Axil Heartstrings

by Everypony

Part 1: A New Nightmare

Axil Heartstrings
Part 1: A New Nightmare

Running. I woke up running. Running for my life. The first thing I realized was that I was in the Everfree Forest. My hooves were burning and my lungs doing their best to take in the sweet oxygen. I looked behind me even though I already knew what I would see. As fast as I was sprinting, I saw three figures gaining ground towards me fast. I knew immediately what they were. Diamond Dogs. The Diamond Dogs were a group of K-9s who lived underground collecting diamonds and other precious minerals. But, instead of their usual, small, doleful, and non-frightening forms, they were literally monsters. Their once skinny, and thin arms now bulged out like tree trunks stuffed with muscle. Their formally small, weak legs, were now stronger than the fastest race horse’s. And their faces, their horrible, horrible faces. If they were considered ugly before, now they were monstrosities.

It looked like somepony had literally broken every bone in their face, and tried to put it back together with scotch tape. Even their once furred skin now lay partially bare in various parts of their bodies. It looked like their skin was going to rip from all of the pure muscle that lay beneath it. And their eyes. Their eyes were the worst. They looked like every shred of reason and comprehension was utterly destroyed from their brain, leaving only two black holes of nothingness that were their eyes. And they were looking at me with blood lust.

I turned my focus back to ahead of me, fear and panic threatening to cripple me into shock. I tried to just focus on making it out of this forest alive. It was a long, wide, clear pathway that I was sprinting on, and up ahead I noticed an impossibly tall, solid, brick wall was blocking my path. The trees cleared in both right, and left directions. I knew that if I slowed down at all, that I would be killed by the fiends behind me. Hoping that I was making the right choice, I turned left.

With the brick wall now to my right and solid foliage to my left, I had no choice but to keep running ahead. I felt as if my heart would give way at any second, when I spotted a figure in the distance ahead. I recognized the form as a pony and hoped that they would somehow help me get out of this situation. I tried to sprint faster, and harder to the figure, but the faster, and harder I ran, the farther the figure moved away. I looked behind me and saw the exact opposite of what I wanted. The faster, and harder I ran, the closer the Diamond Dogs got. They were so close swear I could hear their powerful hearts pumping gallons and gallons of blood through their veins, all for the purpose to kill me.

I ran and ran and ran. For what seemed like hours even though I knew it was probably seconds. As I ran I eventually felt a horrid breath on the tip of my tail. It felt like something was spraying acid on me. I prayed that my hooves would somehow carry me farther and faster, but to no avail. In horror, I felt the iron, bear trap of a mouth of one of the Diamond Dogs snap shut half way up the length of my tail. I screamed in agony as I felt blood spurt out of my tail. I was almost thrown off balance, but I somehow managed to stay upright. I turned my head and saw the Dog in the middle, the shortest, and fattest one, raise his giant club of a paw and quickly slash done onto my back through my spinal cord.

At first the pain was nearly unbearable, but then I felt my hind legs go slack and drag uselessly on the forest floor leaving a sickly trail of blood behind them. That was it. I was forced to the ground by gravity and pain. I did my best to crawl, but I heard the horrid laughter of the Diamond Dogs, and refused to give them the sick pleasure of watching me crawl.

I look up and standing right in front of me is the Dog that broke my spine. It looked like as if he was drooling blood. It gripped my throat and hoisted me into the air as if I was nothing. I think that’s what he thought I was compared to them. Nothing. The blood thirsty look in his eyes would have made me scream if I could have. But with no supply of oxygen going to my lungs, I couldn’t even yelp.

He looked at me as if he was looking into my very soul. With a voice that sounded like he had been gargling marbles while drinking vodka with throat cancer, he began to speak. “Time to die.” He shrieked. He pulled his hand tighter around my neck. ‘Time to die!” He repeated bringing his head closer to mine. “TIME TO DIE!” It screeched at the top of it’s voice. It lifted my up into the air with extreme ease. He held me there for a second before opening his mouth one last time. “TIME TO-”

“WAKE UP!” A shrill, but sweet voice came from behind.

---

I woke up looking at the wall as usual, expecting the annoying sound of my alarm clock to be blaring at me. I did hear the typical Manehatten city noises through my window as usual, but no alarm. I then remembered what woke me, and what I woke from. I quickly sat upright rubbing my eyes with my hooves. I heard a voice scoff to my left.

“Finally,” The voice said. “I thought you were dead to the world.” I knew who it was without opening my eyes. I opened them anyway and saw my cousin, Lyra Heartstrings, standing in the doorway of my room. She took one look at my eyes and her look of happiness and tomfoolery suddenly, and drastically, changed to a look of worry and concern.

“Dreaming again?” She asked slowly making her way to the empty side of my bed. I nodded solemnly. “Are you completely sure you don’t want to see a doctor?” She asked reaching the edge of my bed. “Those dreams aren’t getting any better.”

