The man of light fled across existence, and the enchantress followed.
Presently, existence manifested itself as a desert to the two of them. It was not the apotheosis of all deserts - far from it. It was decidedly too mysterious to be described in such a pure way. The sands themselves couldn’t be considered the defining feature unless someone was foolish enough to stand upon the burning grains barefoot, in which case it wouldn't be part of the scenery but would certainly be prominent in said person's mind and feet. The real appeal of this particular desert was found in the ruins. The ancient stone structures stood around in defiance to the eons, chiseled both by intelligence and the merciless decay of time. Symbols adorned the many pillars - triangles within triangles were prominent alongside a depiction of an ancient eye staring forward and letting loose one single, painful, tear.
The man of light did not stop to puzzle over any of this - if he had, he probably could have discerned some meaning from the ancient glyphs and figure out where he was. He unfortunately didn't have the time to waste on getting his bearings, a fact he was painfully aware of. He continued running across the sands, kicking up excessive amounts of the ground with his softly glowing cobalt-blue feet. He wore no shoes, but his crystalline composition kept him from charring his feet. This did not mean he wasn't foolish - far from it.
He was, after all, running from the enchantress.
He knew she was gaining - but he did not dare steal a glance behind him. Not yet, anyway. He kept his gaze forward, catching glances of his hands every time they shifted forward in time with the opposite foot. He kept focusing on a small, black orb in his left hand, grasped tightly by his sharp digits. Had the object been made of glass it would have shattered from the force he was exerting, but it wasn't composed of such a flimsy material. It was something far stronger and much more complex than simple glass. He considered using it - but he still had enough intelligence within him to know now was not the time, for there was a strange obelisk coming up.
He recognized this for what it was - an ancient machine. He tore his right arm from its rapid back and forth motion, holding his palm outstretched to the obelisk. He focused, intent on timing this just right. The instant before he passed the ruin a surge of electrical energy shot forth from his fingertips, filling the obelisk's many glyphs with a blue glow. A wall of translucent hardlight shot out of it, erecting behind the man of light and dividing him from his pursuer.
He whirled around quickly, raising the black sphere high in the air, tapping it rapidly with his fingers. Even though he wasn't looking at it, he knew many yellow lights were rippling on its surface as it processed his request.
In the instant it took the sphere to process the input he locked eyes with the enchantress - or so he assumed, anyway, it was hard to tell which way she was looking when her eyes were obscured by those goggles. He also noticed that the wall of hardlight wasn't going to slow her down as much as he had hoped. He’d thought she would use her magic to levitate over the wall since she was avoiding the use of teleports to save her magic reserves. But no, she just shot a single laser from her horn at the obelisk, shattering the priceless relic into thousands of pieces. Her four hooves hardly slowed their gallop from the encounter - he may have gained a second, probably less.
Then the man of light was suddenly somewhere else. He didn't take long to gather his bearings - hallway, largely gray, with big numbers on one wall. Some kind of underground base, perhaps. There was most certainly a story behind this place he was not interested in. He bolted down the hallway, his rigid form creating loud clanks upon contact with the equally hard ground. Good thing stealth was not his goal - though perhaps he should have at least considered it.
He turned a corner, discovering a handful of humans in full green uniforms all carrying what appeared to be military-issue (but primitive) guns. He would have probably been annoyed by the pointless gunfire in his direction, but he heard the enchantress appear in the spot he himself had mere moments before, reminding him that he should still be terrified. The humans must have seen the blue light of teleportation because they soon started shooting behind him as well as at him.
The enchantress's flesh would be vulnerable to these physical bullets while his was not - she would not allow herself to be injured, so she would be slowed. The man of light allowed himself a small glimmer of hope upon realizing this, thanking primitive human technology for the uses it did have.
A voice - male, aged - cracked over the base's intercom. "People, we've got an intrusion into the base and gunfire! Yes, it really is a magic man and a unicorn! Keep an eye out for that horned red fairy or anything else unusual! Get some backup to level twenty-three already!"
The man of light saw SGC-23 imprinted on a nearby wall. Concern crossed his mind for a moment. Perhaps they could overwhelm him? Not likely, he thought dismissively. They were mid-humans with primitive technology, nothing they had could harm him-
A woman with blonde hair stepped out from a side door and shot him with a pistol-sized weapon that launched a blue lightning bolt directly into his shining chest. His body was forced into a mild seizure - his crystals all needed to reset from the energy overload. He twisted to the side just as another bolt came from the gun. He knew it was supposed to do a lot more than just stop him for a second from the woman's surprised look, but one second was a very precious commodity to the man of light at this juncture.
The bolt that missed him hit the enchantress head on but was absorbed by a blue aura-shield she had erected around herself. She ran right for the man of light, horn aglow with an unsettling bright blue.
The man of light acted in reflex, ordering the sphere to take him somewhere - anywhere - and he appeared in a vast room composed entirely of crystal similar to his body, though he knew there was no relation. The entire scene brimmed with power and knowledge. He felt it - something spectacular - tug at his mind with intense knowledge and fortitude. It wanted him to ask a question. It wanted to answer. He suddenly had no doubt in his mind he could be given the answer to almost any question he had.
Still, he resisted, running again. This large open room would not do - he needed to get somewhere else. He felt the high levels of magic here - magic she could use to trap him with ease. He fumbled with the sphere, trying to input something more specific into it. He wanted someplace... crowded.
He left just as the enchantress appeared.
Where he showed up was indeed crowded - and also a place he would fit in. It was a merchant outpost filled with hundreds of beings from countless worlds doing business.
The man of light still ran, shoving several people and machines out of the way. First an orange blob, then some elf-like race (he had no idea which one, there were thousands), then some energy being that he passed through.
"Rude!" it called after him.
He gave no response, rushing past a countertop where some insect-type was giving one of those grey-skinned troll girls some blue orb. The thought that it might be an infinite sided die crossed his mind. He almost stopped just to swipe it and see what it would do, but the sound of the enchantress appearing in the world shot that idea out of his mind. He ran past just as the troll girl rolled the die - hope you get a favorable result, blueblood - and that was the last he saw of it. He focused on his sphere again. He was taxing it, he knew, but it was his only edge over her. It worked faster than her magics.
"Make way!" He heard her yell in her authoritative voice, trying her best to sound like a police officer or whatever the equivalent was here. It was enough to move some individuals out of the way, making it much easier for her to move through the crowd than him. His advantage had been lost once again.
He used the sphere, this time appearing three feet in the air over some extremely murky swamp water. He got a look at two humans wearing swamp leaves as simple clothing before he fell into the murk. The shock of hitting the water stunned even his mineral-based body. His grip loosened and the sphere drifted out of his hand into the grime. He was mentally unable to do anything about this, as he was still trying to process the swamp water’s existence.
The man of light stopped processing halfway when the enchantress appeared above him. She didn't fall into the water - merely floated above it, her blue magic surrounding her and keeping her free from the disgusting murk. She didn't look down - didn't see him.
He started reaching for the black sphere, eyes fixed on her form. He wasn't quite capable of realizing he was underwater just yet, so he grabbed too hard, knocking the ball downwards instead of grabbing it. He was, however, aware enough to curse inwardly at his butterfingers.
The enchantress looked at the two humans. "Have you by chance seen a man of crystal around?" she asked in a friendly voice that came naturally to her.
"...Woah, Due. A talkin' horse."
"You think she tastes like chicken?"
