Rainbow's Lullaby Part One
Some Opening Words...
This was an idea I came up with after reading an eerie little poem of another fandom known as Hypno's Lullaby. It gave me ideas that were... disturbing, and this was the product. It started as just a remake of the poem with Rainbow Dash in its place, but then a friend said that it would a good story and laughed. A little plot hatched in my mind and was sculpted into this horrible story.
So, without further ado, I give you Rainbow's Lullaby.
Rainbow's Lullaby
The sun was a brilliant scarlet ball that slowly lowered itself from the sky behind Ponyville. The sky was painted orange and pink, which meant that it was time for the fillies and colts to head off to bed. It also meant it was time for a certain Pegasus to leave her home for her nightly routines.
"Night, Applejack," Apple Bloom whispered to her sister as she tucked her in.
"G'night, Apple Bloom."
The yellow filly nuzzled her blanket and closed her eyes. It took a few minutes for her to slip into the dreaming state, but soon she was fantasising about getting her Cutie Mark and other things that soon would not matter if she remembered the next day.
She slipped a black cotton mask over her head, a few strands of multicoloured hair poking out above her rose coloured eyes. The Pegasus slid her hind legs into dark nylon stockings that reached just above the flanks of the blue mare and only allowed the very tips of her cyan hooves to show. On the stockings, where you would normally see a cloud with a thunderbolt made up of the three primary colors striking down from it, was golden threads stitched in so as to form a simple smiley face, only the eyes, instead of being small dots, were Xs. Careful not to exclude a single hair, she tied her spectral tail into a bun, then put a black hairnet over it so any possible witnesses could not identify her all too easily. As a final touch, the mare put a golden belt with two full needles of anesthesia, a thin bottle of chloroform wrapped in a rag, and in case of a fighter, a knife.
She secured the belt around her waist and opened the door of her house of clouds. She galloped to Cloudsdale's border where she could view the whole town of Ponyville. Just beyond Ponyville was the house of her sleeping target in Sweet Apple Acres. Behind the mask, the grinned darkly as she spread her cyan feathered wings. Her eyes locked on Apple Bloom's house as Rainbow Dash took flight across the dimming skies of Equestria.
The time was now rolling around nine o'clock when Apple Bloom awoke. She rubbed her eyes and went to the bathroom to relieve herself. When she finished, she turned on the faucet and washed her hooves. As she sang the ABCs like they said to in school when washing your hooves, there was a light tapping on the bathroom window. At first she ignored it, thinking it was just her imagination. But then her name was whispered.
"Who's there?" she called out to the voice.
"Apple Bloom... Come play with me... Play with me..."
Somewhat frightened, the yellow filly backed into a corner between the shower and the toilet. "Y'all best leave me alone, y'hear?!"
The window then opened and through it crawled a cyan Pegasus wearing black clothing that covered both her mane and Cutie Mark, leaving no real evidence that could reveal who she was. With the trembling foal now cornered, Rainbow Dash removed the chloroform bottle and rag and placed it on her muzzle. Apple Bloom cried out for only a moment before she fell asleep to be taken away from her home forever.
The yellow foal opened her eyes and blinked a few times and tried to recollect what had happened. She knew someone had kidnapped her and she obviously wasn't home, but... where was she? She took in her surroundings and realised she was not in Ponyville anymore. The room was large in size, about 20 by 20 meters. It was dimly lit by a single lightbulb in the centre of the ceiling. In a corner was a knocked over toy box whose contents were scattered all over the floor in front of it. Beside the box was a colourful set of train tracks, also on the floor, with a toy train resting on its side next the tracks. The walls had a purple checkered pattern and had dartboards hanging on it. The floor was blue and had big, fanciful clouds printed on it.
The yellow foal noticed that she was bound to a wall with ropes. She soon discovered that it was not really a wall, but more a cold metal table. She squirmed under the ropes, but they held her firm to the table. Suddenly she became scared. What if she never saw her family again? Such thoughts brought tears to her eyes.
"Applejack..." She called out. But being as Applejack was sleeping miles away, there was no response. Discouraged, she burst into tears of vexation.
After what seemed like hours, Apple Bloom was not alone in this room. RD was no longer wearing her nighttime apparel; she looked just like she did any other day, really.
"Rainbow Dash! Boy am I glad t' see you!" she said as the Pegasus walked into the room.
"Don't be," she replied calmly.
Apple Bloom gave Rainbow Dash a quizzical look, as if to question her response. Dash, however, did not say anything to it, but instead spoke with her actions. The cyan mare dug through the tipped over toy box, throwing coloured plastic blocks this way and that until withdrawing a hammer. She held it in her mouth and strolled back over to the shaking filly.
