3rd Person POV
Ponyville Streets
…
Morgue’s mind raced as he stared at where the sun was supposed to be. In its spot was a full moon looking much larger than any moon he saw back home.
Now, that moon and the burning building he had just broken out of were the only sources of light he had as he raced across the street for a new building.
Behind him, Morgue heard the burning building give out a massive breaking sound. He looked back for a moment and quickly dove away as a chunk of wall smashed into the house ahead of him, barricading the door.
“Okay, Scale-less!” From the burning building, standing where the front entrance once stood was the same purple and white dragon he battered. One of its horns were cracked as it let out a puff of pink flame.
“First? We were gonna take you to that sadistic pony. Nice and easy. NOW? Now you’re coming over-easy!”
Morgue didn’t say anything. Instead, he reached in his pocket and pulled out his knife, pressing the button that let it unfold to the length of a thin dagger.
At the same time he clutched the Discord necklace from under his shirt and took in a deep breath.
“You sure you wanna try that Barney?” Morgue stared down the dragon, trying to hide every ounce of fear as he wore a fake smirk. “No windows keeping you safe now.”
The dragon’s fins fell flat against his scales. “That’s it. I won’t regret this.”
Pink flames lit up the inside of the drake’s mouth the same time Morgue gripped the necklace.
“I WISH—” “Puff, stop dude!”
Morgue opened one eye after hearing a loud snap and right away he gripped the necklace tighter when the second dragon was standing beside the first. Thankfully, the purple dragon wasn’t as enraged.
Actually, the purple dragon was holding the white dragon’s toothy maw shut as ash and pink embers erupted from the sides.
“We don’t have time for this man!” The purple dragon looked worried. “The moon’s out! That means we need to go. Now!”
“Like that pamby gray pony will care if we’re late.” Puff shook off his friend’s claws. “Besides, that thing’s gonna pay!”
Morgue’s smirk turned more strained as he kept watching the argument. He felt like a third wheel all of a sudden.
“You know how paranoid that pegasus gets, man!” The purple dragon started looking around. “We were supposed to be back there, like, forever ago!”
Morgue backed up a little, folding his arms as he leaned up against the house behind him. His hand was still resting against the necklace he had, however.
“Aww,” Morgue cooed. “Are da good widdle dwagons bweaking deir curfew?”
“Shut it Scale-less!”
“Oh no, that burned more than your neon-colored breath,” Morgue fired back. “I don’t doubt you could cook me alive. But you won’t, will you? Because you’re scared of your mamá?”
Puff growled. “That pamby pegasus ain’t our—” “Bwaaaaaaagggggh!”
Beside him, the thin purple dragon crashed into the ground writhing in pain as every faded color of the rainbow washed over it in jagged, alien motions.
“S-She...heard you...dude,” The purple one groaned.
That was all the dragon could manage to say before the pain forced him to grit his teeth.
Puff’s face quickly turned up to the sky as he started screaming. “Fine! Fine, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, just turn it off!”
But that didn’t do anything. Instead, everyone watched as the purple dragon suddenly started glowing with a magic aura before vanishing entirely leaving only a small collection of colorful magic wisps.
Morgue watched, mouth wide open as the white dragon took a deep, shaky breath and spread out his wings.
“Consider yourself lucky, Scale-less.” It glared sharply. “Next time, you’re gonna get it.”
Morgue didn’t answer, instead watching as the dragon took off before whatever ‘heard him’ decided he was too slow.
“That. That dragon popped.” Morgue kept staring where the magical wisps started forming a familiar orb. “And that’s another...”
As the orb started to flash different colors, Morgue just rubbed his face. “What did those pink locas put in my food?”
The orb burst like before and the next second, Morgue was pinned by multi-colored magic aura.
Shining Armor’s POV
Bell Tower
…
When I got out of the bell tower, I got Spike and Zecora’s attention. I had walked towards them until I was about two meters away, magic prepped and ready.
But when the fresh night sky replaced the sun in a matter of seconds, I made the first move. Before either of them reacted, I formed a barrier around the both of them, trapping them inside.
“Woah,” Spike took a second to stare at it before walking up to the wall. “Shining, is that you?”
“Hold on,” I warned him. “Before anything else, I have some questions for both of you.”
“Asking them now’s not a wise plan.” the human ‘Zecora’ told me. “After all there’s a reason why we ran.”
“Ran?” I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean ran? Ran from where?”
“No, she’s right,” Spike doubled down. “We don’t have much time. You gotta help us!”
“You need to tell me what you’re talking ab—”
Answering me was this loud canine howl. Then, several others joined in with this harmonic echo.
Too close. I started watching the treeline, noticing faint green lights from the shadows.
“This night sky may not be right but it still brings the wolves great spite.” Zecora turned to me as she went on with the cryptic riddles.
“As they still find their might, tell me, can your magic cast a fire’s light?”
