Rebuilding a Rainbow

"Hungry?" A masculine voice asked. The voice was close, too close according to it's intended target and so she ignored his words. "Starving yourself isn't getting you anywhere," the voice taunted, following the pattern it had developed in the last few days and the listener ignored him some more, following her own pattern. "Fine, starve!" The voice hissed, letting go of the plate of food and letting it fall straight to the ground as he turned and stormed off. The listener simply smiled, lifting her magenta for the first time from her hooves to watch him storm off.

In this situation she had the upper hoof, she was the one in control and she loved that feeling, especially after being forced into submission by him for what seemed like so long. He was stronger than she was, meaning he was probably an athlete of some sort when he wasn't here and that made it difficult for her to even give him a good fight when he stroked her mane, tried to press his lips against hers or generally attempted to have any type of physical contact with her. But, there was one thing that she had over him and it was stubbornness.

The colt she was dealing with was obviously used to getting things his way because he seemed to think she would do anything he wanted her to just when he wanted her to do it. Things such as conversating with him, playing his stupid board games or just looking at him. She on the other hoof had refused and seemed to continue doing so no matter what he physically did to her. So, she messed with his head by not giving him the time of day, annoying him more and more each day, until he finally cracked today. He had dropped the food he brought for her all over the floor, a new thing for him as well as a stupid thing. Once the sound of his stomping hooves had been barley audinle to her ears she turned and started working on the chains that kept her stuck down here with him.

She tried banging the locks on the chains against the bed's headstand where she was sitting, shoving her hoof into the lock to turn it and even chewing herself free with no success. She groaned, becoming as annoyed as the stallion previously was, but forced herself not to give up as he had. She stuck to trying to escape, exhausted every possible way to break a lock with only her body and was still getting herself no where. She grew madder and madder with each failed attempt and in just a few minutes was so furious that she grabbed the lock in her right hoof and banged it as hard as she could against the bed's headstand, repeatedly. "STUPID, FREAKING, CELESTIA DAMMED THING!" She screamed as she bounded it again and again, tears forming in her eyes and readying to head down the tear stained paths on her face from the crying she had down in the last few days. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST OPEN! OPEN! OPEN!!!!! OPEN UP YOU DAMMED THING! OPEN!!!!!!" She screamed on, her body convulsing to push more and more tears down her already soaking face.

The screaming had attracted the stallion back to the room, the same mad expression he left with still on his face. "What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled, trying to be heard over her screams and sobs.

"TRYING TO GET OUT OF THIS STUPID PLACE!!!" She screamed, letting the lock fall onto the pillow below it as she reached over the bed to grab the broken pieces of glass that had been shattered when her food was splattered on the floor. She held them tight in her hooves, carefully avoiding the edges so that she wouldn't harm her already throbbing hooves anymore than she had by now. The shared pieces where held at an angle that meant they were ready to be catapulted into the stallion any second now.

"Go ahead throw them and see what happened to you!" He screamed, showing no fear to her threat. In fact he was getting closer and closer to her. She let loose of the glass, flinging them for his face and he easily dodged piece after piece until she was left open and un-armed. He then made his move, pressing her back against the bed the best he could with one hoof while the other fished around for a syringe that he had tucked behind his wing earlier. He found it quickly despite her screams and struggle and jammed it into her thigh then hopped off her to sit and watch as the medication started to set in.

At first she was screaming and just as ballistic as ever, but slowly she calmed. Her muscles where becoming numb and she herself was very sleepy. She fought it for as long as she could, trying to prevent the fate she knew was ahead of her. The fight seemed to go on for hours to her, when in reality it had taken just a few short minutes and then she was out, laying sound asleep on her stomach.

