Dreams of Loyalty

by Professor Coruptus

Chapter 5

Dreams of Loyalty Chapter 5

In which Dash wakes up, and Twilight goes to the Library.

It had been a long time since Pinkie Pie had been in a hospital. Not since the infamous “Baked Bads” incident. It was actually pretty surprising how infrequently she or one of her friends ended up in here considering how dangerous of some of their adventures were. Not many ponies walked away from Hydras and Dragons with little more than a few scuffed up coats. Still, every pony’s luck had to run out sometime.

But this still seemed so wrong to her. Rainbow Dash, her brave, amazing, and completely reckless Rainbow Dash was lying unconscious in a hospital room with a bandaged head, not from some fight with a Manticore or some failed extreme stunt, but because of a dream. A thought had crippled the greatest young flyer in Equestria, and worst of all, there was nothing she could do about it.

That, more than anything, seemed wrong the most. She was Pinkie Pie, she could create a flying machine out of bits of candy and an old bicycle, she could predict the future with twitches and spasms of her body, she was reasonably sure she had broken the laws of physics on more than one occasion, she had even baked a soufflé for crying out loud. But against a bad dream that was torturing her best and most treasured friend, she was completely helpless.

She buried her face in her forelegs, leaning over the side of the unconscious pegasus’s bed. Hot tears of frustration and emotional exhaustion burned in her eyes. This just wasn’t right.

“…No… leave them…”

Her head sprung up as she heard the whispered cry coming from the sleeping mare. She was at her side in an instant.

“Dash? Dash can you hear me? Wake up! Dash, please wake up!” Pinkie Pie repeated franticly as she gently tapped Dash’s cheek. The mare groaned and slowly opened her eyes a fraction of an inch to peer up at the magenta pony hovering above her.

“…Pinkie Pie?”

Tears of frustration turned to tears of joy as the earth pony smiled down at the bedridden pegasus.

“Yes, yes it’s me, Dashie! You’re awake! Hold on, I’ll call the nurses,” Pinkie Pie gushed as she reached to pull a nearby bell cord to signal to the staff.

“…Your hair’s different.” Dash observed, weakly lifting up a hoof to brush the limp mane out of the magenta mare's eyes. She let the hoof remain there to cup friend’s cheek tenderly. “You haven’t been talking to rocks again, have you?”

Pinkie half laughed, half sobbed in relief as she held Dash’s hoof to her face.

“No. No I haven’t been talking to any rocks. I’ve just been worried about you. We all have. But I’ll be better soon, and so will you! You’ll see, once Twilight gets back she’ll fix you up good as-”

Dash’s eyes suddenly went wide and she tried to sit up.

“Twilight! Applejack! You guys have to run! If they find you they’ll… They’ll…” The effort of trying to sit up and yell was too much and the pegasus began to collapse back onto the bed as she deflated like a balloon.

“Dash? Dash!” Pinkie panicked as she realized what was happening. She gripped Dash by the shoulders and tried to hold her up. “Don’t you dare fall asleep again! Dash! Dashie, please stay with me!”

But it was too late, the pegasus was fading fast. The few tears she had left in her body wet her eyes and her voice trembled as she spoke in a fading whisper.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed as she fell back, pulling Pinkie on top of her as she desperately fought to hang on both reality and the pink mare. “I didn’t mean to choose… I couldn’t… I’m so sorry, Pinkie…” Her eyes fluttered shut as she forced out two final words,

“Please… Run.”

And she was lost to the confines and tortures of her mind once more.

“Dashie? Dash?” Fresh tears began to form as Pinkie repeated her name in a pleading whisper, still holding the rainbow-maned pony cradled in her forelegs.

“Dash no, please… don’t leave me again. Come back. Come back!”

