A human ends up in Equestria and is charged with protecting Harmony. No, he's not a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. Or, at least, I hope he's not.
It started as a simple birthday party. Presents, friends, family, and, of course cake. We all know that old tradition of making a birthday wish. Most don't come true.....Mine did.
HiE. All you haters out there, just keep on scrolling. I'll add character tags and others as they appear. First fic, criticism is appreciated.
"Jackson! Come on in, we are cutting the cake!" My mom shouted from the dining room. I shot up immediately and bolted into the dining room, brushing my long, dirty blonde hair out of my eyes as I did so. I was a tall, lanky kid. I towered above my sister and mother, but stood below my dad and eldest sister. I was thin, so much so that you could easily see each of my ribs. I was in such a hurry because it was my fifteenth birthday and I had one of the greatest foods in all of existence. Also because I was getting Minecraft, and I wanted to build a little village of my own.
"Coming mom!" I shouted back. It wasn't a big party I had, just my family and a friend. I ran past my grandpa and stood near my cake, looking at it, and examining the plate that contained the most holy of foods: Chocolate Cake. The rest of my family walked in from the living room and started singing "Happy Birthday" to me. I didn't pay attention, I was too busy thinking of which piece I wanted to devour. My family finished singing the stupid little jingle, and my mom said, "Make a wish, son!" I smiled at her and I leaned in over the cake and thought to myself.
''What do I really want?' A small grin grew on my face as I thought of the obvious answer. I inhaled and thought 'I wish I could go to Equestria' and blew out the candles. My wish faded in my mind as I saw the cake get cut.
You see, I'm a brony. I watched every episode the day it came out, and devoured chapters of fanfics almost as quickly as I ate cake. After a certain...incident...My Little Pony brought me out of a depression I had been locked in for a while. It reinforced The Walls. The Walls are the things that stop me from sitting in a corner while rocking back and forth, crying. I'll get into that later. It gave that little bit of happiness and sunshine I needed to stop myself from going mad. My friend knew, but he wasn't a brony, nor was he a hater.
Nobody else really knew about it. I picked up my corner piece and walked out, swiftly devouring the cake. I walked up and sat in the middle of the presents, waiting for everybody to finish. After a few minutes, everyone was done and I could open my presents. Most of them were just gift cards, but I finally got to the one I had been waiting for. It was a simple card that had the username and code for my copy of Minecraft. I thanked everybody, then hopped up, grabbed the laptop and jumped to the Minecraft home page. I briefly heard my grandpa say "Good luck trying to get a response from him now." He had reason to comment, because when I play games, I get into a sort of trance and don't get out until I rage or get bored.
-------- A few hours later -------
As I finished building my own little village, I started to feel lightheaded. I looked up at the clock and cringed. It was midnight, all the guests had left, and my family had gone to bed. I decided I would do some more mining tomorrow. I walked up the stairs to my room and sang little snippets of 'Warrior' by Disturbed. I brushed my teeth, walked into my room and turned on the fan, for some white noise. I opened my window and started a little 'ritual' that I devised to stay sane. I won't go into the details, but it was basically a verbal journal. As I finished, I felt a sudden, unbearable headache come on. It was so terrible, I couldn’t even think. I rolled on the floor for a minute or two, moaning in pain before I passed out.
------------------------------------- I awoke in....Well nowhere I guess. It could best be described as a Void. Just blackness, as far as the eye could see. I raised my hand up to my face and was relieved when I could see it.
"Ok, so I'm not blind. Where the heck am I?" I asked myself. I wasn't expecting a response.
"The World Between." said a voice behind me.
I swiftly jumped up and turned around and saw a woman standing a few feet away from me. She had long, brown hair that reached her midsection, and looked to be about forty, near the age of my dad. The woman was tall, looking to be about 7 feet tall. She had green eyes, and was giving me a warm smile.
"Who are you?" I asked, slightly frightened.
"I have many names, but your people once called me 'Gaia'" she said. Her voice reminded me of leaves rustling in the wind.
"Wait what?!? You mean to tell me that you’re the Earth?!" I asked, incredulous.
"Well, no, but It is my Element." she said, giving me a small grin.
"So, you’re an Earthbender, like from Avatar?" I asked, more confused than before.
"No, but I do have a special connection with the Earth. I am one of The Four."
"So where are the other three?" I asked, not even going to ask what The Four was.
"Right behind you." A male voice said.
I spun around and came face to face with a man wearing the biggest grin I have ever seen. I jumped back and gave a small yelp of surprise.
There were three people, all standing in a row. The first was a man, the one that had freaked me out. He looked to be about 24, and he was chuckling to himself, and I noticed something strange. His blonde hair, which was a little longer than mine, was being blown back by some unseen wind. He was rather short, but had a kind face, filled with laugh lines, and when he opened his eyes, I saw that they were hazel.
The next was a girl, looking to be about 30, had blue hair that looked like it was floating in water. She was looking at me with a calculating gaze, as if examining my soul. She had deep blue eyes, and I could see a lot of sadness in them.
The final one kinda creeped me out. He was tall, freakishly so. He was a ginger, but that wasn't what creeped me out. His eyes looked like burning coals. And he was staring right at me, so it amplified the creepiness level by 10. He looked....disappointed. Like he was expecting something of me, and I didn't meet his requirements.
"So you’re The Four? By the way, what is that, exactly?" I asked.
The blonde one responded, "To your first question, yes. You already know Gaia, the Spirit of Earth. I am Borealis, the Spirit of Wind. This lovely lady," he said, pointing at the woman next to him, "Is Rudra, the Spirit of Water," Rudra gave me a small nod, "And that grouch over there is Agni, the Spirit of Fire. As to your second question, you know that Discord fellow you saw in that show you watched?" I nodded. I noticed that Borealis talked with a British accent. It was very cool.
"Thank you." And they can read minds.
"Yes, we can." This time, it was Rudra that spoke. "Back to the matter at hand, Discord is a spirit of Chaos. His entire goal in life is to bring chaos to every realm he can. He is isolated to the land you know as Equestria, so he can't do too much. The Four are the Spirits of Harmony in your realm."
"Well you don't seem to have a very good hold on Earth." I knew it wasn't a good idea to insult spirits that are supposed to up hold peace, but hey, I wanted to know.
Rudra sighed "We know, we lost Earth a while ago to Chaos. We are trying to fix it, but....Humans are messed up creatures."
"Who is the Guardian in Equestria?" I asked.
"That is the reason you are here. The previous Guardian turned over to Chaos and we need a new one." I stood there for a minute before it hit me.
"Oh hell no. You think that I should be the person responsible for defeating a SPIRIT OF CHAOS?!?!?! I'm a fifteen year old kid for Christ's sake!" I shouted. There was no way that I could handle that responsibility.
"Yes, you can Jackson." Said Gaia. Crap, forgot about the mind reading. I noticed that Agni had yet to speak.
"Do you really think we would send a weakling like you without any help?" Well speak of the devil. He is rather rude. "Kindness doesn't win wars, whelp." Shit. "We will give you our blessings, which come with powers and attributes that go with the element."
"What powers would these be?" I asked, wondering what the benefits would be.
Borealis replied, "You would be given the ability to control our elements among other things. Now," he said, serious for once, "Will you accept?"
I thought about what was being offered. On one hand, I would be able to go to Equestria with powers over the elements, but on the other, I would be responsible for stopping Chaos. I could die there!
I decided to ask one final question before I made my answer known. "Will I still be a human there?"
"No," Rudra replied, "you will take the form of the inhabitants. So, you'll be a pony." I thought this over. I would be able to live my dream, to live among the ponies as one of them! Maybe I could even meet my favorite pony, Luna!
----------------------Meanwhile, in the Ponyville library-----------------------
Twilight Sparkle was worried. Her friends sitting around her in a circle, looking at her expectantly. She had just received a letter via Dragon fire from her mentor, Princess Celestia. The letter was the cause of her worry.
"Girls, the Princess said that there are pockets of Chaos opening up throughout Equestria." She said.
All her friends gasped in unison, for they thought they had beaten the forces of Chaos a year ago, with the defeat of Discord. "But I thought we beat that big meanie Discord and all of the Chaos last year!" Pinkie Pie said, incredulous. "It seems that he has been set free-" "But we locked him up with the Elements!" Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"We did Rainbow, but this time he didn't get out on his own. Somepony set him free. Willingly." Twilight said grimly. "WHAAAAAAT?!?!" All the other girls asked in unison. "But tha' would mean that somepony wanted Chaos to spread!" Applejack said. "Yes Applejack, but what kind of pony would set that ruffian free?" asked Rarity. "A meanie McMeanyface, that’s who!" interjected Pinkie. "Somepony that is totally uncool!" Exclaimed Rainbow.
Everypony, excluding Fluttershy, started speaking their ideas. She noticed a small ball of energy forming in the circle the girls were sitting in. "U-um, girls?" she whispered. They took no heed of her, however. "G-Girls?!" She said, moderately louder as the ball continued to grow. They ignored her and started shouting out louder. "GIRLS!!!!!" She finally shouted, as something fell out of the ball. They all stopped, with their mouths wide open, and looked over at her.
"Y-yes Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, stunned. "L-look." she said, pointing her hoof at the object that had fallen out.
They all turned and saw a green colt lying in the circle. "U-uh......Hi?" the colt said, nervously.
--------------------------Earlier, in the Void-----------------
"Good. Walk over to that stump, and we will bestow The Blessings." Said Gaia. I looked around at the Void, and saw a simple wooden chair pop out of nowhere. 'Ok....' I thought, a little surprised. I walked over and noticed a picture was on it. I examined it and saw that it depicted a volcano sitting on an island in the middle of a large lake. The lake was surrounded in all directions by a forest. Wind was blowing through the trees and blowing away the ash from the volcano. The entire thing seemed to be animated somehow. The Four walked over and stood in a circle around me. "Hold still." Agni said curtly. I began to panic a little, before Gaia placed her hand on my head and I felt a calming presence enter my mind. 'May you be grounded to the Earth and hold firm in the face of temptation.' said Gaia's voice in my head.
She stepped away and Borealis took her place. He placed his hand on my head and I felt an excited presence enter. 'May you blow down your enemies, and may any other challenges be a breeze.' Ha-ha Borealis, very punny. 'Thank you.' he replied smugly, still in my head.' Why do I keep forgetting they can read minds?
He backed away and the gentle figure of Rudra entered my view. She placed her hand on my head and I felt her presence enter my mind. I could feel a strong sense of loss from her. 'May the power of Water flow through you, and may the grief of loss wash away.' She said the entire thing in a saddened tone, as if she had done this before, and lost someone.
She moved away, and I swear to this day, I saw a tear fall down her cheek. Agni, screw him and Prince Storm Wing, stepped into view. He placed his hand on my head, and it felt like he was on fire, which he should. I felt his presence invade my mind, and it felt mad and disappointed. 'May you burn your enemies to dust, and be able to burn through all lies.'
