Rainbow in the Dark

by Raeligath

Chapter 6: You Really Need Better Role Models, Kid

Earlier that morning…

— I told you you’d drop. —

Rainbow Dash lay on the mossy forest floor, a conspicuous hole in the tree canopy above her. She gritted her teeth so hard her jaw was beginning to ache, breathing sharply through her nose as she writhed around.

“Not. The. Time,” she growled.

She tried to open her mouth wider to let out a sharp yelp of pain, but found her teeth clamp right back down on their own. Her breathing sped up as she looked around.

“Why can’t I— erg, oh sweet Celestia, gah!”

— No loud noises, child. If you attract attention to yourself, it will only cause more questions. —

“My leg isn’t supposed to bend that way,” she said with a wince. “Pretty sure that’ll answer any questions anypony might have.” She dared a glance back at her leg, then immediately turned away and tried to cry out again.

No sound left her throat.

— Child, when I say you aren’t to do something, that is not a suggestion. It is a command. You do not have a say in the matter. —

Rainbow stopped her writhing on the spot, save for one last shudder. “W-what… what does that mean?”

— As your blood-mother, I have certain... privileges, shall we say. A degree of control over my children if and when I need it. —

“You can control my—” Once more, her jaw locked.

— Control your mind? No. But your body, in limited spurts, yes. —

Rainbow took a moment to let this sink in. Then she began shaking, this time less in pain and more in fear. Her eyes widened and she curled up. “Fae?” she asked, voice trembling.

— Yes, child? —

“Please… please don’t hurt my friends. I don’t want to hurt them, I’ll do anything else, just—”

— Shh, shh, child… I have no intention, nor ability, to make you harm anyone. I am simply looking to preserve the masquerade our kind hides behind. I hope you understand that this may mean holding your tongue for you, now and again. —

“So my friends are safe?”

For once, Fae did not immediately respond. — You care for them deeply, don’t you, Rainbow? —

The pegasus nodded. “More than anything.”

— Then rest assured, they will remain safe. —

Rainbow sighed. “Thanks Fae… I— guh!” She then winced all over again, feeling the uncomfortable and painful sensations coming from her right hind. “Okay but what about my leg?!” she asked in a sort of whisper-yell. “There’s no way I can walk on this!”

— So fix it. —

“... what?!”

— Fix it. Push it back into place. See what happens. —

Overcome by curiosity, Rainbow reached back. Well, not too curious. She still couldn’t bear the sight of her leg bent almost ninety degrees out of line. She blindly felt around for the limb, then, after a count of three, sharply yanked it back to a more reasonable angle.

“Gyah— wait, that didn’t hurt that much. What gives?”

Within seconds, the feeling returned to her extremity. Within a few more, she could move it freely. However, each of these changes was marked with a gross squelching noise, thankfully muffled beneath the cover of her flight suit. By the time she regained full use of the leg, the noises had ceased, with no signs leftover that her leg had ever been injured.

Rainbow stood up, trotting in place. “Wow. Okay, this got awesome again.”

— As you can see, it will take more than a single bad spill to truly harm you. Just another perk of immortality. —

“No kidding,” said Rainbow, still looking back in disbelief. She spent another minute or so trotting around in circles, testing to see if there was any flaw in her regeneration, and finding none.

— Far be it from me to encourage this adventure any further, but… didn’t you have someplace to be? —

“Oh right!!” Rainbow jumped in place, frantically looking for any sense of direction. “Ponyville, where—”

— Ugh… there’s a path right over there, behind that rose bush on your left. —

“Thanks, Fae!” Rainbow blurted out before galloping off in that general direction, blowing through the bush and other underbrush without any signs of slowing down.

.

Later, after leaving the Carousel Boutique...

It was that strange time between noon and afternoon, where technically it is after twelve noon but you wouldn’t associate it with the colloquially known 'afternoon’. At best, you might refer to it as such only due to technicality, such as saying ‘Good afternoon’ instead of ‘Good morning’.

Rainbow Dash found herself trotting aimlessly around the streets of Ponyville. This would have made for quite a relaxing walk, had she not just fled from her friends. Well, that and being wary of sunlight, of anypony who might get suspicious, and especially of the agents wandering here and there.

“So, Fae,” she whispered, turning her head to hide her mouth from passersby, “those ponies… the way Pinkie put it, sounds like they all had their own lives in Ponyville. How long are you gonna keep ‘em away for?”

— Just to be clear, if it weren’t for your public outburst on the morning after your turning, you would be here with us, too. Adjusting to life as a vampire can be jarring, to say the least. But I’m sure you already knew that. —

“Wait, so the only reason I’m not currently kidnapped is ‘cuz of my big mouth?”

