A cosmic evil awakens, and the elements must face their most daunting enemy yet. The end-times are coming, and there's nobody you can trust less than yourself.
We all have sin in us somewhere. A long-forgotten supernal evil is released, a force capable of warping space, shattering minds, and overthrowing kings, and it will stop at nothing to claim its rightful spot as ruler of Equestria, and the world at large. The Elements of Harmony would be the natural solution, to shove this eldritch horror under the rug with a flash of light; but this new enemy has come prepared, and has recruited a handful of unwilling minions to aid him in disassembling their comfortable and precious harmony from within: the Elements themselves.
This story will be comprised primarily of seven acts, each focusing on a different character and mostly on different events. Additionally, there are a few intermittent chapters which tie the acts together. Information will be added below as it comes, so as to avoid premature spoilers. Superbia. Don't take it too seriously. [Slice of Life. Rainbow Dash loses a race.] Avaritia. Finder's, keeper's. Luxuria. Thriving on attention. Invidia. The grass is always greener. Gula. It comes naturally. Ira. Curiosity killed the cat. Acedia. Why bother?
Cover image is from a free online Mystic Rose generator and edited by me. Subject to change, just like everything else that ever was or will be.
We all have a little bit of sin inside of us, don't we, dear reader?
Oh, don't act so nonplussed. I know what's going on here. I wouldn't be surprised if you already had some idea of who I am, as smart as you think you are. 'Condescending tone?' you ask whilst resting your head on your arm and re-crossing your legs. 'Genre-savvy? No concept of a fourth wall? Why, surely this must be that Discord fellow!"
Well, I'll go ahead and nip that theory in the bud: I am not Discord, and you do not know who I am, although I can't call your hypothetical conjecture entirely inaccurate, either. Discord and I are like the two poles of a magnet, opposite and alike. Two sides of the same coin, or perhaps more like the same side of two different coins. We're like a pair of coins, one of which has heads on both sides, and the other has only tails. And we are both one side of each.
I would advise you to not consider this an introduction on my part. I haven't told you my name yet, after all, and I don't plan to. Not for a long while, anyway—not to imply that me telling you my name is of any importance. You could maybe even guess it, after all. Now, I haven't disclosed any information that may hint towards my name—although red herrings do abound—, but it is in my nature to point out that the chance of any given guess at my name being correct is, like so much in life, nontrivial.
Now, where was I? Sin, right. It's everywhere. It's not something we can avoid; we all have these urges and instincts of sinfulness. We try to ignore them, because they go against what we call "moral," or because we've been told that there's such a thing as "evil," and that committing sinful acts is the keystone of wickedness.
Well, let me tell you something: sin is an illusion. There is no reason to neglect those feelings. Your mind has instincts for a reason, and that reason is self-improvement. Don't you want to be the best you can possibly be? Go ahead, tell lies, be vain, be indulgent. You'll only be better for it in the end. And if everypony were to make themselves as perfect as they could be—ooh, wouldn't that just be excellent? A veritable paradise of sinful ponies doing their best to out-lie, out-cheat, and out-class one another! Oh, just imagine what they could accomplish.
Oh, fie, now I've gone and riled myself up. Anyway, I must be off now; I have a very important appointment to make it to, which has been a long time coming, so ta-ta.
The sound of stone shifting on stone awoke the guard with a start. He had nodded off again, as he was wont to do; seven hours a day of standing in one place, it shouldn't be that big of a deal if he nodded off every now and then, especially when he was posted next to a stone door down in some Celestia-forsaken dungeon of the castle, in a long, dimly-lit hallway which seemed to stretch endlessly in one direction, and ran about twenty feet in the other before disappearing around a sharp corner. All along the hall, at irregular intervals and on either side, were dozens of doors of just as many different styles, each one hiding behind it some damned memory of Equestrian history, ranging from terrible weapons from years past, to vicious criminals and terrible monsters.
The guard yawned loudly and stretched before freezing in place as he finally realized what exactly had caused him to stir. He slowly turned his head towards the door, and went cold when he saw that it was ever so slightly cracked open, the small opening offering a glimpse into a seemingly endless darkness which issued forth a draft of stale, icy air that seemed almost to whisper with foul intentions.
From the other side of the door, he could hear the sounds of something stirring—something big, slow-moving, and which filled him with the same dread he'd had as a foal, when he was lying in bed and knew, beyond a doubt, that there was a monster in his closet, even though it was never there when he went to check. He hadn't been told what he as guarding, but he knew, for certain that there was a monster on the other side of that door; he couldn't see it, but he could feel its presence, its sheer malice, just as aware of him as he of it.
And then, against the impenetrable darkness beyond the door, were delineated a pair of blank white eyes, as deep and impenetrable as the shadow they were embedded in.
The eyes' sharp gaze severed the last thread of courage in the guard, who immediately turned and fled. With this, the door rumbled the rest of the way open, and a mass of corporeal shadow spilled out onto the ground before coalescing into a tall, snakelike figure which stood on two legs and began looking around the corridor measuredly.
Behind him was the massive, rune-engraved stone door that he had just come from, and across from this was another door, this one of a simple wooden construction with a small window cut in it. On the other side of this window, a sky-blue mare was staring at him as if he were a ghost. The two briefly made eye contact before the mare cackled wildly and slammed her head into the door with a sharp crack.
