//------------------------------//
// Part 2: Cereal and Coffee 
// Story: Axil Heartstrings 
// by Everypony 
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Editors Note: Hey guys, this took a while to write because I've been having multiple writing blocks lately. I'm doing my best to get my stories out there. This story in particular is my favorite and will get much more serious as the story progresses. You'll probably know what "the incident" is by next chapter if you haven't already guessed it. Feedback would be very appreciated. Thanks guys.



Axil Heartstrings
Part 2: Cereal and Coffee




This time it was different as well. This time, it was the worst. I woke up already in immense pain. I opened my eyes and I saw blood everywhere. It was in puddles on the floor, and splattered on the wall. The blood seemed to glow and illuminate the surroundings. The second thing I notice is that I’m in  chamber that is made entirely of rock. It seemed to be dome shaped and have no way of entering or exiting. I tried to move but I felt sharp jabs in my wrists. I looked over at my hooves and saw that I was strapped down with sharp, circular rocks around my wrists. I looked down at my hind legs and saw that they were strapped down in the same way. I was stuck on a flat piece of rock tilted upwards at an angle.

I felt the feeling of despair begin to creep in over me. Threatening to make me lose my mind. I felt my stomach begin to knot up. My head felt like it’d been smashed against rocks for hours. I didn’t have any thought of what to do. Then I heard a laugh from behind me. A horrible laugh that seemed to reverberate in my mind long after the laugh had actually stopped. I thrashed in my restraints trying to see behind me. This only accomplished releasing another burst of laughter from whoever, whatever, was behind me. 

I heard the horrid thing behind me slowly begin to walk forward. It seemed as if the thing was crushing the ground wherever it stepped. I watched the horrible monstrosity of what formally was a Diamond Dog hobble into view. It took it’s sweet time, because it seemed to absorb the fear that I was so obviously emitting. It finally was right in front of me, about 5 feet away. The monster looked at me with it’s soul devouring eyes. The two black ovals seemed to absorb all light around the beast. It seemed like it stood there for hours, just savouring the moments as it did nothing. Finally, it began to move.

It moved slowly. So slowly, that it looked like it was put in slow motion. Time itself seemed to slow down. It’s ghastly face reached withing inches of mine. It was extremely hard to tell through all of the warped bones, but it seemed as if the Dog was smiling at me. It lifted it’s wretched paw to my face. It gently caressed my face. At first, I was beyond confused. But then, the Dog roughly dug it’s claws into my face causing me to shout out. I felt blood begin to flow down my face like tears. The Dog then quickly and painfully ripped downward with it’s paw, leaving longs trails of red behind them. It’s claws took some skin, fur, and blood with it, splashing my blood on the wall, and shooting fur into the air. Blood was pouring down my face.

My vision was clouded by red, but I could still see the Dog looking at me gleefully, happy with his action. Now, it picked up a shroud of jagged rock and hobbled towards me once again. It’s smile was back, as distorted as always. The rock in it’s hand stared at me maliciously as well. In one quick motion, it grabbed my right hind-leg and pulled it with all of it’s strength. The rock that held my hind-leg down disintegrated into small bits and pieces as if it was made of chalk. My leg broke and twisted at the fiend’s whim. I felt shards of bone begin to jab out of my skin painfully. I almost feinted when he pulled it out of it’s socket.

Now he took his blade of rock and placed it on the connection of skin between my leg and my torso. The rock was so sharp it cut me with almost no effort at all. The Dog pulled my leg again, erupting more pain, and begin to slowly cut the skin that was now the only thing keeping my leg connected to the rest of my body. Blood began to spray out like a fire hose, painting the walls red with my own blood. The red liquid even flew into my face, eyes, and mouth. The pain of having my leg cut off was torture enough, but tasting my own blood while it was happening, was some kind of living hell. 

After what seemed like a decade of pain, the monster took a brief step back and held my hind leg out in front of my face. It continued to smile as it dangled my severed leg in front of me. Blood was still pouring out where my leg had formally been. Without missing a beat, the Dog seemed to read my mind and walk out of my view behind me. Not even 10 seconds after it left, it came back with a large, flat piece of metal that was red hot. The metal connected to a small wooden handle, which the Dog was using to hold it. The smiling devil pushed the hot end of the metal to my stump of a right leg. I heard the sizzling of burning flesh and felt a level of pain I thought was unreachable. I screamed with all of my might. I screamed so hard I felt like I ripped my vocal chords.

Because the Dog had cauterized the wound, blood ceased to flow. However I still felt the pain of the hot metal as if it was permanently glued there. I forced myself to look up at evil Dog, to see what he planned to do to me next. As my gaze finally meet it’s eyes, I realized that it’s not even looking at me. Well, it was kinda is looking at me. It was marveling at my severed leg in it’s paw. It literally licked it’s lips at my leg. In my horror, I saw it slowly lift my leg to it’s mouth, and chomp down hard on the fleshy part of it. I know that all signs of logic says that I shouldn’t feel my leg after it has been cut off, but I somehow felt every single one of it’s teeth bite down into my leg. I let out another scream, which seemed only to encourage the Dog. It quickly ripped off a huge chuck of flesh from severed leg. I felt that pain too.

