> Finally > by Finwe Nar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was mid September. There was a light breeze as Susan Smith entered the forest in her parents backyard that afternoon. She had a solemn look on her face. She walked towards her favorite fallen tree bridge which laid deeper in the woods. She was already deep in thought. Susan was eighteen. She had graduated from high school the year before and had planned what the next four years of her life was going to be like. She had sent in paperwork to apply for a charity program that she would work for for 18 months. She would be eligible for this job when she turned 19. After the program she would join the military to help her pay for college via benefits. However, having that plan in no means meant she was stress free or even happy. Susan pondered on this. But I should be happy though. I have a family that loves me and a roof over my head. Clothes on my back, and food on the table. She stopped walking and looked at her feet. Taking a deep breath she looked up at the sky and proclaimed "So why aren't I?!"She looked down again. The bridge was right up ahead. So she continued walking, hoping to gain the peace nature gave her. Susan continued to talk to herself to try and make sense of herself. A habit she had gained over the years. A cross of thoughts and words. "I know why" she said as she continued toward the bridge. "It's because no matter what I do there is always someone else who does it better or gets more attention than me. I've always been in the background." She walked onto the log bridge that was her destination and stood there for a while. “Maybe because despite being surround by people I feel so lonely, unloved, and unnoticed.” Pain started welling up inside her. She forced her her thoughts to somewhere else slightly less painful. "Or maybe because my imagination is too wild." She stepped carefully towards the center of the bridge and sat down. "Is it my fault that I can see and understand the possibility of my favorite shows, movies, and books being a reality?" The young adult continued to rant to herself, tears slowly forming in her eyes. Trying in vain to hold them back. "Why can't people understand that multiple universes and dimensions exist in the infinities? And why is it so hard for them to believe that there is one for every story ever told, every movie ever made, every fanfiction ever written!" The tears started to flow more freely while she at the same time she tried to keep herself from being heard by her family. "And why haven't I been able run away to them!?"she demanded from no one in particular, as her mind unwillingly turned back to those immensely painful thoughts of loneliness. Susan sat their for a while and just cried. She held herself because she felt like nobody else would. She pulled on the sweatshirt she had tied around her waist, to fight off the cold she felt from within as well as from the wind. She laid down and clutched the log she was on and continued to weep. She felt like there were daggers tearing apart her abdomen. From there, her organs were being pulled out, condensed, and then shoved back into her body. And the process of pain repeated itself in rounds. This was what she felt instead of heartache. This is the pain that she felt, that made her think that maybe, just maybe, death would be better. Susan knew that these were small reasons to consider death and weep over. She new that this was stereotypical and over dramatic. But that didn't make the pain, Any. Less. Real. ****************************************************************************** Susan Smith sat up from her previous position. The tears had dried a while ago. She looked up at the sky between the trees to decipher the time. It's twilight. She had been out there on that bridge for way over an hour. Mom will be wanting me to make dinner soon, She thought. Susan ran her fingers through her long light brown hair and sighed. She placed her hands on the log bridge and started to get up. She was in a one legged squatting position steadying herself. As the young woman stood she felt her cowgirl boot slipping on the log. Susan tried to offset it by leaning. But she overestimated and fell! Time slowed. Thoughts and feelings rushed in and out of her head like lightning. What? No, that never happens! Whats going on! Her heartbeat pounded in her ear. As she looked about herself she realized that no, she would not die. The creek bottom wasn’t that deep, but she knew that broken bones were very likely. "Great, now I will be cursed with more pain! Just great!" Trying to keep herself loose, knowing that tensed muscles would simply cause more injury, Susan closed her eyes and braced for contact with the ground. She took a deep breath as she fell. ****************************************************************************** > Chapter 1 The Abyss > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord was in his pocket dimension. It was the one place he could completely unleash his chaos. However if wasn’t nearly as fun when there was nopony else to watch. Then again, he thought, this exercise isn’t for fun. It’s just that. Exercise. At that moment he was working on some of his more difficult spells. Like opening stable rifts. This wasn’t really all that difficult it was just that he was exercising his mental focus ability in order to make them stable. Which was surprisingly hard. Being the avatar of chaos that he was. The magic he used was chaos magic. Which, when used without thought, would would generate small random acts or occurrences of chaos. Which were only temporary. Adding thought to the use of this magic increases the user's ability to chose what would happen. It also added stability and permanency to the spell. Now if one simply wanted these small occurrences, just because, or