The enchantress responded to this with a slightly bemused undertone. "Everything tastes more or less like chicken."
The man who had asked the question - Due - took his leaf hat off in awe. "Words of wisdom..."
"Naw," the first said. "Just words. The shiny dude is hidin' in the swamp water right under ya'."
The man of light grabbed the ball just as the enchantress looked down at him, disgust on her face. "Oh... Swamp water..."
"It has great flavor miss! You should try it!"
This comment gave the enchantress pause - just enough for the man of light to get out of there.
For the first time, he found himself in a place that made him consider giving up. There was absolute blackness - no gravity and no light in any direction. And yet, he knew - he just knew - there were great horrors and terrors out there in the darkness, great heaving eldritch things that would be able to squash him to oblivion by complete accident with a stray whisper.
And then he saw something that terrified him - and it wasn't just because he shouldn't have been able to see at all in this place of darkness.
Two people. Two people he recognized.
One was a man in black, evil on his face. The other was a madman standing in front of a blue box. The man of light realized with a feeling that drove him to shivers that they were both looking right at him.
He had just interrupted the standoff of two giants in an eldritch location.
This realization made him freeze.
The man in black grinned. "Ah, look at what the squiddle dragged in!"
The madman with a box grimaced. "Run. Flee. If you can, whoever you are."
The enchantress appeared behind the man of light, ready to apprehend him - but she was startled by the scene as well. She drew back from the two powerful beings.
The man in black laughed, a truly horrifying sound that should never have come from human lips. "Oh, a familiar tale, old as time itself stands before us! The pursued and the pursuer, dashing across vast swaths of land, intersecting their destinies with that of so many, many others. Wondrous!"
"Oh for-" the madman with a box lunged for the black sphere in the man of light's hand, touching it in just the right places to activate it.
The man in black 'laughed' again, and waved. "Have a nice-"
-'Day' would have been what arrived at the end of that sentence, and the man of light knew it. The thought - of that thing telling him to have a nice day - came close to making him lose what mental faculties remained within him. What he saw next threw him into a full panic. He found himself in a large field of roses.
Roses.
It can't be...
He saw it - to his right, a Tower made of black stone that reached to impossible heights. Powerful energies beyond his understanding flooded his mind, telling him that which he did not want to know, showing him the meaning of the Tower's many eldritch windows in a horrible and beautiful Song.
Had he not been close to panic there was no telling what he would have done here - would he have even realized what standing next to the Tower meant? Was it possible? Could she be redirected? Such questions went unanswered - he fumbled for the sphere, pressing it at complete random, chance (Chance? What was chance in a place like this?) being the only thing that allowed him to press the right buttons to escape - once again at the exact moment the enchantress appeared.
He appeared in a grassy land and took off at a run. He saw a flash of red in the sky above him, but he was no more able to consciously register that than the rock a few feet in front of him. The enchantress appeared in the world quickly, galloping after him.
He hit the rock, tumbling head over heels. The black sphere flew from his hands and into a patch of dirt. He skidded to a stop, a long stretch of grass upturned by the plow that was his face.
He gave up. He let his limbs fall flat, his motion stop. He was doomed - the sphere was God knows where, his face was embedded an inch into the ground, and he could already feel her magic around him.
He did not try to resist.
It took ten seconds for her to cast the spell. Then they were gone from the world with a quick flash of blue light, unaware of the marks they had left on this world. For atop a nearby hill, a tall purple winged unicorn stared at where they had just been, jaw slack.
"What in Celestia's name was that!?"
~~~
Princess Twilight Sparkle was no stranger to bizarre happenings; such things had pretty much defined her life for the last few years. She had been thrust into the positions of hero, diplomat, psychologist, friend, warrior, and prisoner time and time again by the magical world around her. Even her title as Princess of Friendship - truly a defining part of her these days - had arisen from a bizarre encounter with rogue magic and confused destiny.
The main difference between those times and now was that she was usually part of the bizarre events in one way or another. It was an exceptionally odd day when something completely off-the-wall happened that had no relation to her or her friends whatsoever. Today was apparently one of those rare days. Some human-shaped crystal monster and a unicorn in a full body suit had appeared, engaged in a rather one-sided scuffle, and vanished without so much as giving her a glance.
She wondered what in Celestia's name was going on, unaware that she had blurted the thought aloud. With nopony else present she remained completely unaware of her outburst, instead focusing on remembering why she was out here in the grassy hills in the first place. For the life of her, she couldn't determine why she had decided to go for a walk - there must have been some reason, she was sure of it. But no matter how much she racked her brain and tapped her skull with her hoof, nothing came to her.
Twilight became lost in her thought process, the unusual event she had just witnessed falling into the background since no immediate action was required. She squinted her lavender eyes shut and took a breath, stretching out her wings, trying to slow her mind down a bit so her thoughts would become manageable. She channeled some magic into her horn just to release some energy.
Okay... she thought. Back on topic.
She opened her eyes and looked at the grassy hills, still unsure why she had walked out here, but she compartmentalized that nagging thought away for the moment. She walked over to the cut in the ground the crystal-energy-man had made with his head when he'd tripped. He must be made of sapphires, Twilight concluded from the depth of the rut. She smiled thoughtfully - a being made of magic and sapphires. She had never seen such a thing! How exactly would it live? It'd probably need to survive off magic alone and wouldn't need to eat. Sleep? Perhaps not, though there was evidence that suggested everybody needed sleep to ease the mind. Maybe it didn't even have a mind?
She could have sworn it moved with fear though. The unicorn had as well, but she (had it been a she?) had moved with more purpose and control. The unicorn obviously hadn't been scared of the crystal man, it was something else. Had they run into something terrifying in their high-stakes game of teleport-pursuit?
It was then Twilight saw the black sphere sitting innocuously in the dirt. Her thoughts of fear and psyche became secondary as she focused her attention on the remnant of the scuffle. She lit her horn once again, focusing on the globe, using her natural magics to levitate it to her in a purple aura of arcane energy. She narrowed her eyes at the object - featureless. There wasn't even a defect from being dropped roughly in the coarse dirt. Its edges shone like oil despite it being completely solid. She knit her eyebrows together, scrutinizing it.
Something made her look upwards suddenly - a strange feeling of being watched - but nothing was up there. She shrugged it off and returned to the sphere, a nagging feeling eating away at the back of her mind, trying to tell her that something had happened. She thought of it as nothing more than curiosity.
She tapped the sphere with her hoof. The section she touched - a square with rounded corners - flashed a dull yellow. Another square lit up alongside it, two 'squares' to the right. Nothing else happened.
What are you? The crystal man had you... You were the only thing he had. You must be important.
She tapped it a few times in other places, lighting other squares up, but beyond the seemingly random pattern and number of lights flickering nothing happened. She scanned it for magic and found a faint aura inside it similar to teleportation, but not quite the same. She wasn't sure what that enchantment could accomplish - it was so weak. It'd need something to react with or draw power from to have any sort of visible effect. Seeing as it was the only spell in the globe, this was confusing to say the least.
She was sure she was missing something here. Maybe it reacted with the crystal man himself to do something? It was certainly possible, but that struck her as dangerous. And if that were true it might react badly to her magic...
She stopped messing with it. She levitated in front of her face for a while longer, knowing she couldn't figure anything out by standing here but electing to stare into the oily sheen anyway.
A brash voice interrupted her contemplations. "Hey Twi! What are you looking at?"
