STRANDED
By: Time Shield
PROLOGUE: “Alone”
Well, here I am. It’s been a long time, but it’s finally time for me to tell everypony about what happened to me. I can only imagine what they originally thought after my sudden and abrupt disappearance, with no clues as to where I went. It’s going to be difficult to explain; even as I sit and write this, I’m having a hard time sorting fact from imagination. I’ll do my best to explain things as I remember them, and despite everything that’s happened, I still remember how it all started. I’ll begin with the phrase I made sure to repeat to myself every day, so that I wouldn’t forget who I was or where I was.
My name is Fluttershy, and I’ve been stranded in the Realm of Chaos.
I was there visiting Discord, the spirit of chaos. The two of us had become close friends over time, and just as I had watched him grow to understand the magic of friendship, he too began to teach me about the amazing potential that our world offered. I began to understand how he thought, and I felt pride in how well he began adapting to our ways in return. The idea that he might one day be able to live among us in harmony seemed impossible, but if he taught me anything, it’s that the impossible can always become possible.
It was all going so well, until that tea party—that awful tea party—brought it all crashing down. He brought me for the first time to the Realm of Chaos, and I prepared myself for his usual craziness; in fact, I found myself quite looking forward to seeing what he might do. But instead, he was making an effort to be normal, not his typical chaotic self. It felt so wrong to see him acting this way, and this feeling became a reality when he began to fade from existence right before my eyes. I realized that a creature of chaos such as himself couldn’t live as a normal pony would, and the normality was destroying him.
I pleaded with him to do something chaotic, to return to his former self, but he was too far gone. I panicked, and I didn’t know what to do. Of all the things I could have done, I did what I realize now was the worst thing to do: I just froze. I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t think anything, and just watched as he continued to fade. Before I could even find my voice to speak to him again, he had faded out completely. Discord was gone.
I stared in shock at the spot where he was previously sitting, waiting for him to reappear, hoping that it was all just some sort of joke he was playing on me. All I could think was that it wasn’t real; it couldn’t be real. When he did not return, and it dawned on me that he was gone forever, I collapsed onto the ground and began to cry. I cried for hours. I cried until there was nothing left for me to cry.
Once I got a hold of myself, I tried to clear my head and understand the situation I was in. Discord was gone, and I was still in the Realm of Chaos. Would the Realm disappear as well? Would I be returned home if it did, or would I disappear with it? The thought terrified me, and I began to fly around Discord’s home in a blind panic, tapping on things and testing to see if they too were beginning to deteriorate just as Discord had. Everything seemed solid, which was a relief, but only briefly so until the next fact struck me: I was only able to come here because of Discord’s magic, and without it, I couldn’t leave.
I was stranded here, alone.
Going to the door, I opened it and peered outside. The endless vistas of the Realm of Chaos spread before me, a swirling vortex that seemed to extend forever. It was like looking out from a boat onto a stormy sea, unsure if any direction would eventually take you to land. Only this sea wasn’t flat, but went in all directions. There was no guarantee that any direction I chose to go would lead me out, and if I left, I knew it was unlikely I would be able to find my way back.
But I couldn’t stay here. Even if this piece of the Realm was made to be normal just for me, there wasn’t much for me to live on. A quick search of the house turned up no food or water besides the tea and sandwiches that Discord had prepared for the tea party. I would starve here before long… no, I would dehydrate before I starved. Staying here would certainly be a death sentence for me. I decided that the sooner I started out, the better chance I had of making it somewhere before my supplies ran out.
I took one of the pillowcases on the couch and put the sandwiches inside; after this, I wrapped up the teapot so that the remaining tea wouldn’t spill and put it into the pillowcase as well. Before I left the house, I took one last glance behind me at the couch, and the place where Discord had vanished. I didn’t want to leave; I knew I was clinging to the last shred of hope that he might reappear, that he would fix everything, that I wouldn’t be alone anymore. But I had to ignore it, and accept that he was not coming back. I didn’t have Discord, or my other friends, or my home. These meager supplies were everything I had now, and my survival depended on them lasting me until I could find another source of food and water.
