//------------------------------// // Waking Dreams // Story: Extremely Loud, Intensely Bright, Drastically Tense, Exceedingly Tight // by h4ns //------------------------------// Chapter 44: Waking Dreams Bryce shot up, crying out as he did so. At the same time there came a loud metalic clang accompanied by a jangling of tools. The world around him took a long time coming into focus; a result of the bright light which had engulfed him only seconds before. When he could see, he saw the walls were blue, striped, with the lower section split and left unpainted. The blue section ran up to meet a green ceiling. To his side there was a pale blue curtain that ran down from the ceiling to the floor. Bryce's location hit him like he were bucked by a large bull, no pun intended. He was at Ponyville Hospital, in the exact same room as he had been in on his first visit. On the floor he could see a knocked over tray table. There were an assortment of medical instruments, rolls of bandages, various tubes of ointment, and a metalic tray lining the floor across from the table. From a corner there came a small feminine voice. "Sir... are you okay...?" Looking in her direction, Bryce found a plump, fuchsia colored mare wearing a nurse's cap. "I'm... I don't know... How long have I been here?" The fuchsia nurse cautiously stepped cautiously towards Bryce. "You've only been in this room for a few minutes. I was treating your burns when you jumped up. You scared me half to death." Looking down his form, Bryce could see he was dressed in a thin paper gown. There were bandages wrapped around certain parts of his body, all in the same spots the wildebeest had drooled on him. There were a few still uncovered. Each spot still stinged, but not as much as they had before. "Well, thanks." "If you don't mind I should pick this up and get clean tools." Bryce moved to stand. "I'll help, it's partially my fault any-" The nurse pressed a firm hoof on his chest and pushed him back down on the bed. "I'm sorry, but you are a patient for the time being. I couldn't allow you to do that. Now please lie back and try to make yourself comfortable." "Okay, fine. Are my friends here?" "Yes, they're waiting for you in the waiting room. After Doctor Stable gives you a look over and I check your vital signs they will be allowed to see you." The nurse said as she placed the last of the droped items back on the tray. "Please wait here. I'll be back momentarily." She picked up the tray in her teeth and ran out of the room. She was having a hard time trying to balance the objects and rush at the same time. When the same nurse came back she did so at a much steadier pace, stopping for a second outside the doorway to pull herself together. "Now then, the sooner we get this done the sooner you can see your friends. If there's any place that's still hurting I can't see then please let me know. Bryce nodded. As the fuchsia went about her work, Bryce asked, "Which one are you?" She stopped and gave him a confused look. "I'm sorry?" "What's your name?" "Oh, my name is Sweetheart." "SweetHEART? Do all of the nurses' names end in heart?" "Most of us do. The only one of the nurses whose name doesn't end in that is Rhyme. Technically she's a nurse in training, not a full fledge nurse. Yet." "So how many do end in heart then?" "There's me, Nurse Redheart, Nurse Tenderheart, and Nurse Snowheart. So four in all." "Are you all, you know, related?" Nurse Sweetheart stopped for a second, looking Bryce blankly in the eyes. After a moment she let out a soft chuckle. "No, no, we all just happen to share the same name. But you're not the first pony to ask that." "Well that's for the best I guess." "Why's that?" "Well if you were all sisters then y'all would probably be fighting over who gets to take care of the 'hot stud' in 'room whatever'." "You have a point, but its Nurse Snowheart who's bad about doing that. We have to assign her solely to mares and foals because of her 'fascination' in the male patients. Nurse Redheart is a tad strict when it comes to hospital procedure, but there's a soft side to her that rarely anypony sees. In any case she gets the job done. Then there's Nurse Tenderheart. In my opinion she's the best on staff; even better than Doctor Stable himself. Though she is playful with some of our patients she tends to get a little too mischievous when it comes to matters relating to surgery and open wounds and..." Nurse Sweetheart swallowed before saying one word, "Blood." "Actually, that's one of the main reasons I like her," Bryce responded. The