Barren Waters

by Hollow Blues

Chapter One

Coughing for air, Swift pulled himself onto the side of the tub. He coughed a few more times, trying to get all the water out of his lungs. Breathing hard, he stayed clung to the side of the tub. What the heck happened? He looked back down at the ripples trying to think of what happened. He must have fallen asleep and slid underneath the water. He gave a small sigh and slid back down into the tub, making sure to keep his head above the water.

He rested his head back and thought about the dream he just had. His dark blue eyes stared at the ceiling. The fight between the two sisters, Nightmare Moon and Celestia. What was that all about? He didn’t really know what to think of it since it all felt so real. Nightmare Moon was real and so was Celestia. The school teachers taught him about the two princesses in school, and how one thousand years ago, Celestia disappeared and the tides of the oceans rose to flood the world. He trusted what the school teachers said. School.

His ears perked up at the thought of education. How long had he been asleep? He jumped out of the tub, grabbed a towel and quickly dried off his light blue coat and sea-foam colored mane and tail. He burst through the bathroom door and ran into the kitchen where his mother was. “Mom, what time is it?” He blurted out.

His mother looked at him and looked at the clock. “It’s eight twenty-three. Why?”

Swift rapidly ran his hooves in place, panicking. He wasn’t going to have enough time to walk to school. “Where’s my saddlebag?” He threw his head from side to side looking for his belongings.

“It’s in your room.” His mother stared at him suspiciously. “You’re not going to be late are you?”

He ran into his room shouting, “Oh no, no, I’ll be right on time.” Entering his room he slid into the side of his bed and ran to his desk, pulling his saddlebag off and tossing it onto his back. His mother trotted into his room.

“I told you to never be late. Being late can greatly affect your life, especially if you had a job.”

“I know, I know!” He stopped running his hooves and looked back at his mother. “Wait, why are you still here? Don’t you have a job?”

She smiled nervously as she tried so come up with something to say. “I-I have the day off. Mr. Solace said that he has somepony covering for me.” Swift looked at his mother a little confused for a few moments. She quickly changed the subject saying, “Shouldn’t you be off to school?”

Breaking his suspicions with his mother, he snapped back into the current situation. Panicking again, he bolted out of the room and out the front door leaving his mother behind, her sighing with relief. He ran down the street at top speed, dodging ponies and carts on his way to school. He looked up and saw several Pegasi, flying around faster than he could run. He looked left at a group of Unicorns teleporting objects and themselves to certain places. He grunted and continued running, ignoring the fact that he was an Earth Pony and was at a disadvantage.

Seeing the tall red school house in the distance, his face lit up. He was going to make it! A loud ring came from the tower of the school and his face broke into panic again. Seven more rings and school would start. He pushed himself to run harder as the second ring went off. There was still a lot of distance between him and the school. He kept going as the bell rang its third fourth, fifth and sixth rings. He was almost there but his legs began to fail him. The seventh ring went off and he tripped over his own hoof and began to tumble across the street.

Ponies jumped out of the way as he continued rolling. Just as he hit the school house the eighth ring went off. He was late. He had gotten a few scrapes, but that was the last thing on his mind. Sighing in defeat he pushed himself up and went up the steps of the school house, and entered his classroom with foals hooting at him and calling him late. Attendance was done at the door by the door monitor. The job of door monitor changed every week and he had been door monitor about two weeks ago. He sat in his seat and let his head drop to the desk. The teacher, Ms. Cauliflower, was already going over something about the world outside of the Dome.

The Dome. The one thing, that kept the sea water and the town of Sperohoof separated. Foals are strictly permitted to stay inside the Dome. Once a pony turns the proper age is he or she allowed leaving the Dome. Ponies leave the Dome for several reasons such as trade, visiting other towns or to travel into the unknown. The ones who travel into the unknown are the guardians of each town, the Aqua Knights. Becoming an Aqua Knight meant dedication, determination and protecting the lives of everypony inside the Dome. He had always looked up to the Aqua Knights since his father was one.

“Swift Currents, can you hear me?” The teacher called.

He raised his head, alert. “W-what? Yes?”

“Can you tell the class what the Dome is made of?”

He looked around and the entire class was watching him. He didn’t know what the Dome was made off. Ms. Cauliflower must have said it when he wasn’t paying attention. “Um…really strong…Plexiglas?”

“That is incorrect. It’s made up of Transparent Alumina. Transparent Alumina is three times stronger than steel and is, of course, transparent. I know this is your first time being late, Swift, but please pay attention.” She urged.

He sighed. This was his first time being late and he hated it. Everypony laughing at him and making jokes. He sighed again, laid his chin on his desk and surrounded his mouth with his hooves. He looked down at the flanks of his classmates, looking at each of their Cutie Marks. He hadn’t gotten his yet and he didn’t know why. He had tried a multitude of things from making drawings to building houses. He just didn’t know what to do. He pushed the thought out of his head and listened to the teacher talk about Aqua Knights.

