Chapter 1: On Top of the World
Chapter One: On Top of the World
“Now a rainbow’s tale isn’t as quite as nice, as the story we knew of sugar and spice.”
How could I go any higher? A performance at Hoofstock amphitheater in Thunderhead, and in the morning the Governor General would present me, Shooting Star, with the Congressional Medal of Awesome. Life couldn’t be better.
Flying high above the stage, I hit the final chords of my song, and then flipped around performing the Filly Flasher and blinding the audience with a brilliant flash of light. I followed the rest of the band off stage leaving the audience in the daze from the finale. I flew over the rest of the band and tackled the golden stallion in front, pinning him below me. Grinning down at him, I asked, “Was that show awesome, or was that show AWESOME?!”
“It was awesome,” he replied awkwardly, squirming to get out from under me.
Cosmic Ray and I had been friends since we were colts at the Enclave Learning Facility; we had even simultaneously received our cutie marks during the talent show. For me, a red and gold star guitar shooting across my flank; for Cosmic, a V guitar flying out of a burst of light.
I thwarted every attempt Cosmic made to get out from under me, until I felt magic from our bassist encompass me. Our bassist, Meteor Shower, is a bright orange unicorn mare with a long blue mane that almost always covers her eyes. A sub-woofer adorned her flank, for she was our technician before she was our bassist.
Turning me in her magical grip so that I was snout to snout with her, she blew up the hair over her eyes revealing her stark white eyes for an instant before they were covered again. She wasn’t blind or anything, that was just her natural eye color and it sent shivers down my spine every time.
“If it wasn’t for the fact that you have a girlfriend I would swear you were gay, but that might just be a cover.” She said in a snarky tone, depositing me next to her.
Giving her a reproachful look, I said, “There is nothing wrong with a healthy bromance. Isn’t that right, Red Dwarf?”
“YEAH!!!” The freakishly large, yet beefy red pegasus bellowed. I could always count on his agreement because he never says anything else. He came from a long line of colossal pegasi, whom were known for few words. I had heard that during the war his great-great etc. grandfather had been known for snapping the necks of enemy griffons.
Cosmic Ray got back on his feet and was looking at me, shaking his head. “Don’t let it all go to your head. You know the story of the unicorn that made magical wings. She flew to close to the sun and the wings burst into flames, sending her plummeting out of the sky.”
“Yeah,” I said, having heard this story many times before, “only to be rescued by a pegasus as awesome as me,” I did an aerial flip for effect and struck a heroic pose. “Rainbow D…uof”
I was cut off by Cosmic Ray shoving a hoof in my mouth. He gave me a death stare and said in a low voice, “You know what that kind of talk brings, don’t you? They’ll brand you as a Dashite if you keep this up.”
“You of all ponies should know that I’m not a Dashite.” I reassured him, but this had never seemed right to me. Rainbow Dash left the Enclave to help the ponies of Equestria and was branded a traitor for it. It was wrong in my opinion, but it wasn’t my place to judge.
*** *** ***
I pondered on this as I followed the others into our luxury Sky Wagon. As soon as I was on, we took off for the old weather factory district. Although it was largely abandoned with the exception of one warehouse, it was home to a popular night club that the band and I frequented, Kloud Kickers. A steel grey security pegasus let us in, bypassing a long line of screaming fan fillies.
Just before entering, I blew a kiss to a lime colored filly in the front. She let out a high pitched squee before fainting.
Grinning to myself, I walked right into somepony standing just inside. “My Goddesses, you’re doing it again, aren’t you?” said a light pink pegasus with a blond and turquoise mane.
“Quartzy, you know I was only joking.” I said, wrapping my forehooves around her in a hug. This is Rose Quartz. I met her a while back when The Cometz started getting popular, and we’ve been dating ever since. She was another accomplishment of mine. Never in my entire life did I think a nopony like me would be dating the Governor General’s daughter.
She turned, swatting my face with her tail as she trotted to the other side of the room. I flew to catch up with her, asking, “Quartzy, what’s wrong?”
She glared back at me, jealousy burning in her eyes. She hissed “You know I HATE it when you fraternize with those BITCHES!” and continued on, smacking me with her tail…again.
