The Rainbow Curse

by Prixy05

Chapter 8

Rainbow Dash’s ears popped as she broke through the sound barrier. The rainboom spread behind her in an explosion of color as she flew as fast as she could, straight to Canterlot. Her body wasn’t necessarily at its full capability, but the adrenaline willed her through anyways. This was her last chance to stop the rainbow plague from returning and hurting her friends. Rainbow needed to get Grogar’s Bell.

After mere minutes, the pegasus arrived at Canterlot Castle, kicking up a cloud of dust as she slid to a halt in front of the castle gate. The two guards at the gate, the ones she had accosted on her previous visit, stared at the new arrival in surprise.

The out-of-breath Rainbow looked up, “Open the gate!”

“You don’t need to get all angry,” the right guard stated, holding up a hoof, “The new entry list is all approved, so you’re free to enter if you wan-”

“Open the damn gate!”

The left guard lowered his ears, “Sweet Celestia! Okay, okay!”

But Rainbow scarcely waited for the guards, pushing her body through as soon as it opened a crack. The pegasus swerved around the dirt path, nearly knocking over Spike, who had gone down to the gardens earlier, in the process.

The dragon began furiously flapping his wings, attempting to keep up with Rainbow. “Rainbow Dash?” he asked, looking at her with confusion, “What happened? And where’s Twilight?”

Rainbow brushed him aside, continued her gallop to the archival tower across the castle grounds. “I don’t have the time for answering questions Spike! There’s no time! They’re coming and I have to stop them!”

“Who? Twilight?”

Rainbow didn’t answer, as she reached the archival tower. She slammed open the door and began to rapidly search for a specific torch. She quickly found it, a golden torch on the wall, in a remote corner behind a bookshelf, with the sun, the symbol of Celestia, engraved on the handle. It was the place she had gone with Twilight to access the secret Canterlot archives previously.

Rainbow pulled the torch with no hesitation, immediately throwing herself down the stone staircase that unveiled itself.
Spike followed, calling out for his friend to slow down. “Rainbow! I know we went down there previously, but you can’t go down there without permission from Twilight! Rainbow! Slow down!” But his calls were in vain, Rainbow had already gone down.

In the secret tunnel underneath Canterlot, where all the secret things were stored and secured, a rainbow of light sped down the tunnel, kicking up a flurry of papers as she sped past the arches.

Rainbow skidded to a halt as she reached the end of the tunnel. She was exhausted, having been going faster than her weary body would allow, but Rainbow continued to persist. She glanced around, spotting the newest section of the archive.

It was little over a week old, containing items and scripts from the attempted takeover of Equestria right before Twilight became princess. There was nothing much of note to Rainbow, except at the end of the tunnel.

Resting on a stone pillar, underneath a glass cover that shimmered with a protective spell, was the Bewitching Bell. The ancient copper bell had long ago turned a shade of green, and cracks ran along its surface, another sign of its age. And it was powerful, capable of containing the magic of even an all-powerful like Discord, but apparently that wasn’t all it could do.

Rainbow slowed to a halt in front of the bell. Her exhaustion vanished immediately as she felt her body absorb the magic spell protecting the bell. The purple shimmer of the protective spell flickered and vanished, leaving the bell open for her taking.

“Go ahead, take it,” her inner instinct whispered in her ear, “You know you want to. You know you need to.”

“Yes,” Rainbow whispered to herself, “I need to take it.”

She flung a hoof forward, easily shattering the glass that covered the bell. Rainbow didn’t care about the pain, for the bell was in her grasp. It called out to her, beckoning for her to ring it.

“Rainbow? What are you doing?”

Rainbow Dash spun around, turning to face Spike, who looked at her with shock.

“Is- is that the Bewitching Bell? Why in Equestria would you want to steal it?”

She froze, looking down to the copper bell in her hooves. “It’s hard for me to explain-” she stammered, “but I need to take this bell. The rainbow plague. It’s back and I need to take control of it all.” She knew the rainbow bugs were out and about, she didn’t know where, but she felt it.

Spike didn’t respond, simply looking at her with an unclear expression.

“He doesn’t believe you,” her inner voice hissed at the dragon, “He doesn’t trust you. None of them do.” Rainbow wanted to yell at her voice to shut up, but she remained still.

Spike noticed her thinking, “Rainbow, I don't know what's going on with you, but I won’t let you steal from the archives.”

