Survival is Magic

by saiavinn

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 6927

Both Discord and Maxwell are having rough days. Discord is a statue again after not even a day to stretch his claws. And They are demanding new pieces from Maxwell. Oh, and Wilson's trying to starve together on his own terms. Maxwell has other p

Discord only just stopped being a statue yesterday. That literally didn't even last twenty-four hours and he's rather upset over it.
Maxwell, meanwhile is tasked by Them to get more pieces for their amusement. He doesn't really have any ideas since he's practically scoured his own world looking for remarkable individuals. Then he notices one Wilson P. Higgsbury trying to use a portal to bring other starvers to his loop on his terms rather than Maxwell's.
Maxwell has other plans for the Gentleman Scientist's invention.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-12 03:54:32 UTC

p1 Mutual Interest

               Discord was bored again. Not twelve days after his escape (well, only technically if you counted the times the sun and moon came up as days) he was already stuck again. The first time had been a simple underestimation about the power of those Elements of Harmony, and this time was an oversight dealing with that Twilight Sparkle pony. He had been so sure that he’d broken her entirely, not to mention without even using a drop of magic for it, although he was never too sure that that would’ve worked in the first place; it had been his plan B. Not that it was doing him any good now. It had only felt like a single day, and to be fair it would’ve been if someone had bothered timing it. Or had a working watch at the time. That wasn’t lying to them. And was capable of compensating for the warping of the flow of time. But that still held no water- he was a statue again. Worse, he’d seen it coming this time so the pose they caught him in was simply appalling.

At least when Celestia and Luna froze him he had been as he should have: laughing like a maniac. That fact alone had provided him with a large portion of the entertainment he could muster up not being able to cast magic, or move, or even smell, or anything really aside from listening in on the world and thinking about things. Oh the stories he could have written… alas, once again he was in a stony prison. That was worth a bit of brooding, oh yes. Perhaps he should make that his idea of interest for the next few hundred years? Yes, that sounded like a decent plan. Brooding would be much for fitting for the look on his face that he was physically incapable of changing. It was absolutely humiliating. If he were Celestia he would have set a mirror in front of him just so he could keep looking at that pathetic, terrified face. Ooh, that would make a decent focus for after he finished his two century long brood-fest.

…This was horrible. There could literally be nopony else in the world that could have it this bad.

The Amazing Maxwell, though he hadn’t felt particularly amazing anytime in the past, what? Five hundred loops? Whatever. Just Maxwell sat on his horribly uncomfortable throne, and sighed. There could literally be nobody else in any number of worlds that could have it this bad. As if on cue, he felt Them come back, and with Them always came that sensation of having your sanity ripped directly from your being. They were upset. They were bored with the current pieces. Oh how absolutely shocking.

Maxwell had done all he could to keep them entertaining as long as possible. Each one had gone through hundreds of loops, constantly facing newer and newer challenges as Maxwell went through his creative phases, which he’d had none of as of late. Then, hundreds more as he allowed them to come into contact gradually. Eventually, he even let all ten of them group together and form a happy little family before he had them torn to pieces. Strong as they were, they were not as strong as the Amazing Maxwell as he was now. They’d never been. They never would be. Just as he would be forever bound to the throne, and Them.

They wanted more pieces. Maxwell was actually a bit surprised. He’d brought the last two in rather recently, hoping they’d keep Them entertained as long as the set before. Apparently it’d only whetted Their appetite. Fine then, it wasn’t as if he had a choice in the matter. They wanted more, and he’d get more. This wasn’t up to debate, just as it had never been. Maxwell felt the presence ease off his mind. If he wasn’t such a dapper fellow he’d have long since lost his mind to that experience. Although, to be fair it was more than likely that he’d simply lost his mind and gotten back so many times that it was hard to tell the difference.

Maxwell was now free to work. He lifted himself off of the throne and his torches immediately lit up the entirety of his little world just as he wanted them to. His gardens had long gone untended (he’d since found ways to just summon food), his iceboxes were full of snacks of varying degrees of freshness (summoning was a pain), and his chests were full of different odds and ends from his last experiments. Maxwell wasn’t feeling particularly creative… although judging by that giant contraption Maxwell noticed performing a quick check up on one of his longer lasting pieces, Wilson certainly was.

