“Gilda!” The griffon jolted up when she heard her name and was up with a start from that shout. It took a moment to take in her surroundings, but when she did it gave her much to worry about.
She was in the asylum, like she never left it, and that pony at the door was clearly was ticked off. He looked at her with clear anger.
“Get up you lazy bird, were having lunch soon!” the orderly pony shouted and he trotted off without another word.
“What the heck is this?” Gilda said to herself, looking puzzled around the room. It was the same room, same place, and the same bed and mirror. The only thing off was the fact the orderly seemed nastier than she remembered. “This another nightmare?” she uttered. “Great..” She got up, and against any better judgement, she walked outside.
Things were the same, but still felt off. While she was never on best terms with orderlies, they now just seemed hateful toward her. Like they couldn't wait to use those sticks on her just for fun. Even the other nutballs just gave her not just dirty, but downright contempt looks.
They hated her, they hated the fact she even existed. She could feel it.
“This can’t end well…” was her words on that matter.
“Can’t is right!” said a familiar voice, as a abrupt shove knocked her over. “You're just a loon here bird,” said Soft Touch as he coldly stood over her. “You just keep causing problems for all of us.” She struggled to get up when another orderly pinned her back down. “Why can’t you be a better person like we want?” he added with a smug voice, looking down at her. “Cause I don’t learn nothing, dweeb,” he said in his mock impression of her own voice.
It was enough to make her angry. She wanted to throw the other orderly off her and rip that smug pony's face off.
“That’s how you are, and wasting our time,” Touch continued, gesturing to the other orderlies. They lifted her up by her wings and pushed her to the commons area. “Now you sit down in your chair, and if you're a good little bird then maybe we won’t have to strap you down.” Then they let go and the griffon scrambled away, even enjoying a good laugh at her weakness as they trotted off.
Shock was a simple feeling, like despair and anger. Gilda thought she had been getting used to it, but at the same time she wasn’t. She clutched her foreleg and shivered. She needed someone right now, even “The Snark” would have been a good friend to have now. Wordlessly, she got to her lone table and sat down.
Another doozy was hitting her, wasn’t it? No, it was already here now and she was helpless. Soft had just made that point clear, and the fact he and the other orderlies were nodding to each other, and it could only see it getting worse.
Gilda pinched her neck, nothing. Paw? Nothing. Beak? Still nothing.
Any number of bad things were going to happen soon, she knew it. Here she was with no way out. Alone, hated, and about to get messed up hard while someone gets to gloat at her predicament. Her blood chilled, as her body felt weaker and weaker.
It was as she started to let it get to her that someone showed up without a sound or warning.
“Hello, pretty bird,” Sunshine said with usual friendliness. “You ok?” The griffon turned to face him with surprise, nearly jumping out of her chair. The dumb dog looked perplexed, like this didn’t bother him at all. It just confused him.
“You’re normal?!” Gilda said a bit more loud than she intended. She glanced to the ponies now looking for an excuse to move in, but they thankfully weren’t moving. “What the heck is going on here?” she asked in a lower voice. “What with this place? How’d you get here?”
“Don’t know,” Sunshine answered the questions with a shrug. “See this place when asleep. They mean, but how it goes here,” he said with a sad detachment. “Then I wake up, and it nice again.”
“This place is messed up,” Gilda stated the obvious. “Are you too dumb to see how bad this is?”
“I see it,” he replied, still with a sad look. “Try to ignore, makes my teeth clatter, chilly.” Sunshine looked, for once, uncomfortable. Even scared as he looked at her before working to calm himself. “But, it not real pretty bird. Larch told me...”
“Stupid dog!” said the nightmare version of Dr. Larch as he hobbled grimly past them.
The diamond dog paused for a moment, but continued.
“It’s not really there,” he whispered to the Gilda. “Nasty place is just in the head, so when you wake up, you be ok.” He nodded at the griffon, like he was hoping she got it. “It can’t get you if you don’t believe it can.”
“Ok….” Gilda muttered, feeling the last thing she needed was more nonsense. “And if I can’t wake up? Maybe because I’ll freak out in a few minutes?” she asked with worry as her eyes looked around. “Cause I don’t want to stick around here.” That question seemed to cause the simpleton to look pretty worried.
“Can’t wake up?” Sunshine asked with, for once, wide eyes. “But, can’t you…?”
“Look, I don’t feel like being tortured right now alright?” Gilda added finding herself shivering. “I can’t take anymore of this...”
She looked again, the ponies in the commons looked more and more like they were about to come after her. She had no idea if she could fight that many.
“It won’t leave you alone until you do it,” Sunshine said out of nowhere, now looking deathly serious.
“What?” was Gilda’s flat answer answer.
Despite her looking to the dog for an answer, he instead seemed to ponder, looking up as he shifted his head. Then he gave her an odd look, patting her wing with a silly kind of hopeful look like he actually knew something.
“Don’t worry, pretty bird,” Sunshine said as he nodded to her. “I got the plan!” he added with a smile and pointed his paw to the hall. “Follow me, hurry!” With that, he ran off down that hall.
