The Lion and the Unicorn

by Feather Book

1. A Rude Awakening

It was hot.

And bright, in fact it was too hot and bright for Twilight’s bedroom in a late winter’s morning. More importantly, the purple unicorn couldn’t feel her sheets or bed. Under her felt like sand, and above the warmth of a summer’s morning sun shone down on her…

Twilight opened her eyes.

She was not at home. Twilight lay on a land of sand and dirt with small shrubs scattered about under the clear blue sky. To her left hills rose out of the ground and to her right the ground rolled down with deep valleys towards a distant sea.

Slowly the unicorn lifted herself upright and took another look around. She blinked repeatedly, rubbed her eyes, and then sat. “I don’t think this is Ponyville.”

“You know for Celestia’s student I would have thought you would say something more imaginative, Twilight Sparkle.”

Said unicorn twisted around in horror at the voice what she never wished to hear again. Before her on the dusty ground sat a familiar draconequus on a deck chair with a cocktail in one hand and a pair of sunglasses in the other. A overlay joyful smile was spread over his face.

“Discord!?” Twilight yelled, startled to see the mismatched being of chaos in the flesh for the second time.

“Yes, I know who I am,” the draconequus chuckled before forming a serious frown, “It’s good to see that you remember my name after you turned me to stone.”

“How did you escape?” said the unicorn calmly.

“That’s none of your concern, Twilight. What you should really be worried about is where you are now.”

“No! I’m not going to play any of your games again. Take me home!”

Discord chuckled, “Now where would the fun be it that?” Twilight remained silent as Discord lent forward until his head nearly touched the unicorn’s, “I could have been harsher after what you and your friends did to me.”

“My friends? Discord, if you have hurt them-“

“They’re fine Twilight; I haven’t hurt a hair on their heads. All I’ve done is simply scatter you.”

“Scatter?” questioned Twilight as she backed away.

“Yes scatter.” Discord disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared with his arm over the frustrated unicorn’s neck. “As you may have guessed, my little purple friend, this isn’t Equestria. In fact this isn’t even the same universe as yours.”

Twilight teleported out of the draconequus’ grasp. “Universe? That’s impossible.”

“It is possible, and you and your friends have been sent to entirely different worlds throughout them all.”

“Them… all…” Twilight collapsed to the dirt as the words sank in. She was alone, on an alien world in a different universe, and her friends, they were lost too. “That’s… that’s not fair! You can’t do that!”

“I can and I have. And I haven’t been unfair to you Twilight, I chose each world. I was planning to send you to another, fairly similar to this one in many ways, but there were complications, so now you’re here!” Discord leant into the unicorn’s ear and whispered, “and I’ve also made sure that there is a way back, for all of you.”

Twilight’s ears picked up with that sentence. “You gave us ways back?”

“Of course! Where would the fun be in seeing you mope around alone in a desert for the rest of you pathetic, and undoubtedly short, life?”

“So where is the way back?”

“Oh, well it’s in a place that you have to find yourself. Good try though.”

“Thanks,” Twilight muttered, it was worth a try.

“Now I’ve got to be going, there are five other elements to see. Good luck, Twilight, it’s a shame that you have to miss all the beautiful chaos I’ll be making.”

“No, Discord, wait!” Twilight cried, but it was too late. The draconequus snapped his fingers and in an explosion of light, vanished, leaving the unicorn alone in the sand.

“Okay,” she sighed. “Okay, Twilight. Everything is fine. You’re just stuck far away from home, on a distant world in a faraway universe with no idea how to get back,” she let out a nervous chuckle, “And Discord has escaped, trapped you here, and your friends, yes, don’t forget them, they are lost too. Probably in worse places than this…” By now Twilight was beginning to hyperventilate.

“No! No, Twilight, keep calm. Don’t panic. Think, Twilight, think. First I need to find out where I am.” Twilight looked around at the barren landscape. The high hills rolled upwards and were littered with dry shrubs and small trees that offered little shade. It was then twilight noticed how hot she was. She wiped the sweat from her forehead before adding, “And I need to get out of this sun.”

Twilight looked out towards the clear blue waters of the sea that stretched from horizon to horizon. She made her decision and began to trot down the gentle hills towards the highly inviting waters.

The journey seemed to drag on and on as Twilight walked into the sunrise. The glowing orb rose higher into the sky and continued to bake the mare. The sun also felt different, despite the heat it also felt colder, it didn’t have the same kind of warmth as Equestria’s. It was another reminder to Twilight that she was a long way from home.

