Absentia continued forward. It had a mission. It had the power. It had control over all. And it would see its goal completed.

Rainbow Dash would die, just as it had. Tortured and betrayed. Gazing into the eyes of her…

Rainbow’s murderer. Yes. That was it.

Absentia smiled.

Rainbow ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, flying when she felt brave enough to. The world around her kept flickering in and out, the hallways shifting endlessly, making flying a risk - but she had to get out, fast. She breathed hard through her mouth, swallowing the blood she’d inhaled earlier as she did. It tasted bitter.

Dash kept going. She had to. This Absentia was stronger than any she'd ever seen; it had been recorded in the past that they likely had reality warping powers, but… this was something else. And entering through the body of an Absentia had never caused harm before - but now, her body ached fiercely and she felt gashes in her skin, slowly bubbling up with blood.

Finding the Absentia while it was hibernating failed. This one just. Didn't, somehow! Rainbow didn't know how and it terrified her.

She couldn't use magic, meaning she couldn't contain it. Even with a magic user here, she doubted it would help against one this strong.

There was only one more thing to do. Run. The power had been cut off, door locked tight. But if she could turn on the Machine manually, the system would reboot. She'd watched the training tapes. She could do this!

“Run, rainbow,” the voice echoed again. It wasn't helping. It was Scootaloo now, crisp, clear. Seeing her. Seeing that little filly...

Rainbow Dash screamed a curse as tears rolled down her eyes. “You AREN’T HER! YOU AREN’T SCOOTALOO!” She took another turn and took to the air again, blasting forward as the Absentia was focused on the whispers. At the very least, it seemed to be focused on one thing at a time.

She took turns quickly, trying to get any distance she could. It was futile. Absentia can teleport - she knew that.

She was going to die.

Rainbow Dash refused. No. She couldn't. She had to at least try.

Is this how you felt? The thought came unbidden to her mind as she tried to ignore the tears streaming off her face and into the air behind her. Is this how they've all felt? Is this what it's like to be a failure?

Left. Right. Left.
Straight. Right. Up.
Straight. Right. Straight.

Rainbow Dash was lost. She didn't care.

“Give up,” Absentia said. “Accept your fate. Just like you told us.”

She kept going. She kept pushing forward.

“It is futile. Your throne is destroyed.”

“I need to keep going. I need to survive this.”

Down under wires and pipes she ducked, up and around the path of destruction left by the murderous spirit now chasing her. Her body doing the flying, her own thoughts turned to opportunities to find the Machine room. She whipped around sharp corners at impossible speeds, zipped up and down countless sets of stairs. The Absentia followed.

This is all… so familiar. Even in the rush, the terror, the sorrow, the horror… Dash felt a tranquility. The feeling of flight calmed her, however much it could. The spectra - the magic she had that none knew how to replicate, how it was produced from just her own self - streaked behind her.

I’ve been here before. Chasing. Running. she glances behind her. Maybe 500 meters back now, the bloody mare that used to be a living thing, the monster that now took her place, was cruising along itself. Both pegasi were completely straight, hooves forward, wings beating at an impossible count, one trying to escape, the other to capture.

It wants me to be her. It wants me to be the failure.

She knew what she had to do.

There, straight ahead, she saw it.

She flew to it and stopped.

Clear. Coast was clear.

Fly. Flying, always, flying fast.

And Fall.

Down, deep down, the vent that Scootaloo once fell, it was now her escape. She fell fast, plummeting, her wings clipping the edges. It was too small, far too small for her to fit, her body screaming out its pain silently as she held her breath. And then, as one wing suddenly bent, suddenly twisted, feathers plucked from the bolts in the side - then, her eyes opened wide, her mouth too, and the scream echoed through the vent system of the facility, echoing agony.

And pushing, the air pushed, it crushed, gravity suddenly seeming to increase around her. Absentia was using its powers again. She groaned in pain and suddenly she was out. She plummeted to the floor, her wing useless. But she looked up. She was there. She was almost there. Almost free.

Her eyes widened as she took in the Machine.

“No…”

She stood, color draining from her blood stained face. One of her hooves had been sprained - she hadn't even noticed.

“What… what did you do…”

Laughter echoed around her in too many voices, voices of so, so many little fillies and colts. The children all laughed as their murderer looked upon the broken machine.

