Getting back on their feet, Rainbow Burst and Spike headed for the door and went outside to see what was going on. They were not the only ones either. Nearby ponies had either come outside or stopped what they were doing to find out what was making so much noise. As they watched, a familiar looking pair of unicorn colts ran by, followed by...
"Is that a bear?" Spike asked.
That was the best description for it. The creature did have the basic shape of a bear to it. The "bear" was massive, about the size of a two-story house and then some. It looked like Princess Luna had taken a piece of the night sky, shaped it into a giant bear, and set it down. Its body glowed with a night blue light, with shining yellow eyes, and a white star on its head. The creature let out a roar, showing teeth as long as swords. It continued after the two colts, smashing through anything that got in its way.
With a sigh, Rainbow Burst's horn lit up. Grabbing Spike, she placed him on her back before taking off.
"Come on. We need to find out what's going on and how to stop it before all of Ponyville is flattened."
"Do we have to?" Spike mumbled, gripping tightly onto Rainbow.
"Do you want to let... whatever that is smash all of Ponyville?"
"No, but I don't want to be eaten like some dragon mcnugget either."
Rainbow Burst continued running, trying to get ahead of the creature. If she wanted to know what was going on, she would have to ask somepony who might know. Considering the giant, glowing, rampaging beast was chasing after two specific colts, it was safe to guess that they had something to do with it.
The pair of colts may not have had the longest legs, but they were young and literally running for their lives. As such, they were going pretty fast. Too fast for Rainbow to catch up with enough to grab or talk to. However, as they reached the town center, she did manage to get close enough to hear them shouting "Lighting Blast!" over and over.
Snips reached the wagon first. Rearing up on his hind legs, he started pounding on the door with his front hooves as quickly as he could. A yellow aura covered the door, throwing it open and knocking the colt onto the ground.
"What?!" Lightning snapped as she stuck her head out.
The bear let out a massive roar, the sound booming through the air and being near deafening. Lightning Blast turned her attention from the colts on the ground to the massive creature shambling toward them. Lightning's ears and jaw dropped as her eyes went wide, staring at the thing.
"WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT?!"
"We found it in The Everfree Forest," Snails answered as he got back up. "Brought it back to Ponyville so you could beat it."
Lightning's eyes nearly bulged out of her skull as her mouth was wide opened, jaw moving up and down as choking noise came from her throat.
"WHAT?!" she finally managed to cry out. "WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU POSSIBLY--"
Another roar from the creature cut off the angry rant. It continued to walk into the town square and toward the ponies, smashing the side of one building as it entered open area. Its big yellow eyes were focused quite intently on the small group, primarily on a pair of unicorn colts, one of which looked ready to wet himself. Moving closer, it let out a snarl as it lifted one of its massive paws, then brought it down toward the wagon.
Magic grabbed the pair of colts, pulling them away from the wagon as Rainbow Burst and Lightning Blast jumped clear. The small group managed to get away just before the massive came down, slamming into the traveling wagon and smashing it to pieces. Chunks of wood and twisted metal flew through the air as most of the cart was crushed flat into the ground.
"My... my trailer..." Lighting whimpered out, looking at her home turned into nothing but a pile of debris.
Rainbow grabbed the other unicorn and pulled her back up onto her hooves.
"Grieve later," Rainbow said. "Right now, we need to take these two" -- she motioned at Snips and Snails -- "to The Everfree, and hope that things" -- she pointed at the bear creature -- "follows us out of town. Hopefully before it smashes up too much more of the place."
Lightning Blast let out a growl of frustration, but did as she was told. Following after Rainbow, she ran back through the path of destruction the creature had created, Snips and Snails being pulled along in the mares' magic. Rainbow Burst ran as fast as she could, Lightning following as fast as she could. They made their way past shattered buildings, occasionally weaving around chunks of a place or a spot where the creature's foot had left a dent.
As they left town, the path became more difficult to follow. No buildings meant that no buildings got smashed, but also meant there was less damage to mark where the creature had been. Fortunately, Rainbow knew where The Everfree Forest was and how to get there. Unfortunately, Lightning did not and was forced to follow the other mare.
The thud of massive steps and a deafening roar let the group know that the plan was working.
That was until a louder roar boomed from somewhere up ahead.
If the one that had followed them was the size of a two-story house, the one now in front of them was the size of a skyscraper. Its body was purple as opposed to the blue of the smaller one, but there was a star on the larger creature's head that matched. Even more stars covered its form, twinkling and glittering like the night sky. Beneath burning orange-yellow eyes were fangs as long as a pony that looked as sharp as a guard's spear.
