• Published 30th May 2015
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pony.exe - Blue Blaze {COMET}



David Carrian finds a virus has infected his computer. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle doesn't know where she is, and there's data floating everywhere around her...

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cause.exe

"Do unicorns dream, Twilight?"

That's what David had to ask as he stood in his room, his feet bare on the carpet (which was feeling extra fuzzy to him at the moment), his hand resting on the top of the rectangular black monitor of his computer, heavily believing it to be warm. He stared out his window, his neck and back as straight as a tie, arms relaxed with a tingling sensation going through his toes, or so he thought. The day was bright outside, almost too bright for the indoors, and he could only make out the thick green foliage of the oaks in the great outdoors. He could look directly into the reflecting sunlight and make out the edges of his darkened windowpane without much effort. The words he spoke flew out of his mouth without much thought, announcing them to the only other being in existence as if every single thread of his consciousness was immediately translated to language.

"Of course they do, David," Twilight answered back. "Magic and rainbows and apple-wood tables. That's what every unicorn dreams about."

David absent-mindedly rubbed Twilight's back, his hand going through the fine hairs that were her pearly white coat. He liked the feeling of her silky soft strands on the tips of his fingers, and enjoyed how the ends of the lengths tickled and itched underneath his nails, or that's what he liked to believe. He kept his gaze on the infinite meadow before him, expanding outward in gentle rolling hills, stretching out as far as the eye could see with knee-height grass calmly dancing in the wind, motioning air that for somewhat reason David couldn't identify on his cheeks. The singular elm that stood towering above him gave him a nice shade through its umbrella of leaves, the strong tall trunk trailing upwards with patterns and grooves in its bark. He felt nice and cool underneath the behemoths shadow, sheltered from the harsh summer weather when the air was dry and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Twilight in her graceful, heavenly glow bent her head down to David from her horse's level above and looked straight at him with her shining black eyes, her long golden mane out of her face and letting go to the merciful breeze surrounding them in a safe circle. Her spiraling, pure white horn jutted out of the center of her forehead, pointing proudly towards the sky, the tip as sharp as a spear, gleaming by some invisible power. The distance of her muzzle reached far down her face, her nostrils as large as big marbles, her mouth closed but keeping elegance despite her animal appearance. "What do Humans dream about?" she asked curiously.

"Well, uh," David began, pivoting on the spot, looking around and trying to avoid Twilight's eyes. "They dream about all sorts of stuff, like money, and power, and love..."

David spotted a thief dressed in a black shirt and grey sweatpants fleeing from a convenience store behind them, a balaclava keeping the culprit's identity, a pistol in one hand and a peach-coloured bag of goods in the other. He sprinted away from the scene, the yellow and red-striped roof boarder of the store glowing harshly in the sunlight, the actual items inside the store hidden to David's eyes. There was an old lady on the sidewalk, staring at the scene of the crime with her jaw agape, hunched over in an old lady dress that reached down to her ankles and covered up her unsightly wrinkly legs. Pink slippers covered her feet and she peered through her half-moon glasses with aged eyes that matched her wrinkled face and neck.

Suddenly, the thief ran up to the lady and pointed the gun at her in a threatening manner. She froze, her mouth in an open scream while her arms were thrown up and the cane in her possession went flying behind her in a humorous, cartoon-like manner. It landed on top of a triad of metal trash cans against a building, sending the garbage inside all over a business man in a blue suit walking on the nearby sidewalk. Several sound effects from a cartoon were added for additional effect, followed by a corny laugh track being played in the background. The old lady was stuck on the back of her heels with her balance unnaturally leaned backwards, and she somehow still stood. Then, the thief thrust the gun into the lady's face and David panicked.

"Whoa whoa whoa, we don't need to see that right now," David told Twilight, turning in the other direction, using his left hand to cover her vision while making the right direct where the front of Twilight's head was facing, lightly pushing on her neck so that she would turn her head where he wanted it.

"Is that really the thing you chose to show me?" she asked aloud, not particularly affected by the previous scene one bit.

David watched as the sun sank into the horizon, lighting the sky ablaze in a beautiful mixture of vermilion and stark red. The change in light cast over the entire meadow, and suddenly all the grass turned into tall wheat stalks, ripe for the harvest. He rolled his eyes. "Ah, why do you care? You're just a computer program."

The lights turned off with a deafening clack, and when they turned back on David found himself in a barely lit run-down hallway, the paint of the concrete walls peeling, the corners of the floor stained with a dried brown substance, scrapes all over the tiled stone, his sneakers and jeans illuminated by the blue light that shone through the open, steel doors at the end of the hall two dozen feet away. He stared at the light as it was reflected all around him by every surface, no light bulbs to be seen above, the luminescence burning his eyes, or so he told himself, even though he didn't feel any pain or discomfort.

There was a loud, bassy boom that caused the floor to rumble, and David looked over his shoulder behind him. The other end of the hall widened out to accommodate his computer desk with the computer sitting beneath it near the legs and the screen on top with the keyboard, mouse and mousepad. It sat the same distance away as the exit, the leather office chair that he usually sat on missing, the monitor on with a bright blue background. The power indicator glowed green with the disk-notifier above it streaming a steady bloody red, staring right into him. He could hear the buzzing hum of the light from his distance, like a dying elongated bulb in some kind of warehouse facility, and he was suddenly very, very annoyed.

