Gilda knew she was awake. She could feel her chest moving up and down, the breath snaking in and out of her beak. She wiggled her claws, unsure of what to think. Then, the worst thought possible fluttered into her head;

"Am I still alive?"

Gilda forced her eyes open, hoping for some sort of white room or a cloudy area or something that was anything besides the stupid chambers. She saw a huge, vast, empty space. The ground was hard and soft at the same time, and streched in all directions. There were no walls, only white. White everywhere. If there was a ceiling, it went much too far up for Gilda to catch a glimpse of it. In awe, Gilda sat up and looked around.

"Good morning."

Gilda spun around. "Who said that? Where am I?" she shouted.

"I'm right here."

Slowly turning her head to follow the voice, the griffon was shocked to see another griffon standing behind her.

She was huge, several times the size of Gilda. Her wings streched out to what seemed like a length a few times larger than her own body. Her color contrasted with the whiteness of the area. It was black, black as black could get. Not a single speck, not one tiny hair, flawed her coat. Her beak was a very bright gold, it curved into a sharp looking point. Her eyes seemed small for her huge body, but their blueness seemed to strech on for infinity. She was the most beautiful thing Gilda had ever seen.

The griffon smiled. "Glad to see you're awake, finally." she said in a casual tone. "Do you remember me?"

Gilda stammered. "Ah... I... um... no..."

The magestic griffon's smile fell. She sighed deeply. "I should have thoguht so. I suppose there's more important things to teach in school now-a-days."

Gilda blinked. "Huh?" she said, quite intelligantly.

"Back in my youth, I was very well known. All the griffons worshipped me, they sacrificed themselves for me. It really was fun. As I grew older, though, and I noticed the times beginning to change, you forgot about me. You all forgot about me. I get very lonely, you know." She stared off into the distance, a sad look on her face.

Suddenly, a glimmer of understanding flashed in Gilda's mind. "She Who Shouldn't Be Named," she breathed. "The old griffon goddess of death."

"I go by Shi," she said, smiling again. "But I am glad someone remembered me. Now, time to get to buisness. The reason you are here, Gilda,"

She knows my name? Well duh, she's the goddess of death! She Who Shouldn't Be Named! Of course she knwos my name.

"Is because you cannot leave this world just yet. You have one last task to complete, then you may cross over onto the other side." Shi said.

Gilda was slack-jawed. "Uh, what? What do i have to do?"

"Ohhh, um," Shi looked around, an annoyed look on her face. "Darnit. Some stupid pony goddess of Life or whatever told me to tell you, but I think I... oh! that's it! You have to tell this Twilight girl to not kill this other pony, or something. I don't know, she said you would understand. Anyway, it's about time you get going. I got things to do, griffons to kill."

"But... but!" Gilda yelped as Shi began to cut a huge gash into the air with her claw. "I don't want... AH!" she was forced through the whole by Shi, who called "Good luck!" after her as Gilda screamed her lungs out.

She wasn't screaming her lungs out because she had just met the goddess of death who promptly pushed her through a portal back to the living world, no. Gilda was screaming because she was falling face first into a huge forest several thousand feet below her.

Wait, i have wings.

Silently hating herself for being so dumb, Gilda unfurled her large wings and was pulled back violently by the force of the air. She flew down closer to the ground, and landed in a thick branch of a large tree. She began to lick her paws, the only cat-like behavior she partakes in.

"I have to stop twilight Sparkle from killing somepony?" Gilda murmured out loud. "So, she has been killing of the Elements. I figured she was too... I don't know, dweeb-y to pull something like that off."

Silently grooming herself, Gilda thought the situation over. She had died, she knew that, and as forced back into the living realm to stop Twilight. She had no idea why some awesome Goddess of death would care what some dorky pony goddess wanted her to tell one of her own subjects, but, whatever. It's not like she could ignore Shi, Gilda would only get trapped in the living realm forever. She thought she would just convince Twilight to not kill whatever Element it was, and then go back to being dead and stuff. Yeah, that could work.

"But how the hell am i supposed to know where Twilight is?" Gilda frowned, staring at some stupid bird try to catch a bug.

"Oh, sorry," a voice boomed in Gilda's ear. "Ahem, you should be able to find Twilight around like, Mane-hatt-aaan," the voice pronounced the city's name weird, like it was some new language. "or something. I'm out, good luck." The voice obviously belonged to Shi. While Gilda was grateful for the info, she still had no idea where she was.

"Well," she said, unfurling her wings. "Nothing left to do but keep flyin' until I find some sorta city." Gilda leaped off of the tree and flew off into the horizon, a bored look on her face.

---

Rarity, Luna, Trixie, Snails, and Snips stood in front of a huge building. It was painted gold and silver, and looked very fancy. Rarity, of course, was in her own little world. She marveled over the shining glass door, the glittery silver handles, the smooth granite flooring inside. Luna hadn't seen such a building in all he life. Being cut out from the world for 1,000 years, the last fancy building she saw was a brick bank. Trixie was a bit self conscious, seeing all the fancy unicorns strutting about. She tightened the cape around her body, shielding out cold wind and judgmental glances. Snips and Snails were, as always, engrossed in every move Trixie made, every word she uttered.

