Chapters Dash: -It's a way out, Twilight, a way out!
Twilight: -Don't go there in a hurry. If we are able to use this engine to return, anyone who finds it here will be able to use it, too. This toy chariot proves that those guys are dangerous to ponies and worlds.
Daring 2: -Why do you think it leads to a conclusion? That door could be opened only from outside, that could be just an accident.
Twilight: -Whatever. Now when the exit works, somepony should guard it.
Daring 2: (to Daring 1) -Daring, do you mind guarding it with me?
Daring 1: -I can do it. I'm still feeling bad though.
Daring 2: (to Twilight) -You can go. We have this covered.
Luna continued to look at the screen. The fact that Twilight already had appeared in the room, was noticed only when others began shouting, and Twilight's arrival stunned her.
Luna: -Twilight! This is so good, it was a long wait. What happened there?
Twilight: -Some of us are injured. Serious evil forces inhabit that world. One of the monsters was able to cast powerful fire spells, we barely made it through.
Fluttershy: -There are food supplies there, you can go. Don't go away from the safe path though. You might run into them, and they *are* dangerous.
Pinkie: -I'm glad to see you smiling. We haven't found a way home, yes, but that's not a problem. (seeing Twilight's expression) -A bit of a problem.
Luna: -Okay then. Ponies, prepare for the trip.
Fluttershy: -Be careful. Some things in that place look terrifying.
Applejack: -And we've been to only certain rooms of the realm. "Terri-fying" is almost everywhere there.
Luna: -See you later.
Dash: -We should have asked them how we can help while we're here. I'll go crazy if they won't return soon.
Twilight: -For example, we can study this device.
Dash: - Which place would you select to be the next?
Twilight: -Probably the next one? We can't choose it without them, and while Dash is still injured.
Dash: -Then ask Fluttershy to tell us a story. This idling is unbearable!
Twilight: -Think how long they must have waited for us. Feeling better?
Pinkie: - You're doing it wrong. Dashie, they'll be so grateful if we manage to wait for them! Feeling better?
Twilight: (Irritated) Okay, fine. You want me to select the next world?
Pinkie: -Maybe it's better to select randomly?
Twilight: -Do we want to blame ourselves if we got unlucky?
Dash: -Just choose already. There's no sense in arguing, right?
The screen flashed, and a beautiful grassland appeared, with a coastline and something like a village were visible in a distance.
Twilight: -Oh, this picture! And it looks like the exit is already active. Looks promising.
Applejack: -There might be some society.
D: -It's just wonderful!
Twilight: (facehoof) -Fine, go. I'll wait for Princess.
Applejack: -Wait, something ain't right here. We don't have the exit, and the air doesn't match with the weather. It's like we're in a cellar.
Dash: -Finally... what?
A flash of light, then blackness.
Rarity: -What is it? I can't see!
Applejack: (bumping into a wall) -There's a wall. Don't tell me the sky was fake!
Dash: -Why did we even... Where's the exit! Where!
Then, the black dome above them showed an image of... Discord on his throne!
Chaos: -Planning to leave? I'm afraid I intentionally put the entrance into my lab. Do you know how stubborn are those intruders from outer world.
Applejack: -Discord. What are you doing here.
Chaos: -Who's Discord? Don't call me that. It's unpleasant for me. Call me Chaos. That's my name, my goal, and my plan.
Dash: -*What* are you doing in this world?
Chaos: -Chaos. But really, what kind of question is this? You will find chaos in every world, even without search.
Applejack: -Big deal. Mind releasing us? Just want to know.
Chaos: -Of course? What use are you to me? But since you're here and I'm going to release you, let me plan a party for you. Which will only make for my goals, hope you understand. And please don't try to refuse. I won't allow you anyway. (not seeing enough fear on their faces) Old humor. Whatever. Enough talk, time is chaos!
The image disappeared. A sound came from the top, and then a beam appeared in the middle, which reflected from the sides and floor of the dome, now reflective, so there was no place to escape to.
Applejack: -Twiligh...
The beam changed color certain times, then disappeared, and the floor sunk, revealing rising water.
Rarity: -What evil this is!
Applejack: -He wants to drown us! Rainbow!..
They weren't trying to say it aloud, but now they could hear each other's whisper.
