I fell back asleep before any of my roommates awoke. It was hard not to. With those kinds of injuries, the body just had to sleep. And apparently none of the ponies had anything resembling a simple Cure materia.

As I slept, my mind brought back memories. They must of have been distorted by my dreams, though. It started with the first time I had fought a dragon. I had a weird sort of disembodied view for it, at this point watching from behind Sephiroth and myself, like about where I knew the truck we had been riding in must be.

Rewatching the events from this view, something became apparent to me. Sephiroth and I didn't take down the dragon in three hits, like I had thought. My sword bounced uselessly off the dragon between the two hits it took Sephiroth to slay the dragon on his own. I had known there was a difference in power between us, but I hadn't realized how great. Or maybe the dream exaggerated it. The dream had some weird nonsense to it, as dreams do, like the frowning horse face at the edge of my peripheral vision as I watched the dragon fall.

I realized something else though. I had put myself and every pony with me in great danger with my confidence. My arrogance. It was a miracle we had survived, much less taken out such a massive and powerful dragon. We were lucky to be in the hospital, rather than the morgue, or more likely the dragon's belly.

We arrived at my home town, where Tifa and I had grown up. I was so excited, I was acting a bit spastic, talking excitedly to Sephiroth, to the neighbors who didn't seem like they recognized me, even to the 'camera', so to speak, the point I viewed the dream from. That was odd but... somehow familiar. The words... I vaguely remembered having some kind of buddy along, some loser infantryman who was kind of fun to hang around. I can't remember him that well though. At least I didn't talk to the pony.

I saw my mom. It filled me with sadness, remembering my pathetic excuse for a last meeting with her. She was so worried for me, and I wasn't worried in the slightest for her. Neither of us knew what was coming... how could we? It was weird that this was the only part of the dream that seemed to be from my own perspective. The pony laid a wing gently on my shoulder as I left, a sympathetic look in her eyes.

Tifa finally showed up, getting her picture taken with Sephiroth and I, before leading us to the mako reactor we had been sent to check up on. Back in those days, we tried to protect mako reactors, not blow them up. After what happened though... is it any surprise my views on mako reactors would change?

The pony was alarmed when the bridge on Mount Nibel broke, snapping out from under us. Her horn lit as if to lift us, but then she settled down, as we managed to get to safety on our own. She glided down to us, joining us as we entered the cavern where we found natural materia growing, and listening to Sephiroth's lecture on the matter with great interest.

When we reached the reactor, I watched Sephiroth and myself go into the inner chamber, while my view, strangely, stayed outside, watching Tifa. It filled me with a weird sort of nervousness. The pony stepped passed me, looking within and gasping in horror. I knew what she was seeing, the monster falling out of the pod, I remembered it but in my dream I couldn't see it. Strange. I knew I was in there, with Sephiroth.

The dream lept forward, a few days I think. The town was on fire. Sephiroth was burning my home down. I gave chase, the pony following after, enraged along with me. It jumped forward again. This time my view was just coming on the scene as I ran into the inner reactor, leaving Tifa's injured body behind. I was a bit thankful the view didn't include the up close view of her wounds.

I saw myself being tossed, bodily, from the inner chamber. I hadn't imagined I would have won that fight, but to see it end so ignomiously. I was furious. My viewpoint surged forward, slowing a bit as I felt the heft of the buster sword coming along with me. There was Sephiroth, his back turned, oblivious to my rage, obsessing over some gross half-decayed abomination...

I awoke, suddenly, staring up at the ceiling, surrounded by the rhythmic beeping of heart monitors.

"Element of Generosity, huh?" I asked Rarity, when she had awakened enough.

"I can't exactly be generous, if I don't have anything to be generous with, now can I?" she asked sheepishly. "Alright, I admit, seeing all of those gorgeous gems, I got a little greedy. But it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"

"Not for the dragon, I reckon," Applejack pointed out. "And not all that well for us, honestly."

"Are you kidding? We were all bam, pow, zappo! And did you see it? I killed a dragon! Me! I mean, you guys all helped, especially you Cloud. You were amazing! But I was so awesome!" Rainbow Dash said, her enthusiasm derailing only when her movements caused something to pop ominously and the mare to settle back, wincing in pain.

