The Land Unspoken

Morning dawned bright and clear, and it was with a much lighter heart that the group moved off. Talk resumed, far more animatedly than before, about trivial matters such as the contest Applejack and Rainbow Dash had had the night before on who could gather the most wood. Applejack insisted she would have won, were it not for her lack of wings. It was the Iron Pony contest all over again, and Twilight was only half listening as she scanned their surroundings. She was curious as to where the tracks in the ground were taking them; this was farther than she had ever been from PonyVille before and she was, to put it bluntly, lost. So it was with complete surprise that they rounded a corner and found the forest abruptly ending.

The greenery gave way to a rugged, open plain. Rainbow Dash hadn’t been scouting, tired as she was after a night spent delivering Twilight’s letter, but she was no longer needed as their view now stretched for miles in every direction. The cart tracks scored a dead straight line through the sand before them, and they began to move, suddenly feeling very exposed.

As Twilight stepped from the woods, however, she suddenly stopped. A voice had called her name. She glanced in confusion at the others, but they continued walking, oblivious. None of them had spoken, or heard, anything. Just as Twilight was about to shrug it off as her own imagination playing tricks on her the voice came again.

Twilight

Realisation dawned on Twilight. “Princess?” she said. The others stopped, turning to look at her in confusion.

Yes. How are you faring?

“Umm… well enough I suppose. You’re using the Mindtalk spell? Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”

Mindtalk is a spell designed so that two ponies could communicate even when very far away. It is very draining to cast and maintain, and the danger of using up too much energy is severe. More than one unicorn has wound up dead through carelessness, their only epilogue an abruptly ended sentence inside of the head of another.

Luna is helping me. Do not worry; we are more than strong enough. Now, listen, you are correct that Xerox is behind this, but there is something darker going on. He has found something of incredible power. What it is, I do not know, but it is having an adverse effect on the land. Can you not feel the disharmony?

“I… yes, I can feel it.” Twilight replied in surprise. Just as an engineer can detect a faulty bearing long before even the most sensitive of instruments gives a warning, so Twilight could feel something subtly wrong with the world.

Xerox meddles with forces he cannot control. You must be quick. Follow Fluttershy’s captors, but be ready. Something grows in the air, and I do not like it.

The connection abruptly terminated. Twilight didn’t remember closing her eyes, but now she opened them and found Applejack’s face close to hers.

“Twi?” the earth pony said worriedly. “What happened? What can you feel?”

"That was a Mindtalk spell" Twilight replied.

Mindtalk is a spell designed so that two ponies could communicate even when very far away. It is very draining to cast and maintain, and the danger of using up too much energy is severe. More than one unicorn has wound up dead through carelessness, their only epilogue an abruptly ended sentence inside of the head of another. Twilight swiftly explained her conversation, watching her friend’s faces carefully as she did so. When she mentioned the subtle wrongness in the air Rarity gasped.

“You feel it too?” Twilight asked.

“Yes” Rarity replied. “Like a vibration, but in magic?”

“A vibration in magic?” Rainbow Dash said. “What?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t expect a pegasus to understand about magic” replied Rarity sweetly. Rainbow Dash scowled at her.

“But…” Pinkie Pie broke in, “how can magic vibrate?” Applejack tried to shut her up, but it was too late.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Magic,” she began, “lies behind the usual three dimensions, in a multidimensional existence of its own. When a unicorn wishes to perform a magical spell, he or she draws upon this magical existence, using its power to shape reality and changing it to the world in which whatever he or she desires to happen has happened. So if I were to teleport over here,” she demonstrated and they spun to face her with horrified fascination on their faces, “What I am really doing is using magic to break down the molecules in my body, rearranging them to form a new me over there. The magical co-existence allows me to draw on the power necessary to do this. That is, of course, a simplified version. Any questions?”

Even Rarity was staring at her in confusion. “Anyway,” Twilight sighed, “let’s get moving. We’ve got a long way to go yet.”

