I'm in my high school gym. I'm all alone.

All the lights are on full blast, but through the high windows is nothing but darkness. Empty darkness.

Sweat trickles down my forehead as I take shot after shot. Every time I shoot there's another ball in my hand. I'm not sure why, but I keep shooting. I have to.

I listen to the sound of the net as I drop one in. Swish.

The next one hits the rim. I feel my legs sink down a little bit. I want to look down but I can't. I have to keep shooting.

I take another shot. It rolls out. I sink down a little deeper.

I try stepping into a shot, but I can't move my feet. They're locked in place. I throw up another shot. That one finds the bottom of the net.

I make a few more before I miss again. I can't make all of them, and every time I miss I sink deeper into the gym floor. I don't know what's happening. But I'm terrified. I miss again. Now I'm waist deep in the floor.

I can't generate enough power to shoot it. I desperately lob the ball at the hoop with one arm. It hits the top of the backboard.

This time I fall all the way through the floor and into darkness. I try to curl up into a fetal position but I can't move. I close my eyes as I fall through the darkness.

Eventually I stop falling and hit solid ground. I open my eyes to see that I'm at Oracle Arena, in the middle of the court. I see four Warriors on the floor. Curry, Klay, KD and Draymond. The starting 5 for the Cavaliers are also on the floor.

I look over and notice KD throwing the ball to me. I wait until it reaches me, then grab it and see LeBron James trying to guard me, but slowly like everything else.

As he comes closer, I can hear the fans chanting "WIN! WIN! WIN!" Their cheers get louder every second.

"Come on!" says Kevin Durant, at a normal speed, which contradicted his slow movements. "Don't you want the ring? We need the ring!"

I'm speechless. As LeBron comes closer, I hear Klay.

"Take the shot!"

I take the shot just as LeBron closes in. The ball sails in slow motion toward the hoop, and after a minute or so falls through the net.

The fans are louder than anything else now. "WIN! WIN! WIN!" is all I can hear. The backboard lights up red, indicating the buzzer. "Yes!" yells Durant. "We win!"

I snap awake.

I'm hyperventilating and sweating like a pig. I look around my living room. All the lights are off, even though when I fell asleep they were on. I look down to see Rainbow Dash sleeping in my lap. I gingerly lift her off of me and get up to change my clothes.

A pair of fresh pajamas and a swig of water later, I head over to my room to go to bed. I remember Rainbow and carry her onto the bed, then fall in myself, attempting to forget my nightmare.

I gotta get the hell up outta Golden State.

I woke up the next morning feeling mildly optimistic. I didn't have a game today, so I could just sit back and watch the other teams play.

I got some interesting news this morning: LeBron James was leaving Cleveland.

He was headed to L.A. to play with the Lakers, and this made me wonder if this was about losing to the Warriors three times in the Finals. Russell Westbrook's contract was up next year, and rumor had it he was finally going to leave OKC when it expired.

Kawhi Leonard, meanwhile, was excelling. Last season he had been traded to the Raptors right before the deadline, and Toronto has been working great for him so far. I wondered if he could make the Finals again.

Although I expected a bt more action, the rest of my week was pretty uneventful. I did get moved into the second rotation, but I didn't manage to do anything memorable enough to have a lot of fans cheering for me.

When the weekend arrived, I had two days of freedom. I decided to spend them learning more about Rainbow Dash's previous home. She didn't talk about it much, which I guess was understandable. Hell, if I went through a transportation between universes I might even forget Earth completely.

My neighbor, a guy named Allen that I had only talked to once after his dog had taken a shit in my yard, had recently went out of town for a few weeks, so I deemed it safe for Rainbow to be outside if she wanted to. I let her out, then went into my room and sat at my laptop. I searched up Rainbow's name and found my way to the My Little Pony wiki.

I read about the show for about twenty minutes before I decided to head back outside and check on Rainbow. I headed through the much nicer sliding door and looked up.

Rainbow Dash was flying in large circles, leaving a streak of rainbow behind her. I didn't bother calling for her, because I knew she wouldn't hear me. I just sat in the chair I kept out back and watched. After five or so minutes I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

I'd been playing my ass off at every Warriors game trying to prove myself. I've received compliments from Steph and Klay and even DeMarcus Cousins, but that wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to be great.

But trying to be great was tiring. I wanted sleep right now.

Eventually she came back down, and we went back inside. One of the questions I had was why she never seemed to emit body odor. I was glad to have my shower to myself, but it confused me sometimes.

I had really run out of things to do with her, and I was struggling to find time to take care of her. I enjoyed her company, but I really needed to start trying to find a way to return her to her home.

After she fell asleep later that night, I put on my jacket, laced up my Timberland hiking boots, and headed outside. I walked down Avery Street until I reached the spot where, after the draft, I had found Rainbow Dash and her injured leg.

I took a deep breath and headed into the woods, fingering the pocket knife I had in my right pocket. These woods were sketchy, and I wasn't about to take chances. I walked for about ten minutes before coming to a clearing. It wasn't really a clearing, just a small space without a tree in it. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight, shining it at the ground. I was looking for whatever it was that brought Rainbow here, or at least a trace of what it was.

After digging around for about an hour, I noticed an extremely soft and somewhat hollow-feeling patch of dirt. I dug into it and felt the layer of dirt getting thinner. Something was under here.

My heart pumped at the speed of light as I continued to dig. I eventually got to the bottom, and what I found made my jaw drop.

"No," I said. "No fucking way."

Author's Note

I wonder if anyone here actually cares what he found.

I'm going to start thinking of a way to end the story soon, because I'm having an influx of ideas and can't wait to get started on them.

As always hope you enjoyed, next chapter coming soon. Peace.