//------------------------------//
// Nightmares and Snow... 
// Story: What's real? 
// by Dubstep Tree 
//------------------------------//

		As the two stallions walked to Match Box's room, the dark grey colored pegasus ran in climbed on top of his bed. He began to jump on it while laughing.
"FLASH! LOOK!! I'M BOUNCING!!!" He yelled while giggling with each bounce. It really wasn't a smart idea of him to do because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed. If the whiskey didn't settle well from this he was sure to blow chunks all over the carpet floor and maybe the soft cotton covers of the bed.

"Yeah.. yeah... that's great Match.. no wait that's fantastic!!! Now go to bed!" Flash responded. His tone of voice sounded just like their father's when he had told him to slip into bed. It was bossy and he knew it, but Match refused to sleep.

"BUT! I don't wanna! I wanna visit Wonderland! I wanna pet that creepy kitty!!!"

Match Box's older brother grunted before responding, "Okay! You can in dream world! Alright?"

"NO!" Match shook his head as he kept jumping and laughing like a maniac.

As little hoof steps tiredly trotted down the hall to the commotion, it was but Pumpkin Pie who came in yawning and looking confused as ever. His smoked shaded eyes tiredly staring up at his father's matching eye's.
"Dad? Can I have some warm milk? I can't fall sleep.." He said yawning that he almost looked like he could sleep anywhere at this moment.
Flash nodded and then smiled, he was getting an idea of how he could make Match fall asleep. When he had trotted out Match continued to bounce on the bed and Pumpkin was too tired to respond to this. Momentarily Flash returned with two glasses of warm milk. He handed one over to his son Pumpkin. 

"Here you go Pumpkin." He replied while smiling until he fixed his eyes on his brother who paid no mind to anything!
Getting Match Box's attention; he shoved the glass at Match Box, "Here.. drink this."

"Why?! Did you put anything weird in it?!" He asked Flash as his goofy expression faded and changed into a serious and up and down look as he stopped jumping on the bed. Kind of like what parents did if the were trying to see if their kid was lying or just to scare them to fess up.

"No. It's just milk.. now drink it!"

"Hmm... okay! But if there is! I will end you..." Match threatened as he drank the warm milk. What seemed like minutes Match started to feel drowsy from the warm milk he had drank. He fell over onto the floor and fell asleep. Sending Pumpkin Pie back to bed, Flash's horn lit up picking up Match Box and slipping him under the covers and tucking him in.

"Goodnight Match." At this for a response to Flash; Match only flicked his ears in his sleep. He could hear him but he thought it was only part of a dream.

"You're more sane than I am.." There was a long pause with his words and he took in deep breaths while thinking in unison. "...and all our brothers..." Without anymore to say he walked out of the room leaving Match to sleep peacefully.

The next morning... or so it seemed.. Match box had woken up with a blistering head ache. But.. it didn't feel all that real as well. Yes it felt normal for him to be in bed under the covers... and YES it felt normal that he was in his room that he fell asleep in last night. Feeling strange though he knew something was off about this all. Turning his head forward his eyes met a salmon coated mare that he had met before on his "drunk adventure". With an eye twitch he saw she was on top of him. She had a seductive look upon her face that looked like it could turn any stallion on in an instant.
Confused as ever she had winked at the dumbfounded pegasus.

"How did you.. what?! HUH?!"

With a cute giggle she silenced him and got in his face. Their snouts touching one another's. "So you like my flank don't you?" At this sudden point Match Box blushed and stuttered.

"Uh.. w-well.. um.."

Right before his eyes he noticed that the mare's face began to melt as it transformed into a demonic figure with giant spider like fangs and 6 eyes. The vile creature drooled on him and made a loud screeching noise. Hiding his face and breathing fast it had faded away.. his bed disappeared and a new strange voice filled his ears, sending shudders down his spine. It was as if he could impossibly touch the sound of the voice.

"So... we finally meet brother..." This voice was dark and low that Match quivered violently. His body getting weaker to the sound.

"W-what do you want from me?!" He stammered. Match's mind and heart raced. He had no idea what was happening so his instincts to cower were taking effect.

