//------------------------------// // Michelle 1: Forest of Black // Story: Dominion of Light and Order // by Zman537 //------------------------------// Michelle’s POV (Entry) I was floating, or at least, I think I was? I wasn’t really all that sure anymore. My mind seems a little foggy. I remember getting into a food fight unintentionally... then the teachers yelling at us.... getting detention.... and then.... I think there was... a cat? I gasped as I remembered what had happened and looked around frantically. There was just white in every direction and looking down I could see a cloud pass by me. I started to scream as I fell past the cloud. I couldn’t see how far the ground was and I didn’t want to. I was still screaming when I noticed that the wind had stopped and I could feel something tickle my legs. Looking down again I could see.... white grass? Before I could question anything, there was a pop and I landed down on the grass with a thud. “Ow.” I leaned forward and rubbed my now sore backside before standing up. “That, hurt.” I looked around and gasped slightly at what I saw. I was near what looked like a forest but... everything was... white. There was no color in the trees, the grass, not even in the rocks or road. I noticed that everything was evenly spaced out as I got onto the road. “What is this place? Everything’s so.... dull.” I looked over to where the road was leading and saw what looked like a town. Just like everything else, it was completely white and ordered. At least, that’s what I thought at first. As I got closer, I noticed a few spots of the town that were different. Instead of being white and even, they seemed to be swallowed by large black balls of.... something. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt.... wrong. Like it was what you were so afraid of when you were little and thought there was a monster in the closet. I was going to turn the other way when I noticed something moving closer to me from the direction of town. It was the first sign of life i’d seen and immediately perked up and waved at it. “Oh, um.... Hello, can I get-” I stopped and watched in confusion as what had come over the hill walk past me without even a second glance. It looked like a pony of some kind, but was white like everything else and lacked a mane and tail. I couldn’t even tell if it was male or female and it’s large eyes were nothing but white globes. It seemed to move more like a machine than a creature as it walked passed me with solid, steady, measured steps. I wasn’t sure of what to do until it stopped and turned to face me with it’s lifeless eyes. It stood there staring like it was examining me... I think. “Um... are you alright?” It started to walk towards me and I started backing away. “H-hey, what are you doing? Stay back!” I gulped when I saw more come over the corner. There were so many of them coming from town, I ran past the first one and started running through the whitened trees as fast as I could. It seemed to have to stop for a moment before it could turn around and follow me. I don’t know how long I ran, but I eventually found one of those black spheres nearby. It was covering a small patch of land and had a white bridge sticking out of it while there were some bird feeders near the bridge. There was something else I noticed about the spheres now that I was up close to one of them. The bridge and grass weren’t completely white in the immediate area. The grass was green, and the bridge was wooden with a small stone path going across and grass covering most of the wood. The water under was clear and looked clean enough to drink from if anything needed to. The bird feeders, however, only seemed half colored. It was like they weren’t close enough to be painted in properly by whatever this large black mass was. I looked at the white forest behind me and then back to the dark sphere while thinking to myself. I could stay out here with those strange... things. Or.... I took a deep breath and took a few tentative steps towards the black barrier. “Oh, this is such a bad idea....” “It absolutely is.” I froze in fear and shock before slowly turning to look to my right. Instead of seeing one of the white horses, I could see a large dragon like creature that I remembered Tobias talking about before. I also remembered him from the opening of Season 2. “D-D-D-D-D-D-” He leaned closer to me before he placed his paw on my shoulder and giving me an exaggerated bow. “Discord, at your service m’lady.” I stammered and fell back on the ground staring at him. I was more than a little thrown off by how he was acting... more so that he was even here in front of me. “B-b-but