The sound of a ticking clock echoed through the corridor. Each second struck the foundation of the hallway, shaking it, causing old crusted pieces of the ceiling to dribble down in tiny amounts. David gazed back at the open doors, his mouth a fine line. He swallowed, and the seconds passed. The glows from both sides of the passage met in the middle at David's feet, where the darkness was the greatest and where it slowly crawled up his figure from the bottom of the heels of his sneakers until it reached the tip of his chin, where the illumination splattered all over his face and defeated the shadows eating up at him.

It sounded like something big, something huge, was approaching him. The steps got more intense and demanding and David felt the temperature in the air continuously rise. His body refused to sweat, and he kept a steady eye on both sides of the hall, trying to keep his vision focused from all the chaotic movement around him. He didn't budge from the tremors, even if the world around him was rocked to the beat of the coming monster, his center of balance solid from a straight-legged stance. He took his time, deliberating on his choices, staring at the doors and the computer for equal moments of time. He didn't panic. He willed himself in control, but he could not stop the rumble of the earthquakes beneath his feet, nor could he halt the crumbling foundation of the hallway.

When his eyes met the monitor of his computer for the thirteenth time they stayed there, staring, his mind wondering if anything new was going to appear out of that screen. He almost expected it to happen. Unlike the doors, David actually knew that something was behind the blue inside the glass, something inside the computer. He kept his breathing steady as the shaking raised to a peak, swearing that he saw movement behind the monitor. In the background of blue, he was absolutely certain that he saw the outline of a pony's head trot up to the monitor and looked straight at him at an angle, its horn jutting out slight from their forehead.

He blinked.


"...Don't let it stop! With the wind on your heels,"
"Don't let it drop. Unless it's somebody else,"
"Just let it rock! Take a trip down memory lane,"
"And remember what you have to do..."

David groaned, his eyes heavy with thoughts puttering on the first gear, reflexively reaching out to the stand right near the head of his bed and grabbing the vibrating device on it. His waking fingers fumbled around with it until it found a button on the side near the top, and he pressed it. The electronic beeped once, the deep-voiced man stopped singing and silence reigned.

His eyelids creaked open, and his view was blurry for the first few moments, misty until the morning light across the room burned through a fresh new layer on his retina, something that he didn't feel that suddenly but opened the world around him. He noticed the sensation of lying on his side, his thoughts a mess with the tiny workers in his head scrambling about in an attempt to get his memories in order. He stared at his wooden cabinet a few feet away from him with the posters above it, his mouth slightly ajar with some dried spittle trailing out the corner down his chin, the surface of his tongue tasting like death. He smacked his lips once, twice, then sniffed through his nose, removing the lodged nuggets stuck in his personal mine and loading it into the back of his throat for the moment.

He turned onto his back, and the sound of early birds chirping through his open window focused in on his eardrums. He could feel his body waking up, slowly warming to sensation and filling his brain with the senses he needed to function for that day. He grunted, scratched the base of his back and curved his torso, creating a gap between himself and the mattress below. With practiced aim, he cleared his throat, tilted over to the left side of the bed and spit into a tiny plastic garbage can filled with opened candy wrappers, used tissues and dried mucus. The singular, thin ocean blue blanket that he had was kicked to the end of the bed, an action that occurred during the middle of the night without his control. He sighed, took another moment to gather himself, and sat up.

He was looking across his abode. His skinny, hairy legs stuck underneath him to the end of the covers, where his pale feet pointed up, his toenails long overdue for a trim. He swiveled his heels left and right, testing the motor action, then brought his attention to the light pouring into the room. The shadows of moving tree branches swaying in the wind cast over sections of the angled sun in his room, and he could smell a faint wetness from the outside air: Scarcely applied dew on the tips of the blades of grass. The monitor of his computer sat on the glass of his desk, off, the screen black with evidence of dust sitting on the surface through the scrutiny of the morning sun's rays. The green power light of the computer faded on and off, indicating its current energy status. David gave a thoughtful look towards his most prized possession, wiping the sleep out of his eyes as his head tilted back, trying to hold on to the fleeting memories of his waking dream as it slipped through his grasp.

A few seconds passed.

"Ah hell," David murmured, getting out of bed.

Author's Note:

Dream sequence in one of my stories? Check.

This dream scene wasn't very deep. I've written deeper. However, I didn't want the purpose of the scene to be lost in translation if I did make it too deep, which is why I kept it simple. A pet peeve of mine in stories is when they ham up a dream sequence to provide a point but make it completely unrealistic; it's too random, or too outrageous, or too outright in its message. I tried to balance the three with this chapter's sequence, and I hope I did it correctly.

Short chapter, I know. I gotta find more motivation, that's all. Besides, I was looking for a way to pace the story the way I wanted without having content that's too irrelevant to the plot, and this is what I thought of. Whether or not you see it, this chapter does have a purpose.

I have a strong belief that pacing is one of the most important elements in storytelling. This chapter is me working that rule.

On that note, I've submitted this story to Equestria Daily. I've done this once before, and I'm a bit daunted by the high requirements on getting onto the site. I'm my only editor, so I hope I haven't missed anything mechanically. Cross your fingers guys...