A hollow castle, with empty rooms, and dark thoughts.
At least, that’s all Princess Celestia could think as she trudged her way to the place where her friend was. The place…her friend’s lifeless body lay. As she walked into the room, she was greeted by the sight of her student, and now alicorn, Twilight Sparkle.
“How goes the attempt?” Celestia questioned hopefully.
“He’s…not waking up…not even moving,…” replied a very tired looking Twilight.
Celestia bit her lip as she examined the other ponies inhabiting the room. Among them being: her sister, Princess Luna, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and at least ten unicorns who were very well versed in the arts of complex magic. In the center of the room, on a soft bed, lay the reason they all were present: Winter Storm.
He was a relatively average unicorn. His extra fluffy sky blue coat, and dark blue mane with silver streaks glimmering in the light from the sun. He was breathing, and being ever so still. But just as he was safety in the room, he was thousands of miles away. For his mind has been stripped of its awareness, and he lay frozen in a coma.
“We ran out of spells hours ago…I don’t know what the snow beasts did to him…but it seems to be permanent.” Luna replied solemnly and a bit detached.
Cadence stomped her hoof. “No. He’s the only hope his kingdom has! We NEED to bring him back!” she stated, angry that everyone was giving up so soon.
“There isn't any other magic we can use.” Stated one of the present unicorns bluntly.
“Then we need to make new spells!” Cadence cried back.
All the magic users in the room then proceeded to get into a heated argument about logic and hope, as Celestia walked up to the young unicorns body. He mentally dug through every spell she’s ever learned, hoping and clawing through each one looking for a solution. Until she came to one she never fully understood.
She could never truly find out what makes it work, or what it truly does, but it seemed to work for the situation.
“Hold on my little ponies, I have an idea…” she stated calmly.
Everypony shut their mouths and stared at her as her horn glowed a majestic golden color. She enveloped Winter Storm in it, and pressed the hopes of the kingdom, and his friends that relied on him, willing the spell to do what everyone else couldn’t do. She pleaded with the mystery spell to bring Storm back. She finally released it upon him, blinding everyone with a bright light. As the light faded, she opened her eyes to reveal…Winter Storm was missing.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Joseph
All was quiet. Well, quiet by forest standards. The birds were singing, leaves rustling, animals playing, and all was well. There was an occasional predator, but if you lived near the castle ruins, they usually left you to your own devices. Speaking of ruins, the ancient castle of the pony sisters was quite the interesting place. In the past, this very castle housed the elements of harmony! You’d think it would be a big tourist attraction, but barely anyone, save for the shaman zebra Zecora, could make it this far into the Everfree Forest. As it so happens, no one was around to witness a strange light, similar to a shooting star, start to rapidly descend toward the forest floor. As the light grew closer, it attracted the attention of a lowly bunny, which had been previously foraging for its next meal in the clearing around the ruins.
“Huh, I wonder what that could be,” the bunny said to itself. It shrugged its shoulders and continued looking for some leafy greens that it could eat. The closer the light got, the slower it went, until it gently deposited a small equine-shaped creature on the top of the tallest spire in the middle of the ruined castle. The light surrounding the pony flashed once more, then dissipated, revealing a smaller than average sized unicorn with a fluffy sky blue coat, alternating cerulean blue and silver in its mane and tail, and a jagged white snowflake as it's cutie mark.
Not even stirring, the unicorn kept on sleeping, unaware of its current situation as it lay at the top of the ancient castle of the pony sisters.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Several hours later; early morning
I shivered as the temperature started to drop. Unbeknownst to me, a heavy storm was on its way, and that combined with the time of year would make it a cold night. As the first few drops hit my fur, I subconsciously flinched and then rolled over.
“Unghh, just ten more minutes,” I mumbled. Shivering again, I shifted slightly as my new-found fluffy fur started to absorb the rain.
Thunder boomed, and the storm suddenly kicked into high gear, sending torrents of water speeding toward the Earth, instantly drenching my entire body. I shot upright with a loud gasp as I felt the equivalent of a bucket of cold water being dumped on my face.
“Whoa-kay! I’m up! ” I exclaimed. I tried to stand up, only to fall forward as soon as I tried to straighten my back. “Huh, ouch. I guess sleeping on some kind of flat rock isn’t the best solution for a happy back, right?” I chuckled to myself. “Okay, I think some stretches are in order.” Several loud popping noises proceeded to echo through the air as I twisted my spine back and forth. “That should do it. I should probably get out of this rain now,” I muttered as my damp body involuntarily shivered.
