Today is the last day to join, so if you want in on it, be sure to read over the rules and PM Shakespearicles!X-Files: The Rainbow of Plight // Chapter Two - Definitely Not Extra-Terrestrials · 12:23am Oct 25th, 2023
Mulder yelled as he careened through space, his form stretching and shrinking all at once. Bursts of color and a roar of wind overwhelmed him, but amidst the chaos he thought he recognized the distorted form of Scully. She was flailing and screaming, her fiery locks in disarray as her body seemed to pull itself into impossible dimensions.
Then, below them, a glowing spot of light grew and grew, like they were rushing toward an opening.
The man squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself—
And felt himself land hard on his back onto grass and soft earth.
Mulder lay there for a moment, cognizant of the drum solo his heart was performing, but also the unmistakable scent of nature.
They were outside? How could this be?
He dared to creak one eye open. Sunlight burned deep into his vision, making him shut it briefly with a wince before forcing both eyes open in a tentative squint.
Wide open blue skies greeted him.
Though his body ached a little, Mulder tried to sit up and was relieved to feel no sudden pain. It was unlikely that he’d broken any bones, then. He looked around him, his eyes now almost fully adjusted.
“A field?” he muttered.
But these were not the same as the tired Oklahoman fields they’d just been surrounded by a short time ago. These were wild and verdant green, and they teemed with flowers of all kinds.
“Mulder?” he heard Scully call nearby.
Mulder slowly rose to his feet. He felt a small head rush but otherwise kept steady. “I’m right here, Scully.”
He watched as she sat up amidst the tall grass, her expression tense with what looked like pain.
Concern flashed through him. “Are you hurt?”
She grimaced and waved a dismissive hand as she used the other to rub at her back. “I think I just landed on a rock…” she grumbled.
Mulder flashed a relieved smile. Turning on the spot, he could see a forest on one side. It looked dark and ominous, and even from where he stood, he could tell the plants that sprang around the thick trees and hung from their twisted branches looked strange.
“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore,” Mulder said.
“Oklahoma,” Scully corrected with a grunt as she stood. She brushed the grass off her suit pants and out of her hair. “We’re lucky that explosion wasn’t lethal.”
Mulder laughed and put his hands on his hips. “You…” He covered his eyes, grinning, then lowered his hand to gaze at her mockingly. “You think we were hit with an explosion? What, like a bomb?”
Scully glared at him. “Maybe not a bomb, but perhaps a pressurized device meant to release chemical agents! Something that clearly incapacitated us!”
“Oh, come on!”
“It would explain how we woke up in this strange new place! I mean, it’s a theory, I’ll grant you that, but how else would you explain us suddenly ending up here?”
Mulder shifted his weight to one foot and waved a hand at his face. “Did the goofy gas make me see the rainbows, too?”
Now Scully laughed. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t see all of it, Scully! I saw you screaming in free fall, same as me! We went through some kind of portal!”
“I don’t know what I saw, Mulder,” She retorted. “That’s the thing about hallucinatory agents! You can’t rely on your memory after the fact!”
“My memory is just fine, Scully! Face it! That locket sent us somewhere!” He threw his hands up in the air. “For all we know, it also sent Megan and her attacker somewhere!”
Scully stared at him impassively as she slowly shook her head. “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. You’re crazy, Mulder.”
He opened his suit jacket and gestured at his gun, still in his holster. “If we were knocked out with chemical gas, then abducted and taken to this field… Wouldn’t our abductors have taken our guns?”
Mulder watched with satisfaction as his partner’s lips pinched tight and her silence stretched long. Finally, she huffed and turned away from him, her eyes searching the area.
“We need to get out of here and find answers. Speculating further won’t do us any good,” she said, her professional FBI voice in full force.
Mulder sneered behind her back. “Now there’s something I can agree with!”
Scully pointed over the field, away from the forest behind them. “There. I think I see a road. Let’s follow it and find help.”
