//------------------------------//
// Waking up is hard to do 
// Story: Duality 
// by RaijingtheClockworkPony 
//------------------------------//

	Sam was starting to hate waking up. He was feeling like crap. His head was pounding and he felt like throwing up again. 'Wait I've felt like this before.' Sam opened his eyes to an all to familiar ceiling. He was back where he started. He almost missed the smell of stale sweat and spilled alcohol, but he had more pressing things on his mind. He needed to turn off the stereo. Every beat it put out made his head throb even worse. He stumbled to the stereo mounted on the wall and started hitting the power button. It took him 5 tries before he realized that he was hitting the CD eject button. After locating the power button he hit it with as much strength as he could muster. When it powered down he slumped up against the wall and surveyed the war-zone that was the room. People were laying everywhere. One man had even found a way to stay on the back of the couch without falling off laying face up. 'That can't be good for his back.' Sam felt the headache start to turn from a throb to a dull ache until he saw the man entering the room. 

"Sammy my boy! You are one lucky S.O.B. I put in the good word for you with that playboy bunny I was chatting up and guess what?" Roger put his hands to his head like a cheesy movie psychic. “I see a great double date in our future my main man." 

Sam started to rise from his spot along the wall. It took a moment for him to register the fact that Roger was wearing a bathrobe, and only a bathrobe. Quite loosely.

"Dude, close up your robe. I really don't want to see that. Also I have a girlfriend remember."

"Oh yeah, you're whipped. Well it's still a double date for me then."

"Shut up man, I have a headache."

Roger looked at Sam for a second then his eyes brightened up and he started to smile knowingly. "I know what you need. A Hail Mary."

"No. Hell no."

Sam remembered when he and Roger had tried to find a hangover cure. They tried all the traditional recipes but to no avail for Roger. Roger wanted something that was fast and made you 'feel alive' as he called it. Roger had called Sam one day after a week of not trying anything else. He claimed he had a found the hangover cure. Sam went over only to keep Roger from sending him constant texts. When he got there Roger had two glasses of a dark green liquid. Sam inspected the drink as best he could and the only part of the drink he could recognize at the time (and to this day for that matter) was the skittles sitting at the bottom of the glass. He asked about them. Roger said that's where the 'Hail' part of the name 'Hail Mary' came from. Sam merely shrugged and downed the drink. Now Sam has feel moments in his life that he wished he could relive so that they would end differently. This was one of those moments in his life. It was the foulest thing he had ever tasted in his life. He would have spit it out into a sink or the floor if his drinker’s instincts hadn't kicked in and forced him to swallow it. He spent the next half hour coughing and retching until he could breathe. When he regained control of his breathing he then tried to throttle the life out of Roger. Suffice to say he failed at the throttling part. 'How Roger downs that shit is beyond me.'

"Fine, be that way you pansy. Anyways I came down here to find you because Alex called. He said something about work."

"Thanks. See you later then."

Sam headed for the front door when Roger called out to him. “Hey, next time I hook you up with a bunny you better be grateful. I can't keep getting you all the babes forever!"

"Thanks then, you over confident ass!"

Sam opened the front door and nearly tripped on the poor man in front of him. What made this scene worse was not the guy passed out on the welcome mat, but the fact he failed to make it to a toilet to puke in. 'As Roger would say here, 'It's not a party till someone pukes in the bushes.'

Sam leaped over the poor guy and walked to his car. He unlocked it and sat in the driver seat. He then opened the armrest and grabbed his phone and wallet and restored them to his pockets. He checked his missed messages and saw that Alex had left him no less than ten texts telling him to meet with him so they could talk. He started to text Alex saying that they should meet at his apartment. He put the phone on his lap and started up the car. He pulled off the curb and onto the street headed home when he heard a small cough next to him. He turned and was greeted by Mister wearing the same smile he wore when he last saw him in the white void. A short scream and a jump were all Sam used as a hello to his passenger.

"Good lord! How did you get in my car? What if someone sees you?"

Mister simply looked at Sam for a second then looked at the dashboard. He played with the buttons like a young child with a shiny new toy.

“Oh you can be such a pill. I'm an all-powerful being who can transport between dimensions with but a thought. You think something as simple as a door will stop me? Also to put your little human mind at ease, you are the only one who can see me. Oooo what does this one do?"

Sam was too busy trying to drive to look at Mister but he had to concede the point to him, but it didn't stop him from feeling uneasy with him right there. He grabbed his phone and sent the message to Alex. 

"Okay then. What do you want?"

"I want to study you humans some more. Last time I was here humans didn't have such fun toys. What's this one?"

At this point he turned on the stereo at full volume. The sound hit Sam like a brick to the face. He reached over, smacked Misters hand, and turned the stereo off. He reached a stop sign and decided that this was as good a spot as any to stop the car.

