An olive green theropod about 20 feet long with a low orange ridge on its snout, a Neovenator, walked through a grassy field following a telltale scent. The scent of a multitude of small creatures. The scent of its next meal.
The Neovenator stopped, however, as its nose brought it to a sudden change in the landscape: a wall of tree trunks growing right up next to each other and covered over with crisscrossing thorny vines, reaching several times higher than it and extending in both directions. It could smell its quarry on the other side, but there seemed no way around or through this forest. Forests weren’t usually this thick, either, and there was always some lower-lying vegetation leading up to them. It sniffed the trees closer, reaching out to scratch the vines with its claws.
“Hey!” called a brash female voice from above. “Haven’t you ever heard of ‘no free lunch’?”
The Neovenator looked up. Flying down at it from the top of the trees was a pegasus in a blue uniform with yellow wings and a flamelike orange mane. The predator hissed as the pegasus approached, deciding it was good for a few bites. As it prepared to jump up for the catch, the pegasus turned and zipped out away from the trees, and the Neovenator reacted just a tick too slow, springing up and craning its neck after them but snapping its jaws on the empty air where they’d just been.
Landing back down, the Neovenator jogged off after its slippery meal; better to go after one that’s hard to catch than a whole herd that’s impossible to reach. Its attention fixed, it didn’t notice what was speeding in from the left until two simultaneous impacts hit its side, making it stumble a step as it let out a shriek.
After their blindside kick, a pair of Wonderbolts flared their wings. The off-white stallion with a large orange mane, Firestreak, gave one flap and shot up into the sky with a flaming trail. The mare, however, hesitated as she saw the Neovenator twist itself at them, and instead used a small wing beat to push herself back and out of the way of its swinging claws. As its open jaws hissed not in hunger but in rage inches from her face, her wings finally sent her up to safety.
“Bit slow there, Blaze?” asked Spitfire as she flew past her teammate. Blaze, a yellow mare like Spitfire but with only one shade of orange in her mane instead of Spitfire’s two, almost answered her team leader but gave up, knowing it would do no good, instead silently falling back into formation.
The three Wonderbolts circled above Neovenator as it snarled at them. They then spiraled down, fanning apart when it leapt at them. Spitfire rammed its side and darted away, Neovenator turning to her only to be kicked in the hip by Firestreak. It snapped at the air where he’d been, but he flew past with a fire trail and skimmed its chest. It screeched after him, only for Blaze to zip in from behind and kick it in the back of the head.
“We’ve got it on the ropes!” Firestreak called.
The Wonderbolts flew up and circled again, coming together and streaking down with a triple fire trail. Neovenator turned and leapt at them with a snarling whoop, jaws wide, but the three broke ranks and shot off around it as it again bit down on empty air and landed. Then they streaked in from the other side with a triple flaming hit, knocking it staggering away.
Neovenator steadied itself and shook its head, snorting out one last hateful grunt at the pegasi before turning and making its way back away from the wall of trees. The Wonderbolts hovered around and watched to make sure it was leaving.
“Yeah, you better run!” Blaze called after it.
“I meant it, Blaze, you were slow back there,” Spitfire cut in, snuffing out the pegasus’ excitement. “Watch it next time, I’ll swap you out if I need to.” And with that, she zipped back up to the top of the tree wall. Firestreak followed without a second glance.
“Tch,” Blaze snapped, turning back to watch the Neovenator retreat. “I’ll show them,” she whispered before following her teammates.
Only 5 years ago, Equestria was as peaceful a place as ever. Then, out of the blue, they arrived.
It was a sunny day in an open meadow. Birds chirped in the distance, and a flight of butterflies fluttered by. Then a large white and gray reptile faded in out of thin air in the middle of the field. The Iguanodon stopped and looked up in surprise, turning its head to survey its sudden new surroundings.
On the other side of the meadow, a pair of orange Pentaceratops faded in, grunting in surprise. Between them and the Iguanodon, a pinkish tan Ouranosaurus faded in, and one of the Pentaceratops turned to it and started pawing at the ground. Then a large blue Ampelosaurus faded in behind the Ouranosaurus, letting out a loud call.
