II

by adcoon

II.2 - Breathless

For a brief second before she woke, Rainbow thought she heard crying. Then it was gone, and everything felt different. Her mind insisted for quite some time after waking that she had just been in a different place where somepony had been crying, but now she was here. And it didn't feel like a dream.

As she lay there trying to gather her senses, something brushed past her briefly. She shivered and rolled up uneasily. It wasn't like anything physical. It wasn't like a breeze of air. It was like a faint sound, a sound that you couldn't hear but which touched your skin and made the little hairs stand up. There was a gentle clink of something being put down on a table, and a … presence moved through the room without a sound. Not a real sound, at least. Rainbow shivered again and opened her eyes, frightened of what she might see.

It took a moment before the room came into focus. It was a strange room. The beautiful white stone walls with gentle curving patterns were bare. There were no windows, only a single door of frosted glass and silvery metal. A long table was set along the wall opposite the door and lined with small boxes, bottles, and tiny plants in pots. A soft carpet covered the center of the floor, and a small tree grew from a large pot in the corner. It was a beautiful room gently lit by a soft, relaxing light. It wasn't immediately clear what it was, but something was off about the room. It was too beautiful. It was pristine and perfect, and yet it had a rough character like a natural cave underneath it. It felt unreal.

Rainbow turned her head a little, wincing at a sharp pain in her hind leg. She was lying on a bed of soft pillows, and a blanket had been tucked around her. It was so soft and warm it was almost painful to imagine getting up. There was nopony else in the room but she could have sworn there had been a second ago, and yet the door was closed. She lay back and let her eyes glide around the room again. Something else was bothering her, something much more vexing than the strange light and unreal beauty.

She wrinkled her nose a little. She couldn't smell anything, nothing at all. And then it dawned on her, and she panicked. She let out a cry and held up her hooves to her mouth, staring at them. She would have tried to calm her breath, but there was nothing to calm. She couldn't breathe … didn't breathe!

“How … how is this possible?” she said aloud and marveled at hearing her own voice despite the lack of air. It was a little tired and sounded weak, but it was there. It made no sense. She lay back heavily and stared at the wall.

The door opened soundlessly, and something entered the room again. Rainbow tensed as the strange feeling from before returned, sending a shiver down her spine. She couldn't hide and didn't dare to move. A light flickered, and something moved across the room, barely visible. Rainbow recognized it as a pony, or pony shaped, with wings and a horn. It was just a faint light gliding soundlessly through the air, and yet it made her hair stand up as if it had made a sound, a kind of sound that you didn't hear but only felt.

The ghost didn't seem to notice her. It stopped at the long table and set down a small vial it had been carrying, putting it next to another vial very carefully and neatly. Then it turned and drifted back towards the door without a word.

“H-hey!” Rainbow burst out nervously as her desire for answers overcame her fear. “Hey, y-you!” she repeated, more strongly now, but the apparition didn't seem to hear. Rainbow glared at the thing now. “Hey, I'm talk—” she began and stopped when it disappeared. It didn't even pass through the door but simply dimmed and flickered, and then it was gone.

She stared at the door and the empty air where the ghost had been. “Hay if I'm going to just lie here,” she said after a while and slowly sat up, while carefully trying not to move her broken leg too much. She threw off the blanket and looked herself over. Somepony had cleaned and bandaged her wounds while she was asleep. It looked very neat.

She spread her wings, expecting pain, and relaxed when it only hurt a bit. With renewed confidence she set off, beating her wings and being careful not to move her broken leg. It still hurt, but she could handle it. She pushed the door open and slipped out into the corridor beyond, looking up and down the place. It was the same beautiful structure with white walls and glass doors. The floor was set with elegant mosaics, glittering in the strange sourceless light.

Rainbow turned and flew down the line of doors to where the corridor seemed to take a turn. She rounded the corner and came into a large hall. The sight made her stop. Tall columns of carved stone rose to a domed ceiling in which thick crystal windows shined down upon a grand mosaic in the floor. Several ghostly ponies were drifting about, paying no attention to Rainbow or each other as they went about keeping the place clean. They flickered in and out, sometimes disappearing for a few seconds.

Annoyed and rather unnerved by the ghosts and their lack of response, Rainbow decided to ignore them. There had to be somepony else in this place who could talk. She turned to the end of the hall and a grand metal door. She approached and reached out to push it open.

A strange tingling feeling made her stop. It felt like somepony was smiling expectantly at her somewhere in the back of her head. She blinked and turned around just in time to see Blaze trotting up a flight of stairs at the other end of the hall.

