Chapter 14
Rainbow Dash flew low over the darkened fields, keeping her eyes locked on Niles as he ran. He was incredibly fast. She needed little effort to keep up with her pony friends when they galloped, but the pronghorn's speed required actual exertion on her part. The moon had at last risen, just barely less than full, slathering the grasses in silver. The stars twinkled overhead. The Archback Mountains were blacker than black to the left; far to the right, the Drackenridge Mountains were faint shadows. Her insides were tingling, pricked with a million sewing needles. She was filled with excitement, and also fear. It was just like the buildup to one of her tricks. Could she pull it off? Could she succeed? She thought she could, but there was no way to know for sure. It was like a Sonic Rainboom. Succeed or fail. But success had to happen. Failure was a possibility, but the thought of it was so disastrous she could scarcely stand to tolerate it.
At last, Niles' pace began to slacken. He powered up a shallow hill, then came to the top and abruptly halted. The sky-blue pegasus wheeled around it twice before slowly descending, coming to a running landing and galloping the last few feet to the hilltop. The space was covered by a large, flat circle of stone- a perfect circle. It gleamed white in the moonlight. “Stand back,” Niles said, obliging her to retreat a few paces. Once more, lightning rose between his horns, and a powerful bolt sizzled through the air. It struck the stone on the outer edge and slowly circled, tracing a scorching line around the flat surface. The lightning completed the circuit and vanished. The stone rumbled, and then there was the sound of grinding, of rock against rock. A portion of the stone sunk. The descent traveled around, the inner portion of the circle collapsing like water circling a drain. Dash's eyes went wide. With a final deep thunk, the movement ceased, and where there had been a flat topping stone before, there was now a spiraling ramp of stone descending into the hill. “If you'll follow me,” the pronghorn said, setting foot on the top of the ramp. He began to trace the path down. Dash was slightly nervous. Being away from the sky always set her on edge. But if it was necessary to learn lightning, she would do it. She set off down the ramp after him.
They spiraled down into the earth, the moonlit sky vanishing above them. Dash could scarcely see the stone in front of her hooves after a few rotations. Her breathing sped up, her skin tingling beneath her blue coat- she was nervous. One hoof in front of the other, she told herself. It was something Firefly used to say. So she did it. She put one hoof in front of the other, and she gradually went lower and lower. Niles Nigellus' hooffalls were a guide for her own; she followed his soft clip-clop down the ramp. At length, light began to fill the air again, slowly, and she could see in front of her once more. She was able to see the walls around her, and they were smooth and dark. Finally, Niles' hooffalls became muted, and a few moments later, she stepped off the ramp. The source of the light became apparent: set in two sconces were sharply-cut chunks of crystal that emitted a soft white glow. No sooner had her last back hoof left the stone ramp than another lightning bolt blazed from Niles' horns. The grinding of stone filled the air once more; turning around, she saw the ramp begin to spiral upwards, leaving her stuck down here... deep in the earth.
“Are you all right?” Niles asked her.
Dash nodded. “I'm fine... I'm just... not used to being underground.”
“I guess you're more comfortable with the open sky,” the pronghorn said. “I'm sorry.”
“I'm fine,” Dash repeated. “Let's get going.”
“It's not much further,” he said, turning toward an opening in the rock. She followed close behind him, leaving the tall antechamber behind.
They entered into a much larger cave. It was clearly artificial: the walls were smooth, the space was open. More crystals lined the walls to light their way. Niles' horns sizzled, and a line of lightning rose between them, providing further light. Sweeping her rose eyes around the cavern, Dash caught something from the corner of her eye, a wrinkle that was more than a divot in the rock. She stopped, she stared. It was white, the wrinkle- it was more of a squiggle. And between the lines of white there was a shock of brilliant electric blue. She raised her head, following the white lines. Her eyes widened. The whole ceiling of the cavern was covered in line and color. Ripples and swirls and squiggles of white and black wavered across the stone, and in between the lines every color imaginable had been painted. Some lines were thick; some lines were thin. Red and green and blue and purple and pink and orange and teal and daffodil and violet and every other color, some colors she couldn't even name, wavered out across the tall silent stone. There were whirlpools and eddies and wrinkles. Solid lines of color would cut across the black and white borders. The lines would birth lines that birthed more lines, streaking in ever more branching fingers, and they were lightning bolts. Rainbow Dash couldn't take it all in- it was too much. “What is all this?” she asked.
Niles sat down beside her, joined her in looking up. “It is our attempt to depict the Dreaming. It doesn't really come close to capturing it, but we do the best we can.”
Dash glanced at him. “You mentioned that last night. What is the Dreaming?”
Niles closed his eyes, let out a breath. “The Dreaming... contains all things that are. Before there was, there was the Dreaming. The gods were born of the Dreaming, and it was in the Dreaming that they made our world. We are of the Dreaming too- all creatures, all things are, before they are made, and we stay in the Dreaming, though we are mostly in the waking world. We mortal creatures are closest to it when we sleep, when our mind is free of the weight of bodily existence- hence its name, eh? And when we die, we are in the Dreaming still. There is no Was or Will Be; in the Dreaming, all Is.”
“So...” Dash murmured, trying to process such a strange explanation. “Is it like... eternity?”
“I suppose you could say that,” Niles said. “The Dreaming is... it's why things can be. It is the source of truth and the origin of being. You are in the Dreaming because you exist. A waking creature cannot always touch the Dreaming. However, you will tonight.”
“I will?” Dash asked.
Niles nodded. “If you would learn to truly touch lightning, if you desire to master it fully, you must master yourself the Dreaming.” The pronghorn stared at her with his dark eyes. “Lightning is both electricity in the atmosphere and an emanation of the Dreaming. Lightning is the Dreaming is being. You must order yourself to receive that being, that lightning, if you are to control it.”
Dash took a deep breath. “I think I can do it,” she said. “I'll try not to be afraid.”
“Fear is not what you need to conquer,” Niles said, rising to his hooves again. “Indeed, too little fear can be your failing here. Harmony is what you must achieve.” He set off across the chamber again. “Come.”