The ponies looked just as shocked as she did. Regardless, she ran after him.
“This is stupid,” Gilda muttered, now running and hearing the shouts from behind her. If Sunshine’s stupidity got her a beating and strapped down, she was going to kill him.
“Stop her, there she goes, stop her!” the orderlies yelled in anger. “You can’t escape. We’re going to take you away and you have nowhere to run!” they yelled as she kept going. The griffon could hear the sound of several running hooves behind her, and that only made her move faster.
She followed Sunshine to his room, where his paws in the process of unscrewing the vent cover above him. The way he was doing it said he had some experience. While that did raise a few questions, she had more pressing ones. They did have a mob coming after them.
“Unless you can…!” Gilda stated as she pointed down the hall to the nasty ponies coming, the dog cut her off.
“Put bed against door!” Sunshine stated with a serious tone, not looking away from his task. “Hold it there, take a moment. Almost there.” He kept working as she did as instructed, slamming the door closed and pushing the bed in place. With in a second, angry hooves were pushing back.
“Bit more, done!” Sunshine finished as the vent cover came off and he leaped up into it. His forearm then came down, his paw grasping. “Give me claw! Now!” Gilda didn’t think twice. The makeshift barricade fell, as he pulled her up into the vents.
“Follow now, pretty bird, follow,” he said as he crawled through the vents with Gilda crawling after. It was cramped, and how a diamond dog could move through them boggled the griffon’s mind. For Gilda, she had to endure her wings pressing into her back as she moved.
“There in the vents, get them!” yelled voices outside as the crawled off.
While Gilda had wondered if it was a good idea to ask, she REALLY hoped this dog knew where he was going. After a few turns and climbing up a shaft, to her surprise, he did.
“Vent cover lead outside, pretty bird,” Sunshine said, as he got his paw pushing on said cover. “Got wings, so you fly away. You can make it pretty bird.” He kicked the cover off and they got out.
They were on a roof now. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and the sun was bright. It was in contrast to how the asylum felt, and unlike what Gilda was expecting for someplace in her own nightmares.
While her first thought was just doing that, flying away and not even looking back, she had to ask.
“How’d you know all this?” Gilda asked the simple dog. “I mean, I saw you being creepy in that one vent, but did you always know how to get out of here?” Sunshine just nodded back, and she couldn't believe it. “Seriously? Then, why did you stick around if you could leave anytime?”
The dog seemed to look unsure how to respond to that, but tried to.
“It’s free out there,” Sunshine said, pointing out to the horizon. “But free is alone. Alone is scary.” He put his paw down. “Or even suffering from things that’s out there.” Despite how scared he sounded, he tried to smile. “Here, when I wake up, know what is there. Not free, but not alone, they take care of me. Not hurt me.”
“And this nightmare crud?” Gilda asked as she pointed back the way they came. “How come you know all of this?
“Larch talks to me, he nice,” he replied, but not really answering the question. When he saw that she still looked confused, even rolling her eyes to it, he seemed to take as a sign of confusion. “Place not real, pretty bird. See it, but it only kinda real. Don’t know it all, pretty bird, just bits and pieces, but…” He tapped his head, like he was trying to think again.
Gilda sighed, not sure what he was on about.
“They say lots, but they just mean. Want you to know them too, so you think they real,” he continued as he shook his head. “B-but, they powerless if you keep away from them. They not real, but you are.” He looked to her, as serious as his muddled look allowed. “You make reality, pretty bird!” he said the last part with some excitement, like it was the answer to everything.
“Or maybe,” Gilda added, not completely following the odd rant the dog had given. “You’ve gone nuts and I need to get out of here before I do too.” The sudden sound of metal clanging told her she better get moving. “If you don’t escape, they're going to…!”
“I wake up,” Sunshine said calmly. “Won’t be scared no more when up,” he said matter of factly. The griffon let out a “pifft” as she flew away. “Fly away, pretty bird, don’t look back!” he called out as she flew.
“Guess he deserves to be here,” Gilda muttered as she soared through the skies. She could feel bad for him, but he wasn’t trying to get out of this place.
Her next plan was to find some place safe, maybe wait out this storm. The oddest thing was the asylum was the only building in the grass plain. But hey, it’s not real right?
As she pondered this, a arrow pierced her wing, jamming itself into her joints and rendering it unable to move.
“No!” Gilda shouted as she struggled for her wing to move. “Nononononononon!” she screamed, and she fell down.
She couldn't glide, she couldn't even right herself, all she could do is keep falling. All she could think then was how powerless she was to avoid these problems. Or worse, she never was.
“Escape is an illusion, little bird,” said a mocking voice in her head. “Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you, and even that’s gone now.”
Gilda continued to scream as she fell, and then she woke up back at Fluttershy’s on impact. The griffon promptly jumped from her bed and ran from her room. Her first goal was the kitchen.
Fluttershy had to have coffee, right?