The Natural Elementsby Dark_NightChaptersPrologueChapter one: Introducing our charactersChapter Two: A Soft LandingChapter Three: And Through the Woods We Go!Chapter Four: Looking for the Hatchlings and Getting A New Companion!PrologueAuthor's Note I would like to make this clear right off the bat. The program I use to type these stories does NOT have spell check, so don't get angry if you see a bunch of mistakes. Luckily I do catch a lot of these mistakes and I fix them, but occasionally one will slip past and i'll never see it. The most common mistakes I make when using the program is I forget to turn the lowercase "i" into a capital when it is used as a lone word. I also forget to capitalize names and the beginning of sentences. So pardon these mistakes. Point them out if you see a mistake, i'll fix it as soon as I can. Prologue Princess Celestia just finished up day court and decided to take a stroll through the gardens. It was a stressful day. The Princess of the Sun thinks deeply, not paying attention to where she is going. Her horn hits a statue, wincing in pain she looks up to see an empty pedestal. The plaque reads "Discord" The Princess gasps. Discord has escaped! She immediately summons a parchment, inkwell and a quill and begins writing. Twilight, Discord has escaped! Discord must be stopped before its too late. Heed this message. Gather the elements and stop him by any means necessary. Princess Celestia. With a flash of gold light, the letter folds itself up and vanishes. "Well hello Princess Celestia. It sure has been a while since we met like this." A voice behind her says. Celestia whips around to see the mischievous lord of Chaos. "That it has Discord. How did you escape?" She hissed at the draconequus. "It's been a thousand years since you trapped me in that hellish prison. The elements kept me under lock down for the entirety of that time." "I see." 'I must delay Discord as much as possible, and give Twilight enough time to defeat him.' "Delaying me won't stop the inevitable, my dear. I know how this will end, for this is all but a game." Discord said with a smirk, flicking Celestia's horn with a claw. "A game?" Celestia asks. Discord nods in response. "The Four will rise, Celestia." "The Four?" "Yes, The Four. The Natural Elements of course. or have you forgotten about them?" "Yes, but they were locked away. Very far away." "Ah, but the old prophecy states they will return, and that time is upon us. Now, i'd like to stay and chat, but I am missing some excellent chaos. Ta-ta for now!" Discord jumps in the air with a huge smile and disappears in a flash of light. [-----] Twilight, and her number one assistant sat down for a wonderful dinner which she had cooked. She definitely could have done better but she really wanted to try her hoof at it. She managed to only burn the lettuce, she was making a salad. Apparently, you aren't supposed to cook a salad. Spike took a bite of the salad but his eyes bulged and his cheeks inflated. He looked like he had just eaten something very very sour. "Spike! if you don't like it that's fine, but you don't need to be so dramatic." Spike suddenly lets loose a huge belch, and from it, came a wisp of green fire which materialized into a letter. Twilight catches the letter and reads it aloud. Twilight gasps. Discord has escaped? "Spike, lets go get the others." Spike punches the air in triumph. "Yes!" Twilight stares at Spike who shies away. "Uh, not to say that it wasn't a great meal?" He tried. "Ugh, whatever, let's get the others. Spike, go grab the elements and meet us in the town market." Twilight gallops into town, immediately spotting pinkie pie and Applejack. "Pinkie! Applejack!" She says as she runs toward them. "Slow down sugarcube. whats the big deal?" "Discord has escaped from his stone imprisonment. The Princess has asked me to gather the elements of harmony and put a stop to him before he can rule this planet in eternal chaos." "Then what are we still doin' here?! Lets go get the others! Twi, you go get Fluttershy, Pinkie, you go get Rainbow Dash, And ah'll go get Rarity. Meet back here as soon as you can." "Right" Twilight, and Pinkie both said. The three split up to go retrieve their respective pony. [-----] Several minutes later, six ponies and dragon are all dashing to the meeting spot where they find someone shocking. Right above the spot they designated to be their regrouping point is the one and only, Lord of chaos and disharmony. Discord. "Discord!!!" Rainbow Dash yells, pouring on the speed. She tries to buck him in the face but discord dodges and catches rainbow dash by her back legs. "My my Rainbow. Testy as always. You'll never learn." Discord says disappointed. "Put her down Discord!" Twilight yells. Discord flashes above Twilight, his eyes directly in front of Twilight's glaring eyes. "I take orders from no one but myself. Perhaps you should have already known that." Discord taps Twilight on the forehead, causing clown clothes and makeup to encase Twilight. Discord laughs heartily. Twilight's horn flares and the clothes disappear. Behind Twilight, Spike is distributing the elements to their respective owners while Twilight keeps Discord occupied. "NOW GIRLS!" Twilight shouts, levitating her tiara onto her head. The five ponies behind her lift into the air as Twilight joins her in the middle. Her eyes open and a rainbow swirls around their elements and into the sky. Acting quickly, Discord vanishes and reappears behind the six girls. the rainbow makes a turn before hitting the ground and the rainbow hits the six ponies, instantly turning them all into stone statues. Discord, who is untouched by the rainbow of doom gets up and laughs maniacally. "I'VE WON! HAHAHA!" Discord looks back at the six mares turned into stone with a smirk. The Twilight statue's tiara flashes purple and shoots a beam into space, Applejack's element, Rarity's element, Rainbow's element, Fluttershy's element and Pinkie's element does the same. The six beams swirl together into a solid beam and shoots off. As the jewelry on the stoned ponies' necks stop shooting a beam into the sky, the jewelry cracks and shatters. Discord stares in disbelief. "How? Wait... if the Elements of Harmony are gone...... I AM UNSTOPPABLE!" He screams to the heavens. He snaps his fingers and he grins evilly. "Let TRUE CHAOS REIGN!!!!" Chapter one: Introducing our charactersSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Chapter Two: A Soft Landing"Wake up." I hear a voice say. "Wake up!" "Huh? Dad?" I drowsily ask. "I'm not your dad. We've almost arrived at the destination. I woke you up now so we may tell you what you need to know." "Okay." I open my eyes and see the never ending depth of space. I look beside me to see Ian, Andrew, and Jordan all in separate bubbles. "I will allow you to talk to your friends." I hear something click, almost like a switch being flipped. "Hey! Wakey Wakey Josh!" I hear the familiar voice of Jordan say in my mind. "What? How am I hearing you in my head?" I ask, completely confused about how it is apparently possible. "Never mind that, We're here to tell you a story, one that you may find interesting. Your friends also informed us that your people have been spying on us!" "Spying? no. Is it an apparent coincidence? Most likely. Now I'm interested in hearing this story." "Alright, we do not know everything about your task, but we will tell you what we do know." "Okay Twilight, cut to the chase!" Jordan shouts. 'Twilight' Grunts. "Ugh, fine. As you may be aware, The Lord of Chaos and Disharmony has escaped his stone imprisonment. He overpowered us by using our own elements of harmony against us." A different voice speaks up, much more tomboyish. "Yeah! he was fast, he jumped behind us to avoid the power of the elements, which made the rainbow hit us instead. It's power turned us into stone instead of him. I'd bet he's drooling in cotton candy clouds right now, terrorizing Equestria." A cheery voice speaks up. It can only be pinkie pie. "Yeah! That meanie Discord! He tricked the elements." "We know Pinkie. Dash and Twi have already gone past that." A southern accented voice speaks up. I gasp... 