//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Speed of a Different Dash // by entiegon //------------------------------// (Wheelchair World) Rainbow was not expecting to wake up out the front of Canterlot High School. If anything, she expected to wake up in her bed to either her father or her uncle yelling at her to get up. What she got – aside from the view of her school towering in front of her – was the blast of afternoon sun and the faint smell of smoke in the air. And if there was anything that could get anyone up faster than you can shake them awake, it was the scent of smoke. Unfortunately, snapping her eyes open wasn’t the best idea. A strange blue haze covered her vision for a few seconds only to produce little sparks of light as it faded into oblivion. Even worse, the haze had made her mind feel like it had been stuffed with wet cotton that had expanded her entire head. In the act of trying to stand up, she had, instead, fallen back onto the pathed ground beneath her. That’s when she decided she had to take things slow. She closed her eyes and focused her mind just like she would if she were in any one of her martial arts classes, letting out a deep breath. Then she sat herself up. Slowly, she opened her eyes and took yet another look around. No lights danced in her vision this time and her sight wasn’t dominated by the strange blue haze from earlier. Unfortunately, the blue haze was still there, shading the edges of her vision a dark blue colour. Why the blue haze was there, Rainbow didn’t know. All she knew was that it was annoying. Especially seeing that it had tricked her into thinking it was temporary. That was just plain rude. Now she had to go around looking at things through a tunnel with blue, hazy walls. How was she supposed to play soccer with a blue haze in the edge of her vision? An irritated growl erupted from within at the prospect of not being able to play her sports properly thanks to this strange blue haze. Eventually, the rainbow haired girl got to her feet, trying not to worry about the blue haze that edged her vision. The scent of smoke was lingering in the air still and it was starting to send warning bells to play an eerie tune in her head. Even worse was the fact that there were no alarm bells blaring the possible danger for everyone to hear. Knowing she had to do something, she went in search of the place where the smoke was coming from, hoping that no one was hurt. What she found, however, was an overturned wheelchair. She had no idea who it belonged to, but that rainbow lightning bolt logo on the back of the seat looked awfully familiar. Regardless, it was in the middle of the pathway that she was running down. And as much as she liked running hurdles, she hated feeling responsible for someone else’s injury should they happen across the wheelchair. And that was a feeling that not even the bad Sunset Shimmer could take away from her… no matter how much she denied it. The wheelchair was moved onto the grass beside the path and righted, taking a few precious moments from what Dash could believe was a potentially life threatening predicament. Yet that only served to push Rainbow Dash into moving faster in order to make up for lost time. Thankfully she was able to follow the faint trail of smoke that her haze clouded eyes were leading her down. With that thought, Rainbow realised one thing. This blue haze was a lot trickier than she first thought. Now it was starting to show her invisible trails where the haze covered her sight. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing to have blue haze clouding her vision and showing her things that weren’t usually there. But there was one thing she did know. She was stuck with it. At the end of the trail – Rainbow Dash discovered – was an old caravan. No wheels were attached to the thing and there was rust covering the bottom half of the vehicle, suggesting that it hadn’t been road worthy for ages. Despite this, a new coat of paint had been applied to the outside of the caravan. Not to mention the access ramp which led to the only door. But the most disturbing thing was the black smoke that was billowing from the open windows as well as the previously mentioned (and wide open) door. For a moment, Dash just stood there, staring at the caravan like she had just witnessed it come to life and swallow something akin to a small building before somehow managing to instantaneously sprout facial hair. Somewhere in her mind, she was more than sure that Canterlot High School did not have any caravans on campus… or wheelchairs for that matter. But something else was telling her that this was not her home per say. There was something different about it that was hidden amongst all the familiarity that she supposedly knew. Perhaps this is what Twilight first thought when she came through the portal for the first time. Dash found herself thinking. That’s when she saw it. It was charred slightly around the rim, but there was no mistaking it. The brown fabric seemed to shine as the afternoon sun shone through the door, making it contrast heavily against the supposedly white linoleum floor. For sitting in the centre of the open caravan door, just out of reach of the tanned hand that lay limp on the ground, was Applejack’s Stetson. “ No!” finally, Rainbow’s voice decided to work, though it came out sounding more like a dying rat than the girl would have liked to admit. Without even thinking, Rainbow Dash leapt over the railing that edged the access ramp and rushed into the smoke-filled caravan. As she hurried to the nearest person (which just so happened to be Applejack herself) she grabbed the Stetson and placed it on her friend’s chest for safe keeping. Then she grabbed Applejack’s ankles firmly and dragged her safely from the smoke and into the fresh air outside, staying as low as she could to keep herself from danger. Once Applejack was safely on the grass, Dash did a