What time is it now? Ten? Twelve? Whatever the time, it’s the dead of night and there isn’t much for me to do. In the city that has everything one could ask for, there isn’t much for a monster griffon to do past curfew.

I flew around the city. There aren’t any good bars open, even in the Green Zone. I think that’s what it’s called. There’s the Red Zone and Yellow Zone, so I assume there’s the Green zone. Whatever it’s called, there’s not much going on with Blackwatch locking down the place. What is a monster griffon who doesn’t sleep supposed to do during this hour?

At some point in my mindless wandering, I decide to head back to the scone shop. It’s the only thing I can think of doing. My other option is to harass some Blackwatch goons who are on patrol tonight, but I don’t feel up for a fight. To Gilda’s Family Scones!

When I arrive, the street looks the same as it did in the wee hours of the morning, a big mess. All the stores are still boarded up, and all the scars of war are still on the street. None of the lamps are on, and I can barely see anything with my night vision. At least it isn’t raining now.

And then there’s my store, still as abandoned as ever. The boards are still up on the windows, and the blood at the doorstep is still there. I wonder what happened here. The ‘Scone Quarry’ sign is still hanging up. Maybe I’ll replace it tonight with a more suitable sign. Find a board and some paint, come up with a nice little design. I got nothing else better to do.

“Hello Gilda,” a voice whispers.

I jump at the voice and find the shadow of a pony standing behind me. It’s a pegasus, with a business suit and a grin with his teeth showing. Even with nightvision, it’s too dark to see his coat colors. I can’t make out his face.

“Um, hello,” I say back to him. There’s a stranger outside of my store who knows my name. This isn’t suspicious at all. “Do I know you?”

“No, but I know you,” the stranger says. That is a voice of a stallion that I do not trust. “You’re a business owner who is going through hard times, is indulging in old habits, and is now mixing with the wrong people. It’s a common story here in Manehattan.”

I suppose that’s correct. My store is in the Red Zone, Blackwatch wants me dead, but I don’t know about the habits. Bullying, I guess. Has this guy been following me? “Who are you? Are you Blackwatch?”

The stranger shakes his head. “It will be best if you don’t know who I am. But you should know that I would like to be your friend. I want to be the friend that helps you, Gilda.”

Yes, Mr. Stranger Danger, that sounds like a great idea. Let’s hold hooves and be creepy stranger friends. Nothing could go wrong. “What do you want?”

“I want to help you. It’s what friends do,” he says. Is it just me, or is he walking backwards? “As a friend, I can help you with your little business issue. Think of it as a favor.”

His hooves trot backwards, and he slides back into the darkness. He is walking backwards! What’s with this guy?

“I just need a favor in return. One simple favor…”

Stranger Danger disappears into the shadows, and he’s gone. Not even my night vision can see that guy.

What the heck was that all about? He wants a favor, but what’s the favor? What does he want? Where did he go? This has to be something Blackwatch set up.

I wait for what feels like hours, but nothing happens. Blackwatch doesn’t jump out to beat the crap out of me. Stanger Danger doesn’t pop out of the shadows to stab me. I’m just alone, and slightly confused.

Stranger Danger isn’t coming back. He’s long gone now. He could be lurking in the shadows, watching every move I make. I don’t know where he is.

The sound of ceramic dishes clatters behind me. I turn around, but find no one standing behind me. However, something is glowing. From between the window boards, there’s a soft glow coming from inside the shop. Someone is inside there, and they turned on the lights.

I go up to the door and tug at the handle. I expect it to be locked tight, but no. It pulls open without any trouble, even a tiny bell rings. Huh, I guess I didn’t check if this was locked this morning. I open the door all the way and walk inside, careful to step around the blood splatter.

A voice greets me when I walk in. “Hey, Gilda! What’s up?”

That voice, I know that voice. I double-take when I see who’s inside. The one pony in the world I thought I’d never see today, the one pony who I thought I’d have to go to hell and back just to find, is sitting on a barstool, taking a sip from her mug.

She smiles at me, and her raspy voice cracks through the air. “Are you going to just stand there? Come on over.”

My mouth is hanging wide open. Every mental process in my head stops dead. The only thing I can do is listen to her and follow her instructions. I walk on over and sit on the stool next to her.

“What’s with the face?” she asks. “You look like someone nipped you in the buds.”

This is… wow… I can’t believe it. “Rainbow Dash…”

The pegasus smiles and takes another sip. “That’s my name, say it whenever you can, as much as you can.”

