//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Poolside Fun // Story: Spiritus ex Machina // by wonderkid125 //------------------------------// “Wow… Look at this place.” Applejack said in an amazed tone while taking in the sights. The orange mare and her unicorn friend were following Berry Swirl around the park outside. The three ponies were walking along the outer edge of a large circular pool. The pool had crystal clear water, so clear that a stylized sun could be seen painted on the bottom of it. Twilight marveled at the various water fountains and colorful decorations. “This is certainly living up to my expectations… in fact, it’s even better than I remember.” She said with an impressed nod. Berry Swirl raised an eyebrow in surprise as she looked to the unicorn. “You’ve been here before?” She asked curiously. “Yeah… my parents took me here to celebrate when I passed my magic exam.” Twilight explained cheerfully as memories came flooding back to her. The purple earth pony smiled as she saw the unicorn having a nostalgia trip. She was pleased to see that the park could still make people happy. “Well, I’m glad to hear I’ve done such a good job of sprucing the place up… especially from someone who’s been here before.” Berry added. “So, what did you do back when your dad owned the place?” Applejack asked, looking around at the water slides and pools with an intrigued expression. Berry paused for a moment to recall her past. “I mostly just played around and helped my dad tinker with the animatronics. Well… I say helped, but it was more like I watched him work on them. He got his love of working on them from his father. He would always say that they would be ready to roll out into the park and replace the older models in no time, but he never got to finish them.” She explained with a dejected sigh. “Well, you did a great job at picking up where he left off.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. She flashed a brief smile as the earth pony brightened her expression back to normal. “Right, sorry… I try not to ramble on about my past, but I get all nostalgic sometimes when walking around this place.” Berry said with a brief chuckle to wave off any somber thoughts lingering in the air. It was easy to see how someone like her would be close friends with Pinkie Pie in the past. “That makes two of us.” Twilight added with a cheerful smirk. After sharing a quick bout of warm happiness, the three mares fell silent while looking around at the park around them. The soft trickling of water fountains splashing into the various pools and slides filled the air, creating a peaceful atmosphere that enveloped the ponies. Berry Swirl cleared her throat and rubbed her foreleg awkwardly. “I guess that’s pretty much it for the tour. You’ve seen the entire park by this point.” She gestured around with her hoof. “Well, thanks for showin’ us around Berry.” Applejack said cheerfully. “Yeah, we really appreciate the opportunity to see the place.” Twilight added in a friendly manner. “Oh, of course, it was my pleasure. Now, why don’t you two go run along and have some fun? Maybe find your friends and go find a pool to jump in?” Berry suggested with a bubbly smile. “That sounds like a great idea… I wonder where they would be, though.” Twilight pondered out loud with a pensive expression. Berry took a moment to think of a possible answer herself while the two mares tried to figure out where their friends might be. “Umm… you might want to check with Silver Bell. If Bonnie knows where they went, she can call him over for you so you can ask him.” She suggested. “Thanks.” Twilight said with a grateful smile. After waving goodbye to the purple earth pony, Twilight and Applejack walked back towards the main building. Once they made their way back through the park, the two ponies found themselves facing the resort building again. Opening the glass door and stepping into the lobby, the two could already see Silver Bell standing behind the front desk. The cream pony was leaning against the desk with her front legs while facing away from the two approaching mares and talking to a familiar animatronic rabbit. As she noticed the pair walking into the lobby, Silver turned and got off of the desk before smiling and walking over to the two ponies. “Hello… I assume Berry finished giving you the tour of the park?” Silver asked curiously while glancing between the two. “Yeah, we just got done. We were hoping that either you or Bonnie could tell us where our friends are.” Twilight said while looking over to the robotic bunny. The blue rabbit looked over to the unicorn and her orange friend as if he were listening intently. “Umm…” Silver Bell muttered pensively while turning to face the animatronic. “Bonnie, do you know where the others went?” She asked in a hopeful tone. “I told them how to get to the indoor pool, they might be in there.” Bonnie replied while turning to face the white haired unicorn. “The indoor pool? Where’s that?” Applejack asked curiously. “It’s just down that hallway… it’s the second intersection. Just head to the left and look for the double doors.” Silver explained while pointing to the opening on the right side of the room. “I can send Bonnie to lead you there if you want.” She added while turning to the rabbit. “No thank you, I think we can find our way alone.” Twilight politely declined while smiling at the two. She felt odd thinking that she would somehow be inconveniencing the robot by asking it to lead her around. “Well, I’ll be back here if you need anything.” Silver replied with a friendly smile. Twilight and Applejack returned the gesture before walking towards the doorway that the cream pony pointed out to them. As the pair walked down the quiet corridor, they looked ahead for intersecting hallways amid the doors, paintings, and assorted plants and other decorations. After a short walk, the two passed one intersection, and after a few more steps, they could see the second intersection up ahead. Twilight turned around the corner and looked ahead for the double doors that would lead her to her friends. Although she couldn’t see the door to the pool, the smell of chlorine in the air was getting stronger. Before long they could hear the splashing of water and the muffled yells of several excited ponies. Spotting a pair of double doors with blurry glass panes in their upper sections, the two ponies smirked in achievement. They were ready to finally unwind and join their friends in actually enjoying their vacation for the first time. Opening the door made all of the noises in the room intensify as the two mares stepped into the pool area. They could see most of their friends scattered around in various areas of the pool enjoying themselves and playing around. Rarity and Glitterball were lounging around in the hot tub off in the corner of the room, Rainbow Dash was swimming around the deep end of the pool with Pinkie Pie and Sunspot, Fluttershy was sitting still in the shallow end of the pool while watching Spike and the crusaders play around, and Glimmer Shine was holding the side of the pool while idly kicking his legs and watching the others. “Hey, guys.” Twilight announced in a cheerful tone to get everyone’s attention. Once they heard the unicorn, everyone turned to see their newly arrived friends standing on the edge of the pool. “Twilight! Applejack!” Pinkie greeted the two mares eagerly. “It’s about time you two showed up!” Rainbow Dash added with a pleased smirk. Twilight chuckled slightly. “Sorry it took so long. This place is a lot bigger than it looks at first glance.” She said while looking around at her friends and taking in the sights and sounds of the pool. She couldn’t wait to get settled in and swim the rest of the day away. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on in, the water’s fine!” Pinkie said while motioning for the pair to join her in the pool. Applejack smirked playfully. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” She replied while rushing forward. She jumped into the middle of the pool in the nearest open spot she could find. The resulting splash caused by the orange mare made Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Glimmer Shine flinch their eyes shut as water flew in their faces. Once Applejack resurfaced, she blew water out of her mouth and adjusted to floating on her own. She exclaimed in surprise as she felt the cold temperature of the water jolting her system. The water was relatively warm after a few moments spent in it, but it was much cooler than the orange mare was initially expecting. “Hey, watch it.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight chuckle while blowing water out of her mouth and offering the cow pony a playful leer. “What’s the matter Rainbow? You’re already wet… a little more water couldn’t hurt.” Applejack replied while using her hoof to splash in the cyan mare’s direction. Rainbow Dash flinched again as the wave of water impacted her. “Oh… it’s on.” Rainbow said with a sly smirk. The pegasus splashed towards the orange mare as hard as she could. Before long, the two ponies were having an all-out battle between each other using water as their weapons. Even Pinkie Pie decided to join in by sending a wayward splash towards the two. Twilight smirked as she watched the group returning to their games and fun. She walked forward and stepped on the small stairway that led into the shallow end of the pool. Taking things slow, the unicorn placed a hoof into the water to see how warm it was. After a few moments of preparation, she walked forward and fully lowered herself into the pool. Before the unicorn could think about what to do next, she heard the sound of the door opening again. As she and the others turned around, they noticed their human friend walking into the room. Tom smiled as he saw the ponies gathered in one room enjoying themselves. “Tom! You finally made it!” Twilight greeted the human while slowly walking through the shallow end of the pool to reach the front. She paused in front of the pool’s edge and watched the human as he walked up to her. “Yep, Sparkplug and I just got done downstairs.” Tom said in a relieved tone. “So did you find anything?” Sunspot asked while swimming across the pool to see the human. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and everyone else in the room paused what they were doing and looked at the boy curiously as the subject of their trip was brought up. “Nothing too disconcerting… It looks like a few ghosts might be hiding downstairs somewhere. I couldn’t find out exactly where they were, though.” Tom explained while looking over to the three members of Spirit. “Sounds good… I suggest we take a look down there tomorrow to see if we can flush them out.” Glimmer Shine said while looking to his two teammates and the human to see their opinions on the matter. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Glitterball nodded while walking over to the side of the pool and sitting on the edge. The unicorn dangled her back legs into the water and paused while adjusting to leaving the hot tub and entering the relatively freezing pool. “Alright, now that that’s settled, why don’t you go get changed and join us, Tom?” Sunspot asked cheerfully while directing her attention to the human. Tom shook his head with a slight smile. “Nah… I think I’ll save the pool for another day. Besides, Sparkplug says that Berry will be going into town to get us all some food in an hour or so, and I would like to walk around and get a feel for the place before then.” He explained. “Aww, come on… you can’t just bring us on a vacation to a water resort and not swim in the pool with us!” Pinkie said in a disappointed tone while trying to coax the human into the water. “Yeah, that isn’t fair! We’ve been waiting forever to see you!” Scootaloo said in agreement with the others. “Please come and play with us…” Applebloom pleaded while pouting sadly at the human. The sight of the filly’s puppy dog eyes was enough to melt even the steeliest of hearts. Tom stared at the yellow filly and the others while trying to keep his determination. He looked over to Twilight and her friends for assistance, but they didn’t look like they could help him out. Finally, he shrugged in defeat as he returned his gaze to Applebloom pouting. “*Sigh* Alright fine, how about I join you guys after dinner? That way we can both be happy.” He suggested while glancing between the three fillies with a hopeful expression. “Yay!” Scootaloo and her two friends cheered in unison. Twilight and the others smiled as the fillies accomplished what they failed to do before. They hadn’t intended to guilt the human into joining them, but it all worked out in the end. “I’ll see you guys whenever dinner is ready.” Tom said with a brief wave while walking towards the door. Twilight and the others watched as the human stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him, leaving behind only the sounds of the pool and a few soft noises from someone swimming. A grand total of ten seconds went by without anything disturbing the serene atmosphere. Ten peaceful and unassuming seconds, which is also the time it took Rainbow Dash to climb out of the pool and take a few steps back. “Cannonball!” The cyan mare exclaimed loudly before jumping into the middle of the pool and tucking herself into a ball. The others barely had time to turn their heads before a wave of water splashed out in a circle. Everyone from the deep end to the shallow end got varying amounts of water splashed at them, which accomplished everything from providing an unpleasant splash to the face to completely covering them in water. Even Rarity managed to feel a few droplets spraying across the room and into the hot tub. Rainbow Dash gasped for air as she shot to the surface. After catching her breath, she looked around at her soaked friends and started laughing. Her laughs grew less and less prominent as she noticed several ponies glaring at her with upset expressions plastered on their faces. “Heheh… heh… a little water never hurt anyone… right guys?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while looking around at her friends and their annoyed faces. Just as abruptly as the pegasus leaped into the pool, Pinkie Pie splashed as much water as she could at the cyan mare. “Water fight!” Pinkie exclaimed loudly, only to be interrupted by Applejack sending another wave of water at her. The pink mare giggled cheerfully while splashing back. Before long, nearly everyone in the room was joining in with the mock battle. Water was flying everywhere and excited squeals filled the air as everyone continued enjoying themselves. The merriment and excitement made the time pass in the blink of an eye. One game shifted into another, and not long after that, another game was suggested to take its place. After a while, the group lost track of time completely as an hour came and went. The sound of the door opening drew everyone’s attention to the front of the room. They spotted a tan stallion that they immediately recognized to be High Tide walking into the area. He wasn’t wearing the white tank top and red swimming trunks that he was the first time the group saw him, though he still had a whistle around his neck. His cutie mark consisted of a red life preserver floating on a few ripples of water. “Hey, guys. I assume everyone’s having a good time?” High Tide asked with a slight smile while glancing around the room. “Yeah, we’re doing alright.” Rainbow Dash said while swimming over to the shallow end of the pool to casually rest. “You must be that lifeguard Berry told us about. It’s High Tide, right?” Twilight asked courteously while getting up to address the stallion. “Yep…. And you are?” High Tide asked curiously while glancing between the purple unicorn and the orange earth pony in the room. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight stated with a friendly tone. “And I’m Applejack.” Applejack added with a welcoming smile. “Nice to meet you,” High Tide replied with a brief nod before returning his attention to why he was there in the first place. “I hate to break up such a good time, but Berry just got back from town with some food. Are any of you guys hungry?” The tan pony asked curiously. Everyone paused suddenly as they felt their stomachs collectively rumble. Before, they hadn’t paid much attention to their appetites, but now that the subject of food was brought up, everyone felt hungry. “Hungry? I’m starving!” Rainbow Dash said eagerly while climbing out of the pool. She walked over to a nearby table and grabbed a towel to dry herself off with. “I must say, I could use a bite to eat as well.” Rarity chimed in while gladly accepting a towel thrown by the cyan mare. “I think we could all use a bite to eat.” Twilight stated while looking to the others for their opinion. Everyone nodded in agreement while making their way out of the pool. “Well once you all get dried off, I’ll take you over to the dining room.” High Tide suggested with a friendly smile while leaning up against the wall. “Thank you, darling, you’ve been incredibly helpful.” Rarity said with a coy smile. She eyed at the stallion in a fashion far more flirty than anyone else in the room was comfortable with, especially High Tide. The stallion avoided eye contact with the unicorn while rubbing the back of his head with a flustered expression. “Umm…” High Tide muttered awkwardly. “Well uh… we aim to please here at Fun Land.” He said with a nervous chuckle while desperately trying to ignore the white mare. The others couldn’t prevent themselves from giggling at his discomfort. After a few minutes of everyone reluctantly leaving the pool and getting dried off, they all gathered behind their appointed tour guide and followed him back out into the hallway. High Tide walked the group around the first floor until they finally reached the dining room. The entire area had blue and white checkered tile flooring. The walls were mostly white, with a stripe of similar checkered tiles running along the middle. There were rows of tables with blue tablecloth lined up, with several chairs at each table. At the back of the room, there was a window-like opening into the kitchen where a few plates were stacked neatly in piles. There was also a door to the right of the window that most likely led into the kitchen itself. To the left side of the room, there was a large stage area that had blue curtains concealing most of it. Poking out from behind the shaded area of the curtains, a drum set and mic stand could be seen. Streamers and other colorful decorations lined the top of the stage, and there were a few streamers placed in seemingly random locations throughout the room. Gathered around the opening to the kitchen, Berry Swirl and her employees were sitting around and waiting for everyone to show up. Even Tom was leaning up against a wall in anticipation. There was a stack of pizza boxes on the counter behind the purple earth pony, which was creating a pleasant odor that permeated the room. “It’s about time you guys showed up.” Sparkplug said with an anxious tone. “Did you get lost or something? I wouldn’t be surprised considering you’re following this guy around.” She said while walking up to High Tide and giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. “I can find my way around just fine thanks… I have been here longer than you after all.” High Tide replied while offering the gray mare a playful leer. “So now that we’re all here, who’s ready to eat?” Berry asked with a slight smirk while glancing around at the others. Judging by their expressions, the purple mare didn’t even need to ask the question. “I am!” Pinkie Pie stated eagerly while raising her hoof in the air. “We are too!” Scootaloo and her two fellow crusaders announced in unison. The three fillies were practically bouncing eagerly at the prospect of finally eating something. “Settle down guys, there is enough for everyone.” Berry Swirl said with an amused chuckle while turning around and grabbing one of the pizza boxes. “I hope you guys don’t mind pizza. We don’t really have a team of chefs right now.” She explained while laying each box out on the counter and opening them up. “Pizza sounds good to me.” Applejack stated while eyeing each different pizza eagerly. “Don’t worry Tom, I didn’t forget about you. I got a plain cheese pizza just for you.” Berry explained while nudging one of the boxes over towards the human. “Thanks.” Tom replied in a grateful tone while looking over to the other pizzas. Most of them had ingredients on them that he never even thought could be put on a pizza, let alone consumed by a human. “Alright everyone… grab a plate and help yourselves.” Copper Coil stated while rubbing his hooves together eagerly. With that said, everyone scrambled to grab themselves a plate and a piece of pizza. Once they got their selected pieces, the ponies walked across the room and settled down in one of the many chairs. Due to the high number of chairs per table, everyone was able to comfortably occupy two or three tables. Twilight sat together with her five fellow element bearers and Spike. Scootaloo and her two friends sat together next to Rarity and Applejack. Tom and Glimmer Shine’s team sat at the table next to the others. Meanwhile, Berry and her employees were scattered around the next table. “This is some pretty good pizza.” Spike said while taking a bite out of his piece. The others couldn’t help but agree with the dragon as they enjoyed their own meals. “God what I wouldn’t do for a piece of peperoni right now…” Tom muttered quietly while staring at his plain pizza. He enjoyed cheese as much as the next guy, but the drastic change in his diet was starting to get to him. While the human stared at his plate with a pitifully wanting expression, the others couldn’t help but giggle slightly. As time went on and everyone enjoyed their meal, Berry glanced over to Pinkie Pie with a curious expression. The pink mare was playfully laughing and telling jokes to cheer her friends up. She certainly hadn’t changed very much from when Berry first met her, but she never figured that she would be friends with a human and a team of monster hunters. “So, how long have you guys known each other?” Berry asked while glancing between Glimmer Shine’s team and Pinkie’s group of friends. “Going on a few months now I believe. It seems like forever ago.” Twilight answered while looking over to Tom and the team of ponies seated across from him. “I hear that you all did your fair share of fighting that cult of hooded ponies.” Copper Coil said with an impressed expression. “Well… I don’t mean to brag, but yeah… we did do a number on those guys.” Rainbow Dash replied with a cocky smirk. “It wasn’t originally our intention to get involved with fighting them, but they kind of forced our hoof.” Twilight said while thinking back to the attacks the hooded ponies made on Ponyville. “I’m glad none of you got hurt too badly. That must have been really dangerous… I mean, you could have died.” Silver Bell said in a timidly concerned manner. Everyone glanced to Twilight with uncomfortable expressions. It never occurred to them that the news wasn’t made public that one of them actually did die. Still, the mere thought made everyone, especially Twilight, uneasy. “Right, well… it’s a good thing that didn’t happen.” Rainbow Dash said while trailing off with an uneasy chuckle. “So anyway… how long have you guys known each other?” Pinkie asked curiously while