Behind the Bleeding Veil

Rainbow Dash stood stoic as the portal closed behind her. Her face was carved gravel with eyes that burned with a low, hot intensity. She didn't say a word, only stared straight ahead at Pinkie. One could feel power radiating off her; years of battle chipping and carving away to make her more than a warrior, but a force of nature.

Pinkie screamed in fury and rushed at her, knife raised in deadly intent. Rainbow had no need to power up. The years of battle had made her more than capable of handling Pinkie without resorting to her Warrior mode. Pinkie lunged and swiped but Rainbow was more than able to side step and avoid all of her attempted blows. Then, with a grace and speed of the words most accomplished dancer, Rainbow grabbed Pinkie, disarmed her, and slit her throat with the very knife Pinkie had sought to kill the others with.

Rainbow let the body drop to the ground and without any emotion said, "Come with me."

Flash and Adagio stood in stunned silence. Everything seemed to be spinning out of control, their brains couldn't keep up. Where had Rainbow been? Why did she look so old? What happened to Pinkie to make her want to kill them?

It was Adagio who came to her senses first. She started to ask, "Rainbow, what . . . "

Rainbow cut her off sharply. "I'll explain once we get there. Just come here now!"

The power, authority, and urgency of her voice left no room for the others to debate. They hurried over to where Rainbow was standing. She told them to grab on to her. After they did, she raised her right arm and started punching buttons on the back of her metal hand. In an instant they were no longer in the hospital parking lot but standing in a forest somewhere.

"Gather wood, we need to build a fire quickly. Just don't go down that path," Rainbow pointed to what looked like an archway formed by some gnarled, dead trees.

"Rainbow," Adagio started to protest angerly but was cut off by Rainbow Dash again.

"WOOD! NOW!"

Flash and Adagio quickly gathered as many sticks and branches as they could and put them in a pile. Rainbow aimed her right arm at it and a laser shot out of her hand causing the wood to ignite instantly.

"One of the things I've learned over the years is at night, you always build a fire," Rainbow said but it was unclear to whom she was actually talking to; Adagio and Flash, or herself.

"Alright Rainbow," Adagio said angerly. "I'm sick and tired of being told what to do and not why. I want to know what's going on, how do you know about it, and where have you been?"

"It's Fluttershy. We're here to stop Fluttershy," Rainbow's voice was calmer, quieter now.

"Fluttershy?" Flash said confused.

Rainbow took a deep breath and started. "I don't know where to start, it's a long and complicated story so I'm just gonna start talking and hopefully you keep up.

"After high school, when I went to college, I was attacked by an Urgioth. It's a demonic looking beast. It attacked me one night coming home from the library. Turns out, I never lost the Warrior mantle. I was able to power up and defeat it. I thought it was weird but awesome. What I didn't know was that I was being watched by a secret society that had formed to fight supernatural and extra-dimensional threats. The next day I was recruited and I joined.

"The last night we all got together, when Fluttershy and I went out to see that band, I saw a Gemantle, don't worry what it is, just know it's bad; they're bad. I left Fluttershy to fight it, I won, came back, and Fluttershy wanted to know what happened. I wanted to tell her but I couldn't because I had taken a vow of secrecy. She felt betrayed and stormed off. I wanted to go after her, explain things as best I could, but I had gotten called off on a mission. I explained most of this to Twilight when she traveled backwards in time to find me. What I, we, none of us knew; was it was a trap.

"Time moves differently in different dimensions. Things get discovered before they happen sometimes. Other times word breaks out about certain things and it reverberates through the different realms. In this case it was discovered that Fluttershy had found a very, very bad book - Oblitus Libro Sequutur Somnia, The Book of Forgotten Nightmares. It's the most damned book ever written. Even in the lowest, most despicable realms, it's name strikes fear and awe. It's full of arcane rituals and stories, it taps into powers beyond what is known."

Rainbow paused for a second, thinking about how to continue. Eventually she just shrugged and started speaking again. "You know how we were told the Black Gods of Death came first? That they were mindless engines of pain and destruction? Well, there is another account of them. In it, they came into being but were fully sentient. They talked, thought, had culture, everything we do now. Then they started to wonder as all sentient beings do, where did they come from. They tried to look back, before their own existence, to find out what was their source, to look behind the bleeding veil. In the story, they found out and once they knew the truth, it drove them mad, twisted them, turning them into the snarling beasts they became.

