Waiting For You

by Rainb0wDashie

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Gilda, Tragedy, Adventure
Length: 41150

Rainbow Dash is plagued with visions and nightmares that beckon her back to a place long-forgotten by Equestrian History

Book One in The Rainb0w Mythos

Rainbow Dash hasn't been sleeping well, in fact, she hasn't been sleeping well for the better half of a month now.  Tossing and turning at night, sleeping past her alarms, and often waking up exhausted, confused, and with her hooves outstretched as if to reach out for somepony. Thinking she's maybe just exercising too hard she tries to take it easy on herself, that is until a series of unpredictable nightmares bring Rainbow Dash back to a place long forgotten by Equestrian history.

Inspired by the music of Cult of Luna, A Pale Horse Named Death, and the author's own dreams; This is a story about the things we believe in, the things swept away by the passage of time, and the things left behind that are still there waiting for you.

Links:

- If you like this story, consider supporting me on Patreon so I can bring you more content in the future!
- Join the Club Awesome Discord Channel to hang out with Rainb0w!
- Youtube playlist of this story's musical Inspiration

Credits:

Chapter 3:
Made a derivative poem based on the public domain poem "The Night" by Hilaire Belloc
Directly referenced two paragraphs from the Daily Writing Tips article "Telling a good poem from a bad one" because I was having trouble paraphrasing it
Used a couple stanzas of 'Dead of Winter' by A Pale Horse Named Death
chapter 8:
used a quote by William R. Alger
chapter 9:
Sampled a passage from Ozymandias by Bysshe Shelly
Fimfiction Discord writing help:
Majin Syeekon, PocketHenry, figments - line brainstorming
RB, Shipcord, R5h -similie brainstorming
Symphonic sync, the chronicler, - put a conversation we had into chapter 9

Published 2018-03-31 20:10:14 UTC
Last updated 2018-03-31 20:10:14 UTC

Chapter Two: This Empty Castle

Rainbow Dash stood on the cargo platform and shivered in the cold air. Outside the train, a small group of foals huddled for warmth as the rest were guided down from the boxcar by a stoic-looking stallion in conductor's clothing. Behind them were lights pointed at the train, blinding the pegasus to the point where she had to shield her eyes; but only then could she see the vauguest of shadows. The lights were extremely bright, not like any standard torch or lantern. They burned with a white intensity that didn’t seem to come from any real source and reminded her of the stage lights that illusionist unicorns would cast during their performances.

“Were you followed?” Said a voice from behind the lights. “Did any of them see you?”

“No, your highness.” the conductor responded. “The scouts have done well to ensure I’d come in undetected.”

“Very good. Are there any more?”

“I have another shipment coming in from South Saddleboro” The conductor helped down the second-to-last foal from the train. “Should run about six, six-and-a-half hours.”

“Don’t let us keep you then, your swiftness is of the utmost importance.” The voice said with a grave seriousness. The conductor bowed and walked towards the front of the train and then the voice began addressing Rainbow Dash herself; the only pony still standing on the platform of the train-car. “Come child, we mustn’t dally, we need to join the others.”

Rainbow Dash had many questions crossing her mind, but before she could even articulate a thought she felt herself become weightless as she was lifted with magic and carried through the air away from the train. The lights faded just as fast, leaving the pegasus’ eyes to adjust, and when the world came back into view she could see the train begin to depart.

A loud hiss of air could be heard as the breaks were released and soon followed the familiar chug from the engines. But what struck Rainbow Dash the most was that there was only a single box-car attached to the train engine. She rubbed her eyes, thinking it might’ve been a trick of light from the moon-shine, but when she looked back up the train had disappeared.

Rainbow Dash was set down next to the other foals who were walking in lockstep down a swath of forest land. She stumbled and fell, her hooves having not re-adjusted to gravity yet, and had to run in order to catch up with the others foals who were too gripped with fear and confusion to even stop to help her up.

They just kept walking, almost marching, along.

The moon had cast its pale glow over the forest, illuminating the eyes of the creatures that dwelled within. Mist intermingled with the trees and hung low to the ground. Unsettling noises broke the silence of night, animals called out from within the darkness. Several of the foals cried loudly while most only whimpered softly.

“Do not fear the forest my children,” A voice had called from the front of the pack, belonging to a tall, shadowy figure. The voice commanded authority, strength, and a sense of earnest that made Rainbow Dash feel oddly safe. “No creature in this wood shall harm you, not even the darkness itself. There is no reason to be afraid. Everything will be fine.”

The figure was right, there was no reason to be afraid. Rainbow Dash wasn’t afraid of a dark forest, she’d explored caves and forests much darker than then one she was currently in, but for some reason she couldn’t help but feel slightly unnerved. She felt small. The trees towered over her and faded into the oily black of the night sky. She walked, but she barely felt like she was covering any ground; and she could scarcely see over the tops of the heads of the other foals. She tried to slow down but felt something tug on her wing that kept her moving forward.

Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder to see the feathers of her wing interlaced with those of the yellow filly she'd seen on the train; walking next to her and holding her wing. There was no doubt in Rainbow's mind that this filly was Fluttershy. It had to be her. But the longer Rainbow Dash looked at this filly, the more different she looked. Instead of long pillowy strands of pink hair that tapered down into a swirl, this filly's mane was cut short, like a tomboy, and came to an end in abrupt, split strands just above her shoulders. Her demeanor was different as well. Instead of expressing shyness or timidity, her countenance displayed more confidence and self assurance, but Rainbow Dash could also see fear, confusion, and bewilderment as this filly looked around the forest, not knowing Rainbow Dash had been staring at her for quite some time.

"You don't need to be scared." The filly said, calling Rainbow Dash a name that sounded foreign. "Dear mother said everything was going to be fine. She said we don't need to be afraid."

"Dear mother?" Rainbow thought.

The narrow path led them far away from where the cargo train had dropped them off. The figure at the front of the pack created a small illuminating light with her horn, and as they pressed forward, the dirt path soon melted back into the thickness of the forest. As they went deeper, the thickets and brambles of the underbrush began to get thicker as well. Rainbow Dash could barely walk a meter without some offshooting vine wrapping around her hooves and pulling her face down into the dampness and decay of the forest floor. Branches of neighboring trees bent and twisted around each other from every height and angle, scratching at Rainbow Dash , drawing blood, as she struggled to keep up with the group.

Just when the forest was at its thickest, when it felt like Rainbow Dash was being consumed by the very forest itself, did the group finally enter a clearing, stumbling out of the forest as if crossing over from one world to the next. Before them was a large patch of neatly manicured grass and a crooked cobblestone path that led the foals to an enormous building made of thick grey stone neatly concealed inside the forest clearing.

The tall figure opened the large oaken double doors that marked the entrance and ushered the foals inside.

"This is a safe place," The figure said with a familiar voice. "Far away from the horrors of war and cruelties of the world."

The figure paused, looking up at the building. Her mane waving in an unseen breeze.

"Welcome home, my children."

Rainbow Dash yawned and stepped inside Twilight’s castle.

She hadn't slept well the night before. In fact, she hadn't been sleeping well for the better half of the month now. Much to her dismay but predictably so, she ended up over-sleeping for the third time this week. When she had finally awoken, she only had enough time to eat a hoof-full of oats, step in and out of the shower without washing much of anything, and finally fly down to Ponyville.

However, now that her morning energy had worn off, she was already starting to feel the sour tinge of lethargy pulling at her body. She felt limp when she landed on the castle's step, like wet laundry hung on a clothesline. The muscles in her wings tingled and her hooves felt like they were filled with molasses. It took a considerable amount of effort for her to simply put one in front of the other, and she knew that if she stood still for too long she would surely collapse.

Her body needed rest but her mind needed her body to keep moving in order to burn the lethargy away.

"It's not so bad" The blue pegasus tried to reassure herself as she lumbered through the entrance hall of the castle. "I just have to find Twilight, help arrange her new furniture, go with Applejack to get the new banners from Rarity... Fly to Manehattan to get Twilight's new books... Help move those heavy thrones around to Twilight's Liking..."

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh, which quickly turned into a moanish whine. She hadn't realized just how much work she had agreed to help with. But now that she was sleep deprived though, each tasked seemed monumentally more difficult, and she felt overwhelmed just running the list through her mind.

"Those throne's have to be at least two hundred pounds," Rainbow Dash complained to herself, pulling her hooves over her eyes." And Twilight wants us to move all six!"

Rainbow Dash looked up from her hooves, realizing she was the only pony in the hallway, and continued on her way before pushing through the double-doors leading into the throne room.

"Twilight?" She called out. "Twilight? I'm here to help out."

The only response she got was from her own voice echoing throughout the empty castle. Even though Twilight had been the Princess of Friendship for some time now, many of the rooms still laid barren and unfurnished. Twilight simply couldn't find a use for all of them. It was eerie, the way sounds un-abatedly bounced around the castle, and Rainbow could understand why Twilight wanted to furnish it so badly.

"Twilight!" Rainbow called again, growing annoyed. "Twilight where are you?"

Rainbow Dash emerged back into the hall and trotted towards the front of the castle. Her hooves cast soft echoes as she looked around at the many glass windows that lined the hall. Rainbow wondered to herself if Twilight was going to decorate them to highlight their many adventures, just like in Celestia’s castle. She took a moment to imagine herself, stained onto one of the glass windows, and reveled in the thought; waving her hooves in the air and cheering at an imaginary crowd that had gathered just for her.

"You're the best, Rainbow Dash!" The crowd would say. "There's nopony more awesome-er than you"

Rainbow Dash did a sweeping, dramatic bow, but after a while her imaginary crowd had disappeared, leaving the cyan equine alone again in her friend's empty castle.

Rainbow Dash huffed, and began checking rooms; searching for the purple alicorn.

From the hall, Rainbow Dash stepped into a what she believed to be a bedchamber or a boudoir. Although for all she knew, the room could've been a closet or a cabinet or could have even be one of the kitchen's store-rooms given how unfurnished it was.

She exited back into the hall and stepped into another smaller room which it’s only purpose seemed to be that of a bridge between the hallway that lead to the throne room and the larger, circular, great hall that ran a perimeter around the outermost edge of the castle.

This hallway had even more rooms and every room looked almost exactly the same.

Same solid crystal walls, same polished crystal floors, same polished crystal ceilings. The rooms looked so alike, in fact, that Rainbow Dash was sure she would've gotten herself lost save for the fact that the great hall was curving around to the left.

After what seemed like an hour of searching empty rooms and calling out for her friend, Rainbow Dash wanted to go home. She was tired, annoyed, and a little bit hungry, but more than anything she felt bad. She felt bad, not only for arriving late but for arriving late and blowing off her promises on top of that. Rainbow Dash wanted to stay and help, but she just hated being alone in this empty castle.

It wasn't because it was unpleasant to be in or anything like that. The dark purple crystal and stone motifs of the castle were pleasant to look at. There were many windows that let in a great deal of natural light that would bend and refract inside the crystals of the castle; casting a rainbow of colors across the floor and walls and created colorful motes of blue and white light that would hang in the air. The castle looked fine to Rainbow Dash, cool even. Beautiful if she'd dare to say. But all and all the castle didn't feel beautiful.

Sure, the air was charged from being around so much crystal, she’d try to reason with herself. Standing in the castle often gave her the same feeling as would a gentle breeze blowing through a meadow in the springtime. But it was the underlying emptiness that was always present but hard to notice if she weren’t paying any particular attention to it.

It was a tiny inkling in the back of her mind when she would first set hoof into the castle. It would grow in size when she’d get caught up in a conversation with Rarity as they walked through the halls. It would become too hard to ignore when Pinkie pie would tell a joke that didn’t connect well and the awkward silence would go on for a little too long.

The emptiness was always there in the castle. In every room, in every hallway, in every high arch and windowsill; and it filled Rainbow Dash with anxiety and dread. Not so much because it was an emptiness made from absent things, things that are no longer there, but things that weren't there yet, things that could be there.

Compared to the hundreds of cottages in Ponyville, each one paling in comparison to the size of Twilight castle, a pony could step into a cottage and instantly get a sense of the energy in the home. Who lived there, what they're personalities were like, what they did on a day to day basis; things that felt familiar.

In the same way that the castle's throne room or the kitchen felt familiar since that's where Rainbow and her friends spent most of their time; but those are just tiny bubbles of familiarity beset by the constricting, vacuous emptiness of the castle.

"Oh Rainbow Dash, you're here!" Twilight Sparkle said gleefully as she saw her friend exiting her castle. The purple alicorn was trotting down the path towards the castle levitating many bags of decorating supplies in her magic. “I thought you weren’t going to show up today so I already sent the others out on their errands.”

"Oh, hehe, yeah." Rainbow Dash laughed nervously. "Sorry I'm late Twilight, I didn't get much sleep last night and ended up missing my alarm."

“Were you up reading the newest Daring Do book again?” Twilight said playfully. “I know you’re in the book and all but don’t you think twenty-three times is a little much?”

"No, it wasn't that." Rainbow Dash let out a little smile. "It's just..."

"Just what?"

"I've just been having trouble sleeping." Rainbow Dash said.

“Trouble sleeping?” Twilight asked. “But you sleep all the time. How long have you been having trouble sleeping?”

"For weeks now.” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean, I can fall asleep no problem, but I'll toss and turn all night like I'm sleeping on concrete or something, or I'll wake up with my hooves in the air like I'm reaching out for somepony. And lately... Lately I've been having these really weird dreams, and no matter what I do I just sleep right past my alarm."

“Bad dreams, eh? You know, back at the old library, I had several books on dream therapy and interpretation.” Twilight said with a grin that suggested her services were available. “What were you dreaming about?”

"Well it's more like the same dream actually." Rainbow said. "like, they continue off of each other.” She made a circular motion with her hooves for emphasis. “Sometimes where the others left off or other times it's the same exact dream but it just goes on for a little longer."

"Hmm... interesting." Twilight furrowed her brow. "Would you mind telling me about one of these dreams? Like, what happens from start to finish?"

"Well.." Rainbow started. "The dream I've been having recently is this one where I'm in this dark cargo train with a bunch of foals. like, ten to twenty of them. The train's moving incredibly fast, faster than any train I've ever been on, like so fast it's about to crash! And when it finally stops, this tall mysterious figure opens the cargo door and leads us through the woods to this old orphanage type building. I don't know if it's actually an orphanage or not but that's what it feels like in the dream."

Rainbow Dash looked around ponderously. “It's very fuzzy after that, but that’s pretty much the gist of it. Oh! There was this one dream of me fighting a three-headed manticore, but I don’t think that one meant anything... I actually kinda liked that one.”

“Hmm…” Twilight rubbed her hoof to her chin, thinking. “To dream that you are in an orphanage signifies your sense of belonging or the lack thereof. You might feel that you are alone in the world. Perhaps you think nopony understands what you are going through or how you are feeling?”

“Well that doesn’t sound right.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “I’m feeling more awesome than ever, who couldn’t understand that feeling?”

Twilight set down her decorating supplies and contorted her face into one of intense thought.

“Well...” the Alicorn Princess said. “To dream that you are on a train symbolizes your life's journey. It suggests that you are on the right track in life and headed in the right direction. Alternatively, the dream means that you have a tendency to worry needlessly over a situation that will work out in the end.”

“That doesn’t sound right either.” Rainbow Dash said, losing her patience a little more quickly than she usually would. “I don’t have a thing to worry about, except for maybe you wasting my time with this silly dream interpretation nonsense.”

“Rude.” Twilight said flatly. “I was only trying to help.”

“I’m sorry.” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing the back of her head. “I’m just a little irritable, ya know?”

“Irritability, a common symptom of sleep deprivation.” Twilight said matter-of-factly, looking slightly hurt at her friend’s harshness.

Rainbow Dash didn’t say anything, she only pursed her lips.

“It's alright,” Twilight said throwing a hoof around her tired friend. “I know that feeling all too well. I couldn't tell you how many nights I stayed up past my bedtime reading a good book or two just to wake up cranky the next day.”

Rainbow Dash dug her hoof into the ground, looking for a way to change the subject.

"Hey Twilight." Rainbow Dash said as the purple alicorn princess picked up her decorating supplies. "Have you ever considered maybe, I don't know, getting some servants for your castle? The whole places feels kinda, sorta..."

"Empty? Oh it's dreadfully empty." Twilight said quickly. "So empty that I almost don't want to leave the throne room or the library because it feels like the whole castle is closing in on me. it's even worse at night. I've actually considered installing a bed in the library just so I don't have to go through all those hallways just to get back to the bedchambers."

"But you never considered getting some servants?" Rainbow Dash cut back in.

"I'm a little uncomfortable with idea of having servants to be honest." Twilight said. "I don't feel like I'm important enough."

"But you are important. "Rainbow dash said confidently. "You're a princess."

"Well I know that." Twilight said. "I know I'm a princess and I know princesses are supposed to have servants. It's just that Spike and I have managed just fine on our own for so long now that it doesn't feel like we need servants.”

Rainbow dash looked at Twilight questioningly.

"And besides," Twilight continued. " If I had servants to do everything for me then I wouldn't get to spend as much time with you and the others as I do."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point there." Rainbow Dash said. "Speaking of the others, you said you already sent them out on their errands right? She asked with a hint of relief, hoping there weren’t any chores left, but she spoke otherwise. “Is there anything you wanted me to do?”

"Well we tried to wait for you this morning," Twilight said as she levitated a small checklist from her bundle of supplies.

“Hmm, let's see..” She said whilst looking over the list. “Applejack is out getting the banners from Rarity. Rarity is, of course, making the banners. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are working on lunch before we move the thrones around in the afternoon. Starlight Glimmer is spending the day with Trixie. And Discord? Well, I try not to keep tabs on him, he’s confusing.”

“So, nothing for me then?” Rainbow Dash didn’t even try to hide her enthusiasm.

“Well, I still need you to get my new books from Manehattan,” Twilight said, levitating another list out of her supplies, this one written exclusively with names of spell books and tomes that Twilight wanted from the big bookstore in Manehattan. “But with those bags under your eyes you might bring me back the wrong books!”

Twilight was obviously joking, but Rainbow Dash didn’t take it as a joke. Shooting Twilight an unamused glare, the Alicorn quickly corrected herself.

“I’m kidding of course, but I'll tell you what.” Twilight gave the list to Rainbow Dash. “Go home and get some sleep, we’ll be waiting for you in the afternoon when it’s time to move the thrones. If you wake up in time, please try to get at least a few of my books, if you don't, it's no big deal. We can always get them later.”

Rainbow Dash looked down at the list, then back up at her friend who was simply smiling at her. Suddenly, the pegasus felt ashamed for her irritability and impatience.

“Twilight, I…” Rainbow Dash stammered out a response, but was stifled by her friend pulling her into a tight embrace.

“Go get some sleep, you’ll feel better after a nap.”

Chapter Three: Carefully Chosen Words

“Most holy night, that still dost keep

The keys to all the doors of sleep,

Give to me when thine eyes close

Thy sweet and silent repose

And let the far lament of them

That chant the dead day’s requiem

Make in my ears, who wakeful lie

A soft and gentle lullaby.”

Everything was blurry. Rainbow Dash tried to blink her eyes into focus but no shapes or contours would appear. She waited, hoping her eyes would adjust on their own but all she could see were vague illusions as if she were looking through water or her eyes were covered by a sheet. The only thing that was clear was a voice, hauntingly familiar, reading poetry.

“They that guard the honored Moon

By my bedside their memories croon.

So shall I have new dreams and blest

as down I lay In my brief rest.

Fold thy wings about my face,

Hide the dawn from my resting-place,

cheat me with thy false delight,

O' you most holy night.”

The voice was so familiar to Rainbow Dash, she wracked her mind trying to remember who it belonged to. At times it sounded like somepony she knew but then the inflections would lazily drift into something unfamiliar; either ending too early or changing at random, and there seemed to be no low-end to the voice at all. The voice sounded young, but old at the same time. It was loud, but gentle and reserved as well.

The identity was right on the tip of her tongue.

“Good work, Silver Sunrise.” The voice said. “Excellent use of imagery. However some of your lines felt a little short. You know we’re supposed to be writing in trochaic octameter”

“I tried,” Another voice responded. Rainbow Dash assumed it belonged to ‘Silver Sunrise’. “It’s really hard trying to find words with enough syllables that also fit the theme of the poem.”

“I'll let it pass this time.” The former voice spoke again. “Only because it’s a wonderful segway into my next lesson. Class, poetry demands precision. The novelist can get away with less than precise expression from time to time because the story will pull the reader along. The job of the poet, however, is to create a picture in the mind and an emotion in the heart. Every single word counts. The wrong choice of word with the wrong connotation or the wrong number of syllables or even an unlovely combination of consonant sounds spoils all.”

“A successful poem,” The voice continued. “doesn’t have to rhyme or scan or have a certain pattern of lines. It does, however, need to paint a picture with carefully chosen words. It should have a point that a reader unknown to the poet can respond to.”

“Now, who's next?” The voice called out. After a moment of excited murmuring, Rainbow could hear the voice speak again. “... please bring your poem up to the front of the class.”

Rainbow Dash heard that name again, the one the yellow filly called her in the forest. Almost instantaneously after hearing that name, Rainbow Dash’s vision flooded into focus, and she could see walls and objects and colors, that all came together in the form of a classroom.

Rainbow Dash looked around, blinking fast in the bright light. She was sitting in a desk in the middle of the class, clutching a paper in her hooves with a poem scrawled onto it in sloppy hoof-writing. All around her were other foals, sitting in desks similar to hers. Some of them she recognized from the train while others were strangers to her; and they were all returning her glance with expectant stares.

Rainbow Dash heard the name she couldn’t remember being called again, more irritated this time. She looked up only to see it’s owner belonging to nopony other than Princess Luna, but a very young Princess Luna; one that Rainbow Dash had only ever seen in pictures before; sitting behind a teacher’s desk, eyeing her with a look of frustration.

“Please bring your poem to me so I can read it to the class.”

Rainbow Dash felt herself rise from the desk and grabbed the poem in her mouth. She wasn’t performing these actions herself, she was too focused on wondering why Princess Luna was teaching poetry to a bunch of foals to notice herself handing over the poem to Luna before standing at the head of the class; waiting for the poem to be read. Her attention was brought forth again when Princess Luna cleared her throat and began to read the poem aloud.

Only then did Rainbow Dash realize that the entire class was looking at her, judging her, and she could feel a deep warmth being summoned in the depths of her cheeks.

“We are snowflakes,

Drifting to the end.

We are snowflakes,

Drifting to the end.

Like leaves falling,

Off the trees of winter.

The sun goes down,

And you never came around.

The moon fades away,

And the stars are blowing up.

Like the leaves on the trees,

In the winter we died.”

Rainbow Dash could feel a hotness in the entirety of her face. She felt like she was blushing. She felt embarrassed, but she didn’t know why. To be quite honest, she actually kinda liked the poem, but she felt like she wanted to crawl into a ball and hide.

“We are snowflakes,

melting in the sun.

We are snowflakes,

Melting in the sun.

Like leaves falling,

Off the trees of winter.

The sun goes down,

And you never came around.

The moon fades away,

And the stars are blowing up.

Like the leaves on the trees,

In the winter we died.”

Looking into the crowd of faces, Rainbow Dash couldn’t see any reactions, only blank stares. She was trembling, and a light sweat had assembled under her coat.

“And what do you call this poem?” The young Princess Luna asked, looking at Rainbow Dash.

The stage-frightened pegasus didn’t respond.

“What is your poem called?” Luna asked again, trying to disguise her frustration.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth and could feel her voice being summoned.

“Dead of Winter.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

She heard a few snickers from somewhere in the back of the room. ‘It’s not in the right meter.’ she heard somepony whisper. This only served to exacerbate her discomfort even more. Princess Luna however, didn’t respond to the class’ murmurings, nor did she react to Rainbow Dash stating the title of the poem. Instead, she looked at the poem for quite a long time. Reading and rereading it again, with an expression creeping onto her face that Rainbow Dash couldn't completely understand. Her body seemed blurred, as if it belonged to the rest of the dream, but her face was sharp and distinct, suddenly looking much older as if it belonged to the real Princess Luna; and her face looked like she was in great pain. A moment later, the princess' face turned young again, and with a quick practiced movement, she ran a quill over the paper and passed it back to Rainbow Dash. The pegasus looked at the poem to see a prominent ‘B+; scrawled on the top of the page in beautiful hoof-written script.