Dash stood up and followed him, sparing one last glance at the painted ceiling. They passed out of the great cavern and down a long tunnel. There were doorways in the stone, and in each one she saw a simple wooden bed. Some rooms had shelves filled with books. They had gone some distance down the tunnel when more hooffalls were heard than their own. From one room on either side of them, a pronghorn emerged, as slender as Niles. One of them was a bit taller than he; the other was roughly Niles' height, and unlike the other two, it did not have a black band around its throat. Niles halted before them. “Good evening, chappies,” he said brightly. “I've got our brave young pegasus here.” He stepped to the side, allowing Dash to clearly see the two newcomers. “This is Rainbow Dash of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash, these are my fellow messengers, Clive Croeuxus and Audrey Alleinus.”
“My dear,” Clive, the taller of the two, said. His voice was thicker than Niles'.
“Hi,” Dash said simply, smiling as hopefully as she could.
“Hello, dearie,” Audrey, the one without the black throat band, said. “You'll pardon me for a moment.”
“Huh? Why-”
“BOO!” Audrey shouted, starting forward. Dash flinched back, but caught herself, kept herself from retreating more than a pace. She stared hard at the female pronghorn. Audrey gave her a wry smile. “Reactive... yet not flighty. A good foundation.”
“Rainbow Dash,” Clive said solemnly. His force of personality was evident. “What you have asked of us is not a thing typically undertaken by pegasi. You have asked us to bestow our magic upon you, though you lack the horns to focus it. You have asked us to tamper with your spirit- with your very soul. You have asked us to expose you to the truths of existence. Do you fully understand these things you ask of us?”
Dash was silent for a moment. A tiny voice in her head told her that she could still turn back. It told her that these pronghorns were wise and kind, and they had known her limits upon first seeing her. It told her that if she chose to refuse this opportunity, they would think no less of her. She was at the height of her climb, her wings beating, ready to dive- but she could still stop now and slowly descend. She could avoid her fear if she so chose. She stepped forward. “I understand. I accept the risks.”
Clive tilted his head to the side. “Do you accept that even if you succeed tonight- in fact, do you accept that, especially if you succeed tonight, you will never be the same?”
“I accept that.”
Clive nodded. “Then follow us.” He and Audrey turned as one and began to walk down the tunnel. Niles came up beside her, and the two of them followed at a similar pace. “Tell me, Rainbow Dash,” the leading pronghorn said over his shoulder, “in Equestria, where your kind command the storms and make the weather, what does the typical pegasus do with lightning?”
“Oh,” the sky-blue pegasus started, “well, um, most pegasuses-”
“Pegasi, I think,” Audrey interjected.
“Right, sure, whatever,” Dash dismissed her. “Anyway, most pegasi just sort of let lightning happen. They don't actually make it. When it does happen, they can change it, redirect it, control it. They can buck it with their back legs, and if there's more than one of them, they can guide a lightning bolt's path.”
“But they do not make lightning themselves?”
“Well...” Dash lowered her head. “There was... this one pegasus. I knew her when I was really little. She could make lightning. But I've never known a pegasus since her that could do it.”
The three pronghorns shared a glance. “Very well,” Clive said. “So you have some understanding of the depth of difference between your ways and ours. We pronghorns make lightning. We have made it since our eldest days on the prairies of our native land. We made it and built the great summer storms around it. We made it and used it to burn the dead and stagnant plants, to start fires that cleared the way for new life. Do you know what it takes to make lightning?”
“Niles was telling me a little about it,” Dash answered. “Something about entering the Dreaming, which has to do with existence?”
“The Dreaming is where existence begins,” the elder pronghorn said. “I am a bit older and creakier than dear Niles. I have wandered the infinity of the Dreaming many times. I do it more now in my stretching years. The Dreaming is... below... and above... and around... all that exists. Not merely all life, but all that is touches it, grows up from it. The gods are always in the Dreaming. We mortals fill our minds and spirits with ourselves, so the Dreaming often has no space in us. It enters us, and we enter it, when we sleep, when our souls are stilled. It is then that we cease to move in the Dreaming- and then that the Dreaming starts to move us. That is important.” The party had reached the end of the tunnel, and was now stopped in front of a stone wall. There were thick, dark swirls drawn all over the rock. “To make lightning, you cannot move it. You must let it move you. It moves with the folds and wrinkles of the Dreaming. When the Dreaming moves you... the lightning will come.” Two blinding bolts of lightning erupted from Clive's horns. They struck the stone and began to writhe across it, curving and snapping and filling the air with light. For a flickering instant they perfectly matched the swirling lines drawn across the stone; then they vanished. The stone rumbled, and began to slowly sink into the ground.
When the way was clear, it opened into another large chamber, again drawn with swirls and an infinity of colors slashed with jagged lightning bolts of bold hues. There were glowing crystals on the walls here, but unlike the white light of the previous chambers, these crystals shone electric blue, casting that hue through the dark air. A small pond stood at the back of the cavern, still and clear. In the center of the cavern was a hole in the ground; beside it was a pile of long crystals, each one glowing faintly blue. At the edges of the walls, Dash could see large clay pots. Niles hung behind as she entered the room. There was another sizzle of electricity. Dash turned and saw a lightning bolt from Niles' horns strike the ground. The stone began to slowly rise back up, blocking the entrance.
“Rainbow Dash,” Clive said again. She turned toward him. “I must ask you one final question.”
Dash nodded. “Okay.”
“What do you want?”
“I...” the sky-blue pegasus stammered.
Audrey walked over to the hole in the ground. She picked up one of the blue crystals with her mouth and dropped it down the hole.
“What do you want?”
“I...” Dash was at a loss. What did she want? To be the fastest? To be the bravest? To be the best? Did she want to join the Wonderbolts? Did she want to save Twilight Sparkle? Did she want to fall in love? “I...”
Thick smoke began to rise out of the hole. It quickly reached the ceiling and began to billow outwards, slowly expanding in a cloud that swallowed the chamber inch by inch.