Twilight looked away from the mysterious orb, directing her gaze to the familiar voice with a smile. "I have no idea."
The cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane to whom the voice belonged flew a little higher into the air and dropped her jaw comically. "You have no idea about something!? Woah."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Rainbow Dash, there's a lot of things I don't know."
"Uh, durr, that was sarcasm." Rainbow Dash swooped through the air to the front of Twilight, staring at the sphere. "...It's just a bowling ball, Twi."
"Bowling balls are a lot bigger and don't flash when you touch them."
"Small magic bowling ball then," Rainbow Dash said with a smirk. She reached her hoof out towards the ball. "Wonder if you could bowl with it..."
Twilight jerked it back. "No touching! This thing has strange magic in it that might react with your own resulting in Luna knows what!"
"Pfft," Rainbow Dash waved a hoof dismissively, doing it such a way that she wouldn't hit her flapping wings. "Stop being so paranoid, it's just an odd ball." She rushed to the sphere quickly, grabbing it out of Twilight's magic with her two front hooves. Several lights lit up and Twilight gasped.
Nothing happened. Rainbow Dash held the sphere in one hoof, taking full advantage of the unusual traction pony hooves had for the flat and hard objects they were. She started juggling it between her hooves. "See? Nothing to worry about Twi, it's all fine."
Twilight's left eye twitched. "You've made your point, Rainbow. I'd like it back now."
Rainbow Dash shrugged and tossed it back to her, caught once again in purple magic. "Not like I could keep it from you long anyway, assuming you remember to teleport."
Twilight smirked coyly. "I'm getting better at that!"
"You still chased Starlight around the castle on your hooves yesterday."
"I was... caught up in the moment."
"Yeah. Sure. So what are we going to do with this thing? Where'd it even come from?"
"Right here," Twilight said, gesturing at the rut in the ground. "A unicorn was chasing a crystal man. They teleported here, she caught him, he dropped the ball, and they teleported away."
"You just called it a ball. A... bowling ball!?"
Twilight ignored her. "As for what to do with it... I'll take it back to the castle and probably run some tests on it, see what it is. Failing that, find out whatever I can."
"Sounds boring. Can't we go try to find that unicorn and crystal guy? Sounds more like adventure if we do it that way."
"I wasn't scanning the teleport, I can't follow it."
Rainbow Dash groaned. "Really Twilight? For all we know that might have been the biggest adventure ever, and now we'll never have it."
Twilight looked into the sphere and found herself thinking of a rose of all things. She smiled. "Somehow... I think this is the key to adventure, Rainbow. We just have to figure it out." She turned her head to the west - her castle peeking out over the horizon with its magical, crystalline glint. The structure was impressive and tree-like, although it could be described as tacky or gaudy by sensible ponies. The multi-pronged magical starburst on the castle's tip was visible even from this fair distance, the shape mimicking the six-pointed mark on Twilight's own flank. She took a breath and trotted towards her home.
"Uh... Twilight?"
"Yes, Rainbow?"
"Teleport, remember?"
"Oh," Twilight deadpanned. "Right. Coming Rainbow?"
"Eh, sure, don't have anything better to do today."
Twilight focused a teleport spell into her horn, taking special care to think about Rainbow Dash, herself, and the sphere while also picturing the most prominent room in her castle. She weaved the spell together in under a second and in a flash of purple energy they were there - the ‘meeting room’ of the castle, for lack of a better name. She had spent much of the last few years of her life in this grand room. The chandelier made of tree roots lit the room up in a multicolored glow and the blue-ish crystalline walls were dulled so they wouldn't blind everypony who entered with refraction. The center of the room was marked by an ornate table surrounded by seven throne-esque chairs, one of which was smaller than the others. The other six were of equal size and intended for Twilight and her five closest friends. Each of the six chairs was adorned with the symbol of the pony that sat there: the cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt for Rainbow Dash, the balloons, the diamonds, the butterflies, the apples, and Twilight's own magical starburst. These six symbols had once been nothing more than 'cutie marks,' pictographic representations of talent and inner magic that all ponies had. But now - now they represented much more. They were the symbols of a legendary band, of Harmony realized in six mares who couldn't be more different.
"Twilight? You're starting to glaze over."
"Oh," Twilight said, snapping herself out of the nostalgic trance. "Yes, well... right." She trotted over to the table. At the moment it was activated, showing a circular map of the nation they lived in, Equestria, and its neighbors. Twilight found herself examining the mountains of the dragon lands, the great desert of the south, the landscapes of Griffonstone... Even the snowy peaks of the Crystal Empire and Yakyakistan. She smiled - in some way; much of this land was hers. Hers to protect and rule in at least some fashion. She absent-mindedly set the mysterious globe on the table-map and pressed her hoof to the tabletop.
She felt the map's connection to a power much higher than her own, a power Twilight had learned to respect over the years. She owed it so much. The entire castle was a gift from it, and one of the smaller ones at that. She smiled as she felt the welcoming energies of Harmony wash over her.
The welcoming feeling quickly changed, attention shifting from Twilight to the black sphere. Twilight felt the arcane mood shift again to... something she didn't recognize. Fear? No, she'd felt fear before. And anger... as well as disgust...
Confusion?
Twilight blinked, taking a step back. "But the Tree of Harmony knows everything..."
Rainbow Dash stared at her. "Er... What?"
“I'm getting confusion from the magic, Rainbow. I've never felt that from the Tree before... It has no idea what the sphere is."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "You know, I'm not going to question that and take it at face value for once. What does that even mean?"
"I'm... Not sure."
In that moment both Rainbow Dash's and Twilight's cutie marks started glowing, drawing their gaze to their flanks. They knew exactly what that meant. They were being called. They turned quickly to the map and saw their symbols - alongside the symbols of all their friends - dance over the map at a particular location, shining their arcane light down upon it.
"...Here?" Rainbow Dash said. "It's never called us here before."
"It's never had something this unknown either," Twilight said, glancing at the unknown object.
"Eh, it probably has, you just don't know about it," a new high-pitched voice called from across the table. Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked up - to the surprise of neither of them, a pink pony with the most cotton-candy-like mane imaginable sat in the balloon-imprinted throne. Twilight and her friends had long ago stopped asking how the pink mare managed to get to and from locations without anypony noticing so quickly without the use of wings or magic, just like any number of the other impossible feats she performed daily.
"Hi Pinkie," Twilight said with a genuine bright smile.
Pinkie's already huge grin widened. "Hi yourself! So, who's ready to crack this puppy open and see what intrigue awaits for us within?" She lifted a wooden mallet she definitely didn't have a second ago into the air, aiming at the sphere. "I hope it's like a piñata!"
"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight yelled. "Don't break the mysterious artifact!"
Pinkie put the hammer away somewhere nopony could see. She shrugged. "Not like I could break it anyway, thing's durable."
Nopony asked how she knew this. Twilight just continued talking. "The Tree is probably just calling us here to solve a regular friendship problem - no need to get all excited for intrigue or anything..."
"I dunno Twi," Rainbow Dash said. "I have this gut feeling that this won't be normal, y'know?"
Pinkie nodded rapidly - perhaps more rapidly than should have been physically possible. "I do know! I'm not sure anypony, anycreature, anyone, or anything knows what's going on!"
Twilight nodded slowly, glancing at the sphere again. "We should at least wait for the others before doing anything."
"Agreed," Rainbow Dash said. "Hey, Pinks, wanna take bets on what Rarity'll think of the bowling ball?"
