//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The Day She Went Away 
// Story: Into the Void 
// by TF141Soldier 
//------------------------------//

|Shipping| |Sad| |Dark|

For a halting second, Rainbow Dash had the odd feeling that she was trapped in a lucid dream - that she was really just lost in the haze of sleep in her cloud colonnade in the sky, resting away lazily. But soon memories washed within her. What had happened with the... outbreak. And why everything seemed so black and white. Why was it? Almost everything seemed to be entirely engulfed in a place without any form of color. The sky, the ground, the trees. Hay, even the water was entirely gray. Up above, the sky seemed almost artificial - not real, due to no sign of natural light anywhere. Passages and corridors led far beyond where Dash slowly walked, her mind a daze.

"Okay..." Rainbow Dash said, barely catching that she was audible. "So what the hay am I here for again? Oh, right. Help save world from virus." She almost laughed at how cheesy that sounded, yet how dangerous it really was. Saving townsponies from falling structures, and rescuing fillies in strollers she did on a daily basis. This? Bah. It made fixing a dam sound easy. No, worse. It made pulling off a Sonic Rainboom sound easy. And somewhere in the world right now, she was asleep - right inside Twilight Sparkle's library. In here? Rescuing the world with the pony she loved.

Or used to love. Did she?

Of course she did. If she still cared about Rarity, like or dislike, it meant she still loved her. With that last thought, she groaned. Making these trips made her physically and emotionally hollow, always exhausted. Life just seemed too damn hard. The last expanse of lifeless trees and various cobblestone structures were beginning to dip, angling sharply over the continuing hills and expansive landscape ahead of her - the road was long absorbed by stone. Even the grass was gray. This was going to be a real fun trip.

More thoughts continued to fill her head. She wondered how a world - or any magical trick feasible - would be possible. Sure, there will some alicorns who knew a wide, wide variety of magic that other ponies wouldn't - in particular spirits. But Paranoia wasn't spirit, or even an alicorn - Rainbow Dash could tell by the structure and build-up of the wings that they were born by magic. So something was definitely up with Paranoia -- this was a unicorn who knew more than even Twilight Sparkle did, and she was the single most talented pony Dash had known. And if Paranoia was weak to memories given to his world, would he be able to trick others into his own little realm?

The thought of something sick like that almost felt like a bubble ready to burst inside Rainbow Dash. She shook it off and concentrated on the seemingly simple task ahead of her: fine the unicorn - her hopeful crush - and bring life back to the dead. Hopefully not literally.

"Remind me not to buy any real estate here.." Dash muttered to herself, probably to provide an air of confidence. When she had finally reached the so-called 'town' of the dream realm, she found herself completely amazed. Everything was made of clouds, bringing back roaring memories of Flight Camp for some reason - the swirl of storm clouds, the endless races, the Rainboom she had pulled off. It was entirely weird: there was a lot of white in the clouds, making it look like the glaringly bright sun was still shining on them, but everything else seemed entirely out of order: as she traversed the wrinkled plateaus that should of have been the colorful and alive ground, Dash realized there was no way a few of her senses worked at all.

It was weird: she could see, hear, and touch. But she could not taste the saliva in her mouth, or smell anything. Did Paranoia remove the sense of perception?

Cruel. The clouds sawtoothed the sky like a brooding bulk of high-cresting embankments - the very small space directly southeast of Rainbow Dash was a mix of red and yellow. What was the deal with that? Why did it seem a million miles away? Though perspective here was ruined by the loss of direction and sense of balance here - like a neverending timeglass. One funny thing: the so-called town she was approaching wasn't really one at all: there were numerous outbuildings, shacks, and cabins that looked waxy and rusted from age - but everything else seemed entirely outdoors. Colorless boulders hooked directly to the right, and the weather-beaten walls that grew from the grass inexplicably were towering without any support. A river - even the water seemed colorless - was rushing through, held in place by an earth dam with no distinct shape, two hundred acres of still life.

As disturbing was it was...

it was almost peaceful. Dash cast a glance around her. No physical life seemed to be anywhere: the usual hub-bub and bustle of life and nature was distorted here, almost like an old western story Dash had read once - truth be told, she rarely made it through a whole lot of books. The towering structures - though not made by clouds, by modern material, were floating on them, defying all possibilities of reality - seemed twisted and out of place, as if they were shoddily added to over the years.

