The day was beautiful in Ponyville as ponies trotted around the town, going about their daily lives. A few clouds hung in the air, one of them carrying a certain rainbow maned pegasus as she napped. She was woken abruptly however when she heard a loud squeal coming from the nearby library.
“What the heck was that about?” Rainbow Dash asked nopony in particular. Shrugging her shoulders, she decided to check in on her friend since she had nothing better to do. She could always get an update on when the next Daring Do book might be published.
Flying down to the door, she knocked on the wooden structure several times before it was finally opened by the small dragon. “Oh! Hi there Rainbow Dash. What brings you here today?” Spike greeted
“Hey Spike, just popping by to check on Twilight. I could hear her squealing from up there,” Rainbow replied as she let herself inside.
“Heh, she did get pretty loud just now. She just received a new spell book, and a letter from Princess Celestia. Apparently the princess thinks she’s ready for the next step in her magic training,” he explained as he lead Rainbow Dash to the second floor. Once there, the two could see Twilight at her reading table, already engrossed in the fairly old looking book.
“Hey Twilight, Spike said you got a new book? Is it really that big of a deal?” Rainbow asked as she approached her friend.
“It’s more than a big deal,” Twilight spoke. She turned away from the book to regard her friend. “Princess Celestia sent me one of the few spell books that was written by THE Starswirl the Bearded! I’ve already looked at a few of the spells, and there’s a lot that look pretty complicated.”
“Heh, sounds like you’re going to be up for a few days studying then, Egghead. So, I’m guessing this Starswirl the breaded is pretty important then.”
Twilight gasped when Rainbow didn’t show any recognition to such an important pony. “Starswirl the BEARDED is only like the biggest name in magical studies! He was the most talented unicorn of his time a thousand years ago!”
“A thousand years ago, huh? That’s pretty cool. It’s a good thing we have our own talented unicorn. You could probably give him a run for his bits if you two met now,” Rainbow said as she trots up to the book.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Twilight spoke with a sheepish smile, a dusting of pink on her cheeks. “I might be talented, but he created many of the spells that most unicorns still use today. I doubt I can match up to him.”
“Hey, don’t doubt yourself, Twilight. If you think he’s that much better than you, then you should make it your goal to be better than him,” Rainbow argued, “So, what spell were you looking at so intensely?”
“Hm? Oh, I think it’s a variation of my teleport spell. I think I could teleport across Equestria if I put some effort into it,” Twilight said as she took her place back at her reading table.
“That sounds awesome! Just think, you could go to Las Pegasus so easily, and be on an instant vacation at the drop of a hat.”
“It’s not that simple, Rainbow. This spell is more complicated than the teleport spell I use. Instead of being able to teleport a short distance away, I need to have a clear image in my head in order to travel the longer distance. I was actually going to try teleporting myself to Applejacks home as a first attempt.”
“Not as exciting, but that sounds like a better idea. I don’t think you’ve even been to Las Pegasus before.”
“No, we have not,” Spike said as he put a few things away. He knew well enough that some of Twilight's first few attempts at new spells had disastrous results. It came with the territory though.
“Alright you two, you’ll want to stand back while I do this,” Twilight instructed. She readied herself as Spike and Rainbow stepped back a bit, taking a calming breath as she focused on the location she wanted to pop up at. With the image of Sweet Apple Acres clear in her head, she began to channel the magic of the spell she had read.
The air in the library began to move gently at first while the magic was being made, and Rainbow felt a tingle travel up her spine because of it. Twilight’s horn glowed purple as she charged the magic around her, making the air swirl around her faster. Not long into the charging of the spell, black energies began to orbit up Twilight’s horn, and formed a small black orb at the tip.
So focused into the spell, Twilight forgot about Owlowiscious, who was now hooting loudly as he got caught up in the increasing air currents, and losing a few feathers because of it. One of the feathers, by misfortune, brushed across Twilight’s nose, and caused her to lose her focus as she started to sneeze. “Ah…Ah….AH-CHOO!” Her sneeze caused an explosion of magic that sent Spike and Rainbow crashing into the wall, then collapsing to the floor as all the resulting air currents from the magic stopped.
Rainbow groaned as she got to her hooves, taking in her surroundings once more. “Ugh, what hit me? I feel like I got ran over by a wagon.”
