A Window to Infinity

Part 4: Silent Storms

Part of me wanted to believe that Rainbow Dash’s offer to race in Ghastly Gorge was innocent, that she was merely trying to lighten her friends’ moods, all of whom had just witnessed the horrible death of one of their best friends. But something wasn’t right. Rainbow Dash wasn’t a good liar, and I knew she out of all the six ponies hated me the most. I saw it in her eyes, that fiery rage that flared like a blacksmith hitting a red-hot piece of iron with a hammer, every time she looked at me. The way she poked the ground with her hoof whenever I spoke, the way she walked, far from my presence—to her, I was disgusting. And now she had challenged me to a race through the valley in which she had once nearly died.

At first I thought the demon was back. I knew Spike hadn’t been enough. As devastating as his death was, it would take a lot more to break my spirit. But Rainbow Dash—if it did anything to harm her…

But I knew I was smarter than the demon. I felt like Pandora opening the box: the demon would come out of the box with all its horrors, but I would still have a sliver of hope, a shining beacon in dark uncharted waters. That hope would guide me through this mire, and in my hands it could be more powerful than any weapon.

But I had little hope that Rainbow Dash’s claim was innocent, but who was I to not oblige her? It was as if we could no longer lift our spirits. Spike was dead. Fluttershy had almost been killed, and Ponyville nearly destroyed. Morale was at the breaking point, where I thought that more ponies than merely Rainbow Dash would mutiny my quest to defeat the demon. But I still had little doubt that these ponies felt the same way about the demon as I did, chiefly because of what it had done to their friends. I knew they would continue to follow me in these dark times. For how long…that was the mystery.

She looked at me expectantly, and it seemed that her deep eyes were peering into my ravaged soul so fervently that they might as well have been driving holes in my skin. I don’t know if I was blushing or merely staring at the ground, perhaps both. The other ponies were gathered around a campfire that Twilight had conjured up. Applejack and Rarity were whispering quietly. Pinkie Pie was asleep. Fluttershy was resting alongside Twilight, who was staring very hard at the ground, as if eager to not look at me.

“Why not?” Rainbow Dash moaned when she heard my refusal. I sat down next to Applejack, who looked uncomfortable but did not move or speak.

“It is dark. One of us could get hurt in that gorge. You yourself nearly lost your life in there once.”

“Oh, that was—wait, how did you know about that?”

I felt as though I should have been guilty or embarrassed, as if I had slip a secret that I had promised to keep under wraps. Twilight finally broke away from her staring contest with the ground and looked at me with genuine awe. I drew a breath. Telling them that I knew of their past because they were characters in a beloved TV show would make me look more insane than I already was. I decided against it. Sometimes, the truth is just too strange to tell.

“I know of all your exploits. They have come to me in visions that only encompass my mind once every few days.”

It wasn’t exactly an untruth.

“Well, butter mah biscuit. Does that mean that you cin see th’future?”

I smiled. “No, Applejack. I know only of the past. Unless…”

Rainbow Dash was fuming silently, and her friends were oblivious. I wanted to draw the attention away from her, so I turned to Twilight.

“How long has it been since your brother married Princess Cadence, Twilight?”

She looked shocked, but composed herself. I knew my explanation hadn’t appeased her, but she apparently had put aside her irritation.

“Shining Armor and Cadence are still on their honeymoon. They only got married a few weeks ago.”

I crossed my legs, thinking. So they did not yet know of King Sombra or the Crystal Empire. Perhaps…

“Perhaps I will face the King.”

“Huh?” Twilight frowned. Fluttershy woke up and yawned.

“Is it daytime yet?”

I looked up at the clouds and noticed that all the while we had been talking, a storm had been wreaking havoc on the sky above us. It was one of those silent thunderstorms, the kind whose lightning is fast and deathly bright but makes no sound. The wind had died down, but the biting cold was no better substitute. I was very grateful for the fire as I warmed my ungloved hand.

“I fear we may not see the light of day for a while, Fluttershy.”

“Are you sure?” Rarity said in her breathy, dramatic voice. “But my tan! Oh, good heavens, first we have filthy monster ponies running around, then Fluttershy almost dies, and now my tan is going to fade!”