“He doesn't know anything,” said Rainbow’s instinct, “Take the bell. Leave. He couldn’t stop you if he tried. And if you ring the bell, nopony can.”

Spike watched as Rainbow quivered, her face strife with inner turmoil. But then, she was gone.

Spreading her wings, Rainbow knocked him aside, and flew down the hall in an instant. Spike watched in disbelief as her rainbow trail shimmered for a moment before disappearing, leaving him in the darkness.

---

In the castle grounds of Canterlot, worker ponies went about their business, not noticing as a spot in the grass began to shimmer. There was a flash of light, and Twilight Sparkle appeared with the rest of her group. Having used up the remainder of her energy teleporting them all to Canterlot, the worn-out princess collapsed to the ground.

Twilight grasped Applejack’s hoof as she lay on the ground, “Get- everypony- to safety,” she gasped.

“Too late!” Pinkie Pie screamed, pointing a hoof to the sky.

They were too late; the wasps had arrived. Around them, ponies panicked and fled from the swirling cloud of blue and rainbow spread through the skies above Canterlot. The wasps snapped their maws, dribbling out their rainbow goo as they hungrily eyed the many defenseless ponies below, ripe for incubation.

The ponies gasped, bracing for the worst as the wasps swooped in. But suddenly, they froze. Their heads twitched, whipping to stare the nearby archival tower.

Twilight shuddered, struggling to lift her head up to see what had caught rainbow wasps’ attention. Out of the archival tower walked Rainbow Dash. And in her hooves, she held a bell. Grogar’s bell.

The wasps eyed her curiously, slowly closing in around the pegasus. Rainbow knew wouldn’t attack her, so she silently lifted the bell over her head.

The bell rang once.

The ding of the bell echoed in her ears, dimming to a silence that covered all everything else she could hear.

And then; then Rainbow Dash could hear everything.

The sudden influx of sensory sensations, much like when she had flown into the stomach of the original queen long ago, nearly overwhelmed her. Her mind suddenly cleared up, like she could now handle everything. The colors around her seemed to brighten, and she could feel all of the magic of Equestria flowing around her, filling her with energy.

And Rainbow could hear the bugs. She didn’t know exactly what they were, but she knew they were now hers.

The tinny voices of the bugs were now audible to her and her mind, and they trilled together as a cacophony of voices, “The bell, the bell. Our Queen. Queen of the hive.”

Rainbow heard the heartbeat. A new heartbeat, her heartbeat. The rhythmic thump that was now shared with her and the rest of them. The entire hive.

“You did it!” Rainbow’s queen voice exclaimed with joyous enthusiasm, “You made the choice. We are now one.”

“So how do I make them stop? How do I put an end to all of this?” Rainbow asked out loud, knowing that no one else could hear her inner voice.

“They already know,” her inner voice explained, “The rainbow plague follows the bug. And they follow you.”

As the voice finished speaking, the wasps lifted in unison, synchronously fluttering their wings and lifting their bodies above. Rainbow looked up, watching as the wasps rested in a stationary cloud of glowing colors in the air high above the castle. Then she looked down, noticing her friends, staring at her silently.

An expression of sadness filled Rainbow’s face. She needed to tell them. Tell them everything.

Slowly Rainbow walked up to the group of ponies, approaching Twilight, who tiredly laid on the ground. She stared with a look of concern, “Rainbow, what’s going on?”

Rainbow sniffed, “All of this, this is all my fault,” she lowered her head as tears began flowing her eyes. She tried to stifle back a sob, but it came through, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know any of this would happen. But if I did- I wouldn’t have- I wouldn’t have lied, lied to you all.” She hung her head in shame as loudly cried, louder than any other time since the queen inside her was awakened.
Twilight rested a hoof under Rainbow’s chin, lifting her head so she could look right into the pegasus’s eyes. “Rainbow, it's okay. You tell us what happened.”

Rainbow blinked, her eyes stinging with tears. She glanced over at her friends with a look of shame. “When I first destroyed that queen, during the last rainbow plague, I was chosen to be the next queen. I am the new queen. And- and when Cozy Glow used this bell, it activated the plague inside me. But I didn’t tell anypony about it. I lied to you, about the dreams, about the voice, about the bugs, I just- I don’t know why I did it!”

What happened next caught Rainbow off guard, as Twilight stood up and embraced the pegasus in a hug. “I- we forgive Rainbow. None of this was your fault. You made a choice, a choice to save us back during the first rainbow plague. But all this, it was beyond your control, and you still made the choice to save us again.”