"Wh-whatcha doin' there, Dash?"
But again, Dash said nothing. Instead she approached the trembling filly and hovered up so that their eyes met. Then she whipped her head forth. Suddenly, everything went black.
"Apple Bloom... You okay?" a voice echoed in her head. Her eyes fluttered open to see the orange Pegasus looking at her from above.
"Scootaloo!"
She tried to sit up but it hurt her too much, so she remained on what felt like a hospital bed.
"Ugh... What happened t' me?"
Scootaloo hesitated. "Rainbow Dash happened to you." She looked at the floor in sorrow.
"What?"
"Rainbow Dash... Rainbow Dash is insane. She lures in stupid foals like us and hurts them. Then she tries to, as she says, 'make them better.' Most of them, though, get killed, and the rest are sent off to the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation. What goes on beyond that, I don't know, but I'd like to keep it that way. Judging by what happens before getting there, the CWC probably isn't all that glamourous. All I know is that Rainbow Dash is not the same Rainbow dash I look up to. Now she's sick."
"Ahem," came a cough from the doorway of the room. "So that's what you think of me? After everything I've done for you, taking you under my wing, giving you a home, you go and tell her about my business? You make me out to be some monster? I won't tolerate such a betrayal, Scootaloo." Rainbow Dash was wearing her nighttime uniform. She pulled the knife from one of the belt loops and pinned the foal to a wall. "I was just about to do my nightly rounds so I decided to check on poor Apple Bloom here, and I see you selling me out, you sneaky little foal! I'm sorry, Scootaloo, but cannot risk you blabbing. I'm doing this because I care about you."
She pried her mouth open and tugged on Scootaloo's tongue with one hoof and held the knife to it with the other. The foal began to tear up as her own idol cut out her tongue. Within moments it was gone, completely detached from her oral cavity. Her mouth flooded with blood, some of which splattered onto Rainbow Dash's cyan coat. Rainbow Dash released her in midair, letting her fall to the floor with a thump. She coughed up more blood.
The Pegasus turned around and faced Apple Bloom and looked at her with disgust. She left the room for a few seconds and returned with a gun. "And as for you..." She stood up on her hind legs and aimed at the foal. "You know too much. Keeping you alive would put my life on the line. You're not worth keeping alive anyway."
Being a veteran murderer, she had perfect aim. The bullet went straight through Apple Bloom's head, blowing her brains out. At the gruesome sight of her mentor shooting her friend, Scootaloo began bawling.
"Shut up, Scootaloo!" the Pegasus snapped. "I have to go. Get rid of the body now. I'll be back with more work for you later. You're being punished."
Scootaloo nodded without making eye contact with RD and then looked at her friend's lifeless body. As soon as Rainbow Dash left the room, Scootaloo broke into a hysterical sob. After a few minutes, she had calmed down to a sniffle and picked up Apple Bloom's body. She held it in her arms like it was a delicate, newborn baby. Scootaloo was rarely asked to be rid of dead foals, but when she was, she usually just flew them to a nearby landfill and gave them a tearful farewell, but she would never dispose of such a close friend so cruelly. When Scootaloo was first sucked into this dark business, Dash gave her a locker for her weapons in hopes of the orange Pegasus one day joining her. However, the foal refused, so the locker remained empty. The building she was trapped in had a current of cool air constantly flowing through it, so the locker was even colder. Apple Bloom fit perfectly in the locker, so Scootaloo made it her grave.
Rest in peace, my friend...
Times were tough in Cloudsdale, especially for Rainbow Dash. She had sustained a brutal wing injury almost three years ago, and while she had recovered by now, her flying skills were never what they used to be, thus eliminating any chance she had of becoming a Wonderbolt. However, it also costed her a job at the Weather Factory. Dash could fly now, but not good enough to be a weather pony. She was terrified of being jobless forever. Too ashamed to show her face, she remained isolated in her house of clouds. That lasted until a year after the incident when she received a call from the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation and the following conversation happened:
"Hello?" Rainbow Dash said when she answered the phone.
"Hi, yes, is this Rainbow Dash?" the pony on the phone said.
"Yes, who is this...?"
"I am Bubbles Rainwater. I am the director of the Cloudsdale Weather Corp, and we have a job offering for you."
"R-really?" the mare asked excitedly.
"Yes. However, due to security precautions, we must give you the details in person. If you could attend a board meeting this Sunday at noon, we'll explain more. Would that be doable?" Bubbles said.
"Yes! I will totally be there!"
"Wonderful. There should be someone to escort you in at the facility's entrance."
"Okay! Thank you so much, ma'am!"
