Solar nightmare

January ?, 2030, ??:??. Location:?

Darkness. All around. I was seeing myself from a third person position. The darkness was in me. The darkness was me.

Doors, doors with years carved in them. 2003, 2004, 2005 and so on. I opened one with a 2007 on it and saw my fourth birthday, along with my first meeting with Zander. What the hell?

I continued until I got to a door with a substance leaking from it. 2020. No. no, no, no, that was over that happened over a decade ago. I saw myself reaching for the door knob. No don’t do it. I kept going. Don’t you do it! I tried to will the hand to move away.

My hand finally reached the door and it swung open. My ‘consciousness’ was sucked into the room. Inside I was looking from my own prospective. I was walking down the hall of my old house. I heard small, almost inaudible noises coming from the room at the end of the hall. My mother’s room. I begged and pleaded with myself to not go but it didn’t do much.

I had made it to the end of the hall. The noises had picked up. I was slowly reaching up to the door when I heard a scream from inside. I had lift my hand to the knob just before feeling a swimming sensation and then darkness.

January 2, 2030, 05:30. Location: The Atlas

I awoke with a start. A cold perspiration covering my skin. Zander was above me, hands on my shoulders.

“Dream again?” he asked a look of concern on his face. I nodded and made to get up. He moved over so I could do so and I moved toward the bathroom. Sasha was still snoring loudly so I knew she wasn’t in there at the moment.

As I walked in, I looked around. It wasn’t anything too luxurious, just a bath/shower, a sink, and a toilet that reused our waste for plumbing and the biomass engine. Fun. I locked the door, then walked to the shower. “I really need to get a piping system if this is where we plan to stay for the rest of our lives.” I said to myself as I turned on the shower and striped there was no heating system for budget reasons but that was fine. I hopped in got myself clean and hopped out.

While I was in there I thought of a multitude of things, like how did we spontaneously get transported to a world an unmeasurable distance from where we began.

After the shower I looked in the mirror, I had seen that face every time I did so. My skin was a milky white, with a few blemishes here and there. I had the features of any other white male of my age did. My hair was a dark brown, almost black. There was a slight stubble growing up my face, the same color as my hair. But there were always two features that caught my attention more than anything else. My eyes, a dark forest green, and the scar that ran down between them, curving slightly to the left, just missing my eye.

I blinked once or twice trying to clear my head. I reach for the razor that we kept on board for facial hair purposes. I cleared the stubble but kept the mustache and chin spike. Why? I don’t know. I just always did. I got dressed in the lounging clothes that I had brought in with me and walked out.

The first thing I noticed when I walked out was the smell of freshly heated rehydrated bacon that was not fresh in any way. I walked into the kitchen, seeing and greeting Zander and Sasha. The former was preparing the food while Sasha sat at the table, polishing her brass knuckles. I always tried telling Zander that sasha was the one that wore the pants in their relationship….. that was until I saw him almost kill three armed robbers with his bare hands. Ahh good times. Anyways, I walked over to the ‘kitchen’ area of the kitchen and helped Zander with the beverages.

After breakfast was consumed I asked the all-important question.

“Well, what now?”

“I think that we need to just stay here. There isn’t any need to go off and die in a god forsaken forest now should we?” Zander said sagely, sipping at his coffee.

“I agree with Zander, Zecora and Celestia both said this forest is dangerous, and I don’t feel like testing that for myself.” Sasha said.

“Well I think that I’m going to go to Zecora’s, see if she needs help or see what she can tell me about living around in this neck of the woods.” I said as I walked toward the door. We had shut down the air lock for the time being for obvious reasons. They groaned at my pun.

“And remember, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I teased walking out of the door.

“As long as you take your own advice.” I heard Sasha yell back. I acted like I didn’t hear her.

                 January 2, 2030, 07:10. Location: Zecora’s hut.

Sam’s POV

As I walked to the strange little hut I saw Zecora outside of it doing….. something. I walked up to her. For some reason she was balancing on her head on what looked like a wood version of Zanders bo staff. “And hear I thought ponies couldn’t get any weirder.” I said. Her eyes flew open wide like she hadn’t noticed I was there.

