After another failed attemp to get their Cutie Marks, the CMC find themselves in new bodies and far away from home. Observe how they handle their new bodies and situations and meet new and old friends and foes alike on their journey back to Ponyville
On what seemed like a normal-ish day in Ponyville, the CMC try their luck with demon summoning.
Unsurprisingly, they fail. Surprisingly, there is no tree sap.
But something else is different as well: They did summon some kind of ancient magic, it just did not work as intended.
Now, they find themselves separated, placed in the bodies of three of the worlds greatest evils, and are on the very borders of the world they know.
This is the story of their journey home through snow, stone, and sand.
Oh, and Chrysalis, Sombra and Tirek are now in their bodies and have to survive the insanity school, sisters and Ponyville are.
As you read the story, you will probably notice that the writing style changes quite a bit and that the quality will improve quite drastically over the first few chapters. I’ve written the first four or so chapters a looong time back and have obviously grown as a writer since. Leave feedback to help us grow together!
Our Story begins inmid the beautiful scenery of the grasslands north of the Everfree.
A small cozy cottage stood there with all kinds of animals flying, running and crawling around it. The birds sang, the beetles buzzed and a ferret family and a timid yellow pegasus played hide and seek. Right behind that cottage was a small town; Ponyville.
It was a lovely day in Ponyville; it just rained so the air was clean, and if you looked carefully, you could see a faint rainbow just under the sun. Responsible for that was the rainbow-maned pegasus speeding through town and playing pranks on everypony she could find. In the local boutique, a white unicorn mare worked on an ordered dress for some noble ball, and in the basement of the golden oak library, a scholar and her dragon assistant took cover under the nearest table. On the marketplace was quite a bit of activity as well: an orange farmpony sold apples while a stallion next to her sold simple hoofcrafted glass figurines. On the other side of the place was a grey pegasus mare happily chatting with her friends.
While some of those situations may sound interesting, none of them are a part of this story. Nor is the fact that Ponyvilles’ pink party planner pony was baking a cake, playing with the twins and tinkering at some sort of machine at the same time.
No, our story starts boring.
It was a Friday afternoon and Scootaloo was annoyed.
She and her friends were leaving the schoolgrounds when she spoke up, “Ugh. Did she had to give us homework for the weekend? We have a life outside of school, you know?”
“Well,” came the answer from Sweetie Belle, “you could have done your homework in the free hour we got instead of drawing.”
“Hey, I’ve been preparing for our crusade today! Also, school is boring!”
“Yeah, just like you!” came a voice from behind them. As they turned around, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came into view. Diamond continued, “I mean, drawing for a cutie mark? That is the last thing I would expect from you, you must be totally out of ideas.”
“Drawin' ain't a bad thing, it’s literally art. Thought you’d know that, or is that too complicated to understand for ya, princessy?” Apple Bloom chimed in.
“Yeah, besides,” Scootaloo grinned. “It’s not drawing. I’ve planed something way cooler than that. And I’m not gonna tell you, you’ll just have to wait till Monday.”
“As if. The only thing you three are good at is being bad at everything. Maybe you already have your cutie marks for that.”
“Yup,” Silver Spoon added, “that’s it. You really are–” And with that, they turned to leave, both shouting “Blank flanks forever!”
The cutie mark crusaders stared holes into the heads of the two bullies until they were out of sight.
After that was done, they continued their trotting in silence.
After a while, Sweetie spoke up, “Is that even possible?”
“What?” came the surprised answer from the other two crusaders.
“Cutie marks that don’t show anything. Is that possible? Not just for us, but maybe for skills like being really sneaky?”
After another short silence, Apple Bloom answered, “Ah reckon not. Ah mean, a cutie mark shows what you’re good at. Somethin’ that shows somethin’ needs to be visible right?”
“Whatever!” Scootaloo sad, “Let’s just go. Hey AB, race ya to the clubhouse?”
“Yer on!”
“Hey! Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, wait for me!”
And with that the three fillies were on their way to Sweet Apple Acres.
It was a battle of the ages. None that could compare would come for a long time. It was the kind of battle where no one knew who really won, but everypony present believed themselves to be the victor.
Scootaloo spread her wings. “Hah! I won!”
“Nu-uh! Ah crossed the line first!” Apple Bloom shot back.
“But I was the first inside!”
“That’s not what counts!”
“It is!”
“Is not!”
