Strange New World

by Conor Colton

Onward To Dodge

Strange New World
Chapter Nine: Onward to Dodge

Our heroes stood in the clearing where they had just fended off the fearsome pack of Timber Wolves, practically speechless at what just happened.

“...Aww yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed as everypony else smiled widely and reveled in their first real victory as a unit. Rainbow started mimicking her own actions during the fight in mid air just showing off the maneuvers she had pulled. Naturally, she was feeling pretty good about herself.

Everypony gathered around and began congratulating each other, there were many hoof bumps had and backs patted encouragingly, Chris’ included; not to mention many hugs. Spike and Zecora rejoined the group and smiled along with everypony and joined in the fun.

Chris felt particularly accomplished at what he just did, he honestly never thought he had it in him; he took a step back and watched everypony celebrate and couldn’t help but smile widely. However, when Chris spotted the map that had ended up on the floor, reality hit him. He made an expression of disappointment and picked up the map and got everypony’s attention.

“Guys? Guys!” He exclaimed as everybody turned with interest, Owlowiscious doing that weird head rotating thing that left Chris shivering slightly; he didn’t know why, that just always freaked him out. “Um...I hate to break all this up but...I think we gotta go...We don’t want to draw more attention to ourselves and we can celebrate when we get to Dodge City...” He said as he nervously rubbed one of his front legs with the other.

“...Yeah, he’s right...C’mon...” Twilight stated with a frown as she motioned for Chris to lead on. The unicorn had her priorities the right way around but she just found herself having to frown when her celebration had to be cut short, she sighed and followed anyway.

“Aw don’t worry none, Sugarcube, we got friends in Dodge, they’ll make us feel right at home.” Applejack stated enthusiastically as everypony started to lighten up and even smile lightly. AJ was glad she could have helped in some emotional regard, she wasn’t exactly sure of the whole situation herself but she wanted to be a strong pony that her friends could turn to.

As Chris examined the map he attempted to figure everything out. The group never packed a compass regrettably so there was a lot of guesswork involved. The stallion knew they were looking for a river and that if they followed the stream, they would eventually get out of the Everfree Forest.

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After a few more minutes of walking, Chris heard a welcome sound, running water. He began trotting faster and faster as everybody else did in turn until finally they had reached the river bank. Sadly, there was one issue; it looked like the river was actually more dangerous than the map suggested. The stallion spotted some rapids and a few sharp rocks as well as reefs that wouldn’t bode well for anypony wanting a swim.

The brony sighed, he had hoped he would get a rest and he would let a gentle river take him to his next destination, then the outright stupidity of that plan hit him and he began walked alongside the river, thinking over how they would eventually cross. Everybody followed, being careful around the banks.

“Oh dear...This river wouldn’t do any wonders for my mane...Now that I mention it, this entire situation isn’t doing well for my mane.” Rarity worried as she started fixing her hair. Spike trying as hard as he could to assist, even though he could hardly reach.

“Um, Chris?” Fluttershy stated, hoping she didn’t interrupt anything. The stallion turned and responded promptly.

“Yeah, Fluttershy?” He answered, wondering if she was going to suggest anything that would help them out in any respect.

“Um, not that your plan isn’t a good plan, it’s a very good plan but...Couldn’t Rainbow and me...or just Rainbow...fly everypony over the river so we’d be on the right side coming out of the forest and not have to worry about crossing?” Fluttershy asked, making a very valid point as everypony stopped and turned to Chris.

“...Uh...Yeah.” Chris nodded as he felt like the biggest idiot in the forest, which in a sense, he was. As Rainbow and Fluttershy, mostly Rainbow started lifting everypony to the other side Chris mumbled a few words under his breath, “Well sorry if I don’t usually fly over rivers.” He grumbled as he saw he was the last to be lifted.

Fluttershy picked him up by his front legs and started weakly hovering him over. He was relaxed for about two seconds before he heard something, another howl. He quickly turned his vision back to the bank he was just on and saw none other than a Timber Wolf, with red eyes, pouncing at him whilst he was being carried.

