Dissonance: A Hidden World

by Braininthejar

Chapter 2: The Cold

"What's going on?" asked Applejack, as the path beneath her hooves started shaking. The others braced themselves to keep their balance, the two pegasi instinctively taking to the air.

“Look!” shouted Rarity, pointing forward. The mountainous landscape they were walking towards had started shifting, moving away from them. Slabs of stone emerged from the darkness, connecting to the path until a small platform was formed, with the pathway splitting into five.

Rainbow Dash flew forward, tapping her hoof on the platform with suspicion. It didn’t budge. She flew to the edge and looked underneath. The stone was about two inches thick and there was nothing underneath to support it.

“I… I think, it wants us to split up,” said Fluttershy.

“It? What’s ‘it’”? asked Rainbow Dash, pointing her hoof around her. ”And there’s no way we split up. Remember that maze Discord put us in?”

“I agree. We need to stick together,” said Rarity. “But in that case, which path should we choose?”

“I say we go straight forward!” said Applejack loudly, rearing and stomping her hooves for emphasis. “That’s where we were already walking.”

Fluttershy walked across the platform and looked down. There were some stars visible down below. “Erm… these stones fly on their own. What if they… drop us?” she nearly whimpered.

“Then you catch Pinkie Pie and I catch Applejack and Rarity,” said Rainbow Dash. “I once carried her and three Wonderbolts. It won’t be a problem.” But there was something in her voice that betrayed hesitation.

“Weeeeell…” said Pinkie Pie, walking up to Fluttershy and looking where she had looked. “My Pinkie sense has been a bit wonky lately, but my tail isn’t twitching, so I don’t think we’re gonna fall… yet.” The others just stared at her.

“Enough waiting,” said Applejack, before moving onto the pathway and speeding up to a trot. “Let’s stop worrying about the floor and just find some solid ground already.”

The rest quickly followed her, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flying over the path, with Pinkie Pie closing the formation behind Rarity.

Soon they saw land before them, the starry void somehow ending in what looked like a desolate plain covered with… wrecked ships? Applejack increased her pace and the girls ran the last part of the way, only coming to a half when there was solid ground underneath them. They looked around cautiously. On closer inspection, the broken hulls turned out to be airships, bigger than any of the girls had ever seen. Broken propellers and other, harder to identify means of locomotion stuck out among the rotting wood and rusting metal, torn envelopes of the blimps revealing their internal supports, like the ribs of a beached whale carcass. The bright stars above cast a cold light upon the scenery, just enough to see, but not nearly so to banish the long streaks of lingering shadow.

“It looks like... “ said Rainbow Dash. Then Fluttershy shrieked.

As one, the group turned towards her, each of them looking for a possible threat. Then their eyes followed her shaking hoof and they all saw what she was pointing at.

There were shapes in the shadows, dozens of them, piled one over another.

After a moment that lasted an eternity, Rainbow Dash flew forward and tapped the closest one. With a soft crack, a charred unicorn skull disconnected from its neck and rolled into full view, a rusting helmet falling off it as it hit the ground..

“What in tarnation?” said Applejack, recoiling. “Is this for real?”

Rarity covered her mouth with a hoof. “I sure hope not.” She looked nervously towards Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie, dear, could you tell us if this is really happening, or another trick of this place?”

Pinkie Pie picked up the skull and balanced it on her hoof in front of her face. “I dunno. Are you real?” she asked the skull.

“Pinkie!” shouted the girls in unison.

Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow. “What? You’ve never seen a skeleton at school? Even if it’s real, it’s just bones. It’s not like it’s gonna bite me.”

The girls looked at each other in silence. Then Fluttershy screamed, jumping for cover, realising that all the dark corners are filled with bones and making a wild swerve to finally skid on the ground and hide underneath Applejack, diving between her legs.

“Did I jinx it?” asked Pinkie.

“Hey! Look there!” said Rainbow Dash suddenly, pointing behind them.

They all turned, looking towards the path they had come from, only to find it gone. It was not just the stone pathway that was missing either, the dark abyss they had crossed was nowhere to be seen, the wreckage-strewn scenery now extending in all directions.

“It’s gone,” said Applejack to nopony in particular.
“So, does it mean this is an illusion?” asked Rarity. “Perhaps we shouldn’t go back there then. I wouldn’t like to fall down that… Dash!”

Dash had flown where the bridge had been. She stopped rapidly at Rarity’s call. “What is it?” she asked anxiously.

“Don’t split off on your own. Don’t you remember?” said Rarity.

