0-0-0-0-0
"Discord, 'god' or not, you are going to tell me exactly what you did."
The draconequus tapped his 'fingers' together with unpretentious uneasiness, but refused to look away from Princess Celestia as she glared at him. The speed at which she'd traveled to Twilight per her request merely on the principle that he was involved was a little disturbing. Discord sat in somewhat comfort on Twilight's library sofa, his tail draped lazily over one end as the princess, Twilight and her remaining friends all stared him down.
Truth be told, it was starting to make him feel a little awkard.
"Oh, come on," Discord rolled his eyes, forcing a grin. "So, one pony goes off the map for a while. I'm sure she's fine."
"Discord," Celestia said through clenched teeth, her wrath barely contained. "You sent one of my subjects to an unknown location."
"I don't really see how that's such a serious thing," he replied casually, and watched as a couple of books began crawling out of their crannies for his entertainment.
"Then your next stop is the optometrist, because you've obviously gone blind."
"You are going to tell us what you did with Dashie, and you're gonna tell us now!" Pinkie Pie shrieked suddenly, grabbing Discord by the throat. Her sudden outburst surprised them all, but Discord did his best to look bored as his head flopped around.
"I already did, Pinkie Pie," the draconequus said uninterestedly. "I just don't know where she went to."
Pinkie's grip around Discord's throat became significantly tighter.
"Where – is – my ¬– Dashie?!" she yelled in his face, accentuating each shout with a violent shake.
"Pinkie, this isn't the time for irrationality!" Twilight interrupted. Both Rarity and Applejack looked considerably worried, but Fluttershy looked like she was on the verge of being ill, and continuously paced back and forth behind all of them. She occasionally shot a sad, disappointed look at Discord, though she went relatively unnoticed.
"Twi," Pinkie said very seriously for once, abandoning all pretense. "Rainbow Dash could be in danger right now."
"I believe that Pinkie has a point," Celestia interjected. "Discord, I do hope you realize that if any harm whatsoever has been caused to my subject, you will be held personally responsible."
That managed to jar him a tad, but Discord simply scoffed in a relaxed manner.
"Oh, please," he waved Princess Celestia off, who looked almost ready to jam his paw into his nose. "I'm sure she's fine. And besides, even if she's dead, that means the Elements of Harmony won't work on me!"
The utter, horribly uncomfortable silence in the library was a decent indication that he'd said the wrong thing.
"Er, what I mean to say is," Discord cleared his throat inelegantly. "I-I was only speculating on how, even though Rainbow Dash (definitely not best pony, by the way) is most decidedly not dead, but if she were, you would all be hard pressed to subdue and slash or punish the God of Chaos."
"Right," Pinkie interjected furiously, her mane mysteriously having gone ruddy and flat within the span of a few seconds. "First of all, all ponies are best pony." She glared at him sternly, and took another step forward. "Secondly, you'd better hope nothing bad happened to Dashie, because she's my friend. And if anything – anything – bad happened to Dashie because of you, I'll make you think being turned to stone was a vacation."
"… Celestia, Pinkie's being mean to me," Discord whined, and went completely ignored.
"And lastly –" Pinkie jammed a hoof into his face. "Lastly… actually, Twi, you look like you can cover this one. Tag team!"
She slapped Twilight's hoof swiftly, leaving the blinking unicorn straining to keep up. Pinkie was an odd one.
"Right," Twilight said slowly, thinking. "Lastly. We might not have all of the Elements of Harmony here right now, but even if Rainbow Dash d-dies, somepony else will inherit the Element. And, on that note, if anything bad has happened to Rainbow," the unicorn said threateningly, still not managing to seem as dangerous as Pinkie Pie.
"Let me guess," Discord interrupted drolly, rolling his talon. "You won't be my friend anymore." His sarcastic tone made Fluttershy flinch.
"No, Discord. We'll be best friends," Twilight said without showing any emotion. He turned momentarily to Celestia, but she revealed nothing, either.
"… Well, that was a little cryptic," he chuckled nervously.
"… Discord, I memorized the obedience spell."
His jaw dropped a little, which he quickly closed.
Discord's head snapped around to the ruler of Equestria yet again, in mild disbelief.
"You wouldn't."
