//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Your Friends From Across Time // by EquestrianKnight97 //------------------------------// Something is coming. I do not know what it is, but it threatens the entire existence of Equestria, and maybe even the whole world. I am sending you somewhere that is peaceful, where you will learn to overcome your struggle and understand the powerful endeavor of hope. But you must move past your hardships if you are to save our home. Failing to do so may lead to the end of Equestrian civilization. Please..., fight for all of us. Only then will you be able to return home. RING The basic, earthy smell of dirt near your nostrils greeted you as you woke up from your slumber. As you raised your head up, your blurry vision soon cleared up to reveal more than a dozen trees in front of you. Slowly and weakly, you got up on all four hooves and looked around your environment. Surrounding you were several more dense trees, along with a few bushes on the side. Chirping got your attention, and so you looked up in time to spot six or more birds flying through the air before vanishing into the foliage. With your eyes pointed upward, you saw that the sky was a purple or dark-pinkish color, indicating that sunset had arrived. "What in the world..." was all you could manage as your concerns over your situation came to mind. The forest was unfamiliar to you, though you wondered if maybe you had ended up in a section of the Everfree. After all, the last place you were at was the animal sanctuary after you left school. Perhaps you got bored and decided to head over to the Treehouse you heard about all semester, before you passed out from exhaustion. If you could recall correctly, you probably did not get much sleep last night. "Pretty dangerous to take a nap in the Everfree," you said to yourself. You heard stories of how treacherous the forest was before you were born. But after the Tree of Harmony was brought to life the dangers of this place faded away over time. Still, there was the possible occasion of something lurking in the shadows of the deeper parts of the forest, but you had a bit of confidence in your safety, and some assurance that you were not deep inside. "Well, I best get back before the prefects wonder where I've been." The only thing that was of trouble to you was that you did not know how you would leave the forest. The grass below was too robust and healthy for there to be any hints of hoofprints that you may have left behind. It was a moment like this that made you wish that you had wings. "There's gotta be a way out." For a good while, you turned your body around in a slow circle, searching with squinted eyes for anything useful that the forest could reveal to you. Most of the area was too dimly lit for you to see past their shadows, and so for a while you were faced with much difficulty and confusion. But then you spotted it. At a sixty-degree angle from where your body was initially positioned, there was a window of light between two adjacent trees. The background of the window was either pink or purple, but there was something else within the light. It was a rainbow. It was faint and too far away, but you could make out a single beam of multiple colors shooting up into the sky. On instinct, you walked in the direction of where the rainbow was. You had no clue as to the significance of the rainbow, but given that the Grateful Festival was going on today, perhaps it was set up as a spectacle for everycreature nearby to see. Luckily for you, it would take you back to the school. You moved past a tree or two and headed deep into the woods, anxious to see your bed after what must have been a crazy and busy day for you. But as you took your steps across the grass, an anomaly occurred throughout your body. It spread from the back of your neck and rushed down the rest of your spine with the ferocity of a waterfall --- but not a soothing waterfall. The feeling was akin to having your vertebrae dunked in icy-cold water. The hairs on your neck stood up as you spot something around the corner of your right eye. At first, you dismissed as maybe a small fly or gnat that got on your face, but the shadow itself appeared to grew larger in size, as if it was right behind you. With panic evident in your voice, you let out a shriek as you turned around, but the dread on your face melted away once you saw nothing more than the surrounding trees looking back at you. You scratched the back of your neck, trying to get rid of the uneasiness that seemed to stick to you like honey. Another quick check of the sky above reminded that the day was soon coming to an end, and that you had to get back to the school before you got in trouble for being out late. Your folks back home did not need more of a reason to be peeved with you. So you continued your way throughout the woods, passing over flora and elevated tree roots whenever you had to. Your eyes stayed trained on the rainbow for the most part, though the foilage of low-hanging branches sometimes got in the way. But as you went on, something felt weird in the air. It was not the dreaded experience you went through just before, as that had to do with your body. This sensation was all about how your environment was situated. Walking through the forest, this whole world was just... wrong to you --- or rather different than how it was supposed to be. It was as if you were walking upside down, and the land was not even trying to punish you for