Changed Worlds, Changed Minds

by dragonridergoku

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Discord, Human, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character
Length: 7007

What was Equestria like before Discord? The answers are far from what you may believe.

Very few ponies know of the times before Discord's rule as lord of Equestria. this true account was created for the sole purpose of learning the truth of what happened all those thousands of years ago.

Published 2012-10-28 02:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-13 05:35:43 UTC

Preface

Disclaimer: Dragonrider Goku does not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is owned by the people who own it. All other characters either belong to me or I have been given permission to use.

A/N: Here it is, a new story for my profile. The idea came to me and I had to write it. Enjoy the story.

Changed Worlds, Changed Minds

By: Dragonrider Goku

From the scrolls of Archimedes the scribe CE 437:

Every pony knows about the time of the later Discord Era through to the present, but few actually know of what led up to the time the Draconequis ruled Equestria. This is true account, gathered by some of the greatest minds in the world, of the events that occurred before Discord took over as king of Equestria. Through a mix of scientific studies and intense time travel magic, we have been able to uncover the events lost to the history of Equestrian society.

Despite the known details of Discord’s reign, his beginning was nothing if not humble. In those early times, the race now known as the Draconequis were considered gods. They were not actually born to their powerful form however; they all started off as powerful magical ponies. They grew their magical strength until their bodies could hold no more.

Before recorded history, an unknown sorcerer found a way to transform his body into that of a Draconequis. Through this transformation, they gained much prowess in the arcane arts then ever would have been possible in a pony body. Their life span was also increased past that of even a dragon if the change was successful. However, this ability came at a cost. If the pony performing the ritual wasn’t at their peak strength of body, mind, and soul, they would experience a long and painful death that destroyed them from the inside out. The ritual had to be performed to absolute perfection or it would fail and lead to all magical power being lost for the rest of the pony’s life as well as their mind being driven to the very peak of insanity.

Despite the dangers, thousands of ponies took the risk. Few, however, actually succeeded in becoming a Draconequis. Only one in every thousand ponies survived the process and ascended to the god like power that ruled the land.
Discord was a young stallion when the events told in these accounts occurred. No matter how unbelievable this legend is, the facts told are the absolute truth. Believe it or not, the creatures we discovered during our investigations are actual living beings that were within Equestria all those thousands of years ago.

This account was created for the sole purpose of informing the citizens of Equestria of the true events that all led to the reign of Discord as lord of all the land. We ponies are not alone. Entire worlds have yet to be discovered by our kind, and will likely remain within the shadows that keep us away from their discovery. Entire universes await us in the mostly unseen portions of this vast area of which we have only just begun to scratch the surface.

“As it once was, so it shall be.” These words from our ancestors have been with us for as long as can be remembered by any member of pony kind. The biggest question has always been, what was it once like? This attempt to discover the answer has led to this answer, but has opened up an uncountable number of new questions just waiting to be solved.

I believe our ancestors were correct in this philosophy. One day, the creatures that brought both salvation and destruction to the long forgotten age of Equestria will return. When they do, we must be ready to accept them or chaos will rule supreme once again in much worse ways than Discord could have ever brought. In truth, neither the Alicorns nor the Draconequis were the true gods. The true gods were far from perfect, far from immortal, and much more powerful.

End of Preface

This is my new story. The actual tales of the times before Discord come in the next chapter. Enjoy the new tales of chaos and salvation, who knows what will happen.

Light Fire

Disclaimer: Dragonrider Goku does not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is owned by the people who own it. All other characters either belong to me or I have been given permission to use.

Travel Account 1: Light Fire

I had just been subject to the new time spells. They were incredibly difficult to perform and required quite some time before they could be used again. In any case, I was currently getting used to my new surroundings. It appeared that I had come out of the time vortex in a forest clearing. I could see some palm trees shooting high above the rest of the forest off in the distance. I could also smell salt in the air on the breeze from that direction. By the look of the sun, it was still early morning and the palm trees were off towards my west. The palm trees were as good a start as any in my search for some civilization, so I decided to start heading in that direction. The trees growing ever taller looking the more I walked.

