//------------------------------// // The Park Is Open // Story: The Crystal Human // by PhoenixHorseGuy //------------------------------// (Cadances POV) “A jungle?” I questioned aloud. “This could be interesting. Maybe he’s dreaming about being an adventurer of some kind?” Anything would be an improvement over last night. I don’t think that even a mind wiping spell would be able to get that image out of my head. "Still got some change in them as well." Jack’s voice echoed within my mind. I quickly shook the thoughts away as Shining and I followed Aunt Luna through the jungle, eventually stumbling upon a gravel road, turned muddy by a recent rain storm. “I wonder what the metal bar in the middle is for?” Shining questioned, pointing towards the offending piece of metal. “It’s almost like train tracks, but only half finished.” “I’m more concerned about where the road leads.” Luna pointed her head a little ways down the road, where we could see large metal pillars, each one connected to the others by wires. All except for two, where the wires seem to have been forcibly removed. There was a sign sitting in the gravel in front of the hole. While it was slightly muddy, I could still make out most of what it said. …GER 10,000 VOLTS “This is a cage.” Luna spoke up. “And whatever was in it has escaped.” Thunder going off far in the distance punctuated Luna’s point. “What do you think was in it?” Shining asked, investigating the damage for himself. The roar of a creature none of us had ever heard before echoed out from somewhere in the distance. While it wasn’t right on top of us, it was still too close for comfort. “Let’s hope we don’t find out.” Luna replied. “Jackson should be arriving soon. I have an idea on how to break his immersion sooner, but we need to wait until he gets here.” Taking that as my cue to look around the area more, I wandered over to what looked like a collapsed straw building. All that remained were the stalls and toilets, clearly an outhouse of some kind. “What’s your idea, Aunt Luna?” “You two know how I had you play along in Jackson’s previous dream?” At our nods, she continued. “Well, I believe that we have intruded into his mind enough that we should be able to break it as soon as he sees us.” “And if he doesn't?” Shining asked. “Then we play along until it does break.” Luna said while investigating the strange carriage-like vehicle sitting on the road, it’s outside painted in a mix of greens, yellows and reds. Two words were painted on the side. “Have either of you ever heard of a… ‘Jurassic Park’?” — I wasn’t sure how long we were left waiting for Jack, but the sounds of a low humming and… something moving through a dirt road paralleling the gravel one we were on, combined with Luna giving us a heads up, told us all that we needed to know. Jack was almost here. It was only another minute or so until Jack arrived, operating another one of the metal carriages. This one was painted gray, with some red added in as an accent. A row of lights were placed at the top of the windshield, providing additional visibility on top of the lights already located in the front end of the vehicle. As Jack exited, dressed in usual attire with a raincoat replacing his dark blue jacket, he got a good look at all three of us and did a double take. “Well… you guys showed up a lot faster tonight. And here I thought I was gonna get a look at a dino or two, not three ponies.” He fully exited the vehicle and closed the door behind him, revealing a logo of a skeleton of some sort of large creature on it, the words ‘Jurassic Park’ at the bottom. “Not that I’m complaining, of course.” “Greetings, Jackson. Pray tell, where are we, exactly?” Luna asked the question we had all been wondering. “Oh, this place? The names right here on the door.” He said as he pointed to the logo on the door of his vehicle. “As for what it is… think of it as a mix between a zoo and a theme park.” “A zoo? What kind of animals are they keeping in here if they need cages that big?” Shining asked, nodding back to the paddock behind us. “The kind that are very big and have been very dead for millions of years.” Jack replied, confusing us all. Before we could question him, the ground beneath us began to shake as the sound of stomping came from somewhere in the distance. Another stomp brought more shaking. And another. And another. And each one was getting closer. Jack had a look of recognition on his face, as he turned around and started walking back towards his vehicle. “Sounds like Rexy’s coming back. Alright everyone, get in the jeep!” Jack opened the doors to the vehicle for us to enter, though the gesture was unnecessary as Luna and I flew above the doors and into the roofless vehicle. Shining jumped into the passenger's seat as Jack sat down in what I assumed to be the driver's seat, both of them closing the doors behind them. “Rexy? Who’s Rexy?” I asked. I was answered by a large creature as it broke through the treeline behind us, releasing a deafening roar as it did so. It was massive, at least thirty feet long from head to tail by my estimate. Two powerful legs powered the creature's locomotion, while two small arms sat almost uselessly in front of it. Top it all off