Rainbow Dash and the Uta Clan

by Zorand

Chapter 5

Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure how long she’d been in the cell. Several hours, at least. Her tears had dried up quickly, and she’d tried to think of an escape route, but with her hands and feet bound and the door locked closed there really wasn’t anything she could do. Especially with her magic gone. At one point one of the ninjas had come in with her water and one of the sandwiches. He’d unbound her hands and told her to eat. She considered trying to overpower him, but her legs were still bound and her knee still hurt like crazy. So instead she took her meal like a good little prisoner, and when she was done the ninja had tied her back up and left. At least he had tied her hands together in front of her instead of behind. Her shoulders had been going numb..

Rainbow rolled over to try to get more comfortable. The floor was bare concrete, like the walls and ceiling. She could see that much, now that her eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness. The door looked like the doors on the classrooms at school: Metal with a little window at the top to look in or out. She wondered if it was supposed to be here when the building was completed. It looked out of place against the bare concrete walls, and there was a large gap at the bottom like it didn’t quite fit right.

As she contemplated that gap, a rat poked its nose through and stared at her. Rainbow yelped in panic and scrambled backwards as best she could with her hands and feet still bound. Oh god oh god it was going to eat her, wasn’t it? It would burrow into her stomach and eat her from the inside out, just like in that horror movie she’d watched! And bound up as she was she wouldn’t be able to fight back! But, instead of squirming its way under the door to attack her, the rat just ran off, scared off by her shout. She let out a sigh of relief. Ok, just a normal rat, then. Not the horror movie kind.

Sadly, that bit of excitement was the only to be had for a long time longer. She was starting to get hungry again. What time was it? Dinner time? Her parents were going to be worried. They’d think she was out late with her friends and would have to come home after dark. They’d think she could get attacked by a mugger. As if something as little as a mugger would phase her. Muggers looked out for Rainbow Dash! No, if only they knew the real trouble she was in.

Footsteps outside. Time for her other sandwich? She was so hungry she didn’t even think about trying to fight her way out. There was a click as a key turned in the lock, then the door swing open to reveal not a ninja, but Sonata Dusk gain.

“Rise and shine, little rainbow. I hope you slept well, because we have a long trip ahead of us.”

Wait, what? Rise and shine? Did that mean it was the next morning already? And a long trip? Oh gods, what were they going to do with her?

Sonata stepped back and the burly ninja from before came into her cell. He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, then followed Sonata back out and into the light of the stairwell. Rainbow was facing away, but she still had to squint her eyes at the brightness. They went up the stairs to the second level, and Rainbow was surprised to see a flurry of activity here. Ninjas ran every which way, packing up and carrying boxes out of the hideout. Another siren, Aria, was directing them.

“Hurry up, you lazy maggots! They’re going to be here soon and we should have been gone last night!” she shouted.

Huh. Maybe they really did just use this place nights and weekends. Sonata and the ninja carrying Rainbow didn’t pay Aria or her crew any mind, though. They continued right up the stairs, all the way to the ground level. They came up aboveground and Rainbow could see that it was indeed the next morning. Predawn light was just starting to light up the eastern horizon.

Rainbow drew in a deep breath. This was it. If she was going to have a chance to escape before they carted her off to who-knows-where, she was about to get it. The ninja broke into a jog and Rainbow began to bounce up and down on his shoulder. Twisting her head, Rainbow could see that they were heading towards a windowless van parked by the front gate. Rainbow squirmed a little and began to slip off his shoulder, so the ninja readjusted his grip on her. Now!

Rainbow reached inside herself and shoved at the magic. Wings erupted from her back and she flapped for all she was worth. They may have taken her stone. They may have bound her arms and legs. But they hadn’t counted on her having a second source of magic or a third set of limbs. She twisted out of the ninja’s grip as she flew. She needed to get up and away before the magic ran out and she was forced to land.

