The six friends made their way to Griffonstone, most of them determined to end the mission as quickly as possible in order to improve the lives of those around them and get back to their own. Rainbow Dash, as always, was flying a few metres above their heads, performing the occasional loop or roll to stave off the boredom due to the monotony of the long path upon which they were travelling.
Along the way, Pinkie Pie had attempted to persuade her friends to play games with her to break the tedium of the journey; these ranged from “I Spy With My Little Eye” to “I Spy With My Medium-sized Eye” to “I Spy With My Big Eye” to “Where Did This Third Eye Come From” to the extremely entertaining “I Spy With - THUD.” The thud in question was the sound of her unconscious body hitting the floor, the result of one of the many rocks on a nearby cliff face dislodging itself from the hard surface and striking the pink pony atop the head.
Thus, carrying Pinkie, the group gradually made its way to the outer limits of the griffon kingdom. Rainbow Dash had spent some time along the way wondering how her old friend had been doing, and whether her quest to spread kindness to the other griffons in their small settlement had been successful. Rarity, on the other hoof, was only interested in sprucing up the village in any way that she could; from what Rainbow and Pinkie had told her, there were precious few supplies in the area, and even fewer individuals with fashion sense. The attire of the citizens sounded absolutely awful, as if they were unable to distinguish between rags and cloth. To her, this state of affairs was simply unacceptable, perhaps even positively dreadful. She had resolved to decide on the correct adjectives once she saw the place for herself.
She didn’t have long to wait.
They were almost to the top of the winding mountain path that led directly to what one would call the “entrance” of Griffonstone, had there been one in a recognizable state. Rainbow flew slightly upwards and ahead of her friends in order to get a peek at the town. And to say that she had beaten Applejack.
Strangely, Applejack had largely kept to herself throughout the entirety of the journey, missing opportunities to insert a snarky remark into the middle of a conversation, talk about her family or spout one of her trademarked “Countryisms™." She seemed to be deep in thought regarding something, an activity largely left to Twilight or Rarity by the other ponies in the group.
And she was. Deep in thought, I mean. She was… ruminating, that’s a good word. She was ruminating about the thoughts and concerns she’d been having since she had arrived at the castle that day. The strange, seemingly random feeling of dread she had felt long before any trouble had even been reported by the Map. She had thought, nay, believed that one of her friends was going to die that very day, and the feeling had only intensified as the day dragged on and they neared Griffonstone. She couldn’t explain it, but she was always certain of her instincts, and this one was not in any way subtle.
Rainbow noticed her friend and occasional competitor’s lack of enthusiasm on her ascent. She thought about the pros and cons of abandoning her lead position, decided that whatever was bothering one of her friends was more important than getting to the top first and settled next to Applejack.
“So, how’s it going Applejack?” She watched and waited for an answer. “Applejack? Applejack! Hey, Applejack!”
Applejack blinked, as if awakening and realizing her current location and activity. Seeing Rainbow awaiting a reply to a question that she had not heard, she responded the only way she knew how.
“Huh? Oh, sorry Rainbow. What was it ya said? My head was in the clouds fer a bit there.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Rainbow replied, “You’ve been acting weird like that ever since we first set off. Normally you love to talk to us, so what gives? Is something wrong?”
Applejack wondered briefly if confiding in her friend was wise, but abandoned that concern soon after it appeared; this was her friend, Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty and second most dependable pony in all of Equestria. How could she doubt her? But, in the same vein, how could she tell her about her concerns without seeming paranoid?
“Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what’s botherin’ me. I just got a feelin’ that won’t go away, ya know? Like… like one o’ my friends ain’t gonna be okay after this trip’s over.”
Rainbow was about to respond, right up until she felt a freezing chill crawl along her spine; it was as if a centipede had managed to dig under her skin and was running laps on her vertebral column, unceasingly demanding her attention. She was hesitant to turn away from a worried friend, but she needed to assess the danger. She took to the air to see over the heads of the others. They had stopped, obviously sharing an unspoken agreement on one point.