These all seemed very....un-vague. Isn't it a law that when giving blessings, that if you are a Spirit or something, you must say everything in a riddle of some sort? "No-" said Borealis, "It's just really fun to mess with mortals." Oh ok. I hadn't forgotten they could read minds; it just seemed cool being able to have a conversation with someone without having to speak. I don't really like my voice, it’s kinda squeaky.
"So where am I going to go, exactly?" I asked. I decided to speak for the remainder of the meeting, before shutting up for as long as I could.
"You will be sent to the Everfr-"
"Now, ima stop you right there." I interrupted her. The rest of The Four turned and looked at me, surprised. "I don't think you should send me there."
Agni, seething, said "And what reasons would you have to not go there?!"
"Well, first of all, it’s overused. Every single magical thing supposedly happens there. Second, it’s dangerous. You wouldn't want me to die before I even started, now would you?" I said, with my 'Questioning your thought process' face.
Agni looked as if he was about to explode on me before Borealis said "You have a point." He turned and looked at him, incredulous. They stared at each other for a few seconds before he said "What?" with a confused look on his face. Agni just sighed and shook his head. "Where do you think we should send you, 'Jackie'" he said through gritted teeth.
"I dunno." I said, raising my arms and giving an exaggerated shrug. "Surprise me."
"Very well...." said Gaia. She had been watching the short exchange. She turned to me and said, "Prepare yourself."
"Wait WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO PREPARE FOR?!" I shouted, freaking out at the short warning. I saw tentacles of light shoot out of nowhere and start wrapping themselves around me. I felt a sudden sharp pain, like my earlier headache, except it was everywhere at once. My only thought was 'I've seen enough Hentai' before it suddenly disappeared. I heard familiar voices all shouting at once before I heard someone shout out "GIRLS!!!" and they all quieted down. I opened my eyes and saw colorful blobs swimming in my vision. I blinked repeatedly to try and see clearer, and heard "Y-yes Fluttershy?" Fluttershy.....OH GOD IT WORKED!
"L-look." I could finally see and saw I was surrounded by the Mane Six, all of which were staring at me. "U-uh......Hi?" I said, smiling sheepishly.
The Mane Six just stared at me, as I sat there in the middle of what looked to be the Ponyville Library, with a nervous smile on my face. Rainbow snapped out of the trance first, and put on an aggressive face. She flew right into my face and I cringed and closed my eyes, expecting a blow to the jaw. She said, "Who are you? How did you get here?! Are you working for Discord?!?!? ARE YOU A SP-sp-sp-y?" she trailed off when I opened my eyes, realizing the blow wasn't coming.
"U-um before I answer your q-questions, could you p-please a-answer one of mine?" I asked, stuttering in fright. I decided I was going to play ignorant for as long as I could, and not reveal that I was human, or a brony. "W-Where am I?"
Twilight blinked and shook her head a little, snapping out of shock. "Your in the Ponyville library. Now answer Rainbow's questions. Lets start with who you a-" she was cut off by Pinkie Pie, who had snapped out of it as well.
"What's up with your eyes?" she asked, with her head tilted to one side. I blinked in confusion, before I realized I had no idea what I looked like. 'Rainbow didn't ask what I was, so I probably look like a pony...but what is so strange about my eyes?' I thought.
"What....What are you talking about?" I started looking around the room. 'Mirror, mirror, mirror, OH GOD!' I had found what I was looking for, and it surprised me. I looked into the mirror and saw a colt, looking to be the same age as the Mane Six, staring back at me. 'Is...Is that....Me?!?' I had green fur that was so shaggy, it looked like it was grass. My hai-mane, ('Gotta get used to pony terms') was in the same style as when I was human, and it was brown. Like, dirt brown. I was facing the mirror at an angle, so I couldn't see a cutie mark, or if I even had one. I studied my new body for a few seconds, before remembering what Pinkie had said. I looked up and saw something that nearly made me gasp in shock. My eyes were a dark green, and I had no pupils, giant or otherwise. They were just a green oval, with a slightly lighter area where my pupils should have been. I stared at my new (and kinda cool) eyes, before looking back at the girls, all of whom had shaken off their shock, and said "W-well, thats new."
"What do ya mean, 'thats new'? Did somepony cast a spell on ya?" asked Applejack. She was looking at me with a suspicious glare. Twilight blinked at her words, and her eyes widened a bit. Her horn lit up, and I felt a strange feeling pass through my body. It was as if I was being felt by a thousand hands at once, but not externally. It wasn't in my organs either; the scanning spell, for that's what it obviously was, had reached what felt like a muscle, that for some reason I had no control of, nor could I get a real sense of what it was.
"That might be the case Applejack, because I'm sensing five traces of very, VERY, powerful magic on him. They all seem to be even more powerful than Celestia and Luna combined!" she had a very surprised look on her face. "Did anypony cast any spells recently on you?" she asked, her surprised look now changing with the others into suspicion.
I gulped. I couldn't really tell them that I had been blessed by four spirits from some far of world that they had probably never heard of, (Hipster planet!) now could I? And what had she said? FIVE traces of magic? What was the fifth..."Actually, yes, a friend of mine cast a simple spell to increase my endurance." It was a terrible and obvious lie, but, hey, I had to try. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Applejack get a very startled look on her face, before realizing her mistake and setting it into a poker face. She walked over to Twilight, who had started to say something about how that just didn't fit in, and whispered into her ear for a while. Twilight's eyes widened in, seemingly, disbelief.
She caught all of the girls attention and said "Excuse me sir, but can I talk to my friends a moment?" I opened my mouth to tell her to go ahead, but she cut me off without waiting for a response. "Ok thank you." The girls all walked by me in a row, with different reactions as they passed me by. Pinkie gave me a big grin, probably already planning a party. Fluttershy hid behind her mane, and Rarity just ignored me for the moment. Rainbow turned and glared at me before saying "Don't even think about trying anything, bub, or I'll have you down in ten seconds flat." And suddenly I'm mad. I don't know why, but cockiness and peo-ponies that thought they were invincible just pissed me off. She turned and walked away from me, towards the group. I heard them all start whispering to each other, and decided to try and stand up. Through the entire thing, I had just been lying there, like a lump. I looked down at my hooves and thought of all the times I had imagined I was some kind of four-legged animal when I was a kid. I slowly rose up, shakily. It was just like all those times, except it seemed natural now.
I looked up and saw that the Mane Six were no longer whispering among themselves and were now looking at me. I raised one hoof up and waved, somehow still maintaining my balance. They then broke up the huddle and walked to me. "Alright Mr.....um....we...never asked you your name did we? Or tell you ours." Twilight said, with a sheepish smile at the end. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Applejack" she said, pointing her hoof at each pony in turn, "Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy." She turned her head, looking at me for a moment. "What's your name?"
I thought for a moment. I had to figure out a good pony name, because 'Jackson' probably wouldn't work here. 'Alright kid think. Green coat, dirty ha- DIRT! Dirt, dirt, dirt...Gaia! No wait, taken and girls name. Alright, another name has to do with earth....' I racked my brain for any and all things related to the Earth and remembered part of a Latin phrase I had seen.
I grinned, looked up and said, "My name is Terra."
I heard a loud cough, and turned and saw Rainbow holding her hoof to her muzzle, looking irritatedly at Twilight. "If we could get back to the more IMPORTANT questions, like how the hay he got here?"
"Ok, Terra, how did you get here?" asked Twilight. I looked at Applejack from the corner of my eye and saw she was showing no emotion. She hadn't called me out on my lies yet? 'Maybe it has something to do with what she said during that huddle' I thought.
I looked at her and put on my greatest 'I dunno' face and said "I have no idea. Last thing I remember is my friend casting the endurance spell on me, there was a flash of light, and now I'm here. There was a bit of a blur in between those last two, but that's it." 'I am REALLY pushing my luck right now.' I still got no reaction from Applejack. Twilight was still thinking about what I had said.
"But...How could a simple spell like that misfire and teleport somepony?" she asked herself. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she processed any ideas. She started mumbling to herself, probably wondering how that would work.
The girls all waited for a minute, before Applejack started to get annoyed by the incessant mumbling. She walked over to Twilight and snapped her hooves (WHAT?!?!?!) in front of her face. Twilight shook her head and mumbled a 'Thank you' to Applejack. "What was your friends name?" She asked me.
'Ohshitohshitohshit....think, kid think! Alright I said endurance spell....something to do with improving...uh....TUNE UP!' "Her name is Tune Up." I said, wearing a poker face. In the corner of my eye, I saw Applejack get another look of frustration on her face, not even bothering to hide it this time. 'What's her problem? She has that look that people get when they can't figure something out...Oh. WAIT. Can she not tell if i'm lying?!' I thought to myself. I can be oblivious from time to time. It strikes at random. I looked at her with a curious look on my face, and she just glared back at me. Rainbow was standing right next to her, and was giving me the same exact look. 'Distrust from the Elements of Honesty and Loyalty...Guess I saw that comnig.'
"Well, Mr. 'Terra' hows about you answer Twi's question. How could such a simple spell teleport you?" she asked, looking at me skeptically. I had not thought of that. 'Shit, somebody help me...' I thought desperately. I could keep a pretty damn good poker face, unless I was happy, so the girls hopefully couldn't see through it.
I felt something poke at my mind, in a bored way, like it had done the same thing a million times before. I had no idea how to respond to it, so I just said in my mind 'Hello?' I felt the presence, which had been about to leave, pause, then shoot back into me.
I suddenly felt years and years of sitting strong, of wind blowing by me, of leaves falling off my- 'Sorry!' I heard a feminine voice in my head. It didn't sound like any of the girls, or Rudra or Gaia. 'I'm sorry, but I have never found anypony that could hear me, let alone respond!' said the voice. It had the same firm, yet gentle tone of Gaia.
'Who are you?' I asked the voice. I guessed she was another spirit, probably Earth, like Gaia.'Where are you?' I looked around the room, not realizing that Twilight was asking me something. I looked around and saw a pulsing light green aura filling the tree. As soon as I spotted it, it started gathering up into one spot, directly in front of me, and right behind Twilight. The aura formed into a pony-like structure, but didn't form a body.
'I am Mahogany, the spirit of this tree.' she said. I noticed that she was still in my head, probably to make sure I didn't speak out loud, and make everypony think I was insane. Which I wasn't. Mostly. I simply stood there and stared at the aura, which I took to be where she was. She faced me and started shifting from side to side. Eventually she probably got creeped out, because she nearly shouted in my mind, 'What is it?!?!?'
I just blinked and thought 'Mahogany.' She heard me, and the thought that came with it. She looked at me, and I could see the fright on her not-face. 'Bow before the desk, but worship the Popo.' I thought. 'Sorry about that, that side of me sometimes can't be repressed. Now, you are a spirit that inhabits this tree?'
She shook her aura-head and said 'No, I AM the tree.' So I had just freaked out a tree? Looks like I can cross that off the bucket list...'You should really pay attention to what is happening around you, Terra.' She said. Wait what? I blinked and shook my head as her aura faded. I looked around the room and saw that the girls were all staring at me with confused looks on their faces.
