//------------------------------// // 2) Pale Blue Eyes // Story: Silent Artemis // by Hokusai3211 //------------------------------// Rainbow landed on the cloud with a full bodied thud. Not normally a sound associated with a cloud, but with enough pegasus magic, a rampant mixture of residual alcohol, a mounting ominous hangover and twenty four hours since anything resembling sleep rushing through her brain like a narcoleptic conductor on a train off the rails, that anything was possible.  “Uhg, never again, that’s the last time!” She groaned into the cloud as she planted her face into the fluffy folds, holding her head in her hooves, hoping the cloud would swallow her pain and then the rest of her for good measure. She swallowed the bile threatening to creep up her throat and rubbed her stomach as it growled in protest. “The last time, I ain’t doing this again.” she threatened, yelling at whatever it was she was swearing to, it certainly wasn’t herself, she knew better than anypony that it was a lie. She had sworn the exact same thing to the exact same cloud only yesterday probably, or was it a week ago, she couldn’t remember. She had to say, she had done it to herself, she had said that she was going to have one drink at Roses bar and go home, and she had meant it, seriously she had! Well... sort of anyway, she would have confidently sworn before a pony of the law that she would be in bed before ten o'clock, right until that damn red head stepped inside and then really what was she supposed to do? Hey, you're honour, I was totally going home, I swear I was a changed mare, but just look at those legs? She grinned at the thought, then grimaced at the pain of smiling. Seriously, there was being responsible and then there was being crazy, and only a crazy mare would have said no to that. By Celestia, the universe just wasn’t fair sometimes. She didn’t regret the choice she made, not really, but the consequences were a real drag nonetheless. The near firing was one thing, but even as she lay on the cloud, face buried in the cool vapours, her biggest regret was that she really missed her bed.  That was her biggest blunder, should have gone to the mares house, rookie mistake, what was she eighteen again? She had been too eager, the redhead had been playing hard to catch all night and she had bent her own rules, just to even the odds.  Now she wasn’t sure if the red head was still in her bed or not, and Rainbow was not about to roll the dice and find out. If she wasn’t great, but if she was, well then that meant small talk, probably breakfast plans and worst of all, a second date. Rainbow shuddered, that wasn’t a bluff she was willing to call out.   It wasn’t that this mare was bad or unkind or anything, far from it actually, she was nice enough and knew how to have a good time. But the chance that she would want to do things after was what made Rainbow endure the blazing heat of a sun scorched Ponyville.  That and the near miss with whoever that mare had been across the road, that was a close call. Some ponies just didn’t understand the rules of a one night stand and would want to cuddle or sun help her, go to the theatre or eat together or something awful like that. Rainbow inwardly groaned at the thought. She liked those things, well maybe not the theatre, but if it led up to a fun night at the end she would smile and endure it, but what was the point of doing those things after the fun had already happened?  Why was it okay for a one time fling to become a relationship anyway, if you played a game of chess with somepony and had a fun game, would it be cool if afterwards you were only supposed to play with them and only them from then on, no pony would think that was a good idea, right?  And that was the internal logic of Rainbow Dash that saw her temporarily homeless and stranded on this cloud. Some would have called her selfish, but she just saw it as being honest, she didn’t want to lead anypony along, she wasn’t a mare to be tied down after all. She wanted to be free and besides, she had tried dating, sort of, but really what was the point, they always left in the end, or tried to change her and Rainbow liked who she was. Most of the time anyway, not right now, right now she wanted drive nails into her head for being so irresponsible. But she would go back to liking herself in a few hours as usual, if the hangover would let her live that long. She let out a long sigh, it wasn't her fault, there was just nothing else for her in this town, day in and out it was all the same, ponies waking up working then going to sleep. Celestia it was depressing, it seemed like she was the only sane pony around sometimes, trying to find excitement in her life, but they acted like she was the crazy one. How could they just live like that, responsibility was fine for some, but heck if she just wanted something more to happen in life, even this lifestyle was becoming mundane, how did that happen? Did Ponyville just turn everything it touched boring? Oh Celestia she wished for something, anything to spice up her life! She sighed, things might be dry, but damn if that red head was still cute though, what was her name again? Windy, Whirly, oh whatever, it didn’t matter really. She thought about last night and chuckled as the still blurry amorous night and morning the two had enjoyed played in her mind, she still didn’t have a clue how the spatula had gotten into the bedroom. But the prices of those two very dangerous hobbies, that being mares and drinks where high indeed, and as she snuggled further into the cloud, feeling the tiredness and the