Dark Alliance: A Kirin's Tale

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: Equus

Rain and her friends quickly discovered that the portal Discord had used to get to the world she had been sent to also gave him the power to return to their home world as well, instantly she added when she stepped through it and appeared right outside a large village that could almost pass for a town or city. Rain recognized it somewhat, as it was Ponyville, one of the major settlements of Equus, not because it was the capital of a nation or anything, that was Canterlot on the mountain to the east of their location, rather it had earned that reputation because of several of it's residents. She remembered what Autumn had told her about the Elements of Harmony, the greatest heroes of the land who dealt with the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord when he was evil, Sombra, and many others, who called this place home, even though it was a chaotic place given all of the disasters it faced. Such a thing could be because of the fact that it was near the Everfree Forest, one of the darkest and strangest places in the world, but the residents of the settlement adored this place and faced whatever was going on to the best of their ability, by either running or even fighting at times.

As she thought about that a figure appeared out of thin air nearby, who appeared to be a human wearing some sort of robe that rain didn't recognize, as it seemed like clothing from another land entirely, before noticing that she wore a fox mask over her face and that she had a few pony features that she missed a few seconds ago.

"Greetings, Rain Shine. On behalf of Pinkie Pie, and the rest of the Displaced, welcome to Ponyville." the figure said, as if she was the person who welcomed others into the city, potentially because it sounded like the one who did it was missing right now, which only made her more interested in what was going on, "I am Pinkamena Diane Pie, the temporary representative who welcomes the Displaced... at least until a certain someone finds Pinkie and brings her home."

"I told you, I don't know where she went. She was here one day and gone the next." Discord replied, where he crossed his arms for a moment as he moved into Ponyville, as if he was offended by the newcomer's statement on the matter, which only made Rain all the more interested in what was happening to her home planet, since it seemed like there were more like her out there, "I've been looking for her, but it's like she's bouncing around all of creation and hasn't chosen where to stop yet... I can't lock onto her if she doesn't pick a destination."

"Whatever you say. I'll leave you to our business while I take them to the castle." Pinkamena stated, taking a moment to turn her back to the group as she started to walk away, something that caused Rain and the others to follow after her as Discord wandered off for the time being, even though he promised to catch up with them later, to take them back to their world when their visit was complete.

As they walked, however, Rain discovered that there were more races than what she remembered, as there were a couple of blue skinned people who looked like they might be part goat, on account of their legs and the curved horns that were on their heads, plus a red skinned variant that some were chatting with them. In addition to that there were all sorts of elves, she and her friends could tell by the ears, different dwarf clans, humans, not to mention a race that was far shorter than the dwarves, gnomes they were called, plus many others that surprised all of them. Adrianna glanced around as they walked and found a race of short fox people, the vulpera, wolf people without tails, the worgen, tall snake people that had shining blue weapons, the sethrak, and so many others that made her realize that the scholars of her world would have a field day if they saw what she was seeing. Not only were there all sorts of races, who mingled without causing problems, but also all sorts of classes, such as mages, warlocks, warriors, paladins, hunters, death knights and demon hunters, both unknown to her and her companions, and many others.

What caught them by surprise was the number of lean and battle ready humanoid dragons that looked a lot like Rain in her hybrid form, where the newcomers seemed to be socializing with the residents of the settlement and those who were from another world, especially humanoid dragons that came in all shapes and sizes, dressed as painters, artisans, mages, swamp people, dreamers, and some who had metallic attachments.

Pinkamena was the one who filled them in on what they were seeing, sharing with them her limited knowledge of each new race that had come to Equus, before revealing that if any of them wanted to learn more they would have to seek out Spike, a hard task to do at times considering what he was constantly doing. When asked about it she could only chuckle, as the dragon in question was, in reality, one of the smartest of the Displaced and his knowledge was growing the more they discovered about their universe, something that told Pinkamena that it was only a matter of time until his power matched his intelligence. That interested Rain as well, since from what she could recall Spike was just a young dragon, uninterested in most things as he helped Twilight Sparkle out, and yet he was totally different from what she knew, making her eager to see Autumn again, causing Pinkamena to tell her that the kirin in question was a hero and an inventor. In fact she rivaled that of the Lombaxes, a race comprised of the greatest inventors in the entire universe, who created a device that could allow one to travel between dimensions, or the universes depending on who one talked to, and if it was damaged reality itself would start to break.

Rain couldn't tell if she was joking or not, since none of that matched what she knew and suspected that her friends were totally lost right now, though as they walked she spotted someone she wanted to talk with as Autumn, wearing what had to be a set of armor from the future and having a humanoid body like her own, coming towards them.

"Rain Shine, I am glad you are alright... when I visited the village, and the other kirin told me you had gone missing when you started to search for me, I was worried that something bad had happened." Autumn said, which allowed Rain to relax as she heard that, since she had wondered how the others of their kind would have reacted to her going missing and, despite what she had done in the past, she was happy to see that everyone did care about her, "Well have to swap stories on what happened during our adventurers..."

"Probably going to need a drink... or ten, since it sounds like you've been busy." Rain remarked, because based on what little had been said so far she had to assume that Autumn had a lifetime of adventure to share with her and those who might be interested in learning about her, and the rest of the universe that was apparently open to them now.

"Indeed... though it doesn't get very exciting until our sixth adventure, when our brother and his girlfriend were the targets of a mad emperor." Autumn replied, as while the ones before that were exciting, and very interesting based on what she and the others had experienced during those years, everything after the mad emperor's assault outclassed what had come before them, "Plus we found Ratchet's long lost twin sister, which was very interesting as well... trust me, you'll be in for the time of your life."

Rain chuckled as she heard that, because it truly sounded like Autumn had experienced quite a lot and had quite a tale to tell, just as she did, though she was also warned about chatting with Spike, because he had all sorts of stories to share with those who were interested. In fact one thing that every Displaced agreed on was the fact that when Twilight Sparkle returned home the two would have a field day, sharing stories and simply enjoying themselves, as the Princess was one of the missing as well, before she had to amend her statement a little. Autumn informed her that there was, in fact, a version of Twilight here, her alternate from another world that was linked to this one by a special mirror, though it was more like there were six of her, as 'Sci Twi', a nickname for the other Twilight, had been separated into six smaller versions due to an event on the planet she had been sent to with two others. Those six were called 'Ottsels', a cross between an otter and a weasel as everyone learned when her family returned from their own adventure, though usually one or two of them were near Spike, learning from his experience and sharing their own at the same time.

The mention of that, however, caused Pinkamena to stall for a second before she glanced up at the air and seemed to let a transparent pillar of energy surround her, a dark pink one, before Rain spotted a green one, a cyan one, and an orange one that appeared in the areas that surrounded Ponyville, and they disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

"What in the world was that?" Rain asked, where she found that Autumn was surprised by the discovery as well, meaning this had to be something entirely new and only a select few understood what had happened, causing them to glance at Pinkamena as she focus on them once more.

"No idea... it's very interesting, isn't it?" Pinkamena replied, though while Rain suspected that she did, in fact, have some idea as to what they had just experienced, since she had been here for a lot longer than some of the Displaced, but felt it was best to focus on other things and worry about this at some other point.

All of this told her that she was going to have a busy couple of days, learning what had happened to the rest of those who had been lost among the stars of their universe, and the races that they encountered along the way, which only made her even more interested in what the future held for her, all of her friends, and the world she had been sent to.

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

hmmmn, might get that Spelljammer adventure after all, though i can understand why you might not want to do that as it could be a considerable investment of both time and money just picking up the materials...even online, those books cost a penny or three