Twilight Sparkle was writing on a piece of parchment with a quill while taking occasional glances over at a book to her side. She was studying and writing a report over the entire history of Equestria as a little project, and hoped to give it to the Princess by the end of the week. She already had twenty pages down, and only had to do one-hundred more. While writing, she stopped mid-word to yawn, finishing the sentence and putting her quill down. She looked out the window, seeing the sun high in the sky.
“Hmm, it’s such a nice day out… Maybe I’ll go for a walk. All this research is making me tired.” She got up from her desk and called to Spike, “Spike, I’m leaving for a walk! I’ll be back later!”
“Okay!” He called back simply. Twilight exited the door into the cool breeze outside. It was warmer than it had been the past few days. She took a deep breath and let her mind clear itself of everything she had just got down writing down. The town was bustling with activity, for all the other ponies were enjoying the weather while it lasted as well. From the position of the sun, Twilight guessed it was about one-thirty in the afternoon, which means she had been writing for a good two hours.
“Man, I need to get out more.” She mused to herself, stretching her body out and making her way towards town square. She saw the faces of many ponies she knew, but none of her close friends. They were all probably busy working at this time of the day. Twilight loved working the library, because she didn’t have to have a strict work schedule, and even when the library was open, she could leave Spike to man it. It wasn’t like the library got very busy anyways.
As Twilight walked down the main streets of Ponyville, she noted that there were a few ponies dressed in dark robes with hoods that covered their faces completely. At first it was just one, and then two, and then she began to see several of them. She couldn’t think of anything going on that would warrant seeing so many ponies dressed in the same dark garments.
“Maybe they’re planning a flash mob or some sorts? I love flash mobs!” Twilight giggled to herself, wondering what it was they could be planning. She decided that she’d try and stick around town to see what would become of this. She guessed that if it were a planned flash mob, it would probably happen at two, since they’re already around so closely. A quick stop at Sugarcube Corner would be perfect to burn some time and grab a quick snack. The Sugarcube Corner was right down the road from Twilight’s library, so it was easy for her to stop by and grab something to eat without even Spike noticing.
She walked through the doors of Sugarcube corner, and a wave of sweet aroma greeted her nose, causing her to pause for a moment to take it in. Pinkie Pie was working at the counter.
“Oh, hi Twilight! How’re you doing?”
“I’m doing well, Pinkie. I think there’s going to be a flash mob outside in a few minutes, so I decided to drop in to grab a snack and wait around. Can you get away to wait with me?”
“Flash mobs? I LOVE flash mobs! Of course I can! Flash mobs are so fun and I love it when a bunch of ponies get together and sing all at once and it’s so random and so fun and AAAA!” Twilight ignored Pinkie’s spasm and walked up to the counter to take a look at what she might want to eat.
“Hmm… I think a cupcake sounds just about right, right now. I’d like one chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing, please!”
Pinkie reached into the counter, never skipping a beat with her words, bagged the cupcake for Twilight, and took the bits and put them away.
“Thanks, Pinkie! So, you coming?”
“and then- Yes! Of course I am. One second!” Pinkie seemingly disappeared, poofing into the back room to ask Mrs. Cake if she could get away. The answer was obvious as Twilight heard Pinkie squeal in delight, and ran out to walk with Twilight out the door.
When they exited Sugarcube, Twilight noticed even more of the cloaked ponies walking around now. “See what I mean, Pinkie? With all these ponies dressed up alike, I figured a flash mob must be on the way!”
“I see what you mean! I’m so excited! Oh, I hope that they sing, because I love it when other ponies all sing together!” Pinkie continued to babble as the two made their way to town square, where they sat down and Twilight snacked on her cupcake. As soon as she took a bite, she grinned and murred happily to herself. Sugarcube Corner, as far as she was concerned, had the best sweets in all of Equestria: even better than any she’d had in Canterlot!
After a few minutes of listening to Pinkie converse with herself and finishing her cupcake, Twilight noticed all of the hooded ponies started to meander near town square, outside of town hall where they were. “Oh, Pinkie, I think it’s about to start!”
