Warped Paths

by Morikain

Strange Beginnings

This is my first actual serious attempt at writing a fanfic so any advice is welcome. I know my initial pages suck, but usually pick up fairly quickly and smooth out... I was also a little frustrated with a few parts so I rushed over them to just get past it and onto the actual story rather than go into details everyone should already know.
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Sitting in my guild’s hall, I tap my foot impatiently as I wait for my friend to show up. We had agreed to do a quick run through of an area that I had been tipped had an undiscovered dungeon somewhere in it. Unfortunately, my friend had decided to run a little late as we were a half hour past the time we agreed to have left by. Luckily it wasn’t much longer before the doors to the guild hall opened and a large red scaled lizard like humanoid stepped through.

Seeing him I couldn’t help but laugh yet again as I saw what he was wearing. As a Shadow Knight, he was expected to be wearing plate armor and wielding a sword and shield. Instead, he was wearing a pale pink robe with a black cape and a top hat. “You know, it’s kind of surprising you are still around with the lack of protection you wear. A shield will only save you from so much, Lutano.”

Lutano bares his teeth in a grin at me and snorts. “You know I prefer this over the bulky armor, besides, I am still around aren’t I?”

I chuckle slightly and nod. “You are, and you do pretty well at keeping anything from getting to me for the most part. Though I think half your battles were won because your opponent was laughing too hard to properly fight.”

Lutano’s eyes narrow slightly. “There is nothing wrong with what I wear.”

I shrug slightly while a smirk appears on my face. “I’m not going judge either way, anyways, lets get this show on the road. I wanted to have left the guild hall a little while ago.” Slashing a hand through the air, a glowing green oval appears floating an inch above the floor and showing a snow covered trail. “We are going to be heading to the northern part of the Kylong Plains, that’s where the place is supposedly located.”

Deciding to let the earlier comment go, Lutano steps up beside me and nods. “Ok, anything specific I should know about this?”

I shake my head as I step forward. “I know just as much as you do about this place, that’s part of the reason I asked you along.” Stepping through the portal together, there was a sharp tugging sensation before the portal suddenly rippled and the tug turned into a falling sensation. Cursing as I realize a shockwave of unknown magic had disrupted the portal and thrown our destination off, I have just enough time to slide a glowing green shield with a skull in it’s center off my back before we are deposited in a room that looked like it belonged in ruins.

Beside me, Lutano drops to a knee as he lands and smoothly slides his shield off his back and onto his arm as he recovers. “What the hell was that, Sarik?”

I shake my head slightly as I scan the room. “I have no idea, as we entered the portal I felt some kind of blast of magical energy. It was large enough to disrupt my portal and threw our destination to apparently a random location… though this place must have a strong connection to nature if a Druid’s portal was able to open here.”

A loud pop makes both of us jump and we whirl towards the sound as we draw our swords. Standing on a raised platform with a throne just behind it was a dark blue armored unicorn… scratch that, the wings folded against it’s side makes it an alicorn. A second pop forces us back to back as a lavender unicorn with a purple mane that had a pink stripe through it appeared on our other side.

Before it realizes we are there, the unicorn yells at the alicorn. “You won’t win, Nightmare Moon!”

The alicorn laughs in response. “Do you truly think you can stop me? Without the Elements of Harmony you don’t have near the strength you would need.”

In response, the unicorn merely lowers her head as her horn starts to glow and she charges. When the alicorn responds in kind, I quickly sheath my sword and raise the now free hand as a brown glow surrounds it. “Hold!” As the word echo’s around the room, large roots burst from the ground beneath the two equine and bind them to the floor. Letting the glow fade from my hand I frown. Turning to Lutano, I notice out of the corner of my eye that there are five orbs where the alicorn had teleported in with symbols etched into the center of them. Gesturing for Lutano to watch the equine, I make my way to the orbs and pick one up.

Hearing a gasp behind me, I look over my shoulder at the unicorn who is staring at me wide eyed in horror. “What is so important about these orbs? I can sense a dormant magic in them but nothing worth fighting over.”

The unicorn blinks as she regains her bearings. “They are the Elements of Harmony, extremely powerful magical artifacts that are used to keep balance in Equestria. Please, let me go so that I can release them and stop Nightmare Moon, if I don’t she will put the world in eternal night!”

I stare at the unicorn for a second before chuckling. “I’ve heard and seen a lot of things in my adventures, but eternal night? That’s not possible. It would take god like reserves of magic to be able to do anything even close to that and I can sense that I have just as much if not more magic than this… Nightmare Moon.”

Both equine blinked in shock before Nightmare Moon let loose a snarl and in a flash of dark blue light she was free from the roots. “You think you can match me in magic? I am the goddess of the night, you are nothing before me!”

I chuckle slightly and raise my free hand, sparks of electricity beginning to arc around it. “I am more than a match for you, Oh mighty goddess.” The last words spoken with sarcasm, I then raise my hand with my palm facing the alicorn. “For example, can you block this?” A second later there is an earth shattering boom as a bolt of lightning shoots from my hand and slams into Nightmare Moon.

With a short scream, Nightmare Moon is slammed into the wall behind her, causing cracks to spider web out from where she impacted. For a second she lays still before slowly pushing herself up. “You will pay dearly for that, Elf!.” Charging her horn with magical energy, I raise my shield to block in case I cant dodge the attack, but it was a pointless gesture as a second later an ethereal green clawed hand slams into her, sending her back into the wall and very nearly through it.

Staring in slightly surprise at the unexpected attack, I glance over my shoulder at a grinning Lutano. He just shrugs and his grin widens. “Can’t let you have all the fun, can I?”

