//------------------------------// // Madness be thy name // Story: Nightdreams and Daymares // by mareinthemoon //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash was busy clearing up the clouds. The report from Cloudsdale specifically requested perfect sunny weather with not a single cloud in the sky but it appeared that nature had different plans. She flew through the gray rain clouds, irritated since it seemed as if when she dispatched of one cloud, three more took its place. As time went on it seemed to get darker and darker, leaving Rainbow grinding her teeth and groaning. She certainly was not going to let some stupid rain clouds get the best of her. With a deep breath the cyan mare firmly put her goggles onto her head with a look of absolute determination upon her face; she was going to clear the sky even if it killed her. Without warning Rainbow awoke finding herself hurdling towards the ground at a dangerous speed that made her unsure she would survive the impact. The Pegasus managed to turn right side up but this was an uphill battle for the ages. Her fur was charred black and still smoldered, which smelt of a mix of marshmallow and cotton candy with a hint of beef jerky. She had been struck by lightning from behind; the force was enough to daze her. Rainbow began to frantically flap her wings, unable to gain control as she noticed the torn feathers in her now tattered wings. As much as she struggled and fought, it only proved to worsen the burning sensation that radiated all over her body, enveloping her like warm water. It made her movements slow as she fought against her impending death. It was not the end she had envisioned for herself but then again who counts on getting killed on the job? With tremendous force, she crashed into a cloud that had been mere inches above the ground. The soft nimbus had broken her fall but did not prevent further harm. When she crashed, her legs were unable to handle the force and buckled under the pressure upon impact, her legs shattering, bending backwards upon the clouds. Rainbow could barely register the pain as she found her vision becoming fuzzy and then the corners of her sight becoming steadily darker and darker before her world was covered in darkness. ------------------------------- The cyan pegasus awoke in a hospital bed in a cold sweat, most of her body covered in bandages. " I..It was all a dream...." she muttered under her breath in relief as she looked around, taking in her new surroundings. The last thing she remembered was falling out of the sky. The room was filled with various 'get well soon' cards, balloons and a wide variety of flowers of all types and colors. The room was silent except for the beeping noise from the heart monitor and the faint hum of the humidifier adjacent to her in the far corner of the room. She was all alone and from the length of her mane and tail she could tell she had been this way for quite some time. She reached up to touch her face, coming in contact with the oxygen mask upon her muzzle. What exactly had happened to her? Her thoughts were interrupted as two nurses rushed in excited from the news. ”Good she’s finally awake! Quick get a levels reading!" The other nurse nodded and trotted over, the nurses horn glowing as she began to take notes. Rainbow weakly managed to sit up, her chest heaving from exhaustion from that little movement. " W..What happened? How long have I been here?" She quickly found that speaking was easier than moving but harder than breathing. Her throat strained to squeak out the words as if she had not talked in a long time. One of the nurses walked over to her and took out her chart. " The doctor will be here soon. We will inform your friends that you are awake and they should be in shortly." As if on cue a tall, statuesque stallion entered the room adorning a white coat and a pair of blue glasses. He was a Pegasus like herself with black hair, brown fur with green eyes. " Miss Dash, for the last five months you have been in a comatose state barely hanging on to life, there were many times we feared that that the thread of life would snap and you would be lost to us forever." He looked over her new levels on the machines, making sure to check brain waves especially. Normally ponies in comas had very minimal brain activity but Rainbow as always, was very special indeed. Despite her constant state of being one moment away from the morgue, her brain activity was far above the normal for any pony that was awake let alone supposedly brain dead. “Five months ago you were struck by lightning while flying through a rain cloud. The resulting shock was amplified tenfold and proved disastrous since it hit you at the base of the neck." Rainbow Dash was in shock, had she really been in a coma? And if so what was the reason behind the things she saw. The cyan mare shuddered and began to feel nauseous at the thought that those horrible things were a part of her mind. “Doctor...Is it common for ponies to, I don't know, see things?" She asked sheepishly. For the first time in her life she was both humbled and full of a mix of doubt and unbridled fear. The doctor however looked unsurprised even though the case for him was becoming more and more fascinating and exemplary by the moment. “I would not worry about such things Miss Dash, I'm sure that it was all a dream and nothing more.” In his mind ideas began to swirl around like water going down the drain. Had she seen what lay beyond death's door? What secrets of the afterlife did this young mare now hold? Is there truly a legendary pony that judges us for our sins that waits at the moment of death? “I suggest you keep a journal and document any dreams you may have for future reference. Many ponies in your situation often draw what they see." He encouraged the cyan mare as best he could without sounding like this was in fact the special case that it was. No pony goes back and forth from being alive and dead without bringing back some tokens from the other world. This was the perfect chance for all to discover the truth. Rainbow Dash nodded to his words as best as she could as the nurses took great care in