"She has shown remarkable progress in her studies, Discord," Celestia stated slowly. "I wouldn't find it the least bit surprising if she managed to temper even you with a single spell."
The draconequus sat very, very still for a time.
"How, exactly," he asked cautiously "did you manage to memorize a spell with the pages missing?"
"Oh, that," Twilight said with a hint of pride. "Yes, I had assumed that you'd deprived me of the necessary spell pages to the reformation spell. But there is more than one way to… assert one's influence over somepony's mind," Twilight's tone was foreboding, and Discord could have sworn that he saw a glimmer in her eyes.
Something black and violent, brimming with power and hate.
Something dark.
And, for the first time in a long, long time, Discord felt afraid.
"Well, there's no need for that!" he said quickly, billowing up into the air. "I'm sure we'll find our… 'friend'," Discord's last word came out with a bit of disdain. "Rainbow Dash will be found and returned, good as new! Post haste, even!" he promised, saluting Princess Celestia as he twirled upside down.
"Just what I wanted to hear," she nodded her head, and the other ponies looked slightly relieved.
"I… just don't know how to get her back," Discord admitted.
The collective groan in the room gave him cause to right himself, and he balanced his whole body effortlessly on the banister of the stairs.
"Oh, come on!" Discord threw out his arms in protest. "I'm the god of chaos, not the… omnipotence of… things!" he grumbled, crossing his paw and talon across his patchwork chest. "So unfair."
"Actually," Twilight said slowly, and Discord was pleased to know that he might not be spending all of eternity in a brain-lock after all. "I think I know how we can track down Rainbow Dash."
"You do?" Pinkie splurted ecstatically, grabbing the princess's protégé by the shoulders as her mane burst into its usual frizzy form.
"I said I think," Twilight carefully pried the overexcited mare from her, but it was clear that Pinkie was more than just thrilled. There was a profound look of worry intermingled with her expression, even more so than Fluttershy's.
Then again, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had been spending an awful lot of time together lately…
She internally shook herself. No time for gossip or silly rumors. She had a friend to save.
If she could.
"Right," Twilight began picking books from the shelf, sorely wishing she hadn't sent Spike out for the day. He was a great assistant in finding these sorts of things. "I said I think that we can track down Rainbow Dash, but it'll take some time."
"How long?" Rarity asked before Pinkie could, noting that she had begun pacing alongside the agitated Fluttershy.
"I'm… not quite certain," Twilight said in slight dismay. "But I can get started right away! I just need some of her personal belongings. Something that she was never without; or better yet, if somepony could get me a stool or blood sample."
"… Hang on, come 'gain?" Applejack stared at her friend as if she'd just gone mad.
"Well, according to even the most basic tracking spells," Twilight turned the hefty book around toward the cowpony, showing her numerous arcane charts and diagrams. "One first requires either personal items or bits of the subject in question. Since I hope nopony has any spare bits of Rainbow Dash lying around," she forced a weak chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.
Discord promptly coughed, though it sounded mysteriously like he'd said 'cupcakes'.
And at the same time, Pinkie stopped pacing to shudder.
"Maybe if we had – well, does she ever really wear hats?" Twilight thought aloud, pulling a few more books from the shelves. She was certain that she had a few texts on rudimentary quantum mechanics, but what use were those when delving into a case like this one? Rainbow Dash could be on the other side of the continent, for all she knew. At least Discord had the decency to inform her that it had been a simple transportation spell.
She cringed at the thought of poor Rainbow Dash being subjected to some form of polymorph curse, or worse.
"Saliva or even a little of her hoof clippings could do the trick," Celestia assisted quietly.
"Since when are you a detective?" Discord harrumphed.
"I'm a detective!" Pinkie bounced up suddenly, a large brown checkered deerstalker hat balanced atop her head.
"I've picked up a few things here and there," Celestia deadpanned as Pinkie began drawing a magnifying glass over Twilight's books, to the unicorn's mild annoyance.
Discord snorted.
"Hey, what about some of her mane?" Pinkie Pie asked suddenly, pointing out a small box of text on one of the larger, heavily bound books.
"Ooh, just maybe!" Twilight said enthusiastically, peering over to what Pinkie pointed out.