The partners started without another word through the grass. When they reached the road, they both paused.
“Hmmm… it’s a dirt road,” Mulder noted.
“Looks well traveled,” Scully said. Her head tilted to the side. “I think those are actually wagon tracks. Horse-pulled, judging by all the hoofprints. We must be deep in the countryside! Maybe there’s amish nearby?”
Mulder only hummed contemplatively in response. Scully raised an eyebrow at him. She gestured in the direction leading away from the forest. “Let’s go this way. That forest looks a bit wild.”
Her partner smirked at her. “You just want to avoid the ticks.”
“We’re safer out in the open where we can easily see incoming threats,” Scully snapped. “Now if you’re done teasing, let’s get the hell out of here!”
Mulder chuckled and held up his hands as they started on the road, toward the rolling emerald hills.
Scully wiped at her brow as she gestured at some rocks. “There’s some rocks over there. Let’s stop and take a rest.” By this point both she and her partner had shed their suit jackets and undone a few more buttons on their oxford shirts.
“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Mulder muttered, already starting for the collection of rocks. The spot was a few yards from the road. “I’m beat.”
He threw his jacket onto a rock and groaned loudly as he sat on one of the larger ones. Scully sat next to him, fanning herself, her fair skin flushed in the heat.
She looked up, squinting at the sun. “Judging by the angle, I’d say we’ve been at this for almost… two hours?”
“In this heat, may as well have been a million years,” Mulder said wryly.
He looked over his shoulder and frowned. “Hmm…”
Scully glanced at him as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She didn’t have a hair tie, but the fresh air on her neck felt nice. “What is it?”
Mulder thumbed behind them. “The rocks make a circle behind us. Lots of churned dirt in the middle. Looks almost deliberate.”
“Maybe it used to be a campsite,” Scully mumbled, her eyes closing as she savored the caress of a new breeze.
Mulder scowled, “Naw, it looks almost like—”
But he didn’t get to say, because the earth exploded behind them, sending the pair crashing onto the grass. A horrible shriek filled the air as a massive dark shadow swallowed them both, and Mulder and Scully looked up just in time to see something strike toward them.
Shouting incoherently, they rolled out of the way, the ground trembling as something struck where they had just been lying. Whatever it was gouged the earth, sending dirt and grass flying.
Mulder scrambled to all fours, fighting to put distance between himself and the danger.
Scully, her ankle stabbing with pain from when she’d twisted it in her tumble, instead ripped out her gun and turned to regard the threat. If she couldn’t get away, then she’d just have to incapacitate whatever it was.
But she froze, her eyes stretching to their limit as the blood drained from her face.
What towered over her looked like some kind of giant insect. It had a thick, spiky, brown exo-skeleton, four pitch black eyes, menacing sharp mandibles half the length of her body, and taloned forelegs the size of tree trunks. Additional legs provided support for its body as it loomed over her, chittering loudly, but judging by the way it remained partially submerged in the dirt, this… creature, was much larger.
Scully watched in horror as the monster raised one of its deadly forelegs, the many black talons that lined it shining sharply in the sun.
Just as the beast struck down, Scully felt herself jerked backwards by her collar. The attack struck into the grass with a thunderous landing between the woman’s legs. Mulder’s pistol appeared over her and she saw her partner fire multiple shots into the creature’s head.
Upon seeing this, Scully’s training returned to her, and she raised her gun to fire several shots as well.
They ricocheted off the monster’s exo-skeleton harmlessly, until one of the shots—it was unclear whose—struck it in the eye.
The thing reared back and let out another awful shriek, green blood spurting into the air.
“Get up, Scully!” Mulder hissed as he knelt down to pull his partner up under the armpits.
“My ankle’s hurt,” she answered, trying to use his support to rise.
Without another word, Mulder pulled her arm over his head, and she leaned into him, her pistol still trained on the monster.
