//------------------------------// // Chapter 2. Welcome to Ponyville // Story: Through the Mist // by Misty Spell //------------------------------// The scream that escaped Misty Waters muzzle lasted for only the briefest of moments, seconds at best as she passed through the colorful field that she'd been sucked through. Her eyes dazzled at the passing colors that bled together into a rainbow of light and magic. It would have been fairly pretty for her to look at had she not been soaring off to what she could only assume would be her final moments. Her scream cut off however as she felt herself impacting with something. 'Let's see...hard? check, big? check. Hurts? double check. Yep, wall,' she thought as she slid slowly down the wall a couple of inches. When she attempted to pull herself off however, she fell flat on her rump with an "oof!" and assurance that the impact would leave a bruise. Getting up slowly to her hooves, Misty looked up at the portal she'd flown through and her eyes widened. "No!" she screamed desperately, jumping up towards it and not getting very far. The portal shrunk away, disappearing in the blink of an eye before her. "Ahem." Misty jerked her head up, suddenly aware of the other ponies in the room. Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned her head around and faced them. All in all there were twenty unicorns in the room of various colors and talents. Despite having several ponies to choose from however, her attention was immediately drawn to the gray unicorn who'd cleared her throat. "Wh-who are you ponies?! And where am I?!" she shouted, trying and failing to back away as there was a wall behind her. "Please, do not be afraid" the gray unicorn said, adjusting her glasses upon her muzzle. "We mean you no harm, we are the Ponyville branch of the Equestrian Magic Research Guild, or MRG for short." she explained, brushing some of her brown hair aside. "You are in ponyville. The town hall to be precise" she continued to exposit. "My name is Silver Cog, I am the guilds magitech expert and local inventor. Well, one of them," she shrugged before holding out a hoof in greeting. Slowly, hesitantly, Misty extended her hoof and shook Silvers, shaking a bit from fear and admittedly a lack of social skills. "Misty Spell" she said in return, giving her name. "Wait...why'd I say Spell?! That makes no sense...I'm an Earth Pony" she said, more to herself than anypony else. A chuckle came from her left as a red unicorn with a yellow mane trotted up beside her, giving her a pat on the withers. "Heh good one dude, but you're totally a unicorn! Got the horn and everything! Name's Fiora Everspark Flaressence, but you can call me Fire Flare, I kinda prefer it," she introduced herself, giving a bold grin as she did so. She suddenly found herself lifted off the ground by a green magical aura and tossed across the room. "Wooooah! Oof! Not cool Silver!" she called, falling to the floor, a pony shaped dent in the wall where she'd impacted. "Ignore her, she is not the one you wish to come to for advice," she advised, rolling her eyes at the accusation of not being 'cool.' "Advice for what?" was all Misty could ask, by and large still trying to catch up to her own situation. Though the fact that she was in ponyville gave her at least a general idea as to how to get home. Ponyville was more or less south of Neighagara Falls after all. Silver Cog sighed, rubbing her temples in frustration. "Yes, well, I've spoken to the guild master about this several times already. You may not be aware of this, but you are the new guild master. The previous guild master insisted quite thoroughly, so we must make you the new master," she said, already bracing herself for the inevitable counter argument to follow. Almost as if on cue, Misty shook her head rapidly, crossing her forelegs in front of her in a big X. "No! Not only am I not a unicorn, I know nothing about magic and I don't wanna be here!" she yelled, fuming a bit at having been abducted for such a ridiculous reason. After a moment however, something clicked in her head and her eyes shot open wide. "Wait, I have a horn?!" she exclaimed, hoof shooting to her forehead to feel for herself. When her hoof came into contact with something protruding from her skull she brought both hooves to her muzzle to suppress the scream that nearly emerged. "Oh dear, were you not a unicorn before? You may wish to see yourself in the mirror," Silver Cog suggested, pointing a hoof at a door marked 'restroom.' Wasting no time, Misty took off like a bat out of Tartarus, slamming the door behind her and locking it for good measure. After fumbling for the light switch for several seconds, she finally heard the sound of electricity powering up the lights. As soon as she could see again, she rushed to the nearby mirror and looked at herself. For the most part she seemed absolutely normal. She was still a brown colored pony with green eyes and a white mane. Everything seemed to check out until her eyes reached her forehead and what protruded from it. "A horn? Why?! I'm supposed to be an Earth Pony from Neighagara Falls!" she exclaimed, jumping back from shock. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Meanwhile, just outside of the bathroom everypony was looking at each other nervously, unsure as to what to make of their new guild master. Whether they should be worried or not. It wasn't until Fire Flare spoke up near the front door that their mumbling stopped. "Well, party's over folks, time to hit the road!" she suggested, horn glowing a bright orange as she magically opened the door. "Seriously, there's too many of us, take a hike for now everypony, I'm sure she'll have words for us at tomorrows meeting" she concluded, ushering ponies out the door, leaving only Silver Cog and herself present in the main hall. Once the door closed, Fire Flare hopped into a chair and popped a chip into her mouth crunching it as she spoke. "Mmm, so she was from Neighagara Falls huh? Neat," she commented, following up by swallowing the chip she'd been chewing. "Yes, this is a most troubling turn of events. At any rate since she was an Earth Pony before she should be radiating out of control magic if that were the case, yet there is no clear reason for her to lie about such a thing." Silver mused, rolling her eyes at Fire Flares crude antics. "Honestly I know you were raised by crude masters but you could at least try to excersize basic manners...wait, how did you hear that? You were all the way by the front door!" she exclaimed in disbelief, eyes wide. Fire Flare flashed Silver a cocky grin, leaning back in her seat and resting her head back on her hooves. "Never underestimate the power of martial arts!" she declared, letting off a small chuckle at the scientists disbelief. 