Tel'aran'rhiod

by Keairan

Awakening

Jonsai looked upon a curious scene from the side of cliff. In front of him was an impossibly deep gorge, a chasm that would swallow even the largest city. Across from him was an extremely odd figure.

“A white horse? With wings and a horn?” he spoke aloud without even noticing. She stared into the depths of the canyon, and seemed to be looking at something intently. Tears began to fall.Tears fell from Violet eyes into the canyon beneath her, but other than the patter of her, for he somehow knew that this creature was female, tears into the emptiness before them, no sound was heard.

The sun rose, and the sun set, which brought a full cycle of the moon, and still she cried, her tears filling the gorge. The gorge began to fill, slowly and at the same time very quickly. Soon the gorge was turned into a lake that reflected him, the mare, and a strange moon. The mare finally noticed Jonsai being reflected in the lake, then looked up. She gave him a look of pure sorrow.

He felt himself start to fade, but noted tears on his cheeks as he faded.

The alicorn of the night's chariot touched down in a glen within the Everfree Forest, some distance away from the castle she shared with her diurnal sister. She and her guards noticed a curious creature splayed out prone. It was covered by a piece of cloth that was continuously shifted from gray to green in an unpredictable pattern. Dismounting from her chariot, she assisted her guards in removing the harnesses yoking them to the chariot.

“Prithee, search the area, I will examine the creature.” said the Lady Luna. The guards responded by bringing their right fore-hooves across their chests, and then begann to set up a perimeter. The alicorn began to cast a spell that would allow her to examine the creature.

She finished casting the spell, then began her examination. Curious, a nearly hairless species, with concentrations of hair on the head, the chest, foreleg shoulder joint, and the pubis. It's clearly a male, as well as mammalian. Creature is wearing clothing that is covering most of it's body, most likely to protect from the cold. The build of the legs suggest that it stands erect, and those paws, truly a wondrous thing. The diamond dogs only wish they had paws that could be that dextrous. Now then, examine the mouth. No muzzle, so not an effective predator for bringing down it's prey by biting, but it does have canines as well as molars, so it's omnivorous.

She finished her examination, then decided to risk prodding the creature with her hoof.

“Duent sev, Ishar!” came from the creatures mouth. Luna thought quickly, and cast a translation spell on the creature. Luna tried again, placing a hoof gently on his shoulder and rocked the unconscious man back and forth in an attempt to awaken him.

“Stop it, Ishar!” Jonsai mumbled as he laid on the ground. He continued to mumble, and fell back asleep.

A rocking motion awakened him. He slowly stretched into a kneeling position, and took in the fact that he wasn't even remotely close to his bed, his room, or any place that he remotely recognized. He felt a throbbing on the back of his head, and reached his hand back there and massaged gently at the sore spot. I wonder where I am? For that matter, how did I get here? This is definitely not my apartment, and I don't remember drinking last night. Perhaps Ishar is playing a not so delicate prank on me? Getting to his feet, he called out to his friend. “Ishar! Where are you, you pain in the arse?”

He looked about, and noticed a pristine forest with a disturbing lack of chora trees. I must really be in the wilderness if there are no choras about. He finished observing the countryside, and happened to note the two stubby-winged equines and a larger equine that had larger wings along with a narwhal like horn.

“Ishar, this is your most elaborate prank yet!” Jonsai called out to the woods.

The creature is tall, very tall. Luna mentally noted. The translation spell began to work, taking some time to build up its vocabulary, but it was translating articles and putting syntax into proper Equestrian. She understood very little, but got something about pain and prank out of the spell. He thinks that this is a joke? Truly an odd creature indeed. She braced herself as the creature began to walk towards her with a paw outstretched towards her muzzle. What does the cur think he is doing?

Casting a low powered version of her amplification spell, Luna proceeded to query his actions. “What dost thou think thou art doing, creature?!” At this question, her guards interpose themselves in front of him.

“Thou dare not touch the Princess, Churl!” came from her guard and spokescolt, Night Hammer, while the other, Rear Bastion, brought himself to his full height to appear as threatening as possible.

The volume of the creature’s vocalizations astounded Jonsai, as well as the fact they sounded not only threatening, but he understood a bit of it. Something about “doing, creature, princess, and... churl?” Isn't that an ancient insult? I mean, I'm no historian, but that's just strange. Eh, Ishar is a strange one. He chuckled to himself, and said. “Ishar, you have way too much time on your hands if you crossed a horse with a bird, and another with a whale and a horse. Especially for just a prank.”

Pointedly ignoring the three equines, he grabs a hold of the power and begins to learn the area to make a gateway back to his apartment.

