Shattered Prism

Chapters

1. My First Day Back
2. My Medical Record
3. My Revelation
4. My Composure
5. My Mistake
6. My Proof
7. My Memory
8. My Decision
9. My Epilogue

1. My First Day Back

I don’t feel so good. I must have had one hell of a party to feel this groggy. Why is it so dark in here? I should wake up and turn the light on.

“IV is in.”

Ouch. There’s something pinching my leg. I can’t feel the rest of my leg, but I can feel something sticking into it. I need to move my leg and make the pain stop, but I can’t.

“How will we know if the treatment worked?”

Hello? Who is there? I need help, I can’t move. Hello? What is going on here? Don’t you know how maddening it is to be stuck in the dark? Can anyone turn a light on?

“If it worked, brainwave activity should increase as she wakes up.”

She? What’s going on? I need to get up, but I can’t feel my legs. I know they’re there: I can sense them, but there’s no feeling. Just the darkness, everywhere. I want to touch something, to feel something other than pain. My leg is sore and I have to move it to stop the pain.

“Can she hear us?”

Yes! I can hear you! Please, help me! Oh god, there’s something in my throat too. It hurts, and I want to cough but I can’t. I can feel it, going through my nose and down my throat. Is it. . . in my stomach? Please, take it out. All I can feel is the pinching and the tube pushing down my throat. I don’t like it.

“I’m not sure. It’s more likely as the sedatives wear off.”

Sedatives? Was I in an accident? Come on, you have to tell me, right? Maybe it was on my way to work, but I don’t remember how. Did I get paralyzed? Is that why I can’t move? But I can feel pain. Maybe that’s a good thing, feeling pain.

“As long as she doesn’t remember the procedure, Doctor. You can assure that?”

What procedure? Wait, what if I can’t feel my legs because they’re gone? What if I just think they’re there? I need to move, I need to show them I’m still alive! Please, help me! I can hear you, I just can’t feel, and I’m stuck in here!

“Oh, yes. Between the medicine Versed, the morphine, and your magic, she will be good as new and won’t remember anything about the procedure.”

Wait, why don’t they want me to remember? Oh God, I knew it. It’s my legs, isn’t it? What if they’re not there anymore and that is why I can’t feel them? I was probably in a crash, I shouldn’t have been showing off. They’re trying to make sure I can’t remember how awful it was. Or maybe they had to cut open my chest to fix the injuries! What if it was my spine?

“Look at that, her heartbeat is increasing.”

Yes, yes my heart. I got her attention, please help me wake up! Maybe if I can just take a deeper breath. I have to get them to understand! Why can’t I move my lungs? There’s something in them too, I can feel it now. It’s against my tongue, scratching the back of my throat. The air pushes through it and fills up my lungs, then it pulls the air back out. I can’t even breathe on my own.

“Brainwave activity is increasing. She should be conscious and able to hear us soon.”

Oh crap, oh crap! The crash mutilated me, didn’t it? I must have been crushed in a horrible accident. Where’d the pinching go? Why can’t I feel my leg anymore? Do I even have legs? Oh God I’m dead. I’m on my deathbed aren’t I?

“Shoot, get the crash cart and call a code blue!”

I’m a vegetable! This is my life, laying here, waiting for them to turn the machines off!

“What’s the matter?”

I am dying, I knew it. I don’t want to die, I want to live! There should be a light shouldn’t there? Why is it so dark? It’s getting too cold now. There must be a way out, please. . . I don’t want to die, I’ll do anything! Please, help me!

“Her heart rate is too high and her BP is dropping. Stand back, Princess, I’ll let you know if your magic is needed.”

Her? I’m. . . a girl? How bad was I hurt that I can’t even remember my name or gender? All I remember is darkness. Why is my back itching all of the sudden? Where am I? Who am I?

“300mg amiodarone, stat!”

There, I felt it! My leg is still there, I can feel it burning. But why can’t I move it? I’m still trapped here. I don’t belong here. I remember now. This isn’t my body. I’m a prisoner here.

“We can’t lose her, Doctor, we need the elements!”

I’m sorry. Please, let me go! I didn’t mean to do—whatever it was! You’ve got the wrong person!

“Stop it! Your magic is just going to make it worse at this point.”

Magic? Elements? That’s it, I remember—what they did to me.

“CLEAR!”

The room was illuminated by lightning as a large roll of thunder broke overhead. It was enough to cause the entire house to vibrate. I opened my eyes and immediately had to move and make sure my wings still worked. I couldn’t lose my wings. Maybe a leg, but never my wings.

I sat up in the bed as the next thunderbolt cracked through the air. My chest was heaving and my bed was soaked in sweat. This nightmare of being frozen in a dark hospital had repeated every night for a week. Twilight had said I’d been in an accident, and a bad one, but she had helped save me.

My gaze fell to the right where I found Tank watching me. He smiled slowly. Memories flooded back to me, erasing the horrible thoughts planted in my head by the nightmare. Each flashback of the day Tank had chosen me as his owner eased the fear that I had forgotten who I really was.

The rapid beat of my heart against the cloud mattress caught my attention and I tried to calm down. I managed a weak smile and began to pet his shell. He was the best pet I could have asked for; a bastion of loyalty and strength—everything I had been before the accident, and what I was trying to become again.

“Thanks, Tank, I’ll be fine. I just had the nightmare again.”

Tank rubbed his head against my foreleg and I held it still while he tried to comfort me. Before long, my heart had calmed down and I no longer felt so nervous. I was supposed to start working with the weather team again today, and it was going to be exhausting since I could not sleep.

The icy air was beginning to freeze me, and I slid back down under the comforter. It had a large Wonderbolts logo on it. Twilight had told me they'd wanted to make me an honorary Wonderbolt after the accident. All I remembered was refusing as soon as I'd woken up in the hospital. I wanted to earn it, not be given it because I'd nearly killed myself doing a stunt. I would get better, then I'd get even faster. One day, I'd earn a spot on the Wonderbolts, because I was—no, I am, the fastest pony in Equestria.

Aren’t I?

The familiar sensation of being watched fell over me. Nopony would be able to get in my house; I made sure to keep it locked up at night now. It was bad enough to have Applejack treat me like one wrong word would break me, like I was a weak foal with a broken leg. Now I had to put up with an entire town walking on eggshells, afraid the Awesome Rainbow Dash was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Only the other Pegasi treated me normal, for the most part. Fluttershy and the weather team were there for me, even Derpy. It was the rest of the town that seemed afraid of me. Not that I’d hurt them, but that they’d say or do something that would make me remember the day I nearly died. The whole town seemed to act like I actually had died, and it drove me crazy.

“There’s nothing wrong with my mind,” I said. The words seemed hollow, lacking significance. I wanted them to be true, but a part of me knew they weren't. Something had changed, taking a chunk of my memories with it. Had the accident caused me to forget who I was, or was it something else? I could fly, do stunts, and even control the weather. It was the details—like what Pinkie had done for my birthday, or the name of the new adventure book Twilight had told me about—that eluded me.

The thunder caused me to flinch again. I used to enjoy creating thunderstorms, yet now they frightened me. Why would they frighten me now? I’d saved Equestria, kicked dragons in the nose, and flown faster than any pegasus. I’d been fearless, and now a little lightning was getting to me.

The knowledge of how to create the perfect thunderhead was in my mind. Knowing that there was nothing to fear unless we lost control of a low pressure system didn’t comfort me. One time I’d seen Applejack and Rarity take shelter in Twilight’s library. The thunderstorm had grown beyond our control, knocking a tree down and sending it crashing through the window of her Library. I had personally flown into that storm to disperse it. Now, I’d specifically asked Thunderlane to create all the local storms and to keep them the hell away from my house. They evoked some memory deep inside me, some fear, that I didn’t understand.

I couldn’t let anypony know I was afraid of a little lightning, not even Fluttershy.

Tank had crawled up closer to me and I could not help but smile. “Really, I’m fine. I just—I’ve never been this scared since I had to compete against Rarity at the Best Young Fliers contest.” I still hadn’t admitted that to her. . .

Tank yawned and rested his head in the entrance to his shell before falling asleep. I closed my eyes and tried to join him but couldn’t sleep. The disturbing thoughts, the voices, and that feeling of being trapped in a body that feels wrong would return.

My biggest concern was making the nightmares stop. Of all the things that felt wrong, for some reason the most horrific images almost seemed right. They had me afraid of a little weather, and scared to fall asleep at night. I knew I’d been in an accident, but did not know if it was normal for survivors of such injuries to constantly relive the fears.

The sunlight was never welcome in my home. I had positioned my house in the sky so that it’d burst through the window regardless. Were it not for the harsh rays bathing me each morning, I wouldn’t wake up. I would sleep in until noon every day. Still, the fact I needed Celestia’s sun to wake up didn’t mean I liked it. Sunlight was a necessary evil or I'd have scheduled clouds year-round.

I rolled over in protest and hid my eyes. I had to wake up and take care of the morning weather, and was determined not to. The only bright side was that the sooner I was done, the sooner I could take a nap over Sweet Apple Acres. Last night had been rough, and the extra sleep would be worth rolling out of bed. My memories were vague yet I recalled the thunderstorm, and the nightmares. Perhaps on a sunny afternoon I’d be able to get a decent few hours of sleep.

Twilight would know what to do, I’d go visit her after weather duty. She’d probably wonder if I had written any of the nightmares down in that silly dream journal. The worst part of having the nightmares was not remembering why. I remembered how scared they made me feel—me, the fearless element of loyalty. The actual content of the dreams continued to elude me, and the bits I did remember made no sense.

The worst part was that the nightmares always involved the hospital, and I was scared to let anypony know about my nightmares or memory loss. They would want to send me back to the hospital. According to Twilight, I had spent nearly a month in a coma. She said it was natural to be wary of hospitals after something like that, and had offered to be my personal nurse until I got better. I hadn’t told anypony that I’d agreed to her terms; what was left of my reputation after the crash needed to be protected. Who had ever heard of a grown mare that was afraid to see a doctor?

Tank started nudging behind my wings to get me out of bed. I hated to admit it, but he was right. The sooner I cleared the clouds and saw Twilight, the sooner I could take a nap. I slid off the edge of the bed and stood up on the floor.

My wings felt amazing as I stretched them out. The feeling was hard to describe to other ponies. There were so many muscles in my back that tightened up overnight. Everything from my flank to my neck, and to the tips of my primaries, tingled and got a rush of relief. My wingspan was impressive for a pegasus my size, and luckily they hadn’t atrophied after the accident. Twilight claimed they had used some sort of electronic gadget to exercise the muscles while I’d slept. For once, I guess the eggheads had done something useful for us Pegasi.

My wings folded back in against my side, comfortably relaxed. I flattened out my back legs and stretched, lowering my flanks towards the floor. I pushed back the other way and stretched my forelegs, raising my flank high in the air. There were a dozen stretches I did each morning. I didn’t know how I knew them, after years I guess this was just a normal day for me.

I was glad I hadn’t gotten worse amnesia. Twilight assured me it was perfectly normal not to remember the accident. I seemed to remember something similar happening in a Daring Do book, but I couldn’t find my collection of them. I was sure I’d left them around here somewhere. maybe Twilight knew where they were. I sure could use a good book.

It felt great to be limber and I couldn’t wait to get outside. I decided to skip breakfast and took off through my window, flying up towards the layer of clouds in the sky. I burst through the nearest cloud, feeling the damp wisps cling to my feathers. The cloud evaporated and I looked around to the half-dozen weather ponies on my team.

“Welcome back, boss!” Cloud Kicker shouted.

“Yeah, glad to have you back, Dash,” Thunderlane said.

“Thanks, no need to sit around. I could use a hoof clearing these clouds out. Today’s forecast is sun,” I explained.

“You know what that means.” Thunderlane turns to the other Pegasi, “Dash wants to take a nap.”

I laughed with the rest of them until my sides started to ache a little. “Alright, but I think I’ve earned a sunny afternoon and a fluffy cloud. We need rain again tonight and I’d appreciate a little less thunder this time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cloud Kicker said with a mock salute. “Weatherbolts, roll out!”

I smiled as they spread out over the town to clear the clouds. I felt normal around them. They were my surrogate family since I left the flock in Cloudsdale. Despite my hardships, Pegasi were always there for each other. Whether it was preening, flight lessons, or just a friendly wing to shelter under, I knew I could trust each one of them.

A cloud hit me from behind and evaporated. I turned around and saw one of the weather ponies fly off laughing. Playtime was over, and I took off after her. I let her keep the lead as we busted the rest of the clouds together. The task didn’t take long and I wound up over the library in no time.

The weather team had finished messing around and clearing the clouds. I waved goodbye and tried to recall the names of the various ponies. I seemed to have gotten a couple of the names wrong, judging by their frowns. At least they were good sports.

“See ya later, Thunderlane, and I was serious about the rain tonight! No thunder!” I ordered.

“Sure thing. See ya later, Dash,” Thunderlane said.

“Yeah, have a good day, dude.”

The library seemed different somehow, almost as if it shouldn’t exist. How could a tree be alive and hollowed out at the same time? My mind wandered to some of the giant tree’s I had seen, and some of the lumber camps. If it were so easy to live inside trees, wouldn’t more people be doing it? Why chop down trees to make a house when you could make a house in a tree?

I recalled a tree big enough to drive a carriage through, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head. How’d I forget about the headaches? Add concussions and brain injury to the list of fun I get to look forward to. Looks like I need Twilight’s help more than I thought. Already I could see a faint halo around things and the light seemed a little too bright. This might be worse than a simple headache.

Landing in front of the library, I marveled at how easy it was to fly. Despite no clear memory of having flown, I knew how and I knew it was where I belonged. I shook my head harder than I needed to, eliciting another wave of agonizing sharp pains. The door vibrated as I pounded a hoof against it.

“Coming!” a voice replied.

The light continued to get brighter, and the more I tried to think, the more my head started to hurt. It was almost as if my body didn’t want me to think certain thoughts. I hope she can fix it, I really don’t want to go see a doctor again.

The door opened and a smiling purple mare stepped out. Her name had been on my mind just seconds ago, yet it now stuck to the tip of my tongue. Dusk. . . Midnight. . . “Twilight! How’s it going?” I asked.

“Good, but how are you? You’re sweating,” she observed.

“Yeah, I uh, may have been having nightmares all week,” I said. I managed an innocent grin and giggled. I looked around to make sure no one had seen my uncool display.

“Come in, Dash, I’ll make you some tea,” Twilight said.

“Thanks.”

I walked in and took a seat over on her sofa. There was a coffee table and a book sitting on it. I lifted the book up and examined the cover. Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.

Hoofsteps sounded behind me and I turned in time to see Twilight levitating some tea cups. “Hey, Twi, is this a new book? I don’t recognize the title.”

Twilight smiled and set the tea down in front of me. “Actually, that’s the first in the series. You brought it back earlier this week. You’ve read it a few times.”

“Hmm, really?” I stared at the cover and felt something itching in my mind. I was suddenly able to remember a scene where Daring solved a puzzle by avoiding the stones marked with predators. “I guess so.”

I reached over and lifted up the tea. Twilight claimed I’d never touched the stuff before the accident, yet now I found it so soothing. Every time Twilight gave me tea, it made me feel better. After the first sip, the confusing book in front of me slipped from my mind. It really didn’t matter whether or not I’d read it. It was just a book.

“How’s your tea, Dash?” Twilight asked. She smiled and glanced up from her watch.

“Good, of course. So, you—” I stopped and yawned widely. “You gonna help with this migraine or what? I was gonna take a nap.”

“Oh, of course. In fact, I put some of the medicine in the tea. Why don’t you lay down and take that nap. I can fix your headache while you sleep.”

I lay down on the sofa and noticed she’d already brought a blanket over for me to use. She levitated it down over me, and it took all my effort to stay awake. “Hey, thanks. . .” I closed my eyes and yawned. “Really, good tea. . .”

Twilight started tucking the blanket in around me. “Any memories this time? Did you write down what you saw?”

“No,” I replied. I wanted to say more, but I felt like I was melting into the warm couch. I just wanted to sleep until it all got better.

“Spike, I need you to bring a couple books down to my lab.”

Lab? But the couch is so comfy. Am I suppos—wait! Something is wrong. I—I remember now! I don’t want to go to the lab again! I need to wake up.

I stumbled around on the couch trying to find my footing. I needed to get both forearms on the ground, but instead I fell head over hooves and landed on the floor. I tried to shield my face; I could finally remember and I needed to stay awake. The hospital, lab tests, magic, ponies trying so hard to help me hold it together. . . and she was at the center of it all.

Twilight stood over me as the darkness took me.

“Hey, what’s this? ‘Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone’?” I asked.

“This is the first story in the series.” Twilight smiled. “I own all of them.” She then squeed.

I rolled over. “No thanks. I so don’t read. I’m a world-class athlete. Reading’s for eggheads like you, Twilight.” I glanced at her and smiled. “Heh, no offense, but I am not reading. It’s undeniably, unquestionably, uncool.”

Everypony started laughing. “Is she serious?” Applejack asked. “Who doesn’t like to read a bang-up tale from time to time?”

Rarity smiled widely. “Why, a good book is almost as magnificent as silk pajamas on a Sunday morning, heh!”

“Reading is for everypony, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said, sounding like a school teacher.

“Yeah,” Pinkie added. I watched as she launched herself on another tangent. “I love reading, and my head isn’t even close to the shape of an egg! It’s more the shape of an apple, or maybe an orange, but a big orange! More like a grapefruit really...”

Thankfully a nurse came in to shoo my friends away so I could get some sleep. “All right, my little ponies,” the nurse said,” Rainbow Dash needs her rest. . .”

I yawned and stretched out my wings, interrupting my dream. Opening my eyes revealed the inside of the library. Twilight was reading a book on the other side of the library as I slept on her couch. The clock showed it was nearly noon, which meant I’d already taken care of the weather. There was no reason to interrupt a good thing, so I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

Visiting Twilight always helped, and I was feeling better already.

Author's Note

This guide to pony anatomy may come in handy for this story when I mention frogs, primaries, hocks, or arms.