“Is,” Scootaloo huffed and began to clear out the middle of the room. “And now help me push that stuff aside, we need room for this.”
“Alright, yer off the hook for now. But what are ya planning to do?” Apple Bloom shoved aside boxes full of old crusade material.
“This,” Scootaloo sad, dropping a sheet of paper and an old looking book to the ground. “I‘ve got the chalk, we still need a rope. Check that box over there.”
“Yup, got the rope. Now, what is “this” exactly? Can’t read that chickenscratch of a drawing or that weird language on the book.”
“First, that’s an artistic masterpiece.” Scootaloo excitedly opened and leafed through the book. “Second, it shows the placement of runes! You can see them better on this page. We’ll be summoning demons!”
“Ain’t that dangerous?”
“No, with the runes it should be perfectly safe. Now, lets start with the big circ-”
“Girls! I told you to stop that!” a very displeased Sweetie Belle shouted as she entered the clubhouse. “You know it’s not nice to– Why are you tying a pice of chalk onto that rope?”
“It’s simple, really! Now we just tie the other end around a stick or something and can make a perfect circle!” Scootaloo demonstrated what she was talking about, but soon realized her legs weren’t long enough. “Hey, could one of you please take the chalk?”
“I got it!” Sweetie picked up the chalk in her magic and began to pull it across the floor. “What are you planning anyways? You seem really exited.”
“She plans to summon demons,” AB answered.
Sweetie Belle dropped the chalk in shock and turned to face Scootaloo. “You are planning to do WHAT?! Don’t you know that that’s dangerous?! If something goes wrong, we could end up exploding!”
“Gee, calm down. I’ve prepared this for the last five days. The Runes will protect us, the first chant will gather the magic we need, the second will bind any kind of monster and only the last one will actually summon the demons. If anything goes wrong, we’ll know long before we invite any kind of ancient devil into our clubhouse. Now, what could go wrong?”
“Ah gotta say, that ain’t bad. First time Ah’ve actually seen ya that prepared. Or prepared at all,” Apple Bloom pondered, “Ah’m not shure. Ah say we go over this in detail and then Ah decide. What do ya think Sweetie?”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both looked at Sweetie Belle, who stared at the runes in the book. After a moment, Scoots asked “Uhm, Sweetie?”
“What? Oh, sorry.” Sweetie looked up from her reading. “It’s just, I know this symbol here. I think I’ve seen it in one of Twilights books on really old magic back when we tried to turn copper into gold. I think it means “magic”. This could actually be working, but yes, we should definitely first go over what you have planned.”
Sweetie levitated the book back to Scootaloo and sat down next to her. After Apple bloom joined them, Scoots began. “Alright. See, first we draw this summoning circle onto the ground. Afterwards, we all stand on the edges of the big triangle and just speak our text. Here, look on the next side. This is the first chant.”
“J’ advoco potestas de divinités antiqua,” Apple Bloom read out the beginning. “Ah’ve got no idea what that’s supposed to mean. Sweetie?”
“I’m not sure, but it does sound a bit like... prance? And something else? It does seem to be some kind of language. Maybe like that song-based spell discord used?”
Scootaloo shivered “Urgh, don’t remind me. That was so weird... Well, back to the topic on hoof. This is the second chant and this the last one. After what I understand from the pictures, this is a charging spell, this a binding spell and this a summoning spell.”
“We should make shure we all know the text, Ah don’t think messin’ this up can be any good,” AB warned.
“I got this,” Sweetie sad, “I’ll just copy the text on extra pieces of paper. Everypony gets one, that way we can’t forget the words.”
“Alright, now what after the summonin’? What are we gonna do with ‘em?”
Scootaloo stood up and put the book aside. “That’s a thing to discuss then. Now, let’s get those circles done”
-+#+-
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had finally finished the summoning circle. It was a large ring with runes following its course on the inside, that contained all kind of symbols and a triangle that contained symbols and runes on its own.
The triangle had the size of about two thirds of the size of the outer ring and had circles that nearly made contact with the outer ring, just big enough to stand inside, instead of spikes. Inside the triangle was another ring made of runes, nearly touching the sides. In each middle of the space between the outer ring and the triangle was a row of runes, parallel to the triangle.
“Alright, we’re done. Now, lets begin!”
“Yer shure ‘bout that? Ah think we should check if the runes are correct. Also, Sweetie still needs to finish copyin’ the chants so we don’t mess up.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But when Sweetie is done, we’ll begin. I’ll check the runes over here, you take that half.”
