Gilda was still in a panicked haze as she sat at the table. She tried to keep her mind active, mentally taking stock of her status. After she got out of bed with the shakes, she had gone downstairs and headed for the kitchen. While she had the plan to just wait till morning, drinking something to keep her up, her actions had someone else trotting down as well.
“Gilda, is that you?” Fluttershy asked with a tired look on her face. The griffon guessed it was the kettle going off that woke the pony. Even so, she was still jittery despite the company.
“Y-yeah,” was Gilda’s reply, drinking her third cup with a nervous look. Shy’s look didn’t change, still weary. “Just, uh, made something so…”
“You didn’t take your medicine,” Fluttershy stated clearly, as she blinked and rubbed her eyes. She trotted to the table and took stock of the scene. “How…” she blinked a few more times. “How many tea bags is that?” she asked, now wide eyed with surprise.
“I-I don’t know,” was Gilda answer to the odd question, staring into space and taking another sip. “I just got to checking your cupboards looking for some coffee.” Said cupboards were still open. “But I found all you had was tea, lots of bags of it.”
Gilda poured herself another cup of the mash. “Soooo, I just figured I’d put a bunch into a kettle and boil it,” Gilda continued as she took another sip. “I didn’t count, but I think it’s enough to get me through the night. I mean, this stuff tastes bad, but I think it will keep me up.”
The griffon was likely to keep drinking her bitter creation, but the pegasus wasn’t having any of it. Without a word, she lifted Gilda’s foreleg over her back and pulled her out of her chair, causing it to fall over.
“Go to bed, Gilda,” Fluttershy said in a monotone voice. “I know you are scared, but you need this.”
“Can’t I just-” Gilda started, dropping her cup on the table. While she was attempting to give her excuses, the unhappy look on the pegasus shut it out.
“Now!” Fluttershy interrupted as continued pulling Gilda along. Despite her size, she was somehow able to lift the griffons side enough to get leverage.
“When did she get all tough?” Gilda said to herself.
Last she knew, this pony looked like she could barely lift. She let out a nervous gulp and went along with the unhappy pony, seeing as she was still trembling a bit from her last shock.
It was quiet on the way upstairs, with Fluttershy still looking tired and Gilda still feeling shaken from that nightmare she had a moment ago. After getting to her bedroom, the griffon was helped into bed by the pony.
“Now where is…? Shy stated as she looked around the room.
“I, um, dropped it?” Gilda replied sheepishly. The pegasus gave a disapproving look for a moment, but kept looking. “Uh, sorry?” she apologized and tried to smile, if only to hope this wouldn't get worse.
After a moment, the pony had found the pill and hoofed it back to the griffon. She then picked up the water.
“Swallow it, please,” was Fluttershy’s command. Gilda let out a sigh as she put the pill in her mouth, and took the glass to take a drink, it went down.
In almost seemed instant, as Fluttershy expression went from an exhausted look to a weak, but proud smile.
“That a girl,” she said as her hoof caressed Gilda’s head and a muzzle kissed it. “Sweet dreams.” With that, she trotted away as the griffon felt the absurdity of what just happened.
“It’s not like I’m two…” Gilda grumbled to herself. “Geeze.” After rolling her eyes, she decided to just lay in bed.
She knew what was coming, and soon she would smell blue as her vision blurred any moment now. At least that’s what she thought would happen.
The first warning was when the door started lowering into the floor. She blinked with surprise, unsure how to react as her gaze followed the door, now clearly melting with it’s puddle seeping into the floor.
“Uh, Fluttershy?” Gilda said as she watched. As the puddle vanished, the rest of the room started to go away in kind.
The window near the bed just seemed to stop existing as an odd fog rolled in where it once was. Then the walls fell, breaking apart and falling away like glass shards, then splintering again and again to dust. Beyond it all wasn’t the night sky out side however, just a void of black emptiness.