“FLUTTERSH-” Chris was cut off as the wolf clawed into him and pulled him out of the pegasus’ grasp and into the river. Everypony immediately panicked, trying to think of a way to get Chris out.

The stallion and beast continued rolling down the river as everypony else tried as hard as they could to help. Twilight tried to levitate Chris out but only fished out some rocks and an old boot strangely enough. Rainbow tried to fly over head and grab Chris but the rapids made it near impossible to see him.

Chris was trapped wrangling with the wolf underwater, he stared into it’s red eyes and grimaced angrily, knowing who had played a part in this attack.

“What do we do?! What do we do?!” Twilight exclaimed as she kept following the river with everybody else. Chris kept poking his head up for air but was almost immediately brought back down by the wolf as it clawed and bit away at him, making the stallion shed some blood from a cut across his chest.

This went on for a few more minutes before the group on the ground could see that they were coming out of the forest, just as the map had said. They knew that if they couldn’t get Chris here, he would be tore up across the Saddleveil Plains and dumped into the ocean.

As they were nearing the end of the forest, Applejack spotted something useful, a rather beat up tree next to a beaver dam, the mare rushed ahead and instructed Rainbow and anypony else to follow.

“C’mon y’all! We gotta stop him somehow!” AJ stated as everypony had no time to argue and began pushing the tree, snapping the bark and tipping it towards the river. Twilight jutted in worryingly.

“He’ll just slam into the tree though, won’t that hurt?” The unicorn stated as she began using her magic to help move the tree.

“Yup, but it’s better than drowning!” Applejack retorted as she helped pull the tree down with her lasso. Eventually the group was successful and the tree flopped down and blocked that part of the river. There were some irate beavers but it was for the greater good.

As Chris and the wolf flew down the river, the stallion had started to lose his strength, he was almost ready to give in before he poked his head up for air and saw the log. His eyes widened as he pulled the wolf in front of him like a safety cushion and prepared for impact.

The two of them slammed against the log with great force, the beast taking the most of it. Chris finally had an upper hoof in this situation, and as he regained his senses he saw that he was pinning the wolf to the log with the help of the rapids.

The stallion wasted no time, he dug into the wolf’s face with a flurry of punches upon punches upon punches, breaking it’s features like various twigs. Chris looked directly into it’s red eyes, knowing who was watching and continued harder until there was no redness left in the wolf’s eyes and it lay there, a motionless, beaten down, broken bundle of sticks.

“...Guys!” Chris exclaimed as he just wanted to get out of there as everypony made an effort to pull him out, and they eventually did. Chris took a deep breath and looked up at the sky as everybody gathered around and looked him over, asking if he was okay.

The stallion replied promptly, “Yeah...I’m...I’m okay...” Chris stated before wincing in pain and putting a hoof one one of the places the wolf had made him shed blood, his chest. The group went into a worried uproar as Twilight started looking over the wound; and as she did, Chris lost consciousness.

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What followed was a mad frenzy of panicked ponies, dragon, Zebra and owl. Well, Owlowliscious wasn’t too worried and just randomly spun his head around. “Oh Celestia, he’s hurt bad! He’s bleeding bad too!” Rainbow stated as she pointed to the large cut across Chris’ chest.

“Thanks Rainbow, we can see that!” Applejack responded as she kept Chris’ limp head up. The mare hadn’t even thought a situation like this would arise, and yet here she was, trying to keep her friend from bleeding out. “Somepony got anything to help?!” The blonde pony demanded as she could feel Chris slipping away as his skin got more and more cold.

“Yes, move aside!” Zecora stated as she reached into her mojo bag for a lack of a better phrase and pulled out some bandages. She struggled to pull them out until Twilight and Rarity assisted with their given gift of magic and started bandaging up Chris’ more minor cuts.

The large cut across his chest still remained however and still very much spurting a steady stream of the brony’s blood. The group got out a cloth from Rarity’s bag and kept pressure on the wound to stop as much bleeding as they could. Chris still wasn’t moving a muscle.

