//------------------------------// // Entry 1, End // Story: The Poisoned Barb's Tale // by ManlyDerp //------------------------------// “Mommy!!! MOMMY!!” “DAAADDD!! DDDDDAAADDDD!” “Sniff, mama…” “Applejack! Red Gala! G-grandpa!” I don’t know where I am. I don’t know whose crying. I don’t know what I’m doing. “I-I WANT MY MOMMY!!” Despite the cries all around me, I feel… still. My body is still, and I am quiet. This is fine… But I feel… like there’s stone pushing against my spines. I must be lying down. Yeah… I can tell now. Suddenly things… click. I’m lying down on a floor; a new floor. Things are becoming clearer in my head... This is not the same floor I had fallen down on earlier. That floor was earthly, this floor… stone is the best way I can describe it. What I can describe with certainty is what I’m hearing. The screams from before are now much less numerous, yet at the same time far more intense. I can’t recall if they had ever stopped between the blast and now. I can’t recall why I’m laying down either. It feels like I’ve always been here but… also not. … This is weird. It takes me a second to start getting back up; to not only find my footing and to blink the sleep out of my eyes, but to also find the desire to rise. The oddness of it all is quickly filling my actions with a sense of purpose, though, as I discover more and more strangeness occurring all around me. Speaking of, the next weird thing I find is that there isn’t any sleep left in my eyes. In fact, it feels as though I was never tired in the first place! I dwell on this new oddity for but a moment, long enough for the third weird factoid to soon present itself to me. This factoid being that I’m now apparently in space. … … … OKAY I’M UP NOW With a start I use my restored energy to stand up fully and to take in my new, lovecraftian surroundings. Above and around me lies a darkened array of stars and auroras of all shapes, sizes, and hues. No shadows exist here, even though everything is properly illuminated. Flashes of light dance sporadically across the alien skyline, like rogue bolts of lightning wreaking a soundless havoc every which way. Chaos lies below me as well in the form of a glowing white road of compacted stars and stardust that stretches out into all conceivable directions. It isn’t a solid road; I can see cracks along it’s surface, and parts in the great distance where patches have broken off completely and are floating away. These shards can be seen littering the whole starry ‘sky’. Along these many paths lie small obelisks, numerous in design and stability, that almost resemble unconnected doors. These too are in a similar state of disarray and decay to the rest of this star road. And many of these ‘doors’ are cracked or outright destroyed, with their remains drifting away to parts far removed from the main path. Some of these pieces are now being used as hovering platforms. This is where this realm's visitors are currently residing. Many foals of young ages and various pony races now populate this strange infinite space and are clearly upset over the whole ordeal. Most are crying out for their parents and guardians, and many more are simply just crying for the sake of crying in the way only a child can. They’re scattered about at random; a few are on top of these aforementioned flying doors, more are on the broken path or it’s missing pieces, and the pegasus children that have the power to do so are trying to stay afloat in the debris filled air. From what I can see, their act of gravitational defiance doesn't usually last too long before an erred piece of the broken land forces them to land wherever there’s room. I had never seen anything like it before. Not in Equestria, Earth, or even the show. “Where… where are we?” I ask aloud, to assure myself that this impossible place is real. “Y-you don’t know?” With a tiny shrill shriek I jump at the sudden question, and to my further shock I discover that the gravity is all borked in this place. Panic sets in as I begin to uncontrollably rise up into the air, but the timely grab of white and orange forelegs helps drag me back down to the ground before it’s too late. Catching my breath, I attempt to shake this recent scare off by looking up at my heroes. In a nice change of pace, I didn’t need to crane my neck upwards to see my saviors as we're all the same height and (technical) age. The orange hoof had belonged to a small pegasus colt with a solid mulberry mane, and the white one belonged to a familiar looking unicorn colt with a mane a mixture of a more grayish version of his partner’s, with equally gray-rose streaks. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was my world’s Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. I mean, give me some slack, guys. “You’re, like, not from around this place then?” asks the young pegasus shyly, continuing with the question which caused my earlier jump. “I just thought… well you’re not really a pony, so…” Before I can answer, the unicorn beats me to it. “No, Scooter. I think she’s real like us.” He then turns back to me to smile, though his words are clearly still for the pony next to him. “I saw her before that Nightterror wannabe zapped us.” Scooter pouts at this. “Phooee,” he complains, crossing his hooves as he sits down. “And I thought we could finally get out of here.” I find myself unbelievably dazed by this sudden scenery and cast change, but with a hard shake of my head I try my best to reorient myself. The brain tumbler action quickly proves itself to have been one of the best calls I had made all day long, as my restarted brain next takes hold of what was just said and starts to connect the scary dots. “Wait,” I interrupt, drawing the two kids’ attention back to me. “... Finally?” I repeat Scooter’s last words. “W-what do you mean ‘finally’? How… how long have we been here?” At this question the two colts glance back at each other, scrunch their faces up in deep calculation, and then turn back to me. “It’s been hours for sure,” says the white unicorn. “Like, a bunch of hours,” his friend finishes. “It’s really hard to tell but it’s been awhile.” “A-are you sure?” I plead to them both as I became painfully aware of the strain starting to take form in my chest. “Yeah,” the pegasus repeats, crushing my hopes. “It’s about the one thing we are sure about in here, Miss Dragon.” My heart shatters at this. I… I’ve failed… Dusk and his new friends are probably already in the forest by now… … I didn’t come with… The only thing I managed to do, to ‘help’, was… cause this. “Oh Dusk…” I sob loudly as I’m overcome with the most extreme feeling of guilt I’ve ever felt in my twin lives. Seven years down the drain; I only managed to cause the group more stress! Now everypony is going to be distracted with their loved ones being... wherever the hell here is… and after I promised not to hurt Dusk again I…I... “I-I really screwed up.” Sniff~ “I screwed up everything...” As I sit back down on the road and choke back tears, curling up into the tiniest ball my stupid self could manage, I forget myself for a time as the disappointment washes over and engulfs me completely… As a result I also forget that I’m not really alone right now. “H-h-hey hey hey!” shouts Scooter, his eight year old mind clearly not mentally prepared to handle the sight of a crying baby dragoness. “D-don’t cry! It’s, um, g-gonna be okay! Right, Sweepy Belle?” “Uh-huh! Scooteroll is right,” adds in his partner, whose tone is just a little bit more confident sounding then his own… even if it’s a little squeakier. “And I’m sure the big ponies are trying to get us back from wherever the hell this place is right now!” Scooteroll blinks. “Um... what’s ‘hell’?” “Something my big brother says every now and then.” “Your brother sounds weird.” “Hey! He’s awesome I’ll have you know.” Scooteroll tilts his head at this. “If you say so. I’ve only met you, like, an hour ago so I’m just going to have to roll with it.” “Would you say… Scooteroll with it??” “... Never say that again.” Now it’s Sweepy’s time to pout. “You’re no fun.” This causes me to chuckle quite a bit. As I do, I realize that my tears have stopped falling. Almost as if reading my mind, Sweepy resumes beaming warmly at me. “That’s better,” he chimes happily even as his voice cracks. “Now you can help us figure a way out of here!” I stare at him blankly for a split second before I narrow my eyes and nod my head determinedly. It’s embarrassing that a child had to remind me, but all the same he’s right. I can play the blame game later. For now, we’ve gotta leave this place and find a way back to Equestria. Who knows what else could be going on right now? Sweepy offers me a hoof to get back up on my feet with, which I graciously accept. Now standing with the rest of them, I use my claws to rearrange my purse strap as I introduce myself properly. “I’m Barbara. Friends call me Barb.” “I’m Scooteroll!” introduces the pegasus with a buzz of his tiny wings. “And I’m Sweepy Belle,” answers the unicorn with his head held high, obviously channeling his big brother Elusive’s behavior. I remember Rarity and