Part 26: The Mare that Time forgot
As for Rainbow Dash, she was still stuck -quite literally- in her current predicament, hanging from the ceiling mostly covered in some sort of green goo with only her head free to move and look about. All around her, Changelings were coming out of the caverns fangs bared, and snake-like tongues flickering back and forth with their eyes glowing in the darkness.
“Not how I planned for my day to turn out, to be honest…” Rainbow muttered. “I’m such an idiot, should have listened to the Doctor’s warnings. But no Rainbow, you had to go off on your own like some sort of foolish mare and get yourself partially cocooned.”
She observed the many ponies, some of which she recognized as the disguises the Changelings took cocooned in the same goo she’d found herself stuck in. It begged the question, however, why hadn’t they fully completed the process with her. She’d like to think it was because she was too awesome to be contained by anyone or anything, but she knew that was likely far from the case.
“Hey, assholes!” Rainbow shouted. “You know, when I get out of here -and I will- I’m going to kick your flanks so badly you’re going to be feeling it when you get up in the morning!”
“Oh, do tell?” the Changeling that had masqueraded as Ironhead or whatever his name was asked, even as all around her the rest of the hive laughed their heads off at Rainbow’s defiance. “Do tell. Do tell, I say! How, may I ask, are you going to kick our flanks when you are up there, and I’m down here?”
“W-Well, I-I don’t know yet, but rest assured I’ll think of something!” Rainbow stuttered out, and the Changelings laughed ever hard. “But you know something else?” the mare asked as her voice hardened. She was playing a massive gambit, and she knew it, but right now Rainbow Dash had nothing left up her sleeve.
“What?” the Changeling General asked.
“There’s this pony, zip, zip, zip he goes. Gallivanting off all around the universe in his little blue box. You’ve probably never heard of him. And why should you have? You’re only concerned about yourself, and your next meal. That’s your first mistake. You see, this pony, they call him the Doctor. The pony who helps others. Right now, I’d say you need all the help you can get because if there’s one thing you never do, it’s hurt anyone he cares about. By default, that means a lot of Equestria, and by default, that means me. So if I were you, I’d just fly away, you and your queen and run off. That’s what you should be known as, General Runaway, ponies should walk up to your hive, point and laugh and say here’s where General Runaway lives! All simply because you made the mistake of pissing off the pony known as the Doctor.” Rainbow stated her voice hardening. Credit where credit was due, the Changelings looked very nervous right about now, chittering amongst themselves and looking for possible exits.
“And what of it?” ‘Runaway’ asked, trying to regain control over the situation. “The Doctor, if he even exists and I highly doubt he does, doesn’t even know where you’ve gone! Hell, he doesn’t even know you’ve gone missing! That was your first mistake, running off without telling him or your little mate.”
Rainbow swallowed, the General had a point there. There was no possible way for the Doctor to even know she was missing until it was far too late. More than likely, the Changelings had already sent a member of their species to replace her.
“Simply put, you’ll be the mare that time forgot, Firefly or whatever you choose to call yourself,” the General continued. “Nobody will ever care about you, nobody will ever care that you’re gone. Not even that little purple pony unicorn friend of yours. What she sees in you as her concubine, I have no clue but she needs better taste than some rash flyhorse. You’re probably deluding yourself as it is, thinking she likes you,” the General continued, and smirked as he watched Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Oh yes, I can sense your feelings. Changeling remember, it’s what we do. You like her. You want her body, you want her to be all yours. Sadly, flyhorse, that’ll never happen now.”
“And why… is that?” Rainbow asked, narrowing her eyes and her voice coming out as a snarl. The Changeling General only laughed.
“Oh, you were expecting me to boast about my plans, the Queen’s plans?” he asked, putting a hoof to his chest and throwing back his head to laugh long and hard. After containing himself and regaining his composure, he continued. “You really are such a naive little pony. How dumb do you think I am? You’d think I’d rise to your taunts and tell you what me and my queen are planning?”