With every slow and large bite it took, my pain escalated. By the time it threw the dismembered leg away, it was almost all bone. Blood was still dripping from it’s chomps as it picked the blade up again. It advanced towards me lazily, it’s giant tail dragging behind it. This time, it took my tail and simple cut it off at the base. It didn’t even look at it as it threw it away. I was too exhausted to scream. The blood was flowing again, causing a sickening pool of red liquid to form below me. I saw my reflection in the puddle. My eyes looked sunken in, my ears were flat against my head, and mane was a rat’s nest.

My head was forced up painfully by the Dog’s paw. It seemed to look at me in disgust. It seemed frustrated that I wasn’t doing anymore screaming. It had to change that. It released it’s grip on my chin, and painfully grasped my horn. I really started to scream when I realized what it was trying to do. The Dog’s gargantuan paw was so large that my horn didn’t even go half-way up the length of it. I tried with all my might to move away but to no avail. The Dog begin to pull back against my horn. The pain was the worst yet.

Unknown to most non-unicorns, a unicorn’s horn is.... well.... it’s quite hard to put to words. But a unicorn’s horn is... let’s just say it’s more important to us than all of the other parts of our body. Our horns define us. Our horns connect us with each other. Our horns sometimes seem to be a direct link to our soul. And now the Diamond Dog was trying to rip it off. I struggled, tears falling like a waterfall, trying to do anything to get away. Even my magic wouldn’t work no matter how hard I tried. With a pain that I felt throughout my whole body, a small crack developed in my horn. My scream was so loud I think I might have broken my own ear drums. The pain was impossible to describe.

Even though my eyes were clamped shut with pain, I could tell the Dog was grinning. The bucking Dog was enjoying ever single moment of this. With one last lurch, the Dog thrust all of it’s body weight on my horn and it popped free from my head. My screaming stopped even thought the pain was the worst yet. I couldn’t even move. My mouth hung open in shock. I felt a warm liquid flow down my face. The pain got 20% worse every second. I wasn’t sure what to do. I wasn’t sure what I could do. I wasn’t even sure if I could scream if I wanted to. The beast backed away, it’s grin bigger than ever. It lifted it’s paw and opened it towards me. My horn was in the center, covered in blood. The mother bucking Dog just snapped off my horn. My horn. My very essence of being, was being held in the paw of a monster. Now I started to scream. I screamed so loud that it hurt my ears, my throat, my lungs. The Dog only seemed to enjoy it. I screamed for what seemed like an eternity. And even when I woke up, I was screaming.


(***)


The sight of Lyra’s tears streaming down her face was what made me stop screaming. I tried desperately to catch me breath, breathing in heavily and uncontrollably. Lyra wasn’t really sobbing, but her tears were flowing down her face. Through her sniffling she simply muttered my name. She looked to the ground and the tears begin to hit the floor. Bon Bon was beside her, resting a hoof gently on Lyra’s shoulder. I somehow found the courage to speak.

“I’m sorry.” Was all I could muster. I turned my head away from the teary scene for the fear that my own tears would start again soon.

“Your scream...” Bon Bon began tentatively. “It didn’t sound like you...” I could tell by her voice that she was horrified.

“How long was I screaming for?” I mustered up. My head throbbed so much it was hard to speak. This time Lyra replied.

“As soon as we started down the hallway.” She said still looking at the floor. “We thought you were being murdered or something.” She wasn’t that far from the truth.
“What time is it?” I still couldn’t look at either of them, so it looked like I was asking the couch.

“2:30 am.” Lyra said still sniffling. I somehow managed to turn to them.

“I am truly sorry you had to see that.” I said glancing from one pony to the next. “Or hear that, that is.” My headache was pillaging my brain again, and it was incredibly hard to focus. I ran my hooves through my mane trying to think of what to say next. “You guys should probably get some sleep.” was all I could think of. Thank Celestia that Lyra had stopped crying.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday stupid.” She said meeting my eyes. I knew that she was trying to be funny, trying to be her regular self, but her voice was still drenched in pain and worry. I have no idea how, but I manged to giggle. It hurt like a mother bucker, but it lightened the mood. At least a bit.

“Well, there’s no way I can go to work tomorrow.” I said slowly and tiredly. Lyra looked at me with a small fire in her eyes.

“There is no way in hell that you are not going to Dr. Cranium tomorrow.” She said with a tone I’ve never heard come from her before. She sounded almost angry. And Lyra is one of the happiest ponies I’ve ever met. The tone surprised me so much I almost forgot to reply.

“Lyra, you don’t need to convince me after what I just went through.” I tried so speak as calmly as I could. “Now you two should really get some sleep. You look exhausted.” 

“If we’re exhausted, what would that would make you...” Bon Bon led on. I again somehow manged to giggle.

