Rainbow Dash had been searching around the labyrinth of a hedge maze for a while now, grounded as well, not really what she was hoping for, although to say her day, overall, had been weird would be an understatement. Earlier today, she had been sideswiped by a candy floss cloud that she tried to kick, only to find herself covered in the stuff, and then numerous more proceeded to encircle her as one rained chocolate milk onto her. Turns out this was the work of an ancient being of illogical chaos known as ‘Discord’, who, as it turns out, had also managed to steal the Elements of Harmony and hid them inside a labyrinth before sending her and the others to retrieve them after enforcing a “No wings; no magic” rule, getting rid of both her and Fluttershy’s wings, as well as Twilight’s and Rarity’s horns, before making sure to split the six of them up, cleverly enough. Twilight had asked they head to the centre to regroup and stay together.
As Rainbow runs from one bush to another, she notices a white cloud sparking rainbow lightning from underneath. It resembled her cutie mark. It had to be…
“I’ve got you now, element.” Rainbow whispers with a smirk. As she runs to retrieve it however, she finds herself in a large square plain with Discord resting on a hammock made of clouds in between two apple trees, a pair of sunglasses covering his eyes. Discord yawns as he stretches the bones in his body… if they are bones.
“Oh. I can see why you like these clouds so much. Very plush.” Discord comments.
“Get off there and put ‘em up!” Rainbow demands, getting up on her hind hooves as she swings her fore hooves, getting ready to fight, “Come on! Let’s go!”
Discord only gets up from his hammock, however, letting out some mock offence as he claims “Hey, I’m here to deliver a message.”
“I’ve got a message for you too!” Rainbow yells out, hardly listening as Discord raises a slight brow from under his sunglasses.
“Listen closely,” Discord asks, taking his sunglasses off, “this is important.” he then appears at Rainbow’s right side, before appearing at her left, ending with his legs lifted into the air by his wings as he lowers his eye level to Rainbow’s, all the while, saying “A weighty a choice is yours to make: the right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue, then you may be betrayed by those close to you.”
Discord then swoops to stand directly in front of Rainbow, the hammock behind him. He snaps his talons and the cloud Rainbow had seen earlier swoops between them, spinning as red-yellow-blue lightning fires from it. As Rainbow stares into it, she sees… herself. She is being praised all across Ponyville for rescuing ponies until a dark blue mouthless, tailless mare wearing a purple suit and dark blue cape with a purple circle with a blue M one it, with a thick dark blue layer over her hooves and wearing a purple hat with a dark blue lace. It was obvious that it was all a suit, but still. The mare reveals her hat to be hiding a unicorn horn under her mask, which she uses to prevent a dam from breaking, as well as having wings, is surprisingly strong, and can anticipate a problem before it happens in a way similar to Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense. The mare proceeds to rescue ponies quicker than Rainbow, humiliating her in the process in front of everypony until it’s then revealed that this unnamed mare was actually… her friends? In disguise?!
“My friends? Betray me?” Rainbow mutters in disbelief, “No!” she screams, her eyes having yellow, white, green, blue concentric circles constantly shifting in colours. Just then, a green box with a gold ribbon appears.
“That box contains your wings.” Discord reveals. “You can take them and leave the game and join me so that you can get your revenge on Twilight and the others and make them pay for even considering this scheming treachery, or you can carry on wandering aimlessly in this maze as you expect their betrayal. Your choice.”
As he speaks, Discord touches Rainbow’s cheek as all the colour drains from her body.
Revenge…
Yes, that’s what she needs right now - revenge, for those that scheme to rob and humiliate her. She doesn’t care what their goal would be, she needs to make them pay for what they’ll do to her, and ruining their hopes of stopping Discord will do very nicely.
“Yes…” Rainbow mutters, answering Discord as the circles in her eyes disappear while a crooked grin forms on her face, “This is going to be eighty percent more awesome…”
To say Twilight was having a frustrating day would be an understatement. Not only had Discord taken away her and her friends’ magic as they entered the labyrinth to retrieve the elements he stole, but now her friends were just acting weird and uncooperative, but she wasn’t giving up hope. Rarity had forced her to carry a boulder (which she somehow thought was a diamond) while Applejack has been lying nonstop, Pinkie has been rather upset and pessimistic, and Fluttershy has just been extremely rude.
“Must... find... Rainbow Dash.” Twilight struggles out from the sheer weight on her back as she and the others wander through the maze, Twilight at the back due to the boulder she has been forced to carry, “As a team... we're unstoppable. Rainbow Dash won't let us down.”
“Well, looky there.” she suddenly hears Applejack calling out, pointing out to the sky, “Rainbow Dash is flying away. She's abandonin' us.”
Not believing it, (in part because Rainbow flying would mean she somehow broke Discord’s rule), Twilight lowers the bolder from her back and points out that “Now I know that's a lie.” Upon saying that, however, she notices that, for once in this place, A.J was telling the truth - Rainbow was flying away, now with her wings back, right over them, actually, although still flying away. With a gasp of shock, she asks “How can it be?”
Just then, Rainbow lowers to the ground, still hovering, but not grounded, before swooping past them, deliberately sideswiping all five mares before turning to face them, still hovering just over the ground as the sky is covered in grey clouds and the labyrinth starts sinking piece by piece. It was all gone. “And that’s just the first step…” Rainbow mutters, grinning, but not with her usual prideful grin, but with almost a vengeful smirk. Why has she suddenly turned so… vengeful?
As Twilight and the others look at Rainbow, none of them understanding what she’s talking about, they all suddenly hear Discord’s voice, and Rainbow’s smirk turns into… what can best be described as a sadistic grin. “Well, well, well.” Discord is heard saying as the smoke behind Rainbow clears to reveal Discord “Somepony broke the ‘no wings; no magic’ rule.”
Upon saying that, Rainbow suddenly bluntly claims “They had it coming, Discord.”
A bit thrown off there, Discord simply deadpans “Yes, thanks for your opinion, Rainbow.” before snapping his sickles, causing Twilight’s and Rarity’s horn, and Fluttershy’s wings to reappear. “Game's over, my little ponies. You didn't find your precious elements.”
“Guess that’s what happens when you play goose chase.” Rainbow interrupts, causing Discord to scowl a bit.
Goose chase? Twilight wonders.
“Rainbow, stop interrupting me.” Discord asks, Or I’ll make you think a single cloud was all of Cloudsdale as I initially planned. he thinks to himself. He doesn’t plan to actually say that, it was really just a bit of frustration.
“Sorry.” Rainbow answers.
“As I was saying,” Discord continues, as he summons a pink umbrella that’s covers are upside down when he opens it, “Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos.” upon saying that, Discord laughs maniacally as Rainbow joins in.