'I knew that was going to be her response. I knew and yet I still asked,' she thought to herself, resisting every urge to slam her head against the wall. "Urgh, I do not know why I put up with you" she griped, popping a chip into her own mouth and chewing it carefully. The red unicorns reply was short and to the point "you know you love me" she teased, giving a casual shrug. "Keep telling yourself that and maybe someday it will even be true" Silver shot back, suppressing a chuckle that she would be damned if she'd ever let Fire Flare hear. "However, we must deal with our current situation, it is no time for jokes" she said, turning the conversation back to a serious tone. Both unicorns looked at each other for a moment, then they let their eyes trail back to the restroom door. Neither of them wanted to claim the dubious honor, but both of them knew one of them would have to. Slowly however, Silver Cog lifted her hoof and pointed to Fire Flare. "You should do it," she suggested, though her eyes held firm as though it were a command. Fire Flare looked at the pony who would so callously throw her under the bus bewilderedly, pointing towards herself. "Me?! Why me?" she demanded to know, voice cracking a bit. "What'd I do wrong to deserve this?" she asked, climbing off of her chair and standing up. She was about to say more when their gaze met. She could not hold her gaze however and she glanced off to the side. "Mnnn...fine" she mumbled, head lowered as she slowly made her way to the restroom door. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● While that conversation was going on, Misty was in the midst of trying not to panic. Nothing seemed to be making sense and the more she thought about it the worse things seemed to her. Her hooves were running up and down her horn desperately, as if she were trying to find some sort of seam where it had been glued on. When she found none, she slumped down and sighed bitterly. "Right, I was never unconscious for them to do it anyway" she admitted in defeat, looking up at her reflection from her place against the wall. She was about to say something else but was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Yo, uh, Misty Spell was it? Wanna...open the door maybe?" the voice of Fire Flare called through the wooden door. There was clear hesitation in her voice, as though this were a task she'd rather not do. "'Cuz, well, we got a lot to talk about and it's gettin' kinda late y'know?" she added, hoping that it would help. "Th-this isn't supposed to be happening! I was supposed to be helping my dad in the forge today...wait, late?" she asked, caught off guard by the new information she'd been given. The voice that came back through the door was rather excited "wait, you can work a forge? Sweet! I had a feeling we were gonna be best pals!" came the voice as an orange aura enveloped the handle of the door. Instead of unlocking the door however, the entire door ripped out of the frame. "Woops, aheh, I'll uhh fix that later" she said, tossing the door casually aside and stepping in. "Sorry to do this, but if we let ya lock yourself up in here you ain't gonna come out" she said, picking up Misty with more gentleness to her aura and carrying her out. The brown unicorn flailed in Fire Flares magical grasp, though to no avail, being rather trapped in the air. "Put me down! Putmedownputmedownputmedown!" she yelled, struggling to break free and failing entirely. Silver Cog could only stare on in amazement at the lack of tact displayed by her red friend. Her glasses slipped a bit, which brought her mind back into focus. "Fiora Everspark Flaressence, you put her down this instant!" she demanded, stomping a hoof for effect. The aforementioned red unicorn flinched, letting her horns aura fade. When it did, she winced at the sight of Misty falling face first into the cake, splattering it everywhere. "Oops, errr sorry Silver but you kinda asked for it, you know I'm not that good with tact and stuff" she said, rubbing the back of her head. Narrowing her eyes, the gray unicorn seemed about to lose her temper, yet at the last second she seemed to change her mind. Instead, she trotted on over to Misty and began to wipe icing off of her face, tsking all the while. "Sorry about her, she means well, but she is hardly the gentlest pony in town" she sighed, coming up short when she noticed the eye patch hidden under Mistys hair. "What is this?" she asked moving in much closer than courtesy would allow. Misty blinked a bit, blushing at the sudden intrusion to her faces personal space. "I-it's just an eyepatch, it's no big deal or anything," she said nervously. Her eyes kept shifting back and forth between the two of them, unsure as to what to make of things. She had calmed down a bit now that she'd effectively been shaken from her panic, but she was still confused and lost. as before. Silver Cog once again found herself aghast, this time however at her new guild masters words. "'Just an eyepatch?' 'Just an eyepatch?!' that eyepatch belonged to Emerald Enchant herself! It is one of the long lost relics of the Equestria/Yak war, and yet you think it just a patch?!" she practically screamed, much to the flinching Mistys dismay. Misty was cowering a bit now, the yelling pony before her seeming apoplectic. "S-sorry, sorry! I didn't know it was so important!...Please don't hurt me" she squeaked. She glanced hopefully over to Fire Flare who simply shrugged and gave a look that said plainly 'you messed up, you fix it.' So, hesitantly she lifted a hoof up to the eyepatch and began to remove it. "H-here, just please stop yelli-." "-No!" screamed Silver Cog as the world exploded in a flash of white.