“Well, it’s not hard to figure out, at least some of it,” Rainbow returned. “I mean, there’s this big-ass wedding between two very well-known figures in pony society. When I spoke to Flash Magnus, even someone as dense as me could tell he loved Somnambula. Plus, you said yourself you can sense feelings, and I’m willing to bet you feed off of them. Am I right? So, not hard to imagine you plan to gate-crash this whole shebang and just replace Flash and Somnambula and spread out all over Equus from there am I right?”
At the General’s speechlessness, Rainbow couldn’t resist a small smirk.
“Yeah, I thought so,” Rainbow continued. “See, I may not be the brightest little pony in the world, but like most pegasus, I’m very observant. Just little hints and clues you dropped along with what information I already knew, you didn’t need to boast or brag about whatever plan you and your queen had. You gave away your plan just as soon as you opened your mouth. Sorry to say, but when I get out of here -and like I said, I will- there will be no gate-crashing of a certain big fat cross-country wedding. Not if I have anything to say about it, at least.”
“Then say nothing at all.” the Changeling General said, having finally had enough of Rainbow’s insolence and fired off a blast of green goop from his mouth shutting Rainbow up.
Night fell over Roam, and Twilight had long ago started to get worried. Rainbow still hadn’t come back from her little ‘excursion’ and hours had passed. Maybe she was off on some late-night flight with some stallion she’d picked up somewhere, that could have been it. Twilight gritted her teeth in jealousy but sighed. Rainbow’s choices were her own, and that included her choice in companionship. She couldn’t just force herself on her, she’d just have to be the bigger mare in all of this and step aside.
...Besides, Rainbow knew very well she couldn’t stay in the past forever. She had a place here in the present time, and friends and a family who loved her.
“Friends, especially…” Twilight thought to herself, a tear dripping from her eye just wishing for a moment Rainbow would pay attention to her as more than just a fan.
Twilight, now that she thought about it, noted Rainbow rarely if ever mentioned her family. It did beg the question why she never did. Twilight swallowed nervously, a horrible thought coming to her mind.
“Are… Are they abusive? Is that it? Is that why Rainbow never talks about them?” she thought to herself, thinking of the brash outgoing mare and dismissing the thought at once. No, Twilight had read of the signs of abusive parents, and Rainbow showed very little if none of them. She never had any oddly recurring frequent headaches or stomach aches with no probable medical causes, nor was Rainbow ever seemingly afraid of adults -Or afraid of anything for that matter-. Sure, she was watchful and on alert half the time, but given pegasi were frontline warriors in ancient times -Flash Magnus was a walking example of that one- that could be chalked up to be just old instincts.
Rainbow, Twilight would admit was at times rather fearful or anxious about doing something wrong but so was she, and Twilight wasn’t abused as a child. If anything, Rainbow was always seemingly afraid of disappointing everyone so that could have meant the opposite had happened with her family life. Maybe she’d been put so high on a pedestal by her parents -whoever they were or whatever they were like- she just simply hated failure that much. None of Rainbow’s personality traits or quirks added up to that of an abused victim.
No, whatever the reason Rainbow never talked about her parents, it wasn’t because of abuse. Twilight noted to herself as soon as she got back to the present day to look up Rainbow’s family tree, and see for herself exactly who Rainbow was related to. She had a suspicion, based on various things she’d picked up on who they were but she needed confirmation, not just circumstantial evidence and theories.
Twilight chuckled to herself, she’d probably make a great film noire detective if she had to say so for herself. She’d just need to think of a name for herself.
“The Lavender Shadow! Yeah, that’s it!” Twilight exclaimed to herself, punching the air in triumph.
“Thinking aloud to yourself again?” Rainbow’s voice asked, and Twilight let out a little yelp of shock as she jumped back a little. “...’Sides, that name? Lame! Seriously, I don’t know what film noire is, but I probably could think up better names than that. Shadow Spade, for example, might want to suggest that to someone.”