“Alright. What kind a creature do ya think will appear? Somethin’ with wings like a bird? Or somethin’ pony-like?”
“Heck, no idea. For all we know, it could be some fifty meter tentacle monster. But I don’t think it’s gonna be something like that. A ghost would be cool! I want a ghost!”
“Ah don’t know Scoots, a ghost sounds creepy. Ah’d want something like a bird or some other kind of animal.”
“Something with magic!” Sweetie Belle called out, “Oh, and definitely not a mammal. It is way easier to take care of a fish or bug. Also, I’m done with copying the chants. Who’ll stand where?”
Scootaloo walked to the closest “spike” of the triangle. “I doubt it is important. We just need to form a triangle lining up with the one on the floor.”
As the other two fillies walked to their edges of the triangle, Sweetie asked, “How do you know all that anyways?”
“I don’t,” came the answer, “I just listened to Spike ranting about some weird fictional story. Now, who’s ready?”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DEMON SUMMONERS! YAY!”
“Alright. Girls, we need to be in sync for the whole time, so let’s begin after zero. Three. Two. One. Zero!”
“J´ advoco potestas de l´ divinités antiqua, de l´ astrum et vis, J´ advoco les seminta, artes obliviscentur et potestas vidane.”
Suddenly, the circles they stood in began to glow softly in a faint purple-blue colour. While it was a shock for the three fillies, they kept their voices steady and continued.
“J´ advoco les spirutame, expirits et goumaile, J´ advoco daemunium, élementaum et viv, l´ lésa, les guénitatir et intere.”
A strong wind began to blow around them and fog began to seep out of the outer runes, making it harder to hear and see. Additionally, the three fillies felt a slight pressure settle on their withers, as if they were carrying something.
“J´ mie―o committer d´ aid―ire l´ per―uta intro―nie a ita,”
A slight tingling sensation crept down into their legs, making their fur stand on edge. The wind spun faster and faster, making it more and more difficult to understand what they were saying.
“ d´ ai―e l―a g―ta e tr― ”
Then, just a few words later, silence. The wind was nothing more than a whisper, the fog drifted lazily away from the middle. Silence, but no calm. Not by a long shot. The rings they stood in now glowed brightly with ancient energy and bolts of mana traveled through the outer runes.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders stared at what they had accomplished. Sweetie took a step forward, but as bolt of arcane energy erupted from the glowing ring and nearly hit her, she quickly pulled her hooves back.
“That. Was. AWESOME!” Scootaloo cheered. “Since we haven’t blown up by now and can’t leave those weird rings anyways, let us begin with the next one!”
Sweetie nodded. “Yeah, the sooner we get out of those circles the better. I can feel the magic pressing on my horn, shoulder and legs. You’re lucky you’re not unicorns, that feels so weird.”
“Uh, Sweetie?” Scootaloo asked, “Is there any chance that your legs kinda... I dunno, tingle?”
“And yer shoulders feel like you are carrying somethin’ ?” Apple Bloom added.
“Yeah, but- Wait a moment, how do you know that? It’s definitely magic, I’m sure of it. How can you feel that?”
“... ya do know all three of us have magic, yes? Scoots weather-stuff and ma strength?”
“Yes, it’s just... for non-unicorns to actually feel that, it has to be a lot of magic. Are you sure this is safe?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Pff, come on. Did we blow up? No, we didn’t. Now, if you wanna get over with this, we better get started.”
“Very well. But if this goes wrong, it is your fault.”
They readied themselves, shifted the correct pieces of paper in front of them and began to count down.
“Three, two, one, go!”
When they once again begun to speak in unison, none of them noticed the faint echo that now underlined their voices.
Even though the next chant was much shorter, it certainly didn’t feel like that to the CMC. After they finished, they all panted heavily and felt like they’d been running full speed for ten minutes.
“Alright,” Scootaloo maneged to say after a minute, “That” *pant* “was unexpected. What else is differnt that last time?”
Sweetie took a deep breath. “The magical pressure increased.” She looked at the circle she was standing in. “I can feel the mana moving. I mean, if I can feel that, you know, a filly who can do nothing more with her magic than levitate, that’s gotta be extremely powerful. How is this even possible? Are we on a leyline?
“Well, whatever may be the case, otherwise I only see that the runes parallel to the triangle are glowing now.”