with its mouth filled with rows and rows of sharp banana sized teeth and scaly skin, and you had the makings of a monster straight out of a foal's nightmares. “That’s Rexy!” Jack said as he started the vehicle and began driving off. ‘Rexy’ had noticed this and began to pursue. “WHAT IS THAT THING?!?” Shining asked from the passenger seat of the ‘jeep’, keeping his eyes locked on the creature chasing us through the mirror on the side of the door. “Isn’t it obvious?” At the blank stares from me and Luna, Jack continued. “What, do you ponies not have dinosaurs or something?” “We do! But none of them look like that!” Shining replied. “Well, let me be your tour guide for the night, then!” Jack cleared his voice and, when he spoke again, he seemed to be trying to emulate the voice of a radio announcer. “The creature chasing us right now is a Tyrannosaurus Rex, or T.Rex for short. One of the largest carnivores in the whole of the dinosaurs' multi-million year long history! They can get up to forty feet in length and have a near insatiable appetite. Went extinct about sixty-five million years ago when the asteroid hit and caused a mass extinction event that killed both it and the rest of the dinos.” “If they’re supposed to be dead, then why is one chasing us?” Luna queried. “Well, the company that owns this park, iNGen, found a way to clone dinosaurs with the DNA trapped in amber-encased mosquitos. Under the direction of one John Hammond, they opened up this theme park on the island of Isla Nublar. This park never opened to the public, and would be left abandoned for nearly two decades, until iNGen came back and built another park with the same exact idea in the south of the island.” Jack suddenly swerved to the right and onto the main gravel road, the T.Rex still hot on our tail.”Sorry, I’ll warn you next time I do that. Anyway, that’s not until 2015. Right now, in 1993? All we’ve got is a soon to be abandoned park that’s kind of in chaos right now.” “Uh, he’s gaining on us!” Shining yelled. “She.” “What?” “She’s a she. All the animals in Jurassic Park are female.” Jack explained. “Man, I really thought she would’ve lost interest by now.” “Why make them all female?” I asked, charging up my horn and getting ready to take shots at the prehistoric terror chasing after us. “To prevent them from breeding. I mean, could you imagine if Rexy right behind us could freely breed with another T.Rex? It would be disastrous for business!” “So only this ‘iNGen’ can create more of them?” Luna questioned, taking a few shots at ‘Rexy’. At Jack’s nod, she continued. “That sounds both unnecessarily cruel and like a good method of population control.” “It definitely was the second. Well, until life found a way, at least.” “Don’t tell me…” Shining said. “Yup. They found a way to breed anyway. And they did that. By the time anyone found out about it, it was already too late to stop it. Brace yourselves. Hard left coming up.” We did as he suggested and, sure enough, he took a hard left at the next intersection. Rexy was not letting up her chase. “As I was saying, by the time anyone found out, most of the animals had escaped or were in the process of escaping their enclosures and the park was already in the chaotic state we find it in now.” The jeep entered a tunnel, illuminated only by the lights on the front and back of the vehicle. Jack parked it a little ways in and we all watched as Rexy tried and failed to enter the tunnel behind us. After her fourth attempt, she gave up and went back the way we came. “You know, this depiction of the T.Rex is actually scientifically inaccurate nowadays.” Jack suddenly said after a moment of silence. “They were much quieter on their feet, and they couldn’t make that loud roaring sound with their vocal cords. Some think they might’ve had feathers, but I’m not sure if that’s been proven or not.” “I… I… good to know…” Shining replied. “By Celestia, I’ve never been that terrified in my life.” “Are you kidding? That was fun!” I said, shocking the sole unicorn occupant of the jeep. “The thrill of being chased by a monster through the jungles of an isolated island in a strange vehicle… I kind of want to do it again!” “Perhaps another time, dear niece. For now, we have business to attend to.” Luna looked over to Jack. “Namely, how you managed to survive being attacked by Sombra.” “Before we get to that…” Jack said, “mind if I pick the scenery this time? This dream has given me an idea or two.” — (Jacksons POV) "Welcome, your highnesses, to Jurassic Park!" I said with a grandiose sweep of the arm as I slowly pulled the Jeep to a stop at the top of a hill, overlooking the famous opening scene of the first movie. The two mares in the back looked on in awe and wonder at the Brachiosaurus' in the distance, while Shining seemed to be both curious and scared of the sauropods. I put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Don't worry. Those gals are herbivores. As long as you keep your distance and don't try to scare or hurt them, then they won't hurt you." Shining's only response was a simple nod. I let go of his shoulder and opened my door, stepping out of the Jeep. "We'll be out here when you want to join us!" Cadance and Luna had both