The two ponies on the side of the road were horrified. The sight of Fluttershy lying in a pool of her own blood was shocking to say the least. Neither moved for a full second before Twilight snapped from her stupor.
"Fluttershy!" yelled Twilight rushing over to where her friend lay, with Applejack galloping alongside.
When they got closer they could see the extent of the damage. Fluttershy's body was covered in dozens of bloody scrapes all over her body, her left hoof was twisted at an unnatural angle, and there was deep gash just above her left shoulder with a stream of blood streaming out at an alarming rate. Her eyes were closed.
"Oh no no no no no no no! Fluttershy please be alright!" said Twilight "Fluttershy can you hear me? Please wake up!"
"Shy c'mon you gotta get up, we'll find you some help and you'll be fine, you have to be," said Applejack "Come on Fluttershy! Wake up! Please!"
To everyone's immense relief, Fluttershy's eyes fluttered open, focused on Twilight and Applejack, then promptly closed again.
"This is bad, she needs some serious medical attention or else sh-she might not make it," said Twilight.
"Well what are you waiting for let's get going!" said Applejack.
"Applejack it's night and we're lost in the Everfree Forest, running blindly about won't help Fluttershy," she said.
"Well what do you suggest we do then! We can't just stay here, it's dangerous and we need to find help!" Applejack shouted.
Before Twilight could respond she noticed that the beast behind them had gone quite. She stared in confusion and worry as a part of the creature's side swung outward. Applejack turned to see what had caught her friend's attention and stared with Twilight as a tall creature emerged from the inside of the beast.
* * *
Daniel Grey was having a very uninteresting day. It had been like most days. He had gotten up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast, kissed his wife goodbye, and then headed off to work. Work, for the most part, was pretty average and monotonous. Daniel didn't hate his job, but working with computers all day long eventually got rather boring.
Daniel turned off the interstate and got onto the little two way road that led to his home. He loved living further away from civilization, he had nothing against cities, but he felt that nature was pretty hard to beat in terms of beauty. The drizzle turned into a steady rain as Daniel got closer to his home. He saw a flash of light illuminate the sky and forest around him.
"Huh, guess the storm must be setting in," he said.
He wanted to get home and enjoy dinner with his wife before the storm arrived in earnest, so he accelerated hoping that he could be home before things got crazy. Dinner tonight was one of his favorites, lamb stew, he and his wife both enjoyed it very much. Stephanie was a beautiful woman with a natural talent for cooking and taking care of animals. Daniel had thought it was a little ironic that a veterinarian could enjoy eating meat, and had told his wife as such. She had just laughed and told him that just because she loved to take care of animals it didn't mean that she couldn't love to eat them as well. Daniel smiled and turned the corner that would lead to home.
After rounding the corner and traveling a few feet into the now pouring rain, Daniel was suddenly jerked forward by a sudden impact with something. Immediately Daniel slammed on the breaks causing the car to come to a screeching halt. Daniel's heart was beating a hundred miles per hour as he breathed deeply. He quickly felt over his body to see if anything was broken or bleeding. When he felt no injury he decided that he better go see what he had hit. He placed the car in park, turned it off, and opened the door and stepped out into the rain.
"What the?" muttered Daniel.
In front of Daniel were three animals of various unnatural colors. Two were standing around the third which was clearly pretty hurt considering that it wasn't moving and had a growing pool of blood around it. They had hooves and sort of looked like miniature horses if horses came in purple and orange.
'What the hell? Does that one have a horn? And what's up with the weird colorful brands?' thought Daniel.
The purple 'unicorn' , for lack of better term, must have heard him since it turned to stare at him.
'Jesus it's eyes are huge!' he thought.
The orange one who was wearing a hat and ribbons turned to stare at Daniel also. They watched him intently as he stood in the rain. He was unsure what to do, but he knew he had to check on the yellow one, his wife would kill him if he left it to die, especially after he hit it.
