Rainbow Dash

"Ugh, this is so gross!" Rainbow Dash sighs, shaking her hooves. As she does, several large clumps of an odd green substance slide off of her. Shuddering, she gives her body an enthusiastic minute of hard shaking, knocking off several chunks of ooze. "Yuck. I'm going to need a serious bath when I get home. And maybe some ice to put on my ego." Her newest trick had landed her here. Try as she might, it seems that her high-velocity movements just aren't up to snuff yet. Her failure had knocked her outside of her usual training grounds, deep into the Evergreen Forest. Thankfully, there had been something to break her fall. Unfortunately, it had been a pond, covered and filled with this green stuff. Whether microorganism or plant, she doesn't really care, as she unfurls her wings to take to the air.

Despite her attempts to rise from the ground, her wings, weighed down by the goo, leaves her earthbound. Eyeing her filth covered feathers, Dash sighs and plops herself on her flank. "I can't believe I'm going to do this." Scrunching up her face, she lifts her wings, bringing them to her mouth and beginning to preen. The first taste makes her gag, its worst than what she though. Not algae, that much for sure, it tastes like it smells, old sweat and plaster. Her mouth sticky with a wad of the stuff, she breathes in through her nose and spits it onto the grass. "That's so nasty." With a gulp and a sigh, she continued the process, each batch of feathers receiving attention from her mouth and tongue, every mouthful of goo sent flying across the forest floor.

After a while, the taster and the smell became a distant memory and she makes a game of how far she can spit. As she finishes her right wing, she grins. "That last one had to be at least thirty feet." The rim of her mouth is stained with green slime; likewise, small bits remain caught in her teeth. Running her tongue over her choppers, she chews for a moment, then swallows. The ooze dribbles down her throat to her stomach, Rainbow noticing that it's not as slick as she thought it would be. Turning to her left wing, she begins the cleaning process again. So into the cleaning, Dash forgot to spit, until the ooze begins to slip out her lips. Without a second thought, she swallows the entire batch. Her stomach gurgles in protest as she feels it hit bottom, but aside from a slight heaviness, she doesn't feel ill. In fact, she felt pretty good.

A few feathers later and she swallows again, sighing in contentment. At least until the buzzing begins. It's faint, barely there, but constant. Like a bee caught in between her ears. Pounding on her head a few times does nothing to break up the sound. "Must have been on the ground too long." Alternating between spitting and swallowing, the fastest flier in Equestria continues to preen. A third of her wing still requires her attention when she began to pick words out of the buzzing in her head. "Return..." Confused, Dash glances around, going so far as to to move to a standing position. "H-hello?" The dark places of the Everfree Forest echo her question back to her. Dash growls a little, toughening her resolve. "If anyone's out there, you better say something!" As her echo fades into the distance and no one steps forward, Rainbow Dash gives another quick glance around before turning her attention back to her wing. Wanting to remove herself from this place as quickly as possible, she opts to swallow rather than alternate.

The taste, which she had abhorred, came back differently now. Sugary sweet, tooth-rottingly delightful. Each batch of filthy feathers brought with it a wondrous explosion of flavor. The motions were familiar and constant, allowing Rainbow to close her eyes and let her mind wander as she preened. The buzzing in her head had ceased, instead becoming a string of words, whispered in a silk-wrapped voice. "Serve the Hive. Make us strong." Something seemed innately wrong about that. The Hive? She didn't serve the hive, she didn't serve anyone. Besides, she lived in Ponyville, with her friends. "The Hive needs you. You have a responsibility." Sure she had a responsibility, she helped oversee the weather. But, why did she need to handle when it rained or not in Everfree, the forest regulated itself. "Your place is with the Hive. You make us strong." Of course, that made sense. She was the fastest flier that Equestria had ever seen, that was a definite strength. But, if she didn't need to take care of the skies, what was she suppose to do. "Serve the Queen." Realization hits her like a crash into a tree. "Right, I serve the Queen. She tells me what to do." Opening her eyes, Rainbow Dash takes a look at her wings. Clean as can be. With a smile, the pegasus gets to her feet and gives a long, lengthy stretch, loosening up her muscles, sore from an extreme long break. In an instant, she is airborne, high above the tree line. Scanning the scene, she smiles as she orients herself towards home and begins flying towards it. Ponyville shrinks into the distance as the prismatic Rainbow Dash flies to the place where she belongs. At the side of her beloved Queen Chrysalis.