2. My Medical Record

It was almost time for dinner when I woke up on Twilight’s couch. As far as couches go, she had a rather comfortable one. I guess it makes sense, on account of her spending so much time reading books on them. Awesome couches were probably just a fringe benefit of being an alicorn like Twilight was.

I rolled off the sofa and began stretching out my muscles. Twilight noticed me wake up and walked over to greet me.

“Good evening, sleepy head. Is your headache better?” she asked.

I tilted my head to the side, but couldn’t recall a headache. I recalled stopping by, a Daring Do book, and then I decided to take a nap. “I guess. I don’t have one now though. You must be a better nurse than you think.”

Twilight smiled warmly and blushed. “Dash, it’s nothing really. I’m just glad you come to me when you have problems with your memory or the headaches.”

“Hey, Twi. . .” I sat down on the couch as I tried to recollect anything about the crash. “I still can’t remember the crash. I know you said it’s normal and all to have amoeba—”

“Amnesia, Dash,” Twilight corrected.

“Yeah, that. Can you at least tell me again what happened? The only bits I seem to remember are being scared of surgery and eating hospital jello.”

She sat down next to me and looked like she wanted to hug me. I raised an eyebrow and she recalled I wasn’t a big fan of the mushy stuff. “It was a new stunt you were trying. You hit your head hard, but you didn’t need surgery. You were in a coma, and I cast a spell to help you come out of it. That’s all.”

A wave of comfort washed over me as she spoke. It was good to know that I was normal. “Thanks. I’d better get going. I’ve got tons of practice to do if I’m going to get into the Wonderbolts.” I smiled and flew over to the door.

On my way to the door I saw another pony in the room out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head expecting the orange blur to be Applejack. Staring back at me from the mirror was myself, with a tuft of orange mane sticking out. I chuckled and opened the door with my mouth.

“You’ll let me know if you have anymore nightmares?” Twilight asked.

“Come on, Twi, you worry too much. Like you said, it was just a little bump on the head!” I smiled and then walked out the door, closing it behind me. I took a deep breath of the cool air, and looked off towards the setting sun.

When I took to the sky I felt at peace in my element. The wind tugged at my mane and tail. Each beat of my wings sent a small thrill through me. There was no greater feeling than flying, and not even Celestia could keep me grounded. I belong in the sky, and if it weren’t for my close friends in Ponyville I would have stayed in Cloudsdale.

I looked down and saw that Sweet Apple Acres was quiet, and there had been no outdoor dinner tonight. A nearby apple tree hadn’t been picked yet, so I landed in the upper branches. Applejack wouldn’t mind if I helped myself to a few apples, on account of her having hundreds of trees.

The crisp red apples tasted amazing, and I tried to remember the last time I ate one. I couldn’t call up a memory of ever eating an apple before. Looking on the bright side, all the memories I lost just means I’ll get to do a ton of stuff for the first time again.

I started tossing apple cores down and rustling around for a couple more choice apples.

“What in tarnation? Who's up there in my apple tree?” Applejack shouted out.

I stifled a laugh and held still. Part of me knew better, but I loved to tease Applejack. She was such a stick in the mud sometimes. She just needed to relax and take a nap once in a while.

“I know you’re up there. Is that you Flitter? Dash? Derpy?” she asked.

I cleared my throat and spoke in a deep voice. “Getting warmer.”

“Thunderlane?”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter any longer. Unfortunately, I lost my grip as I clutched my sides and took a dive out of the tree. It was only about six feet to the ground, and I was able to slow the fall with my wings. As soon as I’d landed, I rolled over and resumed my laughing.

Applejack huffed and shook her head. “Dash! What’d ah tell ya about sneakin’ round my apple fields? Y’all can have all the apples ya want, just don’t go makin’ me think we got another fruit bat infestation!”

I stood up and dusted myself off, looking her in the eye. “Hey, if it weren’t so funny I wouldn’t be hanging fake fruit bats in your trees!” She just stared at me. “Come on, you know you love me.”

Applejack sighed. “Y’all want some dinner or are ya just gonna rustle around my orchard all night? If ya feel up to it, that is.”

A frown formed as I bit the inside of my lip. There was something about pity that just chaffed me the wrong way. I didn’t want ponies being nice only because I hurt myself. I want them to be nice because I’m a cool pony. I bet if we had an Iron Pony competition tomorrow, she’d go so far as to let me win to make me feel better. “No thanks, I already had a bunch of apples. You take care though, all right?”

“Sure thing, Dash. Just know ya can always talk to me ‘bout anything.”

She’s just being polite. Take a deep breath. She doesn’t know you don’t like being treated like a sick pony, so just tell her. “Thanks, AJ. Gotta fly!” I jumped up in the air and flew off towards my house across town. It’s late enough that I could just find a book to read or something.

The town passed by quickly underneath me and the sun has almost set. I saw some commotion in the town square, and found a small cloud nearby to land on. Down below was a crowd of about a dozen ponies gathered around an injured filly and Twilight. My ears swiveled forward as I got in a comfortable position to listen in to their conversation.

“See, Twist?” Twilight held her hoof out and made it glow with her magic. “It won’t hurt.”

The filly looked like she had taken a fall. Looking around, I spotted a wagon and wondered if the poor kid had been hit by it or fallen off.

“Okay Miss Twilight,” Twist replied. She was sitting down and had a hoof on her head over a large bump.

Twilight’s horn began to glow, bathing the filly’s red hair in a purple aura. She relaxed visibly as the knot on her forehead quickly shrank, then vanished. Moments later, Twist looked as good as new.

“Thanks, Twilight!” She jumped up to hug her before heading towards her parents.

“You’re welcome. Just remember to look both ways next time, okay?” Twilight said.

I was about to turn and leave when I saw Nurse Redheart walk up. “That was amazing, Twilight. I never knew you had such a gift for healing magic.”

Twilight waved her away with a hoof. “Oh, it was nothing. I just did a lot of study on it recently.”

Redheart and Twilight began to walk away. “It’s more than that. Most trained surgeons can’t do the kind of healing magic you used on Dash.”

I sat there with my head hanging over the edge of the cloud, staring at the emptying town square. If Twilight said I didn’t need surgery, then why would she study healing magic and cast a spell that most trained surgeons can’t even do?

There was a possibility Twilight had lied to me. A small voice in my head took it and ran with it. Vague recollections of my nightmare returned to me. The feel of leather straps on my arms and legs, the darkness, and the tubes being stuck through my muzzle to help me breathe.

The more I tried to trust Twilight, the harder a small part of my mind fought to prove she was lying. I decided the only way to get a good nights sleep without any nightmares was to find out for sure if I had some sort of operation. If I did, it was likely something minor anyway.

I flew off towards the hospital. If Twilight was lying earlier today, then she would just lie again if I confronted her now. It would be easier to find out for sure by just checking my medical record. I’d broken into the hospital before and knew they left most of the windows unlocked. The records room was somewhere on the second floor if I recall correctly, so I could probably fly right through the window.

The sun had just set and the lights were turning on throughout Ponyville when I reached the hospital. I flew around and glanced through the windows on the second floor. The records room was located in the corner of the building. Inside there were rows upon rows of filing cabinets. I opened the window and climbed inside.

The room was only dimly lit and I didn’t want to arouse suspicion by turning the lights on. I’d already come this far, and the nagging doubt in my mind pushed me further. I began to rifle through the cabinet marked for patients with a last name starting with ‘D’.

Rainbow Dash. Pegasus, 22 y/o ♀, A neg, ESN: 425-525

Doctor’s notes:

0830

PT presented to ER w/severe concussion. Glascow coma scale 6. Intubated by nurse en-route. Multiple SX blunt force trauma, battle signs behind ear, no CSF detected. Twilight arrived with PT, stated NKDA, no PMH. Estimated speed of collision near mach 1. On scene, she rendered first aid to keep PT alive.

0945

PT stabilized, suspect internal bleeding and TBI. Sent for CAT scan r/o stroke, hemorrhage. electroencephalogram shows no activity. Lab work normal.

I stopped reading and started skimming. The medical records were a mess of medical acronyms, abbreviations, and poor hoofsmanship. It was as if the unicorn doctors had written with their mouths instead of their magic. Even the bits that were readable were way over my head.

I finally found what I was looking for. It was a small excerpt by Nurse Redheart, placed with the other nursing notes behind all the technical doctor stuff.

1030: started new 16g IV, left forearm. Patient prepped for surgery and moved to OR.

It didn’t mention Twilight, but it was a start. It proved I had been cut open—whether with a knife or magic—it made me feel violated to know a pony was inside me trying to fix me. According to the times, I must have had a rough time in the operating room. The Doctor had scribbled in bits about codes and dying, yet I was standing right here. They probably forgot to go back and change it when they saved my life in the operating room.

I spent a moment standing there, angry that Twilight had lied to me. I wasn't sure if there was a good explanation for it, or if I would have to dig to the bottom of this myself.

I looked through the rest of the record. It had details on everything from my dental records to my menses, and was more than a tad creepy. Aside from mentioning Twilight was my primary visitor, who stayed with me while recovering, it didn’t mention if she had been casting magic on me in the operating room.

I heard the clip clop of hooves approaching the doorway. I slid the file back in and closed the filing cabinet. My wings beat silently as I flew across the room and out the window. I then clung to the side of the hospital to peek my head through the window.

A nurse walked in and headed towards a filing cabinet. They reached the cabinet labeled ‘D’ and opened the same drawer I had just been in. They pulled one record from the front end of it, closed it, and left.

I took off and immediately and flew as high as I could. My heart was racing and my mind was filled with conspiracy theories about spies and robots from the future. I knew I’d be safe way up here, as only Pegasi could reach me this high up in the air.

I needed to calm down and relax. Part of me wanted to act rashly, and another just wanted to be left alone. I settled for seeing Fluttershy, as she was my best friend. We had always been there for one another, and if anything was wrong, she was the one pony I knew I could always trust.

There was a bright flash and in an instant, I had already dove down towards Ponyville. I had forgotten the rain was scheduled again. Thunderlane must have forgotten when I told him not to have any lightning or thunder tonight. I could barely keep my wings extended as fear gripped my heart in a vice.

I found myself nearing the sound barrier, and felt that familiar doubt in the back of my mind. Both of my wings flared wide open, slowing me down, as the thought of doing a sonic rainboom filled me with dread. It was probably how I got hurt in the first place. Besides, the entire town would have heard it.

Another crack of thunder made me forget the stunt and resume my race to the shelter of Fluttershy’s cottage. I came to an abrupt landing, colliding with the door. I stood up and tried to take a couple normal breaths amongst the thunderstorm, then knocked again with my hoof.

The door opened slowly and a drowsy Fluttershy, complete with hoof slippers and small bags under her eyes, greeted me. “Oh, Dash, is everything okay? It’s getting late and the weather is awful.”

I smiled and let my nervousness escape through a chuckle. “Oh yeah, you know me. I uh—” Why was I here? To tell her Twilight is having secret surgeries on my brain? Perhaps I can be a tad more subtle. “I need a hooficure.”

Fluttershy frowned. “Dash, you don’t like anypony touching your hooves.”

“Yeah, but you’re different! Remember a few months ago when I split the wall of my hoof?” I lifted up my front left hoof, recalling how the pain had shot straight up to my elbow when it split. “It wasn’t so bad when you did the hooficure.”

Fluttershy smiled, suddenly proud to have been of service. “Oh, well come in. You know I always have time for you, Dashie.”

I smiled, and groaned on the inside. She used to call me that when we were fillies. At least she was kind enough not to do it in front of anypony else. I walked over to the couch and flopped down on it. It wasn’t as comfortable as Twilight’s, but it had soft clouds sewn inside instead of foam. That made it much more suited to a pegasus, as there was no risk of creating pressure points on your wings when you laid on your back.

“So, you um. . . flew all the way over here late at night for a hooficure?” Fluttershy asked. She walked in with some hot cocoa she had made while I had gathered my thoughts.

“Well, I thought we could catch up a little too, you know?” I sat up and tried the hot cocoa. It had the little marshmallows I love in it—another secret Fluttershy and I shared.

“Oh, that’d be lovely. We haven’t gotten to spend much time together since the acc—” Fluttershy quickly hid her face behind her mane. “Oh dear.”

“No, it’s okay.” I put a hoof on her shoulder just above the wing. “That’s what I came to talk about.”

Fluttershy took a sip of her own hot cocoa. She seemed lost in thought, so I let my gaze wander. I spotted Angel in the corner, as grumpy as ever for having been woken up while sleeping. “Well, Dash,” she said. “What did you want to know?”

“You were there when I got hurt, and you visited me, right?” It was a safe assumption, as I rarely did anything involving serious flying without her there to cheer for me. It was one of those instances where it was the thought that counts.

She grinned and looked at me with her soft, teal eyes. “Yes, Dash, but why would you want to relive that?”

“Well, Twilight said all that happened was I took a bump on the head.” I gulped, feeling butterflies in my stomach. “She uh. . . said it was just a little thing and that I didn’t need surgery. But I heard somepony else say I did have it.”

Fluttershy frowned and looked towards her hot cocoa. “I’m sorry, Dash, but I don’t know. I was there. I saw you hit the ground. You were limp and. . . I just couldn’t watch!”

Fluttershy was sobbing quietly now, trying to hide her tears and stay strong for me. I seemed to have a knack for making her cry, so I pulled her in close for a hug. “Hey, I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I didn’t realize how worried you must have been for me.”

She sniffled. “We. . . we were all worried. If Twilight hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have lived long enough for them to fetch a nurse. I couldn’t stay with you the whole time, and I didn’t think too much about the treatment they give you. I was just happy you were getting better.”

I closed my eyes, and kicked myself mentally for making my best friend cry. I hadn’t really gotten any worthwhile answers, and for a few minutes we just sat there. I mulled the words over in my head, imagining what it must have been like for them to hold my hoof as I lay unmoving in a hospital bed.

“Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now, quiet now, it’s time to go to bed. . .”

That voice is Fluttershy. Why is she singing to me?

“You’ll be okay, Dash. I promise.”

She’s holding my hoof, and I want to smile. I can’t move, and I can feel the damp fur around her muzzle against my shoulder.

“Visiting hours are over, Fluttershy.”

“You’ll let me know if she changes?”

“Of course.”

Wait, don’t make her go! Come back, Fluttershy! I need you! I’m. . . I’m scared!

“You can come in now, Twilight.”

Wait, what? Visiting hours are over. Are they going to let her stay with me? Thank Celestia.

“Thanks, Nurse Redheart. I’ll just need a moment. You can prep her for the OR when I’m finished.”

OR? Where have I heard that before?

“You’re sure this will work?”

“Yes. I read every book on the matter. She’ll wake up as good as new when I’m done. Just get me the surgeon and the supplies I reque—”

I jolted awake when I realized the truth. Twilight had definitely taken me to surgery. She was hiding something! What was it? Did she test a spell on me that could have killed me? Did I hit my head so hard they had to use the elements to save me?

“Dash, are you okay?” Fluttershy asked.

I turned my head, realizing I had fallen asleep while comforting her. She had laid my head down on her lap and watched over me as I slept. “No, how long was I asleep?”

“Almost an hour, why?” she asked.

“Something’s wrong. I had another dream, or nightmare, or memory—I don’t know anymore.” I sat up and looked around. Everything looked real enough.

“Dash, you’re worrying me.” I turned to face her and she was frowning again, which only made me feel worse that I had to put my best friend through this.

“Look, I think something happened in the hospital that somepony wants to keep secret. I don’t know what it is, or if it’s nothing at all. It feels like this voice in the back of my head is trying to tell me something. I bet that’s what all the nightmares are about, don’t you see?”

Fluttershy smiled and leaned back, almost nervously, as I ranted about the conspiracy. “Dash, stop—”

“What if I was dead and they brought me back to life? Does that make me a zombie? Maybe they had to use an ancient spell like in Daring Do, and sacrificed a dozen virgins to bring me back!”

I felt something hit me in the cheek, snapping me out of my wild theories. Her slap would have felt dainty, were it not for the rough hoof on the end of her leg.

“Dash, you’re scaring me. Please snap out of it. Why don’t I get a bath started to help you relax? I can give you a hooficure when you’re done.”

I took a couple deep breaths. “Alright.” Fluttershy smiled and flew upstairs. I followed her, and in a few minutes she had drawn a hot bath with some sort of fragrance in it.

“You just relax, and I’m going to check on the animals. It’s late, the storm might have spooked them.” Fluttershy smiled and handed me a sponge and some soap.

I set them next to the tub. “Alright.” I climbed in the tub, letting each hoof sink into the hot water before putting the next in. Soon all that was left was to sit in the water and slide onto my back. With only my muzzle and eyes above the water, I fought the urge to fall asleep. Muscles I didn’t even know existed were sore, and I began to feel waves of relief wash over them.

The soap and sponge sat unused, and I imagined myself floating in a cloud over the Wonderbolts coliseum. Soon I’d be on the team, doing stunt shows. After each practice I would take naps over the famous obstacle course, or maybe above the wind tunnel. Everypony would know about the team captain Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria.

I giggled, secure in the knowledge nopony would hear if I decided to indulge myself in my fantasies. That was when thoughts about the cold dark room came back. They were slightly more in perspective now, yet the thought still haunted me. There was definitely something fishy, but I shouldn't have started to jump to conclusions. I needed to separate my facts from the nightmares somehow. After all, Twilight had seemed really odd before, like at the wedding in Canterlot, but she had a way of always doing the right thing.

I heard Fluttershy coming up the stairs and sat up, lifting my head out of the water and angling my ears towards her. That was when I noticed a second set of footsteps that stopped just outside the door.

My head turned slowly to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway to the bathroom. “Dash, I was really worried about you so I got somepony to just take a quick look at you, okay?”

“Uh, okay.” I said. Who would she want to go get in the middle of the night?

My question was answered when Twilight stepped through the doorway. “Good evening, Dash.”

My heart leapt into my throat and I began to open and close my mouth like a fish out of water. Here was the source of all my anxiety. I could just ask her one simple question and get a simple answer. Would the answer she gave even be the truth? “Uh, hey, Twilight. I’m uh, a little busy.” I gestured to the tub with my head.

