//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Doubts of the Mind 
// Story: Sonic Origins Vol 1: Rainbow Dash's Story 
// by LightWinzz 
//------------------------------//





Chapter 7: Doubts of the Mind

"Aghhhhh!" yelled Rainbow Dash as she fell out of bed to the noise of her alarm clock, taking her bed sheets along with her.

Untangling herself out of the mess of blankets and other bedding, she jumped up in a frantic state, before adopting a very annoyed expression towards her alarm clock. In all honesty, she was close to just breaking the evil device right then and there. That is…until she bothered to read the time.

"It's time already!?" asked Rainbow Dash. She rushed headfirst into her closet making much of its contents fly out.

"Where are they!? Where are they!?" asked Rainbow Dash franticly. Today was too big of a day to lose them now. She had plenty of them, but this one pair was special.

"There!" she exclaimed.

As she came out of the jumbled mess, she brought out her pair of goggles that she wore during her time at the Wonderbolts academy. She lifted them over her head and strapped them on.

She popped her neck and stretched out her legs before getting into a crouched position as if she were to pounce. She licked her lips while eyeing her bedroom window. In an instant, she dashed towards it, making an even bigger mess of the room. She forced the window open with her fore-hooves, allowing her to zoom out into the open sky while leaving behind a trail of florescent colors.

"Whoohoo!" Rainbow yelled with excitement as she zoomed through the sky, tearing through the clouds.

'This is the day Rainbow Dash!' she thought to herself. 'This. Is. The. Day!'

The rainbow haired pegasus has waited her whole life for this day. The day of the Ponyville Equestrian Flyers. She's won every single part of this competition up to this point. Now, she just needs one more win and she'll go down in the history books as Equestria's fastest flyer of all time! This was her day, and she was not planning to lose it.

As she flew over the town she spotted a large crowd of ponies converging around a row of checkered flags outlining a dirt runway, some of the racers already there doing their stretches. She was about to join them, however, amongst the crowd she spotted five familiar faces. Her closest friends. Grinning she flew down to them at high speed.

"Look!" yelled Pinkie Pie. "It's Rainbow Dash!"

The other four looked up to see the multicolored pegasus do a dive bomb straight towards them before pulling up, doing a corkscrew, and landing gracefully on the ground.

"Hey guys!" said Rainbow glad to see her friends here. "How's it hanging?"

"Oh, it's just lovely dear," said Rarity. "Although I'd have preferred it if we didn't have to be out here in this dreadful heat."

"It's not that hot Rarity," stated Twilight. "In fact, I hear this is the perfect weather for races like this."

"Twilight," said Rarity, "when you have a complexion such as mine you have to be careful of the dangers of sun exposure."

Twilight simply rolled her eyes and turned back to Rainbow Dash.

"So, Rainbow, are you excited for the competition?" asked Twilight.

"Are you kidding!?" said Rainbow Dash with a childish expression. "This is the last location! If I win I'll be the first pegasus to ever win a complete set without a loss! AndthentheWonderboltswillfinallynoticemyamazingskillsasanaceflyer,takemeundertheirwingandtrainmetobepartoftheirsquad!" Rainbow rambled on until the orange pony in a southern cowboy hat walked over to her and shook her, ending her unintended daydreaming.

"Slow down there sugar cube," said Applejack, "the race ain't even started."

Rainbow shook her head and blushed. "Hehe. Sorry guys. I'm just so excited that it's finally here."

"Rainbow Dash…" said Fluttershy shyly, "I know you're usually excited to compete, but today…well…you seem especially excited…"

"The Wonderbolts themselves are here wo watch the race Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash. "They're supposed to throw the winner a big celebration of their very own! I could get to be with them like I was practically on their team! Like I said, this is my time to shine! Ever since the Equestria Games I've strived to be the best that I could possibly be!"

"Taa basst?" said the Pinkie Pie who seemed to have been in the middle of eating a tray of cupcakes. She swallowed what she had already begun eating in one big gulp. "But Rainbow Dash, you are the best! You kept up with Spitfire in the Equestria Games remember!? And I was there cheering you on from the sidelines giving you the determination to WIIIINNNN!" she yelled as all of a sudden she appeared in a cheerleader's uniform.