quick look over her friend to make sure that there were no other injuries before checking her breathing. Being closest to the door, the farmer should have gotten a better supply of air than Rainbow feared the others did. But she had also been facing inward. First aid training kicked in and forced her to make sure that her friend was still alive before leaving her to come round on her own in a position which made her look like she was running with her back facing the sky. She did that for every one of her friends, hunting for them in the black smoke before grabbing their ankles and dragging the found friend out to safety. And boy was she glad of the wheelchair ramp. Now she wouldn’t have to explain any bruises that showed up on her friends’ bodies. It also made things a lot easier when running back and forth in and out of the caravan. And the fact that none of her friends seemed to need any extra attention other than letting them rest in a safe position once she was sure they were no longer in any serious danger was just a blessing in disguise. Not long after finding Fluttershy and laying her next to Applejack, she found Rarity. Obviously the fashionista had been trying to open some more windows before she had passed out because she was found with an arm extended towards a still closed window even as it lay against the wall. Taking the fashionista’s advice, Rainbow opened the window in an attempt to dissipate the thick air that still hung within the caravan. Then she dragged the girl out of harm’s way. Following Rarity came Pinkie Pie… though when she was brought out into the fresh air and sunlight, Rainbow could tell that she had reverted to her darker ‘Pinkamina’ self during – if not just before – unconsciousness. The rainbow haired girl only hoped that getting her friend out of the filthy air would be enough to literally bring the bounce back to Pinkie’s hair as she returned to the depths of the caravan. One thing was for sure, though. Rainbow Dash never realised how big the caravan was on the inside. It honestly looked smaller on the outside than it did on the inside. She really had to fight with herself not to take a breath of smoke in as she searched for her two remaining friends. And the blue haze in her vision only seemed to intensify the smoke that surrounded her for some reason. Luckily she was able to find her remaining friends in the far end of the caravan. Of course, she also had to find them holding hands like they had just said their final farewells to each other before blacking out. Yet, despite the confusion about the scene before her fading eyes, Rainbow somehow managed to find something to tie Sunset’s wrists to Twilight’s ankles and drag them both out at the same time (she didn’t know if she would have been able to find the other if they were taken separately). But by the time she had returned to the outside world with her two quite heavy passengers, the fresh air had started to do its job. Even as Rainbow lay Sunset and Twilight down on the grass beside each other after untying them and without managing to do more damage to either one of them than the smoke had done, she could hear the easy breaths that her other friends were taking, thus clearing out the smoke that had gathered in their lungs. Even so, there was still one thing she had to do before tending to them some more. Searching desperately for a nearby source of fresh water, Dash dug through the nearest bag to find a reusable bottle. She didn’t know who the bag belonged to, but just like with the wheelchair, there was a rainbow lightning bolt insignia attached to the front and zippers of the bag. Even so, she drained the bottle of whatever liquid was currently residing within before hurrying over to the nearby tap. She made sure to wash the entire bottle before filling it up (Phys Ed taught her much more than sports) but she also worried that she had spent too much time waiting and that her friends had spent too much time within the smoke filled caravan. As she hurried back to her friends, though, she found them still fairly unconscious… with one exception. Applejack was starting to stir. “ Wha’ tha hay jus’ happen’?” the country girl slurred, trying to sit up just as Rainbow Dash had returned from the tap. The rainbow haired girl hurried over to Applejack, helping her sit up slowly before holding out the opened water bottle. “ Woah there, cowgirl. The last thing you wanna do is strain yourself.” She said, gently coaxing the water bottle to her friend’s lips. “ Take a sip. And don’t backwash.” “ Rainbow?” “ Yeah. I’m here. Now come on, Rarity’s starting to wake up.” Silently, Applejack took a few sips of the relatively cool liquid. And what a blessing it was. Feeling the water run down her scratchy throat sent waves of relief rushing through her body. Yes, her mind was still hazy about what had happened, but it was clearing a lot faster now that she had something in her other than whatever it was that had made her head spin in the first place. Unfortunately, her mind was so high up in the clouds that she could only pick out a few words about Rarity and someone needing to go see her. She was a little confused about the whole thing, yes, but she knew that the only thing she could do was wait out the time it took for her mind to function properly. Eventually, the next words Applejack heard came through her ears as distant and repetitive to what she had first heard after waking up. “ Easy, Rarity. Take a drink. It’s all I’ve got, so not too much.” “ Rainbow Dash? I thought-” Rarity’s words were cut short by the rough barking cough that emerged from deep down in her chest, surprising the fashionista quite a bit as well as deepening Rainbow’s worried look even more. “ Come on, Rares. You need a drink.” The rainbow haired girl urged. Without another word, Rarity took a few short sips of water. Rainbow waited, deciding it was okay to risk losing some water as her fashionista