Chapter 2_Separated and Something about a Tree
Wind rushes through the bluish fur of slightly large and tumbling red fox, eyes squinted tightly after being blinded by an intense flash. The sound of birds elicits a twitching of ears and the opening of eyes.
The poor thing lets out a shrill scream, paws spread wide as it falls toward a young cliff growing tree. Crashing with a branch knocks out air out of its lungs and swings for a moment on the flexing branch before the branch breaks. It could have been such a nice view too if the fox had solid footing instead of falling.
Completing another mid air tumble the fox almost fails to notice the sudden shadow casting it in darkness just before it is grabbed under its forelimbs, this unfortunately causes the fox to wretch.
“Oh you poor dear, I guess you don’t fly well.” A familiar voice coos. “I don’t know why you were falling from the sky but I’ll get you to solid ground.”
“It feels so liberating to fly.” The familiar voice continues giving the woozy fox a nuzzling of the head before banking right into a shallow glide. “I think we can stop there for a moment.”
The one carrying the fox sets down on a tree covered cliff several feet below the other that was missed above. The fox checks itself over as its fur shifts in color from the sky blue and gray to an earthy green and brown except where the fur was black on the limbs and ears and white of the tail tip. A phantom harness wrapped around the fox’s body holding on a saddle bag like pack and his left arm a small graphical display was also found.
“I… I must be hallucinating.” The fox yips, and rummages through a bag pulling an epee-pen out.
“Did you say s… No not again… I’m fine see.” The brown coated green winged with and white mane Pegasus cringes. “Don’t stick me please!”
The epee-pen drops from the fox’s jaws its eyes narrow in surprise and yips. “Dandelion…”
“Brian… or Lilly? What Happened to you?” Dandelion asks stunned. “Brian’s voice from Lilly’s body, but why and why green and brown you were blue a minute ago?”
“Not just the fur chaser.” The fox’s voice shifted to a more lady-like yip. “I’m in here too. Put that back by the way Brian, we don’t seem to need it right now.”
“How did this happen?” Brian asks ears flattened. “I can’t remember anything between waking Mike and falling.”
“There was a bound pale red with dark red spots pony before my memory goes blank.” Lilly adds with a frustrated flick of the head. “What do you remember Dandelion?”
“Peoria was caught in…” Dandelion eyes shrink and she casts her eyes to her coat and begins pulling out thorny vines.
“Dandelion what… Hay!” Lilly snaps in surprise as Dandelion bowls the fox over pulling out similar vines spitting them into a pile with the rest.
Dandelion takes to the air between the fox and the pile of vines and somehow conjures a bolt of lightning to incinerate the already desiccated plants leaving charred dust on the rocks.
“Good ridden!” Dandelion snorts landing next to the fox.
“I don’t quite know why you did that but I do feel calmer.” Lilly yips softly.
“That was from the eerie glowing trees weren’t they, the Foxfire wood.” Brian growls ears pulling back.
“I lived without the hope of flying for too long. I won’t let a single seed taint this land for someone else.” Dandelion glares at the smoldering remains.
“I wonder where Tina and Mike went. Maybe if I set a Planer Anchor try the recall I can find them.” Brian mutters tracing a claw over the display on his left arm.
“Do what?” Dandelion asks tilting her to get a better look at what Brian was doing. She feels an electric like tingle as Brian gives off yellowish glow that turns green than disappears.
“I’ll be right back.” Brian adds typing another command into the touch display with a claw tip. At this the fox starts to fadeout.
Dandelion wanted to protest, a look of shocked anger crossing her features and wings flared in an aggressive manner. That is until alien objects began appearing before her eyes and merging with the more familiar rocks and trees of the cliff ledge they had stopped on.
Meanwhile some mile or three out a blue winged horse scans the horizon for anything out of the normal from her vantage point in the air. She had felt one such disturbance today already that was enough to startle her from her rest, a commodity that had been in short supply for her and her sister as of late.
“Tis is new for thy mismatched lizard of contradictions. What art thou up to?” The blue flying horse snarls. “Focus, we need to pin point the disturbance.”