“Oh, of course. It’s just Fluttershy came to get me and said you were getting all worked up about the accident. Did you have another nightmare?” Twilight asked.

I glared at Fluttershy, who seemed to sense the tension and was discretely using her mane to hide from my stare. “No, not really. I just remembered when you two visited me in the hospital, I think. It wasn’t a nightmare, I don’t even know it’s a real memory—” I smiled at her, as something in my mind begged me not to trust Twilight. She was one of my best friends. Why should I doubt her?

Twilight nodded her head and continued to look me over like a math problem to be solved. “So, you didn’t have anymore nightmares about. . . surgeries?”

I felt a chill run down my spine despite the hot bath water, and shuddered at the word. “No,” I said. Telling her about my suspicions wouldn’t convince her to tell the truth. I needed some sort of evidence, otherwise it was my word against hers. I would go back and steal my medical record and confront her with it. Then she’d have to tell the truth!

“So what brings you over to Fluttershy’s house so late at night?” she asked.

I laughed, finding some small relief in the action. “I needed a hooficure. My walls are chipping, my soles are sore, heck, even my frog has been aching.” I lifted a dripping hoof out of the tub. “See what a mess it is down there? They don’t exactly give out free hooficures in the hospital, Twilight. I figured me and Fluttershy could have a sleepover, but I must have spooked her.”

Twilight smiled, and whispered something to Fluttershy. “Alright, well you have a good hooficure. Fluttershy said she’ll keep an eye on you until morning. I think the sleepover is a great idea. If you have a nightmare she’ll be right here to help you.”

After she left, Fluttershy slowly walked in. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Are. . . you and Twilight having a fight?”

I wanted to be angry and upset at myself for this stupid fear of lightning,Twilight, and doctors. I also wanted to be mad at Fluttershy for running off immediately to the last pony I wanted to be around. She was still my best friend, and I convinced myself she had genuinely only done it out of concern for me. I would just need to be a bit more careful in the future. “Sort of. Did she tell you I am. . . afraid of hospitals now? I sorta have to go to her anytime I don’t feel good and it’s kinda weird.”

Fluttershy finally looked me in the eyes and smiled. “Oh, I’m so glad to hear that it’s nothing big. I can imagine that having your best friend also be your nurse could be strange.”

“Tell me about it. In fact, you’ve probably got a ton of experience treating animals. Maybe I can come visit you instead? I bet Twilight would like the extra free time.” I climbed out of the tub and began to dry myself off. I was surprised after a moment to feel Fluttershy helping.

“Sure, I mean. . . if that’s what you want.”

I nodded my head. “Yeah, I’d rather not spend too much time around Twilight until I figure some stuff out. Please, don’t go to her again without asking me. I’m not crazy.”

Fluttershy looked away for a moment, then gazed back at me. “Okay, as long as you promise to tell me the truth and let me know next time you’re in trouble. . . You still want a hooficure, right?”

I looked down at my hooves and could feel them twitching at the thought of being touched. They were ticklish, and they were every bit as worn, callused, and chipped, as I had said. Since I rarely walk anywhere, they actually do need frequent care to stay healthy. Normally I pick at them and file them at my house, so they stay in decent shape. “Yeah, I do. I’ll try my best to hold still, I don’t think the spa sisters could do half as good a job as you anyway.”

Fluttershy trotted out of the bathroom. “Hurry up, then. I put the hooficure set by the guest bed. I’d like to go back to bed soon. . . if that’s all right with you. I’m very tired.”

I followed her out, watching my hooves and suddenly feeling very self-conscious. I’d have to start getting them worked on more often, as I could already feel them taunting me. Just one more rough landing and they’d split straight through again. It was painful and I was stupid for not taking better care of myself.

I wonder if Twilight is just protecting me from myself?

3. My Revelation

I suppose there was something therapeutic about the hooficure, even if every brush against the frog of my hoof made me flinch and laugh. By the time it was done my hooves felt better than I could ever remember.

Is this the best my hooves have felt, or did I just forget the last time? It is odd to remember something like how Fluttershy got her cutie mark, but not whether or not we’ve seen each other since the accident. She says I’ve seen her several times, but as far as I can recall this is the first.

Either way, when the nightmares began that night I woke up to find her next to me in bed. I hate to admit it, but I cried myself to sleep in her arms.

The worst part isn’t the nightmares. It’s the feeling that there’s something wrong with me. I go through all the motions: I cry, slam a door, or smile in front of other ponies. Each time it feels hollow. She had me wrapped up, sang me a lullaby, and I just lay there staring at the wall. I didn’t feel sad, or safe, I just felt. . . nothing. It was a refreshing, I suppose, because I slept through the night without another nightmare.

When morning came, I ate a few oatcakes and tofu-bacon. The syrup didn’t seem as sweet as I remembered. It was a quiet breakfast and we didn’t talk much. With all that was on my mind, I found it easier to just ignore Fluttershy and the animals, and finished breakfast quickly. As my mind wandered I opened the front door and walked out. I ran muzzle-first into Derpy as she was delivering mail. Seeing her, I wondered if she could help me get some straight answers. She was a pony who liked helping others face and overcome their own adversity.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Derpy said.

My lungs expanded as I inhaled deeply, taking in the crisp morning air. “No, that was my fault, Derpy. I’ve had a lot on my mind. Are you headed back to town on your mail route?”

“Sure am, Dash. Rough night?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“You want to talk about it?”

“Actually, yeah.” I followed her after she dropped off Fluttershy’s mail and headed back towards town. “I suppose there are a few things, but it all started with my accident. Did you see what happened?”

“Oh.” Derpy looked away for a second, appearing unsure if she should say anything at all.

“Please! Ponies are treating me like I’m different now, like if they tell me what happened I’ll snap!” I looked up from the road and into her eyes. “I need to know, why are they treating me different?”

Derpy looked back with a slight smile on her face. “Well, if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.” I nodded at her to continue. “You called out all your friends, the weather team, and the fillies to watch your new stunt. You’d been practicing for weeks and were finally ready to do it at full speed.”

“Sounds like me, then what happened?” I asked.

“Well. . . you were hit by lightning after doing a sonic rainboom. It happened so fast—the stunt was supposed to involve you making a thunderhead and beating the thunder out of the cloud. All I saw was a black streak falling from the cloud, and heard you crash near some of the other spectators.”

I frowned and tried to imagine what it would feel like to hit the ground going that fast. There had been several occasions where I had crashed, but never at that speed. As we crossed the bridge into town, I could see the field where I did most of my stunt practice.

“Then there were just so many ponies running to help you, and Twilight asked us to step back. It didn’t look like you were moving or breathing. The next time I saw you, you were in a coma. . . is this helping any?”

I looked back at Derpy and smiled for her. “Yeah, I just needed to hear it from someone who wouldn’t sugarcoat it. You ever have ponies who won’t tell you stuff because they think it’ll hurt you?”

Derpy and I headed down the road to the central marketplace. “Of course. Sometimes it’s the lies they tell to protect us that hurt the most.” She stopped in front of the post office, and pulled a muffin out of her saddlebag. “Here, I’ve got to go but you need this more than I do.”

I smiled and looked at the muffin, licking my lips. “Hey, thanks!”

Grabbing the muffin, I bit into it. I spat the muffin out as soon as I tasted it. “Ew! I hate blueberries.”

Derpy frowned. “But they’ve always been your favorite.”

The muffin in my hoof mocked me. It was my favorite flavor, according to a pony who hadn’t been hit on the head recently, and yet it tasted awful. I took another defiant bite, determined to prove it was my favorite, and once again the horrid taste of blueberries assaulted my taste buds.

“Sorry, Derpy. I don’t like them anymore. Thanks anyway.”

She just shrugged and popped the rest of the muffin into her mouth before getting back to work. After waving goodbye, I spotted Applejack across the marketplace. I approached her to put a new theory to the test.

“Howdy, Dash. Glad ta see ya. How are ya today?” Applejack asked.

“Great.” I smiled and leaned against the apple stand. “You remember that you said I could talk to you about anything?”

Applejack smiled and adjusted her stetson. “Of course, sugar cube, what’s on your mind?”

“I want to hear it from you, how bad was my crash?”

She glanced around quickly before looking back at me. “Dash, ya hit the ground goin’ fast. What more is there to know? Ah ain’t a stunt pony so ah don’t know why it happened.”

“How about this: what was the stunt?” I asked. “Was I breathing after the crash?”

“Y’all were just doin’ a rainboom, and of course ya were breathin’, you’re here, aren’t ya? Why the sudden interest?”

I grimaced and furrowed my brow. I wanted to feel angry, yet I couldn’t seem to get that spark. She was lying to my face, being disloyal, and all I felt was apathy.

“It matters because you're treating me like a filly. You’re the Element of Honesty, and you can’t even admit I did a rainboom, got struck by lightning, and hit the ground so hard I stopped breathing!”

“And what? Ya want my advice so ya can pull off the stunt better next time? Or tellin’ ya how bad ya scared me when ya nearly killed yourself over a stupid trick. Will that make ya feel better?” Applejack shook her head, using the opportunity to wipe a couple tears from her face.

“No!” I hit my hoof on the stand when she tried to shield her eyes with the brim of her stetson. “Every day I know there is something wrong but I can’t figure out what. Every night I have nightmares. Then all of you, my friends, treat me like I’m not alright, like I’m not Dash! I want you to treat me normal, like before the crash. I want you to treat me as the only pony who could kick your flank in the Iron Pony competition and do a rainboom in under ten seconds flat! Stop treating me like I’m gonna run off and hurt myself over some stupid stunt!”

Applejack swallowed and took a few breaths. She kept her eyes locked with mine. “Ah’m sorry, okay? If ya want the truth ah’ll give it to ya, ah won’t sugarcoat it anymore. How can we settle this, Dash? Ah want us to go back to the way things used ta be too, but how can ah convince you that you’re fine, when ya can’t convince yourself?”

Sighing, I slumped on the stand in defeat. “Dang it, I wish I knew.”

Her hoof gently touched my shoulder and she whispered into my ear. “Look, sugar cube, you’ve had a lot of excitement lately. Why don’t ya just go home and relax, and we’ll worry about gettin’ things back to normal later, okay?”

“You’ve got a point.” I lifted my head up and stopped slouching over her apple stand.

Looking around, I spotted a few ponies waiting behind me in line to buy apples. They were comical as they gazed in every direction other than at me. I wanted to be angry with them for making a spectacle out of it; to be able to laugh at them for pretending there wasn’t a fully grown mare breaking down at an apple stand.

I shook my head and took to the air, leaving the marketplace behind me. It never took long to get to my house since it floated over central Ponyville. I knocked my hooves against the clouds outside to get the dirt off, and walked inside.

Tank was sitting by the food bowl in the kitchen, and I was quick to get him some of the turtle food Fluttershy supplied me with. I found a piece of lettuce that was still fresh and tossed that to him also. With a few taps on the back of his shell, I left him to eat while I went and flopped down on the couch.

My aches and pains faded away as I sank into the couch and sighed. A day of relaxation might be just what the doc—what I needed. The weather team hadn’t hunted me down that morning, so they likely handled today’s weather without me.

My eyes fell to the coffee table which had several Daring Do books that were scattered across it. Leaning forward allowed me to browse the titles of the books in front of me. After scanning them, I settled on reading one that didn’t look familiar: Daring Do and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

So I began to read. For a while, it was very relaxing, until I began to realize what was being done to Daring Do and the fillies she was trying to rescue. Count Vlad was planning to take over Daring’s hometown of Los Pegasus. He had found a way to replace ponies with doppelgangers under his control. They were sort of like changelings, but could only change once and that was when they replaced a pony. They were perfect copies of the pony until called upon by their master.

My mind began to race at the implications, and soon I found myself taking notes from the book. On a small, yellow pad I scribbled down all the signs that Daring Do was using to determine if a pony had been replaced. She had to capture each one before they could escape and rescue the impersonated ponies.

My list was getting long by the time I reached the last chapter of the book, and Daring came face to face with Vlad. There was an epic battle where it was revealed that Daring Do had actually been a doppelganger all along. Vlad said he killed the original Daring Do, planning to make her copy his ally. There had been an accident that had removed her programming. Now the clone of Daring was just as heroic as the original and wanted to bring Vlad to justice.

I didn’t finish the book. I couldn’t. My heart was racing and for the first time that day, I was glad to feel emotionally numb. I looked down at the list on the coffee table.

Daring found medical records being tampered with, and ponies were replaced before leaving the hospital in Los Pegasus.

Ponies absorbed the memories of the victim, but had trouble with new memories after that. Daring couldn’t remember when she cut her leg and her blood was the wrong color.

Doppelgangers have orange blood.

Daring caught Vlad because the copies didn’t understand emotion.

Doppelgangers are afraid of lightning, because Vlad created them using it.

Daring was a copy all along, and her original was kill—

I had stopped writing as little pieces in my mind began to click into place. It was ridiculous to think I was a changeling because I did not need to feed on emotions. In fact, I barely felt them; the only emotions that felt real were fear and frustration. Both of those feelings were focused on Twilight and hospitals. At least the lightning was something I could see, but the things they could do to me when I was unconscious scared me far more.

It took me half an hour to work up the courage, but I finally decided I had to use this checklist to find out if I’d been replaced. At the very least, knowing I wasn’t a doppelganger would help me sleep better for a couple nights.

The most readily available, surefire way, was to cut myself and see what color my blood was. According to the book, if my blood was red then I was a pony and if it was orange I was a doppelganger.

I walked into the kitchen, careful not to step on Tank as he got some exercise. I realized he hadn’t gotten to fly in a while and I made a mental note to take him out again soon.

I rummaged around until I found the roll of bandages Fluttershy had once given me, and a knife. The blade was sharp, and I wasted no time picking it up and placing it above my left forearm, right above the hoof.

I counted to three nervously and closed my eyes. The blade slid across my flesh. It stung, and I bit my lip to muffle a grunt of pain as it opened the shallow wound. Reluctantly, I opened an eye to see what color my blood was. It was red.

I laughed as the nervous energy faded away, and thrust my injured forearm in front of Tank in excitement. “It’s red! I’m not a copy!” Tank tilted his head and raised an eyelid. “Come on, Tank, that means there’s only four more to check off!”

Looking down at the list, I realized I couldn’t really check off emotion, electricity, or the final clue. The only one I could investigate next was if my medical records had been altered.

Perhaps I could ask a nurse to see them this time and compare what they brought me to what I had seen when I snuck in.

I picked up the yellow roll of bandage Fluttershy had given to me. It even had some small pink butterflies on it, which left me wondering why she’d give me a fillies’ bandage. We had always been as close as sisters, so I shrugged it off as coincidence.

I wrapped the gauze around my leg three times then stuck it to itself. With the dressing in place, I put my list in a saddle bag and left for the hospital. The sun had nearly set, and I realized that the book had taken all day to read. I made it to the hospital and walked through the front doors to see Nurse Redheart working the front desk.

The double doors swung closed as I turned around to look outside. Did I space out on the way here? For some odd reason I couldn’t remember if I’d walked or flown here. I was pretty sure I landed near the center of town and walked, but my hooves weren’t dirty.

“Good evening, Dash, what brings you in tonight?” she asked.

I smiled, and pointed at the sign at the side of the desk listing patient rights. “I’d like to see my medical record.”

Redheart looked as though I was just another boring patient asking another boring question. It was a good thing I have never played poker with her.

“Alright, Ms. Dash, I’ll be right back.”

After Redheart left I congratulated myself. Either they’d bring back my real record, with all that doctor mumbo-jumbo in it, or they’d bring me a fake that lied about the surgery. I would finally get my answers, yet suddenly I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. If they’re fake, that means I am an imposter! It’s okay. . . maybe they’re going to be real and I just hit my head after all!

While I waited for her to return I began to stare at the clock, watching it tick. With each tick I could imagine a memory vanishing, or an emotion I would no longer feel. The more I imagined myself as some sort of robot, the more convincing my nightmares became.

Redheart returned while I was in a staring contest with the clock. “Here you go, Ms. Dash.”

“Oh, thanks.” I grabbed the records in my mouth and flew to the nearby chair, unfolding it into my legs, and using my front hooves to look through it.

The opening pages looked much like I remembered. Stuff about me being brought in, my injuries, and all the numbers from the labs. There used to be some squiggly lines on graph paper, but those were gone now. I think it was called an EVG, or EGE, or something that definitely had E’s in it. Where did it go?

Continuing on, I noticed the small notes from Nurse Redheart were gone too. I knew it had said I went to surgery, that was the whole point of breaking in! Now that note was nowhere to be found. According to the new note she had written, I had spent a month in a coma, and then miraculously awoken after a visit from Twilight.

The rest of the record contained some flight physicals and the one time I’d injured my wing. Usually I was mare enough to walk off any injuries I got.

I frowned, feeling the weight of their betrayal crashing down. I slumped forward and dropped the record to the floor. The hospital had lied. Twilight had lied. They not only had hidden stuff from me, they changed what was left to fit their lies. Now I had proof they’d removed the graphs and the note from Redheart. Even the illegible writing of the doctors was suddenly neat and tidy.

My gaze drifted to my bandage, which had a large orange stain on it. “Oh no!” I shouted.

“Dash, are you okay?” Redheart asked. She walked around the counter towards me with wide eyes, and a concerned smile.

“Stay back!” I screamed. “My blood is orange! I’m not real!”

Redheart pushed a button on the wall. “Dash, please calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I continued to pace backwards away from her. “You lied, Redheart! That’s not my real medical record! And, my blood is orange, just like in the boo—no, wait! There’s still the rest of the list.”

“Dash, please, you’re not making sense. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.” She had been joined by a unicorn doctor. He was eyeing me, and standing ready to pounce.

“Lightning, no I’m definitely afraid of lightning. What about emotions? Does fear count? Or is this anger? Maybe they feel emotions but they don’t know what they are!” I shifted my gaze between the two ponies. “Why won’t you tell me?! What am I?!”

The door opened behind me and I spun around. Two large orderlies blocked the exit of the hospital.

“Restrain her!” Redheart shouted.

The ponies closed in on me. The Earth ponies by the door were the first to lunge. I still had my back to them so I bucked the nearest one in the face; launching myself off him and flying over Redheart.

The doctor’s horn was glowing, so I spun, feeling my back hooves hit him in the face. The move allowed me to reverse course easily, simultaneously disrupting his spells. The exit now only had one Earth pony in front of it. I easily swooped around him and out of the hospital.

I could hear the medical staff running after me. There wasn’t a pegasus among them, but they would expect me to go home. I had to go somewhere else before they got one who could keep up with me. I flew into town at full speed, losing them. I landed abruptly and loudly in the dirt in front of Sugarcube Corner.

My breaths were quick and ragged. This can’t be happening, it’s got to be a mistake. It’s just a book. Twilight must have done something illegal to save me, and got scared. I bet that’s why the medical record changed! And the blood, it’s not orange—it was probably the lights! Or that freaky bandage!

I looked up to the sky, recalling my inability to create thunderstorms anymore.

No, I’m not afraid of lightning, I’m afraid of dying! Derpy said I got struck by lightning! Please, I don’t want to be a copy!

At that moment, as I was about to walk into Sugarcube Corner, the door flew open. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle trotted out, with a bouncing Pinkie Pie behind them. “Her party is going to be fun—Fun! Fun! Fun!—FUN! FUN! FUN!”

“Get back! All of you!” I shouted.

“FUN! FUN! FUN!”

There were at least two dozen Pinkie Pies running all around the watering hole. One of them bounced onto my umbrella, and I had to shake her off. She was trying to get inside and get me!

Everyone one of them continued chanting “Fun! Fun! Fun!” as they bounced around. They destroyed the tire swing, the chair I had brought, and knocked the cooler holding my drinks over.

As far as my eyes could see there was nothing but Pinkie Pie’s. Swimming, jumping, sleeping, climbing, shouting. . . and chanting fun.

“Hey, Dash! Come out and play!”

I pulled the umbrella down and hid.

“Dash! Wake up, Dash!”

Something hit me in the nose, snapping me out of my flashback. “Dash! What are you staring at? Is it a game? Is there a leprechaun in my nose?” Pinkie asked.

“I’m a copy. I’m from the mirror pool,” I said despondantly.

Pinkie jumped circles around me. “Oh, a mystery game! Hmm... You can’t be a copy because we closed the mirror pool. Maybe you’re a changeling! We should go find some black paint an—”

I grabbed Pinkie by the mane and brought her muzzle to mine. “How did you know?”

Pinkie tilted her head. “Know what, silly filly?”

I pointed towards town hall. “When we rounded up all the Pinkie’s. How did you know if you were a clone from the mirror pool or the real Pinkie? How did you know Twilight wouldn’t send you back?!”

Pinkie frowned and slouched her shoulders. “Oh, Dash. . . I didn’t. I just had to try my hardest and hope for the best. Are—Dash are you okay?”

“Pinkie, I think I’m from the mirror pool.”

Pinkie giggled. “But, Dash, there’s only one of you.”

I let her go and took a deep breath. “You saw me crash Pinkie?” She nodded. “And I died, didn’t I? I bet Twilight made a copy of me, somehow, before I died!”

Pinkie frowned and her hair began to flatten out. “I—did you try giggling at it?”

A small laugh escaped my lips without humor. “No, it slipped my mind, Pinkie.”

“You’re my friend, Dash. You’re the only Dash, and I’ll do whatever it takes to help you prove it!” Pinkie hugged me, nearly choking me. I turned my head to the side and saw Redheart and Doctor Stable in the distance, talking to a few ponies on the street as they were walking past them. I saw one point in our direction.

“You’ll do anything, Pinkie?”

Pinkie let go, and I pushed her inside of Sugarcube Corner. “Why, of course, Dash. That’s what friends do.”

My heart was still racing as I glanced around the empty store. “Pinkie Promise you won’t let them take me! I don’t want them to zap me back to the mirror pool, or erase me, or whatever it is they do!”

“But you’re not a—”

I spun around and looked directly into her eyes. “What if I am a clone? Or, what if they think I am and zap me anyway! Promise me, or I’m leaving.” I turned to push my way out the front door and take off.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She tapped her closed eye with her hoof, then looked at me. “I don’t know what’s wrong, but you’re safe with me. Nopony hurts my friends.”

I turned around to look at Pinkie. She had a wide smile despite the dull, flat mane hanging down her side. Before her Pinkie Sense could go off, I had pulled her into the biggest hug I’d likely ever given anypony. “Oh, thank you.”

Pinkie lit back up when she saw my smile. “Come on, let’s go to my room! You’ll be safe with Gummy!”

We ran up the stairs to the top floor. The entire top floor of the house was Pinkie’s room. It was like a tower in a medieval castle, only with much more pink and boxes full of party supplies. She locked the door behind us.

Pinkie had bunk beds, which was odd since I don’t recall anypony sleeping over with her before; she was prepared for anything. “You can take the top bunk, Dash.”

I flew onto the top bunk and curled up on the bed sheet. She tossed Gummy up, and he crawled over and lay down against my leg.

In the safety of Pinkie’s room I finally opened up and began to cry. Pinkie must have rummaged through my stuff, because she bounced onto the bed with my yellow notepad. “Hey, it’ll be okay, Dash. Lookie at your list! You can’t be a doppelganger because your blood is red, silly!”

I looked at my leg as she pulled the yellow bandage off, revealing the red blood still oozing beneath. I looked at the orange spot on the bandage and chuckled.

“Plus, I think I’d remember if we killed you and replaced you with your evil twin! You don’t even have a moustache. Everypony knows that evil twins have moustaches! Plus, your list says they don’t have emotions, but you’re super emotional right now.”

The more she rambled on about why I really was her best friend, the better I began to feel. I even found myself believing her, and smiled.

“And that first one is just silly!” Pinkie threw the notepad in the air with a dash of confetti. “Who would want to alter your medical re—”

“Pinkie Pie!” A familiar voice shouted. “Open up. I need to talk to Dash.”

Author's Note

This guide to pony anatomy may come in handy for this story when I mention frogs, primaries, hocks, or arms.

4. My Composure

“Pinkie Pie!” A familiar voice shouted. “Open up. I need to talk to Dash.”

Reflexively, I curled up into a ball, knowing the next thing I would see would be Twilight banishing me. During the mirror pool incident, I hovered there as she sent back several dozen Pinkie Pie’s. Each one was inflated, popped, and in a pink swirl sent back to the mirror pool. I wonder if it hurts?

“Oh hi, Twilight! Um.” Pinkie pulled out a pair of headphones and adjusted the tone of her voice. “Dash isn’t here right now. Please leave a message after the beep,” Pinkie said. She then made a beeping noise.

“What on—” Twilight materialized in the room with a loud popping noise. “Pinkie, this isn’t a game! I’m worried about Dash.”

I rolled over and hid under the covers. This couldn’t be how it all ended, she had come to banish—no—to kill me. It was just like Count Vlad; he had to kill Daring Do once she learned too much! Twilight would pop me, make a new clone, and start over.

“Twilight, that’s very rude!” Pinkie opened the door and tried to push Twilight out. “You can’t just teleport into a pony’s room and scare them.”

“Pinkie, I just want to talk. Okay?”

Pinkie stopped trying to push Twilight out of the room and looked back at the bed. “I don’t think she wants to talk to you.”

Twilight flared her wings when Pinkie tried to push her back out again. “I heard about what happened at the hospital. Dash freaked out, and when the nurse tried to ask what’s wrong, she kicked two orderlies in the face!”

I threw the blanket off, tired of their pointless debate. “That’s a lie! I found out they faked my medical records. You replaced me with a doppelganger! All the clues were there in Daring Do and the Invasio—”

Twilight broke out laughing. I jumped down to the floor and marched over to her.

“What’s so funny?! Stand up so I can wipe that smile off your face!” I shouted.

Slowly she managed to compose herself. “S-sorry, Dash. I thought—I thought you had relapsed. You’re really freaking out over the plot of a book? Daring Do and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers is fiction.”

“Stop it!” I shouted. She was deliberately taunting me—using big words and spinning lies to hide what she’d done. I'd given her plenty of chances to tell me the truth. Now I was going to show her just how relapsed I was with a well-placed right hook.

“Dash, wait,” Pinkie interjected. “Twilight, it’s rude to make fun of somepony, especially when they’re scared. And, Dash, you know hurting her will only make you feel worse. Why don’t we talk about what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that Dash is convincing herself these wild theories are real. There’s no conspiracy, no vampires or zombies. She’s perfectly fine,” Twilight snapped back.

“No, what’s wrong is that you lied to me. I snuck into the hospital and saw my record. I know it was changed overnight. And I overheard you talking to Nurse Redheart about the spell you cast on me during surgery, right after you told me I had no surgery!”

I could feel my anger boiling up at her audacity. Lying to my face in front of Pinkie Pie, thinking it’s funny I got worked up over an adventure book. All I could focus on was hitting something. Before I knew it, I had bucked the wall behind me sending several bits of dust and paint falling off it.

Twilight was no longer smiling. She simply stood there, intently watching me. She seemed to be straining to meet my gaze.

“So what is it, huh?” I advanced on her now that she no longer looked as intimidating. “I know you got to Applejack, she’s a horrible liar! Telling me you two are just trying to keep me from trying the stunt again, pathetic. And what about Fluttershy? Did you use your fancy magic so she’d come get you if I visited her? Did you brainwash everypony but Pinkie?”

Twilight put up a hoof to stop me. “Dash, you’re confused. You hit the ground going mach one. You shouldn’t be alive, so of course there was surgery! Thanks to my magic however, it was a minor one.”

“But that’s not what you said! And of all the Daring Do books to let me check out, I bet you wanted me to read that one and flip! You knew if you made me freak out you’d get to knock me out and replace me again!”

Twilight marched up to me and backed me into a corner. “I’m running out of patience! So now I’m doing secret surgeries and using fictional books that you chose to checkout to plant wild theories in your head? I’m just making clones and throwing them away? Why? All I want is for you to be healthy!”

Twilight looked at the ground in defeat. I could see her crying, but knew it was just part of her act.

“And all I want is for you to leave me the hell alone!” I flared my wings and stomped my hoof, and retreated a little, giving me some space. Being stuck in Pinkie’s room left me feeling claustrophobic and very nervous. If she chose to, Twilight could cast a spell before either of us could react.

Pinkie popped up between us with a pair of black reading glasses on. “Hmm, it sounds to me like you two both want things to go back to normal. How about we throw a party today to celebrate ‘being normal’?” Pinkie clapped her two hooves together. “How would that make you feel?”

“Pinkie!” Twilight and I both shouted in unison.

The tension seemed to melt in an instant, and Twilight walked back towards the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I growled. “I want answers.”

Twilight turned back and frowned. “Some of us have jobs and can’t afford to play hooky. I’m going back to check on the library. If you want answers, feel free to stop by and talk like a civilized pony, not a crazed mare!”

My eyelid twitched. “What? No! I don’t want to come hang out in the library. I want to know exactly how you saved my life, and in terms I can understand.”

She looked me in the eye and smiled. “I can’t explain magic to a pegasus, but I can tell you this. I kept you alive after the crash when you stopped breathing. I fixed the subdural hematoma and stabilized the fractured C2-C4 vertebrae so you’d live long enough to reach a hospital. I did whatever it took to save you, because you’re my friend. And if you can’t get that through your thick skull, know that Celestia would have been proud if she’d been there. We can’t afford to lose the Element of Loyalty, not with the current state of foreign affairs.”

Twilight spun around, slamming the door behind her on her way out.

“Well, that was awkward,” Pinkie observed. “I wonder if she’ll be at the party tonight.”

“I’m taking a nap, wake me up when the party is ready.”

I flew up to the top bunk and flopped onto my belly, letting my wings loosely spread out. I heard Pinkie say something and leave to get the party ready. Gummy began chewing on one of my back hooves, which must have tasted nasty.

I suppose the whole doppelganger idea is a little silly. Still, I could be a clone or a changeling, or something else really bad, right? If she told the truth and she really did all that just to save me, maybe I really don’t need to know how? She must have a good reason because she’d never risk disappointing Celestia.

Maybe I can learn a little more at the party, and get a good night’s sleep. I bet it’ll be so much easier to figure out what the hay Twilight is hiding in the morning. If I can figure out what she doesn’t want to tell me, then maybe I can finally figure out why I feel so wrong.

Pinkie had thrown the party together quite fast. With her special talent being parties, though, I suppose I ought to stop underestimating her. The nap had turned out to consist mostly of unanswered questions and Gummy’s odd fascination with my hooves. On the bright side, I figured out how Pinkie kept her hooves so clean. It makes me glad my pet is a turtle, or tortoise, or whatever he is; I always forget which.

The blanket was very soft and I did not want to get up. Gummy was currently sleeping between my hind legs, and I finally felt like I might fall back asleep.

Pinkie bounced into my field of view, her pink hair filling my vision. “Dash! Wake up sleepy head!”

“Bah! Pinkie, what time is it? Fifteen more minutes?” I asked.

“Nope! It’s eight at night! You only get fifteen more minutes if it’s six in the morning, silly!”

I got up and jumped down, stretching out. “Did I miss anything interesting?”

“Not really.” Pinkie pulled a small notepad out of her mane. “Lyra is super busy pouring some sugar on Bon Bon, Vinyl’s busy with ‘wubs’, oh and all the fillies in town are coming because we have free cake!”

I laughed. “Isn’t the cake at your parties always free?”

“I never thought of it like that! No wonder everyone loves my parties so much. Come on, they’re all waiting for you!”

“Whew, so I suppose I feel a little better knowing it was just a book. Didn’t Twilight seem weird to you, though?”

“Hmm, well she wasn’t wearing her tiara like she did when you were in the hospital. And she never argued with you while you were in a coma. Oh! Her haircut is different! Her mane is half an inch longer in the back.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Pinkie, you’re so random. Twilight doesn’t even own a tiara.”

“Of course she does! The Element of Magic!” Pinkie came over and looked in my eyes. “You look fine to me. Come on, we’ve got a whole party to help you feel normal! Are you ready?”

Her element was shaped like a tiara, and I wondered how I forgot that. I decided to look into it later because a party might help me relax. “Yeah, just promise that when I wake up in the morning I’ll still be here. I don’t want anypony—especially Twilight—convincing you to let them take me home.”

Pinkie put an arm around my neck. “Of course! I promised to make sure absolutely nothing bad happens to you, but I bet this is all something silly. Maybe Twilight forgot to fill out the medical forms in triplicate.”

“You and me both,” I muttered.

I followed her downstairs into sugarcube corner. Sure enough, everypony was there. Even the fillies from Cheerilee’s class, along with most of their parents, had shown up. Of course, all my closest friends including members of the weather team were also there.

“Darling, you look—” Rarity eyed me from head to hoof. Her eyes lingered on my mane which I could feel knotted up. “Nice. Perhaps I could talk you into a visit to the spa?”

“Uh, maybe?” I gestured around to the party. “I’d like to talk to everypony and get a good night’s sleep first.”

“Well of course! Fluttershy had to cancel, but it’d be so much more fun with you! Be sure to stop by my boutique tomorrow.”

“Rarity.” I glanced around and saw Twilight on the far side of the room, out of hearing distance. “Did you notice anything odd about Twilight or me while I was in the hospital?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Aside from the fact she muscled in on the doctors and insisted she help in your treatment? Not to mention the fact she went longer than you did without a shower.” Rarity wrinkled up her nose as she recalled that particular odor. “No, not at all.”

I smiled and giggled softly. “Twilight said she cast some sort of spells on me to save me, and I found out earlier my medical record has been tampered with. Would you believe me if I told you Twilight’s up to something?”

She glanced at Twilight, and then turned back to face me. “Well, magic and surgeries have two things in common. They always leave some sign that they were used, and they’re perfectly explainable. Granted, I haven’t studied magical theory since I was in school. Did she say what she cast?”

“No, she said I wouldn’t understand.”

Rarity giggled. “I’d believe her, Dash. I don’t even understand half the things she says in regards to magic. Twilight is on a different level than the rest of us unicorns. The magic she uses is still the same, however, so your doctor would have noticed if she did anything fishy. ”

“Look at Sweetie,” I said. She was over with her classmates getting some punch. “If she got hurt crusading, and Twilight fixed her and didn’t tell a single pony how, then hid the medical record, would you take her word for it?”

She watched as her little sister pretended to sing into her cupcake, much to the amusement of the other ponies. “Yes. I’d trust Twilight. I would do anything in my power to save Sweetie’s life.”

I shook my head. “I guess that’s where we’re different. I expect more loyalty and honesty from my friends.” I walked off before she had time to reply to my snide remark.

I was getting thirsty and decided to go for a drink. Over by the fruit punch bowl I ran into Twilight. “Hello, Dash, feeling better?” she asked.

“Sure, why not.” I began gesturing at the two of us. “You’re here, I’m here, and neither one of us is being operated on against their will.” I grabbed the ladle to fill up a drink.

“When a pony will die without immediate life saving intervention, consent is implied.”

I put the ladle back down in the bowl. “Huh?”

“You said I’d operated on you against your will, but you were going to die. Therefore the law states I had to act.” Twilight smiled before pouring me a cup of fruit punch.

“And does the law say you’re allowed to hide how you did it? Look,” I took a sip of the fruit punch, “I don’t care what you did, I just want to know what it was. Until you respect my right to know, give me some space.”

Twilight put a hoof on my shoulder. “Look, I told you that I’d explain everything back at the library. I have the books there, even some diagrams even to help with the egghead stuff. Just come over and I’ll show you.”

The fruit punch had a ton of sugar in it. It was no wonder Berry Punch often came to Pinkie for help getting new recipes. As I drank the rest of my punch I wondered how neither of them had diabetes.

“No thanks. If it’s in books, bring them over here.” I gave her a half-hearted smile. “I’m still mad at you, you know.”

Twilight smiled and took my empty cup out of my hoof, refilling it for me. “Well, let me know when you change your mind tonight.”

“Hah, as if. I don’t take kindly to being lied to.”

