The wide fields spread as far as the eye could see, their rolling and calm hills welcoming the bright and shining sun. A gust of wind blew over the fields, moving the tall and unkempt grass as if it was an elaborate show. In the distance was a tall, lonely mountain that looked as if it were out of place, and on the opposite side of this massive field, a massive forest. Several streams came from inside of the forest, interrupting the calm fields with the sound of running water. Running through the center of the field, a massive river would fill the air with the sound of bears hunting for fish, or a variety of other wild creatures doing as creatures do in nature and on their own. It was a world far, far away to most, a world untouched by civilization. It was a world that was often the material of dreams or fairy tales. It was a brave new world for anypony who lived there, and would always be a brave new world.
Twilight Sparkle rested peacefully on the top of one of the many hills, seemingly ignorant of the harsh winds. She still had herself wrapped in her blanket, only briefly disturbed in her rest by the cold ground. As the sun began to rise over the horizon, she slowly opened up her eyes only to close them again when she realized she stared directly at the celestial object that greeted her every morning when it wasn't cloudy or rainy. After a few seconds, she opened them up again and looked around, seeing tall grass all around her. She saw what seemed to be the manes of other ponies nearby, moving about in the grass, but what concerned her more was her sleeping assistant still peacefully sleeping in the midst of this field. She scrambled to get out of her blanket and walked over to her assistant, nudging him to wake up.
"Spike," she whispered, nudging him with her hoof. "Spike, wake up. Do you know where we are?"
Spike muttered as Twilight's attention turned elsewhere. He quickly rolled over as the sunlight reached his face, ignoring Twilight's attempts to prod him awake. Twilight began to hear other ponies around her speaking, all of them familiar in some way. Some voices she knew the speaker of, and others she merely recognized from her travels in Ponyville. She saw what looked like several Pegasi flying overhead, all of them as confused as she was, but all of them still looking familiar. Among them a certain cross-eyed pegasus who was familiar to Twilight for delivering her mail every morning. She was looking around the field, as confused as Twilight was.
"Rainbows for the Rainbow Goddess! Wings for the Wing throne!" another familiar voice shrieked from several feet away.
"Lyra, stop freaking out!" another voice said a few moments later, apparently trying to calm the shrieking of Lyra Heartstrings. Twilight turned her attention back to Spike, who was himself starting to get upset in his sleep from the noise of ponies trying to find out what had happened to them. As Bon Bon and Lyra were screaming at each other, Twilight gently tried to shake the baby dragon away.
After a few moments, Spike groaned. "Twi, turn out the lights, it can't be time to get up."
"Spike, just open your eyes." Twilight said as calmly as she possibly could, still going through dozens of scenarios in her head as to why she woke up in a field with what seemed to be dozens of other ponies who were just as confused as ever. Spike complied, and slowly opened his eyes to see his basket sitting in a field of tall grass. He quickly sat up, darting his eyes back and forth, trying to figure out where he was.
"What the buck?" Spike mumbled, looking at the grass that was just a little taller than Twilight Sparkle. "Where are we?"
"I don't know Spike." Twilight explained. She still thought of dozens of scenarios that could have happened, the one dominating her mind was all of this being a bizarre dream, or it being the work of Discord. She was surprised at herself though, and her own reaction. Had it been three years ago, she might have been freaking out like the ponies a few meters away, but as time passed over the last few years, she began to take a more relaxed approach to unusual situations. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing that happened to her and her friends. "I'll be sure to find out though. Get up and grab your basket, we'll be looking around for a while."
Before Spike could comply, only getting out a brief salute, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane crashed into the ground. Twilight turned around to see her friend, Rainbow Dash, recovering from the crash. Twilight and Spike quickly ran over to her to see if she was alright, but before they could get to her she got up and looked at the two. Twilight had a relieved smile. She was happy at least one of her friends was stuck with her. For the first time in the last few minutes of being awake, she thought of her other friends. Were they alright? Were they brought along to wherever they were?
"Rainbow Dash, am I glad you're alright!" Twilight yelled excitedly, moving over to hug the pegasus. She had never been happier to see a familiar face, and while Spike was all the company she would need, she was happy to have more ponies she knew with her in this situation. "Do you have any idea what the hay is going on? Do you think it might be Discord? Or maybe Changelings? Maybe they kidnapped us and dropped us off here while they plot against the Princess? Or-"
"Twilight, what makes you think I'd know the answer to that?" Rainbow Dash answered smirking, placing her hoof on Twilight's mouth to get her to be quiet. "I've spent the last fifteen minutes trying to find you guys. Everypony is freaking out, but we're trying to get them all together near a stream a few hundred meters south from here."
"So, all of our friends are alright?" Spike interjected, looking at the two. "Is Rarity okay?"