“Oh, hey Dash,” the Shadowbolt said and approached her when he saw her. “You shouldn't be up and about like that, you know,” he said with a friendly smile.

“Oh yeah? Why not?” Rainbow demanded, although it didn't come out quite as forcefully as she had intended it to. The smile was disarming, turning her anger into a kind of uncertain annoyance. He had taken off his uniform and tamed his mane. She noticed his coat had a white strip down the middle of his face, a blaze, normally covered by the uniform. He looked quite handsome in the strange light.

“Your leg, for one,” he said and pointed. “You really should rest so it can heal properly. Come on.” He turned and trotted back towards the room where she had woken up.

Rainbow wanted to protest but instead sighed and followed him. She glanced, still uneasily, at one of the ghosts as it passed by obliviously on its way to some menial task. “What are they?”

“Wisps. Don't worry about them,” Blaze replied as he pushed the door to the room open and went inside. “They just keep the place nice and do the odd job. They aren't much company.”

“Are they … ghosts?” Rainbow said as she lay down on the pillows, wincing as her leg hurt.

“Nah, I think they're just some kind of magic servants. They can't really think. They just do what they're told. I never really asked about it.” He walked up to the table and picked up some bandages and a long, flat piece of wood that hadn't been there earlier. “Now just lie still while I bind up that leg so the bone can heal properly.”

Rainbow wondered if he was the one who had cleaned her wounds and bandaged her earlier, but she didn't ask. She blushed slightly as he placed the wood against her leg and began tying the bandage around it tightly. It hurt. “Whose servants?” she managed to ask through clenched teeth. “What is this place?”

“Lady Eden. This is her place, I guess. Or one of them. We just … well, call it 'the place' or something, really. It's sufficed so far,” he said and smiled at her.

“Lady Eden?” Rainbow repeated skeptically. It didn't ring any bells, but a vague memory did present itself. “Your friend mentioned a Queen?”

“Yeah. Frostfell likes to call her the Queen.” He paused briefly in his work. “Frostfell likes to call ponies things. I just call her Eden because that's what she wants us to call her. I respect that.”

Rainbow watched him continue. He worked carefully but firmly, skillfully tending to the leg. “Well, I've never heard of her,” she said, gritting her teeth as he tightened the thin fabric.

“You'll meet her later, once you're feeling better,” he said and finished with a satisfied nod. “So how are you feeling? It was quite a mess we got you out of.”

“Odd,” Rainbow said flatly. “Am I dead?” It didn't seem such a silly question now. The brief … dream earlier, the strange light, the pristine rooms and grand halls, somepony named Eden. Only the pain seemed out of place if she was dead.

Blaze tilted his head at her. “I know I'm not,” he said. “So I don't think you are either, but I have to say you're remarkably good at holding your breath.”

“You know?”

He nodded. “It's very hard not to notice, especially when carrying somepony, that they're not breathing. I would have thought you were already lost when we found you if it wasn't because I could feel your heart beating.” He was still smiling. For some reason it made her blush again.

“And you're not worried about it?” Rainbow asked, holding up a hoof to her neck. It was reassuring to feel the heart beat, even if she wasn't sure how it could. She had never paid great attention in physiology class back in Cloudsdale, but she was pretty sure lungs and heart kinda depended on each other to work.

“Nah, you look fine.” Again she felt a little warm at what sounded like a simple statement yet somehow felt like a compliment. “Something happened out there, but I'm no expert on … magic stuff like that. I leave that to others. Eden will know, have no doubt.”

Rainbow frowned. “I want to see her now, then,” she said and moved to get up.

“She'll send for you. Don't worry about it,” he said and put a hoof on her shoulder. Rainbow wasn't sure why she lay down again, but part of her wanted to stay here with him. “I suggest you try to relax and get as much rest as possible until then.”

“I hate lying still like this,” she muttered.

“I can't imagine why.” He smirked and rubbed her shoulder slowly. “I could leave you if you'd like some sleep.”

Rainbow bit down on a pillow as his hoof rubbed her sore muscles expertly. “I-I think I'd like you to stay, actually,” she managed and closed her eyes as he moved closer, using both hooves.

This is way better than sleep, she thought blissfully after a while.

***

Rainbow blinked and looked up blearily as the door opened.

Frostfell looked blankly at them without blinking. “Ye done fraternizin' with the pris'ner, Blaze, or shall I be leavin' an' come back later?”

