Moonstruck's heart fluttered as she landed on the sand. It didn't quite feel like sand, but she couldn't place what it was. She smiled. While anypony else would have seen a dark, foreboding jungle stretched before them, she got an overwhelming sense of welcome, like something deep within was calling her home. Without hesitation, she plunged into the vegetation.
The dense jungle quickly gave way. On the other side of what must have only been a few feet of flora, was a vast field that looked as though it shouldn't have even fit within the confines of the island. While the ground supported her, it seemed to ebb and flow like water, and constantly shifted between pastel colors, similarly to Aunt Celestia's mane. In the sky danced a pair of great orbs, like the sun and moon, one of gold and the other silver.
“Woooooow,” Moonstruck gasped lightly as she took a few tentative steps forward. She wobbled as her mind told her she shouldn't be able to walk on the ground the way it was, but despite whatever machinations the floor may have had, it couldn't throw her down. Not even when it formed into a tunnel and she walked fully upside down.
As she looked around, Moonstruck failed to see any more permanent features of the field. Little forests would pop up, then rot away to dust in moments as if their entire lifespan were played in fast motion. A wayward cloud would occasionally appear in the air and spit almost anything except water at the ground, which would vanish in a puff as it struck the surface.
Moonstruck gasped and fluttered backwards as she almost walked off a cliff. The first solid landmark she'd run into, a huge, unchanging hole in the ground. It seemed to have a yard of solid turquoise grass around it that sat flat. To gaze upon it was nearly as disorientating as her initial attempt to walk. Cautiously, she peered over the edge into the hole. There was something aglow at the bottom. She took a deep breath and plunged herself in.
The pit was deep. Far deeper than she had initially thought, and save for the glow near the bottom, completely dark. Moonstruck lit her horn, just in time to catch a pool of water that rapidly rushed to greet her. She flared out her wings and quickly stopped herself, then gently lowered one of her feet to the surface. The water did not yield to her weight, and instead acted like a trampoline. A wave of blue light shot out from where she'd touched the water and illuminated the vast cave structure. The water turned a solid, glowing blue while the roof of the cavern was cast in it's eerie glow.
Moonstruck took a few steps, as if to test the water. As she walked, the water began to ripple, and the color swirled around her, and a large, clear circle appeared in the blue light before her. She slowly laid down and gazed into the pool. It seemed as though it was waiting for input.
Moonstruck blinked, first her large eye, then her small one. “What is this?” she whispered. The pool suddenly waved and gently shimmered, then became still, and showed an image of Moonstruck, being observed from elsewhere in the cavern. The image moved to replicate her as she sat up to see who was watching her, although it was on a second or two delay.
“Oh, cool!” Moonstruck said, as she leaned on her hand. She flicked her tail about like an impatient filly. “Can you show me other things? Like, like...What's Auntie doing right now?” Moonstruck silently chided herself as the image of Celestia appeared and did exactly what one would expect her to do at around sundown. “Alright, can you show me what she was doing... three hours ago?”
The pool swirled again.
“...and be certain to be careful upon approach. The last thing we wish to do is frighten her,” Celestia dictated to one of her many assistants. The unicorn eagerly wrapped the scroll up and floated it near Philomena, who turned it to ash with a flick of her wing. Almost as the letter vanished, another appeared in a puff of green smoke. Celestia caught the letter with her magic and read. “Twilight is requesting support in Ponyville. She knows a spell that can revert the changes, but they're happening too quickly for her to keep up. Sunflower, gather a detachment of our strongest wizards and send them to her aid.”
“Okay, so you can see in the past.” Moonstruck said. “Where did I come from?”
The pool paused for a moment, before a blue ring rippled from the center. The scene changed with it to the royal gardens, but they were different. The ground was a baby-blue and white checkerboard pattern, the walls melted like chocolate in the sun, when it it was out, and plants and statues ran about in a heaving panic of their sudden mobilization. Two statues that weren't looking where they were going slammed into each other, which proceeded to grow into a pile-up of increasingly ridiculous proportions that included, near the end, an anvil, a grand piano, a tree that came out of nowhere, and a building. As a cruise ship that made the Night Shine look like a dingy flew from nowhere to join the chaos, a bright light glowed from the center.