“I would’ve given you an A,” Princess Luna said. “but the poem doesn't have a rhyme scale, nor does it come anywhere close to the meter we’re supposed to be writing in. That isn’t to imply that there is anything wrong with what you’ve written.” Luna recorded the grade on an open ledger book she had on her desk. “Nonetheless this was a very beautiful poem with powerful imagery, but for your next poem, please stick to the current lesson plan; I won’t be so lenient next time.”

Luna smiled at Rainbow Dash, expecting a response.

“Thank you Miss Luna” Rainbow Dash felt herself say,

“You’re very welcome. Now, who’s next?” Princess Luna said as Rainbow Dash returned to her seat. Several hooves shot into the air. “Sandy Shores, please bring your poem to me so I can read it to the class.”

Rainbow Dash looked back as the filly that looked like Fluttershy rose from her seat, poem clutched in her smiling mouth, and trotted past Rainbow Dash. Rainbow tried to look back to the front of the class, but an explosion of brightness blasted her from her dream and again she found herself back in her own bed.

~~~.

Rainbow Dash pushed open the heavy crystal doors to Twilight’s castle and stepped into the puddles of afternoon light that decorated the castle’s interior.

She walked down the hall towards the throne room, past the empty rooms, past the barren hallways, and past the wisps of refracted sunlight that had already begun changing to orange and violet hues as the sun began it’s slow descent towards the horizon.

She needed to find Twilight.

The pegasus didn’t know what to think about her most recent dream. She was thinking about it, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since she left her cloudhome.

“None of it makes any sense.” Rainbow Dash said aloud to herself. But the more she thought about it, the more she understood they were more than just dreams, they were more purposeful, and she understood that she needed to talk to somepony about them.

Rainbow Dash entered throne room and was greeted by all of her friends, who had been inside eating the lunch Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had prepared for everypony.

“Hiii Rainbow Dash” Pinkie Pie called out before ungracefully shoving an entire club sandwich into her mouth. “You haff to try thefe sandwhiches!”

The pink pony wiped her mouth with her hooves, but it had little effect since she was practically covered in her meal. Strands of lettuce clung to her pink cotton-candy mane while the rest of her face was dotted with globs of mayonnaise and mustard.

“They’re so delicious!” The messy eater said after her mouth was empty. The other ponies at the table offered similar platitudes, except they did so in a more civilized manner. Greeting Rainbow Dash whilst cutting their food with forks and knives, and using napkins to wipe their mouths.

Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy for a quick moment, trying to picture her with the short tomboyish manecut that she saw from her dreams. She watched as she ate and saw her demure womanly modestness, but didn't see any of the fear or confusion. She wondered if this really was the pony she saw in her dreams.

“Yeah, hey everypony. “Rainbow Dash finally said, disregarding her friends. “Hey Twilight, could I talk to you for a second… Privately?”

Without hesitation the purple princess excused herself from the throne room and led Rainbow Dash to one of the castle’s many empty rooms.

“I’m glad you’re back, Rainbow!” Twilight said as she closed the door to the room. “I asked Princess Luna if she could visit your dreams to see if she could find out why you were having these nightmares. You know, princess of friendship and all, and I just now got a letter back from her!” Twilight summoned a sealed scroll with her magic and waved it in front of Rainbow Dash, “I figured we could read it together!”

The Alicorn Princess tried to sling her arm around Rainbow Dash’s shoulder again but the pegasus slunk away.

“Why are you being so hoof-sy today?” Rainbow Dash said with obvious irritation. “Are you in heat or something?”

“Oh no no no!” Twilight’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “I was just trying to be more friendly…” She seemed to shrink inside herself a little bit. ”You know, Princess of Friendship and all.”

Rainbow Dash waved her hoof dismissively at Twilight. “Just read the letter.”

Twilight broke the royal crescent-moon seal causing the parchment scroll to unfurl. Twilight held it in her magic and read aloud to Rainbow Dash, attempting her best impression of Princess Luna.

“Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle.

We visited the dreams of friend Rainbow Dash whilst she slumbered, as per your request.

We spent many an hour traversing the lunar landscape trying to find her dream space. Yet when we did we were unable to behold anything out of the ordinary.

We are regretful to have nothing to report, however if thou’st are still experiencing nightmares, try to not eat oats before thou retires and avoid slumbering on one’s back.

Love.

Princess Luna”

“Well that wasn’t very helpful.” Rainbow Dash snorted .

“You aren’t kidding.” Twilight said as she rolled up the scroll and teleported it away with her magic. “I thought for sure Luna would’ve had an explanation for this. Seems like a rare miss.”

“Maybe it’s-” Rainbow Dash tried to say.

“Well at least now I can show you the new furniture we got!” Twilight interrupted before whisking Rainbow Dash off to another room.

The Purple Alicorn showed off several pieces of antique furniture, ornamental decorations, and various nick-knacks dating back to the pre-classical era she had arranged throughout the castle. Sofas and chairs that had been placed in the connecting rooms, chests and dressers for storage that now lined the hallways, banners with their friend’s cutie marks that were hung in the large sections of uncovered walls; filling all of them except for one large barren section at the end of the hall That Twilight lamented over not having one more banner to cover it with.

There were still many rooms left to furnish but they were at least able to fill the rooms and hallways leading from the front door to the throne room; creating a barrier of sorts that seemed to repel the emptiness from the main parts of the castle.

Twilight was in the middle of telling Rainbow Dash about how one particular nightstand was once owned by Saddle Arabian Royalty and later presented as a gift to the Celestial Sisters, but Rainbow’s mind could not have been farther away from their present conversation.

She was thinking about her dreams again, more specifically, the letter from Princess luna had written about her dreams.

What did Luna mean she didn’t find anything unusual? Rainbow Dash was absolutely sure they were her dreams ,so Luna had to have seen all the foals, had to have heard all of the poems, had to have seen something. If Rainbow dreamt it then there’d be no conceivable reason that Luna wouldn’t have been able to see it.

“None of it makes any sense.” Rainbow Dash said aloud to herself again.

“It wha-?” Twilight stopped her story. “It makes perfect sense. The Saddle Arabians wanted to open up trade with the Equestrians so they presented them with a set of antique furniture dating back to the rule of the first king of Saddle Arabia. The princesses graciously accepted and allowed Saddle Arabia to import goods into Equestria. That’s why you’re able to buy all that falafel you love so much!”

“I.. you… what?” Rainbow Dash stammered. “No i didn’t mean that I meant something else.”

“What did you mean then?” Twilight tilted her head curiously.

“I meant Luna’s stupid letter,” Rainbow Dash said angrily. “It doesn’t make sense!”

“What... doesn’t make sense about it?” Twilight said, almost apprehensively.

“Because she was in my dream!” Rainbow Dash was shouting now. “She was there, and so was all the other weirdness and she had nothing to report? We looked right at each other, we had a conversation, and all she can tell me is to not sleep on my back?”

“Well studies have shown that sleeping on your back can cause nightmares.” Twilight said sheepishly.

“Just forget it” Rainbow Dash said, not wanting to put forth the effort to explain further. “It’s not important.”

“Oh.. ok then.” Twilight said. “I guess now I can tell you about the Griffonstone armoire!”

Rainbow Dash groaned

“Look Twilight, I’d love to hear all about your gryphon armor-”

“Armoire” Twilight corrected.

“That’s what I said, gryphon armor. I’d love to hear more about it but I’m still feeling pretty tired.” Rainbow Dash let out a fake yawn. “ I think I’m gonna call it an early night. How about we pick up this history lesson later?”

“Oh, I don’t see why not?” Twilight was understanding. “Have a good evening then, I should probably get back to lunch anyway. The others are probably wondering why it’s taking so long. But do you think we could hang out again once you’re more rested? I like hanging out with you.”

“Yeah yeah, sure.” Rainbow Dash said waving her hoof in the air as she exited the room.

Once outside the castle, Rainbow Dash stretched her wings. The afternoon sun warmed her fur, immediately rejuvenating her from that stuffy history lesson from inside.

“If I had to hear one more story about boring old furniture I was going to scream.” Rainbow said to herself as she stretched her body, getting ready for flight. “Maybe I’ll go catch a movie or something, I don’t feel like going home yet.”

But before she could even flex a wing she heard a voice calling her from above.

“Hey dweeb, I’ve been looking all over town for you!”

Rainbow Dash looked up but all she could see was brown fur. She took a reflexive step backward to see it was her gryphon friend, Gilda, hovering mere inches away from her face.

“You know better than to keep me waiting,” Gilda said as she landed beside the rainbow pegasus. “Let’s hang. I found an empty dragon cave just west of Hoofington, there’s probably some treasure we can swipe before it gets back.”

“Not today, G.” Rainbow Dash said. “Not really feeling up for an adventure right now.”

“Aww what? Are you for real?” Gilda glowered. “It’s treasure dude. Free money.”

“Free treasure sounds cool and all, but-”

“What are you afraid of dragons now or something?.” Gilda scratched her beak with one of her claws.

“Nah G, it’s not like that.” Rainbow Dash said. “I just haven’t been getting very good sleep lately, I don’t have the energy for-”

“Still?” Gilda interrupted again“haven’t you been “not getting good sleep” for weeks now?” She said, making mocking air quotations with her claws. “How many more adventures are you going to skip out on because you ‘don’t have the energy’?”

“I’m not skipping out, I-”

“Have you ever been using that gryphon sleep remedy I told you about?”

“I don’t think a bunch of pine needles and tree sap is going to help me sleep better” Rainbow Dash said derisively.

“It’s helped me and my family for years.” Gilda shrugged. “Or you could try the the other age-old gryphon technique of just hitting yourself in the head with something heavy until you pass out.”

“If anything, it’s made things worse.” Rainbow Dash ignored her last comment. “I’m having these weird nightmares now.”

“Nightmares huh?” Gilda said half-heartedly.. “Gryphon remedies are designed to put you out quick, they’re not supposed to give you nightmares.”

“Well they’re giving me nightmares.” Rainbow Dash seethed. “Something’s giving me nightmares.”

“You know part of me thinks you’re just lying to get out of hanging out with me.” Gilda said. “I know I’m part eagle and all, but I didn’t know you were part chicken.”

“I said I was tired!” Rainbow Dash barked.

“Geez fine” Gilda was slightly taken aback by the sudden outburst. “no need for the -tude, dude.”

The Gryphon threw an arm around Rainbow’s neck. The pegasus tried to slink away but it only caused Gilda’s grip to tighten.

“So what kind of namby-pamby things do you ponies have nightmares about anyway?” Gilda mocked. “Losing a horseshoe?”

“Like I’d tell you.” Rainbow Dash struggled to free herself from Gilda’s grasp. “You seem like you’re just going to make fun of them.”

“Don’t be so sensitive,” Gilda playfully tussled Rainbow Dash’s mane “If they’re bothering you enough to make you snap at me then they must be pretty serious, so spill. Tell your friend Gilda!”

“Only if you let go of me.”

“Not gonna happen dude.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and began to explain her recent nightmares to Gilda. The foals, the train car, the forest. Gilda seemed mostly uninterested until Rainbow Dash mentioned the large stone building in the forest clearing.

“Almost sounds like that abandoned building just south of the Smoky Mountains.” Gilda said off-handedly. “It wouldn’t happen to have a red stone roof, would it?”

“Yes, actually.” Rainbow Dash was surprised. “How did you know?”

“There’s a building just like that in western Equestria, tucked into the everfree forest.” Gilda said indifferently. “You can only really see it in the fall though, when the trees start to hibernate.”

“No way.” Rainbow Dash broke free of Gilda and faced her directly. “You’re pulling my hoof.”

“Honestly I’m surprised you haven’t seen it.” Gilda said. “Although I’ve only ever seen it once when I was flying back to Griffonstone last winter. I assume the forest is so thick that it’s covered up most of the year.”

“Could you take me there?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to act cool.

“Take you to some dopey old building when there’s a dragon’s hoard we could be swiping?” The gryphon raised an eyebrow at the pegasus. “You gotta be kidding me dude.”

“You need to take me there!:” Rainbow Dash insisted. She was trying to remain calm but deep inside of herself she felt a sudden overwhelming desire to go to this building in western Equestria. It was a stretch, but to her it felt like the only connection she had to why she was having these nightmares. If Twilight or Princess Luna couldn’t help then she needed to act on her own. She needed to find her own answers.

“It kinda sounds like a lame idea.” Gilda said . “Exploring abandoned buildings isn’t really my thing.”

“I’m serious G” Rainbow Dash said, hovering above the ground mere inches from Gilda’s face. “You need to take me there.”

Rainbow Dash was practically begging.

“What’s gotten into you, dude? You’re kinda freaking me out.”

“I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash landed and composed herself. “I just feel like I need to see this building. It feels important, like a calling. You know?”

“Whatever.” Gilda shrugged. “Ill take you to your stupid building. But you’re buying me dinner because that’s at least a two hour flight. “

Chapter Four: Bound to Find Something Eventually

Rainbow Dash and Gilda were flying west, soaring through the jet stream above the great Equestrian plains. Even though they were both at least two miles in the air, the pair kept their eyes trained to the ground, following a rogue offshoot of the Everfree Forest that had managed to stretch itself through the plains to the base of the Smoky Mountain Range.

"We're getting close!" Gilda called out to Rainbow Dash, yelling over the wind. "It's hard to see this early in the year but I remember it being just north of a gorge that cuts through the forest."

Rainbow Dash scanned the trees below. The western sun cast a glare across her flight goggles, obscuring her vision. She held up a hoof to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun, and even though the land below was still washed out by the afternoon light, the pegasus spotted a long section of trees that seemed inexplicably shorter than the rest of the forest.

"Do you think it could be over there? Rainbow Dash pointed at the section of forest. "Where that long section of trees dips below the others?"

"Yeah, that's the gorge. "Gilda called back. "We have to go north now."

The two banked northward into a descent, and shortly afterward dove through the canopy of the forest and landed somewhere below.

"Damn it!" Gilda ripped off her flight goggles. "We undershot it. it's nothing but forest here."

"Well you said it was north right?" Rainbow Dash shouted, her voice echoing through the forest.

"You know we've landed right?" Gilda chided. "You don't have to shout anymore."

"Eheh, sorry. I've been shouting over the wind for so long." Rainbow Dash said much quieter this time. "So you said it was north right? Couldn't we just go back up and land somewhere else?"

"And then what? keep hopping back up and down, landing wherever? We could be doing that for hours!"

"Chill bird," Rainbow said. "It was just a suggestion."

Rainbow Dash paused and looked the forest.

Even though it was only late afternoon, the canopy of the everfree forest let almost no light through. The trees were densely packed together in this section of wood that only a few golden streams of dappled sunlight could be seen shining down from the holes in the treetops; creating just enough ambient light to see maybe ten or fifteen feet away, but for the most part the forest was as black as the night sky.

“Dash did I ever tell you that I hate this place?” Rainbow Dash looked back at Gilda who was digging one of her talons out of the mud. They were both submerged up to their knees in mud from their hard landing. “Cause I really do hate it. And did we have to pick the wettest spot to land too?”

“Geeze Gilda, what’s gotten into you?” Dash said to her friend. “You weren’t like this on the fly over.”

“I’m sorry.“ Gilda wiped off her talons on a neighboring fern. “I just remembered that I really don’t like this place. It gives me the creeps.”

The air was damp and smelled of decaying plant matter. Unseen animals and insects filled the air with their song and somewhere in the forest echoed the sounds of monstrous beasts that lurked in the darkness.

Despite the proud and mighty gryphon that she was, the atmosphere of the forest churned up feelings of dread inside Gilda. A lingering sense of impending doom, and she could feel her feathers begin to stand on end the longer she stood in the forest.

“Well we didn’t come all this way to wimp out because of a little mud.” Rainbow Dash said freeing herself from the mire. “So, should we go north?”

“Yeah I guess.” Gilda groaned. “Might as well. We’re bound to find something eventually.”

The two began making their way through the denseness of the forest, brushing past branches and vines and the occasional fallen tree; knocked over from storms that ripped through the forest long ago. The trees stretched on unbroken for miles, and there were no natural trails or passageways that could be taken, so the narrow path they carved was made uneven by the many knotted roots and interlocking branches that obstructed their path.

As the pair cut their way through the forest they did so in relative silence, focusing on moving branches and tree limbs out of their way. The task was laborious, but they were quickly able to find their stride and soon the task became effortless. They began to make some real progress, covering a mile in under fifteen minutes or so, but the longer they worked the more Rainbow Dash began to focus on the forest itself rather than helping her friend clear a path.

The Everfree Forest was a mysterious place and home to horrifying creatures, several of which Rainbow Dash had first-hoof encounters with; Timberwolves, manticores, dragons, and ursine. She had also been told once or twice that the forest was a place of physical and spiritual banishment, that one could hear the moans of forsaken spirits echoing through the woods at night. She’d heard similar ghost stories about the forest all of her life, more so once she moved her house above Ponyville.

In town there’s a local superstition that you do not enter the forest under any circumstance. The townsponies are so afraid of the forest that there was even an uproar when Fluttershy decided to build her cottage on the forest’s edge. Everypony in town thought she was going to anger the spirits that haunted the forest or provoke a pack of timberwolves to descend upon the town; but after years of living there without incident the citizens of Ponyville began to ease up on their fears, and their superstitions soon became more of a respectful distance than that of irrational myths and fables.

Rainbow Dash never believed any of the ghost stories herself. She thought they were ridiculous. She was aware the forest was dangerous and recognized its threats, but she never let it bother her too much. It was just a forest after all, not some big insurmountable evil. For all the times she’s ventured into the forest she’d hardly ever seen a timberwolf or a parapsirte, or even an ursa for that matter. It was just a normal forest like any other. Wind sighing through the trees, birds chirping on the branches, owls calling to each other in the dark. The only difference was the weather acted of its own accord and the plants grew without aid.

Sure there were things in the forest that scared her. The fundamental nature of the forest itself was enough to make her uneasy. She was always taught that pegasi controlled the weather and earth ponies grew the plants. That’s the way things were supposed to be. So the forest doing these things on its own felt unnatural and wrong.

Sure there was some level of fear. The dreadful unexplainable sounds she could sometimes hear from her home at night were enough to lend some credence to all the tales she’d heard about the forest. Sure the distant rumblings of dragons and ursine were enough to dry up her throat and make her breath go shallow; but she had to keep a brave face. It was just a forest after all.

“You want to pick up the slack dude?” Gilda said abruptly, retrieving Rainbow Dash from her reverie. “I’m doing all the work!”

“Oh, sorry,” Rainbow Dash bent a branch out of the way. “I guess I got distracted by the forest.”

“You’re not afraid of the woods are you?” Gilda mocked. “Big tough Rainbow Dash is gonna get eaten by a timberwolf if she’s not careful.”

“Hey, you don’t like this place either.” Rainbow Dash retorted, dismissing the gryphon’s teasing.

“Only because it sucks.” Gilda said emphatically. “There’s dirt and mud and bugs everywhere, but you keep looking around like you’re afraid something’s gonna jump out of the woods and attack you. You ponies are so terrified of this place it’s unreal.”

“What do you mean, ‘you ponies’?”

“Have you heard some of the stories about this place?” Gilda said hotly “If you enter the everfree forest you’ll never be heard from again. Don’t fall asleep in the forest or else your soul will be trapped for eternity. Or, uh, Don’t ever break the branches in the everfree forest or you’ll-.”

“Hey that one has some truth to it!” Rainbow Dash said anxiously. “If you break the branches in the forest it could attract timberwolves.”

“That’s exactly what I mean.” Gilda said self-assured. “Terrified.”

“I’m not terrified of the Everfree Forest.” Rainbow Dash said with consternation. “It’s just common sense. Timberwolves can sense when the trees are being broken, since they’re made of the forest itself, so breaking the branches could alert any timberwolves in the area to come and attack you.”

“Oh, so you’re saying I shouldn’t do this then?” The gryphon said as she snapped a particularly large branch. The distinctive cccrrrrricckk echoing sharply through the woods. “Better watch out dash, the timberwolves are coming!”

Rainbow Dash was stunned. “Don’t do that!” she said, unconvincingly trying to hide the fear in her voice. Gilda only responded by brazenly snapping another branch.

“It’s not a joke, G!” Rainbow Dash shouted with real panic in her voice. “You’re gonna get us both killed!”

Gilda jumped and grabbed onto the arm of a tree, her paws dangling in the air before her weight broke the entire branch from the trunk and ripped a thick strip of bark down to its base; exposing the wet green sapwood.

“And what’s that gonna do?” The gryphon said from the forest floor, branch in her lap and smirking up at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash said nothing. She was trembling from a combination of fear and anger. Her instincts told her to run but her hooves were locked in place. She wanted to say something, wanted to yell, but her teeth were clenched tight. More than anything though, she wanted to punch Gilda, to bash that stupid grin off the gryphon’s face.

However, before Rainbow Dash could do anything Gilda simply started to laugh.

“Your face is so priceless dude! You look like you’re about to cry!”

“If the timberwolves don’t kill you I will.” Rainbow Dash finally said, hitting her friend on the shoulder. She could feel a hotness in her cheeks.

“Don’t try to act tough. You know I got you good.” Gilda tossed the branch deep into the woods and got back up on all fours, still laughing. “I knew you ponies were afraid of your little ghost stories but I didn’t think you’d actually get this freaked out. You actually think that breaking branches is going to…” Gilda suddenly clapped a claw over her beak. “Grover’s Ghost! What is that smell?”

Rainbow Dash covered her nose as well. The air had suddenly become heavy with the pungent scent of rotting wood and fungus. The stench was thick and sickly sweet, smelling of cedar and pine mixed with used horseshoes and wet saddle leather. Rainbow Dash had to take short shallow breaths in order to avoid gagging.

“It smells like something died!” Gilda grimaced and tried to move away from the smell. For a split second Gilda thought they had just stopped next to the carcass of a dead animal, a deer or a racoon maybe; her brain didn't make the connection at first. But when she heard howling and the distant sounds of scratching at the dirt steadily growing closer did she finally make the connection.

“We have to run!” Rainbow Dash yelled and bolted past the gryphon, plunging like a deer through the trees. Gilda looked where her friend had darted off to, and turned back to see several pairs of green eyes begin to appear in the darkness. Shen turned and ran as well.

It didn’t take long for the gryphon to catch up with Rainbow Dash. The forest was so thick it was almost impossible to run through. There were so many obstructions and protruding branches that Rainbow Dash had only been able to move about fifty feet before her friend caught up to her.

“Why are we running?” Gilda said as they bounded over a fallen tree.

“Because we’re being chased by Timberwolves!” Rainbow Dash said.

“No, I get that part” Gilda said as they ran around an unusually large boulder. “But why are we running? We can fly.”

Rainbow Dash was silent.

“I didn’t think of that.” she said, and without another word the two quickly took flight and rose above the treetops. Their eyes stung in the bright afternoon light, and they both covered their eyes and blindly flew north, landing somewhere in the forest where the trees weren’t as dense.

As they two landed, Rainbow Dash began to scold her gryphon friend when she was sure she couldn’t hear the timberwolves’ howls anymore.

“What they hay is wrong with you?” Rainbow Dash yelled. “I told you breaking branches attracted timberwolves, I wasn’t joking. “

“I’m sorry.” Gilda said roughly. trying to rub the blindness from her eyes.

“Sure it was only a pack of timberwolves,” Rainbow Dash said less heated “But what if you attracted a timberwolf king? You can’t run from those, you can’t even outfly them.”

“What is that?” Gilda said.

“A timberwolf that’s like four stories tall and almost as fast as the wonderbolts.” Rainbow Dash said. “It can-”

“No.” Gilda said pointing into the darkness. “What is that?”

Ahead of them in a clearing, on the edge of the darkness, Rainbow Dash could see something moving. It wasn’t coming towards them. It wasn’t a Timberwolf. It was writhing and wriggling in place, and as her own eyes adjusted to the darkness again Rainbow Dash could see it to be a bundled mass of vines at the base of a tree.

As they moved closer to investigate, something shiny caught the sun and shimmered through the vines, and they could soon see the vague shape of a golden slab inside the vines.

“It looks like… gold?” Gilda said. The vines continued squirming and constricting, like a pit of snakes coiling around each other for warmth. “It looks almost like a breastplate, or some kind of armor.”

“Maybe it’s some kind of bronze?” Rainbow Dash said. “No wait, look, there’s a sword in there too.”

Gilda took a step towards the quivering mass and could indeed see the dull faded blade of a sword, but only briefly as the vines continued to wrap around themselves. Curiously, she reached out a claw to to move vines apart when one suddenly sprung forth and wrapped itself around her wrist.

“Uh dude?” Gilda said as the vine tightened, squeezing the tendons hard and balling her claw into a fist. She tried to pull her claw away but it only caused the vine to tighten more “dude, DUDE!” She cried out in pain. “Get this thing off me, it’s breaking my wrist!”

Rainbow Dash ran over to Gilda and tried to pry the vine off of her friend’s wrist. She pulled at the vine, but it seemed to only cause it to tighten more, as if it were trying to pull the the gryphon inside.

“It’s pulling me in!” Gilda cried as the vine wrapped around her other claw, cuffing her. She dug her back paws into the ground and tried to pull back as hard as she could, but the vines simply coiled themselves further up her arm.

Rainbow Dash had to think of something quick. She looked around, frantically searching for a branch or something to break the vine with but found nothing. The gryphon cried out in pain and Rainbow Dash did the only thing she could think to do. She unfurled her wings and jumped into the air, flying at the vines. She smashed into them with the broad part of her body, snapping the vines and causing Gilda to fall backwards.

Rainbow Dash was about to turn to her friend and gloat about her quick thinking when she heard a frightened cry and looked over to see several vines slithering across the forest floor and Gilda scrabbling backwards trying to get away. The pegasus rushed over to her friend, kicking the vines away, and helped the gryphon to her feet.

“Let’s get the buck out of here!” Gilda said as the two began to run, leaving the vines and the huddle mass to disappear into the darkness of the forest.

Chapter Five: The Clausterphobic Forest

Eventually the trees began to thin. As the duo ran through the woods, the brush soon gave way to a narrow clearing, and the damp dirt of the forest floor soon turned to ballast stone as they loped out of the trees. The pre-evening sun was shining through the opening in the treetops and fell directly onto the metal of a single set of train tracks.

“Tracks?” Gilda panted. “Of course there’d be tracks. Why is this forest so weird?”

Rainbow Dash took a step forward to investigate. “That is weird. The Equestrian trains don’t even come out this far west.”

“I don’t think those are Equestrian tracks.” Gilda said ponderously, strangely out of breath for a gryphon that partakes in long-distance flights fairly regularly.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash said. “They’re train tracks in Equestria. How could they not be Equestrian tracks?”

“I mean I don’t think they’re connected to any of the current lines.” Gilda said, starting to recover. “You see how overgrown they are?” she pointed towards several adult trees that had grown through the railroad ties. “Even if they were still connected I don’t think they’ve been used for a very long time.”

“Huh, good eye.” Rainbow Dash said. ”I never would’ve thought of that.”

The tracks lay before them like a runway, albeit one that had decayed with the passage of time. The Everfree Forest was ancient, so the tracks had to have been ancient as well. Perhaps many years ago this rail-line saw travel. Perhaps it was a scenic route along the way to Vanhoover; a quick jaunt through an ethereal forest before the railway opened up to the picturesque western Equestrian coast

But now it was well past any age of usefulness.

The rails were too rusted and buckled from season upon season of rain and snow. Thick trees and old roots had grown over and twisted the railroad ties out of place, so any train that tried to venture down the line would surely crash.

The forest was slowly taking away the last remnants of whatever these tracks once stood for, and in another hundred years there would simply be woodland with no sign of the clearing or the tracks passing through it having ever been there.

“Well if West is that way,” Rainbow Dash said aligning herself with the setting sun. “Then these tracks are going north and south. Do you think we should follow them? They're bound to lead somewhere.”

“Yeah, we might as well.” Gilda said, picking some brambles out of her wings. “We didn’t come all this way to wimp out because of a few timberwolves.”

They began walking down the tracks in respective silence, treading over roots and sidestepping the occasional sapling growing through the ties. The tracks stretched on unbroken for miles, and there were no railway switches or junctions that could be taken, so the tracks they walked seemed to stretch on endlessly towards the horizon like some kind purgatorious journey through Tartarus.

As they traveled down the tracks Gilda absentmindedly looked off to one side of forest that they had emerged from earlier. She cast her gaze from tree to tree, searching for something interesting to look at, something to entertain her while they walked, but the longer she looked into the woods the more it felt like the darkness was drawing closer to her.

Even though she could clearly see the silvery stripe of sky above her, and even though with a few mighty beats of her wings she could easily be high above the forest, she still couldn't help but feel the itch of claustrophobia crawling over her body again.

The darkness seemed to swell, pulsating and undulating, and the the branches swayed in the breeze almost appearing as if they were little black hands reaching out of the forest. Grabbing at her, trying to pull her in. It made her limbs feel tight, like she needed to run, and her skin felt as if she had dozens of tiny insects crawling all over her body trying to nibble at her flesh.

The gryphon tried to scratch herself under her wings, only to wince from the sudden movement of her wrist. She stopped and looked down at her claw. Although there was no visible injury from the incident earlier with the vines, and despite having no issue running or walking down the tracks, the gryphon's wrist was in a moderate amount of pain from the simple radial movement of trying to scratch her own back.

She opened and closed her claw a few times, only to feel a crepitus crackling sensation as the tendon moved in her wrist.

Rainbow Dash stopped a few feet ahead "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Huh?" Gilda looked up from her claw. "Oh, nothing." Gilda lied. "I just stepped on a thorn is all." and walked past the pegasus as the continued down the tracks. But something was wrong. Gilda's possibly-fractured wrist only seemed to reinforce it.

For all of her blustering and bravado, Gilda was afraid of the forest, and she knew Rainbow Dash was as well.

She could see the fear on Rainbow Dash's face when they first landed and even when they began to walk through the forest. Gilda only hoped her fears weren't as transparent with all of her arrogance and pride, but more importantly she wondered how much longer they could keep it up and whether or not they were going to spend the entire trip lying to each other about how not scared of the forest they were.

“Hey,” Rainbow Dash said suddenly. “About earlier?”

“Yeah?”

“I know I said this before but good eye on noticing these trees growing through the tracks.” Rainbow Dash said. “I know I’m pretty good at noticing things but I’m not as good at putting things together like that.”

“Yeah, we gryphons are naturally observant.” Gilda said with a smug sense of self-satisfaction. “Nothing gets by us.”

“Except Timberwolves and a bundle of vines?” Rainbow said coyly.

The gryphon glowered at the pegasus, who stuck her tongue out in response.

“Yeah yeah laugh it up.” Gilda said. “I guess I deserve it for attracting those Timberwolves.”

“Hey don’t take it so hard G,” Rainbow Dash said. “I didn’t believe those rumors at first either. In fact I did the exact same thing. Broke a branch because I thought it was ridiculous, and got chased for a half mile. I even thought I could outrun it but apparently they can smell the tree sap on your hooves, er, claws.”

“See! even you thought they sounded ridiculous!” Gilda said puffed-up. “All the stories and warnings are so ridiculous!... But I guess they have some truth to them after all.”

“The townsponies are just superstitious.” Rainbow Dash surmised. “But it’s almost like what we were told at Junior Speedsters Flight camp: Don’t fly on an empty stomach or your wings will seize. Don’t fly above the clouds during a rainstorm or you’ll get sucked up into the sky. Don’t-”

“That empty stomach thing is true though” Gilda cut in. “First time I tried it I almost fell to my death.”

“That’s what I mean,” Rainbow Dash said. “They sound like paranoid ramblings but they stem from some sort of truth.”

“And I guess the ones about flying just make more sense to us.” Gilda pondered. “Maybe if we lived on the ground with the rest of Ponyville we would be cowering over every odd noise as well.”

Yeah, maybe...” Rainbow Dash said. She waited for a response but the conversation seemed to trail off. However it didn’t take too long for the gryphon to pick up a different conversation.

“So you say you’ve been having nightmares?” Gilda said in an attempt to distract herself. “What about? You never really told me much about them.”

“Oh you know, losing horseshoes,” Rainbow Dash said sourly. “and other namby pamby things like that.”

“No I’m serious.” Gilda said oddly earnest. “We might be walking for a while so it’d at least kill some time.”

“Promise you won’t make fun of me?” Rainbow hesitated.

Gilda nodded.

“Well,” Rainbow sighed. “Alright.”

“I’ve been having trouble sleeping for a few weeks,” Rainbow Dash began. “But the dreams started the other night actually. Started with this dream where I woke up inside a train car. It was really dark, at least I think it was, I don’t remember seeing any light. All I remember is being very scared, not because I didn't know where I was or anything like that, but because I didn’t know where somepony else was.”

“And umm…” Rainbow continued. “I was inside a train car, and I remember it was moving incredibly fast, faster than any train I’ve ever been on. I couldn't even stand up it was so fast.”

“Was it going fast?” Gilda teased. Rainbow Dash snorted in response.

“But eventually,” Rainbow Dash continued. “The train stopped, almost on a bit, and I was flung forward into what I would soon find out to be was a pile of foals. Because shortly after we stopped, the door to the train car was opened and I could see that it was filled with foals. Fillies, colts, all of them different ages, and I could see at the other end of the train car was this yellow filly that looked a lot like Fluttershy. And I just remember feeling incredibly relieved when I saw her, like I hadn’t seen her in a long time or like I was afraid I wasn’t ever going to see her again… or something like that.”

“This sounds a lot like that horror movie, Foals of the Forest 2.” Gilda chided. “Where a bunch of foals get taken to this old logging camp in the woods that’s supposed to be haunted but it’s actually not and the only way they can get out is take this old train but there’s this mad logger that-”

“Don’t spoil the ending” Rainbow interjected. “I haven’t seen that movie yet.”

“Whatever dude,” Gilda said. “All I’m saying is you dreams sounds like a b-level horror movie so far.”

Rainbow glared at Gilda.

“But please continue.”

“Yeah...so.” Rainbow Dash began again. “We were all led off the train and into the forest by this really tall pony. I don’t know if it was because I was a foal in this dream or what, but I think I was afraid of her. She seemed to tower over us, and we couldn’t see her face because it was so dark. All I could think was I don’t like this pony, I want to go home and the only thing I really remember about her was that her mane was constantly waving in the air, almost like how the princess’ manes move during the day, or night for Luna. Which now that I think of it probably was Luna because the very next dream I had was of princess Luna.” She paused for a breath. “I was in a classroom and she was teaching poetry and there were all these foals there and…” Rainbow Dash paused to gather her thoughts. “But before that all even happened, we were lead through the woods to that large stone building, the one that I told you about earlier, and the figure quickly ushered us inside. Saying it wasn’t safe to be outdoors.”

“Those don’t exactly sound like nightmares.” Gilda said. “When you told nightmares, I thought you meant like being chased by a monster or something like that. Like maybe that tall figure would transform into some kind of beast and chase you through the halls.”

“You would think.” Rainbow said thoughtfully. “But every dream terrified me. I would either feel like I was going to die, or be taken away, or worse. I’ve woken myself up screaming into the night, covered in sweat… It feels like I haven’t slept in days.”

“So is this why you made me take you all the way out here then?” Gilda said. “Because of these nightmares?”

“I know it sounds silly,” Rainbow Dash said. “but when you mentioned the building with the red roof it sounded like it was more than just a coincidence, you know? Like I was having these dreams for a reason. Like there was a reason why I, specifically, were having these dreams… But I don’t know, the more I think about it the more I think I’m just psyching myself up for nothing. Maybe Luna was right. Maybe it is just a bad diet or not sleeping right... but I just want to find out for sure. You know?”

“I know what you mean.” Gilda said, hopping up and absentmindedly tip-toeing down the rails as they walked. “It sound like these dreams have you really spooked.”

“I really don’t want to admit it,” Rainbow Dash said reluctantly. “but they do. It’s to the point where I don’t even want to go to sleep anymore.”

“Well... if it makes you feel any better,” Gilda said reticently. “I’m...kinda... afraid of the dark.”

“Ha, really G?” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Afraid of the dark?”

“Well not in the sense that I need to sleep with a nightlight,” The gryphon said, hopping down from the track. “if that’s what you're thinking.”

“Well then what do you mean? Cause that’s exactly what it sounds like.”

“It’s hard to explain.” Gilda said. “It’s no the dark necessarily, but a fear of the unknown.”

As they spoke, the haunting call of a loon echoed through the forest.

“Take that loon for example” Gilda said “I know it’s just a bird, but It could be ten feet away, or several miles away in a lake somewhere. But with how the sound echoes through the forest you can’t get a sense of where anything is.”

“So, you’re afraid of loons?” Rainbow dash asked.

“Don’t be a dweeb dash, you know that’s not what I said.”

“Well then what is it?” Rainbow Dash fired back. “It’s just a forest.”

“It’s a gryphon thing.” Gilda said sharply. “We like to observe, we like to know what’s around us at all times. It’s the eagle in us. But out here, you can’t see ten feet in front of you, you can’t tell where any of the sounds are coming from. They just echo off each-other and sound like they’re all around you.” Gilda paused as another loon’s call rang through the forest. “I can go into a cave or a musty old dungeon no problem. But out here… It just makes me anxious.”

“I knew gryphons were part eagle,” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “but I didn’t know they were part chicken as well!”

“I’m being serious dude!” Gilda wings flared up. “This forest bugs the crap out of me, and I’m only telling you this because I didn’t want you to feel like a dweeb for being afraid of your little dreams.”

“Relax G, I’m only messing with you.” Rainbow gave Gilda a friendly tap on the shoulder, her wings reflexively tucked back to her sides. “This forest bugs me too, like you said, you’ll never know what’s out there until it springs up on you.”

The two became silent once again. Minutes passed, and eventually Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“You know, now that I think of it, I think I can actually remember another dream. I didn't even tell Twilight about this one.”

Gilda didn’t say anything in response, she only looked ahead as they continued onwards. Rainbow took it as a go-ahead and began to explain her dream.

“I was in this cafeteria.” she said. “I remember the walls were incredibly high, like two or three stories, and there were a line of windows at the very top letting sunshine in. This made me super upset for some reason. Princess Luna was there and I remember yelling at her. ‘’I want to go outside’ I said “I want to play in the sun, I’m tired of the night”. Luna was furious. There were other foals in the lunchroom, sitting at the tables with trays of food in front of them, but none of them were eating. None of them said anything. They just watched as Luna and I glared at each in the isle. I remember going for the door, I think it led outside, and I remember Luna saying, in the loudest voice I have ever heard: “IF YOU LEAVE THIS PLACE WE WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO PROTECT YOU. YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE BUT WE GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT US.”

Rainbow Dash paused for a long moment.

“I looked back at her for a long time.” Rainbow Dash continued. ”She was scowling at me, and I felt like I was betraying her… I looked over to the right, and there, sitting all alone at a table, was that filly from the train, the one that looked like Fluttershy. Sandy Shores I think her name is. She was crying, and I could feel myself start to cry too. I walked over to the table she was sitting at, past Luna, and I sat down. I didn’t say anything, I just put my head in my hooves and cried. Luna came over to me and-”

“Dash shut up a sec,” Gilda said, still looking down the tracks. “What’s that?”

“What? I don’t see anything.”

“You’ll see it in a second.” Gilda said. “I forgot, you ponies aren’t part lion so you can’t see as far in the dark as we can.”

But before Gilda could even finish her sentence, a large structure began to emerge from the darkness. As they walked even closer it began to take shape, until finally, they were standing before an old rusted train car; abandoned in the middle of the tracks.

“It’s… A train car?” The blue pegasus walked around to one side and looked up at the open door. The metal had completely rusted over from season after season of the forest’s unruly weather patterns. Whatever brilliant colors or company logos were once emblazoned on its surface had long since faded away, until all that remained was the reddish-brown color of corrosion.

“Alright, this is too freaky.” Rainbow Dash called out to Gilda who had rounded the other side of the car but spotted nothing of particular interest.

“What’s the big deal?” Gilda asked flippantly. “It’s just some rusty old train car.”

“This is the train car. I just know it!”

On impulse, Rainbow Dash climbed up onto the platform and went inside the train car. Once she stood on her hooves, she turned around to face the door and was overwhelmed by the familiar images of her nightmares. The open door where the tall figure and the conductor stood talking. The corner where Rainbow Dash had landed into a pile of foals. She turned her head, almost expecting to see a small yellow filly standing before her, but all she saw was the same rusted metal that adorned the outside of the train car .

“What do you mean this is the train car?” Gilda’s head popped into view and looked up at Rainbow Dash from the ground.

“This is the train car from my dreams.” Rainbow Dash cried out. “I was standing right here, and the tall pony was standing right where you’re standing now.” Rainbow Dash pointed to the trees behind Gilda. “And there, by those trees, were these really bright lights behind you. This is it, it has to be it!”

Rainbow Dash climbed out of the train car, but from Gilda’s perspective looked almost like a fearful leap. “I don’t like this.” the pegasus said as she stood up on a her hooves.

“Yeah me neither, I say we bail.” Gilda said, flaring her wings as if she were getting ready to fly. “ I don’t think we’re going to find what we’re looking for, and besides, I’m getting bored anyway.”

“No.” Rainbow Dash said, looking off into the forest behind Gilda. “We’re almost there.”

And without another word the blue pegasus bounded into the trees.

“Dash, what do you think you’re doing?” Gilda said running after her friend. “What do you mean almost there?” The gryphon cursed loudly as she stepped wrong and the pain in her wrist returned once again. “And can we at least fly this time? I’m getting tired of running!”

“I know this sounds crazy,” Rainbow Dash said, hopping over logs and snapping branches out of her way. “but just trust me.”

“Ugh whatever you say Dash, you’re still gonna owe me dinner after this.”

The two didn’t have to run for long. The forest began to thin out again as they both came across a well-worn path cutting through the trees. Rainbow looked to the ground and squinted in the dim light, and could just faintly make out several sets of indentations in the mud.

“Gilda look,” Dash called out as Gilda emerged from the trees. “hoofprints, and they’re all going in the same direction. It’s gotta be this way!”

“Lemme guess, your dreams?” Gilda said flatly, frustratedly rubbing the soreness out of her claw.

“Yeah.”

“Yo know I gotta say Dash, it almost feels like you’re pulling my leg.” Gilda said whilst testing her weight on her claw. “I’m supposed to be the one who knows where to go after all.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and began to follow the hoofprints. Gilda followed close behind and the path soon melded back into underbrush once again. The thickets and brambles clawed at Gilda’s body, cutting her, and the vines seemed to be trying to wrap themselves around her again.

“Uh dude?” Gilda quavered. “Are you having trouble moving past these plants?”

“Not at all.” Rainbow Dash said as she pressed forward with persistence and determination.

It almost seemed as if the forest itself was alive, quivering and coiling closer around her; as if the forest didn’t want Gilda to advance any farther. The further they walked the denser the trees became, until it felt like Gilda had to squeeze past each individual tree one at a time, sucking in her stomachs just to fit through; and the gryphon struggled to keep up with her friend.

.

Just when the forest was at its thickest, when it felt like Gilda was being consumed by the very forest itself, did Rainbow Dash hear the cry of an eagle from behind her. Gilda, having tripped over a vine that had wrapped itself around her back paw and falling face-first into the muck, had finally lost her patience with the claustrophobic forest. She let out a fierce gryphon cry before barreling her way through underbrush, blasting away every vine, branch, and sapling in her path before finally stumbling out of the forest into a large secluded clearing.

Rainbow Dash stepped with ease through the newly created path her friend had just created. She was about to remark on the impressive feat of strength she had just witnessed, but all of her words left her mouth as she beheld the crooked, overgrown cobblestone path and the façade of an enormous, grey-stone building.

The building was dilapidated, forgotten by time, and was steadily being reclaimed by the forest, but through the vines and ivy Rainbow Dash could clearly see hints of red as the late evening sun shone onto the old stone roof.

Chapter Six: Darkness and Doors

Against the ember-glow of the setting sun the lone structure stood, and Rainbow Dash could see that the building before her was none other than the one from her nightmares.

Vividly, Rainbow Dash could remember a tall, formidable structure whose stone-grey walls loomed over her head in the luminescence of the midnight sky. But the building that stood before her now didn’t seem so grey, nor did it seem as tall. It seemed almost skeletal as it stood quietly against the treeline at the far side of the clearing.

Moss and lichen covered half of the right side of the building whilst vines and ivy from the forest gnarled their way up the faded stone and into the many broken windows.

There were several smaller wings that stretched away from the main building, but none of them stood taller than the two-story structure they were attached to. The whole building itself didn’t even reach the tops of the trees. The canopy stretched overhead, casting its ebon shades across the building; effectively hiding it from view.

“Gilda… This is it.” Rainbow Dash said without looking away from the structure. “This is the building from my dreams.”

“I told you we’d find it.” Gilda flicked a silkworm off one of her talons. “We just had to go north.”

“Just had to go... “ Rainbow Dash wheeled around. “We’ve been going north for two hours now!” The gryphon shot a sly smile at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash looked back at the building and slowly began to approach it. Making careful movements as she got closer as if it were some sleeping giant that could be awoken at any moment. She took slow, careful breaths as she crossed over the cobblestones and could feel her heartbeat in her stomach. When she finally got close enough, when she had crossed under the building’s cimmerian shadow, Rainbow Dash rested her hoof against the aging concrete; looking up and studying the architecture as if it’s broken windows and hairline cracks held any meaning.

Gilda, however, was unconcerned with the building entirely, and instead focused her attention on the ensuing sunset. The daylight still lingered even though the sun had already begun to sink below the treeline. Though the sky was still awash with a brilliant blue, the crepuscular rays coming down through the canopy had already started to shift their hues; and as the trees bent and swayed in the gentle wind the forest was filled with a kaleidoscope of orange and yellows and reds.

“Yo dude, if we’re gonna do something we better do it fast.” Gilda called. “We probably only have like twenty minutes until it gets too dark to see.”

“You’re probably right.” Rainbow Dash turned her attention to the heavy oak doors that marked the entrance.

Though the doors hung ajar, the hinges had completely rusted shut from years of rain and weather, and opening them took a considerable effort. The blue pegasus put a hoof to door and pushed, but it did not budge. She then put up both her hooves, standing bipedal, and pushed as hard as she could with her hind hooves. Still the thick oak did not move, and despite putting her entire body against the door, no amount of force the pegasus could muster was enough to move the heavy wooden slabs.

“Ugh, just let me do it.” Gilda grew annoyed and crossed the cobblestone path herself.

She pressed her body against the door as well, pushing as hard as her mighty lion legs would allow. Her paws sank into the dirt from the sheer force being exerted. With a few grunts and growls from the gryphon, the door began to inch away ever so slightly.

"I think we almost got it." Gilda said through gritted teeth. With another push the pair heaved against the door, and the oaken slabs began to budge even more. "Just a little bit more..."

But before Gilda could finish her sentence, the hinges squeaked and the their combined weight caused the door to suddenly fly open, throwing them both off balance. The door swung fast, slamming into the adjoining wall and whipped up a massive cloud of dust.

“Celestia damn it, that hurt!” Gilda picked herself off the ground. “And I think I just lost a bunch of feathers too!” The gryphon angrily flapped her wings, dislodging several small fluffy feathers that gently floated to the ground.

“They’re only down feathers.” Rainbow Dash said, doing the same. “Don’t be such a queen. ”

“ I didn’t preen for hours just to lose all my feathers.” Gilda fired back. “Unlike you ponies I at least try to make my fur and feathers look nice.”

“Oh for Celestia's sake it’s not like they won’t grow back.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “And you haven’t even gotten your summer coat in yet so it’s not even going to be noticeable in a few days.”

“It still pisses me off...” Gilda moped.

As the dust finally settled inside the pair could see the heavy oak doors had opened up to a large hallway. A pair of old bookcases lined the walls, one on each side, and they could even see an old tapestry that hung over a staircase at the far end of the hall.

“How long do you think it’s been since this place has seen any sunlight?” Gilda pondered.

“Days? Months? Years?” Rainbow Dash said, looking through the open door. “It’s hard to tell.”

“I don’t think it matters much either way.” Gilda said callously. “Anyway… What’s the plan?”

“I...don’t know.” Rainbow Dash blinked. “I didn’t think we’d even get this far.”

“Well don’t you think we should maybe start by going inside?”

“No, I thought we’d just turn hoof and go home after coming all this way. Of course we should start by going inside!”

Gilda gestured towards the open door. “After you then.”

Rainbow Dash hesitated, gazing fearfully into the dim blackness inside. She tried to will herself to move but her hooves disobeyed her. They felt static and numb. For the first time in a long time, as long as she could remember, Rainbow Dash was terrified; and she didn't know why.

Rainbow Dash was one of the bravest ponies in Equestria. She was the element of Loyalty for Celestia's sake. She had defeated dragons and changeling queens, wicked mares of darkness and gods of chaos; even shadows of the arctic north. She had had flown on the pinions of fear more times than she could count. She was a hero. Yet, she was helpless by the edifice.

She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, or rather, stuck between a cocky griffon and the physical embodiment of her own nightmares.

For a moment Rainbow Dash actually considered going home. She weighed her options, debating whether the ridicule she would face would be worth backing down when a familiar voice began to echo through her mind.

"This is a safe place." It said. "Far away from the horrors of war and the cruelty of the world."

And for some reason this calmed her, and Rainbow Dash was able to feel her hooves begin to move. Slowly at first, as if she were walking through a mire, but eventually she regained her confident gait and easily crossed into the darkness as if passing through a dark curtain.

The hallway was in a state of decay.

Piles of old books, tomes, and ledgers littered the floor, and most of the bookshelves themselves had collapsed on themselves from years of termite damage and dry rot. Lines of old paintings adorned the walls, but with nopony around to care for them, the canvases had ripped and faded with time, so all that remained were empty frames on the wall. The air was stale and thick, and dense motes of dust floated listlessly through the sunlight that shone from the doorway.

Even the floor, which at one point could’ve been polished marble, was scuffed and cracked, and no longer held a reflection of any sorts.

Perhaps the thing that struck Rainbow Dash the most as they navigated their way around the piles of debris was how each one of her hoofsteps seemed to echo endlessly ahead of her.

Clip, clop, clip, clop.

A steady rhythm that bounced off the walls, bounced off the ceilings, until it sounded like there were at least four ponies walking in lockstep down the hall.

Rainbow Dash wondered just how long it had been since a hoofstep had echoed through the hall. Obviously whoever had occupied the building had long since departed, but it was almost ghostly, like somepony was walking right beside her. The way her hoofsteps echoed in her ear.

Clip, clop, clip clop.

"Dash, did you have to wear the loudest horseshoes you could find?" Gilda said as they reached a juncture of hallways at the base of the stairs, forming a T. “...Things are giving me a damn headache.”

“Oh, like that tickety-tack of your talons is any better?” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“Hey I don’t have any control over that.“ Gilda snapped. “They don’t exactly make shoes for gryphons where I come from.”

“Well I don’t have any control over it either.” Rainbow Dash said matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry my hooves make noise.”

“Well you could choose to not wear horseshoes.” Gilda said.

“Like I’m going to walk bare-hoof on this dirty floor.”

“Hey if I can do it you can too!” Gilda playfully shoved one of her dirty talons in Dash’s face, inches from her muzzle.

“So which way should we go?” Rainbow Dash pushed Gilda’s talon away. “Down these hallways or up the stairs?”

“Well downstairs it’s too dark to see anything.” Gilda observed. To the left and right of the stairs stretched separate hallways but each one was shrouded in blackness. “There’s sunlight upstairs so I say we go up there.”

“Are you sure it’s not because you’re afraid of the dark?” Rainbow Dash nudged the gryphon.

“It’s because we didn’t bring any flashlights.” Gilda said flatly.

“Right.” Dash said, her taunting ineffective. “Stairs it is.”

Rainbow Dash and Gilda ascended the stairway. About half-a-story up they reached a landing which then split into another set of stairs, parallel to each other, that led up in the opposite direction and connected with a railing at the very top.

On the wall directly behind the landing hung the old tapestry, and as the pair ascended the next flight of stairs they finally beheld it in all of it’s faded glory.

It was almost twenty feet tall and hung from the ceiling to the base of the landing, appearing almost as if the staircase was built around it to showcase its magnitude as opposed to being hung up as an afterthought.

The fabric was torn and it’s dyes had faded away in large portions, but the design of a crescent moon rising out of a dark starry field was still brazenly displayed across the entire length of the tapestry.

“Did somepony live here or something?” Gilda remarked. “That thing doesn’t look cheap.”

“Or something is right.” Rainbow Dash replied. “I’ve only ever seen tapestries like that in the royal castles.”

“It would have to take a team of at least three pegasi to lift something like that.” Gilda flouted. “This looks like one of those things you see one of those rich ponies put in their house. Right next to to their objets de'art.” The gryphon made a derisive gesture with her one of her claws. “I mean honestly, what’s the point of having something this extravagant just hanging around?”

“What are you getting so hot about?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I live in a shack, dude!” Gilda growled. “All of us gryphons live in shacks. Griffonstone is a rat-hole, but in some random house in the woods hangs this huge fancy tapestry. You know how expensive this thing probably is? I just might come back later and take it.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t respond, she knew better. Seeing the gryphon’s homeland first-hoof and the destitute living conditions that many of the gryphons were subjected to, Rainbow Dash learned pretty fast that gryphons have a very sour perception to the idea of affluence.

So instead of engaging the Gryphon any further, Rainbow Dash simply looked at the tapestry and tried to imagine just what kind of pony would display such a thing. She tried to imagine a king or a monarch, hanging the tapestry with pride, but she couldn’t think of a reason why a king of all ponies would be in a building that’s hidden so deeply within the Everefree Forest; it wasn’t very much of a castle after all.

“Alright, Let’s get on with it.” Gilda said, turning her back on the tapestry once she had a moment to compose herself.

The pair quickly came to a similar junction of hallways similar to the first floor. However there was hardly any light coming from anywhere inside the building, so the two were limited only to whatever parts of the building were facing the sunset at that particular time; and in this instance it was only the the long narrow hallway that mirrored the one they entered on the first floor. Although instead of leading to egress the hallway dead-ended at a closed wooden door, and the destroyed bookshelves of the first floor were replaced by a series of rooms on each side where sunlight was steadily shining in from the doors that had been left open.

Even the marble floor of the downstairs was replaced by a ruddy wooden floor that didn’t seem like it could bear the weight of a small foal, let alone an adult mare and a fully grown gryphon.

“It’s nothing but darkness and doors.” Gilda bawked. “Is this what you were so afraid of?”

“Yes,” Rainbow Dash said acrimoniously. “I’m afraid of doors and you’re afraid of the dark.” The pegasus slipped inside an open door and began checking rooms before the gryphon even had a chance to respond.

The first room Rainbow Dash had walked into was completely barren. No tables, no chairs, no bookcases. Nothing except for a large picture window letting in the afternoon sunlight. A great many of the rooms had busted locks so the doors couldn't even be opened without brute-forcing one’s way inside. Several of them were furnished with bookcases, nightstands, dressers, and other dilapidated antique furniture that had been carved from the local trees outside.

Almost all of the rooms featured the same large picture window that let in huge swathes of sunlight. From some of the windows, Rainbow Dash could see new sections of the building that they hadn’t seen from outside. From one window she could see an entire wing stretching off deep into the forest and from another she could see the retaining walls of a small garden. But most of the windows, however, simply featured scenic views of the many trees of the Everfree Forest.

“Dash, let’s just admit this was a bust and go home.” Gilda said as she watched Rainbow Dash entered another room. “It’s nothing but junk and garbage up here.”

“There’s gotta be something in here.” Rainbow Dash said from inside the room, turning over a destroyed bookshelf in the center of the room. “Why else would all these rooms be here?”

Rainbow Dash poked her head into the hallway to address here friend only to see Gilda standing in a lone sunbeam shining into the hallway. It didn't register to her at first, but for the entire time she was exploring the second floor Rainbow Dash had only ever seen Gilda standing in that one spot.

Rainbow Dash noticed that the air had taken on a slightly cooler temperature as the sun set even further. She was about to write it off as Gilda merely trying to keep warm. However she then thought back to Gilda's earlier confession in the forest and, looking at her now as Gilda idly cast her gaze awry, the gryphon seemed almost demure; but only for a moment. Turning her attention back to see Rainbow Dash staring at her, the catbird's countenance quickly changed and was guarded once again.

“What are you staring at me for?”

“Are you cold?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’m covered in two layers of fur, dude.” Gilda shrugged. “I’m warm all the time.”

The pegasus shrugged herself and stepped into another room. She was nearing the end of the hallway now, all that was left were a last coupling of rooms punctuated by the closed door in the middle of the hallway.