"Yeah, they're all alright." Rainbow answered, spreading her wings and getting ready to take off again. "I've got to go tell everypony to head to the stream. Since you're the biggest egghead here, I'm sure you'll end up being forced to give them answers. And do me a favor Twilight, tell anypony to follow you to the stream, I can't possibly get to everypony before some start running off. I'm surprised I worked this fast to get them all to gather in one place."
"Thanks Rainbow." Twilight smiled. She looked at Spike, who had picked up his basket and placed it under his arm. She started to fold her blanket and levitated it onto her back as Rainbow Dash nodded and took off once again to inform anypony who she could find about the gathering at the stream. Twilight noticed that the noise of ponies arguing and screaming died down as the sound of ponies walking through the grass to the stream began to fill the air. There were some conversations Twilight could overhear, mostly ponies finding a friend or two during their trek southwards to the stream. She knew that she would end up being asked by everypony about what was going on. Twilight was after all the personal student of Princess Celestia, and arguably the smartest pony in Ponyville.
Spike's voice interrupted Twilight's thoughs. "You ready Twi?"
Twilight nodded, giving Spike the signal to jump onto her back with his basket in hand. She used her magic to part the grass to see a trail of ponies moving south, all of them familiar to her. A lot of them were acquaintances, while others she only knew from brief interactions at local businesses in Ponyville. A few she didn't recognize, but in a town as big as Ponyville, there likely were ponies she had never seen before in her life. It was going to be a long day for Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
Author's Note
Well, here is the first Chapter. Unlike my other fic, this one will move quickly, and I won't drag out the updating time to over a month. In an ideal situation, I'll be able to update weekly.
Nearly an hour had passed since everypony appeared in the middle of the field, and now, most were gathering along a small stream running out of a nearby forest. Those who weren't in the immediate vicinity of a cluster of short trees were spread on both banks of the stream, discussing the previous day with one another, and theories on why and how they ended up in this mysterious place. The pegasi were still patrolling the air, following Rainbow Dash's impressive and uncharacteristic effort to search for everypony who had appeared, to ensure that nopony would go missing or be separated. Everypony knew one another in some way, they were mostly from Ponyville, with some being out of town visitors who happened to be in town during the events that led to their disappearance. In a small semicircle around a lonely tree separated from the main cluster was Twilight Sparkle, four of her friends, and Spike, who had been discussing ideas as to what to do.
Twilight would realize that like her, everypony was brought to this place with whatever they happened to be using at the time of their transportation to this field. She, like most others, had blankets or coats with them as they were asleep at the time of their disappearance from their own world and their arrival to the new one. Spike had his basket, and a few ponies had books, or in some cases alcoholic beverages. Most ponies who knew Twilight and her friends would often greet them before mingling with the other ponies around them. It was a far cry from the situation an hour before, when Lyra was shouting nonsense about sacrifices, Big Macintosh believing he was having that dream again, and the more religious ponies like Bon Bon believing that they were dead. Now there was an atmosphere of calm. Everypony knew everypony else, with a few exceptions, and things seemed more like Ponyville again, just without less people, no buildings, and no trace of any nearby civilization.
"My boutique! My clothing! Oh what is a mare like me to do now?!" Rarity shouted at particularly no one, but as usual, Spike was listening to her complaints. While anypony, even Spike himself would find her arguing and complaining over the simplest deviation from her regular life, he felt that this one time she was justified. "What am I to do now? I have a little sister to take care of! A cat to feed! This is the worst possible thing!"
Spike caught Rarity as she fainted next to a boulder, only to recover herself a second later, looking at the glances everypony else was giving her. Spike turned his attention to the sky, where he saw that the pegasi were now breaking into groups. Several flew into the nearby forest, while others were returning to the various groups that had formed along the streams. Twilight, who was thinking over dozens of possible scenarios for their appearance in this mysterious place looked up to notice that Rainbow Dash was flying to meet them. She was impressed by Rainbow Dash's ability to organize a search party and to gather everypony in one place. It was nearly uncharacteristic, but as Twilight had come to find out, Rainbow Dash acted much more responsibly when their lives were in danger. As the cyan pegasus landed in the center of the ground of friends, they one-by-one congratulated her on her efforts.
"Rainbow Dash," Twilight commented after several seconds, "that was absolutely brilliant. I never thought you had it in you to organize such a massive search effort."
Rainbow Dash smirked at the comment. She was proud of herself for the effort she put into it. Besides a few ponies who had run into the forest out of fear from the initial situation, most of the ponies were gathered in the place she specified the pegasi to round them to. Even Applejack was impressed by Rainbow's ability to round everypony up in less than an hour to get to safety. Dash simply nodded as Twilight continued to compliment her on the sudden organizational skills for the search.