fuchsia mare recoiled back in shock. "You're trying to make a joke, right?" Bryce replied with a mischievous smile. "Oh dear..." At that moment, Doctor Stable came in. "Nurse Sweetheart, have you finished bandaging the patient?" The fuchsia mare was instantly brought out of her stupor. "Not yet, Doctor Stable, I was just finishing-" "Go and get me Mr. Smiles' medical file while 'I' finish," the doctor said in a harsh tone. Without saying a word, Nurse Sweetheart made her way out of the room. Her ears drooped down as she went. After quickly putting the finishing touches on Bryce, Doctor Stables said, "Now, Mr. Smiles-" "The name's 'Smales'! S-M-A-L-E-S!" "Very well, Mr. Smales, how are you felling at the moment?" Good, until you came in. "I'm feeling fine right now." Doctor Stable quickly wrote this down on a clipboard. "On a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you in?" "Two to three where that wildebeest drooled on me, one everywhere else." "i'm sorry, but did you say a 'wildebeest' drooled on you?" "Yes, a wildebeest." Doctor Stable eyed Bryce for a moment before jotting down a long series of notes. Nurse Sweetheart came back in with a file in mouth. "Thank you, Nurse Sweetheart." He took it in his magic and flipped it open. "How have your burns been since you were checked out?" "They've been fine." Looking over the file in his grasp, the doctor asked, "How about your leg?" "What about my leg?" "Your files states you had a complete bone fracture at three places in your right hind... Wait, this isn't your... Nurse, this is the wrong file!" "But Doctor Stable, you asked for Smiles." "Yes, but I wanted the other Smi- I mean Sma... Just go and get me the other Smiles file! There's no point in bringing me a dead colt's file for a living patient." Nurse Sweetheart ran off, barely holding onto the file in her teeth. "I apologize for the mix up. You must understand we had a second colt with a name similar to yours who came here on a regular basis." "Really, how regular?" Bryce asked. "I am not at liberty to disclose that information to you. That kind of information in private, and it would be against the law to disclose to anypony." "Yeah, yeah, we have that kind of thing where I'm from." "Bringing you back to the point, how long have you been awake?" "I woke up when Sweetheart was in the process of bandaging me," Bryce said in as professional and clear tone as possible. "Are you feeling light headed or nauseous?" "No." "Are any of your current burns causing you any distress." "They sting a little; it comes and goes." "Are the bruises on your face in any way involved with your current condition?" Doctor Stable pointed to the faded bruises running down Bryce's face. "No, they're from an... unrelated matter." "Where were you when this happened?" "I was in the orchard at Sweet Apple Acres." "To the best of your abilities, please describe what happened." Bryce stopped to try and grasp the events prior to him waking up. He told the doctor everything, omitting a few things. "When I found the bull I could tell it wasn't a bull. It was a wildebeest." Doctor Stable stopped Bryce's monologue. "How certain are you it was a wildebeest?" "Very certain." "Could you please describe it." "Well, it was shaped like a bull. It was brown with black stripes running vertically along its shoulders and neck and had horns which curved out and then back horizontally on its head." "Is that all you can tell me about it?" "Well its head was different. It didn't look anything like a bull's or wildebeest's. It was more like a boar's, except a lot bigger." Doctor Stable stopped taking notes and looked at Bryce. "Are you certain about that?" "Yes I am. The thing looked be straight in the eye after it slung its drool on me." Doctor continued to take notes. "Please, continue." "Well, after I looked it in the eyes I felt... I felt like my head was going to explode. I could hardly stand up so I sat back on a tree. My dog came to look for me and I told him to go get help because I couldn't get back up." "How is your head feeling now?" "It feels like it never happened." Doctor Stable finished taking notes just as Nurse Sweetheart came in with a second file. Looking over the file she had brought him the doctor saw it was the correct one. He turned to Nurse Sweetheart. "Check his vitals. If there's anything out of the ordinary then come and find me." "Yes Doctor." Doctor Stable trotted out of the room. Nurse Sweetheart stomped a back hoof once he was out of earshot. "The nerve of that... jerk." "Something tells me