//------------------------------// // Escape Pt. 1 // Story: The Lost Kingdom // by Piece Bot //------------------------------// A sound of clanging could be heard throughout the whole area of the dungeons. The source of that? Applejack trying to buck her way out of her jail cell. “Why … aren’t … these … dern … things … breaking … apart?” She huffed between each swing of her hind legs. “Applejack.” Twilight quietly said Applejack’s name and was unsuccessful. “Applejack.” She tried again. Louder this time. “APPLEJACK!” No use. She couldn’t be heard over the racket that her legs were making against the bars. A loud explosion could be heard and a tremor could be felt. “What in the hay was that?” Applejack asked. “Whoops. My Party Cannon accidentally exploded. Again.” “Ugh. Pinkie. Let me ask you something.” Dash asked her pink friend. “What is it Dashie?” “A few hours ago. I think. Anyway, earlier, you were crying. Twilight told me that she heard you crying all the way back in Sugar Cube Corner and I just have to ask. Why?” “Oh. Uh, you see … who wants to play a game?” Pinkie changed the subject way too quickly. “Pinkie,” “OH MAKE IT STOP!” She wailed and waved her arms around. “I got a story in the mail and I began to read it. It was called Cupcakes and I thought it was a cookbook so I opened it up and started to read it. But as I got further and further in it, I just couldn’t stop reading it! It turns out that the main character has a huge resemblance to me. Except, she has straight hair and she’s insane. She also has Pinkamena for her name. It tells all about her first kill and how yadadada. Anyway, her first kill was…” At this she began to tear up. A loud crash could be heard. Rainbow looked over and saw that Applejack was free. “How did that happen?” Applejack was confused. “What do you mean? Didn’t you just buck it into oblivion?” Rainbow asked her friend. She just shook her head. “Ah don’t know what went wrong.” Applejack replied. “I’m going to see if I can get out of here and try to find some help.” Applejack said. ‘I know exactly where to go for that.’ “Have fun with that Applejack. Pinkie, you were saying how this was encased in some kind of time-distorting bubble?” Twilight asked the pink mare. “Yeah, I thought about it but there didn’t seem to be a bubble around here. Just mist.” Pinkie answered the unicorn. “Wait, I’m confused. What is a time-distorting bubble?” Rainbow Dash asked. “A time-distorting bubble is a powerful spell that traps whoever is within it in a separate time. For everyone and everything outside the bubble though, time continues on as normal.” Twilight answered Rainbow Dash. “Ah’ll try and bring back some help. And Ah just know who to get.” Applejack told them. “Who?” Pinkie asked. “Ya’ll see.” She tipped her Stetson to them and raced off. When Applejack climbed up the stairs, she could feel another tremor shake the earth. ‘Okay. Now ah know that wasn’t some minor earthquake. It’s a big one.’ With Nightmare Moon … Nightmare Moon could feel a slight tremor wake her up from her slumber. “DISCOOOORD!” Nightmare yelled at the top of her voice. “You rang?” He asked. “This is no time for jokes. Did you or did you not cause the earth to tremor?” “No. This had nothing to do with me. It was your stupid time-distortion bubble spell thingy. If you had only-” Nightmare put one of her hooves up to stop him from speaking further. She was afraid that this would happen. It had taken her one thousand years to perfect the spell. When she finally did she was supposedly vanquished from her current host body. When that happened, she decided to flee and not reconnect with the body she had shared for a thousand on that desolate wasteland they call a moon. She eventually happened upon this delightful little kingdom. It had long been abandoned but it could be repopulated if she so chose. She could repopulate it with the help of the Changelings but ever since Chrysalis got vaporised but that miserable foal she had to change her plans. But then all her planning and years of work came to a grinding halt when Twilight and her mother’s ‘physical’ body came into the mist. She had planned it all so carefully. There was no bubble. The only bubble was the mist. The mist was the key to everything. The mist was the time-distortion spell but how could it be making tremors? Oh right … she cast the mist into the ground as well in order to encase the whole city. Discord started to snap his fingers and make random things appear and disappear. “What are you doing?” “Amusing myself.” Nightmare Moon left him to create his organised chaos and went to see what was wrong with the spell. With Applejack … She could hear her hooves clatter against cobblestone as she raced for the Crystal Empire. If it wasn’t for this mist, she wouldn’t even be here. But she has to get out of the mist just so she could help. She could some whooshing behind her. She turned her neck just to have a quick peek, turned it back to the front so fast she almost got whiplash, and sped up. Applejack couldn’t keep this speed up any longer though. As she heard Nightmare Moon get nearer, she ducked and Nightmare sailed right over her head. “Huh?” Applejack waited for Nightmare to turn around but she didn’t she kept on going. She thought nothing of it and continued onwards to the Crystal Empire. At the edge of the mist she took a deep breath of fresh air and headed straight for the Crystal Tower. At the top, she went to greet all of her remaining friends but they weren’t there. None of them were. She saw a guard nearby and asked him where Cadance was. “Uh, Princess Cadance? She’s in her room.” The guard replied to Applejack’s question. Applejack headed for Cadance and Shining Armor’s room. When there she knocked on the door and heard Cadance say come in. When Applejack walked in there was a gasp. “Applejack?” Cadance asked. “Yes Cadance. Is something wrong?” Applejack asked the slightly shocked mare. “We thought you were dead.” It was Applejack’s turn to gasp. “What do you mean?” “We haven’t heard from you or the others for five years.” With Twilight and the others … “I’m curious now. How does the time-distortion spell work?” Rainbow asked. “Well, that kind of spell would take years to perfect, even for me, but whenever you encase something inside one of the bubbles, time flows differently. Let’s take our situation for example. When you and Pinkie found me, five days had already passed but we were in there for only five hours before you found us.” “Huh? So you’re saying that for every hour we’ve spent in here, a day has gone by in the real world?” Pinkie asked. “I think so. I would say that we’ve been here for about three days already.” “Yeah, but didn’t you feel the tremors?” Dash asked. “I did. But that’s because the … spell … is … breaking …” Twilight’s eyes widened as she thought about the different consequences that could occur if a time-distortion spell of this size started to break apart. ‘Oh this can’t end well.’ She thought with a slight cringe.