The Beckoning
Chapter 1
Throw Wide the Gates
Lavender Gardens, a Viera Summoner, struck a victory pose, getting out a quill and opening her Meteorologica to a blank page, then kneeling down as she quickly drew a figure of the leylines she could feel flowing through the now calm battlefield, finally nodding to herself and standing back up as the rest of her adventuring party finished their victory poses as well. "Thank you all for the help." Lavender said to her adventuring companions, turning around and taking off her mask to give them a wide smile, her tall ears twitching.
"Don't mention it, Lav. Let me know if you need any more help." Porchy Smith, her Miqo'te friend said, smiling as he leaned on his White Mage cane. Lavender nodded back at him, then noticed something going on behind her. Through the windows of Eden, she could see the landscape of The First changing once again. They had just finished pouring the final pseudo-element, Darkness, into Eden's systems and destroying the resulting Primal, and now Eden was once again flooding the chosen element across the devastation left behind by the Flood of Light.
Lavender and the other Warriors Of Light headed for the battlefield's exit, making sure to cast their lots for the treasure the Darkness Primal had dropped and passing around their Commendation Coins to members of the party that had been especially helpful. (Lavender in particular earned nearly half of the coins, as there had been a point in the battle where only she and the Paladin were conscious, and she had cast a Swiftcasted Ressurrection spell on Porchy, who had broken his limits in order to Raise the others and heal the party fully in an instant.) After all this was done, Lavender touched the aetheric disturbance that would teleport her out of Eden.
She watched as, finally, shadows flowed across what was once a Flood Of Light as far as the eye could see, but, thanks to the work they'd done in Eden, was now a natural landscape incorporating all of the elements and pseudo-elements. A smile formed on her face as Y'shtola and Thancred congratulated Ryne on her advice with using the ancient device to restore the aether of The First to its proper balance.
"Thus, I suppose, our work here on The First is concluded for now. Let us return posthaste to the Crystarium and see whether the Exarch has found a way to return us to The Source. Our presence there will perhaps have been sorely missed, I fear." Urianger said once they made it back to the temporary camp they had set up near the boundaries of what had once been the Flood of Light.
The Crystal Exarch, G'raha Tia, had invited Lavender alone into his chamber. "I suppose it's done then." he said, giving her a sad smile. "Even now, I can feel the will of Time itself closing around me, attempting to put right that which does not belong. Before that happens, though, I would have one last conversation with you, my friend. I hope that you can forgive me for yanking you away from everything you knew."
"Of course, G'raha Tia. Whatever happens, we'll always be friends." Lavender assured him. "Besides, the circumstances definitely warranted summoning the Scions here. A little bit of warning would have been nice, though." Lavender joked, smiling.
"Sadly, Lavender, I don't know if there's a way of relaying that message to my alternate past self. Our time together grows ever shorter, so I wish you luck on all your future endeavors, Warrior of Light and Darkness. Nay, perhaps that is too long. How about... Warrior of Balance?" G'raha Tia said, and Lavender gave him one of her signature nods. "So long, friend. Until our paths cross once again, may you walk in the light of the Crystal." he said as he began to fade away. Tears formed in Lavender's eyes as she watched her friend cease to exist. It didn't matter that he was still locked in the Crystal Tower on The Source, she was watching this version of him vanish from the world. As he disappeared, his summoning spells ended, and Lavender could feel herself being pulled back to The Source. She rushed for the door to the room where the Scions were waiting.
"He's gone, isn't he?" Y'shtola asked. At Lavender's sad nod, she continued. "I can feel the pull of The Source. Get ready, everyone. We're going home." Lavender braced herself for another trip through the rift between worlds.
"Hear. Feel. Think."
Lavender could hear the call of the Mothercrystal once again as she travelled through the rift between worlds, guiding her home to The Source. But as she drew closer, another call sounded from another direction.
"A hero of great strength is required! Throw wide the gates!" the unfamiliar voice cried, and Lavender could feel herself being yanked off course. She struggled against this new pull, but it was no use. Try as she might, she could not escape the pull of the new voice. Once again, the Summoner had become the Summoned.