After a few minutes of trotting through the forest of thick oak trees, I saw a light coming from between a few trees in the distance. I changed my course ever so slightly to see what was on the other side, and upon my arrival peered through the gap between trees. I saw a long plain of grass stretching towards a beach. The water across the sand was very calm and had a deep blue color to it. This wasn’t where my main attention was focused however. I could see a town in the distance, one built on the plain that separated the forest from the beach. In the middle, I saw the two palm trees towering above everything. When I had walked closer, I saw many ponies going about their daily business. What surprised me, however was the armor being worn by some ponies guarding the streets. They each had a spear made from a long wooden shaft with a pointed stone at the top. Their armor seemed to be made of loose leather stitched together. The design was much like that of Equestria’s royal guard. I also saw a pile of logs sitting between the two palm trees. The way they were arranged and the charred edges suggested that this was used as some sort of fire pit.

I went closer to the town in the hopes of getting the information I had come for. When I entered the town, I noticed many of the ponies within look up and give me a bored stare before going back to whatever they had been doing beforehand. It seemed this town was either used to company, or had no cares about anything in the world. The town was reminding me of the salt farms started by a group of families a few years before my time. No pony cared about anything in life besides getting their work done. When I got closer to the center of town, I saw an old pony slowly walking towards me. When we reached each other, we stopped and each examined the other. This pony looked like he was the oldest pony in the town and had dark blue eyes that seemed to hold an extensive amount of wisdom. They also held a great sadness within their icy stare.

The old stallion was the first to speak. He told me I was in the village of Twin Palms and that he was the elder, Midnight Rain. He asked my name so I told him. I said I was from a faraway land with a city called Canterlot. He made no move to question me as to where Canterlot was, yet I could see there were more questions to be asked of me. He wanted to know why I had come to his small town and why I didn’t look like any pony he had seen in these parts. I told him I was exploring the world in search of more knowledge about the land outside my home. As to his second question, I asked what he meant. He said I didn’t walk like I was from around here, and that I talked with an accent he had never heard before. My Canterlot accent wasn’t that bad, but I suppose it wouldn’t have been invented yet in this time period. I told him that the land I was from had many things his village wouldn’t understand and he seemed to believe me. He told me that his town was currently at war with the forest invaders. They had been fighting for years since the enemy had come to the area. They seemed to have tools harder than stone and carried armor that couldn’t be pierced by the spears wielded by the citizens of Twin Palms. Luckily for the village, the invaders had a low population and most were too lazy to actually come out and fight.

I was sorry to hear that they were ever so slowly losing their land to the invading ponies that wanted to take over. Apparently the invaders were looking for something buried under the land. For this reason they tore apart the area and destroyed the homes of all the creatures within the forest. I had no idea how I was supposed to do anything, but I told Midnight Rain that if I could get a look at the invaders, I may be able to help. He took me to the town hall and brought out a set of steel armor with dents all over it. He also carried a steel sword with a crack going down the blade. It appeared the ponies attacking the town were more modern than the villagers. I told Midnight about the armor and said I had no way of helping him with it. He said there was another thing I could do.

Ponies had been going missing over the past few months in the town. Every time a pony vanished, a magical residue was left behind at their last known location. Midnight told me there was a sorcerer that lived deep within the forest. If I could get him to come to the village and examine the residue, I would be made an honorary citizen of the town and be given anything I asked for. I was thrilled at the opportunity to get my information easily, so of course I accepted. My only condition was that I was not the pony to do the task. My colleague would be arriving in the morning after I left. I couldn’t stay past sunrise due to the effects of the spell. If I stayed any longer, I would not be able to return to my own time. The town council accepted this and I was given a place for me and my partners to stay for the nights we were there.