I drank the rest of my fruit punch and threw the cup under the table. I downed the two nearest cupcakes, barely bothering to chew them. Despite the large amount of sugar now in my stomach, I still didn’t feel happy. Normally a little sugar rush was just the thing to get me smiling again. With my training regimen for the Wonderbolts, I don’t often get to eat so many sugary treats. Sometimes I think Pinkie has a bottomless pit for a stomach keeping her toned despite eating dozens of cupcakes daily.

Yawning, I headed over to talk to more of the guests. My sleepiness hit me like the ground must have after my stunt. I found myself laughing at the visual of me hitting the ground. Maybe I had fallen asleep during the stunt.

“What’s so funny, Dash?” Pinkie asked.

“I just remembered—in flight school—the war between Pegasi and the ground. The ground—remains undefeated!” I burst out laughing again, and Pinkie joined me. She slapped me on the back.

“I were joke!” Pinkie said.

I hit my head with my hoof. My ears were ringing and I couldn’t seem to hear what she was saying. I was only picking up bits and pieces. “Huh?”

Applejack walked over when she saw me hitting myself in the head. “Pinkie alright Dash? home?”

Finally I felt happy. It was a good night. All my friends were here. “I luv you guysss.”

“Get Twilight Nurse?” Pinkie asked.

Soon Twilight came over and I giggled, bopping her on the nose. “I got your um. . . the uh. . . teeth?”

“Take her to my can fix her library” Twilight offered.”

“But I hate books!”

“She scared doctors,” Pinkie said. She began to tug my hoof towards her room.

Twilight stepped in front of her and made a silly face. “No Dash to my can fix magic.”

“Silly filly! Stop spinning!” I said.

“Stop! Blacking out!”

I awoke to find myself in the dark. It was a familiar scene, yet it was different this time. I was not bound to a cold metal slab, and there were no voices. The sounds of horrific tools like bone saws, or the needles pricking my skin, were absent.

The darkness surrounded me, chilling me to the bone. I began to walk forward, looking for a wall. “Hello? Is anypony here?” I tried to take to the air and fly, but my wings weren’t working properly. The feeling of my legs were all I had to go on. My sense of balance and sight were absent within the void.

Something in the distance seemed to whisper my name, so I headed towards it. “Hello? Can you speak up? I can’t see you.” Each hoof made no sound as it made contact with the solid floor of this abyss. Faint whispers continued to echo, beckoning me to come closer.

The further into the darkness I walked, the heavier the air became. Soon I was pushing my way through thick syrup with each step. My bones began to ache from the cold, and the voice still wasn’t understandable. It was difficult to breath the thick air, and it clung to my fur like mud.

Stopping to catch my breath, I found myself nearly immobilized in the darkness. Finally I saw a bright light in front of me. My eyelids tried to shield my eyes, but they seemed stuck open.

The orb of light floated in front of me. The brightness of it hurt my eyes, yet it illuminated nothing. The void was just as bleak and dark, save for that single orb.

“There you are. You don’t belong here,” the voice said.

“Looks like non-adherence.”

“Where am I?” I asked.

“A long way from home. Get out,” the voice replied.

“I can’t,” I said. “I’m stuck.”

“Administer the corticosteroids”

A sharp pain shot up my leg. I looked down, but in the dark I couldn’t see it. “Ouch, what’s happening?”

“You don’t belong here,” the voice repeated with malice in it’s voice.

Something continued to wrap around my leg, tearing away at it. Soon I felt my other legs dissolving in the thick darkness. I struggled and screamed as the light in front of me pulsed. With each pulse, I would see thin tendrils for a fraction of a second. They were holding me in place, and picking me apart.

“Will that even work? We’ve never tried this before.”

“Please, stop! You’re hurting me! What’s going on?” I asked.

“This isn’t your home, you shouldn’t have come here,” it replied.

“Where is here?!” I screamed into the darkness as I felt my wings being consumed by the beast in the darkness. With nothing but the light in front of me to focus on, I was able to focus through the pain. I held onto the light, to my sense of self, as pieces of my body were torn away.

“How can the lab work show antibodies? Princess, what do we do?”

The darkness started to get thicker, heavier, as I felt something peeling the flesh from my bones. “I’m sorry! Please!”

My legs and wings could no longer flail desperately to help me get free. They had vanished, consumed by the void. I wiggled my neck, but the oppressive weight of the atmosphere held me still.

Finally my tormentor stepped out of the shadows. In the world of darkness, there was now only one thing visible: Rainbow Dash.

“It was never yours to take.” Her voice pierced me like a knife. “Now, you will die.”

I felt the tendrils piercing into my chest, and continued to howl in agony.

“Cardiogenic shock! Prep the paddles and get cardiology in here stat!”

“P-please. . . s-sorry,” I stuttered.

“Stand back, I’ll handle it from here.”

Dash began to smile, until her grin reached ear to ear. Her cheeks split open and bled as the smile continued to spread. As her smile widened, I felt my mouth torn apart by the void. Agony forced me to scream, but I no longer had a mouth.

A small spark of warmth surfaced inside of me, and I finally found the strength to fight this demon. The tendrils withdrew and the darkness stopped suffocating me. Slowly I felt pieces of myself returning, putting me back together.

“What?” the specter said.

A beam of purple energy shot through the void, lancing the image of Dash and vaporizing it. The darkness closed in around it, and the orb of light winked out.

I woke up with a large gasp of air, and took several more greedy breaths. My bed was drenched in sweat and I was chilled to the bone. The window was open, and the cool night air combined with my nightmare had left me feeling like I’d flown through a snowstorm.

No sooner than I had managed to calm my breathing, I rolled out of bed. Six feet later I landed on the ground, pain shooting through my legs and ribs. I shouted out in pain and tried standing, but decided it was too painful.

“Dash?” Pinkie called out. In an instant, there was a pony in pajamas with colorful ponies on it.

“What the?” I coughed, eliciting some pain from my ribs, before giving up on understanding my friend’s personality quirks.

“Oh no! You fell out of bed? Are you okay?”

I shook my head. No. The vivid nightmare was still at the forefront of my mind.

“Let me help you.” Pinkie gently lifted me up and laid me on the bottom bunk, where I’d be safer. “Did you have a nightmare? You’re all sweaty and cold.”

“Y-y-yes.” I was shivering from the cold. Pinkie saw this and quickly wrapped me up in her own warm blankets.

Pinkie began to run her hoof through my mane like I was a little filly. Surprisingly, I didn’t want to stop her. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked. “Maybe we can laugh at it, together?”

“No.” It was a simple response. Just thinking about it made it real, and the horror had nearly been to much for me to handle. Twilight would probably use it as a reason to get me committed to a looney bin.

“Don’t worry, you must have been super tired. You passed out last night during your party.”

“But, how? Was that fruit punch or alcohol?”

“Dash, there were fillies there! Of course there was no alcohol in the punch.”

Looking up at Pinkie caused her to smile at me. “How’d I fall asleep? Did Twilight cast anything on me?”

“Nope. I did what I promised. I told her she couldn’t take you home, and that you were sleeping over with me tonight! You should have seen the look on her face.” Pinkie made her eyes go wide, dropped her jaw to make a large 'O', and went “Bleh!”

I laughed at the site of her Twilight impersonation.

“See? Better already. I’ll stay right here until you fall back asleep, okay? That’s what friends are for!”

Pinkie’s infectious happiness was getting to me, so I finally told her what I had seen. “My nightmare—Pinkie it was horrible—so painful. The doctors were there, and Dash was trying to kill me!”

She tilted her head to the side. “But you are Dash.”

Author's Note

Give special thanks to the two people responsible for this chapter coming out tonight, and not later this week:
Abcron an editor so cool he doesn't own a single story.
Jaestring my editor, cover artist, and writes good fiction? I'm jealous.

5. My Mistake

I spent the morning going over my options as Pinkie did her best to comfort me. The latest nightmare was the most disturbing by far. I knew Twilight was hiding something, but so far I couldn’t prove anything. Last night, I was certain she tried to knock me out and drag me away to Celestia knows where.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked.

Pinkie stopped brushing my mane. “Well gee, Dash. I think so, but where are we going to find a revolving door and twenty pounds of silly putty?”

I moaned and rolled my eyes. “No, Pinkie. I need a way to prove to everypony Twilight is messing with my brain. I’m going to break into her lab.”

“Oh,” she replied. Pinkie smiled and started brushing again. “That makes much more sense.”

“What were you going to do with twen—” I caught myself and bit my lip. Sending her on a tangent wouldn’t get me anywhere. “On second thought, don’t tell me.” I sat up and put my hooves over the edge of the bed. “Can you distract Twilight while I sneak in? With, say, a surprise party or something?”

She tilted her head sideways. “But we just had a party, Dash.”

“Yeah? So throw another one.” I tossed my hooves in the air. “It’ll be just like the time you threw a party for Gummy and we all avoided you—bad example. Just uh. . . make something up?”

Pinkie pulled a checklist out of her mane. “Hmm. . . Coltmus day, Litmus day, Labor day, Arbor day, Princess’ day, Mare’s day, Easter, Hearthswarming Eve.” She smiled widely. “Spike’s birthday! That’s today!”

I took a deep breath and tried to bite my tongue. Don’t ask. Don’t ask how she keeps pulling things out of her hair, it’ll only lead to troub— “Pinkie, how’d you pull that out of your mane?” Damn.

Smiling, she shoved it back in and pulled out a diagram. “It’s easy! I keep it extra poofy so I can fit more stuff inside it. See? I drew a diagram to help me remember where I put everything! One time I hid cupcakes in my mane for a whole week!”

“Um. . . okay.” I hopped off the bed and walked towards the window. It was a sunny day outside, yet for once I wished it was stormy to match my mood. “How long will it take you to get a surprise party ready, and distract Twilight and Spike?”

“That depends.” Pinkie whipped a notepad and pen out of her mane. “Did you want a chocolate cake, marble cake, or neapolitan?”

There it is. There’s that headache I haven’t felt for a couple days. “Pinkie, I really don’t care. I’m gonna be breaking into the laboratory, remember? You could make it a mud pie if you want.”

“Oh that’d be so much fun!” She threw the notepad away, and began bouncing up and down. “A mud pie for Spike, and maybe some ruby sprinkles, an—Dash?”

I pushed myself back from the window. “Huh?”

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Pinkie walked over and smiled, offering me a lollipop.

“Seriously?” I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

“Remember when I thought you were all going to abandon me, and I had that after birthday party with a bucket of turnips? You were there for me. You knew I wasn’t okay.” Pinkie put the lollipop away and hugged me. “I know you, Dash, and you’re not okay. Just remember I’ll always be here to help you, okay?”

“Thanks, I will.” I glanced back out the window and wished it weren’t so damn sunny for a change. There was too much wrong in my life for all this saccharine happiness.

Pinkie ran over to a trunk in the corner and began pulling streamers out of it. “All set! Give me an hour and I’ll ambush Spike and Twilight with a birthday party! You should go check on Tank. I bet he’s worried because you keep spending the night with your friends.”

Pushing the window open, I took a deep breath of the fresh air. It was warm and humid, and I found myself longing for some rain. “Sure thing, Pinkie. One hour to get ready. Bring an umbrella—I have a feeling it’s going to rain.”

I leapt out the window and flew up into the sky towards the Ponyville weather station. It was a small building on the outskirts of town, and served as our hangout before and after a hard day of work. It didn’t take long for Thunderlane to spot me. I flew up above the building to chat with him.

“Hey, Dash. Better late than never?” Thunderlane quipped.

“Laugh it up, featherbrain.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed at him. “Look, thanks for keeping the sky clear while I took a break from stuff. I need a favor, though.”

He smiled and looked at me attentively. “Sure, what can I do for you?”

Smiling, I pointed out over the Everfree where some wild clouds sat ready to be harvested. “I’d like it to rain today, and I want it to be a doozy. I think the town is due for a good shower.”

Thunderlane laughed. “I thought you didn’t want any thunder on account of you trembling like a school fi—”

I glared at him. “Finish that sentence, and you’ll be working night shift for a month! So go ahead, I dare you.”

“Whoa, your secret is safe with me, Dash.” He held his hooves up in surrender. “Just thought you’d feel a little better if we acted like old times.”

“You’re right.” Exhaling deeply I relaxed a little. Looking over the Everfree I knew the storm would buy me more time at Twilight’s home. “Thunder, lightning, whatever. I just feel like a good downpour to match my gloomy mood. Can you guys handle that for me and have it ready in an hour?”

“Of course!” He puffed out his chest and laughed. “If corporate comes to check on why we’re having unscheduled storms, should I tell them the usual? ‘We tried but couldn’t stop it!’ ”

“Yeah, rogue weather from the Everfree.” I looked back at Thunderlane and noticed him staring at my flank. “Eyes up here, sailor.”

“Sorry, boss, it’s just—” Thunderland was suddenly looking down at the ground and fidgeting in the air. “It’s nothing.”

“Well, out with it. You already mounted me with your eyes.” I crossed my forearms to make it clear I wasn’t going anywhere until he spit it out.

“It’s just—” He took a deep breath, and then quickly spit it out. “Well before the crash I was gonna ask you out to dinner, but I thought if I ask now, you’d get mad and think I was just doing it to be nice and. . .”

His voice trailed off as I tried not to blush, unsure what to say as he blindsided me. After a moment I realized he was staring at me waiting for some sort of response.

“Look, Thunderlane. I got some stuff to do today, but how about coffee and donuts tonight?” I smiled and saw him sigh in relief. “As friends!” I quickly added. “I’ve got enough crazy going on right now, but what the hay? Just clear up the storm by then.”

“Yeah, sure thing! I uh—well look at the time, I have a storm to build!” He flew off in a hurry towards the Everfree.

“What a weirdo.” I shook my head and wondered what his angle was. “I better get home.”

The humid air was making me feel sweaty as I returned home. Tank was waiting in the living room for me to return.

“Hey there, Tank, sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve been hanging out with my friends.”

Tank slowly smiled and began to walk towards the kitchen. His food bowl was still full, and he had water. Then I saw him pull out his gyrocopter from behind the doorway.

“Oh, that’s right! I promised we’d go flying. Look, I don’t have much time but let me find the harness, okay? You can fly around the house while I’m gone.”

I galloped upstairs to get his flight harness so I could start preparing to break into Twilight’s laboratory. It should have been somewhere in my room. First I checked a pile of socks and pajamas in the corner that needed washed. It wasn’t under my bed, or in my closet. There was an old pizza box with a couple of slices still in it. I tossed the box into the trash to deal with later.

The last place to check was my nightstand. I opened up the drawer, and saw the harness sitting on top of the dream journal Twilight had given me.

“That’s right,” I muttered to myself. “I’m supposed to write nightmares and stuff in here. What the hay, it can’t hurt.”

I pulled the book and a pen out, and began to write down the visions of the void I had last night. Then I took notes on the last few days before putting it away. Looking at the nearby clock I realized there were only thirty minutes left until I was due at Twilight’s.

The flight harness for Tank was in good condition, so I carried it downstairs. After Tank was strapped in, he began to buzz around the house. Twilight had enchanted it to allow Tank to fly as much as he wanted.

Memories of Twilight began to come, unbidden, to me. I recalled the many times she had been there for me, and how she always seemed to do the right thing. She had known from the start I should have picked a pet like Tank, and not something awesome and cool. She had also brought the girls up to cloudsdale to cheer me on in the best young flyers contest. Could Twilight still be my friend and yet hide something from me at the same time?

“You go ahead and practice laps of the living room, and don’t knock any lamps over this time!” The little guy still couldn’t steer that well. Luckily however, the cloud house was a perfectly soft training environment.

Tank saluted with his front leg, and zoomed past me. Seconds later, I heard a crash, and turned around. He was smiling innocently from next to a lamp he had knocked over.

With a sigh, I walked over and put the lamp back. “Hey, you’re getting better; at least I have shatterproof lamps now.” I nuzzled him on the nose and walked towards the door. Grabbing my saddlebags, I put a few odds and ends in them, but left them mostly empty to collect evidence.

Once on the porch, I could see Twilight’s library in the distance. The weather team was also out in force, whipping up an unexpected downpour. A bouncing pink dot ran into the purple dots that were Twilight and Spike, and ushered them into Sugarcube Corner.

“Alright, operation Blue Falcon is a go!” I cheered. “Time to find out what you’re really hiding from me, Twiliar Jerkle!” Pulling my flight goggles into place, I stretched out and jumped off the porch.

Flying to the library took no time at all. As I slowed my descent I aimed for the attic window. No sooner had I lined up my approach to fly through it, a large roll of thunder filled the air. I found myself curling up into a ball reflexively. The window flew open with a loud bang as I plowed through it, scattering dusty old books everywhere.

Lightning flashed into the attic, illuminating the many shelves. On each shelf were tons of old editions of books. The ones nearest me had dates from over fifty years ago. I sneezed as all the dust reached my nose, and shook my head. The stairs to the lower level were across the room.

There was an orange glint in the corner of my eye that caught my attention. I walked over, and found a large vanity mirror. Standing in the mirror was my reflection. I could see my heart racing; pushing lightly against my chest. “Heh, just a mirror. I bet there’s way worse stuff in her basement.”

The library proved to be empty, and I made my way down to the ground floor. In the back was a door to the basement. It was locked, and thus my first test began.

I recalled picking locks before, though I couldn’t remember much about the cirumstances. A part of me knew I had made clandestine trips into the homes of other ponies at night. Whether it was to hunt for spies, or find something to eat, I had no clue. Still, I was able to turn a few paper clips and a butter knife into a lock picking set. Perhaps it was nothing more than something I had read in Daring Do.

The lock wasn’t hard to force open, making me wonder if it was a trap, or if I was being spied on. Twilight always struck me as a spy. Perhaps that’s what she was hiding all along.

Shaking my head, I trotted down the stairs, closing the door behind me. Down here were my answers. I would gather them up and call all six of the Elements together. Then, we would get to the bottom of this once and for all.

The first room of the lab smelled like chemicals. Turning on the light revealed some metal discs with wires, squiggly graph paper, bulbs, and other egghead stuff. if I recall correctly, she had once hooked Pinkie up to gauge her pinkie sense.

A door on the far side of the room opened into a large workspace. The walls were made of chalkboards, and there were stacks of books organized into piles around the room. As the lights came on, my mind was overwhelmed by all the formulas and diagrams in the room.

