P A R A N O R M A L

Chapter 1:

The First Strike

“Aw, come on! Cheap shot!”

“Ha! Got ya again, Bee-Dee!” responded another player, his voice slightly distorted by his microphone.

“It was cheap, and you know it!” the pony responded. He reached over with an orange hoof to grab his drink, nearly tipping it over in the process. Unfortunately, some did spill over, the puddle dangerously approaching his keyboard. “Gah! Oh, not again!”

Another voice came over the pony’s headphones, distinctly female and giggling under her breath. “Ol’ Default miss again?”

“Oh shuddup, Queenie,” he groaned, grabbing an old rag from the side of his desk to clean up the puddle. He squinted in the dim light from his computer screen to make sure he got everything. The light switch would have been too far to get to being that it was on the opposite side of the darkened room he was in; and the moonless sky that night was of no help to him either. “It’s times like this I wish Luna would put brighter stars out at night.”

“Quit whining and let’s get back to the game!” Another male voice, but more effeminate than his co-players.

“Calm down, Rear. We can’t have our healer get his keyboard shorted out,” the other male reasoned.

“Nice to know you care so much, Backbone,” Default said with a roll of his eyes. He finished wiping up the spill and took a big gulp of his juice, tossing the can in the nearby trash bin. He wiped away some sweat from his brow and gently pushed away from his computer desk. “Just a sec, gals,” he said over the microphone. “It’s getting super stuffy in here. Gonna open the window.”

“Alright, but hurry up! Next round starts in a few seconds,” Rear was kind enough to remind him.

With a roll of his eyes, he stood from his comfy gaming chair. He stretched his legs, wiggling the stubborn back-right that had fallen asleep, and followed by flexing his wings to loosen them up. Tight wings were not good for pegasi, as it usually led to accidents and a lot of pain. He moved without haste to the window and pushed it wide open, taking a deep breath as the cool night air washed over his face and blowing back his deep brown mane. He released the breath and headed back to his chair.

“Alright, I’m back,” Default said, placing his headset back on. “Let’s get this on!”

“Sure leaving the window open is a good idea, Brave?” Queenie asked.

“Oh please, girl. Ponyville isn’t like Manehattan where your neighbor could break in the moment you forget to close the door all the way. Worst that could happen is a bird flies in; I mean really. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”

“A bee could fly in,” Rear pointed out.

“Very funny,” he replied.

As the stallion focused his attention back on the game at hoof, his words had begun to haunt him already. It had been watching for hours, lying in wait for its prime chance. With its prey’s mind on his entertainment, it moved beyond pony comprehension. There was no sound, no burst of the wind, no anything. It was gone... then was where it needed to be. It had reached the window sill, it’s prey directly in its sight. A hairless, leathery claw grasping the sill. There, it moved for its prey.

Brave pumped his hoof as the explosion went off, taking out the other team on screen. “Yes! Ha ha! Got it that time!”

“I socall haxx!” Rear whined over the speakers.

“Not that time!” Backbone confirmed, his voice defining an obvious smirk.

“Let’s stop for a moment, please? My hooves are starting to ache from all the typing.”

“Sure, Queen. Could use a good break myself. It’s not good to be on these things for so long after all,” Brave said with a nod.

“I’m down for a breather. Let’s switch to video chat.”

“Pulling it up now, Be-be.” His hooves tapped a few of the keys, the game screen shrinking as three little boxes appeared. Each box was marked with a name, matching an image to the voices. Queen appeared to be a jet black unicorn mare with luscious locks of violet hair for a mane, soft green eyes training on Brave. Backbone appeared true to his name sake, being a rather buff silver, earth pony stallion, his blonde mane cut incredibly short and fierce blue eyes. Their last compatriot, Rear, was a slimmer stallion than both males; his sky blue-coated frame similar to Queen’s, along with his long, dark-blue mane draping over his horn and half of his face; anypony who didn’t know him would no doubt have mistaken the stallion for a mare. “So what did you think of Lunawatch?”

