Dark Shadows

Chapter 4: A Dash of Loyalty

It was early morning when Poison Apple found the cloud house that belonged to the one and only Rainbow Dash. She knew it would be impossible to catch her when she was up there, or when she was flying, so how would she get her...

"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled from over a nearby hill. Poison Apple had mere seconds to hide, or she would be seen by the purple Unicorn. As she hid in a nearby busy she saw a terrified look on the Unicorn's face.

"RAINBOW WAKE UP!" Twilight shouted, using her magic to throw a rock through Rainbow's window.

"OW!" Rainbow shouted, having been whacked in the head by the rock, "What do you want?!"

"Something's happened to Applejack! You need to come with me, hurry!" Twilight yelled, looking around nervously. Rainbow's head quickly disappeared as she went to get dressed, taking her time as she thought this was just Twilight being crazy again. After almost twenty minutes Rainbow made her way down to Twilight, who immediately took off running.

"Hey wait up!" Rainbow shouted, being caught off guard by Twilight's sudden speed. Because they were running at high speeds it only took them half an hour to reach the farm, only to find a distraught looking Big Macintosh.

"Mac, what happened?" Twilight asked worriedly, afraid something horrible had happened.

"AJ..." Mac mumbled, looking away in pain, "AJ went crazy and tried to kill me"

"WHAT?!" Rainbow shouted, knowing her friend wouldn't hurt her brother, or anyone for that matter. She quickly flew into the house, only to find Applejack's room blocked off. Knowing that she liked to keep a window open she flew back outside and looked for it. When she found it she was terrified by what she saw inside.

There AJ was, curled up in a ball on her bed, covered in blood, mumbled incoherently to herself. Rainbow looked around her room and saw a pool of blood in the middle of the floor, along with a small trail that lead out of the room. She slowly floated back down to where Mac and Twilight were talking, noticing a rather large cut along his neck.

"Did she cut you?" Rainbow asked, rubbing her hand over the wound, causing Mac to flinch.

"Eeyup" Mac said as he relaxed into her hand, "I went to wake her up, and then she just jumped at me, cutting me with her nails". Rainbow and Twilight exchanged worried looks before Twilight spoke up.

"Celestia needs to know about this, I'll be right back!" Twilight said, quickly turning to run, only to be stopped by Mac's hand.

"Please don't, I don't want to see her hurt..." Mac said quietly, looking at the ground instead of Twilight. She could understand why he'd want that. Applejack was his sister after all, and family is very important to him, even if they tried to kill him.

"Ok Mac, I won't" Twilight said, turning to Rainbow, "Look after him"

"You got it" Rainbow said as she led Mac to the bench on the front porch, hoping to try and cheer him up. They ended up sitting there in silence until Mac tried to leave. Rainbow quickly grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back down, to no avail.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rainbow asked, still trying to pull him back.

"I'm going to check on my sister, I need to make sure she's still ok" Mac said, pulling him arm out of Rainbow's grasp. Rainbow sat back down, defeated, and watched him go into the house by himself. She sighed and put her head into her hands.

"Why do you always have to be like this?" Rainbow said quietly before looking up suddenly. She had this feeling like she was being watched, but when she looked around she couldn't see anything or anyone. Little did she know that just behind a wheelbarrow stood Poison Apple. She barely managed to follow her here, and was now planning how she was going to take Rainbow's wings.

So far the only plan she had managed to come up with was an oversized bug zapper, but she had no clue where she would find that, and every other plan always placed her in the public eye, something she didn't want. Thankfully she didn't have to worry about catching Rainbow as there was a very loud scream coming from inside the house. It was Big Mac.

"MAC!" Rainbow shouted, nearly smashing through the front door as she made her way inside, finding Macintosh lying at the bottom the stairs, his arm sliced open. Looking up the stairs she saw AJ, hand covered in blood, smiling as she looked at her brother. Rainbow quickly flew up the stairs, willing to hurt her friend for what she did, but missed as Applejack stepped out of the way and back into her room. Knowing it might be her only chance to do so, Rainbow blocked her door with as many things as she could find, before going down to check on Mac.

He was still lying at the bottom of the stairs, his arm bleeding heavily. Rainbow quickly flew around the house, looking for bandages and disinfectant. After finding them she bandaged his arm up and carried him to his room, pausing to look at the barricade she made around AJ's. As Rainbow placed Mac on his bed he woke up.

"What happened?" Mac asked, noticing Rainbow's serious look.

"AJ attacked you again, and cut you really badly" Rainbow said as she sat on the bed next to Mac, rubbing his hair slowly. Mac tried to get up, only to be stopped by Rainbow pushing him back down.

"Rainbow please, I need to help her" Mac pleaded.

"No, don't I don't want to see you hurt..." Rainbow trailed off, looking down at the bed.

"But Rainbow, she's family, I can't ju-" Mac started, only to be cut off by Rainbow suddenly kissing him. His eyes opened in surprise before he leaned into the kiss. When they broke apart it was Rainbow who spoke first.

"Sorry, it's just that I, uh..." Rainbow trailed off, her face bright red. Mac quickly sat up and hugged her, knowing what she was going to say.

"It's okay Rainbow, I've, uh, felt that way for a while now too" Mac said as Rainbow hugged him back. As they let go Rainbow's wings spread out.

"Sorry, it's that, uh, you know..." Rainbow said, her face once again bright red. Mac understood what she was going to say, since he had learned about Pegasus anatomy in school. He quickly hugged and kissed her, pulling her down to the bed with him. Rainbow didn't try to fight him as she went down, nor as he slowly took off her shirt. She loved him, and he loved her. Even if AJ was crazy they couldn't stop their feelings from showing.

Outside Poison Apple had been watching it all unfold. She looked away as the action began, and after an hour looked back to see Mac sleeping peacefully as Rainbow walked around in a blue night gown that she found in the house. Poison Apple quickly went to her old room's window and slipped inside. Watching from her door she saw

Rainbow make her way downstairs towards the kitchen.

"Man am I hungry" Rainbow said as she opened the fridge, eager to find something to eat, "Who would have thought that would be such an exercise?". A sudden noise caused Rainbow to look up from the fridge. As she did she felt something cut along her wings, which were still outstretched. Turning around she saw Poison Apple, smiling devilishly as she cut down Rainbow's wings with a butcher's knife.

"Applebloom! What?!" Rainbow shouted as she fell the the ground. She could only stare in horror as Poison Apple pulled out the orb, which quickly began to suck out Rainbow's loyalty. As it did Rainbow passed out, feeling something trying to come out from inside her. As the last of her loyalty was sucked out Poison Apple picked up one of her wings.

"This will make a nice decoration" she said as she turned the wing over, examining it. She quickly made her way out of the house after she heard noises from Mac's room. Stopping outside the door she turned around to see Mac's reaction. As he got to the bottom of the stairs he saw Rainbow's body, illuminated by the refrigerator light.

"Rainbow!" Mac shouted as he ran towards her, picking her up and shaking her in an attempt to wake her up. When she didn't move Mac looked around, catching a glimpse of Poison Apple's bow. He quickly ran to the door and looked outside for Poison Apple, holding the family shotgun that they kept next to the door at shoulder height, willing to kill whoever did that to Rainbow.

Luckily for Poison Apple he was looking at his eye level, and his vision was narrowed by rage. She quickly slid along the side of the house and made her way into the orchard. Pausing again she turned to see Mac slump to the ground, crying. As she turned to run deeper into the orchard she head a loud bang from behind her. Thinking that it was Mac she laughed, but she was wrong. Mac, and Rainbow, were still very much alive.