looking around at Berry’s employees. “Well… Copper has worked for my family since my grandfather was building the resort, but everyone else has only been here for a few months.” Berry explained while glancing to her team of workers. “To be honest not much has changed since then… well, aside from finally getting the animatronics up and running.” Copper Coil said while thinking back to his previous stint of working at the park. “Hey, just be thankful that my grandfather did most of the work for you.” Berry said before turning to Twilight and the others. “It’s a good thing that we already knew how to make them from my grandfather’s work, otherwise, Sparkplug here would still be trying to get them running.” She added with a wry smirk. “Oh come on Berry, I’m not terrible or anything… I made Sparky from scratch after all.” Sparkplug said in an amused tone while waving off the purple mare’s jests. “Yeah, and we all know there’s nothing wrong with him.” Copper said with a slight chuckle, eliciting the others to bust out laughing. As she was eating, Rarity couldn’t help but look at Pinkie and Berry with a curious expression. They seemed like they were good friends, Pinkie’s policy on all of her friends notwithstanding, but the pink mare had barely said anything about her past with the park owner. “Say… Pinkie,” Rarity spoke up in an intrigued tone. “Hmm?” Pinkie looked over to the unicorn while still chewing a bite of her food. She finished masticating while her friend composed her words. “How did you and Berry meet?” Rarity asked while glancing over to the purple mare. “Well… it was a little while after I got my cutie mark. I was on a trip to town to get some more party supplies when I bumped into her in the store.” Pinkie explained. She furrowed her brow in thought as she tried recalling something. “I can’t really remember how we started talking… I think I was having some trouble with picking out something.” “It was streamers.” Berry chimed in. “You couldn’t make up your mind about what color streamers you wanted.” “Oh yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed in revelation. “You walked over and gave me your opinion. Now I remember.” She mentally chastised herself for forgetting such an important detail. Berry Swirl smiled as she pictured the event in her mind. “Yeah… me and my father were taking a trip to meet some other people in the entertainment business. I had just gotten my cutie mark for helping out around the park, so I wanted to go along. We stopped by the local party supply shop to take a look around when I found Pinkie having her dilemma. After that, we just sort of became friends.” She explained. “I’m sure Pinkie didn’t give you much of a choice.” Rarity added with a lighthearted smirk directed toward the pink mare. “After Berry left, she somehow convinced her father to offer me and my family a trip to the park for free, but things were too busy around the rock farm, so we had to say no.” Pinkie said with a slightly regretful expression. “But after that, I visited her at the park a few times before they closed down. I even got to help with some of their decorations and color schemes for one of their attractions.” She smiled warmly at the happy memories floating through her head. Rarity and the others couldn’t help but smile as they saw their friend recalling her past. Hearing the story of how the pair met only further cemented their belief that Pinkie left a trail of new friends wherever she went. After a few more minutes of talking and getting to know each other a bit more, everyone finished eating. Despite the large number of people present, everyone got their fill, with some even managing to somehow stuff themselves to the point of discomfort. “Ohhhh… my stomach.” Pinkie Pie groaned while leaning back and distancing herself from the pizza still on her plate. “You never did learn self-control when it came to pizza, did you Pinkie?” Berry asked with an amused chuckle as she watched the pink mare trying to soothe the sick feeling in her core. “No… I don’t think she learned it for sweets either.” Twilight added with a slight smirk while gathering up all of the empty plates on the table in front of her. She carried all of the plates over to the kitchen window and sat them down on the counter. “Thanks for dinner guys.” Glimmer Shine said while getting up and turning to Berry and the others. “Yeah, it was definitely one of the highlights of the day… even if Pinkie probably doesn’t think so right now.” Rainbow Dash said while giving the pink mare a playful tap on the shoulder. Pinkie groaned uncomfortably while curling up in her chair. “Speaking of highlights of the day, shouldn’t we be getting back to a pool or something?” Scootaloo suggested eagerly. The young pegasus and her two companions were all excited to get back to their fun and games, although they had different ways of showing it. “Wow… you don’t miss a beat, do you? Aren’t you worried about swimming so soon after eating?” Rainbow Dash asked in a jesting tone. Scootaloo tilted her head with a doubtful expression. “I’m pretty sure the whole waiting an hour before swimming thing isn’t real.” “Relax Scoots, I’m kidding. Besides, me and Tom will go with you.” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk while looking over to the human. “What have I told you about volunteering me up to be a chaperone Rainbow Dash?” Tom asked while offering the cyan mare a mildly annoyed expression. “Aww, come on Tom… you wouldn’t want to say no to that cute face would you?” Scootaloo asked while nudging Applebloom suggestively. Right on cue, the yellow filly produced the best pout she could muster and pointed it full force towards the human. Tom glanced to the pouting filly before averting eye contact and sighing. “Ok fine, I’ll go… no need to use your secret weapon on me… which by the way is not the reason why I am agreeing to this.” He said while shaking his head in denial with a slight smirk. “Yeah, yeah… let’s just head upstairs and change, tough guy.” Rainbow Dash chuckled slightly. “Anyone else want to join us?” She asked while looking around at her friends. “No thanks, I think I’m going to just head back down to the indoor pool and relax in the hot tub for a while.” Twilight said in a slightly tired tone. “I think that we’re just going to head up to our rooms and settle in a little bit.” Rarity said while glancing to Fluttershy and Applejack, who both nodded in return. “And I’m pretty sure we’re gonna need to walk Pinkie Pie back with us…” Applejack suggested while looking over to the pink mare. Pinkie was struggling to move a few steps without looking like she was going to throw up. “Sorry guys, but we’re going to pack it in for the day too. We need to finish getting our gear ready for tomorrow.” Sunspot shrugged in disappointment while looking over to her two teammates. As much as she wanted to enjoy herself, they did have a job to do after all. “Fine… suit yourselves, but we’re not going to waste any time on this vacation.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly. Scootaloo and her fellow crusaders grinned with excited expressions while the cyan mare and their human friend prepared to take them to have more fun. “Woohoo! I can’t wait to get back out there!