Twilight looked up at the sky, and the sun had just slightly eased into position, about two o’clock. A lot of other ponies were standing around, wondering what all the hooded cloaks were for as well. Finally, one of the ponies looked down at a watch on his left foreleg, and looked up to the crowd. He gave a small nod, and all at once, the ponies threw off their hoods.
Twilight’s first impression was one of happiness, because all of the ponies were unicorns, and that made her think that they were about to do a big magic show. But as soon as they all started to charge their horns, something just didn’t feel right. She saw one of the unicorns look right at Pinkie and her, and saw an evil look in his eyes. He grinned at her, and before he could react, Twilight grabbed Pinkie Pie and teleported ten feet away from the spot. Not a second later, a magic bolt crashed right into the spot where they were sitting. At the same time, all of the other ponies, about twenty to thirty of them, also started to shoot wildly into the crowd that was surrounding them.
Lots of explosions came, along with the screams of all the citizens. Twilight’s eyes widened, and she stood in shock, along with Pinkie, as they watched many of the innocent ponies being shot to the ground with magic. She was snapped out of her trance after an explosion went off right next to her and Pinkie, though, and grabbed Pinkie and teleported away again. This time, she took them back to the library, where she quickly proceeded to lock the door behind her.
Almost in complete shock, Twilight just stared into the library with Pinkie staring into the distance as well.
“T-Twilight? What just happened?”
“I-I don’t know, Pinkie. I really don’t know…” From inside the library, they could still hear the screams of pain and terror, along with many explosions. “Ponyville doesn’t have any royal guard, so there’s no one to fend off this attack!... Well…”
“What is it, Twilight? Are you thinking-“
“Yes! We can’t hide in here, Pinkie! We’re the only thing stopping these unicorns from completely destroying all of Ponyville! C’mon, let’s go!”
“Yeah! Let’s teach them who not to mess with!”
Twilight opened the door to the library and dashed out just as Spike ran down the stairs, just missing them. “Twilight? Twilight!”
She could hear Spike call, but she couldn’t stop. He would be fine in this part of town for now, as all the chaos was happening downtown. Twilight and Pinkie ran, but were stopped as a group of three unicorns stepped into the main road, facing them. They all wore the same robes, but the hoods were down. Twilight instantly recognized one of them.
“L-Lyra? Is that you?” Twilight asked. Lyra was the middle pony. She stared at Twilight, before giving her a smile and charging her horn. Twilight gasped, but took a defensive position and charged hers as well. The problem was, it was three on one, and Pinkie couldn’t help her… wait, Pinkie!
“Pinkie, get out of here!” She looked over at Pinkie, but turned right back as she saw three magic missiles come barreling towards them. Twilight summoned a shield just in time, easily stopping the weak energy bolts.
“No, Twilight! I’m going to help you!”
“You can’t do anything against their magic, Pinkie, get out of here!” Pinkie shook her head and ran forward. Twilight cursed, and ran forward with her. This was as reckless as they could get, but she couldn’t let Pinkie get herself killed. As they charged, the three unicorns were preparing their attacks. Before they could get them off though, Twilight and Pinkie met them head on, and Twilight shot a stunning bolt right at Lyra, hitting her dead on. Pinkie leapt forward and smashed another one right in the face with her front hooves, and Twilight bucked the last one in the snout. The duo stood, looking at the three knocked out unicorns. Twilight really wanted to ask them what they were doing, but there was no time to spare; the rest of the city was in turmoil.
The two had to fight off several more little groups before they made it to town square, and they were greeted with a tragic sight; lots of ponies lay dead on the ground, and many of the buildings, including town hall, had been obliterated. Twilight had to hold back tears, and Pinkie was completely stunned silent. Twilight looked over at her, and saw tears coming down from her eyes.
“T-Twilight… Who would do such a thing?!” She yelled, the tears beginning to pour heavily from her eyes. Twilight hugged Pinkie, a single tear running down her cheek as well. “I don’t know, Pinkie, but this needs to be stopped! C’mon!” Twilight was thinking of all of her friends, and remembered Rarity.