Pain! Horrible, unimaginable pain! It felt like her knee was being torn in two! She looked down and saw that the ninja who had been carrying her had quicker reactions than she had anticipated. He had lost his grip on her back, but had managed to grab her ankle before she was completely free. Now he hung, dangling from her bad leg as she dragged him a foot above the ground.

The pain was making her dizzy, was making it hard to fly straight, but she had to push through it. Rainbow swerved back and forth as she tried to make it to the edge of the construction site. Then there was a thump and Rainbow screamed as the pain somehow jumped to an even higher level. She tumbled head over tail and hit the pavement. She lay there, panting and with tears streaming from her eyes as she waited for the ninja to pick her back up and take her away. But as her swimming vision settled, she realized that there was no ninja with her. She looked back at where she had come from, and saw the ninja trying to scramble over the construction fence. She must have flown too low over it and he had hit and been knocked loose.

She was free, for now, but she knew it wouldn’t last long. She tried to flap her wings and fly again, but nothing happened. She must have let go of her magic when she’d crashed. She reached inside to push it back out again, but it was like trying to push a boulder. It was too much. She hadn’t slept, and all she’d eaten yesterday was a single sandwich. How could anyone expect someone to keep going after all that? It was too much.

But she was a hero, and heroes didn’t give in. And so she reached with both hands, still bound together, for the base of a light post and pulled herself up onto her feet. She wavered a moment, then found her balance and started hopping across the street while doing her best to keep all her weight on her good leg. The bad one bounced and bumped and made every jump agony. She couldn’t outrun anyone like this, but if she could just find a place to hide, maybe-

A pair of arms grabbed her and held her still. She tried to hop once more, but he was too strong. Too strong. Rainbow gave a wordless cry of dismay and collapsed against his arms, all the energy finally drained out of her. She felt tears falling down her face. She’d been so close. So close! It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to let her come this far only to lose.

“Shh, shh, it’s ok, Rainbow. I’ve got you.” Sunset said in a soft voice, hugging her tight.

Wait, what? Rainbow blinked the tears from her eyes and looked up, disbelieving. But it was true. Sunset was the one holding her, not the ninja.

“Sunset?”

“I’ve got you, Rainbow Dash. You’re going to be ok.”

Tears filled her eyes once again and Rainbow burst into a relieved sob. All the stress of the past day flowing out of her.

“It’s ok, Rainbow. It’s ok.” Sunset said in a reassuring voice as she stroked Rainbow’s hair.

After another minute of relieved crying, Rainbow finally quieted down. She spoke up in a raw, raspy voice. “Sunset, we have to go back. The ninjas- My amulet-”

“Let us take care of it. We’re here to support you now, like we should have been from the beginning. Look, see?”

Sunset pointed over past Rainbow’s shoulder, and she turned her head to see Applejack using a steel beam to tie the burly ninja up while Twilight picked two others up with her telekinesis and held them squirming in the air. Rarity meanwhile was corralling a dozen of them in a fence of magical gemstones, and three more cowered with their hands over their heads as a manic Pinkie Pie threatened them with a can of sprinkles. But of the windowless van there was no sign.

“Sunset, my amulet! Sonata took it! We have to get it back.”

“Fluttershy has it. Her rat found it and brought it to her after it found you.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story. Come on, let’s get you to the hospital and I’ll tell you what you missed.”

It was all Rainbow could do to nod and follow along.

-----------------

Rainbow lay in the hospital bed and stared blankly at the ceiling while her mind sorted through everything. Out in the hall her parents talked to the doctor, but she already knew the diagnosis. She had pulled her knee badly, almost dislocated it. It would take weeks to recover. A whole week at the hospital, then crutches for at least three more. There would be no sports for Rainbow for a while, she had been warned. No heroing either, she had added silently to herself, although neither the doctor nor her parents knew about that part. The week in the hospital was going to be the worst, if for no other reason than boredom. Luckily her friends had promised to visit every day after school.