"What do I want from you?" The figure had stepped out of the darkness that had seemed to crowd around Match Box while he was distracted by everything else; it seemed he hadn't noticed. This figure had dark black fur as black as the night sky. His eye's, the color of flowing blood from all that once lived and his giant hooves that looked like it could smash a pony skull within seconds of impact. 
Fear flooded Match as the figure walked closer towards him. He had crouched and hid his face under his hooves as the huge shadow towered over his small dark grey figure. Daring to look up he made a guess of who it was. Iron Thorn?!

"This is what i want from you little Match Box..." Iron Thorn said with a loud demonic like laugh that caused Match to shiver. "I want... YOUR SOUL!!!!"

When Match Box heard this he stood up and growled at Iron, "NO!! I will not allow you to do that!!!" Right after his fearless response his head grew heavy and bubbly causing him to pass out on the cold floor. His eyes fluttering till Iron's figure was blurred and all he saw was darkness as they fully closed.

Match Box had woken up once more but only to find himself upon the most intimidating thing he feared most... the examination table that he was strapped down on when he was at the asylum for his testing. Freaking out at once he grunted, whined and struggled as his breathing quickened. He was hyperventilating, his hooves strapped down tightly, his hind legs spread apart awkwardly and strapped down as well. Hanging his head he stared around him as his eyes widened to see a familiar area... he was inside the asylum! But he didn't have his straight jacket on he was only strapped down, that was it. 
"Gah!! I HATE THESE THINGS!! GET ME OFF THIS TABLE!!!" He shouted before a muzzle was placed on his snout. It was the same exact one he used to wear to prevent him from biting the doctor or any others that worked there.

"QUIET!!!" Iron boomed like a cloud of lightening and thunder. He walked over to the strapped down and helpless stallion with a smirk as he placed his huge black hoof on Match's shoulder. "I'm here to help you brother... Look! Somepony is here to "visit" you.." With a puff of black smoke Iron had disappeared to leave this special guest alone with Match.

Match Box had squinted his eyes when the "guest" had arrived. He noticed something familiar and he was afraid to guess who it was. When this pony was visible to Match's eyes, they widened and fear flooded him once more but this time worse. NO!! Anypony but him!!! Not him!! PLEASE?! LUNA!! CELESTIA!! HELP ME!!
When the familiar olive green pony approached Match, he was being looked at all around. It was his old testing doctor whom he despised greatly. But his doctor looked different.. he had scars on his face possibly from patients that he thought may have attacked that vain stallion for many good reasons when he had left the asylum for rehabilitation.

With a snicker the doctor had ripped the muzzle off the stallion painfully causing him to growl and cry out,
"GOD DAMMIT!!" He said through gritted teeth. He then froze his muscles up when he saw this stallion have a scalpel. Flicking his tail he struggled even more but could not break away from the table.

"Heh.. you must be asking why I have this in my hoof right?!" He smiled and twitched his left eye with humor hoping Match would smile as well, but he refused to. "Well.. I'm going to cut you open!!!! And put your organs on my wall!!"

"Just go away!! This isn't real!!! This isn't real!!!" Match Box told himself as he kept staring at the doctor who wished to do what he wanted to Match Box. Laughing loudly the doctor's orange and scary stare met Match's frightened emerald green stare as he placed the tip of the scalpel's blade to his chest.
"Well... it's time for Surgery!!!"

Knowing this might be the end of him, Match Box's heart rate and anxiety level raised to a maximum. Never in his life had he been this terrified before. When the scalpel pierced his skin, he tensed up and saw little spots of blood squirting out. The scalpel digging deeper in Match's chest the stallion began screaming bloody murder as the sharp blade traveled all the way down. Blood gushed and trickled out of him like mad as he cried and screamed louder and louder as the pain became agonizing. It was too much! Too much for him to handle in one sitting!!