Wilson had been one of Maxwell’s first and favorites. He lacked the special talents of some of the others, but had put the forbidden knowledge to better use than any of them. He was working on some giant contraption as Maxwell watched through the void. It looked… a bit familiar. Wilson’s beard was grown out, it was late night, he was clearly on the edge of his sanity, and he was just finished running some fresh blood through the hollowed wood. Maxwell recognized this process, as well as the pulling of the inconspicuous lever that kicked off the magic. Wilson had built a make-shift version of his door!

Maxwell feared that he may have actually let one of his pieces escape, but there was no instant teleportation or dragging into the world over, nor did Wilson step into the device when the shining gateway opened. Instead, he stood there with an eager, wanting look on his face. A silhouette appeared. It darkened into a recognizable human shape, and out tumbled Willow, the Firestarter, another one of Maxwell’s pieces, after which the portal closed, as dull and powerless as it started. Maxwell watched, stunned as Willow slowly got up, looked at Wilson, and then basically freaked out. She had no idea what was going on, and Wilson was doing a shameful job of trying to explain it. Maxwell made a mental note to reset those two later. He had more important things to worry about.

Maxwell performed test after test and experiment after experiment on the device he’d taken from the Gentleman Scientist. It was the same as his in function, but significantly different in design, mostly because it lacked the proper kick. That wouldn’t be a problem, because Maxwell could provide that kick, but not before tinkering with the connection line the portal was set to. He doubted Wilson had done so intentionally, but he had managed to make a version of the door that could be redirected by adjusting the magic on it, something Maxwell had never bothered with, but now, with the number of remarkable people in his world running thin, another world might provide pieces that would get Them to shut up. Maxwell adjusted the connection line to a source he considered reasonably likely to yield results, and pumped the device with his dark magic. The image in the portal was… curious.

Discord felt a curious sensation. Under normal circumstances (ones in which he wasn’t comparable to a garden gnome) it would have made his skin crawl. It was powerful magic, and it was focused right on him.

“What the heck am I looking at?” Came a deep, masculine voice seemingly from everywhere. Discord was familiar with that effect, usually happened when he was talking out of nothing.

“Oh, nothing of consequence, just the spirit of Chaos, that’s all.” The draconequus said more to himself, but outwardly on the off chance it could hear him. He was pleasantly surprised.

“So it can talk. Well, this is a surprise. You look like you’re made of so many parts you could be one of my creations.” The voice carried a certain charisma, on top of the condescending tone that one uses on ones below them. Again, Discord could relate, but did not appreciate it being used against him.

“Believe me, if you could manage to make anything even close to me, the world would already be folding in on itself.” Discord felt no shame boasting his feats to this idiot. “I have made the sun and moon spin circles around each other, I have turned the world upside down and forced gravity to compensate for me, by turning Equestria into a world sized slip and slide. If you think yourself capable, then please, destroy everything and save me the hassle of waiting.”

“Is that so? A lot of talk coming from a lawn ornament, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m looking for players in a little game of mine, and you seem capable of providing if you’re as powerful as you say.” The voice said, mockery fading as he became the businessman he needed to be. “I don’t suppose you have any significant prodigies walking about? Ones that you wouldn’t mind… disappearing?”

Discord was more than a little upset seeing how little he seemed to this magical being, but the moment it mentioned a few disappearances, the gears were already turning, and he immediately felt like this voice he couldn’t even associate a body to must be some long lost brother.

“Disappearing!?” He said in mock horror, “Oh what a dreadful thought! How terrible it would be if the ponies that trapped me suddenly vanished! I don’t know what I’d do with myself.”

“Ponies?” The voice asked, obviously confused.

“Oh yes, each mares, each representing one of the Elements of Harmony. They’d be perfect for your little game, I’m sure. I’m only sad I won’t get to watch.” Discord went on, practically giddy.