"Where are we going to get some of Rainbow Dash's mane, by any chance?" Rarity asked calculatingly. "I did her mane last week, but I clean all of my manebrushes very thoroughly; and on regular basis, I might add," she said sheepishly. The one time it would have been helpful to not be neat and tidy.
Applejack began to ask a question, but Pinkie interrupted.
"Ooh, I've got some hairs of Dashie's mane from our sleepover! I keep it with my collec–"
Pinkie Pie's mouth slammed shut, and her pink face suddenly flushed as every single set of eyes (including Discord's mismatched ones) immediately found her the most interesting thing in the room.
"Um, I mean," Pinkie said uncomfortably, rubbing her leg unconsciously. "Some-sometimes, Dashie leaves things, uh, around… And I, kind of… keep them?" she giggled self-consciously, desperately wishing everypony would look somewhere else.
So this must have been what Fluttershy felt like, it occurred to her vaguely.
Pinkie decidedly did not like being Fluttershy. No, Pinkie liked being Pinkie Pie.
To break the awkward silence, Twilight announced "O... kay, then. Right," she said with more determination. "I suppose we can try that."
"Just hurry… please?" Pinkie Pie whimpered pleadingly. Twilight didn't think she'd seen Pinkie so distressed all month.
"We will find Rainbow Dash," Celestia wrapped a long porcelain wing around Pinkie Pie consolingly. "I'm certain that she's going to be all right."
"She had better be," Fluttershy insisted, giving the draconequus a look that would have slain lesser creatures. "For Discord's sake."
Discord sort of wished that his gulp had been inaudible.
Celestia breathed through her nose, trying to keep anypony from panicking.
"I'm sure that Rainbow Dash is perfectly safe and happy… wherever she is."
0-0-0-0-0
Rainbow Dash screamed in pain, twitching violently with the rhythmic electrical spasms jittering through her.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" she panted and swore, and Dash fought to keep her tongue from lolling out of her mouth.
"Naughty slave!" Master scolded her, turning up the dial once again as another electric burst was triggered. It shocked her even more painfully than the last time, the sticky squares he'd attached to her body making her quiver and shudder seemingly at random.
Rainbow Dash had finally graduated from the 'chained to a wall' phase, so it seemed. For a few hours, anyway.
But she was always, always recorded.
And she was never allowed to leave the basement.
Dash was currently strapped firmly to a gurney that Master had brought down the stairs only a few days ago. At least, for the most part. Only her bottom legs were tied down, leaving her wings and forelegs free.
It wasn't like she was fighting back much at this point, anyway.
No, Dash had learned that lesson when she'd bitten the hand that fed her.
Quite literally.
The time she'd been forced to go hungry instead of being allowed to eat from her dingy dog bowl, upon the side of which had been scribbled SLUT had been painful enough. The blows to the face had been just more insult to injury. But Dashie was a good girl.
"What has slave been told about speaking out of turn?" Master asked quietly, turning the dial down momentarily on the unit. The electrical stimulation that was being forced into the roots of her wings and inner thighs thankfully dulled, and Dash's breathing was heavy.
"Slave was told not to speak out of turn, Master," Dash said eventually, her hooves shaking slightly as she gripped the padded gurney as best she could. Her bottom half shook even more, if not from the small solid glass bulb inserted neatly into her anus, then from the anticipation of what he was bound to do soon; she was already wet from the foreplay, if only he'd hurry.
Master did love foreplay so.
"That's right," Master tilted the padded table slightly, until her head began turning toward the floor as her legs went higher. "And I think the little slave needs to be punished again. What do you think, Dashie?"
It was a trick question.
There were always so many trick questions.
"I-Dashie was told to only think of how to better please Master," she said after a moment, the heat already beginning to build in her face. The throbbing in her wings began again, and she awaited the electrical stimulus eagerly. She couldn't quite tell, but she thought that it was beginning to rise…
"Oh, but Dashie," Master leaned over her, tapping his fingers along the arm of the gurney as he faced her, his face only a couple of inches from her own. He gradually leaned further and tugged at her collar with one finger. With his other hand, the knob of the electric unit was steadily increased, and she felt the sudden urge to gasp as her inner thighs began twitching viciously. "I want to know what you really think. Do you want to be punished for not answering correctly again?"
"D-Dashie wants to be punished some more!" she said too quickly.