For Fluttershy the clearing weather had brought new terrors. By the time she had shrugged off the effects of the tranquilizer the storm was already raging at full force, and so she had never had a chance to properly look at her captors. Now, emerging from under the blanket and into the harsh light of day she saw them. Where she had thought to see perhaps a dozen ponies instead walked more than two hundred. The numbers were not what caused her to gasp in shock, however; only now did she notice something incredibly disturbing about her captors. Each and every one of them sported dull, lifeless grey eyes that matched their dull, lifeless grey bodies, and none had wings or a horn. What was perhaps most surprising of all, however, was that none of them, adults all, had a cutie mark.

It seemed inconceivable; never had a pony gone without a cutie mark until this age, yet here were hundreds. Was their leader, perhaps, kidnapping those who failed to find their talent in time? But then why did they stay? Did some sorcery hold them in line? She mused on this for quite a while, even losing some of her fear as the pity she had felt the night before returned, this time directed at the mindless beasts that walked on either side of her.

  Approaching midday, the convoy suddenly stopped, and one of the nearby ponies turned to face her. She quailed inside as his lifeless eyes swept over her, but anger was now creeping into her emotions and it gave her the strength to stand firm and meet his gaze challengingly.

“We are ordered to inform you” he began “that we are passing under the gateway to our master’s territory. You will shortly experience a slight oddity. Do not be alarmed.”

His voice was as bland and emotionless as the rest of him, and Fluttershy merely lifted her head a fraction and remained silent. Receiving no answer, the pony turned and stood identical to the others and, as one, they all resumed movement.

As she settled back down, Fluttershy realised they were approaching the base of a cliff. A rock wall stretched upwards and to the sides as far as she could see, disappearing into the clouds above and over the horizon on either side. It was pitted with cracks and natural caves, and it was to one such cave, the largest, that they were heading.

As the forerunners of the convoy passed into the mouth of the cave they shuddered and began to convulse, yet kept walking. The ailment rippled back through the lines of ponies as each passed into the darkness, and Fluttershy watched with alarm as it approached her. She was being dragged into it, but before she could cry out it was upon her. Blackness filled her vision and she shuddered, glancing around, her earlier fear returning in force. Then a face appeared in the darkness. It was one of the grey ponies, and he spoke:

“Do be alarmed. We will protect you.”

Fluttershy felt relieved to hear the voice. Her relief was short lived, however, replaced by disgust at such a positive reaction to her captors. She stood her ground, but before she could say anything, the illusion dissolved and she was back in the cage. They were now inside the cave, and there was enough light to see the rear-guard of the convoy passing through the entrance. She watched as each shuddered for a few seconds, then stilled as if nothing had happened. Some magic clearly protected them from most of the effect of whatever trap was set here, but despite that it was still numbing. Not only that, but Fluttershy realised she had been nursing a faint hope all along; that her friends would come save her, but without protection how could they get past this? She didn’t even know what it was, but the thought of her friends being hit by such a strong magical force frightened her. So, earlier defiance now broken, and the candle of hope dying down, Fluttershy began to cry anew, hiding her face from the emotionless masks of her captors as they pulled her further and further through the mountain, and further and further from her friends.

The endless plains were beginning to bore Twilight. There was nothing to see for miles and miles, and their endless journey continued. Yet, despite their efforts, the tracks they followed in the dirt grew fainter as they slipped further and further behind their quarry. Fluttershy’s captives set a hard pace, and were moving almost the time, day and night. The gap between them had already stretched from six hours to almost an entire day.

Rainbow Dash had flown ahead to look for signs (at strict orders not to be seen), but reported a mountain range in the far distance she couldn’t get around. The tracks led into the range, through a large cave system that she had wisely decided not to investigate.

Pinkie Pie, meanwhile, was maintaining an attitude of joviality in an attempt to lift their spirits, but it was doing very little to help. Eventually, the sun set and, grateful for the respite from the endless monotony of walking, they settled down for the night.

The next morning they broke camp early and set off while the sun was barely visible over the horizon. Almost immediately an enormous mountain range loomed out of the clouds ahead. They stopped in wonder, each craning to see the top.

