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// Night terrors 
// Story: A time of sadness 
// by Slick Dash 
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I stand in the darkness once again, my blue coat stands out bright against the black that surrounds me. How? What light is there to point me out? I look around for the source, there isn’t anything. I’m all alone in the black and cold. Echoes of that night faded in and out of my head once again, the screeching tires, the metal scraping and grinding, and soon enough Toms scream. 

For the first time, I wasn’t scared of the noises I merely let them wash over me. I knew they would pass soon enough and the nightmare would end, leaving me back in my home, in the world where Tom no longer existed. I waited, but the black didn’t dissolve and the noises didn’t persist, there was only darkness and quiet all around me.

I heard a loud clunk from behind me, why did it sound familiar? Then there came a loud slam, as metal shut against metal. I knew that sound! I whirled around, and saw two large lights shining straight at me, they blurred my vision making it impossible to discern the cause of the noise. Then something moved over one of the light’s and partially blocked the other.

At first it was merely a blurred shape, but as my eyes became accustomed to the bright light, the shape began to take form. It was tall, stood on two legs, and had two arms that hung lazily by its sides. I stared at the figure, I couldn’t speak. I knew this was a dream, and yet this was different from all the others. The other nightmares had been based on the past and what had happened that night. This was entirely new. “Well, glad to see you’re getting over me so well huh?” The figure chuckled at the sarcastic comment, the lights (Which I now knew to be headlights) vanished from sight, and simply left the figure there, now illuminated in the same way I was.

“Come here ‘You dummy’” Tom said, as he dropped to a knee and spread his arms out to me. I cried with joy and ran to him. Diving into his embrace, I pushed my muzzle deep into his chest. He was wearing the blue shirt, and his coat that still smelled of berries after all this time. That was the only thing that told me I was still dreaming, he would never have that shirt. It still lay on our bed in our house back in the real world.

“I am so proud of you baby.” He combed his finger through my mane gently. “You’ve worked so hard to keep everything right.” That wasn’t true, I had done barely anything out of my grief. I hadn’t flown, changed the weather, or even helped with Tom’s funeral. I hadn’t worked hard, so why did he say I had? “It’s only a few days until when we should have been together for a year, you know.” His tone was odd, I’d never heard it like that before. “Do you want this feeling of anger and remorse to be with you when that day finally arrives?” He sounded urgent, I nodded into his chest. I didn’t speak a word in case it broke the spell and he disappeared again.

“I didn’t think you would, we both know the truth. You need to show the others what happened as well. I don’t know how, but you need to and it needs to be before you meet Luna. If you don’t you’ll be facing her alone.” I looked up at Tom’s kind face, his voice showed concern for my well being but his words confused me. Confident that the warmth in his embracing arms wouldn’t disappear, I asked him.
“Facing her?” He smiled at my confusion.
“We both know what you’re like. When you get an idea in your head it’s pretty damned hard to get it out. You know just as well as me, that when you see Princess Luna you’re going to lose it! you’ll want to fight her, so you can help me (And you) find peace.” 

I guessed that made sense, the rage I had felt when I read of Luna wanting to ‘help’ had been nothing I’d ever felt before, but then again I hadn’t ever suffered such loss until now either. The mare who killed the man I loved would be within striking distance, how could I not act on that? I squeezed Tom’s arm tighter, not wanting him to leave. He took it as my understanding of what he was asking me. He kissed my head tenderly,
“That’s my girl. It’s up to you, you can tell the girls. Or you can do this by yourself... but it’ll be a lot harder if they try to stop you.” And almost like a reflection on a lake, his image began to distort and ripple away into the dark. 

His touch vanished and I fell to the floor, no longer leaning on anyone. I was alone again. In the dark and cold of my nightmare’s. My eyes opened, the ceiling of my bedroom hung above me with no change to it at all. I looked to my left and saw Tom’s face smiling back at me stupidly from the picture. I looked back up to the ceiling and sighed. The girl’s wouldn’t believe me, the only one who could stop Nightmare Moon was me! Hopefully we would go straight to the library after meeting Celestia in the throne room. With any luck Princess Luna wouldn’t be there to begin with. I could slip away from the group then. And find her. Tom would rest in peace soon; I’d make sure of that! 

There was a knock on the door, “Rainbow? You ready to go? The carriage is here and we’re just waiting for you. It’s about time we caught this pony! They need to pay for what they’ve done!” It was Twilight, I chuckled dryly at her words. She had no idea how right she was! It was time to make sure Luna paid for Tom’s death in full!