Another surge of power is felt off from her nine o clock of her position which seemed to come from a mountain side cliff. From what the blue winged horse could see some kind mirage was looming over this cliff and she banks in its direction.
Back at the cliff Dandelion watches the fox wordlessly walk up to the weird site.
Brian, and even Lilly; were feeling acute homesickness at the site before them. It was their home with the computer desks and couches and card table. The smell of terrible floral air freshener and bacon caught their nose. However the thing that brought tears to their eyes was seeing Mike standing there with his hands up, Tina was pulling a metal case that contains a field chemistry kit to her and hidden behind the desk than fades out, and some CIA spooks that turn and point something in Brian and Lilly’s direction.
“It… It’s… a planner incursion sir.” One of the CIA spooks stutters gesturing to Brian/Lilly and to something behind them.
“An inv… invasion, how did they get here.” A second CIA agent sputters.
“No sir, it’s confirmed this is their planer recall signal.” The first agent spoke with a hint of concern. “It’s not stable. They…”
Before Mike could turn around to look at his friends the surreal scene shatters like it were made of glass and the remains get blown away.
“This isn’t right… THIS ISN’T RIGHT!” Brian screams sobbing ears spayed back at the scene before him which was jumbled and mismatched with both mountain cliff and the inside of some dwelling simply revert to just the cliff.
“That’s your home.” Dandelion places a hoof on the distraught fox. “We’re both lost and you said you would help me so I owe you the same. “
“It hard to take seeing home but not getting to stay there, he’ll be better when he realizes his friends are okay.” Lilly responds the sobs fading some.
“We’ll start looking for someone to help us. I’ll carry you and we’ll search from the air.” Dandelion grins.
“Ah… Do we have too?” Lilly cringed ears splayed back, when the Pegasus nodded her head Lilly turns and attempts to run only to get picked up. She whines. “Not more flying.”
Dandelion was only in the air with Lilly for a moment before a large blue winged pony with a horn intercepts her, and was joined by 2 Pegasi , one green the other a marbled yellow orange; in woven grass vests plated with some kind of scales.
“I ask thou to Halt!” The blue winged pony commands. “I Luna, the Moon Stewart demand to know what thy connection is with thy disturbance just now.”
“You are to answer now!” The marbled one adds forcefully.
“I… I don’t… understand what… they did.” Dandelion stuttered fearfully casting eyes at flyers now surrounding her. “They were just trying to go home.”
“Ow… My ears.” Lilly groans eyes squint shut. “Please not so loud it’s painful.”
“My apologies but we demand answers. You were going home, care to explain thy reason for such disruptive ends?” Luna demand in a lower yet commanding tone.
“I’m sorry Stewart Luna, this is my first attempt to get my recall system to work and doing travel like this to begin with. I didn’t mean to cause trouble.” Brian responds his fur shifting to blue and gray of the sky.
“Now we understand thy use of the plural, Lady?” Luna tilts her gaze back to Dandelion.
“I’m Dandelion, Stewart Luna.” Dandelion replies.
“Brian.” The fox’s male voice replies meekly.
“Lilly.” The fox’s female voice replies flatly.
“Curious… We would have expected Discord’s involvement.” Luna ponders staring at the fox, turning to a southeast direction from the cliff. “Come we would hear thy tale some place more comfortable.”
The short flight over the darkened forest where a modest stone mansion rests did little to help the fox’s stomach. The escort Pegasi took up positions to the sides with Dandelion carrying the fox and Stewart Luna in the middle of the formation. As they prepare to set down another group lead by a white winged pony joins them in landing.
“Sister, what have you found?” The white pony asks. “Is it more of Discord’s antics?”
Dandelion sets the fox down allowing him lay to get over the motion sickness, the contact with mansion balcony causes his fur to take on a marbled black and gray coloration.
“Dose this one do this often?” one of the escort Pegasi asks gesturing to the fox.
“Huh…” Lilly groans with weary eyes, before checking her fur. “At least I’m not shedding and it such a nice pattern too.”
“Nay sister, Discord still runs free.” Luna replies before gesturing to the two strangers. “These travelers seem to be responsible for the recent trouble however they say they meant no harm, just trying to get home.”