Something was wrong.
Not wrong in the sense of being incorrect, like a wrong answer or option. It was wrong in the sense of being so off, like a pony clad in a black cloak wearing a white smiling mask. Superficially, the town looked the way it had when Rainbow and Pinkie had left. Actually, no, that’s incorrect: it looked better. There were signs of recent repairs performed on certain buildings and houses, as well as some new structures that were quite obviously newly erected. By all accounts, the town was prospering in its own simple, charmingly rural way. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the griffons; rather, it was the lack thereof.
They were gone. It was as if every griffon living in Griffonstone had simultaneously flown off and left all of their belongings behind. Stalls and stands stood alone, occasionally sporting a ripped cloth covering that suggested a collision or struggle. Carts were left standing upright, upended or lying on their sides in the middle of pathways or on the edges. Some could even be seen lying far from any road, sticking out of the roofs of buildings or a few hundred metres outside of the town’s boundaries, as if the griffons had taken off while carrying them and only shrugged them off well after they were in the air. Houses were seen with open doors, doors being supported by only one hinge, doors lying on the ground after being blown off of their hinges, even walls with holes that suggested some individuals had been so desperate to leave that they had burrowed through when they couldn’t find an entrance fast enough.
The friends looked on in confusion. As a collective, they wondered what could have caused so frantic a flight: was it an animal attack? A military assault? Mass hysteria?
As individuals, their thoughts were not much better.
Rainbow Dash wondered what had happened to Gilda, and whether her foalhood friend had escaped intact.
Twilight wondered what sort of anomaly could spook such a proud race into fleeing so suddenly, or whether they were trying to escape at all.
Rarity wondered whether this was the work of troublemakers such as the Diamond Dogs, and how the griffons were faring.
Fluttershy wondered whether whatever it was was coming back, how dangerous it could be, and exactly what it was.
Pinkie Pie wondered about nothing, for she was still lying on Applejack’s back, unconscious.
Applejack just stared, for she knew that this was part of the reason that she had been dreading the trip. Now, she hoped more than ever that her fears would not be realized.
The small group stalked silently through the streets of Griffonstone, checking each building along the way to find any of the griffons that may have been left behind. They continued to cautiously make their way towards high ground in order to get a full scope of the land and spot any survivors of the event. Upon reaching an intersection, the six decided to split up into pairs in order to more effectively cover a larger area while still being protected from any foes that they may encounter along the way. Two were wary of this plan, but it was carried through for the sake of urgency.
One of the pairs had been chosen to travel along a road that led to the southernmost end of the settlement. They stayed close together, only occasionally separating in order to scope out a house or check under one of the few stalls still left standing after the exodus of the innocents in the settlement, yet even then they always stayed within sight of each other while scanning the length of the dilapidated streets. They remained silent, communicating only through gestures and expressions, hoping that no one would hear their approach. If anyone were here, they would much rather a confrontation ended nonviolently; it would make everything much easier for them.
Upon reaching the boundary of Griffonstone, the pair made its way back to the intersection that served as a meeting point for the six. They rejoined with their allies and continued onwards to the highest point in Griffonstone. There was very little conversation, and much of it consisted of the odds of survival for any of the griffons that may have been left behind in the mad dash to leave.
They eventually reached the top of the pathway and scoped out the town in every direction. What they saw in equal parts shocked and pleased them: there were six mares at the entrance to Griffonstone who stood dumbstruck at the signs of pandemonium that they saw before them. They seemed terribly unprepared for any disaster outside of a chipped hoof or a short fall, and these observers would use that to their advantage. First, however, they needed to report to their superiors and ready the troops for battle.
However short and bloody it may be.
The six Elements stood directly outside Griffonstone, apprehensive of any activity that may have been occurring at that moment within its boundaries. While they were quite certain that it was deserted, they had all been wrong before; being wrong on this point could have some dire consequences, and none of them wanted to see their friends hurt.
Fluttershy was the first to speak up.
“It looks so scary. D-do we have to go in?”
