The Severed Dimension

by StarPrism

Chapter 6 - The Face of Adventure

A sudden explosion followed by an intense wave of heat woke me with a start. I opened my eyes, to see the night sky. To my right, the campfire now a small ember, stood Lorane. In front of her was a small crater in the ground and beyond that, four creatures stood locked in a stare at Lorane. The creatures looked like they were made from sticks and twigs, almost like a forest sprite from Durandel, but they were shaped like wolves. The wooden wolves began to spread apart and I noticed three more came out of the forest edge behind Lorane.

“Lorane there are three behind you!” I cried as I got up. I began to look for my sword out of a force of habit before realizing I didn’t have a weapon. Carefully watching the other three I began to slowly trot in Lorane’s direction. Within moments another three wolves came out from the forest edge in front of Lorane, and we stood together back to back, or in this case flank to flank.

“Edel these creatures have a natural resistance to magic. My spell I cast earlier didn’t set them ablaze, it only knocked them back.”

“That’s great, just what we need. Lorane I want you to run. I will fight them off while you find Regal and get back to Ponyville. Quickly though, without a sword I’m not sure how long I can take them.” I said.

“No. You need my magic. We can think of something.” Lorane protested.

Dammit Regal. Where did you go?

One of the wolves howled as four of them rushed us. Two coming my way, I attempted to jump forward and use my weight as an advantage to strike one with my fore hooves, but I am not nearly as nimble as a pony, and the wolf easily dodged my attack and countered by biting the side of my neck. Pain radiated from my neck, and then from my left foreleg as the other one bit down hard. Hearing explosions from Lorane’s side, I thrashed around trying to shake off the wolves as two others jumped in the fray. I need a weapon! I thought as the one on my foreleg let go as I kicked it. I noticed it went tumbling several paces, and realizing my kicks are very strong; I am a pony after all. I rolled on the ground, forcing the other wolf to release my neck, as the other two were running towards me, in one motion I forced all of my weight on my fore hooves, and kicked the other wolf with all of my strength, knocking it back even farther than the first wolf, hitting a tree with a solid thud, before going motionless.

Another few explosions echoed into the forest as I glanced at Lorane, who was in much better condition than I; she had forced the first two to flee into the forest and three more began to charge at her. I looked back, the third wolf upon me, I went for a sweep with my back left leg. It connected, as well as its teeth on my leg. This one had a lot more strength as the pain caused me to lose balance and fall. The fourth one dove at me, aiming for my exposed neck. This is it. This is how I die. As a pony, being held down by a wooden wolf, as another wooden wolf rips my windpipe open. I closed my eyes, waiting for it to happen, as I heard a swooshing sound, followed by me being hit by the wolf’s full weight, as if it decided to tackle me instead.

I opened my eyes to see the wolf was on top of me, but it was headless! The pain in my back leg was gone, as I looked the other wolf had released me and was looking at two other ponies, as was Lorane. Visible by the campfire and the several embers on the ground from Lorane’s fire, were two pegasi. The one that caught my eye first had an orange-gold coat. I could tell it was female because of her eyelashes, and her lavender eyes bore a furious expression. Her mane was back with streaks of gray. She had an explorer’s hat on, as well as a jacket with many pockets. The second one was a younger looking Pegasus with a sky-blue coat, dark blue mane slicked back, and wings outstretched, with an impressive looking blade in its mouth. I honestly couldn’t tell if it was a male or female at this point.

“Are you two okay?” The orange Pegasus spoke with a forceful voice.

Before we could answer the blue Pegasus began to hit the blade onto a rock making a loud metallic banging noise. The rest of the wolves began to look intimidated and a second later, fled back into the forest. I was shocked and speechless. How could two pegasi just rout an entire pack of those wolves without breaking a sweat while I almost died and Lorane’s magic wasn’t doing much to stop them?

“Thank you so much! You saved us!” Lorane started. “What were those things?”

“Those were Timberwolves. Nasty predators who hunt in packs at night. We were nearby when we heard explosions, so I thought we’d check it out, and we found you two being overwhelmed so we thought we’d lend a hoof.” The orange Pegasus replied.

“Who are you?” I asked, keeping my eye on the blue Pegasus with the weapon.

“The name’s Daring Do. This is my pupil, Strato Sky, and we are adventurers.” She said casually.

“It is nice to meet you.” Strato Sky spoke up. It was a young male, as I guessed.

“Hi. I’m Lorane and this is Edel.” Lorane said as I got up.

Feeling woozy I limped back to the campfire, before being stopped by Daring Do.

