Chapters Her lilac eyes cracked open in the darkness. She felt weightless, as though time itself held her in a cradle, keeping her safe from the world in its tender embrace. She felt herself shrink down, smaller and lighter than ever, into a small ball in the oblivion. She was nothing. She felt nothing. Is this happiness, she thought curiously, as she closed her eyes again. Darkness was all she knew, and it was magical. She felt content.
Yet not all was good in her oblivion. She felt something in her body, trying to compel her to move; she could not rest now. Her job was not yet done. Whatever that job was, she did not know. She didn’t care to know much. She was content to stay resting, to be in peace. Why couldn’t she be at peace?
Then her mind began to wander past the darkness to the blinding light, that forbidden threshold of suppression. She began to remember. Little by little, like gears turning in her head - Like gears, tugging, grinding, devouring -
She sat up quickly as pain shot through her body, her eyes opening wide. The light faded as she got her bearings, realizing without fully realizing that she had been awoken for the last time. That was her final rest - for awhile, at least. She panted out her fright, hurriedly getting to her hooves with a slight flutter of her wings. It had been a sharp pain, straight through her head; at least it didn't last too long. She shook her head lightly and looked around.
She was surrounded by clouds. They were fairly dark thunder clouds that seemed constantly ready to rain, not unlike the clouds of an oncoming storm after one previous. They reminded her of fluffy clouds, soft and warm. Ones she could sleep on. Ones she could forget everything on. She was already beginning to miss rest.
Oh, she certainly remembered some things: she was a Pegasus who struggled to fly; she was here for a reason; and the pain would stop when she found that reason. Those things were the only things she truly knew. She didn't know her name; didn't know who she was or who she used to be. Why couldn’t she remember?
She wandered around the dark… wherever she was, trying to find anything that reminded her of anything. An unsettling familiarity set in again as she stopped by a vent. It was a tight squeeze down, she thought. So small an escape.
She turned, startled, as she heard a bell overhead. What did that mean? She soon heard hoofsteps on the cloud, dampened by the fluffy surface. Somepony was walking her way. It was a mare with rainbow colored hair and… and the most gorgeous rose - tinted eyes… Why did they remind her of…
*~*~*~
Rainbow Dash washed her hooves in the sink, watching the blood of the most recent batch of failures rinse off and run down the drain. Her nose scrunched up in distaste at the sight - at least it was off of her now. Dried blood of the scum of all ponies on her fur was always unsettling. She looked at her now cleaned face, deep into the rose colored irises reflected back at her.
Scootaloo brought her chin high, still demanding even the tiniest fraction of dignity.
"You have beautiful eyes."
Rainbow Dash shut her eyes tightly, gritting her teeth. That pathetic excuse for a Pegasus, that miserable little scab on her side that she had wasted so much time on, had actually gotten to her. With her eyes closed, she still saw that little filly, screaming about love and what a monster she had become. For weeks she had dreamt of - or maybe remembered - days she had spent with the orange filly. Those dreams slowly became nightmares, all ending with those same four words.
"Why didn't she get it," Rainbow muttered under her breath, her hooves supporting her against the blood stained sink. "I told that little b-" She bit her tongue, cutting off the cuss word. New company policy, to help keep them hidden from the rest of the community. Most ponies didn't have such foul mouths.
She sighed, shaking her head. "Why didn't she get how much I hoped for her? How much I trained her, wanted her to.." She sighed again, unable to get that filly out of her mind. That pitiful excuse for a Pegasus…
She groaned as she heard the work bell ring, signaling the end of the break. The days harvest had ended, and it was time to clean up a bit of the mess. The kids were mostly injured today, at least; they hadn't fought back as much as some. Not as much of a mess. There was that, at least.
Dash trotted out of the bathroom, letting her mask rest under her wing as she walked. No sense hiding her face now. All the kids were disposed of, and everypony around here knew her face. Here, she was solid, real: more solid than ever as she used these children's deaths for sport. Their Spectra created her namesake - it seemed only proper that they would die for something so beautiful, so amazing.
As she trotted down the abandoned hallway, Dash stopped near a small vent. She gazed down the long dark abyss, sighing. This had been the spot where she had finally captured Scootaloo. Knocked her unconscious in a fit of sheer rage; this was where Scootaloo had lost.
No. She had lost a long time ago. She had been born a failure; she had been born a loser. Rainbow had been born a winner, had been born amazing. How had that foal thought she could live up to the great Rainbow Dash?
"But she still won in a way," Rainbow whispered to herself. "She's still made me pity her..." Dash shook her head harshly. "C'mon, Dash! Get ahold of yourself... Maybe tonight you can get plastered and forget for awhile..." She sighed softly. "I should get to the killing floor...They’ll need help clearing up anything we missed in the final sweep..."
As she turned, Rainbow thought she saw some pony; there one instant, then gone at the blink of her eye. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped as her blood ran cold. Her eyes widened as her every reflex froze, paralyzed by some chilling force. It lasted but a moment, like a sly gust of wind stealing your breath away in the autumn cold, taking a small bit of your soul with it.
She wasted no time in flaring out her wings, her blood stained mask falling forgotten to the ground, and, dashing to the closest intercom, she punched in the all call hurriedly. Her heart pounded against her ribs as she yelled: "Evacuate! Absentia roaming! Full lock down to be enacted in 10 minutes! Those who remain inside will become prey!"
She repeated the orders once more, the fur on the back of her neck standing up, that feeling of being watched causing her to shiver; that feeling of someone blowing on your neck, then turning around and realizing no pony is there. She shoved the com back into place and spun around. She saw just a flash again: orange, with a purple mane. It was her. Of course it was. It would be her. "Absentia, leave this place! Your life was spent; it's time to leave this world!" Shutting her eyes tightly, almost as though fearing a response, Dash blindly flew away from the scene.
That day, the factory and it's devilish machine were silenced, if but for a day.