Great, she was in one of her moods. She tends to do this a lot. I generally just hunker down somewhere and ride it out until she gets over herself. “Only question is where?” I thought to myself, looking around the club. I spy the nearly empty bar on the other side of the room and decided to head over there.
I trotted over to the bar and ordered an appletini. I took my first sip and scanned the room. Red Dwarf was the center of the dance floor. Despite his massive girth, he was surprisingly nimble. Cosmic Ray was in the corner of the room surrounded by a throng of mares. Before I met Rose Quartz, I would have been there with him. I looked around for Meteor Shower. You’d think a bright orange unicorn wouldn’t be too hard to find in a room full of pegasi. I turned back to the bar and came snout to snout with her, her white eyes staring right back.
I jumped back, spilling my drink all over myself as I fell back. Snickering, she turned back to her drink. I scampered back into my chair trying to look dignified. Beside me, Meteor Shower was trying to keep from falling off her chair as fits of laughter shook her.
“Why must you always do that to me?” I demanded of her.
“Because your reactions bring me endless joy,” she smiled, ruffling my black mane with her forehoof.
I had first met her a year or so after Cosmic and I acquired our cutie marks. Once a filly or colt got their cutie mark, they were transferred into a specialized class in order to prepare them to provide to the Enclave to the best of their abilities. Cosmic and I had been the only two in the entertainment section until she was transferred in from electronic maintenance, after it was discovered that her talents lay more in the setting up of sound equipment as opposed to repairing it.
She was the first unicorn I had ever met, which was not surprising since unicorns were only occasionally brought in. I had seen a few before, but to actually have one as a close friend in the Enclave was rare indeed.
“Why do you even go out with that whore?” Meteor Shower asked.
“She is not a whore.” I replied defensively.
“Fine then… why do you go out with Princess Bitchy McNagger?”
“She’s not that bad, is she?”
“Worse.”
“Well, she is the Governor General’s daughter; she is entitled to be a bit…particular.”
“A bitch is a bitch, doesn’t matter what their social status is. Besides, I think of plenty of other mares better than her.”
“She is not a bitch, and you’re starting to piss me off.”
“You are the only one who can’t see it.”
I stormed out of the room, unable to take it anymore. I galloped out the door and took off. I flew into the night sky and further into the district. I landed, preparing to let my wrath out on some trash can when I heard voices in the distance. This was the abandoned warehouse and factory district, right?
Curious, I snuck to the corner of the building close to where the voices were. Around the corner I saw a sky wagon flanked by two pegasi in carapace armor. Two other pegasi were unloading large cages filled with unicorn and earth pony fillies.
Wait a minute, EARTH PONIES!! Unicorns were rare enough, but there are zero earth ponies in the entirety of the clouds. The only place where there were earth ponies were in the wastes. What did the Enclave need with wasteland children?
Deciding to get to the bottom of this, I flew up to one of the open windows on the top level of the factory, landing on the scaffolding. The scaffolding let out a whine as I let my hooves down. I winced as ponies on the floor looked up, but thanks to my dark blue coat, they didn’t notice me as I blended into the night sky.
In the center of the room there was a large machine. It consisted of a large tank with a grinder on top. At the top, there was a pipe that went out and then split into seven nozzles.
A tall, blood red pegasus with a slicked back white mane entered the room. He commanded such a presence that all activity stopped to give him everypony’s full attention.
“You!” he barked sharply at one of the workers, “Iz zhe masheen rheady?”
“Yes sir, we just finished calibrating it.”
“Wunderbar, vring me a shild to test it. Zilva!” he said with a smile that made my blood run cold. From a side room a white unicorn stallion entered with a small yellow filly with a teal mane in his magical grip. Lifting her up higher, the stallion passed the filly off to a worker on a platform above the machine.
The worker dropped the filly onto a conveyor belt and flipped a switch. The machine roared to life; the sound of blades slicing the air could be heard at the end of the conveyor belt.
Time stood still as the filly dropped off the end of the belt. She let out a scream as the blades caught her tail. She was instantly dragged half way. The sounds of snaps, pops, crunches, and gurgles filled the room. The filly let out an inpony sound as she disappeared into the machine. I collapsed, vomiting the contents of my stomach through the grating below. I looked up just in time to see the seven nozzles purposes.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
All the colors of the rainbow.
