Stuck in a Rainbow

by theRedBrony

Evil Overlords (Dash) - w/ Previous Chapter Summary

Previously on Stuck…

Rainbow Dash, stuck in Church's body, explored the town with Church's friend Morgan. Together they searched for the people this group of changelings have replaced. With them, they have a captured changeling who is still impersonating Claire's brother, Conner. Though his impression wasn't good enough to fool her or Morgan.

Morgan still doesn't entirely believe Church is possessed by a pony, and that changelings have invaded their town and replaced his friends. At the fake Conner's suggestion, Morgan and Rainbow go to investigate the only place that was 'definitely' occupied by changelings: Danny's house. The one with the barn in which Rainbow had been tied to a chair.

Thinking it's a trap, the duo take extra care to sneak their way inside the house. Having quietly searched the basement and first floor, Morgan decides that he will be a distraction to lure the other baddies out of the house. He gets in his car and drives away, effectively abandoning Rainbow, but giving her the opportunity to sneak upstairs and look around.

Sadly, she finds absolutely nothing, and gets in a scuffle with their previously-detained Conner imposter, who knocks her out.

She wakes up tied to a chair again, wherein the Conner imposter spends some time annoying her until he receives a message from the Silas imposter. After reading it, Conner punches Rainbow in the face and asks her why she isn't gone yet.

---

"Why aren't you gone yet?"

I cringe from the fresh dull pain in my face, and spit blood on the floor.

"What are you talking about...?" I ask woozily.

"Nothing, and now you're stuck here… forever." With that, Not-Conner walks away.

I can't be stuck here... forever…!?

No no no no no… This can't be happening! Forever is waaaaay too long to be stuck in this crazy place! I mean… that's like… FOREVER!

I gotta get outta here!

I fight my binds, jerk my arms around, but the ropes hold my hands tightly behind this chair. I keep trying but I finally give up and lower my head in defeat. It's only now that I realize, Silas is still standing there, watching me.

I glare at him through wet eyes for a moment, then he leaves.

I… I miss my friends… I miss my wings… I- I miss my LIFE…

I sniffle and try to shake off my tears when I hear someone approaching. It's Silas again, he's holding a rag. He comes close to me.

"Don't touch me, you filthy bugpony!"

He backs off a bit, "Hey, easy now. I'm not gonna hurt ya."

Silas gently starts wiping the blood and tears from my face. "Try not to mind him, out of all of the overlords, he hated ponies the most. You've had a long day. And it looks like mine is just about to get longer. Why don't you get a little shut eye."

"Please don't hit me," I beg.

He laughs softly and shifts the rag around, holding the clean side out, and gently holds it over my nose and mouth. "G'night."

It smells funny.

---

Where am I?

Hey, I'm on my cloud. So cool and fluffy. The sun is shining brightly on my face, warm and comforting. Birds are chirping in the trees, all that jazz. I look at my hooves for a second… I don't really know why, was something funny about them?

I look up and see a huge nasty storm cloud heading straight for Ponyville!

Ohhhh no. That rogue cloud's not gonna ruin today's beautiful weather on my watch! I fly up and chase after it.

Wow! This thing's a lot bigger than I thought it was! I need some help!

I look around, not a pegasus in sight. I make a beeline for Ponyville.

Nopony's outside. Maybe they saw the storm that's rolling in. I fly in near Sugar Cube Corner, looking down the main road, the nasty storm cloud's already at the edge of the forest near Fluttershy's place.

I fly down the road yelling, "HEY! I need a couple pegasi to help me with this storm! Anypony?! Hellooooo?!"

I'm at the library, I can't believe not a single pony even came outside to see what I was yelling about! The cloud is getting closer and its shadow is dark as night, looming over the houses. It rumbles with thunder and the wind is starting to pick up. I open the door to the tree and walk in.

"Twilight! Hey Twilight!"

"Rainbow Dash? Is that you?" I hear her call from upstairs, and she starts walking down.

"Yeah. Hey where is everypony? I need help with that big storm cloud!"

"Oh don't bother. These storms hit us every now and again, heh, I guess that's what happens when Derpy's in charge of the weather," she rolls her eyes, "I'm actually more interested in why you're back! Some kind of holiday in Los Pegasus? Or do Wonderbolts have vacation days? Actually I have so many questions for you..."

"Wonderbolts? Oh no…"

"So, how is Los Pegasus? Is it nice and sunny?" Twilight starts to look sad. "Do you like being a Wonderbolt? Do they treat you all right?" She starts tearing. "Did you miss us? How long can you stay?" She starts crying. "H-H-How are the rooms, do they-ey remind you of home?" Twilight is completely sobbing by now.

I run over and hug her. "Twilight! I'm not a Wonderbolt! I- I love you guys, I don't wanna leave!"

"...Well it's a little late for that don't you think? You've been gone for almost a year." She isn't crying anymore.

"W- What are you talking about? A whole year? What's going on?!"

"Well... let's not worry about that right now. Don't you want to visit the rest of your old friends today?"

"Old friends?"

"Let's go to Sugar Cube Corner. Fluttershy is there. And so is Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Ready to go?"

