In The Beginning

by flutterJackdash

7. Awake

A sudden intake of breath as she sat up in bed, looking wildly around the dark room for any hint of familiarity. She held a hoove over her pounding heart, gasping for breath as she struggled to calm down.

“What the hay?”

After a moment, she began to settle her breathing as she relaxed her forehoof and closed her eyes. Strands of rainbow hair fell in front of her eyes and tickled her snout as her blanket fell from her shoulders, the result of her shuddering.

The curtains on her window rustled with the draft of a gentle breeze passing through them, but the featureless sky beyond them offered no comfort. Rainbow turned away from the unpleasant reminder, and climbed out of bed.

She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she ran a hoof through her mane and then dragged that foreleg over her eyes.

After a moment’s thought she trotted through a wooden door and into a bathroom attached to the room she was spending the night in. Another moment and she was looking at a mirror, though it was far too dark to make up much detail beyond what might have been vibrant color in her mane. There were no torches or lanterns set up this far from civilization, or what passed for it.

“I’m… a traitor?” she asked of her barely visible reflection.

“Die! Die you bucking traitorous bitch!”

She flinched away from the mirror, trembling as she hid her face.

“What the hay… that dream felt so real…,” she said softly.

“I gotta find Dust… Gotta talk about this, or something… This is weird, and that…,” she shuddered again and struggled to push the dream from her thoughts for now.

---

The expansive darkness overwhelmed the land, painting it in shades of dark, forbidding, grey and stirring fear everywhere. Trees were barely recognizable, both as a result of the stifling shadows and malnutrition, they were bare and gnarled. The land around reeked of decay, but she saw no bodies in the vicinity.

Can’t stay out here too long… Gotta get to the lanterns quick.

Dash upped her pace, keeping her wings folded and her ears on a swivel to pick up the sounds of predators in the darkness. She didn’t bother with trying to see anything but the distant twinkling of flames from torches and lanterns fed fuel in the distance.

The City of Reprieve, they called it.

More like the city of the damned…

Fillydelphia had once thrived, prosperous on commercial and industrial successes, feeding ponies young and old wealth and the realization of long-sought dreams. It had once boasted tall buildings, majestic sculptures, gardens, and beautifully cobbled streets. The gardens have been the first casualties.

Pity. Those might have fed the foals, at least.

Now it didn’t matter, the city had crumbled. Buildings toppled, streets became chaotic. It was less than rumor that the stallion who had created the safe haven had once been somewhere in the Canterlot Guard, but what role he played wasn’t known to Rainbow. She didn’t care, he’d at least had the decency to curb the violence and create some kind of law.

Well, he tried to. Ponies would continue to do what they wanted to do, didn’t matter how many rules he set down and tried to enforce. Rumors continued that he was also somehow connected to a powerful mage from the Canterlot courts. Although those meant very little with Canterlot being gone, it was still believed that the Mage’s Guild had wisely run from the city and set up camp somewhere else, hidden and secret.

In any case, nopony had heard so much as a whisper from them since…

No. Don’t think about that… Just… Just get to Dust.

---

The city limits weren’t welcoming, weren’t warm. They didn’t invite anypony to enter, even they knew it was meant to be a safe haven before hoof. A long stretch of carefully laced poles with lanterns on them meant she had, in fact, reached the city. Instead of feeling safe, it invited a sense of dread. Dash pressed on, trotting past the bordering torches and sighing with a hint of relief as she felt her hoof touch the damage cobblestone.

“Halt!” cried a stern masculine voice.

Dash sighed, and stayed her trot. It did no good to try to outrun the Fillydelphia Guard.

“Who passes the border?” the voice called out.

“Captain Rainbow Dash,” she replied calmly.

“C-Captain?” the other voice spoke carefully, trotting into the light of a lantern and revealing a pale cornflower blue pegasus stallion. He looked nervous, which she felt wasn’t that unusual. It was still strange to her though.

“Lieutenant Soarin, something wrong?” she asked calmly.

