> The Spell Gone Wrong
>  by Kokara
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Unexpected Results
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

   It was the dead of night in Ponyville and all was silent. The moon was full and illuminated the land, the stars glittered in the night sky, and the only sounds that could be heard was the chirping of crickets and the sporadic hoot of an owl emanating from the Everfree Forest. The only ponies who were awake were a few soldiers that were being stationed in Ponyville who were standing guard around the town. They had recently been sent out to investigate reports of Changeling activity near the town. 

Just beyond the town’s edge, a lone figure stood upon a hill overlooking the tranquil town. He was a man, dressed in a dull gray business suit with a dark purple tie. His eyes had a turquoise hue to them and his hair was slicked back and dark as coal while the rest of his face looked old and withered. In his right hand he held a brief case while in his left he was holding a leather bound book with a small velvet bag that appeared to have something inside it. He surveyed the town, slowly scanning the land before him from left to right, and smirked.
“Ssssso peaceful, ssssso quaint, ssssso… innocent,” he said to himself, putting noticeable emphasis on the “S” and random pauses between words. “It’s too bad that all of that has to… come to such an abrupt and... nasty... end.” 
He turned his attention over to the Golden Oaks Library, a hollowed-out tree that served as the town library and the home for the one he was looking for. 
“Twilight Ssssparkle,” he whispered, bringing the book and bag up to his face. “I hope you’re ready…  for what’ssss to come.”
While almost all of Ponyville was asleep, Twilight Sparkle, along with her dragon assistant Spike, were the exceptions. She was up and about in her library that was in complete shambles, with books littering the floor. Twilight had plans to clean up and reorganize her library after noticing a few books were out of place and in the wrong sections more than two weeks ago, but for the most part, she had been kept preoccupied by recent events. Even when she did have the time, the thought of it slipped her mind, and Spike never bothered to remind her. He claimed that he forgot too, but she found that hard to believe, believing that he never brought it up to avoid work. 

“Twi-Twilight?” Spike stuttered, struggling to speak due to the large number of books he was carrying. “We’ve b-been working f-for th-three hours. D-do y-y-you think we could t-take a break or s-something?” 

“No Spike,” Twilight replied with mild annoyance. “We need to finish this now. We've put this off for too long.” 

“B-but it’s 11:30, and I’m s-sooooo tired. Can’t we w-w-wait till m-morning?”

“So we can forget again and put it off even longer?  I don’t think so.” 

He set down the books next to himself and after taking a few moments to catch his breath, he looked up at Twilight, frustration in his eyes. 

“You could always leave yourself a note to remind yourself in the morning, you know.” He remarked.

“And what if that note gets misplaced, Spike, then I’ll never remember. Besides, we’re awake now and there’s nothing to keep us busy so we might as well get this over with.”

“How would it get misplaced?” Spike asked, scratching his head at the thought of that.

“Anything could happen.” Twilight answered back.

“I’ll remind you in the morning,” he pleaded. “I’ll definitely remember. I promise, heck I’ll Pinkie promise." He began the gestures that went along with the renowned party pony's promise. "Cross my heart and hope to-“

“That won’t be necessary Spike,” Twilight interrupted. “Because, like I said, we're doing this now."

“Ugh, fine,” Spike moaned, realizing he wasn't going to win this argument. “Anyway, where do these books go?” 

“Most of those should go into the “History of Equestria” section.” answered Twilight. She used her magic to levitate the books and arranged them in a circle around, rotating the circle to make sure she was right. 

She stopped at one particular book and pulled it out of the circle, handing it to Spike. 

“This one belongs in the mythology section. Please put it there, Spike.”

Spike looked at the book in his hands, scrutinizing the cover. It was a relatively thick, dark green book titled “The mythology and mythical creatures of Equestrian Lore and Literature” written in large gold letters. Intrigued, Spike opened the book and flipped through several pages before on one page that captured his attention. 

“Twilight?”

“Yeah Spike?”

“What’s a human?”

“A human?” Twilight wondered, turning around to face Spike. The word sounded familiar, as if she had heard it before, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was.

“Yeah, a human.” Spiked replied as he turned the book towards Twilight, the pages displaying two bipedal creatures of differing heights, both having two limbs extending from their upper bodies just below their heads with five appendages extending from the ends of those limbs. Both appeared to be relatively hairless, except on the top of their heads, where the taller one’s hair appeared much shorter than the shorter one's, which went past her shoulders. The taller one was wearing a simple shirt and pants, while the shorter one wore a dress. 

“Oh yeah, humans!” Twilight recalled with a smile. “I remember reading about them from that same book. They were a race of intelligent monkeys, If I recall correctly. Not much is known about them. They only appear in a few references in old Equestrian myths and stories." 

“Monkeys?” Spike inquired, clearly confused “These things don’t look anything like monkeys.”

“Well, “monkey” is a bit of an inaccurate term. A better term would be an “ape.”“ Twilight answered.

“An ape?” Spike looked back at the picture. “How can it be an ape? Apes are big, strong and covered in hair. There just look… weak, hairless and scrawny.”

“Well according the few stories that there are, they were very distantly related to apes sharing a common ancestor. Like I said, not much is known about them, as there are few sources to collect from. Star Swirl the Bearded wrote a little bit about them in one of his earlier works. He said that they came from another world, but he didn't mention the name of said world. He said that while they didn't have any real special abilities, like magic, or flight, most were extremely intelligent, even more than ponies and the other races of Equestria like the Griffons and dragons." Twilight answered.

“Wow.” Spike said out loud, looking down at the picture. He found it hard to believe that these two lanky, awkward-looking creatures could belong to a race more intelligent than anything in Equestria. 

“Um, Twilight?” He asked looking back up to Twilight.

“Yeah Spike?” 

“Do you think that humans were real?”

Twilight chuckled, “I doubt it Spike, they’re probably just what the book says, mythical.”

“B-but how do you know.” Spike asked.

“Because Spike, there’s no evidence that they ever existed. There's no evidence that anything like a human was ever in Equestria in the first place and as for this world they came from, there's nothing that points to the existence of other worlds that harbor life of their own. Now come on, we’ve talked enough; we need to finish this up.”

