Spectrum

Rainbow sat up in bed the next morning only to find her room empty. Ginger was gone. She let out a sigh and flung the covers off to get ready for the day. She grabbed her phone and headed for the bathroom. She checked her texts to find one from Twilight.

It read: Fun night. How was your date?

Rainbow smiled and texted back: Amazing. Glad u had fun.

She set her phone down on the bathroom sink and started her shower. Once she was clean and dressed, she made her way down into the hotel lobby to head to her car. When she was about halfway to the front door, she saw Psyche point at her and then motion for her to come over. Rainbow smiled and walked over with her hands in her pockets.

"Hey, Psy. Wassup?"

"Don't make me regret this, but... we talked it over, and..."

"No fuckin' way, it's a yes?!"

Psyche sighed and placed her hands on the counter. "What did I just say?"

"Sorry. You won't regret this."

The ebony woman hesitated before she backed up from the counter. "Come with me," she said as she headed through the door.

Rainbow headed around and followed her through. They headed down a very short hallway which led to an elevator. Inside, Psyche pulled out a keycard from her pocket and slid it into a slot on the wall. Aside from the slot, there was nothing. No buttons or panels of any kind. The second she inserted the card, the elevator door closed and began to descend. When the doors opened, they stepped out into a large room where a few other people wandered around. At the far back was a large containment unit of some kind, and off to the left was the room in which Trixie was brought to after her fight with Twilight. In the center was a lab and a bunch of computers.

As they approached the center, a woman with long pink and white hair and a metallic left leg came up to them. "Hey, there. I'm Kerfuffle. And you must be Rainbow Dash."

"That's me," the rainbow-haired woman greeted with a smile, before she noticed the leg. "What happened to your leg?"

"Oh, that silly thing? It was badly damaged years ago and had to be removed. Luckily, my powers made me smart enough to create this leg. It functions just like a real one, dontcha know."

"Awesome."

"So, if you ever lose a limb, come see me. Unless, it's your head. Then, you're... well... You know."

Psyche smiled and patted Kerfuffle's shoulder. "We're gonna need a crystal."

Kerfuffle playfully saluted. "Yes, ma'am." She then ran off into the lab and opened a cabinet drawer. She reached inside and pulled out a crystal similar to the one Twilight found.

"You don't lock them up?" Dash asked.

"This whole operation is rinky-dink bullshit," Psyche explained. "We're trying to find a location to set up a real base of operations."

Kerfuffle returned with the crystal in hand. “Got it,” she said as she held out her hand.

Rainbow eyed it before looking at Psyche. “Just like that?”

“You plan on letting me down?” Psyche asked with a serious expression.

“Nope.” Rainbow then looked at Kerfuffle.

The woman smiled. “Brace yourself, ya hear?”

Rainbow returned the smile before she placed her hand on Kerfuffle’s. Immediately, she felt the crystal’s energy as it disintegrated and absorbed into her skin. Rainbow let out a yell and dropped to her knees, her eyes flashing all the colors of the rainbow. Kerfuffle moved around to kneel behind her and gently rub her shoulders.

“It’s almost over.”

Rainbow Dash felt the energy course through her veins and her whole body tingled. “What’s it doing to me?”

“Giving you powers, silly.”

Sure enough, the immense tingling faded and Dash let out a deep sigh. “Damn. So, that’s what it feels like.”

“Ya good?” Kerfuffle asked as she stood and held out her hand.

Rainbow accepted it and got to her feet. “So… what can I do?”

Psyche stepped forward. “Well… we have a theory that, so far, has been true for all of us.”

“Which is?”

“The crystals seem to grant you powers based on what you want to accomplish or some deep desire you have.”

Rainbow thought for a moment before she gave up. “Examples?”

Psyche nodded. “Kerfuffle?”

“Car accident took my leg,” Kerfuffle explained. “I was given a normal prosthetic leg but… it just wasn’t the same. I wished so badly that I could just… make a better one.”

“Then you found a crystal and it gave you that ability?” Dash asked.

“You betcha. At first I thought it was tough tomatoes but then I was suddenly given so much knowledge. I could think up almost anything and translate it into a blueprint. Then all I had to do was build the darn thing.”

“Interesting.”

“Torque Wrench is out on call right now,” Psyche said. “But she loved to build. A really good engineer. Built a lot of things here for us. The crystal gave her near limitless stamina so she could build as much as she wanted. There’s two others; Lyra and Bon Bon. Lyra has telekineses and Bon Bon can stretch.”

“And… you?” Dash asked with a smile.

“I used to have a husband who I had a feeling was cheating on me. I simply wanted the ability to read his mind. What’s something you like doing?”

“Besides sleeping with sexy babes?” Dash asked with a chuckle, getting an unamused look. “Um… Well, I really like sports. And exercise. Primarily jogging.”

“Running,” Psyche said plainly, before holding her hand out to the elevator. “Get there as fast as you can.”

Rainbow glanced over at the elevator and smiled. “Oh, please let this work.”

She took a running stance before her hair began to glow. She then shot forward in a rainbow blur, coming to a hard stop at the elevator. She slammed her hands on the elevator door to stop herself before she let out a loud chuckle and punched the air triumphantly.

“Fuck, yeah! Did I make a rainbow trail?!”

"Yeah, your hair was glowing!" Kerfuffle called over to her.

"Awesome!"

“That could be useful,” Kerfuffle said with a smile.

“Unfortunately, I think you’re right,” Psyche sighed. "That means we need to train her. Get her up to speed."

"Where do you wanna start?"

Psyche crossed her arms as Rainbow zipped over to her, quickly placing her hands on the ebony woman's shoulders to prevent them from colliding. "Take her to see Torque. Then Lyra and Bon Bon. She should meet the others."

Rainbow removed her hands and put them back in her pocket. "Can't wait."

Kerfuffle smiled and patted Rainbow's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go introduce you to the rest of the crew."

Psyche followed them to the elevator to resume her job at the front desk.