As rainbow dash looked through the remnants of an old bookshelf, flipping intently through thousand-year-old children’s books, she could hear the distinct sound of scuttling coming from the hallway. The floorboards squeaked as it sounded like several sets of hooves thunked against the wood as they ran from room to room.

“Gilda, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash called. The scuttling stopped, and the pegasus listened, but received no response.

Rainbow Dash poked her head into the hallway only to see Gilda gone, no longer standing in the sunbeam that was now inching up the wall as the sun outside continued to set.

The pegasus quickly trotted up the hallway to find Gilda in one of the empty rooms, leaning against the wall and idly looking out the picture window.

“Why were you running?” The floor creaked as Rainbow Dash stepped into the room.

“I wasn’t?” Gilda stared out the window. “I walked over to this window, that’s all.”

“But it sounded like you were running though…”

“I’m telling you the truth dude.” Gilda glowered. “It’s probably just the building settling or something. You notice how the floors creak with every step you take?”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Rainbow Dash said, exiting the room again.

“Yeah, I’m always right.” Gilda called as Rainbow Dash went back to exploring the final room.

This room was just like all the others: Broken furniture, rotting wood floors, vines and detritus creeping in from the broken windows.

“I don’t believe it.” Rainbow Dash yelled. “There’s nothing here!”

“Does that mean it’s time to go?” Gilda said appearing in the doorway.

“No we can’t go!.” Rainbow Dash protested. “There’s gotta be something here. Something I was meant to find, I just know it.”

“Dash we’ve been out here for hours now.” Gilda said. “If you were meant to find something you would’ve found it by now. Let just cut our losses and go home.”

“I’m not leaving until I get to the bottom of all this.” Rainbow Dash began frantically turning over furniture and rifling through piles of debris. Searching for something, searching for anything.

“Well whatever dude, it’s your thing.” Gilda said, having her fill of the anticlimactic building. She turned and walked out of the room. “It’s getting dark and I’m getting hungry, so I’m getting out of here. You can come with me if you want, but If you want to spend all night digging through trash than you’re on your own... You’re not going to find anything.“

There’s gotta be something here for me.” Rainbow dash stood in the middle of the room, defeated. “Why else would I have dreams of this place? Why else would we have come all the way out here?”

Suddenly, as if in call-and response, came what sounded like something heavy being dropped from a high place. Something like a shuffling of hooves and a resounding wham that echoed through the hallway.

Rainbow Dash wheeled around.

“What was that?” She called. When she didn’t hear a response she called out again “Gilda! are you alright?”

Still no answer. Rainbow Dash galloped into the hallway, fearing Gilda had fallen through the floor or tumbled down the stairs, but as she crossed over the threshold of the doorway she received a face-full of feathers as he ran headlong into Gilda; who had been standing in the middle of the hallway the whole time.

“Damn it, Gilda.” Rainbow Dash spat out some feathers. “Why didn’t you answer me? What was…. Hey, Gilda! What’s wrong with you?”

Rainbow Dash went to shake the gryphon but finally looked up to see Gilda steadily staring at the last room of the hallway.

“Did you open that door?” Rainbow Dash said, taking an impulsive step backwards. The door at the dead-end of the hallway was wide open.

“No.” Gilda said bewilderedly “ I was going down the hallway when I heard this loud noise, as if somepony kicked open a door. I turned around and that door was wide open.”

“Are you sure you didn’t open it?” Rainbow Dash was cynical. “Because that door was closed the entire time we were up here.”

“I didn’t open it dude!” Gilda squawked. “Why would I lie to you about opening a door?”

“You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just a real freaky coincidence.” Rainbow Dash said. “Do you think we should go inside?”

“You can if you want but I’m staying out here,” Gilda said. “I’ve seen enough of this building to know that there isn’t anything in there...”

Rainbow Dash pantomimed the actions of a chicken as she walked past Gilda. The gryphon rolled her eyes as her friend entered the room but she herself never went further than the doorway.

Inside there were two rows of bunk beds spanning the entire length of the room. A brown woolen rug sat in the middle of the floor and a large wooden toy chest stood against the back wall. The twilight was filtering in through the broken windows in the corner of the room, casting sinister shadows all over the walls.

The room was considerably colder than the others. The air held the same crispness as a sunny winter morning, despite the early summer heat outside; and it made Rainbow Dash shiver.

“Now I know why you asked if I was cold earlier.” Gilda remarked from the doorway. “It’s freezing in here!”

Rainbow walked past each bed, slowly, but still found nothing significant in the room. Just empty feather beds with scratchy green blankets. Except, however, at the end of the room on the bottom bunk of one of the beds Rainbow Dash could see a bundled mass underneath one of the blankets. She walked to the foot of the bed and felt a rush of cold air, as if somepony had just walked past her. She looked up to see Gilda casually scratching at the wooden door frame with one of her talons; cleaning her claws.

Rainbow Dash looked back at the bed. Thinking somepony might have been sleeping. She inched closer, watching for signs of breathing. When she didn’t see any motion to indicate the rise and fall of somepony’s chest, she crept up to the edge of the bed and slowly, apprehensively, pulled the blanket back; revealing a flash of whiteness that rainbow Dash didn’t recognize at first. As she pulled more of the blanket away she realized she was uncovering a hoary tangle of bones.

The pegasus threw the blanket back, revealing a pair of skeletons, no bigger than foals, arranged in such a way as if they were huddled into each other for warmth.

Rainbow Dash screamed and impulsively reeled back, stumbling over her own hooves as she tried to rush for the door.

“Alright, we’re getting out of here.” She said as she galloped past gilda, racing down the stairs and through the entrance door before taking off into the night of the freshly set sun.

Gilda caught up to her a few moments later.

“Dude, what gives?” The gryphon said still trying to get her flight goggles on. “You’re so bent on finding this place and you just suddenly leave? What’s the deal? What happened back there?”

“Nothing.” Dash said, pulling on her own flight goggles. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go home and get some sleep.”

“But don’t you want to-”

“NO!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “I told you no.”

“Whatever dude,” Gilda said as the clearing disappeared into the night. “Don’t think this gets you out of buying me dinner though.”

Chapter Seven: The Day of the Storm

“I don’t even care about the dreams anymore, I just want to get some sleep..”

Rainbow Dash sailed through the pointed-arch windows of her cloud-home and landed somewhere inside. She maneuvered through the familiar darkness, finding the staircase to her bedroom with relative ease.

Ascending the steps, she opened the door to her bedroom and ambled inside; quickly feeling the day’s adrenaline drain out her hooves and into the plush clouds that made up the floor.

“I don’t want to eat, I don’t want brush my mane, I just want to sleep.”

She was talking to herself.

During the flight home, Rainbow Dash had parted company with Gilda, explaining she wasn’t in the best of moods for dinner. After much protest, and much to the behest of the gryphon, Rainbow Dash was able to escape in exchange for a free lunch on top of the dinner she’d already promised as well as her assistance in re-appropriating the tapestry for the gryphon.

After four hours of round-trip flying on top of the accumulated fatigue of the last few days, the weary pegasus agreed without challenge. She just wanted to go home.

“My wings hurt, my hooves hurt, and. Oh Celestia, I’m soaked with sweat... Buck it, I’ll shower in the morning.”

Rainbow Dash tore off her flight goggles from around her neck and tossed them into the darkness, hearing a hearty clunk a moment later as they collided with her dresser.

“I’m not doing nothing tomorrow.” Rainbow Dash lept into her cloud-bed, feeling tiny tingles of pleasure crawl up her hooves as soon as she pulled up her sheets.

“Cancelling all of my plans, sleeping till noon. Yeah, that’s the plan!”

The pegasus arched her back, stretching her hooves and spine. She let out a moan as she she felt tingles travel from her hooves, up her back, and all the way up to the base of her neck, buzzing in her ears. It was an electric sensation. A physical release of all the day’s stress, almost as powerful as a sexual experience; three seconds or so of melatonic euphoria.

But then it vanished, and fatigue took its place.

The pegasus sunk into her cloud bed and squirmed into a comfortable position.

“That’s the plan.” She whispered as flash-memories from the day played out in her mind.

Her friends eating lunch in the throne room turned into an image of an oxbow lake she saw while flying over the Whinnysippi River. Seeing Gilda outside Twilight’s castle transformed to the two of them racing the Equestrian Express as it chugged down the track. All the while every conversation she had that day played at once. From Twilight’s morning history sermon to a conversation she had with Gilda about feather preening techniques.

Like a little bout of mania except the longer she lay, eyes closed, the farther away and less chaotic her recollections became, until even the physical world itself soon began to feel like it was melting away.

“That’s... the plan.”

The nightmares didn’t come this time. She didn’t even fall asleep in any conventional sense. Her mind was too active for her to enter into any meaningful sleep cycles. So Rainbow Dash simply lay half asleep as images from her trip through the everfree forest flashed through her mind. The mania returning in kind.

She saw herself maneuvering through the trees, walking down the train tracks, spotting the train car. Each vision getting more grim than the last. She saw the cobblestone path, the haunting building, the grim desolation inside its halls. Her body felt heavy, like she was finally on the verge of slumber. She didn’t dare open her eyes, so she simply kept them shut. Enduring the visions until all Rainbow Dash could think about was the upstairs bedroom and what she found in one of the bunk beds.

She tossed and turned, trying to push the image out of her head. She tried thinking of other things in hopes the distraction would help her fall asleep, but in every attempt the images came back clearer and stronger, until all she could think of were the two small skeletons in the middle of the bunk bed.

“Celestia damn it!” Rainbow Dash shot upright. “I just want to go to sleep!”

The pegasus threw one of her pillows into the dark and slumped back into bed. She turned on her side and saw that her bedside clock had read that two hours had past.

‘Was I really asleep, for that long? It only felt like five minutes!”

In a moment of desperation she flicked on her bed-side lamp and dug through one of the drawers in her nightstand, pulling out a bottle of sedatives. The bottle was a leftover from Rainbow Dash’s training at the Wonderbolt Academy. Weeks of nonstop flying drills and exercises that would leave her muscles sore and aching to the point where she couldn’t even sleep. She found the bottle in her locker one morning with a note from her captain saying they could help her sleep but only to use them sparingly as they had pretty nasty side effects. That she should only use them as a last resort.

Rainbow Dash looked at the bottle for a long moment, debating whether or not a night of sleep would be worth the possible side effects. She debated the alternative as well, not taking them and risking another round of nightmares and waking up screaming into the night. She was at an impasse. She was so tired, but every time she closed her eyes the skeletons were there, waiting for her.

“Side effects be damned,” she said and unscrewed the top off the bottle. “I want to sleep.”

Rainbow Dash took a hoof-full of pills and threw the bottle back inside the drawer, switching off her lamp and falling to her bed in a huff. She closed her eyes, ignoring the ghastly images as she waited for the pills to take effect.

She waited, but she didn’t feel anything. She could feel her pillow underneath her head. She could feel how her cloud bed conformed to the curves of her body. She could even feel her light summer bed sheets as they covered her. But she did not feel like the pills were doing anything. She didn’t feel drowsy.

Rainbow Dash tried to remember what happened the last time she took the sedatives, but that was well over a year ago. She tried to remember how long it took for the drugs to take effect but she couldn’t picture it in her mind. Couldn’t picture herself laying in the uncomfortable cots in the academy barracks; kept awake by her sore muscles and achy wings.

She couldn’t even picture the events of the afternoon anymore. All the random flashing images from her pool of memories had drifted far off into the ether, until all that was left was blackness.

Rainbow Dash considered getting out of bed and making a midnight snack or maybe even showering after all. Doing anything while she waited for the sedatives, when suddenly the sound of a door slamming open captured her attention.

“Honey wake up!” a frantic voice could be heard. “We have to go!”

The pegasus’ eyes snapped open. She shot up, her head dizzy, her vision blurry, her throat dry.

“Come oooon, we have to go!”

Through the haze of arousal Rainbow Dash could see she wasn’t in her room anymore. This room was much larger and smelled of dirt and hay and timber; smelled like an earth-pony’s house. Except she could also smell the light odor of woodsmoke as well, as if somepony had lit a hearth. As her eyes focused she could see a dirt floor and the bed she was in was made entirely of scratchy hay. Light was shining in from the hallway and in the open door stood the silhouette of a mare.

“Get up!” The mare shouted. “Pack a saddlebag, get your sister, we have to leave, NOW!”

She sounded scared, like she had been crying, but she didn’t stay in the doorway for long. As Rainbow Dash heard her hoofsteps echo down the hallway she could feel a real sense of panic overtake her, and she began to shove all the contents of a nearby nightstand into a saddlebag and galloped into the hallway as well.

A door opened from a neighboring bedroom and out of it stepped a yellow filly with a pink mane; the one from the train.

“What’s going on?” She rubbed her eyes.

“We have to leave!” Rainbow Dash said frantically.

“What? Why?”

But before Rainbow Dash could answer or even process what was happening, the mare from the doorway reappeared in the hallway with her own hastily packed saddlebag.

“Get outside!” The mare said, pushing them down the hall.

“But, I forgot my Luna doll!” The yellow filly protested.

“No time!” The mare cried and ushered them both outside.

The trio emerged into the housing district of an Equestrian town that looked a lot like Ponyville, except it didn’t look like any part of Ponyville Rainbow Dash had ever seen before. It had the same wooden houses with thatched hay gabled roofs, but they were densely packed together like Hoofington or South Trotsdale, and instead of the rough cobblestone streets this town had neatly laid greystone brickwork paved up and down the entire street.

This wasn’t the only thing that seemed immediately out of place to Rainbow Dash in the first few moments of stepping outside. The sky was a bright orange, as if the sun was about to set. This would not be out of place if it were not for the smell of ash and ember. Looking around she could see the full moon was shining high in the sky and the bright orange was not, in fact, the final remnants of a sunset; but flames. The entire town was on fire!

Other ponies were running through the streets. Some were screaming, some were crying. Most of them carried what little possessions they could grab before they had to evacuate.

“Go, Run!” The mare nudged at the foal's, trying to get them to move.

“But what about my Luna doll?” The yellow filly said, trying to go back inside.

The mare shut the door in the filly’s face. “I said there’s no time!” she cried as she pulled the ponies into the street.

“But mommy, it’s my favorite doll”

“I SAID THERE’S NO TIME!”

An explosion came from a nearby house. A flaming barrel had flown through the air, breaking against the side of the house and spilling fire and burning coals into the street. This was followed by a barrage of similar projectiles and flaming arrows which caught many more of the houses alight.

“RUN!” The mare shouted.

There was no argument this time, Both Rainbow Dash and the yellow Filly began to run as fast as they could, led by the mare. By now the air was thick with smoke and ash, and Rainbow Dash could barely breath. She coughed haggardly as she ran, her chest was tight and her lungs felt like they themselves were on fire.

The trio stopped in one of the market squares. The air wasn’t as thick here as as it was in the housing district, so they were able to catch their breath. If only for a moment as soon another barrage of flaming projectiles came down from the sky like orange rain.

“Mommy what’s happening?” The yellow filly was crying.

“I don’t know sweetie.” The mare said. She was crying too.

Rainbow Dash was crying as well. Not because of the fire, but from the sheer and utter confusion of what was happening to her. Where was she? What was this town? Why was it on fire? Who was this yellow filly? And more importantly, who was this mare? This mare wasn’t Rainbow Dash’s mother. Rainbow Dash’s mother lived in cloudsdale and was a part time cloud-former. She didn’t live in an earth pony town and she definitely didn't have two daughters. Rainbow Dash was an only child!

“We have to get to the St. Hoofsburg gate.” The mare wiped her eyes just as another wave of ponies began to evacuate their burning homes, their mournful wails filling the air as they watched their homes and business go up in flames. “We’ll be safe in the woods.”

“St. Hoofsburg?” Rainbow Dash was even more confused. Was that the name of the town? She’d never heard that name before. She’d heard of St. Hoofington and Trotsburg, but never St. Hoofsburg.

“What’s so safe about the forest?” Rainbow Dash tried to ask, but it had no effect. Either the mare didn’t hear her or she couldn’t hear her. She simply ushered them to begin running again.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she ran. But the only response the mare made were wordless sobs in between gasps for breath as she guided the foals to the outskirts of town.

Here the cobblestone street began to bend around a massive stone statue like a river would bend around a boulder. Rounding the statue Rainbow Dash could see it depicted a saintly greyed stallion tending to a group of frolicking foals. Rainbow Dash stopped in front of the statue. On it hung a plaque engraved with the words:

“The day of the storm is not the day to be fixing the thatch. Be patient. The sun will smile again. ”

The statue glowed a faint red-orange as the town behind it burned, and the juxtaposition of what the statue was meant to represent with the current destruction of the town almost made Rainbow Dash feel sick to her stomach.

The pegasus then felt a tug on the scruff of her neck and was pulled away from the statue..

“We don’t have time to stop!” The mare said through gritted teeth and dragged Rainbow Dash past the St. Hoofsburg city gate and into the Equestrian fields. The mare began to say something else but all Rainbow dash remembered was the sound of her sharp and sudden shriek...

In the fields Rainbow Dash could see they had run directly into the maw of a waiting gryphon army that had assembled in a v-formation around the city’s gate.

In the half-light of the burning town they stood holding swords, spears, axes, spiked maces, and other blunt weaponry, while many more hovered above them clutching bows and flaming arrows in their claws. Behind them were rows of gryphons loading pitch and barrels onto catapults before setting them alight and firing them into the town.

But perhaps what was most striking about the infantry was the armor they wore; Golden breastplates with blackened wings carved into the center. They gleamed in the wavering fire-light against the black of night like the moonshine reflected off a midnight ocean. Like the final embers of a dying campfire. Like the whites of the eyes of the townsponies that had begun to filter out of the burning town and into the waiting gryphon’s ambush.

And in that moment everything became still. Nopony moved. Nopony spoke. No gryphon lifted a sword, nor fired an arrow, nor loaded a bow. Both sides stood motionless, gazing transfixed at one another with grim and phantom faces.

There was no sound.

The discordant chorus of the town's destruction was far away and the screams of the fleeing towns ponies had faded to the point where the entire field almost felt like an image trapped in time or some kind of vision from the primordial mists; a dream. But the liminal veil was broken with the sound of a battle horn and then chaos descended upon the towns ponies.

The gryphons nocked their bows, and fired dozens of flaming arrows into the crowd. The townsponies scattered in all directions, but the gryphons squeezed in closer, raising their weapons at any pony in reach, and soon all that could be heard was screams and the grating sound of steel on flesh.

Some ponies tried to run back into the town, but more gryphons had descended from the sky, perched along the rooftops to swoop down like hawks on anypony that tried to flee. Other gryphons picked up the townsponies, flying fifty of sixty feet high and simply dropping them back to the ground. They sliced with their swords, bashed with their maces, skewered with their spears and polearms, and those brave few ponies who tried fighting back proved no match against the mighty gryphons and their golden armor; and served merely as a temporary stopgap for other ponies to try and escape.

The trio ran back into the town, somehow managing to escape the carnage. They ran past scurrying ponies trying to flee the fires only to be carried away by gryphons flying down from the sky. Rainbow Dash looked up to see several menacing black shapes perched on the roofs, taunting the ponies below.

“Run all you want little ponies, you’ll never be able to hide!”

They ran back into the burning town, through alleyways, and took a shortcut across a bridge into one of the markets. As they galloped towards the west gate Rainbow Dash watched helplessly as a salvo of flaming barrels sailed through the air like shooting stars before exploding the ground and nearby buildings. Sending chunks of glass, dirt, and rock in all directions.

One of the barrels hit close to them, blowing out the windows of a nearby dairy shop; knocking the mare to the ground. Rainbow Dash and the yellow filly helped her to her hooves and guided her along as she limped to the western gate, only to witness another battalion of gryphons assembling just outside.

It was all one big trap. Fire from the arrows and pitched barrels lured the ponies out of the town where the gryphons waited to cut them down. If they didn’t perish at the talons of the gryphon horde then they surely would by asphyxiation from running back into the burning town.

Rainbow’s head was in a swirl of confusion. The smell of fire. The sounds of dying ponies. The pain in her chest from running and inhaling too much smoke. Not to mention the yellow filly and the mysterious mare who had been dragging her all over town who was now frantically trying to get Rainbow Dash’s attention, gesturing and speaking to her but all Rainbow Dash could hear was a low distant ringing in her ears.

Finally the mare gave up trying to speak to Dash and grabbed her by the hoof, pulling her in the direction of a side alley that exited out of the town.

They ran into the darkness of the Equestrian field, guided only by the dim light of the still-burning town. They made it halfway to the neighboring treeline when an eagle’s cry pierced the night, followed by the sounds of a body hitting the ground and sharp shrill cries of terror.

“Mommy!” Rainbow heard the yellow filly cry.

As she turned, she saw the mare lying in a heap on the ground. Her hooves twisted and bent, and standing atop her roosted a gryphon who had swooped down and sank its claws into the mares back and stomach.

The yellow filly sobbed uncontrollably and Rainbow Dash could only look in horror as the gryphon unfurled its mighty wings and looked down at the two ponies; clutching a sword in one of its claws.

It was Gilda, of this Rainbow Dash was sure. This gryphon had the same body, same eye-markings, same wings, same fringed feathers that hung over her face. There was no other gryphon this could have been except for Gilda.

Rainbow Dash and gilda looked at each other for a long while, and in that moment Rainbow Dash truly feared for the first time that she was going to die. She could feel it in her stomach, in her bones. This gryphon was going to kill her, just like it had so effortlessly done to the mare mere moments before.

But the gryphon never broke her gaze with Rainbow Dash. Never lifted her sword or charged at the two ponies. Instead, after a long moment of looking, the gryphon flared her wings and took off into the air, slicing the wings off a fleeing pegasus who crash landed in the field some ten feet away. Then the gryphon was gone, flying back towards the town and disappearing into the smoky haze.

Without another thought Rainbow Dash grabbed the yellow filly and pried her off of her dead mother, folding their wings together to stop her from attempting to run back and retreated into the forest.

She didn’t know where they were running, in fact she didn’t even know why they were in the woods at all. Only that the mare had told them they would be safe in the woods. And that was reason reason enough for Rainbow Dash, so into the woods they went.

As Rainbow Dash galloped, the clangor of swords had died away. The shouting of the slaughter was hushed, and silence laid on the trees. She stopped and looked around. The gryphons, the town, and even the yellow filly were gone. Armageddon hadn’t actually come.

She could no longer see the red streaks in the sky nor could she any longer hear the dirge of the invaded town. Only the cry of an owl echoed in the dark.

She looked up only to see her cloudhome floating quietly above her head like a silent fortress, a flag flapping in the breeze, and nothing remained of her nightmare except a saddlepack on her back filled with all the contents of her nightstand and a foal-sized log she had drug through the woods.

***

Spike, Twilight's dragon assistant was in the castle’s kitchen making himself an after-midnight snack, half-humming a tune to himself about how his sandwich lettuce was as green as his scales were, when a knocking began to echo through the castle.

Poking his head out of the kitchen he listened intently, thinking he had imagined the sound when again came a series of knocks on the main door.

As he walked down the main hallway the knocks grew louder and more frantic, and as Spike approached the castle's door the knob began to jiggle as well; as if somepony were desperately striving for ingress. Spike undid the bolt that held the door closed and went to open the door, but before he could open it even an inch the door flew open and knocked him off balance.

"Where's Twilight?" Rainbow Dash said as Spike fell to the floor. Her eyes were wild like a startled fawn.

"What do you need Twilight for?" Spike said from the floor. "It's like two in the morning."

"Take me to her." Rainbow Dash said, looking around erratically.

"I don't think now's the best time." Spike hesitated. "She's-" but before Spike could lift himself off the ground or even finish his sentence, Rainbow Dash ran off to look for Twilight. Rushing from room to room looking for the royal bedchamber.

As she searched her adrenaline wore off the point where she began to notice the emptiness of the castle again, almost immediately. The air was charged, more amplified than normal, and Rainbow couldn't tell if it was because of her nightmarish experience or simply the fact that it was after midnight, but she had the overwhelming feeling that she didn't belong in the castle. Like she was being watched, and by the time her excitement had completely faded away she realized she had gotten herself lost.

"I can't find the stupid bedchamber!" the frightened pegasus shouted, here voice echoing.

"Up the stairs and to the left." Spike said nonchalantly, walking past Rainbow Dash holding a half eaten sandwich. He cut through an adjacent hallway and Rainbow Dash followed as he effortlessly navigated the labyrinthian castle.

Spike opened the door to Twilight's bedchamber. Light flooded in from the hallway and fell upon the face of the sleeping alicorn.

"She won't be happy with you waking her up." Spike said with his mouth full. "She had a late night."

Rainbow Dash didn't listen and practically galloped over to the sleeping alicorn and shook her awake.

"No quesadillas," Twilight said still dreaming. "I want to save myself for my special somepony."

"Twilight wake up," Rainbow yelled. "I need your help."

"Rainbow?" Twilight was groggy, still dreaming. "what are you doing in the mayor’s office?"

"Twilight I need your help." Rainbow began to frantically ramble. "we found the building last night. when we went into one of the bedrooms we found a couple skeletons.” Rainbow was getting in twilight's face, waking her up more, and she had to use her magic to push the pegasus away. "and when I got home I went to sleep and and and woke up in this burning house inside a town being besieged by an army of gryphons that chased me into the woods beneath my house." Twilight simply sat in her bed, watching the hysterical pegasus babble on and grew increasingly irritated. "and I don't know what I'm going to do. My holiday's over in three days, what if this keeps happening when I go back to the wonderbolts? What if Fleetfoot of Soarin see me like this? Spitfire's going to-"

Twilight's horn suddenly illuminated and zapped a bolt of magic at Rainbow Dash. She took a few unbalanced steps before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed to the floor.

"What did you just do?" Spike exclaimed.

"Put her under a sleep spell," Twilight said bitterly and angrily resituated herself under her covers. "Whatever's wrong with her we can deal with it in the morning."

Chapter Nine: A Secret Place

Rainbow Dash and company arrived at the Las Pegasus junction in the early afternoon and took off flying into the northern sky, but barely made it past the Whitetail Woods as Twilight quickly became tired. Landing prematurely into the fringes of the Everfree Forest. They walked a short ways through the woods as Twilight’s energy recovered. Along they way they stumbled upon several bundles of vines, similar to the ones Rainbow Dash and Gilda had discovered the day before. Close to the vines were supply crates emblazoned with black wings and what looked to the the remains of an old campsite; Knocked over metal tent poles and a tin cookpot hung above a circle of stones from an old fire. Twilight used her magic to pull the vines apart and upon closer inspection found the skeletal remains of avian bones; beaked skulls attached to rib cages strapped inside golden breastplates bearing the same markings as the ones on the nearby crates.

Rainbow Dash mentioned they were the same symbols she saw in her dreams however Twilight was unable to find any mention of them in her encyclopedia. Opening the crates, they found a surplus of military supplies; golden helmets, sword belts, gauntlets, maces, axes, and several sheets of unfitted chain mail. She made a note of their location and the trio flew back up, only to land short once again as Twilight’s wings began to cramp.

They landed on the tracks this time, much to Rainbow Dash’s pleasure as it only took them about ten minutes to reach the boxcar. Much to the pegasi's chagrin however, the purple alicorn took a considerable amount of time inspecting the boxcar. Looking for any kind of identification numbers or reporting marks, but was only able to rub off a section of rust revealing the words “West Equestrian Railyard”. Twilight found this to be highly unusual as the only rail yards in Equestria were out of Canterlot or Manehattan, and again, she was unable to find any mention of it in her encyclopedia.

They went down the forest trial and through the opening Gilda had made, which was already regrown about three quarters of the way, and the three of them stood before the stone building.

“Well,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “This is it.”

“You know I really would’ve wanted to spend a little bit more time inspecting that boxcar.” Twilight readjusted her saddlebag to a more comfortable position. “I’m sure I could’ve found some kind of information on it.”

“You weren’t going to find anything.” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “You were looking in that stupid book of yours for almost a half hour and didn’t find anything.”