vacated the vehicle and set up a picnic while I was busy making sure Shining wouldn't die of a panic attack upon seeing more dinosaurs. "It's a beautiful view, is it not?" I questioned the two mares. "Yeah… does this all actually exist where you're from? The ability to bring back extinct animals through science?" Cadence questioned. I let out a small chuckle. "I wish. But no. This is all fiction. Based on a popular novel back home. The novel that got adapted into a movie. These depictions are based on the dinos movie counterparts." I looked over to the two royals. "Do you have movies here?" "Nope. Never heard the term." Cadance answered. "Well… think of them as plays of sorts, but they're recorded and can be played back at any time." "Like a record player?" "That's… a really good comparison. And yeah, just with visuals as well as sound." "Oh, that reminds me! I've been meaning to ask you about your music player." Cadance perked up. "How does it play music without any records being hooked up to it? And how is it also a camera? What else can it do?" I took a moment to think about the questions I was just asked. "It's called a cellphone, a neat little thing we call an mp3 file, I don't know the specifics of that one, and… well, just about anything. With the press of a few buttons, you could reserve a table at your favorite restaurant, talk to someone from the opposite side of the world with your own voice, or send a letter to someone near instantaneously. Hell, that book I mentioned earlier? About two months ago, I used my phone to order both it and its sequel off of a service called Amazon and have it delivered right to my door." "As impressive as that all is," Luna interrupted, "I believe that we have more important matters to be discussing right now." It was at this point that Shining had joined us, taking a seat in the empty spot that I had left for him between myself and his wife. "Right. Sombra." I grabbed a bottle of Stewart's brand root beer out of… somewhere… (dream logic, don't question it) and twisted the cap off. No more stalling on my end. "Right, so the first time I heard the noise…" — "... and then we went back to the palace, Shining and Cadence did what I assume to be a medical checkup on me, and I'm now stuck in bed with a twisted ankle." I finished recounting the day's events. "Wait, I don't ever remember telling you about your ankle." Shining chimed in. "It's not the first time I've twisted one of my ankles. I know what it feels like." I laughed a little at the memory. "Coach and the captain were both paranoid that I might make it worse if I didn't get at least six weeks of leave, despite the fact that the doctor said I could go back to running track in half that time." "I'm glad that they were concerned for your health, but six weeks seems a bit excessive. Especially since the doctor said you would be fine after three weeks." "Well, I couldn't exactly argue with them. Coach knew the most about this type of stuff. He had a good two decades of experience under his belt, after all. He was also a very caring and very stubborn man. If I tried to argue with him about it, I would have a better chance at winning a debate with a brick wall." I replied to Shining's inquiry. "And the captain?" Luna pressed. "Why couldn't you argue with him about it?" "Cause the captain at the time was my older brother, Edward." "You have siblings?" Cadence asked. "Yup. Youngest of three brothers. My stepbrother Anthony is the oldest. He's twenty nine now. Edward's next, at twenty three. Then last comes me, at twenty, twenty one once the winter solstice hits." I shook my head. "But we're getting off topic." I look over to Luna. "On a scale of one to ten, how much did I piss off our resident former unicorn king?" "Well, if what you are saying about shooting an arrow into his horn is accurate… I would say that you have successfully broken that scale." Luna replied very matter-of-factly. “Ah. I’m on a unicorns ‘kill-on-sight’ list now. Amazing.” I burst out laughing after a brief moment of silence. “Fucking Christ, I never thought I would say that in my life.” “Didn’t get on bad terms with any unicorns back home?” Cadence asked. “Didn’t get on bad terms with anyone back home. I didn’t try to, at least. And I think I would remember meeting a unicorn back on earth.” “Not common?” “Nope. They don’t exist. Nothing more than myth and legend.” I took a sip of my root beer, observing the looks of disbelief on both Shining and Cadence’s faces. Luna didn’t seem to have a visible reaction. In fact, she seemed more interested in the Brachiosaurus’ off in the distance. If the ear she had pointed in our direction was any indication, though, she was clearly listening in on our conversation. “I… I’m not sure how to respond to that.” Shining’s delayed response brought me out of my musings about the lunar princess and back to the conversation we were having. “Hey, mind if I ask you something?” “Go ahead.” “You said that humans can’t use magic, right?” “Right.” “And Princess Luna says you can’t store magic within your own body…” “That is correct.” Luna chimed in, confirming my suspicions that she was eavesdropping. “Why the sudden line of questioning, Captain?” “Well, it’s