Twilight POV
"Spike! Have you seen my copy of "The Birds and The Bees for Dummies"? Rainbow Dash wants to barrow it but I cant find it anywhere." I shouted without looking away from my book.
"I think The Crusaders, were barrowing it for an experiment or something." Spike shouted groggily from the bedroom.
"Well can you go find them and get that book back. It our only copy and I really don't want them to destroy it in one of their daily attempts to get their Cutie Marks. But why would they need that book I can only imagine."
Spike came out of the bedroom and walked down the stairs rubbing his eyes, "Fine I'll go find them." He said as he opened the door and headed out side, "Oh, hi Fluttershy. Twilight is inside reading up on The Magical Field Theory if you need her."
"Oh, thank you Spike." Fluttershy said as she rushed into the library and slammed the door, which is not like her at all.
"Fluttershy? What's going on? It's not like you to rush into places, or even slam doors for that matter." I asked her. She was clearly disturbed and frightened. But by what, is what I want to know.
"S-s-strange creatures just killed a M-M-Manticore in a clearing in the E-E-Everfree forest no to far from the t-t-town." Fluttershy said with shaking violently with tears in her eyes. But what shocked me the most was the fact that she had said "just killed a Manticore".
"Fluttershy, look at me. Are you sure it was a Manticore? Since you know as well as I do that nothing has killed a Manticore in a fight in over 500 years. And if what your saying is true, then Celestia help us all." I said in a firm but caring tone
"I-I'm positive it was a M-Manticore." She said still visible shaken
"It's ok Fluttershy. Now if you'll excuse me I need to alert Celestia." I said as I walked towards my upstairs balcony.
"B-but didn't you just send Spike off? H-how are you going to tell Celestia?"
I stopped just before the balcony and turned towards her, "Fluttershy, do you really think that the Princess and I wouldn't have a system in place for emergencies?" I said to her with a smirk on my face. Before reaching behind a potted plant and flipped a lever, which caused a metal tube and a control panel to rise up from the floor. "Now let's see here, Changelings, Parasprites, Discord turned us all into stallions, Pinkie found your hidden cake vault, Ah here it is!" I exclaimed as I slammed my hoof down on a black button, which the label above it read, "MURDER." Immediately after the pressing of the button a *Cuchunk* sound echoed though out Ponyville as the tube fired the black magical flare towards Canterlot. I turned towards Fluttershy and said, "Now we wait."
Celestia Pov
"...And that princess is why I think I should be able to increase my own pay, and decrease my workers pay." said the stallion in the brown overcoat.
"Well I understand were you are coming from on this. Unfortunately I can not allow you to do that. Your request is officially denied." I said wile maintaining my regal appearance, while on the inside I wanted to launch this inconsiderate fool to the moon, I mean seriously! He wanted to cut is workers pay, and increase his own so he could buy out his workers land to increase his pool's size. Unfortunately my advisors insist that launching ponies to the moon will be bad for my public image.
"I understand, thank you for your time princess." The stallion said as he grumbled out of day court.
I turned towards my guards and said to them, "You know, it's times like these when I actually wish for some disaster to occur. But considering how peaceful Equestria is, I guess that will never happen." As I tuned back towards the open door's leading into the Day Court, I could see the line of ponies stretching out into the horizon. As I sighed and was about to call the next pony up, something caught my eye. Out in the distance, a black magical flare was launched, normally I would have let the local authorities deal with it, but this one radiated with Twilight's magical energy.
Jumping up from my seat I turned towards my guards and said, "An emergency has arisen, go get Discord and have him run Day Court until I get back." My horn glowing I prepared a long-distance teleport to my student's library. Casting the spell, I was quickly dematerialize in the Court room, and rematerialized in my Twilight's library.
"Twilight! I saw your flare, what has happened?" I asked in a panicked tone.
"Princess, Fluttershy said that she saw strange creatures kill a Manticore out in a clearing in the Everfree forest not to far from town." Twilight said. I turned towards Fluttershy and she responded with a quick nod.
"This is indeed troublesome. A Manticore has not been killed in a long time. Tell me Fluttershy, can you take us to where the Manticore is, if I were to teleport us to the entrance of the Everfree forest?"
Fluttershy gave a nod, and said, "I, um, might even be able to show you which direction the creatures when in, if that's ok with you."
"That would be fine, my little pony." I said before teleporting us to the Everfree Forest. We followed Fluttershy into the forest, and like she said, the clearing was close to town. Much to close for my liking, upon arriving in the clearing there were a few things that stood out. The first was the dead Manticore, which did confirm what Fluttershy had said, the next was cylindrical metal tubes littered among the forest floor, another was the fact that the Manticore had many holes scattered though out its body, and the last thing was many prints leading away from the body, towards the other side of the forest.
"This is disturbing, I have never seen anything in all my years of living killed like this before. And what are these metal tubes on the ground for?" I said to no one in particular.
"Um, I think those are what caused the holes in the Manticores body." Fluttershy said in a hushed tone.
"Why didn't you tell me you saw this happen!? If you told me that then we could have tried to figure out what killed the Manticore back at the library!" Twilight said clearly frustrated.
"Twilight is doesn't matter now. But what does matter is finding the creatures that did this and finding out if they indent to cause us trouble or if there can be peace between us." I said, Twilight was about to respond but a large shadow quickly flew over our heads, followed by a loud roar, but the roar didn't sound like any creature, it sounded almost, artificial? Twilight just stood there as if trying to identify what creature the roar belonged to, while Fluttershy had stiffened up and fallen over on her side.
"Princess, what was that?" Twilight asked after coming out of her daze.
"I do not know, But I have a feeling that all of Equestria will find out soon enough."