"Don't touch anything. I'm trying to drive here and you’re not helping at all." 

"Oh get over it you pansy."

With a wave of his snow white hand across Sam's face he felt his headache fade away. He could feel the pressure lift from his mind and the throbbing stopped instantly. 

"How did you... right you're all powerful."

"Well I can't have you whining the whole time I'm here. Also I like this Roger fellow you are friends with. He's my kind of guy, knows how to have fun. Now I wonder if I should have chosen him for my game, but he did lack the right... qualifications for it."

"What qualifications?"

Mister stopped playing with the dashboard and looked at Sam to answer him.

"He lacked history my good man. Well maybe not good, but you know what I mean."

Sam let the insult slide. "History?"

Mister's smile widened. "You have history with the show, the fans, and best of all you left it all behind to, As you said "grow up". As a bonus for me you once wanted to go to the conventions but never had the courage to. You were always to worried about what people thought of you."

Sam started to drive again. He was thinking about what Mister had said. All of it hurt, but only because it was true. 'So then why pick me if I might not have the guts to stay then?' Sam pulled into the parking lot for his apartment complex. He parked his car and looked over to see what Mister was up to but was surprised to see Mister had vanished. 'At least he's gone now.' Got out of his car and headed into the building. After three flights of stairs he got to his floor. He saw Alex at the end of the hall next to his door. He was very well dressed for a Saturday. Dress pants, a simple dress shirt, a royal purple vest with some kind of leaf pattern on it, and a tie to match. He was holding a brief case as well. He looked down the hall to look at Sam when he approached. 

"You look pretty good for a man who just left one of Roger’s parties."

"Yeah, you look pretty good yourself. Going out or something?"

Alex smiled at the compliment. "Yeah I got a date tonight with a stud I found at the bar. We really connected, you know." 

Sam smiled at Alex and moved to open the door. He could tell by the dreamy look Alex was wearing that the guy he was going to meet was a good one. 'As least he's got something to look forward to tonight.' They entered the apartment and moved from the small tiled entry way into the living room. Sam’s living room can only be described as a controlled chaos. There were two couches, one made of leather and the other made a bright tan cloth, a sitting chair also leather. A glass coffee table and a collection of wooden crates stacked into the corner to form an end table. Alex sat down on the leather couch and placed the briefcase on the coffee table.

"Hey do you want anything to drink Alex?"

"Milk would be great. Thank you."

Sam walked around the couch to get to the adjoined kitchen on the left side of the room. he reached the tiled floor only to, once again, be greeted by the smiling face of Mister. 'Does he ever not smile?' He walked over to the fridge and got out the milk. He was about to get some glasses but was beaten to it by Mister. He stood there holding the glasses out for Sam to take. Sam took them and hoped that Alex couldn't see any of this. 

"So, what is so important that you had to talk to me face to face?"

Alex called from the other room. "Well, as you know, the partners have been trying to open a new firm in New York."

Sam started to fill his glass with water. "Yeah, and?"

“Well they finally got the space they were trying to get. Now the Partners are going to send a small group of people out there to get it off the ground."

Now Sam was paying attention to the fullest of his extent. he re-entered the living room and handed Alex his drink. he sat down on the couch opposite of Alex. Mister had followed him into the room and sat down next to Alex. He looked at the vest Alex wore then opened his suit coat up. His skin was bare under the coat but only for a second before a vest and tie of the same color as Alex's appeared on him. They had some strange pattern that Sam couldn't recognize. 

"Okay so what does this have to do with you or me?"

"The partners have chosen the team already and want each of them to know before the meeting they will have on Monday. The team consists of you, me, Sanders, and Smith. They wanted me to tell you that you’re the one who’s going to be the head of the new firm."

Sam choked on his water when Alex said the last part. Alex rose to help him by smacking him on the back, while Mister simply went into a fit of laughter. After roughly 30 seconds of Sam coughing he regained his composure enough to talk. 

"Why do they want me to head the new firm? Smith has the most experience out of all of us."

"They told me to tell you that they trust you with this job." 

Sam could only smile when Alex said those words. This was huge for him. A pay raise, a new job in New York City, and the partners had said they trusted him with a job this big. He looked at Alex and could only smile to show how excited he was. Mister merely chucked at the news and got up to inspect the things around the room. Alex opened up the brief case he had with him and pulled out a folder. He handed it to Sam. 

"That's got all the official paper work that needs to be filled out for you. Now for the fun part..."

Alex went on to tell Sam of his Friday, how he met a guy at the bar, how they seemed to connect and how he got the date he was going to that night. Sam talked about his first date with Jenny and how things went during the date. They both talked about dates they had in the past. Alex was worried and kept asking for advice.

"Like I would know how to impress a guy!"