Twilight, ever rational, responded, “Well, this is obviously what we’re here for. Though I am wondering why we would be called here if it’s not really a friendship lesson that needs to be learnt: I mean, there doesn’t seem to be as much as a single griffon nearby.”
“Yes. Well, we would do well to be on the lookout for any suspicious characters on our way through this area. After all, safety first,” Rarity added.
With that, the group made their way into the small town. They moved around a cart that seemed to have been thrown or launched quite violently through the air only to come to rest against the wall of what seemed to be a building used to deal with currency of some kind. Rarity assumed that it was bits by what was left of the design of the large sign hanging above the entrance. Applejack, curious, peered closer at the goods that had fallen off of the cart; they appeared to be scones of some sort, though she could not discern their flavour by smell alone, as she was rather unaccustomed to griffon cuisine. Or most cuisine that had nothing to do with life on the farm, apples or heavy doses of sugar, courtesy of Pinkie Pie and the Cakes. Regardless, they seemed to be made with time and effort, and she deemed it only fair to comment on the satisfactory nature of the work ethic of the baker, whoever it may have been.
“Well now, these look pretty good. I wonder who baked ‘em.”
“What looks good?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“These scones lyin’ ‘round this here cart. I was just wonderin’ who baked ‘em.”
“Huh,” Rainbow responded. She seemed to be thinking about something, so Applejack decided not to bother her. Rather, she joined the others in examining the nearest building that most resembled a house-like structure and decided to ask the obvious question.
“So, who’s goin’ in first?”
Rarity responded, “Well, don’t you think that that may be misconstrued as us attempting to make off with any valuables that may be inside? After all, if our experiences with griffons have been any indication, they are by nature greedy, suspicious, cynical creatures. In Ponyville it may be fine to just trot into the home of a friend or even a random stranger, but I believe that we may be required to operate by different rules here.”
“Yeah, ya may be right,” Applejack admitted, “So, what’re we gonna do then? I dunno ‘bout anypony else, but I don’t much like our chances of findin’ someone else ‘round here if our initial impressions are anythin’ ta go by. Maybe we should explore for a little bit, ya know; just enough ta do a once over and then leave ta find out from surroundin’ settlements ‘bout what happened here, maybe collect some clues in a safer area.”
“That seems like a good plan,” Twilight replied, “So, what are we going to do after that?”
“Well, shucks Twilight. I didn’t think that far ahead. Horse apples, we don’t even know what we’re supposed to be doin’ here. I was just throwin’ somethin’ out there, seein’ what sticks.”
“Alright, fair enough. I think it’s a good idea; we’ll search through the area briefly and then work out our next move from there.”
With that, the six friends made their way through the town, periodically stopping to search a potential hiding place for a terrified griffon, disappointed each time when every crevice or hole turned out to hold nothing more than dust bunnies and spiders. They pressed on, determined to see the job to its completion: lives may have been counting on them, and they would not disappoint.
However, the deeper they got, the more paranoid Applejack got. She would have sworn that she was constantly seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, yet every time she turned around there stood nothing moving, merely a stationary building or the occasional tall grass blade swaying contentedly in the breeze. Her friends were starting to take notice, but resisted the temptation to tell her that there was nothing to worry about. After all, nopony could guarantee that.
So they advanced on, reaching the middle of the town shortly after having left the entrance. They decided to take a quick rest to calm their nerves and chat for a bit about mundane, unimportant topics.
“Just how hard was she hit on the head?” Rainbow asked, gesturing towards the smiling pink pony perched unconsciously upon Applejack’s back.
“Honestly, I don’t know. It seemed to be a large rock, but nothing that would warrant such a long bout of unconsciousness,” Twilight replied.
“Maybe it had more to do with the height?” Rarity suggested.
“Oh, I hope Pinkie gets better soon,” Fluttershy added.
And, just to round off the conversation, Applejack threw in her two bits.
“Do ya hear that?”
