Psychodash

Psychodash

Two – Whispering Gallop

Axôlú

____----____----_____

Dash ran.

She ran to escape her fears. She ran to find solace in a nightmare. She ran to cleanse her mind of all her worries.

Speed always had that effect on Dash. She could drown out her thoughts with the rustling of her wings, the flapping of her mane and tail, and the whistling of the wind flowing across her coat. Flight was almost instinctual for her whenever she felt fear. The faster she went, the less she thought about her worries. Flight was her best escape, when she could soar through the air with a polychromatic trail; that glorious feeling of freedom was true serenity.

Dash ran.

She couldn’t escape. She couldn’t find solace. Her mind was full of trepidation. A tornado of panic and confusion consumed her as her legs carried her away from Sugarcube Corner. Her hooves kicked up dust from the road, obscuring the shop behind her.

Don’t look back, don’t look back, don’t look back, she’s not behind you. All she wants do is be friends, right?’

‘Then why did I leave her? She didn’t mean any harm. She threw me a party! For me. Dash.’

Dash stumbled over a pothole in the road, ‘She stabbed me in the back. Actually stabbed me.’

‘It didn’t hurt, though. She knew it wouldn’t hurt me… then why is it so painful?’

She lost her footing as she sprained an ankle, ‘I left her. What kind of loyalty is that? I’m the element of loyalty. That means sticking with your friends. And I left her.’ Dash’s hoof quickly realigned its tendons.

‘Is she even a friend? She wanted to be friendly, but she’s a monster. Nopony does what she...’

‘Pinkamena did nothing to me!’ ‘She made me into a monst-‘

‘I’m not a monster, I’m’

‘ I abandoned her, I am a’

‘I’m Dash, and I have to go back.’
‘To what.’

‘To her.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I need to show that I’m not…’

Dash turned her head to look through the back window of Sugarcube corner. She looked back, and again saw that curly, infinitely tangled mane. Pinkie lifted her hooves, allowing Dash to view the bloody mess smeared across them.

Dash’s muzzle snapped forward, and she blindly galloped away.

‘I can’t go back! She’s the monster!’

Dash’s hooves carried her past house after darkened house.

‘Wait, why aren’t I flying? Then I could-‘

Wham! “Oof!”

A lavender mare careened through the air, crashing to the ground with a puff of loose grass. Wobbling, she rose to her hooves and brushed her dark violet, well-combed mane back over her horn. The pink and magenta stripe of her hair led to a deep purple eye, one of two, which spun around in their sockets before returning to centre.

Dash quickly hunched down, head turned. She extended her hooves in front of her, pretending to stretch in an attempt to divert the other mare’s attention from her new facial features.

“Rainbow,” the mare groaned, “you can’t just ram into me every time you want my attention.”

‘Oh no… not Twilight. I can’t let her see me like this,’ Dash shook her head. ‘Yeaaaaa, I was practicing for the running of the leaves. Pretty awesome huh?’ Dash thought and mouthed, quickly remembering her lack of speech with a mental groan. She began to trot off, only to be pulled back by a magenta aura surrounding her tail.

“Never mind that. Come on, I’ve just received a new collection of Pegasus anatomy reference books!” Twilight squeed and dragged Dash towards the Library entrance, “I even got the newest Daring Do~”, she said slyly, a smirk on her muzzle.

Dash visibly perked up.

“But wing structure is much more fascinating. Did you know that the pectoralis muscles are actually attached to a layer of something similar to the alicorn in unicorn horns rather than the sternum? It certainly explains the lack of wing size compensation for such an inefficient design for aerodynamics. That must be where the magic-“

Dash tuned her out, focusing on the thought of a new novel from her favorite series, almost completely forgetting her terrified state of mind.

_-_-_

“Here, Daring Do and the Beast of the East, enjoy,” Twilight hoofed the book to Dash, who wordlessly snatched it with her wing, her muzzle facing away.

“You’re welcome,” she rolled her eyes.

‘I said thanks... Ugh, horsefeathers,’ Dash mentally facehoofed. She trotted over to her normal reading spot.

The room had a cozy feeling. A fresh, lively, natural tree mixed with aged and worn books gave the library a pleasant and peaceful scent. The light brown bark and shelves reflected the soft yellow candlelight. Each book was shelved in a precise order, the only spot of visible chaos piled right where Dash sat. Dash’s reading spot contained a variety of multicoloured plush pillows, meant to frame her haunches and to comfort her back from the harder wood in the stairs behind her.

Dash propped the book up with her forehooves to shield her face from Twilight’s occasional glances, and dove into the reading.

