//------------------------------// // A Mystery Attacker // Story: Strange New World // by Conor Colton //------------------------------// Strange New World Chapter three: A Mystery Attacker.... Chris awoke the next morning to be greeted by pleasant sounds ringing through the charming streets of Ponyville, a small ray of sunlight shot through a crack in his curtains and gleamed on the newly transformed ponies eyeballs. He sat up and stretched his hooves up into the air and gave a slight grunt. Even after all his horrid visions during the night Chris had felt like this was the best sleep he had had in a very long time. He disembarked from the comfortable guest bed and surveyed his surroundings as he had done many times, both in amazement; and in reassurance that this was all real. He walked lazily over to the nearby window and parted the curtains to look out into the early morning streets of the charming little hamlet. He could not wait any longer, he just had to experience it first hand; as yesterday got off to a rather odd start leaving Chris very little time to take in this new environment. He was about to exit his guest room but he noticed something he had failed to before, there was a small slip of paper on a nearby cabinet near the door to Chris’ temporary room. The pony picked it up carefully, still not accustomed to using hooves over hands and read it into his head. “Dear Chris...” The letter read, obviously being from Twilight, “Didn’t want to wake you, but just wanted to let you know that Spike and I are doing some errands today. If you want to join us, head to the town square, you’ll probably run into us. Hope you feel better after yesterday, sincerely ~ Twilight.” Chris put the letter safely back on the simple wooden cabinet and departed from the library in hopes of finding the town square. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ He had gotten rather used to having to walk on all fours, although it wasn’t entirely his own doing; Fluttershy’s brace had helped in the healing and learning process. He continued walking through the emotionally soothing streets of Ponyville, giving a wave to the occasional passer by. But then something popped into his head, one of the events that had occurred yesterday; the mysterious hooded mare in the alleyway. Although Chris had a suspicion on who it was given the illusive characters choice of words, he couldn’t determine anything since he was never given a chance to unmask her. As Chris thought on this though, he wondered about the words that the mare gave to him, they sounded like a warning; a warning of a terrible event, and it had something to do with Chris. He continued to contemplate these odd occurrences and try and make sense of them, but before he could come to a solution that sounded rational enough to be true he was interrupted by a small object landing and seemingly exploding in front of him. He recoiled in shock and stumbled slightly before falling on his flank, it was only after this embarrassing public display he realized that what was dropped in front of him wasn’t anything dangerous; it was a red plant pot filled with dirt that had shattered upon impact and left earth traces over the surrounding radius of it. Chris got up and composed himself, dusting himself off from his stumble. He lowered his head slightly as a small gathering of ponies watched his slip up and tried to stifle their collective laughs in hopes of not looking rude or jerk-like. Chris didn’t buy it though, he just continued hobbling off towards the town square and hoped that everypony would one day forget all about this shameful reaction. As he did though he heard a laugh being stifled from a different direction and oddly enough, that direction was up. He caught a glimpse of multicoloured lock of mane fly just out of sight, covered by the cloud; Chris could still hear the attempts to suppress laughter though so he knew who it was straight away. He scrunched his face slightly in displeasure and spoke up to the hiding pegasus. “....Rainbow....I know that’s you up there...” Chris said with a serious tone of voice. Rainbow Dash slid across the cloud until her head was leaning over the side, she tried to play the innocent pony as she spoke. “Oh, hey Chris.....what’s up?.....You sound upset.” The pegasus stated as she continued to chuckle in between her words. Chris responded with a raised eyebrow and a disapproving look. “You dropped that pot in front of me didn’t you?” He said with an all knowing tone of phrase. “No......I got her to do it.” Rainbow said with a smile as she pointed to another nearby pegasus listening to Chris and Rainbow's conversation from afar; Chris looked over and saw that a