Chapter Thirty-nine: Pony Meets World
When Noble Blade first stepped through the portal, it felt cold and clammy. Then, as he fully went inside, he felt himself start to swirl around the edge of an abyss ahead of him, like a black hole was sucking him in. Colors flew about him, sparkling and glowing in his peripheral vision. He involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut.
He was aware of his body changing, shifting into a new shape, his armor melting to fit his new form. The sword across his back was poking the crosspiece against the back of his head. He felt like he was being squeezed through a hole too tight for him.
He felt stretched and pulled, his body way too elastic for his taste. He was dizzy from the endless revolutions around the abyss ahead of him.
He let out a pained bellow as it reached its crescendo, and as he entered the singularity ahead of him, he felt--
Nothing.
It had ended abruptly.
He was lying on something hard.
His eyes were tightly shut, and they felt glued together after a long sleep. He could hear nothing at first, but then he heard other voices, muffled and far away. After a few moments, the voices became clearer, and he felt the strength to pry open his eyes come to him.
His vision was blurry at first, but after a blink, it was clearer. He was face down, and looking at the grey stone an inch from his face.
Sidewalk. He was looking at sidewalk.
“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked, unseen to Noble Blade. “I don’t feel so good.”
“I agree with Pinkie,” Rarity mumbled. “This feels really weird.”
“Does anypony have a mirror?” Applejack asked. “This is kinda--” Her voice cut off. “Oh, nelly.”
“Uhh... guys?” Rainbow asked. “There’s something different about me.”
“There's something different about all of us,” Starlight was heard to say. “It feels weird to be on all fours now.”
“Yeah, uh, that’s the thing,” Twilight said. “We go on two legs in this world. Like dragons, or griffons, or some other creature like that. So, um, try to stand on two legs, everyone.”
Noble Blade pushed down with his front two legs to get a better view of his surroundings. As he rose, he felt something different about his hooves, and he looked down at them.
They were gone. In its place were two small palms with five stiff, armored claws on the top.
Noble was so accustomed to seeing his hooves that when he saw the sight, he let out a shout of surprise and scuffled back on the ground. His arms were longer than normal, felt jointed the wrong way, his hooves… his hooves were replaced by something a griffon might have!
Noble Blade pulled his knees up in front of him and sat down on his butt. His legs were still sheathed in the armor he wore, but they were automatically tailored to fit the new form he was in. His bottom hooves were replaced by long protrusions that he experimentally wiggled around. The armor made the motion heavy and awkward.
He looked at his new digits. He experimentally moved them as well. They could move to his demand, though the armor he wore hindered him from making every possible movement.
“Noble?” came the sweet voice of his girlfriend, and Noble turned his head to the source.
Fluttershy was on all fours and kneeling, and there was a tremor to her as she inspected herself. She still looked like the pony who had passed through the portal, but only in the color of her skin and her long mane. She had on a white T-shirt that came to her midriff, exposing her navel, and wore green sweatpants and shoes. She looked Noble Blade in the eyes. “Um, N-noble? I don’t think I can stand.”
Noble tried to come to a kneeling stance to help her up, but it was laborious to stand. Once he finally had a set of claws on his upturned knee, he pushed off so he was standing on his hind legs.
The strange thing was, as he was steadying himself, he actually felt normal on his hind legs. His legs were stabilizing him, spreading the weight easily. After a wobble or two, he managed to keep himself upright.
“Wow,” Fluttershy whispered below him. “You're so... tall.”
Noble looked down. There was Fluttershy, still on her knees. Noble squatted and reached out to take her... well, not hoof.
Fluttershy grasped his, and Noble yanked himself backwards, jolting Fluttershy up and into his armored chest. He held her there against his chest for a little bit before he let go, keeping an armored appendage against her back to steady her.
“Thanks,” she smiled.
“Anything for you,” he said reassuringly. He ran his strange claw-like appendages through her hair, and scratched the back of her neck as he did so.
She shrunk into her shoulders and turned as pink as a flower. “Y-you're the best, Noble.”
“I never try to be anything less,” he uttered. He looked around. “Fluttershy, do you know where we are?”
“Canterlot High School.”
“How did you know that?”
“There’s a sign.” She pointed. Indeed, the sign on the school grounds said Canterlot High School. Behind him was a cube pedestal as tall as he was with Canterlot High engraved on an edge.
He blushed. “Silly me.”
“Silly knight,” she agreed cutely.