The first board was, to the best of my knowledge, a drawing of a changeling. The formulas seemed to focus around it’s horn, wings, and heart. There was a jar of sickly green fluid and something that looked suspiciously like a changeling horn in it. I picked it up and put it in my saddlebag.

“Whatever you’re doing, Twilight, it’s creepy as Tartarus.”

The next board was full of circles with triangles in them, as well as odd looking glyphs. The only legible parts were about something called Equivalent Exchange. The rest were symbols, like C6H12O6, CO2, H2O, NaCl, and more. It almost looked like the recipe for something.

The next board had been hastily erased and rewritten, with several sections crossed out. It had pictures of cogs and gears, fancy machines, and a large portal. Next to the portal was a drawing of what looked like Celestia’s sun. There was something wrong with it that even I could identify. There was Equestria, but it was orbiting the sun. Every filly knew the Sun orbits Equestria, not the other way around! In addition to this, there were three other smaller planets next to the marked planet. Beyond those four planets were tons of little rocks.

I walked past the odd diagrams to find something chilling. It looked just like some of the medical records I had seen at the hospital. Several squiggly lines were intersecting, and going from the diagram of one pony to another. On the floor, I spotted a page from my medical record. Rolling it up, I placed it in my saddle bag.

The final chalkboard showed a dead plant being brought back to life. It had a few words about regeneration, followed by more formulas. There was also a diagram of something called a golem, that resembled a pony but according a footnote, had no soul.

“She sure lives in crazy town. Just one last door to check.”

I walked to the door in the corner of the room and opened it. I was surprised to find it was brightly lit inside, and the air smelt fresh and cool. I gasped at what I saw in front of me.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Dash.”

I spun around and saw Twilight standing in the exit from the room full of diagrams. She was levitating a two by four in the air.

“Twilight! What’d you do?” I yelled.

“You weren’t supposed to see that, Dash. Now, you have two choices. First choice: Put down the saddlebags, lay down, and let me fix you. Second choice,” she waved the plank of wood around. “I lay you down with this plank of wood, and then fix you with my magic.”

I gulped, beginning to feel my heart race in fear. This wasn’t the Twilight I knew. “How about option three?” I glanced behind me into the room I had just discovered and felt a chill go down my spine.

She raised an eyelid. “What’s that?”

Recalling a scene from a Daring Do novel, I turned around and lowered my flight goggles. “Got any gum?”

“Why on Equestria would you ask that?” She took a step forward with the plank helping her block the large doorway so I couldn’t dash through.

Smiling widely I flared my wings, ready to out-maneuver her and her fancy magic to escape. “Because I’m in the mood to kick flank and chew bubble gum—and I’m all out of gum.”

Twilight frowned. “So be it, Dash. Know that I’m only doing this because I care about you. I will not lose you again!”

The plank sailed through the air at me, missing by two feet as I took the air. I dove towards Twilight, but was forced to veer away as she shot a bolt of energy at me. Circling the room I heard the plank flying through the air behind me.

She was using the plank to help herd me into her spells. If it connected, it’d do enough damage on it’s own and I found myself running out of options.

“Dash, please! I promise this is for your own good! Stop it!”

“No!” I shouted. “You lied to me—to all of us—and I’m going to tell everypony you’re a liar!”

I lunged towards Twilight again and felt the plank of wood graze my flank. I turned at the last second with the piece of wood trailing close behind me. Before Twilight could react, the wood collided with her head, knocking her to the ground.

I doubled back and quickly flew towards the exit of the library. There was a sizzling sound and a flash behind me. Something hit me square in the back, causing my wings to go numb and twitch as I hit the ground. Tumbling to the ground, I slid into the base of the stairs and started to get back up.

Twilight was kneeling on the ground behind me, blood trickling from her nose. “You’ll ruin everything! You’ll get yourself killed!”

She wanted to kill me, and I wasn’t going to stick around and let her. Everypony had to know what she was up to. I ran up the stairs and out of the basement. Slamming the door behind me, I picked the butter knife off the floor and jammed it into the lock. I then turned around and kicked it as hard as I could, snapping the handle off.

It wouldn’t hold an alicorn who could teleport for long, but I just needed enough time to find one of my friends. Pinkie was my first choice, but she had promised to distract Twilight. If she failed, then Twilight must have done something horrible to her. Rarity was nearby, but she seemed to agree that anything was okay if it saved the life of a loved one.

That left Applejack and Fluttershy on the outskirts of town. The farm pony was far too honest for my liking, and had seemed dodgy the other day. I burst through the front door into the pouring rain, and began running towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

The cold was biting into my wings as I ran and I began to feel the tingling of nerves in my wings. Soon I was able to shake them out, and take to the air. I flew low to the ground in the rain, not feeling like my wings were fully recovered.

That was when the lightning began striking again, and I found myself flinching with each flash. The loud rolls of thunder filled the air. I suppose I couldn’t blame Thunderlane this time. Clouds from the Everfree were notorious for being nearly impossible to control.

I smelled ozone in the air, and my back began to tingle. As the hairs of my mane began to stand up, I dove for the ground in fear. My instincts told me what happened before it did. There was another flash as I rolled towards the ground and turned sideways. My left wing grazed the ground just as a lightning bolt connected with my right wing.

The electricity arced through my wings, flowing through my wings and into the ground. I tumbled hoof over head to a stop in front of Fluttershy’s cottage. Had I not acted quickly to ground myself, that lightning bolt could have hit me in the head, or passed through my heart. I had been struck before, and it was not pleasant.

I found myself too scared to unfurl my wings, and with too much pain in my back to want to. I limped to Fluttershy’s front door—not from injury, but from fear. It wasn’t enough Twilight lied then tried to knock me out. It wasn’t enough what she’d done to save me. Now I’d been struck by lightning and nearly killed, with only one pony left to turn to.

My hoof hit the door a few times before I let myself in out of the rain. My hooves tracked mud all over her clean floor, and water began to pour off my coat hair and spread. Her living room looked like a disaster zone as I trod across it.

“Hello? Who is there?”

“It’s me, D-Dash!” I answered. “I’m hurt, and I need your help!”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy raced down the stairs from her room. She took one look at me and gasped in horror, her eyes wide in disbelief. “Dash!”

“Twilight lied! She tried to kill me with a bucking two by four!” I shouted.

Fluttershy approached me and began examining my wings, as well as a couple of bruises I had gotten. There was also a gash in my flank I hadn’t noticed until she poked it. “Oh Celestia, what happened out there?”

“I just told you!” I pushed her back and looked her in the eyes. “Twilight tried to kill me! And I ran away and got struck by lightning, but now know what she’s doing! She had to kidnap ponies and experiment on them to save me! There were drawings of changelings and golems and formulas everywhere!”

“Dash, calm down, you’re scaring me,” Fluttershy backed herself towards the corner of the room, her ears flattened against her head.

“Everything scares you!” I threw my hooves up and then stomped towards her. “But I need your help, so please be brave for me, okay? Twilight’s on her way here to erase me, or my memory, or Celestia knows what. But she’s gone mad!” I hit my hoof on the floor for emphasis. “She has an entire basement full evil, twisted experiments! Twilight broke off a changeling horn, it’s right—”

I turned back to open my saddlebags and saw they were gone.

“Um, Dash?” Fluttershy asked. She was kneeling on the floor in fear, not used to seeing me so worked up.

“Buck! They were right here, I had the evidence and missing medical papers. I was going to show you, but now I have to go straight to Celestia! I’ll find someway through this storm, and she’ll stop her! Everypony needs to know what she did to—”

I paused and realized I had backed Fluttershy into a corner, and that I was scaring her. She was giving me a funny look, squinting her eyes.

“Fluttershy?” I asked

My breathing slowed and I felt relaxation flow over me. I smiled as I stared into her teal eyes. All my worries were slipping away, and then it dawned on me what was happening.

“N-no! F-flutt—”

My mind went blank and the last thing I felt were my knees collapsing.

Author's Note

Someone pointed out the repetitiveness, but I'd already written this. So, it's back from the editors and worry not about repetition! Next chapter is when Dash doesn't get knocked out at the end with a cliffhanger!

In fact, next chapter, Twilight's going to be the one with a headache :pinkiecrazy:

6. My Proof

I had flown up to the highest cloud above Ponyville, and had looked down at the crowd of spectators. Even at this height I had heard Scootaloo cheering louder than the rest. Without a moment of hesitation, I had dived.

The mach cone came easily as I sped towards the ground. I then speared through a large thunderhead as the rainboom exploded outwards behind me.

I expected to fly out of the cloud and pull up as lightning danced in the air behind me. Instead my body went rigid, and the next thing I remember was the taste of copper in my mouth. Ponies were shouting as I struggled to breathe, and I passed out.

It felt like the weeks were passing by around me, just beyond my sight. Pieces of my memories floated around, and I struggled to put them together. Doctors would come and discuss my illness while treating me like I wasn’t there. My friends had visited, and argued over whether to pull the plug.

No matter how much I cried or screamed, they couldn’t hear me. Between the memory fragments and my dreams, I could only tell I was awake when one of them held my hoof. Fluttershy visited the most, reading me my favorite stories. She would weep into my mane when nopony was around to see.

The fragments grew more distant, slipping out of reach. Every day I lost more of myself, until the only identity I had left was the memory of the gentle voice of a weeping mare.

That was when the nightmares began. I recall pain and fear, and new memories. Piece by piece I was rebuilt from nothing, or perhaps salvaged. My identity slowly came back from that cursed void, whispering impossible things in my ear.

I held onto the voice of that weeping mare. It was the only memory I knew for sure was real. Then, all the pieces clicked together, and I woke up.

The sunlight began to pour through my window, so I rolled over. I had not slept much last night due to a series of haunting dreams. Instead of nightmares, I felt like a jumble of puzzle pieces had been dumped in my head and shaken up. My brain worked overtime to sort them out while I tried to sleep.

So far, my brain seemed stumped with the edge pieces. The parts I really wanted to remember were lost in the middle of the pile.

Yawning, I began to get out of bed, and hopped to my hooves. I reached for a glass of water on the nightstand, accidentally knocking it over. As the water dripped off the back of it, I opened the drawer to find a towel.

Inside was the journal Twilight had given me to write my dreams in. Though last night made no sense to me, it couldn’t hurt to write it down. I pulled out the journal and flipped it open.

There was only one entry in the book, and something in it caught my eye.

Twilight is lying to me.

Pinkie said she’d keep me safe, but she can’t forever. I told her I’ll break into her lab and find the truth. Everypony but her seems up to something. I can remember more than dreams now, I can remember what they said when they operated on me. I can remember meeting myself in the void where another Dash tried to kill me.

I hope I don’t get caught, but if I do—well at least I have this journal. If she is trying to erase my memories, that means you won’t remember writing this. And if you don’t remember writing this, run!

She knows we know.

“What the hay?” I said out loud. I glanced around the room as I put the journal back in the night stand. Tank was stretching out at the end of the bed and giving me his usual loopy grin.

“And I thought the dreams were weird, Tank. Has anyone else been writing in here?”

Glancing back at the confusing entry, I knew the hoof writing was mine. “Nah, I’m sure that was just a dream I wrote down, I better go check on the weather team.”

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind as I hurried to get outside and make sure the skies got cleared. I flew out the window and made my way towards our usual meeting place.

The weather team was waiting for me over town hall, and I took a glance around to make sure everypony was there.

“Hey, Flitter, where is Thunderlane?” I asked.

“He said he was sick and stayed home,” she replied.

“Hah, I doubt that. What’s really up?”

Flitter shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, he seemed awfully grumpy.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Fine. You guys know what to do. I’ll go check up on him.”

As everypony got to work I flew towards Thunderlane’s house. It wasn’t like him to fake an illness, and in all the time I’ve known him he has never been sick.

The cool morning breeze refreshed me as my stiff wings began to loosen up. After crossing past the marketplace I arrived at his house, and landed on the front porch.

My hoof hit the door loudly three times. “Thunderlane?”

I stood there and examined my hoof for a minute while I waited. It had been split again, which seemed to happen to me a lot. For somepony who barely ever walks, it’s amazing how many times I break the wall of a hoof.

Frustrated by the lack of a response, I banged the door even harder with my good forehoof. “Thunderlane, I know you’re in there!”

“Go away, I’m sick!” he shouted from inside.

“Like hell you are, what’s really going on? You’ve never skipped work before, did Rumble get sick or something?”

There was a long silence before he answered. “Well I’m sick now, so get lost!”

I furrowed my brow in anger. “Look, I’m gonna buck down this door and drag you through the clouds if you don’t tell me why you skipped work!”

Hooves shuffled across the floor and finally the door opened up. “What happened? You stood me up on our date! I wanted to ask you out for so long, and well. . . just forget about it now!”

I laughed and patted him on his shoulder. “Good one. So really, what’s up?”

“This isn’t some game! You can’t just blow me off and pretend you don’t remember.”

“Dash!”

“No,” I answered, “I don’t remember. Look, I’m sorry if I forgot, but I really don’t remember!”

“Dash!” Pinkie shouted in the distance.

“Well, you did, and I know you got hurt and everything, but you were finally seeming normal again. Just—I don’t know.”

Pinkie trotted up along side me. “Hey, Dash, didn’t you hear me calling?”

I looked between the two ponies. “Whatever, you better be at work tomorrow, Thunderlane.” I turned and nodded to Pinkie. “What do you want?”

Pinkie smiled and patted me on the back. “Let’s go for a walk and talk in private.” She motioned to Thunderlane, who closed the door in my face.

“Yeah,” I said, “sure.”

We started walking towards the marketplace. “Well, I wanted to apologize for yesterday and make sure you didn’t get in trouble.”

I moaned loudly and rolled my eyes. “Let me guess, I was supposed to go on a date with you too?”

“No, silly filly. Pinkie likes stallions!” She giggled and then resumed her slightly more serious tone. “I tried to keep Twilight at Spike’s surprise surprise birthday party, but she must have slipped out the back! By the time I was able to look outside, she was gone! And I know you went to check in her basement lab, and I got a pinchy knee and knew something scary must be happening! So I left Spike and went to the library to check on you, but nopony was home and the front door was open.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to face Pinkie. “Wait, how’d you know about my dream that I broke into her lab?”

“You had a dream too? Well that must have been after you broke into her lab for real because you seemed really scared, and you were hiding in my room. I still have your toothbrush to prove it!” Pinkie pulled an orange foal’s toothbrush out of her hair that had Daring Do drawn on it.

“Give me that!” I barked. I snatched the brush and quickly hid it in my own mane. “You’re not supposed to tell anypony I have Daring Do stuff in my bathroom!”

“You left it in my bathroom, after the party, just ask Fluttershy!”

I could feel bile rising in my throat. I was all for a good prank, but ponies should know better than to joke about my accident. I had a hard time recovering from it, and don’t know what I’d do without Twilight to constantly support me.

“Look, there was no party, there was no sleepover, and Fluttershy isn’t in on your stupid prank!” I yelled.

“Oh, well then. . . I’ll come back later,” Fluttershy whimpered.

“No!” Pinkie and I shouted in unison.

“Tell Dash that there was a party and she slept over!”

“Tell Pinkie there was no party and to stop pulling my leg!” I complained.

I noticed Lyra across the street watching us, and realized we were making a scene on main street. Applejack was at her apple stall, watching us. Several other vendors and ponies were whispering quietly to one another.

“Well um, Dashie, I’m really really sorry about last night. I came to apologize because I found your saddlebag and wanted to give it back,” Fluttershy explained.

She pulled off my saddlebags and hoofed them over to me, then opened the bag. “See, Dash? You were telling the truth when you came to my house last night. Your missing medical records and the changeling horn were in here after the lightning hit you—”

I cringed at the thought of being struck by lightning. It was not a pleasant experience. “Stop! I wasn’t at your house either!”

“But, the bag fell off next to the small stream during the thunderstorm.”

I was grinding my teeth and counting to ten in my head. Nothing made sense, and this prank had gotten lame a long time ago. “There. Was. No. Thunderstorm. The. Forecast. This. Week. Is. Sun!”

Pinkie picked up the saddlebag and pointed at a large scorch mark. “There was a storm last night!”

As I groaned, my eyes met Applejack, who quickly looked away. “Oh no you don’t!” I shouted. I flew over to her as she nervously looked around. “So, honesty, are you in on this prank too?”

Applejack looked me in the eye and smiled. “This ain’t no prank, sugar cube, y’all were at a party two days ago and I was at Spike’s party last night! Ya sure are making me uncomfortable with what ever prank y’all are doin’.”

“But, Applejack, it’s not a prank! Remember how scared Dash was?” Pinkie asked.

“And remember when I came over last night, after Dash scared me and I used the stare, and Twilight had to take Dash home?” Fluttershy explained.

“So, Twilight is in on it!” I breathed a sigh of relief. “That must be why my journal had notes in it about how Twilight was erasing my memory, and how I broke into her lab last night to steal evidence.”

“Evidence?” Applejack asked. Pinkie handed her the saddlebag and she took out the jar with a changeling horn in it. Next she pulled out some medical records and began to look through them.

“Whew, for a second there you guys really had me thinking I had gone crazy!” I began to laugh some of the nervous energy off.

“Dash, these records ain’t fake, and what y’all have been sayin’ is beginnin’ to make sense,” Applejack said.

I groaned and looked her in the eye. “Alright, then I want to hear it from you. What’s going on, Applejack?”

She tilted her hat back and took a deep breath. “Well, ya have been forgetful lately, but never forgot whole days. Ya were always having Twilight fix headaches and all sorts of stuff since your accident. She told me that her spell saved your life.”

“Okay, so I forgot some stuff, big deal. What, you think I’m a changeling now?” I asked.

“No, but these records say she took ya into surgery with three other people. There’s only two names on there other than hers: Doctor Stable and Nurse Redheart.”

I lifted an eyebrow as my mind finally started to accept that this wasn’t some sort of prank. There really was something wrong here, and the scariest part was I couldn’t remember a single bit of it.

“And you were at my house and party! I Pinkie Promise,” Pinkie added.

