//------------------------------// // Prelude: A Strange World // Story: World of Warcraft: Burning Skies // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// It was a nice day out in Ponyville, as the sun was shining and there were only a few clouds in the sky, where the residents of the city could see the local pegasi flying through the air and adjusting the clouds, if they were part of the Weather Team and were supposed to be working, while there was a chance of them seeing a certain rainbow maned mare practicing her stunts or other pegasi just delivering mail and other things. That was common in this town, as the residents were used to seeing all of that, just like the rest of Equestria was used to seeing it, so the residents barely glanced at the skies as the pegasi worked and went about their days, either heading to school, be they students or teachers, or heading to the shops to see what was available for purchase, or whatever they wanted to do with the rest of their days. Most of the residents in this town, like a good portion of the cities, towns, and villages scattered throughout Equestria, were ponies, who walked on four legs and came in three varieties, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, where most earth ponies were connected to the earth in some manner, unicorns used their horns and their magic to perform interesting feats, and pegasi used their wings and weather related abilities to move clouds and do other things. There was a fourth type of pony, the alicorns, who had the best of all three races and had both a longer unicorn's horn and larger pegasi wings, and their powers were extraordinary, as two of them were capable of moving the sun and moon with their magic, and there were a few more in the land with powers that were also amazing. Spitfire, who was walking through the town at the moment, was just a normal pegasi who had a brilliant golden coat while her mane and tail were a vivid orange color that had light brilliant amber colored stripes, even if her mane was styled to look more like flames, and her Cutie Mark, the marking on her flanks, was some flames that sort of resembled lightning, a bolt to be exact. The reason she was here, instead of being in her office at the Wonderbolt Academy or training with the rest of the team, was because today happened to be one of the days off that she had and she had figured that it was time for a well deserved break, even if it was for a single day, and felt that seeing what Ponyville, a town she had heard so much about, was a great way to spend her day. Like all ponies, save for the nobles, she wore nothing and that was perfectly acceptable, though there were pegasi that came over to where she was walking and either wanted to talk with her, about getting into the Wonderbolts at some point, or just wanted her autograph, something that she gave out before returning to her walk through the town and took in the sights. Truthfully, there wasn't much to look at, as most of the buildings were similar to each other, save for some of the really special ones like Sugarcube Corner and some of the other businesses, before she glanced out at the large castle that was at the edge of the town, where Princess Twilight, the newest alicorn, not counting Flurry Heart, Princess Cadance's daughter, resided. It was a crystalline castle that was unlike anything she had seen before, and she was sure that all of the other ponies in the town thought the same thing whenever they saw it, and there were openings that lead to some of the rooms that were inside the structure, though from what she heard, from Rainbow Dash at one point, there was a table of some kind in the castle that was magical and sent ponies out to restore friendships to the rest of the land. She had no idea if the tales about the table were true, or the magical properties that it supposedly possessed, but she had to admit that it was rather interesting to think about from time to time, before she shook her head and focused on everything else that was around her at the moment, since there were more buildings for her to look at and more ponies for her to talk to. Of course there was one other location she wanted to check out at some point during her visit, the castle that Princesses Celestia and Luna used to live in a thousand years ago, a ruin that Princess Twilight and her friends visited every now and then, so she was a little eager to see what was so special about the old castle, hence the reason that she was heading in the direction of the Everfree Forest, even if it meant walking through town for a few minutes. She figured that it would take her an hour for a round trip, even if she didn't know the exact location of the castle in question, though she would be back in Ponyville in no time and could pick out the next part of the town she wanted to visit as soon as she returned, which was why she was so focused on the task that she had set for herself and nothing else. Once she reached the edge of the town, the one that was the closest to the Everfree Forest, she spread her wings and took off, taking to the skies so she could fly over the forest and not have to deal with all of the creatures that called this part of the world home, as she had heard some interesting rumors about the forest and was able to determine that flying over it was the