//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Welcome the Unknown // by Equestria Buck Yeah //------------------------------// Fluttershy was relaxing in her cottage when she felt the place shake. She felt it before the rest of the town since they were coming from the dreaded Everfree Forest right behind where she lived. Some of her trinkets started shifting towards the edges of their counter tops and fell to the floor, shattering to pieces. She shrank into herself and nervously stepped outside to look around for whatever it was that was causing the disturbance. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was toppling half the trees in the forest. She took to the sky to get a better view. When she finally saw what it was, she froze in terror and almost forgot to keep flapping her wings. She ducked into her home and told her critter friends to run. They had all been shaking in fear as well, unsure of what was going on. An army of small animals sprinted out the door and scattered in random directions away from the rumbling. She raced into town as fast as she could towards the library. If anypony had any idea what that thing was, or what to do aside from run, it was going to be Twilight. ----- Applejack was back on the farm working on getting the apples off the trees for the harvest. She raised her legs up and bucked the tree she was standing by good and hard. When her hooves connected, she felt the first of the tremors. Most of the apples on the trees surrounding her fell to the ground. "Jeez, I knew my buckin' was strong, but not like that." Another shake of the ground felled the rest of the apples. The thunderous boom got her attention to the north. She knew Fluttershy's cottage was north of the farm, and beyond that and to the west was the Everfree Forest. She had been in there a few times but was fortunate enough not to run into anything that would want to make a meal out of her. She ran back to the house and raced up the stairs. She found a window that faced the direction of whatever was causing the entire house to shake violently. She saw its shape rising over the tree lines, still rather deep into the woods. Her pupils shrank and her jaw fell open. "Big Mac!" Applejack yelled as she galloped down the stairs. He was in the living room, having the same idea as his sister when the rumbling started: Get home. "Take Granny down to the cellar. I gotta go get Apple Bloom!" The filly asked if she could hang out with her friends after school today. Applejack galloped toward Carousel Boutique to check there first though she could be anywhere really. If the Crusaders were doing something today, maybe Sweetie Belle mentioned it to Rarity this morning too. If Rarity had any information, she needed to know. ----- The Cutie Mark Crusaders huddled together in fear by the window. Rarity and Matt stood over them staring at the behemoth waddling its way from the west. Even though the Boutique was nearly on the other side of town, its light purple back could be seen clear as day. The shop rhythmically shook as it appeared to inch closer on the horizon. Rarity's ears slumped and she was visibly shaking. "If that's what I think it is, we have to go. Now. As far and as fast as we can," she barely managed to say. The little ones ran down the stairs without a second thought. Rarity started to leave the room but didn't find Matt alongside her. He was still staring out the window. His disbelief gradually turned to frustration and anger. No, not again, not again! Fucking...UGH! Should have known. TWO decent days in a row? May as well throw myself off a Goddamn bridge. The unicorn went up to him cautiously. She saw his eye twitch and his teeth baring. "Matt? Come on, we need to go, sweetie." He hung his head slightly, his unblinking eyes burning with a mixture of grief and hatred. She rested a hoof on his hip. "Matt, not like last time. Please?" A well-timed tremor shook him out of his stupor and he looked at the pouting pony. He took a mind-cleansing breath and nodded. They descended the stairs and went into the lobby where the Crusaders were waiting for them. Matt took the lead and headed for the front door. Screams were starting to be heard from outside. The ponies doing their shopping had felt and heard whatever it was coming toward the town. Most of the earth ponies and unicorns out and about hadn't spotted the monster from ground level yet. The pegasi on the roads took to the air and saw it, sending most of them flying back terrified to Cloudsdale. Matt grabbed the doorknob and started to open it. "Wait! What about not being seen?" "Screw not being seen! We've got much bigger problems, literally!" They reluctantly followed him outside, unsure of what to expect from the other ponies. Rarity's magic closed the door after they