“First of all, you ain’t got a tan, Rarity,” Applejack said bluntly, narrowing her eyes as if to say, Are you serious? “Yer white as a ghost. Secondly, do ya really think this here’s the best time ‘n place to worry about fashion? Seriously?”

Rarity looked genuinely horrified. “My dear Applejack, how could you say such a thing? You know my love for fashion goes wherever I go! For example, this human has a ghastly sense of style. For the love of Celestia, black with blue pants? It’s so utilitarian! And the single glove, made of wool—my dear, did you really have to come to our world dressed in such a dark way?”

“Oh, hush, Rarity,” Twilight snapped. “Applejack’s right. This isn’t the time. Besides, I doubt he even cares.”

Rarity huffed and said nothing, primping her mane with her hooves. Fluttershy was asleep again. Rainbow Dash came up to us and sat down, and for the longest while we sat in silence. Finally the rainbow pegasus broke the silence.

“Where’d you get the wings?”

I could hear the strained curiosity in her voice, so I decided to placate her. “I don’t know. I supposed I was blessed with them when I came here. They appeared on my back when I fell from Luna’s grasp.”

“You were with Luna?”

I nodded. “She brought me into your world. She is the princess of the night, is she not? She pulled me into this living dream.”

“Dream?”

Dream?

Was it a dream anymore? It felt so real—and what could you call a man’s trip into his own soul? A dream? A quest? An escapade? No, no words could describe it. Not a dream.

“It’s not a dream,” I said. “But it’s not real. It can’t be.”

Rainbow Dash did not pursue my words any further, for which I was truly grateful. If I started to question the impossibilities and metaphysicality of my journey to defeat the demon, I would play right into his hands—or whatever he had for appendages. I would go insane. I couldn’t think too hard about it.

“You know, you’re the only one who seems to have any answers to anything around here,” Rainbow Dash said, her eyes drilling into me. “So tell us why this stuff is happening. Why did Spike have to die?”

“Rainbow Dash!” I snapped, admonishing her, but Twilight merely made a little gasp and then regained herself. I sighed.

“You are wrong, Rainbow Dash. I have few answers. I can only tell you that your world has been corrupted by a demon, and that it will continue to rot unless I destroy the beast. Spike…there was nothing I could do about Spike. The demon corrupted his soul.”

Rainbow Dash did not seem satisfied with my answer, and I found myself thinking that she was probably still miffed about being rejected for a race in Ghastly Gorge.

But I was going to accept her offer, as soon as I had formulated a plan about what to do when she betrayed me.

Everypony began to drift off, and I found my eyelids growing heavy. Soon I was asleep, and I felt no comfort or rest in my unconscious state.

I awoke, and she was over me.

“I know what you want,” she whispered. “Meet me in Ghastly Gorge.”

She flew off as silent lightning flashed overhead. I sat up and looked at the faint rainbow streak heading east. This was it. She would betray me now. How would she do it?

There was only one way to find out. I spread my wings and flew through the air after her, letting the cold wind pummel my face. Silently, swiftly, I flew.

We reached the gorge in less than an hour. It was a veritable pit filled with black shadow, through which pointed peaks jolted out of, poised to skewer anything unfortunate enough to fly low through the gorge.

She was waiting for me.

“You came.”

I settled down on a rock about ten feet from where she hovered. “I know what you’re going to do, Rainbow Dash, and I don’t blame you in the slightest.”

“What, now you can tell the future?”

“No. It’s your behavior that gives you away. I know you hate me. I know you brought me here to kill me.”

She looked surprised. “How—then why did you come?”

I sighed. “Because I know you won’t kill me. You don’t have it in you. You and your friends are creatures of love. You do not know what it means to kill.”

“And you do?”

“I killed the monsters at Ponyville, did I not?” I answered, egging her on. “I killed Spike, did I not?”

“Shut up!” she screamed. “Spike didn’t have to die!”

“He was not himself. I was putting him out of—”

“No you weren’t!” she countered. “You—You weren’t! You killed him!”

