Chapter 20: The First Night
The moonlight shone over the sleepy town of Ponyville. Ponies were heading in their homes, their eyes baggy, red and droopy from another sunny, but fairly abnormal day. Window lights shut off one by one as the shining moon blessed them all with a peaceful rest.
Harold and Twilight sluggishly made their way to the alicorn’s room, keeping the light inside dim for the young dragon snoring as loud as a foghorn. Harold took off his orange jacket and hung it on the rack next to the doorway as Twilight readied the other bed for her bipedal guest.
“Here’s where you’ll be sleeping tonight,” she said finishing with a yawn. “I hope you find it cozy and warm for you.”
“Believe me, Twilight, any bed could do good for me.” Harold stretched himself. “I’ve been sleeping on the ground for the past four days and not once ever had anything to cover me up at night.”
“Then this will be perfect for you. The mattress is the most comfortable mattress in all of Equestria. Good for a good night’s sleep.” Harold looked at Twilight with a confused look. “Or so the slogan says,” she said sheepishly.
“I just hope you don’t have to give your money back,” Harold mumbled under his breath.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Harold proceeded up a small staircase with more bookshelves carved underneath. He looked over and saw a desk with inkwells and a stack of papers the same size as the papers Twilight carried with her aura. Presumably, they were the same papers Twilight said she was signing earlier today.
The young human teen found the bed Twilight readied for him. With a big yawn, Harold slipped off his shoes and pulled the covers over him. The bed felt like he was lying on a cloud and silk sheets were to his comfortable feeling. Harold felt himself drifting away when he closed his eyes.
“Ahhhh, yeah,” he said in joyous bliss. “This is comfortable. Looks like your money’s safe.”
“It’s like what I said,” Twilight replied. She herself slipped underneath the soft and comforting sheets. “Most comfortable mattress in Equestria.”
“Yeaaaahhhhhh...”
“Yeaaaahhhhh...”
A moment of silence fell upon the room, save for Spike snoring in the room, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Harold finally found salvation in his life. The start of his day was rocky, but as the day grew older, the ponies he befriended grew friendlier. But if friends weren’t what Lana wanted to make, then what was?
“Hey, Twilight?”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks.”
Harold could hear Twilight turning over in her sheets.
“For what?”
“For everything,” Harold said with a smile. “You took me in since I have no home to live in now, you stood up for me in Canterlot Castle and you managed to help me make friends today. That's why I'm thanking you right now.”
“It’s nothing, really. The magic of friendship is what I do best. In fact, friendship is the reason I became a princess in the first place.”
“Really?” Harold opened his eye towards the sleeping alicorn. “How?”
“On the day before I became a princess, Princess Celestia sent me Starswirl the Bearded’s own spellbook. I chanted his final unfinished spell in his book and the Elements of Harmony switched colors and the special talents of my friends.”
Harold snickered.
“How’d that turn out?”
“A disaster,” Twilight answered with a humph. “But using my knowledge of friendship, I helped return the special talent of my friends, finished the spell and the next thing you know...POOF! I become an alicorn and now everypony’s bowing down to me.”
“Sounds like royalty has its ups and downs.”
“It does,” the alicorn said, sighing sadly. “I miss the days when I was studying as a regular old unicorn.”
“You’re more than just a unicorn, Twi--”
TING!
“Oh, what now, ‘sense!?” Can’t you see I’m too tired to even care right now!?”
“That’s what my foalsitter said when I was little,” Twilight said, heaving a heavy yawn. “Well, I’m bushed. Goodnight, Harold.”
Harold yawned and turned over in his bed.
“Goodnight, Twilight.”
“Hoo.”
“Goodnight, owl.”
...
...
...
“Owl!?”
Harold suddenly thrashed in his bed and shot up. He came face to face with an owl, staring blankly in the human’s face. On Earth, owls were one of the freakiest, but majestic birds he ever saw at night. Now he was staring one in the face.
...
...
...
“Um, hi. Who are you?”
“Hoo.”
“Uh, you. I’m asking you who you are.”
“Hoo.”
“You.”
“Hoo.”
“You!”
“Hoo.”
“I don’t know if your wise attitude can understand what I’m asking. What. Is. Your. Name.”
...
...
“Hoo.”
“Chuck Norris. You happy now!?”
“Hoo?”
Harold grunted. This stereotypically wise bird was giving him as much of a hard time like Lou Costello did to Bud Abbot. And in this moment, it was reliving the famous “Who’s on First” comedy skit. The only laughing audience was the lavender pony silently giggling to the funniest play of words she ever saw.
“Don’t worry. That’s Owlowiscious, my pet owl. He helps me at night when I’m studying.”
“Thank you.” Harold turned to the bird. “See? It was easy, you just had to tell me your name is all.”
“Hoo.”
“Never mind.” Harold swatted Owlowiscious away from him and turned face-down on his pillow. He felt a bit of discomfort inside his chest and groped around to find the culprit. His locket. Lana’s locket.
Of course. He forgot the locket was hanging around his neck.
Harold gently lifted it off from his neck and set it on the nightstand next to him. At least he didn’t have to lose it when he wakes up in the morning. Now he had a good place for it so he could remember where he last put it.
Before he set off to dreamland, Harold opened up the locket once more to observe the photo of him and Lana being happy together. He could feel a sad feeling dwell inside him, but at the same time, he felt happiness. Lana was in a better place and he was free from the devil’s grasp forever.
“Goodnight, Lana. See you in the morning.”
Harold turned over and instantly fell into a deep sleep. Equestria was now a serene land with everypony sleeping to the glowing mystery of the beautiful moon hanging in the night sky. Tomorrow would hopefully be a good day.
