//------------------------------// // Waking Up To Reality // Story: Twist Ending // by Rrazz //------------------------------// Twist Ending Chapter Two: Waking Up To Reality __________________________________________________________________________________ I wasn't sure how long I lingered in that dark place, how long it was before I finally came too, or even if it had been real in the first place. A large portion of my brain had already put it off as a bad dream, though a small part of my mind kept knocking, reminding me that I was quite awake and could feel everything at the time, the hard plastic of my flashlight, the chill of the pepsi bottle I'd retrieved, the pain in my skull from that stupid wakeup attempt. I tuned it out however as a weak groan escaped me, consciousness returning slowly. Again the first thing I noted was light against my eyelids, but I ignored it this time, the faint calling of birds in the distance, and the sound of trees swaying in a light breeze confirming what belief that I was still safe in my bed. Stretching slightly, I winced at the ache in my legs, an ache that rapidly spread throughout my body. Obviously I hadn't slept comfortably last night…Which wasn't much of a surprise, I wasn't exactly a peaceful sleeper, and after that nightmare. My peaceful wakeup was interrupted by a loud thump, and I winced instinctively, the sound was familiar, like someone taking a axe to a tree, the loud cracking impact came again a few moments later. I offered a curse as I attempted to roll over, blaming the sound on our neighbours. They never could do things at a reasonable hour, or quietly… Naturally it came as a very big shock when I felt something unfamiliar against my check. Instead of the soft fabric of the pillow I expected, it was rough and irritated the skin. Finally I opened my eyes, curiosity overriding my desire to continue sleeping. Something green? I blinked a few times to focus my eyes, and was surprised to find I was staring at grass, vibrant green grass. "The hell?" I mumbed groggily, senses rapidly returning as the shock from the previous night started to well up anew. Lifting my head, I cast my gaze about uneasily, noting that I was in fact not in my bed anymore, or even in my house. Instead I appeared to be in the yard or something. Glancing about more carefully, I noted that was wrong as well. As far as the eye could see was grass, and trees, dozens upon dozens of trees in all directions. Closer inspection revealed the branches were weighed down by apples. So that cleared up what kind of trees they were (Not that I cared) Slowly I forced myself upright and onto my feet, both confused and somewhat terrified. After all, the nearest farm to my house was a good few kilometres away. It wasn't like I could have started sleep walking or something; I'd never done that once in my life. Why start now? I slowly drifted towards one of the trees and pressed my back to it as I tried to piece together what I was seeing. The rough bark scraped at my back through my shirt, once again proving this wasn't a dream. If I could feel, then it was real. However what other explanation was there? It was impossible that I could just get and walk here, and it was even less likely I'd been moved, I was a light sleeper, woke up if someone so much as opened my bedroom door. I doubt I'd sleep through someone dragging me out of my bed. So my only logical conclusions was this was a crazy dream that just wouldn't leave me alone…Or that, incident during the night was quite real… I started laughing at that, slowly at first, but soon it grew louder and more, insane as the seconds ticked by. "R-Right…Yeah…" I mumbled as the laughter faded. "A creature you dreamt up shows up in the dead of night, snatches you from you're home and drop you miles away from it…Yeahhhh." I chuckled again, weaker this time. Either I had well and truly lost my mind, or my life just got turned upside down by my own creation. 'Was that even possible? No, no it wasn't! Get ahold of yourself Simon!' I shook my head, forcing the creeping dread back down for a moment, there was a perfectly rational explanation for this. Hell there was one hell of a storm last night. Maybe I got struck by lighting or something…Yeah that wasn't' likely either… I winced again as my thoughts were interrupted by another cracking sound, louder then the previous ones. I glanced about uneasily, the sound indicated I wasn't alone, and worse whatever (or whoever) else was out here seemed to be getting closer. Finally I risked a glance around the tree I was leaning against, not surprising there was more and more trees for miles around, but this direction I saw something else. Something that made my brain's insanity plea even more likely… Given it was a farm, it wasn't too surprising to see that a horse was roaming the area. Well, a pony I guess, it wasn't that big. That didn't bother me; it was the details that bothered me. For one, the pony was wearing a cowboy hat, tugged low over its face as though to block out the sun. Someone's idea of a joke maybe? Maybe that was the sound? The poor thing couldn't see where it was going and kept crashing into trees? No, I kept studying it, thankful that due to my position it