Pinkie hopped away from Sweet Apple Acres, smiling brightly. Applejack had needed some help with apple picking that day and Pinkie had been happy to oblige. Pinkie giggled to herself. She loved helping her friends, because helping her friends made her friends smile.

Pinkie craned her head up at the sky, glancing at the light rays criss - crossing the sky. The sun had begun setting, creating long streaks of color up and down the sky. Pinkie smiled at the dark purples and blues and oranges through the sky. It was so beautiful to her. The clouds reflected all of the colors, fracturing them into shards of light like crystals.

She hopped to Sugarcube Corner, smiling. It had been a long day, and Pinkie could use some nice rest. Maybe she could munch on some cupcakes while she sat on the couch or something. She walked into the bakery, smiling, and walked to the kitchen. She grabbed a cupcake and hopped back to the couch, sitting and taking a bite out of the tasty treat.

Pinkie gagged. “Ugh! What’s in this cupcake?!” Pinkie was a fan of all flavors – Chocolate, Vanilla, Artichoke and Banana, and even the occasional ‘Fake Blood’ cupcakes for Halloween – but this cupcake tasted like someone has shoved blandness into nothingness and wrapped non-existent pastry around it! Pinkie shook her head. “How on earth did somepony manage to make a cupcake like this???” She stood and walked over to the trash can to throw the horrible baked BAD away.

As she stood, Pinkie noticed she was a little unsteady on her hooves. It had been a long day. She could use some rest. After drinking a bit of water to wash out the taste of blandness, Pinkie walked upstairs to her room. Her room wasn’t very large, but it was hers. Everything about it was just perfect for her – there was nothing bad about her life in Ponyville. Not even the big dumb meanie Discord could have ruined the life she had there.

Pinkie lied down on her bed, feeling dizzy. She knew she hadn’t been working so hard to make her feel this weak. She still tasted the tastelessness of the cupcake from earlier. How could somepony make a cupcake like that? She closed her eyes, thinking about this. All of her thoughts felt as though they spun around in a little whirl, confusing and chaotic. Nothing seemed to be right in her mind, and her head hurt horribly. She felt herself slowly drift off to a fitful sleep, her dreams haunted by the voices of her friends.

“It’s coming from a dragon.” Twilight stood on the bridge in town, Spike riding her back per usual for the baby dragon. Everypony around gasped. Twilight asked all of her close friends if they could follow her to her house to explain in further detail the smoke spreading over all of Equestria.

“What in tha name of all thin’s cinnamon swirl is a full grown dragon doin’ here in Equestria,” Applejack asked, concern pouring out of her voice.

“Sleeping.” Twilight’s horn glowed as she moved a few scrolls into her bag. Her 5 friends all looked at each other, confused. “According to Princess Celestia, he’s taking a nap. His snoring is causing all this smoke.”

Pinkie looked at Applejack and Rarity. “He should really see a doctor. That doesn’t sound healthy at all!”

“Well, at least he’s not snoring FIRE!” Rarity turned to Twilight. “W-what are we supposed to do about it?”

“I’ll tell you what we’re meant to do,” a boisterous voice shouted from above them. Everypony turned to Rainbow Dash. “Give him the boot!” She kicked a small statue on Twilight’s desk aggressively. “Take that!” She tried to attack it again, saying “And that!” However, Twilight used her magic to levitate the statue. Rainbow went flying into a bookshelf.

“We need to ‘encourage’ him to take a nap somewhere else,” Twilight said, putting emphasis on the word encourage. “Princess Celestia has given us this mission and we must not fail. If we do, Equestria will be covered in smoke for the next 100 years!”

Rarity scoffed, glancing at Pinkie Pie. “Talk about getting your beauty sleep.”

“Alright, Everypony! I need you to gather supplies quickly. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us. Let’s meet back here in less than an hour.”