"But wait," Spike interrupted her. "Didn't you say that Star Swirl the Bearded wrote about them, and isn't he supposed to be like, the smartest pony ever?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Yes Star swirl was an intelligent, if not brilliant pony but like I said, He only wrote a little bit about them and most of the records that the writing comes from has been lost so we'll never know the context of the writing. It's most likely that he was cataloging different mythological creatures based on the legends of the time and humans were just one of many he recorded. Now come on. I'd love to tell you more about these myths and more Spike, but now is not the time. We need to get this done."

"But... but..." Spike stammered, growing more and more desperate to give some validation to possibility of the humans' existence. "Don't they say that there's a bit of truth in every legend and myth?" He smiled confidently, believing that he had this debate in the bag.

Twilight sighed, growing tired of his stubbornness. "Yes they do say that Spike, but the key word is "bit." As in only a small fraction and not the entire thing. The human myth, like any other myth, probably came into existence when ancient equestrians encountered new things that they couldn't understand so they created these stories to explain them. The human story probably came about when some bipedal race that looked like monkeys or apes from some far off land came into contact with ancient Equestrians. Those bipeds were probably so strange and foreign to the Equestrians that they made these stories to explain them. Now for the last time, come on." The tone of her voice shifted from mild annoyance to irritation. "I told you earlier that we can talk all about this tomorrow when we are hopefully free, but right now we have work to do so let's get on with it."

“But I wanna know more Twilight.” Spike whined.

Twilight gritted her teeth and suppressed a scream. The past three hours have been difficult, tiring and burdensome. She just wanted to get this over with and go to bed but Spike's continued questioning was taking up valuable time. If this kept she had no idea what she might do.

She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Tell you what Spike; tomorrow I'll write to Princess Celestia to ask her if she knows anything about humans and whether they even existed or not. Somepony as old as her is bound to know something. 

“Oh alright” Spike replied, mildly annoyed. 

“Good,” Twilight said, smiling with the energy she could muster up as tired as she was. “Now where were we?”

We finished the “History of Equestria.” Spike replied, clearly saddened by losing the argument and the wait he'd have to endure waiting to hear from the Princess. 

“Oh cheer up Spike; we’re more than half-way done, if we keep up the pace we’ll finish in about two hours.” 

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" Spike asked sarcastically. 

"Look on the bright side Spike." Twilight answered, her lips curling into a smile. "If you had kept talking it would be two days." 

"Oh very funny." Spike grunted, now very annoyed after getting countered like that. 

Twilight giggled, ecstatic by her successful attempt at a comeback. "Could you go over to that podium and grab the books on top?"

“Alright” Spike grumbled. He walked over, grabbing a stool to help him reach. While he did that, Twilight used her magic to grab the books next to her and placed them into the “spells and incantations” section. Spike placed the stool in front of the podium and climbed up to grab the books, but as he did, he saw something that made his blood run cold.

“HOLY CARP!!!!” Spike screamed, falling off the stool and dropping the books. 

“Spike! Are you all right! What happened?!” Twilight shouted, running over to him. 

Spike got up, stumbling about all disoriented from his fall. He shook his head to get a hold of himself and looked up at Twilight, his eyes filled with what can only be described as pure and unadulterated fear.

“I-I saw something Twilight." He stuttered, his voice choked by the fear that was consuming him. "I d-d-don't know what, but I saw something. Something awful." 

"Well what did you see?" Twilight inquired, becoming worried. She was having a hard time imagining what could have scared Spike so much to make him scream like that. The little dragon could get spooked easily, but he never got flat-out terrified. 

"A-all I saw were these two eyes." He started, taking quick, erratic breathes. "These two dull turquoise eyes. They shouldn't have been scary but they were; they were just so... terrifying. I don't know what it was about them but as soon as I looked into them, I was filled with this awful, awful fear." He looked to Twilight, tears streaming down his face. "Twilight, I'm scared."

Twilight scooped up the dragon and held him close to her, her coat getting stained by his tears. "Spike, it's okay." She whispered into his ear while she pat his back to calm him down. "It was probably just a soldier patrolling town. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Spike pushed himself way from Twilight and wiped the remaining tears away from his face. "No way." He shook his head. "There's no way whatever that... thing... was was a pony."

"And why not?' Twilight asked raising her brow. 

"The eyes were too high up to belong to any pony. I didn't see what it was but it was too tall to be a pony." Spike shivered. "If I had to guess, whatever it was was probably just a little taller than Princess Celestia. 

"Taller than the princess? Well Spike, you should know that there are plenty of creatures in Equestria that are taller than the princess. You of all should know that. Dragons?" 

"No no no." Spike insisted, waving his hand to dismiss the notion. "I know what dragon eyes look like obviously and these were no dragon eyes. They were way too small to be dragon eyes. In fact, they were smaller than pony eyes." He scratched his chin. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen eyes that small before anywhere." 

Twilight shook her head feeling frustrated. Whatever Spike saw outside didn't match up with any living thing that came to mind. She didn't have the time to look through her books for a reference to what it could be so she only had one option. 

"Spike," Twilight sighed. "I think it's time that you go to bed." 

"Spike looked up, "Are you sure? I mean, if you think i'm sick or something..."

"No no, it's not that." Twilight said, rubbing her eyes from exhaustion. "I'm just thinking that... I just think it's time for you to head on up."

“Really, Twilight, are you sure?” Spike asked, hoping this wasn't some joke. 

“Yes Spike, I’m sure.” Twilight replied. Truth be told, Twilight didn't want to send Spike up, but if he’s that tired that he’s starting to see things, she had no choice. Now it’ll take even longer to finish up.

But before Spike could head up, there came a knock at the door, making both of them look towards it in confusion. No one except a few soldiers should be up at this hour, and there’s no reason they would want anything from either of them. To be sure they heard right, they waited a few moments, and there was another knock.

“I wonder who that could be.” Spike asked, turning to Twilight. 

“I’ll check it out, see what whoever it is wants,” Twilight answered, with mild animosity. It was already pretty late and she still needed the two hours to finish up. The last thing she wanted was some visitor. “Whoever it is, they better be fast. “

She walked towards the door, and opened it; really hoping whoever it was didn't take up too much of her time. 

“Yes, can I help-.” She began to say as she opened the door, but stopped herself. There was no pony there. Confused she stuck her head out and looked around, but couldn't see anypony in the night. 

“Strange, I know I heard somepony knocking.” She began to walk forward to look around a little more, but felt something strange underneath her hoof. She looked down, and saw that she stepped on a leather-bound book, with a small velvet bag next to it that looked as if it contained something. 

