Dreamquestria

by TheBBofC

Twilight's Wager

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Stephen’s eyes shot open and informed him that he was in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Selena was lying on top of him, right where she had fallen asleep last night.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alarm was like a cheese grater on Stephen’s cheddar morning nerves. Stephen reached to turn it off but every muscle involved violently protested. “Ouch!” Stephen squeaked and recoiled. Where did that come from? Nevermind, he knew exactly where that came from but that thought was shoved from his mind for its sheer level of absurdity.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Once the pain faded, Stephen took a deep breath to prepare for a second attempt. However, even breathing revealed itself to be a chore. With a grunt, Stephen bared the pain and made a second attempt at his alarm clock.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Stephen fumbled with the buttons on the clock until he got a fingernail wrapped around the switch. Summoning nearly all of his strength, he pulled the switch into the ‘off’ position. Heavenly silence graced his ears now that the siren was off.

A stirring on Stephen’s chest brought his attention down to Selena. She was always especially gorgeous in the morning. “Good morning,” she said in the midst of a big stretch stretch. Stephen found himself speechless between his tired mind and her adorableness. So he kissed her forehead and tried to get up.

All systems checked out when Stephen’s feet touched the floor. But when he tried to take a step for the bathroom, the world went out of focus and he discovered the blood in his head had been replaced with helium. He stumbled forward and caught himself on his dresser. Stephen hadn’t felt like this since that time he lost a bet and had to run a mile without stopping. He didn’t know how to deal with it then and he didn’t know how to deal with it now. His body defaulted to taking deep, aching breaths and trying to get a hold of himself. Selena shot out of bed and went over to him. Her arms wrapped around Stephen's ribs and held him upright. The hug felt like Stephen had become a python's prey.

Stephen bore the pain and smiled at his girlfriend. He knew she was already worried and he didn’t want to add to that by showing he was in pain. But why did Selena’s normally comforting embrace suddenly hurt so badly?

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Ultimately Stephen wasn’t sure if he was being honest or not when he said, “I’ll be fine.” After straightening his posture and taking another deep breath, his bedroom started coming back into focus. “I guess I just didn’t sleep well again.” Stephen noticed stiff muscles in his neck. While trying to shake out the tension, several loud pops rang out from his neck. Each pop felt like a knife through his joints.

“Ew!” Selena shuddered and backed away from Stephen. “When did you start cracking your joints, Stephen? That’s so gross.”

Stephen turned around to face her. “That’s as new to me as it is to you, babe. Maybe the next time I won’t fall asleep with my neck cranked up against the headboard.” Stephen chuckled and ran another mental system check over his body. His head had returned to its normal morning heaviness and brought his balance with it. “All I need is a hot shower and I'll be back to my usual self. Head downstairs and wait for me, okay?”

"Are you sure you're alright? I've never seen you have that much trouble getting out of bed before."

"I'll be fine, Selena."

Selena placed her hands on Stephen's biceps. Holding him steady, her eyes examined his body from top to bottom. “Okay, Stephen," she still sounded uncertain. "Just don’t fall over in the shower. I don’t want to have to pick you back up.” Selena kissed his cheek and skipped off.

With each step, joints everywhere in Stephen’s body popped and ached. When he got to his bathroom, he reached for the bottom of his shirt. He might chicken out if he gave this too much thought. So he yanked off his shirt as fast as he could. “Ouch! Gosh darn it!” Stephen yelped as his muscles and joints sharply disagreed with being used so fast. But the real shock came from what appeared in the mirror.

At first they were tough to see, as they blended well with his ebony complexion. But once he spotted one large, brown and purple splotch of bruising on his body, he was able to spot several more. “Holy crow,” Stephen talked to himself. He turned around and cocked his head back towards the mirror. They were all over his back as well. “How the heck did those get there?”

Stephen raised his shower’s temperature and water pressure. Standing under the hot waterfall helped his muscles relax and alleviated some of the pain. The persistent feeling of sleeplessness coupled with the hot water massage made it difficult to stay awake in the shower. But he would not allow himself to fall asleep again. “I know I slept. It’s all in my mind,” Stephen said to himself a couple of times. He shook off the exhaustion and prepared himself for the day.

As Stephen made his way down stairs, he was dredding the notion of making breakfast for himself. He was simply too tired and too sore to put forth the effort. But when he got into the kitchen, he found that Selena had his favorite breakfast ready for him – an egg sandwich with hot sauce. Words could not express how grateful he was to have her around. Even better was that Stephen did not have to rush himself this morning. So once Selena fixed a sandwich for herself, they could sit and enjoy breakfast together.

“Did you have that dream again?” Selena asked with a full mouth.

“Not quite. Same setting but this time there was a purple horse performing magic on me. It caused me to bounce all over the place and wrecked her house, which was a giant hollowed out tree. It was actually kind of cool looking.”