Daniel took small steps towards the three animals. The two standing animals watched his approach carefully as if he might attack at any moment. Daniel was sure that the other two would quickly scamper away once he got about half way there, but instead they stayed right where they were. This was strange behavior for animals, even if they were a 'pack' or 'herd' or whatever. Once he got within touching distance the orange horse-thing stepped in between Daniel and the hurt one. It stomped it's hoof and made an almost angry sounding whinnying noise. The purple horned one had a star of some kind on it's flank, the orange one had three apples, and the yellow one had three pink butterflies. He also suspected that they were female judging by their body shapes. Daniel also got a better look at the yellow one. She didn't look good, she had lots of scratches all over her body, one of her legs looked like it was possibly broken, and it had a deep gash on it's shoulder that was bleeding. Oh and it also had wings.
'Okay what are these things? Did they escape from a bizarre animal lab somewhere? Whatever, it's not important. I better take the yellow one home otherwise I don't think she will survive,' he thought.
Daniel bent down to scoop up the yellow one but was stopped by an orange hoof on his chest, and some more angry whinnies.
"Get off," he said "Get out of here, shoo!" Daniel made shooing motions hoping to scare the others away but to no avail.
Daniel pushed the orange horse away and gently scooped up the yellow one and began to walk back to his car. He heard some whining behind him and some hoofsteps. Daniel kept looking ahead trying to be as non-aggressive as possible. As he continued to walk he felt a strange tugging sensation on his body.
"What the hell is that?" he said.
The tugging sensation was all over his body but wasn't that strong, so Daniel continued to walk and the feeling began to gradually weaken before the sensation disappeared completely. He heard some startled sounding horse noises followed by more hoofsteps.
'Just ignore it and keep going' he thought.
Daniel unlocked his car and open the backseat door lowering the yellow animal onto the seat. The animal made an adorable whimpering noise and was then silent again. Blood was still flowing pretty regularly so Daniel took off his jacket and wrapped it as best he could around the wound. Then he felt a powerful hoof connect with the back of his leg.
"Aaaugh! God damnit!" He shouted falling to one knee in pain.
He turned and saw the face of the angry orange one. It made some more angry noises and glared at him.
"What the hell is your problem horse? Get out of here, I'm trying to help your friend!" He shouted rising to his feet pushing the orange horse away from him.
He shut the back door and began to limp to the driver side door, but was followed by more angry whinnies and the orange one.
"Shoo, go away!" he yelled once more before climbing into the drivers seat and slamming the door.
The very persistent orange horse placed it's hooves on Daniel's window as it glared at him. Daniel started the car and it immediatly jumped back. Daniel gave the horse a smug look, then returned his focus to the car.
Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't worry little yellow horse, we're going to go get you some help."
He put the car in drive and continued down the road to his home.
* * *
The creature that had climbed out of the beast was unlike any creature Twilight had ever seen before. It was bipedal and slightly resembled a Diamond Dog or a Minotaur. It's skin was a light almost peach color and was mostly devoid of hair except for the top of it's head. It had small eyes that were watching them both intently. It also seemed to be wearing clothes, so Twilight reasoned that it was most likely intelligent. The clothes themselves were a little odd and excessive. It wore shoes, pants, and a shirt with strange markings on it.
"What is it Twi?"
"I'm not sure, I've never seen anything like it in my books," Twilight replied.
"Do you think it somehow caused the other thing to attack Fluttershy?" she asked.
Before Twilight could reply the bipedal creature took a small step forward. Twilight and Applejack immediately refocused their attention on it. It didn't move for a few hesitant seconds before it began to take more steps toward them. Twilight watched it approach in apprehension and fear.
'This thing may be responsible for attacking Fluttershy and its walking towards us. Who knows what it might do? Maybe it's coming to finish the job,' Twilight shuddered
Just when the creature was within touching distance Applejack stepped in front of the creature and gave a stomp.
"That's close enough, just stay there and don't try anything funny ya hear?" Applejack said bravely.