"What ever did become of his hoard, anyways?" Rarity inquired.

"Based on her letter, it sounds like Princess Celestia has claimed it for the crown. At least she paid for our hospital stay and agreed to our fee. All 7000 bits," I explained. I suppose I could have felt cheated, but honestly there had never been a moment where I had actually planned on keeping the hoard. By the time I knew it existed, there were far more urgent things going on, and by the time things settled down again the hoard was out of our reach.

"That's gotta be like, over a hundred bits each!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Five hundred for Fluttershy, a thousand for Twilight Sparkle, and eleven hundred for each of us. That was the deal," I pointed out. "You all certainly earned it. Though we need to have a discussion about how we're going to do better next time."

"Agreed! When we win we need to be able to celebrate our victory, and you can't do that very well in a hospital," Pinkie Pie pointed out. "Though I can certainly try!" with that she got out her kazoo and started playing a familiar tune, only for it to die out on her lips as everyone looked at her in disapproving disbelief. "See..." she said, her point proven, much to her dismay.

"Does there really have to be a next time, darling?" Rarity asked. "I mean, the bits are certainly good, don't get me wrong, but I don't think any of us but you, Cloud, are really cut out for this sort of life."

"Like it or not, we have the Elements of Harmony, so we are going to be called upon to deal with things only they can handle," I began. "In those cases we will all need to be involved, even Fluttershy. But beyond that... you say you aren't suited for this, but you all just defeated a full grown, fire breathing, dragon. And before that, we beat Nightmare Moon so fast she didn't even have time to give a villainous monologue. I'm not asking you to give up your day jobs. We're not full time guards. We're elite mercenaries, but we're a lot more than that. And above all, we're friends. Not only with each other, but with the other ponies of Ponyville who will suffer if we don't step up and deal with the dangers that come. So... are you cut out for not only being a friend, but the friend they need, when they need it?"

"Yes!" they all said, not in proper unison, but with a good deal of determination. Fluttershy was the last to speak, and I worried she might have been dragged by peer pressure rather than being genuine about it. By contrast, Rainbow seemed almost too eager, and I hoped finishing off that dragon hadn't gone to her head.

That settled, we got into details for a while, discussing what we could do to prepare ourselves better for the troubles to come. Rainbow Dash suggested we start sparring on a weekly basis. Rarity pledged to work on armor for us, something light and fashionable, of course, but better protection than we had before, certainly. Pinkie surprised me by offering to train us in stealthy movements, something she had apparently mastered solely for the purpose of visual gags. And Applejack promised to set up an obstacle course for us at her farm, for some good old fashioned training.

For my own part, I had two plans. One was teamwork drills, to practice reacting quickly as a unit to different situations. The other was for myself; to see what other magical devices I could get a hold of to take apart, and see if I could make some more makeshift materia. Fire was one thing, but it was useless against a dragon and honestly a lot of other situations as well. Having more options would make a huge difference.

We were exhausted by the end of the conversation, despite our good cheer, and ultimately fell back to sleep.

The dream came back to me, this time from my own perspective. It started simply enough. The dragon, the townsfolk, Tifa, the reactor. I remembered a different part, this time. A library back in town, where Sephiroth was going crazy digging through all kinds of old books.

The pony distracted me this time, by speaking. I was sure that wasn't a true memory. It broke me out of getting caught up in the dream, made me realize it wasn't really real. Not this time, at least.

"You have the memories of another within you. That must be terribly confusing for you," she said.

"Nightmare Moon!" I accused, finally recognizing her.

"My name is Luna," she failed to deny. "And I do not come here as an enemy. I wish to understand the one who helped free me from my own long nightmare."

I was skeptical, but on the other hand, I was only so guarded. Now that I knew this to be a dream, I doubted she could do any lasting harm here if she tried. Information was the thing to guard, and she had already had free reign to so much. "You were here last time, too. So then I'm guessing you already understand a fair bit more than you had."

"I am wondering why you were hiding," she said. "From the beginning, I mean, before all the fire and everything."

"What are you talking about? I don't hide from anything," I countered.

"You hide from yourself," she objected, and with a wave of her feathers I was a woman suddenly, and naked before her.