“If this is true what is the purpose of using such disruptive means to do so?” Celestia questions with a gaze no less stern than her sister had earlier.
“I sorry my attempt to go home was not intended to be for good as I promised to help Dandelion find her family. What I did was set a Planer Anchor so I could return here if my friends I came here with were safe. I could then come back and return Dandelion to her home using the travel log as a guide.” Brian replied in a quite tone.
“You were leaving…” Dandelion turns her head down dejectedly.
“Your friend Peoria is with one of fur chaser’s and my friends too. He is not the most careful of humans but he’s not a total jerk.” Lilly chastises with a snarl. “Something separated us and I believe it would be reckless just to return Dandelion and Peoria back where we found them, Brian.”
“What do you mean? You pulled someone from their rightful place whether by accident on not this cannot be excused!” Celestia accuses her glare getting icier.
“Fur chaser forgot to mention what Dandelion and the rest of us put up with before getting separated. It’s ironic we now are so outwardly merged as our minds were becoming in the short amount of time we spent in Dandelion’s RIGHTFUL PLACE.” Lilly snarls matching Celestia rage with her own fury. “I hate flying and I hate tumbling out of control through the air to catch a winged pony who could not even control the storm she was unintentionally causing!”
Pulling from an epee-pen from her side bag and spitting it on the ground, Lilly takes a deep breath before continuing. Celestia, Luna and all the others briefly break their stares to glance at Dandelion who crashes into a Pegasus guard to move away from the offending object.
“Brian and his friends use that thing…” Lilly gestures to the epee-pen. “To prevent us from being killed or driven insane by the changes they made to themselves, even I have to take this. It also was what they jabbed Dandelion with to stop that twister she was making at the time.”
“You said, or your other self said; you were trying to go home. If you and Dandelion did not meet would you not have gone home sooner?” Celestia asks flatly still not convinced.
“I don’t know what went wrong when I tried to go home. It just scrambled the locations together before exploding into a cloud of dust.” Brian grimly responds. “In the place we were at before we got separated, it was that forest interfering with the trans-locators, I just can’t figure out what failed.”
“If this is so dangerous and unreliable why do it?” Luna asks with a shake of her head.
“Because some else would!” Brian responds coldly yet also defeated. It is here that he goes into detail about White Rabbit and recounts the LeClaire Incident which triggered the technological arms race that brought the human into being a roommate in a fox’s mind speaking to Celestia and Luna. Dandelion added some details about her world and experiences but was still mostly downtrodden.
After finishing his tale the two sister Stewarts offered Brian and Lilly the fox and Dandelion a room for the night while they consider this revelation.
The room Dandelion and the fox Brian/Lilly had been given was simple, just a bed and table with a potted strawberry bush. The small room would be quite comfortable for Brian and Lilly if not for the teary eyed Dandelion.
“Dandelion, I didn’t mean to upset you with breaking my promise to find your friends and family, or with trying to leave.” Lilly whimpers softly trying to place a paw on Pegasus’s shoulder.
Dandelion recoils from the touch her sobs getting worse. Lilly padded off to the far corner with her head down.
“It… It’s not… your fault.” Dandelion responds still sobbing. “When… when you tried to leave… I was stunned and angry, but the gravity of what happened then is why I’m really so upset.”
Lilly head perked up and with tears in her eyes she turned her head to Dandelion.
“You… your just… just as lost as me. You could almost touch your home only to have it pulled away from you. We are… just not in control of where lives go any more now than I was with the winds of home.” Dandelion chocked.
“Sure a lot of the trouble we put up with in life is not our choice. My friends and I learned to endure those times, but when life asked us for our say we gave it our answer.” Brian comments. “Like I explained to the Stewarts we didn’t plan on creating Planer Travel someone else did. With so many others looking on this new discovery we could have easily let them take the risks in theory, but we already seen the outcome of one such attempt. She was not concerned if Humanity was ready for it or could handle the repercussions. We choose to be the lab rats and to take the risks in a way that was planned to put no own else at risk. Yes we got you and your friends involved, and I sorry; but if our efforts for better or worse can enlighten rest of humanity to respect this discovery in both its benefits and perils I feel we did the right thing.”
