The End of the Rainbow

by JTH

Chapter 15

Rainbow Dash struggled to open her eyes, wondering if it was okay to do so. But once she did, nothing was like what it was when she closed them. She somehow was already on her hooves, staring down what could only be described as an endless starry sky. It had been so long since she saw the stars that they looked out of the ordinary upon seeing them.

The other noticeable puzzlement was that no pony was present. That was when Dash recalled what Princess Luna had spoken to her of. Perhaps by inducing Rainbow's slumber, Luna could bring her to a remote location of the Dream Realm, one where no pony could traverse in. It felt so...lonely to be here though. There wasn't even a single echo of sound either, not the the steps she took making any noise below her. Rainbow wondered how something that looked so beautiful, could feel so lifeless?

"Princess Luna!?" Rainbow Dash called out to the deep horizons. Hoping the Princess would hear her within this empty abyss of nothing. But nothing was heard upon Rainbow Dash's call. "Princess Celestia!?!" She cried out to the other Princess, only to hear the same eerie silence. Dash looked around in all directions, in a hope to see anypony at that point. Disappointment was all that came.

However, it would not be for much longer...

A loud rumbling began to occur, making the essence of the ground underneath the pegasus shake from below. The noise could only be described as a loud moaning from above. Rainbow knew that noise, she had heard it before in her dreams in the past. And then, without warning came a bellowing call...

"I suspected you would come here!!!"

Rainbow Dash looked above as the cloudlike, starry sky began to swirl and change shape before her eyes. The horizon changed from a glowing blue to a dark red as a dark smoke-like form started to come into creation. As the smoke swirled, it grew larger, until it took up the entirely of the once sky above. Rainbow took a stance of defense and readiness as she began to hear the all too familiar laughter that had haunted her dreams since their first encounter.

Then, his eyes appeared. Glowing blue and bright for what seemed like miles in the sky above the pegasus.

"You..." Rainbow Dash said in a soft yet aggressive voice that could be heard from the figure above.

"It was unwise to come here alone..." The dark figure said in a bellowing echo, making the ground shake upon speaking.

Rainbow Dash though stood tall, spread her wings in an attacking position. "Maybe the same can be said for you!" And Dash flew up to face the monster before her.

Raindoom looked on and sharply closed his eyes nearly shut, as the pegasus continued to charge gaining more and more speed. "Foolish filly..." He uttered, saying almost with a tone of disappointment more than anger.

Raindoom summoned a mighty gust of winds, more powerful than the even the strongest of hurricanes. Blowing directly into the pegasi's path, the stifling winds stopped Dash into her tracks midair. Flapping as hard as she could, it proved futile. And then with a wind twice as strong, sent Rainbow Dash back down to the ground below.

Rainbow managed to roll backwards to break the fall and struggled back to her hooves. The hardened breeze continued to push her back, every time when trying to fly back into the air caused her to be pushed back further from the cloud in the sky she thwarted to stop. Then, Rainbow gathered an idea. She decided to use the wind to her advantage, if the wind was so strong that Dash couldn't fly into with her ability of speed, to fly with the wind would nearly double her already amazing speed. Fast enough to even possibly do a Sonic Rainboom without any effort.

Rainbow picked herself up and galloped with the howling breeze, it was so intense that by just opening her wings she lifted into the air with incredible speed. Aware of what Rainbow Dash was planning, Raindoom halted the intense gusts. Doing so allowed Dash to alter course and aim at her target, the center of the cloud before her.

Rainbow's speed continued to increase as she neared striking distance. Concentrating hard, Rainbow was almost ready, but then she saw her nemesis counter.

Raindoom began to shift and alter his figure to form a massive hole that was once the center of its being, creating an opening to protect itself from a hit. And before Rainbow Dash could change her flight movement, she flew through the opening, leaving her target undamaged.

"NO!!" She cried out in frustration, getting an euphotic stare for the entity.

"Stop trying to fight me young one! You are just going to get yourself hurt once again!!!" The voice called out from behind her now. And as Rainbow Dash turned around to see where the figure was, a massive bolt of lightning was careening towards her direction. Rainbow tried to evade, but was too late. The bolt clipped her left wing slightly, and upon impact tensed up her left side, Rainbow began spiraling down to ground below. And the incredible speed she had garnered only meant as equal a free-fall back to the surface.

Rainbow Dash tried to flap her slightly singed wing to create any kind of lift to alter course and keep from avoid crashing, but it remained limp, plus her spiraling was so rapid that just spreading her wings wouldn't create any veer to level off. She was definitely on course for a significate crash. Rainbow could only close her eyes and wait for the evitable, brutal smash into the ground...

