I ran down the corridor, terrified of the horrible monster behind me. No matter what, I could not escape. It would eventually catch me. I could feel my body slowing down as it only got closer and closer. I really, really, really shouldn't look behind me.
Despite my own advice, I looked behind me.
I screamed.
...
Sighing, I began to construct a wall as if nothing had happened. Nothing had happened, after all. I wasn't even sure why it occurred to me that anything weird had been occurring before I was wall-making. As usual, I was making the wall out of pipe organs. Reed organs just didn't cut it in terms of wall-making, though chord organs came close. Obviously, I had to build this wall to make sure the Huns wouldn't invade. Disappointing that it was so hard to make a wall using these clumsy tentacles. I wish I had hands instead. I also wish I could just go buy walls. Did they have a market for walls somewhere? I'd love to visit a wall mart.
A voice broke through to me and I stopped building. "Though we have spent nary a year yet back in Equestria since our return this past solstice, We dare say this may be the strangest and least cohesive dream we have entered thus far." Blinking and turning to the speaker, I saw a big blue unicorn with wings. She was pretty tall. A lot taller than I was, actually! Also, she was really pretty, with weird flowy hair. How did her hair flow like that? I didn't feel a breeze or anything. Was it some kind of magic? Probably.
I smiled and waved at the tall unicorn. "Hi, there!"
"Hello, young one." She smiled. "We were called to thine dream because it called out to us like a nightmare, and yet..." She looked around. "We see no nightmares here. Were we perhaps too late?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. I was gonna build a wall out of pipe organs. Wanna help?" It was at this point that I realized I was me again. When did I start being a four-legs again? For some reason, when the blue lady got here, I realized stuff I didn't before. Like, why was I in a white void with pink clouds? And why was I making this wall again? The reason escaped me, but seemed silly in retrospect. "Actually, nevermind. I'm not sure why I was doing this to start with. Are dreams normally like this?"
However, before she could answer me, I gasp and bounced over to her, smiling. "I totally didn't introduce myself! My name is Screwball. Who are you?"
"We are Princess Lu-"
"Well, that didn't work." A young, boyish voice broke through the grogginess. Who...?
"What the hay? My wake-up spell shouldn't have failed! I checked her for magical interference and everything. She isn't even injured! Nothing should be preventing her from waking up!" Another voice, a bit higher up in position and pitch. Wake-up spell? Was I asleep? I remembered a blue horse, and an instrument or something... but as soon as I tried to remember, the thought escaped me. Oh well.
Upon the first attempt to open my eyes, I had to immediately shut them. The sun was there. I don't remember the sun being that bright when things were weird. I wish it would stop being that bright. "Urgh..." I groaned, trying to move my body so I wasn't looking directly at the sun. "Turn it off, too bright..."
"Huh, she's awake."
"Ha! My spell did work!"
Flopping onto my side so I wasn't staring a giant fiery fusion ball directly in the schnoz, I opened my eyes to see four purple hooves and a small purple... lizardy thing? I honestly had no idea. "Is this waking up? I don't like it. Make it stop." I groaned.
"Well geez, talk about rude," mumbled the little lizard boy, before a hoof gave him a quick corrective nudge. "Ow! Hey!"
Looking up a bit, I could see the purple one... the horse that is, not the lizard... man, I needed better words for them. The horse had a horn, so... unicorn? That worked. The unicorn was giving the lizard a glare before her eyes softened and she looked down at me. "Are you okay, little filly? We found you out here in the Everfree, and... why were you even sleeping out here? Don't you know it's dangerous here?"
"I... no?" I strained myself to stand up. I felt... I guess drained? Like a sponge that had only ever known wetness that suddenly found itself mildly damp beside a kitchen sink. It was upon standing up that I noticed something. Was this mare really big, or were me and Aurora small? I had been eye-to-eye with Aurora earlier... was she a filly too, then? That only made sense.
Shaking my head, I kept talking. "There was all this crazy stuff everywhere, and the houses were made of bread, and I played Monopoly with a bunny, and Aurora was mad at me, and then this big wall of light..." The reality of the situation caught up with me. "I'm... alive?"
The unicorn looked... worried. "You're alive, yes..." She turned to Spike. "Do you think she's talking about...?"
"Yeah," the little lizard replied, sounding just as off-put as the unicorn.
The unicorn seemed to consider something before shaking her head and smiling down at the filly in front of her. "Let's get you back to Ponyville. Can you walk?"
I nod. "Yeah. I was floating earlier, but I can walk too." Ponyville, huh? Weird name for a place. Did they also have places like Rabbit Town or Unicorn City? I'd have to ask later.