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Young Harold and Lana were running in the backyard of their mansion, screaming happily and giggling as they gave to chase to each other around the apple blossom tree. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining, warming the two inseparable siblings playing ther weekly game of tag in the gardens. The white petals tickled their noses as Harold reached his arm for Lana who darted behind the tree.
The human boy giggled. There was no way she could hide from him now.
He jerked around and turned to the direction towards where Lana would normally pop out from. He jumped out.
But Lana was nowhere to be seen.
Harold was smarter than that. Usually at these games of tag, Lana would hide somewhere in the tree to avoid getting caught by her playful little brother. Silently and swiftly, he climbed up the twisting branches of the tree. He knew every inch of this gorgeous flora.
And yet, Lana was still nowhere.
“Lana? Where are you?”
At times like these, Harold would here the soft giggling of his sister coming from the branch above him.
No response came.
Harold became increasingly worried. His sister, his guardian and his only playmate had disappeared. He continued climbing up the tree, knowing she might be somewhere in the gardens. Harold reached to the top and looked around the area. There were gardens all around, meticulously trimmed hedges, very well-done flowers and expertly tended vegetable plants near the walls of the mansion. To add to the fear of loneliness, no Lana.
“Lana! Big sis! Where are you!? You’re scaring me!”
...
...
"Lana, this isn't funny anymore! Please come out! You're scaring me!"
...
...
“Lana!? LANA!?”
...
...
Harold started to hyperventilate in panic. Where was Lana!? What happened to her!? Why wouldn’t she come out of hiding!?
Then an ominous glow caught the corner of Harold’s eye. He looked in the distance and saw the gardens were suddenly on fire. The inferno blazed to the mansion, surrounding the once shining blue sky into an ash-gray plane surrounded by clouds of smoke and hellfire.
Then the fears came to light.
In the distance, Harold saw a silhouette of a horned creature that was neither man nor pony.
It was the demon centaur.
The manly appearance and the stallion body were standing in the middle of the inferno. Its yellow, glowing eyes met with the fearful blue eyes of Harold’s. It reached for something dangling from its neck. It appeared to be a bag of some sort.
He opened the bag.
Then a fog of black and eerie glowing purple shot from the confines of the sack. It went dead straight for Harold, knocking him out the tree and tumbling on each branch on the way down. The human laid on the dry grass, scratched and bruised by the fall. All around him, he could see humanoid shadows of people with a sneering face worn upon them. The shadows were pointing at Harold, laughing at him and taunting him for his pain and their pleasure.
Harold clutched his head and curled up in a ball.
Those voices...those stares! Those laughs!
They were like ice picks poking the inside of his sanity.
“LANA!! HELP ME!!!”
Then above him was the shadow, the same one composed of the same blackness and purple glow like the one released from the sack. Harold was frozen in fear. He couldn’t move a muscle. To make matters worse, he couldn't breathe. The shadow was changing form. In half a minute, the shadow quickly changed from a smoggy cloud to the shape of a human figure. But this wasn't an human figure, this was...
“No...”
The shadow’s face grew a smile forged out of pure evil. It lowered its head towards Harold’s right ear. Its words were like a chorus of Satanically-possessed corpses rising from the grave to feast on the mortal souls. And Harold's mortal soul was stricken with fear by the shadow's three words.
“Let...me...OUT!!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO--”
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“AAAUUGHH!”
Harold shot up in his bed in the middle of the night. Beads of sweat rolled down his body as he shakily regained his breath. The only noise in the bedroom was the snoring of Spike, wrapped up in his blankets like a crepe. Harold slapped himself all over his head and torso and hugged himself. Thank goodness for him, it was a nightmare.
But it felt vivid.
Very, very vivid.
Harold was never scared like that in his life. For the next hour, he clutched his locket close to him, wishing Lana for her to help him until he built up the courage to fall back to sleep. But in the bed next to his, Harold was too afraid to realize that Twilight was tossing and turning while she was making scared noises of her own.
Like Harold, Twilight was suffering from a vivid nightmare of her own.
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“Twilight, you must control your magic! You’ll destroy this palace if you keep this magic up for long!”
“I can’t...I...”
“Your Majesty, we must get you to safety immediately!”
“No, Lieutenant! Twilight Sparkle must learn to calm her magic or she’ll end up destroying not only Canterlot, but herself as well! That is why she must do this on her own!”
“But Your Highness--”
“Lieutenant Armor, I know Twilight is your sister and you are concerned for her wellbeing, but she must learn to do this on her own! You will only make the matters worse if you were to get hit by her magic! What I am giving you is a royal order! Stand down or you will get hurt!”
*Sigh* “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Twilight, you must focus! Concentrate on locking your raw abilities away!”
“Mmmmm-gnnnn! I can't..hold out...much longer!”
“Your Majesty, get out of there! Her magic is spiraling out of control!”
“Twily!”
“Twilight!”
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMZZZZZAAAAP!
“Twily! Are you okay?”
"Unnngggghhh...B...BBBFF?"
"It's okay, kiddo. I'm here. I'm here."
“Her magic! It stopped!”
“Yes, but the fluctuations of the sudden stop in her magic seem to have created a portal into another world.”
“Wait...I think I see something coming through the portal!
“Quick! Close it before it gets through here!”
"No, we can't! If we close it, it would risk harming that one's life!"
"Send it back, now! Quickly!"
“Too late! It’s coming through!”
ZZZZZAAAAP!
“_____ __ _? ____ ________ __ __ ____? ___ ___ ___ ______?”
“Princess Celestia, what is that thing?”