Her hooves laid lifelessly, yet visually throbbed from the physical pain of pounding the lock on the headboard over and over until she had just about gone through the wooden thing completely. Her chest pushed her away and then towards the bed once more, trying to keep up with the sudden wave of blood her rage had forced to her heart and her eyes bright red, sore from all the times she had  rubbed at them, trying to wipe away the embarrassing tears that fell from them. All of this had been going on and yet the mare looked so peaceful, to the stallion anyway because he decided to rub a hoof through her mane and sigh. "Your too unstable for your own good," he commented before pulling his hoof back and walking off once more, trying to clear his head of everything that had just gone on because after all he didn't want it to. He just wanted her to cooperate with him and do as he told her, that way he wouldn't have to chain her up and make her so miserable in his presence and yet she refused. She refused day after day for the past three weeks and he didn't like it, in fact he hated her behavior. As he thought about this he stormed out, leaving the mare lost in another nightmare, one not too far off from the one she was living.

Rainbow's eyes shot open, taking in a stallion's shape and making her even more afraid than she previously was. She pushed off of the stallion and yet he seemed to just pull her closer, trying to cease the trembling her body was doing and stop the tears that dripped down her face all because of a stupid memory. Another stupid memory of her kidnapping that haunted her in her sleep.

"It's okay, Rainbow," the stallion said, his voice much softer and kinder yet deeper than that of the stallion's in her memory. She recognized this voice automatically as that of somepony she could trust, that of the only pony who knew why she woke up hysterical like this every so often, Soarin.

Once she had realized this she calmed, realizing she was safe in this particular stallion's hooves and wrapped her own tightly around him, "S-soarin," she shuddered, attempting to relax herself some.

"I gotcha," he said, calmly. "But, i am still sore," he added, referring to the bruises that were scattered about his back from the accident he had been in during his last show. He had messed up his timing and ended up spiraling for the ground after colliding with one of his teammates. The teammate had seemed to avoid any real serious injuries, but he had taken a pretty hard blow to the back of his head as well as his back in general when he collided with the ground. So, now he had a concussion, bruises and scraps as well as a two week leave from work and yet none of it mattered to him at this moment, all that really did was that he calmed down the mare against his chest.

"S-sorry," she stuttered in, pulling her hooves off of him and sitting up to wipe at her sore eyes from the ruff awakening. "I-I'm being a big f-foal anyway," she continued, snorting to try and breath out of her nose better.

"I'm guessing you remembered something about a certain period of time and i don't blame you for waking up so hysterically," he said, giving her a small smile.

She smiled back at him and said, "Thanks." Her body still convulsed a bit, but she had managed to calm herself dowm and fix her stuttering speech. She then got off the bed and went to splash some water on her face from the bathroom, to cool it down.

Soarin sighed, his smile fading once she wasn't looking at it and he laid back down on his stomach, waiting for her to return. Once she had he asked, "Did you ever tell anypony else about this?" She shook her head and he sighed once more before saying, "You should. How about the therapist at the academy, he's supposed to help the performers, so why not give him a shot?"

"I'm not a performer."

"Cadets still count."

"Well, no."

"Why not?"

She shrugged and climbed back on the bed, sitting by him. "It's not easy to..."

"Talk about? I know, but you told me a-and I've got nothing better to do for a couple weeks, so i can come with you," he offered, interrupting her to speak himself and still she refused.

"I'm too busy today anyway. I've got to move my things from the castle back home, since Celestia called off the whole special watch thing off and i have to help you while your family is over," she said, falling backwards with a sigh.

"We can go tomorrow."

"I'm NOT going Soarin, drop it!" She hissed back, taking him somewhat off guard, but he had expected that to happen sometime or another, it always had when they got into these conversations.

"Fine, I'll drop it," he said sitting up and getting off the bed. "Now, come on, the faster we get your stuff packed the more time we can spend together before my family gets here," he added, heading out the doorway of his bedroom, headed for the kitchen.

She groaned, but pulled herself off the bed to followed him. "Your not helping me, remember the doctor said no physical stuff," she reminded him and he simply shrugged, as she caught up to him.

"Your stuff will be so light that it can't even be considered physical labor for me anymore," he said with a smirk. "And, since when do you follow doctor's orders, Mrs. I totally talked to the counselor like i was instructed to by my doctor," he added lifting an eyebrow at her.