“I think Twilight’s magic backfired when she sneezed. I don’t think that blast of magic was supposed to happen,” Spike said, stumbling as he got up. He bumped into Rainbow as he tried to stand, looking to where Twilight was.
“Uh, who- Gah!” Rainbow had started to say, but then held her head in her hooves. Her head felt like it was going to split in two from how painful it felt. Spike’s attention immediately shifted to Rainbow when she cried out in pain, rubbing her back to try and comfort her. “Ugh, Spike, where’s Twilight right now?”
Looking around, Spike couldn’t find hide or hair of his big sister. The place where she stood last had a large black circle on the flooring as if an explosion occurred. “I don’t see her, so she’s not here anyway. Maybe she got sent to Applejack’s farm like she wanted,” he answered.
Standing up on her hooves, Rainbow had a very bad feeling of what actually happened. “Somehow, I don’t think that happened. Let’s go anyway, she might be there, and knocked out as well.” With that said, Spike and Rainbow left the library, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres.
As Rainbow and Spike arrived on the farm, they saw Applejack bucking one of her trees, and making apples fall into the waiting buckets. She then took notice of her friends visiting her, and called out, “Howdy ya’ll! How are ya today?”
“Okay I suppose, but have you seen Twilight around? She was supposed to arrive here with a new teleportation spell,” Spike asked.
“Uh, say again, sugarcube? Who’s supposed to be here?” Applejack asked in return. She had clear confusion on her face.
“You know Twilight, she’s one of your best friends, Applejack. She used a new teleportation spell to come here, so have you seen her lately?”
“Ah’m sorry, sugarcube, but reckon Ah don’t know nopony called Twilight. Ya sure you’re looking for the right pony?”
“What are you talking about!? Of course you know Twilight! Are you trying to play some sort of sick prank, because it isn’t funny!” Spike was clearly upset at Applejack.
“You really don’t remember Twilight, do you AJ?” Rainbow asked. The rainbow maned pegasus was clearly bothered by her friends lack of memory of Twilight, but it was for an entirely different reason.
“Um, I don’t think so? Why, do you know her, Rainbow?” AJ asked.
“Yeah, I do, but I also didn’t for some reason a little bit ago.”
“Wait, you didn’t remember Twilight too!?” Spike asked, and getting more upset by the minute.
“Calm down Spike, neither of us knows what’s going on. I think that blast caused everypony who knew Twilight to forget about her,” Rainbow explained her thoughts.
“Magic blast? What are you two talking about?” Applejack asked in confusion.
“I don’t get it, why did the blast cause you and Applejack to forget Twilight?” Spike asked Rainbow, hoping she would have an answer.
“You think I would actually know that? I’m not a unicorn Spike, and I haven’t read about magic as much as Twilight has,” Rainbow answered, looked at Applejack to address her. “Look, I know it sounds unbelievable right now, but you have forgotten a best friend recently AJ, and it’s not your fault at all. She was casting a new spell when it backfired on her, and I can only assume it has caused everypony to forget her.”
“Well, if you say so, Rainbow. It don’t seem like you’re lying to me anyway,” Applejack muttered.
“Spike, you’re Twilight’s number one assistant, and have been with her since you were able to hold a quill. Something of her studies must have stuck with you. What’s your best guess at what happened?” Rainbow asked.
For a long moment, Spike appeared to be lost in thought as he tried to come up with an explanation. “Since Applejack hasn’t said a new pony showed up here, then Twilight must have ended up somewhere else. She might not even be in Ponyville anymore. I think the spell backfired when she sneezed, and she probably lost her focus on her destination. She could be anywhere right now.”
“Alright, that makes sense, so what about our lack of memory of her? I think we can safely assume the others have forgotten her too. And why haven’t you forgotten about Twilight?”
Again, Spike was lost in thought for a few more moments, going over every theory Twilight had ever mentioned to him. “Maybe…the blast of the backfire was the cause of it. It felt weird on my scales, like it passed over me, but still forced me back. It could have been subduing everyone’s memory of her.”
“Well that makes some sense, Ah guess. I did feel a bit odd a bit ago,” Applejack piped up.
“I must have not felt it since I was dealing with the pain of crashing into the wall,” Rainbow added, “So are you saying magic doesn’t have an effect on dragons?”
“No, I can still be affected by magic; it’s that I instinctively rejected whatever side effect of the magic that sent us flying. Twilight thinks I’ll get better control of it when I grow older. This is hypothetical now, but I think when I stumbled into you after the blast, my rejection of the magic spread to you,” Spike explained.
