"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
The shriek came in through the window. It sounded like it was coming from the street.
Her despair at being unable to save Pinkie temporarily brushed aside, Twilight looked outside the kitchen window. She gasped.
On the street were three ponies: two mares and a stallion. Their fur and manes were matted with fresh, dripping blood. Their eyes were filled with a manic glee and a bloodlust Twilight had never seen in any creature before. The stallion held an old, blood-spattered wood axe in his grip. The mares brandished a large kitchen knife and an old spear. These were slick with gore.
On the ground lay five ponies, spouting hideous injuries. They were missing limbs, or had a cracked skull, or had deep cuts in their flanks. One even had his guts spilled on the ground. Blood poured from their wounds. The only mercy was that they were already dead.
Other ponies were on the street, fleeing in panic. They screamed as they tried to run in all directions, frequently bumping into each other in their frantic attempts to escape the maniacs with the weapons.
Twilight had never seen such carnage before. Never seen ponies so brutally slain. Especially never seen it done by other ponies that would look perfectly normal without the blood, weapons, and crazed looks in their eyes. Twilight wanted to vomit.
So she did.
After she was done losing her lunch (and maybe her breakfast too), Twilight looked out again. The crazed ponies had already killed two others, but thankfully it seemed most of the rest had managed to flee the scene. There were still a few cowering near the edges of buildings.
One to the mares got on her hind legs. "Is there no one in this pathetic town who dares face the warriors of the Blood God? Is there none among you with the courage to face us, pony to pony? Are you all worthless sheep like this bunch?" She indicated the slain ponies.
Twilight felt a horrible rage building in her gut. How dare they? How dare they come here? How dare they bring their mindless bloodlust, their murder, and their blood god? How dare they attack the innocent? Would they get away with it?
"Not while I'm around!"
Twilight burst out of the kitchen door. "Hey, you murderous bullies! I'm here! I'll challenge you! I'm Twilight Sparkle! I've defeated demons and corrupted gods! You're nothing compared to that! So leave these ponies alone and fight me!"
The three ponies turned to regard her. She stared right back at them unflinchingly.
Finally, one of the mares raised her spear. "Slaughter her in the name of Khorne!"
Twilight didn't hesitate. She hit the mare dead on with a wave of pure magical force. The pony went flying back into a brick building nearby. Her head hit the brick with a sickening crack, and she lay still, something trickling down her neck.
"Oh, Celestia… I may have killed a pony! What have I done?"
Twilight looked at herself. She hadn't meant to hit her that hard. Had she? Was she really that furious? Was she right to be?
Twilight had little time to ponder this, as the stallion began to scream. "Sorcery? The coward uses sorcery? Butcher her! Bring her skull to the skull throne!"
With that, the stallion and the remaining mare charged.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" screeched the stallion as he swung his axe at her. Twilight barely ducked under it. She felt it catch the edge of her mane before burying itself into the ground near her flank.
"SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" screamed the mare as she stabbed at Twilight. She swung her kitchen cleaver haphazardly, but she still looked deadly.
Twilight ducked and rolled, desperately trying to get away from this crazed pair. She came up a few feet away, towards the center of the street. The stallion was struggling to remove his axe from the ground, and the mare was picking herself up from where she'd fallen after leaning too far forward in her attempt to stab Twilight.
Whatever the ponies had done, Twilight still didn't want to kill them. She wanted answers. What could possibly cause normal, peaceful ponies to suddenly start acting like this? What could she do about it? What did the stallion who had kidnapped Pinkie have to do with it? Who was "Tzeentch"? Who was "Khorne"?
So, instead of blasting them again, Twilight focused all her energy on the mare. Her eyes closed hard, and her horn glowed.
"Go… to… sleep…"
Twilight felt an unnatural resistance to magic from this mare. Still, she pushed hard, and eventually the mare gave out and flopped to the ground, sleeping like a baby. A blood-encrusted, crazed, ponycidal baby.
Twilight panted as she opened her eyes again. Just in time to see the stallion charging her again with his axe, a mad gleam in his eyes. He swung the axe as Twilight backpedaled as fast as her hooves could go. Still, it passed within inches of her throat.
