Devastation was all they knew as their homes, crops and defences burned. Ponies, Gryphons and dragons alike suffered at the hands, claws and tentacles of the behemoths standing over the blaze. They all ran, the species mingling in the chaotic mess. Friends were indiscernible in the masses of victims trying to escape the destruction.
Some of them fell, grabbed from underfoot, talon and hoof by limbs erupting from the ground. Demons had found their way to the surface and had rendered all sense of security little more than a benign fantasy to all the frightened creatures out there. Eden was a city, but not just any city. It was erected as a sign of peace between the numerous species that walked this world. There was no single ruler, but a representative from each race. They'd taken the time to learn from one another, live with each other and they'd become friends, ensuring the peace between them. But something managed to find a wedge and drive it between them. Each representative had been murdered, and each race blamed the others. With the mass of negative energy directed to one spot, Eden had become a gateway to and from Tartarus.
The demons that had surfaced were monstrous. They acted on impulse, showing no hesitation or remorse in killing who or whatever was in their line of sight. No-one was safe either in the air or on the ground.
Two ponies, barely able to walk tried as best they could to fly away. Their wings weren't developed enough and their magic was poor. The older of the two, an alabaster Alicorn saw her younger sister collapse in defeat. The filly turned back to regroup with her dark coloured sister.
"Come on Luna, we have to run! the young filly said, her lily pink mane matting against her neck. The younger sister began to cry over the noise, her voice projecting louder than the screams of the ponies around them.
"I can't Celest! I can't run anymore. I want mommy!" she cried. Celest looked around for any sign that demons were aproaching. Fortunately there were none. As Luna began to wail at the top of her voice, Celest decided that she would not abandon her. Tucking herself next to Luna, the pair of alicorn fillies embraced each other, just waiting to be picked off. Both were surprised when they found themselves picked up instead. Celest looked up to see a green dragoness running for her life She'd taken the time to grab her and her sister in the chaos.
Terrain was not one for fear. She'd grown up in an environment that even dragons would call difficult to live in. Instead of running for fear of her life, she ran for the sake of survival itself. She knew she wanted to live and she knew how to do it. As she ran towards the edge of the forest where she would be able to evade the enemy easier than she would among a crowd, she heard a child simply crying. Terrain didn't think herself the maternal type. In fact she rather believed that she was actually a male dragon in a female body. While in that mindset, she couldn't just leave a child alone to fend against these demons. She altered her course slightly to grab her while running. As the source of the noise came into view, she noticed that there were two children, and that they were ponies.
Terrain cared little for the politics of the different races. She didn't even care about the supposed murders staged by the other representatives of the other races. As such, she didn't think twice about grabbing the two ponies under her arms. She couldn't scold them for not moving. She understood children were more susceptible to their fears than most and ponies were the most peaceful out of all the races.
"It's alright, you're safe now. I got you." she called out to them over the screaming around them. Terrain tightened her grip on the two fillies as she jumped over a dead body. She didn't care what species the body was; A corpse was a corpse. The ponies said nothing as the darker of the two huddled into her while the white one just stared at her in what Terrain assumed was surprise.
A growl alerted Terrain to the knowledge that she'd been spotted. She growled back and spread her wings. Crouching in motion, she kicked away from the ground and flapped her wings once, shooting forward at twice her running speed. Unfortunately, she didn't get far as something roughy her size slammed down on her back, grounding her. With a pained gasp, she lost her grip on the fillies and they rolled a few feet away. She saw them quickly huddle together using what adrenaline they'd mustered and begin shaking as they looked towards what was on her. She heard an almost reptilian hissing before a hand grabbed her shoulder and threw her around onto her back. An extremely disfigured creature resembling a dragon, missing the side of its face and a wing knelt over her, its face inches from her own. Now Terrain was scared.
She punched it in the face, breaking what teeth it had. The demon just spat the teeth out and sharper ones grew in its place. The demon slammed its arms down onto Terrain's, pinning her on her back. Its chest suddenly opened and something akin to a mouth emerged. Terrain tried to fight free from the entrapment, but she was helpless. In a last ditch effort, she tried to blast the demon with fire, but the flames just moved towards the second mouth, sucked in like a vacuum. As the demon began to groan, Terrain felt her own stomach begin to ache as if her organs were being pulled towards the front. She felt sick. As she looked down, she saw a green mist coming from her abdomen. it was being sucked into the second mouth like her flame. Terrain began to grow weak and fade out of consciousness.
It wasn't until she was on the verge of closing her eyes entirely that her strength returned in a single burst. She snapped her eyes open to find a large thick blade had impaled the demon above her at an angle that just narrowly missed her. It was then that she noticed a strange blue light descending from the dark clouds above.
It took her a few moments to realise that the light was actually fire. Blue fire had fallen from the sky. It landed only a yard away from her and the cowering fillies who had gathered around her side. She subconsciously held them close as she kicked the impaled demon away.
The three looked at the smokey area the blue flame had left behind. Something was inside the smoke. Terrain quickly noticed that everyone, even the demons had stopped what they were doing, be it running or pursuing, to look at the newcomer from the sky.
Two orbs of yellow glowed through the thick of the smoke, daring any-one to come closer.
"IT'S AN ANGEL, RETREAT!!!" one of the larger demons boomed. The demons dropped what they were doing and hightailed it in all directions out of the city. As they began their retreat, the 'Angel' stepped out of the smoke. All Terrain could see was more smoke shaped like a Dragon, but it had no wings. The smoke dragon gave out an ear piercing screech that proceeded to double the speed at which the demons retreated.
The 'Angel' stood alone surrounded by curious dragons, gryphons, ponies and various other races. It made neither sound nor motion. Terrain and the two fillies approached, daring to chance being struck by their would-be saviour. The smoke disappeared like a fading aura and the Angel fell to its knees. Terrain spotted the form of a dragon skull before it shattered into pieces. The creature was unlike anything the citizens of Avalon had seen before. His face lacked any fur or scales, save the patch of bleached blonde hair at the top of his head, above his eyes and in the middle of his chin. He was clad in black armour. While its appearance startled everyone else, Terrain noticed something even more puzzling. Its wings had been ripped from it's back, leaving blood to trickle out from its shoulder blades.
