Chapter 2: Reality Hurts(Re-write)
Rainbow Dash woke up in a familiar blue bed in the library. Her head felt as if somepony had swung a sledgehammer against her skull, her stomach feeling like it was carrying a plague.
Ugh, my head. I should go see Pinkie, that nightmare was not cool, she thought.
The rainbow-maned Pegasus was in the bedroom of Twilight Sparkle in the library's upper level. From below her, she could hear mixed noises of ponies. Rainbow tried to focus her hearing on the noises, yet they were too mumbled for her to clearly make out what it was.
She kicked the blue blanket stitched with stars off of her body and rolled out of the soft bed. The sudden blast of the sun's warm rays in her eyes disoriented her, making her shut her eyes tightly and her footing slightly wavered. But she recovered swiftly with a shake of her head and began to trot to the steps, with the sounds becoming more clear. They were beginning to sound like quiet cries.
Did that... actually happen? She shook her head vigorously, stuffing the thought to the deepest dungeons of her mind and bounding them with cold shackles as she approached the top of the stairs. She walked down the stairs, looking at the steps as she went. She looked up, her high and proud shoulders instantly dropping. Her eyes became glossy and reflective as tears were starting to well in her eyes. She shut her eyes tight, and gave another little shake of her head as she stared down at the floor again. She looked up from the ground, and her eyes were met by the wide, glassy eyes of all her friends. All of her friends, except for Pinkie--who laid motionless on a table set up in the middle of the room. Her eyes were closed, and her mane was sprung out in every direction, more so then usual. Her chest laid still. The usual rhythmic rising and falling of the pink mare's chest was absent. Her coat seemed to be a duller pink than before.
Rainbow looked at Pinkie Pie's body, her eyes wide and her head slightly shaking from side to side. No. No, this isn't real. This is a dream, just a dream. All just a dream. Come on Rainbow, wake up! Wake up!
"H-hi Rainbow," Fluttershy muttered. Rainbow visibly flinched, the soft-spoken mare's voice breaking her thoughts.
"No..." Rainbow gasped. Her heart began pounding in her chest, sweat formed on her brow, and her breathing became short and quick.
"Rainbow, please!"
"No!" she shouted in response to Twilight. In front of Rainbow, the exact scene she was fearing was before her. Pinkie was in the same position on the table as earlier: lifeless and not breathing. Her friend's faces were coated in a shiny mask of tears, and they all possessed glossy eyes. Rainbow's mind gathered thick black clouds as her judgment became as clear as mud. She dashed over to Pinkie with tears welling up in her magenta eyes.
"No! Pinkie, wake up! Wake up!" She desperately screeched. She started shaking her hysterically.
"Rainbow!" Applejack put her hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder, only to have it immediately swatted away.
"No! Twilight, please! Use your magic! Just save her! Something, anything!" Dash turned to Twilight with desperate and pleading eyes. She put her hooves on the mare's shoulders, begging for the lavender unicorn's help.
Twilight hung her head low, and spoke with a low, raspy voice. "I'm sorry Dash, she's been gone for over six hours now. Nurse Redheart came, and officially announced it."
Rainbow's slightly twitching eyes widened and her lips quivered with desperation. "No! There's got to be something we can do!"
"Rainbow, she's gone, sugar cube. We're all in shock." Applejack pressed again, attempting to pull Rainbow back once more. All she earned was a another smack, but this time more aggressive than the last. The spot Rainbow hit stung slightly.
"No, she isn't! We can save her! I-I can!" Rainbow kept shaking the mare. "Come on, Pinkie! Come on!"
Then, she suddenly stopped. She frowned, looking closely at every aspect of Pinkie's body. Every last hair. The mare didn't look like Pinkie Pie. She looked off. She had a bright pink coat, poofy pink mane, three-balloon cutie mark, and she was surprisingly a lot more slender than her friends. She looked like her normal self. Mostly. But something stood out. She was Pinkie Pie, but she wasn't.
Rainbow looked back to the mare's cutie mark. She squinted hard, moving her eyes closely to Pinkie's flank. The three balloons were there, with two lower and one higher. But there was something different.
"Th-this isn't Pinkie!" Rainbow exclaimed, turning around to her friends.
Her friends were taken back at first, their surprised faces turning to frowns after a moment. "Rainbow, you're delusional. She—"
"No! Look at her cutie mark. These two balloons," she pointed to the two lower balloons, "are supposed to be blue! Not yellow, blue!"
"Her cutie mark is the exact same, sugar cube. We don't want ta believe it neither, but she's just... gone." Applejack looked down as she spoke and gulped hard.
Rainbow's face flushed a dark red, her teeth clenched, and she let out a loud grunt of frustration, like an angry filly who didn't get what she wanted. "I'd know her better than all you guys combined! I'm telling you, this isn't her!" she seethed.
"Rainbow Dash, you're not making any sense, dear. We're all shocked and hurt, but denial isn't going to help us," Rarity reasoned.