defying gravity. The trees, the cloudy sky, and even the little critters who crossed your paths seemed to you like misplaced furniture that would freak out a returning homeowner. You have heard that the Everfree can be a bit haunting at times, especially at night, despite the past dangers now long gone. But this whole time that you have been traveling, you were never afraid of being ambushed by some monster of some sort. The fear inside of you was that of never being able to go back home. But after minutes of walking, you no longer had to worry about the forest engulfing you. In fact, a sense of relief overcame you when the light you were following grew brighter and brighter, promoting you to trot faster. You had made it out of the forest and now stood on what must have been a small hill. The hill overlooked a small field with a dirt road in the center, and tracing the road led your eyes to a small yellow house that must have been half a mile away. And beyond that house was a structure that quite surprised you. It was a tall blue building situated over a cliff, perhaps big enough for you to consider it a tower, but the anatomy of the whole thing was weird. The upper portions of the tower were mostly made out of glass, as evident by the reflected gleam emitted by the setting sun. But even still, that was not a feature that you were focused on. The rainbow, the spectrum of light that you had been following this whole time, was shooting from the very top of that building. With the forest no longer obscuring your view, you could see that the beam was soaring up into the very heavens of space, eventually disappearing into the atmosphere. The quiet spectacle was quite a beautiful sight to witness but seeing it left you with questions that you wanted to be answered. Your tours around Ponvyille have never brought you to any place like the building where the rainbow originated from, and the field where the house and road were seemed misplaced to you --- like they were not meant to be there. Were the two buildings recently built? Did you just happen to end up on the side of the Everfree away from the town? How would you have even gotten to the other side of the Everfree without realizing or remembering it? The relief you had gained after leaving the forest began to dwindle away as the presence of disorientation loomed above your head like a storm cloud. You began to wonder if what was before you was even reality. Perhaps you were suspended in an intense dream, and thus the only way to get out of rid was to ride through the waves until it all ended. But even if this was a dream, you guessed that you could amuse yourself by trying to find a way home. You looked down at the yellow house below, wondering if anycreature would be there to greet you. On the chance that this was not a dream, you thought it best to at least ask for directions back to town, or more precisely to the school. With how the day was about to end, you were now in a huge hurry to get back. "I guess knocking wouldn't hurt," you said. Having followed the cobblestone path, you found yourself approaching the house. It was a small, two-story yellow building with a brown roof and two flowerbeds, one on each side of the path near the windows. The flowers, as you went by them, were a variety of red, purple, blue, and orange colors. It was odd that the autumn weather, and approaching winter season, did not cause them to wilt away, but you chalked up their resistance as a form of magic. Walking up the stairs and heading underneath the portico, you knocked on the green door, waiting for a response of some sort. When the seconds passed by and became a minute, you knocked again, this time a bit louder and harder than before. Still, no response came through. The door held a window for you to look through, but all you could see was a painting of a teapot and two tea cups hanging up on the hallway wall. "Careful, Dahlia! You gave me the wrong one!" The feminine voice caught your ears and you looked around the porch to see where it was coming from. "Oops. Sorry about that. I thought you meant heaven cloud extract, not lemon cloud extract." Another voice, also feminine, made you leave the porch, as this one was much clearer for you to locate. It was somewhere on the other side of the house, and so you made your way around the right flowerbed and to the same side of the house. Eventually, you made it to the back of the house, where you saw a garden filled with a collection of larger flowers, such as sunflowers and hardy hibiscus, all supported by lattices and sticks. But as was obvious to you, you were not alone here. Before you were two earth pony mares standing by a table where several flowers and gardening tools were situated. One mare had a light yellow coat with a large green bow that held her pink mane in a ponytail, and a similar green bow was around her tail. The other mare had a light pink coat and a turquoise mane, and around her neck, you spotted what must have been a crimson or purple scarf. "Um, excuse me?" you called out meekly. The two mares turned around and looked at you with sharp gasps, obviously taken by surprise at your sudden appearance. A bashful side of yourself made you want to retreat back into the woods for interrupting their gardening, but you knew that it was important for you to find your way back to the school, so you moved forward --- eager to converse with them. "I don't mean to be rude, but---" The sight before you made you gulp down on