Rainbow Dash lowered herself just enough to tap the ground with her hoof. When she didn’t discover anything unusual, she returned to her friends, smiling sheepishly. “All, right. All right. I remember. We stick together.”

“So, which way do we go?” asked Applejack, looking around. There was no obvious path beyond this point.

Rainbow Dash flew up to get a better look, then pointed in the direction opposite to where they had arrived from. “The path took us here. There must be something important this way.”

Slowly they set off, picking their way among the rubble. Rainbow was leading the group, looking left and right in search of any skulking danger. The rest followed her on the ground, Applejack and Rarity making a lot of effort not to touch any of the bones they passed by. Fluttershy almost crawled, staying in the middle of her friends and trying to be as small as possible. Even Pinkie lost her usual energetic gait and was scanning her surroundings for danger.

“You know, I don’t think these are just pony bones,” she suddenly said, pointing at one of the skeletons. “This one has cloven hooves.”

Despite herself, Applejack turned to look, recoiling a bit from the sight. “You’re right. But that’s no cow or deer. Look at the skull. It’s got a unicorn horn.”

The statement made Fluttershy risk a glance too. “It looks like a unicorn… but I’ve never seen one like that,” she said.

Pinkie tilted her head, taking a closer look. “These are ponies, but some really weird ponies... I wish…” she hesitated, trying to remember something. “I wish Twilight was with us. She’d tell us what it’s all about.”

Rainbow Dash stared at her. “Twilight. We’re looking for Twilight. Why didn’t I remember?” She looked around frantically. “Something’s very wrong. We need to get out of here, fast!”

She rushed forward and the rest of the girls broke into a run after her. They didn’t really think where they were going, just following the path of least resistance through the field, heading for the biggest gaps between the crashed ships. It took them a moment to notice that the rush of air around them was not just the effect of them running. There was a wind blowing against them now, the air filled with a rattling sound as some of the skeletons started falling apart.

Rainbow Dash stopped, rubbing her face as a stray grain of sand hit her in the eye. Her friends had caught up to her and were now looking around with frightened expressions. Pinkie’s body vibrated and twitched, but there was no warning she could give her friends that would change anything. “Stay together!” shouted Applejack.

Then the wind hit with full force.

All at once everything changed. Out of nowhere, a bank of bluish fog appeared, moving on the wind like a solid wall. When it washed over them, they found themselves squinting against clear skies and the light of noon.

There was noise around, galloping hooves, shouts and clang of metal. Huge shapes moved overhead, spitting fire and lightning at each other. Rainbow Dash looked around her and her eyes widened. There were two lines of soldiers charging towards them from opposite directions.

“We need to get out of the way!” shouted Applejack over the noise, taking initiative and rushing to her left, her friends following as best they could. The two lines crashed into each other around them, armoured earth ponies kicking and swinging weapons at each other.

Dash saw one attacker ready to charge at Fluttershy. She flew up and then swooped at his back with all her weight, smashing him into the ground before he could reach the frightened pegasus. To her surprise the soldier exploded into blue mist, leaving only scattered bones and rusting armor behind. Dash paused in surprise and only just managed to dodge the charge of another warrior at the last moment. She looked back at her friends just in time to see them slip out of the fight, the nearest enemies halted in their pursuit as their opponents absorbed all their attention. As she rejoined her friends, Dash had a moment to notice that the soldiers really were stopping in their tracks. A mystery was soon solved as she saw who they were fighting; a heavily armoured stallion, bigger even that Big Macintosh was leading his unit, swinging a heavy ball and chain with his mouth. What was more unusual was a perch mounted across his back, an angry looking cockatrice balancing on it to stare over his master’s shoulder.

Quickly turning her back on the fight, Dash rejoined Fluttershy. The five mares were an eye of the storm, a battle running its course around them. There was more and more blue mist as the warriors destroyed each other, none of them seeming to notice how the dead were instantly reduced to aged bones.

“We need to find a way out!” shouted Applejack again.

Dash looked around for any opening, but in vain. The battle seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. It was unreal in both its scale and variety. There were minotaurs swinging heavy, double-bladed axes, gryphons throwing javelins, stone trolls as big as houses, giant worms emerging from the ground to lash their enemy with multiple tongues. There were pegasi, dragons and changelings fighting across the sky among the giant airships. A group of strange, slightly goat-like unicorns in wizard robes stood in formation pooling their powers together to launch heavy rocks far across the battlefield. Everything happened at once and while there were commanders visible here and there, the whole battle was an image of total chaos, no visible pattern or strategy to it.