“Do you at least feel rested this time?”

Stephen didn’t want Selena to worry. He kept his eyes down and took a large swig of coffee. “I'm alright.”

“You’re not a good liar,” said Selena. “Maybe you should take a sick day and rest up.”

“I can’t do that. We’ve got employee reviews coming up in a couple of weeks. I can’t have any blemishes after what happened last year.”

“What happened last year?” Selena asked.

Stephen swigged his coffee again. “You don’t remember Damien faking all those customer complaints against me?”

“Oh I remember that.” Selena finished her sandwich. “You’re still convinced it was Damien?”

“I can’t think of anyone else who would have made those calls. Plus that guy has pulled some kind of stupid prank trying to get me in trouble every year for as long as I can remember. Just yesterday he told the boss I threw a paper clip into his eye among other things.”

Selena raised an eyebrow. “Did you throw a paperclip into his eye?”

Stephen looked away and sipped his coffee again. “It was more like a bank shot. It wasn’t on purpose.” Stephen looked up at the clock. “I have to get going. What are you up to today?”

“I’ve got errands then I’m working a night shift. So try to get home early so we can hang out before I go.”

“I’ll try,” Stephen said. After pouring himself another cup of coffee, he gave Selena another kiss and went out the door.

Work was slightly better today than yesterday. Not as many calls were coming in. As a customer service representative, this meant not having to deal with as much nonsense. However, today it just meant that Stephen had nothing to distract him from the exhaustion. Thus, staying awake took even more effort.

His first strategy was to drink a lot of coffee. Between the caffeine and many restroom breaks that coffee brought, staying awake would be slightly easier. But even that wasn’t the miracle pill he was looking for. Stephen had to keep his mind occupied with something in between calls. After not receiving a call for nearly two hours, he resorted to discreetly playing Angry Birds on his phone.

After what seemed like five straight days of sitting at the desk, the clock ticked noon. Maybe Stephen just needed more food in his system to keep him awake. A six-inch roast beef sub with a lot of hot sauce from the deli next door would certainly put him back on his feet.

After finishing the sandwich, Stephen felt much better. Then he blinked. When he opened his eyes, he was sitting inside a giant hollowed out tree with books littering the walls. He was about to let out a loud, frustrated groan when a voice caught his attention.

“Good evening, Rarity.” In the far corner of the room was what appeared to be a purple bipedal lizard with green spines running from head to tail, flexing into a body mirror. “Why yes, I have been working out. Might I demonstrate by sweeping you off your feet?”

Stephen had no idea what he was watching but he decided he’d seen enough. “Excuse me!” he called out.

“Aah!” The reptile shrieked and spun around. In the same movement, it slapped the mirror with its tail. The mirror was sent careening to the other side of the room on its wheels. “Uh…Hey…When did you get here?” it asked with an embarrassed posture, somehow managing to blush through the purple scales on its face.

“Just a couple seconds ago,” said Stephen.

“Can I help you with anything?” the purple creature asked, still embarrassed.

“I’m in Twilight’s house, right?”

“You aren’t from around here, are you?”

Stephen thought about it and quickly determined that in this case, the simplest answer was the best answer. “Nope.”

“This is the Ponyville Library. Twilight and I live here.”

“That makes sense, I guess. Is Twilight here?”

“She had to run an errand.”

“Maybe you can help me then. What’s your name?”

“I’m Spike, Twilight’s assistant.”

“Well, Spike, I’m Stephen. It’s nice to meet you. Can you do me a favor?”

“What is it?” Spike asked.

“I need you to come over here and hit me.”

Spike jumped slightly at the suggestion. “What? No! Why would I do that?”

“I need you to wake me up.”

“Dude, that doesn’t make any sense. You’re already awake.”

“I’m not awake if I’m here.”

Spike squinted and rubbed his chin for a moment. “Uh...I don't follow." He said with a shrug.

“Seriously, I’m at work right now and I can’t be caught sleeping.”

“But if you’re sleeping, how are we talking right now?”

Stephen was getting real tired of hearing this from his own subconscious characters. “Just do it. Or should I tell Twilight about your workout routine?”

“Ah! No! Anything but that! I’ll do it.” Spike skipped over to Stephen. Stephen tried to turn to his side but almost tripped while doing so. Over the last couple of nights he had gotten used to walking on all fours but any other maneuver was still foreign to him. “You sure you want this?”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Stephen.

“Okay,” Spike balled up his claws into a fist and wound his shoulder back twice. The library door opened with Twilight behind it. Spike thrust his fist straight into Stephen’s ribs. Stephen yelped, lost his breath and fell over onto his side.