"Slave wants something…?" Master cooed slowly.
"Slave needs to be punished!" Rainbow Dash reiterated.
"And what has slave been trained to say before she's punished?" he clicked the dial up and down one at a time, back and forth, tantalizingly stimulating her wing roots with the device and her clit with one finger. Sweat began beading along her back again, tickling her.
"F-f-Please f-fuck this dirty cum slut, Master! Slave deserves to be punished!"
"There's a good girl."
He thrust two fingers roughly inside of her just as the electrical output was increased to its maximum, jolting through her with such intensity that her veins felt like they were being pinched. Dash lurched as she was finally brought to a sweet apex of pleasure at last, unable to keep the shaky, satisfied moan of desire from escaping her lips. She clamped down so hard on the plug the moment she came that Dash almost regretted asking him to put it back in.
Dash quivered while the rampant electric bursts still stung her, and her sigh of gratification as she began approaching her fifth climax of the day did not go unnoticed by Master.
"Did you enjoy getting punished, slave?"
"Yes, Master," Rainbow Dash replied automatically, breathing heavily.
"And this concludes training video number one hundred and seventy-six," Master caressed her face lovingly, making her blush while he turned the gurney and tilted it into a flat position. He unlatched the buckles around her ankles, and pulled on her collar.
Rainbow Dash followed his guiding hand obediently, until she was pulled over to the wall.
"Now," Master said as he released her, and ran a hand through her bedraggled mane. "I think that honest answers deserve honest rewards. Wouldn't you say so, Dashie?"
When she didn't respond, he slapped her flank hard, eliciting another moan from her. She couldn't believe she was getting this close again so soon. Rainbow Dash would give Master that much credit; she very, very rarely went unsatisfied.
And sometimes, when she did, he made the wait worth it.
"Y-yes, Master," Dash whimpered flirtingly, giving her rear a little shake when he smacked it. "Dashie likes getting treats."
"Is Dashie a good little cum bucket?"
"Dashie is a good little cum bucket."
"Just what I wanted to hear!" Master stroked her clit teasingly, prompting another low, needing moan as she bit her lip. "Now, assume the position, and I'll give you your… treat."
Rainbow Dash found her legs quibbling against her will, and she raised her flank expectantly while peering between her legs. Master was… unzipping something…
But from her position, she couldn't quite tell what until he began inserting the small multicolored candies into her, one by one.
"There we go," Master said mostly to himself. "There we go. How about… another?" he ever so gently pushed one of the Skittles against her rim, rubbing it up and down along the opening. She drew in a sharp breath from the sensation, blood beginning to flood back into her head as she wriggled in expectation.
"Yes, Master," Dash gave an upside down, lopsided grin. "Dashie has been a good slave. I'm ready for my treat now."
"I'll say when you're ready," he badgered her, but used the tip of his finger to push the candy just inside nonetheless. She hissed through her teeth as each one was gently nudged inside, every one eventually bumping against its brother as they made room for one another. With each candy came a small thrust of Master's finger, rubbing nonchalantly against her clit as he did so.
Dash bit back an urge to shout, to sharply flex her throbbing wings and reach climax again. However, he retained his slow, steady pace, each small bump bringing her closer and closer. He just wouldn't hurry…!
"M-Master," Dash huffed cravingly, her hips bobbing slowly up and down on his finger. "P-please make your little slave cum again…!"
"And so polite," he beamed, stuffing the last of the Skittles inside her. "Since you've been such a good little slave, I think I might pack these in a little tighter for you." Master steadily began unzipping his jeans, the fabric falling against her as they were removed.
And now she was being used as a clothing rack.
Definitely a step up from being chained to the wall.
"Yes, Master…" Dash murmured. "Dashie's been a good slave."
"And what does Dashie want as a reward?" Master asked as he rubbed his nodding tip against her slit, sliding back and forth across her.
"Please fuck me, Master."
"Maybe if you say 'please jam your fat, sweaty dick into my wet little pussy until I cum rainbows'."
"Y-yes, Master," Dash obediently answered. "Please jam your fat, sweaty dick into my wet l-little pussy until I cum rainbows."
"There's a good girl."
