Unusable Story Husk

**********Dashing Your Friends Away**********

Rainbow Dash looked around the barn, and gasped at what she saw. There was hay everywhere, and it would take her forever to clean up this entire mess with this pitchfork. The barn was huge! What would Applejack need all of this space for, except stacks of hay? The small pitchfork was better than nothing for the situation though, because flying over and picking every little strand by hoof is much harder to get organized into stacks neatly. At the very least Applejack could've given her a bigger pitchfork.

Rainbow probably wouldn't even be doing this at all if it wasn't for Applejack being her friend. She'd much rather go take a nap, but she didn't prevent a storm that blew all of the neat hay stacks Applejack had made beforehand, and she was loyal to her friend and so promised to clean up the barn herself. She had no idea how bad it was though, how long it would probably take her to clean up this disastrous mess. If that's the price she has to pay, then so be it.

"Al'right, once yer done in this barn, come see me in mah house over there. Mighty thanks fer th' help, Rainbow." Applejack told Rainbow with a smile. But Rainbow knew that she really didn't mean the thanks entirely, since it was her own fault.

"No problem Applejack, I'll be done in no time!" Rainbow assured Applejack. The look in Rainbow's eye didn't seem like it though, she knew it would be a long day.

Applejack retreated to her house, and Rainbow took a good, long look at the barn's hay scattered everywhere. The barn had to be the size of her house! And there was so much hay, that her pitchfork needed to pierce the floor of hay 3 times to have reached the ground. It was hard enough to get the hoof attachment to secure the pitchfork on her hoof, but she had to use it all day. Better get started sooner than later.

After a few hours of cleaning, she had made some considerable progress, more than she hoped for when she started working. It was almost half finished, and she admired how neat the haystacks were. They would surely impress Applejack when she was done, and she would be very appreciative.

Suddenly, Rainbow heard a voice from behind a haystack.

"Hello, Rainbow Dash. My name is Dawson H. Arib, although you probably haven't heard of me." The peculiar voice said.

Then, the pony showed himself, being a colt the same size as Dash. He had a grey mane, and a nice shade of red for his coat. Kind of the opposite to the rainbow mane and blue coat Dash had herself. Rainbow was puzzled as to why he was here.

"I suppose you want to know why I'm here. I see you are working on cleaning up this shed. I want you to come to my party tomorrow night, I am inviting quite a few ponies and I would love if an esteemed pony such as yourself could come." The mysterious colt said.

Rainbow was at a loss for words, not realizing that she had a status amongst ponies if this colt knew who she was without ever having met her.

"Well, I'll be quite busy at work tomorrow, sorry. If you hold another one sometime, I would love to come though!" Rainbow told Dawson.

Then, Dawson knocked over two haystacks, spreading the mess everywhere.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?! I'm working hard on those!" Rainbow yelled.

"Come to my party and I won't knock any more down. It would be a shame if your hard work was for nothing. What do you say? You are the guest of honour, after all." Dawson explained.

"What are you talking about? I will kick you out of here myself you crazy pony!" Rainbow exclaimed.

Rainbow was confused, he seemed nice, but also seems to have ulterior motives. Ones that really make no sense.

"You simply must come. Even if you can kick me out, I can easily knock some more of these down before I am gone."

"Fine, I'll come to your stupid party." Rainbow sighed. This was an odd situation, considering Dawson seemed to be using blackmail to go to a party. Just as she was going to tell him to leave, he waved his hoof and left the barn. Rainbow flew up into the sky to see where he went, but she was surprised to discover that he had disappeared, possibly out of thin air. Teleportation maybe? Rainbow thought. No, he wasn't a unicorn. Rainbow returned to the barn to finish her work for Applejack, dismissing the strange event with the mysterious colt.

After several more hours of the hoof-blistering work, she was finally done. She took a step back and looked at her work. It wasn't as perfect as she had planned, but it'd satisfy Applejack at least. She looked at the sun and realized that it was almost nightfall - time for a nap. Forgetting to tell Applejack, she took a lengthly nap in the barn, not waking until the following morning.