I… I can’t believe it! It’s her. Her rainbow mane, her blue coat, her cockiness. “It’s really you.”

Rainbow’s eyebrow goes up. “Who else would I be? I’m the only Rainbow Dash around.”

“But Pinkie said you’ve been missing for a month!” I say. “I’ve been gone for a month! Where have you been?”

“Oh, you know, chilling,” she says. She seems casual about all this. We’ve both been missing for the past few weeks and she doesn’t look all that worried about anything. “I do what I usually do. Sleep, fly fast, train for the Wonderbolts. I even saved the world once or twice.”

This is a bit surreal. Out of all the places in Manehattan, Rainbow was sitting here the whole time. I wonder why Gilda sense didn’t pick her up.

Rainbow drinks the last of her coffee and slides the mug down the counter. “And what have you been doing this past month? It definitely hasn’t been running this store. This place is a mess!”

I shrug. “I’ve been trapped in a lab, so I’m a bit slow to what’s going on. I just woke up this morning and been busy all day.”

“Stuck in a lab for a month? I bet you had the biggest cramp when you got out.”

“I do. It’s called Blackwatch.”

She chuckles at my little joke. From the back of the shop, I can here dishes clanking together. Something is whistling back there, but there’s no way for me to see back there through a wall.

“Who’s that in the kitchen?” I ask.

Rainbow looks up and waves a hoof. “He said he’s your assistant chef. Nice guy. He’s baking me a special treat. I can share with you if you want.”

I have an assistant? Crap, there’s so much I don’t remember about this shop. I’m going to have to relearn everything! I am not looking forward to that.

“What’s he making?” I ask.

Rainbow shrugs. “I don’t know. He said it was a special recipe you came up with, so I assume it’s a cool Griffonstone-style scone or something like that.”

Double crap, what are my recipes? Do I even remember how to bake scones? That’s the big reason I opened up a sconeshop in Manehattan, to bake scones! If I don’t know how to bake, then how am I going to run a sconeshop?

The bell rings behind me, and I turn to see who’s walking in. Stranger Danger? No, it’s not him. It’s a little filly earthpony, with a blue coat and a white, wavy mane. As she walks in the store, I notice something odd. She’s limping as she walks. She’s hopping on one hoof and walking with two others, but she’s missing a forth. She’s missing a back leg!

“Hi Sea Salt, what’s going on?” Rainbow says, greeting the filly.

The little three-legged filly smiles at Rainbow Dash and limps up to the stool right next to her. “It’s going great. Who’s the griffon.”

“This feather-brain?” Rainbow says, nodding at me. “This is Gilda. We’ve been friends since we were kids in flight school. Hey Gilda, you remember Sea Salt here, don’t you?”

Sea Salt hops up on the stool and gives me a grin. Something about her face looks familiar, but I can’t put my claw on it. Didn’t I hear that name recently? “Sorry, I’m having trouble remembering anything lately,” I say. “I have a nasty case of amnesia.”

Rainbow reels back in shock. “You don’t remember anything?”

I shake my head. “Nothing in Manehattan. It’s all foggy in the back of my head.”

“Do you remember meeting her in Genicorn?”

Again, I shake my head. “Nope, not ringing any bells.”

“Huh, well that’s a shame. This brave young lady here,” Rainbow says, nodding to the kid, “Is in the Second-Chance program, just like me.”

The filly smiles. “Yep, the doctors say they can grow me a new leg!” She wiggles the stub where her back leg should be. “They already fixed Rainbow’s wing, and they say they can do the same for me.”

“That’s cool,” I say. “So the doctors finally fixed your wing.”

“For the most part.” Rainbow stretches out her wing and gives it a few flaps. “It’s as good as new, but there is one problem. These little random teeth keep growing where feathers should be. I get one or two every couple of days, but they’re easy to remove. Eureka says his team is figuring out how to stop it, but for now I’m happy to have my wing back.”

“Good to hear that.” I can smell the scent of cooking rolling in from the back. I wander what the chef is making. “So these teeth, are they little bones sticking out or are they actual teeth?”

“They’re full-grown pearly whites.” She stretches her mouth open and points to her teeth. “You could pull one of those suckers out and put it in my mouth, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. It’s just a side effect of the Blacklight plague. The lab boys say they’ll iron out the kinks soon enough.”

My head perks up at the last thing she said. “Blacklight plague? You mean they’ve been injecting you with Blacklight?”