"You're welcome. We'll be seeing Sunday. Goodbye."
So on Sunday at noon, Rainbow Dash very slowly flew to the weather factory. A green Pegasus showed her to the conference room where she was greeted by Bubbles Rainwater. The Pegasus was lavender with a red mane. She had piercing yellow eyes and matching hooves. Bubbles wore a typical white CWC uniform with the goggles resting on her forehead.
"Rainbow Dash. I'm glad you made it. Come in, come in."
The two Pegasi entered the room and Dash took a seat at the end of a long table. The supervisor then approached her with some papers. He was a yellow pegasus with blue eyes and a green mane.
"Rainbow Dash. My name is Cloud Crash. I am the supervisor of the CWC. We would like to appoint you to manage our new division."
"It is called the Cloud Facility," Rainwater added. "It doesn't actually handle clouds, but instead, secondary items like tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning storms... things like that."
"Well, I'm a crappy flier. I can't be a weather pony."
"But," the supervisor began, "flying is not required. We just want you to be the control agent for this project, m. We think you'll enjoy it."
"Okay, I guess I'm in!" the cyan pegasus said.
However, when Rainbow Dash signed up for this, she did not know it required kidnapping and murder. At first she had protested, but Cloud Crash and Bubbles talked her into it and soon Rainbow Dash was a monster of a mare.
[i}"Okay, Dash," Rainwater said. The three Pegasi were standing outside of the new building on it's opening day. "The Cloud Facility awaits your activation order."
Four months after Apple Bloom died, Scootaloo miraculously still alive, and not working at the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation. But she was getting more and more involved in the business, and what's worse is that she couldn't decide if she liked it or not. At one point Rainbow Dash convinced her to kill Diamond Tiara. She was reluctant at first, but she finally gave in. It wasn't much, just some stabbing, but every scream haunted her, echoing in her mind, sounding in her dreams, following her everywhere she went.
"Scootaloo, come here."
The baby Pegasus opened the door of the chamber and entered Rainbow Dash's office.
"I hafta go to the Cloud Facility to monitor the activity levels. I think it's time you pay a visit to the facility yourself, so let's get moving," Dash said.
By now, Scootaloo knew what happened there. She knew that in the hooves of Rainbow Dash, an innocent foal would have its life taken away like that. But witnessing it firsthand... She didn't know if she was prepared for that. She spent everyday wondering if today was going to be her last, because frankly, there was no way of knowing when or where she'd strike next. Some days she'd be terrified, others she'd just wish that Dash would get it over with. Scootaloo could not disobey RD, though. So with great displeasure, the mute Pegasus took off behind her to the CWC. She was met with and intimidating lavender Pegasus with a blood red mane. Her yellow eyes pierced into Scootaloo's soul.
"Why hello there, young Pegasus!" She turned to RD. "Is this our future manager of this branch?"
"I dunno, Rainwater. She isn't all too enthusiastic about the process."
"What a shame. She looks like great material."
"I know. That's why I'm taking her on this tour hoping it will loosen her up. I think once she gets into it, she'll really like it." She glanced at the foal. "Just like I did."
"Well then come in. Rainbow Dash has sent us some great ponies lately. Hey, what's your name, kid?"
Scootaloo looked down at the cloud she stood on.
"Scootaloo," Rainbow Dash answered for her. "Her name's Scootaloo."
"Come on in Scootaloo." The two mares walked into the factory with a terrified Scootaloo not too far behind.
The floor of the facility was made of clouds, as one would expect. However, these clouds were black and creating loud booms and cracks of thunder. From the floor rose a corkscrew staircase of clouds, which Scootaloo thought was weird because only pegasus ponies could walk on clouds, and here they used all types of ponies. Scootaloo liked the feeling of the clouds on her hooves. After being stuck in the labyrinth she lived in for years, she loved it. She wanted to walk up the stairs, but since she could fly, she was forced to fly up to the second floor.
The feeling of the clouds caressing her hooves reminded her of her life from years ago, back when she, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle were the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She still hadn't gotten her Cutie Mark. She remembered when the three sang their theme song in the talent show. Oh, what a flop that was! Even though her voice was anything but euphonious, Scootaloo would have started to sing the song right then and there if she could have. Instead she just softly hummed the tune of the chorus.
The clouds also reminded her of her days with Rainbow Dash before she was a killer. Or was she the same murderous mare she was now the whole time? Scootaloo assumed she was because she had been flying with her over Cloudsdale when Rainbow Dash revealed her true colours.
"Hey, Scoots," Rainbow had said. "Come here, I wanna show you something."
She had dove down in a crooked manner into the mouth of a cave with Scootaloo following not far behind.
