//------------------------------// // Lost in the Everfree // Story: A World in Chaos // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// "Well, here we are. At the vault. Looks like he scratched a few of the gems but didn't break in or anything. Looks like Celestia's protection spells are working. So, now what? Look to the light? What light thought, it's night time." As though the celestial mechanism heard her the sun and moon switched places filling the hall with light. "So, does that mean we look for sunlight reflections through the windows?" Twilight asked as she and Fluttershy walked ahead looking at the reflections cast on the floor expecting a clue. A square lit and shimmered slightly, the duo looked at each other then smiled, Fluttershy weakly but still a smile none the less. Twilight trotted ahead to the tile, almost as long as she was in a square it shimmered in a purple light as they approached. Placing a hoof on the tile a bright flash of light engulfed them. I found it, look to the light. The light faded and they were in a forest cast in shadow by the trees overhead. "What the spell? Where are we?" Twilight looked but didn't see her friend. Her concern grew as she heard various growl in the distance and wind rustling through the leaves in the trees. A shadow was cast in passing for over the canopy as she looked up, ears twitching every which way to find any familiar sounds and anything dangerous. The object passed, A cloud? No Pegasus, oh no. I'm in the "Everfree forest," she said aloud as her body trembled realizing the magic that had washed over her. It's not nerves, it's the dark magic of this forest. Oh Celestia, what do I do? She looked around and saw nothing familiar except the tile. A large square marble slab out of place in the forest, she rolled her eyes and walked to it poking it with her hoof, eyes shut tight. Opening her eyes she smiled for a moment then it faded. She was still in the forest poking a slab of marble like a foolish foal. "Great, what do I do now?" Twilight asked looking at a tree in frustration before stomping the tile. "Stupid tile, why won't you take me back?" "Twilight Sparkle, element of magic, is that a way to speak to the floor?" Discords voice came from behind her. Spinning around she didn't see him and she grunted angrily as a tree moved smoothly and took a wooden form of the god of chaos. "Certainly you don't mean the floor is to blame for your current predicament?" He leaned to the side and hit his head knocking several woodland animals out of his wooden ears. "Ah that's better, now I can hear what you have to say. Will you apologize to the floor, kiss and make up then start a new friendship?" He smiled bark teeth as a bird flew from his mouth he extended his tongue and a smaller version of his true self walked out of his mouth. "Friendship can be the strongest magic of all, or so I've heard. It's like a bear in the woods," his wooden body leaned over and knocked the side of his head and a large grizzly bear tumbled to the ground from it's ear before vanishing being replaced by Discord again. "You see, without this bear," he picked up the bear by the scruff of its neck and took a bite out of its right foreleg. "NO," Twilight screamed as the bear looked with wide eyes as the bite tore free. "-the forest wouldn't be nearly as sweet." He smiled as he turned the bears wound to the shocked mare. "Is that, jelly?" "Oh Twilight Sparkle? This is a 'gummy' bear," the bear smiled with candy teeth made from various gummy colors as Discord shrank the bear to a smaller size and popped it into his mouth chewing loudly. "Now, why do you think I showed you this?" He blew a large rainbow colored bubble that popped, with a large inhale it returned to his mouth and he began chewing loudly again. "Because you're a crazy monster?" Twilight was standing firm but her trembling flanks gave away her fear she was trying to hide. "Well, whats the point in challenging you to a match of wits when you jump right to the answer. You seem to know everything so why don't you ask me a question. One question that you don't know the answer to." In a flash he was resting on her muzzle with a leg dangling freely sipping a cup from between his claws. Twilight crossed her eyes to focus on him briefly and watched him for about 5 seconds holding a cup of juice and drinking the cup that contained it. Her mind wrapped around this curious act briefly before she shook her head furiously to dislodge him. "So I can ask you one question," she stated still standing firm as the normally sized Discord discarded the juice as though it were rotten before dabbing his mouth with a hand full of leaves from a nearby tree; his attention focused on her, "where is my element?" "Oh, I love this. Straight to the point, my little pony. Ah, what I have to tell you will shock you to your very core," he produced an apple from behind her ear and reared back several feet taking a bite he bit it in half perfectly, "and, undoubtedly, be quite exciting." He turned the apple half toward Twilight as he leaned closer the apple grew in size until it was almost as large as her. "That is, of course. A matter of perspective," he cackled with laughter as he fell to his belly on a soft futon propping himself on his wrists kicking his legs slowly behind him. "The answer to your question is," he held an hourglass he pulled from beneath his chin and waited a long five seconds for the sand to pour through, "yes." He said in a low flat voice. He tossed the hourglass at