Not even a month had passed since Princess Twilight Sparkle murdered Queen Chrysalis in retaliation for destroying Canterlot which would mark the beginning of her power struggle against her former mentor, Princess Celestia to take over Equestria and form the Equestrian Magical Regime as the Empress of Magic. And yet in a small village sitting on the northern border of Equestria right next to the region of Stalliongrad, another attack against their home was already in full swing.
The entire village looked like a battleground. And that was putting it kindly. That would imply that a battle had taken place, but since the villagers didn't have means to fight back, it was more akin to a massacre. They didn't even have the chance to alert any nearby towns or villages where Royal Guard units may have been stationed to get help. The attack happened in the blink of an eye and their village was so far off the north that no one in the country probably even knew about what was happening there right now. Most ponies in the country probably never even heard of this place before.
A young pink unicorn with a golden mane and the setting sun for her cutie mark was running through between the destroyed buidings, careful not to run into any of those strange creatures who were currently invading her village. Hiding behind some rubble, she peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. To her diappointment, it wasn't. The hulking behemoths with silver fur and black armor, were still patroling the streets, rounding up anypony they encountered. She had to force herself to look away when she saw that they were killing all of the stallions and colts. The mares and filles were gathered together and all given a thorough examation, but when it was finished, the invaders killed them too with frustrated expressions. It was almost like they were searching were somepony in particular.
The young unicorn was thinking about how should she get past the invaders in front of her and she didn't notice that one of them had been searching through the ruins she was hiding in and spotted her. It grabbed her by the neck, making her cry out in surprise and used the same scanning device she saw the others using on those ponies before killing them. For a moment, she was afraid that she would share their fate, but to her surprise, upon finishing the scan, the creature smiled in satisfaction, as if it found what the others were looking for.
The creature reached behind it's back and pulled out a glowing green orb. The unicorn had no idea what it would do, but she was in no hurry to find out. She began looking around for anything that might help her escape and saw a piece of wall above them that was held by a broken suppot beam. She used a magic spell to destroy the support beam and the wall came down upon the creature, crashing it under it before it even had a chance to realize what was happening. The commotion alerted the other creatures who were searching through the streets and they headed towards the ruins. The unicorn hid between the rubble and when most of the creatures were busy searching the ruined building, it finally gave the unicorn a chance to get out and head down the streets undetected.
The unicorn didn't even stop until she reached her house. Or what was left of it. Surprsingly, it was mostly intact. Intact enough to head inside and hope to be safe between the walls. At least, until she found her parents.
"Mom! Dad! Are you here?!" she yelled in distress, fighting her tears. She was hoping that they were both at home when the attack hit the village.
"Luster!" yelled a beige colored unicorn with dark blue mane as she rushed out of the living room and embraced her daughter. "Thank Faust! I was fearing the worst!"
"Where's dad?" Luster asked. "Is he alright?" her mother looked down sadly.
"He went out to look for you. I don't know if he made it, but he told me if you come back before he does, I should leave with you." Luster's eyes widened.
"No, we can't leave without him!" her mother put her forelegs on her shoulder and looked firmly into her eyes.
"Honey, if we don't go, they'll find us and then your father's..." she had a hard time saying the next word. "...sacrafice will be for nothing. We have to go down to Canterlot and warn the princesses about this!" Luster wanted to protest again, but she couldn't. Deep down, she knew that her mother was right. In the end, she just nodded. Her mother left to prepare some supplies and Luster looked out the window.
What she saw was straight out of a nightmare. The entire village was in flaming ruins, bodies of dead ponies were littered across the street, but what caught her attention the most was a huge, black zeppelin ominously hovering over the ruined village. It had a strong, evil vibe radiating from it. Luster looked up at it with horrified, wide eyes. She was so fixated on it, that she didn't even notice two of the invading creatures patrolling the street and noticing the unicorn staring out the window. She didn't spot them until it was too late.
The two behemoths burst through the walls and one of them grabbed Luster by her neck. Her mother heard the crash and ran up to see what was happening.
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!" she screamed, charging at the two creatures. It proved to be a futile effort as the other one grabbed her and held her down.
"Mom!" Luster shouted as she struggled to get free. The creature holding her tightened her grip on her neck, until the other one snapped back at him.
"Careful! The Storm King wants this one alive!"
"Don't worry, she won't be struggling for much longer." the creature chuckled as it pulled out another of that green orb she saw at the one who captured her back at the ruins. But Luster's mother wasn't about to let that happen. She used every bit of her magic to unleash a blast that knocked them off of their legs. Luster immediately ran to check on her.
"Mom!" the mother panted in exhaustion as she looked up at her.
"Go." she whispered. Luster shook her head vigorously.
"No! I'm not leaving you!"
"Luster, you have to. Go to Canterlot and warn the princesses. I will hold them off." she insisted. Tears began freely flowing from Luster's face.
"Mom..." she didn't have time to mourn as the creatures behind her recovered and advanced towards her. Her mother got up and pushed her towards the back door.
"GO!" Luster had no choice but to run. She ran out on the back door and headed down towards the river where her parents set up a small rowboat for them to escape on. She could use it to get away far enough from the village until she could find a safer way of transport.
"She's there! Get her!" her pursuers burst out of the house, which meant that her mother was... she held back a sob and kept running. She reached the rowboat and started untying it, but the two creatures were getting dangerously close. In the end, Luster just used her magic to sever the rope and jumped into the rowboat, but one of the creatures managed to touch her with the orb it was carrying. As the rowboat moved away from the shore, Luster felt her body starting to freeze.
"What's happening?!" she panicked as crystal formations began to form around her body, petrifying her.
"No!" she screamed as the magic washed over her and completely encased her. "NOO..." her voice died down as her entire body was encased and the river carried her uncontrolled boat off. The boat reached a branching where it was divided into two. The left stream lead towards Canterlot where Luster was heading before she was frozen. But the river carried her down the right stream towards the region of Stalliongrad.
UNFRIENDSHIP 2