Chaos Reborn: The Corruption of Harmony

Chapter 6: I Couldn’t Think of a Title. Deal With It!

“I just don’t understand.” Twilight stomped in frustration.
“How could something that big just disappear?”

The duplicate Dash stood there rolling her eyes as Twilight and Applejack looked around the location where the attack from the tall creature had taken place, but nothing was there. The tower was gone with no signs that it even existed. The ground was untouched and the grass looked as if it had been growing there for years.

“Well Twilight, maybe we’re in the wrong place.” Applejack suggested.

“No, I’ve checked the map three times. This is where it happened.” The purple unicorn said as she paced back and forth trying to figure out what was going on.

“Look guys, I’m sure Pinkamin-…uh, I mean Pinkie Pie is just fine. She’s probably waiting for us back at the library.” Factory Dash motioned back the way they came.
“We should head back and stop wasting our time out here.”

Applejack picked up that something wasn’t quite right with Dash since the incident. It wasn’t like her to even consider abandoning her friends. She narrowed her eyes at the rainbow maned pegasus.
“Hey Rainbow Dash, I’ve been meaning to ask you, what happened to your tail?”

“W-what are you taking about?” Dash said, shifting her eyes. She knew where this was going and immediately started thinking of reasons she could use to maintain her cover.

“Your tail, it’s all black. What happened to it?” Applejack asked accusingly.

“I don’t see how this is importan-” Twilight began to interject

“No Twi, I want to know.” The orange mare hushed her friend and locked her eyes with the supposed Rainbow Dash
“What happened to your tail?”

“Um…I dunno! It’s not like I’m staring at my back side all day. It must have been like that when I woke up.” Dash began to sweat.

“And just where have you been all day? Rarity was in pretty bad shape. I didn’t see nothin’ in her shop that would make me think she was there at all. As banged up as she was, you’d think there would be some blood somewhere.” Applejack pointed out.

Twilight gave an inquisitive look.
“What are you getting at? You’re not suggesting that Rainbow Dash would harm Rarity, are you?”

“I dunno Twilight. I’ve had a weird feeling about her ever since the library. Something’s wrong here, and I aim to get to the bottom of it.” Applejack snorted and took a step towards Dash, locking eyes with her.

The light blue pegasus stepped forward in turn, and got right up in Applejack’s face.
“I told you, I don’t know. So why don’t you back the buck off before somepony gets hurt.” Dash’s wings flared open.

The two stared each other down for a few moments until Applejack finally took a step back.
“Fine, Rainbow Dash. You win this round, but I’m on to you.” She pointed a hoof at her eyes and then back to Dash.

“Fine by me, because I didn't do anything!”, the pegasus replied, and folded up her wings.

“Girls, now is not the time for fighting.” Twilight stepped in, concerned about Applejack and Dash’s behavior.
“Let’s just meet up with Fluttershy and Spike to check up on Rarity. We’ll get the princess to send a search party of Royal Guards to comb the forest in the morning.”

The three of them headed back, Twilight leading the way, while Dash and Applejack followed behind glancing suspiciously at one another.

The three of them arrived a few hours later at Ponyville Hospital and spoke with the receptionist.

“What do you mean she’s not here?!” Twilight slammed her hoof on the desk.

“I’m sorry,” the unicorn sitting on the other end explained.
“No one under the name ‘Rarity’ has been checked in to this hospital.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Twilight pleaded.
“Could you please check again? Our friend was pretty badly hurt. Fluttershy wouldn’t have taken her anywhere else.”

The receptionist looked over the check-in list once again.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you, but she’s not here.”

Just then, the doors slid opened behind them and Fluttershy limped into the entrance. She was pale with deep cuts resembling claw marks all over her body. One of her wings was badly broken, and it was obvious that she’d lost a lot of blood. Twilight and Applejack rushed to her aid as the unicorn at the desk immediately got up and called for a doctor.

“Who did this to you?!” Twilight asked as she held her friend.
“Was it that monster? Where’s Rarity?!”

Fluttershy coughed up a small amount of blood, looking up at Twilight and Applejack as the nurses entered the room. They forced her friends back so that they could assess the severity of her condition. The yellow pegasus looked over at Dash, who stared back apathetically. Her eyes widened with pure horror as she began to convulse from shock, realizing that the pony standing before her wasn’t her friend, Rainbow Dash. The nurses lifted her up into a gurney. One of them, a gray earth pony, began manually pumping air into her lungs as the others prepared an IV.

