Non-pony story preview: My Own Reality · 7:23am Sep 21st, 2019
What's this? The first chapter of the original fiction adaptation of Pony-Me? By golly, I have been doing something all this time! In all seriousness though this is by far the shortest chapter and I just started on the 8th one today... er... yesterday.
1 | Wake up.
“Rebecca! C’mon, sis, wake up!”
The girl groaned, swatting at her younger brother as he tugged at her arm. Though, he wasn’t wrong in stirring her from sleep. Her stomach was a bit more convincing than any dream she’d have, after all.
“C’mon, we’re heading to the pool today with Julie, remember? That whole we should actually relax for once and go to the pool thing that you were talking to mom and dad about?”
“Okay, okay,” Rebecca grumbled, faking a frown. “But seriously, Caleb. Just a few more minutes, m’kay?”
Caleb blew a raspberry at his sister. “Fine. I’ll be packing your swimsuit for you while you’re acting out Sleeping Beauty. I’ll probably tell Julie that you’re just gonna be late or something.”
He left the room with a huff, the door clicking shut behind him. Yawning, Rebecca sat up on her bed, rubbing her eyes. The faint smell of scrambled eggs wafted lazily into her room, prompting a grumble from her stomach.
Yeesh. Alright, alright, I’ll go eat breakfast.
A knock came at the door not too long after.
“Come on, Rebecca! Do you want to eat or not?”
Rebecca groaned again, running her fingers through tangled locks of hair. Maybe she’d comb it, maybe she’d—
“Sis? Dad and I are gonna be heading to the pool pretty soon! Breakfast is on the table, so you’d better hurry up unless you want cold eggs!”
“And maybe I do want cold eggs.” Rebecca stuck her tongue out at the door. “You think of that, Caleb?”
“Well, um… okay then. We’ll… I… I guess you can catch us at the pool when you’re ready then, ‘kay?”
“Alright.”
“Anyway, like I said before, breakfast is on the taaaaa—aa…ab…”
Rebecca frowned, hopping off her bed. She stepped closer to the door. Breakfast had left her mind just as suddenly as it came. It wasn’t like her brother to trail his words like this. He never trailed his words, let alone drawing them out for seconds at a time like he was now. A faint buzz began to emanate from all around, but she ignored it. Caleb was what was important right now.
“Caleb? Are… are you okay? You don’t quite—”
“…bb-bll…lllll…” the boy continued from behind the door.
She flung the door open, yelping as she caught sight of her brother—frozen mid-motion.
“…Hey. Hey, you alright?”
Caleb’s mouth twitched as he attempted to finish his sentence, his face a blur. Something wasn’t right.
“Caleb,” she pleaded, “t-this isn’t funny. Could you please stop that?”
An ear-piercing screech tore through the room. The girl cringed, clenching her hands over her ears. As suddenly as it began, the noise halted, replaced instead by strange, floating text that seemed to follow her vision:
Connection lost. Please try again later. Your paralysis will wear off shortly before you wake.
She scowled, waving her hands through the words. All at once, she felt herself lock up—frozen in place like her brother. Her eyes turned towards Caleb.
What… her mind raced, what the heck’s going on?!
Frantic, Rebecca’s eyes darted about the room; in the corner of her vision, she watched as a framed picture of herself and Caleb begin to blur, rapidly pixelating before it vanished entirely, with only a brief flash of some kind of purple-black checkerboard pattern serving as a buffer. The morning light streaming from the windows flickered—once, twice, thrice, before fading away.
Wait, wait no, what’s even happening? This can’t be real… it’s just a dream, a-and—
She looked down to her hands with what little light remained, watching with wide eyes as they too began to flicker away. This wasn’t happening, was it? A flood of images flashed before her eyes, each one a snapshot of her own life—scenes of her and Caleb carpooling home from school, the boy sleeping on her shoulder; memories of the chocolate chip ice cream she’d shared with Julie just a week earlier; memories of… of a little girl, crying alone on her bed. Her vision began to waver—blinded by the onslaught of thoughts and memories running through her mind as a single, final question ultimately took hold:
Why?
Cool! Are you gonna be posting the whole thing somewhere?
5124633
Eventually. I'm not even close to finishing it yet.
You mean besides playing minecraft?
5124787
Ye