“It makes me half dead.” I said with a barely audible voice. I didn’t know how, but it seemed like every time I slept, I got more tired. I wasn’t sure how I was going to stay awake. Lyra’s eyes were red from the tears, but she managed to lift her head. 

“Are you going to be okay until morning? I really don’t think you should sleep again, but you do look half dead.” Lyra pointed out.

“I’ll be fine.” I said rubbing my eyes trying to release some energy from my brain.

“That’s what you said a few hours ago,” Lyra said again looking worried. “And we came home to you screaming Bloody Mare-y.”

“There is no way I’m going to sleep. I don’t care if I have to burn myself, I’m staying awake until I see the doctor.” I did my best to reassure her. She looked completely unconvinced. I know that if she wasn’t as tired as she had been, she would have protested more. But I could tell she desperately wanted to sleep.

“If you need anything just come and get me.” Lyra said suppressing a yawn. Bon Bon was now leaning on Lyra barely able to stay awake. I painfully got to my hooves and helped Lyra half drag half carry Bon Bon with our magic to the girls’ room. She was able to get herself onto the bed and was asleep before her head hit the pillow. Lyra was now sitting on the bed in her weird position. I had to giggle. “What?”

“I’ve always thought you’d grow out of sitting like that.” I said smiling at the recalled memory. “When we were little I’d always try to sit like that, and I’d-”

“You’d always complain on how you said I was cheating at life.” Lyra said happily recalling the memory as well. “I never understood how you thought I could cheat like that.”

“I still can’t understand how you can sit like that.” For a while there, the pain seemed to evaporate away, and left me with my cousin happily recalling childhood memories. But only for a second. Pain is always worse when it interrupts happiness. Lyra now lay on her back, eyes fluttering to keep open. I walked to the door and shut the light off. Halfway through the gateway to the hallway, Lyra began to speak.

“Axil, thank you. I know I say those words too much, but thank you. I don’t even know if I would be here, happy as I am without you. I’m not sure if I’d be happy at all without you here. And now that you need the help for once, I feel like a complete flankhole for not being able to do anything. You’ve helped out through my worst times, better than any of my other friends or my parents. You were there when...” I knew where she was heading. I knew what she was trying to say. She began to get misty eyed. “You were there when-”

“Lyra,” I cut her off. “I know what you’re trying to say. I know that you are really and truly grateful for what I’ve done, but please don’t make me go back there. Not tonight. I know I probably will tomorrow when I talk to the doctor, but please don’t make me go back tonight. I want to have a few more hours away from the horrible place before I go back. If you could do that for my Lyra, I would be grateful to you.” Lyra’s tears were flowing again.


“I’m sorr-”

“Stop it.” I cut her off again. “You have nothing to feel sorry about. You owe me nothing. All you can do for me right now, is to sleep. Do the one thing I can’t right now. Please.” She choked back tears. 

“Okay.”

“Goodnight Lyra.” With that, I closed the door, and walked down the hall.


(***)


I sit on the balcony watching the rest of the stars slowly begin to disappear. The Colt’s Choice in my hand had almost been burned down to the nub. I lifted the cigarette to my mouth and inhaled deeply, sucking in all of the poison. After it I had my lungs filled with smoke, I threw the Colt’s Choice away. I watched as the small red tip of it fell down to the ground below, along with the rest of it’s brothers. I had probably smoked two packs so far. It wasn’t even 6 am yet. I knew it would be killer on my lungs, but I didn’t care. I got hooked by Swivel, and couldn’t stop.

I picked up the Applejack Daniel’s from the ground near my hooves and took a long swig. I hadn’t drunk enough yet to get intoxicated, but I could get there soon if I wanted to. The last 3 hours had passed slowly, but peacefully. My headache had gone down considerably, but it was still there threatening to take over. I knew that I shouldn’t have, but I took out another Colt’s Choice and lit it up with magic. I loved that fact that I could light a smoke without a clumsy lighter.

I was so involved with my smoke, that I didn’t hear the balcony door slowly slide open. The cream colored pony strode into my peripheral vision, slightly startling me. “Surprised how quite it is.” Bon Bon said thoughtfully looking out over the Manehatten skyline. I sighed a slow breath.

“It’s peaceful at this time.” I began taking another long drag of smoke. “Before my nightmares got worse, I would sometimes get up early and just sit out here. It always got me thinking.” I went on.

“About what?” Bon Bon said picking up the bottle of Applejack Daniel’s. She took a long swig and set it back down.

“About whatever.” I said lazily. “Usually about what’s going on that day, or what has happened recently.”

“So what are you thinking about now?” The pony said asking more questions. I thought for a moment.

“Nothing.” I replied flatly. “I’m just sitting here, killing myself with some cigarettes, and drinking some good whiskey. And I like it.” I said giving a genuine smile. Bon Bon laughed and sat down on the chair opposite to me. “Why are you up anyway?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I just woke up and walked out here.” She said still looking at the beautiful city. She turned to me with seriousness in her eyes. Oh here we go. I thought. “Axil, Lyra cares about you.” She started stating the obvious. “And I know you care about her too. I’m pretty sure you know that Lyra and I are more than just friends. I care for Lyra immensely like you do. But I can’t do this for her. Only you can. Lyra is really worried about you. She doesn’t talk to me about it, but I can see it in her eyes whenever she looks at you. And I know you think you already know, but you don’t.” Bon Bon went on.