Rainbow flew up into the air. “Okay, girls! You heard her! The fate of Equestria is in our hooves! Do we have what it takes?!”

“Oh yes- You bettcha!- We can do it!- Obviously-“ All of the friends voices coupled together as they left the treehouse, going to their separate homes.

Pinkie hopped to Sugarcube Corner quickly, eager to be back at the tree quickly. Oh, she was so nervousxcited! She quickly went searching for her balloons and confetti. Maybe throwing the dragon a super duper awesome party would mean he would be so hyper, he wouldn’t even need to sleep!

Pinkie jumped as there was a roar. It sounded close. She heard screams. She heard… static? A man was screaming for her… or was it at her? She heard herself saying ‘No more no more wake me up wake me up’ loudly. Why would she need to wake up unless… this was a dre-

Pinkamena sat up and screamed as she awoke from her nightmare. Two doctors were attempting to restrain her as the stallion in front of her stopped screaming her name. She stopped screaming as well, tears rolling down her face. The nightmare had seemed so real…

The stallion in front of her was the same from before. He sighed with a small smile of relief. “Thank Celestia, you’ve woken. You scared us, Pinkamena.”

Pinkie looked around. She was in the room from the dream… She tore her hoof out of the stallions’ grasps and wiped away her tears to see better. She made sure to glance at the doctors name tag. Doctor Silver Tongue. Pinkie stuck the name in her mind to remember for later. She wanted to remember as much as she could about this strange world. “C-call me Pinkie…” Her voice was sounding better than before. Maybe it was because of the sparse amount of talking she had done the last time she was here.

“The first time you saw me, Miss, you asked me to call you Pinkamena. I have never once wavered from that order.”

Pinkie thought about his statement. Had she really told him to do that?... She shook her head. This was a dream, she reminded herself. She had fallen asleep back in Ponyville. If he said he wanted to call her Pinkamena that meant that somewhere deep in her mind she wanted to be Pinkamena. Or something like that. She nodded to him. “A-alright… You can call me Pinkamena.”

Doctor Silver smiled. “Very good, Pinkamena. Are you starting to feel a bit better than last time?”

Pinkamena looked at him closely. “W-what was last time again? I want to make sure…” She felt strange. The last time she had been here, it had induced a horrifying panic. Now, however, she felt calm. Sedated, even.

“The last time you were here, you learned your friends were dead.”

She hung her head. That’s right. In this strange dream place, her friends were all dead. She sighed, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She wanted to know more about this strange place… so she would have to follow by its rules. “H-how did they die,” she asked hesitantly.

The doctor’s eyes widened in surprise. Pinkamena had never admitted to the fact that her friends had died. This was proof that she was changing. “There was a dragon… He woke from his sleep and laid waste to your town. Only a spare few survived, including you. No one survived unscathed.”

Pinkie looked down at the scars marring her body. Burn marks. Her mind flashed back to the dream she had just woken from. A fire, a dragon… It had been the same dragon Fluttershy had tamed with her soothing words… What had gone wrong? “Who all survived?...”

“A mare who had permanent damage to her eyes and seems to have some mental scarring. We’re having trouble finding the name. A male Pegasus with a peculiar coat who goes by Time Turner. His scars seemed to heal rather quickly. A mare by the name of Lyra, who is mourning the death of her close friend. And finally, there seems to be a small dragon…”

Pinkie perked up. Dragon? “Green and purple?”

The doctor nodded with a small smile. “Yes, Pinkamena. Spike survived.” The doctor stood. “Do you wish to see him?”

All thoughts of her own home were driven from her mind as Pinkie stood up, a smile brightening on her face. “Yes, p-please, I need to see somepony I know.”

The doctor nodded and opened the door. “Then let’s go.”

Author's Note

:3 I didn't put tags on for Spike yet, i'm making this story up as I go along. Hope you all enjoy this. Also, all credit for that dream sequence goes to the actual show, Dragonshy in Season 1.