To my luck, my vomit had gone unnoticed over the awful, disgusting den. The red pegasus had not averted his eyes for an instant. In fact, he was grinning like a colt that got exactly what he wanted on Hearth’s Warming Day.
“Excellent, ve shall vegin proper production in ze morning. Everypony take ze night off. You!” he said, pointing to an olive pegasus with red streaks in his mane. “Cova ze masheen and turn out ze lightz.”
He turned to leave, and walked out the double door, the white pegasus in tow. The rest of the pegasi followed suit, leaving me alone with the olive pegasus.
I watched him shudder and look around the room, spotting my vomit. SHIT! I tried to take off as fast as I could but caught my hind legs on the railing. I tumbled over the railing, landing hard on the floor.
I cringed as he approached me and then stopped. I looked up at him and saw he was crying. “You saw it, didn’t you? You saw that horrible, disgusting thing they were doing?”
“Isn’t there anything you can do about it?” I asked, rolling back onto my hooves. I winced a little as pain shot through my body.
“Actually, there is.” He said as he galloped up to the machine and removed something from it.
He returned with a crystal in his mouth.
Passing it to me, he began to explain. “That is the Rainbow Diamond. It’s a magical gem that defuses the color. Without this, the machine will-“
BANG!
Bits of brain and skull splattered across my face. I jumped back, swallowing hard. The Rainbow Diamond hurt as it went down.
“Exsallent shot Zilver. I thought zat one was veginning to have zecond thoughtz.” The red pegasus stood in the double doors. The white unicorn stood beside him, a magnum floated at his side.
“You, I know you. You are Zhooting Ztar zhe unicorn. Too bad ve can’t zimply kill you and be done vith it. Vat did he give you?”
I hadn’t heard him. I was staring at the body of the olive pegasus in shock. I wondered who he was. Did he have a family? Was he only a week from retirement? But none of that mattered. He was dead, another body to this unthinkable cause. “The Governor General will never allow this.” I said to nopony in particular.
“Zere, you are wrong. He is zee one who azzigned me zis job.”
Rage welled up inside me and I charged the pair. With practiced ease they both side stepped me. The white unicorn brought the butt of his gun down hard on the back of my head. The world exploded in a flash of bright lights and stars as I blacked out.
*** *** ***
I awoke in a rather plush office. I was being held down by magic. I scanned the room and realized I was in the Governor General’s office.
Governor General Fine Stock had his forehooves on his desk and a zebra cigar clenched between his teeth. The red pegasus stood across the desk from Fine Stock. In a corner the unicorn stared at me intently, his horn glowing.
“An’ your shur you can pull dis off, boy?” Fine Stock asked, his cigar bobbing as he addressed the unicorn.
“I assure you zat ‘e is more than capable,” the red pegasus responded.
“Nyow, ya keep sayan’ dat, Whiplash, but I wanna hear it from dat pony’s mouth.”
“Zir, Zilva Tongue cannot speak due to a mutation. He vas born with three tongues.”
“Awright, I get it. I just wanna make sure dis goes off without a hitch. Thank da Goddesses for dis, though. I was shamblin’ to find someting ta do about da Cometz. Dey was getting’ too populah, and too loosh wid ideas. Wid deir leada branded a traita, I can deal wid de odas an’ get no bad press. It’s a win-win, ya know.”
WHAT! I wanted to scream but the magic encompassing me prevented me from moving an inch. I had to warn the others. We were just making people happy. It was what we were raised to do. Now they were going to dispose of us?!
“Alright boysh, it’s shix o’clock. Show time.” Fine Stock said, getting down from his desk and heading out the door. Whiplash followed. The glow from Silver Tongue’s horn intensified as he forced me to walk. It felt as if strings were pulling me along.
I was led out the door, the unicorn in tow. We made our way out of the building. I was greeted by the cheering of hundreds of pegasi gathered to see me. I was going to be forced to say something terrible in front of all of my fans!
Fine Stock was giving a long winded speech, but I heard none of it. I was forced to sit and look forward. I tried to think of what was about to happen. I didn’t even notice that I was called forward until my puppeteer moved me.