Clumsily, the pair managed to retreat to the road. They watched as the monster vanished back into the ground with a dull roar, the earth trembling under their feet.
“Like a giant ant lion,” Scully panted, still holding onto Mulder.
“Must be a helluva job for the exterminators out here,” Mulder answered. He looked at her, his brow wrinkled in concern. “Can you walk at all?”
Scully tried to put weight on her ankle, but winced and shook her head quickly. “No. I don’t think it’s broken, but it feels sprained.”
“Great,” Mulder sighed. He looked up and down the road. “Well, looks like I’m gonna have a beautiful woman pressed to my side,” he grinned suddenly and winked at her, “There are worse fates.”
“Spare me,” Scully said with an eye roll. Still, her lips held the barest hints of a smile.
“This road looks well used. We’re bound to see someone eventually,” Mulder assured her.
“I’m sure.”
They hobbled along the road for a few minutes.
Mulder peered at his partner sidelong. “So, Scully. I realize it falls outside of your particular field, but just what in the hell was that back there?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, Mulder,” she replied, looking at him warily.
This was the familiar sparring match. The back and forth dance they did with almost every case they handled. Something unusual would happen, and he’d prod and prod… trying to get her to admit to the unbelievable. Given the kind of day she was having, she was simply not in the mood for it.
But even her mind raced with the need to answer the same question…
“I’d say its biology looked very reminiscent of a kaiju, wouldn’t you?” Mulder pressed.
“Well it certainly wasn’t extra-terrestrial. At most I’m prepared to say it’s some undiscovered arthropod of some kind,” Scully retorted. “There could be a million explanations for what just attacked us.”
“Like there could be a million explanations for the rainbows and the portal—?” Mulder’s eyes drifted up as he said this. His steps slowed as something caught his eye.
“Mulder, for the last time, we didn’t get magically transported anywhere!” Scully snapped, too irritated to notice they were stopping. Her arm tightened around his neck as she waved a hand over their surroundings. “Look around us! We’re not in some strange alien world! There aren’t any unicorns in sight!”
“Not unicorns,” Mulder agreed. His eyebrows pushed up high, wrinkling his forehead. “Definitely not unicorns, Scully.”
Scully slapped a hand to her thigh in vicious satisfaction. “Finally! Thank you!”
Mulder wordlessly pointed toward the sky.
Scully frowned and looked up.
For the second time that day, blood drained from her face.
Flying high over them was a trio of what looked like flying horses. Each of them wore matching blue outfits with yellow lightning bolts on them, as well as shining goggles.
The one on the left had a dark blue mane and pale blue wings, while the one on the right had a bright fiery orange to match Scully’s hair and golden yellow wings.
The one in the middle had rainbow hair and rich blue wings. This was the one that flew down to just a few feet over Mulder and Scully’s stunned faces. The horse pulled the goggles off of its eyes with its hooves and smiled crookedly at them. Her eyes were a vibrant cerise.
“Uh, sup?” she said. “I didn’t think we’d be seeing any more of your kind anytime soon! You okay?”
Mulder opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a useless, “Ah, um—!”
The horse blinked at him, then looked at Scully. “Oof! You look bad! Did you run into the ankheg?”
Without waiting for a response, the horse—or was it a pegasus?—turned and hollered, “Hey, Spitfire! Looks like the ankheg struck again!”
The two other pegasi flew down to join their partner. As they did so, Mulder and Scully exchanged looks. The man jerked his head at the talking horses before them. Scully’s lips pressed together and she held up a trembling hand, her head slowly shaking side to side.
Nope. I’m sure there’s an explanation for this, she seemed to be silently saying.
Mulder gave her a pursed smile and he lifted a hand as if to reply, The explanation is—MAGIC HORSES.
Scully glared at him. “No, Mulder,” she hissed.
Mulder laughed under his breath, his eyes turning skyward as if to ask what deity saw fit to partner him with someone this stubborn.
Meanwhile, as this exchange went on, the pegasi conferred with one another.