"R-Rainbow Dash? Where are we going?" Scootaloo had asked.
Dash had just given her a playful look and said, "Come on, Scootaloo!"
She had unfurled her wings at just the right moment to swoop into the cave, so Scootaloo had done the same. She had to swerve a lot to avoid stalagmites and stalactites. It was when they they had reached the playroom that she had realised that that this very well may have been her last glimpse of daylight.
To this day, Scootaloo wondered of her life would be any different now if she had not gone flying with Rainbow Dash. If she had been sick that day, would she be standing there on those wonderful clouds with Dash? If she had been out on another crazy adventure with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, would Apple Bloom still be dead right now? Probably, she realised. If Scootaloo hadn't been available that day, Rainbow Dash would have just waited for a another day. Hell, there probably were other days that that RD had planned on abducting Scootaloo but wasn't able to due to something going on in the orange Pegasus' life.
Scootaloo snapped back to reality when Bubbles spoke up.
"And here we have the tornado maker," she said to Scootaloo. The Pegasus automatically nodded in response as if she had been listening the whole time. And then she looked up.
The sight before her made her stomach do a flip. Resting upon a large cloud was a large cylindrical wall containing a furious tornado, spinning rapidly within the walls. However, it was not this that made her sick. It was the countless foals walking slow laps around the tube on an 'O' shaped platform, chains attached directly to their shoulder blades, piercing the wings of the Pegasi.
"You see, Scootaloo, since we could not afford a generator for the tornado, we instead used an alternate power source; the offspring of our own kind! They walk around on the track power the fan. You know, you'd think the mutilation of small ponies would make us feel some form of guilt, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn't even affect us. It's like we're numb to feelings like sympathy and regret. Strange, huh?" Bubbles said.
Scootaloo felt a chunk of ice drop in her stomach as she watch a Unicorn drop dead on the platform. The other fillies and colts just ignored the dead body, walking around it without care. Two adult Pegasi flew in to retrieve the carcass. Scootaloo wondered if this was her fate, to walk an eternity of laps around a tube in the Cloud Facility.
Out of nowhere, a loud crack was heard, and suddenly she was knocked backwards in a flurry of glass and feathers as a giant puff of grey smoke clouded her vision. She inhaled the horrible smelling stuff, filling her lungs with the smoke. In an effort to clear her lungs, she coughed a few times. After a few minutes, the smoke cleared and only a dusty haze was present. She looked up and realised that she wasn't in the Cloud Facility. She could not possibly have been in the Cloud Facility, for it was nowhere in sight. The clouds she stood on were painted and ugly mix of black and red as a result of the explosion, which was a result of a malfunction in the tornado machine. One thick cloud had a jagged ring of ash covered glass, the last trace of the facility.
"No!" came a cry behind her. It was Bubbles. "My facility! My beautiful facility!" The Pegasus emerged from the leftover haze in tears. The goggles that rested atop her forehead were cracked and her white uniform was now covered in grey smudges of soot, tears here and there. "All of my hard work... All of it! Gone!"
Soon, Rainbow Dash appeared and placed a reassuring hoof on Bubbles' shoulder. She was crouching down, looking at a burnt carcass. She looked behind her at Dash with a look of despair. "Calm down, Rainwater. We've only been stocking up on foals from Ponyville and Cloudsdale. I'll just get some from Baltimare or something."
"No, Dash. We'll need money make the repairs. And we'll probably need full-grown mares and stallions to make up for the energy loss."
Scootaloo pictured Big Macintosh and Applejack walking the slow, miserable trek around the tornado generator.
"You're gonna need to toughen her up. We'll be needing all the help we can get, whether she likes it or not." She paused. "Ponyville, huh? We've already wiped out the foal population, why not the whole population?"
Scootaloo's eyes widened.
"All of Ponyville?" Rainbow Dash said.
"Yes! Why not! The more the merrier, right? Ponyville will be a thing of the past."
As Scootaloo took all of this in, she felt her throat tighten. Everything she had ever known was in Ponyville. Her school, her friends, her wonderful memories. But the one thing she still had left, the one thing Rainbow Dash had not taken away yet, lived in Ponyville.
Author's Note
Part Two should be complete by next week, completely edited a few days after, and it will be published by October 3rd at the latest. Hope you enjoyed Part One!
Also, since this has been in the making for over six months, Part Two is finished, and I don't plan on making a part three. If anyone really wants a Part Three to be written, feel free to ask; I will most likely say yes! However, since I am currently in the process of writing a grimdark Rarity fic, it may take a while, but it will happen. Anyways, thanks for reading, check back for Part Two!
