Out of my Element

by TheLostwriter

As the Pendulum Stops

The blue energy vortex dispersed and I found myself standing beside the crater left by the sensor buoy. The wind was still but a high pitched squealing made me wince. The copy of Jack that was loaded in the suit quickly silenced it but my skull still felt the resonance.

"What was that," I asked while working my jaw trying to pop my ears.

"I assume it's the creature attacking the dimensional wall. The noise itself is about a hundred and sixty decibels and extends well beyond the range of, human, pony, or dog," replied Jack.

"What are my options to prepare," I asked both the suit and the other me in my mind.

"First strike with missiles would be a valid option to start with," was Jack's suggestion and the voice agreed.

So I began to lift loose objects and transmogrify them into missiles. "Jack," I asked, "do you have some music on that little box you're riding in?"

"Yeah."

"If you have anything that would be good fighting music do it," I replied. As the music started warning alarms began to sound. I looked towards the center of the crater and up to see a hole in the air start to appear. I saw what looked to be two hands with too many snake like fingers grasping opposite sides. I loosed all the missiles I had made towards the hands. They struck blasting the fingers apart and off of the hole which shrunk down to almost nothing.

I noticed two things at this point one I had stopped breathing and two the song that was playing. "You decide to Rick Roll me now of all time," I shouted.

"Sorry," replied Jack.

"Do you have anything that I wouldn't mind dying to," I asked.

"How about this."  

I smiled as I heard the opening chord to The Touch, and said, "tell all are one."

"If we're going to die let's die in style," replied Jack.

I'm against the dying part, the voice in my head chimed in.

"I think we all are," I muttered as I looked up to see the hole once again growing. This time its size was increasing much faster. Through the hole I could see what looked like a cross between Chuthulu, Hedorah and a nightmare. It's eyes, the number uncountable due to volume and the fact that they seemed to move constantly, looked in all directions.

The beast pushed on the hole bringing its face through and the suit's HUD began to fuzz up as I applied more missiles causing the creature to fall back. "What was that," I asked as I pulled up a stone wall that surrounded the hole as close as I could manage it.

"Some sort of data corruption issue, probably occurred when I was copied onto the hard drive," he replied.

"Right," I answered as I once again began to morph debris into missiles and began to regret not adding the heavy weapon systems. The third crystal was almost empty by this point meaning I was down a quarter of my capacity and while I had slowed the monster but I needed the Elements to arrive soon.    

I looked up at stone wall when I heard something start to shift and saw it start to crumble and readied the missiles. Then asked, “Jack where are the elements, they should be here by now?"

"They should be let me try to contact the lab," he replied and after a moment I heard, "I can't get through on the radio, maybe the tear is causing interference. If that's true then it's possible that the transporter can't get a lock and they will have to walk further."

"So the plan is still hold until relieved," I replied with a smirk. I was starting to feel giddy, whether from morbid excitement of just the rush of Adrenalin I didn't know.

As soon as part of the stone wall fell I knew I had made a mistake. The wall had blocked my view as well and now the tear was large enough to allow the beast to walk through. I released half the missiles at the creature’s torso and they traveled true but as soon as they passed through the tear they began to dissipate. The aluminum shells began to melt and soon the missiles exploded.  

One arm reached forward through the rift and I sent the remaining missiles at it. The bounced and twisted with the explosions releasing gouts of black blood that eventually led to flowing streams of the liquid. Any shrubs or trees in the affected area erupted into black flame and massive boils grew from the ground.

"Shit," I cursed eying the blood and knowing what that meant. The arm hadn't fallen off like in the dream and the creature was starting to step through. More missiles were my only choice. I pulled as much materials lose from the ground as I could manage began transforming them. As soon as they were ready I would let them fly but this only cause more rivers of black blood to flow from the beast resulting in more boils and more black flame. I was down another two crystals down and had nothing to show for it.

I needed something that would push the monster back, something powerful unstoppable. Then once I pushed the creature back out I needed to figure out how to keep it that way. Missiles didn't work I doubted anything would work. We came here and we came in the car, it survived the void. said the voice in my head.

You think I need to go through to keep things together, I asked in reply.

The voices answer was cut off by Jack say, "I don't think the missiles are working."

"Just decided on that myself, and I think we will need to go through the tear to with whatever we send. Otherwise it will just melt like the last salvo," I said before thinking, what can push this? It would need to be huge and have significant horsepower. Even the biggest bulldozer in the world wouldn't work; the monster would just step over it. The thing was the size of a ship but nothing I could think of was large enough to push back. A battleship or other large navy vessel had nothing to push against and all land vehicles were too small. Then it hit me the pinnacle of human technology, based off of machines of war turned to exploration.

"Jack how much knowledge did you bring through with you," I asked the suit while simultaneously asking the other me, The magic draining spell, do you remember much of it, I can only manage about half.

"Quite a bit actually, why," returned the suit Jack.

"You have the blueprints for the STS," I asked as I began to be berated by the voice in my head.

You can't be serious, last time you used this spell it killed you, shouted the voice in my head.

That was in a dream and anyway I'm not going to power the crystals with it, I replied.

"The Space Shuttle, you don't have the power to do that," replied the suit as for a second time the view screen began to fuzz like a CRT monitor to close to a magnet. "Sorry still working on that corrupted sector."  

I glanced around and saw uglys bursting forth from there birthing blisters. The creatures stood stretched their wings and took flight to the west away from any major town. That was good for me as I had no time to deal with them and I turned my attention back towards the problem at hand. "Let me handle the power issues, you just keep the suit running and throw the schematics up if you have them," I replied my voice showing the mix of aggravation and concern I was feeling.

"Alright, yes I do have the schematics pulling them up now. Side note, this corruption issue is starting to grow so I don't know how long I'll be around to help." The screen fuzzed and the schematics appeared as a transparent overlay on the rest of the screen.    

I looked up at the tear and saw the creature pushing its way in and I knew what I had to do. I began to weave as much of the magic drain spell as I could from memory, it flowed more from the memory of the dream than my knowledge. You don't know what you are doing, I haven't told you yet, said the voice in my head in a slightly panicked manner.

Then help, I'm not stopping, I replied. The voice didn't say anything else in return but all the required knowledge flowed into me. I used that information to reinforce what I had started. The plant life around me began to wither die and turn to a fine dust as did the stones. The earth below me dried, fell apart and collapsed into silt. The affected area around me began to grow and I moved that dust up into a mound. The forward part of that mound began to form into the shape of the external fuel tank and the two solid rocket boosters.

"How are you doing this? What spell are you using? I've never seen it before," asked the suit.

"Busy right now I'll tell you later," I replied as the dust began to morph solid, the atomic structures of the silicon in the dust began to shift into steel and aluminum. As I needed more material and power the Everfree began to dissolve, and soon the Orbiter began to take form over its fuel tank.

The beast began to pull its upper body through hole I opened the wings on the suit and flew over to the now forming nose of the orbiter. Somehow as the creature began to step out of the dimensional tear I knew the shuttle was finished. I continued to use the pile of silt to support the craft even after I ignited the engines. The suit did it's best to silenced the roar of over twenty four thousand pounds of thrust pouring out high temperature water vapor, but I did hear the roar and I felt the vibrations. The suits screen fuzzed and dimmed some more as things full torso exited the tear.

"Steel, I'm not going to be able to help anymore that data corruption is turning into a cascade failure," announced Jack. I could barely hear him above the rocket noise.

"Focus on what you can," I shouted not sure he could hear me over the noise.

The shuttle slid forward on the silt and the fuel tank made contact with the things belly. The metal of the tank began to collapse and I began to reinforce it with magical energy, this caused the tank to pierce the creatures flesh. I pulled more silt up and molded it around the tank to form a large blade to push the creature back. Through some connection, I knew that the shuttle had been lifted from the silt rest that had held it and it was being pushed back. I looked back and saw an additional set of arms holding the shuttle up by the wings.

Nothing was working, I needed more thrust. I needed more, a smile spread across her face when I realized the answer. I drew on more magic from the world around me and wove silt towards me. I then began grafting on a second set of booster rockets and this cause the backwards movement to slow. More energy was needed so I drew even more magical energy, the suits systems began to scream about dangers overloads. The crystals were acting like a siphon pulling more and more power from the environment.  