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed while bouncing eagerly. “I get first dibs on whatever we decide to do!” Applebloom said in a resolute tone while grinning at her two friends. “Hey, no fair! That isn’t how this works!” Scootaloo stated in annoyance. She glared at the yellow filly in a semi-serious manner while waiting for her to retract her previous statement. “Yeah, it is… you can’t argue with the dibs system.” Applebloom replied with a smug expression. “Settle down girls. I don’t want to hear about any trouble when you guys get back, and I have it on good faith that Tom and Rainbow Dash will sell you out in a heartbeat.” Applejack said in a playful tone while still making her message clear to the fillies. “It’s true… I was notorious for being the tattletale in my family.” Tom added with a slight smirk. The three fillies shrugged before nodding and agreeing to act civil, at least for the time being. “Have fun you guys, we’ll see you later.” Twilight waved before taking Spike and walking out of the room. Everyone waved to each other briefly before walking, or racing eagerly, out of the room and heading to their respective destinations. After heading back to their rooms to change into fresh pairs of swimwear, Rainbow Dash and Tom escorted their three young followers through the resort to find something interesting to do for the rest of the day. Having already swum in a regular old fashioned pool, the cyan mare decided that it was time to explore the more exciting avenues of entertainment that the park had. “Wow Tom… I didn’t really take you for the floral pattern type.” Rainbow Dash stated in an amused tone while taking note of the swimming trunks the human had decided to pick. They were blue to match his usual attire, but they also had a spiraling pattern of flower shapes on them. “Hey, it’s not my fault I can’t go shopping for a wardrobe anywhere. I’m lucky to have anything other than that track outfit.” Tom said while trying to defend his pride to no avail. “Still… it looks a little weird, that’s all I’m saying.” Rainbow Dash replied while hiding a snicker. She looked behind her to see the trio of fillies giggling uncontrollably, much to the dismay of the human next to her. “I really need to be more adamant when I let Rarity make clothes for me… it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Tom shrugged while trying to ignore the hushed attempts of Scootaloo and the others gaining control of themselves. “Don’t worry Tom, she does that to all of us.” Rainbow Dash said with a smirk while giving the human a reassuring pat on the side. Tom sighed before shaking his head with a forced smile as he contemplated what to say the next time Rarity decided to enforce her designs on him. As they walked out of the building and into the park itself, the group was awestruck at all of the possibilities they had. There were numerous different pools dotted around the park of varying shapes and sizes that had water jets spouting out columns of the liquid that shimmered in the mid-day sun. There were also more than a few unique rides and attractions to garner the ponies’ attention, from raft rides to water slides and everything in between. There was even an endless wave ride that had a selection of surfboards and body boards to choose from. “Wow… Twilight was right. This place is way bigger than it looks.” Rainbow Dash said in an amazed tone. Tom nodded while looking around at all of the attractions. “I’m sure we’ll have time to go on every ride at least a handful of times. After all, we have all week.” “The question is which one do we go on now?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking around curiously. She wanted to make sure that her first pick was an exciting one, one that would get her blood pumping and her adrenaline flowing. This might not have been an actual amusement park, but that didn’t mean that the pegasus couldn’t indulge her inner thrill seeker. Finally, the cyan mare settled her eyes on a water slide off to the left. The slide itself was one of the tallest ones in the whole park from the looks of it. It started on a raised platform made to look like a small mountain, and it twisted around the decorative façade before stopping just above a pool built in front of the mountain. The pool looked like a decent enough place to swim, with water streaming out of hidden pipes in the mountain to create a makeshift waterfall at the edge, but the slide was what was capturing the pegasus’s attention the most. “I think I just found the perfect thing to do.” Rainbow Dash said in an eager tone while looking towards the large slide. As the three fillies looked over to where the cyan mare was looking, they were stunned into silence by the sheer sight of it. “Wow… that thing is big.” Sweetie Belle said in an amazed tone. “Alright! Let’s head over there!” Scootaloo suggested while scampering off in the general direction of the slide. Everyone followed the orange filly as she made her way forward. After a brief walk over to the decorative mountain, the group made their way behind it to a set of stairs leading up into a colorful enclosed area. Although there were guard rails, and the climb up wasn’t astronomically high, it was enough to elicit a slight feeling of anxiousness in the ponies, or at least the ones who couldn’t fly. Finally, the five made it to the top. They were standing in a small area with a covered roof above them that matched the color of the wall sections that prevented anyone from falling. Taking a look into the gaping red opening created by the slide, and peering over the edge to see where the slide would take them, some of the group started getting a little more nervous. “Ok… this is a lot higher up than I thought.” Sweetie Belle muttered in a nervous tone. “Don’t worry Sweetie Belle, you’ll be fine. We could always make Tom go first if you’re worried.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a devilish smirk while looking over to the human. “Oh, I see how it is… Make the immortal guy go first.” Tom said while hiding a twinge of nervousness in his voice. Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights?” “No… Maybe… Why does it matter?” Tom asked in an accusatory tone while trying to shift attention off of himself. “Alright, fine. You don’t need to go if you don’t want to.” Rainbow Dash said in a casual tone before turning away. The human shrugged uneasily as the cyan mare prepared to go down the slide first. He hated having his masculinity challenged by a sentient pony. “You know what? Move aside… let me show you how this is done.” Tom said in a determined tone while amping himself up and walking over to the entrance of the slide. The cyan mare backed up with a surprised expression as the boy sat down in a seemingly confident manner. “Are you sure about this?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. She noticed the human hesitate for a moment as he peered down the slide and let a small smirk creep across her face. “Oh yeah… sure… just let me prepare myself for a second an- WHOA!” Tom yelped in surprise as he felt a shove on his back sending him on his way. Rainbow Dash and the three fillies behind her watched and listened with mixtures of amusement and surprise as the boy zipped through the slide and looped around the mountain. Due to the size of the decoration, the ponies could hear Tom completing a loop every few seconds as his muffled yells got further or closer. Finally, the group saw their friend popping out of the opening at the bottom and splashing down into the pool. Tom resurfaced and sputtered as water flew everywhere. After ridding himself of the water around his mouth, he looked up to find the cyan mare and the three fillies looking down at him. He could barely see them due to a soaked strand of hair in his eyes, but the unimpressed expression on his face was clear. “Pfft… *snort*” Rainbow Dash held back from laughing hard as she looked down at the human. “How was it?” She asked while stifling a chuckle with her hoof. “Oh, it was tons of fun… why don’t you come down here and join me?” Tom raised his voice slightly to carry up to the ponies. The cyan mare could hear him contemplating to strangle her even from where she was standing. “Heheh… why don’t you go next Scoots? I think I’ll give him a minute to cool off before I head down there myself.” Rainbow Dash said while turning to the orange filly, who was eager to oblige her. “You don’t need to tell me twice,” Scootaloo said while rushing over to the slide opening and going down on her stomach. “Woohoo!” She exclaimed in an adrenaline fueled burst of excitement as she started looping around the slide. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle anxiously awaited their turns, for more reasons than one in the young unicorn’s case. After a couple hours of fun had passed, the sun was getting low in the sky and the light was fading. Although the three fillies protested, the cyan mare and her human companion decided to call it a day and head back inside. Once they found a few towels and dried off, the group headed straight back to the resort. “So how do you guys like the park so far?” Tom asked curiously to break up the silence as he walked along a path around the outside of the resort building with the ponies. The others had tired expressions on their faces, but they were also smiling contently from the excitement and fun they just had. “Are you kidding me? That was awesome! I can’t believe we get to stay here for a whole week!” Scootaloo stated with an excited grin. “Yeah, it was definitely the best way I’ve spent a vacation day in like forever.” Rainbow Dash said while chuckling slightly at the sight of the overenthusiastic fillies in front of her. However, there seemed to be something troubling at least one of the crusaders. “Hey, Tom… do you think those ghosts will be a problem? I don’t really want to see or hear anything scary…” Sweetie Belle said in a slightly nervous tone. Perhaps it was the sight of the sun setting and the park getting covered in darkness, but the young unicorn couldn’t stop thinking about the real reason she and the others were here. “Sweetie Belle, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Tom and the others won’t let anything scary happen to us on this trip.” Rainbow Dash stated in a reassuring tone while leveling with the filly. Still, she seemed to want to hear the human’s opinion on the matter before she felt more at ease. “Rainbow Dash is right Sweetie Belle. Those ghosts won’t be causing you any trouble.” Tom added with a confident tone of voice. “Really?” Sweetie Belle asked with a hint of uncertainty. “Yeah… everything will be fine. You’ll have all of us with you most of the time, and the ghosts aren’t even that strong anyway. I doubt you would even have a chance of hearing or seeing anything out of the ordinary all the way up on the third floor. Besides, we should have everything cleared out by tomorrow, so you don’t need to worry one bit.” Tom said in a lighthearted tone while offering the white filly a reassuring smile. “Ok… thanks. That makes me feel a lot better.” Sweetie Belle said while returning a soft smile to her face. The sight of the filly smiling made the others smile in return. “I think we should be getting back to our rooms now. I don’t know about you guys, but I am beat…” Rainbow Dash said while holding back a yawn, to no avail. Everyone quickly turned their attention to how late it was getting and how tired they felt. With a unanimous nod of agreement, the group started walking again and turned the corner that led to the front entrance. Soon enough, they would be heading upstairs and finding their way back to their rooms so they could finally get some sleep after the long day of fun and adventure they just had. Meanwhile, back upstairs, Twilight and Spike were settling in for the night as well. They were still awake, with the purple mare huddled up underneath the covers of her bed enjoying a book, and the young dragon brushing his teeth in the bathroom located just off the bedroom. The lights were dim in the suite save for a small lamp beside Twilight’s bed and the light coming through a crack in the slightly ajar bathroom door. Twilight looked up curiously as she heard something softly fall to the floor in the bathroom, followed by the sound of Spike groaning in annoyance. The unicorn wondered just how tired he must have been if he was knocking things over left and right. “Spike, are you almost done in there?” Twilight asked while raising her voice slightly to carry across the room. She immediately heard the sound of something else falling as the dragon yelped in surprise. “Um… yeah! Just give me a minute!” Spike replied while scrambling around, presumably to pick up all of the items he knocked over. The purple mare shook her head and sighed before returning to her book with a slight smirk. Hearing the sound of the door to the suite opening up in the other area, Twilight looked up to see who had entered. Through the small corridor into the living room area, the purple mare saw her human friend walking into view. “Hey Tom, how did it go with the others?” Twilight asked curiously while sitting up in bed and setting her book down. “It was alright... we had a lot of fun.” Tom said while walking into the bedroom area. Just as the human made his way into the room, Spike walked out of the bathroom and nearly bumped into him. “Oh! Hi, Tom… sorry, I should probably watch where I’m going more.” Spike said with an awkward chuckle. “Words to live by.” Tom replied with a slight smirk while heading into the bathroom and closing the door again. After a few moments, he walked back out clad in his usual blue track outfit. “I think I’m going to head to bed. I need to be up early to start investigating the basement with Glimmer Shine and the others.” Tom said while walking over to the bed furthest to the left and climbing in. Spike and Twilight both yawned tiredly as they thought more about going to sleep themselves. “Yeah, I think I’m going to bed too.” Spike said while walking over to the bed next to Twilight and hopping up. “Me too,” Twilight added while setting her book on the night table next to her and shutting off the lamp. “Night guys… see you tomorrow.” She said while cozying up under the blankets and laying her head back on her pillow. “Night…” Spike and Tom said in unison while already face deep in their own pillows. The peaceful atmosphere combined with the comfort of their luxurious beds to ensure that the three would sleep deeply. Twilight could already feel her mind hazing and her body relaxing. In no time at all, she would be soundly asleep, and she would most likely wake up in the morning wishing that she could sleep in for once. However entertaining the thought might have been, the young dragon and her human friend would hardly let the unicorn live down being so lazy. Still, the musings that were drifting through her mind were gradually becoming more unfocused as she fell deeper into sleep. .. … ….. *Tap* *Tap* A soft knocking sound suddenly broke the silence in the air. Twilight lifted her head up and looked around the dark room to find the source of the noise. Her head felt hazy, and her senses had yet to return to her in full, but she quickly deduced that someone was knocking on the door in the other area of the suite. “What the…? Who would even be up this late?” Twilight asked while glancing over at the clock on the wall. Perhaps it was too dark, or perhaps she was sleepier than she thought, but she couldn’t clearly make out the time. Still, judging from her pitch black surroundings, she gathered that it was very late. *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* The knocking sounded again, confirming the purple mare’s suspicions and informing her that whoever was at the door didn’t care about whether or not she and her friends were sleeping. Working on pure curiosity and muscle memory, Twilight pulled back her covers and stepped out of bed. Taking a look to her right, she saw that Tom and Spike were still fast sleep under their blankets. Not wanting to disturb them, she decided to go and answer the door herself. As she slowly walked through the pitch black bedroom and felt her way into the adjoining entryway that led into the living room area, she looked around with a slight feeling of nervousness inside of her. The foreign surroundings of the resort suite looked beautiful in the day, but without the light to bathe them in vibrant colors, the sights around the unicorn were slightly unnerving to behold. To think that anything was lurking ahead of her in the darkness was absurd, to say the least, but given her experiences with what lurked in the dark in the past, the thought still remained in her head. The knocking happened for a third time, this time with a more hurried pace. Twilight heard a faint and muffled giggle coming from the door. Judging from the high pitch of the voice, she figured that it belonged to a young filly. “Ugh… I really hope Scootaloo isn’t pulling a prank… I just got to sleep.” Twilight muttered in an agitated tone while walking up to the door and looking out of the peephole. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness by now, so she could see through to the other side. However, she couldn’t see anyone standing outside of the door. The unicorn fumbled her hooves over the latch on the door to silently unlock it. She then opened the door up and peered outside. There was nothing but the empty hallway and the overbearing sound of silence waiting to greet her. It was so quiet that Twilight could actually hear the sounds of the building settling softly echoing in the corridor. As peaceful as it might have been, the silence troubled the purple mare as she looked around for whoever had knocked on the door. “Hello? Is anyone out here?” Twilight whispered while looking around once more. All of the doors to the other rooms were closed and most likely locked, offering a strong hint that everyone was asleep except for her. As she went back in her head to see if she imagined the noise, she quickly discarded this thought due to the repetition of the knocks and how vivid they were. Just as she was about to give up and head back inside, a blur of motion caught Twilight’s eye. She turned just in time to see a small shape darting around the corner at the far end of the hallway. From what information she could gather before the shape disappeared, she estimated it to be a young filly with white fur. “Hey, wait up!” Twilight called out instinctively before hushing herself and looking around anxiously. She looked back to her room and contemplated going to get Tom, but she didn’t want to wake him. Besides, by the time she returned with the human, the filly would most likely be gone. Prank or no prank, the unicorn was about to find out what was going on. Twilight gently closed the door behind her and trotted down the hallway. She lit up her horn slightly to light her way, and she tried her hardest to go as fast as possible without making much noise. Once she turned the corner, she saw the filly again, if only for a brief moment. The filly was darting around the corner at the far end of the hall again, though this time Twilight got a better look at her. Although she didn’t get much of a look at her, the thing that troubled the purple mare the most was that the filly looked nothing like Sweetie Belle, or any of the crusaders for that matter. Racing to follow the mysterious filly, Twilight turned around the corner and kept going. Now that she was away from the general area that her friends were sleeping in, she started running a little faster to catch up with the filly. The purple mare looked ahead down the next hallway, only to find no traces of the white filly. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she picked up her pace and rushed to make it through the hall so she could hopefully catch up. As she turned the next corner, Twilight stopped when she saw nothing but darkness greeting her again. “Ugh… I lost her.” Twilight shrugged while looking around. There were stairs leading down to the lower floors to her left, and the hallway had a few forks in it further up ahead. All of these openings combined with the fact that any of the numerous rooms down the hall could be unlocked meant that the filly could be in dozens of places by now. Just before she gave up hope that she would find the strange filly again, Twilight heard a soft giggling coming from the stairway. As she walked over and looked over the railing, she was surprised to see the filly all the way down on the first floor. Right as the unicorn made eye contact with the filly, she darted out of view off to the left side of the stairs. “Wait!” Twilight called out before sighing. “I can’t believe I’m chasing after a kid I don’t even know… what is she even doing here?” She muttered pensively while trying to figure out what the young girl was doing. Why did she knock on the door to the purple mare’s room? Why was she running away? And why was she seemingly waiting for her to catch up? Despite all these puzzling thoughts, Twilight had to keep moving to find the filly and ask her for some answers. Descending the stairs all the way to the first floor, Twilight looked around to find any sign of the filly. As expected, the purple mare found her poking her head around the corner at the far end of the hall. Also as expected, the filly darted her head back around the corner as soft footsteps rang out. Without so much as pausing, the unicorn started walking down the hall at a calmer pace. Whatever the filly was doing, she wanted Twilight to follow her. As she followed the filly through the winding hallways of the resort, Twilight looked around at the familiar sights she had seen during her tour earlier in the day. She passed by the front desk, walked down a few more hallways, and into the employees only section. Even though she seemed to be going down the same path Berry had used to find Sparkplug, the unicorn was slightly unsettled at how dark and foreboding it was. The employee areas of the resort were only gray, lacking any of the comforting colors that pervaded the public areas. The lonely hallways were only made more lonely and eerie by the fact that Twilight’s footsteps were echoing slightly against the thinly carpeted floors. It almost felt like she was being followed, however silly the thought might have been. Strangely enough, she couldn’t actually hear the filly’s footsteps at all, even though she could see her running ahead of her. Twilight looked around and quickly realized that the filly was leading her into unknown territory. This fact was further cemented as she turned a corner and saw the strange girl walking into a door that looked like a stairwell and heading down, presumably into the basement. The purple mare gulped nervously as she walked over to the stairs and paused. She hadn’t been to the basement in her tour, but she knew that Tom and the others would be investigating the area as their primary pick for where the ghosts were. Swallowing any fear she had and focusing on her curiosity, the unicorn walked down the steps and continued following the filly through the basement. Although the basement looked similar in every way possible to the upstairs employee areas, knowing that it was haunted somehow made it infinitely more eerie and disturbing to the purple mare. Twilight stopped wondering what the filly wanted with her and started worrying about it. She had a sneaking suspicion as to why a strange filly suddenly appeared in the middle of the night and decided to lead her down to a secluded basement away from her friends when ghosts were involved. Finally, as she turned another corner, Twilight paused as she saw the filly sitting in the middle of the corridor. She seemed to have no problems with being in total darkness, even to the point of sitting in between two open doors that led into only more blackness. Now that the unicorn could actually get a better look at the strange filly, she could see her appearance in full. The filly had white fur with blonde hair, and although she was looking at the floor, Twilight could just barely see that she had yellow eyes as well. Due to the fact that she didn’t have a cutie mark, the filly must have been incredibly young, possible even around the age of the cutie mark crusaders. “Hello? Is this where you wanted to take me?” Twilight asked in a soft tone. “What’s your name? Do your parents know you are here?” She continued while slowly walking toward the filly. As the purple mare stepped forward, the white filly raised her head to look up at her. She had a concerned, almost fearful expression on her face, which completely caught the unicorn off guard. “Help me…” The filly spoke in a timid tone. Her voice sounded slightly distorted and faint. “Help you…? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked with a hint of hesitation in her voice as she heard the odd distortion coming from the filly. She didn’t want to assume the filly was a ghost before, but now it was the only thought forefront in her mind. Still, not all ghosts were evil or powerful, so perhaps the filly really did need her help with something. The filly turned her head and looked behind her. She adopted a sadder expression as she looked at the fork at the end of the hallway, particularly the left side of it. She turned back to face the purple mare and avoided eye contact with her. “I just want to go home.” The filly said in a pleading tone. A loud clanging noise erupted from behind her, causing Twilight to jump out of her skin in fright. She whipped her head around to see a small pipe rolling out into the hallway, presumably coming from a storage closet on the right. As she turned back to look at the filly again, the unicorn widened her eyes as she saw nothing but the dark hallway greeting her. “Hello? Little girl…? Are you still here?” Twilight asked, barely managing to hide the fear in her voice. Now that she was truly alone, she felt chills going up and down her body. The eerie atmosphere of the basement was all she had left to focus on, and she wasn’t even sure if she remembered the way back upstairs. Suddenly, a deep and distorted laugh echoed down the hallway. The disturbing sound immediately froze the purple mare in place from fright. Every fiber of her being told Twilight to flee from whatever was making the noise, but it was almost impossible to even tell which direction it was coming from. Before she thought her heart would explode, another sound broke the eerie silence of the basement. What seemed to be mechanical clicks and heavy footsteps were walking toward Twilight from up ahead. As she looked forward with chattering teeth and amped nerves, she was surprised to see a pony shaped silhouette coming into view. Soon enough, the silhouette came into the light and revealed itself. The dark shape was actually one of the resort’s animatronics, namely a brown bear with a top hat and a mic clutched in its paw. “Freddy? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked in a confused tone as she recognized the bear. The animatronic didn’t reply to her, instead opting to stand silently and stare at her with its unblinking eyes. The distorted laugh made its presence known again, seemingly fading in and out of existence at will. However, the laugh was a lot closer than it was before. In fact, if Twilight didn’t know any better, she would have thought that the laugh was coming from the animatronic bear. “I’m getting out of this place… Freddy, can you please show me the way upstairs?” Twilight asked, hopeful that the bear could understand her instruction. Freddy started moving forward with sluggish and deliberate movements. Instead of moving around the unicorn to show her the way out of the basement, he continued moving toward her without looking away. Twilight backed up a few steps, but the animatronic kept walking closer to her. After backing up some more, the unicorn grew slightly concerned as to the odd behavior of the robot. “Freddy, what are you doing?” Twilight asked nervously. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t stop looking at the bear’s empty and lifeless eyes. The cheerful façade of the smiling face plastered on Freddy only made the fact that he was staring at her more disturbing. A low moaning sound started coming from Freddy as he continued stepping forward. The sound didn’t have the robotic distortion that Bonnie had when he spoke. It somehow sounded organic, like it was being made by an actual pony. Twilight tried to turn around and run, but she immediately hit the wall behind her and ran out of room. Before she could try running to the side, Freddy picked up his pace slightly and caught up with her. If she tried to move, the animatronic would move slightly in that direction, silently telling her that fleeing wasn’t a good idea. As a firm feeling of terror cemented itself into the purple mare, she looked down and noticed the bear raising its free paw up slowly. Twilight watched the paw approach her until it was resting on her shoulder. She tried to move again, only to be forcibly held down by the oppressive strength of the bear. “Stop it… let me go!” Twilight cried while struggling to break free. “Freddy, sleep mode!” She yelled while thinking back to how Sparkplug deactivated the animatronics. Much to her dismay, the command did nothing to stop the bear from pressing on her. Twilight looked back up at the bear’s face as she tried to process what was happening. She recoiled slightly in horror as she noticed something she hadn’t before. Freddy’s eyes had glowing silver dots in their center. The burning white lights held a sort of overwhelming sensation that made the unicorn’s heart skip a beat. Whatever the thing in front of her was, it wanted to hurt her. The unicorn watched with her body trembling and her eyes wide with fear as the robotic bear opened its mouth slowly. The blocky dull teeth didn’t look like they would be very painful, but even they could crack a bone with the strength of a metal endoskeleton behind them. “AHHH!!” Twilight screamed fearfully as Freddy darted toward her with his mouth opened wide. A different scream carried over hers, one that sounded like a robotic screech and a child screaming mixed into one. A flash of red filled the unicorn’s vision, followed by nothing but blackness. “Gah!” Twilight yelped while jerking upwards. Her heart was racing and her breathing was heavy, but the most troubling thing was the pitch blackness in front of her. As she slowly looked around and felt her surroundings, she noticed that she was sitting on her bed back in the hotel room. As she felt the covers on her bed, her shoulder, and her face in a panic fueled rush, she tried to slow her thoughts down to see what was happening. Taking a look over to the side, she saw Tom and Spike still sleeping in their beds amidst the darkness of the room. “A… dream?” Twilight muttered to herself quietly while still trying to calm her racing heart. “It was a dream? But… but… it felt so real.” She said while shuddering slightly at the terrifying thoughts still buzzing around her head. The feeling of panic from her apparent dream was still present. The sound of the animatronic screaming and the sight of its eerie white eyes were also still vivid in her mind. The longer she looked around the dark hotel room, the more her nerves and primal fears got to her. Twilight laid her head back and pulled the covers closer to her while closing her eyes. Despite having her eyes closed, she stayed awake due to the fear she felt. The peaceful ambiance of the room and the soft sound of her young assistant and her human friend breathing were slowly calming the unicorn’s nerves. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about her dream. She tried relaxing again and focusing on falling asleep, but somehow she knew that she would have a hard time getting a good night’s rest now.