A Fog Over Equestria

by Sigma Shinori

Chapter 1: Sudden Horrors

Fog Density: 1

Shadows danced all around me, taunting me, mocking me... I had to make them stop, make them disappear. The others looked at me curiously, I could care less. As long as the shadows stopped, it's worth it... I swung wildly and they stopped... but the shadows were still there. They were still mocking me, calling me a murderer, criminal. The darkness was too much. It started closing in on me. The others were already gone, having become shadows themselves. Soon I'll join them. Soon... I'll...

"Do not lose faith my child, for there is always a second chance, but for now, thou must awaken..."

I awoke with a cold sweat and panicked breaths. What had even happened? What was that dream? No, that wasn't a dream, that was a nightmare. A terrible, terrible nightmare.

I groaned to myself, "What's happening to me..."

I got up out of bed and went to do my usual routine of brushing my teeth, dressing for work, eating breakfast... you know what I mean. I looked at myself in the mirror before going out to observe myself in full. My name is Storm Rush, and I'm the pegasus you call on when you need a quick take down. I'm your average royal guard for Princess Celestia and - even though it's an honour - it's quite the dull and boring job. I'll be honest, when I joined the royal guard I thought there was going to be a LOT more action than what I have to do right now. In fact, I tend to get to do absolutely nothing at all in my current position as a castle guard. I'm hoping one of these days I'll get to do something, anything really. For now, though, I'm stuck on guard duty which I dread every day I go to work.

Speaking of which, on my way to work I noticed something... odd about today's current weather. I never noticed it before, but there's this... I suppose fog would be the correct term. Something feels a bit off about it, though, I'm not sure what. Were we even scheduled to have fog in the first place? I'll have to check that later, but for now, duty calls.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia walked into her sister's chambers, seeing her tired form.

"Lulu... please, tell me what's happening, you usually aren't like this in the morning. These past few weeks you've secluded yourself to your bedroom... I'm worried about you dear sister."

Celestia's sister, Luna, looked up to her apologetically.

"I'm sorry, dear sister, but... there are so many nightmares. So many ponies to protect. I don't know what's going on, Celly, but I've been trying so hard to discover the root of this problem. Unfortunately, I have yet to get anywhere in my search..."

Celestia embraced Luna and said, "Lulu... you should have come to me for help earlier! I can aid you in your search, but from now on you have to stop stressing yourself out so much. If our subjects really are having as many nightmares as you say... then there's nothing you can do for them except defeat the root of this problem. For now, though, rest... I'll take over from here."

Luna turned to Celestia with a smile on her face, "Thank you, and I'm sorry for not coming to you earlier, but realize that if I, watcher of everypony's dreams, cannot find the source of these nightmares, then you may have an even lesser chance of finding it."

"I understand, however, it can't hurt to try, can it?"

They smiled to each other and hugged for a bit before Luna drifted away to sleep. Celestia put her sister on her bed and left the room. Could this nightmare problem be related to this fog that came out of no where a few weeks ago? Celestia thought to herself for a minute before deciding the best course of action was to wait until both her and her sister could work together on this problem. For now, however, duty calls, and she went back to her daily routines. Though, this fog has really been bothering her... as if she were missing something. Could there be more to this fog than she originally thought?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So Storm, how are those nightmares treating you?"

I looked to Stalwart Aegis, my partner, and told him, "To be honest, not that well. Last night, I felt completely hopeless, surrounded by shadows that were mocking me and I struck back, like an animal forced into a corner. That pretty much did nothing and just made the everything worse. I hated it."

Aegis had a mildly surprised look on his face, kinda like he knew what I was talking about.

He chuckled a bit, "Strange, I had a similar dream last night. It involved some creepy shadows while I was talking to a few buddies of mine, including you. The shadows just stood there menacingly, as if they were the evil spirits in all of us or something. Weird thing is, though, your shadow was HUGE! It was the creepiest of them all in fact! You got any dark secrets I should know about?"

He nudged me and I smirked back, "Yes I want to murder everyone and become the emperor of the world."

We shared a laugh before resuming our positions, on the look out for anyone or anything suspicious.

You deserve better than this...

"Hmm? You say something Aegis?"

Aegis turned to me with a curious look in his eye, "What? No. Can you read my thoughts or something?"

He had a small smirk on his face but I could tell that he was speaking the truth. Was I just hearing things? Was this fog getting to me? Wait a second, has Aegis even noticed this fog?

I turned to ask him, "Hey, have you noticed this fog yet? Was there fog scheduled and I didn't know about it?"

"What are you talking about? There's no-"

He stopped to look around, squinted a bit, and gasped in surprise. After chuckling a bit, he looked up and around, I looked too. The fog was - for whatever reason - a bit thicker than before and I thought for a bit. Was the fog getting thicker?

It's all in your mind they'll say...

What the-

Aegis nudged my shoulder, "Well I'll be damned, there is a bit of fog isn't there? Where did all this come from I wonder... there wasn't any fog scheduled. In fact, it's supposed to be a nice and sunny day."

"Really now?" I asked in disbelief, "This morning it wasn't this thick... what's going on?"

"Heck if I know... let's just continue doing our jobs, maybe the captain can tell us something about this."

This fog... the nightmare... that voice in my head... it doesn't make any sense. I had a nightmare about shadows, Aegis had a nightmare about shadows, and now this fog is getting a bit thicker. Was it all connected some how? No... maybe it's all a coincidence or maybe it all really is connected. Does it really matter right now? For now, duty calls and I return to my position, watching for suspicion.

Remember who you are and where you come from. People love you, they need you as much as you need them. They might not show their appreciation, but know that deep down - in their hearts - they love you, just as much as you love them.