— Now you’re getting it. —

Rainbow snickered to herself. “Amazing,” she mumbled. “But uhh, you still didn’t answer my question.”

— When am I going to let them return to Ponyville? —

“Yeah, that.”

— Oho… when they’re ready, child. When they’re ready… —

“Also not a real answer, but h’okay,” Rainbow grumbled, rolling her eyes.

She idly glanced around the streets ahead. Maybe it was just her, having been away for so long, but it certainly looked like there were fewer ponies out and about than usual. Those that were around seemed to have lost their typical cheer. Even if they were smiling, it didn’t reach their eyes. Furthermore, most of the Nightmare Night decorations were still hanging around. There were maybe one, two ponies tops that were even bothering to take some down.

Despite the sobering sight, it sounded like at least one pony was in a good mood.

“Rainbow Dash!!”

The pegasus’ ear twitched at the vaguely familiar voice. She barely had the chance to turn around before she was tackled over by the source.

“Wha?! Wait… Scootaloo!” Rainbow gasped, smiling wide. “Kid! I— wow, you’ve gotten big. Like, almost as big as me. When did that happen?!”

Scootaloo snickered. “Rainbow, I’m sixteen! I wasn’t gonna be a little filly forever.”

The younger pony hopped off of Rainbow, and the mare dusted herself off, careful to keep her hood up as she did so. “Wow. I’ve… really been away for a while, huh.”

“Ah, don’t sweat it. I’m just happy to see you’re alright! Erm, well… mostly.” Scootaloo shot Rainbow a sideways look. “What’s with the getup?”

“Huh? Oh right,” said Rainbow. “I’m uh, it’s some Wonderbolts thing, training thingy for costume shows, it’s… a thing. But what about you? Like, what’ve you been up to?”

Scootaloo giggled in excitement. “Oh, you know, just workin’ on tricks and stuff, hangin’ out with the girls, trying to survive Cheerilee’s attempt at a high school. Normal things, normal life.” She shuffled her hooves, blushing. “I want to hear more about life as a Wonderbolt! Dream come true, right?”

“Uh, yeah! Totally! Wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world,” said Rainbow. “But like, you’ve seen one show, you’ve seen ‘em all. What about your stuff? Got any scooter tricks to show off? I think it’s about time I watched and saw how much better you’ve gotten at your stuff.”

Rainbow nudged Scootaloo in the side, but Scootaloo just turned her eyes away. “Are you sure? I mean, it’s just a boring old scooter, nothing like all the acrobatic stuff you do…”

Rainbow frowned. “Somethin’ wrong?”

Scootaloo sighed. “Rainbow Dash, are you okay? You went kinda ballistic in front of the whole town yesterday. Admittedly, it was kinda funny, but first that and now you’re dressed like a crazy pony.” She stomped her hoof for emphasis. “And you don’t even want to fly or talk about the Wonderbolts?! Seriously, I’m worried about you.”

“Kid, uhh…” Rainbow bit her lip. “I-I told you, it's a training thing. And I don’t wanna bore you with that stuff. I—”

“I would love to hear all about flying. Really.” Scootaloo shook her head. “Rainbow, you’re like my big sister. You’re not gonna bore me! Just, y’know, talk about what you want. I’ll listen, and I’ll love it. I promise.” She then sat down, waiting patiently. “Come on, Rainbow. Tell me what’s up.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Nothing. Nothing’s up. I’m boring, for real.”

“Liar,” Scoot teased. “Most awesome pony I know, savior of Equestria multiple times over—”

— I beg her pardon?! —

“— and rumor has it, soon to be Captain of the Wonderbolts? Sounds pretty interesting to me!”

— Go back. What was that about ‘savior of Equestria’? What did you do before I met you?! —

Rainbow grabbed her head with both forehooves, trying in vain to make sense of both voices speaking to her at once. Scoot backed up at the sight, lip quivering.

“Yeesh, sorry,” she said. “I was just trying to be nice…”

Rainbow turned her head for a second and growled, under her breath, “Fae, shut up for a sec. Please.”

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. “Are you… talking to somepony?”

“No— er, yeah you— er… guh!” Rainbow clutched harder at her skull in frustration.

— Fine, but we are going to talk about this later. —

“Rainbow? Are you… feeling alright?” asked Scoot. She warily tried to give her friend a comforting pat on the back or hug or something, but suddenly Rainbow jolted back upright.

“Yeah never better what's up?” Rainbow blurted out, right eye twitching.