Not long after they held down the cloth and threw it towards a now pouty Rarity; she would have complained about having such a piece of fabric reduced to a bloody rag, but it didn’t seem like the right time. Twilight levitated a needle and thread out of Rarity’s bag, and with a slight cringe and a near gagging motion, the unicorn carefully began to suture the gash.

With every stitch she made she could feel herself making more tense. With every pull and tug everypony around them started to grit their teeth and breath faster. Twilight did the best she could to zone it all out and focus.

And finally, just as quick as the impromptu first aid had started, the group had finished. AJ and Rainbow helped lift Chris’ hooves as the final bandages were applied and then gently set him down.

The whole group was silent for a few moments before Twilight puts an ear to Chris’ chest, she had noticed Chris had stopped breathing. She gasped and quickly ignited her horn and put it to Chris’ chest, creating a small shock. The brony jutted up into the air chest first and resumed normal breathing, but was still out cold.

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Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The group looked around at each other, Twilight with a complete look of hopelessness on her face. The same could be said for Zecora, Spike, Rainbow, AJ, even Pinkie. Rarity was a few feet away, nearly being sick over a poor tree. And Fluttershy was also a few feet away, curled up under a tree and bawling her eyes out.

It had looked like, during all this commotion, everybody failed to notice the pegasus in her emotional state. Naturally, Fluttershy’s friends went to comfort her but she quickly batted them away. “No, go away...I...I dropped him...This is all my...all my fault.” She started as she continued crying into her hooves.

“Now Sugarcube...Y-Y’all can’t be beating yourself up ‘bout this...None of us here saw that varmint coming...You had no way to know...” Applejack responded, hoping to be a voice of reason to her friend.

“Yeah...I mean, c’mon...He’s okay now so...no harm done, right?” Rainbow stated sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her own head and darted her eyes to one side.

“He doesn’t look okay to me...Like he’s just out of a h-h-h-hospital...and, and...I bet if you were carrying him, Rainbow...you wouldn’t have dropped him...Y-y-you would have got him across in no time!” Fluttershy continued as her weeping grew louder.

“Well...he...he uh....” Pinkie attempted before lowering her own head and walking away from the conversation for a moment.

“...Fluttershy...These things...happen and there’s...nothing we can do about it...He’s okay now...Chris is fine...and I’m sure he’ll forgive you when he wakes up...” Twilight added, nearly bursting into tears herself.

“You...you...” Fluttershy started before sniffling and calming herself down, “You think he will?” The pegasus continued with a new look of hope in her now glassy, moist, blue eyes.

“Yes, of course...As soon as he wakes up.” Twilight added. “Dodge isn’t far and I’m sure he’ll wake up by then. Then you two can talk this out and he’ll say he forgives you.” Twilight finished with a light smile, barely even managing that.

“O-....Okay.” Fluttershy retorted before getting to her hooves and hugging her purple friend. After that, everybody got to moving. Twilight took the lead with the map levitated diligently in front of her.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie remained at the back of the group, the unicorn feeling still a tad queasy and the pink mare starting to cheer up a bit. Applejack and Rainbow remained in the middle, carrying the majority of Chris on their backs, and Spike, Zecora and Owlowliscious stayed upfront with Twilight.

However, all the while, Chris was facing his own struggle, in his own head.

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In the ethereal valley of Chris’ dreams he had found himself in a forest, an eerily familiar forest.

He spent a while pacing through the seemingly never ending and deserted woodland. He felt his heart ache and gripped at his chest as he continued walking. Usually, Chris would have expected the sound of birds or crickets chirping, or even the wind, but he was met with absolutely nothing.

The brony trotted on, as he did he noticed that a very dense grey fog started descending over him and the majority of the forest. The fog never passed higher than Chris’ knees however.

He gulped and took a deep breath inwards and then exclaimed as he breathed outwards, “Shade! I know you have something to do with this!...I saw that wolf’s eyes!” The brony awaited a response but was met with nothing for a few moments.