“But they’re also not getting any worse.” I added with a sore throat. “Besides, the shrink said that nightmares would be normal after what happened.” I said while rubbing my temples to try to get rid of an agonizing headache.

“But she didn’t say that they would last for years.” She countered. Her light blue horn lite up as she used her magic to fluff the pillow behind me. I then felt an invisible, but gentle, hand slowly push me onto my back. “Are you sure you can’t just take today off?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” I said sitting up again. “My radio station is barely leading on ratings. If I take a day off we won’t be in the lead anymore.” While saying this, I had been slowly rising out of my bed and walking over to my dresser that held a mirror on top. I looked and saw my usually messy mane was even more tangled, and that my eyes were completely bloodshot.

“Oh come on Axil,” She protested. “One day off isn’t going to make you loose your job.” She said with a knowing smile. She was right, after all. But these bucking dreams have been haunting me for years now, I couldn’t let them stop me from working now. “You’re the only colt that can do a radio talk show the right way.” She said trying to encourage me.

My alarm clock started it’s typical screech meant to urge anypony within hearing distance to wake up. Frustrated and startled, I trotted over to the clock and shut it off. I looked at the time and saw it was 6:00. I looked up at Lyra who was also startled by the barrage of sound. “You couldn’t wait for three minutes for my alarm to go off?” I asked her chuckling. She kind of just shrugged and began walking out of my room. “What are you doing up so early anyway?”

“Bon Bon accidentally woke me up early when she was leaving and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Breakfast is ready when you want it.” She said as she left and closed the door behind her with her magic.

I walked into the bathroom, quickly started the shower, and jumped in without waiting for the water to get warm. (I know, I’m such a badass, right?) I quickly washed down my short mane and let the water cleanse my body. I watched the steady stream of water slow to a trickle, and eventually stop. I hopped out of the shower and dried myself off.. As I exited the bathroom I saw that it was 6:05. Perfectly on schedule so far. I thought to myself.

I left my room and walked down the small hallway of the apartment that was shared by me, Lyra, and Lyra’s “just a mare friend” Bon Bon. I knew that Lyra and Bon Bon were more than just friends. Not many other ponies did, so I just let them be the way they wanted it. I took a few more steps and then turned into the kitchen.

I smelled the hay bacon and scrambled eggs before I saw them. Lyra was standing by the stove mixing the eggs with a wooden spoon. She saw me and smiled. “Glad you made it out of your room.” She poured half of the contents of the pan she was holding with her magic onto a plate that I assumed was for me. She levitated the plate towards me and we swapped the magical possession of the plate.

“Where’s you friend?” I asked, stressing the emphasis on the word friend. She gave me a snotty look and the replied.

“She had to open the candy shop today.” I could tell I pushed a button with my previous statement, so I didn’t press my luck.

“Do you have anything going on today? I heard the conductor of your orchestra broke his conducting hoof.” I said while sipping some coffee I had just poured myself with my own magical horn.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how it happened though,” She said munching on some hay bacon. “But we’re on break for at least another week. I just hope we can make the rent.” She added her last sentence under her breath just barely loud enough for me to hear.

I quickly ate my food and stood up with my dirty dishes floating in the air. I trotted over towards her. I placed the dishes in the sink and gave the light blue pony a quick hug. “We will.” I told her reassuringly. I looked at the clock just above the stove and saw that it was 6:17. Three minutes, then I have to go. I thought to myself.

I heard Lyra start washing off the dishes as I walk to the bathroom in the hall. Our apartment was relatively big compared to most others. It only had two rooms but each had it’s own bathroom and shower. It’s living room was between the front door and the kitchen, which had it’s own door leading to our balcony that hung two stories in the air. The apartment’s one hallway had three doors, two leading to the bedrooms and one leading to the third bathroom. The two girls share a room together “just so it’s not weird” and “because they’re good friends.” They’re not very good a making excuses.

The hall bathroom was considerably smaller than the bathrooms in the bedrooms, but it was were we held all of our medications and medicine. I opened the cabinet that doubled as a mirror and pulled out a bottle of Extra Strength Flankspirin for my headache. I dropped two tablets into my mouth and swallowed them dry. Closed the door and looked at my reflection. I did look a lot like my cousin. Extremely alike actually. Same mane color, same coat color, even same horn color. The only difference was that I was obviously male, was slightly bigger, and had a radio microphone as a cutie mark. We were even about the same age. We’ve been mistaken as brother and sister multiple times. Back when we were foals, we would always play together. Even though her parents lived in Ponyville, while I lived in Bel-Mare, we were always best friends when one of us would visit.

I walked back into the kitchen to say goodbye to Lyra. She had just finished washing my dishes and began working on the pots and pans she used for cooking. I quickly finished the coffee I had poured earlier and headed towards the door.

“Well, I’m off to work.” I yelled at her reaching the door. I placed my saddle bag over my back which contained multiple miscellaneous items. I had put my bottle of Flankspirin in the bag earlier. “If you need anything, I’m only a few blocks away.” I added opening the door.