“Wow” said Pinkie Pie, the first to speak “that’s a huge mountain!”

“Told you it was big,” replied Rainbow Dash smugly, “but there’s caves running through it; we should be able to get through. The cart with Fluttershy on it went through the big one over there, we should follow it.”

“Well, you know where you’re going” replied Twilight. A wind had picked up, and the cart tracks in the sand had all but disappeared overnight. They set off again, this time with a more determined step now they had something to aim for. By late afternoon they had reached the base of the mountain.

As they approached the entrance to the cave, Rainbow Dash opened her wings and took to the air. Before any of them could stop her she flew forwards into the cave and disappeared in the darkness. Twilight’s horn pulsed with instinctive magic and she called out in alarm, but there was no reply. With a sigh she followed the pegasus.

As she neared the cave mouth, however, her horn began to itch. This became a sharp pain the closer she got. She retreated in alarm and turned to face the others who had wisely hung back.

“There’s some sort of magical barrier protecting the cave” she explained. “I would usually just go around; surely one of these other caves leads through, but somepony decided to fly in there alone. Since I don’t know what the barrier does I don’t know if she’s injured or not. We’ll have to go through.”

Pinkie Pie moved closer and began to investigate the edges of the entrance. It seemed harmless, but the looks on the faces of the two unicorns was worrying her. Having found nothing suspect around the edges, she approached and stood right on the threshold of the cave, then carefully poked her nose in.

Instantly her world went black. Frightened, she stumbled backwards, but nothing changed. She was now stuck here, and her friends had disappeared from behind her. She called out their names desperately, but to no avail.

Just then her world reformed and she found herself, oddly, in PonyVille. She stepped back, alarmed.

What happened? One moment I’m in a cave miles away, next in PonyVille. This isn’t possible. Let me out! I have to help the others save Fluttershy

Have to find a way to escape this…

Have t-

Have to take this flour over to Mrs Cake. Of course. I should really stop getting distracted.

She smiled at the silly moment of confusion and started trotting merrily along, humming a tune under her breath. Shortly, she spotted her friends in a huddle and bounded over.

“Hey guys, what-”

“Pinkie!” Twilight’s voice brought the earth pony up short. It was angry, and when the unicorn turned her eyes were hard and cold. “We told you once. Get out.”

“B-but…” began Pinkie, shock in her voice, backing away, but Rarity interrupted her. The others had all turned and wore identical expressions of hostility.

“Can’t you take a hint?” snapped the unicorn.

“Hint? What hint?” With all of her self control, Pinkie strove to inject some cheerfulness into her voice. The result could best be described as flat. “Do I have to guess? Is this-”

“Are you really as stupid as you look?” interrupted Rainbow Dash harshly.

“I-”

Applejack now broke in. Her voice was gentler than that of the others, and it made her words all the more cutting. “We told you already, Pinkie, we don’t want you here. Leave us.”

Pinkie bowed her head and felt the onset of tears. Something was pushing the boundaries of her memory. There was something she should be remembering but self-centred grief held it back. Then something happened to clear her tears.

“Yeah, get out!” Fluttershy added.

“What? No!” Pinkie screamed, and at that word her memories returned in a rush of anger. She raised her head. “Fluttershy wouldn’t say that! You aren’t my friends; you’re just some magic spell trying to trick me!” Now she directed her voice to the surroundings, which had already become somehow dislocated and unreal under her scorn. “Leave me alone! I’m not scared of you!”

With those words the illusion dissolved. Pinkie found herself facing a very worried Applejack.

“Pinkie! You’re alright!” said the earth pony nervously. “What happened?”

Briefly Pinkie explained what she had seen and it was Twilight who replied. The unicorn’s voice was low and edged with anger, not unlike the Twilight from the illusion, and Pinkie shrank back.

