Rainbow Dash: Prisoner of War

by The Mountaineer Brony

Chapter V: Darkest Hour

When Morphos came down the hall that night, Rainbow had already drifted into a shallow sleep. At first he was unsure whether to wake her, but decided to muster his confidence and take her up on the offer to chat. The changeling softly buzzed his wings, the skittering sound eliciting an ear twitch from Rainbow, who momentarily opened her eyes and sat up to greet him.

"Hey." she greeted gently.

"Hi..." he replied, trying to ignore the hesitance rising within him.

Dash's head immediately filled with all sorts of questions she could ask him. What did he know about the war? What sorts of things did he overhear from the guards? What did Chitin suspect of her, if anything? All of them felt like perfectly valid questions, but not of the sort she should be asking right now. No, Dash didn't want to frighten him off or make him suspicious of her. Instead, she decided to lead with a question that, while seemingly mundane, would let him know that she wasn't trying to use him.

"So... how have you been?"

Morphos was a little shocked, and his face probably showed it. It was the first time any creature had ever asked him that question, or really showed any sense of interest or concern in his wellbeing. He was used to just being Morphos, that little bug that everyone steps on; he rarely ever thought of himself as an individual deserving of respect. For the first time he could really recall, Morphos took stock of his day-to-day existence and how it made him feel.

"Well..."

He stood idly, poking at the ground with a hoof as the words tried to come to him.

"Not... great?" He glanced up at Rainbow Dash, who quietly urged him on with a hoof.

"I feel... unhappy. Not content. And not proud. It's sort of obvious, given how we live, as to why any changeling wouldn't be happy, but at least the others feel a sense of accomplishment for what they're doing here... I just don't."

Rainbow nodded. "Do you know why?"

Morphos lowered to his flanks. "Well, I know I'm not happy because everyone bullies me. I'm the smallest around here, the weakling, and I'm easy prey. As for pride..." He bit his lip nervously, glancing warily about as he tried to utter aloud his traitorous thoughts.

"...I don't think what we're doing here is right."

Rainbow's ears perked up. Morphos continued.

"I-I was raised from a grub to believe in Chrysalis' power and righteousness, how Equestria wronged her, wronged us, and was deserving of punishment. But I just... I... something... in my mind says no, this isn't right. I've seen what the guards do to you ponies. I don't think anycreature should be put through such trauma... but I can't do anything about it. Not only am I not strong enough to begin with, if I spoke out--and didn't suffer the same fate--the Colonel would send me off to the front lines where I wouldn't last a second."

The mare within the cell shifted off her bed and quietly stepped towards the bars. The forlorn changeling turned his glittering blue eyes upon her.

"It must be hard to keep all that to yourself." she said.

"You have no idea." replied the changeling. "I-I already feel like I've said too much... just finding the words made my brain melt. I already feel like a traitor... if any of the brood finds out, they'll--"

Rainbow gently put a hoof through the bars, which Morphos instinctively backed away from; nonetheless, Dash displayed her empathy on her sleeve, and this seemed to calm him. It was nice to be treated with care, he thought.

"Hey, hey, it's alright..." she tried to soothe him. "I'm here to listen. Anything you want to say, you can say it."

The changeling nervously scanned the hallway again for any signs of activity, ears flat against his head.

"This... feels so wrong..." he said. "Actually talking to a pony. All my life I've been told you were the devil, the enemy. But... you don't seem anything like they say you are..."

"You can trust me, Morphos." said Dash.

Morphos shuddered at hearing his name pass her lips. It sounded so much different coming from her than from an angry superior.

"Can I, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do I know you're not trying to use me for something?"

Rainbow ruminated for a moment. Admittedly, she had hoped that endearing herself to a guard could one day facilitate in an escape, but she also knew that she owed him something in return: a friendship he'd never had. She was the Element of Loyalty, after all; backstabbing wasn't her modus operandi. And besides, she thought, if Spike had shown that changelings could change by befriending Thorax, perhaps she could do the same with this generation. She imagined Twilight would be proud of her using what she'd learned about friendship to make the best of a situation like this.

"The way I see it," Dash began "you've never had anyone to listen to your problems or support you. And I'm loyal to all my friends... it's kind of my thing back in Equestria. If I can be your first positive exposure to ponies, I'll gladly listen to anything and everything you have to say. It's what I'd want from a friend if I were in your hooves."

"F-Friend...?" Morphos' face was twisted into nervous, wide-eyed surprise.

Dash winced slightly. "Too strong of a word?"

Morphos shrunk. "It's almost a curse to changeling ears."

"Well... let's put it this way." She cast a genuine smile his way. "I'll promise to keep your secrets and lend you an ear whenever you need it, and you can do the same for me. Deal?"

