The Legends of Magic: Enter the Dragons

by Phantom-Dragon

Countdown to Darkness — Day 1 — Over a Barrel

The Everfree Forest

Zecora, together with Pop Fizz and Double Trouble were all aghast and shocked at what they had seen from the cauldron. The announcement made in Canterlot was too much for them to take in.

"I don't believe it!" Pop Fizz shouted. "Our friends...they've been framed!"

"A web of lies has been spun," Zecora frowned in sympathy. "Our friends will be forced on the run. Yet I fear the worst has yet begun."

"What'd you mean?” Asked Pop Fizz in outrage. “The worse has already happened! Our friends have been branded as outlaws! What could be worse than this?"

In response, Zecora closed her eyes as she began, "A dark shadow looms over us all. As the moon rises, whilst the sun sets, the pawns have been set, for our downfall. We’ve all been played like toys for an even greater master’s evil ploy."

Getting up from her seat, Zecora turned towards the door, "We must warn our friends of this tragic tale. Good and justice must prevail, or evil, chaos, and tragedy will empale."

"They're not going to like this," Pop Fizz muttered, as he and Double Trouble follow the zebra.

---

"WHAT?!" Applejack exclaimed. "We're fugitives?!"

"We're outlaws?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Big brother has been framed for a crime he didn't commit?!" Spike added.

"Say it ain't so!" Sparx buzzed.

With a solemn look, Zecora answered, "Your pleas for some form of relief is heard, but not earned. The truth I speak is upsetting, as your training and resting was offsetting."

"But...what...what do we do now?" Fluttershy whimpered. "Our homes. Our families. Everything...we can't just leave them all behind. Can we?"

"I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice," Twilight frowned.

"Darling," Rarity exclaimed to Twilight. "You can't be serious! We can't just leave our loved ones behind!"

"No, don't get me wrong, we're not leaving anypony behind," Twilight replied. "But...if we're gonna be any help at all, we've got find a way to clear up Spyro's name, or we won't go anywhere."

"What about Ponyville?" Applejack asked. "Our friends and family? They've all been captured by those horrible creatures, and that Red dragon! We've got to rescue them!"

"AJ's right," Rainbow Dash spoke up. "You know my motto. I'd never leave my friends behind."

"But first, we need a plan," Twilight stated. "Otherwise, if we simply just charge in and try to retake Ponyville, then we'll all be captured, and we won't save anypony..."

"Ok, alright, Twilight," Rainbow Dash began. "What's your plan, then?"

"I'm working on it, right now," Twilight replied, as she paced around the area. "Princess Celestia's gone. Princess Luna's been captured and turned to stone. Canterlot is under Chancellor Neighsay's rule now, and he's branded Spyro a criminal to all of Equestria."

Twilight grunted and groaned as she struggled to think up a solution, under such tense pressure and the stress of the situation.

"What am I supposed to say? What do we do?" Twilight asked. "Ponyville's been overrun with monsters! Everypony we know and love have been imprisoned by the Storm King's troops, and everypony else in Equestria have been mislead to believe Spyro's a criminal, making us criminals as well!"

"But that's not fair!" Spike replied. "We didn't kill Princess Celestia. You saw what happened. We all did! It was that Nightmare monster!"

"Yes, but Chancellor Neighsay and everypony else in Canterlot don't know that," Twilight frowned, until an epiphany struck her. "But everypony else in Ponyville do!"

"Well, then let's go and free our friends," Rainbow Dash replied. "Then we can clear up Spyro's name."

Just then, the sound of leaves rustling was heard, to which the group all looked, getting into fighting stances, anticipating for anything that could potentially threaten them. Thankfully, however, that was not the case, when stepping out of the shrubs, reveals himself to be a pony. A familiar red stallion.

"Big McIntosh?!" Applejack exclaimed.

"AJ," Big Mac breathed a sigh of relief, before following him from the shrubs, is their grandmother.

"Applejack?" Granny Smith moaned. "Is that...really...you?"

"Granny!" Applejack exclaimed, with tears in her eyes, throwing her hooves out for a hug. "Thank Celestia, you're all okay! You and..." Applejack's moment of joy quickly disappeared, when she realized one more pony was missing. "Wait...where's Apple Bloom?"

"Appleloosa!" Big Mac confirmed.

"What?"

"Apple Bloom's escaped," Granny Smith relayed, "With some other fillies, her age. They’re with Braeburn. He’s taking them to Appleloosa. Ya have to find them, Applejack! They could be in trouble..."

At that very moment, an explosion went off in the distance, startling the heroes, and their friends, present.

"What the hay was that?" Sparx asked.