"I'm not in denial! The colors on her cutie mark are wrong, this is not Pinkie Pie." Rainbow scowled in fiery anger, her breathing heavy.
"Rainbow Dash—"
"Fine! Don't believe me!" Rainbow snapped. She turned around, unfurled her cyan wings, and bolted out of the library like a falcon diving for its prey, almost smashing the door when she jerked it open, making it smack against the wall. She flew through the air, leaving her stunned friends behind.
She flew at sonic speeds toward her home on the other side of Ponyville. The usual vigorous, energetic sensation that pumped through Rainbow when the crisp wind flooded past her as she flew at impressive speeds was replaced by frantic wing-flapping and hyperventilation. She didn't feel the burning desire to go faster, to go higher, to be the best of the elite, to soar up in the highest breathe-able levels of the atmosphere, to bolt through the air with speeds that would impress the Wonderbolts. Now, she didn't feel any of that. She felt nothing. Her wings, hollow. Her desire, gone. Her drive, nowhere. She simply felt... nothing. Nothing but the brutal sting in her chest and eyes.
Her cloud home came into view, and her door made a breaking crunch sound from her slamming into it like a chariot into a brick wall. She shut the door behind her, and leaned her back against it. She covered her hooves with her eyes, and slowly sunk to the floor.
Maybe they're right... Pinkie's gone.
Derpy Hooves was happily humming along to a new DJ-Pon3 song somepony was playing below her as she was clearing clouds. She playfully bobbed her head side to side as the fast, upbeat techno song played. Out of nowhere, though, a loud slam was heard above her. Derpy jumped and looked above her with her golden crossed eyes and saw a rainbow blur throw open her door, then slam it shut behind her. Derpy had never seen Dash do such a thing—except for after she accidentally dropped a piano through Dash's roof—and was concerned. She let go of the cloud that was in her grip and flapped her grey wings, ascending up to Dash's home. She landed on the porch of the cloud home and gently knocked on the door.
"Rainbow Dash? Are you okay in there?" the grey mare asked, tilting her head to the side a little as she tried to focus on the door.
Rainbow's ears perked up at the sound of one of her co-worker's and friend's voice. She sniffled and cleared her throat. "I'm fine," she began with a voice crack. "Just go away, Derpy."
"Are you sure, Rainbow? You seemed to be in a hurry to get up there."
"Yes, I'm fine, you feather-brain! Now leave!" Dash snapped, hissing at Derpy.
Derpy looked at the door with wide, sad eyes. Snooty voices flooded into her mind like water into a glass, voices from her fillyhood.
Stupid retard! Cross-eyed feather-brain! Moron! Idiot!
The blonde-maned Pegasus's eyes filled with tears as she unfurled her wings and took to the skies, her eyes flowing tears and her body flowing with the wind current.
Twilight and her friends galloped toward Rainbow Dash's cloud home on the other side of town, a dust trail following close behind them from their frantic hoofsteps. A few ponies peeked out their windows from the rows of homes on both sides of the streets, curious as to why the ponies were sprinting through town.
"Come on, girls!" Twilight said, her breathing heavy. Then from above them, a gray slash zipped by, the slash crying and flying fast. She was flying from the opposite direction of Rainbow Dash's home. Twilight stopped in her tracks, her friends skidding to a halt next to her. Twilight could make out the pony's blonde mane and grey coat; she was sure she knew who it was. Before the flying pony moved too far away, she cupped her hoof around her mouth, calling out, "Derpy! Derpy, is that you?"
Derpy stopped mid-air, turning her head around to meet the eyes of the purple unicorn down below. She slowly swept down and landed next to Twilight.
She swallowed hard, wiping her eyes and sniffling. Her lips quivered; her breathing was shaky, like she was fighting off sobs from deep in her chest. "H-hi, Twilight. Rainbow Dash seems upset." Derpy kicked at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the three ponies.
"Uh, Twi'—we really should be gettin' a move on to Rainbow's," Applejack said.
"I'll catch up with you girls," Twilight said, waving them away with her hoof. The three all looked at her, then Derpy, then they slowly turned around and resumed their frantic galloping to their broken friend.
"Derpy?"
Rainbow Dash's teeth clattered as if she was stuck in a snow storm. Her body physically shook with sobs, wells overflowing from her as she huffed and puffed repeatedly. She laid on the floor next to her door in her home, unable to pull herself together. Sorrow ran deep in her blood, spreading out to the deepest reaches of herself. Her heart screamed out in pain with thunderous pumping, her heart's tears drowning out any remaining happiness within her. If her heart was a vase in a well-lit room, the light would have succumbed to a blackout, the vase shattered on the ground with its water gone and the flowers withered and crunched up.
In her state, Rainbow Dash found no strength to give herself solace, nor any strength to even stop her pitiful sobbing. She looked at her shaking hooves, putting them close to her face. She examined them as they just shook. She shut her eyes tight and scrunched up her upper lip, sniffling. She planted her hooves on the ground firmly and forced herself to stand up. Her sobs finally started to relent, her nose and eyes stopping their rivers. She still shook, however.
