Nights Stained Red

Chapter 7- Enter the Nightmare
Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom rushed towards the Golden Oak Library as fast as they could. Hopefully they could make it before Scootaloo could harm Twilight. Night was descending quickly; already the moon was casting a silvery glow behind the clouds. Rainbow ached to fly, but her broken wing kept her earthbound.
“Hurry!” she called over her shoulder when Sweetie began falling behind. The white unicorn filly put on an extra spurt of speed but Rainbow could tell the dash was taking its toll on her. It wasn’t too much further, though.
The trio of ponies rounded the corner to find the home of Twilight Sparkle as peaceful as always. Rainbow darted immediately for the door and tried it. Locked. Rainbow turned to Sweetie Belle.
“Can you use your magic to unlock it?” the pegasus asked.
“I don’t think I can. I’m not that good with magic,” Sweetie said shamefully.
“Come on! You have to try! We don’t have time for this!” Rainbow pressed.
Before Sweetie could argue again, Apple Bloom stepped up and kicked the door open with her hind hooves. “Happy?” she said. “Let’s go.”
Rainbow didn’t hesitate. She charged in with the fillies close behind. There was no sign of Twilight or Scootaloo. “Sweetie Belle, try upstairs. Apple Bloom, basement.” With the girls off to fulfill their duties, Rainbow went to search the other rooms. Yet before she could reach her destination, Apple Bloom called for her.
“The basement door’s locked! I hear something down there!”
Rainbow Dash was at her side in an instant and Sweetie Belle soon thereafter. Rainbow nodded and Apple Bloom obligingly busted the door down, sending a shower of wood and splinters cascading down the staircase. Taking the lead, Rainbow shot down the stairs into underground room.
Then she saw it. Rainbow had known that Scootaloo was behind the killings but never did she imagine she’d have to witness one. Somehow, it made her a little less sympathetic for the young pegasus seeing it in person.
Scootaloo was standing over Twilight with a shattered test tube in her mouth that dripped with some kind of green liquid. Twilight was on the ground in agony, her mouth agape in a soundless scream. Scootaloo obviously hadn’t seen the three newcomers as she began to speak to the injured unicorn.
“The poison is in your system now. It’ll be too late for anypony to save you when it sets in. I hope you realize that you are doing me a great favor by doing this.”
“NOW!” Rainbow shouted launching herself at Scoots and bowling her over. The other two Crusaders came to hold her down as she ripped a chain from the wall and hogtied the young pegasus. Scootaloo began to thrash in her bounds and shout curses.
“Let me go! I’ll kill you all! Put me down!” Apple Bloom gagged her with a wadded piece of paper without reluctance.
Rainbow hauled Scootaloo onto her back and made for the doorway when Sweetie Belle stopped her. “What about Twilight? She needs help.” Rainbow considered for a moment.
“Here, take Scoots. I’ll go get her.” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom put the writhing filly across their backs and ascended the stairs. Rainbow darted to Twilight’s side and lifted her onto her back with only a little trouble. Twilight’s thrashing was alarmingly weak. It couldn’t be long before whatever poison took her.
As the pegasus turned to leave, she accidently stepped in a puddle of clear liquid. It stung terribly and it took all of Rainbow’s willpower not to jerk back and inadvertently toss Twilight off her back. Instead, she grimaced and plodded through, her teeth grating so hard she thought they might break.
At the top of the stairs she walked towards the broken door, right past Roan.
“Rainbow? What is the meaning of this?” the brown unicorn demanded calmly.
The pegasus stopped in her tracks. But refused to look at Roan. Should she tell her about Scootaloo? No, she couldn’t give up on her sister yet. It didn’t matter if Roan thought she was the murderer. Twilight knew the truth and that’s all that mattered.
“I’m taking Twilight to the hospital. She might die if I don’t”
“But why? I thought you were the one who did this to her. Why save her?”
“I have killed before, Roan. But I would never kill my friends.” With that she left, leaving Roan to puzzle over her words. Rainbow had no reason to feel guilty anymore. She had a friend to save and a sister who needed help.

Scootaloo couldn’t feel anything. She couldn’t see anything. Everything around her was a blur. It was as if she was watching the distorted nightmares of another’s mind. Pathos was in the front seat now. Scootaloo could no longer fight the oppressive spirit.
She had used the last of her strength trying to keep Pathos from killing Twilight. But, he won. He shattered her will into a thousand pieces. He had total control of her body now.