Sweetie Belle being sisters quite well from the show, so it didn’t take me any longer than a microsecond to put two and two together. Jason didn’t have a brother or any other kind of sibling if I remember correctly, so I can only assume that Sweepy is just an ordinary pony. This may change later as I learn more about Elusive himself, but I have bigger worries to think about right now. Him being just a normal pony is perfectly fine by me. “Did you… I guess we can call it waking up… just wake up, Barb?” I nod my head, understanding both his question and his aside’s meaning. “Yeah I did. It didn’t feel like I went to sleep, or even woke up. There’s just this… gap in my memory... Have you two been up long?” Scooteroll nods his head furiously. “Yeah! It was the same thing with me! One second I was in Ponyville, and the next I was floating around and junk. Which was super cool, by the way!” He chirps excitedly, whatever lingering fear disappearing as he reminisces. “Because I can’t do that normally, but I wasn’t able to really move around all that well... Then I bumped into Sweepy!” “Literally,” Sweepy adds helpfully. “He had just ‘woke’ up! And that was cool too, because we kinda recognized each other from class but we never really talked before, which makes sense cause we’re both blank flanks! You know how it is, right?” “... Riiiggghhhttt,” I respond with a nod, trying to be polite. I guess Sweepy doesn’t think the pleasantries are necessary though, as he next bluntly states that, “Dragons don’t get cutie marks, Scooter. She wouldn’t know.” Scooter tilts his head to the side at this. “Really? That’s dumb.How do they know their special talent then?” “Maybe all dragons are just good at the same thing?” Sweepy suggests. “Like what, fire breathing?” “Or maybe gem eating.” “Or hoarding!” “OR BURNINATI-” As cute and precious as this is, Dusk needs me right now. We gotta move forward. “Guys, focus,” I interject before we get any more off topic. “Right right,” Scooter blushes as we resume. “So, yeah, we got together and started walking down this road. We tried these door thingys but none of them open. There’s also a lot of ponies scattered all over the place… but there has to be a way out of here. We know there is one!” Interesting. “What makes you say that?” I inquire plainly. Sweepy answers this time. “There were a lot more ponies here earlier, but now they’re gone. Some of them just blinked out suddenly, like they teleported.” “It’s really creepy to see,” nods Scooter. I digest this information, along with the few other clues I’ve been able to pick up since I… ‘woke’ up. … Wait. Solaris' words from this morning are coming back to me. _______________________________ “... Once upon a time, there lived a pony who was born with an interesting gift. The realm of dreams was his domain...” _______________________________ “Are they… waking up, you think?” The two boys look at me blankly after my sudden suggestion. “But… aren’t we already awake?” Scooteroll asks me, clearly confused. I’m just as confused as him, but what I said makes a small amount of crazy sense, so I turn my head from side to side and stick to my guns. “No no,” I reply to him, formulating my thoughts with my tongue. “When we ‘woke’ up, it didn’t really feel like we woke up, right? We all agree on that. It felt like we just… appeared. There was no actual waking up involved, and I have no knowledge of coming here any other way. Yet here we are...” My theorycrafting causes Sweepy’s eyes to suddenly widen in realization. “Just like the beginning of a dream!” he chirps in confirmation, tying all of my loose thoughts together with one fabulous little bow. “Exactly,” I nod in agreement, smiling at his youthful enthusiasm. “Well then this will be easy!” interjects Scooter in equal good cheer. He then slaps Sweepy in the face. Hard. “Ow!” the victim, and the more delicate looking one of the two, cries out in pain. “What’s the big idea?!” Scooter flutters his eyes in confusion before again tilting his head like a bird. “Isn’t that how you’re supposed to wake up from a dream?” he asks innocently. “YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HIT YOURSELF, DINGUS!” “Hey quit shouting at me!” I groan as the two colt’s argument devolves into a screaming contest. Boys will be boys I suppose. I tune out the rumble so I can better think. So pain doesn’t work for getting us out of here; for getting us to really wake up. And I’m pretty sure I’m right in thinking that this is a kind of… er... Dream Realm, I suppose you could call it. Solaris had mentioned