best course of action she could take. As it turned out none of the creatures that lived in the forest seemed to be up at the moment, and if they were awake they were hiding under the trees or just out of sight, while at the same time Spitfire was sure that she spotted a glimpse of the local zebra that called the forest home, Zecora if what she recalled was correct, but it was hard to see if she was right and not a few moments later she didn't see the same signs that lead her to that thought in the first place. After that she returned her attention to the fact that she was flying above one of the most dangerous locations in the land, even if the forest seemed rather quiet and tame in comparison to what she had heard, and focused on pinpointing the location of the castle that she was looking for, since that was the entire reason she had even come to this place, instead of choosing a location like Manehatten or Canterlot for her day off. What surprised her was the fact that it took her probably ten or fifteen minutes of careful flying to pinpoint the location of the ruined castle, which looked even worse than what she had thought it would, based on what she had heard when Rainbow talked about all the times she and the other heroic mares visited the castle, but that didn't stop her from flying down towards it, only to stop a cave in the gorge that separated the castle from the rest of the forest. Not a few seconds later she landed near the opening and walked into it, mostly because she was interested in seeing what was inside the cave before bothering to check out the castle, as Rainbow Dash certainly never mentioned a cave that happened to be close to the castle, before she found herself staring at a tall crystalline tree, the same shade as the castle back in Ponyville, one that had six important looking gems in its branches... but as she looked at the tree she felt her world start to shift, almost like she was drunk or something, and before she even hit the ground she passed out. Spitfire honestly had no idea how long she had been out, especially since she wasn't expecting to suddenly pass out while she was entering a cave that was below where the ruined castle was resting, though the moment she was able to think like this again she started to feel the rest of her body waking up from whatever had knocked her out, only parts of it felt a little stranger than usual. What came to her next was her ability to smell what was going on around her, where she was able to smell some smoke that came from a fire, one unlike anything she had encountered before to be exact, which made her wonder if the ground in the cave had collapsed and she fell into a pit that was below ground, one that was near a source of constant fire or something similar to it. Her front hooves felt weird, which would make sense if she had fallen through a hole in the ground and had either landed on them badly or they were crushed by some rocks, but after a few moments she found that she could feel more with her hooves than she could in the past, confusing her as she finally forced her eyes open so she could see what the damage was and figure out how he was going to get back to the surface. That was when she discovered that she wasn't underground, like she first thought, rather she was in an entirely different area that looked nothing like the lands that existed in Equestria, or the rest of the world for that matter, making her wonder what in the world happened to her and if there was a way she was even going to be able to get back to the land that she called home, which was when she really focused on what was in front of her. She appeared to be resting on a blackened ground, one that looked like a wildfire of some kind had swept through this entire place and had charred it in some manner, where the sky above her was an eerie green color and seemed to be filled with black clouds, meaning that something had to have happened in the past, before she spotted the fact of the smoke, green flames that were erupting from cracks in the ground, and that was followed by her noticing the vile green lava that was also in the area, like a small lake of the stuff that flowed into a river. "Okay, that's not normal." Spitfire commented, finding that she was able to talk just fine, meaning that nothing was wrong in that department, though at the same time it meant she was regaining more of her bodily functions and that soon she could be able to explore this area and figure out where in the world she was, before she turned her gaze to the more immediate problem that was bothering her, "Now then, let's see what's... wrong with my hooves?" What she discovered was that her hooves, the front ones to be exact, had been changed into a brand new form, as they now reminded her of a minotaur's hands for some reason, due to the fact that she had five odd digits as well, though even as she took that in she realized that her front legs had been turned into the arms of a minotaur and that her body had been twisted in an odd manner. The reason she thought that way was due to the fact that her body was longer than she remembered it being, as she really did look like a minotaur now, only with her natural pony appearance instead of the rest of the minotaur horns and whatnot, while the lower part of her body was still hooved and she still