New Winds on the Horizon

Hey guys!

Long time no update eh? Anyway, I just want to get straight into this, next chapter has a little surprise in store for you! Enough of my rambling!

ENJOY!

~Cyclone speaks in these~

+Proton speaks in these+

/ I respond to them in these \

[These are author notes]

The soft lapping of water against velvet sand was the first thing I heard.

To most it would puzzle at first.

But I’ve been here before...

The Dream World.

As the name states, I’m asleep right now.

This world was beyond possibility. Defying every rule of physics and reality all at the same time.

I stood in a void. A gap between two opposites. To my left was colour. Vivid, alive and bright colour. The colour was over the water, a luminous turquoise reflecting both the sky and the water. To my right sat nothing. Dull, grey and boring nothing.

Like always, I stood frozen in spot by the tranquility that held this realm in suspense. Both opposites existing side-by-side, yet neither reacted in any way. They co-existed. Working in tandem.

What were they working towards you ask? I couldn’t tell you. One flowed into the other without any repercussions. Simply nothing happened here. Besides the waves of the water as they washed over my hooves.

At least...

Until this visit...

It startled me. A slight movement out in the water, the side of colour. For the first time in this world I moved, turning to face the water.

There, in the middle of the ocean was a spire of rock, protruding out of the waves. Atop the spire stood a silhouette of a cloaked pony.

The cloak was being thrown around, as for the first time I felt wind against my coat, the speed picking up.

The wind seemed to be drawn into the figure, swirling around him like a whirlpool.

Terrifyingly, the water around the spire of rock blackened, spreading outward, it’s tendrils blackening more and more of the serene calm as it turned to turmoil and chaos.

I tried calling out to the pony, but my voice failed me, and just a breath left my lips.

More and more of the water blackened, gaining momentum and spreading further towards the shore.

When the black void reached me, it diverted around, surrounding me.

The last thing in the nightmare this realm had become that I wanted to do was touch the tar-coloured substance around me.

My adamancy was annihilated however, as the water swirled, tendrils snapped out of it, grabbing each of my legs before I could acknowledge they were there.

Again, I tried to vocalize, but nothing happened.

The tendrils tightened, a wave of the jet-black water rose up, enveloping me with the tendrils, some of it entering my mouth and nostrils.

I felt my chest tighten. I was going to drown! Suffocating in a dream!

I struggled against the tendrils, thrashing blindly, desperate to escape this terrifying ordeal.

My chest tightened further, my lungs aching for air!

I stopped my struggling.

If this was a dream, why had I not woken up? Was I going to die? Die in a world that shouldn’t exist but only in my subconscious?

My heartbeat slowed, my eyelids drooped, and my senses ceased to function...

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”, I awoke with a huge gasp, dragging the air into my lungs, desperate for the oxygen.

I threw off the sheets, finding myself covered in a cold sweat.

+Woah! Atom, what’s up?!+

~Ugh, who woke me up?~

/ I...I don’t know what happened... \

~Just go downstairs, get a glass of milk, come back up here and GO BACK TO FUCKING SLEEP!~

/ I like the sound of that plan... \

I stumbled out of the door, when a thought occurred to me. Where was AJ?

I checked the kids’ room and saw the orange mare, resting against Gusty’s cot sleeping quietly.

Through the panting of my laboured breaths, I smiled slightly at the sight. Her Stetson was placed on the chest of drawers behind her, and her mane fluttered around her snout as her breathing lifted it up and down.

I decided not to alert her of what had transpired, closing the door with a soft click and making my way down the stairs, trying not to fall, as dizziness from the lack of air took hold.

I made it into the kitchen and leaned against the fridge. Reaching inside and letting the light flood out, I moved to the cabinet and grabbed a glass.

As soon as the first glass was poured I wasted no time in downing it before pouring more and putting it down on the table.

“Thanks.”

At first the voice frightened me, but it was a regular occurance as of late.

“Again?”, I replied.

“Yup.” Rhino replied. I turned on the light switch seeing his eyes quite bloodshot.

“Ah. I’m sure this’ll pass buddy. Trust me.”

“B-but, I don’t get it. Did I do something wrong?”, he stammered, “Is she getting bored of me?”

“Rhino, Shy isn’t that sort of mare. You know that.”

He picked up the glass of milk and took a small sip, grimacing.

“I just want things to be back to normal with me and Shy. Ever since that incident with the griffons where I lost my cool...she...she’s never looked at me the same...”

I rolled my eyes, “Dude, you’re getting too worked up about this. Trust me-”, I stopped, suddenly feeling my chest convulse.

Rhino saw this and raised an eyebrow, “Atom?”

I threw a chair out of the way as I ran for the sink, feeling something work it’s way up from my stomach, before black goo burst from my mouth into the basin.

“Woah!”, I felt Rhino put his hooves on my shoulders as I hunched over the sink puking violently, “Atom, what did you eat?”

When I gained control over my insides, I tried a response, “I-I don’t know...I was in the dream world again earlier.”

“How does that relate to you puking up black stuff?”

“Something different happened.”, I replied. Rhino had been the guy that I’d been keeping in the loop about the dream world.

“What do you mean?”

I felt another convulsion and more of the liquid poured out. I tried talking through it, “There was another pony there...he was just standing on this rock...the water turned black and fucking grabbed me...I swear I would have died if I’d stayed there a second longer.”

“Wow...that’s very different to the norm.”

“You’re telling me...”

“Well, try and get back to sleep. No matter what we still have training tomorrow.”, I nodded in agreement, “You don’t mind if I sleep on the couch again, do you?”

“Go for it.”

He smiled gratefully at me, walking into the living room as I made my wake back upstairs, struggling to keep a hold of my raging stomach.

Laying back down in bed, I barely had 5 minutes time to think before sleep enveloped me.

Did I dream again? No. Just pure black was all there was the rest of the night, before my shrill alarm woke me.

Well there we go guys!

It’s good to be back! And I hope I can stay this way for a while to come! Anyway, I have nothing else to say for now. So...

See ya next time!!!