Ignoring the strange antics of her friend as she was already used to this kind of stuff, Rainbow's face hardened. "That's the point Pinkie. I kept up with her, but she still beat me," she said punching her right hoof into her left. "If I'm going to be the best, then I have to be better than the best, and right now that means being better than the Wonderbolts!"

"How can you be better than the Wonderbolts if you can't even best me?" asked a voice which perked Rainbow's ears.

Rainbow turned to face the new member of their conversation, and what she saw shocked her to no end. Her eyes felt like they were bulging out if their sockets as she just stood there. Standing in front of her was none other than Sonic, his arms crossed and a smirk plastered onto his face, looking as cocky as ever.

Rainbow backed up with wide eyes and her mouth open in disbelief as she asked, "Wha-what are you doing here?!"

"How about that race I wanted," he said gesturing to her. "You left so quickly I thought you might have been too scared to see me win."

Rainbow didn't know where to go from here. How had he gotten here? Did Silver and Blaze bring him? But then again, why would they do that? Considering how much they wanted her to keep quiet to Sonic before, it would be strange of them to just up and bring him here.

"What's the matter Colors?" Sonic said slowly approaching her and Rainbow had no idea why this kid was intimidating her so much. "Worried that you may not be the fastest thing alive as you once thought?" he said in a surprisingly threatening tone.

"What are you talking about?!" Rainbow asked incredulously. "Like I'd be worried about losing to a squirt such as you."

"Then why you still backing up?" he asked as he still walked forward. "Sounds to me like you just don't want to find out the truth about how much a gap there is between you and me."

Rainbow was gritting her teeth at this point. He was going way too far this time. He wanted a race, she'd give him a race that he'd never get out of his head every waking morning.

"Fine!" she exclaimed. "You and me in the race today! Once you see me in action at my best, you'll figure out why I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria!"

Sonic just let a smirk grow back on his face. "That or I'll just be too bored out of my mind to be at MY best. Let's just put that to the test."

"You're on!" she said to his face as she turned to address her friends. "You guys believe in…me…right…" she trailed on as she saw no sign of her friends who were here mere moments ago.

"Wha…" she tried to get out as she looked for where her friends had just gone off to.

It didn't take long to find them. Over by the big wooden stage she noticed all five of them trying to huddle around it, trying to look over the already growing crowd. Everypony was cheering with their hooves up in the air at somepony on stage. She extended her neck out to try and get a better look, and what she saw made her heart sink.

On stage was a grinning Sonic who had a big, golden medal around his neck and flashing the entire crowd his signature toothy grin, showing them the V-sign. Rainbow instantly shot her head back to where he stood seconds ago and saw that he was nowhere to be seen, aside of course now occupying the winner's stage.

Rainbow grit her teeth at this. That was supposed to be her place up there. Now this hedgehog that wasn't even a flyer was taking all that glory all to himself!

"Why…you.." she let out with hints of venom.

Without thinking, she took to the air and flew straight over the crowd, getting looks from many of the ponies under her. Her eyes locked onto Sonic as his did with her. Even still, he had on a cocky grin as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Take this you oversized rodent!" she yelled as she reared her hoof back.

At great speed, she launched her punch right at his face, Sonic still unmoving. Her hoof was about to come in contact with his face, but just as it touched him, her hoof went straight through him. Not only that, but where she hit him his face started to disappear like it was smoke. Her eyes widened as her whole body went straight through him, causing his body to fade away as she stopped herself on the wooden stage.

She turned back to the crowd and saw that he was now nowhere to be seen. Her eyes quivered a bit as a cold sweat dripped down her brow. Was she going insane or something? He was standing right there, wasn't he?!

"He—hey!" she yelled with a stutter. "What's going on?!"

She was about to question it further, but then she noticed something else. The stage was completely gone. She looked back and forth frantically at just what was going on. The wooden stage had disappeared, but she also saw that the ground and sky were gone as well. It was all just…black. The only other things with her was the crowd.

She looked at them like she was asking them what was happening, but to her dismay, everypony in the crowd suddenly faded away into smoke, just as Sonic did. The only ones left were her five friends who were at the back of where the crowd was.

"Guys! What the hay is going on?! Everypony is gone, Sonic was here, the whole place is just—nothing!" she said frantically pleading.