“Ponies turned you into a statue?” The voice asked incredulously, suddenly doubting his source.

Discord had a vague feeling why. “You must be new here. Welcome to Equestria where nearly every resident is a pony and are ruled over by Princess Celestia, the alicorn who raises the sun.” He said, letting himself enjoy being the more informed for just a few seconds.

“If you’re messing wi-“

“Everything I just said is absolutely true. Feel free to check for yourself.” Discord interrupted the objection, and waited in silence until the voice returned.

“This is the most disgustingly colorful place I’ve ever seen.” The voice stated.

“My playground before those ponies cut me off.” Discord explained. “If you could make a few of them no longer my problem, you would have my sincerest gratitude.”

“People like you and I don’t have sincere gratitude.” The voice said flatly.

Discord laughed as loud a laugh as he could considering he was made stone. “Guilty as charged.” It was very true. There was more here than just revenge. This being didn’t understand the Elements of Harmony, or the inevitable chaos that would follow if their bearers vanished. Discord did. He continued before the voice could speak. “That’s no reason to break up this little collaboration, though. We both have something the other wants. Simple. What do you need to know?”

Discord could practically hear the grin on the other end. “Just who they are, what they look like, and how I can get into their heads.” The voice said.

Discord chuckled in a disturbingly calm fashion before speaking. “Get into their heads? I managed to turn their personalities inside out and then sick them on each other.”

“Then I think this will work out just fine.”

p2 Serpent

Twilight Sparkle, faithful student of Princess Celestia, Element of Magic, dispeller of Nightmare Moon, resealer of Discord, did as a student did. She was reading. Ponyville had completely recovered from Discord chaotic magic, but Twilight, being the magical prodigy she was, almost wished it hadn’t. Discord’s magic may have been a nuisance, but she couldn’t help but be curious, and now she was left curious about something she could learn nothing of; these books couldn’t tell her anything!

Twilight was now faced with the problem that she had never been good with. She was in the dark. She didn’t understand, and even worse than the fiasco with Pinkie, she knew that this was something that could be understood. Discord’s magic was unique, but it was still magic. Magic followed very specific rules that were difficult to get pass (a feat Discord had proven himself capable of on multiple occasions). It was about to drive Twilight CRAZY! She was Princess Celestia’s personal protege; she should be able to figure out some simple chaos magic! She hadn’t even gotten a proper chance to examine it before it had all been wiped away! It wasn’t fair!

Twilight decided that planting her face into the book in front of her would definitely be the best solution to all of her problems. She also decided that there was nothing wrong with sitting in that position for a solid five minutes. The green and purple dragon she shared the tree with disagreed.

“Twilight, you’ve been going through those books since yesterday.”

“Mmph.”

 “You were still reading when I fell asleep.”

“Mmmph.”

“And you were still reading when I woke up this morning!”

“Spike, I can’t just let this slip by!” Twilight shouted as her head bolted up from the book. “What he could do defied a number of the basic rules of magic!”

“Well he was the spirit of chaos. Doesn’t it make sense that what he could do, well, didn’t make sense?” Spike attempted to logic the mare out of it before she started taking drastic measures- the sort of drastic measures he’d seen her take first hand. Instead it appeared he broken something.

Twilight had a far off look in her eyes when she spoke. “You’re right. It would make sense. It would make sense that his magic wouldn’t make sense… and that doesn’t make sense! Discord is the embodiment of disorder and disharmony, nothing he does should make sense, not even that it doesn’t make sense- Spike I missed something I know I did and I have to find it!”

Spike sighed. He had a pretty good idea what the next few days were going to be like.

Twilight groaned from the aftershock of her blast of magic she’d been hoping would properly mimic Discord’s chaos. Like the several hundred tests before, it had just come out as an uncontrolled blast of energy. The fact that most of the tree was covered in scorch marks didn’t mean much to her.

“Well, test 243 was a failure. Time to try pattern 244.” Twilight didn’t care how tired she was or how much energy she’d used in the past several hours. She was on a mission for answers, and she would get them one way or another. She wasn’t all that sure what another way was until it spoke to her.