only put a little thought into it then it would be fine. The Chaos Avatar naturally draws power from any occurrence of disharmony, the bigger/larger/more powerful the occurrence the more power he gained. However, the downside to the Chaos Avatar was that focusing thought was more difficult because their thoughts were just as random as the effects of chaos magic. This is what made the spells discord was using difficult. Ever since his befriending Fluttershy and her friends Discord’s ability to focus his thoughts was strengthened. This made it easier to do the complicated spells he had had difficulty with previously. However to offset that, because he couldn’t just perform his magic anywhere he wanted, his magic stores weren't as stalked as he would have liked. So in order to build back up those stores he made this pocket dimension in the first place which A) gave him the freedom to do what he wanted and B) to gain magical strength. Discord was testing his ability today in these areas. His goal today was to simultaneously set up 1000 stable dimensional rifts. All of which to completely different dimensions and hold them there as long as possible. However discord was disappointed with himself. He had been “working out” for over two hours now and had only been able to get 976 stable rifts working for 5 minutes. Discord breathed heavily. Sweat dripping off of his mamel features, while his reptilian ones were heated. He clenched his fists and bellowed at the sky(or where the sky would have been). “What in Tartarus is going on! I am the all powerful god of chaos I should be able to cast something as simple as a couple thousand BLASTED PORTALS!” He fumed as his last rifts dissipated and flames erupted from his dragonesque features. “Ugg this is infuriating!”he snorted after his spasm. He took a few deep breaths and calmed down knowing that if he was to attempt it again he would need to be level headed. He simply needed to look at this from a different angle. “Maybe I can get all 1000 if I reduce the time they were left open. And did them in dimensions that are closer together.”as Discord calculated he had crossed one arm over while using his other arm/claw to stroke his beard. “Yes, yes I think that will work.” The draconequus’ features lifted to a happier state as he turned around to try again. He placed his claw and lion paw in front of his myself and began casting the spell. ******************************************************************** Susan was puzzled. She could tell she was still falling but wondered why? She should have landed in the creek already. She opened her eyes and immediately confusion was replaced with fear as her pupils dilated. She started to scream and flail about as she realized that she was no longer falling towards the creek but towards a black abyss! She could still see the bridge but as she fell dark blackness surrounded a circular image of it. She continued to scream as memories of falling as a child was brought to the forefront of her mind. (She had broken 3 bones on three separate occasions because of falling) fear griped Susan as she continued to fall and she closed her eyes to hide from a long time fear. *********************************** Discord turned and ceased his spell as he heard a terrified, blood curtailing scream and rushed towards it. What's screaming? What happened? Did something fall from one of the portals? As he got closer to the thing from whence the scream was emanating, he saw it and stopped in his tracks before traveling twice as fast as his original speed. For the creature had stopped its noise. He then teleported to catch the thing sooner. *********************************** Something struck Susan’s back. She started breathing heavily. What was that? That's not possible nothing was below me and even there was it would have hit harder than that! Maybe there was a creature that lived in this abyss and caught me? What if if was a creature? what was it?! Would it eat me? Her heart pounded. All this thought came to Susan in less than seconds. Her eyes shot open and she flinched at what met her gaze. “Hey are you alright?” A deep yet kind and worried voice called down to the being that held her. Susan's heartbeat slowed down, finding a strange comfort in the voice. I've heard that voice before. She thought. Is that who I think it is? As she concentrated and her eyes came into focused on the gray face of an equine with one large fang, a beard, two large yellow and red eyes, one antler and one blue horn. Her heart stopped. I must be dreaming. It couldn't be. “Discord?”she said shakily. ******************************************************************* > Chapter 2 Is This A Dream? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord was carried the unconscious creature in his arms. It had passed out after stating his name. How does it know my name? He had decided to take her to Fluttershy. She was best with other species. Discord had come to the conclusion that this was, what appeared to be, a female human. He wasn’t sure, but from what he had heard while traveling this being lined up with the description. He wasn't about to to double check on the gender, because what he had also heard was that things could get ugly if a stranger checked in that area. I need to get her to Fluttershy quickly. She's the expert with these types of things. And holding this thing is making me uncomfortable. I don't know what to do with random animals! Well besides mutate them but Fluttershy would have harsh words with me if I did that. The draconequus had left his home awhile ago and had come closer to his destination. Because of his uncomfort with holding it he had placed the girl on one of his cotton candy clouds. He had unconsciously noticed how sweet she looked laying on his cloud. Having arrived at his destination he stuck