hadn't spotted me yet. Its mane had a hair tie at the end, almost turning the flowing hair into a pony tail (Pun not intended), again it was weird but I didn't really care to dwell on it, the blond coloured mane tied up like that, combined with the hat looked creepily familiar though. Bright tan fur covered it almost from head to hoof. That was the first sign that something was wrong, the colour wasn't exactly strange but it just looked, off somehow. I had only seen a few horses up close, but the fur colour just looked far to bright and colourful on the animal. I watched it cautiously still trying in vain to place why it looked so annoyingly familiar. My question was answered when the pony wandered close to one of the trees, spun on its heel and promptly delivered a sharp kick with its hind legs to the bark, causing the cracking sound I'd been hearing, and resulting in a handful of apples falling from the braches, most of which ended up in carefully placed baskets around the base of it. And the few that missed were soon in their places as the pony easily picked them up in its mouth and dropped them into the baskets. By this point my eyes were wide with shock and disbelief, during the brief kick I'd spotted the one thing that was truly out of place and that confirmed my fears. On the ponies flank was three red marks, a tattoo almost of three apples. Without pausing for thought I ducked back behind the tree again and placed a hand over my mouth as I felt torn between yelling in terror as recognition kicked in, and from laughing insanely again. Any sound I did make I managed to stifle as I leaned against the tree for support. Slowly my legs grew numb and I slid into a sitting position. Holy…Hell…There was no mistaking it, the pony looked exactly like Applejack. And certainly had her apple bucking skills…But was that possible? Was this someone's idea of a joke? Was it my mind playing tricks on me? I couldn't think of an answer, and didn't have time to keep pondering the dozens of questions that were springing up and vying for attention in my head, as a loud crack assaulted my ears, and I felt a sharp vibration as something hit the tree. A moment later a second crack sounded, and a flash of pain lanced through my skull as one of the apples fell from the tree and struck me on the head. "Gah, damn it!" I hissed, forgetting the fact that the person that had just kicked the tree was likely within hearing distance by this point. A hand jumped to my head and idly swept through my hair, before dropping down into my –slightly blurred- field of vision. There was no blood on my fingers, that was a good sign. Though the bruise I was going to have, not to mention the headache, made the small stroke of luck feeling less lucky. "I swear Rainbow, if you're sleepin' in one of my trees again…" My eyes widened when I heard faint steps drawing closer, accompanied by an accented voice. A voice that I knew all too well at this point. The rest of the words were drown out as I started to panic again, eyes darting about in search of a rapid way to escape before I was found, I really didn't want to know how Applejack would react to my sudden appearance…After all I was pretty much an alien here, if here really was were I thought it was. I didn't have any options! If I just picked a direction and ran, she would no doubt spot me, and I wasn't fit enough to outrun a damn horse, especially one like Applejack. I couldn't climb the tree, I'd never done that before and it would take to long even if I managed to succeed. My desperate attempts to hide were canceled when my eyes snapped around and my gaze met the bright green eyes that were staring back at me. "…Crap…" I hissed under my breath, which I failed to noticed had stopped right after I spoke. Several tense seconds passed, the only visible sign that Applejack was still, well moving was the slow change in her eyes, the way the pupils grew wider with each beat of my rapid heart rate. Now out of options, I did the one thing I could think of. Naturally I jumped to my feet (which resulted in the pony leaping back a few steps, the first movement we'd both made since encountering one another), picked a random direction, and promptly ran as fast as I could go. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Somehow, I still not entirely sure how, but I managed to lose the equally shocked pony in the trees, whether she'd actually tried to follow me or not I couldn't say for certain, all I knew was that I didn't stop running until my legs ached, my lungs burned and I simply could no move another step. Stumbling to a halt, I doubled over, hands on knees as I gasped for breath and tried to get my brain to work properly. "Okay…Don't panic…Don't…panic." I gasped between sharp intakes of breath. Despite my words I felt my heart beat faster still, and my mind was scrambling for control as again dozens of thoughts and emotions rushed through my mind. "Oh god, I'm freaking out!" I gasped, my breathing growing more desperate as I tried to digest the situation. I was well beyond thinking this was a dream, the pain my body was going through after that. But that only made me panic further, I was out of rational explanations, this had to be real! Slowly, I