“There’s nowhere to run!” shouted Dash, hovering low over her friends. “What do we do?”

“Well,” responded Applejack, “They’re busy with each other. Let’s stick together and…”

“Twitchy tail!” shrieked Pinkie Pie at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly a shadow fell upon them. They all looked up in unison to see a giant shape looming above, a burning dirigible falling down upon the battlefield, its envelope torn open, pieces of burning wood falling off the hull as it descended. Seconds seemed to stretch into eternity as it moved closer and closer. Dash saw her friends scatter, each bolting in the direction that promised safety the quickest, all except for Fluttershy who froze on the spot, staring upwards with growing eyes. The blue pegasus dove down, grabbing her friend and pulling her along at the last second, the airship hitting the ground with a mighty crash, spraying the two with debris and sending them rolling in the dirt.

“You ok?” asked Dash, picking herself off the ground.

Fluttershy nodded, then seemed to finally remember she had wings, rising into the air besides Dash. Together they flew back to the crashed ship, looking for their friends.

The effort was in vain. The ship had already turned into a rusted wreck, a nimbus of blue mist spreading around it obscuring the view. As she looked around it, Rainbow Dash suddenly realised that the surrounding battlefield was getting less and less visible, the sounds and images fading rapidly. Then she heard a faint sound that froze the blood in her veins.

A jingling in the air, like wind chimes.

She turned around, but it was too late. The glowing pony shape was standing in the air behind her, one foreleg unravelled into a string of runes that wrapped around Fluttershy’s torso. It pulled and swung through the air like a whip, launching the screaming pegasus into the nearest bank of mist, where she disappeared without a sound.

“No!” Dash still remembered the futility of trying to fight the creature. Instead she flew past it as fast as she could, aiming for the place where her friend had last been.
As if to mock her, the cloud dispersed right in front of her hooves. Dash flapped her wings rapidly to decelerate, landing in the middle of an empty meadow. There was nopony in sight, just lush grass all around her.

Rainbow Dash turned around, looking in all directions, her ears swivelling in search of any sound other than the whistling wind. It was so calm here, but… what was she doing here again?

The pegasus opened her mouth and screamed.

***

Twilight opened her eyes. Her fall ended with an impact, but it seemed she was alive. She opened her eyes and then shut them tightly again.

She wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Steeling herself, she opened her eyes again.

There was no visible floor underneath her. The unicorn was standing on mid air, starry void stretching around her in all directions. She tapped her hoof, there was resistance, but no sound. Then she looked around her. What she saw was even more surprising. The stars filled the sky above and below her, but they weren’t all far away as she was used to seeing them. Some were pretty close, almost at hooves’ reach, small balls of light creating a bluish haze with their radiance. It was like standing in the middle of a nebula.

Why are they so small? thought Twilight. She walked up to the closest star and took a closer look, almost nuzzling it with her face before stopping herself. The star kept glowing with a soft, bluish light.

Twilight blinked. Did the star just smile at her? Now that she listened, she could hear a soft sound of a filly’s laughter coming from the miniature celestial body. She stepped back, surprised.

All around her now, more sounds could be heard, children playing without a care in the world. Twilight started to see silhouettes among the haze, familiar shapes that brought back memories. She quickly stepped back and turned her back on the images. Suddenly she knew how those were familiar and she didn’t want to see them any more. She ran, trying not to think of the times before her talent awakened, the times when she had been an awkward filly in love with books, her only friends her big brother and a stuffed donkey.

Why are they here? What in Equestria is happening? she thought as she ran. Suddenly there was stone under her hooves. She skidded to a halt and found herself in a familiar chamber in Canterlot Castle.

Twilight blinked. The path behind her disappeared, but the blue haze of starlight was still visible through the tall windows. There were rows of seats, a board on the wall, a blue checkered pattern on the floor. And a small cart with a large purple egg inside it standing in the middle of the room.

Twilight approached the egg cautiously. She felt a sudden impulse to turn around and sure enough, she saw the shapes of her parents there. They were slightly translucent, but getting more solid by the second, giving her encouraging smiles. Twilight watched them in utter confusion.

I must focus! I need to try to make sense of it all...

She tried to concentrate, but felt a sudden wave of weakness. She swayed slightly and breathed deeply. Did it suddenly get cold? As she shook her head to wake herself up and tried to analyse the situation with a cool head, she was interrupted by a loud noise. A huge wave of rainbow colors spread across the sky.