The door flew open as Rarity and Nurse Red Heart rushed into the room to find Pinkie leaning over Dash’s unconscious body, calling her name over and over again. Fearing the worst, Nurse Red Heart rushed to the unconscious mare and began checking her for signs of life. Pinkie backed away to let the nurse tend to her patient until her rump hit the wall behind her. Sliding down against it, she put a hoof to her mouth and clenched her eyes; trying to hold in the scream of frustration and panic that was building in her chest.

Rarity crouched down beside the magenta earth pony.

“Pinkie, what happened? Did Dash wake up?”

The earth pony nodded, not trusting herself to speak yet. She sucked air through her nose and tried to push down all the emotions writhing in her gut and trying to leap up her throat.

“She… She woke up, and she seemed okay. She recognized me. Said my hair was different.”

Pinkie tilted her head back and took as deep a breath as she could. Rarity squeezed her shoulder to help relieve some of the tension.

“Then I mentioned Twilight and she freaked out. Started yelling that we had to run or… something was going to find us. She kept repeating that she was sorry and she didn’t mean to choose… something. Then she faded away, right there in my hooves…” Pinkie buried her face in her forelegs and curled up into a ball as she fought to keep back the flood of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.

Rarity wrapped the trembling pony in a hug and let the other mare quietly sob into her chest. The unicorn gently rocked her friend like a young foal, unable to think of anything else she could do or say that might help. After a few minutes a practiced bedside cough from the left drew their attention; Nurse Red Heart had finished her examination.

“Is she?”

“She’s alive.” The head nurse answered the unicorn quickly. Before Rarity could feel any sense of relief however, the nurse added, “But her condition has gotten worse. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s as if her body is just giving up the will to live. If it continues like this, she… she may not make it past night fall.”

The two ponies could only stare at the nurse in shock. Not even past night fall? That was only a few hours away, hardly enough time for Twilight to reach Canterlot, find the information she needed, and then return in time to cure Dash, if she could find a cure. Their gaze moved to the unconscious face of the blue pegasus. Time was running out, time they hadn’t even known they had been losing.

As Rarity pleaded with the Nurse to check Dash again, that she might have made a mistake or overlooked something, Pinkie felt herself withdraw from the world as one thought repeated over and over again.

It wasn’t right.

She had been victorious over dragons and gods alike, defied the conventions of society and physics, even looked into the fourth dimension once or twice without meaning too, but against a bad dream; a thought that was killing the one pony who had shown her true happiness and changed her life forever, she was completely powerless.

It just wasn’t right.

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“And, touch down!” Spike called out as the balloon’s basket lightly grazed the stone floor behind Celestia’s castle. The two pegasus guards who had escorted them to the landing zone once they had reached Canterlot airspace steadied the balloon and began tying it down.

“Another perfect landing, Spike,” Twilight complemented as she hopped out with a smile.

“Thank you, thank you,” the baby dragon said, giving an exaggerated bow to his caretaker before jumping onto her back. “Scroll writing, book keeping, ballooning, my talents are endless.”

“To bad they don’t include humility,” the unicorn chided teasingly. Then she turned to the two armor clad pegasi. “Thank you, Sirs. Please have the balloon deflated and loaded into a chariot for our trip back to Ponyville immediately.”

The guards stood at attention and saluted the mare before turning to begin disassembling the balloon. As they turned and made their way inside the castle grounds, Twilight turned to her assistant.

“I don’t see why they have to treat me like I’m some decorated general every time I come back,” She remarked, glancing back at the two guards as they deflated the enormous balloon in a matter of seconds.

“Well, you are the Princess’s personal student. Plus you’ve been declared a national hero like three times, and you’re one of the Elements of Harmony!”

“I’ve only been nationally honored twice, Spike. The Princess praising us for destroying the Gala doesn’t count.”

“But didn’t she send you all medals for “Great Service to Crown and Country” the next day?”

“I’m sure that was just for tax reasons or something.”

“She’s the ruler of Equestria. Who’s she gonna pay taxes too?”