"Um, Terra? You ok there?" Twilight asked. I looked over at her and blinked. I could see a tinge of green sitting in her. It was the same color of Mahogany, and was drifting about over her horn. I guess Mahogany liked her. "You kinda spaced out for a minute there, then whispered 'Mahogany' in a wierd voice." Well it looks like something slipped through...
"I'm sorry, I sometimes do that. Not the mahogany thing, the spacing out thing. What was your question?"
"When your friend, Tune Up, you said? Cast the spell on you, did you feel anything strange? Like the feeling of a lot of energy passing through you?" I'm guessing that would be a spell overload...
"Yes, and she shouted out something like 'I overloaded it!' before it flashed." I really don't like lying to them, but I have to.
"That's what I thought, it was a simple spell overload. They tend to have completely random effects. Including, apparently, teleportation." Huzzah! My luck has held! "Alright, some more questions. What do you know about Discord?" Quizzin to see if I'm a spy, eh? Smart lass.
"I know that he is a Spirit of Disharmony, and was defeated at least once before, by the Princesses." Thank you Season Two.
"He was defeated twice." Alright, so I'm at least after the events of the first ep of Season 2... "Once by the Princesses, and once by the Elements of Harmony." Ok, so not an alternate universe...
"The Elements of Harmony? They are real?!" I asked, feigning ignorance. I need to figure out some details here...
"Yes, and we are-" she was cut off by a loud cough from Applejack. She turned and looked at her inquisitively. I saw Applejack shake her head slowly. Guess they don't want me to know. "U-Uh, never mind. So, next question. What is-" she was cut off, again, by Pinkie Pie.
"What does your cutie mark mean?" she asked, her head tilted to the side. I tilted my head and looked at my flank. My cutie mark was a large oak tree, but it had something scratched on it, like how people carve their initials on a tree in crappy romantic stories and stuff. I looked closer and saw, to my surprise, it was the symbol for Earthbending, from Avatar. What? Maybe it has something to do with the seeing Spirits of Earth thing...
"I dunno." They all gasped in shock and stared at me, their jaws, quite literally, on the floor. "It might have something to do with the fact that I'm currently seeing a pony-shaped green thing standing behind you Twilight." I needed to speak the truth. They all turned to look behind Twilight.
They were all staring directly at the spot were Mahogany was now panicking. 'Why did you tell them I was here? They can't see me.' I simply grinned as I saw Twilight's horn start to glow. I saw a wave of purple go out in all directions. When it hit Mahogany, it bounced back, sort of like how you would imagine Echo-Location works. It hit Twilight, and she recoiled in shock.
"There is something there!" She said. She looked at me and said, "How did you know that it was there without using magic?"
"First off, 'it' is a girl, and she has a name."
"Oh really? And what is 'her' name?" Rainbow asked. Why has she been so silent? Whatever...
"Her name is Mahogany." 'Oy, you think you can speak through me or something?' Mahogany looked at me, startled.
'You would let me do that? You would trust me with your body?' I simply turned to her and nodded. I saw her aura form into a mist, sort of like Nightmare Moon in Episode one, and float towards me. When it reached me, it started entering my body as I inhaled it. After a few breaths, I found that I was looking from where Mahogany was standing before. I saw my body, but something had changed. I looked closer and saw that my cutie mark had disappeared. My body opened it's eyes, and I saw that, instead of the previous green, they were now brown. The rest of my body suddenly shrunk in on itself a little, making me look more feminine.
During this entire transformation, the Mane Six had simply stared at me-er, Mahogany. Mahogany studied my body for a few seconds, shifting from hoof-to-hoof, getting used to it. She looked at Twilight and said, "Hello! My name is Mahogany." Twilight's eyes widened, and she took a step back. "Terra said I could inhabit his body, probably because he is to lazy to explain on his own." I frowned at her, before realizing I had no face. I was an aura, like Mahogany was. I found I was a deep, dark green, unlike Mahogany's light green. While Mahogany was explaining herself to the mares, I walked around and looked at the covers of the books. They were in English, thank god. 'Egghead's Guide to Racing' 'A Brief History of Equestria' and 'Star Swirl the Bearded's Guide to Teleportation' were a few.
"Terra?" I turned and looked back at Mahogany, and tilted my head inquisitively, since I hadn't figured out how to talk yet. "I'm done explaining." I nodded and started walking towards her. I didn't know how to do the Gas form thing, so I just walked into her. I felt her exit my body as I entered it. I shook my head as the freedom of having no body left, and I was reacquianted with gravity. I have a feeling me and the floor will be having an intimate relationship in the future.
As I stood up, Fluttershy finally spoke up. "T-Terra? Is that you?"
I gave her a wide grin and said "Yep, its me."
Twilight looked at me and said "That was...strange, to say the least. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised, seeing as how you are Blessed by the ancient Spirit Gaia." How...how did she figure that out?
"What do ya mean Twi?" Good question Applejack! Please answer it now!
"His cutie mark. I saw it in a book about ancient symbols. The oak tree is the symbol associated with the Blessings of the Earth, and the symbol on the tree is only given to those blessed by Gaia herself..." She said, only now realizing what it meant. "And you say you can't remember anything in between the spell and getting here?"
And I have to lie more...."That's right. All I can remember is the flash and then arriving here."
"Huh... Well, I'm guessing you have no place to stay, right?"
"No, but I can make due." Ok, that was a lie, and we all knew it. I don't like taking other peo-ponies (Damn pony terms) hospitality. Especially after I told them a series of lies. It makes me feel guilty.
She gathered the girls into another huddle and they started quietly arguing. I turned to Mahogany, and tilted my head. She just shrugged, and I turned and saw the girls had finished.
Twilight turned towards me and said "You can stay here."
"I wouldn't want to impose-"
"Nonsense! It would be no trouble at all." I started to feel the onset of the guilt come.
"If you insist..." And there's the guilt.
The rest of the girls started filing out, giving me smiles. Except for Rainbow. She just gave me a blank look. I turned and saw Spike glaring at me. I looked at him with a bored look. He said "If you hurt Twilight, I'll make you pay."
I raised my eyebrows a little and said "Mate, I'm not going to hurt anypony." Except Trixie or Blueblood. They are eeevil...
I turned and looked at Twilight, who had started going up the stairs. "Don't mind Spike, he's just a little overprotective. I'm sorry, but we don't have a guest room. Are you ok with the couch?" She asked
"Of course, ma'am." Looks like my force of habit is coming out again...
She gave me an odd look before turning and walking up the stairs. Spike gave me the 'I'm watching you' sign before following her. I walked over and jumped on the brown couch in the corner. 'I'm guessing this is just one of the few little details different from the show.' I laid down and what had happened that day finally hit me. I fell asleep whispering "Ohmygosh" to myself.
----------Third Person POV------------- Rainbow had decided immediately that she didn't trust Terra. She didn't trust him for a few reasons. One, he had appeared out of thin air. Two, he had creepy eyes. Three, Applejack couldn't tell if he was lying or not. When the mares had gathered together, that was what they had talked about. Since Applejack was the Bearer of the Element of Honesty, she had been able to tell when anypony was lying. With Terra, she had said that there was, "Somethin blockin her senses" from him.
That was not the greatest reason she didn't trust him. When Rainbow looked into somepony's eyes, she could see what emotions they were feeling. She saw it as a certain color from the rainbow filling the sclera, the white of the eye. Red for anger. Yellow for curiousity. Orange for happiness. Green for calm. Blue for sadness. Violet for bravery. She had never seen anything indigo, though. When she looked into Terra's eyes she saw.....Nothing. She couldn't see any emotion at all in his eyes. When he was explaining himself, his face had looked confused, but his eyes were empty.
So she and the rest of the girls had decided to meet up to find out what was with him. She looked down and saw Twilight's library. She slowly winged down and landed in front of the door. She knocked three times, and before she had finished the third knock, the door had opened. Twilight beckoned her inside, and shut the door quietly. Rainbow looked around and saw the rest of the girls nod at her before looking at the colt on the couch.
"Alright Rainbow, Terra is asleep." She whispered. "You're the last one to get here."
"Ok Twi, now I want you to cast a memory reading spell on him."
Twilight gaped at her in shock. They knew Rainbow didn't trust Terra, bit this was to much. Invading someponies mind? That was terrible! "Rainbow! I will NOT invade someponies MIND! That is just.....just....Wrong!" She whispered furtively.
"But Twi, it's the only way! Without Applejack's lie detection, we can't tell who's side he is on!"
"I know it might be wrong Twi, but it's the only way we can find out about him." Applejack said. She didn't trust Terra, as nopony had ever stopped her from detecting lies. Even Discord hadn't been able to.
"I agree." Said Rarity. "We simply must be sure. He seems harmless but we have only just met the colt."
"But...But...."
"Um...I'm sorry but...I think you should cast the spell too." Twilight turned and stared wide-eyed at Fluttershy. She had expected at least the Element of Kindness to protest.
Twilight was in a big predicament. On one hoof, if she didn't cast the spell, he might have been a spy and her friends might not be able to beat Discord because of him. On the other hoof, if she did and he WASN'T a spy, than she would have needlessly invaded his mind. There didn't seem to be a way out.....'Unless...' It hit her. 'Would it?...Yes! It can! "Rainbow, I refuse to read his memories." The girls started to protest but she cut them off, "However. There is a spell that could help us."
Rainbow tilted her head and gestured with a hoof, telling her to go on. "It is a spell recently developed by Princess Luna herself. She calls it the "Song of the Heart" and it is a spell that plays a song that represents who the pony that it is cast on is, at their core. It will tell us if he is a good pony, or not, without invading his privacy!"
Rainbow rolled her eyes and simply gestured again. The rest of the girls leaned in and listened intently. They had trotted over to where Terra was sleeping. Twilight turned to his unconscious form and said "Here goes..." Her horn started to glow, faintly at first. Then the light grew and grew, until she was sure Terra would wake....
--------POV Terra-------------
I opened my eyes and found myself to be lying in the Void once more. I stood up and saw Gaia in the distance. I walked over to her, finding that I had my human body again. When I got near her, she turned and smiled at me. "Ah hello Jack, or should I call you 'Terra'? Nice choice of name, by the way."
I smiled and nodded. "Yep. Terra, Latin for 'Earth.' Only thing I could come up with on the spot. Now, could you explain why I saw a green ball of gas calling itself Mahogany? And why I was the only one?"
Her eyes widened in surprise. "You saw Mahogany? Your powers are developing rather quickly..."
"Yea, and my cutie mark-" I was cut off by Gaia laughing
"Your WH-HA-HAT?!" she asked, laughing.
"Hey, I didn't name it! It is what the ponies get when they find their special talent. Now, as I was saying what-"
"Ah Jackie! Good to see you friend!" Goddamnit Borealis.
"Hi Borry. Now as I was sayi-"
"BORRY?! I vote we make that his permanent name!" When did Rudra become a childish girl? "Hey! I am not childish!" Oh yeah, the whole mind-reading thing....Hate my stupid memory system.
"I second that motion." Am I being completely ignored now? And Gaia, you two? "Yes." Aw Christ...
"Motion carried. Now, you were saying something, Terra?" Thank you for being semi-mature Agni. "Rudra told me to lighten up." 'And you have to listen to your wife if you wanna get some.' Why in my mind...WAIT WHAT?!?
