“Hey!” Someone called, snapping their fingers by my ear. “Hey sleeping beauty, I may not be Prince Charming, but right now’s not the time to be napping.”
I opened my eyes slowly to see a cloaked gentleman. The only thing visible from the cloak that hung to the ground was his chin, mouth, and the tip of his nose. His peculiar aged hands were the only thing that poked out from his long sleeves. He stood above me with a smile dancing across his lips. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes before staring up at the gentleman. The man held out his hand to help me up, and I accepted the gesture, grabbing hold of his hand firmly as he hoisted me up off of the ground.
“Well, it’s about time Snow White.” He said, his smile being the only thing visible from under his hood.
“Uh, do I know you?” I asked.
“Oh no, I’m just the physical representation of your will and knowledge, who happens to have played a big role in your destiny so far.” He said, sarcasm playing off of his words.
“Oh shit, what the fuck happened?”
“You wussed out from the pain of some broken ribs and aching lungs, and as a result, fainted. Now you're here, inside your own head Sherlock.”
At this point I started to get irritated with the sarcasm and irritable personality of my own conscience or will, and looked him straight in his hooded eyes. I watched as a smile spread across his face and a laugh bubbled up, as if I had told some sort of joke.
“What’s so funny, Will?” I asked, confused.
“Nothing, just your initial reaction to what’s going on has been relatively... calm.” He said, with a slightly raised brow.
“W...what do you mean?” I said, stuttering slightly.
“Suddenly going from your bedroom in Colorado to being trapped inside a stone statue and then passing out from pain and exhaustion and finally reawakening in your own mind. I don’t know about you, but I believe that that is definitely something to freak out about.” He said chuckling between words.
“Okay, I agree... I am pretty freaked out right now, but I’m being calm considering you’re me, just all robed and wise.” I said, being honest as I breathed in the cool yet surprisingly bitter air of my own mind.
“Wise? Why thank you.”
I mumbled to myself, “You may be wise, but you're definitely not humble... thats for sure.”
“What?”
“Oh nothing, you said you had something to tell me?” I countered, remembering what he had said as he awoke me from my unconscious slumber.
“Oh right, now you may be kind of shocked about this, but you sort of… How do I say this without making it sound like a cliche hero movie?” He placed his hand to his beardless chin and rubbed it in thought.
I took this moment to look at my surroundings, I mean, a guy should know what the inside of his own mind looks like. The area appeared to be a town square of some sort, with a fountain right in the center. Atop it, there was what appeared to be the statue of a brave looking pony, and at the base there was water lapping against the marble.
Another man sat a few feet away from me and my will, he was handcuffed and chained to the bench he sat on. I approached him, leaving Will to ponder his sentence out. As I got close, the figure looked up. A bandana covered his mouth and nose, and a hood hung over his eyes which still showed through the shade. They looked black, with red slits for pupils and crimson blood leaking from the bottom lid. Besides his hoodie, he wore a pair of black jeans and a trench coat, which sat over the top of his hoodie, the longer bits at the bottom tumbling over the edge of the bench. Lastly, on his feet were a pair of worn black combat boots.
I flinched as I saw a spark of anger flash through his eyes. I backpedaled a bit, but stood my ground. I took a few more steps forward, feeling my nerves tighten as fear took over my very nervous system.
“What egghead over there is trying to say is that you have abilities given to you through your destined path.” He said in a rough and angry voice.
I flinched hearing his voice so suddenly, “Wait, w...what sort of abilities?”
“Do I look like a tutor in ability powers?”
“No, but I figured i...if you're in here then you must be a part of me and know these abilities.”
The chaotic presence sighed, “Listen, all I have to do is warn you to not get too angry out in the great world of Equestria, or you’re going to have a rather large flame to put out afterwards.”
“Ah, I see you’ve met Dex.” I jumped as Will spoke up from behind me.
“Uh yeah, heh heh, I guess I did.”
“Will, get him away from me. Far far away from me.” Dex said, looking to the ground, a bloody tear falling from his chaotic looking eyes.