“I’ve seen this kind of thing before,” said Twilight. “It’s a modification of a spell designed to show somepony their greatest fear. Mostly, it was used to try and turn ponies mad, or to blackmail them into slavery, but it’s been outlawed throughout Equestria for hundreds of years. It looks like we’re dealing with something even more serious than I thought here. I’m glad you didn’t give in to the illusion Pinkie, or you’d never have come back.”

Suddenly Pinkie realised she was inside the cave. She must have fallen in as the spell took her, and she now lay safely on the other side of the barrier. She stood and turned to the others. Applejack looked worried.

“I’m sorry you had to see us like that, Pinkie.”

“It’s okay!” she replied happily, and the others smiled back, “makes it all the better to have you all back here and normal!” She hesitated, “well… nearly all of you…”

At the reminder the smiles died as quickly as they had come. Applejack was the next to approach the cave entrance.

  Applejack’s world turned black. She staggered, disorientated, but she was ready and stood calmly until the darkness faded. When it did she found herself in PonyVille, just as Pinkie Pie had. It seemed, however, that she viewed the village through a lens; everything was distorted and the distant sounds of conversations were muffled.

Confused, she began to walk, looking around for something out of place; something that her nightmares might be based on. The world was grey and had a ghostly look, as if she could walk straight through it. Then another pony rounded a corner ahead and she very quickly discovered that, in fact, she could.

Alarmed, she stepped back, but then shook herself. This was clearly an illusion; she was no more real to the ponies than they were to her. This thought awoke a sense of urgency in her and she began to hurry. It wasn’t long before she found what she was looking for.

A large grey pony, similar to the ones they were chasing, turned a corner ahead and looked straight at her. Applejack felt a chill as the cold gaze met hers, and the pony spoke in a soft, hypnotic voice.

“Applejack” it began “why are you here? The truth is no longer necessary in this place.”

“Uhh, the truth is necessary in most places, friend, and PonyVille is certainly one of them” Applejack replied.

“Ahh, but how it has changed since you left. Now lies and deceit rule. How does that feel to one who clings to the truth always, like a foal with their favourite toy?”

“It feels like a sham, mister. That much ain’t able to change in two days.” Applejack replied, anger edging her voice.

“Ahh how ironic that one such as you should hide from the truth. Look inside yourself, Applejack, think of how easily ponies will believe lies.”

The voice continued to purr, but Applejack now shut it out. She turned to go and looked over her shoulder.

“There’re always some who believe lies, mister, but there’s far more who stick to the truth. PonyVille wouldn’t fall to the likes of you. You’re a fake, an illusion, and I ain’t afraid of you. Now leave me alone.”

As she said the last word, the illusion dissolved and she found herself inside the cave. She turned, shaking off the joyful attentions of Pinkie Pie, and gazed sombrely at those who still stood outside the cave.

“Well that wasn’t too bad, but there ain’t nothin’ much a spell like this could hit me with anyway. I’m thinkin’ you three will have it harder. I’ll take Pinkie Pie and go look for Rainbow Dash, call for us if you need.” With that, and a nod of assent from Twilight, she turned and led Pinkie further in, leaving Derpy nervously approaching the mouth of the cave.

It was very dark inside, but they found Rainbow Dash quickly. She had fallen close to the mouth of the cave and was curled in a ball. Applejack thought for one alarmed second that the pegasus might not have returned from the illusion, but as they drew closer she heard, to her utter astonishment, a sobbing noise, and saw the cyan body trembling with anguish.

“Rainbow Dash!”

As Pinkie Pie called her name the pegasus looked up, her eyes filled with tears. Applejack opened her mouth to ask what the she had experienced to upset her so much, but Dash got there first.

“I’m sorry, Applejack, I just couldn’t!”

“Couldn’t what? What did you see?”

“Save you all! I just-” she gave a choked sob and shivered, then looked up again and spoke in a more normal voice. “PonyVille was burning, I had to try and save you, but it was too much, I wasn’t fast enough…”

“Burnin’? How?” replied Applejack in alarm.

“I don’t know, I just flew into the cave and suddenly I was in PonyVille and everything was on fire. I had to choose one of you to save.”