Whispering a final, “I’m sorry,” I flew up and away from the house, into the endless expanse of the Realm of Chaos, my sights set on one goal: finding a way back home.
TO BE CONTINUED…
STRANDED
By: Time Shield
ENTRY 1: “Void”
It’s hard to say what was the hardest part of my journey back. The first portion is a contender though, not because of any difficulties I had in particular but because of the complete uncertainty I felt. This, combined with my lack of understanding about the Realm of Chaos, left me so afraid that I could barely think straight at times. Still, I’ll do my best to describe things moment to moment as they were when they happened.
As I distanced myself from Discord’s home, I felt a shift in weight as gravity abruptly vanished; after a moment of flailing, I steadied myself and continued to fly in what I assumed was a straight line. Thankfully I realized that the lack of gravity meant I didn’t have to work as hard to keep moving forward. Sometimes I flapped my wings to push myself forward a bit, just in case I was slowing down in any way, but for the most part I let my momentum carry me onward.
Having to think less about flying meant that I was spending more time thinking about other things. How long before my friends back home begin looking for me? I thought. Sometimes I don’t see them for a few days; will they get worried and check on me then? Maybe Rainbow Dash will stop by for something and discover my disappearance sooner. Oh, I hope that happens… the sooner they start looking, the sooner I could possibly be found…
But I realized that even if they did figure out that I had disappeared, could they even trace me back to the Realm of Chaos? As this doubt lingered, I forced myself to remain positive. Twilight’s smart, I thought, and she’ll be able to find some kind of spell that will locate me. But will it be strong enough? Oh, maybe if Starlight tried; she’s so talented at magic. The two of them together, they can definitely do it. I have to have faith that they will. I was at my cottage when Discord teleported me to his home, so they’ll be able to find the disappearance point, and maybe there’s some kind of magic trail. They’ll surely start looking from my cottage; I mean, it was also the last place that…
I gasped and exclaimed, “Angel!”, the first thing I had spoken aloud since I had left Discord's home. My heart suddenly raced as I realized that Angel was on his own, as were the other animals I was watching. This was both bad and good; bad in that they didn’t have anypony watching over them anymore, and good in that maybe one of them could somehow help Twilight and the others find me. It was a simultaneously comforting and saddening thought.
I tried to keep these thoughts in mind as I pressed onward, but it was becoming more and more difficult to concentrate. The swirling void around me was almost hypnotic; I could feel myself moving forward, but that was the only frame of reference I had, because visually it seemed as though I could have been sitting still. Trust in your feelings, I thought. Don’t let this place get to you. I tried to focus and hold onto what senses I could trust in this place.
Hours passed, I suppose. It’s impossible to know how long actually passed, as there was no sun or moon in this place. That revelation alone made me feel even more lost. In Equestria, it was always comforting to have the sun overhead as a reminder that Princess Celestia was there, raising and lowering it and helping keep Equestria safe. Even the moon was reassuring in its own way, knowing that Princess Luna was watching over everypony at night. But none of that was available here, and it only served to show that Celestia and Luna had no influence over the Realm…
…Or, wait, was that a moon?
I saw something up ahead, the first thing that had appeared in the void since Discord’s home had passed out of view behind me. It was round and resembled a broken chunk of rock, and I realized that it was small, only about a few feet across. It must have only been a few yards ahead of me. Curiously, I continued to move towards it, and I immediately saw that something wasn’t quite right with the way it appeared. I could still feel I was moving forward quickly, but it wasn’t getting closer as fast as I was moving. Furthermore, it seemed like it was… growing? It rapidly expanded in my view until it was a few dozen feet across, and kept going. It was startling, and looking back on it, I realize now that it wasn’t just a perspective issue, but rather that the size and position of the rock was changing to match the perspective. This was one of the many things I’d have to get used to in the Realm over time.
Once it had reached a size that seemed at least a hundred feet across, I could suddenly feel gravity again, pulling me towards it. Disoriented, I started flapping to slow myself down. I very nearly crashed into the thing but managed to slow just enough that I just landed forcefully instead. Now, with the feeling of gravity around me, my balance and perspective shifted along with it; as I sat up, it looked and felt like I was on the surface of a relatively small rocky world. I looked around for a moment to get my bearing and rubbed my hoof that had slammed into the ground the hardest.