throbbing pains of the hangover clawing into her mind, she realised that she would give up all her vices all her adultery, drinking and everything else for a cup of water and an painkiller. It would have been another lie, but she would have made it almost believable. She groaned aloud this time as another throb of pain in her head struck like hammers in her skull, safe in the knowledge that at least this far out of Ponyville proper no pony would hear her anyway, she just wanted to sleep in her bed until tomorrow, today could suck apples for all she cared. Rolling over she sculpted a part of the cloud into a crude buttress to keep the sun from her eyes and laid on her back, if she couldn’t go home she would at least spend some time with the real love of her life, the only thing that came and left when she wanted it, sleep. A small part of her mind spoke about something to do with clouds and her job being on the line, but Rainbow managed to shake it away with practiced ease. Whilst most ponies would see taking a nap again after almost losing her job for that exact reason as not a terribly smart and borderline stupid idea, most ponies were dumb. At least that's what she believed and in Rainbow's mind,  most ponies lacked the one thing Rainbow had in spades.  Speed.  She was born fast, she had never met a pony faster than her in all her life, and things weren't about to change any time soon, she could have her work finished in twenty. No! Ten seven seconds flat! Should she wish to, heck she had all the time in the world to sleep if she could do her job in the time it took most ponies to think about doing it.  She had already done most of it in the state she was in, why shouldn't she lay back and reap the benefits of being faster than everpony? The problem was, (and her uncle was quite happy to remind her of this fact ever chance he got, which was totally uncool by the way and she knew there was probably some sort of breach of employer employee rights violations she could use, if she could be bothered to look it up) she had a flaw.  She was lazy, perhaps even the laziest pony in Ponyville, though if you asked her co-workers, it most likely would have been a much wider circumference than simply Ponyville, perhaps the world. But she had a right to laziness because she was fast, and talented and if she wanted to do it, she would very easily show everypony up, if anything she was just being fair to her co-workers. No doubt they’d much rather be annoyed at her and employed, rather than impressed and on the bread line, she was being lazy for them, they just didn’t see it, because most ponies where dumb, yeah, it all comes full circle again. She nestled into the cloud until she found a comfortable enough spot and closed her eyes to let sleep come find her. Her soul and mind content with her rational as the cyan mare floating, not just through the dreamscape, but through Ponyville itself, the flickering winds of Cloudsdale halted and changed course blowing her not over the west of Ponyville, but north, towards it's more wilder expanses. Unbeknownst to Rainbow, now deep in dreams of flying and the cheering of crowds, the cloud blew further and further away from Ponyville and into the uncharted fields of the forest on the townships doorstep. The Everfree forest. Not dissuaded in the slightest by the old folklore about pegasi who slept on clouds and were spirited to distant lands far away never to be seen again in fact Rainbow often laughed at such old wives tales, safe in the knowledge that nothing would happen to her, because nothing ever happened in Ponyville, period. She had slept on clouds all her life and at worst, well at worst she woke up with a chess piece to her forehead and her uncle yelling at her in front of a bunch of old stallions, but the odds of that happening twice in one day were, like... not high at all, right?  Besides those legends always said pegasi woke up over the sea, and the whole town was land locked for hundreds of miles, eat that urban legends! At some point she found herself awake, it started slow, her eyes were still closed but she knew she was back in the real world, mostly because instead of a cheering crowd like in her dreams, all she could hear was the sounds of birds tweeting, the gentle whipping of tree tops in the breeze below and that dull deafening silence that one hears when they are entirely alone. The same boring sounds she always woke to on days like these, but the feeling was more than a little disconcerting. She didn’t exactly know why she woke up at that moment, she was still exhausted, still in pain and more than anything she wanted to go back to sleep, mostly because the Wonderbolts where just about to hoof her over the title as lifetime captain in the middle of Cloudsdale stadium and Spitfire had just been begging Rainbow to marry her, but for whatever reason, her body was screaming at her to stay awake.  She grunted as she tried to open her eyes. What had awoken her was a mystery. Perhaps some primitive part of her mind was telling her something was wrong? Perhaps the weather, uncontrolled around the Everfree, was colder than over Ponyville and jostled her awake with it’s howling winds. Perhaps it was the mysterious howls and squawks that serenaded the uncharted lands below her.  