From Beyond the Badlands

As I woke, the first thing I realised was that I wasn't outside anymore, and Hrókr wasn't there. The second thing I realised was that I was in a bed and  that everything I could hear was covered by a large blanket, effectively muffling my hearing. My friend, Hrókr not being there for me doubled with my senses not working correctly made me panic slightly as I suddenly opened my eyes, only to just as quickly shut them at the bright light that glared at me. As my eyes got used to the light, I looked around and realised that I was in some kind of building. I guessed that it was a house or something similar due to the vague colours I could pick out. Looking around the room, I saw everything as being fuzzy but slowly getting clearer. Near the doorway of the room, though I could just make out a few coloured shapes. The shape closest to me, I guessed was a pony (going by the shape) with gold coloured fur and a slightly darker gold mane and tail. I couldn't quite make out the shape opposite the pony, other than it being a shade of brown with two white feathers on its head before feeling myself start to drift off into sleep, despite my efforts to not fall asleep, in my fear of the coming nightmares that had first started after I was exiled from my village in Norhay.

(Nightmare section)

I woke up screaming and thrashing, as tears ran down my face from the nightmare I had. During the small fit caused by my nightmare, I could just about hear the clopping of hooves over my yelling and a pony talking to me. Unfortunately, I didn't understand what they were trying to say and I was terrified of other ponies in that short time so I didn't really pay attention to the other pony. I was starting to get dizzy, probably because I was screaming, so I tried to get myself to calm down and think clearly by thinking 'It was only a nightmare'. After I had successfully calmed myself down, my eyes slowly came into full focus and I saw that there was a pony a few inches from my face. Startled by the sudden proximity, I slammed my head back on the bed before looking closely at the pony. From what I could tell, it was the same pony that I could vaguely see before I had fallen asleep, only now I could tell that the pony was male and that he was trying to talk to me, and had also backed away slightly. At this point, I realised that the reason I didn't understand was because I didn't speak the same language.

"I'm sorry but I don't understand you..." I started to say before noticing the look on his face   "... judging by the way you're looking at me, you don't understand me either...". As I was about to try and solve the communication problem, before noticing that the pony had left the room, and my cutie mark had started glowing. I looked at the mark on my flank for a minute and tried to work out what it was doing before I realised that I could take the opportunity to look for Hrókr. So, I got off the bed I was on and started to look around the small room before heading over to the only window in the room to try and call Hrókr, just so I knew he was there. I had been given Hrókr as something to help me cope with my mom's death, so losing him scared me a lot, which is why I panicked when I couldn't feel or hear him close by. As I got close to the window, I saw that Hrókr was hovering close to the window. Just as I was about to reach out towards the window, I felt something touch my back, which made me jump halfway across the room and also making my wings and fur fluff out in fear and instinctually I pulled back my lips to reveal my canines, before realising that the same pony that had left before was now in the room with me.

"Ah'm sorry, did I startle ya?" He asked me

"yeah, just... don't do that again please...." I squeaked, before realising that I could understand him. He looked just as surprised as I before asking: "How did ya do that?"

"you mean.. me understanding you?"

"yeah"

"I.... don't know. This is the first time something like this has happened..."

"Well, what happened just before you could understand me?"

"....My cutie mark started glowing..?"

"Huh, never heard somethin' like that happenin' before. Maybe it would be best to ask somepony experienced in magic like that, like a unicorn..." He started muttering under his breath.

"Ummm... you know, I don't even know your name.." I started to say.

"Ah guess you're right... we can discuss this later right?"

I nodded in response. "Good. Well, Ah'm Braeburn. Who're you?"

"Lukas... and I'm 16...."

"Bit of an unusual name, ain't it?"

"...Really? It's a normal name where I come from..." I muttered

"Ah'm sorry?" Braeburn looked at me, and I knew he hadn't heard me from the look he gave me. "N-Nevermind I was just t-talking to myself" I whispered.

"you're talking too quietly, ah still can't hear ya," Braeburn said. At this, I squeaked and looked down at my hooves, like they had just appeared.