“Wait, the Carousel Boutique is really close to town square! We need to check on Rarity!” She and Pinkie rushed as fast as they could, and came across Rarity in the streets, growling as her horn glowed its majestic blue color. She was fending off two cloaked figures by herself. “You leave my little sister and I alone, you scoundrels! I’ll never allow you to lay a hoof on her!” Just as she was about to attack, and the other two unicorns were about to attack, they both fell over on the ground, knocked out by Twilight and Pinkie.
“Rarity! Are you and Sweetie Bell alright?” Twilight called.
“Yes, we are dear! What is going on?!”
“It seems there’s a group of unicorns that’s terrorizing the entire town! There’s so many ponies dead everywhere!”
“W-what? Ponies dead?!” Rarity’s eyes went wide in disbelief. She looked back behind her, seeing Sweetie Bell poking her head out the door, tears running down her face. “Sweetie Bell, get back inside this instant!” Sweetie did as she was asked, withdrawing back inside immediately. “Oh Twilight, what ever are we going to do?”
“We need to help defend the town! There were only about thirty or so unicorns in total, and Pinkie and I have taken out about ten on our way here. These unicorns aren’t trained; they’re all citizens of Ponyville itself!”
“W-what?! You’re kidding!”
“No, I’m not! Now come on, we need to help out the town!” Rarity joined the little duo, and they headed back into town. Rarity proved to be more of a fighter than she lets on to be, able to easily defend from magic missiles with her own shield spell, and was able to take out a good three unicorns. After ten more of the attackers were taken down, they decided to go look for the rest of their friends. The three rushed off towards Sweet Apple Acres, where they saw lots of apple trees on fire.
“O-oh no, that can’t be good!” Twilight thought out loud as they rushed down the road towards the Apple family barn. The barn looked still intact from a distance, and as they got closer, they saw why: Applejack was panting, standing over the knocked out bodies of about six different unicorns.
“Applejack! Are you okay?” Twilight called out as the trio reached her. She slowly straightened up and nodded.
“Y-yeah… I’m okay. That was a rough fight though, let me tell ya’.”
“As long as you’re not hurt, and the rest of your family is unharmed, it’s okay. But we need to put out your trees!”
“Nah… As much as it pains me to say it, the trees that are on fire are already too far gone. The fire won’t spread, thanks to the distance we keep between them. Can’t run the most successful apple farm in all Equestria without a little future planning.”
“Okay then, we need to go check on Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash should be fine, considering she can just fly away.”
“Okay then, let’s go!” All four ponies hurried as fast as they could towards the Everfree Forest, finding Fluttershy’s shack completely unmolested.
“Thank you Celestia!” Twilight yelled as they approached the shack. They opened the door without knocking, and saw a flash of yellow as Fluttershy shot to the roof of her house, clinging to the ceiling with a shriek.
“W-who’s there?!”
“It’s okay, Fluttershy! It’s just us! Are you okay?” Fluttershy slowly lowered down to ground level, seemingly confused with what was going on.
“I-is everything okay?”
“No, it’s not! A large group of unicorns attacked Ponyville just now, and we came to make sure you’re okay.” Fluttershy’s eyes froze.
“A-attacked?”
“Yes! The worst part, is that it was all citizens of Ponyville! There’s several dead ponies in the streets!”
“What?!” Both Applejack and Fluttershy exclaimed together.
“You didn’t tell me that!” Applejack yelled.
“Sorry, sorry. But yes, there was a large group of cloaked unicorns that attacked Ponyville at directly two o’clock. At first, Pinkie and I hid in the library, but then I realized that Ponyville has no defenses… None except us, that is. So we all need to go back into town and make sure everypony is still okay.”
“O-oh my gosh…” Fluttershy fell to the ground, her face stricken with horror. She began to sniff as some tears welled up in her eyes. “I-I can’t believe this… this must be some kind of nightmare!”
“I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but it’s not. You can stay back here if you want, but we need to get back to town, and quickly!”
“No! I’m going!” She stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I-I can’t just sit here while other ponies are being hurt! Let’s go!” With that the group made their way back to town, hearing no more explosions. There was a still lot of screaming, though. They made it to town square and saw many citizens huddled around the bodies of the ponies that lost their lives in the initial attacks. When they approached, Mayor Mare came up to them, her face wet with tears.