Rainbow couldn’t even process the destruction before her eyes. There was too much. Levers that provided power had been snapped, the blades were sticking up and out in odd positions. Cords had been ripped out and apart, hanging out of the holes busted into the sides of the machine. Glass containers for collected Spectra had been completely shattered. She could only assume the internal damage was even more catastrophic than she could comprehend.

The air behind her grew colder. The theater room grew quiet.

She turned. “A-Absentia…”

Absentia beamed at her, lilac light flickering in its eyesockets. Rainbow screamed, startled, as the world around her shook. Supports from above her collapsed. The damage of the facility was too much for the structure to sustain. Lights came crashing down and shattered as they hit around her.

Rainbow took a step back, feeling utter fear. It had been a long time since she felt this. An awfully long time, before the rainboom that had saved her friend’s life. Before the Factory. “P-Please. Please, let me go.”

“You didn’t let any of us go,” Absentia said, its mouth not matching the noise that came out. Hundreds of voices joined it, all around Rainbow Dash. “No mercy. Only justice.”

“P-Please, Absentia, you. You don’t have to do this! You have enough Spectra, you can rest!”

Absentia tilted its head, feeling coldness in its core. It did have so much Spectra. But it didn’t want that. It wanted Rainbow Dash dead. It would use that Spectra for its new powers. Once Rainbow was dead and this factory, this evil place, was completely destroyed, then… then it could rest.

Rainbow first.

It took a step forward. Rainbow kept backing up until she was up against the machine she had so fondly regarded just days ago. How perfect it had all seemed, at first. How perfect it seemed to be recognized as special for her Spectra, special for her gifts. How perfect the machine seemed when it got her farther, higher, than anything ever had before.

“I-I was wrong!” Rainbow felt the tears on her face suddenly, the tears she was still crying from earlier. She’d forgotten them. “I was warped, I-I was completely wrong. This is all wrong!”

She gasped as the Absentia grabbed her. Actually, fully, grabbed her, pulling her closer. Its wings stretched out more, bent unnaturally. It reached out with its spare hoof and ran it over Dash’s wing, the one that was broken and limp at her side. “You do not deserve the wings you bear.”

Rainbow Dash’s breath became more rapid as she felt something. Cold. So, so cold and then…

Boiling. She screamed, writhing, unable to escape from the Absentia. Her wing burned as the Absentia slowly pulled. Her screams echoed through the entire facility as lights flickered on and off from the use of the Absentia’s magic. Slowly, the wing was twisted, the joint snapping where it connected to the body. Rainbow Dash sobbed. She was used to pain, to crashing, to accidents, but this was so, so much worse.

The skin stretched as Absentia pulled with slightly more force. Nopony should be this strong. But Absentia wasn’t a pony. Rainbow felt her vision falter as she stopped writhing in pain, unable to maintain the effort. The skin began to tear, causing Rainbow to whimper now that her screaming was done. The cartilage stretched next, pain flaring through her entire body; and then, impatient now for the revenge to be completed, Absentia snarled and ripped.

Snap.

Rainbow knew she screamed, but it didn’t reach her ringing ears for quite some time. Cartilage ripped, sinew easily separated from bone and joint both, and the wing came off - though not cleanly. The remaining bone, jutting out of her back, jagged and broken, shifted frantically, as though her wing were attempting to flap.

The Absentia didn’t regard the wing. The useless limb fell to the floor as the Absentia trained its focus on the sobbing form in its hooves. “You tried to take my flight. Now I’ve taken yours.” Rainbow didn’t respond, the horror of the day too much for her mind.

The facility shook again, more supports falling. One fell directly through the wing of Absentia, doing no damage; the spectral form flickered briefly, but its grip remained. Bits of sunlight were peeking through holes in the clouds that had appeared. Rainbow looked up, black spots filling her vision almost completely. She was trembling, her body growing numb. She couldn’t feel anything properly any longer. It was all far too much.

“What do you see? Why do you look at the sky?” Absentia raised its hoof to caress Rainbow’s cheek, running it to her eye. “Would you like to see what it’s like to be us? To be Absentia?”” It beamed, a sickening grin shifting on its face. “I would.”

Rainbow couldn’t make anymore noise right now. Her eyes widened in horror as it began, blinking the tears into a stream on her face, dripping down her chin as she shook. Her mouth opened and closed with only, at most, a whimper escaping.