'Its best pony! EEEP!' "Ah read somewhere about an old legend. It states that 'The Four will return.' Now, Ah ain't the best when it comes to the whole prophecy business, but I'd have to say its referring to you four." "Ah yes. And Once this whole Discord business is wrapped up, you four will come to my boutique and I'll make the best outfits you've ever seen! After all its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design clothes for a completely new species." A voice I can only assume to be Rarity says. "Fluttershy do you have anything to add?" I hear a shy 'EEP!' before a low response. "No." "I have one thing to add." Twilight starts. "We need you to help us get our bodies back. We don't know how things look down in equestria but I can't say it will be good." I see a small speck appear in the distance. As we get closer, I realize that the sun and the moon are acting very strangely. The two opposing Stellar orbs are barreling across the sky at an alarming rate. It seems like every minute, it switches from nighttime to daytime. As we get even closer I notice the texture of the planet. Discord turned the entire planet into a giant golf ball. I couldn't help but facepalm. "Woohoo! Lets go to the golf planet!" I hear Andrew yell. We hit a bit of turbulence as we enter the upper atmosphere of the planet. "MOVE!" I hear Fluttershy scream. I look around to see the Sun barreling towards us. Instantly all ten of us scream as we fly forward. I see a flash of light in my peripheral vision. Jordan's ring lights up and we suddenly lurch forward, faster than before. A small cone of pressurized air appears in front of us and the sun barrels by barely dodging us. I can feel the millions of degrees of heat blazing my back. I suddenly smell bacon... Oh wait that must be me. I see Ian's ring flash with a bright blue light from which a tentacle of water appears. It stretches out and encases our bubbles, protecting us from the raw power of the sun. "I don't think I can hold this bubble much longer!" I hear Twilight's voice straining against the power of the sun. "Wait!" I hear Jordan yell. "I have an idea. we can use our rings." We all stare at him in shock. "There's no way that will work." Ian yells. "Yes It will. I have a good feeling about this. Ian, use you water to encase us in a bubble, I'll use my air so we can breathe, Andrew and josh, work together so we make a soft landing." "How can fire and earth work together? They are practically opposites!" Jordan smirks. "Opposites attract." "Okay." I look over and see Andrew spraying lava into his hand. Wait he can make LAVA?! oh that is SO-O unfair. "How come you get to use Lava?!" Andrew smirks but doesn't say anything. We pass through the upper cloud layer and I see the ground through the bubble of water. Andrew uses his lava to create a hardened casing around the outer side of the water bubble. I suddenly feel tuned into the earth. I can feel the way the plants grow. I don't know how I could feel these things this far up but I decided to question it later. "ANY TIME NOW!" The bubble of magic the 6 mares gave us vanished as we free fell with more power. I could feel a particular plant. It was a small sapling but with so much potential. I called out to it and I could feel it starting to grow. "COME ON JOSH! I REALLY DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Ignoring him, I place all that I can into rapidly growing plant. Okay this is definitely familiar. I could see a spiraling plant extend towards the sky. It immediately grew giant leaves to slow our fall. We went straight through the first three before we started to notice a decline in speed. I called out to the plant to grow more leaves for us and it bent to my will, sprouting a massive leaf that was at least a foot thick. We slammed into it, drastically slowing our fall. Thankfully the plant did what I asked and stopped the rapid decent of our sphere made of hardened molten lava and water. We slid off the leaf and fell the rest of the way to the ground with a dull thud. Ian, Andrew, and Jordan dispersed their elemental shell before collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Seeing them fall, reminded me of how much that act took out of me. I fell to the ground, quickly summoning a leaf to lay on before falling asleep. [-----] "Hey! wake up!" I hear a feminine voice yell. I open my eyes to see a glowing blue mare standing before me. "Rainbow dash I assume?" The mare nods proudly. "The~ one and only." The egomaniac states. I rub my eyes to clear out the remaining blur. "Hey Dash? How is it that I can see right through you?" The mare looks down at her glowing, transparent body. "I'm not sure." She says, dumbstruck. A glowing purple form steps into view. "I believe I may know what is going on, If I am correct, the energy from the Elements of Harmony took the souls from our bodies before we could be turned completely into stone, the Elements of Harmony should be able to provide these forms power. But I fear that these forms won't last long, even the Elements of Harmony have their limits." "I suppose that makes sense. And i'll assume we'll need to start moving, For all we know, you could only have enough power for the journey from here to my world and back again. So we will need to be extra careful about how we go about this journey. Now lets get moving." I stand up but wince as I remember the burns the sun gave us. "That sun cooked my back, we will need a way to treat is and soon." Rainbow flexes her transparent wings and gives them a flap. She lifts off the ground a few inches. "WOO! I can still fly! I'll fly above and try to get a good idea of where we are." She soars off, high into the sky. Twilight grimaces. "I can't help but feel like something is going to go very wrong very soon. I've never liked the feeling of dread. Not like this." "I would offer some soothing words but I don't think they'll be helpful." I frown. "GUYS! GUYS!" Rainbow Dash returns from above. "We landed on the far end of the Everfree forest. We are REALLY far away from Ponyville." I see Andrew grin with excitement as he hears the name of the infamous town. Twilight looks down and puts her hoof to her chin in thought. "So we can either take the long way around the Everfree forest, or go through it. Either way we need to find the Princesses and get them to help us. Discord has rules long enough already. He MUST be stopped." Twilight stomps her hoof in determination. Without warning, the six mares flicker for a second. When they reappear they gasp. "What was that?" All six ask at the same time. "I was right! The elements of harmony only had enough charge to retrieve you four and bring you here." "Wait, would it be possible to go into our minds and inhabit our bodies?" Twilight thinks for a moment. "While it should be possible, only one of us can inhabit your body each and that would leave two of us to fizzle out completely... We aren't going to do it. We are friends and we stay as friends. TOGETHER!" All six shout the last word at the same time. "Wait!" Jordan calls. "Which way is Ponyville?" "Northeast of here, shouldn't be hard to miss." Rainbow says, slowly fading. "We'll see each other again Joshua, do not fret." Twilight says. "Find the princesses!!!" the last word echos as they vanish from existence, only to reappear as six flaming orbs which swirl around and shoot off into the sky and vanish. The four of us continue staring at the sky for several minutes, before Ian breaks the trance with a cough. "Lets get going guys. We need to find shelter soon." A wave of magic rolls across the land. Behind it, is a checkerboard pattern ground, which alternate between hot-pink, and light-pink. A low rumble radiates across the ground. I see mutated creatures running behind the chaotic magic. There were rabbits with really long legs, buffalo in tu-tus, Several color-drained Pegasus ponies flying upside down and backward along with them. "Dude this is just bizarre." I said, unable to keep my eyes away from the strange, mutated creatures. "Lets go guys, every minute we stay here, the chaotic influence on this world gets stronger." Jordan says, pushing us all down, knocking us out of the