*~*~*~
The ghostly figure of Scootaloo held her eyes wide as she hovered, watching the rainbow maned mare run for her very life. That mare… Rainbow Dash… how could she ever forget her? How would Scootaloo - yes, that was her old name - ever forget that murderer? That’s right… Her legend, her sister, her idol…. had murdered her.
Scootaloo felt a pit in her stomach. She was dead. She would never get her cutiemark. She would never get married or join the Wonderbolts. She would never learn to fly properly. And it was all because of this mare, that righteous mare, ordering her death…
Scootaloo glanced at the vent. That was where… She remembered. She was remembering everything, everything her mind had been trying to protect her from. She didn’t want to remember, but she had to. She had to to end this madness. If she didn’t try, she would never leave. If she didn’t try, she would have to watch, pained, as more and more children were led to their deaths.
She licked her lips as she thought. She could stop it all. She, that ‘miserable failure of a pegasus’ as she remembered, could stop it all once and for all. She refused to let anypony bring her down anymore. She glanced at the ground below her. Her hooves rested above the cloud layer, hovering slightly. Taking a deep breath, she spread her wings. She felt as though she could cry as she moved forward at the slightest twitch of her wings. She smiled for the first time since she had awoken.
Scootaloo had learned to fly at last.
Author's Note
I had planned for this fic to be all one chapter, but I think I'll extend it a bit. I just loved ending it there. Let's see how the fans react to this...
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.
Rainbow sighed, pacing around the town as she thought about what was to come. Absentia had been a problem in the past, but she never thought she would have to deal with one she knew. Especially not Scootaloo.
She reviewed what she had studied about the Absentia before she had begun her work at the factory. They were the spirits of the dead, she knew that much. Those few fillies and colts who were strong enough would come back. Each Absentia was different: some would scream and go insane; some would wander silently behind their prey before doing the deed; the only similarity between them all was the way they killed.
The heart. Every Absentia crushed the heart of their victim. Rainbow shuddered lightly as she remembered the reports. One pony, in the past, had seen an Absentia claim a soul. It was grisly to read; she couldn't imagine sitting through it, just powerlessly watching.
But watch they did. The pony in question, Windy Hearts, had witnessed an Absentia feed. The spirit reportedly reached into the chest of the victim and tore out a shining light. Windy could only describe it as their soul. It had been a shining, rainbow spark, according to reports. After that, the pony would die, their chest open as though split apart in the middle. The Absentia would then absorb the soul and be sated until the next murder.
Windy has witnessed the death of her husband, Cloudy Daze. A day after the Absentia was exterminated, the higher ups reported that Windy had 'retired'. No one questioned it. No one wanted to 'retire' next.
Rainbow took a deep breath. No sense dwelling on the past. They knew how to dispose of the Absentia. It would just be normal procedure until then. No rainbows today. She glanced up at the sky. There were no clouds in sight. A single, clear blue day… How many of those had she spent with the dead… with Scootaloo?...
"Rainbow Dash!" She jumped and turned as she saw Applebloom run up to her excitedly. Oh, horseapples... The filly skidded to a stop, panting. "Hi, Rainbow Dash!"
"Hey, kiddo."
"Any uh... Any word from Scootaloo yet?" Her eyes were full of hope.
She winced, trying to mask her expression from Applebloom. “Er… No. Sorry, Applebloom.” She bit the inside of her cheek, rubbing her hoof softly. “Haven’t heard anything from the kid.”
The little filly seemed to wilt in her place. “Oh… It’s just been a while is all. Almost a whole month…”
“She’s probably just excited to have moved to Cloudsdale, Bloom.”
“But she didn’t even tell us she was leaving!” Applebloom shut her eyes tightly. “She was me and Sweetie’s best friend, and then she jus’ suddenly… wasn’t anymore…” Rainbow opened her mouth to say something to make it better, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Applebloom sighed and stood once more, turning. “Thanks anyways, Rainbow Dash. Ah’ll see y’around. Tell me if you hear anythin’, alright?”
“Will do, kiddo.” Rainbow watched Applebloom walk away. “Dang it…” She took off, groaning to herself. How was she supposed to tell her that Scootaloo was dead? That she had been killed to make rainbows because of some old rules made long ago? She wasn’t about to say all that. Not yet. She wasn’t good with that sort of thing.
She landed on a cloud that overlooked all of Ponyville, one of the only ones in the sky. The town was smaller than most would imagine. Home to 6 Elements of Harmony, the town sounded as though it would be grander than it was. In reality, it was just a small dot on the world map. This is where Rainbow lived and had lived for a long time now.
The job at the Rainbow Factory had never bothered her as much as it did now, though. Not since Scoot’s death.
She’d been approached after her second Rainboom. After saving Rarity’s life. The Wonderbolts had been the ones to introduce her to the… the real way rainbows were made. There was something… elegant about the process. Something about the way rainbows were made - they existed inside the very souls of ponies, where magic and blood ran together freely. To harvest that and spread joy across Equestria? It was truly beautiful.
And those of the Flock that were too weak to fly just seemed practical when it was first explained to her. If they couldn’t finish a simple exam, then they were now useful in another way. They were sacrificing their lives for the morale of all others. Without rainbows, the ponies become discouraged, and when they become discouraged… When the first laws were made and Celestia handed rainbow making duties to the Pegasi, it was explained that without rainbows, the magic of the world was lessened, which could spell danger with Nightmare Moon on the rise. Now? Well, there were enough threats in the world without adding a lack of magic to them all.
But thinking it over now, there were so many flaws to the plan. Pegasi going missing with no explanation… Too many questions being asked by reporters with too few answers… With Luna back, surely Celestia could simply make the rainbows herself, but the duties from 1,000 years ago had been long forgotten by now, surely. And how would they even begin to admit how many had died for ‘efficiency’? For ‘morale’? Rainbow felt disgusted suddenly.