As if signaled by this, a troop of guards came barreling around the corner, led by the guard which had just fled. They all hesitated slightly upon seeing the serpentine beast, before three of them stepped forward, brandishing weapons.
The creature regarded the spear-wielding ponies with disinterest for a few moments, before finally speaking:
"You really shouldn't wave those sticks around with a lady present." he said, which elicited a confused murmur from the group of guards before he gestured with his head towards the wooden door, where the blue mare could still be seen, now glancing excitedly back and forth between the serpent and the group of guards whilst gnashing her teeth violently.
The beast then snapped his fingers and all hell broke loose.
The guards had re-focused their attention on him, and, when one had begun to step forward with his spear raised, placing him directly in front of the wooden door, the door, with a nudge from the serpent's magic, slammed violently outwards, knocking the guard onto his back and sending his spear spiraling through the air towards the waiting soldiers, who flinched away from where it embedded itself in the ground among their formation.
At the same time, the mare, now freed from her confinement, leapt into the hallway and dropped low, facing the remaining guards, snarling and ready to pounce. She feinted a lunge towards them, causing the already-startled guards to flinch tremendously, one even letting out a cry of terror before the mare grinned wildly and began howling with laughter.
Using this distraction as an opportunity, the beast disintegrated into a translucent, stygian miasma, which slithered across the ground and re-solidified behind the group of soldiers without them noticing. Looming over them, he extended one gangly arm and lazily traced a circle around the group, which was made visible on the ground around them as a radiant purple silhouette. No sooner had one of the guards noticed this, and begun to speak, then the creature spread his two arms and quickly brought his two hands together, causing the circle to contract—and as the barrier retreated, whatever flesh or metal or wood passed through it simply disappeared, eliciting uncanny screams of pain as the ponies trapped inside were quickly removed from existence molecule-by-molecule.
The sigil reached its center and collapsed, vanishing in a small flash of white light, and then nothing was left in the hall except for the chimera and the hysterical mare. The two regarded one another for a moment, the mare sitting and panting like a hound waiting for orders, before the former spoke:
"You. I like you." said the draconequus with a grin.
In a dim, naturally-lit cavern at the base of a mountain on the other side of Equestria, a throng of ponies in dark-grey hooded robes murmured amongst themselves as another pony wearing similarly grey robes decorated with an intricate silver trim stepped up to a podium overlooking the cathedral.
The pony removed his hood, revealing a light-blue stallion with a plain brown mane and light green eyes. One half of his face was covered in a complexly-patterned tattoo, which closely matched the trim of his cloak. He surveyed the congregation for a couple of seconds before standing up on his hind legs, placing his front hooves on the podium, and clearing his throat.
"Brothers and sisters," he began. "Today marks one year since our lord's endless slumber ended, and one year since he was, tragically, locked away into stone once more, because of that accursed Celestia and her hooflicking Elements." The crowd murmured a bit at this, a few weak calls of "Hail Discord!" coming from among them.
"Hail Discord." responded the leader. He continued: "It is with this passage of time in mind that I must announce, regretfully, that we will no longer be meeting." Several of the cultists let out shocked gasps, and a worried murmur quickly spread throughout the assembly. "Please, calm down. I know that this comes suddenly but..." the leader trailed off as the murmuring began giving way to screams, and members of the congregation began fleeing.
"And that's why I don't like to make public appearances." said a voice from behind the leader, prompting him to turn.
Before him stood an unmistakeable figure: a lithe serpentine biped with horns and wings which, along with its arms and legs, seemed to each have been taken at random from other animals: one arm each from a bear and some reptilian beast; an oversized equine leg paired with a chitinous, spined insect leg; one wing of bone, and the other like a bat's, except almost entirely transparent, as if it were made of some organic glass.
The leader fell back against the podium, knocking it over before stammering: "Y-You-Dis... You... is it really you?"
"Yes, it is me." responded the draconequus. "I am who I am, but who am I?"
The leader stood back onto his hooves, and examined the creature closely. "You- you're not Discord."
"That is correct. I am, however, your new god." He clapped as he said this, sending out a wave of energy which rumbled the cave walls and brought the entire congregation to attention. The beast stepped up to the podium, and conjured a pen and clipboard, which he appeared to study carefully, flipping back and forth amongst the pages as the mass of panicking ponies slowly calmed down and returned to in front of the stage.
The draconequus cleared his throat, and spoke, in a voice that boomed and seemed to echo from every point in the chamber: "My first order of business," he began, before disappearing the clipboard, opening up his torso like a suit jacket, and producing a light blue mare from within, holding her by the scruff of her neck while she held her hooves close to her chest and panted like a dog. "is that this one be kept fed, watered, and healthy. She is of great interest to me, and is to be considered my second in command." This provoked another wave of murmurs from the crowd, and the mare barked with excitement and wagged her tail.
"Second order of business..." he continued, as he set the mare down on the stage and gave her a firm pat on the head, "...is world domination." This brought an abrupt end to the crowd's uneasy quiet.
He stepped away from the podium, and turned to address the cult leader. "Tell me everything you know about the Elements of Harmony."
Rainbow Dash leaned to one side, stretching her wing as she sat nervously in the locker room. She was surrounded on all sides by her five closest friends, who were taking turns at reaffirming her as she hesitantly prepared for the upcoming race.