“I think you’re right. When you leaned on me, I was remembering all my memories about Twilight at once, but it wasn’t as pleasant as her memory spell was.”
“This is gettin’ confusing; Are ya’ll saying Ah’m under some sort of spell that’s makin’ me forget somepony important?” Applejack asked, “And only Spike holdin’ mah hoof will get rid of it?”
“Pretty much, but I think we should postpone that for now. I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia, and let her know what’s happening. Can you two gather Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, and meet me at the train station? I think the princess will want to meet with us after I send the letter,” Spike asked. It was apparent that the little dragon was getting increasingly worried about Twilight.
Noticing this, Rainbow took the air. “Don’t worry Spike, I’ll go get the girls. You and AJ head to station now,” she shouted before taking off her friends’ homes.
“Ah guess Ah’m taggin’ along,” commented Applejack. Before she even took a step away from her orchard, she turned to call to Big Mac that an emergency came up, and that she was leaving to handle it.
“Alright, then I’ll start writing the letter while you carry me,” Spike said as he hopped on her back. He then reached up under her stetson, apparently searching for something. When he pulled his claws back, he had a parchment, quill, and ink pot.
“…When in the hay did you hide that stuff in my hat? And how come I never noticed it?”
“Come on, Applejack, I made sure I was prepared to write friendship reports at the drop of a hat, literally in this case. I can’t just keep holding parchment and quills in my claws all day,” he replied as he went to work writing the letter. Applejack just huffed as she made her way to the train station.
After some time for the girls to meet up, board the next train to Canterlot, and arriving at the city on the mountain, the five mares and baby dragon soon arrived at the gates of Canterlot Castle. They were quickly escorted to Princess Celestia’s chambers, who met them all with a gentle smile on her face.
“Hello everypony, it’s good to see you all again. I wish we could have met under better circumstances,” Princess Celestia calmly spoke. They all bowed to the princess in respect, but Spike was the first to approach her.
“The letter you sent back was too short to make more sense of. Please tell me you remember Twilight?” he begged pleadingly.
Only a short moment passed before the princess responded, “I do remember Twilight, Spike. I could never forget my precious student, but I never imagined the spell book I sent her would have such disastrous results. Perhaps I was-“
“Princess, please don’t blame yourself for this. Nopony could have known what would have happened,” Rainbow interrupted, “She was pretty excited for the chance to study more spells.”
“Yes, I suppose you are right, Rainbow Dash. Thank you. Now, as I understand, you remember Twilight as well, correct?”
“Yeah, but Spike and I think it’s because he rejected the magic off of me when we touched.”
“Yes, I believe you are right to assume so.”
“Your Highness, I don’t mean to interrupt or be rude, but I’m having a hard time believing that I knew a pony called Twilight?” Rarity asked.
Princess Celestia looked at Rarity, before giving her a simple nod. “It is true; Twilight is friends with all of you. The resulting backfire of magic seems to have suppressed your memories of her. I think it was best that Spike and Rainbow brought you all here. His rejection of the magic would have made the resulting surge of memories unpleasant to bear.”
“I just feel awful that I forgot somepony,” Fluttershy muttered.
“I know! My stomach feels like it’s twisting into knots inside my belly right now. Either that, or Taco Tuesday is finally hitting me,” Pinkie Pie said.
“Pinkie, your Taco Tuesday was four days ago on a Friday,” Rainbow commented.
“Regardless, forgetting somepony so close to us is a rather dreadful thought,” Rarity muttered.
“Tell me about it, though Ah’m more confused about where she is then anything else. Ah want to know if Twilight is still in Equestria,” Applejack stated. At this, they all turned their attention to Princess Celestia. It was only then that they realized her horn had been glowing golden the entire time.
Once attention had returned to her, Princess Celestia continued, “I’m afraid I have some rather bad news about Twilight.” Turning her head, she levitated a tiara with a purple starburst gem for them to see. It drew blanks on the four ponies who couldn’t remember Twilight; however Rainbow and Spike automatically knew what it was. They also saw that the brilliant purple shine of the Element of Magic had lost a lot of its luster. “I’ve tried using a location spell to find Twilight through her connection with the Element of Magic, but I’ve had no results in finding her.”
“What does that mean, Princess?” Rainbow asked with a hint of sadness in her tone.