Was this how it felt for him? Dying without really going anywhere? It was unnerving knowing that she would never again regain control. She was doomed to watch his murderous actions until he finally left. But would she be able to take control again when he left, or would she die right then?
Scootaloo needed to hide. She was tired and needed an escape. An idea came to her. Maybe she could go to the dream world where Pathos usually resided during Scootaloo’s times of control. The endless blackness sounded comforting to her. Nothing would ever touch her there, and Pathos would be so busy exacting revenge that he wouldn’t return. The perfect escape.
So she let her spirit fade into that dark world somewhere between natural and supernatural. This was as close as she would be able to get to death. No body. No will. Just her mind floating in an endless void.

“Where did Rainbow say we were supposed to take her?” Apple Bloom asked.
Sweetie Belle thought for a moment. “Rainbow didn’t say. Should we take Scootaloo to her house?”
“I don’t know. I wish she told us before she went off to the hospital. I’m getting tired of carrying around this stubborn pegasus.” Apple Bloom shifted under Scoots’ weight, causing it bare a little more on Sweetie Belle.
“At least she’s stopped struggling,” she grunted.
“Hey! Why don’t we take her to Zecora’s! She might know what’s wrong with her.”
Sweetie looked up at her friend with reluctance in her eyes. “I’m not really sure I want to be walking through the Everfree while it’s still dark like this. Especially not with Scootaloo acting this bad.”
“Whatever happened to that insane trust you were talking about? I know I don’t trust her worth a damn right now, but if I can do something to bring the old Scootaloo back, I’ll do it,” Apple Bloom argued.
Sweetie Belle could see determination in her amber eyes, most likely fueled by grief for her sister and loyalty to her friend. Sweetie felt that feeling herself, the two conflicting emotions driving her to help her friend get better so that she wouldn’t have to hate her. Nevertheless, the white unicorn still didn’t want to go into the dark forest. The dangers that lurked in its depths seemed magnified by the events of the past two weeks. “Are you sure it’s a good idea?” she asked.
“Here, how ‘bout this: I’ll take Scoots on to Zecora’s and you go find Dash and tell her where we are. I know the route better than anypony else our age. So, you go on. Get going.” Apple Bloom took the orange pegasus from Sweetie Belle and started away.
“You’re really bent on helping her, aren’t you?” Sweetie asked.
Apple Bloom stopped and turned to face her. “I just don’t want to lose anypony else that I love. I still miss Applejack with all my heart, but you two are also like my sisters. Maybe it wasn’t Scootaloo’s fault she went on a killing rampage. I want to find out so that I don’t have to lose another sister.”

“You did the right thing, bringing her here as fast as you can,” said Nurse Redheart. Twilight was already in a hospital bed, tubes running into her forelegs and nose. Other doctors bustled about, operating various machines and tools that Rainbow couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
“We may be able to save her, but don’t let your hopes get the better of you. We don’t know what poison is in her body yet and that alone could make all the difference,” Redheart admitted. “But we’ll try our hardest.”
“That’s all I could ever ask for,” said Rainbow. The blue pegasus didn’t want to lose her last friend. She would probably be so depressed, she’d have to move and start her life over again. Or maybe end her life altogether.
“Here, follow me,” said Nurse Redheart. “It looks like your wing was injured.”
“Yeah, I broke it. It’s fine though. Can’t really feel it,” said Rainbow. She didn’t want to leave Twilight’s room. She wanted to stay until she was sure of the unicorn’s fate: life or death.
“Come on, Rainbow. I’m just going to give you a wing splint and you’ll be able to come back to your friend. Plus, I’m sure the other doctors would be able to help her better if they had a little more space.”
Rainbow sighed. Redheart’s argument was valid. With reluctance, she willed herself to follow the white earth pony out of the room and through the hallways. The cold white halls reminded her of her last visit. She had been here with a broken wing then, too. Those were certainly happier times, when all she had to worry about was what her friends would think if they discovered that she actually liked reading. Now, she had only two things left to live for anymore: Twilight and Scootaloo.
“This room here,” Nurse Redheart said, shattering Rainbow’s thoughts. Dash followed the nurse into the room and sat on the bed inside, the paper cover rustling uncomfortably underneath her.