As they continued to argue about how many times Equestria was officially indebted to Twilight and her friends, the two turned onto the familiar path leading to the Canterlot Royal Library. It felt good to be back. Although Ponyville truly was their home now, the two would always feel a certain fondness for the palace. It was unfortunate that they always seemed to return under such dire circumstances.

As Twilight opened the door into the library, her argument about the necessity of parades to qualify a deed as “nationally honored” died off as she breathed in the familiar smell of dust, ink, and wood varnish. They were the same smells that accompanied all libraries, including her own, but there was a certain crispness about the Canterlot air that made this particular library feel like a truly sacred place of learning. As she stepped inside, she noted that the enormous hour glass up on the observation deck, the rows and rows of books, and even the cushions in the lounge area all seemed exactly as she had left them when they had departed to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. It was like stepping a year into the past.

“And I don’t have to organize a single one,” Spike said smugly as he looked about at the shelves of carefully categorized spell and reference books.

Twilight rolled her eyes and made her way around the shelves to the front desk. As expected, a bespectacled old unicorn stallion was sitting behind it; still stamping in books that had been returned late just as he had been doing the first time Twilight had visited the library and every time thereafter. As they approached he looked up at the familiar pair and smiled.

“Well, if it isn’t the prodigy daughter,” the grey stallion said in a gruff voice. “And little Spike too! Excellent timing, somepony put the encyclopedias back out of order again. Mind running along and alphabetizing them?”

Spike groaned as Twilight giggled, “Hello again, Mr. Decimal. It’s been a long time.”

“Too long, I think. Been almost an entire year since I’ve seen you two last, hasn’t it? The place hasn’t been the same without you. Why, we even had to cut down on our staff after you left and odd books stopped turning up all over the place.”

This time it was Spike’s turn to chuckle as the purple mare blushed in embarrassment.

“Ah, I may be eighty three years old but it looks like I can still make a pretty filly blush.” The aged stallion laughed heartily at Twilight’s crimson cheeks before turning his horn to a nearby pile of books. “Now, I believe your note said this was an ‘urgent matter?’”

Twilight nodded as the small stack floated over to her. When no other books followed she frowned and began sorting through the volumes present.

““A Midsummer Neigh’s Dream,” “Do Cyberponies Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Nightmare Moon on Apple Street?” Dewy, I said I needed the best research material available, not the least checked out fiction!”

“That is the best we have available right now,” the elderly pony replied, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Everything else we had has already been checked out.”

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed that statement.

“Come. Again?” Twilight asked through grinding teeth.

“Mhmm, checked every one of them out after she had finished all we had on nocturnal flora and fauna, and let me tell you that didn’t take nearly as long as you’d think it would. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a pony with such a thirst for reading since… well, you.”

The elderly stallion was going over his records as she spoke so he didn’t see the mare in front of him begin to slowly turn white with rage, or Spike’s frantic waving at him to stop talking.

“Though I don’t believe we will be getting back those volumes anytime soon. Not for a few days at least. That mare can devour a book quicker than anypony I’ve ever met, but I hear that she likes to test herself over what she’s learned afterwards to ensure she’s retained everything she’s read. A lot like another young mare I used to know… Twilight, are you feeling alright? You seem to be… smoking?” he added as he finally looked up and noticed the embers forming in the other unicorn’s mane and tail.

Remembering that she was in a library, one of her favorite libraries in fact, Twilight took several deep breaths and slowly faded back to her normal color while Spike patted out the scorch marks. She could handle a certain degree of setback and frustration, uncooperative dragons, insane gods, Pinkie Pie, but there came a point where a unicorn simply had to draw the line. Being denied a book she was looking for, that happened. It was a school library; books got checked out all the time. It should come as no surprise that a few of the more popular volumes she was after would be temporarily unobtainable, but to be denied every book she was looking for because one mare had decided that now might be a good time to try to gain a masters in the subject over the course of a few days? That had to be some kind of mortal sin. If not, she would have to have a word with the Princess later about making it one.

