//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Day the Sun Stood Still // by TheGentleSpike //------------------------------// The sky was grey and cloudy; a heavy rainstorm was planned for today. Local pegasi weather teams issued a warning to all ponies to stay inside as it was going to be a terrible one. The recent war had resulted in many pegasi being drafted into the royal guard which meant most towns did not have enough ponies on the weather team. This was especially a problem in Manehatten, which has regular storms scheduled in an attempt to catch up on all the missed days of rain. Radiant Dawn was walking home alongside his daughter, Sunshine Melody. The stallion had a dark yellow coat with a red mane and tail, and he was wearing a full black suit with a white tie and a pair of thick black glasses. His daughter had a light yellow mane and tail with a light blue coat. They were both unicorns. "Of all the times they had to arrange another storm, it had to be now!" Radiant Storm shouted. "The pegasi need to stop getting caught behind on their weather schedules, it is getting quite tiresome putting up with all of these storms." He was speaking to nopony in particular, just venting out loud to himself. His daughter was too busy reading a book as she walked alongside him, somehow not noticing her father ranting loudly next to her. Many ponies they passed by on the streets gave him odd looks as they walked past them. Along the path they were walking was a stand selling newspapers. Dawn decided to stop to buy a newspaper to read; it was about the war. "Royal guard unable to push invaders back....Las Pegasus recently captured by the creatures...still no news from the Crystal Empire." He folded the newspaper up and placed it in a pocket. "Nothing good so far, this is starting to worry me...if those creatures manage to reach here..." He started to ramble to himself again, not noticing the figure that was approaching him. "Well, I'll be damned! If it isn't ol' Dawny!" A large white earth pony whacked Radiant Dawn in the sides of his stomach causing him to drop to the floor in pain. "Ahhh, little Sunshine! How you doing kid?" The pony ruffled her hair, annoying her to the point of screaming. "Gah! Do you always have to greet me like this, Rising Shield?" Radiant Dawn rose back to his feet. "Damaging my organs doesn't make me feel like a good friend, you know," he said in an annoyed tone. Rising Shield laughed "Don't be such a foal, I barely put any effort into that strike and you know it! You just like being over-dramatic, as always!" He said. The unicorn stallion glared at the earth pony. "Very well, I will not complain further...but do that again in the future and I will go full rant mode on you." Radiant Dawn fixed his glasses. "So, how is life going for our brave and noble soldier in the war? I would love to hear more of your exaggerated stories full of boastful lies." He said. "Yikes! Somepony's a little angrier than usual, was your morning coffee not good enough for you?" Rising Shield said with a smirk on his face. "The war is going terrible, the royal guard is getting their flanks handed to them on a silver platter." He said. Sunshine Melody was staring at the sky while the two stallions spoke to each other, her hooves were trembling and she was incapable of speech as she witnessed something approach the city from the sky. She started to nudge her father in the stomach with her hoof repeatedly. "Huh?What's wrong Sunshi-" Radiant Dawn looked up in horror as horde of creatures approached the town from the sky, they were so numerous in number they looked like a giant swarm of black insects. Rising Shield was the first to speak "Shit! A horde of mantiquus, of all the bloody things that could be sent to invade, it had to be those nightmares!" He shouted. "Dawny, take your daughter and get out of the city as fast as you can! I am going to go sound the sirens that should have been activated well before they even appeared in the sky and protect the people, since it's clear the guards in this city are crap at their jobs!" He ran off down the street and turned a corner, moving fast for somepony of his size. "Come on Sunshine! Get on my back!" Radiant Dawn lifted up his daughter and placed her on his back, then started running. Not long after, the sirens activated, flooding the town with noise. Ponies started to flee in panic and exit their homes, many of them previously oblivious to the approaching invaders. Rain started to fall from the clouds and quickly turned into a downpour, making it harder to run or see. Radiant Dawn used his horn to light his way through the darkness of the rain as he ran past many other ponies fleeing from the creatures. Not all were fast enough to outrun them completely as many ponies were caught; the sounds of screaming filled the air. Several of the creatures flew down from the sky and charged towards him, attempting to attack him with their sharp sword-like legs. He had managed to either barely dodge the large creatures or would shoot them in the head with a blast of magic which seemed to scare them off. Some of the unicorns noticed this and started blasting the creatures with basic spells, this worked for a while as the screams started to lessen and were slowly replaced with the sounds of magic ripping through the