“Yeah, seems ‘bout right,” Apple Bloom confirmed, “Could be that the circles are brighter, but Ah’m not shure.”
The fillies looked around to see if they could spot something else, but came up with nothing. Had they looked up, they would have seen three faintly glowing rings a few hooves over their heads.
“Huh. Well, if that is all, let’s continue!” Scootaloo announced.
“Wait!” Sweetie cried out, “What will happen? I mean, the chant just now drained a lot of our energy. What is the next one gonna do? How much mana will it need?”
“Huh? Where’s the connection between those two?”
Sweetie groaned. “Scoots, whenever you channel magic, it puts a strain on your body. Like sport, just a different kind of strain. Point is, to much can hurt you. If that next chant forces too much mana through our bodies, it could hurt us.”
“Now wait a moment,” Apple Bloom angrily interrupted, “Why didn’t ya say anythin’ before we started?”
“Did you expect that chant to channel enough mana to levitate a house?” Sweetie shot back.
“No, but-”
“Stop it!” Scootaloo shouted, “You’re giving me a headache. Now, what are we gonna do?”
“Ah’m sorry Scoots”
“Yeah, sorry.” Sweetie sad, “As for what we can do, we need to start that next chant with as much energy as possible. Best for that is sleeping, but I really don’t think we should touch those rings, so that’s not an option. Any ideas?”
“Ah’d say we jus’ talk for a bit.”
Scoots perked up. “Hey, what do you think this one’s gonna do anyway? I mean, it seems like it’ll summon something, but other that that? Like, what will be summoned?”
“Ah have no idea. Aren’t there storys ‘bout such beings out there?”
“Yeah, that’s why I hoped you could tell us something with all those old campfire story of Granny and such. Well, can’t be helped. Sweets?”
Sweetie Bell just stared at Scootaloo.“Sweets, Scootaloo? Really?”
“Why not? You two call me “Scoots” all the time.”
“ ... still no. As for your question, if this actually is a spell to summon a demon, it’ll probably be something like a weird being or twisted version of normal ponies. Otherwise, I’d say we will end up with ghosts or mosters. Or, who knows, maybe we’ll summon Pinkie.”
The other two crusaders stared at Sweetie for a solid minute. Finally, Apple Bloom sad, “No. Jus’, don’t even think ‘bout it. Anyways, I’m feeling good to go. How ‘bout you?”
“Heck yeah, let’s continue!”
“Yes, I believe we can begin with the spell.”
“Alright, on three. One, two, three!”
With that, the Cutie Mark Crusaders begun their third, and last, spell that day. The instant they sad the first word, the air begun flowing counter-clockwise and pulled at their manes and tails.
The runes on the outer ring now glowing brightly, bolts of mana begun shooting out of them and hit the circles the CMC stood in, but none broke through.
The faint rings over their heads now glowed stronger, and begun to circle around the center of the ritual.
The ring made of runes inside the triangle begun to pulsate with mystic light that glowed for itself, but didn’t illuminate the surroundings.
Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom didn’t notice any of this. In fact, they tried so hard not to get distracted and mess up, that they also didn’t notice that a new rune appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the middle the circle.
Nor that they were no longer touching the ground.
Each of the fillies now floated a few centimeters above the ground. All of them were encased in an otherworldly glow that seemed to come out of nowhere. As the rings over them begun to circle faster and faster, the CMC were slowly pulled towards the center of the ritual.
Trough it all, they chanted on.
It was like they were guided by something larger, something powerful. Something magical.
Then, as they nearly touched each other in the middle, tartarus broke loose.
The circles they had been standing in suddenly stopped glowing, the outer runes begun to shine as bright as the sun and the circling rings froze in place. The rune in the middle emitted a shockwave that shook the whole clubhouse.
In a flash of white, it was gone.
The magic, now faded, left behind a tingling sensation in the air. The former drawings of chalk were now burned into the floor, the whole room a display of chaos that would have made Discord proud.
And in the middle of the room floated three little fillies, eyes glowing white.
As the glow faded, the three slowly begun to descend until they lay there on the floor. A few minutes later, they begun to stir. The first one to awake was the little white unicorn with a curly mane.
“One bar and one hundred pascal. Colour begins to shift towards red. Could you please hand me the blue focus crystal? Temperature?”
Spike quickly moved the crystal into Twilight’s line of sight before returning to his spot under the table.