removing the oxygen mask, She gave an initial cough and following gag or two as she adjusted to breathing without the tube down her throat. It felt good to breathe on her own once again. “You will be discharged in two days and given some pain medication and sleeping aids for the first few weeks." He scribbled down the prescription and handed it to one of the nurses who then placed it in Rainbow's file. There was a wealth of information in the cyan mare's mind that if unlocked would make anypony rich and famous beyond compare. He took a bow and left the room with an alarming smile, this would prove to be most incredible indeed. --------------------------- An hour passed and the nurses had left her in her bed to rest, she laughed to herself. She had been 'asleep' for five months and was so tired it was unreal. Rainbow was looking at the far wall and up to the clock that rested there, hoping that somehow if she stared hard enough time would move faster and she could be out of there sooner. Then a shadow crept its way across the wall before her, the encroaching darkness making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge. She disregarded it at first but as the head appeared to turn her direction the fear rose in her. The beeping of the heart monitor speeding up faster and faster and then a pair of red glowing eyes appeared on the shadow and a disturbing white grin moved across its apparent face. The shadow winked and mouthed something to her causing Rainbow Dash to cry out in the most blood curdling screech ever heard by pony ears, her heart monitor beeping so fast it could be confused for Morse code. In an instant the nurses rushed in and turned on the lights. The shadow was nowhere to be seen but Rainbow still screamed in terror, The frantic nurses had to sedate the Pegasus as to prevent further harm. As Rainbow began to drift out of consciousness, she recalled the words the shadow had breathlessly said to her. 'Giggle at the ghastly.... Smile at the spooky. My little Dashie, My little Dashie.... Time to come home.' ------------------------------------------ In her dreams she was always running but from what she never dared to look back and face, For once she was a complete coward, acting like a filly lost in the Everfree Forest in fear of cannibal blank flanks as the story often goes. The shadow reminded her of such but the fear was something on a different level, She knew if she stopped it would get her for sure, Its voice behind her was a depraved mass of whispers in a tone that was smooth like fine silk. A cool Legato voice that both lured and repelled her at the same time, calling her name in a seductive melody of depraved madness that threatened to claim her soul and yet promised the strength she desperately craved more than ever. 'Why run from me Dashie dearest? We were such friends until now....' Rainbow continued to run, growling back to her pursuer. "I would never be friends with you and don't call me Dashie and I am not your dearest." she yelled, hoping it would deter the being that chased her. But it only elicited an amused chuckle from her would be assailant. ‘Now, Now dear....I held up my side of the bargain...I expect you to hold up on your end of the deal.. .’ -------------------------------------------- Before she could even respond she was awake and panting, her body in a cold sweat once more. This was beginning to feel way too real to be just a dream; it was still so vivid and fresh in her mind so at the doctor’s suggestion, she took the pencil in her teeth and began to draw the strange world she had just left. The picture was a world of blacks and reds. High jagged mountain ranges with a massive curled hill that either a red sun or moon hung above. In this world she figured it had to be the moon because the skies were pitch black at all times with not a single star in its sky. The resulting image looked like a mix between a faraway world reminiscent of the moon and the depiction of pony hell. She could not bring herself to draw the corpses that were strewn about in this horrible world, the scent of blood and rusted iron prevalent and still in her nostrils as she drew. Rainbow took a deep breath as she begun to draw the shadow figure that followed her here. In her world it was a simple shadow but in there, in that place, it was far more terrifying. It stood at Celestia's height with a blood red coat that matched the world around it, allowing it to blend effortlessly into its surroundings. The other details were that of a normal pony but those empty eyes would haunt her for as long as she lived. The eyes were gone and in their place were hollowed out sockets that dripped black ooze from the holes. Its shadow added to the fear and mystery, since the shadow was not shaped as it was. The shadow appeared to be appeared to great, with long tendrils that reached out, searching for unsuspecting prey to ensnare in its deadly trap. The unfortunate were to be met with hollow eyes and a razor sharp, serrated fang filled mouth that appeared to stretch wide enough to engulf any being it came across. She looked down at the picture, shuddering slightly as she lowered the pencil, looking at her work. It was frightening just how realistic it looked. Rainbow checked the time and sighed in relief. She only had a few more hours before she could leave the hospital and go home. The mare turned back to her art and the color quickly fled from her face as the drawing before her winked and its smile widened, the ooze pouring from its eyes and filling the edges of the paper like water filled a sinking boat, the black substance escaping from the confines of the papers edge and splashing to the floor. Rainbow screamed and backed as far away as she could from the notepad, frantically pushing the button to call the nurse. She pressed it repeatedly. The resulting beeps were only outdone in speed by the heart monitor once again. Her breathing became ragged as the nurse rushed inside. "What’s wrong?" the unicorn asked as she rushed to the cyan Pegasus's side, looking for the cause and stepping directly in the black substance. Rainbow Dash looked in horror as she walked