Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, flying around the building. Pegasi were fleeing in a steady stream from the factory. Some still had blood on them. She shook her head. She could reprimand them for that later. It’s not like they had the time to get the mess off them.

She took another deep breath. Her heart was still shaken up from her encounter. She could feel it beating against her ribs in her chest, like it was trying to run from the Absentia…

She thought for a moment. It had been about 10 minutes. She angled down sharply, landing next to the doors. A few stragglers were still running. “Hurry it up here, ponies. We haven’t got all day to waste on the likes of you.”

She watched them all get out, nodding. She pressed her hoof against the side of the cloud, hitting the button held within the fluffy mass. The door alarm rang, and the metal door began to drop. It wouldn’t open again until the next day, when they would all be better equipped to handle the demon inside.

She turned her back, but stopped as she heard a scream from inside. “N-No! Don’t lock me in here!”

She glanced back through the narrowing doorway. One of the pegasi was running as fast as they could towards the exit. Her wing was busted - one of the kids from the day had probably lashed out. The feathers were ruffled and bent in odd places. There was no way the pegasus could fly out, and she wasn’t running fast enough. “Run,” Dash shouted, stomping her hoof. “Get over here, or you’ll be locked in!”

The mare, out of breath already, nodded. She had been running since she heard the all call. She shut her eyes and summoned forth another burst of speed.

It wasn’t quite enough, however.

“No! NONONO!” The mare reached the door, which was closing faster now. It was already below her barrel. She reached her hoof under it, trying to crawl. “S-somepony pull me out, before it crushes me!”

Rainbow grabbed her hoof, tugging hard. The mare, to her credit, did try to crawl under the door. To her credit, it almost worked.

To her credit, the screams weren’t too terribly loud as the door slammed shut on her hoof, severing it from the rest of her body. There was a hideous crunch as the metal door hit the clouds below, as well as a squelch as the blood in the hoof was pushed to either side of the door.

Rainbow went pale as she held the bleeding remains of the worker’s hoof in her own. The blood was quickly seeping through the clouds below, staining the cirrus a dark scarlet. The ponies around Rainbow watched in silence.

Rainbow stood, holding up the hoof. "Alright. Disposal team, front and center. We need to get rid of this and plan for tomorrow."

"But M'am, what about Sta-"

"If you're about to name the mare whose hoof I'm holding, you can bite your tongue. She's dead now." She turned her back on the door, looking at the group around her. "We can only hope she bleeds out before the Absentia gets to her."

*~*~*~

Star Gleam glanced around, tears rolling down her cheeks as she cradled the stump of a hoof that remained connected to her body. She was losing blood at an alarming rate. The doors couldn’t open until tomorrow and she didn’t think she could make it to the bathrooms or offices to get bandages. She wasn’t even sure how to cauterize the wound.

She tried to stand on three hooves, but every movement sent burning fires through the exposed muscles. Gasping in pain as she moved around, she finally just fell back down, whimpering.

Her ears twitched as she heard something. She looked up - it sounded like wings. “H-hello? Was somepony else locked in with me?”

She leaned up against the cloud wall. It was too thick to fly through, like all construction clouds, but it was still soft. She sighed softly, smiling in relief. “I was so scared… P-Please, I need help! B-bandages…”

She waited, but nopony came.

“H-Hello?” She could still hear wings flapping. She looked around, just watching and waiting for somepony to answer.

Her eyes widened as she saw a flash - orange and purple, with gashes all across a pony like form. “Oh god…” She screamed, trying to push deeper into the unyielding cloud wall. “Don’t kill me! PLEASE, D-DON’T KILL ME!”

The Absentia kept getting closer to her. She shut her eyes tightly - she knew she was done for. She whimpered, curling up tightly, just waiting for the killing strike.

*~*~*~

Scootaloo watched the cowering mare curiously. The gushing blood from her hoof hardly disturbed her, for some reason. She watched the mare whimper and pray under her breath, casually taking in the splintered bone that peeked out from behind the mutilated skin of the wound.

Why wasn’t this freaking her out? Was it because she was dead now?