“Who’d you choose?”

“None of you! I couldn’t decide! And by the time I made a decision it was too late! I was so afraid…”

Applejack nodded grimly. For such a loyal character like Rainbow Dash, being unable to save her friends must have been horrible. Then Pinkie Pie spoke up.

“So how’d you get out? Me and Applejack, we broke the spell by proving we weren’t afraid of it, but you…”

“I tried to save Twilight in the end. She… she was closest. The library was collapsed and she was trapped under this big, flaming beam. I tried to pull her out, but she was stuck fast and I couldn’t move her. Then I tried to get out but the roof collapsed and I was trapped too! I was burning, dying, but then Twilight’s horn began to glow and suddenly I just felt so… peaceful. I remembered it was just a dream, and as soon as I realised that it ended and I woke up.

Applejack nodded again, recalling how Twilight’s horn had pulsed as Dash entered the cave. Clearly the unicorn had, perhaps unconsciously, helped Dash through her nightmare.

They returned to the barrier in time to see Derpy emerging through. Applejack wondered idly what would constitute a nightmare for the wall eyed pegasus, but dismissed the thought as Twilight spoke. She was still stood with Rarity on the other side of the barrier and her voice was oddly distorted.

“Neither of us can get close to the barrier,” she began, “I’m going to have to try a spell to hide our magic and see if we can fool it.” Her horn began to glow. They waited a few tense minutes as the glow gradually increased in brightness until it was impossible to look at. Then all of a sudden it winked out and both unicorns were missing their horn. Cautiously, they approached the barrier then, feeling no pain, ran through together.

This was the first opportunity Applejack had to properly see the external effects of the spell. Both Twilight and Rarity shuddered as they passed the barrier, then fell limp and collapsed to the floor inside the cave. Within seconds they were upright again; clearly whatever ordeal they suffered was already over. Rarity’s pupils were widened in shock and Twilight looked dazed, but neither were harmed and both had regained their horns. Now they were all safely through the barrier, they began to examine their surroundings in more detail.

The cave system they had entered, lit by a further show of magic from Twilight, was huge. A short tunnel led from the entrance into a large dome, and from this dome spider webbed more than a dozen extra tunnels. Upon a quick exploration, they discovered that many of these tunnels almost instantly ended in more domes with subsequent tunnel branches of their own. Glumly, they returned to the dome nearest the entrance and slumped down.

“Now how are we going to follow them?” groaned Twilight.

“We’ll just have to guess I suppose” replied Applejack “we’ll need to split up and-”

Just then, however, Rainbow Dash, who had been scanning the floor around the edges of the dome, gave a triumphant shout. Rushing over, they found very faint track marks in the ground leading to one of the side tunnels. It was one of the smallest tunnels and headed off at roughly a thirty degree angle to the way they had come in. Had their choice come down to guessing they would never have picked it. After congratulating the smug pegasus they cautiously followed the tracks.

The tracks led them many miles through the cave system, and soon they were all hopelessly lost. They lost the trail at one point and had to frantically backtrack, but somehow they picked it up again and after surprisingly short amount of time they emerged into the sunlight. Twilight shuddered as she exited the cave; she had felt the vague magical harmonics that could only be numerous traps throughout the system. If they hadn’t been following a trail they would surely have been caught by one.

It was now evening, and they began looking for somewhere to stop for the night, but almost immediately ran into problems.

“Eugh!” observed Pinkie Pie, “this place gives me the willies!”

Rarity glanced around in shock. “Oh goodness,” she exclaimed, “what in the world happened here?”

As they had exited the cave they had walked into a forest, yet one that seemed more reminiscent of a graveyard, or some nightmare. There was almost nothing living in sight. The few trees that remained standing were bleached, dead husks. Dry brown vegetation huddled in clumps on the ground amongst the corpses of fallen trunks. What was most disquieting, however, was the silence. No birds sang, no forest animals called and no wind stirred the dead air.