Why had none of these questions even occurred to her before?
She shook her head. “I… I need to head home and plan out the day tomorrow. It’ll be hell to clean up Sc… The Absentia’s mess.” She hunched down before taking out, her hooves kicking back and destroying the lone cloud in the sky. She left behind a single rainbow trail, left behind by her colored tail.
That, too, faded from the sky, leaving nothing left to disrupt the simple beauty of blue.
Author's Note
Unedited so I can eat with my sister's roomate on time. ^u^ FINALLY DID SOMETHING FOR A FANFICTION AND UPDATED OMG I AM SO HAPPY! :)
Scootaloo wandered the abandoned factory. It had to be close to morning, she knew. She could feel the cold seeping through the outer cloud walls, starting to grow a bit warmer as the sun began to rise. How had time gotten away from her?... She remembered… darkness. After she had eaten that pony’s spectra, she’d… slept. Relaxed. Just… floated. Was that normal?
Was any of this normal?
… It would be nearly time to open the factory. That would be her chance to get her.
Rainbow Dash.
The name, the mere thought of her name, made a shiver run down Scootaloo’s spine. That was the mare who killed her. The mare who scoffed, who screamed, who had brutally murdered her.
Anger. She felt… angry. Well, that was natural, she thought. Who wouldn’t be angry at their murderer?
Sorrow. She was… she had just killed a pony.
Her stomach churned. She had… She was a murderer.
“I-I-” She stumbled to lean against a cloud, shaking. Oh god. She had just killed someone. She had felt almost NOTHING until now, but she had just murdered someone! She wasn’t like that! She… hadn’t been a murderer before…
Before she died.
Even as she felt that fear, sickness, hatred… It ebbed away. She stood against the wall, still shivering. God, it was so cold. Even the slight warmth from the sun rising felt… blank, for lack of a better word. It all felt blank, until she had gotten that… spectra. She wanted... She wanted more. She was... hungry again.
“Review.” She shook her head to get the emotions out of it. No need for those anymore. She was dead. No thinking about how being a killer was wrong. Just thinking about why she had to kill. That was how this had to go down. That was how this had to happen. No more thinking. Just revenge.
Scootaloo paced around the factory, unconsciously retracing the steps of the route she took the day she died. She reviewed everything she knew.
Spectra. That was a key part to it all. It was pure pigment. That was what Rainbow Dash had said. But it was so much more than that. It was pure magic, as well, pure energy - the very soul of ponies. That spectra helped her feel less hungry, warmer, more… real. Had it made her more real? It had allowed her to... to feel, even for that brief burst. It gave her happiness. Morale. Just like-
Rainbows. Those were made with spectra. That spectra was obtained by slaughtering countless children, using their soul pigments to mix together rainbows. They had to use children for the innocence - nothing had tarnished those souls yet. They were pure color. Pure souls. Just as hers had been before she'd been put through-
The Machine. That… demonic invention was the start of it all. When the pegasi had first discovered that spectra ran freely through ponies, of course they had built the Machine to harvest it. Without that Machine…
Without it, they couldn’t harvest.
Scootaloo grinned and blinked.
In an instant, she stood at the Machine, bewildered for only a moment. Ah. No need for walking, it seemed. Her new… state of being allowed her many gifts. She could truly fly now! She almost laughed. She felt very happy again. She was fulfilling her purpose. She knew what she had to do. It didn’t matter what she had to do to achieve her goals, so long as she achieved them. What did it matter anymore? She was dead. Gone.
Nothing mattered but ending this.
She stared at the machine, going to the controls. She slammed her hoof down on the lever that powered it with a sharp smile. It shattered under her. She turned to the gears and blades within the machine, hovering above them.
Would she feel pain, she wondered briefly, before diving into the blades and wreaking havoc on the Machine from the inside out. She could feel the blades digging into her skin, the blood sliding down her body as she howled and shrieked - and the voices of hundreds, thousands of other pegasi who hadn’t made the cut screamed with her, begging to be released from the demon that claimed their lives. She heard it all and a ringing in her ears.
This ended with her. She would allow nothing else.
Alone in her misery, in her agony, Absentia began her work anew, destroying everything she could with no thought other than revenge.
*~*~*~
Rainbow Dash stood grimly before the team. They stared at her, just as grimly. All the regular workers, those pansies, those too weak to fight, had been sent home for the day. None of them could be risked on Absentia clean up duty. She, on the other hoof, was trusted to make it out alive. The team before her was expendable.
But they were trained to be the best.
“Alright, you maggots, listen up.” Her voice was harsher than it had ever been. Was it because they were going in there to kill Scootaloo again? Was it because she had to watch who could have been her sister die again? She shook her head, taking a deep breath as she shut her eyes. “You all know why we’re here. This is going to be a rough one. The Absentia is vengeful as all hell, and we’ve got to watch our backs in there.”
“Manager Dash.” She looked up to the one who spoke. She didn’t know his name. Who cared? They might all die anyways. No need getting attached to dead ponies. “Do they know who it was? That information might help us end this sooner if we can map out the story.”
Rainbow gulped. “... It was Scootaloo. The orange failure from Ponyville.” There was a soft murmur through the team. Rainbow snarled, slamming her hoof into the clouds beneath her. “Do you think because I knew her I’ll go SOFT on her?!”
“N-No, Manager!” came the hesitant response.
Not good enough. Dash walked up to the team, gazing into all of their faces with a scowl on her face. “I may have known a pegasus at one time with the same name. But when I go in there, I won’t be looking for a pegasus named Scootaloo. I’ll be looking for 2 things. A murdered mare with her heart crushed, and the Absentia that murdered her. Both of them are failures. One of them, you’re trained to destroy. The other, we’ve agreed was a machine malfunction, as each body that turns up is. Is this clear?”
“Yes M’am!”
