"So...wait...why am I seeing...weird little colorful...things."
The being in armor looked at the tiny creatures near him with bewilderment. He had never seen such bizarre little things. Sure, he saw lots of mutated creatures back at home, such as the prous, the helmut, and the chickenfrogcrab, although that last one did weird out even the enemies...not sure where those ones came from. Despite this, the biped looked down at his welcoming group and scratched his head.
"They must be pets."
"PETS?!" the crowd thought and showed their anger at such a thought.
"Where are your owners, or masters, or whatever the hell owns you." he asked with a chin scratch.
There was simple fidgeting, but far away, behind the creature, an immense explosion occurred, illuminating the horizon and belching out steal. Whilst everypony tilted to the side to see the awful effect produced, the biped ignored it and simply stared at the crowd with boredom. Somewhat annoyed by their sheepish attitude, the creature walked into the crowd and randomly grabbed a pony. It was Fluttershy. He was surprisingly strong enough to lift her up with just one hand. She became so frightened that she bunched herself into a ball and let her eyes grow in size and become watery.
"What's wrong? Why aren't these things moving? Robots?" he wondered as he shook the mare around a bit.
Fluttershy simply whimpered in response, but the biped simply scratched his chin and gave a smirk.
"They must be scared of me. I wonder why. I haven't done anything exceptional. Well...maybe destroy a demon train, but that's basic stuff." he shrugged.
Meanwhile, Twilight and the others remained quiet but were ready to attack at any moment. In fact, Twilight was already thinking of a plan to strike it down and rescue Fluttershy.
"Come on, Twilight. If you don't think of anything, I'll just tackle it to the ground." Rainbow Dash fidgeted as she whispered to her friend.
"Don't. You saw what it was capable of. It managed to destroy a magical locomotive all by itself, then jumped back down and walked away like nothing had happened." Twilight answered.
"But, Twi. We can't just let it shake her about and yell at her. Look." Applejack pointed towards the creature slowly rotating Fluttershy in its hands.
The ponies simply stared in pure confusion as they didn't understand what it was trying to do.
"Well...If you aren't going to direct me to your leaders or masters or whatever, I'll find them on my own."
He placed Fluttershy surprisingly gently on the ground, then looked around. Looking into the distance, he saw a little town. Although it looked reminiscent to that of medieval constructs, it was still a village. He ignored his vehicle and walked towards it, intent on finding the owners of this bizarre place. The ponies just looked at him, still, and simply followed him with their eyes...still.
"Twilight. Let's follow him. I don't feel good about that creature." Rarity proposed.
The lavender unicorn nodded, and the six elements followed...after Pinkie Pie got Fluttershy back on her hooves with a smile and back patting.
As he walked around, the biped found that the emptiness of the town was peculiar indeed. There were banners and confetti everywhere. Heck, there were speakers and boom boxes right in the middle of it all. It didn't seem like it was abandoned. In-fact, everything there was still on, save for the lack of music. The biped walked towards the studio and analyzed it, looking from top to bottom and even pressing various buttons to make it perform various actions, such as creating different laser effects or spotlight patterns. The biped scratched his head in confusion. This place seemed so primitive yet it had such a technology? He stepped down from the podium and continued to look around. To his surprise, he noticed a bar and hurried towards it.
He was unaware that those who didn't run towards the vehicle were peeking from behind their curtains and staring at him. The mane six were doing the same thing, but from around the corner. He had broken into the building, literally kicking down the door, and had gone into the storage. One of the ponies from the crowd was clearly the owner, and he cursed silently as he was stopped by others preventing him from going and defending his merchandise. The creature came out with several crates of hard apple cider, tossed them on the ground next to a table, and sat down on one of the chairs...he broke it the second he did that, though, and groaned in pain as he rubbed his rear. Pinkie muffled a laugh.
"Man. That hurt. Now. Let's see what treasures we have here. Apple cider? It could be rich."
The creature took a bottle opener that was placed in the hip of his suit and peeled the cap off. He then took a swig at the drink and smacked his lips as he twisted and turned the brownish bottle.
