I

The dream ended, but Ryan was reluctant to open his eyes. Not because he was still tired, he wasn’t, but because he felt that there was no point in getting up. He had been feeling the same for three weeks already. For him, the idea of staying in bed the whole day, doing nothing except rolling slowly, was much more pleasant. But he had to wake up, hadn’t he?

So, Ryan opened his eyes. He wasn’t wearing pajamas, just an an old white t-shirt and even older black trousers. He remembered that, the last night, he had returned from the university exhausted and feeling in the dumps, after four and a half unbearably boring hours in the lab, listening to the teacher’s monologue instead of, you know, doing lab things. Ryan had returned home with almost no energy left. He had changed his clothes, he had dined a bit, and then, after zapping through the TV channels for almost twenty minutes, he had dropped in his bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

The young man stood up, slowly .He couldn’t remember the dream he had had. Meh, it didn’t matter. For the last three weeks, since it had started, his dreams hadn’t been anything memorable.

Then, Ryan realized that he was not in his bedroom, but in a weird white place, kinda similar to the room of a psychiatric hospital. Also, he hadn’t waken up from his bed, but from an ugly, nude mattress with no blankets. He looked around, the room was practically empty, with no furniture, save from the mattress and a small table. It had no windows, and all the light came from a single bulb in the ceiling.

Am I still dreaming?, thought Ryan.

The room had a wooden door as the only exit. The boy wondered if it would be opened, or if he had to find the key.

“Hello?” he aked, to the air. “Is there anybody out there?”

No response. Putting his faith in the clichés, Ryan pinched his own arm. No pain. Yes, apparently he was still dreaming, but he was aware of that, so that meant he was in a lucid dream, right?

Ryan extended his other arm and tested it. He tried to materialize a sword, and to change the color of his skin, and to turn the door into a pile of dust with just his thoughts; but it didn’t worked. He was dreaming and aware of that, but somehow, that was not a lucid dream. What a pity.

The boy approached the table. There was something over it, something small, wrapped in white paper. Ryan unfolded it. It was a little doll of Pinkie Pie. Well, that was a nice surprise. He had been a fan of the show for six months, and finally his mind had given him a dream about ponies. It was just a doll, he would have preferred to dream about the real ones, but it was ok. Pinkie was his favourite one. He didn’t know exactly why, but she was.

Ryan looked at the paper. It had a message, which had been written with a red pen:

There’s almost no time left, Ryan. You should’ve stopped this before, but you still can run away from him, you still can ruin his plans. He has grown powerful, but he’s not invincible.

Get out of here, Ryan, escape from this place as fast as you can. If he captures you, it’ll be game over for all of us.  

Beware of the Taunt, it works for him. Take the doll with you, she’ll keep that thing away.

Don’t let him capture you.

Ryan read the note several times, trying to make any sense of it. Then, he remembered that he was in a dream, one of the last places where one should expect things to make sense. He left the paper in the table and picked the doll. His inner brony was giggling like a little kid. Actually, Ryan had thought about buying a doll or a plushie of Pinkie Pie, but he wasn’t brave enough to enter in a toy store and purchase one of them, not even with the excuse of It’s for my little sister.

With the doll in his hand, the boy sighed and went to the door. He had decided to play the game, to follow the instructions the dream was giving him, to see where was it going. He grabbed the door handle, he turned it, and the door opened.

It happened really fast: as soon as the wooden structure moved, the survival instinct of Ryan, active even in his dreams, forced him to jump back, just in time to avoid a black claw, which would’ve surely ripped off his face. The young man fell on his butt, and dropped the little doll. He didn’t care, however. He was too busy staring at the abomination which was entering in the room:

Tall, slim, with a body made of something that could only be described as, maybe, solid living darkness. Instead of legs, it had tentacles. Its arms were long, and each one had an eye, crowned with three fingers which were sharp and curved like hooks. In its chest, moving slowly, four appendixes, each one ending in a fang. Its head was covered, hid under a cloak made of several pieces of what looked like skin, all sewn together. And eyes, the mask was filled with more eyes. Ryan, or the part of his brain which wasn’t too busy being scared, assumed that it was the Taunt mentioned in the note. The creature approached, rising his claws. Ryan thought of fighting that thing, but with what? Maybe the table, if he was able to reach it...

Then, the little doll of Pinkie Pie started to glow. The Taunt turned its faceless head, momentarily forgetting about its prey. The light, pink, became brighter, until, with a final flash and the sound of party blowers, the small doll was replaced by a much bigger cartoon pony.