The creature did not respond to Applejack's words, wether from incomprehension or simply because it was ignoring her Twilight couldn't say. It looked at Applejack, then at Twilight, before finally looking at Fluttershy. When it saw Fluttershy it just stared at her for a while before reaching down to grab Fluttershy. Applejack was not okay with this and placed her hoof right on it's chest and gave a gentle push.
"No, you leave her alone, she's our friend and we won't let you take her." Applejack said firmly.
The creature pushed Applejack's hoof away and made some strange motions with it's hands at them.
'Possibly a warning of some kind?' thought Twilight.
Then it spoke in a deep harsh voice in a language that neither of them could understand. It scooped Fluttershy up, turned around, and started to walk back to the other creature.
"Twilight stop it!" Applejack shouted.
"Okay I'll try," she said.
Twilight's horn cast it's familiar glow before the moving creature was wrapped in her telekinesis.
"Woah! It's heavy. Really heavy! It's heavier than an Ursa Minor," she said.
Twilight broke out in a sweat as she poured more energy into the spell.
"He's not slowing down Twi," said Applejack.
"Oh sweet Celestia how is this even possible! Applejack! I can't keep this up you're going to have to stop it yourself!" shouted Twilight before she collapsed onto the ground totally spent. "I'm sorry, I tried."
"Don't worry sugarcube I'll stop it from taking Fluttershy,"
Applejack galloped up to the creature. Upon closer inspection of the larger creature Applejack was even more unsure of what it could be. It certainly didn't look like anything she had seen before. She wasn't sure it was even alive. The smaller creature was placing Fluttershy inside of the thing. Applejack turned around, raised her hind hooves, and delivered a powerful buck to it's left leg. The creature howled in pain and fell onto it's knee before it turned to face Applejack, rage in it's eyes.
"Listen you, I don't know who or what you are but I will not let you hurt my friends!" she shouted.
The creature made more angry shouts in the strange language and pushed Applejack off of itself. It stood up and closed Fluttershy inside before limping away to the front of the strange object.
"Hey! Come back and let Fluttershy out you monster!" Applejack shouted.
Instead the creature opened the side of the object and climbed inside. Applejack jumped and placed her hooves on the object's side and looked in at the creature. It did something and suddenly the object roared to life. Applejack jumped back in surprise and the creature gave an almost smug smile before it took off, with Fluttershy, down the road.
"Come back here!" Applejack shouted, galloping after them.
"Com'n Twilight get up we gotta follow them!"
"How? How was it able to resist my magic so completely?" asked Twilight with tears in the corner of her eyes.
Applejack had to admit that it was more than a little troubling that some random creature from the Everfree forest was able to shrug off the magical force of one of the greatest mages in Equestria, but they didn't have the luxury of being scared Fluttershy was seriously hurt and had just been taken to Celestia knows where by a dangerous creature.
"We'll worry about that later Twi, but right now we really need to go or else we won't be able to find Fluttershy,"
"I understand, let's go," Twilight said
Applejack nodded and they both galloped down the road after the mysterious creature.
* * *
Daniel pulled into his driveway and put the car in park. He stepped out of his car, wincing from the pressure on his hurt leg. He opened the back door and saw that the little horse's makeshift bandages had soaked through with blood and that she was shivering.
"You poor thing, don't worry my wife can help you, she loves animals."
Daniel scooped her up and carried her to the front door. After opening the door with some difficulty, he was greeted with the pleasant aroma of lamb stew cooking which caused his stomach to growl reminding him he hadn't eaten yet. There would be time for food later, right now he had to save the poor little animal's life. He walked into the living room and saw Stephanie curled up on the sofa with Buldger, their fat English Bulldog, watching television.
"Hi Sweetie how was work today?" She turned to look at him and gasped "Daniel what happened!"
"Don't worry the blood's not mine, but I brought you a patient," he said with a forced smile.
Stephanie stood up causing Buldger to slump over onto the cushion. She walked over to Daniel and examined the animal in Daniel's arms.
