Twilight, the lavender unicorn, led the group into the Everfree Forest. As she led them, everyone gave basic introductions to each other, then stopped talking for a while. It wasn’t until the edge of the forest was out of sight that someone broke the silence.

“So, Aqua,” Spike, the young dragon, spoke. “I’ve never really seen a dragon that looks like you before.”

“That’s because I’m not from here,” Aqua responded. “My husband and I are from a different dimension after we bought a few things.”

“You’re acting like jumping dimensions is not a big problem for you,” Twilight pointed out.

“That’s because, technically, it isn’t,” Jaxon said, pulling out his spear just in case it is needed. “Where we come from, there are some places and houses that have a special pocket dimensions built into it. So, technically, we’ve had our fair share of dimension-hopping.”

“I’ve got a feeling a ‘but’ is on the way,” Applejack commented. She then turned to Rarity, the white unicorn, who was about to speak, and interrupted her before she started. “And not ‘butt’ as in a rump.”

“Our current dimensional trip was done differently,” Aqua said. “We were at a convention and we got a bottle of Hist Sap and a set of bronze bracers. He put the bracers on, and I drank the sap. Next thing we knew, we were here.”

“Huh,” Twilight thought out loud. “That reminds me of a genre in Japony manga. I think it’s called isekai?”

“I-see-wha?” Rainbow, the blue pegasus, asked in confusion.

“Isekai,” Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus, said. “It has to do with a pony or some other creature here on Equis somehow being transported from here to another world of some kind, sometimes changing form or being given abilities to help them survive.” She stopped in her speaking and shrunk a bit from being looked at with questioning looks. “I read manga when I’m not busy with my animals.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “However, unlike isekai, the situation of these two is like how most ponies talk about fan versions of isekai, or displaced.”

“Oh, just like some of my old friends when we did some O&O,” Shining said. “Vivid Vision always had one idea or another of a random pony being thrust into ‘X’ world with ‘Y’ set of powers or visuals.”

“And Lyra in Ponyville seems to do the opposite,” Pinkie said. “She always talked about humans coming from another world and having powers and/or forms they never had before.”

“That about sums up the genre, both the official and fan genres,” Twilight said before she stopped walking. “Umm...do you guys hear that?”

Everyone stopped walking at her words to listen. The sound was barely audible, but it sounded like gravel being disturbed. Suddenly a loud crack was heard, shaking the ground and startling the party, Jaxon dropping his spear over a nearby cliff and Aqua losing balance.

The ground then collapsed beneath them, causing all but the two pegasi to start sliding and falling down the cliffside. The two pegasi, with no needed words, began working on attempting to catch and safely lower.

Jaxon, in an attempt to slow his sliding down, impaled the blade of his spear into the cliffside. Doing that slowed him down, but put some strain on the spear’s shaft. The strain was enough that when some of the ponies and Aqua tumbled past and bumped the spear, the shaft broke. Jaxon was lucky in his scrambling for something to grab, where he was able to grab what was left of the spear.

After what seemed like an hour of holding on for dear life, a voice cut through his panicked concentration. “Honey, let go!” Aqua shouted out to him. Jaxon hesitated for a brief moment, but eventually wrenched the spear remains from the cliff and dropped down with his eyes closed. Barely a second of falling, and he landed on his wife’s bloated belly. Upon impact, Aqua and Jaxon hugged in relief.

After the hug, everyone checked themselves and any gear they brought with them. Jaxon’s broken spear was a bit of a loss for himself, mostly for its original utility being lost. However, his mind remembered a game where a Greek Mercenary was able to make use of a broken spear in combat. So, he simply strapped the broken spear to his back and moved to where Twilight and Aqua stood while waiting on the rest of the group.

The group then began walking again, with Rainbow Dash bragging to an unnecessary degree. Thankfully, Rainbow kept to one side of the group while Jaxon was held by Aqua on the other side of the group. Jaxon was too out of it in barely restrained rage to notice when a manticore attacked the group, before it was calmed by Fluttershy, and allowed the group to move forward.

Things then suddenly went dark, breaking Jaxon out of his dazed rage, and put him on high alert on his wife’s shoulders with his bow out and ready to fire. When Fluttershy screamed in fear, Jaxon went on the offensive, firing arrows at the various ‘faces’ until he had no ammo. Before he could jump to the ground and draw his sword, Pinkie Pie started laughing and singing, pointing out how the arrows made the ‘faces’ look more silly than intimidating.