vacated the shop. Most of the mares and colts who hadn't retreated yet were either hiding behind various objects or clinging to each other for dear life. A loud shriek came from a crowd that gathered near Town Hall between the echo of approaching tremors. "What is that?!" a random mare screamed as she pointed at Matt. Most of the others around the frightened pony took notice of Matt and shook even harder than they already were. It didn't help that they were caught in the middle of a panic when he was finally – inevitably – seen by someone other than who he already knew. "Well, this could be going better. You said you knew what this thing was?" He stumbled as the ground shook again. "I believe so. A couple years ago, some loudmouth magician named Trixie paraded into town saying she defeated an Ursa Major. Oof!" Another rumble came, tossing them around. "A couple of her idiot admirers dragged a baby into town thinking it was an adult so she could prove she was as powerful as she boasted," Rarity explained. "She wasn't." "What's an Ursa Major?" "Do they have bears back home?" He nodded. "They're like that. They're just...rather large." Matt cocked an eyebrow and asked nervously, "How large?" Another quake hit. "Well, err, the baby was...a bit bigger than a two-story house. On all fours." His eyes widened and he looked towards the source. "And you think this is daddy coming." Rarity concurred with a whimper. "How'd you get rid of the baby?" Another shockwave rocked the area. "Twilight used her magic to lull it so sleep and returned it to the Everfree Forest." "How'd you know it was a baby anyway?" "Twilight looked it up after Trixie bragged about vanquishing one. No one's ever vanquished an Ursa Major before." A final slam of the ground was felt, almost as if to drive home what Rarity said. The massive, purple, translucent monster stood on its hind legs, finally through the forest from whence it came, dwarfing the buildings even from the other side of town. The Crusaders shrieked at the top of their lungs and grabbed onto Rarity and Matt's legs. It welcomed itself with a terrifying roar. Ponyville's attention was captured, and the denizens ran aimlessly through the town screaming. Rarity grabbed onto Sweetie Belle and Matt stared speechlessly. The Ursa fell back on its forelegs with all its weight and left a shallow crater in the ground. The impact shattered most of the windows and knocked everyone down. Even a few building structures collapsed because of the huge quake. "Rarity! Matt!" a familiar voice shouted from above them. "Rainbow Dash!" "Is that what I think it is?" She swooped down and hovered beside them. Rarity said, "I think so. We have to get out of here!" "You said Twilight did some research on that thing, right?" Matt spoke up. "Yes, why?" The Ursa began its walk again. "Then she may know how to get rid of it or why it's here. Which way is her place?" he asked as he got up. Rarity pointed to the west. "I always headed that way and turned right at Sugarcube Corner." Matt took off running. Rainbow Dash flew ahead of him, cutting his escape off. "Are you crazy? You want us to go running towards it?" Matt dodged around the pegasus and kept going. "Ugh. I know I'm going to regret this. Wait up!" Rarity stood there astonished that they just left her and the Crusaders alone. An impact brought her back to her senses. "As much as I don't want to go that way, it's probably not a bad idea to stay together. Come on, girls!" The fillies looked at each fearfully and followed Rarity despite wanting to run away. ----- Fluttershy was approaching her destination when she saw Twilight standing on one of the porches of the library, her mouth open wide in shock as the last row of trees were knocked down by the Ursa. She felt the tremors early as well, being on the side of Ponyville closest to the Everfree Forest aside from the timid pegasus. "Twilight! What's going on? What is that thing?!" A quake shook the library. The unicorn saw the shaggy, almost glowing, purple back coming closer overtop the trees. "I-I think it's a...an Ursa Major." Twilight's previous research was severely limited when Trixie had shown up in the past. She had been interrupted to deal with the cub at the time. After the incident, she returned to her studies and found very little on the subject matter. She didn't find this terribly surprising since the Ursas were enormous and most ponies wouldn't want to go near them for all the bits in Equestria. "What's that?" Fluttershy followed Twilight as she ran back into her study. "It's a gigantic species of bears that reside in some of the deepest parts of the Everfree Forest. Not many are even thought to exist," – Twilight flopped down the stairs thanks to another tremor – "and I really hope that's true." Only a few