had her tail, though that was when she used her hands to force herself off the ground. Not even a few seconds later Spitfire staggered for a few seconds as that happened, mostly due to the fact that she wasn't used to standing on two legs, something that wasn't natural for the ponies of Equestria, and, as she expected, it took her a few seconds to fall back onto her rear, which was the moment that she discovered that she had a dull grey robe on over her body, and that there were some weird lumps on what she assumed was her altered chest. At the very least her hind legs, which were now just her legs she guessed, were pretty much the same, she could tell that her tail was intact, and her wings were right where they belonged, with neither of them being broken by anything she had encountered recently, so despite all of her changes she felt fine, which was rather weird when she thought about it, before she glanced at the area she was in once more. Instead of trying to walk again, and falling on her rear like she did the first time she tried to stand up, Spitfire sat on the ground and looked out at the area that was around her, taking in the fact that this was nothing like any of the lands she had heard about, and when she looked up at the sky again she could have sworn that she spotted multiple planets or moons resting a decent distance away from this planet, even though they seemed far closer than her home world's moon had been when she looked into the sky during the night. "I'm not in Equestria anymore, that's for sure," Spitfire commented, though at the same time that was a hard truth to accept, that she had entered a cave, purely to see what was inside it, only to be knocked out by some magical force, which was followed by her being teleported to a brand new world and given a modified version of her body to work with, but it just meant she was going to have a hard time figuring out what to do next, to which she sighed for a moment as she took a few seconds to consider the task that was now in front of her, "which means that I need to figure out how to walk, before looking for someone that can help me get back home, though that might take some time since I'm not sure if anyone calls this place home... I would be surprised if there were creatures living in this fiery place." A few moments later she paused as the ground below her shook, making her think that the entire area was going to suffer an earthquake, which was bad since she was just now noticing the rather active looking volcano that was spewing the green lava that she had seen earlier, before something hit the ground near her location, almost like a meteor had struck the area she was in. What she discovered, when she looked in the direction that the sound came from, was an area that was on fire and happened to have a stone hand resting in front of the flames, but as she stared at the limb it pushed whatever it was connected to up off the ground and caused the bits of smoke to disappear in a matter of seconds, only for Spitfire to freeze when she finally realized what was in front of her. Standing there was a tall creature, easily almost twice her new height, that was made up of the same dark grey stone that made up the creature's arm, as the hands had been covered by stone, giving her a false idea of what its hands looked like, and were actually made up of some green type of energy that looked like the eerie green coloration that was in the sky, but just staring at it told her that this couldn't be a natural creature, meaning it was some sort of magical construct. There was the other possibility, as this thing could easily be a demon that had been sent to kill anyone that invaded this area, not that there was anything here for her to take or steal, save for an altar area off in the distance, which didn't have anything on it, but in the end her focus was on the large imposing creature that was standing before her. When the large creature stepped towards her, however, something flew through the air and spun right into the chest of the demonic beast, causing it to stagger for a moment as whatever it was dug into the stone that it was hitting, meaning it must have been created to do something like this, before it seemed to spin backwards and head back to whoever threw it in the first place. It was in that moment that Spitfire discovered a pair of what she had to assume were hairless apes, minus the tail and monkey parts, standing on the edge of the area that she was in and watched as one of them grabbed the weapon, for that was what was flying through the air, with their left arm, though that was when the pair rushed at the beast and ignored her for the next couple of moments. Their weapons, as she discovered, looked like a sword that had a second blade attacked to the end of the handle and was pointing in the opposite direction of the first one, which she had to assume was a double-bladed sword based on that, which happened to have a shield of some kind over the handle so that the wielder wasn't harmed when someone tried to break the weapon in half, or at least those there her thoughts on the matter, while noticing that the blades themselves were curved with the tips pointing near the wielder. She wasn't sure what the weapons were, but it looked like both of the individuals that had come to her aid were using a