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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 9, 2017 16:51:05 GMT
Candycane made a mental note to ask how a forest could defend itself from that terrifying power once they arrived at their destination. Meanwhile, the amazing way this diamond dog passed through the earth made her wonder how envious it would make a farmpony who worked the earth every day. They would think they were true masters of the soil, but if they saw this... Candycane felt a little flustered herself at the concept, even though her profession was in candy crafting. It felt like they were going faster than she could sprint on the surface. She started to daydream about digging like this herself, staring off into nothingness as she was lost in the mesmerizing sight... ...She redoubled her grip as she felt a slip. In her distraction, she nearly let go! Come on, focus... This is diamond dog stuff. I don't have claws. Gotta get my head out of the, erm... "clouds..."They burst out of the ground suddenly, and for perhaps the first time in her entire life, Sandstone saw two massive trees. Her eyes widened in awe and wonder as she turned and looked at Guru Fido, who simply smiled and motioned for the ponies to step forward. Two steps forward, and... They found themselves in the beautiful vale of the Hidden Land of Avalon. The gentle wind sighed in the leaves of many trees, bringing the sweet scent of flowers and fresh, clear, clean water. A gentle glow, like moonlight in the depths of summer, illuminated the many quiet pathways running here and there. It was neither hot nor cold, but comfortably warm and cool at the same time. Many fruits, edible leaves and other good food grew along the pathways, ripe and free for any to pick at their leisure, for the land here was ruled by Harmony through the grace and power of Queen Cadance. It was strange, exotic, full of wonder and mystery and things Sandstone had never even dreamed of, never seen in her entire life, only heard stories of, yet... it felt RIGHT, it felt REAL, like THIS is how the world SHOULD be, and everything she had ever experienced in her life was just a dream, and she was waking up for the first time - the clean air, the green grass, the blue sky and white clouds that gave forth a gentle touch of water, rainbows arcing over fertile plains and flowing rivers. Birds singing a song more beautiful than anything she'd ever heard as they flew through the air, right-side-up and forwards, and as real and alive as she. White cobblestone paths leading through quiet gardens, shaded here and there with trellises covered in green vines bearing purple globes that she knew were filled with sweet juice that didn't kill you or turn you into anything or explode. As for Candycane... she was home. No, it wasn't Ponyville or Canterlot, nothing could ever replace those... but it was home. This was Equestria, or as close to it as this twisted world could ever get. She could FEEL the thrumming of ancient magics in the very air itself, something she only just now realized had been fading and dying outside, like stepping out of a polluted, smog-filled city and returning to the clean air of the country. An enormous, shining beacon of rainbow light shot up from a palace of organic crystal off in the distance, merging with the blue of the magical sky which covered this place. She could see all sorts of flying beings, pegasi and hippogriffs, birds, all sorts of winged creatures frolicking in the skies, and far below, ponies and diamond dogs and deer and all manner of citizenry milling about the many streets of the city. The ancient diamond dog smiled as he looked back at the fillies still standing in awe. " Welcome to Avalon, little ones." |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 9, 2017 17:11:21 GMT
I never thought I'd be so happy to see the wilderness of the famed Everfree Forest. I heard so many stories about this place in school, but here... It's a refuge! Candycane's eyes were most prominently drawn to the rainbow pillar reaching from the castle in the distance. And that... answers my question. It's beautiful... but what's holding that up? The peachy mare finally returned the diamond dog's gaze, managing to peel her eyes off the majestic palace. Its size, though certainly not shape or composition, reminded her a lot of the structures in the big city she came from. "It feels so... alive here. We're not just fighting for our freedom, are we? The world itself needs us."
