I walked into a clearing that turned out to be the border of the forest to see a much better and less threatening view. Lush green meadows rolled on for miles with several large mountains visible on the horizon. In the center of my view, a town of some sort was visible in the plain below.
"Over there Destoroyah! That's Ponyville." Scootaloo, who was sitting on my head, said with very obvious and infectious happiness.
I chuckled at her enthusiasm. These ponies have to be the happiest pe- or well ponies I've ever run into. Just as I was about to ask the three fillies where to go next, three individual shouts came from the town.
"AppleBloom!!!" Was yelled in a southern drawl
"Sweetie Belle!!!" Came a high-class shout.
"Scoots!!! Scootaloo!!!" Was called in a scratchy voice.
"Oh Fiddlesticks!" the three fillies said in unison.
"What is it?" I asked, even though I was kind of aware who was calling for them.
"My sister." the three fillies said, once again, in unison.
The three jumped off and turned to face me.
"We'll go and sort out our little situation. Meanwhile, you can have a look around town. Maybe make some friends." Sweetie Belle said before running off to join the rest of the crusaders.
I stood there for a few minutes watching them run before beginning my walk towards the town. When I had just stepped a few meters into the town itself, I felt something bump into one of my front hooves. I looked down and saw another little filly. This one was a Unicorn with a pale, light violet fur and her mane was two shades of light goldish and grayish-yellow.
She looked up at me and a few seconds of awkward silence followed. Just as I was about to say 'hello', my ears were violently assaulted by loud screaming. I swear I heard someone shout 'The horror. The horror!' through the incoherent screaming around me. My sensitive ears reflexively flattened against my skull as I tried to drown the painful screams out. Soon though it fell silent again and my ears slowly perked up as I opened my eyes again. Because I had squeezed my eyes shut my vision was blurred and I had to blink a few times to refocus my sight once again.
Once I had my sight back I saw a group of seven ponies with the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing in front of me.
Just as I was about to lift my hoof to wave, a magenta light shot past me. I yelped in surprise, although it was more of a screech. The mare that shot the laser towards me was some sort of cross of a Pegasus and a Unicorn having both a horn and a pair of wings. She took a few threatening steps forwards as the others behind her followed. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were shouting for them to stop, but it fell on deaf ears and were drowned out by the group of mares shouting for them to get back while calling me...a monster?
For some reason that hit pretty hard for me. Yeah, I was a pretty sensitive person, but I had been called a monster before. Why was it suddenly so hard-hitting? Was it because of the tone they used? I didn't know for sure, but I began to back away slightly. I gave a hopeful glance at the CMC in hope that they could attempt to stop this, but they sat still. It was understandable why though, and they didn't look like they wanted this to happen.
"The thing is after the kids!!!" a blue Pegasus shouted.
Shit.
"Like we're gonna let him get to them!" an almost vibrating pink earth pony shouted.
Out of the frying pan and into the flames, godammit.
I tried one again to use words to end this ‘fight’, but again I wasn't able to say anything as the orange earth pony with a Stetson hat kicked me in the chest with her hind hooves as I let out a roar of pain that caused the group to flatten their ears in an attempt to block the beastly roar. When my roar stopped I was hit by a literal napalm of magical blasts. When it ended I was left gasping for breath as I could barely stand because of whatever magic they had fired at me, but just when I thought things couldn't get worse. I felt something forcefully push its way up my throat as I realized that my horn was glowing once again. The Cutie Mark Crusaders knew what it meant and were quick to react.
"GET DOWN!!!" they shouted in unison and this time the mares actually listened as my mouth was forced open and the pink beam of death came out.
The white Unicorn with a curly purple mane was a little slow and the beam hit her tail. Incinerating the hair.
Once I managed to force my mouth shut I saw that I, thankfully, hadn't hit any buildings or unfortunate bystanders as the group in front of me got up on their hooves once again, the white Unicorn looked over at her tail to see a mere smoking stump was left of it. The scream she let out sounded like she just learned that she was doomed to an eternity of hell.
"HOW DARE YOU?! YOU MONSTER!!!" she shouted in an absolute pure blind rage.
The overreaction made me hold back a snicker, but I took a step back to be on the careful side. I get that she was angry she lost her tail and all but she should at least be glad she didn’t get incinerated.
"It's starting to step back. Now's our chance!" the rainbow maned pegasus shouted.
Oh, fuck no. I'm not going to endure more of that. I thought as I turned around and got the hell out of dodge going back the way I came.
Even though I was running away as fast as I could, the group still landed multiple hits on me and made it difficult for me to keep my balance as I ran. I eventually reached the border of the Everfree forest, according to what the Cutie Mark Crusaders said it was called, and when I did the attacks on my now thoroughly singed backside stopped. Even though the attacks stopped I didn't stop running. I ran until I was sure that they were gone. I soon slowed down and stopped by a tree where I dropped down out of exhaustion.
"So is that like what, the third monster today?" Rainbow Dash asked as the group walked back towards Ponyville having successfully scared the monster off.
"Ah think so. Ah, wonder why they're suddenly so tartarus bent on invadin' Ponyville." Applejack answered as she shot a questioning look at Twilight.
"Don't look at me. I don’t know either." Twilight answered the unasked question from the cowpony.
The group continued into town where they found Fluttershy sitting by the crusaders looking completely dumbstruck.
"Dangers over everyone! It's gone!" they shouted. Making some of the citizens come out of hiding to continue their somewhat normal lives in Ponyville.
The crusaders, however, continued to sit dumbstruck and didn’t visibly react.
"You girls alright?" Starlight asked as they approached the small trio.
What happened next took everyone by surprise. It started with the crusaders mumbling incomprehensibly before their muzzles turned into angry frowns. They looked up at the mane 7 (except for Fluttershy) with what can only be described as pure anger.
"HOW DARE YOU?!?!" they shouted in unison, causing the mane 7 to take a shocked step back.
"What are ya'll shoutin' 'bout?" Applejack asked, taken aback by their outburst.
"YOU JUST CHASED AWAY OUR NEW FRIEND!!" Apple Bloom fumed.
"What? How can a creature like that possibly be nice? It destroyed my tail for Celestia's sake!" Rarity said whilst pointing at the stump of hair that was once a beautiful tail.
"TO TARTARUS WITH YOUR TAIL, RARITY!!!" Sweetie Belle erupted, which caused a few dozen gasps to be heard.
"Sweetie Belle! How many times have I told you-" Rarity began trying to scold her sister for cursing at her.
"SHUT UP!!!" Sweetie Belle cut her sister off with a snarl. "HE SAVED OUR BUCKING LIVES!!!" Causing another gasp at her use of language.
"He?" Twilight questioned.
"YES!! HE!!" Scootaloo answered before she turned to Rainbow Dash. "You're not innocent here either!! You've officially become 20% less cooler in my opinion!"
The CMCs stormed past the group and ran out of their field of vision, leaving the mane 7 stunned and hurt in their wake, but without them knowing it, the Crusaders went back into the Everfree to try to find their lost friend.