single feature about that pony was distinct, she had something up with her eye orientation. Chris then sighed, feeling slightly defeated and responded to Rainbow. “Of course it was her...” He conceded as Rainbow floated down next to him and put her hoof around his neck and onto his far shoulder. “Ah don’t worry about it, I was just having a bit of fun.” Rainbow said as he gave Chris a small rustle of his mane. “No I’m not worried Rainbow, I know you were just joking, I gotta get going to meet Twilight and Spike anyway.” Chris indicated with a smile back at the pegasus. Rainbow answered with an equally as pleasant smile and floated back up to her perch on the cloud and waved to Chris. “Alright, see ya later, try and have fun.” Rainbow said, referring to Twilight’s ‘stick in the mud’ attitude. And with that Chris headed off. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When he had finally reached the town square he had almost completely lost his train of thought on the subject of yesterday’s strange events, and last night’s even stranger dream. The dream in particular stumped Chris as he just kept wondering why he would see through the eyes of some gigantic beast heading towards the town, and why the dream seemed so real. He was once again interrupted in his thoughts by the familiar voice of an equally as familiar pony; he looked across the square and saw Twilight and Spike waving him over. He smiled, waved back and began trotting towards them. As he proceeded to though, a thought entered his mind like a bullet, he had never noticed this before. In his dream he saw through the eyes of a beast, but it wasn’t at night in his dream; it was in broad daylight. This was a mundane detail at best but it stood out in Chris’ head for some reason. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Regardless though, he walked up to Twilight and Spike and exchanged greetings to each other. “Hey Chris...so, you feeling any better?” Twilight said with a cute and friendly smile, at the same time with a concerned tone in her voice. Chris wanted to dispel any concerns as he was generally feeling much better after he had some time to rest over his slight injury. “Yeah actually, I feel great.” Chris said as he turned his head to further observe his surroundings then turning back to the unicorn. “That’s great, I’m glad that you’re back in good shape.” Twilight said as her inevitable smile towards Chris was cut off by Spike interjecting. “Chris, thank goodness you got here. Twilight didn’t want to start lunch without you.” Spike stated as he clung to Chris’ leg in happiness. Chris gave an awkward look back to Twilight who simply shrugged her shoulders and blushed slightly for Spike’s behaviour. Chris then shook Spike off and spoke to Twilight again. “Well judging by how Spike is acting, we should probably g-” Chris was cut off by a large booming sound. It shook the earth beneath his feet; and then there was another, and another, each getting progressively closer. Chris felt a sudden head ache, all he could see was what he saw in his dream the previous night, only now the vision of the beast was in the town; and the places it passed look very familiar to Chris. And that’s when he realized that the beasts vision was passing all the places he had took to reach the town square. He snapped out of his headache to see a enormous, ferocious, blood thirsty; Ursa Minor standing right in front of him. Chris backed up slightly only to bump into Twilight, who was staring at the Ursa with a terrified look on her face, Spike also had a similar expression, along with a crowd of ponies who were standing behind Chris. The stallion stood and watched the almost motionless Ursa growl and drool as he whispered a few words of desperation to Twilight, “Twilight.....what do we do?” Chris asked, trying to stay quiet. “I might be able to stop it using my magic. Just as long as nopony makes any sudden mov-” Twilight was cut off by two screams coming from the back of the crowd. The group turned slowly around to see who had screamed, and to everypony's surprise, or lack there of; it was Snips and Snails. “Oh of course you two would be the one’s to do this.” Spike stated, displeased as the Ursa let out a gigantic roar and readied itself to cause havoc. “Run!” Twilight yelled as everypony collectively screamed and began to scatter. Chris was almost lost in all the chaos, he was nearly knocked over a couple of times before he managed to escape the madness with Twilight. The two rounded a corner and pressed themselves up against a nearby wall and took long, panicked breaths. Then Chris realized something. “Uh...where’s Spike?” Chris’ question was quickly answered by a loud scream