“Twilight?!” Spike kicked open the door, the screaming Rarity still clung tight to his chest. “Twilight?!?! You still here?” he jogged up the stairs to the purple unicorn’s room, looking around as he rushed up the rough wooden steps. He burst into the room, “Twilight?” Even Rarity seemed to grow slightly silent in the empty room.
For a moment there was silence, and then a slight movement from behind the bed proved that the unicorn was home. A hoof flung into the air and slammed desperately onto the mattress, it peeled away back to the ground along with a disgruntled moan from behind the shadows. The hoof dragged the sheets over and onto the ground behind.
Spike struggled with the still writhing Rarity, she clung to her ears tightly now crying silently. Spike was terrified, unsure of what to do or say, Twilight was obviously awake but something wasn’t right. “Uhhh...Twi? Rarity needs some he”-
“Uuuurrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!” the noise came from under the sheets that now covered the slumping pony.
“Twilight?” Spike edged around the side of the mattress and tugged at the sheet with his foot, pulling it off the unicorns head.
She looked rough; she looked up into the dragon’s eyes with obvious pain and discomfort. She opened her mouth, but whatever words she planned to say were lost by the sudden torrent of sick that exploded from her mouth. It fell to the floor and added to the pool that was fast spreading around her. The sheet had covered it, so Spike hadn’t seen it. Chunks of her stomachs contents were stuck in the unicorns clumped and now sticky fur. Patches were discoloured with brown blotches were the horrible liquid had splashed back onto her. She looked terrible!
When she finally recovered, she looked up again, whipping her mouth with the back of her foreleg she looked at the platinum pony in her assistant’s arms, still shuddering and clinging to her ears. She stuttered for a moment before finally speaking through the rancid taste in her mouth. “T-the...the taste! It’s worse than ever before! It’s making me...” Her colour suddenly turned a horrible shade of green, her eyes half closed as she gulped for a moment, hoping the sensation would pass.
It did, but not without a bile filled burp intruding the pony’s mouth and causing her cheeks to puff out uncomfortably. The smart unicorn looked at her two friends, seeing Rarity clinging to her ears crying in pain, she realised what this all meant. NOT GOOD!
She stood suddenly, looking to her dragon friend. She been to talk fast, trying to say everything before another spew of bile escaped her stomach. “Spike, there’s some kind of magic that’s interfering with unicorns that look out for it! It’s getting worse so I need you to look after me and Rarity, I don’t know how long it’s going to be but”-
“Celestia just tried to contact you through me!” The princess’s words now finally made sense; ‘It’ was the magic. This meant that the magic was focusing over Ponnyville! Oh no! “Twilight, she wants us to get out, now! We’ve gotta go!” He ran over to his adopted sister, scooped her under his arm, and ran down the steps, either pony clenched tightly to his chest. Twilight shouted out in protest for a moment, but soon grew silent in her combat against her queasiness as she bounced up and down in the dragon’s grip.
As he emerged out into the night he looked around, what should he do? Head out now with Rarity and Twilight? Or find the others? A rumble began to sound out in the distance; Spike looked up to the sky, trying to discern a sign of thunder but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
He jumped suddenly as the sky was illuminated for an instant in a flash of intense light. Oh geez! This was getting bad! Even the dragon, who had no magical ability could now sense the magic in the air, it crackled like electricity all around him. It invaded his panting mouth and snapped and crackled on his wet tongue as it hung out to the side slightly.
They possibly had a few minutes to get out now! A few minutes meant that the choice had now been made for him, time to get out and hope the others would have the sense to do the same or stay inside. Sweetie would have the sense to go into the basement if these flashes continued; she’d stay and wait for them to return.
She’d be fine when the guards came to protect the town.(Surely Celestia would send some!) Whatever was happening, the armoured soldiers of Equestria could keep it under control. Right now, Spike needed to get the girls to safety. He took another step forwards, which was met with yet another flash of light. He began running towards the Everfree Forest. That would be dangerous, but it would mean magic couldn’t follow them; magic didn’t seem to exist in that kind of form in-between the dark trunks of the trees.
In the cold silence of the night, all that could be heard were the pained whisperings of the two ponies under the thick arms of the dragon, mixed with the sounds of his lumbering footsteps as he fast approached the dark tree line. The magic was still thick in the air, and it seemed to be intensifying even further as visible sparks now seemed to be emanating from his mouth as the magic mixed with moisture of his hot breath. However, through the silence, the dragon was slowly able to make out the sounds of hooves travelling towards him fast.
The dragon turned defensively, just in time to find all the girls approaching him. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were all following a determined looking Applejack and Big Macintosh. The Dragon stopped his advance towards the trees, waiting for the group of friends to catch up.