air. The creatures took note of this and began to target those firing magic, soon most of the unicorns trying to fight back were killed. The scent of blood started to fill the air as ponies were slaughtered. The guards tried to fight back but they were outnumbered at least ten to one. Radiant Dawn started to panic as he noticed many of the creatures trying to target him, he cut into an alleyway with many sharp turns. He hoped that the narrow paths would make it harder for the larger creatures to catch up. "Daddy, I'm scared...what are those things?" Sunshine almost whispered this, her hoofs were trembling and tears ran down her face as fear started to overwhelm her. "It is ok sweetie...daddy is not going to let those creatures harm you, ok?" Dawn said, reassuring his daughter. She nodded and buried her face into his mane, not wishing to see the horrifying creatures. Dawn looked behind him and noticed that he had lost most of the creatures but two were still on his tail. He turned a corner and continued to run as fast as he could, adrenaline had filled his veins which had helped him run both faster and longer than usual. He had to lose both of them and fast, soon he would be back out onto open streets where either of them could easily catch up to him. He fired several beams of magic behind him, this had managed to hit one of the two creatures causing it to fly head first into a wall as the magic made it panic. The one still chasing did not seem fazed by the magic like the other creatures, Radiant Dawn noticed that the creature's eyes were different from the others. They were pure red and were glowing very brightly. Radiant Dawn saw that he was about to exit the alleyway and began to fear; outrunning these creatures in the open streets was hard enough. The small number of ponies left alive meant that more would target him, and surviving that would be extremely difficult if not outright impossible. He looked behind and saw the creature fly up into the sky. This confused him. Why has the creature given up? It seemed eager to try and kill me before, unless it is planning to... He was so deep in his thoughts that he did not notice one of the creatures had landed in front of him. He ran head first into the creature, causing him to fall back onto the cold hard floor. He heard his daughter yelp in pain as she fell off his back. He opened his eyes and looked up, he was staring directly at the creature as it looked down at him. It was a horrifying mix between a manticore, a changeling and a chimera. It was covered in a thick black exoskeleton, its legs ended in thin long blades which dug into the ground. Its ribs were visible through the exoskeleton, poking through the skin on the stomach. It had two heads, both seemed almost identical in all but shape. One was in the shape of a changeling’s head whilst the other resembled the head of a goat. Both had pitch black eyes and two large gaping holes just underneath which seemed to serve as nostrils. It had no mouth or ears. The tail of the creatures was similar to a manticore’s tail, the only difference being it was just bone with nothing covering it. Large changeling-like wings sprouted from the creatures back, they were covered in a thick dark green liquid which seemed to endlessly drip off its wings. The creature was around the same size as a chimera. He tried to get his limbs to move, to get up, grab his daughter and run;but he was incapable of moving at all. All he could do was stare at the horrifying abomination as it towered over him. Sweat dripped down his face as pure terror overwhelmed his body, he was incapable of thinking much either. He opened his mouth to scream in horror but nothing came out, he felt like his voice was somehow lodged in his throat. The creature raised one of its legs and was preparing to attack the two unicorns, it was interrupted when a sword flew into one of the creature’s necks; severing one of its heads. It flew off in panic and rejoined the attacking horde, white blood dripping from its exposed neck as it soared through the air. Radiant Dawn looked behind him to see who had saved them. It was Rising Shield, he had cuts all over his body showing that he had taken quite a beating. He walked over to the two and offered Radiant Dawn a hoof, helping him get back onto his feet. "Are you two alright?" Rising Shield said. Dawn nodded as he picked up his daughter using his magic and placed her on his back, she did not seem to be too hurt from the fall which relieved him. "Come on, let’s get out of here. The situation is really bad, I tried to help as many as I could but the city is being overrun...the damn creatures have claimed another city!" As he said this, he ran up ahead as the two unicorns followed suit. "Gah, what are these creatures? I have never felt so scared in my life, staring at that...that...thing as it towered over me," Radiant Dawn shuddered as he said this. "I told you already, they are mantiquus! Do you not listen to me or-" Dawn interrupted him "You know what I mean when I said that! Do not try to make me look an idiot!" Dawn glared at Shield. "No need to be so angry, I was just answering the question YOU asked. Those things there happen to be a large part of the invading force, so I have to fight those things in almost every battle. You would think their fear of magic