The Rocky Outcrop

Crossing the plains had taken the better part of Rainbow Dash’s waking hours. The already long trek was made to seem longer in the darkness beneath the clouded sky. The rain persisted and had long since soaked the two of them completely, while the wind was no kinder and had picked up once they’d entered the open plain, chilling them to the bone.

The best that could be said of their crossing was that it was uneventful. Between the cold, the rain, and the effort required to keep moving forward, neither of the two had felt much like talking.

Every so often they would pause as there was a cry somewhere off in the distance. Twilight would have them wait until she decided it safe to continue, possibly altering the direction of their path depending on where the sound came from.

The fields of wheatgrass eventually shortened and thinned as it gave way to rockier ground. The earth became riddled with boulders, and the boulders stacked with the dirt to form hills, valleys, and cliffs.

“This is it,” Rainbow Dash said, viewing the rocks. She suddenly backtracked on her words. “I mean—this looks a lot like it could be it. It’s muddier than I remember, but these stones are like the ones I remember.”

“It probably is,” Twilight said, allowing her horn to burn a little brighter. The ground looked treacherous. The last thing either of them needed out in the wilderness, far from any help or resources, was a sprained hoof.

“We’re not far now, but we have no idea whether your squad stuck around.”

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, her jaw shivering. “If they made it out uninjured, then they’ll probably be coming back here every so often to check for me.” She nodded to herself. “At least that’s what I would do.”

“I think that’s likely what they would do as well,” Twilight said. “Seeing how far you’d go to find them, you must have had a special bond.”

“They took me through training, but it was also more than that. Our parents knew each other, so Spitfire and I wound up spending a lot of time together when I was young. She was like a big sister to me. Then whenever she went, Soarin’ went, too.” Rainbow Dash glanced up at the rain. “You know, after training I thought I was going to come down here and kick butt, but this place isn’t anything like I imagined it.”

Twilight nodded, her eyes still cast towards the ground. “I made the same mistake when I set out across the Northern Mountains.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth, but hesitated, chewing her lip. “Have you ever had anyone close to you? Friends? Family?”

“My family was strict and formal,” Twilight said. Her eyes become lost in remembrance. “I once had some friends I was very close to.”

A silence followed with Twilight wrapped up in her thoughts. Rainbow Dash once again saw that sorrowful, haunted look in her eyes and knew better than to push.

“We should probably start looking,” Rainbow Dash said, her words seeming to do the trick of snapping Twilight out of her thoughts.

Twilight gave a stiff nod in agreement. She glanced their surroundings. “Do you recognize where we are?”

Rainbow Dash looked around again, studying the terrain. “I can’t recognize anything in this rain, but we might as well start searching. When we flew down these hills only looked like they covered a couple dozen or so acres. It’s small enough that I bet we could search the entire place on hoof.”

“Let’s start with the low ground, looking for caves like the ones by the manticore’s den. We should be safe. With this downpour the manticore is likely staying inside its den. Once we find the manticore cave, either we’ll find something there or we’ll try tracking the path you took back to where the three of you became separated."

Rainbow Dash nodded.

Frigid water dripping from their coats, they crossed the hill and headed down into a valley on the other side. The mud, its grass too thin to hold together in the rain, soon covered their hooves up to their fetlocks. Slippery, uneven terrain forced them to move slowly until well within the valley, where the ground grew flat and the soil more compact.

As they searched for caves in the niches and crevasses of the outcrop, the downpour served to hide them as it had across the plains.

They came across only a single darkened: a sorrowful earth pony far from any home. It posed no danger as they came across it. It lay on the ground with its mouth open and twitching, sobbing. Its eyes were white as all darkened’s were, but reddened by what seemed like tears.

As they stopped at it, Rainbow Dash stared at it, rubbing her foreleg. “What the heck’s wrong with it? Why is it gasping like that?”

Twilight approached the sobbing darkened, her horn glowing. A brief orange glow was followed by a hiss as her fire burned a hole through the darkened’s chest, over its heart.

Its quiet sobbing stopped, and it grew still.

Twilight turned away from it, her lips marred by a grimace. “When the darkness seeps into a pony’s mind, sometimes it takes hold by their anger, sometimes it takes hold by their fear, and sometimes it takes hold by their sorrow.” She walked away from the corpse, distancing herself from it. “Usually it’s a combination of negative emotions, but sometimes when a pony slips and it takes hold, one emotion is much stronger than the others.”

“So then he was depressed when the darkness took hold of him?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“And he’s been suffering it ever since,” Twilight said, staring over her shoulder at the corpse. “Darkened without hatred pose no real threat. Even so, it’s only merciful to give them a quick and painless death.”