"It's nothing Twi." Rainbow Dash smiled. It was rare to impress Twilight Sparkle with something that the lavender unicorn would often think of first. "Managing the weather in Ponyville tends to have its awesome side effects on a pony."
"So, um...why did the pegasi split up?" Fluttershy quietly asked from her spot directly next to the tree they were sitting under.
Rainbow Dash looked back at Fluttershy, trying to listen to the obviously scared pegasus. While Fluttershy had been more confident in recent years, this situation trumped any other, and had forced her to revert to her old and frightened self.
"A few ponies ran into the forest because they were probably scared." Rainbow Dash explained, walking over to Tank who was seated next to Angel near the center of the ground of friends. She sat down next to Tank and rubbed his chin with her hoof before looking back at Fluttershy. "Of course, I wasn't scared. I took action quick enough to figure out where they were going. If all goes well, they'll all be back here by the end of the day."
Twilight had ignored Rainbow Dash's explanation, and looked at Spike's basket. She had been doing so for the last few moments, trying to think of a possible idea to get them rescued.
"Spike, do you still keep your quill and paper under your sheets?" Twilight suddenly asked, surprising everypony who had been listening to Rainbow Dash's story on how she rescued everypony from 'imminent danger'.
"Sure do Twilight. That, your journal, and some other things." Spike proudly said. After a few seconds of thinking, he quickly realized what Twilight wanted to do. "Do you want me to write a letter to the Princess?"
Before Twilight could confirm Spike's question, he already took out a quill, an inkwell, and a piece of parchment. He leaned the parchment against the underside of his basket, as his trusty clipboard was not brought along for the ride.
Without hesitation, Twilight began to dictate the letter to Spike.
"Dear Princess Celestia," she began with her usual tone when dictating a letter to the Princess. As she began, several ponies began to gather around the circle to listen. Most ponies from Ponyville knew that Twilight Sparkle was able to send letters directly to the Princess through Spike. Most were happy now that an end to this bizarre situation could be found. "We need your immediate assistance. My friends, along with many other ponies from Ponyville, have found themselves on a deserted field with no signs of civilization, and geographic features that seem to be nowhere in Equestria. We request your immediate assistance to helping us return to Ponyville, and to resume our lives in as normal a fashion as possible. I will be writing you further as the situation develops. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
Spike rolled up the parchment and placed a wax seal to keep it closed. He quickly breathed his green fire on the parchment, which quickly burnt to a crisp. Rather than the magical wisp of green flame that would lead the letter to Princess Celestia, the letter simply was briefly lit on fire, and turned into ash and fell to the ground. Twilight Sparkle and Spike looked at the letter, almost horrified by what they had witnessed. To most ponies, they wouldn't have noticed a difference, but Spike and Twilight now realized the full magnitude of the situation they were in.
After several moments of awkward silence, Applejack finally spoke up to the horrified Spike and Twilight. "Uh, guys, what jus' happened?"
Twilight twitched. She never had this happen before, and she knew it only meant two possible things. Either Princess Celestia was dead and the magical connection between herself and Spike was broken, or they weren't on their own world anymore, bringing the same effect. Since Twilight assumed that the Princess wasn't dead, being immortal, she took in the full importance of what had just happened. They were alone. They were alone on this mysterious world with absolutely no assistance whatsoever from the Princesses, or the Elements of Harmony.
"We're alone." she said sadly, looking at the pile of ash that was the letter. As what she said went through the crowd of dozens of ponies now surrounding the six friends, everypony else began to share the same look. Usually, when they were in trouble, the Princesses or the Elements of Harmony would come to the rescue. Now, with no way to contact the Princesses, and the Elements presumably in Canterlot or Ponyville, they all realized that they would be stuck in this place for quite some time.
The sun began to set on the horizon. It had been a full day since they had arrived in this mysterious place. Tents were built out of pieces of timber from the nearby forest, and the blankets that some ponies had with them when they were brought to this world. While there were some conversations around the dozen flickering fires in the small makeshift settlement they had formed, the situation had left most ponies speechless for most of the day. Only Pinkie Pie's morbid interest in having a party, and the flickering of the fire, were the constants of that night. Surrounding one of the larger fires in the center of this small settlement was Twilight, her friends, as well as several other ponies who looked either strong or intelligent.
"Alright, we have a full census now, 151 ponies, and 15 other non-equine creatures, including Spike and other pets." Twilight stated directly to no one, passing around the list to the ponies surrounding the fire. All of them were familiar to her, but some seemed to be complete strangers. Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, Zecora, Caramel, and a few other stallions from around town surrounded the fire along with Twilight's friends. One though was unfamiliar to most of them, a burgundy colored unicorn who had a plain accent, and a fiery mane. His name was Red October. "Rainbow Dash's teams have brought back all of the ponies we can find, but I can't be entirely sure we have everypony. In the morning, I want more teams sent into the forest to map it out, and to find any stragglers if there are any."
