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// Nightmare, work, and Discord 
// Story: Remembering the evil ideas 
// by reader8363 
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I lifted my head to find out that I was blindfolded, then I sighed, leaned my head back against the wall, and listened to the sound of torches crackling, I felt the cold metal on my arms and my horn,  and the dirty, silky cloth around my eyes. It felt like hours of being alone until I heard something creaking. I tried to levitate the blindfold off but couldn’t, then a familiar voice said as I listened to it getting closer, “I think it’s enough time being in here, now..” 

Then my alarm went off. I opened my eyes to see that I was in my bedroom. I sighed and said as I got out of bed, “Great, the same nightmare again, and no clue who was talking.” I  walked to the bathroom, opened the door and got in. It’s been 4 months since I had amnesia from getting hit with a cart in Manehattan, waking up in Canterlot hospital with Celestia standing over me asking how I’m feeling, moved out of Vinyl’s and started living on my own, and getting a job at Sugarcube corner since I lost the skill to properly swing an ax. Besides the only closet forest is the everfree and almost nobody wants to go there. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and get out of the past. I rinsed out my mane and tail, got out, and headed downstairs to make some coffee and get ready for work as I was drying my mane. 

After I was ready for work and I had breakfast, I grabbed my bag and ran out the door, then I felt like someone was watching me. I turned around to see a shadow in my room looking down at me. I shook my head to focused, to see nothing was there. I turned around to the street to see Discord watching me. I walked up to him and said, “Hey Discord, how are ya?”

He smiles and said as he materialized a pocket watch from his fur, “Hey Eric, I’m doing fine, I see that you’re running early as usual.”

I shrugged and said, “ya do know that I prefer you not to do chaos around me, gives me a headache for some reason, and yeah, early to work the more I get paid.” When I got to work, I was greeted by the smell of baking bread and snacks, and Pinkie waving to me as she said as she avoided eye contact, “Perfect timing, I was thinking I would have to do both the cooking and the cash register, you handle the money and I’ll do the baking.”

I nodded and said, “It usually not this busy in the morning.” I walked over to the register and said, “Mr. and Mrs. Cake are busy?” Pinkie nodded and ran into the kitchen when the bell went off. 

After a bit of work, I checked the clock to see that it was noon, I called to Pinkie that I was taking my lunch and headed to the park. I pulled a piece of paper, and a writing utensil and wrote, “Dear Luna, The Nightmares are back. We need to figure out what to do with them, signed Eric Lumber.” I rolled the paper up and used the spell Celestia taught me to send the letter to Luna. 

When I got to the park, I sat down and a letter popped in front of me. I opened it and it said, “Dear Eric,  I’ll see you tonight to figure this out, and it’s happening to everyone in Ponyville and Canterlot, so it’s not just you.” I rolled it back up and stuffed it in my bag. Ever since I lost my memory, I been having nightmares, and it turns out that everypony either dreams of being chased by changelings or being enslaved by Chrysalis. I can’t make eye contact with anypony since I somehow got an ability to freeze ponies if I make eye contact. Learned that hard way at a check up. A nurse at the Canterlot hospital was checking my eyes and froze while shining the light in my eyes. I shook her and she didn’t do anything so I did the only thing I can think of, I called for help, luckily Celestia was there. She snapped the nurse out of it and said while looking through the papers that I have an ability to freeze ponies and any other creature by eye contact, and with enough practice, I would be able to control it and the ponies. A warning has been put out about my ability,  new creature are always scared of me at first, but they get used to me. I decided to walk around Ponyville and after that, I headed to work. 

After my work day was over, I was heading home and I saw Discord drinking the glass with the chocolate milk intact. I slowly walked up to Discord, using magic to muffle my steps and said right by him, “DISCORD, what did I tell you about drinking glass, you go through enough glasses but not enough chocolate milk.”

His eyes bulged as he sprayed liquid glass all over the wall and started coughing. I couldn’t help but fall over and laughing. He glared at me and said, “You didn’t have to scare me, and that was a good glass thank you very much.” He muttered something under his breath, but I couldn’t make out what he said.

After getting my laughter under control I got up and said, “Come on, I’ll treat ya to a drink, and no it’s not glass.” I led him to my home.

He whistled when he saw the size of it and said as I went in the basement, “This is pretty big, you could hide the princesses here.”

I came up with two bottles of wine and tossed one to Discord and said, “Yeah. I have Celestia to thank for it. After I got out of the hospital, she gave me the house and talked to Mr. and Mrs. Cake into letting me work at Sugercube Corner. Don’t go through that, I have to go to Canterlot to get good drinks, and I have to pay for them and the ticket, so don’t come back for a few weeks.”

We talked for a bit, then Discord excused himself and left, disappear is more like it. I ate dinner, got ready for and bed, went to sleep, to talk to Luna about ideas.