“Alright.” She replied shutting off the sink faucet and turning to me. “I’m going to get groceries today, so I might not be home when you get back.”

“Okay, bye Lyra.”

“Bye Axil.”

---

After walking down the two flights of stairs, I finally emerged into the bright Manehatten light. I always take just a second to look around and watch all of the other ponies either in a hurry to get someplace, or just in a hurry for no reason. Everypony was in a hurry in Manehatten. The radio station was only two blocks away from our apartment, so I could make it there in 5-10 minutes. My horn lit up and I took out a pack of King Colt’s Premium Choice Cigarettes. One of them magical got pulled out of the box and into my mouth. I used a simple spell to light it.

The streets were busy as usual with cab wagons all over the place. The sidewalks were equally as busy with too many ponies to count. I only had to cross one street to get to work, but I always joked with myself on how it was the most dangerous part of my day. Manehatten is notorious for bad drivers. Exhaling a puff of smoke and breathing in a breathe of the fresh spring air, I began walking. I threw the nub of the cigarette to the ground. Not even after five minutes of lazily walking, I came to the one intersection.

There were some traffic-ponies doing their best to direct the wagons, but they never did a good job. Mostly because, like I stated before, everypony was in a hurry. I looked to my left, and then to my right, and decided that it was as best as time as ever and sprinted towards the other side of the street. I made it just as I felt the rush of a wagon whistle right behind me.

I eventually came to a small, two story building with a large broadcasting tower on the top. I walked in. I saw the pink pegasus receptionist sitting at her desk collecting, and sorting files as usual. She always looked unkempt and tired as hell. That said, she was also always eager to talk. I never had the time to actually learn her name, even though I saw her everyday.

“Hi Axil!” She said with an exaggerated smile. “Beautiful day isn’t it?”

“You bet!” I said trying to hide the fact that I didn’t know her name. Before the awkward silence crept in, I asked her an obvious question. “Is Mist in?” Mist was always the first pony in the building in the morning, and the last to leave at night.

“Sure, he’s upstairs doing sound checks.”

“Okay, thanks.” I said and quickly walked to the stairs that led directly to the broadcasting room on the second floor. The stairs curved in a spiral to the second level.

Sure enough, when I reached the broadcasting room, I saw Mister Bigshot the 5th sitting on his typical chair doing his magic with the soundboards and broadcasting software. And yes, you read it write. His first name is Mister, his last name is Bigshot, and he is the fifth pony to be bestowed with the “great” name. He resents being called Mister, so most ponies called him Mist. His father, as you may expect, was a big shot business pony with tons of money. Fortunately, he didn’t like his father handing over money for him. He liked making his own living.

I met Mist in kindergarten. He was a bright yellow earth pony with a very bright red mane. He told me all of the colts in his family had the same coat and mane colors. His mane was cut very short and his tail was also short. He was the very first pony in our class to get his cutie mark, which was simply a smiley face. The sole reason for that being that he loved to make ponies laugh. And smile. And giggle. And chuckle. And anything else that would classify in that category. We were always best friends.

After high-school, we both managed to get into Bale University, even though I had to get a scholarship, and his father paid for his full ride. His father paid a bit extra to get us to be roommates. By then I found my special talent was talking. As lame as it sounds, it was true. I could talk on and on about a topic, and was very good at public speaking. I even could make my own speeches. I majored in Media Arts, while he majored in Business and Consulting. Even though his special talent was being funny, he couldn’t make a living off of it. And being a member of the Bigshot family, he had a knack for business. We both graduated about a year and a half ago.

Being good friends, we tried to find a business that we could start together. Coincidentally, this was the same year somepony invented the telephone. Mist’s father sponsored the pony who invented the telephone, so he got fifty percent of the revenue and made even more money. But now almost every home in Equestria had a telephone. This led us to the idea of a radio show, were listeners can actually call in to the studio and talk live on the radio. The radio had been out for around five years, but it never really had much popularity until DJ Pon3 made the first radio station solely for music purposes. After that, the whole radio industry took off. Mist was very reluctant, but I eventually convinced him on borrowing some money from his father to get our radio station up and running. And with that, Equestria Talks radio station was born.

Mist was wearing his typical, over-sized headphones and was completely oblivious to the fact that I was in the room. I walked up behind him and gently tapped him on the shoulder. You might as well thought I stabbed him. He jumped up in surprise and ended up falling backwards in his chair. He looked at me from the floor.

“Meant to do that.” He said quickly getting to his four hooves.

“Of course.” I said using my magic to lift his chair upright. “I’ve heard that the floor is very nice this time of year.” I smirked.

“Very bucking funny.” He said retrieving his headphones from the ground. “Remember the topic for today?” He put the headphones on with one of the sides off his ear so he could still hear me.

