Benevolence in Black

by LucidTech

And then there were five

Rainbow dash awoke, her vision blurry as she looked at her surroundings. Last she remembered she had been flying away from cloudsdale. But why had she been flying away? Oh yes, something about a disease. Twilight had said that it... possessed ponies or something. Hadn’t her leg been scratched by one of the pegasus when she was escaping? She must have been wrong about how it was spread then.

Why was it so dark? Rainbow sat up as she pondered that very question. Her vision slowly cleared and revealed to her her surroundings, as her gaze moved around the room her heart met with a sudden start when two monsters at the end of the table she lay on came into view. When they saw that she had woken up they began to approach, their tentacles reaching towards her as they did so. So scared was the pegasus that she didn’t recall that they hadn’t had tentacles mere moments ago. “Rainbow!” One of them said in a deformed voice. “I’m so glad you’re awake!”

“G-get away from me, you octopus things.” The pegasus extended her hoof to try and keep them at bay but they continued closing in toward her.

“Rainbow, it’s me, Twilight!” They were even closer now, they were coming to kill her, she could see it in their eyes. And so she decided that if she was going to die she wasn’t going to let her friends name be smeared by such an obvious fraud.

“Don’t pretend to be her you monster, Twilight looks nothing like you! You aren’t her! She’s smart, and organized, and always has a book. You aren’t her!” The creature that had been approaching flinched away at the words while the second one yelled something out the door of the room. Towards the end of her words it seemed like she was trying to convince herself of the fact as well.

“What’s the matter huh? Truth too much for you, you creep?!” Sudden energy hit her veins as she realized she was beating away her attackers with words alone. The first monster bent towards the ground, the sound of whimpering starting to fill the air. “Oh no, you aren’t gonna get ME with your pity trap!”

It was at this point that a third monster entered the room, though something about him screamed at the mare’s groggy brain, he didn’t look like the others. He stood taller and seemed to blend in with the shadows of the room as he moved. “Oh, so you brought your boss in here now huh? Well he looks stupid and ugly.” The creature approached, it’s tentacles at it’s sides. “Yea, now I know you aren’t Twilight, because Twilight wouldn’t need help from such an ugl-” She was silenced as a tentacle jolted forward and collided with her face.

Despite the obvious strength of the hit she didn’t feel much pain, the blow only knocking her back flat on the table. A collection of tentacles closed around her neck and she began to scream as the face of the monster approached. Just as she was sure of her own demise she felt a prick in her neck and looked to see a small syringe sticking out.

She turned back to the creature and watched in amazement as the tentacles began to fade from view, revealing a bird like mask staring down at her. The creature let go and Rainbow bolted upright yet again. Where the two monsters had been before there was now only two unicorns. One of which was most assuredly Twilight, who was weeping.

With anger in her eyes the pegasus looked at Trixie with eyes full of anger. “What did you do to her!” She asked with a tone full of rage.

Trixie’s eyes widened and a tone of rage entered her voice as well. “What did I do? What did I DO?! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO INSULTED HER ONLY A FEW SECONDS AGO!” Realization dawned on the pegasus’s face and Lucid approached the showmare, resting a hand on her shoulder for a second before walking away, leaving a paper behind.

The showmare eagerly opened the sheet while Rainbow dropped to the floor next to her friend. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Twilight. You looked like some creature from the black lagoon. I wouldn’t have said those things if I knew it was you.”

The librarian looked at her friends with bloodshot eyes, clearly she had been crying prior to Rainbow Dash’s awakening as well. Maybe I should tear out her throat, then she’ll be silent as I eat her. Then she can’t say those thing to me again. Twilight’s coat darkened as she looked at her friend, but suddenly turned back to it’s normal color before Rainbow could be sure that she had seen it. “It’s- It’s alright Rainbow, you didn’t know.”

“She’ll need another injection tomorrow morning.” Trixie said, suddenly speaking up as she finished reading over the note that Lucid had left her. “This is the side effect of the cure on her, waking nightmares.”

Rainbow dash looked at the pony with a confused expression for a moment before Twilight spoke up. “But if it’s the side effect of the cure, how did Lucid manage to make something that put it at bay, even for a moment?” Did this mean there might be a way for Spike to receive temporary sight?

“Apparently the chemical he injected her with slows the brain processes, which is what causes her hallucinations. She’ll have trouble thinking while she’s on the drug, but I think that it shouldn’t affect any of her basic automatic functions like breathing and the such.”

“Well at least there’s some good news then.”

“Twilight...” Both unicorns looked over to the confused pegasus. “What’s going on?”

Twilight seemed to stutter with her words for a moment before looking her dead in the eye. “Remember what Celestia told me to do? With the disease?”

“Yea?”

“I failed.” Twilight’s gaze moved to the ground and Trixie placed the paper on the desk a short distance away.

Slowly the voice’s of the two ponies began to distort once again, though whether that was from her side effect or her general shock she couldn’t tell. She looked slowly towards the showmare who only looked back with a dead expression and a few words. “Welcome to the end of the world, Rainbow Dash.”

---

(A bit less dark this chapter, sorry about that. It's sad though, does that count? -N64Fan)

Comments

[Zweihander]

Who said you have to write "dark and creepy" all of the time?
EDIT
totally not saying first

[LucidTech]

1259773

The fact that I tagged this as 'dark' for one...

[Tofty]

I liked it.

[Zweihander]

1259909
Dark is merely a genre choice, it's okay to have chapters that aren't always dark and broody. Honestly, this is a good story, I'm glad you're showing character development
If a story is totally, completely dark, than it becomes boring after a while. A sad or light comedic chapter is awesome. Keep writing!

[omega-ze-wargod]

GOD THE FEELS AT THE END

[The Well Dressed Ninja]

Eh, I wouldn't mind some cuteness. It'll contrast nicely against all the darkness, probably bring the dark scenes more emphasis.