would help us push them back, but they are normally with these weird...unicorn...things that seem to be able to disrupt magic, they help keep them calm. I have never seen them invade with no other creatures around though, normally there is always at least one pony around to contro-" the two were interrupted when a knife flew into Radiant Dawn's leg, resulting in him falling over in pain and his daughter falling off his back. "Sorry you two, did not mean to interrupt your little talk but I am afraid we cannot let you leave." A large earth pony covered head to hoof in dark steel armour approached the two. The pony was very large, easily big enough to outsize a fully grown chimera. The helmet they wore had parts missing from it, revealing the eyes and mouth of the creature. Their coat was dark blue and they had visible bulging white veins all over their fur. It raised its right foreleg, causing the two mantiquus next to it sit down in a resting position; their eyes changing from pitch black to red. The front forelegs of the pony were not hoofs like the back legs, there was no armour covering them revealing that the bottom of both had been split into 4 pieces. Each piece had sharp pieces of metal stitched into the skin, allowing the pony to use both of the forelegs as makeshift claws. Rising Shield was not one to be scared, he was a fierce soldier and none of the abominations that he had fought had ever invoked any feeling of fear into him...but this giant of a pony was something else. He shouted at it. "Stay back! I-I am warning you! Just stay over there, let us leave, a-and...nothing will happen to you or your..pets." He said this with fear evident in his voice. The giant pony laughed. "So weak and pathetic, I used to be like you...a soldier who thought he was all big and strong because he fought for some powerful alicorn. I am above that now...my master, they showed me what true power is like...they revealed all of the answers to me." He raised one of his claw-like appendages to his chest. "You see this army that brings destruction upon your cities and fills your heart with fear..my master made them...and they are only the beginning of our might. Your leaders will fall, your precious elements will fall...just like so many others have fallen already." The large pony began to break out into a long speech, his arrogance blinded him to the fact that both Shield and Dawn were whispering to each other. Rising Shield had picked up Sunshine Melody and placed her on his back. He was now trying to help Radiant Dawn up onto his feet, he had removed the knife from his leg and wrapped it up with some makeshift bandages he had. The large pony was full of himself and was too busy giving a speech to notice what he was doing. Dawn slapped Shield’s hoof away as he tried to help him up. "No, go on without me. I will only slow you down, he may be unable to notice us right now but him speaking won’t distract him from us for much longer...I will keep him busy for you guys someho-" "No Dawny, I am not leaving you behind...you have a daughter to rai-" "That is precisely why I must do this, she is the only thing I have left of...of her...I promised long ago to keep her safe and now you will make the same promise to me Shield...keep her safe for me, please." Dawn had placed his hoof on Shield’s chest who nodded. "Ok buddy, for you." As Shield had said this he turned and began to run away, he did not get far when the large pony had noticed "Oi, where do you think you two are goi-" Radiant Dawn interrupted the pony with a blast to the face, the two mantiquus went to charge forward but the giant pony raised one of its claw-like hoofs and made them stop in their tracks. "Let them go, we only need one of the two stallions and the daughter is useless to us." He approached Radiant Dawn and grabbed him by the neck with one of his forelegs. "A little birdie told you have some information that would very much interest me and my master." He lifted him up into the air and made him stare into his eyes, his breath had filled Dawn's nostrils with a foul odour. "I believe it would be very nice if you could come back with me and tell us all about it...you will not like what happens if you refuse to talk" The giant pony said this very slowly as he stared at Radiant Dawn. Sunshine melody was screaming as she was carried away on Rising Shield's back, she could only watch as the large pony carried him away. "Daddy!" Tears started to pour out of her eyes. Rising shield noticed this and nuzzled her. "It will be okay sweetie, I will look after you...ok? Daddy is a very brave pony and he is going to be fine, let’s just worry about keeping you safe." Shield tried to reassure the young filly as best as he could. Sunshine was still crying but she had stopped crying, she nodded and buried her head into his mane. Shield carried on running, full of regret that he couldn't save his old friend. I failed you Dawny...I will not let you down twice, I will keep her safe for as long as I draw breath The rain was still pouring down as the two ran off into the distance, escaping from Manehattan which was completely covered in the darkness of the horde. Lightning periodically struck the ground. As Sunshine cried, she thought back to all the happy memories she had of her father. Please Faust, don't let daddy die.