She once more extended a hoof through the bars. Morphos eyed it awkwardly before glancing up to her face and giving a small smile himself.

"Deal." He said, shaking her hoof. "R-Rainbow Dash... right?"

She nodded happily. "At your service."

---

The next couple of days passed uneventfully. More firewood was hauled in and processed, and very few prisoners had to be reprimanded. In fact, this disappointed some of the guards, who considered days when business ran smoothly to be 'boring.'

Colonel Chitin had no time to let boredom sink in, however. He'd spent the past week or so poring over a map of the area and arranging scouting parties, trying to determine the location of this alleged Equestrian camp that Rainbow Dash had informed him of.

Crammed into Chitin's modest office space, a group of lower-ranking officers scrutinized said map, which had been pinned to a corkboard and carefully scribbled upon in pencil. Tiny, orderly letters denoted places where they had already searched, marked with date and time, and smaller scraps of paper lined up along the side kept track of new tidbits they learned from interrogating their star prisoner. The colonel himself sat at his desk, a hoof pressed against his temple as his eyes furiously scanned transcripts of the interrogation sessions, with particularly important information underlined in ink. In one corner of the room, his secretary, a small changeling mare with lustrous pink eyes and carapace, as well as small spectacles like those of Chitin himself, sat at a miniscule writing desk clacking away on a typewriter.

Chitin was beginning to get frustrated. Despite thoroughly scouring the countryside with every keen-eyed ranger he could muster, he hadn't found any sign of the enemy, and fewer of Dash's new claims seemed to hold any water either. He began to suspect that the Pegasus had taken advantage of his zeal to misdirect him, for which he mentally lauded her craftiness. Nonetheless, Chitin didn't like being lied to, especially by a creature so profoundly beneath him.

Looking up from a hoof-full of papers, he resolved that the next lie the Wonderbolt told him would be the last.

The colonel's ear twitched as the clacking of the typewriter and the squabbling voices of his underlings overwhelmed his patience. Abruptly standing up from his desk, he slammed his hooves to the wooden surface, sending papers in various directions and startling everyone in the room.

"SILENCE!" he yelled. There was a pause before he gestured for his subordinates to take their seats on the opposite side of the room. Afterwards, he slowly stood, looking back at the map and around at the other changelings. He adjusted his glasses and calmly began speaking.

"My comrades... have we located any sign of ze enemy vitsin zis area?"

The officers silently shook their heads. The secretary sat perfectly still in her corner.

"Vhy do you sink zat might be?"

The three of them shared glances between each other, ears swiveling about as if they were using a sign language. After a moment, none of them was able to come up with a satisfactory answer. One of them casually shrugged, and he was lucky that Chitin didn't reprimand him for it.

"Ze vay I see it," the colonel continued "zere are two logical conclusions." He glanced over at his secretary, then back to the trio. "Eiser ze mighty changeling army--Queen Chrysalis' best, most vell-trained soldiers--are a bunch of drooling, incompetent children..."

One of the changeling officers who lacked a horn to write with slowly and carefully removed the pencil from his mouth.

"...or," said Chitin "zis Eqvestrian heroine has been taking us for fools. Sinking she can deceive us vit lies and trickery. Vell, we shall vaste no more time or resources on her 'intelligence', shall ve?"

Quickly realizing it was their cue, the three officers nodded.

"Ze Vonderbolt has tricked us vonce, but it shall not happen again..."

Chitin turned to his secretary and told her to cancel all upcoming reconnaissance missions, as well as to prepare a new report for the higher-ups. After that, he barked out a call for one of the guards from outside, and the large, burly changeling stepped in.

"Yes, sir?"

"At oh-two-hundred hours, I vant you to bring me Prisoner #3307. Zis time... she vill tell us vhat ve vant to know..."

---

That night, Dash had feigned sleep so she could talk to Morphos when he came by on his shift. Their chat wasn't as long as it had been on previous nights, but Morphos got to let out his day's frustrations to a sympathetic ear, and Dash reassured him of his importance, trying to nurture his repressed sense of individuality. After ending their heart-to-heart, Rainbow Dash managed to curl up and get a couple good hours of sleep, during which she dreamed of herself and the other prisoners being free and wandering the land together. Morphos was there too, smiling, and everycreature seemed happy.

Unfortunately, her springtime idyll was not to last. Some time later, Rainbow heard her cell door unlock and felt several pairs of hooves grabbing her and yanking her from the bed, somehow doing so quietly enough to avoid waking the neighboring inmates. She struggled at first, instinctually, but quickly decided that it wasn't worth the effort or the possible injury; if the colonel wanted to see her, she couldn't prevent him from seeing her. But why so early?

The guards brought Rainbow to the front door of Chitin's office, where the green-accented changeling was locking up. He promptly turned on his hooves and gave a sly smile.

