You know something's wrong when you wake up on a dark morning in the middle of a soaking field in nothing but a red dress, with a pounding headache and numb feet. What was I doing there? I still don't know the reason. I thought "maybe I hit the bottle a little too hard last night", but that couldn't be it. Maybe I was still dreaming. Hallucinating. But that's not important. What is important was what happened just before; friday night.

The night before I came back from a long day at the secretary desk at the city dentist. That's my job, keep records and stuff. Anyway, I came home real tired, head actually hurting a little. I'd actually arranged to go to a little party for one of the workers at the dentist's so I slowly changed into a red dress, the most beautiful I had which was a satin and silky one. But, as soon as I start to put on make-up, I start to lose focus! My head was pounding like my brains wanted to burst free and my vision started blurring up real bad. Flopping on the bed, holding my head... I think I must have fallen asleep or something. Yeah, I must have, I started making very strange dreams or visions just after.

It started with me falling through the air down a huge tunnel, near pitch black all around. Suddenly, the walls started shifting and sliding around, changing colour and shape as I fell further and further: red, green, blue like a dance floor or disco.
And as I fell further down, the walls started pulsing and writhing like I was falling around inside someone's gullet! Out of these pulsing parts spewed what looked like musical notes. I tried to reach out and touch one, and my god did it make the most horrific sound! It was like a child screaming in agony or the weeping of thousands of suffering people. I just screwed my eyes shut as the sound became louder and louder, until it forced it's way in! And just as the sound reached the point where I thought my ears were going to self destruct to save me from insanity, the light vanished again. A few seconds later, I hit the ground with an almighty thud, face first into a wet patch of mud. After rolling over onto my back, I was looking at that dark morning sky, wondering "what the hell just happened?!"

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After a few moments of wondering the usual little things when you wake up in a field ("Where am I?","What am I doing here?" and "Oh god, how am I gonna get the mud out of this?!") I actually tried to think logically again by looking around to answer question one; the field was actually a wheat field, with the field itself streching maybe a hundred yards or so in all directions. Directly in front of where I was looking once I got up was another field, only this time, it looked to be an orchard of some kind, judging by the amount of trees. To the left of that was a small group of barns, and further left seemed to be a house with smoke coming from the little chimney. A wide grin appeared on my face; where there's smoke, there's fire, and that means there's people!

I didn't care that I was tresspassing, or that I hadn't answered the other two questions I had, or that I was covered in mud; I had to get to that house and find my way back home! Jogging at a brisk pace through the wheat field, I made my way towards the house. Strangely enough, the door opened up, as if expecting my arrival! Warily, I slowed my pace to a cautious walk so I could see who was in the doorway, then stopped altogether when I had a clear view.

An orangy-brown pony or horse had opened up the door, about to step out. Nothing unusual, I thought. I think it noticed me as soon as it stepped outside; it was staring at me, and I was staring back, but only in a curious way. Then I noticed it's clothes- just a hat, a cowgirl hat. I thought that was a little odd, and also noticed another odd thing; it was standing on all fours! Deciding to end the vortex of awkwardness that was opening up before us, I called out to it.

"Hey!"

I just wanted to break the ice just a little. I guessed that by the way the pony-horse had let out a long and terrfied "YYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" and then screamed "M-M-MONSTER!" before running back inside the house then slamming the door shut, I wasn't successful. I had to get some help so I could get back home, or at least find out where I was. Running up to the front door, I started knocking on it with my fist, trying to get her back out (it was probably a girl, the scream was pretty girly), but there was no response. Maybe after a minute, I gave up.

Pondering my next move, I decided not to waste any more time here. The farmland was connected to a main road so the obvious choice was to follow it back to a town. I think I must have walked no more than a few yards before I felt a massive "thwack!" on the back of my head. Alarmed, I looked around- nothing. No sign of anyone. I kept on walking, and unsurprisingly, "thwack!" again 3 seconds later!

"Who's there!" I angrily called out to my attacker.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FARM DEFENDERS, ATTACK!"