coming from around the corner, he looked and saw Spike cornered by the Ursa. Before Twilight did anything Chris stood in front of her and shouted to the big blue monster, “Hey!” Chris said as the Ursa turned towards him and roared, allowing Spike to escape. But now the beast was billowing towards Chris and Twilight, “Well that was incredibly stupid.....Run!” Chris said to Twilight as the two ducked into a nearby alleyway, just evading the grasp of the Ursa. The beast tried to reach them but the two flew out the other side of the alleyway as the beast decided to follow them the quickest way; by trampling a few small buildings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The two kept running with the Ursa close on their tails, Chris looked for a solution and then he remembered a particular ability he had seen Twilight use before, teleportation. “Twilight, can’t you just poof us out of here with your magic or something?” Chris asked as he hoped Twilight would respond positively. “We don’t need to, I have a plan....why do you think we’ve been leading this thing around?” Twilight said with a hopeful but still slightly scared look on her face. “That’s what we’ve been doing....leading?.......Where we leading it to?” Chris asked, not sure what Twilight’s scheme was. “Well, we need a place where it’s not crowded with ponies, and it needs to be somewhere far enough away from Ponyville so it doesn’t come back...I was thinking Froggy Bottom Bog.” Twilight said with a bashful shrug to Chris. “You’re kidding me?!” Chris retorted as he looked ahead and realised they were heading straight for the bog. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The two had to traverse some steep slopes, with the Ursa still right behind until they were properly considered in the bog. As the Ursa was busy trying not to stumble on these steep slopes, Chris and Twilight ducked around another corner and Chris asked Twilight about her plan, “Okay...we’re here...what do we do now..?” Chris said whilst breathing heavily. “I’m going to cast a short term memory wipe and a sleep inducing spell on it...” Twilight said as she hoped that Chris would twig on, but luckily he did. “Oh...so when he wakes up he’ll just go back where he came from...I gotcha...” Chris said as he fully understood the situation now. “But...the spell is a gradual process....so you need to distract it whilst I cast it.” Twilight said with small cringe. “Wait what?....How am I supposed to do that?!” Chris said with a whispered frustrated tone. “I don’t know, insult it...throw a rock at it...I only just thought of this plan!” Twilight stated in a desperate tone of voice. “Okay okay........I’ll do it.....Ready?” Chris said as he poised himself for this. “Yeah.....one.....” Twilight stated “Two......” Chris retorted. “.....Three!” The pair said as they broke off in opposite directions to try and confuse the Ursa momentarily before it picked a target. The Ursa barreled towards Twilight as she was readying her spell and was closing in on her fast. Chris responded by lifting up a large rock next to him and hitting the Ursa in the back, causing it to slowly turn it’s attention to him. Chris spouted an insult as he threw an even bigger rock at the Ursa, leaving a massive mark on the beasts face. “Over here! You bear in the big blue skin freak!” Chris shouted as the beast came steaming towards him. Chris braced himself for impact but just as he thought he was surely dead, but the Ursa had turned it’s attention back to Twilight who’s horn was practically radiating magic at this point. However, the beast was moving more sluggishly as it seems Twilight’s spells was taking effect. Chris ran over beside Twilight as she was bringing down the big blue monster. But, just when things seemed calm Chris had another splitting pain in his head, he didn’t see anything this time; instead he heard something. He heard a deep foreboding voice in his head, and it said. “Intervention is needed.” Chris then looked up at the Ursa, the beasts eyes glowed and shone a bright red, Twilight’s spell seemed to have no effect anymore; although Twilight didn’t notice as she was to busy casting it to no avail. The newly powerful Ursa swiped at a formation of rocks above Chris and Twilight and sent them plummeting down towards the two of them, Chris was the only one to notice this though as he turned quickly to the distracted unicorn, “Twilight! Move!” Chris said as he pushed Twilight out of the way of the incoming boulders and fell backwards to avoid them himself. After this rock wall was created, keeping the two ponies from reaching each other, the Ursa climbed over and started chasing Chris. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The earth pony speeded in the other direction, with the Ursa in hot pursuit and no Twilight in sight, his situation wasn’t getting any better. Chris ducked into a narrow passage and started squeezing his way through. As he did the Ursa tried to reach in and grab him, when it did this Chris got a sudden headache and he once again had a vision. In it he saw a dark figure with red eyes, making the exact same motions as the beast that was chasing him. The headache went away though. When Chris emerged from the narrow passage he found himself on a unstable cliff face overlooking a deep, bubbling tar pit. Chris sighed. “Oh no.” The situation only got worse when the Ursa finally broke through the narrow passage and got ever closer to Chris, “Oh no, no!” Chris said as he was forced to back up and almost fall into the black pit of certain death below him, “Oh no, no, no!” Chris said as the Ursa backed up and readied it’s charge. Chris looked around frantically and at the other end of the chasm below he saw a ledge that was connected to solid ground, it was a rather far distance away though, and was unlikely that Chris would make the jump. He didn’t have time to contemplate this though as the Ursa began it’s charge. The ground literally crumbled underneath Chris as he jumped for the other side. Time seemed to slow down as Chris flew through the air, with the Ursa in midair about to take a swipe at him, but it speeded up when Chris hit the side of the rock face. He scrambled for a place to hold on and luckily grabbed onto a root protruding out of the cliff face from a nearby tree. The Ursa collided with the cliff side and scrambled to take Chris down with it but scraped it’s claws just below Chris and plunged into the black pit of tar below. The Ursa flailed and roared frantically as it struggled to stay afloat but it was to no avail, the dark fingers of the tar pit began to close around the beast as it progressively sank further and further into oblivion. And as Chris looked back one last time, he could have sworn that he saw the glowing redness leave the animal’s eyes as it took it’s final breath. Chris flopped onto solid ground and rendered himself unconscious from exhaustion, and relief. But as he did he heard the same harrowing voice he had heard before, and it said. “I know....who you really are....” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As Chris slumbered on the hard outside ground, he began to see visions in his dreams once again. In these visions he saw brief flashes of images, some depicting burning cities, slaughtered ponies, and a great rift opening in the sky. His vision became more stable and he saw himself in the middle of all this chaos and off in the distance he could see a dark figure, with red eyes, revelling in the destruction as it pointed at Chris and spoke only a few words. “You will fail, and all will suffer, because of you!” Chris’ head was filled with horrifying images, as well as the screams of the dead and damned. But just as it seemed the entire world was collapsing around him he heard a much softer voice in his head; one he had not heard before. “Wake up...” The voice stated in a gentle tone. After it did, Chris awoke on the hard ground, still beside the chasm where the Ursa had met it’s doom; popping back up with a series of panicked breaths followed by a long exhale he stood up and looked around. Things back in reality eased him of all the horrors he encountered in his intense dream, he exhaled once more and began to look for a way around the chasm, in hopes of finding Twilight or any other signs of life after the attack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ After some traversing, Chris found himself back on the other side of the chasm, he ducked and pushed his way through various rock formations; all the while still remembering the Ursa who chased him through this route not so long ago. He broke through a few small piles of rubble before he began to recognise his surroundings as the place he had last seen Twilight. He looked about before calling out for the unicorn. “Twilight!....You there?!....Anyb-...Anypony?!” Chris said, still not getting used to that phrase. He heard some faint rustling behind the rocks the Ursa had nearly dropped on him earlier before hearing a response. “....Chris?!....Is that you?” Twilight asked, still looking about, but not bothering to look behind the massive pile of rocks. Chris climbed over the pile and gently slid down, but still managing to stumble and fall on his flank on the way down. “Uh....Hey.” Chris stated to the unicorn with a smile. Twilight immediately gave the pony a hug, but Chris was unsure as to why, “Uh....why the hug?” Chris asked with a raised eyebrow. “Well....I thought you were dead.” The unicorn said as she released Chris and took a step back. “Well....I’m not....I guess.” Chris said as he rubbed the back of his head and darted looking in another direction. “But, what happened then?” Twilight demanded, she wanted to know if there was any immediate threat. Chris was still sore from the chase and the following vision, and he needed some time before he could recount the events of what happened. “I’ll tell you later...But first I need a bit of a rest...” Chris said as he began to hobble back towards town with Twilight closely following. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When the two began to get closer to Ponyville, Chris could make out a few figures on the horizon quickly approaching. As they got closer Chris could make them out as the remaining of the mane six along with Spike. “Oh goodness my dear, are you alright?!” Rarity asked, slightly out of breath. “Yeah, tell us what happened!” Rainbow demanded rather angrily. “Uh...if that’s okay....” Fluttershy retorted in response to Rainbow’s outburst. “Come on man, just spill the beans!” Spike also demanded, only adding his voice to the uproar. “Now y’all, he’s probably not up for talking...right Chris?” Applejack stated, wanting to give Chris a chance to respond. “Yeah uh...I think I need to lie down for a second. Wait....where’s Pink-” Chris was cut off but none other than Pinkie appearing behind him, and promptly startling everypony. “Here I am! Did I scare you guys?!” Pinkie asked, only to be met with unamused faces from everypony. “Yeah....you kinda did...” Chris said he continued to look unamused. “Well I was only having a bit of fun, you guys should learn to have more fun, you guys don’t wanna be like rock farmer’s right? Now that I mention it, did I ever tell you guys about my parents? Or my grandparents? Or my great, great, great, great-” Pinkie said at an ever increasing velocity. “Pinkie!” Everypony shouted in unison. “Oh Chris! I didn’t know you were a blank flank!” Pinkie stated as everypony’s eyes widened as well as Chris’ “What?!....I d-” Chris said as he looked back to inspect his flank to find that there was a tear in his jeans he had brought with him from Earth, revealing his definite blank flank; and while he was at it he noticed a few more rips in his clothes. It had seemed the Ursa had beaten Chris up more than he had thought; he chalked that up to adrenaline but was just happy to be alive. “Uh...Oh my....those clothes simply won’t do....Uh...I must fix them post haste.” Rarity directed, trying to steer the conversation away from this rather awkward revelation. But sadly that was to no avail, as Chris felt embarrassed over something he had literally no notion of up until this point; but then something hit him. “Wait...Twilight....you were walking behind me the whole time.” Chris stated as he waited for the unicorn to respond. “Well...uh....I didn’t want to mention it?” Twilight stated with a shrug, a nervous smile, and a small voice crack. “...It doesn’t matter....Let’s just go...” Chris said as he hung his head in shame and began to walk back to town. Pinkie then walked beside him to state something. “Don’t worry Chris...I know a few fillies that could help you out.” The pink pony said with a smile. Chris knowing exactly who she was talking about as he let out a disgruntled sigh. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ When Chris and the others reached the library it was still only past midday as the sun had just moved from the centre of the sky, and yet Chris was extremely tired. Spike held the door open for the rest and everypony nodded to give thanks to the dragon and as Rarity entered last Spike lovingly puckered his lips; only to be met with a brief pat on the head. They all sat down but Rarity, who immediately walked over to Chris. She stood there for a second, and in one swift motion from the unicorn, Chris had found his tattered clothes were no longer on his newly blue body, “......How did you do that?” Chris said with a slightly worried tone in his voice. “Art of the dress my dear.” Rarity said as she put the clothes to one side and sat down with the rest if them. “Right....should of guessed.” Chris stated, trying not to have a brony moment when Rarity said that. “Well....We’re all sitting down now. Tell us what happened!” Rainbow stated in the same demanding tone as earlier, to which Fluttershy replied pretty much the same. “Uh....if that’s still okay with you Chris.” She answered sheepishly. “Fine....Here’s what happened...” Chris said as he led off into the events that transpired, but he was still hesitant due to the fact he was now naked