|Shipping| |Sad| |Dark|
"Daaash. Good to see you in the flesh."
The library. Why did everything have to happen in the library? But the minute Dash had gotten up, she noticed that she was passed out for a while. Her weather pony watch said 6:00 AM, but it was hard to tell. The sun was completely blocked out from the world, gray clouds spiderwebbing and blooming across the sky like a group of colorless flowers in season. Fog was misting in an unknown space, a haze of cold that made the air all the more thinner and clean - the whole town was deserted, and almost seemed too literally like a ghost town. It would be if the Dreamkeeper was lying. But floating right in front of her - a roughly tall creation, its skinny limbs and stretchy torso covered in aluminum: the flaming blue eyes overlapped the gold yellow eyelids behind the pupils - a smirk was on his face, though an exasperated one. With a snap of his fingers - four of them, none of them the same length - a glass of some drink appeared: Dash figured it to be soda, due to the sizzling and the carbonated pop. It would help with the stomachache she had - like someone had pulled a nerve.
"I don't have a whole lot of time." Dash groaned, taking a sip of the plastic-covered bottle. "Just give me the details about this girl and how I can stop her."
"How impatient." Dreamkeeper said, but some waver in his voice lessened the comment's blow. "But if you want to know where this all began.."
"One thing at a time, Dreamer." Rainbow joked, feeling chastened. "I want you to tell me exactly what I'm doing."
The Dreamkeeper stretched slightly, amazed at how good Dash actually looked. How she could fight one of the strongest beings in Equestria and still look like she could run a marathon was beyond his comprehension. He then pivoted slightly, and Dash saw the hollow of his spine light up in a red glow: his fingertips were doing the same thing. The spine was the source of magic? But after a flash of dark light, a large screen-shaped figure was floating in a cloud. In the cloud was a picture of a mare - skin as pink as the eraser on a pencil, the braided mane glowed a rich, honeyed red. The mare was unconscious, but Dash could clearly see a set of wings clasped to the side, with a sharp horn at the top - an obvious alicorn. The lights in the room were flourescent, and a time-stamped digital watch lay in her left foreleg. The sleeping - hopefully asleep - mare was lying on a white bed, tipped at a forty-five degree angle toward the dull light that pulsed in the shaded nuclear cells. On a table next to her was an amount of supplies that made Rainbow Dash think this pony was in a hospital - dozens of pill bottles, injection syringes sealed in a thick plastic, loose gauze and ointment, a gray scalpel, chrome basin, and small tubes that pumped an unknown substance through it - Dash couldn't tell. An oxygen tank, pale green, was parked next to the bed, beating steadily.
"This was the pre-Paranoia.", Dreamkeeper explained. "The little Mane Doe that she was. Before she turned into the different form that you saw of her, this is what she was: just a filly."
Dash was incredulous, but the situation was obvious - Paranoia wasn't just there for no reason. "I honestly don't get it. Why does she look so different?"
"Okay, fine.", Dreamkeeper said, wetly clearing his throat. "Here's the background, or at least what I know. About two hundred years ago, an underground - not literally, of course - science foundation got a message from a pegasi in Marizona. They said that they had stumbled upon what could of been one of the biggest medical discoveries in history, and that they wanted to avoid public word - they wanted it to be their own secret. So the ponies - who were named the Mojave Mares, all fillies, known as the Double M - decided what the hell, we'll see. But there was this one pony who had one of the strangest symptoms known to ponies: a virus not even science could solve."
The Dreamkeeper continued: the virus was never found out, but it turned out to be excluded from 99.9% of the world, with only the slightest exceptions in the form of thirteen ponies. They all had the same disease: but this gave them all positive benefits. They could go on for hours with unexplained energy, gained color that was drained from their bodies. The energy they had lost was being inexplorably pulled back into it - like water being sucked down a bath drain. So in an attempt to stabilize the virus from becoming airborne, they created their own spirit for years and years. Eventually came Paranoia: the original form of what had been the pink filly that Dash had just seen. But instead of having positive aspects like it originally had, the whole thing had negative effects and positive effects. Although there was energy, almost everything was corrupted: it had become a liability, and scared the living hell out of everypony that passed them - hence the self-given title, Paranoia.
Eventually it was leaked to the officials, who took instant action. The bunker was found, and almost all of the scientists were either arrested or shot. Paranoia, however, had escaped underground: avoiding the almost-inevitability of being destroyed or shut down.
So that's it. Paranoia was a virus who spread its own sickness. Nothing more than a creation from somepony who had already had a life. It was sick - literally.
"And soon, Paranoia started to spread her influence, so to speak.", Dreamkeeper kept going, worrying Dash a little. "Say there was any source of energy or passable substance she could fine. The virus wouldn't go airborne, the scientists would of been long dead by then. So Paranoia started smaller. Infecting old lithium cells that still had power to spread across all electricity. Infecting the water in active dams - which was the big leap - and even going as far as using some hint of radiation that reflected off the sun. I'm seen firsthand what it can do. And here's the ironic twist: despite how much Paranoia had accomplished and hidden, nopony had actually learned about it. The ones who were infected could go for whole weeks without even knowing they had the virus - but they didn't live far beyond that. After going into a deep sleep, they exit reality and their own mind destroys the muscles, nerves, and bones in the body - it infects the blood stream itself and cuts off circulation, eventually stopping the heart altogether. But the ponies would be all of in dream land to even notice the pain."
"What if they weren't?", Dash blurted out, the first time she had actually spoken in at least a dozen minutes. It was like having a book read to you - that's how she saw it, for the few books that she had actually read. "What would the pain be like then?"
"Unimaginable."