Rainbow nods. “That’s what the ponies are calling the plague, Blacklight. I hear it’s turning everyone into hideous monsters. Real nasty stuff. Oh hey, dinner is ready.”

I look up and can hear the chef moving around back there. Sounds like he’s done cooking. The wall budges out, and the bricks burst away as the chef walks through the wall. He’s a pony monster, the pony monster I fought today. He’s got a chef’s hat on, and an apron, and is holding a silver platter in his monster hoof.

The pony monster sets the platter on the counter, kisses his hoof and flicks the air, and grunts to wish us a good meal. He turns around and stomps back into the kitchen, blowing the brickwork apart to make another hole despite having the first one available.

Rainbow Dash is almost drooling over the platter, and Sea Salt smacks her lips. All it takes for me is one look at the main course, and I got to grab my beak to keep myself from puking.

The platter is full of monster tidbits, the same tidbits I ripped off today, only a lot more, at least a hundred. They’re not even fully cooked. They’re raw, oh so raw. They’re wiggling and whipping around like a pit of snakes and one of them is waving at me!

There’s a hungry grin on Rainbow’s face, and Sea Salt is just as enthusiastic. “Well, what are you waiting for? Dig in!”

I can’t look. I turn away just as the girls reach out to grab a hoof-full each. I can’t see them, but I can hear them chomp down on the little suckers and hear them go squish in their mouths. Why? Just Why? What is wrong with you two?!

“Hey Gilda,” Sea Salt says with her mouth half full of… bleh! “Do you want some? There’s enough for all of us. There’s enough for everyone in Manehattan to have a bite. Heck, these things can take over Equestria!”

This is a joke. This is one of Rainbow’s sick jokes, and somehow she got a filly involved. A filly! How sick is she?

“If she doesn’t want any, that’s more Blacklight for us!” Rainbow says, munching ever louder on the platter. “Although, this is your recipe. You gave Manehattan Blacklight. You should try some of this, too.”

“Thanks for the Blacklight plague, Gilda, it’s delicious,” Sea Salt says in a sing song voice. “You know, Doctor Eureka said I turned into a ranging monster thirteen minutes and twelve seconds after infection. Heck, I even got boils around twenty seven seconds.”

“Wow, that’s fast,” Rainbow Dash says. “That’s got to be a world record. I bet I can beat you.”

“Not a chance. I already have boils on my neck. Look!”

I dare look up at the filly, and sure enough, she has boils. In fact, boils are popping up all over her head like a boiling pot of water. Huh, boils, boiling pot, I think I figured a word out. I would appreciate the moment, but Sea Salt's face is bubbling like crazy. I can barely see her eyes with how puffy she’s getting.

“Drat, I can’t beat that time,” Rainbow Dash says. “Maybe I should eat more.”

“Nope, no matter what you do, you can’t beat me!” The filly giggles, and then her head falls off. Plop, right off the neck. She keeps giggling as her head rolls on the floor. Her blue coat is turning to a puke-green color, and her hair is thinning and drifting in the air. “Oops. Can someone put my head in a jar please?”

The severed head jumps at me, and I freak out and fall off my seat. It jumps at me again, and I kick it out of the air. What sheep-bucker makes scones out of Blacklight?!

Rainbow Dash looks down at me and laughs. “Look at that, Gilda is a scaredy-cat. Even the severed head of a filly spooks her.”

“She’s trying to bite me!” I yell as I swat the bouncing head away. “You try acting brave when a monster is trying to eat you!”

Rainbow Dash tilts her head, and her faces drops to the side. Her skin stretches down, and then half her face falls off, leaving behind her exposed skull. “Look at you. You’re crawling on the floor like the worm you are. You’re my friend, Gilda. I expect my friends to stand up against their fuck ups.”

I roll over and push myself up, but Rainbow steps on my back and pushes me down. I try to swing around and punch her off of me, but her liquefied face pours over my arms and sticks me to the floor.

Rainbow opens her mouth, and all of her teeth fall out. They land in the face goop with tiny, little plops, and the teeth crawl forward to my face. “You fucked up, Gilda, and you know it.” The teeth move around in the goop to mimic her talking mouth. “You killed me, Gilda. You killed us all.”

Sea Salt’s head rolls over and yells in my ear. “Look at us, Gilda, you did this to us!”

“You killed us all! You killed us all!” A million voices chant those words over and over again. The world shakes, and millions of pony monsters pour out of the kitchen and crawl over the ceiling and walls like cockroaches. “You killed us all!”