Luna still did not quite understand all that was said by the creature, but got the feeling that she and her guards were just insulted. She looked upon him with the full power of her royal glare, which she noticed he ignored completely.

How dare he ignore the Princess of the Night?! We shall show him the dangers of dismissing us. Suddenly, she felt a strange feeling of heat, but nothing happened for several minutes. She then felt a strange pressure along her body, keeping her from moving. She looked to her her guards and noted that they were similarly bewildered in their inability to move. She looked over at the creature, who smiled apologetically at them. A vertical slash then appeared in front of him, that expanded to a rectangular hole in the air that showed the inside of a home. A pained grunt echoed from the hole. He has harmed one of our little ponies! She struggled at her bonds, and warmed up a teleportation spell, worry and anger plastered on her face.

“Stay away from our subjects you monster!” She screamed as loud as she could.

A luthier and musician by the name of Harpo Heartstrings had just finished his breakfast of cream over berries. He walked over to his work table, and began to work again on a golden lyre.

As he began to delicately file the near finished headpiece into its final shape, he heard a curious chime by the wall of his house. “How strange? What could have caused that?” He walked over to the wall and began to examine the area diligently, as the sound was quite beautiful, like a perfectly cast bell. After a few minutes, he decided to return to his work. My mind is playing tricks on me. Perhaps I will go for a walk to clear my head once I have finished. Suddenly, a bright light and a weird numbness in his side caused him to turn his head. He saw two things, a deep wound in his side, and a curiously tall creature standing on the other side of a hole that is in the wound. The instant onrush of pain overwhelmed him, and he fainted with a grunt.

After he finally succeeded in learning the area sufficiently, Jonsai wove the signaling chime for a gateway to his home. He waited for a few minutes, and received no return chime. Of course he didn't signal back, he's out here messing with me, I'll just go ahead and head back home. With that, he channeled a hole in the pattern to bridge his current location with his home, when he heard a cry of pain coming from the other side of the gateway. Ignoring the angry yell from the tallish equine behind him, Jonsai ran through the gateway and took in a horrifying sight. A creature with a rounded off horn, forest green coat and brown mane was laying on its side with a clean slice in its abdomen, about two knuckles deep. Quickly tying off the four weaves that he was holding, Jonsai wove a pattern of air, water and spirit in an attempt to heal the horse in front of him.

Oh Light! Hope I can heal this! A trace of panic passed along the border of the oneness, but it left as the edges of cut skin melded back together. A band of pink skin formed along the creatures abdomen, along with what he hoped healed the likely internal injuries. It's too bad I'm not better at healing, that crude attempt would be laughed at by any hospital. Having closed up the creatures side, he notices an odd pattern on the creature's flank, a design that looked like a disassembled harp. He dismissed it as unimportant and walked back through the gateway. He untied his weave, and closed the gateway.

“Where in the name of the Light am I?! That was obviously not my apartment, and I don't see Ishar making more than three for just a silly prank, no matter how elaborate.” Jonsai said to himself.

“Thou art in Equestria, creature! And, YOU! SHALL! NOT! HURT! MY! SUBJECTS!” The strange equine from before screamed from behind him.

He seized the power as quickly as possible and wove a quick shield behind him while rolling forward, away from the enraged horse. The horse's hooves crashed against the shield violently. I'm glad my reflexes are decent, that would've killed me!

Startlingly, a blue glow enveloped Jonsai and brought him in front of the winged and horned horse. Speaking from the depths of the oneness, he stated “That was an accident, and for what it is worth, I did heal... him. He should be fine with some rest and a lot of food. My talents aren't exactly great for healing.”

“You healed our subject? Tell me, what was his hurt?” the creature with the startling mane asked.

“A clean slice along the lower abdomen, about two knuckles deep.” Jonsai held up his hand at a bend to show the depth he meant.

“That wouldst have killed our subject from blood loss alone, so we shall not harm you, but it would behoove you to answer all of our questions.”

“I'm fine with all that, but who are you, and where did you say I was again?”

“Our name is Princess Luna, duchess of the night, and co-ruler of Equestria, which is where you are. And how are you called?” With that said, she put him down

“Jonsai Equshina, of V'saine, a graduate student at the University Collam Daan. I'm studying Tel'aran'rhiod, and according to all my Aes Sedai teachers I'm also a dreamer, but I don't see how, I don't... ever... err, rarely remember my dreams.” The vivid dream from the night before as well as the events of the prior day came rushing back at that point.

The returning memories caused the young man to collapse to the ground. What happened? Beidomon and Mierin Sedai's calculations were perfect, there was no way that should have happened.