The others looked towards Applejack and began to strain their ears to pick up on any sounds that may have been out of the ordinary. The pros of farm work far outweighed the cons as far as Applejack was concerned, and this was one instance where it could be seen in action. While ponies who lived in towns and cities learned to tune out ambient noise and sounds that seemed unimportant, it worked against them when they needed to listen for unusual quiet or gradual sounds in an area: they tended to tune it out as ambient noise. Applejack, on the other hoof, while unable to live in a city due to her tendency to pay attention to every sound, sight and smell that came her way, fared far better in a remote environment than the average pony simply because she ignored less and listened more.
Or at least that’s what she believed, and if I’ve learned a thing about Applejack, it’s this: do not attempt to contradict her beliefs, or you will be fought to a standstill. That is, if you have strength enough to stand once it’s over.
Anyway: gradually, her friends managed to pick up on a faint droning sound, sort of like a kazoo that’s hooked up to a leafblower on its lowest setting. It was difficult to hear above the ordinary sounds of nature quietly singing their symphony, but there was one thing that made it easier to hear: it was getting louder. Gradually; so gradually, in fact, that the four mares barely picked on the steady increase in volume, but it was undeniably there. They picked themselves up from the ground and looked to the sky. Rainbow Dash and Twilight flew up to take a closer look while the other four stayed behind to hear what the two winged ponies had to say, occasionally shooting awkward glances towards Fluttershy, who apparently had forgotten that she could fly again.
Twilight and Rainbow returned shortly, looking as confused as the ponies on the ground. Rainbow opted to report on their observations made while scouting.
“There’s nothing up there.”
Perplexed, the ponies looked around to identify the source of the sound, hoping that it had emerged from one of the many objects or buildings in their vicinity. They searched everywhere, if only to obtain some sense of certainty regarding their current level of safety; however grim it may have been. They ambled cautiously around the area, occasionally stopping to peer off into the distance or check the interior of a structure to ensure that the droning was not coming from a nearby object or creature.
The sound stopped.
They began to become worried, the source of the droning remaining unknown. They stumbled around awkwardly placed objects, searching for something concrete. Anything at that point, really. They did not wish to be caught unawares in so unguarded an area.
On a whim, Applejack placed her ear to the ground. Her face became a mask of concentration as she attempted to listen through the amplified clopping of hooves on dirt and find a sound that could be described as recognizable amid all the noise travelling through the floor. As she listened on her frown lifted, gradually replaced by an expression of worry, then of fear, then of terror. She lifted her head and turned to face her friends, managing to shout out one urgent instruction.
“RUN!”
No sooner had the word left her mouth than the ground exploded into a violent ocean of black and green that rocked the town to its foundations and threatened to engulf the mares where they stood.
The changelings rocketed above buildings, shot along pathways and thundered down sewage lines: absolutely all locations needed to be searched in order to find the Elements of Harmony. They had lost track of the six moments after they had erupted from the ground, and they were not eager to disappoint their leader. After all, she expected results.
Unfortunately for them, Twilight had been quick on the draw. As soon as Applejack had started to appear worried, Twilight had started charging up a teleport spell. Thanks to her the six mares were safely holed up in the town library, working on a strategy to escape unscathed as the changelings approached their position.
Well, they would have been, had it not been for the fact that they were really six minus one.
“Twilight, you egghead! Where’s Fluttershy?” Rainbow demanded of the lavender alicorn.
“I-I… I… I don’t know! She was with the rest of us, right? She didn’t wander off or anything, or at least not as far as I could tell!”
“Twilight, I swear, you better start praying that Fluttershy’s okay, because if she’s not then there will be a price to pay, a very steep price, one that you will not be able to afford. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I… Okay. Listen to me Rainbow, please. I was sure that I had maintained a line of sight with her the whole time that I was charging up the spell.”
Rarity looked towards the two, her expression one of horror.
“This wasn’t the…”
“No, it wasn’t the new one. I would only ever use that one if I had no other option. But, the rule still stands: in order for a spell to be cast to completion, one has to maintain virtual line of sight with the subject until discharge. I have to assume that a changeling or piece of rubble blocked my virtual line of sight with Fluttershy.”