"Uh, sure…"

Her horn flashes and we're in Sugar Cube Corner.

A familiar pink blur appears from below my vision.

GASP "DASHIE!!! Oh my gosh I missed you!!"

She suffocates me with a hug.

"I missed you too Pinkie! I didn't even know I was gone so long…"

"So how's it been? How long you staying? How's Los Pegasus?" With every question she appears at a different point in my vision, typical Pinkie, but just like Twilight, her smile starts drooping as it leads to her final question. Unlike the other times, now she's standing still in front of me with tears starting to form. "How... How... where were you Rainbow Dash? Why did you leave us?" Her hair begins to lose its poofy quality and go flat before she curls into a ball on the ground, sobbing her eyes out.

"I- I don't know! I wasn't gone that long! I don't even know what happened!"

Pinkie starts in a low tone, "Half a year ago you didn't-"

Rarity runs up and shoves a hoof in her mouth. "You see, about half a year ago was when these storm clouds started to appear – poor Pinkie always gets like this during these storms, but that's why I'm here! It's good to see you again Rainbow." She said the last bit in a strange tone. She turns her head away from me to tend to Pinkie.

Before I can say anything I hear a faint whisper from across the room.

I turn to look at Fluttershy, who somehow looks older. Her mane is longer, almost enough to touch the ground, no doubt from her fear of scissors… that she most likely has. She isn't even looking at me but rather at the ground to her right. She mumbles something, then looks up and notices me looking at her when she finally says recognizable words.

"Uhmm... It's good to see you again Rainbow Dash, how have you been?" As she starts to walk towards me she seems to succumb to the same crying disease that everypony but Rarity has had so far.

"Fluttershy, don't cry… I'm here now, right?" I go in for a hug.

"Yeah you're right. sniff It's just that things without you sniff aren't the same."

Twilight pipes us, even she's starting to tear up again. "Girls.... do you think we should tell her? I mean she is the Element of Loyalty after all..."

"Was the Element of Loyalty is more like it," pops in the voice of Applejack, entering from outside. "Rainbow I can't believe you! I never wanted to say it back then, but how could ya choose them over us?"

"I didn't! I… really didn't choose! I don't-"

"Now I don't wanna hear none of that. Ya know darn well what you chose Rainbow. Now I'm here to set ya straight."

"Wait! Let me tell her, please!" Twilight cries out to Applejack, who just stares at me before turning to look at Twilight with a nod.

"Fine, but don't sugarcoat nothin', let her know what she's done."

"Alright, some time after you left, Celestia called us to Canterlot. She needed our help, but we couldn't get to you in time. We… we tried to save Equestria without you, but…"

"But now I'm in charge of this sorry excuse for a country you flea-bitten dirt ponies call home." I turn and see the face of evil itself: the changeling Queen. "Your poor Princess Celestia didn't stand a chance against me, after all. Especially not without her precious 'Element of Loyalty.' Don't worry though. We're not bad evil overlords, we just need a little snack-rifice every now and then. Oh, this one should do…"

She picks up Fluttershy and sinks her pointy fangs right into her neck. I blink. Silas is looking at me.

"Bad dream?" He asks.

"Huh? No… I mean… yeah maybe…" Did I have a bad dream? I can't remember.

"I can tell."

"Did what's-his-face, Conner, send you in here to annoy me some more?"

"Ha ha. No, I think I'll be handling you from here on out. You see, while you've been snoozing, a lot has changed."

"What do you mean?"

"Shh. Listen. You hear that?"

Now that he mentions it, there's a loud thrumming noise outside in the distance. "Uh, yeah… I hear it."

"It looks like your buddy Morgan called in some backup. Those are flying machines the humans use, called 'helicopters.' I imagine they're trying to scope out the place before moving in. Some kind of military or guard I suppose."

I hear some kind of big truck pulling up outside. It stopped. Now I hear a lot of people walking. More like marching, actually.

Silas looks at me. "Time for me to disappear." And he walks off and disappears among the piles of boxes and junk in this barn.

I hear the door being kicked open, and people walking in slowly.

"HEY! I'm over here! Help!"

A few men in helmets and black vests with the word 'SWAT' show up in front of me.

"We've located a hostage, over."

"Thank Celestia! Hey listen there's still a changeling in here!"

"Relax sir, everything's gonna be fine."

Sir? BUCK. "Yeah, but there's still a bad guy in here!"

"We have a possible hostile in the barn, over."

"He's a tall skinny human- no wait! Actually he could look like anything! Be super careful!"

"I'll guard the hostage, you two help secure the area."

The other two guys leave.

"Did they hurt you sir?"

"Well I think I took a couple punches, but I've had worse. Are you guys guards?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Did my friend get you guys to come out here?"

"I'm not sure I know who you're talking about sir." He doesn't look at me while talking. He just keeps looking around him, pointing his metal thing where ever he looks. "We just got called out here. Apparently almost everyone in this town has gone missing in the past 24 hours, and some guy told the police in the next town over that there was a possible hostage situation at this residence. Maybe that was your friend?"