Rainbow didn’t answer. She just sniffed, before embracing the alicorn. She rested her muzzle in Twilight’s soft, purple fur and cried. The two ponies remained still for a minute, allowing Rainbow to let out her emotions, openly sobbing as all the stress, nightmares, and the turmoil she had suffered through the previous week were all let out at once.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled from nearby, running out of the tower in a panic, “Rainbow Dash broke into the archive and-” he stopped and looked up at the wasps, “Uh, what are those things?”

“Don’t worry Spike,” Twilight said, “It’s over. The rainbow wasps aren’t going to hurt anypony.”

Rainbow sat up, straightening her wings, “Sorry Twilight, but it isn’t over.”

She clutched the bell in her hooves, “I still have the plague inside me, as do all of them.” She wiped her snout before coughing, a glob of rainbow flying out of her mouth and landing in the dirt below. She pointed at the simmering goo, “See?”

“Oh Rainbow,” Fluttershy answered, “It doesn’t matter what’s inside you, we will always accept you. And since the wasps calmed down, I’m sure I could find a spot for them in the sanctuary in Ponyville.”

Rainbow gave a heavy sigh, “I wish it was that simple, but unfortunately, I’m too dangerous to stick around.”

Applejack shook her head, “You’re not dangerous Rainbow.”

“But I am! I have this voice in my head. It’s my queen instinct, but even right now, it’s telling me to feed, to grow the hive, to take you all out,” she paused, looking over her friend’s looks of apprehension, “My element of harmony keeps me from going feral, but what if I snap? What if one day in Ponyville, I go crazy and have eggs implanted in all your stomachs while you’re sleeping? No, keeping me and the wasps around in Ponyville is too dangerous. That’s why- that’s why I have to leave.”

Twilight shook her head in disbelief, “Leave? Where?”

“I don’t know, I just have to leave until I find a way to get rid of this plague once and for all, get it out of my body.”

Pinkie bounced up, “Then I’m going with you! You’ll need all the help you can get!”

Rainbow looked at her sternly, “No Pinkie, I’m not going to let you, or any of you, leave your friends and family and risk your lives for me.”

“But you’re our friend Rainbow,” Rarity declared, “We’re not leaving anypony behind.”

Rainbow sniffed, turning away, “Please, I need to do this alone,” She took a step forward, away from her friends, stopping to look back and wave a hoof, “Goodbye everypony. I don’t know when I’ll come back, but I’ll be the good ol’ Rainbow Dash when I do.”

Rainbow’s friends sadly watched her turn away again, walking away. Some of them began to cry, while Applejack tipped her hat. Twilight raised a hoof, almost using her magic to stop the pegasus, but she relented. It was Rainbow’s choice, and a choice she had to abide by.

Above, the rainbow wasps began to tick amongst themselves again, their wings buzzing as they flew down to follow Rainbow. The pegasus, the bell in hoof, was surrounded by the swirling cloud of rainbow bugs and then, Rainbow Dash, the new queen of the hive and the new progenitor of the rainbow plague, along with the mass of color that was the hive, was gone.

Comments

[Grey Goat Gal]

Dang, that's rough...

“My element of harmony keeps me from going feral..."

I was worried about that happening. Thank goodness for the unintended perk of having an element to prevent that.

[LastToTheParty]

Before I say anthing else, a big thank you to our dear author Prixy05 for not only providing a great story but also updating it so frequently. Seening how much of nail-biter this story is, it's great to not having to wait too long in anticipation .

Well Rainbow came through in this chapter just in time to prevent a disaster. Because as much as the grubs of the previous Rainbow Plague were a problem I really don't want to imagine what wasp laying eggs inside a pony would do .

But how will the rest of the Mane 7 and Equestria deal with the aftermath, now that one Element of Hamony is missing? And of course what'll happen to Rainbow, with her being the queen now?

Looking forward hopefully to a continuation of this story .

[stag the story teller]

I just tought of a weird way to actually continue this: Rainbow "snaps" in order to save her friends that by a weird plot of a villain become the worst thing Equestria had to face and she had to actually give in the queen's instincts to save them, after long persuing by Spike and maybe the sisters and Cadence and the cristal co, and you can tie it with G5

[Teraunce]

Well, time for part 3 of this story as Rainbow Goes West to find a cure.

[stag the story teller]

Um what happened to the sequel?