The rest of the girls had managed to stand up as well, with many small comments here and there. Looking over his friends, he saw what had happened to them.
They all looked like their normal counterparts, except stretched out, stood on their hind legs, and given appendages that looked like cute little wriggling worms. It was a very strange-looking creature they had become, indeed. The only exception was Spike, who was now a small green dog padding around the girls.
They had all been generously given clothes as they had came out of the portal. Applejack was in a button-down plaid shirt and tight blue jeans, and her Stetson had managed to stay atop her head. Rarity was in a purple sweater and had white khakis on her legs. Starlight Glimmer was in a turquoise tee with ripped leggings and a pink cap on her head. Pinkie Pie was in a blue tee and a pink skirt that expanded outward as it reached down her wobbly legs. And Rainbow Dash was in a white tee with a black leather jacket, and had ripped jeans and laced combat boots.
The saddlebags each of them had packed before were now in the forms of backpacks. Each of them were color-coded to their skin hues. Noble Blade had nothing on his back except for a tattered brown cape.
“Is Firestorm here yet?” Rainbow Dash asked, straightening the leather jacket to her waist.
“He and Freedom Fighter are coming,” Twilight reassured her. She herself was in a cute blue button-up shirt with a bow tied on the front, and a little purple dress that came to her knees. “They’re the last ones in the castle.”
The pedestal suddenly became translucent and swirly, and, true to form, out shot Firestorm and Freedom Fighter. Both were in their new forms, and the portal had tailored what they were wearing to shape the new form they were in.
Firestorm grumbled and wiped his face with his rag-coated arm. “Yeesh. Can someone stop the room, please? I'd like to get off.”
“You're in no such luck,” Rarity said. “This is the land of the living now.”
“Oh. It’s Rarity. So I can’t be in heaven after all. Unless heaven sucks now.” He blinked his eyes open, and his yellow eyes became large. “Okay, where are w-” He froze as soon as he saw Rainbow Dash, who was bending over with her hands on her knees to look at him.
“Hello, handsome,” Rainbow greeted him. “How ya doin’?”
“Hey there, Firestorm,” Twilight said, who was right next to the crouching Rainbow. “Welcome to Canterlot High!”
“Ho naw,” he muttered. “Ho nanananana NA!” He scooted back until he hit the back of the stone pedestal and pointed a shaking finger at his girlfriend. “What is that? WHAT IS THAT? TH-THAT THING YOU ARE?!”
“Calm down, Stormy,” Rainbow said to him. “It’s only a...hyoo-man.”
Firestorm looked down at his body features, spreading his strange jointed claws, and screamed in shock.
“Are you really that freaked out by this?” Pinkie Pie asked him.
“Why aren’t you freaking out more about this?” Firestorm demanded the pink human as he patted himself down. “I'm not a pony anymore, and this is all looking so surreal and fake, and I feel nauseous, and-” He panted and clutched his stomach. “And pregnant-”
“You what?” Rarity exclaimed. “How do you even know what feeling pregnant feels like?”
“I’ve been kicked in the balls before,” he responded, gesturing to his crotch. “I figure being pregnant is that combined with a stomachache.” Then he wobbily tried to set himself upright, as most of the other girls were doing, by sliding up the edge of the pedestal, then leaning forward and windmilling his arms for balance.
That left Freedom Fighter, who was on the ground prodding at his new body with the tip of one of his new appendages. He flexed the fingers on his right arm, then on the mechanical left.
“Do ya need any help?” Applejack offered him.
Freedom Fighter shook his head no, then put his hands on his knees and straightened them to make him stand upright. He was easily the tallest one out of all of them, and while everyone else had thin limbs, his arms were the width of tree branches.
“Ya doin’ alright?” Applejack asked him.
Freedom Fighter shrugged. Then he widened his red eyes and stood still. He put his hands atop his head and looked desperate. He stood still and narrowed his eyes in concentration, then widened his eyes once more and began to circle in place.
“What’s happenin’ to the big fella?” Applejack wondered.
“The thought manifestation spell isn't working anymore!” Twilight realized. “We crossed over to a world where it wears off! Spells we originally cast in the other world aren’t permanent! Oh, no, no, I should have thought this through!”
“What now?” Fluttershy asked in concern.
“We do what we did before,” Noble said. “Communicate.” He looked his friend in the face. “How are you?” He did a few motions in Equestrian Sign Language as he spoke.
Freedom Fighter clumsily responded with several motions that included moving his hands around his head and shoulders.
