//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Hearts of Harmony // by Obigity //------------------------------// ‘Pretty empty in here, then again what else is new?’  Doctor Cold floated through the empty void of his patient's memories. Once in a while, he would see an image of a place but would instantly flicker out before he could get full details of what it was. The ‘Void’ was nothing more than a stretch of dark hallway that kept going on and on forever it seemed. Behind him floated a ball of fluorescent light the size of the moon that shined into the endless sea of darkness like a lighthouse. The Doctor was sure to stay vigilant in case the kid starts resisting his advances by unconsciously blocking his path like a door closing on his enchanting face. A red glow surrounded his ‘body’ and he took off in the single direction at measurable speeds, enough to examine his surrounding area for signs of discrepancies. To his disappointment nothing was revealed as he surfed his patients mind. He wasn’t in a hurry, time functioned differently than in the real world, here time moves slower but not on a phenomenal level but to where an hour here equals ten minutes out there. It wouldn’t surprise him if he were here for hours and when he woke only thirty minutes had passed. Another thing that frustrates him when he tries to learn more about the Dream Realm which nopony seems to know much about, is how it functions or the fundamentals of such a layout. Most have theories regarding dreams but nopony is able to say for sure how dreams are made to be other than being unconscious memories or pure imagination. When Cold used to teach at Celestia’s school he remembered researching into the dream field for ‘scholarly’ reasons in the restricted levels for days, only to come up short every time he thought he was a lead. The only semblance of useful information were some nonsensical stories about spiritual journeys by somepony who looked like they wrote it while eating wild berries. However, there were some solid leads of a dream-walker that was said to be powerful enough to visit the dreams of others, although it was reported around a thousand years ago (much to his exceedingly growing annoyance) he doubts that even Celestia could remember that far back. Back to his mission, what he came here to do was another challenge. For starters he would be searching for the problem with his ‘eyes’ for anything out of the ordinary. All the emptiness and lifeless background that covered the entire cerebrum like the vacuum of space was not helping. Second, the means to cut away the blockade was the idea of an idea that theoretically could work on a normal Pony if the kid was anything but normal. Luckily for the little brat, Cold wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t at least interesting. Thirdly was the soup of the day, which was taking the word off some dusty old book written during a time when nopony understood what the words ‘infection’ or ‘sterilization’ meant. Even then the book was written during medical infancy, although it did state they relied on Mage Meadowbrook’s teachings who was widely known as the pony to revolutionize the medical field and her teaching methods would later on become the cornerstone of Equestria Health Care. It did hold some merit, it was at this point he was willing to try anything before the kid leaves the hospital. After exploring what he would refer to as ‘Absolute Zilch’ (AZ for short) for about two hours, it was getting to the point where he thought it was going to be a waste of his time when something caught the corner of his eye. He turned in the direction of the movement in the vast emptiness, crawling closer he squinted to see what it was. With enough distance, he finally got the clear picture of a shapeless blacker-than-ink liquid moving fluidly around a group of complex looking Hoberpony Sphere’s that clumped together to at least a hundred others. The black smile oozed around the empty space like a tentacle monster squirming in the water, every few seconds it would move its mass around the captured cell leaving behind a shiny layer of silicone sticking the sphere’s together turning the neurons into a beehive. It gave him the impression that he was in the right place. Carefully he passed by the moving darkness and deeper into the mass blockade looking around attentively and idly noticing the nerves looked dead they should be in the garbage disposal, but with right concentration he could ‘kick’ them back in working order. But it had to be at the right location which happens to be a little further in the dark stuff. It didn’t take long to find the center of the cluster, he found the biggest nerve that weakly pulsed golden light as the tar chained the memories in place. Figuring he was going to get close as any he thought of the counter spell that took form over his head, red light swirled around him as the violent waves gradually picked up pace before it condensed into a single point to the tip of his horn before shooting out with a powerful burst of energy. Striking dead on the virus, he grit his teeth as his horn began to heat up very hotly and his dream avatar began to flicker in and out. He wasn’t physical at the moment, but he was still real in some shape or form, however it works in the Dream Realm. Even if he couldn’t physically feel the heat, he did feel his brain running on a high fever which he knows for a fact the body could burn up which would affect his mental state if it continued or incineration by spontaneously combusting. Won’t that be a fun way to go? Something wet coated his body and the pain began to lessen, the heat was still the same output as it was before except his body emitted a blue hue. He felt cooler like a layer of water was covering him. His lips twitched upward as his compatriot pulled through on the successful spell. As his head got back to the task at hoof he noticed the tar peel away to reveal the exposed nerve, before he could celebrate he looked closer at the tissue before spitting out a curse. What was supposed to happen was the structure to break away which would make an unstable balance in the virus that could unclog the clot and allow the neromagicain to operate but instead underneath it there was a strange formation of blue lines running across a blanched membrane all parallel to each other holding it together. He didn’t know whether to blame this or the kid in general for the unexpected when he thought to have everything figured out. He reared back his head, lighting up his horn again concentrating on getting through the strange nerve just enough to break into and the rest should theoretically fall away, even if it felt like his head would explode. It was at this point he realized he was using an axe, when he needed a chainsaw to get the job done. He’s already been here for too long and with all the tremors he was making he was sure to attract some trouble or wake the kid up from all the cutting up going on in his head. As his horn poured out mana, he focused on cutting through the nerve with a high intensity beam instead to open up the membrane when a small crack split across the white shell. Cold looked in confusion as small blue lights spewed from the open tissue like fireflies. One was about to touch him when he suddenly got struck from the left. He moved unbalanced like a drunk Pegasus who lost control of their wings. He righted himself and quickly looked over at his body to see what hit him. A spot of black sludge on his ribs moves across his fur causing a coldness to spread throughout his body. Taking that as his cue to leave, he didn’t notice the blue lines glowing brighter as he zoomed away from the moving darkness trying to close in on him. Cold continued to zigzag across the closing membrane like a professional Wonderbolt as he neared the outside with precise maneuver. As he finally reached the past the obstacle his eyes for a second lost its focus when pain ebbed against his avatars ribs like a swarm of bees. For a moment he took his eyes off the path when the ink struck from behind. Tendrils of black web latched onto his hindquarters and slowly began to pull him back into its mass. As Cold struggled to move, he watched as the light dimmed as the kid slowly began to wake up. As his only door was closing he put all the strength to muster in his rear legs which caused his right leg to flare in pain as he kicked with so much force it snapped away from its base like a rubber band. Luckily that action propelled him further away in time as other tar webs reached out barely missing him. With a glow of his horn he shot away from the moving darkness towards the light at speeds that would make Pegasi green with envy. The light slowly faded into dying embers when he reached it within trotting distance, he could feel the black sickness work its way up to his neck like the cold would wash over him giving him frostbite. As he was within hoofreach the moving tar covered his eyes filling his vision with…. p--ch--------em-ty----in---ite---et--ity-----ab-ss---en--ess---bl--k-----Lov-ly----Darkness.............................. … … … … ... Gasping for breath, Cold felt the solid ground under him as his vision returned he could vaguely make out a blue shape. “C-Cold-Cold-Cold! Are you ok?” Concerned honey colored eyes stared at him. Hazy green eyes narrowed accusingly, “Nopony snogged me when I was out did they?” “He’s fine.”