//------------------------------// // Distraction // Story: The Last Dreamer // by Mlpfimguy //------------------------------// I dropped down to the ground and clenched myself, gasping as the pain came back to me. My whole body became paralysed in pain much greater than before. I looked up to see my vision turn to nothing but shapes and shadows. Blurred faces filled my vision and echoed voices quickly started yelling at me, too hard to make out what they were saying. I closed my eyes tightly for a moment. When I reopened them, I knew where I was ... at the hospital. My consciousness was low, and I was struggling to stay awake and my vision faded in and out as I tried to hear what was happening. A few words were heard, such as 'cancer' and 'unnoticed until now'. I saw the doctor's face for a second. It was mixed with anger and familiarity towards me; he obviously did not like the fact that I was here. I was very scared; I just wanted to both scream and cry. The last thing I remember seeing is a light. No, I was not seeing the 'death light', but something else. I didn't care what it was, I just wanted it to stop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1 Distracted "Well, this doesn't look like it'll be my day." I woke up and yawned as I lifted my lazy body out of bed. I trotted up to the curtains to open them and instantly murdered my eyes with the bright morning light. After they had recovered and adjusted to the sudden change, I took a look outside. It was a very nice day, but I unfortunately wasn't able to appreciate it as much I could have with the nightmare still in my mind. "Every night it's the same dream, always continuing where the last one left off. What do they mean?" While I was pondering this, I was immediately distracted by the sight of my friends coming over to my house. “Oh boy, what kind of trouble are they going to get me into this time?’’ I wondered. I heard the doorbell ring and quickly made my way to the door. Lighting was already in my face when I opened it. “Heeey! Sup eh?! So y'still helping Strawberry Marine with her yard?“ he asked. “Wow, I can't believe that slipped my mind, sorry Strawberry!" I replied. “Oh, that's fine," she said," I never forced you or Lightning to come so...” “You always forgetting now days, eh?" Lightning interrupted. "You still up for it at least?” I hadn't eaten anything, but I probably didn't have much food anyway. It was either this or shopping for food, and I. HATE. Shopping. “Uh...yeah, sure.” I answered, trying to suppress the dream, which I apparently did terribly. “Are you okay Elegance? You seem very distracted lately, today more-so than usual. If there's something on your mind you can tell us, we wouldn't judge you.” Strawberry asked. “Yea men, what it is with you? Whatch'a bin smokin'?” “Ye- Uh I mean no! I mean... look, it's nothing to worry about,” I said. I couldn't just tell them, how would they react? They would have thought that I was crazy! “Okay, but you can tell us anything, that's what friends are for.” “Yes, but I can assure you I'm fine. It's just... It was just a bad dream, I can't even remember it anymore.” “Ah yea, I had like a dream last nite too!" Lightning started "There was this really hot mair staring at me so I wanted to show off my skills y'know? So I like challenged this ugly red colt with a yellow-and-green mane to a cider drinking competition. He looked like he'd never drunk in his life. The important thing was that I won, tho! So then I brot this hottie to my place then we like totally... Oh wait, I'm preetty sure it was dream." "What happened next?" Strawberry asked. "Uh, I think that's quite..." "We played rock-hero and she totally cheated too! I swear th'gaym's racist, how can you even play unless you're a uni-cron!?" Lightning, by the way, he always spoke like that, but we never brought it up. A few hours later we had done quite a bit to Strawberry's yard, we de-weeded, mowed it then Strawberry rewarded us with some lemonade and a great idea. “Do you guys want to check out the amusement park before it closes down for the year?" asked Strawberry, "It'll only be open for a few more days. I could pay for your tickets and you can consider that your payment.” "Ya, but no!" exclaimed Lighting, "I'll just take the cash." "She technically doesn't have to pay you anything, you volunteered to help with me." “The... what's that? O, Y'mean the park with all those sexy thrill rides?! Hell yea, I totally wanted to check it out too ey!” Strawberry offered to bring us all in her carriage. The whole trip was about 20 minutes. Strawberry is one of those lucky ponies who had a stereo system in their carriage. One of her friends offered to install it in for her at a very low price. Lightning, unfortunately, was another one of said lucky ponies, rumour was that he stole the parts to install his, but he claimed that he had bought it. I wasn't one to jump to sides. “Yo! Turn on the radio!!!” Lighting whined. “Okay... sure, uh, what station, Lightning?” Strawberry asked him. “I dunno! Something swagg, like 's-x-y' radio!” “Uhh, no. How about something such as 'f-m-l-y' radio?” I quickly asked her. “Aaaaaw!!! Huge turn down!” “It's still got your 'swag' rapper-colts, just on a more... acceptable level.” “Fiiine!” Strawberry turned on the radio, and music started blasting as Lightning maximized the volume, almost giving Strawberry and me a heart attack. “Defrig's the bass?” he yelled. “Huh?” “You know! The bass, y'know like the exact opposite of what your speakers are barfing out now.” “...” “BASS  spelled 'b-a-s-e' or some crap!” Lightning explained. “Its spelled ‘b-a-s-s',” I cleverly added. “Man, you stupid! That's racist! That's just 'ass' with a 'b' on it. Even I know that, and I'm supposedly stupid! hahahaha!!!” I smirked, “Well, clearly your teeth are brighter than your brain, as even little foals know how to spell it.’’ “Yeah, well... yo mama!’’ “Alright, how is my mother related to this in any way?’’ “She so poor that she ran up to a garbage truck with a shopping list!’’ “What’s the hell is a garbage truck?’’ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So we finally arrived and I'll admit, the park was a lot bigger than I thought. Apparently, this amusement park came around once a year in Ponyville and only for a week. Despite Strawberry's kind offer to pay for us, we each paid for ourselves at the entrance then walked in and started exploring the place. Strawberry was horrified of thrill rides and insisted for most of the time that we ride on the slower ones. All I knew was that with each ride, Lightning’s patience started dying. “Enough of this! I’m goin’ on the lejit freaky rides ovr’ dare! Whoever ever want to come with me on the Desert Screamer... well come on, eh!’’ We all just stared at him without moving as he started making his way towards the ride. “Ha! Good joke, but I'm slowly making my way eh, better catch up a bit now!’’ Nothing. “Oh come on! I've known you gerls for years! I know one of you mite be too scared, but te other has no excuse. You know who im talking ‘bout! Now get your as over here Strawberry!’’ I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Strawberry managed to whisper out a ‘no’. “You gonna be cul or are you a wimp too, Elegance?’’ Now you must understand something. I am a mare that can tolerate a lot. I've managed to handle Lightning’s humour, (I know it’s all in good fun, but sometimes he hits sensitive subjects) Trixie’s loud-mouth, and I even managed to recover from Discord’s 'improvements' to Ponyville with only slight fear for a week, but when someone questions either my bravery or beauty (don't question me; I'm gorgeous) I cannot stand that! Nopony calls me a wimp! “Oh, I'm not scared in the slightest. you, on the other hoof, are probably going to end up crying in a fetal position!’’ “Egg-cellent then, first too screem has to sing on the karaoke stage!’’ “Oh, it’s on!’’ I smirked. Strawberry could only look at us in horror, violently shaking her head in dissaproval. It was a very tall ride. It had sand at the base of the structure. Above the frame supporting it was a giant wheel with arms where the seats were attached. The seats were entirely covered by a metal case and a barred window. Basically, it was a big orange metal box with prison door bars. This by itself would be fine, of course. The thing that frightened me, however, was that the seats were spinning the opposite direction than the giant wheel, and it was going at a ridiculously high speed. As me and Lightning started walking up to the small line, a huge fear crept over my body. “Help me Celestia,’’ I muttered to myself as the ponies right in front of us walked into the ride. The ride keeper slammed the metal gate in front of us closed. “Please be patient ma'am, you’re next. You don’t have to be in such a rush to get in.’’ 'A rush to get in?!' That ride felt like a one way path to my death, to Tartarus and back again in reverse, and HE goes and states ‘a rush to get in’ I’ll show him a rush! I was in a 'rush' right then to rip off his... So the ride, of course, chose to shake, making a loud enough noise to scare me half to death. After a few seconds, the ride started moving and a young colt began screaming. ‘Moooom! I want off this thing!!!’ I couldn't see much in that orange cage, but I knew that he was desperately holding on to the bar, eyes wide, looking down crying. I turned my head over towards Lightning. He must have known what I was looking at because he turned too and gave me a disturbingly large grin. As expected, the ride ended too quickly. The colt that I had been watching was crying. This was REALLY not going to be my day and I was not excited to get in! “Yo lady, get in!’’ I stuck my tongue out and proceeded to walk through the gate with Lightning. The ride operator led us to a seat that already had a pony sitting in it. “Uh,’’ I started saying. “What? These seats were meant to hold up to three ponies, you’ll be fine.’’ "But she... just rode... ah, never mind." We sat down next to the strange cyan coloured mare; she had a rainbow coloured mane and a triple coloured lighting cutie mark with a cloud to top it off. She stared at me awkwardly for looking at her flank, then the ride operator put on our seat belts and slammed the metal grid door shut. We all sat there for a few seconds, I was breathing heavily. Lightning was smiling, but he looked very nervous. “Don't worry Elegance,’’ I thought to myself. “Nothing bad is going to happen.’’ “I wonder what would happen if I loosened this bolt,’’ said the mysterious mare. “I knew it, I'm going to die!’ I thought to myself. “So you guys are pretty sick to have chosen to ride on this! Heh, half of the ponies in Ponyville are too scared to get within 100 hooves or whatever of this ride! I'm Rainbow Dash, by the way, but you've obviously heard of me!’’ “Aah yea, man! I think won of my frendz called you-’’ I shoved my hoof in his mouth. “Say what now?’’ “Just ignore him, Rainbow. He’s like that sometimes. Actually, all the time.’’ “Okay then... Hey, just think! One thing goes wrong on this ride, and we could all die!’’ “Oh, thanks a lot for that...’’ my stomach turned sour at the thought. “Yeah! One loose bolt could send us flying at an incredible speed until slamming us unto the ground! Upon landing, the metal smashing against our body, tearing our weak flesh apart violently, crushing half of our bones! That would be so CRAZY! Imagine all the blood and-’’ “I GET IT! Let’s just TRY to enjoy the ride!’’ “Ugh, fine!’’ she replied, clearly annoyed. I knew it was just a matter of seconds until the ride started, and after hearing what could happen at the first sign of malfunction, I almost chose to leave. The only reason I stayed was because I wanted to prove a point. Apparently, even if it meant risking my life. Every second felt like hours as I waited and prepared for the worse. Finally, the ride started moving up slowly. My eyes widened as we got higher and higher. I've always been scared of heights, but I'm an earth pony, give me a break! Rainbow Dash let out a big sigh as the wheel holding our seat started turning quickly and in the opposite direction of the giant wheel. I felt myself being forced downwards to the seat as the ride started turning upwards very rapidly. When we went down, I felt like I was partially being lifted, and the seat belt was crushing my chest, before being slammed against the seat again. By this time, I wanted to scream very badly, but I still wanted to prove a point. Lighting, however, WAS wailing like a newborn. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at him in annoyance. After a while, I had no idea what was going on anymore; I just let myself go numb while Lightning continued to scream. The rest is just a feeling of nausea every time I dared to look out the barred door, and desperately trying not to scream as my body felt things they had never felt before. Time could have chosen to close down on itself, and I swear I would have not noticed it. Apparently, it didn't though because the ride did choose to stop. Rainbow Dash screamed ‘Best ride EVER’ while me, and Lightning were shaking as we got out of the ride. When my vision cleared I could see Lightning’s face, it looked a bit like he was traumatized mixed with something else, but I couldn't put my hoof on it at the time. I gave him a superior look and accidentally tripped. We both shared a laugh at that. We made our way to the exit gate and left. We made our way over to Strawberry who just wore a face of embarrassment and shock. All she could say was that we were very stupid. I couldn't agree more, and I love myself for it. We were going to ride more of the rides, but Lightning was against the idea, so we didn't. Poor guy, I guess the ride really was too much for him. I can’t blame him; I felt like I was still on the ride being pulled up. We were at the park all day, and it was getting pretty late. There was one more thing we needed to do before we went though. “Ooo Lightning ~’’ I fluttered my eyes at him. “Wat.’’ “Remember your part of the deal?’’ “Say no more, ey'll do your sili thing’’ “The karaoke?’’ “Yesh’’ So I lead him to the karaoke stage, and I started looking through the songs. That’s when I found the perfect one. “LOL, yu must be pulling on mye leg!’’ “Just sing the words on the screen.’’ The audience started to cheer him, causing a slight blush on his part. Their reaction dramatically changed after he actually started singing. “My litle poni, my litle poni.. ah aaah aaah AAAAHHH! My litle poni, i was wondering what was friend-ships my litle poni, until you shared it's magic large adventure tons of pleasure a beautiful heart loyal and strong sharing of the kindness, it’s an simple exploit and magic makes it ALL compete eeeYAAAH myyy litle poni do you not know that you're my best FRIENDZ! YEAH! *** After that exhausting day, all I had in mind was to eat a quick snack and head to bed. All of this excitement was a bit too much for me, so I went to my room, and jumped right into bed. I mentally kicked myself for avoiding to buy food again. I was going to do that tomorrow FOR SURE. Nothing could go wrong. Remember what I said about having dreams every night? Well, that night was one of them as well, I really did not want to dream about me having operations and cancer, but I needed sleep and needed to take this silly ride off of my mind. END OF CHAPTER