Love Bites

interlude: rainbow dash

a/n: double chapter release yayyy!!! technically this isn't an actual chapter but i wanted to flesh out some of our other main characters ☺️ so here's one all about rainbow dash. hope you enjoy!!!

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When Rainbow Dash thinks of peace, she thinks of her mother.

She sees a smiling face on the bleachers at her races, a gentle hand ruffling her hair. Rainbow didn't realize there could be so much power in a smile, in a kind word, a snack prepared for her on the dining table after school.

Rainbow still thinks of her sometimes, when she lies awake at night and sleep refuses to take her. Nights like tonight, laying in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar house. She tries to only remember the good parts though, pushing away everything else. All the blood and the horror and the look on her father's face when–

Well. So much for not thinking about the bad stuff.

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The day that everything changed started normally.

Rainbow got up for her usual morning run, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and headed off to school. It was mid April of her senior year of high school, and this day in particular was the first warm day they'd had in months. Winters in Detroit seemed to last lifetimes.

She'd been cruising through her last high school semester ever since she'd been accepted to the University of Michigan a month earlier, all expenses paid on behalf of a full ride track and field scholarship. Rainbow was already repping their merch, throwing on a Umich hoodie every Friday since the acceptance email showed up in her inbox.

Rainbow came home later than usual that day. She can't seem to remember why anymore, the reason feeling trivial and small compared to everything else.

The house was empty– or at least she thought it was, which was peculiar because while her dad usually came home on the later side of the evening, her mom never failed to greet Rainbow when she came home.

"Mom!" She'd called out, tossing her backpack onto the couch and poking her head into different rooms.

There was no response– not until a ruckus of items falling from upstairs caught Rainbow Dash's attention. Still shrouded in confusion, she thoughtlessly made her way upstairs, only to find the hallway a complete mess. Picture frames had fallen to the floor and clay vases were knocked over and shattered.

"Mom?" she tried again, slowly opening the bathroom door where the sound was coming from.

Rainbow won't ever forget what she saw.

Her mother, curled up against the edge of the bathtub, shaking, drooling, her eyes so dark that they were almost unrecognizable. Her mouth was the most frightening of all, her front teeth curved into long fangs that looked sharper than a knife's edge.

Rainbow took a step back, jumping when she heard the front door open again. The sound seemed to awaken something in her mother, because the next thing she knew, the older woman was lunging for her, tackling her to the ground.

Rainbow squirmed in her grip, tears falling from her face. "Mom, stop!" she cried out, pushing at the woman's shoulder to stop her from getting at her neck. "Please!"

Her mother is thrown backwards a moment later and Rainbow sees her father standing behind her, a wooden club in his hands. He's shaking, she can tell, but he keeps his expression hard.

"Rainbow, get behind me," he says. "Turn away."

Rainbow hurries backwards, still breathing hard, but she doesn't look away. She sees it all play out, her father slamming the club against the wall, breaking it in half. He takes one end of it, the splintered end, and drives it right through his wife's chest, holding her limp form as she slowly disappears into dust.