her Cutie Mark has changed, the thundercloud having turned pure black, and the lightning surrounded on the sides by two silver blades. “This…this isn’t happening…growing her wings back, changing her body…those eyes…this isn’t Dash, this can’t be her! This can’t be the headstrong Pegasus I was going to kill!” Twilight shouts, and she pulls all her blades in. “Screw playing with you! I’m going to stick you to the ceiling and keep stabbing until I can barely see THE BLUE IN YOUR COAT!!” She shouts with primal rage, and with a strong swing of her head, the four swords launch upwards towards Dash.

Dash moves out of the way with a flap of her wings, the swords crashing into the wall behind her, and with another flap, she explodes forwards. The wind rips past her ears in a roar as she closes the gap to her prey. Her mind begins to race, images of Twilight’s death moving past her eyes, memories of the past behind them. “I’m going to kill her…she needs to die…for Fluttershy, for everypony…I have to kill her, or she’s going to kill them! I have to!” She whispers to herself in a last ditch effort to kill these second thoughts. The world seems to slow as Rainbow nears Twilight’s shocked look. Those purple eyes, all manner of confidence and anger drowning in a black sea of terror, her jaw slack as her killer approaches, her neck perfectly exposed. Decapitation would be easier than breathing.

Twilight closes her eyes as her Angel of Death approaches. Her mind flashes back through her life…the first time she ever cast a spell…the day she was admitted into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns…the test she thought she’d failed before becoming Celestia’s protégé…the day she reluctantly to Ponyville and first met the insane ponies that would be her friends…the times she helped Pinkie and Fluttershy through their nightmares, yet learned nothing of the Mind Delve spell in the process…coming here…

Meeting him. A gust of wind flares across her face, pulling her away from her final thoughts, and she looks down at the light pressure against her windpipe. The edge of Rainbow’s knife lies against her neck; a single twitch would end Twilight’s life here and now. Her mind moves back to meeting that Hemoran…being dragged into that screen, thrown into this tower…her eye being torn out to the sound of his sick laughter. “Oh Celestia…” Twilight whispers, a realization sweeping over her.

At the same time, Rainbow shivers with her own internal battle. “I…I can’t do it…! I can’t kill her…not after all we’ve been through!” She whispers to herself, eyes closed tightly, the inferno daring to overtake her and reduce her to nothing but ashes.

”You’ve come so far! One draw and it will all be over! Kill her! She murdered Fluttershy, and unless you kill her now, she’s going to kill everypony else! She’ll bake Pinkie into cupcakes, she’ll jam Rarity’s needles into her eyes and watch her writhe in agony, denying her death! She’ll break the Cakes necks and LAUGH about it!!” The shadow with Rainbow’s voice shouts in her mind, pushing her to press the knife edge deeper against Twilight’s neck, two forces waging war over control for the body.

“Shut up…just…shut up!” Rainbow grunts, shaking, and she pulls the knife edge away from Twilight’s neck. “I can’t do it! I’d never kill my friends…trying to hurt her like this is already too much…! Her blood on my hooves, revenge…I’ve never considered myself a good soldier, not before Hemora, and not after!” She says, shaking her head, memories she could never consider her own coming back in short flashes. Sights of Sehn and her, crossing a desert; Tyrus training her to use a sword; being inducted into the army by their General.

A hoof wrapping around her neck and pulling her into a tight hug breaks her from her unstable trip down somepony else’s Memory Lane, the surprise nearly slackening her jaw enough to drop her knife.

“Oh Celestia! Rainbow Dash, wh-what happened to you!?” Twilight shouts in panic, tightening her grip, tears falling on to Rainbow’s back.

“Wh…what…?” Dash blinks a few times, trying to process this sudden change in her personality. “Twi’…are you…?”

“I-I don’t know what I was doing!” Twilight pulls Dash away to look her in the eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please, tell me what happened! I-I don’t remember anything after being thrown in here! I-oh please, tell me I didn’t-“ Twilight stutters, looking down at the stumps that were once connected to Dash’s wings. Dash follows her sight, still blinking in complete disbelief.

“N-No…that…that was something I did,” Dash replies, turning back to look Twilight in the eyes. “So…you aren’t still trying to kill me?”

“Kill you…? No, no, I-I’d never try to do that! Something was wrong with me, Dash, you have to believe me!” Twilight shouts, now even more terrified, thinking Dash may turn on her.

“C-Calm down, Twi’! I…” Dash stutters as Twilight shakes her in some attempt to either convince her she’s the real Twilight, or smash her brain enough to stop her from not believing her. “Can you stop shaking me now, please?”

“Sorry…” Twilight says, still shaking Dash a bit. She finally lets go, staring at her friend. “So…you…believe me, right?”