“What is this?” she thought to herself. Who would knock at her door at this hour, only to leave a book and a bag containing whatever at her doorstep? 

“Who is it?” Spike asked. 

“No one,” Twilight answered back, using her magic to pick up the book and bag. “Just this book and bag at the doorstep.” 

“A book and a bag, that’s it?" Spike questioned.

“Yeah, it’s weird, someone just left it here. Whoever it was, why would anyone want to give this to me, why couldn't they give it to me themselves, and why now at 11:45 at night?"

Twilight took a better look at the book. It was a thin maroon colored book that appeared to be very old, with its extremely worn out cover, faded and torn in a few spots. The titles simply said “Spells” in large, jet black letters. 

“It's a spell book.” Twilight said, turning to Spike, why would someone leave me this?"

“Maybe it’s a birthday gift.” Spike commented, shrugging, 

“Spike, my birthday’s in two months. Remember?” Twilight reminded him. 

“Um, oh yeah! I remembered! I was just kidding!” Spike exclaimed, smiling.

“Yeah, okay, sure.” Twilight replied, rolling her eyes.

“Wait a minute,” Spike then said, eyes widening. “What if it was that human I saw outside? What if he was the one who left the book and bag? I could have sworn he was holding something in his hands when I saw him, it has to be him.”

“For the last time Spike,” Twilight said, raising her voice. “You only imagined it. Humans don’t exist. It had to have been a pony that left it. “ Twilight was starting to get very annoyed by Spike's insistence of seeing a human, a creature that didn't even exist.

“Yeah fine, whatever. Anyway, what’s in the bag?” Spike asked. 

“Huh,” Twilight said, “Let me check.”

Twilight used her magic to turn the bag over and out fell a pale yellow rock that was about the size of a golf ball.

“What’s that, some kind of gem?” Spike asked. 

“I don’t know Spike,” Twilight replied. “I've never seen a gem like this before.”

“Well,” Spike replied, picking up the gem. “There’s only one to find out.” And he brought the gem up to his mouth, hoping for a good treat. 

“SPIKE!” Twilight yelled, pulling the gem out of Spike’s hand with her magic, “What are you doing?!” You don’t just eat random rocks that you know nothing about!”

“Sorry Twilight, but I’m really hungry, and that rock looks soooooo good.” Spike said as his mouth began to water.  

“That’s no excuse!” Twilight shouted anger in her eyes. “What if it was poisonous? What if it got you sick, or worse?”

“Sorry Twilight” Spike said, cowering a bit from Twilight’s burst of anger. 

Twilight took a deep breath, “It’s OK Spike. Just… just be more careful next time, alright?”

“Alright,” He replied, “I will.”

“Good,” Twilight said, smiling. That outburst helped her take off some stress, and she was starting to feel better. She only wished that Spike wasn't the one to take the brunt of it, and maybe someone who wouldn't have been bothered by it, like Pinkie. “Now let’s see what’s on this book.”

Twilight took it over to the podium and eagerly opened up to the first page. While she was a bit annoyed that she was receiving a strange spell book at this time at night with no explanation, she was kind of excited. She wondered what new spells might be in this book, just waiting to be tried out. A book like this could really help her advance in her studies. 

When she opened to the book, however, she was surprised. Every line on the first page was crossed out, preventing her from reading anything. On the side of the page, there were multiple check marks going from the top of the page to the bottom. Twilight assumed that this meant that these spells were tested and were successful, but that didn’t explain why the spells themselves were crossed out. She flipped through several more pages only to find the same thing, everything crossed out with check marks going from top to bottom.

“What the heck?” Twilight wondered. “Why is everything crossed out?”

“What’s the matter?” Spiked inquired, recognizing that Twilight was confused about something. 

“Every line in this book is crossed out. I can’t read any of it.” She answered. 

“Really? Lemme see.” Spike said.

Twilight turned the book over to him to let him get a look.

“That’s weird. Have you checked the rest of the book?” He asked.

“No, only the first few pages, let me check.” She answered

Twilight proceeded to check every page only to find everything crossed out with the same check marks from top to bottom. 

After flipping through each page, she stopped on the second to last page of the book and groaned.

“Ugh. What the heck? Why would somepony give me a spell that I can’t even use, and what’s the rock even for, anyway?" 

“Oh cheer up Twilight, there’s still the last page. Maybe there’s something there.” Spike said, trying to comfort her so it didn't feel like all that time had gone to waste.

“I hope so Spike,” Twilight answered back, feeling disappointed. She had really hoped that she could learn some new spells from this book, but, evidently, wasn’t going to happen. She did, however, still have the rock that she could write to Princess Celestia about in the morning. She might know something about it. 

When she turned to the last page, however, she was pleasantly surprised to find that at the bottom of the page, the spell wasn't crossed out. Finally, a spell she could try out!

“Spike, I found a spell, I finally found a spell that I can read!” Twilight shouted exuberantly. 

“Really?!” Spike said, with just as much enthusiasm. “That’s great! So what’s the spell called?” 

“It’s called “Xen Portal”,” Twilight responded, as she read the entry. 

“Xen portal, huh?” Spike said, scratching his head. “I’ve never heard of any spell like that before.”

“Me neither Spike, but that just means another spell for me to learn,” Twilight said. “But it’s strange; the book doesn’t say what it does, only how to perform it. I have no idea what a “xen” is, but based on the name, it must be a portal leading somewhere."

“Well how do you?” Spike asked.

“Here, I’ll read to you what it says in the book,” Twilight cleared her throat. “To perform this spell, the one casting the spell must focus a steady stream of magical energy into the “Xen crystal” sample. The process should take approximately thirty to forty minutes until the crystal begins glow green. Once this happens, cease the stream of magic and give the crystal a few seconds to let the reaction finish.”

“What’s this “xen crystal” anyway?” Spike asked.

“The xen crystal, Spike, just happens to be the same crystal in the bag.” Twilight responded, using her magic to lift the book and turn it to Spike, letting him see an illustration of a rock that looked identical to the rock that was in the bag.

“So that’s what the crystal is for.” Spike said happily.

“I guess so,” Twilight said back. “Now that I think about it, by the looks of it, whoever dropped this stuff off wanted me to perform this spell. All the spells but the xen portal are crossed out and they even provided the material needed for that spell. It only makes sense that they wanted this spell to happen, but the only question is why?”

