//------------------------------//
// Miracle Pill 
// Story: Dreamquestria 
// by TheBBofC 
//------------------------------//

	Loud pounding and shaking walls brought Stephen to consciousness in his bed.  Who, in their right mind, blasts a subwoofer at full volume while driving down the street on Saturday morning?  The inconsiderate man’s bass was cranked up so loud that Stephen’s house rattled as he passed by. Once it passed, Stephen lay in his bed and enjoyed the otherwise quiet morning.
He wanted to stay in his bed forever.  Being on his third consecutive day of whatever this was, lying in bed was good mental rest if nothing else.  But there was cause for optimism as today was the day it all gets fixed.  Peering over to the clock, he saw he had three hours until his appointment with the sleep specialist.  Not needing to be anywhere anytime soon, he remained in bed.  Even with the sun coming through his bedroom windows, the room gradually heating up and the bed slowly getting uncomfortable; Stephen remained in bed and let himself rest.  
After over an hour-and-a-half of good relaxation, Stephen decided it was time to get ready.  Today was slightly better in a sense of not necessarily feeling his exhaustion.  Either he was getting used to it or the nap he took before getting out of bed had slightly refreshed him.  However, despite feeling awake, he also felt like a tortoise as his movements were noticeably slower than usual.
This continued through making breakfast.  Stephen decided to make himself an extra large breakfast this morning when he remembered something one of his friends in the military had told him.  They tell you to get at least three hours of sleep.  If you cannot get three hours of sleep, stay awake and eat every two hours.  This was going to be Stephen’s plan until he got everything straightened out.  On the way to the doctors’ office, he heard an advertisement on the radio for Five Hour Energy and considered adding that to his new regiment as well.

On his way to the appointment, Stephen’s phone rang with Selena on the other end.  “Hello?” Stephen spoke slightly slower than normal.
“Hey, Stephen!” Selena was at her usual energy level.  “You sound drowsy today.  Are you alright?”
“Still exhausted, I guess,” Stephen tried to make himself talk normal.
“That’s no good!” Selena proclaimed.
“Don’t worry about me.  I’m on my way to the doctors’ office so it’ll all be over soon.  Did you need something while I’m out?”
“Not really.  I just wanted to see if you were down for more Portal today.”
“I would love that.  You can come over as soon as I get home form my appointment.”
“What time is that?”
“Let’s say four o’clock to be safe.”
“Oh, okay,” said Selena.  “Did you sleep alright last night?”
“I might have,” said Stephen.  “But I’m still having those blasted dreams.”
“Stephen,” concern raised in Selena’s voice.  “You’re beginning to worry me with these dreams of yours.  Are you going to be okay?”
“We’ll find out today, won’t we?”
“If it’s the dreams that are causing you so much trouble, shouldn’t you be seeing a psychologist instead of a sleep specialist?” Selena asked.
Was she suggesting that Stephen wasn’t mentally sound?  “I’m not crazy, Selena.  I know that much.”  Stephen caught a very slight undertone of anger in his voice and instantly regretted it.
“Okay, sorry.  I didn’t mean it.”
“It’s alright, Selena.  I didn’t mean to get testy.  Don’t worry though.  I’ll have all this fixed soon.”
“Do you promise?”  Selena’s voice sounded like she was trying to do puppy-dog eyes over the phone.
“Yes, Selena, I promise.  Within the next four days I’ll have it all figured out,” Stephen said, remembering the promise he made with Twilight Sparkle.
“Do you pinkie promise?”
Stephen chuckled.  “I’m not there to actually lock pinkies with you, but yes.”
“Hmm,” Selena paused for a moment.  “That’ll have to do for now.  I’ll get a real pinkie promise later.  Have fun at the doctors’ office!  I love you!”
“I love you too, Selena.  Bye.”  Stephen hung up his phone and pulled into the medical district’s parking lot.

Stephen waited in the office for only a couple of minutes before the specialist appeared.  The doctor introduced himself as Viknesh before having a seat across from Stephen and looking over his clipboard.  “This says you’ve been having troubles sleeping for about three days now,” he said with a small smile.  “I’m glad you came to me so soon.  Usually people wait weeks or longer before seeking help and by then the problem has usually gotten worse.”