Perhaps even, it was the plain and simple hands of fate, impatiently prodding her to get up already, as it had places to be and universes to meddle with. Whatever it was, she rubbed her eyes and surveyed where she was, noting that Ponyville was looking quite a lot greener than she remembered and lacking things that were generally associated with it, like ponies, and villes, whatever that actually was. Eyes blurred, she yawned and stretched her back, the distance she had travelled had been odd, clouds never travelled this quickly this time of day. But she couldn’t have been too far from home, she had flown further and in worse conditions. Besides, it was a cloudless day and she only had to fly up further to see some sort of landmark in the distance, if anything, she shrugged and lay back on her cloud. She could catch another five minutes easy and still be back in time to finish her work. But that was before she heard the noise.  Her Reptilian brain acted before she could even understand what was going on. A wet and sickening sound like somepony choking or drowning echoed from somewhere around her. Her wings flew up reflexively for a moment and she winced as she shot up too fast for her aching head to appreciate, but she bit back the pain and flicked her ears around. Nothing, she waited for a moment, then another, but heard nothing but the whipping wind and the sounds of the trees rustling. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and slumped back, it's nothin,' she thought prolly just a weird bird, lotta weird animals in the woods. But the thought did little to comfort her. Especially since she didn't hear any other birds around her. Then she heard the sickly noise again, and there was no mistaking that it was one hundred percent not a bird. She froze for a moment, okay, that ain't an animal,, she told herself, knowing now that whatever it was was coming directly bellow her. Fighting panic she quickly told herself that whatever it was, was not going to be able to see her through a cloud. Still she turned onto her stomach as slowly as she could to ensure that she made no noise at all, not that she could on a cloud. But her mind wasn't thinking too clearly at this point, fear did funny things to ponies after all, at least, that's what her dad would always say. When she had finally built up the courage, she slowly inched her way towards the edge of the cloud, taking a deep breath and psyching herself up, before she peered down.  And that's when she really wished she hadn't. Nothing in her life had prepared herself for what she saw. Because truth be told, she did not actually know what the hell she was looking at at all. If anything it would have been safe to assume her eyes had just simply given up trying to make sense anything. But the reptilian part of her brain could make out one thing amongst the myriad of sights below her, it could make sense of just one thing, the most important part, blood, and a heck of a lot of it. She had seen illness, burns and death in her life, she had basically lived her early foalhood years in a hospital, visiting her mother. She had seen droplets of blood, from paper cut or the occasional grazed knee. But she had never actually seen this before, not an ever expanding pool of it. Her mind at that moment raced so fast that it was hard to even keep track of what it was she was even thinking and to anypony else, it would have come across like a crowd of ponies all trying to voice their own opinions at once. But to take only a fraction of those thoughts together, it sort of sounded something like this. What the heck am I looking at. Run. What is that? Run. That’s a lot of blood. Didn’t you hear me say run? Looks like a sort of monkey. Okay are you just ignoring the whole flight or fight thing now? Where’s it’s fur? I said run stupid! Oh Celestia, that is a lot of blood. Can she do that, ignore a fight or flight thing, I thought we were like an instinct? Oh Celestia I think it’s coming from its neck. Last time filly and I'm warning you, run! Oh ponyfeathers what the heck is going on? Sigh, forget it no respect at all, should have listened to amygdala, you’re on your own kid.  Even in that five seconds of her mind arguing with itself, her wings had unfurled again and were now pointed straight out at her side, ready to bolt the moment her mind could truly wrap around the horror of what she was seeing.  Eventually what she was looking at quickly caught up to her, as she began to recognise outlines from the unclear picture. What she saw was a creature unknown to any ponies eyes, lying in the dirt, on it's back facing up at her. Red liquid seeping from it's neck, like water from a faucet, it's neck being the only recognisable thing about her to a ponies form it seemed. Until the creature opened its eyes that was. Even from this height, Rainbow could see it perfectly. It was like looking into a frozen lake, it's depth beyond imagining, so pale blue that it rivalled the sky itself, so cold it almost sent chills up Rainbows spine. The eyes burrowed deep into Rainbow's own and for a second she was hypnotised by her glare as the creature simply stared back. The two, locked in some unspoken game of who could stare down who the longest without blinking.  It was the creature that broke first, as it's pale face spasmed into a shocked pain as if it did not know what was happening, perhaps it didn't, until it coughed up the sanguine liquid from its mouth onto itself and looked back up into the sky with hurt and confusion in it's expression. Rainbow did not even realise when she had landed by it's side, until her hoofs hit the dirt, sanguine blood splashing against her legs in little droplets. If she had even recognised it she would have been shocked at even her own speed or the fact that she had gone down there without thinking of just how dangerous it could have been. If anything, whatever had done that to this creature could have still been around.  