Burning World

Prologue

“Would you hurry up Twilight? My arms are getting tired” Spike said while holding a rainbow glowing stone above his head.

“Just a moment Spike, I’m almost done” Twilight said without tearing her eyes from the book she was reading “Rarity, stand inside the blue circle please. Fluttershy, please pass me the Ursa Major tears jar.” Fluttershy did so “Thanks, now stand inside the black circle. Applejack, have you finished drawing the last diagram I gave you?”

“All done over here!” Applejack replied behind Twilight. “And it looks identical, pretty good job if ya’ll ask me”

“Let me see,” Twilight turned around and examined the diagram for several seconds. “Perfect! Now stand inside the white circle. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, are you done positioning the candles and the gemstones?”

“Done!” Pinkie said, cheerful as ever. “I even tripled checked them, just like you said I had to!”

“Finished!” Said a hovering Rainbow Dash. “Now what?”

“Pinkie Pie, stand inside the red circle, you stand inside the green one Rainbow Dash.” Twilight pointed opening her book once more, reading the instructions for the uptenth time.

“Soooooo…..care to explain what’s going on now?” Rainbow asked as she landed on her circle. “We did all you told us to do, I think we deserve an answer.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, that.” Twilight pulled the book down with her magic, checking the numerous gemstones, diagrams and objects spread around her library in very strategic and precise positions. “According to the journal of Starswirl the Bearded, he developed a teleporting system that would, in theory, create a specific, precise, secure and fast teleportation grid web. Thus establishing several portals linked between themselves, allowing ponies and any other creatures small enough to pass through them to travel great distances, say all over Equus, almost instantly, everypony with me so far?” Twilight stopped checking the components to see her friends glancing between themselves confused, she sighed. “Portals allow any creature to ‘teleport’ from one place to another without using magic instantly. Think of a door that once it’s open, it will remain open.”

“Ohhhhhh!” Her five friends exclaimed, finally understanding.

“That sounds mighty useful, Twilight, why aren’t there any yet?” Applejack asked.

“Because Starswirl wasn’t strong enough to keep them open for long, not even with the help of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.” Everyone gasped in surprise while Twilight examined the circles her friends were standing on, as well as the one she was going to use. “He tried again and again, each attempt managing to open them up for a bit longer but never making them permanent. With each try he wrote down his notes until he created this unique nexus diagram.” She said entering her grey circle. “Sadly, he died a little after the banishment of Nightmare Moon, never being able to test it, but his instructions are clear. Many powerful and talented mages have tried to complete it but all have failed.”

“Then what makes you think you can do it Twilight?” Spike asked, his arms quivering.

“Because this spell requires an incredible amount of magic power, Princess Celestia tried to complete it years after the banishment but couldn’t do it, she tried again after Princess Luna recovered, but failed again. And I finally realized what the error was after reading his entire diary.” She finished her explanation by closing the book loudly “They never once tried to use the Elements of Harmony, fearing that channeling so much power with only two Bearers would be catastrophic, but now we can finish it! The power of the Elements flow between the six of us, we can channel it perfectly AND safely.” Her friends were silent with their mouths hanging open.

“Errrmm, Twilight.” Rainbow began. “Isn’t that, you know, dangerous? I mean, we haven’t even tested this babies yet.” She pointed at her new red tiara with her left hoof “How can we be sure it will work?”

Twilight rubbed her chin for a couple of seconds before answering “You’re right, lets do a little test ladies.” Twilight closed her eyes and focused on the magical connection between the Elements, soon enough her friends closed their eyes, feeling a certain immense yet familiar power flow through them. Eventually, a rainbow began to emerge from the top of their respectives tiaras until they all connected with Twilight’s one. Opening her eyes, Twilight focused long enough to start creating a typhoon of rainbow colors in the middle of the great diagram, then she broke her focus and the connection between the Elements returning to normal. “Everything seems fine to me. Girls?”

“I’m okay, it felt like it always does.” Rainbow said.

“I’m fine...it was, nice.” Fluttershy whispered.

“Never better, partner.” Applejack said.

“All good here!” Pinkie cheered.

“I’m alright, darling, no need to worry.” Rarity said.

“Good then, are you ready for the real deal?” Her friends nodded “Spike, put the Rainbow Stone inside the circle in the middle, carefully”

“Ughhh, finally! I can’t feel my arms anymore.” Spike complained as he lowered the stone slowly to the ground, until it made contact with it, letting it go and rest against the floor “Now what?”