he's not the most popular stallion in the bunch," Bryce smirked. "You don't know the half of it. He makes me all huffy and puffy. Sometimes I wonder if his horn is really his stallionhood." "Well that's one way of calling him a dickhead." The plump mare turned to Bryce. "That's not the way I would necessarily put it, but you're right." She took a deep breath to calm herself. "I'll try and get this done as quick as I can. Don't want to keep your friends waiting for too much longer now." Nurse Sweetheart began to take Bryce's vital signs. "I never got your name, but it's not Smiles, is it?" "No, but I'd prefer if you called me Bryce. It's what everyone else calls me." "Okay, Bryce." As the mare continued to check him over, Bryce asked, "How is Tenderheart doing? Is she here?" "She's been doing well. She's not here right now, but she should be later in the evening. Why do you ask?" "Well, the first time I was here, she was the one who helped me get through my stay. Her and I share some of the same interests. I can talk to her about some things that would make others cring. For example-" "IIIIII get the message, really. It's nothing against you, but the things that mare likes, and you like..." Her face shrank back as if she had eaten a sour lemon. "I meant no offense." "It's okay, but... could you please...?" "I won't, I promise." "All of your signs seem to be in the green. I'll go and get your friends. Please, keep lying back. If the toxicology report from fluid we found on your burns comes back negative then we can release you tonight. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the next couple of hours the Amethyst, Dinky, Apple Bloom, and Bryce talked. None of it had to do with anything of great importance, mostly random happenings and funny anecdotes. For a short time they played with Dinky's little ponies. Even though it seemed childish, Bryce was happy to be involved. Just as the sun was beginning to set Doctor Stable came into the room with Nurse Tenderheart close behind carrying a syringe. "Excuse me, but unless you are family, and I highly doubt you are, you'll need to wait outside." "Why, what's going on?" Amethyst asked. "If Mr. Smales wishes to say then he can do so after we leave." Doctor Stable held out his hoof showing them the door. Relunctantly, Amethyst made Dinky and Apple Bloom comply. Once they were out of the room, the doctor announced, "Mr. Smales, the toxicology report came back positive. The drool, as you call it, that coated your skin and clothing has the chemical properties of at least 17 different poisonous plants and fungi. While currently the effects of the posions appear to be mainly hallucinogenic in nature, there could a delayed reaction we don't know of yet. We're going to draw a sample of your blood to see if any of it soaked thourgh your skin and to see if there is anything we can't see on the outside. Because of this I think it best for you to spend the night in the hospital for observation. If by chance your blood checks out clean then you'll be released tomorrow afternoon. Nurse Tenderheart, please carry out the procedure." As Nurse Tenderheart cleaned the underside of Bryce's elbow, she asked, "So what is it that brings you in? Snake bite, got too much of a whiff of a heliotrope, or were you trying to build up an immuntity to poison?" "I was drooled on by a wildebeest." Nurse Tenderheart tied a rubber band around Bryce's arm. "I've never heard of a wildebeest being able to do this." "Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm not sure what all you have in this world, but I have no knowledge of anything, real or mythical, that can do something like this. Nor anything that looked like it." The pale blue mare began feeling around for a decent vein. "You said it looked like a wildebeest, didn't you?" "Yeah, from the back. Its head was so large it couldn't hold it up, but when it did it looked like a grotesque boar's." Taking a marker, Nurse Tenderheart marked the place she'd been looking for. "A boar's?" "Yeah, a boar's." "Hmm... I think I may have read something about that, but its been a long time. I have a book at home I can go get on my break around midnight. Maybe in the morning after you're well rested we can look it up. I'm about to stick the needle in. Please, keep your arm steady. I'll stick it in on three. One." Without even counting any higher, she stuck the needle into Bryce's vein and began to pull back on the plunger. "You sadistic bitch!" Bryce said in a playful manner. As she finished, Nurse Tenderheart responded, "Stop