"Don't worry so much, Rainbow." said Applejack, slapping her hoof playfully against the pegasus' shoulder. "You got this."
"Yeah!" piped Pinkie Pie. "Dashie's the raciest fasthorse I know! There's no way she could lose!"
"Um, Pinkie…" began Twilight. "I don't think that word means what you think it means."
"Which word? 'Yeah?' That's hardly a word," the pink horse began, dissecting her previously-spoken sentence word-by-word as Twilight planted her face into her hoof. " 'Dashie' is just Dashie's name. 'The' is pretty self-explanatory—"
"I think we'll just be going now, darling." said Rarity, dragging Pinkie Pie towards the door as she continued to ramble inanely (" 'Fasthorse' is a word I made up. It means a horse that's fast!"), and the other three ponies followed suit, each issuing their respective wishes of good luck, leaving Rainbow Dash alone in the locker room with a dozen ponies she'd never met before, all just as athletic and, surely, loadss more confident than she.
"Those your friends?" asked the contestant next to her, a light grey mare with a short, pale red mane and golden eyes; her cutie mark was a pair of silver wings with bolts of electricity arcing between them. "Quite a bunch."
"Y-yeah, we—" Dash stammered, only to be cut off as an official called into the room:
"Five minutes! Everypony, to the gates!"
With this, the dozen-or-so ponies in the locker room began shuffling towards the exit which led onto the track, and forming a clumsy line before the door. An official was posted on the other side, with a stack of numbered cards, each with a name one it. The first pony in line, a light blue stallion, gave his name to the official and was handed his number card, and then the line began moving quickly. Rainbow Dash was directly behind the grey mare whose locker was next to hers, near the end of the line.
"Name?" asked the official.
"Mercury." said the grey mare, who was then presented a white card with a large, black "7" on it before marching off confidently to the starting line.
"Name?" asked the official again, clearly not to happy with his job.
"Rainbow Dash."
The official shuffled through the stack of cards, and then produced one stamped with her name and a large, black "6."
"Name?" he said again, asking the next pony in line before the Dash's sign had even left his hands.
Dash stepped through the door and towards the starting line. Fifteen small cages, numbered in sequence, were lined up there, and about half of these currently held ponies. Just ahead of her, Mercury stopped and turned into the cage next to her, numbered "7." Rainbow Dash entered her own cage, and the two turned and nodded at each other.
"You're Rainbow Dash, right?" asked the grey mare. "I've heard about you."
"You have?" Rainbow Dash smirked. "Then you must know that I'm gonna be winning today."
"Yeah, probably." Mercury chuckled awkwardly. "Either way, second place is all right."
"Oh really? Got a lot of confidence, do ya?"
"Well, I am pretty damn fast."
Rainbow Dash smirked, and then the two stood in silence as the last few racers moved into position.
"Ready?" called a voice from over an electronic speaker system, and the audience fell silent.
The caged ponies all dropped low and spread their wings, winding up to pounce at the announcer's call. This was the Ponyville Final, an important race. The first five placers would be qualified to compete in the Equestria Races, a prestigious country-wide tournament with the winners of other local tournaments, and the winner of that got an opportunity to meet Princess Celestia herself.
This was the first year that Ponyville had been included in the Races, and so the turnout was massive: the entire town, at the very least. Many ponies had come from out of town just to see the race.
Several thousand ponies now sat on a several massive sets of bleachers in near-silence (as silent as that large a group can be), watching the cages at the starting line.
"Set?"
The fronts of the cages opened, and the pegasi all shifted their weight, preparing to take off.
Meeting Princess Celestia wasn't that big of a deal; not to Rainbow Dash, at least, being an Element of Harmony and all. Dash's motivation was the fact that the Wonderbolts used the Equestria Races as a major recruitment pool. If she got in—and especially if she won—then she was a shoe-in for the Wonderbolts!
A unicorn referee standing next to the starting line produced a small pistol, levitating it above his head and pointing it upwards before putting his hooves over his ears.
"Go!"
A gunshot shattered the silence, and thousands of ponies began screaming as the pegasi all shot forwards and upwards, darting towards the first waypoint. The sky, otherwise perfectly clear, was dotted with ring-shaped clouds, through which the racers had to pass in a specific order before landing at the finish line.
Dash pulled ahead quickly, but Mercury slowly caught up to her, trailing behind by only a couple of feet. Their contrails—one rainbow, and one dull red—blurred together as the distance in between them closed. By the time they were reached the first ring, the two were already significantly ahead of the other racers.
"Not too bad!" Rainbow Dash called back as the pair sharply redirected towards the second gate. "You done this before?"
"Tons!" Mercury shouted back. "I race all the time!"
"Then how come I ain't seen ya on the track before?"
"I've never done a big race before. My friends entered me and I..." she trailed off, her voice becoming too quite to be heard over the rushing air buffeting the pegasi.
"I see." said Dash, nodding before turning her attention forward again and narrowing her eyes. "Anyway, see ya later! Good luck!"
"Wha—" Mercury was cut off by an explosive clap as Dash accelerated violently, leaving a brilliant chromatic corona blooming in her wake.
Dash rocketed away from the grey pegasus, passing through the second ring and altering her course slightly to align herself with the third.
