//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Perchance to Dream 
// by Drakin 
//------------------------------//

Prologue

It was another lovely sunny day in Ponyville. The sun shone, the the water sparkled, screams of ponies filled the air...
“HYDRA!!”
The panicked ponies ran in packs pellmell through the streets as a  greenish-brown, four-headed beast roared, stomping closer to the town.
The height of 20 ponies, its  slick and slimy body dripped with the muck from the bog it called home.  Its two legs thundering against the ground as the giant monster thrashed it's huge tail. Its four maws roared, each big enough to snatch up a pony in a single gulp. It stalked closer to the town, just moments away from the biggest pony feast of its life. 
But it had one obstacle.
Standing in its way were six brightly colored ponies.
Twilight Sparkle smiled confidently as she glanced at her friends, eager to defend their home.
“Another day, another disaster,” the rainbow maned cyan pegasus chuckled, “You ready girls?”
“Ain't no ugly four headed brute gonna munch on ponies taday,” the orange earth pony smiled, tipping her stetson cowboy hat back over her blond mane as she readied a lasso.
“Right,” Twilight nodded. “Let's do this. Rarity, you and Fluttershy evacuate the nearby buildings and join us when you're done.”
“You can count on us Twilight,” Rarity smiled, flicking her delicately curled purple mane back, her white fur coat gleaming in the sun.
“Of course Twilight,” Fluttershy nodded, her wings barely fluttering as she hovered less than a foot from the ground, “I mean, if you think that's best...”
Twilight nodded as the pair took off and she turned her attention back to the approaching beast, “Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, keep that thing distracted.”
“Aw yeah!” the cyan pegasus crowed as she shot forwards with blistering speed to swirl around the heads of the confused beast. Three followed her, snapping at her hooves as she spun in circles fast enough to leave a rainbow trail behind her. 
The fourth looked on in mild confusion until a squeaky voice from below caught it's attention. A bright blob of pink that was in the shape of a pony.
“Oh Mr.Hydra,” Came the sing-song voice from  below, “Up for a game? I just love games, games of all kinds, solo games are fun but the best games are with friends don't you think? There's Twister, Mare-opoly, and my favorite Pin the Tail on the Pony and...”
Pinkie was cut off as the head crashed down around her location, scooping up a mouthful of ground in the process. 
“Ooh, you want to play tag?” Pinkie had somehow appeared behind the hydras head as she leaned into his eyes, “Ok, tag you're it!” she slapped the hydra in the face as it spat out the ground it had gathered in its first attempt. Further attempts yielded it biting a rock, a tree, and a lot more dirt, but every time Pinkie dodged away without a care in the world.
“Good,” Twilight smiled, “AJ,you ready? We're gonna need you to hog-tie this hydra.”
“Not a problem Twilight,” Applejack smiled, her lasso already spinning from her tail-tip, “Jus leave it ta me.”
The earth pony took off at top speed, flinging the rope with a perfect hook around the hydras tail tip before racing around and around the creature, tying up it's legs.
It was just as Dash was beginning to get tired (though she would have said she was giving the hydra a moment to breathe) that the creature noticed it's bonds and gave a sudden kick trying to pull free. While the rope didn't break, there was enough slack that the kick managed to catch Applejack in the side as she ran by, hurling her towards a nearby tree. Thankfully before she hit she was encased in a blue glow and stopped before being deposited on the ground.
Nearby Twilight smiled, seeing the blue glow fade from Raritys horn, she and Fluttershy had returned just in time.
“Dear me,” the unicorn female gasped. “You're a lot heavier than you look Applejack, muscles or not.”
“Yeah well thanks for the assist Rarity,” Applejack chuckled, “Now how about we get this critter back ta where he belongs?”
“I've got it,” Twilight smiled, “It's a new banishment spell I've been working on. It'll send him to a nice bog on the other side of the Everfree Forest where we won't have to deal with him again.”
“Are you sure that's a good idea Twilight?” Fluttershy muttered in her tiny voice as she flew up to her friend, “The Everfree Forest is really big. That's a long way to send  any animal as big as he is.”
“Don't worry,” Twilight smiled, “I'm sure I've got this under control. Size doesn't matter in this spell.”
Fluttershy still looked unsure as Twilight got as close as she dared to the struggling creature, her horn beginning to glow, first one layer, then two, then three as the Hydra was covered in the same lavender glow. By the fourth layer on Twilights horn she was sweating profusely and straining as hard as she could. The hydra began to lift into the air as twilight put all her force behind the spell.
But then something unexpected happened.
There was a noise like tearing fabric (which indecently made Rarity shriek with fear), as space around the Hydra seemed to twist and warp. Huge cracks began to appear over the hydra, suddenly there was a noise like breaking glass and Twilight watched in horror as the image of the hydra shattered, like a stain glass window having a rock thrown through it. Beyond was darkness. A consuming darkness that gaped like the maw of a ferocious predictor.
A terrible wind kicked up as the ponies struggled to hold on to anything. Twilight yelped as she struggled to grab hold but there was nothing nearby to hold on to. Dash swooped in to try and grab her, and for a moment that seemed to work, but Twilights hooves were still slick with sweat and Rainbow couldn't get a good grip.
“What's happening!?” Dash called over the roar of the wind.
“It's broken!” Pinkies voice called back over the storm, “Twilight broke it!”
“Broke what!?” she and Dash replied at the same time.
“Reality!” Pinkie called back.
Before Twilight could even comprehend Pinkies words, Dash lost her grip, and the last thing she saw was her friends shouting her name as she was plunged into the inky black void.