of the books hadn't already fallen off their shelves and were scattered all over the place. She stumbled to her hooves and looked over the mess. "There has to be a reason why it's here. They don't exactly go for a stroll very often." "Twilight, maybe we should get out of here! It isn't safe!" The pegasus squeaked in terror, nearly fainting when the Ursa roared, and again when it crashed back onto the ground, destroying the windows. The rest of the books flew off the shelves. Twilight started lifting as many books as she could, trying to find one that could be useful. She snorted in frustration as she dropped one after the other back to the floor. "There was one particular book that had more information than the others I found regarding Ursas. If only I could find it in this mess!" ----- "Sir, we have an emergency in Ponyville!" The royal guard directed Shining Armor's attention to the scene in the distance when he arrived with his elite troops. Despite being as far up the mountain as the city was, the Ursa Major was still easy enough to spot. The captain couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Lieutenant, gather as many troops and weapons as you can. Staging ground, five minutes, go! You four, take Celestia, Luna, and my wife to a safe haven and wait for my orders." They saluted and flew off to their assigned tasks. ----- Shining Armor stood in the staging ground as the final seconds of his orders ticked away. The pickings were slim. Only about half the guards he wanted were in attendance, approximately eighty. Considering how last-minute the call was, he was fortunate to get so much help. They were spread into four groups of twenty. "Alright troops, listen up. We have a situation in Ponyville. An Ursa Major has emerged from the Everfree Forest and is heading towards the town from the large northwest field outside of it. We're to lead it away from Ponyville and back to its cave," he said, debriefing the squad. "It left an easy enough trail for us to follow back into the forest. Once we've led it back to its cave, our demolitions team will seal the entrance and evacuate. "Groups one and two, you're charged with getting its attention and dragging it away. Pegasi, you have your spears, and unicorns, use your magic. Nopony is to get too close. Do whatever it takes to get it away from Ponyville. Group three, you're tasked with getting the citizens together in Town Square and leading them out of the city in a controlled, organized manner. Group four and I will be the last line of defense if we should fail to lead it back into the Everfree Forest. Is everypony clear on their assignments?" "Yes, sir!" they said in unison and saluted. Pairs of pegasi troops floated to the chariots waiting for them at the grounds. Pairs of unicorns jumped in and magically attached the harnesses to their compatriots. The unicorns held the spears so the pegasi would not injure themselves accidentally while transporting the battalion. Shining Armor made his final preparations and boarded his chariot. "Move out!" ----- Six trails of smoke raced out from Cloudsale after the Ursa introduced itself, speeding toward the beast. "Spitfire! What are we supposed to do against that thing?" Soarin shouted. "We're just going to keep is busy until the Royal Guards arrive. You could probably hear that thing all the way to Manehattan. Just don't get yourselves killed," she responded. "How do you even know they're coming?" "For something like this? Trust me, they're on their way." ----- Matt and the others were still sprinting to the library when the blue-clad group flew over them. He would have sworn fighter jets had just passed by from what they sounded like. "The Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Now that thing's gonna get its flank kicked!" They ignored her cheers and kept going, occasionally stumbling because of the Ursa's march. The residents of the town had finally gotten a clear look of what was coming their way and ran straight past them. Whether or not any of them actually registered seeing a bipedal, six foot tall thing with light skin and no coat was unimportant with the goings on. "So where's Sugarcube Corner?" Matt asked. He was getting winded, but not as badly as he may have before he started helping at Sweet Apple Acres. "It looks like a gingerbread house." "That figures." A certain pink pony caught his attention in the distance on the road. She appeared to be running alongside a pair of ponies, one blue with a swirly pink mane and the other yellowish with a short orange mane. They had saddlebags on and what appeared to be two tiny screaming children in them. "Pinkie!" The blue pony screamed and recoiled when he glanced over the couple. "Don't hurt my babies!" The Ursa stomped again, making her almost fall over if not