“You don’t know how much she does care for you. I hope by now we can call ourselves friends, you and I, but I’m being completely honest when I say she cares about you more than she does me.” I was shocked, not by what she said, but the very fact that she said it herself.

“Bon Bon, Lyra doesn-”

“Axil, she’s known you her whole life. Even though we’re pretty much dating, she’s known me for half the time.” Bon Bon said with no sign of hurt in her voice. “I love Lyra, and I know you do too. And if you do consider me your friend, then I hope you can do it for me and Lyra. Get through this. Get better. I’m not sure if Lyra can stand much more of this. When you offered to move Lyra and me out to Manehatten, Lyra said yes before you even told her you got jobs for us both. She loves you Axil. More than you know. So I’m asking you... No, I’m telling you, as your friend and as your cousin’s friend, don’t let Lyra down.”

I’ve known Bon Bon for around 5 years now. I saw her now and again in my visits to Ponyville, but I never got to knew her until around 5 years ago. In in all those years, I’ve never heard her so serious. She’s always seemed ready with a joke and slightly immature. But just now, I seemed to gain a tremendous amount of respect for her. 

“I promise, to both you and Lyra, I won’t let you down.” I tried to look as stern and convincing as possible. I’m not sure if it worked, but Bon Bon seemed satisfied. She picked up the bottle of Applejack Daniel’s and held it out towards me. 

“Cheers.” I wasn’t really sure what I could cheers with, so I took out an unlit cigarette and tapped it against the bottle.

“Cheers.” I replied and we both brought the items to our mouths. She took a long drink, and I lit up and took an extra long drag. It felt like the best smoke all night.


(***)


Bon Bon and I sat there watching the sun slowly rise for a few hours. I finally turned my head towards the clock in the kitchen and saw that it was 9 am. We’ve been sitting out there, not talking, for about 4 hours. It was the most peaceful time I’ve had in a while. It was a Saturday, so the talk show didn’t start until 9. I had remembered to move to the phone a few hours ago to call Notch and tell him I couldn’t come in. I thought about turning the radio on to listen to Notch, but I decided against it. I really didn’t want to think about work right now. 

“You know how to cook?” Bon Bon asked suddenly snapping me out of my trance. I blinked at her for a few seconds before remembering to reply.

“Oh... No. I don’t.” I said sighing.

“Me either.” Bon Bon said crossing her hooves over her chest. “I wanted to make some breakfast for Lyra, but then I released that she’s the only one who knows how to cook.” She said looking slightly frustrated. 

“I know how to make cereal.” I said trying to be helpful but always trying to be a smartflank.

“Better than nothing.” Bon Bon shrugged. “I can make coffee.” She said in the same tone I had said my words. 

“Cereal and coffee for breakfast?” I asked myself aimlessly. “Sounds like a four star meal. Why not?” After that being said, we both got off our lazy flanks and went into the kitchen. It literally took five minutes to make our “breakfast.”

“Cheerilee’os and coffee for breakfast.” Bon Bon said looking over the tray the we had set our creations on. “We should go into professional cooking.” She said with a smile. I laughed for the first time in what seemed like years, even though it was probably only a couple of days.

I grasped the tray magically and began to walk to Lyra’s room with Bon Bon in the lead. She opened the door and flipped on the light switch. “Good morning Lyra.” Bon Bon cooed softly. Lyra was usually a light sleeper, so she slowly opened her eyes at us. She looked surprised for a moment and then smiled.

“Breakfast in bed?” She replied, sleep still heavy in her mind. “Is it my birthday?”

“Can your two roommates not serve a four star breakfast of Cheerilee’os and coffee to you on a random Saturday morning?” Bon Bon asked hugging the mint green unicorn. 

“It’d be the first time in forever.” Lyra replied finally sitting up. I gently lowered the tray of food onto the bed next to her.

“There’s a first time for everything.” I said as smoothly as I could. She picked up the spoon in the bowl and took a bite of cereal.

“Divine?” She said sarcastically and shrugging. 

“Oh stop, I’m sure my masterpiece can’t be THAT good.” I said slyly.

Lyra took a look at the bags under my eyes. “Have you been awake since last night?” She asked taking a sip of coffee. I shrugged.

“I’m fine.” I said for what seemed like the hundredth time. “I’m not even tired.” Lyra gave me a questioning look but took another bite of cereal. She took a look at Bon Bon and then me.

“Thank you.” She said politely with her same smile. “Cereal and coffee might as well be a four star meal if it came from you guys.”