Redheart set to work, locating the splint and bandages and trotting back to begin mending Rainbow’s wing. “Whoa. There’s blood coming from the base. We’ll need to stop the flow before putting the bandages on.” Redheart fetched the gauze and returned. She stretched Rainbow’s wing open, causing pain to lance through her. The pegasus flinched against her will. “Sorry, but it has to be done,” the nurse mumbled through a mouthful of gauze as she pressed it into the open wound.
It wasn’t long before the blood stopped and Redheart pulled the blood-soaked gauze away. She threw it away and set back to mending the wing. “So, how have you been lately? I heard about all your friends’ deaths. It must be hard.”
“It is,” Dash replied, gritting her teeth to hold back tears of grief.
“You know, Aero Wing’s body has also been found dead somewhere around Ponyville. It certainly explains the bad weather lately; without a manager, the Weather Corporation is lost. Oh, wait. You work for the company, don’t you? You probably already found all that out.”
“Well, I was painfully aware of Aero’s death,” said Rainbow, “But I quit the weather service. Too much has been going on. I just couldn’t handle all the stress.”
“Understandable,” said Redheart, flicking her pale pink tail. “Everything’s bound to get better soon though. We’ll all be able to get on with our lives. Crises can’t last forever. Alright, you’re all set. You can return to your friend now if you want.”
Rainbow nodded her farewell and exited the room. Before she took two hoofsteps into the hallway, a small, white bundle blundered into her chest. Sweetie Belle looked up at Rainbow with relief in her eyes.
“Come on, Rainbow,” she said, “We have to go to Zecora’s. Apple Bloom took Scoots there!”
Dash looked down the hall, reluctant to leave Twilight behind. But she was in good hooves, and Scootaloo needed her right now. “Okay,” she said, “Let’s go.”

Rainbow Dash sat quietly with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as she watched Zecora perform some sort of ritual on Scootaloo, who looked like she was sleeping peacefully. The young pegasus was lying atop an altar, surrounded by candles as the zebra waved her hooves about her, drawing symbols in the air. Zecora’s ceaseless muttering in foreign tongues slightly unnerved Rainbow.
Suddenly, Zecora stopped and looked toward the three others in her home.
“Scootaloo is missing. Her mind is not there. For this, I’m afraid, I was not prepared,” Zecora said ominously.
“What does that mean?” Dash asked. “Has she gone delusional or something?”
Zecora shook her head. “I wish it were so, but that’s not even close. She has been possessed by a spirit named Pathos.”
Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat and her eyes flew wide. How could that be right? Pathos was from some made-up story, right? Then she recalled the dream she had. It felt like so long ago. She had had a dream of Pathos attacking Scootaloo. But it wasn’t exactly a dream, was it?
“So it’s true?” Apple Bloom asked, obviously not prepared to hear the fact. Sweetie Belle on the other hoof appeared relieved.
“The grave of Pathos is grave indeed, for his sorrow brings a hateful seed,” Zecora said. “Though Scoots is not with us, she may yet still survive. In the realm of dark dreams is where she resides.”
“She still has a chance? We could rescue her?” Sweetie Belle asked excitedly.
“The only way to save the filly, it seems, is to vanquish the spirit in the orange mare’s dreams.”
Apple Bloom puzzled over this. “So, uh, how exactly are we ‘spose to get in there?”
Zecora gazed steadily at the two young fillies. “This quest is too dangerous for fillies like you. Only Rainbow has strength enough to follow through. The journey for you would swallow your life quicker than you would bleed if you were cut by a knife.”
The two Crusaders glanced at each other. “The fact that you made that rhyme didn’t make it sound any less horrifying,” Apple Bloom stated.
“It wasn’t supposed to. Now hush up with you.” Zecora turned from the three ponies and opened up a cabinet. Inside was a gilded box with a crescent moon engraved on the lid. She blew the dust from the surface and handed it to Rainbow.
The box felt cool in her hooves and she dared to open the lid. Inside was a black flower whose petals resembled the insignia on the lid of the box.
“Do I eat it?” Rainbow asked Zecora.
“Yes, and then you’ll be sent to the land of Pathos’ mourning, but before you depart I must give you a warning. These dreams are not governed by Luna’s command. The darkness is deeper than any in the land. You may not survive, be it only a dream. This world is more real than, to us, it may seem.”
“It doesn’t matter. If I don’t save Scootaloo, then surely, she’ll attack Twilight again. I can’t let that happen. This is the only chance we’ve got.” Rainbow bit into the flower, and the taste of the bitter leaves washed over her tongue. The three others watched her tentatively, waiting to see what would happen. Rainbow didn’t feel any different.