you’re supposed to be fiction! H-h-how...” I stopped for a moment and shook my head. “Maybe Tobias’ multiverse rants had some merit to them.” I’ll need to apologize to him later. If I ever see him again..... Discord grinned and placed a claw on my shoulder. “Indeed they do young Michelle.” His claw stiffened for a moment before he furrowed brows and derped his eyes. “Hmm.... this is an interesting development. Looks like all I need to do is hit the on switch.” I looked at him in confusion as his claw withdrew and he pointed at my shoulder. “What are you-” A small jolt ran down my arm as if I had gotten too close to an exposed wire when he flicked at an imaginary lightswitch. “Ow!” I rubbed my right shoulder where the jolt came from and it felt.... warmer? I’m not too sure how to describe it. It was... so many things at once. “What did you just do?” Discord grinned and it looked genuine. “Originally it was meant to be a gift, but I think what I just did is more helpful in your eventual endeavors.” He looked over to the black sphere and sighed. “I need your help. There is somepony in there that has something of great importance. I need it out here for it to be of any use in fixing this.” Discord looked down at me and pointed to the sphere. “I am asking for you to retrieve it for me.” Um....okay, now I’m very confused. Discord was being genuine,sincere even. It was nothing like how he acted in the show... but... maybe the show was off on some details on the characters themselves?... Or maybe something happened between the last episode and now... okay, dumb assessment, everything is white. Something obviously happened. Looking over at Discord, I felt conflicted on what I should do. Despite everything that I’d seen of him in the show..... I could tell that he was being honest, and truly needed my help. “Okay. I’ll help.” His smile grew and he nodded. “But, um..... what am I looking for?” I don’t want to be running around blindly.... Discord’s smile fell as he looked at the sphere. “The Element of Kindness.” He vanished in a gust of wind and I started to hear a rhyme playing in the back of my mind. Inside the forest of black A heart of gold has turned it’s back Her charges’ minds All warped through grime Till the last one to fight is attacked I looked over to where the wind was blowing and saw Discord flying away. What happened to him that would make him so.... serious. I examined the black sphere and realized that the bridge and bird feeders were where Fluttershy’s cottage was supposed to be. And what does Fluttershy have to do with it? I looked at my shoulder and pulled my sleeve back to look at it better. There was a small black diamond surrounded by six circles that were looped into one larger one. The top circle had what looked like a small rabbit head in the center. I couldn’t really see if any of the other circles had something in them with how the mark was placed on my shoulder. Two of them were located more on my back and the rest that I could see were empty. I pulled my sweater back where it was and looked back at the sphere. “Well.... Here I go.” I closed my eyes and started to walk into the black sphere. Immediately, I felt pins and needles run up and down my body. It was like I was being watched by several sets of eyes. Each one filled with hatred and malice at anything with a shred of light in it. The feeling soon stopped and I took a deep breath before slowly cracking open one of my eyes. Gone were the white bark and grass and in their place was a sight to behold. “Oh god, oh god oh god....” I was surrounded by twisted and gnarled trees that were covered in pitch black bark, and had knots in them filled with sharp points shaped like teeth. The green grass from before was now rotted and brown, or gone entirely from the path. The path itself was rugged, and I couldn’t see more than fifteen feet ahead. I quickly turned around to leave only to find that the black barrier was gone, and the trees and path continued on into the distance. Very little light was coming from the canopy of branches, and I could barely see a sliver of a moon through them. It was like I was in the forest from ‘Snow White and The Seven Dwarves.’ Only with fewer little men to help a lost girl like me. “Oh god what have I gotten myself into?...” I looked down both paths wearily before sighing and moving down the one I had originally been facing. This is a very bad idea. A little ways down the path, I heard a snap from a twig behind me. I froze before slowly turning around. “W-W-W-Who’s T-T-T-There?” There was only a bush and the trees that I had- Wait.... that bush wasn’t there before.... Not a second later, something leaped out of the bush letting out a battle cry and hit me in the leg. I yelped in pain and fell back onto the ground before whatever was in the bush jumped onto my stomach. “HAHA! I’ve vanquished th’ monsta!” I looked down at the attacker and..... saw a small pinto pony? What was his name again?... oh, I know I saw him in one of those episodes.... The pinto colt was puffing out his chest and was holding a small wooden sword. He had a small pith helmet on his head and a pair of tan saddlebags that had some papers and a rope sticking out of them. He also had a ball shaped compass around his neck that was pointing down the path I was heading. He had this smile on his face that showed how proud of himself he was for taking down ‘th’ monsta’. That is.... until he looked at me and saw that I was looking back. Then he squealed like a girl and dropped his wooden sword. The scream was loud enough to startle a bunch of birds into flying away. “IT LIVES!” He jumped off of me to run, but I managed to catch him before he hit the ground. “AH! DON’T EAT ME!” I covered his muzzle and looked him in the eyes. “Um... could you please be quieter? I don’t know where I am and I don’t know want to know what lives in this place.” Unless it’s a cute furry little mouse that can’t hurt me in the slightest. The colt started to tear up and I shied back a little. “Oh, and I’m not um.... going to eat you.” I put him on the ground and stepped away a little. “My name’s Michelle. Michelle Ackerman.” The colt ran over to his sword and picked it up from the ground before pointing it at me. “I-I-I-I’m not scared of you! And whatever an Ackerman is, I shall vanquish you and save my cousin!” Something large toppled over down the path and sent up a massive cloud of dust. Both of us looked over and paled when we saw that a tree was toppled over. There also was what had toppled the tree. Is that a lion....WITH A SCORPION’S TAIL AND BAT WINGS!? It was a dark brown and it’s mane was almost completely black aside from red tips. It’s fangs were blackened and stuck out at least two inches from it’s mouth. It’s claws weren’t much better, and it’s yellow eyes were scanning for anything through the dust cloud it had sent up by toppling over the tree. I grabbed the colt before diving into the bush that the colt was using earlier and held him close to my chest. We just held our breath as the large predator stalked nearby. Oh god oh god oh god! There was a deafening roar before we could hear it crashing through the underbrush and toppling over anything unfortunate enough to cross its path. I poked my head out of the bush and saw the trail of destruction it had left behind. After I picked up my jaw, I looked over at the small pony. “W-W-W-Was that a manticore!?” The colt shakily nodded as he looked down the path. “Yep.... Nothing like the ones I’ve seen before though. Normal ones are less,” he waved a hoof in front of his face for a moment before pointing down the trail, “violent.” I took several deep breaths and stepped out of the bush. The colt followed soon after and looked down the trail. “Darn.... That’s where I need ta be going.” He looked over to where his sword was laying and picked it up. “Maybe I can find a way around it.” I looked at the small pony like it had grown a second head. “Y-you’re kidding right!? You want to follow that thing!?” The colt looked back at me and nodded, albeit hesitantly. “Yep. My cousin needs help, and I’m gonna help ‘er!” He looked down the path again and gulped. “Just..... gotta get to ‘er first.” I took a few nervous glances at the trees before looking down at him again. “You’re going to go in no matter what I say, aren’t you.” He nodded and I sighed. “Well..... I can’t just stand here and let you wander into danger.....” Ohhhhhhhhhh this is such a bad idea! “So I’m coming with you.” The colt turned around and looked at me for a moment. “Wait, what?” I gulped a little before getting up and standing behind the small pony. “I-I said I’m going to go with you.” He looked at me in confusioh before shrugging and putting his sword on his back. “Eh, You can come if ya like. You better now slow me down though! My cousin could be in trouble and I need ta save her!” He posed and shouted into the air after turning around. “ONWARDS TO VICTORY!” He ran for a little bit before turning back to me. "My name's Pipsqueak by the way." That's where I saw him before! Oooooooh He. Was. So. Adorable~! As Pipsqueak ran off, I stumbled a little to catch up to him “H-hey! Wait for me!” We ran headlong into the underbrush and I couldn’t help but have this small nagging thought. I have a very very very bad feeling about this!.....