(***)
 

The rest of the morning, we just sat around, talking aimlessly about nothing. We did eventually turn on the radio in the living room and listened to the last part of Notch’s monologue. It was his first time doing the talk show, but he seemed to have the hang of it. I wasn’t really listening to the conversations, I was just enjoying the peacefulness. Lyra and Bon Bon chatted idly about Bon Bon’s work and Lyra’s orchestra. I just sat in silent bliss. I heard music begin to play through the radio. It was a stupid song by Dr. Hay. I hatted rap, but for some reason Bell always seemed to play it. I realized that the fact that music was playing on a Saturday meant that it was 11 o’clock. My appointment was at 12:30.

“How long do you think it will take to get to Dr. Cranium’s office?” I asked speaking for the first time in an hour. Lyra looked briefly at the clock and looked upwards, calculating in her head.

“Well,” She began. “Traffic usually isn’t that bad on Saturday’s, but her office is on the other side of town...” She said mostly to herself. “I’d guess about 30 minutes.” She said finishing her math.

“Well I’m going to take a long shower before I go.” I said rising from the kitchen chair I was sitting on. 

“You mean ‘Before we go.’” Bon Bon said. Lyra was a little surprised that it was Bon Bon and not her who said those words. She brushed away her suspicion.

“Well regardless, I need a real shower before I go into the real world.” I said starting for my room. I heard Lyra and Bon Bon start about if they should do anything with their manes before they went out. I was glad I wasn’t there to listen.

I finally made it to my bathroom and turned my shower on. This time, I let the water get nice and warm. I usually didn’t have time to take real showers whenever I worked, so this was going to be a nice change. I put my hoof under the stream and was relaxed by the warm sensation. I let a sigh of relaxation slip out. I hopped in under the warm current and just stood there for a moment. 

I even used shampoo and soap this time too. I scrubbed happily at my coat and mane, the soap seeming to clean my body and mind. I put my hoof down over the drain, making the water pill up at my hooves. I don’t know why, but I always used to do this when I was a kid. Doing it now seemed to somehow bring part of my innocence from that time back to me, if only for a second. After the pool had risen half-way up the length of the tub, I released my control over the drain and watched the water swirl down it. For another moment, I felt like a kid again. All because of taking a shower.

Reluctantly, I stopped the peaceful, warm, waterfall from flowing and stepped out of the shower. I magically made a towel rise from the rack the hung adjacent to my shower. I dried off quickly, letting my coat and mane stay slightly damp. I always liked letting the wind swish through my wet mane making it cooler. I walked out of the bathroom and saw that it was five to 12. I walked into the living room and saw Lyra and Bon Bon sitting idle in the kitchen.

“You really meant a long shower, huh?” Lyra said acknowledging me.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a nice shower.” I said dreamily recalling ten minutes ago. “It was really rejuvenating.”

“Shall we get our flanks moving?” Bon Bon said standing up form the kitchen table. Lyra followed suit, and we all moved through the front door silently. We walked down the familiar flight of steps and eventually made it to the outsider world. The sun’s ray’s were illuminating everything in it’s path brightly. The wind silently swished passed us, cooling my coat and mane like I wanted it to. My lungs were relieved by the fresh air. I quickly hailed a wagon that would be big enough for us. Most wagons were pulled by only one cabbie, and had room for one or two ponies. A few, like the one I had hailed, were accommodated for larger groups and was pulled by two cabbies.

“Where to?” The two stallions asked in unison. They were both dark tan in color and looked like twins.

“Two-fifty-two South Wing Street.” Lyra said climbing in last. The colt on the left hit a small button his collar with his nose. I knew it was the timer that was used to gage how much we owed them at our stop.

The three of us in the cab just looked around at the city around us. The temperature was average as usual, so it wasn’t too hot or too cold. The wagon swerved wildly for a second, both of the cabbies cursing angrily at a pedestrian. None of us were phased by this. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we all crashed and died to be honest.

A few minutes later, the two colts slowed down and eventually stopped at a curb. “Two-fifty-two South Wing Street.” The colt on our left said.

“That’ll be 20 bits please.” The one on the right chimed in. After I stepped out of the cab, I grabbed a small sack of coins out of nowhere, (somehow, everypony had the ability to grab small things out of nowhere) and dropped 20 coins into the pouch on the right colt’s collar. The two sped off without another word.

I looked up at the building in front of me. It was a small enough building, a little larger than our radio studio. It didn’t have a name on it because it was several offices, one of which belonged to Dr. Cranium, a psychologist that I had only briefly met a few times before. After the incident I had when I was a young child, I had to have frequent visits to my old psychologist, Dr. Wit. He was a good pony and doctor. He had connected with me when I was in my worst situation. Unfortunately, he had retired 10 years ago. I had stopped going to my weekly visits 15 years ago, but I still had to have a psychologist just in case something flared up. He had recommended Dr. Cranium, whom he had personally mentored.

Even though I lived in Bel-Mare and Dr. Cranium was in Manehatten, Dr. Wit was fairly confident that I wouldn’t need emergency care, so he said it was fine. I had met with her previously just doing regular check-ups and evaluations. She seemed like a nice enough mare, but I was going to miss Dr. Wit. After college, Mist and I needed to think of a place to go to start out radio station, and it was actually Dr. Cranium who suggested Manehatten. Mist and I found a nice enough building that could supply us with the essential needs of a radio station. 