“You’re hurt.” She said plainly. “Strato get over here, let’s put your first aid skills to the test.”

Strato Sky trotted to us as Daring Do was rummaging through saddle bags I just noticed were on either side of her, using a wing to hold open the flap. I noticed the mark on her flank, it looked like a green compass with a golden four-way pointer.

“I can’t help but notice how ponies have markings on their, um… flanks. What do they mean?” I asked, as Strato began placing a bandage on my wounds.

“You’ve never been taught about the cutie marks?” Daring asked, looking surprised. “Hm well I guess if you honestly don’t know I could tell you.” Lorane trotted forward, and sat next to me. I guess she wanted to know too. “Everypony has a cutie mark. Well we aren’t born with it, but when we obtain it, it’s usually a unique mark given to us by the grace of Celestia herself, or at least indirectly of course. It usually is a reference to one of three things; a personality trait, a special talent, or a personal interest. Mine represents my special talent; I’m very good at not getting lost. I have my bearings wherever I go.” I looked at my flank in response; it was covered by the armor I was wearing. I was curious what I had, but I had to look later. I looked at Strato Sky’s flank, his mark was a figure of clouds with wings out on either side.

“What does yours mean?” I asked him.

“It represents my ability to fly higher than any other Pegasus. I’ve been past the stratosphere and almost on the edge of the atmosphere of Equestria. Though it was dangerous, I almost suffocated, and I would have if I kept going.” He said, after biting off a piece of the bandage he wrapped around my back leg.

“What are you guys doing out here?” I asked, curious about their ‘adventuring’.

“Why don’t you tell us what you’re doing out here first?” Daring replied.

“Well, we’re heading south. It’s a long story but we need to stay away from other towns.” Lorane said. I gave her a look.

“Fugitives eh? Well I won’t say anything to anypony. We were just waking up from adventuring near the Rumbling Rock Ridge to the east, our next stop is Ponyville just for some supplies, and I guess a book signing. I am rather famous thanks to one of my old companions writing about my adventures, but after that, we need to find a new lead.” Daring answered.

“Well I need to get back to Cloudsdale, my sister is sick and I need to use the bits I’ve gathered from this last tomb raid to buy her some medicine.” Strato added. He looked rather worried and anxious to leave.

“That’s right. Well, Edel, Lorane; maybe we will meet again. Best of luck wherever you’re going!” And they began to fly off.

“Thanks again!” Lorane called after them. I winced as I saw a peek of sunlight bleed through the trees.

“So much for some sleep.” I commented. “We need to find Regal, what happened?”

“Well I woke up, he was talking to himself. Then he told me to take over watch and just flew off in that direction.” She pointed with her hoof, into the forest.

“Let’s go looking for him. Could you leave a message for him in case he comes back?” I asked.

Without answering she closed her eyes and a beam of light emanated from her horn. She began to trace letters into the ground, searing the dirt as she wrote a message that read ‘Regal, we went looking for you. Stay here, we will return by nightfall’. When she finished she looked at me and nodded.

“Let’s go.” I said.

As we left the camp, she extinguished the flames she caused from the battle earlier, but leaving the campfire alone. We galloped through the forest in the direction Lorane pointed earlier when she saw Regal take off. As we galloped she said “Are you sure you’re okay with that leg? That bite looked really nasty.”

The subtle throb of pain in my leg was barely noticeable. “It’s not that bad. I’ve had worse injuries you know that.” I said, remembering the particular incident when I had to traverse a good 2 miles on a broken foot, among other broken bones, while carrying an unconscious Lorane.

“Well my healing magic worked extremely well on Fluttershy, I am guessing ponies heal much faster than humans. So why not let me try it on your legs and neck?”

“Shouldn’t you save your mana energy? We don’t have any potions…” I protested.

“No. Unicorns seem to have an unlimited amount of energy. It’s not mana-based so it’s not as strong or potent, but I can keep casting without resting for a long time.” She said. Without hesitation she shot a beam of white light from her horn hitting my legs, as we were still running. She kept at it for a few seconds until the pain in my legs completely stopped. I also felt that the bite marks on the side of my neck were gone.

“Incredible.” I commented as we kept going, moving out of the way of thickets and trees. Suddenly we found ourselves in a clearing of the forest with ruins of a castle completely visible. “I wonder if Equestria has Golems. Ruins like this would surely draw a lot of them here.” I wondered, looking at the ruins. It was mostly covered in moss and vines from the surrounding forest. Nearby I spotted a rope bridge leading to the main dirt road across a small ravine.