I didn't see that one coming. And I definitely didn't see those three come up from behind either! With great force, I felt something collide with my back with great force, and before I could turn my head to see what, I was down on the floor, and before I could force it off, two more heavy things had my arms pinned!

"Victory!" shouted the thing on my left arm with trimumph.

"Yeah that was amazing, nice work everyone!" said the thing on my other arm gleefully.

"Wow, ah don' know what this thing is..." the one on my back said to it's allies.

I was very curious (but maybe it was more due to fury) to see just who had tried to capture me alive, so I started shouting loudly.

"What are you doing?! Who are you?!"

"Silence, foul fiend!" one shouted right in my ears.

"Yeah," another said rather meanacingly "we saw you try to break into Applejack's! You're not getting away!"

It quickly dawned on me that I'd have to take a more direct approach. I could still move my fingers and think clearly; more than enough for a little magical intervention. Focusing power into my left hand, I curled my fingers into a ball and lifted my hand from the road slightly. I felt sweet relief from my arm as the creature that pinned it down was now 6 feet off the ground! It seemed that the other two had noticed, as I could hear noises of surprise and terror as they watched their friend lift into the sky by magic! They started to back off slowly from my back and arm, and soon I was free to move around again.

I should have probably broken my spell before I started to dust myself off from the attack. My hand still glowed with magical energy which was busy throwing around the creature I had started to levitate. It screamed as it was flung around with great force, which finally caught my attention; I had actually started levitating another pony like the one I saw back at the house, only much smaller and this time it was a white colour, with a pink mane. Uncurling my fingers, the creature landed on the ground with a loud thud and moaned quietly. The other two had started running towards their friend and were shaking her: one was peachy coloured with a purple mane, the other was a pale yellow colour with a red mane.

"Sweetie Belle! You ok?" the peach pony frantically said.

The white one only responded with muffled moans. I guess I overdid it a little with the magic, but how else could I escape? But now that I was free, I faced a little conundrum- should I see if that pony is ok, or do I make a quick escape to avoid awkwardness. Guilt lead me to the former. Walking over to where she lay down, I started to examine her.

"Hey, get off her!" the peach one protested loudly.

"She's going to be ok, I was just a little too rough" I quickly responded "besides, it's what you get for attacking a complete stranger!"

"Well we don' want monsters come running into the fields, terrorisin' good folks!" the yellow pony shouted back.

"You two... stop... stop it, please!"

The white pony suddenly sprang up and dusted herself off.

"Sorry we attacked you, Miss Monster. We won't do it again" she apologetically said, lowering her head slightly. Miss Monster? I should have gotten real angry and scolded her some. But I felt kind of sorry for her; maybe it was the eyes, looking deep into my soul for a heart, as if monsters don't have hearts. Kneeling down, I gently spoke to her.

"Not Miss Monster. Miss Laura."

We stared eye to eye for a few moments. I think that's all I needed to find out she was for real, genuinely sorry. The other two didn't share her feelings, and started walking away gagging slightly at the mushy bonding going on. Finally, the connection broke as the litle white pony asked me if I wanted to come to breakfast. Naturally, I accepted- I didn't care if these ponies had tried to take me alive a few minutes before hand, breakfast is breakfast, especially when it's free! She had to ask her friends if it was ok with them, but I knew that would be a problem. I overheard them in a little group huddle.

"What are you, crazy?!"

"Yeah, Sweetie. She might devour us for breakfast!"

"Oh come on. It's an oversized bunny! What's it going to do to us?"

"Well, ah don't want it coming into our clubhouse! For starters it's all muddy!"

"Listen, we give it breakfast, we let it take a bath, it goes away, end of monster!"

There was a short silence between them all, before they all walked up to me smiling. Then the white one asked me what my name was again.

"Laura" I said back.

"Well Laura, I'm Sweetie Belle! And this is Scootaloo and over there is Apple Bloom," pointing to each pony as she recited their names. "Well, you must want a wash and breakfast, yes?" I nodded politely. "Good! Then follow us! We're headed back to our clubhouse." We set off on a little dirt track near one of the fields, which lead down a hill next to the orchard area.

I think that's the first time anyone ever offered me free breakfast and a wash without asking me for a favour in return.