“What do you want?” Clive asked again. He began to slowly walk towards her. She could hear Niles coming up behind her. Audrey advanced on her from an angle.
“I...” Dash's breathing grew quicker. The smoke was almost upon her. “I... I want... I want so many things...”
What do you want.
The smoke swallowed her. It smelled faintly, pleasantly. She started to feel weak and light-headed.
“I...” she murmured, drawling out the pronoun.
What do you want.
She could not speak. The smoke filled her lungs. Her eyelids grew heavy.
What do you want.
The smoke pressed upon her from all sides. Her eyes slid shut. The heaviness of the smoke pressed down upon her and forced her into darkness.
Her eyes open in a vast blackness. Rainbow Dash feels strange, like she weighs far less than she should. Indeed, she feels as though she weighs nothing. She looks down-
“Whoa!” she exclaims.
Her whole body is a gleaming electric blue. Her mane, her eyes, her hooves, her wings, all of it shines in the infinite darkness around her. Startled, she takes a step backwards. The fall of her hoof on what seems to be the ground causes a ripple of light to pulse through the infinity. The ripple reveals lines of color, bursts of wrinkled white and black lines between which every conceivable hue is smeared. As instantly as the color appears it vanishes, leaving her in the empty dark once more.
What do you want.
Looking ahead, Dash sees the three pronghorns standing ahead of her in the blackness. One is gold, one is gray, one is green.
“Lightning is both of the Dreaming and of energy,” says the green one; Clive's voice. “It moves through both and it cannot be commanded. It can only be guided.”
“It can only be guided by you if you in turn allow yourself to be guided,” says the gold one. This is Audrey.
“You must move together, both in body and in soul, you and the lightning,” the gray one says in Niles' voice. “We shall teach you how to move now.”
What do you want.
In an instant all vanishes. The gleaming blue pegasus stands in the midst of a desert, a black desert with black rocks and black sand. Each structure has a stark white outline, standing it out against the vast blackness. She looks straight ahead as she hears a rumble, and as her bones begin to rattle. A huge herd of buffalo is bearing down on her, stretched across the horizon for miles. She thinks, No problem, I'll just- but she stops. Something isn't right. Looking over her shoulder, she yelps in surprise as she notices her wings are gone! She's an earth pony for all intents and purposes. The buffalo thunder closer. Dash begins to panic.
“Why do you fear?” a voice asks from her right.
She turns and sees Audrey, standing calmly at her side. “Are you kidding? There's a huge herd of buffalo coming right for us! I'm gonna be trampled! We're gonna die!”
“I have no fear of them,” the pronghorn says, turning to face the stampede. “Why do you?”
“Because I can't fly over them!” Dash exclaims, stomping her front hooves on the ground in a panic. “I'm stuck here on the ground!”
“You are not doomed for being grounded,” Audrey says. “Simply find a path through the herd.”
“There is no path!” Dash yells in a full panic.
“There is no straight path,” Audrey corrects her. “Many times there are no straight paths. Often, in fact. But that never means there is no path. There is always the crooked path. It is neither simple nor obvious. It rewards the observant as well as the patient. And it is frequently superior to the straight and simple path.”
Rainbow Dash says nothing. She looks at the coming buffalo herd. She scans it, breathing hard.
“Seek the crooked path,” Audrey whispers in her ear.
When Dash turns toward her, she is gone. Dash looks back at the herd. Every instinct in her mind is telling her to panic. Her natural urge is to turn tail and run. But she knows it won't save her; she cannot outrun the stampede. So she stops. She forces her breathing to slow. Her eyes that are normally rose-colored sweep over the front of the stampede, seeking openings, gaps, entrances. She finally spies a crevice between two great bulls. Stomping the ground with a front hoof, she charges, running flat out. She's in a panic- she is almost crying. What is she doing, running towards a stampede? But she forces down her fears and powers ahead, aiming for the gap. With her own speed added to the buffalo's, the herd is quickly upon her. She cuts left across the sand. The hooves are making the ground tremble. She reaches her gap and plunges into it.
She runs forward, the buffalo all around her. The line between the bulls is closed by a single rampaging cow. She takes a third of a second to pause and look- there's a gap between two more. She runs sideways, then turns sharp right and passes through the new gap. She runs it for a distance, but then faces a solid wall of buffalo. There seems to be no way forward, no way to avoid being trampled to death. Then she notices a small stump that a bull has just finished jumping over. She cuts sideways, weaving between buffalo as the next line of the stampede closes on her. Then in a straightaway she runs flat-out for the stump. A cow is headed right for the stump as well, huge head down, horns sharp. The line of buffalo meet her just as she reaches the stump. She jumps forward, aiming low, flattening out her entire body just as the cow makes a great leap of her own.
She feels the tips of the cow's hooves scrape across her back. Her belly scrapes the wood of the stump. She falls down into a forward roll that sends her tumbling through the black sand of the black desert. She's gasping and sputtering and clutching her gleaming blue hooves to her gleaming blue body. She looks ahead of her, and the space is clear and empty. She looks behind her, and the buffalo continue on their way. The herd is past. Rainbow Dash gasps out a breath.
What do you want.
In an instant she is no longer in a desert. Where before she was without water, now water is everywhere. She is in the middle of a black ocean, no land in sight on any horizon. The waves surge around her. Once more, she has no wings. Panic grips her again. She doesn't know how to swim! She thrashes about in the water, sending splashes and ripples through the salty expanse. She dips below the water, making her panic further. She churns and swirls in the water, tumbling down and down into the ocean depths. There is a black ocean bottom beneath her, black sand snaking between piles of black, jagged rocks. Black coral sticks up and out of crevices. She's helpless and frightened, striking out with every limb, swishing her tail, throwing her head around every direction. She sinks all the way to the bottom.
“If you flail, you sink,” a voice says nearby. She can hear it even underwater. She turns her head and sees Clive, standing calmly on the sandy ocean floor. His green glow lights the black water around her.