Both Alex and Mister burst into peals of crippling laughter at Sam. Sam joined them when he realized how silly he sounded. 'I need to think before I talk.' Alex regained control of his lungs, and was clutching at his side when he rose from the couch. 

"Well this has been fun but I need to get ready for my date later. I'll see ya Monday and let you know how it goes."

"Yeah see ya later Alex." 

Sam got up from the chair and grabbed the now empty glass Alex left on the coffee table. 'Wonder how his date will work out if he'll be moving to New York soon. Oh well maybe he'll let the guy down gently.' He reached the kitchen and put the glasses into the sink and turned around to find Mister Less than a foot from his face. 

"Oh boy you humans have gotten so much more fun since I left all those years ago. I never knew humans took mating so seriously, and I would have never guessed they would be so open about same gender mating. You humans are such good fun."

"Not everyone is as tolerating as I am with Alex. I knew him for a month before he told me he was gay. We were roommates back in collage. I figured back then that as long as he didn't try to get in my pants I wouldn't care. When i told him that though he said I wasn't his type."

Mister had to hold himself up on the counter because of how hard he was laughing. Sam walked around him to head to his office. Well he called it his office, it was supposed to be the second bedroom of the apartment but after Alex moved out he had turned it into an office of sorts. When Jenny moved in a week ago it had become a place for her to put some of the extra things that didn't make it into the bedroom they shared or the living room. He reached the hall and took the first door to his right. He walked into the room to once again be greeted by the always smiling Mister, who was reading a file upside down. 

"Do you mind I have work to do and I really need to keep these files in order. So put that one back where you found it and facing the correct way. Now."

"You really are a kill joy, a buzz kill, and quite a fun wrecker. Besides, what are you worried about? This one is from two years ago. Do humans really sue people because they are stupid or is this a one-time deal?"

Sam knew which case Mister was holding. It was his first case as a full time lawyer. A man tried to sue a ice cream shop for not warning him that he could get brain-freeze. Suffice to say the case was a flop. But the firm didn't hold it against him; rather they saw it as an amusing joke to tell to any new guys coming in. 'Never did like ice cream anyways.'

"Yeah whatever, just leave."

With a comical POP and a puff of smoke Mister vanished. Sam didn't wait for the smoke to clear before he started working. It was roughly 9 o'clock when he heard the main hallway door open. 'That would be Jenny.' After about thirty seconds the door to the office opened and jenny poked her head in. 

"Hey, you been working all day?"

"Only for about three hours, how was your day?"

Sam got up and hugged her. They both went into the living room and Jenny told him about her day out with the girls. They spent the rest of the night talking about their days, though Sam left out everything that had to do with Mister, and watching T.V. At roughly 11 Jenny went to bed stating that she was worn out from her day. Sam was about to join her but the sudden return of Mister prompted him to stay where he was. Mister looked at the leaving form of Jenny and seemed at a loss for words but only for a second. 

"Just in case you were worried about me I was looking up your friends and family. Very interesting lot, your father needs to stop cheating on his diet if he wants to lose any of that weight." 

“I was thinking about your little game today. I have to tell you I don't think this is going to work out the way you think it is. I have a great life here and it only got better. Jenny and I still need to decide what to do about me going New York but that's about the worst thing to happen me. Face it your game was a flop and you just lost. Thanks for the free trip to Equestria."

The look that took hold of Mister's face made Sam's blood run cold. Pure malice lace Misters inhuman features and his eyes seemed to glow with a strange red light. Sam could only stare at the eyes but every instinct told him to get away from him. Just as quickly as the look appeared on Misters face it was replaced with a smile just as disturbing. 'I wish he was smiling like he was earlier.' 

"The game isn't over yet my little pathetic, waste of space. I know the deepest secrets of all your friends. If I have to I will make sure the game gets fun but with the secret I know I won't have to. It’s only a matter of time before someone slips up and breaks your reality. But until that time I'm going to make sure you know how this game works. Well the finer details at least. Every time you fall asleep or lose consciousness you will be taken to the other world."

"Wha... I... What?"

"There will be small time gaps such as when you fall asleep in one world, when you return to it you will be restored to the point when you naturally wake up. To make sure you pass the week in an even fashion you won't be able to fall asleep in that world for a minimum of five hours." 

Sam had no idea how to respond to Mister. Mister strode over to the door to the main hallway door and looked back at Sam. "I will not meet you here in this world until something big happens, and If you really need to talk to me just say my name before you fall asleep."

Mister walked through the closed door and was gone. Sam sat there unable to comprehend what had happened. 'He said he knew secrets of my friends but what kind of secrets could he possibly know?' Sam was feeling so very tired at that moment. He walked to his bed room, got into his sleeping pants, and crawled into be next to Jenny. He wasn't looking forward to this week anymore.