Overhead, a flying blue Pteranodon faded in in midair, passing across the meadow as several green Styracosaurus, brown Ankylosaurus, and purple Stegosaurus faded in below it. It flew towards a nearby lake, but at the shore a gigantic aquamarine Seismosaurus faded in, swinging its long neck up to the Pteranodon with a call, forcing Pteranodon to veer off to the right. As it flew over to the trees past the meadow, a large red creature faded in and watched it pass. The Tyrannosaurus let out a massive roar after it.
Miles away in a desert, a buffalo stood perfectly still as it stared at the herd of dull navy Einiosaurus that had suddenly appeared around it when it had looked down.
Elsewhere, a school of fish was swimming along through a river, when the long red jaws of a Baryonyx swept over and snapped them up in one bite, the dinosaur continuing to kick its way through the water.
In a dense jungle during an afternoon thunderstorm, a lizard peeked over the edge of its branch and hissed at the green and brown Saltasaurus staring back at it.
In the Ponyville park, Lyra and Bon Bon stared as a small green and yellow Fukuisaurus slowly approached them, its head tilted to the side in curiosity.
In a big city, a businesspony stood confused as his constituents looked on in fear and pointed past him, not realizing that the head, back, and tail of a large brown and dark yellow Mapusaurus were snaking by the window behind him. He turned to look, but it had already passed.
A large yellow Saurolophus stepped through the streets of a rural town, sniffing around, ponies rushing out of the way of its footfalls. It sniffed at a bakery, nudging the wall with its head. The wall splintered from the pressure and fell in, the Saurolophus pulling back with a call and honk as its nose sac inflated, stepping back only to ram its foot through the front door of a house. It quickly stepped away and turned to look, but its tail swung and caved in a roof behind it. Shaking its head at the noise, it reared up and let out another loud call, waving its arms.
A mare sat on a picnic blanket by a lake, watching two rows of spines snaking together through the water towards her before they burst from the water, kicking up a spray of mist with a loud call. A yellow Amargasaurus charged out of the mist onto the shore, flailing its neck spines, and the mare quickly scampered away.
A crowd of ponies fled from a public celebration, a purple Daspletosaurus standing over the buffet table and downing each dish in one bite.
In the middle of Fillydelphia, an Ankylosaurus stood in an intersection, looking around. Angry cabbies were shouting at it, and a police pony making his own lights and sirens was on the scene. The Ankylosaurus growled at all the noises as it shook its head, its bony club-bearing tail slowly beginning to swing back and forth, then speed up…
A pony ran inside their house and slammed the door behind them. The small slim shadow of a Deinonychus appeared in the front window and hissed at them, and they slowly backed farther into the room. The pony heard scratching at the door, then silence, and they breathed a sigh of relief. Then the door handle began to turn, and they froze. The door slowly creaked open.
The shadow of a large theropod’s jaws fell over a pony and foal cowering silently amidst the wreckage of their house. As its head swept back and forth, sniffing the air, the pony covered the foal’s mouth.
The walls. The walls would keep the dinosaurs out. The walls would keep us safe.
Currently Disclosable Information:
The walls that surround pony cities are made from many large trees grown next to each other with intertwined branches and vines, with the outer surface covered excessively in thorns. They provide a physical barrier strong enough to prevent even the largest of carnivores from breaking through. To prevent the numerous herbivorous species from eating them away, their outer surfaces are also covered with special foul-tasting plants; no creature with a working tongue would take a second bite. Grown by magic, the plants are also enchanted to automatically regrow if any damage is sustained.
It was nearing sundown, and sunlight was retreating from Ponyville faster than the surrounding area, being blocked by the tall roundish wall of trees. Inside, the town looked much the same as always, but it felt much different.