“Spike?! What the hay is goin’ on!” Applejack asked, her face showed how worried she truly was. As the dragon looked, he could see that even though they had no magical talent, all of the ponies could sense that something wasn’t right anymore. Spike opened his mouth to explain, but that was when Rarity gave out a particularly violent kick with her hind legs. She let out fresh screams and clung to her head with new found vigour.
Everypony watched as the dragon lay Twilight down to the ground gently then focused on Rarity. Yet again he held her close, soothing her and trying to calm her. But nothing worked, whatever the unicorn could hear was obviously tearing her apart. At that point Applejack advanced to help, just as Twilight let out another heaving retch, releasing even more bile onto the floor. She began to convulse fitfully, she fell into the puddle she had just made and began to writhe.
“TWILIGHT!” The girls all yelled out, they all rushed out to help their collapsing friend. Leaving Big Macintosh to stand alone in the dark. They all crowded around her trying to understand what was wrong, how they could help. They were all so panicked and rushed, none of them heard it, a new sound of rumbling. Like a fast moving wind tearing through the air. Neither did they hear Big Mac, who looked up into the dark sky and saw something. “Up there!”
The girls still scrabbled around their friend trying to help. Big Macintosh cleared his throat and said it again louder than before. “UP THERE!” Still no one noticed his quiet words. Rarity flipped onto her back, she knew what was coming and on the other side of the wall of ponies, Twilight did the same. Behind their terrible symptoms, they could feel something new. A presence, it was rite above them; it was... right...
“UP THERE!” The two unicorns shouted out at the same time as the red stallion a few feet away.
The group all looked into the sky, to see a twinkle in the sky. It was fast growing brighter than any of the other stars in the black canvas. And as it grew in magnitude, it also grew in size and shape. It was something reaching near sonic rain-boom speeds. It pushed constant amounts of air out of its way as it streamed towards the town, therefore making the terrible rumbling from above like thunder. It let off large discharges of light, which were the flashes that all could see.
Suddenly, as fast as they had come, the two unicorns’ symptoms began to fade away. The whining noise in Rarity’s ears mixed with the growing rumble of the approaching object, and as it melded, it began to fade into nothing. The taste in Twilight’s mouth seemed to ooze down her throat and into her stomach where it seemed to dissolve into nothing. The two looked on as the object approached, now as normal as any other pony. Twilight’s mind span a hundred different arguments around in her head, did this mean that the object meant no harm anymore? No that made no sense why would it’s arrival suddenly change its reason for being here? Had these symptoms been of a sickness and this magical object was some form of cure sent by Celestia? NO! She wouldn’t have asked for them to get out of Ponyville if that were the case.
Her mind suddenly settled on the only explanation left to them, she watched as the object as it screeched towards the town. These symptoms must have been the effects of overdosing! A term she had only heard in her studies, a particularly dusty old book had explained how when a huge excess of magic is exposed to magical ponies, be they Alicorn’s or Unicorns. The ponies would gain unique symptoms where they would experience pain, as the new foreign magic seeped into the ponies body and was fought off by their own magic.
This meant, the magical build up was over; this object had used unbelievable amounts of power to get here. Now that it had arrived, it had spent it all up, so when it finally arrived, its magic faded and left no trace, meaning the symptoms also vanished from her and her friend. She got shakily to her hooves. She may no longer be suffering from overdose. But it had still taken a lot out of her. She swayed for a moment, but was propped up by a speedy Applejack.
The object came screaming faster and faster down to the ground, it wasn’t that big, but it would still kill anypony who was hit by it. Applejack looked from the object, to the direction it was headed, to where it should land. The group were in the clearing between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. A large expanse of grass spread out before them, and luckily this seemed to be where the object was headed.
But somepony was stood directly in the objects path. Big Mac! “MAC! MOVE!” The stallion was frozen in shock, he had realized it was headed for him, and he had frozen solid terrified by the sight. “MAC! Darn it! Move your tail!” Still nothing. The object was almost there, everypony could feel the heat from it as it passed over them! Only a few seconds! Applejack let out another scream, “MAC! MAAAAAACCC!” though she was the only pony in the group shouting, there seemed to be another voice, higher pitched. Screaming the same name out. Mac heard it, he heard the higher voice and the voice of his sister, and the oddness of the phenomenon was enough to shake him from his frozen state.
The stallion dived away, just in time, as the object smashed into the ground where his hooves had just stood upon mere milliseconds before. The impact let out a giant boom, followed by a shockwave of air that pushed everypony down to the ground hard. Dust billowed from the ground, and smoke seemed to sizzle as it escaped the now huge crater that had been a grassy field mere moments ago.
With fear each pony got to their feet, slowly making their way towards the crater, towards the sounds of weeping that they could now hear. A high pitched voice had begun to cry out that name again. “Mac!... Mac why!?!” The group all looked to each other terrified at the strangeness of the whole situation. With trepidation, Twilight opened her puke lined mouth.
And called out.