What are you doing? asked the voice in my head, Even not pouring the power into the crystals just using that spell is overloading the crystals.

I'm fixing my mess, if you want to help, help if not stay out of the way. We're going outside the dimension we might even make it home, I answered.

You're in a metal pony suit, what happened to the cloths you had on when you showed up, that's right you were still wearing them right? That will be a fun contortionist act bending your knees back backward.

I get the idea let's just take care of the problem and like I said help if you want to, I replied before announcing, "Jack if you're still functional if you can do anything to help use up the excess power."  

I continued to add more and more boosters and eventually I began to push the creature back. My world had become the creature, the portal, the shuttle and myself, everything else was now obscured by massive amounts of water vapor from the rocket exhaust.      

With each heartbeat the shuttle crept forward pushing the creature back. I passed through the tear and the parts of the shuttle that stayed beyond my vision began to weaken, I wasn't sure how I knew it but I did.  The shuttle bucked as the external fuel tank failed, folded, and threw me forward. I lost my footing and tumbled forward into the creature with the massive explosion throwing both me and the beast away from the tear.

Twilight ran with her friends under a protective dome, it canceled out the noises, suppressed the heat, and protected them from whatever the white mist was in the air. She assumed the glowing orange in the distance was the source. The six of them ran towards the field that Steel had first appeared in. They had slowed when they saw the large shadows of a group of uglys passing to the west. Once they were out of sight the six element bearers and the foci they carried charged onward.

"Hey Twilight," called the raspy voice of Rainbow Dash as she asked, "shouldn't we be there by now?"

"Not yet, we haven't reached the edge of the Everfree yet even with this mist we should see some trees," replied Applejack.

"Um, we should be in the Everfree by now," commented Fluttershy.

"Well then where is," Rarity's question was cut off by shouts, hers and her friends as they all fell down into a silt filled pit.

Twilight would have just teleported down but she knew that without her shield the others would be cooked alive from the superheated moisture in the air.

Looking up from the ground Fluttershy could see the fire like glowing was much closer and it felt like Twilight's shield was doing nothing against the heat and noise. However she knew that without it everything would be significantly worse.

As the group stood back up Pinkie began to speak to no one, "Depending on what happens, to you folks out there sayonara."

"Pinkie," Rainbow said her name as a question.

"If Jack is right and not loco in coco then things, ponies, people, and things unknown watch us and I wanted to say good bye," replied the pink earth pony.

"Right, anyway we need to move, we're almost there," added Twilight as she began to trudge through the hoof deep silt. The five others followed leaving six sets of tracks sliding through the fine dust that now covered the ground. As they neared the source of the flames the silt deepened, eventually reaching chest height causing the group to move slower. Each step a fight unto itself and the trek a war against friction and gravity.

They came to a stop when the battle came into view, above them by about eighty feet and sixty above where the land used to be was a flame spouting metal creation pushing its way through the tear. They all looked around for Steel but the eight rockets attached to the craft's sides gave off enough light to be blinding.

"Get ready girls when that thing goes though we fire," shouted Twilight, the noise of the rockets piercing her spell. She reached out with her mind just like she always had, searching for her friends and found them. Unlike all the other times she suddenly felt them closer than ever before. The connection became more than it ever had been before, if there was a word beyond intimate she would use that. Through the connection she felt everything and she knew her friends felt the same connections with her and each other.

Whole conversations passed between them almost instantly, true feelings, and nothing could be hidden. They all remembered what this thing had done to them. What it had brought out of them the parts that they hid, Fluttershy's wraith, Rarity's envy, Applejack's pride, Twilight's greed, Pinkie's gluttony, and the sloth that lived in Rainbow Dash. It was their own personal demons, the worst part of themselves and while they hid it from their world there friends always knew. Their friendship and trust with each other allowed them to reach through gates that alone none could open to a power at the core of their world.

