>You’re dreaming.
>You hear your blood rushing unnaturally loudly through your veins. Your heart sounds squishy and loud, like someone is beating a wall with a particularly juicy slug.
>It’s disgusting. You can’t explain it, but you feel something bordering on hatred for your own heart.
>You know anything can happen in dreams, but this is just weird.
>A voice appears.
>”I’m going to help you. Your old life is gone. If you will let me guide you, you will achieve everything you desire. If you don’t…”
>The voice leaves the sentence open. The meaning is clear. If you don’t, you’re gonna be in some serious shit.
>Your heart suddenly beats even louder than before, and you feel your world slipping away...
 
>You blearily wake, clutching the thin blanket to your body in a vain effort to block out the dim light.
>That dream was really weird. You gotta lay off the junk food like everyone keeps saying.
>Wait, this isn’t your room.
>You suddenly remember waking up in the middle of the forest and drinking the burning water.
>You open your eyes wider and wipe the morning crust out from your eyes.
 
>The room you wake up in is nothing like anything you have ever woken up in.
>It’s all wooden and voodoo-ey. Masks leer at you from the wall, like their funky bone piercings make them better than you.
>Bags line the walls and a decidedly “herby” smell permeates the room.
 
>You realize you had clutched the blanket tightly and your body was ineffectually attempting to hide behind it.
>You toss the brown rag in disgust.
>You sit still on the bed, weighing the options of sitting there in the fetal position or getting up to look around.
>You hear a door open.
>You hear a door shut.
 
>There’s someone else here.
>Oh shit, you’re probably in some psychopath’s house.
>You start sweating like mad.
 
“Hello?”
>Your voice is weak. Dammit, gotta sound like a man.
>You cough into your hand to work your voice up to it.
“Hello?”
 
>That was a little better. You didn’t sound quite so weak.
 
>A mint green, pastel hued face peeks its curious eyes around the corner.
>It isn’t human.
>And it has a horn in the middle of its face.
 
>You both stare at each other for a moment.
>Its large golden eyes stare at you in open amazement.
>Your face goes blank.
>It comes around the corner slowly, eyes looking kindly up at yours.
???: “Hi there. Poor little thing, you look scared. It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you. My name is Lyra. What’s yours, huh?”
 
>It’s a pony.
>And it’s speaking to you.
>Like you’re an animal.
 
>You feel your throat constricting as the entire situation dawns on you.
“Fffffffuck.”
 
>Lyra looks at you sideways like she’d never heard anything say that.
Lyra: “Huh, what’s that, little guy? Feeling sick?”
 
>She’s making a “sad” face.
>She thinks you’re an animal. What the fuck? And she doesn’t fucking know what fuck means. Fuck.
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeaaaaaaaah. I’m feelin a little sick, ya know. Had a really weird dream, but yeah, ya know, it’s all cool now, uhhhhh, yeah.”
>Smoove. Like a broken record kind of smoove. Damn, so much for not scared.
 
>Lyra’s jaw drops.
 
>You figure you should break the silence.
>”Hi, I’m Anon.”
 
>Lyra screams.