“Say pal, you look like you’re having some trouble there.”

Twilight jumped and looked around for the source of the voice that had suddenly interrupted her experiment. She couldn’t find the source until it spoke again.

“If you’d like I can give you what you need to get your results.”

It was coming from a phonograph in the corner of the room. Twilight had bought it a couple days earlier on a whim she couldn’t exactly expl- wait what did it just say!?

Twilight rushed over to the device, to desperate and sleep deprived to acknowledge just how suspicious this voice coming out of her phonograph was.

“What do you say? I don’t anything in return; seeing it come to fruition will be all the payment I’ll need.”

Twilight instinctively grabbed at the old-timey record player with her hooves and suddenly felt an overwhelming flood of information rush into her head. She wound up on the floor, but rising, there was a manic grin on her face. Suddenly, it was all so clear.

Spike arrived home from his shopping trip to see a huge wooden and metal machine sitting in the middle of the main room. Next to it was a Twilight who didn’t look particularly sane judging by her messy mane and tail, and her hoof bandaged for some reason. She was staring at a lever on the side on the machine and grinning like a maniac. Spike didn’t even have time to speak before the lever was enveloped in purple glow and shifted downward, and the device sprung into monstrous action, the gears and belts whirring as the center piece rose higher towards the roof, somehow resembling a strange creatures face with wooden slats for teeth and eyebrows over machinery eyes. Lightning struck outside; bolts from the blue. Spike could see Twilight’s expression rapidly shift from that crazed happiness to pure terror.

“Twilight!”

She turned to him as the shadows on the floor rose into the material world. They ran for eachother as quickly as they could, only a few meters separating them, but the shadows, now forming strange claw-like shapes that wrapped around Twilight pulling her backwards, were literally pulling her into the floor.

“SPIKE!”

He had no chance of reaching her.

“HEEEEEEELP!”

She was gone before she had finished. Spike clawed at the floor where she’d disappeared as her cry continued to echo out.

“Twilight! Twilight come back! What’s going on!? Twilight!?”

The baby dragon was breaking down into hysterics.

“You can’t just leave me here! You haven’t left me a note! Or a list of things to take care of! You put that on your list of regulations that you made me write out for you! This is definitely a violation! Twilight come back! Twilight! Twilight!”

Spike sat there on his claws and knees, tears forming in his eyes, as he tried to gather his thoughts. He knew she just got dragged into the floor by shadows, and that it happened after she threw the switch on that machine (which he only vaguely noticed was back to the way it was before), and that he had no idea how to fix it, so he’d have to get someone’s help- of course! He had to tell Celestia and get the girls together ASAP! He took a few deep breaths to try (not very successfully) to calm down, and hastily wrote out an explanation of what he saw, sent it to Celestia, and shot out of the library to find the Twilight’s friends and fellow Elements of Harmony.

p3 Good Start

“Say pal,”

Twilight heard a deep male voice just as she was fading back into consciousness. She felt seriously groggy and her mind was clouded, it had a strange feeling to it, almost as if she was forgetting something she knew she should remember.

“You don’t look so good.”

That voice was familiar… the phonograph! That was the voice that had given her all of that strange knowledge that had encouraged her to build that machine, something that seemed like the most stupid and unbelievably gullible decision she’d made in her life.

“You’d better find something to eat before night comes.”

Twilight’s intent on seeing the pony who’d done this outweighed her lack of energy. She managed to get her eyes open and what she saw wasn’t anywhere in the realm of what she thought she’d see. She expected some dark looking pony. What she saw was a creature that may as well come out of a horror story as far as she was concerned.