I spent the rest of the day and much of the night fixing up the barn that had been set aside for the ponies that visited the town. So few ponies came to the village that the barn was never used until I came here. I was the first pony in years to call the barn a place to sleep, and had to clean up the dust that had formed in the place. I managed a few hours rest before I was awoken by the magical ring attached to my front leg. It is used to give a warning that the time spell must be ended in the next hour. I first went to the town hall and told Midnight I had to leave. I placed a magical beacon on the floor of the room so that the next pony to time travel would come out there and not randomly. After this, I used the ring to counter the time spell and send me home. I watched as the world around me faded into the dark purple of the time vortex. Soon I had returned to Canterlot to write this report.

End of Chapter 1

Chapter 1 for all my fans, hope you enjoyed. I also have a request of you all. I need names for my characters and would like to get some input from you. If you have a good OC name I ask that you send it to me if you want it used in this story. Also, if you send a bio I can include their personality in the story. Live long and prosper, Dragonrider Goku.

Foggy Mane

Disclaimer: Dragonrider Goku does not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is owned by the people who own it. All other characters either belong to me or I have been given permission to use.

Travel Account 2: Foggy Mane

When I was briefed on what was going on in this time frame, I had expected something different upon my arrival. I suppose it isn’t every day a pegasus gets to travel through time. At any rate, my arrival felt like torture. Maybe my body just isn’t used to the magic that sent me back thousands of years in the past but it hurt like shit. Now to my actual experiences within the past:

When I arrived, I was in a large building made of wood. (At least, it was large compared to the other buildings in the area. Still nothing compared to Cloudsdale’s cloud houses.) The first thing I noticed about the many ponies watching me was that there were no pegasi or unicorns among the group. Strangely enough Light Fire never mentioned in his report that every pony was an earth pony. They all seemed to regard me strangely but I suppose it was my wings they were interested in.

I decided to be the first to speak as the others were too busy looking at my wings. I did my introduction and told them who I was, but no pony seemed to want to speak until after I said who I was. Naturally the first pony to speak was the old stallion Midnight Rain. He told me who he was and where I was, despite me already knowing from the account Light Fire made of his trip to this town. The first question of course was about my wings. Apparently the ponies from this village had never seen a pegasus pony before. I told them about the pegasi and their abilities to mold clouds, change weather, and most importantly fly. I must say, the confused looks on their faces was priceless.

After the introductions were out of the way, I decided to take a look around town. It was a nice little place despite the fighting I was informed of. I decided to start my mission as soon as possible and asked Midnight for directions to the unicorn he told Light Fire about. Once he gave me a direction and distance I immediately took flight and jetted off towards the sorcerer’s home. (I never was one to wait)

It only took me a few minutes of flying to spot a smoke trail floating higher into the sky. I headed for it and arrived at a small hut atop a hill. It didn’t seem like much to me, the roof was made of hay and the walls looked like they were put together for the sole reason of having walls and nothing else. There were no decorations in place that didn’t serve a purpose in keeping the building standing up straight.

I knocked on the door and waited a few seconds before I heard the muffled sound of hooves hitting the floor. Another couple of seconds later and the door began to creak open slowly. A dark gray unicorn with a silver mane poked his head out and looked at me with an annoyed expression on his face. He asked what I wanted but told me to keep it quick. I told him about the disappearances happening in Twin Palms and asked if he could help figure out what was happening. He looked at me with a blank expression and was about to refuse to help when he noticed something behind me. I looked back but realized it was just my wings he was staring so intently at.

He shook his head for a moment as if to clear it and told me he would help discover the reason behind the missing ponies if I did one thing for him in return. He wanted to take a feather from my wings and use it in some sort of experiment of his. I had no reason not to let him have one of my feathers so I took a loose one off my right wing and gave it to the unicorn. He thanked me for the feather and agreed to help the town if I escorted him to it. I agreed and we set off through the forest towards the village.

While we walked back, I found out that his name was Quicksilver and that he had been working towards making his magic improve enough to allow him to ascend to the level of Draconequus and become one of the few to master the arcane arts. Apparently a draconequus was a master at magic and had much more power than any other unicorn besides those who also ascended. While it was interesting to listen to all the magical mumbo jumbo Quicksilver spouted along the walk back to Twin Palms, I couldn’t have been more relieved when we finally came within sight of the village.

