Displacement Sickness
No. Nononononononono. How can this be happening again? I wasn’t even anywhere near the mirror!
Twilight couldn't tear her eyes from her hands as she flexed the five appendages (What had they called them? Fingers?) attached to each one. Her gaze moved down her body, and she realised that things were different this time.
For one, the clothes she’d found herself wearing initially last time had been bookish - a little flashy, but still very her, and perfectly suited for high school. This time, she was garbed in some kind of light, white cloth shirt, with a simple set of beige pants and brown boots to match. It was the kind of outfit she could imagine Rarity having a breakdown over.
Looking further, she could see that the differences were not restricted to her clothing. Last time, she had emerged through the portal as a teenager, and, as a young adult back in Equestria, she had found this rather odd. This time, she felt a little older than before; it was hard to place, but there were definitely areas of her human body that had changed.
She pushed herself up off the ground, unsteady and off-balance. It took a few seconds of careful breathing and mental effort to resist the urge to fall back down on the four legs again, but she managed to stand on her two feet just fine.
She grimaced as she remembered the first time she had stood on two legs, and how long it had taken to properly get used to it then.
Okay, so I’m human again. Breathe, Twilight. It’s going to be fine. I just have to get to the school again and wait until the portal... unless this isn't the same world—
It was only now that the Equestrian princess took a good look at her surroundings and realised that something else was different this time.
She wasn’t alone.
There were a few trees in the vicinity, deciduous firs that were just beginning to lose their leaves for the autumn. And slumped against one of them was a figure with a huge head of bubblegum pink hair…
Pinkie!
She staggered over to her friend and knelt down beside her. Pinkie wore the same kind of clothes that Twilight had on, and her head was buried in her knees. She was out cold, or at least asleep.
Twilight took her by the shoulder and shook her gently.
“Hurr… Gahh… Cinnamonchocolatefrostycupcakes!” Pinkie bolted upright. Okay, only asleep. “Woah, everything’s blurry! Hey, Twilight! What’s going on?”
Well, she’s okay. That’s a relief. But I’d better explain this carefully to her; it’s going to be a huge shock that she’s become human.
The resemblance to the mirror-verse Pinkie was there, but this one – her one – was older, with a few other minor differences too. The poofy pink hair was unchanged, however.
“Listen, Pinkie, please stay calm, but something’s happened to us,” Twilight began. “I know it’s going to be hard to accept, but—”
“Ooh, look at that cloud!” Pinkie cried, leaping up and sending the other girl sprawling onto her backside. “It’s shaped like a donut!”
Wuh? “Pinkie, focus! Wait… how are you standing up so easily? Don’t you—”
“Woah, Twilight!” The princess found herself interrupted again as Pinkie leapt back right into her face just as she had been about to stand up. “You’re human! I mean I’m guessing that you are because of how you described them after you came back from the other world, and I can’t be sure because I haven’t seen one myself before, but— OMIGOSH!” She looked down at her own hands, then down at her legs and feet.
“I’m human too? How awesome is this!”
“I wouldn’t say ‘awesome’…” Twilight muttered back. “How are you finding it so easy to walk around like that when you've never done it before?"
Pinkie shrugged, her wide grin showing lots of clean white teeth. “I dunno.”
It’s mindboggling, just how can— No. Figuring out the enigma wrapped in cotton candy that was Pinkie Pie would have to wait for another day.
“As for what happened, I’d have to posit that it has something to do with the cyclone we were dealing with.”
“That’d make sense.” Pinkie agreed. “It was all like woosh, woosh—” She made accompanying gestures with her hands. “And we were all like ZZZZZZZAP! And then everything just went dark after that.”
“That’s all I can remember too.” Which didn’t give them much of a place to start looking for a way back home. Twilight swept her gaze around the small area of forest again. It was mostly flat ground and the going was steady, but the trees prevented her from seeing much of the land beyond. “I don’t recognise this area from when I went through the mirror.”
“Oh yeah, that was a school! So if we’re here…” Pinkie pondered. “Do you think the others are nearby?”
“I was thinking the same.” Twilight nodded. “I just hope they’re having the same lack of trouble you had with being human—”
She was interrupted by a loud, echoing and above all familiar screech.
“Orrrrrrr maybe not.”
