“Sky? Sky wake up!” Sky heard her sister Sprinkle calling out. She groggily opened her eyes, and saw Sprinkle standing over her with a worried expression on her face.
“Ugh….what happened?” Sky asked. The last thing she remembered was being sucked into something in Aunt Night-Mare’s lab, before everything went black.
“I don’t know…but I don’t think we’re in Detrot anymore.” Sprinkle responded.
Sky looked around, her eyes snapping open when she realized something wasn’t right. She scrambled to her hooves and looked around frantically. “W-where are we?” She asked. “And…where’s everypony else? Mom? Mommy—!” She called out.
Sprinkle stopped Sky from calling out and shushed her. “I already looked around. I can’t find the others. I…I think we’re all alone.” She revealed.
She took her hoof off Sky’s mouth and Sky raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean you can’t find the others? Have you tried the mental link?!“ Sky asked frantically.
“I did.” Sprinkle responded, her ears flopped down. “But I could only feel that Mom, Pedal, and Mystic are there. I can’t determine where any of them are, something’s interfering with the mental link. And that’s only three of our group. I can’t even begin to figure out if the others are alright.” She explained.
Sky gulped. “So, we’re lost? And alone?” She asked.
“Yeah.” Sprinkle said.
Sky looked around frantically. Everywhere she looked, she could only see a couple of familiar things. Like a dumpster, food trash, things like that. Without knowing what else to do, Sky spread her wings. “I’m gonna to take a look.”
She tried to take off, but Sprinkle stopped her. “You were out for a bit. I already took a look around. And I don’t think we should let anypony see us.” She said.
“Why?” Sky asked.
Sprinkle pulled Sky through an alleyway and gestured for her to look out of it. Sky did so, and what she saw made her jaw drop.
She and Sprinkle were standing in what was clearly a city, but it was unlike ANYTHING she had ever seen before. She first thought it was Manehatten they were standing in, because of all the big animated billboards, but the architecture was not Manehattan architecture. Everything was pretty much gold or some other shiny color. Sky saw a shadow race past and she looked up. She saw Pegasi flying around, a lot of them. That’s when she finally noticed something. These Pegasi looked different from Pegasi like Rainbow and Fluttershy. She looked back at Sprinkle, and finally noticed that SHE looked different.
“S-Sprinkle?” Sky asked. “Why do you look different?”
“Yeah. I know. You look different too. Look at your hooves.” Sprinkle said.
Sky looked at her hooves, and she could see that the fur of her hooves had disappeared. Sky gulped and started freaking out. “What is this place? Is it even Equestria?” She asked.
Sprinkle shrugged. “I don’t know.” She said.
Sky sank to a sitting position, wrapped herself in her wings, and shivered. “Are we going to be OK?” She asked. Terrified about this whole situation.
Sprinkle immediately hugged her sister. “Don’t worry. We’ll be ok. We just need to stick together, and try to keep a low profile while we figure out what’s going on.” She said.
“How do we do that?” Sky asked. “The only thing we have to go on is a magic black hole that sucked us in.”
“If this is a city, I’m sure there’s a map somewhere that can tell us where we are at least.” Sprinkle responded. “From there we’ll work something out.”
“We’re gonna look for them right?” Sky asked, referring to their family.
“Of course we are!” Sprinkle responded. “I know at least some of them are alive. I would’ve felt it if they were…no longer with us.” She said. “As long as my mental link remains, there’s a chance.”
Sky smiled and nodded. “Alright. Then what do we do first?” She asked.
“We find a map.” Sprinkle responded as they ran off into the alleyway.
Elsewhere, Crystal and Mystic were looking around. They had just woken up after being knocked out and found themselves in a strange forest. Mystic gulped. “Where did that…thing dump us?” She asked.
“My first thought is the Everfree forest…but we woulda run into one of it’s resident monsters by now.” Crystal responded. “Are you sure you can’t pinpoint where mom, Pedal and Sprinkle are?” She asked.
“Something’s interfering with the mental link, I can only confirm that they’re alive.” Mystic responded.
Crystal let out a sigh. They had woken up to being all alone in this forest. After calming down from the panic, they had decided to get moving, not wanting to encounter any monsters. Crystal looked down at her hoof again, she and Mystic noticed right away that their bodies changed a little. “Whatever that thing was that sucked us in, it must’ve split us up and…maybe adapted our bodies to the ponies that live here?” She mused.
“And now we’re lost, no resources, no supplies…and no family…” Mystic pointed out. “Are you sure you can’t fly up to get a good look at where we are?” She asked Crystal.
“Not a good idea. I don’t know what I’ll find up there, and that would leave you alone. And that’s definitely out of the question right now.” Crystal responded. “The best thing to do is to keep on walking, and hope that we either find civilization, or someplace to rest.”
“And maybe some food.” Mystic added.
“Yeah. That too.” Crystal responded.
“…Hey Crystal? What if we don’t find the others?” Mystic asked. “What if we’re lost forever?”
“Nope, do not think thoughts like that. We WILL find a way out of here, we WILL find the others. And someway, somehow, we WILL find a way home.” Crystal said. “No ifs ands or buts about it.”
Mystic smiled and hugged Crystal. “Ok. I trust you.” She said.
Crystal hugged Mystic back and smiled. She was putting on a brave face for her sister, but she was actually just as terrified as Mystic probably was. They were dumped in the middle of a who-knows-how-big forest with no resources, supplies, and as far as they knew, only Pedal, Sprinkle, and their mother were still alive. But Crystal knew that if they were going to have a chance, they needed to stay strong.
After the hug, Mystic and Crystal kept walking. They stayed vigilant, always on alert. After some time walking, they spotted something in the distance. “Look! Over there!”
Mystic and Crystal trotted closer, and they saw that it was a cottage. “Looks like we may have found that civilization.” Mystic said.
“Did we?” Asked Crystal. “Zecora lives in the Everfree Forest, but that does NOT look like her hut.”
With caution, they approached the cottage. They were half expecting somepony to yell at them, but no such event happened. Instead, they saw a note on the door of the cottage.
“To whoever finds this note,
Feel free to stay a night or two here. I don’t need this cottage anymore, but you might. There’s still plenty of food around and lots of things to do.
Cheers. :)
Izzy Moonbow.”
Crystal and Mystic glanced at each other after reading the note. “…Does something seem off to you?” Mystic asked.
“Somepony used to live here and now this…Izzy Moonbow says their old cottage is free to use…on one hoof this is raising a lot of red flags.” Crystal said. “But on the other hoof, we really do need it.” She added.
Mystic and Crystal proceeded to push the door open, thankfully it wasn’t locked, and went inside. Mystic had a sick feeling in her stomach. “I don’t feel right about this.” She commented. She knew Crystal was probably thinking the same thing she was.
“Me neither.” Crystal said. “But considering our options, we really don’t have a choice but to take Izzy up on their apparent offer.”
Mystic nodded. “Yeah.” She agreed.
At that moment, Crystal’s and Mystic’s horns lit up unexpectedly and something phased into existence in front of them. They jumped when the things landed on the floor. “Eep, what just happened?!” Mystic asked, freaked out.
Crystal took a look, and discovered that it was just tree bark. “It’s…two pieces of tree bark?” She said, confused.
Curious now, Mystic looked at one of the tree barks and flipped it over. What she saw on the back made her eyes widen. “There’s writing on this one!”
Crystal took the other bark and flipped it over, seeing the same writing. “This one too.”
They read the messages, and as they read, their smiles grew and their hope was boosted exponentially. After reading, they couldn’t help but hug each other in joy. “Thank the stars!” They exclaimed in unison.
“They’re alive!”
To be continued…