The wind blew calmly, as if soothing the ponies for the oncoming event. Hundreds of ponies were gathered around and within Ponyville's central town square, most of them with their eyes towards the clouds and the others turned to look at another one of their peers. Even the almost silent murmur going on between a pair or group of ponies was loud enough to add to the already decently loud symphony of mismatched voices.
A little bit away from the bustling square was a small ditch, mainly filled with sand while the edges were seeded with vegetation. The occasional tree hanging over the ditch and casting a gleaming shadow that offered a bit of cool on the rather warm day to the three residents of the stone-infested dip. A purple alicorn, a yellow pegasus, and an orange mare sat within the protection of the pit, under the authority of the cool given by the tree's offspring of shade. The yellow pegasus stared up at the clouds, following the example of her fellow equines back at the square, while the purple alicorn held a pair of binoculars to her eyes, hoping to spy the first signs sooner than anyone else. The orange mare merely sat, a bored expression adorning her face, while she looked indifferent about the situation altogether.
The yellow pegasus turned to her purple friend slowly, a slightly worried look on her face. "They should be here by now, Twilight," Fluttershy said, "what could be taking them so long?"
"Well," Twilight said, lowering both her view and the binoculars away from her eyes, "I can give you multiple logical reasons as to why their flyover would be delayed. Wind speed and direction, for one, could slow their advancement, perhaps a quick group hunt took place along the way, plenty of explanations as to their whereabouts."
Fluttershy looked back towards the sky, anxiously looking for a small speck in the distance, but to no current avail. "What if they're hurt? What if the weather of their countless habitats has hurt them?"
Applejack rested her hoof upon her friend's back. "Don't be so dramatic, Fluttershy, you of all ponies should know that nature ain't a clock, but instead more of a... kind of like an apple tree. Sure, the general basics happen, but they don't always happen at the same times, an' it ain't never gonna grow the apples in the same pattern twice."
"I know, it's just that-"
Fluttershy was cut off by the sudden spray of sand and gravel in their direction. Turning to face the source, they saw an ecstatic Pinkie laying still in a ball-like position, laughing.
"Woopsie, I guess I should've warned you guys," Pinkie Pie said, laughing again soon after and sprawling out, filling up a large area of the ditch that dug deep into the ground.
"No kiddin'," Applejack responded, spitting in an attempt to dislodge the small rocks from her teeth and to relieve her mouth from the crusty feeling grains. "Took you long enough, anyways."
"Oh come on, I'm only..." she thought about it silently for a moment before replying, "about an hour late. Though you can thank the oven breaking for that." Pinkie examined the empty sky. "Doesn't look like I missed much, though."
"Yeah," Applejack continued, "these dragons sure are takin' their darn time gettin' here."
"No kidding," Rainbow said, sitting on a cloud that had taken residence over the ditch, offering more shade to those below.
"When'd you get here," Fluttershy asked.
"I've been here since Pinkie got here. Just grabbing a seat," she answered as she proceeded to smack the cloud with her hoof, coughing from the mist that now took over her area.
"Hang on, I think I see them," Twilight said, waving her hoof to quiet the group. The rest of her peers looked in the direction she was, staring intently on the little patch of sky just over a mountain that overtook most of the horizon. The bustling and small chatter of those at the square were still audible when they saw the tiny, shaky dots in the distance. A wave of ease came over Fluttershy, and the rest of the group smiled at the beautiful anomaly taking place before them.
The spectating of the dragon migration had always been a part of equine culture, spanning even to the far reaches of Yakyakistan where the yaks would watch the few dragons from their area take off to join the main vein that ran just over Equestrian territory. The dots in the distance seemed to both increase in size and quantity exponentially over the next few moments, leading up the point where a cool breeze washed over the ponies as the flapping of the giant wings above them both made an auditory chopping and blasted cold air from higher in the atmosphere down.
Twilight set her binoculars on a stone on the edge of the crevice, and looked up and merely enjoyed the moment, as did everyone else within her group; each stared up, smiling, enjoying the small moments of the spectacle taking place above them. For these moments, it felt as if they weren't even part of a world, but not in a bad way, in a way as if they had never affected the natural order of things, the natural traditions; it felt as if they were there, but were never there in the first place. These were the times the ponies relished, the times they wished never ended.
If you were on the planet to better yourselves, then what became of those there before, who were on the planet for the same reason?
That question was both answered and disappeared altogether during these times. The answer? To live, to survive, and to thrive, just as everything else had; completing the hardest challenge of surviving the harsh reality. No one saw this answer, though, as the question was never there, and what good was an answer if the question never posed itself.
It was the most relaxing moment any creature could feel.
It was, anyway, until Twilight noticed something in the distance.
The relaxing sensation soon became the feeling of fear, not pure fear though, but instead the fear of uncertainty, something that plagued Twilight and others like her since the beginning.
She studied this thing she noticed; a mere black dot, just like the other dragons a distance away, but something was off. It flew not only strangely, in a weird zig-zag, inexperienced pattern, but also... Fast.