"What is it, Terra?" Rudra asked. She couldn't hear Agni? "Hear Agni say what?" SHIT!
"Yes, Terra, Rudra is my wife."
"O-Ok.....Now if we can get back on track please? What does my cutie mark mean?"
"Your WHAT?!" Agni, Rudra and Borry asked, laughing as well. Agni looks....creepy while laughing. "Hey!" Sorry.
"Goddamnit, not this again... It's a tattoo a pony gets on their ass that symbolises their talent. Mine was an oak tree with the Earthbending symbol carved on it." I get kinda swear-y when I get impatient. Or surprised. Or mad. Or really any emotion. "And I could see a ball of green....stuff...that formed into a pony shape and called itself Mahogany. She talked to me and I freaked her out and-"
"Did the 'Stuff' look like an aura?" Can I please finish at least four sentences?
"Yeah, sure whatever. Now what does that mark mean?"
"You said it was an oak tree, right? And it had that...Earthbending symbol, was it? was carved onto it?" Yes. "No need to get irritated now." When did you all become so immature? "When we sent you to Equestria. It appears some of its essence merged with us. So now we are like this." Ok....Wait, off topic! What does the effing mark mean?! "Probably that you have control over the earth and all things connected to it." .....Wat.
Rudra giggled. Seriously. She giggled like a fucking anime schoolgirl. It pissed me off, and turned me on at the same time. "Thank you." Gotta learn how to shield my thoughts... "Yes. Yes you do." Fuck. "And yes, you have control of the earth when in that form." Earth, capitol E? Wait form? I have more than one?! "No, yes." How many.
"Four, last time I checked. It turns out that, instead of merging all the blessings into one body, it distributed them each to a separate form." Thank you Captain Fire-Face. Agni gave me a deadpan glare.
"So I have one form for your blessing, one for Rudra's, one for Borry's" He glared indignantly at me. Hey, just because they are being immature doesn't mean I can't, "and one for Gaia's?"
"Eeyup." Borry is now Big Mac. All votes?
"I." The rest of The Four said. Motion carried.
"Ok so I-AAAAGH!" I cried out, feeling a sudden pain in my chest. The Four all jumped to me side and stopped me from falling over. I had felt this pain once before, only in a....lower area. It was unbearable. I somehow was able to form enough coherent thought to think 'The Walls!'
Alright, I said I would explain the Walls, right? Well, you know how everybody has their way of coping with loss, right? Well after the...incident....the Walls came up. They are my way of coping with loss. They are a series of, well walls, that block out any and all emotion. They also keep in any real emotions. I can put on my happy face, my sad face, and my agnry faic, but I can't really FEEL them. I shut down when the walls came up, or, at least, it looked like it.
When the Walls first came up, I spent all day playing games, reading, or getting on the Interwebz. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was just trying to remove myself from the world. That is why fantasy novels are my favorite. They take place in some fantastic different world where-off track. Sorry. I was also looking for a little something to give me the happiness I needed to survive. I kept on looking at things like Memebase, and eventually found their new site of My Little Brony. I decided to try the show and it provided me that little bit of happiness needed to keep the Walls strong. Eventually, the Walls became more than just a coping mechanism. They became physical entities. I could literally FEEL the Walls when something 'hit' them. Should I read something sad enough, I could literally feel them shattering.
I felt that same type of pain right now, except maginified. Something, or someone, was breaking down the Walls as I slept. "Send me back!" I gasped out. I figured that the Four could send me back, or just wake me up. I opened my eyes and saw Rudra in my face, looking at me worriedly. I stared at her pleadingly, and felt myself...passing out? Wierd.
I opened my eyes and quickly closed them. There was a blinding light in my eyes, and I felt something receding from me. It felt like when any one of the Four had exited my mind. I opened my eyes, slowly this time, and found that the light was receding. When I could see clearly, I saw Twilight standing in front of my with a sheepish grin on her face. Surrounding her were all of the girls staring at me in shock and...pity? Guilt? Something like that.
I blinked the sleep from my eyes, before saying "Uh....Girls? What are you doing..." 'Mahogany, wake up!' I saw Mahogany's aura start to sluggishly form into a pony-shape again.
Twilight blinked and her eyes widened. She stood on her hind legs and moved her hooves around in circles, saying "I am not Twilight. We are not the girls you know! You're dreeeeaming this!" My brain simply ceased to function for a minute and I just sat there blinking.
I shook the grogginess from my mind and thought 'Mahogony, would you kindly tell me what the fuck just happened?' I get swear-y when I'm cranky too. "Not that I'm ungrateful for the place to sleep Twilight, but why the fuck did you wake me up? And pardon my swearing, but I get kinda cranky when I wake up at midnight."
She frantically looked around, realizing her trick hadn't worked. Her eyes fell on something behind me and she shouted out "My book! I left my book on the couch and wanted to get it back! Yep, that's exactly why I woke you up. Ehehehehe..." She is a worse liar than Applejack!
I gave her a deadpan look before turning around and picking up the book. "'The Dresden Fillies: White Night'?" Holy shit they have Dresden! How would that work though....whatever. Ponies. I tossed her the book saying "Good book." She caught it with her magic and gave me a brief smile before running up the stairs. I looked towards the rest of the girls who were frantically searching for something to use as an alibi. "And I suppose the rest of you just gathered around for a surprise sleepover?" And suddenly the room was empty. Well except for Pinkie and Fluttershy. Fluttershy was hiding behind a book while Pinkie simply tilted her head in thought.
"OOH a surprise sleepover! That sounds like a great idea! I should use that sometime! Thanks Terry!" Then she grabbed Fluttershy and ran out the door. Oh god I have two nicknames now. I simply shrugged and trotted over to the couch. I jumped on and lifted my head. I lifted my head up and looked for Mahogany. I saw her standing in the center of the room and whispered "Hey, what happened?"
She turned to me and said 'We should probably keep the conversation to your thoughts, Terra.' I blinked, and realized she was right.
'Alright. What happened? Why did they wake me up?'
'They didn't mean to wake you up. They were casting a spell on you.' Now I'm scared.
'What spell?! What did it do?!'
'It was a spell recently developed by Princess Luna. When she was asked when she thought of it, she said "A friend gave me the idea." Afterwards, nopony could get the name of the friend. She named the spell "The Song of the Heart." Fitting name if you ask me. Now what the spell does, is it plays a song in the caster's mind that represents the targets very essence.'
"So they heard a song that described my essence? Well, she's fucked." Mahogany tilted her head inquisitively. "I'm a fucked up kid. The 'Song of my Heart' was probably some random mash up of various shit." I had lost my ability to think very clearly, so I decided to speak.
'Are you sure about that? I heard it. It isn't like that at all.' She heard it?
"Play it for me tomorrow. To sleepy to do shit right now." I yawned loudly and saw Mahogany nod and slowly disperse. I plonked my head down on the pillow and closed my eyes. 'You shouldn't swear so much.'
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck." I will always have the last word. I slipped into blissful unconsciousness a few minutes later.
---------------------------------
Twilight looked down the stairs to make sure Terra was asleep. She trotted back to her room, thinking of the song. She sat in her room and called up the spell. She strained to remember the exact sound. She blinked, and it came to her.
A/N Sorry this took so long, been busy with Minecraft and catching up on SOI and got grounded. Also Baseball. R.I.P Knight_Peculier ---------------------------------------
I opened my eyes. I looked down and saw that, instead of Twilight's couch or the black surface of the Void, I was sitting in front of a table on a simple chair. In the corner of my eye I saw a plate of.....Pancakes? I looked up and saw that I was correct. I saw my dad, Robby, my sister, Emily, and my grandpa all sitting around the same table, eating breakfast. 'Wait a minute....I'm in Perkos? Wierd dream...Eh, I'll just enjoy my pancakes.' I shrugged and went to devouring everything on my plate, bacon first. I heard my dad and grandpa chatting about stories from work. My dad paused and reached into his pocket and opened his phone.
I had a sudden feeling of dread. I knew this.....My dad checked the ID and told us all "It's great-Aunt Lois." My heart sank. I did know this. This was the day.....This was the day the walls came up. I tried to jump, to stand, to scream, to do anything. But I had no control of my body. He talked with her for a minute while we all continued eating. I felt like I was going to taste my bacon for a second time.
He hung up with a confused expression. "Grammy was supposed to pick Lois up this morning to go shopping. She didn't show up." No....No...Not again...
"Well lets finish breakfast and then if she hasn't showed up in an hour, we will go see her." I already knew he was going to say that. This wasn't a dream or a nightmare, it was just a memory. One that I had locked behind the walls for so long.
We all finished eating, with me still trying to regain control of my body. We got up, payed the bill, and drove to my grandpa's house. He and my grandma had gotten a divorce before I was born. We sat around in a nervous silence, waiting for a call. It finally came near the end of the hour. My dad answered the phone and talked for a few more minutes. His expression grew a bit scared as he said "Lois is at Grammy's house. Her car is still there, and they can see her purse in the window."
We all stood up and walked to the car without a word. We were to worried to speak. We got in my dad's truck and drove. It was a long drive, and it was spent in a tense silence. I was trembling internally, and had given up on trying to take back my body. I thought about how this could have come out when it was locked behind the Walls so long. The Walls must still be in repair after Twi's spell...
My body stared out the window with a worried expression. After an hour of driving, we arrived. I saw police cars in the front and saw my Uncle. We stepped out of the car and he stood up and walked over to us. My dad saw him and said "Where is she?"
Uncle Terry shook his head and said "Rob...She's gone." My dad stared at him. My sister already had tears in her eyes, as did I.
"No man..."
"Rob....She killed herself." At this me and my sister burst into tears. My dad started shouting in disbelief, crying the whole time. I shouted in anguish and saw darkness creeping at the edges of my vision...
I shot up with tears in my eyes. I saw the blurry form of Rudra leaning over me with a worried expression. I clung to her and sobbed. In the corner of my eye I saw her blink, surprised, before returning putting her arms around me. "Shh....It's ok." I simply laid there, sobbing into her shoulder.
I cried for what seemed like hours, and it very well might have been. I had never gotten over Grammy's death, simply locked the memory behind the Walls. Eventually my sobs lessened, and I calmed down. I let go of Rudra and whispered "I'm okay." She nodded and stood up. The rest of the Four were looking at me worriedly. I forced a small smile on my face and said "I'm fine. Just had to deal with that." They nodded.
I turned to Rudra and saw something strange. All of my tears had gather into one spot before her, and she was frowning at the puddle that had formed. She turned to me with a sad look on her face and asked me, "Are you sure? That was a lot of grief flowing in one go." I nodded. The Walls had repaired by that time, and I had my usual emotionless face.
I looked at the puddle and saw my dream playing in it. I frowned and tilted my head quizzically. Gaia answered my unspoken question. "It is Rudra's secondary blessing. That is your grief over her loss. You will still feel it," Not if the Walls have anything to say about that, "But it will be bearable." I nodded. Borry turned to me and gave me a comforting grin. Agni just had a look of understanding.
