Daring Do and the Hand of Doom

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 57: Captive Rainbow

Rainbow Dash stood atop the peak of Lyskymm. Out before her stretched ruins, but instead of filling her with awe, they filled her with only sadness and shame. The wind was biting and cold, but not as cold as it had been. She did not shiver.

It had started to snow. Softly at first, but then harder- -but not so hard that it obscured her line of sight.

She stretched out her hoof, feeling the metal shifting against her grip. There was a familiar resounding snap, and then a high buzzing ring as strength and energy flowed through her. The air smelled of metal. Rainbow Dash associated that smell with something other than magic.

Something ticked inside her. Gears shifted and turned, resetting themselves. Her failing nervous system suddenly spiked with precisely measured energy far in excess of what Pegasus nerves were meant to contain.

Rainbow Dash produced a sound that was essentially a gasp mixed with a scream, and her whole body jerked and became rigid in a momentary seizure. It would have been frightening if her mind had awoken as quickly as her body; as she twisted, she was too confused to know where- -let alone who- -she was.

Then her physiology normalized, or got as close to normal as it could. She flopped to one side and moaned. “Ohhh my head,” she said. “Pinkie…how much cider did I have?”

Pinkie did not answer.

“Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash moved to sit up, only to realize that she had been bound quite extensively with rope. “PINKIE!” she cried, her voice raising several octaves. “What kind of party is THIS?!”

“It is not ‘party’. Nor am I a ‘Pinkie.’”

Rainbow Dash sat up- -or tried to. In actuality, she rolled onto her back and became stuck. Whoever had tied her had even tied her wings. She had to turn her head. When she did, she saw the gleam of silver and a pale white face with careful red eyes that watched her wearily.

“Absence!” cried Rainbow Dash, suddenly struggling. “You son-of-a-horse! You hit me! GAH! Why am I tied up in ropes? This isn’t as fun as it’s supposed to be!”

“You are in ropes because I put you into them. Don’t struggle. Some of those knots do get tighter if you do.”

“Well you can put leaves in your mane and get bucked for apples!” cried Rainbow Dash, still angry. “Where am I? Where are the others?”

Absence pointed.

Rainbow Dash turned.

She found herself in something that was to her like a storage room. It was small with slanted walls and an oddly angled ceiling. The floor had several raised altars that were inscribed with bizarre patterns, but no other materials were stored in this room. There were not even barrels.

Craning her neck, Rainbow Dash lifted her head and saw Bon Bon lying across the room in a heap. A zebra was standing over her, and when rainbow Dash looked to him his yellow eyes flicked upward to meet hers. He was holding a spear, and held a longer one on his back.

“Hey! HEY! Get your stripy hooves off of her! She isn’t good for eating!”

The eyes narrowed. “You’re clearly as stupid as a bassist/ you ugly Pegasus racist.”

“I’m not a racist! I was just pointing out- -”

“You were,” said Absence.

Rainbow Dash winced. “Yeah.” She looked at the zebra. “Sorry. But stay away from her. Please, she’s had enough.”

The zebra still eyed her suspiciously, and then stood, bracing himself on his smaller spear. His eyes met Absence’s. “It will take her time to wake up and regain feeling/but I have done the best I can with regard to her healing.”

“Thank you, zebra Zel. You may go. I would like to speak to Rainbow Dash.”

Zel bowed, but icily. He made his way toward the portal where a door would be and up several steps. On the last one, though, he turned back. “Not that one like yourself would care,” he said, “but that fight was anything but fair.”

“Whether it was fair or not is moot,” sighed Absence. “A challenge once issued must be dealt with. The Grandmaster’s word and power is absolute.”

“So I’m sure you learned very young/ to stand back, watch, and bite your tongue.”

Absence did not answer. The zebra left the room. There was no door to close, so he simply disappeared into the darkness.

Rainbow Dash groaned and struggled to sit up. As she did, she saw that Bon Bon was lying on a blanket. Though she was not moving, bandages made of leaves had been placed over her wounds, and thin strips of paper with spells written on them in colorful ink had been bound around her limbs and the bandages over her chest. A few collapsible steel bowls of potion had been left for when she woke up.

“Her bones will knit quickly,” said Absence. “And the zebra healed her organs. As an earth-pony she will heal well by definition. Their kind are remarkably durable, especially a specimen such as her.”

“She wouldn’t have to heal if dude-Lyra hadn’t beaten her that bad.” Rainbow Dash took an angry tone, but she was not nearly as angry about the situation as the zebra or Daring Do had been, or as ashamed as Absence was. Although Absence clearly did not believe what she was saying about the nature of a duel, Rainbow Dash did. And it had been an epic fight. She of course felt bad that Bon Bon had gotten beaten so badly, but that was how fights worked, whether they be in the schoolyard or with real, sharp swords.

Rainbow Dash turned slowly and gasped. At her new angle, she was suddenly able to see that not just her and Bon Bon had been warehoused in the storage room. White had also been brought in. Rainbow Dash not noticed her because she was perfectly silent and unmoving.

“White!” cried Rainbow Dash.

White looked up. She had been stripped of her armor and tied with the same series of knots that Rainbow Dash had. When she lifted her head, however, her eyelids were closed. It was apparent that there was nothing underneath them.

The dial in Rainbow Dash’s chest clicked as fury suddenly rose within her. She turned sharply to Absence. “Her eyes! What the heck did you do with her eyes?!”

“Our mother extracted them, and reclaimed them. This sister does not deserve them.”

Rainbow Dash cried out, causing White to jump from the sudden unseen noise. She struggled against the knots, but realized that Absence was right. Some of them only grew tighter. The most egregious was one placed around her neck.