Rainbow glanced at the clock. 2:30. They should be here soon, then. Sunset still owed her that explanation, but she had had to go to school for the day before she could give it this morning. Outside, the doctor finished his explanation to her parents and left them, and they came back into Rainbow’s room.

“Oh, Rainy, I’m so glad you’re ok.” Her mother, Windy, fretted over her. “You had us so worried.”

“Heh, yeah, sorry about that. That sleepover got a little wild.” Rainbow said.

“Say no more,” her father said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I know how those teenage parties get. I pulled a muscle or two of my own at your age.”

Rainbow frowned. What exactly did he assume she had been doing? Sunset had told her to tell everyone that she had been at a sleepover as her alibi, but she didn’t know how much anyone knew.

“Well I hope you learned your lesson.” Windy added. “You’re absolutely amazing, you know, but you need to be more careful.”

“I will be. I’m sorry, mom.”

Her mother leaned over the bed to give Rainbow a kiss on the forehead, then glanced over her shoulder as she stood back up.

“Oh, look, here are your friends now. We’ll get out of your hair so you can talk to them.”

Her father gave her a wink as he left. “Tell them to take it easy next time, casanova. There’s plenty of you to go around.”

Wait, what? What?? Rainbow felt her blood rush to her cheeks. Did he think-?

“Dashie!” Pinkie threw herself into the room and onto Rainbow Dash. She wrapped her in a crushing hug which somehow managed to avoid jostling her bad leg.

“Oof. Hey Pinkie. Glad you could come.”

“Oh, darling, you look absolutely dreadful!” Rarity cried. “That hospital gown does not suit you at all. What happened to…” She leaned in to whisper the last part, “your hero outfit?”

“Oh, it’s over there.” Rainbow pointed to a bag in the corner. “I, uh, I don’t have anything else to wear.”

“I thought as much. Which is why I brought you this.” Rarity held forward a small box and lifted the lid as if she was revealing a great treasure. Inside, Rainbow could see a t-shirt and some pants.

“Thanks, Rarity. I can always count on you to think of clothes.”

If Rainbow meant that as sarcasm, Rarity didn’t take it that way. “Oh of course, of course. I’ll take the other outfit with me so you can maintain your secret identity.”

Twilight chose that moment to speak up from the foot of the bed. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

Rainbow took a second to sort through her confusion.

“What? Wait for you? When?”

“You said you were going to show me the hideout, but when I showed up at your place yesterday morning your parents said that you were already gone.”

Rainbow stared at Twilight, uncomprehending. “...Huh?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “When we texted the night before, remember? You didn’t hit your head, did you?”

“I thought you didn’t believe me!”

Twilight cocked her head quizzically. “But we all said that we would give you a chance.”

“When?!”

“Earlier that afternoon? Wait… you never spoke up again in the group text. Did you never read it?”

Rainbow opened and closed her mouth uselessly several times. They had believed her? They were going to give her a chance?

Applejack crossed her arms and gave Rainbow a flat stare. “You were sulking, weren’t you?”

“I don’t sulk!”

“Oh yeah? Then why didn’t you read any of those texts?”

“I just… wanted to cool off first.”

“So you were sulking.”

“I was not!”

“Girls, chill.” Sunset stepped between them. “Applejack, she’s just been through an ordeal and she needs to recover. Leave her alone for now, ok?”

Applejack backed off, but grumbled to herself. “She wouldn’t need to recover if she hadn’t been sulking.” Rainbow Dash did her best to pretend not to hear.

“So what happened this morning?” Rainbow asked.

“Well,” Twilight replied, “After your parents told me that you had already left I assumed you were still upset with us and wanted to go there alone. I went home to study.”

“Don’t you already have perfect grades?”

“Oh, I wasn’t studying for school. I’m working on a side project using that magic detecting device I had when we first met. Do you remember it? Well there’s this forum for magic geeks online and they were suggesting-”

“Ok, ok, I get it. Um, thanks for trying to be there for me.”