“Good!” Rainbow turned on her heels to face the factory. Inside that place was a filly who had been brutally killed by her. A filly she had once called sister. That she had once hoped would be strong enough to avoid the Machine. To avoid death and become a star.
No.
That filly was dead. She had killed her. All that was left in there was a body and a ghost of a memory.
Rainbow strode up to the door controls, swallowing softly. She had to ignore her racing heartbeat. She knew Sco- The Absentia, she reminded herself again, was going to come straight for her. It wanted vengeance. Revenge. Rainbow Dash was risking her very life by going into this factory.
Was it worth it anymore?
She began to punch in the Manager code to unseal the doors. She willed her hoof not to shake and was thankful to see she managed it. She licked her lips. Of course this was worth it. She was loyal to her company. She was rising in the ranks. She was… good at this. Loyal, til the end.
You weren’t loyal to her .
She shut her eyes tightly, taking a deep breath. The Absentia hadn’t deserved loyalty. She was a failure. A straight up failure who didn’t deserve those wings on her back. She opened her eyes and kept punching in numbers. She was going to end this.
The instant the Absentia was gone, the instant her life would go back to normal.
She hoped.
The alarm went off. She backed away from the controls and nodded to her team. They moved forward into position in case the Absentia had enough strength to step outside. They drew their weapons, the tools of their trade, in preparation. Rainbow turned to the door and steeled her heart.
It was time.
The door slowly, slowly slid open.
Author's Note
Finally got this chapter out. I know it's probably a bit shorter than you all would like, but I literally just wrote this in an hours time, so cut me some slack.
In an instant, the group outside the doors were chilled by the rush of wind from inside. It was freezing in the factory. Rainbow shivered, eyes narrowing. The presence of an Absentia usually had that effect. She should’ve been prepared for that. She made a mental note to herself to remember that for next time.
If there is a next time .
She shook that thought of her head and motioned for the team to continue inwards. As one unit, they all stepped forward, walking inside the still dim factory. The entrance area was brightened by the light outside, but around them, the branching hallways were all dark. “Must’ve blown the lights on us,” one of the team members muttered.
“You’re trained for this,” Rainbow said back, her voice a whisper. She wasn’t sure why they were speaking so softly, but it just felt wrong to speak louder. She looked around, trying to catch any glimpse of the Absentia. It was silent in the entrance, however, and nothing could be seen anywhere. They spent a minute or more standing there, watching, but nothing happened. Nobody came.
It was like they were alone, and in a way, they were.
“C’mon,” Dash mumbled to herself. Her heart was beating just a bit faster in anticipation for something, anything. Where was she? Dash knew the Absentia would come for her. So where was she already?
She turned her head. Nothing to the right. She glanced left. Nothing. The guard behind her spoke. “Anyone see-”
Alarms. Ringing in her ears. They all jumped as the door suddenly slammed shut, the entrance lighting up with flashing lights. Rainbow shook her head, stumbling for a moment as the flashing lights disoriented her. She saw something in the lights, orange and purple, and she jumped away from it. Someone fired at it and missed entirely, hitting the wall with no effect.
Rainbow took another step back before she heard it. One of the team members, issuing a blood-curdling scream, followed by the sickening crunch, snap, squish of his spine breaking, his neck twisting, blood draining out of his mouth. Rainbow swallowed her bile - the sounds, she was used to, and the smell. But the fact that Scootaloo had…
The alarms faded and darkness surrounded them. “LIGHTS,” she cried out, cursing her voice for wavering slightly. In a moment, the pegasi had gathered their lights, lighting up as much of the room as possible.
The lights centered on the body in the middle of the room. He - no, it was lying face down, the spine poking out from the wounds on it’s back. Rainbow nudged it over to check his chest. Still intact.
… She didn’t take the soul.
“Alright, everyone. This one’s smart. It knows the hibernating state they go in after they feed and resisted instinct so that didn't happen. Be on your guard.” She looked around, taking a deep breath.
This wasn’t going to be pretty.
*~*~*~
Scootaloo shuddered. She watched the ponies who were here to kill her with vague interest. The body on the ground, however, pulled at her attention. She was so… terribly hungry. She wanted to feed. To feast. She counted 6 more living pegasi to dispose of. 7 souls she could take…
But she would rest then. She growled, flying above the group. No pony ever looked up. She would be perfectly safe up there.
She watched them eagerly. As soon as all of them were disposed of, her job would be done. Then, she could finally rest. Just 6 ponies to kill.
She found it easier to justify now.
She landed behind one of them as they started walking. Rainbow Dash called for them to watch her back as they surveyed the damage she had done. She walked coolly behind the last member of the group as he looked right through her. She wouldn't be seen unless she wanted to be seen.
Did all Absentia have this kind of control? Or was it only her? Was it only because of the circumstances of her death? Betrayed by the one she’d thought was loyal to her? Taken too early from this world, without a friend to help her, without a destiny-
The Absentia shook her head. No need to think of the past in such a way. It was just her and Dash now, and a team of free Spectra. No friends. No memories. Just Absentia and her prey.
She licked her lips, hungry once more. She fought it back that. Revenge first. Satisfaction later. Satisfaction would take a back seat for now, and once they were all dead and gone, then she would feed, she would rest, she would be at peace.
In a flash, a pulsing shake of the world, she disappeared, leaving only a cool breeze in her wake.
*~*~*~
Rainbow swung her head this way and that, looking desperately for any sign of the Absentia, as well as any sign of the damage she had done. She knew this Absentia had grown wise to the mechanizations of her new life, and she knew that this one was vengeful. It made sense that this one would seek revenge through destruction.
Here and there throughout the factory, wires had been pulled from the walls, bits of clouds wisping around without a tether. Lights were torn from their sockets - they would flicker senselessly, making the already uneasy team even more jittery. Rainbow occasionally felt a burst of cold wind behind her, as though the Absentia were breathing down her neck all along. But the team was behind her. She had to remember that.
It didn’t fill her with much hope.