"Good morning, Miss Rainbow Dash." he sneered. "I trust you slept vell?"

"Chitin, what in the fresh hell do you want at this hour?" Rainbow snapped back, graciously ignoring his use of "miss" as she wiped sleep from her eye.

"I have come to ze conclusion, my dear," Chitin said, his wings chittering under his carapace "zat you have been lying to me to avoid exposing your allies' location."

Rainbow Dash took on a dramatically fake show of offense.

"Why, I have no idea what you could be talking about!" She put a hoof to her chest and a frown on her face, though she smirked internally as she channeled her inner Rarity. "I don't know why I would feel the need to lie to such a noble changeling who's made my stay here so wonderfully comfortable. Why, this little stalag has practically become my home away from home. Everyone here is so nice, at this rate I may not want to go back to Equestria!"

Chitin leveled his eyebrows and frowned.

"Enough of zis nonsense, Rainbow Dash, I vill not be having it."

"Aww, c'mon Click-Clack, I thought you and I were friends!" She gave her best fusion of a child's pout and her characteristic smirk. Chitin immediately snapped forward, his eyes blazing.

"DON'T say that vord!"

One of the guards punched Rainbow in the shoulder and she scoffed. Chitin regained his composure and his domineering smile returned; he almost looked like a snake coiled up in Dash's path.

"Come," he said "zere is somesing I vant to show you."

Chitin led the guards, with Dash in tow, through the complex of buildings set behind the small office complex. This was where Fairy had been put to work mending uniforms, and where Aura had worked on cleaning them. There were storage sheds for food and supplies, a kitchen and guard's mess, a series of outhouses that prisoners were allowed to use if away from their cell, and even a smithy to repair weapons, tools, and horseshoes. They were all clustered fairly close together, some no more than two ponies apart, which made moving through them feel like navigating a maze. But Chitin knew it like the back of his hoof, and the guards did too. By the time they reached their destination, thunder could be heard rolling overhead in the cloudy night sky, and the first faint drops of rain began to fall.

They had escorted Rainbow to a large, squarish building near the back wall of the camp; like the cell blocks, it had sturdy stone walls, but its door was massive and heavy, made of rusted iron. It had no windows except near the very top of the structure, and they too were barred. Chitin used his magic to rap the door with the sturdy iron ring that served as both handle and knocker; from inside, the large, muscular changeling taskmaster shoved aside the door with minimal effort and guided them all in with a lit torch.

The creaking door slammed shut behind them; Rainbow felt a chill run up her spine, and got the immediate sense that she was in some sort of dungeon. There were at least a couple of different rooms--or perhaps cells, she thought. The floor was cold and unwelcoming beneath her hooves, a sensation that seemed to spread throughout the structure. From somewhere far off in the place, Rainbow thought she heard a rat scurrying around.

"Zis is an imposing structure, don't you sink?" said Chitin, glancing over his shoulder as the big changeling led them towards a large room in the back.

"It's lovely." Dash remarked dryly, barely able to see in what felt like unnatural darkness. "And just what are we doing here, pray tell?"

"Our previous messods of interrogation have not been effective in securing ze information we need." The colonel plainly replied, his eyes turned forward as the brutish bug at the head of the party led them into a large, expansive chamber lit by moonlight from the narrow windows.

"But..." he skittered over to one side of the room, his voice echoing about the great chamber "I figured if ve could not draw out your secrets vit physical coercion... perhaps somesing more psychological vill help."

At the center of the room stood a large, flat slab of wood, situated atop some system of gears so that it might be tilted and rotated. It had four manacles attached to it, in the perfect positions to hold down four hooves. The burly changeling set his torch in a wall sconce and now stood by a series of levers, grinning evilly. The thunder boomed dramatically outside and a deluge of rain could be hear on the roof.

"Now Colonel," Dash began "don't you think there are more sophisticated ways of--"

But she was cut off by the guards escorting her, who slipped a large bag over her head and tightened the drawstring around her neck. Dash was awkwardly walked over to the table, her senses obscured by the burlap. She could feel herself being lifted in magical aura and the cuffs being fitted around her hooves, but had trouble telling what else was going on, the faint light outside the sack not making things any easier. She could hear Chitin talking though, as he was standing close enough, and he told the guard to tilt the table back. Rainbow felt herself slide headfirst towards the floor ever slightly, as the manacles held her in place; it was a slight angle, but she could still feel blood begin to travel towards her head. From somewhere on her right side, Chitin spoke up.

"You see, Miss Dash, ze reason ve are up at such an early hour has everysing to do vit zis little experiment." Rainbow could picture his grin vividly in her mind's eye. "Our veazer team detected a nice, big sunderstorm making its vay here at about zis hour." His voice got tauntingly closer.

