Now that our six pony friends and Sparky the dragon have begun the journey of discovery, what will they find out while traveling beyond Equestria? If their home has changed so much since ancient times, how much has the rest of the world? Find out now!
I do not own My Little Pony: Make Your Mark series or its characters.
Also, I've left an important message at the end of this chapter. It's vital that you read it!
So, the six pony friends flew in their Manestream through Equestria. They flew over Bridlewood, where Izzy couldn't help wave to all her fello unicorns. Zipp made them hurry pass Zephyr Heights, for she worried that her mom would freak if she found out that her daughters were traveling farther than anypony had ever been in many moons. When they arrived over a vast sea, Misty spotted two islands, one on each side of their ride. The one down south was a tropical island that was in the shape of a butterfly. The other towards north was covered in dirt, mountains and clouds. Both interested Sunny, for she had never seen island like these before. Actually, she'd never seen any type of island before. And when she looked at the map of ancient Equestria, the names of those islands excited her even more.
"They're called Friendship Island and Butterfly Island!" she spoke out loud.
"Wow" Izzy said thrillingly. "You think that Butterfly Island might be called that because of its shape or because it includes adorable butterflies?"
"Might be worth checking out. We should also visit Friendship Island too. I mean, there has to be a reason why it's called that. Maybe some of the Allies of Equestria are there."
But Zipp, who was currently driving, wasn't so amazed. "Not sure if we should fully trust that map. It's hundreds of moons old. How much has changed with those islands during that time?"
"They have a point though" Hitch spoke. "Chaosville is on the other side of the world and we'll be passing all sorts of places along the way." Sparky, who had come along with them, pointed happily at a place called the Dragon Spines on the map
"It wouldn't hurt just to check some of these places out to see if any creature from them knows about the Allies of Equestria" Sunny reassured.
As much as Zipp really wanted to get to Chaosville and find this Discord guy before Opaline plots for another devious plan to take over Equestria, her friends were right. There was no guarantee that Discord was there or that he even knew where these Allies of Equestria even were. They could literally be anywhere.
When she gave Pipp the controls, she took a look at the map. "I guess we are near where the griffons and changlings once lived. Might as well see if they're still there."
Pipp was thrilled. "Finally! I can show my followers a totally awesome place where nopony has been to in hundreds of moons!" She was so excited that she made a sharp turn southward, which caused the rest of them to suddenly shift to the far right.
While they did find a diverse population of butterflies on Butterfly Island, there weren't any magical creatures there. Same with Friendship Island. All that place had were cute, pigeon-like ground birds that told Hitch that they were Dodoes and striped dog-like creatures that Hitch called Tazzie Tigers. When the friends checked out the ancient Changeling Kingdom further south, the old hive castle was still intact. But nopony was there or changling for that matter. After those busts, they traveled back up towards the ancient griffon settlement called Griffonstone. Yet again, every nesting home was empty and not a single griffon to be found. And with each disappointment, they quickly flew the Manestream onwards, hoping to find at least one of the once magical creature homes still populated. They didn't dare stop to check out the old zebra capital called Zebrica, since it was now covered in sand with nopony to be seen. At the Dragon Lands, Sparky gazed out the window in excitement. Only to discover that no other dragons were there. Even the once lava spilling volcanoes looked like they hadn't been active in moons. Poor little guy sat back down with the saddest expression ever when he realized that there were no other dragons there.
As they were going over the deserted Klugetown, Sunny's hopes dwindled. "I can't believe not a single one of those places still has magical creatures."
Izzy, remaining positive, comforted her. "Don't get so down. We still haven't visited Yakyakistan or Hippogriffia or the Kingdom of Seaquestria."
While she liked her friend's optimism, Sunny was still disappointed by what they've found. Those once great lands and civilizations that were the locations of Equestria's greatest allies were now nothing more than wastelands. How had it gone so wrong? The holograph of Twilight said that Opaline tried to steal the magic from the Allies of Equestria. But had those magical creatures been so afraid of losing their magic to Opaline that they left their own homes? If that was so, then where could they have all gone? What if they couldn't find them?
Hitch, noticing Sunny's worried expression, reassured her. "Look, once we find Discord, he'll tell us where those other magical creatures are."
"If we find Discord" Misty pointed out doubtfully.
