Chapter 1: “Our world no longer needs Ultraman.”
“See you later, Cory.”
He saw the outline of a what appeared to be a horse, or some type of small pony. It’s coat was a light, almost minty green color, and her irises were a shade of gold mixed with orange. Between her ears he saw what appeared to be some horn like protrusion. The strange image alone was enough to pull him from his exhausted stupor.
He sat up from the grass as these words met his ears. He turned to face the woman next to him, his eyes meeting hers. She smiled and stood up, giving him a light bop on the leg with her foot.
“ I told you I’ve gotta go. The deadline for that online test is tonight, remember?”
Cory rubbed his brown eyes as he yawned, “This damn class is kicking my ass.” He sat his hands in the grass, “I’m surprised you’re still here.” He gave her a slight smile.
She smiled and rolled her eyes, brushing her bangs from her eyes, “You were mumbling in your sleep again.”
“Oh really?” He laid back down, putting his hands behind his head, “What about?”
“Whoever the hell this ‘Lyra’ person is.” She teased, “Didn’t expect you of all people to grow that infatuated with someone.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he chuckled, “I don’t even know anyone by that name. What kind of a name is that?”
“You tell me, you’ve been saying a lot of weird shit lately.” She bent over to gather her books, placing them in her satchel.
He snickered at her, “Like what?”
“I dunno, names, people, what sticks to me is this Lyra person you keep talking about. Some ‘pony’ as you call her.” She finished gathering her books and turned away from him, “See you in class.”
“Right.” He sat up, grabbing his bag. As he walked to his class, he couldn’t stop thinking about his most recent dream. Apparently what he saw in his dream was a pony, but one with the name of Lyra, that could speak to him in a clear, female tone of voice.
“Just what do these all mean?” He gripped his forehead as he entered the class room, taking a seat right next to his friend Emma. She offered him a pen.
“Since you can’t remember to bring your own.” She teased.
He raised his brows and smiled, “I dunno about that,” he pulled out a pouch loaded with freshly bought pens and pencils, “I came prepared for a change.” He looked to the professor who was using a laser pointer to read line by line what appeared on the smart board.
“Who here has heard of the Phantom time theory?” He waited for a student to raise their hand. None of them did, and he continued with his lesson. “First published in the early nineties, it hypothesizes a conspiracy by the ancient Romans, who fabricated our dating system to reach the one thousand year mark. This, and the absence of medieval art and records from centuries ago leads us to wonder, what caused this era of so little innovation? Why did our world stagnate artistically, economically, and population wise?”
The class remained silent, the only sound was a the subtle taping sound of another student’s nails against the screen of their smart phone. The Professor chuckled and placed his smartboard remote on the computer desk, “Well, how about we take a break real quick from the subject. James, you and I discussed the recent struggle going on in the Pacific with the sudden reemergence of monsters within that vicinity.”
James was always the teachers pet. First to raise his hand and never hesitated to share his knowledge with the class, no matter how irrelevant it was to the material. “This new monster has been attacking oil rigs out in the Pacific ocean reporters claimed. The SSSP believes that the monster is a descendent from the monster Pestar that appeared in the mid 1960’s.”
“Any updates on it?” The Professor asked.
“It was quickly dispatched by the search party with their new XK19 Bomb, a weapon that was once classified by the United nations. Personally that tells me that they must have a new, more powerful anti-monster weaponry is they’re letting us in on those details.”
“Fascinating isn’t it? For years we put our lives in the hands of the silver giant ‘Ultraman’. Now it appears that we no longer have need for him.”
The topic made Cory uneasey for some unknown reason. Ever since his grandfather joined the SSSP years ago, he always exhibited strange powers since the day he retired. His family chocked it up to perhaps he was exposed to some sort of radiation that increased his physical and mental abilities. Or, he was subject to some experimental tests during the age of monsters that plagued earth during the 1960’s.
“These idiots could go on for hours,” Emma mumbled. A half hour went by before it was the end of the class period.