there being a place where nightmares could be fought, so my current best guess is that this dilapidated dump is connected to his brother’s power. That has to be the case, because this ethereal plane can’t possibly exist in the world of Equus. The roads go on for seemingly forever for one thing, and did I mention how borked the gravity is here? ‘Cause it’s borked real bad. This has to be a dream… but why did The Nightterror send us here? Why trap all the foals at all? Are we bargaining chips? If that’s the case, how are ponies currently escaping? Is Nebula releasing us one by one? Ugh! Too many questions! I should start writing these do- “Sis?” Before I can dwell on the big ball of unanswered questions any further, one of the foreign voices I had heard earlier suddenly starts speaking again. “Red Gala...?! Red Gala!” I turn away from the other two colts and listen carefully for this new third one’s voice again. I think it’s coming from… below me? Cautiously I approach the edge of the star road and lean equally as carefully over the edge. This allows me to peer below. Sweepy Belle and Scooteroll quit their childish fighting during this and slide up next to me so that they can investigate this disturbance as well. It doesn’t take us long to find the speaker; poor young Apple Buck can be seen talking to himself on a floating piece of the broken road aways away from us.   “Red Gala!” he shouts again, scanning every which way. “A-ah hear you but ah can’t… Big Sis!” And then, as if he was never there to begin with, he disappears into thin air. I stare worriedly at this. “... Is that kid from our class?” asks Scooter to Sweepy. “I think so,” he scratches his head. “Maybe the morning one? I never talked to him though.” “Huh.” I look back and forth between the two children. “Did that… not surprise you?” I ask them in confusion, trying to understand. In response Sweepy does the pony equivalent to a shrug by raising a leg. “It sounded like he was talking to somepony,” he formulates aloud, imitating how I broke down our last revelation. “Yeah... maybe they woke him up?” Scooter suggests. “I saw it before.” “Me too,” continues Sweepy, allowing me to further understand their lax attitude towards what just happened. “I was scared at first, but knowing this is a dream makes it a little less scary.” “So,” I repeat, gathering the information present into a cohesive whole. “We need somepony else to wake us up to get us out of here?” “But…” Sweepy adds in, mulling over this part as well. “Wouldn’t that be the first thing they'd would do for us in this situation?” Dang. That’s right. I put a claw on my lip and think about this harder. My brow tightens in concentration. “Maybe… we’re supposed to wake up at a certain time?” Scooteroll throws out, trying to see if the idea would stick. I mule this over. “... What would that time even be?” I wonder loudly, thinking that we might be on the right track but not fully convinced yet. “... Maybe…” Sweepy adds yet again. He’s quite the little puzzle solver, I’m quickly discovering. “... Maybe the time is when we’ve had enough sleep?” We all fall silent at this. I rewind my mind to this morning yet again, and recall in great detail Princes Solaris’ comments about his brother’s supposed weakness for crying babes. Or, in this case, tired foals. “That’s stupid enough to make sense,” I admit after a time, unable to deny that it all made sound logic. Didn’t keep me from facepalming though. “What kind of monster makes sure you’re well rested?!” Sweepy squeaks, just as flabbergasted by the answer we came up with as me. “One who has a ‘fondness for children’,” I air quote using my beloved gift of fingers. “I guess that means he wants to make sure his subjects aren’t cranky.” “Oh come on! That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Sweepy deadpans. “But all the pieces fit,” I counter. “Kinda… It’s the best guess we’ve got until we get the answer from the pony’s mouth.” A thought occurs. “Do you know anything useful about Nightterror Nebula, Sweepy? Like any local stories or rumors?” I know a little bit about The Nightterror legend from what I read in the book I bought for Dusk the other day, and I know a tiny bit more than that thanks to the Nightterror Nights I attended in Canterlot (last year I went as a pretty princess. Don’t judge me), but beyond that I find myself woefully unprepared for this sort of situation. I had been banking so hard on this night playing out just like it did in the show, with only my addition to the forest scenes to insure that everything else went