“Here you go Twi. 346 Kelvin, it looks like it is slowing down. 350 Kelvin, 353 Kelvin, yeah, definitely slowing down. Pressure and colour?”
Twilight floated the foci to herself and channeled her magic through it, deactivating the magical sound muffler.
“Thanks. The pressure is dropping to one bar and ninety-six pascal. Colour now nearly completely red. You think this is it?”
“Yeah, I guess so. 356 Kelvin, no longer climbing. Seems like we’ve done it. Now, what the hay is this?”
As they took their googles off, Twilight explained, “Well, you remember those black crystals Sombra used? I wanted to know how they suppress magic, so I decided to create a fluid that–”
“Alright, got it, something I don’t understand,” Spike interrupted. “Now, can I finally- Twi? You look worried, what is it?”
“I- I’m not sure, there is this building tension in the air. Don’t you feel it?”
“No? Maybe it’s magic?”
“Perhaps... But it does- ARGH!”
Suddenly, Twilight held her head in her hooves. A moment later, when the pain disappeared, she took a deep breath. Spike looked at her worriedly.
“Twilight, are you ok? What happened?”
As she shook her head, Twilight answered, “I don’t know. One moment there was this tension building in the air, then there is this flash of magic. Weird. I’ll see if I can find an answer in one of my books.”
With that, she headed up to read all about unnatural bursts of magic she could find, leaving Spike to clean up their experiments.
Somewhere in the southern San Palomino desert.
Tirek hated sand. That stuff got everywhere. If there was one thing he hated even more than not having any magic, it was sand.
And yet, here he was.
“If this turns out to be another dead end, I swear,” he grumbled, before puling out a map to check if he was still going in the right way. Looking up, he noticed that the sun stood to high to pinpoint directions.
“Of course. It seems I’ll have to take a break.”
He looked around and spotted an overhang he could rest under. The moment he laid down, he felt the soreness through his body, only one of the disadvantages of his weakened form.
Once he felt rested and the sun moved enough to show where south is, he got up and moving once again.
“Only a few days before I arrive, if the map is correct. Oh, I so hope it is. Artifact magic isn’t the best, but at least I can drain them if they are useless,” he told himself while he started to, once again, walk through the endless masses of sand.
It was a boring time, alone in the desert. He knew he had to be patient if he wanted another chance at stealing Equestrias magic. Still, he wanted something to happen, if only to disrupt the endless walking.
He didn’t know it yet, but his life would very soon stop being boring.
When he laid down again as the sun settled, he felt something. Magic. It wasn’t much, but it was there, and it grew.
Where does it come from? Eh,doesen’t matter, he thought, Maybe I can drain it if it becomes stronger. Jep, look like it. Just a bit more aaaand there we go.
For about five secounds he drained the magic, before it suddenly became much, much more powerful. Then, the magic, now visible as glowing white tendrils, surrounded him and begun to pull.
It did not pull at his skin or bones, but at his mind, his soul. While there was no pain, it was a weird feeling like being carried around by a strong wind.
He struggled against the hold, but without his magic to help him, it would not let go. He was to weak and drained to fight back any longer, and was immortal as far as he knew anyways, so he gave up and let the magic do whatever it was doing.
The pulling increased and something changed, then the weird sensation stopped. The pulling became weaker and let him slip into unconsciousness, but he could spot a last glimpse of his surroundings. Weirdly enough, it didn’t seem to fit into a desert at all. The last thing he saw was a lot of white.
With that, he left it all behind. Gone was his body, gone was the sand, gone was the desert.
In the frozen north, west of the Crystal Empire.
“This is it. With this plan, victory shall be mine! Muahahaha, ahahahah, AHAHAHAHAH! I will win, WIN I say!”
And as he continued to chuckle like the mad pony he was, he begun his trip towards the empire. His empire.
“They won’t know what hit them, nono they won’t. I’ll break them like they broke me. I’ll use their own strength against them. A dark crystal heart, how glorious, how cruel! Dark crystal...” While saying this, he suddenly stopped walking. A moment later, he broke out into mad laughter, his voice distorted by dark magic. “HAHA, Crystals, ahAHAHaH, cRysTalSSssS!”
For some reason or another, he found that word funny. He himself didn’t know why, he just did. Was it because of a spell? He did not know, but he was sure it was because of a spell.
