//------------------------------//
// Chapter 0 - Missing 
// Story: The Earth Ponies 
// by RomanCandle 
//------------------------------//

The grayness did not change.

The three splashes of color that were three mares, did, however.

The orange one gradually lifted her head, and shortly after the purple one stopped shaking. 

The Pony in the middle, pink and blue, took a moment to register this. She cleared her throat, and her voice came out a little hoarse.

"I'm guessing we went through the same thing."

Her companions shuddered again, and she squeezed them a little tighter. A deep breath, and Firelock spoke up.

"I really, really don't want to do that again."

Tornado nodded and, despite shivering again, managed a smirk. "Lesson learned - don't accept gifts from strangers."

Half Note grinned a little back. "Especially if they're magic Spirit snakes."

Firelock nodded, her face set in a grim line. "So...what do we do now?"

They looked at each other, and Half Note bit her lip. "Well, he said he was going to show us what the world was like without Earth Pony magic, right? All we have to do is figure out what's missing."

Tornado shuddered again. "But he took away everything."

Firelock furrowed her brow. "At first, I guess. But...but now we have something, right? We can see things, and actually observe stuff." She wiggled her hoof into the ground. "We can safely say that Earth Pony magic doesn't have anything to do with...well, dirt?"

Half Note wrinkled her nose. "I think calling this stuff dirt is an insult to dirt."

Firelock snorted. "Well, if it's not dirt, then what is it?"

The Earth Pony shrugged. "I dunno. Makes me think more of dust, I guess? Like, dirt is different colors of brown, with rocks and stuff innit. This is just...well, dusty."

The Unicorn frowned. "Well, it's the ground, whatever you want to call it. What else do we have?" She looked up. "We've got a sky, but no clouds or Sun or Moon or Stars..."

Tornado snorted. "Pretty sure Earth Ponies don't move the Sun - that's an Alicorn's job."

Firelock glowered at her. Half Note rubbed her chin. "Well, I mean, there's no Sun, but there is light coming from somewhere - I cast a shadow, see?" She waved her hoof at the ground, which was indeed darker beneath her. "So, well, that's something, right?"

Firelock frowned. "Well, I guess so. We've got light and shadow - it's just like night and day got smushed together and all the color seeped out."

Tornado Bolt looked up. "Yeah, all the colors are gone. What about that?"

Half Note wrinkled her nose. "Well, gray isn't a great color, but it is still kind of one...lemme try something." She began to pound her hooves into the dirt, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth as she jumped about.

A few moments of her pronking and grunting was all it took for Firelock to ask. "What are you trying to do, exactly?"

She stopped and caught her breath. "Trying...to put color back into things? It seemed like a good idea." She turned a darker pink.

Firelock sighed. "Well, it was the best we had, I guess - but there's a lot more than just the color missing." She swept a hoof at the endless gray desert around them. "Maybe color is a part of it, but I don't think it's the whole picture."

"Ha, I get it."

"What? Tornado - that wasn't a joke."

"Sounded like one to me."

"That would have been painting, featherbrain."

"Pfft, you paint a picture, it works."

Half Note played in the dust while her friends bickered. She grinned a little at their antics, but slowly focused more and more on her doodles. It was just squiggly lines, at first. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and she had sorely missed being able to see things. But little loops and swirls became shapes, became things that she missed. Things like trees, flowers, and Ponies. She wrinkled her nose.

Firelock threw up her hooves in exasperation. "Well it doesn't really matter, Tornado, because we're in some wasteland, and we have no idea how to get home!" She gnashed her teeth. "We can't even figure out what we were trying to because everything is gone!"

Tornado folded her ears back. "It's...It's not that bad, 'Lock -"

The Unicorn snarled. "Yes, yes it is, Tornado! Where are we? Is this Equestria? Where is everyone, and everything then, huh?" She kicked at the dirt. "I don't think Laccarentia was like the other Spirits we talked to - I think he was more like, like a monster; like Nightmare Moon, or...or Discord!"

YOU DARE?

The serpent in question suddenly returned, needle teeth bared and coils occupying every inch of space that wasn't otherwise occupied. They slid and shifted against each other, spines clinking like glass needles and the sliding of smooth, scaly skin an eerie cacophony. His horns of black ice gleamed as he continued.

"NIGHTMARE MOON IS ONE THING - SO NEAR WERE HERE DESIRES TO MINE I MIGHT HAVE CALLED HER MY OWN. BUT DISCORD? THAT VILE WHELP AND I HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON. THE MERE THOUGHT THAT WE MIGHT BE ASSOCIATED DISGUSTS ME. I SEEK THE PEACE AND ORDER THAT EXISTED BEFORE MY BIRTH - THAT ABOMINATION SOUGHT TO DISRUPT EVERY INCH OF MY PARADISE."

Laccarentia tossed his head and hissed before continuing. "TWAS BAD ENOUGH TO BE BORN AND TO SUFFER THE INDIGNITIES OF MY SIBLINGS AND THEIR...CREATIONS - BUT I WAS GIVEN MY SHARE OF TIME, AND TOOK SOLACE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT ONE DAY ALL WOULD BE AS IT WAS ONCE MORE. BUT YEAR AFTER YEAR, FOR EONS, I HAVE BEEN DIMINISHED BY YOU AND YOURS, PUSHED TO THE SIDE AND MOCKED!" His teeth were bared, his gaping mouth showing the complete darkness within.

"ONCE THOSE WHO BREATHED HOPED ONLY TO ENDURE MY TIME AS I ENDURED THEIRS. BUT WITH EACH PASSING YEAR, THEY HAVE FLAUNTED MY IDEALS. YOU FEAST AND CELEBRATE - " He wailed, dragging his claws across his gaunt skull. " - MY TIME WAS TO BE A TIME OF REST, BUT YOU PONIES MAKE SUCH NOISE, IT NEVER STOPS!"

He wailed and thrashed and gnashed his teeth, and the three Ponies held each other and shook as his spines rattled and legs skittered. As suddenly as his tirade had begun, however, it stopped - and Laccarentia was nowhere to be seen. To be heard was another mattter.

"I AM DONE WITH YOU CHILDREN. FIND THE YOUNG MOTHER AND YOUR WAY BACK, OR DON'T. I CARE NOT FOR THE AFFAIRS OF MORTALS."

Half Note gaped and stammered. "But - but how do we find her? We don't even know where we are!"

Silence answered her. She shouted. "Laccarentia! Please!"

The answer was the same.

She screamed.