Rarity found herself flying, falling, and standing perfectly still all at once. Stranger than even the seemingly impossible sensations rocking her body was the miasma of lighting, fire, and swirling clouds that surrounded her. It was as if she had been thrown through a great maelstrom of energy, only even that did not describe what she witnessed.

For there was monster millions of times larger than her screaming past its thousands of mouths shouting a horrific cacophony beyond mortal comprehension. Rarity’s own cries were so small, so infinitesimal against the great beast’s that she couldn't even hear the noise she was making. But then it passed her by, half flickering out of existence, half rolling its great bulk in another direction.

With its passage, Rarity found that a great number of nameless, partially formless creatures had appeared from the void. Emerging from the swirling mass of colors beyond counting were beasts, the most normal of which were several hundred reptilian creatures that resembled crocodiles. They had a semi-solid shape, and moved with purpose away from her, while the uncountable other things surged toward the mare. In an instant Rarity knew that they were being drawn to her, pulled to the pony by the light of harmony that burned within her.

She tried to push, pull, tug, or swim away, but the things hunting for her were everywhere. Coalescing all around her, the many-limbed abominations, and planet-sized entities clawed past one another. As if they were all in a mad dash to be the first to reach their target, they attacked one another viciously. Or at least Rarity assumed they were attacking each other, as it was nearly impossible to tell where one began and another ended.

Regardless of what she was looking at or how many there were, they were closing, and fast. With little other option, Rarity tried to use her magic but found that she couldn't get her horn to spark. That deep well of power that burned within her was simply gone, only it wasn't gone, but rather displaced.

It had grown larger, so large that it encompassed her entire body, filling her every last cell with power. She tried to call forth some offensive spell of some kind but was interrupted when a gash in the storm opened before her. Rarity got only a brief glimpse of what looked like Equestria before she fell through it, returning to material reality.

With gravity reasserting itself once more, she found herself falling in only a single direction. She ultimately landed on what felt like a soft, spongey mass of some kind but not before bouncing off something squishy. The pony was relieved by the fact that she was not immediately harmed upon entering real space again. Though that hardly negated the incredible panic that had been screaming through her right up until that moment.

Still screeching, and scrambling in a random direction, Rarity was barely able to form a coherent thought. That was until she ran headfirst into something tall, and treelike. Nearly knocked unconscious by the unfortunate and abrupt meeting, she lay on her side, legs twitching as her brain rebooted.

The moment she could organize herself, she realized that she was not in that horrible screaming place but neither was she in Equestria. Rather she was in some strange world that appeared to be alien in nature. From her position on the spongey, slightly wet ground, she looked out over a valley, in the center of which was a large lake.

It wasn't like any body of water she had ever seen though, as it was a light teal color, with trails of purple drifting across it. Around this strange mostly circular mass was a beach made up of large white stones not unlike towering mounds of salt. In between these lumps of rock were trickling green streams, small fleshy-looking plants, and small creatures with far too many legs.

Further, than that were trees, or at least they resembled trees, as they had no leaves to speak of. Instead, there were large canopies the shape and overall appearance of a mushroom cap. They were unlike any mushroom though as each tree sported dozens of these fungal-like growths of various sizes. Even the bark was different, though it was at least still a dull brownish color it had a rippled texture to it. It was like someone had stacked a thousand brown plates on top of one another to create what appeared to be a tree.

There were other strange plans in the mix though, like a many-limbed cactus that nearly rivaled the mushroom trees in size. Beneath them, there were smaller bushes of yellow interspersed with bright gold flowers that resembled a jar that was missing its top. Even the lake had strange flora of a similar variety, with masses of white blobs drifting across its surface in large clumps.

“Woah,” Rarity murmured to herself.

Her sense of wonder was only heightened when she saw an avian creature fly past her perch overlooking the valley. Sporting two sets of wings of different sizes, it looked at first glance to be an enormous bat. Only one with a beak, a long whiplike tail, and a complete lack of any kind of feet or other limbs.

Rarity watched as it glided gently on a warm breeze, only lurching into motion to spear a bulbous blue beetle with its tail. Without slowing down, it took the creature from its tail, ate it, and continued floating by, barely even flapping its wings. They weren't alone, however, as other creatures could be seen moving amongst the verdant valley.

They weren't what held her attention, however, as it was then that she noticed mountains in the distance as well as something far larger. An enormous reddish-pink orb a thousand times bigger than the Equestria’s moon sat on the horizon. Great clouds of orange and purple nearly obscured the entire planet’s surface, leaving only a few sharp, unnatural spires to pierce the upper atmosphere.

“It's beautiful,” Rarity murmured. “Horrifying, but beautiful.”

Slowly rising to her hooves, Rarity looked around at her more immediate environment. The tree she had run into was one of the mushroom plant things she saw nearly everywhere. Her landing had been cushioned by a low-hanging cap and then what looked like another mushroom growing on the ground.

This one was short, squat, mostly greenish brown, and had several pointy yellow growths growing upwards from the top of it. These spikey things leaked a constant rust-colored ooze that flowed down their sides and onto the ground beneath it, creating a tiny moat around the plant. Though intriguing, Rarity was more concerned by the fact that she had some of this gooey stuff on her coat.

“Ew, ew, ew!” she cried.