"It's not a bowling ball!" Twilight wailed.
Pinkie ignored her. "I think... She'll find it absolutely beautiful!"
"Really? Looks like disgusting oil. I say she hates it. Three bits?"
"Done!" Pinkie giggled. "Now all we do is wait!"
~~~
Rarity Belle - or Miss Rarity Belle as she was known to those not close to her - was a unicorn who knew exactly how to make an entrance. She knew she would not be the first to arrive at the meeting hall, so she prepared long before she even saw the Castle doors. The moment the diamonds on her flank started glowing, she tossed her purple mane gracefully to the side, turned the sign on her boutique to closed, and daintily trotted across town, making sure to keep her head held high and not to rush frantically.
She - and everypony else - knew this keeping of appearances was a little shallow, but Rarity just couldn't bring herself to stop. She was a graceful mare, and there was no way in Equestria that she'd stop being one for any reason besides a national disaster. Even when there was such a catastrophe she usually maintained her dignity while dealing with the danger; a skill a mare like her needed seeing as she was friends with Twilight of all ponies. Rarity may have loved the purple mare to bits, like a second sister, but trouble followed the princess around everywhere. There was just no escaping it.
Rarity supposed that, deep down, she liked the antics. No, it was more than that; she eagerly anticipated them, despite constant evidence she gave to the contrary. She may have complained and whined - what lady wouldn't? - but she rarely meant it. Her life was one few mares dared to dream. Hero, lady, fashionista, businessmare, popular... it probably all went to her head if she was honest with herself, which she often was not. Honesty was not her virtue - that was reserved for another of her friends, one who had many a time shown how crazy Rarity could be.
Speaking of, the mare in question trotted into Rarity's line of sight. The orange earth pony had a brown farmer's hat on her head and apples upon her flank - apples that were currently glowing just like Rarity's own diamonds. They walked side by side as the orange pony let out a greeting. "Howdy, Rarity."
"Hello, Applejack," Rarity spoke with her careful high-class annunciation - a false dialect she had forced herself to acquire when young and had never dropped since. It was an integral part of her now. "What do you suppose the problem is this time?"
"Well, it's callin' the two of us again," Applejack commented in her country drawl. "Ah figure it's somethin' that'll require some different viewpoints."
"Perhaps, but Pinkie's been called too. I saw her flank light up right before she darted behind a bush," Rarity said, not needing to explain that Pinkie was most definitely waiting for them at the table, probably bored already.
"Eeyup," Applejack said in response to nothing in particular. "Think it'll be all of us today?"
"Probably," a new voice said - one much softer than the two others, but neither classy nor rustic. Despite the softness of the voice, it wasn't meek either, though it had been in the past. "I'm here, after all."
Rarity turned to her left just in time to see a butter-yellow pegasus land, the pink butterflies on her rear glowing. The color of the cutie mark matched that of her mane, a beautiful and graceful collection of hairs that could house animals (and did just that from time to time). Rarity was slightly jealous of her friend - she herself was cursed with a light blue mark, a purple mane, and white coat. White may have been among the more glamorous of the colors, but the clash of the diamonds and the mane... Well, at least the diamonds matched the blue of her eyes.
"Guess so," Applejack said, agreeing with the newcomer's comment. "How's Angel, Fluttershy?"
"His feet are healing nicely," Fluttershy responded, her expression telling Applejack thanks for asking. "Though I think he'll just injure it again the moment they're fully healed... That rabbit and his parkour obsession..."
"Just make sure you do tell him when it's fully healed," Applejack said. "...You know, even though he is a vicious little varmint."
"Yes, I guess so..."
Rarity was silent - she was busy positioning herself relative to her friends. She had Fluttershy and Applejack walking to either side of her, and made sure she was slightly forward, taking the lead. The Castle was coming up quickly, and she was ready for it. Her horn burst with a brilliant blue glow, surrounding the giant double doors of Twilight's Castle in her aura. She slid them open with perfect timing, such that neither she nor her companions would need to slow their motion. She didn't look behind herself when she closed the doors - such a thing could ruin her rhythm. She could probably regain it before they reached the top of the stairs, but such things were uncertain.
She found herself wondering, once again, why she cared. The only ponies waiting up there would be her friends, ponies who didn't care for class. She could let her guard down and nothing negative would happen whatsoever. But no, like always, she couldn't bring herself to do it. This was who she was - the one who had style. Twilight was the excitable intelligent one, Fluttershy was the gentle soul, Applejack was down to earth, Rainbow Dash was the tomcolt, and Pinkie was... Pinkie.
It was who they were. While they might grow and evolve as ponies, some things didn't need to change. Perhaps shouldn't.
Rarity quickly brought herself out of those thoughts - despite the smile they brought to her face. They were close to the top of the stairs now and her friends had fallen silent. Rarity took in a deep breath and opened the door with perfect timing - her two friends flanking her to augment her entrance, perhaps unwittingly, perhaps not. It didn't really matter. Mainly because nopony noticed the grand entrance.
Pinkie just waved. "Hi Rarity! Been waiting for you for eighteen p-"
"Uh..." Applejack interrupted, pointing at the map in mild disbelief. "Is it pointin' us here? What does that even mean?"
Fluttershy gasped softly. "Are we the friendship problem?"
Twilight shook her head, a motion Rarity noticed was significantly more dignified than when they'd first met. Becoming a princess had slowly drawn Twilight to gain at least a modicum of class, something Rarity found immensely satisfying. "I doubt it," Twilight said. "I mean, if these were normal circumstances, I suppose that could be it... But I know what triggered this." She levitated a strange, black, oily ball up to the light, revealing its unusual sheen.
"My..." Rarity said, hoof to her mouth. "That looks rather... beautiful..."
"Ha!" Pinkie shouted, startling Rarity. "Three bits Dashie! Woop woop!"
Rainbow Dash sighed, tossing Pinkie the bits. She caught them in her teeth, giggling.
Rarity raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Did you two bet on my reaction again?"
Pinkie nodded vigorously without a trace of embarrassment or remorse. Rarity turned to Rainbow Dash. "How do you keep losing?"
Rainbow Dash glared at Pinkie. "I swear she's cheating somehow."
"You could just agree with me Dashie!" Pinkie giggled.
"Then there'd be no bet!"
"Ah," Applejack spoke up. "There's your problem Dash. She's exploitin' your need for competition."
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to respond with a presumably clever retort, but Twilight interrupted it by placing her hoof on her forehead. "Girls. Focus. Please."
"You got it!" Pinkie said, putting on a pair of googly-eye glasses. Fluttershy chuckled and everypony else ignored the amusing eyewear.
Twilight lifted the black sphere into the air. "This is..."
"The bowling ball," Rainbow Dash said.
"No, it isn't," Twilight snapped.
"It is now, sugarcube," Applejack said.
Twilight twitched, ready to protest, but thought better of it. She chuckled slightly. Rarity knew that look - it was the look Twilight had when she realized how ridiculous a situation was. "Okay then... This is the bowling ball, a strange device I found when..." Twilight continued on to tell them all of her strange encounter with the man of light and the enchantress, leaving nothing she thought important out. She ended her tale with the Tree of Harmony's confusion and subsequent calling of the six of them. "So evidentially we are supposed to do something with this mysterious artifact here in the castle. All of us. So... ideas?"
"You already shot down the hammer idea," Pinkie said.