any remaining words you would have said. The yellow mare with the green bows had traded in her shocked expression for an annoyed scowl that seemed to run across your skin like a swarm of fire ants. Despite the regret being plastered clear on your face, it did nothing to stop the mare from trotting at you at a brisk pace. "What are you doing here, kid?!?" she shouted. "Don't you have some homework to do? You better not be trying to play a prank on me with my flowers or anything!" "What? No, I was just---" By now the mare was nearly two feet away from you, her own face shadowing over yours. "I know how you brats love your mean jokes! If I see even one flowerhead hanging by a stem, I'm gonna have a nice chat with you and your parents!" It took everything within you not to completely cower before her. Though the mare was not physically intimidating with her appearance, her demeanor was enough for you to consider how you wanted to deliver your next words. "Posey, please hold on a moment." The other mare had caught up to her yellow companion and placed a hoof over her shoulder. Though the yellow mare backed away a bit, she still regarded your presence with contempt, side-eyeing you like a grumpy, territorial cat. "Let's just let them explain first, then we can check to see if anything happened." The turquoise mare, who you assumed was Dahlia, allowed you a grateful sigh of relief. It was good to know that one of the residents had a cool head --- a fact that even grew a small smile from your face. "Thank you," you said evenly. "My name is [Y/N]. I'm from the School of Friendship. I got lost in the Everfree and ended up here. Do you know the quickest way to Ponyville?" Dahlia raised an eyebrow. "Um, could you say that again?" "I'm from Ponyville. I just want to get back to the School of Friendship before I get in trouble for being out late." The mare looked at you with confusion, as if unsure of how to assess what you just said. Posey, on the otherhoof, retained her annoyance at you. "What the heck is Ponyville? Are you trying to pull our legs?" "I have to agree," Dahlia said. "I never heard of a place called Ponyville before." Your small smile eventually slipped away from you. "What do you mean? How do you not know what Ponyville is?" Dahlia continued. "Is that a new settlement that ponies are flocking to? I know there have been talks about expanding ever since magic returned." "What? No. It's not a new place. It's been around for less than a hundred years. And ponies don't just live there. There's also griffons and hippogriffs and dragons and ---" Posey lifted up a hoof. "Okay, kid, sure. You definitely live with dragons. How about you stop joking around and go back to Maretime Bay before your folks wonder where you are?" "Maretime Bay? Where's that?" By now, both mares seemed concerned over you, as if you were a lost puppy that stumbled to their home in the middle of the night, though Dahlia seemed to be the more passionate out of the two. You could feel something unpleasant beginning to grow. "You... don't know where Maretime Bay is?" Dahlia asked hesitantly. Her words sounded soft as if she regarded you as fragile pottery and thus was afraid of you breaking if she did not speak to you in a guiding manner. The concern she had for you did the opposite of making you comfortable. "No... I've never heard of a place like that anywhere near Ponyville." "Well, you can't be from anywhere else," Posey retorted. "Every earth pony lives in Maretime Bay. You're not a unicorn, so you're not from Bridlewood. And you're definitely not sprouting any wings, so I know for certain that you're not getting up to Zephyr Heights any time soon." Maretime Bay? Bridlewood? Zephyr Heights? "I've never heard of those towns before," you admitted. "And why would the three pony races be living in separate locations? I can understand Zephyr Heights if it's a cloud city, but why would the earth ponies and unicorns have their own areas?" The atmosphere drastically changed as the two mares' eyes widen to the point that their pupils shrank. They both stared at each other to share their discomfort as if you had called them a bad name. The lack of communication worsened your anxiety, causing hindlegs to buckle against each other. "W-what's wrong?" you asked, though the hesitancy in your voice made it seem like you did not want an answer. "Did you get your head hit by a rock or something?" Posey asked. "It's been hundreds of years since all the three pony races were united. I really think you are just trying to pull my leg with this joke of yours." A worried Dahlia shook her head. "I don't know, Posey. I think something's wrong with them. Maybe we should get them to see a doctor. Or maybe Sunny could come and help." "I'm not just going to waste my time helping somepony just because they're pretending to play dumb. How about this, I can..." The mares' conversation became mere background noise as you pondered on that one sentence that Posey mentioned. Like busy bees, the words swarmed around your mind, never giving you a moment's rest. It's been hundreds of years since all the three pony races were united... Hundreds of years... Hundreds... You could not fully explain it to yourself, but you were in some sort of... a trance. A daze. A dream. A sourful wonderland. Whatever it was, or however you could describe it, the reality around you was no longer within your peripherals or on your mind. Left felt like right, the sun was the moon, day was night, and