When we walked back into town, we were met with wide eyes and whispers from the ponies in the streets. We continued on towards the town hall I had been transported to when arriving in this time. As we arrived, Midnight Rain trotted out to meet us at the doorway. He was thrilled to be in the presence of a unicorn that was willing to help solve the case of the missing ponies. He made his introductions with Quicksilver and told us both that we could stay together in the barn that Light Fire had cleaned up during his stay there. We obliged and started heading for the building that would be our home for the time being.

We found a nice looking, if not old barn that had a multitude of ponies outside working on repairing the structure and making it look better. The inside was furbished nicely and included multiple beds for any occupants to sleep in. They looked comfortable enough and were definitely nicer than the worn old sheets Quicksilver was sleeping in back at his home.
It was getting late at this time so we agreed that Quicksilver would work on the magical residue in the morning with the next pony that was sent over to the village by the device that me and Light Fire had come through. I decided to work some more on the barn and decorated it with some clouds while Quicksilver decided to meditate and continue his magical studies. Eventually we were both asleep and spent the rest of the night that way.

In the morning, I went to the town hall to prepare for my departure back into my own time period. I stood near the beacon still sitting in the middle of the room and activated the magical ring that would send me back. As the pain of the spell faded away, I was back in the same place as before and ready to write the report you read now.

End of Chapter 2

Here it is folks, the update to Changed Worlds, Changed Minds. Special thanks go out to Quicksilver18 for sending me a list of names to use for continuing this story. Without him, this story wouldn’t have been updated for a while.

Spell Breaker

Disclaimer: Dragonrider Goku does not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is owned by the people who own it. All other characters either belong to me or I have been given permission to use.

Travel Account 3: Spell Breaker

When I was briefed on the mission I was supposed to perform in the past, I knew I was the right mare for the job. I suppose it has something to do with my special talent lying in magical tracking but that’s why I was chosen to go as the third member of our exploration group to go back in time. I was supposed to help this unicorn named Quicksilver with the discovery of the location of the ponies going missing from Twin Palms.

After the spell ended, I was left in the same room that Foggy Mane had written about in his account of his time in the past. The ponies were all there including the old pony who must have been Midnight Rain and the unicorn described as Quicksilver. I must say, I was expecting something special from these two, but to me, they looked just like any other pony I’ve seen around Equestria. At any rate, I did my introduction and met Midnight. He seemed to be surprised at me being a mare but I’m not sure why. Come to think of it, so did the other ponies there by the looks they were giving me. Quicksilver was the only one not looking at me like I didn’t belong but really he didn’t seem to care about anything at all.

I still went out and learned from Midnight and Quicksilver what exactly I was supposed to be doing. I needed to help figure out what had been taking the villagers and where they had been taken to. They explained everything in greater detail and Quicksilver told me a spell I could use to help but honestly, I wasn’t paying attention. How can you blame me though? I grew up in a city with ponies everywhere and never really got to see the life of a small town. I was too enthralled in the beauty of the town to pay much attention to the boring ponies that told me stuff I already knew.

By the time the lecture was over, I had listened to about half of it and really gotten no new information that hadn’t already been passed to me by the accounts of Light Fire and Foggy Mane. At least I did well at faking my attention and didn’t have to listen to it again like my parents had done when I was just a little filly. Well time to actually get working. I was a detective in the streets, looking for clues and willing to do anything to get the job done.

We went to the site of the latest disappearance and from the moment my hooves stepped onto the hard wood floor of the small, now abandoned house I could tell something bad had happened in that very room. The magical residue was all over the area and it was strong. Whatever had performed the despicable acts of kidnapping these ponies was incredibly powerful. My detective senses went into overdrive as I used my favorite tracking spell on the spot where the trace was the strongest.

Unfortunately I was wrong and the disturbance was actually Quicksilver casting his own spell to find the culprit. This was finally starting to get fun; I joined in with my famous tracking spell that was sure to find out the identity of the pony who had taken the citizens of Twin Palms. When I worked my magic I was shocked at the outcome. I was not expecting that at all. My magic told me that the pony who took the other ponies was none other than, a pony who was too clever for my trick and couldn’t be discovered by my simple spell. Luckily I had a backup plan and another spell that had never failed me before.