“I’ve got my annual reviews coming up at work.  If I get a good review I’ll get a pay raise and maybe a promotion.  So I can’t take any chances of having whatever this is affect me at work.”
“That’s good then.  Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“It’s the strangest thing.  Whenever I go to sleep, I start having these weird dreams.  When I wake up, I don’t feel like I’ve slept at all.”
“What kind of dreams?”
Stephen shifted in his chair.  “Does it matter?”
“It might,” said Viknesh.
Stephen averted his eyes.  “I’m in a world of different types of ponies that can fly and do magic,” Stephen blurted in a way he’d hoped Viknesh wouldn’t hear.  Stephen peered up at Viknesh and waited for a reaction.  But the doctor simply nodded his head as he scribbled something onto his clipboard.  It was probably something about how absurd Stephen’s statement was.
“While you’re asleep, are you aware that you’re dreaming?”
“When you open your eyes and you’re suddenly a dark red pony with big, blue eyes, it’s kind of hard to not know that you’re dreaming.”
“Have you tried waking yourself up?”
“I have, but it didn’t work.  It took my alarm going off to wake me up.”
“Then you don’t feel like you’ve slept?”
“Yeah, I feel just like I did back in community college when I had to pull all-nighters.  Oh!  Then two nights ago, I took a beating in the dream.  When I woke up, I was covered in bruises.”
Viknesh stopped taking notes and looked up from his clipboard with a raised eyebrow.  “Bruises?  May I see?”  Stephen stood and ran his hand over his torso.  After Stephen found a sore spot on his stomach, he raised his shirt, showing Viknesh the bruise.  The doctor wheeled himself forward to examine it closer.  The splotch was slightly faded from having been there for two days.  But it looked almost five inches in diameter.  A light touch was all it took to illicit a painful squeak from Stephen.  “Have you been putting this on ice?” Viknesh asked.
Stephen thought for a moment.  “Nope, but that’s something I should be doing, isn’t it?”
Viknesh smirked and nodded his head.  “Is it just this one bruise?” he asked.
“I’ve counted four on my front that I can feel and I know there’s a few on my back.  There might be others that I can’t see.”  
“Do you think you’ve been sleepwalking?”
“I don’t think so.”
“But do you know so?”
“The night before I woke up with these bruises, I fell asleep in an awkward position with my girlfriend lying on top of me.  When I woke up, we were still in the same position.”
“Perhaps you moved, bumped into a few things and then came back to where you were?”
“It’s possible, I guess.”  Stephen lowered his shirt and sat back down.  “Selena’s a sound sleeper but she’s not a rock.  I would think she would have noticed if I moved her like that.”
Viknesh stroked his chin.  “You might be right but let’s not rule out the possibility of sleepwalking yet.  What position were you and your girlfriend sleeping in?”
“It was kind of like this,” Stephen backed up against the wall.  He leaned his head, neck and shoulders against it with the rest of his body at about a forty-five degree angle to the wall.  “My head and shoulders were up on the headboard and the rest of me was flat on the bed.  Selena was on my stomach with her arms around me.”
Viknesh raised an eyebrow at Stephen.  “That’s certainly not a healthy position for your back or neck.  But I don’t think it could bruise you so badly.”
“But if that’s not it, what else could it be?”
“It could be any number of things,” said Viknesh.  He took out a thin piece of paper and started writing on it.  “Sleep Apnea, lucid dreaming or sleepwalking are the first possibilities that come to mind.  I’m going to start you off on a prescription of sleeping pills and see if that works.  I suggest taking a notebook and writing down the dates, what time you go to bed, what time you wake up, what you dream about and how rested you feel.  
“If that doesn’t work, we’ll get you back here for a night of observation.  That could help us narrow it down quite a bit.”  Viknesh wheeled his chair to the other side of the room to grab a business card from a stack.  “Try seeing a psychiatrist as well,” Viknesh handed the card to Stephen.