She saw a thin, bipedal creature wearing something that reminded Twilight of a pinstripe suit if it had been tailored for Discord, who, Twilight realized, bore some similarities to this thing. It stood on two legs, straight up, but where Discord was a mix and match of various animals, this creature was completely symmetrical, with pale skin, fleshy phalanges extending from its upper appendages that reminded Twilight of claws but were in no way sharp, pointy shoes (black), and a large head with a jutting chin, rather pointed nose, very short black mane that was combed down in a way Twilight was sure Rarity would have even approved of, and a most shocking detail- incredibly normal eyes. Sure they small, but Twilight could see the whites around dark pupils; they were intelligent eyes. The suit had a rose pinned to it, and the creature was holding a cigar. None of these details meant much to Twilight, though, as the ones that reminded her so much of Discord.

The creature, like Discord, was tall. It towered over her in the same way Discord did, but where Discord often hunched over or bent down like a snake, this creature held itself up over her, straight as tower. It made Twilight feel very, very small. The second feature that Twilight found so disgustingly similar to Discord was its smile. It was perfect- nothing like Discords crooked grin with that one sharp tooth hanging out- it was thin, perfect teeth just barely showing, and it was grin that Twilight knew even if it was a different smile on a different face. It was that insincere smile that said, “You’re a toy to me. I’m going to enjoy breaking you.” It was the detail that suddenly made Twilight more than a little worried for her safety.

The creature had lingered a while longer than it would have normally, but Twilight had no knowledge of that. She just knew that as soon as she had enough time to take in what she saw, it vanished- poof- puff of smoke included, and she was completely alone. Twilight found that her energy had finally returned and she got up to take a look around at her surroundings. She was in what she might describe as a meadow. The grass was green, trees were sparse, bunnies were plentif- wait what were those? Twilight took a moment as she stared at one of the little fluffy critters that she’d woken up near. It looked just like a rabbit- if rabbits had antlers. It was a jackalope. They were rare in Equestria, but here every rabbit she saw was a jackalope.

Curiosity compelled her to examine the specimen more closely, however before she could get anywhere near one, the poor thing squealed like it had just seen bloody murder and dashed for its burrow. Twilight was shocked. She was by no means an animal expert, but she was at least used to animals not treating her like a predator. She attempted further with several more of the jackalope bunnies, but to the same result. These creatures had experienced something to make them innately afraid of her. Twilight had no explanation she could think of offhand. She would have continued thinking about the matter, but that creature’s words held a certain truth to them- she needed to find food.

There were berry bushes aplenty in this meadow, all promising a bountiful harvest, but the berries were a bright red, which Twilight knew to be a common sign of poison in nature (after all, it was why nopony ate tomatoes for the longest time) and decided not to risk it unless absolutely necessary. She explored the land for little more than an hour before she found a decent substitute. It was an orange root just barely noticeable above the ground, one that was impossible to mistake- it was a carrot. It took nothing more than a quick levitation based yank to free the root from the ground, and Twilight had something to eat, not that she was particularly hungry at the moment. Not knowing how long she could be here, Twilight knew she needed to ration her food. She now faced a new problem. Twilight realized that she had no saddlebags! She had nowhere to put anything! She began pacing in an attempt to help herself think.

“Okay, Twilight, this can worked around. All you need to do is come up with some sort of holding container. You have learned a number of magics, so it should be n-”

She lost her telekinetic grip on the carrot as a sudden realization jolted her in a stupor. She thought, and she thought, and she thought, and the more she thought the more she noticed that she couldn’t think about. She couldn’t remember her spells. She couldn’t remember her spells!

Twilight powered up her horn and attempted a magic that had come naturally to her for years despite its level- teleportation. She picked a spot to focus on, channeled the magic, and… couldn’t remember what came next. The energy glowing on her horn dissipated, and she stood there, horrified. She couldn’t remember her own magic. It was as if the very knowledge had been sealed away from her. She had no magic! The very thing that defined her was suddenly missing! She began pacing again trying to form some kind of explanation.

