//------------------------------// // Episode 1 // Story: Return of Disaster (Season 1) // by Tomo-Domo //------------------------------// "Aww, come on, Violet. I can do a better loop than you can," my best friend shouted from the cloud she was sitting on. We had challenged each other to some friendly competition to see who was a better. She was a fairly pretty mare: her cyan coat glowed in the sun, her rainbow mane flowed gently with the breeze, and her eyes beamed in the sunlight, displaying the fullness of her confidence. Her name, was Rainbow Dash, she always stood up for her friends when they needed her, and she never left them hanging. "Oh yeah? Well, that's only because my wing is still scarred. But that doesn't mean we don't have a score to settle," I shouted back. We tied our last race, and I was determined to train until I could beat her. "That's right, let's settle this now!" She shouted, jumping off of her cloud. "Fine, let me grab my bow before I forget it." I then walked over to said weapon, and slung it over my back. I then flew up next to her and got into position. "Ready." "Okay," she said, getting ready. "On your mark, get set, GO!" She shouted, and dashed away. Surprised at her sudden start in the race, and I dashed after her, trying to catch up. I didn't try desperately to catch up, since that would just use all of my energy and possibly end the race before it truly started. I stopped next to her and slowed down a bit to save my energy for the end when I really needed a good dash to the finish. "You seem to have gotten even faster since our last race. But that's not going to help you, because I put obstacles all over our course. Even I don't remember where I put them." She said, flying even faster. Before we found the first obstacle, we heard a high pitched scream and stopped. Completely forgetting about our race and flew in the direction of the scream. When we arrived, we found everything abandoned, turned over, and broken. There was nopony around, save for a small filly walking with a limp. She was facing away from us, so we didn't see her face. Her mane was out of place and crooked, giving her a look as if she just got out of bed. "Little filly? Do you know what's going on?" I asked her, slowly walking up to her. She didn't respond, so I asked again. But still didn't receive an answer. Clearly impatient, Rainbow Dash spoke next. "Hey, we're trying to talk to you, do you know what happened?" The young filly then finally turned around, and revealed a horrible sight. Her eyes were clouded, and showed no sign of life. Her muzzle was covered in blood, and her cheek was completely gone, revealing teeth underneath. She had dark circles under her eyes as well, and one of her ears were gone. Her left front leg was torn into by something, showing a large, bleeding wound. She started to walk closer, letting out a long growl. I slung my bow off of my back and drew an arrow. "I'm warning you, filly. Don't come any closer or I will shoot." I warned. Ignoring my warning, she walked closer, reaching for us with her hoof. Closing my eyes, I released the arrow, not wanting to see the effect. I had just killed a filly, but was she really a filly? "Violet? You just killed her! Why in Equestria would you kill a little filly?" Rainbow Dash asked, starting to panic. "We both know we've seen this before, and we both know what this is. We have to get back now. We are in danger once again, but this time we need to be more cautious. With more ponies, that means more danger." "What next?" She asked, starting to panic. "You're faster than me, so fly ahead and warn the others, they need to know immediately. I'll fly just behind you, but I need to gather as much as I can in case we need to hide out for a while." I responded, sending her away. I immediately flew to the nearest store and gathered as many supplies I could hold: food, water, first aid, etc. After that, I began to fly back to the library, hoping Rainbow Dash had already been there. My thoughts were once again interrupted by another scream. "Help! Somepony please help!" I flew towards the source of the voice and found a young stallion standing in the middle of an alleyway. "Hey, are you alright? What's wrong?" I asked him, looking for any response through his sobs. Out of nowhere, I felt somepony grab me from behind. I struggled against their surprising amount of strength. The stallion in front of me faced me and smiled. The pony holding me grabbed my mane and pulled my head up to face the stallion. He walked up to me and spoke to the pony holding me. "Good job, Cinder. She'll do perfectly. She even has supplies and a weapon." He then faced me. "But you won't be so lucky." Angry at his audacity to trick other ponies into his traps, I spat in his face, only making him mad. He lifted a hoof and punched me in the chest, knocking the breath out of me. He then reached up and lifted my chin up to face him. "If you know what's good for you, you won't try that again. Got it?" He released my head, and I simply looked down. "I said, Got it?!" He demanded, slapping his hoof across my face. "Yes!" I screamed, desperately. "Good girl. Now, Cinder, take her back to the hideout. She could be useful. And, Cinder. Try to keep this one alive, okay?" I struggled with all of my strength to get away from these ponies, but only received more abuse. The stallion walked up to me. "Just so you don't get any ideas..." He then punched me in the face, knocking me unconscious. When I awoke, I was greeted by the stallion who had captured me. He was simply sitting in a chair, playing with a knife. When he noticed me, however, he stood up and walked to me. I noticed I was tied down to a bed by my hooves. I struggled hard to escape, but to no avail. The stallion simply smiled at me. "Don't bother, you're dealing with rope here, you're not going anywhere. But I can use you. You can tell me where the rest of you are hiding. Or..." He held the knife to my throat, "we can do this the hard way." "Buck off." I insulted. No matter what this stallion did to me, he would never know where my family was. He simply responded by placing the blade on my left hind leg and cut a deep incision into my leg. I screamed in pain as my eyes burst into tears. I struggled to get away, but still, without success. "Are you going to talk now?" He whispered in my ear. "Never." I said in between gritted teeth. He simply smiled and stabbed the blade into my right foreleg. I screamed desperately for it to stop. I prayed for the pain to end. My eyes were filled with fresh tears. "How about now?" He demanded, placing the blade up to my underbelly. "No." It was all I could say, before another surge of pain erupted from my belly as he cut deeply into my body. The pain was unbearable. I felt myself start to drift back into unconsciousness, only to receive another hard slap to my face. "Don't you pass out yet, there's still so much to confess!" He then held the blade to my cheek. "Unless you want to talk." All I could do was cough up blood. The pain was so intense that I felt vomit rise up in my throat. Through the pain, I managed to say, "You might as well kill me." He simply smiled and said, "So be it. Just know that you will experience a very slow and extremely painful death. Your family and friends will never see you again!" He shouted, thrusting the blade into my right hind leg, and began moving the blade around inside. The new surge of pain was worse than I could even think. I felt myself start to drift into unconsciousness. I prayed that it would end. I hoped he would just kill me now, and get it over with. At the same time, I wished that somepony would burst into the room and save me. I felt my mind go blank and the entire world went black, and the pain finally ceased.