The normal hustle and bustle of the Ponyville marketplace was far subdued from the pre-wall time, many of the ponies here having convinced themselves that loud conversations would attract more dinosaurs to challenge the wall. In general, laughter in the streets had been slow to recover. There hadn’t been a song in the first year and a half, and the first had been a suspenseful tale of hiding for survival despite their powerful shield. Minds had been made in all directions. There were those who accepted, rejected, or even embraced their new position under the shadows of the wall and the dinosaurs. The smart ones would avoid bringing it up, a strategy which kept at least Ponyville mostly peaceful.
Since the dinosaurs had appeared, the Wonderbolts had been reformatted from their normal performance role to being a more mobile extension for the Royal Guard. When they weren’t on a specific assignment, they would cycle though the various walled cities and towns doing what they could. Right now they were stopping in Ponyville on their way to report in back at Canterlot.
While making her way alone through the market, encountering the usual chorus of wows, cheers, and leers, Spitfire, leader of the Wonderbolts, now found herself caught in a conversation with a curious light blue pegasus mare with a white and dark blue mane in a hatchet mohawk.
“So do you ever end up actually fighting them off?” the pegasus asked.
“Nah, we mostly act as lookouts to tell the caravans how to steer clear of the dinos,” Spitfire replied. “If that ever doesn’t work, we’re really more equipped to just try and draw their attention elsewhere than actually ‘fighting’ them away. The smaller ones, though, you can usually rough ’em up a bit and they’ll leave. I guess some dinos are just smart enough to know when they’re outmatched.”
“And if they don’t get the hint?”
“Grab everyone earthbound and fly out of reach. Nothing more we can do.”
“Ever had to try more?” the pegasus pressed.
“Luckily not, but I think you’ve got too big an idea of us. We’d be useless if something was too smart or too strong.”
The pegasus sighed. “Eh, shame.” She turned to leave. Unheard, she whispered, “Worth a shot.”
“What was your name, again?”
The pegasus paused. “Electra,” she said over her shoulder.
“Electra…?,” Spitfire repeated, noting her snowflake cutie mark.
“Electra Ski,” she added. Ah, yes, it was a snowflake made of lightning bolts, Spitfire noticed. That made more sense.
“Tell you what,” Spitfire said, “if you think you could offer something better that could turn a tide or two, why not sign up for the Wonderbolts?”
“Heh,” Electra replied slowly. “If only.”
“Eh, shame.”
Electra gave an amused snort and flew off.
Fighting a dinosaur head-on, Spitfire though. That’d be the day.
She was taking a look around the market before moving on, when she glanced an earth pony stallion out of the corner of her eye, walking by a distance away. Their eyes met for a moment, and he hurried out of her sight. She almost ignored him and was about to take a step, but something about how he was walking seemed off to her. The fact he’d changed his tune when he saw her see him had to mean something…
There was a brief flash of red light from behind her that she barely noticed.
Spitfire turned her head to check the stallion again, just to be sure if she was seeing things. She never finished. Mid-turn, a wall of heat blasted over her, an explosive shockwave knocking her down as she saw a massive column of fire erupting from the ground and reaching toward the sky. The fire jet cut off just as suddenly, leaving a column of heavy smoke lit up by a red glow from inside that dimmed out a second later.
The market was in silence, only a few whispers popping up. Spitfire’s mind was racing over what the hay had just happened. A bomb? A volcano? Then she felt something, a very bad feeling. She felt watched. As the smoke column started to thin, the outline of a gargantuan silhouette began to take shape. The shadow of a tail slinked out to the side. A set of dagger teeth leaned out from high up in the column, three upper teeth on each side being twice as long as the rest. Then the silhouette shifted, and a clawed dark gray left theropod foot stepped out of the smoke, slamming down and releasing a burst of steam that blasted the base of the smoke column away. The dark shape tilted forward into view to bring its back down horizontal, growling as the rest of the smoke faded. Standing in a scorched shallow crater was a massive dark gray dinosaur. Out of nowhere. Inside the wall. The collective hearts of the ponies watching dropped.
With her body stalled, Spitfire’s mind jumped into overdrive studying the creature. A strip down its face and the back half of its tail were dark pinkish red, and a thin, pale pink sail ridge ran down its back, a line of sharp yellow spines atop it. Its sail and teeth matched the description of the 40-foot predator Acrocanthosaurus, but they were usually a tan color and were never quite this big. The air around it also seemed to be wavering with heat.
The Acrocanthosaurus leaned back and gave a moaning roar at the sky—“Mwwaaaaaahh-h-h-h!” Barely visible ripples in the air came from its mouth, and the environment pulsed and wavered as the colors of everything in sight suddenly shifted into a murky palette, as if taking on the appearance of an oil painting. The orange dusk sky became a thick covering of flowing billows of dull green, blue, and pink, blocking the last light of day; the streets became a dull blue and pink gradient; houses took on a crisp indigo shade; even trees’ leaves were now light pink.
Spitfire suddenly snapped back to attention. She saw a few of her fellow Wonderbolts having responded to the blast but stopping frozen at the sight, so she jumped into the air to try and coordinate a diversion maneuver. “Hey, snap to it, Wonderbolts!” she shouted, flying up to the dinosaur’s face hopefully just out of reach. “Get these ponies out of here, I’ll try and draw it—” The dinosaur leaned its head down and a blast of scalding steam came from all over its skin and washed over her, forcing her to quickly retreat to a distance.
By now, several of the other Wonderbolts had taken flight and began circling the Acrocanthosaurus, but even skirting the edge of its surrounding wall of heat and steam kept them back. The dinosaur scanned its eyes over each of them but did not react.
Blaze stood staring up at the dinosaur. Her heart was racing, but not from fear. This was her big chance.
“This guy wants to put our defenses to the test?” she said, slipping on her goggles. “I say take it to ’im! Come on, Wave Chill!”
A nearby blue stallion with a dark blue mane nodded, and the two shot up. They rushed the Acrocanthosaurus from the side, hearing their goggles’ glass crackling as they plunged towards the layer of heat.
Seeing them, Spitfire silently cursed, shouting, “Blaze, no, that’s not—!”
Acrocanthosaurus turned its head to the pair, then leaned away as it swung its tail. Blaze flared her wings to brake and then flapped to shoot up out of the way—she’d never make that mistake twice—but Wave Chill didn’t see it fast enough and took a direct hit with a burst of steam on impact. He was thrown aside, but the Wonderbolt Misty Fly zipped in pushing a cloud and caught him on it.
“Wave Chill?” she said. “Wave, look at me!” Misty went to pat him, but pulled back when a flap of his uniform peeled off. Looking down on the scene, Blaze froze up in midair.
Ignoring them, Acrocanthosaurus looked around and sniffed the air until it suddenly stopped and glared. It took a single step forward and left the scorch radius, its foot falling with another burst of steam. Ponies in its path fled this way and that as the dinosaur marched on, leaving blackened footprints of burnt dirt. As it walked, a cart it stepped next to began smoking, erupting into flames a second after it moved its foot away.
“It’s not after us at all,” said a Wonderbolt, watching it leave.
Soarin flew up next to them and palmed a hoof. “Well it’s our job to change that. Stay alert and follow me.”
Trails of smoke began rising from a line of small trees that wilted as the dinosaur passed by, each one combusting in turn. More smoke drifted out of several nearby straw roofs.
As it walked, the streak of Soarin suddenly flew past it from behind on the right. It turned its head, but another Wonderbolt shot by on the left, and it looked over that way. Then it swung its jaws over right and snapped them shut just behind a third Wonderbolt that passed. It roared after them, the pink sail ridge on its back beginning to glow from inside.
The Wonderbolts flew back at it in formation, Soarin watching its movements closely. Something was off about the way it was lowering its head and arching its back, too off. “Split!” Soarin shouted.
Acrocanthosaurus threw its head up at them and spread its jaws, a blast of fire erupting from its throat and passing between the scattering flyers.
“This thing isn’t supposed to be a dragon!” one of the Wonderbolts shouted in surprise.
The dinosaur’s back glowed pink again and it shot a spread of flames across the sky at them as they fell back, glowing spits falling onto nearby roofs. It roared again and continued on its original path as the glow in its back faded.