“What are you trying to ask me?” The sound of howling was getting replaced with cracking branches that got closer towards us.
“Zecora’s asking if you can make fire,” Spike translated. By this point, Zecora let him do the talking as she reached for a side pouch on her side.
“Can you make a fire?” Spike begged. “Zecora’s got this blue dust that works on the Timberwolves!”
Zecora finally opened the pouch and started shoveling out small piles of blue sand-like dust before coating her gnarled cane with it.
But I wasn’t convinced. “Spike, you’re a dragon. Can’t you make fire?”
Zecora huffed. “A dragon’s fire is too hot it would seem, so we need less heat to pull off this scheme. If you can help us now then I ask you endow. Now quick. Before the danger’s—”
From the forest’s edge where they trudged out from, six timberwolves began stalking out.
“...Extreme,” Zecora finished, holding out the stick against the barrier.
Turning back to the bell tower, I saw Scootaloo sticking out of the door.
Changelings or not, the Timberwolves are the worse problem. I can’t stop them alone...
With a glare I dropped the barrier on Zecora and Spike and put up a new one on the bell tower’s door, sealing Scootaloo inside.
I turned back to Zecora. “What does it—” She simply pushed the cane into my hands and gave me a stern look on her face. We didn’t have time anymore.
I held the cane with one hand and summoned an orb of light with the other, illuminating the area. Then I focused on another basic spell. Combustion.
It took a few tries before the dust erupted into blue flames, engulfing the entire cane as the flames spread across my hands.
Out of instinct I swung the cane around, afraid of the fire but Zecora caught the end of the stick while it was still alight.
She stared back at me. “You do not need to fear the flame. It isn’t us that the heat will claim.”
I stared at the flames as they continued licking my hands but as I took a second to watch them, I realized I didn’t feel the flames at all. In fact, the cane felt cold to the touch.
During all of this, the wolves were starting to circle everypony. One of them had even gotten close enough to feint at Spike.
“Shining?!” Spike shouted. “Any time soon, please!”
When my head finally wrapped around what was going on, I used magic to levitate the cane out of my hands and spotted a Timberwolf that stalked towards the bell tower.
Starting there, I levitated the cane above the field before letting it dive forth like an arrow.
Before the wolf could notice the blue light, the cane tagged its shoulder and glanced off. Blue embers became a flash fire as the wolf let out a ghastly wail.
And right away, the wolf dropped. Its body fell apart lifelessly and there wasn’t a single scorch mark to show for it.
By the time the other timberwolves turned to see what had happened all they saw was the lifeless husk of a Timberwolf skull rolling away.
Then I tagged another wolf with the cane and it happened all over again.
By the time they realized what was going on, only a single wolf made it to the treeline where the cane bounced off of a tree in the way.
“Woah,” Scootaloo awed from behind the barrier. “How’d you do that?”
“Get back inside,” I commanded her before turning back to Zecora. “What’s going on? What was that blue dust and why were there so many Timberwolves?”
“It’s not just Timberwolves!” Spike ran up to us, trying to fight through his more than likely twisted ankle. “When we got to Zecora’s Hut there was an Earth Pony! He had a weird accent and he was commanding those Timberwolves! Then, there was this massive bear trying to break down Zecora’s door and a creepy chicken-lizard thing slithering through the bushes! Blitz tried to distract them so I could find Zecora and then—”
“Woah, woah woah. Slow down.” I watched as Spike was shaking by how freaked out he was making himself. “You said you saw an Earth Pony? As in, not a human?”
“As I seem to recall, he said he was hunting for us all.” Zecora frowned. “He speaks like he knows what we are but does not think it bizarre. He even stole Blitz after their spar.”
“Okay. That’s my next question,” I started. “Who’s Blitz?”
“Oh come on, not you too.” Spike slumped his shoulders. “First Zecora doesn’t remember him and now...” Spike paused for a second. “Well, actually, that kinda makes sense. I don’t remember you two ever meeting.”
“Guys? You might wanna look back at those Timberwolves!”
Scootaloo’s warning made us all whip back around just in time to see these thin colorful wisps lifting out of the piles of wood the wolves left behind.
“Wait, I’ve seen these before.” Spike started to step forward. “They helped Blitz and me remember some stuff.”
“Remember?” I watched as five orbs, one from each Timberwolf, of magical strands started to ball up. “What do you mean—”
And before I could even think of the next question to ask, they all popped and a flash of colors waved across my vision.
Joe’s POV
Peach Fields
…
“...joe…”
“...joe?”
“Joe, hit the deck!”
When I still didn’t respond, Applebloom stopped waiting and shoved me to the ground. My glasses bounced off somewhere as the sound of branches snapping and impacting rang out like cannon fire.
The carnage didn’t stay for long. After a few seconds, the crashing sailed past us and further into the peach fields.