"That's different," she said, reaching the kitchen table and slouching back in the chair she had decided to sit in today.

"Of course it is," his mind grumbled as he started looking through his kitchen, trying to decide what they'd have for breakfast and how he would go about making this stubborn mare get the help he knew she needed.

Breakfast was quick and quiet. Soarin wasn't willing to say even one word to Dash because he knew she would just snap at him and Rainbow didn't say anything to Soarin because she knew he would relate it back to the whole nightmares thing. So, they sat quietly, ate and then went their separate ways. Soarin returning to his bedroom to get ready for the day and Rainbow taking off to pack her things at the castle.

She reached the castle quickly, since Soarin's house was not only located in the same city as the castle, but wasn't too far away from it either. She flew right through the front door, the guards there recognized her by now and opened the door as quick as they could so that she wouldn't have to stop and could continue to the room she was staying in.

She flew on undisturbed until she came to the hallway where all her friends were staying, each of which where packing their own things. As usual, Twilight was levitating her things into her saddle bags while Spike checked off each item on a list, Apple Jack was throwing the little things she did have in her bags, really not caring how it got in there, but how quickly they did so and Pinkie was shoveling piles of things into small saddle bags without a problem, However, Fluttershy and Rarity seemed to be packing their things strangely.

Usually, Fluttershy would take her time, tucking her things away very neatly with the help of Angel and Rarity would be folding all of the fabrics for each design she was working on together, so that she wouldn't loose any of the work she had already started on them, as well as dissembling her ponyquin to put into her luggage. But, today Fluttershy had just thrown her things into her saddle bags, Angel included and Rarity had thrown her fabrics into her luggage messidly, leaving her to struggle with the ponyquin she usually got disassembled and tucked away in mere minutes.

Apple Jack finished packing her things quickly and decided to go help Rarity with her ponyquinn. The fashionista was quite glad to receive the help and the two of them got it away successfully in just a couple minutes. Overjoyed with the success and now with some extra time on her hooves before the train to Ponyville came, Rarity decided to treat AJ to something to eat. At first, AJ refused, not wanting a reward for doing what she thought any good friend would do, but Rarity told her not to think of it as a reward and instead look at it as something to do while they waited for their train. So, in the end Apple Jack agreed as long as she got to pay for her own meal and the two of them left to pick out a location to eat at, this agreement pleased Rarity and she was happy to go along with it until they ran into a certain, pink, party pony who refused to let them go any farther without her. Rarity refused her, but the pink one argued and argued until she eventually became confused and agreed to let Pinkie go as well, just to shut her up. All three of them then left, two of them looking quite happy, but the palest of them all looking quite unpleased.

Rainbow had glanced around while she was packing and noticed Fluttershy as well as Rarity's strange behavior, but she hadn't said anything. She instead focused on trying to remember everything that she had brought, that way she wouldn't leave any of her items behind. So far she had made great progress, in fact she was almost done, but then Fluttershy interrupted her. "Hello, Rainbow Dash," the shy pony said with a smile, bringing the cyan mare's attention back to her.

"Oh, hey, Flutters," Rainbow replied, glancing up from her saddle bags to look at the butter colored mare.

"Are you almost done?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, i was just wondering if you didn't mind accompanying me to look at the castle garden for the last time. I want to say goodbye to all the animals before i leave," she said, still smiling.

"I would, but that's probably going to take a long time and i have to meet up with Soarin before we get on the train," Dash said, picking up her flight goggles and tossing them into her saddle bags.

"I won't be long, i promise," Fluttershy said, forgetting the fact that she and her friends usually made a special type of promise.

"Pinkie Promise?" Rainbow asked, glancing at the mare once more.

"Yeah, sure! Now let's go," Fluttershy said, turning away from Rainbow.

To this Rainbow made a strange face. She knew Fluttershy knew very well how to exactly do a Pinkie Promise, yet she had completely skipped over doing so. "I thought you said you Pinkie Promised?" She asked, staying where she was as Fluttershy stopped to turn and face her once more.