“Who knows?” Spike said, shrugging. “Anyway, what do you want to do with this stuff? Do you want to finish reorganizing the library now?”

“Actually Spike, there has been a change of plan. I want to try this spell out” Twilight told him”

“Wait, what?! Now?! At this hour?!” Spike exclaimed, eyes widening even more.

“Sure, why not?” Twilight answered. “The spell sounds pretty simple, and the book says it’ll only take fifteen minutes at the max to perform so why not just do it right now. Besides the library can wait fifteen minutes.” 

“Can’t you wait till morning?” Spiked begged.

“If I don’t do it now, I’ll be up all night thinking about what the spell does. I just have to do it now.”

"Ugh, fine Twilight, do whatever you want.” Spike groaned, giving up.

But just then, Twilight noticed something scrawled in small, but bold, print at the bottom of the page. 

Warning: While the possibility is very minimal, the spell may or may not bring about unforeseen consequences

“Unforeseen consequences?” Twilight thought, looking all over the rest of the page and the back for anything that might answer her question. “What kind of consequences?” 

“What’s the matter, Twilight.” asked Spike, seeing that Twilight was clearly perplexed by something.

“It says at the bottom of the page that there is a minimal possibility for “unforeseen consequences”.” Twilight said back. 

“Unforeseen Consequences?” Spike asked. “What kind of consequences?”

“The book doesn’t say,” Twilight said, scowling. “Anyway, if there’s only a minimal chance, it should be fine. Let’s begin, shall we Spike?”

“Whatever.” Spike replied, indifferently.

Twilight cleared away some of the books that were on the floor and placed the crystal in front of her in the area. Her horn began to glow a deep pink as she focused her magic into it. After a few seconds, she released the energy as a beam into the crystal, causing it to glow a deep shade of yellow. 

“Alright Spike, I should be fine. You can go up to bed.” Twilight said, magic continuing to react with the crystal.

“Nuh uh, I’m staying to see what happens.” Spike replied, crossing his arms.

“Suit yourself.” Twilight replied.

Twilight continued to beam magic into the crystal for fifteen minutes, but with no results. Spike was starting to get impatient. The book said forty minutes max, so what’s going on? Why hasn’t anything happened yet? Spike began that this whole thing was just some prank. Somepony thought that it would be funny to write a bunch of garbage into a book, call it a spell book, and leave it at Twilight’s doorstep to see if she would fall for it, which she did. The rock was probably just some random gem the prankster dug up. 

“Twilight, nothing’s happening.” Spike pointed out. 

“I know Spike; just give it a little time. Something will happen, I know it.” Twilight assured him. 

“The book said forty minutes at the most, and so far, it’s been forty five.” Spike retorted, looking at the clock.

“Give it a little longer Spike.” Twilight pleaded. 

Spike rolled his eyes, “Twilight I really don’t think tha-. “

But before Spike could finish, however, it happened! The crystal began to glow a light green just as the book said it would.

“Spike, it’s happening! It’s actually happening!” Twilight shouted ebulliently, ceasing the beam of magic.

“Well I’ll be darned.” Spike said, surprised. “I didn’t think anything was going to happen.”

Twilight backed up from the crystal to let the reaction finish. She was relieved that the the reaction was starting. The spell took a lot out of her and she was beginning to feel exhausted. The crystal continued to glow the same light green color and small sparks of electricity began to shoot out of it. Twilight could also hear what a low continuous buzzing that she assumed originated from the crystal. 

“Oooooh, this is so excited!” Twilight squealed with glee. “I wonder where this portal will go, where it will take us. Oh, Princess Celestia’s gonna love to hear about this.”

"Yeah, I bet,” Spike responded sarcastically. “Let’s Just get this over with.”

But at that moment, Twilight began to notice that the crystal started to glow more intensely. The buzzing began to get louder and louder, until it almost deafening. The sparks flying off of the crystal started to get big and bigger and more and more frequent. Twilight was getting scared. Was this supposed to happen? Is this part of the process or one of those “consequences” the book warned about. She looked over and saw Spike cowering in the corner, hands over his ears and eyes shut tight.

“Twi-Twilight? What’s going on? Is this supposed to be happening?” Spike whimpered.

“I… I don’t know, Spike,” Twilight confessed. “Just stay calm; I’ll see what I can do.

Twilight tried to take a few steps towards the crystal, but the light grew even brighter, forcing her to shield her eyes. The sparks grew bigger and bigger until they were full-on bolts of electricity. The bolts were striking everywhere, singeing everything they hit. 

“Twilight, what are you doing!?” Spike screamed, seeing Twilight moving forward. 

“Trying to f-fix th-this.” Twilight stuttered, slowly advancing.

“Twilight, Stop! Those bolts will kill you!” Spike pleaded.

“Don’t worry Spike, I got this.” Twilight said inching forward, trying to sound calm. In truth, she had no idea what she could do. She thought that a strong enough burst of magic could shatter the crystal and disrupt the reaction, but she didn't know if she had enough magic left to pull that off. Besides, even if she could, there’s no way of knowing if it would even stop the reaction. All she would be doing is breaking the crystal into smaller pieces, and the reaction was already well underway. Nevertheless, she had to try. She refrained from projecting a force field to keep her safe, fearing that it would use up what little magic she had left.

Twilight was just a few feet away from the crystal when the biggest bolt yet shot out of the crystal, striking her horn. Twilight screamed in agony, falling to the ground. The pain shot through her head and spread throughout the rest of her body. She felt like she was on fire. The bolt's light had blinded her for a few seconds, but her vision came back. 

“Can’t… stop… now….” She uttered, trying to get up, but it was no use. When she tried to move, the pain soared to new heights. The pain was too much to bear, causing her to topple over. She coughed a little, causing a few drops of blood to fall from her mouth. She looked at the small puddle for a second before she let her head fall on top of it. She saw her vision blurring and darkness take over as she began to slip into unconsciousness. “Oh gosh… I feel soo… weak, so… tired. Am I… am I dying?”

“Twilight!” Spike screamed, leaving is corner and running over to Twilight “Stay put, I’m coming!” 

“Sp… Spike?” Twilight sputtered, looking up to see her assistant running to her. “No… get away… save… yourself.”

