In Dainn’s new castle that he used to hold the Elements of Harmonious, a silver device with glowing purple lines floats above the shriveled bodies of a white unicorn, a pink earth pony, and a blue pony. The floating device begins to scan the blue body, but it gets an odd reading. It's not actually dead. The device projects a transparent of Brainiac before moving on to scanning the unicorn and the earth pony.

“Fascinating…”

The hologram becomes opaque and kneels down to touch the shriveled body of the Pegasus only to discover that it's actually not dead, but close to it. Brainiac reaches out to grab the Pegasus’ mane and examine its colors. The mane is interesting display as it is a rainbow.

“A rainbow colored mane.” Brainiac tells himself, “This must be Rainbow Dash. Applejack has said much about her, also stating how she used to commit heroic acts on her own.”

Brainiac shifts his hand under Dash’s head and lifts it to look into her sunken eyes.

“She fights to stay alive, even after the period of a single week with wounds like hers.”

Brainiac’s holographic unit finishes scanning the unicorn and the earth pony and floats over to the center of the hologram it's projecting before filling in the hard light hologram with metal plating, changing the hologram into an android.

“Rainbow Dash of Equestria, I shall conduct repairs on your being,” Brainiac says as the partiality complete android picks Rainbow's body up and walks to the door it came through. The now completed android began to walk through a very large stone hallway before spotting an odd sight.

“STOP TORTURING ME!!!” A scar covered and antlerless Dainn cries out at the air in front of him.

“You do realize that you’re yelling at the air.” Brainiac states.

“Oh, Fuck You, Brainiac! Aren’t you waiting for your Supermare to return? FUCK YOU TOO, YOU KEEP TALKING ABOUT HOW I BECOME YOU!!!”

“My calculations predict that Supermare may have survived, especially with what my drones have discovered.”

“Yeah, she’ll return to be one of my personal pets!” Dainn says, his comment causing Brainiac to deploy his hologram projector to project a hard light hologram that takes Rainbow Dash from his arms.

“You. Cannot. Touch her.” Brainiac says as he extends metallic tendrils from his back while flexing his arms in front of his chest. The hard light hologram walks over to the side while the android begins to approach Dainn. “You already know that I used to be a collector of worlds. That I collected them in order to make all knowledge exclusive to me purely because it is what I desired. But what I never told you was how even I saw some examples of individuals who did not need to be remembered.”

Brainiac stops just out of being in Dainn’s reach.

“One such individual was a mass murderer known to Earth as The Joker. I only remember him because his impact on Earth was undeniable. And when a version of him from another universe came to continue the past Joker’s work, I personally made sure that he was deleted permanently.”

Dainn draws a sword and slashes at Brainiac, only for the android to smack the blade out of the Caribou’s hand and wrap a tendril around Dainn’s neck.

“Dainn of the Caribou Empire, You will not be missed.”

Brainiac lifts Dainn into the air and impales the King with another tendril before tossing him to the side. Brainiac walks over to the hologram projector only for a dagger to pierce through his knee, and another dagger to pierce him right through the head.

“A-a-a-android bod-d-d-dy failing. cutting c-c-c-c-c-c-c-connection.” Brainiac’s android body shuts down while the hard light hologram looks over at what destroyed the android. The hologram sees Dainn with bruises around his neck and a hole through his chest.

“You can't kill me that easily, Brainiac.” Dainn says holding the sword that was swatted from his hand earlier, “And I’ll take Rainbow Dash back if she's still breathing.”

“As this holographic body lacks the combat capabilities of the android body,” the hologram says before a second hologram walks out from behind the hologram holding Rainbow Dash.

“I can still face you in combat. In ways that the android body could not.” The second hologram says.

Dainn charges for the second hologram only for the hologram to deconstruct itself, letting Dainn run into a wall at his dismay. Dainn is then caught as he falls to the ground only to be slammed into the wall then thrown to the center of the hall to see that Brainiac is the cause of the attack. Dainn swings his sword at Brainiac only for the blade to go right through. Dainn swings his sword again but Brainiac catches it while a third Brainiac hologram wraps his arms around Dainn’s abdomen, allowing the second hologram to take Dainn’s sword from him and impale him on it. The third hologram then lets go of Dainn, put its fists together, and slam Dainn to the ground.

“Our defeat is not an option.” The Brainiac holograms state as they stand over Dainn. Suddenly, they face difficulties with working properly as they start to flicker, the first hologram now dropping Rainbow Dash on the stone floor.

“I will be taking the rainbow whore with me to my private quarters now.” Dainn says as he gets to his hooves, “We are going to have so much fun together.”

Dainn looks over to where Rainbow Dash is, only to see that she's gone. He starts looking all over, but finds nothing until the sword he's been impaled by is pulled from him and he’s knocked down again.

“I’m not Rainbow Whore,” A weak, gruff voice says, “I’m Rainbow Dash, you bastard.”

Two of Brainiac’s holograms cut out completely, leaving one of them functioning perfectly.

“It seems that even without antlers, you still possess magic.” Brainiac observes, “But only enough to interrupt weak signals. My probe can still receive a hard light holographic signal from my pod. This fight is not yours to win.”