“Right, come on.” Will pulled me away from Dex, “So I take it he told you about your abilities? By the way, how do you like the inside of your head? Pretty swanky, eh?”
“Um…I guess.” I said, shrugging.
“If you haven’t caught on, it’s an exact copy of the town square in Ponyville sitting in the middle of a large hedge maze, to keep all your unwanted emotions and personality traits out.”
I looked over my shoulder to Dex, and then looked to Will again, “Then why is he here?”
Will sighed, “Well, let’s just say he’s going to be useful in the future. Anyways, I bet you're curious about your abilities?”
I nodded and stopped walking, keeping eye contact with my mind’s own librarian as questions danced inside my head, which was a weird concept considering I was inside my own head to begin with.
“Okay, so you have two abilities. The first is pretty simple; you have the voice of a siren, which allows you to tame the most wild and vicious of the beasts out there, and of course it will come in handy when you want to charm those mares.” He raised his brow and smiled.
“Ack, dude. I just got here and I don’t think starting a relationship is one of the first things I need to be doing, let alone getting laid.”
Will chuckled, “Whatever loverboy, anyways, as I was saying, your second ability is the ability to bend shadows to your will. Go on, give it a try on the shadows around us. All you need to do is focus on what you want it to do.”
I looked around for the nearest darkened area and focused on it, molding it into what I wanted to create. When I was certain I wanted to create what I had envisioned, I closed my eyes and concentrated until I heard footsteps come up to me, and a steady breathing in front of me. I opened my eyes to find a clone of myself looking straight at me, I turned my head to the side and the clone did the same, I raised my hand and the clone copied every motion.
“Shadow clones, didn’t know you’d try that first.” Will said, with an impressed tone to his voice.
The clone walked over to Will and slapped him across the face, before fading back to its raw transparent form and returning to it’s owner. Will looked at me and smiled a joking smile before coughing and continuing the training.
“Okay, now you see that boulder over there?” He pointed towards a large rock across from our position. “You can move objects like that with your shadow manipulation.”
I focused on the rock as hard as I could and saw the shadows all around it stretch in its direction. I raised my hand as if trying to grab it from afar, and concentrated harder. My head began to ache and sweat formed and slid down my forehead as it grew tedious to even try, as if the weight of the very rock itself was putting strain on my mind. I gave up, gasping for air as I lowered my arm and knelt down to the ground, my hands resting on my knees. I looked up to Will as he stepped towards me.
“Good try, it’s going to take some practice to move something like that anyways. Maybe this small pebble would have been easier.” He said, raising a small pebble in his hand.
I concentrated on the pebble before he could notice and watched as it lifted up into the air and glided towards me with ease. I then focused on throwing the pebble, and saw the shadows around it fling the pebble at Will. He simply just stood there as the pebble bounced off his chest. He then glanced my way and walked up to me to help me back to my feet.
“Good, good let the darkness flow through you.”
“God, was I this corny back home?” I asked, joking about the reference he made.
“Ha ha, yeah you were. Now, you could use the shadows within your own body to heal yourself, but that will take some time. It’s probably better to just let your ribs heal by themselves.”
I nodded and stood up straight, inhaling through my nose to get the most oxygen out of the air, “Is there anything else I should know?”
Will placed his hand to his chin once more, but then nodded. “Yeah, you might be hurting both here and here for a little while.”
Will turned me around and placed his pointer fingers to the base of my shoulder blades. As he did so, I felt a small surge of energy hit me, and things began to fade.
“Looks like it’s time for you to wake up, Sean, I’ll be seeing you around.”
“Wait, why will I be feeling pain in my shoulder blades and what will happen if I get angry?”
“All in due time my friend, all in due-”
The world faded and I could feel myself laying on a flat surface with some comfortable and warm cloth draped over me. Was I home? Was it all a dream? I opened my eyes and was met with the ceiling of a hospital room above me, and the sound of a heart monitor blaring beside me.