“Spike! What are you doing?” Twilight shouted. Spike shrieked again and turned to face Twilight, standing in front of Stephen in a feeble attempt to hide his groaning body. Twilight rushed over to Stephen and knelt down in front of him. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“Right…on…the other bruises!” Stephen gagged out.

“Spike, what did you do that for?” Twilight scolded.

“It’s not my fault. He told me to hit him,” Spike protested.

“Is that true, Stephen?” Twilight asked.

Stephen struggled to his feet. “Ever have someone pinch you when you’re dreaming to make you wake up? I thought it would work here. I really can’t be asleep right now.”

“Even if that were true, don’t you think you would have woken yourself up after being smashed into the floor last night?” Twilight pointed to the middle of the room. There was still a large crack from where contact had been made several times.

“Wait a second,” said Spike. “He’s the pony that was shaking the library last night? I thought you said he vanished this morning.”

“Yep,” said Twilight. “We managed to figure out that somehow he comes to Equestria when he falls asleep.”

“But how is that possible?” asked Spike.

“That’s the part we don’t know yet,” said Twilight. “But it’s good that you’re here, Stephen. Now we can pick up where we left off.”

“What do you mean?” Stephen asked.

“You do realize that you vanished into thin air this morning, right?”

This was no longer amusing to Stephen. “I know that I woke up this morning and went to work. Which is where I’m at now. Which is why I have to wake up.”

“Look, Stephen, if I kept finding myself in another world whenever I went to sleep, I might think I was dreaming too. But I can tell you you’re not dreaming right now. Just look outside.” Twilight pointed to the door. “Are your dreams usually that detailed?”

An uncertain feeling crept through Stephen’s spine. It took him a moment to gather enough courage to approach the library’s door. The world outside could be anything from the mundane to the horrifying. Stephen thought of the possibilities as he approached the library’s door. A purple glow surrounded the door just before it opened on its own.

Outside was a bustling town filled with ponies of various colors. Some ponies fluttered about on their wings like Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash. Some ponies had horns on their heads like Twilight. Some ponies trotted about with neither wings nor horns, like Pinkie Pie or Applejack. There were vendors for fruit, vegetables, flowers, seeds and candies. Every pony went about their business in a town full of wood-framed, straw-roofed houses or tall tents. Stephen had seen this town twice before now. Both times were at night. Now that he was sleeping during the day, he saw what it looked like during the day.

His imagination had never been this good before. Why was it being so detailed and colorful all of a sudden? Overloaded yet again, Stephen’s brain stopped trying to make sense of it. So he backed up into the library and used his neck to close the door. One of his bruises made contact and reminded Stephen of the beating he took last night. Maybe there really was more to this than he had originally assumed? The notion lingered in his mind slightly longer this time.

Stephen remembered Twilight’s question. Are your dreams usually that detailed? “I’ll give you one thing; my dreams have never been this vivid before.”

“If you’re coming here from somewhere else, it’s important we figure out why,” said Twilight. “So do you want to find out or not?”

Stephen sat down and thought for a moment. “Let’s try this,” said Stephen. “I’ve been here two nights in a row already. If this goes on for five more nights that’ll make it a week and I’ll assume that it’s real.”

“But what if you’re here for something important?” Twilight asked, nervousness rising in her voice. “What if something is going wrong?” Her eyes started to get wide. “What if…”

Spike interrupted by poking her side, “Twilight?”

“What?” her head jerked down to face him.

“Relax, Twilight,” said Spike. “Remember what happened the last time you got this concerned about something that might happen in a week?” Twilight pulled back and gave an awkward smile accompanied by a blush.

Stephen didn’t know what happened but it seemed that Spike had Twilight cornered. “What happened?” Stephen asked from curiosity.

Twilight looked up at Stephen and then back down at Spike. Her eyes narrowed and focused in on him. “I remember a certain baby dragon eating too much ice cream and being sick for two days afterwards,” Twilight snipped at Spike. Judging from the look of ‘oops’ on Spike’s face, they were even now.

“Seriously, what did I miss?” Stephen asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Twilight.

Something else was poking at Stephen’s brain now. “Also, quick question; Spike is a dragon?”

“Yes,” said Twilight. “What did you think he was?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. He doesn’t look like any dragon I’ve ever heard of.”

“Hey!” Spike protested.

“He’s a baby dragon,” said Twilight. “Believe me, they get much bigger. Are there dragons where you come from?”

“They’re mythological creatures where I come from. They don’t really exist.”

“That bruise I put on your flank certainly exists,” Spike snipped causing both Twilight and Stephen to shoot him a disapproving glare.

Twilight sighed and returned to the original topic. “I guess a few nights won’t hurt anything. But there’s still one thing I’m concerned about,” said Twilight.

“What’s that?” asked Stephen.

“You say you only come here when you’re sleeping. That means you’re more likely to come at night. What will you do even if you keep coming back? There’s not much to do around Ponyville at night.”