Chaos: (to himself) -And it can be called done. Now the waterfall.
That moment, Chaos disabled the entrance link, forcing the terminal to find another, default gate, revealing true imagery of the world.
He turned the switch, and the floor dropped, and so did the ponies - now sea creatures.
Now Chaos could prepare the invention he planned to use for this party. Magical pulling engine began warming up, and his ship began its drift to the most suitable point over the bay.
Nopony was getting into view on the screen.
Twilight: "This may mean the entrance to the field broke, and another entrance became active. So I couldn't check if they're okay even if I go there. It's over water, how can we get to the other gate?"
"Or maybe they met an enemy and turned off the gate? Wouldn't make sense either, though."
She switched display to the previous world. The screen showed the stone corridor at the gate. Nopony was there. Just silence. She could try to send herself there right then, because that was strange, where were they, they told her they will be at the gate! And she was to alert them! The gate was working, the realm was marked green on the list, so she could move there and back without help. And she did so.
The corridor was silent. She went through explored part of it, wary of possible dangers. When the automatic door set opened, she saw Luna working near the entrance of the secret room with crates and using the tools from found inconvenient toolkit.
The loud sound of opening doors alerted her, she dropped the tool and stared at Twilight.
Luna: -Why are you here? Did something happen?
Twilight: -Yes, and it's serious. We had found a world resembling Equestria there, and wanted to investigate...
Luna: -Then let them, we'll be there soon.
Twilight: -They went there already, but when they did, something broke. I don't know what's happening there.
Daring 1: -Another one. And a dead end.
In one of these rooms decorated with green wallpaper, second to last, they found another big ball, this one was purple. It wasn't the end of extents of these corridors, they had passed the intersection on the way, so there might be something else on the other path. But, as they were already far from the gate and they found some new objects, among which there were two big balls and four small orbs, they could return to tell the story, or at least try to organize the items scattered throughout all the rooms. They decided to lay them all, except for big orbs, on the floor in the room with orange metal walls. It wasn't the biggest one, but there was a lot of space. It was going to take some minutes.
Twilight: -Where is Daring though, I hoped to see them near the gate?
Luna: -I told them not to leave the place, but ponies get bored, and eventually we agreed that they can explore. We have no good options here, and your news is making it all much worse. We don't have big supplies of food, so I was going to go with them once I do what's important here with magic. Of course, let us find where they are.
They went to the biggest room that's also closest to the gate. When they came to the middle, the door opened and Daring 1 came.
Luna: -How did this go?
Daring 1: -Most importantly, we found two of those balls which could only be carried with magic. Other than that and some shining things and more rooms, nothing much.
Luna: -Let's see quickly. We should use the gate anyway, and gathering talking balls together may yield more solutions.
-Do not bring. Only in water.
That's what the balls said when Luna, Twilight and Daring 2 came. They left the first one to be responsible for the camp.
They couldn't move the balls elsewhere yet because there wasn't any appropriate place. As for the world with water, the picture changed drastically since Twilight had seen it before. It showed the same bay, but now the water was dark, rather opaque. The scary flying dish engines were visible further, pulling the vortices of water from the surface with humming sound, creating strong winds around the area. The sky was clear but greenish gray. Twilight gasped.
Twilight: -But... the water was normal before. Why should those things appear now, of all times?
Luna was unsure. But coming there until it was too late was obviously a better option. So she asked Twilight to come if the winds cease.
She appeared near the cannons and began firing warning impulse spells on them, flying around them at some distance. They tried to attack with spinning motion, still keeping with their water suction. Then she fired more powerful piercing spells, disabling one of the cannons. The spells weren't working as expected, bet they made some effect. After certain minutes, the cannons exploded simultaneously. But the debris didn't fall into the water. It teleported away in all directions, parts of them spawning all over the place in the sky, then fell. Luna had to use shield magic to avoid the stream of metal pieces.
After being dropped into the water, ponies began struggling to rise to the surface. Dash saw Fluttershy near her and thought about how she can help her rise. Then she tried to hold her, while also flapping her fins and tail.
Dash: -Fluttershy, do you hear me?
Fluttershy: -I think I can rise from here, Dash.
Applejack: -Look there, he's dropping something.
Dash: -How are we supposed to stop him from here? ...Those things are doing something to the water.