“Okay, let’s try standing again.” I got my feet under me, then pushed up with my arms, (hmmm, I seem to be too cold to feel my fingers,) and stood up. “Whoah!” I yelped as I wobbled and fell forward back onto my arms. “Seriously! Why can’t I stand, and why are my fingers so numb?” I asked while sitting back down. I lifted up my left hand and looked closely at it “Okay, my rational mind is about to board a plane and go on a vacation. WHY DO I HAVE FLIPPIN HOOVES!?!?!? So I’m a horse?!? Since when did that happen?!? Just what the flip happened last night? Think! Think! What happened?” I started hyperventilating as millions of questions flooded my mind.
I took several deep breaths and started to calm down. “Okay, I remember going to bed, then what? Did I get drugged or something?” I let out a yelp of surprise as I tapped my hoof into my forehead. “Okay, note to self, don’t facepalm anymore. Seriously, is this rain going to stop? Stupid rain… I need to find somewhere to bunker down and dry off until this storm stops.” I said miserably.
“Okay, welcome back logic, did you enjoy your vacation? Let’s put you to use and apply some science to this situation. First off, I’m a horse with no memory of how i became one. Secondly, the sun is just barely rising, it’s pouring rain and I’m completely soaked to the bone. What to do? Try to walk, then find shelter and dry off. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out some things when the rain stops.”
Rising to all fours, I tried taking a small step. “Okay, just try to imitate how you've seen horses walk in movies and stuff. First front left leg, then back right leg, front right, back left, front left, back right. Easy stuff, right?” Continuing to try and walk, I stumbled around like a drunkard. As I got in some sort of rhythm walking in circles, I chanced looking up from my new hooves ant trying to figure out if there was any shelter nearby. I stumbled, and then almost completely fell over, but I caught myself.
As I started to get surer and surer footing, and I then reached a block of stone reaching up out of the ground. I looked to the left and right, and identical blocks stood out of the ground at regular intervals. I turned in a slow circle, looking at the stones that reached around the “clearing.” After steeling myself at what I might find, I glanced over the closest stone and almost screamed at the sheer drop that stood before me. Stumbling backwards, I tripped over my hooves and slammed into the center of the tower. The already weakened and weathered stone cracked at the sudden impact, and collapsed inward.
“CRAAAAAAAAAAP!” I yelled as I plummeted into the inside of the tower. The floor sped towards me, and time seemed to slow down. My vision flashed white, and then I lost consciousness.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Miya
It’s warm. Not burning but definitely not comfy enough to get back to sleep. Which is the activity I was just enjoying so much. UGHHHHHHH…Okay if Harrison seriously threw another blanket on top of me, imma punch him… I think with a mental groan. I decide to open my eyes to see if misfortune will befall my big brother. I slowly pry my eyes open, first into a squint, but all I see is dark blue with streaks of colors I’m too tired to identify. My eyes are shut quickly again by the surprise color, but now I have the strength to open my eyes fully.
And I’m not sure I can process what I saw.
First, I’m in space. Er, something that looks like space I guess because my head isn't exploding or anything. Second, there were streaks of warm colors, y’know red, orange, and yellow; EVERYWHERE around me. "Oh nice…I get a shooting star show," I say with a half-asleep yawn. I stick a hand out to try to touch the stars, and burning pain lances up my arm and I let out a yelp.
“OH MY- FFFFFFF-“I scream as I pull my arm closer to my body. The pain in my hand doubles, then lances up my shoulder. Tears start streaming from the ever-increasing pain as I struggle to keep from blacking out. Wiping away my tears with my good hand, I finally notice how fast I was going. My hair and clothes were being constantly whipped out of my face by the pure amount of speed I was picking up. The shooting stars I mentioned from earlier were actually closer than I thought. They surrounded me actually. I was in them.
"Holy crap what’s going on?" I said in a whisper.
Remember that pain I mentioned earlier? Yeah still there. Worsening actually. I pried my blurry vision off of the scenery and looked at my burning hand. A bright light was emanating from it, and it was quickly starting to dissolve.
“Dear lord…” I mutter as I watch my arm slowly disappear. I don’t really have time to process the thought that I was dying, because as soon as the light climbed up to my wrist, black light started replacing the area where my hand had once been. While the white light continued eating my arm away, it left in it's wake, not black light, but a blackened stump.
"Aw dang it, I shuddered with a sad thought. "I loved that hand…that was my drawing hand…" Despite the pain that coursed though my entire arm now, the only thing truly cared about at that point was staying conscious. If I was still watching my arm, I would've noticed that as the pain continued to grow throughout my chest and neck, the black colored stump of an arm started turning white, and the whiteness started to sweep up my arm like a blanket. My attention was drawn elsewhere though, as I saw a planet coming into view. A very blurry view mind you, but I could see it was at least as big as the Earth as I sped past the moon. At this point, I was rocketing through space at speeds that would make Sonic the hedgehog jealous.