“You killed us all!” Sea Salt chants with the monsters. “You killed us all!”

“You did this to us,” the teeth say in my face, yelling over the chanting and heavy feet of the monsters. “You killed us all!”

The monsters scurry behind me and bite at my head, pulling me apart by the feathers. I can’t move my arms! I can’t move anything! Everything is pulling me in every direction. Rainbow’s goop is growing over me. Her lifeless corpse is standing over me, and its grinning. It’s grinning at me!

“You killed us all! You killed us all! You killed us all!”

Another set of footsteps enters through the shop entrance. It wades through the throngs of pony monsters, and walks right up to my head. A horn glows above me, and the face of the purple unicorn looks down.

“Do you even know what you did wrong?” the unicorn asks.

“No!” I shout. “I did nothing wrong! I didn’t do anything!”

“That is a shame,” the unicorn says. “I’m going to kill you, and you don’t even know why.”

The unicorn’s horn glows bright and consumes the world. The monsters, the severed head, the scone shop, Rainbow, all of it is consumed by the bright light. But I can still hear them. They’re all yelling louder than ever. I can’t see them, but they’re yelling the same thing over and over.

My feathers are burning away.

“You killed us all! You killed us all!”

My skin is on fire. The light’s roasting me!

“I didn’t do anything!” I shout.

The world goes completely white, and the chanting is all I hear. I can’t even hear my own shouting now. My bones are melting too, melting into a hot puddle of burning crisp griffon. This is the end! This is how I go!

“This is… insightful.” A new voice breaks through the chanting. It’s a feminine voice, a voice that is calm, a shining lighthouse amongst a raging storm. “I find it sad that this isn’t the most horrific scene I’ve witnessed tonight. Allow me to help you.”

The chanting stops, along with the burning. I feel nothing. Nothing is holding me down. I try lifting an arm, and I can feel it move. My claw clenches, moves around, and even boops my beak. My other limbs can move without trouble, too. Everything is still white, but at least I can see myself.

“Ah, much better,” the voice says, letting out a sigh of relief. “I can hear myself think now. But we can go further than this. Would you like to go to a more hospitable location?”

The white space fades away, and in its place a new world comes forth. The air here has a pleasant warmth to it. The sun is up high in the sky. Its light trickles through the leaves of a tree above me. Green mountains roll across the countryside. There’s a village in the distance, and the shape of Canterlot jutting out of even more distant mountains.

“Hmm, Ponyville,” the voice says with a tinge of curiosity. “I expected to see Griffonstone. Do you value this village more than your birthplace?”

I look around, but I don’t see anyone near me. It’s just me under this tree. “Who are you?” I call out. “What’s going on?”

“This is your dream, Gilda.” A dark-blue shape streaks through the sky. It circles around to my tree and lands in front of me. She’s a pegasus, no, an alicorn! She has wings and a horn, and is about as tall as me, and has a dark crown on top of her head. “And I am Princess Luna,” the alicorn says.

“Oh… wow.” My eyes go wide as it registers in my head what’s going on here. This is a dream. Everything that happened in the sconeshop is just in my head. All of that… gunk didn’t really happen. I didn’t find Rainbow Dash, but at least she didn’t really melt all over me. She’s still out there. “Wait, I thought you only did the dreams of ponies.”

“I enter the dreams of all creatures within the nation of Equestria,” Princess Luna says. “Although I’ve found in the past that entering the dreamscape of creatures outside of our borders is not beneficial to foreign relations.”

“Huh… this is…” I stumble on my words. I don’t know what to say. The Lunar Princess is in my head right now. “So how is this supposed to work? Am I supposed to bow in respect? Is this a casual thing and we’re on the same footing?”

“Normally I’d be respectful to you, as it is your dreams I am entering.” Princess Luna looks at me with stern eyes. She isn’t smiling. Neither is she frowning. Her face is flat. “I would be your guest, only here to offer advice and assistance.”

Something isn’t right here. I can feel it in my gut. “And I take it this isn’t a normal visit?”

“No, it is not. Please, take a seat.” Princess Luna lifts a hoof up, and a table with chairs pops out of the ground. There’s even a tea set and tiny muffins for refreshments. “You can call this visit a meeting regarding national security. Consider this a formal affair, and we both are equals in standing.”