The first trickle of power was shunted towards Twilight's shield, the second with Dash's knowledge of meteorology and Rarity's magic the white mist was cleared. When the mist cleared the connection between the six shuttered, the Everfree was gone, not completely but a significant section had been turned into a silt desert. Fluttershy almost pulled out of the link her mind inverting in on itself and Twilight felt a stab in her chest like the others. The desert extended well past where Zecora's hut had once stood.

Five of six simultaneously sent out to each other a message based in emotion of regret, sorrow, and the need to fight on to save others. After a moment of collecting herself Fluttershy thought to her friends, I’m ready. 

As the trickle became a stream then a mighty river of power the six began to rise from the ground while tears fell slowly from their eyes. The metal craft had finally passed through the portal and that was now shrinking. As the rainbow wave of energy shot forth from the group towards the tear, the fiery tongues of an explosion shot back through the gap and dissipated. The rainbow wave struck the area around the portal like Rarity mending a hole.

The power of harmony flowed through them far longer than it had ever done before. The rainbow of power pulled from them they're magic and Twilight's shield fell quickly and the group began to sink and the overflowing magic of the elements pulled their own magic from their bodies like a siphon.

Twilight was the last to touch the ground and as she looked around on tiring muscles. She saw her friends collapsing, each one fighting to stay conscious against the power draw. As her own legs began to give out she saw through darkening vision the rainbow wave balling up around a single point and wondered, What's gone wrong, before passing out.  

Logia easily kept pace with the entranced mare as she walked slowly towards the white mist that now coated the Everfree. She had plugged her ears upon hearing the high pitched squealing and she could feel a low pitched roar vibrating in her teeth. Each step she took felt more like she was walking on a gel and she was losing feeling in her legs. In the distance obscured by the mist and straight along the line that they were following was a massive orange glow.  

As the gray pegasus walked into the white mist she cast a shield spell over both of them. While her magical shields were in no manner as strong as her fathers or even what she had seen from Twilight it had to be enough to keep the mist off of them whatever it was. Soon she found the shield was more important for keeping the heat away than the mist, she didn't know what was causing either but she didn't want to risk exposure.  

As they walked closer both the deep vibrations and the high pitched whine began to fade. Almost immediately after that both the mist and the high temperature were blown away by a massive gale. Logia held her ground and angled her shield to help keep her and the pegasus on the ground. The skill and power required for this pushed her to her limit and she pinched her eyes shut to focus on what needed to be done.

She opened her eyes once the wind died down and found that the pegasus had disappeared. She blinked twice as more information filtered in. The Everfree had disappeared as well and had been replaced by a desert. She took two steps forward and found herself standing on a cliff about twenty feet up overlooking the sand. The cliff ran around the desert forming a bowl and along the edge ninety degrees to her left the ground was burned, the plants that remained were chard and the sand had melted into a glass stripe that reached from the cliff to the center of the crater.

Just off of center in the desert bowl were the six elements floating in the air, the light emanating from their bodies almost painfully bright. Suddenly a rainbow of energy shot forth striking something, it must be the portal they had been talking about, thought Logia. Below her in the desert she saw the gray pegasus walking towards them.

Logia jumped down using her magic to land on her feet in front of the mare, looking into her eyes she still saw the ball of armored worms writhing over her irises. Turning back towards the Elements what she saw felt wrong. She didn't know if this was how it was supposed to work but the six of them were collapsing onto the ground sinking into the light sand. She ran forward as Sparkle fell giving them enough of a glance as she passed by to see that they were still breathing.

Once she reached the hole on the element wave she used her magic to scan the area, something was blocking the hole, keeping it open. Looking back at the six elements she saw that they were looking paler and breathing was becoming shallow. She felt a familiar magic was what was holding the gate open but she couldn't figure out how, the power of the elements should override any spell.

After some time studying the problem presented to her she sighed and looked around thinking, where is Steel? As her eyes passed over the elements they stopped, the blond mare stood over Rainbow Dash hoof raised ready to come down on Rainbow's neck. There would be no way for Logia to reach her and if she did she couldn't stop the mare. Two large earth pony orderlies and her magic didn't work before, why would it work now, she thought to herself. Then a thought hit her, If one of the element's died would the spell end? She didn't want to risk it so she did the only thing left, she grab the magic passing through the gate and pull with all her might.