She suddenly felt a great exhaustion overcome her; her eyes suddenly became heavy weights, her muscles aching and throbbing. Her wings burned like hot coals, the feathers out of line. She took a deep, shaky breath. "Okay Dash, come on—you can do this," she told herself. With baby steps, she slowly approached her bedroom through her elegant cloud home. "Just one hoof after the other, come on."
After putting forth an exorbitant amount of effort and energy, Rainbow Dash finally reached her cloud bed her open and spacious room that had posters spread across the walls with pillars on both sides of the room. She crashed on her bed, laying down on her right side. Her eyes shifted around the room, looking at every last detail of the wall. Anything that could keep her from looking at the pictures on either side of the beds. Her lips started to quiver, her hooves shaking again, as she felt her resolve crumbling like an ancient building. "Don't look, Dash. Don't. Look. Don't. Don't," she said over and over in her head. Her teeth started to clatter again. "Come on! Like Twilight's told me before: persevere! Come on, Dash. Come on."
The picture beside her bed screamed out to Dash to look at it. The alluring wooden frame, the smiles on the faces of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash as they stuck their tongues out in a silly matter with confetti and balloons crazily scattered in the background, the adorable love shown on their faces as their cheeks touched; it was all too much for Rainbow Dash to ignore. Her resolve gave way as she finally stared at the picture. Her eyes burned painfully as no more tears would come out, the same deep pit in her chest returning from before. Her heart pounded hard and screamed again. She sat upright and reached out to the picture. She carefully picked the picture up and held it in her hooves, holding it close to her face. She stared at Pinkie Pie's contagious smile, her silly mane, her true and radiant eyes, the love shown deep in both Pinkie's and Dash's eyes. Some tears managed to form again, escaping Dash's eyes and slowly rolling down her cheeks, dripping onto Dash's and Pinkie's faces. The glass in the frame began to smear from the tears, and Rainbow's thick, heavy breathing fogged it up.
Something built up in Rainbow. She didn't know what it was, where it came from, or why it came up; but she felt it. The sorrow, the shards of her broken heart, the pit in her chest, the seemingly never-ending torment in her eyes; it all collapsed in a fierce snap at once. A fire engulfed her heart, flame shooting out through her being, replacing the deep sorrow with melting rage. Her eyes red and bloodshot--and her tears ceased and her shaking doubled--Rainbow Dash gripped the picture so tightly the glass cracked in the frame. Her muscles screamed for release, and her heart rate increased to a dangerous level. With strength from every fiber of her being, Rainbow Dash hurled the picture across the room in a fit of rage, a scream escaping her after she threw it. She felt as if pure overflowing hatred poured out of her with the scream. The picture frame slammed against the wall, the glass shattering like Rainbow Dash's heart, the wood snapping and the picture sliding out from the battered frame.
Rainbow Dash curled up in a ball on her bed, her new-found, rage-induced sobs mixing with her quiet whimpers of pure pain. Her eyes stung horribly from the pressure on them. Her heart felt as if it were about to explode out her chest. But maybe that would be for the best. Her pain would end. She'd be with her love again.
"Why, Pinkie? Why?"
"U-Um, I-I really don't think we should talk to her right now," Fluttershy said. Her, Applejack, and Rarity were underneath Rainbow Dash's cloud home now, debating whether or not they should give their friend space.
"Ah heard that scream and a shatterin' sound right after. Ya'll did, too! She could've hurt herself!" Applejack protested, her eyes widened a little.
"As much as I hate to say it, I think I have to agree with Applejack, dear. That did not sound very..." Rarity trailed off, searching for the right word, "Healthy."
"But—" Fluttershy started before she was cut off.
"But nothin'! She could be hurt up there. Rarity, teleport us up there."
"Very well, dear. I am sorry, Fluttershy." Rarity ignited her horn, a glow beginning to form around the three of them. But, before the spell could be cast, Fluttershy lightly but effectively nudged Rarity's horn. Rarity let out a grunt of slight pain.
"Fluttershy!" Rarity exclaimed, surprised, while she rubbed her horn.
"G-Girls, I've known Rainbow Dash the longest. Please, please just trust me. She," Fluttershy hesitantly paused, "She needs space for now." Fluttershy gave her friends a look in her eyes that they had never seen before. It was a mix of desperation and seriousness, complete with full trustworthiness. Her eyes seemed to almost quiver.
Applejack let out a slightly angry breath. "Fine. But we're visitin' her tomorrow."
Fluttershy lightly smiled. "Thank you." The three turned around and began to walk away.
Rarity let out a slow, deep breath and a sniffle as they walked. "I... I cannot believe Pinkie Pie is gone."
"I already miss her," Fluttershy said, her voice high-pitched and shaky. Rarity gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Ah do, too. Ah do, too." Applejack looked down at the ground. "Ah don't even know if it's sunken in yet."