//------------------------------//
// ch. 17 villain 
// Story: A New World, a Fearful Way 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
//------------------------------//

	Lea was woken up from her nap by a few very loud knocks on the door downstairs. When no one went to answer it, she ran down and carefully opened the door. “Yes? What do you want?”
In the doorway stood a pegasus and some sort of cross between a braviary and a pyroar.
“We have a package we’re supposed to deliver here to a pokemon going by the name of Lea.” The pegasus explained. “Some sort of water filter from Cloudsdale. Know where we can find her?”
“She would be me. Do I need to sign anything saying I got it?”
“Yeah, actually. Can you sign here?”
Lea nervously looked at the package for a second. “Um, actually, can I look at it first? While I do trust that you did everything you should, we’ve been running into a lot of problems here and I want to make sure I don’t have another before I sign for it.”
“Go ahead.” said the other creature, “I’d like it if you would. If something were to happen, we’d be the ones thrown under the cart.”
Lea checked the package, and after looking at it pretty thoroughly, she signed the form and the two deliverers started on their way. Before they left, however, Lea stopped the second one. 
“What do you want?” He asked.
“I’m still kinda getting used to this world, and while I know the various names of your various species, I don’t know exactly which is which and, well, what I’m trying to say is that-”
“You want to know what I am?”
“Yeah, that pretty much hits the nail on the head.”
“Well, I’m a griffon. Sometimes you can mistake hippogriffs for griffons because they are part pony instead of lion.” He paused before rephrasing. “They have the back legs and tail of a pony instead.”
“Okay, sorry. To me, I recognize you to be part braviary and part pyroar.”
“Yeah, kinda guessed. Anyway, guessing by the names, it’s the pyroar part that changes.”
“Thanks for telling me. Sorry if I’m making you late for something else.”
“Nah, this was the last package I had to help with today. If you want, I could stay to help set it up, what with me having claws instead of hooves.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Nope, I really don’t know what I’d do instead. I ran out of things I even need to be doing. Besides, I think I can also help with your problem with learning the various species of Equus.”



After they had managed to to move the water filter down to the sewers. Lea and the griffon stated to talk.
“My name’s Gregor, by the way. Already knew yours was Lea since this was sent to you.
“Thanks Gregor. You know, your name is one of the most normal ones I’ve heard in the… OH MY GOSH! WE’VE BEEN HERE FOR THREE WEEKS!”
“Three weeks? Already? Wow, seems like it’s been less than that. Hmm, Natalya’s been away for a month then, which means she should be back sometime this week.”
“Natalya?” Lea questioned.
“My cousin. She had originally planned to visit me for a while, but something came up on the first day and she had to leave. Said she’d be back in about a month.”
“Do you wonder if she has any pokemon friends she’ll be bringing along?”
“She might. Okay, press that light blue button. that will release an inner tube that will keep it at the level we want it.”
Lea pressed the button on the filter. Around the machine, an orange inner tube inflated around it. After it finished, Gregor helped Lea get it into the water and tie it into place so they could place it.
“So, what do you want to hear about first?”
“Hippocampi please. They sound interesting.”
“Basically they’re ponies that live in the water.”
“So… like mermaids?
“Like… What?”
“Mermaids. They were sort of like if a human were part water pokemon. Top half of a human, bottom half of a milotic.”
“I guess that’s it, yeah. What next?”
“Hmm, I read about two leaders that went to the summit; a diamond dog and a minotaur. I found a picture of a diamond dog, and minotaur basically sounds like a mix of mino for man and taur like tauros, so I have an idea. Dragons are most likely like dragon types, but which ones?”
“Out of the pokemon I’ve seen, charizard looks closest to what they look like here. But then there are also wyverns.”
“Noiverns?”
“No, WYverns. They’re mistaken for dragons most of the time. The only difference that is easy to see is that dragons have six limbs, like two wings, four legs or two wings, two arms, and two legs. Don’t know if ones with two legs and four wings exist though. Wyverns have only four. It can be two wings, two legs or maybe no wings, just two arms and two legs.
“I only really know that because I was once out and lost when I came across one and called her a dragon.” Gregor laughed. “Boy was she mad!”
“Gregor! Watch what you’re doing!”
The tool Gregor had been holding had almost fallen into the water. Lea had barely caught it in her teeth and set it down.
“Sorry about that. How about changelings next?”
“No, I know how they look. I found some… pictures from the wedding incident. How about breezies?”
“Ah! I’ve heard a few pokemon who have seen pictures call them fairy ponies. They’re very small and have antennae and have gossamer wings.”
“Alright, I get the idea. Anything else?”
“Rumors of things called sphinx. Haven’t seen any so I can’t say. There are deer they kind of look like, well, um… rats, how do I describe them.”
“Deerling.”
“What’s that?” Gregor asked.
“I said,” Lea fixed a hole in a wall they’d built to control the flow of water. “deerling. If I associated ponies with ponyta, I’m gonna assume it’s the same for deer and deerling.”
“Okay. Oh shoot! How could I forget?! Zebras are like striped ponies, earth variety only, and donkeys are a lot like ponies and mules even more so. Again they’re also only like earth ponies. One you never want to see is a centaur. I’m pretty sure the only one left is Tirek, but last I heard, he’s still in Tartarus, though there was the one time Cerberus wasn’t guarding the gates…”
Lea let Gregor continue talking until they finished their work with the filter. He bid her adeu and left for his own home. It was late enough that Lea finally got to go up to her bed and know that’s she’d be able to stay there, at least for a little while.
Unfortunately, before she could, an orange pony walked in wearing a poncho and a hat that covered his face. On his back was a rubber chicken. He spoke in a low voice. “Excuse me. I’ve been traveling for a while, waiting for some sort of party I need to make. Is it possible that I could stay here for the night.”
“Do whatever you want.” Lea told him. “As long as you don’t try to kill me, I’m fine.”
The pony took off his hat and gave her an odd look. “You know what?” He asked in a more cheerful and happy voice. “I think my next party will be here.”
“How wonderful.” Lea said sarcastically. “Extra bedroom is on the third floor, second door on the right. A friend of mine is staying in the room next to you, so be nice. I’m going to bed myself, so don’t bother me. I’ve had a long day.”
“Alright, by the way, the name’s Cheese Sandwich.”
“Nice to meet you, now goodnight!”