---
They found Rarity in the next clearing over. She clearly hadn’t tried standing up yet, and indeed seemed a little too preoccupied with something else. Like with Pinkie, Twilight easily recognised her friend’s features translated over to the mirror-world Rarity, but again there were the same differences; her skin was still fairly pale, but not as light as it had been with the previous human-Rarity. Again, she seemed a little older.
The classic pout that Rarity scrunched her face into whenever she was sad or stressed was unmistakeable, of course.
“Rarity! We heard you scream!”
“Oh, Twilight, Pinkie, thank goodness you’re here!” She wailed as they entered the clearing. “It’s terrible!”
I hope everyone else doesn't react like this… Maybe Pinkie was the exception and not the rule.
“Yes, we’re human.” Twilight bent down and laid a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I know it seems bad, Rarity, but it could be worse.”
“No, not that, my dear! Becoming “human” as you say is unfortunate, yes, but the cause of my despair is something far more drastic!”
“Ooh, ooh, the fact that we got sucked into another world and we don’t know how to get home?”
“Pinkie…”
“Ooh, or is it that we can’t even be sure that we’re in the same world Twilight went to before and it could be someplace much worse?”
“Pinkie…!”
“Oh, oh, I know! It must be that everyone we know probably thinks we’re dead because we got caught up in a deadly dangerous cyclone of—”
“PINKIE!”
“What? Just laying it all out there for her.”
Twilight shook her head and sighed. She loved Pinkie, but the bearer of laughter could be extraordinarily insensitive sometimes.
“Those are all very bad, darling.” Rarity cut back in. She seemed little phased by Pinkie’s random tirade. “But I’m thinking of a much more immediate disaster!” She pointed down at the clothes she had no doubted appeared in, not at all dissimilar from Twilight’s or Pinkie’s. “Just look at these!”
And I did call it…
“This is an absolute fashion nightmare! Hopefully no-pony will see me in these rags…”
“I doubt you’ll have to worry about that.” Twilight said, as kindly as she could. She was eager to get back on to more important matters. “Have you tried walking yet?” She asked.
The fashionista raised an eyebrow.
“I assume you mean walking in the manner that you are currently doing so.” She replied. “In which case, no.”
“In which case you should probably try it. The others are probably scattered across this forest, and we need to hurry and find them.”
“It’s not very difficult!” Pinkie piped up happily.
“Unless you’d rather stay in the dirt, anyway…”
That did the trick.
“Good heavens, yes!” Rarity shot up, as if realising for the first time that she was sitting down in the great outdoors. She almost immediately went down again, but the princess had expected this, and caught her by the shoulders; her legs wobbled but she stayed upright. “Thank you, my dear.” She said to Twilight, then shot a glare at Pinkie, who was off in her own little world sniffing some nearby flowers. “And it isn’t as easy as it looks.”
“Give it some practice and you’ll be walking around just fine soon enough.” Twilight said, slowly letting go of the bearer of generosity as her footing and balance became steadier.
“In seriousness, though…” Rarity muttered, forcing her friend to lean in to hear her properly. “Are we truly lost with no idea where we are?”
“At the moment, I’m afraid so.” Twilight replied carefully. “But there’s always hope. We could still be in the mirror-world, or the Princesses might have some way of retrieving us, or at least finding us. We’ll just have to keep going until we know more.”
It wasn’t the most enthusing of team talks she had ever given, but Rarity nodded in return all the same. “Very well then, Twilight. I trust your judgment and your assessment of the situation. Come along now, Pinkie!” She called out in the direction that they had last seen the bubblegum-haired girl, who had popped out of sight. “We’re going to go find the others.”
“Okey-dokey-lokey!” The cheerful response floated over the wind as Pinkie bounced back into sight.
Twilight felt a little better having spoken to Rarity. Remaining calm was indeed the best approach, and they didn’t appear to be in immediate danger, which was always something good to count on. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too difficult to get the rest of the band back together.
---
As it was, they found Applejack and Fluttershy together, which simplified things considerably.
Both shared the style of clothes they wore with the others, and Twilight decided to assume that Rainbow, when they found her, would have the same. Both also appeared a little older, again, than their mirror counterparts – which was somewhat more noticeable with Fluttershy, though she was of course the oldest of the group. Applejack was a little more tanned, and Fluttershy a little paler.