“It was amazing!” Queen gushed.

“I had a lot of fun,” Backbone replied with a shrug.

“I think I’ll stick with Team Castle 2. It suits my style and ability better,” Rear replied, running a hoof through his mane.

Brave couldn’t help the eye roll if he tried. “You’re just saying that because you don’t like the colors.”

“So what? Aesthetics of a game are just as important as the gameplay itself.”

Queen coughed, quickly muttering, “Sore loser,” before coughing again.

“I am not!”

Brave chuckled as Queen and Rear continued their back and forth, his eyes slowly falling to Backbone who was staring at him with narrowed eyes. He was content to leave it alone, despite the stallion continuing to stare at him. The question burning in him was about to be spoken before he recognized Rear saying his name. “Huh? What? I miss something?”

“Huh?” Rear said, giving Brave a funny look for a moment. “Oh no, not you, game-boy. The actual game; we were talking about Bravely Defaultfor a moment. Queen and I have been talking about doing a stream of it. Hey! You should be in it!”

The stallion groaned, letting his face fall flat on the desk. “Oh come on,” he groaned out.

Queen tittered on screen. “Oh leave Bravely alone. You know he hates how much ponies nag on him about the name.”

“I had it first!” he declared, lifting his muzzle off the desk. “I should get royalties or something!”

“Uh huh. Suuuure, Brave. That would totally happen.”

“You’re dead to me, Rear,” he responded with a deadpan expression. He glanced at Backbone again and saw he was still staring at him with those eyes. “Okay Be-be, what the tartarus are you staring at? You’ve been giving me that look for the past five minutes!”

“Brave,” Backbone responded slowly, “are you trying cosplay again?”

“Uh, no,” he said with a shake of his head. “You remember what happened last time; why would I want to repeat that? It’s obvious I can’t make a costume worth my life. Why do would you even ask that?”

“You guys see it too, right?” the earth pony said, seemingly ignoring his friend’s questioning. Queen and Rear mirrored Backbone’s expression, looking deeper into the screen.

“Oh yeah, I see it. You don’t have to keep it a secret from us, Default,” Rear said, pulling back to adjust his mane. “It’s not a shame to be so interested in cosplay.”

Brave groaned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! Queenie, you were there at the convention. Please tell them that there’s no way I’d ever cosplay again.” He expected an immediate response as his friend was prone to do, but she was oddly quiet. “Queen?”

Glancing at her video box, he could see that her muzzle was much paler than normal, her eyes wide as if she was utterly terrified. “B-b-brave? You-you have a doorway right next to your desk, r-right?”

“Uh yea, why?” Brave was starting to wonder what exactly his friends were staring at. He was tempted to turn around, but Queen spoke up quickly after he answered.

“Get up and run. Run fast and run far.”

“Huh? What-why? What are you guys talking about?”

“Oh Queen, stop being so dramat-” Rear tried to say before Queen shouted through screen.

“BRAVE, RUN NOW! GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE!”

He was completely taken off guard by the sudden shout that he screamed in shock and yanked off his headset, causing it to crash onto the desk, Queen’s voice continually screaming at him to run.

“What was that for‽” he screeched, glaring at the screen. Then he stopped, something tickling his ear. Without his headphones on, he could distinctly hear it now. It was soft and low, repeating every moment as the pony’s heartbeat began to accelerate. He recognized the sound as a slower version of what he was doing then: breathing.

Brave now knew why Queen had been telling him to run.

He was no longer alone.

The pegasus’ head slowly began to turn around, the other occupant coming into his view piece by piece. The dim light of the computer barely illuminated enough to be seen, but what Brave could see, caused his breathing to quicken even more. The light had reflected off teeth and claws, fair sharper than should be possible.

Brave was staring at a creature from out of the worst possible nightmare.

Only, this was no nightmare.

It was real.

All too real.

And that realness was proved as its claws swiped down on its prey.

“BRAVE!”