“For a history teacher he seems way more obsessed with monsters” Cory mumbled, resting his head on his hand.
“Dr. Owens gets a hard on for that crap.” Emma raised her brows for a brief second.
Cory nodded in agreement, “I’ve learned more about government inside jobs and monsters than I have about the roman empire.”
“Remember his gay frog tirade? I’m surprised he kept his job after that.”
Emma smiled, “there might be some truth to it, it might be why you can’t grow a beard.”
“Touche.” He leaned back in his chair.
Later that night, he walked back with Emma to his dorm room, the brisk wind of fall scrapping dried leaves against the darkened streets. They were about half way when Emma decided the wind was too much for her, and she decided to go her own way.
“So much for a early release.” Alex fiddled with his smartphone, snapping back his sibling as he attended a house party on his own campus.
“Why can’t we have a party like that?” Emma frowned her onyx lips, brushing her hair back.
“Wanna have one of our own?” Alex smiled, jabbing her in the shoulder.
“Not even in your wildest dreams. Maybe you can have one with your ‘Lyra’ friend.”
He shook his head, “Emma, I don’t know anyone by the name of fucking Lyra!”
“Well, I’m starting to freeze my ass off.” She zipped her red sweatshirt up all the way. She hugged Alexander, “Goodnight” she whispered.
“Goodn-“ he stopped. When he opened his eyes, the street lamp illuminated a dark figure in the apartment window across the street. He saw something, or someone, with a silver, almost featureless face staring at him as he stood by his car. It had large, glowing eyes, and what appeared to be a gem on its forehead. Cory’s hug loosened around Emma, his brows furrowing as the figure stared back him, feeling as if this beings eyes burned right through him.
“Cory?”
He broke from his trance and looked down at Emma, a look of concern on her face, “What are you looking at?”
“There was a man across the street staring at us from the window.” He looked back to where he saw the figure, but to his surprise, and somewhat horror, it was gone. All he saw was a vacant window.
“Yeah, real funny. Nobody lives in that apartment, not since the beginning of last semester.” Emma tapped a finger against his chest. She broke the embrace and smiled, “Try and rest tonight, you’ve been allover the place these past few weeks.”
Cory nodded, “Easier said than done, but I’ll try.” And with that, Emma turned and started walking for her dorm, turning around to smile back at him one more time. Upon entering his house, ascending the stairs. He undressed and stepped into the shower. He couldn’t stop thinking about his current dream.
“Lyra huh?” He rinsed the soap from his eyes, “Just what in the hell are these dreams about? First I dream about monsters, and now horses?” He laughed to himself at the absurdity of it all. But deep down, he felt a growing paranoia in his stomach.
After drying himself off and getting dressed in his pajamas, he laid down in bed. Turning off the lamp, he listened to the howl of the wind outside. It was cold, that’s for sure, and through the old dorm window pane he could feel a drift of cold air waft in. The rhythmic howl of the wind and his clock slowly ticking helped him fall fast asleep.
It was happening again.
A silver and red giant through off an equally towering foe with a shout, the two rising to their feet and squaring off with each other. There was a ringing, echoing sound that was emmited from this black and white monster, it’s hands relaxed at its side. The silver and red giant formed his hands into a cross, firing a white hot ray of blue and white energy at this beast. The monster brought its knuckles together and absorbed the ray, much to the shock of his foe. Before the silver giant coud counter attack, the monster thrusted his hands forward, firing a wave like ray that struck the silver giant in the chest. The blinking light that was there shattered, causing the giant to yelp. He swayed back and forth for a few moments before falling back. His eyes were dim, his hands placed across his chest. All the while the black and white monster bellowed it’s own name.
“ZET-TON… ZET-TON…ZET-TON…”
Cory awoke in a cold sweat, gasping as he sat up in bed. He could feel adrenaline rush through his body, his senses heightened. He breathed heavily as he grasped his temples. When he managed to calm down, he went to his bathroom and splashed cool water onto his face.