“It means that Twilight is either too far away to locate her, or she is no longer on the planet itself,” Princess Celestia responded solemnly.
Spike and Rainbow’s reactions to this news shook them both to their cores. “There is a bit of good news however.” Rainbow and Spike both perked up hearing this. “The Element still hasn’t lost its connection to her yet, so she is still alive and well. As painful as it is to say it, I’m afraid the only thing we can do is wait, and have faith that our dear friend will return to us one day.” The pegasus mare and dragon both exchanged looks with each other, hoping beyond hope that Twilight would be alright.
As she finally returned to her senses, Twilight found the strength to open her eyes. She felt almost completely drained of her magic, though it was returning to her slightly. “I’m going to make sure Owlowiscious isn’t in the room next time I perform spells like that again,” she said to herself. Her vision was blurry as she tried to take in her surroundings, but she at least felt cold dirt under her body.
Finally shaking off her blurry vision, Twilight took in her surroundings more clearly, and found she was nowhere near her intended destination at all. She wasn’t even close to Sweet Apple Acres from what she could see. Most of the tress in the area looked dead as no leaves hung from the branches. “Okay, I think I may have traveled further than I liked. Where am I? I don’t recognize any of the landmarks from the maps I studied.”
Indeed, as she stood up, and walked around a little, she felt the land around her was more alien to her than she liked. She then felt a little fear bubbling up inside her, and fought to keep it down, doing her breathing exercises like her favorite foal sitter taught. “Alright, calm down Twilight. All I need to do is focus on my destination, and work the spell again. I should end up right back in my library.” As she closed her eyes, she remembered the sight and sounds of her library clearly in her head, and soon tried to recall what she had read in the spell book.
A moment passed as she tried to remember the specific magical matrices of the spell, her brow furrowing as her memory of the spell seemed…far too lacking for comfort. She began to panic slowly, trying to remember what she had read, but nothing was coming to her at all. It was just a big blank space in her mind that filled her with dread with each passing minute.
“Oh no…I can’t remember the spell! Dear Celestia, I can’t remember it!” she frantically whispered. Pressing her hooves to her head, she tried squeezing on her temples, trying to force the memory to come back to her. “Why can’t I remember the spell!? This isn’t good, not good at all!” Taking another look at her surroundings, she made sure she was still alone. “Okay, okay, just calm down Twilight. You’re going to be just fine. I’m sure my friends are trying to find me even now.”
A hissing sound behind her made her jump, and turn on the spot, frantically looking around. She didn’t see anything, but she was sure she heard something. “M-my minds playing tricks on me, that’s all. I’m all alone here, and nothing frightening around to scare me… So why don’t I believe that?” she asked nopony in particular.
Another sound was made, only it came from her right, and caused her to look in the direction. Again she found nothing to see, just barren dirt and dead trees. “Maybe I should move away from here.” She was shaking on her hooves as she backed away, keeping her eyes wide open to look out for anything that might jump her.
However, her rump bumped into something hard, yet also felt flesh-like. Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks, trembling terribly as she slowly turned her head, and saw the horrible looking creature that stood behind her. It had razor sharp teeth, vicious looking claws and talons, and that was all Twilight needed to know in order to do one thing.
“YYAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!” she screamed loudly as she hightailed it as fast as possible away from the monster that now chased after her. It was terribly quick for its size, roaring and hissing as it chased after her. She ran up and down hills to try to out run it, but it kept pace with her no matter what she tried. She was too terrified to try short range teleportation, her current out-of-control fear keeping her from focusing on the spell.
Looking behind her to check where the monster was, she failed to notice the cliff she was headed toward, and fell over the edge with a loud thump. She groaned as she picked herself up, and was about to keep running. She stopped before she even started as three more of the same creatures were in front of her, and stalked ever closer, hissing and growling. Trembling in fear at the prospect of dying, Twilight finally found herself casting her teleportation spell, her horn glowing purple before popping up behind the monsters. She immediately started running again as soon as she appeared behind the freaky creatures trying to kill her, and now found herself being chased by three more of them including the one already chasing her.
“I don’t know where I am right now, but SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!!!” she screamed as she ran. She was getting tired from the running now, and now had to dodge away from them as they tried biting at her hooves. It was too late when she realized they were actually herding her, and soon stopped at the bank of a river. “Oh no! Nonononononono!”