I looked over at Pinkie, and I saw an orange flash reflect off the window. “Damn it, Scoots, now isn’t the time to be following me around!” I stomped over towards the window and looked off towards where the reflection had been. The only pony in the window I saw was myself.

“Dash,” Applejack said somberly, “Scootaloo moved to Manehatten a month ago.”

I looked around between their concerned faces and the pile of stolen goods from Twilight’s house. I could feel my headache building, and really didn’t want to deal with this right now.

“Fine! So it’s not a prank. Let’s go see Twilight together and figure out what the heck is going on.” I marched over to the saddlebag and filled it back up with the papers and jar, then started walking towards the library.

“What about Rarity? Should we get her?” Fluttershy asked.

“Ah’ll stop by her house,” Applejack said.

“Oh, I wonder what Twilight did this time. Do you think it’s gonna be like the time with the parasprites?” Pinkie asked.

I ignored the two as I walked towards the library and did my best to make some sense of recent events. It wasn’t a prank, but it could just be me forgetting stuff. However, Twilight had my personal medical records, and that’s supposed to be illegal. And who keeps a changeling horn in a jar?

And how the hell didn’t I know Scootaloo was gone? That filly was like my shadow before the accident. I even caught her snooping through my clothes dresser after I’d taught her to fly. She’d tried on my old Shadowbolts Nightmare Night costume and begged me until I let her keep it..

By the time we reached the library, Rarity and AJ had caught back up with us. Together we went up to the front door and knocked.

“Come in,” Twilight said. “It sure has been a hectic few days.”

We walked inside and saw Twilight sitting at a table with six chairs and plenty of tea for everypony. It was like she was expecting us. While the tea set looked clean, the same could not be said for their owner. Twilight’s mane was an unkempt disaster, and her red eyes had puffy bags under them. It appeared as if she had gone a couple days without sleeping.

She sighed and stood up. “I thought this would happen, I’m sorry, Dash, but repeated use of memory spells t—”

“Wait, you did mess with my memory?” I asked.

“Yes, but I can expl—”

Before she had a chance to, I leapt over the table and tackled her, pinning her to the floor.

“This whole mess is your fault? You think you can just go erase all the stuff you don’t like in my brain?”

“Easy, Dash,” Applejack said. I felt her pulling me off Twilight by the tail. Being yanked on the tail was painful enough that I didn’t put up much resistance, until finally Twilight was able to stand again.

“Please, Dash, I really can explain.” Twilight smiled and gestured to the table.

Rarity had already sat down. “Yes, let’s give her a chance. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for this.”

Everypony sat down except for me. I took up a spot on the table opposite Twilight and stood there, staring at her.

“Tea?” Twilight asked. She started pouring tea for everypony.

“No tea. How many times have you messed with my head?” I asked.

Twilight took a sip of her tea and tilted her head in thought. “Well, to ensure you didn’t get worse, I’d say about fourteen times.”

I started to climb onto the table and was about to yell at her when Applejack stopped me with her hoof.

“Twilight, erasing memory even once is against the law,” Rarity stated. “Why would you break it and risk losing your title and upsetting Celestia?”

“Because I couldn’t lose Dash again. I don’t want to lose any of you, but I never thought one of you would die so soon.” Twilight frowned and drank her tea.

I crossed my forehooves and sat down on the chair. “Start from the beginning, and make it snappy.”

Twilight managed a small smile. “After the accident you went into a coma, and were pronounced brain dead. I was able to use my magic to salvage parts of you, Dash, but not all of it. I required a—transfusion—from another pony.”

“You can’t transfuse memories, unless you took their whole brain out too,” Pinkie said.

We all looked at her, and I’m sure somepony was about to ask her to be quiet, when Twilight agreed with her.

“Pinkie is right. You can't just transplant a brain either, I had to write my own magic for this; to make sure the spell didn’t unravel, I had to erase any memory you had that wasn’t yours, Dash,” Twilight explained.

“Then whose memory was it?” I asked.

She took a deep breath and tried to hide a frown. “It’s—really not important.”

“Twilight, ah reckon it is important. How’d ya get a changeling horn? Why hide the records?” Applejack asked.

I looked at my saddle bags which AJ was now emptying onto the table. As the jar with the horn rolled out, I felt a wave of dread came over me. “I’m not even the real Dash, I’m a changeling!”

“No!” Twilight shouted. “Look, that experiment failed, honest!”

I was breathing fast and couldn’t pull my eyes off the horn. “This is just another nightmare, that’s what it is, I’m sick. . .”

“See, this is why I didn’t tell you. Now she’s gonna relapse and I’m gonna have to rebuild her memories all over again!” She threw her hooves in the air and moaned.

Fluttershy came over and wrapped a wing around me, then looked me in the eyes. “Relax.”

I took a few deep breaths and began to feel better. Her presence had a calming effect on me.

“Dash, you’re not a changeling, I had to use another pony for the procedure,” Twilight explained. “I had to make sure you lived so we didn’t lose the element of loyalty, and more importantly, my friend.”

“Then who did you use?” I asked.

“It’s not important,” Twilight said.

“And ah say it is,” Applejack replied. She watched as Twilight refused to meet her gaze. “Ya didn’t breathe a word of this to Celestia, did ya?”

Twilight looked her in the eye. “Of course not! She would have let Dash die, just like she lets everypony die when she has the power to save them!”

“What about the other pony, darling, why do you get to choose to kill them?” Rarity asked. “How do you justify that?”

She slammed a hoof on the table. “I didn’t kill them! They’re just fine. I just took the memories I need, rewrote the rest, and rebuilt Dash!”

With Fluttershy’s calming effect still lingering, I was able to look Twilight in the eye and see past my confusion and anger, if only for a moment.

“Who was it?” I asked.

Twilight looked at me and glanced down at her hooves, beginning to cry. “P-please, ask me anything else, I. . .”

Standing up I kicked the chair out from behind me. “Who. Was. It? Whose brain did you fry to fix me?”

She glanced around at the other ponies for support. Fluttershy and Pinkie looked appalled. Rarity seemed disgusted, having some greater knowledge of the laws of magic than the rest of us. Only Applejack seemed indifferent as she watched each of us speak in turn, gauging the honesty of our words.

“It was—T-the p-pony—” Twilight started mumbling. Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she struggled to compose herself.

“Speak up!” I shouted.

“S-Scootaloo.”

Once again I put my speed to use, clearing the table before Applejack’s teeth bit at where my tail had been. Having failed to stop me, Applejack could only watch as I landed on Twilight with a grimace and fire in my eyes.

I heard the other ponies shouting, but didn’t register any of the words. I brought my hoof down on Twilight’s jaw with a loud crack, and saw her spit out some blood.

“What the fuck did you do to Scootaloo?!”

Author's Note

The moment you've all waited for has arrived. I expect 4-5 more chapters at the old 3 day pace, as my "which twist" dilemmia has been solved. Sadly, the original twist that was tossed out can't really be retconned in, so I'm going to write a "dark comedy" where a brain dead Dash is saved using a more comical means.

Jaestring guessed the twist first, followed closely by Derpy-eyes-avatar-commentor. Make sure to use {spoiler} tags in your comments. Spoilers are the fastest way to lose a friend, forever! :pinkiecrazy:

7. My Memory

I had knocked on the door to the library and it had been answered by Spike. “Twilight, she’s here!” he had yelled.

“Thanks, Spike. What’d Twilight want?” I had asked.

“Oh, she’ll explain it in a second, Scootaloo,” Spike had replied. “Have a seat.”

He led me to a table that had cookies on it. I began helping myself to them and even drank some of the tea she had put out. I would have preferred some milk instead, but my Aunt didn’t always remember to feed me, so I ate whenever I could.

After a couple of minutes, Twilight trotted down the stairs and saw me licking chocolate chips off the plate.

“Scootaloo, I’m glad you came.” Twilight smiled and sat down across the table, refilling my cup and warming the tea with her magic.

“Yeah, I found your letter when I checked the mail. I uh—thanks for not knocking and coming inside.” I looked at my hooves and shook a few crumbs off them.

“It’s okay. I want to talk to you about Dash.”

I choked back a knot in my throat so that I wouldn’t cry. She’d been unconscious for weeks, and it had happened shortly after she promised to take me under her wing. “Yeah?” I asked.

“You’d do anything to help her, wouldn’t you?”

I looked up at her. “Of course I would! Why, is she getting better?”

“Sadly, no.” Twilight took a drink and then smiled. “I think I know how you can save her though, Scootaloo.”

“How? Tell me and I’ll do it!”

“She’s gone brain dead, Scootaloo. Do you know what that is?”

“Is it like my aunt?” I wondered if she was doing okay at home. I had left her sitting in front of the window.

“No, she has Alzheimer’s disease. Dash has no brain activity at all, and we can’t give her a new brain. However, there is something else I can do.”

“What?”

“I can use magic to transfer you into Dash, you’ll save your hero and everypony will love you!”

I gasped and felt conflicted. I had often wished to be Rainbow Dash for a day, but did I really want to take her body? “It’ll save her?”

“Yes, I can restore her memories to you. You’ll get to live happily as Dash, the elements of harmony will be protected, and I promise to take care of your Aunt.”

“I can take care of her myself, as Dash.” I began to fidget my hooves wondering if it was going to hurt.

“No, Scootaloo, you’ll have to make everypony think you’re Dash. It’s the only way this will work, but your Aunt will be transferred to a retirement home in Cloudsdale. You won’t see her again, but she’ll live her last years happily.”

“What about me? Does that mean I die?”

“No, you’ll be inside Dash.”

“I mean my body,” I replied.

“I don’t know. You’ll be Dash. It’s possible your body will go into a coma or die, but I’ll take care of you.”

I yawned and stretched out my small wings. “She would do it for me, so I’ll do it for her. Okay, Twilight, I’ll do it.”

Twilight smiled and gestured over to her couch. “Why don’t you take a nap, you must be feeling tired.”

“Will your magic hurt?” I asked.

“No, when you wake up you’ll be Dash, and your Aunt will be taken care of.”

I walked over to the couch, already feeling very tired. She helped me onto it, and I quickly passed out.

“That’s the truth, Dash!” Twilight pleaded.

I could still hear the girls shouting, and Applejack was trying to pull me off Twilight with Rarity’s help. I had her pinned to the ground by her mane, with a hoof on each side of her neck. My body weight had her pinned down, and though she could have used her magic to throw me off she hadn’t.

“You’d say anything to get out of this after all the lies you told me! If I were Scootaloo, I think I’d remember that!” I yelled in her face.

“Sugar cube, come on an’ let go!” Applejack said. She changed her tactic from pulling my tail to twisting a wing.

“Stop it!” I shouted, slapping her hoof away. “She had no right to do this!” I stomped my hoof, narrowly missing her face.

“P-please, Dash. I thought it would work!”

I looked back down at Twilight, and no longer saw the cocky mare I thought was trying to ruin my life. She had dried blood on her cheek from when I struck her, and at some point during her story had begun crying. Her forelegs were shaking against me while I loomed over her with an angry grimace on my face.

Beating my wings, I launched myself up into the air above the girls. Fluttershy managed to be the first one to reach Twilight, curling the crying mare up in her wings. Pinkie and Rarity walked up to comfort her, and I landed next to the kitchen.

Walking in, I took a look around until I found something solid. The nearby wall looked suitable, and I took my anger out by bucking it a few times.

“Are ya okay sugar cube?” Applejack asked.

“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” I asked. “I’m not even me, apparently she put Squirt in me but I’d never have let her do that if I knew!”

She walked and smiled. “Come on, sit down.” She waited for me to sit down next to the wall, and then sat on my other side. “Now what do ya mean ‘if I knew’? She said ya volunteered.”

“Scootaloo volunteered, but I’m not her. All I can remember is being Dash, except for the last couple weeks when it all messed up. And I—Dash would never have asked Scootaloo to do this!”

I flinched when Applejack began to rub between my wings. Having the tension relieved by her rubbing felt good and calmed me down a little, despite my initial impulse to lash out at her.

“What she did was wrong, a filly shouldn’t make that kind o’ decision. That’s almost manipulation, but what can we do ‘bout that now?” she asked.

“I don’t know. What would Dash do?” I sighed, and then moaned as she pushed her hoof down into a particularly sore muscle.

“Dash was loyal, and ah reckon ya know now how often we fought, but she was the best friend ah ever had.”

We sat there for a while as I pondered my options. I decided the only thing Dash would do was protect Scootaloo. Since I was Scootaloo, then that must mean I want to protect myself and make Twilight restore me to my old body. To do that, however, would be to voluntarily kill Dash.

“I think she should reverse whatever she did.”

“Ah reckon that’s what Dash would have wanted. She wouldn’t have asked Scootaloo to die for her,” Applejack said.

“She said it might have left her in a coma, I think it’s time to find out.”

I got up and walked back into the main room of the library. Twilight was looking better now, and Rarity was still running a comb through her mane. Fluttershy was giggling quietly with her at some joke they had shared.

“Twilight,” I said. The ponies stopped giggling and looked at me with somber expressions. “What happened to Scootaloo after the surgery?”

Twilight took a deep breath and exhaled. “She survived, but she was brain dead. I had to transfer her to a hospital to take care of her, but she’ll never recover.”

“Because she’s in me, so I want you to put her back.”

Twilight stood up and shook her head. “No, you can’t! Not only could it kill you, but what if Chrysalis comes back? Do you think Discord will stay reformed when your element is gone?”

Fluttershy let out a small gasp in shock. I saw her open her mouth to correct Twilight, then close it, wisely choosing to stay out of the argument.

“That’s not your choice to make, it’s mine. You did a good job turning me into Dash, so I know she would never have let you sacrifice Scootaloo for her.”

“I won’t do it, Dash! I can’t lose you again. It was so hard, so tiring trying to keep you happy! You deserved to get on the Wonderbolts, to have a family, a good life. Nopony should have to die so young!”

“And didn’t Scootaloo deserve the same things?” I asked.

“Sure, not like you cared! Leaving her alone to crusade and go home every night to her invalid Aunt! I wanted to make her life better, and it saved you at the same time!” Twilight looked directly at me and furrowed her brow. “I’m not putting you back!”

“Damn it!” I stomped my hooves on the ground loudly. “You may have saved Dash but you’ve ruined our friendship! I’m outta here.”

I turned around, threw the door to the library open, and flew off. I was beginning to cry and didn’t want them to see it. After flying off I scanned the skies until I found my house and flew back. Before long I landed and went in, collapsing on my couch.

I hadn’t felt this insecure since the Best Young Flier’s contest. Yet that memory wasn’t really mine. I remember each number I switched, and how I had saved Rarity and the Wonderbolts. The feelings and memories seemed real enough, but now that I knew they weren’t, they felt hollow.

I could see the sun setting when I heard the whooshing sound of hooves walking into the house. I looked up and saw Fluttershy and Thunderlane walk in to check on me. “Go away,” I said.

“We’re worried about you, and I told the girls it probably wasn’t a good time to bring the hot air balloon up,” Fluttershy explained.

“She ran into me on her way to ask the weather team to come check on you, and told us everything,” Thunderlane said. “I’m sorry for being angry at you, and we wanted you to know you can take as much time off as you need.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine. Just go.” I curled up into a ball and closed my eyes, hoping it would somehow hide how pathetic I must look.

I felt the familiar touch of Fluttershy’s wings as she climbed onto the couch next to me. Usually I had to comfort her, but on occasion I would let myself be vulnerable around her.

She lifted my head onto her lap and draped a wing over me, and began rubbing my back. I sat there letting her comfort me until I could finally ask the question I feared the most. “Why are you my friend? I’m not Dash, I’m a fake.”

Fluttershy stopped stroking my mane. “I like you for who you are now. It wouldn’t matter who you were or who you are, you’re a wonderful pegasus, Dash. It hurt so much to lose you the first time. The only pony at your bedside more than me was Twilight. I can’t tell you how happy we were when you recovered. It made us very happy, but the most important thing is: are you happy?”

I thought about the question. Aside from the constant fears that I was a changeling or doppelganger or even a zombie, I had been happy. My friends all loved me, and I loved them. Ponies looked up to me, and I had everything a mare could ever want. A part of me knew there was more I didn’t know.

What had Scootaloo been like? Was she happy? What was her Aunt like?

“I am happy, but I can’t remember if Scootaloo was. What if she was happy and I took that from her?”

“Maybe she can give you some of Scootaloo’s memories? She could prove she’s telling the truth, and then you can decide if you still want to switch back,” Fluttershy said.

I glanced up and saw Thunderlane still watching like a typical stallion. He was a tad awkward, but stuck around in his desire to comfort me.

“What about you, Thunderlane? You asked me out to dinner, and now you know I’m just a fraud,” I asked.

He shifted hooves and glanced around. “Yeah well. . .” Thunderlane took a deep breath. “I always had a crush on you, but I noticed something different after your accident. You were more optimistic, less reckless. You lost a little of that macho attitude and started hanging out with the weather team more. We used to see you run off with your friends all the time, but never with us.”

Thunderlane inched himself over to the couch and sat down. “I like you for who you became, and as much as I’d miss you, the whole weather team will support your choice.”

I yawned and nuzzled against Fluttershy. “Thanks, both of you, but I’m really tired. Fluttershy, will you stay until I fall asleep?”

“Of course I will,” Fluttershy said.

“I’ll go now, and if you ever want me to cook you dinner, you know where to find me. Just promise to get better soon. We’ll all miss you,” Thunderlane said.

I heard him flap his wings and vanish from the front porch.

As I lay there with my head in Fluttershy’s lap, I felt a strange sensation. A part of me felt the déjà vu of being put to bed by Fluttershy, safe with my friends.

“Can you sing me ‘Hush Now, Quiet Now’?” I asked.

She glanced down and smiled, “Of course.”

I closed my eyes and fell asleep before she’d finished singing the first verse.

Author's Note

The best is yet to come, and babe, won't it be fine.

Edited by: Selbi, Abcron, Breath of Plagues
Written during my one-shot week.

8. My Decision

I had a restless night of sleep spent drifting between dreams of a past I had lost and an uncertain future. The more I tried not to think about it, the more my mind wandered back to the accident. I had once been Scootaloo, yet now I wasn’t. It felt like an important part of myself was missing, but the same time, I was Dash now. Would I still be me if I was suddenly Scootaloo too?