Twilight's horn flared as she cast the spell she had found in one of the journals of Star Swirl the Bearded. A summoning circle with a six-pointed star had appeared on the floor in front of her, colored magenta with her magic. The circle grew brighter, drawing more magic from the Princess of Friendship as it continued. Finally, the circle exploded with magical force, throwing Twilight backwards into one of her bookshelves, books raining down on her from above and burying her in a pile of encyclopedias and magical indexes.
Lavender groaned as she finally felt herself anchored to a world. The trip through the rift between worlds had disoriented her, especially since she had been yanked free of the pull of Hydaelyn by whoever had summoned her here. She quickly examined herself, ticking off a mental checklist. Apparently, this world had decided to give her a physical form just like The First had, even though she was still just a soul that had been pulled from its body, which was likely still unconscious on The Source. Two eyes, two tall, rabbit-like ears, two arms, two legs, two hands, two feet, two breasts. Even her metallic purple Scaevan armor and her grimoire were still intact.
Everything was still in order, thank The Twelve. With that done, Lavender began examining her surroundings. The floor she was kneeling on was made of some sort of crystal, as were the walls and ceiling. She almost felt as if she were back in the Crystal Tower, if the feel of this world weren't so vastly different. She closed her right eye, looking solely through the aetheric lens over her left one to confirm her feelings.
Indeed, there was definitely a different type of aether here, one more active and tied to an entirely new set of elements. The most prominent of these elements was colored a magenta hue, and it was everywhere in this room, covering every surface, as if a can of magenta paint had exploded, coating every surface. Well, she had just been summoned here, perhaps the magenta element had been used in the spell. Some summonings, she knew from experience, could be rather explosive. Having confirmed the unfamiliar elements of this world, she opened her right eye once again. Her attention was suddenly drawn to a pile of books, which seemed to be radiating the selfsame magenta magicks. The pile shifted before a strange purple head burst from the top.
Lavender couldn't stop herself from screaming in surprise, and the purple head screamed back at her. "What in the Seven Hells are you?" Lavender exclaimed, reaching for her grimoire, and the thing hopped free of the pile of books. Now that she could see it properly, it almost looked like a small horse with a horn sprouting from her forehead and a pair of wings on its back. "A pegacorn?" she asked, confused. After all, most pegasi and unicorns in Eorzea didn't scream, they neighed or whinnied like their horse counterparts. Then again, she probably wasn't on Eorzea or one of its reflections anymore.
The small horse thing cleared its throat and spoke in a clearly feminine voice. "We prefer the term 'Alicorn.' I'm Twilight Sparkle. What's your name?" she asked.
Lavender had learned a lot about the world she was on. It was called Eqqus, and the country she was in was called Equestria, a land populated by ponies like Twilight, of which there were four subraces, Earth Ponies, who were almost like standard horses in appearance, Pegasi, who had wings, Unicorns, who had horns, and Alicorns, who had both. According to Twilight, there were only a handful of Alicorns in all of Equestria, and they were all extremely powerful. Speaking of power...
"I believe I was summoned here by a voice calling out for a 'hero of great strength.' Do you know anything about that?" Lavender asked, tilting her head a bit.
Twilight nodded. "Ah, yes, Star Swirl's Benevolent Beckoning spell. That was me, and we are in need of a hero. You see, an ancient evil being has appeared, who, according to legend, only absorbs this world's magicks, so I figured summoning a hero from another world, who uses a different type of magic, might counter his absorption abilities." she said.
"Yeah, I'd noticed this world's difference in aether from my own." Lavender said, her aetheric lens glowing once again as she took another look through it. "What sort of elements hold power over this world? I don't recognize any of them, aside from the astral and umbral pseudo-elements."
"Why, the Elements of Harmony, of course. Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic, or Friendship if you prefer. Honestly, they're interchangeable. I should know, as both the Princess of Friendship and the bearer of the Element of Magic. So do you have much experience defeating ancient evils?" Twilight asked.
"Forgive me if I begin to boast, but you speak to a Warrior of Balance, slayer of both Primals and Lightwardens, the primary enemy of the Ascians, some of the most ancient evils in the history of Hydaelyn. I was specifically chosen by the Mothercrystal Herself to be a force of good in the world. I have helped to eliminate so many aetherical disturbances, I have begun to lose count of them." Lavender replied.
"Well, then, I only understood about half of that, but allow me to get you up to speed with our current foe. 'Know your enemy' and all that." Twilight said, using her telekinesis to float over some books from the pile she had been buried under, a smile on her face.