"What about food?" Cheerilee asked, interrupting what appeared to be a growing rant from Twilight. "We can't exactly eat grass and tree bark, can we?"
"We can, I read once that ponies mostly ate grass and hay, but that was thousands of years before Celestia and Luna." Twilight explained, looking around to see the plains of tall grass going both north and south, interrupted only by the forest nearby, and the mountains in the distance. "But, ponies have evolved to the point that our diet can't entirely consist of it. It will subdue hunger, but it won't be nutritious and if we can't find anything else to eat we'll end of starving by the winter."
Rarity interrupted before Cheerilee could respond. "Speaking of that Twilight, we can't exactly live outdoors or in tents while we wait for Princess Celestia to come for us, if she comes for us. Is anypony here experienced in building structures?"
Without hesitation, Applejack, Big Macintosh, Caramel, and several of the stallions raised their hoofs. Had Apple Bloom not been asleep, she probably would have raised her hoof too. Rarity nodded happily at the responses, and knew that some of the other ponies around the settlement would likely be able to help.
"Excellent." Rarity said to the ponies who had raised their hoofs. "Twilight, since you are obviously the one in charge, having organized us all in the last few hours, I recommend we work on building more permanent structures immediately. We can't survive the winters living out in the open like this."
Twilight nodded in agreement, then turned to the rest of the ponies, particularly Cheerilee. "I'll organize groups tomorrow to scour the forests for any edible fruits. Applejack and Big Macintosh will start exploring this land tomorrow to look for fertile land. If we are going to be here for a while, we need to grow our own crops and not rely on grass and berries for the rest of our time here."
"Ah'll start looking to the south. It's less hilly down there." Applejack interjected, with Big Macintosh nodding in agreement with her.
An unfamiliar voice broke the conversation between the ponies in the group. "Have any of you thought of the possibility that we'll be here permanently? From what I've heard about Twilight Sparkle, we need to work to organize everypony to jobs suited for them, and to work o rebuilding a society on this world."
"Thank you Red October for your input." Twilight smiled, albeit forcibly. She opened her journal that had been sent with her to write the results of the day, as well as the plans for the next few days. "I agree with you, but we can't abandon the idea that we aren't going to get rescued. If I know the Princess, she'll already be trying to look for us."
Red October smirked, "At least until it becomes too much of a burden to look for us. While I have the same hopes of rescue as you do, after a few weeks and months, it'll become obvious that we won't be going home. We need to start to think of the future of our civilization here. We need to start having foals, not now, but down the road. We need to create settlements, and try to build up what we had rather than waiting to go back to Ponyville."
"We've been here for less than a day and we already have a pessimist!" Pinkie Pie yelled, breaking her uncharacteristic silence. She had startled several ponies who had assumed she was asleep, but ignoring the shocked looks, she bounded across the fire towards Red October. "Turn that frown upside down! I know what'll do that, a party!"
"Not now Pinkie!" Twilight yelled. Pinkie Pie looked down and bounced back to her spot across the fire, going through it unharmed. "Red October brings up a lot of interesting points, but we can't just drop everything and start having foals now. If we reach the point where rescue doesn't seem likely, then we'll consider your suggestions, but right now is too soon. I don't want anypony making life changing decisions if we might be rescued in a few hours or days!"
"Very well." the burgundy stallion said while looking at the ground. "While I'm sure you're right that the Princess will be looking for us, we should still prepare should she not find us. Why don't we set up a point in time where we'll go from having a temporary settlement to having a new Ponyville that we can come to call home. It might be a few years, or even decades, but if we aren't going to be rescued, we need to plan this far ahead."
Twilight sighed, not wishing to continue the argument with Red October any further. He was right, Twilight knew that if they needed to survive, they would need a long term plan should Celestia not rescue them as she had previously presumed. "Alright Red October, we'll get to your concerns in time, but we need to first create a way for us to survive over the next few days without dying of exposure."
Red October politely nodded before nibbling on a few blades of grass that hadn't been eaten in the immediate area. The other mares and stallions around the large fire were forming their own groups, either talking or going to sleep for the night. It would be a long day ahead for all of them as they prepared for any situation that could possibly come up. It would be in Red October's mind a perfect opportunity to rebuild the utopia that had been Equestria. It would be to him the perfect opportunity to start off from scratch, to avoid the mistakes that Celestia and Luna had made when they formed Equestria. They were now in charge of their own destiny, and now, he had to help lead the others to see things his own way.