"Hmmmm. Bleh. Only fifteen percent alcohol? I wanted to drink beer, not water!"
"WATER?!" something yelled from afar.
It was the bar owner, but he was quickly swiped away by everypony else and hidden behind a building while they muffled him and held him in place.
"Hello? Anyone there? I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to know where I--"
"Yer in mah turf...goy..." a clearly drunk person said.
"Hm?"
The biped looked under the table to see a purple mare redder than a tomato sit up and look at him whilst tilting from left to right. Instead of wondering if she spoke, the visitor smiled and put an elbow on the table.
"And what are you?"
"Ah'm the one...who's better den yu..."
"In what category?"
"...Drinking."
"HA!"
"Is that a...a challenge?"
"You're seriously challenging me into drinking? Alright, then. Your death."
The creature chuckled as he finished his bottle, tossed it to the side, then took two more and uncapped them. The crowd watching from afar all showed the same faces of worry.
"Berry is the worst drinker in Equestria. He doesn't stand a chance." one of the ponies thought.
Berry's excessive resistance to alcohol was a feat indeed, but it wasn't unknown where the Pied Piper came from that he had challenged the demon of alcohol, literally. Nobody had come up top since its birth, and it was several million years old. Somehow, the creature had survived the encounter and had become infamous in the demon world for still drinking more alcohol afterwards. So, half an hour had passed, and both sides had drunk fifty bottles of hard cider. Berry felt herself becoming faint, whilst the Piper simply smiled and took another swig before tossing his now empty bottle back onto the pile, producing clinking noises.
"Feeling woozy, small-fry? Here. Take. Another. Sip." he grinned as he tossed another bottle at the mare.
As the Pied Piper watched, the mare struggled to get the bottle to her face, and, as a drop was about to reach her tongue, she passed out and fell to the ground, allowing the Piper to grab her bottle and his and drink from both of them at once, letting the beverage pour on his armor a bit. He then got up and sighed in joy.
"Quite a weak alcohol. Now, how was she talking? I wasn't even drunk yet. Hmmmmmmm-GAH!"
The man jumped back after a pink pony suddenly popped up right in front of him. She was smiling wildly and it seemed like there was a thin line from her starting to wag her tail.
"Pinkie, no!" Twilight whispered from afar.
The pony opened her mouth and was about to say something until she was picked up by the back of her neck just like Fluttershy. She weirdly just floated upwards like she was still standing on the ground, making the Pied Piper throw his head back in surprise.
"How are you doing that?"
Once more, Pinkie was interrupted by a small explosion that occurred right next to Pied Piper. It was very tiny and only real gave off a bright flash of light and tossed dirt into the air. Pinkie frowned as she got mud in her mane, but suddenly smiled as she looked upwards at it. She closed her eyes and inhaled once before holding her breath. The mud all slowly sunk into her mane, making the creature get closer to try and understood what it was seeing. Suddenly, the mare opened her mouth with a "bleeeeh!" sound, and stuck out her tongue. There was a solidified mud ball on it.
"EW!" the creature shouted as he dropped the pink pony."That's sick! How the heck is that even possible?!"
Another one of the explosions occurred, but closer to him, followed by:
"Step away from my subject."
It was a very authoritarian voice, but the Piper paid no attention to it and continued to speak aloud on his thoughts of what just happened.
"I mean, unless you're a demon, you can't possibly absorb things through your flesh."
"YOU DARE IGNORE ME WHEN I GIVE YOU A WARNING?!"
An additional flash of light was created, but this time, it hit the creature on the back. The only problem? It may have hit its target and flashed, but nothing occurred. Instead, the creature took something out of its hip, that somehow opened up with clicking noises, the brought its arm back and caused an incredibly loud noise. This all happened in barely a second.
"Now where was I?"
The ponies from afar watched as a group of Luna's guards were quietly seeking onto their target. Some were on the roofs, others were simply in the shadows of the buildings. Once more, it seemed instantaneous once the creature jumped out of the way and tossed a strange, yellow ball at the six guards. They just looked at what looked like a pineapple, then all screamed in pain as they were blinded by a sudden flash of light and burnt, then tossed around.