Both were awake and conscious, and the two groups actually ran into each other instead of the one being static.
“Applejack! Fluttershy!” Twilight had rounded a tree and spotted the two about to head onto a track. Her shout elicited a squeak from the meeker of the two, and got both of their attentions.
“Twilight, why, is that you?” Applejack called back, and the princess nodded. The two made their way back towards the others. “I reckon this is just about the strangest thing I ever seen. What on earth happened to us, hon?”
“We think the cyclone sent us to another world. We’ve all become human, just like what happened to me with that mirror in the Crystal Empire.”
“Oh, my…”
“How’s that now?”
“Well, I have a few theories as to how we arrived here, and—"
“I would suggest saving the science for when we find Rainbow Dash.” Rarity interrupted. “She may want to know, and if you say it now you might only have to repeat yourself later.”
Twilight was forced to admit to herself that it would probably save them some time if she waited.
“Somethin’ else, Twi… Why are y’all walkin’ ‘round so funny like?”
Of course, without the benefit of Twilight’s experience of humanity, both AJ and Fluttershy had been hobbling around on all fours. Or trying to, at least.
“…We’re not. This is how humans walk.”
AJ studied her three upright friends with a deep frown on her face. “Hmm. I was wonderin’ why I was findin’ it so hard to move ‘round. That explains that.”
“It’s quite disconcerting at first, I assure you.” Rarity offered.
The apple-farmer hobbled over to the closest tree and, with some care, leveraged herself up to imitate the others. Like Rarity, she was wobbly at first, but after a few minutes it was fair to say that she was already the lighter of the two on her feet.
Fluttershy was a different story. The time it took Applejack to become accustomed to her new legs was the time it took the others to convince the timid girl to prop herself up fully on her knees. Eventually, with kind words and encouragement, the others managed to coax her up all the way, but when they finally decided to move on and search for Rainbow Dash she still needed to keep an arm around Pinkie Pie for balance.
Twilight watched them walk ahead with some satisfaction, but also concern. I suppose I should be thankful we haven’t had any more trouble yet. We know so little about this world… What if it’s not as peaceful as Equestria, or even the mirror-world? Or what if this place is a sort of Everfree Forest? I just hope Rainbow’s okay…
---
Finding Rainbow confirmed that the entire group had received the same clothes when they had changed worlds and were older than Twilight remembered their mirror-world counterparts being, but that train of thought was not the first to run through her brain upon seeing Ponyville’s finest flyer with her head buried deep into her newfound knees.
Unlike Rarity, indeed, Dash looked truly despondent, though her mood seemed to spike upwards when her friends found her, as she joined in enthusiastically with the massive group hug initiated by Pinkie Pie.
It didn’t take too long to find everyone again. Things are looking up!
They quickly found out what was wrong with Rainbow, though.
“Twilight, you were human for a while, right?” She asked hurriedly as Twilight explained what they knew for certain, as she had done for each of the others. “Okay; how do they fly?”
“Huh?”
“Fly? Come on, you know, what I do all the time?” She cried, flapping her hands like wings for emphasis. “You must know how; you had your wings going through the mirror, didn’t you?”
“Um, no, sorry Rainbow.” The princess spluttered hastily. “I don’t know how to break this to you but humans… can’t fly.”
The bearer of the element of loyalty took another good look at her human body, especially on her back where one might expect to find wings, and, upon finding nothing, promptly burst into tears.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Five minutes later and Dash was in the same position around AJ’s shoulder as Fluttershy was holding onto Pinkie, albeit more from a despairing lack of will to get good at the situation forced by her biological grounding than actual competence.
“Do you think she will cheer up?” Rarity whispered worriedly to Twilight as the two walked slightly ahead of the others. “I mean, this could really hit her hard… She is who she is because of flying…”
“I don’t know, but I really hope so," Twilight replied. "I remember how I felt when I thought I might lose all ability to do magic…” And how I might feel again, if we are trapped here…
“Well, at least I can’t be robbed of my skills as an artiste, even if I have to wear such tacky clothing!”
“No.” The princess smiled. “You can’t lose that.”