“You haven't done this in a while, have you?” Firestorm asked him, doing the motions with his arms and hands.
Freedom Fighter nodded. He wiggled his fingers questionably at Twilight, arching his eyes through his cowl.
“Do you want to know what those are?” Twilight asked. Seeing the mute nod, she said, “Well, those are called fingers, and they’re part of your hand. It makes it easy to grab things.”
“Feen-gers,” Firestorm breathed, flexing them through his ragged gloves. He reached over his back and drew one of his twin blades. He hefted it, threw it from hand to hand, then used his thumb to ignite the button on it. Flame shot along the whole of the blade, causing the mares to flinch back from the heat. He de-ignited it, then swiftly sheathed it. “The girl’s got truth to her claim."
“Where do we go first?” Starlight asked. “What should we do to find the first clue?”
“Well, Star Swirl won’t be living as a hobo under an overpass,” Rainbow Dash said. Then she looked inquisitively at Twilight. “Right?”
“He might be,” Rarity agreed. “And in the most horrid of rags!” She stuck her thumbs in her belt loops. “We know nothing for certain about this.”
“There’s gotta be somepony that does,” Pinkie pointed out, and put a hand to her chin in thought. “Let’s see. Who do we know that was once in Equestria, knows about powerful magic, is here in this dimension, and knows about Star Swirl the Bearded?”
Twilight gasped so loud it startled a nearby Fluttershy and brought a hand to her cheek. “Oh, my goodness! Pinkie, you’re a genius in the way you word things! Thank you thank you thank you!”
“No problemo, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie saluted.
“What are you talking about, Twilight?” Spike asked.
Twilight picked up Spike in her arms and swung him about. “Sunset Shimmer!”
“Of course! Sunset Shimmer! It’s so simple!” Firestorm declared. “I…” He looked at Twilight helplessly. “I don’t follow you.”
“She was once a student of Princess Celestia,” Spike supplied, licking a paw while in Twilight's arms. “Before Twilight, she was her most powerful apprentice. She now stays in this dimension.”
“Why does she stay in this dimension?” Noble asked the dog.
“She was the thief that stole Twilight’s crown in the first place and now she feels like if she goes back to Equestria the princesses will jail her for her crimes,” Pinkie Pie casually said, picking at a fingernail. “Wowee, look at that! I got some dirt out!”
“She what?” Noble asked incredulously. Freedom Fighter instinctively drew a long knife from his chest and held it threateningly at the mention of the thief.
“Freedom?” Firestorm whispered to him. “Put the knife away. She isn’t here.”
Freedom Fighter sullenly obliged.
“What kind of crimes?” Noble was asking Pinkie.
“Stealing a crown-slash-Element of Harmony, betraying and abandoning Princess Celestia, enslaving a school to become a zombie army, turning into a she-demon, and using weaponized magical energy on school property."
“She’s good now,” Twilight insisted upon seeing the look Noble Blade was giving her. “She helped me and my friends on this side of the portal defeat three sirens a few years ago.”
“Those ancient creatures that stir up the hearts of ponies to contend with anger?” Noble asked for clarification, unable to resist sprinkling in descriptive words.
“Yes. There’s nopony on this side of the portal I trust more than Sunset Shimmer.”
“So where can we meet this Sunset Shimmer?” Noble asked.
“Last she talked, she said that she’d go to Camp Everfree with the rest of her friends for the summer,” Twilight said thoughtfully. She started to pace. “She and the rest of them ought to be back by now, but I haven't heard any word from her since.”
“Camp Everfree?” Firestorm asked boredly. “Let me guess, the woods attacked them.”
“Is every spot in this world parallel to Equestria?” Starlight asked Twilight.
“I suppose so,” Twilight conceded. “And we haven't seen the end of it either. There are unexplored places here that may have some significance to real places in Equestria we haven't found out about yet. We may get an idea of what to encounter in Equestria by what happens here.”
“Can we go now?” Rainbow Dash groaned, leaning her head against the back of the stone pedestal. “Let’s talk with Sunset already and get on with it!”
“I agree,” Rarity added. “The more time we stay in here, the more time those dreadful Noxxa have to stop us!”
“Fine,” Twilight said. She began to walk down the sidewalk, Spike at her heels, and beckoned for the rest of the group to follow. “Let’s walk around town and see what we can find.”
“That sounds like an awful plan,” Firestorm commented as he jogged to catch up with her, and the assembly of ponies-turned-human followed suit.