After a long weighty period, Rainbow slowly opened her eyes to see that she was floating mere feet from the ground, and to the side of her vision she could the reason.

The Princesses of the Day and Night began to appear slowly in a staticky like phase, becoming more solid by the moment. They had found Rainbow Dash in just the nick of time to save her, shortly after the realization, Luna and Celestia lowered Rainbow Dash safely to the ground. Luna and Celestia both checked on the rainbow mare's blackened left wing feathers from the shock. But before the Princesses could say anything to assure their entrance into the Dreamscape, the rumbling above attracted the eyes of all the present ponies to the sky. There the dark reddish cloud continued to alter and glow with certain evil intentions.

"I should have known the two of you were behind this..." The cloud stated with vulgar and disgust in its voice. "But it matters not...your interference will not stop what I was created to do." After a pause, it said with further malice. "No matter how hard you try!"

Raindoom sent another blast of wind in the direction of Rainbow Dash and the Princesses, but all were able to avoid the gusts without much difficulty. Rainbow still slightly dinged up with the previous attack turned to the Princesses as Celestia called to her. "Hurry my dear. You must stop Raindoom before it escapes the dreamscape."

Rainbow Dash turned to the Princesses, seeking their help to stop Raindoom, who would certainly not go down easily. But Luna and Celestia believed that their hooves were tied. "Raindoom is immune to our magic, there is no way we would make a difference..." Celestia reminded the pegasus, but Rainbow Dash wasn't so sure about their pessimistic beliefs.

"Your magic may not make a difference in the real world, but this isn't the real world. This is a dream! And you told me that I can make anything possible in this dream, remember?"

Rainbow Dash was responded quickly by Luna, the one responsible to put this dream together. "You are capable of making anything possible Rainbow Dash, but not us. This is your only dream, not ours..."

But then, Rainbow Dash figured it out. "Exactly! This is my dream, that means I can make your magic work, because I can believe it will!"

Rainbow Dash then turned to look up above to Raindoom once more, standing before the Princesses. Dash then closed her eyes tightly and began to focus hard. Before the surprise of Celestia and Luna, the tips of Rainbow's singed wing began to heal and return to fit flying form...exactly like Rainbow Dash wanted. Then opening her eyes again with confidence, it was time to end this nightmare, in more ways than one. For herself and for everypony.

Princess Luna and Celestia looked to one another as Rainbow Dash spread her wings, ready for takeoff as the dark cloud loomed over.

"Now Princesses!!!" Ordered out Rainbow Dash, a rare instance to instruct a royal what to do, although if you include training Twilight Sparkle how to fly, they would be the second and third Princesses Rainbow would have instructed at some point in her life. On cue, Luna and Celestia began to cast their spell, far more powerful than they ever believed it could have.

Within moments a massive magical barrier appeared around the entire entity of Raindoom, who looked at the spell observing it with a sense of alarm. "NO!!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!"

The barrier glowed a bright yellow and blue from the Princesses, but though the spell was powerful so was the strain. "Hurry child!" Luna called out to the pegasus in front of her. "You haven't much time!!!"

In a snap, Rainbow Dash zoomed into the air with a rainbow streak behind her, gaining speed rapidly while Raindoom had no where to marenuever within the confines of the royal's spell.

Rainbow continued to go faster, knowing she could go as quick as she chose to go. And then it began to happen, the force of the sound barrier began to shape around Dash, the Sonic Rainboom was not far from happening. "Come on! A little more!" She motivated herself to keep pushing.

And soon after...

*BOOOM*

Rainbow perfectly executed her Sonic Rainboom, meaning the Princesses had to act fast. They had to allow Rainbow to pass through the barrier the moment she could strike the cloud creature above. A moment too soon, and Raindoom could escape...A moment too late, and Dash would strike nothing but the magic barrier leaving Raindoom undamaged. They had to time it perfectly...

Rainbow Dash continued to close, and close, until...

"NOW SISTER!!!" Princess Celestia commanded Luna. In a split instant, the barrier disappeared as Rainbow Dash came to contact with Raindoom, who remained still. What followed was the brightest light any pony had ever seen, blinding everypony momentarily. Though in an second to follow, Luna and Celestia opened their eyes. All they saw was the beautiful rainbow that Dash had created.

And more importantly was what they couldn't see. The dark cloud of Raindoom that once took up the entire scope of the Dreamscape, was gone, no where to be seen.

Even after several minutes, it remained the same. Before long, Luna and Celestia began to see Rainbow Dash return from the far distance. She appeared from the ground to be uninjured, but she also looked to be looking around in all directions. Once she herself spotted the Princesses, she landed close by, still looking to be a bit distracted. Rather than looking excited and happy for having defeated the weather foe before them, Dash seemed worried instead. "Where did it go?" Questioning to the Princesses, but rather than giving an answer, the Princess of the Day brought in Rainbow for an embrace. "It is over now..."