The soft noise would never stop it, however. Absentia would never stop for that weak, pitiful sound. But the process was going too slow. All of this was too slow. It laughed and shook its head. “I want more.” With a flash that shook the building more, Absentia lunged its hoof forward, directly through Rainbow’s eye.

This elicited a scream once more, the quietness broken with a shattering wail. It faltered over time, but merely transformed to sobbing, trembling, and writhing. Her cheek dripped now with fluid, both bloody and clear, from the eye that had been completely destroyed. Her body ached and burned but froze internally, and everything tingled with a numb, static feeling.

Rainbow was going to faint. It had been a long time since she had done that, but it was coming to her again now. She was going to faint. It was almost a relief. To be unconscious after all of this? Blissfully unaware of her own death?

She closed her eyes, shivering. She was so cold. So, very cold. She just wanted to rest now. Death would be welcome, now. She didn’t have the energy to smile, but she did feel the smallest budding of happiness within her.

She still won.

She was getting what she wanted, in the end.

“Any final words, you miserable, worthless excuse for a pegasus?”

It was almost her voice, Rainbow Dash reminisced. Almost Scootaloo. Almost her sister. Rainbow managed to open her eyes, taking in the hazy, shaking, dim image of Absentia. She almost managed a laugh. “We were wrong. You make a great pegasus. Praise the Flock, Scoots. You’re part of it now.”

Absentia flickered.

It began to reach for Rainbow’s chest - her worries melted away and the thought of flying encased her very being. It trembled slightly, the lights in its eyes flickering. Inside of Rainbow… It could feel it. All that Spectra. It could already feel the power- she counted silently to herself as shadows rushed past her closed eyes.

What was this?

It shook its head and went to push its hoof into Rainbow’s stomach, only to pause even as it brushed against Rainbow’s fur.

This is what I want-We’re no better than-She killed us-Love can overcome-Revenge-Destroy it all-I miss my parents-I want to go home-Set us free-Rest now-What will this accomplish-Kill her already-We are all here-

Absentia dropped the mare in its hoof, gasping, a hollow, airy sound. It held its head as Rainbow crumpled on the cloud floor.

Too many. Too many noises. It couldn’t take this.

Rainbow struggled to stand. Everything was so hurt. She could barely draw in enough breath. She couldn’t fly. She could barely see. Why had the monster dropped her?

Getting away-kill-Don’t!-Why are we-don’t want to-Please-she hurt us all-manager of this-Murderer-we are not-please-kill-

Absentia flickered more. She couldn’t take this. There were so many. So many relying and arguing and screaming and crying and dying, and dying, and dying-

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO US,” Absentia shrieked, the voices of hundreds, thousands, uncountable children contained within that solitary vocalization. “WHY!?”

Rainbow stumbled back as the world shook. The emergency lights around them started to blow, shattering glass around them. The building supports began to crack more. Rainbow breathed in sharply. “I-It’s gonna come down,” she cracked hoarsely. It was no more than a whisper, and even then, it was loud to her ears.

Absentia screamed. Rainbow gasped as she was sent flying backwards against a wall, back popping and the jagged bone grating against the metal surface. She whimpered in pain as she fell to the floor again, feeling the force of the Absentia’s surging magic. “Holy…” She trembled to her hooves.

The world was shaking more, bits of wall crumbling from the destruction Absentia had already caused. Rainbow dodged out of the way of a falling piece of machinery. It clipped her remaining wing.

Absentia stumbled. And then, it - she - looked to Rainbow. “I want to kill you! I need-to-rest-now,” the voices wavered together. She stumbled further, closer, snarling. “Let-us-rest-and-get-our-revenge.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened as the image of the Absentia shook. She couldn’t form the words anymore to vocalize concern or regret. She just stared as Absentia trembled, flickering in and out more rapidly. Tears began to well up in the image before her, bubbling up and dribbling down her cheeks.

“I loved you,” it said, whimpering. “I loved you so much, and you killed me. You traitor. You aren’t loyal to anypony.”

Rainbow shivered as the air just got colder and colder. She opened her mouth, trying to say her words, but nothing came out.

“I hope you burn.”

Absentia charged forward. Rainbow closed her eyes tightly, bracing herself, no longer running from the fate she knew, now, that she deserved.

And, all at once, the facility crumbled, crashed, and collapsed upon the pair.

Author's Note

Hi everyone! This was unedited and posted at the end of the class I was teaching today, so please excuse mistakes! Thanks!