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 9, 2017 17:48:11 GMT
I never thought I'd be so happy to see the wilderness of the famed Everfree Forest. I heard so many stories about this place in school, but here... It's a refuge! Candycane's eyes were most prominently drawn to the rainbow pillar reaching from the castle in the distance. And that... answers my question. It's beautiful... but what's holding that up? The peachy mare finally returned the diamond dog's gaze, managing to peel her eyes off the majestic palace. Its size, though certainly not shape or composition, reminded her a lot of the structures in the big city she came from. "It feels so... alive here. We're not just fighting for our freedom, are we? The world itself needs us." Guru Fido nodded as Sandstone wiped her eyes, trying and failing to keep from crying at the beauty of it all. "Ah... Ah never imagined... it's like Ah've been dreamin' this whole time, an' only now woke up..." The gentle giant hugged her close with one crystal arm. " Yes. Now more than ever, this world needs hope, the hope represented by this last remnant of Old Equestria." He stood up as some very odd-looking beings approached from the sky; Candycane guessed these were what became of the Changelings from back in her time, since they retained a vaguely insect-like look and butterfly wings, but in this upside-down world, they had somehow filled up all their holes, and instead of pitch black, their carapaces were brilliant rainbow, and their eyes were kind. The crystal armor they wore bore the symbol of a crystal heart, the same symbol that she'd seen earlier on the coffins, apparently the symbol for Avalon and its Queen. The changelings landed, and the sky-chariot they'd been pulling rolled to a stop as they stepped forward and bowed. " Guru Fido, Queen Cadence sends Her regards, and Her humble request for your presence and that of Lady Candycane and Lady Sandstone. We sensed your presence from the moment you entered the Everfree, and have already made arrangements for your welcome at the Crystal Palace." The diamond dog bowed in return. " We would be honored, Lord Thorax. Lady Candycane, Lady Sandstone?" He gestured as the changelings opened the door to the chariot and stepped aside. |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 9, 2017 20:33:58 GMT
Candycane couldn't help but feel like a sacrifice being prepared through elaborate treatments and care, but she knew that was partially true... She just signed up to get out there and take the world back from a god. If anything went wrong... "Thank you, sirs," she said with a polite curtsey she learned in a ballroom dance class. The presence of a palace must mean she's in high society, after all. She accompanied Sandstone onto the carriage, keeping an arm around her. "That was grass we were walking on. Would you like to see plains of this stretching out for miles?" she asked the filly, not imagining she'd seen it before.
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 9, 2017 23:09:07 GMT
Candycane couldn't help but feel like a sacrifice being prepared through elaborate treatments and care, but she knew that was partially true... She just signed up to get out there and take the world back from a god. If anything went wrong... "Thank you, sirs," she said with a polite curtsey she learned in a ballroom dance class. The presence of a palace must mean she's in high society, after all. She accompanied Sandstone onto the carriage, keeping an arm around her. "That was grass we were walking on. Would you like to see plains of this stretching out for miles?" she asked the filly, not imagining she'd seen it before. The filly's eyes went wide. "Ye're sayin'... ye're sayin' it used t' be EVERYWHERE, not jes' in patches like this?" She looked around in wonder as the guards closed the chariot door and began their flight. Pegasi and hippogriffs stared briefly at the newcomers, but mainly just waved. "That'd be... that'd be amazin'..." Guru Fido chuckled. " There are a great many things of the old world that you've yet to imagine, Sandstone. More than I could tell in a thousand bedtime stories. Did you know that Sky Ocean wasn't always in the sky? There used to be oceans that went all the way to the horizon, filled with fish that didn't fly, and seaweed, like long grass, but underwater. We used things called 'boats' and 'ships' to move across its surface, and the ripples of the water were so large they were like little moving cliffs, and we called them waves. There were things called beaches, where the water met the land, made of miles and miles of sand, and little fillies just like you would go there to play, building things out of the sand just to look at." "B-but how 'bout th' monsters an' Chaos storms?" " In the old world, there were no Chaos Storms, and no need to scavenge from them either. Cities even bigger than the one you see below us created all that ponies needed, and the monsters were little, no bigger than a house on average, and mostly stuck to the Everfree rather than roaming around outside. Back then, ponies didn't even know what the word 'hunting' meant." The filly's jaw hanged open in surprise. "That's... Ah can't..." She looked at Candycane with wide eyes. "Ya didn't hafta kill nothin' t' eat, or git tools or protect yer homes or nothin'? No Chaos storms? No monster attacks?" |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 10, 2017 3:27:19 GMT
"We worked the barren earth, and it gave us food through plant life. Look, you can see it happening here now," she said, pointing down at an orchard being harvested. Now as another thought came to mind, it was her turn to go wide-eyed. "You've... never interacted with a plant before, have you?"
