Darkened Corners

Rainbow Dash sighed as she stretched, ready to do her morning chores of clearing out the clouds. She flicked her right ear and shook out her beautiful rainbow mane, making dew fly off of her from the chilly sunrise. After a few good stretches and a slow strut in place she stretched out her wings, angled them vertical and jumped, thrusting down with her wings to propel her high into the sky, away from her cloud home. Dash stretched out her forelegs straight in front of her and her back legs straight behind. She curled and twisted intricate patterns in the sky before turning and flying towards a fluffy, white cotton cloud. As she approached the unknowing fluff ball she reeled backwards, kicking off the cloud into a backwards summersault, making the cloud evaporate. For an hour or two she spent the rest of the time clearing clouds slowly and lazily. Once she had finished her task she snorted and fluttered off to see if any of her friends were up and walking around town yet. Despite the warm, rising sun the day seemed particularly cold, which felt odd to Dash but she pushed the thought from her mind.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” came an excited, high pitched Pinkie Pie voice.

Dash stopped abruptly and looked around for her, but didn’t see her. Confused that she possibly imagined it she continued flying until she saw the pink pony sticking her head out of Sugarcube Corners’ window. RD glided down to her friend and stopped in front of the window on the top floor. “Hey Pinkie, what’s up?” she asked casually, yawning slightly.

“Have you been hearing anything…weird lately?” she asked her tone completely serious and almost freaked.

“No. I haven’t heard anything besides birds chirping this morning, Pink,” RD replied, quizzically looking at her usually spunky best friend. For a few minutes they sat there, pondering what could be going on until Pinkie shook her head and invited Rainbow inside.

The two sat on Pinkie’s rug, tails flicking a little nervously. “So what have you been hearing?” Rainbow Dash finally asked.

“Just…my name, but really distant and scary,” she said, looking much shaken.

Rainbow nudged her friends shoulder to grab her attention, for it had drifted, but not in her happy, A.D.D. way. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong I bet. You’re probably just tired still from Cadence’s Foal Shower,” Dash explained, feeling alright with that answer.

“Y-you think so?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Yes,” Dash replied simply, smiling.

“Well that’s a relief!” Pinkie said, jumping to her hooves, looking bright and happy again. She grinned hugely at Dash. “Thanks Dash,” she said, hugging her friend tightly.

“No” puff “problem” puff “Pinks,” she gasped out at the bear hug. Dash managed to peel her off after a few more seconds.

“Let’s go prank some ponies!” Pinkie suggested.

“I’m down with that,” Dash agreed, and the two went off.

When Dash got home that evening she was happy. She’d enjoyed a whole day of pranking with her gal pal, Pinkie. As she settled onto her couch with some hot chocolate she picked up another Daring Do book, yanking a wool blanket over her body. She’d gotten only ten pages in when a frantic pounding sounded off the door. Immediately she leapt up, dropping the book onto the coffee table and the hot chocolate onto the floor. The banging sounded again and she trotted up to the door.

“Rainbow? Rainbow Dash!” called Fluttershy, scared out of her wits.

Dash flung open the door and Fluttershy barreled through, tackling her friend to the ground, sobbing against her chest. “Rainbow…I’m so…scared,” she spluttered between hiccups.

“Fluttershy, what’s happened?” Dash asked, carefully carrying the shaking pale yellow pony to the couch and wrapping her up in the black blanket.

“There were noises in my house. Creaking like old joints. Then there was a voice in my head. It kept whispering my name, getting louder until it started screaming that it was coming for me, that it would kill me and all my friends. That we had no chance,” she said in rush, while Dash had cleaned up the hot chocolate.

The hair along RD’s spine rose and her mane stood on end. “Y-you heard voices in your head too?” she asked hesitantly, knowing the answer already.

“Yes…who else is hearing them Dash…?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie. She told me this morning that she was hearing her name being whispered. But not like you explained it,” she told her friend, shaking her head as she said it, unable to believe that it was just tiredness now. “I told her she was just overtired from the Foal Shower.”