managed to regain control, barely. My breathing slowly returned to normal and my thoughts that were running a thousand a second slowed to the point that I was able to actually start processing my thoughts. "What…The…hell is going on?" I asked myself, naturally I couldn't come up with an answer. Slowly my thoughts were pulled back to the previous night (was it the previous night? How long had I been asleep anyway?). The last words the Nightmare had said before, this happened. "You've wrote the play, now play your, part." Given it was the only explanation for this crazy situation, I replayed the words over and over again, hoping that something would click in my head and solve this mystery. "'Play my part?' What did that mean?" I repeated, my hand subconsciously moving to my head and rubbing the sore spot where I'd been struck earlier, all this thinking was making the pain return. Slowly a new train of thought entered my mind. "You wrote the play…" I continued to repeat. Did it mean the story I'd wrote? Naturally I couldn't get a moment's peace, as the sound of voices drifted to my ears, bringing me back to reality. Again I found myself pressed up against a tree, hoping to avoid being seen (cause it worked so well the first time!) "I'm tellin' ya. I saw somethin'!" I recognized the accent, Applejack. Oh great, not only was she following me, but judging by her words, she wasn't alone. "Are you sure you didn't get hit on the head or something?" I frowned slightly, the voice was different, didn't have the same accent, but still struck me with déjà vu. "For the tenth time, I saw it, I know I did. It ran off this way." Now I could pick up on the faint crunching of grass under hooves. "Alright, alright I'll help you find you're…thing." The second voice responded, a slight hint of irritation behind its tone. 'Well, you got the wings, you fly up and have a look aroun' from above." My eyes widened a touch at the comment. Great, that meant whoever Applejack had enlisted was a pegasus, I couldn't get away that easily, or hide that well if they could fly… "No sweat! I can scan this whole farm in ten seconds flat!" And that was when another wave of panic set in. That line, the slightly arrogant tone…There was no mistaking who that was either. "Rainbow Dash…" I whispered, my teeth gritting as panic seized control of my limbs and I began inching away from the sound of the two ponies. This was bad, at least with Applejack I could have simply hoped from tree to tree, eventually I'd have been caught, sure, but there was a slim chance of finding my way out of the farm, and getting some place secluded so I could think. With Dash involved in the hunt though, there was no way I could slip away! She'd spot me easily, and she would catch me before I made it two feet. Snap! I froze, my body tensing as my foot landed on a fallen branch, snapping it under foot. "What was that?" One of the ponies hissed, I didn't stop to dwell on who it was, where they were, or anything else. I simply spun on my heel and attempted to start running again. Of course the first thing I did was spin around and crash head first into one of the trees… Stumbling back a few paces, I tried to blink away the stars that burst before my eyes. But the harder I tried, the worse it seemed to get. With a weak groan I fell to the ground with a loud thud, the impact knocking me senseless. And swiftly afterwards, knocked me out entirely…All hopes of escaped fled with my senses as everything faded to black for the second time since my nightmare had started… __________________________________________________________________________________________ It only took them a moment to follow the sound of the loud crack to its source. And both ponies were equally shocked to find the odd creature sprawled out on the ground in a heap. Neither were too willing to approach, not entirely sure what it was. Finally Applejack worked up the nerve to drift forwards. As she drew nearer, she noted it didn't react, it wasn't moving at all. Cautiously, the earth pony nudged it with one hoof and leapt back a pace. Aside from a slight twitch, it didn't move. "Whoa, you weren't kidding…" Rainbow Dash said quietly, finally settling her hooves on the ground and landing next to her friend. "What, is it?" "Beats me…Never seen anythin' like it before." Applejack replied, again moving a few steps closer and giving the odd creature a once over. There was, what appeared to be blood seeping from a cut on its forehead, a quick glance noted the tree a few steps away. "Looks like it knocked itself out." "What do we do with it?" Rainbow asked, still keeping her distance and watching it from afar. "Suppose its something from the Everfree Forest?" "Could be…But we can't just leave it out here…" Neither really wanted to get close. But given the circumstances they couldn't just leave it lying there. If it was dangerous then it would wake up and likely cause problems. "Come on. Let's get it back to the farm. We can figure out what to do with it there…" The tan pony said, earning a grumbled response from her companion. "…Fine, but how are we gonna move it?" Applejack opened her mouth to reply, but hesitated… That wasn't a question she could think of an answer too…