One of Twilight's ears twitched at the sudden commotion she was hearing all around her.
With a groan, she opened her eyes, blinking them rapidly to clear away the blurry haze. Raising her head, she looked around in confusion, uncertain of where she had wound up.
It took her a moment due to the lack of any proper lighting to realize she was lying on the cold stone floor of what looked like some kind of large, long, torchlit bridge.
She snapped to full wakefulness with a surprised yelp as a large, silver armored stallion galloped past her, shouting something she couldn't quite catch.
"What... w-what happened?" she cried, quickly scrambling to her hooves, "where am I... and where's—"
"Twilight!"
The filly in question turned to see Starlight looking around the same as she was. Her face was a mask of panic and bewilderment as she watched several more armor clad stallions, diamond dogs and griffons moving about the bridge in a hurry.
She turned from them to Twilight with wide fearful eyes.
"What's going on?" she shouted over the commotion, "Twilight, where in Tartarus are we?"
"I don't know!" Twilight shouted back, "All I know is that we were in that room with the barrier and then Aeon's eyes flashed yellow and... and... I don't know what happened after that!"
She yelped and stumbled and out of the way of a heavy set stallion who huffed and puffed as he clamored along.
"E-Excuse me," Starlight called out to a tall, brown, maroon armored dachshund who had stopped in front of the two confused fillies, "helllo? Can you tell us what's going on? Where are we? And who are all these ponies—er, creatures?"
The irritated looking diamond dog completely ignored Starlight and muttered unintelligibly to himself as he adjusted the large two-handed sword on his back.
"Hey!" Starlight called again, her tone growing annoyed, "can you hear me? I asked you what—hey I was talking to you!"
Starlight growled as the diamond dog walked away without even giving her a glance. Twilight watched him go with a growing sense of unease. A black armored griffon caught the fillies off guard as he suddenly landed on the bridge a few hoof-lengths from where they stood.
"Hello?" Twilight called, deciding to try her luck, "can you tell us what's going—"
Something flashed in the distance, momentarily distracting the two fillies as they looked to their left... and down. A sense of vertigo overwhelmed the two fillies as they realized they were not on a stone bridge, but atop a massive stone wall.
The outer wall surrounding the city to be exact.
Far below, just outside the city walls, they see could flashes of various spells being cast, the spectacular hue of colors lighting up the desert. While the girls couldn't see much in the darkness, they could certainly hear the vicious battle cries of the Hunters and Defenders fighting against... something.
Both horrified and transfixed, Twilight and Starlight moved closer to the low wall in front of them and peered over the edge to get a better look. They watched as more soldiers poured out of the gates and charged into the fray, the majority of the creatures swinging blades and the more magically inclined slinging all kinds of spells.
A few of the creatures from the bipedal races even had some sort of miniature projectiles that made far too much noise and smoke for how small they were.
Vicious battle cries rang out, along with the hums, bangs, zaps, and various other noises that accompanied the casting of a spell. Among those cries however, were inequine howls, shrieks, growls, and roars.
Upon closer inspection, the two fillies could just make out the outlines of some other creatures. There were outlines of large hulking creatures, smaller, bipedal things that didn't quite look right, flying monstrosities, and even a few limbless, slithering things that made the skin beneath Twilight's fur crawl.
Some of the creatures emitted a slight glow, but that hadn't been enough to tell exactly what they were... that is, until somepony shot a magical flare into the sky.
The resulting flash caused the two fillies to cry out in surprise and shield their eyes. They opened them a few seconds later to see that a large patch of land had been lit up and cast in a bright orange glow, revealing a sight that made Twilight and Starlight scream and stumble back and away from the edge.
Demons.
There were dozens of them, and they came in all shapes and sizes—many of them sporting nasty looking claws, fangs, and horns. As the girls watched, some of them even seemed capable of casting magic of their own.
"Ugly freaks of nature, aren't they?"
The fillies jumped and whipped around to see none other than Aeon herself, somehow having placed herself right next to the two without their notice. For a moment, Twilight and Starlight simply stared at her as she stoically observed the violent scene playing out below.
"Aeon?!" Starlight finally shouted, shaking her head in disbelief, "what... how did you—no, you know what? Forget that! What the hay is going on here?!"
"How did we even get here?" Twilight asked in a somewhat quieter, but no less indignant tone, "what did you do?"
"Well girls," Aeon replied, finally turning back to the angry, scared, and confused fillies with a small smirk, "I've decided to take you all on a little impromptu field trip to the past.
"Oh, and to answer another question, no one here can see, hear, or even touch us. Precautions against messing with the timestream and all that, you know how it goes."
"We're... wait," Twilight blinked and furrowed her brow before it shot up again in alarm, "we're in the past? You actually sent us back to the past?!"
"A few hours into the past to be specific," Aeon replied, "there's this nifty little spell a certain magically gifted stallion taught me a long time ago that allowed me to travel back in time for a certain amount of time."
"And you used this spell to take us back to see... this?" Starlight asked, looking back down at the chaos below, "why would you want us to see something like this?!"