Stephen took the card and looked it over.  “Why do I need a psychiatrist?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“She’ll be able to figure out if you have a chemical imbalance in your brain or if there’s something going on in your mind.  It’s worth looking into.”
“All of this sounds like a bit much.  Is any of this going to affect me at work?”
“Not any more than leaving this alone would affect you.”
“Okay, but how about cost?  I don’t think my insurance plan covers specialist visits or things like what you suggested.”
“I’m sure we can find a way around it,” Viknesh reassured.  “It’ll take a couple weeks to get everything set up.  We’ll call you in a few days with some possible appointment times.  Until then, maybe the sleeping pills will help you enough.  You can always cancel the appointments if this works itself out.”
In a couple of weeks, the employee reviews would be over.  Stephen had really hoped all this would be fixed before then.  But it was looking like he would just have to tough it out and hold himself together until the reviews were over.  “That sounds like a plan.”
“That’s good then,” said Viknesh.  He then took a few minutes to tell Stephen about all the different treatment options they could take after the different tests had been done.  Once Viknesh was done explaining everything, they stood and shook each other’s hands.  “The receptionist outside will get you set up and we’ll be in touch.”  Doctor Viknesh handed Stephen his prescription and Stephen saw his way out.
After finishing up some paperwork with the receptionist, Stephen left the office in an odd mood.  He had gone in with high hopes and was looking forward to getting this taken care of as soon as possible.  Now he was only more confused at the number of possibilities.  But he should have known better than to expect an immediate diagnosis and treatment plan in the first place.  Stephen’s best hope now was on the off chance his miracle pill would come in the literal form of this prescription.  On that sliver of hope, Stephen filled his prescription and bought himself lunch.  

Stephen got himself home as quickly as he could and called Selena to come over.  When she arrived, Stephen vented his frustration and confusion to her.  She was doing her best to offer help, but Stephen could tell by her growing concern that she had no idea what to do.  
“What do you think about that?” Stephen asked her a couple of times during his venting.  She would stare at him like a deer in the headlights for a long, awkward moment before offering some vague advices.  Like Stephen against the timberwolves, Selena didn’t know how to help people like this.  Even though that had been a dream, Stephen still remembered what that felt like.  Watching in helplessness was a lousy feeling on multiple levels and Selena was likely experiencing something similar now.  Stephen decided that she shouldn’t have to go through that if he could avoid it.  So he dropped the subject.  After a hug, a kiss and a proper pinkie promise that he’d be alright, they booted up the console.

Portal 2’s cooperative mode helped them forget about their worries.  For a couple of hours, they laughed and played just like the day before.  But after those couple hours had passed, Stephen’s exhaustion started taking its toll again.  His mind didn’t seem to want to maintain any train of though, ending them abruptly and leaving him in mental blankness.  This resulted in several consecutive mistakes and an increasing requirement of trial and error during the game.  The challenges kept getting more and more difficult.  Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t have been the frustrating part.  The frustrating part was Stephen being aware that the increased difficulty was all in his head.
Selena spoke up when Stephen needed to pause the game to relieve his frustration.  “Maybe we should take a break and make dinner.”  
With a nod, Stephen shut down their game and they raided the refrigerator.  Although he had plenty of groceries stored away, he couldn’t decide what he wanted to make in this state of mind.  In fact, he didn’t have enough energy or motivation to make anything.  So Selena made the decision for them by grabbing items at random.  She came out with waffles and a variety of soup cans - a combination which Stephen found hilarious. 
Now that he wasn’t trying to think so hard, Stephen could relax.  He found himself laughing at the way Selena pretended to be on a cooking show as she mixed the Italian wedding, chicken noodle and beef stew together in a large bowl.  But she could only keep that bit going for a minute before breaking down into laugher herself.  Her laughter only made Stephen laugh even harder.  Once they recovered, he felt much better and used the sudden burst of energy to complete the previously arduous task of dropping the waffles into the toaster.  Once they popped up, Stephen set the table and Selena served their concoction.  