Would he have gone in these ruins by himself? Maybe he took the road… no he flew off he didn’t walk off. The ruins might be our best bet.

“I don’t think he would’ve just gone into some random ruins in the middle of a dense forest.” Lorane said.

I looked at her about to say what I thought until I saw him emerging from the ruins behind her. “Regal!” I cried.

Lorane turned around. “Regal! Why did you fly off like that?” She said as we galloped up to him. I noticed his horn was complete like Lorane’s.

“So you fixed your horn? What was in there?” I asked him.

He merely looked at me for a few seconds before answering “Nothing interesting. I felt something calling me, and I found a statue of a strange creature. I sensed evil from the statue, so I turned to leave, but was ambushed by a swarm of creatures called changelings… It wasn’t too hard to repel them, but when the battle was over I realized my horn was somehow fixed, and now here we are.” Regal said.

“Well that’s great. We have to get far away before Gladius finds us. It’s going to be sooner or later, but when he finds us…” Lorane started before being interrupted by a look from Regal.

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that. Why do you think he healed my broken leg before he sent us here?” Regal asked.

“…I’m not sure. Why do you wonder now? I mean it’s been like three days since we’ve gotten here.” I replied.

“Think about it. Why would he heal me if he meant imprison us here? I don’t think we have much to worry about. In fact I am positive we have nothing to worry about. I think we should head back to Ponyville and see if Twilight can help us. She seemed to be on to something with the different leylines of this world’s unique mana-like flows of energy. If I can somehow learn more I think I might have an idea or two for her to try and open a similar Gate here…” He trailed off.

“Regal? I didn’t think you knew what she was talking about in the library… Why didn’t you speak up earlier?” Lorane said, adding “I didn’t even know what she was talking about half the time.”

“Oh I was just thinking to myself, assessing the situation. But I’m going back to Ponyville.” Regal said flatly.

I thought for a second. I am not sure if it’s a good idea, but he is right. Why would Gladius heal him if he meant for us to die or be imprisoned. Actually he didn’t straight up say we were imprisoned, he only said ‘Something like that’ when we asked about it. “Okay Regal. I don’t want to put any of those ponies in danger but maybe you’re right. Let’s see if we can learn more about these ‘Leylines and energy flows’ from Twilight.” I said.

“It’s decided.” Regal replied. I noticed a strange look on his face, a look of hunger? It was hard to read, as Regal’s face usually is. But it was certainly out of the ordinary.

Suddenly I was aware. I looked around; I was apparently staring at a great rectangle before me. I was still in the ruins; the rectangle had jagged edges of what looked like glass around the inside edges. On the other side of the rectangle I saw the statue of the strange creature. I tried to walk through the rectangle only to hit an invisible wall. I blinked. I can’t remember what happened. How did I get on this side of this thing? The last thing I remembered was looking through this window… Suddenly I remembered.

I turned around, to see an exact copy of the room behind me, only instead of the statue, the creature itself was sitting on a throne in the same spot. It had an amused expression on its face as it smiled at me, as if he were waiting for me to turn around.

“Well, well, well. You must be the ‘Regal’ character that annoying human wouldn’t shut up about.” It spoke. It’s voice was deep and kind of soothing, but amused and serious at the same time.

“Who are you? What are you? What’s going on here?” I asked a little frightened.

“Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Discord, spirit of Chaos, or avatar of Disharmony which ever you prefer. I am a draconequus. And you, my friend -” He vanished for a second before reappearing at my side, making me jump out of surprise “-have been had.”

I looked down and to my surprise I no longer had hooves. I stared at two bare feet, my long blue hair hanging off my head. I noticed there were broken shards of glass on the ground; each shard shimmered with a dark aura.

“What do you mean I’ve been had?” I asked looking up at him.

“This Kael guy had a special bond with your physical body, his spirit followed you around everywhere, whether he wanted to or not, he was pretty much your invisible and weightless ball and chain. However, as soon as you were transported here to Equestria your physical body changed, as well as some of your special attributes. This freed his spirit from your body, but instead of possessing an empty body, he found that he couldn’t. Equestria is full of magic and mystery, including you – you somehow developed your own soul.”

Discord gave it a second to sink in. A soul? So it’s true? I was only a created human, no, monster that didn’t age? An empty vessel only meant for his return? I looked up at Discord, one of his whiskery eyebrows raised as he stared at me with a smile on his face.

“You see, the whole shocker is, you, right here -” he gestured with his lion paw and eagle talon at me as a person, outlining me, “- should not exist. I bet even old Kael doesn’t realize what has happened. Once he took control, you were supposed to inherit his powers and memories but have no control. But instead you are here where he was, and he is out there with your friends.”

