A familiar cry pierced the murky darkness of the dreamscape, sending shivers down Princess Luna's spine.
The powerful alicorn princess summoned a pair of earmuffs into the void between dreams wherein she currently floated. Shimmering dream-bubbles surrounded her, offering snapshots into the minds of sleeping ponies all over Equestria. The dreams were sometimes crude, but almost always colorful. Luna shook her head dismissively at the screeching noise, then held back the instinct to protectively draw her ears down against the raux so she could place the earmuffs on properly. "It is the third time this week," she griped to herself. "I fear I must inform Twilight Sparkle yet again that this mare requires the immediate care of a licensed therapist."
In previous months, Luna would keep her earmuffs on for a few minutes so the screams would have a chance to die down. However, she had learned two important lessons from her attempts. First of all, the length of the howling left open the possibility that she would miss hearing other, more urgent cries for assistance coming from dream bubbles whose owners still remained tethered to rational thought processes. Second, and more importantly, Roseluck's screams rarely died down even after five minutes had passed.
Shrugging off the urge to allow the nightmare to take its natural course, Princess Luna swept her hoof to the side, pulling Rose's dream bubble into view. From the outside, the only hint to the dream's contents was the image of a vast savannah, revealing next to nothing about what the matter might be. Luna took a deep breath and a few more moments of peaceful silence to compose her thoughts, steeling herself for the job at hoof. Then she dispelled the earmuffs and plunged directly into the dream.
Luna fully expected this dream to resemble the previous nightmare in which Rose was panicking after her barista forgot to draw a humorous image in the foam of her latte. However, this time the earth pony's imaginings were very different. Luna found herself surrounded by a wide plain of grass and arid earth, with unusual lucidity to it. Even the dirt had a texture and odor, and the princess raised her brow in approval.
What looked like a tent village was a short trot away. As she headed toward the tiny town, Luna realized there was something even stranger than the clarity of thought which created this realm: Rose's screams for help had already ceased. For anypony else, this would have been a good sign, but not for this mare. Princess Luna began to worry, and sped her pace up to a canter.
The tent city was small enough that the entire village could be seen once Luna stepped past the first short row of tents. Roseluck was nowhere that Luna could detect, yet another disquieting curiosity. This was clearly a zebra outpost, as the cultural iconography was painfully obvious even without all the zebra who were milling about the tents. Several of them briefly looked over to Luna, but seemed unconcerned and returned to what they had been doing. Apparently, Roseluck believed typical zebra activities included shrinking severed pony heads and adding ever-more-complex piercings to various parts of their bodies. The parts in question were... surprisingly creative.
Luna briefly wondered if this might be considered racist, but immediately resolved never to discuss the matter with Rose.
Strange sounds emanated from the large, central tent. Voluntarily casting aside her better judgment, Luna wrapped an invisibility shroud around her form and slipped into the tent, muttering under her breath, "I am too old for this horseshit."
Within the confines of the tent were four figures, with a tied-up Rose being one of them. Mystery solved, thought Luna, and she blessed her Stars for the large strip of fabric currently gagging the earth pony. The strip looked suspiciously like horsehide, and Luna cringed when she realized the entire tent she stood within was made from a similar material. Even a thousand years ago, zebra weren't this barbaric.
The other three occupants were, naturally, zebra. The one squatting next to Rose was obviously the village chieftain, judging by the ridiculous size of his headdress. The remaining two zebra were mares anachronistically dolled up with modern cosmetics and delicate-looking, very detailed undergarments which seemed designed to draw a pony's attention to a certain part of their bodies—one which was equally vivid in the graphical sense. (Also to the other senses, but Luna was carefully tuning those out.)
"You are my dear, my newest wife. So welcome, to your future life," said the chief, his loincloth seemingly possessed by a small, twitching ghost. He smiled cruelly as his mares giggled.
Luna wondered if she should tell Roseluck that only certain shamen of the zebra tribe spoke in rhyme, but she quickly filed the idea away in her mind in the "beyond my job description" bin, the same place she had dumped the potential racism conversation.
She watched, disturbed beyond measure, as the chief removed Rose's gag. The lunar Princess placed her hooves over her ears, but Roseluck merely quivered in fear, apparently too frightened to speak. That bizarre behavior knocked the horse sense back into Princess Luna's head. Removing her invisibility cover, she shouted in her best Royal Canterlot Voice, "ENOUGH!" Before the zebra could react, Luna froze the entire dream.
"I am sorry I took so long this time, Roseluck," said Luna, grimacing with guilt as she began to unbind the poor pony. "I did not predict the gravity of your nightmare."
Rose blushed brighter than her scarlet mane. "Um, it's okay. You can leave—if you need to, I mean," she said.