Rainbow Dash stared at the slain darkened and faintly shuddered. “Its eyes are so much worse than the angry ones the other darkened have had.”

“They are,” Twilight agreed.

Rainbow Dash walked up to the darkened. Reaching down, she closed its eyes, its wrinkled black lids hiding the look of pain that had been there.

“You did that before,” Twilight said, as they started on their way.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Huh? Did what?”

“Close their eyes. You’ve done it quite a few times, actually.”

Rainbow Dash gave a half-hearted shrug. “It was something Spitfire told me to do. ‘Most ponies see too much in this life,’ was the only time she ever said why.” They travelled a steep slope out of the valley. “I guess it’s because it makes it look like they’ve finally gotten a chance to rest.” She glanced at Twilight. “Why? Do earth ponies and unicorns not do that?”

“No, we do, just usually not for darkened.”

“I guess because I still haven’t stopped seeing them as ponies. They might be messed up beyond anything resembling the pony they once were, but at one point...” Rainbow Dash scratched her neck. “Yeah, I know. It’s something I probably shouldn’t think about. But darkened don’t sleep, right? I figure the least I can do is close their eyes and so they can finally rest—”

As soon as Rainbow Dash finished speaking, Twilight threw herself against the pegasus’ side and knocked them both into the mud. Rainbow Dash immediately started scrambling to get up, ready to give the unicorn who bowled her over a piece of her mind, but a hoof between her shoulders pushed her down into the mud and kept her from standing.

“What the heck are you—?”

“Shh,” Twilight hissed.

Rainbow Dash looked at her to see her expression grim.

Twilight slowly removed her hoof. Calmly, she told her, “There’s a pony up ahead.”

Rainbow Dash froze. With a minimum amount of movement, she scanned around them. Seeing nothing, she turned back to Twilight, confusion written plainly on her face.

Twilight motioned in the direction of a rock slab beside them. Crawling through the mud on their bellies, they both made it to the slab and pressed their backs flush against it.

“I’ll take a look,” Rainbow Dash said, rising.

Twilight paused her with a touch on her foreleg. “They might not be alone.”

Rainbow Dash swallowed and nodded.

Ears flat and pointed back, she peeked around the boulder. The pony in the clearing below seemed unaware of their presence as she paced along a cliff wall, scrutinizing it. Her coat was an unreasonably clean shade of white for being where she was with mud all around her, and though her mane had flattened with the rain, it showed signs of having once been well-groomed. She stopped, thinking to herself for a moment, then shook her head. As she did so, Rainbow Dash spotted a horn atop her head.

Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight. “She’s a unicorn,” she whispered. “What should—”

A crystalline spike erupted from the boulder between their snouts with a crack like thunder, cutting Rainbow Dash off. They both sat in shock for a moment, staring at the razor-sharp spike, thick as a leg, that had burst forth inches from their snouts.

Twilight was the first to act. Dashing out from behind the boulder, horn glowing, she looked to the unicorn in the clearing, who was staring straight at her. In less than a second, she conjured and loosed a ball of flame, but in another thunderous crack the instant after, a wall of crystal spikes jutted out of the ground in front of the unicorn, and it broke harmlessly against them.

More spikes erupted from the ground around Twilight in a crisscross fashion, grazing her limbs and chest and forming a prison around her. She squirmed, feeling every part of her body locked in place, right down to the crystals at the back of her head and beneath her chin, keeping her head stuck looking straight ahead.

Half a second later, seeing Twilight become trapped and just starting to come up with a plan of action, another cage-like pattern of crystals erupted around Rainbow Dash. The pegasus gritted her teeth and struggled against them, but it proved to be futile.

The ground rumbled, and a box-shaped crystal as thick as a wagon extended slowly out of the ground at an angle towards the cliff Twilight and Rainbow Dash lay trapped upon. She stepped onto the crystal, its growth carrying her towards the top of the cliff.

“It’s not terribly polite to spy on somepony, you know,” the white unicorn said as the crystal bridged with the cliff. She frowned at Twilight. “Tsk. Pyromancy. How boorish. I do wish the Royal University would acquire better taste in magic.”

Twilight stiffened as the unicorn circled around the crystalline cage.

The unicorn paused, sparing Rainbow Dash a brief glance before turning her attention back to Twilight. The crystals trapping Twilight’s head dissolved to dust, falling down her neck to the ground.

Her head and neck free to move, Twilight looked behind her at the unicorn, who was staring at her with one eyebrow arched.