"I did. Now let's go," Fluttershy responded, looking at Rainbow once more.

"Well, aren't you gonna do it?" Rainbow asked, still confused about the whole situation.

"I JUST did," Fluttershy said, her smile gone and an irritated look on her face.

"No, you didn't, Fluttershy," Rainbow said, putting on her own irritated expression.

"I did!" Fluttershy shouted, over annoyed with their argument by now, which was very out of Fluttershy's character.

"On second thought, why don't you go on your own? I really need to get to Soarin's place, like now," Rainbow said, forcing the best smile she could manage right now.

"No, you have time," Fluttershy said, reaching out to grab onto Rainbow's right forearm.

"No, Fluttershy i don't," Rainbow said, closing her saddle bags for the last time. "I'm going now, i'm gonna be late if i don't leave," she said, taking to her wings.

"But, Rainbow, i don't want to go by myself," Fluttershy said, making the best sad face that she could, but it didn't seem to effect Rainbow as much as it usually did because it just didn't look right this time.

"I'm sorry, Flutters. I gotta go, but i'll see you on the train," Rainbow said then flew off before Fluttershy could say another word. She was clearly acting strange and Rainbow did not like it, so she left, even though she really didn't have to be back at Soarin's place until a little later.

Meanwhile....

The real Rarity and Fluttershy were locked up in the same room, but not for long. This was because from then moment they had gotten there Rarity was whining and Fluttershy was bawling her eyes out. So, naturally the changelings that were supposed to be watching them were extremely annoyed at both of their actions.

"Shut up!" One of the changelings yelled for probably the hundredth time.

"That is no way to talk to a lady!" Rarity huffed, "As if it isn't bad enough that we're stuck in this nasty, filthy, horribly decorated dungeon type thing and now we have to be rudely spoken to?! How dare you!" She complained on, as she stroked Fluttershy's mane, still trying to calm her down. "I mean seriously! Look at poor Fluttershy! She's been crying ever since she got here and you two haven't even bothered to offer her even one tissue for her tears!" She complained on, Fluttershy bawling in her arms.

"Just shut your mouth for two seconds! Both of you!" The other changelings roared, glaring back at both Rarity and Fluttershy.

"Why don't your do us a favor and shut your rude mouths!" Rarity shouted back. The two guards then looked at eachother, huffed and pulled Rarity off of Fluttershy. "Get your filthy hooves off of me!" Rarity shouted, trying to fight the two of them off as well as she could, but with little success. The guards didn't say anything more and instead pulled the mare out of the room.

"Rarity!" Fluttershy cried, holding onto the mare's hoof for as long as she could before the guards had pulled her too far away. She then got up and trailed after them, trying to yank Rarity free only to be have the door to the room slammed in her face and locked. She then cried even harder as she listened to Rarity struggle and complain all the way down what seemed to be a hallway.

A few minutes later the guards returned and forced her out the door as well and down what she now conformed to be a hallway. They dragged her all the way to another room and pushed her inside, locking it behind her. As soon as the door had closed the pegasus took to her wings, that way her hooves would be free to wipe her tears away.

Once her tears were cleared from her vision she glanced around the room, noticing immediately that it was a lot smaller than the last one she and Rarity had shared. She also noticed that it contained a small, old bed and a bathroom. She sniffled, trying to stop her tears and started to fly over to the bed to get a closer look. The bed wasn't necessarily dirty, just dusty, but she could already imagine that if Rarity has a similar room of her own she was complaining about how filthy not only the bed, but the entire room was. She sighed and wiped a bit dust off the bed off with her hoof before landing on it, tears rolling down her cheeks once again. This was because she knew Rarity would be complaining as best as she could right now, trying to aggravate the changelings enough to let her go as the Diamond Dogs had done quite awhile ago and when Rarity complained everypony heard it, but Fluttershy didn't, not this time. It forced her mind to worry, worry about what they had done to silence her friend and her mind kept imagining the worst possible scenarios. In panic she let her head fall straight back and screamed, "RARITY!!!" At the top of her lungs, her tears running even faster down her face, yet still she got no reply. She took just a second to wipe her tears and then flew as fast as she could to the wall with the door on it. She then lifted her hooves and used them to pound repeatedly on the door as hard as she could. All while she screamed, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY FRIEND?!?!" The pounding and screaming continued until Fluttershy's throat was too sore to continue and her hooves not faring any better, yet she still hadn't received even one reply. She sunk to the ground, and cried on in her hooves, not bothering to wipe her tears away anymore because she knew she wouldn't be able to keep up with them all anyway.