I smile. "Yeah, that was Morgan alright. For a while there I thought he deserted me."

"Well everything's gonna be fine-"

"Smith! I need backup!" Another guard calls.

'Smith' marches away from me behind some boxes. I'm stuck here waiting helplessly tied to this chair. I hear some footsteps for a while, then they stop. I wait here in frightening silence for what feels like forever. It was probably just a few minutes though, and Smith comes marching back to me. Funny… he's actually looking at me now.

"These guards are pathetic. Though I have to say, at least they have a little more tact than your average Royal Guard."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Changeling." I take a deep breath. "HEL-" He covers my mouth with a gloved hand.

"Ah, ah, ah. No need to make a scene, Dash."

I struggle around in his grip and bite his hand!

"OW!"

"HELP!"

Another SWAT guy comes running over.

"Smith! What's going on?" He asks.

"HE'S A CHANGELING!"

"This hostage is insane."

"DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING HE SAYS."

"I think they have him drugged up or something."

"LIES!!! FILTHY CHANGELING LIES!"

"Martinez, I haven't heard from the rest of the team. I think their comms are down. Go to the truck and see if you can find anything out."

"Roger that."

Martinez turns to walk away, but when he does, the changeling disguised as Smith knocks his helmet off and bashes him in the head with his metal contraption. He catches Martinez as he falls, and gently leans his unconscious body up against some crates.

"I have to go to the truck. There's probably one last guy there. I'll be back." Not-Smith says as he casually strolls away.

You mean… he just downed an entire squad of armed guards?

Some tense minutes later, and the changeling, who now looks like Silas again (with his regular clothes, not the guard getup) strolls on back to me. He leans against a crate and drums his fingers on top of it.

"Phew. What a workout. Haven't done anything like that in a while!"

"You… you bastard. They were gonna save me!"

"Nah. They were only gonna get hurt."

"Yeah! You just knocked them out!"

He chuckles softly. "I spared them, alright? You don't wanna know what Righty would've done with them."

"Who?"

He takes in a deep breath and exhales. "Tell me, Rainbow, you know how magic works right?"

"Uh… kinda? I might've slept through that lesson in school."

"Well you see, it's very hard for a normal changeling to control their magic like unicorns do, so far only eight of us, that we know of, have been able to master it. And you see, we had six cities. 'Hives' you might call them. So Queen Chrysalis thought it was a good idea to put one of each of those mages in charge of each of the hives. We call them 'overlords'."

"Overlords?"

"Yes. But that leaves out two, doesn't it? It just so happens that the two most powerful changeling mages would be Queen Chrysalis' personal guards. You might say underlings, if you'll pardon the pun. They were given the names, in your tongue, 'Right' and 'Left'. Righty was the more aggressive type while Lefty was more…" he chuckles, "…passive. Not that it mattered much…" His voice turns sour, "because Queen Chrysalis had all of us under her complete control anyways…"

"You mean, she did that mind-control-y thing?"

"Yes… Anyway, our magic works differently from ponies, you see. While you get your magic passively from nature, friendship, love, harmony, and all that ridiculous crap, we changelings do not. And while it's true, we need love to survive, we get our magic from… hate and despair. And you know, in Equestria there really isn't enough hate to go around – besides in the hives, but they hardly count – but this place… here despair and hate flow freely through the air. It's… empowering… intoxicating."

"Wait, wait. Hang on. What do you mean you get your magic from hate and stuff? I thought your queen got all super-powerful because Shining Armor thought she was Cadence and loved the heck out of her?"

"Ah. Yes. Our Queen, though not very talented with conventional spells and so forth, possessed the most superior innate changeling abilities of any of us. She was one of very few who could even use mind control, let alone control eight changelings, at all times, for decades. She also had the strange ability of being able to feed on hate and gain magical power from love."

"Did you say she was? Does that mean she's…?"

"Dead? Most likely."

"Uuhhhh………………" Should I say it? I have no idea. "Sorry?"

"Ah, don't be. You can call me Lefty, by the way."

---

Author's Note:

Oooh, a changeling name for one of the guys, finally. Silas, whom we saw very little of in the story so far, is actually Lefty in disguise. Any guesses which one's Righty?

And here's the diverging point for Dash's side of the story. There was gonna be an epic fight with the SWAT guys here (GeTa conceived most of that), but then I thought… Lefty's the passive one, and changelings in general… well I'd imagine they'd always prefer subterfuge to a head-on battle.

If I'm not mistaken, the dream sequence was originally conceived by GeTa. It was originally much longer. I trimmed it as much as I could while still keeping its point, but I feel like it still lasted too long. I also reworked some of the dialogue and added the word 'snack-rifice.' lol

In fact, If I remember correctly, a lot of this stuff was GeTa's ideas. The idea that there were Left and Right, one being passive and the other aggressive, the dream, the fight, yeah. Most of this.

I hope I somewhat accurately captured the ending of a dream though. No clear break between the dream and the waking world, as it usually is, there's just a little delirium in between. And then there's that thing where you forget you were even dreaming, although it might come back to you after a couple minutes.