Zipp gave them all determined looks. "Even if that guy's not in Chaosville, draconequus are said to be able to live for thousands of moons. I'm sure he's still around somewhere. And Chaosville is a start."
"Besides" Pipp called out as she drove. "We should be arriving by the time I send my followers an update."
Zipp's eyes widen in fear. "Sis, are you tweeting while driving?"
Her little sister held up her phone and took a pic. "Well, how else am I suppose to notify my fans?"
"Alright, that's it! Give me back the controls before you crash us!" (Remember, don't text while driving)
As the two Pegasi sisters fought over the controls, Sunny's mood lightened from her friends' positive outlook. They were right. All of those magical creatures had to be somewhere. If anypony knew where, it would be Discord. He just had to be who they needed to be able to stop Opaline. And discover why the three pony kinds separated all those moons ago. That last realization was the one thing she wasn't so excited about.
The moment they were over the icy lands of the Great Iceberg Barrier, they'd finally arrived at the island that was snow-covered, desert filled and with a touch of tropical all roped into one patch of land. Zipp carefully landed in a snowy forest in the northern territory of the island. Once settled, the six ponies quickly got out and explored this strange place. Unlike the snow back home, this type of snow wasn't snow at all. But vanilla ice cream! Izzy was quick to taste hoof fulls of it.
Zipp wasn't too focused on the fact that ice cream was covering this entire territory. She was more concerned about the fact that not much farther south was a desert. While her friends were looking at the pine trees, which were decorated in colorful lights, she flew to the desert part of the island. Although, she wouldn't exactly call it a desert, since it wasn't scorching hot as all deserts should be. Plus the fact that the sand was just sugar cookie dough and the cactuses were mint ice pops that somehow were in perfect tack in the sun. Based on all of these observations, this detective pony could come up with only one solution, if Discord was anywhere it was here. But the question remains, where here?
She pulled out her phone and put on her voice log. "Entry 572: we have arrived in Chaosville in search of Discord and the Allies of Equestria. While this place looks like an ideal location for the Lord of Chaos, it doesn't appear that any creature is here. Although, I can't help but wonder…."
Right before she could finish her log, she felt as if she was shrinking. She glanced down to find that her hooves had disappeared within the dough. Then, her ankles also vanished. As she was coming to terms with what was happening, all of her legs disappeared as the dough came up to her body. She was sinking in the dough!
As she struggled to get free of this sand (or rather cookie dough) trap, the faster it pulled her under. When only her mouth was uncovered, she yelled "somepony help! Somepony hheelllpppp!" Then, the dough swallowed her whole, leaving only her phone behind.
Meanwhile, the rest of our pony friends were making their way to the desert area. While they all had a blast exploring the ice cream covered forest, they couldn't find anypony there. And when Misty had noticed that Zipp was missing, they all figured that she must have flown off the explore the rest of this island.
"She could have at least told us where she was going" Pipp whined. "Instead of leaving us hanging back there."
"You know Zipp" Sunny reassured her. "She likes to find answers straight away."
"Hopefully, she did find some" Hitch spoke while Sparky rode on his back. "Cause there weren't any we'd found in that ice cream forest."
Izzy licked the last of the ice cream off of her lips. "We did discover a good source of free ice cream!"
"Too bad it only had vanilla" Misty sighed. "I would have traded my horn for an unlimited amount of chocolate."
"I would have preferred lemon flavored ice cream" Hitch added. None of them wished to tease him by warning him not to eat the yellow snow.
Once they got to the desert, Izzy was the first of them to taste test the cookie dough sand. "Alllll… Mggooooodd… Mmmeeerr."
Sunny looked around, but couldn't see their missing friend. "Where do you think Zipp is? She couldn't have flown from here to the tropical part that soon, would she?"
"I'll give her a call" Pipp spoke. Once she did, they suddenly heard Zipp's phone ring. They all followed the sound to find Zipp's phone, but no Zipp.
Pipp looked spooked as she picked up her sister's phone. "This is weird. Sis never leaves her phone unattended."
Misty dared to say her fears out loud. "Do you think something bad happened to her?"
"Don't say that" Sunny tried to sound hopeful. "I'm sure she'd probably lost it while flying."
