(? POV)

Is it strange to wake up and watch trees move past me? I don't know if I am running. All I know is, the vegetation of this forest is…surreal. It's hard to describe, but this place has-wait! This place…is a forest? It is a forest. It looks like it, but it looks strange.

Not just the forest, but it's also me. I don't feel like I am running and that's the strange part. I don't feel my body at all. I am just…there, watching how everything moves. Only now I notice the black haze around my vision, as if I am watching it through something other than my own eyes.

A dream. It probably explains all of this. Why else would I feel so lightheaded? It would also explain why I am here. Dreams always have a strange effect on people's minds, so that would make this…normal.

Huh? I think I distracted myself for a few seconds. Because in front of me lies a large pond that glimmers slightly from the light. As for the light itself, I can't tell if it's from the sun or the moon. Why can't I… move my eyes? Dreams are difficult to control, that's a given, and I wasn't about to put the effort to change whatever is about to happen. Because it is also a given something is about appear out of thin air and scare me out of my sleep, I am used to it anyway.

For some unknown reason, my vision began turning around, and sure enough, something did appear in the end. However, it is something I never seen before. Something that doesn't even appear in horror movies or pop up videos. Genuinely speaking, it surprised me the enough to make me jump, move to the side or gasp and freeze from fear, but my vision remained the same.

I did absolutely nothing as a – the only way I can describe it – bright green laser approaching me from afar.

It grew bigger and closer with a passing second, and reached me within the next. It flashed green for a moment before becoming pitch black. Did I fall headfirst or remained standing with my eyes closed.

…It could have been either because I probably feel unconscious before I hit the ground, or lost consciousness the moment my senses were gonna come back. This raised a weird question befitting this strange dream. Is the dream going to continue, or am I about to wake up? Why was I thinking of this question, because whichever it is, I have no choice but to go along.

(? Time Past)

The faint sound of my breathing is the first thing that reaches my ears. I slowly open my eyes to start the daily routine: get out of bed, wash my teeth, check the day on my calendar, and change out of my night clothes before my brother teases me, once again, about being nocturnal. Not far from the truth. I preferred the night, since the only one awake at that time is me.

When my vision focused, I slowly thought something was odd. Instead of the near pitch blackness of the ceiling, I can see a dark-green high above me. Around it, there are things coming down and have great resemblance to pillars, but they are too dark to see their color or what they really are.

It might be me not believing what I am seeing, or that my brain is still asleep, but I am not thinking of anything. I am not scared or relaxed, only conscious.

I pushed myself up, and as I stood up, an unusual weight unbalanced my legs. I panicked. My hands darted to the sides to grab anything, and I fell on my knees first then chin second. I blame myself for this. I could have used my hands to soften the fall or something like that.

Without groaning from the hot pain on my chin or knees, I raised my head to see the same pond from my dream. Once again, I didn't give the oddity any thought. I crawled to it. Being the only thing that attracts my attention, and I also felt thirsty. Only imagining that cold-fresh water running down my throat made me lick my upper lips. It's a strange feeling, but-

My thoughts, and desire for water, got pushed aside by one of the rarest sights I seen in my entire life, and that is saying something considering the school I go to.

My head's reflection, or at least where it should be, has been replaced by an animal with round cheeks, black coat, eyes as dark as the night and a white uncombed fur covering its forehead.

I blinked a few times, and I assume it blinked with me. Now I did something I could actually see it do, tilt my head to the side. It did just that. I tilted it back to normal; it did the same. For the final test, I moved my head closer to the water; it moved along with me.

I stopped. My face hovering a few centimeters above the water. Whatever that foreign creature is, it is staring back at me, motionless like I am.

I can only suspect it is going to jump at me at any moment and drag me down the dark, bottomless waters that will mysteriously appear. I waited a few seconds, but nothing happened, so I dipped my mouth for a drink. It did the same.