Dandelion starts calm down. “Because of you I learned that flying can be something to be enjoyed, and more importantly; that there are familiar places that are not pulling me along against my will helpless to do anything else.”
“Wait… What do you mean by familiar places?” Brian asks curiously.
“Well like this castle, it’s in better shape now. The dark forest outside is not as expansive…” Dandelion replies as her pupils shrink to pin-pricks. Brian was similarly shocked.
“Time travel, this is bad. When in the past are we?” Brian fidgets. “They, the Stewarts; mentioned a trouble maker who was it?”
“Discord I think.” Dandelion replies.
“The era of Discord’s reign, is the past. Foxfire forest where living things are driven wild is this world’s future and your home, a home where the castle was overtaken by the Foxfire forest. Something’s seriously not right here.” Brian muses with a worried look. “Have you ever heard of Discord’s defeat from your family?”
“Never heard of Discord from them, they never knew who the castle belonged to either.” Dandelion replies nervously.
“They did something different, the Stewarts; but what? The Elements of Harmony…” Brian continues to muse before Dandelion cuts him off.
“Your starting to make no sense, what are you talking about?” Dandelion asks getting frustrated. “I’ve never heard of any of these things. How much do know that you’re not telling me?”
“You never heard of the Elements. That it, that what’s different. The Stewarts must have never used them.” Brian exclaims as the castle begins to rumble. “What… a quake!”
A thorny phosphorescent vine shatters a portion of the floor right near the bed.
Elsewhere. 2 hours before the quake, in a cave under the castle.
“Sister, is this really a step we need to take? Will we not prove ourselves to be despots no different from Discord?” Luna asks.
“You propose we confront him without this power!” Celestia replies in disbelief turning to Luna.
“Thy travelers today, in pondering what they went through; we wonder if we too should face our problems with our own power and ingenuity.” Luna continues speaking with eyes closed. “We tempt forces we don’t understand. Like them perhaps we should tread more carefully ourselves.”
“Can we reason with him?” Celestia asks uncertain. “He’s the spirit of chaos.”
“Even thy spirit of chaos must take responsibility for thy unintended makings.” Luna resolutely adds. “He mistakes control for chaos. True chaos comes from letting world do things without you having a say and excepting that thy input is only part of what shapes our lives.”
“I think I see what your implying sister. Even our connections to the sun and moon might one day become cause for alarm.” Celestia replies solemnly. “We must confront him now about this revelation; however should negotiations fail us we must return here with all haste.”
“Agreed.” Luna adds resolutely flaring her wings and turning to leave the cave with her sister.
As the sisters leave the cave a dark thorny sprout pushes through the soil. The dark sprout grows to about 3 inches tall before a glistening crystal vine wraps around it. The dark sprout continues growing around the crystal vine, its fresh leaves still mostly black on top begin giving off a shifting rainbow light on their underside.
Elsewhere near Discord’s throne just before the quake, the two sister Stewarts land before an all too giddy would be conquer.
“My my, I am disappointed. You must know that without that power you leave me all the aces.” Discord replies cocking an eyebrow and smiles wickedly.
“Power is not what is important to life and the world.” Celestia counters. “Why taint what should be obviously not broken with your madness?”
“Your little paradise of pastel pony pawns, Ha; not broken indeed!” Discord retorts. “You who move the sun and co-conspirator of the moon are what make this all boring and unnatural.”
“How’s thy approach here be any better?” Luna snorts stomping forward. “You presume to suggest thy own inspiration sufficient to truly satisfy your stated aims, tis truly is something to laugh at!”
“You dare to question my artistic esthetic?” Discord growls forcing Luna’s muzzle to rise to the same level as his own. “How about I enlighten thy to your own truly meager contributions with a demonstration!”
Luna could feel the magic of the chaos lord begins to twist her body as she caught something out the corner of her eye, her ears catch the rumbling of the earth and her sister’s cries.
“Ahhh! What is this…” Celestia sputters having the wind crushed from her by a thorny luminescent vine.
Luna crashes to the ground as she released from Discord’s spell and is quickly wrapped up by the vines as well trapping her on her side kicking her legs trying to escape. Through pain clenched eyes she sees vines erupt everywhere driving off the chaos landscape where they sprouted.