“Manager.” She looked behind her sharply. One of the mares on the team walked close, whispering still - as though that might prevent another attack. “Might I offer a suggestion?”
“If you dare say we should split up, I’ll do so - you’ll go alone, and me and the rest will stay together.” The mare paled at the suggestion. “Was that what you were gonna say?”
“N-No, M’am.”
“Smart mare. Now what was it that you wanted?”
The mare licked her lips, cowed by Rainbow’s response. “Follow the death path. I’ve researched these Absentia extensively, and they tend to lead their killers along the path of their death. And, well… We all know her story after what happened here.”
Rainbow fought against her hooves, forcing them to continue forward. She wanted to stop, to regain herself, to stop and think; but no, no time here. Had to keep moving or they would all die. “You might be right. Everyone else hear what she said?” Affirmations came from the team.
Three confirmations.
Rainbow’s eyes widened and she swung around. four ponies stood behind her; the mare who spoke, and the three ponies behind them.
There had been five with her after the death of that stallion.
“Where’s Dust Rider?” one of the team asked, surprised. No one had an answer.
Rainbow shut her eyes tightly. The cold was seeping into her body, through her wings. She shivered and stamped her hoof angrily. That was 2 ponies of her 6 pony team, gone. “He’s gone. Leave him for dead and forget he existed. Another mechanical injury.”
“B-But he might still be-”
“I don’t care!” Her eyes flared open with her wings. “We’ve gotta find this Absentia and finish this, before I lose another one of you, alright? I’ll not let this THING take another innocent life!”
There was silence after her comment. Rainbow took a deep breath, thinking of what she’d just said.
And in her ear, she heard a voice. No, not in her ear - everywhere. Everywhere, the voice spoke, and the ponies there looked around, all hearing it, all knowing what it meant.
I’ll not let this THING take another innocent life , Rainbow’s voice cried and echoed.
“And neither will I,” a softer, forgotten echo replied.
Author's Note
This took me awhile! Sorry about the wait guys. I'm trying to finish this one up as fast as possible so that I can focus on some of my other fics. Also, my hand is mildly injured tonight (a slip up with a knife, just a minor cut but annoying as heck) and so typing is harder than normal/slower. Sorry guys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbOz-QrVLWk was the song I listened to on repeat for this one. Who knew Undertale stuff would have so much inspiration for this fic!
Dust Rider looked around, frantic. “Thunder Strike?” No response came from the darkness. He flicked down his night vision lenses, but they did nothing. This wasn't a natural darkness. This was something entirely unnatural. “Glimmer, please, somepony be out there…”
He lifted his lenses, faced with a wall of fog and haze. He passed into it, squinting. What had caused this? Had that thing gotten to the heating units too? He trudged forward blindly, his heart racing. He might be trained for hunting Absentia, but there was only so much to prepare for. Moments like these, he felt… lost.
A shriek came from far to his left, causing him to jerk away, his teeth clamped shut in a trained action, one of the few things he could be prepared for. Whatever had caused that scream could use his own to track him. No need letting on where he was anymore. Silence from here on out.
He looked around; it was still too foggy to see. Lights seemed to flicker in the distance in front of him, and it sounded as though a mare was whimpering down to his left, where the scream had originated. Definitely female… His eyes widened. Could that be…
Was Star still alive?
Absentia had been known to survive for weeks without Spectra, after all. It was possible that Star had managed to get to a healing unit in time and the Absentia had spared her until now. Recovering the body was one of the goals… If he was the one to find and bring back a worker… Not only that, but Star… She would need help. Healing units were good and all, but she needed serious medical attention.
Feeling drawn to her, he began to walk to the left, ignoring the flickering orange light that seemed to creep up his back as he entered the dark hall. The whimpering grew closer slowly. “Star?”
“H-Hello ?” The voice echoed down the hallway towards him. She sounded relieved - it was definitely Star’s voice, no doubt about it. He knew her voice. “P-Please, I need help! B-bandages… ”
“Help? Yeah, I know, I’m coming for you!” He walked faster, trying to get closer. It seemed to be getting more hazy the further he went; she must have been absolutely terrified, all alone down here! “Don’t worry! I-”
He saw a figure in the mist, curled into the corner. He smiled. “-can-”
He galloped close, but…
There was nothing there but a corpse.
His eyes widened, face paling, as he stumbled back. Star… Star was…
“- help.”
There was a flutter of movement behind him, a chill up his spine. He turned quickly, ready to attack-
He didn’t get a scream out before the Absentia plunged it’s hoof through his chest, rendering him speechless. He felt the blood seep out of him, bursting out at one second before becoming a steady flow from the hole. He coughed involuntarily, his mind both racing and standing still as he felt mucus and blood spray from his lips, staining them but falling through the nothingness in the air, despite the monster that held him.
The Absentia leaned in close, her eyeless, twisted face watching him closely. He shuddered in its grasp. It whispered to him. “P-Please ,” Star’s voice murmured. “P-Please, I need help! ”
Dust began to shake. He’d been… tricked. He was… He was prey. He was bleeding out and… and dying.
He found Star.
He was… . . . . . .
The Absentia pulled its hoof back, a shining light held in its grasp. The body crumpled to the floor atop the other. The heart no longer pulsed. The soul did.
This was brighter than the other, she noticed. Less worn. He was younger, for one thing. Purity came with youth, she noted, though that was not always the case. After all, she thought with mild amusement, she had been a child once.
The amusement faded as she took in the Spectra. She licked her lips, her body wavering. It was… so good. So good to hold. To watch. It was so beautiful. Each separate line of color blended into the next; each color shone as bright as possible, surviving despite the gradient nature of its very being. Magic, condensed into the very soul of a pony, the very living nature of each beast.
She was so hungry.
Hunger.
She needed it .