“Of course. ‘Should Princess Luna be granted her former powers over the moon.’” I said repeating what a listener had suggested yesterday. Every so often, when we were either too lazy, or too dumb to think of more topics, we’d ask the audience to call in and suggest topics.

“What do you think?” He said pushing a few buttons and sliding a few sliders. (I’m terrible with all of the technical stuff.) “Should she?”

“Well you’ll have to wait until 7:00 to find out.” I said heading towards the actual sound booth. I looked at the large clock that hung above the door. It was 6:45. “Where is everypony else?” I asked noticing that the other three ponies that worked in the broadcasting area were no where to be found.

“Notch called in two minutes before you showed up,” he said referring to Notch, our unofficial technical specialist. “His alarm clock didn’t go off so he might be a little bit late. And Bell went out to get coffee.” Bell Tone was our musical consultant. She decided the music for the day and did pretty much everything else that had to do with music at the station.

“And what about Swivel?” I asked referring to our telephone pony. Swivel answered, connected, and did everything with out telephones. With us five, and the receptionist downstairs, Equestria Talks had a grand total of six employees.

“Swivel said that he was going to be a little bit late last night.” Mist said never taking his eyes off the board in front of him. “He didn’t say why.” I put my saddle bag down on the right side of the couch and took out the Flankspirin bottle. I choked down two more pills and set the bottle down on the side table.

I heard the front door from downstairs open and close. I also heard muffled greetings, but I couldn’t make out specifics. Then, I heard somepony walk up the stairs and saw a pure white unicorn with a lime green mane and a sideways tilting bell cutie mark emerge from the staircase. Using her magic, Bell was carrying a tray that held six cups of coffee with one spot vacant.

“Oh, hey Axil.” She said smiling at me. “Coffee?”
I reached out with my invisible hand and grabbed one of the cups. “Thanks.” I said taking a long drink before setting it down.

“And one coffee for Mr. Mister Bigshot.” She said as she magically lifted a cup towards Mist. He didn’t really find the joke funny.

“You know,” Mist started while taking the cup. “I could fire you and send you back to being underpaid at the one night club we found you at.” We all knew he wouldn’t fire her. Mist was too nice to fire anypony.

“Pfff, like any of you boys know anything about music.” She set down the tray of coffee cups on a side table that stood next to a couch and lifted up her own cup.

“And, it’s not like Mist would fire anypony.” A gruff voice said from the staircase. The three of us turned and saw Swivel.

“Well it’s a darn shame you showed up.” Bell said smirking. “I was hoping you got hit by a wagon or something.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.” He said walking over to the side table and grabbing a coffee.

“And who said those were for you?” Bell said still trying to give Swivel a hard time.

“Celestia.” He replied sarcastically. Swivel was a dark blue pegasus with tornado cutie mark and a purplish mane.

“Well at least you’re here.” I said trying to stop the fake argument. My headache wasn’t doing to well with all of the raised voices. I looked at the clock and saw it was 6:54. “You sure Notch will be here one time?” I asked nopony in particular.

“Well it’s not like he really need him unless anything breaks.” Swivel said.

“Oh gee, thanks guys. I knew you guys would always care about me.” Came the unmistakable accent of a true Manehattener. Notch was just walking into the second level of the radio station. He was the only pony that was born in Manehatten and had a thick Manehattener accent. Notch was a pale orange colored earth pony with a yellow colored mane. His cutie mark was a short cable cord with a small cut in the middle which was emitting small sparks.

“Notch, why you so ninja?” Mist said using the overused meme.

“Well, I’m sure it’s because of my natural good looks.” He said grabbing the final coffee from the nearly empty tray. The clock now stated that it was 6:58.

“Alright, let’s get in our positions before we all loose our jobs.” I announced while walking into the sound booth. Nopony said a word as they all silently walked to their positions. Mist, Notch, and Bell all sat together in front of to the table with all of the switches and buttons that I couldn't even try to learn how to operate. Swivel sat at his own desk which was indented into the wall. He had a whole bunch of phone lines and other things that helped him do his job.

I walked into the sound booth and sat down in my cozy chair. I adjusted my microphone to hover right in front of my muzzle. I then put on my comfy headphones and did a quick sound check. The clock above the large window, which showed the three ponies, said it was 6:59. I saw the three ponies raise one of their hooves in unison. Notch to my left lowered his first, indicating that it was two seconds until show time. Bell, who was to my right, lowered hers. The clock and Mist moved simultaneously. Just as Mist’s hand went down to his side, the clock changed to show 7:00.

“Good morning Equestria!” I half yelled into the microphone. “This is Axil Heartstrings, with Equestria Talks! The only radio station where you, the listeners, can call on in and sprout your own two bits onto all of the other listeners in Equestria.” I said finishing my same introduction I said every morning.

“As some of you may remember, last afternoon we had Emerald Shine call in as lucky caller number 27 and submit her submission for today’s topic. ‘Should Princess Luna be granted her former powers over the moon?’” I repeated into the microphone. “As my loyal listener’s know, I always start off by stating my personal opinion before taking in calls so let’s get started.”

