Rainbooms and Royalty

Loss

Rainbow Dash’s wings flared back as she pawed the ground. “G-get back!” She snorted, transitioning from mourning Celestia to raging against the reason Celestia was gone. “I’m warning you!”

Nightmare Moon tossed her head back and laughed. “Such arrogance! Who are you to warn ME, foal?”

Growling Rainbow Dash hurled herself at the dark mare, her front hoof outreached and ready to smash her in the snout. Then in less than a second she stopped, her hoof less than an inch away from Nightmare Moon and faintly glowing with a purple aura. Rainbow struggled but could not get her hoof—or any other part of her—to budge.

Nightmare Moon looked down at her. “Attempting to lay a hoof on royalty is punishable by death….still,” she went on. “Your speed is most impressive. I will spare your life if you answer my question: where is Celestia? I can feel her presence, I know she was here. Where is she?”

Pain squeezed Rainbow’s heart but she kept her voice defiant. “She had someplace important to be…I think she was having her hooves done.”

Hot breath billowed in Dash’s face as Nightmare Moon snorted angrily. “Impudent…very well. If you shall not tell me, then I shall rip the answers from your mind!” Her eyes glowed white as she lowered her horn to a spot right between Rainbow’s eyes. The pegasus tried not to close her eyes but the feeling that she was about to be impaled on this monster’s horn was too strong.

There was a burning, searing sensation that came from inside Rainbow’s own head. She couldn’t help let out a shriek as a torrent of thoughts and images poured through her mind. The intensity and speed of these thoughts was painful enough but the sensation of having this dark…presence shifting through them with the semi-bored indifference of somepony looking through a photo album made it all tens time worse. After what’ve might been seconds or hours, Rainbow Dash felt herself forcibly recalling her last moments with Celestia. She railed, fighting against giving this monster anything she wanted, but it was no use.

Nightmare Moon clenched her teeth. “So…after denying me my birthright, my throne, and my freedom she even denies me my revenge!” Her eyes blared in a rage. With a howl born of pure anger, she unleashed her fury upon the now empty room, destroying the bed and furniture with her magic, reducing them to splinters.

Rainbow Dash groaned, her head aching as she still hung in the grips of Nightmare’s magic, temporarily forgotten but still unable to move. It wasn’t long before Nightmare Moon remembered her. “You…who are you? And why did Celestia speak only to you before she passed?” Her eyes narrowed, reviewing what had ripped from Rainbow’s memories. “Rainbow Dash…YOU are Celestia’s student?” She laughed loudly.

“What’s so funny?” Dash snarled.

She had never seen so much malice packed into a single smile as she did when Nightmare Moon smiled at her. “Even after a thousand years, I see Celestia’s sense of humor is unchanged. The most bull-headed, intractable, unimpressive, dullard in all of Equestria…of course she would choose you to be her protege! What a joke!”

“Shut up!” Rainbow barked. “That’s a load of horseapples!”

“Come now…how can I lie when I am going by your own memories?” Sharp teeth protruded as the mare of darkness grinned. “You know just how much of a failure you are…so why deny it?”

Rainbow clenched her teeth so hard that it hurt. “I’m going to buck you right in the dark side of your moon!” She promised.

With a toss of her head Nightmare Moon sent Rainbow Dash hurtling through the closed door with a smash. She sailed out into the main hall just in time to hear Ponyville’s Mayor announce “…the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria! Princess—my word?!” There was a shocked gasp as Rainbow went careening into the refreshment table, which broke upon impact. Her vision exploded into stars.