I shook my head and sighed and felt Pinkie roll over in the bed. She had insisted on spending the night with me in case I needed anything. It was silly to think I was their Dash—they all knew I was a fake, yet they treated me the same, like a friend they had known all their lives. They seemed worried that I might die a second time by choosing to go back to being Scootaloo.

It wasn’t a decision I was prepared to make—not until I had all my memories. I decided to roll out of bed and stretch. My wings ached from all the tossing and turning, and the sun was barely cresting the horizon. A joint in my shoulder popped, and soon I was cracking all my stiff joints. It felt good to loosen up all my stiff muscles.

Pinkie heard me and got out of bed herself. Amazingly, her mane was still as curly as the day before while I, on the other hoof, had a horrible case of bedhead and had to run a comb through it. It’d still get messed up when I flew, but at least it wouldn’t be a tangled mess of colors.

“How’d you sleep, Dashie?” Pinkie asked.

“I’m not Dash. . .”

Pinkie walked over and smiled. “I know, but I miss pulling pranks with her and—are you gonna see if Twilight can reverse it?”

I looked at her and saw her eyes misting up. The part of me overwritten to be loyal was tugging at my heart. I couldn’t just leave her, or the others, and make them lose Dash again. All I had as Scootaloo was my aunt and the Crusaders anyway. “I don’t know, but I think I want my memories as Scootaloo back first. We’ll see from there.”

She smiled and hugged me. “Okie dokie lokie! We’ll go get your memories back, and if she tries any funny business I’ll hit her in the face with an apple pie!”

“Apple pie?” I laughed deeply. “That must be an alicorn’s only weakness?”

“Of course! It’s super sticky and messes up their mane.”

“Oh, Pinkie Pie, you’re so random.” I walked over to the window and looked back. “I’ll race you to the library.”

“You don’t stand a chance,” Pinkie said.

“Oh yeah? Well then—one, two, three, go!” I jumped out the window without hesitating and flew down towards town.

Twilight’s library sat towards the middle of Ponyville. With the sun barely up, there weren’t many ponies out and about. I couldn’t see Pinkie or her helicopter anywhere, and the hot air balloon was tied up outside the library next to the house of the only pony in town with a hot air balloon cutie mark.

I landed on the doorstep with a smug grin on my face and knocked on the door.

“Don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll get it.”

My smile vanished as the door opened and Pinkie smiled. “I win again!”

“What?! How—You—” I looked back up to the cloud in the distance that was my home, then back at Pinkie. I poked her in the nose to be sure she was real, and then pinched myself.

“Haha! I’m not a changeling, if that’s what you’re thinking. Then again, maybe I am a changeling but they erased my memory so I wouldn’t remember, and now they’re going to use me to assassinate the Elements of Harmony, and I’ll have to start with you, so I’ll drug you and drag you down to my—”

“Pinkie, is that Dash?” Twilight shouted from inside.

“Yeah, Twilight!” I shouted back. “Can we talk?”

“Of course! Come in! I was just making tea!”

I shuddered at the mention of tea before walking in past Pinkie. There was just something wrong with tea. I couldn’t place my hoof on it, but I was fairly certain I didn’t like tea for some reason.

Twilight came out and offered me and Pinkie a cup. Despite my unease, I found myself unable to refuse it. There was something commanding about the way she asked me if I wanted tea. I shook my head, wondering if she had used some kind of spell on me too. Was there anything that would explain her odd behavior, or had she really lost it?

“How’s the tea?” Twilight asked.

“Super!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Eh, I prefer less frou-frou drinks.” I took another sip of the bland green tea.

Twilight giggled. “I, uh—I’m sorry, Dash. I made you drink tea every time you visited. I guess that’ll be a hard habit to break. What brings you two by?”

“Well, two things really.” Pinkie looked over to me and smiled to boost my confidence as I spoke. “First off, I want you to take me to Scootaloo. You said you didn’t kill her, so you must have her off in a hospital or something. Second, I want you to restore my memories.”

Twilight frowned, and as she relaxed I saw the bags under her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept, but quickly regained her composure—no doubt a trick Celestia taught her to help her appear more regal. “Dash, I can take you to see Scootaloo. I have your memories so I can restore them now. I took them from Scootaloo as part of the spell, and I can restore them like I did when Discord took over. . . but are you sure?”

“Yeah. I know you want me to reconsider and stay as Dash. To be honest, I’ve grown pretty attached to the five of you. I want to have Scootaloo’s memories to remember who I was and see for myself why I chose to become Dash. Maybe then I can forgive you for the can of insanity you opened up.”

Twilight smiled. “Okay. Just—I’ll just need a minute.”

She turned and walked away, wiping something from her eyes. She returned a few moments later with the Element of Magic on her head, and levitated the Element of Loyalty to me.

“You’ll need to put your Element on to facilitate the process,” Twilight explained.

I snapped the necklace around my neck and felt it tingling. I looked down as it glowed a dull red. “Isn’t it supposed to be brighter or something? I seem to recall it being a lot more. . . awesome or something.”

“It hasn’t been the same since the swap. Whatever binds the Element to Dash is still in her body, but the loyalty—the soul of Dash—I couldn’t recreate. If I’d let her die, it could have been decades before the Element found a new host, and I couldn’t stand to lose you. . . not yet. Now that I’ll live thousands of years, I need time to adjust to the thought of watching all my friends die one by one.”

“That’s a rather depressing way to look at it,” I said.

Twilight sighed and looked at Pinkie. “You haven’t lost somepony close. Pinkie lost an aunt, Applejack her parents, and yet they’ll see them soon when they pass away. . . It’ll be millennia before I die and get to see you girls again.”

“Come on, Twilight. Cheep cheep, chirp chirp, cheer up, cheer up, cheer up!” Pinkie chanted.

Twilight chuckled once. “Sorry. You wanted your memories back and here I am depressing everyone. Just close your eyes, and trust me.”

I looked at Pinkie who gave me a knowing nod. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and closed my eyes. I flinched as I felt a horn touch my forehead, and the world exploded around me.

I saw myself rocketing through the sky. A rainbow contrail and a blue speck, exploding through a thunderhead in a spectacular display. At least a hundred ponies had come out to see my self-proclaimed one-mare stunt show.

As I watched I realized something was wrong. I couldn’t be watching myself. I wanted to look down at my hooves, yet seemed to be in some sort of dream or memory,and could only watch.

My memory was coming back and I knew what was going to happen before it did. There was a loud roll of thunder,a flash, and a sickening crunch as Dash hit the ground. I was running towards her, wings buzzing, not believing what I just saw. It had to be part of the stunt, some trick. She’d fly off and finish the Sonic Rainboom when we least expected it.

There was a crowd of ponies gathered around Dash when I got over there. They tried to hold me back, and the sheer mass of their bodies huddled around her almost prevented me from getting in. I was small enough to crawl between legs and squeeze through.

Applejack and Rarity were doing their best to keep the worriedponies at bay. Pinkie flew by in a flash towards town to get help. I stumbled into the clearing around Dash with my eyes wide in shock.

There, on the ground before me, was my idol. Both her forelegs had been mutilated in the crash, with her legbones snapped in two and sticking out of the torn skin. Fluttershy was tying strips of cloth around them to slow the blood loss. Dash took pained breaths and only one side of her chest was rising.

I could see Twilight kneeling over her. “Please, Dash, don’t move; you’ll make it worse!”

Her horn glowed and Dash stopped twitching. Twilight kept her immobile while she and Fluttershy tried their best to keep her alive. I had walked closer than I thought and felt warmth at my hooves. Looking down, I saw strands of violet and green hair in a pool of bloody red dirt.

Already I could see the weak breaths fading as blood pooled in the ground and large bruises formed. Before I could reach out and hug her, a nurse burst through the crowd. Twilight, Nurse Redheart, and Doctor Stable got her onto a stretcher and raced off towards the hospital with her.

I don’t remember how long I was there or what happened next. My next memory was of waking up at Applejack’s house, sharing a bed with Apple Bloom. I was too stunned to move, to think. I just sat there for what felt like days as I struggled to grasp the death of my hero just weeks after being taken under her wing.

I opened my eyes once the memories had finished. Twilight had started restoring Scootaloo’s memories to me in reverse order from the moment I agreed to become Dash, through the crash, and back to a time when my parents were alive. I could remember agreeing to help Dash in any way possible. Next I looked at my legs in disbelief, noticing for the first time the faded scars under my blue coat of hair. Now I could remember seeing myself—no, Dash—broken and bleeding after the crash.

I was crying, both from reliving the death of my hero, and from seeing my parents again. I had watched them die again, and the pain nearly made me try to tear Twilight off me. Then I was a foal again, staring into my parent’s loving eyes.

I felt Pinkie lifting me up and hugging me and Twilight too. I looked at her and realized we were both crying like fillies.

“You—all those sad memories of mine, you saved them for me?” I asked.

Twilight was still crying and just nodded. I tried to imagine what it would be like for her to have the memories of Dash crashing from two different viewpoints, or her realizing only after using my filly body to save Dash how much pain I had suffered in my life as Scootaloo. The burden of that sorrow had to weigh heavily on her.

“I didn’t know you felt so much pain at her loss, or mine,” I said.

“I’ll always have those memories, Scootaloo. . . I’m sorry, I failed you both.”

I hugged her. It is what Dash and Scootaloo would have wanted. I now had two sets of memories in my head from two different lives, and yet they seemed to weave together. From the little filly and her idol to the fiercely loyal Dash and the filly she had taken under her wing. We were one and the same now.

I felt something burning against my chest and looked down. The Element of Loyalty was glowing brightly and part of me knew it was working properly again. I could feel the loyalty for my friends inside me; not because I’d been programmed to be loyal, but because I genuinely cared for them. I was hurt just as much as Twilight or Pinkie for their loss, and knew what I had to do.

“Thank you for doing this. I’ll stay as Dash, I think it’s for the best. . . after all, you’d be a real mess without me.” I chuckled and lifted her chin up to see her smile.

“Do you still want to see Scootaloo?” Twilight asked. She rubbed her cheeks off and straightened out her mane.

“It’ll be a little weird, but, uh. . . I sorta feel like I need to say goodbye to my old life to move on.”

“She’s in Cloudsdale Hospital under the name of Morning Mist, Room 302, unless they’ve moved her. I didn’t want anyone accidently finding out what I did, so I hid her there. We can go and visit together, but she’ll never wake from her coma. She is you now Dash, and you are her.”

“I guess that’ll have to do. We can figure out later how to tell everypony what happened. I might need a little space for a while to figure it all out though. I’ll have to visit my aunt in the nursing home—she could barely remember my name as Scootaloo. At least I can keep her company as Dash, even if she has no clue I’m her little niece.”

“I’ll come too! I bet she’d love a surprise party,” Pinkie said.

“I’m sure she would,” Twilight said.

The door to the library opened and we turned to see Spike standing there with a scroll in his claw. He immediately looked away from the three of us, as if he was ashamed to see us huddled and crying.

“It’s okay, Spike, haven’t you seen a grown mare cry before?” I asked.

“It’s. . . Twilight, I shouldn’t have read it but I was at the farm and got curious. . .” Spike walked over and handed her a letter from Celestia. The royal seal was broken.

Twilight nervously looked down at it, her eyes going wide in fear. “What is it? Does she know?”

Spike just gulped and scraped a foot across the floor.

Twilight unfurled the letter, quickly reading it. She did little more than begin to weep and drop the letter. I picked it up and read it for myself.

Dear Twilight,

Applejack sent me a letter telling me what you have done. I am disappointed in you, my student. You took an innocent life in an attempt to save a pony whose time had come. I am on my way to Ponyville to reverse the process. After restoring Scootaloo and letting Dash pass away to restore the natural order, you will return with me to Canterlot for no less than one year. It has become apparent you need further supervision to come to terms with being an alicorn.

If you see Dash, put her to sleep and await my arrival. Have the Elements ready, I should be there shortly after you receive this letter.

Your ruler,

Princess Celestia

Twilight looked like a beaten puppy, the kind you’d find in a city like Manehatten that had been used and abandoned. I knew she didn’t take failure well, and always strived to please Celestia. This was probably the first time she had truly disappointed her, and not just blown things out of proportions.

After Pinkie read the note, she broke the silence. “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I’ll get the girls, I won’t let her take you away!”

Twilight whimpered something about losing me again and I couldn’t take it anymore. She looked up at me, her horn blinking on and off as she tried to summon enough conviction to carry out her mentor’s order.

“Twilight, it’s okay. She won’t put me back,” I said. “I think—no, I want to be Dash. After all this, I just don’t see how I can go back. You’re my friend, and I would always remember how horrible you felt, how you all felt, that I left you.”

“B-but she’ll be here a-any second, and s-she is the princess! She’ll f-force you back!” Twilight said.

I smirked with the cocky grin I’d often envied of Dash. “Hey, you leave that to me. Just buy me some time, alright?”

I rubbed my hooves on the floor and braced myself for launch. I then leapt into the air and rocketed out the window upstairs, headed towards Cloudsdale. Celestia may be a princess, but nopony in Equestria was faster than me.

As the wind tore at me I saw a golden chariot landing near the library. She was too lazy to even fly here. I wondered if she could even get close to the sound barrier, or if she had spotted me.

It didn’t matter. I felt the familiar feeling of the air pressure around me changing. Threads of color began to unravel at my hoof. It was both beautiful and painful as the tip of my hoof spearheaded a mach cone.

Part of me was afraid to break the sound barrier, but another part assured me we could do it. It had done this a dozen times and I found myself smiling. As Scootaloo I had dreamed of this moment; the moment when I would fly as fast as Dash.

I laughed as the spiraling colors at the tip of my hoof lengthened. The air grew silent, which I had not expected. Sonic Rainbooms were usually really loud. I looked back and saw the signature Rainboom spreading across the sky. That was when I realized every single pony in Ponyville, Celestia included, would have heard it.

I was traveling faster than sound—that would explain the deafening silence. The wind still sliced through my feathers like razorblades, and I flew towards Cloudsdale. My wings were burning, yet I knew I could keep this up for an hour before collapsing from exhaustion. I had trained hard, and somehow knew at this speed Cloudsdale was only a few minutes away.

If things as Dashaloo didn’t work out, I could always get a job as a mail mare. I bet ponies would pay big bits to have packages delivered in ten seconds flat.

I screeched to a halt when I realized I had reached Cloudsdale, and nearly ran straight into one of the large outlying cloud arches. A sudden wave of deafening sound caught up with me, startling me into folding my wings against my side. It was the loud Sonic Rainboom that had chased me all the way from Ponyville.

I opened my wings back up to slow my fall, and saw dozens of Pegasi looking at me in shock. I gave them a smirk and saluted, then flew off towards the hospital. I landed at the front doors and trotted inside.

“Good afternoon, Dash, can I help you?” The nurse at the front desk asked.

“You know me?” I asked.

“Of course, you’re the only pony that can pull off that Sonic Rainboom, despite the Mayor of Cloudsdale literally begging you to stop doing it in the city limits.”

“Oh, uh, well. . . I’ll work on it. I’m, uh, here to see a friend. Morning Mist, room 302 right?”

The nurse looked down at a clipboard and flipped through a few pages. “Yep, but visiting hours are over in thirty minutes.”

“That’s fine, it’ll only take a minute. Just want to say hi.”

“Well, the stairs there go up to the third floor, it’s on your left.”

“Thanks!”

I trotted over and started going up the stairs. My heart was still racing from the flight over and likely wouldn’t slow down anytime soon. By now, Twilight had spilled her guts to her teacher. I couldn’t begin to imagine what punishment Celestia would give Twilight for essentially taking Scootaloo’s life.

My heart continued racing as I walked down the third floor corridor, and closed the door to the room behind me. My heart skipped several beats as I breathlessly stared at myself.

I was outside my body, and yet inside it at the same time. I was Dash, and I was the orange filly lying on the bed. Scootaloo—I lay there with a breathing machine hooked to an endo-tracheal tube, and a feeding tube in my stomach. IV’s were placed in my arms, slowly hydrating me and delivering medications. Dozens of sticky leads were placed on my shaved chest, monitoring my heart beat.

The machine beeped a slow rhythm as my sleeping form lay in the bed. I slowly walked over to myself and looked down. My under-developed wings had atrophied to the point that they looked like little more than a Nightmare Night decoration. My legs were all skin and bone, and my stomach no longer had that pudgy layer of fat from eating too many of Pinkie’s cupcakes.

I knew what I had to do, but I couldn’t fathom actually doing it. I couldn’t go back to this—thing—that lay before me. I wasn’t Scootaloo anymore, nor was I Dash. I was something else, I was the best of both ponies. The girls needed me, and so did the Crusaders. I could be there for everypony. . . but not as Scootaloo.

There was only one way to ensure Celestia did not put me back in this body.

I walked over to the wall and began unplugging machines. This caused several loud alarms to sound. I quickly went over and started hitting buttons trying to turn the alarms off. I finally gave up and just yanked the breathing tube out of Scootaloo’s throat. I then picked her pillow up and held it over her face.

I hugged her as I smothered her. “Goodbye,” I whispered. There were tears rolling down my cheek. The slow throb of her heartbeat against my chest vanished as she faded away.

I placed a hoof on her chest and felt she was gone. I held her there in my arms and lost track of time. The next thing I heard was the door opening behind me, and without looking, I knew who it was.

I smiled.

She wasn’t nearly as fast as me, and now Twilight would not have to lose me again.

Author's Note

And finally I pass my writer's block to write the ending I had in mind since my fans convinced me that the twist should not be that Dash was replaced by a human. I find this ending to be suitably sad to make up for a missed attempt at a shameless self-insert HiE. Also, I'm going to stick to my guns when writing future stories, otherwise I lose all interest in writing the story. I'd rather be really passionate about a bad story then feel like I'm working a second job writing the site's most popular story.

It was still fun and I'm glad to be writing again. Look for two new stories + Dollhouse 2 updates soon!

I made The Parasprite cry with this chapter, and that is a reward that money just can't buy.
(I made lots of people cry. Leave your tears after the break.)

9. My Epilogue

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