Back at The Castle...

Twilight had finished packing her things and triple checking her list with Spike, so she confidently closed her saddled bags and buckled them with her magic. "Okay, all packed," she said, flashing Spike a smile, his que to put the list away. She then glanced around, noticing that everypony else had finished their packing and had taken off by now. "Guess we're the last ones," she said with a chuckle. Spike nodded and then the two of them started on their way down hallway.

They walked past Rainbow's, Apple Jack's, Rarity's, and Pinkie Pie's room on their way out, noticing that they had taken all of their things with them and they figured Fluttershy's would be the same, but they were wrong. The door to Fluttershy's room was closed and in front of it sat her saddle bags, stuffed with the things she had taken with her. They shrugged the situation off, figuring Fluttershy had just gotten caught up at the garden that she had taken off to after her argument with Rainbow and carried on there way. That was until Spike saw the bag move.

"Twilight, Fluttershy's saddle bags just moved," Spike said, stopping in his tracks to look back at the saddle bags.

Twilight glanced back at the bags once she had heard what Spike said, but she didn't spot any type of movement in the bad. "Spike, your just seeing things. The bags aren't moving," she said with a chuckle. "You're probably just tired from getting up early to do all our packing. Just hop on my back and take a nap," she offered.

Spike nodded and walked over to Twilight to get on her back. She wasn't wrong he was tired from all their packing and checking to make sure that everything was indeed packed, so she was probably also right about his tired eyes tricking him into seeing things. But, right as he went to look away from the bags for the last time and get on Twilight's back he saw the bags move once more.

"Twilight."

"Yes, Spike?"

"The bags, they just moved again," Spike said, this time not waiting for Twilight to go see if the bags had indeed  moved. He walked right over to them and loosened the buckle on one of them only to be hit in the face by Angel, who had apparently been trying to charge his way out of the bags. He removed the bunny from his face and set him down beside him then glanced back at Twilight. "Why is Angel in Fluttershy's saddle bags?" He asked.

The purple pony shrugged, walking over to Spike's side to look at the bunny a little closer. She noticed he was not only very mad, but slim looking as well. "This isn't like Fluttershy," she began, lifting the bunny with her magic and setting him down on her back. "She never puts Angel away she usually lets him come along with her everywhere, the garden would be no exception," she continued. "And, Angel looks rather thin, almost like she hasn't been feeding him like she usually did," she finished, trying to figure the whole situation out.

"Fluttershy is acting weird, first she raises her voice at Rainbow, gets really annoyed and now this," Spike said, trying to figure the whole situation out himself. "It doesn't make sense," he added.

"I know it doesn't Spike, but let's get Angel some food before we have to go, we can think it over on the train," she said with a sigh, re-buckling Fluttershy's bags with her magic and continuing down the hallway, Angel still sitting on her back.

"Hey! I thought i was getting a ride," Spike said, trailing after her.

"Well, i can't carry both of you and i need to keep and eye on Angel, you'll be fine walking on your own," she said, not even bothering to look back at Spike who now had his arms crossed, mumbling something about Angel as he followed.

Back at Soarin's Place...

Rainbow had arrived at Soarin's place right after her argument with Fluttershy and so she was really early. She had planned to grab something to eat before coming here, that way she would be fine until she got home later that night, but she had skipped that step and came straight here. She then left with Soarin to grab some food as she complained about tonight earlier events.