Blaze just smiled and gave Rainbow a last, gentle stroke. “I was just showing her that lying still doesn't have to be so bad. She was all tense anyway. It wasn't doing any good for her recovery.”

“Aye. I can see that,” Frostfell said and ruffled a wing. “Just remember tae keep yer doodle in yer pants. Metaphoric'ly speakin'.” There was a very slight glint in her eyes and a hint of a smirk on her lips.

“Prisoner?” Rainbow muttered as her mind slowly returned to here and now.

“Just Frostfell's sense of humor,” Blaze said, glaring daggers at Frostfell. “She's being very funny.”

“If ye say it. Anyhoo, the Queen be wishin' tae see 'er noo,” the mare said and turned, walking out of the room and holding open the door for them.

***

The metal doors swung open without a sound, letting out a cool breath of misty air. Rainbow followed Blaze through and stopped to stare at the room. It was very unlike the other rooms she had seen with their white walls and pristine beauty. This room was circular, roughly speaking, with walls of giant roots descending down. Green leaves sprouted from them like a tree growing in both directions. They reached down towards the floor which opened into a yawning chasm of still, crystal clear waters somewhere below where she was hovering. It was a well. The whole room was a giant well under a tree.

A warm light glittered in the water, creating strange flickering patterns in the deep. The light didn't seem to have a source, just like the light in the other rooms. Mist rose from the well and formed into soft, flimsy clouds. If she had had a breath, the sight might have left her without one.

“What do you think?”

The voice came from a cloud. Rainbow blinked herself out of the stupor and looked up. A … creature was lying comfortably on the cloud, slung on her back with her head and tail dangling over the edge, wings spread out under her, one hoofed leg over the other, and large paws rested on her chest. She had the head of some kind of cat with two large horns. Her coat was a brilliant white. She watched Rainbow upside down with a friendly smile and large green eyes sparkling in the light.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes a little. The mildly haphazard mix of body parts from various animals seemed slightly familiar, although this one wasn't nearly as chaotic in appearance. “You look kinda like Discord. Are you his … something?”

The creature's smile faded a little but didn't disappear entirely. “That's not a very nice thing to say,” she said, tail swishing back and forth lazily. “Nopony is more pleased than I am to see dopey Discord turned into a lawn ornament. He was always a problem waiting for a solution.” Her eyes moved towards the two Shadowbolts. “You two better return to your posts. If you make haste now, you will make it back before the princess begins asking too many questions.”

The two pegasi saluted, and Frostfell disappeared swiftly. Blaze turned to Rainbow and smiled. “Don't worry. We'll see you later.” He gave her a wink then rushed off to catch up with Frostfell.

Rainbow turned back to the creature on the cloud. “I take it you're Eden, then? Or do I have to call you Queen?”

“I am, and please don't. My name is Eden Aspect, although I have been known by some other names too. Eden will do just fine. Frostfell simply likes to call me Queen. I suspect it's—” she waved a paw in a small circle “—cultural.” She sat up, dangling her legs over the cloud and gestured with a paw. “Have a cloud if you like. They are very comfy.”

“Why am I here? What do you want from me?” Rainbow asked suspiciously, staying where she was. Eden seemed friendly, and Blaze seemed to trust her, but Rainbow wasn't sure what to make of her yet. Trust, in her opinion, was something to be earned.

Eden crossed her legs and folded her paws over a knee. “I was thinking we could be allies. Help each other out,” she said, still smiling pleasantly.

“Why would I help you? Help you with what?”

“Because I ask nicely?” Eden said, pouting adorably. Then she laughed gently. “No, I guess not. I know a lot, though. I know many things that I think you should also like to know. You are in danger, you see, and I know, for example, why you aren't breathing.”

“You do?” Rainbow asked, suddenly interested.

Eden gestured at the cloud again. Rainbow hesitated before sitting down.

“I do,” Eden began.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

Can't wait for the next chapter

[unph]

Much needed explanation coming up next chapter, hooray! Liking the OC's so far, it's good to see some who are kind of "informal" for a change.

[adcoon]

1169898

Thanks I do hope I'm doing well with the various characters, it's always a difficult thing

[Thubby]

need.
moar.
ponyfic!

[PaxMano33]

beware the words of a gilded tongue, for what is music to the ears might be poison to the soul.

[Pnakotic]

If I had to take a guess I'd say that Rainbow is in a coma. Probably would explain the half dead thing and the strangeness of each reality.

[bvdwow]

Chapter 2 done! I like this story a lot so far. Great work on this chapter