“Who did this to you, Fluttershy!?” Twilight’s eyes filled with tears.
"Tell me!"

Fluttershy struggled to whisper, her strength fleeting as she lost consciousness. She looked weakly at her friends and said
“Opal…”, before falling completely limp.

The medical staff continued to stabilize her as they wheeled her away down the hall and into the ICU.

Twilight looked confused.
“Opal? There’s no way that Rarity’s cat could have done that kind of harm.”

“What do we do now, Twi?” Applejack leaned over to Twilight, supporting her.

“I don’t know, Applejack…” She began to cry.
“I just don’t know.”

Dash stepped up to them, unphased by the entire encounter.

Back where she was from, she’d seen hundreds, if not thousands of fillies and colts suffer a much worse fate at her own hooves. Working at the Cloudsdale Rainbow Factory had hardened her heart and filled her with nothing but contempt for life. Every year more pegasi children were brought to the factory after failing their flight exam. There was no room in society for failures like them. Only the best were allowed to represent Cloudsdale, the city in charge of all the weather in Equestria. Friend or not, Fluttershy was weak and therefore deserved to die.

Suddenly, Dash's mind flashed back as she remembered Scootaloo and the events that took place just before she was brought to this world by Trollestia. That little bitch had staged an uprising and nearly escaped the factory, but Dash got her. She strung the little brat up and prepared to feed Scootaloo into the pegasus device.

Then, hauntingly, she recalled one of the last things Scootaloo said to her. It echoed in the mind.
“You have beautiful eyes…”

Factory Dash looked into the glass doors of the hospital and saw her reflection. Cold, hateful eyes stared back at her. Like a flood, the most recent events before her sudden appearance in this Equestria unfolded. Dash grabbed her head screaming as she lost herself in the memory.

She had pulled the lever to start the machine and finish off Scootaloo, the filly who she had once thought of as a little sister, once and for all. Her mouth moved but Dash couldn’t hear the filly’s last words.
She called out to Scootaloo mockingly.
“What was that? Care to speak up before the end?”

Scootaloo’s eyes filled with tears.
“Good bye, Rainbow Dash…I love you.”

Impatiently, Rainbow Dash sped up the machine.

“I really wish I could have learned that sonic rainboom…Maybe another day.” Scootaloo sniffled
“Maybe we’ll meet again. Maybe…you’ll be better.” The machine began twisting Scootaloo as her bones popped and ribs began to break.

Dash was about to shut off the machine and confront the worthless filly, but at that moment, she suddenly felt weak. The light blue pegasus collapsed as her vision faded to black. She heard Scootaloo gargle as blood filled her lungs as the machine tore the little pegasus apart. Next thing she could remember, Dash awoke standing before the princess and Pinkamina.

Rainbow Dash snapped out of her trance and her eyes opened. She got up and looked back into glass door. There were tears flowing down her cheeks.

Twilight walked over to with concern.
“Are you alright?” She asked, placing a hoof on Dash’s shoulder.

Instinctively, Dash bucked wildly and kicked Twilight in the face, knocking her to the ground.
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed.

Applejack rushed to assist Twilight.
“What’s wrong with you, Rainbow Dash?!” She looked at the unstable pegasus sternly.
“She was just tryin’ to help.”

"Well I don't need help from you or anypony !" She shouted back

Twilight, still on the ground looked up, the feeling of betrayal could be seen in her eyes.
“I was just worried about you...” With Applejack’s help, she pulled herself up.
“With everything that’s happened, we need to stick together, no matter what. I know things are bad, but you don’t have to go through it alone. We’re here for you. You’re like a sister to us, Rainbow Dash. We love you.”

Dash’s eyes began to swell with tears once more.
“You guys…” She turned her head away to hide her shame.
“I don’t deserve to be your friend, let alone your sister.”

“What are you talking about Rainbow?” Applejack asked softly, trying to understand.
“After all we’ve been through, of course you deserve to be our friend. Everypony makes mistakes, Sugar Cube, but that don’t mean we stop caring about you.”

“Sugarcube…” Dash said quietly as she thought to herself and dried her eyes. She pulled herself together and raised her head to face the girls.
“You’re right, Applejack. We all make mistakes…and it’s time for me to face mine and start making things right. The past can’t be changed, but I have a new start here. I need you two to come with me to Sugarcube Corner. There’s something you need to see.”