A Fog Over Equestria

by Sigma Shinori

Chapter 3: These Nightmares of Ours

Fog Density: 4

My work was done, I've gone back home, and now I'm getting ready to sleep. I'm getting ready to go back into that nightmarish land. Maybe this time I'll have a normal dream instead of another nightmare? I can hope that, at the very least, it won't be that bad of a nightmare. Perhaps, it won't be as bad as last night's dream...

I got into my bed, feeling its comforting softness, slowly drifting off into sleep, slowly letting the shadows take over me, slowly letting the night in. Something felt wrong, I'm not sure what. The fog... it's so weird, I just noticed it today, but, it feels like it's always been there, always waiting in the background, waiting for the right time to strike. It didn't matter now, I'm almost fully asleep, just barely conscious and - soon - I'll either be in a dream, or a nightmare. I hope it's the former...

Darkness. I walk forward towards the nothingness. I walk, and walk, and walk. Nothing. Hours pass by, still nothing. Days pass by, still nothing. Years pass by, when will something, anything happen? I keep walking in hopes for something to happen. Nothing. Once I've finally had enough, I stop, stop the walking, stop the nothing, stop doing the same damn thing over and over again. Then I see it. I've been blind the entire time. Others, just like me, mindlessly walking forward, but to no avail. They just walk and shamble towards a direction. One passes by me and I stare in to their cold, dead eyes, their thoughtless gaze, their slumped body. What are they doing? What have I been doing? Are we destined to do this? Just wandering endlessly... waiting for something to happen. No. There has to be something at the end of this! I charge forward, determined to find the end to this emptiness. This can't be all there is! I WILL find the end, and I will enjoy every single moment of it.

"But why?"

I stop and turn around. Behind me, another shambler. I just noticed something... none of these shamblers have any colour. I'm the only one with colour. Why? Was it because I'm the only to break the cycle of walking for no reason at all? Do none of these shamblers want an end? An end to this empty space?

I respond to the shambler, "Because there has to be more than this! We can't just keep wandering around for no reason! There has to be an end. Something, anything! And I'm going to find it, no matter what.

The shambler just stares at me with a blank expression. Then I see it. He thinks about it for a moment, and colour starts to slowly return to his coat. I recognize this for some reason. His coat slowly changes from a bland gray to a slight orange hue.

He asks, "You really think there's an end?"

"Yes! Why would we be here if there wasn't an end? You just need to find it, search for it with all your heart. Do you really want to just stay here and do nothing? Hmm?

He stares at me for a second before changing his blank expression into a smile. His coat changes into a bright orange coat, his mane a fiery red, and life returns to his amber eyes. A fire is reborn, and his name is Blast Pressure. My friend... what's he doing here? I look around and notice there are others with me, others that I recognize as they gain back their colour. Stalwart Aegis, his white coat returns and his bronze mane bursts out of its gray exterior, while his green eyes are filled with a newfound wanderlust. Gale Breaker's light green coat and sky blue mane make a grand entrance, and her green eyes are filled with curiosity for what lies ahead. Elegant Flow's coat turns from a dead gray into a more vibrant light gray, and her amaranth mane glides in graciously. Her rose red eyes look forward for the adventure that lies ahead. And, of course, me with my white coat and blue mane, I look forward with complete determination to see this through the end.

The other shamblers, however, do not look at us with happiness, but instead, with hatred. One of them has looks like he wants to rip me in half. They all start walking towards us, and we huddled together, preparing for their attack. It didn't come.

"Thou art a brave and determined one, Storm Rush, and these traits shall serve thee well on thou's mission.

I recognized that voice... Princess Luna! I turned to see her in her fullness and bowed immediately.

She chuckled, "That shall not be necessary, young knight. I merely come here to lift you of the burden this nightmare put upon you. However, even without my help, I'm sure you would have pulled through otherwise."

I stood back and asked, "Princess Luna... what are you doing here? Aren't there others in greater need of your help than me with all the nightmares happening?

"I see you've been told about how big our problem my sister and I have. Well then, just know, Storm Rush, while I try to help as many as I can, there are just too many nightmares for me to handle alone. I know of your mission, Storm Rush, and I bid you good luck on it. The fate of Equestria itself may be decided depending on the success of your mission. You have long days ahead of you, so remember, what you will be doing in the near future will be very important, and you will have to depend on your friends just as they will have to depend on you.

I looked at Luna curiously, "What do you mean? Will something bad happen to us in the future?"

Luna smiled at me, "Perhaps... or perhaps not. All we know right now is that your adventure could be dangerous. If these nightmares get worse, then you and your friends will have to rely on each other for safety and protection."

Luna rose and ascended into the air, creating quite the spectacle. I looked around and saw that the shamblers all disappeared, but my friends were still there, smiling at me. I smiled back at them, knowing that - together - we'll be nigh unstoppable.

I turned back to Luna on time to hear her say, "And now... thou must awaken, and begin your mission. Your leadership may be the key to all of this, so may you never lose sight for what you truly fight for... and may your causes be just.