Rainbow Dash though didn't feel so sure. "But I don't understand..." Pulling away from Celestia in the process. "I don't feel like I hit anything." Continuing to scan the scape's upper horizon.

Rainbow Dash's experience in the weather and clouds was an advantage in this case. Knowing the structure and makeup of clouds, knowing of them being condensed vapor and water would mean passing through one would have changed the moisture level and wettened her coat and mane...and she felt that didn't happen. To her, it simply was passing through the same space of scape they hovered in now. Rainbow didn't know where Raindoom had gone, but whatever happened...she wasn't the reason for it.

Luna and Celestia's concern started to grow, looking up as Rainbow had. "I do not understand..." Celestia stated. "If Raindoom hasn't been destroyed, then where could it be?"

Almost instantly upon asking the query, came a violent rumbling within the Realm, it was soon followed by a low yet loud moaning sound. Then, came the voice they dreaded.

"It appears your friend's magic is more powerful than I imagined little one..."

Within seconds, a bright pink flash covered the horizon, and the dark red cloud they all hoped gone began to reemerge, swirling about to reform. The full form of Raindoom was fully restored, though something was different in its current state. Raindoom looked to be glowing in the same pinkish magenta aura that flashed before its reappearance. The three ponies below looked on in a dazed confusion, how could this have happened?

"My friend's magic?" Rainbow scoffed at. "What is that supposed to mean!?!" But the look on the Princesses' faces told more of the story.

"It is Twilight Sparkle's magic!" Luna called out, pointing to the figure above. "It has absorbed her magic as well..."

Rainbow looked back to Raindoom above her. It did bare a similar pinkish aura of her friend's magic. Rainbow Dash turned back to the Princesses confused. "What!? B-But how did that thing get Twilight's magic!?"

Luna and Celestia explained that Princess Twilight Sparkle had to blast away Raindoom with her magic to allow the Princesses to create the spell that protected the ponies in the first place. But Dash was confused, when did that happen?

Then she remembered... The first time Raindoom appeared. The first rain event that occurred left Rainbow Dash in a state of unconsciousness. Rainbow never could have realized all that had happened in that brief period of time. Now in that span, Raindoom had the magic of both the Princesses in Canterlot and now Twilight as well. No doubt that things looked very dim, and it wasn't just from the dark dreary colors all around them...

"You ponies can do anything you want here because it is the Dream Realm..." Raindoom began, but then narrowed his eyes to a near glare. "I can do anything I want here...because I CAN!!!"

Raindoom heeding to his word, sent out a powerful pulse of Twilight's magic. The blast of magic came flying at the Princesses and Rainbow Dash at a high rate of speed. Even though Rainbow may have been able to fly away from the attack, the Princesses didn't have the magic reserves needed to hold off the blast themselves; so Rainbow tried to fly in front of the blast to shield them, but Twilight's magical attack that came from Raindoom was much too strong to withstand. The pulse of magical energy struck all three ponies together. While Dash seem able to recoup, the blast caused Luna and Celestia to scream out in agony, but that wasn't all. The magic pulse also broke their connection to Rainbow's dream, thus when struck, the Princess of the Day and Night began to phase out until they disappeared from the Realm. Dash called out to the royals, but it was no use...they were gone. And as Raindoom continued to hover above her, Dash looked up to her foe in anger. "Where are the Princesses? What did you do to them!?!" But as Rainbow demanded to answered, something she had realized caught her off guard.

Despite what Luna had said, Dash did not also phase from the Dream Realm upon the connection of her link with Luna being broken. Rainbow was alone, with no help and no clue what to do. It was only her and Raindoom now within the Dreamscape. "Wait...how am I still here? I thought I was supposed to..."

But before Rainbow Dash could finish her question, the figure above in a surprise to her, gave her an answer...

"Your Princesses' magic was weakening rapidly. It made overpowering her link to your dream quite easy." Raindoom explained. But the response made Dash realize what was going on. "As I told you once before, I have all the abilities of your beloved Princesses, linking myself to your dream is no different. And with their weakened state, I fear rebreaking my link to this dream will be quite impossible for them. Which means..."

"No..." Came a soft defeated voice from Rainbow Dash.

"With my excess magic in this realm, I can keep you within this dream for as long as I desire!"

Raindoom's statement was feared true. The entity was far too strong, his magical output far surpassed any of the Princesses currently, even Twilight's magic...which Raindoom now also possessed somehow. Which made this a grim reality...Raindoom could use its magic to keep Rainbow Dash trapped within the Dream Realm...forever!