It began with the dreams...
They were short at first, momentary glimpses spaced days or even weeks apart. But before long they started coming every night. Each time darker and more threatening than the last.
And then... the damn burst.
The landscape was bleak. Scratch that, bleak was an understatement. Gray rocky hills, dead twisted trees and bushes, not a sign of life for miles in every direction. And yet the road on which her hooves plodded was a sign of civilization, however far off it lay.
Time was meaningless in the gray landscape. Whether it had been minutes or days the lone figure traveled the road with hardly a sign of it changing. The low hanging grey clouds obscured both sun and moon alike, leaving the landscape below in an ever continuous gray twilight. And then, suddenly, the road ended.
The mare found herself on the outskirts of what might have once been a town. The buildings were strange though,crumbling as they were they would have surpassed even the tallest towers of Canterlot were they restored. Empty shops lined the lowest floors of the buildings, smashed windows revealed gaping dark holes like mouths of some hideous creature waiting to gobble her up.
She pressed on.
Something was drawing her, though she knew not what.
Around the corner she halted again, the body of a titanic beast of some sort lay in the road. As gray and lifeless as the landscape, it's body appeared armored, and yet time had raised it's hand to it as well as the armor was falling apart, showing deep holes in the body. Strangely it had no legs but weird metallic stumps that looked like the axles on carts.
It took the mare a minute to realize such a beast might not have ever been a living creature, but was instead some form of transport, but with no sign of yoke or harness it was inexplicable how it could be moved. Circling the strange carriage slowly, the mare continued on. The pull was getting stronger. And something told her she didn't have time to waste.
More and more of the strange vehicles appeared as she traveled the roads. Many in different sizes, some even appeared to have crashed into each other, but again without a sign of locomotive properties, how such crashes had occurred was impossible to determine.
As she continued on a deep sense of foreboding chilled her deeply. Looking around the city was as empty as ever, but the feeling of eyes on the back of her neck was one that could not be shaken. She was watched, but by who?
Or what?
Swallowing nervously, she continued on, following the strange pull the mare was eventually lead across the city to the far side where another smaller city lay. This one seemed in even worse condition. Many huge holes appeared to have been dug randomly around the city, some buildings looked like that had been violently torn apart from the inside out,and there were other even stranger looking vehicles laying about torn to pieces.
The mare pressed on, crossing over what might have been a wire fence once but had long since been crushed into the dirt. One of the large vehicles she had to circle to move on. Strangely it seemed to have a large pipe sticking out of the top half of it. And the wheels were wrapped with long bands that ran front to back. And there were other strange devices that seemed to have large stiff wings. How could they possibly fly if the wings could not bend?
No matter, the mare felt the draw was becoming really strong now. She approached a large hole in one of the buildings, the darkness gaped at her like a deep pit. Lighting her horn she began to descend. Room after room was piled with rubble and trash. Twice she came to dead ends and had to turn around, but always she moved deeper and deeper.
Again the feeling of eyes on her neck came back and she looked back. Only the darkness of the hall was visible beyond her light spell. And yet there was a sense of something else there too...
Trembling hooves moved her on as the walls shifted from stone to some sort of metal. She was close now, she could feel it resonating in her chest like the beat of a drum. He ears swiveled as they picked out a faint sound, steady and soft.
Eventually she came to a huge set of metal doors. Bigger even than the doors of Canterlot castle. The metal was scorched and twisted, leaving a hole just large enough for her to squeeze through. The room beyond appeared very important, strange mechanical devices lined the walls. Ahead something was glowing in the darkness.
The mare moved forward and saw what appeared to be a set of numbers. The noise was louder now, coinciding with the numbers. Beating with every number that flipped by. A clock. But the numbers weren't counting up. They were counting down.
00:00:25
00:00:24
00:00:23
The mare worried, the numbers counting down meant something was going to happen, but what? Could it be stopped? Was there even a chance?
00:00:20
00:00:19
There was a large red button under the numbers. Should she press it? Would that stop the count down? What if it just activated whatever the numbers were counting down to?
00:00:15
00:00:14
It was a risk, but it was all she could think of doing. Reaching out her hoof trembled as it neared the button.
00:00:12
00:00:11
00:00:10
Something loud thudded against the doors, distracting the mare. Loud growling followed and the screech of something sharp on metal.
00:00:07
00:00:06
Something was coming, she had to get away, but the timer... Something slammed into the doors again. For a moment lights flickered in the room and shadowy figures seemed to appear in the dim corners.
00:00:04
00:00:03
She had to. She just had to.
She hesitated.
00:00:01
00:00:00
'ACTIVATION'
A rumbling noise different from the pounding sounded through the room. A streak of green light suddenly split the darkness ahead of the mare. Slowly it widen as unseen doors rolled back, revealing a glass window peering into some chamber.
Inside was a beast of some kind, suspended in a green glow. The creature was curled tightly, but began unwinding, glowing eyes opened as they looked right at the mare.
It couldn't be, the creature... It looked like...
The mare turned as a loud growl sounded behind her. The thing from before had smashed through the door. A massive thing of shadow with glowing read eyes. She barely had time to register it before it leap on her and proceeded to tear her throat out.
“AAAAHHHHHHH!”
The scream would have echoed through all of Canterlot castle at such a volume. Luckily Princess Celestias room was enchanted with a soundproofing spell. However, there was at least one other soul who felt the distress and hurried to her.
“Dearest sister,” Luna spoke as she glided in through the balcony open to predawn sky, “Whatever is the mater...?”
Luna trailed off at the end. Celestia was sitting bolt upright in bed, the normally calm and patient princess looked a wreck. Bags were under her eyes, sweat coated her form, and all of her was trembling worse than a certain pegasus of Ponyville.
“Tia,” Luna muttered, dropping her formalities as she trotted over to hug her sister, “What happened? Speak to me.”
Celestia reached for a glass of water she kept on her nightstand, not trusting her magic to work at the moment. After she'd taken a few gulps of water and regained her breath she gave Luna a look that, to be perfectly honest, scarred the night princess deeply.
“Luna...” Celestia muttered hoarsely, “He lied to us.”
Something about the way she said 'he' was enough for Luna to start putting it together and a moment later Luna went paler than the full moon that hung in the sky.
“What... what can we do?” Luna muttered, her own throat going dry.
Celestia sighed, “As much as I hate to say it, we must once again rely on Twilight and her friends.”
“But Tia, you know what that means.”
“I know Luna, but we have no choice. If my dream was true, we do not have much time. Twilight and her friends will have to make this trip, or the entire world will be destroyed.”