Our magic, our flying… Our talents. They aren’t all that define us, anyway. Even if we lose them, we haven’t lost ourselves.
They pressed on through the trees until they were able to find a suitable log to rest atop; walking was becoming easier, and they were all able to do it unaided by the time they stopped.
The grumble of Pinkie’s stomach as they sat down reminded them of one of their most immediate problems.
“Okay girls, this isn’t going to be an easy situation for any of us, so I think we need to stick to a number of priorities.” Twilight shifted easily into leader mode, and the others assented, though Rainbow with only half-hearted enthusiasm.
“First, we need the basics. Food, water – supplies – and shelter, which may be made easier by the second priority…
“Getting to know the local area and its inhabitants! The faster we do this, the faster we can succeed at our first priority, and that will allow us to concentrate more quickly on…
“Getting home!” She finished. If only I had a blackboard for all this… She had to resist the urge to ask if the others had been taking notes.
Rainbow had a hand up now.
“So why isn’t getting home our first priority? Seems like we can skip the others if we work on that early enough.”
It was a legitimate question.
“In theory, yes, but we have no idea how we got here other than that it had something to do with the cyclone, and we can’t replicate those conditions in an attempt to get back anyway. It might be that we are in the mirror-world, and we could be back home tomorrow, but I really don’t know. Until we know more, we have to focus on the short-term, which is covered by our main priorities.”
Applejack nodded, and the others assented also.
“Sounds like a plan!” Pinkie cried. “Ooh, I’ll have to start planning a ‘New World-warming’ party! It’ll be fantastic! Where to start…”
Only Rainbow remained lacking in enthusiasm – which, ironically, put her about level with Fluttershy at expressing it. “But… My wings…”
“C’mon, sugarcube.” AJ pulled her in for a tight hug. “Twi’ll have us home in no time flat! Just think of it like a challenge until we get back.”
Dash responded with a reluctant smile.
“Y-yea... I’m sure everything’ll be just fine…”
---
With something resembling a plan set, they tried to get their bearings, but doing so in a completely foreign environment turned out to be a nigh-on impossible task. They were at least able to work out that, all in all, they had only covered a mile in the hour or so they had been walking around… but that was all they could deduce.
It was still light out, but having no idea what time it had been when they arrived, they couldn’t guess how long they had left before it got dark. And that would be disastrous.
As they were getting increasingly hungry, Applejack proposed that they try something that she knew Twilight would be opposed to.
The Pinkie Sense.
“But it’s completely illogical, unscientific…” Twilight complained as they backed up to give the bearer of laughter some room. She stood still in the centre of their circle, eyes closed and apparently concentrating hard.
“Just let her do her thing.” AJ whispered back.
Without warning, Pinkie jumped suddenly into motion, beginning to spin and twirl rapidly on the spot, making strange beeps and whistling sounds.
“Oh, here we go again…” Twilight sighed quietly.
At last, Pinkie came to a stop, closed her eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again.
“Nope, sorry! Got nothing!”
“Aha!” Twilight felt vindicated while a few of the others groaned. Pinkie shrugged.
“Well, I got something, but I don’t know what it means. New body means new Pinkie sensations, right? Besides, I’d just say we should follow that smoke-trail to some kind of village or whatever there is over there!”
She pointed through the trees to where they could just about see, down a gently sloping hill, the sight of a rustic brick chimney spewing a faint cloud of smog. It was all they could make out, but it was enough.
More groans ensued.
“And why,” Twilight muttered through gritted teeth. “Did you decide not to mention this before?”
Pinkie shrugged again and smiled happily.
“Oh, I hope there’s some food there…” Fluttershy’s stomach rumbled loudly as if to illustrate her point, and she blushed.
They got a short distance closer – close enough for Applejack to take a good sniff of whatever was drifting downwind.
“Smells like bakin’ to me, now that I know what I’m lookin’ for.”
“So there is food there! Oh, I hope they have sweet things too!” Pinkie hummed excitedly.
“Race ya, Applejack!” Some of Dash’s spirit seemed to have returned at this positive turn of events.
“Oh, it’s on now!”
“Do be careful, ladies…” Rarity urged with a wry smile.
Despite the obvious desire to hurry, they all looked back to Twilight. She smiled, and nodded.
