The café had been totally decimated in seconds, Savor and Savoir were glad their insurance covered ever single bit of damage that their destroyed restaurant had just taken. The last remnant of the insanely quick attack was the disturbing screech of the creature as it flew off into the distance carrying the vague shape of a pony.
Octavia held onto Vinyl cuddling her to her chest. The DJ slowly came too and blinked at the destruction that surrounded her before looking up at Octavia.
“You saved me?” Vinyl felt a flutter in her heart. Octaves really did care about her.
“Vinyl you may be annoying, crazy and downright crude, but there is no way I’m letting a monster smash the ever loving life out of you. Since that’s my job!” Even as she angrily yelled this into her face, Octavia couldn’t get the smile to leave the unicorns face. Octavia even smacked Vinyl in the back of the head and the smile still ceased to vanish from her horrible friends face. “By the way it seems your glasses were destroyed in this mess, you have really pretty eyes by the way.”
“Why thank you, wait… what!? MY EYES, THEY ARE UNCOVERED!” Vinyl cried over the loss of her DJ glasses, even as ponies were running around and panicking out of control everywhere. She wasn’t smiling anymore but at least she was being comforted by the uptight pony.
In the corner of one of the restaurants still standing walls hugging Bonbon to her chest as she cried, Lyra was wondering how they ended up like this and didn’t care as she needed comforting.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay Lyra? Did you get hurt? Why are you crying like this?” Bonbon felt very odd to be cuddled in Lyra’s hooves even if she was horribly upset about something. Well a huge monster attacking during the daytime was an oddity to be upset about, but she didn’t think that was why Lyra was crying.
“No, I’m not fine Bonnie. That monster destroyed my pie!” Lyra was blubbering too hard to see the flat look that crossed Bonbon’s face. Sighing Bonbon decided to cuddle and comfort the distraught unicorn about the pie she didn’t get to eat, even if it was just plain weird that that was what she was so distraught about. To think this was the unicorn that saved her seconds ago.
Bonbon had always liked those weird quirks about Lyra as she was funny like that; she thought Lyra might have been worried about her safety or something considering she was the first thing Lyra grabbed. She knew Lyra would be even more distraught once she realizes the restaurant that serves her favorite kind of pie just got demolished. Bonbon figured it was better to not mention the restaurant’s destruction at this time as she was having enough of a hard time calming down the easily excitable unicorn.
It took a few minutes, but the surrounding ponies finally stopped panicking. They even started helping assess the damage and the injuries of other nearby ponies; they quickly came together as a community to help out those who were injured by the sudden mayhem.
Nearby Pinkie was lying on top of Trixie and the illusionary magician couldn’t be any more confused.
“Pinkie, how did you end up on top of Trixie? Especially when Trixie is the one that shoved you to the ground?” Trixie was pretty sure she pushed Pinkie to the ground while throwing her body on top of Pinkie’s.
“Are you kidding? I’m always the one that’s on top of things!” Pinkie honestly didn’t know why Trixie gave her such an incredulous look. Then she felt a sharp pain in her head which caused her to reflexively grab it with both hooves, it felt like a pony that wanted to go to one of her parties was being prevented from doing so. That just couldn’t stand as Pinkie has never not knowingly let a pony go if they wanted to party, this would bug her until she could figure out why the pony was indisposed. “Trixie we need to find a pony that can’t attend my party tomorrow and we need to make sure they can come! We also need to find out why they can’t come. Not coming might just be indicative of blueberries and no stallion likes getting blueberries for some reason! Mr. Cake is always going on about them when he’s spending happy time with Mrs. Cake and she doesn’t want to finish whatever it is they are doing since they know I’m listening in.”
“What?” Trixie was having some trouble following Pinkie’s logic, but she couldn’t be any happier to be so distracted from all the groaning injured ponies around her. At least no pony she knew looked to be dying, though there was blood splattering the ground in a few places. The ponies she didn’t know were still breathing or getting back to their hooves slowly if still slightly in shock, the ones that weren’t getting up looked liked really needed help and soon.
“I need a little help over here!” In the midst of this, Cheerilee slowly pulled Twilight out from under a flipped table. She started to look around for some pony that can help the unconscious unicorn she had by the armpits with her front hooves.
“Oh dear, I hope she’s okay. I came over here as quick as possible with my medical kit, excuse me miss but please keep her head elevated.” Fluttershy was quickly on the scene as soon as she heard of panicked ponies and injuries. She may have been afraid of being stared at and or being in large crowds, but she would have been angry at herself for not appearing and helping out those who needed her aid.
Looking up from the unicorn in her hooves the teacher saw the pegasus unfold her wing holding a medical kit and promptly set it down next to her. Doing as Fluttershy asked, Cheerilee kept Twilight’s head elevated. The soft looking winged pony was soon holding Twilight’s hoof and giving it a squeeze or two and then she checked her head.
“It’s another light concussion, poor Twilight. Why do these things always happen to you?” Fluttershy always felt bad that Twilight didn’t have anything close to resembling a normal life. It took a moment for her to realize the other pony holding Twilight’s head in her lap was looking at her. “Oh… um… I’m Fluttershy, nice to meet you miss?”
“I’m Cheerilee, a local schoolteacher here in Ponyville. You can call me Cheery or Cheer. I take it you’re a friend of Twilight’s. Has this kind of thing happened a lot to her before?” Cheerilee wondered what was wrong with the pegasus as she had a distant look on her face.