“Oooooooh... What is this place?” said Pinkie, while bouncing around, completely oblivious of both the terrified human and the shadowy abomination. “Oh, look, a table! And what’s this paper?”

The Taunt decided that the newcomer was not of its interest, and it approached Ryan even more. The boy, unable to get back on his feet due to fear and confusion, could only crawl back a few centimeters, while praying for that dream to end as soon as possible.

“Hey, what are you?” asked Pinkie, suddenly jumping on Ryan’s lap. “I’ve never seen anything like you before!”

“P... P...” the boy tried to warn her about the Taunt, but the words got stucked on his throat.

“What a short mane you have!” continued the pony, happily, without realizing about the monster which was right behind her. “And where’s your tail? Oh, I guess you’re not a pony... Are you a dragon? No, wait, dragons have tails, too... And you don’t have scales. One of my friends is a dragon, you know? His name is Spike, and... Oh, silly me, I haven’t introduced myself yet!”

“Pi... Pin...”

“My name is Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you! Normally I would throw a welcome party for you, but I guess I’m not in Ponyville anymore. Is this where you live? Then you should throw a welcome party for me!”

“Pinkie, run!”

Too late. The Taunt wrapped one of his tentacles around Pinkie Pie and lifted her in the air. Ryan hold his breath, fearing that the monster was going to kill her. Actually, the creature was just going to toss her away, since it wasn’t interested in the pony. However, as soon as the dark essence touched the pink coat, the air was filled with the sound of something burning.

The Taunt uttered a spine-chilling scream of pain and released Pinkie Pie. Then, while trying to smother the pink flames which had suddenly appeared in his tentacle, it retreated. At that moment, Ryan reacted: he got up and closed the door, quickly.

“What was that thing?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“I don’t know!” answered Ryan, panting. “But it’s out there, so we’re not going to leave this room!”

“Oh, well!” the pink pony smiled again. “Like I was saying: Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you!”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. That dream was getting weirder. However, if it wasn’t by the abomination who was waiting for him at the other side of the door, it would have been the best dream of his life.

***

Ryan introduced himself to Pinkie, and pretended to not know who she was, as well as being totally oblivious about Ponyville and the others. He didn’t want to cause her an existential crisis, even if that happy pink pony was just a product of her subconscious. Of course, he didn’t mentioned that they were in his dream, either.

“You should come to visit Ponyville!” she said, enthusiastically bouncing around Ryan. “I’m sure my friends would love to meet you!”

“So, you don’t remember how did you get here?” asked he.

“Nu-uh. I was playing with Gummy in my room, and then I got teleported! At first I thought that Twilight had something to do with it.”

“Then, we’re in the same boat. I have no idea of why or how I ended up in this room.”

“We can search for the exit together!”

Ryan raised the other eyebrow. Pinkie Pie had only known him for six minutes or so, and she was already treating him like an old friend. But, of course, that was what Pinkie Pie used to do, and he liked her for that.

“We could,” said the boy. “But the Taunt may be still out there, and we don’t have a way to defend ourselves.”

Inmediatly, Ryan realized that yes, they had. Pinkie Pie seemed to be toxic for the abomination, it couldn’t touch her without bursting in pink flames. But the Taunt had probably learned the lesson, and the next time it could just slash the pony with its claws instead of picking her with a tentacle, and Ryan didn’t want that dream to be turned into a nightmare. He also realized another thing: he was dreaming. If the monster killed him, he would just wake up. Why was he worrying so much? He didn’t know.

“Oh, but we can defend ourselves!” said Pinkie. “We just have to giggle at the ghosties!”  

And music started to sound.

“When I was a little filly, and the sun was going dooooooooown...”

Ryan smiled without realizing. The singing voice of that pony somehow made his lips move by their own. He couldn’t prevent the corners of his mouth for going up, and he loved it.

“Ok, Pinkie,” he said. “Let’s go find that exit.”

“Giggle at the ghostie, guffaw at the grossly...”

“By the way, how do you make music pop out of nowhere?”

“I have no idea!”

Ryan opened the door and abandoned the room, very carefully. Pinkie just bounced near him, making squeaky sounds with her hooves. There were no signs of the Taunt, but still, the boy urged the pony to be as quiet as she could. As soon as they went out of the white room, the door closed by itself, and then disappeared like a mirage, leaving both Ryan and Pinkie trapped outside, with no safe spot they could return to.

They looked around. All they could see were shelves filled with books, forming long corridors. They were in a library.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes