"But Rythiaaaan!" Zoey moaned. She wasn't getting the idea that dark mystical portals is not a 'but' situation.
Rythian sighed, thinking of a way to put this gently, "... No." He wasn't the best at it, though. "Look, Zoey, I understand you’re curious, but this," he pointed to the hole in reality, "Does not need to be jumped into right now, or ever."
Rythian, for his part anyway, wasn't in the greatest moods. He'd been reduced to using thaumancy (which wasn't the most efficient of magics), his home was destroyed and was now only a crater, and the closest thing he had to a sister lost an arm and had to have a metal replacement. It shot laser beams, though, so it was pretty epic.
And by pretty epic, he meant TOTALLY epic.
However, the fact of the matter is she lost an arm because of three nukes placed under Blackrock by a certain scientist.
Even after the truce, Rythian still felt resentment to Duncan and Sjin for destroying the old world, but Duncan had hit an all-time low with that stunt he pulled. Three nukes! Who puts Three nukes under a castle?! Not only that but it killed... Zoey.
"-And new mushrooms!" He snapped back to reality at the mention of her obsession. Teep did mention he heard the mushrooms talking too but Rythian blamed that on slow insanity.
Speaking of Teep, he had been really quiet. While he is a mute... dinosaur... he tends to growl or snap his claws, but he'd hadn't done anything except glared at the portal like it would hurt Zoey. Teep was a protective type, even more so around Zoey. Maybe even more than Rythian.
Maybe.
"No." Rythian said resolutely, "Not until you're more experienced in thaumancy. I mean seriously, I've never seen this kind of portal before and I know my stuff!"
"You know what? I'm going in," she said in defiance. What? Where did this come from? Rythian and Teep never thought her to be the rebellious type, "Because this world here is just another time bomb like the old world, and I'm not going through that again," So serious...
She flashed a grin at them, "C'mon, it'll be fun!" and suddenly the normal, bubbly attitude was back. She skipped cheerfully into the portal.
"Zoey! Wait!" Rythian sprinted, followed closely by Teep. And so the Blackrock crew headed blindly into a new dimension, unsure of what they would find.
~#~#~
"Twilight dear, what's wrong?" Rarity asked, noticing her friend’s grimace.
"I'm fine Rarity, just a headache" Twilight assured her friends. Little did she know her headache would be much worse by the end of the day.
~#~#~
"Ugh, my head," Rythian moaned, lying on what felt like grass (something he did not expect from a different dimension). His head felt like he had taken Enderbane to the skull. He reached to touch his face but instead of a hand he felt something more blunt, the feeling in his fingers completely gone. He opened his eyes to find out what the offending limb was. It had what appeared to be dark purple... fur, and a dark brown... hoof at the bottom of his...
It hit him like three nukes
"Why do I have hooves!?" 'This is not good, this is not good' Rythian thought, stressed that he now had no fingers. The hooves thing he can deal with but he needed fingers, how would he continue work or teaching Zoey?
Oh god, he just forgot Zoey.
He go to his side, stood on all fours,(he didn't need toes)and saw the crater. 'Ah, shit,' he thought, slowly trotting to the hole and getting used to the new body, he peered in and saw what he feared.
An unconscious dinosaur and a cyborg horse with...wings?
"Or, of course, you get the good end of the evolutionary stick," he muttered. He trotted towards the pair, eager to wake them up and get the nether out of there. Rythian started by prodding what he hoped was Zoey, mostly because he didn't want to surprise Teep and have his neck snapped.
"Zoey," Rythian whispered to her ear, hopefully not having to raise his voice and wake Teep. Fortunately, Zoey's eyelids fluttered open, staring right into Rythian's.
"AH!" she yelped, not knowing what this thing was.
"Zoey calm down it's Rythian." He whispered
"Why are you a unicorn?" she whispered back, not knowing why they were whispering but doing it anyway. 'A unicorn?' Rythian thought, touching his forehead. Sure enough a sharp, tall cone was on his forehead.
"Why are you a Pegasus?" he retorted. Zoey did feel something new on her back but could not pinpoint what it was. She tried flexing them and sure enough her wings expanded.
"Oh, cool!" Zoey exclaimed
"Shhhh, you're gonna wake up Teep!" Rythian hissed. Just because of her optimistic personality doesn't mean she doesn't know when she's in mortal danger. She nodded not to risk her spine. She took a moment to study her new form, a very light brown furred equine. She also noticed a few stray strands of her red hair... or was it mane now?
She then looked at Rythian, noting his dark purple coat with brown mane and... tail. He wore his normal robes, though they seemed to be refitted for his new body. She assumed it was the same for her attire. She can summon her inner Sherlock Holmes when she feels like it.
"Okay Zoey, listen to me," She snapped her attention to Rythian, waiting for the plan to the suicide mission.
"I'll wake him up then you tell him it's us, he trusts you." Zoey only nodded once.
"Okay... ready?" Zoey shook her head enthusiastically.
"Me neither." Rythian replied, and tip-toed (hoofed) towards Teep.
~#~#~
After several minutes of Teep roaring, calming down and not killing anything, Teep was sitting on a boulder he found. "Okay," Rythian exhaled, glad to be alive.
"We need to find a fresh water supply, set up camp and continue our lessons," he nodded to Zoey.
"Yay!" she exclaimed
"We have our bags, so food and resources are not a problem, but all meat goes to Teep cause me and Zoey probably herbivores"
Teep grunted his approval, sniper in grip.
"Zoey can you still use your laser?"
"Yeppers."
"Right then, let’s roll out!" Rythian started trotting in a random direction, followed by Zoey and Teep.
'This is gonna suck,' thought Rythian, ‘A lot.'