// Story: Tickling Rainbow.

// Chapter: 5; The Rescue

// Author: Alue14

The cellars of The Great Theater, Ponyville, Equestria.

September 10th, 2012 BCR. 19:45 PM.

The old Ponyvillian theater was, and still is, a prime example of Helvetican architecture. When it opened, Queen Helvetica herself was there to cut the ribbon. Many great Equestrian plays and actors have graced its presence on the wooden planks of the theater.

But after The Ultimate War, the foundation who ran the theater was in disarray. Anypony who was an actor on that guild had lost their life on the battlefields of the war. So the Great Theater began to lose its former glory and eventually it was abandoned. Now, only horseradish dealers and crashers... come here. Sometimes there might be a Mafia torture, or something of that nature.. Beneath The Great Theater was its playing floor, a gigantic subterranean labyrinth of cellars, open spaces and so on. Only a few ponies know their way through this maze to this day.

And for those few ponies, was also a rather unknown griffin. On that same day, the mostly silent halls were disrupted by the laughter of a pony. A cyan pegasus who had it coming for what she had done, or so the griffin thought.

‘Waaahahaaaa, G-g-gilda! B-b-buck you! Hahahahaha!’ the Pegasus laughed.

The griffin only answered it with even more tickling, and this time, on the wing where she couldn't stand it the most.

It only resulted in even more laughter.

‘You know, Dashie, I have to tell you another thing! You remember when you were angry at Billy and the others after they almost killed that yellow dweeb you call a friend? Well, let's just say I had told them a little more than you thought!’

If it wasn't for the tickling and the shackles, Rainbow Dash had tackled the griffin within a blink of an eye because she knew more than anything about what she was talking about.

***

Flight Academy, Cloudsdale, Equestria.

June 17th, 1778 BCR.

The Equestrian summer is widely regarded as one of the best climates on the planet and the summer of 1778 wasn't an exception. Soon, the class of '56 would receive their diplomas of flight and could integrate into the nation that is Equestria. Most of the fillies had passed their flight exam already, and all of them passed with ease. Now, they just had to wait and pass the time 'till June the 30th came.

Rainbow Dash wasn't that happy for the diploma coronation because she was still an Orphan. Queen Helvetica may had died a few years prior, but her legacy still lived on. Her orphanages still littered Equestria. The legal age to leave the orphanage was around 17, pegasi age and Rainbow Dash wasn't even close to that.

Prior to the day she had a terrible day. Her caretaker who was around, had beat the living daylight out of her because she hadn't eaten everything on her plate - when she actually had. The same occurred later in the Academy, where her teacher of the class,  on the moment, had beaten her because she spoke in class, and it was in a debating class.

Now she was walking around the halls, right in the afternoon break. She had already eaten her lunch, and just walked around. Gilda was nowhere to be found. Dash had already given her the cold shoulder after Fluttershy had been beaten up once. She passed the corner, and there was a scene that always played like this:

Billy and his friends were gathered around Fluttershy, and were taunting her again. Dashie held herself on the background, she didn't wanted to come into this fight again. But this time, it was different. Billy drew a pegasi knife towards Fluttershy and made a little cut on her wing. Rainbow Dash winced because he cut right in the most sensitive part of a pegasus' wing. Right at the third feather. Fluttershy blood began running freely, and began to cry. Rainbow Dash still hid on the background, but her wings began to fold when she saw that Gilda was there too and laughed her ass off with laughing on Fluttershy's pain.

"Haha! Looks like Klutzershy is not only a klutz, but also a whiner! Perhaps we should call her Whineshy, too!" said Billy.

Gilda concurred in the quote. That was enough for Rainbow Dash, and braced herself to help her filly friend in need.Unfortunately was that enough to shift the attention of him towards Rainbow Dash.

‘Well, well, if we haven't got our old friend, Rainbow Crash!!’

"Billy, you have gone here far enough! Stop right here, or I'll have to take action! said Rainbow Dash.

"And with what? Telling to the teachers that I would do something like this? They would rather kick you in the Utility Room than to listen to you!"

Rainbow Dash winced. Billy was right. Nopony believed what she said. On the contrary, she was more of an outcast, a pariah. Everypony hated her, even the teachers.

‘Then shut the f*ck up, Billy!’  and flew towards Billy.

She had enough. Enough of the pain of being tormented by Billy, enough of being kicked for something she did, enough for being punished for crimes she didn't commit, enough of being regarded as an orphan. With that, both of them were locked in combat and lucky for Rainbow Dash, there weren't any teachers in the near vicinity. The fight was one sided. Rainbow Dash had the upper hand on him, but Billy was armed. During the whole fight, his friends were cheering him on to kick the disgrace of Cloudsdale into oblivion.

For a moment it seemed that Rainbow Dash was actually winning the battle, but it seemed false hope. Because Billy drew the knife again, and this time it hit his mark. The knife made a very bad cut through her side, and it bled heavily. Rainbow Dash fell in front of him from the pain, and Billy and his friends began to kick her. After a while, they had enough and left her for death. She saw that Gilda was saying something to Billy, but couldn't hear it. Billy laughed and left her. She began to cry, because she failed. Her only chance to set things straight and she blew it. Fluttershy took her to the infirmary, the only place where they took Rainbow Dash as a normal pony.

You see, in pegasi terms an Orphan is not an outcast, but every pegasi has to fight when they reached a certain age. This is both to Stallions and Mares. It's, again a rite of passage to adulthood. If the pegasi fails to win the fight, then she would be regarded as an outcast. With Rainbow Dash, it wasn't the case because she was already regarded as an outcast.

***

Cellars of Old Theater, Ponyville, Equestria.

September 10th, 2012 BCR, 20:00 PM.

Rainbow Dash only winced when real tears mixed with tears of laughter. She silently swore towards the griffin for bringing back those memories and wished that they had stayed back in her subconsciousness.

‘Well, what I said to Billy was this. I told him there, that you were nothing more than a pissing Mama's filly! And I told him more right after we left!’

Rainbow Dash just crumbled. She didn't have any fighting spirit anymore. Gilda was dead serious. She gave up all hope, until a certain purple unicorn busted through the door, her horn flaring with magic and anger.

"Twilight!"  screamed Rainbow Dash in a mix of fear, surprise and sadness. Gilda left her, and grabbed a scalpel to fend off the unicorn- but Gilda stopped, seeing the flaring horn on Twilight’s forehead..

‘Okay, okay, I understand Lame-a** pony. What do you want?’ Gilda asked.

‘I want to know just one thing... What do you have against Rainbow Dash, Gilda?’ Twilight asked.

Gilda smirked upon watching the horrified face of Rainbow Dash. ‘Heh, guess what? Looks like you got yourself a girlfriend, Dashie.’ Gilda sneered, preparing to continue with tickling and mental torture.

Rainbow Dash began to cry and scream, ‘No! Help me, Twilight!! Please?!!’

Twilight was now as angry as the time when she saw Cadance in that cave and blasted Gilda with the biggest blast of magic she had ever released. Gilda was incinerated.

Right after Twilight released the Equestrian equivalent of napalm, Gilda fell dead. Twilight jumped on Gilda's dead body and screamed.

‘That's what you get by threatening my friend!’ and stabbed her horn through the heart of Gilda, making sure that she was dead for good. She released Rainbow Dash of her holds, and reassured the pegasus because she was crying like a foal... Next Chapter: 6; Confessions. Estimated time remaining: 23 Minutes