“No way Twilight, I’m coming over th…” But before Spike could a finish, a bolt struck the floor in front of him.

“AHHHHH!!!’ Spike screamed, falling onto his back.

“Spike!” Twilight tried to shout. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Spike answered. “What about you? Are you alright?

“Sort of, but I’m still breathing.” Twilight said. “Spike, quick, get help now. Find a guard or something, anything to stop this.

“But what about you? I can’t leave you like this. Another bolt could hit you, and I know you won’t survive that one.” Spike protested.

“I’ll be fine,” Twilight lied. “You need to find help now.”

Just after she said this however, another bolt struck dangerously close to Twilight’s head causing her to flinch. Meanwhile, more and more bolts were striking everywhere, setting books on fire and scorching the walls.

“See what I mean?” Spike asked scowling “If I leave you here, you’re as good as dead.”

“If you don’t get help, we’re all good as dead!” Twilight shouted with frustration in her voice. 

“Oh alright, I’m going. Just don’t move, Ok?” Spike said.

“No worries there.” Twilight replied, still in too much pain to move. 

As Spike walked over to the door to find help, the glowing began to glow bigger and even brighter. The bolts of electricity became smaller but more frequent. Spike moved back, jumping back and forth to avoid the electricity, but he wasn't fast enough. One struck him in his right foot, causing him to topple over in pain.

“Augh!” Spike grunted, clutching his foot. 

“Sp- Spike, are you alright?” Twilight asked, trying to raise her voice, but with no avail. She already exerted herself shouting at Spike to go. 

“I… I think so.” Spike answered, but when he stood up, he fell over again, shouting in pain.

“It’s no good. My foot hurts too much.” Spike whimpered, clutching his foot. 

“Oh no,” Twilight thought, realizing that there was no way to get help. “What are we going to do now?”

By now, the sphere of light had grown big enough that it partially engulfed Twilight. The light was bright enough that Twilight had to press her face into the ground, getting blood into her eyes, and shutting them tight and Spike had to face the wall to avoid being blinded. The buzzing had gone down quite a bit, but grew in volume once again, forcing Spike and Twilight to shut their ears, even though it did little to make it sound quieter.

“Well, it was a good life while it lasted," Twilight thought to herself, memories flashing through her mind as she started to lose consciousness again. She thought of the princesses, to Shining Armor and Cadence, to her friends, and, lastly, to all she’s been through with them, since that fateful day that Celestia sent her Ponyville on an assignment to make friends.

“Goodbye to all of you.” She thought, tears running down her eyes as she finally fell unconscious. The sphere continued to grow, filling the whole room, until it exploded with a tremendous flash that blew out all the windows and shook the library, grabbing the attention of the soldiers who were on watch and waking a few ponies up.