He shook his head, and saluted Dash before speaking.

“No ma’am! Nothing wrong ma’am!”

Why does that feel… so wrong?

“Stand down, at ease or whatever,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow and lowered his foreleg, tilting her head.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, are you alright?” he asked.

She sighed, staring at his grey and purple body suit, the flight goggles pushed up onto his forehead.

“Take it easy, Soarin… Seriously, you don’t have to be so… ugh… formal,” she cringed.

She shook it off, and regrouped all at once.

“You seen Dust?” she asked.

Soarin nodded.

“Yeah, she’s at the tavern. There was some trouble there, slavers tried to capture a unicorn and a pegasus mare there, but she put a stop to that… Now they’re all at the tavern, and she’s trying to calm them down,” he replied.

And she’s not a gentle touch, either. Could be bad.

“Thanks, I’m gonna go check in on her,” said Dash as she strode passed Soarin, her own body suit barely registering the light, and the facemask resting on her withers.

---

A pale pink unicorn, with a purple and teal mane sat next to a pale bluish-gray pegasus mare at a bar. Together they nursed some drinks, while a light turquoise pegasus mare opted to drink water instead.

“Derpy… Are you okay?” the unicorn asked for a sip of whatever was in that mug. Dash hadn’t the faintest idea, but it seemed like the only viable industry left was anything produced by fermentation.

Derpy sighed, rested her chin on her forelegs and closing her eyes.

The unicorn looked up at Lightning Dust and frowned.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Dust, she hasn’t been okay since Dinky died… She really didn’t need things to go like they did tonight,” she said, catching herself at the last moment, “Er! I mean, Thank you for your help, of course, but she could have done without needing to be rescued in the first place… is all I’m trying to say,” she gave a small smile of gratitude.

“It’s fine,” replied Lighting Dust.

Dash cleared her throat, and the unicorn and Lightning Dust spun around to see her. She didn’t say anything, just nodded at Lightning Dust as she trotted up to the bar and looked around.

Lightning Dust returned her focus to the unicorn, who returned the favor after a moment.

“Miss… Glimmer, was it?”

The unicorn nodded.

“Miss Glimmer, it’s alright. Point is, you’re okay,” she said quietly.

Dash stared across the bar, noting there was nopony there and shrugging. She flapped her wings and leapt over it, landing on the floor behind and looking for a mug. It didn’t take her long to secure one, and once she did she set about finding a source of clean water.

“What the hay happened, Dust?” she asked, a bit distractedly.

Lightning Dust cast a glance at Dash, not answering for the moment as she returned her focus to Starlight Glimmer.

“Safe, mostly. I’m here, now Captain Dash is here, so… Shouldn’t be too many threats that stand an actual chance, alright?”

Starlight blinked, and nodded. She looked at Derpy, frowned, and draped a foreleg over the stricken pegasus’ withers to try to comfort her. Derpy, for her part, offered nothing by way of response.

Lightning Dust turned her attention to Dash, and inhaled briefly before speaking.

“Gryphon and 2 Dogs lurking in the shadows of the city, lassoed Derpy there and tried to suppress Miss Glimmer’s magic, almost got it done too. Had to take out the Gryphon quickly, dogs were easier for Miss Glimmer to handle after that,” she stated, maintaining a professional detachment to the facts as she shared them.

“Dammit… This is supposed to be a safe haven… How in the hay did they get into Fillydelphia?!” she snapped.

“No idea, Dash… And please calm down,” she said, jerking her head to indicate Derpy and Starlight.

“Ah, right. Sorry,” she said as she continued her search for clean water.

“What are you drinking anyway, Dust?” she asked as she peered under the counter.

“Water. No idea whether or not it’s clean, though,” she replied.

Rainbow Dash cringed at that, gagging a bit on reflex.

“You have no idea what’s been in that or where it’s been, Dust. That is not safe. At all,” she remarked steadily.

“Easier than looking for clean water, Dash,” was Lightning’s half-hearted retort.