Fluttershy exploded into snotty, obnoxious tears again. Rainbow Dash flattened her ears against her head then walked up to the fearful pony, nuzzling her cheek. “Hey now, it’s okay. Let’s go talk to Twilight about it.”

From behind her pink mane Fluttershy whimpered a yes and the two took flight, stopping at Sugarcube Corner by the top window where they saw Pinkie through the window. Something about the pink pony was off, she paced in the room, staring blankly about it then she shook her body violently, as if trying to rid herself of something. Dash knocked on the window and Pinkie shot up into the air, squealing fearfully. Rainbow Dash opened the window and came inside, followed by Fluttershy.

“Oh girls, it’s just you,” Pinkie Pie said, sighing with relief. “Dash you’re wrong, those voices are real, I’m not just overtired.”

“I know Pinkie, that’s why we came here. Fluttershy has been hearing voices too, and they’re saying bad things. We need to get to Twilight’s immediately.”

Pinkie nodded and the three set for Twilight’s library. When they reached the library Dash entered the room first, glancing around cautiously for books were strewn about. Alcohol sat on the table in the middle of the room, two beer bottles gone and a wine bottle half empty. All three exchanged skeptical looks before coming in completely and looking for the lavender pony named Twilight Sparkle. From the kitchen they could hear sobs and a teenage, male voice saying comforting words.

Pinkie Pie knocked on the kitchen door before entering and they saw a five foot, purple and green scaled dragon with an arm draped around Twilight.

“Spike, is she hearing…voices?” Dash asked quietly.

He merely nodded and Twilight straightened herself, facing her friends with a tear stained face. “Girls, are you hearing voices too?” she asked, hiccupping.

Fluttershy nodded, tearing up again and Pinkie nodded also, twitching slightly. Dash took a step forward. “I’m not hearing anything though,” she said nervously.

“I was hearing it say they’d rip me from my magic, that without it I will disintegrate into nothing. I’ve looked through books upon books about why I might be hearing voices, or if removing a pony’s magic is even possible. So far I’ve come up with nothing of the sort. But I keep hearing the voice in the back of my mind, promising me that it’ll destroy me from the inside out,” Twilight explained.

“They kept telling me that I was never really happy, that I can’t make anypony feel happy, that I’m meaningless without my thinking I am doing something for somepony,” Pinkie said, seeming calmer now, but serious.

“They said they’d kill you all, that I couldn’t do anything about it,” Fluttershy repeating what Dash had heard her say earlier.

All of them stared at Fluttershy for a moment, but instead of cowering behind her mane, Fluttershy straightened and said in a strong voice, “I will not let anypony harm any of you.”

Spike spoke up finally. “What could all this mean? Is somepony just playing a sick joke on you?” His mature voice seemed to shake slightly at concern for his friends.

“Who would be cruel enough to do that?” Dash asked.

“Somepony who wanted to see us fall apart?” Twilight said, and then flinched, clenching her eyes closed tightly. “No…no…leave me ALONE!!” she screeched, arching her back, her eyes blazing white in fury.

Around her, Dash saw Fluttershy and Pinkie twitching and acting similar to Twilight. Pinkie screamed at her voice, saying it didn’t know who she was. Fluttershy collapsed into loud sobbing. Dash flattened her ears hard against her head at her friends despair and yowled out, “Leave my friends ALONE!!! You stay OUT OF THEIR HEADS! You have no control! You are nothing!” Just as the words left her lips her friends settled down, their voices of mockery disappearing.

“Let me get you all some water,” Spike said, tears forming in his eyes as he walked to the cupboard and grabbed four glasses, filling them with ice and water. The others gathered around the table, eyes raw and blood red from their attacks. Dash stayed back, fear gnawing at the base of her skull.

“What just happened?” Dash asked.

“I don’t really know, but whatever it is, you seem to have some sort of control over it Dash,” Twilight mused.