“Step outside the diagram.” Spike did so. “This is our only chance to do it so let’s make it happen!”

“Only chance? How so? Is that the only Rainbow Stone left or something?” Spike asked as he leaned against a wall nearby, ready to watch the fireworks.

“Well, no, this would be our only chance in some years, the next Rainbow Stone will be ready in about three years, but if we are successful then we can start making more of them at the same time.”

“What’s a Rainbow Stone?” Rarity asked looking at the colorful stone, noticing there was nothing stylish or special about it aside from its colors.

“A Rainbow Stone is a powerful magical ingredient, it's only used to perform some of the most powerful and advanced spells in the world. It has no real value aside from that, it’s very fragile and takes years to produce a single one. They are made by throwing a Fire Ruby inside a rainbow fountain and leave it there, it usually takes between five and ten years, depending on the size of the Fire Ruby, the process can be accelerated by adding magic to the rainbow fountain, slowly, too much will destroy the Rainbow Stone in the making.” Twilight explained.

“Are you telling me that, that.” Rarity pointed at the Rainbow Stone in the middle “Was once a magnificent Fire Ruby?”

“Yes, now you know why they are so rare, Fire Rubies are already the rarest gemstone of all to begin with.” Twilight said as Rarity looked at the stone, almost glaring at it. “Now let’s do this ladies, lets write some history!”

“Haven’t we done it…like, several times already?” Rainbow commented, earning some giggles from her friends as Twilight opened the book again.

It took some seconds for Twilight to control her excitement about the whole thing, but finally she began to cast the necessary spells around the diagram, the gemstones began to glow and levitate in the air, spinning around slowly above them, the tears of the Ursa Major began to glow as they slowly began to encircle the Rainbow Stone. Twilight casted spell, after spell until everything was ready for them to begin, she looked around, read the instructions one last time and gently closed the book, levitating it across the room, leaving it next to Spike. Closing her eyes, she started to focus on the connection between the Elements once more, as her friends did the same.

This time whoever, all the objects around them began to close in to the middle or turn to dust above the ever quickening spinning gemstones, the rainbow energy from the Elements emerged from their tiaras, slowly creating the rainbow ring connecting to Twilights one, soon the rainbow typhoon emerged from Twilights tiara and hit the Rainbow Stone with all its might. The gemstones above them suddenly swirled around them faster and faster until they became nothing but a blur of colors, closing in to each other and down to the levitating Rainbow Stone, the other objects remaining around the tornado of colors started to glow and suddenly turn to ashes.

The ashes quickly being absorbed by the typhoon in front of them, the Rainbow Stone inside the pure majestic energy of the Elements of Harmony glowing a pure white light, so intense that it penetrated through the tornado that encircled it. The swirling gemstones above them were now only inches apart from the rainbow typhoon, without warning the gemstones stopped and shot themselves right into the vortex, creating miniature explosions inside it. The whole diagrams of the Nexus began to glow as well, the glowing matching the color of the Rainbow Stone perfectly, for several seconds the glowing only intensified until it came to an abrupt halt, there was an explosion of rainbow colors everywhere and it all finally came to a halt.

Twilight ended the connection, feeling that it had stopped demanding power from her, opening her eyes the first thing she noticed was a white orb in front of her, slowly taking a more slender and oval like form, almost like some sort of vanity mirror. She grinned.

“It worked!” Twilight shouted, making her other friends open her eyes and look at their success. “It worked, we did it!” She shouted again.

“Whoa.” Spike muttered, finally able to close his mouth after the impressive light show left him agast.

Twilight began to rant about how much this would help ponies and everyone in Equus, as the rest of the girls trotted to her, cheering and congratulating each other for their success. As the portal was about to finish its morphing, a small, almost unnoticeable white lightning erupted from its bottom border. The six mares didn't notice, but Spike did.

“Twilight?” He called for her, standing straight without losing sight of the portal, but Twilight didn’t hear him.

The six friends kept on laughing and talking about how great they were and how with their teamwork they had achieved a, yet another, impossible goal. Suddenly Pinkie Pie shut up and began to shudder greatly just as more lightnings started to emerge from the borders of the portal, each passing one thicker, brighter and longer than the last.

“Twilight!?” Spike practically shouted for her, now very scared of the increasingly violent portal. Again she didn’t hear him.

