• Published 22nd Aug 2012
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II - adcoon



Can Rainbow Dash fight destiny, or will she and her friends have to give up the Magic of Friendship?

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II.16 - Echo and Narcissus

Of all the images playing in the still blue waters, one alone held her eyes prisoner. It was the image of herself in the mirror surface of the pond, sitting beside Twilight. The lights and colors of the forest glade flickered in the depths but could not compete with the vivid rainbow of her reflection. Eden and the two changelings shimmered at the periphery of her focus, and voices reached her from an unknown and distant place as the scene played out, but her mind paid none of this more than a token attention.

Rainbow lay on the soft cloud above the pond, one hoof dangling over the edge and head resting where her eyes could lazily gaze into the water. She hadn't moved since Eden left, except for a ponderous swinging of her hoof and occasional flick of her tail, and the snacks the wisps had brought her sat untouched beside her. Their coming and going hadn't even passed her notice.

In the depths of the well, close and yet worlds apart, Dash turned her head to look at Twilight as the unicorn said something which Rainbow only registered in passing. Rainbow narrowed her eyes as she watched herself from afar, watched the way Dash sat and moved.

A slow realization crept upon Rainbow while she watched, and a strange new terror loomed over her heart. She pulled her legs close to her body and lay there staring at the water, mesmerized by her own reflection, until the visions drew her in and night lulled her in its embrace.

***

A cold wind drifted across the surface of the little pond and touched the back of Rainbow's neck. She shivered and fluffed her wings in the vain hope of keeping a little warmth about her body. The reflection in the water looked back sadly at her and was joined by a second. Rainbow looked up at herself, standing there by her side with a cold expression. Dash didn't look back at her, but merely gazed at the pond.

“Hey,” Rainbow said with a hopeful flicker of a smile, hoping to draw the cold from her double. “We can fix this, right? We can save the day and our friends, and then we'll be whole again.” She summoned a bit more conviction and smiled a bright smile. “Together again, you and me, right?”

Dash turned and raised an eyebrow in a haughty expression. “We?”

Rainbow felt her smile fade and heart sink. A part of her died as she looked into the heartless eyes of her double. She opened her mouth to speak, feeling tears at the corners of her eyes. “We—”

Dash shoved a hoof in her chest and leaned closer, their eyes locked. “Hey, there's only one Rainbow Dash, got it? I don't know who you are.”

An eerie glow of violet lit up the darkness and cast long shadows behind Dash as Twilight stepped forward, face like a glacier. “There can be only one. You are but an echo, in time you will fade and nopony will remember you ever existed at all.”

Rainbow scrambled back on her hooves and backed away from the advancing unicorn. “W-what are you doing?” she cried and spread her wings uncertainly. “T-Twilight?”

“Fixing a mistake.” Twilight's horn flared as she spoke the words.

Rainbow's wings beat desperately as she jumped aside, but too late. A sudden and terrible cold pierced her heart and silenced her scream, as a force like a mountain tied to her leg pulled her down through the surface of the water. She fought to resist the pull, but it did not yield as the veil of blue closed in around her and pulled her relentlessly down, down into the freezing depths of the pond. Rainbow cried out and gazed upwards in despair at the stone-cold faces of herself and Twilight. Her screams and despair drowned as the surface of the pond froze over above her. Twilight's magic faded with the finality of her grave.

The image of Twilight and Dash, frozen upon the surface of the pond, grew smaller and smaller as she sank, pulled down until the pond was but a tiny dot, a lonely star in the endless black ocean above her.

A deep and utter stillness filled the void of her life.

And then, as the whole world seemed to end in oblivion around her, a long and distant whistle tickled her ear. The melody was soft and spoke of loss, of ponies once known who had gone away, friends and family drifted apart and lost to time. Rainbow blinked through tears that washed away in the cold water, and looked up as the melody faded into silent anticipation.

Rainbow stared, mouth hanging open at the black skies above where one lonely star gazed back at her. It blinked, once, and another tiny light flickered into existence. Another joined it, and in the span of a moment the whole sky had exploded into a billion stars before her.

A great horn blared and sundered the silence, the sound shaking the dark firmament of the heavens. Rainbow shut her eyes tight, but the star-blazed sky burned through her mind and ripped like cloth torn down its length. The darkness unraveled in strands of shadows, laying infinity bare before her eyes.