Twilight acted purely on instinct, without conscious thought. She hit the pony in front of her with the biggest blast of solid force she could conjure. He was picked up and hurled through the air, smashing through the wall of Mr. and Mrs. Cake's store and slamming hard onto the sink. There was a hideous crack. Blood began to ooze from his back.
Twilight cautiously approached the injured stallion. "If you surrender now, I'll take you to get medical treatment. I promise I won't let you die."
He looked up at her, eyes still filled with the maniacal gleam. "Lord of skulls, accept this humble offering."
He picked up his axe with his one good hoof.
Twilight frowned. "Put that down! You're in no condition to fight me!"
He turned the head back towards himself.
"He doesn't want to fight me!" Twilight realized, but too late.
The stallion swung his axe hard at his own neck. Sickeningly, it went through his throat and most of his neck before lodging in his spine. He died with the same maniacal gleam in his eyes.
The sight of his almost-beheaded corpse was so disgusting that Twilight retched again, but her stomach had no more contents to void.
Twilight fled the room.
…
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
The cry echoed across the town, as dozens, or maybe even hundreds, of crazed ponies seemed to spring from nowhere, slaughtering all in their path with mismatched blades. Ponies fled in abject terror of the lunatics as they cut down everyone within reach, while chanting praises to Khorne. A few tried to resist, but almost none had as much success as Twilight. It wasn't long before they had broken into town hall and beheaded the mayor and her assistant. Fires raged out of control around Ponyville as the lunatics burned everything or simply by accident. Ponies were fleeing in every conceivable direction. Almost all were headed for the hills. Many chose to flee towards nearby Canterlot, hoping to find safety there.
…
Twilight found herself in this crowd. She had tried her best to interrogate her prisoner, but she had gotten little other than lunatic promises of slaughter overcoming Equestria, of the princesses being cast down, and of the entire world being transformed into a blood-soaked monument to the gods of Chaos, whoever they were. The prisoner would only give one name: Khorne, the Blood God. That told Twilight nothing she hadn't already guessed.
Eventually, she had left the bound prisoner in another maniac giggling fit and fled from the dozen or so Khornate ponies that were burning the neighborhood. First, she'd run desperately to her house. She had to save Spike.
When she got there, she saw it was on fire.
"SPIKE!" Twilight screamed desperately as she kicked down her door.
"T-T-Twilight?" came a small voice, hiding in what passed for a basement in her tree.
"Spike! Oh thank Celestia you're safe!" Twilight said, scooping up the small dragon as he emerged from the root system beneath the floor. She hugged him tight. "Come on, we've gotta get out of here! There doesn't seem to be an end to these lunatics! We have to get to Canterlot! The princesses will know what to do!"
Spike nodded. "Behind you all the way!"
Together, they ran out of their home of several years as it burned and collapsed.
…
Twilight was far from the only pony fleeing Ponyville for Canterlot, as she passed numerous ponies bolting as fast as their hooves could take them in that direction. Others fled towards Fillydelphia, Manehatten, smaller towns or villages, or simply the wilderness, all in search of safety.
Overhead, Twilight suddenly caught a glimpse of a very familiar blue Pegasus.
"Rainbow Dash, down here!"
At first Twilight was worried she hadn't been heard, but at last the figure turned and swooped down. Rainbow Dash tackled Twilight and hugged her tight.
"Twilight, you're ok!"
"Oof," Twilight struggled under the choking hug. "I'm alright, but do you think you could let me breathe?"
"Oh, sorry." Rainbow released her.
"Thanks!" Twilight looked at Rainbow and noticed a long gash along her flank, just behind her wings. "What happened to you?" she said, with a look of concern in her eyes.
Rainbow looked at her cut. "Oh, this? It's nothing. Not deep at all. I got it when I tried to fight off a crazed madpony from a group of children."
"So they're in Cloudsdale too?"
"Yeah. Hundreds of em. I wanted to fight, but I realized I didn't have enough power to beat them on my own, so I just helped everyone get away as best I could before I ran to check on you guys. I'm really glad I found you, by the way. I was afraid you been killed when I saw that your house burned down. Pinkie's place got burned down. Rarity's and Applejack's too. Fluttershy's house got wrecked. Gashes in the walls and floor, furniture in pieces, blood and animal bodies everywhere."
"And Fluttershy? Did you see her? Is she… is she…"
"Dead?" Rainbow shook her head. "I didn't see her body, or anypony's for that matter. Just her pets."