But she didn’t think, she just acted, she just wanted to make that expression on the creatures face go away. “Oh hell, what the heck is, Celestia that’s a lot of, okay focus Rainbow, focus, what’d they say in first aid training,” her mind tired to grab at blurred memories of that day, tried to think back to the lesions in the classroom, but all she could remember was the droning stallion lecturing on and on and then nothing really, and then she remembered waking up and being asked to leave class for snoring. Apparently sleeping in a lecture hall was frowned upon, not her fault somepony could make saving a life as boring as that stallion could. But now it was coming back to bite her on the flank, “ Forget it, think, think, okay, need to get help!”  She looked around, but she might as well have saved her energy, unless the squirrels and rabbits were suddenly going to come to her aid, and she was down one creamy yellow pegasus who could help her in that department. She was alone, and very far from help. “Gah, screw it, need to get to a hospital, okay, how am I gonna carry this thing.” She looked at its... was that a leg? The thing was just all round weird looking, but if she thought about it, if she mentally bent the thing around to look somewhat normal, it was sort of like a pony shape, she just needed to get it on her back.  Rainbow shifted uneasily as she felt a pressure on her foreleg, she looked down to notice the creatures claw like appendage wrapped around it weakly, coating her fur with the warm red liquid, already quickly cooling on her skin as she followed it up towards the creature, who was staring up at her with an expression she could just about read. What troubled her the most, was the expression she caught in the creatures face, some of it she understood, pain, shock, fear it was all there, but why was there also relief, why of all emotions had she caught that on the creature? The sight made her stomach feel like an anvil had been dropped in it. There was nothing she could have done with the blood, she gently pried the creatures claws away from her leg, and pushed it up to its neck, in a vein attempt to stop it pumping out. But it only fell back weakly and flopped to its side, Rainbow grimaced, she was seriously running out of time.  She had to act now. Without thinking she nudged the creature to its side, if nothing else but to get a better angle to carry her, she didn’t even know where to begin. She heard the retching coming from the pale mystery and was rewarded by the sound of gasping air.  She was not a doctor, but the fact that it could still somehow suck in air was at least a miracle unto itself. Instinct took over even rational thought. Her soul focus was if anything set on those cerulean eyes, It had only been for a moment, but even then, she did not want to see those frostbitten sapphires close for a final time.  Hooking the creature's strange upper leg thing around her body, she grunted and heaved it upward. It offered no resistance save for some weak gurgle and cough, she had no time to be nice about it. Celestia, she thought, I'm gonna have to fly. Feeling the weight of the creature on her back she grit her teeth. It looked like today, she was going to prove why she deserved to be a Wonderbolt. The flight itself could only be described as herculean in nature, taking every bit of pegasus magic and just plain strength and speed she had in her just to get the creature airborne, to get it Ponyville General hospital? Well, to that she couldn’t honestly remember, safe to say her brain had shut down for the most part, her body needed every fibre of strength and will power she had, and even then she still didn’t know how she did it.   Rainbow could even then, only remember bits and pieces of the journey, adrenaline had taken over as the main pilot of her mind, her singular goal was getting through the forest and towards the hospital.  But she made it somehow, and that was only the beginning of her troubles. She stumbled to a halt by the doors of the hospital with what little strength she had. Shaking knees and gasping like she had just surfaced from a great depth of water. She had not even registered that she had passed through Ponyville, but she must have. Celestia only knew how no pony had even noticed her, what a sight she must have been. Her entrance was loud, as she crashed through the doors and nearly collapsed onto the welcome mat, screaming and hollering for anypony within ear shot. Looking into the eyes of about twenty stunned, and no doubt horrified ponies. After the shock wore off, the effect was almost instantaneous.   Testament to how peaceful Ponyville truly was, when she crashed through the doors, quite literally, she had gotten the assistance of nearly every doctor and nurse in the hospital in a manner or moments with only a minimal amount of curse words and name calling employed. They had even taken Rainbow into the emergency room with the creature, fearing that she herself had been badly maimed. It was only after multiple assurances and an almost mandated examination that it was determined that the blood that obscured almost ninety percent of her cyan coat was not in fact her own.  Feeling agitated by the fussing and the insistence that she was in no condition to leave, Rainbow resoundingly ignored them all, drunk on adrenaline and loudly professing that she was the “hero the town needed,” she took her first step off the hospital gurney towards Roses bar for a well deserved celebration and collapsed right onto her face.  