"If ve changelings cannot extract your secrets from you... perhaps the rain vill."

Rainbow heard the clank of a lever, and some mechanical movement far above her. In a moment, she felt the driving water pelt her face, and she felt as though she were drowning. Instinctively, she tried to move and be free of her confines, but the irons she was bound with wouldn't have it. She gasped for air and thrashed her head, trying to avoid the ceaseless downpour; her lungs hacked and coughed, trying to expel water that she hadn't inhaled. Fear surged through Dash's veins as she fought for her life. The torture barely lasted a minute, but it had been the longest minute of her life. As the mechanicals closed the ceiling to block the rain, Chitin magically lifted the drenched bag enough to look Rainbow in the face, her eyes wide with adrenaline.

"Perhaps now you vill tell me vhere your friends are hiding?"

Rainbow mustered a scowl and angrily spit in Chitin's face. "Fuck you!"

Slowly, the colonel wiped his face clean with a hoof before yanking the bag back over her snout.

"Again." he said.

Another clank from the lever, more creaking from the gears, and another downpour battered Rainbow Dash. She sputtered, barely finding opportunities for short, panicked breaths. She'd never had trouble with water before, and didn't know what it was like to drown, but that was surely what was happening now. Some small, logical part of her mind told her that the bag wasn't actually filling up with water and that her breathless reactions posed more of a threat than the rain, but her survival instinct easily overwhelmed it. At the end of another minute or so, the rain stopped, Chitin lifted the bag, and probed her for information. Rainbow tried to keep a defiant face, in spite of her windedness and the strands of her mane wetly stuck to her forehead. She wouldn't sell out her friends, ever.

But Chitin was willing to wait. And the big changeling enjoyed watching her struggle.

They subjected her to the waterboard three or four more times until the rain stopped, not wanting to waste the camp's reserves of potable water. To Rainbow, it all flowed together into one horrid experience that would haunt her for months to come. They let her rest right-side-up again while Chitin mulled over what the next steps should be. Rainbow's chest visibly rose and fell as she caught her breath, her lithe body shaking slightly as she lay bound to the wooden slab.

"I am sinking zat some ozer interrogation techniques are in order." said the colonel, coming around the table to regard his prisoner. "But, I am nosing if not a gracious host. For now, ve are done here. I vill be placing you in solitary confinement for vone veek... to give you some time to sink. If, perhaps, you should decide to cooperate at ze end of ze veek, it vill save you from more drastic measures."

The room was silent for a moment as the two regarded each other, Rainbow's breathing finally beginning to calm.

"Vould you like anysing before you leave? ...A glass of vater, perhaps?"

Rainbow simply glared at him. Chitin chuckled.

---

The bed in solitary was even less comfortable than the one in her own cell, though that may have been less because of its make and more because of the claustrophobic dimensions of the room. It was only about five feet square, and the only light in the cell came from a narrow slit in the door, though there was also a hatch at the bottom that could open from the outside to convey food or a chamber pot.

Rainbow slept soundly and tried not to think about her ordeal, though it did invade her dreams somewhat. Come morning, she found herself being awakened by the noise of the door hatch presenting her with breakfast: a measly serving of hardtack and warm vegetable broth, as well as a glass of milk. Where they changelings might have gotten milk, she had no idea, but fortunately it smelled and tasted unspoiled, and, perhaps more comfortingly, like that of a cow. As she ate, she began to realize she was being watched through the slit in the door; looking up, she spotted a familiar pair of dazzling blue eyes.

It was Morphos.

"I'm sorry to hear what happened." he whispered, his voice amplified enough by the cell so Rainbow could perceive it. "I swear, I had no idea what Chitin was planning. I'm not exactly a high-ranking guard. But I did manage to get myself assigned to watch over solitary, so... at least you'll have someone to talk to."

His eyes conveyed a smile, which Rainbow bounced back at him. Perhaps she wouldn't go completely insane.

Author's Note:

One night after working on this, I actually had a dream that I was dry-drowning like Rainbow Dash. I think I might have just been congested that night, but the fact that I could feel it really lent to the dream. It was unnerving to say the least.

Comments

[overdue]

I do hope that this story will be continued, I've been enjoying it so far

The colonel's ear twitched as the clacking of the typewriter and the squabbling voices of his underlings overwhelmed his patience.

the word 'underlings' is so perfect here

[Briarlight]

Been really enjoying this!

[Bronycommander]

Just so I get it right, they capture whatever pony they came across?

[Stormy Cloud]

Please dont tell me this story is dead

[Rainbow Dash Rocks]

I cant wait for the other chapters! please upload them soon!!!

[MLPstories101]

Does this story have a relation to the holocaust, except without the murder?