After I finished, we both pulled back in complete sync. I must have done it subconsciously, because now I am standing up, but it's not the standing up I am used to. I looked underneath me to see the cylinder like legs of a black furred creature, and at a small distance behind them, an equal pair to the first two.

Something inside me turned on, and the idea worried me. I moved my gaze as fast as I could to scan my entire surroundings. At the least, I know where I am: a forest with celeste colored trees, grass all over the ground, and flowers growing from the bases of the tree that emit a soft, white glow from their long petals.

I noticed that the light reached halfway up the trees, but it was still enough for me to see the leaves covering the sky. Looking back down on the shallow waters, that creature with round cheeks, black colored eyes and coat, and a white messy mane that reaches down to its back is staring back at me with a flat expression.

"He…hehe." Its lips widened into a simple smile, "What did I eat last night? I had a lot of dreams before, but this," I turned to look at the endless amount of trees on my right "might actually be fun."

Curiosity or not, I grew excited over the surprises this dream may hold, and after one step forward into the unknown, a cold, merciless fear dug inside me.

Without apparent reason, the wind picked up and brought goosebumps to my body. With caution, I turned my head towards the lake, and as I did, I could tell how my eyes grow wider and my mouth becoming agape as the source of this terrifying nightmare comes into sight.

"I hope you enjoyed your freedom. Because your new cell will be closed off from your precious light." Her voice echoed inside my head as my eyes had to travel up to meet her piercing – teal colored – dragon-like eyes. "This is a first. Nopony has ever eluded me for this long, but" just when I thought I was imagining wrong spelling grammar, I heard wings flapping, and this horse, pony, or whatever it is takes the air "once you are mine, you can never escape, Nightmare Moon!"

She ends with a bone-chilling laugh as her chin is held up high with pride.

I don't know why I stood there. Was I waiting for her to finish her laughter so she could recapture me? Were my brain and body disconnected from the sheer pressure of the cold air? Is here presence that strong to paralyze me with fear?

It took a few moments for me to hear my breathing again, and only one thought crossed my mind, RUN!

I took in a mad dash towards-ANYWERE! Away from the pond! Away from her! I only have one goal now, and that is to escape!

I passed tree after tree, venturing myself into some unknown area in an already unknown forest, but as long as it creates distance between us, I wouldn't care if I ran into a monster-sized bear of some strange kind. *Pant* *Pant* *Pant* My body isn't made for running, yet, I am still going, probably from adrenaline.

After scanning the sides, I decided it was just best to keep running straight. Why exactly? Celeste colored tress as far as the eye could see, nothing else.

My mind is a complete blank for now; the sudden exercise is already taking one of its tolls on me, but one thing is clear, her laughter, the one that spurred a lingering fear into my body is gone.

A false sense of safety washes over my mind, but why is it false? One: an evil and possibly powerful crea – pony, a pony, appeared out of nowhere and incited the most horrible fear imaginable. Two: the white explosion on my right sends me flying in the opposite direction and then skidding into the hard grass.

A white light must be floating over my eyes because that is all I can see. I tried raising my head off the ground, and that's when my vision pulls through.

Up in the air, just under the limit the flower's light reaches, that black pony with wings, a horn on her head, and violet-blue armor is chuckling with a conceited smile. "If you are still trying to escape, at least try to make this amusing for me."

*Gulp* And without anything to say that could get rid of her smug, – like if I had anything that could do that – I managed to get on all fours and make another mad dash in a direction.

No time to process what is happening or why it's happening! No time to think of anything! All my focus is gathered on just running!

I could hear thunder raging down from the air, and explosion after explosion tore chunks of wood in random directions. My heart started beating faster as one of them got close enough for me to feel its power. It pushes me up into the air and to the direction where I am running to.

I still kept running even at the air; I acknowledged being up so high as I was dropping back down, "aaaaaAAAAAAAHHH!" I was able to place my hooves and legs firmly on the ground before skidding forward from the force; if I hadn't…it would've ended there for me.