smoothly, that I never felt the need to prep myself any further than what was necessary! Come on, it was a fair assumption! Nightmare Moon only appears for two episodes! Never did I dream that this would happen. I’m going to have to remember to really prepare myself better for the other three villains I know of. For Discord, that changeling queen thing (Chrysalis I think her name was, according to Ashley), and for the last one I got to see before my viewing days ended; King Sombra. Hopefully the episodes after that, the ones I didn’t get to see, were full of nothing but cute slice of life episodes. I quite liked those ones better. Knowing my luck, that won’t be the case in the slightest. After thinking about it for a time, Sweepy shakes his head. “Not really. Most the stuff I know about him comes from Nightterror Night. But there’s no way he’s the real Nightterror Nebula… right?” “... Dusk Shine thought so,” I confide in the colt guiltily. “He was researching this prophecy about him, b-but the Prince and I brushed him aside and said he was crazy.” Sure we both had ulterior motives, but everything I just admitted was 100% true. “I’m a lousy assistant…” I speak honestly as my head droops. “I’m sure that’s not true.” I lift my head back up and meet Sweepy’s eyes. “I’m sure you did the best job you could do,” the colt reassures truthfully, with no hint of manipulation in his voice. “He was calling your name before we went under, I could hear it. I don’t think he would have if you were lousy at your job. “He cares about you, Barb, even if you didn’t believe him one time.” I’m… left speechless. “... How old are you?” I ask, generally surprised by how this conversation went down. “Eight,” he answers, confirming my earlier guess. He taps his chest proudly and adds, “Though I’ve been told I’m mature for my age.” “I can see that,” I nod, really impressed. “Yup, all thanks to my big brother… but we’re getting distracted again,” he admits, his face turning red. “I-I don’t think that pony is the real Nightterror Nebula. He’s just an imitator. You agree with me, right Scooter?” “...” “... Scooter?” It’s only now that it dawns on us that we haven’t heard from Scooteroll in a tick. The two of us turn towards our third… only to discover that his ears are twitching and that he’s looking away from us altogether. Sweepy and I watch him queerly for this. “Um… you okay?” Sweepy beats me to the punch in asking. Scooter is quiet for a moment, but then his head jerks up and he beams brightly. “Uncle-” And with that he disappears, just like Apple Buck before him. Taken aback at the suddenness, Sweepy and I turn towards each other and simply stare. “...” “...” “... I never asked him where he lives,” Sweepy breaks the eye contact first by whimpering, clearly heartbroken. “And summer vacation just started too...” his ears lower, full of sadness. They then perk up a second later, and begin to twitch. My heart races at the repeating sight. “Sweepy…?” I poke him gently on the head as he starts to stare off into space. “…Dad?” he asks absentmindedly, confirming my fears. He’s about to wake up. A million little thoughts run through my mind as the end draws near for my last friend here; so much still left to figure out, so much to plan… and oh crap something big just dawned on me! “Sweepy Belle!” I plead desperately as I reach for and grab his ears, to turn his face towards my own. “Wait! Please don’t go yet! I-I don’t think I have anypony to wake me up on the other side!” “What?” he asks as his attention is dragged between me and the waking ponies calling for him. “Dusk is probably going to try to fight The Nightterror!” I shout over the voices from the other side. I hear the ghostly whispers of a concerned mother and father in my ears as I tighten my hold on the young colt’s own. “That’s just the kind of pony he is!” My mind blazes at high speeds as I try to recall the show yet again. We’re so off the rails now that it’s not even funny, but if there’s a small chance that one thing is still accurate… “The library! I might be sleeping in the library!” “Where?” the unicorn whispers. “Barb I… I-I can’t hear you anymore.” “The library!” I scream as the volume increases for the otherworldly voices my grip is causing me to hear. “Please! The library! P-please don’t leave me alone here...” “Wher-” Sweepy tries to ask me one more time, but he doesn’t get to finish before his eyes unfocus and his attention is lost. “... Mom?” Then he was gone too. And I’m once again left alone. ... … Thus is my lot in this life. You’d think it would get