Rainbow Samurai

Taking Refuge…

Rainbow had been flying for approximately an hour trying to find a suitable place to hide, and fatigue was setting in quickly. Her wings were throbbing in pain, begging for her to land. She’d been thinking about what to do once she found a suitable place to lay Daring Do to rest as she flew. Where would she go? Wherever it was, it was surely not back to Cloudsdale. By this point, the police should’ve been notified and actively searching for her. If she went back now, she’d have no way to clear her name. The sky blue filly eventually came upon the conclusion that she’d likely have to stay away and hope that they found out themselves that she didn’t do it… but then, she realized that the only way they could do so is if they had Daring’s body to study. However, seeing as her mother’s mortal shell was in HER possession now, going back would likely obliterate her chances, as compared to simply severely damaging them by running away.

“Oh, man…” she dejectedly mumbled to no one in particular. “There’s just no way anypony, especially a filly should deserve to go through this…”

As she searched for suitable landing ground, all she saw under her was a seemingly endless labyrinth of forest.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up her already steadily-decreasing altitude with so much weight on her underdeveloped body for much longer, so she took her chances and descended into the leafy canopy. She landed with the grace of a rock as she’d gotten tangled up in some vines on the way down and wound up dropping all of her cargo as she fought to free herself. She broke free and fell to the forest floor with a thud.

“Oooh… That hurt…” she groaned as she recovered and looked around. The welcoming light of the sunset seemed to disappear, replaced by eerie shades of darkness only broken apart by shards of light that managed to shine through the clusters of trees that surrounded and populated the area. Even with what little light she got from the sun, she could still see that this place was not one welcome to outsiders; the tree trunks were contorted in ways that made it look like there were scary faces on them, the air was hot, humid, and musty and smelled strongly like damp fur and compost, and she heard creepy noises coming from various animals all around. She found herself shivering in fear, but shook it off as her eyes were brought back to Daring’s body and her supplies.

“I can’t get distracted now…” she mumbled. “I… I have t—!” She found her monologue interrupted by a feral howl of some sort, which froze her in fear. “Wh-wh-what was that!?” she asked aloud as if anyone were around her to respond. Rainbow was quick to grab the sword and rip its sheath off to reveal the long, slender blade that seemed to have been sharpened to perfection as it a beam of light instantly hit it to reflect a bright gleam off of it. Rainbow clutched the handle in between her teeth and took a stance of apprehensive defense as she struggled to keep the sword steady. Another howl came from seemingly nowhere, prompting her to look around and see nothing… until her gaze met with two menacing yellow glowing half-circles that were angled like a pair of angry eyes. “S-st-stay away! I’ll k-kill you if you don’t!”

“Foal…!” growled a deep, menacing voice, further startling Rainbow to the point where keeping herself still was not an option. “You are unwise to set hoof in the deep reaches of the Everfree…”

“O-oh yeah!? S-s-says who!?”

“Says your predators… your hunters… you are our meal for tonight, young pony…”

“L-like HAY I am!” as Rainbow shot back, a gust of wind began to blow. Despite being frightened beyond all reasonability, she stood her ground, trying desperately to save face.  The thick, leafy bushes around the area began to rustle violently. The creatures were intent on intimidating their prey, tantalizing Rainbow by delaying the true reveal of their presence as they hid. She studied the bushes to see three sets of creepy glowing yellow half-circles swirling around her amidst them.

“There is no escape… We even see you brought us a larger course…” Rainbow instantly knew what they were talking about.

“NO! You’re NOT going to eat me OR my mom!” she tried to charge into one of the bushes, but the sword’s weight slowed her down greatly as she tried to gallop. Suddenly, the bushes stopped rustling and a terrifying creature jumped out of it, startling the Pegasus into stepping back as she quaked. It towered over the frightened filly, who could only stare at it in sheer terror as she backed away. In its maw were a large number unbelievably large, razor-sharp, jagged… wooden teeth coated in a thick layer of saliva as the pupil-less yellow eyes of the beast aimed their gaze directly at Rainbow. Its body seemed to have been constructed entirely out of wood, with tree branches protruding from its back. It roared in Rainbow’s face. If death had a specific smell, that would accurately fit the atrociousness of the creature’s breath.