"Yes, Pinkie, I did." Most mares would be fed up with Pinkie at this point, but Twilight said these words without a hint of venom at all - though the words did come with a slight tone of impatience.
"You said it was like teleportin'," Applejack said.
"Yes. But it definitely isn't exactly that and I cannot recall another spell like it."
Fluttershy raised a wing. Twilight nodded in her direction. "Well, I was thinking... Maybe it does something similar to teleporting because it's similar to it? I mean, I don't know much about magic, but that's how it works right?"
Twilight nodded with a smile. "Yes, that is how it works Fluttershy. You've been paying attention to my ramblings haven't you?"
"Yeah," Fluttershy said, slightly embarrassed.
"Not wise," Rainbow Dash commented. "Her egghead talk will melt your brain eventually."
"I can confirm..." Rarity mentioned, remembering her own times she had tried to parse through what Twilight was saying when the princess was in one of her science moods. It got far too complicated far too quickly. The worst of those talks had been when Twilight had tried to activate that darn...
"...Mirror Portal!" Rarity blurted out, shattering her calm stance for a moment.
Twilight blinked. "What about it?"
Rarity regained control of her posture. "When you were working on it... The main spell wasn't teleportation, was it?"
"No... No, it wasn't!" Twilight lit up. "Now that I think about it, there aren't crystal people anywhere on Equis at all, is there Rarity?"
"Oh, I'm told there are golems around - surprised you haven't heard of them, dear - but I'd have heard about a glowing man-thing made of sapphires if such a thing did exist. Or Lyra would have at least, you know her."
"That means..." Twilight levitated the bowling ball in front of her face. "This is probably a world-mirror. A portable one... That can probably go lots of places! But how? There's not enough power and the spell isn't quite right... Maybe it's broken? Incomplete?"
"Hey, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I'm no mage, but didn't you say it might react with something earlier? Why not bring it to the Mirror Portal, see what happens?"
Pinkie gasped. "Genius!"
Twilight smirked. "Good idea, Rainbow." Rarity knew Twilight had been about to suggest such a thing herself but was letting Rainbow Dash take the credit anyway. In a way, Rainbow deserved it, she had spoken first, after all. Rarity took pride in bringing up the Mirror Portal, though she briefly wondered if Twilight had thought of that first as well... Probably not, given how confused her reaction had been.
"To the east wing!" Twilight shouted, dashing out of the meeting room in a decidedly not graceful manner. She passed her number one assistant - a small purple dragon by the name of Spike - leaving him in the dust. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash's hurry to get going made the poor scaled boy fall over, his green spines folding against the floor.
Rarity trotted up to him, trying not to chuckle at his adorable struggling. "Spikey... you okay dear?"
"Just... fine!" he said. He meant it, though Rarity could tell his wings were sore. "You six got another friendship problem to deal with?"
Rarity frowned. "Something tells me it's different this time... We're going to the Mirror Portal for a look-see. We may be down there a while. Think you could bring us some tea?"
"Sure thing! Be ready in a jiff!"
Rarity smiled warmly. "Thank you." She left Spike to his business and trotted after the other five mares. She was still careful to move with style, though 'careful' was perhaps misleading, seeing as it was second nature to her at this point. She still wasn't sure why she was giving it such a fuss earlier.
She arrived fashionably late in a wing of the castle littered with books, scrolls, and a magic mirror augmented with dozens of unusual magical devices that Rarity couldn't even begin to guess the function of. She knew that altogether they allowed the Mirror Portal to function when the stars weren't aligned, to ensure the portal between worlds was permanent. Rarity herself had never been through the portal - only Twilight and Pinkie had, along with their mutual friend Starlight Glimmer. They had told Rarity of a world much like their own, except filled with humans, technology, and an almost nonexistent level of magic. She had often considered going herself to meet these human creatures who always wore clothing and had hands, but she'd never gotten around to it. Maybe she would today, assuming something didn't go terribly wrong.
She wasn't all that bothered by the idea of something going terribly wrong anyway. Yet another thing she had gotten somewhat used to over the years - though she never stopped gasping and freaking out a bit when it did happen.
Stars, her life was strange.
She turned her attention to Twilight - she and Fluttershy were pressing the bowling ball to the Mirror to no effect.
"Try harder," Rainbow Dash suggested.
"No..." Twilight said, furrowing her brow in concentration. "I think... It's something else... The spells aren't the same - close, but not the same..."
"Why's that?" Rarity asked.
"I don't know... They're really close now that I compare them - I'm certain this ball has some effect like that of a World Mirror, but the spell's just... off. And too weak..."
"Maybe it's customizable," Pinkie said, slurping on a blue slushy. "Choose your destination kind of thing."
Twilight blinked. "Pinkie, you are a genius. That's what all the lights are for, selecting - no, wait, they don't alter the spell..."
"But maybe you can dear," Rarity suggested. "If any mage can figure out how to alter a spell, it's you."
Twilight looked into Rarity's eyes and nodded with conviction. She stared at the bowling ball - then the Mirror - then the bowling ball again. Everypony fell silent. They knew what was coming.
Twilight was about to get an idea. And then they would be able to start.
"Got it!" Twilight shouted. Then, without explaining what she was doing, she removed a glass jar from a device on the Mirror Portal’s back. Inside the jar was a strange blue magic gas. Twilight set it aside and created an identical, empty jar from the aether, placing it where the old jar had been and filling it with a gray magic mist with her magic, her grin widening as she did so. "Just copy and paste..."
"Uh... What?" Applejack said.
"Computer thing," Pinkie answered as if this explained everything. All it did was let everypony know they shouldn't ask further.
"Strong spell... Mirror..." Twilight muttered, levitating a few tools to her from a nearby box, tightening a few bolts on the Mirror and running magic energies through several magic artifacts. She smirked. "And... Done..." She pressed her hoof to the shimmering surface of the Mirror.
She didn't pass through. It was solid.
"Oh come on!" she shouted. "That should work! I mean - I had it optimized and everything..."
"What did you do?" Fluttershy asked.
Twilight frowned, looking right at the bowling ball. "I put the spell from in here into the Mirror and tried to 'set' it to Earth... But it didn't stick. It's missing something..." She levitated the strange sphere back to her eyes. "Something..."
Pinkie touched the ball lighting up a single square. She looked at Twilight with a knowing gaze. Twilight's eyes sparkled with another idea. She levitated the ball over to the Mirror, touching the two artifacts together. Several squares lit up on the ball, all in a sequence. Twilight grinned. "Aha!"
And then all six of them were gone in an instant, leaving the Mirror Portal behind.
Spike came down with a tray of piping hot tea three minutes later. He frowned at the lack of ponies to give it to.
Eventually, he shrugged and decided it meant more tea for him. And Starlight, assuming he could find her.
~~~
It was the apotheosis of all jungles. Humid, green, and full of the squawking of numerous colorful birds. Distant calls and roars from other, larger animals came from afar. The large, dripping leaves of the many trees rustled in the soft breeze, their water returning to the air as the sun beat down on their canopy. The dirt below wasn't muddy, merely damp and covered with morning bugs.
It was in this jungle six equine friends appeared, three feet above the soil below. Rarity and Pinkie were the only ones who landed on their hooves - though Rainbow Dash was spared the indignity of a faceful of dirt since her default state was hovering in midair.
"I suppose it worked then," Rarity observed.