his head through the cottage door. “Fluttershy!” He called “Discord, what have I said about that? You're supposed to knock.” Said the calming voice of the yellow pegasus. “But I'm your friend! I shouldn’t have to knock. I should be able to just come in.”retorted Discord. “Discord” The Draconequus rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine.” He pulled his head out of the door as Fluttershy got up and started coming towards it. Discord was annoyed at having to take part in this formality but realized that his friend was trying to help. He knocked on the door and it opened. “Hello Discord. It's nice to- oh my gosh what's that behind you!” Said a surprised Fluttershy as she caught sight of the human. “It's the reason I came here in the first place. We should probably get it inside.” “Yes, yes bring it inside.” She said with urgency. “But what is it? And what happened?” “I think it's a human, and it fell out of one of my rifts while I was exercising.” Fluttershy laid the human on her sofa and propped its head up on a pillow. “I caught it before it was lost in the dark matter within my pocket dimension. And then it passed out after saying my name. Which is really weird, by the way, like how did she know my name? Oh, and by the way I believe it to be female.” he said calmly. He then said as if was a passing thought: “Don't take off its clothes. Otherwise it'll be very mad when it wakes up.” Fluttershy immediately stopped attempting to remove clothing. She then decided to go get a damp towel to lay on the human’s eyes. This would slowly wake it up without causing a problem. Discord on the other hand, was floating in the air filling his claws like nothing was wrong. He easily hid his slight concern for this... thing which, had interrupted his workout. Fluttershy came back in and laid the towel on the human's eyes. As she did so it moved. Startled, Fluttershy flinched but then relaxed as her new patent simply rolled over. The other animals that shared a home with the pegasus started to flock towards the stranger. With a calm, motherly voice Fluttershy said “Now don't get to close. Our guest needs her rest, and should be left alone for the moment.” The critters, clearly disappointed, backed away from the newcomer. During this, Discord had silently been watching over the shoulder of the pegasus. As she turned around to speak with him further he hurriedly returned to his previous position. “She will be fine. She just needs to sleep.” Fluttershy then looked at the reformed villain and softly asked, “If you don't mind, would you tell me again what happened?” Discord then recounted the event as he remembered it. He acted as if it was not important and like he was bored during his retelling. Fluttershy listened intently, partially seeing through his guise. Just as he finished they heard noise coming from the couch. The pair turned to look at what was going on. The human was waking up. Her eyes were still closed as she sat up, stretched, and breathed in deeply. She rubbed her face with her hand as she breathed out. She opened her eyes slowly while relaxing her frame. Fluttershy then took the liberty of asking “How do you feel?” The human’s eyes widened. “Fluttershy? Is that you?” How does she know my name? The pegasus temporarily ignored the confused thoughts and answered “Yes. Now, how do you feel.” “I feel fine. But how can you be here?” The stranger looked around and said “Actually how can I be here? I must be dreaming.” She closed her eyes and shook her head and looked back up. “Discord’s here too?”She, ironically, had a dreamly look at the thought of that. “ Yah, this is definitely a dream.” Discord pressed closer to the thing he saved “No this is not a dream because otherwise LuLu would be solving this problem,” “Ha True” the human quickly interjected. The animals now started to come closer to her. She noticed and smiled warmly at them. Discord continued speaking holding up talons while he counted. “Number one. And number two, how do you know our names?” The human rolled their eyes and said “ Oh it's one of those dreams. Well-” “Why do you keep saying this is a dream? And why would be in your dream even if that is what was happening?” Discord was getting annoyed by this. “ I would be dreaming about you guys because you are characters in a tv show I watch. And this has to be a dream because nothing this good, this happy, or magical never happens to me.” The girl looks down at her hands before continuing. “It's not possible.” She said sadly. Shock was etched clearly on their faces. The animals started to nuzzle and sniff her legs and boot covered feet. The girl breathed in deeply and looked back up, after petting a squirrel, as if to turn this into the happy dream she thought this was. “Anyway where are my manners. I know your names but y'all don't know mine.” She got up off the couch and stood up. “My name is Susan Smith. However as that might be too odd a name for you I have come up with the alternative of Creative Flame. You may call me either, I care not which.” Susan held her hand out for a handshake. Fluttershy raised her hoof to accept the gesture and said “It’s very nice to meet you Susan. You already know Discord and I.” She gestured than to discord, who waved, and herself respectively. “And you are welcome here from now on.” Deciding to to be overly dramatic, Flame bowed deeply. “Thank you kindly ma’am.” She stretched. “Well time to change out of this form into something more suitable for this world.” Discord had been playing chess with his tail but after this out of the blue statement he turned towards the Flame with anticipation. He wondered if humans were capable of random changes of appearance like himself, copied the forms of others like changelings, or if they only had a select few forms. Susan stretched her arms behind her with