//------------------------------// // Nightmare // Story: Human and Pony Alike // by ShutterGuy //------------------------------// Opening my eyes I saw nothing but blackness. Where am I, I'm I dreaming? "Chris Taylor..." Hearing a far off voice coming from behind me, I turned around to find myself suddenly inside of some hallway. My head quickly scanned the area that magically appeared in front of me. I guess I must be dreaming. Walking down the hall I saw that the doors that lined the sides had weird symbols on them that I didn't recognize. Trying one door out I tugged at it, but it seemed to be locked. Moving on to the next one the previous door opened wide. Glancing back I saw a little white rabbit. It seemed to want me to follow him. When I neared the little creature he scurried off into the darkness of the room, where I heard a familiar growl that sent a chill down my spine. Oh crap! Timberwolf! Two neon green eyes suddenly lashed out toward me. Not being fast enough I felt my figure got snatched into the fangs of the beast. I squirmed, but the creature was taking no attention as it engulfed me. Falling through a dark abyss I feared for my life that I might fall forever. Thankfully I landed into a dense forest amongst some soil and withered grass. "You sound just like me." Spinning around there stood Shutter and myself both in confusion. What? So I'm in the Everfree Forest. I remember this. This is the moment I first met Shutter and found out he had the same voice as me. "We need to get going," As Shutter approached the tree where his saddlebag lay some howling sounded off in the distance. "Now!" At his word 'Now' I was being dragged away by my feet back into darkness. Thrashing about I kicked and squirmed only to find myself strapped to some table. A humming of a bright florescent light kicked on. "Are you sure that you didn't mix Mr. Taylor's blood with anypony else." Dr. Crescent? In front of the table I saw Dr. Crescent leaning over me on a hospital bed. Shutter sat at the base of the bed and Lora was on my side with a concerned look on her face. The nurse seemed to just appear out of nowhere. "I'm very certain sir." "Very interesting..." These are some of my first moments in Equestria, but why am I dreaming about these memories? A sudden buzzing sound caused me to jerk my head upwards. To my horror coming straight at my chest at a extremely fast speed was a saw. As hard as I could I jerked against the restraints, but found them to actually tighten the more I moved. I shut my eyes as the saw was about to hit. In the moments I expected to be torn to pieces I only heard the saw powering down. Slowly opening my eyes the saw stopped only inches away from my chest. I just about wet myself. Feeling of relief swept over me as the restraints loosened. Quickly undoing myself I sat up pushing the saw to the side. The saw began to shake as it started to change form, stretching and elongating itself around me. The table sunk downwards until I found myself in some tubular container that had an opening at the top. Hearing cranking noises the hole revealed a window in the far off distance. It wasn't until I heard the fizzing sound of the fuse to realize what I was in. "No! Wait!" KABOOM My heart nearly stopped at the deafening launch. Twisting and turning midair was disorienting at I felt my body fly towards the window. Curling myself up into a ball I smashed through the glass and slammed into the wall. My vision was blurry and my head was spinning to the point I wanted to vomit. Attempting to regain composure I stood up. As my vision came back to me I found my self in Shutter's guest room. "Lora..." To my right Lora and myself were sitting on the bed. From my point of view I saw how much she and I slowly inched towards each other. "Yes..." Experiencing her soft loving voice over again gave me the same butterflies. It wasn't her beauty that caused me to feel that way, it was something in her eyes. I could feel a connection, the kind that I never before experienced with any other being. I longed to be with her, but I knew that it wouldn't be proper. "I... I... Just want to tell you..." As our faces approached I saw Lora part her lips slightly as she was about to kiss me. "Chris! Lora! Come on the food is getting cold and we're going to be late for the train." The two figures pulled away from each other. Lora came to realization of what she was about to do shook her head. As soon as she looked back at me sitting on the bed she gave a sad smile and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "I'm sorry Chris, I hope your not upset. It's just whenever I look into your eyes, I'm reminded of a certain stallion." She fluttered off the bed and landed in front of the Chris on the bed. "Your a very handsome human and I bet you make your special somepony very happy back where you came from. Now lets go get some pancakes." Lora you don't understand I don't have anyone where I come from. And I doubt I'll find anyone like you. I watched myself dash out of the room leaving Lora alone. She put her hoof on the bed and sighed. "Did I just fall in love again? I mean, I almost kissed him. It's not like me to just do that, but his eye's. The way he looked at me... I've seen it before. I feel like I've known him for so long," She stomped a hoof down "Lora your a loyal and depended mare-friend. You will act as such. Chris is just a good friend... that's all." She trotted out of the room and I felt slightly saddened by the last part of what she said. Just a good friend... That's how it has to be. Electricity ran through my brain as I had a small revelation. Wait, I wasn't here to experience this moment so how is it that I'm seeing this. Suddenly the floor beneath me turned into sand and I felt myself get slowly sucked in. No! Not this time! Reaching for the bed I managed to grab a hold of the wooden leg. The force intensified as if something alive was pulling me. "STOP IT! I'm not going to be sucked in!" I heard a sickening crack from the wooden leg. "Please no... Don't brea...," The leg splintered and twisted off as I was jerked towards the sinkhole. "SOMEBODY HEL.." My mouth filled up with sand and I couldn't breathe. To my surprise I fell out of the sand and was caught in some vines. Coughing up the sand I turned my body to allow most of it to fall of my mouth. I opened my eyes to see that below me was what looked like the night sky filled with stars. The vines that I was caught by seemed to glow brightly. "What are these?" Reaching out my hand I grabbed one of the vines. It had powerful adhesive properties for I couldn't pull my hand