“Maybe it doesn’t—“ Rainbow stopped midsentence as a wave of fatigue struck her. Darkness swirled her vision and suddenly, she felt herself plunge into the deep shadows.

Scootaloo was nestled here in the deepest pits of darkness. The shadows offered cover for her guilt. She wasn’t sorry about her friends’ deaths. She was sorry that she let Pathos kill them. Surely she could’ve tried harder to stop the demon. Now she had lost the battle. Pathos won.
But here, in the very world of his creation, she could hide and ignore the outside world. Everything was just an endless black void where she could silently wait for death. She hoped her body would die. Then Pathos would be forced to stop his quest for vengeance. It was only a matter of time.
She closed her eyes to reminisce. Until recently, she had had a pretty decent life. Everything had been bright and sunny for the most part. Pathos had taken everything from her in little more than a week. Scootaloo hadn’t stood a chance. The young filly had hardly had a chance to experience anything. All dreams of flying and discovering her talent were gone. She would never know the freedom of life or the intimacy of true love. All of it was now nothing but a distinct memory. Pathos had ripped her life away before it had begun.
Scoots opened her eyes again as a weird sense washed over her. She felt the sensation of falling, although she was curled in a ball on the cold dreamscape. Gazing into the supposed sky, she saw a shooting star, plummeting towards an unseen horizon. Somehow, she knew that whatever she had just felt was tied to that star.
“A light within the shadows…” The gravity of what she saw was just hitting her. Here in this realm of pure darkness there was not a speck of light, except for that star.

“She disappeared!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“So, that explains why Scootaloo always seemed to be in places she couldn’t possibly be in…” Sweetie Belle said.
“What do you mean?” the earth filly asked. “I don’t understand.”
Sweetie Belle took a second to organize her thoughts before repeating it to her friend. “Okay, so me and Scootaloo came up with a plan to try and keep her from killing anypony tonight. We tied her up real tight with a length of rope. We got the knot to where, even when I tried to untie it, it was a lost cause. She insisted on being locked in the treehouse, so I blocked the door and windows. When I came by later to check on her and give her something to eat, she was gone. The knot still in the rope and everything.”
“Ya don’t think she may’ve found a way to get out of it?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Positive,” Sweetie replied.
“So, are you saying she just vanished and appeared at Twilight’s?”
“Yes I am,” Sweetie Belle answered. Apple Bloom gave her a question glance, so she broke it down for her. “When Rainbow went into the dream world, she disappeared. That means, if Scoots went to the dram world, she would disappear, which means she could wake up in a completely different place.”
“Oh,” Apple Bloom said, realization dawning on her. “So if Pathos there vanishes…”
“We better find him faster than if Hell itself was chasing after us,” Sweetie said.
Apple Bloom sighed and glanced back at the body that once contained her friend and was somewhat surprised to find it staring back at her. It was hard to imagine a psychotic stallion behind the innocent face of her best friend. “It seems like it already has,” she told Sweetie Belle without prying her eyes from those of Scootaloo’s.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to find herself plummeting through the darkness. Her first instinct was to unfurl her wings and break her fall. That proved to be a fatal mistake. The rushing wind wrenched her already broken wing directly behind her back, snapping the splint and allowing the wing to bend at awkward angles. Blinding pain jolted through her as it twisted erratically like a bag being tossed about in a storm. Her wing whipped, bones splintering, skin tearing as her fall threatened to rip it away from her.
Rainbow screamed in agony as the limb refused to fold back to her side. She could feel blood welling from the reopened wound at the base of her wing. She tried containing the flailing limb by reaching out and grabbing it. She nearly snagged it when she splashed into a deep body of water with such force that the air was knocked out of her.
Fighting against her instinct to take in a lungful of water, she fought for the surface, desperately searching through the pitch black for some sign of which way was up. Dash swam frantically towards where she thought it was, her eyes bulging from fighting her lungs’ will. Then her nose bumped against the floor of the lake.
Alarm flashed through her from nose to tail-tip. She had gone the wrong way! Then her strength ran out; she could no longer hold her breath. She gasped in an enormous lungful of water. She fought in vain for air and panic overcame her. Dash thrashed in the water struggling in the opposite direction. However, she was far too deep to reach the surface alive. Her veins bulged in her neck, her blood starving for oxygen. Her head was pounding and spots formed in her vision, appearing like a starry sky against the blackness that surrounded her. She was going to drown, her strength quickly fleeing.
