Falling. Twilight woke up, and she was falling.
She spun her head around, trying to tell which way was up, and what was going on. Her surroundings were dark, save for a set of flashing, harsh red lights. She reached her hooves out, trying to grab onto something. Her hooves were covered by something and her surroundings were smooth, denying her any sort of hold. She was currently pinned in place in some sort of strange bed; it was bent in the middle into an "L" shape, and the restraints were holding her at an odd angle, with her tail beneath her and her legs sticking out in front of her.
It wasn't long until she was able to figure out that not only was she falling, but the entire room or whatever it was she was currently occupying was falling as well. This did little to improve her mental state. "Oh Celestia, please help me!" she cried out as the entire room shook and rattled as though it were in an earthquake, jostling her heavily in her restraints.
Suddenly, the compartment lurched violently, causing a lump to surge up her throat. She just barely swallowed it down, her throat burning and tasting bile. She could feel the descent beginning to slow down significantly, and there was a horizontal movement added, forcing her back against the bed. Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and the ride lost its vertical motion. It felt to Twilight as though the room was... skidding over uneven terrain, slowing down steadily as it did so.
The insane ride was over, and Twilight held still, her rump painfully bruised from the harsh treatment. She sit there, dazed, for a few moments, then noticed that her restraints had jarred loose during the ordeal. The flashing lights on the other side of the room changed their pattern. A crack of light appeared in one of the walls, and slowly it slid outward, revealing the world beyond.
She emerged from the object, a roughly cylindrical thing made of black metal that had embedded itself in the ground, forming a deep, shallow groove in the ground where it had skidded over the surface. Why she had been in it, and why it had apparently fallen from the sky, was a complete mystery to her.
Deciding that figuring out where she was was her highest priority at the moment, she took a look around. She was not prepared for what she saw. The first, most obvious thing she noticed was the sky. There were was one moon currently up, but it was green and much larger than she expected, filling up almost half the sky. A nebula, similar in color to Princess Luna's mane, hung behind it and provided light close to either a very overcast day in Equestria, or a very bright night.
How, how is this possible? she asked herself. The sky... it's all wrong. Has something happened to the Royal Sisters? Or... or am I in another world entirely?
The realization struck her. It was at once both wondrous and terrifying. She was always a curious mare, and this was the discovery of a lifetime. Beyond that; this discovery was likely the most important in the history of ponykind. However, she had been brought here against her will, for reasons completely unknown to her, and stranded here without any obvious way to get home.
Tears started to form in her eyes as she realized that she might never be able to return to Equestria. If she really was on another world, and she could think of no other reason for the sky to be different, then it was far too long a distance to attempt a teleport. Not to mention the simple fact that she had no idea where she was in relation to home. She was lost.
She might never return to Ponyville. She might never curl up with one of her favorite books in her home in the Golden Oaks Library. She wouldn't taste Applejack's mouthwatering apple pies or Pinkie's cupcakes anymore. No more music from Fluttershy's birds, no more spa days with Rarity, no more letters to and from Celestia...
Thinking of Celestia made Twilight wonder what her friends were doing right now. They would probably, hopefully, have noticed she'd gone missing. Celestia, ever the calm and wise ruler, would of course do everything in her power to get Twilight home. That fact made her feel a little better. Fluttershy would be worried, but Rarity or Applejack would give her withers to lean on, doubtlessly to try to forget about their own worry. Pinkie would probably already be planning a "Welcome Back Twilight" party.
Rainbow Dash would be soaring all over Equestria trying to find her, Twilight knew. The spectral pegasus wouldn't rest while she knew a friend was in trouble. If Rainbow was here, Twilight realized, she would tell her to pony up and use her smarts to figure a way out of this.
Strengthening her resolve, Twilight struggled to put her feelings of hopelessness aside for the time-being. Instead, she would try to figure out how she got here, and what her next step was. The last thing she remembered as being normal was visiting Zecora, in order to ask her about some herbs that related to her latest experiment. Then, she had headed home, back through the Everfree forest...
Things were blurry after that. Twilight tried harder to remember. She was walking along the path back to Ponyville... There was a disturbance next to the road. She remembered that. She remembered seeing movement, reacting quickly. There was a creature, that looked sort of like a tiger with chameleon skin. She flinched as she remembered it grabbing her.
The rest was like a dream. She had been in some sort of transparent tube, and there were figures around her. They towered over her, dark and menacing. Most had looked at her, with strange, glowing red slits. Was she remembering correctly, and one had four forelimbs?
Twilight snapped back to the present, noting that she was starting to get thirsty. There were no clouds visible in the sky. She looked around, observing the landscape. It was dry, a rocky, pebble covered desert. A lack of food and water would become the most obvious problem, she realized. She moved to rub her head, only to have her hoof bump into something.
How out of it am I? she asked as she observed herself more closely. She was currently wearing a full suit of a dark grey, smooth material, with a transparent bubble over her head. It completely enclosed her body, and was apparently sealed. There were hard coverings over her hooves, and larger, pocket-like bulges on her flanks, giving her a rather unflattering figure she noted. The suit was tight, fitting right up to her skin and riding uncomfortably between her hind legs. Her tail dock was a barely visible nub at the base of her spine, leading her to wonder if her tail had been cut.
A strange, ring-shaped device was affixed to her horn, and connected by a wire to the inside of the suit's collar. Nervous, she looked at a nearby rock, and concentrating, tried to grab it with telekinesis. Briefly, a violet aura surrounded her horn. Then, the ring gave three high-pitched beeps, and emitted an electrical jolt, numbing her horn. The aura dispersed immediately.
Twilight reflexively moved to touch her horn, her hoof bumping into the helmet again. She realized that unless she found a way to get it off, she could not use her magic.
I'm in trouble, Twilight thought, looking around the harsh, forbidding landscape.
Author's Note
Special thanks to thespace_brony and shalrath for pre-reading.