“Okay, can’t use magic. Why can’t I use magic? Obvious answer: that creature did something to me. It was obviously skilled in magic since it knew how to make that machine and could project its voice through the phonograph. Now, how can I get my magic back? I have no idea whatsoever. I can’t even teleport, although I can still use levitation, but that’s not even considered a cantrip since even unicorn foals can manage levitation, and this puts me back at a level that even a schoolfilly would laugh at, and I can only imagine what I might look like to Celestia right now, some protege I am, not even able to teleport, and they’re going to have to put me back into magic kindergarten after this! Oh no. I’ll have to learn the basics of transformation all over again! ‘What’s the magical structure of summons spell?’ I have no idea! I’m a failure to magic! F-A-I-L-U-R-E. How can this happen to me? I’m the Element of Magic! No! I don’t deserve to be called the Element of Magic! How can I claim to be the Element of Magic like this!? If I tried to wear it now, it’d probably reject me! Oh no. The Elements are a bond we share! What’s going to happen if I can’t be part of that any more!? I’m going to have to give up my friends! That can’t happen! How can I possibly hope to find anyone that can make up for them!? I’ll be all alone again, and this time I’ll actually notice! No, wait, I’m already alone! There’s no one else here! I don’t know where I am, I have no magic, I’m lost, I’m alone, the sun’s going down, it’ll be dark soon, I’m hungry, all I have is a carrot, I don’t have any way of making a fire, and I’m going to die out here! Alone! Alone… would they follow me in? Are they searching for me? Are they under the same curse that I am? What it they are? I can’t just die out here if they’re searching for me! My friends will find me, and I refuse to die! So I need to… build a fire! ...No it’s getting a little late for that and I don’t have any wood. Those saplings, though… those look like some good sticks… and these rocks that I’ve seen everywhere… these are flint! Well, I think with some grass, and a couple of sticks I could make a decent torch, magic or no magic!”

And thus Twilight crunched down her carrot, dirt and all, and gathered her materials before facing the real problem- getting a spark. She wasn’t exactly a fillyscout, and it was getting dark. Really dark… Twilight resorted to the old knock-em-into-each-other-and-hope-it-works method. Sparks were coming off the rocks, but weren’t doing anything for the grass wrapped twigs, so she tried more of a scratching method she thought might direct the sparks toward the torch. It was working, but the dry grass was still a bit reluctant, until Twilight saw the grass catch, and did it ever catch! The torch lit up like the grass was magnesium, and the glow surrounded Twilight. A good thing, she found, since she noticed she couldn’t see past the torch-light. It was literally pitch black, and worse- she thought she saw eyes looking at her. It looked like white eyes were looking in at her from all around in the dark. This whole ordeal was frightening; they looked like they could come in and attack her at any time, and it was as if the torch was the only thing keeping them at bay. Twilight shuddered to think what might’ve happened had she not gotten her torch lit in time.

Looking at her source of light and life, Twilight realized that it probably wouldn’t last the night, so with her limited vision she scrounged around for materials with which to make a second torch, all while hoping for another carrot, because she realized that she was only getting hungrier, but she needed some way to carry more. She was reaching the limits of here levitation, which (she realized with no small deal of pain) was actually much less powerful than it was normally. It was like there was an invisible limiter on her horn. The dark wasn’t helping, or those ever present eyes. Wait… there wasn’t anywhere in this meadow for monsters to hide, was there? So where would these come from? Even when she walked toward them, they just vanished… so they might just be figments of her terrified imagination. That seemed logical, and so Twilight decided to go with that theory for the time being, and it reminded her of a familiar tune she began to hum to herself as she explored, got her second torch ready and searched for carrots.

“Giggle at the ghosty, guffaw at the grossly, crack up at the creepy, whoop it up with the weepy, chortle at the kooky, snortle at the spooky.”

Twilight giggled at Pinkie Pie’s ridiculous song- the song that taught them not to be afraid of what couldn’t hurt them, and Twilight found it to be comforting despite the fact that the eyes did not, in fact, disappear. They still couldn’t hurt her, and that made them a good deal less scary. Not nonexistent, but a solid deal less terrifying. They did disappear with the rise of the sun though. As the sun came up a tired, frightened, but very alive Twilight Sparkle snuffed out her second torch in hopes of saving it for the following night. The sun rose on a new day that Twilight was determined to make it through. ...And maybe sample some of those tasty looking red berries.

p4 One Step Forward, Six Steps Back

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.