//------------------------------// // I - Chapter Four // Story: Stolen Soul on the Passage of Home // by Kaffeina //------------------------------// I Chapter Four Remember “You want to explain to me how everyone, including myself, Nightmare Moon, Celestia, and the thestrals are depicted in such grotesquely warped images?” The dragoon asked, pointing at the picture of herself commanding a marauding army of ‘thestrals’. “I’m fairly certain you’ve seen thestrals before. Do they look like that? Do I look like that?” Twilight Sparkle had gone off the deep end. As soon as Aranea began detailing, as unbiasedly as possible, the ‘Selenity Wars’ the lavender mare had gone off and demanded she recount all information she had on history before that. The warrior had refused, especially when the topic broached anything before the coronation of the sisters. “It’s important knowledge!” the lavender mare argued, smacking a chalkboard with a long stick in her magic. “It could tell us what our past between Hearth’s Warming and the Coronation was!” “Twilight Sparkle, as much as I believe history to be important, I believe you should talk to Celestia or Luna,” Aranea answered, standing up. “So, unless you have anything else?” The lavender mare bit her lip and shook her head, “You stay here while I send the message.” The warrior rolled her eyes in aggravation, causing the little dragon to look up her when she groaned. “What?” he asked. “She’s the excessive nerd type, isn’t she?” The baby dragon looked away and another groan came from the warrior. She sat back down and stared out the window on the opposite wall. This one had a fairly decent view of Canterlot, which seemed closer than the train ride had indicated. She was still staring when Spike, having finished gems, spoke up. “What’s up?” he asked, slightly mumbled as it seemed he still had some gems in his mouth. “I remember Canterlot being on a large hill, not a mountain,” she answered, staring intently. She was still staring when Twilight returned, with a rather thick scroll in hand. “Spike, send this to Celestia,” the lavender unicorn said, passing the paper over with a hoof. A quick puff of green fire later and the scroll vanished into a wisp of flame which soared out an open window. It danced through the air and Aranea looked at them. “So what exactly was that?” “Magic,” was the response. “What kind of magic?” Aranea huffed, rolling her eyes at the answer. She’d heard it enough times to know that magic didn’t always refer to magic itself, but rather the unexplainable. Twilight frowned and bit her lip. She didn’t answer for a few moments. “Dragonfyre?” the unicorn offered. “...Excellent, professor. That was lecture worthy of the gods themselves,” the warrior droned. Twilight was aghast with shock, the sarcasm seemed to have driven the point home. The unicorn finally shook herself. “Excuse me?” “You seem to have forgotten that I don’t know Equestrian magic that well, and not everyone has been studying underneath the monarch, now diarch,” the woman said, “Magic is, and never will be, a suitable answer to a question.” The lavender unicorn nodded, “You do have a point, after all, not everyone understands Starswirl’s basic laws of magic.” She mused for a minute or two, “Which aren’t really basic, to be fair. I mean, even-” she was stopped by a scroll in the face, which was held by an indignant Spike. “You were starting off on a rant again, and Celestia’s answer is here,” the little purple dragon held the scroll up again and an aura of magic seized it. Lifting it up, a gleeful look appeared in Twilight’s eyes. “She said it’s okay!” The lavender unicorn looked giddy and got an eye roll from Aranea. “Alright, but most of this is going to be from my point of view, or by word of mouth,” she said, getting a nod from pony. “And might be a tad depressing when I’m done.” The air crackled, sparks of light whirling through the air like embers with minds of their own. Arcs of light sprayed across the field, the grass burning and parting in its wake. Finally, a tear ripped through the air, thunder exploding through the area as a woman fell through the tear and it sealed itself up in a zipper-like fashion. The smell of burnt grass wafted through the area, and finally, the woman stirred. Rising up, she looked disoriented for a moment, but finally she seemed balanced and looked around the area. Nothing but a field in the midst of mountains. The mountains leapt impossibly high into the sky, their peaks disappearing amongst the cloud. As she watched, the shrunk down rapidly, and the clouds grew closer. The field was plunged into fog, and, moments later, the fog blew away, revealing an entirely new world to the woman. She stared, gaping. A few seconds later, she managed to speak, “Where the fuck am I?” Her eyes widened and her hand went to her throat. “Like it?” a masculine voice asked from behind her. She turned around quickly and found herself facing, quite possibly, the strangest thing she had ever seen. A floating hashmash of creatures, which somehow worked, was grinning wildly at her. It floated towards her, moving like a chinese dragon. “I worked very hard, though you are most certainly new to this world.” “Wait, what.” The creature grinned, “I