We both pull out our own chairs and sit down. I grab one of the muffins and take a bite out of it. Mmm, tastes like honey and strawberries, an interesting combination. If I still have my baking skills, I’ll have to try to make this when I wake up.

Princess Luna doesn’t take anything off the table. She is sitting up straight. Her hooves are clasping together, resting on the table mat. “I must be upfront with you, Gilda. My goal here is to convince you to turn yourself in and take responsibility of your recent actions.”

I chow down on the rest of the muffin and talk with my beak full. Of course she isn’t here for a nice little chat. “You’re here because Blackwatch asked you to be here, aren’t you?”

Luna nods. “Indirectly, yes. I received a note from a party involved with Blackwatch to set up this meeting with you if necessary. That was in the morning, when your body count was at nineteen.”

The muffin lodges in my throat and I choke on the crumbs. That’s weird, I’m in a dream. I shouldn’t be able to choke in a dream! “Nineteen?!”

“Just in the morning. It’s now estimated at twenty six plus a missing scientist, and that is not counting the lives lost to the monster you released in the Music Hall.”

Oh right, the monster. He went his own way, didn’t he? That guy could reck a city if he wanted to. “How many did the monster kill?”

“I was not told the exact number, but the previous dream I visited was of one of the Blackwatch foot-soldiers who had to kill the beast. His dream was much more disturbing than the one you had, and yet it’s still not the worst I’ve seen tonight.”

Wow, twenty six. That’s not something you think about unless the ruler of a nation sits down in front of you and says it to your face. “Okay, I did kill those ponies. However, they were all in self-defense. Blackwatch shot first.”

Luna bites her lip and shakes her head. “That is not entirely true.”

“What? Did I squish a fly or something?”

“It’s written on the note I received. It gives a detailed report of what happened when you woke up.” A piece of paper materializes next to the princess. Her eyes go down the list as she looks through the details. “Ah, here it is. It says, and I quote, you broke out of your restraints, punched a guard to death and liquefied him and absorbed the fluids, and proceeded to kill and repeat the process to at least four other ponies. From what this says, it sounds like you were the first to strike.”

“Blackwatch could be lying to you,” I say. “It would be something they would do.”

“They could be. However, I also received a roll of film depicting the event. Allow me to show you.”

A large, white tarp rolls down from the tree branches. A film projector falls from the sky and plops down next to the table. It spools up and lights up the tarp with its projection. The image is a bit grainy, and has no color, like what all films look like. I think there’s colored film in development, but this clearly isn’t colored.

The scene on the screen is one of me. I’m strapped down to a table, and a scientist is standing next to me and talking. There isn’t any sound, but I don’t need any. I can sort of remember what the guy said this morning. It’s not anything important.

A few seconds in, my eyes open, my arms yank out of the restraints, and I pounce on the scientist and beat him to a pulp. After a few more seconds, I get this horrified look on my face as the scientist melts into me. A couple of spells come off screen and hit me, and I pounce on the shooter next.

That’s the end of the film. The projector goes dark and the tarp rolls back up.

“As you can see, the evidence provided is against you. While you may not be convicted of every kill you’ve made, a case can be made that you are a dangerous individual and should be dealt with accordingly.”

Son-of-a-bison, they’re going to lock me away! Wait, I was already locked away. “And why am I strapped down to the table? That looks like Blackwatch is doing something to me already.”

Luna puts her hooves to her chin and rests her head on them. “I asked that question myself. Do you have an answer?”

I shrug. I never thought to ask that question today. That is a good question. Why was I on a table to begin with? “I don’t know. I have a bad case of amnesia, and I can’t remember anything that’s happened here in Manehattan.”

The princess frowns. “I had hoped you would be able to answer that.”

My eyebrow goes up. “Blackwatch didn’t tell you why?”

She shakes her head. “No. When I asked, I was told it was best if I didn’t know.”

“Because they would lie to you if they say anything.”

“Possibly. With this absence of information, there is some doubt in your case. I am treating you as an equal instead of a monster because of this. You may have killed ponies today, but there may have been more done to you than I’ve been told about.”

“Like turning me into a monster.” At any point today, did I question where I got my powers? I don’t think so. I just had them and rolled with it. “So what are you going to do with me? Are you going to kill me?”

The princess shakes her head. “Make no mistake, you have to face punishment for what you’ve done. However, it won’t be in the hands of Blackwatch. If you turn yourself in to me, I’ll make sure you have a fair trial, one which you can have the chance to defend yourself in.”

“You’re asking me to give myself up. That would be a dumb move on my part.”