Rainbow had calmed down fractionally, looking as if she only wanted to strangle a changeling instead of hurt Twilight.
“Fine, fine then. What are we gonna do, huh? Go charging in and end those bugs for trying to hurt us?”
Rarity interrupted the conversation to give a more promising option.
“Darling, relax. I’m sure that if we just calm down and think of an appropriate solution, we will be able to - hang on.”
She performed a quick three-hundred and sixty degree rotation, turning back to face Twilight after her inspection was done. She was visibly distressed.
“Where’s Applejack?”
“Applejack?” Twilight turned around to look in the other direction. “She’s right…”
Twilight had turned to point out where Applejack had been relative to her position, yet there wasn’t an orange farmer there. She could only see Pinkie’s unconscious form peacefully lying upon the brickwork, smiling away.
“What? Bu-but I-I-I-”
“Twilight,” Rainbow spoke dangerously softly, “Find them. Now.”
Fluttershy was hurt. She was sure of that much. The pain kept her from being sure of much else. She thought that she was surrounded by changelings, but she was also aware of the possibility that it was a hallucination. After all, she was losing quite a bit of blood.
She looked down to her stomach, just barely being able to make out a spike or pole of some sort emerging through her fur, though it was hard to tell when her eyes had blurred over from crying so much. As far as she could tell, she had been launched into the air when the black and green things that looked like changelings had blasted through the floor, and then her world had become a lot more painful around her stomach area. It wasn’t so bad, though; in fact, the pain was becoming a bit duller, and the world seemed a bit more cheerful. Though her vision was beginning to darken around the edges.
She began to wonder if a nap would make her feel better. She wasn’t all too sure of what was wrong, only that something was amiss. She looked back to her stomach. Oh, right. That. Well, it was a problem that could easily be fixed.
She began to press her wings against the wall behind her, attempting to exert enough force to slide forwards along the spike until she reached the end. She reached her hooves forwards, grasped the end of the pole, and began to pull herself along. Soon, the end of the pole disappeared into her stomach and emerged from her back, sending her plummeting to the ground below.
She landed with a dull thud on the rocky pathway and slowly rolled onto her side to observe her surroundings.
From what she could make out, an orange blob was fighting with some black blobs who had formed an alliance with the green lines. The black and green armies were settling down to reevaluate their fighting strategy, as it did not seem to be working on the orange blob very well. She idly wondered if any of them had attempted to resolve their conflicts over some tea and cookies.
Applejack had exited the library and was charging along one of the pathways that had survived the changeling onslaught, searching frantically for Fluttershy while battling her way through the sea of chitinous bodies that attempted to halt her progress as she neared the site of their escape.
She reached an intersection, bucked a changeling clear through a wall, turned right and galloped on. She knew where Fluttershy was, and she was determined not to fail her.
She jumped clear over three more changelings, introduced the face of another to a wall so hard that its grandparents winced in their graves, hopped on the heads of various individuals to reach one of the rooftops and mounted the back of another to use it as a makeshift transport when it attempted to fly past her.
She tugged back on what she assumed were its antennae in order to avoid a building, climbing in altitude to get above the horde. Once at a safe height, Applejack peered downwards in an effort to spot her unfortunate friend.
She saw nothing but black, green, a few building rooftops, some grey stone and - there, a patch of yellow.
She manipulated her hapless carrier into a nosedive and hopped off at the last second before an unpleasant meeting between herself and the ground, allowing her changeling mount to be reduced to a green smear outside what was left of a family owned pastry shop.
She bucked her way through a few more changelings that were attempting to provide a barrier that would halt her advance towards her injured friend.
Upon reaching her, she briefly turned away.
Fluttershy had two holes on her body, one on her back to the left of her spine, and the other near her stomach just below her ribcage. She was bleeding profusely from her wounds and staring blankly ahead, mumbling some non-sequiturs about blobs and tea parties. The blood from her wounds had pooled into a small puddle that surrounded her limp body where she lay, and her fur was stained crimson on her legs and barrel. She seemed to be slipping away even as Applejack watched; she gently lifted her up, placed her on her back, turned to face the library, and ran for all she was worth.