Master wasn't very big; certainly not as large as she heard some stallions bragging of before. But what he lacked in size, he assured that he made up for in effort and attention. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why he insisted on long foreplay, always telling her that it was because he loved and valued her so much. It seemed to slip, sometimes; between the loving, tender embraces and the tight manhandling, the inescapable bondage.
The mere thought of him bundling her up in rope again made her squeeze onto his length in excitement, and a couple of Skittles fell from her with vulgar clatters as he thrust inside.
"Y-yes – yes, yes!" Dash breathed loudly, feverishly humping backwards to increase the momentum. The rough skin of the candy against her flesh as they were either dropped from her or forced deeper inside made her so excited that she could almost taste the next climax. Master had made her do that, too, coincidentally.
"Ah, you like that, slut?" Master leaned against her, sticking himself in as far as his length could extend. His tip jammed a large number of the candies hard, and Dash cried out as she was brought to climax yet again. The quivering smile began inching onto her face as she squirted, and she flapped her wings a couple of times to give her a little height while she still felt weightless.
Dash froze in outstretched position, grinning in satisfaction as her ejaculation trickled quietly out of her.
She gasped in surprise when Master viciously jerked her back down.
"Back onto that dick!" he demanded. "Master didn't say he was finished, did I?"
"Aaah!" she yelped, jerking as he wrapped his arms loosely around her torso, forcing her up and down atop his length. "N-no, Master!"
"Ooh," Master hummed aloud after a while as she was pulled down extra hard. "Oh, yeah. I think I'm getting close, too. Now, Dashie," he said as his voice regained its pleasant tone. "Would you like some extra protein today?"
It didn't matter what her response was. She knew what would happen if she said yes, and she wouldn't eat at all that day if she said no.
"Y-yes, please, Master," Dash replied unsteadily as she fell up and down, his manhood dipping into her again and again. At this rate, she was going to make it seven today. "Please give Dashie some of Master's protein SEVEN!"
She yelled as the plug was gradually pulled from her, her anus tightly clamping around it as she strained to keep it in, and she came in multiple spasmodic squirts. He spread her cheeks wider to get a good look, and the embarrassment from being watched in such a way made her more excited.
"Yeah, Master has trained you so well," he said conceitedly. He tipped her away from him, and Dash tumbled to the floor as her knees buckled beneath her. She was simply shaking too much to stand properly any more. She hated feeling weak like this, hated feeling helpless…
But if she was ever made to feel helpless, ever made to feel weak and powerless, Master would treat her like a princess. At least, so long as she obeyed. He made her feel so good sometimes, and he always told her how much he loved her.
It didn't make her previous 'lessons' any less ignorable…
"There's a good little girl," Master said with a grin, rubbing his wet erection rapidly with one hand, a couple of candies still stuck to the sides. The sight almost made Rainbow Dash giggle, and he presented it before her to taste.
"Now, open wide, and take it all in."
She complied, opening her jaw as wide as she could in order to obey. It was something she got plenty of practice at, at least. She suckled on the entire length, wrapping her lips around it and grabbing the root. She flicked his hard tip a couple of times with her tongue, a mixture of salty and sweet tinging her mouth. Dash momentarily felt nasty for tasting herself, too, as she usually did.
Master placed his palms over her ears, holding her head so that she was forced to look at him.
"There's a good girl," he whistled, gripping her head more firmly. Master jerked her head forward and back, constraining her from breathing while forcing her to choke on his erection. He grunted as he came, spurting a long, drizzly line of sperm into her with enough force for it to travel partway down her throat.
Dash coughed and gagged as he slowly drew himself outward, and patted her adoringly on the head as he panted a little himself.
"There's a good little slave," Master tickled her behind her left ear, and she breathed heavily in response. "No more treats for now. You'll spoil your dinner."
0-0-0-0-0
Rainbow Dash wished she had some way of telling time.
She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, trying to sleep. It had been so long since Master had last allowed her to sleep, after all. Her eye stung a little, and it probably wouldn't be too long before Master got bored and began visiting in the night again. The unexpected jarring light waking her up wouldn't be fun, and she needed rest while she could.
She lay silently against the wall, her familiar chain attached tightly to her collar. Dash had struggled to no end trying to get it off, but when Master found out, he punished her severely. Even worse the next time she tried it.
No, Dashie was a good girl.