The two pegasi stood in rather awkward silence for a good half of a minute. By this time, some of the passersby began to take note of the strange sight of Rainbow in her sun-proofing outfit. The silent tension was broken not by one of the girls, but by a stallion’s voice.

“Excuse me, Ma’am?”

It was one of the Agents that had been roaming around town, plus his nearly-identical partner. They trotted over towards the two with the same, emotionless expressions they always had; this will continue to be specified in order to reinforce the fact that their faces never showed any expression and were, in fact, expressionless.

— Bad. Very bad. Get away from them. Now. —

“Uhh, so Scoot, I gotta—”

“Ms. Dash, glad we found you. I believe we owe you an apology.”

— Hold on. This might not be so bad. —

“Too. Many. Voices,” Rainbow grumbled.

The agents trotted up to the pair. Scootaloo awkwardly stepped aside as it appeared they were only interested in Rainbow. “My name is Agent Green, and my partner here is Agent Teal. On behalf of the Agency, we would like to inform you that any suspicions or charges potentially filed against you have been dropped. Executive order, all the way from the top.”

Rainbow let out a sigh of relief, her whole body relaxing for once as she let out a low chuckle. “Thanks, Twilight,” she said to herself.

— A personal pardon from the Princess of Equestria... Who are you?! —

“In addition,” the agent continued, reaching into his trenchcoat, “we have something for you, per your visit yesterday.”

And then Rainbow began to internally panic all over again, eyes wide and looking for an exit. “Uhh, yeah, about that…”

“Here you go,” said the agent, producing a small packet of papers, evenly stacked and stapled in the left corner equidistant from the top and left edges and parallel to the top. “The copies of the missing pony posters you requested.”

Rainbow blinked, taking a second to realize what happened. “Ohh!” she said. “Uhh, thanks guys. I’ll take a look or something later.”

As she stuffed the papers haphazardly into a pocket of her hoodie, the agents looked to each other and nodded. “That was all,” said one of them; honestly, they could’ve switched places and you wouldn’t be able to tell. “Stay safe, you two. Don’t forget about the curfew, effective tonight at sundown.”

Neither of the pegasi could get in so much as a ‘thank you’ before the two agents abruptly turned about and walked away. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and blew a raspberry at the two once they were out of earshot.

“Curfew, schmurfew,” she grumbled. “You were right, Rainbow Dash. Just who do these guys think they are?”

“Eh, some ‘official’ government ponies,” said Rainbow. “I say just let ‘em do their thing. They’ll be outta here before too long.”

“I hope so...” Scootaloo added.

— … okay, lose the kid. We need to talk. —

Rainbow turned her head away from Scootaloo to respond. “But—”

— No buts. Lose the kid or I will do it for you. —

“Did you say something?” asked Scootaloo, tilting her head slightly.

“Uhh…” Rainbow looked away, tugging on her hoodie collar. “Listen, kid, I uhh… To be honest, I am feeling kinda sick. I didn’t want anypony to worry, but…” She broke down into a totally realistic and believable coughing fit, and just as quickly came out of it. “I think I need to go lay down. We can, uh, catch up more later, okay?”

Scootaloo just stared back at Rainbow. “Oookay?” she said. “Uhh, see ya later then I guess.”

Rainbow stood up and turned to leave. “Later Scoot! Stay awesome!” she called back, already galloping up the road.

The teenage filly stood up and started after, but stopped and sighed after only a few feet. She took a deep breath, then glared.

“Rainbow Dash… I’m not a dumb little filly. Why are you lying to me?”

While most of Ponyville’s citizens were well aware of the uneasy situation going on, few knew the full extent. Somehow even fewer still noticed the rather large yet nondescript tent that had been erected adjacent to town hall. Nopony was ever seen leaving or entering the tent, and it had seemingly appeared overnight.

This is likely because it was, in fact, the entrance was located in a loading bay inside the town hall proper, and the tent was, in fact, set up quite efficiently between the hours of 3 and 6 AM this morning.

This tent was made to house the field agents of the Agency of Equestrian Inquisitions of the Obscure and Unnatural.

Inside, the tent was partitioned into subsections. The central hub was full of folding tables and chairs covered in binders, papers, and spreadsheets, not to mention all of the agents mulling about. When they weren’t working, the agents would head to the barracks for a nap. Working in shifts, they could continue their duties around the clock.

Then there was the conference room. Several picnic tables had been pushed together, with a cloth over top, to serve as a desk for most important matters. A strange metal-and-crystal contraption stood in the middle of this desk. It had a glass lens pointing towards a flat, vertical sheet of white linen. On the other side was another glass lens, pointing at one Special Agent Chartreuse.