her eyes closed again. Her chest puffed out as if this would help move along the transformation. But nothing happened. She relaxed herself and went down on hands and knees turned her head and looked at the pair who had taken care of her so far. Discord was confused he looked around and then back at the human. “So when are you going to change? I’m waiting!” he crossed his arms with an annoyed look on his face. He was being denied both entertainment and information. Fluttershy had slightly tilted her head also confused. “What are you talking about?” The unchanged human said. “I just di-” she had raised her hand as if gesture questioningly when she realized that it still was her human hand. “What?” She got up off the floor slowly and examined herself. “Huh that's wired normally I can change my shape in my dreams.” “Ugh for the last time this is not a dream! I should know.” Discord wasn't exactly known for his patience and he was showing why. Susan looked up at him confused. He continued, “You fell through one of my portals and interrupted my training session! I had to stop for the day in order to save you from falling eternally! I also had to drag you over here to make sure I didn't kill you. So yah you're not dreaming so stop fiddling and explain yourself!” Discord pointed an accusing finger at Susan. Susan and Fluttershy both looked at him shocked. “Wow Discord, since when do you care about about anyone, anypony, except Fluttershy and Celestia? I'm touched.” Susan said sincerely. Now it was Discord’s turn to be shocked. His accusing finger drooped comically. “And even more so if this is real.” Susan looked around and started walking towards Discord who was still partially in shock. He shook himself and gained a more questioning look as she got closer. She reached out her hand as if to touch him and asked “May I?” “My you what?” Said Discord as he leaned away from her touch. She pulled her hand back, and looked down blushing ever so slightly. “May I touch you? I know that sounds a little weird but I can't ever really feel anything in my dreams. So I'm simply trying to verify that your real by touching you.” She looked back up. “Yah no. Not going to happen. Especially not until you explain yourself. I still don't know how you knew a thing about Fluttershy let alone myself.” “You’re right. I knew it was a long shot and y'all deserve to know know more about the stranger in your midst.” Susan sat back down on the sofa and removed her sweatshirt to show a white and brown plaid shirt. “It's a bit warmer here than my previous location.” Fluttershy spoke up, in her soft voice. “Where did you come from?” “Well I come from the planet earth and the country of the United States of America. For the last 2 years I've lived on the east coast of said country. However for most of my life I lived in an area called the Midwest. And the reason I say It’s warmer here is because where I live it’s currently fall.” “It's fall here as well. I wonder why it's warmer here?” Susan shrugged “It might just be a slight change in temperature. Probably not something to worry about.” She went back to playing with the animals. Discord had again changed what he was doing. He lounged in the air with a remote and a box tv with an antenna, flipping through channels. Susan took notice and remembered something else see had agreed to tell them. “Anyways, you wanted me to elaborate on how I know the two of you.” She took a deep breath trying to figure out how to explain this. “On my planet there is a TV show called My Little Pony. Ite is about a purple introvert unicorn, by the name of Twilight Sparkle. And how friendship has become something so big and important in her life that it helps her defeat villains and become an alicorn princess.” Susan leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees, and clasped her hands together. “Sound familiar?” She said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “And it just so happens that you discord are my favorite character. That's another one of the reasons I thought this was a dream.” Discord, being the drama queen that he was magically gave himself sunglasses, a boa and stuck a pose. “I’ve always know that I’m a star. Susan hummed and said quietly, almost to herself, “You are Discord, you really are.” She closed her eyes and shook her head lightly. She dismissed the whole scene and went on. Still playing with the large variety of animals. Fluttershy had noticed these interactions and discord had gone back to his TV. Raising a hand to her chin she started again. “Anyways, I think the show covers about three-to-four years of events. I don’t know for sure the time because it’s very vague. However it does show y’all celebrating Hearth's Warming three times and that’s what I used to judge the time. Wait! Hold on.” she said looking away from her audience, realization coming to mind. Fluttershy began to worry while still being confused at what is going on. She spoke: “Is there something wrong?” “What?” Susan looked up confused. “Oh, no, nothing's wrong. But tell me have you had your first Hearth’s Warming with Starlight Glimmer yet?” she sounded excited but not frantic. Relieved that nothing was wrong fluttershy answered still confused but patient. “Not not yet but it will be happening this winter. Why do you ask?” Discord had gotten bored with the television and was now eating paper. Hopefully not from anny of Twilights books this time. Thought Susan as she noticed and smiled. But she had also come to an amazing realization and so turned back to the mare whom she had been conversing with. “This means that I have knowledge about, and have seen your future!” Discord did a spit take. In which the paper that had been in his mouth turned to liquid. Fluttershy stood with her mouth agape equally as shocked. “We should take you to see twilight.” said