My Little Dream Home

Octavia was jerked out of a restless sleep. It was the middle of the night and everything was dark except the faint glow of the street lamp by the road. Her dream was..troubling...She was in this very house, but years and years in the past, when Sweet Apple Acres still had migrant workers. She walked onto the porch where a yellow pony with blazing green hair awaited her arrival. She sat next to the mare and they smiled at each other.

"Happy Birthday!" cheered the charming, yellow pony as she hugged Octavia."I'm so glad you're here!" Then, the mare stood up and walked into the kitchen, where Octavia followed her.

She sat Octavia at an old, wooden table, like the one in her and Vinyl's dining room and lay a cake before her. They all gave a silent cheer, yelling, laughing..with no sound. everything was slowed down and distorted. It went back to normal when they placed a necklace around her throat and clapped. She heard someone murmur about it being her sweet 16..but she's 22..

That's when she had awoken. At the end of that dream..no--memory...Octavia knew that she had to tell Vinyl about this tomorrow, but right now, she needed some sleep, even though she was too startled to rest.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vinyl woke up early the next morning. She was tired and still shaken by Octy's freak out the day before. She had weird feelings still, about the house, Applejack, and everything. It seemed so...mysterious and hidden with guilt. She saw Octy last night. How she'd woken from tossing and turning and how she sat and stared at Vinyl. Something about it was odd, but she didn't want to let it bother her, so she passed it off as jitters from being in a new home.

Octavia was pretending to sleep and she saw Vinyl get up out of the bed and walk into the almost empty kitchen. She kept thinking about the dream she'd woken from, half-convinced that it wasn't a dream, but a memory..it couldn't be..right? She really wanted to know what's going on, all of it is so confusing only if--"Hey, Octy, look what I found under the rocking chair!" yelled Vinyl from the next room. Octavia stands up and walks into the front room where Vinyl was looking down and examining something.

"what is it,Vinyl?" asked Octavia. She walked around Vinyl to get a better look at what she was holding and gasped. She couldn't believe what it was..H-How could it be? It was the necklace from her dream. The one the people had put around her neck..for her 16th birthday. It's impossible..unless, the dream..really was a memory. no, it can't be.

Vinyl saw the look of shock cross Octy's face and threw the necklace back where it was. Octavia just stared. "Octy?.." Vinyl said." Look, I'm going to go grocery shopping, you can stay here and relax or you could come with me. Choose one." Octavia took a moment to think. She HAD to figure out what was going on here..not while Vinyl was around, she'd think so little of Octavia after that. "I'll stay here..to get more used to being here, plus, i'm 9 months pregnant, i really don't need to be walking everywhere right?" She replies to Vinyl nervously.

Vinyl nods and walks out of the house, on her way to the market. Octavia stands up and walks around the house slowly. Nothing seemed amiss, but she couldn't be sure. Vinyl and Applejack had proven to her that there, indeed, was no hallway with a room at the end of it. Just the one bedroom at the east side of the house. Plus, there had been no cat either. Octavia was just being silly. She passed it off as nervousness about the new foal and laughed at her absolute lack of reality at the time.

She just walked around the house, looking every which direction when the house creaked or popped. It was disturbing. To know that the things she'd encountered weren't real...Octavia knew that if she let it run through her mind and let it get to her, it would only get worse. That's when she heard a hoof step. It was faint at first, it was coming from near the back of the house. "Vinyl?" she called out. "Vinyl?" but no answer came.

She walked toward where she heard it coming from, but this time, it wasn't a step she heard. No, it was a faint dragging sound and it drew closer to her. *drag*....she couldn't tell what it was. *Drag*....Octavia was so afraid, she couldn't move. She tried to take a step forward and came face to face with the hallway and the room at the end. *drag*...this time when she heard the noise, she saw something move in the shadows of the hallway. *Drag*...it moved closer to her, but she was paralyzed with fear. *drag*..the shadow dragged itself into the light from the front room and Octavia could see what it was..who it was.

She saw its matted mane, green and grey with age. The hooves caked with blood, thin..and yellow. The eyes....there were none..all that was left were empty sockets and hooks attached..hooking the mare's mouth into a permanent, blood-dripped smile. Octavia knew who it was...the mare from her dream. The mare dragged herself to Octavia and placed a gnarled and grisly hoof on her pregnant belly. Octavia, of course, had no ability to scream or move..just stare and hold her breath, hoping it all would go away. The mare gurgled some incoherent words, drug her hand down Octavia's stomach and disappeared along with the the room and hallway.

Octavia's world spun. She finally dashed to the front room, breathing heavily. She didn't know what to think of her encounter..Was it real? A dream?..Her stomach stung and produced a sharp pain that called Octavia's attention to it. There was a bloody and burned hoof print in the middle of it. The pain was strong and electric, producing tears in the corners of her eyes. She couldn't take the pain..the horrible, intense, striking pain. Finally, she collapsed on the floor, out of energy and passed out. There was nothing she could do...