Survival is Magic

Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbowdash were standing in the library staring at the most horrid/freaky/scary/weird/complicated contraption they’d ever seen. Spike had hardly been good at explaining the situation to any of them, but amidst the hysterics they’d each managed to get the jist- something had happened to Twilight. They’d met at the library and Spike had just finished a relatively calm recollection of the events that had occurred.

“And she was dragged into the floor!?” Rainbowdash was the first to speak.

“I swear that’s exactly what I saw! Princess Celestia is already on her way, personally. She said so in her letter.” Spike explained, as he’d gotten a quick reply to his letter to the princess.

“The horror! Oh, dear Twilight, this has to be the most-” Rarity was already starting her theatrics but her friends weren’t giving the time for it.

“Then what are we doing still standing here!?” Rainbowdash interrupted, “We have to go after her!”

Applejack was quick to counter her friend’s brash idea. “Rainbow, we ain’t got a clue as to how this here contraption works, plus we won’t do Twilight much good if we’re in the same trouble she’s in.”

Pinkie happily bounced over to the contraption, not attracting much attention from her friends.

Rainbow was still holding her argument with Applejack. “Spike said she just threw the switch, right? So we throw the switch and we find her, and we get her back!”

“That sounds dangerous. I don’t know if-”

“You don’t know what that contraption’s gonna do! Think for a sec’, Rainbow. Whatever happened to Twilight, it was some kinda trap, Ah reckon. So the same thing’s gonna happen to us if we touch that lever without thinking it through.”

“Like this?” Everypony turned to see a cotton candy mare hop up and pull down hard on the lever. The reaction was the same out of most of the group.

“PINKIE!!!” “Oh no.”

Once again the device sprung to life. Four mares and one dragon stared in horror as that monster-like face showed itself. One pink one just watched with lips pursed in a fascinated “o.” Lightning flashed outside despite the lack of thunderclouds- something that would be noticed by the incoming Princess Celestia. Shadows from the device moved on their own accord, leaping up from the ground and reaching for anypony (or dragon) in the room. Not even Rainbowdash was able to gain her wits fast enough to escape the shadowy claws. Screams shot out, echoing even as their sources vanished. The attention it would attract would mean nothing. When next anypony checked, the room was empty save for a large, curious machine- one that nopony would dare to touch.

Twilight was slowly getting better at this “survival” thing. Among many things she learned were the vitals:

A: The red berries were indeed, not poisonous, as that huge turkey would suggest (the bird had cost her a number of bush-worths, though).

B: Wedging a piece of flint into a stick made a decent, though not durable, axe to cut down trees with. The act of cutting down a tree felt wrong, but there was simply not enough loose wood for a campfire.

C: There were spiders here. They were huge, and they were vicious. They came out at dusk and were definitely not worth getting to know better.

Thus, Twilight had survived a couple of days more, but her limited inventory was proving an ever present issue… until she found a gift.

Twilight was exploring a large field area packed with jackalopes and grass when she noticed something different in the distance. Upon closer inspection, she realized that the bleached white structure was some creature’s skeleton. There was a bag next to it and what looked like a bush. The bag had some awkward straps that were obviously not designed for a pony, and the bush was actually a hat with a lot of room inside. Twilight realized with a start that the creature that had died here was clearly intelligent; she was looking at somepony’s corpse! Well, not somepony exactly, but still! Someone had died here! Twilight looked at the skeleton lying in the dry grass.

“Wherever you come from, I hope you find peace.” She couldn’t relate completely with the odd looking creature’s skeleton, but it did give her hope yet! Horrible as it was, if somepony died here, then somepony else could be here as well! There was a chance that she could run into… something at least… that she could form some sort of mutual camaraderie with. It was a speck of hope that she wasn’t alone, along with a testament to the danger she was in.

The bag would come in handy, even if it felt a bit like graverobbing, but Twilight convinced herself that whatever had died here would have been willing to share a possession they had no use for. She now had a bag to keep her resources in and a berry bush hat that she could… potentially use for cover she guessed. It was progress, and she was grateful for these well constructed item- wait a minute. Twilight stopped as she was trotting off. Where did that creature get these items?