Fluttershy after recovering. Discord agreed. “Yes any other information you have to give she will want to know. As well as what you’ve already said.” “Alrighty then. Off we go!” > Chapter 3 New Form > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3 New Form Susan got up to leave with her newfound friends. “Oh wait, Discord?” She said as Fluttershy exited the cottage. Hmm?” “Unless you’re planning on teleporting us there I think it might be best if I was disguised. Would you mind helping me with that?” Well that's weird Thought Discord? but he shrugged it off and replied with: “Sure what exactly did you have in mind?” She visually brightened and pulled a folded piece of paper out of her back pocket. “I've been working on these for awhile”she said as she unfolded the paper. “and I was wondering if you could change my appearance into one of these?” Discord looked at the images of different ponies presented to him on the paper. Slightly impressed with the artwork but didn't give it a second thought he brushed it way. “Pft this is child's play of course I can do simple transformations! I could make each of them come alive if you wanted. In fact I will!” And with a whip of his tail the characters came to life on the page. Then one by one they leapt off it and grew in size till life like. Creative Flame was alight in excitement and awe as she watched her creations gain form before her. The ponies interacted with each other using characteristics she had had in mind for each of them. *POOF* “Of course if I am to do the transformation on you you'll have to tell me which one you want. For while I am all powerful, I don't read minds. It's rude.” Susan blinked and looked around for the recently disappeared ponies. She closed her eyes and sighed. Her gaze returned to the Draconequus with a smile back on her face. “Yes of course. The green unicorn with the burning paintbrush and scroll cutie mark.” She said as she removed things from her pockets into a pile beside her. Discord spun donning the look of a French waiter. “As you wish, mademoiselle.” Bowing he snapped his fingers and her form changed into the mare mentioned with a puff of smoke. She was ecstatic that the transformation was successful. She noticed that the clothes she was wearing were gone and replaced by the ones she had drawn. Down on all four hooves she pranced around out of excitement, er as well as she could. This was a new body to get used to. The mare slowed down, after falling a few times, to try and get herself steady. She looked back up at the draconequus who was admiring his handy work. “Thank you so much! This is amazing! I didn’t even think it was possible.” Susan had said that last part more to herself. “What do you mean not possible?! Did you really not think that I was not capable of such a menial task?!” “Oh no nonono. You must understand. I come from a world without magic and have only dreamt and read about things like this happening. I had complete faith in your ability.” “Well good. Shall we be going now?” “Sure just let me get my stuff.” She turned to pick up her belongings and realized that it would be kind of hard to pick things up with her hooves. She tried anyway remembering from the show that earth ponies and pegasi do it all the time. She gently put down her right fore-hoof to pick up her iPhone but it wouldn't work. There was nothing to grab onto it with and there wasn’t enough friction for the phone to attach itself to her hoof. She grumbled in frustration. Discord was looking on with amusement. He quipped “You know, you are a unicorn. Unlike your, planet this one has magic.” The human-turned-unicorn rolled her eyes “I was gonna try that next.” she retorted. “Think Susan,” she mumbled to herself while looking at her phone. “How would one do magic.” she thought about all the different books and theories she had read about magic. She shook her head and turned back to her friend. “This is taking too long and we need to catch up with Fluttershy and get to the others. The information I have is important. Would you mind lending me a helping hand er.. claw er.. whatever?” “Awww but it was so much fun watching you fumble.” he whined sarcastically. She gave him a that's-very-funny-but-come-on look.[(forgive me I’m having trouble describing what it looks like despite seeing it)] “Oh alright” He produced a saddle bag and loaded her things up for her. He place the filled bag on her back. “By the way what was all that stuff?” “All will be explained in time. Now let’s hurry and catch up with her.” and with that the green unicorn galloped down the dirt path towards town. She had adjusted to her new form surprisingly fast. Intrigued, the beast grinned and took off flying after her. It wasn’t long before he caught up with her “Oh come on. You can tell me. We have time before we get to the castle.” he was flying on his back a little bit ahead of her so they would be talking face to face. “It was never a problem of time.” Flame had started breathing heavier from the exertion of running. “The others will ask similar questions and I just don’t want to have to repeat myself. So I’ll answer questions once we’ve all assembled.” Where is Fluttershy? We should have caught up to her by now. She thought as she looked for the yellow Pegasus. They had entered the town proper. “But I can’t wait any longer. I’m curious.” he wined “Careful, curiosity killed the cat” “Ah yes, but satisfaction brought it back. Now pleeeeease?” “Oh OK fine.” she came to stop as she gave in to his pleading. He pumped his fist to celebrate his victory. “But you have to answer one of my questions first.” “Well that’s only fair. Fire away.” “Where are my clothes?” ************************************************************************************************************************************************************