Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

Cozy paced slowly across the water with the help of her levitation bracelet as she analyzed the fog that had entrapped her. As she circled around the same space she had been circling for hours, Cozy worked on unraveling the complex magical patterns interwoven into the fog.

It was far from her first encounter with the Everfog, but it was the first time she had cared about leaving it in a specific way. The Everfog’s complex space displacement properties made it a magical marvel. However, at the moment it was the dense magical static caused by it that was the most annoying, as it rendered her compass useless. After spending her first couple of hours analyzing her compass, she deduced that if it had been calibrated to something more in tune with its target than an old feather, it would likely still be functioning, but since it was calibrated using such a weak tuning force, it was completely useless within the fog.

She deduced early on that the simplest answer would be to leave the fog. The complex issue with that approach is the fog’s ability to displace space. Cozy knew that wandering too far in the fog without a guiding force to a defined direction could lead her to who knows where. For all she knew, she could wind up on the opposite side of Equitoria, lost in the fog for years, or perhaps end up some place outside of Equitoria altogether.

Pacing around the edge of what she believed could be a displacement trigger for the umpteenth hundredth time, Cozy managed to crack the pattern and sighed in frustration. Not only was it not a displacement trigger, it was in no way helpful to her situation. It was an illusion spell that would cast shadows if triggered.

Testing her theory by crossing the trigger, Cozy was unsurprised to see shadowy figures appear in the distance. Clearly some kind of ploy or perhaps warning to convince ponies to turn back.

“As—fun as it is to unravel such complex magic, I don’t have time for this. At this rate, I would be better off trying to pass through the fog in some random direction. Sure, I’d end up in some random place, but at this rate, I could fly back to Zeph before I could figure this place out. Especially as even if Zeph got entangled in this fog too, she has Emmy’s compass, which was tuned to something powerful and as far as I could tell we had reached the end of the whirlpools, so by now she’s probably reached the mainland.”

Deciding to try her luck, Cozy pushed past the shadows and flew at top speed until she broke out of the fog. Flying high, Cozy looked into the distance, where she could see a couple of whirlpools leading to a deeply familiar cluster of islands.

“You have got to be kidding me! I’m back at the Lost Isles!?”

Looking back, Cozy noted that the fog was nowhere to be seen. All that was behind her was clear skies and blue oceans.

“I can’t see it, but it’s still here. If I could tune the compass better, I should be able to use the fog to get back to Zeph quicker. Of course, it could be a waste of time too… I’ll have plenty of time to think about it. For now, I’m almost out of food, so I’ll have to stop back home, regardless. Which, of course, I had to get here in the early morning, rather than dead of night. An invisibility artifact would be awfully useful right now.”

Flying low Cozy approached the island until she felt uncomfortable, at which point she trotted along the surface of the water until she felt ponies might be able to see her, at which point she reluctantly dove into the water and began swimming the rest of the way to the most deserted section of the North Isle.

Upon reaching a shore side cave entrance, Cozy shook herself off and made her way back home, where she emptied her saddle bag and groaned as she recalled that she was fresh out of spare bags. “No spares, and bags take days to dry down here… I’m getting real tired of setbacks. Even if I go—all the way out and hang it up it’s not going to get dry until mid-day tomorrow. Although…”

Cozy smiled mischievously as she picked up the royal earth pony artifact, removed the seal, and took it over to the large jewel encrusted cylinder she had found quite a great long time ago.

“This thing is filled with incredible magic, but lacks any power source capable of fueling it long enough to cast any. Even my most refined glow berry extract can’t power this thing, but this cube might just do it.”

Looking at the top of the artifact, Cozy noted that there was even an indention that matched the shape of the cube. Placing the cube atop the artifact, it sprang to life and sucked the cube inside.

“That was unexpected… and unfortunate… I liked having free moderately powerful levitation magic. Now if I need to boost levitation, I’m going to have to sacrifice glow berry extract. On the bright side, it now seems to be humming along at … I’m going to say one third power. Which means there’s probably at least two more of those cubes out in Equitoria somewhere. Now the real question is how did earth ponies of all things manage to make a magical artifact this complex? For that matter, how did it end up in the lost caverns of all places? I’ve never seen any signs of earth ponies being on the Lost Isles. Suppose that’s all mysterious I think about another time.”

Cozy, having already studied the cylinder in the past, knew which spells she wanted to combine and in no time had her bag clean and dry.

“I’m fairly sure that officially makes this thing the world’s most overcomplicated laundry washer. That said, it’s going to be really nice for laundry. When I get back, I’m washing and drying everything with this thing. No more messing with water wheels and drying lines for this pony.” Cozy smiled excitedly as she took a whiff of her saddlebag to find that it had lost every iota of ocean and cave stink.