Mist could stay with his uncle who lived in Manehatten, which he still does, but I couldn’t afford an apartment by myself. So I wrote to Lyra and asked if she would like to come live with me in Manehatten. We wrote to each other often, so I knew she was just out of college and needed a place to stay and work. I even found a orchestra that need a lyre player. Lyra wrote back asking if a friend of hers could come too. At that point in time, I had suspicions that Lyra like mares, but I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t know that she was essentially dating the friend who she wanted to come up with. I said what they hay, and they both moved to Manehatten. I had already found an apartment that Lyra and I could share, and told them we could find a three bedroom apartment pretty easily. But the two girls insisted that they would be fine sharing a room. Bon Bon even found a job easily. She worked at a candy store down on Cloud’s Street.

We walked briskly into the small office building’s lobby. The lobby was very small and had one receptionist sitting at his desk against the wall. We was reading the Equestrian Inquirer magazine and didn’t even look up at us as we walked in. I was fairly familiar with the building, and I knew that Dr. Cranium was on the third floor of the five story building. We walked silently to the elevators to the right of the receptionist’s desk. We rode up in silence, the tension raising every second. The elevator chimed and opened revealing a short, but wide, hallway.

We walked to the last door on the left. Dr. Cranium PhD. The printed words on the glass door read. I wasn’t really sure why, but I was beginning to feel nervous and I felt a knot begin to form in my stomach. I felt a reassuring hoof on my left shoulder. I turned my head slightly, seeing Lyra smiling reassuringly. I let out a sigh to calm myself, and knocked on the door twice. 

The door opened quickly to reveal a light cyan earth pony with a cinnamon colored mane and a brain cutie mark. Dr. Cranium’s mane was it’s usual self, curly and fancy. Her tail was equally as curly and fancy. “Well hello there Axil.” Cranium started in a friendly enough voice. “Please, come on in.” She said gesturing into her office.

The office was actually quit spacious. The doctor’s desk sat in front of the window, with a long, leather sofa placed close to the wall. One of the walls was littered with awards and pictures. The adjacent wall was a huge bookshelf, stocked full of fiction and non-fiction works. There was also three small chairs near the door. 

“Sorry if I must ask,” Cranium began. “But what are you two’s names?” She said looking at Lyra and Bon Bon.

“Oh, I’m Lyra Heartstrings.” Lyra said placing her hoof on her chest. “I’m Axil’s cousin from Ponyville. Moved out here with him about a year ago.”

“And I’m Bon Bon. Their roommate.” 

“Okay,” The doctor said not seeming to take much interest. “Well please, have a seat.” She said gesturing to the chairs by the door. “Axil, you can lay down on the couch.” she nodded at me. With the four ponies in the room all in their seat, Cranium was sitting at her desk, the doctor began to ask some preliminary questions.

“Full name please.” Cranium said taking a clipboard out from her desk.

“Axil Snap Heartstrings.”

“Age.”

“Twenty-four.”

“Height.”

“Four foot five inches.”

“Approximate weight.”

These questions went on for sometime, most of them boring and simple answers. After her clipboard had been satisfied with the words she had written, it was already 12:53. Both Lyra and Bon Bon had bored looks on their faces. I couldn’t blame them.

“Alright,” Cranium said finishing some scribbles. “So Lyra, I believe it was, called me yesterday and told me you were having some bad dreams. Is this correct?”

“Yes.” I replied lazily. Why else would I be here? I thought.

“And it is my understanding that these recent dreams have been getting worse.” She led on. She finally looked up from her clipboard. “So these dreams aren’t the same reoccurring ones?” 

“No.” I said flatly. “Well... my old dreams have stayed the same. And recently, I’ve been having new dreams. Which are a lot worse.” The doctor continued writing.

“And your old dreams are you running from the Diamond Dogs, right?”

“Yes.” I hissed out. I had to admit that I was a little bitter towards Dr. Cranium. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but she just seemed terrible compared to Dr. Wit.

“And you’ve been having those dreams since the incident happened when you were six, isn’t that correct?”

“Yup.” I was starting to get a little bored myself.

“And what have your new dreams been about?” She asked. I shuttered thinking about it. It was always hard to go over my dreams with Dr. Wit, but Dr. Cranium seemed more distant.

“The Dogs still.” I said sourly. “First I fell and broke my legs while a Dog beat me to death with a rock. then I was strapped down while a Dog cut off my leg and ate it. Oh, and then the bucking Dog broke off my horn.” I said spitting every word out. She didn’t even look up as she kept writing.