“You’ll be lucky if one of us decides to swallow you whole…” the creature growled. Rainbow Dash looked to both her left and right to see that the beast standing in front of her had company. Deciding to fight rather than run to save herself, she steeled her nerves, grabbed the sword with her fore hooves and took a wild, clumsy swing at the creature standing in front of her as she squeezed her eyes shut.

*THWACK* She hit her mark! She actually hit the monster dead on. She opened her eyes to see the results of her attack, only to be shocked at what she saw. The sword had indeed made contact with its intended target. However, the blade actually wound up becoming lodged in its cheek. There were no signs of blood, or even that the beast was in pain. She was confused and scared beyond belief.

“A valiant effort, little pony… yet utterly futile. We are Timberwolves. You will need MUCH more strength than that to even hope to harm us…” the wolf taunted as it raised a paw to swat Rainbow.

*SMACK* an explosion of pain washed over the blue filly as she was flung backwards onto the ground. She got up to see the Timberwolf that attacked her still stationary with her blade stuck in its cheek. It began to slowly approach her, baring its fangs as it laughed. Rainbow, not willing to give up and thinking on impulse, rocketed towards the wooden creature, grabbed her sword out of its cheek, flew upwards and with a roar of her own, and used the momentum to bring the blade down on what she could guess was the wolf’s neck with every ounce of strength she could muster.

*SLICE* she hit the mark again, eliciting a howl from her enemy. She didn’t waste time hoping as she made sure to observe the results of her attack. She found the pleasing sight that her sword wasn’t stuck in the wolf in any way. In fact, the blade was partially dug into the ground. A second later, the wolf’s head fell to the ground next to her, startling her as she pulled the sword out of the ground and backed away. The Timberwolf’s body followed suit in falling to the ground as an oozing brownish liquid dribbled from its neck. Rainbow looked at the Timberwolf’s disembodied head to see that its eyes were still glowing. The glow soon faded to black.

“I did it…? Yeah! I-I did it! I killed it!” she cheered, alerting the other two wolves.

“Oh, you killed it, alright…” growled one of the remaining enemies, abruptly ending Rainbow’s cheer as she was startled back into focus. “You have just killed any chance you had of surviving this little ordeal…”

“Yes…” snarled the other wolf. “We were actually considering letting you live… under the condition that you fed your mother, who seems to have met her end already, to us… however, you have killed our brother, and for that, you must pay…” the wood-carved beasts approached Rainbow simultaneously.

“Like I’d seriously let you eat my mom, even IF you let me go!” the filly shot back.

“It… confuses us as to why you are intent on protecting dead meat from serving its only useful purpose… It matters little, for soon, we will be having a feast of pony… whether you comply or not…” the malicious wolves charged full-speed at Rainbow, who quickly flew upwards to avoid their assault.

“Ha! Missed m—! WAAH!” one of the wolves managed to jump and sink its teeth deep into the filly’s hind leg, drawing a copious amount of blood and an agonized shriek from the filly as she struggled to free herself. The wolf came down, Rainbow in its clutches, and slowly began to clench its jaws until a disturbing *SNAP* could be heard. Rainbow shouted in despair again. Satisfied, and with a strong twist of its head, the Timberwolf threw her into a tree.

*CRACK* she flew back-first into the tree and upon impact, felt an eruption of agony surge through her back as she dropped the sword and tumbled to into a puddle of mud. She gingerly climbed back to her hooves, almost falling back into the puddle as she winced, lifting her right hind leg up as she felt a seemingly endless wave of pain surge through it.

“Delicious…” hissed one of the Timberwolves as it licked its teeth clean of Rainbow’s blood. “It’s been… far too long since I’ve had a taste of pony… I believe I require a second sample…” the wolves began to trot towards the filly slowly. Rainbow picked up her sword and lifted off once again to attempt the same maneuver she used to kill the first wolf, only to be cut short during her ascension by a stab of soreness in her left wing, which sent her plummeting into the ground behind them.