She told herself so quietly, every night. Or at least, she assumed it was night. It had been so long since she'd seen the sun.
How long had it been, really? Just how long had she been here? Weeks? Months?
Years?
Rainbow Dash didn't even know any more. She knew that the small plastic food bowl a couple of feet away would only be filled if she obeyed. She knew that the sores still ached, all throughout the night. Every night.
Sometimes, if she listened very closely, she could pretend like she still heard the familiar sound of rain falling.
For a time, Dash had truly hoped that her friends would show up, just in the nick of time; she just had to hang in there, just had to wait a little longer, just had to keep confiding in her friends to rescue her. However, as time passed and nopony arrived to save her, the miniscule seed of doubt blossomed into a plant of despair, taking root deep inside her mind.
They hadn't just forsaken her.
They'd gotten sick of her, just… thrown her away.
Just like Master told her they dead, every day.
But at least Master loved her. Even if he only ever wanted to ensure dominance, if it was always about a display of power and control. At least Master loved good little Dashie, and she told herself so aloud as she rocked herself back and forth, trying to fall asleep to prepare for the next day when Master would make her feel good again, when Master would give her all the attention and care that nopony else ever would again.
Master loved her.
"Dashie?"
0-0-0-0-0
"Whee-hoo-hoo-hoo!" Discord cheered, spiraling into the air as Twilight Sparkle's tracking spell was proven a success. "And once again, rampant chaos solves all of my problems with absolutely no consequences!"
Twilight was too focused on maintaining a stream of magic into the small levitating violet portal that she had conjured forth, a smoky image flickering beyond it. The other Bearers of Harmony, gathered silently in the library's basement, stared in awe at her show of magical strength.
"So… did it work?" Applejack pried, peering her head around to see through the floating dark lavender mirror.
"Gee, AJ," Twilight grumbled sarcastically as she struggled to keep the portal open. "Why else would I be keeping this interdimensional doorway open?"
"Ooh, ooh!" Discord waved his talon in a silly fashion, and it inexplicably turned into a rubber chicken when he did so. "To get to the other side!"
Pinkie Pie actually nodded approvingly in his direction.
"Classic joke set up. Nicely done, Discord," she radiated, clapping her hooves together elatedly.
"Rainbow Dash first, jokes later?" Twilight said through clenched teeth. "This is sort of giving me a serious migraine."
"See?" Discord derided the ponies. "I told you Rainbow Dash was just fine. So," he pulled a line of bendy straws from behind his back with a loud quack! "Who wants to draw straws for which four of you are going to find the obnoxious little–"
"Discord!"
"Nopony can go through except one at a time!" Twilight scolded. "And we don't have precious time to waste; every moment could be…!"
"Completely not worth getting torn up over," Discord chortled, throwing an arm conspiratorially over Twilight, but he backed away when the portal temporarily wavered.
"I'll go."
All except Twilight turned to face the somber Pinkie Pie, who took a deep breath and took a stoic stance.
"… Don't all offer to go at once," Pinkie snorted, only for her friends to hug her worriedly with consolations.
"Do be careful, you," Discord poked her on the nose. "Don't tell Rainbow Dash, but you're my favorite."
After all was said and done, and Twilight crankily complained about her growing headache, Pinkie Pie bravely braced herself and leapt through the portal with a single, mighty bound.
0-0-0-0-0
It was dark, at first.
Pinkie felt a bizarre sensation of falling, like she was losing grip of the ground. Not a moment too soon, Pinkie landed securely with a couple of hollow clop clops atop a linoleum tiled floor, the violet glow of the levitating portal casting an eerie light over the place. A glance behind her showed her the same shadow, almost blank shifting feature that the portal showed before.
She blinked a couple of times, letting her already large eyes adjust to the dim light and wishing she'd brought her custom made night vision goggles. Those could be really helpful.
She appeared to be in a small kitchen, but everything was at the wrong height. There was an old stove and a shiny white icebox, along with a polished wooden table glinting in the dark. A fairly large knife was sticking oddly out of a vanilla frosted cake, several pieces either cut or simply torn out. Perhaps Dashie was having a sleepover at somepony else's house in this world?
Pinkie Pie took in the sights of what Twilight assured her was indeed another world entirely. It had taken them all day just to track down Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie was determined to make up for lost time by returning Dash's brush that she totally hadn't stolen.
