Nine Realms

"Twilight?"

The words were muffled in her ears, but she recognised her own name when she heard it. However, it was as if it was being spoken to her from far away. Even so, there was a clear sense of worry behind it.

"Twilight?!"

There it was again, louder this time, and more clear. The voice was familiar, though she still couldn't quite get her thoughts together.

"TWILIGHT!!!"

The young Princess' eyes snapped open, and she looked up to see the near-crying face of Spike looking down to her. Instinctively, she tried to get up onto her hooves to embrace and comfort him, but as soon as she did so, she was struck with the Mother of all headaches.

"Argh!"

Placing her hoof to the side of her head, she got down to her knees, wincing at the pain that now passed through her. She'd had headaches before, but never like this. And always, there was Spike nearby, looking to her with concern.

"T...Twilight?"

Slowly, the pain began to subside, and the Princess of Friendship began to open her eyes. Like a Mother to her child, she put on a smile for the young drake's benefit, reaching forward and giving him a pat on the head. Gradually, she reached a point where the pain had disappeared almost entirely, and after taking a deep breath, she released a long sigh, getting back up once more.

"It's okay, Spike. I'm fine. Now why...?"

Before she could finish her own words, she was struck with a sudden and horrifying realisation. They were not in the Palace of Friendship right now. Nor did they appear to be in Ponyville at all. Instead, they were standing together at the base of a large and very old-looking tree, one of many that surrounded them. A forest of some kind. There was a gentle breeze about the place, but it was icy cold, and sent shivers through the pair, prompting Spike to move closer to his carer. Twilight wrapped a wing around him, holding him close and trying to keep him warm, all while keeping an eye out. And that was when she saw them.

"Girls?"

Sure enough, her friends were there, all leaning against trees of their own, and given the groggy way they were looking right now, it was obvious that each of them had just gone through the same thing she had. With Spike still close to her, Twilight moved forward, and in so doing caught the attention of her colleagues. Together, they began to converge in the small clearing between the trees. Silence fell over them for a time, with nothing but fear and confusion upon their faces. Nopony knew where they were or what had happened, and before long it was Rainbow who began to ask those very questions.

"Okay...what the heck?! My head feels like I've just gone through twenty barrels of AJ's hardest cider!"

Applejack, rubbing her head slightly from her still-lingering headache, grunted a little.

"Ah...ah can't remember what..."

Then, her eyes widened.

"Wait...we were all in the map room, right?"

Twilight nodded, realisation coming to her.

"Yes...yes! Something was going on with the map. Some sort of malfunction I think. There was a bright light, and then...I woke up here, with all of you."

Pinkie frowned.

"And it was right in the middle of our tea party too! How rude!"

Rarity looked to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Pinkamena Diane Pie! I do believe we have more pressing issues to deal with than whether or not a tea party was spoiled!"

A grimace came to the young fashionista as she surveyed her rather unpleasant surroundings.

"Although, if we're being honest...I'd much rather be there than here right now."

Fluttershy, nodding in agreement to that, looked upwards to the vast canopy above, and how almost all sunlight was being blocked from them. Although, from the looks of it, she rightly assumed that, even if they did get some sunlight down here, it wouldn't be any warmer. She looked to the ground, to the evidence of frost and light snowfall under their hooves, and took one of her usual looks of concern.

"But...where is here?"

Looking around, Rainbow shrugged her shoulders.

"Dunno, Flutters. This isn't the Everfree, and it isn't AJ's orchard. This...ugh! I have no idea!"

Twilight nodded, looking down to Spike, who was still holding onto her with fear in his eyes, before looking to her friends with a softer expression.

"Something happened to the magic of the map, and we were all brought here as a result. I think...I think we may need to consider the possibility that this might be another case of time-travel."

Naturally, such a suggestion earned her the immediate concern of all of her friends, prompting her to raise a hoof towards them.

"Or it could be something else entirely. Remember, there's still much about that map and its powers that we don't know about. It could well be that this is just another part of our own time and world we've never been to before."

Considering that, Applejack took a step forward.

"So...what do we do?"

Sighing, Twilight dwelt on the one and only plan anypony could possibly have under such circumstances.

"We need to get out of this forest first, and afterwards...well...we'll try and figure things out from there."

There was a round of nods at that, and after having a quick glance around, Twilight chose one direction in particular, and the group moved as one, heading that way while still looking very much worried about all of this. However, as they did so, there was a sound from overhead. A bird of some kind that was sitting on one of the tree-branches, calling out to them. Rainbow looked to it and frowned.

"Ugh! Lousy crows!"

But Fluttershy shook her head.

"It's not a crow...it's a raven."

As Rainbow was not really in the mood to be corrected right now, she rolled her eyes to this, but nevertheless accepted her friend's words. As for Twilight, she looked up to that aforementioned raven, and for just a brief moment, she felt that the dark bird was staring right at her. But, she watched as it stretched out its wings and flew off, its calls echoing through the forest as it did so. Another shiver passed through the mare, only this time, she had a sense that it wasn't the cold that was causing it. Still, whatever fears she had, she kept them to herself, and walked alongside Spike as they and their friends carried on with their unexpected journey. On and on they walked, for what seemed like an hour, passing nothing but ancient-looking forest. But then, towards the end, they saw it, a light and some sort of clearing up ahead.

"Yes! We're nearly out!" Rainbow proclaimed.

She charged forward, and while most were still unsure of this, they followed her all the same. Sure enough, the forest was giving way at the end, opening up to a wider space, at which point Rainbow stopped and descended to the ground, looking on ahead. But, as she did this, her prior look of confidence vanished from her, and she looked back to her other friends. Twilight, seeing this look on her, gained a rather concerned expression herself.

"Rainbow? What's wrong?"

The cyan pegasus had a hard time thinking of the right words, and so instead she turned, pointing to something just ahead of them. Curious, Twilight walked to her, as indeed did everypony else. And when they reached her, looking out to the same thing she was seeing, they all took on looks of shock. Twilight especially couldn't believe what she was seeing, her face one of both disbelief and, of all things, recognition. And after taking another step forward, she turned to her friends, her words almost brought to a whisper.

"Girls...this isn't our world."