“Princess Luna.” I started. “She was locked into the moon for one thousands years as her punishment for attempting to usurp the power over Equestria, and thrust it into internal night. She was quickly defeated by her older sister Princess Celestia with the Elements of Harmony and locked away in the moon. Approximately two years ago, she managed to escape her imprisonment, and attempted the exact same thing.” I went on giving background to more uninformed ponies.

“Princess Celestia’s personal pupil, Twilight Sparkle, was able to use the Elements of Harmony along with five other ponies to take away Luna’s dark and evil powers.” As I said those words, I recalled actually meeting those six ponies one time when I was visiting Lyra in Ponyville. “Luna was not granted back her powers for a few reasons. Firstly, she was still under suspicion of having malicious thoughts towards her sister, and had to be monitored carefully. Secondly, it has been a thousand years since Luna had seen ponykind’s advancements, so she may not have been able to handle all of the changes and still take the responsibility of the moon.”

“Now, onto my opinion.” I said pausing to take a quick sip of my coffee. “Princess Luna has been doing very well in adapting to modern society. She has kept up attendance at all formal gatherings, and has been occasionally traveling all of Equestria learning new things. She has come very far since the Summer Sun Celebration two years ago. Granted that about a year and a half ago, she had another fiasco at Ponyville during Nightmare Night. But for a alicorn that is far older than anypony alive today, I’d say she’s done a very good job maturing from her rebellious Night Mare Moon, back into the Princess Luna that ponies used to love all those many years ago.”

“I would personally agree with giving Luna her former control over the moon, but the decision ultimately lies in the hooves of Celestia.” I said pausing briefly to let my words sink in. “Now, onto the fun part of the day. Pick up your phones and dial 123-555-1234 to call into our studio and share your own personal thoughts of the matter.” A small red light on the small control panel in front of me lit up stating that I had a call waiting. I pushed the button. “Hello, thank you for calling in on Equestria Talks, you’re live on the air, can I get your name and location please?” I repeated the words I always asked when I got a caller.

“Hi Axil,” A friendly female voice said. “I’m Pretzel from Cloudsdale.”

“Well hello there Pretzel. What is your opinion about Luna and her position of power in Equestria?”

“Well, I mean Princess Celestia had been controlling the sun and the moon for years, so I just don’t see why we need any changes here. I mean, we’re all doing fine right now, and I’m just afraid that Luna could change things for the worse. I mean if it’s not broken, why fix it?”

“I agree with the fact that everything is alright the way it is, but I just don’t see the trouble in letting Luna get her former job back.” I rebutted. “Well thank you Pretzel, for giving us your opinion.”

“Thanks for having me Axil!” She said as the line went dead.

“Alright, next caller please.” I said more for effect than for Swivel. In fact, he already had another call waiting for me. “Hello, thank you for calling in. Could I have your name and location if that would be alright?”

“Hi, I’m, uhhh, Jersey, from uhhhh, Fillydelphia.” A young sounding colt said nervously stammering.

“Well thanks for calling in Jersey, what do you think about this whole situation?”

“Well, uhh, I’m just a little, you know, worried that all of the uhh, you know, power, could get to her head, I mean, get to Luna’s head again. I mean, isn’t that, like, the whole reason why she went, ummm, all Night Mare Moon on us?”

“Well there’s multiple suspicions of why Luna turned into Night Mare Moon, one of them being, she was overwhelmed by the power. But like I said before, she as done a lot of maturing in these past two years, and think that she may be able to handle the responsibility more.”

“Yeah, but, uhh, I mean, it’s like what the pony before me said. If it’s broken, why fix it. Oh, I mean if it’s not, uhh, broken, why fix it you know?”

“Hmhmm.” I hummed in response. “Well thank you for taking the time to call in Jersey. So far we’ve got two against Luna being granted her powers, and only me for giving back her former powers.” I said recapping the past few minutes. “Let’s see if we can get some different points of views here.” The small red light bunk on again. “Thank you for calling in here, do you think you could honor me with your name and location?”

“Yeah,” I deep voice said. “My name is Sawdust. I’m from a town called Hoofburg.”

“Thank you very much Sawdust, are you going to be agreeing with our former two callers, or go in a different direction?”

“Well, I think that Luna, much like you said, has matured a great amount since then, and could see her back to work very easily.” He said with enthusiasm. I liked when ponies called in for things they actually cared about, not just to be on the radio. “I also think Celestia would be happy to let Luna take a little weight off her shoulders. I mean, Celestia right now is the ruler of all of Equestria. Having a sister to help out would help in many ways I think.” He continued on.

This went on for another three callers before we had a brief commercial break. I left the booth and grabbed the bottle of Flankspirin from the counter and shoved two pills into my mouth while entering back into the sound booth.