“Again.. I’m having that weird dream all over again.” This dream occurred infrequently throughout his life for as long as he could remember. When he spoke of it to his father, he usually brushed the topic off. He always knew his dad knew something was wrong, hell, he even remembered his dad talking about having a similar one to his mother. But he never could get answers as to why only they in their entire family had them. He laid back down onto the mattress and closed his eyes. He wasn’t exactly sure when, but he managed to find sleep once more.
He opened his eyes and saw the dark interior of his bedroom. However, something was off, his hair felt like it was standing up, like a ripple of electricity ripped through the air. He was paralyzed, he tried to scream but the sound never came. Hell, it was almost impossible to breath. He gasped for air as a bright flashing light enveloped the room. The last thing he heard was a low, guttural roar that was deafening. Somewhere along the way, he reappeared elsewhere in a forest, the gentle breeze brushing over him as he lay unconscious. The alien sky showed a moon that was too large to be that of earths, its light dimly illuminating the canopy where the calls of owls and tree crickets filled the cool, damp night air.
Several miles from where he lay, the stars shined brightly in the dark abyss that was the sky. The town, its architecture resembling gothic style buildings and castles, were scattered along the landscape and mountain side. Canterlot was the name of this great city, its name was known throughout the land. Its name dripped wealth, class and culture. Home to the finest in all of Equestria, this was the final frontier to those who yearned to become the very best.
Atop one of the castles that leaned out towards the star clad horizon, an ivory mare with a flowing, teal and pink mane stared from her window pane. Without her sun, she could not properly look over her kingdom in order to discover just what this disturbance was. Just, what was this knot she was feeling in her stomach that was causing such paranoia and unease.
A Blue mare, complete with a horn and wings just like her sister entered the bedroom. Where a sun was on the flank of the white mare, hers was a crescent moon. "Sister, pray tell, what has thee worried at such a late hour?"
Celestia closed her eyes and turned away from the window sill, "I sense a disturbance of some sort, an, imbalance."
"Whatever do you mean? All is well across the land." She stood by her sisters side, "I remember looking upon those rolling hills. Remember him? That foal, well, boy as they called him that would always nap facing the castle?"
Celestia nodded, "It's been almost a full millennia."
"If only," Luna said solemnly, "If only there was another way for it to end."
"They were a violent people Luna. It pained to see the good ones, the ones that also served us well go to. But, in the nd they would have sided with their own people."
Luna nodded in agreement, "Do you think we will ever cross paths with them again?"
"While they're in their own little world?" Celestia giggled, "I don't see that happening. Even though stranger instances have occurred before."
"Indeed they have." Luna turned away from Celestia, "Come sister, it is time that I take charge of things. You need your rest to raise your sun."
"I will try Luna." Celestia closed the curtains and walked to her bedroom. Her stomach felt uneasy... Something was horribly wrong. When the time came for her to raise the sun, she would send for her protege to assist her in getting to the bottom of these recent “occurrences”.
XXX
Somewhere in his unconscious state, Cory floated in a dark abyss, his eyes darting around, looking for a way out of this place. It was all black, nothing penetrated through the darkness. No wait, there was something in the darkness. An image appeared faintly in his unconscious mind... A horse, no a pony... But it was different than a pony. Its eyes were far too large, and human like. It had a warm, welcoming smile, a red bow in its sea blue mane. Another pony flashed through his mind. It had a horn on its forehead, a two tone mint green mane, and yellow, golden eyes. Her coat was a minty green color, much different in contrast to the almost grey one of the previous mare. The next one was what surprised him the most. A Unicorn like the one before, her mane was an electric blue, her eyes showed from behind her retro style sunglasses. They were a bright, neon red along with her off white coat. The last ‘person’ he saw was a stern looking anthropomorphic wolf, or was it a dog?. Based off of her features he assumed it was a female. . Who... Just who were those creatures? Why was he seeing them in this dream like state?