trance. We get up and walk Into the Everfree forest. "Guys, I truly think that traveling through here is much better than around, for one, it's faster, and two, we won't have to deal with those mutated chaotic creatures in here." Andrew reasoned. "Are you saying that as a fact? or are you just reassuring yourself that we won't meet any of those... things out there." Jordan asks. "If we go through the forest, we risk running into Cockatrices, changelings, manticores, timberwolves, the list goes on." I protest. "But then again, I can never unsee the rabbits with long legs... buffalos in tu-tus..." I shiver. "Lets get going. Keep quiet. We need to be stealthy if we are going to get out of here alive." "That's true, lets go." Jordan says, taking the lead on a path through the trees, the rest of us follow silently, being careful to test where we step before placing our full weight on the spot. Author's Note Leave a comment! tell me what you think! what needs to be changed? added? I have a plan in mind for this story and I can't wait to tell the story I have in mind. Chapter Three: And Through the Woods We Go!"Do you have to be any louder Josh?!" Ian hissed quietly at me. I give him a sheepish smile. "Sorry." I replied. "I'll try to keep it down." "Can you both quiet down? We are trying not to have our faces eaten by a manticore here!" Jordan said from the front. Andrew silently ran forward and crouched next to a fallen log. He peaked over momentarily before ducking back down. He mouthed the word "Manticore" to us and we instantly fell silent and hid from plain sight. My keen survivalist instincts help me decide whether to continue, wait, or just run. I could hear a low growl and the sound of something cutting through flesh. Very quietly, I inform the group."If we can stay absolutely quiet, we can sneak past it. Which means no stepping on branches." The other three nod and we group up away from the manticore's location. "Josh, we need to make some kind of distraction, perhaps a loud noise somewhere we are not. and then run away while it is distracted?" Ian suggests. "Unless you have any better ideas?" "I think we should just look for another way around it, that clearing is too large for us to sneak around before it finishes eating its meal, and we don't even know whats on the other side of the clearing. I mean, though those bushes, there could be a gorge or canyon that we have no hope of crossing." Andrew says quietly. "It's worth a risk, and besides, whats the worst that could happen?" I say with a sly grin. Ian just stares at me. "I just hate you sometimes. I really do." I laugh. "You know you love me!" "Guys!" Jordan hisses, "KEEP. IT. DOWN!" "ROOOOAAAAR!!" An ear piercing screech erupts from the direction of the clearing. I take one look at Jordan, Ian, and Andrew before starting to run in the direction we originally came from. I take a sharp turn right at the first opportunity and we enter a dark cave. Andrew runs in behind me and summons a weak fireball, just enough to emit light. What becomes illuminated in the darkness scared me deeply. I saw mentions of these things. They were huge and could destroy entire towns even if it is cranky... And i'm pretty sure I didn't have a water tower full of cow milk, and a sweet lullaby to lull it back to sleep if it wakes up. Before us, was an Ursa Major... Not an Ursa Minor... I'm talking about a gigantic transparent purple bear. "Oh shit." Ian says, "We should leave." He says quickly. The giant bear shuffles in its sleep. We quickly run out the way we came and find ourselves face to paw with an Ursa Minor... "Wow, our luck just keeps getting better and better!" Jordan says sarcastically. the Ursa Minor looks down at us with murder in its eyes. "I know our luck is bad, but seriously? This is ridiculous." "So, we have two options, stay in here and get mauled by a stellar bear, or run outside and have a manticore AND an Ursa minor on our figurative tails. I'm liking the second option because we have at least a small chance of surviving." I deduce. "If we're taking door number two, we'd better start running!" Andrew just BOOKS IT! He dodges between the Ursa's legs and out the cave entrance. We quickly do the same. The Ursa Minor roars and charges after us. Leaving the scary cave, we dash the way we were originally going. We race into the clearing with the manticore still there. It doesn't even look like it actually moved in the first place. I guess it just roared to divert prying eyes. Well it definitely worked flawlessly! We ran for our lives. The manticore swivels and roars at us, unknowing of the giant bear behind us. The bear is knocking trees down like an elephant on a rampage would. The manticore started chasing after us. "I know this is a really bad time to say it!" I yell. "But I apologize for jinxing this!" "Apologize later! run for our lives NOW!" Jordan yells, jumping over a fallen log. We enter a large clearing that looked inhabited. On the far edge we see the inevitable. "Yeah I guess we all saw this coming!" I yell, dashing through the clearing as the manticore bursts through, followed shortly by the giant stellar bear. We dash past several wooden wolves that are snarling at us for barging in and destroying their campsite. As we broke through the opposite side of the clearing, and dashing past some surprised timber wolves, several started to give chase. "A manticore, Timber wolves, and a giant stellar bear. Oh my." Ian says. Jordan stares at him, almost smashing into a tree. "Is this REALLY the time for movie references?!" The three of us laugh and continue running. I can feel fatigue starting to grow. "Guys! I'm starting to get tired." I yell, starting to breathe heavily. "Great! we'll leave you behind!" Andrew yells. "Its what you get for getting us into this mess in the first place anyway." I swat a large plant out of the way and continue running. "I already said I was sorry!" "Whatever. Just keep run- woah!!! stop!! Cliff!" Andrew yells. Ian stares at me, giving me an 'I told you so' look. I look across the gorge. It was quite a distance across. Hmm... I focus on the power in my ring and I imagine a bridge in front of us. Quickly, pieces of mud and dirt form themselves into a bridge for us to cross. It still looks very dangerous to cross. And I'm not one who likes falling to his death. I look over at Andrew and a silent conversation is played out. Andrew nods in understanding and shoots lava out of his ring which douses the bridge. Ian quickly douses it in water and we hurry across right as the manticore takes a swipe. The manticore steps on the bridge as we make it safely to the other side. The bridge collapses and the manticore falls with it. Several seconds later we all hear a dull thud making all of us wince. even the Timber Wolves and the Ursa Minor winces at the sound. The four of us collapse on the ground and sigh in relief. "Let's take a moment to catch our breath and then we'll continue our journey." We all agree. I look around the area, surveying our surroundings. "This sucks. Not saying I don't like having a journey on an alien planet, but I really want my bed from home. A nice rest would probably do us all nicely. Come on lets go find a place to rest for the night... well... its hard to tell when 'Night' is when its sunny one minute and dark the next, but whatever I guess." I exhale and I help the others to their feet. They follow behind me. I catch a glimpse of a stone structure. "Hey I think there's some sort of building ahead!" "Great! I hope it's inhabited. And NOT by something that can kill us." Ian says forging ahead through the thick underbrush. As he gets to the other side we can hear him stutter. "Sp-Sp-Sp-" "Spit it out already!" "SPIDER!" He screams. Oh yeah. He is deathly afraid of spiders. He had a traumatic event when he was young. He woke up in the middle of the night. There was a spider on his chest. Well... It crawled into somewhere... and it bit him, he was taken to the hospital for anti-venom and ever since then, he was absolutely TERRIFIED of them. Even the tiny ones that have no way of actually hurting you. If he sees a spider, he screams bloody murder and the whole