“I don’t understand why.” Twilight stated. “This book has an accumulative history of the last three hundred years.”

“Well you couldn’t find anything about those gryphon skeletons in the woods.” The pegasus reiterated. “You probably aren’t going to find anything about the railyard either.”

Not wanting to argue, Twilight changed the subject.

“So this is it?” Twilight said as she looked up at the crumbling edifice. “The construction looks almost preclassical, almost like the buildings in Canterlot.”

“Are you sure this is the same building from your dreams?” Spike questioned. “Seems really unlikely.” Twilight reproached him but he continued. “I’m just saying it seems a bit far-fetched to have a dream about a building and then find it the very next day. This isn’t a storybook.”

“I'm positive.” Rainbow Dash affirmed, moving closer to the building. “In my dream I was standing right here and somepony told me ‘this is a safe place’.”

“It does feel kinda homely.” Twilight remarked. “You know, despite the fact that the building is falling apart.”

“So… What’s the plan?” Spike asked.

“Well, it’s high noon.” Twilight looked up at the sky. “With all this ambient light we have right now I think it’s our best chance to explore the inside.”

Rainbow Dash agreed and they all stepped inside, walking past the rubble and bits of broken bookcase and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. No longer shrouded in the dim blackness from before, Rainbow Dash could see that both of the hallways appeared to wrap around the staircase and split off into separate sections of the building. She turned to ask which hallway they should go down only to see Twilight looking up at the large lunar tapestry.

“Wow you weren’t kidding.” Twilight admired. “That thing would look good in the my castle.”

“So what should we do?” Rainbow asked.

“Twilight looked at both of the hallways herself and thought for a moment.

”We could probably cover more ground if we split up.” Twilight said. “Since you already said you explored the upstairs and found nothing noteworthy, how about you go left and Spike and I will go right? We can meet back here in an hour. If you need help you can just yell for us and we can come find you.”

Rainbow Dash agreed and disappeared around the corner of the left hallway. Spike and Twilight took to the right and rounded the corner into shadows. The alicorn’s horn illuminated with a magical light and revealed a small cluster of rooms cloaked in shadow as this wing of the building faced away from the sun.

They stopped at the first room and pushed past the half-opened door and Twilight’s horn threw shadows across the wall and lit up what remained of a decrepit classroom. They walked around as Twilight’s hornlight scanned past what was once rows of desks that were now upturned and wrecked. Papers and writing supplies littered the floor and on the far wall hung a chalkboard with the words “Poetry Recitals Today” written in faded chalk.

Spike picked up a few of the papers off the floor and looked at them as Twilight walked to the front of the room and stopped by the teacher’s desk.

“Hey Twilight.” Spike called out. “Check these out.”

“What is it Spike?” Twilight turned around, shining her light in his face. Spike handed the papers to her and she shuffled through them with her magic. “It’s just a bunch of poems?”

“Yeah, but look at the dates on them.” Spike said. Twilight looked through them again.

“Whoa you’re right, Spike.” Twilight exclaimed. “These are over a thousand years old!”

“If they really are,” Spike said. “why haven’t they completely disintegrated by now? Doesn’t paper not last very long?”

“Modern paper doesn’t.” Twilight explained. “Our modern paper is made from wood pulp, which doesn’t last very long when exposed to air. But if the dates on these are correct they most paper back then was rag paper made of recycled linen, so the fibers were long, more flexible, and lasted much much longer.” She passed the poems back to Spike. “If you want, you could read more about it in the encyclopedia.”

“I’m not looking through that book again.” Spike huffed. “It’s heavy and hasn’t been very reliable today.”

“I know, it was just a joke.” Twilight giggled and turned to look at the chalkboard and playfully asked Spike if they should recite some poetry. Spike hesitated a response and Twilight walked to the center of the room, stood proper, and began to recite one of her favorite poems.

“Whose woods these are I think I know,

Her house is in the castle though.

She will not see me stopping here,

To watch her woods fill up with snow.

A little pony must think it queer,

To stop without a farmhouse near.

Between the woods and frozen lake,

The darkest evening of the year.”

“That was kinda fun!” Twilight laughed again. “You should recite a poem Spike.”

“Why?” He asked.

“I don't know.” Twilight shrugged. “Just feels like it’s something we’re supposed to do. Plus it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’ll pass. I read comic books, not poetry.” Spike said, feeling a sudden movement of air as if somepony had just stormed past him. He turned and looked towards the door, a weird feeling growing in his chest. “On second thought, I guess I could read one.”

Spike took a poem from the stack he held in his claws and walked up to the center of the room. He looked at Twilight who was smiling at him, patiently waiting for him to start. He stammered through the first stanza of the poem, having no real sense of meter:

“We are snowflakes,

Drifting to the end.

We are snowflakes,

Drifting to the end.”

Twilight cheered for him anyway, clapping her hooves and asking him to continue.

Like leaves falling,

Off the trees of winter.

The sun goes down,

And you never came around.

The moon fades away,

And the stars are blowing up.

Like the leaves on the trees,

In the winter we die.”

“Huh, it’s actually pretty good. Kinda dark, but good… I like it.” Spike said, feeling another movement of air. “Do you feel that?” He asked.

“Feel what?”

“That wind.” Spike stated. “It feels like a breeze or something.”

“I don’t feel anything.” Twilight remarked. “It might be coming from outside since the doors are open, but it’s forecasted to be a pretty calm day today.”

Spike straightened out the poems in his hand made a comment that they should probably check the other rooms when a piece broke off in his claw and crumbled to dust. Feeling a sudden weight in his chest like he’d just broken something important he made a comment about it to Twilight.

“Well the papers are probably super brittle.” She explained. “They are a thousand years old after-all, so you can’t handle them like you would a normal piece of paper. You have to be gentle or else they’ll fall apart.”

Spike felt sorrowful for a moment, not really sure why, but got an idea and waddled over to Twilight and reached a claw into her saddlebag.

“What are you doing?” She asked as he pulled out a comic book.

“I want to keep these.” Spike explained. “They feel important, you know? But the paper is falling apart so I figure I could put them with one of my comics and keep them from getting damaged.” He opened the plastic sleeve of his comic and slid the poems between the comic and the cardboard backer and carefully slid the whole stack back into Twilight’s bag.

***

As Rainbow Dash turned the corner, the hallway opened up into a long corridor that seemed to have been built to accommodate a larger amount of back and forth hoof-traffic. The corridor was broad and straight like a canal that cuts through a town. It almost reminded her of the hallways at the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp, except the paint had peeled off the walls long ago.

A row of pictures lined both sides of the corridor just like in the entrance hallway, and just the same almost all of the them were broken and empty. Those that had pictures still in their frames were faded to the point where only vague shapes and outlines remained stained onto the paper. Rainbow Dash stopped in front a painting with a bronze plaque hung below it, the words ‘The promise of a bright future” were carved onto its surface. The picture however only displayed ambiguous forms, like coffee stains on parchment, and looked almost like a group of ponies standing at attendance for a school photo; the distinct shape of an adult alicorn stood center frame.

She kept walking, and soon the corridor opened up even further into a large cafeteria. Stepping inside she felt a wave of familiarity and deja vu wash over her. The cafeteria was in a complete state of disarray, just like every single other room she had entered thus far. Despite the crumbling stone walls, despite the rubble strewn floors, and even despite the collapsed lunch tables, there was no doubt in her mind that this was the the same cafeteria from her dreams.

She looked up towards the ceiling and saw the same clerestory windows, saw the same afternoon sunlight pouring in, and felt the same overwhelming desire to go outside. To leave. To escape. However, when she looked back down she saw no foals sat with lunch trays nor did she see Princess Luna stranding before her. At the end of the room though, she could see a single door set against the back wall. She instinctively went towards it, feeling like she had repeated these actions before and walked passed rows and rows of lunchtables.

She swallowed hard and raised a hoof to the latch.

“If you leave this place we will no longer be able to protect you.” A voice echoed through the pegasi's mind. “You are free to leave but we guarantee you will die without us.”

Rainbow Dash sucked in a lungful of stale air, closed her eyes, and pushed open the door. She heard birds, and felt a rush of warm, sweet-smelling air. She waited, and when she was sure certain doom hadn’t come she opened her eyes to the afternoon light.

There was a small garden outside. Stone benches, overgrown shrubbery, and unkempt flower beds that, once neatly manicured, had grown tall and shaggy with vines and weeds. She stepped outside and walked through what was once a small hedge maze that came to a center with a tall statue whose stone wings could be seen over the tops of the wild hedges. Reaching the center of the maze, Rainbow Dash came upon the cracked stone sculpture of what used to be a young Princess Luna surrounded by foals, similar to the one she saw outside the St Hoofsburg Gate, except the statue seemed to have succumbed to the slow ravages of time.

Several pairs of trunkless hooves stood on the pedestal around the princess, eroded from years of rain and unable to bear the weight of their stone bodies that fell around the base of the statue. Near then, half sunk in the dirt, a shattered visage of Princess Luna lay.

And on the pedestal hung a bronze plaque whose words read “Our dear mother and her children of the night”

Looking around, the pegasus felt an overpowering sense of peace. Despite the fact the the garden had been left to grow wild, it was a very serene setting. The birds were singing, the sun seemed bright, the air was clear. A light wind rustled the trees and ruffled her feathers, and she felt the desire to sit on one of the stone benches, as if somepony had called over to her. But no other ponies remained, round the decay of that wrecked statue and its wild overgrown garden.

Around them, boundless and dense, the Everfree Forest stretched far away.

***

“It’s not going to work.” Spike said.

“It is going to work.” Twilight retorted, her face twisted up with concentration. “I know how to pick a lock.”

The twosome were standing in front of the last door at the end of the hallway. A thick oaken-wood door with ‘Administration’ written on the wire glass window. Spike stood off to the side as Twilight struggled in vain to magically pick the door’s lock.

“That lock’s probably a thousand years old.” Spike pointed out. “There’s no way it’s going to be like the locks we have today.”

“That’s why it shouldn't be this hard to pick.” Twilight seethed. “Hold on... I think I got it!” She said with an influx of magic, followed by a hearty chunk. “See Spike, I told you it was going to work….” The alicorn attempted to open the door but the handle wouldn’t budge. The lock was jammed. “Oh buck it.”

With a flash of purple magic the lock exploded, a dull thud could be heard inside the room as the tumbler shot against the wall, and moments later the door creaked open.

It was probably the only room in the entire building that was untouched by time. Untouched by the elements for a thousand years, as it was the only room not reduced to rubble. Dust swirled up from the sudden rush of air and directly in front of them stood a large wooden desk covered with stacks of written correspondence. Twilight walked around and sifted through a few of the letters.

“What are they? Spike said, stepping over the ejected lock tumbler.

“It looks like letters to and from a rail-yard.” Twilight said, shuffling through the letters. “The West Equestrian railyard, like the name on that box car outside.”

Spike walked around the desk to get a better look, but it scarcely made a difference as the desk was almost as tall as he was. “Does it say anything about the rail yard?” he said, his head peaking up.

“No, they just seem to be notices of train arrivals and shipment sizes. Twilight began to read aloud. “ 9 PM, two parcels. 2:30 AM, 4 parcels. 8:30 PM, 8 parcels.” She handed them to off to spike as she read each one.

“Why is ‘parcel’ written like that in each one?” Spike asked.

“I’m not sure.” Twilight said. “But this last one here says there was supposed to be one more delivery after that last one. Says down here that ‘I fear we may have been discovered so I’m not going going to stop. I will just detach the cargo as we near the drop zone’. What do you think that means?”

“I guess that explains why there’s just a box car with no engine.” Spike wondered aloud. “But discovered by who?”

“And what were they delivering?” Twilight wondered as well.

The alicorn turned around to see a large map of western Equestria hanging on the wall. Any text that had been written had faded but the general shape remained, as well as several pins placed in different locations connecting back to the building’s location on the map with little pieces of string. As she searched the back wall her eyes fell upon a small filing cabinet behind the desk.

“Jackpot!” Twilight said as she began to fiddle with the cabinet’s lock.

Spike looked around as Twilight attempted to pick another ancient lock. He had a weird feeling about this place. He wasn’t afraid or anything, there had just been a pressure building in his chest ever since they entered the classroom. It was hard for him to breathe, and ever since they entered this administration office he’d been feeling shivers down his scales; like he wasn't supposed to be in that room.

He looked down at the shipping invoices he held in his claws and re-read them. Trying to distract himself from his lingering sense of dread when he heard Twilight grunt as she exploded another lock, followed by the sounds of Twilight tossing a stack of folders down onto the desk.

“Spike look at this.” Twilight motioned him over. “They look like records of some sort.” She said as she held up profiles of several foals with their pictures paperclipped onto them. She began to read them aloud and pass them to Spike again.

“Ivy Charm, brother of Caramel Whiskers. Father drafted.” She pulled out another profile “Caramel Pie, only child, parents abandoned after fleeing town.” She pulled out another. “Rain Chaser, brother of Sandy Shores, arrived with sister after attack on St Hoofsburg.”

“St Hoofsburg? Where is-” Spike began to ask but Twilight had already pulled out her encyclopedia and was leafing through it.

“I don’t know why I brought this thing.” Twilight snorted after a few moments of searching. “It hasn’t turned up a single entry on anything we’ve tried to look up. So much for an accumulative history of the last three hundred years.” Twilight looked up as if something had just dawned on her. “Wait a minute… Of course!”

“What?” Spike asked confused.

Spike what were the dates on those files?” Twilight asked. The dragon looked through a couple and read off some dates. “And what were the dates on those shipping invoices?” Spike told her a few of those as well. “Uh huh” The alicorn said, satisfied. “Do you want to know why we haven’t been able to find any information in this book?” She said holding up the encyclopedia.

“Why?” Spike asked.

“Because all those dates are almost a thousand years ago. I don't know why I didn’t think of that before.”

“That does make sense.” Spike said sheepishly, slightly embarrassed he didn’t think of it either; especially after pointing out the dates on the poems earlier.

“And do you know what was happening during those dates?” Twilight continued. Spike shook his head. “The Great Gryphon War. Of course we weren't going to find any information about anything, because recorded Equestrian history didn’t start till a hundred years after the war.”

“So.. what do you think then?” Spike looked up at Twilight. “About all this?” he motioned around.”

“If I were give an educated guess.” Twilight said looking at the map behind her. “Given that the gryphons were seizing Equestrian settlements during the war, I think somepony built this place during the conflict; but what I’m wondering is why?” Twilight began to pace as she thought out loud. “Maybe they were smuggling weapons? That would explain the train shipments and why the correspondence seems to be written in code. But that wouldn’t explain the sheer size of this place. That wouldn’t explain these records.”

Spike looked down at the records he held in his claws and looked through them again in a vain attempt to find something to help Twilight think.

“Hey.” He said, holding up a particular record. “This pony kinda looks like Rainbow Dash!”

Twilight looked over, breaking her concentration. “I don’t see it.” she said.

“He totally does.” Spike said reaching into Twilight’s saddlebag and pulling out some pastels he had brought. He colored in a rainbow mane on the colt and showed it to Twilight again.

“Oh wow, I guess he does.” Twilight said, bemused. “He even has that cocky grin Rainbow Dash has.” She looked closer at the file. “Hmmm. Rain Chaser? He even has a similar name. You think this was maybe Rainbow Dash in a past life?” Twilight teased.

“Rain chaser?” Spike questioned, never actually looking at the foal’s name. “Hey they wrote that poem I read in the other room."

“Couldn’t be a past life then.” Twilight chuckled. “Dash isn’t very big on writing poetry.”

“You know, a lot of these foals look kinda familiar actually.” Spike flipped through the files and pulled out Sandy Shores. “See, this one looks like fluttershy, and look, this one kinda looks like you.”

“Alright, now you’re just pulling my hoof.” Twilight said. “Just because the file says purple unicorn with purple hair doesn’t mean we look alike.”

They both laughed and Twilight went back to pacing the room. “All jokes aside,” She said. “I just can’t quite put my hoof on this place.”

“Maybe it’s-” Spike attempted to respond when he thought he saw somepony run past the door. He quickly went to the door and looked out into the empty hall, seeing nothing.

“Equestrian rail yard.” He heard Twilight talking out loud again. ‘Pre-classical era construction. Great Gryphon war.” Spike could almost see the gears turning in her head. “Spike, I think this was an orphanage, or maybe some kind of hospital, but one nopony was supposed to know about. A secret place.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Just look at these files.” Twilight said taking the records from Spike’s claws with her magic. “Half of them were victims of the Great Gryphon War, and others were taken in shortly before. And they all arrived late into night at the same times. 2:30 AM. 9 PM. 10:25 PM. Almost as if to make sure nopony saw them.”

“I don’t follow.” Spike scratched his head.

“Look at the shipping invoices.” Twilight instructed. “They have the same delivery dates and times as the admittance date of all these foals. The West Equestrian Railyard wasn’t smuggling weapons, they were smuggling foals! Victims of the war. That’s why all the correspondence sounds so cryptic. If they were to be intercepted somepony would just assume they were normal deliveries and wouldn’t give them a second thought.”

“I don’t know,” Spike said. “Sounds a little far-fetched. Even if it were true, who would go through all that trouble? Who would build a place like this and fill it with foals?”

“It makes perfect sense.” Twilight mused. “Especially considering those poems we found in the other room. Somepony was caring for those foals, educating them, nurturing them. But like you said, who would do something like that?”

“I don’t know.” Spike said.

“I don’t know either” Twilight paused. “And I’m not saying that’s a hundred percent what happened. It just seems to be the most plausible explanation.”

“Do you think we should maybe see if Rainbow Dash has found anything?” Spike suggested. “Maybe see what she thinks of all this? And besides, it’s getting kinda cold in here.”

“Yeah, good idea Spike,” Twilight said, collecting her encyclopedia, the letters, and the foal records; placing them all into her saddlebag. “I could go for some sunlight anyway, warm up my wings!”

***

Rainbow Dash was exploring the rest of the cafeteria wing of the building. She explored the cafeteria, kitchen, bathrooms, and connecting hallways and found nothing of real interest aside from some scratch marks on the refrigerators and kitchen cabinetry; like some kind of animal had tried to claw its way in. She found another wing towards the the back which looked to be another set of bedrooms but debris from a collapsed ceiling had completely blocked off access to it.

“I hope Spike and Twilight are having better luck than I am,” Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself. “cause I ain’t finding a thing.”

She heard what sounded like a shuffling of hooves, as if somempony had just run up behind her, and looked over her shoulder only to see an empty hallway.

“Twilight?” She called out, thinking it might've been her friends coming to check up on her. “Spike?”

There’s was no answer, only the unmistakable feeling that she wasn’t the only one there. She walked back into the cafeteria, only to find out she was still the only pony in the room. Perhaps the emptiness was getting to her again, she wondered to herself. This building was almost as bleak and empty as Twilight’s castle after all. The only difference being Twilight’s castle wasn’t bedecked with debris and faded photographs. But there was still an overall emptiness. An emptiness created by the absence of who or whatever used to roam these halls. It was in every room, every hallway, every destroyed piece of furniture, and it filled Rainbow Dash with a gloomy heaviness that soaked into her bones.

Returning to where she was, she turned a corner into another hallway when she began to hear hoofsteps above her. She followed them, going from hallway to hallway, stopping in a few rooms before walking back out as if Twilight and Spike were upstairs searching for her.

“Twilight!” She called out. “I’m downstairs!”

The hoofsteps then led her to a staircase, leading upstairs. She went to walk up them but got immediate goosebumps as her hoof touched the first stair, and looked up. It sounded like somepony was at the top of the stairs waiting for her.

“Twilight?” She called out again. “If this is a joke it isn’t funny.” She heard more sounds, as if somepony had just walked away and she quickly ascended the stairs. As she climbed higher, the air got colder, and as she reached the top landing and walked through the connecting hallway she found herself at the top of the main staircase that she and Gilda had climbed the day prior but had been too dark to see.

The hallway was dark. All the doors that had previously been opened were shut, except for the one at the end of the hall. Rainbow Dash felt a gush of wind push her forward, so she slowly began to walk towards the room.

She called out to Twilight again, asking if she were in the room, but still received no response. As she drew closer, she could see a small toy in the middle of the room that she was sure wasn’t there before; and as she got three or four rooms away she could see that it was a stuffed Princess Luna doll; and she could almost swear that she saw the toy moving. As she drew closer, still she trained her eyes on the toy, not sure if it was her eyes playing tricks on her or not. Thinking it was some kind of anxiousness from being inside the empty building when she then saw the toy begin to bob up and down, prancing across the rug as if somepony were playing with it.

Finally she reached the doorway, and inside, the room was the coldest she had ever felt. Like somepony had left the window open on a frigid winter’s night. The toy wasn’t moving anymore. She stepped into the room, and when she reached the rug in the center of the room she reached out to examine it.

Something soft brushed against Rainbow Dash. Something plush like fur yet firm like skin. It was supple and soft, and felt like a body. But before Rainbow Dash could get a sense for what was touching her, before she could form an image in her mind, it began to rapidly fade into into existence and take form before her very eyes.

Rainbow Dash could see a hoof touching hers. She froze. Although she he didn’t feel fear, she couldn’t move either. She watched as the hoof began to take shape. Becoming more solid, and soon there was a body with hooves, wings, and a head, looking almost skeletal at first. However, a faint blue coat began to fade in and soon Rainbow Dash was looking at a small foal with brilliant red eyes and a blue coat that she could see the furniture and wallpaper through.

“Rainbow Dash, you came back!” The apparition said. “I knew you were gonna come back!”

Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words. Her mind was going a mile a minute trying to process what she had just witnessed. Finally, after some time, she spoke, “How do you know my name?”

“I’ve known your name for a long time. You’re awesome!” The spectre beamed. “I wanted to tell the others about you but they didn’t want to come back.”

“The others?”

“The others foals. Oh, and my name’s Rain Chaser by the way. I know you didn’t ask but that’s me!”

Rainbow Dash was in shock, still trying to comprehend what was happening and could only ask simple questions.

“Where are the others?”

“They got tired of waiting for mother to come back, they all went away to the bright place but not me!” Rain Chaser shook his head. “Heck no at all. I know mother will come back and she’ll be so proud of me for waiting!”

“Who is your mother?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Princess Luna of course!” Rain Chaser said with shining eyes. “Well, she’s not my real mother, she rescued me and my sister when our real mother got hurt by a nasty gryphon.” His tone soured. “I was going to appear to you yesterday but I got scared because your mean gryphon friend was with you.”

Suddenly, like the last puzzle piece falling into place, everything made sense to Rainbow Dash. The train, the building, the poem, the gryphons in the field...

She looked up at the skeletons on the bed.

So is that… you?” She asked, sobering up.

“Yeah…” Rain Chaser said sadly. “Me and my sister. We were waiting for mother to come back but it was so cold. We both fell asleep and when I woke up she was gone. I tried looking for her but I didn’t want to leave the building. I had to wait for mother to come back.”

“How long have you been waiting here?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking back down at the spectre. “Don’t you get ever lonely being here all by yourself?”

“It’s been a long time...” Rain Chaser looked pensive. “But I don’t get lonely.” He picked up the Luna doll. “I’ve got my toys, and this doll my sister gave me, so it’s not so bad. As long as I wait here and play with my toys like I’m supposed to, dear mother will return.”

Rainbow Dash knelt down by Rain Chaser.

“Look kiddo,” She said. “I’ve got some bad news. I don’t think your mother, er, Princess Luna is coming back.”

“What do you mean not coming back? She has to come back!” He threw the toy to the ground. “Where did she go?”

“She did something bad, she hurt a lot of ponies and had to go away.” Rainbow Dash paused, thinking back to her and her friend’s encounter with Nightmare Moon. “For a long time.”

“She would never hurt anypony. She told us herself!” Rain Chaser shouted, tears forming in his eyes. "She said we were her children and she said she'd never let anypony hurt us." Rain Chaser was scowling at Rainbow Dash, but it quickly began to falter as he started to sob quietly. “Why didn’t she come back for us?”

Rainbow Dash instinctively put her hooves around him, cradling him. He put his hooves around her as well and cried softly into her coat.

“Come on little guy, don’t cry.” The pegasus said. “That’s so unrainbow.”

“I just want her to come back.” Rain Chaser cried. “I miss her. I’ve missed her every day.”

“And I’m sure she missed you too.” Rainbow Dash said, having flashbacks to similar conversations she’d had with Scootaloo about her parents. “But kiddo you have to understand that she’s not coming back. She can’t.”

“Why not?” He asked, a lilt in his voice.

“She left over a thousand years ago, she got imprisoned on the moon.” Rainbow Dash said. “Even if she wanted to come back, she couldn’t because you… wouldn’t have been alive anymore.”

Rain Chaser didn’t take that well. He clung to Rainbow Dash like a vice, tightly squeezing her despite his ethereal form, and cried with all his might.

Rainbow Dash knew this foal needed to move on, to cross over, but she was starting to doubt her strategy. She didn't want to upset the foal, but with a thousand years of repressed sadness and longing there would be no way Rain Chaser would listen rationally.

Rainbow Dash sat in the middle of the rug, doing her best to console Rain Chaser, when suddenly she had an idea.

“Hey,” She said. “If I could somehow bring Luna here, would that make you feel better?”

Rain Chaser was sobbing too hard to speak a response, but nodded into her coat.

“You’ll have to promise me you’ll stop crying.”

“I'll try.” Rain Chaser said trying to suppress his crying but hiccupped in its wake.

“You’ll do more than try.” Rainbow said with a smile, playfully hitting the foal on the shoulder. “You will!”

The foal giggle a bit. “How are you going to bring momma back?”

Rainbow Dash was about to respond but Rain Chaser looked up at the door and suddenly disappeared. Moments later, Twilight and Spike came into the room.

“Rainbow are you okay?” Twilight said. “We heard shouting and crying up here.”

“Yeah we were looking for you in the cafeteria. When” Spike was about to say when he noticed the skeletons in the bed. “Ooooh.”

“Ooh, those must be the skeletons you told us about.” Twilight chirped.

“Yeah.” Rainbow said sheepishly as she rose to her hooves.

“Anyway Rainbow,” Twilight said. “Have you discovered anything?” We think we might have an idea about what’s going on here.”

“Yeah so do I.” Rainbow said. “Hey, could I borrow a quill and a scroll?”

“Uhh, I guess you can?” Twilight said as she levitated them out of her bag and over to Dash. The pegasus quickly scribbled a message onto the scroll before rolling it up and giving it to Spike. “Can you send this to Princess Luna please?”

“Yeah I guess I can.” Spike said suspiciously before teleporting the scroll away with his dragon breath. “But why?”

Rainbow Dash was about to answer when Spike almost immediately burped out a response scroll from Princess Luna.

“What does it say?” Twilight asked as Rainbow read its contents.

“Luna said she wants us to meet her at the castle immediately.” Rainbow Dash rolled the scroll back up. “Can your teleport spell take us that far?”

“It didn’t before when I was just a unicorn.” Twilight stated. “But now that I’m an alicorn I could teleport us all the way across the continent and back.”

“Perfect.” Rainbow Dash said. “Let’s not waste any time them.”

Chapter Ten: Waiting for You

Princess Luna wrapped up a scroll with one of her royal seals and sent it off with her magic. She turned away from her writing desk and casually cantered through her bedchamber and over to a small cabinet on the other side of the room; retrieving a small tea-set and burner from within the cabinet.

She prepared the kettle and lit a small flame on the burner with her magic, and as she was debating between chamomile and black ginseng tea when she heard a burst of magic behind her; and turned around to see Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Spike standing in the middle of the room amidst a cloud of dispersing magical sparkles.

“Why didn’t we just use that spell to get to the building?” Spike wobbled off balance and dizzily held his head.

“Cause I didn’t know where the building was.” Twilight said, standing normal. “Teleportation only works if you’ve been to both locations before or are teleporting somewhere within the general area.”

Spike sat down onto the floor still holding his head. “Why couldn't we’ve just taken the train? That spell always make me dizzy.”

“Good afternoon my subjects.” Princess Luna joined the conversation. “We weren’t expecting you to arrive so soon. By ‘immediately’ we assumed you would have arrived by nightfall.”

Twilight chuckled an apology to the princess. “We would’ve come later but Rainbow felt that we shouldn’t waste any time. Right Dash?” Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash who had been simply staring at the two ponies as they talked. “Dash? Are you okay?”