But the workers - they would find-
Hunger
She shook her head, trying to back away - yet still, she clung to it, it was so beautiful, so full , she needed it, needed food, she leaned forward, pushing, tugging it clos-
And it pulsed through her, easing, relaxing, filling her with solidness, refreshing the parts of her that had begun to fade. She felt renewed, her eyes widening as the world burst with color, feeling, sound… She was no longer hungry…
Yet tired.
So tired.
A brief rest would… never…
Hurt .
She opened eyes she had not known she’d closed. Pain. Hurt. Hatred and disgust. These ponies were murderers. She was the only one who knew to stop them! If she went to sleep - god, she wanted to sleep, her body wanted to rest - if she did that, they would win.
They would keep killing.
Memories flashed before her. Aurora - she had been injured. They should have helped her, but something about that demonic machine, that need for morale had erased morality. She had deserved better. Orion, that lovestruck colt that she had befriended in school, that fool that had sacrificed himself… All of the other ‘failures’, all of those she… she never even learned their names…
Rainbow Dash.
Her sister.
Her idol.
Her murderer .
Her voice became a growl, present in her ears and throat, yet she didn’t realize the sound she heard was her own for a moment. A ringing sound overtook her. Her heart - she felt it now, pounding, pulsing - raced faster in her chest, beating against the skin that didn’t exist. She felt warmth across her, the warmth that she used to feel. Sunlight.
No.
Sunlight after rain.
No.
Happiness.
Close.
Rainbows.
Spectra.
Magic !
She gasped, her eyes widening, as she suddenly felt it, a flood within her, disorienting her, waking her to the core and making her realize her job was NOT done. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t wait. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it. Nopony would stand in her way. And if they did…
Her eyes flashed to the bodies beneath her. She stepped over them, uncaring, her hoof phasing through them and crushing the bones in their hooves as she did, as though they were nothing more than crunchy dolls… She moved past them, a small, almost giddy smile taking to her face.
If they did stand in her way, they would not stand much longer.
She rose her wings and, flapping once, she disappeared. The hallway went to normal, and the haze was gone, leaving two bodies to rot, alone, together.
In the void between worlds, the void she traversed, the void of death that birthed this beast, Absentia realized what had happened. It was new. It was needed. It was hers .
A Surge.
The power to resist nature and become stronger.
Absentia loved it.
*~*~*~
Rainbow Dash was disoriented. That wasn’t a state of being she found herself in often. But now, in this fogginess, this darkness that no light seemed able to penetrate, she found herself lost, and even, somehow, a bit scared.
She steeled herself. She still had 4 of her team remaining. Absentia wasn’t going to stand a chance. Once that monster was gone, she could go back to life as it was supposed to be. Free. She would be able to spread joy the way she once found elegant and beautiful. Rainbows. Spectra. And Scootaloo would finally be dead and gone where she was supposed to be .
“Miss Dash!”
“Yes?”
“I propose the left fork ahead - I believe we’re close to the machine. Judging from the damage to the lights and fixtures, the Absentia might have tried to damage the machine.”
Rainbow felt her blood chill in her body. That Machine was priceless. She wasn’t sure when it had last been maintained. If that was damaged as badly as everything else… “Lead the way.” The mare who had spoken nodded. Rainbow glanced back once more, counting her team. Everypony was present still. Good.
They continued forward.
And kept going. Onward and onward. To the point that… this was suspicious.
Rainbow raised a brow before her eyes narrowed. This wasn’t right. If this was a path to the machine, they would have reached another fork eventually - but they didn’t. It was just.. Straight.
She glanced behind them again. All of them were still together, bathed in the red emergency light that had somehow remained on above them. The faces of her team were varying, but mostly, she could sense the fear in them, evident or not. They had noticed the oddness as well.
She turned forward. Was she just wrong? Had her mind played a trick on her?
They kept walking.
“Something’s wrong,” she whispered. A murmur of agreement came from the group.
“You’re right-”Yeah, I know -”
“Wait.” Rainbow Dash froze, eyes widening.
Everyone else paused.
“That voice.”
A chill was in the air.
Rainbow Dash looked behind them again. All of her team was there. All 4 of them. There had been 5 agreements. Dust Rider’s voice. But… He had been off on his own for long enough that… “You.” Another mare on her team - she hadn’t wanted to learn their names - jumped. “You’re a specialist they sent in, right? Absentia powers, list them.”
“O-Oh! U-Um-” She cleared her throat, standing taller. “T-Too many to really list, but common ones are flight, strength, temperature alterations, haze, m-mimicking-”
“Mimicking, mimicking, mimicking -”
The mare’s voice left her as the whispering began, all around them. Rainbow’s ears pressed back against her skull as she hunkered down protectively. “It’s here!”
The team pulled out their Spectral Guns, weak against an active Absentia, but some form of protection, at the very least. Adrenaline pumped through them all, their hearts pounding. They all paused, waiting to see the Absentia.
Rainbow huffed. “C’mon, c’mon… Show yourself, beast! We know you’re there!” No response came from the stillness around them, other than the cold. She suppressed a shiver and a growl of frustration. She shut her eyes. “Show yourself, Scootaloo!”
She gasped as something changed.
Her eyes opened.
She was outside.
“Rainbow Dash,” a familiar filly with bright, shining purple eyes said before her, orange wings tucked at her sides and a beaming smile on her face. “Rainbow Dash, big sis, I passed!”
Author's Note
I tried some formatting, but I don't know if it'll show up. I also wrote QUITE a bit of planning, as well as a half-complete guide to Absentia as a monster I might use again one day for a novel of mine. Thanks so much to Rainbowandscoots for the comment awhile back that made me start working on this again! It took awhile, but that's because I had no direction for this fic. I now know how this is going to end thanks to you, so many thanks and please, enjoy!
“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.
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.
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!
Incident Report: Internal Affairs → Public ResourcesReport edited for employee resources. Edits ordered from Upper Management.