Mercury, taken aback by Dash's sudden burst of speed, grimaced before redoubling her own efforts, passing through the second gate only seconds after Dash, who was already about halfway to the third gate. Mercury's ears were ringing and her eyes watering against the air currents blasting them, but she pressed on, straining her wings and slowly closing the distance to the blue mare.
Dash, barreling confidently towards the third mark, was caught completely off-guard when a sharp crack split the air, causing her to miss a beat and drop a couple hundred feet, passing well under the waypoint ring, before she regained composure.
She regained her lost altitude and began re-accelerating, barely reaching the ring before she was nearly winged by a ballistic red blur which zipped through the third gate and swung around to move towards the fourth.
"Hey!" she shouted indignantly. "I..." She smirked. "It is on."
Dash wound up briefly and launched into full-speed flight, pursuing the speeding red flash. She risked a look behind herself to ensure she hadn't lost too much of her lead, and was shocked to see Mercury's contrail flared outwards into a now-fading halo of red light, much like her own signature Sonic Rainboom. Dash gaped, and then shook her head and refocused ahead of her. The distance between them closed quickly, and Dash managed to catch up by the fourth gate.
"Not bad!" called Dash, trailing only a couple of feet behind Mercury as the pair passed through the fourth ring, barely fitting side-by-side. "You ever done that before?"
"Done what?" Mercury called back. Both pegasi were now flying almost straight up towards the fifth, penultimate gate, causing even harsher currents of air to rush past them, and making communication difficult. "The sonic boom? Only a couple of times."
"To be able to do that at all..." Dash mumbled, shaking her head and grinning.
Dash passed through the fifth gate first, but the two quickly returned to adjacent flying positions, one occasionally pulling ahead of the other only to be overtaken again. The sixth gate was below the fifth at about a forty-five degree angle, which meant that the flight to it was going to be one continuous dive. Dash spread her wings wide and angled them to cut through the air like blades, minimizing her air resistance, then entered the dive, with Mercury right beside her, her wings spread the same.
Both pegasi began shooting downwards, battling g-forces and acceleration in their controlled fall to the final ring. They each took turns pulling slightly ahead of one another, neck-in-neck in the final stretch, before Dash pulled ahead once again, this time propelled by a burst of speed brought about by the brilliant rainbow blast released from her contrail as she broke the sound barrier, knocking Mercury aside and causing her to briefly lose control before she, too, passed the sound barrier, releasing a dull red shockwave and quickly reaching terminal velocity only a couple hundred feet behind Dash.
There was nothing Mercury could do to increase her speed: if she spread her wings in order to flap them, the flow of supersonic air would catch them like a parachute and slow her down tremendously, if it didn't simply break them, and if she brought her wings closer to her body, she would lose any modicum of control she had at this juncture. She had already lost.
Dash passed through the sixth gate and touched down at the finish line, situated just below the final ring, skidding to a halt and turning to face Mercury, who trailed behind her by barely more than a second.
"Good race." said Dash, extending a hoof to the grey pegasus.
"You too." said Mercury, shaking Dash's hoof and nodding.
The third place winner—a mint-green stallion—touched down, followed in short order by the fourth and fifth, and then the remaining 7 racers poured in over the next minute, all of whom were in silent awe at the spectacular performance the two mares had put on.
"Wow-ee! You were amazing up there!" chirped Pinkie Pie, bouncing alongside Rainbow Dash, now walking away from the coliseum with her head held up high, her friends in tow and a shining gold medal hung around her neck. "I've never seen somepony go so fast, except for that other mare that was also there!"
"Yeah, she was alright." conceded Dash, pausing to shrug slightly before continuing her gallant, proud march back into town, no doubt fantasizing about what kinds of celebration was in store for her victory.
"Alright?" Applejack scoffed. "She was darn near good as you were!"
"Hey," Rainbow Dash shot back defensively, "You're here to support me. And besides, I won, she didn't, so..."
Dash trailed off as the mare in question came into view, walking in the same direction as them and surrounded by a group of three ponies, all commending Mercury on her performance.
"Really, Mercury, that was excellent!" said a tall, blond earth stallion, slapping his hoof on her shoulder rather hard. "Y'know, that chick is a legend, and you had her neck'n'neck the whole way."
"Yeah. It was..." said Mercury, walking slowly and looking down at her silver medal.
"You glad to have finally raced in the big leagues?"
"Well, I mean..." she mumbled, looking away from the stallion.
"Yeah, finally spread your wings, y'know? You got it in you, I know you do!"
"You could've totally beaten her, anyway." one of her other friends, a lanky orange unicorn mare, chimed in. "That was a low blow, what she did."
"Yeah!" cried the blond stallion. "Freakin' Supersonic Rainblast or whatever. What a load. Whaddaya think, Cree? Think you could take her in a fair race?"
"I don't know... maybe. I don't think it was really unfair, though, because—"
"Don't matter, 'nyways, who got first prize." chimed in the third friend, a short, thick, and androgynous lime-green pony. " 'cause you're nice, and she seems like a right cunt."
Rainbow Dash huffed at this, and picked up her pace, approaching Mercury's group and leaving her worried-looking friends behind.
"Yeah, what a bitch." said the second friend. "Why would she even want to compete in this? I'm sure if she wanted into the Equestria Races, they'd let her, just 'cause, y'know."
