Risky Business

by Trail-Blazer

Chapter IV: Sweet Dreams

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”

~James Dean

I ran down what seemed like an endless tunnel of light. The walls and ceiling above me were filled with illuminating streams of white and gray paints. I heard many sounds that echoed through the tunnel. Sounds of footsteps and voices that came from the end of the tunnel. I thought I would never reach the end. I stopped to rest from my tiring run, and that’s when I came across a door. It was a wooden white door that was placed on the right side of the tunnel. I approached the door and it suddenly became a vibrant canvas of black and brown mixtures. Cracks and tears formed in the base of the door. I felt compelled to walk inside. I opened the door that led into a room filled with white picture frames on the walls. As I approached a painting, a memory was placed in the white opening. I paced around the walls as countless memories filled the white walls and ceilings. It made me smile. The memories filled up the entire room, from the ceiling to the floor.

The paintings moved at light speed across the floor and through the walls. I was under constant bombardment by my memories that I wanted myself to see. However I was disappointed. I had expected more from myself, and my memories. Hoping that they would provide some form of inspiration for me. The noises suddenly became louder and increased in volume. I tried to cover my ears, but it was no use. I screamed and the noises cut out. The frames had disappeared and all was left were loose portraits of memories. However they did not last long.

Then the memories slowly faded. The white room was enveloped in a drizzling paint of multiple shades of brown and grays. The room formed around that one wooden door. The room suddenly became our old house in Michigan, where we had a dairy farm. I stood there in my old bedroom, blue curtains covering the windows. I looked towards my bed and smiled. Memories flashed by from the bedside. The times when our family was a whole, and before dad left. I was only about four or five. Memories of sadness and smiles that took their place in that bed. My dad read me stories in bed as I fell asleep. It would replay the sounds of that night too, which made me hurt inside. He would read me some of his old comics. The ones that I liked best were ones of adventure and Sci-Fi. I loved Captain America. But every time he read it, he would become stressed and leave the bedroom angry. It made me scared to see dad so angry. Dad had served in Vietnam before he met mom. He was only eighteen when they met. He must have had some bad memories while he read those comics.

One night, when mom was asleep, and dad had just gotten back from a trip. He came into my room and read me Captain America. “Dad? Why do you get so angry with me all the time?” I asked with a frown. He stopped reading. His eyes became teary and he hugged me.

“Son, don’t you ever think that. Those times I get mad, it’s not your fault. You don’t have to worry about it,” He said and kissed my forehead. That was the last time my dad read me a story. The rest of the memories were sad. The day we moved, the night mom cried herself to sleep because dad left. My eyes filled with tears and they slowly rolled down my cheeks. I looked down, and walked out of the room of memories. I shut the door behind me, closing out the memories from those years. I continued my long run down the tunnel of emptiness. Still chasing after the light that I had been seeking for so many years.

I stopped to the sound of a whistle in the distance. I looked to the left and saw another door. This door was metal, with a single glass window at the top. I approached the door and became smaller. I was unable to see over the door. I turned the handle and pulled. The door would not budge. There was something on the other side, pulling the door closed. I tried as hard as I could, but stopped from exhaustion. I gave up, and started walking in the opposite direction. But the door opened and revealed a bright light, a light that was much brighter than the one at the end of the tunnel. I peered inside the white, blank, room, and became enveloped in yet another memory. I was struggling to recall this memory as I walked through what seemed like an apple groove. I was suddenly surrounded with the sounds of chirping birds and moving water. The apples on the trees were ripe for picking. I looked down the tunnel of trees and noticed their distinct pattern and placing. This was an orchard, not a groove. I looked to the techni-colored sky and saw a blue figure descending from the air above my head. The memory began to fade. The floors had eroded before me and I fell back into the endless tunnel.

I sat there on the illuminated surface. I just wanted to wake up now. This sudden flow of memories was making my stomach churn. I began to tear up at the sudden flood of memories that had escaped the darkest depths of my mind vault. Then I heard a voice from behind.

“A warm welcome to you, ‘Mark Smith’” came a very calm and feminine voice. I turned and saw what looked like another pony, but much taller than the others. She had wings and a horn. She wore a crown, and crystal shoes that covered her hooves. Her mane and tail were flowing with an image of the starry night sky. It was absolutely mesmerizing.

“Who are you?” I asked, wiping away some tears.

“I am Princess Luna,” she said with a smile. I just wanted to run away and be left alone forever. I definitely didn't need another one of them in my life right now.

“What the heck are you doing in here?” I asked, starting to get angry. I saw my dad standing there next to me. “Dad?” I said to the figure. It quickly faded away when I reached out to grab him. I wrapped myself up and buried my head into my arms.

“You opened up your deepest memories, and thus allowed me to enter,” she answered. She frowned at my sorrow.

“Why would I want to let all of this out? It just causes me more pain.”