To Stephen’s surprise, the Italian-beef-chicken-stew-noodle-soup-abomination (as Selena called it) was a tasty combination.  The out of place factor in this equation was the waffles and syrup.  Inspired by Selena’s spontaneity, Stephen took action.  “These waffles need something different!” Stephen cried out as energetically as he could.
“What’s that?” Selena asked as Stephen grabbed a pair of waffles out of the toaster and threw them onto his plate.  Then he proceeded to douse them with hot sauce.  “You’re a lunatic!” she shouted in between peals of laughter.
“You’ve known me long enough to know I’ll put hot sauce on anything.”  Stephen bit off a chunk of a waffle and immediately regretted this decision.  It was true, he did like hot sauce on many-a-different foods.  Waffles, however, were a bad idea.  He swallowed it in an attempt to look tough.  But he knew he hadn't fooled Selena when she burst into such laughter that she fell from her chair.
After having shared a good laugh and finished their meal, it was time to clean up dinner and the kitchen.  It was almost eight at night when they finished and Selena asked, “Do you want to watch a movie or something?”
“I have to start my prescription tonight,” Stephen replied.  “I have no idea how it’ll affect me.  We can pop one in if you want but I can’t promise I’ll be awake the whole time.”
“That’s alright,” said Selena, wrapping her arms around him.  “This really stinks though.  I’m starting to lose time with you over this thing.  I don’t like it.”
Stephen sighed.  “Believe me, I like it about as much as you do.”  With that, Stephen and Selena went in the living room.  Once Selena had picked a movie, Stephen put it in the DVD player and went to get a dosage of his prescription.  As the movie started, he sat next to Selena.  “Here’s hoping this works,” he said just before downing the pills.  “Are you planning on staying here tonight?”
“Yes, but I have to work in the morning.  So I won’t be here when you wake up.  I’ll leave you some breakfast though.”
“What would I do without you?”  Stephen asked, kissing Selena on the cheek.
“You’d probably go crazy and do something stupid,” Selena chuckled.
Stephen laid back on his couch and pulled Selena closer to his chest.  “You’re probably right.”  Stephen enjoyed the first forty minutes of the movie before passing out with Selena in his arms.

Stephen opened his eyes to a dark town of Ponyville.  Nothing had changed on this front.  But perhaps he’ll at least wake up feeling rested.  Standing up, he shook some sleepiness out of his head.  While trying to regain his bearings on where he was, he heard Twilight’s voice call him.  “Is that you, Stephen?”  
Turning around, he met three moonlit silhouettes.  One of them was definitely spike, the other two looked like ponies wearing saddlebags.  Twilight’s horn lit up and provided them some better light.  The pony next to her had a white coat, dark purple mane and a horn on her head.  “Hey, everyone,” said Stephen.  “What’s up?”
“Twilight,” the white pony spoke up with a very feminine voice.  “Is this the stallion you were telling me about today?”
“Oh yes,” Twilight replied.  “Stephen, this is my friend, Rarity.  Rarity, this is Stephen.”  Rarity?  Stephen had heard this name before but he couldn’t instantly remember where.
Rarity held out a hoof to Stephen.  “Pleasure to meet you, Stephen.”
The posh tone in her voice prompted Stephen to respond formally.  “The pleasure is mine,” Stephen remembered his mother’s etiquette drills as he shook Rarity’s hoof.  “What are you two up to?”
“Twilight and Spike had errands to run in the same direction as me today.  So I decided to tag along as extra company.”
“I really can’t wait to get back to the library,” said Twilight.  “I’ve been carrying around these books all day.”
“Is that the book you were talking about a couple nights ago?” Stephen asked.  “The one that you only had the abridged version of?”
“One of them is.  But then I saw a newspaper article about something called the Stone of Sisyphus getting stolen from the Cloudsdale Museum at the beginning of this week.  None of the books in my library could tell me anything about it so I ordered a few that might.”
“I remember seeing that article when we were doing research together,” said Stephen.  “It sounds like you’ve got your reading cut out for you.”
“Starswirl’s guide on advanced teleportation alone is going to take me a couple of days to study.  I can see why there’s abridged versions of it.”