friend finished her drink, before wetting her free hand and spreading it across Rarity’s face. Yes, it shocked the girl. But there was no denying the fact that the cool liquid was refreshing. Eventually, Rainbow Dash figured that Rarity was going to be okay and went back to Applejack, making sure that she was still doing all right. Though she didn’t realise that her walking was confusing her friend a lot more than the smoke had. “ How in the hay are ya-” Applejack started. Rainbow cut her off by wiping water over her face. “ Questions later, AJ. Right now, I need to tend to Fluttershy.” She added before dashing off to help her other friends. The one thing Rainbow noticed as she worked from friend to friend was that each one of them was surprised to hear her voice as they woke up. Of course, she ignored it, instead choosing to focus more on making sure everyone was okay. Her first aid training was really getting a workout, though. Not only had she subconsciously used it to get everyone out of the caravan, but she was also currently using it to make sure that both Twilight and Sunset were okay and getting enough oxygen into them considering they seemed to have inhaled the most smoke. And Pinkie? Well… Pinkie Pie was scaring her. For some reason, even though Pinkie was awake, she was looking very depressed. And no one could understand why. Fluttershy and Rarity had both recovered enough and were trying to cheer the usually bouncy girl up, but her mood just wouldn’t change. The last time Rainbow Dash had seen her friend this depressed… she didn’t want to think about it, it was that creepy. Unfortunately, Twilight was having a minor asthma attack thanks to all the smoke, so that left Rainbow Dash attending to her alongside an extremely worried Sunset Shimmer. All this while, Applejack looked really confused. Then, just as Twilight Sparkle was able to overcome her asthma attack, Dash remembered a day from not too long ago. For some reason, she had been quite sad. What about, she couldn’t remember, but it had something to do with her tortoise, Tank. Either way, nothing had worked in cheering her up - not even a surprise visit from her old soccer team mates Spitfire and Soarin cheered her up – and that had been physically irritating her friends. Then Pinkie made up a dance and everything changed. It was a stupid little dance, really. And Rainbow didn’t quite have the plethora of items that Pinkie had that day (the silly face, wondercolt’s ears and tail, pink polka-dotted monster blow-up tube, clown shoes and a chicken costume weren’t things that she carried around let alone owned). What she did have, however, was the song and dance playing over and over in her head. Taking a deep breath to steel herself for the humiliation that she was about to put herself through, Dash got up and looked around to make doubly sure that her friends were the only ones to be witnessing this. She would be the laughing stock of the entire school if things went wrong now. Nonetheless, she focused solely on her depressed friend. “ Hey, Pinkie Pie! I am going to put one hundred and twenty percent into this so I expect you to watch and laugh after it. And you better mean it!” the rainbow haired girl called out inwardly thinking that she was about to die from humiliation. For added effect, though, she made sure it became one of her friend’s famous pinkie promises. First, the Egyptian Shuffle complete with both arms pointed and making her body move like one of those picture things that the ancients used to paint on the walls of their kings’ graves. To tell the truth, Rainbow was surprised that Pinkie even liked Beyoncé. “ I’m a chimi cherry, I’m a cherry changa. I’m a chimi cherry, I’m a cherry changa.” Making a silly face and waving her hands in the air like an octopus on drugs made Rainbow Dash wonder what in the world had enticed her to act as stupid as she currently was. She made the tune for this part herself because she forgot what was really sung. “ I throw my hands up In the air, And start acting like I Really just don’t care.” The Can-Can ended up a visual disaster and ended up turning into something that Rainbow would later describe as the ‘Can’t-Can’t’. Nevertheless, it happened anyway… even if she had forgotten what exactly it was that Pinkie had sung to her. Why the Can-Can dance was paired with ‘she’ll be coming round the mountain’ was beyond anyone’s comprehension. “ This is really starting to make me feel stupid, But I really don’t know what else to do. I just hope that this thing ends soon, ‘cause it’s really, really, humiliating. It also doesn’t help that I’ve forgotten part of this song.” Poor Rarity looked like she was about to faint after that, but she made an obvious effort to keep from doing just that. Fluttershy, Twilight and Sunset just stared at Rainbow Dash as she continued with her self-humiliation, wondering what had gone wrong in her head. Applejack looked like she was starting to enjoy this awkward situation a little too much. But the most humiliating part was yet to come... and Rainbow remembered all of it. “ I’m a chimicherrychanga, I’m a chimicherrychanga, I’m a chimicherrychanga, And I’m here to make you smile!” Thankfully it was only a small part of the entire thing. But it was still even more humiliating than the made up section. At least it was about to end soon. So Dash put all she could into the made up dance that came next, the song being that crazy that it had actually stuck in her head. “ So it’s the ning nang nong Where the cows go bong. The nong nang ning, Where the trees go ping. The nong ning nang, When the mice go clang. What a noisy place to belong. And it’s the ning nang ning nang ning nang nong, the ning nang ning nang nong.” With a flourish of her hands and a beet red face, Rainbow Dash finished, only to be greeted by shocked silence so thick with awkwardness that a hot butter knife would have been able to cut through it easily.