Memories:

Dawn came too early for Brian, new aches and pains greeted him as he came to full consciousness. He laughed to himself, this was getting old now. How long would it be before he stopped waking up feeling like this? Sitting up he looked for Dashie. He saw where she’d been sleeping next to him, but in her place was a note written in the sand about having to be to work before sunup and she’d be away till dark. To please be safe and she loved him. Standing to his feet, he grabbed the newspaper Dash brought the night before, folded it in half and sharply snapped it under his armpit. In his other hand he held a smallish white roll of soft paper. With a confidence in his step he walked in to the woods.

Returning much later, he relit the fire and rummaged around camp making breakfast and generally trying to wake up without coffee. Today he needed to cut down trees for his home. As he ate, he steadied his nerves and reminded himself that he needed to be calm and not get freaked out by every little thing he heard and saw. His mind of course betrayed him on the point. Visions of Timberwolves and Manticores invaded his private thoughts. Showing him a variety of gory ways he would be dismembered. Dash would search for days, only to finally find a bloody piece of ripped up clothing. Mourning the loss of her father she would become an old spinster, never marry or become a Wonderbolt. His mind accelerated the fantastic nature of his imaginations until they became ludicrous. Growing irritated at himself, he pushed these thoughts out of his mind and continued to ‘get ready’.

He had puttered around camp far longer than he needed too, ‘preparing’ to go logging. Staring in to the forest, he figured it was now or never. Squaring his jaw he grabbed his axe and marched into the Everfree, going further than he had ever gone before. That now more familiar feeling washed over him as it had every morning. Magic. Walking into the woods he kept a wary eye out, making a mental note of certain large trees and landmarks so he could find his way back. Wandering around for a short time he started to relax and the natural beauty of the Everfree started to become obvious. Huge tangled trees and lush ground cover spread out in all directions. It really was quite impressive.

He hacked a mark into the trunk of a tree to indicate the direction he had come from. Shortly after, he fell his first tree. A small mostly straight fir from the look of it, then again he couldn’t tell the difference between a pine, fir or cedar trees. He decided that this was going to be a fir tree. It wasn’t nearly has hard to log as he thought it would be. Until he tried to move it; it took a little bit to figure out if he limbed it and cut it to length, it was far easier to drag it back to camp. Happy with the results, he began to repeat this process for the better part of the day. Too his surprise and relief no horde of monsters came to see what the noise was all about.

Dash was very tired as she flew to work; her sense of direction was nowhere near as sharp as normal, several times she caught herself getting off course. Being on time today was important. It was the third Friday of the month and she had to be there early for another in a series of long boring budget meetings.

The big wigs from Cloudsdale would be there today and she had to file briefs on the current and future weather in the greater Ponyville area. Some of their budget would be based on her reports. She dreaded the idea of even having these meetings, much less having to make a contribution to them. Her super had told her that becoming the team lead for the Ponyville weather crew came with a pay raise and a few more responsibilities. What he didn’t mention was she’d have paperwork by the flank load. Thankfully she finished these reports weeks ago.

Landing at the WMMO, she was greeted by other team leads from all over the Central Equestrian Region. They met in a dull windowless room to give their briefs. On the plus side coffee and doughnuts had been provided. Several hours passed as one after another boring weather related summary was given. Thankfully hers was a short but to the point version of the same thing they had endured all morning. The delegation from Cloudsdale seemed to take her narrative well enough, and thanked her for the report. Feeling better about the situation she looked over to her boss to see if he would give her the go head to leave. She still had other duties to take care of. He noticed her and waved to her signaling she needn’t stay for the remainder of the meeting. Smiling to herself in relief, she returned to her seat and grabbed her saddle bags off the floor. Tossing them on she started to leave. She stopped in mid stride. A sick feeling came over her. She felt it coming, like a sparkling in her mind. This was stronger, more tangible than any other before it. She could feel it bodily this time, a twisting and pitching of her mind. She let out a pitiful childlike cry for help. The floor felt like it was racing up to meet her. Flailing wildly trying to catch herself she blacked out.

When she relaxed and ‘came too’, she found that she was in the big meeting room at the WMMO. There were several dozen team leads here, and they were all staring at her. She gulped and smiled nervously. Her boss marched over grabbed hold of her under a foreleg and forcibly walked her out of the meeting.