The growing pain pulsed and ebbed through my back now, stretching to my torso and other arm. I screamed through the pain, and thankfully that through the void of space, no one heard me. I screeched into the planet's atmosphere and the pain exploded through all the rest of my body in an instant. My screams grew louder as the pain washed over every nerve ending I had. The force that was rocketing me forward passed through the atmosphere with a painfully slow speed, fighting against the force of gravity wanting to smash me into the ground. But as soon as we passed through, the pain burst, then dissipated. I blinked a few times and yelped with joy! “Ha HA!” I declare, posing triumphantly. “Wow I never want to do THAT again…” I say with a shake of my head.
My subsided tears finally allowed me to see what I was heading for: A GINOURMOUS, upward spiraling castle. I surprising didn't freak out at the sight, figuring that whatever magical force kidnapped me would just send me through with no complaint.
Boy was I wrong.
I launched at a window and smashed face first into it. Time seemed to freeze as I beheld the scene inside. There was a big majestic horsey-thing staring at me with widened eyes. She had a biiiiiiig horn and big fluffy wings, with pink irises filled with fear and curiosity. (Mostly fear at the moment) She was white and had a mane of pink, green, and blue that seemed to flow gently to no breeze. Next to her was a little purple horse with a small horn and small wings. She was much jumpier than the bigger horse, almost a foot in the air frozen in surprise. I mentally giggled as time finally came back and pain punched me in the face.
I finally felt the full weight of smashing against glass that didn't break, and let me tell you I probably lost more brain-cells than I have with my total amount of hours playing video games.
The resounding thud I made on the glass made all the nearby animals flee in surprise. The star that I was oh-so-comfortably riding decided to now freak out since its original destination decided to be unavailable. So of course it fired me backwards and smashed me into the nearest building. Then it pulled me to the left, launching me over other colorful horses that I couldn’t catch details of, and ran me straight into a tree. The star launched me into about ten other things, scaring the life out of me, and everyone near me every time. Then it seemed to give up on sending me somewhere, and gently deposited me into a grassy area near the castle where this started.
“Nice job being gentle you cosmic butt…” I mumbled as blackness started creeping into the edges of my vision. There was a flash of light, and suddenly the big white horsie appeared in front of me.
“This was an unexpected result…” she stated a bit worriedly. I replied with a statement that brings pride to my generation.
“Pretty horsie brought the stars…” I sang out before I gave into the pain and blackness overtook my eyesight completely.
Joseph
My vision flickered in and out. As I regained awareness, I did a mental damage report. “Okay, so nothing feels broken, but I just fell who knows how many stories and I feel beat up as crap. That about sums it up. Let’s try moving.” I let out an audible groan as I try to move, and almost black out again from all the pain coursing through my body. I quit trying to stand up and settle for moving my limbs one by one. Front hooves, back hooves, neck, tail. “Oh, so I’ve got a tail now? Great, just great,” I angrily muttered. First I turn into a horse, then I smash through the floor of a super high up tower, and now I just realize that I have a tail? “Really? Can life get any worse right now? At least the rain stopped…” I sighed.
I groan as I push my hooves under me and stand up. After popping my back for the second time that day, I stretch and try to get my bearings. As I look upward, I see several pony-shaped holes through at least five floors until I can see out through the tower’s top ceiling.
“Huh, I guess life can’t get any weirder either right? Seriously, body shaped holes through where I smashed through? Like you can see every flippin hoof for crying out loud! At least the outlines aren’t completely perfect, there’s an extra triangular hole coming off my forehead’s outline. If it was a perfect outline, then I’d have to be a unicorn or something! Haha! That’s a good one universe! Make me think I’m a unicorn,” I chuckle to myself as I head off to the doorway to the castle. “Hmmm, wouldn’t it be cool if I was a unicorn? I could go all Harry Potter on everyone, and cast tons of magic everywhere.”
I stop and reach a hoof up to my forehead just to be sure. My hoof taps some protrusion, and it feels like it smacked a ton of nerves, not in a painful way, but sort of like how your fingers touch things. Except in this case, it was my unicorn horn. My. Flipping. Unicorn horn!