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 10, 2017 3:46:40 GMT
"We worked the barren earth, and it gave us food through plant life. Look, you can see it happening here now," she said, pointing down at an orchard being harvested. Now as another thought came to mind, it was her turn to go wide-eyed. "You've... never interacted with a plant before, have you?" The little filly shook her head. "Ah mean, Ah heard stories from Guru Fido an' Grandpa Stone Pie, but it wasn't safe goin' topside, an' when ya did, ya didn't go all too far, an' Everfree's a long ways away. Ya never left th' house if you could help it. It felt safe there. Same walls, same floors, nothin' changin', no knife-storms, no rainin' cats n' dogs, no explodin' chocolate milk, no giant lemons crushin' you, no Minions draggin' you off t' Chaos Castle. Jes' me an' mah family an' Guru Fido, when he came 'round. Ah guess Ah never really thought 'bout what Ah was missin' at th' time." She'd never even left the farm. She knew so much about the world of chaos, but so little about life. She'd never seen snow, never smelled a flower, never tasted honey, never swam or frolicked on the beach in the summer, never experienced summer or seasons at all. Her idea of a comfortable life was staying cooped up underground in the same house from birth to old age. She'd never gone to school, never had friends outside her adopted sisters and brothers. Guru Fido patted the young filly, who was still staring wide-eyed and open-jawed at everything around her. " Well, here is your opportunity to begin appreciating just how much we're fighting for." The filly nodded, wiping a few tears from her eyes as the chariot approached the Crystal Palace, and the adjacent Castle of the Two Sisters, a place that looked to be magically preserved and repaired, built in the same style as the old castle back in Canterlot, a thousand years past. |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 10, 2017 5:03:48 GMT
Candycane hugged Sandstone tight. "Oh, I can't wait to see the look on your face! You never know your true earth pony heritage until you've handled a plant and really felt your ancestry. I'd go insane if I went more than a couple days without tending to the potted flowers I kept in my home." She turned to Guru and grabbed his paw pleadingly with both hooves. "Please tell me there are flowers, bushes... anything right outside the palace entrance we can let her touch before we go inside?"
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 10, 2017 12:23:48 GMT
Candycane hugged Sandstone tight. "Oh, I can't wait to see the look on your face! You never know your true earth pony heritage until you've handled a plant and really felt your ancestry. I'd go insane if I went more than a couple days without tending to the potted flowers I kept in my home." She turned to Guru and grabbed his paw pleadingly with both hooves. "Please tell me there are flowers, bushes... anything right outside the palace entrance we can let her touch before we go inside?" Guru Fido chuckled and gestured as the chariot landed and the guards opened the doors with a bow. " See for yourself." The gardens of Avalon surpassed even those of ancient Canterlot, for here were the last of all the flowers of the earth, preserved for posterity and the enjoyment of those who knew not the pleasures of root and branch until now. Just beyond the shining doors of the Crystal Palace, the wide gardens wandered marvelously about, winding near to the feet of the Castle of the Two Sisters whose rainbow beacon lit them. There grew a great wealth of yew trees and cedars, and of pines that exuded drowsy aromas in the dusk, and these hung over deep pools. Bright crystals lay scattered about their borders, and the Queen had set stars within their depths for the pleasure of her little ponies, the last stars of Luna's ancient night which would rise like an ascending waterfall at dusk to fill the dome the alicorn had crafted. Birds of all shapes and sizes sang wonderfully in these gardens and the scent of nightflowers and the songs of sleepy nightingales filled them with great loveliness. There too grew the poppies glowing red in the dusk, and fruits and berries of every description, apples and oranges and grapes and cherries. In the middle of the gardens was set a ring of shadowy cypress reaching high above a still pool of silvery liquid like a mirror, where the Queen, gazing upon it, saw many visions of mystery pass upon its face. In the gardens were also many lakes where the last fish of the world swam, and the last waves rippled softly upon shores which were but a memory beyond the borders of this place. |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 10, 2017 16:37:05 GMT
Candycane gasped with delight. "Come on, Sandstone! You need to check this out! Wow, I've never seen such a collection," she said in wonder, beckoning the filly toward what looked like a spice section. Please let there be a mint bush, you've gotta have mint here... She bit her lip and looked around hopefully, trying to find the plant she used most often back home. If she was perfectly honest with herself, this was partially for her own comfort in addition to giving Sandstone the experience. She was trying to be quick about this so they could go meet the Queen, but her excitement was certainly distracting.