Only when Applebloom thought we were safe did she climb up to her feet, leaving me to search for my glasses.
“Joe? What’s goin’...O-Oh. Uh, here. Found ‘em.” I heard the sound of something tap on glass before my glasses were pressed into my hand.
When I finally wrestled them over my eyes I looked around us. When the sun and moon tagged out, I dropped the bushel of peaches in surprise.
Then, beyond the spilled peaches, a line of tree branches and toppled trees led further into the fields away from the house.
Applebloom turned to look at me. It was hard to get a look at her thanks to the sun now missing. “What do we do now?” She asked me.
“You think I have any idea?” I reached for my watch and pressed one of the several buttons along the side and a small light on the side lit up. It wasn’t bright unless you stared into it.
“Yer the one who’s been comin’ up wit’ ideas, ain’t ya?” She seemed desperate. “Cause Ah got nothin’!”
I adjusted my glasses. “Alright, fine, just...” I tried turning what I knew over only to realize I didn’t know much. I need answers.
“The sun dropped,” I started. “That’s not normal. You were surprised too. Has that ever happened before?”
“Yer right it ain’t normal.” She shook her head. “It never jus’ drops like that. Not since...”
“Since?”
“It’s Discord.” She turned back at me with some newfound anger. “He’s this creepy, evil...snake-puzzle thing that tries makin’ a mess a’ the place by tearin’ it outta sorts. Chaos,” she tacked on.
“That explains so much, don't it?” She asked for approval I couldn’t give. “Everypony’s missin’, Ah’m a human, yer...Well, ya keep sayin’ that yer human but—”
“Stop.” I cut her off. “Please, I do not want that right now.”
“But it all fits!” She shouted. “For all we know, he could be playin’ some sort a’ game er somethin’! Last time he came ta Ponyville, he turned it upside-wrong and made mah brother think he was a dog! Scootaloo and Ah literally chased Sweetie Belle’s tail when it jumped off and ran away!”
“Okay.” I did my best to ignore all the details for now. “Discord: some sort of evil god. Moving on,” I said exhaustingly. “What came past us?”
“A-Ah ain’t sure,” Applebloom scrambled for words. “Ah thought it was another pon—err, human fer a second. He was screamin’ when he started gettin’ too close. Had really big wings though.”
“Wings?” I frowned.
“Ah’m serious, Ah saw wings!”
“I believe you,” I told her. After thinking back on my meeting with Princess Celestia and her sharp horn, wings didn’t seem too unrealistic. Especially if pegasi were a thing here.
The sun and moon changed and a human with wings crashed into the trees. As I looked at the direction of the carnage, it came towards us and suddenly veered off in another direction.
They would’ve crashed into us but turned away. The destruction got steadily worse as it traveled on. They didn’t go up. They coasted through the trees.
“I believe they wanted to avoid hitting us,” I began. “So they saw us on the way down and either didn't want to be near us or didn’t want to hurt us.”
“So they’re good then?”
“No. They’re not good. They crashed in the middle of nowhere with goat patrols.” I looked directly at her. “Ms. Bloom, listen carefully. Get back to the house and clear off that dining table.”
“The table? Why?”
“Just do it. When that’s done, unpack the first aid kit. Then, search Ms. Cobbler’s house for any other first aid supplies you can find. Can you do that?”
“Ye-Yeah. Consider it done.” Applebloom started to move towards the house.
“Good. After you’re set up, don’t open the door unless you know it’s me. I’ll be back.”
As she saw me start to run off, she called out. “An’ where are you goin’?!” Applebloom called out.
“Just get inside!” Was all I told her before ducking past a tree.
I don’t have much time, I thought, clambering over a fallen trunk. Goats can see in the dark. They have better ears too. If those earpieces actually work, then all of them probably know about the crash.
I moved the polaroid camera that was still around my neck so it hung against my back. That Minotaur talked about an intruder earlier. How they lost them. They got away from the goats. If that human really was flying like Applebloom thought, it would make sense.
After climbing or rushing through another four piles of carnage, I found a large impact in the ground and slowed down. Aside from my heavy breathing, I didn’t hear anything else around me.
I angled the watch towards the ground and crept forward, watching the marks in the ground looked as if something heavy bounced against it. The human must have had a lot of momentum to crash like this.
Finally, as I reached the end of the heavy groove, I saw it. Lying at the base of the same large tree I saw in that family picture was a human male.
He looked as though he hit the tree spine-first and wore a blue and yellow jumpsuit. He had thick black hair with cracked goggles over his eyes. Then, with one of them bent at an odd angle, there were two massive blue wings spread out from his back.
He looked up towards the light from my watch and was waving in and out of unconsciousness.
“Do...Don’t trust her,” he groaned. “Sh...It’s not her. It’s a Change...” He trailed off, wincing in pain as he tried to fold his wings.
Then the bleating of the goats started crying out from the distance.