neighborhood knows about it. We quickly jump to the other side of the bush and I see a giant spider. I shit you not. It is a spider, easily as big as the giant spider that stabs Frodo in the lord of the rings movies. We stand frozen, taking in the sight of the monstrous being in front of us. It opens its eyes, all eight of them. and they all seem to lock onto me. "ye who holds the power of the earth. We will not harm you and grant a safe passage through our section of the forest." My eyes widen. "Did you... did you just talk?!" Ian, Andrew, and Jordan look at me with raised eyebrows. Even Ian, who was shaking uncontrollably in fear looked at me. "Did you not just hear him?! He just talked!" "The gift of understanding the arachnid language is a rare one. I am impressed you could understand me." The spider says, keeping it's eyes on me at all times. "Would the invitation extend to my three friends here? We would like a place to rest for a while and gather our strength for the rest of our journey." As weird as it was to be able to talk to spiders, I couldn't pass up a safe place for us to rest, even though Ian will probably be shaking the entire time, holding himself in a fetal position, mumbling to himself and slowly going insane. The Giant spider rises from its web and bows to me. "We shall allow you and your party a place to rest. Though I must ask, What are thou names?" I look to my three friends. "He just asked your names." They are too conflicted with emotions to respond. "Whatever, My name is Joshua. The one on the right is Jordan, the one cowering and shaking is Ian, and the other is Andrew." The spider bows again. "Sir Ian is given permission to rest in our burrow." He declares before turning to Andrew and doing the same. "Sir Andrew is given permission to rest in our burrow." He turns to Jordan and does the same once more. "Sir Jordan is given permission to rest in our burrow." The spider turns to me and extends one of his legs. "May I see the ring? It has been centuries since it was in our possession." "Uh, sure? I heard mention that this, and the rings my three companions have, originated from this planet. I'm assuming that's true." "Indeed it is. My name is Spinner, and you may call me as that." "Thank you Spinner. I can't speak for my friends, but its a pleasure making your acquaintance." "Before you leave, do come see me again, I'm sure there are a lot of questions you want to have answered." I nod in response. "I do have a lot of questions, and yes I will." Spinner smiles, which looks weird because of the massive fangs protruding from his skull. I walk back to my friends and I start pushing their petrified forms forward. I knew Jordan and Andrew weren't scared of spiders, but I can tell their brains can't process what just happened. "My brood will assist them. They are young but they know what they're doing." "Alright. Well, Can you point me in the direction of where i'll be resting?" Spinner nods and extends a limb towards a hole in the ground that is covered in webs. I start to walk towards the hole in the ground. A spider, half the size of spinner, emerges from the hole. The arachnid bows to me. "Follow me to the place you can rest. Be careful and do not touch the webbing. It is layered with poison to keep the pests out. It doesn't react well to skin." I rush down the hole, being careful not to touch the poisoned webbing. I follow the spider down the hole. It wasn't a straight drop like i thought it was. It was more of a spiral staircase. There were spiders everywhere. I felt nervous with all of those eyes watching my every move. I made my way deep into the burrow. My escort stopped by a doorway and beckoned for me to proceed ahead of him. Inside was a huge spider. The spider was so huge, it made Spinner look like an ant. The spider opened its eyes. All eight of them burrowing into my soul. I swallow. Even my natural tolerance to spiders would've never prepared me for a spider of this caliber. I clear my throat before speaking. "My name is Joshua. Myself and my party of three was allowed temporary sanctuary in your burrow." I bow before the enormous being that could very easily squash ME like a beetle underfoot. "Yes," It's voice rang through the burrow with a lot of force. "I've heard. please follow my associate. She'll lead you to the borrowing room." The giant arachnid lifts one of its limbs and points to spider next to it which seems to be teeming with energy. It was like the spider was going to shoot into the sky and explode in a bunch of fireworks. I glance back to the large spider with a raised eyebrow. He just sighs. "HI THERE! I've never met anything like you before! Are you a monkey? A seagull? A parrot? A seal?" She yaps on at about one hundred miles an hour, bombarding me with questions and complements. "You're very tall. Are you an alien? did you know the first 12 digits of the square root of pi is: 1.77245385091? It's very interesting isn't it? Do you eat meat? Why are you so tall? Why do you walk on your back feet?" The bombardment of questions were giving me a serious headache. "Woah, Woah, Woah! Slow down please." I could see the other spiders in the burrow giving me a look of sympathy. They knew she acts like this. Wow. I look behind me to see Ian, Andrew, and Jordan being escorted by another spider. They are led through the small archway and into the main chamber. Jordan walks in first. he sees the giant spider and immediately puts a hand over Ian's eyes. "Ian, trust me, you do NOT want to see this. If your arachnophobia is that bad, this will give you a heart attack." Ian swallows. Jordan looks at me. "Lead the way." The small energetic spider hops away. "Boy, its like pinkie pie possessed her." Andrew states. We all follow the eccentric spider across the room and though an archway. "Don't touch the webbing with bare skin. It's lathered with venom to keep the pests out." I warn. "Nopedy nope! down here it isn't. The newly hatched brood are kept down here. They are slowly introduced to the poison so they can grow and adjust to it." the energetic spider states happily. "Look, we're all very tired, can you show us where we'll be sleeping?" I ask, a slight wave of drowsiness comes over me. "Yepperuni! right this way!" We pass under a badly damaged archway. "What did that?" "Oh the evil fire ants. They come down here for the hatchlings. They attacked yesterday... relative time. With discord in the throne of power, its been rather hard to tell time." "Huh, are they going to attack again?" "Probably. They've been getting more and more antsy each day." She giggles at her own pun. Hearing a spider giggle is fucking weird. "How dangerous are the ants?" "Very, their colony is a mile north of here. Before discord took the throne, They never attacked us, but now they attack quite often." "Is there anything we can do to help?" I ask. "Well... You could try to talk to their queen." We enter a small room with wads of webbing compressed into pillows for us to lay on. I see a few spiders spinning silk into a blanket for the four of us. "Oh thank the lord!" Jordan shouts. "Fresh silk is the best!" He runs a head and lays on one of the pillows. "Josh, thank them for me wouldja?" "They can already understand you." I replied. I take a deep breath and I walk over to join Jordan. Andrew does the same and eventually Ian does too. The weaver finishes the silk bedding and tosses it over the four of us. "Thank you." I say to the weaver who bows in return and leaves the room. "You know? I am taking all of this surprisingly well, despite the circumstances." I close my eyes and I hear the other three agree. I drift off into a soundless sleep. Author's Note POLL: Should I introduce changelings into the story at a later point? Also, you can suggest OCs to me, If I decide to take them, i'll give you full credit in the authors notes. As you may not know, I am a HUGE Changeling guy. I live and breathe changelings... sorry, that sounded so much better in my head. Anyway, what did you think about the spiders so far? There's a reason I put them in here. I'll be covering that later If you have and questions about the story. I'll be glad to fill you in. Chapter Four: Looking for the Hatchlings and Getting A New Companion!Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
