"... I swear, I have NO idea what he was thinking!" Ace ranted, completely lost in his words.
He'd been talking for quite literally hours on end, sharing old stories with his new friend.
The Mare was listening to every word; never breaking her attention from him.

And she didn't really care what else happened around them. She was perfectly happy, just being able to spend time with him.
But while Ace was still talking, she found herself wandering into space a bit.

She was thinking about the events that took place today.
All the fun she had, all the things she saw...
Every second was bliss for her, definitely a good change from roaming around in the forest.

However, she knew very well that she couldn't stay forever.
She would eventually have to return to the Everfree forest.

All of the joy she had a minute ago vanished faster than a heart beat, and it left her slightly depressed.

"Errm, hello? Earth to pony?"

The Mare quickly snapped back to reality and darted her head around trying to find out what was going on.
Finally, she turned here head to find, none other than, the forest. Dread was showing in her eyes.

"We're here," he stated, with a crooked smile on his face, "well, I hope you enjoyed your time here. It was great getting to talk with you!"

She looked towards the forest then gave a glance towards Ponyville.
Ace noticed she obviously didn't look happy leaving.

"Don't worry," he reassured her, "you can always come and visit anytime you like, nopony is gonna stop you. So there's no need to look so down, alright?"

Hearing this, admittedly, did make her feel a bit better. So to say thank you and goodbye, she gave him a hug.
After releasing him from her grip, she began to trot back into the forest.

Ace waved, sighed; then walked home, as well.
As he was walking, he noticed the sun was starting to set above the houses.
" I should better get home quickly so mom doesn't worry again..."

***

After a long walk, Ace had finally arrived home. He opened the door, entered and then creeped through the hallway and up the stairs.

There was another hall with three doors: on the left was the door to his mother's room, to the right was the storage room door and at the end was his room.

He was heading towards his room, until he stopped. He could hear a light snore coming from his mother's room.
Shrugging his shoulders, he continued down the hall and gazed upon his room. As he entered, he could see nothing had really changed after he left. There where posters of famous sports stallions, his favourite one being a poster of the hoofball player Crystal Ronaldo. His old bed near the top left corner of his room with a desk and lamp next to it. And lastly, in the very right of his room was a box of toys he'd stopped playing with, it was placed right under the window.

The only thing that was different with his room was that it was much more cleaner than it used to be. Before there used to be a few clothes scattered on the floor.

"Well, I guess it couldn't have stayed a mess forever..."

He walked over to his bed, the one he had years back, and threw himself onto it.

Staring blankly at the ceiling, he found yet another poster, only this one was a cat dangling on a tree.

'I should probably take that down, ' he thought, just before dozing off into a deep sleep.

***

Out of nowhere, Ace snapped awake. He was not sure why he did though, but there was a important matter at hand: his current location.

He was no longer in the comfort of his own bed, but now in a dark and excruciatingly cold void.
He tried to look beyond what his own vision was telling him, but came to no avail.

That was until he turned around to find a familiar forest had appeared right behind him, only difference was it was shaded in black and white, like an old TV colour...

Reluctantly, he chose to wonder the woods to see what it held for him.
As he got deeper in, he could oddly enough hear what sounded like the famous piano song Clair de lune playing from a wind-up music box, only adding to the onto the chilling vibe.

After about a minute of walking, Ace came across a clearing in the forest, to which he found the one and only... Candy Mare.

She didn't seem like herself, however. For starters, the way she was looking down slightly covered her eyes with her hair, only leaving her mouth exposed. And secondly... Yeah... She has a mouth.

In any normal circumstances Ace would definitely point out that feature, but being stuck in a dream meant he was in no state of mind to distinguish fantasy from reality.

The Mare was now starting to move closer, taking her time with each step. Ace attempted to move backwards and away from her, but for some weird reason, every step he took back made him move forward and closer to the Mare.

This carried on until both of their cheasts were less than a centimetre away.

It was then, and only then, where the music playing in the background came to a halt, leaving the atmosphere around them dead quite.

Slowly, the Mare looked up to Ace, unveiling her eyes and giving him an unreadable gaze. This caused every one of his nerves to stand on end to the point where he couldn't even move the smallest bit.

The Mare then took the chance to place her hoofs on his shoulders and lift herself up to his eye level, placing her face so close to Aces', their noses where gently rubbing. During this moment, her expression was giving off just a hint of suduction...
Like she was about to pull him in for a kiss...

However, she broke the moment by smoothly guiding her head towards his left fore leg and then his left shoulder.

Ace was left in the same place he was before, still paralysed.
He had no idea what she was doing or where this was going...

But just then, the Mare opened her mouth, drawing out her her sharp and pointed teeth, and very lightly began to drive her front tooth through his shoulder.
This caused him to wince in pain whilst staying completely still.
Despite being hurt, Ace forced his head to move and see what she was doing.

But, to his horror, found her mouth wide open; ready to take a massive bite!! He drilled his eyelids shut, bracing himself.

But right when she was about to chomp, Ace broke free from the dream, letting out a terrified scream as he did.

Just like that, Ace was back on his bed in a cold sweat, panting heavily.

After a while, he finally managed to calm down and relax. He had no clue to how or why his mind would ever make such a vivid nightmare like that.

Looking out of his open window, he could see that the sun was starting to rise.
"Morning already?" he whispered to himself as he rubbed his eyes.

After stretching his hoofs, he decided to just lay down and get continue sleeping...

But when started getting comfortable, he could feel something on his back... Like somepony was hugging him.

Ace's eyes widened in both shock and realisation, he had never opened the window last night.

So when he slowly turned his body around to see what was holding him, he saw who else than the Mare herself.

This made Ace not only scream, but also pushed himself off of the bed.

"Wh-what are you doing here?!" he shouted, getting back up from falling.

As if on cue, his mother practically kicked the door down.
"Ace?! Are you OK?! What's going on here? And why are you-"
She cut her sentence off when she saw the Mare in Aces' bed.
Her jaw dropped as she began to process what was going on.

Ace spared a glance at the Mare and then his mother, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
" Wait! Mom, this isn't what it--"
But before he could finish, she put a hoof to her head and fainted.

Letting out a big ragged sigh, he started to grab his unconscious parent by the hoof and pull her back to her bed.

"What a lovely way to start the morning..." he said sarcastically.

The Mare, who had no idea what just happened, just nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and went back under the covers...

Author's Note

Whew! I finally completed this chapter!

Sorry if it took a while to get here, but if you really liked this, then please show your support by giving this fimfic a thumbs-up.

It means a lot to me!

But, for now, have a good one!