He had finally snapped back into reality and began to scream as loud as he did in his nightmare he just ended.
Moments later Flash came dashing inside Match Box's room with a worried expression that somepony was attacking him. He had a kitchen knife in his mouth as the door flung open. Dropping it onto the carpeted floor he went over to the huge quivering lump. 
"Match are you okay?! I heard you from me and my wife's room down the hall!! Hell we could have heard you through the whole entire house."

"FLASH!! HE'S COMING TO GET ME!!!"

"Who's coming to get you?!"

"THE DOCTOR FROM THE ASYLUM!!"

Flash had pulled the covers off of Match Box as he placed a hoof on him. Feeling how bad his body shook, Flash had never seen Match this bad before. "Listen. No pony is going to get you. Okay?"

"NO! SOMPONY IS GOING TO GET ME!! I JUST KNOW IT!!" Match wouldn't stop yelling. He was so scared to death he hadn't realized he was screaming this loud in the first place.

"It was just a dream come on.. You know I wouldn't let anypony hurt my little brother!"

Match had then begun to sob as he scrambled to his hooves leaving the covers messy and ruffled; hugging Flash, he couldn't stop quivering and his heart wouldn't stop furiously beating. Flash feared Match's heart would stop if this kept up.
"It's okay. Now go back to sleep okay? I need to go to sleep but I can't if you keep having nightmares." Thinking of a solution he patted Match's head, "If it makes you feel better. You can sleep on the couch."

"No!! He'll find me there!!!!"

"Okay then..."

"I.. I don't wanna go back to sleep!" Match's ears shot up as lightening and thunder cracked causing him to jump in his brother's arms. "SEE?! HE'S HERE!!!!"

"Just sleep on the couch.."

"No!! NOT THE COUCH!!!!"

Flash then dropped Match and grabbed his brother by the shoulders and talked to him to confront him, "I don't understand what you're going through... but you gotta let it go." 

Match then reacted and got angry. His blood boiled as he snapped like twine, "Let it go...? LET IT GO?! HOW THE HELL CAN I?!" He said in a growled tone as he pushed Flash away from him, his older brother had fallen to the floor. 

"Look Match Box! I'm just saying that it's better to think of the present then the past." Flash was fearless through this whole process Match was putting together.

"OH NO!!! DON'T GIVE ME THIS CRAP!!" He yelled at Flash, his eye color glowed coldly as he twitched angrily. His angered mouth slowly forming to a bare grin "So Flash.. tell me..." Match Box said grinning psychotically now just like he used to when he was trapped in the asylum.

"Tell you what?!"

Match then laughed softly before it climaxed louder to a mad cackle. "What other idiotic thing are you going to tell me?!" While smiling tears began to streak from his eyes as he rambled on and on at Flash, "That mom and dad aren't dead?! That I didn't kill them?! THAT I WASN'T IN A DAMN ASYLUM FOR TWO DAMN YEARS?!"

Thinking really cleverly and quickly Flash pointed and acted surprised, "LOOK IT'S THE DOCTOR!!!"

Match Box instantly bought it and searched behind him, his back turned from his brother. "What?! Where?! I don't see him!! YOU LIAR!!" Before the angered stallion could turn around Flash noticed the empty whiskey bottle that Match had polished off hours beyond hours ago. He picked it up with his magic and quickly smacked Match directly in the head to cause him to be knocked out. Falling to the floor Flash drops the empty bottle relieved, bothered to not even pick him up, he left the unconscious stallion to sleep on the plush floor.

The next real actual morning, Match Box awoke. Feeling the sore from when his brother conked him on the head with a glass bottle, he saw it was dropped next to him and a few inches away he saw the kitchen knife from when Flash dropped it to confront him. Getting up he grunted negatively.

"What the heck was I doing on the floor?" The pegasus whispered to himself in a confused manner. A few brief moments pass before a frown forms on his face and his head just.. droops. Match slowly was remembering last night. Recoiling the thoughts away his hooves dragged the sulking and sorrow filled stallion out to the kitchen. His older brother Flash was making breakfast.

Flipping the eggs over and getting toast out of the toaster and onto a plain white ceramic plate, he stopped cooking and looked up at Match Box with a friendly filled smile.
Surprised from this, his ears fell down as he felt really sickened with himself.

