//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Restart: After it all. // by Netap //------------------------------// Zephyr woke up to the sun shining through his blinds, hitting him in the face. He rolled out of bed before taking a nice warm shower. He made a simple breakfast of eggs and toast before he ate it with a cup of coffee. He was safe. He exited his apartment, locking the door behind him, before taking a short flight towards the local park. He started jogging after he dropped out of college. No flying, just his hooves on the ground, on the warm summer mornings. The calm breeze hitting his face, making his long hair flow in the wind. It was a perfect morning. He was safe. After finishing his jog, he stopped by a food stand and bought a bagel. Just because he dropped out of school, doesn't mean he has no reason to stay in Manehatten anymore. In fact, Zephyr wouldn't mind staying in Manehatten forever, The job opportunities were many, and the salaries were high. Its where the biggest companies in Equestria reside, after all. But lets not think about work for now. He was safe. Finishing his bagel and returning to his apartment, Zephyr looked at all the dirt on the floor. He decided to start cleaning, it might not be time for spring cleaning, but keeping a clean house leads to a healthier mindset. He learned that from a book about spirituality, meditation and Feng Shui. So Zephyr took a broom and started brushing the floor. It was calm, the repeated movement of his legs holding the broom, the subtle movement of his wings keeping him stable, the sound of the hairs of the broom brushing against his floor. It was calming. He was safe. After brushing his entire house, he returned the broom to the closet as he took out a bucket and a mop. And he started the process again. It was surprisingly therapeutic, cleaning the place you live in, maybe the book was correct after all. It wasn't until he finished cleaning with the mop did he notice a room he missed. "I don't remember this room being here" Zephyr thought to himself as he approached the new door. But it was probably another closet that he didn't notice previously, it's not like anything dangerous could be in there. He's in the middle of Manehatten after all. He was safe. Leaning the mop against the wall, Zephyr freed up his hooves before he gently opened the door. and was promptly buried by what was inside, as the contents of the room spilled out and buried Zephyr under a pile of foul smelling, soft and wet materials. Putting a leg over his nose as he held his breath, Zephyr slowly crawled from under the pile. When he finally emerged, he was stunned. Gone was his small yet homely Manehatten apartment, gone was the entire city of Manehatten itself. Gone was the ground the city was built on, and gone were the clouds in the sky and the sun above them. Where should have been asphalt roads and concrete building, were now mountains of corpses. All slightly different from one another, but all of the same pony. Of the same turquoise coat and blonde mane, of the same turquoise wings and the same pink eyes. He was staring at a world made entirely out of corpses. The corpses of Zephyr Breeze. He was not safe. The cloudless, sunless, empty sky soon turned grey, but not cloud grey. The kind of grey you see on animal fur. He was not safe. Soon a large yellow circle appeared in the sky, empty, flat, before a smaller red circle appeared inside of it. The red circle started to move around inside the yellow, shooting a beam that seemed to scour the corpses like a searchlight. He was not safe. Zephyr couldn't move, he couldn't run away, soon the searchlight stopped on him, and disappeared. The red circle disappeared soon after, followed by the yellow circle and the grey sky. He was not safe. Zephyr tried to move, but his legs wouldn't listen to him. Soon a familiar voice sounded out from all around him. "You thought you could escape?" He felt something touch his legs, looking down, he saw the corpse he was standing on was looking straight at him, before it moved and grabbed his leg. If Zephyr could have moved, he could have easily flown away, faster than the slow moving corpse. But he couldn't. "You thought you could just leave after all you've done?" He knew he recognized that voice, but he wasn't sure from where. Another corpse moved to hold his leg. "You thought that this would end when you moved to Rockville?" the voice continued, Another body grasped on to Zephyr. Slowly, more and more corpses moved to grab Zephyr, their weight slowly pulling him down into the see of bodies. He was not safe. "Just leave everything you did behind?" He was not safe. And as Zephyr's head was submerged under the sea of dead Zephyr's, he finally recognized who that voice belonged to. "We really are pathetic, aren't we" The bodies around him all spoke simultaneously. The voice was his own. Zephyr woke up with a start, he was sweating profusely and his breathing was erratic. "It's just a dream, It's just a dream, It's just a dream" Zephyr repeated to himself, trying to calm down. Looking outside of the window, he saw it was still dark out, the sun hasn't risen yet. Zephyr tried to return to sleep, but he couldn't. So instead he spent an hour just lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Soon he forgot what the dream was even about, but he still couldn't get back to sleep. He knew he was safe. Discord was defeated, he was out of the time loop, he wasn't going to die. He was safe. So why did he not feel safe?