Suspended in the void. Rainbow could not see her surroundings, but she had this intrinsic sense for where she was. Whenever she was? Whoever she was? She knew her name, her body, but not what events led to this exact moment. At best, a few fleeting words came to mind.
Fluttering. Soft. Fall.
The substance she was in rippled with every other thought. She swayed passively in the… liquid, she could discern. It was cold, but so was she. It clung to her feathers and mane, her inside and out. It was new, yet familiar. Welcome, yet alien.
She dared open her eyes, only to bear witness to an endless sea of colorless myrrh. Bubbles floated before her as light danced in rays and shafts.
Suddenly, Rainbow became quite alarmingly aware that she could not breathe in this state. She flailed in the liquid, only causing it to ripple more. Choking, she frantically flapped her limbs in an attempt to swim upward, something of a butterfly stroke crossed with the natural aquatic gait of an octopus.
Her lungs ached for a surface that couldn’t come fast enough. A sense of despair grew as her vision started to fade, lost to the sea. But still, she swam onward, through the pain and dread, and was thus rewarded.
The pegasus burst to the surface, gasping for air. The air here was rich and warm, a far cry from the ocean below. She took a moment to simply float there at the surface, catching her breath as the feeling returned to her extremities. This grey substance seemed just as capable of supporting her on the surface as it had kept her below.
She looked around in all directions for any sign of something else. Anything that wasn’t herself or the chilling water. Yet even as she flew higher above the surface, she saw nothing but horizon.
But then, on her third glance to what she felt was the west, she saw a vibrant color. Bright red, looming in the distance. A rounded, familiar shape, that of an apple, albeit one far larger than she had ever seen before.
Her stomach suddenly growled, howling in hunger, as saliva dripped from her lip. Her body moved before her mind could process, and she soared over the sea towards her prize. The apple, up close, was easily the size of a small barn, bobbing in the sparkling ocean. Rainbow found herself overcome once more, and lunged towards the apple, teeth bared, and motioned to take a bite.
This was immediately followed by a sharp pain in her jaw, sending a jolt through her entire body…
~~~~~~~
“Ow!! Mm!!” Rainbow yelped, clutching her cheek. Suddenly there was no apple, no sea, no weird compulsions. Only her bedroom, a familiar cloudscape lit by grey moonlight, and one very confused tortoise.
Rainbow blinked a couple of times as she got her bearings. She looked down to see Tank, staring back with wide eyes.
“Oh my gosh, Tank! I’m so sorry!” she said, scooping her pet up into a hug and cradling him in her hooves. “Weird dream. Thought you were an apple. Eheh… good thing your shell’s so hard, eh?”
The tortoise blinked.
“Ah, c’mon, you know you missed me.”
Tank blinked a second time, then leaned his head towards Rainbow. She met him halfway to save a few seconds.
“Attaboy,” she said before setting Tank back down. The tortoise, who at this point had not come out of his shell except for his head, wiggled into a comfortable position before falling back to sleep.
Rainbow stumbled down the hall and into the nearest washroom, one hoof still gingerly holding her cheek. She flipped on the light, shutting her eyes to prevent another headache, but strangely this light did not seem to bother her so much. She slowly opened her eyes, first one then the other, and saw her reflection staring back.
“Ugh, I hope I didn’t chip a tooth,” she said to herself. She turned her head and pulled back on her gums to get a better look.
What she saw made her yelp.
“What in Equestria…” She made the same motion again, this time lingering to look at her teeth. No, they weren’t broken, but rather… different. She could clearly see four large, pointed canines that had not been there before. Each one was at least an inch or two long, coming to a wicked point.
Rainbow paused a moment, dumbstruck. She turned away, then back, expecting it to be a trick of the light. She shut her eyes and reopened them. She even tried splashing water on her face. Despite her best efforts, her fangs would not go away.
“Fluttershy, what the hay did you put in that tea?” she mumbled, feeling her teeth with her tongue. There they were, just like she saw in the mirror. Just as pointy, too. “This would’ve been great yesterday. Bleh, bleh!”
As she bared her teeth mockingly in the mirror, something odd caught her eye. She leaned back and forth, a puzzled look on her face, then tried to wipe something off the mirror with a towel.
What she realized she was seeing was the doorframe, only she could make out the image through herself.
“Okaaay, this has officially gone from weird to freaky.” She glanced at her own hoof outside of the mirror. At least that image of her wasn’t so translucent. She then felt her own forehead. “Maybe I am sick. Delirious or whatever. I mean, I don’t feel sick. If anything, I’m a little chilly in here.”
Just then, her stomach growled like an angry dog, much like in her dream.
“Or hungry. Yeah, I could go for a snack right about now.”
As she moved towards the door, she caught herself and whipped around to the mirror again. “Hungry. Not tired.” She felt the sunken bags under her eyes. “... maybe it’ll catch up to me after I eat. Yeah, that’s… probably it…”
After one last look at her teeth (out of sheer morbid curiosity), she trotted out towards the kitchen.
Rainbow dug through cabinet after cabinet in search of anything edible. The biggest downside to being away from home for months on end was a lack of snacks when you finally came to visit. After four or five cabinets, Rainbow swooped down to her refrigerator to try her luck there.
“Come on, there’s gotta be something! Ugh, I’m dyiiiing here!”
She slammed the empty fridge shut, then tried another cabinet. “Oh, score!!” she proclaimed, grabbing a box from within. This was followed shortly by a high-pitched squeak and a tiny flutter of wings as a trio of bats flew out from the cabinet.
“Agh, shoo!” said Rainbow, waving her hoof at the airborne rodents. “My cookies! Mine!!”
The bats fluttered away, out a nearby window. Satisfied, the pegasus slid into a chair by the counter and ripped open her box of snickerdoodles. She licked her lips, then eagerly stuffed her face with as many cookies as her hooves could. She tried her best to chew, an effort made all the more difficult by the stale-as-dust texture and her newfound dental structure, but eventually made it through.
Her heart sank.
“Ugh… I know these are stale as heck, but…” She picked up another from the pack and sniffed it. These certainly smelled like cinnamon. “I guess there must be somethin’ wrong with my tongue now? Tastes like… air. Or less than that. What gives?”
Her stomach complained again, and she groaned aloud. “I’m trying, okay?!”
A small shuffle of plastic and cardboard brought her attention back to the counter. One of the bats from before had returned, and seemed to be quite interested in the remaining cookies.
“Hey, I thought I— actually you know what? I don’t care anymore. Go nuts, little guy.”
She sat there, watching the grateful bat nibble away at one of the cookies. It was nice to see at least someone get enjoyment from them. Moreover, it gave her something else to put her mind on besides all these ailments of late.
Th-thump. Th-thump.
Rainbow looked around, puzzled. Where was that noise coming from?
Th-thump. Th-thump.
Her ear twitched as she slowly looked back to the counter. The sound, faint but ever-present, seemed to be coming from the little bat.
Th-thump. Th-thump.
She sniffed on reflex, a reflex she couldn’t even place. What she smelled, she also couldn’t place, though it was more familiar; it brought to mind the image of a ripe red delicious. Rainbow locked eyes with the bat on her counter, and it with her. It stopped mid-bite, entering some sort of trance.
Rainbow’s jaw hung open, fangs bared and dripping.
She lunged forward with a bite.
The thumping ceased.