"Sorta..." Twilight muttered, standing up and wiping the bugs off her face. "I was trying to activate the mirror and not the ball... But it apparently reacted with the altered spell I made and used it itself..." She lifted the ball and studied it. "There was a sudden surge of extreme power within it. I have no idea where it came from..."
"So... This is Earth?" Applejack asked.
Twilight frowned. "Well, I suppose there probably is a jungle somewhere on Earth, but I thought the portal had to take us to Canterlot High..."
Pinkie Pie took a cell phone out of her mane. "No signal. Or GPS signal. Angry Birds still works though."
Twilight was only mildly surprised Pinkie had gotten ahold of a cell phone. "Well... it's not Earth then. Somewhere else. I can tell you we aren't in Equestria either - the magic feels off. Only slightly, though."
"Awesome! A brand new frontier!" Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and grinned. "We'll be like Daring Do and explore the jungle!"
"Rainbow..." Fluttershy began. "Shouldn't we get our bearings first? See if... Twilight can take us home?"
Twilight's pupils shrunk to pinpricks.
"Oh..." Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth.
"Twi? Ah don't like that look..." Applejack commented.
"I... I have no idea if I can..." Twilight said. "I was scanning what was going on, yes... I have the spell to bring us here. But I can't channel that much power and I need the reverse spell."
Fluttershy whimpered. "We're... Stuck here?"
"Nonononono," Twilight said, voice wavering considerably. "I just need to... figure out a solution!" She lifted the sphere into the air. "This thing is the key. It can help us get home. Just need to press the right buttons!"
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it just as likely to take us somewhere else?"
"Not if I figure it out!" Twilight said. She lit her horn, overlaying the spell she put in the Mirror Portal over the sphere, and the same lights from earlier lit up. Nothing happened - probably because they were already in the location selected. "Now just to figure out what all this means..." She stared at the sphere blankly for several seconds.
"Er, anythin' we can do to help with that Twi?" Applejack asked.
"...Not really, no, sorry." Twilight smiled sheepishly. "Don't worry though! Totally got this!"
Applejack raised an incredulous eyebrow but said nothing.
"Can we go exploring then Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"...Sure, this will take a while anyway. I'll find you when I'm done. Don't go too far."
"Got it," Rainbow Dash saluted. "Good luck Twilight!"
Twilight nodded, turning the sphere over in her magic.
Pinkie Pie bounded after Rainbow Dash. "Yay! Exploring!"
Fluttershy followed. "I can't wait to see the animals here..."
Applejack took up the rear. "Rarity? You comin'?"
"Oh no, I think I'll stay here and not romp through the filthy jungle. You girls have a good time though! I'll just stay with Twilight."
Applejack nodded. "Alright. See you." They left, heading into the deep foliage.
Twilight looked up at Rarity. "...Thanks. I'm going to need somepony to bounce ideas off of and keep me... calm."
"Don't mention it, dear. I may not be a magical scholar, but I know a few tricks." She frowned. "...Do you really think you can figure this thing out?"
"Not completely. But I might be able to pretend and get something that works. First I have to figure out why we're not on Earth. It was almost the exact same spell the Mirror Portal would have used, just altered from the spell in the ball. It should have worked as a test run, just to see if..." She trailed off into ramblings and mumbles. She summoned a black notepad and pen with her magic and began to frantically scribble.
Rarity gracefully sat down, watching Twilight closely. Soon her circular magic diagrams evolved far beyond Rarity's understanding, reaching levels of complexity Rarity had only glimpsed at the back of Magic textbooks as examples of high magic. Rarity didn't say anything or ask any questions - she'd wait for Twilight to indicate it was time for that. The two just sat in the clearing; one patient, the other working furiously.
~~~
Despite the attitude she’d displayed to Twilight, Rainbow Dash wasn't completely calm about the situation - they might be stuck on some alien world for Celestia's sake! However, she had put on a mask to keep this line of thought deep within herself. Their chances of getting home were much better if Twilight had space to think, to solve the problem without constant interruptions and stressors. Rainbow Dash knew full well she was the primary source of interruptions and distractions, so she had provided a reason to get out of there.
Who am I kidding, I wanted to explore, to find something new and exciting.
That most certainly was true, but Rainbow Dash still knew it was better this way. She and her friends could have an adventure in this world and get back home!
Hopefully.
She tried hard not to think about the possibility of not making it back home.
Applejack was currently making that difficult.
"We should look for firewood," she said.
"Why?" Rainbow Dash muttered.
"Cause we might be here a while - Ah don't wanna be caught after dark without a fire."
"Twilight will get us home long before then. Do you see the sun here? Early morning."
"It might take us all day to find firewood in this damp jungle, Rainbow."
"Exactly why we shouldn't waste valuable adventuring time on finding firewood."
Fluttershy spoke up. "Ricaduro says there's a bunch of dry wood a little ways to the east. Easy to get to."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "...Who?"
Fluttershy lifted a wing, showcasing a tropical bird the size of her head happily perched among her feathers. He had a blue-red complexion and a double-pronged beak that made it hard to tell exactly where his mouth was. He squawked.
"Well now we know Fluttershy has a way with animals here too," Rainbow Dash said, smirking. "And we don't have to collect firewood now."
Applejack let out an annoyed break. "Right. We could look for shelter then..."
Pinkie groaned. "AJ! Stop being so... so... practical. Have some fun! Just... Look at this, for instance!" She ran up to a bright orange seven-petal flower that was twice as large as she was. "Isn't this just beautiful?"
Rainbow Dash had to admit, the orange flower was rather impressive. The patterns on it reminded her of a tiger, though perhaps one whose skin had been through a blender. The plant looked predatory.
Applejack nodded slowly. "Ah s’pose so... Ah didn't think flowers got that big."
Fluttershy shrugged. "Ricaduro says it isn't even the biggest he's seen. Apparently, the 'red creatures' live in a much larger one."
"Ooooh! Where's that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Fluttershy conversed with Ricaduro for a few seconds. "Not far. To the north a little ways. He doesn't want to go there - they eat birds."
Rainbow Dash grinned. "Well, you could keep them under control right?"
"Probably," Fluttershy said. "I'm going to let Ricaduro go anyway, he's got a family to get back to."
"Mission acquired: find red creatures!" Pinkie announced. She put on a safari hat. "Thataway!"
Fluttershy waved bye to Ricaduro and followed Pinkie. Rainbow Dash flew overhead while Applejack took up the rear.
Rainbow Dash attempted to imagine a bunch of red creatures living in a giant flower. What came to mind first was a giant rose in which a bunch of red diamond dogs lived, except they had cat ears for some reason. She chuckled at the image.
"I think they'll be big bugs," Pinkie said suddenly.
"Ah'm goin' for... Yaks," Applejack offered. Everyone turned to Fluttershy, expecting a response from her.
"Oh, I already know what they look like, Ricaduro told me the basics."
"Who's closest?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Pinkie. But she's off by a-"
Pinkie held up a hoof. "Don't tell us. Let us be surprised!"
"Oh. Okay then."
Rainbow Dash was now imagining giant red crickets living in a rose. Not as funny of an image, so she added the cat ears again just for the heck of it, bringing a smirk to her face. Applejack apparently had a similarly amusing image in her mind, failing completely to hold her chuckle in. Fluttershy just gave them odd looks and shook her head.
They walked for a while longer - maybe an hour, they weren't really sure. They'd forgotten completely about 'not going far' now that they had a destination. They talked on and off about the jungle, adventure, and other random things that were rather pointless. But that's what friends do - talk about pointless things and laugh and bond.