Date: [REDACTED]
Employees involved: Head Manager, Rainbow Dash [ID #501]; Processing and Gathering, Star Gleam [ID #2052]; Clerical Duties, Dust Rider [ID #1092]; Mechanical Engineering, Thunder Strike [#1467]; Technical Engineering, Sky Glimmer [ID #1499]. Disposal, Nimble Sweeper [ID #1287]; [REDACTED], Silver Legacy [ID #19]; [REDACTED] Specialist, Jasmine Breeze [ID #002].
Incident description: At [REDACTED], Head Manager [ID #501] initiated Full Lockdown procedures and evacuated facility due to safety concerns. Processing and Gathering Employee [ID #2052] remained in building, [REDACTED]. The following day, at [REDACTED], Head Manager [ID #501] formed specialized team to locate Employee [ID #2052]. The Full Lockdown ended and specialized team entered.
Specialized team found structural damage upon entry to facility (blown lights, metal warping, evaporation of structural cloud layers). Employee [ID #2052] found [REDACTED]. At [REDACTED], Disposal Employee [ID #1287] [REDACTED]. Head Manager proceeded to internal factory to investigate the extent of damage and cause. Clerical Employee [ID #1092] seperated from group at [REDACTED] to search for Employee [ID #2052]. [REDACTED].
Head Manager [ID #501] [REDACTED].
Head Manager [ID #501] and [REDACTED] bodies recovered from wreckage of factory. Head Manager [ID #501] turned over to Canterlot Health Facilities for aid.
Damages: See section 4.2A for full list of details. Report edited for employee resources. Edits ordered by Upper Management.
Suggested protocols: Families of [REDACTED] to be alerted. Immediate retirement of Head Manager [ID #501].
*~*~*~
Rainbow Dash whimpered as she opened her eyes again, taking in-
Absentia, it’s lavender eyes glowing, a crooked grin piercing it’s face as-
She jolted and opened her eyes a second time, shaking out of the nightmare. Every muscle in her body screamed out in agony. She groaned and leaned back, trying to calm her breathing as she worked on processing where she was. Again.
Canterlot Hospital, Star Swirl wing. A lonely room on the 23rd floor. The TV was turned off and the heart monitor beeped steadily. It was slowing down after the nightmare.
She had been here for a full overnight stay already, and it was around 9 o’clock now. She hardly remembered much about what happened once the roof caved in.
Absentia had charged her. She had felt cold, so cold. And the next she remembered, she was waking up surrounded by lights that endlessly flickered, by doctors that all spoke as once, their voices screaming in her pounding head. She couldn’t form words at the time. Her hooves had been crushed by supports. Her eye was gone. Her wing, irreparable.
She passed in and out of consciousness repeatedly, each time seeing it. Absentia. Charging her, smiling at her. And all the time, she felt so cold. It was like her body would never be warm again. Even now, in the hospital bed, she shivered, despite the overly bright sunshine flooding in from the windows.
She looked in the glass beside her and saw it. Absentia. It had that same, static grin on its face, watching Rainbow from the glass. It was coming. It wanted her. She sat in terror, paralyzed, but somehow… knowing. Knowing this was the way it had to end.
“Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow shouted and recoiled, looking in fear at the person who spoke. Twilight looked back at her, worry and concern dripping from her every feature. “Oh. T… Twilight.”
“Dash…” Twilight walked up to the bed, sitting beside her. “I’m. I’m glad to see you’re awake! You’ve been sleeping most of the day.” Her voice attempted to be cheery, but it fell flat. Friendship couldn’t heal this wound.
“Yeah,” she said hoarsely. Her voice was shot after screaming so much, and getting next to no use besides. She looked away from Teilight, unable to look at her friend, the one who she had promised she would be loyal to. How had she abandoned what was right? How could she have been loyal to the Flock?
Twilight bit her lip. “The police are outside,” she said softly. “They. Want to know what happened.”
What happened?
“I don’t… I can’t. I can’t tell them,” Rainbow whispered, voice cracking. “I can’t.”
“Rainbow, I know it was traumatic-“
“You don’t know!” Rainbow whimpered, trying futilely to curl into herself. Her body just wouldn’t respond properly. Her hooves wouldn’t move right. Right. The casts. That was it. “You can’t know. It. It was.”
“Ponies died,” Twilight said softly. “A lot of them. It’s a miracle you survived.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO US,” Absentia shrieked, the voices of hundreds, thousands, uncountable children contained within that solitary vocalization. “WHY!? ”
Rainbow flinched again, shaking her head. Twilight gently reached out to touch her, but Rainbow pushed her hoof away. “No! Please. Don’t touch me, Twilight, I. I shouldn’t. I should. She…” Rainbow Dash looked around, half expecting Absentia to be there, watching her from the doorway, ready to charge again. “I can’t. I can’t say it.”
“Rainbow Dash, you have to calm down-“
“I can’t!” Beeping. What was the beeping? The beeping was so loud and god she was so cold. “I can’t, they’re gonna get me-“
“Who??”
“The children. The ponies! They. They’ll find me.”
Rainbow Dash’s breath caught as she saw somepony rush into the room and Twilight pull away. The image kept flickering. It was a doctor. But it was also Absentia. But also, a worker, wearing a mask, unable to be identified, reaching out-
“NO!” Her voice came back in defiance and she fought to move, screaming louder than one pony should ever be capable of. Her hooves wouldn’t move properly. Her wings buzzed painfully, aching. Her joints were stiff from the cold. “PLEASE NO PLEASE LET ME GO!”
“Rainbow Dash! Calm down!”
“Don’t kill me please - please don’t! I want to go home! I want to go home!”
Rainbow shrieked and shut her eyes, seeing whirling blades and feeling the bones in her body dislodge all over again, pain shooting through her every atom. And then, her heart began to slow as the doctor pulled the needle from her body, the fast-acting sedative doing its job.
She saw clouds. Clouds, drifting slowly. A whistle. She flew quickly, weaving and bobbing. She fell and caught herself. She passed her test-
But then she didn’t.
