The Power of The Night

The Power of The Night

The feeling that you get in a dream, when you realize you’re dreaming. The feeling of unreality, associated with the power to do anything. Before you can exert your power, you wake up, and find yourself lying in bed. This is the limbo I have been stuck in for God knows how long. My mind is racked by flashes of images I have never seen. All I can do is keep hoping I wake up from this dark nightmare...

“... the thousandth time, NO, Applejack, I have never come across anything like these in my studies, not once!”

“Then how in tarnation are they existing in this here library?!”

“I don’t know! I’m surprised that you haven’t seen something like this, Fluttershy. I mean, you’ve been dealing with animals of all types for years!”

“I’m a tiny bit surprised myself. When I found them, I thought they must have been monkeys, only hurt more than I thought they looked. I could hardly believe it when I realized they looked like that. Eep-! Oh, don’t tell them I said that, I’m sorry!”

“Fluttershy, dear, it’s perfectly alright! I can barely comprehend that anything such as this can exist!”

“Pfft, you guys, honestly, I know we’re all thinking the same thing: They look WEIRD!”

“Aww, come on, Dashie! Who knows, they might be super fast, or super smart, or super fun- *le gasp* WE SHOULD THROW A PARTY FOR THEM!!!”

“Pinkie, be quite, you’ll wake them up!”

“Sorry Twilight, my lips are sealed!”

Sealed... sealed... the box... running... power lines... a brilliantly bright, blue, light-

With a start, I sat up, opened my eyes, and gazed blearily around. I heard a collective intake of breath and what sounded like a group of twelve-odd people backing away. That was the first thing I was conscious of. A second later, I became aware of a dull pain in my head, a sharp, continuous pain on my hands and arms, and a particularly deep pain in my legs, which felt stiff and immobile. I groaned and rubbed my eyes trying, to clear my eyes and head simultaneously and think of the answer to a very important question: what had happened? As I opened my eyes, I became aware that I may have had suffered extensive brain damage, and I tried clearing my eyes again. When they opened, I didn’t bother to clear them again, because there was no way that something was on my eyes. I was, in fact, staring straight at a group of six ponies, all but one with apprehensive looks on their faces.

For a solid twelve seconds, there was absolute silence.

“Why is everypony so serious? If nopony else is going to be polite, then I guess I’ll do it myself!” Pinkie Pie burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. Trotting up to me, she stopped just short of personal space intrusion, excitement etched into every bit of her bright pink face.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, and these are my friends, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash! I know every single pony in Ponyville, but I’ve never seen you before- well, actually, I’ve never seen anything like you before- but I’m sure we’ll be the bestest of friends-,” she gasped here again, both for breath and because she had an idea- “Wait, you AND your friend can be my friends, and we’ll be the bestestEST of friends!!”

Pinkie finished her happiness tirade with her voice considerably raised in pitch and volume. I was more focused on what she had just said- my friend? But that would mean-

“Oh, silly me, I forgot the most important question! What’s your name, mister?” Pinkie asked, though it took me a second to realize she said something important, another two to process it, and a fourth to make my mouth move, but that was as far as I got. I had some difficulty finding my voice. I was partially glad of this, because half-formed thoughts raced through my head, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure if my name would come out as Kyle Denight or Dr. Seuss.

My lack of answering had caused Pinkie to close the minimal space between us. She was now way beyond personal space and straight into downright uncomfortably close.

“You CAN talk, can’t you?” Pinkie asked, scrutinizing my face intensely. Her stare was hard to hold, and I only managed due to the fact that I was still in shock at what was going on. Here I was, a brony in the middle of, upon closer inspection, what appeared to be Twilight’s library, in the presence of the Mane Six, staring back at Pinkie Pie, who had just asked what my goddamn name was. Just as this all registered in my mind, I found my voice again.

“This... this is a dream... I’m dreaming I’m talking to Pinkie Pie. I’m gonna wake up reeeal slow-like in a few seconds, because I know I’m dreaming,” I muttered, almost regretting the fact that I would wake up. Dreams about ponies were far and few between for me. However, this seemed to confuse all the ponies.