“Ow…!” she groaned as she sat up to see that the wolves weren’t paying any attention to her; they were approaching Daring’s body. “NO! GET AWAY FROM HER!” she shouted as she charged at them, on three hooves and unarmed. She leapt into the air to bite one of the wolves on its tail. It howled in agony as it began barreling towards a tree. It stopped and twisted itself around, smashing the filly against the tree’s trunk. The crushing impact made the filly let go immediately as she fell to the ground. She was barely conscious at this point. Her broken leg was bleeding profusely from the vicious bite she received, one of her wings was in a lot of pain, either sprained or broken, and she suffered a mild concussion from her second impact with the tree, which disoriented her greatly. She couldn’t see clearly, nor could she hear much of what was going on. Everything was becoming blurry as she fought to keep herself awake. The multiple areas of unmitigated physical suffering were quickly taking their toll on her. She was lying on her stomach, defeated, bleeding, tired, dizzy, and beginning to cry.

“Aww, don’t cry, little pony…” hissed the Timberwolf, spraying its foul breath in Rainbow’s face. “We’ll cut you a break… since you’ve got so much fight in you…”

“Yes…” growled the other wolf. “Tell you what; we’ll let you live JUST long enough so that you can watch us eat your mother… and when you’re all tuckered out from the screaming and crying we imagine you to be doing; which shouldn’t be much, considering your current condition… we’ll devour you, too… to put you out of your misery…” the wolves cackled in triumph.

“N-no…” Rainbow moaned, too tired and beaten up to fight anymore.

“What was that? ‘No…? Problem? My, how magnanimous of you…” The wolf began to laugh as its comrade dragged Daring’s body, practically void of any blood and any of the red liquid matted on her coat dried to a dingy brown, over to the other wolf. The wolf dropped the body in front of Rainbow, whose eyes opened up wide. These wolves were merciless. They beat her to a messy pulp, and they were going to rub salt in the wounds by ripping her mother apart in front of her as she helplessly looked on. She’d failed in her mission to give Daring a proper resting place… and worse, she was never going to get a chance at vengeance for her. She and her mom were going to be food for wild animals in an unknown landscape, all because of that dumb necklace that Daring was killed over. Life in jail didn’t seem like such a bad option now… Rainbow closed her eyes and began to weep; feeling utterly hopeless as she waited for what she felt was inevitable… until she felt a surge of incredible power course through her body.

“What is this!?” said a wolf in shock just before it sunk its teeth into the deceased pony before it. A bright, translucent glow enveloped Rainbow Dash as she began to levitate without the use of her wings. Her eyes became glowing white spheres of anger and determination, still weeping as tears poured freely from them. She bared and clenched her teeth as her legs folded into her chest.

“I… said… NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” she roared in a voice that didn’t seem at all like hers. It almost sounded like there was more than one voice speaking at the same time. Nonetheless, she threw her legs in four different directions, causing a wave of the lustrous white light to quickly envelop the area around her.

*KABOOM!!!!* An incredible explosion rocked the area as the light wiped out that entire section of forest. Trees, plants, even the Timberwolves; vaporized in the blast as the filly let her unprecedented raw power ravage the forest. A few seconds later, the explosive wave of pure energy subsided and Rainbow crashed to the ground immediately. She slowly lifted her head and observed the vicinity. She’d created a clearing; there were no trees, grass, mud, or animals anywhere in the immediate precinct; only bone-dry ground as the sun, now beyond its twilight, loomed over the horizon as the moonlight began to set in. The Timberwolves were nowhere to be found. She didn’t even see the one she managed to kill with the sword. She did see that everything she’d brought into the forest was still intact, which befuddled her fatigued mind, while at the same time pleasing her. With what little strength she had left, Rainbow crawled over to her mother and hugged her.

“I… I won’t let anything happen to you, mommy… I love yuh…” she tiredly muttered to her deceased guardian as she drifted into unconsciousness.