warmth felt like coldness. You floated around space, untethered from gravity and from the earth that shrank as you ascended. The sky above seemed to be a sea that you were about to freefall into and be consumed by the waves. The ground below your hooves felt like a cold slush that you were sinking into, and the claustrophobia got to you as the surface met with your neck. Only the firm grip of a hoof on your shoulder brought you back to the land of the living. "Hey! Are you okay?" Dahlia asked. All you could do was stare at them --- Dahlia with her own anxious concerns and Posey with her neverending irritation at you. But you were not truly staring at them, but past them instead, as if they were nothing more than roadblocks. You did not know what you were looking at, perhaps an invisible mountain or a guardian angel, but whatever it was, you hope it could answer just one question you had. Where am I? "Come on, Dahlia," Posey said. "We're not getting anywhere with them." WIthout any decency to ask for consent, the yellow earth pony jabbed a hoof in your chest. Whether she expected a reaction from you was unclear, but you remained as unbothered as a statue. "Listen, kid. It's been nice and all, but you need to---" A robust roar rang out throughout the air --- its vibrations making their way into your ears and rattling your bones as they went through your body. Whatever dream-state you were in, you were now awakened from it as you watched the dismay painted on the two mares' faces. You turned around and looked in the direction that the mares were staring at. From the hills that you exited from moments ago, a black flock of birds flew out of the trees and headed in your direction. There must have been three or four dozens of the quaint avian creatures, screeching and crying into the sky that darkened as numerous grey clouds appeared out of nowhere and swallowed up the sunset atmosphere. A sudden wind picked up from out of nowhere, starting off small at first as it went throughout the garden and brushed against the potted flowers. But as the seconds went on, the wind grew in strength, toppling over several plants and spilling their contents onto the ground. Even the mares' manes flew back and forth in their face. And then the roar came again, this time much clearer. From what you could pick out amongst the howling air, the roar was not that of a monster, but rather it was the boisterous moan of an approaching thunderstorm in the distance. It made sense to assume that a storm was coming on its way, but something else occurred that dismissed that guess of yours. Numerous woodland critters --- rabbits, foxes, squirrels, and raccoons --- came scurrying out of the forest and raced down the hills, with some even tumbling as they went. "That's it!" Posey yelled, grabbing a nearby flowerpot with one hoof. "I'm bringing my flowers in! Whoever you are, don't touch anything!" The yellow earth pony walked past you and headed over to her house. You paid her no mind, as your eyes remained on the stampede of animals, pondering on just what they were running away from. "Posey, wait!" Dahlia shouted. "We can't just leave them here in this storm!" The other mare groaned, halfway between the garden and the opened door. "If you want to take them into town or to Sunny, go ahead! I gotta make sure my babies don't get blown away and---" A third roar erupted, this time shaking the ground and causing all three of you to fall to the ground. More pots fell and cracked below as huge gusts of winds now swept through the garden, shrieking like banshees. But even with you laying on your stomach, you still kept your focus on the animals leaving the woods. And it was there that you saw it. A shadow, some type of dark, black essence, emerged from the treeline of the hills and swallowed up a swath of the creatures running away like a tidal wave. And like a tidal wave, the shadow raced down the hill, consuming more animals that were unfortunate enough to cross its path. What happened to the animals was unclear to you, as you saw no trace of them amongst the shadow. One thing that was clear, was that the shadow was coming for the house. "Oh my goodness!" Dahlia yelled, with shaky panic in her voice. "Wh-what is that?" When Posey turned around at the sight, she dropped her flowerpot on the ground, shattering it into a collection of broken pottery shards, soil, and several flowers. Her eyes nearly went white. "GET IN THE HOUSE!" the yellow earth pony shrieked as she followed her own instructions. Wasting no time, Dahlia followed suit, running right past you and making it to the door. You would have done the same, but there was a problem. Your body would not allow you to move. Inside your mind were nearly a dozen ways for how you wanted to escape from the shadow, from running inside with the other two, to running back into the woods once you got past the threat. But your body kept your legs glued to the ground and your eyes on the shadow. You did not know what was wrong with you. You wanted to scream, as loud as you could, hoping that doing so would by some miracle deter the essence from pursuing you. But even your lips were sealed shut, as if by zippers. It was almost like your body was trying to warn you that any attempt to escape the shadow would only make things worse for you. But any attempt to fight your self-defense mechanism would be futile by now. It was already too late. In the blink of an eye, the shadowy essence stood before you like a