The unicorn and her lizard looked a bit taken aback. The lizard opened his mouth, but thought better of it and remained silent. "Right," the unicorn said. "Let's get you to town, then." She began to walk, then paused. "Oh!" Turning around, she held out her hoof. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way. And the baby dragon over there is my number-one assistant, Spike." The dragon in question almost immediately puffed up in pride at that little bit of praise. It was actually kind of cute. She did say he was a baby though, so I don't think I'll be developing a crush on the little dragon any time soon. That would be super weird.
"Nice to meet you, Twilight and Spike." I smiled and tapped my hoof to hers. "I'm Screwball."
9270971
Do your parents know you're using their computer?
9271086
You seem rather antagonistic. Are you okay?
9271104
Antagonistic? Nah. I'm always pleasant torwards people who expect their feelings to be safe when they visit a public forum on the Internet.
9271107
Oh, I don't particularly mind your attitude in terms of feeling personally attacked or what have you. It just concerns me that this is how you choose to present yourself. When people present themselves like this on the internet, it usually indicates a deeper issue. Is your home life okay?
9271125
I don't think you understood my response. Reread it, out loud if necessary.
9271143
Actions speak louder than words, darling. From what I've seen thus far of your online interactions, you seem to be antagonistic as your default, wording yourself specifically in an attempt to get a rise out of whomever you happen to be engaging with. You claim to subscribe to brutal honesty, and that others simply need to acquire "tougher skin", as it were. Yet your actions imply otherwise and lead me to be concerned about your psychological wellbeing. Thus, I repeat my question thrice: Are you okay?
9271172
Not gonna lie, I do view furries as little more than the untermensch they fantasize about being, but I gotta ask: How did you find me and my BoS posts?
9271172
Sorry if my vocabulary and linguistic tendencies are a little salty for you, but that's what happens when people have different backgrounds and they interact. I'm sure there's a class about that at your poof college.
There's either honest or dishonest. "Brutal honesty" is a phrase used by someone that doesn't like what's being said, but can't dispute it.
I do annual work for three different charities on top of my fifty hour week. Try again.
9271214
I am not sure how furries factor into this, nor do I know what you mean by "BoS". It takes very little effort to click on your profile or to look for comments of yours on this site. Your behavior here is rather consistent and is as I described.
As for your comment on ways of speaking causing hostility between groups of people, that is technically correct. There are, indeed, different ways that people use their speech, and that can cause communication issues or conflicts. However, there is a difference between being part of a certain social class, culture, et cetera and deliberately tailoring the way you talk to be antagonistic.
You're also technically correct about "brutal honesty" simply being total honesty. However, you're discarding nuance entirely. Brutal honesty is honesty that is said in a way that, intentionally or not, harms others emotionally (thus "brutal"). One can be fully honest without being brutally honest. "I don't like your jacket" and "your jacket is awful" are completely different sentences. One is completely true to reality: you are expressing your subjective opinion about the jacket. The other is true to your emotions, but disregards reality: you are claiming that the jacket objectively has a subjective quality. Brutal honesty is the latter.
Also, "I do charities" is not a get-out-of-trouble-free card. If you went and robbed a bank tomorrow, the officer would not let you go simply because you said: "oh, but I do charities!" People are allowed to be multifaceted: a person can do good things while also doing bad. Being virtuous in one regard does not mean that you are automatically virtuous in all regards.
From this conversation, however, I can see that I likely won't change your mind any time soon, nor will I be able to convince you to change your worldview. I'll pull out of this conversation, if only because I don't see any point in continuing. I hope someday you find happiness.
9271259
That is a whole new level of passive-aggression there. Are you Canadian?
I have to say this story caught my interest, please continue
9271328
It might be a few days before I do (due to a few due dates coming up for coding assignments I'm not done with yet), but I definitely will! Screwball is one of those background ponies that I personally feel got massively kicked to the curb by the fandom in favor of mainstays like Muffins/Derpy/Ditzy and Lyra. Last time she was genuinely popular was what... 2012? 2013? She's been completely ignored compared to most characters. Heck, Nyx (who isn't even from the actual show) has more fics about or containing her than Screwy does.
Also, I'm in a very unique position as a Screwball fic writer, because I've actually never read Bride/Daughter/Son-In-Law of Discord. I've actually only read one or two Screwy fics, period. It'll be interesting to see how much of what I do here is stuff that others already did, and how much ends up being original due to my quarantine from other Screwy content.
9271263
Didn't know that was passive-aggression... if you reply to this comment I will read it but I will not reply back, don't want to get into a flame war (yes, I have seen your comments on other stories)
This sounds interesting...