Jumper

by KMCA

Impact

Ponyville was no stranger to odd occurrences. In fact, since Twilight Sparkle had moved to town it was stranger to go a week without something unexpected happening..

Everything from a mythical moon mare to marauding monsters have made an appearance since Twilight had been sent to Ponyville. One of the more recent ‘occurrences’ was the arrival of the human, Alex Roberts. His arrival caused a whole slew of other events, up to and including plans for a world class theatre.

And then another one arrived.

The crackle of electricity gave way to a roar of thunder as a sphere formed in mid-air, the surrounding wildlife panicked and scattered as if knowing what was coming. A body was flung from the orb, this jumper didn’t have the luxury of exiting a jump stationary and on the ground. In his four jumps all of them had thrown him violently across the sky, straight up and now straight towards the ground… head first.

He had been trained in his second reality how to react to such a situation, but that had been almost a year ago and he hadn’t been blind, disoriented and about to lose his lunch. The only reason he knew the direction he was going was because his helmet systems were beeping and telling him to pull up, it didn’t help his disorientation but he struggled to change how he was falling by moving his arms and legs to create drag.

His left leg screamed in protest but obeyed him all the same. He managed to rotate so his back would impact first, he hoped the backpack would absorb most of the impact. The armor announced impact and a moment later he felt it.

They say hitting water at high speed is like hitting concrete. While it wasn’t like hitting a pillow, the armor and bodysuit managed to cushion my the impact with the river. I remember feeling a second stronger impact, most likely it was the bed of the river. I rolled and was pushed downstream, my vision had started to return, but all I saw was a blur, the HUD on my helmet kept flickering with icons I could only guess at. I finally managed to pull myself to the riverbank and by this point I could taste the stomach acid not only in my throat but in my mouth too. I grabbed the emergency release on my helmet and promptly emptied my stomach contents into the river.

In the past when I jumped I got sick on arrival, but this was worse, far worse. My vision remained nothing more than a green and gray blur and all the while I was releasing what felt like my internal organs into the river. I had no clue how long I was at this, it felt like an eternity and when I started dry heaving I was pretty sure I wasn’t ever going to stop.

That’s when I heard the voice, it sent a shiver down my spine. It was so familiar and yet I know I’d never heard it before. If I hadn’t been about to pass out I know I would have made the connection.

“Alex, I found them. Alex! I found a human!” I could hear hooves on the ground, I struggled over to my helmet, my left leg dragging uselessly behind me. I couldn’t leave any of my armor behind. It had saved my life too many times in a short span to just throw it away. The steps stopped right above me and a purple shape shaded me from the sun. I heard footsteps coming towards me and even a pair of wings, I clutched my helmet to my chest and let the pain I was in overcome my senses and send me off to sleep.

It wasn’t an easy sleep. I felt like I relived my life several times over that night, I kept moving from memory to memory and back again. I felt like my entire life was under examination. What made things even more interesting was that I was a spectator outside my own body. I remembered speaking to someone explaining actions and motivations to this person that was nothing more than a dark blue blur. I was fine with most of it but when it touched on a memory of the first world I landed in, I woke up screaming.

Even nearly two years later it was enough to scare me half to death, waking up from that specific memory to a dark figure over me caused me to panic, I shoved the shape away before throwing myself away from it, every instinct in my body was screaming at me to run for my life, every trained reaction from the last year and a half told me to draw my weapon and fire but I instead threw myself in the corner and curled up into a ball all hoping the creature would go away.

Of course it didn’t, it only stumbled backwards and stared at me, or I assume it stared at me. I couldn’t see the eyes, I couldn’t see anything but a black shape. I reached down towards my left leg for my sidearm only to find my hip thickly wrapped in cloth. I ripped at the cloth, taking panicked glances downwards but afraid to take my eyes off the monster for more than a fraction of a second.

It started moving towards me, slowly. I stopped reaching for the gun and balled my hands into fists, touching my thumbs to my ring fingers deployed short but wide blades from the armor plate on the back of my hands. The creature turned on the light beside the bed, it was a human being, not one of the creatures that had haunted my early days (and nights) of jumping. I could have kissed him if I wasn’t so furious with him. I settled for collapsing in relief my hands relaxed causing the blades to retract.

“If you EVER do that to me again I swear to god! I just about pissed myself I was so scared. What made you think it was a good idea to stand over me in a dark room like that?” My voice was shaking, I could feel the adrenaline ebbing in my body and it was always hard on me. I could feel my gut trying to spasm from the adrenaline letdown but I was used to it and those who saw it usually understood and didn’t rub it in.

“I’m trying to decide if I can trust you. This world is genuine paradise and I refuse to let anyone destroy that. If I have to kill you to preserve that for them, I will.” The knife changed shape, lengthening and developing a sharp looking edge.

Comments

[Butler]

HAHAHA, remember me.

Awesome story KMCA, KEEP IT UP.

[crazynrandom]

Interesting, I will continue reading.

[The killer Bacon]

hmmmmmmmm......... interesting
keep it up