easier, but it never does. ◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠ Scooter was right; it’s hard to tell time in the Dream Realm. I believe it was only a few hours ago since I saw the two future crusaders, but I think I would be equally right in saying that it could have been days ago. As I continued my wandering of the illusionary dimension, I tried reaching out to other ponies and tried to share with them what the three of us had worked so hard to uncover. Key word being tried. I was unlucky a few times in which I would approach a pony only for them to just so happen to wake up at the same time and disappear. Other times I received a frightened response as, go figure, normal kids are afraid of fire breathing dragons. Who knew? I did meet a couple of nice, if a little dimwitted, fillies my age named Sugar and Spice, but they left just as quickly as everypony else; long before I could ask them for help. It was at this point that the true horror of this situation made itself known to me. When it became apparent that I was the only one left. Over time the screams and sobbing had become inaudible, until finally they were nonexistent. Where once the sky was filled with scared foals, now it was as dead and barren as I assume it was before we arrived. Everyone must have woken up by now. Everyone but me. I feel terrible in admitting that I wish somepony was still here with me. Now by myself and truly alone, I found the time to sit and reflect on this day. And I found the time to write in this book again. Quite the first entry, huh? I wrote long ago that this journal would become my diary in the future, and that future is now it seems. Still coded in English, and still full of my innermost thoughts concerning reincarnation, The Poisoned Barb will now be used to keep my raging thoughts and opinions about any given day in check. My opinions on today, for example, can be summed up in one simple declaration. It sucked eggs. I woke up only to get interrogated by Solaris, I then fought every step of the way to get Dusk to move his lazy flank and make friends. After that I got confused over Rainbow Dash's gender identity, Elusive’s identity period, almost got crushed by a Manly Fluttershy, and I failed to stay awake to help Dusk and friends with The Nightterror! Now I’m stuck in this dream limbo for lord knows how much longer. And the worst part is that I don’t know if all my sacrifices and lies even amounted to anything. ◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠◠ “No!” I yell into the void, vigorously slicing through this last sentence. “No no no no!! The were worth it damn it!!” A teardrop drops on my book and warps the words. S-stupid little thing. Where did, sniff~, t-that come from? “I just… have to have faith that it worked.” I choke up. “I just have to have faith that those stallions are the heroes this world needs them to be. I-I have to have faith that my choices were the right ones. “Faith that my birth brought something good for this world.” The uncaring void ignores me as I sniffle in melancholy. ... ... “... It wasn’t all bad,” I finally speak again, forcing myself to see the silver lining. “Yeah… there were good bits..." ... "...Solaris doesn’t know the truth about me, but he’s still willing to help me out...” Yeah... “... I-I made a friend with Red Gala today, along with all of Dusk’s soon to be friends.” … Yeah! “I… I even know all of the cutie mark crusaders now! Ponies my age! T-that’s pretty cool.” Yeah... Yeah!! “And... there’s a tiny, itty bitty sliver of hope that I’m not alone on this world! I MIGHT NOT BE ALONE!!” YEAH!!! “My life isn’t meaningless!” YEAH!!!   “I have friends!” YEAH!!!   “And I’m going to be okay!!” YEAH YEAH YEAAAAHHHH!!! “I should write this down!” I pick back up my book, lick the tip of my quill to moisten it… ... … and then realize that this is a dream dimension, and that everything I’ve been writing about for the last few hours probably wasn’t recorded in any real physical form whatsoever. … … … SON OF AN ABSOLUTE BIT- “Barb! Wake up, Barb!” … Wha? Did… did I just hear a voice? “Please… BARB!” With eyes widening, I jump to my feet as a familiar voice rings softly in my head. “Is that…?” I ask nobody as my head swivels back and forth. “Barb!!” The world around me turns into a bright white afterimage as I gradually begin… _______________________________ … to wake up. “Barb!” cheers Sweepy Belle as he wraps his forelegs around me. “You’re up!” “S-sweepy?” I groan weakly as I return to the world of the waking. The sight of dusty old books all