I shake my head and chuckle before turning back to Nightmare Moon. “Thanks for the save at least. She may not have as much magic but she can still cause a lot of damage. And with the distorted portal, it drained a good amount of my own.”

When Nightmare Moon manages to stand again, there is a slight sway in her stance and she glares at us. “You’ve caught me by surprise for the last time, you will not be getting another shot.” Her horn began to glow but a second later her eyes widen in fear and the glow fades. “NO! You can not succeed!”

I blink in surprise at the sudden change in attitude before looking over my shoulder to see what had caused it. Standing in a floating ring of the Elements, the unicorn was push magic into the relics. For a few seconds nothing happened, then the magic faded and the Elements fell to the ground with no change. “Like I said, not enough magic in them to be worth fighting over.”

A sudden shout from the doors at the other end of the room draws my attention and I spot an orange pony with a blonde mane standing in the doorway. This causes me to miss the sudden smile that the unicorn gets at the same moment.

Sighing, I glance at Lutano. “Keep them back, the last thing we need is-” A loud pop interrupts me as the unicorn appears by the others with the Elements and after a speech about how her friends are the embodiments of the Elements that ends with each of the orbs turning into a necklace for the respective pony she smiles.

Nightmare Moon grins in response to the speech. “The spark still did not work, you are still missing the sixth Element.”

The unicorn’s smile just widens before she answers. “Actually it did, the spark ignited inside me when I saw my friends.” At that moment there was a flash of light above her and an orb with a star at it’s center appeared floating in the air, slowly lowering to hover just above her head. “When the other Elements are ignited, it creates the sixth Element, the Element of Magic.” In a second flash of light, the orb turns into a crown before lowering onto the unicorn’s head and a second later the six Elements shoot a rainbow colored beam of light that washes over Nightmare Moon.

When the light clears, the armor that she had been wearing is now scattered around a smaller alicorn who had it’s head bowed as it lay on the floor. Before I can move forward to see what happened, a glowing golden ball of light floats in through a broken window before fading to reveal a pure white alicorn with a rainbow mane. “It is good to see you again, sister.”

We all jump at the voice and the ponies all gasp in shock, though the reason escaped me. Shaking my head and sliding my shield onto my back, I turn to the door and walk away. “Lets get out of here before this gets any more confusing.” Hearing Lutano fall in step beside me, I glance over at him. “You seemed rather relaxed for winding up in the middle of a battle.”

Lutano shrugs. “Already blasted the blue one and I was expecting a fight afterwards. It’s kind of hard to surprise someone who is expecting to be attacked, and I am always more relaxed in a fight… though you didn’t give me the chance to do much this time.”

I chuckle slightly. “Sorry, it was a magic based fight so I figured I would be more suited for it.” As we reach the doorway, a golden transparent wall shoots up from the floor to block us and I frown slightly. Turning around to face the source, I found the white alicorn had moved to stand a few feet from us and was staring at me with narrowed eyes. “Who and what are you? I have never seen your kind before.”

I stare at her with a deadpan expression. “My friend is a second generation Sarnak and I am a Wood Elf. I am Sarikasin and he is Lutano, now can we leave? I need to get a look at the area so I can figure out where we are and how to get back home.”

Silence was my only reply as the alicorn stared at me and after a minute I sigh. “Look, I am a Druid, we don’t look to start fights and we generally have a passive role in them even if we are a part of one. I myself don’t really care for fighting, even when compared to other Druids but if you don’t lower this wall and let us leave, I will put every last drop I have of my mana into taking you out.”

Beside me, Lutano lifts a hand slightly and a green mist begins flowing from his palm. “Or you could ignore my friend here. He took all my fun in the last fight and now I’m kind of itching for another so I can work out some of this stress.”

I blink a couple of times before looking at him. “Really? Can we not go somewhere just once without you trying to pick a fight with whoever I am trying to avoid fighting?” Shaking my head before he can reply, I sigh and turn back to the alicorn to wait for her reply.

The look of confusion she gives is amusing but before I can take full enjoyment out of it, she responds to my question. “I will let you go for now, but I will be sending a messenger to you in a few days to summon you to Canterlot. I don’t know what either of you are and I won’t trust the safety of my ponies to chance.”

I chuckle slightly as the barrier fades. “Don’t worry too much on that, I refuse to harm animals that do not attack me first, and you very closely resemble the equine from Norrath… though they couldn’t talk. As for the messenger… good luck finding us.” With a slight gesture, the shadows at our feet rise up and swallow us, hiding us from sight.

Turning quickly to the door, we leave before the alicorn has the chance to try and sense us with her magic.

Author's Note:

I know that the Mane 6 haven't been introduced but I am planning on doing so in the next chapter really early. Once I get into this a few chapters I may come back and re-work it so that the details that I left out are added in, for now this is to satisfy my friend that I am writing this for who has been impatiently waiting.

Comments

[DarthMalentai]

ummm look through this and tell me the one and only GLARING problem this has. Note: it doubles itself

[Mike the Red]

Where the two encounter Celestia for the first time, the line "If you do not allow us to leave, I will pour every last bit of my ma" before it starts from the beginning again. Looks extremely promising.

[Morikain]

Wow.... I read through and found the spot.... and have no freaking idea how it got there... I'll go back and edit it... I was so happy my first chapter was 4k words and now I am going to be removing half of them lol.

[DarthMalentai]

well with the antics me and Mori do it isn't much of a surprise that this could happen this way. I just can't wait for how Mori words the rest of the story. (I am waiting for you to get on btw)

[DarthMalentai]

3065783
Oh could you send me my side of that picture while I think about it. Nobody will believe me if I said I was the Pink shadowknight.