“You refuse to believe me,” I said, sighing once again. I kept calm, but that only seemed to anger her further. Her eyes brimmed with fury.

“Why the heck would I believe you? Since you got here, you nearly killed Fluttershy, you killed Spike, and you think you’re in a dream! This is no dream, you idiot! This is real! Spike is dead and it’s your fault!”

At that point I lost my temper, rising into the air and producing my blade. “So what will you do then? Kill me? With your bare hooves? I do not wish to harm you, Rainbow Dash, as that would be counterproductive to my cause.”

“What cause?! Hunting this—this demon?! Do you know how crazy you sound?”

“I am crazy, Rainbow Dash. We all are. If we weren’t crazy, we’d all be dead.”

“And according to you, we are.”

“I never said that.” She was getting more unstable by the second. I could almost see the fire that burned behind those beautiful eyes of hers. “You’re not dead. Not yet.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No. It’s a promise that I’d very much like to break. If you insist on fighting me, I will break something else, and may just keep my promise.”

“You would kill me?” Rainbow Dash growled, getting closer and closer, and suddenly her voice changed. It became deep and throaty, as if she had sandpapered her throat. Her eyes turned red, as though scarlet inkwells had burst behind the glass of her eyes. She was beyond livid. She was in a state of incomprehensible anger, of rage that pumped pure spite into her heart, stoked the raging fire in her chest, and accelerated her breathing.

No.

“Demon.”

“Hello, child.”

Rainbow Dash was gone. The beast…

He had taken her.

“Where, demon?” I asked as my knuckles grew white. “Where is she?”

“Why, whatever do you mean, buddy?” the demon said, in a weird, twisted version of Rainbow Dash’s voice. Suddenly her hooves morphed into two blades of sharp black ice, and I knew immediately that these weapons would snatch my soul from my body as easily as they could take off my head.

“I’m Rainbow Dash! I’m loyal to all my buds! I love to read Daring Doo! Daring Doo! DARING DOO! *DARING DOO!*”

She attacked.

I had barely enough time to produce my sword before she was upon me. Her blades touched my skin, and instantly pain of a hideous sort raced up my arms and into my heart, and for one moment it pumped venom throughout my arteries. Every pore suddenly vented the toxic shadow. I nearly collapsed, but kept my sword up with just enough strength to ward off her attacks. With eyes like twin bloodstains and her teeth clenched so tight I thought they might shatter, she fought. She swung and plunged and stabbed and had me at the brink of death.

But I had not come here to be betrayed by the one I loved.

I saw an opportunity, and took it.

“NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOO!”

Having lopped off her blade arms, the black ice weapons fell into the abyss, a trickle of shadowy blood following after. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air, her eyes paling, the stumps of her limbs bleeding. She looked at me.

“I’ll kill her, child. I’ll kill her. I can’t kill you. I shall kill her.”

“No you won’t, you beast.”

“What will you do then, child? How will you escape this time? I don’t need weapons to destroy you.”

“Nor do I.”

“Pray tell, what then?”

A spark. It was all I needed.

Two sparks, actually. One in my head and the other in my palm.

The magic burst from my hand and circled the wounded pegasus, forming a golden sphere until she was completely entombed. I brought the sphere closer, until the poor girl and I were eye-to-eye.

Through the magic prison I saw her eyes, paling ever faster. Tears ran freely down her cheeks.

“H-Help…”

Then her eyes turned red again. “Your pathetic magic cannot contain me! I will—”

I did something then, something that I would have nightmares over. I did something that cursed me to an experience far beyond any human semblance of terror, of misery. I did something that would plunge me into a world where humanity was a farce, and where only the most potent of pains, the most horrifying of horrors lay.

I plunged my gloved hand into her head.

Shadow spilled from the cut that my hand had left. She screwed her eyes up to look, her jaw wide open. The demon could not speak. I would not let him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the others. Only their forms. I could see nothing of their faces, of their expressions.

I saw only Rainbow Dash’s look of terror as I plunged my hand into her mind and gripped it like a vice.

I closed my eyes.

“Be vigilant, Rainbow Dash. I am coming.”