Out of the heavenly rift galloped a line of figures, like the army of ancient gods long forgotten. An armored black figure rode in front, darker and more glorious than any night. Her voice rose in song, as clear as frost and joined by horns echoing across the vast expanse between stars. Their hooves, gleaming with metal, trailed prismatic flares with each hit, and in their wake flowed forth a rainbow greater and more resplendent than any Rainbow's mind had ever dared dream of. It descended from a point at infinity and carved the sea of night in twain like a blade.

The dark waters around her parted, a great wall of water rising up in a circle, retreating before the oncoming riders. Horns were blown again, and the faceless host spread out across the seabed and came to a halt. Their leader galloped down the last steps of the gleaming bridge and reared up, her song reaching a crescendo before dying as her hooves once again hit the ground. Her long, slender horn glowed, and her grim helmet slipped off her head, revealing a mane of flowing starlight as she shook her head.

Princess Luna smiled at Rainbow and held out a heavy hoof clad in iron for her. “A warm welcome, Rainbow Dash,” she said as Rainbow, too bedazzled to form any coherent thought, took the hoof and felt herself pulled back up as if through miles of darkness. “It has been far too long since we visited your dreams. You liked our little dramatic entrances the last times, if we are not mistaken,” she said with a warm gleam in her eyes.

Rainbow shook herself, sending a cascade of water drops flying around her, and blinked at the lines of armored silhouettes behind the princess. She stretched her wings and found her voice again as she looked up at Luna. “M-my dreams?”

None of the water touched Luna as she stepped back from the shimmering bridge. “You are about to wake up. We wanted a chance to speak with you, and to facilitate contact with Twilight and your double.” Here she tilted her head in the direction of the bridge. “There may come a time when you are all asleep. I can bring you together, in dream at least.”

The bridge seemed to loom above her as Rainbow's gaze followed its wide arc where it ascended into heaven.

The princess stood next to her, tall and strong like a stone pillar. “You have seen how it must end,” she said in a voice that offered no comfort except the truth. “The dream is a lie, but it feeds on a truth.”

“There can be only one,” Rainbow murmured with a heavy heart. She could feel the darkness closing in around her as the vision of the dream faded.

Luna placed a heavy hoof on her shoulder and knelt down to look her in the eyes. “Even Eden can not make two equal one. She may offer you your life back, but whose life shall it be?” Rainbow felt lost and hopeless as the princess held her gaze. “Follow your friends, Rainbow Dash. Find your hope there,” she said and turned her head towards the point where the rainbow disappeared, far above them.

***

The great rainbow still lingered in her vision as she blinked awake. She lay for a time, thinking about the dream and what she had seen in the pond, before she became aware of the flickering lights now dancing in the water below her. She turned her head slightly and searched the room until she spotted Eden sitting nearby, observing the water in silent contemplation. Her face showed nothing except deep concentration and maybe a hint of worry as her eyes drifted slowly across the pond in search of something.

“Is … something wrong?” Rainbow asked, hoping she didn't disturb.

Eden didn't show any surprise and her gaze never left the water. “There are two sets of Elements,” she said quietly. For a moment she looked smaller. “I did not know when Twilight asked about them. It would seem your double appeared with them, or they with her.”

Rainbow felt a stab of sympathy and wanted to say something to reassure her. It was strange, and probably silly as well. She hesitated and said instead, “What does it mean?”

A hint of definite concern crossed Eden's face. “Your friend Twilight took me by surprise tonight. She knows that I was not aware of the two sets, and I fear this has given her reason to feel bold. She will most likely fight, and it will be hard to make her listen to reason. I also worry that it means she is going to try something incredibly stupid if we can not convince her otherwise.”

Rainbow leaned over the edge of the cloud and gazed into the water, trying to make out something, but all that met her were dancing lights. It was possible that there were images in there, but if so they moved past her too quickly. “If there are two Elements now, can't you just get one and we keep the other? Wouldn't that solve everything?” she asked, feeling a sliver of hope.

Eden shook her head lightly. “There are not actually two Elements, not like there are two of you. You can not divide or duplicate the magic itself. If you and your friends gave up one set, you'd give up the other too because they are one and the same.” She looked up and searched for a way to express it simply. “There is only one set of Elements, but at present that set exists in two places at the same time. One set, in two places.” Eden fell silent, staring back into the water.

