Chapter 1: Discovery
A hollow castle, with empty rooms, and dark thoughts.
At least, that’s all Princess Celestia could think as she trudged her way to the place where her friend was. The place…her friend’s lifeless body lay. As she walked into the room, she was greeted by the sight of her student, and now alicorn, Twilight Sparkle.
“How goes the attempt?” Celestia questioned hopefully.
“He’s…not waking up…not even moving,…” replied a very tired looking Twilight.
Celestia bit her lip as she examined the other ponies inhabiting the room. Among them being: her sister, Princess Luna, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and at least ten unicorns who were very well versed in the arts of complex magic. In the center of the room, on a soft bed, lay the reason they all were present: Winter Storm.
He was a relatively average unicorn. His extra fluffy sky blue coat, and dark blue mane with silver streaks glimmering in the light from the sun. He was breathing, and being ever so still. But just as he was safety in the room, he was thousands of miles away. For his mind has been stripped of its awareness, and he lay frozen in a coma.
“We ran out of spells hours ago…I don’t know what the snow beasts did to him…but it seems to be permanent.” Luna replied solemnly and a bit detached.
Cadence stomped her hoof. “No. He’s the only hope his kingdom has! We NEED to bring him back!” she stated, angry that everyone was giving up so soon.
“There isn't any other magic we can use.” Stated one of the present unicorns bluntly.
“Then we need to make new spells!” Cadence cried back.
All the magic users in the room then proceeded to get into a heated argument about logic and hope, as Celestia walked up to the young unicorns body. He mentally dug through every spell she’s ever learned, hoping and clawing through each one looking for a solution. Until she came to one she never fully understood.
She could never truly find out what makes it work, or what it truly does, but it seemed to work for the situation.
“Hold on my little ponies, I have an idea…” she stated calmly.
Everypony shut their mouths and stared at her as her horn glowed a majestic golden color. She enveloped Winter Storm in it, and pressed the hopes of the kingdom, and his friends that relied on him, willing the spell to do what everyone else couldn’t do. She pleaded with the mystery spell to bring Storm back. She finally released it upon him, blinding everyone with a bright light. As the light faded, she opened her eyes to reveal…Winter Storm was missing.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Joseph
All was quiet. Well, quiet by forest standards. The birds were singing, leaves rustling, animals playing, and all was well. There was an occasional predator, but if you lived near the castle ruins, they usually left you to your own devices. Speaking of ruins, the ancient castle of the pony sisters was quite the interesting place. In the past, this very castle housed the elements of harmony! You’d think it would be a big tourist attraction, but barely anyone, save for the shaman zebra Zecora, could make it this far into the Everfree Forest. As it so happens, no one was around to witness a strange light, similar to a shooting star, start to rapidly descend toward the forest floor. As the light grew closer, it attracted the attention of a lowly bunny, which had been previously foraging for its next meal in the clearing around the ruins.
“Huh, I wonder what that could be,” the bunny said to itself. It shrugged its shoulders and continued looking for some leafy greens that it could eat. The closer the light got, the slower it went, until it gently deposited a small equine-shaped creature on the top of the tallest spire in the middle of the ruined castle. The light surrounding the pony flashed once more, then dissipated, revealing a smaller than average sized unicorn with a fluffy sky blue coat, alternating cerulean blue and silver in its mane and tail, and a jagged white snowflake as it's cutie mark.
Not even stirring, the unicorn kept on sleeping, unaware of its current situation as it lay at the top of the ancient castle of the pony sisters.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Several hours later; early morning
I shivered as the temperature started to drop. Unbeknownst to me, a heavy storm was on its way, and that combined with the time of year would make it a cold night. As the first few drops hit my fur, I subconsciously flinched and then rolled over.
“Unghh, just ten more minutes,” I mumbled. Shivering again, I shifted slightly as my new-found fluffy fur started to absorb the rain.
Thunder boomed, and the storm suddenly kicked into high gear, sending torrents of water speeding toward the Earth, instantly drenching my entire body. I shot upright with a loud gasp as I felt the equivalent of a bucket of cold water being dumped on my face.