Once in the hallway he turned on her. His eyes narrowed in anger, his wings flared out as he spoke.

“What the hay is your problem Dash? You have been acting like freak for the last several days, and I wanna know what’s going on!” his voice rose in volume as he verbally accosted her.

Rainbow stood there shocked at his verbal assault.

“I have no idea what you are talking about?” she stated growing angry.

“What I’m talking about?! What do you call what happened in there then?” He said pointing to the meeting room. “You started flailing around and started yelling for your dad.”

“What? I did not.” She said slightly alarmed that he’d accuse her of that kind of behavior. She clearly remembered… something; something about falling or swimming maybe. She blinked trying to bring back what she could about the meeting hall. Everything felt normal, just a little fuzzy. Then again she had troubles not falling asleep in these meetings.

“Are you listening to me?! Her boss yelled. Dash focused on him and nodded. “Good. Now get your flank straighten out by Tuesday or I’m going to be forced to pull you off busting duty until you can show me that you aren’t going to freak out again. Got it!?”

“Yes sir.” She barked standing to attention.

“Now get out of here before I transfer you to firewatch.”

Rainbow turned crisply and made her way to the main office to grab her work sheet for the day. A strange feeling persisted in her mind, a niggling idea that she had forgotten something. Brushing the feeling aside, she left the WMMO to tend to her duties as the best cloud buster Ponyville ever had. She was after all the best flyer around and pretty amazing.

Rainbow felt on top of the world all day, everything was falling right into place; the air was calm, none of the clouds gave her any trouble; all in all it was turning into a near perfect day. A rainstorm had been scheduled for the afternoon, and she had it set up in record time. Proud of her work, she decided to quit early. The afternoon was still young when Rainbow Dash bolted off to find a tree to nap in before the rain was to start. She found one of her favorite places to kick it for a while. Settling down, she dosed off rather quickly.

Rainbow once read that dreams are an elusive and funny affair; they can be many things to many persons. They speak to us about ourselves more often than we might otherwise like to admit. Dreams, it is said, are the language of the soul. Dash never bought into that ‘hogwash’, to her dreams were just your imagination running wild. On the rare occasions she could remember her dreams they were of her winning a competition or showing off her amazing moves to the Wonderbolts, them being impressed and begging her to join. This dream however was altogether different. She sat on a small, grassy hill overlooking an open field that seemed to go on into eternity. Here and there in the distance trees dotted the landscape. A light fog clung to the ground as the sun just crested the horizon. She closed her eyes, and she could feel the heartbeat of the earth. The sun warmed her face and she smiled. Complete peace flowed around and through her. Everything here including herself was for lack of a better word, perfect. She existed in this bliss for a moment or a hundred years, to her it was the same. A rumble of distant thunder rippled across the land. Opening her eyes, she could make out a dark line of clouds in the far distance obscuring the morning sun. She stared at the clouds unfazed by their presence. Another peel of thunder, this one however sounded like a voice was in the rolling sound. Tilting her head to the side she strained to hear more clearly. Moments later another clap of thunder echoed across the land, closer now. There was defiantly a voice there. What was it saying though? A cool wind picked up, blowing her mane around her face. A voice crashed around her.

“Rainbow Dash! Wake up!” Applejack yelled for the third time.

Dash snapped awake bleary eyed and exhausted. Blinking, she turned and looked down to the source of the voice.

“Oh. Hey Applejack.” She croaked.

“Rainbow Dash. Isn't there something you ought to be doin' right now?”

“Yeah. Sleeping.” Rolling over she tried to settle back down.

“RAINBOW DASH! Git yer flank out of that tree right now, before I come up there and git ya down mahself.”

Rolling back to face Applejack Rainbow Dash grew annoyed.

“You was supposed t’have this rain started half an hour ago. Now git moving!” She stomped her hoof to emphasize her point.

Thinking back, Rainbow thought about her work order for that day. She vaguely recalled something about a storm, or was it supposed to be clear today. Everything suddenly pitched and reeled, she thought she was falling out of the tree. Her head went fuzzy and her mind tingled. Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped and her thoughts clicked into place. She remembered that the rain was supposed to be started in the afternoon. She drew a deep breath realizing she had spent nearly the whole day as that other Rainbow Dash. The one that never knew her human father, the one that was carefree and blissfully unaware of someone who loved her more than his own life. Applejack was right though, she did need to get the rain started.