“No, silly, you aren’t dreaming! This is real! Or is it? Maybe we’re all just in a big dream by somepony else! But that would be just silly, because I know I’m real!” Pinkie Pie laughed. I decided this was going too far. I had a fair imagination, but this Pinkie was getting on my nerves, and my own subconscious wouldn’t do that to me.

“Not a dream? Alright, I’ll prove it’s a dream. Hit me,” I said straight to the pony.

“...Why in the name of Celestia would I hit you?” Pinkie asked, confused.

“Just do it. See what happens.”

“Well... if you say so...”

Indeed, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack looked as though they feared for my sanity, though Rainbow Dash was poorly concealing a grin, as if they thought the punch would land.Well, their worry is for naught. A punch landing in my own dream would be absu-

Son. Of. A. BITCH.

For their size, you wouldn’t expect them to be channeling Mike Tyson in their punches.

Returning to lying on the ground, I covered my face to prevent further injury at the hooves of that Pink Punch-out Star. I had to rule out the thought that this was a dream. Hell, that sort of pain shouldn’t even exist in real life, much less in a dream. Making sure my cheekbones were in fact still intact, I sat back up, still clutching my head, the headache I had now tripled. Attempting to focus, both with my mind and my eyes, I remembered that I had a question to answer. At that current moment, I was positive that my name was NOT Dr. Seuss.

“My name is Kyle Denight,” I said. “I-I don’t know what’s going on here. Can any of you explain?” I looked around; hoping any one of the multicolored ponies would have a series of charts and diagrams. However, it was Twilight who spoke next.

“Actually, Mr. - Denight-, we were hoping you and your friend there might have some answers yourselves,” Twilight said. I noticed her voice, while ever so slightly apprehensive, was curious and somewhat commanding. Normally, I responded to statements such as that with sarcasm, but upon reminding myself that this was the pony who single-handedly banished an Ursa Minor, I decided that jibes and possible hostilities were a bad idea at the current moment. No, scratch that, it would probably be fucking suicide.

Wait... she said “yourselves”, not self...

Looking to my right, a few yards away lay another body, a human body. I was just beginning to feel that all logic had now left the building when it began to stir. As it did so, I hardly dared to believe what I saw: my best friend, Joel, was here too. Then again, I didn’t believe I was in a room full of ponies a few minutes ago, so...

Well, I never enjoyed logic. It made too much sense, and I’m sitting in a room with six ponies. Fuck you, Mr. Principal Man, I told you I didn’t need to have common sense!

I watched as Joel pushed himself upright and grasped his head with relatively small hands. Even though he was two grades above me, I was still taller by at least a foot. With a jolt, I saw that his hand looked badly burned, and his right arm and left leg were bandaged. He opened his eyes, rubbed them and looked around, apparently oblivious to the ponies now watching him, though occasionally their eyes would dart back to me. Upon locating me in the room, Joel’s expression changed from one of bemusement to extreme concern; some of the color even drained from his face.

“Hey, Joel, you alright?” I said to him, wondering why he was reacting like he had seen bloody murder.

“Me, alright? You should check yourself about now!” Joel blustered back, looking positively frantic now.

“...Huh? Myself? But I feel fi-” I started, but he cut me off.

“Start by looking at your hands, dammit!” Joel replied, almost losing his head completely. Still confused, I looked down at my hands.

Well, shit.

My hands were completely burned, raw and tender from heat, and my arms, which were bandaged, felt blistered. I didn’t even have to check my face to know I had a bruise where Pinkie hit me. Lastly, I looked down at my legs. They were completely bandaged, and the immobile feeling in them was due to the fact I felt a splint and a cast under the bandages.

“But... I don’t feel anything horrible...” I said to no one in particular.

“How long have you been awake for?” Joel asked. He was studying medicine in one of his classes... or at least he did when we didn’t ditch.

“I dunno, five minutes?”

“You’re still in shock, but that won’t last for long. Lie back down befo-”

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by a scream of pain from myself. Both my legs felt like they were on fire, and the anguish didn’t end for what seemed to be several long minutes, until I saw a soft purple glow surrounding me and I blacked out. I had a few last-second thoughts before succumbing to the darkness.

This is NOT going to qualify as a legitimate excuse to be absent.

Shit, I forgot Joel was a brony.

This better not be one of those spells in those clopfics that makes me a sex bitch.

I think I left a chicken in the- bullshit, I don’t have an oven.