'Why do I like this show?' you had thought to yourself as the opening theme to My Little Pony rolled in, after an hilarious intro where the pink maned pegasus brutally kicked her friend and carefully leapt out of her cottage window. She wasn't going to any dragon migration, no sir.
It was the same thing every episode. The feeling that you should not have been enjoying the show as much as you were crept in as you heard the woman starting to sing the My Little Pony theme. The feeling quickly subsided though, once the intro was done. And you slowly forgot that you were watching a show where the target audience was that of young girls.
Thinking it didn’t really bother you anymore, you looked down on your "Loyalty" T-shirt. You weren't worried about showing it off in public, though maybe you should have been. You probably subconsciously chose this particular shirt because there were no actual ponies on it. From afar it would look like a shirt with fancy rainbow colors on either sides of the word "Loyalty". However, if you looked closer, and knew what you were looking for, you'd be able to see that the colors on either side outlined a pony, and the multicolored pattern was its mane.
'Discreet,' you thought while smiling, again satisfied with your choice.
With the episode’s ending theme kicking in, you looked at the time.
"Two forty eight?! Shoot!" A horrid feeling sank into your gut as you remembered that you had to get up in five hours, and you weren't even tired. You shot a glance over at the four empty cans of Redbull sitting besides your computer screen.
'It’s all your fault. God damn it'. Deciding not to punish the cans for their crime, you headed off to bed hoping to get some shut-eye before the alarm would again annoy you with its existence.
The alarm went off at eight. Instinctively, like any other morning, you got up and walked over to the clock that sat on the other side of your room. You slapped it on the off-button, then headed back to bed. Rolling over your duvet, you grabbed it and wrapped yourself in a cocoon, nearly drifting back into your comfortable coma.
With a sudden jerk, you snapped out of it.
'Get up you lazy bum,’ you thought and rolled back out from your soft hibernation cone.
Ten minutes in the shower and no breakfast, just a glass of orange juice rushed down your dry throat, and you were ready to leave. You threw your bag over both your shoulders, then looked at your cellphone.
'Half past eight, you better not be lying to me Mr. Cellphone'. Discovering that you had actually fallen asleep for ten minutes with no perception of it made you feel a bit annoyed. And now you might not even be able to catch your bus.
You did though.
Staring out the window on the bus ride to university was always a good time. It was probably one of your favorite times of the day except some of the stuff you did at the computer. Watching series, playing games, reading fanfics, all had their merits. But the half hour drive to university and back was something else. You'd fantasize about anything that you was into at the time. And now, you were in Ponyville. Partying with Pinkie, or cheering on Rainbow as she was showing you her newest daring trick.
Your world was boring. Your mind would always wander someplace else. You did well at school, but you weren't exactly a good student. You would study for tests and exams a couple of days in advance, and it seemed to always work out somehow as you manage to stay above the class’ average. Projects were barely finished on time, but they were, and that’s what's important, right?
That was the predicament you were in right now. You had a project going on with some of your fellow classmates, and they were more proper on those things than you. Completely understanding about their position, you still would have liked them to relax a little. You were on your way to a meeting that morning, about the composition of the final report. Which was due in six weeks.
The bus was driving along some corn fields when your thoughts were rudely interrupted by a loud burst of noise.
'Thunder?' Puzzled, you looked outside, and for the first time that morning took notice of the weather. Clear skies. The sun was sneaking up from behind the hills to the east, having its light break up to an array of purples and oranges. Looking at the sight in awe, you nearly forgot about the loud bang you heard just seconds ago. You looked around at the other passengers on the bus to see how they were reacting to this. They were all doing the same, looking outside and at each other to find out what it was they just heard.
This was a problem you had with the human brain. If something happened that one couldn't explain, the brain tells you what was the most logical explanations, and you just pick one, or several of them, and continue with your day. That was what happened after the bus ride, and it bothered you. You knew that it was probably construction work, or a snapping piece of material somewhere, or a thunder happening under clear skies. You had heard of those, "heat lightning" or whatnot. Even though you knew this was not a supernatural occurrence you just experienced, you wished with all your being that it was.
With hands on your pockets you started walking from the bus stop towards the university. It was about a five minute walk, but today it felt a lot shorter.
Still deep in thought you turned ninety degrees to your left, you had reached the building that was your destination. You subconsciously decided that today you would be walking around the back of the building to get to the main entrance, which was on the far side.
The walk was just as long behind the building as it was walking in front. But the back of the old school was much more tranquil. A nice little path that laid in the middle of a grassy floor separated the school building, two meters off the path to the left, and a thick forest, two meters to the right. Or maybe two and a half, the path wasn't a straight line, and probably on average the path was closer to the school than the forest. Perhaps it reflected that the students who decided to walk here, tended to stay a little closer to the school, since the forest might look threatening. With that in mind, you stepped off the path and walked right up besides the edge of the forest with your hand stretched out, feeling the leaves and branches slide of your hand and arm as you walked.
