//------------------------------// // Inside // Story: Crashland: Equestria // by computerneek //------------------------------// The six ponies find nothing in the meadow. “I’m certain there was something here!” Twilight declares.  “I felt it from my observation room!” “I’m not doubtin’ ya,” Applejack answers.  “Whoever did it, though, must have moved on by now.” Rainbow lands unexpectedly.  “So, do we happen to be looking for a brownish earth pony with-” “No earth pony could have done this!” Twilight states.  “It felt like really high-level magic- so high even alicorns would have trouble with it!” Rainbow launches into the air again, scowling as she goes, and muttering under her breath.  “With a brown mane and no cutie mark.”  She knows as well as any that a grown pony with no cutie mark is physically impossible; foals simply stop growing at a certain age, until they get their marks, at which point they continue their growth cycle. “Could it have been Discord?” Fluttershy asks, after watching Rainbow race off. Twilight shakes her head.  “I’m sure he could use higher-level magic than alicorns can, but he doesn’t.  He usually sticks to pouring massive amounts of power into low-level spells- and even he can’t completely erase the traces of his magic.” “Are you sure you felt something here?” Rarity asks. Twilight sighs, hanging her head.  “Yes, but further search will probably be fruitless.  It did disappear quickly.”  The mares share a look, before turning to head back towards Ponyville at their various paces. Some minutes later, Pinkie Pie spots a brownish earth pony walking towards town.  She stares from her position in town for half a second- nope, not somepony she recognizes.  This must be the somepony new her Pinkie Sense had been going off about when Twilight showed up about that magic thingy!  She races forwards, stopping in front of the new pony.  “Hello, my name is Pinkie Pie and welcome to Ponyville!  Are you coming to stay or just passing through?”  The pony looks confused, though- but Pinkie Pie is not one to give up easily.  “Welcome to Ponyville,” she repeats.  “My name is Pinkie Pie.  Are you moving here or something?” Her response is something unintelligible…  Idea!  She races off to fetch Rainbow Dash.  Maybe she can understand it?  Rainbow does have a griffin friend Gilda, after all… When she gets back, with Rainbow in tow, the new pony has already left.  Only, when Pinkie glances around, she realizes the new pony has only started trotting around town.  Weird.  Anyways, she drags Rainbow over. “Pinkie- ugh…”  Rainbow groans, following the overexcited party pony again.  Looks like her target is the unfortunate brown mare she’d noticed earlier…  Yep, no cutie mark.  Probably a poorly-done dye job- makes her wonder what this pony’s natural color is. “There you are!” Pinkie yaps, straight into the new mare’s face.  “Why did you run away?” Rainbow sighs.  “Sorry about her,” she states to the new mare, before turning on Pinkie.  “So why did you drag me out here?  She looks pretty boring to me.” Pinkie turns on her.  “She doesn’t speak Equestrian- maybe you can understand her!”  The party pony then whirls back on the wordless mare. Rainbow facehooves.  “You do know Fluttershy is the one that can understand everypony, right?”  Pinkie ignores her, yapping incomprehensibly- even to Rainbow, who knows the language she’s using- at the new pony, who appears to be trying to get around them. Finally, the new pony says something- exactly as Rainbow expected, she doesn’t understand a word of it.  Pinkie rounds on her- probably to ask- and the new pony takes off like a missile. Rainbow stares after her.  Not only did she just run way fast, but she had left a small shockwave behind her, as if she had kicked off of the air to do so.  What’s more, Rainbow had felt no magic…  And even a unicorn couldn’t have kicked off of empty air.  The mare zips away, rivalling Pinkie’s best speed, for only a few seconds before she stops to glance back at them- Pinkie has joined Rainbow in staring at this point- and resume her journey.  Rainbow then estimates the path- and realizes where she’s headed to.  While Pinkie whistles off to Sugarcube Corner, Rainbow makes tracks- and very nearly a rainboom- to Twilight. Here, she informs Twilight there’s a strange mare with no cutie mark and a language she doesn’t know headed for the spear, before she heads off to get Fluttershy, to act as translator.  Fluttershy can understand anything, be it animals…  Or even a language she doesn’t speak.  They’ll be able to hear what the new mare is saying, even if they won’t be able to be understood in return. Upon hearing of this new mare and what she’s doing, Twilight decides she might know something about the giant spear.  