//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Nightmare // Story: Desires // by Skylight77 //------------------------------// 6 days ago: *pant, pant, pant, pant* Running, running. That’s all Rainbow Dash was doing, running. A terrified look crossed her face as she continued running. She couldn’t see anything, or tell what she was doing. All she could do was run. She slid along the ground beneath her to come to a stop, taking a moment to look back and forth at her surroundings. There were no landmarks, she was running out of breath, and was hopelessly lost. Nothing could be seen, nothing but darkness in an endless void with no life, no path. She could hear voices, evil demonic giggling voices. Every time she heard those voices, she would only run. The demonic voice kept on giggling, getting louder, and louder. Rainbow Dash jumped in a gasp before continuing to run from it. She had no clue as to where it was coming from. “Raiiinbow Daaash…” The ground beneath her became non-existent. Her legs continued trying to run, trying to find the floor to run with, but it was no longer there. With no floor left to run on, gravity started taking Rainbow Dash as she fell deeper into the void. All she could do now was yell a terrifying cry. Flailing all four legs, she tried to find something to stop her. But there was nothing around to stop her fall, not even the use of her wings were able to stop the gravity that was overtaking her. Darkness surrounded her and swallowed her whole. Everything went black. ______________________________________________________________________________ It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to regain her composure, or at least that's what it felt like, when she came to, she tried to run again, but she found herself strapped down, lying on her back. She could feel an intense heat coming from where she laid. All of her limbs were secured. Rainbow Dash gasped for air in a frightful panic. She didn't have much time to react before a pink figure made itself visible in front of her. There was nothing else she could see but steam rising in the air, a steam that was coming from beneath her. Her back and wings were being burned from the heat source. The figure only came closer. Rainbow Dash frantically tried to free herself, struggling harder as the figure came closer. “Raiiiinbow Daaaash.” She could hear a familiar voice call out once again. Rainbow Dash breathed heavily, feeling like she was suffocating as the pink figure came closer. The pink figure reached Rainbow Dash, revealing who she was. “I thiiink youuu’re reeeady… Rainbow Daaash!” A loud audible heart beat echoed around the area. The pink figure leapt towards her. An audible screeching noise toned in before everything flashed white. ______________________________________________________________________________ “Nooo!” “Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow Dash screamed awake, flailing her legs around as she shot her head straight up from the bed, sweat apparent on her head. Rainbow Dash panted with her hoof on her chest. Her vision shifted up to meet with a familiar face, Fluttershy, who jumped away from Rainbow as she awakened from her nightmare. She had a concerned look in her eyes, standing in front of the bed Rainbow was laying on. “Fluttershy! Oh it’s only you, phew…” Wiping off her forehead, Rainbow Dash took in a few more breaths trying to recover from her life threatening nightmare. Taking a glance around, she found herself in her own house, lying in her own bedroom, on her cloud bed. “A-are you okay?” Fluttershy asked. “-sigh- No!” Rainbow responded. “Were you having that nightmare again?” “Yes!” Rainbow Dash dropped her head back down to her pillow in frustration. “I just don’t understand, why do I keep having these? They’re always about our friends. All I can see is this dark menacing look in their face. They have this creepy laugh... they're always chasing me down…” Rainbow paused for a moment as she grunted, trying to better explain herself. “I try as much as I can to run away, but no matter how hard I try they always catch me. Their actions are horrible, and they’re smiling through it all like it was some sort of, sick game.” Rainbow paused again as she put a hoof on her forehead, taking in what she just experienced. Fluttershy didn’t interrupt and just continued to listen. “Today, I saw Pinkie Pie, cooking a meal…” She gestured a hoof towards herself. “It was being made, from me!” “You two were cooking a meal together?” Fluttershy asked confused. “No Fluttershy, I was being cooked!” Rainbow Dash corrected. “You were being… *gasp*” Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth in horror. “She was trying... to eat you?” “Yes!” Rainbow Dash answered. “B-but Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy started as she walked over to one of the sides of Rainbow Dash’s bed, getting a closer look at her with their conversation. “Pinkie Pie is our friend. Why would you think she’s trying to hurt you?” “I’m not!” Rainbow Dash argued, sitting back up. “It’s these dreams!” She conked her head