They mostly forgot that they were stuck in an alien world because of it. They had each other and were easily distracted by the many amazing sights - the flora, the fauna, and the sky whenever it could be seen through the treetops. They made out two moons in the blue heavens, one the smooth silvery orb they remembered from home, the other a smaller, blue sphere that was somewhat hard to see against the sky.
"You know," Pinkie said, "The humans of Earth actually went to their moon in a big rocket."
"Ain't no way," Applejack said.
"Oh, it happened! There were pictures, video, everything! They even brought moon rocks back!"
"Ah'll believe it when Ah see it."
Rainbow Dash chuckled. "You hear that ponies? Applejack just got a one-way ticket to Earth!"
"Aw, apple fritters."
"I hear it's nice there," Fluttershy said. "I bet you'd like it once you went!"
"Too many fancy gizmos Ah think."
"Fancy gizmos are the way of the future!" Pinkie giggled.
Their conversation of moons, men, and moments was interrupted by a pony stepping out of the foliage, moving in front of them. She was an earth pony - pink, blue eyes, cotton candy mane. She lacked a mark on her flank, but otherwise her smooth face and vibrant body were exactly like Pinkie's at first glance. Upon closer inspection, a few differences could be seen - her forehead was a bit too large and bony, for one. But it was her eyes that got to all of them. The orbs stared with a vacant expression, eyes missing most of the light that Pinkie's had to them.
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy backed up a bit, the mare's presence unnerving them. Something felt wrong.
Pinkie Pie just smiled. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! Who are you?"
The other pink pony just neighed. Pinkie's smile faltered. "Uh..."
Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. "Oh... My... She... Uh... She just asked us why we weren't with the herd like... like an animal would."
"Okay, that just made this creepier..." Rainbow Dash muttered. "Uh... No offense," she told the other Pinkie. The mare's expression did not change. She simply did not have the mental capacity to understand language. She finally walked around the group, heading for Fluttershy.
"Er..." Fluttershy took a few steps back. "Uh... Hi. What should I call you?"
The pony - no, animal - had no concept of a name besides 'me' and 'pink'.
Normally at this point Fluttershy would just give out a name, but she couldn't bring herself to name a pony - especially because she just wanted to call her 'Other Pinkie.' Fluttershy shivered.
"Uh... How 'bout Cotton Candy?" Applejack suggested. The other Pinkie turned to look at Applejack blankly. She seemed satisfied with the suggestion somehow.
Fluttershy nodded slowly. "Yes... That'll do. Cotton," she had to force herself to say it, "where's the herd?"
Cotton understood Fluttershy like virtually all animals did and gestured with her muzzle (as opposed to her hoof) towards the north. The same direction they were already headed.
Nopony paused to consider what this might mean.
Cotton seemed to sense it was time to move on. She turned and headed north without another noise. Pinkie followed without question, bouncing after her other self. The other mares exchanged confused glances with each other before following as well.
Rainbow Dash flew alongside Pinkie. "This... This... She is..."
"Bizarre?" Pinkie interrupted. "I know right! Feral, animalistic ponies in this other world! Who knows what other strange stuff there is?"
Rainbow Dash blinked. "How can you be okay with... With..." She glanced at Cotton.
"Dashie, she can't understand you, only Fluttershy. You don't need to feel nervous around her."
Rainbow Dash shook her head. "That. How can you do that?"
"Do what?" Pinkie asked, an innocent look on her face.
"...It's been maybe two minutes since we met this pony who looks almost exactly like you, can't talk, and acts like an animal! It's not just weird, it's disturbing." Rainbow Dash glanced at Cotton again. The pony's head was turned, but Rainbow Dash remembered those eyes nonetheless. They were bright, blue, but not full of the spark. The spark she'd seen in every pony she ever met - a spark she hadn't even been consciously aware of until today. Looking into the gaze of a pony and not seeing it really brought it to the forefront...
"I guess I'm just used to other versions of me already. Earth Pinkie, the many Mirror Pool Pinkies... You know."
"None of them were animals were they?"
Fluttershy shot Rainbow Dash an annoyed look but said nothing.
Pinkie pursed her lips. "Well... It is a little creepy to tell you the truth, but, you know, no point in getting freaked out about it. And - oh! Idea! Cotton!"
Cotton didn't turn - she was unable to recognize her name just yet seeing as she had only just gotten it. Pinkie didn't care. She rushed to the front and gave her a cupcake. "Here! I bet you've never had one of these before!"
Cotton poked her nose at the cupcake and sniffed deeply. The sweet aroma made Cotton's eyes dilate - she ate the entire thing in one gulp, paper and all. Pinkie giggled, patting her on the head. "Good girl."
Applejack blinked. Then she blinked again. "Well, Ah'll be, that's certainly not something anypony ever thinks they'll see."
Fluttershy nodded slowly. "...Yeah..." She took a deep breath and walked over to Cotton. "Hey there."
Cotton met Fluttershy's gaze with her own. Fluttershy flinched, but kept her eyes up and moved closer. "You... You are a good girl aren't you?"
Cotton made a satisfied whinnying sound. Fluttershy scratched her behind the ear, making her pink back leg thump the ground much like that of a rabbit's. Fluttershy smiled.
Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack. "...They're going mental."
"Ah can't bring myself to disagree..." Applejack responded.
"You know if there's a version of Pinkie..."
"Ah know. Ah hope we don't run into 'em."
Rainbow Dash shivered, suddenly enjoying the adventure a lot less. They set out once more to the north, conversation dwindling considerably.
Rainbow Dash was the one who heard it first; a muffled thump followed by a rustle. Her ears perked up and she heard it again. "Hey, guys? I hear something."
"What are-" then Pinkie heard the thump as well. Her ears swiveled to the south. "Oh. That."
Cotton fixed Pinkie with a puzzled look. The next thump all of them heard - and Cotton's demeanor changed instantly from puzzled to panic. She ran - bolting into the foliage, leaving the other four far behind.
"Skittish," Rainbow Dash commented. "Think we should run?"
There was no time to discuss - the owner of the thumps had increased its pace after Cotton bolted, making no more attempts to muffle the huge steps. The tremendous noise shook the jungle, sending chills of fear into the ponies. Birds squawked in panic and flew away into the sky. Applejack had just decided to turn tail when the thing burst through the trees, bellowing a roar loud enough to make Rainbow Dash wince.
It was tall, almost taller than the trees, and heavily built. There were two gigantic scaled feet and a meaty trailing tail at the bottom. The tiny arms would have made it less impressive had the claws affixed to them not been bloody and jagged, shifting almost naturally to the orange color of the beast's main body. The head of the beast dwarfed everything else about the creature - it was square-set, lined with perhaps hundreds of jagged bone-teeth, and had a predatory eye on either side of its face. The orbs were locked right onto its prey: four succulent ponies.
Rainbow Dash thought it looked like those pictures of a T-Rex she'd seen in dinosaur books, though the face was a little off.
The reptile leaned down, jaws open, preparing to scoop Pinkie into its mouth. She screamed, running off at high - and impossible - speeds to the north. Rainbow Dash and Applejack snapped out of their paralysis to enter a new phase of fear: the flight response. The beast pursued them as they ran. It only got six steps before Fluttershy flew in front of its face and Stared into its eyes with her own, making sure it saw her intense disapproving gaze. The apex predator comically stopped in its tracks and whimpered in her presence.
