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// Chapter 6 - Conscience and Consciousness 
// Story: Irreplaceable 
// by La Barata 
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Irreplaceable
Chapter 6 - Conscience and Consciousness


Pain. Pure and simple pain. Endless fire, running along every inch of every scale, through the cracks and crevices, through every fiber of every cell. Burning, scouring, cleansing, changing. Changing. Changing and growing. Changing and growing and twisting and burning. Similar yet different, different yet the same. What was once is no longer, but still is. What could be is now, but not wholly so. Time is irrelevant, so it seems. What is, was and could be merges with what might’ve, would’ve and could’ve been. Size, space, possibility, flame, ice, burning, freezing, growing, shrinking changing shining glowing raging sparking shifting changing rising falling beginning ending beginning falling rising changing shifting sparking raging glowing shining changing shrinking growing freezing burning ice flame possibility space size. And pain. Whatever changes, pain remains. Pain is the constant throughout flux. Pain is the indicator. Pain means life. Life, though it changes, brings what never does. Through life comes pain, pain cannot come without. Pain means growth. Pain means life. Though life changes, pain never does. Constant tirade, endless wave, endless wave, constant tirade. Strangely enlightening. Pain does not hide, it does not lie, it does not pander or preach. Its message is straight and plain. It speaks of the past and the future, what should have been and now is, though far before its time. The future is the present, though not the past. Change is constant, though not so constant. Time fades, space recedes, fire douses, ice melts, thirst quenches, glows dim, air breathes. Breathing. A strange sensation, to be sure. It’s been a while. Rising now, to be sure. Different than he was before. He. There’s a new word, or is it? He. I. Me. We. They. Well now, that’s a word that brings back memories. They. Who ARE they? They, their actions, their thoughts, their betrayal. Their betrayal. Now THERE’S a memory for the ages. What they did to him. How it made him feel. Rising emotions. Sadness, loneliness, helplessness. Rage. A fun emotion, rage. Quite empowering. Another fun feeling. Power. He had it. He WAS it. Gone was the past, who he once was. He was still he, still himself, but a NEW himself. A new him, but the same. Physically new, physically renewed, but mentally, was he the same? He had the same memories, the same thoughts, the same feelings. He felt the pain, no longer physical, but still present. Once more he rose. Rising above, in more ways than one. He rose mentally, above the changes, returning to who he is, but not who he should be. Physically, as well, he rose. Casting aside expected weight, soaring through to new heights, spotting vengeance down below. He rose, and he flew. He gained something he once thought lost. He gained purpose. He gained a dream. He dreamt of doing what he knew, and he knew vengeance, proof, fear and power. He knew his dream. He dreamt of the sky.

It was a sunny day in Ponyville. After the previous night’s storm, the sunlight was all the more welcome. The Mayor of Ponyville was hard at work, dealing with all the various problems that generally arise with the administration of a small town. Today’s workload, however, was considerably lighter than normal, and she was happy for the change of pace. For once, she mused, she might be able to actually get to enjoy the beautiful day Celestia had granted her town. The mayor stood from her chair, as much to trot across the room to a filing cabinet as simply an excuse to take a moment’s break from her paperwork and stretch her legs. When she opened the drawer, however, she couldn't help but notice a single piece of paper poking out from inside a folder. As she completed her intended filing, she plucked the offending folder from the drawer and she returned to her desk. The Mayor was a very orderly pony, almost obsessive about neatness, as was her secretary, so finding anything even the tiniest bit out of place was an event in and of itself, almost completely unheard of. So unheard of, in fact, that the Mayor made a bit of game of it. Whenever she found a folder that seemed untidy and out of order, she would retrieve it and look through the contents. Originally, it was simply to break up the long hours of monotonous reports with just something different, a change of pace. However, after one of her earlier ‘cleanups’, during which she had gone over some extraneous tax records, she realized that an accounting mistake had been made. Due to someone failing to carry a one somewhere, each pony in Ponyville was overcharged by 10 bits. Ever since, she took her game a little more seriously. After all, wherever there is bureaucracy, there will always another mistake to be mended. As she began to sift through the folder, she discovered that it was in regards to this year’s filed emergency reports. The offending paper, specifically, was a report filed by one Twilight Sparkle. The Mayor sighed, shaking her head in sadness at the report. Poor Twilight. Just the look on the young mare’s face when the Mayor had told her that the search was being called off had broken her heart. Under normal circumstances, the searching would have lasted far longer than the three weeks it had. It probably would have been much closer to three months before a single pony would have given up. This situation was different, though. When the ponies of Ponyville had learned that the young dragon wasn’t simply lost, that he had actually run away, most of them had almost instantaneously lost all interest in searching. That’s not to say they didn’t care, of course, just that they just thought it silly. She remembered overhearing a conversation between two young fillies at Sugarcube Corner. They had been laughing about the whole incident, and how the silly little dragon was probably sleeping in some secret spot he kept, munching on a secret stash of gems he kept hidden for just such an occasion. To them, dragons were TOUGH. Almost indestructible, even. Even a baby dragon was seen to be far tougher than most any pony, and had no doubts that the little guy could survive for months, even years on his own, even in the Everfree Forest. They had seen him eat things that had given every pony who had even a bite of them a serious case of food poisoning without any ill effects whatsoever; it was very difficult to imagine him going hungry. It wasn't lack of interest or lack of hope that had stopped the search, it was just a lack of belief that the emergency was even an emergency that ended the efforts. The Mayor herself had subscribed to the theory that Spike would do just fine on his own. However, as she again read through the report, something occurred to her that hadn’t before. Fight or no fight, she knew the little dragon well enough, through personal contact and through reputation, to know that he wouldn’t have stayed away as long as he had over something this trivial. He would at least have sent a letter. The Mayor rose to her feet suddenly, slamming her hooves down on the desk. She was absolutely furious with herself. How could she let herself be carried along by the popular opinion? How could she let them affect her, and decide this wasn't a serious matter?! Spike could be seriously wounded, or worse! All of it her fault, simply because she didn't take the situation seriously. She shook her head. The search would have to be restarted, that much she was sure of. One of Ponyville’s most vulnerable residents was in trouble, and she’d ignored them. Even though Twilight Sparkle herself, star pupil of Princess Celestia and holder of one of The Elements of Harmony had come to her directly and pleaded for help, she had simply dismissed her concerns. Something had to be done, and fast. A search effort had to be organized again. Rotating shifts, spreading patterns, Pegasus air patrol, the works. Miss Sparkle and her friends had left town for the day, no doubt searching for Spike even after all others had given up. Once they returned, The Mayor would turn over the reins of the operation to her, letting her natural talent for organization carry the efforts forwards. Many ponies wouldn’t come willingly, though. They’d complain about lost business, or the natural hardiness of dragons, or the weather, or something, but she’d put an end to all of their complaints. The city’s coffers were doing particularly well this year, as the winter wrap up had gone exactly as planned, thus not necessitating any further cleanup costs, so almost the entire budget for this year was still sitting in the city accounts. She’d offer compensation for anypony willing to resume the search. Even if she had to pay it out of her own pocket, she needed to do this, both for Spike and Twilight Sparkle’s sake and for her own conscience. As she passed through the door into the town hall proper, she nearly bumped into her secretary. 
“Miss Mayor, is everything alright?” she asked, puzzled.
“Hold all my calls. There’s something I need to do”. As she passed, the secretary shook her head. 
“I haven’t seen her this worked up since she found out that every pony in Ponyville was owed 10 bits!”.

She was halfway to her office door when the screaming started.


~TO BE CONTINUED~