Delusional
By Homage
“Oh, it wouldn't have been possible without your help, Rainbow Dash!”
“Anytime, Rarity!” replied the cyan pegasus, smiling and patting herself on the back for a job well done. She flapped her wings and took off, happy to be so appreciated by her friends. She was on her way back to her favorite napping cloud when she thought she heard a faint sound of multiple ponies cheering her name.
“Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!” they called out softly. The pegasus followed the sound until she found herself outside of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse. “Probably just Squirt and my fan club,” she thought, taking a little peek in the window. She was unsurprised to see Scootaloo wearing a rainbow wig and standing in front of a small mob of colts and fillies.
Scootaloo cleared her throat, “So, in light of the fact that nopony can remember what we declared Rainbow Dash at our last meeting, I motion that we declare Rainbow Dash the most super awesome amazing bravest coolest pony! All in favor say aye!”
“Aye!” replied the entire crowd. Rainbow Dash, watching from the window, started grinning like a foal. She knew she was awesome, but to hear other ponies say it was even better.
One of the fillies in the crowd noticed the mare in the window. “Hay, isn't that Dash right there?” the cerulean earth pony exclaimed.
Before Rainbow Dash could take off, the group of foals all rushed out the door and surrounded her. “Uh... I wasn't spying,” said the pegasus. The foals however, just smiled like idiots, some of them bouncing up and down and making fanfilly squeals. One of the colts even attempted to propose to Rainbow. Rather than totally crush his hopes, she just said, “You're a little young, doncha think?” The beaming colt replied, “That's OK, I'll wait!”
The feeling of being surrounded by her little admirers was too much for Rainbow Dash. She was overcome by joy and collapsed into a heap. The world went dark as the colts and fillies swirled away...
Rainbow Dash awoke on a bed in a small, dark room. She sat up and tried to stretch her wings. But to her horror, they didn't respond. Again and again she tried to take off, but her wings just wouldn't listen. She was alerted by the sound of hoofsteps outside the room's only door. She stood up, rearing back to wave her front hooves menacingly. “I'm not afraid of you! Show yourself!” she managed to get off before losing her hoofing and toppling over backward. Strange, normally her wings would have helped her stay balanced...
There was a faint click as the door was unlocked from the outside. Rainbow Dash struggled to flip herself over. It took her much longer than usual, but eventually she got upright. She looked up to see a middle-aged earth pony with a cutie mark of an hourglass. “Hello again, Rain Dance. I just wanted to check in on you and see how you were doing...”
Rainbow growled at the unfamiliar stallion. “It's not Rain Dance. My name is Rainbow Dash. And what have you done with the foals??? If you laid a single hoof on them...”
The strange pony sighed and buried his face in his hooves. “Really, Rain Dance, I thought we were past this. Did you go back to Ponyville again?”
“What's it to you, mister?” Rainbow replied angrily. She snorted and started pawing the ground with one hoof.
“It's Doctor,” the unfamiliar stallion responded. “Doctor Hoofman. Your primary caretaker here at Hope Long-Term Mental Care.”
“Mental care? You're the one who needs mental care! Now tell me what you did with my friends, or I'll fly over there and kick your flank so hard you'll need medical care!”
“Please, Rain Dance, don't do this...” replied Dr. Hoofman in a sad tone.
Rainbow Dash reared up, “Sorry, Doc, but it looks like you'll be retiring early!” She leaped into a dive, flapping her wings as hard as she could. But instead of taking off like a bat outta Tartarus, she crashed to the floor.
“What did you do to my wings?” Rainbow screamed. She turned to look at them, and was horrified by what she found. These couldn't be her wings, hers were healthy and strong. These ones were shrunken and twisted. She tried to flap them, but they wouldn't move.
Dr. Hoofman sighed at the mare's shock. He pulled out a clipboard and wrote down, “more memory loss”. He asked again, “So, Rain Dance, did you go back to Ponyville or not?”
The flightless pegasus sighed. “Yes,” she replied, staring daggers at the stallion. “Why wouldn't I? I live there, after all. And it's Rainbow Dash, not Rain Dance”
The psychologist lifted his clipboard again. “Still delusional” he wrote. He looked back at Rainbow Dash. “Alright, it seems we have a lot to talk about, Rain Dance. Please come with me.” He began to head out the door.
Rainbow Dash argued, “Not until you tell me what you did with my friends!”
The doctor looked back. “Actually, that is what we will be discussing, Rain Dance.”