“Darn it!” she yelled as she bolted out of her napping tree.

Applejack sighed rolling her eyes. “That girl better get her act together.” She thought to herself.

Dash shot up in the sky and began to bust lose the rain from the clouds. Once the rain had begun it would essentially run itself out by the following morning. There was nothing else for her to do now.

She felt tired, a weariness that seemed to come from deep inside. She had been tired before, to the point of exhaustion. This was different; this was a weariness of her soul. Collecting her thoughts she decided to go back to pops place, eat and get some shut eye. She could deal with her paperwork later. Right now all she wanted was to rest.

The flight to the lake was little more than a blur. Drawing closer to the camp, she saw her father sitting in his chair looking at the beginnings of an actual log cabin. It wasn’t very tall yet, but the simple structure was coming along. It lacked the creative beauty of the homes and businesses in town, but it would be a home none the less. In fact it would be a great home, because he was there.

Dash set down on the shore line drawing the attention of her father. They greeted each other and he began to excitedly tell her about the events of his day. How he’d braved the Everfree to gather logs, cutting them to length, and fitting them one to another. His excitement was contagious. Enough so that Dash started to feel better. Having him here made her feel right. When she was around him, she felt as though the world was good again and all the troubles of her day began to melt away. They continued to talk as dinner was prepared.

Brian reclined proudly in his makeshift seat. The firelight cast shadows behind him on the short walls of the log cabin. They danced and weaved about in tune with the flickering of the flames.

Dash was lazily, but carefully telling him of her day, while eating an apple left over from dinner. As she talked, Brian’s mind drifted back to when she was younger. The night he’d found her, the first time she had experienced a thunderstorm and shivered as she lay curled up against him on their couch. His mind continued to wander through their past as he listened to her. When she had finished, he looked at her with a huge smile. A certain memory had come to his mind and he wanted to relive it with her.

“I remember when you were about five maybe six. I gave you a CD of the Muppets songs...”

“Oh yeah! I remember that.” Rainbow Dash said cutting him off in her excitement as she smiled back at him.

Nodding and chuckling Brian continued, “I came into the living room one afternoon and you were at the coffee table colouring or something, and you were singing.” He said, his smile growing larger.

“Aww jeeze dad.” She said blushing.

“I watched you singing that… for like five minutes. You were off in your own little world.“ He sighed as he reminisced. “You used to sing it all the time. Do you remember what the name of the song was?”

“Rainbow Connection.” Dash said in a full blush now.

“Ha-ha, that’s right. You still remember how it goes?”

“Yeah. I’ll never forget it.” Dashie closed her eyes and started humming the tune, and then she began to sing.

Brian closed his eyes, put his hands behind his head and listened to his daughter’s voice, a wide grin formed across his face.

Why are there so many, songs about rainbows…

And what’s on the other side...

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions....

and rainbows have nothing to hide....

In her reverie she didn't feel it coming this time. Her mind pitched and twisted, tearing away the Dash that loved her father; the warm feelings of family melted in to a strange unfamiliar fear.

Her voice trailed off, as she stared wide eyed in horror at the creature that sat reclined across a campfire from her. What the heck IS that thing? Why was she sitting across from it? Confused and frightened she quickly turned and ran.

Brian opened his eyes to see Dash turning around and bolt away from the unfinished cabin. Sitting up he called out to her.

“Dashie? What’s wrong? DASHIE?

Confused and a little hurt Brian ran in to the night calling after her.

“Dashie!” Brian yelled, as she disappeared into the night sky.

“Dashie? Where are you going?” Brian stood on the shore of the lake calling out. When she hadn't returned a few minutes later, he turned back towards his unfinished cabin and sat down confused as to what had just happened.

How does that THING know my name? Dash thought as she raced towards her cloud home. What is going on? One second I’m sitting in... a… where was I? Her thoughts confused, Dash struggled to remember where she last was, before finding herself in front of a hairless monster. Confusion dominated her mind; a fuzzy fog prevented her from recalling anything coherently. Flying on Dash saw town in the distance. Here and there a few lights dotted town. Looking closely at sugar cube corner, Dash could see the light on in Pinkie Pie’s room. Changing her heading she flew straight to the pink pony’s home. Landing with an ungraceful thud on the window sill Rainbow looked in and called out to her friend. Pinkie sat at her desk reading a letter.

