//------------------------------//
// Keeping Up 
// Story: Eljunbyro 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	My nostrils flared against the whipping winds.  My brow furrowed and my wings sliced against the higher atmosphere as I flew ,u way west.  The closer I approached the image of Ponyville, the more nauseous I felt, so that the urge to turn towards the opposite horizon increased by tenfold.

My flight speed varied, and this was not ignored by Luna.  The Princess of the Night flew a few yards to my right.  She glanced over with deadpan concern as the Canterlot Royal guard endeavored to stay with us both.  The air filled with noise from the multitude of flapping wings.  It was hard enough as it was to concentrate.

With a shudder, I maintained my westward path towards the town that I had learned to call home, the place that I had failed.  As we drew closer, I saw the beaming vertical spout of black energy shooting randomly to the sky.  Each time it pulse, I felt a twitch to my eyes, as if my mind was being sliced in two by the focal point of the image.

Then, my blood froze.  I gasped and gnashed my teeth as I felt my mind twirling like a centrifuge within my skull.  Soon, both horizons were flipping on either side of me, even though I knew that my wings were straight.

"Rainbow Dash..." Luna called out placidly from where she flew a few yards away.

"I'm f-fine!" I lied, hissing.  "I just... I just have to..."

"The chaos is effecting thee.  We warned that this would transpire.  We should return verily to Canterlot."

"No!  Let me just..."  I coughed and wheezed into the spiraling maelstrom of my mind.  "Lemme just... just catch a breath..."

I realized I was descending, I just didn't know how fast.  I flapped my wings every now and then to slow my dive.  Soon, a patch of green grass was sailing up at me.  I raised my hooves for a gentle landing.  Instead, I went sprawling like a meteorite across the emerald plain.

"Ugh!  Ooof!  Nnngh..."  I rolled to a stop beside a pond, twitching involuntarily.

I heard several hooves touching down around me.  Armor clanked as the pegasus guards formed a tight barrier.  They parted, however, the moment Luna landed and trotted gracefully towards me.

"There is no need for such vigilance," she said to the guard ponies as she pushed them aside with her wings.  "She is no danger to us."  With a sigh, she knelt down beside me.  "Thou art, however, a danger to thyself, Rainbow Dash."

"I... g-gotta... l-live up to my m-middle name somehow," I said, curling up into a blue ball and wincing.

"This is hardly the time for jocularity."

"Nor is it the time for me to be alive, but hey... live and learn, huh?"  I tried to chuckle, but it only came out as a wheeze.  I did my best not to whimper, and somehow I managed to vocalize, "J-just how l-long are th-these attacks supposed to last?  Do you kn-know?"

"Every now and then, a pulse of energy attempts to pierce beyond the harmonic barrier," Luna said.  "The essence of Discord within you is best described as a door, and the dimension on the other side likes to flex its muscle from time to time."

"What happens when it punches on through?"

"Thy body will not be able to handle the transformation it so desireth."

"Nnngh..."  I ran a hoof over my aching forehead.  "And so... my body loses, right?"

"Affirmative."

I took a breath and squeezed a teary eye open to look at her.  "And what of my spirit?"

"Thou doth not belong to a spirit of monsters and shadow," Luna said.  "Thy spirit shalt be displaced, and rejoin the energy of harmony from which thou didst spring."

"Jeez, your Majesty," I shuddered as I felt the dizziness clearing.  "You make death sound so poetic."

"An easy gift to master when one does not face it," she said, standing up and extending a hoof.  "Shall we carry thee the rest of the way?"

"No, I got it..."  I hobbled up to my hooves.

"It is only a short distance remaining, and thou wouldst desire to be awake when thou speaketh with our—"

"I said I got it!" I snapped.  With a gulp, I stammered, "It's alright, your majesty, but the day I can't fly into Ponyville on my own is the day I'll really be dead."  I flapped my wings, took a deep breath, and blurred forward.  "Now... try to keep up."