“I understand why you wouldn’t want to do it, but consider the alternative. Blackwatch wants you dead. If they can, they’ll kill you, and you will be forgotten. No trial, no chance to get out, they will do as they wish to you. However, if you turn yourself in, I will ensure you are provided the same treatment as anyone else held in the legal system.”

That’s a fair point. Who knows what Blackwatch would do if they got their dirty little hands on me. However, prison doesn’t sound too nice either. Chains and crappy meals are not my thing. “And the evidence will be stacked against me and I’ll be put in a cell for the rest of my life.”

“That’s not entirely true. With the right legal defense, you have a chance to defend yourself and lessen your punishment. And Blackwatch can’t touch you while you’re within the system. I’d say it’s preferable to Blackwatch sweeping you under the rug.”

“But I’d still be locked up.”

“But you’ll have a chance.”

Those are some fun choices. Take my chances with Blackwatch, or take responsibility and jump into the legal system. With option one, I’ll have to fight against Blackwatch to survive. With option two, I won’t have to do that, just as long I’m ready to put on an orange jumpsuit and give up everything. Fight or die, anyone?

“I understand the position you are in,” Luna continues. “I too have committed heinous crimes in the past, and I was also punished for them. We all must pay for our crimes, Gilda, whether we want to or not.”

Is she bringing the Two Sisters tale into this? One thousand years on the moon doesn’t sound that fun to me either. “Look, I get what you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to relate to me with the Nightmare Moon thing, that’s not going to fly with me. We have two completely different stories.”

Princes Luna frowns a little. “You can still relate to something even when some details don’t align.”

“Sure, but you went berserk because your sister didn’t share with you,” I say, pointing at her. “I went berserk because some shady organization strapped me to a table for a month. There’s a difference there.”

The princess doesn’t say a word, so I go on.

“You were working off jealousy, I’m not. I’m trying to figure out what the heck is going on here, and ponies with blue goggles keep shooting at me while I do so. Heck, I’m trying to find my best friend in the world, which is more than Nightmare Moon ever did.”

“Your best friend, who is that?” Luna asks.

“Rainbow Dash. I think you know her.”

“I do,” she says, nodding. “I was under the impression she died in the outbreak.”

“Pinkie Pie says otherwise.”

Her eyebrows goes up. “Pinkie Pie?”

I nod. “Yeah, Pinkie Pie. She has some weird sense that tells her when things will happen. I know that sounds crazy, but I got a sense that tells me where things are, so I believe her when she say Rainbow Dash is out there.”

“I see.”

I slam my claws on the table and stand up. “So when you say I should turn myself in, I say no. I’m going to find Rainbow Dash, because if there’s anyone on this green earth who can do it, it’s going to be me!”

Luna leans back a bit and keeps her face flat. “You sound adamant about this quest of yours.”

“You bet your shiny, black crown I am. There is nothing you can say to get me to back down.”

“Very well.” She waves a hoof, and the table set disintegrates into a cloud of dust and blows away with a gust of air. Without I surface for me to lean on, I lose my balance and fall down in front of the Princess’s hooves. Even in my dreams, I’m falling all over the place.

“Hey, that was uncalled for!” I yell at her, spitting out a tuff of grass.

“It may have been, but I thought it was funny,” she says, letting a sly grin show. “I won’t blame you for trying to find your friend. You still need to answer for your crimes. However, I’ll allow my offer to stand for the time being.”

“I’m not going to take it,” I say.

“And I’ll still allow it to stand,” Luna says. “If you do plan on finding Rainbow Dash, I suggest doing it before you are apprehended. We will be looking for you.”

“You’re going to have to fight me when you do,” I say.

“As I would expect.” Luna gets up from her chair and flaps her wings, taking to the air. “I suggest you consider my offer sooner than later, Gilda. Every day you evade us is another day you’re chances of survival diminish.”

“And I’ll take my chances,” I say. “Now get out of my dream. You’re violating the Griffon-Pony No-Dream-Walking treaty.”

The princess smirks. “There is no such treaty. But it is time for me to go. You’re about to wake up. Farewell, Gilda.”

She disappears into the sky, and leaves me to be. Damn right I’m going to wake up. I am going to wake up and find Rainbow Dash, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

I really hope the nightmares aren’t reoccurring.

Author's Notes:

Achievement Unlocked
24 Hours Later – Survive the First Day

Locked Achievements
Right Out of the Lab – Complete the Tutorial