pair of them and moved like these were natural in their hands, which was bad for the demon as they jumped into the air and started to swing their blades at their foe, clearly ready to fight it to the death. One of the two beings that had come to her aid was more muscular than the other one was, meaning one had to be male and the other female, while the former wore nothing on his chest and the latter had a vest of some kind, though they had similar looking armor pieces and had bandages over their eyes, not that such a thing mattered since they were able to find their foe with ease. The demonic creature stood no chance against their attacks, as it tried to pin one of them into the ground and failed due to both of them dodging out of the way, only for their weapons to cut into its rocky skin like it was made of fabric or something that was really easy to cut through, and it wasn't long before the pair stood victorious over their foe, who had broken down into a pile of rocks as the flames that kept it alive were snuffed out. "It feels good to be on the hunt again, as I was afraid my skills were starting to get rusty." the female creature said, the tone of the voice revealing that Spitfire was right to assume its gender based on the shape of the body, though even as she said that she placed both of her weapons on her back, where they seemed to float just above the back of her vest, another thing Spitfire wasn't sure about and couldn't explain, though she was also turning to glance at her companion, like he was the leader of their little group, "Any signs of the warlocks that summoned that Infernal to this area, or possibly agents of the Legion that might have done the deed?" "No, there's no sign of anyone being here for the last couple of days," the male replied, as he had moved out into the area that Spitfire had been sitting in before the demonic creature, the infernal as they called it, had suddenly appeared and tried to attack her, though it was clear that he was looking for something that may or may not be there, even if Spitfire wasn't what they were looking for, "Whatever disturbance Lord Illidan felt was not the work of warlocks trying to summon more demons into this forsaken world, nor does it look like there were any agents of the Legion here, rather it seemed to be something else entirely... I would wager that the Infernal was sent to engage whatever appeared in this area and we intercepted it before it could even start its mission." "Um, that's good... right?" Spitfire asked, deciding to make herself known to the pair, even though she was sure that they had seen her and had been ignoring her for the sake of whatever protocol they were supposed to follow when they went out on these 'hunts', as the female being put it, though her statement was more of a guess since she had no idea what a warlock was and was totally lost when it came to everything that the pair were talking about, even if it was also in the hope that they would tell her what was going on. "Hardly. It means there's an enemy in this province that we know nothing about and that means they could be spying on our operations as we speak," the female replied, though that was when she and the male paused so they could look at Spitfire for a moment, almost as if there had been a line of dialogue that she had been waiting to hear and never got to due to the fact that someone had spoken before her partner could, but instead of drawing her weapons again, to point them at the other person in the area, Spitfire found that the pair were just staring at her, "though you are definitely the product of whatever happened here, be it a warlock ritual or something else, and that means our Lord will be interested in meeting you, since its not everyday we find someone like you in this world." "...okay..." Spitfire said, though she wasn't even sure what to make of the situation that she had found herself in all of a sudden, because it was clear that the world she was currently on was not her home world, meaning that she must have been transported to an entirely different planet, somehow, and that meant she was going to have to find her way back to her home world, how she had no idea, before she focused on the words that had been said as a thought appeared in her mind not a few seconds later, "So I'm a pony of interest, right?" "A person, to be more exact... even though we aren't sure what you are, exactly." the male answered, though his tone did reveal that Spitfire was right about part of what she said, showing that she did understand what the pair was trying to tell her, in their own way of course, but at the very least it meant that she might have an audience with someone very powerful, if they were going by 'Lord', only for the male to turn his head for a moment, "We should get moving, as there's no telling when the demons and our mysterious foe might attack us again." Spitfire said nothing to that as the pair started to move, heading towards a massive structure off in the distance, one that the flames and smoke must have been hiding from her sight, before sighing as she tried to follow after them, though when she fell the pair sighed and returned to her so they could help her stand, even though she had the feeling that both of them were going to be tired of her presence by the time they reached their destination.