“Let’s go!”
Looks like we might be able to scratch the first and second priorities off of my mental blackboard if we can get help at this little village. Twilight mused as they ran for the first time on their new, hopefully temporary legs. I wonder what it’s called…?
Had she dodged left around an obstructing tree and looked far towards a stone path, she might have caught a glimpse of a road sign answering that very question.
Goldshire.
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Thanks for the comments, guys!
4285775 Ash; that's the plan, yep, and it's the reason I didn't stick a comedy tag on the story. Of course, where there is Pinkie Pie there will inevitably be some random funny moments (as I reckon chapter 2 will prove) but things will definitely start to get serious (more than they already are!) soon.
4290064 Alex; it isn't my intent to make that kind of fic as that's not how I see the Horde. The first part of this story (I've actually planned a story out for once! Woo! :3) will have a very heavy focus on the Alliance, and so mentions of the Horde early on may be somewhat... biased. Still, if there's a 'main enemy' for the first ten or so chapters that comprise part 1, they aren't it. And there will greater coverage of the Horde much later in the fic, I can promise you that!
4290384
Yeah, you're placing them just at the start of the formation of the SSO?Does that mean you plan to include the launch event of the Sunwell here? I mean, putting them at this point of the timeline is pretty intense, seeing as it's smack in the middle of the two most insane world events that I remember (SSO and Lich King launch).
4290542 I debated for a while about where to throw them in on the timeline and chose this as a good mid-way point. They won't be engaging in anything to do with TBC, as the next few chapters will show; patch 2.4 is kind of happening around them and not to them while they have their introduction to Azeroth during part 1. I have a few other things planned for them to do, located much closer to home, and those things should consists of all the liberties I'll be taking with uncertainties in the timeline quite nicely.
Part 2 is when things will really kick off, but saying any more would be spoilers. ;)
4290384 Ah, I see. That should make it considerably better. About the whole Horde/Alliance dilemma I mean.
I like the Alliance, but I really hate the supremacy complex some of its fans are showing (plus a few of the main Allaince characters can be really xenophobic).
Anyway, as for the point in WoW they are arriving in and how they won't play a big role, will the 2nd Scourge Invasion be present? It was a pretty big deal and an even more important moment in the history of the Warcraft Universe, after all.
For some reason I'm now picturing Pinkie trying to imitate the murloc sound.
Mrglrglmrglmrrrlggg!
Anyway, this is a promising start. Have a thumbs up and please continue.
img.pandawhale.com/51328-This-post-I-like-it-Another-Th-Pv2T.gif
I very much enjoy reading this.
I only know a little bit of Warcraft lore, mostly because I've read some of the novels, comics, manga (or manhwa), and pages on wikia, is this set before or after the Cataclysm?
4299294
It's set a good amount of time before the Cataclysm. Two expansions before game-wise.
4299294 Yep, as Ash says, it's set right at the end of The Burning Crusade. :)
It's good so far but...man I am so dissapointed you made them all human. I thought we might get a mix of races or even better a mix of factions going on with them.
Oh sweet Celestia I hope they're not on MoonGuard. They're in for a fright if they are!
Enjoying this so far. Have no idea what Azeroth is, but looks like I'm about to find out
How old are the girls at the time of this story?
Good news Dashie humans do fly in Azeroth. Bad news it is really expensive.
Question, well two actually: why did you make all of them in the warrior class? And, have you thought about going back and changing the outfits to match the more recent updated look?
Okay, make that three questions: Did you also post this story on Fanfiction.net?
Anyways, love the story so far, gonna keep reading to see where this goes!
Azeroth. Oh boy. Twilight will geek out over new magic, Rarity's definitely gonna make a killing selling clothes, Fluttershy is gonna go crazy for the pets, Pinkie is gonna discover gnomish fireworks, and I'm sure AJ will spend all her time doing the apple dailies in Stormwind. Dashie, though...
Rainbow, if you can get to Dalaran, look for the paladin with the big shoulders, I'll hook you up with wings. Vial of the Sands won't bring back feathers, but you'll be able to fly!!
That'll fix it!
Twilight was turned into a teenager because her maturity when compared to a human was that of a teenager.
Oh no, not that town...
This is going to be interesting...
Goldshire, huh?
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