None of them answered. All five of them just looked at her like she had offended them or something, as they all had pained expressions. Before she could say anything else, all of them, one by one, faded into smoke as well.

That nearly did Rainbow in. Her eyes were wide at their disappearance, and she had no idea what was going on or why any of this was happening.

"…"

Rainbow's ears perked up. It was feint, but she had just heard a struggled voice in this black void. She looked all around her as she tried to identify its origin, but there was absolutely nothing.

"Hello?" she yelled as her voice sounded like it was echoing.

She got no respond. Suddenly, however, the hairs on her back stood on end. Something was there! She turned right around, but she saw nothing but the void again. She didn't move for the longest time after that. She just sat there in the same direction for what seemed like an eternity.

Slowly though, she managed to relax. She let out a sigh, and let the tension in her body leave. Thus, she was unprepared when a pair of glowing red eyes suddenly materialized in front of her face with a deafening roar.





Rainbow's eyes shot open with a hint of shock, darting around as she tried to get her bearings. She was currently in her fluffy bed with her head lain comfortably on her pillow, unmoving as if she had seen a ghost. She slowly sat up, partly because she was still tired, and partly because she was worried everything around her was just gonna disappear again. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Rainbow breathed heavily, trying to compose herself as she tightly gripped her bed covers in her hooves. She has had nightmares before, some of them petty, others fairly vivid. This one felt different somehow, and she couldn't really place it. First Sonic showed up and somehow took all the glory from her like Lightning Dust had before, her friends had seemingly abandoned her for him, and that…thing she saw before waking up. She knew it all wasn't real, but she just couldn't get that picture out of her head. Just the thought of that final moment sent shivers down her entire body, and she felt chills as she remembered that roar. That wasn't all that was on her mind, however.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

She perked up as she heard somepony knocking at her front door. Anxious to get that dream out of her head, she jumped out of the comfortable confines of her bed and trotted out of her bedroom and down the stairs. Normally, she would be flying down, as it just came to her naturally. Right now though, she didn't even have the energy to even attempt.

As she reached the bottom she took a glace over her living room. Like most of the house, the walls were white fluffy clouds with a smooth, slightly darker colored marble flooring. In the middle of the room was a couch with a couple of chairs surrounding a white coffee table. She was the only one who lived here, but it was always handy to have this setup in case anypony visited. In some of the corners of room you could see some of the trophies and medals she had put on display.

There was another knock at the door and Rainbow quickly trotted over to it. She reached it and swung it open to reveal—

"Wake up sleepy head!" yelled Pinkie Pie as she jumped into the house.

Rainbow, in response, yelped in surprise and stumbled over herself and fell onto her back. She looked up at Pinkie with a soft glare as she laid there. Pinkie on the other hand, just looked down at her with a smile, like she hadn't just scared the daylights out of her. Rainbow just rolled her eyes. Nothing to be surprised about.

"Pinkie, what have I told about surprising me this early in the morning," Rainbow stated in a bored tone.

Pinkie just giggled wildly at this. "Silly billy! I'm not surprising you in the morning! Look! It's 3:00 in the afternoon!" she said excitedly as she pulled out a clock from her mane.

Rainbow looked at the time on the clock she had pulled out. She was right. It was just a little after 3:00. She must've been more exhausted than she thought.

"Wow," she said as she picked herself up. "Did I really sleep in that long?"

"Yep!" answered Pinkie. "Everypony was all like, 'Hey? Where's Rainbow Dash?' and I was like, 'I dunno,'. So, I spent all DAY looking for you! I looked in the Everfree, under a rock, Sugarcube Corner, Cloudsdale, under the rock again, and—"

She was immediately silenced when Rainbow placed her hoof over her mouth, preventing her from going into one of her long monologues. "I get it. I get it."

She slowly took her hoof away from her pink friend, making sure she wasn't gonna start up again. Thankfully, Pinkie just stood there with a gleeful smile on her face the entire time.

Rainbow let out a sigh. "So, what's up?"

"Oh right!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Silver and Blaze are back! They had something they wanted to talk to us about! Maybe to congratulate you on doing such an amazing job and want us to throw a party just for you! Wouldn't that be great?!"