PrologueAuthor's Note I would like to make this clear right off the bat. The program I use to type these stories does NOT have spell check, so don't get angry if you see a bunch of mistakes. Luckily I do catch a lot of these mistakes and I fix them, but occasionally one will slip past and i'll never see it. The most common mistakes I make when using the program is I forget to turn the lowercase "i" into a capital when it is used as a lone word. I also forget to capitalize names and the beginning of sentences. So pardon these mistakes. Point them out if you see a mistake, i'll fix it as soon as I can. Prologue Princess Celestia just finished up day court and decided to take a stroll through the gardens. It was a stressful day. The Princess of the Sun thinks deeply, not paying attention to where she is going. Her horn hits a statue, wincing in pain she looks up to see an empty pedestal. The plaque reads "Discord" The Princess gasps. Discord has escaped! She immediately summons a parchment, inkwell and a quill and begins writing. Twilight, Discord has escaped! Discord must be stopped before its too late. Heed this message. Gather the elements and stop him by any means necessary. Princess Celestia. With a flash of gold light, the letter folds itself up and vanishes. "Well hello Princess Celestia. It sure has been a while since we met like this." A voice behind her says. Celestia whips around to see the mischievous lord of Chaos. "That it has Discord. How did you escape?" She hissed at the draconequus. "It's been a thousand years since you trapped me in that hellish prison. The elements kept me under lock down for the entirety of that time." "I see." 'I must delay Discord as much as possible, and give Twilight enough time to defeat him.' "Delaying me won't stop the inevitable, my dear. I know how this will end, for this is all but a game." Discord said with a smirk, flicking Celestia's horn with a claw. "A game?" Celestia asks. Discord nods in response. "The Four will rise, Celestia." "The Four?" "Yes, The Four. The Natural Elements of course. or have you forgotten about them?" "Yes, but they were locked away. Very far away." "Ah, but the old prophecy states they will return, and that time is upon us. Now, i'd like to stay and chat, but I am missing some excellent chaos. Ta-ta for now!" Discord jumps in the air with a huge smile and disappears in a flash of light. [-----] Twilight, and her number one assistant sat down for a wonderful dinner which she had cooked. She definitely could have done better but she really wanted to try her hoof at it. She managed to only burn the lettuce, she was making a salad. Apparently, you aren't supposed to cook a salad. Spike took a bite of the salad but his eyes bulged and his cheeks inflated. He looked like he had just eaten something very very sour. "Spike! if you don't like it that's fine, but you don't need to be so dramatic." Spike suddenly lets loose a huge belch, and from it, came a wisp of green fire which materialized into a letter. Twilight catches the letter and reads it aloud. Twilight gasps. Discord has escaped? "Spike, lets go get the others." Spike punches the air in triumph. "Yes!" Twilight stares at Spike who shies away. "Uh, not to say that it wasn't a great meal?" He tried. "Ugh, whatever, let's get the others. Spike, go grab the elements and meet us in the town market." Twilight gallops into town, immediately spotting pinkie pie and Applejack. "Pinkie! Applejack!" She says as she runs toward them. "Slow down sugarcube. whats the big deal?" "Discord has escaped from his stone imprisonment. The Princess has asked me to gather the elements of harmony and put a stop to him before he can rule this planet in eternal chaos." "Then what are we still doin' here?! Lets go get the others! Twi, you go get Fluttershy, Pinkie, you go get Rainbow Dash, And ah'll go get Rarity. Meet back here as soon as you can." "Right" Twilight, and Pinkie both said. The three split up to go retrieve their respective pony. [-----] Several minutes later, six ponies and dragon are all dashing to the meeting spot where they find someone shocking. Right above the spot they designated to be their regrouping point is the one and only, Lord of chaos and disharmony. Discord. "Discord!!!" Rainbow Dash yells, pouring on the speed. She tries to buck him in the face but discord dodges and catches rainbow dash by her back legs. "My my Rainbow. Testy as always. You'll never learn." Discord says disappointed. "Put her down Discord!" Twilight yells. Discord flashes above Twilight, his eyes directly in front of Twilight's glaring eyes. "I take orders from no one but myself. Perhaps you should have already known that." Discord taps Twilight on the forehead, causing clown clothes and makeup to encase Twilight. Discord laughs heartily. Twilight's horn flares and the clothes disappear. Behind Twilight, Spike is distributing the elements to their respective owners while Twilight keeps Discord occupied. "NOW GIRLS!" Twilight shouts, levitating her tiara onto her head. The five ponies behind her lift into the air as Twilight joins her in the middle. Her eyes open and a rainbow swirls around their elements and into the sky. Acting quickly, Discord vanishes and reappears behind the six girls. the rainbow makes a turn before hitting the ground and the rainbow hits the six ponies, instantly turning them all into stone statues. Discord, who is untouched by the rainbow of doom gets up and laughs maniacally. "I'VE WON! HAHAHA!" Discord looks back at the six mares turned into stone with a smirk. The Twilight statue's tiara flashes purple and shoots a beam into space, Applejack's element, Rarity's element, Rainbow's element, Fluttershy's element and Pinkie's element does the same. The six beams swirl together into a solid beam and shoots off. As the jewelry on the stoned ponies' necks stop shooting a beam into the sky, the jewelry cracks and shatters. Discord stares in disbelief. "How? Wait... if the Elements of Harmony are gone...... I AM UNSTOPPABLE!" He screams to the heavens. He snaps his fingers and he grins evilly. "Let TRUE CHAOS REIGN!!!!"
Chapter one: Introducing our charactersSomething has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Chapter Two: A Soft Landing"Wake up." I hear a voice say. "Wake up!" "Huh? Dad?" I drowsily ask. "I'm not your dad. We've almost arrived at the destination. I woke you up now so we may tell you what you need to know." "Okay." I open my eyes and see the never ending depth of space. I look beside me to see Ian, Andrew, and Jordan all in separate bubbles. "I will allow you to talk to your friends." I hear something click, almost like a switch being flipped. "Hey! Wakey Wakey Josh!" I hear the familiar voice of Jordan say in my mind. "What? How am I hearing you in my head?" I ask, completely confused about how it is apparently possible. "Never mind that, We're here to tell you a story, one that you may find interesting. Your friends also informed us that your people have been spying on us!" "Spying? no. Is it an apparent coincidence? Most likely. Now I'm interested in hearing this story." "Alright, we do not know everything about your task, but we will tell you what we do know." "Okay Twilight, cut to the chase!" Jordan shouts. 'Twilight' Grunts. "Ugh, fine. As you may be aware, The Lord of Chaos and Disharmony has escaped his stone imprisonment. He overpowered us by using our own elements of harmony against us." A different voice speaks up, much more tomboyish. "Yeah! he was fast, he jumped behind us to avoid the power of the elements, which made the rainbow hit us instead. It's power turned us into stone instead of him. I'd bet he's drooling in cotton candy clouds right now, terrorizing Equestria." A cheery voice speaks up. It can only be pinkie pie. "Yeah! That meanie Discord! He tricked the elements." "We know Pinkie. Dash and Twi have already gone past that." A southern accented voice speaks up. I gasp... 