Twilight took a long look at the bag, trying to determine how anypony could have gotten the materials to make it, when she realized that it was just grass. The bag was woven out of grass on a stick frame for support. The bush hat was literally a berry bush attached with rope, which was also woven out of grass! Twilight understood; that creature had made these by hand, using only the materials around them. She felt a huge surge of respect for a creature of such ingenuity and innovation. Furthermore, if that creature could make things like this, who was to say that Twilight couldn’t? She just needed some way to get these resources into more workable forms. Twilight was no stranger to experimentation (all of her experience was in magic, but the principle stayed the same). She needed some way to help construct new tools, and you can’t make a format for a device without a prototype. The creature had managed this feat, but how?

Twilight spent a good portion of that day wandering about, lost in her thoughts (nearly into a lone spider nest at one point), until she found a new biome. The dry grass gave way to flat stone ground littered with boulders. Twilight had found loose rocks before, along with the flint, but one thing was sure: she couldn’t just fit the boulder in her bag. Some had promising gold veins visible from the outside, others were plain, but still potentially hiding useful material. Twilight looked at the rocks. “Each boulder hiding its rocky treasure.” She was not disappointed. The rocks with the veins peeking out provided large chunks of solid gold, which Twilight quickly confirmed was not iron pyrite with a quick whack of another rock, smashing, not shattering, the shiny metal. The nugget was so pure that Twilight had little doubt, but you could never be too safe. The featureless rocks provided chunks of dirty-white crystal-ish rocks that she identified as nitre, a mineral she found referenced occasionally in her books, often in association with fireworks.

“Nitre, mixed evenly with sulfur and charcoal, produces black powder. However, my technical prowess in making fireworks is second to none and I’ve never come across another practical use of the substance in any of my readings… which was rather odd, actually, considering that I’m pretty sure it’s a powder that burns very readily and rapidly. It’s strange that nopony would come up with a better use for it. That aside, I don’t have charcoal on me, although I suppose I could burn and chop down a tree, but even then I don’t have a clue as to where I could get sulfur, so the entire idea was gnull to be begin with- and oh shoot the sun’s going down! I really need to stop spending so much time talking to myself about things… starting now.”

With a few logs set down and grass to start it up, Twilight was getting pretty good at the fire-starting thing. The eyes in the darkness just never left, though. They just peered out of the darkness, watching her. The night was far from the pleasant starry nights of home. It was scary. Twilight was tired of it. She was tired in general, since she couldn’t sleep like this. The ground was hard and the night was terrifying. Should one of those two elements be removed, Twilight was sure she would readily go out like a light, but they were just too much together. That aside, she was getting very hungry. She’d encountered neither a carrot nor berry bush since she’d gotten to the grassland that day, and her stock wasn’t exactly bursting at the seams. So she thought through the night.

Mostly her thoughts were tied to the skeleton she saw and curiosity as to how it had made its more complicated equipment. She also wondered what she was going to do with the gold. It was heavy, and out here there was nopony to trade with, so she was confused now as to why she’d even bothered mining it. It had just made sense at the time. It was really shiny, but not edible, sadly. She’d tried. She had rocks, and gold, and logs, and grass, and twigs, and no more berries. That would be something she’d have to fix. For some reason, her thoughts floated back to that machine she’d made. She really didn’t like to think about it, but it sparked an idea in her mind. And that night spontaneously was dedicated to the creation of the science machine. Twilight had a small supply of logs that she was willing to dedicate to science, as well as the rock and gold that just seemed important. It was something beyond explanation; gold wasn’t even required with that machine from before, but she just knew that it was necessary. The serendipitous knowledge was as uncomfortable as her lack of magic, but she needed to stay active to keep the eyes from getting to her. Twilight was more than willing to take a small sacrifice to keep her sanity intact. By morning the machine was finished and working.

Twilight felt rather proud of herself, despite the fact that she barely understood what she’d just put together. All the same, looking at the strange device of wood, stone and gold, Twilight could feel a rush of ideas gaining ground. With a Science Machine to break materials down to their basic components, she could experiment freely. Suddenly the shadows she kept seeing out of the corner of her eyes didn’t mean as much. Hunger could wait. Today would be dedicated to inventing, and she would enjoy every. Single. Second of it.