//------------------------------//
// Divided 
// Story: Insurgence 
// by Rose Quill 
//------------------------------//

I saw the map table and I was terrified.

All around it, colors danced and swirled, angry reds and sickly greens twisting around lambent blues and muted oranges. In the center, the table's map kept flickering back and forth between Equestria as I knew it and this strange new world. The portal behind it was even more frightening, however.

Small fragments of crystal spread from it, the same lavender sheen that Twilight's castle held, and some was spreading out over where the pavement once sat. But the portal itself was a huge, giant void of blackness. I summoned some mana to my horn, but before I could cast a spell it was ripped away to spiral into the void.

I tried to figure out what was happening, and its chaos was beyond my comprehension. 

"Discord!" Twilight shouted. "What's going on?"

The Draconequus slithered into being, but everything was wrong about it. His form was indistinct and I felt as though a strong puff of air could break him apart by the appearance he had. He looked sick.

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much use," he whispered. "The junction is wreaking havoc with my magic and I'm not sure why."

"You're the Element of Disharmony!" Twilight shouted. "The very nature of Chaos itself, how can you be blocked?"

"He lost a portion of his power when he was betrayed by Tirek," Fluttershy answered as the ghostly image faded away. "He didn't know until just after the tea party at his house, when he had difficulty doing chaotic things to maintain his form."

"He may also be overwhelmed by the chaos in the vortex," Sunset said, her wings twitching as she stared at the strange juxtaposition of the worlds. "I'm having trouble focusing. I feel like my brain is in quicksand again."

I was about to speak when I saw Sorla start stumbling towards the map table, her blind eyes fixed on it. The glowing runes that floated over her horn flickered and faded, but they didn't die out. She reached out a hoof and touched the table.

And a huge explosion of ground ripped up from beyond the pedestal, the shockwave tossing us all into the air as a giant crack appeared, stopping just shy of the portal and the table. Shortly after that, a dark form landed hard on the pavement behind us and green magic gripped us all.

"This is the last time your friends will get in my way," Chrysalis growled. She flung her head to the side and all of my companions were flung aside, the bearers of the Elements flung onto the walls of the school and encased in cocoons. The Sirens and the Shadowbolts were flung aside, and Sorla collapsed in pain again. Chrysalis slowly stalked up to me.

"I will count to twenty," she said softly. "Then I will come after you, and I will visit upon you terrors unlike anything you have seen."

"You're mad," I said. "You're already tearing the world apart, just to get to me! Is it worth it to get your revenge if everything is destroyed?"

She tilted her head for a moment in thought, then looked back at me.

"One," she cooed. "Two, three..."

I bolted, turning a corner in the school's design and then teleported to the roof, creeping over to glance down at the scene. Sorla was still curled around the base of the table, her horn sparking and flaring as she tried to cast some spell. Chrysalis was nowhere in sight. I glanced to either side, trying to see where she had gone when a soft buzzing sound caught my attention.

I looked up and saw the Changeling staring down at me with a disappointed expression on her face. 

"Twenty," she said sadly. "I had hoped for a longer chase." Her horn glowed green, and the explosion from the attack blew me off the roof. I managed to keep just enough of my wits to teleport to the ground. However, as I rematerialized on the other end of the spell loci, I felt myself pulled towards the vortex slightly, popping back into existence closer to it than I would have liked.

Then another green lance of magic knocked me into the swirl. I felt the same sensation as I did when crossing the portal, but then nothing but cold. I wondered briefly what death felt like when I realized I was floating in a black void. I couldn't see the point where I entered, nor could I find any sort of landmarks, despite the feel of solidity under my hooves.

"While I appreciate the occasional guest," a disembodied voice said, echoing and of indeterminate age. "I do rather prefer to expect them before they arrive."

I looked around. 

"Who are you?" I asked, seeing no immediate form.

"What is it with mortals and their incessant need to label everything?" the voice said. "Does it matter what I call myself? You'd barely understand it, let alone be able to replicate all the sounds."

"Then what are you?" I fired back. A silvery light appeared and a formless mass of light and shadow began to coalesce.

"I'm not sure you wish to know that, little pony," it said as it continued to grow, it's shape taking on vague equine proportions and size, but as it finished forming, I wished it hadn't. It was extremely gaunt to the point of skeletal, evoking memories of the undead that had attacked the Crystal Empire. Its head was a leering rictus of death, it's skin stretched tightly over the skull. Robes hung in tatters off its skeletal body.

"After all, few who see me live to tell the tale." the skeletal pony said.