“Yo, duck pony!” Gilda yelled to no avail. “What the heck is this!?” She tried to get up, only to realize she couldn't move as her body was immobile. Her neck was the only thing that she could move well as well as her eyes as she saw the floorboard flying away as well.
As the bed and blanket drifted into ash from under her as well it was clear reality had clearly left awhile ago.
The other bits of furniture floated there for a moment, with the chair and nightstand fizzling away. The bookshelf emptied its contents in the air as the books melted away into blobs of color. That soon rejoined the shelf in its mass before it became a cloud of vapor.
Soon there was no real evidence of the room Gilda was in. It was just her drifting in an abyss.
Now she was floating, or falling, she couldn't tell now. Her body felt no sensations as she drifted to who knows where to the sounds of blowing leaves.
It was then she could see then that the void wasn’t completely empty. Lights of many colors flashed, both near and far away as she traveled. That aside, it was still all empty. It was like she was now the last thing in the universe, and for some reason that scared her to her very core.
She didn’t know how long it she had been in that void when a flash put her out. Gilda had no idea what happened next, but when she opened her eyes she found she was back in the real again.
She felt the tell tale fluffyness of a cloud under her back, with a soft breeze on her fur and feathers. Her wings could move again, and with a few quick flaps she felt balance again. Even her tail felt like a limb that she was glad to know it existed.
It didn’t take long for the griffon to find that Ponyville was nearby her cloud, that it was morning, and for a moment things felt good. Nice even, like whatever gloominess she’d known was a bad dream.
Gilda still shook her head, it was a dream, just like that pill she took would do. Something told her where she was could not exist. Nothing could feel this good in her real life.
“This ain’t real,” Gilda said with wide eyes from her cloud perch. “This a dream or some trip?” She let her eyes wander. “And if it a trip, where’s it going?”
At any moment, she expected something to pop out at her. Like a monster or a tiger leaping from some tree. It started a dread, before lowering to anticipation. Gilda had to wonder what was coming.
Or perhaps her trip on green fae would return? Fun and strange visions of her soaring with dragon wings and having long conversations with everyday objects, all ending with confusion and embarrassment.
Gilda found herself going from nervous to calm and back again as she awaited her next surprise. How was she meant to feel on this?
“Gilda!” That shout and the voice had her fear leap up, nearly chilling her blood to ice. That was when she was knocked over by a swift force with a pair of hooves around her. Gilda nearly panicked. “I’m so sorry!” the voice cried. “I shouldn't have abandoned you!”
It was Dash, her old friend Rainbow Dash, crying into the griffon back. Now Gilda knew it wasn’t real.
“I never should have left, I shouldn't have been such a flip flop to you.” Dash looked to Gilda’s shocked eyes with tears in her own.
“Uh...” was all Gilda uttered.
Despite how many times she had wanted Dash to come crawling back, even thinking of some “kind” words for that moment, those words seemed to escape her now.
“I guess?” was the best response Gilda could find.
So many times she wanted to say that in a smug “I told you so” tone, but at best it sounded awkward when she said it, not cool at all. The griffon eventually pried the pony off of her.
“I so sorry G, can you ever forgive me?” Rainbow Dash asked with pleading voice, her hooves in front of her as she begged.
Maybe it was that, or how far the griffon could go with it, but at last she felt like she could go with this reality. The griffon smiled at what they could do now.
“Maybe…” Gilda said with a bit of playfulness. “If you want to team up a prank some of those lame ponies, I guess I can find it in my heart to forgive you.” Dash looked overjoyed at this.
Dream or no dream, this felt like a wish come true.
The rest of the day felt like a blur then. Water balloons, tricks, traps, the good old pranks they’d known from back when they were best friends. From any random pony, to Dash’s lame pony friends. Even Fluttershy found herself on the receiving end of their surprises.
After leaving quite a mess behind them, they then flew to a cloud and had a great laugh together just like old times. Then some racing, then more laughs and jabbing each other. Gilda hadn’t felt so good in a long time.
As her vision whited out, being a reminder of what she was seeing was never real, she honestly didn’t want to wake up.