“Whoa-kay! I’m up! ” I exclaimed. I tried to stand up, only to fall forward as soon as I tried to straighten my back. “Huh, ouch. I guess sleeping on some kind of flat rock isn’t the best solution for a happy back, right?” I chuckled to myself. “Okay, I think some stretches are in order.” Several loud popping noises proceeded to echo through the air as I twisted my spine back and forth. “That should do it. I should probably get out of this rain now,” I muttered as my damp body involuntarily shivered.
“Okay, let’s try standing again.” I got my feet under me, then pushed up with my arms, (hmmm, I seem to be too cold to feel my fingers,) and stood up. “Whoah!” I yelped as I wobbled and fell forward back onto my arms. “Seriously! Why can’t I stand, and why are my fingers so numb?” I asked while sitting back down. I lifted up my left hand and looked closely at it “Okay, my rational mind is about to board a plane and go on a vacation. WHY DO I HAVE FLIPPIN HOOVES!?!?!? So I’m a horse?!? Since when did that happen?!? Just what the flip happened last night? Think! Think! What happened?” I started hyperventilating as millions of questions flooded my mind.
I took several deep breaths and started to calm down. “Okay, I remember going to bed, then what? Did I get drugged or something?” I let out a yelp of surprise as I tapped my hoof into my forehead. “Okay, note to self, don’t facepalm anymore. Seriously, is this rain going to stop? Stupid rain… I need to find somewhere to bunker down and dry off until this storm stops.” I said miserably.
“Okay, welcome back logic, did you enjoy your vacation? Let’s put you to use and apply some science to this situation. First off, I’m a horse with no memory of how i became one. Secondly, the sun is just barely rising, it’s pouring rain and I’m completely soaked to the bone. What to do? Try to walk, then find shelter and dry off. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out some things when the rain stops.”
Rising to all fours, I tried taking a small step. “Okay, just try to imitate how you've seen horses walk in movies and stuff. First front left leg, then back right leg, front right, back left, front left, back right. Easy stuff, right?” Continuing to try and walk, I stumbled around like a drunkard. As I got in some sort of rhythm walking in circles, I chanced looking up from my new hooves ant trying to figure out if there was any shelter nearby. I stumbled, and then almost completely fell over, but I caught myself.
As I started to get surer and surer footing, and I then reached a block of stone reaching up out of the ground. I looked to the left and right, and identical blocks stood out of the ground at regular intervals. I turned in a slow circle, looking at the stones that reached around the “clearing.” After steeling myself at what I might find, I glanced over the closest stone and almost screamed at the sheer drop that stood before me. Stumbling backwards, I tripped over my hooves and slammed into the center of the tower. The already weakened and weathered stone cracked at the sudden impact, and collapsed inward.
“CRAAAAAAAAAAP!” I yelled as I plummeted into the inside of the tower. The floor sped towards me, and time seemed to slow down. My vision flashed white, and then I lost consciousness.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Miya
It’s warm. Not burning but definitely not comfy enough to get back to sleep. Which is the activity I was just enjoying so much. UGHHHHHHH…Okay if Harrison seriously threw another blanket on top of me, imma punch him… I think with a mental groan. I decide to open my eyes to see if misfortune will befall my big brother. I slowly pry my eyes open, first into a squint, but all I see is dark blue with streaks of colors I’m too tired to identify. My eyes are shut quickly again by the surprise color, but now I have the strength to open my eyes fully.
And I’m not sure I can process what I saw.
First, I’m in space. Er, something that looks like space I guess because my head isn't exploding or anything. Second, there were streaks of warm colors, y’know red, orange, and yellow; EVERYWHERE around me. "Oh nice…I get a shooting star show," I say with a half-asleep yawn. I stick a hand out to try to touch the stars, and burning pain lances up my arm and I let out a yelp.