Twilight knew what would happen now, but the expected surge of magic never came. Instead the shell cracked with the softest of noises and Spike emerged from inside. He was somehow no longer a baby, but a faithful assistant she knew and loved.

“Do you need help with something, Twilight?” he asked with a worried voice.

“Spike! I’m so happy to see you!” Twilight lunged forward and hugged the dragon, her tiredness momentarily forgotten. Spike’s scaly skin was warm to the touch, hinting at the fire magic flowing in his veins.

“I thought I lost you,” continued Twilight. “Come on, we need to find a way out.”

“A way out?” The dragon looked at her with surprise. “Whatever you say, Twilight.” He followed her on his short legs as she left the room. After a moment’s thought Twilight picked him up with her magic and set him on her back. She left the classroom and found herself in one of the inner courtyards of the castle.

“We need to find the princess. She will know what to do.” Twilight ran across the courtyard and towards the building where the throne room was located. As she ran, she saw ponies walking by, all familiar faces, fading into the background as she ran past them. She smiled inwardly as she caught a sight of Shining Armour who was busy instructing some guards. He waved at her and she regretted not having enough time to talk to him. Her tiredness increasing, she slowed to a walk, slowly making her way to the castle until finally she entered the throne room.

The whole chamber was filled with blinding light. Twilight shielded her eyes with a hoof and nearly stumbled, the feeling of cold returning and numbing her in body and mind. She could see the silhouette of princess Celestia, towering over her, just as she remembered from her earliest memories. The light made her unable to see the details, but she could feel the warm smile on the alicorn’s muzzle.

“Twilight Sparkle, what do you need?” asked the princess.

“Princess, something strange is happening...” Twilight blinked, confused. What was she going to tell to the princess? She was sure there was something very important. Was it her homework? No, she was sure she had finished everything already. She strained her memory and finally caught onto something. “I can’t find my friends anywhere,” she finished.

A white wing descended onto her back, the soft touch of the feathers making her want to lie down and sleep there and then.

“You already know the answer, Twilight Sparkle,” said Celestia. “Look inside yourself and you will find what you seek.”

Twilight squinted, looking away from the light. “Inside myself? What do you mean, princess?”

The alicorn withdrew her wing. “Where are your friends, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Ponyville,” answered Twilight Sparkle without thinking. “My friends are in Ponyville.”

Princess Celestia spread her wings and rose to the air. Her light grew brighter and then dimmed as she started fading out, along with the walls of the throne room. Twilight found herself in the starry void again.

“We need to go to Ponyville, Spike. That’s where my friends are...”

Spike didn’t answer. Twilight thought that he must have fallen asleep, now just a comfort of a familiar weight on her back. The light of the stars started to dim and it looked as if the night was falling, but why would stars go out for the night?

Twilight tried to think about it, but lost her train of thought. She was cold and tired and every step took more effort than the last. She was too tired to think anymore, just walking, step after step, to where she knew her friends would be. This is where she met them, right?

She passed the silhouettes of the Carousel Boutique and the Sugarcube Corner and smiled at the warm memories. There were no lights on, nopony there. But Twilight knew where to go looking. The rest of the town was unimportant, fading, darkening, only her goal ahead of her a distant light. For a moment she thought the light moved, a distant shape of a pony walking ahead of her. Then she saw it; Golden Oaks library, a beacon in the darkness, warm lights shining from its windows.

Twilight could hear multiple voices from the inside, echoes of laughter all coming from the ponies dear to her heart. This was her home, the place where she belonged. Among her friends forever.

The door opened soundlessly and Twilight Sparkle walked in, her consciousness fading in the overcoming tiredness, the fuzzy warmth the last thing that went through her head. Then the door closed behind her and the light flickered out. Everything became silent and dark.

Author's Note:

Comments

[Csquared08]

On the one hand, I'm really feeling all the suspense. It's great!

On the other hand, I'm really trying hard to remember what I can from Envy and Arrogance and Guilt and Hate, and it's basically nothing. I almost wonder if I should reopen that wound and reread them now that this is a thing... 🤔

[Braininthejar]

9537406
EIther way, some key elements have been purposefully changed

[Crimson Dawn]

9537442

Well I hope Pinkie being awesome will not be changed!

[Rakdar]

I hoping that this is going to come together since im a little lost, I also dont want to reread envy/arrogance and either potentially spoil myself or worse try to make this compared to it.

[Braininthejar]

9701048
Reading Envy and Arrogance at this point would likely just confuse things. Some key details have been changed.

The first questions will be answered in the next couple chapters - but new questions will be asked