Finally, Rarity worked up the courage to actually step inside the building, and the other four followed. The high ceiling held thousands of glittering lights that shone brilliantly down on the group. A male pony stood at a desk, humming a song to himself as he polished some sort of shiny award. He glanced up at the four, looked down at the award, then looked back up, startled.

"P-princess Luna?" He gasped. Rarity was surprised to hear he had such a girly voice, he looked so manly.

Luna blushed. "Um, hello."

"Oh, it's so wonderful to have you here, princess!" said the colt, bowing his head in respect. "What is it you want?"

"Um," Luna said, blushing even more deeply. "C-can we stay here a few nights?"

"Of course! Do you have any bags?"

"A few," Rarity answered, turning slightly to show the colt the medium sized pile of luggage Rarity and Luna had carried with their magic during the journey. The colt nodded, and clopped his hooves together.

"Bell boy, bell boy!" he called. A young and jumpy looking earth pony dashed into the room. "Take our wonderful guest's luggage up to our finest room, please."

"Yes sir!" He struggled to the elevator, trying to steady several bags on his back, and a few in his mouth.

"Come," said the colt, taking them down the opposite hallway. "This elevator is only used for our finest of visitors. It has velvet walls, and moves faster than the others. Your room is 102, on the 23rd floor. The bell boy will have your key for you. have a nice stay!" the colt smiled warmly at the ponies as they crowded into the elevator.

"I'm excited!" Trixie burst out. "We get the best room, which means the biggest, which the prettiest view! i can't wait for you to teach me some magic, Luna."

Luna frowned. "I never said I was going to teach you anything."

"Oh, but you will."

Rarity sighed. Trixie really got on her nerves, always being so bossy and needy and totally inconsiderate of others. So rude. Especially to the princess!

But... a voice in her mind whispered. Luna is less likely to get really angry and hit you if Trixie is around.

Of course. She needed her there, to keep her safe. Rarity knew it would be hard, but she'd have to deal with it. At least until she could rid of Luna's overpowering grasp on her.

---

Twilight and Spike stared up at the city before them. It was huge, and beautiful. The slowly dying sunlight was dark red, and bathed the whole city in fire. Lights blinked on and off, ponies called to one another and a mixture of all kinds of music drifted out from downtown. They were both in awe. Twilight took in a breath, and walked briskly into Manehatten. spike followed closely behind her, terrified of being separated from her and getting lost.

They stopped at a rickity old hotel on the edge of downtown, the steel doors held a sign that read;

"FOOD: OUT OF ORDER."

Twilight stared at it, frowning. "How can food be out of order?" she asked.

Spike shrugged. "Maybe they can't afford to make any."

The purple unicorn sighed. "This is the only place we can afford." she said, pushing open the heavy doors. The floor was a dirty carpet, and the room was empty except for an angry looking mare leaning on the front desk, chewing gum with a bored expression. "Can I help you ma'am and sir?" she droned as the two approached the desk.

"Um, can we have a room, please?" Twilight asked.

"Yep." popping a pink gum bubble, the mare slowly typed something into the computer. Twilight was sort of surprised, computers were rather rare in Equestria. Maybe Manehatten is different from Canterlot or Ponyville, though. "Room 17, first floor. Here's your key. 20 bits a day. Enjoy your stay, or whatever."

Twilight trudged off down the hall. She laughed dryly as she saw room 17 was literally the last room on the floor, and she had seen no elevators or stair cases on her walk. "Well," she sighed, sliding her key. "We'll only be here for a little bit, so I think we can handle it. Right, Spike?"

Spike nodded, but he looked sort of scared at Twilight opened the door. Almost instantly, he saw several cockroaches scuttle into the shadows. Something leaped out from sight too fast for them to see, but it looked a lot bigger than a cockroach. Turning on the light, Twilight stepped into the room and sat the bags down. The metal and glass inside of them clanked loudly, but she didn't seem to care. The unicorn flopped onto the dirty and stained bed, and almost instantly fell asleep. Spike wondered around the tiny room for a little bit, trying to find whatever animal or thing had run from then earlier. When all he found was a cat-sized hole in the wall, Spike curled up next to twilight on the tiny bed. He tried to keep from crying as his body crawled with disgust. He had always hated unclean places and bugs, it creeped him out.

After a very long time of tossing and turning and whimpering, Spike finally managed to drift into a light sleep. He dreamed of Twilight going off into a battle field, covered in armor. She told him she would be home soon, proudly carrying the helmet of her defeated opponent. Spike waited days and days for her to return, but she never did. When he finally got the courage to travel to the battle sight, he found her body rotting in the dirt.

Spike shot up, screaming, from the bed. Twilight grumbled and turned over, she had always been a heavy sleeper. Breathing heavily, Spike looked around. He grabbed for Twilight, taking comfort in the feeling of her chest rising and falling, the warm breath billowing from her nose. he sighed, and lied back down.

I wish this was over, Spike thought to himself as he tried to go back to sleep. I'm not sure if I can handle it anymore.