wonder what you could do if you lived as long as me?” The woman sneezed and the creature rolled up, literally. “Do enjoy it,” it said, before unravelling and disappearing. The creature finally vanished, leaving the woman standing there. The silence prevailed for a few minutes. “What the fuck was that.” “I came to find out that Discord made me immortal, since I had to fall off the cliff around the field,” Aranea said, shaking her head. “For fun, at that. I couldn’t kill myself, even if I wanted to.” “He messed with things to that extent?” the lavender unicorn gaped, “But why? And why did you want to kill yourself?” “Not everyone has an optimistic approach like ponies,” the warrior answered, "And believe me, this is a thousand times more confusing for me than you. I don't even know WHY I'm here." “Finally,” the woman muttered as she made her way into the town. The town itself looked relatively normal, overall. The buildings were smaller than she anticipated, but when she reached the town center, she was even more shocked. The town was filled with ponies, to the brim. Not even the strangest bit was the fact they came in every single color of the rainbow. Some had wings, some had horns, some had neither. It was incredibly strange. She approached and they all ran towards her, odd sounds coming from their mouths. The ponies were like a stampede and she struggled very painfully to remain standing. Once they realized she couldn’t understand them, which involved a lot of yelling, the herd backed off. Disheveled, she walked out of the town. “Note to self, do not talk to the LSD ponies.” “No offense.” She meandered out of town, still confused and looking back to the ponies. They were moving back into the houses, which was odd to watch them pull or turn door handles. The town was finally clear and group of dark pink storm clouds covered the town and it started to rain. A thunderclap, two literal hands made of lightning clapping, lit up the town. It clapped rapidly and the town disappeared, now floating upside down over the clouds. The clouds formed into a laughing head, with then licked itself and disappeared. “The fuck even is this shit.” The warrior shook her head and started walking faster. The trees finally began getting closer and she started following the edge of the treeline. It kept going as she walked, and didn’t end for the longest time until she walked, out of nowhere, onto a field of chessboards. The field rolled and the beast she had encountered greeted her. “Perhaps I underestimated you,” it said. Curling around her, it grinned. “So, what do you want?” “I want to go home,” she muttered, “And I want to know where I am, and who the fuck you are.” “I have no idea how to get you home,” the creature shook its head, “but I am Discord, Lord of Chaos, and welcome to Equestria!” It slithered off of her and giant party popper suddenly went off in her face. Wiping the pieces of confetti and glitter off her face, she glared at Discord. “Was that necessary?” she asked. “One hundred and ten percent,” he said, crossing his arms and nodding sagely. The woman rolled her eyes before pulling the spear off her back. Holding it up she glared at Discord, “It’s not usually like this, is it?” “It’s more fun this way,” he said. “Yeah, well, I don’t think those tiny horses like it, and they live here,” she said, getting a stare from Discord. “You asked them?” “No, I have no idea what they’re saying,” she answered. “Let me fix that,” he grabbed her ear, literally pulling it off, and blew a waft of air into it. A bunch of nuts, bolts, and a few other miscellaneous objects fell out of the ear before he put it back, getting a raised eyebrow in response. “You should be able to understand them now.” Then, Discord snapped his fingers and a torrent of chocolate milk drenched her. It kept flowing for some time, leaving her spluttering before it cleared several minutes later. Drenched, she stared at him. “What the fuck, man?” “Oh, forgot to do the last bit,” he absent mindedly snapped his fingers. The milk raced back up, blinding her, and finally when it cleared… He was gone. The entire bloody area was gone, and a black void greeted her. All that was visible was a single window that showed Discord floating around, doing completely ridiculous crap. “...WHAT THE HELLS.” “...He trapped you in a void?” The lavender unicorn asked. “Yeah, took until the princesses petrified him for me to be free,” Aranea said, looked rather annoyed. “Then, why did you claim to know the past?” Twilight frowned, “You didn’t see much.” “That’s how it had been during his rule, the whole time. Stuff did that all the time,” the warrior responded, waving a hand dismissively. “I was in that void for a week, sure, but I heard enough to know…” “Then why say it’s bad?” the pony asked, giving Aranea a critical look. “Ponies died because of it, I watched it happen several times while he was having fun,” Aranea said, “He thought it was amusing, but he didn’t realize what he did actually killed ponies.” “...Oh,” she said. “Anyways, off depressing topics… What is my first “friendship” lesson or whatever?” the warrior asked. The pony frowned. “Er.... Help ponies?” Twilight offered. “Sure,” Aranea shrugged, “Who first?” “Fluttershy?”