“What? Am I actually am a unicorn?” I reached my hoof up to poke at my forehead again. “Hah! It’s still there!” I spent the next few minutes contemplating my newfond mythical protrusion while looking at the beautiful sunrise. “I wonder if I can do magic?” I said out loud. I looked around for something small, and when I saw a pile of small rocks, I happily jogged over. I nudge one rock away from the pile and try to think. “Let’s see, if I remember from all the fan fictions I’ve read, to perform simple levitation, you just need to focus, and picture the object in the air. Simple enough right?
(^^^^**^^^^)
Several hours later, my patience was running short. “Up! Lift! Rise!” I had long since resorted to trying anything and everything to make that rock move. I mumbled random strings of words, trying to trigger some kind of spell, having a starring contest with it, and I had even asked politely! Remembering some of the spells from the Harry Potter book series, I psyched myself up, clutching at straws, completely out of other options.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” I almost whispered, afraid that not even that would work. I had been a faithful Potterhead for many years, and saying a familiar ‘spell’ helped me focus. I knew exactly what the spell would do, as J.K. Rowling had perfectly explained how the spell should work in her books and the movies. As the wizard’s levitation spell left my mouth, I combined my knowledge of exactly what should happen, and my will to move that stubborn rock. After a second of intense consentration, something clicked in my head, and the rock wobbled into the air, a frosty white aura surrounding it.
“What?!?” I squealed, losing my concentration. The aura faded and the rock fell back to the floor. I hurriedly repeated the simple incantation, my concentration having increased ten-fold. As the rock lifted back into the air, I let out a big gust of air that I hadn’t realized I had been holding in. I studied what it felt like, using magic under my own power. I could feel a part of me that I had never thought before had existed. As I looked inside myself at my magic, I realized it kind of reminded me of the force, from the Star wars movies. I moved my hoof in a sideways motion saying, “this isn’t the pony you’re looking for,” while chuckling to myself.
It was one thing to see magic in the My Little Pony show, but it was another thing entirely to perform magic myself! I imagined the rock slowly start spinning, and was astonished to see how easy it was to manipulate the rock’s movements. “Take that world! I’m moving a rock with my mind! Hahaha!” I felt happy. Content even. I felt joy, wonder, and other numerous feelings welling up inside me, and I got a strong urge to release it all somehow. I got an idea, and was surprised when a couple of fast techno beats started to reverberate in the air around me. Figuring it wasn’t as strange as some of the stuff I’ve done already, I started to sing.
“I’ve got the magic in me! Every time I touch that track, it turns into gold! Everybody knows I’ve got the magic in me! When I hit the flow, the girls come snappin' at me! Now everybody wants some presto magic! Magic, magic, magic! Magic, magic, magic! Magic, magic, magic. I've got the magic in me!” I kept on singing, not questioning how or why the music for the song was playing, and I especially tried to ignore the fact that while I was singing, I was getting some backup dancers as random animals started to scramble into the clearing and move in time with the beat. The song reached it's finale, and on the last beat, I shot a blast of white magic out of my horn for emphasis. Startled, all the cute furry little animals scurried back to wherever they came from. With pep in my step, I decided that I should follow the sounds of water to find the nearest town or city. I set off, gladly looking forward to whatever might lie ahead.
(^^^^**^^^^)
Miya
You’re probably wondering how your awesome, female protagonist is doing eh? Your awesome, super strong, genius, and hilarious female protagonist. Well currently I’m strapped to a table.
“Twiiiiiiilligggghhhtttt? Twi? C’mon I’m fiiinnneeeee…” I whined to a busy Twilight scratching down notes vigorously on a clipboard.
“You could be irradiated.” Twilight stated snappily, angry at my constant bickering.
“I was kidding! Sheesh tell you what a microwave is and you go and get all crazy on me…” I state as I blow my bangs out of my face. Man I hate bangs, why do I have to get them back when im a pony…Oh I figured out I’m a pony by the way.
Since it’s probably clear as mud what happened here, I’ll go ahead and elaborate. So I crashed into Celestia’s castle after a very bumpy ride, and woke up in the Canterlot hospital. Celestia apologized, vaguely mentioned some things that will probably be important later, and left me with Twilight. Since Celestia already made it clear that im not a pony to her star pupil, we struck up a conversation. By conversation, I mean she grilled my butt for answers about an unknown world. I was bored by the conversation because it didn’t pertain to any of my specific fields of intrests, so I shortly answered and threw in a neat fact here and there. Then we got to technology and I had to slip out that my teacher in 7th grade told me cell phones and microwaves had the possibility to give you cancer, and here we are.
“I told you that it lets off slight radiation waves! Like small enough that it would take 20 years with my head in a working microwave to do anything!” I pleaded.