“Pinkie! There is a monster or something out at the lake. We need to get Twilight and the others and go see what it’s up too!” Dash looked expectantly at Pinkie Pie. Her calm demeanor confused Dash. She stood up from her desk and slowly walked over to the window.

“Pinkie? What’s wrong? We need to go right now!”

Pinkie looked at her friend and asked, “Tell me exactly what you saw Dashie.” Her calm tone further confused Dash.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Very serious. Tell me what you saw.”

“Pinkie we don’t have time for twenty questions! It was a hairless monster! Okay? If you won’t help I’m going to get twilight by myself.” She began turning to leave.

“Dash? Did you see your father?” Pinkie asked leaning towards her. Dash turned around in confusion.

“WHAT? My dad? Of course I didn’t see him. Ghaa! What is the matter with you? My dad is at home in Cloudsdale… working on his cabin…” Her words trailed off as a horrible realization started to dawn on her. Her mind felt like it was vibrating. Her voice was shaky and uncertain. “Uhh… he’s by the lake... In Cloudsdale…? Oh Celestia. Pinkie…?“ She swallowed hard. Her mind recalled entirely different facts about her two fathers and blended them into a mixed up collage of memories without rhyme or reason.

“What’s happening to me?” Her face was a vision of twisted desperation, her eyes plead for help. What felt like an oncoming sneeze rushed forward in her head and Dash felt a gentle untwisting in her mind. When it had passed and her recollection was 'normal' again she started to weep.

“Pinkie… help me... pleease.” The desperation in her voice tugged at pinkies already tender heart. “I can’t take this anymore. I don’t know who I am, am I from earth or here? Both? Or neither... who am I?” Clutching her hooves to her head she rocked back and forth on the window sill weeping out of desperation.

Pinkie pie reached out and gathered Rainbow into a hug, pulling her gently to the floor. Holding her tightly she cooed and tried to calm her best friend.

“It’s okay Dashie. You’re going to be alright. I’m here for you.” Pinkie's voice was soft and reassuring.

“What am I going to do Pinkie? I can’t go to Twilight or Celestia. They’d find out about dad. He’d be taken away from me.” A fresh wave of tears fell as Dash thought about losing her father again.

“There, there Dashie. Shhhhh...” Pinkie cooed. Taking a deep breath Pinkie looked at Dash with a hopeful expression. “Do you trust me?”

Dash took a moment to settle down. “Kind of.” She finally had to admit.

“I have a plan.” She stated confidently. "A plan to get you fixed up. Do you remember Little Strong Heart?”

“The buffalo girl out near Appleloosa? Yeah I remember her. At least I think it’s me that remembers her. I don’t know any more.”

“I wrote to her about what is going on…” Dash pulled away from Pinkie, anger rising up in her. “… and no I didn’t mention your dad, just that you were having problems with your memories.”

Relaxing slightly, Dash started to get a hopeful look on her face. “What did she say? Can she help?”

“She said that they have a new Medicine Bull in the village. And he agreed to help you sort out your memory problems.” Pinkie Pie said almost triumphantly. “It’s all in that letter.” Pinkie Pie pointed to an open letter on her desk.

Hope was clearly rising up in Rainbow. Hope that she might be able to be cured. A smile crossed her face. She needed this.

“When can we go? Right now?” Dash asked excitedly, as she stood up and flared out her wings ready to charge out the window.

“No silly. There aren't any trains to Appleloosa until tomorrow morning.”

“Oh… Okay. Then first thing tomorrow we are taking a road trip.”

“What’s a road trip?”

“Oh... umm never mind.” Dash said, and then wondered how she of all ponies wouldn't know what a road trip was. An embarrassing though popped into her head. She recalled the way she had bolted out of dad’s campsite, leaving him there without saying a word. Then again in her defense he was a monster in her eyes. Thinking quickly she came up with a clever idea. Looking at Pinkie, a mischievous grin crossed Dash’s face.

“How many cupcakes do you have?”

Holding a box of cupcakes in her hooves, Rainbow flew carefully towards her dad’s lakeside retreat. Feeling mortified for having taken off in such a way, she hoped to use the cupcakes as a cover for her momentary ‘lapse’.