Mercury heard hoofsteps behind her, and, risking a quick glance, saw Rainbow Dash only about ten feet behind her small crew.
"Probably already a Wonderbolt, and just wants to show off to us mere mortals." said the first one, chuckling.
"Arrogant bitch." agreed the orange unicorn.
"Guys, stop, she's—" Mercury began to plead, only to be cut off by Rainbow Dash clearing her throat loudly, making Mercury and her friends all freeze in place and turn towards the rainbow pegasus.
"Something to say to me?" Dash asked, bellicose.
"Um! I—" Mercury swallowed hard.
"Yeah!" the blond one cried, stepping between Rainbow Dash and Mercury. "She wants a rematch."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
Mercury shrunk back a little. "I'm fine with second place, really, it's fine guys..."
"Nonsense!" said the orange unicorn. "You deserve that medal more than she does." She flung a hoof towards Rainbow Dash. "She probably has hundreds of them."
"C'mon!" said the stallion, prodding Mercury's side, making her flinch. "You can beat her and you know it."
"Guys..." Rainbow Dash said, bringing the hazing to an end as all three ponies harassing Mercury looked up at her. "You're embarrassing her."
She took a step forwards, and the blond stallion stood aside, clearing her path to Mercury, who took half a step back as Rainbow Dash advanced.
"You want a rematch?" Rainbow Dash leaned forward, menacingly. "Fine. Tomorrow, two o'clock, Sweet Apple Acres."
"Oh..." Mercury chuckled weakly. "Perfect..."
Rainbow Dash turned around and headed back towards her friends with her head held high.
"Cunt." said the lime-green pony.
Rainbow Dash did an immediate about-face and marched right up to the offending pony, who promptly squealed and attempted to flee, instead somehow tumbling hooves-over-head before landing on her—for the pony was, evidently, a mare—hooves and scurrying down an alleyway.
Dash turned to look at Mercury, before raising one hoof and pointing it at her own eyes, then Mercury's, then her own again.
My name is Mercury. Recently, I won second place in the Ponyville Final, and secured myself a spot in the Equestria Races. My cutie mark cements me undoubtedly as a racing pegasus, and I have the skill to prove it. I graduated flight school with commendations from actual Wonderbolts. I have a wall covered in trophies and medals. Racing is my life.
But I hate it. I hate racing so goddamn much. I hate going too fast and losing control, I hate crashing, I hate the pressure, I hate the competition, I hate the attention. I hate it all so, so much. But, alas, racing is my life.
I don't want to do this anymore. I don't know what I want to do instead, but I do not want this. I don't have a choice, though. I have to impress, and improve, and be the best damn racer I can be, because that's what I'm supposed to do, because racing is my life.
Because every fucking pony that ever sees me sees that damn lightning bolt on my flank and thinks "Oh, she must be really fast!" and that translates to "She must do races." Except I don't wanna fucking race, I just want to be able to go day-to-day and not worry about training or scheduling or dieting or any of this athletic bullshit, but no, my friends and my family all gather around me and buy me tracksuits and sign me up for races and push me to the starting line and cheer for me and congratulate me, and put my trophies and medals on display because they think all those victories they force out of me are important to me because as they well know RACING. IS. MY. FUCKING. LIFE.
I wish I could disappoint them, just a little, just so they know my heart's not in it, but then how much of it—how much of me is a lie? They know me as a racer, an athlete, a winner... and if I'm not that, then what am I? Nothing, right? "What has four legs and flies?" Heh.
And then this mare, Rainbow Dash... a rematch? She won. What does she want a rematch for? I certainly don't want it, but I can't just say that, of course, because my friends made me... my friends. I guess I should blame them more than her, for pushing me out there like that, and bashing her so hard... I guess I can get why she challenged me. Big head. Honor. Something.
But... it's bullshit, isn't it? It's bullshit how she's too damn proud to see through my friends' boasting, and it's bullshit that the whole idea of a rematch even came to be, and it's bullshit that I'm going to have to race her all over again. It's bullshit that I even stand a chance against her; I want nothing to do with this, but what could I possibly do to back out?
"Oh, come on!" yelled Rainbow Dash, stopping to stomp the ground as she paced back and forth in front of Sweet Apple Acres.
"It's only been fifteen minutes, darlin'." said Applejack, leaning against a tree a few feet away. "She's just a little late, 's'all."
"I'll bet she is!" said Dash, turning to face Applejack. "See how fast she was? There's no way she could be late to anything!"
"Now listen, sugar, I know you're anxious ta get this race started, but—"
"I'm gonna go get her." Before Applejack could protest, Rainbow Dash took a few quick steps and launched into the air.
Dash shot away from the farm and towards Ponyville, flying with determination towards the pegasus district, a cluster of relatively low-hanging cloud houses and businesses on the northwestern end of the city.
She touched down in front of one of the houses and banged on the front door, and was greeted after a few moments by a deep purple pegasus mare with a pink mane, peeking through the barely cracked-open door.
"Hey." said Dash. "Do you know a pony named Mercury? Know where I can find her?"
"Nope." said the mare curtly. Somepony shouted from inside, and she turned and shouted something back.
"You sure? About my height, gray, short red mane, freaky fast flyer?"