“Out there? Wait where are we?”

“Oh this? We are in a kind of limbo right now. My physical body was turned to stone as you saw out there, and you are merely a raw soul without a body. That mirror was the only way out of here, but when he took your body he cast some weird human spell that shattered the thing.” Discord said looking peeved. “He did that probably in spite of me. But he doesn’t know what I’m capable of. Tell me, Regal, would you like to see what they’re up to?”

“Well of course, but if we’re stuck in this room I don’t think it’s possible.”

“Like I said, I am the spirit of Chaos. I can get us out of here in a second, though no one can see us and we can’t interact with anypony.” He snapped two lion claws and there was a bright light, suddenly we were both flying in the air, the sun was up, and I looked down to see Edel, Lorane, and Kael in my body, galloping towards Ponyville. I noticed I had no control over what I was doing. I looked over and saw Discord grinning. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle all the moving.” Whether I wanted to or not, I was going to see what was going on.

We continued to gallop towards Ponyville. It was pretty uneventful until a voice shouted “I found them! They’re coming out of the Everfree Forest!” I looked up to see a bluish-gray Pegasus with a blonde mane overhead who was shouting in the direction we were going. Then a second later Rainbow Dash landed in front of us forcing us to stop.

“Where were you?! I thought I told you to stay at the library! Do you have any idea how worried we were?!” She shouted at as.

“We… we’re sorry!” Lorane started.

“Yeah I guess we overthought our situation and –” Regal began but Rainbow Dash continued.

“I don’t care. And you!” She pointed a hoof at Regal “I trusted you even though you lied to me. I knew you lied about your story, and told you to stay put. That was so… uncool.”

A few other pegasi came down and hovered next to Rainbow Dash, awaiting orders it seemed. She dismissed them and turned back to us, studying us with her magenta eyes.

“We decided it would be in our best interest to help Twilight study the Scrying spell she was talking about.” I said.

“Good. Come on let’s go now.” She said almost immediately after I finished talking.

We trotted at a fast pace to keep up with her as she hovered overhead. “Why were you looking for us?” Regal asked.

“We were worried. We told our friend you were new to Ponyville, so she had this huge party planned, but you three vanished. Fluttershy didn’t know where you were, Twilight loses herself when she starts reading books, so she didn’t even know you left until I asked where you were.” Dash said, trying to hide it but she sounded hurt.

“A party?” Lorane and I said in unison.

“That’s right. Pinkie Pie is the best pony in Ponyville who plans parties, and she always throws a bash when new ponies come to Ponyville.” She said. “No more questions. I’m just going to drop you off at the library and leave. I have more important things to do anyway.” She finished.

I felt bad. Something happened with her and Regal during the flying lesson, but I wasn’t sure what it was. A lie? What did he tell her? I looked at Regal who was simply staring forward as we trotted.

When we finally reached the Library, Rainbow dash left after Twilight welcomed us in. Spike waved casually as we entered and went back to cleaning up books and parchment that littered the ground.

“It’s none of my business really. Whatever you three did last night is between the three of you. Now if you want to help with this…” Twilight said, and opened a large green book.

“Twilight I meant to ask you earlier about the Leylines of this world.” Regal started.

She looked up, with an excited expression and replied “Yes? I’d be happy to answer any question!”

“Quite studious aren’t you? Alright well our world has a different energy flow than what I can feel here. Our energy is called Mana, and has a very distinct feeling. The energy in this world feels a little bit similar but not entirely. I have experience with Leylines of Mana and Pseudo Mana, both are similar in pinpointing energy fluxuations and I once used this to find magical anomalies –”

As Regal continued to talk, I lost interest. He was a mage like Lorane, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I looked around the room, and saw an interesting looking book, a novel and it looked exciting. I picked it up, and to my surprise I saw Daring Do. I then remembered her saying she was making a stop in Ponyville.

“Twilight! Sorry Regal for interrupting, but Twilight, may I borrow this book?” I asked holding up the book with Daring Do on the cover.

“Of course, it’s a good read. I got Rainbow Dash to read it, and she loves it!” Twilight beamed.

“Thank you. I’ll be right back.” I said.

“Edel where are you going?” Lorane asked.

“Shh, just pay attention. They are talking mage stuff, and I’m no mage. I’ll be back okay?” I replied. Out of impulse I stretched my neck out and pecked her on the cheek before trotting outside. As I got about 30 paces from the door I began to blush.