‘Daring Do and the Beast of the East,’ Dash mouthed, being used to reading books aloud. ‘Well, here we go,’ she thought excitedly with a grin forming on her muzzle.

_-_

“Rise, Sacrificial Lamb, your time has come,” a gruff, feminine voice shouted from the atrium of the temple.

“Yes, Cult Master,” an olive coated, yellow mane earth pony said as he strode to the altar.

Torches flickered on the mossy stone wall. The stench of decay and the long dead filled Lamb’s nostrils.

‘Yes, it is indeed time.’ He thought as he stepped up the altar stairs. He sat on the far side, and then laid back. His head faced the ceiling of the temple, and he stared into the empty sockets of a skeletal sculpture hanging from a series of stone beams.

Cult Master, a cloaked cultist, stepped from the shadows, a crude knife suspended in an orange aura.

“Great chaotic powers, hear me! You demand the sacrifice of Sacrificial Lamb for your purposes. I implore that you give us great gifts for his noble life!”

Cult’s voice resonated throughout the chamber. The ground shuddered. The skies rumbled.

“Behold, Lamb, for the chaotic powers have spoken. Your sacrifice is to be true.”

Cult Master levitated the knife to her mouth and murmured prayers through the blade. She slowly climbed onto the altar, her hooves framing Lamb’s body as she laid upon him.

“I am to be claimed by the chaotic powers. May my lifeblood ever aid my village,” Lamb closed his amber eyes, then opened them again. “I will not falter, I will not speak.”
Cult master lowered the blade inch by inch, her gaze boring into Lamb’s own.

“NO, YOUR BLOOD WILL NOT SATISFY US.”

The mare gasped, dropping the knife and quickly stumbling off the altar. The knife impaled itself next to Lamb’s neck, whose own eyes widened.

The statue above him moved. Its jaw worked and its eyes glowed a deep red as it peeled itself from the stone framework. It turned its head towards Cult Master. Cult backed up further, tripping over a bump in the stone brick floor.

“HIS WILL NOT, BUT YOURS WILL,” it snarled. It looked back at the colt, moving its stone mouth to what could only be interpreted as a cruel smile. “AND YOU WILL DELIVER IT.”

A beam shot from the statue’s eyes, bathing Lamb in a red inferno. His shoulders bulged, his hooves threatened to rip apart, his muscles expanded, stretching his skin and fur. Soon a towering behemoth of a pony stood where Lamb once did.

“No! Please!” Cult Master crie–

_-_

‘That was… interesting,’ thought Dash uneasily as she stopped reading, ‘not enough Daring Do, bored now, skipping ahead.’

Dash flipped the pages and continued reading.

_-_

Daring Do leapt away from the spinning axe with a flap of her wings. She hit the floor with a solid thump, but suddenly the ground began to sink rapidly.

She dived to the far edge of the newly formed pit, scrambling for purchase on the smooth edge.

“Come on… Come on,” Daring said as she struggled to lift herself. “Wings. Duh,” Daring rolled her eyes and flapped her wings, rising over the edge.

A flurry of darts shot over her pith helmet, forcing her to duck. Daring swung herself over the edge and slid across the floor, avoiding another volley.

“Phew, another close one,” Daring scooted herself along the floor towards the door at the end of the tunnel. A hollow equine skull with ruby eyes lay on a pedestal near the door. The door itself consisted of nine ancient symbols separated by engraved lines. A single beam of sunlight shined from a crack in the wall.

“Hmm… What’s the connection… What’s the connection,” Daring muttered as she studied the symbols. “There’s got to be some pattern... Maybe this skull has something.”

Daring lifted the skull, searching for some clue to reveal the symbols’ meanings. She brought it to the sliver of light for a better view. As soon as the light struck it, red light shot from the skull’s ruby eyes and projected a pattern across the wall.

“That’s it!” Daring exclaimed, “All I have to do is just shift it,” Daring rotated the skull so the beams would line up with the door’s symbols, marking the proper order.

“There,” Daring trotted to the door and pressed the symbols.

A heavy rumbling filled the tunnel. Pebbles and dust fell from the ceiling, causing Daring to cough. A deafening roar sounded from behind the door. Heavy hooffalls echoed, and Daring backed up, a nervous grimace on her face. Cracks started to appear in the door as what sounded like hooves pounded on the other side.

A massive olive hoof broke through the door revealing the monst-

_-_

‘No… don’t think about it,’ Dash closed her eyes, dispelling her thoughts.

‘There’s got to be something without this… thing in it’

Dash flipped further ahead.

