Living with the Nightmare

Living with the Nightmare

Chapter 3

Michael studied his surroundings. The only adjective he could use would be… white. He suddenly stopped.

“I’ve been here before,” he said in a daze. He looked at Luna, who was sitting there, just like she was last time. Luna opened her mouth and made the same chattering sounds she did last time. And just like deja vu, she cocked her head to the left.

“No,” Michael answered confidently. making sure he wouldn’t make the same mistake. All emotion drained from Luna’s face. She began to quiver all over as huge tears welled up in her eyes and slowly made their way down her cheek. “L-Luna?” Michael asked, taking a small step towards the emotional alicorn. She closed her eyes and looked downwards towards the floor, before quickly looking back at Michael, hatred burning deep under her skin.

Luna charged forwards, letting out an emotion-fueled shriek, before impaling Michael with her horn. Michael looked down at the spot where he was stabbed. He wasn’t surprised when didn’t feel the pain, this was obviously a dream. It was kind of a pleasant feeling. That’s when things went weird. Michael tried to pull out the horn, but it wouldn’t budge. It was… apart of him. He could feel all of Luna, her muscles, her starry mane, everything.  What fetish did he find while his mind was in the gutter?  Michael started to ponder the dream, and then everything. He looked back down as Luna, and she popped like a balloon. Her horn pulled itself out of his chest cavity and she slowly deflated as she fell to the ground as a rubbery heap. He looked down at the hole in his chest cavity, and he saw another dimension and in it, he saw was himself, looking into a hole in his chest cavity, that had another dimension in it with him looking into a hole in his chest. Michael practically felt the time-space continuum shatter. He sighed and came to terms with himself.

He was crazy.

*  *  *

Michael awoke to the sound of many birds happily chirping. He scratched his head at these sudden dreams. Like, he has had strange dreams before, but never two in a row, especially two that were related. He decided to let it slide for now and look on the positive side.  He felt a bit better than he was yesterday, since moving hurt significantly less. He stretched, before rubbing the his eyes with the back of his palms. He got a strange, tingling on the back of his neck as the hairs stood on end, which was strange, he ever only got that feeling when he was being... watched. Michael scanned the room for peering eyes, but was pulled from his detective work as a pony entered his room.

“Hello, Michael. Celestia asked me personally to take care of you, so I brought you breakfast.” She said with a cheerful smile.

“Why thank you, uh... what’s your name?” Michael asked awkwardly.

“My name is Nurse Redheart, and your welcome,” Redheart said happily,“Now, how are you feeling?” Michael knew that she didn’t want to do this, but only did it because Celestia asked. He could just sense it.

“Much better, actually,” Michael said, looking down at the blue tray she placed in front of him. It had several different bowls, containing an assortment of different vegetables and nuts, but the one thing that did interest him was a jiggly yellow mass. He dipped his plastic spoon into it and brought a piece up to eye level. “What’s this?” He asked, engrossed in the strange matter.

“It’s Hay Jelly,” Nurse Redheart replied.

“Wait a minute, is it actually made out of hay?” He said.

“Well, not completely, that would be preposterous. Hay is just a big ingredient, along with the sugarless sweetener.” She said. He took a small nibble at the piece of jelly on his spoon. It tasted like a muesli bar but a bit sweeter.

“It’s pretty good,” he said, taking several more small nibbles at the spoon. Redheart giggled at his childish behaviour.

“If you ever get bored, there are books in the drawers there,” she said, gesturing to the table next to the bed. Redheart turned and left Michael to his meal. He wasn’t particularly fond of anything she served, nor was he hungry, so he sat the tray onto the table beside him and decided to look around for a novel.

Upon opening the top draw, he found books. Many, many books. He skimmed over the titles. They had a small library in there. Everything, ranging from anatomy counting books. As amazingly interesting counting to three was, he decided to pass. He closed the top draw and slid open the second. This draw was more his style. More, lengthy stories, some mythology and several murder mysteries. Ponies don’t murder… do they?