“OH MY- FFFFFFF-“I scream as I pull my arm closer to my body. The pain in my hand doubles, then lances up my shoulder. Tears start streaming from the ever-increasing pain as I struggle to keep from blacking out. Wiping away my tears with my good hand, I finally notice how fast I was going. My hair and clothes were being constantly whipped out of my face by the pure amount of speed I was picking up. The shooting stars I mentioned from earlier were actually closer than I thought. They surrounded me actually. I was in them.
"Holy crap what’s going on?" I said in a whisper.
Remember that pain I mentioned earlier? Yeah still there. Worsening actually. I pried my blurry vision off of the scenery and looked at my burning hand. A bright light was emanating from it, and it was quickly starting to dissolve.
“Dear lord…” I mutter as I watch my arm slowly disappear. I don’t really have time to process the thought that I was dying, because as soon as the light climbed up to my wrist, black light started replacing the area where my hand had once been. While the white light continued eating my arm away, it left in it's wake, not black light, but a blackened stump.
"Aw dang it, I shuddered with a sad thought. "I loved that hand…that was my drawing hand…" Despite the pain that coursed though my entire arm now, the only thing truly cared about at that point was staying conscious. If I was still watching my arm, I would've noticed that as the pain continued to grow throughout my chest and neck, the black colored stump of an arm started turning white, and the whiteness started to sweep up my arm like a blanket. My attention was drawn elsewhere though, as I saw a planet coming into view. A very blurry view mind you, but I could see it was at least as big as the Earth as I sped past the moon. At this point, I was rocketing through space at speeds that would make Sonic the hedgehog jealous.
The growing pain pulsed and ebbed through my back now, stretching to my torso and other arm. I screamed through the pain, and thankfully that through the void of space, no one heard me. I screeched into the planet's atmosphere and the pain exploded through all the rest of my body in an instant. My screams grew louder as the pain washed over every nerve ending I had. The force that was rocketing me forward passed through the atmosphere with a painfully slow speed, fighting against the force of gravity wanting to smash me into the ground. But as soon as we passed through, the pain burst, then dissipated. I blinked a few times and yelped with joy! “Ha HA!” I declare, posing triumphantly. “Wow I never want to do THAT again…” I say with a shake of my head.
My subsided tears finally allowed me to see what I was heading for: A GINOURMOUS, upward spiraling castle. I surprising didn't freak out at the sight, figuring that whatever magical force kidnapped me would just send me through with no complaint.
Boy was I wrong.
I launched at a window and smashed face first into it. Time seemed to freeze as I beheld the scene inside. There was a big majestic horsey-thing staring at me with widened eyes. She had a biiiiiiig horn and big fluffy wings, with pink irises filled with fear and curiosity. (Mostly fear at the moment) She was white and had a mane of pink, green, and blue that seemed to flow gently to no breeze. Next to her was a little purple horse with a small horn and small wings. She was much jumpier than the bigger horse, almost a foot in the air frozen in surprise. I mentally giggled as time finally came back and pain punched me in the face.
I finally felt the full weight of smashing against glass that didn't break, and let me tell you I probably lost more brain-cells than I have with my total amount of hours playing video games.
The resounding thud I made on the glass made all the nearby animals flee in surprise. The star that I was oh-so-comfortably riding decided to now freak out since its original destination decided to be unavailable. So of course it fired me backwards and smashed me into the nearest building. Then it pulled me to the left, launching me over other colorful horses that I couldn’t catch details of, and ran me straight into a tree. The star launched me into about ten other things, scaring the life out of me, and everyone near me every time. Then it seemed to give up on sending me somewhere, and gently deposited me into a grassy area near the castle where this started.
“Nice job being gentle you cosmic butt…” I mumbled as blackness started creeping into the edges of my vision. There was a flash of light, and suddenly the big white horsie appeared in front of me.
“This was an unexpected result…” she stated a bit worriedly. I replied with a statement that brings pride to my generation.
“Pretty horsie brought the stars…” I sang out before I gave into the pain and blackness overtook my eyesight completely.