“...Always ruining those little moments for me, aren’t you?” Chris heard as his heart raced and he stood ready for anything, even though he didn’t believe he was ready for anything. The fog started clearing from around the brony’s legs and in it’s place, a stench filled the air.

Chris took a sniff and recoiled at the horrid smell and then tried to identify it. He thought for a moment before whispering in an attempt to hide his discovery, “...Burning.” He stated with wide eyes and a slight sweat.

Almost right after Chris stated his assumption, he heard a sound similar to a spark to his left. He promptly turned and looked for the source of the noise. He saw a dim light in the distance, a dim flickering light.

Chris’ breathing increased as he took a step or two back away from the light. The light continued beckoning, the forest even seemed to start to part so the fire would be the only thing in sight. The brony kept backing away with a light sweat and an increasing heart rate. He put a hoof to his chest again, and when he took it away, he noticed something; blood.

At this point, Chris was like a cornered animal, but he was debating whether he was going to act like a cornered fox, or possum at this point.

“What’s the matter Chris? You humans like fire, do you not? It gives your race warmth, it helps cook your food, warm your water...So many uses...You like fire, don’t you Chris?” A distant, menacing voice echoed through the grove.

“N-n-no...get t-that away from me!” Chris exclaimed as his backing away had transitioned into a brisk trot in the other direction. His quick breathing escalated to a near cry for help and he noticed he was dripping blood from his chest as he attempted to escape.

“Oh, no use in trying to run now, Chris. You got yourself knee deep into all of this, and now, the flames will come for you first! You’re dying in Equestria, and now you will die in your own mind!” The voice bellowed as the small flame grew exponentially fast into a raging inferno.

Chris turned to see that the mass of fire had started taking a shape, it split and grew into various demonic figures; similar to the creatures that attacked Ponyville.

Chris’ eyes widened and he kept looking at the flames. One large wisp started expanding and growing and formed a shape Chris had seen before, an Ursa Minor.

The brony sprinted as fast as his hooves could carry him. He saw the glow from the raging mob of fire beasts pursuing him reach out just in front of him. He could also see several small cuts and the wound across his chest getting larger and more blood dripping from them.

Chris started losing energy and ended up slowing down a great deal until he came to a complete stop. He turned, seeing the beasts all pounce at him in unison, and closed his eyes.

Everything was black in Chris’ vision for a moment, he couldn’t even hear himself breath. Then a few seconds later he heard a sound familiar to him. He heard the distinct sound of a defibrillator being revved up and then a shock.

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Back in Canterlot Castle, Shade came out of his latest session of interfering with Chris’ thoughts with a loud scream of agony and a questionable look towards Ruby, “What happened?! Why did I lose control!? What was that?!” Shade demanded as he gripped Ruby around the neck once again.

“I-I-I don’t know, my Lord! He, couldn’t have broken the link. He isn’t, strong enough! And I can’t re-establish the link, something’s keeping me back!” She retorted, hoping for mercy.

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When the shock hit him, Chris’ vision came back to him. He looked around and saw a blank nothingness. Everywhere he looked he saw just white; at this point he wasn’t sure whether this was a dream or whether he had really, passed on.

His conundrum remained unanswered until he heard something yet again. He turned quickly to see what this sound was, and he was met with...Nothing. He raised an eyebrow before turning back around; only to be met with a muzzle in his face and an exclamation, “HUMAN!”

“Ahhh!” Chris screamed as he fell backwards, he looked up over his chest to see a rather sight for sore eyes looking right back at him, Princess Luna, and naturally, Celestia right next to her.

The brony’s eyes widened as he got up onto his hooves and stood promptly at attention. It had dawned on him that this would be his first real conversation with the royalty; if he wasn’t just hallucinating due to blood loss.

“Uh...Princesses...Nice to um...finally meet you...I mean, one on one like this...or one on two or...er...What are you two doing here?” He asked, beating himself up mentally for that horrid display of introductions.