Good, good, all is going... according to plan. Don’t worry Miss… Sparkle, we've only just begun.
> The Disaster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time had passed since the explosion, but Twilight could feel herself waking up and coming back to reality. “Ugh, what happened?” she groaned as she opened her eyes. She realized that she was lying in her bed under the covers. She was feeling a lot better now than she had before falling unconscious. While some of her joints were still aching, most of the pain was gone and she was able to move without much trouble. She got up and rubbed her eyes.
“I’m alive? How? I... I felt myself dying.” she thought to herself, looking down at her hooves. She could have sworn that she was gone for good. That electric bolt did a number on her and she was right next to the crystal when it blew.
She got out of bed and looked around. She noticed that the large semi-circular window next to her bed was completely broken, with a few pieces of sharp glass still embedded into the frame.
“Oh gosh, what happened?”
As she walked over to the window, she was startled by a loud, hoarse shout coming from outside.
“MOVE, MOVE, MOVE! EVERYPONY! KILL THEM! KILL ALL OF THEM! PROTECT THE TOWN AT ALL COSTS!”
Twilight was confused. Kill? Kill what? What was going on? What happened while she was out? What did that damn spell do? She ran over to the window to see what was going on. What she saw made her gasp in shock and her blood run cold. The whole town was in chaos. Buildings were on fire, the corpses of ponies were scattered about, some mutilated beyond recognition, while soldiers were running about. Many of the soldiers looked worn out and beaten, armed with dented or missing armor and covered with cuts all over.  What Twilight really noticed was all the blood, oh dear Celestia, the blood. It was everywhere, splattered on buildings, all over the ground, and the coats of the corpses and soldiers. Twilight started to feel sick. She always had a slight feel of blood and always had trouble looking at even the smallest drop of blood and this was a lot more than a drop. The corpses were so much worse. All the bodies were torn up beyond recognition, with organs and limbs everywhere. The only time she had ever seen a dead body was when her at her Uncle Orion’s funeral, and he only died from a heart attack. Whatever killed these ponies was a lot worse than a heart attack. She looked over to her bed and saw the trash can that she kept next to it. Holding it in, she ran over and puked her guts out into it. Gasping for breath, she stumbled over the window to take a look again. The blood and bodies became easier to look at, but still made her pretty uncomfortable. Out of all the things she saw, what frightened her even more than the blood and corpses were the monsters. She saw two kinds of creatures down there, fighting the soldiers, and both were of the likes that Twilight had never seen, and both were terrifying to look at. Some of them running around looked like giant lizards, but with two muscular legs instead of the typical two. They were brownish green in color with black spots decorating their backs from head to tail. Their eyes were bulbous, brown circles mounted on the sides of their heads. The scariest thing about them was the fact that they had several long thick tentacles surrounding their mouths. one of them was spitting a strange green mass of what looked like vomit at a few soldiers, who managed to roll out of the way. The other creatures, however, didn't look as threatening, but they were still scary nonetheless. They were relatively small compared to the other kind, about the size of pumpkins, with smooth, light tan-colored skin and they crawled on four short legs. From what she could see, they didn't appear to have any eyes on their bodies but could still maneuver without trouble, moving towards any soldiers near them.
“They must operate by sound or smell or something.” Twilight thought, observing the two of them as they moved towards some soldiers, an earth pony and pegasus, both with swords ready.
What they did have, to make up for their feeble appearance, was their jump. When the two of them approached the soldiers, one of them leaped at the face of one of them, letting out a high-pitched, jarring squeal. The earth pony soldier was fast enough to swing his sword, knocking the thing into a wall of a nearby building. It fell to the ground, lifeless, and splattered its blood, a light green liquid, on the wall. The other soldier was not so fortunate. In the confusion, the other one jumped at the distracted pegasus soldier, latching on to his face. Screaming the entire time, the soldier dropped his sword and fell over trying to pull the thing off, but with no avail. Blood started to pour down the pony’s face as he fruitlessly tried to pull the creature off. The other guard looked over and his eyes widened in shock.
“SHOOTING STAR! SHIT! HOLD ON, I’M COMING!” he screamed.
But before he could help out his fellow soldier, one of those tentacle-mouthed monsters appeared from around the corner. The soldier stopped in his tracks, sword ready, and turned to face the monster. It let out growl that was a deep raucous sound that made the fur on the back of twilight’s neck stand up. She could see it even made the soldier cringe with fear. Reacting to this, the monster spat a wad of its vomit at the soldier and charged at him. The soldier attempted to jump out of the way, but wasn't quick enough. The wad struck him right in the chest, where he was missing his breastplate, leaving him exposed. Wailing in pain, the soldier fell over clutching his chest, giving the creature the opportunity go in for the kill. While the soldier was squirming on the ground, the monster ran up to him and grabbed his leg with its tentacles, wrapping them all around and up his leg. The soldier tried to get free by kicking the monster’s face, but he did little to phase it. The thing positioned itself by placing its leg on the soldier’s stomach and began to pull on his leg. The whole time, the soldier was moaning from the combined pain of the monster pressing down on his stomach and his leg being yanked at. He gave up kicking it when he saw it did nothing. With one last tug, the creature ripped the leg off, spraying blood everywhere. The soldier screamed in total agony, staring wide eyed at the bloody stump of where his leg used to be. With this the monster began to feast upon his leg, spraying more blood as it ate. The soldier tried to reach for his sword, but found it was just out of reach, knocked away by the thing eating his leg. He looked over at the monster and saw that it was done with its meal. It had picked the bones clean and now it set its sights on the soldier.
“Please, no.” The guard begged, tears streaming down his face as he put his hooves in front of his face in a futile effort to protect himself.
But it was too late. The monster slammed its face into the soldier’s, wrapping his tentacles around his head. The soldier flailed his remaining legs, and muffled screams could be heard as jagged teeth dug into the soldier’s flesh to solidify the creature’s grip as the thing yanked at his head. Just like with his leg, the thing gave one final pull, before it ripped his head clean off. Even more blood sprayed everywhere, covering the ground around them. With the soldier’s head in its tentacles, the thing chucked it off to the side and began to feed on the rest of the pony, starting with his stomach.
While this happened, the other soldier has stopped struggling with the creature on his face and laid still. Enough blood had poured from his face to cover his neck and front legs and the creature had dug deeper into his face, knocking his helmet off to make room. He remained still for a few minutes when he slowly got to his hooves and turned his head to the other monster feasting on the soldier’s corpse. This got its attention, causing it to get up from its meal to face the soldier. The soldier let out a high-pitched, squealing growl, and began to lumber towards the other monster. It stepped back and in retaliation, spat another wad of its vomit at the soldier. The wad struck the soldier where his face used to be, causing him to stumble back. The attack did little to faze the soldier, however, and he continued forward. Seeing that its attack did nothing, the creature charged at the soldier. Seeing this, the soldier responded by getting up on his hind legs and raising his front legs above his head. Just before the monster could make contact, the soldier slammed his hooves down onto the monster’s head, stopping it where it stood. The monster collapsed to the ground, whimpering and withering in pain. The soldier continued to slam the creature’s head with his hooves, alternating between left and right, until the creature was silent and still. Seeing that it was dead, the soldier grabbed one of its tentacles with his hooves and ripped it off, yellow blood squirting out of the tear. He proceeded to push the tentacle in between his face and the creature on his face and eat it. He finished it within a few seconds and tore off another one after.