Rarity: -Not the water. There is a spell working. I think it changes everything in the water.
Fluttershy: -Is he trying to fill the place with disorder?
Rarity: -That is expected from him.
Luna watched as the ship took off from the big mountain peak on the land, started flying away and became hidden behind the mountain. The shape of the land was dark, there was sun shining from that direction though, and the dark clouds were concentrated only over the area of the mountain and current area, probably summoned by the engines.
Princess signaled to Twilight. Twilight appeared, Luna teleported to catch her and then they flew to the nearest cliffs, using telekinesis that worked as expected here.
Luna didn't notice anything strange about the water. But there were their friends, now touched by local type of chaos, and thinking new thoughts.
Pinkie: "I am doing what? Where are the rocks I was gathering? Just can't remember. I was supposed to be best at this! I will prove!"
Dash: "I feel dizzy... Not... sinking... I was to get away from here... stupid... place."
Applejack: "A school of fish! They won't get away!"
Fluttershy: "The cave. They won't get me. They will not find me!"
Rarity: "Where did I leave the gems? Who are these? Ah, they kicked me to steal from me! Argh. They will pay... I'll make them confess. Where they hide them."
And they swam in different directions, Rarity tried to follow Dash but lost sight of her, and went after Fluttershy. Pinkie tried to convince Applejack that collecting rocks is useful. It led to an argument and Pinkie gave up. Then Applejack was noticed by one of the green sharks and tried to swim away screaming "Not that kind of fish!" She wasn't fast though, and shark did bite her certain times. "Help! Help, something bites me!"
Princess reached one of the higher ledges near the coast, and set Twilight on the ground. The rock was warm, whereas the air was not that warm, however, warmer than over the sea. There was also some unusual soft lichen on it.
Twilight: -Oh, this tempts for... relief.
She lay down on the rock.
Luna: -Tell me when you get ready to fly to the summit. Something related to the storm was there and flew away, so we'd better check that place before it returns.
Dash: "What's with this place, where does it end? Ever since I left the city of..."
Something flew past her; she noticed a spherical, gemstone-like creature to the right, that was trying to aim an underwater cannon.
Dash: "Those things again... the Various... got to hide..."
There was nowhere to hide.
Some other Various appeared near her, grabbed her with robotic tentacles and teleported away.
Fluttershy swam to the island, and around the coastline to find some cave in the rocks. It took about thirty minutes, but she found it at the opposite side. It even had surface to open air inside it, so she considered this day lucky for her.
Pinkie didn't go far, but gathered a big pile of small stones in the area.
When Luna reached the high ledge near the top, they became aware how hot the air was up there, even though that wasn't at all noticeable from below because of the green fog.Now, they could see all the smoke coming out of the mountain - the volcano. And that thing had risen from the crater, which was obviously very hot.
They looked to the other side. A deserted land with rivers of lava steadily flowing from the volcano, and there were some houses, or otherwise buildings made of metal. Further away, there were outlines of other mounts with signs of plant life.
A lot of trees were intact, but it was visible that the plants were starting to burn in some places.
Then they saw something flying in the fog. The creature looking like a bat, but almost as big as a grown-up dragon. In the following minutes, some of these beasts descended toward the trees, launching fireballs at them.
Twilight: -Looks like they're burning the trees.
Then a sound came from behind. Another dragon rose from the smoke above the peak. Then another, different one went toward the water and disappeared in the fog, a literal dark sphere with wings.
Twilight: -Makes sense they would live inside it. But why would they?
Luna: -Something about this world we may not know, but they could be changed by magic of the mountain or a different powerful being to destroy the life on the island and around it.
Twilight: -It doesn't make sense that we came here, and everything got summoned for destruction. It's almost like that previous world, filled with evil that doesn't have an origin.
Luna: -There should be an origin, something that makes them appear. Likely inside. As for now, we could teleport to the buildings to see better. We'll likely have to confront some of the fliers.
They teleported to the nearest building they saw below. To discover a huge statue of Discord standing under a steep slope.
Luna became angry.
Luna: -Now that's what's happening here. A Draconequus. I did sense some magic from the hurricane, but it's not like Discord's magic. Maybe this one likes destruction. Though still, it's not clear why he did this and where are the others. Maybe he wants to destroy our support.