_-_

The beast tore through the village, ripping houses from their foundation and uprooting trees in rage. Ponies cried out for help, for a savior from the lumbering monstrosity. They ran about the streets, their legs taking them far, far away from the destroyed village.

Dar-

_-_

‘No,’ Dash flipped ahead yet more

_-_

Daring franticly fiddled with the lever as the beast approached. It was too late. It crashed into her, flinging her outside the temple onto the stairs. It reared its forelegs, threatening to smash Daring-

_-_

‘No!’ Dash’s eyes widened, and she flipped ahead yet more, nearing the end.

_-_

The beast fell off the bluff, its face a visage of fear, then acceptance as it dropped to its doom, and final release.

_-_

“Dash, you’ve been pretty quiet over there, is everything alri-,” The book flew past Twilight’s head, the trailing air blowing back Twilight’s mane.

“Dash! What’s the prob… lem?” Twilight paused to take in Dash. She was hunched forward with her hooves covering her face. Trickles of wetness rolled down her forehooves.

‘I’m not a monster, I’m not going to destroy Ponyville, I’m not a monster’ Dash mouthed.

“Oh Rainbow, what’s wrong?” She stepped forward, laying a hoof on Dash’s shoulder, “Come on, talk to me, Rainbow.”

Dash’s silence continued, her tears still staining the cushions.

“At least look at me,” Twilight shifted her hoof to pull Dash’s own away from her face.

Crack

Dash’s other hoof flew into Twilight’s muzzle, knocking her off balance.

“Rainbow, what’s gotten into you?” Dash raised its head, eyes wide, mouth open in shock.

Twilight stared into the face of what she thought was Dash. She saw the solid magenta eyes, the razor sharp teeth, the deep scar across its neck. Twilight instinctively discharged a magical bolt at Dash. The bolt hit Dash square in the face, throwing it into the wall.

Dash shook its head and spread its wings. It crashed through the window, shards of glass painlessly tearing open its skin, and disappeared into the night.

“Wait! Rainbow! I’m sorry!” Twilight shouted as she galloped to the window.

Once again, Rainbow Dash was gone.

_-_-_

Pinkie bounced out from the bathroom, her hooves finally cleansed of the sticky red mess. Her spring-like limbs took her down the stairs into the lobby as she hummed a newly invented tune, with full xylophone and saxophone accompaniment.

‘Ohhhh, cleaned my hooves, got into the groove, just leave Equestria’s ground and lets everypony moooove,’ she sung in her mind.

Pinkie hopped across the lobby towards the bakery kitchen with the intention of preparing another batch of non-salty floor ketchup, not that she ever remembered producing any before.

‘Time to mix it all uuuuuuuup~ In red, not yellow or Oraaaaaaange~ Gotta’ ask everypony suuuuuuuup~ And bring ‘em to the- Shoot!’ Pinkie grimaced, ‘Missed it.’

Her forehoof landed in a pile of some slick substance.

Pinkie quickly pulled out a dull plaid cap and a magnifying glass from… somewhere. She inspected her hoof from many angles, twisting and stretching her neck in impossible angles, before settling with her head upside down staring at the far side of her hoof. The consistency of the liquid was similar, no, exactly the same as the floor ketchup from earlier.

Next to her was the door to the basement, a small puddle of the same substance. Pinkie squinted as she opened the door, then halted just before she reached the edge of the first step.

“Itcha-itcha-itch,” Pinkie whispered as her back jittered, then grinned, “That means it’s my lucky day! But wait, it’s not day, its night!”

She rubbed her chin with her clean hoof, then took a step down the stairwell.

“Pincha-pinch! That means something scary… but what if it was a delayed combo? This could mean anything!”

Pinkie pulled down her cap and continued down the stairwell, her inquisitive face scrunch picking out random details.

"A streamer on the floor, thirty nine point one four degree angle to the cluster of eight confetti pieces… aHA! This means there was a party here, but I didn’t host a party," Pinkie’s inquisitive stare softened into a subtle frown, "somepony hosted a party in my own basement, and didn’t invite me… Did they invite my friends? Don’t they want me around?"

Pinkie’s fur, mane and tail dulled to a faded pink. Her hair straightened and her eyes lost their luster. She slumped to the floor, bottom lip stuck out while her head lowered.

‘Do my friends not like me anymore?’ Pinkamena sighed.

But then, its mouth stretched, curving upward, exposing its teeth. Its cheeks lifted, its eyebrows raised, its back straightened as it rose to its hooves again. It picked up a cake knife from the floor. Pinkamena was smiling. Utter joy consumed it.

“Or will I be inviting my bestie best super awesome friend for another party!”