"It came from Appleloosa," Big Mac guessed.

"Oh no!" Applejack moaned worryingly, with a newfound dread washing over her. "Apple Bloom!"

---

Moments ago on the outskirts of Appleloosa

Out in the prairie, beneath the sun, a small group of three fillies, with a single adult stallion, were on the run, knowing that their very lives depended on it.

Braeburn looked down to see the tired look on Apple Bloom’s face.

“Are we there yet?” Apple Bloom asked, tired from the long run.

“Not yet,” Braeburn sighed. “Just over that next hill.”

“You said that about five hills ago!” A raspy voice bellyaches.

Braeburn and Apple Bloom looked behind them to see two young fillies, about the same age as the second former.

One is a light brilliant gamboge Pegasus filly, with scruffy moderate cerise mane and tail, while the other is a white unicorn filly with grayish mulberry mane and tail with pale, light grayish rose streaks.

“We’re tired, we’re lost, and we’re hungry,” The Pegasus filly listed.

“Yeah! And my hooves hurt,” The unicorn filly added.

“We’re not lost,” Braeburn tried to reassure the little fillies. “As long as we keep following these train tracks, we’ll reach Appleloosa…eventually.”

“I don’t know how long eventually is,” Apple Bloom began. “But I’ll bet it’s very long.”

“We must’ve walked at least a hundred miles by now,” The Pegasus filly groaned.

“I’ll bet it’s more than a thousand,” The unicorn added. “I don’t think we can take another step…”

Suddenly without warning, the ground beneath them shook. Braeburn and the little fillies look down to see tiny rocks bouncing on the ground. They also looked up to see a whole flock of birds flying into the sky, with a great cloud of dusts kicking up.

The Lion King – Stampede — Hans Zimmer

“Wh-Wh-What’s going on?” Apple Bloom asked, following Braeburn’s gaze.

It wasn’t long before their horror was fully realized.

Their eyes widened, their hairs standing on end, and a gasp of air escaping from their throats, that they lost the ability to scream.

Charging at them, like incoming avalanche, cascading down a hilly slope, was a huge herd bisons, stampeding over the horizon, and heading in their direction.

Not wasting another second to be trampled, Braeburn and the fillies finally snapped out of their stupors and took off running.

Their only hope was to gallop as fast as they could to stay ahead of the herd, to avoid being trampled, and reach Appleloosa in one piece.

Suddenly, without warning, a loud, deafening sound exploded in the air.

KA-BOOM!

The sound was so loud that it could even frighten a grown pony into a run. But neither Braeburn, nor the fillies, had time to see what it was. With their ears ringing, they just kept on galloping.

Not far behind them, the buffaloes were closing in, covering the tracks of the three fillies and stallion.

The intensity of the shaking ground was increasing the closer the wild bovines got to the runaway equines. The ponies nearly tripped.

So close that Braeburn could almost feel one of the bisons breathing down his neck.

Without having to look back, Braeburn knew that very soon, he and the three fillies would soon be swallowed up by the stampede, unless they get to higher ground.

Then, ahead, he saw a ledge, sticking out from the side of a rocky slope.

“Girls! This way!” Braeburn shouted, leading the fillies to the ledge, barely avoiding the hooves of the bisons.

Once they reached the walls of the mountains, Braeburn proceeding to life up Apple Bloom and her friends, onto the ledge.

Before he had time to climb onto the ledge himself, Braeburn was suddenly pulled and carried away by the bisons.

“BRAEBURN!!!” Apple Bloom screamed in horror, holding her hoof out desperately for her cousin.

Comments

[Comickook]

Hey there. Thanks immensely for getting this next chapter up. Took quite a while, but was well worth the wait. The exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up are all wonderfully done. Now, the girls and Spike find out that they are outlaws because Spyro's been framed. But, hey, some of the greatest heroes in fiction were outlaws - Robin Hood, Zorro and the Green Hornet (radio and 1960s versions mostly in the case of the last example) just to name a few among many. Though, Twilight has a point that they need to think things through carefully if they are going to help anybody. And, yeah, just as the group is going over their plan to try to save the folks in Ponyville, they find out that Apple Bloom and two new friends (we already know who THEY are) ended up escaping onto the trail to Appleloosa. And, yeah, that cliffhanger concerning Braeburn was VERY well done.

Anyway, very much looking forward to more of this.

[Wildcard25]

Oh man things are taking an even worse turn now that many have been kidnapped and framed, and even Braeburn's fate is up in the air now.

[AstralFlare42]

If you'd like to borrow an OC, let me know via PM.

[DJScales]

Holy scales