//------------------------------//
// ch 19. earlier 
// Story: A New World, a Fearful Way 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
//------------------------------//

Equestria: about 3 weeks ago

“Quarry, come on! This ring hasn’t given us any new payment in a while! If anything we’re losing money”
Ire gave Quarry a small shove as she passed him by.
“Well I’m sorry no one has wanted to give me a job yet. Why don’t you try looking for once? Better yet, we could close the place down for a day and you could look for a job too. Maybe then we’d actually get somewhere.”
"Well we’ve already planned something for today, so let’s get down there."



A door at the end of the hall banged open, waking up Lea. ‘Wha-! Wh-where am I?’ She scrunched her face as she tried to remember what happened to her last. ‘Let’s see… I had just hidden everyone in their pokeballs and hid them away with all the papers when...’ Her face relaxed as she remembered what came next. ‘They got upstairs and… and they must have captured me.’
The one wall of Lea’s new home was barred, just proving her theory. Then she turned her attention to the voices at the other end of the hall. She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but there were definitely only two there. From their voices she could also tell one was male and the other female. Both sounded angry.
Even though it would probably end badly for her, Lea called out to them. “Hey! How long have I been out?!”
Both of the voices stopped. “Could you answer my question instead of just standi-oof!” Lea fell on her face as she tried to get up.
The two people ran over to her, except when Lea looked up at them, they reminded her of ponyta, or the legendary pokemon Keldeo. Neither of them had a fiery mane and one of them had wings instead of a horn. “What are you?!” Lea said, shocked.
“Where did this come from?” The one who did have a horn asked. She was the female voice Lea had heard.
“Don’t know. Wasn’t here last night when we closed up.”
Lea got scared. She didn’t like how they were looking at her and apparently the female thing used some form of psychic on her. ‘How is she doing that? She’s not any pokemon I’ve heard of and she doesn’t seem to use pokespeak unless she’s using some sort of translator.’ “C-can you let me go?” Lea asked.
“Well it’s perfect for tonight.”
“Still, it’s strange that it keeps saying ‘umbre-umbreon’, or stuff like that.” The male one said.
“Wait, why would I be sayin- AAHHH! I’m… I’m an umbreon! I’m an Arceus damned umbreon. Not that it isn’t cool at all, but, AHHHH!!!”
“Don’t let it get away! And make it shut up, it’s loud!” The one with the horn said.
“Fine!” The one with the wings yanked Lea from the air and took her down the hall. Lea looked at the other cells and found each one had a creature in it. They were all very different to the one that was carrying her, but all similar to each other. They all resembled houndour, mightyena, and herdier.
Exiting the hall, Lea was brought into a large room. She was literally thrown into a cage in the center of the room. She didn’t get hurt too much, though she thought she may have a bruise. “Great! They can’t understand me and think I can’t think for myself. How wonderful! What’s next?! *sigh* What do you think Matrix?”
Lea paused for an answer before she remembered she was alone. Well… alone except for the two pontya like creatures.
“Quarry! I’ve got another dog. One of the healthier ones to go up against this new one.” The horned one looked at a clock in the room. “Start setting up. Ponies will be arriving soon.”



After about half an hour, Lea was terrified. She had ruled out this being a nightmare, and it was too flawless to be an illusion especially if the illusion maker had to create these new creatures. Now the room had four more ponyta things. The winged from before, whose name was apparently Quarry, had announced that she and this other creature that the horned one, Ire, had brought in, were about to battle each other.
Lea had no idea how to use any pokemon moves, not to mention she could barely stand up. She felt totally off balance on four legs, much less as an umbreon.
Finally the creature resembling a poochyena was let go from the horned one’s telekinetic grip. (Lea had heard of some humans with telekinesis, it seemed fair these creatures could as well.) The animal raced towards her, growling and it’s teeth showing. Lea tried to get away, but it crashed into her. A few of the other rainbow ponytas cheered.
Soon, Lea had gotten the hang of dodging the creature’s attacks, but not after it had scratched and bitten her enough to make her bleed in a few places. The next attack she dodged easily, but the one after that was coming straight for her. Lea, trying to defend herself, swiped at the animal with her paw. Her claws caught it in such away, that she already drew blood.
“Look at that! Her first hit and already her opponent is hurting! Wow, she must be some sort of  Everfree beast, right foalks?!”
“I’m not a beast you stupid ba-” Lea was cut off by another attack by the creature. “Okay, while that hurt, I did need that. I was getting a little edgy there.” Lea said to herself, nearly being hit by another tackle from her opponent. “I’m so sorry for this!”
Lea wasn’t doing well, and she needed a break. While the creature seemed to have a lot of speed and attack power, it didn’t seem to have much in the way of defence. Lea finally made a move and scratched again at the animal. The creature started to bleed from a large cut she had made, and it fell to the ground.
“WE HAVE A WINNER!!!” Quarry, the winged one, shouted. Ire took the creature out and bandaged it up, though Lea knew it could be much better that what had been done. All ire had done was wrap a very thin cloth around the animal’s wound. Lea could see it was already soaked.
‘I didn’t mean to hurt him… her? It that badly. But now maybe I can get some rest.’ Lea’s stomach growled. ‘And some food too.’
“Now, her next opponent!” Quarry announced.
‘Maybe not.’



“Get back in there! And eat up! Can’t have you too tired for tomorrow! One of our visitors said he’d be back tomorrow and with a guest. A guest with a bucket of bits!”
Lea was back where she started, the cell where she had woken up. She was given a little food, barely enough for her. Not to mention it was more of a tanish mush. Unfortunately for Lea right now, food was food, and it was probably all she was going to get for a while.
She was still sore from all the fighting all day, and from what Ire had said, it seemed Lea still had another day to go through. Quarry, thankfully, had tried to help her. He had also patched up the bad healing methods Ire had used.
“Listen, if you want us to stay in business Ire, you should do a better job bandaging the dogs.”
“They’re animals! All we need them for is to help get us money so we don’t end up living on the streets!”
“Ire calm down! You shouldn’t be getting so angry.”
“ANGRY?! IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED, MY NAME IS BRIGHT IRE! YOU KNOW WHAT IRE MEANS, RIGHT?”
“Yes, but can you please calm down. We’ve both had a long day, and all we need is to fight with each other.”
“Alright honey.” Ire pouted a little before smiling and kissing quarry on the cheek. Then she noticed Lea watching them. Ire stomped over to Lea, who backed away from the bars.
“Stop watching us you stupid animal! And get to sleep, you’re gonna need it for tomorrow.”
With that the two ponytas left Lea, turning the lights off, leaving her in pitch black darkness.