"And what about the others? Have you seen them?"
Rainbow shook her head. "No. You're the first one I've seen. I've looked everywhere for you guys, but all I've found is your houses."
"What are you doing now?"
"Still looking for the rest of you."
"I saw Pinkie get taken."
Rainbow grabbed her shoulders. "She's dead?"
Twilight shook her head. "Alive when last I saw her. But the pony who took her mentioned something about a sacrifice to 'Lord Tzeentch', whoever that is."
"Horse pellets!"
Twilight would have been shocked at the foul language, but Rainbow left her no time.
"Where are you going?"
"Canterlot. The princesses have to know what happened here!"
Rainbow nodded. "Good idea! I'm going to take another sweep around to see if I can find anyone else, and then I'll meet back up with you again, ok?"
"Sounds good."
"Ok then. See you soon!" Rainbow soared back into the sky
…
Several hours later, Twilight and Spike were laying underneath a tree, trying to rest, or at least catch their breath. They'd fled as fast as their feet could take them for several hours, first running, then trotting, then walking, then limping with exhaustion. Finally, they'd decided that they could take no more, and it should take the madponies hours to catch up with them, if they were trying at all.
As they sat beneath the tree, they both looked sadly at the vast column of smoke rising from their hometown.
"Look on the bright side: I'm sure the princesses know now." Spike said between heavy breaths.
"Yeah, because our home is now just a giant pile of firewood! And who knows what else those ponies will do? Or where they've gone?"
"Good point. Just trying to be optimistic here."
Twilight smiled sadly and gave him a little hug. "I appreciate the effort."
They sat in silence for a few more minutes as they worked to catch their breaths. Finally, Spike pointed upwards.
"Hey, it's Rainbow Dash!"
Twilight looked up. Sure enough, the distinctive form of the blue pegasus was visible, and slowly approaching. She was going noticeably slower than usual. Almost as if… she was guiding something? Twilight's heart leaped at the thought, and she stood up. Spike clambered to his feet a few seconds later.
They watched as Rainbow slowly approached their position. Finally, she halted in the air not far from where they were.
"Over here! They're over here!" Rainbow called.
Twilight felt a rush of relief flooding over her at that. Rainbow could only be guiding her friends to her! That meant they were ok!
A moment later, Applejack rounded the bend, Applebloom on her back.
"Applejack!"
"Twlight!"
The two embraced, almost causing an exhausted-looking Applebloom to fall off her sister's back.
Twilight's happiness turned to disappointment as she saw that there was no one following. Rainbow landed near her.
Twilight turned towards Rainbow. "You didn't find the others?"
Rainbow shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Twi, but there wasn't anything else I could do. I looked and looked and looked for hours, but I couldn't find heads or hooves of Fluttershy, Rarity, or Pinkie. I had to take Applejack to you."
"Was I that easy to find?"
"Yeah, you're on the straightest, most direct path to Canterlot. It's the first way a pony would think to go."
Twilight mentally cursed herself for a fool. Of course anypony would think of that. Anypony, including the psychos who wanted to kill them! But she could deal with that in a bit.
She turned to Applejack. "So… where's Granny Smith and Big Macintosh?"
Applejack's eyes filled with tears, and she burst out sobbing. Twilight backed off, unsure of what to do now that her normally tough friend was sobbing like a baby.
"They… they…" Applejack sobbed, "They killed her, Twilight. Stabbed her right in the heat." Tears poured down her face.
Twilight's face radiated sympathy. She put her hoof on Applejack's shoulder. "And Big Mac?"
"He… he went out like a hero, Twilight. He demanded that we run, and wouldn't take no for an answer. He made me run off with Applebloom. Last I saw around ten of those crazy ponies were mobbin' him. I wanted ta go back, but he made me promise…." She sobbed again.
Twilight simply patted her on the shoulder, not knowing what to say. After several minutes of tears, at last Applejack calmed down a bit.
"I know you're tired, Applejack, but we've gotta get moving. The princesses have to know every detail of what happened, as soon as possible, so that we can prevent this from happening again."
Applejack sighed. "Ah guess you're right, Twi. Lead on."
"Rainbow?"
"I'm with you too, Twi."
"Alright then! To Canterlot!"