Echos of Strife

by dusk flame

New beginnings

Author's Note:

Yes, I changed everything. I had to because I just couldn't find it in me to continue the old storyline. All I was doing was setting the stage for emotional connections and troubles, with no legitimate action.

I'm happy to say that I'm fully prepared and ready to get back to this story.

Word of God bonus round:
Here is the base timeline I'm using for this story. Season 4 and on of course is assumed to already be in chronological order (For the most part anyway) http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/349/8/8/my_little_pony_friendship_is_magic_timeline_update_by_tobyandmavisforever-d6xz8b7.png Bonus points if you can pin down just where in that timeline this story begins.

Endless despair covers the land that was once my home. Death I look around me, I see wisps of poison pollute the air. I try to flee but as quickly as I can move, the poison surrounds me. I struggle against the air itself but all it accomplishes is wasted effort. Death I feel air leave my lungs only to be replaced by the taint of the outside world. I look around me and see nothing but death and destruction. Death I find myself laying on the ground, gasping for air. I return to my feet but the light leave my eyes as I run as fast and as far as I can. Death I find myself running, I don't know why but when I look behind me I see bodies. Hundreds upon hundreds of bodies lying in broken, disfigured, piles.Death I look ahead of me and the world is bathed in flames. Death I look up to the sky and a dark blue demon enters the edge of my sight, Death broken shards of the dome fall Death the song of the world reaches a crescendo. Death

The noise stops. I feel peace... unity... I hear music. A calm symphony fills the air as rainbow shards form a cascade of broken light. I see light cover the land and the darkness fades from memory as the light shatters to the ground around me. I feel a sense of calm as the world explodes with light, staining the ground around me with a deep red hue. I look up to the sky and see the demon again, only this time raindrops fall from on high to splash against me. The demon leaves, taking the rain with it, and the dome shatters once more. I smile as rainbow lights fall towards me again and when I close my eyes I feel the light knock me to the ground.

When I opened my eyes, I felt scared. I could remember what happened to me the day before, but something about it was just... off. I could tell I wasn't in my room, and I could see a few of my things spread carelessly across the floor, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was asleep in the middle of a library. Not only that, but I even had a very plushy cushion under me that was softer then anything I have ever felt before. I rubbed my eyes and nearly freaked at the sight of my left arm, but the events of... my last experiences... came in to focus and I remained calm.

Let me ask you something though, if you wake up with a weird crystalline growth on your arm, what would you try to do with it first? Well, the answer for me was stick my hand out and fire a beam out of it... completely oblivious to my current surroundings.

"Well... not doing that inside again..." See, there was a mixture of coincidences that happened right then. The first is that I stuck my arm out, willing for something to shoot out. Then, with my body catching up on the wake-up process, my throat began to feel scratchy so I thought about getting a drink, the natural choice being water. THEN, when I thought about water, the node on my upper arm began to glow, which traced down my veins, which collected in the node on my hand, which somehow culminated in the breaking of every single law of physics I knew of. Long story short, I emitted a torrent of water that just so happened to blast a few chips out of the floor.

Fortunately, the flow of water cut itself off rather quickly. Unfortunately, that was when the person behind me made herself known. "I would hope so. Are you suffering from a bit of incontinence or something? I've had that problem before... but I'd rather not talk about it."

I blinked... twice... before responding. "Yea, let's go with that. I get the feeling telling her I just got this thing... awhile ago... would be a bad idea. So how long was I out then Ms..."

"Twilight Sparkle, you were out for about half a day. Slept through the night like a baby dragon." Huh... that's an odd one.

"Well, can't argue with that. My name is Cean, mind if I call you Sparky?"

"Why Sparky? My friends call me Twi... or Twilight!" I feel inclined to mention I could feel her glare.

Asides aside, I thought for a moment. Why do I want to call her Sparky? "No reason, bonus points if it's abnormal is what I always say."