In a luxurious bedroom inside of the Royal Canterlot Palace resided a small unicorn filly. She was purple with straight dark blue hair that had two juxtaposed stripes of deep purple and hot pink trailing down the length of it. She’d had a Cutie Mark of a constellation of stars surrounding an even larger hot pink one. She’d been drifting off to sleep as she cuddled with a small, pudgy lizard with varying scale colors of purple and emerald green before she was suddenly awakened by what she sensed was an enormous, sporadic jump in magic activity, quickly followed by its disappearance. The filly had been startled and unable to go back to sleep.

“Is everything alright, my most faithful student?” asked a serene voice as its owner trotted in through the doorway. The being was a magnificent shade of white, its sparkling mane and tail of a mixture of sky blue, teal, and pink flowing as if a soft breeze had been bending them to its will. It stood quite tall; much taller than any normal pony, donning many articles of fine jewelry; four solid gold slippers, a gold necklace with a royal purple diamond embedded in the middle. The crown the being was wearing shared a similar design to the necklace, also having a royal purple diamond crested into it. The being also had both a unicorn horn and a pair of wings that were also much larger than any normal pony, Unicorn or Pegasus. Its Cutie Mark was that of the Sun.

“S-sort of…” began the Unicorn filly. “I felt this huge power not too far from here… It didn’t feel like any kind of magic I’ve ever come into contact with. It felt so much… stronger…”

“So you have sensed it too?” the winged Unicorn asked. “Indeed, this power is unfamiliar… At least, it is to everypony now. Remember that book I showed you? The one about legends and myths?”

“The History of Folklore: Tales and Testimonies of Supernatural Occurrences?”

“Yes. Now, do you remember the chapter that specifically talked about a group of artifacts by the name of the ‘Elements of Harmony’?” The filly, being highly intelligent for her age, figured what the larger Unicorn was implying.

“But… you and everypony else said that the stories in that book were all a series of elaborate fabrications and superstition! A-are you sure it could be—?”

“Yes, my student. I have sent a platoon of guards to investigate the area I sensed the spike in magic coming from in order to find out for sure.”

“How come you didn’t go?”

“I figured you wouldn’t want me to… you seem a bit startled. Would you like for me to sleep in here with you?” a grin of excitement instantly plastered across the filly’s face.

“Yes, please,” she calmly answered, trying to hide her excitement.

“Very well… Sweet dreams, my star pupil…” the being sweetly whispered, giving the filly a quick nuzzle before getting comfortable on the floor.

“Good night, Princess Celestia…” responded the filly as she lay back down to cuddle up to her lizard.

Fluttershy, Thunderlane and his father were on their way to Gilda’s house on the outskirts of Cloudsdale after being given directions by one of the few ponies to know her place of residence. The stallion was determined to get answers from somepony, despite being told specifically to return home by the police. As far as he saw it, there was a murderer on the run, and the only friend said murderer was ever seen with before this day was one of the only creatures other than Pegasi to live in Cloudsdale.

“Hey, um… Butterfly, was it?” he asked.

“Fluttershy… sir…” the filly halfheartedly responded, the stress of her parental predicament and finding out that one of her newest friends had done a terrible thing to another pony greatly taking over her thoughts.

“What’re you doing out here so late?”

“I um… I ran away from home…”

“You WHAT!? Why would you do that?? Your parents must be worried sick about you!”

“I… I don’t have any parents…” she bitterly muttered, thinking more with her emotions than ration.

“Seriously??”

“No. I-I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said that! I-I DO have parents… it’s just that…”

“What?” asked both the colt and the stallion.

“My mommy’s in a lot of trouble… because she has more than one special somepony…”

“Oh, dear…” the stallion muttered, quickly grasping the severity of Fluttershy’s situation.