Pinkie's soft clopping over the kitchen linoleum tiling made little noise, and she slipped past a small, square wooden table and peered into the adjacent room. Her check provided nothing but the solitary and worn cerulean sofa, placed directly in front of an entertainment center.
Pinkie shook her head, pulling away and probing down the hall. Rainbow Dash had to be here somewhere. The linoleum quickly gave way to thin and paled red carpeting, and she spotted a coat rack beside what she supposed was the front door. A quick check of the only jacket on the rack gave her nothing to go on but an identity card for a hospital. The stallion in the photograph had an oddly shaped face, and barely any fur or mane at all, aside from a scraggly bit on his chin. The name beside it read 'Neil Klaskovsky', and a serial number.
Weird.
The heavy drizzle outside further muffled her noise, which she was grateful for. Super Secret Operative Pinkie Pie was best at stealth missions when she had all the cards in her hoof, after all.
With that in mind, she grinned as her super spy theme music rattled off in her head, making her adventure all the more memorable.
She slinked down the hallway, spotting a rather bland looking wooden door smack dab in the middle. It was fairly uninteresting, and Pinkie wouldn't have paid much attention to it were it not being held in place by no more than four deadbolt locks.
That was not a reassuring sign.
Pinkie Pie's head swiveled back and forth, and she checked carefully to make sure Rainbow Dash wasn't really in there. There was a good chance she was in a different room.
However, the only other rooms in the house were a small, unlit bathroom, which smells strongly of… unpleasant things, and a single bedroom. The door at the end of the hall was slightly ajar, and Pinkie stuck her head in just enough to see some kind of sleeping bipedal snoring loudly on top of dirty sheets, one leg draped onto the floor.
She shook her head, backpedalling slowly as she tiptoed back to the locked door. If mister 'Klaskovsky' had been mean to Rainbow Dash, then it didn't matter to Pinkie just how many slices of cake he gave her; she was going to give him a very stern talking to.
Pinkie struggled with the locks for a bit, grateful that they were deadbolt instead of requiring safety numbers or keys. They opened without too much of a fuss, though, and when the door finally swung open Pinkie discovered that it was surprisingly well oiled.
Obviously, somepony used this door a lot.
Closer inspection proved to save her life, as Pinkie almost tripped down the stairs in the dark.
Okay, basement. Basement was where Dashie was at. Rainbow Dash was locked in a basement.
Pinkie let that thought ricochet around in her head for a couple of seconds, because it sounded extremely odd. A small rush of cool air wafted up to her. Her imminent sense of worry that she'd been struggling against for the entire day began rearing its ugly head, and Pinkie fumbled about for a light switch.
She found one with a little effort, and she was relieved when the light flooded the whitewashed walls of the basement.
She was significantly less relieved by what she saw as she descended.
"… Dashie?"
Pinkie's voice came out in barely a whisper, and she found herself almost unable to move.
No.
No, no, no, no, no.
Rainbow Dash lay weakly against the far wall, crumpled and shivering. The short chain kept her tight against the cold wall, and her slightly labored, shallow breathing told Pinkie all she guessed about her physical condition.
She drew toward her friend like a ghost, drifting silently over the floor.
The disheveled, filthy and matted mane, stuck close to her head. The plastic pet bowl a few feet away, just out of reach of her as if to taunt her with the word SLUT scrawled on the side. Her one slightly lopsided wing, which looked like it were sprained.
And of course, the bruises.
Rainbow Dash had numerous bruises and cuts along her body, most noticeably her blackened eye and swollen bottom lip. She held her legs close to her body for warmth, and she shook from the cold in what could only be described as a fever dream rather than actual sleep.
In short, it was utterly heartbreaking.
"Oh, Dashie," Pinkie sobbed, dropping to her knees and holding her friend close.
"Wait, wait," she slurred suddenly, blearily cracking open one eye. "Jush lemme stand up right first, Mashter."
"Dashie?" Pinkie Pie whispered, looking in confusion at the battered pegasus.
"Yes," Dash answered immediately. "I'm a good Dashie. Am I a good Dashie?"
Pinkie simply stared at her friend for a moment, and Rainbow Dash couldn't quite seem to look directly at her properly.
