//------------------------------//
// Rainbow Dash -- Return 
// Story: Projected Nightmares 
// by bearcat 
//------------------------------//

 Rainbow Dash bolted awake only to find the disembodied, bony hoof tentacles were sitting on her face in this dream too! But her blanket was too heavy and her mind too fuzzy from the transition out of sleep to escape.

But the claws withdrew, and a rumbling voice called softly. "Dash. Rainbow Dash. You are awake, Rainbow Dash. Awake, Dash. You are awake."

Somewhere in there she realized that it was Jack, calling her name. It was his hand (just his hand, nothing more sinister) that had been across the only part of her that was not covered by the fur blanket. Trying to get her breathing under control, she asked hastily "What in tarnation's hay was that pile of sugar?"

Her swearing probably didn't make sense, but she could see Jack's quiet smile, and between a friend's face -- if not the friendliest she'd seen at least she knew him somewhat -- and the warmth of her bedding she found her heart rate descending to safer levels.

"There was a third, in your head, Rainbow Dash." The sergal was laying on his chest, to reach across the bedding so as to touch her without laying too close. Now he was raising his chest, and bringing his feathered rump closer. Again, his rumbling voice. "You are in desperate need of sleep, and I can offer some protection against that interloper. If my touch does not offend you, I will lay a hand to your neck, and you may sleep again."

Rainbow wasn't thrilled about the shift in circumstances but she hadn't had more than half a night's sleep and she had heard ponies went crazy if they couldn't sleep. So she grunted a reply, pulled the blanket down so some of her neck was bare too, and put sleeping here down to sleep deprived insanity.

It took ten minutes or more for her heart to let her think about slowing to slumber mode, but she didn't wake again for any reason she could remember over the next nine hours.