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Rainbow awoke with a start, seeing Applejack above her. She looked around and saw that all of the hay stacks were back to it's original mess, and Applejack was absolutely furious.

"Are you serious? You napped the entire time? Explain yourself, Rainbow!"

"Well... there was this colt, he must have messed everything up..." Rainbow responded.

"Well then why do I see a couple of your rainbow feathers around th' barn, but nothin' else? Are you saying that you cleaned it all up and then wrecked your piles? Sounds a little far-fetched to me! In my mind, you are either crazy or lying." Applejack snapped.

"But Applejack... he was here! I know he did this!" Rainbow pleaded.

"Sorry Rainbow, but I don't think you're crazy. So you're lying. Jus' leave the farm, I'll clean this up myself." Applejack finished.

Rainbow was dumbstruck, knowing that she had cleaned up the mess the day before. She looked around for evidence that the colt had come back and done it, but all she found was her own feathers scattered around as Applejack had said. No evidence of the red pony anywhere. She decided to obey Applejack and left before she blew a fuse, and flew away to her house. When she got there, she took another nap on her floor, still tired from the day before.

When she woke again, it was time for the party. She wanted to go, partially because she could make amends with Applejack now that she is fully awake from her nap, and possibly see how her friends were doing. The biggest reason in Rainbow's mind, however, was to see who this mysterious Dawson was, how he disappeared seemingly out of thin air and why Rainbow was the 'guest of honour'. Those and any other questions she thought of would hopefully be answered there.

When she arrived at Sugarcube Corner for the party, she was delighted to see that all of her close friends were there, having a good time.

As Rainbow began to move into the main room, a colourful pink pony appraoched her, hopping in glee. Sure enough, it was Pinkie Pie, probably coming to talk her ears off.

"You're finally here, Dashie! Great party, well done!" Pinkie Pie said.

Pinkie hopped away from a puzzled Rainbow Dash, who was very confused at what Pinkie had said. That's Pinkie, so random all of the time.

Rainbow spent the night talking to her friends and enjoying the colourful decorations, but she really wanted to ask Pinkie what was going on. Not that anything weird was going on, but maybe she just had a few things mixed up that could be cleared up with a bit of talking.

After Rainbow heard her familar voice upstairs, she went upstairs, knowing she'd be in her room. She opened the door, and she discovered that Pinkie had a worried and scared look on her face. Beside her was Dawson, the mysterious colt.

"Hey! You! I have some questions!" Rainbow said.

Pinkie became very scared, and sunk back into the corner. Dawson was holding a knife, and approached Pinkie.

"Dawson! What are you doing?! Get away from her!" Rainbow said.

Dawson had a devious smile on his face, obviously with malicious thoughts in mind, but for some reason, Pinkie stopped being scared and looked confused. She kept staring at Rainbow, not taking a glance to the pony that was right beside her, holding a knife.

"What are you talking about, Dashie?" Pinkie said nervously.

Dawson didn't waste any time before beginning to kill Pinkie, without explanation or reason. Pinkie's cries of pain were muffled by the blood that began to flow from her mouth, preventing anypony from hearing her telling Dawson to stop. Rainbow couldn't even hear what she had to say, but it wouldn't have mattered. Rainbow needed to stop Dawson and save her friend before it was all over.

Pinkie was hanging on the brink of death, but Dawson simply smiled above her as Rainbow charged at Dawson, knocking him down to the floor and forcing him to let go of Pinkie. Pinkie, still clinging on to life, looked at Rainbow with her sad, confused eyes, which Rainbow was not expecting. She was trying to keep her alive!

Seeing that Rainbow was distracted by Pinkie's expression, Dawson forced Rainbow off of him and began to run to the window, most likely to evade capture. Rainbow quickly recovered and turned to Dawson.

"OH CELESTIA! I'LL KILL YOU!" Rainbow screamed, and charged at the psychotic colt, hooves ready to pin him to the ground. To her surprise, he jumped out the window, laughing all the while. Why would he injure himself like that? The window had to be a good distance from the ground. Rainbow thought.