"Well, there is a pony kinda looks like that I see sometimes a coupl'a houses down. Think she's friends with the fat green dyke what lives there. Number 7, I think."
"Okay, thanks." Rainbow Dash nodded and turned to leave, and the door closed quietly behind her. Yelling could be heard from the other side, at least three voices arguing violently about something.
Dash proceeded down the road, and stopped at the house numbered 7. She knocked on the front door.
The androgynous green mare from before answered. "What do you want?" she said.
Mercury curled up tighter. She was lying on her bed, wrapped snugly in blankets and wide awake.
She hadn't slept the previous night. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about the impending race. She rolled over and stared out the window.
Ultimately, she had just decided to not show up. She could make an excuse later, but as long as she wasn't there now, she would be—
There was a knock on the door, and Mercury went cold. Death had come for her.
She considered staying in bed until the visitor left, but she knew that wouldn't work. She got up and went to the door.
"Who is it?" she called timidly.
A familiar voice called from the other side: "Mercury, get you skinny gray ass out here. Gon' be late."
Mercury sighed with relief. It was just Leafy, being as brutally tactless as ever. She opened the door and, sure enough, Leafy stood waiting.
Alongside Rainbow Dash.
Mercury stammered. "Oh, R--Rai-Rainbow. H-hi. W-Was just about to g-go and... and race ya. M-might not, though. F-feelin' kinda... bad." She forced a couple of weak coughs.
Rainbow stared back at her, unamused.
Leafy spoke up. "You ain't sick, Merc! When you sick, ya hair turn pink."
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at this, grinning.
"You weren't trying to bail on me, were ya?"
"N-no. I w-wouldn't. I—"
"Yeah, ya would." said the small green mare. "She would. Now, c'mon, Merc. You got a race to do." She grabbed Mercury's front leg and dragged her along, following Rainbow Dash all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres.
There, on the main dirt path, a couple hundred feet from the front entrance, a sloppy line labeled "Start" had been scratched into the sand. Around this, a small crowd of ponies were gathered: she saw a couple of her friends, Sandstorm and Rosewood, alongside an orange earth mare in a cowboy hat, a yellow pegasus, and a white unicorn, whom Mercury recognized as some of the Elements of Harmony, as well as an actual princess come to watch her race! The purple alicorn separated from the group and stood in front of the starting line as Rainbow Dash and Mercury approached.
"C'mon, Merc, show'er what yer made of!" called the tag-along green pony, Leafy, after joining her friends on the sidelines once she had led the racehorses to the starting line.
"Yeah, Merc." taunted Rainbow Dash. "Show me what you're made of."
This unwarranted taunt caused the purple alicorn to shoot a glare at Rainbow, before she cleared her throat and begin to give instructions for the coming race:
"This will be a simple three-point loop through the orchards. The first pony to hit all three of the targets and then come back here will be the winner. Not unlike the Ponyville Final race, really, but with fewer waypoints. And on that note," she said as she stepped off the side of the track. "Ready?"
Mercury and Rainbow Dash both lowered themselves into launch positions.
"Set?" The alicorn raised one of her front legs, and the assorted ponies who had gathered around the start line grew silent.
"M-may the best... m-mare win." Mercury stammered faintly as she and Rainbow Dash tensed up, ready to pounce.
"Go!"
Dash and Mercury shot from the starting line, leaving ephemeral chromatic and crimson trails in their respective wakes.
Unlike the Ponyville Final, which was an entirely open-air competition, this race was tight quarters and close to the ground. Speed wasn't as important so much as agility, as the racers would have to worry about dodging trees and making sudden turns.
The first post was visible from the starting line: a small flagpost sticking out of the ground at the edge of the woods, several hundred yards away. It was a straight shot, and Rainbow Dash used this opportunity to reach her full speed, reaching the goalpost several seconds before Mercury. In passing the pole, however, she suddenly veered off to one side and went careening off into the orchard behind them, bouncing off of several trees and losing nearly all momentum.
As Mercury reached the pole, she saw the reason for this: an arrow had been drawn into the ground at its base, pointing directly to the left, perpendicular to the path they had been traveling, and towards the second waypoint. Rainbow Dash had hit the turn too fast and lost control.
Mercury nimbly changed directions and began advancing towards the second post, positioned in a clearing between two groves of trees, at about the same amount of distance as the first had been.
As she darted towards it, she scanned the ground around it for another arrow to point towards the final goal. It pointed to the left, as well, but this time with a much smaller degree of deviation. Mercury expertly navigated this bend, and began accelerating towards the third mark, situated on top of a small shed in the middle of the clearing, almost a half a mile away.
There was no sign of Rainbow Dash. Her mind began to wander as she picked up speed towards the distant goal. Was this really happening? Was she actually in the lead? Because Dash had wiped out? Was this just dumb luck? Would she want another rematch?
The arrow at the base of the third pole pointed in almost the opposite direction she was currently heading, so Mercury brought both of her wings up wide in order to maximize air resistance and come to almost a dead stop. She then dropped her right wing, causing the drag against her left to spin her around counter-clockwise in a half-circle, before she began flapping madly once more, heading towards the finish line.