After confirming Rainbow’s intention to fetch Fluttershy, she takes off to find this new mare. That mare sure moved fast.  Almost as soon as Twilight arrives, a guard reports the appearance of a mare- same description, including the language barrier- that had almost crossed the line, but had seemed to understand his instruction.  The brownish mare has also set off on a circle around the giant spear, staying outside the line.  Twilight sets off the other way around it, racing the wind- and spots the strange mare, dropping herself onto the ground some distance ahead.  “Hello!” she begins.  “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and you’ve got to be the first pony that’s not bowed since my coronation!  Anyways, this thing landed here not too long ago- do you happen to know anything about it?” The brown mare mutters something incomprehensible and looks towards the giant spear. Twilight facehooves.  Exactly as Rainbow said.  Whatever- Fluttershy is coming.  She turns to watch her shy friend’s approach- and notices, in her peripheral vision, that the brown mare is also looking. Fluttershy lands gently, covering herself from the new mare as she approaches.  But, Twilight realizes only a moment too late, the conversation won’t be nearly as peaceful as expected. Power.  Oh Celestia, the power!  It surged up way too close all of the sudden, going from nothing to far too much for her to stabilize properly in less than a quarter of a second.  Twilight screams in combined fright and surprise, leaping away from the source- which, she realizes a moment later, is the spear.  Many points along it have started glowing, and a hum has begun.  The power continues to build, though- and she notices something like a weak version of the roll they’d seen on the big thing developing on the back of the spear. So…  those layers of metal are a spellcasting device?  Wow.  The spear then slides out of the ground, slowly at first, but it accelerates, with no magic aura at all.  In fact, the magic doesn’t seem to be employed in moving it!  It finally clears the hole, swiveling to point away from Canterlot as it begins moving that way.  Twilight looks back down at the brown mare, where she is turning away from the guard…  Wait, is that a gateway?  She races down, breaking her own speed record, in an attempt to stop the mare.  Gateways are incredibly dangerous- so bad, in fact, there’s only one known successful invocation of one that didn’t result in whatever passed through it being shredded- and that by Starswirl himself. She’s too late, though.  She also overshoots herself- and ends up only managing to tumble them both through…  She survived.  However, she’s not sure if that’s a good thing; her chest feels like it’s on fire.  As she works her way out from the crumpled heap, she notices the gate has disappeared again…  Wait.  It just reappeared- and she sees a grassy field beyond it.  She’s tempted to rush for it, get through it- but it’s a gateway.  Those things are notoriously unstable.  She stumbles to her hooves- well, three of them.  Her right forehoof she holds against her chest, where her heart feels like it’s trying to rip itself out. The brown mare stands upright, shakes herself out, and turns towards her, beginning to say something- and cutting off suddenly, turning to gallop for something on the wall as the gateway disappears just as quickly as it had come.  The earth pony stops at that wall for a second- and gallops back, a cup of something floating in the air next to her.  No magic aura, just…  She’s not sure what that platform it’s on is, but she seems to be manipulating it almost like Twilight might manipulate her own magic.  She offers the cup to her, motioning for her to drink. Twilight sits down, rubbing her chest- the pain is getting worse- and looks at the brown mare inquisitively.  She moves the cup- weird smelling stuff- right up to her head, again making a motion as if drinking…  Though Twilight notices the undertone of urgence this time. Twilight raises her left forehoof to take the cup- her horn isn’t responding.  Only, she can’t seem to grasp it with that either.  Reluctantly, at the brown mare’s continued urging, she applies her right forehoof to it to, praying that the gateway hadn’t somehow damaged her magic.  She empties the cup in a single swallow.  For all its weird smell, it’s completely flavorless…  and suddenly, her insides feel like they’re on fire.  The brown mare watches concernedly as she doubles up with the pain, but seems to relax, even as it gets worse, settling herself down on the floor. Then…  The pain just fades away, to nothing.  It takes the fire in her heart with it- and her horn begins to tingle.  Had that been some unpleasant medicine for something that gateway did to her?  Why hasn’t the brown mare taken any?