Uncovered SecretsA One-ShotBy The Accursed One
‘Morning in Ponyville shimmers,’ as one pony likes to say. It’s a true fact, as well, since the golden rays of light cast upon the hamlet do give it a dazzling beauty unlike no other. This morning in particular shimmered more than others due to the large amounts of water on the ground from a particularly heavy storm the previous night. Unbeknownst to any pony in the slowly awakening town, a certain very light cerulean mare was missing.
A week prior…
“Twilight, please. Just tell me why the guards all look alike! You have to know: your brother is the captain of the guard for Celestia’s sake!” Rainbow Dash was annoyed at Twilight both refusing to answer and dodging her question.
“I told you this fifty times already, Rainbow. I don’t know anything! Even if I did, I’d be killed for revealing classified government information like that!” Twilight replied, equally annoyed at her friend trying to coax government secrets out of her.
“Okay, fine. Since you won’t tell me, I guess I’ll go ask Celestia. I bet she’ll tell me what’s going on.
The present day…
Rainbow Dash was busy flying over a forest when Celestia decided to raise the sun. She had wondered why all of the royal guards looked exactly alike, and decided to ask her ruler about it. Starting to feel tired, since she left her home hours before the sun rose, Rainbow looked for a landing spot to rest at. She ultimately found one in a nice glade near a crisp, clear pond. The pegasus started to descend towards her target, simply gliding the whole way down to save energy.
When Dash landed, she immediately headed towards the pond, after removing her saddlebags, for a drink and to take a swim. Though it was still early morning, it was relatively hot outside in the middle of the Equestrian summer. Feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion come over her since she had been flying for hours straight, Rainbow got out of the pond, dried herself off, then laid down to perform her favorite activity: napping.
Hours after Rainbow Dash fell asleep, she woke up and stretched out. She looked around for some berries to nourish her body for the rest of the trip, then remembered she packed some food in her saddlebags. Opening them, she found the ripe raspberry and blackberry medley she had taken with her. Dash immediately proceeded to start eating her lunch, then set out towards Canterlot, dedicated to her mission.
Flying to Canterlot, though uneventful, provided some excellent views. Rainbow saw the train tracks through the valley transporting the noon express to the Crystal Empire from Ponyville. She finally landed in Canterlot city, closer to the base of the mountain than the palace capitol of the country. The pony walked around the markets, killing some time until she knew Celestia would be back in her palace and available after the day court.
After estimating that sufficient time had passed, Dash started heading towards the domain of her ruler. She only waited so she could hopefully have the princess’s undivided attention to get the most honest answer she could. Entering the marble palace where she had been many a time before, the pegasus walked towards the throne that Equestria’s leader currently occupied.
Arriving at the throne, Rainbow Dash bowed then immediately proceeded to ask her question, “Excuse me, Princess, but I’ve been wondering something. Why do all the guards look alike?”
Rainbow almost laughed as Celestia’s face was stricken with horror, then a poker face. She heard her leader reply, “Well, Rainbow, the guards all looking similar is just a ruse. When their armor is removed, the look like the ponies they normally are. We just do that so any potential attackers would be hopefully scared away by the legions of guards that look the same. It’s also like that so ponies who commit crimes and have family in the guard can’t use the ‘Hey, I’m your family.’ card against the arresting officer.”
Skeptical still, Rainbow nodded and started walking away. Turning to the exit, the pony took off towards the train station, not bothering to fly home. Just like her fly to Canterlot, the train ride was relatively uneventful, just plain boring. Dash took the time to catch up on her sleep though, and almost missed her stop.
Arriving home in Ponyville, the pegasus flew to her cloud house and got out the marker board and markers she had stored in her house for drawing out her new aerial maneuvers. She then uncapped the marker and started diagramming out her plan to infiltrate the castle, knowing all the dangers of her plan. She could get arrested and even jailed for what she was going to do, which would ruin her chances at becoming a Wonderbolt, but she accepted and was willing to take the risk to uncover the secrets.
Hours of planning paid off for Rainbow Dash, since that night she slept soundly. She couldn’t help but dream about her plan, though. The many ways she could fail, the way she could succeed, the consequences of failure, all these things were on her mind during her troubled sleep.
