"Hello!" a voice from behind me called out. My heart lurched, and I could feel my hooves leave the ground.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to frighten your birds!"
I looked about in search of the voice, but saw nopony. Soon again, the voice called.
"Oh my! I'm... sorry! I didn't... to frighten... birds!"
The voice was muffled, shimmering like words spoken into a tin can. I continued to look around, and still the source of the words eluded me. Nopony on the ground, nopony in the sky, and nopony in any of the nearby trees. The field was otherwise bare - I would have seen whoever it was.
"Oh... ... ...sorry! ...didn't... ... ... birds!"
The voice was growing fainter, more polluted. I couldn't make out the sentence anymore, and struggled to remember what had been said the first time. My breathing grew stronger, heavier, deeper. My rib cage expanding to full capacity and shrinking to original size rapidly.
The words... I felt like I had heard them before. They felt precious to me, but I had no idea why. And why now were they surrounding me, with no one to speak them?
"Well... it looks like your birds are back."
The voice was clear this time, and it did not speak again.
* * *
My breathing was still heavy when I opened my eyes and sat up in bed. Sweat poured down my face and my heart was beating out of my chest. A chill ran down up my spine. I laid there in bed for a moment, trying to get a grip on my surroundings, only to realize there were tears running down my face.
The dream I had just woken from grew fainter. I reached towards certain details, and each slipped through my hooves like a bar of soap, until eventually I could only remember the words.
Oh my! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to frighten your birds!
Those words were spoken to me three years ago, by my closest friend, Twilight Sparkle. Three years. It was hard to believe. Time passed so quickly with Twilight there to make things interesting. Every day seemed to be a new adventure.
Even in those three years, things had changed so much. Twilight had recently been promoted to Princess status, and her life was changing. The adventures were getting more exciting and more dangerous. I still wasn't terribly comfortable with the risk of it all, but for Twilight, I would hide my fear as best I could.
I tried to pull my eyes into focus. The sky outside my window was painted with the faintest shades of pastel red and orange.
Time to feed the animals.
Around noon, I had lunch with Rarity at the Everfree Cafe. The patio was comfortable in the shade of the partly-cloudy sky.
"...and so I said to him, 'honestly, if you intend to pass that off for a dress, you should be paying her to take it!' And he just stood there, absolutely fuming!"
Rarity let out a sharp laugh. I laughed along with her, feigning interest. My mind was elsewhere.
"Oh, by the way Fluttershy, Twilight told me to let you know that the Princess - er, Celestia, I should clarify - has scheduled us for another diplomacy excursion."
"Oh really?" I asked, my curiosity now piqued, "where to?"
"That's just the thing, darling, I don't know. Twilight doesn't know either. There's a charter scheduled to bring us there tomorrow, but the details are currently very hush."
"That sounds rather... frightening," I noted, "so we have no idea what to expect?"
"Well, I for one trust Princess Celestia," Rarity proclaimed, "but..."
"But...?"
"But maybe she only knows as much as we do."