Looking back at her flank, she hastily tried to wipe the stinging, and slightly smelly liquid from her sides using her hooves. It did not, in fact, remove quite as easily as she hoped, and coated her hoof instead of being removed from her fur.

“Oh that's so gross,” she muttered.

Desperate to get the stuff off of her, she did the unthinkable and laid back down on the dirty ground. Once down, she rubbed her side against the earth, hoping to remove the cloying stuff that way. After a few rather uncomfortable seconds of dirtying her coat even further, Rarity could feel the stinging sensation lessen.

A moment later she rose to find that dirt, and the tiny slightly fleshy grass that covered the ground was stuck to her side. She was about to try removing it with her hoof again when she noticed the grass start to wither and die. Peering a bit closer revealed that when the reddish goop touched it, the plant life died and the liquid became a bit more brown.

“It's like a herbicide,” she remarked aloud. “Well, at least it's not stinging anymore.”

That didn't mean the irritation had stopped, as the stuff still clung to her now ruined coat though it had at least lessened. Stowing her desire to scream, cry and panic deep down inside of herself, Rarity took another breath of fresh air. Which tasted a bit sweet for some reason, as if someone had just misted the air with sugar water. It didn't seem to make her dizzy, or uncomfortable in any way, so she assumed that she could breathe it normally.

“Right, let's not panic Rarity,” Rarity whispered to herself. “You’re just on an alien world, a million miles from home, completely alone-”

She bit her lip, stopping her train of thought right there.

“First thing’s first. Let us see if can't remove this dreadful grime from our cutie mark,” she exclaimed aloud.

With a goal in mind, she began to descend down towards the lake, careful to avoid the many colorful plants she saw along the way. What she didn't see much of were animals, as there only seemed to be fat blue beetles and the batlike creatures that ate them. There were a few other variants of both, but save for that there didn't look to be much in the way of biodiversity. She must have been wrong during her earlier observation, either that or her head injury had been worse than anticipated.

There also didn't seem to be any indication of civilization, be it roads, discarded tools, or chopped trees. Nothing pointed to there being anything more intelligent than the weird birds flying overhead or the bugs that chewed on the plants. This was a thought that disturbed, and slightly relieved the mare, as at least she didn't have to worry too much about botching first contact.

Eventually, she made her way down to the lake, where she saw fish swimming just beneath the surface. Slightly bulbous, with orange and blue scales, they lazily trawled through the water, occasionally nearing the surface to eat a mouthful of the goopy plant life that grew there. They were occasionally joined by froglike creatures with an extra set of legs and only a single giant eye. These leaping critters tended to stay in the tall jagged white rocks near the water’s edge, where they croaked in an oddly musical manner.

Slipping between two towering pillars of what looked like salt, Rarity was able to reach the lake. There she hesitated, sniffing the air and inspecting the waters a little closer.

Again it was slightly sweet but with a salty undertone as well as a scent akin to nail polish. Using a long, pointed bit of white stone, she swirled the water and found that it had the same consistency as watery gelatin. It didn't bubble or do anything weird, so she decided to use her magic to gather a small bowlful of the stuff.

“Owch,” Rarity muttered, her horn shooting off bright red sparks.

Immediately she felt a migraine coming on, and she took a mental note to not try to use any magic anytime soon. She figured that it was likely due to her passage through whatever horrible place Discord had flung her. She didn't know for certain if it would pass but chose to believe so as the alternative was too grim to consider.

Putting a hoof into the water revealed that it did indeed have a slightly sludgelike texture, though that was only on the surface. Beneath an inch or so was what felt like normal water, the type Rarity had drunk and bathed with numerous times. Withdrawing her limb revealed that a bit of the slimy top level clung to her hoof, but a shake was enough to remove it.

So began a slightly awkward, sort of gross removal of the muck from her backside. Using the water was a bit difficult, but nothing attacked her or even seemed to notice her presence really. A few of the fish came up to her, and several of the frogs hopped nearby, but they ignored her presence for the most part.

Allowing the mare to hastily finish up, and retreat back up past the rocky outcropping. There she inspected herself to find that her fur was a bit shinier than usual, the goopy liquid leaving behind a slightly reflective film. It faded quickly once in contact with the air, her fur returning to normal with seemingly no ill effect whatsoever.

Though she told herself that she should test to see if the water was drinkable, she didn't have the energy for that at the moment. So Rarity ascended back to the spot where she appeared, reminding herself to not stray far lest her rescuers be unable to find her. It was a bit of a pipe dream, but she was not ready to give in to hopelessness quite yet.

Once there, she used a bit of finesse to make herself a small alcove within a rather dense pocket of bushy yellow flowers. Tying their fleshy branches together, she was able to make a space just large enough for her to rest inside of. Laying down on the slightly squishy, porous ground she mentally reviewed the day’s events, committing everything to memory.

Starting tomorrow she would need to start finding food, water, and better shelter, as well as eventually exploring. If she was lucky there would be some friendly locals but she wasn't going to hold her breath for such a possibility. That left her with the bitter realization that she may not see a friendly face for a considerable amount of time. The thought of being alone out in the wilderness for what may be days, months, or even years struck Rarity hard.

Tears fell and soaked the ground for several minutes before eventually, exhaustion took her. Slipping into a dreamless, void-like sleep Rarity ended her first day on another world.

Author's Note

The previous chapters have now been updated for spelling and grammer.

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