After a few more deep breaths she asked, in a very controlled and even voice,

“Where are they?”

“Excuse me?”

“The books. Who checked them out?”

The elderly stallion looked at her in as if she were speaking 'fancy.'

“Miss Sparkle, you know I’m not supposed to reveal that kind of information. This is a professional establishment.”

Twilight, however, was not in the mood.

“Listen,” she said, slamming her front hooves down on the desk and towering over the other unicorn. “I don’t care if you rented those books out to the Emperor of the Ursa Majors, you are going to tell me who I need to talk to to get them, understand?”

The stallion was taken aback by the show of force from the mare in front of him. After a heavy swallow and a few seconds to carefully choose his words, he replied,

“I’m sorry Miss Sparkle, but even if I were to tell you, you wouldn’t be able to retrieve your books until nightfall. Though, I’m sure once she’s awake she’ll be more than happy to give them to you!” he quickly added when the unicorns eyes flashed a terrifying shade of red.

“What do you mean awake? What kind of lazy pony doesn’t get up until nightfall!”

“The kind that raises the moon and has let me enjoy a good night’s sleep for the first time in a thousand years.” A kind yet teasing voice answered from behind her.

Twilight jumped a mile in the air. When she landed again, she turned around and beheld the tall and royal figure of Equestria’s most recognizable monarch.

“Princess Celestia!”

“Hello, my faithful student.” The Alicorn smiled down gently at them as Spike waved and Mr. Decimal went into a deep bow. Twilight, however, had long since given up bowing to her mentor outside of public events and apologies.

“Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Investigating why my favorite pupil would suddenly travel all the way to Canterlot by balloon without so much as saying hello to her old mentor.” The Princess’s tone was wise and motherly as usual, but there was a hint of concern in it as well.

“I’m sorry Princess.” This time Twilight did bow. “But I’m here on an urgent matter and I was hoping I could find what I needed without disturbing you.”

“You will never be a disturbance to me, Twilight,” the tall princess pony corrected, leaning down to catch her student’s eye. “After everything you have done for Equestria, and for me, I would have hoped that you might allow me to assist you for once.”

Twilight raised her head and smiled at the Alicorn. Celestia returned the smile and brought herself back up to her full, royal height.

“Now, what seems to be the trouble?”

For the next few minutes, teacher and student walked to a more private area of the library as the unicorn told the short story of her friend’s terrible nightmares. As she spoke, Celestia’s face became more and more grim and troubled.

“And when we got here Mr. Decimal said all the books I asked for were already checked out by some silly…” as Twilight finished her story and recalled Celestia’s response, it dawned upon her who it was who had checked out the library’s entire collection on sleep.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to call-“

Celestia cut her off with a raise of her gilded hoof. “It’s quite all right, Twilight, but you said that Rainbow Dash’s nightmares had been going on for at least a week?”

Twilight swallowed, her mentor’s serious expression not entirely convincing she wasn’t about to be sent on a very prolonged vacation to the moon.

“Well, Pinkie said she saw Dash having a nightmare sometime last week, but she didn’t check out the book until that Monday and I don’t think she would have gone so far as to try self-help unless it was already really bothering her.” The unicorn thought for a moment. “If I really had to guess, I’d say nightmares probably started more around one and a half to two weeks ago, but I can’t say for sure.”

The Princess nodded once and stood, her expression still unusually serious. Twilight had only seen her mentor wear that expression once before, when eternal chaos had threatened to swallow all of Equestria.

“Princess?”

“Twilight, there are a few matters which require my attention right now.” The Alicorn stepped toward the library’s exit and waited for her student to follow. “You were right to act as quickly as you did, and in coming here for aid.” Stopping briefly to allow Spike to jump onto Twilight’s back as they crossed the front desk where he had been talking with Mr. Decimal, the two opened the front door and stepped into the bright sunlight outside. “I want you to retrieve a few specific volumes: “Dreams and Dream Walking,” “Nightmare Neurology,” “Figments of Fright,” and “Elements of Harmony: a Reference Guide.” You should find that one here in the library under “E,” I trust you already know where to find the others.”