As she finished her about-face, she saw Rainbow Dash gaining on her. She had, apparently, only just now recovered from her spill and was now making up lost distance with a vengeance. For only the briefest of moments, as Dash was speeding towards the third pole, and Mercury away from it, Mercury could see Dash's face. She was looking straight ahead, focusing intently on the goal, gritting her teeth. There were tears in her eyes, which seemed to burn with rage and shame.
Suddenly, Mercury didn't want to win. She wanted to make it absolutely clear that she was the inferior racer, let Rainbow Dash have her victory, and never have to worry about it again.
Unfortunately, she held a solid lead which grew every second. She was about halfway to the finish line by the time Rainbow Dash entered the final stretch. This was going to happen. This was actually happening.
Mercury's friends had stepped from the sidelines and were now crowding the finish line. She touched down and trotted to a halt, and her friends immediately swarmed her, showering her in congratulations.
"Shit, Merc, ya did it!" "See, told ya!" "Holy damn, 'cree. That was fantastic."
The rest of the bystanders—now grown to more than a dozen ponies—followed shortly afterwards, crowding around the underdog racehorse and bombarding her with yet more words of praise and admiration, causing Mercury to shrink under their adoring gaze.
Unnoticed by the crowd, Rainbow Dash had finished the final stretch, landed at the finish line, and now stood and watched the crowd with contempt.
Mercury, desperate for an escape from the crowd of ponies entrapping her, saw this as an opportunity to escape. She nudged her way out of the throng and walked over to Dash, who stared at her silently. Her still-glistening eyes bespoke callous hatred.
"That was a good race." said Mercury. " Maybe we can practice together sometime if you—"
Rainbow Dash cut her off with a loud hrmph and began walking away. Mercury followed her.
"Hey! No hard feelings, right? I mean, it could happen to—"
"C'mon Merc," interjected one of her friends, a blond earth stallion named Sandstorm. "Quit talkin' to this loser."
Leafy run up alongside him. "Ha! They might as well call you Rainbow Crash!"
At this, Rainbow Dash's gaze—which had been alternating between staring pointedly at nothing and disdainfully at Mercury—shot to Leafy, and her calm anger was supplanted by something violent. She lunged forward and struck the portly pegasus across the face, then turned and, with a short running start, took off and was out of sight within seconds.
The crowd was dead silent. Mercury stared, slack-jawed, towards the sky in the direction Dash had flown. Leafy walked over to her and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"C'mon, 'cree, don' worry 'bout it." said the small green mare, rubbing her bruised face with her other hoof. "Drinks are on me."
"Th-thanks, Leaf."
She's mad. She's really mad. Why is she so mad? Everyone loses a race now and then.
Rainbow Dash had stuck around long enough to discover that Mercury would be going out with her friends to celebrate. Judging by their insistence, they would probably be out for several hours.
She had never felt a fury quite like this before, and she wanted to share her negativity as best she could. The anger had blinded her of all goals but one; she wanted to hurt this mare. She wanted to damage her, break her, something to quell this uncanny rage she was feeling.
Rainbow Dash stormed into the pegasus district, located the house of her new-found nemesis and, with a short running start, flew straight into it.
Airborne houses, being made of cloud, were naturally pervious to pegasi. In order to prevent break-ins and vandalism, the cloud used to make most buildings was generally heavily reinforced and densely-woven, making it impossible for the average pegasus to pass through them. Rainbow Dash was not an average pegasus. Under the onslaught of the enraged ace flyer, the walls may as well have been cirrus.
Dash broke through the wall into the main room, and began looking around for something to break, some way to hurt her enemy.
The house was sparsely decorated. The living room had only one small table, one chair, and a small couch, none of which matched. One wall was adorned with numerous medals and plaques celebrating Mercury's racing prowess.
Dash walked over to this and, with a wry grin and a broad stroke of her hoof, knocked some dozen trophies to the floor.
It wasn't enough. She wanted to hurt Mercury, somehow. She moved deeper into the house.
She came upon a small, messy room with a bed. Jackpot. She immediately began rummaging through everything, grabbing whatever she could get her hooves and and chucking it all over the room: laundry, books, magazines, sheets, trash. In the midst of the maelstrom she wrought upon the room, the bed was shoved hard aside, revealing a small box labeled "Top Secret." Hello, what have we here?
After stopping for only a brief moment to examine the box, Dash brought it on top of the bed and opened it, spilling its contents all over the sheets.
"Oh..."
She shook her head, and grinned evilly.
"Oh, this is good."
The most striking of the contents were the dozen-or-so magazines tucked inside, bearing titles such as Fillyfoolers Anonymous or Marefriends Illustrated. One of these had fallen open, revealing a spectacularly R-rated scene featuring several mares in congress.
Homosexuality was not necessarily frowned upon in modern Equestria—quite the opposite, actually—, but it still wasn't normal. Something like this could be devastating to a pony's reputation. If Mercury was gay—and that was a small if, thought Dash as she flipped through one of the magazines, in which some pictures had been crossed out, others circled, a few brief lines quips of adoration written here and there—, then this would be the perfect ammunition for Dash to shoot her down with.
She shut the magazine and placed it back in the box, shifting her attention to the only other item of note within the box: a small leather-bound book that could only be a diary.
She picked this up and turned to a random page.