She turned to face the monsters, watching them carefully as they stalked ever closer. She knew she could get away with another teleportation behind them, but they would just herd her again until she exhausted herself. Her thoughts then turned to what offensive magic she knew, but even she wasn’t sure if her magic was strong enough to harm their hardened carapace.
She was about to let loose a spell when the air rang with the sound of loud cracks of thunder in rapid procession, causing her to move her hooves to her ears, and try to muffle the sound. She didn’t know what caused the sound, but she watched as the four monsters were suddenly being ripped apart by something moving far too fast for her eyes to catch sight off. Their blood flew everywhere as pieces of the monsters dropped to the ground, a few specks managing to land on her hooves and cheek. She backpedaled away when the blood landed on her, and tried to not let anymore stain her purple coat.
Once the sound of thunder stopped, she dropped her hooves down, looking at the color of blood staining them. She was beginning to hyperventilate until the ground shook with loud footsteps. Looking up, she saw a large, metallic, black colored bipedal thing standing in front of her, and flanked by two others with blue coloring on them. Their helmets had orange visors to hide their faces. They were also carrying things that Twilight never saw before, and wondered if it had been those that made the awful sounds a moment ago. One of the blue metal things asked, “So marshal, do ya think it’s another type of Zerg?”
The black one shifted around, leaning over her a little as if to get a better look at her. “No, kid,” it said as the visor rolled back, revealing an alien face to Twilight, “I don’t think this is any type of Zerg. It doesn’t have the trademark carapace of one. It actually kind of reminds of those pictures of Earth horses.” As he studied her, she studied him, or at least what she could see of him as his visor slid up. His short mane was black, and his eyes were brown. But the rest of his face was flat, and looked nothing like an equine, even his pink skin was surprising to look at. “Hmm, it’s definitely different from those pictures though. The fur color doesn’t match up, and there’s a mark on both sides of its rear. Not to mention the horn on its head.”
“I-It’s actually called a Cutie Mark,” she said, and suddenly wished she hadn’t. The surprised and shocked look on the creatures face made her wilt under its gaze. “S-Sorry…”
“You… You can talk?” he asked.
“Um… Yeah, of course I can. Why wouldn’t I be able to talk?” she replied, asking a question of her own. This was starting to get exciting. First contact with an alien species, and she was the one talking to him.
“I just never expected an animal to talk,” he replied back.
“Excuse me, but I am not an animal. I’m a pony, and one of the more intelligent ones, thank you very much,” she countered. She felt insulted the alien had compared her to an animal.
“S-Sorry, I just didn’t expect a…pony to start talking. Where did you come from anyway? We’ve never seen anything like you around here before,” he asked.
“Oh, where are my manners. I’m Twilight Sparkle, personal protégé of Princess Celestia, and I come from Equestria. I was using a new spell recently, but it backfired, and teleported me here; where ever here is anyway. Can you tell me where in Equestria I am? I don’t recognize any of the landmarks from any of the maps I’ve read.”
At the mention of the names she gave, the two blue creatures snickered to each other. But a glare from her set them straight. She then turned her attention to the creature in the black metal suit as he spoke up. “Well, the names James Raynor. I’m marshal around here, but I’m afraid to say I don’t recognize any of the names you’ve given. I don’t think you are where you think you are.”
“Oh, I must have traveled further than I thought. I might even be on the other side of the planet. Eheh…” she said, her tone continuing to sound unsure with each word uttered. “S-So, where am I exactly?”
“Lady, I’ll give it you straight. I don’t think you’re even on the same planet anymore. Whatever you did, it sent you way farther than you think. You’re on Mar Sara in the Sara system within the Koprulu sector,” James answered.
Twilight’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks again as she mentally digested the information. She kept thinking it was impossible, there was no way, absolutely no way she could have teleported herself to an entirely different planet. And yet, the area around her, and the dead aliens that were killed by the three in front of her told her a different story. It all welled up inside her until she fainted, unable to process the concept anymore, and fell into the darkness of dreamless slumber.
James watched as the pony collapsed in front of him, and groaned since it appeared she fainted. “Aw shit…” were the only words to escape him at that moment.
Author's Note
With Legacy of the Void now out, I've lately felt a little inspired to make this little crossover/displacement fic. StarCraft has been one of my favorite games ever since I first played it, and I hope to make this a good story.
Please leave a like and comment below in the comment box, and tell me what you thought about this first chapter. Until next time folks!