"The Book, Oblitus, is said to contain a ritual that allows the owner to pierce, to go behind the Veil, to access the source like The First ones did. It's also said that once the Veil is opened again, it'll mean the annihilation of everything. Not eternal pain and suffering, not a horde of ancient gods devouring their way through the multiverse, but the simultaneous destruction of all dimensions, of all universes, all at once. Complete and total death. I can see by your faces, you don't understand why anyone would want that. After seeing the places I've seen, I can completely understand how some would welcome the end.

"Anyways, there were fifteen of us that day. We thought we were stopping an invasion from another dimension. It wasn't. They pulled us in, sealed us off because they knew we, I, might stop Fluttershy from ever going down this road. For over thirty years we battled our way across countless dimensions - facing off with The Sky Dancer of Chaos and Eternal Night while on the Bimeny Road to the city of Yurizon. We did battle with the Tgher of tundra's of Kom Na Pir, fought off the pirates of Yagash, and the unholy hoards of Quta'ar. One by one I watched them all die, all fourteen of them, including my husband, well the man who would become my husband on the way. All dead, just me, I'm the only one left."

It was there that Rainbow's voice trailed off, squeezed out by the weight of unfathomable sadness. Flash and Adagio just looked at each other, not knowing what to say. What could they say? Adagio was about to say something when Rainbow started again.

"They manipulated Fluttershy over the years. They manipulated the events around her to push her to use the book. It was Fluttershy that caused Twilight and Sunset to go into a coma. Even with the book, they're still goddesses and could have stopped. She corrupted Pinkie and sent her after you two and Twilight and Sunset to make sure there were no possible threats."

"What about Apple Jack then?" Flash asked alarmed. "Shouldn't we have gotten her?"

"Most more than likely Apple Jack is already dead. If she had sent Pinkie after you, then she would have already taken care of Apple Jack. Besides, this is where we need to cut her off at, make our stand. That path, over there, the one I told you not to go down; that's her realm. She used to book to create a zone where she can use the magic in the book and keep others out. Inside there, she can manipulate space itself and create any landscape she wants. It's also protected by demons. It's down that path the book resides. You two need to go down that path, find whatever spell she used to put down The Goddesses, and reverse it. I'm going to stay here to keep guard and fight her off once she arrives. If I kill her, great, but that's not a guarantee. We need Twilight and Sunset."

"Whoa, wait," Adagio said, full of fear and concern. "Why do we have to go? What are we going to do against demons?"

"Especially me," Flash added. "At least Adagio had some magical abilities, but I have nothing."

"If that were true, then going down the path or facing Fluttershy, what difference would it make? It'd be certain death either way." She paused for a bit and walked over to both of them. She put a hand on each of their shoulder. "You have the power in you. You always did. It's why you're here in the first place. Concentrate and you'll find it."

Rainbow stepped back and Flash and Adagio closed their eyes. Each thought of their significant other, how much they loved them, how they would do anything to save them. It was then they both started to glow and in a flash of light each was transformed. Flash had on a suit of white armor with large wings coming out of his back and a sword and shield. Adagio had wings and a horn coming out of her head. She two had on armor (midnight blue instead of white), a war hammer, and shield. They opened their eyes and began to laugh with joy.

"I told you, you had it in you," Adagio said to Flash.

"Ha! I guess you were right," he replied back joyously.

"Ok, no go," Rainbow ordered. They both nodded and started down the path when Rainbow called out, "Adagio!"

Adagio turned around and walked over to Rainbow, curious as to what she wanted.

Once Adagio got over to her, Rainbow started, "If we survive, you and I; you've lived through some of the worst periods in human history and done some horrible things, terrible things. If we survive, I need to know, how do you deal with all the things you've done?"

Adagio looked at Rainbows face. The lines, the scars, they all told a story of someone who had seen and done things that were too terrible to recount. It was the face of infinite pain, sadness and regret. Rainbow's question wasn't an insult or and accusation; but a cry for help.

"I can tell you now," Adagio replied softly, full of empathy, "barely. The answer is barely."

Rainbow nodded. "Go and hurry. She's here."