"Ok if we are done with the sadfest-" Borry started to say.
I pointed at him and shouted out "YOU ARE BIG MAC NOW! WE CARRIED THE VOTE! YOU MUST SPEAK LIKE HIM!" He recoiled and looked at me in shock. I simply grinned at him. He huffed and turned away from me.
Agni looked at me with his eyebrows raised. "Well you got over that rather fast."
"Walls have a quick response team."
He simply lowered his brows in response. I decided it was time for some questioning. "Ok you said I have control over the Earth and everything connected to it." They nodded. "So....Earthbending and plant control?"
They nodded again. "And you'll be able to speak the languages of the creatures of the Earth. And of course, speak with Spirits, like Mahogany."
"Coolness. Alright, Agni." He turned to me, his face more or less as expressionless as mine. "When I first came to the Void, you were a hard ass that called me a whelp and said that kindness didn't win wars. How did you change so drastically? And don't just blame the Equestrian Essence." Not a truly relevant question, but hey, I was curious.
He frowned, and thought for a moment. "I changed partly by the Essence, but partly because I saw that you were more capable than I thought. You established yourself a semi-believable persona, attempted to gain the trust of the Hosts of the Spirits of Harmony in Equestria, all the while gaining information on the world. I was impressed." Holy. Shit. Another thing off the Bucket List...
"Ok, you said that the previous guardian had turned to Chaos. Who was it?" Rudra visibly flinched. Agni looked at her worriedly before glaring at me. The temperature in the Void, which was usually like a California winter day, shot up. I shuddered. "O-or you can keep it to yourself and I won't ask anymore questions..." I said in a quiet voice.
Rudra shook her head and said "No, no, it's ok. It's just a....sore topic." Ok...."The previous guardian, was my son." Oh....Shit. "He turned a month ago. We had to.....We had to submit him for Judgement." Sounds ominous. "We gave him up to the Spirits of Harmony in Equestria, and they condemned him to Death."
At this point I had basically stopped thinking and just looked at her solemnly. I think I finally understood that tear when she gave me her Blessing. Gaia put her arm around her comfortingly before turning to me. "I think thats enough questions for now." I nodded. I didn't want to bring up any more pain. I saw the tendrils of light snaking towards me and closed my eyes.
----------------------------------
I opened my eyes to see the roof of the Ponyville Library. I blinked away the remnants of sleep and stood up. I saw that the sun was still down. I thought about what to do. Not enough light to read, Mahogany probably needs to rest...Ok I'm bored.' I sighed before placeing my hoof up near my neck. My eyes widened. 'My god I can't believe I forgot about it!'
I started frantically searching in the darkness, careful to tread lightly. I paused and thought for a minute. 'Could it be?....Couldn't hurt to try...' I reached behind me and felt where my pocket would be. I felt a solid form and pulled it out. In the darkness I could make out the form of my necklace. It was nothing fancy, just a small string of twine, with a small glass container hanging off it. I sighed in relief before chuckling lightly. Looks like ponies come with their own patented Pocket Dimension...'
I slowly put on the necklace and fondled the container. It was a small corked glass bottle, and it held a small fraction of Grammy's ashes. After I got it, I never left without it. I went back to the couch, content that I had the last piece of my grandma with me.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Wasn't able to get on and had to re-write this a few times. Also edited the past few chapters so that Rainbow doesn't have some completely random ability I put in because I'm lazy, all the girls are there, and Rainbow isn't staring at Dat Flank. I'll try to make these take less in between.
I awoke to see that the sun had finally risen. I blinked away remnants of sleep and looked around. The green aura that was Mahogany was gone from the entire structure, so I guessed she had woken a while ago. I studied the area. I hadn't been able to properly examine my surroundings in all the excitement. Everything looked....Cartoony. I looked down at my body and saw that it looked like I was in a 3D cartoon. I stared at my legs for a few more moments before shrugging.
I looked around and saw Mahogany's aura swirling around a floating book. I raised an eyebrow and trotted over. I stood directly behind her and watched as the book opened and the pages started turning. I walked up to her and watched. Well are you just going to sit there and watch or what? She asked. I simply poked the book, not surprised. She was the tree I was walking in after all.
"Small object manifestation, created by focusing your aura on the object?" She quickly coalesced back into the form of a pony. She nodded her her head slowly.
Yes...How did you know that? I shrugged. Periodical bouts of insanity left me unsurprised by many things and gave me many ideas. And it was a pretty simple concept. Mahogany simply shook her head. You wanted to hear the Song that Twilight and her friends heard yes?
Yeah I'd like that." Mahogany nodded her head. Her aura slowly deformed into a mist and started floating towards me. I couldn't help but step back in apprehension. You would too if a formerly pony shaped green mist started to engulf you. I calmed myself and inhaled.
I was immediately assaulted with many sensations at the same time as I lost my sight, smell, and hearing. I could now feel so many things.. I felt hooves clopping on wood -my body- and wind blowing against my.....I don't know what to call it. I felt so many things my mind couldn't comprehend. The only comparison I can think of now would to be living as a boy for five years in the stone age and then suddenly finding yourself to be a thousand years old with strange technology keeping you alive and feeding you. Except worse. I felt myself slowly focusing, but not by much. I still felt all these strange things, but many faded into the background, while a few others became more focused. I found I could now see. I saw Twilight's horn glowing, and the girls were watching somepony -me- lying on a couch snoring along.
I didn't see it from just one angle though: I saw it from more than a hundred. From the left, the right, above, below, and so many other areas. Everything was overlayed and I saw it all at once. My mind still struggled to handle everything I was seeing. From several different views I saw an overglow be added to Twilight's horn as she closed her eyes in concentration. A second overglow was added, and the rest of the girls shielded their eyes. I felt yet another strange feeling, but my mind knew this one, somehow. It was a shift in the magical energy. I had felt this once before, but much less intense. I couldn't focus on that, as my mind was still attempting to handle the information. The sensations focused further, with many completely vanishing. I saw a bright beam shoot out of Twilight's horn and land on my body. My body began to glow as I absorbed the energy. The glow stopped and I saw Twilight frown, Rainbow lower her hoof from her eyes from above, and Fluttershy cower behin a book,
My body suddenly thrust forward and suspended in midair. My eyes shone with a bright light as musical notes started flying out of my stomach, centered around my heart. I heard the sound of a car door slamming and then music began to play. After a few moments a man started to sing.
I walk a lonely road The only one that I have ever known Don't know where it goes But It's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk alone
I walk alone I walk alone
I walk alone I walk a...
My shadow's th' only one that walks beside me My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me Till then I walk alone
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah
I'm walking down the line That divides me somewhere in my mind On the border line of the edge And where I walk alone
Read between the lines What's fucked up and every thing's all right Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive And I walk alone
I walk alone I walk alone
I walk alone I walk a...
My shadow's th' only one that walks beside me My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish a someone out there will find me Till then I walk alone
Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ahhh-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah Ah-Ah
I walk alone I walk a...
I walk this empty street On the Boulevard of broken dreams When the city sleeps And I'm the only one and I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me Till then I walk alone
Suddenly I was back in my body. I was lying on the ground. I felt an immense pain in my head and brought my hooves to my temples. I shuddered and rocked back and forth. My mind completely rejected the new memories. They contradicted everything it had formed, and when your mind refuses something you have lived through, it is very painful. I must have sat there for nearly an hour before the pain began to recede. My mind was methodically attempting to understand each second of memory. After several more minutes, the pain became bearable. I stood up slowly and saw Mahogany standing in front of me. "Ugh...Next time warn me before you give me the memories of a tree..."
I apologize. I did not know a mortal mind would react so violently.
"How do you handle seeing so much at once? It's just...." Another pulse of pain hit me and I lowered my head.
I could ask you the same. How do you survive only being able to see from two eyes pointed directly ahead? I chuckled. I heard foo-hoofsteps. Need to get used to that...I turned to Mahogany and she returned to her book. The book floated up and the pages slowly began turning. I heard a yawn and looked up to see Twilight walking down the stairs.
She turned to me and said "Morning Terra..." She looked and sounded tired. She still had her bed-head and her eyes were half close. She saw the book floating in the air and blinked a few times. Her eyes suddenly opened wide at what she saw. "What am I looking at?" She asked.
"Mahogany's possessing a book to read it."
"How?"
"Pretty sure it's because she focused her aura around it and has minor control over it."
"And you know this how?"
"She told me."
"Right...Can I speak to her again?"
"I dunno, it's up to her-" I stopped speaking as another spike of pain hit me. I instinctively raised my hooves to my head, only to fall to the floor. I groaned quietly and got back up. Twilight was looking at me worriedly.
"Are you ok? What happened?"
"It's...It's nothing. Just a little morning headache." And I smiled to show her I was fine. I don't think she believed me though.
"Alright then...Well we need to get going."Huh?
"Huh?"
"We're going to Sugarcube Corner."
"We as in you and purple-dragon guy-" I heard a distant 'Hey!', "Or we as in I'm coming too?"
"You're coming of course. We-"
I cut her off with a loud shout of "Yay I'm included! Lesgonow!" and ran out the door. She stared at the open doorway for several moments before I came back, now severely blinded. "I don't know where that is and the sun decided to be evil today. Please lead." She shook her head and trotted out the door. I stepped out of the tree and, when my eyes stopped burning, beheld the glory of Ponyville. I could see a few buildings, many of them houses. We trotted for several minutes, her pointing out shops and me nodding and smiling at few random ponies that we saw. Many of them recoiled at the sight of my eyes, however. When we reached Sugarcube Corner, a short two minute walk, several ponies had hidden from me. I simply rolled my eyes.
I walked in the door in front of Twilight, as she had stopped to examine a flower and told me to go in. I was greeted with a swift change from the brightness of morning to a pitch black room. I looked around for a second before holding up a hoof to my eye. I couldn't even see that. "This shouldn't be possible. The light from the door should-" The three things happened. First, the lights came on and all the ponies jumped out and shouted out 'Surprise!' Second, I was shocked enough to jump and begin to shout "Sweet baby Jesus!" Third, I was unable to finish after 'Sweet' as a large rock rose from the floor spontaneously and forcefully, thus driving me through the ceiling. My head popped out the floor on a second floor room.
I closed my eyes in pain. And I had just gotten rid of my headache..."Well. That hurt." I tried to pull my head out of the hole when I realized my forelegs were stuck in the floor. "Uh...Help?" I said. I heard the sound of somepony running up the stairs and the door was thrown open. I tried to turn around, but was stopped by the wood holding me in place. I felt a hoof grab my mane and I was suddenly standing on top of the hole. I shook my head in confusion. "But how...Oh right." I turned and saw Pinkie Pie. "Obviously..." I said to my self.
"Ohmygosh are you ok? I saw that you were surprised and you jumped in the airandthenarockcameupbelowall'Rumblerumble'andthenyoushotintheairandgotstuckinPumpkinandPound'sroomandIranuptomakesuretheywerestillasleepandyouwereinthefloorsoIpulledyououtandareyouokbecauseyoulookokexceptforyoureyesohwaittheywerelikethatalreadysowereyousurprisedhuhuhuh?" I blinked. I understood the first part but only heard a few snips of the rest.