“Princess Luna, Your Majesty, have you ever seen any others of my kind before?”

“No, Jonsai, thou art completely unique in our experience. What exactly art thou?”

“I am a human, and I'm fairly positive that I'm no longer in my home reflection of the wheel.”

“Reflection of the Wheel?”

“Using either Tel'aran'rhiod or a portal stone, one can travel to all the worlds that can be, a reflection of your own world, or yours is a reflection of another. I think this is a distant reflection of my world that I was able to reach by an accident concerning an experiment in my world.”

“That would explain the 'disturbance' my sister and myself sensed not long ago.”

“What did this disturbance feel like?” queried Jonsai.

“Like reality was screaming.”

“That makes a scary amount of sense. The botched experiment sent an explosive wave into Tel'aran'rhiod that opened what looked to be tears along my shield, but I was knocked out during the wave. I remember nothing more than waking up in this forest to this.”

An annoyed call came from the direction of her two guards. “Princess, could you get him to release us? I'm used to standing at attention, but this is ridiculous.” Stated one of the stallions.

The two of them looked over and noticed the two stallions standing stock still, and a distorted patch of air near them. Jonsai chuckled, and once again grasped the power, released the two stallions as well as undoingthe now useless binding of air. He let the sweet sensation of Sai'din' leave him again, and looked over at the princess again. “So how did you escape my weave?”

“Teleportation spell. And if we're going to keep asking questions, what was that hole that you walked through?”

“Oh, that was a gateway, it allows me to go to any location within a certain distance instantaneously, so long as I know the area that I'm starting out from.”

“Interesting, how large of a distance?”

“I've been able to go from one side of my planet to another with it, so pretty much limitless on a planetary scale, but I'm positive I couldn't get to the moon unaided.”

“Unaided?”

“Yes, either with the aid of a tool called an angreal or being in a circle with a woman, I can use more of the power than I could alone.”

“Ah, so your species can pool your powers together. Interesting. Unicorns have the ability to do that as well, but, you said you can only be in a circle with a woman? What's a woman, and why would it be necessary for a circle?”

Jonsai laughed at that. “A woman is what we call a female of my species, and man is what we call a male of my species. As for why they are necessary, I'm not quite sure. Individually, we males are more potent in terms of being able to use the power, but we can only work alone without a woman joined with us. They allow us to combine our strengths to far greater than just one of us alone, but less than what we would get by simple addition. Do you follow so far?”

“More or less. Why art thou answering all of our questions readily?”

“I don't have any reason not to, plus you are the local authority. I don't want to anger you.”

“We are already angered, but your honesty tempers our wrath.”

Jonsai slightly shuddered, but continued on. “Fair enough. Once again, I'm really sorry about injuring that... what are you specifically? I don't mean to seem rude, but we've not encountered you before to my knowledge. Your guards and the horse I injured resemble some vague myths we have, but I'm not particularly good with myths.”

Luna's face took on a contemplative look. “Our species as a whole is called ponies, and we have four types. Earth, who are bound to the ground but gain great strength and a bond with the earth and all things that live upon it.”

“Oh! So they're kind of like Ogier in that regard!”

“Your species knows of the Ogier?” Luna had a shocked expression on her face

“Yeah. We have a large contingent and several stedding where I live.”

“Interesting. Anyways, the species with wings are called Pegasi, which allow them to fly and control the weather.”

“They can fly? With those stubby wings? How?”

“Magic.”

“Right. The amazing catch-all explanation for anything. Please continue.”

Luna gave him an annoyed glare, but resumed her lecture all the same. “Unicorns, who focus their bodies' magic through their horns, and alicorns, who have the traits of all three.”

“So it was a unicorn that I hurt. I hope I get the chance to apologize for hurting him. How was he to know that the chime meant move out of the area.”

Taking on a slightly quizzical expression Luna asks “How exactly did that hurt him? Teleportation spells automatically detect for a presence at the end that keeps the caster from combining with an object or creature on the other end.”

“Yeah, gateways create a hole in the pattern that brings the end point to the starting point. The area that the gateway opens up on both ends slices anything in the way finer than a razor. It's why we send out signal chimes, so folks move out of the way. Proper etiquette when dealing with another Aes Sedai says that the channeler on the other end must make a return chime to signal the all clear, but with those lacking the ability they just vacate the general area for a few minutes.”

“Interesting indeed.”

“Indeed it is your majesty.” Jonsai screwed up his courage, then asked the princess
“Princess Luna, what exactly do you plan on doing to me?”

Luna chuckled sinisterly, and stated ominously “simple, human. We will take you to our sister for judgment.”