in it as if it wasn't even there. The nurse did not even miss a beat as she rummaged through the drawers and pulled out a syringe containing a sedative, her hooves coated in the black ooze and dripping to Dash's horror. The vial itself was a bubbling red color, looking more like a menacing poison than a simple sedative. “Please, d-don’t you see it!?" she asked to the nurse with pure fear apparent in her rose colored eyes. She did not want to even think that she was going insane. She would be the laughing stock of Equestria for sure after this. As Rainbow pleaded with the nurse, the doctor watched with interest from the hall. She had met something she was not supposed to ever see nor know about, a darkness that was supposed to remain unseen by the normal world. When Rainbow had finally been rendered unconscious by the nurse, he slowly made his way inside the room, looking with interest at the sketch pad that rested on the table beside Rainbow Dash. He looked at the pictures confusedly for a moment and then saw the figure of her tormentor and could faintly recall a similar depiction in an old book. It was the supposed chaos bringer. The god of madness, depravity, murder, malice and death. It was not the god beyond the pearly gates but surely it was a start. She had indeed met death and shook its hooves and it had returned for her. ----------------------------------------- In her following dream, she was motionless as was the being that tormented her relentlessly. It stood in the shadows opposite of her, the outline of the being barely visible in the shadows as it remained silent and unmoving. She glared at the being, her teeth grinding as she growled in agitation. This thing whatever it was was now ruining her life with a vengeance. “What do you want from me?" she screamed in a fit of rage to the silent figure. She wanted answers by any means necessary. Then the being spoke only two simple words that would inspire more horror than any speech or story possibly ever could: 'Just you.' She backed away instinctively from whatever this thing was that was so intent on having her for whatever reason. Did it want her dead? Was it there to kill her? Questions like these raced around in her mind at a break neck pace, causing her anxiety to rise more and more by the second. ' My little Dashie....' Time to come home.' ------------------------ Rainbow was awoken this time by her dearest friends in the whole wide world. All five of them were standing around her with loving smiles upon their faces. Fluttershy was weeping tears of pure joy as her oldest friend was there before her alive and well like the good old days. “Thank goodness you’re alright now Rainbow Dash. We were all so very worried about you," the yellow Pegasus said as she nuzzled the bed ridden cyan mare. They had all been told many times by the doctor that the chances of her coming back were near zero after the three month mark and after six, it was best to pull the plug. None of them ever wanted to hear such a terrible thing; the news initially caused them all to break down and cry. But seeing her alive and smiling back at them was the most wonderful thing they had seen in a long time. “I’m alright now; the doctor even said I can go home later today I hope." She muttered the last part under her breath. She knew the staff was on edge and there was a chance she would be labeled as a fifty one fifty or more commonly known as a danger to herself and others, a lunatic. It meant one thing for sure, a one way trip to the nearest mental institution and from what she had been experiencing, she would be sent to Morturem institute at the outskirts of Tortures for sure. It frightened her but not as much as the things she had been seeing the last five months, that thing that had somehow taken root in her head. 'If you're careful not to scream, you won’t get sent away silly filly.' Rainbow Dash's eyes widened in horror as she heard the voice chuckle in her ear. Oh Princess Celestia, she was awake and could still hear it talking to her with that voice. Her friends looked at her worriedly when they saw her eyes dilate in fear; their voices were somehow muffled in her head much like trying to hear underwater. 'Now, now dearest Dashie, smile prettily and play pretend or our game will end much too soon.' She managed to creak out a worried smile, trying not to appear too suspicious. She wanted out of this place and this thing out of her head. She wondered if Zecora would have any remedies for this ailment but as she thought of a solution, the problem reared its ugly head. 'That's no fun Dashie dear. Step out of line and their end will near.' There was intent in that smooth voice. A promise to harm others if she did not comply. This whole thing was maddening to her, Disturbing to say in the least. Maybe it was all some strange side effect from the near death experience and soon enough it would go away, she thought optimistically until it chuckled with glee. ' Sorry my dear but I'm very much real. The only way I am leaving is if you come with me.' ------------------------------------------------ An hour later Dash was getting ready to leave the hospital. Her friends took the greatest care in packing all of her get well soon gifts. Twilight was cleaning up when the sketch pad had caught her attention; the curious unicorn opened the sketch pad with a smile, half expecting to see pictures of Dash as a Wonderbolt all over the place. She was however not prepared for the things she saw. Twilight's eyes widened as she looked over the various pictures depicting what could only be described as a pony hell. Twilight had researched many subjects, the afterlife included. However, the images of the figure with black eyes was certainly not the image of the devil that lurked in pony hell. No, this was a more sinister creature and even worse because there was even less information about it. The words 'My little Dashie' were drawn on, looking more like claw marks than normal hoofwriting. Whatever those words meant she wasn't sure but Twilight knew one thing for certain. If Rainbow Dash had seen this thing, she was not meant to have survived the fall.