If I could just think clearly for a moment, he thought, Then- Chrystals! Glimmering, shim- NO! Concentrate! I- Shimmering crystals! Chrystals! Hehe, CrysTalss! cRystAls! CrysTalSS! CRYSTALS!
And he tried to understand, what would he want to think of other than crystals? But he couldn’t, and the insanity returned, driven by the corruption he cursed upon himself, and unhindered by his weak soul.
That is the price one has to pay for using the darkest of arts. The damaged soul and corruption, not insanity. That came later. How’d he known that? Why had it come? He didn’t know.
And so he carried on, towards his empire.
There was another shadow who tried to stop him. It is no longer. There was another monster which tried to stop him. It is no longer. There was an unicorn who tried to stop him. She is no longer. In fact, she’s short of a horn.
I’ve become quite strong. Yes, crystals are strong. Yes, crystals are good. Crystals, heh. Wait, what is this?
He referred to the increasing magic that appeared from the south. He blinked a few times, and then looked east.
It’s not crystal. Crystal, hehe. No, it is not. But strong. Can I use it? No. Can’t use Light. It’s not crystal. Or shadow.
Then, the magic begun to encase him. When the pull appeared, something held him back, didn’t want to let go of his soul. It hurt. It hurt a lot.
What is this magic? It’s not cry- NO! Not now! This is a transfer. What kind? Where will I end up? South... hehe c- Canterlot! Celestia! How did she know? And why does it hurt that much? Ow, ow, owowow, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP!
He summoned his own power, wrapping his forelegs in shadows and creating crystals. He cut the light with his shadows and smashed it with his crystals, but it just came back. Again and again he cut, crashed, ripped, smashed and blocked them, but the tendrils of light kept coming. Finally, they got a good hold on him, once again pulling at his damaged soul.
NO! I won’t lose! I can’t! I am the King of shadows! I am the crystal lord! I won’t lose him! Nonono, I won’t, I WON’T lose myself!”
He fought for controll, but ultimately lost as the pain proved to be too much for him to handle. He blacked out and collapsed into the snow, his magic still raging in blind fury. As the light pulled away, shadows tried to hold it in place, but none were strong enough. One after one, they snapped. When another presence, another mind, eventually appeared the weakened shadows grasped it and pulled it inside.
After everything was over, he just lay there, unmoving. A thin layer of fresh snow settled down on top of him, and after only half an hour he was buried under it.
Like he was never there in the first place.
The Badlands, central hive, Chrysalis personal chamber.
The last few months had been disastrous for the changelings. A lot of them had died after being thrown out of Canterlot, and it became even harder to steal any kind of emotion due to better security and paranoid ponies. Adding to that was the low number of infiltrators the hive had left.
The love reserves of the hive were low, lower than any changeling could remember they’d ever been. But the one who had it the worst was Chrysalis: Suffering from an illness known as “pure love withdrawl” and not having enought emotional energy to properly sustain her body, she couldn’t even leave her bed without collapsing after the first five steps.
“My Queen? Can I get you something, maybe a glass of water?”
“Thank you Cicada, but no. Take care of the other survivors of the attack first.”
“As you wish.” The servant bowed and left the room.
After the door closed, Queen Chrysalis addressed the two mindless drones that quietly stood next to it.
“Drone #2367 and #8465, I have an order for you. Visit the infirmary and drain Scorn of her energy. Her wounds would not heal anymore, she would die either way. Make it painless. Understood?”
The two drones bowed deeply and simply replied, “My Queen.”
“Good. Now go.”
Chrysalis let out a heavy breath. While it was useful that she could feel it when the other changelings were beyond saving, it also hurt. Not because she felt their pain, she didn’t, but because it was a constant reminder of her failure in Canterlot.
She didn’t need that now. If she wanted to have enough energy to plan the future survival of her changelings, she first needed to rest.
“I wonder how much time is left for me,” she later commented, speaking to the empty room.
“Not much, that is sure. Will my changelings be able to survive on their own? Without guidance, without a Queen? It never happened before, so probably not, or at least not the drones, they are just mindless husks. This can’t go on like that. We need a source of love, and we need it fast. We could try Dodge city ...”
Lost in her rambling and thoughts, the changeling queen slowly drifted asleep. Her dreams were not pleasant that day, images of the princesses and royal guard haunting her and her race down. As time went by, the dreams faded and left nothing but a black space, no light, no direction, just darkness.