While Izzy, Hitch and Misty nodded, Pipp didn't agree. "Zipp isn't so careless. What if a sudden twister came and swept her away? What if a creepy creature pony-napped her? What if…?"
"What if she sunk in quicksand?" Izzy asked.
"Yeah, that too. Wait, why do you think Zipp sunk in quicksand?"
"Because we're sinking in quicksand."
Heeding Izzy's words, the other ponies quickly realized that they were up to their waists in cookie dough. They all screamed as they continued to sink within the sweet trap. Sparky attempted to pull Hitch out, but his friend was too heavy for this little dragon. Izzy and Misty tried to use their magic to free themselves, but every spell they tried either dissolved or was absorbed in the dough. Desperate to save her friends, Sunny begged for her alicorn powers to appear. At first, nothing happened. Then her golden horn appeared and she felt her wings spreading on both sides of her body. However, before she could use her abilities, her friends each disappeared within the dough. As she watched in horror as all of vanished, she too sunk. And everything went dark.
"Pipp! Sunny! Izzy! Hitch! Misty! Wake up!"
Hearing Zipp's voice, Pipp awoken immediately. At first, her vision was fuzzy and her head couldn't stop spinning. Then a picture of her sister staring at her came into view. "Sis!" was the first thing she said before hugging her older sister tightly.
Hearing a groan, she turned to find that the rest of their friends had also awoken. "What just happened?" Izzy asked.
Sunny's eyes lit up seeing their missing member. "Zipp, you're alright. We were so worried after we'd found your phone in that desert and…"
"It's cool" Zipp spoke in a chilled tone. "The quicksand, or rather quick cookie dough, pulled me down here too."
"But, where is here?" Misty asked as she took a look at their surroundings.
They were in some sort of underground cavern. Bright, multi-colored crystals were on all sides of the walls, even on the floor. While they helped to shine some light where they were, they couldn't see either ends of this tunnel.
"Why do you think the island brought us here?" Sunny asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Hitch questioned. "This place is bizarre! First, it snowed ice cream. Then, deserts with actual desserts. What's next? Should we expect it to rain chocolate milk?"
Izzy stayed cheerful. "I kinda like it. Surprises around every corner. And now we're in this tunnel surrounded by beautiful crystals."
"And what if, it brought us here for a reason?" Sunny questioned. Something inside her just nagged that they were here because something wanted them there. But what reason could that be?
"Probably to freak us out" Pipp cried. "Which I am. How are we going to get out of here!?"
Suddenly, Misty heard something. She glanced behind her at the darkness. Was that flapping? As Pipp's teeth chattered, Misty "ssshhh" her.
"What?" Pipp asked. "Am I not allowed to…?"
"Ssshhh!" Misty once again said.
They all gave her concerned looks. "What is it?" Izzy whispered.
"I think something's watching us." There it was again, the flapping noise.
This time, they all heard it. "Something is hiding in that darkness?" Pipp was more scared.
But her older sister wasn't. Standing tall, Zipp walked closer to the darkness. "Alright, enough games. If somepony is back there, come out right now!"
They heard somepony laugh within the darkness. "If you say so."
Well, this island is called Chaosville for a reason. Is Discord behind it all?
Sorry that I didn't do a good job describing some of the places the pony friends visited. Rest assure, I've made most of those places abandoned for a reason. Find out more in the next chapter!
P.S. If you live in the northern part of North America, you probably are aware of the Canadian wildfires that are continuing to burn. Not only are they causing large amounts of CO2 to spread to different countries (making the air quality terrible) and putting a lot of people at risk, they endanger wildlife. Many species such as the spotted owl, lynx, woodland caribou and snowshoe hare rely on big and old trees to use as shelter and help to collect food. With wildfires becoming more frequent, these animals and many others are struggling to survive and adapt to this threat. You can help animals fleeing from the wildfires by offering them shelter to rest such as a bird house or a bat house. Just don't feed or approach them. It is a very very bad idea to approach a scared animal that has just escaped from a fire. If you do see an animal in distress from a wildfire, call your local wildlife rescue. They'll help it. And if you live within an area that is having devastating wildfires, you can help restore these animals' habitat by planting climate-resistant trees such as hardwoods. With climate change causing a high increase in wildfires, we must do our part to help protect these forests, which are homes for various species of wildlife.