Luna furrowed her brow. This was the most illogical thing in the dream so far. "I fear that I do not follow?" she said, tilting her head as a quizzical expression crossed her muzzle.
"I'm okay. It's... not a nightmare...?" said Roseluck, with a sheepish grin. She waited patiently for the light of epiphany to spread across her would-be savior's face.
"Oh," said Princess Luna. "OH! Oh. Oh, um... oh." Somehow, a hint of red managed to peek through even the princess's darkly-colored cheeks.
An uncomfortable silence filled the tent. It was Rose who finally spoke up.
"So, um... would you like to... I dunno, join us?" she asked Luna, almost wincing at her own indecent suggestion.
Princess Luna placed a hoof over her face and sighed deeply. Another awkward silence filled the air.
"Very well," acquiesced Princess Luna, summoning her own leathery gag.
Actual Contest Entry (With Typos)
Author's Note
This is the actual draft I typed for the Speedfic contest, with no editing, including typos. We had to write this using actual typewriters, because ROB likes to pretend he is older than I am. (Also probably to punish me for being a Dvorak typist.) Characters that were heavily-retyped are marked in bold italics, and those blocked out with X's and #'s are written '#'.
This example may give you some idea of how spontaneously I tend to write individual chapters in my stories. 
Actual Contest Entry (With Typos)
A Cry for Help
by Trick Question
Luna sighed as a familiar cry pierced the murky darkness of the dreamscape.
"It is the third time this week. I fear I must inform Twilight Sparkle again to place this mare into the care of a licensed therapist," said the Princess.
Shrugging off the urge to allow the nightmare to take its natural course, Princess Luna swept her hoof to the side, pulling Roselucks dream bubble into view. From the out#side, the onl#y hint to the dream's contents was the image of a vast plains-scape. Luna# took a deep breath, steeled herself for the job at hoof###, and plunged into the dream.
Oddly enough, Rose's screams for help had already ceased. This was highly abnormal, as typically she would cry out for minutes before Luna would give in and respond. Luna fully expected this dream to resemble the previous Rose-mare in which she was panicking after her barista forgot to draw a humorous image in the foam of her latte. But this one was... different.
For one thing, Roseluck herself was nowhere to be seen. Luna appeared to be standing in a zebra village# with several zebra #### milling about, going about their everyday activities. Apparently Roseluck believed this meant shrinking severed heads and adding ever-more-complex piercings to various parts of their bodies.
Luna briefly wondered if this was racist, but immediately resolved never to discuss the matter.
There were strange sounds coming from the large, central tent. Casting aside her better judgment, Luna wrapped aninvisibility shroud around her form and entered the tent--muttering under her breath, "I am too old for this horseshit."
Within the confines of the tent were four figures#, with a tied-up Rose being one of them. "Mystery solved," thought Luna, as she thanked the Stars for the large strip of fabric currently gagging the earth pony.
The other three #### occupants consisted of the village chieftain, judging by the ridiculous size of his headdress, and two zebra ### mares dolled up with modern cosmetics and disturbingly delicate-looking undergarments which were obviously designed to draw #a pony's attention to a part of their bodies which also held an unexpected amount of detail.
"You are ########## my dear, my newest wife. It's time to learn of your new life," said the chief, his loincloth seemingly possessed by a small ghost. He smiled cruelly as his mares giggled.
Luna wondered if she should tell Roseluck that only certain shamen of the zebra tribe*, but mentally filed the idea with ### the racism confrontation in the "above my job description" category.
(* = I forgot to include the words 'speak in rhyme' here.)
Luna watched, disturbed beyond measure, as the chief removed Rose's gag. The lunar Princess placed her hooves over her ears, but ##### Roseluck merely quivered in fear, apparently too frightened to speak.
That bizarre behavior knocked sense back into Princess Luna's head. # Removing her invisibility cover, she shouted in her best Royal Canterlot Voice###########, "ENOUGH!" Before the zebra could react, Luna froze time and the three zebra no longer moved.
"I am sorry I took so long this time, Roseluck," said Luna. "I did not predict the gravity of your nightmare."
Rose blushed brighter than her mane. "Um, it's okay. You can go," she said.
"I do not follow," said Luna, a quizzical expression crossing her muzzle.
"It's... not a nightmare?" said Roseluck, with a## sheepish grin.
"Oh," said Princess Luna. "Oh! Oh,um... oh."
An uncomfortable silence filled the tent. "So,um,.. would you like to... join us?" asked Rose, her blush somehow getting even redder.
Princess Luna placed a hoof over her face and#### groaned. # Another awkward silence filled the air.
"Very well," said Princess Luna.