in front of these girls; but so were they in a sense so he continued on to tell them what happened. “....So.....you actually jumped?” Rainbow asked, still with her eyes widened along with everypony else. “Uh.....yes...” Chris said, not knowing how to respond to that. “But....you don’t have wings...or magic....you could’ve went down with that Ursa!” She retorted, still surprised at Chris’ actions. “Well....I guess I wasn’t really thinking at the time...I just wanted to get out of there.” He said with a shrug. There was silence before Pinkie burst into the conversation. “Wow! I mean wow! That’s....wow!” She said whilst bouncing up and down. “Pinkie...what are you so happy about?” Chris asked, confused at Pinkie’s sudden outburst. “Well duh...We have somepony else who can take care of an Ursa if Twilight’s too busy studying!” The pink pony said, still bouncing up and down. “....Are you joking Pinkie?” Chris said, again not sure how to respond. “Not gonna tell ya, that’s the joke!” Pinkie said as he poked Chris’ nose returned to her seating position, still with a big smile on her face. “Right....Uh...Well then what happened after that Chris? You were gone a good ten minutes before I saw you again...” Twilight asked as she wanted to fill in that time gap. “Well...after the Ursa fell into the tar pit...I passed out for a while....and....I saw....This may make me sound crazy but....” “Well go on Sugarcube...spit it out.” Applejack said, trying to ease the information out of him. “Okay.....I had these weird....visions....” Chris stated as he was met with a chorus of silence and strange looks; only to have Spike enter the conversation. “Yeah....you do sound crazy.” Spike said as Twilight kicked him slightly for saying that. “Well....what were these ‘visions’ of Chris....What did you see exactly?” Twilight asked, curious as to what the answer would be. “Well....I’m not sure what I saw exactly....destruction....death.....none of it was really clear....except for one thing...” Chris said as he looked to see interested faces before continuing his explanation. “There was this...horrible figure...with red eyes...and...it was just horrible...” Chris said as he looked down. But when he looked back up he noticed a distinct lack of somepony, “Uh.....where’s Fluttershy?” He asked. “Up....h-h-h-h-here...” Fluttershy stated as everypony looked up to find he clinging to the ceiling, upside down and shivering. “Ah....” Chris said as he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow; he completely expected that to happen but not that quickly. Fluttershy continued to stay on the ceiling as the conversation continued. “Well....I guess everypony better get ready then....” Twilight said as she was met with confused faces from everypony. “Ready for what?” They all asked in unison. “Well we need to report all of what’s happened to the Princess don’t we?” She asked rhetorically. “Couldn’t we just send a letter?” Spike asked, probably because it would take less effort. “No...she’d want to meet Chris face to face anyway. Besides, she might be able to explain his visions.” Twilight said as she opened the door for everypony, “Okay, you guys do what you need to and meet back here later.” She said as everypony walked out, except Fluttershy who sort of slid out along the ceiling. “Wait Rarity, what about my clothes?” Chris asked, rather concerned about walking about naked, and with a blank flank. “Oh right, heh, excuse me.” Rarity said as she levitated Chris’ tattered clothes in a neatly folded pile above her horn, “I’ll have these all ready and pressed when we need to leave dear.” She stated confidently as she left fully and Twilight closed the door behind her. “We should probably get ready as well.” Twilight stated, referring to Spike and herself, “You have anything you want to do before we leave Chris?” Twilight asked as she began to go upstairs. “No, I’m good..” Chris stated as he sat on a chair next to an open window. “Okay.....Let me know if you need anything.” She said as she went into another room with Spike, still trying to sound like a gracious host. Chris sat looking at the sky through the window and pondered a few things, mostly in particular the reoccurring appearance of these red eyes, and the seemingly shadowy figure that had these eyes. He looked up into the sky and pose a question out loud, but whispering it “...Who are you?” Referring to the figure with red eyes. After he posed that question though he heard a small sound to his right; and a familiar one at that. “Who?” Said a very peculiar owl next to him. “Oh goodness....not you...” Chris said as he gave the bird an unamused look. “Who?” The bird repeated. “You...” Chris stated, still unamused.