“What if he hung out with us?” asked Spike.

“That’s a good idea, Spike. But you have trouble staying up late and I can’t stay up for five nights in a row.”

“Maybe our friends would be willing to take turns?” Spike suggested.

“That’s an excellent suggestion. I’ll ask them later.”

“Do we have a plan then?” Stephen asked.

“We certainly do,” said Twilight. “Shake on it?” Twilight held out her front hoof. Even now, Stephen was not sure what he was getting himself into. If the last two nights were to set the precedence for the nights to follow, he was in for a lot of pain and exhaustion. All he could do now was hope that he was correct and not this possibly imaginary purple pony that he kept talking to. Stephen reached out and shook her hoof.

Without warning, Stephen was enveloped in darkness and was falling from a height. His head collided with something hard and made a lot of noise. He yelped and shot up to his feet. His stomach was tied in knots from the sudden burst of adrenaline. Though it would go to waste when Stephen realized the situation. He simply was leaning on his hand, slipped off and bumped his head on his desk.

A white button-down shirt and black tie was standing next to him. Stephen followed the tie up to a muscular neck, chiseled face with a tan complexion and perfectly combed brown hair. A wolf in sheep’s clothing if Stephen had ever saw one. “Sleeping on the job now?” Damien asked.

Stephen looked over at his computer’s clock. It was 12:49 PM. “I’ve still got ten minutes of lunch break. How long have you been there?”

“Just now. I thought I’d come over and say ‘hi’ but I saw you taking a nap. Was it a good nap?”

Hearing that, Stephen would have bet good money that Damien helped Stephen’s head fall off his hand. Back when they were in community college, Damien pulled all kinds of stuff on Stephen whenever he was off guard. Nobody else was around at the moment so what would stop him from doing it now? “It was alright. Thank you for waking me up though. I’m not sure how much longer that was going to go on for.”

“How much longer was what going to go on for?” Damien’s eyes glistened with intrigue.

Stephen realized he had just laid himself out as shark bait. Mentally cursing himself for the slip, he attempted to recover. “Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Are you feeling alright?” Damien asked.

Stephen ever so slightly raised his voice. “I’m fine, Damien.” Hopefully he’d take the hint.

Damien put his hands up and backed out of the cubicle. “Alright, no worries. You just enjoy the rest of your lunch break.”

That was surprisingly easy. Perhaps this day wasn’t going to be so bad after all. At least, that’s what Stephen thought until Kramer rounded the corner into his cubicle. “Good afternoon, Stephen,” Kramer said in his usual droning voice. “How is your lunch break?”

“It’s peaceful,” Stephen said in a tone as upbeat as he could muster. He barely had enough energy left to do his normal duties. There certainly wasn’t any energy to spare for this type of thing in the amounts he usually had to take it. Hopefully this would be over quickly too.

“It’s come to my attention that you haven’t been feeling well today or yesterday. Is it something you wish to share?”

Any floating chance he had to keep up the fake enthusiasm was instantly deflated. “Did Damien tell you?” Stepehen asked.

“Damien was concerned about you. He saw you sleeping at your desk and remembered that you said you had trouble sleeping the other night.”

“It’s not a problem, sir, honest.” If Stephen had to keep this up much longer, he was going to be an expert liar by the end of the week.

“We wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable here,” Kramer droned on. “If you’re sick we don’t want anyone else to catch what you have. So I suggest you take the rest of the day off. Rest up today and over the weekend and we’ll start fresh on Monday.”

“I’m fine, I promise,” said Stephen.

“Don’t worry, Stephen. I know you’ve got the employee reviews on your mind. I promise taking a couple of sick days won’t reflect badly on you. It’s been a slow day anyway.”

Stephen thought it over for a moment. He either had to take his word for it or try to impress him. Kramer was possibly lying about the review. If that was the case, he shouldn’t take the bait. But if he were telling the truth, not going home might seem like insubordination. Remembering that Selena was working a night shift tonight and wanted him to come home early, Stephen decided it was worth the risk. “Thank you, sir,” said Stephen. He began to shut down his workstation. “This is a great help. I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Just be sure to feel better.”

“Will do, sir. Have a good day.”

Exhausted but with new-found enthusiasm, Stephen made his way home.

Comments

[NovaSethyr]

Well, this is certainly new. Congrats on figuring out something original, I shall be watching this closely.

[coppercore]

A very interesting idea indeed. Can't wait for more!

[ConsciousHaze196]

...so what would happen if he tried to sleep in the library?..

[DerpedRainbow]

2892833 Don't go there. there are many possibilities, and the simplest solution is to make him an insomniac (Testing... Success. Insomniac is a word)

[Godiswithus3]

Sleeping on the job. Always a risky endeavor.