The meeting wasn't before half past ten. You looked at your cell phone who told you that it was nearly quarter past nine. You let out a sigh, knowing that you were going to have to wait for the stupid meeting for over an hour. It's better to be too early than too late, but perhaps taking the next bus would have been a good idea. At least it would have given you time for breakfast.
You brushed off the feeling of annoyance and moved towards the room where you were supposed to meet. You could always spend some time thinking, like on the bus rides, staring out the window.
You knew the room number, and you knew you read it right the first two times, but still checked a third time to make sure you were in the right place. It would be troublesome to walk in on an on-going lecture. Slowly opening the door and peaking into the room, you discovered that it was empty.
You strolled in and over to one of the tables that stood out compared to its neighbors. It was larger and its frame was a metallic red, in contrast with the surrounding black-framed tables. You threw your bag on the floor by the chair you chose fit to be yours for the day.
Sitting down you noticed that this room was a bit different than the other classrooms you regularly visited for your lectures. The guitars on either side of the blackboard, and sheet music posters hanging on the walls, indicated that this classroom was likely a music room. You didn't even know there were any music related courses at this university, but paid it no more mind as you looked behind you and saw a big piece of furniture in the back corner of the room. An old and worn looking piano. You smirked as you stood up and walked towards it. The lid on the piano was wide open, exposing all the keys, making it irresistible to touch.
You played a simple tune that you could easily play with one hand, and was pretty surprised at how well it the piano sounded compared to how it looked. You would've played another short tune, but in a flash you suddenly felt dizzy.
"Wha..." left your mouth as you stumbled back to your seat by the big table, knocking into random chairs on your way. Your head didn’t hurt, not in the slightest. It was just a numbing feeling, making your head feel light.
As quickly as the feeling came, it subsided.
You put your head in your hands to rethink the experience.
'It was probably just the lack of sleep', you thought. 'Yeh, that’s gotta be it.' After the meeting, you would be going straight home, and go to sleep.
You lifted your head up from your hands and looked towards the blackboard. Your eyes widened. An expression of shock was the only reaction you made at what you saw. A dark circular... thing, was hovering not more than a couple of feet in front of you. After a quick look you backed off, rising and taking a step back while still holding the back of your chair. You stared at the dark circle for about a minute, expecting it to disappear, but it didn't.
Calming down, you wanted to check this small object out. From looking at it you could clearly see it growing in size, not at a fast pace, but at some pace, that was certain. Slowly moving towards the mystical blackness, your heart started pounding. A very uncomfortable feeling took hold of your chest, and only grew more intense as you got closer. Your hand was in reach now, if you would just get up the courage to lift your arm. You took a deep breath and levitated your hand towards the darkness. There was no feeling of temperature difference, no moving air. Your hand didn’t sense anything as you touched it. Pulling your hand back, you felt more confident now that you hadn’t died from its touch.
It was now big enough to fit your whole hand through. The perfect time to experiment. You took your hand and slowly descended it into the black circle, then you bent around to see if it came out the other side. It did. Disappointed, you sat back down on your chair, not taking your eyes of the dark circular entity, still hovering, still growing in front of the blackboard.
Minutes passed, the portal shaped blackness was now about three feet in diameter, and it wasn't completely round anymore either. It was growing faster on the top and bottom than it was to the sides.
By now you were a hundred percent sure, that either you were dying, hallucinating, or sleeping, or a combination of those. You kept looking at it with a grin. At least your brain gave you a show before you died. You thought back to earlier that morning, about the thunder that came from nowhere.
'This is going to end exactly the same way', you thought as the dizziness returned. You were probably going to wake up in a hospital bed, with some clear liquid dripping into your arm, and all this mysticism would be gone, probably forgotten within a week.
The thought angered you. And in a split moment of rage, you picked up your bag and threw it into the darkness of the hole. You sat back down, all the sudden movements had made your already clouded mind disorientated, and for the first time in a while, you looked away. Your head was in your hands again as you tried to keep your head from spinning. Then there was a faint thought streaming through your dizzy mind. You couldn't put your finger on it, but something was clearly bothering you.
‘Did... Did my bag make a sound after hitting the other side of the classroom?’
In a sudden movement, you snapped back up. Your mind kept falling backwards after your head stopped, like your brain was still spinning inside your skull from its gained momentum. You sat still for a moment until your brain gave you the clear that it was stable enough to keep you on your feet, and you moved towards the darkness. The feeling of anxiety grew back. You walked up besides the dark interdimensional hole and looked behind it.
No bag. Nothing. Just the blackboard. It had definitely hit the darkness, which could only mean one thing. Well, two things, but ruling out that you were going crazy, only one thing remained.
You had classified your find as a portal, and now you were standing right in front of it. You had moved all the tables back so that there was a clearing in front of the portal.
Where would it take you?
Would you want to go there?
Will you be able to return?
Tons of questions ran through your fogged mind.
You started to feel your head suddenly becoming lighter by the second. Something was changing. The space around you started to bend, and the floor was tilting in random directions. You could’t think straight anymore. Your head was numb, and you could barely keep yourself on your feet. You had one thought, clear enough to hear. And you spoke it out loud.
"I am not letting this chance slip by."