> The Elements of Mianite > by 1eragon33 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Into the Looking Glass; A Discorded Beginning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I looked forward across the chaos-strewn plain. Where once there were large green fields of grass there was now a checkerboard of black and white, almost like grass tiles, and where simple Ponyville once stood proudly was now a mess of free-floating buildings, hanging almost sadly among the cotton candy clouds and pink sky. My five best friends stand beside me, joining in my defiance against the chaos that has taken our beloved land. Recently released from the foul magic that had ensnared their minds, my friends are rightfully angry at the God of Chaos that had turned them into mere mockeries of themselves. Applejack then comes forward and places a hoof on my right foreleg. “Are you sure we’re ready for this, Sugarcube?” She whispers in my ear. I say just loud enough that the others can hear the conversation (and hopefully not Discord), “We have the Elements,” I point to my crown which almost glints in the sunlight, wait, scratch that Moonlight as the time of day just changed again, “and we have each other, and look around-this can’t continue. What’s stopping Discord from simply destroying the sun for a laugh, or turning everypony into pickles just for the giggles?” “I know, Sugarcube…I know.” It’s just now that I notice the dark circles under my friends’ eyes from lack of sleep in Harmony knows how long with the sun and moon switching on a whim. I look to Pinkie Pie, the flying Rainbow Dash, the nervous Rarity Belle, and scared Fluttershy to see the exact same dark circles, and some of my friends’ eyes (Rarity and Fluttershy) were red from their quiet tears. I huddle close to all my friends and pull them all into a group hug, offering support to everyone. “Girls…I love you girls, and together we can do anything! We faced hard times before, like with Nightmare Moon, we can face her corrupt father as well. With Harmony as our guide, we can face the chaos and stand tall-” The speech I was makeing got cut off as a my friends return the hug tightly, cutting off my throat. A few minutes later, the impromptu hug ended. “Twilight we’re here for you, always.” Fluttershy whispers softly. “Oh, yeah.” ”That’s right, Sugarcube” “Of course darling” “Yepperuni possituni.” My other best friends speak out at the same time. I feel tears come to the surface at my friend's words, and fight back the urge to start another group hug. There will be time for that-after we stop Discord. “Girls let’s get going, next things to do is to stop Discord to bring back balance to the world!” Together as one, we run across the chaotic landscape towards the massive throne in the distance. As we get closer we hear laughter and Discord’s voice saying, “Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.” I interrupt him before he takes a sip of some chocolate milk and call out, “Not as wonderful as friendship.” He looks at us six and says, “Oh, this again?” He downs the cup and throws the milk behind him. When it explodes, I’m just glad it had landed in a place where it couldn’t have hurt anypony. Applejack steps forward towards Discord and calls out with, “That's right. You couldn't break apart our friendship for long.” Discord laughs and replies with, “Oh, Applejack, don't lie to me. I'm the one who made you a liar.” I watch as he starts to drag her by the Element of Honesty, “Will you ever learn?” He starts to drag the others as well. I fear him corrupting my friends again, so I blink into where he had my friend floating somehow using my Element of Magic to make a shield to protect my friends from his magic. Running on instinct with the magic, I guide the bubble that contains my friends and I back to the ground where it pops like a balloon, I partially notice the place where the shield met the ground has turned back into regular grass and flowers, but I’m more focused on Discord than anything else. My friends and I stand up from our shield breaking. I then yell out to Discord, “I'll tell you what we've learned Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for.” Discord doesn’t look amused at my word and replies with, “Ugh, gag. Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements, "frenemies". Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here. I start remembering all the times I spent with my friends, all the hardships we faced, all the struggles, all the fights, all the makeups, every picnic on a Saturday when Pinkie would drag me out of the library, every time Applejack was too stubborn for her own good. Rarity making us clothes just because it was fun for her. Rainbow Dash playing harmless pranks on me and the townsponies. Pinkie’s many, many parties that she throws for the randomest reasons but were always a blast. Fluttershy helping me with my pet owl. Applejack bringing me food from the farm when I forgot to eat because I was studying… All the love and care for each other, and I felt it the spark that brought us together when Nightmare Moon happened fanned into a brilliant flame by all the times spent together. My heart reached out to the other Elements and my friends. We start to float from the elements’ active state, and next thing I know the rainbow that was used against Nightmare Moon had come back, and launches itself at where Discord was standing. It was over. All that what left of Discord was a statue and the chaos he left behind. Rainbow lands next to us and asks, “Is it over, ‘cause I don’t know about you but I don’t think it is,” but Rainbow’s question is answered by the chaotic ground reaching up and trapping us in its grip, and we see a grinning Discord standing next to the fake statue of himself. “MAHAWEWA, did you really think I would fall for that again? Fool me once-shame on me. Fooling me twice is not going to happen. Now, what to do with you six, since while you were those wretched necklaces I can’t affect you with my chaos directly.” Discord started thinking about it while I struggle to get out of the earth bindings he made and I see my friends doing the same while Discord is busy. But it was too late. Discord was already grinning his wicked grin at us. The earth that was binding us to the ground helplessly falls away and I feel myself be picked up by a telekinetic grip. I squirm in the air as I watch Discord do the same thing to each one of my friends one at a time. We try to blast Discord again, but he shakes us in his telekinetic grip, breaking our focus. Discord then reaches out with his claws and grabs the ground, and he rips something-I’m not sure what. The result was under where my friends and I were floating becoming an endless black abyss. “Bye Twilight and friends. See you never. MUHAAHAHAHA.” He says just before dropping us into the abyss. The last thing I see before the black of the abyss is Discord’s silhouette framed by the sun. > Welcome to the New Realm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Numb. That is all I am. I am nothing surrounded by nothing. I have stopped feeling the sensation of falling, which was the only thing I felt when Discord sent us here. Are my friends okay? Am I still alive? I can’t even feel myself breathe. Am I even breathing? Do I still have a heartbeat? Are my eyes opened or closed? I can’t tell since there's only black. Not that can I feel anything like blinking. Am I dead? Are my friends dead? Did I get us all killed? Is this the afterlife? If it is, it’s boring. Hehe, that sound like something Rainbow would say. Who’s Rainbow though? What’s my name…I can’t remember my name. I remember colors, I think that one's pink. Hey Twilight, I’m going to throw a party tonight and you're invited. Promise me you’ll come!! Okay Pinkie, I’ll come, I promise, I just to finish this book. Pinkie Promise? I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye... That was a memory…so my name is Twilight and I have a friend name Pinkie Pie who likes parties. I dive deeper into my mind and memories. Each memory I find makes me feel warm, which feels really good after feeling nothing. I remember becoming friends during the summer sun celebration, and together became the Elements of Harmony. bum-bum I remember saying in Ponyville to study the Magic of Friendship, and facing all the problems that friends first face. bum-bum I remember our friendship being stronger for the hardship, and coming together even after the Changelings and Discord tried to drive us apart. bum-bum I breathe in deeply, choking a little as I feel as though I have underwater for a while. I open my eyes to see my friends stirring and opening their eyes as well, and every single one of us is in a floating, glowing multi-colored shield that was separating us from an endless void. I notice that all of the gems of the Elements were glowing faintly and that the shield matched the color of the gems of all the Elements. Applejack fully recovers and asks all of us, “Sugarcubes-where are we, last thing I remember is Discord throwing us into an abyss and losing all sense of feeling...” “I don’t know either, Applejack.” Rarity replies. “Me neither,” everypony else says with me. We then sit for a minute thinking are own thoughts in the bubble we are in, when our elements start shining brighter and beams of light shoot out of them, each beam meeting in the center of our circle. “My little Champions,” the words echo softly from where the Element beams meet, and realising that the voice must be Harmony herself. I ask, “Harmony, did you make this bubble?” My friends look surprised at my words though. Yes Twilight, I did it to save you. I am just strong enough as a goddess to protect you six from the void’s effects and guide you to a new realm. For now Equestria is barred to me, as I have put most of my being, my essence, in the Elements themselves instead of my tree, when I felt Discord’s stone bonds break. I would have done more, but I really don’t have enough energy