Fluttershy was just reliving all the moments Twilight has face hoofed at something frustrating at one point or another, then all the other blows she’s taken to the face and or body. The shy mare actually thought Twilight had never looked like she has been injured, thinking it over she has noticed that her friend get’s a lot of blunt trauma on a regular basis and would heal from it in a relatively quick manner.
“Yes, but I’m sure she’ll be fine but she may need something to make the swelling go down. She’s kind of accident prone and is used to these kind of injuries.” Fluttershy shook her head at the thought of the times Twilight tripped or stumbled in life; she always got back up perfectly fine and kept moving forward. “What happened here?”
“A giant monster smashed the surrounding area really fast or at least that’s what I think happened in general. I didn’t even see what it was, I like every other pony here were either sent flying or knocked to the floor by the initial impact it made. That is what destroyed most of the café.” The surrounding area of was pretty bad off; Cheerilee was mostly okay with minor cuts and bruises she had acquired. She really hadn’t noticed when Fluttershy had tended to her; the mare was so gentle she didn’t even feel herself being patched up. “I think our friend here will be okay, go help the ponies that need it more than she does.”
Fluttershy immediately nodded and surveyed the area and despite her quiet nature she managed to announce that those with bad looking injuries need to be brought to her attention immediately. Every pony near the scene of the attack needed to be examined and taken care of. She was trained in first aid and knew how to stabilize ponies with serious injuries.
The towns’ ponies started to help Fluttershy with taking care of those that were more heavily injured from the attack. A lot of other ponies were busy trying to describe the creature to other important ponies while waiting for the mayor to address the issue. The disaster zone was quickly cleared of debris and Fluttershy had her work cut out for her. At least that was the case until the local quick response medic Nurse Redheart appeared to assist with the injured.
Twilight slowly moved her head and it lolled about a bit as she blinked her eyes, her vision was blurry and her head hurt. Well this was another concussion she could have lived without, she was glad her skull was so strong to withstand so many impacts without cracking.
“Mane where are you?” Twilight was so out of it, she was looking around for a green mane and purplish colored fur. She may have had a dream or two about being cocooned in Tress’s hair at some point or another.
“Twilight it would be a good idea to stay calm, you have a slight concussion.” Cheerilee slowly came to Twilight’s attention and she tried to sit up. “Not too fast Twilight, you’ve been injured. Please take it slowly.”
Twilight heeded the teachers’ words and slowly sat up, her head ached and she was looking around as ponies gathered shattered bits of wood, stone and anything else into a pile. She could even make out Fluttershy working with an earth pony to help wrap bandages around several bleeding ponies. The one thing she couldn’t see in all this mess was her friend Tress. She could even see Trixie with a pink pony that had two blue balloons and a yellow one on her flank. Wait, Trixie was here? So that’s where she went.
Trixie was currently unimportant to Twilight’s mind; all her friends were accounted for except for one. Where was Tress, she mentally worked up a memory spell and took in the scene seconds before the attack.
The soonest the monster had hit the ground Twilight had her usual reflex to sudden shocks and was immediately covered in a barrier before she was slapped into the wall by a large monstrous claw. Her barrier faltered when she came to a rest on the floor, a table was sent flying at her and the last thing she saw was an unconscious Tress gripped in the creatures’ claw. That’s when the table finally collided with her head.
Sitting up faster, Twilight staggered to her hooves. There were now two beings on the list of things she didn’t like, Sunset Shimmer and that monster that just took her best friend. She started towards the library and home, she had to prepare for a small journey and she didn’t know whether or not she’d be back. She couldn’t hear Cheerilee calling out for her as she stumbled away.
As she reached the library and went around back, Twilight proudly witnessed her daughter levitating a wooden block with a ring of flames. Barb lost her concentration when she saw Twilight approaching; the wooden block was engulfed in flames and shot towards Twilight as a beam of green fire. It reformed back into a wooden block before slamming into her forehead causing her to grunt in pain.
“Oh no, mom I’m so sorry!” Barb had barely got those words out given she was now being gripped in a strong tight hug by her mother.
“It’s okay, mommies here and slightly even more concussed then she was before. Smart I’m leaving a list with you of ponies I want to look after Barb if I don’t return, Tress was carried off by a monster and I’m going to give chase.” Twilight was already halfway through the list of ponies she’d want Barb to be aided by in the event she didn't come back anytime soon or at all. She finished and levitated it to Smart who took it into her tiny hooves.
“Have you used the locator spell yet professor Sparkle? How do we know that hot flank hasn’t been…?” Smart really didn’t want to finish that train of thought. She didn’t have to as Twilight’s horn lit up and a three dimensional arrow pointed off into the distance, the arrow wouldn’t even appear if the pony in question had been killed. Locator spells were quite useful for finding a friend in an emergency. “Right then, please live long and prosperous. Also try not to die too horribly as I’d really miss myself.”
Somewhere in the Ever Free Forest, currently glued to a ceiling by her hooves was a pony that started coming to.
“Huh, what, where, oh no, NO, not again… anything but this… please tell me I’m not…” Tress was horrified to be glued to the ceiling of wherever she was so high off the floor. She had recurring nightmares like this of being glued to ceilings with different substances. It’s one of the reasons why the ceiling in their home was always clean and spotless. She had to think of better things before this drove her crazy. Fluttershy in a maid uniform… yes, she had to think of pleasant stuff like that adorable image.
Tress thought of Twilight reading a book peacefully on a moonlit night. Barb trying and failing horribly to break a piñata open with a stick. Velvet and Night’s antics when they were in a silly mood and decided the family needed to do something fun together like playing a game of advanced twister. There was even Fluttershy being squeamish and toying with her mane while looking at the floor and blushing.