pouting, you big baby, it only hurt for a second. If I had counted to three then it would have hurt worse." After placing a bandage around his elbow, Nurse Tenderheart left the room, with syringe in mouth, and allowed Amethyst, Apple Bloom, and Dinky to come back in with a warning they only had fifteen minutes in which to say their goodbyes. "What'd she say, are yuh still going to come home tonight?" Bryce shook his head. "I'm afraid not. They said they wanted to keep me here tonight for observation." The three ponies became concerned. "Is everything going to be alright?" Bryce just smiled. "Hey, don't worry, Dink. I'm sure everything's fine. You'll see, by tomorrow I'll be up and about. Now who was I...? Lemon Wedge. I was Lemon Wedge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bryce walked through the halls of the museum, stopping every so often to look at one of the many pieces which inhabited it. He was the only one there, which meant he wouldn't have to struggle to get a good view of the famous artifacts that man had created since the dawn of civilization. He stopped to admire the Parthenon marbles, the Rosetta Stone, took the time to gaze into the eyes of the mirrored pair of lammasu which stood on either side of the archway. No matter how much he tried to think they weren't, the man headed lions' eyes seemd to follow his every move. After having his fill, Bryce stepped through the arch, taking a look back to see if they still watched him. They weren't, and he continued through the museum. As he continued through the next wing of the museum he stopped before a small painting on a small, solitary wall. It was Mona Lisa in all her glory. Whatever she had to offer, Bryce couldn't tell what exactly it was, if anything at all. "Eh, I don't see it." Snapping his fingers, the canvas stretched out and took on a different depiction. Now there was a woman with her back turned to him. The nude woman turned her head back to look towards him with a peacock feather fan held in her long right hand. "Too many vertabrae." He snapped his fingers a second time. The canvas contorted again before settling to one of a woman wearing a pink frilly dress. She sat in a swing being pulled back by her lover while a second lie in the bushes below her, admiring the view. "Too bright." he snapped a third time. He went through many reditions of portraits depicting women, ranging from a group of five nude women made from geometric shapes, to a Japanese print of a woman and two octopuses. Bryce went through countless paintings until finally finding the right one. It was of a woman, spread out across her bed with her dog curled up into a ball at her feet. In the background her servents desperately searched for clothing for their mistress to wear to conceal her shameful behavior. "Perfect to the detail." Taking a look at his watch, Bryce saw it still running at an hour every few seconds. "Well I like to stay, but I'd like to see as much as I can while I can. Can you point me to the sculpture section?" The dog at the woman's feet stood up, shook its body, and jumped down onto the floor below the picture frame. The small dog ran off in a random direction prompting Bryce to follow. Within seconds the scene was replaced with a hall of sculptures. When the dog stopped it sat back and began to eye Bryce. "Let me guess, you want a treat?" The dog hopped on its back legs at mention of a reward. "Well how does a nice, thick, juicy steak sound?" The small white and brown spaniel began to do a dance in place, anxious to get its prize for a job well done. "Well you earned it." Closing his eyes, Bryce pictured a big slab of beef. When he opened them a steak weighing close to five pounds had materialized out of thin air and landed a short distance away. Immediately the small mutt ran towards it and began to gnaw the slab of beef. "You enjoy that, I killed the bull it came from myself. It would be a shame to let that much meat go to waste." Turning back to the sculptures, Bryce walked off from the dog enjoying its meal. The first statue he came to was massive. It was of a bull, thrashing about in the hands of its two male handlers. Wrapped around the bull's horns there was a rope. Following the length of rope down Bryce could see the other end wrapped around the neck of a woman. The scene brought a chill to Bryce. It brought to mind his encounter with his own bull, but he took solace in one thing: In his encounter he had been the victor, the one who had endured to the last and had been able to walk away. Bryce's attention was