Rainbow’s heart slowed and a sense of acceptance came over her. She could see a light heading towards her. Was this it? Was she about to cross the threshold into the afterlife? As the light drew nearer, she could tell it had a definite form, the shape of a pony. Not just anypony, it was Applejack.
“Am I dead?” Rainbow tried to glub painfully through the water.
Applejack seemed to understand nonetheless and shook her head. The orange earth pony wrapped a hoof around her and, suddenly, Dash’s lungs filled with oxygen-rich air. The sudden access to oxygen left her temporarily lightheaded, but she still gulped down mouthfuls of the precious gas. Where was it coming from? It didn’t matter, she was going to live.
Applejack assisted her to the surface and to a nearby embankment. The half-drowned pegasus flopped onto the sandy beach coughing up lungfuls of water and heaving in more air.
“Thank you, Applejack,” Rainbow said between gasps. “How did you do that? Why are you here?”
“Some things are just better left unspoken, Sugarcube,” the glowing earth pony replied. “I’ve done what I can for ya now. Good luck on your journey.”
Rainbow looked up in shock. “You aren’t staying?”
Applejack didn’t reply. She merely shimmered away like a candle being extinguished.
Rainbow Dash struggled to her hooves and shook the water from her fur. The pain in her chest greatly overpowered that in her wing at this point, so she didn’t even bother to fold them. She staggered forward, still shaky from her near-death experience.
When she regained enough strength and balance to carry on, she started walking forward only to halt in her tracks.
“Wait, Applejack said I was going on a journey…” If this was only the beginning, she didn’t even want to know what horrors lay in the path ahead of her.

Rain again. Roan wasn’t surprised. The sun was just dawning, but it was rather difficult to tell where exactly the sun was. Not that it mattered. As she paced through Ponyville soaked to the core, all she could think about was Rainbow’s final words.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she said to herself, “I was sure Rainbow Dash was the culprit. I’m sure she killed Aero Wing; she practically admitted that outright, but then, she tries to save Twilight from the brink of death. Does that mean somepony else has been attacking these ponies? Who could it be?”
As she puzzled through her thoughts, she swept a lock of drenched hair from her face. She hadn’t bothered to do it up in her usual ponytail. She had no time to look nice anymore. She needed to sort this entire thing out so she could return home to Firemane.
Roan wondered how her husband was doing. She knew he was probably working hard and thinking about her. The scarlet pegasus would start missing her if she didn’t get home soon. If only she could just leave. It would be wonderful to just abandon her job and pretend nothing had ever happened. Maybe she could find some other job; something close to her home and family.
But she had to continue on. Who knows if the killer might find his way into Canterlot and start the slaughter there. If she didn’t cut down the enemy soon, she might never be safe.
So, the question was, who was this enemy? It was no longer plausible to her that Rainbow Dash was the culprit. Nopony saves her own victim. She would still need to be brought in for questioning about Aero Wing’s body, but what about the other four homicides? Who else in this usually peaceful city would want to kill these ponies? Especially considering the fact that these particular citizens are bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Was somepony jealous of their power?
Roan shook her head in frustration. There had to be some lead. Roan stopped walking and looked up at the library. She sighed and stepped through the rubble that was once the front door. Shaking out her pelt, she decided to go down to the basement to assess the damage. Just before she reached the splintered basement door, she noticed the feather. Not one of Rainbow’s vibrant blue ones, but an orange one.
She had seen this feather before. Roan picked the feather up and examined it closely. A filly’s feather… That’s right! She had seen this same feather at Fluttershy’s cottage upstairs. It belonged to a little girl named Scootaloo according to DNA testing. Roan knew through investigation that she and her two friends had spent the night the day before the murder. She discounted them as suspects because they had apparently left the next morning according to a couple witnesses testifying to having seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders before anypony died.
But now she was unsure. She knew the feather wasn’t here before, meaning the filly had either wandered in while she was away, or she had been in there before she was out of the shower. Roan was certain it wasn’t the former. What innocent filly would waltz into an obvious crime scene, especially with a killer on the loose? She would run a test on the feather to confirm ID, but what she really needed now was to bring in the young pegasus for questioning. Roan was on the trail once again, and this time she knew she would not fail. She prayed to Celestia that the filly was innocent but, filly or not, she was going to carry out her duty and bring justice to Ponyville.