“Absence,” she said. “You’re lucky you’re good at knots. Because if I wasn’t tied up, I’d kick you so hard that even the zebra wouldn’t be able to get the bruises out!”

“I don’t doubt it. But my point is not emotional or judgmental. Those eyes are property of the Order of the Red Bloom. They were a gift. My sister…White…attacked our mother. So it is our mother’s right to take away the privileges she once granted.”

“She was the one who made her blind in the first place!”

“Yes,” said Absence, coldly. “That is correct.”

“You- -you- -” Rainbow Dash stood aghast. “Absence, what happened to you?”

“Nothing, Rainbow Dash. I have always been like this.”

“My own road apples. On Lyskymm, you were nice! I thought we were friends!”

“We were,” said Absence. She lowered her head. “I wish we still could be.”

Rainbow Dash suddenly realized the pain that was etched so deeply on Absence’s fate. “We still can be. Absence, listen to me. Friends don’t do this to friends. They don’t hurt each other like this.”

“I am a tool. I was built. Born in a tank. My mind is programming. Rainbow Dash, I have to do this. It is my only purpose.”

“No it isn’t! Come on!”

Absence looked up. “Rainbow- -”

“So, yeah. We don’t agree on a lot of things. But you still know that this is wrong, don’t you?”

“It isn’t wrong.”

“Really?” cried Rainbow Dash. “You have eyes still, use them! You could have really hurt me, and then you tied me up. Bon Bon over there is in some kind of coma, and you took a teenage girl’s eyes! Is this really what you want to do?”

“No.”

“Then don’t do it!”

“It’s not that simple!” cried Absence suddenly. “I’m not like you! I don’t have the option of choice!”

“WHY NOT?!”

Absence opened her mouth, but then closed it. She could not answer the question.

“You don’t have to do what they tell you to. White didn’t.”

Absence lowered her head. “I’m afraid my little sister is much stronger than I will ever be. And I pray that she will one day forgive me, even if she will never remember me fondly.”

White neither shook her head nor nodded. She sat impassively, but her ears twitched. She was listening.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Absence, I’m so mad at you right now.”

“I understand your hatred.”

“Shut your cake hole. Listen. I don’t hate you. I’m just angry. And I think you’re making a stupid decision. But I also get we’re on the wrong sides. It’s like…it’s like how Daring Do and Caballeron are, you know? Like, they pretend to hate each other, but secretly they have that weird tension between each other?”

“Tension? Admittedly you are quite beautiful, Rainbow Dash, but I do not share that particular feeling with you.”

“NO!” cried Rainbow Dash, blushing profusely. “Not like that! But like, you know. If things had started out different, maybe they really would be friends.”

“So…we’re not friends?”

Rainbow Dash paused. “I don’t know.”

They were all silent for a long time. Then Absence finally built up the strength to say what needed to be said.

“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. If you can forgive me, please remember me on Lyskymm. Not as I am now. I really did want to be your friend. Goodbye. I will not see you again.”

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash sat up suddenly. “This room- -is it going to fill up with sand? Or snakes? Or acid? Or ALL THREE?!”

Even White began to look nervous, but Absence smiled softly.

“No,” she said. “You will be fine. But I will not.”

“Absence- -if they’re going to hurt you- -”

“I was not born into this world. I was created. With a specific purpose in mind.” She smiled wider, but this time her expression was forced. “Today’s my big day, when I finally do what I was meant for.”

“Absence, I don’t understand- -”

“And I hope you never do. Stay here, where it’s safe. And if they come for White, keep her safe. I won’t escape, but she might yet. And tell your earth-pony friend that she fought admirably but chose a foe that no pony can defeat. Which is itself admirable in turn.”

A pony appeared in the entryway. A stallion. He had two red eyes, but one was a slightly different shade than the other.

“Sister,” he said. “It is time. Mother requests your presence for the final preparations.”

“Brother,” she said. She approached him and hugged him. He returned it. “Thank you. Please accompany me.”

“Of course, sister.”

They exited. Absence looked back only once more, with tears in her eyes. She ran her hoof along the doorframe, and the sandstone shifted, reconfiguring itself. It flowed across the gap and solidified into a single, unbroken mass.

“Absence!” cried Rainbow Dash. “Absence, wait! We’re not done here!”

She struggled, but the knots only got tighter. She heard White sigh.

“Hey, I tried!” protested Rainbow Dash. “And I’m not done trying…” She shifted and fell onto her side. She inched her way across the floor and to the corner of one of the alters. White could not see her, but turned her head, listening. Although she had no eyes, one eyebrow rose in confusion.

“Don’t look at me like that, White, I know what I’m doing. See, I knew something like this might happen. I’ve spent the last three years practicing getting out of knots, just like Daring Do always does!” Rainbow Dash laughed. “I have this friend, right? She owns a boat, so she knows ALL the knots, even the ones with funny names. She helped me practice. Oh mane, she must have lassoed me every single way that a Pegasus can be lassoed!” She paused, thinking for a moment as an odd realization struck her. “Actually, she seemed to really enjoy it. Way too much actually.”

Rainbow Dash twisted and turned, getting a grip and pulling the knots. They shifted, but one side of her bindings suddenly turned one way, pulling out one wing at an odd angle and twisting her into a horrific tangle. “OOOH wait! There’s a span-loop, on the back- -and is that a Zeppelin bend? Buck, I can’t get out of those without being rubbed down with apple-butter!” She paused again. “Come to think of it, Applejack realllly liked that part too. Is that weird?”

White nodded.

“Like you would know anyway. Hold on. I can get out of this. Just let me- -” She shifted again, and the knots only got worse. “Just give me a second!”