She finds she can speak too. “I can't swim!” she screams, not noticing that she doesn't seem to need to breathe.
“Why do you flail? The water is calm. There is no storm to avoid.”
“I... I'm so scared... please help me!”
Clive raises his eyebrows. “When you must resist- when you must fight- do so. But when you musn't... don't. Allow yourself to be carried.” He smiles gently at her. “If you flail, you sink. So be calm... and float.”
Dash closes her eyes tightly. When she opens them again, Clive is gone. “F-f-float,” she whispers, stammering with fear. She forces herself to stop moving. Her legs gradually still. She even stops moving her tail. She holds her breath and makes herself motionless, closing her eyes again. She can feel herself rising, but she dares not open her eyes. She finally feels the water break across her back, feels the crisp warmth of the dry air. She raises her head and opens her eyes. She is floating. “I did it!” she exclaims.
What do you want.
She is no longer in the ocean. Now she is standing on a thick limb of wood. At first she thinks she's on a particularly large branch of a particularly large tree. Then she notices the leaves. They are maple leaves, and they are enormous. They're bigger than she is. The branch she's on isn't very big. She's very small. She turns around and looks up. A tree bigger than her imagination soars up through the sky, branches rising up and up further than she can see. Stars light the sky above her. The leaves around her are white. Suddenly, a breeze blows, catching her and nearly tearing her off her hooves. Panicking, she wraps all four legs around the branch, but this forces her to look down, and the distance to the ground below fills her with even more fear. She is wingless yet again. It's like when she was a foal, when Firefly threw her off the cloud. She was afraid then, afraid for the very first time. That was when the fear started, and it's been with her all her life.
“Do not fear the fall,” a voice says. She turns her head. Niles is standing on an enormous leaf, as calm as if he were chatting with her over tea.
“B-but... if I fall without my wings... I'll die!” Dash cries.
Niles shakes his head. “Not if you let yourself be carried,” he says gently. The breeze blows again, yanking some of the enormous maple leaves off of their stems. They spin and twist through the air, flitting through the dark sky as they begin their gentle, ambling fall. “Consider the leaves upon the tree. They fall without wings, traveling the paths of empty space. Yet they reach the ground in their time, safe and sound. The wind carries them, and they are content with its guidance.” Another breeze blows, and the leaf Niles is standing on is yanked away. “You must be as a leaf on the wind,” he says before he floats out of sight.
The wind howls, yanking off leaf after leaf around her. Rainbow Dash is so afraid. She clings tightly to the branch. The ground is so far away. She thinks about what Niles says. “Carried,” she whispers. The wind picks up, a strong breeze. She unclenches her legs. The wind yanks her off the branch. Her stomach drops as she spins and swirls through the vast empty air. She spreads her legs wide, flattening herself, trying to be as leaflike as she can be. The wind blows around her. It billows beneath her, lifting her up, twisting her around. She spins, seeing the tree then the sky then the tree again. It is not so frightening as she thought. Dash flips and spirals, headed ever toward the ground. She seems to move more slowly the closer she gets. A strong breeze blows her along the surface of a pond; she skims it with her hooves. She has completely given up trying to steer herself. She goes where the wind takes her. At the other side of the pond, it sets her down. She alights gently on her hooves, grateful for the earth beneath them.
What do you want.
The pronghorns stand around her again.
“What do you want?” Clive asks her.
“I...”
“What do you want?” Audrey asks her.
There are a thousand things she wants. She's not entirely sure if she wants them or not.
“What do you want?” Niles asks her.
What does she want? She's always telling herself what she wants. But has she ever honestly asked the question? The pronghorns now stand in front of her. She looks right at them. “What should I want?” she asks.
Niles arches an eyebrow. “What do you think?”
She thinks. The Dreaming pulses around her, rainbows of color flashing between black and white. She can feel so much around her. So much life. Some outside the Dreaming, some inside, some both ways. So much being. “I...” she begins. “I want to... be.”
The pronghorns smile.
“Hello, Dash.”
Rainbow Dash's spectral body feels its throat constrict. Her whole astral form shudders. She knows that voice. She barely notices that the pronghorns have vanished again. Slowly, fearing every movement, she turns around. Standing right behind her is a pegasus pony. Unlike the rest of the Dreaming, she doesn't gleam a solid color. Her coat is hot pink. Her mane and tail are bright blue. There are two blue lightning bolts on either flank. Her eyes are lavender-hued. Dash steps back. “You're not real,” she says, her voice grows thick. “You're just something from the Dreaming again. You...” tears well up in her eyes, “you're not real!”
“Dash,” Firefly says, stepping slowly forward. “Dash, Rainbow Dash, look me in the eyes. Look at me.” The gleaming blue pegasus looks. “Look into my eyes, Dash. I promised I would never lie to you. I never did, I never will, and I would never let anything lie to you about me.” She beams at Dash. “I'm here, Dash. It's me.”
Dash rushes the hot pink pegasus, tears streaming down her face. She leans her head against Firefly's and bawls, sobbing with all her might, happy and sad mixed all together in her heart. “I missed you! I missed you so much!”
“I missed you too,” Firefly says, stroking Dash under the chin with her hoof. “My brave little Dash... you've gotten so big and strong.” Firefly pulls away, her lavender eyes moist. “I wish I could have been by your side as you grew up. I've watched you all these years, but it's not the same.”
“But how are you here now?” Dash whispers, wiping her eyes with her hoof. “You're... you're gone. You're in the Summer Lands.”
“And I'm still there, but I'm also here,” Firefly says. “Remember what the pronghorns said. Past, present, future, life, death... in the Dreaming, all Is. Being never ends. That's the secret. The energy is still there.”
“The lightning!” Dash exclaims. It all suddenly makes sense. Lightning. Energy. Being.
“That's it,” Firefly says. “The lightning is being. Being is the Dreaming.” She sighed. “I wish I could have helped you learn this myself, but I think this way may be better. I'm not sure I could have been a better teacher than the ones who taught me.”