"Uh..I'm ok....Who are Pumpkin and Pound, and yes I was surprised." She smied wide and grabbed my arm. "Uh what?" She suddenly ran off and my head was thrown back my the sudden speed. Within two seconds I was in the middle of a crowd of ponies looking at a rock. "....What just happened and why is there a rock in the middle of the floor?"
"Was hopin you could tell us that." I looked to the left and saw Applejack. "Pinkie surprised ya and ya jumped up shouting somethin and a rock popped up an pushed ya. Mind explainin that?" She said with a suspicious glare.
I stared at her. "...I unno. Felt something push me up. Must have been something triggered by my 'Fight of Flight' response."
"Your what?"
"Fight or Flight response. Natural thing when placed in a foreign situation. Your mind briefly studies the situation and then decides whether you can fight or you should run. Comparable to someone surprising you and then you buck them in the face." I looked around for a moment and spotted a snack table. On it were a pile of candies, cupcakes and muffins. Chocolate chip muffins. My stomach rumbled and I said "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get me some muffins!" I began walking towards the table when I saw a blur moving towards it. It was grey and yellow. "No." I began running towards the table, determined to grab at least one. I reached it at the same time as the blur and bit the muffin tray at the same time as my opponent. I stared eye to eye with Derpy Hooves, the Muffin Mare.
"Gimme." She said, and pulled on the tray. I have no idea how she said that with the tray in her mouth. She had a high pitched, almost childish voice. I shook my head and pulled back on the tray.
"I haven't had anyfin to eat in....Well I haven't eaten in a while!" My voice was muffled by the tray but hers wasn't. We began a tug of war for the tray. The tray was slipping when I had an idea. I grabbed a muffin and put it in front of her face. She opened her mouth and snapped at it. I dropped it and she dove for it. She smiled in victory before she saw me running away stuffing muffins in my mouth.
"You win this round!" She shouted after me. I simply cackled. I turned around with a smug grin and ran into something. Whatever it was knocked the wind out of me and I turned to see Fluttershy jump in the air and bolt. I blinked a few times before sighing. I followed her path and saw her hiding behind Applejack not to far away. I trotted over there and saw they were huddled and whispering. I quietly walked over and leaned my head in.
"Did you see that girls? He summoned a rock to propel him away!" Twilight said. "He shouldn't be able to do that! Earth Ponies can't use magic. No offense."
"None taken." Replied Applejack. I felt a poke on my shoulder. Pinkie was standing next to me.
"What are we talking about? I got lost a while back." She said.
"Pretty sure we're talking about how I called up a rock. Right Twilight?"
She nodded. "That's right Terra. We're gonna confront you about it after the party, now could you be a bit more quiet? You might hear!"
"Sorry!" Twilight shook her head in annoyance before she saw the rest of the girls staring at me in shock. "What? What did I do?"
"How much did you hear?"
"Pretty much all of it. If you've got questions, you could just ask. I'll answer almost anything."
Almost immediately, Rarity asked "Where did you get such a bland necklace? It's boring, ugly and dismal." She yanked it off my neck with her magic. My eyes widened as I stared at it. The rest of the girls turned to it and looked at the glass. There eyes widened as they realized what was inside.
"Rare-" Applejack began.
"I simply must know who made it so I can tell them just what I think about their horrible design!"
"Rarity-" Twilight spoke up.
"And the sand inside is just horrible! Who would put sand inside a necklace?" She asked. I shivered slightly from the anger that was building up.
"Rare i think-" Rainbow Dash tried.
"Not now Rainbow, Terra must tell me who made it!" She stared at me, not seeing my anger. My face lacked any emotion by that time and I felt something stirring.
"If you must know, I made it. If you would have looked more than once, you would have seen that it isn't created by some sort of fucking jeweler. You would also have seen the fact that the glass container holds ashes, not some sort of sand. It's the ashes of my grandmother, and I made this so I wouldn't forget how she died, you fucking asshole." The girls around me opened their mouths in shock.
"I'm sorry I didn't...I didn't think-"
"No, you didn't. And I would appreciate it if you gave it back." I snatched it back and her magic dissipated. I put it back on and closed my eyes. 'Calm yourself kid, she didn't know. You don't need to yell at her.' I told my self. I slowly calmed down and opened my eyes to see all the girls staring at me, except for Twilight. She was staring at my tail like it had spoken to her. I looked back at it and saw nothing wrong with it. I hung to the floor, and was simple. No style, no special color, just a long tail the color of my mane. I looked at the girls and sighed. "Sorry but you're the first one to do that."
"You don't need to explain." Said Applejack. I looked at her to see a look of understanding in her eyes.
I nodded. "So, back to my interrogation. As long as nobody asks about my necklace, I'm fine."
"Where ya from?" Asked Rainbow.
"Coltifornia."
"What's your business in Ponyville?"
"Got teleported here, as you already know, and I'm gonna leave soon."
"Are you a spy for Discord?"
"If I was, would I tell you?" She opened up her mouth to ask another question when it happened. I was hit by a massive wave of.....Something. I didn't know this at the time, but it was Chaos. Pure energy twisted into a form fundamentally against itself. All I knew was that it felt wrong. This was pure energy, to be used however the user saw fit. Or, at least, it used to be. Now it was corrupted, full of Chaos. I burst out the door and saw a bubble. A literal bubble, but one that kept shifting shapes, changing colors and filling with some substance. The bubble settled directly over Ponyville, and then it burst. Bolts of lightning began to fly in all directions, changing the landscape. I knew three things at that time.
I looked all around and saw there was more than one bubble. There were hundreds! I saw one of the nearby buildings begin to change as an orange lightning bolt hit it. I saw its structure change and shift until it was made of nothing but blocks. In shock I studied the rest of the town. The same change was happening everywhere. Houses shifted from small, cartoony figures to large, blocky structures. A small bubble floated down in front of me and burst. A bolt struck me. I can't exactly describe what I felt then. All I know is that it felt I was shifting somehow. After a few moments I blinked. My view had changed. I saw a...Meter at the bottom. Topped with nine familiar boxes which were, in turn, topped with two familiar bars. "No." I said in disbelief. I turned around to see bubbles floating down in front of the girls. The bubbles popped, and multicolored lightning bolts hit them all. I saw a change going through their bodies, starting in their muzzles and spreading outward. The change continued, leaving their bodies blocky and strange. When the change finished, most of them attempted to focus on the HUD at the bottom of their view. Fluttershy, however, squeeked and covered her eyes with her hooves. "Well shit. And I had just built myself a persona!" I said. They were gonna remain like that for a while, unless someone did something.
"Alright girls, I'm gonna need supplies!" They all turned to me in confusion. "Rarity, run down to the Boutique and grab all the diamonds you can carry! Applejack, go and get me some wood and as many sticks as you can find! Rainbow Dash, get me some apples! We're gonna need them!" I stood for a few seconds waiting. They just stared at me.
"How did you know-" Rarity began to ask.
"Doesn't matter, just do it!" They continued to stare. "Alright, let me re-word that: Doesn't matter, Ponyville is in danger, just do it!" This spurred them and shot off in different directions. "Twilight!" She turned to me in shock. "This is an area tainted by Discord now. You must have dealt with a few, so how do we stop it?"
"I do- I don- I-I-I-"
"Out with it girl!"
"I don't know! Princess Celestia was going to send another letter telling me how!"
"Then go and grab Spike wom-mare! With any luck he'll have recieved the letter by now." She turned and galloped off. "Fluttershy."
"Eep!" She squeaked. I looked around for her and saw her blocky tail protruding from underneath a nearby table. I looked down for a moment and decided to leave her.
"You stay where you are." Her head popped out and she nodded once, then went back to cowering. "Pinkie!"
"Yupperooni! What is it boss? Do I need to go collect Obsidian so we can build a Nether Portal? Oooh! Or maybe you want me to tunnel down to bedrock! I can tunnel much faster if I dig straight down-" I tried to cover her mouth with a hoof but ended up hitting her. She flashed red and jumped back half a block. "Owie! That hurt!"
"Sorry. First off, no picks! How do you expect to get obsidian without a diamond pick? Second off, straight down leads to lava. Always. And no, I need you to be lookout. Tell me if anything comes near that isn't pony." She saluted before turning and watching the streets with wide eyes.
I walked back inside the shop and saw everypony was still there, and still normal. The shop, however, was a completely different story. Everything was blocky. The tables where just fence posts with wooden pressure plates on them, surrounded by stairs. I looked and saw a single block of smoothstone directly in front of me. I looked above it and saw a one block hole in the ceiling. "Both these stayed...Alright everybod-pony needs to stay in here! When I leave, close the front door and do not let anything other than ponies inside! If you see anything tall and slender, don't look directly at it! Anything green-" I heard a small harrumph of indignation from the crowd, "comes near you that isn't pony, run. If anypony comes to the door let them in and DO NOT LET THEM OUT! Understand?"
A chorus of "Yes"'s were heard, until somepony asked "Why?" I shook my head in annoyance and said, "Look around you! The entire building has changed and outside isn't too different! Chaos has arrived! And you all need to stay safe!" I looked around the room to see a bunch of frightened faces. "Stay indoors until myself or any of the Elements say it is clear." I looked back up to the hole in the ceiling. "Well I can solve that problem when-"
I heard a loud shout from Pinkie and ran outside. "What is it? Creeper, Zombie, Enderman, Skelly, or Spider?!"
"It's an Applejack!" And she pointed with a blocky hoof at a figure in the distance sprinting towards us. It was indeed Applejack, and she had something in her hoof. How she ran on three hooves I'll never guess. Probably magic. Maybe Chaos.
She arrived in a few moments, a small brown block of wood in her hoof. "I brought the things you asked for. But why do we need these and how do you-"
"Rainbow at three o'clock!" Pinkie shouted. I looked to the right and spotted a blue blur with a rainbow trail behind it.
"Good she can still fly. Means unicorns can still probably use magic..." I muttered. "Right. Just need to wait for Rarity with the diamonds then Twi with the info. I'll explain everythi-ok a bit then." Applejack looked at me confusedly. "In the meantime, throw some wood at me. She raised her hoof and flailed it momentarily. "Just look at me and think 'Q' repeatedly." She did so and about four blocks of wood flew towards me. I stood near them for a moment before they flew into my inventory. There were four blocks of Birch wood. I thought 'E' and a menu opened in front of my eyes. I focused on the blocks of wood in my inventory and thought 'Right Click'. Two of the blocks began floating above the rest. I moved the block over to the crafting table and thought 'Right Click' again. One was placed and the output appeared. Four wooden planks. "Good crafting is still the same...Give me a moment."
I walked back to the door and knocked once on the door. "Who-Who is it?" I heard a fearful voice say.