“A-and now I… I-I… I don’t know who my daddy is and the daddy I thought was my daddy said he might be wasting his time with me if he’s not my daddy and mommy said that she stopped making love with him after I was born because I needed all the love and daddy started ignoring mommy, so mommy went to get another special pony to make love with and… and… my daddy and my other daddy started fighting and… and…” Fluttershy broke down crying as her recent memories caused her an enormous amount of grief. “If it’s okay… I don’t want to talk about it anymore…”

“I’m… so sorry… first, I see this Rainbow Dash killing her own mother, and now this… what is this place coming to?” Thunderlane’s father asked himself as they arrived at their destination. The three Pegasi landed on the doorstep, with the stallion taking point and knocking on the door. A few seconds later, an adult griffin male answered the door. He emitted a strong smell of inebriation as his glazed, bloodshot eyes focused on the ponies before him as he leaned on the doorstep.

“Well, whathe hell d’YOU want!?” he shouted in a slurred voice, clearly unhappy with his visitors.

“Please excuse my intrusion Mr… Griffin,” began Thunderlane’s father. “…but is it okay if I have a word with um…”

“Gilda,” Fluttershy finished, looking equally as uncomfortable as the two ponies she was accompanying.

“Oh, her? Yeah, hang on…” He stumbled through a one hundred-eighty degree turn. “HEY GILDA! GET’CHER ASS DOWN HERE! YOUR PANSY LI’L PONY FRIENDS ARE HERE T’ SEE YA!” The looks of disgusted horror on the ponies’ faces went unnoticed by the drunken griffin.

“Coming, dad…!” a feminine voice called from upstairs. A few seconds later, a griffin girl slowly strolled her way down the stairs, a seemingly-uncharacteristic look of fear on her face.

“Make it quick or I’ll kick yer ass out again!” he shouted as he stumbled away from the doorway. Gilda made her way to the doorframe to reveal that she looked disheveled. Her feathers and fur were ruffled, she was limping, and the feathers under her eyes were stained as if she were crying. She was shocked to see the three ponies standing at her door, but only for the simple fact that none of them were Rainbow Dash. She stepped out of the doorway and shut the door.

“What are all of YOU doing here?” she irritably asked, seeming to be trying to intimidate her guests.

“G-Gilda…” Fluttershy began. “Did… did your daddy do this to you?”

“So what if he DID, Fluttercry!? The old griffin’s just making me tougher!” Her words were surprisingly bitter, coming from someone the filly assumed was her friend. Fluttershy was taken aback by Gilda’s rude remark.

“Hey, there’s no reason to take your anger out on her! She didn’t do anything to you,” Thunderlane defended.

“Oh, you mean like how you were ‘taking your anger out on her’ before Dash and I came over and kicked your flank at school today, ThunderLAME?”

“You WHAT??” Thunderlane’s father asked as he glared at his son, angered by what he’d just heard. He sighed and turned to the griffin. “I’ll have to ask you to watch your tongue, young lady. But what was that about what happened at school today?”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” she asked, smirking at the colt, who stared back at her in terror.

“Well, he told me that he was trying to make friends with Rainbow Dash, and that you got jealous and hit him.”

“HA! That’s not even remotely true!”

“Oh, it isn’t…?”

“Nope! What really happened was that Dash and I were talking during recess and saw your son and his two bonehead friends beating up on the weakling here. Dash led me over there, one thing led to another, and blammo! We beat him and his friends up. Then he came over to us at lunch, apologizing for being such a dweeb and kissed and made up with Dash and Fluttercry.”

“…I see…” the stallion said before going silent. “Son, you and I are going to be having QUITE the talk when we get home…”

“Ooh, somepony’s in troooooubllllle…” Gilda mocked.

“Anyway, you haven’t seen Rainbow Dash around, have you?”

“Nah, last time I saw her was at school today.”

“Did she say or do anything unusual while you were there?”

“No, not really. She zoned out during lunch with a look on her face like she was scared that something was gonna happen, but that’s all.”

“Has she said or done anything unusual before today?”

“Not that I know of— Okay look, WHAT is the point in all of this?” Gilda asked back, getting impatient with the interrogation.

“Rainbow Dash… k… ki… ki…” Fluttershy tried to answer, but was too scared to utter the words.

“Dash ki— what?”