“Good morning Sam, how did you sleep?” she asked tilting her head, somehow without falling off.

“Fine,” I lied “how about you?” I asked

“I slept as well as one can in the forest” she answered finishing whatever she was doing on that stick and hopping off. “though” she continued “by the color under your eyes I would say the same is true for you.” I was more than a little shocked but she smiled up at me. “You don’t have to tell me, just know that you can if need be.” I nodded and decided to change the subject.

“So, what were you doing on that stick?” I asked bluntly.

“I was meditating.” She said.

“I’m trying to start a conversation but you’re not helping.” I said, with an annoyed directed towards her. She just laughed.

“Well why don’t start with why you came for a visit?” She asked. Why had I come out here?

“Right, um, I completely forgot why.” I said, averting my eyes from her.

“That’s fine, I’ll just get some tea, and we can talk or do whatever neighbors do.” She said heading for her hut.

“Sure, I’d love to talk with you more.” I said following her into her hut.

      January 2, 2030, 07:20. Location: Zecora’s hut.

As we walked into the hut, there were some features that I had looked over when I had been in it and seen it from the outside. The most notable of which was the fact it looked like it was carved out of a big ass tree. Other than that, it looked like any other tribal hut I had ever seen. There was a large cooking caldron in the middle with shelfs carved into the walls that housed various types of bottles and containers.

“What type of tea do you prefer?” Zecora asked looking back at me.

I had to think for a moment to find the right word.

“Do you have black equish?” I asked. She, to my surprise nodded and went to get the ingredients to make it.

I was still sitting there, thinking how this tea could be different from what I’m used to when a familiar smell hit my nostrils. It was coming from the caldron in the middle of the room and it smelled exactly like the black English from home.

After a few minutes passed Zecora got two tea cups and filled them both, keeping one for herself and giving the other to me.

We just sat there for a bit, drinking the tea and enjoying the calming silence before Zecora spoke.

“Is there anything that you would like to talk about?” she asked.

I just shook my head “No. How about you.” I asked in return. She thought about the question.

“Do you know anything about the art of alchemy?” she asked, to which she received a head shake. She thought on this a moment longer before asking “Would you like to learn?”

It did not take long for my head to bounce up and down like there was a spring in my neck making is do so.

And that’s what we did for the rest of the day, she taught me the basics of the trade and I listened to the best of my ability. There were a few hands on things she let me do, which was surprising to me, she had only known me for a max of about a day and a half and she is already teaching me to make potentially dangerous potions. I guess the inhabitants of this world are just trusting.

Being a scientist, I am a very fast learner so coming back to the ship that night at about 19:00, I had made and kept (with Zecora’s guidance and permission of course) a grand total of four potions.

When I walked in Zander and Sasha where just getting done with dinner. They had made me a plate, anticipating me being back in time to eat it. I thanked them and sat down to eat.

“So what did you and Zecora do all day?” Sasha asked, a teasing under tone sneakily hidden in her words.

“Nothing that you have in mind.” I replied before lifting the four brightly glowing bottles. “She taught me how to find ingredients for, and brew potions.” They looked in awe at the potions.

“What do they do?” Zander asked, apparently not caring about this worlds magical properties anymore.

“Well,” I started, pointing to a pink one, “this one helps skin resist small burns, the blue one helps sleep due to a calming effect with the plant it was made from, the gray one makes the top layer of skin more resistant to injury, and the last one increases blood flow to the brain, essentially making you smarter. All of these, taken in a dose of about 4oz, will last about an hour or two.”

       “Well that’s interesting and all but I’m getting tired, Zander, you come’n?” she asked to which he nodded. They both left the room before leaving me to my own devises.

I went to the control room to make sure that everything was still running smoothly and made adjustments when needed. After that I looked at the clock and saw it was 21:00, so I got changed into the loungewear and crawled into bed, leaving the potions on the nightstand. I steeled myself for another restless night.