“Well then, Firestorm,” Rainbow said, coming by her boyfriend’s side. “You got a better one?”
“Well, Twilight’s plan revolves around a hunch. I think it’s good, except it sucks. So, let me do the plan before anypony else proposes anything else, and that way, we have a backup plan to fall back on for backup when we need a backup plan to fall back on for backup.”
Noble leaned his head next to Firestorm’s. “Tell her about Skyworld.”
“Okay, look, that was an exception!” he furiously sputtered.
“Well, Stormy?” Rainbow asked, nudging his shoulder. “What happened at Skyworld?”
“It was an orbital platform in the ionosphere that was being used as a weapon of war,” Firestorm quickly explained. “Me and the others were sent to take it out. Shenanigans ensued.”
“What kinda shenanigans?” Rainbow pressured him, pressing her shoulder into his.
“I ain't gonna tell you!” Firestorm exclaimed, batting away her shoulder like he was an agitated cat. “It all happened a year ago, and what matters isn't the details, but results. It’s lying in a scrap heap in the badlands.”
“Maybe there’ll be another Skyworld up in the atmosphere in this world,” Noble remarked. “Maybe this time, the girls can come along for a view.”
“If things go as badly as they did with you in charge, then they’ll be in for more than a view.”
Noble’s cheeks flamed and he said no more.
The stone cube was silent. Nopony was near it; summer was in session and the schoolyard was deserted.
A swirl suddenly appeared in the side of it, and out came a black, sharp-clawed hand that shriveled in the sudden air.
Out of the portal came the arm the hand was attached to, and then the left side of the body, and then the right.
The clawed hand was one of four on long black arms, attached to a sticky black frame with segmented plates on its stomach and back. It was humanoid in shape, but it had an extra set of arms at the armpit and had no clothes gifted by the portal. Its oversized head still had six yellow eyes, and his jaw still had rows of pointed teeth.
“They’re somewhere in this world,” the Nox muttered to himself, and one hand put itself to his chin. The other three folded behind his back. “We must find them quickly and judiciously.”
Five more Noxxa materialized behind him, all black and spiny and icky between the exoskeleton. They took a moment to adjust to their new bodies, then stood stiff as the captain turned to face them. “What is your command, Captain Slath?” came the deep voice of one of them.
“Establish the school as a base of operations,” he commanded, throwing an arm out to the side. “Once the Noxxa on the other side have moved the mirror out of Twilight’s castle and into our secret camp, signal them to funnel into the portal for a surgical strike. We are the closest regiment hidden near Ponyville; we must make do now.”
“What about when we reach the filthy pony scum?”
“Keep Princess Twilight Sparkle alive. Marshal Malice needs an Equestrian princess to activate the Corrupted Element.” Captain Slath negligently flicked his wrist. “Kill the rest and bring their remains over to someplace recluse where you can digest them. If you succeed in your mission, you deserve a meal.”
The Noxxa crackled out unintelligible words of acknowledgment, and one of them disappeared through the portal to relay the instructions.
“Star Swirl the Bearded,” Captain Slath snarled under his breath. His gaze traveled to the street the ten ponies had gone down only hours before, and spat an icky glob of yellow saliva on the pavement. “I swear by the galactic whorse Faust that I will behead you before you tell those ponies anything about the Elements.”
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9127072
I take it you liked the chapter, didn't you?
Another really great chapter. Two for the price of one, that being I read this and the last chapter in one day.
What clothing did Firestorm and Freedom wear by the way?
9136607
They were wearing their combat uniforms. I mentioned that the portal had tailored what they were wearing to fit their human forms. Firestorm was wearing his ragged ensemble, and Freedom Fighter...well, what else could he be wearing?
Too soon, Brady. Too soon.
i.ytimg.com/vi/h0dLuvK3vak/maxresdefault.jpg
Gag.
You just love making Infinity War references, don't you?
"Just like Skyworld all over again," Noble Blade remarked.
"You and I remember Skyworld very differently," Firestorm snarked.
Once again, the last part of the story violates that show don't tell rule pretty badly.
9147796
Well, yeesh. Sorry.
9147804
I can't tell if that's a shrewd remark or an affectionate remark, but I'll go with the affectionate one.
9147808
More Marvel! More! More!
Sorry, though. If I need to cut it back, tell me, and I'll make the elements of my storytelling less conspicuous.
Monsters vs. Aliens reference!
9519935
I never thought anyone would get it!