with a hoof. “They’re messing with my mind!” “When did you start having these?” Fluttershy asked as she rested her front hooves on top of Rainbow Dash’s bed. Fluttershy couldn’t recall a time Rainbow Dash would be so terrified of something she knew wouldn’t hurt her. But the more she heard about it, the more serious it sounded. “It was after the day we threw that surprise birthday party for Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash answered. “But, Rainbow Dash, that was a long time,” Fluttershy stated. “We all helped out on that, and I never had nightmares about our friends. At least, I don’t think I have been.” “Well, no pony else is getting them, I’m the only one,” Rainbow Dash stated as she looked away, looking depressed. “*Gasp* r-really?” Fluttershy asked surprised. “How do you know?” “I don’t,” Rainbow Dash responded calmly. “But if you’re not having them, then…” She trailed off. Fluttershy was having difficulties processing this. She wanted to help out, but she didn’t know what to do. Since it was a nightmare, it wasn’t something that could be easy to solve. “Maybe we should ask Twilight about this?” Fluttershy suggested. “I already did that remember?” Rainbow Dash started as she looked back to Fluttershy. “Oh… well, um…” Fluttershy stuttered, making Rainbow Dash mentally deadpan. “Remember when I told you all about how Spike was sending me to Princess Celestia?” ______________________________________________________________________________ “Listen guys, in my dream, Spike was sending me to Princess Celestia!” The voices that reflected that day played back in Fluttershy’s mind. That voice belonged to Rainbow Dash. “Now why would that be a problem, Rainbow Dash? Personally I would be delighted to have a meeting with the princess.” That was Rarity’s voice. “But he wasn’t sending me, he was sending a note, with me in it,” Rainbow’s voice. “So Spike was sending an invitation note for you to meet with her?” Pinkie’s voice. “No, the note wasn’t an invitation, the note contained me as it was being sent,” Rainbow’s voice. At this, Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth in horror as she remembered that part of the conversation. “Well, that explains everythin’,” Applejack’s voice. “Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, I’ll make sure Spike doesn’t send any letters addressed to you without your permission,” Twilight’s voice. The group was starting to disband. “Thanks Twilight… Wait, no…” Rainbow’s voice as it was stuttering. “Don’t worry Rainbow Dash, we’re your friends. We understand,” Twilight’s voice. ______________________________________________________________________________ The conversation was brief, but it all made sense. Fluttershy was at a loss for words as she looked back upon that day. She took a step away from the bed, bringing her forelegs back on the ground while she looked away from Rainbow Dash. She felt as if these dreams weren’t dreams anymore. It felt as if something like this would actually happen. It hurt Rainbow Dash seeing that her words practically brought a painfully terrifying image in her friend’s head. A part of her told her that every time she told Fluttershy about these dreams, her friend would suffer the same nightmares, or fear they would come true. Even if Fluttershy said she thinks she wasn’t having them, she probably was and just didn’t remember. Fluttershy seemed to be the only one who actually understood what she was saying when she told them. But it didn't make any sense as to why only Fluttershy was understanding them. Maybe Fluttershy wasn't really understanding them, but was rather the only one who was really afraid of what she was saying. Whatever it was Fluttershy was thinking, she couldn’t tell them any better. During her explanations, Rainbow Dash tried to be brief about it so as to not torment their minds, but in the end, it only succeeded in tormenting Fluttershy's mind She was just so scared of the implications of Rainbow Dash’s words that she could never say what she thought they really meant. Rainbow Dash constantly tried telling them, but it only hurt Fluttershy. She eventually decided to stop trying in order to at least ease Fluttershy’s mind. It didn’t happen every night. But it happened enough times to where Fluttershy would witness it again when it happened at times. Flutterhy would ask about it, and Rainbow Dash would have to talk about it again, or Fluttershy would worry more. It did help that at least somepony else understood what was going on. Telling Fluttershy about it always reminded her that it was just a dream, and nothing like this would ever really happen. “Say, what are you doing here anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked in an attempt to change the subject. “Oh, right, um…” Fluttershy hesitated, looking back up to Rainbow Dash, now remembering the reason she came here in the first place. “Twilight told me to give you this, after the storm cleared up.” Fluttershy reached into her wing with her muzzle. “The storm…” Rainbow Dash’s mind started processing with the mention of the storm. Suddenly her