'Its best pony! EEEP!' "Ah read somewhere about an old legend. It states that 'The Four will return.' Now, Ah ain't the best when it comes to the whole prophecy business, but I'd have to say its referring to you four." "Ah yes. And Once this whole Discord business is wrapped up, you four will come to my boutique and I'll make the best outfits you've ever seen! After all its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design clothes for a completely new species." A voice I can only assume to be Rarity says. "Fluttershy do you have anything to add?" I hear a shy 'EEP!' before a low response. "No." "I have one thing to add." Twilight starts. "We need you to help us get our bodies back. We don't know how things look down in equestria but I can't say it will be good." I see a small speck appear in the distance. As we get closer, I realize that the sun and the moon are acting very strangely. The two opposing Stellar orbs are barreling across the sky at an alarming rate. It seems like every minute, it switches from nighttime to daytime. As we get even closer I notice the texture of the planet. Discord turned the entire planet into a giant golf ball. I couldn't help but facepalm. "Woohoo! Lets go to the golf planet!" I hear Andrew yell. We hit a bit of turbulence as we enter the upper atmosphere of the planet. "MOVE!" I hear Fluttershy scream. I look around to see the Sun barreling towards us. Instantly all ten of us scream as we fly forward. I see a flash of light in my peripheral vision. Jordan's ring lights up and we suddenly lurch forward, faster than before. A small cone of pressurized air appears in front of us and the sun barrels by barely dodging us. I can feel the millions of degrees of heat blazing my back. I suddenly smell bacon... Oh wait that must be me. I see Ian's ring flash with a bright blue light from which a tentacle of water appears. It stretches out and encases our bubbles, protecting us from the raw power of the sun. "I don't think I can hold this bubble much longer!" I hear Twilight's voice straining against the power of the sun. "Wait!" I hear Jordan yell. "I have an idea. we can use our rings." We all stare at him in shock. "There's no way that will work." Ian yells. "Yes It will. I have a good feeling about this. Ian, use you water to encase us in a bubble, I'll use my air so we can breathe, Andrew and josh, work together so we make a soft landing." "How can fire and earth work together? They are practically opposites!" Jordan smirks. "Opposites attract." "Okay." I look over and see Andrew spraying lava into his hand. Wait he can make LAVA?! oh that is SO-O unfair. "How come you get to use Lava?!" Andrew smirks but doesn't say anything. We pass through the upper cloud layer and I see the ground through the bubble of water. Andrew uses his lava to create a hardened casing around the outer side of the water bubble. I suddenly feel tuned into the earth. I can feel the way the plants grow. I don't know how I could feel these things this far up but I decided to question it later. "ANY TIME NOW!" The bubble of magic the 6 mares gave us vanished as we free fell with more power. I could feel a particular plant. It was a small sapling but with so much potential. I called out to it and I could feel it starting to grow. "COME ON JOSH! I REALLY DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Ignoring him, I place all that I can into rapidly growing plant. Okay this is definitely familiar. I could see a spiraling plant extend towards the sky. It immediately grew giant leaves to slow our fall. We went straight through the first three before we started to notice a decline in speed. I called out to the plant to grow more leaves for us and it bent to my will, sprouting a massive leaf that was at least a foot thick. We slammed into it, drastically slowing our fall. Thankfully the plant did what I asked and stopped the rapid decent of our sphere made of hardened molten lava and water. We slid off the leaf and fell the rest of the way to the ground with a dull thud. Ian, Andrew, and Jordan dispersed their elemental shell before collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Seeing them fall, reminded me of how much that act took out of me. I fell to the ground, quickly summoning a leaf to lay on before falling asleep. [-----] "Hey! wake up!" I hear a feminine voice yell. I open my eyes to see a glowing blue mare standing before me. "Rainbow dash I assume?" The mare nods proudly. "The~ one and only." The egomaniac states. I rub my eyes to clear out the remaining blur. "Hey Dash? How is it that I can see right through you?" The mare looks down at her glowing, transparent body. "I'm not sure." She says, dumbstruck. A glowing purple form steps into view. "I believe I may know what is going on, If I am correct, the energy from the Elements of Harmony took the souls from our bodies before we could be turned completely into stone, the Elements of Harmony should be able to provide these forms power. But I fear that these forms won't last long, even the Elements of Harmony have their limits." "I suppose that makes sense. And i'll assume we'll need to start moving, For all we know, you could only have enough power for the journey from here to my world and back again. So we will need to be extra careful about how we go about this journey. Now lets get moving." I stand up but wince as I remember the burns the sun gave us. "That sun cooked my back, we will need a way to treat is and soon." Rainbow flexes her transparent wings and gives them a flap. She lifts off the ground a few inches. "WOO! I can still fly! I'll fly above and try to get a good idea of where we are." She soars off, high into the sky. Twilight grimaces. "I can't help but feel like something is going to go very wrong very soon. I've never liked the feeling of dread. Not like this." "I would offer some soothing words but I don't think they'll be helpful." I frown. "GUYS! GUYS!" Rainbow Dash returns from above. "We landed on the far end of the Everfree forest. We are REALLY far away from Ponyville." I see Andrew grin with excitement as he hears the name of the infamous town. Twilight looks down and puts her hoof to her chin in thought. "So we can either take the long way around the Everfree forest, or go through it. Either way we need to find the Princesses and get them to help us. Discord has rules long enough already. He MUST be stopped." Twilight stomps her hoof in determination. Without warning, the six mares flicker for a second. When they reappear they gasp. "What was that?" All six ask at the same time. "I was right! The elements of harmony only had enough charge to retrieve you four and bring you here." "Wait, would it be possible to go into our minds and inhabit our bodies?" Twilight thinks for a moment. "While it should be possible, only one of us can inhabit your body each and that would leave two of us to fizzle out completely... We aren't going to do it. We are friends and we stay as friends. TOGETHER!" All six shout the last word at the same time. "Wait!" Jordan calls. "Which way is Ponyville?" "Northeast of here, shouldn't be hard to miss." Rainbow says, slowly fading. "We'll see each other again Joshua, do not fret." Twilight says. "Find the princesses!!!" the last word echos as they vanish from existence, only to reappear as six flaming orbs which swirl around and shoot off into the sky and vanish. The four of us continue staring at the sky for several minutes, before Ian breaks the trance with a cough. "Lets get going guys. We need to find shelter soon." A wave of magic rolls across the land. Behind it, is a checkerboard pattern ground, which alternate between hot-pink, and light-pink. A low rumble radiates across the ground. I see mutated creatures running behind the chaotic magic. There were rabbits with really long legs, buffalo in tu-tus, Several color-drained Pegasus ponies flying upside down and backward along with them. "Dude this is just bizarre." I said, unable to keep my eyes away from the strange, mutated creatures. "Lets go guys, every minute we stay here, the chaotic influence on this world gets stronger." Jordan says, pushing us all down, knocking us out of the trance. We get up and walk Into the Everfree forest. "Guys, I truly think that traveling through here is much better than around, for one, it's faster, and two, we won't have to deal with those mutated chaotic creatures in here." Andrew reasoned. "Are you saying that as a fact? or are you just reassuring yourself that we won't meet any of those... things out there." Jordan asks. "If we go through the forest, we risk running into Cockatrices, changelings, manticores, timberwolves, the list goes on." I protest. "But then again, I can never unsee the rabbits with long legs... buffalos in tu-tus..." I shiver. "Lets get going. Keep quiet. We need to be stealthy if we are going to get out of here alive." "That's true, lets go." Jordan says, taking the lead on a path through the trees, the rest of us follow silently, being careful to test where we step before placing our full weight on the spot. Author's Note Leave a comment! tell me what you think! what needs to be changed? added? I have a plan in mind for this story and I can't wait to tell the story I have in mind.