Twilight of course ignored me, thinking I was just a pleading dead-pony. Her horn was glowing brightly and she was focused on a clipboard as she scratched down notes. Then with a random sigh of relief she undid the straps holding me captive.
“You're not emitting any radiation so I guess you should be okay…” she said as she scratched her head with her pencil using magic.
“YES!” I cried as I leapt into the air with happiness, not noticing that gravity didn’t pull me back down. I flew right into Twilights face and sputtered out, “OKAYNOWIMGONNAGOMEETYOURBESTFRIENDSANDBEBFFSWITHTHEMBYE.” I turned around and got ready to bolt out of the cramped radiation center.
“MIYA WAIT!” Twilight cried out as she caught my tail with her teeth and yanked me back to the floor. I hit it with a smack that rather hurt my entire slowly recovering body.
“Ow…” I whimpered, “What is it now?”
“You can’t go around announcing your actually name to everypony!” She said with a wide hoof gesture, and ruffling her wings a bit. “I’ve read these types of situations before in books. You,” she said as she pointed to my chest, a literal sparkle appearing in her eye, “need an alias.”
“But that’s so boring and hard to- wait a horse-bucking minute, you’ve read about this EXACT situation in BOOKS?!” I gaped at her with disbelief.
“Well not this exact situation but-“
“If you don’t know what I need for this exact situation, then how do you know I need a fake name, huh? Huh? Answer me that one Sherlock!” I said as I crossed my arms with a smug look.
“B-because an alias applies in this situation!” she argued back. “Wait, whose Sherlock?”
“Eh…never mind…so what adorable pony name you wana give me?”
Twilight put her hood to her chin as she pondered for a moment. “Well why don’t we make a name based off of your appearance?”
“Oh well that would make sense.” I said as I poked the floor with my hoof. I stopped abruptly when I realized that I hadn’t even looked at myself since getting here. I hadn’t even cared. I adjusted to this body so fast I was just running around carelessly. Huh. Guess the Human in Equestria writers were wrong about having a pony body being hard. I thought to myself.
I stood up tall and looked at my hooves and back legs, I spotted my wings and couldn’t help but to crack a smile. YESSSSSSS. I mentally cheered, always wanted wings… I turn my attention back to my new body, and focus on my flank. And too much relief, I did sport a cutie mark. It was a pencil with wings that was drawing a long curvy line. Odd…I expected the pencil but that’s with the wings? Myeh I’ll figure it our later. I think as I look at my long, lush tail. My tail appeared to be chestnut colored, with two dark blue streaks down it. I can only assume my now long mane looked the same. My coat is a nice lush creamy white, but on my hooves and the tips of my feathers, it looked like I was covered in black paint splatters.
“Is there black splatters on any other part of me expect my wings and feet- er…hooves?” I asked Twilight.
“Yes, one covering your snout and nose, and on the tips of your ears,” the princess stated matter-of-factly.
“Okay…So I’m covered in paint splatters and there’s a flying pencil on my butt. Something with drawing them? Hue- no that’s a guys name…Blue Value?” I ask as I put a hoof to my chin and plop on the floor, “Eck that’s just me rhyming…Splats? No I sound like Snips and Snails’ cousin…Scribble…Sketch, yeah Sketch! Pencil Sketch? Colored Sketch? Sketch-marker? Sketchy….Sketch-a…Oh! Sketch-a-Doodle!” I remark as I turn back to Twilight. “Just call me Sketch-a-Doodle. Er that’s a bit long…just Sketch for short.”
“Okay…Sketch…” Twilight said tasting my new name in her mouth. “Now I guess you can-“
“YES TIME TO GO!” I cried as I leapt into the air, flying again. “Whoa I can just fly? Just like that? That’s odd…” I pondered as I fell back to the ground.
“…I was going to say you could explore, if I come with you.” Twilight said flatly, clearly annoyed by my antics. “Make sure you don’t cause an Equestria-wide panic or anything of the sort.”
I kinda ignored her and was trying to figure out how to fly again. “Up. Elevate. C’mon just flap flap.” I said to my wings as I slowly moved them, not able to achieve even a centimeter of flight. “You were just working!” I pleaded with my speckled wings, “Please! I’ve wanted this my whole life!” I whimpered and sank down in defeat, not remembering how I was able to tap into the fabulous gift of flight.
“Ahem…exploring?” Twilight asked with a rather confused look.
“Oh…right…” I replied as I stumbled back onto my hooves. “And into Canterlot we go!” I triumphantly yell as I gallop out the swinging hospital doors.
“WAIT FOR ME!” Twilight yells after me, trying to keep up with my excited pace. I couldn't wait for whatever would happen next.