Why the hell did I just kiss her? I looked down; I didn’t get to think much of it when I ran into a pony, dropping my book, and the pony dropped a small sack of apples.

“Oh I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going!” I said as I picked up the apples and placed them in the fallen sack.

“Think nothing of it sugarcube. Ah was on mah’ way to meet mah’ friend at Sugarcube Corner.” She said with an obvious southern accent. Noticing my book she added “Well shoot y’all like Daring Do too? I’m meeting my friend Rainbow Dash and we’re gettin’ her book signed at Sugarcube Corner. Why don’t y’all join us?” She said.

As I placed the last apple in the sack I looked up when she mentioned Rainbow Dash. She was a pretty orange pony, with a blonde mane and tail with a tie at the ends. She wore a cowboy hat and had beautiful green eyes and freckles.

“I-I… I’m Edel.” I stuttered.

“Hello Edel, I’m Applejack. Sorry but, are y’all new around these parts?”

“Y-yes. Umm I would love to join you and Rainbow Dash, miss Applejack.” I said, and put out my hoof with the sack of apples. My heart skipped a beat when she giggled and took the sack with her mouth. She smiled and tilted her head to beckon me to follow.

We trotted to a building that looked like an actual, life-sized gingerbread house with a room that resembled a cupcake at the very top with a small balcony. The sign that hung off the edge of the building had a cupcake on it, and underneath read ‘Sugarcube Corner’. There was a huge line out the door, however I noticed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash already in line near the front. I followed Applejack as we casually bypassed most of the line and went up to Dash and Fluttershy.

“Howdy everypony. This here is Edel.” Applejack said when we got close.

Rainbow Dash looked at me then to Applejack “Oh you two have met. Yeah Edel is the one who disappeared last night with his friends.”

“Well is that so? I reckon that welcome party was supposed to be for y’all. Now that wasn’t very polite tah go and disappear like y’all did.” Applejack’s expression changed to an annoyed look. I looked down in response.

“Now Rainbow, Applejack, I’m sure they have a good reason why they left. And like Twilight said, it’s probably none of our business anyway.” Fluttershy said.

“It’s just; there could be a bad man after us. And the thought of him finding us in Ponyville, he would wreak havoc and I don’t want anything like that to happen here in a place like Ponyville.” I said honestly.

They were quiet for a few seconds.

“If you’re in danger, why not send a letter to princess Celestia? I’m sure she’ll protect you.” Fluttershy said. I remember Spike saying the same thing when he listened in on us talking about this.

“It’s not that simple. I’m pretty sure even Celestia couldn’t stand up to this man…” I said.

“Well then we’ll protect you.” Rainbow Dash spoke. “I mean we’re the Elements of Harmony. We put down a demi-god who could alter reality with a snap of his fingers!”

“I really don’t think anypony here would have a chance, even with those elements I’ve heard about.” I said.

“Why are you so scared of this pony, Edel?” Applejack asked.

“Well for starters he’s not a pony.” I started.

“Wait let’s talk about this later. We’re next!” Rainbow Dash squealed.

I looked and saw the orange-gold Pegasus, Daring Do. Strato was nowhere to be found. She looked up, upon seeing me and she stood up and flew over to us.

“ohmygosh she’s coming to US!” Dash squealed.

“Edel? Is that you?” Daring started before being interrupted by Dash.

“Daring Do! I’m such a huge fan! I’ve read all of your stories! To meet you in person is such an honor!”

“In a moment please.” Daring replied, and then looked at me, noticing my bandages were gone and my wounds closed. “What happened? How did your wounds heal so fast?” She asked.

“My friend used her magic to speed up the process. Thank you for your help back there with those umm things this morning.” I said.

“Timberwolves.” She said. “And I wouldn’t leave a pony like that, being mauled and your friend using magic against those beasts. Timberwolves are pretty much immune to magic.”

“I guess we’ll remember that.” I said, letting out a small laugh. “Oh I’m here for this I guess.” I held out the book.

“A fan already? You didn’t know me when we met earlier.” Daring said, winking at me as she signed the book. “Are you hungry? Tell ya what; I’ll treat you and your friends to lunch if you can just tell me more about yourself. I was curious as to what two ponies were doing alone at night in Timberwolf territory.”

“Um, sure okay. Why not?” I said.

“Everypony, there will be a 40 minute intermission. Signing will resume in 40 minutes!” Daring shouted.

Applejack and Fluttershy were in shock, while Rainbow Dash was excited as she was muttering “Eating lunch with Daring Do!” over and over.