around me is enough to convince me that that is where I now am. Well… that and the pain and tiredness coursing through every fiber of my being. Ow. “You’re crushing me,” I squirm about pathetically. “Oops,” the colt’s cheeks redden as he releases me. “S-sorry, but I’m so glad you’re awake!” Woozily I try to stand up out of the basket I find myself in, but I end up tripping and almost falling on my face. If it wasn’t for Sweepy’s quick rescue, said face planting would have most certainly happened. The smile I grant him says “thank you,” while my actual mouth says, “I’m just glad you actually heard me when I said I might be in the library!” Sweepy’s face remains red, though this time I think it's for a different kind of embarrassment. “Actually... I didn’t hear what you said,” he admits looking away. “I’m only here because I found one of Bubble Berry’s old party invitations about hosting one in this place. Complete random guess. Sorry… again.” “Hey, you still got me up,” I reassure, patting him on the head. “All that matters is that you’re here.” “Well… I would have gotten here sooner, Barb,” he begins to explain for me as he runs a hoof through his mane, correcting the ‘damage’ I had inflicted on it. “but I had to find a way to sneak away from my folks. They’ve been a teeny bit overprotective of me since, well, you know…” “Actually I don’t know, Sweepy Belle” I retort sarcastically as I let go of him and try to stand on my own. “I just woke up, remember?” Again he blushes. “Right right. Well… we were really close with our guesses! Nightterror Nebula, who's the actual real Nebula if you can believe that, put all the kids in Ponyville to sleep so he could adjust us to his new ‘eternal night’ sleep schedule.” Sweepy then yawns. “It really messed us up…" "Why just kids?" I inquire, trying to put the last few pieces of the puzzle together mentally. Sweepy pony shrugs. "Don't know. The papers think that he only started with the foals because of our weaker magical defenses or something.” Well... a good enough explanation until we can hear it from Nightterror Nebula himself, I suppose. “A few ponies woke up all on their own after a while though, Barb,” Sweepy continues on. “We were wrong there. It was a good guess though.” “Then…” I start to ask, wrapping my head around things as they were revealed to me. “... why was I the last one in there? I must have slept the longest…” “Maybe you were just really really tired?” he answers my simple question with a simple answer. And you know what? As much as I hate to admit it, that actually makes sense. I stayed up late for the sun rising and I stayed up late the night before to start writing my novel. Boy does that feel like it was forever ago. With how much has happened, I can’t believe that it was only… Only… ... … There’s a ringing in my ears. I’m overlooking an important detail. A detail that vitally important. A detail that’s now pushing itself violently to the forefront of my mind. A detail that’s now causing me to hyper analyze every little detail available to me, from Sweepy’s words to the state of the room to my dwindling show knowledge, and to process down the information until only a single question remains. The question of why Sweepy is the one waking me up... … and not Dusk… Only one answer comes to mind. I pray to the high heavens that it’s wrong. “Sweepy…” I start to ask, my words slow and deliberate; my whole body not wanting to hear the answer. Anticipating this, Sweepy Belle’s ears droop as he looks away. The body language is all the answer I really need. I don’t want to hear more now; I shouldn’t ask for more. But… I need to know. “... What… w-what time is it?” Sweepy… answers my question with another question. “... You said that Dusk was probably going to fight The Nightterror, right?” “Sweepy…” “Do… d-do you think my brother probably went with him too?” “Sweepy Belle…” “Cause, um… you s-see…” “Sweepy,” I ask one final time as I place a claw on the shaking pony’s withers. “Please… just tell me…” Sweepy looks me in the eyes before shaking off the contact and walking away towards a closed window sill. With a bounce he jumps up onto the bed next to the frame and uses his new vantage point to reach the string attached to the blinds. With the string fully wrapped around his hoof, the young colt turns to me gravely and answers, “The Nightterror came three days ago, Barb.” Like his brother before him, Sweepy Belle has the great misfortune of having to open the curtains to a nightmarish sight. In this case, a darkened sky. “It’s been midnight ever since.”