“WE, HUMAN, ARE HERE TO INFORM YOU OF YOUR ROLE IN THE GRAND SCH-” Luna started before Celestia extended a wing in front of her sister’s face, signalling her to stop. Chris thought to himself as his eardrums throbbed, “So that’s how loud it really is...”

“Hello, Chris. We know you know who we are and we know who you are so introductions aren’t really necessary right now. So we should explain why we’re here first of all.” The white alicorn stated.

“WE ARE HE-” Luna cutting herself off for a moment, “...We are here because we have severed the hold Shade has over your mind. Before, he could step in at anytime with the help of his mistress, Ruby. We have destroyed the link and have placed our presences into your mind as a shield to stop him from entering again.” Luna explained as Chris nodded.

“Thank you...And...Ruby?...There’s three of them?” Chris’ eyes widened as Celestia nodded, “Oh sweet...You...this is not good...I mean, you two got beat by three of them...So they’re like...three you’s...Wait...wait wait, you two are dead...How are you speaking to me?” He enquired.

“As you have seen, at the lake near your camp, me and my sister still are bound to this world and we can add influence and images, just not in our bodies.” The sun ruler stated.

“Ohh...I’m sorry, I’m just used to people when they die...Y’know...staying dead...No offense, I’m really glad things can go this way...So how did you...break the link?” Chris wanted to know.

“Well, we needed a brief moment when Shade had given up influence and, whilst you were knocked out...You stopped breathing. We jumped in when Shade began to slip out and your friends revived you.” Luna retorted.

“So I actually am still alive? This isn’t heaven or the...pony equivalent?” The brony asked with ever growing interest.

“Yes, your friends are taking you to Dodge City on their backs as we speak.” Celestia answered.

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“Rainbow, y’all are tipping ‘em!” AJ complained to Rainbow as she lifted her back up and kept walking.

“Hey! Am not, your moving too fast!” Rainbow stated as she evened out her back and admitted defeat, mostly to just make her point and to shut AJ up.

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“I’ve uh...got soo many questions...Are they alright?” Chris asked worryingly.

“Yes, they’re all fine. Though Miss Fluttershy is taking her dropping of you fairly badly.” Luna explained as Chris frowned a little and continued asking questions.

“So, when am I going to wake up?”

“Your friends have entered into Dodge City and Applejack’s family there have agreed to take care of you, you should be waking up soon, hopefully.” Celestia nodded with a smile.

“We have little time so I’ll explain. Shade is a powerful being, but even now he is not at his full strength, you must keep the elements away from him at all costs. We are entrusting you as a chosen human to keep the elements, their wielders, and this land and it’s residents safe. The fate of Equestria, is in your hands, human.” The Princess finished as her and Luna began fading away.

“Wait, wait?! What am I supposed to do?! How do I contact you two again?! Where is the birthplaces of harmon-” Chris was cut off as his eyes widened and he awakened, in a bed, in Dodge City.

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He looked around and out the window to see ponies going about their business as usual, then he turned to see if any of his friends were there.

Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow sat around him and cheered with happiness as he woke up. Chris just sat there with a slight twitch in his eye and a little question in his mind, “Did...did I....just get trolled?”

Comments

[501st Party Brigade]

[skyrimlegion]

is there going to be romance

[Conor Colton]

1118002

At one point, yes, just not right now.

I'll add the tags when appropriate

[skyrimlegion]

1118009
Thank you, you can now guarantee a watch and fave from me

[Conor Colton]

1118015

You are most welcome

Enjoy!

[Conor Colton]

1118270

I applaud you, Doctor Freeman

[Knighthawker]

1118283 Of course you do. IM GORDON FREEMAN! IM LIKE THE CHUCK NORRIS OF THE SCIENCE WORLD! CAVE JOHNSON AINT GOT NOTHIN ON ME! EXPLODING LEMONS?! HA! I HAVE A NUCLEAR POWERED GUN!

[Official Taco]

1118480 and with the snap of my fingers he has twice the cannons.

[Conor Colton]

1129084

That seems fair