“You were able to open the door you kept locked for so long, thus allowing me to access them. I opened the memories in the vault and displayed them to you,” she explained. This made me angry with her. Was her goal to cause me pain and suffering?

“How could you do that to me?” I said with angry tears forming in my eyes. I couldn’t believe that I would openly allow those memories to escape.

“Tell me, what is your relationship with your father?” she asked with dismay.

“I have no father,” I retorted, looking over to her. She had crept closer and was a few feet away from where I was sitting. “All he's caused me is pain, and that’s all he’s ever done to me,” I yelled back.

“But what you saw in those memories, they were pleasant feelings, were they not?” She did have a point, but I wasn’t about to admit that she was right. A big white board moved next to me. A memory was plastered on the white canvas and I recognized it immediately. It was the night dad left us.

“NO! STOP! I don’t want to see anymore…” The memory suddenly paused in front of me. I was surprised. “Did I do that?” I asked, looking back to Luna. She nodded solemnly.

“Your mind will continue to reveal long lost memories until you allow them to be seen,” she replied. “But you still have enough control over them to seal them back inside the back of your head.” I sighed. I knew she was right. I let the memory unfold before my eyes. I was quickly encased in a dark room. Light was seeping in through the cracks in the small door. I brushed my head against shirts that were hung a few feet above my head. I was in a closet. There was a thunderstorm outside. Constant waves of rain and sleet struck my bedroom window. The closet door suddenly opened and I saw myself as a child with my mom. She was moving me inside the closet and telling me to stay here no matter what you hear.

I watched myself as tears ran down my cheeks. I was scared and alone. There were shouts coming from downstairs. The bedroom door opened, it was dad. “Mark? Mark!” he kept shouting. I could hear my mother’s sobs in her bedroom. My dad simply turned and shut the door behind him. I got up and opened the closet. He left me a present, with a note attached to it. I wasn’t able to read at that age, but I put it somewhere safe to read when I was older. He left me a metallic blue guitar, with a red bow attacked to the tip of the neck. That made my heart sink. I welled up in ears as my younger self smiled in joy over the gift.

“So that’s where I got the guitar from,” I said aloud.

“Indeed,” Luna said, appearing next to me in the closet, “And I think it would be beneficial to both of us if you read the note your father left you. But only do so when the time comes.” She said with a serious look. I nodded my head and heard my dad close the front door. This caused the memory to fade into oblivion before me. I ended up in the tunnel again, only this time, there was a very welcoming light at the end. “You have been running for so long, yet you have made little progress. With this new knowledge you will be able to fully accomplish your goal that you have been seeking your whole life,” she said and gave a smile. "And I think your new 'friends' will help you get to that light." She meant the ponies? Sure, what could they do? A piece of paper had appeared in my hand as I faced her.

“Thank you, for everything,” I said and sat back down. I was left with a picture in my hand of our family when I was young. She knelt down and put a comforting wing around my body.

“You are very welcome,” she replied with a smile. She then suddenly gasped in fear and I looked up. I was met with a dark shadow figure standing a few yards away from the two of us. The figure shape-shifted into many people I knew and cared for. It stopped changing when it reached the figure of me. I gazed upon it in horror. It looked at me and had a very evil grin. It made my body shiver. “Run Mark, go towards the light!” she yelled, giving me a shove with her wing. I instinctively ran as the figure levitated at light speed towards Luna. Her horn was glowing as she stood in a defensive position.

I glanced back for a brief moment and ran, head on, into a horse-like figure. I was knocked back a few feet and gazed at the figure ahead of me. Its eyes were a chilling ocean blue. Its body was all black with holes scattered throughout its legs and wings. It had a spear-shaped horn and had a scales that ran down the back of its neck. It opened its mouth to reveal piercing sharp teeth. Then it shape shifted into my mother. I was frozen in fear. It gave me an evil grin and flew at me, bearing its sharp teeth. I could not move, I simply gazed at the terrifying creature that was seemingly moving in for the kill. I closed my eyes awaited the creature to reach me.

I jolted up from the couch I had slept in. I was sweating from my head down to my feet. I was breathing heavily as I had been clutching something in my hand. I opened my fist and found the photo of my family. It made me smile. I lied back down, pressing the photo to my chest. I stared up at the ceiling, with a smile that lasted throughout the night.

Author's Note:

This is a mini chapter I created for the soul purpose of revealing more of the protagonist's past. Tell me what you think. I felt it was necessary to shed some light on his past for I have received some comments about his past and thoughts on the situation being a tad dull. Now we know what's really been on his mind. He is constantly thinking about his dad it seems, while the ponies are the least of his worries. But they will soon be the only thing he needs to think of as the plot unfolds...

Comments

[Derpface127]

The plot thickens...

[eternalone898]

Well, more will be revealed in the future I see.