“It’s Xerox’s spell” said Twilight. “All magic requires energy to cast and maintain. I know he’s been using some very powerful spells, and I wondered where he got it all from. I guess now I know.”

As the others recovered from the shock, Applejack walked over to the nearest tree and rested her head against it. It had been an apple tree before whatever foul plight that afflicted this landscape had killed it. Now little more than a trunk stood, twisted and bleached white, a once grand tree reduced to a dead husk.

Rainbow Dash appeared next to the grieving earth pony and placed a friendly hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, AJ,” the pegasus said, “we’ll find him and make him pay for this.” Her voice was unusually subdued. Applejack nodded and turned away.

Rarity was shivering. “I… I simply cannot believe power could mean so much, that you could destroy an entire forest,” she said. “Why would he do it?”

“If he’s using the spell I think he is to harvest the energy, the land will be dying from the outside in” replied Twilight, “I wonder if he even knows what it’s like out here.”

“Harvest the energy for what, though?”

“The book says that he controls his servants through some sort of mind spell. He’s also got a spell on himself. He was… deformed at birth; it was part of the reason he was treated so badly by the other ponies, and it was what eventually caused him to turn evil. He keeps the illusion on himself so he no longer has to face the reality of his condition.”

Pinkie Pie shivered. “Why’d he run away in the first place?”

  “He made a pact with Celestia. She noticed his unusually strong magic, just as she noticed mine, but could sense his pride and lust for power and was anxious to curb him before anything bad happened. She warned him never to use his magic to hurt others, and he agreed, but later, when the pressure got too much, he reneged.”

“Rena-?”

“He, uhh, broke a Pinkie promise”

“HE DID WHAT?!”

“Easy there!” cried Applejack, her voice severely muffled. Upon working out where Twilight was going, the earth pony had moved quickly into position behind Pinkie Pie. She now held Pinkie tightly by the tail, the only thing stopping her from taking on Xerox all by herself.

“Calm down Pinkie!” sighed Twilight, stepping in front of her as Applejack cautiously let go of her tail. Pinkie Pie stood very still, her breath coming in gasps and a mixture of shock and anger on her face. Then she calmed down abruptly and began talking at normal volume.

“Are you sure? I mean, he is incredibly evil and everything, but really?”

“He seems like the sort to do it” injected Rarity.

“I guess so…” replied Pinkie dejectedly, then straightened up. “We must find him!”

“Yes, let’s go” added Rainbow Dash, who had been standing impatiently at the edge of the clearing with Derpy ever since the conversation began. As they began moving again, Twilight noted idly that the two pegasi had been spending much more time together since Derpy had revealed her writing skills. Perhaps Rainbow Dash was finally coming to the conclusion that Derpy wasn’t quite as useless as originally thought. Twilight smiled to herself.

They were unable to find a good place for a campsite for the night, and instead settled on an area of ground mostly protected on three sides by walls of fallen trees. They decided that, in unfamiliar territory, it would be best to leave one of them on watch while the others slept. Rarity, who had picked the short straw, settled down in a corner. The others, exhausted, fell almost instantly asleep. Twilight’s last thought before she drifted into the world of dreams was a sad one, of how much Fluttershy must be hating this.

Fluttershy hated this. For one so attuned to nature and woodland animals, being surrounded by so much death frightened her. She kept her feelings to herself; she had long since given up crying, yet at the sight of the skeletons of several small animals by the side of the road, half eaten by carrion, she let out a gasp of sorrow. The sadness was now a physical pain in her belly, and every breath she took of the fetid air merely added to it.

What didn’t help was Ditto, who had picked up on her fear for the animals and began pointing them out, speculating in a loud voice how they might have died. Fluttershy shivered and lay down, trying in vain to blot out the voice. She thought of her friends, unable to follow and perhaps now hopelessly lost in the tunnels leading under the mountain they had traversed just two days ago.

Two days, yet it seemed like a lifetime in such a barren, dead, place. She shuddered again and huddled further down under her blanket, as if by curling herself into a ball she could be protected from the horrors that were thrown at her by a cold, uncaring world.