Swift knew just about everything that related to Aqua Knights. He knew that they each had two hoof blades on the top of their hooves that would slide out when needed and a harpoon gun on their hip. He knew that each suit had a large flood light in the center of the chest, two lights on the helmet, a light on each front hoof and lights strung across the suit in case of emergencies. The lights would flash if the pony inside needed assistance with something. Each helmet had sonar which was developed through magic and the helmet’s facemask could flip up along with the visor. They had four hydro jets, two on the back and one on the outside of each of the front hooves. They had exactly ten hours of air inside each oxygen tank and each Knight carried two tanks. The suit itself was made of a very hard alloy which was both waterproof and flexible.

Swift imagined himself inside of a suit, walking around the town being admired and fighting anything that tried to threaten Sperohoof. He smiled at the thought when the bell rang three times. He broke out of his trance and looked around at everypony leaving the classroom for recess. How long was he daydreaming? He shook his head and left his seat, walking out the door. He spotted one of his friends and sat down on the steps next to her. Her name was Lily Blossom. She looked up at him while he sat down.

“What happened? You’re never late?” She asked intrigued. She pulled out a small sandwich and munched on it.

Sighing he looked at the ground, “I fell asleep in the tub.”

She chuckled a little. “That’s your reason? You must have been pretty tired. What’cha dream about?”

Swift’s head quickly rose back up. The dream. He completely forgot about it. He was about to tell her, but stopped himself. Should he really tell her what he saw? He sighed and turned to her. She had been his close friend for a while and he could trust her. “Well, it was a little weird. It was about the two princesses fighting. You know, Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia.” He was unsure how she would react to that.

She looked at him almost taken back but then looked into her sandwich, thinking. “Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia, huh? You must have had one wild dream.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“Personally I don’t believe the whole Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia thing, is real. I think the whole thing is just an old mare’s tale that somehow got in our history books.” She swung the sandwich around, adding gestures to her statement.

“But that can’t be right. The entire dream felt so real, it felt as if I were actually there. I’ve never had a dream like that.”

“I’m sure you just can’t remember having a dream like that. I mean it was a dream, nothing more, nothing less.”

“No, I know I’ve never had a dream like that. “

“It was a dream. Dreams aren’t supposed to be real.”

Swift sat silently, thinking to himself. The dream had to be real, he just knew it. “Everything felt real. The Princesses, the environment, the fighting-“

“Fighting? What were they fighting about?”

“They were fighting each other. There were big explosions and everything. Then there was one giant explosion that knocked them both back and when Celestia went to check on Nightmare Moon, Nightmare Moon sent her to the sun.”

“Now I know that can’t be real. The sun? Really? The sun doesn’t exist either. Like I said before, just another fake thing that was put in our history books. Come on, think about it. It’s been one thousand years or something and there is no proof that any of this happened.”

“Well there were the tides. Nightmare Moon raised the tides right after she sent Celestia to the sun.”

“And that’s it, but even that isn’t enough proof to make me believe anything in your dream actually happened.” She finished off her sandwich and wiped her mouth, turning her full attention to Swift.

Looking off to the side, Swift sighed frustrated. She shot down everything he said with logical explanations. “Well, I think it’s real. I mean, I know what I saw in my dream and it felt real enough to believe.” Almost cutting him off, the bell rang three times signaling recess was over.

Lily got up and began walking inside. “Fine. Believe what you want, but I’m telling you it was just a dream.”

She was stubborn. Although it was annoying, he also admired her a little. She thought differently than most ponies do and because of that she can come up with a very good argument. Swift got up and began to turn just as an explosion went off in the East side of town. He whipped his head back around as black smoke trailed into the sky. His house was near the East side. Ms. Cauliflower ran out the door and quickly grabbed him and pulled him inside.

She closed the door behind her and announced to the panicking class, “I want each of you to sit in your seats and stay calm. I’m sure the authorities can handle it. Just stay ca-“Another explosion cut her off, this one sounding closer.

Swift had to know what was going on. He rushed to the window and looked out, along with several other foals. Fires were beginning to break out and the Dome was filling with smoke. He looked up at the sky and what he saw horrified him. There were several Griffons in armor and helmets dropping what looked to be large packages. When the package fell out of view an explosion followed right after. The packages were bombs. Sperohoof was under attack.

Author's Note:

Alrighty, chapter one is finally out! Just like the prologue it is an introduction to give foundation. The prologue was the foundation for the setting and what happened and this is the foundation for the main character. The chapters will get more exciting soon. You better hold on because we're taking our first few steps into hell.