taken away when he felt something pulling on his leg. Looking down he saw the same brown and white spaniel nipping on his sock. Bryce softly kicked his leg back, sending the pup sliding across the smooth flooring. "What the H are you doing? Go have your steak." The dog stood up, its teeth beared. "What's gotten to you?" The dog could only let out a small, adorable bark. "That's great, now your steak's over there." Bryce turned back to the sculpture before him. Again the dog pulled at his sock. Bryce kicked it back again, this time with more force. Shaking the scene off, Bryce looked behind him to see a second, massive sculpture. It was of a bearded man, nearly twice his own hieght. The man was beefy with enough muscle to hold up the sky if the need arise. From the man's desposition he looked to have done just that as he rested his club under his left armpit. His right arm was held behind him, the adjoined hand holding onto the literal fruit of the strong man's labor. Bryce wanted to take in the moment, but the excessive tugging of the dog on his sock made that an impossibility. "What do you want!?" The sapniel ceased its tugging when a loud thud came from behind it. The bull that had inhabited the former sculpture had sprang to life, throwing off its lifeless handlers with ease. Shaking the loose marble off its sculpted form, the bull began to step down from its plinth. As it took a final step down the marble bull turned to look at Bryce, glaring at him with a pair of eyes which glowed like embers in a dying bonfire. Bryce held a hand over his eyes and shook his head. "This again, really?" The marble bull simply bellowed out a column of flames. "Flames. That's a nice touch." Bryce took a step back to where he was a hair's width away from the statue of the strong man. Holding out his arms, Bryce said, "Come at me bro." The marble bull took Bryce to his word and began to charge at him. As the stone bovine charged onwards Bryce continued to hold out his arms, not the least bit moved from his current spot. The bull pushed forward, determined to end the life of the being before him. When the bull was less than a yard from Bryce, the marble bull was beaten to the side by a large club wielded by the now mobile strong man. The impact tore away much of the bull's head, leaving it with a hanging jaw and a single glowing eye and horn. When the bull made a move Bryce stated, "Grind'm to bits." The strong man jumped down from its own plinth, landing square on the bull's side, further breaking off sizeable chunks from the marble bovine. Not wasting time, the strong man brought its club down on its foe, sending bits of marble flying in every direction. Dropping its club, the strong man bent down and held on to what remained of the bull's head. With great ease, the head came loose and was soon after thrown against a wall, shattering it to incomprehensive pebbles. The entire time Bryce had been covering his face to avoid getting cut by the marble shrapnel. Waiting a few seconds after the noise had ceased, Bryce brought his arm away to find the giant strong man towering over him. Looking at what remained of the bull was enough to tell who had been the victor. "Well, you'll probably hate me for sawing this, buuuut..." Bryce began to clap while shouting, "Hercules! Hercules! Hercules! Hercules!" The giant statue of a man looked on, expressionless. "Nothing? Whatever. It's first time you get to move in 1800 years, you've rested long enough." The living statue ignored Bryce's comment and took a monumentous bound back onto its plinth. It then layed its club back on the rock and placed the club under his left armpit, going back to being a statue as if nothing had happened. Bryce's mood shifted. "Did you really think the same thing would work after your first attempt failed?" His voices echoed through the halls with no one responding back. "Show yourself, wildebeest!" As the vibrations of Bryce's last shout came to a close, he noticed a plume of smoke curling up from the bits and pieces of the marble bull. Instead of collecting at the ceiling, as it should have, the black smoke wafted over to a spot on the floor. As the vapor continued to gather it became more and more solid, taking on a small equine form. When the pieces of the marble bull ceased to churn out the dark fog, the equine form opened its eyes revealing a pair of glowing embers. "You're not the wildebeest," Bryce said in a calm tone. The dark apparition turned to face him, and did nothing else. It couldn't have been much bigger than Apple Bloom or