Twilight's ear twitched at the sudden rising panick in her tone. She turned to Starlight with a worried frown, her frown deepening as the filly's breathing began to pick up.
"S-Starlight?" Twilight asked, "are you... are you alright?"
She took a step forward, only to freeze and Starlight stepped away from the edge once more, shaking her head slowly as she kept her eyes on the battle.
"No, Twilight," she said in a quiet shaky voice, "I am not okay," she gave a violent shudder and suddenly snapped a wide eyed gaze towards Aeon, "get me out of here... now."
Aeon returned her panicked gaze with an unreadable expression.
"I brought you two here for two reasons," Aeon replied in an eerily calm voice. She turned her attention towards the griffon in black armor shouting out orders to the soldiers moving about the wall, "the first was to show you what kind of world you two have found yourselves in, and the second..."
Something shot up from the ground and towards the griffon just as the two fillies turned their own gazes to him. There was an alarmed squawk that quickly devolved into choked gasps.
Before Twilight and Starlight could even scream, the griffon was yanked off the wall and down into a waiting mass of teeth and fangs.
They hadn't even seen what grabbed him.
The griffon screamed, and an instant later the screaming was replaced by several shrieks and a sickening crunch.
Twilight turned away and retched.
Starlight shook like a leaf in the wind, tears streaming down her face as she looked back to Aeon.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!"
"Not until you've seen it," Aeon replied, her eyes drifting towards something in the distance, "I'm well aware of how bucked up this is, but you two are gonna have to bear with it for a few more moments."
"WHY?!" Starlight screamed, her voice and expression now hysterical, "WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME WATCH THIS?! YOU KNOW—"
"Yes, Starlight Glimmer, I know," Aeon replied harshly, her gaze still locked on the horizon, "now shut up and watch."
"NO, I'M NOT GONNA—"
"Your lives... your souls... your entire town... they all belong to me... and I will take what is mine."
For a few seconds, it was as though time itself had stopped.
There was no other noise. there was no movement, there was nothing but that cold, cruel voice so full of malice and... something else... some intangible, but abundant all the same.
Twilight and Starlight stood frozen, their minds locked up and their thoughts grinding to a complete halt. Panic and hysteria were crushed under the sheer gravity of the voice.
Then reality crashed back around the fillies once more and, almost unbidden, both Twilight and Starlight turned to look at what had spoken.
The brightly burning flare was snuffed out, and all manner of screams could be heard—whether it was from the demons or the soldiers, the fillies didn't know.
Their attention was focused solely on the massive shadow looming over the darkened battlefield. It was as big as the wall itself—its shape almost impossible to make out.
The only thing the girls could make out at all were the outline of two almost completely straight horns that jutted out to either side of what they assumed was its head, two arms the size of towers that ended in viciously sharp claws, and two burning white orbs of light where its eyes would be.
"A Greater Greed Demon."
The two fillies didn't even bother turning around at Aeon's words. Nevertheless, Aeon trotted forward, her face hard as stone as she continued to explain.
"This is what I wanted you girls to see," she continued, "normally the soldiers are enough to handle the average demon raid that plagues the Grey Asylum from time to time, but once in a very rare while, a Greater Demon will show up, and when that happens..."
"ZAL THASTRA!"
That snapped the fillies out of their fear induced haze and they turned towards on of the nearby towers lining the walls.
Standing atop the roof of the tower, silhouetted by the light of the full moon... was Aeon. Even if they couldn't fully see her features from where they were standing, Twilight and Starlight could hear and practically feel the fury in Aeon's voice as she spoke.
They looked from the Aeon standing atop the tower, to the Aeon stand right next to them. The Aeon standing next to them didn't seem to be fazed by the sight, and instead focused her attention on the girls as she continued speaking.
"When that happens... that's when I have to step in and take care of things personally," she explained, "Zal Thastra has been a thorn in my flank for many years, and I got fed up with his nonsense... so I threw him in prison."
"Y-You... threw him in prison?" Twilight squeaked, "you don't m-mean..."
"Yep, he's the thing I trapped in the Black Barrier," Aeon finished, turning to watch as her past self closed her eyes and lit her horn, "anyway, you've seen what I wanted you to see, so I think it's time we get out of here."
"Good," Starlight agreed in what Twilight could only describe as a tired, sullen whimper, "get us out of here, I just..." she fell to her haunches, her cheeks damp with tears and her cerulean blue eyes dull, "...I just want to go to bed."
"Same here," Aeon replied with a yawn, completely ignoring the blazing golden yellow glow of Past Aeon's eyes as she leapt from the tower and shot towards the shadow in the distance, "sorry to put you girls through that, but I had a reason, and you'll thank me one day."
Twilight watched the large demonic shadow bare down on Past Aeon with weary eyes of her own—feeling just as drained as Starlight—but just before the clash occurred, her vision began to waver and darken.
There was a sudden odd pulling sensation and Twilight thought she heard Aeon say something, but it was drowned out by the siren's call of sleep.
Before they knew it, both Twilight and Starlight were out like a light, desperately hoping they could forget about what they had seen that night, but knowing deep down that they never would.