“Anything else that is particularly bothering you?” Cranium said just barely glancing up at me. I shook my head in response. “Well if that’s the case, I don’t really see anything wrong.” She concluded setting down her clipboard. “I’m going to prescribe you some simple medication that essentially puts you into a deep, but light, sleep which prevents you from dreaming.” She went on beginning to write on a small booklet of paper. “It’s called Prevex.” She said now ripping out the prescription with her teeth. “It’s simple enough. Just take two pills before going to bed, and one pill before a nap. I’m not really concerned because you haven’t exhibited any signs of further mental breakdown. Dreams are common after such a traumatic experience such as yours. I know that 18 years seems like a long time, but with only gradual worsening of your dreams, I’d say your fine. I also think your headaches should go away with good sleep.” She finally concluded.

I was a little surprised that it was as simple as that. I mean, these dreams were beginning to torment me ever time I threatened to go to sleep, and the doctor is pretty much telling me to stop dreaming. It was almost laughable. Almost.

“Anyway,” Dr. Cranium spoke up again. “If that’s all I don’t really see any other reason you need to be here. That’s good for three weeks worth of pills, after that, come back to me and we’ll talk about what happens next.” She stood up from her chair. The other three ponies in the room, including myself, stood up as well. The four of us walked to the door. “If you have any other concerns, feel free to call me.” 

(***)

We decided to stop by for a late lunch before we went to get my medicine. We chose eat at Hoof Hot, a Mongolian grill. It was nice enough I suppose. You had to pick up a bowl and chose out of three different noodles. After that you could add a bunch of fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. Then you choose some sauce to cover it in and they put it on a large hot table and you watched them cook your food. It was pretty cool, I thought. I chose some regular noodles and had every veggie and fruit they had. I chose some daisies as well and some Rattlesnake Venom Hot Sauce. I don’t know what the girls got. I watched my food cook, the daisies shriveling up and turning crisp. My mouth was watering by the time they handed me my bowl.

I sat down and took a mouthful of noodles, veggies, fruit, and daisies. The Rattlesnake Venom was like acid in my mouth, but it was a good kind of hot. I heard the girls plop down next to me in our booth that we choose. I looked over at Lyra and Bon Bon and saw them pick up their forks with one of their hooves. Wanting to start a conversation, I began to speak.

“You know that Mongolians were the first ponies to invent forks?” I asked taking a drink of water to cool down my mouth. Both the other ponies in the booth looked at me.

“Really?” Bon Bon asked through a mouthful of noodles. “You’d think it’d be a more civilized group than the Mongolians.”

“Well actually, the reason they invented the fork was actually because of their violence. You see before forks, ponies just dug their faces into the bowls or plates. With their heads lowered, it was the best time for somepony else to attack them. So they made simple forks so they could keep their heads up while eating.” I said. I was always kind of  a show off when it came to trivia. I knew a bunch of random, useless information.

“I still think my theory makes more sense.” Lyra said taking another fork full of noodles to the mouth.

“Oh boy, here we go again.” I rolled my eyes.

“No really.” Lyra continued. “My theory makes a lot more sense than the fact that ponies made them so they could head with their heads up.”

“Lyra,” Bon Bon started in. “Your ‘theory’ almost go you kicked out of college and sent to the loony bin.”

Lyra’s so called “theory” was that their was another dimension somewhere full of hairless, ape type creatures, who were just as intelligent as ponies. She based this off the fact that certain objects in the world seemed to be shaped more for fingers than hooves. Almost everypony thought she was crazy. She attempted to submit her thesis on the possibility of said dimension, but was quickly turned down. She never gave up her theory though. Ever.

“I’m telling you.” Lyra began again. “I mean, just look at your fork.” Bon Bon and I both did just to humor her. “Now what is holding the fork in place?”

“My hoof?” I said slyly.

“But what is keeping it from falling out of your hoof?” She pressed on. I did look at the fork in my hoof. The fork was resting perfectly in my hoof. “Turn your fork so it’s closest to the table.” Bon Bon and I did as we were told. “Now look at your hooves. What’s stopping the fork from falling like gravity says it should? Noq let go of the fork.” Again, Bon Bon and I did as we were told, and the forks clanged to the table below. “Now what changed in your hoof? Nothing. Your hoof stayed exactly the same from before to after you let go of the fork. You can’t explain that.”

“Lyra,” I said shacking my head. “I know that it’s always has been a mystery to pony-kind on how we hold stuff, but how does that have anything to do with those creatures you talk about?”

“Well apes have fingers. They can actually close their fingers around objects to stop them from falling.” She countered. 

“And what about how we can store away small bags in thin air too.” To prove a point, I reach behind my back and pulled out a small sack of bits from nowhere. “Where did this come from?” I asked sarcastically.

“Well my research hasn't proved anything along those lines yet.” Lyra said looking at her plate. 

“Research?” Bon Bon started in. “If reading too many fiction books as a filly counts as research, I’m sure I’ve done about as much as you with completely different results.”

“Whatever.” Lyra said now just playing with her food.

(***)

Our late lunch actually turned into dinner too. I’m sure the owner’s of Hoof Hot weren’t too happy with us when we stayed and talked for about an hour until we had an early dinner. But besides some not so friendly glares from some employees, we didn’t get in trouble. I’m glad that we got to watch our food the whole time. Manehatten was also infamous for having restaurants where cooks would spit in the food of ponies they don’t like.