Michael came across a title that looked interesting, Withering Rose. He pulled the book from out of the draw and propped the pillows up behind him, getting into a comfy position. He flicked to the first page and started to read.

“Michael? Michael are you awake?” He felt a tender hoof poke him in the shoulder.

“No…” he replied sleepily. Michael opened his eyes and saw Nightmare Moon staring back. It was dark but her mane illuminated the room with an enticing blue aura. “Oh, hey there,” he said, stretching out his arms. “What’s up?”

“I am here to -as one would say- ‘chat’, with you,” She replied, seeming unfamiliar with the phrase.

“About?” Michael asked.

“Whatever you wish. I derive great pleasure from your voice. It is… soothing.” She said. Michael wouldn’t have thought his voice was ‘soothing’, but it was still nice to hear somebody to say it.

“Well, I ate Hay Jelly today. It was good.” He said, rubbing his eyes gently. Nightmare Moon just nodded and smiled. “Come on, help me out here. What did you do today?” He said.

“I uh… thought about… things.” She said, staring at the floor as a deep crimson developed on her cheeks. Michael noticed this.

“Oh? What sort of things? Maybe something a little…” Michael leaned in slightly, “saucy?”

“How dare you accuse me of such things!” She said, rearing up a little. Michael held up his hands in defence.

“I’m not accusing, I’m stating.” He said with a smirk.

“Why I ought to-”

“Calm down,” Michael interrupted. “I’m just teasing. If you want to imagine your own little fantasy, that’s fine.” He said. Nightmare Moon huffed with annoyance. Behind those blue eyes, Michael knew he was right, but he decided not to push it any more. They didn’t say anything for a while after that. Michael decided to break the awkward silence.

“Why do you come to see me?”

“I already told you, you interest me,” Nightmare Moon said.

“Yeah, but why? Like, I’m nothing special. Like, dragons. Dragons are cool,” Michael said.

“We have hundreds of dragons, but we only have one of you,” She said, gazing at Michael. He was a little confused at this. Was it a compliment? Was she subtly hitting on him? Nah. Nah? He decided to let it slide.

“Yeah, im pretty amazing,” He said.

“Y-Yes…” She mumbled, directly staring at Michael.

“Uhh, could you stop staring? It’s getting a little weird,” Michael said awkwardly. Nightmare Moon shook her head to stop herself staring.

“Uhh, look at the time, I-I must go,” She said, her eyes darting around the room, before quickly leaving Michael to himself. He was even more confused now, but decided to sleep on it before coming to any rash decisions. Michael hunkered down and closed his eyes. Even with a lot on his mind, sleep still came easy.

* * *

Michael awoke from the greatest sleep he had ever had, this world or not. Even though he wasn’t a morning person, he just had to get up. He was full of energy. Michael jogged down the long hallway and down several flights of stairs, passing several confused doctors. He rushed out the front door, Nurse Redheart on his non-existent tail. Out on the streets, he jogged on the spot while he was looking for Celestia’s castle. He had to tell her the good news. Spotting the front gate, he sprinted down the road.

“Michael? What are you doing here? You should be in hospital!” Celestia said, taken back by Michael’s presence.

“You know this thing, your majesty?” One of the guards asked.

“Oh yes, you can all go back to your posts,” Celestia said. The guards grumbled in complaint, as they left. “What are you doing here, Michael?” Celestia asked again.

“I’m here to tell you the great news!” Michael exclaimed.

“And what is that?” Celestia asked.

“I feel…”

“You feel?” Celestia asked.

“I-I feel…”

“Michael, are you ok?”

“I feel… s-so…”

“Michael!?’

“Cold”

The room violently spun around Michael as he lost his footing. Saliva pooled in the back of his throat as his body hit the floor with a loud thunk. Michael’s breathing became erratic, his lungs filling with vomit. He was thrown into a seizure as his body disobeyed him. Michael felt death coming, as he breathed his final words.

“Help me...”