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight. She could see her mouth moving but couldn’t hear what she was saying. It was then Rainbow Dash realized that she couldn’t hear anything at all except for a sharp ringing in her ears.

“I.. I...” Rainbow Dash stammered. “I can’t hear anything. Twilight, I can’t hear anything!”

Rainbow Dash began to freak out. She started to hyperventilate, looking around frantically before aggressively tapping her hooves to her ears. “Twilight I can’t hear anything!” She yelled again.

“Celestia, no.” Twilight remarked. “She’s got magical Intemperance.”

“Magical what?” Spike said.”

“Magical Intemperance.” Princess Luna repeated as she stepped between the two ponies. “It means she’s been exposed to too much magic recently. What’s happened to her?”

“I used Somnus Oblivionis on her,” Twilight explained. “After she came into my bedchamber last night.”

“Somnus Oblivionsis?” Luna’s eyes went wide. “But that spell is only meant for-”

“I know I know,” Twilight interjected “I should’ve used something that wasn’t as strong, but I thought she’d be over its effects by now. Especially after her memory returned. The teleportation spell must’ve overloaded her brain and incapacitated her ear drums.”

“I can’t hear anything you’re saying!” Rainbow Dash yelled through hysterical cries.

Twilight levitated some parchment and a quill out of her saddlebag and scrawled a quick note, explaining the situation to Rainbow Dash.

“What do you mean too much magic?” Rainbow Dash yelled, unable to control the volume of her own voice.

“Let us see.” Luna said as she enveloped Rainbow Dash’s head with her gentle magic. The blue pegasus recoiled as if she were in pain and began to thrash, trying to move away from the spell field.

“Get your filthy magic away from me!”

“There’s nothing to fear.” Luna said confidently, releasing Rainbow Dash’s ears from her magic. “Her hearing will return. Magical Intemperance never causes any permanent impairments. Since she doesn’t want magic we’ll just have to wait for her hearing to return on it’s own.”

“What’s she saying?”

Twilight flipped the parchment over and scrawled another note.

“How long do I have to wait?”

“It could take a few min-” Luna began to answer but let her sentence end with a quick sigh. Grabbing the parchment from Twilight, she wrote her own note and showed it to the deaf pegasus. Once she read the note, Princess Luna motioned everypony over to a pair of sofas by the far end of the bedchamber.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and reluctantly trudged across the room and slumped down into the sofa, looking off to the side; annoyed. At the same time, the tea kettle had started to whistle and Luna prepared cups of chamomile tea for her guests.

“You would think for somepony of her physical strength she’d be more resistant to magical side effects.” Luna mused as she sat on the couch opposite of Rainbow Dash. She hovered a teacup and saucer into Rainbow’s vision and was quickly waved away, so she placed the cups on the table in front of everypony.

“Maybe she doesn’t have enough points in Constitution.” Spike joked as he sat down next to Rainbow Dash.

“Constitution?” Luna asked, confused.

“You know, like in the game Ogres and Oubliettes.” Spike explained. “You get to pick different attributes for your character that represent your characters’ different physical and mental abilities.”

“But isn’t Constitution usually used against things like poison?” Twilight asked, sitting down herself. “Wouldn’t Wisdom be better since wisdom saves are used against charms and mind magic?”

“But Wisdom is mostly used for judgment and willpower” Spike pointed out.

“Really depends on what edition we’re talking about.” Twilight irreverently intoned.

“Doesn’t the fifth edition have Sanity?” Spike recalled. “That could work.”

“Sanity is just an optional thing for unnatural or supernatural situations.” Twilight corrected. “Wouldn’t do much good against spellcasting.”

“But,” Spike restated. “Most spells require some sort of save. Either Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, or something else.”

“It really depends on what the spell does.” Twilight added.

“Right.” Spike continued. “So Constitution could work, since in this case the spell caused a physical impairment to Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “I guess that is more fitting than Wisdom.” She mused.

Luna chuckled at the complexity of Twilight and Spike’s conversation.

“This Ogres and, Oubliettes, you called it? Sure does sound complicated.” Luna remarked. “When we was a filly we just either played with horseshoes or dice.”

Rainbow Dash looked over to see Luna and Twilight engaged in conversation but still couldn't make out a single word they were saying over the high pitch ringing in her ears. She could only make out the tiniest low pitched resonant cadences of their voices, which was more than she could hear before, but she felt like she wouldn’t hear any more any time soon, so she just sank herself back into the couch and stared up at the ceiling.

“-and I got a nightstand that used to be owned by Saddle Arabian royalty,” Twilight explained, having wildly changed the subject. “and even a gryphon armoire that was made before the Great Gryphon war. Back when they were making their furniture out of Eagle Spruce before they consumed all of their lumber for the war-effort.”

“T’is a rare find indeed!” Luna said, oddly ecstatic.

“I know!” Twilight exclaimed. “Could you imagine my surprise that I was able to find something that rare, right here in Equestria of all places?”

“We can only imagine.” Luna said. “Gryphon furniture has been made primarily of Equestrian Oak since the war ended, finding any piece of furniture made from Eagle Spruce means it’s almost as old as this very castle.”

“Speaking of Gryphons” Twilight said. “Rainbow’s been having some pretty weird dreams about them lately.”

“Oh? What about?”

“Something about them burning a forest,” Twilight said, misattributing the dream. “and having to hide in a town for safety.”

“They were burning the town.” Rainbow Dash corrected. “I had to hide in the forest for safety.”

“Rainbow your hearing’s returned?” Twilight exclaimed. “That’s wonderful.”

Rainbow Dash thrust her hoof against twilight’s mouth, shushing her. “Please don’t talk so loud. It hurts my ears.”

“Oh sorry,” Twilight whispered. “I forgot your ears would be sensitive for a while.”

“Burning a town huh?” Luna said, speaking at a lower register than usual.

“Yeah, it was called St. Hoofsburg or something like that.” Rainbow Dash. “The gryphons were burning the town to the ground and I had to run into the woods for safety.”

“St. Hoofsburg?” Luna’s eyes widened ever so slightly, but only in a controlled regal way that only a princess could manage; so nopony picked up on her consternation.

“Or something like that.” Rainbow Dash repeated. “Although I may have just confused the name with Hoofington or Saddleburg or something. I have been under a lot of stress lately.”

“It very well could be the stress.” Luna nodded. “Stress does do some pretty terrific things to us ponies.”

“Now hang on a minute.” Twilight cut into their conversation. “It couldn’t be stress, I saw St Hoofsburg on many of the letters we found in the administration office, so it has to be the name of a town.”

“Administration office?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What administration office?”

“Oh that’s right! We didn’t get a chance to tell you.” Twilight said, exlpaining to Rainbow Dash about finding the poetry and the various documents inside the administration office. “I have them right here.” She levitated them out of her saddlebag and placed them gently on the table. “I theorized the building was some kind of hospital or weapon smuggling operation.”

Rainbow Dash looked over the files and correspondence letters for the first time. “That’s interesting, I thought something like that too. Well, not the weapon smuggling part. But that it was some sort of asylum or sanitarium given how industrious the cafeteria, kitchens, and bathrooms looked and then…” She let her sentence trail off as she looked through the profiles of various foals, suddenly remembering why she even wanted to see the princess in the first place. “And then I found this ghost pony in one of the bedrooms who said he had been waiting there for Princess Luna... This one!” She said as she pulled out Rain Chaser’s file. ”Even says he was brought in from St Hoofsburg.”

Suddenly everypony looked at Princess Luna and they all stared at her with varying degrees of surprise.

Princess Luna looked between her afternoon audience, meeting their expectant stares. Without saying a word, she sighed and rose from the couch, moving silently across the room to a barren section of wall. Everypony exchanged confused glances as the Princess’ horn began to light up, and soon an intricate pattern of matching colored light began to appear on the wall as well; before suddenly sliding open, revealing a secret alcove with a single large leather-bound book inside.

The Princess grabbed the book with her magic and returned back to where everypony was sitting and set it down in front of them.

“I guess we can’t pretend we don’t know anything anymore.” Luna said, opening the book.

“What’s the deal?” Rainbow Dash asked as Luna flipped through the tome looking for a specific page. “What’s up with all these foals?”

“And the building?” Twilight added.

“And St Hoofsburg?” Spike chimed in as well. “I haven't even heard of that place until today.”

Luna didn’t respond at first, instead she reached the page she was looking for and gave it a quick glance-over as if to refresh her memory.

“We wouldn’t expect you to have heard of St Hoofsburg” The princess said, looking up. “As for the foals and the building? You were both correct and incorrect, in some ways. The building was a place of care, that is true, but it wasn’t a hospital or an asylum, nor was it used for smuggling weapons.”

“Why wouldn’t you expect us to have heard of St Hoofsburg though?” Spike inquired.

“St Hoofsburg was a town on the edge of Western Equestria.” Luna began. “A territory controlled by the Palominos before they were annexed into Equestria. The town was destroyed by the gryphons as part of a four-front offensive during the Great Gryphon War. Many towns and settlements that didn’t have a large military presence were razed by the invading army in an attempt to eventually surround Canterlot on all sides; it was a common gryphon tactic to vice grip their foes.” Luna made a demonstrating semi-circular squeezing motion with her hooves as she spoke.

“Hold on.” Twilight interrupted. “I’ve studied the Great Gryphon War at length and I haven’t read anything about Equestria annexing territories, or gryphons destroying settlements. They were reported to have always fought in pitched battles.”

“We aren’t surprised you haven’t read anything about this.” Luna said rather darkly. “Seeing as most of what happened during the war wasn’t recorded, as was the case with much of the pre-classical era. That’s why we have to rely so heavily on eyewitness reccountings such as these.”

Luna flipped to a different page and turned the book around so the rest could see.

Twilight leaned forward and could see it was a hoof-written accord, almost like a journal entry, detailing the besiegement practices of the gryphon army.

“So you were, documenting the war?” Twilight spoke aloud as she read.

“No necessarily, just what we happened to encounter ourselves.” Luna explained. “After the war, Celestia was very particular about what she wanted to be documented, such as the ‘pitched battles’. Everything else was swept away with the sands of time.”

Rainbow Dash took the book from Twilight and looked at it herself, pawing through the pages like a cat with a toy before landing on a page with a detailed drawing of a pair of black wings.

“What is this symbol?” Rainbow Dash turned the book so Luna could see. “I’ve seen it in my dreams, and we’ve even seen it in the Everfree Forest. There was a camp with this symbol on everything.”

“It’s the battle insignia of the gryphon army.” Luna stated plainly. “They wore it on their armor, on their flags, even on their dinner plates. You won’t find it inside any history book or even depicted anywhere in Griffinstone. It’s another relic lost in time just like most of the pre-classical era. Not even the current gryphons know this was the insignia their ancestors fought and died under… Another thing Celestia didn’t want remembered.”

Everypony was silent for a moment, as if none of them had anything to say to seamlessly move the conversation forward. Eventually, after some thought, Luna spoke again.

“It should go without saying that what you’re reading and what we are telling you is one of a few unfiltered first-hoof classified accounts of Equestrian history; and must be treated with the utmost confidentiality.”

So then why are you even showing it to us?” Spike asked.

“So I could answer your questions.” Luna said, losing her royal ‘we’. “I was there the morning after St Hoofsburg was attacked. I saw things I dare not endure to recall, but I also found foals while wandering the fields and forest. Those that had survived the night were cold, hungry, and alone. The gryphons had killed the entire adult population of the town, leaving the foals to fend for themselves.”

Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Twilight all sat back in the sofa, stunned into silence at what princess Luna was saying to them.”

“I couldn’t just leave them in the fields, and since sister was personally dealing with the war I had to do something, so I brought the foals to an abandoned teaching hospital a few miles to the north to try and tend to them.”

“Why not just take them to a normal hospital?” Spike found the courage to speak.

“Were they all full because of the war?” Rainbow Dash inquired as well.

“While Celestia was off leading the front lines, something about being the eldest and the commander of the armies in times of war,” Luna recalled. “I was tasked with her princessly duties. Running the castle, writing her treatises, and, most importantly, caring for the citizens.”

“As the war waged on,” Luna said after a sip of tea. “The amount of injured and displaced ponies grew. We were able to divert the adults into mainland Equestria while the outer territories were being defended, but there wasn’t much we could do about the children orphaned from the war. You see, that was a common gryphon tactic to only kill adult ponies, never children. Maybe it was some code of honor or maybe just an act of attrition, we don’t know.”

Twilight and Spike reached for their own teacups, reaching down for them whilst maintaining eye contact with the princess.

“All of Equestria’s resources were being used for the war effort.” Luna continued. “Food, iron, medical supplies. Most of our schools, hospitals, and other service buildings were left empty and unusable as Celestia called for nationwide conscription, only those who weren’t mothers or nurses were called into service as the tides of war were turning away from Equestria’s favor.”

“But what does that have to do with these foals?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“There wasn’t anypony available to care for them...” Luna said, getting to the point of her tale. “Injured soldiers routinely filled the hospitals. Foals that were healthy were able to be sent to some of the mother’s households but they soon filled up as well. More and more foals were orphaned each day as the gryphons annexed more territory. So I decided to turn the teaching hospital into a permanent place where they could be taken in, housed, educated, and cared for until they became adults. I ordered the building to be repaired in secret and expanded to comfortably accommodate any foal we brought in. Adding living quarters, classrooms, and even a statue similar to the one outside St Hoofsburg since a large a large amount of foals came from that town specifically…” Luna paused for a moment. “I even enchanted the Everfree Forest to grow around and conceal the building. I figured that anygryphon who came looking for us would be dissuaded by the forest's myths, but I also enchanted the land so that anygryphon brave enough to come within a few miles of the building would be more or less exterminated by the forest.”

“That explains why Gilda was attacked by the forest.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Or why those gryphon skeletons were inside those vines.” Spike added.

“That all sounds so… so..” Twilight searched for an appropriate word. ‘

“Barbaric?” Spike finished her sentence for her.

“We were fighting a war.” Luna refilled her tea. “Things were different back then. We had a much different mindset than the one you ponies have developed after a thousand years of peace. Back then we were defending our country, defending our lives.”

“So what happened next?” Spike asked, oddly engrossed in Luna’s story.

“As time went on.” Luna recounted. “More foals came into our care. Those who could be brought back into the mainland were integrated into any orphanage or family that had room for them. But for the most part this place was their home. I would visit the foals on a nightly basis. I educated them, fed them, read them stories. I was their headmistress, their nurse and their mentor... You could say, in a way, that I grew attached to them. I didn’t have any foals of my own, and still don’t, but I cared for these foals as if they were my own. I grew so attached even, that once the war had ended I proposed a new lunar colony for those that I had raised in secrecy to continue prospering in the moonlight. But sister forbade it. She theorized that the kingdom was too new and too weak from the war and wouldn’t be able to sustain a new colony and ordered that I was to return to my nightly duties.” Luna paused, taking a moment to collect herself. “Suffice to say I became resentful. For all I did to protect the foals, for all I did to take care of the kingdom while sister was at war, she wouldn’t entertain the idea of my Lunar Republic. I pleaded and pleaded with sister to reconsider, which soon turned into demands, threats, and day-long arguments. By the next moonrise I was so consumed by bitterness and rage that I had transformed into Nightmare Moon and refused to lower the moon ever again.”

“But we were always taught that you transformed into Nightmare Moon because ponies shunned your night.” Spike cut in.

Luna’s countenance shifted for a moment, as if a thousand years of resentment had begun to stir up within her again, but it was washed away with another royal sip of tea.

“They say that history is written by the victors.” Luna said after swallowing. “However, I say that history is written according to the necessities and possibilities of current politics.”

Everypony exchanged glances, confused by Luna’s statement.

“Additionally,” She went on. “The passage of time usually shifts the answer to the question ‘who really won?”. Yes, The Equestrian army was victorious in defeating the gryphons in the Great Gryphon War, but the gryphons of today are now beloved allies to Equestria and even serve as a cursory defense against invaders. Just like the myth that gryphons only fought in pitched battles came about to hide the truth of their atrocities, so too was the myth that Nightmare Moon, the wicked mare of darkness that slayed the ponies who shunned her night, was created to hide the fact that she went on a rampage over a proposed lunar colony. It’s more comforting for all parties than to know the truth.”

“So what does this history lesson have to do with my dreams?” Rainbow Dash said, growing bored of listening to politics. “What does this have to do with this Rain Chaser?”

“This foal you saw in the bedroom, Rain Chaser. He was one of my foals. Yes.’ Luna said. “We found him and his sister outside of St Hoofsburg, wandering the White Tail Woods. I took them them to the orphanage and cared for them just like all the others. I always told the foals two things, we stressed it with a grave importance. If they went outside they would surely parish, as we were in the middle of contested Gryphon-Equestrian territory, and that when we left for our daily duties they were to wait for my return. That I would always return at night and they were safe as long as they waited for me.”

Luna swallowed as a sudden realization settled into her just like the tea in her stomach.

“But once I became Nightmare Moon, nopony ever came for them.” Luna said dolefully. “They couldn’t, they wouldn’t have had any idea they were there. I concealed the orphanage so well that nopony knew a thing about it. Even the train-workers who would deliver the foals to me though they were delivering construction materials or medical supplies.” She absentmindedly looked through her old correspondence letters. “The only other pony how knew what I was doing was one of the conductors, and on his last delivery he believed the gryphons were following him. Judging how I never heard from him again, and judging by how you said you saw signs of the gryphon army in the forest, I wouldn’t doubt he was correct in his assumptions.”

“So that means…” Rainbow Dash began to say.

“When I got banished there was nopony there to take care of them anymore.” Luna said with one last sip of tea. “Nopony there to feed them or nurture them...We can’t imagine any of them survived the winter.”

“Those poor foals.” Twilight said sadly. “Waiting for you to return, wondering why you weren’t coming back for them.”

“Yeah, no kidding” Spike said.

“So why me?” Rainbow Dash said. “Why am I the one to find this foal? Why am I having dreams of being taken through the woods to an orphanage? Dreams of reciting poetry? Dreams of, of, gryphons killing ponies? Of foals freezing to death?”

“That unfortunately, is something I do not have an answer for.” Luna said sympathetically. “If we were to guess though, we would theorize that it could be in part due to your connection to the element of harmony. Every generation a new group of ponies connect with the elements of the personality trait they most resemble. As I cared for the foals I can recall at least three of them who began to show a connection to the elements. Honesty, Magic, and, in Rain Chaser’s case, Loyalty. However it’s just a theory. It could just so happen that you were chosen because you are close enough to me and vulnerable enough to have your dreams infiltrated. Since you don’t have, what was it you said spike? Enough points in Wisdom?”

“Constitution.” Spike dutifully corrected.

“If we want to know for sure we could always try viewing one of her dreams.”

“We already tried that though.” Rainbow Dash said sourly.

“Remember I sent you a letter?” Twilight amended. “You said you weren’t able to find anything unusual, despite Rainbow stating you and her had a conversation in that very dream.”

“We had no such conversation.” Luna said, her suspicions seemingly confirmed. “If it were a vision created by a spirit and not a dream created from mortal cognition then my dream magic wouldn’t be able to detect it. I’d have to use a very specific type of magic to see into higher or lower planes of existence. If you ever studied astral projection you’d know that spirits are on a plane above ours and can easily cross between the two. Sometimes they can become trapped on our mortal plane, so to know for sure we’d just need our rainbow-colored friend to fall asleep.”

“She’s already way ahead of you.” Spike pointed to Rainbow Dash who had fallen asleep on the couches armrest.

“But.. How is that possible?” Luna marveled. “We were speaking to each other just moments ago.”

“She’s been doing that a lot recently.” Twilight said apologetically. “She kept falling asleep mid-conversation on the train earlier. She really hasn’t been sleeping well lately.”

“No matter.” Princess Luna’s eyes and horn began to shine a brilliant white, connecting with the sleeping head of Rainbow Dash with a thin, white ethereal magical chord.

“Hmm, I only see darkness” Luna said turning her head.. “Maybe I need to go higher? Wait… My eyes just opened.” The princess craned her head, as if she were looking around the room. “I see walls… floorboards… I’m in a bedroom.” Luna began to narrate aloud what she was seeing. “I recognize it as one of the bedrooms in the orphanage. It’s cold, I’m shivering, and I’m running out into the hallway as if I’m looking for somepony. I feel… sad, abandoned… I’m calling out to somepony. ‘Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash why’d you leave me?’ I’m running down the stairs, into the classrooms, into the administration office, through the corridors and into the lunchroom. ‘Don’t leave me!” Luna was shouting this time. ‘Don’t leave me alone again!”

“It’s just like Warriors and Wizards’ Spike whispered to Twilight.

Shortly after Luna came out of her trance, her magic dispersing in a flash, a steady stream of tears were rolling down her face.

“Forgive us.” Luna said wiping her eyes. “It’s been some time since I’ve seen those halls, since I’ve heard that voice. But this confirms my suspicion that Rain Chaser is trying to use friend Rainbow as a conduit to cross over but might be held back by some lingering regrets.”

“Look how tense she is.” Spike announced as everypony watched Rainbow Dash’s face and hooves twist and contort in discomfort.

“I’d imagine that these visions are taking quite the physical toll on her.” Luna said as her horn lit up and quickly zapped Rainbow Dash with a bolt of magic. Her body instantly uncoiled and her face returned to a normal, rested, expression. “Dream for a while,” She whispered to Rainbow Dash. “of the things that make you smile.”

Princess Luna then stood from the table and collected her leather book.

“It’s decided then.” She said as she returned the book to to the alcove inside the wall. “We’ll return to this orphanage in the morning. You can all sleep here for the night, and on the morrow we shall put to rest this chapter of history once and for all.” She closed the wall with her magic and bid them a good evening, departing for her nightly duties.

“Wait!” Spike said, suddenly digging through Twilight’s saddlebag and pulling out one of his comic books. Taking it over to Princess Luna who had stopped in the doorway. “I want you to have this, I think it would mean a lot to you.’

“An issue of Warriors and Wizards?” Luna questioned as she took the comic in her magic.

“Behind the comic” Spike said, motioning Luna to open it.

“Oh… Ooooh.” She said as she opened the comic pulled the stack of poetry out from inside. She fanned out the pages, looking at each of the poems, taking a moment to read each of them individually; Tearing up as did. “Thank you little one. This indeed does mean a lot to me, more than you could ever know.”

***

Princess Luna and the gang returned to the orphanage the next day and stepped inside the bedroom, only to find there was nothing there except for the Luna doll still sitting in the middle of the room.

“He’s not here,” Spike said, shivering. “and it’s still so cold in here!”

“He’s here.” Luna said as her horn began to glow. “He’s just shy around unfamiliar ponies. Just a moment.”

Luna shot a beam into the ground, causing a shockwave of magic to radiate away from the initial cast point. Moving outward, covering the floor and climbing the walls, and revealing Rain Chaser in the back of the room as the magic passed over him.

“What are you doing here, Rain Chaser?” Princess Luna asked.

Rain Chaser was surprised at first, looking down at his ethereal form, but then looked up, smiling, and ran over to Luna and hugged her in a tight embrace.

“I was waiting for you momma, just like you told me to.” He said, looking up at the Princess with tears of joy in his eyes. “Now you can bring the others back and we can frolic in the moonlight again!”

“No Rain Chaser, momma can’t do that.” Luna said flatly. “The others have crossed over already, and you need to as well.”

“But…” Rain Chaser choked up. “I waited for you.”

The ghost foal began to weep, and Luna kneeled down, making her face level with his. “Ssshh, don’t cry.” She said. But the foal did cry, making wordless sobbing sounds and Luna tried to console him.

“Sweetie, you’re not alive anymore.” Luna said, running her hoof through Rain Chaser’s mane. “The others aren’t either. They moved on a long time ago, and you need to as well.”

“I don't want to!” Rain Chaser protested. “I’ve been waiting for you just like you told me to. I followed all the rules. I did everything I was supposed to do! The others left me behind saying you weren’t coming back, they didn’t believe me when I said you were, and they left me here all alone. I knew you were going to come back. I waited for you. I… I… I…”

Luna gave Rain Chaser an indignant stair that only mothers could take with their young.

“I… I didn’t want to go without you.” Rain Chaser sat down and cried softly. “I’m sorry.”

“And I’m sorry for making you wait so long.” Luna wiped his eyes with her hooves. “Momma got into some trouble trying to make her night last forever and she had to go away for a long time. She thought about you and the others every day, but I thought for sure you would’ve all crossed over by now.”

Rain Chaser didn’t respond, he only continued to cry quietly to himself.

“But I should've know momma’s little element of loyalty was going to wait for her!” Luna said smiling. Rain Chaser looked up and smiled back. They both laughed and shared in a hug.

“But listen Rain Chaser.” Luna’s tone got serious again. “There's nothing here for you anymore. What we had... What we did here... It truly was a special time, and it means the world to me, but that time’s over now.”

“But it isn’t fair!” Rain Chaser began to protest again. “I never got to have a life. I never got to grow up… What did I do wrong?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong little one” Luna said, wiping her eyes. “I did. I did you wrong… I did all of you wrong.” Luna stifled a gasp, holding herself back from crying. After a moment though, she regained her royal composure. “I was supposed to protect you, keep you safe, I was the only pony who could, and I failed you.”

Rain Chaser reached up and wiped away a tear that had begun to roll down Luna’s cheek. “Don’t cry momma, you didn’t fail me, you did your best.”

“You were always such a sweet child.” Luna said. “But you have to listen to momma, Rain Chaser. The times we spent together were great, and I’m glad we got to share them together, but you need to go now. You need to join the others.”

“But…”

“Aren’t you cold, Rain Chaser?”

“But I”

“Aren’t you cold?”

“...yes.”

“Don’t you want to see your friends again?” Luna asked as twenty-something foals appeared behind the doorway. A shimmering radiance had consumed the hallway, catching Rainbow Dash and friends by surprise. “Look dear, I brought them with me. They told me that they want you to go with them. They’ve been waiting for you to cross over all this time. They want to help you across and make sure you don’t get lost again.”

As Luna spoke, a yellow filly stepped out of the hallway and into the room and stood beside Princess Luna.

“You’re right, she does kinda look like Fluttershy.” Twilight whispered to Spike.

“I even brought your sister, Sandy Shores.” Luna said, petting the yellow filly’s head. “She is quite lonely, and still waiting for you. She misses you, she wants to play with you again.”

“It’s true. “Sand Shores said. “Momma’s there too. Our real momma!. She’s been waiting for you, for us, this whole time!”

Rain Chaser looked at Princess Luna, then at Sandy Shores, and finally at the foals standing in the blinding light of the hallway, and for a long moment he was quiet. Everypony was quiet.

“Are you going to be there?” He finally asked.

“I’ll be there.” Luna said, not holding her tears back this time. “And the night lasts forever if you want them to. You can have all of your favorite snacks and there aren’t any bedtimes... It’s where you belong now.”

Rain Chaser was silent again, this time for even longer. Eventually, he slowly rose to his hooves. He picked up his Luna doll and held it close to himself with one hoof. He began to walk towards the door with princess Luna by his side, lovingly stroking his mane, but when they got halfway to the door Rain Chaser suddenly stopped. Everypony watched as he walked over to Rainbow Dash and held the doll out to her.

“Here.” He said offering the doll to Rainbow Dash. “I want you to have this. I… I don’t need it anymore.”

Rainbow Dash was speechless. She wordlessly took the doll, and before she could muster a response Rain Chaser wrapped his hooves around her and hugged her tight.

“Thanks for coming.” He said. “I knew you were going to be able to help. Sorry about all the nightmares.”

“Heh, Don’t mention it kiddo.” Rainbow Dash said trying to sound cool but couldn’t control herself from choking up. “It’s… It’s what I do.”

And then, with nothing left to connect him to the orphanage, Rain Chaser galloped over to Princess Luna and grabbed her by the hoof.

“Can there be poetry recitals too?” He asked Luna as they walked out of the room. As they crossed the threshold of the door the rest of the foals began to follow behind them, walking past the many bedrooms were they used to sleep. They made smalltalk with Rain Chaser about all the fun things they were going to do together until they began to slowly fade away, one by one, until only Rain Chaser and Princess Luna remained.

They stopped at the end of the hallway, standing besides each other at the top of the stairs when Rain Chaser himself began to finally fade away from reality like the fuzz of an old television that had been switched off.

“I’ll see you on the other side.” Rain Chaser said, almost completely invisible. “Thanks for everything that you’ve done for me. I love you.”

And the, Rain Chaser was gone. So too was the brilliant light, replaced by the warmth of the morning sun.

Chapter One: Something Soft