Rainbow perked up at that. It had been two days since they last heard from either Silver or Blaze. They wanted to see if anything had shown up again once she had gotten back from Sonic's world. So far there had been no word. If they were back, either they were here to say everything was fine or that something has happened again, and she had a pretty good idea which one it was. Although, she could at least find out what they want.

"Somehow I doubt it…so when are we meeting them?" Rainbow asked.

"Right now," Pinkie said as if it was obvious.

Before Rainbow could ask anymore, Pinkie just started sinking slowly through the clouds. Rainbow's head was thrown back in surprise as her friend just sunk through with a smile until her pink mane disappeared through her white doorstep. Rainbow took her hooves and quickly made an opening in the clouds. Being a pegasus did have its perks.

As she peaked through the new opening, she saw Pinkie still smiling as she slowly floated down. Yes, floated, not fell. Under each of her hooves was a brightly colored balloon that she was perfectly situated on. She could hear the sound of air being let loose from each of them as Pinkie safely approached the ground where she belonged.

Rainbow couldn't help but smile as she rolled her eyes again. She wouldn't ever understand how this mare does these things so casually.





The whole gang flashed into existence with Silver and Blaze at their side. Rainbow and the others stumbled just a little from trip once again, but thankfully they were slowly getting used to being teleported across two plains of existence. Once again, they gazed upon the wonder of the midday sun in the Sol Dimension as it allowed the massive floating mountains to cast their shadows on the world below. The Time Gate was already revealed it seems prior to them coming here, and Silver and Blaze immediately left the group to walk over to it. The ponies followed suit.

"So, what's going on this time?" asked Rainbow. "Please tell me that I was able to fix all of this in one go."

"Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case," answered Blaze in a mellow voice. "As we feared, it looks like whatever effected the timeline last time has moved on and has started attacking another part of time."

The ears of all the ponies drooped at that news. "So…what? No matter what we do, that varmint, whatever it is, is still gonna keep goin'?" asked Applejack.

"Well," Silver started, "there's good news and bad news on that part."

"Like?" asked Twilight, waiting curiously.

"Well…which would you rather have first?" Silver asked them.

"Good news!" Pinkie shouted above the group. "It's always the best news, so listen to it first!"

Silver looked at the rest of them questioningly. They all looked between one another before looking at him and giving him a series of shrugs, silently giving him a yes.

"Ok then," said Silver. "The good news is that it looks like we were right about one thing. Whatever this thing is, it hasn't tried going back to an older part of the timeline or attempted to change the first one it visited. So, for whatever reason, like us, it's stuck only going forward in time, so we don't have to worry about it going back on us where we can't stop it."

"But then what's the bad news?" asked Rarity.

Silver suddenly looked hesitant to answer, but he just cleared his throat and continued. "The bad news is…well...if it really is like this, it means that in order to stop it for good, we'd either have to find out what it is and stop it directly, or we'd have to go through every point in Sonic's timeline until it we reach the present time. In other words, it could take a while."

The whole group was silent after that. Rainbow, out of all of them, was starting to feel a lot of pressure being placed on her right now. Until they reach the present?! How long would that even take?! When did that even end?!

"Rainbow Dash," she heard Silver say as she focused on him. "You're the one that's going to be going back there. If this is anyone's choice, it's yours to make whether you want to continue doing this."

Rainbow, making a great effort to keep down her worry, gave him a cheeky smirk and said, "Hey, we handled it the last time I went back there. I already made a promise to help so that's what I'm going to do."

"Are you sure Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy interjected in a quiet tone. "It was very dangerous last time. What if the same thing happens again?"

"I'll be better prepared this time, duh," Rainbow said as she shrugged. She then looked Silver dead in the eye and said, "because this time you're going to tell me exactly what I'm going to be doing before I go there."

Silver shrunk back at the pegasus's gaze and gulped. Never before would he have thought that someone like this could nearly scare him to death with just a look. You learn something new every day.

"Look I'm sorry that happened," Silver defended with his hands up. "Thing is, we won't be able to know what happens exactly in that part of timeline until someone actually goes there. We're able to watch you through the Time Gate, so we can see everything around you. All we know from the start is what we learned from Sonic himself. Until you're there, all we can do is guess from the location we see."