"About last night.." He started nervously.

"Don't worry about it! Like I said, it's better to think about the present than the past." Flash replied with a reassuring smile.

"No... it's not a "don't worry about it" kind of thing.... what I did last night scared me.... I thought I was going to hurt you...."

Flash then levitated a plate over toward the counter so Match could get his breakfast, "Again, don't worry about it! It's fine. Now have some toast and eggs!"

"..... I've lost my appetite...." Match Box groaned under gritted teeth while pushing the plate away. Grabbing his lighter out of his left wing and a pack of cigarettes in the right. He trotted out of the house.

Following him Match was sitting under a naked tree in the yard. His flank in the snow with closed eyes and a resentful expression as his smoked away his troubles. Flash trotted over to him and sat down against the frozen bark.

"Don't take it away...." Match replied making his brother jump.

"I won't. But it's not really smart to smoke under a tree."

A bored expression appearing on his face, his eyes fluttered open as he turned his head to the right towards his brother. "Fine.. then let's move away from the tree." Match Box and Flash rose and moved a few feet away from the tree. When they stopped in place and sat back down; sparkly snowflakes began to fall from the clouded sky.

"Oh great! Just great!! ANYMORE CRAP YOU WANNA PLACE UPON ME UNIVERSE?!" Match yelled angrily at the snow falling sky. 

"Don't be silly! Snow is great!!"

"I hate it.."

"Oh? really?" Flash replied smugly as he rolled up a snowball with his magic and chucked it at Match Box.

Surprised the pegasus' wings shot out from the coldness he felt, "Gah! My feathers are cold!!"

Rolling up another ball of snow with his horn he had humor in his tone as he tilted his head into and 'Oh really?' way. "Come on! Are you just gonna be a party pooper or are you going to fight like the little colt you are and have a snowball fight?!" Match shifted his eyes while spitting out the cigarette and stamping on it so it would not blaze anymore.

"Well..." He said unsure.

Flash looked worried and frowned as his brother looked down to the ground. "W-well what?" 

"Heh.. WELL BRING IT ON!!" Match yelled before quickly rolling up a snowball with his hooves and chucking it at Flash with a playful smirk on his face.
Flash was hit with the cold white ball of snow and laughed before quickly making a move to hide behind the metal trash can, "HA HA!! I have a barrier!" He said even though he was getting hit with snow still. As Match quickly went behind Flash's little trash can fort he attacked him with a whole bunch of snowballs hitting his brother Flash with the cold white packed in tiny flakes.
Suddenly Flash shot up and smiled a big grin upon his face, "HA HA! Well I can do this!!" He yelled jumping up a few feet in the air trying to do some kind of trick but failed to as he face planted into the cold snow not moving.

Panicking Match had a concerned expression upon his face as he poked Flash's shoulder, "Are you okay?!" Before Flash could respond as he got up he noticed his two kids watching them with confused and surprised faces leaving Match and Flash embarrassed for acting so childish with snowball fighting. 

Laughing playfully Pumpkin Pie sprung up and screeched, "COOL!!! Can me and Milkshake join in?!!" He asked getting a goofy expression from his sister and waiting for nods of approval from their dad and uncle.

Flash shrugged as he turned to his brother. Both their eyes meeting. "Could they?"

"I don't know Flash. You're the father here! Not me! I don't mind if they do but you're their parent." Match Box replied flicking his left ear and looking back at the two kids who were now giving them both a puppy dog begging kind of look.
Eventually sighing and smiling Flash nodded and laughed.

"Heh. Why the heck not?!"

Excited gasps from both Milkshake and Pumpkin rang in perfect unison as they both made up their own snowballs and threw them at their dad and uncle. Match Box and Flash yelped and ran away from the two rascals looking for shelter as the foals gave chase, laughing and screaming behind them. 

Match remembered the good old days from his childhood with his brother. It really was something he truly loved to remember... but his mind really never could get over what he did after those good times faded.... I'm such a mess... He thought to himself quietly as another snowball pelted him and made him laugh...