My second spell worked and told me that the ponies had been taken to a place far away. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the sea and was probably on one of those islands that I could barely see from the shoreline. But then I realized, there weren’t any islands there before when I had been zoned out and looking around at the landscape. If this was the case, then where did the islands come from and why did they seem to be getting bigger. It was probably just a figment of my imagination as there was no possible way an island could just grow on its own that fast.

I didn’t say anything about the islands to either Quicksilver or Midnight, but at least I told them that the location of the missing ponies was in the direction of the sea. Honestly, sometimes I get yelled at for the weirdest things. One time it was attempting to sleep for a thousand years like a dragon does while another time it was not paying attention to a boring lecture on physics and other boring stuff like that. Okay, I’m getting a little off topic here but who cares, certainly not me. Well we figured out where the missing ponies were at least so I think it was a day well spent.

My new best buddy Quicksilver and I started the short journey to the barn we were supposed to be sleeping in for the night. After the investigation of the missing citizens, we didn’t really have much to do so I decided to work on making the barn look even better than it did before. Sure Foggy Mane did really good with the clouds as decorations, but the rest of the barn still needed a little pizazz. I think it would really look good with a bunch of pink.

Quicksilver decided to be boring and went inside to meditate or something, but I got to work on painting the building to look like the funnest place you’ve ever laid eyes on. When I was done, there was pink everywhere covering the outside of the barn. Now if only I could move the clouds to look like frosting it would be the best place ever.

I went to sleep due to the exhaustion of having such a fun time painting the entire outside of the barn. When I woke up, it was almost time for me to go back to my own dreary time. I went to the town hall and stood by the beacon while I activated the ring to send me back. When I returned I was told to write this report of everything that happened to me. Maybe I can go visit my friend Surprise when I’m done. She can be so funny sometimes, but then again so can Pinkie. I really can’t choose, bye.

End of Chapter 3

Well here it is, my second chapter in the same night. Wrote this one and chapter 2 in just a mere 9 hours or so, sorry if it seems a little odd. Maybe you can guess who I based Spell Breaker’s personality off of. Hope you liked it.

Barricade

Disclaimer: Dragonrider Goku does not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is owned by the people who own it.

Travel Account 4: Barricade

Those weaklings thought this spell was painful, hah, I’ve felt more pain from a bunny rabbit. I suppose this is supposed to be about my adventures in the past, well then I should get started. They chose me for the job so I could gain some support for the mission we were embarking on to find the missing ponies.

When I first arrived in the past, I noticed the mass of little ponies surrounding me. Once I started giving my orders, they followed like their lives depended on it. Maybe I was a bit harsh, but they all had important tasks that had to be done to perfection. One single mistake could have ruined the entire mission for us. With my command, we got everything ready to go in just ten minutes.

We had everything ready and were about to leave when a battle cry went up from outside the village. There was a small army of ponies there clad in polished steel armor. I think Light Fire mentioned something about them. These fools messed with the wrong pony at the wrong time. Unfortunately for them they pissed me off by messing up my great plan. I went into combat first and already had three enemies down before any of them knew what happened. They tried to hit me with their swords, but I dodged every one. You can’t defeat a battle hardened guard captain with a few pitiful swings. I also happened to be the fastest earth pony in all of Equestria. My punches took down full armored ponies in just a single hit. They never stood a chance.

When I had beaten almost all the invading force, the rest finally got smart and retreated back to wherever they had come from. I chased after them but my bulk wouldn’t allow for a full entrance to the forest. I instead turned back and rounded up all the now unconscious ponies that had fallen to my hoof. While I waited for the fallen to return to the land of the living I noticed the villagers of Twin Palms staring at me. From the mixed looks I was getting, some thought of me as a crazy mad pony that can break solid metal while others thought I was a savior who protected them.