"Well," Rainbow started, "you better get to guessing then."

Silver looked over to Blaze and silently pleaded for help. Blaze just chuckled to herself at her friend's discomfort and, with a quick wave of her fingers, brought one of the floating orbs down to the group. The ponies immediately grouped around it, getting in a good look. Like the first one, this one had the same eerie, purple glow from before, showing that this one had already been tampered with. Inside the orb, they could make out what looked like a large, factory like area. That is, an entire tiny planet like body covered in miles of both metal and machinery. There was a large chain connected to it that seemed to be tethering it to the ground above a rather large lake.

"Umm, what exactly are we looking at here darling?" asked Rarity with a raised eyebrow.

"Little Planet," Silver answered as he joined them around the orb.

"Uh, we can see that it's a little planet genius," Rainbow shot at him.

"No, I mean that's the planet's name," he explained.

"That's just weird," she let out.

"So, what's happened there?" Twilight asked, wanting to continue this before those two could progress with their argument.

"Like Silver said, we don't know for sure," explained Blaze. "Although, we have a couple good ideas."

"Like what?" asked Fluttershy.

"If we're right," explained Silver, "Little Planet shows up over that lake one month out of every year. Thing is, Robotnik seems to have anchored the whole place to the Earth so it can't leave."

"Wait, Robotnik again?" Rainbow questioned.

"You'll find he's behind a lot of things that go wrong there," Blaze explained.

"That's not what's different though," said Silver. "We can only guess what has changed from this. You can expect a lot of robots to be sure, but other than that, we don't have a lot to go off of."

"So, I'm going in basically still blind. Great…" Rainbow said sarcastically.

"You havin' second thoughts?" asked Applejack.

Rainbow looked her friend like she had just been insulted and huffed. "Yeah right. Like I said, I can handle anything thrown at me. Just watch and I'll have that egghead served on a platter before you know it."

"Don't let your confidence lead to poor judgement," said Blaze in monotone voice. "It's true, you were able to handle him last time, so it wouldn't be unexpected if you did the same here. But, that leads me to another subject."

Rainbow raised a brow at this. "And that is?"

"You don't like Sonic that much, do you," Blaze said like it was more of a statement than a question.

Rainbow was taken back by this. One part being how direct Blaze was about it, another on how this has actually been something on her mind for some time. Quickly, she responded.

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"The friction between you two early on," said Blaze. "You managed to work together to defeat Robotnik, but it didn't take a lot to see you weren't particularly fond of him."

Rainbow's brow furrowed. She couldn't help it if that kid was just plain annoying. Yes, he saved her that one time, so she could give that one to him, but he still wasn't the most pleasurable of poni-hedgehogs to work with. But it wasn't that so much that was bothering her, at least not completely. She was still trying to figure out how he could run so fast. It just didn't seem possible.

Rainbow pushed those thoughts away, however, and waved her hoof. "Look, it was nothing big. Just two poni—ugh…a pony and a hedgehog trying to get along."

"Yeah!" Pinkie jumped in. "Besides, Rainbow Dash is just naturally aggressive! She doesn't mean anything by it."

Rainbow looked at her friend in surprise at her sudden appearance. That look, however, quickly turned into a glare.

"See!" Pinkie yelled pointing out Rainbow. "Classic Dashie."

"It's not going to be problem, is it?" Silver asked.

Rainbow quickly put on another face, albeit only a slight smile.

"You don't need to worry about me," she said. "I can handle some kid's annoying jokes if it means saving the world."

"But…"

"Just get everything set up, ok," Rainbow said pointing her hoof at him. "I'll take care of problems faster that way."

Silver looked a bit unsure for a second, but complied nonetheless. He turned to face the Time Gate as he called over the orb and started the process of activating the portal. As he did this, Twilight came up to her Rainbow's side and leaned over to her.

"Rainbow are you sure you're ok?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Rainbow answered back with a whisper of her own. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"We all saw how you acted around Sonic," Twilight said with a worried tone. "They weren't the only ones who thought you were gonna do something you'd regret a couple of times."

Rainbow was silent for a few seconds. It would be too much of a bother to try and deny her way out of this. Twilight could always dig out certain bits of info if given enough time. She obviously wouldn't need a lot considering.

