Fifteen Years Later

'You think you could escape us? You fool. You were mistaken.'

"You again? What do you want? Why do you keep bothering me? All I want to do is live my afterlife in peace!"

'You will see, we will ruin you. And this time, it will be successful. No more fellow humans to save you.'

I started to run as fast as I could, but the voices kept uttering terrible things of destruction and suffering. They kept saying that I haven't escaped them, that its only a matter of time until they surface and destroy everything I have come to know.

The king and queen. I need to warn them before it's too late! The last time I heard these voices they tried to bring me into an eternal slumber. If they were in Equilibria somehow, who knows what kind of chaos they could bring.

I continued to run when I was tripped by a tendon. I looked up and the voices were whispering things and seemingly moving around me as doing so. All of a sudden they stopped, and In the distance I heard a growl, followed by a ghostly hum that continued. The ghostly hum seemed to move closer and closer as I heard a ticking noise. The ticks seemed to occur further away from each other as they got closer to me.

Tick tick tick... tick....tick.......tick.........tick.........tick.......................tick..........................................................tick

By the time the ticking stopped, the sounds were in my face. I wanted to see what it was but there was no light. Everything was dark. I started to move back when the sounds suddenly stopped, and in an instant, were behind me. I felt something warm on my back, like breathing. I stopped walking backward, and I really didn't want to look behind me, but I did. And right then a creature of indescribable horror appeared. It's eyes lit up which illuminated its entire face. It moved forward and roared at me.

--

I wake up with a frightful yell, I was soaked in my own sweat. I don't remember what kind of dream I had but it was not pleasant at all. I look out the window, it was still night. "Aww for crying out loud." I went to the bathroom to water down my face and relax. As I was doing so I looked in the mirror and there was somebody, or something behind me. I turned around to face it, but as soon as I did, it charged at me and slammed me against the wall. I tried to say something but it placed a hand over my mouth. This figure, it somewhat resembled me. It was just as tall as me, it wore the same clothes, same face, everything. But the figures eyes were completely black, there weren't even any whites, and there seemed to be a black liquid running down it's face, like it was crying black tears. It opened its mouth to speak, I could see it's teeth, they were yellow and black and rotten, and they were ridged and sharp like shark teeth. "MY TIME IS NEAR." It said, its voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard. It raised its other hand behind its head, poised to strike its long yellow claws at my throat. It lunged its claws at me, I closed my eyes to brace myself, but while my eyes were closed, the hand came off my face. I opened my eyes slowly to notice that the thing was gone.

I have no idea what it meant by "My time is near." But I just blew it off as a hallucination or a waking dream. After all, I hadn't had much sleep for the past 2 weeks ever since these nightmares started up, so I was probably lacking in REM sleep. I go back to bed, but don't get much sleep that night.

---

I wake up the next morning tired. I had a really rough night. It's been 15 years since I first got here to Equilibria, 15 years, and I have never experienced nightmares like that. I should really stop thinking about them though, maybe they will stop.

I've been here a long time now, I expected to age for some reason, but after all this time in Equilibira, I still look to be in my late 20's or early 30's. Realistically, I am 75 years old counting my time on Earth and Equestria. Although I did die, I don't really feel dead. I still have to eat, sleep, drink water, and I can still get physically hurt. I remember about 14 years ago I decided I would go and work on the roof of my house, I didn't think I could get hurt so I was careless and fell off. I had some broken bones to mend but nothing too serious.

Life here in Equilibria is pretty simple. Like in Equestria, I will go around and just help my friends with whatever they need done. Over the past 15 years, I've gotten into the habit of going to the shrine every once and a while and checking up on Dashie. I don't really do anything, I just watch her for a while. Sometimes I will do something to keep her on track in life, show her signs, she seems to fare great on her own though so I never really have to do that. But I think she knows that I am watching her and giving her advice from afar. No, I know she knows. I try to make it to the shrine as much as possible, but its a pretty busy place. I mean, a lot of the ponies in Equilibria have friends or family still in Equestria.

A lot of the ponies I knew have passed, like Granny Smith for example. She's been in Equilibira for quite some time now. 14 years actually. She came around a year after I did, moved to Stillwater and I must say, she looks very nice as a young mare.

I don't just monitor Dashie, I monitor the others too occasionally. They all have aged gracefully. Applejack is still happily harvesting apples, though she isn't doing any of the physical labour of coarse, she just manages it. Fluttershy is still caring for the animals around her cottage, and though her favourites, like her bunny angel, have passed, she has found others. Pinkie Pie now owns sugar cube corner, and surprisingly still eats plenty of junk and has that incredibly upbeat personality. Twilight has mastered the arts of magic and still performs incredible feet in the name of her royal duties, though she still owns that same library that she simply cannot part with. Speaking of which spike is gone. He matured into a large dragon and decided to join his own kind, he makes occasional visits to Ponyville still. And Rarity became a well known tailor across Equestria. From what I can tell, she gets asked to make attire for famous ponies all the time. And Dashie, she became one of the most famous fliers in all of Equestria. She isn't any more because her years have caught up to her, but I am still the proudest father ever. She now works as a manager in the weather factory.

I head downstairs and eat some breakfast. I had an appoint with Libby, the keeper of a Stillwater library, to organize some books. Once I arrived, we began.

"So how have you been, Brian?"

I let out a small chuckle "Well, I could probably be better. I've been having these crazy nightmares."

"About?"

"That's the thing. I don't really remember much about them. But I know that they are terrible. And last night... I had the weirdest experience."

"What was it?"

"I don't even know where to start. It was some crazy hallucination I had. No biggie."

"Well if you're missing so much sleep that you are hallucinating, maybe it is a 'biggie'. Maybe you should make an appointment with a sleep clinic or something. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you, Brian."

I paused and thought for a moment. "Do you really thi-" My question was cut off by a large ball of smoke and an odd sound.

We both look to see what had caused it. A scroll had dropped out of the smoke and fell on the floor of the library.

"What the hell?" I said in surprise.

Libby slowly trotted over and picked up the scroll. "Looks like its for you." She said.

"For me?" She hooved the scroll over to me. On the top it said 'Brian Dash'. I open it and start reading.

Brian Dash,

My apologies for any inconvenience, however there is a pressing matter to attend to. There is a certain pony in Equestria that you may know who is sick. You have been selected to greet her when she is guided threw the portal between Equestria and Equilibria. Please make your way to Clairmont immediately so we may discuss what events will take place.

Sincerely, King Poradese

"Sorry, Libby. But I'm gonna have to help you at a different time. I've been summoned by King Poradese."

End of Chapter 5.