---

After a few more minutes of back and forth, Dash hustled Dust out of the tavern and around the corner, to gain some privacy. Dust noted that Dash looked nervous, even a little afraid, and she was unusually friendly. Dust had been subject to Dash’s outbursts on numerous occasions, and knew the rainbow-headed pegasus to be unstable and angry most of the time.

Dash looked around, casting nervous glances every few seconds before moving uncomfortable close to Dust and whispering.

“Where the hay am I!?” she snapped in a whisper.

“Excuse me?” asked Lightning Dust.

Comments

[flutterJackdash]

9985431
It's future selves, certainly. However, the past selves that their speaking to... aren't canon. I'm having a rough time with this one, because I had a direction I was going in and now I feel I've written myself into a corner and so I need to rethink things and flesh some stuff out. As for what magic is causing this phenominon? Not revealed, not yet. It might not a what either.

9985467
I lived in Florida for quite awhile, and while that isn't pure country so much as down-home redneck there is still a great deal of southern hospitality there, but I've also driven through the Carolinas and Georgia, and been through Oklahoma, so I've had some exposure that has helped with this. Plus I've loved AJ more than any other pony forever, so she's near and dear to my heart and I feel that I can relate her quite well. It translates pretty good for AB and Mac and Granny too.

9985505
All possibilities, good theories, and while Starlight's fear (and for time her, her reality) are true I don't see that things must be that way. Pinkie retained contact with her sister, Maud. Marble makes Fluttershy look like an extrovert by comparison, while Limestone is rather angry at the world and absolutely determined to pave her own path. On some level, I wonder if that isn't her feeling a bit envious of Pinkie for getting away and finding her destiny the way that she did? Limestone clearly takes the farm seriously, probably intends to inherit it from Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz one day, but that sort of hostility would seem to indicate some level of insecurity. Maud is simply there, flat and without much affect during many interactions. Smiling is rare for her, but that just makes it that much more precious when it happens, and she demonstrates her love for Pinkie in very clear ways. I wouldn't say that there is much distance, and while Pinkie isn't the best litmus for such things, she certainly didn't seem to have any less affection for the rest of her family when they reunited.

It's possible this happened to Cheese, who seems to be a loner a large portion of the time. So I think that he didn't have the same kind of life-changing pivotal moment as Pinkie, or if he did, it was the only one and he never connected well enough to any other pony to grow in himself. Not to mention that he is itinerate, hasn't really established roots, and part of his partying attitude is to gain acceptance and affection in any place he arrives. He learns better than that after his encounter with Pinkie, but still.

So, the point of this portion is to establish a divergence from the primary timeline. This story isn't canon, although they hardly ever are, and as you continue to read it continues to diverge even more. Until the narrative structure changes, and things become confusing.

[Scroll]

Before typing this comment, I read your own, up to the point where you typed ,"and as you continue to read it continues to diverge even more. Until the narrative structure changes, and things become confusing." Well, I think I passed the confusing part in the last chapter, and this one drives up the ante. Now it feels like I'm reading a completely different story. When I got to "Rainbow Dash", I'm abruptly reading a new fanfic with no warning in transition. This chapter seems unfinished, even within mid chapter. I'm assuming that's the case. Its also the first to have what I call a star process (* * *), which other websights erased because they don't have that symbol, which is why I switched to" xoxo". Funny story, I didn't know that meant "Hugs and kisses" at the time. I just picked it at random. Another interesting note, I didn't know fimfiction supported other colors for their text. That's good to know, but not every web site is likely to support that.

Well, you did list your stories as "incomplete" so I guess that just means I have more to look forward to. This took a sharp turn into a dark fic, but that doesn't necessarily mean bad. At this point I'm willing to chuck away everything I know about the show cannon characters and just focus on your characters as if they are brand new characters which sort of resemble the show cannon characters in appearance and maybe even some personality. It's a basis to start with, but I'll see where it goes from there. Stories like this are a new beginning, a chance to learn from a new perspective.