Slowly she made her way down a steep hillside and into greener land around a small river that had carved its way deep though the hills. Trees in the valley were sparse yet their leaves provided adequate shade from the sun.

The river’s water was crystal clear and gleamed in the sun light, irresistible to Twilight’s parched lips. She lowered her head to the riverside and cautiously took a sip. It wasn’t the best water she had, but it was clean and cool, not to mention it was real water. At least Discord hadn’t sent her somewhere uninhabitable.

“Right, first things first Twilight. I need a list.” She looked around and found a large clean rock. She brushed a thin layer of dirt off and with a purple glow of her horn began to etch a plan into its surface.

“One, find out where I am,” she muttered to herself as she inscribed the rock, “Two, find Civilization… No, wait what if I find Civilization before-“

She took a deep breath, and sighed. “Keep calm, don’t over think this, just keep calm. Okay.” She inscribed at the top of the rock the words ‘In no particular order’ and smiled in satisfaction. “Three, find food. And finally four, get back home.”

With her list of immediate needs complete she broke the engraving away from the rock and fancied it to her side with vines. Twilight nodded with a smile and set off downriver in hope of finding anything to tick off her list.

The miles slowly passed and eventually Twilight collapsed in the shade under a tree. She couldn’t be more than half a mile from the sea but her legs, and stomach, refused to continue. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday, breakfast was spent arguing with a god of chaos and walking through a near desert.

“Oh, Spike, please be okay,” she groaned. Her stomach growled; it missed the dragon’s pancakes.

There was little grass, the small shrubs nearby didn’t look at all appetising and the nearby flowers, beautiful as they are, were unknown to Twilight. With a sigh she reduced herself to scavenging of unknown plant life. The flowers weren’t all that bad.

Hoof steps! Twilight’s ears picked up the fast approaching sound of galloping hooves. She wasn’t alone, there was another pony! She leapt to her own hooves and searched for the source of the sounds. “Hello! Is anypony there?”

The she saw the source. It wasn’t a pony but a horse. He was brown with a matching mane. He wore a strange outfit consisting of a brown saddle attached to straps that wrapped around his body and muzzle with bronze plates at the joints. A green and red cloth hung along his back under the saddle.

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked.

The horse quickly mumbled to itself in a strange language as he galloped past and leaped over a rock before disappearing thought the short trees. Twilight watched him go and sighed in annoyance.

“Hu? I wonder why he was in such a hurry.” Twilight didn’t have long to wait for an answer.

A loud neigh came from behind. Twilight turned to see two more horses charging thought the trees. They wore full white gowns over chainmail. But that wasn’t what startled her the most. On their backs sat strange beings wearing similar cloths to the horses.

Twilight dove to the side as the horses thundered past, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.

“What were those?” She gasped. Another horse galloped past with another strange rider. This one however looked less steady than the others, it wobbled on the saddle and its cries of “No, no, wait!” made her sure of this.

His mount leaped over a rock only for the riding creature to fall with a cry and land on the ground with a clang and a thud.

Twilight sat under the tree fixated on the unmoving creature. Slowly once she was sure that nothing else was coming she crept forwarded. The creature’s appearance reminded her of a monkey. It had two arms and two legs with hands and feet, it lacked a tail. It wore a mettle cap over a dull blond mane. It had a tanned face with a nose, mouth and two closed eyes. She leant towards its face and listened to the creature breathing. She still wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or not. The rest of its body was covered in chainmail with a white tunic over the top. On the tunic was-

“No, no it can’t be!” Twilight fell back in surprise at the sight of a highly familiar symbol. An eight pointed sum was stitched to his chest. “No, it must just be a coincidence. Lots of ponies have similar cutie marks. It’s not the same as Celestia’s, the points are straight after all.” She laughed off the thought.

She continued to observe the creature. It had a dusty cloak around its back and at its side a sword hung in a plane sheath.

Twilight hadn’t seen any creature like it before. She quickly recalled all as many books as she could, form the Atlas of Amazing Animals to Zebrica: A land of the Bizarre, none of them made reference to anything that looked like this.

The creature groaned. Its eyes opened and Twilight found herself looking into the dazed small orbs. There was a moment of silence as they both looked at each over unsure of what to do next.

Then screaming began.