Well, Leafy did it again. She said she'd stop, but I guess something got the better of her. I went over to her house—she was supposed to pick me up today, and I assumed she'd just overslept again. I found her passed out in the kitchen. There was a syringe on the counter, and she was hardly breathing. I don't know why she keeps this up. This stupid shit nearly killed her before, and now she's right back here on the floor, choking on her own spit. What would she do without me, I wonder. What would I do without her?
Well, thought Rainbow Dash. That explains that weirdo, I guess.
This is like a goldmine. She turned to the latest page, bracing for whatever tale of angst and woe awaited her there:
Recently, I won second place in the Ponyville Final...
Oh boy. Dash mused.
But I hate it.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
I hate racing so goddamn much. I hate going too fast and losing control, I hate crashing, I hate the pressure, I hate the competition, I hate the attention. I hate it all so, so much. But, alas, racing is my life.
As Rainbow Dash read the emotional tirade about the life of an unwilling racehorse, she felt the burning rage inside of her give way to something else, something warm and bittersweet, not unlike pity, flavored with no small degree of regret.
And then this mare, Rainbow Dash...
Dash winced. Here it comes. Dash wanted to wilt away there, hang her head and curl up until she just vanished. But she kept reading.
...a rematch? She won. What does she want a rematch for? I certainly don't...
Slowly, with tears burning in her eyes, she forced herself to finish the entry.
It's bullshit how she's too damn proud to see through my friends' boasting...
She forced herself to endure as, line by line, each word sent through her a pang of... guilt? Dash had once inadvertently knocked another racer off-course, sending him off into a wall and injuring him significantly, then standing by awkwardly as he was carried off on a stretcher, to the horror of his attending family and friends. This felt similar to that: a feeling of dread and guilt, tainted with doubt. It wasn't her fault. She was just doing the same thing she always did. So what if somepony else screwed up?
...it's bullshit that I'm going to have to race her all over again. It's bullshit that I even stand a chance against her...
Yes, it was.
I want nothing to do with this, but what could I possibly do to back out?
Dash shut the journal and stormed out of the room, not looking up as she marched out of the house.
A visibly-inebriated Mercury touched down in an open square near her home in the pegasus district, followed closely by her stunted green friend.
"Y'sure ya don't need me to walk you home? You hit that sauce pretty hard."
"Nah, 'm good."
Mercury had drunk a lot. It was one of the only ways she knew to deal with stress. And she was stressed. She had won the race, sure, but now she was afraid. Dash had been furious, it seemed, and she feared what she would do. She had hit Leafy, after all, so she was clearly not very much in control of her actions. Was she the sort to hold a grudge? Would she want to hurt Mercury?
These thoughts clouded Mercury's already-hazy mind as she turned down the road to her home, slurring goodbyes and parting ways with her friend, walking with her head down. Her mind cleared almost instantly, however, when she heard yelling from further down the road.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" shouted a voice that was ineffably calm despite its volume and apparent anger. Mercury looked up, and saw that the yelling had come from a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, reprimanding none other than Rainbow Dash.
In front of her house.
Part of Mercury wanted to duck into an alley or fly away or anything to just disappear right then, but Rainbow Dash had already noticed her. She began approaching Mercury, her head hung low.
She mumbled something.
"Come again?" said Mercury.
"I'm sorry."
"What? It's fine. You lost your temper, I get it. It's—"
Mercury stared at her for a short while, and then headed inside. Dash followed her.
Mercury's breath caught when she saw the torn-up wall of trophies, but she did not react further. She walked over and regarded it more closely, kicking at some of the fallen medals. She wore a sober face, like she had been expecting this to happen.
"I'm sorry." Dash repeated.
"Don't be."
Rainbow Dash looked up, puzzled. "What?"
"I... I don't care. About this."
"I can help you clean, if you want. I can..."
"No." Mercury cleared a spot on the floor and sat down, then began sifting through the debris. "Don't. This is... okay." Her voice was quiet and fragile.
Dash approached and sat quietly behind her. "Can I do anything?"
"No, I'm just... tired of this. All of this... this dumb bullshit."
Rainbow Dash cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
In response, Mercury stood up and knocked the remaining medals off of the wall, then fell to the ground, crying.
"I don't want this! I don't want to ever race again. I just want... I don't know. I'm sick of racing."
"Oh." Dash stood and helped Mercury to her feet. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I thought that maybe... I felt like you were trying to hurt my pride or something, and I... didn't know how to deal with that? I wouldn't have... if I'd known that you... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Mercury sniffled, and then embraced Dash in a tight hug and began even harder. "All people think of me is 'race this, race that' and I don't give a shit! I have no interest in doing it, but nobody would ever dare think that because I'm so fast that... I just don't want to..."
Mercury released Dash, turned around and began walking towards her room. When she saw inside, she gasped, not at the mess that had been made of everything inside, but at the "Top Secret" box atop her bed, and its incriminating contents strewn across her sheets.
Her dull, sombre attitude was supplanted by a sort of desperation, and she turned to Dash. "Did you look?!"
"I didn't know. I'm sorry."
It was Mercury's turn to hang her head. "Just... just don't tell anypony. Okay."
Dash blushed and looked awkwardly away. "Yeah." She smiled timidly, then held out a hoof. "Friends?"
"I... " Mercury said, looking at first stern and then contemplative. "...why not." Mercury extended her own hoof. "Friends."