Rainbow checked out the window to see if Dawson was injured, but couldn't catch sight of him anywhere. She had to find this colt, but knew that Pinkie was in dire need of help. What Rainbow was surprised to discover, however, was that her mind was torn between the two choices. Why would she ever think of abandoning her friend?

Pinkie looked at Rainbow and smiled, making Rainbow feel even worse as the tears began to flow from both of their eyes. They told Rainbow volumes about what was going to happen. She was too late, Pinkie was smiling her last smile. As Pinkie's eyes shut for the last time, Rainbow was forced into shock. She can't believe that her best friend had just died, and there was nothing she could do about it. Even though she knew that she had tried everything she could, she couldn't help but think that it was her own fault. It was a terrible feeling.

She looked around the room and realized that without any evidence of Dawson being there, Rainbow would be blamed if anypony came in and saw the horrifying scene. But she couldn't leave her friend. As she looked at the fallen pony, she had thoughts running through her mind about revenge. This pony would not get away with the terrible crime he had committed to a pony that would do no harm. But a part of her was betraying her friend, preferring answers over avenging Pinkie. Why did he do this? What was his purpose?

Rainbow heard some hoofsteps coming from the staircase on the other side of the door. Rainbow was a little nervous, since the scene looked a little suspicious with Rainbow being the only one in the room, but was glad to see that Rarity was one of the ponies coming, along with a few others she hadn't met before. Rarity had barely entered when she began to speak.

"Rainbow, darling, we came as soon as we heard you shout. What ghastly thing has - OH MY GOODNESS! PINKIE?! RAINBOW, WHO DID THIS TO PINKIE?" Rarity began to cry out.

Rainbow thought of what to tell Rarity as she looked at Pinkie's corpse with a terribly saddened look in her eyes. Rarity gasped when she saw that there was a feather on Pinkie, and when Rainbow saw it for herself, she realized that no explanation would do for Rarity now, because the feather was rainbow coloured and obviously belonged to Rainbow.

"How... how could you, Rainbow?! She was your best... your best..." Rarity tried to finish her sentence, but she was so overcome with grief that she couldn't.

Rarity deduced what had happened, at least what seemed to have taken place. In her mind, Rainbow was the only possible culprit. She turned to Rainbow in an intimidating fashion.

"You've really, *sniff*, you've really done it this time Rainbow,! Explain yourself or face the terrible consequences!" Rarity yelled, a bit scattered as she began to cry.

Rainbow was about to explain that it was a different pony that did this to Pinkie, but her tears choked her up and prevented any form of speech.

"If you have nothing to say, then you are guilty. I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but you are too psychotic for this town anymore." Rarity finished.

Rainbow knew that reasoning with her now was useless. She was dead set on capturing Rainbow now that she had pieced her own evidence together. Rainbow quickly flew off through the window, knowing full well that there would be heavy consequences if they had caught her. They didn't know she was innocent, that there was a terrible murderer on the loose. As she looked back to the window, she saw the look on Rarity's face and brought a new wave of tears to her eyes. The feeling was one of loss. She had not only lost her friend in death, but lost a friend as a pony she could count on. The thought of losing these two ponies was bad to Rainbow, but it was worse for her than it was for Rarity, because all of her friends would hate her forever once the word got around.

Flying around, she noticed a large, open field in Everfree Forest a little ways away. She landed in the center and took a rest, wishing to recollect her thoughts in the morning once she had a good amount of sleep to think. Her troubles could wait until then.

But she couldn't sleep. She now had a purpose, and that was to avenge the terrible wrong that Dawson had commited. She knew his type would keep murdering in cold blood, and she wouldn't let another pony die because she didn't intervene. She was ready for him, even if she wasn't ready for her best friend...

To Rainbow's surprise, a mysterious but recognizable figure stood above Rainbow in the field, giving his characteristic smile. Rainbow stood up in the blink of an eye.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you where you stand!" Rainbow said sternly.

"Hello Rainbow Dash. I know that you are surprised about today's 'events', and I know you have tons of questions for me. Trust me, soon enough, you will not be able to survive without the answers you will want. And I know you won't kill me, because I will be the key to your survival."

END OF CHAPTER ONE