Chapter Three: And Through the Woods We Go!"Do you have to be any louder Josh?!" Ian hissed quietly at me. I give him a sheepish smile. "Sorry." I replied. "I'll try to keep it down." "Can you both quiet down? We are trying not to have our faces eaten by a manticore here!" Jordan said from the front. Andrew silently ran forward and crouched next to a fallen log. He peaked over momentarily before ducking back down. He mouthed the word "Manticore" to us and we instantly fell silent and hid from plain sight. My keen survivalist instincts help me decide whether to continue, wait, or just run. I could hear a low growl and the sound of something cutting through flesh. Very quietly, I inform the group."If we can stay absolutely quiet, we can sneak past it. Which means no stepping on branches." The other three nod and we group up away from the manticore's location. "Josh, we need to make some kind of distraction, perhaps a loud noise somewhere we are not. and then run away while it is distracted?" Ian suggests. "Unless you have any better ideas?" "I think we should just look for another way around it, that clearing is too large for us to sneak around before it finishes eating its meal, and we don't even know whats on the other side of the clearing. I mean, though those bushes, there could be a gorge or canyon that we have no hope of crossing." Andrew says quietly. "It's worth a risk, and besides, whats the worst that could happen?" I say with a sly grin. Ian just stares at me. "I just hate you sometimes. I really do." I laugh. "You know you love me!" "Guys!" Jordan hisses, "KEEP. IT. DOWN!" "ROOOOAAAAR!!" An ear piercing screech erupts from the direction of the clearing. I take one look at Jordan, Ian, and Andrew before starting to run in the direction we originally came from. I take a sharp turn right at the first opportunity and we enter a dark cave. Andrew runs in behind me and summons a weak fireball, just enough to emit light. What becomes illuminated in the darkness scared me deeply. I saw mentions of these things. They were huge and could destroy entire towns even if it is cranky... And i'm pretty sure I didn't have a water tower full of cow milk, and a sweet lullaby to lull it back to sleep if it wakes up. Before us, was an Ursa Major... Not an Ursa Minor... I'm talking about a gigantic transparent purple bear. "Oh shit." Ian says, "We should leave." He says quickly. The giant bear shuffles in its sleep. We quickly run out the way we came and find ourselves face to paw with an Ursa Minor... "Wow, our luck just keeps getting better and better!" Jordan says sarcastically. the Ursa Minor looks down at us with murder in its eyes. "I know our luck is bad, but seriously? This is ridiculous." "So, we have two options, stay in here and get mauled by a stellar bear, or run outside and have a manticore AND an Ursa minor on our figurative tails. I'm liking the second option because we have at least a small chance of surviving." I deduce. "If we're taking door number two, we'd better start running!" Andrew just BOOKS IT! He dodges between the Ursa's legs and out the cave entrance. We quickly do the same. The Ursa Minor roars and charges after us. Leaving the scary cave, we dash the way we were originally going. We race into the clearing with the manticore still there. It doesn't even look like it actually moved in the first place. I guess it just roared to divert prying eyes. Well it definitely worked flawlessly! We ran for our lives. The manticore swivels and roars at us, unknowing of the giant bear behind us. The bear is knocking trees down like an elephant on a rampage would. The manticore started chasing after us. "I know this is a really bad time to say it!" I yell. "But I apologize for jinxing this!" "Apologize later! run for our lives NOW!" Jordan yells, jumping over a fallen log. We enter a large clearing that looked inhabited. On the far edge we see the inevitable. "Yeah I guess we all saw this coming!" I yell, dashing through the clearing as the manticore bursts through, followed shortly by the giant stellar bear. We dash past several wooden wolves that are snarling at us for barging in and destroying their campsite. As we broke through the opposite side of the clearing, and dashing past some surprised timber wolves, several started to give chase. "A manticore, Timber wolves, and a giant stellar bear. Oh my." Ian says. Jordan stares at him, almost smashing into a tree. "Is this REALLY the time for movie references?!" The three of us laugh and continue running. I can feel fatigue starting to grow. "Guys! I'm starting to get tired." I yell, starting to breathe heavily. "Great! we'll leave you behind!" Andrew yells. "Its what you get for getting us into this mess in the first place anyway." I swat a large plant out of the way and continue running. "I already said I was sorry!" "Whatever. Just keep run- woah!!! stop!! Cliff!" Andrew yells. Ian stares at me, giving me an 'I told you so' look. I look across the gorge. It was quite a distance across. Hmm... I focus on the power in my ring and I imagine a bridge in front of us. Quickly, pieces of mud and dirt form themselves into a bridge for us to cross. It still looks very dangerous to cross. And I'm not one who likes falling to his death. I look over at Andrew and a silent conversation is played out. Andrew nods in understanding and shoots lava out of his ring which douses the bridge. Ian quickly douses it in water and we hurry across right as the manticore takes a swipe. The manticore steps on the bridge as we make it safely to the other side. The bridge collapses and the manticore falls with it. Several seconds later we all hear a dull thud making all of us wince. even the Timber Wolves and the Ursa Minor winces at the sound. The four of us collapse on the ground and sigh in relief. "Let's take a moment to catch our breath and then we'll continue our journey." We all agree. I look around the area, surveying our surroundings. "This sucks. Not saying I don't like having a journey on an alien planet, but I really want my bed from home. A nice rest would probably do us all nicely. Come on lets go find a place to rest for the night... well... its hard to tell when 'Night' is when its sunny one minute and dark the next, but whatever I guess." I exhale and I help the others to their feet. They follow behind me. I catch a glimpse of a stone structure. "Hey I think there's some sort of building ahead!" "Great! I hope it's inhabited. And NOT by something that can kill us." Ian says forging ahead through the thick underbrush. As he gets to the other side we can hear him stutter. "Sp-Sp-Sp-" "Spit it out already!" "SPIDER!" He screams. Oh yeah. He is deathly afraid of spiders. He had a traumatic event when he was young. He woke up in the middle of the night. There was a spider on his chest. Well... It crawled into somewhere... and it bit him, he was taken to the hospital for anti-venom and ever since then, he was absolutely TERRIFIED of them. Even the tiny ones that have no way of actually hurting you. If he sees a spider, he screams bloody murder and the whole neighborhood knows about it. We quickly jump to the other side of the bush and I see a giant spider. I shit you