Twilight blasted through the head of a changeling with a disintegration spell as the three and a body continued their search for Applejack.
Apparently, Chrysalis had finally realized something important about all-out combat: aim to kill. The changelings weren’t playing nicely like they had at the wedding. None of them were waiting for an opportunity to capture the four or show off their shape-shifting abilities by transforming into a foal with a pegleg and eyepatch or some other ridiculously arbitrary feat. Their queen had made it clear that they were to kill the Elements of Harmony, and kill them they would; they did not want to have to confront the consequences of failure.
Rarity dodged a blast of green magic directed at her purple mane, stopped to frown at her would-be attacker and retaliated by telekinetically smashing the drone into a wall. She looked up to Rainbow Dash, who had just sent one of the soldiers crashing through the roof of an establishment that she was sure had been important to someone once upon a time, but was barely holding together now.
They continued their assault on the enemy army, gradually making progress in a direction that they hoped was in Applejack and Fluttershy’s direction.
Twilight was slammed into a wall by a soldier, slumping onto the ground in pain. The offender approached to score another hit and got blasted through the abdomen for his troubles, not realizing that alicorns are kinda powerful.
Other changelings attempted to capitalize on Twilight’s weakened state, diving into the holes in the floor from their initial emergence and resurfacing somewhere close to her, only to be fended off by Rainbow Dash divebombing them or picking them up to launch them into other buildings, and Rarity making use of her telekinesis and light spells to stun and throw any changeling hapless enough to be caught in her field.
As for Pinkie: she was bouncing around like a rubber ball on a concrete road, unconsciously slamming into changelings at forces that either killed them on impact or stunned them long enough to be finished off by one of her friends. Never before had they been happier that Pinkie was just being Pinkie.
As the four struggled on to make their way to their helpless comrades, they were shocked to see Applejack bobbing and weaving through the crowd to get to them, dodging all of the hits meant for Fluttershy and shrugging off any that managed to reach her. As soon as she saw her friends, she gestured for them to follow her; Twilight got up and galloped off, Rarity took off after her and Rainbow grabbed Pinkie Pie at the apex of her next arc, zooming after her friends.
Applejack led them to one of the holes and immediately jumped in, landing in one of a series of tunnels that resembled a rabbit warren, except scaled up immensely. Her friends hesitated initially, then dove after her when they saw the sheer volume of changelings taking up pursuit.
They landed quite heavily, paused to recover from the impact and spotted Applejack running down a branch of the network.
“Where… are… we… going?” Twilight struggled to get out between breaths as she futilely raced after the orange mare who was never less than ten metres ahead of the others. Rainbow felt that she could have caught up, but the ceiling of the tunnel that they were in was too low to allow flight of any kind.
“That don’t matter; we just gotta get away from them!” Applejack shouted back, “Twilight, we need for ya ta use that new spell o’ yours!”
“No, I promised that I would only use it in emergencies!”
“What does this look like?!” Applejack shouted in disbelief.
Twilight briefly considered their options: they could try to fight their way out, which - assuming they survived - would take too long, leaving no time to get Fluttershy medical care before she bled out.
They could try her classic teleportation spell, which would exhaust her before they were even halfway back to Ponyville. Multiple jumps within a town were easy, but multiple jumps between distant towns would have her collapse on the way, leaving them down three mares. That would make it far easier for the changelings to catch up with and overwhelm them, which would be rather unfortunate.
Or, they could risk the charging time and use a teleport that could get them to Canterlot in an instant. She could enlist the princesses for help, repelling Chrysalis and negating whatever danger the changeling queen may have posed.
There wasn’t really a choice.
“Okay, I’ll do it. Everypony get ready!”
Twilight began to charge up the spell and locked onto her friends. She selected a target destination and started to pour more and more magic into her horn, hoping against hope that nothing would go wrong.