“But they’re with-” Twilight tried to protest, but the Princess cut her off once more.

“Don’t worry; she’s a very heavy sleeper. Once you’ve retrieved the volumes I mentioned meet me in my private chambers. I won’t be long.”

And with that the first royal Alicorn of Equestria took flight into the open air and flew off in the direction of the throne room and royal offices. The unicorn and baby dragon stared after her in astonishment.

“So… what do we do now?” Spike asked finally.

“We’ve been given an order from the Princess; we’ve got to follow it.”

“But-“

“Look, you go back and get the Elements of Harmony reference book; though I don’t have a clue what she wants it for. I’ll go get the other three and meet you with Princess Celestia in her chambers.”

“Well…okay. But be careful.” The baby dragon cautioned as he slid off of his caretaker’s back.

Twilight groaned in aggravation. “She’s not evil anymore, Spike. How many times do we have to go through this!”

“I know, I know, I’ve been sending the letters you two have been writing to each other for months,” Spike groaned as he remembered being awoken at odd hours to belch up another letter from Twilight’s nocturnal correspondent. “But I know how grumpy you can get when I accidentally wake you up after you’ve been studying all night. I don’t want to even imagine what she’s gonna be like.”

Twilight gulped. He had a point.

“Well I’ll just be extra careful not to wake her up, then.” And with that she left for the castle proper.

Shortly after entering the regal hallways she realized there was a new problem impeding her.

Where was Princess Luna’s bedroom anyway?

Comments

[GraffyHooves]

Lol nightmare on elm street. Anyway good chapter. Do I sense some twiluna? Lol second best twilight ship next to Trixie. Keep it up broski

[Whatsup818]

Oh noes! Dashie dying is the WORST! POSSIBLE! THING! *summons fainting couch and falls on it*

[Spectrum]

Poor pinkie she basically just got shot in the heart

[The Cokegamer]

Awesome as always. This might sound weird, but am I the only one who thinks Pinkie is gonna go into Dash's head?

[silversmith]

159751

nope, i think that may be why they used one of my favorite rainbowXpie pictures, because that's whats gonna end up happening.

[Professor Coruptus]

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[PinkieDash<3]

OHNO. Dashie!!!!!! This was adorable though, pinkiedash is my otp. I got the notification for this during a GSA meeting xD but this was so worth the weird glances. Keep it up, can't wait for next update!

[ErekLich]

159751

There's another story (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/6868/The-Party-Hasn%27t-Ended) right now where that's exactly what happens... very similar to this one, too.

[Professor Coruptus]

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Yeah, I'd be lying if "Dreams of Loyalty" wasn't a little influenced by "The Party Hasn't Ended." It is an amazing story and if you're a PinkieDash fan it is required reading.

I can't remember if I started working on "Dreams of Loyalty" before or after I read it though. I actually started writing this as a prompt from The Writers Training Grounds and it just grew in the monster you see today.

Yes there are a lot of similarities between my story and butterscotchsundae's, but then there are also a lot of similarity to other stories too. When I started writing this Dash being plagued by nightmares was actually a new idea, but since then it's been used as the plot devise in dozens of fics. Hopefully I'm able to put enough new twists and ideas to keep it fresh, particularity the reason for her nightmares, or should I say reasons.

Hope you'll stick with this till the end, and if you aren't already subscribed to butterscotchsundae, then DO IT!

[ErekLich]

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Oh, I didn't mean to imply you were copying... I just found it amusing that the other poster had the same idea as butterscotchsundae! I am in fact tracking both stories, which caused me to be very confused a couple of times when I got updates mixed up! I love both your stories, but oddly enough its because I like psychological exploration of Rainbow moreso than Pikiedash... Basically ever since I read the Pony Psychology series.

[Archvile]

*hoping for some twiluna in ch6* XD