Scootaloo stood up straighter, smiling as the mare stood on three hooves, crying out in pain. The mare tried to run a few steps, but quickly fell back again, screaming as her hoof hit the floor. She followed the mare, curious to see what else she would do.

Why was she so happy?

“P-Please, I-I know you’re hurt,” the mare whispered. “B-But don’t take that out on me! P-Please!”

Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed. Not take it out on her? Why shouldn’t she?

She thought about it. She knew the instructions. She had known them all along; find the source of the pain and destroy it. This was one of the pegasi who caused pain. This was a pegasus who killed.

Scootaloo was free to do as she wished now. She could stop the pain.

She reached out to the mare, gently testing the waters. The mare flinched back as they made contact. Scootaloo had felt something - a sort of cold caress against her hoof. She wasn’t solid anymore, but she could still elicit reactions. Good.

The mare shivered, looking around frantically. Scootaloo tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. She can’t see me?... I wonder if she can hear me....

Scootaloo leaned close to the mare’s ear, trying to stifle her laughter. She breathed out softly, watching the mare’s ear twitch from the air. “Run,” she whispered.

The mare screamed, standing and stumbling away. Her adreneline picked her back up again as fight or flight kicked in. She chose flight, running as fast as she could on three hooves. Scootaloo grinned. “Run, run, run,” she shouted, laughing. The mare shut her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the pain and the weakness prevailing her body as she pushed herself past the limit. Scootaloo flew after her.

Every so often, the mare would look back, sometimes to see nothing, and other times seeing the same hideous blur of orange, red and purple. The mare kept running and looking back, until finally she collapses from her exhaustion. The world around her was dizzy and tilted; she had lost too much blood.

Scootaloo landed in front of her, feeling… peculiar. Watching this mare run from her was… amazing. This mare, the very same who had just killed countless children, was running from her, a mere child. “Such a cruel twist of fate…”

She felt something deep inside her. Almost like she was hungry. She licked her lips, getting closer to the mare. She mare looked up, tears run dry as she tiredly looked into the face of death.

Scootaloo saw her reflection in the mare’s eyes. She saw herself, finally.

Her mane was down, grown out and covering her eyes. It was slick with blood, making it wet. Gashes and cuts covered her entire body, and Scootaloo could feel where the blades of the Rainbow Machine had cut into her when looking at each slice into her body. Her wings were frayed and spread out behind her. Her hair shifted slightly, and she saw them; her eyes were gone. All that was left were gaping holes, filled with a lilac light.

She took a deep breath. The mare watched her, shaking. “P-please,” she whispered. “Please… let me… let me go…”

Scootaloo looked past her reflection. She looked deep into the mare’s eyes and saw something more disturbing than any eyeless, bloodies version of herself. She saw the trembling light in the mare. The mare’s soul.

Scootaloo shook her head softly. This mare was a murderer. Her soul was torn.

She pushed down on the mare’s chest, feeling the slightest breath of warmth from the mare’s fur before her hoof sank deep into the mare’s body. The woman screamed as she was pushed down, but Scootaloo hardly listened. Her hoof sank deeper and deeper, feeling both warm and cold at the same time. Her hoof grabbed hold of something - the mare’s heart? No. Similar, but different. This wasn’t the physical heart. This was the source of her. The vital part of everypony.

Spectra....

Scootaloo grit her teeth and pulled. The mare writhed, screaming weakly - she couldn’t fight back anymore. Scootaloo kept pulling, until the thing she held was tore free.

Scootaloo looked at the soul in her hooves - the light. It held every color of the rainbow, shining with a dim light. It was torn and broken. Worn.

The mare under her shuddered. Her eyes were wide open. Her chest lowered as breath left her, and the hole in her chest bled very little; she had already lost so much blood. Scootaloo glanced inside the hole with a morbid curiosity. The heart was crushed.

Scootaloo hugged the soul close. It felt warm. Comforting. She held it tightly, feeling it go into her fur as she had just gone into the mare’s. The soul was hers now. Her hooves dropped as the light disappeared.

She wasn’t hungry anymore.

Author's Note

Wow, okay, so that took a turn I didn't plan. I never plan much of anything for these, what happens just happens. I never connected souls and spectra till now.
This is interesting~