Absentia

“Rainbow Dash, I passed!”

Rainbow blinked, backing away instinctively from the filly - from Scootaloo.

No. No, it wasn’t her. There was no way in hell that this was Scootaloo. Scoots was dead. Scootaloo had died by her hooves, crushed in spirit and body by the Machine. Scootaloo was gone, and all that was left was the Absentia.

So why was the grass under her hooves so… so real? Dash could feel the breeze in her mane, the warm sunshine on her fur… She recognized this place, this is where she and Scootaloo always trained. This was… God, this place had so much meaning for them both, but it wasn’t, COULDN’T be real! None of this could be!

Could it?

“Dash, c’mon, say something!” Scootaloo leaned back, puffing out her chest. “Unless you’re so awestruck that you can’t say anything! Ha.”

Rainbow couldn’t resist a smile at the sight. She was just so… She had passed. She was so strong despite it all. Scootaloo was so strong, confident…

Dead.

No. Scoots was dead.

Rainbow shook her head quickly, trying to clear it. “Dash? Seriously, are you alright?” Scootaloo looked concerned, eyes shimmering slightly in the afternoon light. “You don't seem as happy as I thought you’d be,” she said with a nervous laugh.

“Of course I'm happy you passed,” Rainbow said, unable to stop the words. And she was happy. Would’ve been happy. Because Scootaloo didn't pass. She shut her eyes, backing away further. “Wait, no, I… This can't be real.”

“Dash? What do you mean?”

Why did she sound so real? It just was absolutely unnatural. Scootaloo had died, and she was supposed to be gone. “This isn’t real,” Rainbow insisted against the feelings in her gut that wanted her to trust this. She wanted to be out of the factory, she wanted to be flying with her little sister and not having to dodge questions from the others. “You’re dead.”

“What?”

“You’re dead!” She opened her eyes, looking around. Each time she said it, it got easier to admit it. Every time she said it, it was easier to accept. “You’re dead, and none of this is real.”

Scootaloo watched her, frowning and backing away slightly. “C’mon, Rainbow Dash, this… this isn’t funny. Maybe we can-”

“Shut. Up.” Rainbow looked around sharply. She didn’t recognize where she was. Grass, it was a field, but which one? She knew all the places around Ponyville, it wasn’t like there was much for her to remember. It seemed familiar, but at the same time, nothing was. This was like an imperfect imprint of a place she knew once. Like a bad memory or nightmare.

But wasn’t this where they trained?

No. No, it wasn’t, nothing - nothing felt right. Everything about this place was just wrong.

She shut her eyes, remembering… remembering the factory. That place was a second home to her now, and yet, the images of wires and dark clouds felt distant. Half formed. It was like she was seeing the factory through another’s eyes. Like it wasn’t the place she knew so well now, like… Like she had only seen it once.

“Dash-”

Rainbow opened her eyes.

The world was wavering around her. She gasped, trying to fly away, but the air around her was growing heavy. The grass was melting, staining her hooves green, keeping her bound to the ground. The clouds were dark, they were the storm clouds of the factory, but that would mean-

“What’s going on?” Dash said this harshly, glaring at Scootaloo. No… No, what used to be Scootaloo. “Where are we?! Absentia, answer!”

Those words made the world shudder. And Scootaloo… Absentia smiled.

Rainbow Dash watched in horror as she could only stand there while Scootaloo began to bleed. The skin shifted, tearing before her eyes, letting the blood drain and spatter as it had, once, once that Dash had seen before. This was a second death. A second coming.

Scootaloo’s body grew marred with gashes, deep, slicing through her body. In Rainbow’s ears, she could hear the screaming, countless children screaming as they died and witnessed death, the purity they had draining into the Machine. Scootaloo looked on at Rainbow, face growing blank. Her eyes began to fade, the pupils widening for a moment before narrowing. The narrowing didn’t stop, and Rainbow saw as they shrank, the iris taking up all of Scootaloo’s eyes, the color of the muscle draining into the hole that used to be black. That, too, drained down her face, a clear liquid, leaving only a lilac light in the gaping eye-sockets.

The beast began to smile as her wings extended. The bones inside began to snap, cracking one by one, the fragments in her wings scraping against one another as they shifted. The feathers slowly began to fall out in loose places. She - it - extended a hoof that immediately began to twist as it did, the fur and skin wrapping around the muscles and bone unnaturally. The other hooves followed suit, the diagonal slashes

Rainbow tried her wings again, pushing desperately against the weight in the air, the weight keeping her grounded; it failed. The ground clung to her, the grass shifting to a darker color, the color of the factory. She looked down and saw the blood on herself.

“Where are you going, Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow gasped, looking up as Absentia drew nearer.

“Get away! Get the-” Rainbow felt her voice cut off, the air around her suddenly growing into a vacuum. She struggled for breath. Breathe. Breathe, gotta breathe, but it all escaped her.

Absentia drew near. It was twisted, distorted, bleeding. It shifted forward in a blink, faster than Rainbow could process, but at the same time, stuttering like a glitch against a false background, the world warbling between a bloody, screaming factory and a pristine, green and gold field that was melting away into horror.

Rainbow tried to scramble away. It only made things worse.

Absentia laughed.

Rainbow cried out, body shaking, no sound being produced from her lips but a choking gasp.

Absentia leaned forward towards Rainbow’s ear. She felt a soft breeze against her fur as the breath from Absentia’s lips reached her skin.

“Wake up.”

Rainbow screamed, pulling away from the beast, eyes snapping open.

Blood.

Gore.

The viscera soaking into the clouds caused Rainbow to slip slightly as she moved, her hooves failing to meet purchase; she stumbled, her breath coming quickly.

Four bodies.

Four, broken, bleeding, dead bodies-

Each had been cleaned out. Thoroughly. The chests were empty cavities, all the internal organs having been tossed aside like a child with a broken toy. Intestines, stomach, bladder, all of the red and pink bits that should stay inside were soaking into the floor along with bits of the hunting machines they’d had, the destroyed machines useless to her now.

Rainbow gulped, the smell hitting her next. The smell, she should have been used to, but god. No. God, no no no, she was next. She was going to die. Absentia had left her alive for a reason.

This would be torture.

“RUN”

Rainbow Dash gasped as she jumped, her hooves slipping from the action, balance lost. She staggered and fell, body slamming into one of the bodies, staining half of her body a dark red. It clung to her like the grass in the nightmare - hallucination? She didn’t know. She struggled to her hooves.

“run, rainbow, run” the whispers in the air said cacophonously.

Rainbow took a deep breath, tasting iron, tasting the blood of whoever she had just fallen into… and she ran.

Absentia laughed all the while.

The hearts were crushed.

Spectra taken.

Surge

Rainbow ran. She didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop. The world around her grew hazy - that was Absentia’s doing, Absentia was following.

She turned a corner and saw an orangeish flash. Without hesitation, she turned, only to see Absentia there as well. Resisting a whimper of fear, she kept going, running, knowing where she had to go.

She ran through an image of Absentia, shivering and gasping in pain - her body ached from the contact, small cuts appearing on her skin, not even enough to bleed, but enough to give her pain. It happened again and again. Rainbow didn’t dodge away from them; she had to get where she was going. She had to finish this.

There was only one way for this to end now.

Power at the Machine. Power it on. Get the main power running. Get to the exit.

Run.