Rainbow Dash walked through the dark halls of Canterlot Castle at midnight, trying as hard as she could to make her hoofsteps silent. Seeing the moonlight glint off of the armor of the night watch, the pegasus looked for cover. She luckily found something to hide behind and avoid the patrolling guard. After guessing that the guard had passed her location, Dash left her hiding spot and continued to the stairs on that floor. Descending to the first floor, Rainbow thought about her target: the barracks accessible through the castle’s second basement floor.
Sneaking through the first floor of the castle, Rainbow Dash encountered increasing numbers of guards as she got closer to the barracks. This was where the mission got complicated. She started trying to be as stealthy as possible, hiding behind every plant, pillar, and other form of cover. It succeeded, all until one guard spotted her right before she got to the door of the barracks. Put in cuffs and restraints, Rainbow Dash was walked to the castle’s dungeon to await trial.
Rainbow’s dream suddenly shifted scenes, placing her in an unfamiliar place: Canterlot’s courthouse. Sure, she had been in Ponyville’s for jury duty one week, but that was nothing compared to the ornate building in Equestria’s capital. This was the first time she had ever been on trial, and it could be her last. Nervousness wracked Dash’s mind, leaving her in paranoia.
One court case later…
“The court finds you guilty of spying on government secrets, and your sentence is execution by way of firing squad!” the judge said, slamming his gavel down to end the session.
Rainbow was led out of the courthouse, sad that she was going to die. Not even allowed time to say her goodbyes to her friends and family, she was taken back to the dungeons until the next day, when she would be executed.
The next day, Rainbow woke up to darkness. A blindfold had been put over her head, rendering her incapable of seeing those that were about to kill. A disguised voice from somewhere in the darkness asked if Dash had any last words, and she replied, “I’d like to apologize to Celestia for tricking her. I’d like to say sorry to my mother and father for letting them down so much. And, most of all, I want to apologize to Twilight Sparkle for hounding her about something that I knew would eventually get me killed.”
That was it. The guards took the shot, leaving Rainbow, though without a guilty conscience, dead. The soul had left the body for whatever afterlife existed, and nopony could bring her back.
Rainbow Dash awoke in a sweat. Her nightmare had been real, she could feel every single thing. Quickly running to her kitchen to grab a drink of water, Dash was wondering if she should go through with her plan after all. One one hoof, she could carry it out and risk death; on the other, she could just let it go and hopefully act as if nothing happened at all.
Checking the clock on the wall, Rainbow went to her bathroom to start a shower before she went to work, knowing the flowing water would hide her tears. She somehow knew that going through with her plan would be a suicide mission, yet she was determined to remove the thick veil of lies, the wool pulled over everypony’s heads. This was it. Tomorrow, she would head to her death, but she would accomplish something greater by dying.
If anypony asked Rainbow, and they did, why she was blank-faced the whole shift, she simply replied that things were going on in her life. When her shift ended, Dash went home to quickly write a will leaving all of her goods and her house to her family and friends, then took another shower mostly to hide the waterfall of tears she shed the night before her death. Living in this country that was apparently so perfect and free, yet held things as trivial as the guard from the common pony, was hell anyways. It would be worth never becoming a Wonderbolt, Rainbow thought.
The next day, at midnight, Rainbow set out for Canterlot like she did the last time. Again, nothing of importance happened on the flight. She picked that day specifically because of the Wonderbolts doing a show, with a meet-and-greet session afterwards, in Canterlot that day, so she’d have an excuse to not be home at all that day. Going to the arena and buying herself a ticket to the show, Dash waited in the stands for the last time she’d see her idols.
During the time between the Wonderbolts show ending and the night falling, Rainbow went to a local magical artifacts store. She looked for one item and one item only: a voice transmitter and one-way radio. She bought a transmitter and a receiver, then asked for the clerk to send the receiver to Twilight back in Ponyville. Rainbow hoped that if she had an opportunity to say her last words, Twilight would hear her and publish them.