"Me again. Just need to fix something." The door swung open and I was greeted with several frightened faces. I walked up to the block of smooth stone and examined the hole above it. One by one...Good. I thought. I examined the rest of the ceiling and saw that the texture of the planks in my hoof matched. I looked back at the hole and focused on the side of the block next to it. I 'Right clicked' again and my hoof swung out involuntarily, and the hole was filled. "Great! Now that's done, just need to get rid of the block. As I began to swing my hoof at it, the block sunk into the floor, wooden planks filling its spot. "Well....That was strange."
I walked back outside, the ponies slamming the door shut behind me, to see Rarity briskly trotting towards me. "Good, diamonds! AJ, give me the sticks."
"Uh, here ya go." She tossed a pile of sticks at me and I picked them up. I had a full stack of them. Rarity reached us in a few moments, with a blue block in her hoof.
"I couldn't find any diamonds at all! This is what replaced them!"
"Toss it here. Think 'Q' repeatedly." She did and I the small pile up. I checked my hotbar and saw that she had given me several stacks of diamond blocks. "Oh hells yeah." I said with a small grin on my face. I opened my inventory and quickly crafted the blocks into diamonds, before building a crafting table and plonking it down. I right clicked it and began crafting. Alright gonna need seven sets of armor, seven sets of swords and....Enough left for a diamond pick! I crafted all the items after a few moments and exited the table. When I did, I saw Twilight and Rainbow coming down the road. "Good they're here. But where's spike?" Rainbow arrived first, an apple held in her hoof. Twilight came with a non corrupted scroll in her hoof.
"We need...to find....the source....of Chaos...and....destroy it." She panted out.
"And I guess you do that with the Elements huh? Alright Dash hand out the apples. Toss them by thinking 'Q'. If anypony sees the bar on the right drop, eat an apple. Ok Twilight where is the artifcact slash mystical force slash boss battle?"
"What?"
I sighed. "The source mare! Where is the source?"
"According to Princess Celestia, the Everfree forest." I groaned.
"Well at least its close. Let's go." I began to trudge off before a blue form blocked my way.
"Hang on a minute! How do you know what's going on here? Why should YOU be giving US orders? How did you make that rock come up earlier? And how did you know about the Elements? You must be a spy for Discord!"
"If I was a spy would I be even trying to help you right now?" I said with a deadpan expression. "Look, all that really matters is that I'm on your side, and I know how to help. Now shut the fuck up and let me pass." She hung there with a shocked expression on her face. I walked around her and stopped after a few steps. "Oh right, before I forget, everybody take a sword and a set of armor. Just walk over it, think 'E', and move the armor to the corresponding slots in the top right. Just swing the sword in the enemy's general direction." I equipped my armor and watched as they froze and adopted emotionless faces as they picked up the items. After a few moments armor began to appear on their bodies, A helm with a hole for Twilight and Rarity's horns, a chestplate with openings for Rainbow and Fluttershy's wings that covered their front half, leggings that covered their back half, and boots that covered their hooves. The emotionless face dropped, leaving shock and awe in the ponies. "Alright girls move. I'll explain on the way."
We began trotting towards the Everfree, Twilight leading the way. I explained my basic situation to them. I was from another dimension, four seemingly ancient beings chose me to protect this world (Which seemed insane to me, now that I think about it), and that I knew a bit about their world. I left out most of the unnecessary details, like how I knew what I did and just what I really was. Within minutes we reached to Everfree and stopped. "Well here we are. Alright I want to give you a few warnings about this. It is currently like Minecraft. Everything is blocky, and there are enemies. If you see something that isn't one of us, tell me. If it's black, do not look directly at it. If you do, keep watching it directly and tell me. Anything green that looks sad, back away from it. Hear any hissing, run from it. Fluttershy, do not hug the sad creatures, as their entire goal is to kill us and cause as much destruction as they can. Any questions?" I turned to them and waited. "No? Good. Off we go." And thus began my adventure.
As soon as we stepped in the forest, I began hearing a strange voice, just on the edge of my hearing, loud enough that I knew it was there, but quiet enough that I couldn't make out what it was saying. I paused. "Anypony else hear that?" I asked.
"Hear what?" Twilight asked. I just shook my head and kept walking.
As we progressed through the blocky forest, breaking through leaves in our way, the whispers got louder. Loud enough that I could make out a few snips of what it was saying.
Welcome.....Guardian... It said.
I looked around suspiciously. "You're sure you don't hear anything?"
"No, we don't Terra."
"Rainbow, could ya check please?"
Rainbow huffed flew up and around in the immediate area. She came back down after a few minutes and said, "There's nopony around! You're just hearing things."
"Damn. Alright lets keep going." We continued for a few minutes before we arrived in a small clearing. We stopped and I decided the girls needed warning. "Alright, so since this is Minecraft, I can warn you of the enemies we'll see. There are quite a few, but i'll just list the ones we'll probably see. Theres the Zombie, the Spider, the Skeleton, the Enderman, and the-"I was cut off by one of the most horrifying sounds man has ever heard. It inspired terror into even the strongest of humanity.
Hisssssssssssss The low hiss of a fuse, hidden somewhere inside the monstrosity, catching and burning, came from behind me. I turned around and spotted the Creeper standing behind Fluttershy as she stared at it with a small smile. The creature swelled slightly as I reacted the way that several days of youtube and one day of ownership had instilled upon me.
Scream and swing.
"CREEEEEEPER!" I sprinted towards the creature and switched to my sword. When it was within range I swung, sending it back a few blocks and causing it to stop its detonation. My eye twitched slightly as I stared into its depressed face before I swung two more times, causing it to drop to the ground and vanish. "....I fucking hate those things..." I said. "They sneak up on you then blow up your diamonds!" I turned to Fluttershy. "You ok?" I asked.
She stared in horror at where the Creeper had vanished before she looked at me, tears in her eyes. Her expression quickly changed to complete and utter rage and she flew into an inch away from my face, staring dead into my eyes. "YOU KILLED IT! IT WAS TRYING TO TALK TO US, IT WANTED A FRIEND! IT WAS SAD AND YOU MURDERED IT!"
I felt a pressure in my head and on the Walls. It was powerful, and I began to feel horrible as I shrank away from Fluttershy's gaze. It was such a sad creature, maybe it had wanted a friend! And then I hurt i- I felt something push back against the pressure, and then I knew what was going on. I was being Stared down. Fluttershy had gotten angry at me, and now she was using the Stare. My knowledge seemed to cause it to slacken a small amount, and I was able to stop backing away. She was powerful, but not as powerful as Twilight was when she broke down the Walls. "No." I said. I pushed my face back into hers, a look of determination on my face. "It did not want a friend. That was a Creeper. They blow up. Their entire goal in life is to make yours worse. They look sad so you trust them, and then they detonate when you get close. That hiss? Wasn't communication. It was it's internal detonation timer. It was going to blow up and kill you. Not make friends with you."
With each sentence I took a step further, and I felt Fluttershy's will begin to crumble. I held her gaze for a few moments more before I broke the gaze, turning away. The whispers were louder now, much louder. This way... They said.
I was still debating on whether or not to trust voices in my head leading me through a very dark and blocky forest when I heard a quiet sobbing behind me. "Aw hell." I said to myself. I turned and saw Fluttershy lying down with her hooves over her eyes, tears streaming down. Her friends surrounded her, giving small whispers of comfort and consolation. I walked over to her only to have many of them give me menacing glares. I walked past them and up to Fluttershy. "Hey." She looked up at me, tears in her eyes. "You need to realize. Almost everything in here is trying to kill you. Discord put this in here because it is super-hostile if you don't know what you are doing. Those creatures are among the deadliest things here." I looked over her shoulder and spotted another Creeper a fair distance away. "Watch, and I'll show you what would have happened."
I walked over to the Creeper, and it turned its sad face towards me and began walking towards me. I waited until I heard it begin to hiss and braced myself. There was a loud explosion and I felt a flash of searing pain all across my body. I was flung back several blocks back, landing back next to the girls. They were staring at the newly formed crater in horror, and I looked over at Fluttershy and said, "Thats what they do. They have no other purpose other than to detonate all over everything you hold dear." She gulped and nodded.
We began moving again until we encountered a fairly large river. I looked at it, studying the current. "If this uses Minecraft logic like everything else, than the current should be fairly weak...Well better safe then sorry."I said before I "Snuck" forward. "Oh wait. No blocks...Uh....Shit." I swore. "Well, anyone up for a swim?" I asked, before leaping into the river.
"Absolutely not! I will not go into that filthy water and get my mane dirty!" Rarity said, sticking her nose in the air.
"Woman this follows logic where water is almost always crystal clear and you can survive near drowning by eating a bit of food and waiting. I'm sure your mane will be fine."
I prepared to jump in before I heard an exclamation behind me. "Wait!" I turned around to see Pinkie looking at Rarity excitedly. "Rarity!"
"What is it dear?" Rarity asked, staring at her surprisedly.
"Isn't this Steven's river?"
"Why, that's right darling! Thank you for reminding me!" Rarity moved up a few blocks until she reached the river. "Oh Steven!" She called.
I waited for a few moments before I jumped in. "Steven....Sounds familiar..." My eyes widened as I noticed a large dark figure swim underneath me. I felt myself being lifted out of the water as a large, purple, rather un-blocky, moustachio'd lizard rise surface from the river. I crouched in surprise as I rose several feet above the ground. "Oh right. That Steven."
He leaned down, bringing me with him and looked at Rarity in delight. "Miss Rarity! Oh it's been too long!" He grabbed her in one claw and kissed the air beside both her cheeks, and she did the same. "It's good to see you all."
"Yes Steven, it has been to long, but it seems that I need your aid again." She said, smiling.
"Well of course! Anything for the wonderful mare who aided me with my moustache!" He said, setting her down.
"Yes, and I noticed, it grew back!"
"Ah yes, it took a while, but your lovely tail filled the gap until it had grown back to full. Sadly, your tail wasn't suited to constant water exposure, and has been destroyed."
"Oh, that's alright my dear, my tail is back to normal, as you can see. So how have you been?"
Steven opened his mouth before Twilight said, "Um, not to interrupt you two and your reunion or anything , but we kind of have to get going!"
"Yeah, you know, Discord bubbling Ponyville half to hell? Entire area blocky? Danger, danger, Chaos sort of thing?" I said.
Steven looked up to see me on top of his head. "Oh hello! I didn't notice you up there. Sorry about that." He raised one hand and grabbed me before gently setting me down on the bank. "And who might you be?"
"Call me Terra. Now, thanks-for-the-chat-now-we-gotta-go-bye!" I jumped into the water before he slithered back under and raised his tail up beneath me, pushing me out of the waer again.
"No need to swim, I can bridge you across!" He said, rasing several more segments of his body out of the water, forming a small path.
I shrugged my shoulders, a rather difficult feat in full armor and being blocky, and began crossing the new path as the girls did the same. We reached the other side and Rarity turned around and said, "Thank you Steven dear, I promise to visit you during brighter circumstances." He smiled and sank below the surface.
"Well that was interesting. Let's keep moving." The whispers kept pointing me in one direction, and before long I noticed that the trees had pixelated faces on them. "Hey Pinkie, isn't this where you had your musical number?"
Pinkie turned to me and nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! This is where Nightmare Moon made the trees look scary, and I taught the girls and the other viewers to laugh at there fears!"