"She didn't even remember how to do a  Pinkie Promise," Rainbow complained, throwing her hooves in the air dramatically.

"That is weird," Soarin said, trying to act interested in the conversation when quite frankly he no longer was. She had been going on and on about the whole thing since she flew through his door and yeah everything she had said was in fact weird, since he even knew how to do a Pinkie Promise, but still he didn't want to continuously hear about it. He still pretended to be interested though, since she had agreed to hang out with him and his family later that day and felt he owed her at least that for doing so, besides he found the strange faces she made to be very funny.

For example, when she lost her train of though she would put on this one facial expression where her forehead scrunched up in thought, while her eyes went back and fourth at the top of her eye sockets. That was real funny one and it was cute besides that, which made it even better to look at. Oh, then there was the face she made when she finally remembered what she had been speaking about, that one was really interesting too. Her whole face lite up, her face smoothed out, her eyes appeared larger as they rolled once in their sockets, her very own big goofy smile on her face, emitting a small laugh at herself for being so forgetful. That one was really something, it even made him put his signature goofy smile on his face by just looking at it and currently he was doing just that, as she blabbed on and on about another part of her argument with Fluttershy that she's just remembered. He chose to block her words out, it made the facial expressions that much more enjoyable, but now she had stopped talking and was staring at him, clearly waiting for a response.....shit.

"Yeah, that was really weird," he said, the same response he had been giving her since she started talking. He figured it had worked all this time and so why bother changing it.

"I know right. It's not like Fluttershy at all," Rainbow said with a shrug as they reached their destination.

Soarin watched her open the door and fly through, following not shortly behind her. They stopped at the small stand in the front, she gave their name and party information as the pony behind the stand wrote it down on the list of names. He then landed and walked to her side, so that the ponies waiting to give their name didn't think they had another pony to wait for, he had also managed to grab the employee's orange eyes. "Oh, never mind that. You guys can sit down now," she said with a smile, crossing what she had written down already out and going to grab menus for them. Soarin smiled back at her and then huffed when she wasn't looking. He had officially been recognized and he already knew that didn't just lead to immediate seating....

They were seated at a booth in the back, with a few ponies at tables around them. He walked slow, trying not to draw anymore attention to himself, but the bandages around his head as well as the cuts and buises didn't help with that at all because it got everypony's attention quite quickly. "Here we go," his mind commented as he flashed all the ponys that flashed him a smile one as well, then looked away, though they continued to smile. He looked to him menu, propping it up to block their site of him and scanned it over as he used is hooves to take the bandages off his head. He glanced to Rainbow for a moment, found she was too busy looking over her menu to notice what he was doing and then put the bandages on the seat to the right of him, away from the other ponies. Once he had finished that he looked back to Rainbow for a second and then to his menu, to try and make his decision on what to order, quite happy Rainbow didn't see him remove the bandages so she could complain.

"I was going to tell you to take those useless bandages off earlier, but i figured you wanted them there, since you kept them on," Rainbow commented, closing her menu and flashing him a smile. "I would have done the same thing," she added.

"They really are useless," he said with a smile, glancing over his menu to look at her before looking over the food choices one last time, Rainbow fidgeted awkwardly in her seat and he noticed this as he closed his menu, having made his decision. "Just flash them a smile and then ignore them," he said, turning his head to look at the other ponies, flashing them each another smile as an example.

"I don't care about them," Rainbow said with a dismissing hoof. "I care about them," she said, taking the same hoof to point out the window to her left, where paparazzi had pointed there cameras in at them.

"Well, for them just do this," he said with a smirk as he lifted his right hoof and used it to close the blinds. "See, now they're gone," he added.

Rainbow laughed at herself for now thinking of that simple solution and then nodded at him. "Guess, that does take care of them," she commented, then decided to forget the paparazzi, so that she could instead focus on her time out with Soarin. "What are you getting?" She asked, putting her forearms on the table to support her head.

"A tulip sandwich with hay fries, you?"

"Tulip sandwich with hay fries."

"Good choice," he said with a slight chuckle.

"Likewise."