“What was that Pinkie dear, another doozie?” Rarity asked, concerned by both her friend and the doozie, most of the time doozies never meant something good.

“Yup, and a big one too!” The pink mare said smiling just before a loud cracking noise behind them erupted, all six friends turned around to see their ‘success’ shooting out lightnings and morphing back into a ball.

“Ah don’t suppose it should be doin’ that, right Twilight?” Applejack said as she, and the rest of her friends, began to back away from the white orb.

“I-it shouldn’t be doing this!” Twilight said before teleporting next to Spike and lifted the book with her magic, frantically opening it and reading for an explanation. “I don’t understand, we did everything perfectly, this shouldn’t be happening!” She shouted back at her friends, suddenly the biggest lightning yet erupted from the white ball, hitting the nearby horse wood head, turning it into ashes in less than a second.

“And I bet my wings it shouldn't do that either!” Rainbow shouted as she took flight, just before another lightning emerged from the ball and went directly at her, thanks to her agility she was able to dodge it but not entirely. “AARRGG!” Rainbow shouted in pain as some of the feathers from her right wing were brazed by the lightning, sending her to the ground. “Definitely shouldn’t do that!” She shouted again as she crawled for cover behind a bookshelf. “Take cover!”

More lightnings shot out from the now sphere, turning to ashes everything they made impact with, everypony took cover anywhere they could. After some more lightnings everything came to a momentary halt as Twilight created a barrier around the sphere, the barrier hold out for a couple of lightnings before breaking down after a great, bright and loud one, sending her to the ground before it made impact against the pedestal Fluttershy was hiding behind, turning it to ashes and leaving her exposed.

The sphere was now glowing in the colors of the rainbow and it began to shrink and collapse in a beautiful dance and shower of colors all around the interior of the library. For one second the sheer beauty of it captured all six ponies and the young dragon and everything seemed fine. Then, without warning, the already small sphere shattered into oblivion as it shot a massive rainbow lightning directly against Fluttershy. Her friends froze in shock, Fluttershy froze in terror. They couldn’t scream, they couldn’t move. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, Fluttershy was able to see with great detail the gorgeous and deadly lightning heading her way, tears fell down from her eyes as she realized she was going to die.

Then something else hit her from her left side, hard, sending her away from the lightnings trajectory, she turned her head to the side to see what hit her and saw no other than Spike. Still in mid air with his right shoulder facing her, she couldn’t see all his body but she saw enough of his face to notice the expression of pure anger, resolve and fear plastered on it. She tried to open her mouth to shout something, anything, but it didn’t open.

Then the lightning hit.

“YYYYIIIIIAAAAAAARRRGGGGGHHH!” The scream of pure, unadulterated pain, agony and suffering, combined with the sickening sound of the rainbow lightning making impact against his scales was so loud that it shattered the remaining windows of the library.

For five seconds the six mares were tormented with the constant, overwhelming, pain fueled shout of their dragon friend and his spasming body. Then in a final beautiful and, at the same time, sickening rainbow colored light show, he vanished, leaving nothing but a charcoal mark on the floor, right below where the lightning had hit him.

The six mares were frozen in shock, no pony moved, no pony said anything, no pony could believe what just had happen, they simply got up from where they were hiding or laying and stared with disbelief at what they had just witnessed. For several untold seconds, that to them felt like an eternity, they finally turned their heads looking at each other, mouths hanging open, quivering trying to say anything, but nothing ever came out. All eyes rested once more on the charcoal marking on the floor. One by one, in rapid succession, all six pairs of eyes began to moist, their mouths closing and opening as they gasped for air. The first tear to hit the floor belonged to Twilight.

They all screamed in horror.

Prologue end.

Author's Note

*Yeah, I know, another one, but what can I say, this idea didn't leave my mind until i wrote it down, and I'm going to continue it after updating my other stories, Desires last Chapter has already been sent to my proofreader and will be out as soon as she is done with it, Spike's Destiny new chapter is almost done too, be patient please, I would love to write all day long, but daily life, chores and things like that are such a bother*

*I will need an editor for this one, if anyone wants to or knows of anyone who would want to do so, by all means, send me a PM asking me for it*

Special thanks to all those wo read my stories, I love you guys and gals, stay strong and united my fellow Bronies!

Also this chapter called Loss, written by Blood Brandy served as the inspiration to write this fic. (This idea came to me before the mirror world comic came out, which I haven't read, so no inspiration or ideas from there)