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 10, 2017 17:21:08 GMT
Candycane gasped with delight. "Come on, Sandstone! You need to check this out! Wow, I've never seen such a collection," she said in wonder, beckoning the filly toward what looked like a spice section. Please let there be a mint bush, you've gotta have mint here... She bit her lip and looked around hopefully, trying to find the plant she used most often back home. If she was perfectly honest with herself, this was partially for her own comfort in addition to giving Sandstone the experience. She was trying to be quick about this so they could go meet the Queen, but her excitement was certainly distracting. Peppermint and fennel, allspice and anise, licorice and marshmallow and cinnamon and ginger, vines of vanilla climbing along trellises, all the spices and herbs of the old world grew in abundance here, their intoxicating scent filling the air with an indescribable richness and potency, and if she closed her eyes, Candycane could amost imagine herself back in her workshop back home. |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 10, 2017 17:42:36 GMT
Upon spotting the peppermint, Candycane just stopped moving for a moment to enjoy the air. "So many kinds... This is amazing! They have spices I never even knew about..." As she leaned in and sniffed some of the unfamiliar plants, her imagination was flooded with new potential flavors. This would be delightful with chocolate... ah, this one would give my sugar cookies a unique taste! I hope when this is over, I can take some of them... home... By the time Sandstone caught up, Candycane looked surprisingly melancholy.
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 10, 2017 18:19:43 GMT
Upon spotting the peppermint, Candycane just stopped moving for a moment to enjoy the air. "So many kinds... This is amazing! They have spices I never even knew about..." As she leaned in and sniffed some of the unfamiliar plants, her imagination was flooded with new potential flavors. This would be delightful with chocolate... ah, this one would give my sugar cookies a unique taste! I hope when this is over, I can take some of them... home... By the time Sandstone caught up, Candycane looked surprisingly melancholy. Sandstone was going from plant to plant, staring wide-eyed at everything and smelling deeply of the scents of millions of plants she'd never seen in her entire life, unlike anything she'd ever imagined, really. The simple touch of the earth on her hooves filled her with a sensation she couldn't even describe, something that had been altogether lacking in the purple checkered excuse for "dirt" outside. Seeing a little sprout, she almost wished she could see what it looked like full-grown... and then gasped in amazement as she felt something go out of her and into the little plant, which grew right before her eyes into a beautiful lily, blooming of its own accord. Her excitement dwindled a little, however, when she saw the look on the mare's face. She trotted over, concern in her eyes. "Somethin' wrong, Candycane?" |
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Post by Wavelength on Dec 10, 2017 18:41:45 GMT
The mare forced a smile for Sandstone. "It's nothing, don't worry about me!" She approached the filly, taking in the sight of her lily. "It looks like you figured out what I wanted to show you," she said as her smile strengthened. "Isn't it a wonderful feeling?"
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Post by wanderingmagus on Dec 10, 2017 19:05:42 GMT
The mare forced a smile for Sandstone. "It's nothing, don't worry about me!" She approached the filly, taking in the sight of her water lilly. "It looks like you figured out what I wanted to show you," she said as her smile strengthened. "Isn't it a wonderful feeling?" Sandstone nodded, the excitement coming back into her eyes. "Ah jes'... Ah can't describe it..." She paused, glancing over at Guru Fido as if remembering an old, old song he'd taught her long ago. " What is this place, filled with so many wonders?" He grinned. " Casting this spell that I am now under?" " Squirrels in the trees, and the cute little bunnies." " Birds flying free, and the bees with their honey?" The filly gasped and turned as the new voice joined them. The changeling guards immediately knelt, and Guru Fido went down on one knee, bowing deeply as a beautiful alicorn, as tall as Celestia, with a pink coat and rainbow mane, stepped forth from the palace. Mi Amore Cadenza Equestria Avalon, Queen of the Hidden Land. With her was what looked like a decidedly less majestic mare, probably one of the chaos-twisted, from the mismatched bits and pieces vaguely slapped together into a mockery of the being she stood beside. She looked like the combination of a royal guard and a random mare, spliced together haphazardly by discordant magic, with both wings and a horn, but obviously not natural. " Your Majesty!" " Rise, Guru Fido. And you as well, Candycane, Sandstone. There is much to discuss." She turned and gestured to the mare beside her. " This is Moonlight, the third of our little group besides the two of you. She, also, wishes to help bring back Equestria of old. But I will let her speak for herself, if she wishes." She smiled at the filly and mare before her. " I see you have discovered the joys of Earth magic, little one. And you, Candycane, it is brave and honorable of you to agree to this journey, after being displaced from your home and your time. To give up safety and security for the sake of ponies you don't know and a world you don't recognize speaks volumes of your character." |
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