But then as Dash crossed over a wooden bridge over the water - which seemed to run through the clouds like rainbows in the Weather Factory, without any physical possibility whatsoever - there seemed to finally be a sign of life. It was definitely a pony: it had those huge, bulbous eyes that everypony had, and had a distinct mane. Though even this had a lack of color: an unflattering mix of gray, black, and white - with only a little blue inbetween. It reminded Dash of old films her parents used to watch. Heck, it even had the same bodily structure as a mare or a colt. But that was where it stopped. This was an earth pony, but it seemed to simply float on the ground. There was no cutie mark, and it was impossible to tell just what gender it was.

Then dozens more came into Dash's view further down, now actually looking normal: sights and sounds and smells finally came back into her mind, perspective finally returning. "I love the smell of normalcy in the morning."

Rainbow Dash was now searching for any distinct face. But everypony had the exact same mane as everypony else: three distinct bangs in the front, then pulled at the back in a V-style. It was impossible to tell who was who. And even though some of them had wings, the pegasi never used those flying mechanics that were implanted in their body from birth. Dash, however, was not worried: she knew the Dreamkeeper would alter things slightly so Rarity would stand out. And Dash's own memories had already registered who to look for: the other captured ponies here would be under the memories they were GIVEN by Paranoia.

But even they did not seem to acknowledge eachother. It was totally... not awesome.

But then Dash looked down and noticed something... change. It was almost impossible to recall the events in her mind later on - she couldn't explain it. But there was an undeniable shift in factors - one minute she was staring at a pony looking as recycled as the rest, the next minute it changed: the mane, the style, and Dash even spotted a cutie mark on the center of her flank - at least Dash thought it was a her.

Was that Rarity? Dash almost squealed in joy and flew down towards the cloudwalk where the pony was standing. It looked like it could be: there was definitely a horn. Dash hid from view behind a cloud barrel, and detected some definite masculinity in that pony's voice. But then the exact same sound came from another pony talking to her, and the same one from another. Their voices were altered to sound the same. Holy horseapples.

"Psst... hey! Hey, you! Unicorn!" Dash whispered as loudly as she could, daring to take a peek out of the barrel, somehow afraid if being spotted might trigger an unknown factor. But as she saw the same face, it instantly changed from the regular, indifferent pony that she had seen: and then a look of total shock and confusion.

And there it was again. The mane then changed - it was straight back, almost rounding against her neck. It was definitely a her - there were eyelashes. But the cutie mark was not a diamond - it was instead a constellation-like star, filled with other scintillating figures. Dash felt igninted inside. It was Twilight. Though it was not who she was looking for, it was definitely a clue.

"Hey, Twi! Remember me?" Dash attempted, not knowing how to do this.

"Who the hay are you?" Twilight pressed. Her voice still sounded the same as everypony else's - that pitch and the colorless figure the only sign she didn't stand out like Dash's own mane.

"I'm Rainbow Dash! Totally awesome flier, the Element of Loyalty? Your friend?" Dash continued before she was onslaughted.

"I've never seen you, but how the hay can you use your wings? How the buck do you look so... DIFFERENT? Your mane, and your body, it looks....... d-different!"

They didn't even know the WORD color. Dash groaned. "Don't you remember me?"

Then the mane disappeared, looking exactly the same as everypony else's. "I've never seen you before in my life." Her companions were now looking at her with a worried expression, yet somehow managing to have that slack, almost lifeless expression.

"Hey, who are you talking to?" One colt-looking figure asked. Dash, again, couldn't tell.

"Look at her!" the anti-Twilight announced, the cutie mark disappearing. "Look at how... unnatural she looks! The mane! The body! The... that THING on her flank!" Now the eyelashes were gone. It was as if the body was spiraling downhill in stages.

"I don't see anypony." One of them announced. They almost reminded Dash of soldiers in the Solar Empire or New Lunar Republic - ponies you didn't remember, or didn't know. So unmemorable - literally! Then there was no sign that Twilight was even the way she was earlier. Dash almost cried, hiccuping a bubble of emotion that burst inside her.

"I... I'm sorry. Maybe I was distracted." Twilight finally let in, frowning noncommitally. Dash almost wanted to give in right there. She just needed to keep searching, try to find Rarity's face. She was the only way to save herself now.

Dash almost let out a scream, but held it in and flew right back up, disappearing into the world again. So she was invisible in a place where everypony looked the same. What a place for you to stand out in. Suddenly, there was another distorted change - Dash could barely see it, but there it was. A quick shudder of light in the sky - right near a large, oddly built building. More faceless - not literally - ponies seem to not be affected by the sudden change. Weird: after the reaction Twilight had violently shown, Dash expected everyone to consider eachother crazy. But now she was interesting.