“I’m told you spent last night on the farm with Applejack,” said Rarity.  “How did that go?”
Stephen’s heart sank as he remembered the previous night.  Dropping his eyes from Rarity's, he said,  “Let’s just say that I learned a lot.”
“Yes, well, the rough and tumble nature of farm work can do that to a pony,” said Rarity.  “Did you have any plans made for tonight?”
“Not yet,” Stephen replied.
“Well I’ve got a commission deadline coming up and I could certainly use some help in my shop tonight.  Would you be willing to give a lady a helping hoof?” Rarity asked with a smile and big eyes.
“What exactly do you do?” he asked, a little standoffish from remembering what happened when he agreed to help Applejack.
“I’m a seamstress, darling.  I make and sell dresses at the Carousel Boutique here in town.”
“Ponies wear clothes?” Stephen blurted without thinking.
Rarity gasped and stepped back.  “Why of course we do!  Whatever gave you the impression that we didn’t?”
“I’m sorry, but ponies don’t wear clothes where I come from and I haven’t seen any clothing since I got here.”
“We don’t normally wear clothes,” said Twilight.  “But sometimes we dress up for formal events.  Rarity here makes some of the best dresses in Equestria.”
“I’ve never sewn before.  Are you sure I’ll be of any help?” Stephen asked.
“Nonsense, Stephen,” said Rarity.  “I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”
“I’ve heard that before,” said Stephen.
“Wait,” said Spike.  “Don’t you want my help too?”
Rarity perked up.  “Of course!” she said, excitedly.  “Another set of hands would be lovely, Spike.  Thank you for offering.”  
Spike turned over to Twilight.  “Twilight, is it okay if I help Rarity too?”
Spike speaking Rarity’s name jogged Stephen’s memory as to where he had heard her name before.  When Stephen met Spike the day before, Spike was pretending to address a love interest while flexing in front of a mirror.  This was the Rarity he was referring to?  If so, there was literally no part of this that made sense to Stephen.  A dragon with a crush on a pony gets jealous when she asks another pony for help and possibly sees the other pony as a romantic competitor, which isn’t even possible considering the two ponies just now met each other.
Stephen knew better than to try to make sense of any of this.  He had been reminding himself to play along for three nights in a row now.  On the other hand, Stephen could only handle so much absurdity and could feel himself approaching the straw that would break the horse’s back.  So he looked to Twilight in hopes that she’d have an answer for any of this.  
Twilight spoke up before Stephen had a chance to ask any of his questions.  “Spike, you usually have trouble staying up late.  Do you really think you’ll be able to keep up with Stephen and Rarity all night?”
Stephen decided against asking any questions when he saw Twilight treat the situation like it was normal.  He’d just have to tough it out and play along some more.  “At this point, it won’t be too difficult to keep up with me,” Stephen interjected with a yawn.
“Exactly,” said Spike.  “If he can do it then I’m sure I can too.”
“That’s not necessarily what I meant,” Stephen muttered to himself.
“Alright, Spike.  You can go help Rarity if you want.”
“Well then, everypony,” said Rarity.  “It seems we all have our work cut out for us tonight.  Let’s get started, shall we?”
As Rarity trotted off, Spike moved to follow her but was stopped by Twilight grabbing his tail, nearly causing him to trip.  “Hey!  What did you do that for?” he asked.
Twilight lowered her head to make level eye contact with Spike.  “You’d better behave yourself.”
Spike shrugged his shoulders.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I’ll be just fine.”  With that, Spike skipped off and called back, “See you tomorrow, Twilight!”
Unsure of what he just witnessed, Stephen looked over to Twilight, who was breathing a frustrated sigh.  “Is he always like that?” Stephen asked.
“He’s usually a really good helper but sometimes he gets competitive and bites off more than he can chew.”
“He’s just like a little kid, isn’t he?  I don’t think it’ll be a big deal.” Stephen tried to reassure Twilight.
“I hope so.  Let me know if he causes any trouble, okay?”
Stephen nodded at Twilight.  After bidding each other a good night, Stephen turned around and ran to catch up with Rarity and Spike.