A cloaked pony walked into a bar called John McRory’s which was named after the owner, a hippogriff. Upon entering the bar, the cloaked figure walked over to the owner and asked for a drink.
“Quarry, what are you doing here?” John asked the figure.
“Shush! Remember, I go by Arrow here.”
“Fine Arrow. Why are you here? There are ponies looking for you so you can be arrested. You’ve been in some bad situations before, but this is off my charts for you. I mean, I never saw you as one who would try to escape punishment like this. Maybe lie a bit and put the blame elsewhere, but escaping from jail?”
“*sigh* A pokemon decided to bust me and Ire out and I took the chance when it was there. Since then, she’s been acting… differently.”
That got the hippogriff’s attention. “How so?”
“Well, it was another one of these pokemon that got us caught, and Ire did what Ire does: Get angry and goes overboard. She almost strangled the girl. Ire wanted to get revenge and got some pokemon together to try and help her but now…” Quarry trailed off.
“What’s going on Qu- Arrow?”
“She’s been going over the top. She’s planning to do something called living death.”
John’s eyes widened. If he hadn’t already heard some other over the top schemes from another of his friends, Gifted Brains, they might have popped out of his head.
“Living death?! That’s just a myth! Even if the story is true, you can’t just do it!”
Quarry sighed again. “One of the pokemon that joined the team is some sort of psychic type that has experience manipulating minds. They convinced Ire to learn how to do it, since apparently they can’t do it themselves.”
“I can see Ire going after some sort of revenge, but this? Never saw it coming.”
John paused to quickly take an order from another regular at the bar. She was a pony with a Braytish accent named Wisdom Grifter. She had been listening into their conversation.
“When did she start acting strange?”
“Right around the time that grumpig showed up. Come to think of it… any of the pokemon she had brought along with her basically act like zombie slaves. Come to think of it, Ire’s been acting sort of like… Oh my Celestia! That pokemon is messing with my wife’s mind! Thanks for the talk you two. Wisdom, say hi to the team for me.”
Quarry ran out of the bar and started off toward where he and Ire were staying. He was a block away when he saw the purple pig like pokemon.
“You! What did you do to my wife?!”
“Oh, you finally found out.” She grinned. “The description you gave of this other pokemon and her friends was uncanny. Almost the same as this one girl I met many years ago. Not only does Ire want revenge, but so do I. Now all that’s in my way is you. That leaves me with only one choice.” 
The pokemon’s eyes glowed an ethereal blue. After a few seconds, Quarry blacked out.
“There, all done. You won’t remember any of that conversation now, but you get to keep you suspicions just because your mate is possible strong enough to free herself from my mental probing if you’re too different. With that out of the way, nothing can stop me now. Well, nothing I can’t fix.”
“What’s going on?” Ire had gone outside and found the two, and became concerned when she saw Quarry unconscious on the ground.
“I think he went out to a bar, he seemed drunk, and I smell alcohol in his breath.”
“Ugh! I thought I told him to stop going there. It’s risky, especially with Gifted Brains living above there. He’s so prone to getting bugs.”
“Shouldn’t an extermination fix that?”
“Wrong kind of bugs. They’re the listening kind.”
“Oh, those kind of bugs.”
“Yeah. Hey, maybe once we’re all done, we can have a girls night.” Ire suggested as she walked away, leaving Grumpig to move Quarry.
“Yes, maybe…” Grumpig smirked one more time before lifting up Quarry in her psychic grasp.