back. "Oh God... Please tell that I'm not in a..." My eyes looked down to find one of my worse fears was crawling toward me. Its eight red bulbous eyes seemed to burn in the light as it slowly approached me. "NO! NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" The spider hissed through its giant fangs. With my free hand I reached into my pocket and found my knife. My fear caused me to cut myself as I tried to open the knife with my teeth. Frantically I swung at the web to free myself. Seeing this, the spider quickened it's pace. Freeing my legs I felt my body fall through the web. I grabbed a hold to piece of web which swung me away from the spider, but now I was left with no other option than down. Hearing the hissing I looked up to see that the spider was quickly descending the single strand of web with its fangs ready to strike. I guess down it is then. Lifting myself up I swung at the line with my knife and fell. The spider let out a terrible hiss as I fell just out of its reach. I rapidly picked up speed during my fall. The giant web was massively big and shortly after falling I saw that it had a lunar appearance to it. The air dropped in temperature drastically and I could feel the ice beginning to form around my body. Flipping around I saw that the earth was miles below me. Losing consciousness I shut my eyes all the while thinking, I'm I still dreaming, if so how can I lose consciousness in a dream? My limbs were stiff as I moved, "Ah... God... Why do I hurt so badly?" Lifting my head ever so slowly I looked up and saw that I hand crashed in front of the Flash's residence. Sitting on the front porch was Shutter and myself, I was crying. "H-He came looking for me Shutter. He was trying to find me. But in his search he didn't see the oncoming traffic. He died looking for me..." Why this memory... Why do I have to plague myself the past? Wearily I stood up and felt something rise inside of me. "ENOUGH OF THIS!" My body suddenly jolted forward towards the house. A sharp indescribable pain came from my abdomen. Glancing down my face was filled with shock to find a sword had stabbed me through. My energy began to seep away as I lowered myself down to my knees. "But this is a dream..." "Is it Chris...," Multiple metallic barbs shot out of the darkness and pierced my skin. I collapsed from all the pain going through my body. Slowly the barbs pulled my body up and I was staring at a figure that stood in front of me. Everything about this figure was familiar to me. It took me a minute that to realize that the figure standing before me, was me. The true difference to him was the lack of spirit and color. He Tilted head upwards to reveal a pair of malicious yellow eyes. "You have proven yourself to be quite promising," The voice was nothing like mine it was unsettling and ominous. As the figure's body slowly dimmed into the darkness, the yellow eyes remained. "I will be seeing you again, my friend." I lowered my head and felt my life slowly drain from my carbon shell. Closing my eyes I thought of all the regrets in my life. "Chris!" My eyes shot open "Dad?" I lifted my head to see my dad in the distance searching around in the darkness. "Chris! Please son just talk to me!" My heart leapt out of my chest as tears flowed from my eyes. "Dad! Over here please help me!" He looked over and saw me, his face was filled with worry. Suddenly a pair of headlights showed up and a car horn blared loudly. "DAD! Watch out!" With all my might I pulled at the barbs, but nothing came from my efforts. The car came swiftly as the lights grew brighter and the horn became as loud as ever. "NO! DAD!" I watched in horror as the car collided into him. The headlights went out and I could hear the metal twisting and groaning from the crash. "DAAAAAAAD!" -_-_-_- "DAAAAAAAD!" Jerking forward I fell off the bed and landed on the floor with a thud. Realizing it was all a dream I pounded the floor in anger. The door to the room burst opened and standing in the doorframe was Thunder. "Chris what's wrong, are you okay?!" He moved towards me and I felt the sobs come rushing back. "Thunder... I... I..." Upon seeing how distraught I was he wrapped his wings around me and brought me into a firm embrace. "Clam down Chris. Clam down... just breathe. Focus on your breathing," With all of my ability I attempted to let out slow breathes as the sobs subsided. "There you go... That's it. Better?" He started to rub my back with his hoof and I instantly felt comforted. I let out a long sigh as I regained control over my emotions. "...Thank you Dad," I shook my head realizing what I said. "I mean, Thunder... I'm sorry." "For what my son," He pulled me back and looked me in the eye. "You did nothing wrong. As far as I'm concerned your as much my son as Shutter is. Everything about you reminds me of him," He gave me a soft smile and pulled me in for another hug. I felt tears on the back of my neck. "Shutter told me about your dad. I'm so sorry Chris. I know I can't ever replace him, but as long as you're with us here, I would be honored to be called your father." Tears filled my eyes as I heard him say those words. Nodding, I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I would like that... Thank you." Other hoof-steps came to the room and the rest of the family were standing outside of the door watching Thunder and myself separate from our embrace. "Dad is everything okay?" "Yes Shutter everything is fine now. Thank you." Aurora stepped into the room and saw my face. She must have seen the tears, cause she pulled me to her with her magic into a hug. "Chris dear, what's the matter sweetheart?" I returned the hug before pulling away. "I'm fine now, thanks to Thunder." "Okay sweetie, but if you need anything please don't hesitate to talk to me about it." Her golden orbs for eyes were filled with love and concern. "Thank you, I promise that I will." Thunder clopped his hooves together "Alright back to bed, dawn will be on us soon and we'll need to rise early to catch breakfast," The rest including myself nodded and I slowly made my way back to the bed and grabbed the blanket off the floor. As the family all left to return to sleep Thunder stopped at the door to close it. "See you in the morning son." He gently closed it and I wrapped myself up into the blanket. Upon hitting my head against the pillow I had a natural smile on my face. Just to hear my fathers voice call me son again was everything to me. "Until then... Dad." Closing my eyes I sensed my body return to a state of slumber. For the first time in a long time I felt my heart was at peace once more.