After we hurriedly left the restaurant, we stopped by a pub and got a few drinks each. We talked aimlessly and drunkenly for a couple of hours. It’s been a while since I could handle more than a few drinks of Applejack Daniels, but I guess because I knew I could sleep tonight, I was more confident. At around 10 pm I realized that I still needed to get my prescription. 

“Oh buck!” I shouted to myself, spilling the drink that was halfway to my mouth. I turned to Lyra and Bon Bon who were surrounded by three colts who would easily take advantage of two drunk mares. I was sober enough to use my magic, so I pushed the two colts closest to me apart and dragged Bon Bon and Lyra out of the circle. “We still need to get that freaking prescription!” I yelled at them slightly slurring my words. “When does the pharmacy close?” 

Bon Bon was too drunk understand me with all of the other noises in the pub. Lyra barely understood and took more than a few seconds to reply. “Ummm...” She started blinking her eyes. “I think 10:30 or something.” She said raising the pitch of her voice at the end making it sound like a question. For fear that I would have to go through another night of nightmares, I was sobering up quickly.

“Come on!” I yelled at them pulling them along as best I could. We seemed to collapse outside in a jumbled heap. The two drunk mares were laughing hysterically. I hailed a taxi wagon and pretty much threw the two girls in with my magic. I realized only after jumping in the cab that it was a two seated wagon. I didn’t care.

“I’ll pay you double to get us to the nearest pharmacy in the next 10 minutes.” I yelled at the cabbie. He looked at the three of us, all mushed together in the back seat and laughed. 

“I’ll see what I can do. I’m not used to so much weight.” The cabbie said beginning to move forward. We moved at about three quarters of the usual speed and got a lot of negative comments from other drivers on the street. I could tell that the cabbie wasn’t too worried about the timing. He was even whistling a happy tone as he rode on.

We finally made it to Mare-y’s Pharmacy 15 minutes after we left the pub. I threw an unknown number of coins in the cabbie’s pouch, and pushed the other two passengers out. They fell on the sidewalk on top of each other. I ran to the pharmacy door just as an employee was about to lock it. I banged into the door and prevented it from closing just in time. 

“Please!” I screamed at him. “Please! I just need to pick up my prescription.” I pleaded with the old looking colt. He sighed and let me through the door. “Thank you thank you!” I yelled at him, even going in for hug. He put up a hoof in protest.

“No need for that now sonny.” the old, gray earth pony said with an old and hoarse voice. He stepped behind the counter and put on a pair of over-sized glasses. “What do you need?” I pulled out the prescription note out of nowhere and handed it to him. For a second I was worried that the small pharmacy wouldn’t have what I needed. I knew that the back would be a lot bigger than this small waiting lobby. “I’ll be back in a jiffy with what you need.” He said to me. 

I looked at my surroundings, resting on the counter. The room was small and white. Chairs lined both sides of the room, each wall having about five chairs each. The wall with the door was all glass, with a neon open sign flashing. I quickly looked outside and saw two mares struggling to help each other up. It was obvious that they were drunk. I just hopped that we weren’t in a ghetto or anything. I wasn’t even sure where we were in the first place. I just told the cabbie to get me to the nearest pharmacy.

I heard a grunt and a sigh from behind. The old colt was settling back into his wooden stool and pressed a few buttons on the cash register. There was a small bag on the counter that hadn’t been there before. I payed for the medicine, and even gave the old colt a few bits for keeping open late. I walked out of the pharmacy, the old colt locking the door behind me. With my medicine floating in the air, I found my two roommates both bent over a garbage can throwing up whatever poison they had ingested a few minutes ago. I tapped them on their shoulders.

“Are you going to be okay until we make it home?” I asked them both. The kinda just looked at me with googly eyes and spinning heads. I took that as a yes and began walking, tugging them into following me. By now I saw that we were on 2nd avenue, and only a few blocks away from our apartment complex. Bon Bon and Lyra supported themselves as we walked down the street. It was only 10:45ish so the streets were still packed, and the sidewalks weren’t quite empty yet. 

We finally made it into our apartment, both girls crashing immediately on the couch sleeping. To be honest, I think somepony put something in their drinks. I walked into the hallway bathroom and flicked on the light. I withdrew two pills from the perspiration bottle I had just bought, and swallowed them using the faucet to help me wash them down. I deposited the bottle into the cabinet. The effects of the pills were immediate. 

I walked into my bedroom, feeling heavy and sluggish. I collapsed onto the bed sideways. It felt a little weird to feel like I wasn’t going to have dreams when I went to sleep. In all of the years that I’ve been on this green earth, the majority of them had been spent either awake, or tormented in my dreams. If these pills didn’t work, I thought that I would literally die. It’s been such a long time since I could sleep in peace. I felt my world go fuzzy around me, like a soft, warm blanket was being wrapped around me. I felt my eyelids droop, and eventually fall. Laying their in my bed, for the first time in 18 years, I was going to have a peaceful night sleep. With that thought in my head, I fell into unconsciousness.

End Part 2