“She killed her mom,” blurted Thunderlane. Gilda’s eyes went wide with disbelief. A few seconds later, she started to chuckle.

“Yeah, right! She’d never do that! She and her mom were too close to each other for her to even think about killing her, even if her mom was sick and acting all loopy recently.”

“I see…” the stallion muttered again. He mulled over the griffin’s words. If Rainbow was close to her mom, but her mom was sick… why would she kill her? Maybe it was a mercy-killing? That would explain why Rainbow claimed to be hugging her mom before she died. But that didn’t explain the grisly brutality of the crime scene… It looked like there was a huge fight going on in there… “She never mentioned anything about wanting to kill anypony before?”

“No.”

“Interesting… but the fact still stands that she killed her mother.” Gilda’s eyes went wide again.

“Wait… you guys are serious??” Gilda asked in complete surprise, her expectations of the ponies' news being a prank shattered.

“Mhm…” nodded Fluttershy. Thunderlane mimicked the filly’s slow head nod.

“Well, where is she??” Gilda asked, seemingly distraught.

“We don’t know,” Thunderlane answered. “My dad and I went to go see her so he could meet her, but when she opened the door, she had this giant sword covered in blood and the inside looked all messy and bloody. We even saw her mom’s body lying in a corner. We went to go get the police, but when we went back, Rainbow, her mom’s body, and the sword were all gone…”

“So… Dash is on the run?”

“It would appear so,” answered Thunderlane’s father.

“And I’m guessin’ you guys all came here to see if she came over to hide?”

“Seeing as you were apparently her only friend until today, your house seemed to be the only likely place she’d run to.”

“I guess you have a point. But honestly, I haven’t seen her all day. And… and between you and me, she’d NEVER come here. My dad’s… not such a great house host, as you can see… I didn’t even tell her that I was supposed to be moving away to be with my mom tomorrow… and I guess now I’ll never get to say goodbye… Dash, how could you…?” Gilda looked dejectedly at the ground and shed a single tear as she wondered what happened to the only pony she could call a friend.

“Gilda…? A-are you okay…?” asked Fluttershy, snapping the griffin out of her train of thought.

“Uh, ye-yeah! I’m fine! Stop worrying about me, will ya?”

“I’m sorry to say this, Gilda, but you aren’t fooling anypony with that façade. You know, if you need somepony to talk to beore you go, we—!”

“I said I’M FINE! I DON’T NEED ANY HELP FROM ANY OF YOU LAME-O PONIES! You wouldn’t understand, anyway! You don’t know anything about me! Just… just get the hell outta here…!” with that, Gilda went back into her house, slamming the door in the ponies’ faces.

“Well that was… mildly unpleasant and somewhat pointless…”

“Well, now what do we do?” asked the colt.

“I suppose we can only hope everything sorts itself out. But it’s getting really late. WE should all go home now. WE still have to have that talk, Thunderlane…”

“Y-yes, sir…”

“I… I don’t want to go home,” Fluttershy said.

“Listen… I’m sorry for what happened to you, Fluttershy, but you HAVE to go home. If you don’t, where else would you go?”

“I… I don’t know…” suddenly, the filly had an idea. “Is… is it okay if I… stayed with you? Just for tonight?” asked the filly as she unknowingly gave the stallion an adorable puppy dog-eyed look. He found it incredibly hard to resist such a sweet, innocent face.

“*sigh* Fine, but you’re going home first thing in the morning. Your parents must be worried about you. And I suppose it’s better than letting you wander off around Cloudsdale for a place to sleep.”

“I understand. Thank you, Mr. Thunderlane’s Dad, sir.”

“My, such good manners for somepony so young. You must’ve been taught well,” he complimented as the three took off.

“Y-yes…” The stallion’s compliment perturbed the filly. She was glad that he liked how she acted, but there was a nagging feeling of resentment at the phrase, ‘You must’ve been taught well.’ Nevertheless, the three Pegasi made their way home to call it a day and hope that everything worked out for the better… especially for the sake of Rainbow Dash…