---

“I agree with the fact that Luna is still younger than her sister, and still may be a little immature compared Celestia, but I guarantee, that she is far more matured than a lot of ponies out in Equestria.” I said finishing a conversation I was having with a very stubborn mare who disagreed completely with the very thought of Luna having more power. I looked at the clock and saw that it was already 10:00. “Wow,” I said speaking into the microphone again. “Time sure flies when you’re arguing.” I said jokingly. “It looks like my three hours are up. Make sure you tune back in at 4:00 pm for our afternoon news segment by me. Up next, we have some comical relive by my friend Mist, and some wonderful music by my other friend Bell. Until 4 o’clock, this is Axil Heartstrings, signing off.”

I set my headphones down on the small table in front of me, and began to exit the room. I could faintly hear a commercial staring up from my headphones. I walked out of the sound booth and nodded at Mist who took off his headphones and quickly trotted into the sound booth. After a three hour long conversation, the radio station needed some comic relive, and Mist was just the pony to get the job done. He usually just did random jokes about recent topics.

I actually wasn’t really needed again until four, because all I did was the morning talk show and the afternoon news. We always had the same schedule. My talk show, a brief joke session with Mist that lasted about half an hour, a solid 3 hours of rock music, and then a solid 2 and half hours of requested music. Bell would sometimes go on air and briefly introduce a song or something. Then the half an hour long afternoon news came on by me, and then another hour of requested songs, and then we all went home for the day at 5:30ish.

Between my morning talk show, and my afternoon news, I didn’t really do much all day. I would listen in on some music, and I would usually go out and get lunch for everypony, but besides that, I didn’t do anything. It was a pretty easy job for what it paid. We had TONS of companies offer to advertise on our station. We were the most popular radio show after all.
I laid down on the sofa for a couple of moments waiting for Mist to start talking. He always got me to laugh. I closed my eyes, just for moment, and then my whole world went to blackness.

---

This time it was different. This time I didn’t wake up running. I woke up falling. And I always woke up running. Always. Even though I knew it was a dream, I somehow didn’t know it was a dream at the same time. As I was falling, panic and confusing quickly erased the very thought of the real world outside, and I was sucked into the void of the pit I was falling into. I saw the small light above me get smaller and smaller. Way faster than it should have. I slowly turned my head to look at where I was heading. I hadn’t turned my head halfway around before smacking into hard rock.

The pain was instant, and intense. It felt like somepony had put my hind legs through a meat grinder. I yelled out in agony as the rest of my body hit the floor. I was dazed and everyplace on my body hurt. But my hind legs were the worst. I said that it felt like they were put through a meat grinder, well now they looked like they were put through a meat grinder. Red, sticky blood was everywhere. It seemed to somehow illuminate my surroundings, making everything brighter. I saw shrouds of bone sticking out of my legs like a medieval mace. It hurt just to look at them.

I was able to roll myself onto my belly to try to see where I was. I immediately regretted it. All around me were littered bones. Bones of sheep, birds, pigs, and worse of all, ponies. And they all had teeth marks on them. I heard an intense and loud sound come from my left. I squinted into the darkness, but couldn't see anything. But I knew for sure, that I didn’t want to be here.

I tired to begin to crawl, but it seemed like I was on a treadmill, and I couldn’t get anywhere no matter how fast, or hard I tried. The sound came again, this time even closer. I tried to crawl some more but to no avail. I knew who was coming. I knew what was coming. I started to sob hysterically, knowing what terrible fate awaited me. I was lying there, in a pool of my own blood mixed with tears, when I heard a soft voice call out for me.

“Axil,” The sweet and soft voice said. “Axil I don’t want to play anymore.” It sounded like a terrified fillies’ voice. “Axil,” It came again. “I want to go home.”

“You can’t go home when you’re dead.” The same gargled voice from my other dreams chuckled. “You can’t go anywhere when you’re in hell.” Suddenly I heard the horrible screech of claws on rock. I saw sparks fly out of the wall while the giant beast of a Diamond Dog slowly walked into view, it's paw dragging against the rock wall. “In fact, you can’t do anything when you’re dead.” It said as it reached to where my blood had flowed. “You can’t do anything but feel pain.” The beast bellowed. It dipped it’s head down to the floor and took a long, slow lick of my blood, lingering the taste.

“Hmm.” It pondered. “Tastes like a mare’s blood if you ask me.” It said now looking right at me with it’s black eyes. “A pathetic, little, mare’s blood.” It staggered closer. “And you know what?” It asked me. I was too terrified to even respond. “I like little mare’s blood best.” It grasped an impossibly large boulder with one large paw and and lifted it over it's head. “I’ll drink every last drop.” It said it’s final words to me as it crashed down the boulder on my hoof.

The pain was almost too much to bare. The blood spurted onto my face and the floor as it lifted the boulder from my now pulverized hoof. “Oops,” It said laughing. “My bad.” He lifted the boulder again and sent it crashing down straight for my head. I closed my eyes and hoped it would be painless. When I opened them, I was looking into four pairs of worried eyes.