Behind it, Cloud Kicker, a violet blue pegasus, snuck in pushing a small cloud over one of the burning carts lining the street. Timing her breath with Acrocanthosaurus’ loud footsteps, she gently kicked the cloud to start raining. Acrocanthosaurus stopped. Her heart did, too.
Her body frozen, she saw it turning to her, slowly, ever so slowly. She watched its eyes come around to meet hers, colorless and empty pearl gray eyes. Its back started glowing. She had only seen dinosaurs from a distance, never this close. Never this dangerous. She had always convinced herself she wouldn’t be afraid of one. She thought white lies would be harmless.
Acrocanthosaurus released a burst of fire at her, but a rainbow streak shot by as Cloud Kicker disappeared, the fire hitting the cloud and blasting it into vapor. Cloud Kicker, now hovering over a roof, looked up to see Rainbow Dash in a Wonderbolts uniform, glaring at the dinosaur.
Spitfire flew over the scene, trying to plan their next move, but Acrocanthosaurus turned to her, staring her in the eyes. She couldn’t place what she saw in them. Then it tilted its head and shot a stream of fire up at but past her, hitting a large cloud overhead. Why is it…? she thought, watching as the cloud grew, bulged, boiled, and then popped, wafts of steam dispersing.
Then it spun around and unleashed a spray of fire at the surrounding block.
“Hey!” she shouted, trying to dive in, but another spray of flames pushed her back.
It spewed a layer of fire that burned twenty feet high on the bare dirt road before turning and sending a blast of fire in through the front door of a two-story house, flames bursting from every window.
It’s doing this just to distract us, it knows how we work! Spitfire watched as the dinosaur walked down the road again, stepping right through the wall of fire unaffected, hatefully stopping herself from pursuing it. “Break off!” she called to the other Wonderbolts. “It’s ignoring everything we do! Concentrate on getting these fires out!”
As Spitfire flew down to the burning house, Rainbow turned to Cloud Kicker. “Gather up any other pegasi you can find and try putting those cloud pieces back together, we’re gonna need all hooves for a downpour.” Cloud Kicker nodded, and Rainbow shot off after Acrocanthosaurus.
“Rainbow, I said break off!” Spitfire called after her.
“I heard!” Rainbow disappeared over the fire wall. Ponyville was her town, and now this was personal.
As Rainbow closed in, Acrocanthosaurus glanced back before arching its back and releasing cloud of thick steam that quickly engulfed it and the street. Rainbow flew right into it, unable to see an inch ahead and quickly becoming lost. She started punching and kicking into the steam in desperation. “Come on! Where are ya? Come get some! Where…are…” As she struggled, the steam cleared just enough to let her see an empty street in front of her. Hot air hit the back of her neck, and every hair stood up.
She slowly turned around, coming face to face with Acrocanthosaurus, the dinosaur giving a low growl. It opened its pony-sized jaws, a pink glow welling up the sail from its back onto its neck, the orange glow of fire creeping from deep in its throat.
In a nearby dark alley, a pony dropped their head with a sigh. “I thought I could escape this…” Their eyes flared open with a white flash.
As Rainbow stared into the jaws, a small flash of white light came almost unnoticed from behind her. A second later erupted a burst of rainbow light and a cascade of cold. Light from the rainbow supernova reached every edge of town, Spitfire fighting the instinct to investigate it by attributing it to Rainbow.
Acrocanthosaurus opened its eyes again, stepping forward from its recoil to see that the next pair of houses and edge of the road were coated in ice as glowing snowflakes drifted in the air. A rainbow glow stepped forth from between the houses, fading to reveal a limber cobalt blue theropod about 20 feet long with jagged white zigzags down its sides and an aqua blue underbelly. Its outline glowed with a flame-like aura of pale pink, purple, yellow, and blue, and a split pair of thin fanlike head crests rose up above its eyes and curved forward: Cryolophosaurus.