“Nopony could be a better teacher,” the gleaming blue pegasus says.
“Maybe,” the hot pink pegasus says softly. “What I've learned... as I am now... is that every real teacher wants their students to be better than them. And you're so much better than I was, Rainbow Dash. You've done the impossible and you've helped save the world and you've made so many wonderful friends. I hope someday you'll find your own foals to teach. And if you do, hope and pray that at least one of them is better than you.”
“I'm better in my own way,” Dash says, “but nopony is better than you at being you.” She knows that both she and Firefly are right.
“I'll grant you that,” Firefly says. She looks Rainbow Dash up and down. She smiles. “I think you're ready. I think you've done it, Dash. And I think it's time for you to wake up now.”
“No!” Dash says, fresh tears springing to her eyes. “Please, no! I've just now seen you! Don't leave me again!” She starts to cry.
Firefly closes to Dash and nuzzles her tenderly. “Dash, I'll never leave you. I never have left you. You can't see me, and I can't touch you... but I'm in your heart, Dash. I'm on your back. I'm the wind beneath your wings. I am always with you. I love you, and I'll never stop loving you.” She pulls back. “Do you understand?”
“I...”
“Dash,” Firefly says seriously. “Understand.”
Rainbow Dash closes her spectral blue eyes. She can feel the Dreaming breathing, in and out. It breathes with her. It is. She is. All is. The lightning is. “You are and always will be,” the gleaming blue pegasus says.
“Yes,” Firefly says. She begins to fade, slowly, gradually becoming more transparent. “And that means I'm always with you.”
“And I'm always with you,” Dash says. She closes her eyes. She can feel Firefly. She's growing more sensitive. She can feel Applejack. She can feel Rarity. She can feel Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. She can feel her parents. She can feel Spike. She can feel Ashtail and Shield Maiden. She can feel so much.
“Rainbow Dash,” Firefly says. Dash opens her eyes and looks at the fading hot pink pegasus. “I must ask you one final question.”
Dash smiles. “Okay.”
“What are you?”
“What are you?”
“What are you?”
“What are you?”
Rainbow Dash holds her head up high. “I AM.”
The Dreaming surges upon her from every direction. She is completely still. Her mind is empty of every thought. The infinity of colors closes around her and overwhelms her. It enters her from everywhere, filling her with color and being. She closes her eyes. She is everything.
The lighting comes. The lighting is the Dreaming. Every line of white or black is lightning, splitting the colors and setting them ablaze. The lighting fills her, swirling and spiraling through her body, lifting her up and dragging her down and pulling her apart and pushing her together. She does nothing. She says nothing. She thinks nothing.
She is!
“By Jove,” a voice said through rapidly dissolving layers of darkness, “I think she's got it.”
Rainbow Dash's eyes slowly opened, blinking gently. It took her a few moments to adjust to the darkness. The smoke had cleared away, leaving the cavern open and free, still lit by the gleaming blue crystals. Shaking her head, Dash rose to her hooves, trembling slightly.
“Are you all right?” Audrey said, closing to her side to steady her. “Sometimes creatures are a bit woozy when they've spent time in the Dreaming.”
“I'm okay,” Dash croaked, her voice hoarse. Niles was standing right in front of her; she met his eyes. He was smiling. “So... did I do it?”
“I think you did,” the pronghorn said, tilting his head to the side. “Though I can't be absolutely certain. That was... different. It wasn't like the times I've guided new Messengers through a Dreaming journey. Mayhaps it's down to you being a pony.”
“What did you see, there at the end?” Clive asked, his sharp voice drawing her attention. “We couldn't tell what was happening to you.”
Dash smiled. “I met somepony very important to me,” she said. She broke her gaze, glancing down toward her hooves on the ground- “Huh?!” she stepped back. Her wings flapped- she had wings again! Fluttering off the ground, she spun in the air, looking in surprise at her front legs. She noticed the pool at the corner of her eye and flew rapidly to it. She plopped down and bent over, looking into the still waters. Thick dark swirls were drawn all over her body. They curled like ferns around her haunches, they spiraled across her flanks, they traced delicately up her wings, they wrapped around her legs, they coiled about her neck, they swirled around her eyes and circled around her cheeks and ears. She turned around and around, taking in their full extent. “What are these?”
“They are sigils,” Audrey said as the pronghorns moved to join her. “They trace the path the lightning takes as it moves through your body. It is also the path the Dreaming takes when it enters a physical body.”
“Because the lighting is the Dreaming, right?” Dash said.
The three pronghorns exchanged glances. “Why... yes, that's correct,” Clive said.
“You guys could have just told me that from the beginning,” the sky-blue pegasus said.
“It was too simple for you,” Niles said. “You needed to come to the wisdom yourself. The sigils act as a focusing aid: they will help lightning follow its ideal path through your body, allowing you to learn finer summoning and guiding skills. In time you won't need them, but for now keep them on.”
“Don't worry,” Audrey said, “they're waterproof.”
“Then how will I get them off?” Dash asked.
“Grape jelly!” Clive said brightly. Dash looked curiously at him. “Seriously, that's what it takes. Smear it on you then take a bath. And when you're done, you can use the rest of the jelly on some Prongish muffins with orange juice.”
“You guys are so weird,” Dash said with a laugh. “But it's really cool.”
“Well?” Niles said. “Are you going to give it a try?”
It took Dash a moment to realize what he meant. She took several deep breaths. Being is lightning, she told herself, lighting is being. Lightning is the Dreaming and the Dreaming is in all things. Her breathing slowed. She didn't make the lightning come. She didn't order it. She opened her being up. She could feel something beyond herself rushing in. Then, gently, she applied her mind. She closed herself slightly. She raised her left hoof, opened herself about it.
A coil of blinding white snaked up her front leg. Rainbow Dash smiled. She opened her other leg, and another coil of lighting appeared. She touched her front hooves together, then drew them apart. A lightning bolt wavered in the air between them, sizzling and crackling and filling the air with light. With a laugh, Dash rose to her hooves. She opened her wings and then she opened them. Sparks crackled between every feather, popping like firecrackers.
