I apologise for this chapter being so late but I came down with a cold and a bad chest cough and coughing and spluttering everywhere isn't the best way to write a story. Again, sorry for the delay and I also apologise for this chapter being so short but I didn't want to put off putting up a new chapter for any longer.

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Rainbow was soaring through the skies at an incredible pace. The wind flowing through her mane was exhilarating. The cheers from the crowd below motivated her to persevere. She was flying with the Wonderbolts along with her heroes Spitfire and Soarin. The show was coming to an end and to cap it off Rainbow performed her legendary Sonic Rainboom and everypony went wild. Rainbow gently landed on the ground and looked up to see everypony coming towards wanting her autograph and what not. Then she heard a voice from behind or rather five voices.

"Rainbow, come back." Twilight begged.

"We're so very sorry." Fluttershy pleaded.

"We should have just talked to you." Rarity admitted.

"We had no right doing what we were doing." Applejack insisted.

"We promise we won't do it again! Pinkie promise! A super special Pinkie promise with sprinkles and a cherry on top!" Pinkie pledged.

Rainbow didn't take any notice of this. They hurt her too much for her to forget what they did and no amount of apologising was going to change that. She looked ahead to see Spitfire calling her over and as Rainbow complied her old friends vanished into clouds of smoke. Rainbow followed the fellow Wonderbolt into a room with an army of fans in tow. But as she entered, all she could see was darkness and as she looked around she saw everypony disappearing in a similar fashion to her friends one by one.

"No. No. Not again!" Rainbow cried out but by time the words exited her mouth everypony was gone. She then remembered the door but that too was gone. Rainbow looked down at her hooves to see them being consumed by the darkness and before she could even think of screaming it had already engulfed her.

"Ah!" Rainbow yelled as she shot up in her bed. Another nightmare. All Rainbow could do at this point was simply sigh. She got up and saw Tank already awake in his box. She trotted over and picked him up.

"You won't leave me, right?" Rainbow cooed as she hugged the tortoise almost a little too tightly. She set him back down and went in to the bathroom to get washed and ready for meeting Gilda and her friends again at the Bronze Claw today. Soon she was over there with the three griffons.

"No way! Stallion Wars Episode I: The Phantom Mare was way worse!" Gale argued.

"No, Stallion Wars Episode II: Attack of the Colts was worse!" Sky argued back. The two were suprisingly really into their books and were arguing about the infamous Stallion Wars prequel trilogy, written by the same author as the Daring Do books. Dash could never understand the appeal and thought reading was just for eggheads like Twilight but she was too polite to say so in front of her new two friends.

"Hey, Dash!", Sky called out, "Which do you say is worse?". Rainbow hadn't really taken notice of the conversation and had just sort of stayed quiet all day.

"Um...the first one?" Rainbow replied, hoping it would prove a satisfactory answer.

"Told ya!" Gale said to Sky before sticking her tongue out in victory. However, Gilda had noticed Rainbow's low head and empty stares.

"Something up, dude?" Gilda asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just gonna get a refill of cider." Rainbow informed but moving from the table to the bar to get another drink. The dream was from last night was still bothering her. Even though she Rainbow was so wrapped in thought that she bumped into another griffon and caused her to spill her drink.

"Oh, sorry, I-" Rainbow started to apologise before realising what a behemoth she had walked into. "Huge" would have been an understatement. The griffon Rainbow walked into must have been twice the size of any other griffon Rainbow had seen at least. She had black feathers, blood red eyes and a flesh pink scar stretching across her right eye. She simply stared down at Rainbow and the pegasus could actually feel herself begin to buckle, something she didn't know she was capable of. Then the griffon looked around the pub and as her gaze swept over everyone they kept their heads down and tried not to make eye contact.

"Who let this pony in here?" she bellowed. No one dared answer.

"Guess I'm gonna have to take the trash out myself." the beast mused as she picked up Rainbow in a similar manner you would a cat.

"Put her down, Storm!" Gilda finally stepped in with Gale and Sky not too far behind her.

"Make me." Storm simply replied. In response, Gilda tackled her causing her to drop Rainbow and sending the two griffons flying out the pub doors. Gilda retained steadiness only to have Storm knock her back down to the ground with one swipe of her claw. Rainbow had witnessed this and felt a burning anger within her. How dare someone hurt one of her friends. Rainbow flared out her wings and tackled Storm and knocked her into the side of a nearby building.

Storm stood back up and prepared to strike Rainbow until Gilda got in the way. Storm then looked up to see other people from the pub were standing with the two including Gale and Sky. Being smart enough to realise she was outnumbered, Storm stood back and got ready to fly off but she didn't leave without the last word.

"I'm gonna get you back for this, pony. You hear? You're gonna regret this.".

After everything calmed down, Gilda sent Gale and Sky on their way and walked Rainbow home.

"So who was that?" Rainbow asked.

"That was Storm." Gilda answered.

"What's her problem?" Seemed like an extreme reaction for spilling a drink." Rainbow asked further.

"Don't worry about. It's not you. She just hates all ponies. She doesn't go to that pub often but when she does they usually try to hide any ponies. My guess is that they didn't notice you were there when she walked in." Gilda explained.

"But why?" Rainbow inquired.

"I knew her as a chick and she was picked on a lot by a couple of pegasai. One day, her mother took her down to Ponyville to play in the park but while she was busy talking to one of her friends, one of the pegasai was there with some other ponies and wouldn't leave her alone. One of 'em pushed her down a hill and she cut herself on some bramble on the bottom and that's how she got that scar. Afterwards, she went nuts on 'em and started beating 'em up. When her mother finally noticed she took her away and she just sort of stayed indoors most of the time. No one dared talk to her afterwards and I wouldn't see her outside of school as often." Gilda told.

"That's awful." Rainbow sympathised. Though it still didn't excuse what she did.

"Well, we're here." Gilda said as they approached Rainbow's front door. "Sure you don't need me to stick around?" she offered.

"Nah, I'll be fine." Rainbow insisted. With that, they said their goodbyes and Gilda was on her way. Rainbow spent the remainder of the day playing with Tank a bit and practising some aerial tricks. Before she knew it it was approaching night time and Luna's moon was high in the sky. Rainbow tucked Tank into her box before retiring for the day herself and fell asleep fairly quick, unaware of the trouble ahead.