I woke up, not with a cold sweat or panicked breaths, but rather with a newfound determination and courageous spirit inside me. This mission... will it be much more important than I thought? It doesn't matter, what does matter is that we complete it, no matter what. The fate of Equestria very well may depend on the success of our mission... and now, duty calls.

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Gale Breaker, Stalwart Aegis, Blast Pressure, Elegant Flow, and I were debriefed on our mission. We are to fly to Manehattan, assist the locals with their nightmare problems, and - most important of all - gather any and all information we can get about the source of these nightmares and its possible relationship to the fog. We got ready for our trip, said our goodbyes, and took flight towards Manehattan.

While flying, I decided to strike up a conversation with everyone, "So anyone else have a nightmare last night?"

Flow was the first to respond, "Yeah! Wasn't that bad this time actually."

"Really? How bad was it then?"

"At the beginning it felt kinda hopeless, like nothing was ever gonna happen. I just started walking in a random direction, then I noticed there were others around me doing the same, so I stopped and everyone just looked at me weirdly, as if I were completely different from them. Then, Luna came outta nowhere and stopped everything from getting messy. Kinda glad too. That dream definitely could've ended worse."

I was surprised by this fact and asked, "Luna visited you too?"

"Yeah! Wait, you saying you were visited by her as well? She tell you about how important our mission could be?"

"Yup! But my dream was even weirder."

Aegis spoke up this time, "Really? Cause I'm pretty sure mine was the weirdest!"

"Oh really huh?" Flow asked, "Exactly how weird are we talking here?"

"Well, it was the same yours, but I didn't stop. I didn't stop because I knew there had to be an end or something, and I was going to be the first to find it! When I looked around and noticed everyone, however, they were all trying to hit me or something. One of em almost did, but I ducked on time. That's when Luna came in outta nowhere and talked to me too. She also talked about how important our mission is."

Blast was next to tell his tale, "I get the feeling this isn't a coincidence at this point. I had a nightmare too. The same one as all of you in fact! Some weird looking ponies were heading into a direction, so I decided to follow them. After a while I got bored and tried to head in a different direction before one of them hit me for no reason at all. Angry, I decided to hit them back and then they all decided to gang up on me! They were pretty slow, though, so I had an easy time getting out. Didn't really need to since Luna comes in and everyone just came to a halt. Then she went on telling me how important our mission is."

Gale was the only one to have a different nightmare, "Really? I guess I'm the odd one out since my nightmare was about... er... drowning."

She gave us a sheepish look, and before any of us could speak she continued, "But wait! There's more. What made this weird was that I was in the princess' castle. Then, for no reason at all, water just came in flooding through the windows! I got upstairs and into one of the towers, but the water just kept on coming. I thought it was the end but Luna came in like some angel from the sky and the water disappeared. Not that I'm afraid of water or anything, mind you! I just really did not want to take a swim at that time. Anyways, Luna comes in and we bonded over some tea. It was pretty nice! Oh, I guess she also said that our mission is important and stuff."

I hummed to myself before speaking up, "I like how all of you assumed I had the same dream as you guys did. Even if it is true... Anyways, the weird thing about my dream was that you were all in it. You all were just shambling like the rest of the ponies before I came in and returned the colour to all of you."

Aegis laughed at this, "Return the colour to us? What, did Discord get to us or something?"

"No," I responded, "You all were just gray, couldn't even recognize any of you! But when I told you all about how there's more to it than just walking around in emptiness, you all gained your colour back. Then Princess Luna came in to tell me how I might be the key to the success of our mission or something. Pretty sure if she didn't come in we would've been attacked, but I'm certain we would've made it out fine!"

Gale laughed, "You? Our glorious leader? In your dreams buddy!"

Everyone laughed at Gale's comment, "Yeah, yeah, yeah... just remember, we're all in this together alright? Together, we can't lose!"

Gale was about to make another joke before Blast interrupted, "Look! Manehatten's just over there!"

And so it was in all of its... wait. Was it just me, or is the fog thicker over here than it was back at Canterlot?

I decided to ask everyone else, "Hey, does the fog over here look worse than back at home?"

Everyone observed the fog closely before all agreeing that it was thicker than Canterlot. What was this fog doing here anyways? That's what we're here to find out, and - one way or another - we'll find an answer to this nightmare problem. We descended into the city of Manehatten.

"Remember, this is just the beginning, the challenges you will face from now on will be tiring and unforgiving. Do not lose sight of what you came here to do, and know that - as a team - you'll be able to complete your mission with ease. You watch their backs, and they'll watch yours...

Comments

[NorrisThePony]

First of all, I like this. Intriguing concept and plenty of potential for an unnerving mystery.

But in the name of sanity, slow down! Your pacing is pretty darn fast, and as a result we're not really being given enough opportunity to get to know our characters before you fling them into action. This is a bit of an issue when the story itself hinges so heavily on OCs that we are unfamiliar with.

Other than that, interested to see where you take this.

[Sigma Shinori]

6662115 Thanks for the heads up! I didn't realize my pacing was a bit messed up. I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I make chapter 4.