Twilight stepped back in complete shock. What she had just witnessed was beyond description. The fear she felt at that moment was nothing like she had felt before. She had just watched a guard get brutally killed and eaten by some monster she has never seen before. And that other creature, it didn't just kill that other guard, it took control of his body like some mind-controlling parasite. She started to feel sick again, but this time puked all over the floor, too afraid to run to the trash can and make any noises that could attract the attention of those monsters down there. She stared down at the sickly green puddle for a few seconds when she heard a familiar voice.
“Twilight? Is that you?”
“Spike?” Twilight said as she turned around towards the staircase, hearing someone walk up the stairs. She had forgotten all about him
When Spike made it to the top of the stairs, what Twilight saw disturbed her. Aside from his head and arms, he was covered in the same blood she saw splattered on the wall by the creature. He had a few cuts and bruises on his face and chest but, in general, looked okay. In his hand he was holding a large vegetable knife that was covered in the same green blood.
“Twilight! You’re alright!” He shouted gleefully, dropping the knife and jumping at Twilight, giving her the biggest hug he had ever given. “Oh thank Celestia, I was so worried. I thought you were never going wake up.”
Twilight gagged, “Thanks for the concern Spike. I’m glad to see you’re alright too. Now, could you please let go?” She gagged again. “You’re sort of choking me.”
“Oh sorry Twilight, I didn't mean to.” He said apologetically, letting go and dropping to the ground.
Twilight took a few breathes, “It’s alright Spike, I’m fine.”
“I was just so worried. You had been out for the last two and a half hours, and I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up and, um, sorry that I got some blood on you.” Spike said.
Twilight looked down and saw that her coat got covered in some of the green blood Spike had on him. Normally she would be furious but in a situation like this, a dirty coat was the least of her concerns.
“It’s alright Spike. That can be dealt with later.”
“If we have any time at all.” He reminded.
“Did you say two hours,” Twilight rubbed her head. “Gosh, I've been out that long.”
“Yeah, and um Twilight, are you sure you’re alright? Because I see that you kind of puked, a lot.” Spike said, looking past Twilight at the puddle behind her.
“Oh yeah, that, Twilight answered, looking behind herself. “It doesn't really matter; I just saw some “stuff” outside that made me feel really sick.”
“Oh yeah, that,” Spike said, pointing to the window. “You saw what’s happening out there. Normally, I would grab a mop to clean that mess up, but i guess it doesn't really matter anymore, now that the town has gone to Tatarus.”
Spike’s statement reminded Twilight of what she really wanted to know: What in Equestria was happening? What were these monsters? Where were they coming from? Did the spell cause this? One question was lingering in the back of her head that she didn't want the answer to: How many ponies have died so far?
“Spike, listen to me,” Twilight said, looking her assistant right in the eye. “I need to know exactly what happened since I fell unconscious and more importantly, where are these creatures coming from?”
Spike sighed, “Who knows? Nothing really happened at first after the crystal exploded, except that it woke up everyone in Ponyville. While everypony was up and about, I dragged you upstairs and got you in bed.” That’s when the fir-”
Twilight interrupted, “Wait, you dragged me upstairs?”
“Well um, yeah. To be honest, you’re kind of heavy.”
Twilight glared at him, deep annoyance in her eyes.
“What? It’s true!” He argued
“Just forget about.” Twilight said. She really didn't need to have heard that after being unconscious for more than two hours. “Anyway, continue.”
“Okay, so anyway, after I took you upstairs, that’s when the first one appeared. It was one of the smaller ones, you know, the ones can that jump really far.”
“Oh yeah, I saw one of those outside.” Twilight said, thinking about that soldier and trying her hardest not to cry. “It was horrible, she lamented “That thing latched onto his head and took control of his body.”
“Well that’s what happened the first time too. When it appeared, it didn't crawl into town or anything. No, it just… appeared.”
“Appeared?”
“Yeah, one second, there was nothing, the next, there’s this green flash of light and a loud buzzing and this thing just falls to the ground.”
“Really?”
Spike nodded, “At first, no one knew what it was or what it could do, so some of us gathered around it for a closer look. A few of us like Rarity and some others ran when they saw it, but most of us stayed. That’s when it attacked. One of the mares, I think her name was Carrot Top or something. She got a little too close to it and it jumped right at her and latched right onto her head. She tried to pull it off but it was no use, that thing wouldn't budge. Two guards tried to help her get it off but it still wouldn't come off.” Spike cringed, “Oh man, it was horrible. She was on the ground, failing around and screaming the entire time, begging for the pain to stop, and the blood, oh man the blood. The entire time it just kept pouring down her face and before you knew her entire neck and front legs was covered. One of the soldiers suggested that they use their sword to cut the thing off, but Lyra pointed out that he could accidentally hurt Carrot Top in the process. Big Mac and Applejack ran back to Sweet Apple Acres to grab some tools to help get it off while a couple of soldiers held her down so she wouldn't hurt herself.
“Poor Carrot Top.” Twilight thought woefully. She never knew Carrot Top that well but from her limited experience with her, she was always kind to everyone and a joy to be around. “Is she alright?”
Spike looked to the ground, frowning, “No, after a little while she stopped moving. We all thought that she...” Spike gulped, “Died. Mr. Cake checked her pulse but it turns out, she was still alive. We all waited a few seconds to see if she would move but she was still. We all thought she fell unconscious, so we waited until Big Mac and Applejack came back with some supplies. That’s when she started to stir but this time, instead of flailing and screaming, she got up slowly and looked around at everypony. Mr. Cake tried to talk to her, see if she would say anything, but she only made this weird gurgling sound. She limped over to this other stallion, I think his name was Time Turner or something, and stood there before a few seconds before she attacked him. She moved so fast, and before we knew it, Time Turner was on the ground, holding his jaw and wailing in agony. One of the soldiers rushed at her to restrain her, but she turned around and slammed her hoof across his face, knocking him over too. That’s when a second soldier lunged at her with his sword and stabbed her in the back of the neck, which made her squeal really loudly and flail around a lot. He pushed the sword deeper until it was all the way through her neck. After that, she stopped moving and fell limp and silent. He checked her pulse, but this time,” Spike sniffed. “There was none.”
“Oh no.” Twilight said, tears streaming down her eyes. Well, at least Carrot Top was in a better place, hopefully. She wiped away her tears. “What happened after that?”
“Well after that everyone started panicking, freaking out about what just happened. Time Turner had a broken jaw, but we patched it up, and the soldier was fine because of his helmet, only some bruises. The soldiers managed to keep everypony calm, but that’s when Fluttershy came.”
“Fluttershy?” Twilight inquired, “What happened?” Her eyes widened, “Is Fluttershy alright? She’s not. She’s not dead, is she?
Spike put her hand up. “Relax, she’s fine. It was what she told us that freaked everyone out.”
“Well what did she say?”
“Well first, she came flying in from her cottage with Angel, screaming and shouting. Man she looked scared. Her mane was matted and her coat was a mess, covered in dirt and mud. She landed and started rambling about some things she saw by her cottage. We eventually got her to calm down, which was pretty hard after she saw Carrot Top’s corpse, and explain what she saw. She told said she just saw the same thing that took control of Carrot Top by her cottage attacking her animals along with this other one.
“Another one?” Twilight groaned, “You mean there are more of these things?” The two she saw outside were bad enough, but the idea that there were other kinds out there sounded too horrible to be true.
“Yeah,” Spike said moodily.” I know it sucks.”
“Well what did this one look like?”
“From what she told us, it about the size of a dog and had greenish-yellow skin with electric blue stripes on its back. Where its head should be, there was just one giant compound eye, like a fly’s, that took up its whole face.”
“Really?” Twilight cringed. While it didn’t sound as bad as the ones she saw outside, it might look just as bad if she sees it for herself.