Dinky, but its appearance did little to hide the sinister aura reverberating from the form's mass. "What were you trying to do?" The dark form said nothing, choosing to stand its ground. Bryce slowly walked towards it, his guard kept high. "I don't want to hurt you. I only want answers." The dark form began to growl as he approached. Bryce took a step back to give it space. "Look, I don't want to hurt you." In a cracked voice, the dark form answered, "Neither do I." In an instant the small equine grew in stature, growing into a large horse that towered over Bryce. Its glowing eyes grew in intensity like a pair of suns. A column of flames ran down its mane and tail while a dagger-like horn stuck out from its forehead and a pair of flaming wings protuded from it sides. Bryce had trailed back against the wall when the black foal took on its current shape. He was already sweating profusely, feeling as if he were inan oven. It was like something out of a nightmare, but Bryce couldn't deny it was. In an instant the heat disappated, leaving in its place an empty void. Bryce tried to look around, but if he even was the darkness around him made it impossible to tell. Though he felt blind, his sense of feeling was working all too well. The place he was in felt itchy like a poor quality blanket at... The hospital. He realized what was going on. This was no longer the dream world he had been in, but his room at Ponyville Hospital. He would know that itchy blanket from anywhere. Bryce made an attempt to move, but for what ever reason his muscles refused to respond. He tried to open his eyelids but they too refused to give an inch. He had experienced this before; sleep paralysis as doctors called it. Recovering from it wouldn't be too much of a problem. All he needed to do was wiggle his fingers and toes enough for his brain to flip the switch on the rest of his body. When he began to do so he felt something move on his chest. He stopped to see if he could feel it better but there was nothing. His chest fell motionless. Wiggling his digits again the feeling on his chest came with it. It was strange. It felt to have been there, but it was so light it almost went unnoticed. Bryce stopped wiggling again, and again his chest went still. It was then he remembered something about sleep paralysis. One could easily be afraid of nothing, their still sleeping minds finding it difficult to see between imaginary and reality. But this felt to be so real like it were physically touching him. Someone was resting on his chest. In his paralysis, Bryce knew there was nothing he could do. He began to wiggle his digits at as high a rate as his comatose mind would allow. That only made the thing resting on his chest put up that much more of a fight. When the invisible chain that was holding Bryce finally broke, he grabbed onto the blanket he was under and threw it over the thing on his chest. He then grabbed onto the being inside and rolled over onto the floor. The thump Bryce made shook everything within a short radius. In what little light there was Bryce could see whatever was under the blanket struggling to come out, but Bryce would have none of that. He wrapped his arms as best he could around his attempted assailant, not taking any chances. From behind, the door was thrown open and the room was flooded with the beam of a flashlight, sending a searing pain into Bryce's corneas. "Bryce, what's going on?" Nurse Tenderheart asked in alarm. Bryce placed all his weight down on the thing held under the blanket. "Someone was trying to attack me, but I've got'm trapped!" Nurse Tenderheart placed the flashlight down on the bed. "Bryce, calm down. Whoever's under there would be best left in one piece. Let them up so I can see." Bryce did as he was asked. When he loosened his hold on his attacker he expected for them to jump out, but instead the blanket lay as still as a corpse." "You didn't kill them, did you?" "I... I tried not to..." Nurse Tenderheart bit down on the blanket and threw it back. What they both saw shocked them both. There was nothing there. "What's going on in here!?" Both Bryce and Nurse Tenderheart turned back to see Doctor Stable standing closely behind them. When the stallion saw their lapse in answering, he said, "Somepony better explain this." Bryce attempted to answer, but the nurse beat him to it. "I came in to check the patient's vital signs. He was asleep when I came in and I must have spooked him." Doctor Stable looked them both over, trying to decide if what she had said were true. Eventually he held a