She forgot how thick the darkness was going to be. She thought about pressing ahead, but there was no point. Kicking herself, she doubled back to her office. She flung open the door, fished a flashlight out from under her desk, and caught the door before it could swing closed again.
She dove back down the hall. Did she have minutes, or seconds? She almost got to the lab before she even turned on the flashlight, which she held in her mouth so she could have her hooves free. She knew the corridors of this place too well, but she wasn't so very familiar with the inside of the lab.
She kicked open the door in her rush to get in, but she had to pause to orient herself. The strange shapes of the scientific equipment was somehow even creepier than normal when lit only by her flashlight. Some things were missing and others had been pushed out of place.
She darted across the lab to the filing cabinet. There was a wire running across the floor to the side of the cabinet that ended in – gulp – a bundle of explosives. There was no timer, it could just go of any moment.
She yanked open the drawer, and braced herself for the sight of endless folders. To her surprise, there was only one. All of the science of the machine was supposed to be destroyed, to burn along with the rest of the place, that's what the news said. But someone had other plans. All of the information was missing, except this small piece. Sure enough, it was the binder of reports that Hyde was so embarrassed about.
She backed away from the bomb and quickly stuffed the papers into her jacket.
Well, that wasn't so hard. I mean what are the odds a bomb just happens to go off when you're looking at it?
The detonator beeped. She jumped into the air, launching toward the exit.
BOOM
The empty filing cabinet was torn apart by the fiery burst. The shock wave stung and shattered glass throughout the enclosed space, but Dash escaped the worst of it. It was mostly an incendiary bomb, and not nearly as powerful as the ones set to destroy the foundation. However, at the same time, a flurry of deep thuds came from somewhere below. A continuous crashing sound followed, like a train wreck, and it seemed to come from all around.
It only took Dash a second to get back to the door out of the lab, but she could feel a downward motion as she pushed it out of the way. Freefall.
As she raced down the corridor, a crack in the ceiling let in a glimmer of light. She dropped the flashlight to take deeper breaths as she picked up speed. She was pelted with rocks of concrete as she dove under the fissure.
The hallway tilted to one side as the structure dropped, and the whole factory started to break apart. There was only one place that was safe—the part of the factory where the ceiling had already been shattered by the rainbow.
She ducked away from the scalding plume of a ruptured steam pipe. Turning the corner, she could see freedom at the end of the hallway. The ceiling started to collapse over her as she made a break for it. Huge pieces of debris came crashing down in front of her to block her path.
She gave a strong beat of her wings and then closed them tightly to her body, diving for the gap underneath the industrial avalanche. Billowing dust from the shattered cloudcrete obscured her vision. The broken edge of the ceiling scraped a few feathers from the end of her wing and hairs from her tail as she escaped into open space by the narrowest of margins.
She was back over the factory floor. There was no sign of Yeshua or the fillies. The ruined machine sprawled below. Its destruction would be complete in a few seconds. Good riddance. Multicolored light streamed through the rift above. She followed the light towards safety.
As the factory imploded, the two halves of the building fell in toward the center. The gap in the ceiling where she planned to escape was shrinking rapidly. She pulled up, swooping out from under the remains of the upper levels. For a moment it seemed she would be crushed by the looming structure… but only a moment. Once she hit the open air, there was no stopping her.
So awesome!
As the whole structure fell beneath Cloudsdale, Dash shot straight up into the sky like a bullet. She didn't look back. She powered up, up into the cloudless blue. She blinked through the wind and tried to adjust to the light.
And what a light. There it was. It was so bright, but she didn't look away. The huge rainbow shone with a natural resplendence she had never seen in all her years at the factory.
It was a gift. It was for everyone, but… even for her, despite everything. Maybe especially for her.
She let it in. Her whole body tingled as if full of light.
I'm alive again. She couldn't help but fly closer and closer to it. Sure enough, it was not just a vision, it was real.
She skimmed across the surface of the river of color, soaring even faster in its current. I'm free.
She swooped up and down, in and out of the gleaming beam. She laughed and laughed. All the fear and shame that had weighed on her for so long just vanished.
She didn't know how long she was entranced, gliding along the rainbow and playing in its light. Finally, she glanced down on the world. It was greener once again, as if spring came overnight after years of winter. The top surface of the clouds reflected back the multicolored glow, but the city itself held on to a tinge of gray, as if unsure.
She wanted to tell everyone at once that there was nothing to be afraid of, that everything would be better. She rolled into a dive, heading back to her home town.
She noticed that the blue of her fur was restored, with more luster than ever. Energized, she surged ahead, not willing to wait for gravity to carry her down. She zoomed across the sky at maximum speed, just for the joy of it.
As she crossed the sound barrier, there was a flash of light. Waves of color exploded around her in a perfect circle, a perfect match to the larger rainbow above. She had released her signature sonic rainboom without even trying.
She swooped low over the white rooftops and surprised pegasi in the streets, still at high velocity. She pulled up, bleeding off her speed in a wide loop before settling into a relaxed glide. She watched with satisfaction as her ripples of color spread away toward the horizon.
A smaller pink flash lit up a nearby cloud. It was Twilight Sparkle. She had seen Dash's technicolor display—well, everyone had—and teleported up closer to her estranged friend. Dash happily flew straight to her and touched down lightly onto the puffy surface.
Dash was already landed and taken a couple steps before she realized she was still nervous meet Twilight. She stopped in her tracks. "I… you know what I did…"
The gifted unicorn was beaming under the light of the colorful sky, as if one with the light, but wore a look of deep concern. She nodded sadly. "I don't understand how this happened to you, but..." She drew close and reassured Dash with a bittersweet smile. "I'm here for you." She surprised Dash with a hug.
A tear came to Dash's eye as she was overwhelmed with relief. Why was I so scared of this? She returned the hug and sniffled. "Twilight, I have to tell you something, about the Rainbow…" she started to explain, but went silent again. She wanted Twilight to know everything that she had seen and heard, but it was still hard to talk about, and even harder to know where to start.
"I know, Dash." With a sense of wonder, Twilight revealed, "I know about Harmony and the Rainbow. I know what he did. I did some research, and… I figured it out."
"Of course you did." Dash smiled. She was always surprised by her friend's intelligence, and she used to tease her for it. Regrets quickly bubbled back up. "I'm sorry I hid from you all this time."
Twilight agreed, sadly and sweetly, "I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you."
Dash realized that she was still wearing the jacket from her uniform as manager of the twisted Rainbow Factory. She unbuttoned and pulled out the clunky binder that had stayed pressed to her chest by the tight fitting jacket. She handed it to her friend and said, "I think you'll know what to do with this."
Dash shrugged the bleak gray uniform off and tossed it over the edge of the cloud. That's not who I am anymore.
There was just one more thing she had to do.