Rainbow Dash jolted awake. It was now late in the afternoon. A hospital lunch sat, untouched, next to her. Twilight Sparkle was still there - she flickered, and suddenly she was a worker too, a worker with a cruel smile, lowering Rainbow into the machine, twisting her ribs to break them -
Rainbow sat up a bit straighter, feeling (just barely) the tears rolling down her face. Twilight looked up at the sound. “Dash.”
“Hi Twilight,” she said meekly, the despair just barely holding back. What was happening to her? What were these hallucinations?
“Rainbow Dash.”
She jolted again, looking to the doorway, seeing a guard there. He looked serious. Didn’t they all?
“We need to take your statement.”
“My. My statemen-“
“Sir, she’s not well enough yet,” a nurse was saying, trying to get between him and the doorway. “Ms. Dash is in a very fragile condition. We’ve already had to sedate her twice today.”
Twice?
“I’m under orders from the princesses to get to the bottom of this,” the guard was saying, but his voice sounded far away.
When was I sedated?
She remembered once. With Twilight and the workers-
and despite the terror she felt in her body, the sorrow that had surrounded her, and the evil behind her, her worries melted away and the thought of flying encased her very being.
Workers chasing her down narrow hallways and around vents while the beeping started to speed up-
She started laughing again, the cackle echoing down the vent and reverberating -
The grinding, the tearing of ribs. Rainbow Dash cried out as she felt a stabbing pain in her chest, like something was trying to force its way out. Like her heart was trying to combust!
The nurse rushed to her side. The guard watched with concern, Twilight with panic. Fear.
Rainbow Dash sobbed and gasped, barely able to breathe. She felt drained. Cold. So cold. “Please please let me go home,” she begged, not knowing why she wanted to go home.
I want mom. I want dad. I want to be held again. I want to cry again
Her eyes widened and she broke down sobbing harder, whimpering. “Please,” she whispered, her voice becoming a skipping record. “Please please please-“
Pain. Stabbing pain as the blades cut deep, the red color on them proving to be blood, rather than rust. Screaming.
Then nothing but peace. Rainbow stiffened briefly before relaxing. The world grew dim.
“-dangerous to sedate her again-“
“-my friend! I won’t-“
“-tomorrow. She’s-“
Her dreams screamed. She thought only in nightmares now. Reliving the same moment, again and again. Forever dying and then waking up as the judge said to leave the field. Said she had failed.
She woke briefly, late into the night. She found she wasn’t hungry for the dinner beside her. She was already full.
Twilight Sparkle was there the next morning. “Rainbow Dash? You’re. You’re up early.”
Rainbow Dash was staring at the ceiling, oddly serene, despite it all. She had panicked, at first, but now the idea of this all, finally coming to an end? It made her - well. Part of her. Finally finally feel at ease.
It didn’t take a genius to understand what was happening. Deep down, she knew already.
“Rainbow… The- the police are coming later tofay. They. They couldn’t come see you after-“
“Twilight. Twilight you have to listen to me.” Twilight paused, hearing the seriousness in her voice. Rainbow sniffed a little, having cried through the night. “The rainbow factory. The factory I was found in?”
“Yes?”
“It. It’s not what you think it is.”
“You go, Scootaloo. Tell everyone what happens here. Let them know.”
Let them know what happened there.
*~*~*~
And so, the Rainbow Factory, or what was left of it, was dismantled rather than rebuilt. The Pegasi in charge were hunted down and arrested. The old, obscure laws were changed, and the flight test banned altogether.
Princess Celestia never knew of the compromise, and over the course of a thousand years, the responsibility of creating rainbows had not occurred to her, as the Pegasi had handled it well until that time. With Princess Luna back, the division of power was no longer needed.
Equestria was divided, however, for years to come. Pegasi were held in deepest suspicion, feared for the actions of the Flock, the organization behind these atrocities. These supremacists certainly did not make up all of the Pegasus race, but the sins of some became the sins of all in this case. It would be many years before the pain would fade enough for harmony to work its way through the mess.
The Pegasi arrested were given chances for rehabilitation. Some accepted. Others did not.
Families of Pegasi children who had failed their tests finally came to light with their stories. Some were proud of the factory, shunned by the rest of the world for their views. Others spoke of masked Pegasi informing them of their children’s fate, stories of families who joined their children when they protested strongly enough. How many stayed quiet out of fear, who mourned silently.
A memorial was made where the factory once was, a testament to the children who died there. Funds were prepared for the families who suffered the most. Friends and family alike came to the memorial, leaving mementoes. Some left flowers. Many left tidbits of memories: boxes of crayons and beads strung loosely together, old drawings and, in one painful case, a lone scooter.
The world would heal, but healing takes time, and some things scar irrevocably. No matter what, the horrors of the Rainbow Factory could only, inevitably, end in tragedy.
Rainbow Dash was moved to Canterlot mental hospital. It was here that she suffered, memories surfacing of dying, time and time again, as the Absentia that infested her tortured her, feeding on the latent Spectra within her body, naturally occurring in the rainbow mare. Rainbow Dash spent every waking moment dying. And the Absentia, the beast within her, never found rest. Could never sleep. For the souls were now bound to the feelings of one, one soul so strong in emotion that it had latched into a living host - the one who had orchestrated their deaths in the first place.
Scootaloo has gotten her revenge. But it came at a steep price.
In the Rainbow Factory, where our fears and horrors come true.
Rainbow Dash would be unable to kill herself in that mental hospital, no matter how much she wished for death.
In the Rainbow Factory, where you pray souls can’t get through.
The souls would never be able to escape, until she died.
In the Rainbow Factory, where traitors pay their toll.
And every second, every instant, Rainbow Dash was tortured by a pair of beautiful, rose tinted eyes.
The beast has awoken, and it's taken back control.
Author's Note
The End.