Rainbow looked around to see if anypony was listening to them. When she was certain nopony could hear, them she whispered back. "Don't tell anypony this ok."

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," Twilight whispered while going through a series of motions ending with her pretending to stick something in her eye.

Rainbow smiled at the gestor, but focused back on the topic and leaned in so only Twilight would hear it.

"I had some kind of…nightmare last night," she said.

Twilight looked at her questioningly. Rainbow didn't normally like to talk about her dreams with anypony, nightmares least of all. She always said that, 'Nightmares aren't real. They're only as real as you want them to be.' She mostly just said that to Scootaloo if she had one, but it kind of stuck with her through all circumstances. For her to be open about it, it must've affected her more than usual.

"What was it about?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow started from the beginning. She explained to Twilight everything that had happened, from Sonic showing up, to her friends leaving her to go see the winner, Sonic being said winner, and the entire place completely disappearing before her. She left out the part where she tried to punch Sonic on stage. She felt it wouldn't help her case telling her. She also didn't say anything about what happened after all that. She wasn't too sure what to make of that herself. She didn't even know if it was relevant to what they were talking about.

"Rainbow?" Twilight asked. "Are you scared of being slower than Sonic?"

Rainbow looked like she was greatly offended and was about to respond when Twilight stopped her. "I'm not saying you are. I'm just wondering what you think and why you think this dream bothers you so much."

Rainbow pondered in thought for a bit. Was she really afraid somepony was faster than her? For her entire life, she was built upon the idea of nopony being able to out speed her, the only one who had ever proved her wrong was Spitfire during the Equestria Games, and even then it was close. She had improved so much since then that she believed that she had finally risen high enough to claim the fastest alive. Now, she was starting to wonder again if somepony was able to not only keep up with her, like Lightning could do only barely, but possibly even beat her. He couldn't even fly and he could reach speeds that rivaled hers! Judging by how he did against Robotnik, he looked as if he could even do so when she was using her new power.

That was another thing. After her and her friends returned to Equestria the first time she immediately went to Twilight to see if she could explain it. After what seemed like a long, and boring, few hours, Twilight had finally finished all her numerous tests. Sadly, there wasn't much that could be told about what it was. They did determine it was similar to the power used by the elements when they had them, only a bit more potent than before. Thing is, Rainbow tried to use it when Twilight wanted to see it in person, but she couldn't replicate the effects in the slightest, even when before she did it without even realizing. Twilight believed it had something to do with things from Sonic's world, as it only appeared to work when Rainbow was in contact with anything from there, but there were still a lot of unknowns about it. Until they saw it again, there wasn't any real way of knowing.

After a lot of thought, Rainbow finally answered. "I don't even know Twi. He's just some kid, but he gets on my nerves at the worst of times. He can keep up with me when he doesn't even have any wings! What am I supposed to think of that?"

As they were conversing, the Time Gate finally spun up and the blue portal appeared once more like it had before. The two ponies looked at flash of light as Silver turned to face them.

"Everything is prepared," he said. "You can enter whenever you're ready."

Rainbow nodded, a small part of her glad her conversation had ended. Not on Twilight's part, just on the topic. She just didn't want to talk about it.

"Rainbow…" Twilight said.

The multicolored pegasus faced her friend and flashed her a quick grin. "Don't worry about it Twi. I'll deal with it like I always have."

Again, it was just an excuse to get out of the conversation. It was still hard for her to believe how uncomfortable she was about talking about this, but she couldn't let that bother her right now. She had something she needed to do, and this wasn't helping her.

Rainbow looked at the rest of her friends again and they all gave her encouraging smiles and waves, with Pinkie somehow in her cheerleading outfit again waving her pompoms. Rainbow smiled more broadly this time. Rainbow always did feel better when her friends gave her support. It always reminded her how far they all came since they first came together as a group. Tearing her gaze away from them, she faced the portal again and let out a heavy breath. Anything she was worried about wouldn't be figured out here. Only through there would she find any sort of closure to all this, if any at all existed.

'Let's get this over with,' she thought to herself.

Without another word, she flared her wings and jumped straight into the portal, unknowing of what would await her on the other side.

To be continued…