FTRD: Faster Than Rainbow Dash

Duke couldn't see anything.
Everything was black, as if he was blind.
He could hear his heart beat, slow and loud, like a great drum.
The sound of rising bubbles filled his ears, the sound a kettle makes when it is fully boiled, yet there was no heat, everything was calm, silent, peaceful.

Light soon filled Dukes eyes as he slowly opened them.
He opened his eyes fully and peered around him.
He was submerged in some sort of liquid, it was a very light blue and it bubbled.
Duke noticed that there was a breath mask over his muzzle.
His breathing was normal.
He tried to see out of the glass in front of him but all he saw was blurs.

One of the blurs approached the glass and spoke behind him, it was muffled.
The blur then moved to a square prism and started touching it.
The liquid began to drain from the chamber.
The water drained away and Duke fell onto the ground, breathing heavily all of a sudden.
His mane was wet and heavy.

The glass opened with a hiss as the chamber pressurized.
Duke tore off the mask on his muzzle onto the floor.
He looked up to the figure in front of him.

It was the same pony that came into his ship and incapacitated them.
He raised a hoof to grab him, but he felt weak and lowered it.

"You will feel weak, with time it shall pass." He said.
Duke tried to speak back but his throat was dry.
"I apologize for the intrusion of your ship and the assault of your comrades, I was afraid you would retaliate." He continued.

"Where... Where are they?" Duke asked with a raspy voice.

"Over there" He gestured next to his glass capsule.
"My name is Tolvan, I am medical officer aboard this cruiser."
Duke looked up at him, breathing heavily.
"My I ask your name?" Tolvan continued.

Duke swallowed.
"Duke... My name is Duke."

Tolvan nodded.
"Water." Duke said.

Tolvan looked around and placed his hoof by a sigil on a cabinet and lightning went from his hoof to the sigils.
The cabinet opened and Tolvan pulled out a canister and handed it to Duke.

Duke fumbled as he opened the canister with shaking hooves.
The canister opened with a satisfying click and he started to gulp down the water.
It dripped out the corners of his mouth.
He lowered the canister and breathed.
He looked at the surrounding room, it was a bright white but with a slight tinge of blue, the same blue from the outside of the ship.

"Where am I?" Duke asked plainly.

Tolvan turned away from him.
"Ah, that I cannot tell you. You see, I cannot expose the safety of my race."

Duke stated at him blankly taking heavy breaths. He stared at Tolvan wrecking his brain and trying to piece together the information around him.

"What are you exactly?" Duke Breathed heavily.

"We are known as the Ar'lockhs, we have studied the races around us and we are more commonly known as The Ancients. Stories have been told of us apparently defending the galaxy.

Duke continued his stare at Tolvan.
"I was told stories... as a child of such a race... They said you fought... away daemons that threatened this galaxy... and nearly turned into a giant nebula." Duke said between breaths.

"My I ask what happened to your ship" Tolvan asked.

"We were..." Duke was cut off as a door at the far end of the room opened.

A similar pony walked in.

He was clad in a golden Armour, a silver sword hung from his belt.
Tolvan snapped to attention as he saw the new figure.
"Sir, I wasn't expecting you."

The figure looked to Tolvan, his silver mane sprawled over his Armour.
"Stand easy Tolvan, you know how I feel about the unclean aboard my ship." The pony said with a deep voice.

Duke looked confused as he looked up to the new figure "Unclean?"

The pony turned to Duke.

"Unclean" He exclaimed. "The unclean are those that have not passed our challenges and are therefore unfit of any rights in our species.
Duke took the information in and looked back at the pony.

The pony began to trot back and fourth across the room.
"Now, if you wish to remain on our ship and not suffocate on yours, you must take the rite, for honors sake of course."

"And if I refuse?" Duke asked questionably.

The pony stopped moving and turned to him.
"I will have to vent you into space."
Duke grinned his teeth and stared straight into his eyes.
He nodded his head silently.
The pony clapped his hooves.
"OK, let's get to work."

*

Duke lay on a table.
He had several machines around him, tubes were connected to his arms and hooves.
Tolvan stood over him.

"You will be pushed into your mind where we will set a staging ground, once inside you will not remember this encounter and you would be in another ponies hooves, same mind different body." He said intelligently.

The captain of the ship, still In his golden Armour came over.
"This first test will test your will, if you pass you will continue, if not, then you will be punished and then you must try again, good luck." The captain said as he nodded his head to Tolvan who flicked a lever down.

Fluids pumped into Dukes body and then it seemed that the world exploded in front of his eyes as all went white.

*

Stalactites hung from the ceiling.
Duke stood with several other ponies all dressed In black robes.
Though it wasn't duke, he was a crimson red pony with a yellow mane, his eyes were as dark as a Carbonados.
He was standing in a line formation with four others.

They were in a large dome chamber, stalactites covered the ceiling, the low hum of wind was heard and the dripping of water, unusually loud.

In the center of the dome chamber was a pit, a pit with half of a bridge now used as a platform.
Another figure in black knelt on this platform.
He rose and started to slowly trot towards them.

"This is the day, you will begin your accession my children. Today is the day you strike down your foes. Today is the day we take back what was ours." He announced raising his hooves.

"Bring fourth out enemies and let us bathe them in fury and death!" He shouted.
As soon as he did, five ordinary looking ponies crawled into the room, their manes covered with dirt, their hooves soaked in blood.

They crawled in front of each of the black robed figures and Duke.
"Brother Arthor, you will go first."

Duke seemed to respond to the name as if it were his own.
He grabbed the pony by the mane and dragged in to the platform.

The pony moaned as it was dragged across the ground.
The leader stared Into his eyes, his grin as sharp as daggers and his eyes as black as night.

The leader produced a small dagger and handed it to Arthor.
It had engravings on it, spirals and whirls surrounded the hilt.
The leader moved away as Arthor raised the dagger to the ponies throat.
An overwhelming anger filled him, he wanted to do it so badly, he wanted to bathe in the blood if those who questioned him and strike down all who opposed him.

The pony looked up to him and looked into his eyes.
Arthor stared back and he froze.
His anger seemed to melt away and all he saw in the pony was not fear but sorrow and disappointment.
Arthor lowered the dagger and slowly turned around.

"Brother? Are you alright?" The leader asked.

Arthor began to chuckle, this chuckle grew into a laugh, a maniacal laugh.
"Oh, brothers I am fine. The real question is... Are you?" He seemed to say.

And as fast as lighting Arthor had ran and drove the dagger into the leaders gut.
He pushed and twisted the dagger.

Blood poured down the dagger and onto his hooves.
The others ran from their line formation towards him.
They grabbed him, but it was already to late.
He ripped the dagger out and spun, slitting one of their throats.
Another threw a punch but he blocked it with his fore hoof and punched him in the gut, over and over again until he was spitting blood.

Another charged him with another dagger screaming.
Arthor spun the pony spitting blood around and the pony plunged the dagger into his friends heart.
Arthor kicked the pony he was holding, and as he fell the pony grabbed hold of the other and they went tumbling over the edge of the pit.

The last one looked at the destruction around him and charged Arthor, hooves flailing.
Arthor moved out of the way and the pony went running off the edge of the pit screaming.

Arthor grinned as he turned to face the pony he saved.
As soon as he did the world flashed white again.

*

Duke woke with a jolt, his breath loud and heavy, sweat covered his brow.
Tolvan and the captain still stood over him.
They were both smiling.

"Congratulations, you passed." The captain said.
"Not many, even our own race, can withstand that, I am impressed."

Duke looked up at him.
"What was that?"

The captain looked at the wall next to him.
"That. That was the execution of the cult of Carbonados, the cult of the black diamond, it was a dark and perilous time and they were planning on destroying all life. The pony you had control of was Arthor, an agent of our race who was corrupted by them, he killed all of them and then disappeared without a trace, that was seven hundred years ago.
"
Duke looked at him in disbelief.

"So, are you ready for your next test?" The captain asked.

Dukes mouth hung. He tried to speak but he still couldn't process in his mind what was happening.

"Good" The captain said.

*

They had moved to another area of the ship.
They were now situated in a large room.

The walls were metallic and rusted.
Dim light lit the surrounding area.

The walls had engravings and cuts in them.
The captain walked up in his golden Armour.

"This will be your last test, we have more but they are only used for our own race" he said.
He walked over to a wall behind Duke and placed his hoof in an engraving.
Lightning bounced from his hoof to the engraving and all the engravings, severs and cuts seemed to lit up an aqua blue.
A large block of the wall released and slowly moved out.

Inside the block were several weapons, a giant war hammer was the first there, the second was a mace as dark as night and the last was a sword that gleamed even in the dim light of the room.

"Choose your weapon." The captain said as he walked away from the wall.

Duke walked over and picked up the gleaming sword.
As it came off the rack it made a loud hiss as metal slid across metal.
Duke held it up to the light as the weapon rack receded back into the wall.
Duke turned to the center of the room where the captain stood.

"Are we fighting?" Duke asked as he stared at his sword.

"That we are, your race may communicate the best through speech, but ours is best in battle, to see another's movements and to reply in kind is how we as a race communicate." The captain said as he slowly took his sword out of his scabbard.

He looked up to Duke.

"Let's dance."

He jolted his hoof that was holding the sword and lightning began emoting from it.
He ran towards Duke.

Just before he got to Duke he took a jump and slammed his sword down.
Dukes sword flung up to meet it just in time.

He staggered back.

The captain started striking and Duke was parrying slowly.
"You think to much when you fight... Let it go." The captain said between blows.
Duke started striking back and they were now stepping back and fourth attacking each other.
Duke began to parry and attack just as the Captain was.

The captain stepped back and spun striking the Dukes sword.
The force was so great that the sword split in two.
Duke fell to the ground staring at the broken sword.
The captain walked over to him.

Duke quickly grabbed what was left of his sword and struck upwards.
The captain merely struck it aside.
"Anger should not control you." He said.

He bent down kneeling over Duke and hit him across the face.
He stuck his hooves onto his chest, pinning him down.
Duke grabbed the Captains hoof trying to escape.
Duke stopped struggling as he felt a tingling sensation over his hooves.
He looked to them.

His hooves were now emitting electricity just as Tolvan and the captain does.
He stared at his hooves for a while before striking them up at the Captains chest.
Electricity sparked against the golden Armour and it exploded with great light as they were both thrown across the room.
Duke opened his eyes after the blinding light.

The captain was on the other side of the room, electricity bounced across his Armour.
"How?" He mumbled.
Duke stared at his arms as electricity continued wreathing around them.
They grew more violently and Duke was now waving his arms to stop the electricity spreading.
"No.... NO, NO, NO." The Captain screamed.

The room flashed as Dukes electricity exploded.
Duke felt his body collapse and it felt like he was on fire.
His body wasn't responding to his brain and soon he couldn't see anything.