"It's okay, you were just looking for food," Fluttershy said, easing off her Stare technique. "But I couldn't let you eat my friends. Sorry. Say, we..." She glanced behind herself. Her friends were long gone. "...I could help you find some food in return. What do you like to eat?"
The beast growled.
"...Besides ponies?" Fluttershy shivered at the thought, painfully realizing that the wild ponies here were just another part of the natural food chain. That'd take considerable effort to get used to. "Anything else?"
He grunted.
"I have no idea what a Marm is, but okay, let's go hunting for one." She cocked her head. "Do you have a name?"
He did not.
"Well, then you are Rexy. Let's go Rexy! Also, don't go that way, we don't want to scare Twilight."
Rexy didn't mind going another direction. He marched through the jungle with a pegasus on his head. Neither of them thought this was odd. Rexy because he wasn't that smart, and Fluttershy because she had dealt with more than a few apex predators in her time. This included dragons, though they were more people than animals, less susceptible to the Stare and her other skills. Not that she liked using the Stare, even on animals. Only when needed.
They continued on, both blissfully unaware of how much they were throwing the rest of the jungle for a loop.
~~~
Twilight was not pleased with her current situation.
She and her friends were stuck in some alien jungle impossibly far from home. There was no sign of any civilization whatsoever and she had heard dozens of low, guttural, predatory calls that made her hair stand on end. That wasn't the worst part though - she was fairly certain she and her friends could take care of themselves - but that she had no idea what had even happened.
She went over the events in her head again - the Mirror was unable to open the connection she had set for whatever reason, so she'd touched the sphere to it and the sphere had connected - she had no idea how - and drew power from itself somehow to open the portal. But there was no spell to bring that energy, and she didn't know of any non-magical power source that powerful. It baffled her, that power. It had exceeded even that of the Mirror itself. Ten times stronger! How was that even possible?
An idea came to her suddenly. She opened a notebook and scribbled down some numbers - yes, there it was. The Mirror Portal hadn't had enough energy to establish a connection, just like it had been before she added all the extra devices to it, back when it had to wait for the Stars to align to get enough magic. But she knew the Mirror had enough energy to reach Earth at the moment... ...Wait, what if it just required more energy to come here? Wherever here was. That made some sense - maybe some worlds were more 'distant' than others. But the question remained: she had set the destination as Earth. Why didn't they come to Earth? Why-
"The transformation enchantment!" she shouted suddenly.
Rarity looked up from one of Twilight's discarded notebooks. "Did you figure it out?"
"I know why we're here and not on Earth - the Mirror Portal's spell has an enchantment that transforms you to an 'appropriate' form, giving you a sort of 'vortex' effect before you arrive while it changes your body. But we didn't experience that when we came here, we were just here. The ball read the spell I gave it without consideration for possible enchantments - it treated it like a normal Mirror spell and found a different set of coordinates! These coordinates!"
She pulled out the ball. "I can just remove the transformation matrix from the spell and use the ball to go directly to Earth! Give me a sec..."
"...Shouldn't we find the others?"
"If this works I can just make us come right back..." She altered the spell inside the sphere to her liking, sure it was connected to Earth now, and... ...nothing happened.
"...You know, it occurs to me that the presence of the Mirror Portal itself may have activated it or something." Twilight sighed. "We don't know how to use this thing by itself..."
"Well, you know the right spell now. Can you cast it?"
Twilight pondered this. "I... Well if I was going from Equestria to Earth I'm sure I could, now that I have it. It'd take considerable effort, but I'd manage. However... It took a lot more energy than I thought to get here. Maybe if I train myself more I could produce that much... But not right now. I'd probably have to spend weeks doing nothing but practicing my magic. And even that's just a maybe."
Rarity shook her head. "Please tell me there's a plan B, I don't want to live in this jungle for weeks, darling."
"I know. The other option is to find another source of power. I think a physical Element of Harmony would do it."
"So we need to find some magic artifact then? Rainbow's going to love this."
Twilight nodded. "Here's to hoping there are some ancient ruins we can plunder. Or, Plan C, figure out where this thing gets its power from."
"That's probably a dead end. We should just find the others and start looking."
Twilight nodded, folding up all her notebooks and creating a simple knapsack. She stuck the ball and books in and slung it over her back. "Let's go. Hope they're all doing okay."
"They're all capable of taking care of themselves, dear."
~~~
Pinkie Pie knew the T-Rex (it wasn't really a T-Rex, but she didn't care) had stopped chasing them long ago. She just didn't see any reason to stop running - it was fun!
She supposed Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still terrified - but she wasn't sure she could stop them just by saying the T-Rex was gone. Plus, Applejack was so far behind them she'd be out of earshot anyway. Pinkie had ways to make her hear, but that'd just be petty in the end. Best to just leave it alone. Pinkie did have to admit they couldn’t run forever. She just wasn't expecting what it was that stopped them - a sight so out of left field that her jaw dropped.
Rainbow Dash halted as well - more impressive than Pinkie’s instant stop since she was flying and didn't have the ground's assistance. They saw two more ponies - one they didn't recognize and an earth pony version of Rainbow Dash, both standing near a large tree. This sight alone would have stopped Rainbow Dash - but it was the other half of the scene that stopped Pinkie.
The ponies had riders.
The riders were tall, lanky creatures with two legs and four arms. They had no skin or hair; instead, they were covered head to foot in brittle red carapaces. One of the riders was a dark pink shade, the other a blood red. Their hands had three fingers, each of the digits resembling a grasshopper leg. Their own legs were like that of an ostrich, bent backward in a painful looking configuration so their feet wouldn't drag on the ground while they rode the ponies.
Then there was their face.
It was like a mask. A flat, red mask with four eyeholes and angular spines off the top and sides. There was a small opening under the pointed bottom - presumably a mouth - where two mandibles hung out.
Pinkie stared at the eyes. The eyes had the spark in them.
The redder one glared at them, then back at the pink rider. It spoke with a series of musical clicking sounds that were obviously a language of some sort. The pink one responded with a shrug.
"Hey girls, what did you find here?" Applejack asked, catching up with them. She saw the riders. They saw her. They heard her voice. They saw her hat. A hat obviously designed for the head of a pony. There was silence for a second.
The red one leaped off his pony and thrust a spear in their direction threateningly, saying something they couldn't understand but obviously wasn't a friendly hello.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you want a fight do you?" She flared her wings. "Well-"
"Dashie, no," Pinkie said. "I... I think these things are dangerous. Really dangerous. They'd be able to hurt us."
Applejack gulped, nodding. "They... They do look pointy in a lot of places..."
Rainbow Dash stood down, lowering her wings. The red rider didn't lower his spear. He spoke some more, and the pink one tossed him some rope.
"Aw heck no!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "You are not tying me up!"
The red rider moved quickly, touching the spear to Rainbow Dash's neck, coming as close as possible to drawing blood. Rainbow Dash froze.
"Rainbow..." Applejack said. "Let's just do what he says and hope the others find us."
Rainbow Dash nodded extremely slowly. The red rider took this as a sign to tie the rope around her midsection, an act the being had evidentially done many times before seeing as it only took a few seconds. Applejack and Pinkie were next, taking even less time due to the lack of wings. Pinkie's smile was gone, replaced with a face of worry and barely contained panic. They were being captured by the red creatures. By aliens.
That was both cool and terrifying at the same time.