I blushed and fumed, fists balled and ready to strike, but I held back. It was pointless, anyways. This was a dream. What good would lashing out do in a dream? "I defeated you once, Nightmare, at the height of your power. Don't think I can't defeat you again."

"And I've already thanked you for that," the pony reiterated. "I was about to do something truly terrible, and you saved me from myself. Maybe in time I will be able to do the same for you. But for now... you are agitated, and I am being no help to anypony." With that, she turned and left, walking in a direction that wasn't a direction, and exiting the reality of the dream, just in time for Sephiroth to start laughing hysterically, and start into some speech about the evils of mankind.

Thunder pealed out, heralding the start of the storm. Heavy rains pounded down relentlessly.

"If pegasi control the weather here, why such a heavy storm?" I asked Rainbow Dash.

"All that smoke last week prevented us from having our usual rains, so we have to get caught up," Rainbow explained.

"The plants need the water, even more so after all of that, I reckon," Applejack added.

I nodded, accepting their explanation. Even dead, the dragon was still giving us troubles. But where I had grown up, storms just happened, often without forewarning, and we generally survived just fine. I was sure a pony controlled storm would be that much safer.

Our conversations were subdued, though, the storm worsening all of our moods. Even Pinkie was looking a bit 'under the weather', her mane loosing much of its normal curl. But things really took a turn for the worse when the medical staff came in, bringing two more ponies to join our already fairly crowded ward. We recognized them instantly from their fur colors, before even catching a better view of them. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle.

"What happened?" I demanded to know, but my demands were unheeded. It was probably for the best: the nurses and doctor focused on their work, stabilizing their patients and seeing they were recovering properly before heading off to other duties.

Fluttershy awoke not long after they left. I tried to find out what happened but she got really shy about it, and none of us could make out her words. It wasn't until Twilight awoke that I finally got an answer.

"We were walking back to my place when the storm started. We heard a loud snap from above, and then something came down hard on our heads," Twilight said.

"I was afraid something like that might happen," Applejack said. "I usually help prune the trees before any big storm like this, to keep things like that from happening to anypony. Dead or weakened branches aren't usually any trouble, but in a storm they can come down unexpectedly."

"What were you doing going to the library, anyways?" Rainbow asked, curiously, but Fluttershy cringed as if accused.

"Oh, my. Are you two secretly an item?" Rarity inquired with a giggle.

"What? No! Nothing like that," Twilight assured. "Spike was out of town, so I asked Fluttershy if she would come over and have a slumber party with me. Princess Celestia has been on my case about needing to make more friends, so I thought I would try doing one of the common friendship activities described in several of my books." A scroll unfurled beside her, noticeable for the fact that not a single box had been checked. "See, I even made a list of salient points."

"Then what are you so embarrassed about, darling?" Rarity inquired of the shy pegasus.

"Well, I just didn't want you to be mad that I would go have a fun little sleepover while you are all stuck here in the hospital," she admitted, loud enough at last to be heard. "Especially you, Pinkie, I know you would hate to miss a party."

"Aww, thanks Fluttershy! Hey, why don't we have the slumber party right here?" Pinkie asked. "It's not like any of us have anywhere better to be!"

The idea seemed gratingly dumb to me for a fraction of a second, before I realized she was right. Besides, as I guy, slumber parties had always been this bizarre, secret ritual forbidden to mankind; now I was invited in, one of the girls... If I had to be a girl, I might as well give this a try and see what all the fuss was about. "Let's do it," I said. "What's first on your list, Twilight?"

"Let's see... makeovers! Hmm, that might be a little hard in our current condition," Twilight confessed.

"Nonsense, darling. Trust your Rarity to always be prepared for a makeover," the fashionista declared. One advantage of being a unicorn was that you could apply makeup from across the room. Ultimately, I think Pinkie was the most satisfied with the results, however. The mare liked humor in all its forms.

Rarity was the last to be made over, with Twilight wielding the makeup at the directions of the rest of us. I tried to take it seriously, but I had the feeling that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were going for revenge for some perceived slight rather than actual beauty, and Pinkie may have been going for a clown motif. I sincerely hoped my friend would be spared from seeing a mirror before it could be somehow washed away.