hoof to his eyes and sighed. "With you, Nurse Tenderheart, I can believe that. Get it done and report back to your regular duties." He walked out of the room. When they were alone, Nurse Tenderheart turned to Bryce. "What really happened in here?" "I... I thought something was on me. I woke up with sleep paralysis." "I'm familiar with that. So you woke up in the middle of the night, realized you were undergoing sleep paralysis, and, in your mind's eye, you thought somepony or something was on you?" "Yeah, on my chest." "Did you actually see anything?" "No, I just felt it. But it felt so real." "I understand that. Sleep paralysis can do that. Why don't you get back in bed and try to calm down? I'll be back in twenty minutes to show you the book I was talking about and to check your vitals, just so we can say what I said wasn't a complete lie." Bryce did as the nurse had asked. Twenty minutes later the pale blue nurse returned with a worn book held in her mouth. She laid it down on the bed within reach of Bryce. "I left a bookmark on the page I think will tell you more about the creature you saw. You look it over while I check you over. " Bryce looked at the cover of the book in his hands. The title read: The Book of Equestrian Beings. Below was the author of the book: Olmsted Salamander. On the bookmarked page was the creature Nurse Tenderheart had wanted Bryce to see. "Catoblepas?" "Yes, and from what you've told me the book matches almost perfectly. There's even a part where the author states that the belief of this creature is based off of real life encounters with wildebeests in Zebrica." "Well what about its drool? The doctor said-" "Its main diet is said to be poisonous vegetation. There is one thing the book says, but it appears to be false." "Why's that?" "Salamander says that the gaze of the catoblepas is lethal, and since you said you looked it straight in the eye it must be false, if what you saw was a catoblepas." "Why do you say it like that?" "What you said about its appearance and behavior is almost spot on with what is said in the book. It also says that while there are many references to it in old texts there is no evidence in the present day that it actually now or ever existed." "Than how do you explain what I saw?" Nurse Tenderheart stopped for a moment, thinking how best to answer. "Bryce, nopony else saw what you saw. From what Dinky and Apple Bloom told me all they ever saw was its flank." They both looked each other in the eye. "Look, Tender, I know what I saw, and I said it as best I can." "I know you did, Bryce, and I believe you, but there really is nothing to say what you saw was a catoblepas. If it was a catoblepas we have no way of knowing what exactly will happen to you." They both went silent for a spell. Bryce spoke half heartedly, "Well, I'm glad you brought this in for me to see. I'm not asking you to believe me." Bryce flipped the front cover of the book closed. "All we can do is hope- Damn it!" As Bryce shut the book the pages began to slip out one by one. "Don't worry about that, I've had that book since I was a filly. It does that from time to time," Nurse Tenderheart said as she began to pile the scattered pages together. As she piled them together Bryce took note of one of the pages. "Wait, let me see that page." "Which one?" "The one... The one with the black pony and the bed." Flipping through some of the pages in her hoof, Nurse Tenderheart found the page he had indicated. The picture on the page depicted a mare lying asleep on her back in bed. Her head and left front leg were hanging over the side. On the mare's chest there was a small, menacing black foal. The eyes of the foal seemed to be glowing, but it was hard to tell since the image was black and white. "What's that one called?" "A mare." "No, the foal on the mare's chest." "That's what it's called, a mare. Why did you want to see this?" "I saw that thing in my dream, right before I woke up with sleep paralysis." "Bryce, that's impossible." "But I saw it. In my dream." "You may have, but I doubt it was a mare. They were all hunted to extinction by Princess Luna before she became Nightmare Moon." "How can I get in contact with... whatever her name is now?" "That's impossible." "Why?" "She's been exiled to the moon. She's been there for almost 1000 years." Bryce fell back onto his pillow. "Tenderheart, do you believe me about this?" Nurse Tenderheart was slow to answer. "Bryce... There's been nothing in over 1000 years to say they still exist. Despite what you saw in your dream, they're gone."