just…” Shining stopped for a moment, seemingly looking for the right words before continuing. “Did anything strange happen while you were out there? Besides Sombra, of course.” “Not that I can recall… Oh, no. There is one thing. A voice. Someone… or something… spoke to me. In perfect English. Gave me advice on how to adjust my aim so that I could hit Sombra’s horn.” “And you didn’t see the creature who gave it to you?” “Nope. It was just me and Sombra out there. As far as I’m concerned, the voice came from inside my own head.” “I don’t think so.” “Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?” “Your positive nopony else was out there with you?” Shining answered my question with one of his own. “...Now you're making me unsure.” I admitted. “You know when you were on the ground, pointing the crossbow at Sombra?” I nodded. How could I forget? “Well, as I was running out to help you, somepony casted a shield spell to protect you. It broke pretty quickly, but it took most of the blast. I know it wasn’t Cadance or I, and you can’t use magic…” “... So that means someone else is out there who also wants to see Sombra taken down a peg.” I finished for him. “Sounds like it.” Was Shining’s response. “But my question is, who? And why hide from us?” “Good questions, those.” I mulled over the idea for a while. Maybe they just want to be left alone? Maybe it was a stray Crystal Pony who was brave enough to venture out of the borders? Or maybe… Couldn’t hurt to ask. “Do you two have any enemies that might also see Sombra as a threat?” I asked the married couple. “Only pony I can think of is…” Cadance trailed off. “No, but it can't be her. Why would she help us? Knowing her, she would side with Sombra to take us down! Not actively help us out!” “Her?” I questioned. “Queen Chrysalis.” Shining supplied. “She’s an enemy of Equestria. Has been since our wedding day.” “How’d she manage that?” “By foalnapping me, locking me in the Crystal Caves under Canterlot, impersonating me for several weeks and hypnotizing my future husband, all in an effort to capture Canterlot and then go on to conquer Equestria." Cadance rather angrily summarized. … … "... Jesus fucking Christ." I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I just said the first thing that came to mind. And the first thing that came to mind? Using Christ's name in vain. "Ok, so if not her, then who?" "The only other enemy of Equestria I can think of is Discord, but he's a statue in the Royal Gardens right now." So petrification is a possible punishment here. Good to know. "Do you have any ideas, Auntie?" "I do not, no." Luna adopted a thoughtful expression. "I doubt your theory that it is an enemy of Equestria with a common interest in keeping Sombra down, yet I can find no other explanation as to why this mystery creature would wish to remain hidden." After a moment of thought, she continued. "I… I suppose it could be Chrysalis. We did lose track of her after her invasion was repulsed. She could've reestablished her hive somewhere in Frozen North, and now sees Sombra as a potential threat… It could've been her or one of her subjects that assisted you with the shield spell, at the very least." "But how could the Changelings have been able to get around the language barrier? They can barely use basic offensive spells and simple telekinesis!" Shining said. "Changelings?" I questioned. "They're a race of shapeshifters." Luna began lecturing. "When undisguised, they look like ponies with black chitin instead of fur, and large, single colored eyes. They were the ones who attacked Canterlot during the wedding." "And Chrysalis is their queen?" Luna nodded. I was really regretting that bedbug joke I made two days ago now. "What's next, a cult leader who steals the images off of these ponies' flanks?" "Any chance some of your troops could've gone AWOL and come up north without orders?" I proposed. "If any had done so, my sister and I would've been made aware of it by now." “Maybe there’s a hermit living around here somewhere?” “Um, guys.” Shining attempted to interject. We ignored him. “Unlikely. The Frozen North is widely known for being inhospitable. They would need to be much closer to Equestria’s borders in order to survive.” “Guys?” Shining failed to interject once again. Cadance seemed to notice and turned to him. She said something, but I wasn’t paying attention. “Could any of the local wildlife have done it?” “You and I both know the answer to that is no.” “Maybe… maybe it’s a spirit of some kind? You know, like a ghost or something?” "That is a possibility. If a spirit were to possess you for a short amount of time and was either too weak or unwilling to take control of your body for themselves… Yes, that could explain the voice from within your own mind. But who's spirit could it be?" "That's the million dollar question." “Jack?!” Cadance punched my arm lightly with her hoof, getting my attention. “What are those?” “What are wh-” I silenced myself as I saw the small green lizard-like creatures on the blanket, fighting Shining for his sandwich and somehow managing to put up a good fight against his magic. - “Dream logic.” I reasoned. - When not battling Shining, their pure black eyes darted