Post Author's Note:

Hey guys!

It's a bit late, but I finally finished chapter 8.

You guys know the drill, yada yada yada, HERE'S CHAPTER 8!

Chapter 8:

Everything is calm. The grass and dandelions of the field are swaying idly in the wind. The warm summer breeze ran softly through my mane, and the serenity of it all was almost too much to bear. I found myself lost in the never-ending field of flowers of sunshine. It was almost too good to be true. I trotted around a bit simply enjoying the flowers company and I rolled around in the greenest grass one can imagine. While playing around, I saw a hooded figure standing in the distance turned away from me. He resembled somepony I had seen earlier… Could it be? The pony from the weather facility?

"Sir, are you lost?" I shouted.

Silence.

"Hey! You there?" I yelled.

He just kept standing there, unfazed by apparently anything at all.

I trotted over to the figure, who apparently didn't like talking too much and said again,

"You there?"

Still nothing.

I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "DUDE, what is wro-"

He whipped around knocking me over to the grass.

"HEY! WHAT gives...Rainbow?" I said as I suddenly realized the figure was Rainbow, although she looked absolutely INSANE. Her pupils were dilated and her smile was huge and thin.

"Wha- what happened to you?" I said backing away slowly. The sky went black and the clouds above began to swirl and thunder and lightning began to boom about the sky.

Lightning struck nearby, and I turned away as the brightness was too much for my eyes to bear, and when I turned back, the hooded figure wasn't Rainbow anymore.

IT WAS LIGHTNING! WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON?!

Lightning stood over me with that same look of insanity on Rainbow's face, and looked as if he was about to bash my skull, but instead, he said, "STORM RUNNER! WAKE UP!"

I looked at him in confusion, and suddenly everything began to fade, and I slowly opened my eyes.

I glanced around, head pulsing, and made out the REAL Lightning and Rainbow Dash, although we were no longer in the cave, we were outside in the forest still.

"You okay buddy?" Lightning said.

"Mmm…Yeah. I just had the weirdest dream…what happened? How did we escape the cave?" I asked, filled with questions.

"Well, after you soared through the gate you tumbled around and went unconscious. I stopped holding the gate just in time to stop the boulder behind it. After, there was kind of a staircase leading up and out of the place, so with the help of Rainbow, I lifted you on my back, and carried you up the stairs." Lightning finished.

"Wait, Rainbow wasn't knocked unconscious? I thought she was on my back. Is she okay?" I asked concerned.

"Yeah, she went out for a little walk through the woods. She was pretty concerned about you, having saved her life and all." Lightning said.

"But how did she take the crash landing?" I asked.

"Oh, well, she kind of bounced off your back on the first tumble and landed relatively safely on your back again. After you had finished rolling about of course." Lightning said laughing a little.

I felt my head and realized that there were bandages there.

"Who did this?" I asked pointing to my head.

"Rainbow did." Lightning said. "She said it would be returning the favor after you wrapped her wing"

"Hmm. Okay" I said.

"Oh, and Rainbow carried that gem up here, so we still have it in case you were wondering."

Lightning said.

I simply sat there, now feeling the places where I had been scratched or bruised in the crash landing and I felt tired. I pondered the dream I recently had and began wondering about the hooded figure we had met on that fateful day in weather facility. Who was he? Would we ever see him again? Would we ever see anyone again? All these questions shot through my head faster than the Wonder bolts. I now had a determination to make it home again and bring justice to that…pony.

I got up and decided that we should go find Rainbow and move out. It looked like it was midday, and I figured we would be able to make good distance by the time night fell.

I got Lightning, and we set out to find Rainbow. She couldn't have gone far. After trotting around looking for her, we came through a little clearing and found a huge expanse of pink little flowers that looked prettier than roses, and in the center was a fast asleep Rainbow Dash.

"Doesn't Rainbow usually take naps later on in the day?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I guess she was a bit tired. That's all." I said.

We started to trot towards Rainbow through the pretty pink flowers, and I noticed I was getting a bit drowsy myself.

I yawned and said, "Hey, Lightning. You feeling tired?" I yawned again.

"Now, that you think of it, I do feel pretty tired." Lightning said yawning as well.

We walked further into the flower patch and the more we went on, the more tired we got.

"Hey Storm, I think I'm gonna take a little nap." Lightning said as he began to lie down in the flowers.

"Yeah bro, I think I will too…wait a second. Why are we all getting so tired? It's only the afternoon… Wait, oh crap. You don't think these flowers are enchanted somehow do you?

"Um, I don't care, I just really wanna sleep." Lightning said as he closed his eyes.

"SCREW YOUR SLEEP!" I shouted startling him a bit. "We need to go get Rainbow and get outta here before we all go to sleep forever!" I yawned a bit.

Lightning got up after hearing this, and we both started trotting groggily towards the sleeping Rainbow Dash. We both started tripping up a bit about halfway there, but we were making progress. It seemed that the intensity of the flower's magic grew stronger as you went towards the center.

We finally arrived half asleep, and Lightning used all the strength he could possibly muster just to lift Rainbow on my back, which should have been an easy task for him. I trotted and fell a few times under the weight of Rainbow, and I transferred her to Lightning at the halfway mark.

Finally, we made it out and we walked a few feet before Lighting and I lied down, and Rainbow rolled over softly off my back and into the thick, plush grass of the Everfree.

"Phew. That was pretty close." I said to Lightning.

"Yeah. I like to sleep a lot, but I'm pretty sure a life-time is more than enough for me." Lightning said jokingly.

"All right, lets wake up Rainbow and set out to get out of this Celestia forsaken land…" I said.

I nudged Rainbow's shoulders, and she awoke with a yawn.

"Hey guys." Rainbow said tiredly. "What'd I miss?" She said smiling.

"Well, you missed falling asleep for an eternity, we made sure of that." Lightning said,

"Wait, what? What do you mean eternity?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, I believe you fell asleep in a patch of enchanted flowers that could have had you sleeping for centuries." I told Rainbow.

"Well, I don't think I'm going to be needing that much sleep." Rainbow said laughing.

"Yup. Well, we need to head out. I really want to leave this place as soon as possible." I said.

With that, we all got up and started moving out straight ahead, the only direction we could think of going without a compass, in hopes of finding some way of escape from this nightmare…

Post Author's Note:

And off they go…

Hope you guys are enjoying the story!

And remember, REVIEW, or you will fall into an eternity of slumber…