~~~

Something soft brushed against Rainbow Dash. Something plush, like a velvet blanket yet firm like the mattress of a bed. She caught the whiff of coal-smoke and lubricant grease as a gust of wind pushed the odors into her face. Her hooves shook as she tried to stand. Her knees buckled, and her head stung as she fell to the ground.

She didn’t know where she was. Her eyes were open but her vision was black. She couldn’t see anything, not even the muzzle in front of her own face.

She could feel, however.

Rainbow Dash crawled on her hooves and knees, unable to stand like a dog inside of a moving carriage. She felt nothing but cold, hard steel. There was something oily slicked onto the surface she was touching. It made her hooves feel grubby. The floor was also vibrating. A constant chug, fast and rhythmic, as well as a deep rumble, like thunder, that she could feel swelling inside of her chest.

Wherever she was, she was moving; and she was moving incredibly fast.

Something soft brushed against Rainbow Dash again, her hooves this time. It was supple and soft, and felt like a body. But before Rainbow Dash could get a sense of what she was touching, it squirmed away out of reach. Out of existence.

Rainbow Dash scrambled frantically after whatever had just happened upon her. It was warm, and quite possibly the only touchstone of reality in this black void she currently found herself in. Desperately, Rainbow Dash tried to stand again, only to be knocked back down by inertia. She wanted to find whatever it was that she felt. She clambered at the ground, frightfully searching, but all she could feel was steel and oil and dirt.

She was crying. She didn’t know why. She didn’t feel like crying, she felt more perplexed than sorrowful, like she wasn’t really performing these actions herself; more so just feeling them play out. But Rainbow Dash could feel a tinge that stung her eyes and a plasma of wetness running down her cheeks; so she must have been crying.

It wasn’t long before whatever was moving lurched to a halt, slinging Rainbow Dash forward. She could hear a high-pitched squeal as she felt her world slow to a stop. The squealing was proceeded by a loud release of air, sounding something like dragon’s breath, and suddenly everything was quiet and still.

Rainbow Dash found the softness again, inertia had flung her into it. It was all around her, except it was squirming and kicking at her, and it felt like a tangle of hooves. She could hear now, much better than before when everything was moving and loud, and there were sounds coming from the softness that surrounded her.

The sounds were almost animalistic in nature. long moans, soft whimpers, hushed crying. Rainbow Dash could hear her own voice adding to the amalgamation of noise. She was calling out to somepony, somepony whose name she’d never heard before and couldn’t remember. She did remember, however, becoming very distressed when not getting a response, and called out again; more frantic this time, and with a real sense of urgency.

But before she could get a response a door was opened and light flooded in, chasing the darkness away.

Suddenly everything had dimension and shape. There were walls and a floor and ceiling, that seemed to make up the inside of a large cargo train. And there, on the other side of the train car, was the object of Rainbow Dash’s distress: A filly the looked like Fluttershy. Except, this filly wasn’t Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash called out to her, excitedly and relieved, but once again she called out a name she still couldn’t recognize.

The entire train car was filled with foals. In fact, Rainbow Dash was in a pile of at least half a dozen that were thrown to one side as the train came to a stop, but this yellow filly with a name she couldn’t understand was the only one Rainbow Dash seemed concerned about. But before Rainbow Dash could even attempt to remove herself from the foal-pile, a shadow cast itself across the interior of the train car. A tall figure with an ethereal flowing mane stood at the mouth of the car, obstructing the light that was pouring in.