colossus, casting its own darkness over you and the garden. It was as if the sun itself had ceased to exist. With you being so close to it, you could make a full description of the blobby entity. It held neither a face nor head --- no sharp, snarling teeth ready to kill, nor any piercing huge eyes that preyed upon you. The whole essence consisted of a twirling storm of black, shadowy tendrils like an octopus, and a mist of black smoke that emerged from its bottom. You could hardly tell if the thing was even an animal, yet if it was from the deepest part of Everfree Forest, perhaps that was the reason for why you have never heard of such a monster. In that moment of observation, you managed to gain control of your right hindleg. Your nervous system --- in an act spurred on by its fight-or-flight system --- decided that the best course of action was to raise your leg and bring it backwards. Your body must have had plans to move the other appendages, as you could feel sparks ignite in the muscles of your inert legs. But in an instance, those embers of freedom died out. The first to be gripped was your torso, then your right foreleg, and then your left foreleg. Lastly, a final tendril wrapped itself around your neck, nearly cutting off the supply route of oxygen to your body. You gasped for air, all while your body was lifted off the ground by the tendrils. Your hindlegs swung and bucked, trying to reconnect you with the land below. As you stared at the black, empty abyss in front of you, to the side you could hear the muffled voices of the mares you were conversing with. "We have to save them!" "Dahlia --- no! It's too dangerous out there!" A loud groan erupted from the shadowy essence. Its boisterous noise poured down your eardrums like a flood. From the abyss that you were staring at, a small gust of grey wind appeared, but instead of it coming from the abyss, it was heading towards it. You look down in time to see that the wind was coming off your body, and the sight that you saw horrified you. Before your very eyes, the skin of your torso shrank, revealing the outlines of the very bones that made up your ribcage. It was as if your body was malnourished after having gone without food for a month. The sight was enough to get you to start thrashing again, but as you did so, your strength began to decay. It started with your bones, which felt as brittle as chalk and as fragile as glass. Then your muscles began to deflate as if the meat inside of them was just ripped out in huge chunks. Finally, your organs began to fail on you, from your poorly-timed heart beating to the pair of lungs in your chest that suddenly shrank in size. Even out of your eye-sight, other aspects of yourself changed. Your mane and tail became grey and lifeless, with even several lumps of hair falling out of place. And as if time itself was passing throughout your body, the smooth details of your face became wrinkled and prune. You had no fire left within you to fight against the monster. You could not do anything at all. You were helpless and at its complete mercy. As the color in your eyes turned a lifeless, milky white, and your vision left you, thoughts about your life ran throughout your head. Your actions and your regrets. The things you could have done, and the things you never did. Most of all, you thought about the ones you would leave behind. Would they ever know what happened to you? And if they did, would they have thought about how things could have been different? You could not even say that you were scared. Your life was about to be lost, and the aspect of death was never on your mind. All you knew was that you were tired. Tired of living. Tired of fighting. Tired of being hurt. You just wanted things to end. It was as if you had read an entire book from start to finish in one try and now all you wanted to do was rest. A colorful light filled your vision, and you thought that perhaps this was it. The end. But a roar revived your dull senses, and soon you were able able to see clearly again. Before you, the top of the shadow essence was being continuously hit by a bright beam of rainbow lights. The beam shone down on it like a waterfall, tearing through its tendrils and ripping out chunks of its body onto the ground. Slowly, the tendrils that held you in place loosened their grip, until eventually you slipped through and fell to the ground. Any pain you would have felt from the impact was dulled out. Whatever was happening to your body had ceased, as you could feel your health and youth returning to you. But while your body was fine, your mind was maxed out on stress, and that led to you wanting to stay on the ground as sleep began to take hold of you. The robust roaring of the monster shifted into a high-pitched shrieking as the beam continued to pour down on it. Like an injured dog, it shrank and curled away from you and began to race towards the forest, where it eventually disappeared. With the monster gone, nature regain a hold of its senses as the winds and storm clouds evaporated, leaving behind a calm sunset evening once more. With the monster gone, the beam of colorful light left its target and began to retreat. With lidded eyes, you watched as the rainbow retracted itself, and saw that it was heading back to the blue building you saw earlier on. The image of the blue building with the rainbow shooting out of the sky was the last thing you saw before your consciousness went away, finally giving you the slumber you desired.