It was about then that I finally fell to the obligation of turning around to meet my mysterious benefactor face to face, which is when I realized I was talking to a decidedly no-longer-demon pony.

"Well, you're a talking..."

"Human."

"...from the Everfree forest, with more technology in one desk then I've seen in my entire life, a written language that makes no sense to me and the strangest collection of items that would put Pinkie to shame. I think I can file your oddities away under 'cultural differences' and leave it at that... assuming it remains controlled."

I'd also like to take the time to mention that upon saying that, she flipped through some sort of a book that wasn't quite a textbook, and wrote a few lines down. I'd also like to mention that when I asked why she used a feather for a stylus, she gave me a strange look, dipped her stylus in a pot of some oil looking substance, and then wrote a few more lines down on the same page.

Putting 2 and 2 together, I came to the conclusion that she was writing something down under the heading of 'cultural differences' using that not-quite textbook and oil. "Well, can't fault you for being literal I guess. So what next? You seem to be taking this whole thing rather well."

"I had all night to get used to you being here. You, on the other hoof, just woke up in a completely unfamiliar location and the worst you did was chip away at my floor with your magic. Care to explain?"

"I had all day yesterday to get used to the batshite crazy. I mean, why stop at getting 'ported to an a strange place, I had to get attacked by a fekking manticore, I mean, you could have a dragon fight a hydra in the commons and the worst I would do is call it a rip-off of a pre-Imperium movie... Side note, all three of those animals don't even bloody exist where I come from."

"...I didn't quite understand a few of those words. Batshite and fekking are complete unknowns, pre-Imperium I can guess and I take it 'bloody' has a different meaning where you come from."

"Batshite can be switched with words like very or extremely within a negative context, 'fek' is an unusually inoffensive way of saying 'fuck' and bloody is... a modifier that conveys importance of a subject... yea, let's go with that." After a little more writing in her little book, Sparky then looks up at me again and asks me what the word 'fuck' means.

"Honestly? Fek... well you can fekking use the word 'fuck' in just about any fekking context, regardless of how much of a fekking fekker it makes you fekking feel like." More writing into her notebook, with a few obvious underlines, and she placed both book and stylus on a table top in what looked to be a mixture of a kitchen and dining room

"I haven't eaten in about eleven hours. This will be a perfect opportunity to learn about the eating habits of you humans!"

Drawing upon what I know of ponies, I responded with a frank "you probably won't like what you learn. I admit now that humans, by nature, are omnivores."

Smiling faintly, my purple friend replied with, "that's good to know actually. Fluttershy already said you were a predator from examining your body structure so I was hoping that, since you clearly shared our language, you could be reasoned with to adjust your diet."

"I've been meaning to ask that, how do we speak the same language?"

Not even sparing a glance, the unicorn replied, "I've learned that some questions are best left unanswered. Just call it magic and leave it at that."

"Well... Can't argue with that. Magic would explain the blatant disregard for science I just displayed... So, you were mentioning food?" Funnily enough, this is when my stomach decided to make itself known with a deep growl.

"Yes, I did mention food. Care to join me for an early lunch?".

"Lead the way Sparky!" I feel inclined to note I saw the unicorn's eye twitch even though she was facing away from me... those eyes of theirs are pretty darn freaky... There's no way they have the same shape as our eyes, they just wouldn't fit if they were.

"So, what's on the menu?" I ask timidly, "Normally I'd crack a joke right about now but this doesn't seem to be the right setting... and I'm still just a touch caught up on the whole talking pony thing... I bet the naturalists would love this place though..."

"Oh!" the purple pony responds with enthusiasm, "we need to get through a few checklists first to see what sort of foods we have that you think you could eat! Then we can talk about all sorts of other things, like your magic, those Naturalists you mentioned, and your entire species!"

