The New Normal

When Shine found himself transforming into an alicorn colt, he was ecstatic, but also terrified--all of his dreams were coming true, but where was he supposed to go from here? It's time to get used to the new normal...

Issue Two: Contagion - Chapter 1: The Running Dream

Thursday, April 4, 2024 - 11:45 PM

It's been a hot minute since I updated New Normal on anything but my Patreon, but I'm gonna start trying to get these chapters out regularly, and just update them in a serial fashion, rather than trying to write it all and publish it all at once. So yeah, let's do this shit!

This first one is a short chapter, really more a second prologue than anything else, but whatever. It's helping me get my butt around how I want to format these, so that's good, too.

The Running Dream

We ran. Her legs churned rhythmically, her feet flitting through the underbrush, as she followed her sense of her goal. Our pace was steady, but swift. I marveled at how painless it was, we ran, and ran, but her two legs didn't complain, her lungs didn't burn. We just ran, and it was fine. She was aware, though I couldn't sense them, of the Shadows that chased us, that always, always pursued her. Out of sight or not, she knew they followed, that they would take her, stop her, bring her to their master, if they could. I knew, because she did, that that would be horrible for us...but it would be disastrous for everyone else.

Our destination changed, and she veered to follow. I got the impression from her that this was normal. The Well, the thing we were seeking, moved--whether because someone else got too close to it or because it was capricious, even she wasn't entirely sure. It seemed to be both, the Well wandering both to keep itself, and us, safe...and because it was simply its nature.

She kept running. The Shadows were close, now, icy breath touched our neck, and panic welled inside me. She kept calm, kept our pace steady, kept running. She had done this for so long, done this same thing so many times before. She could, we would, outpace them, we just needed to keep running. Not so fast we burnt ourselves out, but not so slow we got caught, either. Our legs churned and our heart pounded, but as long as we kept going, we would be fine. We would get to the Well, and all would be alright. She would jump in, as she had countless times, grip the edge, let the monsters pass, and come out somewhere else, and do it all again. All would be well. He wouldn't be able to take it, she would keep it safe. She would keep everyone safe.