“I just wish we would have been there for you earlier.” Fluttershy said, her head hanging low. “I feel just awful.”

Rainbow gave Fluttershy an encouraging smile. “Don’t sweat it. You girls had my back in the end, and that’s what matters. Um, speaking of that, though, how’d you find me?”

“Oh, Mr. Rat told me where you were.” Fluttershy said with a smile.

Rainbow shuddered as she remembered the rat that had almost burrowed inside her. Of course Fluttershy would be friends with that thing.

“Actually, the next part of the story is that your parents called me at around 7.” Twilight said. “They were wondering if we were all still practicing and if you would be home for dinner. They’d tried to call you a couple times but it went straight to voicemail. It told them that we had decided to have a sleepover slash study session and you would be back in the morning. Then I called the rest of the girls and told them that you were missing.”

“Twilight told us where you was headed, so Fluttershy here asked all her animal friends to look for you and see if you were still there.” Applejack said. “Not sure why it took so long, though. She sent them off around 9.”

“Oh, um, I’m sorry about that.” Fluttershy said meekly, almost whispering. “They try their best, but they don’t always make the best decisions. The rat who found you told a racoon, and the racoon told a pigeon, but the pigeon was new in town and didn’t know who I was. She had to ask around and she didn’t find me until 4 in the morning. Oh, but the rat did find your amulet and bring it to me!”

Fluttershy reached into a pocket and set Rainbow’s amulet and wristband on the bedside table. Rainbow snatched it up and pulled the magic into her for just a moment. She felt the hum in her veins like an old friend and breathed a sigh of relief, then released it.

“Oh my gosh, thank you sooo much.” Rainbow said. “Sonata told one of the ninjas to put it with the other artifacts and I was worried it went off in that van.”

“Sonata?!” All six of her friends exclaimed in disbelief.

Rainbow blinked. Hadn’t she already mentioned that to them?

“So you didn’t see her there?” She asked.

“No! All we saw were the ninjas.” Applejack said.

“Oh. Um, yeah, Sonata was the one who captured me. Aria was there too. The ninjas were doing whatever they said.”

“Hmm, that does explain some things.” Sunset said. She brought her hand to her chin in thought. “Those ‘ninjas’ all stopped fighting after the sun came up. They claimed to have no idea what was going on, and that they were just construction workers. If the Dazzlings got their powers back and hypnotized them then that would explain it.”

“Did you get the rest of the artifacts?” Rainbow asked.

“No. We didn’t see the van either. I’m guessing they were all on it and got away.”

Rainbow sighed. “So I failed, then.”

“What do you mean, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“I didn’t stop their evil scheme. All I did was get captured, and then you girls came and rescued me like I was a damsel in distress. If I had just stayed in my cell I wouldn’t even have hurt my leg the second time.”

“No.” Sunset said, “You’re not a failure. You found their hideout all on your own. You discovered their plan. You chased them out of town. And you even rescued yourself. I barely got to you before that ninja did. If you’d let him carry you into the van I think we never would have found you.”

Rainbow gulped. That wasn’t a fate she wanted to contemplate.

“Thanks, Sunset. And thanks again for getting my amulet too, Fluttershy. Did you see my backpack and phone?”

“Oh, right! One of the construction workers gave it to me after they snapped out of it.” Pinkie Pie said. She reached behind herself and pulled Rainbow’s backpack out from somewhere. “They even left your phone!”

Rainbow accepted the backpack from Pinkie and dug through it. The phone, charger, and even her knife were all accounted for, but her old mask was missing. She frowned. She’d wanted to keep that as a momento.

Rarity saw her frown and spoke up. “Is something missing, darling?”

“Just my old mask. They must have thrown it out.”

“Well you don’t need to worry about that. The one I made you is much better, if I do say so myself. And if you want one in that style again I can always make you another.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Thanks. And thank you for the costume. I don’t think I said anything before, but it really means a lot to me.”

“Think nothing of it. It is my duty to make sure that we all always look our best, after all.”