around at the other residents of the dream realm. “They’re kind of cute, in a weird way.” Luna said as we witnessed Shining pull one off of his sandwich and place it on the ground using his magic. “Compsognathus.” I confidently pronounced incorrectly. “Most people just call them Compys though. They’re scavengers, but they do hunt insects on occasion.” I decided to leave out the fact that they could take down a grown man when in a large enough group, or how three of them managed to eat a baby alive in the books. I think I’ve given them enough nightmare fuel with the arcade and Rexy. “It’s odd though. They aren’t supposed to be in this scene.” I added. “I believe it may be a case of your subconscious mind acting of its own accord.” Luna threw her two cents in. “I allowed them into the scene with my magic after I sensed your mind trying to introduce them into the dream. I thought it was you trying to introduce more of those… what did you call them again?” “Brachiosaurus.” “Right. Worry not, this is nothing to fear. And if Jackson says they aren’t a threat to us, then I am inclined to believe him.” “You ponies are way too trusting.” Before anyone could reply to that remark, we were all alerted to a yelp of pain from Shining, who still battling the Compy’s for his sandwich. “Ow! That’s my tail!” When he turned to deal with the distraction, the other Compys took the opportunity to snag his sandwich and bolt, the distraction escaping with them. “Hey! Get back here!” He yelled, jumping up and chasing after them. “And here I thought you couldn’t feel pain in dreams.” I commented. “That is a common misconception.” Luna replied as we watched the Compys literally run circles around Shining, playing a game of keep away with him and winning. “Any living creature is fully capable of feeling pain in dreams. It’s usually just not as intense as it might feel in the waking world.” “Interesting.” “Should we go help him?” Cadance asked, pointing down to her tired out husband. “Yeah. We should. Those guys can take him out if they feel like it.” “I thought you said they were scavengers and hunted insects?” Cadance questioned with a concerned look. “They are, and they do.” I replied. “There's also a scene from the second movie where they manage to kill a full grown man with numbers alone, and there’s a famous scene in the novel where they break into someone's home and eat an infa-” That was enough for Cadance to ignite her horn and rush into battle against the Compys, providing some much needed assistance to her husband. “Are you going to finish that sentence?” Luna questioned. “From the look on your face, I think you could already tell where I was going with that.” “That I could.” Luna confirmed. “The human mind seems quite creative, if not rather dark and morbid at times.” “You could say that about the whole of the human race. In all seriousness, not all of our literature is like that.” "I assumed so." Luna stopped me. "Every culture has its own dark side, and that dark side is often seen in that cultures literature, in one way or another. Remind me to introduce you to the stories of Scare Master after you learn how to read UEWS. He was a master of both theater and literature, and his works have scarred foals for centuries." "Are you proposing we start a horror themed book club, your highness?" "... I suppose you could call it that, yes." Luna answered after a moment. "Well, remind me to introduce you to the works of Bram Stoker and Stephen King. Just for the sake of cultural exchange." Maybe throw Michael Crichton as well. The JP books may not be pure horror, but they can be pretty damn terrifying at times. "And how do you expect to be able to do that when you don't have access to any of those books?" "I'll, uh, I'll find a way." I lamely replied to Luna's inquiry. "WHY WON'T YOU STAY PUT?!?" We heard Cadance yell in the distance, still launching magical blasts at the Compys. "We should help them." Luna stated with finality. "Can't you just end the dream now and call it a night?" I questioned. "Actually, couldn't you have done that back with Rexy?" I added. "I could have." Luna replied, giving me the first smile I think I've ever seen from the mare. "But my niece wasn't the only one who was having fun during that chase." With that, she flew up into the air and glided down to Shining and Cadance, providing them with air support against the tiny green menace. As for me, I walked back towards the Jeep and rummaged through the back, finding a bolt action .17 HMR. Ignoring the fact that this caliber should not exist in the year 1993, I loaded her up and moved into a position where I could get a clear shot, laying down on the ground and setting up a bag to prop the barrel on top of. I managed to strike a few down before I heard a chirping noise coming from right next to me. Turning my head, I saw a Compy watching me in curiosity with its brilliant amber eyes. "Clever girl." I responded to the curious chirping between chuckles as I reloaded the rifle and took aim once more, taking care to avoid hitting my pony allies. Surprisingly, the Compy seemed content to just stand there and watch as its family was slowly wiped out for the crime of stealing Shining Armor's sandwich.