"Oh! What is it?" she asked.
"I have no idea what it is, but she's lost a lot of blood and she needs help or she's going to die," he said.
"Do you have any idea what caused this?" Stephanie asked.
Daniel gave a sheepish smile and muttered "I might have accidentally hit her with my car."
She stared at him with a look that seemed to say 'are you kidding me?'
"We'll have a talk about that later, but right now I'm going to need you to go get my supplies from my car, I'll take her and bring her into the garage,"
Daniel nodded handing the yellow horse over to her before hobbling off to the car to retrieve the supplies. He grabbed the veterinarian supplies from his wife's car and carried them into the garage. Stephanie had laid out a makeshift bed for the yellow horse. She had already started to clean some of the wounds when he walked in with the supplies.
"What happened to your leg?" she asked.
"Well there were two others along with this one, and one of them didn't take too kindly to me taking it's friend away," he said.
"There were others like this one?"
"Sort of. They were all about the same size and shape, but they were all different colors and had different brands. Also one had a horn and the one who attacked me didn't have wings or a horn," Daniel explained.
"If I didn't have a living example in front of me I might have had to see if you had been hit by a car," she said "I have never seen any animals like this."
"I know what you mean, I have no explanation for what they are or where they came from," he said.
Stephanie finished cleaning the smaller cuts and the large gash above the horse's shoulder. She wiped her hands off with a wet rag and pulled out some surgical thread, vials filled with various medical chemicals, and needles.
"Alright I'm going to need to stitch this wound up if it's going to heal properly so I'm going to need you to be quiet so I can concentrate," she said.
Daniel nodded in understanding. She stuck the needle into one of the vials and then injected it into the yellow horse. the horse made a whimpering noise before falling silent once more. Stephanie hooked up the thread and began to sew the wound closed. Daniel watched as she began to slowly close the gash with her precision movements and intense concentration. The little horse began to whimper again so Stephanie made soft shushing noise in an effort to keep her calm. Once she had finished the stitches she inspected her left leg.
"Good news, her leg was not broken, it was just strained," she said "I'm still going to wrap it to help the healing."
She pulled out some gauze and began to wrap it tightly around the horse's leg. Buldger wondered into the garage after realizing that something was happening. He wandered lazily over to Daniel and sat next to him. Daniel reached out and absentmindedly pet Buldger's head, Once Stephanie had finished she pulled out another needle, filled it with one of the chemicals, and injected the little horse.
"There, she's stabilized for now and I gave her something to take the pain away, but she's lost a lot of blood and the best thing to do now is to just let her rest," she said "So how about we go inside and eat some dinner that your loving wife made and you can regal me with your adventures."
Daniel smiled and gave her a kiss "Sounds good to me."
They got up and walked back into the house. Then there was a loud crash from the kitchen. Buldger growled and they both looked at each other before opening the door to the kitchen.
* * *
They finally arrived at the creature's lair. It wasn't actually as sinister looking as Twilight had been imagining, it looked like a normal house except for a few oddities here and there. The house was rather large compared to a pony's home. It's roof was slanted with shingles and a metal gutter, the door was made of wood with simple designs carved into it, there were several windows with curtains drawn blocking a view of the inside. There was also a strange metal dish-shaped object on the roof. Twilight was also unable to determine how the lights were illuminated.
"Twilight, look," Applejack whispered pointing her hoof at the strange moving object that the creature had used to take Fluttershy.
They quietly snuck over to it and peered inside.
"It's empty! I swear if it did anything to hurt Shy.." Applejack growled in barely controlled anger.
"Applejack, it's most likely taken her into it's house, if we go in we're going to have to be safe and smart about it. Do you understand?" Twilight asked.
Applejack nodded "Sorry Twilight, I understand, I'll calm down. I'm just so worried about her."
"It's alright I understand, I'm worried about her too, but we have to remain calm if we're going to help her. Now, for whatever reason these creatures seem to be resistant to my magic, so we'll have to rely mostly on stealth," Twilight explained.