Acrocanthosaurus glared and snorted, roaring as steam drifted from its back. Cryolophosaurus snarled back, its breath visible in the air. Acrocanthosaurus’s back glowed and it shot a blast of fire, but Cryolophosaurus leapt aside, breathing a coating of ice across the ground and sliding on it. The fire hit the layer of ice and it burst apart, bringing the front walls of the houses down, Cryolophosaurus springing across the street in one bound and kicking off of a house to sail through the air at Acrocanthosaurus.
Cryolophosaurus’s rainbow glow flared and it sent a midair blast of ice breath that froze a layer over Acrocanthosaurus’s left shoulder. It kicked up its feet and stomped onto the ice, shoving Acrocanthosaurus over a step, then flipped over backwards to smack the ice with its tail. Still in mid-flip, however, Acrocanthosaurus released a burst of steam that shattered the ice and buffeted Cryolophosaurus back, the dinosaur twisting and slamming its feet into the ground as it skidded across the street.
Cryolophosaurus growled and raced at Acrocanthosaurus, avoiding a quick fire blast by slipping between its legs. It wove left under Acrocanthosaurus’s nose as it tried turning back, circling around to its tail. It tried jumping over as the tail was swung at it, but Acrocanthosaurus swung it back under Cryolophosaurus’s feet and it landed with a whine as steam burst from its soles, shoving off backwards and stutter-stepping to a stop. It froze a small patch of ground to stand on for a second, giving what amounted to a sigh.
Acrocanthosaurus turned to it with a glowing back and roared, and Cryolophosaurus darted forward, sending a burst of cold to freeze over its left leg and ramming it, bringing itself to a stop for just a second. In that second, Acrocanthosaurus’s head snapped down and its jaws clamped onto Cryolophosaurus’s back. It lifted its struggling victim into the air and leaned back, the ice on its leg easily shattering as it lifted its foot, then stomped down and tossed its head left; it released Cryolophosaurus, and a split second later a fire blast propelled it away.
Inside a dark house, a mare and her foal were huddled up against a side wall, listening to the loud roars and crashes echoing outside. They couldn’t tell which side they were coming from and dared not look to find out. The foal started to whimper, and the mare hugged them tighter.
“Shhh, look at me,” she whispered. “We’re going to be fine, okay?” The foal nodded, and she hugged them again. “We’ll be fine.”
A blue and white dinosaur crashed back-first through the front wall and fell sprawling in front of them, the mare bracing against the wall as the foal started to cry. As the Cryolophosaurus leaned up and looked to them, she hugged the foal tighter and shut her eyes. But nothing happened. She heard wood creaking and debris shifting, and opened her eyes to see the dinosaur staggering out of the hole in the wall. She wasn’t sure when exactly her heart started beating again.
Cryolophosaurus swayed a bit and shook its head. It looked back at the house for a second before turning its attention back to Acrocanthosaurus and growling. The dinosaur roared back and took a step forward.
Spitfire flew up on the scene, not seeing Rainbow, but stopping short at the sight of the second, glowing dinosaur. Cryolophosaurus looked up at her and their eyes met. She saw something in them, something different than the other dinosaur. Then it nodded towards the house behind it. Spitfire almost didn’t believe it. It, a dinosaur, had just nodded. Just once, but unmistakably. It turned back to Acrocanthosaurus and stepped out wider, crouching down as it snarled, its rainbow glow flaring, as Spitfire realized it seemed to be guarding the house.
Small white flakes appeared in the air as glowing rainbow ring appeared on the ground around Cryolophosaurus. It reared up with a snarl, an array of large white snowflakes growing from the flecks above and around it. Then it threw its arms and jaws forward with a growl, the snowflakes turning light blue and folding back into cones before shooting forward in icy streaks.
Acrocanthosaurus roared at the array as its back glowed, but the snowflake arrowheads reached it in a second, pelting it and bursting into icy slush on impact, forcing it to stagger back a few steps. It shook off the melting remnants as it roared angrily.
Spitfire had taken the chance to zip around to the back of the house and kick open the door in one motion, immediately spotting the cowering ponies as they flinched from the crash. Wait, was it… protecting them? she thought. Suddenly she saw a stream of flames hit Cryolophosaurus through the hole in the front wall, threatening to knock it over, but it dug its feet in and pushed against it, blocking it from reaching any further.