A rather loud bang... no, a cry, rang from the pile. The light grew into a bright flash. When it subsided, baby Moonstruck slowly descended into her bush and fell asleep. Any sign of the chaos that had caused her to happen had been completely evaporated, as a large circle of grass appeared against the checkers. This didn't last long, but as the chaos crept to reclaim its territory, a rainbow-colored flash of light blotted out the view.
Moonstruck tapped her fang as she mulled this over. So she had been born from chaos. While this was Discord's fault, she wondered idly if he'd orchestrated any of that. Another disturbing thought crept into her mind; If the timing of events had been just a little bit off, she might not of been born at all. Also funny was how her appearance had completely calmed the chaos in her immediate area. If she had been all of that chaos given form, and it stripped the land back to it's natural state, did that mean that order was the way this world was, with any chaos being a simple blemish on it's perfect white canvas?
“No,” Moonstruck thought, “that makes chaos sound like a bad thing.” She sighed as she thought of another question for the pool. “What happened to the draconequines?”
The scene changed to a laboratory. A dozen or more unicorns worked on what looked like a brass cube in the center of the lab. Moonstruck instinctively pulled away from the image of the cube; Something about it seemed wrong. It was too perfectly shaped.
“Sir, art thou certain this shall help us defeat Discord?” one of the lab assistants said to a pony with a small beard growing on his chin.
“Absolutely. If my theory is correct, it should at least make it so our magic works normally on him.” The bearded pony replied.
“What of the sister's quest?” The lab assistant asked.
“Chasing pony tails. If we see them again, they shall be empty hooved. Mark my words.”
“Sir!” The cube began to hum violently and glow.
“Excellent...wait. Something's wrong. What is it set to track?”
“It isn't set for anything. It's acting on it's own!”
“Impossib...!” every other sound in the scene was drowned out by the deafening roar of the cube as it vacated the lab.
The scene changed to somewhere out in the field above. A draconequus with a monkey tail, a pony leg, an elephant leg, and a bat wing and a bird wing for arms hung by his tail from a tree. Another draconequus, with a rainbow snake of some kind as a lower body, one arm like a frog and the other like a turtle's foreleg, reclined on the tree beneath.
“So what do you think of what Discord's up to?” the hanging one said idly.
“He's abusing his power. Not like any of us can stop him though. Did you hear what he did to Mania? Poor orderly never stood a chance.”
“Speaking of orderlies, did you hear what happened to Giggle?”
“No, what?”
Moonstruck didn't get the chance to hear what happened to Giggle. The cube from before suddenly slammed into the inverted draconequus. He vanished in a gray puff, and left nothing behind. The cube hovered for a moment, then violently attacked the other one, to the exact same result. It flew around the island, seemingly vaporizing any draconequus it met. After a while, it flew to one draconequus, who was unmistakably Discord.
“Well, you've done me a favor, little pony parlor trick. I was wondering how I was going to deal with my people.” The cube flew at Discord, and bounced off his forehead to what seemed like no effect. Discord cracked his neck. “How adorable,” he commented as he lifted his eagle claw. Purple fire erupted from it and surrounded the cube, which suddenly and violently shot through the ground. It left a perfectly round hole.
Moonstruck gulped. “What happened to the cube?” she asked.
The circle of the pool suddenly expanded so she was inside it. It began to lower like an elevator. As they descended, the temperature began to rise, and the glow Moonstruck had seen before became brighter. Suddenly, the water she stood on became like water again, and she sank through.
The chamber Moonstruck fell into seemed to be naturally formed, and also extremely bright and extremely hot. She began to perspire ridiculously. The drops of sweat that escaped her body evaporated in a puff of steam before they even touched the ground. There was a organic-looking growth on her right, which seemed to be the source of the glow. It was large, bigger than she was, and was shaped almost like an obelisk. She cautiously looked around for the cube.
There was a disgusting squelching noise as the growth suddenly burst open. The cube, although much larger than it had seemed in the pool, floated menacingly in the center of the room. It hesitated for a moment, then flew towards her.