"I think he's waking up."

I groggily opened my eyes to find myself in a bright room with blurs of color surrounding me. As my vision unclouded, I realized the blurs were Twilight and her friends...my friends. I could see Pinkie Pie beaming in the corner of my eye.

"Morning sleepyhead."

"Mornin'," I said, rubbing my face with my hooves. "Where am I?"

"You're in a hospital," Twilight explained. "You've kinda been out of it for three days."

"Three da-?"

THUD.

Everypony looked over to where the sound had come from. On the other side of the window was a bird-a white phoenix.

Fluttershy was the first to comment. "Oh my, what a beautiful bird."

"Could someone open the window to let her in?" I asked, as I noticed the bird had something in its claws.

"You know this bird?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she's mine. Her name is Moonstar. I'm guessing she has a letter for me from Canterlot."

The bird quickly flew in and dropped the parcel on my lap as Twilight opened the window, then quickly landed near my side. I opened the letter after petting Moonstar.

Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce The Hearths Warming Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 27th day of December and cordially extends an invitation to Prince Sun Light plus one guest.

The girls looked at me expectantly.

"Would you care to tell us what it says, darling?" Rarity asked.

"Apparently, I have an invitation to the Hearths Warming Gala as well as another for somepony. Anypony want a ticket?"

Everypony shook their heads.

I sighed and handed the extra to Moonstar. "Take it back, Moon."

Everyone except Twilight looked shocked.

"Don't you have somepony to give it to? A friend or a special somepony?" Rarity asked.

"Most of my friends are dead. And the ones who are still alive will most likely have plans that day anyway. As for a special somepony, never had one."

Rarity's eyes widened. "Ever?"

"Why do you all look so shocked?"

"Well, it's just that we figured that a pony of your looks would have attracted somepony."

I shrugged. "Guess I just haven't struck anypony's fancy."

Twilight rolled her eyes. Luckily, she was in the back of the room near Fluttershy, so nopony appeared to notice.

Yeah, yeah... You know it's a line of shit. But I don't want these girls to know who I really am. I don't want them to think of me any differently.

"Well, well… Look who I have here."

I silently swore as a white coated mare with a pink mane entered the room. "Hello, Redheart."

The white mare smiled. "I'm actually surprised to see you here, Sun. How's the wing?"

"My wing is fine, Redheart," I said, slightly annoyed. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard my favorite patient was in the hospital, so I thought I'd check up on him," she said before her face lit up. "Oh, got something for you. I had wanted to mail it to you, but since you here…" Nurse Redheart walked out of the room and soon returned with a small package.

"Here," she said, giving me the package. "It's a scented candle."

I nodded and noticed I had pairs of eyes staring at me.

"Wellllllll, what are you waiting for?" Dash asked impatiently.

Pinkie asked, "Aren't you going to ask her?"

"Ask me what?"

I sighed. "Do you have any plans for the twenty-seventh? Because I have an extra ticket for the Hearths Warming Gala, if you want it," I offered.

"As fun as that sounds, I have to work on that day," she replied." I better get back to work. It was good to see you again."

Redheart left and the room went silent for a few minutes.

"She seemed...nice," Fluttershy whispered.

"So, how did you and Ms. Redheart meet?" Rarity asked. "You two seemed close."

"I got injured a few years ago and she happened to be on duty."

Twilight started to glare at me.

I questioned her expression. "What?"

"Why didn't you tell her about what happened?" Twilight asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid. Why didn't you tell her about the dreams?" she inquired.

"I didn't think it was necessary," I replied, shrugging.

"Not necessary?!" she repeated angrily, her eyes widened. "You collapsed on my floor and were out cold for three whole days, and you think that it was not necessary?"

I scooted away from her slightly. "Maybe?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and facehoofed, groaning.

"What dreams?" Pinkie asked.

I sighed. "I've been getting some screwed up dreams since I came here. Twilight thinks I should talk to somepony about them."

"And he keeps refusing to talk to someone about them," Twilight replied.

AJ gave me a questioning look. "Why haven't you told anypony?'

I shrugged.

"They're dreams. What harm can they do?"

Twilight's widened with rage. "Gee, I don't know… What if you were flying really high and you did what you did in the library? This could kill you!"

"Who the he-" I started to say as I noticed a filly starting to walk by. "-ay would I talk to, Twi?"

"You could always talk to Princess Luna," Twilight suggested.

"Hehehe...Not happening."

"Why not?"

"Well, for whatever reason, she hasn't ever been able to get inside my head, and I'd prefer to keep it that way," I replied. "And I'm sure she has more important things to deal with other than my dreams."

"Yeah, well, these 'dreams' of yours are beginning scare me," Twi said. "I could maybe understand if it happened every once in a while. But every night for the past couple weeks seems highly unlikely."

"Well, who the hell am I supposed to talk to, Twi? The dreams aren't all that bad."

"I'm not so much concerned about the dreams as I am for your well-being," Twilight responded. "Because I could at least understand if your brain just used these dreams as a coping mechanism for what you saw in Saddle Arabia. But you collapsing is dangerous."

"And I'm not the only one who's concerned," she continued." The others are as well."

I sighed as I started to gaze out the nearby window. "I-"

To my astonishment, I saw a creature dressed in black clothes standing on a branch outside the hospital window.

A human?

The human had blonde hair that reached slightly past her shoulders, with a black cloth covering her right eye. Her skin seemed very pale, almost like porcelain. The one eye I could see appeared to be a shade of violet, but because of the distance, I couldn't be certain. She smiled at me, and put a finger against her lips. She then turned and…

I saw the shaedravun mark on her right forearm, just as she jumped off the branch.

"No!" I rushed toward the window.

The girls must have thought I was going to jump out the window, because Dash, Twilight, and Applejack grabbed me just as I reached the window. To be more accurate, AJ grabbed my tail with her teeth, Twilight grabbed my body with telekinesis, and after Dash saw me still moving, she grabbed my tail as well.

"The hell are you thinking?!" Twilight screamed. "Fluttershy, get a nurse before he kills himself!"

I reached the window, and looked below to find...nothing. No body, no blood on the ground, just… nothing.

"What the fuck?" I whispered.