I sigh at the prospect of having to do things before eating and follow the unicorn through the tree... library... house... thing... into what I'm guessing is their version of a food distribution center. When I passed the threshhold I took the time to look around while the pony wrote on three rather long sheets of paper. I saw a bunch of things that made no real sense to me, but being a student all my life I never actually made my own food, outside of hydromeals. Needless to say I'm sure the set up and machines made sense to Sparky so I wasn't worried.

"Alright Cean, here's three checklists. The first one is for grains, grasses and flowers, the second is fruits and vegtables and the third is other, which includes items such as eggs, dairy products, nuts and other various edibles." As she explained the purpose of the sheets, I went to town marking off things I recognized. The first list remained nearly empty, with only something I guessed was flour being marked off. The second list got a big check next to the title to save time and the third list received checks on just about everything, with what I assumed to be gems being the only mentionable exclusion.

"That about does it. So what's the deal with the gems? And I couldn't help but notice the only thing resembling meat was fish." Sparky gave me a rather unusual look, which I returned with a raised eye brow.

"Well... Spike eats gems so I figured you might be able to as well. You do have that crystalline formation on your arm after all."

Choosing to not make a comment on my new addition, I advanced the conversation in less conspicuous direction. "Ah... Well, I couldn't really tell you too much about food production. I can tell you that, being the only sentient species that we knew of the menu was rather large."

"That's... horrible. You grew up thinking you were the only sentient species? There's dragons, gryphons, us ponies, zebras, diamond dogs, minotaurs, cows-"

My eyes went wide at what I just heard, I cut her off immediately, shouting out, "WHAT?! YOUR COWS CAN TALK?!"

She responded rather frantically due to my outburst saying, "Wha- yes! Of course!... You had ones that couldn't? Is that a bad thing?"

"Well..." I began, not really sure how best to put this, "We had this thing called a burger which was made from beef. Beef comes from cows and if cows can talk then that means no more burgers..."

"Oh... oh my Celestia, you've eaten COW?!..." After nearly hyperventilating, Sparky went silent for awhile. I was content just sitting there watching her and, sure enough, she snapped out of whatever trance she put herself in. "Ok. We can talk to Fluttershy and see what you can do. You're not the first meat eater to ever live among ponies so you might even be able to order in special foods. You'll need a job to get enough bits for that but I'm almost certain your strange anatomy and magic will be more then enough to get you a steady income. I..." she trailed off in her tirade as the sound of a door opening.

I looked behind me and saw two things: the first is that there was this yellow pony with wings that could only be described as cute and cuddly, the second is that a blatantly pink pony next to the first one looked like a villain from a preimperium slasher horror movie. "HhhheeEERREEE'S PINKIE!"

Why do I feel the sudden urge to stab things with an axe?... Heeyyy I can probably make an ice axe! As I went to focus on my powers, another thought struck me, but not inside. New powers + indoors = bad time.

"Oh goodie! Perfect timing you two. I take it Fluttershy already filled you in on what she knows, Pinkie?" While I was thinking about what I could make out of ice, Sparky wasted no time in greeting who I assume to be her friends. The three of them spoke for a little, Sparky catching the other two up on my situation, then the pink one broke away and produced a box from Selene knows where.

A quick poof later and I found myself with a bright blue cupcake in each hand, one in my mouth and another halfway down my throat. Needless to say I totally aced the whole calm and collected reaction, "OH SWEET SELENE WHAT THE CRAP JUST HAPPENED!"

"O-oh my..."

"Pinkie! What did you do to Cean!"

"Oh don't be such a silly sillypants I just gave him some welcome to Ponyville cupcakes!"