---

“Jeez, Axil.” Swivel was the first to say. “Are you alright?” I sat up on the couch and felt an immediate rush of pain and blood to my head. I my eyes hurt and I knew they were bloodshot.

“Yeah,” I said trying, and failing, to sound convincing. “It was just... a bad dream.”

“You’re telling me.” I heard Mist say. I was too busy rubbing my temples to look up. “You started thrashing in your sleep about half an hour after you dozed off.” He said with concern in his voice. “We tired to wake you up, but nothing would work.” I finally opened my eyes and saw that it was already 3:46.

“How long was I trashing?” I asked in disbelief.

“Hours.” Bell said. “I was kinda hard to pick songs with you thrashing so much.” Her voice seemed like it was half filled with concern and half filled with sarcasm.

“Well I gotta get ready for the afternoon news.” I said standing up way too quickly. The world swam and I was forced back onto the couch.

“Oh no.” Notch chimed in. “You’re in no condition to do anything but eat, and get some rest.” He trotted quickly over to a side table and returned with a fast food bag in his mouth. He let it drop beside me on the couch. “You eat that Big Mac Apple Sandwich, then you go home.” He said with surprising dominance in his voice.

“Well I’m not going back to sleep.” I replied lazily. Even though I was extremely tired, the very thought of dreaming gave me the shudders.

“That’s fine, just eat, go home, and rest.” Notch repeated. “We called Lyra and she said that she had already scheduled an appointment for you with Dr. Cranium tomorrow at 12:30. One of us will cover the news today. And I only want you coming in tomorrow morning if you feel 110% better.” He said finishing his monologue. “Understand?” The surprising tone in his voice made me think better than to question him.

“Yes sir.” Was all I could muster as a reply. I actually ate the sandwich with gusto, and even wolfed down the hay fries as well. My headache from the previous morning paled in comparison to the migraine I had now. The food helped settle my stomach, but no amount of Flankspirin would settle my throbbing head. I finished off the cold coffee from this morning when Notch trotted into the sound booth to begin the afternoon news.

“Hello everypony of Equestria, this is Notch here subbing in for Axil, who has had an unfortunate... accident recently,” It took Notch a second to come up with a solid excuse. “So I will be replacing him for the afternoon news. Not many of you probably know who I am, but I’m pretty much the pony who fixes everything around the station. Anyway, let’s get into the news...” I stopped listening. The only reason I heard him in the first place was because of the radio that we kept in the corner so we could know what was playing over our channel.

I was just sitting there lazily when Notch caught my eye. Even though he was talking, he gave me a look that told me to go home. I struggled to my feet, getting a little help from Bell’s magic. I was so weak that I barely was able to lift my saddle bag over my side. I slowly began walking to the door. There was no talking on the second floor while anypony was on the air talking. But all of the four ponies in the room were looking at me with worry. I just mouthed “Goodbye” and started walking downstairs.

The receptionist caught me as soon as I as in view. “Hi Axil!” She said with her typical, unnecessary enthusiasm. She looked at me for one second before realizing I was not in the mood for talking. I didn’t even glance at her as I walked out the door. The door was half way shut when I heard her say a mediocre goodbye.

The fresh air felt good, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I knew that smoking would help me either, but I lit up one anyway. I slowly trotted down the sidewalk feeling miserable. I reached the intersection in almost twice the time as usual. I watched as wagons zoomed past, the cabbie ponies not caring for anypony’s safety. I wasn’t sure if I could even make it across the street. I sighed and sat down on the cement spitting out the last half the the cigarette. When I looked up, I was amazed to see that there were no wagons coming either way. Quickly taking my chance, I ran as fast as I could across the street. When I reached the other side, my head throbbed even more.

I walked home with my head bowed, so I accidentally bumped into other ponies a few times. I always just uttered a feeble apology. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of my apartment complex. I opened the door and stepped in. I groaned in the realization of the fact that I had to walk up more stairs to get to my apartment. The landlord’s room as right next to the stairs. There were two hallways to my left and right which indented inward further into the building, and then the staircase was right in front of the door. Slowly and unsure, I began the climb.

It seemed to take a lifetime to get up the stairs, but I somehow managed. The first staircase ended with a door that led to the hallway which led to more rooms, and another set of stairs going to the top level. I opened the door to the third level and began walking down the hallway. The hallway had about 20 doors on each side, each evenly spaced apart. The door that was at the end of the hallway was the door to my apartment. It was the biggest on the floor. Not wanting to open the door myself, I knocked hard three times. The three knocks seemed to reverberate in my head loudly. The door opened to reveal a pale cream colored pony with a navy blue mane and a pink stripe going through it.

“Hi Bon Bon.” I said meekly while walking in.

“Axil, why are you home so early?” She asked in a surprised tone.