for Rainbow Dash swooping down and maintaining the mare's balance. "It's okay, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. He's a friend of mine," Pinkie explained. It didn't seem to relax the couple, but one couldn't blame them for being scared. "Pinkie, we may need you to come with us. We're heading to Twilight's to see if she has any info on that thing. I've been thinking on the way so far...those Elements you told me about, you think they could stop that thing?" Matt asked the girls. "I'm honestly not sure, darling. Celestia usually has them under lock and key at Canterlot, and without Spike here to deliver her a message, I don't see how we'd be able to get to them quickly," Rarity said. A rumble shook the ground and the twins doubled the volume of their shrieks. "Even if they can, we'd need all six of us to use them." ----- The Wonderbolts swung down and flew in front of the Ursa's face in formation before breaking away into pairs, one pair to the left and right sides of the beast with Soarin and Spitfire flying past its head. The Ursa turned around slowly as its sheer size prevented any fast movement. Its gaze was aimed at the ones who flew past its face. Spitfire and Soarin split up and the Ursa roared defiantly. They all grimaced in pain from its deafening cry but didn't slow down their buzzing around the behemoth. The Ursa was thanked with numerous distracting bucks to his sides and back; no sense in attacking from the front if it couldn't move quickly. The possibility of being crushed in a jaw that sported a pair of ten-foot long fangs didn't help the idea either. The Ursa swatted at any Wonderbolt that got too close for comfort, but their speed allowed them to stay ahead of it. Fortunately, the monster didn't have any concept of swinging its massive claws at where the pegasi were going to be. Several straight minutes of constant spinning around ended up turning the occasional footstep-created tremor into a steady rumble. Spitfire spun past the Ursa's backside and saw a couple dozen chariots heading their way. She split from the party and flew to meet the rider out front with a salute. "We've managed to distract it, Captain. What do you want us to do?" "Fall back once we've landed. We're going to drag it back to its cave. If you want, help the troops assigned to get the citizens out of town once we've formed up." "Understood." She zipped back to the Ursa and gave it a hard buck to the back of its head. The chariots landed ahead of the beast's original intended path on the southeastern side of the field. The weapons were distributed and they stood in formation at attention. "Alright, you all have your assignments. Go!" Half the troops charged and flew towards the Ursa and reformed behind it. Its attention was still focused on the acrobat team. The third group took off into town as Shining Armor's squad formed their wall. "Fall back, Wonderbolts! Fall back!" ----- "Will you two be okay without Pinkie?" The Cakes nodded fearfully at the bizarre biped. "Alright, try and stay low, and hug the buildings so you can grab something in case you start to fall. Don't want them getting hurt," he instructed, cocking his head at the screaming babies. "And watch the glass, too. Now get out of here!" That was all the convincing the Cakes needed to sprint away towards Town Square. "Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom!" Matt and the others spun around upon hearing a familiar drawl calling out from a distance behind them. "Applejack!" The filly galloped to her sister and jumped into her embrace. The rest of the party followed. "Come on, sugarcube, we've gotta get outta here!" Rainbow Dash spoke up quickly. "A.J., wait! We're heading to Twilight's right now. We're going to try and get to the Elements of Harmony to stop that thing!" "Ah gotta get my sister back to the farm where it's safe!" Matt knelt in front of Applejack. "I understand why you want to do that, A.J., but there's no time. By the time you run her back to the farm and get back here, who knows what can happen." "Please sis, Sweetie Belle's stayin' with Rarity, and Scootaloo's stayin' with Rainbow Dash...they're mah friends! I don't wanna leave 'em!" Apple Bloom's lips quivered and tears started to form in her eyes. "No! This isn't up for a debate!" "A.J.," Matt repeated, staring hard at her for a moment, "we have to go." The Ursa roared in the distance to drive Matt's point home. It seemed A.J. wasn't the only stubborn one in town apparently. "Fine! But if anything happens to her–" "It won't." The farm girl held her tongue, despite wanting to continue protesting. Matt and the others resumed their sprint with Applejack half a step behind. She turned to her sister as they ran. "If we get through this, you're grounded for a year, li'l missy."