“Come on!” she called over. “This way out!” The ponies snapped out of their shock and ran to her, the mare whimpering thanks. Spitfire sent them down an alley to the next street over before flying back up to see the dinosaurs again.
Cryolophosaurus was hidden beneath the relentless stream of fire by Acrocanthosaurus. Why wasn’t it getting out of there, Spitfire wondered. Then it clicked.
“Hey dino, they’re out!” she shouted. A second went by.
Then a flare of rainbow glow came from inside the fire, and Cryolophosaurus leapt up above it, letting the flames flood into the house before the stream was shut off. It landed and screeched at Acrocanthosaurus, crouching as a glowing rainbow ring appearing around its feet and a storm of snowflakes filled the air. A frosty fog began seeping from its mouth as it leaned up, swaying its head back and forth, before lurching its body down with its tail sticking straight up as it roared a gust of icy wind, a chute of swirling snowflakes shooting at Acrocanthosaurus, jagged ice spikes jutting up in its wake.
Acrocanthosaurus quickly blasted another stream of fire to intercept it, the two attacks hitting in the middle of the street, the collision of walls of cold and heat releasing a wind that threatened to blow Spitfire away. They stood at a stalemate for a few seconds before the fire beam began to be pushed back. Acrocanthosaurus pushed with more fire, leaning down to shoot directly against the blizzard tunnel, but it pushed closer faster and faster, overrunning the fire beam and blasting onto Acrocanthosaurus’s face. Acrocanthosaurus reared back with an attempt at a howl, but a layer of ice froze over its open jaws, covering its head and quickly expanding down its torso, back, and legs, but its body was suddenly obscured by a bright red glow, flashing bright enough to make Spitfire look away for a brief second. And then the dinosaur was gone, leaving only the ice behind.
Cryolophosaurus’s rainbow glow subsided, the snowflakes vanishing from the air, and all of the altered colors around town pulsing back to their normal palette, revealing a nighttime sky. Spitfire looked to the apparent hero. With a glance to her, it turned and dashed down the street, but she briefly hesitated to follow it, letting it slip down an alley and out of sight. Drat. The ‘Flaming Dinosaur’ was a more dire threat anyway, but when she flew over to where it had been, there were no footprints or scorch marks or anything leading away to signal where it had gone. She looked up at the iceberg where it had last been and almost jumped at the sight. The mass of ice was hollow, having taken a skin-tight imprint of the dinosaur reaching almost down to the start of its tail.
Thunder rumbled from above, and the first drops of rain began falling around her. She rose above the rooftops to see a mass of clouds begin to pour down across all of Ponyville, small and roaring flames scattered throughout the town beginning to flicker and die down. A pair of Wonderbolts flew towards her.
“Let’s get a unicorn over here to take an imprint of this glacier before it melts away!” she called to them. “I wanna know exactly what tried to roast us in here.”
Then somepony else flew up to her in a torn Wonderbolts uniform. “Whoa, did you see all that?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Something wasn’t sitting right in Spitfire’s mind. She was sure she had seen a lone pony in her peripheral vision just before the Acrocanthosaurus had appeared—dark gray coat, her instincts had recorded in that brief instant, dark pinkish red mane, spiky with yellow tips, and visible red hooves. Colors disturbingly similar to the dinosaur itself. If there was even the possibility that that could imply a connection…
But then the other dinosaur. Blue body. Lightning fast. Rainbow glow. She never saw them both at once.
Unknowingly, she was staring. Rainbow looked left and right then tilted her head at Spitfire. “What?”
* * *
Undisclosed elsewhere.
A dark purple stallion slowly walked over to a shelf. He was wearing a dark collar with a dull pink rim and a cape-like flap spreading down over his shoulders, had a dust blue mane that spiked backwards with strands in the front draping down to frame his face, and had burgundy triangle tattoos under his eyes reaching in from the sides of his face.
He looked at a picture frame sitting on the shelf. “You just never understood, did you?”