"Twi?"
"Yes, Applejack?"
"We're not in Equestria anymore are we?"
Twilight hesitated "I'm not sure, but the more I see the more I'm beginning to think that this may not be Equestria, yes."
Applejack looked dejected like she had been hoping Twilight would have told her otherwise.
"Well," Applejack said brightening "now's not the time to worry about that, we've got a friend to save."
"Alright, let's do this."
The two ponies snuck up to the door and dropped into crouching stances on each side of the door.
"Okay on the count of three. One...two...." On three Twilight pushed the door open with her telekinesis as gently as she could. The door made a loud creaking noise that made both of them wince. When nothing jumped from the shadows and tried to eat them, the walked into the house and looked around. The entry room was rather small, but nicely furnished. There was an overhead light (with a still undetermined power source) that illuminated the small room, on the walls hung several pictures of the creature smiling with another creature that looked quite different than the first one. It's skin color was very close in shade to the first one's, while the first creature's hair was short and brown this one's hair was long and black. They were both wearing clothes.
"C'mon Twi this way," whispered Applejack.
Twilight followed Applejack into the next room. In this room there was a large couch which faced a black rectangular window resting on a small table. Twilight stepped forward to examine the mysterious black window, but was stopped by Applejack's hoof. Applejack motioned her head towards the couch and Twilight saw what had startled Applejack. Sitting on the couch was a dog. The dog lifted it's head slowly and gazed at the two ponies with drooping eyes. They froze and watched as the dog got up and lazily sauntered over to them.
"Go on, get out of here, you'll blow our cover," hissed Applejack.
The dog just tilted it's head as if he was trying to decide if they were worth his investigation. Apparently they weren't since the dog turned and continued it's lazy march down the hall.
"Whew," Applejack sighed "that was a close one."
Twilight nodded in agreement. Seeing no other doors in the second room, they turned and walked towards the nearest door. They opened the door and were enveloped by the smell of cooking. This was the kitchen. Twilight sniffed the air, whatever was cooking smelled pleasant, but it was not anything that Twilight had normally smelled and it had a subtle feeling of wrongness that Twilight couldn't explain.
Applejack wandered around the kitchen looking at everything before coming to a large simmering pot on the stove that seemed to be the source of the smell of cooking. Applejack looked inside the pot and froze.
"No," Applejack whispered.
"Applejack? What is it?"
"No, no it it can't be! No! NO! It's meat! Twilight it's MEAT they're cooking... they're cooking.. NO! NO NO NO NO! This can't be happening!" Applejack knocked over a pan causing a loud crash to echo through the room.
"Applejack stop! You need to calm down or we'll be caught," Twilight pleaded.
"They killed her! They killed her Twi, and now they're cooking her up!" she yelled.
"We-we don't know that for sure," Twilight muttered feebly.
At the exact moment, as if to disprove Twilight's statement, the creature from earlier burst through the door wearing a shirt covered in drying blood.
"YOU! YOU KILLED HER! YOU MISERABLE DEMON! YOU KILLED HER!" Applejack screamed and lunged at the creature knocking it to the ground.
Applejack began to stomp on the creature's body using the full power of muscles strengthened from years of applebucking. The creature yelled something out in it's strange language and Applejack kept pounding it.
"Applejack stop! Please stop this Applejack!" Twilight cried out, tears streaming down her face.
Applejack ignored Twilight's pleas and continued to scream in primal rage as she beat the creature into submission.
*THWAP*
Applejack stopped and lifted a hoof to her neck before swaying back onher hooves and collapsing on the floor.
"A-applejack?" asked Twilight.
*THWAP*
Twilight felt a sudden stabbing sensation in her neck and instinctivly reached up her hoof, but immediatly began to feel numb and drowsy, she swayed in place, took a few steps forward and then collapsed on the floor next to Applejack.
The last thing Twilight saw was the other creature from the picture lean down and look into her eyes, then everything faded away into black.