“Of course I do…just…it was sudden, y’know?” Dash says, raising an eyebrow as she takes a step back. “Really…really sudden.”

“I swear, I didn’t know what I was doing, Dash! Please, just trust me!” Twilight shouts, sniveling like a lost child.

“…Prove to me that I can trust you…” Dash says, taking a seat and taking the knife out of her mouth with her hooves. She lays it on the ground and looks across the small gap to her friend. “Prove your loyalty to me, just like I did for all of you.”

“W-What?” Twilight tilts her head, catching a view of the wing stumps once covered by the torn bandages strewn about the battlefield. “Wait…your wings…yo-“

“I cut them off.” Dash says, looking at the ground in frustration. “Because…you guys didn’t trust me enough to save you…”

“That’s insane! You could’ve died from blood loss, Dash!” Twilight shouts, running over to Dash’s side to inspect the stumps. She gets stopped by Dash’s hoof to her chest.

“Please, just…stay back. I wanna know if I can trust you, like I tried to make you trust me…I gave up my wings, because I put my friendship above my ability to fly…”

“Are…are you asking…” Twilight stutters, pointing to her horn.

“…The evil Twilight is just looking for a chance to kill me. The real Twilight would think of a way to prove herself to me, by giving up something that means a lot to her…”

“Well, what can I give up!? I can’t give up my horn, I need my magic!”

“And I needed my wings. We both have things we can’t give up, because it means our dreams will fall through, right? I needed my wings to be in the Wonderbolts and keep on being the best flyer in Equestria…and you need your horn to keep on living life and continue your research, learning new spells to impress Princess Celestia…I surrendered my dream in order to get your trust back, Twi’,” Dash says, and she furrows her brow. “Now you need to do the same.”

“Y-You’re asking the impossible, Dash! Even if I WANTED to take my horn off, I don’t know ho-“ Twilight cuts herself off as an object hits her hoof. She looks down, seeing Dash’s knife just below her. “But giving me this…it gives me a weapon, why?”

“Because if you do anything that’s hostile, it’ll be the last thing you do,” Dash replies, Twilight looking up to see her friend with two new black wings curled against her sides, her eyes rimmed by fire.

“How…”

“Not sure, but right now it’s only helped me. Take the knife and cut your horn off,” Dash says with an air of finality, “I want to trust you again, Twilight…but after this, it’d be crazy to without some kind of proof.”

Twilight blinks a few times, looking back down at the knife at her hooves. She grimaces, using her magic to pick the knife up and hold it in front of her eyes. “It’s sharp, right?”

“Like a brand new razor.”

“…If…it’s to gain your trust again, and if I really did ask you to cut your wings off in order to gain mine…it’s a fair trade, isn’t it?” Twilight says with a smirk as she brings the knife up towards her horn. “Can’t quite see it, and if I miss, it’s gonna hurt…”

“I’ve got a set of painkillers ready to go,” Dash says, placing her medkit on the floor and popping it open to check its supplies. She takes out the two Health Drinks as well, and lays them next to the open medkit.

“Alright…goodbye, magic…it’s…it’s been fun…guess I can always have AJ train me when I’m back home,” Twilight says, turning the knife in the air so its tip is pointed at the base of the horn. She slowly brings it up to tap at the horn, making sure she doesn’t miss and kill herself. “Ok…three…two…one…” Twilight taps the horn with each count, bringing it back further and further, before thrusting it forward with as much force as she could manage.

Comments ( 11 )

DONE! Chapter 15 Part 2 is DONE. FINALLY.

So, I've finally nailed down my plan. Chapter 15 is going to be split into 4 parts, Chapter 16 into two, and Chapter 17 is going to be Dash's big finale, the final showdown, the war for...whatever the hell the Major is fighting for!

What's going to happen? What's going to go wrong? Will anything go Rainbow's way for once?! FIND OUT, IN THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER

OF SILENT PONYVILLE: DUET OF SORROW!

As a note to all who manage to make it to the end of the comments section of this story:

Know that this story is going to be going through a universal re-write. Universal, meaning I'm going to be changing many details about the universe this story takes place in, and as such, it will be going through a vast amount of changes.

Consider this my first REAL attempt at writing, and expect a re-write in the future. Something more entertaining, hopefully!

Why is this in the TWE?

1307991
Wondering the same

1307991 1308177

1) Like/dislike ratio fits The Bad folder.
2) It actually is kind of a bad story.

1309070 It ain't easy writing. *shrug*

1414986

No, it isn't, but that's why we try, right? To conquer that great wall and say we made it to the other side.

1415028 It is quite satisfying :D

1415028 heh, at least it ain't a wall of text we have to conquer eh?

1450437

Awww, you're terrible :V.

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