Had the ponies met up with Murphy, they probably would have viciously… discussed the nature of his law and how inconvenient it was to everyone around him, realizing that all possibilities are likely to occur at some point regardless of probability.
I say this because, mere moments before the spell was completed, a section of the roof caved in as a swarm of changelings burst through to intercept the hapless travellers, separating Fluttershy and Applejack from the rest. And they advanced, an infinite mass of black upon black that refused to show the mares mercy, a thunderous cacophony of clicks and buzzes that moved endlessly forwards; a collective as unstoppable and relentless as a tidal wave is to an ant. And as the lead changeling was about to sink his fangs into Twilight’s neck, just when she could see how the light reflected off of the enamel of his immaculately sharpened and polished canines, her horn discharged.
And the six mares were no more.
Well, that’s not entirely accurate. They certainly still existed; they just briefly existed on a higher plane than everyone else. They were travelling through a world between worlds, an area that bypasses normal spacetime to allow instantaneous transportation across any distance, irrespective of possibility.
Due to the nature of the place, all of them were fully conscious and aware of their surroundings; even Pinkie and Fluttershy, who before had not been capable of perceiving their surroundings, were completely aware of everything going on around them.
After their flight, the otherworldly sensation of contentment that they felt in that space was most welcome. Fluttershy couldn’t feel her wounds, Applejack wasn’t focused on her worry, and Pinkie was finally fully conscious. The immaterial, fluid colours that flowed around them were beautiful, appearing as shards of condensed light glowing in all colours of the visible spectrum, and even some wavelengths that could not be considered real. Twilight began to wonder how many dimensions made up that multidimensional area, if it could even be described in terms understood by mortals. It was certainly operating on a higher level than the three dimensional reality to which they were accustomed.
Unfortunately, the peace would not last.
At that moment, the six Elements of Harmony were forced to confront the reality of the incomplete effects of the spell upon Applejack and Fluttershy. It started slowly, sort of like how a machine made to polish surfaces would gradually wear down on a spike or a nail. The first bits to disappear were the tips of their hooves; about the first half a centimetre or so. They then lost a bit of their muzzles, some of the length of their tails, a bit of their spines, and so forth. The areas affected were small, but the effects began to accelerate, the empty spaces steadily growing larger at a much higher rate.
Soon, they were being taken apart, dissected to become part of the ethereal matter making up the higher dimensional space that they had accessed. They were rapidly losing mass and volume, being reduced to pieces of tissue and bits of bone floating through that space until they reached their destination. Two things made this worse for their friends: firstly, they were literally unable to look away.
Due to their transcendence of space in that realm, everywhere they looked they could perceive Applejack and Fluttershy being viciously torn apart, even when they closed their eyes. The image of their friends having the flesh rent from their very bones refused to retreat, no matter how hard they attempted to pretend that that wasn’t what was taking place.
Then… then, there were the screams. Endlessly echoing, undying screams that spanned the length of eternity and resonated within every particle in the universe; pained screams that spoke of immense suffering and torture; relentless, inescapable screams that offered no mercy or comfort for their suffering. Even when they were gone, their screams remained to torment their companions. Even in death, they were still able to make their presence known. Even when they were no longer present, their voices could still be heard; a recursive loop that forever repeated one message broadcasted across all of spacetime, a message that would stand as a testament to their immense suffering. Dying in a land of all, existing in a world of none.
Two words.
“Help us.”
When the four remaining ponies emerged in Canterlot, they felt no comfort in reaching their destination safely. For some reason that they couldn’t remember, they felt worried. They were concerned about something. Something that they were sure was very important.
They began to wonder where their other two friends were, before remembering the matter of Chrysalis and the changelings. Yes, that was probably it. Chrysalis had been a formidable problem before, so she would have been their current concern. They needed to inform the princesses of the return of the changelings, as it was urgent news to everypony involved. If their previous engagement with those deceivers was any indication, they were not to be underestimated when it came to their cunning, trickery or ruthlessness.
Meeting up with Applejack and Fluttershy could wait until later. The changelings were very important business.