As the momentum began to end, I used the left over-speed as the jump start to my running. They kept coming again, explosion after explosion; she clearly isn't going to give me a second to breathe.

"Is running all you can do? I expected more of a challenge from the pony who's made it this far."

Two sentences are all it takes to remind me of the fear I felt back at the pond, but there is something else that grabs my attention, something in the air itself.

Once I moved my gaze to the right, I felt how my body pulsed from within. It's the strangest thing indeed, to experience how a curtain of fear and death wraps itself around me like a cloak, and it happened the moment my eyes met her dragon eyes.

This pony named Nightmare Moon is flying close enough for me to feel a different kind of pressure from before. Instead of the cold void growing inside me, I feel empty, nonexistent, as if I lost everything and what remains is my consciousness. Her lips pull back into a grin, revealing sharp fangs that could chomp down any living creature.

I could feel a giant pulse coming once again from within, and before I knew it, my body has turned left on its own, venturing into another unknown part of the wilderness.

I kept my gaze up, looking ahead and never back. Trees everywhere, a white light coming from underneath my vision, darkness forward. Darkness, darkness, solid darkness everywhere.

I hadn't realized it until it was too late, for I am already rolling downwards out of control. The light from the flowers has left me a while ago and my sense of direction has been long gone when I first woke up, but now I can't tell where up and down is anymore. I am at least fortunate I haven't crashed against a tree or rolled over any rocks; the new bruises on my body and possible concussion are grave injuries on their own.

Then it ends. A dim light starts to brighten my vision; it's a hazy world I see. Everything has lost its shape, but as they came into focus, a new pair of hooves walked towards me.

Their brown coat is the last thing I saw before my eyes gave out.

(? Time Past)

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. I repeated this process as I laid over something warm and cozy; the same can be said of what's covering me from my neck to the toes, a bed and a blanket most probably. I can feel a patch and bandages over my body. One bandage around my left wright, another at my left shoulder, my right elbow, around my stomach, the last one is around most of my right leg, and the patch is on my right cheek. I find it ironic how I could tell where they all are; it must come from experience.

"He he, hehe. Hehehe." A girlish giggle filled the emptiness in my ears, and it was very close too.

My eyelids feel heavy as lead; I am struggling to do a simple task such as opening them. As I finally began to, the first thing to greet me is the smiling face of an unknown animal.

"I knew it. You are alive." In comparison to the other creature that tried hunting me down, this one looks like a smaller version of that pony, but her coat is brown, her eyes a sky blue and I see a little bit of a chocolate colored hair over her head. "I got a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot," she stops to take in a full pack of air through her mouth, "a lot of questions." Then her happy personality falls down as her eyes look to the side, "But mommy will get angry if I talk to you. She said 'don't bother the patient, even if she wakes up. Oh, and, you are grounded if you do.' So, yeah," her eyes met mine again, "I am grounded aren't I?"

She moves out of sight with a clear gloominess written over her.

At this point, the only option left for me is to sit up, or so I tried.

I put my hands firmly on the bed. My entire upper body trembles as my worn out muscles work beyond their limits.

At the end of this arduous task, I heard two bones from my back crack. A light dizziness soon takes over me, making my head wobble a few seconds. I closed my eyes to collect myself.

All that's happened, since I woke up, rushes into my mind as images. Her fangs – along with that grin – is the last image that flashes vividly like reality itself.

My eyes snap open, and I find myself breathing heavily again.

"I prayed to Celestia so the nightmare of Lostshine Forest leaves the sanctity of your dreams." I barely noticed what is in front of me, or should I say, the other side of this one-room house.

An older female pony – as I could tell from her voice – is standing on all fours next to a red bricked chimney, cooking something in one of those big old, black pots that hangs above the fire. One of the other differences to this one is her green coat, deep blue colored eyes, smooth forest green color mane combed down on one side, a horn on her head that matches the color of her coat, and some kind of tattoo on her behind – and I didn't notice it because I am some kind of pervert, but because it stands out – that looks like leaves, each with a different color, spinning around as if in a vortex. The ones closer on the edges of the 'vortex' are bigger than the ones in the center, making the whole act of spinning more lifelike.