After that Rainbow gave them all the full story of her adventures, starting with the magic cow the first day all the way until she had collapsed into Sunset’s arms this morning. They gave her rapt attention and gasped or cheered in all the right places. By the time she wrapped up she was feeling like her old self again, minus the knee.

“Oh my gosh, you’re so cool, Dashie!” Pinkie yelled as she hopped up and down in excitement. “You’re like a real life superhero!”

“I am a real life superhero. Get it right. Oh, and I finally settled on a name!”

“Well? Lay it on us.” Applejack said.

Rainbow paused for dramatic effect. “Sonic Bolt.” she said with a grin.

Each of her friends took a moment to consider the name.

“Well, it’s not a synonym for your real name any more, so that’s a plus.” Rarity said.

“I think it sounds nice.” Added Fluttershy.

“I was going to suggest ‘Mare Do Well’,” Pinkie said, “but I think your name is superific too!”

“Mare? Pinkie, Sunset’s the horse, not me.”

Sunset gave an over-exaggerated roll of her eyes, but didn’t dispute Rainbow’s statement. From there the group joked and laughed and talked about other things. Before they knew it visiting time was over and they all bid their farewells. Twilight promised to bring some study material over tomorrow (“You did promise, after all. And besides, what else are you going to do while you lie here all week?”), her parents came back in for their own goodbye, and then Rainbow was alone with her thoughts again. Thinking over the last few days, she decided that she didn’t regret anything. Ok, actually, she regretted several things, like hurting her knee, but she didn’t regret going after the ninjas. In fact, she was looking forward to being back on her feet and out fighting crime again. Just you wait, Canterlot. Sonic Bolt was here to stay.

-----------------

At the edge of town, inside a discount self storage shed, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata presented a crate of artifacts to The Lady. She inspected several, lifting them out of the box and testing their powers. She nodded in satisfaction and turned back to the Sirens.

“A good haul. I was right to trust you with the hypnotizing magic.”

Adagio lifted her chin in smug satisfaction. “We do know our stuff.”

The Lady nodded. “And what of Rainbow Dash?”

Sonata winced, and Adagio smirked. Attempting to capture her had been Sonata’s idea from the start, and she was eager to watch her take the fall for it.

“She… she escaped.”

“I see.” The Lady responded. “And her amulet?”

“Lost.” Sonata spoke in almost a whisper and hung her head.

“Then we can assume she has recovered it. Well, no matter. Taking out one of the Rainbooms this early was always a longshot anyway. I like your initiative, though. If you can keep it up, and produce results next time, you’re going to go far.”

Sonata beamed at the praise, and Adagio’s jaw dropped open. Sonata had failed! And The Lady wasn’t going to punish her? Just what kind of organization was she running here?

“Oh, but we did get this from her, though.” Sonata held forth a black scarf she had been guarding personally. It glowed with a soft blue light.

The Lady’s eyebrows shot up as she inspected it. “Interesting. Very interesting.” She held it out towards the crate with the other items as if she were going to add it to them, paused, then put it into her pocket instead. She turned back to the Sirens. “Good work, all of you. You told me what you could do with a little magic, and you proved yourselves. I think it’s time for you to meet the boss.”

She left the shed and started walking towards the exit of the self storage lot. The Sirens hurried after her, leaving the crate of artifacts to some thugs who came in after them.

“You’re not the boss?” Aria asked.

“Heh, no. I’m number two.”

“What’s this boss like?” Sonata asked.

The Lady stepped up to a limo parked at the entrance and opened the rear door, motioning with her hand for the others to go in. “See for yourself.”

Adagio leaned down to slide into the limo, but paused for a second before getting in. “You’re the boss? Well I’ll be damned.”

Author's Note:

And thus concludes the first adventure of Sonic Bolt! Tune in next time to see if she can figure out what those dastardly Dazzlings are up to and put a stop to them.

Comments

[everydaygamer]

A fun little story. I'll check out the sequel.