Chapter 2- Redefining Reality
Chris only felt a sense of weightlessness. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed, whether it had only been a few moments or several hours. Then, suddenly, feeling started to return to his limbs, and the first thing he noticed was that he hurt all over. “Ohhh,” he groaned out, bringing his left hand to rub at his splitting headache. “Did anyone get the number of the bus that hit me?” he whispered.
“Well, Ah don’t know ‘bout a bus, but the name o’ the Machine Captain ya fought was Staroid.”
Chris snapped his eyes wide open. He knew that voice! He slowly looked to his left to find Apple Bloom in a pair of scrubs and a lab coat with a picture of an Erlenmeyer flask and pill bottle on the pocket, a stethoscope wrapped around her neck. She was checking some medical equipment next to his bed and occasionally marking on a clipboard in her hand. He was lying in a hospital bed, his previous clothes replaced by a johnny gown. Chris continued to stare wide-eyed at Apple Bloom. “You’re real,” he said dumbly.
“Last Ah checked, yeah, Ah am,” Bloom replied a bit sarcastically and never taking her eyes off the equipment or clipboard.
Chris continued to stare for a moment before letting out a sigh and putting his hand over his eyes and rubbing his face. “Ohhh, and this isn’t a dream.”
Bloom snorted and rolled her eyes. “More like a nightmare.” She finally turned to look at Chris, her eyes hard. “Look, I appreciate what you did for my friends. But if you hurt anyone here….” The pen in her hand suddenly snapped in half with a loud crack.
Chris stared at Apple Bloom, a bit shocked by her fury. Before his mind could completely catch up, he heard footsteps -hoofsteps?- coming from behind the curtain around his bed. “That’s enough, Apple Bloom.” The curtains opened up and Sunset Shimmer walked through, using her magic to pull the curtain all the way around to reveal the rest of the medical hall. At this point, it didn’t surprise Chris that he was looking at the yellow and red pony in her signature outfit. However, the pair of wings sprouting from her back were definitely an eye opener. So much so that it took Sunset snapping her fingers in Chris’ face to break him out of his mind-blown state.
He shook his head to clear the confusion. “I’m sorry, but… you have wings.” He stated, pointing to the feathered appendages.
Sunset slightly tilted her head in confusion, her wings slightly stretching in response. “I… yes?”
Sunset and Chris stared at each for a long while before someone cleared their throat. Chris blinked and finally looked around. Alongside Sunset were Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle, and Big Macintosh. Dash sported a pair of blue athletic shorts, blue and white running shoes, a black tank top, and an aviator jacket adorned with two patches, one of her cutie mark and the other of the Wonderbolts logo. Fluttershy wore a pair of pink flats, a long white skirt, and a long-sleeved pink shirt that hung off one shoulder. Pinkie was dressed in denim converse, a dark pink skirt with light pink and white striped leggings, and a light blue shirt with puffed shoulders and her cutie mark on the front. Sweetie was in dressed in a baby blue skirted leotard, a pale yellow half jacket, and a pair of wedges that matched her leotard. Finally, Big Mac was dressed in blue jeans, a green flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a pair of work boots.
“Uh, I know how weird this is for everyone,” Dash said, trying to get everything back on track, “but isn’t there something we need to do?”
“Sorry, Dash, you’re right,” Sunset apologized. She turned back to Apple Bloom, the look on her face all business now. “How does he check out?”
“He was really dehydrated when the girls brought’im in,” Apple Bloom replied, looking at her clipboard and turning through a few pages, “but every examination points to him passing out from sheer exhaustion like his body didn’t even realize he needed water.”
“That kinda makes sense,” Chris said, sitting up as all eyes turned to him, Dash and Mac going so far as to tense up. “I mean,” he continued, keeping a wary eye on the pair, “I woke up in the middle of the forest with no idea of where I was, how I got there, or how long I had been there.”
“Really?” Dash asked skeptically, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. “And we’re supposed to believe that?”
“Please, Rainbow,” Sunset soothed, trying to keep the multicolored pegasus calm before turning towards Chris. “Although, I have to agree your story is a bit hard to swallow, mister….”
“Chris,” he replied after realizing what she was asking. “Chris Scott. And what I told you was the truth. One minute I’m having a great time at Power Morphicon, and the next thing I know, I’m waking up in the middle of the woods. I would have been completely lost had I not heard one of the girls scream.”
“Bull,” Rainbow Dash grumbled.
Sunset rolled her eyes at her friend's brashness. “That doesn’t explain how you could take on an entire battalion of cogs and then run off their captain without so much as a scratch.”
