“Thank you, have a nice day!”
I nodded over my shoulder and left the bakery with a happy tinkle of the bell, making my way against the crowd heading to the castle through various alleys and side streets.
Navigating the regularly remodeled and rebuilt architecture of the ancient city was difficult for those not used to it, but it was still quicker than the main streets as they were currently packed with revelers and well-wishers for the wedding between the Princess of Love and the Captain of Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard.
‘Good for them', I thought, trotting briskly, the happy mood of the city today affecting everypony.
With the influx of thousands of tourists all mingling with the already dense population, he had left the actual event early to find a place to sit and enjoy the festivities before the ceremony proper ended and all the best spots were taken.
Besides, it isn't like he would have seen much anyway and he was not particularly looking forward to fighting against the crowd just for a glimpse of the happy couple as they rode around after the wedding to wave to the crowd.
“This will be something we can tell our grand foals!”, she had said.
‘She', was Grandé Flash, the love of his life and the fuzzy ball of energy that had brought them both all the way to Canterlot in the first place, having booked the train tickets the moment she had heard and agonizing over what to wear for the event.
“It's not like you’ll be attending the wedding in person”, I said.
After talking her down from a gala gown that would cost more than we made in a year, she decided on the more practical attire of nothing at all, if only because it was a day trip and we would be spending most of it walking.
Not being as enthusiastic as she was about the whole event, I had left just before the beginning of the ceremony and just now, I was hearing what might have been the distant thump of fireworks.
‘That was quick', I thought.
Just then, I made it to the public park Grandé and I had agreed to meet at after the ceremony. The official after-wedding event was highly exclusive, but the entire city would be celebrating today. The park was currently light on ponies, and spotting an empty spot under a tree, I quickly claimed it. After sliding the picnic basket off my back and looking around, I saw everypony else looking up at the sky.
Looking up, the bag of baked goods I held in my mouth hit the ground, my jaw falling open in shock as I saw cracks covering the soon-to-be Prince's shield, before it shattered and a veritable cloud of monsters dove through as the bubble collapsed around the city.
I couldn't make out finer features at first, but that soon changed as they hurtled towards the city like meteors, an angry buzzing filling the air as pony-sized, blue-black insect monsters rained down on an unsuspecting populace.
After the first green bolt of magic slammed into the tree behind me, setting it ablaze, I bolted for the edge of the park and the safety of a café across the street, the doors open and inviting, even as the staff who had gone outside to watch the shield fail panicked and ran away screaming.
Just as I left the grass of the park and set hoof on the cobblestone sidewalk, the street in front of me exploded into a cloud of dust and debris.
Jumping back, I barely dodged the hissing monster as it lunged for me, diving and rolling to the side before sprinting past both beast and crater and in through the open front door, slamming it shut behind me.
Fumbling the lock with my hooves, I watched it to see if anything had followed me, backing up and into someone standing behind me. Turning quickly, I found myself face to face with a perfect copy of me, illuminated by the new skylight it made on the way down.
The tall, rose coloured earth pony smiled cruelly at me before turning and bucking me hard in the chest, knocking me through the glass picture windows where I landed heavily on a small, circular table that gave a concerning groan and a wobble, but held.
Groaning myself, I opened my eyes and saw another of the creatures rocketing down towards me from above, fangs bared. Thinking fast, I rolled off the side the table, the loose connections that made it easy to move and store giving way under my weight, making the tabletop flip with me just as the creature came into contact, smacking dead on into the side of the wooden table, causing it to land on me, heavy with unconsciousness.
On my back, I saw Myself quickly climbing through the broken window and coming closer, and judging from the buzzing all around me, I knew he would not be the only one.
Getting my hooves under the monster collapsed on top of me, I kicked hard with all four legs, launching the floppy creature at Myself, sending both of them crashing through the mostly glass front door of the café as Myself tried to catch their comrade.
I had barely rolled to my hooves and stood up when I felt four sticky hooves grip my sides and I watched the overturned café table fall away from me as I was lifted from the ground.
Craning my head up, I came snout to snout with another monster where it hissed in my face and promptly let go of me.
Hissing turned to a shriek when just as it let go, I twisted forward and wrapped both forelegs around its neck and bit into one of its tattered ears, something green and foul tasting flooding my mouth as I bit deeper and held on for dear life.
Thrown off balance and blinded by pain, the monster's wings buzzed hard in panic, overcompensating and angling itself downwards with speed, sending it rear first into the second story window of a nearby building.
We crashed into and through a plush couch with a great crash, the monster sliding the whole way across the room and hitting the opposite wall with a sickening, wet crunch. Disentangling myself from the pile of broken wood and shredded fabrics, I found myself alone in an expensive looking sitting room and pumping with adrenaline with only the whimpering and gasping breaths of the fallen monster for company.
In the two seconds that followed, a shout came from a blue pony that had opened a pair of grand double doors that lead into a hallway beyond, shouting at me, “What in the blazes is happening in here?”, when the remaining two windows facing the street exploded with bolts of green magic and more monsters flew in.
I dove into the blue pony, some elderly noble from the looks of the expensive waistcoat and a truly impressive horseshoe moustache, sending the both of us flying into the hall just as the floor behind us was ripped into by green bolts.
Getting to my hooves and slamming the double doors behind us, I turned to pick up the elderly unicorn and to make sure I hadn't terribly hurt him, only to barely catch a sword thrown to me in his rich, green magic aura.
“For her Highness!”, he cried, before grabbing both doors in the same aura and ripping them from their hinges and sending them falling into the room we had just escaped.
Judging from the cries of alarm quickly cut off by the sound of crunching, at least two of the home invaders had met a rather sudden and gruesome end.
I didn't have time to process this however as the elderly unicorn ran past me, a sword, a table leg and a marble bust of himself whirling menacingly around him as he dove onto the fallen doors and those unfortunate enough to be behind them when they fell.
Gaining a better grip on the sword in my mouth, I jumped onto the other door in the entrance to the room and quickly off again, meeting and dispatching a monster still staring at its crushed comrades by ramming the short sword into its side.
It let out a quick gasp of surprise before crumpling, the stiff hide of the monster taking my sword with it as it fell.
Looking to my sudden ally, the noblepony was busy fishing his bust from the bloody mess of the last creature and his sword from another. With both implements retrieved, he turned to me and shouted, “What are these monstrosities? Where did they co-'.
He never finished his sentence as another bolt shot in from the hallway behind him and he collapsed, his aura vanishing and his implements falling around him.
I turned to see Myself yet again, but this version of me had a horn and a look of absolute hatred marring my features that Grandé would not have-.
Like a thunderbolt, it struck me. My wife, packed in with a massive crowd around the castle, during all this.
Seeing Myself charging up another shot and with no way to reach him in time, I turned and quickly dove out the window I had crashed in through, coming muzzle to muzzle with a creature that had been hovering outside the window, seemingly afraid to enter.
I caught my forehooves around its neck and stared into its eyes as we both hovered outside the window. It grinned sheepishly back, looked over my shoulder and quickly dove down to avoid being blasted by a gout of green flame. We hit the ground, the monster obviously not used to flying with so much weight and I just left it groaning on the ground, breaking into a gallop back the way I had come not ten minutes prior.
Once again, I found myself going against the crowd as I made my way towards the castle and, looking up at the swarm of black monsters buzzing around the city, where the fighting was thickest.
Running on the sidewalk, I stayed off the street where the majority of the city's populace were fleeing, keeping an eye out for Grandé’s pale caramel coat or her rich, brown mane colour, but I saw none that matched among the crowd rushing from the castle.
As I hit the edge of the main street that led to the upper district, a city guard crashed into the wall across the street and stuck there, their sword clanging to the ground as some sort of green goo adhered them to the wall. They didn't even twitch.
Looking up again, I saw far fewer creatures than there were before, many of them having flown over to join in a truly large brawl towards the Hall of the Elements.
Fine by me.
Running up the street towards the castle, I saw there was still some resistance. Guards still yet manned the defences and the gates were thrown open for the massed citizenry to rush in and take refuge, but there was fighting everywhere and there were far too many to move quickly.
Finally, I reached the palace district where it met the edge of the castle proper and the crowd spilled out into the streets as they all tried to find somewhere to hide, be it the castle or any shopfront they could get into. Nearly two blocks up, I saw her. She was on the corner, dragging ponies into some fancy restaurant with thick doors. We locked eyes for a second, and she looked relieved, before I was thrown back by another explosion in front of me and another cloud of dust and debris.
I couldn't even get to my feet before Myself jumped out of the dust cloud and, snarling, bit into my neck and yanked me up and over its back, letting go at the peak angle and ripping a chunk of flesh from me. The momentum sent me sailing across the street, slamming me into a wall.
I heard something snap and my vision went dark for a second as I let out a scream of pain.