She turned back to the pronghorns, and they all stamped their hooves loudly on the ground. “Well done!” Niles said happily. “And a most successful experiment it's proven to be!”
“I'll need to tell the other Jovai about this,” Clive said. “Never before have I heard of any other creature learning to use lightning in the pronghorn style.”
Dash smiled secretly. I bet they'll tell you there was one other.
“Congratulations, dearie!” Audrey exclaimed. “Oh, this calls for a celebration! Shall we break out the bubbly?”
“I think I've got a bottle of Dom Ponygnon under my bed somewhere,” Niles said.
Audrey narrowed her eyes. “Keeping a fine sparkler like that under your bed? Shame on you, you'll ruin it! What kind of pronger doesn't know how to take care of sparkling wine?”
“I'll have you know I've kept sparkling wines under my beds across the world and they've always popped open in smashing shape!”
“Quiet!” Clive snapped. The two younger pronghorns were silent. In the quiet, a faint ringing could be heard, like the chiming of a bell. “The alert,” he said. He dashed to the stone doorway, shooting a lightning bolt at it. The sinking stone door wasn't even all the way down before he leapt over it.
“What's going on?” Dash asked, following close behind Niles and Audrey.
“It's the message alert!” Niles told her. “We make our rounds among the rulers of nearby countries over two week periods, but we also give them magical chimes they can use to transmit messages right to us in spell form. They typically use them for messages that have to go out at odd hours.”
The three creatures ran down the tunnel and back into the main cavern with its great ceiling drawing of the Dreaming. Off to the righthand side near the entrance was a nook Rainbow Dash hadn't noticed before. Inside, a pointed needle of stone was hanging from the ceiling. It was vibrating now, the source of the chiming noise they had heard. Clive was leaning his head towards it, and Dash noticed that his antlers were vibrating in unison. He pulled back as they approached. “It's the Princess again,” he said, turning toward them. “The same message as it's been, for all three of us.”
“You mean Princess Celestia?” Dash asked.
“The same,” Clive said. “She wants the word delivered by morning at all her destinations: Tesnia, Dromedor, and Salamar.”
“Blech,” Audrey said. “That means we'll need to leave right now!” She turned to Dash. “Sorry, Dashy, the celebration will have to wait.”
“I'll take Dromedor,” Niles said. “I've been handling short hops the last few times, so I'll shoulder the long journey this time.”
“Salamar's nearly as far,” Audrey said. “I'll take that one. I've never been to Salamar.”
“Whatever you do, don't eat the purple peppers,” Clive said. “And don't tell the Longs they look like dragons. They hate hearing that. I'll go to Tesnia.” He turned to Dash. “As Audrey says, the celebration will have to wait for another day.” He leaned his head toward the stone needle again; Audrey and Niles came to stand by his side and leaned their heads in as well. A wavering image of Princess Celestia shimmered off of the needle. It split into three identical images, each of them coming to rest between each pronghorn's horns, where it hovered for a moment before slowly fading away.
“So what message is Princess Celestia sending?” Dash asked.
“The same one she's been sending for the past six months,” Niles said. “She's run us a bit ragged, truth be told- sent us all over the world. She wants every god and king and ruler to know that her sister is back.”
“Awwww,” Dash squealed. “That's so nice! She wants them all to known about Princess Luna!”
“Nice and preemptive,” Clive remarked. He turned away from the needle and began to walk towards the entrance. “With Luna resuming control of the Moon, there are bound to be at least some slight irregularities in the lunar cycle. I think this is Celestia's way of heading off complaints from every other nation on Earth.” Stepping into the tall entrance chamber, Clive sent up a lightning bolt from his horns. The sound of grinding stone filled the air. “My dear Rainbow Dash,” he said, turning to her. “You have my congratulations and my awe. I wasn't really sure you could do it. You have passed the test.” He smiled. “And that means you're an honorary member of the Pronghorn Network.”
“Really?!” Dash exclaimed.
“Really,” Clive said. “So you're welcome at any Waystation of ours you come across, anywhere in the world. You know how to get in, now.” The stone ramp finally reached the bottom of the chamber. “Farewell,” Clive said, “and good luck.” With a final nod of his head, he turned and began to sprint up the ramp.
“Goodbye, dearie,” Audrey said, coming close and nuzzling her. “I promise we'll have some of that wine another time. Hey, now we're just a bolt away for you! You should pop by again, even once you're back in Equestria!”
“I definitely will!” Dash said, nuzzling the female pronghorn. “You be safe, okay? And... uh... what Clive said about the Longs or whatever.”
“Indeedy,” Audrey said. “Ta-ta!” She sprinted up the stone ramp as well.
Niles was the only one left. The pronghorn and the pegasus turned to look at each other. He smiled. “I wish I could say I knew you could do it,” he said softly, “but in truth there was a moment where I doubted. I'm sorry.”
“Don't be!” Rainbow Dash said, rushing in and nuzzling him around his thin nose. “You have no idea how much this means to me. I paid off a really old debt tonight.”
“Old debts are the best debts to pay off, that's one thing I've learned,” Niles said, turning and heading for the ramp. Rainbow Dash followed him, and he kept to a brisk walk. “I hope to run into you from time to time. I stop by Canterlot at least once a fortnight, sometimes even once a week.”
“I'll try and be in Canterlot some time soon,” Dash said. “I'd love to hear all about your journey to... where are you going again?”
“Dromedor!” Niles exclaimed brightly. “Land of the camels! Very hot and very sandy. Lots of old stone cities and statues to strange gods. You should go there some time!”
They emerged into the moonlight, the wind blowing faintly across the silvery grasses. Niles waited until Dash was off the ramp before he fired a lightning bolt at it, causing it to close itself up with the rumble of grinding stone. “Well,” he said simply, “I guess this is goodbye for now.”
“I guess- ohmigosh!” Dash exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “The Beneviolet! You said you would get the Beneviolet!”