And then, Rainbow Dash was awake.

~~~

Rainbow Dash awoke to a resounding boom that startled her out of her slumber.

Her cheeks were wet as if she'd been crying, and her body was drenched in a sticky sweat. Her bed sheets were twisted and tangled around her body as if she had been struggling and her throat stung as if she'd been screaming for hours; but as she looked at her alarm clock, it only read '3:15 AM', two hours after she had originally fallen asleep.

The blue pegasi’s mind was strangely clear, despite not sleeping for very long or even the exhaustion that still clung to her body from a day of intense aerial exercises; every sense seemed to be preternaturally alert.

She looked around the room, wondering what had awoken her.

The room itself was entirely dark. From her bed, Rainbow Dash could only make out the vaguest of figures of her armchair or her dresser in the dim light of her alarm clock. The room was essentially empty.

From the window she could hear the sounds of the Equestrian Express departing from Ponyville station on a red-eye to Vanhoover. A loud exhalation of air and steam, the slow wind-up chug of the engine as it started down the track, and a long, solitary horn that echoed softly against the hills as the train headed towards the horizon. They were lonely sounds.

The remnants of the dream still clung to Rainbow Dash's mind. The traincar, the foals, the sadness and panic she felt. As she tried to make sense of everything, a flash of lightning streaked through the sky outside, and illuminated the room in a blinding white, causing Rainbow Dash to let out a frightened cry. The light faded just as soon as it arrived, leaving the pegasus flash-blind, and once again the room was shrouded in the darkness of the night.

Rainbow Dash's eyes were open but her vision was black. She couldn't see anything, not even the muzzle in front of her own face.

She could hear, however.

A low rumble of thunder rolled across the rooftops of her cloud home, followed by the soft patter of rain-drops. Rainbow Dash could smell the freshness of the rain from her open window as the last of the thunder grew faint, like the Equestrian Express rounding the edge of the horizon, and Rainbow Dash could feel the strange adrenaline that had awoken her slowly start to wear off.

She fell back into the plushness of her cloud bed and resituated herself under her blankets. The rain was coming down harder now, forming a steady rhythm as it pitter-pattered against the marble columns and window-arches of her cloud home, and It didn't take long before she felt the warm embrace of sleep returning once again.

Her mind began to fade away from reality like the fuzz of an old television that had been switched off. And then, with a few phantom twitches of her hooves, Rainbow Dash was asleep again.

Chapter Eight: Somnus Oblivionis

Rainbow Dash blearily awoke, still on the floor of Twilight’s bedroom. Her hooves and back were stiff from sleeping on the uncushioned stone flooring and her mind felt like it was in a fog, like she had spent the previous night drinking heavily and woke up with one of the worst cider hangovers she’d ever had wrapped inside of a hundred degree fever.

The previous night was a total blur to Rainbow Dash, almost to the point where she didn’t even know where she was. Was she in the hospital? The Celestial Sun Museum? Canterlot Castle?

There was a plate of food next to her along with a hoof-written note with her name on it which read:

“Dear Rainbow Dash.
As I would imagine you probably haven’t eaten well in the past few days so I’ve taken the liberty of preparing breakfast for you. Oats to rejuvenate your energy levels as well as blueberries, grapes, and apples to improve mental development and help the brain function at full capacity; as I’m sure you’re probably very confused and having trouble thinking clearly this morning.

Whether you eat this breakfast or not, you can find me in the library.

Twilight Sparkle.”

At the bottom of the note Twilight had drawn a map of the castle and marked a path from the bedchamber to the library so Rainbow Dash wouldn’t get lost again.

She wasn’t feeling too hungry so Rainbow Dash decided to skip breakfast and go right to Twilight, as finding out what had happened the night before felt more important than eating a plate full of oats and fruit.

Using the map Twilight had drawn out for her, Rainbow Dash was able to effortlessly navigate the castle, much easier than she had ever before, and within a few minutes she was opening the door to the library and saw Twilight in the center of the room, mid conversation with Spike.

“I’ll start organizing the spell tomes and magical reference volumes, if you could go down to the storeroom and bring up the medieval equestrian encyclopedias, volumes one through five, I should be ready for them by the time you bring them all up - oh, Good morning Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight had been speaking studiously the entire time but spoke the greeting rather flatly.

“Yeah, hey Twilight.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her head as Spike walked past, seeming to scuttle out of the library. “Do you know what happened last night, like, how I got here? Everything’s kinda foggy, and I’ve got this really bad headache.”

“Intracranial hypertension.” Twilight said whilst removing a spellbook from a box with a large Manehattan shipping label. “Common side effect of Somnus Oblivionis.”

“Somnus o-what?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Somnus Oblivionis.” Twilight repeated. “Roughly translates to ‘Sleep of Oblivion’. It’s a sleep spell.”

“You put me under a sleep spell?” Rainbow balked. “Why?”

“You were pretty inconsolable last night,” Twilight shelved her book. “So I put you under.”

“Inconsolable? I don’t remember being inconsolable… Well, I don’t remember much of anything. All I remember is getting ready for bed and then waking up on your bedroom floor.”

“Short term memory loss, another side effect of Somnus Oblivionis.” Twilight levitated three more books onto different shelves, never once turning to face Rainbow Dash. “It’s a good spell if you want to put somepony down quick or make them forget the last eight hours.” She stopped to look at the cover of a particularly large compendium. “Except the trade-off is a laundry list of cognitive symptoms ranging from short term amnesia to chronic migraines.”

Rainbow Dash was about to ask why a spell like that even existed but decided on something a bit more pertinent to her current situation.

“Will my memory ever come back?”

“It might.” Twilight said nonchalantly as she disappeared around the bookshelf. “It might not, it really depends on how powerful the memories are and if anything triggers them. If nothing triggers them then the memories are locked away in the deepest parts of your subconscious.”

“Well is there anything I can do to regain my memory?” Rainbow Dash spoke louder so Twilight could hear her from behind the bookcase. “It feels important. Like I saw something important.”

“Try jogging your memory.” Twilight called back from deep in the library. “Try remembering what you did yesterday.”

Rainbow did just that. She searched her memories for the previous day. She remembered waking up and going to Twilight's castle, searching for her friend, and finding her outside. She remembered waking up from her nap and leaving with Gilda and venturing through the Everfree Forest. Rainbow tensed silently as she remembered the building; it’s decrepit halls and empty rooms, and, last but foremost, the skeletons in the bedroom.

. “I… I can't remember.” Rainbow Dash said. She could remember everything up until she went to sleep, but everything after that was lost in the fog of her mind.

“Well if it’s not important enough to be remembered then who knows when the memory will return, probably never.” Twilight said rather aggressively. “If you don’t mind, Rainbow, I’ve got a lot of organizing to do. If you want I could put you under a memory reclamation spell but if your brain is exposed to too much magic you might get an aneurysm.”

Rainbow Dash heard a series of shuffling noises as if Twilight had unshelved an entire bookcase at once and the Rainbow turned to leave, but stopped at the door.

“Actually Twilight,” the amnesic pegasus said from the doorway. “I need your help.”

“Oh? With what?”

Rainbow explained that she had found the building from her dreams, but she wasn’t able to find anything significant when she went there, but it felt like there was still something there she needed to find. She left out the part about the skeletons in the upstairs bedroom but suggested she needed somepony smart to help her get to the bottom of it.

“No thanks.” Twilight swiftly declined. “I’d rather organize my books.”

“But… I asked for help. I helped you with, well, I agreed to help you with the castle. I guess I really didn’t do anything, but I at least sat through your stuffy history lesson” Rainbow Dash said, growing irritated, attempting to find reasons why Twilight needed to help her when she was promptly interrupted.

“I said no.”

“What’s gotten into you today?” Rainbow Dash rounded the corner to see Twilight surrounded by piles of books waiting to be placed in their new destinations. “Why are you being so short with me?”

“You came into my room at two in the morning.” Twilight wheeled around, looking angry. “I’ve been nothing but understanding and patient with your sleep issues but you’ve been short with me for days. Then you renounced me when I was showing you my new furniture and asked to hang out with you again. You didn’t even say good morning or thank me for the breakfast I made you either.”

Rainbow’s ears drooped, bewildered at the sudden outburst.

“And even if I could forgive all that I still wouldn’t help you.” Twilight continued. “You wanna know why?”

“...Why?” Dash croaked.

“Because I watched you fly away with Gilda yesterday.“ Twilight’s tone darkened. “Mere moments after you told me you were too tired. All I wanted to do was spend some time with you. I mean, I know I’m the princess of friendship and all, but you haven’t been a very good friend lately.”

“Twilight, I.” Rainbow Dash began to speak as the realization of her recent string of behaviors finally caught up with her. “I’m sorry…”

“I appreciate the apology but I’m still not going to help you” Twilight reiterated. “It might take some time for me to completely forgive you.”

Twilight’s words stung, and Rainbow Dash felt a mix of sadness, anger and embarrassment. She was about to leave again when a thought suddenly crossed her mind and a smug smile crept across her face.

“Well that’s too bad.” Rainbow Dash said confidently. “If you were to come and help me you might’ve been able to get yourself some pretty old antiques.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “I’m listening…”

“Oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “There’s tons of antiques over there. You could get yourself a table or a bookshelf or, er, well, it's nothing but bookshelves over there. Uh… Oh yeah yeah yeah, you totally could get yourself an antique tapestry. I remember you saying how you didn’t have enough tapestries and you needed one more to fill that big empty space in the mane hall.”

Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment. She looked at her books for a while and then back at the Rainbow Dash, who was still grinning at the alicorn.

“Alright,” She said. “I’ll help you.”

“You will?” Rainbow Dash was shocked. “That really worked?”:

“No.” Twilight laughed. “But you paid attention during my ‘stuffy history lesson’. You cared enough about what I care about, at least enough to remember a small offhand comment I made; and that's enough for me forgive you.”

“Oh Celestia, Thanks Twilight!” Dash was rejuvenated. She finally felt like she was about to put this issue to bed for good.

“Where is this place anyway?” Twilight asked.

“Western Equestria” Rainbow Dash said jubilantly with a light flutter of her wings. “About an hour south of Vanhoover.”

“Hmmm.” Twilight’s face scrunched up with thought. “We’re going to need some supplies then.” She called out into the castle “Spike, please come up here.”

“I’m coming.” Spike called from nearby. Shortly thereafter the dragon had returned carrying several boxes of books and set them down next to an adjacent bookshelf. “What’s up Twilight?”

“Spike pack a saddlebag.” Twilight said diligently. “Parchment, quills, scroll seals. You know, standard stuff. Uhhh, bring one of the empty ledgers in case I want to write a field journal, and I guess bring my copy of the General Equestrian Encyclopedia, just in case.” She looked around, thinking if she had included everything she wanted. “And I guess you might as well bring some comic books so you have something to read on the train.”

“Train?” Rainbow Dash and Spike both said in unison.

“I’m going with you?” Spike said subsequently.

“Why would we take the train when we can fly?” Rainbow Dash spoke over him.

Twilight chose to address them both at once.

“Vanhoover is a three hour flight and I’m not a very good long-distance flyer yet, and I need my assistant with me in case I need to send a letter to the princesses or vice versa. And besides, we don’t really have time to find somepony to watch you and we don’t really get to go on adventures together that much.”

“But that train doesn’t get anywhere close.” Rainbow Dash protested. “It would be so much easier if we flew. And you could use the practice anyway, you’ll never get better if you don’t practice.”

“I’d rather not risk an injury.” Twilight said, her mind made up. “We can get as close as we can on the train and fly from there. I think the Las Pegasus landing is the closest stop to Vanhoover. We’ll get off there.”

“That’s like a six hour train ride!” Rainbow Dash groaned. “It will already be early afternoon by the time we get there.”

“You did ask for my help.” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “This is how you’re getting it unfortunately. I’m sorry I’m not a strong flier like you are.”

“I know, I know.” Rainbow Dash said, pulling on her eyelids. “It would just be sooo much faster if we could fly.”

“Well you could sleep on the train.” Twilight said. “You've still got bags under your eyes, so if you catch up on your sleep it just might feel as fast as flying!”

***

Rainbow Dash was cold.

Not the normal kind of cold she was used to like when she’d first step out of the shower or take an early flight on a cloudy spring morning. This was the type of cold that seeped into the hooves and spread painfully throughout her body as if she’d been sleeping on ice. This cold chilled her blood and sank into the marrow of her bones.

She opened her eyes to find herself under a blanket with Sandy Shores, the yellow filly she had seen so many times now, except this time they were huddled together trying to stay warm.

They were in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed and, looking around, Rainbow Dash could see they both in the same bed, the same room even, where she and Gilda had discovered the skeletons the day before; Except the room appeared to be unusually cared for, as if somepony had painted the walls and polished the floors recently. The whole room felt oddly homely, despite the fact that the room was frigid cold.

From the bed she could see the large picture window was fogged up, and that it was snowing outside. The two of them were shivering. The yellow filly was crying and Rainbow Dash was trying to console her.

“Shh, don’t cry,” Rainbow Dash said. “dear mother will be back soon.” It hurt to talk. Rainbow Dash’s face was stinging from the cold. She rubbed her face to try and warm it up and spoke again. “We just have to have faith dear mother will return. She said she was coming back… she always comes back.”

“But I’m so cold.” the yellow filly cried. “I’m so hungry.”

“I am too,” Rainbow Dash said, her stomach was in a tight knot “but she told us to wait for her. She’ll come back.”

“But why did she leave us?” the yellow filly trembled. “Why hasn't’ she returned? We did everything she told us to. We were good, so why hasn’t she come back?”

“I… I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash said.

“She always said she’d come back when the sun comes up, but she hasn't’ returned. Why won’t she come back?”

The yellow filly was shaking so bad from crying in the cold that Rainbow Dash tried to silence her, telling her she needed to conserve her energy. She tried to reassure the yellow filly that everything would be alright and dear mother would return but the filly’s face was already losing color; her lips turning blue.

“Why won’t she come back? We were good.” The filly kept repeating, slower and slower. “… why won’t she come… we were…. Good.“

She had stopped moving. She lay silently in Rainbow Dash’s hooves. She didn’t speak anymore. She didn’t shiver anymore. And she didn’t cry anymore. She only laid motionless, holding Rainbow Dash as close as she could.

“She’s going to come back.” Rainbow Dash said. “She promised.”

***

Rainbow Dash snapped awake to see Twilight and Spike sitting across from her on the train. She instantly felt the warmth from the train’s auxiliary heaters and her skin stung as if she had just come inside from a cold winter’s morning without a coat or winter saddle.

Twilight was looking out the window, watching the Equestrian plains roll by and Spike was beside her, reading a comic book. Rainbow Dash could hear the dull murmur of conversation fade into reality as well as the the quick rhythmic chug as the train traveled down the tracks; punctuated every now and again by the occasional horn.

Everything seemed normal, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell if she was still dreaming or not. She pinched herself with her hooves to be sure but they felt clumsy and numb as if she had been walking through snow for hours.

The sudden motion made Twilight look over.

“Oh hey, you’re awake.” She said. “You didn’t sleep very long. We still have about two hours until we reach the Las Pegasus junction. Why don’t you go back to sleep?”

“No that’s ok” Rainbow Dash shuddered. “I’m… I’m good.”

Twilight waited for a follow up but one never came. Instead, Rainbow Dash shifted in her seat and leaned a hoof on the window, resting her head on it, and looked disinterestedly outside.

Rainbow Dash’s gaze fell mainly on the plains outside the window. Lush green wild grass covered the landscape for miles upon miles, obstructed only by the rolling hills that sat far away on the horizon.

With nothing of real interest to occupy her vision, the heavy hands of sleep soon began to grab hold of her again. Her eyes became heavier with each passing mile of unobstructed grassland, and soon she could barely hear the chugging of the train wheels. As she was nearing the cusp of sleep the distinct sound of the train’s horn stole her slumber away. Her eyes snapped back open, her chest was tight. She looked around, breathing quick. She was still on the train, still in her seat. No visions had come this time.

Rainbow Dash was in the middle of trying to control her breathing when Twilight suddenly spoke. “Hey, sorry for putting you under such a heavy sleep spell last night.” She said. “I feel kinda bad.”

“Huh?” Rainbow jerked her head up. “Oh, that’s ok I guess. If you had your reasons then you had your reasons…” She paused for a moment. “What was the reason anyway? I know you said I was inconsolable but what happened exactly?”

“To be honest I don’t remember much myself.” Twilight said with a sheepish chuckle. “I was in the middle of a city counsel dream when you woke me up, so I was pretty confused when Mayor Mare started shouting at me about finding a building, but I woke up to you rambling hysterically about waking up in a burning town and something about gryphons in the woods beneath your house.”

“Wait, really?” Rainbow was astonished. “I don’t remember saying any of that.”

“You don’t remember coming into the castle and waking me up?” Twilight asked curiously. “Or getting mere inches away from my muzzle?”

“No.” Rainbow said flatly. “I remember getting home I think somewhere around midnight and being unable to fall asleep. My memory is completely blank after that, and then I woke up in your bedroom this morning.”

“Huh.” Twilight sat back in her seat. “You would think you’d remember something given how distraught you were.” She was talking out loud moreso than she was talking to Rainbow Dash. “But Somnus Oblivionis is an old alicorn spell meant for disorienting and escaping from foes. Perhaps I could have used something less pernicious instead of just blasting you away like I did…” Twilight’s face twisted up into one of deep contemplation. “Maybe try jogging your memory again?”

”I already tried that.” Rainbow sunk back into her own seat. “Back when we were talking in the library.”

“I know that.” Twilight said. “Try it out loud though. Perhaps hearing yourself talk instead of just thinking it might trick your brain into triggering the memory. Plus, I’m kinda interested in hearing about what you and Gilda did yesterday anyway.”

“Well we flew into the woods.” Rainbow began narrating her previous day. “Landed short of where we wanted to land so we tried walking through the forest but Gilda ended up attracting a pack of Timberwolves so we had to run from them.”

“She didn’t break the branches did she?” Twilight interrupted anxiously.

“She did.” Rainbow rolled her eyes, exasperated. “She thought the rumors were outrageous.”

“Everypony knows you don’t break the branches.” Twilight said incredulously.

“Apparently everygryphon doesn’t.”

Twilight nodded. “Continue.”

“Right, so after escaping the timberwolves we stumbled upon this weird bundle of vines.” Rainbow continued. “We tried to investigate it but the vines wrapped themselves around Gilda’s wrist and tried to pull her in; she thinks she might have a fracture.”

“Why does she think that?”

“She said her wrist hurts whenever she moves her claw from side to side.” The pegasus moved her hoof in the air demonstratively. “She can stand and walk on it just fine but moving it in any other direction causes her a lot of pain. Doesn’t surprise me, those vine were crushing her wrist pretty bad. I had to do a flying leap just to get them off of her.”

Dash looked ponderous for a moment, trying to remember what happened next. “Oh yeah, this was really freaky.” She straighten up in her seat. “We found a set of train tracks, or what was left of a pair of tracks. Either way, we followed them for a few miles until we found a rusty old train car just sitting there in the middle of the tracks. it wasn’t even connected to anything. We checked it out and I swear to Celestia it was the same train car I saw in my dreams because.”

“Were there any decals on it?” Twilight interrupted. “Or logos or company names? If there were we could look them up and find some information and it might explain some things.”

“I don’t think so.” Dash shook her head. “We checked it out and the thing was completely covered in rust. “

“It was just a thought. “Twilight said, deflating. “You were saying?”

“Right, I was saying that it had to be the train car I saw in my dream because nearby we found a trail that led us right to the building from my dreams. We forced the front door open but it was too late in the afternoon so it was too dark to explore much of anything except for the upstairs. And it was really only a bunch of empty rooms. Except at the end of the hall we found a, well more like I found, Gilda just stood around the whole time… I found at the end of the hall a bedroom, and inside,” Rainbow was speaking very emphatically at this point. “I found a bunk bed with a pile of bones under a blanket. Like a pair of foals had passed away in their sleep or something.”

“What are you two talking about?” Spike said suddenly, looking up from his comic book. He had obviously been too engrossed in his reading to have been paying attention to what the adults were talking about.

“Oh yeah, I guess we never really explained it to you.” Twilight said to Spike. “She’s been having these nightmares for the past couple days. That’s why we’re going out all this way. She thinks she finally found the building from her dreams so we’re going out to investigate it.”

“What’s frustrating me the most is just the sheer randomness of it all.” Rainbow reclined back down in her seat and rested her back-hooves on the seat in front of her. “It started with not being able to sleep very well. I thought ‘oh I’m just exercising too hard, I’ll take a break from flying today.” but then I’d still be unable to fall asleep, or I’d sleep four or five hours past my alarm.” She rubbed her eyes. “Then the nightmares started about a week ago where I’d just be crying or running in the dark or full blown sequences of seeing everypony I’ve ever known but they answer to different names or they just look strange; like they'd be younger or have different mane cuts.” The pegasus leaned her head back and sighed. “And just when I thought I was getting to the bottom of everything it feels like I’ve made no progress at all. I thought I had a lead with the train car and the building, but it could all just be one giant coincidence and have nothing at all to do with these dreams I’m having.”

“That sounds exactly like this comic book I’m reading!” Spike said. Rainbow Dash looked over to see the dragon pointing at the cover of an issue of Warriors and Wizards. “It’s about this warrior stallion that starts having these terrible dreams and it turns out this wizard put a curse on him by sending an evil spectre to haunt and confuse the stallion as revenge for the stallion’s father killing the wizard’s father. So the stallion had to assemble a party to go fight the wizard and try to lift the curse. It’s awesome!”

“Im sure whatever’s happening to Rainbow isn’t that… Theatrical.” Twilight smirked.

“Gilda said it sounded more like Foals of the Forest 2.” Dash said offhandedly. “Said my dreams sound like B-level hor-”

“They made a second one?!” Spike was ecstatic.

“How do you know about the first one?” Twilight gave Spike a look. “That’s a mature rated film. Have you been sneaking into the movie theater again?”

Spike laughed nervously and returned to reading his comic book.

“Anyway Rainbow,” Twilight said turning back to her distressed friend. “I’m sure whatever is ailing you isn’t that big a deal. I’m sure we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

“But what if we don’t?” Rainbow said bleakly. “What if we going all the way out there just to find nothing again? What do we do then? What do I do when I go back to the Wonderbolts next week and keep having nightmares of foals freezing to death, or Princess Luna trying to teach me how to write a poem? Spitfire’s going to put me on medical leave for sure, and then I’m going to get passed up in rank and probably have to go through the academy again.”

“That’s why we’re going out there.” Twilight rested her hoof on Rainbow reassuringly. “Even if we don’t find anything I’m still going to help you get through this. Because that’s what friends do.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow looked at the ceiling of the train. “Except there’s a very real possibility that this is all just a wild goose chase.”

“I don't know if it will help, but this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.” Twilight began to recite. “After every storm the sun will smile again. For every problem there is a solution, and the soul’s indefeasible duty is to be of good cheer.”

“What did you just say?” Rainbow Dash shot up in her seat.

“A quote?” Twilight repeated. “After every storm the sun will smile again. For ev-”

“Yeah that!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward. “The sun will smile again… The sun, will smile again.”

“It’s a really good quote” Twilight said. “It was written by a classical era philosopher whose writings were important to the development of many comparative studies.”

“It’s not the quote.” Rainbow said as if she were looking far away. “Just that middle part. The sun will smile again… it sounds so familiar, like I’ve heard it before.”

“Well maybe you heard me say-” Twilight began to speak before a realization hit her. “Oh! Perhaps it triggered a memory! Tell me, do you remember anything?”

“I just remember that part.” Rainbow Dash said. “The sun will smile again. Wait no, I remember something, a statue...”

“That’s good.” Twilight got excited. “Really good! What else do you remember.”

“That’s it.” Dash said.

“Close your eyes.” Twilight instructed. “Focus on it. Tell me about the statue. What does it look like?”

“It’s… grey.” Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. “It’s tall, taller than you or I. And it’s got… It’s got a plaque, I can’t read anything on it except for ‘the sun will smile again.’”

“What else do you see?” Twilight probed. “Walk me through it.”

“I see the statue.” Rainbow said, her face scrunching up in concentration. “And it’s turning orange...There’s fire… I see buildings…. I see a statue in the middle of a town and the town is on fire!”

“Keep going, jog your memory.” Twilight said. “What happened next.”

“I get pulled away from the statue by this mare I’ve never seen before.” Dash continued. “We’re running with this yellow filly that I’ve seen before in my dreams, she looks a lot like fluttershy but she goes by a different name. We run into a field and we’re surrounded by.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes snapped open. “The gryphon armor!”
“You mean the gryphon armoire?” Twilight attempted to correct.

“No, gryphon armor.” Rainbow Dash practically shouted, earning a few looks from the other passengers. She spoke quieter. “We were surrounded by gryphons and they were all wearing these pieces of armor” she motioned around her chest. “Golden breastplates with little black wings right here. It’s the same armor Gilda and I saw in the forest. Being consumed by those vines that crushed her claw.”

“And where were you seeing these gryphons?” Twilight tilted her head.

“I think it was in a dream.” Dash spoke softly. “Last night. Yeah, I remember it clearly now. I went to bed and woke up in a town that was being burned to the ground by an entire gryphon army, they were all wearing that golden armor and attacking anypony that came ran past the gate. I saw Gilda in my dream too, she chased me into the forest and I woke up in the woods below my house. I must’ve been sleepwalking because I shoved my entire nightstand into a saddlebag; I think I might’ve even broken my bedside lamp in the process.”

“Wait a minute…” Twilight said suspiciously. “You said you had trouble sleeping last night… You didn’t take those sleeping pills did you? The ones you got from Spitfire?”

Rainbow Didn't answer, but her face said enough.

“Don’t you remember what happened the last time you took them?” Twilight said incredulously. “We found you sleepwalking through the middle of town and you tried to fight the Celestia statue mumbling something about invading changelings. Those pills aren’t good for you, why didn’t you throw them out like I told you too?”

“I thought I might need them one day.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I didn’t think anything crazy like that would happen again.”

“That’s probably why you came into my bedroom last night.” Twilight said self-assured. “You were out of your mind on those crazy sleeping pills and were probably trying to get me to help you fight off those imaginary gryphons.”

“But even if it was just the pills,” Rainbow Dash’s tone went serious. “What does it all mean? I saw the same armor in my dream that I saw in the woods, a few miles away from a boxcar and a forest trail that I’ve walked down in another dream, to a building I saw in another dream that had a couple of skeletal foals inside one of the upstairs bedrooms.”

“Could be a evil wizard’s spectre.” Spike crooned.

“You’re right, it has to mean something.” Twilight said ignoring spike. “It’s like the pieces are starting to fall into place but the puzzle just keeps getting bigger and bigger.” Twilight rubbed her hoof to her chin, trying to think. “I can’t even think of what it could mean metaphorically… But I guess in a few hours we’re going to find out.”