Thankfully, I still had a hold of the pillowcase with my supplies, and the teapot inside was undamaged. I decided that now was as good a time as any to rest for a moment and regain my strength for the ongoing flight. I took out a sandwich and ate it slowly, looking around at the landscape to see if I could spot anything else here. Nothing but barren rock in all directions up until the horizon curved out of view. Still, it wasn’t that big, so I figured I would take a look once I finished up here, just in case there was anything of value. I took a sip of tea directly from the teapot to finish my little meal and wrapped everything up carefully again before setting off.
As I trotted towards some small peaks on the horizon, something similar to my arrival began to happen: I was clearly moving forward, but the horizon seemed to stretch outward as I walked, becoming increasingly harder to reach it. After only a few minutes, I took to the air to get some additional speed, but after an hour of flying I still couldn’t seem to reach the peaks. Eventually the futility of it made me stop and sigh in frustration, and I decided enough was enough, changing my direction and flying out towards the chaotic skies of the Realm.
The gravity seemed to have increased, however, and it got stronger the further away from the surface I flew. I flapped and flapped, trying to gain distance, but when I looked down I was barely a foot or two off the ground, and the rock seemed immense, heading out in all directions as if it were an entire world. My fear began to rise as I put all my effort into getting distance, but it was completely useless; at last, my strength gave out and I fell what turned out to be only a few inches back to the rock. The gravity pressed me against the ground, and I found it difficult to move a single hoof. My breathing quickened; I thought, A-am I stuck here? No, there has to be a way to get free…
As I struggled, the ground beneath me abruptly tremored, and I gasped, looking around to try and find the source. What I saw caused me to freeze in terror: a gigantic eye, maybe as large as the moon for all I could see of it, loomed overhead on a jagged spire of rock that curved from the edge of the sky. The eye was bright lavender speckled with red, and it was fixed directly upon me. It watched for a long moment, and I watched wordlessly back, trembling in the fear that had now seized me. Before I could find my voice to try and say something, the peaks on the opposite horizon began to grow and curve towards me, forming an enormous mouth lined with thousands of jagged teeth that each had to have been miles across by themselves.
I panicked and began to thrash, trying to roll or move, take flight, or anything to get away, but I remained pinned as if by an invisible force, the gravity far too strong to overcome. Not that it mattered, because even had I been able to fly, there was no way I could have escaped the impossibly cavernous mouth that was large enough to swallow half the planet I was on. I screamed and cried out hysterically, pleading for somepony to help me… anypony. I even called out Discord’s name, in the dim hope that my peril would snap him back from whatever nothingness he had vanished…
It wasn’t Discord that saved me, but something else: a gigantic white rectangle that spun unexpectedly through the skies of the Realm, and my mind couldn’t process what I was looking at. It was huge, bigger even than the eyeball that had been staring at me, and this size difference became further apparent when the point of the object stuck itself into the pupil of the eye. The mouth stopped its descent towards me and gave a cacophonous shriek…
…And in the next instant, my perspective of my surroundings changed again. I was still resting upon the odd rock creature with its eye stalk and curved mouth, but now it was considerably smaller, although still larger than I was. The invisible force that held me disappeared just as quickly, and I flew away from it immediately. My vision was blurry from the panic, and my heart beating out of control, but I tried to calm down and take a better look at the creature. Its eye stalk was thrashing from side to side, trying to dislodge the object stuck in it, which now appeared to be… an envelope? It shook the intruding object free and began to fly away, shrinking as it did.
The envelope, in the meantime, drifted towards me as if carried by a chaotic breeze until it passed behind me, and I heard the rustle of paper as it was grabbed out of the air. Turning around, I saw the outline of a pony in the distance, holding the envelope in its hoof and drifting closer, becoming more visible.
“Whew… Glad I came along when I did, huh?” the slightly frazzled but relieved-looking mailpony told me, tucking the envelope into a bag on his back. “Say, ah… do you happen to know the way out of here?”
TO BE CONTINUED…