Twilight nodded, before furrowing her eyebrows. Rainbow knew perfectly well what film noire was, Twilight had dragged her to a late night movie showing of “Ponyville Noire: Tails of Two Private Eyes” so why would she feign confusion on what noire was? Granted, Rainbow had found the movie frankly rather dull in her mind for whatever reason, but she still would know what the noire genre was.
She then blinked as Rainbow approached her in a sultry manner, deliberately swaying her hips and flicking her tail, her eyes half-lidded.
“Rainbow, you okay?” Twilight stuttered out. Not that she wasn’t complaining, she’d had more than a few fantasies of this in some manner or another but this was sorta outta nowhere.
“Oh, I’m fine…” Rainbow said as she gently shoved Twilight onto the bed, and began kissing Twilight’s belly working her way up to her lips, gently sliding her tongue into Twilight’s mouth. Twilight shivered, that was… something. “More than fine actually.”
With that, she slammed her lips back onto Twilight’s and hooves began to roam, Twilight letting herself indulge a little in what she wanted for a change. But that was quick to change.
Twilight, even though her lips -both of them- tingled for more had noticed something. More than a few somethings actually. Rainbow’s tongue, for example, it was unusually snake-like, and her mane was missing a few colors. And last she checked, Rainbow’s eyes were a darker shade of cerise than this one’s.
Eyes widening, Twilight shoved Rainbow -if that’s who she truly was- off of her, and blasted her backwards into a wall with a blast of magic. Eyes narrowed, Twilight ignored her desires and her horn crackled with magic even as the false Rainbow picked herself up off the floor.
“W-What the buck, Twi?” Rainbow exclaimed as she picked herself up off the floor groaning out in pain. A small silver knife had slipped from a holster on her foreleg.
“No, you don’t get to call me that. You’re not Rainbow Dash, I know her. Whoever you are, you really should do your research better before trying to assassinate me. And you should really be more observant.”
‘Rainbow’ looked confused for a moment, before she let out a small “Shit.” as she heard the sound of hoofsteps and then a blade swing as her head was lopped clean from her body by a serrated saw-like sword held by one Flash Magnus, green blood spattering the walls. Upon the Changeling’s death, the body resumed its normal insectoid form head included.
“Seems to me, we’ve got a little bit of a problem on our hooves…” Flash Magnus growled out, as Twilight nodded nervously, shivering on just how close she came to being killed before she regained her composure.
“Let’s get to work.”
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We can see that... also, great chapter! Really captured the essence of bad actor/bad disguise changelings with fake Rainbow and also the “General Runaway” reference to “Colonel Runaway” was good.
as was Rainbow’s observation skills (I can’t remember is this Rainbow and Twilight from after Canterlot Wedding? Because if so, Rainbow did good on remembering everything about Chaingling plans but if not that is great observation, rolled a nat 20 on investigation and has high perception)
So, I know this is Alt. Universe because of the Doctor, but how far before Moony came down from heaven or whatever did Purple Book Horse move to Ponyville?
9318215
Starting from the first chapter of the story, one year before the events of Season 1.
9318066
This is before a Canterlot Wedding. Rainbow's basically figuring everything out as she goes, not helped by General Runaway's boasting.
9318066
Rainbow may not be book-smart, but she's not stupid. C.f. "Testing, Testing, 1-2-3". Rainbow is a smart birdhorse.
9318307
I know but wouldn’t being restrained from the ceiling upside down mess with brain function at least a bit?
9318830
I don't think so. Being upside down for extended periods of time doesn't necessarily make it harder to think, aside from the discomfort caused by blood pooling in the head. It may give you a stroke and kill you, but it won't necessarily make you dumber.
Rainbow sure made good work on instating fear into the Changeling and making a fool of Runaway.
Twilight also did good on busting that Changeling. Then again we are talking about the mare who was the sole one finding something buggy about Cadance during the wedding.
this is going to get fun