“Mayor Mare, is the attack finally over?” Twilight asked.
“I- we think so. After you, Pinkie, And Rarity cleaned up most of them, a lot of the other ponies got the courage to fight back, and we cleared the rest out of town.”
“Very good… I-I’m really sorry about… About all of the losses.”
The mayor sniffed. “Don’t worry about me, Twilight Sparkle. If you must console somepony, make it the ones who lost loved ones. You might check yourselves, to make sure you lost no one.”
The group looked around the city, searching for the remains of any ponies that might have been left, and for any more attackers. They managed to bump into Rainbow Dash in the mess, who had tried to help put out some of the fires around town.
They found no casualties outside of the initial area. Apparently Twilight and Pinkie and Rarity did a pretty good job of slowing the attackers. They returned to town square, where all of the dead ponies were laid. Though it was a tragic sight, it was a blessing that so few had died in the attack. Twilight counted 13 total. Among them were Bonbon, Berry Punch, and…
“N-No! Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash called out as soon as she saw the body of the orange filly lying lifeless on the ground. She sped over to her, stroking the young pony’s mane with a hoof. “S-scootaloo, please don’t leave!” After the events with the camping trip, Rainbow and Scootaloo had really started to bond together. Rainbow had taken Scootaloo under her wing as a big sister, letting her live with her and even helped her with her flying.
The other five ponies stood around her, all of them shedding a tear for poor Scootaloo, and especially Rainbow Dash.
“S-she was so close to me… I loved her like my own sister!” Rainbow bawled, against her own nature, but this loss was such a blow to her.
Eventually, the entire town gathered in town square to mourn the loss of all of their friends and family. It was truly heart wrenching for so many, but it did serve to bring the community very close together. After the impromptu funeral, the mane six all gave each other a big hug and returned to their homes. Twilight offered to let Rainbow stay with her if she wanted, but she declined.
“I-I’m sorry Twilight, but I need to get through this on my own.”
“I understand, but just remember that all five of us are here for you, if you need us.”
“Thanks, Twilight…” Rainbow hung her head as she slowly flew off towards her house in the sky. Twilight had returned home with Spike, who had showed up at the services as well. As soon as the two walked into the library and Twilight shut the door, Spike started to grimace.
“Oh, not right no-“ he was cut off as a loud burp emitted from his mouth, spewing forth green fire, and a letter from Princess Celestia.
“Oh, the princess! She needs to know about this!... Or maybe she does, and that’s what the letter is about! I must read it quickly!” Twilight took the letter out of thin air and quickly opened it, scanning over the short message. All of the blood rushed from her face as she read, and she stood in silence.
“Uhm… Twilight? Is something wrong?”
“T-there… there were more attacks. All over Equestria, not just here! Spike, quickly, we must write the Princess back! No time, I’ll write the letter myself!” Twilight grabbed a quill and some parchment, and quickly sat at her writing desk, moving her research project. She began writing as fast as she could:
Dear Princess Celestia,
We have also had a run in with these robed ponies here in Ponyville. Every single one of them was in fact a unicorn, as you described. Something I happened to notice was that every single one of the unicorns involved in the attack was in fact from Ponyville. We killed none of the assailants ourselves, but it appears that the ones who didn't manage to run away took cyanide tablets and killed themselves on the spot. Whatever this is about, we need to get to the bottom of this.
Just to let you know, the other five elements and I are alright, but there are now thirteen dead ponies here in Ponyville. One of them was the young filly, Scootaloo, whom you might know Rainbow Dash now takes took care of (Twilight winced as she made such a horrible mistake on her part). As a community, no, a family, every pony gathered together after the assailants were finished with, and we had a memorial service for all who perished in the attack. With the quick work of my friends and I, we luckily managed to prevent almost any more deaths after the initial attack.
I feel that we may need to make arrangements to visit Canterlot in the very near future to all come and speak with you; this matter requires immediate action on the part of the elements. Please respond as quickly as possible.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight folded the letter up and sealed it and handed it to Spike who sent it away right away.
“Well Spike, now all we need to do is wait, I suppose… I’d start packing your things right away; I feel we have a trip to be made very quickly.”