Twilight who dodged as it struck the ground where she stood a moment before. The sand spilled across the ground and slowly began to spread until it was nearly touching her hooves. She backed away but the sand kept growing in a widening rough circle as she turned to gallop away from the ever increasing sand. "Yes?" she said frustrated, "that's where my element is? What the spell does that mean?" She asked as she galloped through the clear path that was ahead of her. Discord was flying above her intangibly though the canopy and branches silent for a moment as if in thought. "You asked if you can ask one question. then you wasted my time with that annoying gibberish I didn't understand afterwards. I answered your question 'yes' you can ask me one question. And for wasting my time I'm wasting yours. Don't let the sand get you or you may be in for a quick surprise." He said smiling with one finger of a paw touching his tooth innocently before disappearing in a flash of light. I swear when I catch that monster I'm gonna get him. He's gonna get a taste of his own medicine if I have anything to say about it. Galloping faster she looked behind her to see the sand was still following her, staying a pace slower than her. I can outrun it. Just keep going Twilight. The path began to vanish behind natural brush and foliage to her dismay as the darkness of the forest began creeping heavier to the point where she was reliant on her night vision. Most ponies had a low amount of night vision, a remnant of their long past that in recorded history was a good as a cats. Over the last two millennium the use of magic and fire had rendered that feature relatively meaningless and the magic that coursed through them had changed that useful evolution into another feature. Or so researchers suggested- mid thought she tripped over a vine or protruding root and tumbled horn over tail twisting and landing on her side after landed and shouting in pain as her wing was pressed under her. Wait, a wing? I have "Wings?" She hopped to her hooves and flapped to her best of her ability trying to leave the ground and get away from the sand. She managed to get to a branch and grab onto it before she became awkwardly twisting in the air with her inexperienced wings. Folding them to her body after a few tries and concentration she hung there on a tree branch as the sand passed under her. As far as she could see in all directions sand coated the ground. Using a spell she learned from Trixie she focused her magic into a beam and shot it at the canopy blasting the trees and leaves away letting light spill in from the sun above her. "Okay, think Twilight. You've read about quick sand, the key is to not get in it. If you do don't struggle and try to get free using a vine or rope." She looked around and scowled. Everything she could ever hope for was all around her but she'd only been using her magic regularly for a few months now. Training mostly with Trixie in illusions and party tricks wasn't going to be of help here. Wait, she was helping me to work on my telekinesis. We'd bounce that ball back and forth for hours some nights when it was raining out, she'd tell me. Gah, what'd she say? I was always too into her eyes to care about what she said, oh yeah! Think of everything you grab like it's in a claw that you control. She thought for a minute and sighed. Her forelegs were already becoming tired as she focused her magic on a vine nearby and pulled it. The vine snapped and fell to the sand. She grunted with displeasure before imagining a claw, she reached with her magic to another vine and imagined the claw grabbing it. She smiled as she enveloped it carefully and tugged. The vine broke and part of it flew at her snapping her in back of the neck before falling to the sand. Her grip slipped slightly and she fought the reflex to touch the stinging throb on the back of her neck to the center of her mane. Okay, too much pull. More control on something else. Maybe I can pull a tree down and use it as a bridge, she thought before squeezing her eyes closed at the foolish thought, a tree, really? Why don't I become a lumberjack? Think Twilight. There has to be a way out of this. She looked around and sighed. She couldn't fly well enough to get anywhere and her magic was at a level a foal would giggle at. Is this how I'm going to die? She felt her heart ache as her forelegs slipped slightly. "H-help," she said quietly. "Help." She stated in a normal voice. "HELP" She screamed, again and again. She called up a spell she used to announce the start of the show with Trixie that made her voice boom in volume. "HELP" She screamed, the echo shouted back at her a half dozen times before she hung her head. "Too loud, if anypony did hear me they know I'm in the forest. Not much help," she gasped as her forelegs began to cramp and her heart ached again. She looked at the sky and let a shaky sigh leave her as the sun and moon switched blanketing the world she saw in night time darkness. Everything became blurry as her eyes filled with tears, she tried to squeeze her eyes shut and open them to wash them away. Please, not like this. I have to tell Trixie I love her, I have to tell my parents and brother how much they mean to me. I have to- "Ah," she groaned as she slipped from her shoulders to her knees and felt herself slipping farther; her joints holding on for all they were worth wasn't enough as she looked at the stars again and blinked as she slipped from the branch holding her to the sandy ground below her.