Through A Nightmare Darkly
You sit quietly in your chair, a yawn creeping into your breath and a dreariness appearing before your eyes. The fire crackles brightly in it magnificent oranges and yellows, a sound so enticing it's like a lullaby to you. A nod beckons you to fall into your dream world. Your dreams, a place your mind can run wild, a muck even. You shake it away as you climb down from your comfort zone and trot over to a room. Your bedroom, a place of dreams, warmth, privacy, and hospitality. You clamber to get upon the plush mattress and throw the cozy blanket over. You lay your head upon the pillow and are succumbed to sleep.
It’s dark. The moon shone dimly overhead, providing just enough light to see. A tombstone stand crooked and chipped in a dank field surrounded by oak trees. Around it stood grass, brown and dead. You sat and faced the stone. It was weathered, barely readable though some letters were still shown. Wonder crept into your mind as to whom this grave belonged. Suddenly, the ground beneath caves and you find yourself lain about in a tattered wooden coffin buried partly in the damp earth. Dirt begins to be shoveled into the grave. As you try to scream for help, dirt fills your mouth with each attempt. Suffocating and thrashing to get free you realize the grave was your own as life fades away.
You wake in a cold sweat as the last instance of life fades from your dream-self. Shrill screams echoing throughout the house. Had you have had neighbors, it was likely they would have came knocking. You climb to your hooves and walk to the window, stumbling along the way. You fumble with the lock and eventually unlock and open it, taking in deep breaths of the cool early morning air.
"A dream." you say to yourself, "NO, a nightmare, but it felt so real."
You look over to the fence you put in earlier that year. A loan raven roosting at the corner, it's deep purplish black feathers glistening in the morning light. The grass wet with dew gleams just as bright.
"Well, I guess I'd better get the day started" you exhaustively utter.
You turn to leave but as you do a peculiar object catches your eye. Your wander out to where it lay and bend to view it closer. A key projecting profusely out of the damp soil. You sit and pick it within your hooves.
"A Key?" you question, "How did this get here?"
You take it back inside and place it on a counter. You've decided you'll find out to where or to whom it belongs later, but for now you've got things to do. Heading up the stairs and into the bathroom you glance into the mirror before stepping over to the shower and turn the water on. Stepping in you sigh a great sigh of relief as the warm water courses over your coat and mane. once done you dry off and get ready to go to work.
~*~
Your job can be quite tough sometimes. Today was the worst day you've had ever in the history of your career. You've been just a little on edge, mainly because of the horrid night prior. Though you got the job done just as good as you could possibly. You head home and grab a quick shower before heading to the kitchen and scouring for food settling for just a quick meal of a sandwich.
"There's still some day left," you acknowledge, "I think I'll head over to see what Twilight's into today."
You place the key into your coin purse with your bits as you stroll out the door before locking it. You canter down the road a few blocks until you're met by the Ponyville library. There's a wild shuffling going on inside. Probably just Twilight rummaging through those musty old books you think to yourself as you rapped on the door and waited. With a click and a twist the door swings open and you are met by a small purple dragon.
"Ya know," Spike looked up at you, "Ya didn't have to knock, this IS a library after all."
"Implying I didn't already know this", with that you walked in, "Twilight around?"
A lavender coated mare stepped into the room as you question Twilight's whereabouts.
"No," she jokingly answered as she greeted you, "How can I help you today?"
"Do you have any books on dreams?"
"Dreams?"
"Nightmares even?"
"Spike, were there any books about dreams here?" Twilight called to spike.
No reply.
"Spike?" She called again then sighed, "Probably went back to sleep, but I think we can find what you're looking for."
You both sought throughout the shelves of the library for this oh so esteemed book. Piles of books were strewn about the library's flooring, albeit they were toppled and some of the books were opened. These however were already there when you got here. Twilight levitated a book across the room to you.
"Dreams and their meanings by Dr. Brawny Spirit," You go over as you take the book into your hooves, "Well let's see what is says about Graves and and dying."
You flip through the pages a few times before coming upon the table of contents. The book was split into halves 'Good' Dreams and 'bad' ones. You settle for the bad section as it most correlates to nightmares. The book was also in alphabetical order as to make it easier to find what the reader is trying to find. You peek above the book and out the nearby window. The day was in the twilight hours and you should probably get back home.
"It's getting about that time again," you pronounce, "Thanks for your help Twilight, I'll return the book once I've found what I need."
"Glad to help anyway I can, stop by again sometime," Twilight altercated.
You nodded and turned and exited the library. Calmy you breathed in the crisp cool air and started down the streets. Ponies were packing up the stalls and entering their houses yet again to be with the family for the remaining time of day. You're nearing the edge of ponyville and coming up on your house.
Rustling in the bushes nearby puts you off a bit as you gaze in their direction. In this time you stumbled as your gait comes to and end and you fall forward landing clearly on your muzzle. You roll to your back and place a hoof on it. It hurts but it's not broken. You hear hoofsteps growing closer and closer. You try to raise to your hooves but someone forces you back down. They strike you in the forehead the pain overwhelming you as everything fades to black.