mind bolted as she just remembered. “Oh! The storm! That’s right!” Rainbow took a look out her window, taking a glance at the sun’s position in the sky. Fluttershy had been taken aback by this outburst; she didn’t have time to show Rainbow Dash what she needed to show her. Yesterday, Rainbow Dash had worked all day on setting up a huge storm that would prevent a drought season this summer. She had managed the weather patrol that day and when she was done, she decided to sleep in early. “Oh pony feathers; I was supposed to clear the leftover clouds first thing in the morning! Dang it! I better hurry!” Rainbow Dash shot herself on all four hooves on the bed. She flared her wings as she readied herself for takeoff. “Oh my, that wouldn’t be good… should I help?” Knowing she had wasted some of her time, Fluttershy decided to put her item back away. She believed that the weather needed to be done first and she wanted to do something to help make up the time she made Rainbow Dash waste, if she could that is. “Relax Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew up to her window to check the skies. “Being a little late to get started is not a big deal to me, and besides-“ She motioned her hoof outside towards the clouds. “-this isn’t even that bad.” Fluttershy flew up beside her and also took a look at the skies. To Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash had her work cut out for her. There were certainly A LOT of left over clouds from the storm that spread all across the skies. She couldn’t even begin to count how many there were. Some of the clouds were bigger than others to the point where it looked like four to five patches of them combined together. If Rainbow Dash’s house was any higher in the skies, they probably wouldn’t be able to see the ground. “But, you’re more than welcome to help out anyway pal,” Rainbow Dash said, tapping a hoof on Fluttershy’s back. “Just remember that busting clouds, is not the same as activating them.” Rainbow Dash took off immediately towards the clouds, leaving a breeze to blow on Fluttershy from such a sudden acceleration. Rainbow Dash was now in full work mode. She was busting through one cloud after another like butter. Fluttershy exited the cloud house, heeding what Rainbow Dash had just told her. She was right after all. Fluttershy never had reason to bust clouds, so she never learned how to do that properly. If it wasn’t done right, she could end up shocking herself instead. Now Fluttershy didn’t know what to do. She had just offered to help, but didn’t know how she could. She watched Rainbow Dash do all the busting, and she was making the whole thing look so easy. Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash kick through a cloud with her hind leg, somersault to take out another, and burst right through three clouds lined up together like they weren’t even there. Fluttershy could barely keep up with Rainbow Dash’s antics. If she didn’t know any better, Rainbow Dash was just doing one of her performances with Fluttershy being the silent cheerleader. These clouds were spread out far enough to make it look like a performance. Suddenly, an idea came to Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash would take less time on busting these clouds if they were closer together. Fluttershy decided; if she couldn’t help bust them, she could combine them so that Rainbow Dash could take out a huge group in one go. It would take more effort to bust it sure, but she didn’t doubt Rainbow Dash’s abilities to bust it just as easily. Fluttershy flew up to one of the clouds and started pushing it. She was able to get this cloud to collide with other clouds, causing the cloud formation to grow bigger and bigger with each cloud it made contact with. While Rainbow Dash was busy busting the clouds, Fluttershy was busy collecting them into a pile. If it was any other pegasus, they might have said that Fluttershy was making things worse, for the bigger a cloud formation was, the harder it was to work with, whether they were activating it, busting it, or keeping them under control. And this cloud was getting really big. Rainbow Dash took a cloud in her hooves, immediately spinning it around before hurling it towards another cloud. Their impact caused them both to evaporate. She raised one hoof in the air as she increased her altitude. Aiming for another cloud, she brought down the hoof in a chopping action, striking the cloud. Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs together, smiling as she eyed the cloud she just struck. When she noticed the cloud wasn’t responding, she turned her eyes into a glare. Suddenly, the cloud exploded on its own, allowing Rainbow Dash to return her smile. It was as if that cloud was afraid of Rainbow Dash. After all, that strike was supposed to take it out anyway. With that last cloud taken care of, Rainbow Dash checked around the scenery for anymore that she may have missed. She only found one that she had missed. “Last one Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called out. This cloud that Fluttershy had put together had become the size of Rainbow Dash’s cloud house. Grinning, Rainbow climbed herself up to higher heights. After reaching her height, she paused for a second, taking a good look at her target while she hovered in mid-air. “Take cover!” Rainbow Dash hollered out after she prepared herself. She proceeded to dive straight for her target. Realizing her speed, Fluttershy panicked. She flew away from the cloud and quickly took cover behind one of the trees on the ground. “Yeeeaaaahh!” Rainbow Dash hollered out as she flew at amazing speeds towards her target. You could hear the wind screeching from her wing power. Rainbow Dash impacted directly into the cloud, causing her to disappear from sight. Fluttershy took a peek at the scene, waiting for something big to happen. But nothing was happening. Fluttershy took herself away from the tree to get a better look at the cloud. She waited for something to happen, or for Rainbow Dash to come out of the cloud. Suddenly, a bright rainbow glow appeared in the center of the giant cloud formation. The glowing grew brighter and brighter, until... *BOOM!!!* The cloud burst into a huge explosion of multiple colors. It was pretty much a delayed nuclear rainbow bomb that completely evaporated the cloud into nothingness. Fluttershy could feel the results of the explosion from where she was. A powerful gust of wind blew around the scenery. From Fluttershy’s distance, it was just a slightly powerful breeze that blew through her pink mane, but did not upset her flight balance. Fluttershy put a hoof in front of her head, covering that breeze that blew on her eyes. She smiled as she took in the beautiful sight that she witnessed. The explosion was both epic and beautiful at the same time. Once the wind settled, Fluttershy flew up to where the cloud formation once stood. In its place where the cloud formation used to be, was the awesome pegasus that had caused such an explosion. “Aw Yeah! Did you see that Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash lifted her right hoof in the air as she flew towards Fluttershy. “That was amazing Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy lifted her left hoof in the same way Rainbow Dash did. “And it was all thanks to your help pal,” Rainbow Dash finished. The two pegasi lifted their counterpart hooves in the air, motioning forwards with them in great force and unison. They clopped against each other, creating a magnificent high hoof bump. They both let out an audible, ‘Ah’ sound from their voice as they did it. They were both proud of such a creation. The two pegasi’s hooves were connected for a few seconds before they separated. When they separated, Rainbow Dash had that neglected question to ask again. “So… what was it that you needed to show me, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked. “Hmm?…” Fluttershy took a moment to think before remembering. “Oh… r-right… um…” She reached behind the back of her yellow coat. A pony’s coat was deep enough to secure most small items during quick trips out of their homes. Depending on the item, their coat or mane could be used as an easy way to carry them for a while, and for pegasi, under their wings were another option. But when it came to certain items that were too big or even too many items to carry, they needed pouches or saddle bags. Fluttershy pulled out what appeared to be a note addressed for an order. Rainbow Dash read its contents while Fluttershy held it open with her hoof. Despite the fact they were still flapping their wings, hovering high in the skies, reading the contents of the mail was easy, but the contents itself seemed odd for both of them. “Hmm, this looks like an order for… wait... she wants me to go to Baltimare’s hospital?” Rainbow asked confused, scratching the side of her head. “I… think so,” Fluttershy said, unsure of herself. “Pinkie has been sick to the stomach. Twilight said we needed an order from Baltimare’s hospital.” “But, I don't get it," Rainbow Dash asked as Fluttershy pulled the note away. "Doesn’t our Ponyville hospital have that kind of medicine?” “I don’t know…” Fluttershy stated. Fluttershy started placing the note inside an envelope, making sure it was sealed securely. “Twilight is with Pinkie right now. She told me to give this to you to give to them.” Fluttershy motioned the mail over to Rainbow Dash, to which Rainbow Dash took in her hoof. “She said they’ll know what to do when you give it to them,” Fluttershy finished. “Okay, leave it to me, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said as she gave a salute. “Tell Twilight that I’ll have this delivered before she knows it.” Before Rainbow Dash took off towards Baltimare’s direction, she first flew towards her home, flying inside through one of her windows. Within a second later, she flew back out of it with a small package strapped around her body. She flew towards Baltimare’s direction, leaving a rainbow trail behind. Fluttershy stayed behind, watching Rainbow Dash as she flew away at incredible speeds. It was no surprise as to why Twilight requested Rainbow Dash to make this delivery.