"Am I a good Dashie?"
"… Yeah," Pinkie whimpered, her voice involuntarily breaking as she tried not to cry. "Yeah. You're a good Dashie."
"Thank you, Mashter," Rainbow Dash mumbled almost incoherently. "I'm a good Dashie."
"Yeah," Pinkie Pie choked, struggling with her bonds. "Yeah, y-you're a g-good Dashie."
Pinkie wiped the steadily flowing tears from her eyes, silently throwing her friend's foreleg over her back and helping her limp up the stairs, one at a time. The entire way, Pinkie was forced to hush her from saying "I'm a good Dashie. I'm a good little shlut."
"I know. I know," Pinkie whispered, hugging her lightly for fear of hurting her. She'd grown so thin, so fragile. How was it even possible…? She wasn't even herself anymore; she was a skeleton, a mockery of what she used to be. A beaten, worn down travesty.
And in all of her life, Pinkie had never seen any mare look more… broken.
And it hurt her, so much.
More than that, it hurt Pinkie in a way she didn't even know somepony could be hurt. Seeing her friend gibbering like this, so shaken and abused.
It made something stir inside Pinkie Pie.
It woke something up.
Something black and violent, brimming with power and hate.
Something pink.
She led Rainbow Dash to the still shimmering portal without incident, guiding the dazed Rainbow Dash in slow shuffles toward it.
She simply stood and stared at if for a moment, as if she didn't know what to do next.
"G-go on, Dashie," Pinkie struggled to keep her voice straight and low as a dark, malevolent idea began to form in her head. "We can only go through one at a time. Our friends are on the other side. We – we were looking for you all day," she bawled almost silently, biting down on her hoof to keep quiet.
After a few moments, Rainbow Dash simply nodded dimly a couple of times, and Pinkie helped push her through.
For a few long, quiet seconds afterwards, Pinkie was left standing in the kitchen completely alone, her tears falling like the rain to the linoleum below.
And as the burning, dark hate began boiling in her chest, Pinkie pulled the knife from the cake on the table.
She gazed back at the wavering portal for a mere moment; but even if it were to vanish, leaving her trapped her forever, at least that meant that mister 'Klaskovsky' couldn't get out, either.
Pinkie's mind felt both dulled and a little sharper at the same time; it was almost as if she were simply watching it all occur to somepony else. She dragged herself down the hallway with all the noiselessness and grace of a phantom, trudging further and further in silence as she drew closer to the source of snoring.
Pinkie stood over him, for a while.
She watched him sleep so comfortably, so easily, knowing the things that he had done to her Dashie.
Her ally.
Her friend.
Her idol.
Her Dashie.
Pinkie watched as her hooves positioned the sharpened knife directly over his face, clamped tightly in both hooves. She wasn't even shaking any more.
Of course she wasn't shaking anymore; this wasn't really happening to her. It couldn't have been. That would be silly. And Pinkie Pie was a silly, silly pony.
"… Mister Klaskovsky."
The man's eyes jerked wide open, just as Pinkie expected them to. Before he had time to so much as register what was going on, Pinkie answered for him.
"Taste the rainbow, motherfucker."
0-0-0-0-0
"Rainbow Dash!"
And that was the collective cry of relief when she first exited the portal that Twilight held open, stumbling through feebly.
When Twilight saw what she looked like, however, she almost dropped the portal completely.
The silence in the room was absolutely deafening.
There wasn't a single mouth not hanging open, all of them staring at her in shock, intermingled pity, and horror.
Discord, however, seemed to have been stricken worst of all.
It didn't take long for Pinkie to reemerge from the portal, her normally puffy hair slicked down to her sides. A wicked, hateful and deadened look seemed to have been stapled onto her face where her smile used to be, and she was dripping something red from much of herself as the portal quietly closed shut behind them.
"… Does thish mean you guysh want me back now?" Rainbow Dash breathed pitifully, her trembling voice so dry and weak that even the God of Chaos himself actually broke down and cried along with the others.
0-0-0-0-0
Heaven help me, there's a sequel.
Author's Note:
This story hurt to write.
I have never, ever written anything quite so horrible, vile, demented, sick, vicious, and depraved.
God, I hope the sequel has a happy ending.
P.S.
(They threw me out of Hell.)