Staggering to my hooves, I nearly collapsed, looking behind me and seeing my rear right leg bent at an odd angle, numb and useless. Looking away and blinking back tears, I watched Myself, now equipped with insect like wings and that crooked, hole filled horn just getting to its feet after putting all its body weight into that throw, the creature having fallen onto its back in the process.
It saw my broken leg and it smiled wickedly, smugly, before charging its horn again. I had no hope of running now and ponies all around us simply ran away from the monstrous visage, so there was no help to be had, yelling from further up the street making me worry for Grandé.
‘Was it over for us?’, I thought.
I stood as tall as I could, staring eye to eye with the blue-black monstrosity, watching it charge its spell to dangerous levels, before out of nowhere, an empty taxi cart slammed backwards into the monster and took it speeding down the inclined street. Now I know what those yells from up the street were, they were a warning.
Looking for the source, I saw Grandé standing next to a taxi stand the next block up, breathing heavily from her sprint to make it to the stand in time to dislodge the cart and send it flying with her magic.
I made to walk towards her, but collapsed, gritting my teeth to stifle the cry of pain I had let out. She was by my side in an instant, helping me to my hooves and getting underneath me and lifting me onto her back. She strained at my weight, but she ran as fast as she could back where she had come from, passing the taxi stand at a gallop.
We were approaching the restaurant that she had been helping ponies into, and it was then I could see why. It was one of the original buildings of Canterlot, converted to a restaurant, but preserving much of the original structure, which made it just as strong as the castle in the near distance where it seemed the cloud of black had mostly descended for now.
We were two shopfronts away from the sturdy building where two guards were rushing lagging citizenry inside, when we were tackled sharply to the side and into a stand of flowers in vases, scattering them everywhere and filling the sidewalk with wet, broken pottery.
The pain of rolling to a stop with Grandé atop me nearly made me black out, but she was on her hooves in a moment, picking up dozens of surviving vases and pelting them at our attacker.
Rolling over with difficulty, I saw Myself again, but barely a façade anymore. Black ichor dribbled down from its fanged mouth and all over its front. A great many cracks formed over its left side where the cart had hit it and its left eye was swollen shut, but the hatred was still there and plainly clear.
Grandé was pelting everything she could pick up in her magical aura and sending them at the monster. Vases, broken wood, a spear seemingly fallen from the fighting above between the pegasus city guards and the invaders.
This last one, however, it caught in its magical grip.
The exchange quickly became a tug of war with the spear being the prize, and it was clear that Grandé was losing. Then, the two guards from the restaurant were there, one casting an immobilizing spell on the creature and the other swinging down with a halberd, aiming for the neck.
The creature let go of the spear and, despite its extensive injuries, twisted quickly and drew a quick ward and then dove under the wide swing of the guard. The ward reflected the spell back and the first guard locked up, bound by his own spell and helpless to watch as the much faster creature came up under their partners defence and thrust their horn up into their unprotected jaw.
The guard screamed soundlessly as their partner went limp and crumpled to the ground.
As the second guard collapsed, Myself picked up the halberd and used it to deflect the spear sent against it by Grandé who had taken advantage of the swift and brutal end of the guards to throw it.
Searching around her, she found nothing else she could use as a projectile. As the monster started walking over to us, she sat back on her rear hooves, puffing out her chest and staying between us, although I could see the tremors in her body. I begged her:
“Grandé, please, Celestia, leave me. Go!”
She shook her head, not taking her eyes off of the creature, even as tears fell down her face as she faced absolute doom, she would not abandon her husband.
She reached a foreleg behind her, stretching out her hoof to me. I crawled closer and pressed mine against hers, letting her know I was there.
As Myself raised the halberd to cut her down, there was a sudden, magnificent flash of light coming from further in the city. We all turned out of reflex and watched as a great wall of light rushed through the city and as it did, it expelled every one of the monsters. Hope blossomed in my chest.
I heard a squeal and looking up from my prone position, I saw that the creature had lunged and, instead of impaling Grandé or myself, it had pulled her close and pulled the halberd staff tight against her throat, cutting off her air and preventing her from escaping.
No…
It pulled tighter, the wall of light fast approaching. Grandé tried to choke out a word, any word.
NO…
The monster looked down and spat its final words to me, “You will feel my loss.”
I could not look away from Grandé, as she tried to speak to me. She looked into my eyes, desperate, afraid and-
-and then they were gone, my hoof outstretched to touch nothing as the creature was expelled from the city, taking Grandé with it.
“NO!”
The wave of light passed over me and I felt a sense of peace wash over me, combating the anguish and horror until I couldn't take it anymore, closing my eyes, I screamed.