This thing was faster than any dragon, anything, Twilight had seen before, much faster than those in the upper ranks of the Wonderbolts and certainly faster than her rainbow-maned friend.
As Twilight came up from her laid down position she had come to adopt during her moments of ease, the rest of her friends noticed the dot in the distance too, especially as it had grown exponentially since she first noticed it. The murmur of the crowd inhabiting the square perked up again, alerting the group that whatever this thing was in the distance, it had definitely attracted its own in attention.
"Uh," Rainbow muttered, still perched atop her cloud, "what is that?"
Twilight merely continued to stare at the dot, which had started to take a more dragon-y looking shape, as Fluttershy answered, "I've never seen a dragon move that fast before." Her voice had a tinge of stutter in it, showing her obvious concern.
"I don't know what it is," Twilight quivered, "but judging from how fast it's moving, it won't be fun being under that thing when it passes. We may want to move."
"Pssh," Rainbow said, waving her hoof, "it can't be any worse than the wind tunnel the Wonderbolts use in the academy."
"Suit yerself," Applejack responded, "I'm not about to be blown into a wall." She started to crawl out of the ditch.
Not even a minute after Applejack had made her way out of the sand filled ditch and started her way further back and away from the path of the oncoming dragon stream, the group turned to look in shock as a deafening cry cycled through the air, coming approximately from where the dragon, now taking on an unmistakably identified shape, was located, only a few miles away. The group stared, worried about what the call meant, anticipating.
The dragon had stopped moving, now almost floating in the air as its wings curled into its body. For a few moments, it seemed to defy gravity.
Its wings suddenly unfurled once again, and the dragon started forward at a speed no pony had ever seen from anything within all known history, leaving behind a faint purple ring that expanded and soon evaporated into the daytime air.
The dragon continued, it seemed, to gain speed as it came nearer and nearer to the group and the town square.
It was now only two miles away.
The group acted fast, scrambling out of the ditch while Rainbow made her way to help the town's ponies evade the incoming danger.
One mile...
Some ponies turned as they moved away, only to see the dragon speeding ahead of its peers, making them struggle as its sudden passing disrupted their air manipulation and caused them to lose grip. Along with this, the leaves and grass behind it simultaneously waved in defeat, threatening leaving their soft ground of the home and flying into the air, just as the dragons were.
The group met up with the others from the town, a good distance away and behind the shelter of some of the bigger buildings of the suburban area. They all watched, stunned at the speed of the previously undiscovered creature before them as it zoomed past their eyes, sending bits and pieces of dead, disjointed vegetation to where the same ponies stood just a few moments ago. It traveled at such a velocity that it could have seriously injured one of the citizens depending on where it hit them, and most of them were at head level.
While any other group of townsfolk might have been disgruntled by the event they just witnessed, despite its lack of damage and disruption, these ponies were mostly indifferent about the situation. Soon after the dragon was much further than even the lead of the stream, most of the ponies went back to their previous positions to continue their sighting of the spectacle, completely undismayed by the new species of dragon.
This was Ponyville, after all, the town of mayhem, as it had somewhat become known as.
In complete contrast to these ponies, the five merely stood where they were, each a different sort of confused about the whole situation.
There was Twilight, who stood there, eyes in a resting position but mouth clenched to one side, deep in thought about many different questions; where did it come from, why had it never been seen before, normal Twilight sort of ordeals.
Rainbow was envious of its show stopping abilities.
Fluttershy was scared for the safety of the other creatures around Equestria with this new predator about.
Applejack was thankful no one got hurt.
Pinkie was smiling, happy for a new event to show up within her normal, boring routine.
Rarity was walking along the path with a pair of sunglasses and a pink coat on, sipping a cup of tea.
"My my, what has happened here? It's a mess, sticks everywhere-"
"Yer a bit late there, Rarity," Applejack said in a snotty tone, "if you were here on time you wouldn't be asking that question."
"Well, yeah," Rarity said, giving up her elegant tone into a more nasty one, "that's obvious, now isn't it?"
The two looked away from each other with pursed lips, living in a pool of their own petty remarks and feelings.
"Spike, I need you to send a letter."
Twilight anticipated a reply. When she didn't get one, she looked around, only now realizing that Spike was still at the castle, sleeping. She gave an annoyed sigh.
"What do you need to tell Celestia?" Pinkie stared confused at Twilight. "Can't you just give it a name and be done-"
"This goes beyond a simple new species, Pinkie." Twilight turned to catch the eyes of all of members of the group. "That thing isn't a simple creature of nature; judging from its wingspan and it body, or what I could make out of it, at least, there's no way that thing should be able to reach that speed, no less hold it consistently with no drop or altitude gain. It just doesn't match what we know about even simple physics!" Twilight looked back towards the ponies that inhabited the square, obvious signs of concern on her face. Her friends watched, anxiously waiting for her suggestion.
"I fear something's seriously wrong here."