Bucking up in the air again, Dash flew towards where the light was now just a low humming, fluttering like small wings hovering in the air. It emitted waves of an unknown energy, like a hot sun during the middle of summer. And then as the light progressed forward, Dash followed, experiencing just how truly large this weird forest/colonnade really was - it seemed almost massive, some structures towering like ancient monoliths. The light was now sparkling, and a distinct figure formed from it.

Dash almost gasped - it had the exact same look of a Shadowbolt. The pegasus was confused - she had only seen them as simple creations during that foggy night, when she had become the Element of Loyalty - as with her other five friends gaining their own titles. And while Shadowbolts were dark by definition, they had traces of dark purple - it had a blue mane, but the thick yellow glass lenses that covered their eyelids were entirely dark, with a hint of shine despite there being no sun. And it had a cutie mark stitched into the fabric - though it looked like a slashed Z.

It took Dash a moment to realize who this was.

"Sheesh, Dreamkeeper." the Pegasus almost smirked, feeling like a long time since she had. "You could have chosen a better disguise."

"Well excuuuuse me, princess. Just trying to blend in." Dreamkeeper retorted, innocently unaware of the memories it had just brought Rainbow Dash. She laughed and was utterly confused as to why he was here - wouldn't he stand out?

"I forgot to tell you. No one will really notice you unless you speak up - you're like a ghost to this realm. You're clearly having trouble finding Rarity, and this is intentional: it's like trying to find - like Applejack would say - a needle in a haystack. So I'll try to give you a little hint: where does the sun rise every day?"

Then he was gone, shooting into the sky like nopony had noticed him.

What in the living name of Celestia just happened? Dash wondered. But she put her mind back into focus and tried to ignore how fast-paced everything seemed then. The sun rising: Celestia had risen it everyday until Paranoia did something to her - Dash had not been told the full details. But it was clear the sun was not gone - you couldn't see anything without it.

The sun. Where does it rise?

Where, where, where... She almost cursed herself for not knowing. There was an answer probably just staring at her, straight in the face. Yet she couldn't find it if it kicked her right in the flank. The sun's rising.... she struggled to put her mind into gear, the turbines starting to spin. Obviously, that eerie space far to the south was supposed to represent something of a real world dying: and it was in the southeast.

The sun always rose in the east.

Eager with her new answer, Dash exploded forward. There seemed to be no sense of gravity in the sky either. It was hard to say -- though she was clearly keeping balance, there was a feeling of complete disorientation of the whole dynamic structure of the atmosphere. More and more civlizations passed through, but she ignored almost all of them. Would the list of impossibilities ever end?

She eventually landed once she saw another figure change.

She angled sharply and swooped downward, the rush of wind instantly stopping. Her mane was slightly frazzled. She continued to float throughout the town, intensely studying her surroundings. The buildings were still supported on the clouds inexplicably, and hundreds of ponies seemed to go through the town, not acknowledging or speaking to anypony. As if the world was virtually dead to them. The narrow corridor that were the streets were very rough: somehow bits of gray grass grew through the clouds, and everything just felt out of order. Every single shack, building, pony, thing: looked exactly the same, recycled. Repetition.

But the pegasi was now galloping furiously towards a large structure she found, which looked like an odd statue. She realized what the figure was: a structure of Paranoia as a pony. With her long, flowing mane and that signature evil smirk. Dash felt rage implode within her, and had the urge to just destroy it right on sight. But then she saw her.

It was almost unbelievable, and only lasted a few seconds, but there she was. The curled mane, looking as sparkly and shiny as ever. Those diamonds that should have been azure blue were still positioned there, and those almost overdramatic eyelashes were placed on her eyes. The tail looked different now. Dash was eager, eager, eager! She had never felt so awesome.

Remember, Dash. Take it easy.

The Dreamkeeper's distinct voice echoed in her mind. Telepathy? She had only seen it work once with magic, but it was not audible, yet still able to be heard in her mind nonetheless. Impossible to explain. Dash groaned - now the Dreamkeeper could speak to her when he saw fit. That would be more torture than dying from a virus. She tried to respond, forming the words in her mind and trying to mentally toss them at him.

I....... (inhale)got....... (blink)...... this.(exhale) It was difficult, but free of pain.

Nothing. Dash wasn't a unicorn. Stupid stupid stupid, she cursed herself mentally. She concentrated on the now changed unicorn, just sitting down on a stone column, as if everything was perfectly natural.

Time to rewrite history.