“This foul trickery is so beneath my talents I…” Discord was cut short as two exceptionally thick vines snared his limbs with intensely glowing branches.
“Would seem… we are not the… only ones… opposing you.” Luna replies through oxygen starved lungs as she is wrapped in cocoon of vines.
Discord did not reply as his mouth was clamped shut.
Back at the castle Brian/Lilly find themselves once again as passengers of the Pegasus Dandelion as she races through the constricting halls.
“The origin of the Foxfire Forest is here of all places!” Brian comments with a groan. “Are we almost clear of the castle?”
“Two more turns one left and one right.” Dandelion replies not breaking focus with the hall ahead.
“Help!” cries a voice down the right side passage from a green and orange maned blue unicorn stallion who had been pinned to a wall by Foxfire vines.
“We’re coming, hold on!” Dandelion yells back changing course to land in front of him.
Releasing Brian/Lilly on to the ground Dandelion flies over to bite the vine in an effort to pull it away from the wall. The fox races to the hall facing side of the same vine to frantically scratch and bite at spot where the vine was bending causing it to snap at the combined assault. Once freed the slightly bloodied unicorn leaps over the fox and bucks open a door releasing a Pegasus and two more unicorns who proceed to cut their way down the opposite end of the hall.
“Thank you. Follow us we’ll get you out.” The bloodied unicorn wheezes joining the others.
Clearing the next two halls led the party now a dozen or so strong to the castle courtyard where two particularly large vines had walled off the exits.
“Dandelion can you generate a lightning bolt strong enough to cut the base of one those weeds.” Lilly asks casting a glance between her and the Foxfire trees.
“Not alone. There too thick.”Dandelion groans in agitation at the site.
“Give it a shot we’ll back you up, everyone ready on her mark!” The bloodied unicorn shouts gesturing at the plant wall.
Taking flight Dandelion locked a gaze with the trunk of the growth on the right side of the arch and against her best judgment let the ambient magic flow into her as she fell into a glide toward it. To the momentary horror of the collected guards Dandelion became engulfed in a black film of sparking cloud and buzzes the vines trunk. Sizzling lightning scorches the trunk for 4 seconds of intense flashing before the cloud fizzles.
“Now!” The bloodied unicorn shout, the guards releasing a stream of pure magic at the burn marks on the vine cutting it clean in half and dissolving a part of the wall behind it.
It took a moment for the guards to shake off the head rush of what they just did leaving stray holes in other parts of the courtyard walls as they clumsily fled through the gap. Lilly raced to the down twitching Pegasus Dandelion.
“My…my heart… is beating so fast.” Dandelion wheezes eyes wide black fog still seeping from her wings.
“Dandelion. Listen to me.” Lilly yips using a paw to turn Dandelion to meet her gaze. “Pick me up and fly us clear of the castle.”
Getting wobbly to her hooves, Dandelion complies in picking up the fox whose fur now begins to flicker wildly; and flies strait up dodging grasping vines on instinct alone until she was 100ft from top of the castle.
“I… I think… argh… the source is bellow the castle… in a cave.” Lilly growls her own heart beginning to race and head hurt. “Fly… fly for the cave!”
“I’ll… try Lilly.” Dandelion replies in an almost robotic tone still feeling the Foxfire’s influence, falling into a glide she lets the vine’s own phantom wind currents draw them to the cave.
Through the closing web of thorny death they zipped toward the light behind the lights in the form of a crystal tree. Just mere feet away from touching the tree the vines whip out and Dandelion gets snagged eliciting screams of pain from the trapped Pegasus.
“Just a little closer, Dandelion.” Brian pleads stretching a paw to the tree.
Dandelion grunts with exertion her eyes starting to glaze over, her hoofs stretching to push the fox closer to the tree.
“I won’t… I will not let this world suffer because of my doing!” Brian and Lilly shouts mournful in unison with tear stained eyes their outstretched claws finding a grip on something. “Please even if I have to pull it out of you STOP!”
Suddenly Dandelion pulls free of the vines at the same time Brian/Lilly pull an orb of pink light to their chest.
