That Which Darkness Sends

Megan found herself in a clearing deep in the woods. She had a splitting headache. Not far away, Rainbow Dash sat, rubbing her head with a forehoof.

"Hi Rainbow," Megan said, trying to sound casual. "Have any idea of where we are?"

Rainbow gave her a death glare, still trying to arouse from whatever spell Tirek cast. "No. I could fly up and check if you want." She leapt up, only to fly into a ceiling. "Gah! What was that?" she asked.

"It appeared to be a ceiling."

"Well no duh. Alright, I'll try to find an opening in this shield thing."

"You will do no such thing," a new voice boomed around them. Tirek landed on the ground with a loud thud from wherever his chariot was above. "Human, you have repeatedly come to my realm and caused trouble with these ponies. For your payment, you will watch each of them succumb to Darkness!"

Megan was about to take a brave step forward, but she was immobilized by an invisible wall directly in front of her. She felt around herself, and every way she turned, a new wall appeared. She was trapped.

Megan pounded on the box franticly, trying to break free. Tirek let out a sinister laugh. "There is no possible escape for you, human. Now look as the first of your friends is destroyed, overcome by the power of Darkness!" The moon in the sky turned as black as the space around it. Several dark beams struck the ground.

One of them hit Rainbow Dash, surrounding her in a column of magic. Megan continued to struggle for what felt like hours to no avail. When the anti-light finally subsided, Rainbow was splayed out along the ground. What was worse was that she was much smaller, as if all of her energy left her, leaving just Firefly's body.

Tirek once again laughed and vanished into thin air. The box dissipated and Megan ran over to Rainbow Dash, frightful of what the dark magic had done. She shook her. No response. She called her name. No response. Maybe... maybe she was dead. No, Megan checked her pulse, and she was still breathing. The human picked the small pony up and frantically searched for a way to bring her back. All of the dark beams had gone out. That is, all but one.

Megan raced as fast as she could through the trees toward the last beam of darkness. The closer she got, the more Rainbow Dash became conscious. About halfway there, Rainbow stirred and moaned.

"It's okay, Rainbow. We're almost there," Megan reassured.

Hearing Megan's voice, Rainbow's eyes snapped open and her pupils became slits. She broke away from her with an elegance she never had before. She flew up above the trees and stopped, glaring daggers at Megan.

"You have been a pain in my side for far too long! In fact, all of you have! I don't need any of you!" Rainbow spanned her wings and adored them lovingly, acting as if she expected something to happen. Much to Megan's chagrin, the tips of her wings started to turn a scaly black. The feathers lost their pink color, becoming a thin flap of skin like a bat's wings. She was turning into a kind of dragon creature!

"Tirek showed me the truth!" Rainbow shouted. "He can give me all I've wanted, and I just want to be with him." The transformation continued to move through her wings, slowly reaching toward her body. Not only did it change her structure, but her whole body was growing in size. If you listened closely, you could heard an evil cackle that sounded like Tirek's.

Megan took all of this as a bad sign and tried to convince Rainbow to stop this madness. If she couldn't, Rainbow's mind and Firefly's body would both be lost, and the universe would effectively collapse.

"Rainbow, you must listen to me!" Megan shouted. "You can't do this! This is madness!"

"Madness?" Rainbow chuckled. "No, this is something I've always wanted, and you can't take that away." She motioned to her wings, which were completely changed, as well as most of her lower body, which have grown scales.

Tirek appeared from seemingly nowhere and stood beside Rainbow, whose head was all that was left. "Human, it is useless. This pony is under my control. She has completely come into the Darkness." An with that, Rainbow's head was enveloped by the transformation magic.

"No! Rainbow Dash!" Megan cried.

"Rainbow Dash doesn't live here anymore," she said. "I am Prism, the right hoof of Tirek, Master of Midnight."

"No, you are Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in the world! Rainbow... what would your friends think?"

"My... my friends?" Rainbow looked somewhere between on the verge of tears and being utterly confused.

"NO! You don't need them!" Tirek urged.

"I... don't... need..." Rainbow's eyelids fell slightly.

"Yes, Rainbow! Your friends! Remember all the great times you had! Remember Discord and Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon!"

Rainbow's eyes snapped opened as the realization his her like a load of bricks. "My friends... I'm abandoning them..."

"You have no need for them. Remember, you have everything you want here." Tirek waved his hand and cast a spell that shrouded Rainbow's head in a cloud of darkness.

The cloud cleared away, revealing that nothing had changed, except that Rainbow's eyes how glowed a vibrant red. "No, Tirek, I will not abandon my friends! *I am Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty!*"

The sky exploded In a ginormous prismatic death blast of every color imaginable.

The light cleared, and there lay Rainbow Dash. Not Firefly, not Prism, but Rainbow Dash, the reckless blue pegasus.

She groggily sat up. and rubbed her head with a forehoof. "Ow, Megan, I have worst headache like you wouldn't believe."

Soon after Megan got over her panic attack at the sight of this new pony, she and Rainbow Dash  regained their bearings and found their way to the negative moonbeam that was still active.

"What do we do now?" Rainbow asked.

"I have a feeling we just walk in," Megan replied.

One human and one pony stepped forward into the moonbeam and saw seven other human/pony pairs.