The massive creature took a step forward, the impact of a monstrous clawed paw causing the ground to shake. Rainbow Burst and Lightning Blast were knocked off their hooves, while Spike, Snips, and Snails all dropped to the ground. Another paw lifted up off the ground, looming above the group. If it came down, they all would have been squashed into pony paste with a side of dragon jelly.
The paw then continued on, landing on the ground behind the group as the creature moved right past them and toward the smaller one. It let out a growling noise as it moved closer.
The (relatively) small blue creature lowered its head, looking down at the ground. It ran one paw through the dirt, making small circular motions. The big one let out another growling noise. This time, the small one let out a plaintive whine, pointing a paw toward the group.
As this was happening, Rainbow suddenly realized something: the smaller one must have been a child. She may not have been able to understand what was actually being said, but she recognized the body language. The larger one -- probably the mother, but definitely an authority figure -- was upset about something the younger had done. Now the younger was trying to either explain, or make an excuse. More specifically, it was blaming them.
As all this occurred to Rainbow, the large, glowing, bear-like creature turned to face them. Its massive head came down enough that it could look at the ponies with its large, yellow eyes, which were narrowed into a very disapproving look.
"Uhm... Sorry?" Rainbow said, putting on a nervous smile.
The bear creature let out a snort, sending a blast of cold, snotty air across the group. Turning away from them, it moved to the smaller one. The larger one then reached down, taking a hold of the small one by the scruff. After giving the group of ponies one last glare, it lumbered off into the forest, carrying the small one with it.
They all stared silently as they two creatures disappeared from sight, the steps echoing before it too faded, leaving the ponies and dragon just sitting there, looking at where the strange beasts had vanished as they returned to their home.
"Well," Rainbow said, "now that that's over," -- she turned to face Snips and Snails -- "would one of you care to tell me: WHAT THE HAY WERE YOU THINKING?!"
"We were just doing what Spike told us," Snails answered.
"WHAT!?" Rainbow, Lightning, and Spike all cried out.
"So that's it!" Lightning shouted, turning to glare at Rainbow. "Your pet lizard told you about the duel, and you knew you couldn't win. So you had him get these colts to find some monster and bring back to smash my stuff and try to scare me off. That way, you wouldn't be humiliated in front of everypony, and claim that I was a coward or something."
"What?" Rainbow snapped. "I did no such thing. Even if I was afraid of losing -- which I'm not -- I wouldn't resort to cheating. On top of that, I wouldn't have Spike, or a bunch of foals do it, and I definitely wouldn't do something that would destroy a town I'm trying to make my home!"
"Of course you wouldn't admit it," Lightning huffed, ears pulling back. "Well it's not going to work. The duel is still on."
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Rainbow yelled. Her horn lit up. "But if you wanna fight, I'll show you what I can do!"
"HOLD ON!" Spike shouted, jumping between the two. Once the pair of unicorn mares had their attention on him, he took a deep breath and relaxed, turning to Snips and Snails.
"Now," he said calmly, "what makes you think I told you to do this?"
"You said that the best way for everypony to know how amazing and awesome Lightning Blast was was to have them see it for themselves."
A sheepish look spread across Spike's face as he scratched behind an ear fin. He let out a chuckle.
"Technically, I did say that," he admitted. "But I just meant that they shouldn't believe every word Lightning was saying without some proof. Like some ponies who had seen her do what she claimed. I didn't think they would go find a monster and bring it back to Ponyville."
Lightning Blast turned to the colts, ears pulled back and horn lighting up.
"You mean to tell me," she growled out, "that my wagon got smashed and I ran all the way here because you wanted to see me actually fight that thing?"
"...yeah?" Snails answered.
"Why? What would possibly make you think that was even remotely a good idea?!"
"...but... you've beaten monsters before," Snips said.
"Nothing the size of a house!" Lightning snapped. "And I knew it was coming, so I was ready for it."
The colts cringed away from the angry mare, heads down and ears pulled back.
"Now where am I going to stay?"
"Maybe the mayor knows a place," Rainbow suggested. Her horn lit up as she grabbed the colts by the ears. "We need to talk to her anyways, so she can decide what to do with these two."
Rainbow then started making her way back to Ponyville, dragging Snips and Snails by the ear the entire time.