I really don’t care what these ponies think of me, I’m going to leave in a day anyway. My only goal is to get the job I was assigned done. After a few hours of waiting, I finally had my chance to do just that. The captured ponies had woken up and it was time for me to find out what they knew.

I interrogated the prisoners for another hour or so before I had received about as much information as I could get from them. They were all hoof soldiers or just plain old farmers who had been drafted to join the local militia. If I didn’t know better, I would have said they were forced into their position in the army. They had apparently come to the land in search of rare minerals that could be found in the fresh landscape of the forest. They wanted the town gone due to a giant gold ore vein underneath the two palm trees. These ponies seem much more modern than the natives here but they lack tactic in battle. If I didn’t know better I’d say they were all untrained, but they stayed in formation and fought as such. It was a stupid and weak strategy, but a strategy none the less.

The natives fought from the shadows and could usually get the drop on these other ponies if they were given the chance. I wasn’t sent there to help in a territory dispute but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let innocent ponies die because of a bunch of greedy foals. After interrogation I let the captured go with a message that this land was under the protection of the fiercest warriors the royal guard had to offer. The looks on their faces were priceless, first wonderment than fear slowly creeping its way across their features. I guess they don’t know about our royal guard but they seemed to understand what I meant.

After the drama of the day, I was hard pressed to get the town ready for any counter attack those modern ponies were sure to perform. Luckily the only thing we noticed from them was a few ponies watching us from the tree line. I never got to set off on my original mission but I did have quite some fun sneaking behind those spies’ backs and scaring them silly. Since I would never have the time necessary to look for the missing ponies, I decided to spend the time upgrading the barn I was going to be spending the night in.

The barn may look nice with the clouds decorating it but it was lacking greatly in the defense area. I decided to add a few weapon racks and extra beds to the formerly empty building. I decided to put the swords I had collected from the other ponies to good use and kept them neatly in the newly made barracks section. The other three ponies may have been more worried with decoration and all that stuff but I wanted to have a rightful base of operations in case of another attack on this town.

After spending all the remaining daylight creating my training area, complete with practice dummies, I figured I had done enough and went to sleep in one of the cots I dragged into the barn. I woke up in the morning just before sunrise. By the time I had done my morning jog around the town it was time for me to leave twin palms. I can’t say I missed the place, but it was starting to grow on me. I went back to the town hall I had arrived in the day before and used my ring to return to my own time period.

Once returning I went straight to work on writing this account of my travels. I suppose you know the rest.

End of Chapter 4

I apologize for the long wait on this story. I will use the age old excuse of school even though it was really procrastination. I now have a break for a couple of weeks so expect the chapters to come more frequently. Happy doomsday, ~Dragonrider Goku~

Gold Plate

Disclaimer: Dragonrider Goku does not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It is owned by the people who own it.

Travel Account 5: Gold Plate

It seems Barricade was unable to start upon the rescue of the ponies that went missing from Twin palms village. Now it falls on me to get this show on the road and lead the expedition out towards wherever the taken ponies were.

I arrived in the town hall just as everyone else had said I would. I suppose I shouldn’t have thought much would happen but it seemed a little underwhelming to me. The pinching feeling was there of course but besides that and the flash of the spell there was nothing too spectacular about it. The town hall was just as it had been described to me with the wooden flooring covered by a light rug and the desk with a few chairs sitting near it. The glass cases and decorations on the side walls were at least interesting to look at, but still didn’t strike me as much. Then there were the earth ponies crowded around watching me. They had a multitude of colors typical to earth ponies and seemed to like my golden armor. I had forgotten the fact that I was the only one to actually come wearing the standard golden royal guard armor. Barricade had his dull steel armor on but it was worn and not nearly as well maintained as mine.

While I stood there I noticed an old stallion and what appeared to be the only unicorn in the room at the front of the crowd, each with a business like expression on their face. I waited for them to start the conversation and they started off with introductions. Midnight and Quicksilver told me about the plan of action that I had heard from the previous travel entries that had been given to me to read. Assuming nothing happened; this was going to be the time we actually set out for the ponies that had been taken from the village by who knows what. I just hoped this would go smoothly.