After the shock of somehow not choking wore off, and the second cupcake was expelled from my body, I spoke. "As much as I appreciate getting some food in my stomach, pure sugar like that stuff does NOT agree with me. On that note, I'm going to be outside for awhile running like mad so I don't freak the fuck out from a sugar high... whiCH IS ALREADY HAPPENING-GOODBYE-I'LL-BE-BACK

Pinkie went oddly silent, staring at the half eaten cupcake on the floor. Sparky and Fluttershy were staring between Pinkie and I, which I promptly ignored as I ran out the door handing each of them a cupcake. If I was smart I would probably have noticed the panic and mayhem my appearance was causing in town, but in my current state I could not have cared less. I was running as fast as I could, and I was quickly leaving the town behind. I felt a surge of energy as the sugar made its way through my system, and my entire body began to speed up. My heart was racing, my lungs were burning, the crystals on my arm were glowing, Huh... That's a new one. Going to have to study this a bit once I calm down. and I began to feel a cool relief spread through my body. The burning in my lungs went away, the dryness in my mouth and throat following, and I felt amazing. I picked it up the pace a bit, this new sense of relief spurring me on, and after a few minutes the pain finally began to die down. I had burned away the majority of the excess energy from the sugar and now that I had stopped running, I realized that I wasn't even out of breath. After taking a minute to slowly walk around, allowing my body to cool down, I realized that my heart rate wasn't even beating rapidly. Attributing my new found endurance to my powers, I focused on the crystals in my arm, willing a small shoot of water to emerge from my palm.

A few divots in the ground later, and I finally managed to control the power well enough that I could create a gentle fountain. Well, glad I managed that. Now to see about making ice. Unfortunately, my training was interrupted by the appearance of a rainbow maned teal pony with wings.

"Hey you! What do you think you're doing running off like that especially leaving Pinkie like... uh... what happened here?"

Looking around, I took the time to notice just how badly marred the trail was by my efforts. Some of the gouges I left were actually kinda deep, and some trees were missing a few chunks. Needless to say I was glad I did this far, far away from civilization. Noticing an opportunity to knock two birds with one stone, I replied. "This is why I ran out of town so quickly... I didn't want to hurt anyone. I'm just glad I had enough time to calm things down or else I may have harmed you."

The rainbow mare looked on sheepishly, quite for a moment before replying, "Yeaaa... I'm gonna head on back now. Are you good or do you need a minute?"

"The name's Cean by the way, and yea, going back sounds like a good plan."

"The name's Rainbow Dash," oh Selene, these ponies are named by color, "fastest pegasus in Equestria and only one to ever perform the sonic rain boom." I could FEEL the arrogance in that sentence, but, since it wasn't my place to grill her over it, I continued.

"Well, nice to meet you Rain. I hope I did not cause undue mayhem during my exodus."

That earned me a laugh from the rainbow mare... who also took the time to defy gravity entirely as she was hovering in mid air without even flapping her wings... Nope, not going down that road, the pink one is causing me enough problems. Willful suspension of disbelief... engaged. Feeling at peace with the world around me, I inquired as to why I was being laughed at.

"Heh... ah, sorry. It's just I've never heard anyone speak like that before..." Where there was once laughter was soon replaced by introspection, "Why'd ya call me Rain though? I usually go by Dash."

I thought for a moment, before shrugging and giving yet another half assed answer on the subject, "Eh, I liked the sound of it. Besides, I'm kind of a water guy if you haven't noticed yet." It was then that I took the time to send a rather weak fountain of water in Rain's general direction. Fortunately, it truly was weak and instead of shaving off a strip of hair I only ended up lightly completely soaking the poor mare. Whoops... Still not controlling it well enough I guess.

"SWEET CELESTIA... Why would you fire that thing at me! I saw some of the streams you shot out when I first left Ponyville. You could hit Cloudsdale with that kind of water pressure." Rain took on a rather pensive look after that. After walking in silence for a good few minutes she spoke up again, "So how much water can you create at any one time?"

I actually stopped moving at that. It was a rather unusual question that I hadn't anticipated having to BS an answer to, so, I winged it with some fresh BS as I started walking again. "Dunno, I've never run out before. I could probably fill a large pond at the least. I've been feeling oddly hyper ever since I got here so I might even be able to fill a lake." 'Course the size of a lake is rather varied so it's a rather safe bet.

