A Strange New World

by DuyTheRandom

Prologue

Author's Note:

Well, first things first, I'm new to writing and quite inexperienced. So, if you have any criticisms with my story, pls do tell. I will read it and may answer it in my free time. Now go ahead and you may read the story... If you want.

Prologue

Home…

It was the last thing I remembered before losing everything and ending up in this cold, watery grave.

My senses were numb as I stared at the only light I could see, from a hole on sheets of broken ice. There were debris of metal and scrap surrounding me as I slowly sank further and further into my watery grave.

How did I end up here? Why am I not struggling? And why was I not afraid?

Death was something that was supposed to scare everyone right? Especially when you haven’t succeeded in life.

So… Why was I not afraid?

I mean, what is there to be afraid of in the first place? If you don’t know something, shouldn’t you be afraid of it? Do you even have to be afraid of something you don’t know?

I continued staring at the now frozen up hole as my mind kept looping around the question, over and over again.

I saw the light change from a bright white light to a fiery red then to pitch black and then… Nothing.

I felt a creeping darkness slowly enveloping me as I felt the last bit of my strength slowly fading away. So this is what death feels like? Since I have nothing to look back to, I didn’t care at all.

After clinging on to my last moments, I finally prepared to embrace death and leave this life for good.

But death has other plans for me…

I felt my soul suddenly forced back inside me. I woke up and tried gasping for air but instead inhaled water. I quickly closed my mouth and without hesitation began looking for a way out. I saw light coming from a small hole and began swimming to it.

I didn’t care about anything about my surroundings or anything at all, it felt like I was possessed and that I was seeing things in a ghostly perspective, I couldn’t even see my own body. I couldn’t tell why I was also struggling to swim, I wasn’t stuck to something right? I slowly inched closer and closer to the light but I also got weaker the closer I got.

I wasn’t going to give up easily, not yet! With all my strength, I pushed myself beyond my limits to get out of my watery grave. After nearly passing out a couple of times, I felt the air touch my hand. I grabbed the surface of the ice and pulled myself out to the surface.

-----

I felt a chilling wind wash over my back waking me up. Everything also felt cold as well. Was the fire out? I thought to myself, I know I added enough fuel to make it last overnight. Did a window suddenly open and blew out the flames? No, that wasn’t it, if it did I would’ve woken up from the sound of the window being forcefully opened.

I opened my eyes and realized that I was on the floor, I guess I passed out due to exhaustion. I noticed that it was quite dark outside. I stood up and saw that the fire was indeed out.

Great, I overslept again. I lit up my horn and walked towards the window, I wondered how it opened, I was sure that I locked it. I closed the window and then walked fireplace to rekindle the flames. I added some firewood and, with a small spark of magic, the fire lit up, lighting up my whole room.

I planned to get some food but noticed that something was off about my room. I thought about what was wrong but then realized that it was strangely clean. All the books were on the shelves, my study desk was neatly clean. I tried remembering the last thing that happened before falling asleep, I remembered that I was on my study desk.

Maybe somepony entered my room, cleaned up everything, and tried carrying me to my bed but gave up halfway through and left me on the floor instead of my bed or my couch by the fireplace? No, that can’t be it. A small tap is enough to wake me up. So, why do I feel like something that was wrong?

As I was thinking of a possible explanation to why my room was clean, I heard something outside. It sounded like neighing from somewhere beyond the clouds.

As I got closer to the window, it slowly started freezing. It didn’t seem too much of a problem until it kept going, the room started getting colder and colder as every second pass by.

I panicked and quickly ran to the door but couldn’t open it. I tried to pry it open but it was jammed shut. I used my magic to try and blast the door open but nothing happened. I then turned around and tried bucking but that didn't work neither. I started banging the door, calling for help but no pony answered. Suddenly, the door started freezing.

I ran to the fireplace to find comfort from the cold but the door to the balcony blasted wide open and blew out the flames. I tried to rekindle it but to no avail. I then saw 3 strange ghostly equestrian-like figures slowly approaching me. Each step they made, the colder the room got.

The sounds of their hooves made a loud knocking sound filling the room. The knocking wouldn’t stop as the 3 figures stared down at me menacingly. I closed my eyes and waited for the end, until…

--

A loud banging on the other side of my door woke me up from my sleep and I heard a voice from the other side.

“Sir Clover?! Are you in there?!”

The mare behind the door knocked on the door again.

“Yes! Yes! I’m awake!” I shouted back, breathing heavily “What is it?”

“Fo-Forgive me for my intrusions sir,” The mare said in a worried tone, “I was delivering food to you but you didn’t answer the door for quite some time, and I was afraid that something may have happened.”

“Right, my apologies, I was tired last night.” I looked at my study table, I guess I fell asleep studying again.

“Anyways sir, should I place the tray on the floor or should I go inside?”

“No no! I’ll get it.” I stood up from my study and walked towards the door.

The room was as messy as I remembered it, books scattered to the floor, paper littered everywhere, a couple of books stacked on top of each other, yeah this is real. I almost tripped on a couple of them.

I opened the door and greeted the servant, she was wearing nothing more but a simple gray cloak, her mane was a slightly dull green and so were her eyes. She also looked a little thin and had bags under her eyes. She was also carrying the food tray on her back, balancing it out making sure it doesn't spill to the floor, quite the acrobatic she had I thought. She levitated the tray and handed it to me and I thanked her for delivering the food. She simply nodded and left without a word.

I levitated the food tray and entered back into my room. The food was just a celery, steaming tomato soup, and a cup of water. I placed the tray on the side of my study table and looked back at the last book I read.

Windigos.

Nothing more but a foals tale of ghostly horses that freezes and feeds off of the hatred and fighting amongst creatures. I closed the book and sat back down on my study. I looked outside and sighed, “Another day and everything is still frozen…”

I grabbed the celery and started eating it while staring at the last book I read.