not. It is a spider, easily as big as the giant spider that stabs Frodo in the lord of the rings movies. We stand frozen, taking in the sight of the monstrous being in front of us. It opens its eyes, all eight of them. and they all seem to lock onto me. "ye who holds the power of the earth. We will not harm you and grant a safe passage through our section of the forest." My eyes widen. "Did you... did you just talk?!" Ian, Andrew, and Jordan look at me with raised eyebrows. Even Ian, who was shaking uncontrollably in fear looked at me. "Did you not just hear him?! He just talked!" "The gift of understanding the arachnid language is a rare one. I am impressed you could understand me." The spider says, keeping it's eyes on me at all times. "Would the invitation extend to my three friends here? We would like a place to rest for a while and gather our strength for the rest of our journey." As weird as it was to be able to talk to spiders, I couldn't pass up a safe place for us to rest, even though Ian will probably be shaking the entire time, holding himself in a fetal position, mumbling to himself and slowly going insane. The Giant spider rises from its web and bows to me. "We shall allow you and your party a place to rest. Though I must ask, What are thou names?" I look to my three friends. "He just asked your names." They are too conflicted with emotions to respond. "Whatever, My name is Joshua. The one on the right is Jordan, the one cowering and shaking is Ian, and the other is Andrew." The spider bows again. "Sir Ian is given permission to rest in our burrow." He declares before turning to Andrew and doing the same. "Sir Andrew is given permission to rest in our burrow." He turns to Jordan and does the same once more. "Sir Jordan is given permission to rest in our burrow." The spider turns to me and extends one of his legs. "May I see the ring? It has been centuries since it was in our possession." "Uh, sure? I heard mention that this, and the rings my three companions have, originated from this planet. I'm assuming that's true." "Indeed it is. My name is Spinner, and you may call me as that." "Thank you Spinner. I can't speak for my friends, but its a pleasure making your acquaintance." "Before you leave, do come see me again, I'm sure there are a lot of questions you want to have answered." I nod in response. "I do have a lot of questions, and yes I will." Spinner smiles, which looks weird because of the massive fangs protruding from his skull. I walk back to my friends and I start pushing their petrified forms forward. I knew Jordan and Andrew weren't scared of spiders, but I can tell their brains can't process what just happened. "My brood will assist them. They are young but they know what they're doing." "Alright. Well, Can you point me in the direction of where i'll be resting?" Spinner nods and extends a limb towards a hole in the ground that is covered in webs. I start to walk towards the hole in the ground. A spider, half the size of spinner, emerges from the hole. The arachnid bows to me. "Follow me to the place you can rest. Be careful and do not touch the webbing. It is layered with poison to keep the pests out. It doesn't react well to skin." I rush down the hole, being careful not to touch the poisoned webbing. I follow the spider down the hole. It wasn't a straight drop like i thought it was. It was more of a spiral staircase. There were spiders everywhere. I felt nervous with all of those eyes watching my every move. I made my way deep into the burrow. My escort stopped by a doorway and beckoned for me to proceed ahead of him. Inside was a huge spider. The spider was so huge, it made Spinner look like an ant. The spider opened its eyes. All eight of them burrowing into my soul. I swallow. Even my natural tolerance to spiders would've never prepared me for a spider of this caliber. I clear my throat before speaking. "My name is Joshua. Myself and my party of three was allowed temporary sanctuary in your burrow." I bow before the enormous being that could very easily squash ME like a beetle underfoot. "Yes," It's voice rang through the burrow with a lot of force. "I've heard. please follow my associate. She'll lead you to the borrowing room." The giant arachnid lifts one of its limbs and points to spider next to it which seems to be teeming with energy. It was like the spider was going to shoot into the sky and explode in a bunch of fireworks. I glance back to the large spider with a raised eyebrow. He just sighs. "HI THERE! I've never met anything like you before! Are you a monkey? A seagull? A parrot? A seal?" She yaps on at about one hundred miles an hour, bombarding me with questions and complements. "You're very tall. Are you an alien? did you know the first 12 digits of the square root of pi is: 1.77245385091? It's very interesting isn't it? Do you eat meat? Why are you so tall? Why do you walk on your back feet?" The bombardment of questions were giving me a serious headache. "Woah, Woah, Woah! Slow down please." I could see the other spiders in the burrow giving me a look of sympathy. They knew she acts like this. Wow. I look behind me to see Ian, Andrew, and Jordan being escorted by another spider. They are led through the small archway and into the main chamber. Jordan walks in first. he sees the giant spider and immediately puts a hand over Ian's eyes. "Ian, trust me, you do NOT want to see this. If your arachnophobia is that bad, this will give you a heart attack." Ian swallows. Jordan looks at me. "Lead the way." The small energetic spider hops away. "Boy, its like pinkie pie possessed her." Andrew states. We all follow the eccentric spider across the room and though an archway. "Don't touch the webbing with bare skin. It's lathered with venom to keep the pests out." I warn. "Nopedy nope! down here it isn't. The newly hatched brood are kept down here. They are slowly introduced to the poison so they can grow and adjust to it." the energetic spider states happily. "Look, we're all very tired, can you show us where we'll be sleeping?" I ask, a slight wave of drowsiness comes over me. "Yepperuni! right this way!" We pass under a badly damaged archway. "What did that?" "Oh the evil fire ants. They come down here for the hatchlings. They attacked yesterday... relative time. With discord in the throne of power, its been rather hard to tell time." "Huh, are they going to attack again?" "Probably. They've been getting more and more antsy each day." She giggles at her own pun. Hearing a spider giggle is fucking weird. "How dangerous are the ants?" "Very, their colony is a mile north of here. Before discord took the throne, They never attacked us, but now they attack quite often." "Is there anything we can do to help?" I ask. "Well... You could try to talk to their queen." We enter a small room with wads of webbing compressed into pillows for us to lay on. I see a few spiders spinning silk into a blanket for the four of us. "Oh thank the lord!" Jordan shouts. "Fresh silk is the best!" He runs a head and lays on one of the pillows. "Josh, thank them for me wouldja?" "They can already understand you." I replied. I take a deep breath and I walk over to join Jordan. Andrew does the same and eventually Ian does too. The weaver finishes the silk bedding and tosses it over the four of us. "Thank you." I say to the weaver who bows in return and leaves the room. "You know? I am taking all of this surprisingly well, despite the circumstances." I close my eyes and I hear the other three agree. I drift off into a soundless sleep. Author's Note POLL: Should I introduce changelings into the story at a later point? Also, you can suggest OCs to me, If I decide to take them, i'll give you full credit in the authors notes. As you may not know, I am a HUGE Changeling guy. I live and breathe changelings... sorry, that sounded so much better in my head. Anyway, what did you think about the spiders so far? There's a reason I put them in here. I'll be covering that later If you have and questions about the story. I'll be glad to fill you in.
Chapter Four: Looking for the Hatchlings and Getting A New Companion!Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