"Oh no." a voice clamored.
The creature put whatever it had in hand back into its hip then took the longer weapon off his back and aimed at a white alicorn. He kept his eye on the target and through the scope, but the alicorn was very bright and bothering. To remedy this, he lowered his helmet visor back down.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed with joy.
Celestia gestured for her and the other ponies who were starting to come out to stay back.
"I saw what you did to the sky, and what you brought. You think you can take over Equestria, demon?"
"Demon? Already, you're a talking form of equidae, but you call ME a demon? I was pretty sure you were demons."
"What are you?"
Celestia asked, her guards standing behind her with aggressivity.
"Hmph. I'm the Pied Piper. I'm a bounty hunter who hunts demons. Apparently, I'm one of the best, but I don't know why..."
The creature rubbed the chin of his armor, then suddenly shot one of the pegasi guards diving at him, making the poor guard bounce off the ground and scream in pain. Celestia frowned furiously after this action.
"What do you want?"
"To get back home. I apparently got dragged with that demon train in one of its dimensional vortexes."
"So...you are not a demon?"
"No. Like I said, I hunt them. I'd like to know where I am, what you are, who you are, and what's with these things constantly attacking me."
"YOU SHOULD TALK! You attacked Fluttershy!" yelled Twilight.
"Huh? What was that?" the creature asked as he looked behind himself in confusion.
"Down here."
"Hm?"
"If you don't remove your weapons now, I'll make you feel what Fluttershy felt."
Twilight was in a ready-to-attack position with her head lowered and her legs spread out slightly. Pure rage seethed through her eyes and every inch of her body wanted to tackle this creature. This all disappeared like alcohol in the Piper's presence the second he began to pat her on the head.
"Awwww. How adorable. The little thing wants to act tough. She's so cute."
Twilight became red and her cheeks puffed up in embarrassment.
"Is she your kid?" Piper asked as he turned to face Celestia and pointed downwards towards the mare.
"Wh-No. She's a full-grown mare."
"A what?"
"She's an adult."
"Wow. Then you must be different species."
"TWILIGHT! That's enough." Celestia shouted.
"But--"
"NO! There are no buts. This is very serious. Whatever this creature brought with it, I can sense a change in magic. I'm expecting my scouts to return with more information on whatever else came here. AS for you, I need you to tell me everything you know.
"Well, I don't know how to say this, but, do you have some form of super energy or element that is the basis for your protection or weapons or something?"
"Something all-powerful?...The Elements of Harmony."
"Then you need to hide them and cover them with barrier to prevent demonic incursion, or else they'll steal those to return to my dimension. Where are these exactly?"
"They're standing right behind you."
The creature turned around to see six, multi-colored equine creatures standing right behind him, namely the creepy pink one and the silent yellow one from earlier, along with the other ponies of Ponyville looking at the unfolding events from afar.
"They're holding the elements?"
"They ARE the elements." Celestia frowned.
"Ooooooooo...That's bad."
"I can see why?"
"Why? What's going on? And who is this ruffian?" Rarity asked.
"We'll have to talk someplace private. Perhaps your library, Twilight Sparkle?"
"Sure."
"We're gon' have a long talk." Pied Piper chuckled as he flicked some armor chunks off his gun.
The wounded guards were taken away by field medics, although Celestia noticed his action and its purpose and looked at him dead in the eyes, at least where she thought they were, and said:
"We'll make a temporary truce, but I do not like what you did to my guards. If you do anything, anything at all, I'll crush you."
Celestia glared at the bipedal creature with all her might, even going so far as to impose her presence with intimidation magic, causing her eyes to glow a burning white and her outlines to become more prominent and bright, literally making her seem like the living embodiment of the sun. There was a long pause as others around began to quiver and shake, but the Piper simply tilted his head slightly, then patted the alicorn on the muzzle.
"That's nice. Now we have stuff to do, so let's go. Lead the way, Twili Speckle."
"It's...It's TWILIGHT SPARKLE."
"Well excuuuuse me, princess."
"No. She's the princess."
"You people are so confusing."
"What's a 'people'?"
"Ugh."