Dainn gets back up and brings up his fists, but he seems to be faltering

“I-I will take back what is mine,” Dainn says, not giving up. Rainbow Dash becomes angered by Dainn’s willingness to keep on fighting, and something strange happens. Her eyes begin to glow and her plucked wings break free from their restraints and seem to glow with power as the featherless limbs stretch themselves out. This glowing power is the same color as Dash’s mane and tail.

It’s rainbow.

“Just die already, Dainn.” Rainbow Dash growls, “You fucked up a long time ago, and you have to pay for what you’ve done.”

Dash, previously looking weak on her feet, has some form of newfound strength that allows her to wield the sword in her hands as if she has been healed.

“Th-the Elements of Harmony fell long ago,” Dainn says, his strength falling more and more, “And w-we plucked the wings of Pegasi for a reason.”

“My wings aren’t what you should be worried about,” Rainbow Dash says dashes past Dainn while slashing his right arm in half.

Dainn doesn’t react to his missing arm. Instead, he attempts to swing his elbow at the Pegasus only for Dash to toss the sword in the air and block the swing. She then throws the attack off and spins Dainn to face her as she punches the Caribou Kings face with a hook and an uppercut, finishing by leaping in the air, grabbing the tossed sword, and slashing down to finish removing Dainn’s right arm. Dash stops while she watches Dainn look at his now missing limb and collapse to his knees. The hallway remains silent for a great many seconds before Dainn speaks.

“... Finish me.” Dainn demands quietly.

“No.” Rainbow Dash says, denying the King’s demand.

“Why?”

“Because. You're not worth it anymore. Killing you won't solve any of the problems that you caused my friends, my family, and my fellow Ponies.”

Rainbow Dash drops the sword and walks away, Dainn looking over to the blade lying on the floor. Brainiac looks over to the sword as well in confusion over the matter.

“Dainn is too dangerous to let live, yet you choose to let him?” Brainiac asks in his confusion.

“I’m not a killer. I’m an expert swordspony, but competitive sword fighting doesn’t involve actual death or limb loss. Besides, Dainn died a long time ago. Long before he started talking to himself. Just get me out of here.”

“As you wish,” Brainiac says, the hologram escorting Dash through the hallway...

In the dining hall of Dainn’s Ponyville castle, the Caribou King himself sits upon his chair and stares down at a freshly cooked plate of food. The food is a finely cooked carrot slices, apple slices, and lettuce leaves mixed around with shredded cabbage and a special dressing made by the chef behind this delicious meal. At least, it could be a good meal. But it could also be a tasteless meal or a meal that has a horrid taste to it. Dainn does not know. He hasn't touched it at all. He's not feeling hungry right now. But a certain individual who has appeared behind him is eating an apple as if he's never eaten for days. Dainn has to eat, but this individual doesn't have to. After all, a Q doesn’t need to eat.

“Well well well, the King of the Caribou himself!” The individual points out, food still in his mouth, “Might I ask if you’re going to eat that?”

Dainn tiredly looks over to see Q jr. standing behind him with an apple in his hand.

“What do you want this time?” Dainn asked with eyes that have given up.

“Well, my father told me that I’m supposed to see what you’ve learned so far. But I’ve been watching you closely, and you haven’t learned a thing.”

“I was beaten, yet I was sparred by somepony who vilely hates me. She was owned by Caribou under my direct command, and they indulged in things that not even I enjoy, she went through it all, yet she spared my life.”

“So?” Q jr. asks while he takes another bite of his apple, “Aren’t you not supposed to care? Or has your future self’s sentence taken its toll?”

“My visions of him are what's responsible for the scars across my body. I see him in my reflection. I feel every time he makers my draw my dagger and stroke it down my arm. I sense him in my mind, preventing me from eating the meal before me. He won't stop.”

“Oh, that wasn't ‘your future self’,” Q jr. says with a laugh, “That was me!”

At this moment, Dainn’s mind caused the world around him to faze away… Was this true? Was it really Discord's son who made him feel all this pain? He started to ponder other possibilities. What if small things were manipulated to make him believe so? Dainn draws his dagger with his reattached arms and examines his reflection in it. He's not seeing his future self in it, only himself. He opens his palm to see the strange language he etched into the handle of the blade, wondering what the words could possibly mean.

The handle says: ben ta' megh’an

“You won't find the translation for those words in any library on this world.” Q jr. states as he sits on the table and picks up a fork and Dainn’s food, “It's in Klingon. It means ‘A King’s End’.” Q jr. starts eating the blend of greenery while watching Dainn’s shock, “Go on, complete the blade’s purpose.”

Dainn would say something, but he couldn't even open his mouth. He looked at the words and watched them become Equestrian in his handwriting. Dainn feels a lump in his throat as he lowers the blade down to his heart. His eyes begin to water, but his hand remains steady. Without another second, he plunges the blade into his heart…

And he sheds a single tear.

Author's Notes:

This is the final chapter of FoE: Outbreak, and the last FoE tale in this potential series. Next up will be an Outbreak tale.