Night fell on Canterlot. Rainbow Dash, wandering the streets, snuck towards the castle’s back entrance. She walked up to the door and attempted to pick the lock. She failed to, and looked around for another way in. Luckily for her, there was an open window on the second floor. Flying up to the window with quiet wingbeats, Rainbow entered the castle. No guards were present for some reason.
Walking through the castle like in her dream the previous night, Dash avoided every guard she saw successfully. She then passed a door with a greenish light coming from under it on the second basement floor, on the other side of the floor from the barracks. Growing immediately curious, Rainbow tried to pick the lock on the door and succeeded. She entered the room, blinded by the sudden influx of brilliant white light.
When Rainbow Dash’s eyesight returned, she was in a stark white hallway twisting and turning as far as the eye could see. ‘I’m definitelynot supposed to know about this,’ she thought, seeing the strange technologies in the hallway that Equestria’s citizens have never been exposed to, probably for good reason. Following the hallway whilst keeping watch for patrolling guards, Rainbow bumped into a turn in the wall. Shaking her head and moving on, Dash walked into a large room that must have occupied a large part of the mountain Canterlot was built upon. Her jaw immediately dropped in surprise.
What was surprising about the room was not its size, though. What surprised Rainbow the most was the technology in the room. Pods filled with green fluid were abundant, ponies of various growth stages from embryonic to adolescent in each pod. The ponies all looked alike, as if they originated from the same pony. Recognizing the bluish mane and the white coat, Rainbow made the connection that the guards in the pods and her friend’s brother Shining Armor were practically the same.
Suddenly feeling a hoof tap lightly on her shoulder, Rainbow jumped. She turned around to see Celestia behind her with a very stern look on the princess’s face. “W-what is all this, Princess? Why are the ponies trapped in those… things?” Rainbow asked.
“Well, Rainbow Dash, this is where all the guards come from. You know about the guards looking the same, but you couldn’t accept the answer that would have kept you alive but skeptical. You know too much, Rainbow; you have to be executed. I could let you go scot-free, but you may tell others this secret. I guess I could, though, cut you some slack and just take you to court for breaking and entering. Just know that if you tell anypony about this, I will tell the judge about what you did and you will be killed,” Celestia told her student’s friend.
“That still doesn’t explain why this… thing is making guards all look the same!” Rainbow was now starting to show visible signs of anger.
“That, my little pony, is the wonder of cloning. Every single one of those ponies is directly descended from one pony. They are exact copies of him. You may have thought the pony they are descended from was Shining Armor, and you’re partially right. I took a sample of his body then modified the genetic codes to ‘build’ the perfect soldier. They all look, sound, and act alike. Each race of guards is modified from the original guard to create distinct differences yet striking similarities. Like I said before, you still know too much to be deemed a civilian. You are now an enemy of the state. Sorry you never got to realize your dream of becoming a Wonderbolt, but you have to be killed,” Celestia explained to the only other conscious pony in the room, starting to lead her away from the guard cloning area.
Exiting the room, Rainbow found herself in magical cuffs as she was led towards an unfamiliar part of the castle that only a few ponies ever saw. Most of those ponies never left. Seeing a cloth-covered metal table, Rainbow was wondering where exactly she was. She was told to lie down on the table.
“I know that you didn’t get the opportunity for a last meal, but do you have any last words?” Celestia asked Rainbow, still very angry yet keeping a calm façade.
“Actually, yes, I do. I’d like to say sorry to you for finding the secret room in the castle that was creating guards cloned from Shining Armor. I’d like to say sorry to all Equestria for losing such an awesome mare as well, but I digress. Words can not say how sorry I am for everypony and how sad I am that I’m going to die. There’s nothing I can do now, though. I shouldn’t have gone farther than asking you, Celestia,” Rainbow confessed, tearing up a little with her goodbye to her friends, Equestria, and the plane of the living.
On the table were three IV bags, each filled with a different solution that served a different purpose. One to knock the condemned out, then two to kill. Rainbow felt the pinch of the needle that connected her to her death, then the first solution dripped into her veins. She sighed, breathing her last breath, and closed her eyes for the last time before her heart stopped. A painless way to go, but death still met the pony beloved by many.