Rainbow didn't want to trust Dr. Hoofman, but if there was a chance that cooperating could save her friends, she would have to do it.
The two ponies walked down the hall. They passed several other rooms, all with one way glass. Inside the rooms, she could see ponies rocking back and forth, chewing their hooves, writing on walls, or talking to themselves. One unicorn stallion was flailing wildly and screaming as several nurses tried to restrain him.
The two ponies eventually arrived at a large beige door, with a plate which bore the name, “Sonic Hoofman”. The stallion turned the knob with his teeth and pulled open the door. He sat behind the large desk and motioned for Rainbow Dash to sit. She obeyed him, plopping down in one of the chairs in front of the large oak desk.
A sudden shudder overtook Rainbow Dash, as if she recognized this place, but only from a dream or perhaps a distant memory.
The brown pony spoke up. “Now Rain...”
“Bow,” Dash added under her breath.
“Dance,” the stallion corrected in a stern voice. “Your name is Rain Dance, not Rainbow Dash. That is the first thing I want to talk about with you.”
“And I'm supposed to be crazy? Please,” Rainbow Dash said mockingly.
“Please, Rain, I'm only trying to help you get better. Now I know it's difficult for you to accept, but Rainbow Dash never existed. She is a ponysona you created for yourself to avoid having to cope with your disability.”
Rainbow Dash looked back at her mangled, deformed wings and swallowed. Disability? But she could fly! She was even one of the few ponies in Equestria who could do a sonic rainboom! Heck, her cutie mark was flying, for Celestia's sake! She turned back to look at her flank and be reminded of who she truly was.
But her cloud with its colorful lightning bolt was gone too. Her flank was bare.
“No, no, no, no...” muttered Rainbow Dash. “Is this some kind of cruel joke?”
“I'm afraid not,” said Dr. Hoofman. “Your real name is Rain Dance, and you have been a patient at Hope Long-Term Mental care for twelve years.”
“Then why can't I remember anything?” asked Rain Dance, tears welling in her eyes.
“The mind is an amazing thing,” replied Dr. Hoofman, getting out of his chair. “In your case, your mind repressed the things you didn't want to remember, and fabricated a new reality for you to live in, in this case, Ponyville and all your friends. In real life, you were born with deformed wings and were bullied relentlessly by the other pegasi for it. Your Rainbow Dash ponysona was your mind's way of saving you from your own flaws. Your passiveness and inability to assert yourself was ponified in the form of your Fluttershy ponysona. When you were being teased and hurt by the other foals, you wanted nothing more than for somepony to come save you. But nopony did. The bullying got so bad that you jumped off a cloud to kill yourself. So you invented Rainbow Dash and became her so that you could chase off your bullies and stand up for your 'friends'. Her flying talent was your way of making up for your disability. And she got her cutie mark first because you were depressed that you never got yours. All of your friends were just parts of your own personality. Rainbow Dash was just a coping mechanism.”
Rain Dance broke down into tears. This wasn't possible, there's just no way...
“All my friends aren't real? So I'm all alone?” sobbed Rain Dance.
“Rain Dance, you're...” The voice of Dr. Hoofman was cut off as the world faded into black.
Rainbow Dash woke up on the floor of the Ponyville Library.
“Huh, I guess she was really surprised.”
“Um... it was pretty... um, startling.”
“Oh, relax darling. She'll be just fine.”
“Perhaps some smelling salts will help?”
“WHO'S READY TO PARTY???!!!”
“Ya'll need ta put a cap on the volume, Pinkie.”
Rainbow Dash sat up. She was home. “Spike! Fluttershy! Rarity! Twilight! Pinkie Pie! Applejack! You're all here!”
“Well of course we are, sugarcube. It ain't your birthday every day...” Applejack pointed out.
“Birthday?” Rainbow Dash facehoofed. “Oh yeah!!”
“Is something the matter?” inquired Rarity.
“Well, nothing really, I just had the craziest dream, where I was crazy and you were all just figments of my mind...”
“Don't be silly, Rainbow! We would never leave you!” said Twilight Sparkle.
All her friends gave her a group hug.
“OK, OK, knock it off,” said Rainbow Dash, chuckling to herself. That was a ridiculous dream... and it was already fading away. She forgot all about it and began to dance to the music with all her friends.
Outside the window, a stallion with an hourglass cutie mark sighed and wrote something on a clipboard.