“You are from the Royal University, are you not?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

The unicorn huffed. “Answering a question with a question,” she muttered. Clearing her throat, she straightened her neck. “Very well, I suppose proper introductions are in order. My name is Rarity. I’m what you might call a gem enthusiast.”

The bonds holding Rainbow Dash and Twilight dissolved completely, turning into a pale sand and running down around their coats.

Rarity gestured to the two of them with a hoof. “And yourselves?”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight glanced at one another. Rainbow shrugged. “The name’s Rainbow Dash. I’m a Cloudsdale Scout looking for the other members of my squad.”

“Twilight,” Twilight said. “Graduate of the University, and I’ve never seen nor heard of magic like yours before.”

“I wouldn’t believe you if you said you had. I’m the only pony who knows how to cast it,” Rarity said, her gaze drifting towards Rainbow Dash as she spoke. Walking over to the pegasus, she gestured to her spear. “Such an ugly thing… May I?”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “May you what?”

Sliding the spear out of its holster, Rarity examined its rusted point. She paused for a moment and sat. The spear lay level as she weighed it in her hooves. Wordlessly, she took the bladed end and placed it against the ground.

Pale yellow crystals grew from its tip and spread across the rusted steel in a fractal pattern, covering it completely. Once the blade had been covered, the crystals shattered to a fine sand and dissolved off the blade. What remained was gleaming steel, the fractals left by the crystals etched in a beautiful pattern along the flat of the blade.

She handed the spear back to Rainbow Dash, who took it with wide eyes.

“Wow…” Rainbow Dash said, examining the renewed blade. Its edge looked sharper than any she had ever seen. “Uh, I mean, thanks, but why?”

“It was distractingly hideous,” Rarity said with a wave of her hoof. “I hope you don’t mind my saying—a downright eyesore for anypony to look upon.”

“That’s it?”

Rarity tilted her head. “Is that not reason enough?” She shook her head before Rainbow Dash could respond, then looked to each of them, smiling. “Well then. Lovely meeting you two. I can’t say it’s every moon’s phase that I get to speak with somepony intelligible and civilized, let alone two ponies both at once, but there is something yet I must search for, and so I suppose this is a quick, but fond, farewell.”

With that, she began to leave.

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash said, causing her to pause. “I’m looking for my friends. We believe they might be around here. Have you seen a pegasus mare with a short orange mane and bright yellow coat or a pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane and lighter blue coat? We got separated when a manticore near here attacked us.”

Rarity spun to face her. “A manticore, you say?”

Rainbow Dash leaned forward, eyebrows raised. “Yeah, a darkened one. You know where he is?”

Rarity nodded, pointing in a direction beyond the other side of the clearing. “There was the body of such a creature not far off that way when I passed through.”

“Body?” Rainbow Dash repeated.

“Yes, that’s right. A bit of a gruesome sight, too. It appeared absolutely riddled with wounds—must have taken quite the effort to finally bring the beast down.”

Rainbow Dash glanced at Twilight, the corners of her mouth twitching from her barely suppressed grin.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Well, I’d best be off for real this time. I would enjoy if we were to meet again. It’s been so long since I’ve spoken to somepony.” She shook her head, smiling. “Then again, I suppose this land doesn’t look kindly upon such reunions, does it?”

She turned to walk away, but she did not leave without bidding them one last farewell. “May the moonlight shine on your travels.”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash watched as she left. The giant crystal embedded in the cliff gradually broke down to dust in her absence. Once she was a mere silhouette in the rain, Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight, excitement creeping into her voice.

“Did you hear that? Spitfire and Soarin killed the manticore. That means they’re still out there!”

Twilight nodded, still staring after where the white unicorn went. “If what she said is true, we should go see the body. There may be signs of where your squad went.”

Finding a steep path down into the clearing, they descended and traveled in the direction Rarity had pointed.

It was only a short way before they came across the manticore’s body. Perforations speckled its chest and front legs. Thin trails of dried blood ran from the holes, though most of the blood stemming from the wounds looked to have been washed away by the rain.

“Was it recent?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It’s difficult to say. It appears as though it had been a darkened for at least a couple hundred years. Its body is heavily mummified, preserved so the miasma can keep it alive. It looks recent, but recent in this case could mean anytime in the past couple months.”

“So who knows when they were actually here.” Rainbow Dash gave a half-lidded look around and sighed.

As she continued to glance their surroundings, her brow knotted. “These were some of the ones we searched for mushrooms,” she said, pointing at the cave nearest them. Her gaze moved to the farther of the two caves, and her hoof lowered.