The pony moves her hoof up to cover its mouth, but I can still hear her feminine laughter, "I might look young, but I am thirty five years old. Older than what you should be looking for." For a reason or another, she winks at me.

I, after what she implied and did, obviously become flustered. "No No No No No No No!" I kept repeating as I raised my hands up and shook them like my head.

"Mommy is only jokiiing~" I stop then look at my right. Apparently ponies have elbows, because she placed hers over the blue bed sheet and rested her chin on her hooves, "Momma looves teasing." Then she puffs her cheeks, and her eyes move in direction to her mother with a slight annoyance in them, "But Momma says I can't do it. She says 'it's bad playing with ponys' emotions'"

"But you made a habit of teasing everypony you see." I sensed no hint of a mother's disapproval tone, but more of how a friend points out another friend's problems with a wholeheartedly laugh.

The little pony's jaw dropped as her eyes went wide as circles, "M-M-MOOOM!"

Once more, I look at the other Pony. She still has a hoof over her mouth, but her eyes are close as her shoulders tremble. Obviously from containing her laughter.

And once more, that light dizziness comes back. This time I held my forehead to keep it from moving.

When my mind stopped spinning on me, I slowly moved my hand away. My mind half-absent as I did. How did I know that about myself? Because instead of my mind driven to insanity, the circular black hoof near my face got me pondering. Where have I seen this before?

I didn't see the hoof of that black Pony, But this should be his… or hers. That was the only time I saw a black Pony. Who else's could it b-

I thought about everything that has happened, one final time, in detail. I suddenly woke up next to a pond. I never seen it before nor I have recollection of how I got there. Normal for a dream. Got chased around by a monster in a pony disguise that appeared out of thin air, and felt an inexplicable amount of fear that can only be felt after watching an M-rated horror movie. Normal for any kind of nightmare. It was the last portion I have a hard time figuring out; the part where I rolled down a hill. That hurt me all over. The bandages and the patch are proof of that. It was dark, but it felt like if the entire world was spinning.

My head did circles around it, thinking of an answer. That was until I noticed a peculiar, white thing under the hoof. Right around where I assume is the elbow, there is a white bandage wrapped tightly on it. Just like on my right elbow.

Pain, bandage on the same place as my right arm, a hoof where a hand should be, but most importantly, pain. A connection is slowly starting to be made. It's impossible. First of all, how-

"Is your hair a natural?" I am pulled out of my thoughts by the small brown pony. She is in the same position I first saw her in, "Mommy always trims mine, see?" By moving her head to the side, I can see the chocolate colored hair on her head has been combed back and tight neatly by a yellow hairband near the neck, and it keeps going as the shape of oval beads with yellow hairbands wrapped between each of them and ending with a ponytail that reaches her shoulder. "How do you do yours?"

"M-Mine?" There wasn't really anything special about it.

"Yeah! Like," Moving away from the bed, she lowers herself down and scans what's under it.

What's she looking for?

She shots right back up with an enthusiastic grin on both sides, "That's right, we have, as my mom calls it, 'Don't touch it or its gonna slip right on its back, sweetie. Oh, and, you are grounded if you do.'" After that extra information, she turns around to point at a rectangular mirror leaning on the wall.

As the chimney and the other Pony, this mirror is also on the other side of the house, but at least my vision is strong compared to the rest of me. At least, I thought it was.

Am I, seeing this right? It's undoubtedly the same pony from the pond. The same dark coat, dark eyes, and the same white, messy, spiky hair reaching to its back with the occasional rare smooth strands that found its way throughout that mess called hair. "I-It's…a natural."