Twilight: -Princess. This. (Pointing at the defensive structure with a minigun) This looks like a cannon for defending the building.
Luna: -I would want to see what these shoot with. I will not though, we better be unnoticed.
Twilight: -It seems the barn is an armoury full of explosives. They have the same marks we've already seen.
Luna: -Interesting how somepony could live here and disappear without taking the means of defense.
Twilight: -Maybe they took only food and supplies. Or they have another depot somewhere; there are...
Luna: -The interesting part is that the dragons suddenly vanished, maybe teleported, certain of them simultaneously. And the smoke from the crater ceased, too.
Twilight: -Meaning we can explore?
(Sound of a minigun)
Twilight: -What is that.
Luna: -The cannon is rather serious. I am thinking common magic shields are useless against this. (sound again)
Twilight: -Too bad they need to use such weapons. But there is a statue, what if they are guards of a Draconequus?
Luna: -That would be sad.
Applejack: -Ugly fish, stop chasing me! (swimming under a group of rocks) You know what, you're... a shark! What do I do! (jumping out of water and diving) " 'this fish... no use" (swimming into a strait between two islands) "shallow! Oh cave... be a good cave... " (swimming into) Oh it cannot reach me... now just need to get out for air. -oh help. I doomed."
Fluttershy: "And the best place" -to hide, is This! (spotting a fissure, grabbing air, diving into)(seeing spiky fish ahead)
"or is it worse" (turning back, accidentally going another way at the fork)
Fluttershy: "oh where am I" "What is that ball? How did air get here?" "Okay, I stay away from scary balls, where is the exit"
Upon her arrival though, a white sphere began activating by itself. Then it exploded into nothing, and water took its place, creating a weak wave.
"Aaah th-" -she screamed, inhaling some water.
Applejack: "It what? Disappeared? Okay, about time... I'm not going to open sea again..." (suddenly thinking about better kinds of fish) "For now..."
Rarity: (approaching Fluttershy's cave entrance) "Why would she even need it! They just steal everything they..." (slowing down) "Let me think. Why do I need them so much? Maybe they wanted it because I wanted it, ...but why do I want it? ... Strange. Maybe I got mad. I *will* find her now, but why was I so careless." (Diving into a tunnel) "Anyway, she even has a secret hiding place. How sinister of her."
(Looking at the intersection) -She knows where she hides. But I'll find her.
Fluttershy: (hearing the words) "Oh no. Every dolphin in the world wants to hurt me. I didn't do anything to them!"
Rarity: -Gotcha. Who are you?
Fluttershy: -I am Warm Stream. Please don't hurt me. I...
Rarity: -Why did you want my gems?
Fluttershy: -What gems?
Rarity: -Someone stole them. It was you, was it not?
Fluttershy: -I didn't steal anything, why would I?
Rarity: -You knew this place and went here to hide from me! Why would you?
Fluttershy: -I do this all the time, when I feel something wants to chase me.
Rarity: -You must be incorrigible. Anyway, I am Gemstone, and if you, (yelling) try something again!
Fluttershy: -I didn't!
Rarity: -Do you know who did?
Fluttershy: -I don't!
Rarity: (calming) fine then. Nice place, by the way.
Fluttershy: -Actually, there have been a shining ball which exploded when I came.
Rarity: -That's... ...Nonsense! I would want to see a shining ball, but... they don't explode that way! Ridiculous. Goodbye! "Did I say good?"
Dash: -Let go! You can't get Spectrum!
The place they teleported to, was Various hive. There were legends that the Various are ruled by a huge polyhedron monster with a lot of holes arms and spikes come out from and retract to. And there were various types of Various. All of them used to suddenly come out and ambush sea creatures in numbers. They were becoming more vicious as their hive grew, and lately were much more dangerous than when they first appeared. The hive also had different parts: its core was metal since it was built from underwater buildings of humans, the rest was made of red clay and rock shreds.
So one of the Holder Various negotiated with a nearest hive maintenance drone, then a group with cannons came. But then they all suddenly disappeared.
Dash: -What did I do? -"Go find the exit before... it's so useless though."
The hive didn't have any air spots. Drones didn't need it. So she was to find something that leads out of the hive.
After certain minutes of boring pathfinding, she found a metal gateway. After opening it and another one, she dropped with a waterfall from the rock above the surface.