The machine hummed to life at his touch, projecting a hologram in front of the sheet that depicted, he assumed, the ceiling of Canterlot Palace.

“Ahem,” said Chartreuse, “Princess, I believe that your manaprojector has become dislodged. Again.”

“Oh, sorry!” said a flustered feminine voice, coming out of the hologram itself. The view shifted clunkily, shrouded in pink, as the other device was re-positioned. “There, is that better? Maybe a few degrees to the right…”

Now the agent could clearly see the royal before him. Twilight Sparkle had grown in more ways than one since taking the throne. She was starting to look like her almost-sister to the north, with increased height, longer horn, and even longer mane. In fact, she actually looked to be growing into her predecessor's old throne, although not quite. Compared to the chair, she now looked like a pre-teen filly rather than an infant.

“This is fine, Ma’am,” said Chartreuse. “Now as for the purpose of this meeting—”

“Yes, I received your itinerary this morning,” said Twilight, levitating a rather lengthy scroll into view. “I know you wanted to talk about a certain order of mine first, but I can already tell you that I’m not budging on that.”

Chartreuse frowned. Well, slightly more than usual. “Ma’am, I highly advise that you reconsider. Given your history with the suspect, it is likely that your judgment may be… not so impartial.”

“Have you reviewed her track record?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Then you are surely aware that she has been instrumental in protecting Equestria on at least a dozen occasions,” said Twilight with a coy smile.

Chartreuse didn’t budge. “Ma’am, the mare known as Rainbow Dash may have a predominantly strong record, but let us not forget, ahem; ‘outstanding charge for domestic environment eco-terrorism, including destruction of government property, unauthorized advancement of seasonal transition, and waste of weather materia’. A charge which, I will remind you, was dropped and buried by your own instruction.”

“... she was really sad about her tortoise. She couldn’t help it!”

The agent’s jaw hung open for a moment as he looked for any possible response to that. “If Rainbow Dash is capable of such devastation just due to ‘sadness’, then—”

“Agent, please drop it,” said Twilight, scowling through the hologram. “I trust Rainbow Dash. She’s the most loyal pony I have ever met, to both me and Equestria. That includes everypony in your agency, the royal guard— heck, even my own brother!”

After a moment, the agent nodded. “Very well, Your Highness. I hope your trust is well-placed.”

Twilight took a deep and very practiced breath. “With that out of the way,” she said, “let us move on. Have we made any headway in locating the target?”

“Very little, unfortunately,” said Chartreuse. “We anticipate that she is aware of our continued pursuit, and has since the initial raid in Fillydelphia. There may be a lead on one of the missing ponies, but I’m worried that this, too, will be a dead end.”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “Hmm… there has to be another way to root her out. Ideally before she has had a chance to, well, ‘impact’ anypony else.”

“With all due respect, Ma’am, that ship has long since sailed.”

The princess sighed. “I hope you’re wrong, but… I know you’re probably right.”

“Should we expand our search radius, Ma’am? There were still other population centers in the direction of her flight. Perhaps we should start considering those.”

“No,” said Twilight. “She’s in Ponyville, somewhere.”

“Erm, what makes you so sure?” asked Chartreuse, peering over his unnecessary shades.

Twilight looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Because I’ve done the math, and somehow, 93.5% of all national incidents since the banishing of Nightmare Moon have come from, focused on, or otherwise directly involved Ponyville.”

“That is still at least a 6.5% chance the town will have nothing to do with this.”

“Besides being my home for so many years, Ponyville currently is host to the School of Friendship, at least three of the modern era Bearers of Harmony, and easy access to every magical relic hidden away in the Everfree Forest. If she wanted to spite us, that’d be one of the best places to go.”

“And if she’s simply fleeing for her un-life and freedom?”

Twilight frowned. “If that’s really the case, which I highly doubt given this group’s prior actions, then… okay, we can consider fanning out.” She sighed, hooves up to her temples. “She’s been around even longer than I have. We barely have any information on her, and thus no way of knowing how far she’s thought this game of cat and mouse through. All these unknowns… ugh, I am not a fan.”

Chartreuse merely blinked. “At least you are being proactive about the situation. Re-establishing our agency was a good first step.”

“At least I got to change the name,” Twilight grumbled. “What was Celestia thinking with ‘Fell-Blood Inquisition’? That sounds like they were the vampires!”

“I couldn’t tell you, Ma’am.”

Twilight chuckled. “Special Agent Chartreuse, please don’t take this the wrong way, but… you could really stand to lighten up a little.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Lighten up? During an active inquisition?”