“Spitfire, I thought you said somepony would take care of that bug. It’s been over a week!” This was the rainbow-haired pony.
“Princess Celestia assured me that the matter would be handled! Our job was just to patrol the road until it could be!” The orange-haired pony, ‘Spitfire’, answered. “We have our orders, and we stick to them, Rainbow Dash.”
The aptly named ‘Rainbow Dash’ crossed her forelegs. “The least they could do is put a darn sign to warn other ponies!”
The dark-haired horse cleared his throat and spoke up. “Creatures. We have to say creatures now—”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you know what I meant!”
She looked at Scully and Mulder. “Question is, what do we do with these two?”
“We should take them to join the others. Princess Celestia will want to speak to them,” Spitfire said with authority. She looked appraisingly at Scully. “Hmm… But we’re gonna need a carriage for this one.”
“I’ll stay with them!” Rainbow said eagerly. “Just in case that monster comes back!”
“You think it’ll follow us?” Mulder asked, looking back over his shoulder. “We shot it in one of its eyes.”
“Doesn’t hurt to be careful,” the dark-haired horse said, looking off into the distance warily.
Spitfire nodded and looked at him. “Soarin, stay with her. I’ll be back with transportation in a jiffy.” She looked at Rainbow warningly. “If the ankheg returns, you are only to repel it! Princess Celestia’s orders were specific. We aren’t allowed to kill that thing! They’re endangered.”
Rainbow saluted with a hoof. “Yes, ma’am…” Her words lacked enthusiasm.
Spitfire nodded, satisfied. “Stay with the humans. I’ll return soon.” And with a series of powerful flaps from her wings that stirred Mulder and Scully’s hair, the pegasus rose in the air, turned, and flew back the way she’d come, in the same direction of the road the FBI agents had been travelling.
Author's Note: So it goes without saying, this is subject to change. I had some ideas after I posted the first chapter. I may go back and add a scene or two to flesh the story out more. For the sake of continuity, I'll leave things as they are for the blog version of the story, but I'm contemplating withholding the final chapter for when I get around to actually posting the story. Provided interest continues. If the response feels lackluster, I'll just post the whole story to my blog.
Exact words, there Agents. Exact Words. Scully's day is abut to get just a little bit worse here.
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Let me continue reading...
Nice second chapter here. Really adds to the story.
Also, If I were in Fox's shoes, I would have inspected my armaments more fully when I checked for their presence.
Personal Armaments Check Procedure:
1: Verify the presence of primary armaments.
2: Verify whether or not ammunition is still present and loaded.
.a: Remove magazine and determine remaining quantity of ammo, then re-insert.
.b: Verify presence and loadedness of spare ammo.
3: Repeat as needed for any additional and/or secondary weapons.
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That's probably just my 22 year military career talking to me.
5752078
Yesssss, I love this! Definitely will add that tidbit of knowledge in the final draft. Thanks!
5752089
No need to copy it verbatim. Just hit the highlights. Fox pulls his gun from its holster, checks the ammo in the mag, puts it all back then checks the other magazine(s).
Most pistol mags have small holes or slots where the shooter can easily see at a glance how much ammo they have left. The whole cycle shouldn't take more than a few seconds. If it takes more than two dozen words, you're likely being excessively wordy with it.
5752091
Gotcha. Yeah, when I read your comment, I kinda just hit my head and went, "Duh!" If they were incapacitated and still had their weapons, it just stands to reason they'd check if they had any ammo left. I appreciate the insight for sure!
5752092
All part of world-building and situation-building. The right amount of world-building can greatly improve the reader's willing suspension of disbelief. Might even save it in the event of a world crackingly badly written scene.
And don't be afraid to invent and use brand new words that just fit. I've already done it twice tonight.
Scully.exe has stopped working.
I wonder if Equestria will be the thing that finally breaks her.
5752230
I'm certainly prepared to explore this 😆