“I said I would get it if I had free time,” the pronghorn said. “I'm so sorry, Dash, but our duty to rulers and royals comes first. Those are our official priorities. I must abide by them.”
“B-but we need you!” the sky-blue pegasus cried. “Who can get the Beneviolet in time except you?”
Niles smiled. “Why, you can, Rainbow Dash. You're as fast as we are, now.”
“But... I'm still so new at this.”
“You are as ready now as you will ever be- and you are braver than many a pronghorn I've known,” he said. “Your friend is in good hooves with you, my dear Rainbow Dash.”
Dash sighed, saddened by the loss of help for Twilight Sparkle. “I suppose so.” She looked up at Niles and smiled faintly. “Thank you for believing in me.”
“As I said, I doubted,” Niles told her. “You believed in yourself above all, and in the end that made the difference.”
Dash's smile grew broader. “Goodbye, Niles. Thanks.”
“The pleasure was all mine, dear Rainbow Dash,” Niles Nigellus said. He reached for her front leg, bent his head, and kissed her hoof. He trotted away from her and turned to the south. “And remember!” he called to her, bending low, leaning forward. “When the world is in chaos, remember: keep calm,” he lowered his head, “be patient,” sparks flashed at his hooves, “and ride the lightning!” An eruption of white light blinded Dash. When she opened her eyes again, a lightning bolt stretched across the fields away from her. In an eyeblink it was gone.
Rainbow Dash stood in silence for a few minutes. She turned her head to the east, toward the distant forms of the Drackenridge Mountains. She looked down at her hooves covered in the swirling sigils. She smiled sneakily. Let's do this.
She turned her whole body to the east. She flattened her wings against her side. She breathed in slowly, breathed out slowly. She fluttered her eyes, drifting them closed then shooting them open. She recalled what she had felt, what had come to her heart. Firefly's words. Lightning is being. The whole universe was lightning, then- bolts of lighting plucked like strings to make what was. She drew her own string across the world. She made herself be just that much more, and the lightning came to her. She opened her spirit up. She could feel sparks racing down her legs.
I am always with you.
Rainbow Dash opened herself to the Dreaming, to Being itself. She could see the crooked path before her. She was still- she floated. The world around her blazed white-
“I am a leaf on the wind.” It came- she grabbed and she rode.
She moved faster than the world. It was faster than sound. She opened her eyes, felt no wind resistance because she was beyond the wind. The world was a blur. Yet when she looked she saw stillness- like snapshots, like photographs. A glance and she saw komagas far off. A glance and she saw Thatchholm looming from its great foundation. A glance and the Drackenridge Mountains appeared whole and solid. A glance behind her and she was leaving a trail of white infinity. The mountains were right in front of her she hit them and went up them, shot higher and higher, breathless and there in instants in seconds in heartbeats-
She pushed off with her legs and she shot skyward at an angle, a CRACK making her look down and see where a chunk of the mountain was blasted off by the force of her lightning. She closed off her spirit and the lightning vanished, she still sailed skyward, rising another hundred feet before she slowed, and then she remembered to open her wings, flapping hard to bring herself to a hover. She looked down. She looked around.
She was above the Drackenridge Mountains. Turning to the east, she could see the darkness of the Everfree Forest, and very far off, the lights of Ponyville. A journey of nine days hard galloping- she'd made it in thirty seconds.
Her mouth stretched into the biggest smile she'd ever smiled. She opened her spirit, gathered the lighting around her, but didn't ride it- merely carried it in her wake. “WOOHOO!!” she whooped, soaring through the night sky, trailing white lightning. She flew through clouds, felt the lightning hiding in them, stretched her spirit to them and pulled, calling forth their lightning bolts, letting them strike her, letting them swirl and spiral through her leaving her safe and whole. She was ablaze. She was radiant. She felt no fear!
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That was indeed some really trippy stuff.
What did you write this on and where can I get some?
Wow, Dashie really seemed ecstatic about her new skill.
So far I really love the story, but you seem to love describing colored eyes.
"Her eyes that are normally rose-colored..."
As opposed to her other eyes, I presume?
Also, at least in this chapter, about 20% of the time you talk about "lightning," you skip the "n," spelling "lighting." Example:
"The lighting comes. The lighting is the Dreaming. Every line of white or black is lightning, splitting the colors and setting them ablaze. The lighting fills her, swirling and spiraling through her body, lifting her up and dragging her down and pulling her apart and pushing her together. She does nothing. She says nothing. She thinks nothing."
A simple Find-and-Replace would probably work, although I'm not sure if you ever used the word "lighting" purposely.
Nevertheless, it is brilliant so far, and I do love the world-building especially. These are the only two major issues I have, which is actually quite good.
My favorite chapter thus far. Gotta agree with 4275753, though. Lots of instances of "lighting" instead of "lightning."
Good thing I like trippy.
And it the Dreaming, everything is described in the present tense. Where everything is rather than was. I see what you did there.
Serenity? Just when I think this story can't get more awesome, there's a possible reference to Serenity.
The deep philosophy of this deserved an upvote all of it's own.
Careful Dash, that's a good way to get impaled.
reminds me of the guitar trip from W:TNO
Go, Rainbow. I believe in you.
I knew you could do it.
It is at this point that I wish to mention... listening to Radiarc and Night Breeze's music while reading this is greatly enhancing my experience. Not that you need any help, you wonderful storyteller, you.
I've noticed that in this chapter in particular, you eased up a lot on the LUS. I'll see if you can't keep it going.
And Rainbow Dash is OP. Awww yeah!
Total occurrences of "sky-blue/cyan/rainbow-maned pegasus" so far: 84
Total occurrences of "the lavender unicorn" so far: 23
Total occurrences of "the white unicorn" so far: 53
Total occurrences of "the butter-yellow pegasus" so far: 11
Total occurrences of "the orange (earth) pony" so far: 76
Total occurrences of "the pink (earth) pony" so far: 10
Total other occurrences of descriptions of characters by ways other than their name: 148
POWEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRR! UUUUUUNLIIIIIIIIMITED POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!