Rainbow watched her for a time, waiting for more, but she seemed to have drifted off in some thought of her own. A terrible feeling snuck up on Rainbow, crawling down her spine. Something had frightened Eden, and whatever it all meant, it was surely bad news.

***

The hall was empty as Rainbow left the well and Eden to find her bed. She stopped briefly and looked around at her leg, bending it slowly to test the healing. There was only a mild ache and bit of stiffness left in it now. She stretched it and moved it back and forth a few times before putting it down again. Slowly she put more weight on it and smiled in relief. It would be good as new in the morning, at this rate.

Hoofsteps echoed down the hall and made her look up. Doodlebug came through the door a moment later, still wearing the Shadowbolt uniform and looking a bit rough as he walked in his own thoughts towards the living quarters. Rainbow stood still, watching him in breathless silence. He reached the corridor before something made him look up and see her standing there. He paused, a haunted look crossing his face briefly before being replaced by a hopeful smile.

Rainbow didn't move and said nothing. The seconds ticked by in silence as she fought with herself, feeling a crushing emptiness around her heart. But she couldn't give in. Slowly the hope drained from his face, replaced by sadness. She watched him turn back and disappear down the corridor, watching her over his shoulder until she disappeared out of his sight. Rainbow remained for several minutes before slowly making her way in the other direction.

***

Blaze and Frostfell were both asleep as she snuck the door open. Rainbow slipped inside as quietly as she could and found a spare blanket in the corner. She stopped with the blanket in her mouth and watched them for a time through the bars. Nothing but their slow breaths were heard. Rainbow looked down, then slipped back outside and headed down the lonely corridors.

All the rooms and corridors looked the same as she got deeper into the old castle. There weren't any decorations or anything else to distinguish rooms from each other. It matched the feeling threatening to overtake her.

Ash covered the floor and thick smoke snaked around her hooves as she reached her destination. The ruined throne loomed at the end of the great hall, and before it sat the hunched figure of Kin in perfect stillness. Rainbow paused in the archway and watched him for a minute before silently flying around him towards the throne. She settled down with a breathless sigh on the ashen stone next to the throne and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket.

She huddled up and stared ahead of her at the darkness, trying not to listen to her selfish heart screaming in her hollow chest. This was where all her reason told her she should be. It was the right thing, the loyal thing. Here she could not hurt anypony or break their hearts, here she could stay and be a zero. And one plus zero is one, just as it should be.

She closed her eyes, but they might as well have been wide open. No rest would come to her.

“Hrm hmm.” The sound of Kin's rumbling voice was as much felt as it was heard. “So you have given up on your friends, have you, hrm?”

“No,” she muttered under her blanket.

“How will you help them if you hide down here?”

“In my dreams, maybe,” she said with a bit of a hint in her voice.

The gargoyle was silent for a few minutes, and Rainbow almost thought he had taken the hint. Then the rumble returned thoughtfully. “Solitude and desolation never fostered any dreams. You will find no, hrm, dreams down here. Only ashes, and me.”

Rainbow opened her eyes and gazed out from under the blanket. Somewhere in the dark, Kin was watching her silently. The stillness was oppressive and seemed to poke at her. Finally she sat up and lowered the blanket from her head, but didn't look up to meet his gaze. “I saw my double. She's out there living a life of her own, and I can not ask her to give that all up if … when we become one again,” she explained, gazing down at herself. “It is better if I don't get involved with anypony so I don't hurt them when I go.”

Kin coughed, or made a noise very much like a cough. “A little late, no?”

Rainbow sank a bit but said nothing.

“Hrm.” The gargoyle took a long breath and sighed, causing the smoke to rise up across the room. “Life is change, hrm, and to live is to lose. You have a chance to live, a chance to experience great and wondrous things for a short time. If you don't seize it now you will lose the most precious thing of all: the chance to, hrm, have those things,” he said slowly. “That's what I keep telling myself, over and over. I tell you—” Rainbow glanced up at the glowing embers of his eyes “—If I wanted a coward to keep me company, I'd polish one of these stones to a mirror sheen, hmm?”

***

Doodlebug blinked awake and looked up at her. Rainbow paused in the doorway, holding the now sooty blanket. “I'm not a coward,” she murmured and lowered her eyes. “Can I sleep here tonight?”