The doctors later told her afterwards that she had apparently been “out like a light,” as he called it, before she had even hit the floor. The surgery had taken nine hours, or so she had been told after she woke up, mostly because the acting surgeon had no idea what they were dealing with and did not want to be the first to botch a surgery on the first new creature in almost half a millennia. Thankfully it was discovered that the creature's neck was in fact quite similar to that of Minitours and after that, the beginnings of a reconstructive surgery had some sort of template to work with. It was not long after she had awoken that Rainbow, after listening to the doctor talk, quickly discharged herself, especially after being told by some rather crabby nurse that she was to wait there until she could be questioned further about the event. Rainbow rightfully had a problem with that, for one thing she didn't feel much like answering any ponies questions. Why? Well because she was a hero, and besides she was feeling fine, better than that even, whatever it was the doctors had given her was making her feel on top of the world at the moment. It was some sort of drip drug apparently, morphni, morphinis? Something like that, but she wasn’t sure what it was really or why she had to care. The sun was shining, her body felt all warm and tingly, and she had yet to tell a single pony what a hero she had been. That needed fixing right away. She was more than ready to leave, she had a party to celebrate, she was a hero Celestia damn it! So that's exactly what she did, slithering out of her bed, mostly because her limbs where feeling rather boneless and it was causing her to giggle to much to concentrate. Her wings where no better, but still she had managed to get the window open, somepony had to be a buzzkill and yell at her to stop, but she ignored them, who was going to stop Hero Dash. Hero Dash, yeah she liked that new name, she would announce herself as that, ponies needed to know! But who first, well she supposed there was only one pony she wanted to rub it into the face of more than anypony, her boss! Her Uncle had blinked in astonishment as expected as she had announced her arrival and new dynamic nom de plume, mostly because she yelled it as she crashed through his window, in his own office, at five am in the morning, still in her hospital gown. He had screamed and yelled at her about something, but she wasn’t really listening, mostly because his head was changing colour and that was amused her quite a lot.  In fairness, she had tired to explain her reasoning even as his expression grew more worried than mad, but she forgot, and instead she tried to hug him, but that had turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as before she could get close to him, she tripped over her own hoof and for a second time in one day, or maybe one night, her face became intimately familiar with the floor again. When she woke up next, she was in a room, her room to be exact. She was not quite sure how she had got there, her jaw felt like it had been a punching bag for heavy weight boxers and so did the rest of her body for some reason. There was also plasters all across her legs and forelegs, she frowned as she gazed at them, wondering who the heck had put them there. She grimaced as she tried to move her head, but eventually she turned it towards her night stand, then caught sight of a glass of water, a sandwich and the daily paper.  Okay, things had been weird before, but now something was defiantly wrong. What the hell had happened yesterday? Something was off, she was never this organised, and she had not bought the paper since well… ever really. Puzzled she reached over grinding her teeth at the protesting limb and gazed at the title.  It was simple, Local weather mare saves mysterious creature. She raised her brow and almost put it down, but suddenly the memories of what she had done came flooding back to her, but not before the paper unfolded itself and she caught sight of a pony that looked suspiciously familiar. Her jaw hit her chest, an act that caused a considerable amount of discomfort and pain to flare up, as she realised that it was in fact her own picture. She stared at it unblinking, then glanced back at the title, now in context before gazing down at her own picture again. A rather unflattering picture, if she was in anyway capable of being critical of it. A picture of her with cake smeared onto her face at her friend’s party, turned food brawl was on one side of tabloid page. The other was taken from the side of a window half blurred, a hoof coming into view, no doubt from a Royal Guard who was blocking the photographer, the other half of the blurred picture was of the creature of the forest, lying on a hospital bed, mostly obscured by blankets, tubes and wires sticking out from it.  But there was no denying it was her, Rainbow could have recognised it even if it was a quarter of a photo. She blinked as she heard something snapping, and looked out her window to see a pegasus with a camera. He waved at her and there was another sound of snapping, coming this time from a camera, before a pony in golden armour, less than politely tackled him from view. Rainbow blinked, looked back at the papers and didn't know if she should smile or sink her head under the pillows. She had done it now, she thought, she wanted a change in her life, wished for it even and now she got one, but she didn’t think it would be quite like this, this was a bit too fast, even for her. Well perhaps not quite so fast, as she looked up at the newspaper and realised it was four days old...