The small talk continued for awhile. I learned a bit about the history between Rain, and her 5 friends, then she even promised to tell me all about the Wonderbolts. They sounded kind of similar to a preimperium group that was mildly popular in some circles, but flying never really was my thing. Once we were about halfway back to the town, Rain asked me if I wanted to have a hoof race. Wondering just how far my endurance could take me, I accepted.

Needless to say I got destroyed. She was able to run a good bit faster then me thanks to being a pony, but oddly enough when we got to the tree house library I wasn't even winded. I did feel tired in a different way though so I decided it would be a good idea to not over use my powers.

"*Huff* You humans have some. *wheeze* crazy stamina. I was galloping full speed. *huff* that entire time. *puff* and I'm guessing. *breathe* you were too."

"Yea, I was. Kinda hard for a biped to keep up with a quadruped, but I nearly managed it. Bit of a drain on my powers running that far that fast, but it feels good to let loose." After panting a bit more, Rain finally gathered herself, before lifting off and somehow hovering in mid air.

"Wait, you used your magic? Humph, cheater." I'll admit, I never imagined I'd watch a physics defying winged pony give an indignant 'humph' before, but now I have. Regardless, I could not let such a jab go without riposte.

"It's not something I can just turn off. My powers, or I guess magic as you call it, work to sustain me. I'm not sure what the limits are but I do know I can survive on far less fluids then the average person..." Or at least I think that's how it is... considering I haven't had one drink since I woke up this morning, I'm pretty sure that's how it works...

"Oh..." The Rainbow mare began, "Sorry about that..."

It was then that the two of us finally entered the treehouse library thing. It was also then that I noticed that two more ponies had joined the three I had already been introduced to. Not bothering to let me exchange silent looks with them, Rain introduced me to both Applejack and Rarity. Huh... apples and diamonds... and I guess Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy aren't exactly color based... though Sparky does have sparkles on her side... The three of us exchanged pleasantries while I considered the ramifications of the pony's naming conventions, and eventually I found myself apologizing to the pink one while considering the meaning of the tattoos each of the ponies had, in addition to considering how deep into the rabbit hole I was with the whole power-of-water bit I now had going on. I assumed the tattoos held some form of important symbolism, and I knew that I could keep the bluff up for as long as I was able to learn more about my abilities, but between a conversation about my favorite baked goods and what sort of clothing is popular in my home world, I was beginning to lose track of my waffles... You get the idea.

"I'm not sure what you mean about tattoos, but our cutie marks have lots of symbolism!" Whoops The pink one then went on to excitedly tell me the story about how she threw her first party, which apparently involved some sort of sonic boom that broke the visual spectrum concurrently to the sound barrier. My salvation came in the form of Sparky, who again insisted I call her Twilight, telling me that some food had been prepared according to the notes I had been able to give her earlier. I of course was more than happy to leave behind talking in favor of eating, and not even 20 seconds later I was happily munching on various foods, which included something that looked like a burger, but was clearly not a burger. It needed a little something extra to it, but when I asked for some salt I got a strange look followed by some writing in that book.

I then asked for some ketchup and mustard which was hastily provided, so I guess ponies don't know what salt is. Considering it's something used mostly on meats I'm not surprised.

Now happily fed, I once again realized I still have not had any fluids to drink, and I once again noted I felt no urge to drink. I also noted another urge missing that usually hit me in the mornings and whenever I ate. Well if there's no input there's no output... Stupid magic mucking up my biology... Biology aside, it was then that the dreaded pink one returned to interrupt my peaceful post meal musings.

"Hey Icing we all wanted to ask you a few questions about where you came from! You're not gonna be a loner mc grumpy pants, are you?"

Did she just call me... eh, it's gotta be the hair, not that far of a stretch...

"Sure, why not. Whats a little interplanetary greeting without the obligatory questioning phase?" It's times like this that I'm glad I watched movies. Of course, had I been paying attention I would have noticed an increasingly malevolent grin creeping across Spark-... Twilight's... face