Chris grinned at the memory of the event. “That would be all thanks to this bad boy,” he said holding up his wrist and smiling.
Everypony present just stared at the appendage. Suddenly Pinkie perked up. “Oh! So you showed them a really cool watch trick and it blew their minds!” Pinkie said excitedly.
“What? No,” Chris replied in confusion. “I used my morph-” He looked down at his wrist only to find a black and red cuff watch, the watch face replaced with something that looked like the communicator from the Mighty Morphin’ series. “What happened to my morpher!?!”
Here Sweetie Belle stepped up. “Actually, that’s it,” Sweetie said. When Chris only stared she continued. “After you fainted, it kinda turned into that.”
Chris looked back to the watch on his rest, staring for a moment. I wonder, he thought. He moved his left hand to his wrist, using his thumb to press the crown on the side. Red electricity appeared around the accessory before turning into a grid, the morpher materializing. Chris looked at it with a grin of satisfaction. “Nice.”
He looked back up at the ponies with a smile on his face only for it to drop from his face as he threw his hands over his head. Sunset’s hands glowed in a teal aura, and Dash had drawn a dagger, everyone else backed behind Big Mac who had dropped into a defensive stance. The only one that didn’t seem ready to tear him apart was Pinkie, who was jumping up and down while clapping her hands, an enormous grin plastered to her face. “Ooo, that was a fun trick,” She said, her excitement growing. “Do it again, do it again!”
“Uh, I think I’d rather not be blasted and stabbed,” Chris replied, eyeing the very sharp weapon in Dash’s hand.
“Explain,” Sunset growled, raising her fists slightly. “Quickly.”
“It’s a morpher. It gives me access to a set of super-powered armor,” Chris explained quickly, sweat beginning to form on his brow. “That’s how I was able to fend off the cogs and Staroid.”
“Bloom,” Sunset barked, “what’s his heart rate say?”
Apple Bloom poked her head out from around the equipment she had hidden behind and took a look at it. “It’s stable. He doesn’t appear to be lying.”
“Those machines don’t always tell all,” Rainbow growled out, stepping closer to Chris. “Give us one good reason not to throw you in a cell.”
“I’m highly allergic to death.”
The random statement made everyone pause for a moment.
“W-what?” was all Rainbow could think to say, standing up and slightly relaxing alongside everyone else.
Chris let out a nervous breath and let his hands fall. “Look,” he began, holding up a hand. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but something tells me it’s not good. What, did King Mondo come to Equestria and suddenly decide he wanted to set up a timeshare or something?”
“For someone who doesn’t know where he is, you certainly know a lot,” Sunset said skeptically.
Chris let out a sigh. “Where I’m from both the Machine Empire and Equestria are fictional places,” he explained. “But the thing is, in my world, they occur completely separately.”
“What do you mean?” Sweetie asked coming out from behind Big Mac.
“They’re part of different TV shows,” Chris replied. “My Little Pony Friendship is Magic for Equestria, and Power Rangers Zeo for King Mondo and the Machine Empire.”
“Are you sayin’ what Ah think yer sayin’?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Yes, I knew who all of you were before you even walked into the room,” Chris said and began to give descriptions of each of them. “Sunset, you were one of Celestia’s students. Dash, you aspired to be a Wonderbolt. Fluttershy lives in a cottage and takes care animals. Big Mac and Apple Bloom are siblings. Sweetie Belle has an amazing singing voice. And Pinkie,” The mare’s face lit up like a beacon. “There is literally no other way to describe you other than ‘you’re Pinkie’.”
Everypony's eyes were wide, staring at him in disbelief.
“Alright,” Rainbow said, breaking out of her stupor first and putting away her dagger. “This is kinda weird.”
“You’re telling me,” Chris replied, seemingly ignoring the shock on everypony's face. “Two children’s TV shows mashed together and made about a hundred times more violent. Almost feels like I’ve been thrown into some kind of bad fanfiction.” At this, the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees.
“O~kay,” Sunset said, rubbing her arm at the sudden chill. “But that doesn’t really tell us anything about you.”
“Well,” Chris started while shrugging his shoulders, “what do you want to know?”
“There are some questions we’d like to ask, but this isn’t exactly the best place to ask them,” Sunset explained.
“Alrighty then, take me to the interrogation room and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
Sunset threw a glance towards Big Mac, who nodded. Sunset turned back to Chris. “I don’t know about an interrogation room, but you will need to meet the mare in charge.”