“Oh yeah,” Lyra said rising from the couch. “Swivel called me today and told me Axil was thrashing in his sleep.” She said talking mainly to Bon Bon. “I called Dr. Cranium and she said-”

“Yeah,” I interrupted her. “She said she’d see me tomorrow at 12:30.” I realized that I said those words in a rude sort of way, but I was in too much pain to apologize. Lyra, being too smart, seemed to know and shrugged off the hurt.

“So,” Bon Bon said chiming in. “Same dream as usual?” I did like Bon Bon and I considered ourselves good friends, but I was much closer to Lyra than her and didn’t feel like talking about anything to anypony right now. But not wanting to lie, I shook my head no. Now Lyra looked surprised.

“Different?” Lyra asked, but went on without waiting for an answer. “What happened?” I shuttered even thinking about the impossibly black hole littered with bones and blood. There was no way I was talking about it right now.

“I’ll tell you later.” I said flatly walking to my room. I heard Bon Bon talk quietly to Lyra.

“I guess I shouldn’t ask him if he wants to go out with us tonight.” She said with the sarcasm almost overflowing in her voice. It made me smile briefly, but the pain wouldn’t let me have any longer than a moment of happiness, and it set in again.

I opened my door to my shabby bedroom. I looked at my bed which was in the corner right underneath my window. It was a queen sized bed and was actually quite comfortable. Right next to my bed, on the left side, was a small side table with a small clock and a small lamp. The only thing of importance to me in this room were a few pictures of my parents, friends, and of Lyra that sat on my dresser which held the mirror. However, I did care considerably for the brand new radio that sat on an unused chair in the corner next the the bathroom. I walked over to it and turned it on. It was almost always on my radio station.
“Should mare on mare and colt on colt marriage be allowed in Equestria?” I instantly realized that I tuned into a lucky mare getting her to choice of tomorrow’s topic.

“Alright lucky caller number 32, thank you for choosing tomorrow’s topic for us. Could you please honor us with your name?” I recognized Notch’s voice.

“Oh yeah,” A young mare’s voice said. “I’m Salt.”

“Well thank you Salt for giving us a sure to be interesting topic for tomorrow.” Notch replied. “Speaking of tomorrow, we are currently unsure if Axil will be able to do his usual showcase tomorrow. If he is unable to do so, yours truly will be subbing in again. We do all hope Axil is feeling better tomorrow and we hope to see him back. This was Notch with you afternoon news section here on Equestria Talks, signing out.”

Notch’s voice disappeared and was replaced by a commercial for a new brand of tooth paste for kids named Filly Fresh. Even though they paid the bills, I hated commercials. They were necessary, but annoying. I turned the volume nob down so I could just barely hear it. I walked through the door leading to my bathroom. I splashed cold water on my face hopping that it would keep me awake. I was extremely tired, but did not dare to try to sleep. I heard a feint knock at my door.

“Come in.” I called out as loud as I could.

“Axil,” I heard Lyra’s voice call out. “Are you going to be okay if Bon Bon and I go out for a couple of drinks?” I left the bathroom and found her standing in the middle of my bedroom.

“Of course.” I told her being sincere. “It’s not like you can do anything to help me.” I stated the truth.

“I could do something.” She said tentatively.

“Such as....” I said leading her on. She sighed in response. “Really, Lyra. I’m as good as I can be. You can’t do anything right now, and you might as well have fun for me.” I said not trying to sound like a downer.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. 100%. Go out and have fun with your friends. I’ll find something to do.” Lyra looked unconvinced, but sighed again.

“Okay. If you need anything-”

“I won’t.” I cut her off.

“Axil,” She started. “I’m really worried about you. I don’t want you to just shrug this off. These dreams are starting to get worse.”

“And I’m going to the doctor’s tomorrow. I’ll be fine.” I reassured her. “I promise.” She gave me a long hug.

“Thanks Axil, for everything.” She turned and walked out of my room. I followed behind her into the living room.

“I promise to have her back before 2 am Mr. Heartstrings.” Bon Bon joked. I would have usually laughed, but I couldn’t
so much as muster up a chuckle.

“Just be safe.” Was all I could reply.

“We will.” The both ponies said in unison. They both turned and Bon Bon led the way out the door. Lyra paused halfway through the door. She turned back and looked at me.

“Goodbye Axil.”

“Have a good time Lyra.” She left and closed the door behind her. Now I was left alone in our apartment, with the threat of sleep, slipping into my mind, and shoving my mind into a world filled with monsters and death. I did my best to stay awake. I even grabbed a book and slid onto the couch for a good reading session. But the demons of dreams, wished to torment me again, and grasped my mind into their realm of dreams.

End Part 1

Comments

[Lyra]

Just finished part 1.
Was great! Noticed one or two grammar mistakes, other than that, im really into it, you did a great job painting the picture in my head of his life, loving this story and cant wait to read the next chapter!

[Everypony]

>>Lyra
Thanks! I'm craving feedback right now! I wish there was a way to bump stories up... But thanks for the feedback!