"Group hug photo!" Pinkie Pie shouted out, before I stumbled into the pile of ponies sudden in the middle of the room, blinking off the flash as a camera began printing off an image. What had even just happened? How had I gotten out of bed? How had any of us? For that matter, how did Pinkie's forelimbs stretch wide enough to hug all six of her friends at once? Was this another dream?

I escaped my reverie when I noticed the game of keep away, with Rainbow and Applejack trying to make sure Rarity couldn't get a hold of the picture. Pinkie managed to snag the photo in her teeth and proudly displayed it to Rarity.

I was surprised the windows didn't shatter at the pitch and volume of the shriek.

The doctor stormed in, unamused, and sentenced us all back to our beds, the nurses coming back to reattach our vital sign monitors. I wondered, personally, how much one of those devices cost and whether I could make some form of materia out of it, and if so, what would it even do?

When things had settled down, Twilight quietly drew out her scroll. "Makeovers. Check. Now it's time for ghost stories."

The ponies' stories were more cute than horrifying, no matter how much they tried to spin them up. At least to me. Fluttershy's story, especially, about the ghost of a mischievous squirrel who liked to steal everypony's tea bags from their cupboards, resulting in unsuspecting hosts failing at the main part of throwing tea parties. The funniest part, that all of us did an admirable job avoiding laughing at, was the Fluttershy herself seemed genuinely terrified of the prospect. The mare could stare down an ursa major but shivered at the prospect of being unable to provide a guest some tea.

Twilight's tale was by far the most serious of the lot, and I had to wonder whether it had been memorized from a book or somehow amalgamated from a few such tales. But once the shrieks of fright had subsided, the ponies all turned to me.

"Your turn, Cloud," Twilight said. "I'm sure you must have some really scary ghost stories, especially since you don't seem to have been the least bit scared by any of ours."

I thought a moment, before my recent dreams gave me an idea. A bad idea, perhaps. "I'm not sure if I should be telling you all this one."

"Ooo," Rarity said with a shiver. "I'm getting goosebumps already. Don't leave us waiting, darling."

"Yeah, this one's gotta be good," Rainbow insisted.

"Maybe I should listen from under the bed?" Fluttershy asked, but made do hiding under her blanket.

Twilight got out a quill and a fresh scroll, though I was uncertain whether she would be writing down my story, or simply recording observations of my companions.

"It all started the day I met my first dragon," I began.

"... but I wasn't even nearly a match for Sephiroth. He knocked my blade aside easily, and with a deadly slash of his own, he sent me flying through the air to my death," I finished.

There was a heady silence for a few minutes before Fluttershy finally voiced what they were all thinking.

"W-wait... does that mean y-you're a-a-a... ghost?!" she asked, terrified.

"You tell me," I said, grinning viciously in a way that showed off my canines and drawing forth my power enough to bring out the glow in my eyes. The butter colored pegasus eeped and hid completely under her covers.

"It's alright Flutters, she's still alive. See, she you can hear her heart monitor," Rainbow pointed out.

"Besides, I reckon if she is a ghost, she's clearly a friendly one," Applejack added.

"Not friendly to dragons," Fluttershy pointed out, making me recoil as if struck. "Nor ursas," she added more quietly, but I heard perfectly clearly.

"Besides, dear, it's a ghost story, right? They're all just made up... right Cloud?" Rarity inquired.

I hesitated, thinking about it. After two nights of dreaming about it, the memories were starting to get mixed up with my dreams into a jumbled mess. "It's... there's some truth to it, but I embellished more than a little to make a good ghost story," I offered. "And, no I didn't die there, Fluttershy," I said with more conviction than I felt at that moment. "I got injured and knocked out, sure, but I survived. And so did Tifa. I met her again in Midgar, so I know she's doing alright." Well, assuming she was able to get free of that Don Corneo creep on her own, but there was little reason to doubt that.

"Alright, girls. Ghost stories... check. Next is... s'mores. Any chance we can get those here in the hospital?" Twilight said, trying to get everything back on track.

"On it!" Pinkie declared, before escaping.

"What's after that?" Rarity inquired.

"Truth or dare," Twilight read off the list.

"Oh! This will be fun," Rarity said, clopping her hooves together. Finally, a chill ran down my spine.