"Aawww. I wanted wacky hair too." I could hear her sad tone, but I wasn't listening to it. The details on that black Pony got me entranced on it. It's sitting like I am, a bandage wrapped around it's stomach, a patch on its left cheek and another bandage wrapped on its left elbow. However, I knew better because that is supposed to be a reflection. A reflection of whoever is sitting on the bed with the blue blanket, and what's worse, they are all in the same place where I felt my patch and bandages.

Felt, again with that feeling. I felt thirst when I woke up. It shouldn't be too weird for a dream. It would have been odd if I looked like myself in a dream. Because the imaginary world is almost never in terms with normality, so I was bound to look different, but dreams themselves are always changing. They never stay the same for too long, and they are short lived for most people; it's no different for me. So why? Why am I still a Pony?

My body pulses again from within, but this time, it's warm. It clears away a certain weight off my mind, as if it's trying to reanimate a dead mind. I am not thinking straight, even if the answer is right in front of me.

I turn my attention at the black hoof in the air. No…it's impossible. But why is it impossible? A different voice in my mind objected, It just…it just is impossible.

"Hey miss," It was in such a low voice I almost didn't hear it, but the little brown Pony called my attention again. Her hooves are on the edge of the bed as she hides her face behind them. Just looking at her eyes, I can tell she's apprehensive about telling me whatever she wants to tell me, "I didn't wanna say, but," her eyes stop meeting my gaze, "do you, umm, sweat alot?"

"W-What do you mean?" I don't know when it happened, but I must have begun sweating when I thought of that possibility. The same possibility I am most frightened of being the truth.

I begin taking heavier breathes as the hoof in front of me trembles. Not willingly, but because of a natural reaction of my body when faced by a brutal, twisted reality.

"Can I ask another question?" She pulled me out of my thoughts again, and I see her wear a little smile after she rose up behind her hooves.

"S-Sure." This can't get any worse.

"Do you," her tone quickly changes from calm to enthusiastic, "do you wanna be my big sister!?"

I felt myself flinching; her words pierced right through me. "W-W-W-WHAT!?" If I wasn't shaking before, I am shaking now.

She leans closer to me with those eyes magically sparkling from excitement, "I promise it will be soooo much fun! I can take the role of the clumsy and energetic little sis, and you can be the big sis who acts like a young adult and scares ponies with the eye."

And as to emphasize her point, she closes one eye while widening the other one and pointing at it with a hoof.

T-That is actually a close description of me…for the most part. But SIS! I knew my physique gave people the wrong impression about me, but even HERE! My body changes into a pony, but that 'aspect' of me didn't?!

"What do you think?" She has backed away by now, and her hooves are up covering what I can surely assume is an energetic smile.

"I-I-I-I-I-I," I forgot how unmanly my voice sounded; it isn't entirely feminine, but it barely matches the pitch of a young boy's.

Her eyes close before letting out a loud, girlish squeal, "EEEEEEEEEEHH! This. Will. Be. Amazing!" She rises up on her hind legs and stretches her arms up high; then goes sitting back down while acting out what she says, "We can trim out hair together, pick up flowers together, grow older together like real sisters," she grabs a green quilt out of nowhere, wraps it around her like a blanket and poses like an old granny. She tosses it away before continuing, "And we can tell each other secrets like real sisters would."

I got plenty of secrets to tell you! Like this one: I'm a GUY! I can feel my head going in circles. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Never-ending.

What has happened to me this morning can cause anyone to freak out and act as a messed-up maniac! But This, this is my limit! No! I probably reached it after that little trip down the hill; this is causing unnecessary damage.

And just like that, a little fuse in me must have burned out. Because the next color I saw is pitch black, and the next sound, a loud *thud*, probably my head colliding with either the wood frame on the wall or the solid planks on the floor.

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Author's Notes: Technically, this story will also be at , so why do I even have it here? Because I already have a different story in here, and even then, it would feel like if I am completely abandoning Fanfiction. I debated over this weeks before this chapter even had a word on it, and I came to this decision.

Heads up for everyone, this story is going to places. Which means it will have alot of surprises.