"Right, and that works on everything but spiders...."
Twilight stopped, looked at Pinkie in confusion and said, "Wait, viewers? What are you talking about? There was nobody in the forest but us and Nightmare Moon during your song!"
Pinkie stopped, smiled and said "Silly Twilight. The viewers! The ones like Ter-"
I cut her off by moving in front of her and saying loudly "That's enough Pinkie. Pretty sure that counts as damage to the Fourth Wall. Don't want to shatter the poor thing, now do we?"
She smiled and said "Okie Dokie Loki!" Before continuing to bounce along. Twilight stared, before shaking her head and continuing.
"Well I guess that means that Ol' Discy put the Source of this into the Castle of Ridiculously Long Names. Twenty bits says its a block of Obsidian and he takes my pick." I said.
A voice spoke from behind us, "While it would be entertaining to see you smack one block for five minutes, that's not it." I turned around to see Discord materialize from the shadows. "What I have there is much more....Difficult to destroy."
"It's the Wither, isn't it." I deadpanned. "And why aren't you blocky? At least follow the rules you set!"
Discord's smile grew larger and he shook his head. "Oh but what fun is there in that? And you're wrong about the Wither. But that would have been fun, wouldn't it?"
"Well only if you consider the destruction of the area you are in and all of the surrounding structures fun, then yes. And you seem like the type of pers- I mean pony-.....Chimera thing that would enjoy that Discy."
Discord smiled and said "Not really, no. I'm not one for senseless destruction, although those Creeper things are quite hilarious, especially when you don't expect them." His smile grew larger with each word, and I tilted my head in confusion. My eyes widened as I noticed he was not looking at me, but behind me. I turned around quickly and came face to face with a Creeper.
I yelped and swung my sword while backing up, only to have the Creeper explode and send me flying into Discord. He caught me with a baseball glove that he pulled out of nowhere. "Oi! Only Pinkie is allowed to materialize shit! Nice catch though." I said. "Hey why are the girls so quie-" I looked down to see all the girls were gone and there where six holes in the ground. "...God damnit Discord."
"What? I just wanted some alone time with you, little Guardian...." He stroked my cheek with one talon and I leaned away in terror. He cackled and dropped me onto the ground. "Hmm, I don't know what would corrupt you yet so.....A simple poke on the head should do!" He reached over and poked me on the nose as my eyes widened.
I felt the corrupting influence spreading through my body as my coat grew gray. My thoughts were replaced with ones of destruction and mischief as I smiled along side him. "Yes there you go. Now you look nice and corrupted. Now you're going to help me corrupt those pesky Elements, alright?"
I began nodding my head as the corruption spread through the last few parts on my body, converging on one spot on my chest. Before the last bit of green faded to gray, I felt a surge of energy through my body, and the gray was forced out by a wave of white from my chest.
Discord's eyes widened in surprise at the color returning before he pressed his talon into my cranium harder, almost drawing blood. I felt a new wave of Chaos wash through me as the energy was forced back, almost failing, before it suddenly surged up my body in a flash of light as a voice spoke. He is mine. The voice said. Discord was flung back as a small white flame appeared on his hand.
He stared at the white flame in shock as it quickly spread up his body. He shook it out and shouted in disbelief "Impossible! You died a long time ago!"
My body, still out of my control, nodded. But I have returned. And this one....He is mine. Now leave. Discord seethed with anger before he vanished. I stood still for a moment before I was suddenly sapped of energy as my body struggled to do something. Six vines, somehow not blocks, surged from my body and flew towards the holes. I actually felt the vines, as if they were a part of my body, as they dug into the dirt, flying in opposite directions for a short while before each wrapping around an object. The objects struggled, some more violently then others, before they gave up and began moving, but were stopped when the vines went taut. My body suddenly tensed as I felt the vines begin to retract, bringing the objects to me. After a few moments the objects reached were I was and burst through the blocky earth as the strange influence left me.
I stood still for a minute before I flashed red and felt a sharp pain. I spotted my hunger bar and saw it was completely empty, so I switched over to some food and began munching. I looked around and saw that all the girls had were back, and were staring at me. "Hey you're back! I thought Discord was gonna pull some corrupting shenanigans on you!"
They all stared before Applejack stepped forward and asked "What in tarnation just happened?"
I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I have no fucking clue. But hey! It got you all back, Discord fucked off, and I feel grea-" I was cut off by a sharp stab of pain throughout my body. "Well scratch that last one. Hunger is down to zero." I switched to an apple and began munching, gradually filling my hunger bar back to full. "Hurray for Minecraft Logic!" I shouted as I watched my hearts, which had been surprisingly low, tick back to full. "To the Castle of the Royal- Oh god I hate saying that name. Let's go..." I turned towards the whispers, which were slowly growing louder, and started walking.
After a few steps I heard the distinct sound of blocky foot-hoofsteps and then Twilight was standing next to me. "How did you do that?" She asked.
"Do what? The vine thing?" She nodded. "Like I said: I have no fucking clue."
"What do you mean? You just did it. You have to know how you did it!" She said. "You're not an Ent, you aren't a Geomancer, and in fact you shouldn't be able to use magic at all!"
"It wasn't magic. I know that much."
She stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "So how did you do it." She growled.
"For the last time, I don't know! All I know is that Discord tried to touch me in a very Chaotic and inappropriate way, and then I took the backseat as a voice in my head scared him away!"
She stood there for a while before I walked through her, not questioning the action. "God I love Minecraft Logic."
"Who's this God person you keep talking about? Is he nice? Does he like parties? Can he-"
I silenced Pinkie with a loud "Religion." She seemed to accept the answer. I heard another loud set of hoofsteps and groaned loudly as Applejack trotted next to me
"Now wait-"
I groaned in frustration and said "Can we please just get this little adventure over before we start playing 20 questions? I feel like I just moved a mountain and I promise i'll try and speak to the voices in my head to figure out what happened. Okay?"
Applejack looked at me suspiciously before saying, "Alright. But don't you try no funny business, ya hear?" I nodded.
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I said as I went through the motions, making sure not to poke myself in the eye. "Pinkie Pie, you have this one recorded?" I looked over to the party pony.
"Yuperooni! You do know the binding rights of a Pinkie Pie Promise, right?"
"Uh-huh. Alright enough talk, let's go." I began marching off in the direction of the strange whispers, before stopping. "Actually....I don't know this place well, and I'm pretty sure I'm just getting general directions. Twilight!" I said, turning to the mare. "Please lead us to the castle." We began trotting off, Twilight taking the lead.
After several minutes of the girls conversing and me keeping a look out for mobs, we arrived at a strange....Ok you know where this is going. Yeah, we made it to the bridge where Rainbow did her loyalty proving rite. Well it seemed to have worn down a lot since the episode. One of the ropes was missing entirely, and the bridge was hanging sideways. "....Well anybody got any rope?" I looked to the girls in turn as, one after another, they checked their inventories with that strange blank look and, one after another, all shook their heads. "Oh come on. Not even you Applejack?" I said.
"Well ah had mah lasso, but I can't find it in this dang menu!"
I sighed. "Figures. Curse Minecraft and its lack of rope based building materials...Well i'm gonna go ahead and guess there are no alternate routes, so....We're fucked."
I heard Rainbow scoff and looked at her. "Oh come on! Me and Fluttershy could just fly everybody over to the otherside." She said.
"Well there are two reasons why we can't do that. First, you don't trust me, so you're pretty likely to just leave me behind and, chances are, i'm the only one here who knows how to deal with whatever the source is, barring Pinkie. Second, try to pick me up." I said. Rainbow stared at me in suspicion. "Come on then, don't be shy. I won't bite." I said mockingly. She scowled and flew over to me. "Now go ahead and try to move your arms in any way that isn't swinging." She hovered there, a look of irritation crossing her face, which quickly shifted to panic. "Alright you can't do that. How's about you try to touch me. Go ahead." She glared at me before hovering above my head and dropping. She went straight through me and I saw a mirror image of her head as she passed through, before we were parted by some force.
"See? Now how we gonna do this..." I said as I turned back towards the bridge. As I was glaring at it, hoping some sort of answer would spring out at me, one did, but not in a way I expected.
The elder is worn....We shall aid.
I blinked in surprise before I felt a small pain in my hoof. I looked down to see a vine attached to it, and gave a noise of surprise. Suddenly my entire body tensed up, and I felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder. The pain increased for several moments before, with a loud ripping sound, it gave. I heard several gasps from behind me and looked at my shoulder. To my surprise, there was a vine coming out of my blocky form. I gaped at it in awe, wondering what its purpose could be. It slumped against my blocky body, unmoving.
"Why do you have a vine protruding from your shoulder? HOW do you have a vine protruding from your shoulder? YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE a vine protruding from your shoulder!" Twilight said.
"I don't know, but why are you reacting this violently? I had like six a few minutes ago. Or was this just the last straw?" I said. "Well doesn't matter, because I don't know, all I do know is that i'm going to blame the voice in my head."
"Which one?" Pinkie asked.
"The new one, the one that gave me directions. Apparently theres an old guy running around here, and the voice giving me a tentacle helps him. Might have something to do with the OTHER voice in my head, who burned Discord. But it said it was gonna help, so why give me this..." I looked at my newfound appendage, trying to figure out how it could be used. "Wait a minute." I looked between it and the bridge. "Could it?" I asked myself. I moved over to the edge of the bridgeto see that many of the support ropes were still intact, and just needed a new main rope to hold it right. "Maybe...." I turned to the tentacle in my shoulder. "Alright now how do I control this thing...." I said before intensely staring at it. "Mooooove....."
After a few moments of this Rarity said "What, exactly, is it you are trying to do?"
"Trying to get this thing to move so I can make it act like a new rope for the bridge." I said. "Seems like it isn't vocal..Maybe thought controlled?"
"Move....Move! Uh...Please? I thought. Despite my attempts, the vine did not move. It sat on my shoulder like a wet noodle. "Nope...Not based on thought. Come on! I just want you to be a rope!" I shouted in frustration.
The effect was immediate. The vine sprang from its position and quickly moved towards the bridge, extending further out of my body. Like the previous vines, I could feel every movement as if it was another limb of mine. I shouted in surprise as I watched and felt the vine wrap around a support rope, knot itself through, and move on to the next. This process continued, with the vine becoming longer and longer before it finally reached the other side and firmly planted itself in the ground.
I stared at it for a few seconds before saying "Intent based. Cool." I turned to the girls and said "Once again, I have no idea how I did that, please save all questions until the end of the quest. Proceed across the bridge."
They carried on pass me, one-by-one, with a few inquisitive or surprised glances, and at least one suspecting glare. When they had all reached the other side I looked down at the vine, which was still in my shoulder. "Well you seem to function on intent...Uh...Anchor yourself I guess?" Immediately the vine came out of my shoulder with a quiet 'Pop' and set itself into the ground. I stared at it for a moment before saying "I really need to learn how to do that without the voices in my head." With that last end taken care of, I proceeded across the sort-of repaired bridge to the castle, where Chaos awaited.