I'm loving this story so far. Glad I finally took the time to read through it.
I thought this story was good, but until last chapter I was skeptical of its status as one of the best pony fics ever. Now I am convinced that this is an absolutely fantastic story. Will need to finish reading before I can really rank it amongst other stories though.
That was awesome.
-Spirit
"Follow the crooked path." I've done that before. But unlike going against a flow of buffalo, I was going in the same direction through a crowd of slower racers, finding my ever-changing path to the front.
I enjoy it.
A great chapter.
hi, me again, awesome story so far! I found another epub mistake, this time the chapeter cuts off in the bold text, at the first word rainbow says(the colored one) in the dreaming... but now i need to go back to reading! so awesome!
I
I just
I love you
... Did... did Rainbow Dash of all ponies... Rainbow Dash just gain flipping Enlightenment?!?!
Realising the ultimate oneness of reality... Twilight, yeah I can see her doing that but... Rainbow Dash?
Wow, and it totally worked too. I'm just flabbergasted... also slightly fanboying over the philosophical side of things, since you described that very very well and it's quite a beautiful piece of philosophy anyway. Reminded me a great deal of the ultimate oneness of the universe in Hindu philosophy.
Really? I only got that conclusion after years of thinking! And not a week after I finally get it, I find this, with it all wrapped up neatly in a little rainbow. I guess you're right though, I wouldn't quite mean as much if I hadn't figured it out myself.
This was the best chapter of the entire story by far. I read... I think 12, 13, and most of this one while at school today. I teared up on more than one occasion. Dash's retelling of her foalhood and why she needed to be able to control lightning was amazing, and then the actual process in the Dreaming wrapped it all together. I'll tell you, I squee'd a tad bit when you mentioned Firefly in this as Dash's teacher, and then I wanted to strangle you for what you did to her. Then... then I cried dammit when she and Dash were reunited in the Dreaming. When reading the Firefly part last chapter... or the chapter before that, I could see where everything was going. Still, it didn't detract in the slightest. These last few chapters have been the best in the whole story.
I like what you've been doing with the characters on the journey, and I think I see a pattern. Dash had her resolution and finally got to tame the lightning. Applejack... hers is a tad bit more obscure. She helped the Gildedale ponies end their komaga problem and... probably brought about a new way of life for them. Also, she's been "leading" the whole journey, so she's had her stuff. I guess Rarity is up next, and her need to teleport will finally outweigh her fear of messing it up, so she'll do it. That's my theory. For now though, even though Dash has her crazy lightning riding powers, I think they're all going to continue on their journey together. They've gone that far, even though Dash could have done it all faster herself, so I think they'll finish it up. Now she can send it back to them nearly instantly with Dash if need be. Oh gosh, this story just went from a little above average in my eyes to friggin' amazing. I can't wait to read on!
Lastly, I couldn't help but think of this picture when you described the pattern on Dash's body and the lightning dancing off her hooves at that one point. fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2015/005/1/d/vigors_are_your_friends__rd_by_underpable-d8cq6tf.png
~SolidFire
If I'm reading your descriptions of The Dreaming correctly, the Luna of this universe is several orders of magnitude more powerful and influential than canon!Luna.
This universe's Discord is in for quite a shock.
I'll let myself out.
(Is it safe to come back in yet?)
Really nice touch with the "isness" of The Dreaming pulling the story into present tense; the colors added a lot as well.
At this point, I'm trying to think of justifiable reasons why they would continue on the journey after Rainbow flashes up the mountain to get the flower and they send it back to Twilight. Because I don't understand how they could possibly not do that, but I don't want the story to end any time soon…
Watch how she soars.
First off, this. If this isn't a my fair lady reference it should be and I love you for it either way.
Second, WOW. Writing present tense, and writing it well, Especially when you consider it's a shift from the rest of the story written in standard past tense. Jesus. But the way the dreaming is portrayed. Everything in the dreaming, IS. not was not will be, but IS, It just made sense once I realized that. And it was so well done as well, that when the tense shifted back from is's to was's It felt awkward to read for a moment. I don't know if you realize quite how impressive being able to write in present tense so well is. but Just wow. This story just keeps getting better and better and I love it.
Also Feel like "I am a leaf on the wind" is a reference to firefly/serenity here.
When I first read “Hello, Dash”, my immediate reaction was "Pinkie Pie, what are you already doing in enlightenment?", followed by "ah, so that must be how she can teleport, etc - already enlightened". I preferred where the author went with the pink text over my initial reaction :).
And when they return to Ponyville, Dash will relate her story of enlightenment to her friends, only to be scoffed at by Pinkie. All that exists within reality? Pfft. She can work outside of reality.
That was really crazy... but you pulled it off.
This all worked really well together with the setup from previous chapters of seeing the lightning and Rainbow Dash talking about it off and on the entire time.
Good show!
5084552
I've always thought Dash had a hidden spiritual side.
Whoa. Reminds me of the idea that everything exists in the mind from Buddhist/some strands of Ancient Greek thought. All is one, all is the Dreaming. Very deep, I loved it.
Wow! What a truly powerful an marvellous chapter.
Very, very well done.
Rainbow Dash is the Flash, confirmed.
Run Dash, Run.
Yes please!
Oh ho, I certainly got excited for this.
This was definitely a fun chapter, I think a lot of the "philosophy" has gone right over my head. It seemed more spiritual?
The lightning seems a little arbitrary to me. Everything is the same as the Dreaming so the dreaming is being and everyone is connected to the dreaming because they're alive? But then what does lightning have to do with this wholeism?
The colored text was a lot of fun. Using bold on the descriptive paragraphs felt a little weird, it lends a lot of impact to each individual word. Sentences feel like lines of bricks instead of a continuous object. Though I got used to it fairly quick.
I like how casually the Waystation is nestled deep into bedrock and pronghorns just live underground. I like the whole feel of the space. The crystal lighting really contributed to the atmosphere.
West horses!