Once I was acquainted with the ponies that would be going with me on the boats, I gathered up whatever supplies would be needed along with the beacon that focused the time spell to its location. The crew that would be following my orders consisted of Quicksilver, a blue earth pony named Seafoam who was captain of the boat we would be sailing aboard, a brown pony with a black mane and tail named Compass Rose who acted as navigator, and an orange pony with a scarlet mane and tail named Fox who was in charge of the archers aboard. Besides them, there were various others along who were helping in any way they could. The ship wasn’t large compared to some I’ve seen, but it fit a decent number of ponies aboard.

We were ready to set off at around midday. The trip to the islands where the ponies were supposedly taken would take a couple of hours as well as the trip back. If all went well, we should have been able to return shortly after nightfall. Too bad this wasn’t meant to be.

When we arrived at the island everything seemed normal. The trees looked as if they had always been there, and there were no signs of civilization that I could find. We started a trek into the trees to see what we could find. Unfortunately, we didn’t get far before a magical shield popped up around us, trapping us within a confined area of the forest. That’s when a small group of three unicorns walked out into our line of sight and looked us all over carefully. They spoke between each other in a language I was not familiar with. I recognized it from somewhere, but I can’t tell where I’d heard it from.

While the three unicorns spoke among themselves, Quicksilver tried to break through the shield with his own magic. The effect was less than desirable as Quicksilver’s spell bounced off the shield and back at us dodging ponies. Luckily no pony was hurt as the spell was absorbed into the ground where it hit. I may not be a unicorn, but even I felt the magical feedback that came from beneath us. There was more magic within the dirt than just that of Quicksilver’s spell. Whether the island was naturally that way or it had been enchanted to act as a magic battery I had no idea.

After hearing the commotion, the unicorn trio turned back to us watching curiously. They said one more thing to each other before they came up to us and started to cast some spell. I’m not sure exactly what spell they used, but it seemed to knock us all out.

When I regained consciousness, I was in some sort of circular room. The ceiling had a huge, gaping hole in it while there appeared to be strange runes carved all over the walls and pillars within the area. We still had all of our supplies with us so either nothing interested these ponies or they just didn’t care. I am willing to bet it has something to do with the multitude of runes that covered the walls.

As I studied the room for any odd detail, the other ponies around me started to wake from their slumbers. Whatever had been done to us had lasted a few hours at least as the sun was beginning to set in the sky. Why we had been brought to this odd place is something I will likely never be able to figure out. Quicksilver was the last to wake up and shortly after he did, a group of perhaps a dozen unicorns stepped out of a doorway to the east. They took up a formation around us and began speaking in their native tongue. It was similar to ancient Equestrian, but was much more guttural and had many words I have never heard before.

While I only recognized a few words, and even then could never place their meaning, it seemed that Quicksilver understood what was being said by the unicorns. He seemed freaked out by the words and was constantly looking up to the sky. I soon discovered the reason as a massive form appeared and obstructed nearly the entire hole in the ceiling. Whatever the beast was, it was pure black and seemed to have its skin moving constantly as if it were made of smoke. This creature then reached down and plucked one of our crew members from the ground and lifted him until he was about halfway up the height of the room.

Once the pony was lifted, the runes began to glow and appear on the body of the captive pony as he hollered out in pain. Then, the pony suddenly started falling apart and turning to ash. Soon the entire body was gone and only a skeleton remained. The ash had been sucked into the creature’s hand as it burned off.

The bones were then ground together into a powder and dropped until it created a new layer of dust on the floor. This entire process was repeated with three more ponies before the creature bellowed into the night and disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

I spent the night freaking out over what had happened. I got no sleep at all. In the morning I set down the beacon like I was supposed to and used the spell ring to send myself back to my true time period. I wish luck for whoever goes into the past next.

End of Chapter 5

Here is the next part of Changed Worlds Changed Minds. It has been far too long since an update and I can really blame no one but myself. So I blame school and laziness. I will try to update soon but I seriously will not make any guarantees don’t hold your breath for an update.