to follow the connection between my tree and the elements, and take us home. “Oh my, you poor dear.” Fluttershy the ever-kind pony says to Harmony’s revelation. It is okay Fluttershy the kind, so long as you're as safe as possible. Not all hope is lost, though, as if you find a god or goddess who shares even a part of my domain we can share strength and we’ll be able to return to our world, though there would be side effects to this method. I ask, “What kind of side effects?” I can’t say for sure-this has never been done in this manner before, but you girls must sleep as there is a long journey ahead of you, and magic can’t make food. After Harmony says this, I feel really tired, so I curl up and lay down in the bubble, and I drift off into a dreamless sleep. I came back to the world of the living slowly as the ground I was laying on was soft, but sleeping with the sun in your eyes in hard-if not impossible-so I eventually gave up and opened my eyes…but I realize my body wasn’t the same as before. While I am nearly staring into the strange cubic sun, I try to figure out the sheer oddness that my brain is picking up from my body. I don’t have fur on certain parts of my body from what I can tell, and while my back hoofs are fine, my front ones feel…wierd is the only way to describe the feelings I’m getting. Eventually I got tired of just thinking about it, and I sit up to look, but what I see sends me into shock. I no longer was a pony, I was some sort of alien hybrid of one the only parts not changed that I can see are my back hooves and the fur for about two inches above it, as well as my mane, and… I quickly check for my horn… and thankfully my horn is still there. First change is the fact I have clothes on, the bottom thing of clothing is a dark-nearly black-purple thing covering my lower barrel and below til about an inch above where my fur starts. The top part was a very short dress that only covers from my neck and forelegs to where the other thing starts, and has my cutie mark on it on a pale pinkish background. My hock looks to bend the completely wrong way, and my forelegs are the worse off. It looks like someone took off Spike’s arms, got rid of the scales and claws, and replaced my forelegs with them! To prevent a freakout I look around me, though I found out quickly it didn’t help with the whole alien look it had. To be honest with myself, it looks like Discord’s OCD brother got a hold of it with all the sharp perfect angles, and perfect cubeness the whole place has. I try to go on my new claw/hoof combo to look for my friends, but I quickly figure out that all fours was not this body was designed for, as I have the stand on my new hock to be comfortable at all, and even then it is unpleasant. Minotaurs…of course. This body is similar to a minotaur's…which means…I crawl on my claws and hock combo to the nearest…block of dirt that was higher than me. When I get there I place both arms on top of it and used it pull myself up to my hooves, tripping a little at the sharp change in center of gravity. I notice off hoofenly that the block is exactly half my size. Bracing myself again the dirt block, I take a few tentative steps trying to get use to the way my new body works. After a few missteps I get use to the way my body works now and I feel confent enough to start walking without a handrail. I am walking back and forth across the grassy blocks to work on my balance when I hear my name being called out. I turn around just in time to see a streak of cyan and rainbows tackle me. “Twilight, you're awake!” “Gah! Rainbow. Yes I am, but what has got you this excited?” I look at how my friend looks now after the change. She still has her wings, back hooves, mane, eye color, and ears like me just replace the wings with a horn, but like me as well everything else has changed as well. The clothes the new Rainbow is wearing a cyan shirt with the words “20% cooler” and her cutie mark above it, a black thing like my purple thing, and for some reason her element gem is a part of a gold chain that wraps around her body that goes through loops in the black thing. Her face is also very flat compared to before. “Nah, I’m not excited, you're just the last to wake up and we couldn't move forward til you did.” Rainbow says offhandedly, “Did you know we’re not far from what looks like a small town? I flew up ahead after I figured out how to see what’s around us and just over those mountains over there is a town or something.” “No Rainbow, I didn’t know they was a town close by, because I just figured out to walk.” I sigh, slightly annoyed. “Can you lead me to where the others are, Rainbow? I was about to look for them myself but if you can lead me to them that will save some time.” “Sure, no problem.” Rainbow says as she bends down and launches two of these blocks in the air and starts to fly towards the mountains. I worry a bit about losing her as try to follow as fast as I can without falling, climbing up the blocks when needed. Finally the