“Let’s do it, then.” Chris swung his legs over the side of the bed only to pause. “Uh, guys, a few quick questions… where are my clothes and who took them off?”
Both Apple Bloom’s and Sweetie Belle’s faces lit up in a blush.
Chris walked down a brightly lit hallway with the six ponies gathered around him. They had left Bloom in the medical hall as they had ventured further into the structure. The halls seemed new, like a fresh coat of paint had been applied to the walls, leading him to believe that the building he was in was recently renovated. That rules out Canterlot, he thought to himself.
“So,” Chris began, the silence starting to get to him. “What can you guys tell me about what’s happened?”
Nopony jumped to explain anything to him. In fact, Fluttershy, who was walking behind him and to the left, let out a quiet, “eep,” and Rainbow let out a huff to his right. Pinkie looked like she was about to speak up, but a quick look from Rainbow Dash made her close her lips and put her head down, bringing silence back to his left side.
Suddenly, Sweetie Belle stepped up from his rear right, falling into step beside him. “It all started about ten years ago.”
“Sweetie,” Rainbow grumbled in warning.
“Nightmare Moon showed up during the Summer Sun Celebration, and Sunset led us into the Everfree to find the Elements of Harmony.”
“Time out,” Chris interrupted while making a ‘T’ with his hands. “You guys,” he pointed to Sweetie, Big Mac, and Sunset, “are Elements of Harmony?”
“Surprised?” Rainbow asked sarcastically. “I thought you knew everything there was to know about us.”
“I know everything according to the show,” Chris elaborated, throwing a look towards the obnoxious mare. “According to the show, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Applejack became Elements of Harmony instead of Sunset, Sweetie, and Big Mac.”
Dash let out a snort. “Yeah sure. I bet you don’t even know the different elements.”
“Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Magic,” Chris deadpanned.
As Rainbow promptly closed her mouth and turned around with a huff, chuckles could be heard emanating from some of the other bearers.
“Anyway,” Sweetie said, stifling her giggles and getting the conversation back on track. “While we were busy fighting Nightmare Moon, King Mondo attacked Canterlot…. The locals didn’t stand a chance.” The mood of the group got very sullen as Sweetie recalled this part of the story. “The guards fought off the machines the best they could so the citizens could evacuate, but it was a hopeless battle. King Mondo’s forces were simply too advanced for them to handle.”
“Canterlot was overrun by the time we got back to Ponyville,” Sunset stepped in. “We didn’t stand much better of a chance.”
“All we could do was move everypony to the castle in the Everfree,” Big Mac suddenly spoke up, his deep voice startling Chris somewhat.
“And we’ve been here ever since,” Pinkie finished up, her normally upbeat voice saddened by the memories.
“Wow,” was all Chris could think to say for a moment. “What happened to everypony in Canterlot?”
“Most were killed,” Sunset replied darkly, “but some were taken by Mondo for different reasons. The worst part is, we really don’t know.”
“Um, the only ponies that might know about that are Shining Armor and Cadance,” Fluttershy finally spoke up.
However, Chris didn’t really hear what she had said. His face was downcast and it seemed like the area around him got darker. Eventually, he stopped. Everypony noticed this and came to a stop. Most of them didn’t react to heavily, but Chris’ aura made Fluttershy ‘eep’ and dart behind Big Mac.
“He killed them.”
The statement was simple, but it seemed to hammer at the others, and it only got worse. Chris began to shake in his rage, and his morpher, back in its communicator form, started sparking off red energy.
“They were innocent, and he murdered them.” Chris lifted his eyes to meet Sunset’s, his gaze causing her to flinch slightly. “How do I find him?”
Sunset looked at Big Mac, who looked back wide eyed. She turned back to Chris. “This way.”
Chris started marching forward, leaving the others behind to hurry after him. He went through the hallway, only glancing back at the others when he came to a turn, Sunset providing directions by nodding her head in one direction or the other. The further we went the faster he got, making the others speed up along with him. Slowly, the halls started getting more crowded, the ponies jumping out of the way and throwing strange looks at the sprinting young man. Of course, he didn’t notice or care. He only had one thing on his mind; making Mondo pay. If he was still just Chris, he wouldn’t be able to do anything, but now, he had power. He could make a difference, no matter how small.
This is good, purred the dark voice in his head.
Shut up, Chris responded, taking a sharp left at Sunset’s direction.
You’re starting to think like I do, the voice continued, feeding on Chris’ rage and anger. Soon we will be one in the same.