Eventually, the ‘faces’ faded, leaving trees covered in arrows. The group decided to help recover the arrows and they then moved on. They came to a raging river that everyone, even Aqua, paused at. When crying was heard, the group followed until they found a river serpent. After getting an explanation of his sorrow (and most feeling exasperated at his reasoning), Rarity stepped forward and pulled out a parrying dagger she had hidden in her clothes. After declaring that what happened was a fashion disaster, she readied to cut off her tail, but Jaxon stepped in and pointed out that the deep purple of her tail would match too well with the serpent’s scales and clash deeply with the other half of his mustache. He then drew his sword and offered it and the idea to trim the messy side, and shorten the undisturbed side, to which she agreed.

The trimming went smoothly, allowing the group to cross the river with no problems. They then came to a ravine just before the ruins of an old castle, the aged rope bridge had collapsed a long time ago. With no words exchanged, Rainbow flew across the ravine to repair the bridge. The fog in the area was thick enough to block what Rainbow was doing, worrying Twilight. Her worry was unneeded, as she shortly flew back to the group and walked with the group across the bridge.

As soon as the group entered the castle ruins, everyone crowded around a giant pedestal that held five concrete orbs. Twilight cheered, “These must be the Elements!”

“For a set of artifacts, the don’t look very impressive,” Jaxon commented as Rainbow and Fluttershy brought the orbs to the ground. “Then again, who am I to judge what they should look like. If they can do their job, they can look however they want to.”

Pinkie counted the orbs, only coming to five. “There’s only five? Where’s the sixth?”

“From what I read before, the sixth should show itself when a spark happens between these five,” Twilight answered. “I have an idea on how to test it, but keep back, just in case I’m wrong.”

“Alright, let’s give her some space to work with,” Applejack said, leading the group outside, except for Jaxon and Aqua. “You two coming?”

“We’ll keep an eye on things here,” Jaxon said, glancing at Applejack before returning his attention to the lavender unicorn.

“Yeah,” Aqua agreed, giving Applejack a little more attention than her husband gave her. “Aside from what we went through, arriving here seemed too easy.”

Whirling wind was suddenly heard, alongside Twilight shouting, “The Elements!” Jaxon, having had his attention on the unicorn, jumped into the dark vortex after Twilight did, just as everyone noticed what was happening. Shortly after he jumped in, the vortex vanished.

Aqua began to panic as the rest of the group re-entered the ruins and called for Twilight. With no attention on her surroundings, she stepped on something round that caused her to lose her balance and fall onto her butt. As she was nursing her now bruised bottom, she picked up what she tripped on, only to suddenly hear a voice in her head.

“I'm the dark version of Spyro along with Cynder's powers. I protect my world from dark magic users that seeks to corrupt it. If you face a foe wielding dark magic or a foe you can not face alone, merely lift this orb in the air and call out my name.”

After the message ended, Aqua questioningly looked at the object, a black orb, before holding it up. “Spyro...Dark Spyro? Please come from wherever you are from and please...please help me find my husband and help us save this world from freezing over.”

Immediately after she finished calling out, the orb left her hand and shot a dark beam towards the door. The beam then stopped and formed a large, dark vortex. A figure then stepped out of the vortex. A figure that, minus the face and colors, was very familiar to the Kappa Dragon.

Meanwhile, in a nearby tower in the castle ruins, Jaxon and Twilight fell out of the vortex they jumped into. After they got their bearings, a loud cackle was heard, and they looked over to see a Black and Night themed Alicorn mare holding the Elements in her magic. Jaxon drew his sword and pulled out his broken spear.

The alicorn cackled madly. “You foal! Do you think those will do anything to me?!” She asked in disbelief and humor.

“Does it really matter?” He asked as a red aura slowly began to form around him. He gave Twilight a brief glance before turning back to and charging at the Nightmare. When his blades impacted a dark barrier, a red-tinted aura exploded outward and the clash began.

Author's Note

I may have glossed over the trials and their significance, but with the main focus on our two strange dovahkiin, it should be understandable.

Also, next chapter (or so) is gonna be a crossover. With who? I'll tell you when I publish the chapter(s). In the meantime, have a good day