Huh, she thought, That is a new dream. And it’s an unusual one, having no body but being able to move. Joy.
She explored the darkness, but found nothing. There was only black, no matter how far or fast she went. As she decided to run strait upwards, she felt something coming.
What is this? It feels like... affection? No, not like that. Friendship? Is this part of the dream? Eh, whatever, can’t hurt to take a bit. And when I say “a bit” I mean all of it! Hmm, tasty˜
As she drew the love out of the weird presence, she noticed that it was not only coming closer, but it also became visible, looking like a head-sized ball of light.
Shocked by the appearance of the strange light, she retreated as fast as she could.
What the hay?! What is a light doing in this darkness? And why does it taste like friendship? Wait a secound, blackness, white light... No, it can’t be! That’s not fair! I can’t die now, I still need to prepare my changelings! I still have time left, at least a few months! Why do I have to die now?
But the light didn’t answer or stop, it just came closer, reaching out for her. Thin threads of light begun to stretch out and wrapped themself around her body, refusing to let go.
No, this can’t be! N- Not now! Please, someling, someone, help! Help! Make it stop! Make it stop! I don’t want to die! Please!
She begun to struggle against the hold. She shapeshifted into different sizes and creatures with completely different bodies, only for the threads to adapt and trap her once more. As she saw that it didn’t work, she tried to rip them of or chew trough them, or at the very least not to get pulled away.
Unhindered in the slightest, the light slowly but surely pulled her soul away and dragged her along, leaving her home, kingdom and lifeless body behind.
Canterlot Castle, throne room.
It was a day just like any other. And just like on every day, Celestia sat on her throne and listened to the problems of her ponies. In the last hour, she put a fight between two nobles to rest, denied another one a request for lower taxes, and permitted her favorite bakery to call their cakes “Celestia approved”. All in all, it was a slow day.
As she was talking with her assistant, Raven Inkwell, she felt a disturbance in the thaumic field.
She determined the ripple to have originated from the south and couldn’t help but smile. Twilight Sparkle, she mused, What are you doing?
“Princess?” Inkwell waved a hoof in front of her face. “Are you listening?”
“I am sorry Miss Inkwell,” Celestia replied, “I was thinking about my personal student.”
“Twilight Sparkle?”
“Yes. She has managed to come so far in her studies, just now I felt an magical ripple from Ponyville.”
Raven was speechless for a moment. When she did answer however, her voice was full of surprise. “Over such a distance? But how? She would need to channel raw mana! The knowledge for that has been lost for ages!”
“Yes, she would need to,” Celestia giggled, “But do remember, I am an alicorn and therefore can-”
Suddenly, she stopped talking, so big was her surprise about the strength of the sudden burst of magic that traveled through the thaumic field. Realization of what had happened hit her only a moment later, and she charged her horn.
“Raven, chancel day court. I need to talk to my sister, do not disturb us unless absolutely necessary!”
“But princess, what-”
In a flash of light, Celestia teleported into Lunas private chambers and begun to search for her sister. She found the alicorn of the night standing at the draped windows of her bedchamber, her horn glowing a faint blue.
Without even greeting her sister, Celestia started to speak, panic creeping into her voice, “I have-”
“We know,” Luna stopped her. Unlike her sister, she was calm as could be. “We felt it too. One of them is out there.”
“The frozen north. Some say the cold winds could freeze any liquid and some say all of it was created to protect and hide an artifact of unimaginable power. But more importantly, some say that life is impossible in the snow and cold winds, unless one protects themselves with magic. All that is known for sure is that the frozen north has always been extremely dangerous. The reason for that are not only the cold, strong winds and the snow, but also monsters. Not only does it contain creatures such as Icewolfes and lesser Umbrum which are mostly active in the night, the frozen north is also the only know place where Windigeos exist.”
– Regions and landscapes of Equus v11: The frozen north
Buried inmid this hostile beauty was a black unicorn with a sharp, red horn. Slowly, bit by bit, he lost hold of his dreams, awakening despite his overwhelming tiredness.
As the blinding white light faded, Scootaloo let herself relax and opened her eyes. She found herself in complete blackness and freezing cold. Wondering who let the windows open again, she sat up. Confused as to why she felt heavier than normal, she tried to get out of her bed, only to realize she was buried in some kind of fluffy substance.
After she had realized that this was, in fact, not her bed, she tried to calm herself and make sense of the situation.
“Alright Scootaloo,” she thought, “Stay calm. The worst thing you can do right now is to panic. First, am I in danger? Nope, I’m not falling or moving in any way, no heavy and sharp things are coming my way I hope, still can breathe. Wait, air! I’m underground! I need to get out of here!”
Now in full blown panic mode, she trashed around until she was exhausted. While she did manage to cave herself a small room out of the material she was in, she still had no way to get fresh air. Standing up, she began to throw her shoulder against the ceiling in a last effort to break free. Despite nothing happening, she tried again and again. When her third try pushed the substance away just a bit, she put all her strength into her next push, causing the whole ceiling collapse on her.
She covered her head as the pieces rained down on her, but pushed herself up as soon as the worst was over. Then she saw a single ray of sunlight, and pushed herself through the, as she now saw, white stuff and climbed out of the hole she had created. As soon as she stood up, a gust of wind rose and nearly threw her back down. Only now noticing how cold she was, Scootaloo hugged herself in an attempt to hold onto her body heat.
That was when she realized just why she felt so cold. There was no body heat to hold onto. Her body was as cold as ice.
Feeling her panic rising once again, she quickly diverted her attention onto her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that everything was covered in white, no matter in which direction she looked. She stood on slightly tilted ground, with the hole behind her being her only frame of reference. The height of the surface rose towards her left, where an enormous mountain stood, taller than anything she’d ever seen before. Downwards, towards her right, the ground became slightly steeper until it abruptly ended in a cliff which would have been a perfect panorama spot for tourists. The ground in front of her had a growing upwards incline, ending in a smaller hill a few meters higher and went down behind her, leading into a foggy valley.
Wondering just where she was, Scootaloo walked over towards the cliff and admired the beauty of the scenery, her fear completely forgotten for the moment. When she finally snapped out of her trance-like admiring, she felt something light and soft touch her muzzle. She slowly pulled back her head and took a look around, only to realize that it had begun snowing.
Now thinking clearly again, Scootaloo looked around once more to search her surrounding for any kind of clues to where she was.
“Ugh, where in Celestia’s name am I?” she muttered to herself. She wondered just how she’d find her way home and gazed into the sky, watching the sun start its descent towards the horizon on her right.
And suddenly she realized just what would be her guidance in this journey. “The sun!” she shouted. “That’s it! The princess raises the sun in the east and lowers it in the west!” She then furrowed her brows. “Wait, does this actually help me if I don’t know where I am?”
After thinking about it for a moment, she drew a compass into the snow, with the “E” on the left and the “W” on the right. She then added the “S” and “N” to complete the circle. Taking a step back, she looked at the one-eighty turned compass, puzzled as to why it was turned around.
With a quiet “Wish Sweetie Belle was here,” Scootaloo walked around the compass rose so north was “up” again and drew two simple shapes into the snow. After she drew a crown for Canterlot and an apple for Ponyville, she walked back around the map so that south was “up”.
Now having the answer quite literally stomped into the ground, it became obvious why the compass was flipped upside down: She was on the other side of Canterlot, of course she’d see the sun from the other side.
“So apparently I’m in the frozen north? Yeah, could’ve figured that out. Alright, lets get goin’. First, I need to get down from this mountain.”
As she turned to start walking, the wind suddenly picked up and blew her black mane into her face. Her black mane? Her mane was supposed to be purple, what was going on?
Twisting her head to get a better look at herself, she was shocked by what she saw. Her colors weren’t orange and purple anymore, they switched to black and grey! She wasn’t even a Pegasus anymore!
Just barely avoiding panicking again, Scootaloo took a deep breath. Already having confirmed that she was not a Pegasus anymore, she lifted her left forehoof to her forehead, which promptly caused her to loose balance and fall into the snow.
“What the-” she exclaimed, surprised that she toppled over so easily. “Not only did I loose my wings, but my balance as well? Stupid new body.”
After getting back up, she once again reached for her forehead and managed to stay on her hooves. Then, she moved her hoof up a bit and promptly felt it making contact with something on her head – a horn.
Scootaloo let out a frustrated sigh. “So first I’m not a Pegasus anymore and then I don’t even get the earth pony strength and stamina? Great, just great.”
She kept muttering to herself a bit before turning towards the setting sun. She had to start moving.
And as she descended into the fog of the valley, a thought entered her mind. “I just hope Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom are okay.”