“I will not let anyone else suffer a world where they are prisoner in their own bodies. Help us protect our friends and family!” Dandelion pleads wings beginning to wrap around the fox protectively staring at the tree a blue light appearing before her eyes.
A flash of intense light bursts from the crystal tree, when it clears the form of Pegasus cradling a curled up fox paws to its chest stand upon a pedestal of stoned Foxfire Wood vines frozen themselves in stone. All the other vines begin to evaporate leaving nothing but cracked stone stumps upon 4 where strange glowing gem figurines now rest.
Back where Discord’s demolished throne rests Luna, Celestia, and Discord begin to pull themselves free of their withered potential death cocoons.
“My heart is telling me we just lost somepony dear to us, somepony we owe our lives to for saving us just now.” Celestia winces in deep worry as she flexes her wings to fly.
“We must hurry sister I too feel this dread!” Luna replies panicky.
“Don’t leave me here.” Discord gasps walking clumsily toward the sisters.
Luna beckons Discord to climb on in too much of a hurry to argue taking flight after her sister. Luna and her sister felt strange as they flew toward the cave of Harmony, instinct telling them the answers were there. Discords grip was as weak to Luna as she felt of herself.
When they arrived at the cave they found that they we’re not the only ones to come and all present wore expressions of deep sadness.
“The… they saved us Stewart Celestia.” The bloodied unicorn frowned lowering his head trying to hold in tears. “In the… the castle they helped me when I was trapped.”
“Show us where they are Shadow Boxer.” Luna asks softly.
Pointing into the cave Shadow Boxer then turns to his comrades and joining them in their collective sorrow sitting down. The two Stewarts and Discord entered the cave and found the sight of the stone bound travelers, and the site stabbed at their very cores.
“No… no this is not fair, they gave up their freedom to help us. We, who are but strangers to these souls.” Luna begins to sobs, turning to cry on her sisters shoulders.
“The little one came from a world beyond ours.” Celestia replies teary eyed as well. “They ran into this noble pony on a misadventure to protectively guide their people regarding a perilous discovery. Is this what they… they faced that so rattled them.”
Luna opened her eyes to look at the cave more closely.
“I do not recognize these stone plants, but It would seem the Tree of Harmony fought back!” Luna snarls with a scowl.
“They're Plunder Seed seedlings.” Discord replies somberly.
“You tried to steal the power of Harmony!” Celestia squeaks with an air of shock at Discord’s admission.
“It not just his fault sister, my actions… our actions are as much of the cause for this outcome.” Luna replied solemnly. “If we had gone your way things would have turned out differently, though I will not say they would have been better or worse.”
Four days passed before the consequences became clear with all three showing signs of mortality as well as diminished powers.
“Sister have you given thought to the idea passing the art of Moon Empathy to another?” Celestia asks. “I myself have began the search for apprentices.”
“Tis a hard choice as well, but I cannot deny the necessity of a search. They will have to learn to cope with these new hardships; I would have preferred to not force them along our paths.” Luna replies. “How is Discord coping?”
“He’s heartbroken, but more so for his folly. You were right sister, even he has to deal with unintended consequences.” Celestia replies saddened her head down.
“Let us address the gathering then.” Luna sighs and the two head for the balcony.
23 year displaced from this event near a jungle like river deep in the Everfree, two injured living beings sit alone in the wilderness.
“Ahhgh…” A female human screams weekly having just jabbed herself with an adrenaline epee-pen, before she falls back on her back. She is 4’9” with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and is currently bleeding from the head and her left arm.
A pale red earth pony with deep red spots and a yellow brown mane stands over the human. They both are covered with strange thorny vines.
“Hey… you Peoria is it?” The human whispers and weakly pulls a bag of red liquid from her pack, removing a cap from one end of a plastic cord. She gestures to her right arm. “Can you… Please stick this needle in here?”
The stunned pony wordlessly complies and pushes the needle into the arm with a little guiding from the Human.
“Just… hold that… up… just like that.” The humans smiles lightly before passing out.
“Hey… are you awake?” Peoria asks timidly, but when the human dose not answer she shrieks. “Somepony help… HELP!”