trek stops going uphill and goes down again, and I see my friends have made a small place to rest by the river beside the mountains. As I approach, I mentally gather in the new looks everypony have. Rarity has a long sleeved white short dress thing with the sleeves being made of lace, a purple thing with her cutie mark just about everywhere, and for some reason her element is on a blue headband that also has small crystals on it spelling “Glamorous”, with her element being next to the "s" on Glamorous. Fluttershy has on a yellow hoodie with only one button and it being the gem of the Element of Kindness. She also has on a light blue short dress thing underneath the hoodie, and a tree-bark-brown thing as well. Pinky has double pink short dresses, the top one being thinker and has her cutie mark on it. She also has a blue thing on, and she is the only one of us I think to have their element in the same place being a necklace, granted said necklace is a little less bulky than the old necklace. I wonder if my element stayed a crown. Applejack has an orange short dress thing with her cutie mark on it and the words "Honest Day on the Farm" around the cutie mark circling it. The thing on her hips is like Rainbow’s-only blue, and instead of chain she has heavy duty cloth, and, like Rainbow, the Element of Honesty is attached to the separate piece of cloth. Everypony still had their ears, mane style and coloring and back hooves. Fluttershy still has her wings, and Rarity still has her horn. My friends see me walking towards them, and rush up to met me halfway. Pinkie tackles me into a hug and the others, even Rainbow, quickly follow, all of us just taking comfort in the fact that we are safe, that we are alive, that we are still ourselves on the inside even with the changes to the outside. “Twilight! It’s so good to see you awake. Now I can throw a ‘we survived the Void’ party!” Pinkie says energetically. Pinkie pulls a Pinkie and somehow pulls her party cannon out of her new mane, and sets it off getting confetti everywhere. “Pinkie, darling, now is not really the best time for a party. For one I don’t think we should party until we can figure out where we are, and how this world works.” Rarity pauses and looks across the small stream. “Twilight, do you have any idea how we can get across this river, I don’t think it is the best way to learn how to swim in are new forms, plus I don’t want to ruin my lovely new outfit.” I think a little and say, “I could teleport us across but doing so would probably leave me very weak for a while.” I turn my gaze to the near by block of dirt, and I try to levitate one. When it works, I drag the now floating block and I place it right against the shore where it then conforms to the rest of the blocks. “Rarity help me make a bridge across this river.” Soon the sky was filled with glowing purple and blue floating blocks as Rarity and I quickly make a bridge out of the local blocks of dirt. In about five minutes the small one block wide bridge was finished, and I wave over the rest of the girls who were just watching us levitate blocks for the past five minutes because they really couldn’t help with this plan. “Rainbow, Fluttershy,” I ask, “can you two fly beside the bridge and make sure we don’t fall off when we cross?” Fluttershy meekly nods in agreement. Rainbow calls out, “You got it Twilight,” and leaps into the air already flying high into the air, before lowering and hovering next to the small dirt bridge. Fluttershy follows Rainbow into the air, and takes her place on the other side of the bridge. I nod my head in satisfaction and then say, “Girls, I will go first and when I make it across, go one at a time so that Rainbow and Fluttershy can make sure we don’t fall off the bridge Rarity and I made.” I say as I start across the bridge. “Be careful, Sugarcube!” “I agree with Applejack.” “Me three, tehehe.” I roll my eyes at my overprotective friends and quickly go across the makeshift bridge, the rest of my friends follow and after we all get across us ground bond ponies start to climb the cliffside with Rainbow and Fluttershy flying around us to make sure we don’t fall. When we get to the top the first thing we see is a wooden house with polished quartz accents. I go up to the house, the girls following my lead and I loudly knock on the door, hoping someone is home. Luckily someone is home, as a stranger who is wearing a very worn yet fancy outfit that made Rarity look like she wants to faint at the sight of. I ask the stranger, “Excuse me for barging in like this, but we need help. It’s a long story on how we got here that involves ancient feuds, old gods, general chaos, an endless abyss, and a Goddess of Balance we need to find in order to get home.” The stranger’s eyes widen more with every word I say and he grins and says, “My name is Captain Jordan Sparklez, and you girls have come to the right place if you want to find a goddess of balance, but first I welcome you girls to the Realm of Mianite!”