I’m nothing like you, Chris retorted almost missing the next turn. I want to help people, er, ponies, and you just want to destroy.
Once you start killing, you won’t be able to stop.
They’re not alive, they’re machines.
LIVING machines, and once they’re all gone, what happens then? By then you’ll be a fighter. A killer. A killer with no one to kill. What will you do then?
Chris’ face grew dark as he ran. He was so absorbed in his own head that he almost missed Sunset’s instructions.
“Next right, Chris, then through the double doors!” She called out to him, out of breath.
Chris rounded the corner and saw the doors coming up and sped up. He slammed through the doors and came to a complete stop. He was standing in a room that had ponies sitting at different kinds of equipment. Everypony turned at the loud disturbance and stared wide eyed at what had caused it.
“‘Ello, everypony,” Chris started, slightly out of breath as the mane six finally caught up to him, most of them panting heavily. “I’d like to see your boss. I’ve got an application to turn in.”
“I heard you were something,” said a silky female voice from behind him. “Although I have to admit that I didn’t expect you to outrun our very own Elements of Harmony.”
Chris turned around and immediately jumped back, dropping into a stance to draw out the Psycho Sword. In front of him stood Nightmare Moon wearing a dark blue crop top with a black leather jacket, a denim miniskirt, and black lace-up boots with heels, her arms crossed and a frown on her face, however, there was something about her eyes that betrayed her apparent aggravation.
“Nightmare Moon,” Chris said calmly, not dropping out of his stance.
“Human,” she replied, dropping her arms to her sides. There was a long stretch of silence, tension growing between the two as they stared one another down. The mane six began to back away, and some ponies even moved to put the equipment they were working with between them and the tensed figures.
“You seem quite confident,” Nightmare said stepping forward, causing Chris to tense up even more. “We could use someone like you.” She stretched out her hand towards Chris, surprising him. “I’d like to personally welcome you to the Equestrian Resistance Force.”
Chris looked at her suspiciously, relaxing his stance nonetheless. “That’s it?” he questioned, taking Nightmare’s hand in his own and shaking it. “No initiation, no background check, no test?”
“Well, we certainly can’t have that,” she replied, chuckling. “You will be given a physical test, and then you will be interviewed. I wouldn’t worry too much, after all,” a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. “I will be the examiner in charge of your physical trial.”
Chris froze up. “I’m not sure how to feel about that.”
Nightmare Moon chuckled. “Meet me at the training grounds in thirty minutes. Until then,” Nightmare looked the mane six. “Sweetie, be a dear and show him the way.”
Sweetie snapped to attention. “Yes, ma’am,” she replied before relaxing and giving Chris a smile. “Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
“Thanks, Sweetie Belle,” Chris said following Sweetie out of the doors.
Nightmare looked to the rest of the Elements. “You five are dismissed as well.” They all nodded and left the room, each one with something different in mind. “The rest of you,” she continued, “back to your stations. Battle Cry,” a navy blue unicorn in khakis and a military jacket turned his head at the sound of his name being called, “I’d like you to send a message out around the castle; Nightmare Moon is to test a new recruit in thirty minutes.”
Battle Cry nodded his head in compliance and turned back to his keyboard and began typing in the commands that would send the message throughout the castle.
While he was busy with that, Nightmare looked to a large screen at the front of the room that showed a map of the Everfree. Groups of red blips moved back and forth along the edge of the forest. “Do you have anything to report,” she called to seemingly nopony. “Chrysalis.”
Chrysalis appeared behind Nightmare’s right shoulder. She wore a sleeveless ankle length green dress with the belly and back cut out and a slit running up the left leg, black stilettos and darker green sleeves that ran from above her thumb up to above her elbow finishing the outfit. “The human, Chris, seems to be willing,” she explained. “His reaction to finding out what King Mondo did to Canterlot was… surprising to say the least. He ran about three-fourths of the here.”
“That also says something about his overall fitness,” Nightmare added, stroking her chin.
“Yes, he should make a fine member of the Resistance,” Chrysalis continued. “However, I do have some concerns.”
“Hm?” Nightmare hummed, raising an eyebrow.
“I sensed something strange within him,” Chrysalis explained, beginning to pace. “Almost like his emotions were fighting one another.”
“That is concerning,” Nightmare said, finally turning to face Chrysalis and leaning against a console. “I’d like you to keep an eye on him for me.”
“Of course,” Chrysalis said, disappearing again.
Nightmare Moon let out a sigh. “Could this get any more complicated.”
Somewhere in the multiverse, Murphy laughed wickedly.