The cheering of the crowd seemed like a distant echo as I got up to the podium. Fine Stock pinned the meaningless medal to my chest and stepped back, the echoes redoubled then hushed as I drew my breath.
“You know what Fine Stock…” I heard myself saying. “FUCK YOUR STUPID MEDAL!”
My head reached down, pulled the medal off and spat it at the greying pegasus.
“Also…” I winced, fearing what I would say. “FUCK THE ENCLAVE! Every last one of you worthless, disgusting creatures. I am getting sick of all of you pathetic ponies. I think I will be better off away from here, but I might as well improve your lives before I go because I pity you grotesque beings so much.”
Then I reached down to my side and pulled out a pistol. WHOA! Where did this come from?! I had never held a gun in my whole life.
My head turned the gun on Fine Stock. I felt my tongue on the trigger as black shadows swooped down from above. Two armored pegasi landed in front of me as a third swooped down from behind, hitting me in the back of the head and rendering me unconscious yet again.
*** *** ***
When I came to, I was strapped down to a metal table. Two pegasi bustled around me, engaged in conversation.
“I still don’t get why we have to move this scum all the way to Hooveston. Brand ‘em and dump ‘em I always say.” A purple buck said as he pumped some bellows of a furnace with one hoof.
“Colonel Whiplash said there are trouble makers moving about the Hoofington and Manehatten areas. He didn’t want to risk this guy hooking up with either group.” Replied a light green mare who was setting out tools on a side table. “Well well, our guest has finally gotten up.” The mare cooed.
“I’ll go get the Colonel. He said he wanted to see this personally.” The buck placed a brand into the furnace and moved out of the room.
The light green mare had finished setting out her tools and clopped over to me. Getting right up into my face, she said, “I hate your type, always thinking you are entitled to do anything you please. I am happy for once to see one of you pompous idiots taken down a notch.”
“But I did-” I began to say before she hit me in the face. She had quite a nice left hoof for a mare.
“Melon Drop!” barked a familiar voice, “Iz zhat any vay to treat our guest?”
“He was giving me lip sir.” She answered with a smart salute.
“Very vell. If everyshing is rheady, I vould like to being. Ve have nearly arrived in Hooveston/”
“Sir!”
Melon Drop went to work .She mixed together a concoction that fizzed angrily. She then split the two beakers. Taking the first, she poured it over my right flank.
Pain exploded across my flank. I clamped my teeth down to keep from screaming out. Tears streamed down my snout. Then the second beaker hit my left flank.
I screamed out in pain, my vision blurring as if a thousand biting insects were tearing away at my cutie mark. A purple blur moved toward a red glow, removing the pole whose end burned white.
My vision sharpened as the insects on my right burned to death as the brand was pressed. My head fell back to the table limply, the edges of my vision turning black. I didn’t even feel the second brand as my vision turned completely black.
*** *** ***
Wind whipped my mane about as I came to on the top deck of a Raptor airship. The armor encased pegasi held me up. A blood red forehoof raised my head up to Whiplash’s wickedly smiling face.
“Good morning Zhooting Ztar. I zhought zhat I vould let you see the sky vone last time before you make your permanent residence below zhe clouds.”
I smiled weakly back at him flapping my wings feebly. “I can always just fly back up.”
“True. Drop him.” The two let go of me. I flopped weakly to the metal deck. Whiplash brought down a hoof on my right wing with a sickening crack.
Gasping, I clenched my teeth. The pain wasn’t the worst I’ve felt all day, but it was up there.
The two pegasi lifted me from the deck, carried me to the rail and tossed me over. I tumbled downward, falling through a hole no doubt kicked just for me. Hot tears streamed down my face. What would the others think of me? Cosmic had been my best friend for as long as I can remember. Would he hate me for my betrayal? And Red Dwarf may have been big, but he was sensitive. Who would be there to comfort him? I had just yelled at Meteor Shower. Was she glad I was gone? And what of Rose Quartz…who was I kidding? Meteor Shower was right. She only cared about me when I was on top.
But now I was falling.
Falling from fame.
Falling to my death.
Falling into Hell.
Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Performer – Your years performing on stage has made you more agile, +1 to agility.
