Double Rainbow

Torch-3

I see the door open and begin breathing hard. They spared me... they spared me... I take a last glimpse at Dark Rainbow. She looks at me. In that second, our eyes lock. My heart starts pounding hard until she turns away.

Storm turns a lever and the door opens, and Cherry and I run for our lives. Sprinting down the hallways, we make the turns Dark Rainbow told us to. The hallways are mainly empty, but I see one Obsidian around a corner and begin to panic.

Panting, and flapping her wings desperately, Cherry and I round the last corner and sprint for the door that holds the power. I can feel it's power radiating from here... I'm so close to freedom after a whole year. Cherry screeches, "TORCH, THEY'RE COMING!"

I look at the door to the portal. "Please scan a pawprint." says a metallic voice. You have to be kidding me.

The Obsidians close in around us, in a circle, and I whisper to Cherry, "Stay back."

"No, Torch! I'm sick of hiding. I gotta help too, for once."

We stand back to back, her kicking off Obsidians with her powerful hooves and me setting them on fire. They don't look hurt at all, but we're holding them back.

"HEY, PONY, THE GLUE IS MADE OUTTA HORSE HOOVES!" screams one.

Cherry Blossom looks very, very scared now. "IHAVEHORSEPRODUCTSINMYHAIROHMYGOSHIDESERVETODIEEEEE" she wails, letting her guard down slightly as she attempts to brush the stuff out of her hair. An Obsidian takes the opportunity to attack her leg. I hear a crack and she screams and she falls, curling up in a ball.

I cover for her, but we're trapped in a corner and the door is closed. Then, a crazy idea comes to my mind.

One Obsidian lunges at me, but I dodge and he slams into a wall. Another hits me, nicking my ear, but I grit my teeth and try to ignore the pain. Blood is making the floor around Cherry and I slippery, but she's getting up on her feet.

Another Obsidian comes at me with cat claws extended, and I step aside and his paw slams into the identifier, and the door opens.

A beautiful vortex glimmers inside, stars against purple and black that tear at the fabrics of space and time. I've heard about portals to other dimensions before, but I've never seen one. It never even occurred to me that all this time, I have been in another dimension. I'm going home, but... will anyone even remember me? I snap out of it, and begin to haul Cherry into the room. The Obsidians are advancing too, one pulling on Cherry's tail until she begins to bleed.

I see one running to a lever that says Caution: Emergency Stop.

Cherry Blossom looks at everything for a split second, and says softly, "Goodbye, Torch. I'm going to have to be the hero this time."

She kicks me with her front hooves, and I fall backwards into the portal a split second before it closes.

Enveloped by darkness, I breathe in nothingness. Everything is beginning to feel more familiar, more real, like I've been in a dream this whole time. I see above me the black of the portal and below, the cover of trees below me. I flail my arms as I fall, and thump onto a tree, and then fall on top of fluffy wings. "OOWWW OWWW OWW MY WINGS NOT MY WINGS!" screams the Canira I landed on top of, who shakes me off.

"Gosh, don't you have any respect for an injured Canira?" says another one, obviously the same species.

"Who- who are you?" I ask, confused and dazed.

"We should be asking you that, you're the one who fell out of the sky." says the second one. The first one hops around, trying to shake her wings. "I'm Shine, and my friend here is Avery. We're just kind of injured right now. Who are you?"

"My name is Torch." I reply, puffing out my chest. "Burn Canira."

She shrugs and continues walking.

"Wait!" I say. "What are you guys doing?"

"We were left for dead and now we're following a random star to who knows what." the first one, Avery says, as if it's completely normal.

"Yeah. That." Shine continues.

I want to ask them more questions, but I sense it's best to hold my tongue.

"Well, we're setting up camp under this tree. Wanna help?" Avery asks.

We spend the next thirty minutes getting leaves to sleep on. It feels so good after a year of living in a metal cage. In fact, everything about this place screams better, except the dreams. I never dreamed at the Obsidian Factory, but here, the dreams come back as if they had never left. They're not the dreams I used to have, dreams of being completely independent and free, anymore. Tonight's dream is much too vivid to be a dream, even though I desperately want it to be.

Cherry Blossom is sitting on one of the metal tables, wings and hooves pinned down with metal cuffs.

An Obsidian, a black fox in shape, leers over her. "You're a feisty one, aren't you?"

She cries, trying to wriggle free from her chains.

"It's okay. It turns out your DNA has quite a few complications that might just be useful to us after all! So you'll get to stay alive. However, you won't be needing these anymore." He flicks her wingtips. "Aedrian. Bring me the fire."

A smaller Obsidian brings him a small flame on a stick... a torch. They're torturing her with my namesake.

The black fox sneers and gently dusts the edge of each wingtip with a match. At first, nothing happens, but slowly, a bit of fire begins to singe away feathers, and then as it grows, burn. Cherry twists in her cuffs, tears drenching her face, and screaming.

"MOMMY! CHROMA, COME SAVE ME! MOMMY! TORCH! TORCH!"

"How do you like fire now, huh? Now that your friend isn't manipulating it?"

She cries harder and harder, coughing from the smoke, and I smell burning feathers.

I wake up with a snap, breathing hard. It's dawn, and Shine and Avery are still asleep. Maybe I'll stay with them for a while, and when we get to the next city, I'll find my way back to Gash and those old alleyways. Even if I'm older now. Even if I've changed a lot.

I've got nothing to hold on to but the promise that he's still there.

The smell of burning feathers still lingers on my nose, and it makes me want to throw up.