Time's passage was barely noticeable now - all that was left was action. The Dreamkeeper stood. "Paranoia created her own little twisted dream universe to send ponies to. But she had forgotten about me: I know the only spell that can bring live ponies into it."
Dash felt her heart start to thump at a ferocious rate. The idea was dangerous - she was expecting something like destroy the clouds that blocked up the sun, maybe do a Sonic Rainboom. Those totally awesome tricks she could do in her sleep. But the idea of going inside a dying mind? Unbelievable. Rain had begun to fall in a haze, the thunderheads above her rumbling in cataracts.
But she was the Spirit of Loyalty.
There was no turning back now.
"I know it's a lot to take in.", Dreamkeeper exclaimed, his voice softening. "And I know it's kind of a surprise to see me - the last time you saw me, it was just to entertain you." Oh, did Dash remember: the Dreamkeeper's hilarious jokes, the random appearances, the impossible factors and physical capabilities that he somehow achieved. He wasn't even a spirit, for godsakes! But now he was all business -- very rare for him.
"Just... let me go in.", Dash muttered, giving in. "If I really am the cure to the world, then I'm ready. Who's the test subject?"
Dreamkeeper stiffened, then turned around. Before Dash knew it, she could visibly make out the hollow of his spine glowing in a light yellow light, with his fingers pulsing with red energy as well. A light flash was seen and heard, and then he turned back around, levitating only one unconscious pony.
"I'm afraid you won't like this part."
Dash looked at the test subject, the one she would help. But she saw the mare and almost collapsed. She rubbed her eyes, then vaulted back on her hind legs. Rainbow Dash thought she was just hallucinating - but when she saw the indigo mane and the porcelain white skin, she realized it was all too real.
Rarity.
Something like fire burned inside Dash's chest. "Is it your job to make me an emotional wreck? Because if it is, you're doin' a pretty good job of it."
Dreamkeeper laughed heartily. "It's your friend. I figured it would... improve your situation with her, so to speak. You two have grown pretty distant." It was then that Dash understood: she was immune, and Dreamkeeper had saved Rarity for Dash. It could of been anypony else, but the unicorn that Dash had almost fallen out with just a couple of days ago. She could only stare with mute incomprehension, like she had stepped into a movie at the last minute.
"...Okay."
"Well I hope you're ready.", Dreamkeeper muttered. "I'd be very angry if I went through that whole speech just for you to sneak away at the last minute. And I feel like I've had a very full morning already."
Then a paper was floating in Dash's face, the title splashed in splotchy black letters. Where had this come from? But once her eyes focused on it, Dash began to read.
The Dreamkeeper's Guide to the Dreaming World
Just remember these instructions while you're in Paranoia's universe.
1. Once you awaken, you will be the only one with memories of the time before the dreams.
2. Find Rarity, the Chosen.
3. Explain to her your intentions (they don't have a lot of personality, so it should be relatively easy) and come into her household.
4. Give the memories back to her. In the dream realm, the number one and only thing that can fight off the virus are memories.
5. Be sure to give examples and memories of the Elements of Harmony.
6. Once Rarity remembers you, I will secure your escape.
7. Do not repeat memories. Do not lie unless it is absolutely necessary. And most of all? Do not give up.
The best thing about life
is knowing that you put it together
Step Four. That one rang around in Dash's head, afloat with pain. So now she really understood. All the ponies in a deep sleep, infected, would probably remember the horrors that would happen to them. And in a world where you could make the impossible happen, they could probably kill Paranoia and remove the virus themselves. But the alicorn had siphoned away the memory of time's passage, instead replacing it with little to no personality, opinions, just bolting down the way of the realm. And the one-liner at the end summed everything up in one sentence: she had to put back the pieces of the puzzle by giving memories of happiness and friendship. It seemed almost astronomical, the dangers that could be.
"How will I--"
"I'll figure out a way to send the paper into the dreaming.", Dreamkeeper interrupted, as if he was reading her mind. "I just hope that you're ready - we really need to get going."
"Pff. I'm the Element of Loyalty!", Dash exclaimed, puffing out her chest in an obviously fake gesture. "I'll have this done in ten seconds flat."
"Good. Now close your eyes, fall asleep, and leave the rest
to me....."
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Rainbow Dash then woke up.
In the upper echelons of dreams.
As the pegasus groaned and stood up, she saw the yellowed paper fall from her back, and noticed a small knapsack roped around her torso and back. But then she stood up to note her surroudings, and was shocked straight out of her mind. Right out the bat, the sky was utterly stormy. Although the perception was distorted by the naturally endless sky, lightning swirled and struck high above the shelf of storm clouds in a cataclysm of voltage, jags of thunder rumbling along side it in the void that was the colorless sky. The mountains in the distance were incredibly, cresting the clouds and going far beyond the fog that now covered the ice-tipped edge, and declined to a broad valley of snow and rock. Barely anything had color except the glowing cyan of her body, and her own multi-colored mane. Sagebrush lofted around the forested folds of the area she was in, and the air was thin. Everything felt off - both physical and metaphysical, like a major organ leaving your body. The only shade of color she saw in the devoid world was a space of sky in the distance, rumbling with energy, the space lit in the most confusing mix of red, fire orange, and icterine yellow: the ocean sloshed underneath her when she turned around, and saw jagged rocks and explosions of huge water go across the wasteland that was this place, and the wasteland that was probably the beach. And she had the briefest feeling of floating. There was an excuse for a roadway that was in the courtyard she laid in, tracing a bulge through a landscape of colorless, stunted trees and snow: the immeasurable horizon stretched for miles. Time was impossible to figure out here: though Dash doubted it mattered at this point.
"What the hay...", Dash mumbled.
But eventually she began to walk forward. To Rarity. To the world. To memory.
And didn't look back.