Brian watched the skies as he grew more and more sleepy. She had taken off in such a hurry. Did I say something to upset her? In his searching and pondering a pale blue dot appeared in the sky grabbing his attention. Staring intently, he tried to make out if it was in fact Dashie returning. Slowly the dot grew and a rush of relief poured over Brian. It was Dash and she looked to be holding something in her fore hooves. He rushed over to where she had landed.

“Dash what happened? Where did you go?” He asked worriedly.

“What’s the big deal dad? I went to Pinkies to get us some treats!” She said with a false confidence, smiling from ear to ear as though nothing was the matter.

"You took off so suddenly... I was afraid I had said something to upset you." He said looking at the box Dash held out to him.

"Pffft, you worry too much, I just wanted to get us something yummy." She replied hoping that her false front was convincing enough to throw him off.

Taking the box in his hands, he looked at her with some suspicion. He thought about grilling her with questions. Looking into her magenta eyes he studied his daughter. Her eyes betrayed her, there was something up but she was ‘handling it’, as she would put it. He decided that whatever was really going on was either over or more likely she was not going to discuss it. Once she made up her mind it was near to impossible to get her to change it.

Opening the box, He gawked at the contents. They looked really quite appetizing. Smiling he thanked her and they both walked back to the cabin.

Rainbow realized her father knew something was up but wasn't going to pursue it. How did he do it? When she was little he could almost always tell when she was trying to pull the wool over his eyes. When she called him out on it all he'd say was, it's called ‘dad magic', maybe it really was. Slowly exhaling she joined pops next to the fire and dined on Pinkies confectionery delights. Curling up next to him she sighed deeply.

“I love you daddy.” She said quietly.

“Aww that was sweet of you. I love you too Dashie.” He said warmly, then petting her head. She wasn't normally so affectionate. Although the last week had been a stressful and trying time for the both of them. Maybe she needed someone to be there and reassure her that everything would be alright. Even she needed a rock from time to time. It was one of his jobs after all, to be her rock.

“Oh I have to go to Appleloosa tomorrow morning and won’t be back until Sunday night. Are you going to be okay without me?” She stated nonchalantly.

Brian feigned horror. “You’re leaving me again? Oh... whatever shall I do?” He laughed, dramatically holding his hand to his forehead.

Dash sat up and lightly popped him in the chest with her hoof. “Stop that. I’m serious. Do you need anything while I’m away?”

“Jeeze Dash, I’ll be fine. I’m a big boy now. I even trekked into the Everfree forest and survived.” He said smiling, then grunted a few times and thumped his chest like a gorilla, he seemed just a bit proud of himself.

“Okay then. I just wanted to make sure.” She lay her head back down, and finished eating her cupcake.

“Well, look at you being all grown up and responsible.” Brian said with a little pride in his voice.

Quietly, almost inaudibly she said, “I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Hearing her mumble under her breath Brian grinned and went back to eating his treat. The two lay there quietly eating until Brian yawned. Dash retrieved a blanket and tossed it over them. Settling down for the night she laid her head on him and allowed herself some much needed rest. She had a much to do tomorrow. Her father, overcome by his physical exertion that day, quietly dozed off.

The figure with teal eyes appeared at the edge of the forest again. A smile formed across the figures face. “You are almost there Rainbow Dash, just a little longer now.”

Rainbow Dash was sitting on a grassy hill top again, a blissful peace surrounded her. The golden meadow lazily pitched to and fro as if driven by wind she could not perceive. The foggy blanket across the landscape beneath her was beginning to break up. Here and there thin columns of mist rose up into the air. The sun was barely over the horizon. She stared into its light, relishing the sweet peace that seemed to pour out over this idyllic landscape. A moment passed, or was it a year? Time didn't matter or mean anything. Gradually she sensed a presence behind her, calmly she looked back. A smile of joy crossed her face, and the whole world around her brightened. Without saying a word he sat down next to her. By being here he brought the only thing that could make this place even better. She happily sighed and rested against him.

The two became aware of a path in front of them. The path worked its way down the little hill and joined a road. The road stretched off into the distance, like a delicate ribbon that lay out across the land. As if on que, they rose together and began walking.