“That’s the cave I found the manticore in.”

The entrance of the cave stood twice as tall and nearly twice as wide as that of the other cave, its black gaping maw large enough to have fit the dead beast. Leaving the body, they crossed over to its entrance, halting in front of it. Rainbow Dash peered into the darkness, her ears faced forward and twitching.

“Do you hear that?”

Twilight hadn’t, but swivelling her ears towards the cave, she began to hear a low murmuring coming from somewhere within. “It sounds like a pony.”

Those were the only words Rainbow Dash needed to hear. Heedless of the dark, she walked into the cave.

“Hey, wait a moment!” Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash ignored her and continued inside, the blackness swallowing her.

A scowl crossed Twilight’s face as she lit her horn and went inside after her.

Rain leaked and drizzled from above and outside, and trails of it ran across the uneven floor. Its dripping echoed and filled the cave along with the croaked moaning of whatever it was that lay inside.

A short way in stood Rainbow Dash, just beyond the reach light coming from the mouth of the cave. Her ears twitched and scanned.

“It sounds like it’s coming from over there,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing deeper into the cave. She started walking in the direction of it, and Twilight reluctantly followed.

The dull roar of the rain outside the cave faded, the trickling of water and the inconsistent moans filling its absence. As one faded to the other two, the sounds of whoever or whatever it was that lay at the back of the cave became clear, and with it, became clear a quiet sobbing which filled the gaps between the moaning.

They stood before it now. At the edge of Twilight’s magic light, a figure sat hunched over something. Faint, washed-away trails of blood sat caked upon the stone before Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s hooves, stemming from where the stranger sat.

Twilight grew the light from her horn.

The washed-away blood painted a thick, wide path to the body of a light and dark blue pegasus.

Rainbow Dash’s breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened as her pupils shrunk as a terrified whisper escaped her lips.

“Soarin?”

Dark red marred the blue pegasus’s still chest. Hunched over the wound, skin black and cracked with the faded remnants of a mane draped around its head, was the figure. A darkened. Its front hooves lay on the wound, poking and prodding it.

Rainbow Dash felt her legs go numb, unresponsive. She wanted to tear her gaze away from the blood and red matting Soarin’s coat, to shut her eyes and pretend it wasn’t real, but she couldn’t shut her eyes or look away.

The darkened poked and prodded the wound on Soarin’s chest, a throaty rasping noise coming from it.

Rainbow Dash blinked, the spell shattered. Breaking the breath she’d unknowingly been holding, she gasped a lungful of stale air. Her shoulders shook while her eyes narrowed on the darkened touching Soarin’s body with its cracked, blackened hooves.

“You leave him alone!” Rainbow Dash shouted, drawing her spear and marching over to the darkened. She approached the darkened and stood on her hind legs, towering over it, her spear in her hooves and hovering just off of the side of the darkened’s neck.

“Back away from him,” Rainbow Dash growled. When the darkened didn’t move or even look up, she repeated herself with the blade of her spear resting on its neck. “Get. Off. Now.”

The darkened halted as the steel touched its skin. It turned, slowly, to look up at her. Its eyes were pale and clouded, but a hint of their former color still remained: an unmistakable orange.

Rainbow Dash moved her spear away from the darkened’s neck, once the recognition had set in. Her anger vaporized and her bottom lip trembled. “S-Spitfire?” she asked, choking on the word.

The ghostly white threads of what mane the darkened had left were still colored with a few orange and reddish hairs. It looked up at Rainbow Dash, its eyes red and veined, then turned back to Soarin’s corpse once more and resumed sobbing.

Rainbow Dash’s spear fell from her hooves and clattered against the floor as she sank to her knees. She clenched her eyes shut as tears sprang to them. “No no no,” she said, shaking her head. Her shoulders jerked, and her sobs joined those of the darkened’s as their tears spilled onto Soarin’s chest.

Twilight walked over and stood apart from the three of them with her head bowed.

Rainbow Dash looked up from Soarin at Spitfire. Grief had formed lines around her mouth and eyes, her skin ashen and cracked. Rainbow Dash reached across Soarin’s body and embraced her.

“You were always there, looking out for me. I loved you like a sister,” she said as she sobbed into Spitfire’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

Grabbing her spear off the ground, Rainbow Dash thrust it through Spitfire’s heart.

A gasp came from Spitfire as the blade pierced her. Her sobs halted, then she grew still.

Rainbow Dash removed her blade, now darkened red, and gripped Spitfire’s limp form. Tears raced down her cheeks. Head snapping back, an unearthly scream came torn from her throat.