“Investigation. That’s what we call it now. Sounds way less threatening, remember?”

“Of course, Ma’am. My mistake.”

Twilight groaned. “One day, Chartreuse. One day…”

It was nearing sunset and Rainbow Dash had worked her way away from town and into the woods. By now, she was trudging along, either from boredom or lack of sleep.

“Yeah,” she said, a little bleary, “I’m kind of a big deal.”

After a brief pause, filled with nothing but sounds of the forest, she spoke again. “What?! How can that be a bad thing?”

Hidden in the nearby bushes, a certain teenaged filly squinted suspiciously as she tracked the other pegasus. She had been following the colorful mare since shortly after they had officially parted, always several steps behind and out of sight. Years of evading foalsitters and aunts and teachers were paying off for Scootaloo. At least, for the most part.

“Who are you talking to?” she whispered to herself.

Rainbow kept going along the sparse trail, so Scoot followed in the underbrush. As they went, the mare kept speaking to, apparently, nopony at all.

“Well today went well enough.”

“Trust me, I’ll make it work. You don’t need to—”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll… be more careful, or something. Yeesh.”

Long shadows in the forest and a vibrant orange glow from the horizon marked the final minutes of daylight. In the back of her mind, Scootaloo was worried about getting in trouble for breaking curfew, but at this point she had committed to her little plan. She kept up her stealthy pursuit, determined to get to the bottom of all this weirdness.

Suddenly, Rainbow made a sharp turn off of the path into a thicket. Scootaloo tensed up, worried she might be caught in the mare’s peripheral vision, but luckily Rainbow’s hoodie got in the way. Scoot darted between bushes to avoid lingering in a gap, but that made a bit more of a rustling noise than she expected.

Rainbow turned her head, seemingly instantly, tilting her nose up and sniffing at the wind. “... nothing,” she said. “Probably just a squirrel or something… Yeah, like finding another rodent in the woods is gonna be hard.”

The pegasus glanced towards the horizon and the setting sun, then ducked down and continued at a crawl. Scoot did much the same to match pace.

This continued for a few more minutes until Rainbow reached a small clearing. She turned her eyes skyward and watched as the light of day faded, only to be replaced by the moon and the stars. Then she proceeded to… undress. Scootaloo instinctively looked away before remembering just how little Rainbow tended to wear clothes in the first place. By the time this happened, Rainbow had balled up her clothes inside the hoodie, standing on the ball triumphantly.

She took in a deep breath of the new night air. “Nice. No fire. Big improvement from earlier.”

Then the light of the moon touched her, and she looked shocked. The pegasus mare buckled over, suddenly out of breath, then reared up with a wicked hiss. Four fangs, sharp as daggers, protruded from her open mouth. Her eyes began to faintly glow in the dim light. The feathers on her wings began to slough off, a process sped up as she gave them a good flap or two.

Scootaloo was frozen in abject horror. Even in her own thoughts, she struggled to form coherent words.

“Ahh, there it is,” said Rainbow, with the faintest of lisps, presumably from the change in her dental work. “Still feels awesome. I— wait, what the heck happened to my wings?”

She spun in place, looking at her wings and the scattered blue feathers on the forest floor. Then she stopped, looking pensive. “So they’ll grow back? … Phew… Because bat wings are a little harder to explain than anything else about all this…”

The filly in the bushes felt her heart pounding in her chest. She slowly began to back away, but couldn’t take her eyes off of the monster before her, even to look where she was going.

Crack!

Rainbow once again instantly turned towards the source of the noise. She glared with glowing eyes, silhouetted by moonlight, and sniffed once more. This time it sounded even more bestial.

“That smell…” she growled. “Where have I… Pony, you say? … Great, just great.”

She slowly plodded forwards, eyes locked on Scootaloo’s location. The younger pony decided to hedge her bets, hoping she hadn’t quite been discovered just yet, and began to crawl away.

Rainbow froze in place, her face distorting from vicious hunger to worry and woe. “Kid…” she said, distant and in disbelief. “No, I… Fae, I can’t. I could never— “

She shut her eyes and violently shook her head. Then she took several warbling, harsh breaths. “Okay,” she grumbled. “Just… let me do it.”

Scootaloo locked eyes with the familiar creature for but a moment. Then Rainbow lunged.

The filly rolled, bucked back, then ran. She ran, and ran, and ran.

Author's Note:

Apologies if the intro flashback was a bit jarring. I wanted to introduce/tease at certain powers Fae has at the start of the chapter, and call back to them near the end. Hope it all tracks!