//------------------------------// // Dash's Delusion part one // Story: Ruining Harmony // by Artaelian //------------------------------// Heat. Unbearable heat. The blue mare felt the hot wind as it blew and bit through her mane and on her coat. She attempted to curl into a ball, but pain shot through her body as she moved. Letting out a small cry, she held still. As the pain died away, the mare listened to the fast beats of her heart, a sensation that felt unusual to her, and it was slightly painful itself, as though it had stopped working for a little time. She opened her eyes, but all she saw for a few seconds was an overly bright blur. Her head was resting on a painfully white pillow. Glad of the pain in her chest going away, the mare begun to think. ‘Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here? And what brought me here?’ she thought. The vision in her eyes cleared up, and the pillow hurt less now to look at. Beyond it was a metal frame in a white that was equal to that of the pillow, save for the top edges which seemed to be darker. This confused the mare. Reaching a hoof out to investigate, she wiped at the top of a small bar, removing built up dust and dirt, and revealing the white colour of the bar underneath. And this led to a new question to come to mind. ‘How long have I been here?’ Closing her eyes tight, she raised herself on her hooves, then lowered her body into a sitting position on the bed. She kept her eyes closed as the pain subsided faster this time around. She blinked, and looked around, her mouth agape in shock at the sight before her. The room she was in was a wreck, a wall far away had collapsed, taking most of the roof with it. What remained of both now lay on the floor of the room, covering several beds and a desk. Beyond the collapsed wall, buildings of the town burned, and a couple of them even collapsed, billowing fire into the sky. Some of the wreckage showed signs of being moved, but whatever had moved it was nowhere to be found in the room. Back in the room, what remained wasn’t in much better shape. Items varying from needles to plastic pouches were scattered around haphazardly. One item in particular caught the mare’s eyes, it lay on the floor to the left of her. A simple get-well card. Reaching down, the mare picked it up. The card wasn’t anything extraordinary, its front had balloons and the words ‘Get Well Soon!’ in a royal blue. The inside however made the mare read over it carefully multiple times. It begun with a name ‘To Rainbow Dash’. ‘Is... is that my name?’ the mare wondered. She closed her eyes, and thought hard, and a memory came to mind. “Is she going to be okay Nurse Redheart?” a purple unicorn asked. It sounded familiar, yet strange. “I won’t hide the truth from you Twilight Sparkle, her symptoms don’t fit any known illness. We can only do our best and hope.” a white earth pony replied within her memory. “You know I am here,” she said to the two ponies before her, “you could at least say something more encouraging to lift my spirits!” “Just, just go back to sleep Rainbow Dash. You’ll feel better before you know it.” the unicorn identified as Twilight Sparkle replied. Her memory at least gave her something. She knew a name of somepony who clearly was important to her, and her own name. To her left, Rainbow Dash found a wooden table had been set up, and upon it were various items, everything covered in a layer of dust. The nearest was a small square mirror, and this she picked up, blowing on it to remove the dust. Holding it up, she looked into the mirror and the sight that reached her eyes. Her blue coat was messy and dusty, as was her mane, which still had a visible rainbow colour. ‘How long have I been left alone in the wreck of this hospital?’ she wondered. Tied to that table’s leg corner were strings leading to deflated balloons. ‘Pinkie Pie.’ The name came to her mind before she realised what it meant. There were other items on the table from her other friends, a bouquet of flowers, cards, a picture of Rainbow Dash and a tortoise, and a long rotten apple which was slowly turning to much. She elated as the memories of her friends flooded back in, remembering all the happy times with them between picnics and fighting evil. With her memories and identity back in place, Rainbow Dash stared at what had befallen Ponyville. Buildings were either standing but gutted by fire, or had the misfortune of falling and remain on fire. Smoke billowed into the air, and the intense heat of the flames made her uncomfortable. ‘Now, what happened to the town?’ she asked herself. She closed her eyes again, and tried to recall the memory. She sat there, staring at the fire. After she had spoken up to the nurse and Twilight, they had left to the corridor, to continue the conversation away from her. Twilight’s face explained everything though, there was something unusual about the illness. Rainbow Dash was a very athletic pegasus pony, as such, it was very rare for her to get ill. But right now, there was one thing that very clear to her. ‘Sitting here won’t help me fit in the remaining missing memories, I need to find out what’s going on with the town, and find somepony who can help me.’ she decided. Rainbow Dash climbed off the bed, pausing once more when pain filled her body. When it passed, she carefully walked through the wreckage of the hospital, and cautiously begun the trek through the burning remains of Ponyville. She turned and walked into the streets, feeling the heat from the numerous fires. As she walked to the centre of Ponyville, she watched as the town’s gathering place for meetings, and where the mayor stayed. It creaked and groaned, and then finally collapsed as the pillars that held it up had been burnt too thin. ‘This isn’t right, this has to be a bad dream. I’m still asleep... yeah, that has to be it, this has to be a nightmare, and I’ll wake up any minute now.’ She tried to reason with herself. -- Rainbow paused. She had travelled a small number of streets since she had left the hospital, and now, a new sound reached her ears. Hoofsteps, somepony else was around! Closing her eyes, Rainbow listened among the crackles of fires and the popping and breaking as buildings fell down in the distance. The hoofsteps were coming from the street over, and with a hopeful smile, Rainbow trotted towards them. As she turned the corner, Rainbow’s eyes fell upon the grey mare with the blonde mane and wall eyes. Ditzy Doo wasn’t aware of Rainbow Dash’s presence at first, as her line of sight ran across the hopeless scenes of destruction around her, but soon, Ditzy’s eyes saw Rainbow, and the mail mare galloped over to Rainbow Dash. To Rainbow, Ditzy may have been someone she rarely saw, but in the apparent chaos of the burning town, Ditzy was welcome company. “Ditzy, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked, standing up and looking at Ditzy. Ditzy’s eyes remained same as always, she was looking at Rainbow Dash, but both her eyes did not align correctly. Why this was, Rainbow had never cared to ask, and in the current situation, it didn’t seem like the best place to ask. “I don’t know. I woke up, Ponyville is on fire,” Ditzy looked down sadly, tears forming in her eyes, “I can’t find Dinky.” Rainbow had no idea what to do as Ditzy begun to cry. She took a nervous step forward and placed a hoof reassuringly on Ditzy. Ditzy responded only by glancing up for a second, then looking back down. The hoof had seemed to calm her down somewhat, but she still kept crying. “Ditzy,” Rainbow paused, waiting for the other pony to look up, “where have you been all this time?” she questioned. “At Carrot Top’s home, nowhere else to go.” Ditzy voice crackled with sorrow. “Is it safe there? I mean, the rest of Ponyville is on fire.” Rainbow stated, looking concerned. “No fire there. It’s safe.” Ditzy replied, looking away as she began sobbing again. Rainbow looked on the horizon and watched as the sun begun to set. Rainbow begun to think of the Princesses. Where had they been while this disaster befell Ponyville? Were her friends with either of them? Questions that, Rainbow guessed, only time would answer. “We’ll look for Dinky in the morning and get out of here. Standing around and hoping for something to happen isn’t going to work, we need to sleep now, so show me to where you’ve been staying.” Rainbow Dash said softly. Ditzy only nodded, and slowly, she stood up, leading Rainbow Dash to where she had been staying. Ditzy led Rainbow Dash to the home she and Carrot Top shared. The home looked pretty much like every other in Ponyville, a red roof, wooden structure beams and yellow walls with windows, however, it appeared that it too had been on fire at some stage, but unlike other buildings in Ponyville, the fire hadn’t lasted long. Ditzy showed Rainbow that she had made a makeshift living area out of the ground floor rooms that still had a ceiling on them. In one she had set up a mat which was wrinkled, in the other, whatever food Ditzy had been able to find had been gathered in it, on the table was a plate which had a muffin placed on it. It had been set up clearly for two ponies, though one of the chairs had been replaced by a raised chair, which stood before the spot where the muffin and plate were set up. On the other side of the table, another empty plate sat, perfectly clean. The rest of the table was dusty, but opposite this, Rainbow noticed a circular plate shape in the dust that hadn’t, strangely, been left to gather dust. “Carrot Top isn’t here.” Ditzy said, watching as Rainbow looked around. Ditzy walked over to the mat and lay upon it. Rainbow’s stomach quickly growled at the sight of the food Ditzy Doo had gathered, and carefully, walked over to the muffin. She found, to her surprise, Ditzy had flown from the mat to the other room and smacked her hoof away from the muffin, and was now glaring at Rainbow Dash angrily. “For Dinky. Don’t touch.” Ditzy said, flying away. Rainbow watched her, feeling sad. Looking back at the table. Rainbow grabbed a carrot from the pile of food on the floor, and washed it in whatever water she could find. She flew back over to the other room and noticed, in the time it had taken for her to find the carrot and wash it, Ditzy had set up another mat. “You can sleep on that.” Ditzy stated, smiling. Rainbow smiled back, thankful for a place to sleep. “Do you mind if I ask where Carrot Top is?” Rainbow asked, sitting on the mat. She became confused when Ditzy bit her lip. “Gone.” Was the answer Ditzy gave. Rainbow suddenly felt sick. “She’s… dead?” she asked again, suddenly regretting having asked about her in the first place. “No, just gone. Not here.” Ditzy answered again, holding her left leg over her right and looking to her left, as if uneasy at being asked questions on Carrot Top at all. “Is she coming back?” Rainbow asked a third time, wishing she would just shut up at Ditzy looked more and more pained each time. “I don’t know. Can we go to sleep now? I want to be up early to find Dinky.” Ditzy asked and stated, laying flat on her mat, tears rolled down Ditzy’s face leaving behind wet streaks. Rainbow Dash nodded and lay on her side. What had happened while she had been out? It was clearly bad. She had seen no unicorn or earth pony since she had woken up, only Ditzy. She closed her eyes and begun to let sleep take over her fatigued body and mind. Hopefully tomorrow would be better.