“Yeah, but get this. The weirdest part about it was that it only had three legs.”
Twilight raised her eyebrows, “Three legs?”
Spike nodded, “Yeah, she said it had two front legs but only one back leg.”
“That’s strange.” Twilight had never heard of any animal with an anatomy like that before, but then again, she’s never seen any animals like these before. “Anyway, what happened when she found it?”
“First, she told us that she was woken up by the sound of balking of her hens. She said that they sounded really distressed, so she went to check it out. She said she saw most of her chickens and her other animals were… were dead.”
“Dear Celestia.”  
“She said that after she calmed herself down, with a little help from Angel, she went out to have a look around. A few of the surviving chickens were running around, going crazy. Any surviving animals were gone, probably ran from whatever killed her chickens. That’s when she saw it crawling out of the Everfree forest. She said it must have been the one that killed the chickens because it was covered in blood and when the other chickens saw it, they fled. She told us that she never saw anything like it in the Everfree forest before. She said that she tried to run, but she was too scared to move. At that point it took notice of her and started to crawl her way. She was about to bolt when she noticed a green flash of light behind her.
“A green light?” Twilight inquired, “Like the one that everyone else saw when they started to appear?”
“Yup the same one. She said it scared off the creature, making it turn the other way and leave. She said she turned around and saw the same creature I was telling you about running around, checking out the surroundings. Since this one didn't look as dangerous, she stayed to check it out. It was making these high-pitched sounds every now and then, kind of like a dog barking. In fact, she said it was behaving like dog. It was acting really curious, investigating its surroundings and everything. That’s when she decided it was safe enough to get closer. She got about two steps when it noticed her. It ran over to her and stopped right in front of her, staring at her with its huge bug eye. As scared as she was, she tried being friendly with it, asking it things like if it was lost or what kind of animal it was. That’s when it things took a turn for the worst. She said it started it to scrunch its back and let out a high-pitched whine. She didn't know what it was doing, so she took a few steps back to give it some space. That’s when it released some kind of shock wave attack.”
“A shock wave?” Twilight was now more curious than scared. She had never heard of any animal that could emit shockwaves like that, especially as a defensive tactic. She shook her head. What was she thinking? A disaster was going on just outside the library and she was speculating on the biology of some extremely dangerous animals. Maybe she got some mild brain damage from that shock. “Anyway, what did the shock wave do to her?”
“Well she said that’s when she realized how dangerous this thing was. She said that when the shock wave hit her, it immediately knocked her on her back. She said it her entire body was aching terribly and that just trying to move was a challenge. It ran up to her and scrunched up its back again, making the same high-pitched scream, so she knew had to get away. Mustering up all her strength, she flew into her Cottage, grabbed Angel, and flew into town as fast as she could.”
“Why exactly did she grab Angel?” Twilight knew that Fluttershy and Angel were very close, but she didn't see the point in risking tiring yourself out and getting killed by some strange creature to save a rabbit.
“That’s what we asked her when she arrived. She just said that after seeing the bloody carcasses of her animals, she wanted to save something before leaving.”
“Oh.” Twilight looked down, staring at the ground sorrowfully. She felt bad now for asking that question and was a little glad that it wasn't Fluttershy herself who heard the question. “Anyway,” Twilight looked up. “What happened after that?”
“Well after that, Big Mac and Applejack ran into town, saying that they saw the same bug-eyed animal at Sweet Apple Acres running around. It almost got them with its shock wave, but Big Mac managed to kill it with a pitchfork.”
“What about Apple Bloom and Granny Smith? Are they okay?” Twilight gulped. She didn't even want to think about the idea that something happened to them.
“They’re fine, Apple Bloom heard the noise outside and she hid in her room, and Granny Smith was asleep the entire time.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “Go figure.”
Spike chuckled, “True. Anyway, they moved them into their cellar for their safety and returned. When they did more and more of the things started teleporting in. All kinds, the small face huggers, the bug-eyed ones, and the tentacle-face lizards. Everyone started panicking as the monsters started to attack everything they saw. I ran back inside, both to get away, and to make sure you were safe.”
“Oh dear Celestia,” Twilight looked down, tearing pouring down her face at the realization. “Does that mean,” she choked out, looking up at her assistant. “That everypony is… dead.”
“No, it couldn't be true,” she thought. “It’s just too horrible to be true.”
Spike smiled, “No Twilight, everyone is fine.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Really, but how?”
“Princess Celestia.”
Twilight grinned, giddy with happiness. She knew that if anypony could do something it would be the Princess. “Really!? That’s great! I knew she would do something. So what did she do?”
“Well, from what I saw from here, when more and more monsters started to teleport in, ponies started to teleport away. No one knew what was going on, but more and more just kept teleporting. Pretty soon, it was just me and the soldiers here.”
Twilight was confused by what Spike told her. She understood that the Princess would teleport everypony away to get them to safety, but why not everyone? Why weren't the soldiers saved as well? Why didn't she teleport Spike and her out of here? Most importantly, why were those things still out there?
“If that’s the case Spike, why are we still here? How come the soldiers are still here? Most importantly, why are those things out there still here?”
Spike smile disappeared, “That, Twilight, should be explained in a letter that Princess Celestia sent for you?”
“A letter?” Twilight was more or less annoyed by this. In the time that could have been spent saving everypony, she writes a letter to her. She better have a good explanation. “Well, what did she say?”
“I haven’t read the letter yet. She sent it just after everyone was teleported out. I figured since it was addressed to you, it should be for your eyes only.”
“Um, okay,” Twilight thought that was a bit strange. She appreciated that Spike respected her privacy, but this wasn’t exactly the situation for that.
“Here, let’s go downstairs, I left the letter on the podium.” Spike turned and walked back to the staircase, picking up the knife.
“Spike wait,” Twilight had one question that she had been meaning to ask. A question that was on her mind since Spike came upstairs. “How come you don’t seem scared at all? The town’s in complete disarray, ponies are dying, but you don’t seem that bothered. In fact, you’re pretty calm. What’s up?
Spike turned around to Twilight and sighed,  “To be honest, with all that’s going on, there hasn't really been time to be scared.”
“Oh,” Twilight said dumbly. She was glad that Spike wasn’t scared, but his answer still bothered her nonetheless.
At that moment, Spike’s eyes lit up, “Oh! That reminds me. There was somepony looking for you.”
Twilight looked at Spike inquisitively. Somepony was looking for her? Why? And what for? “Somepony looking for me? Who?”
Spike scratched his head, “I don’t remember what his name was. All I remember was that he said he was a guard for Princess Celestia who was visiting Ponyville on leave when the disaster struck and now has been helping the soldiers fight off the monsters. He came by a little after everypony was teleported out and I got the letter from Celestia. He said that he had gotten a letter from her as well to find you, saying that he needed to help you out with something.”
Twilight was confused. Help her? Help her with what? Was she supposed to do something? She rubbed her head and groaned. Too many questions and not enough answers. “Well where is he?”
“When he originally came, I told her you were out cold from the shock of what was happening.” Spike looked down, “I didn't want to tell anyone what really happened, not yet at least.”
Twilight smiled, “I understand Spike.” She didn't want anyone to know what really caused the explosion and, for now, let them believe that it was spontaneous. When this is all over, she might tell the truth. However, at the same time, she never wanted to admit that this was her fault. With all the death and destruction, how would ponies react? They’d hate her, loathe her for what he had been her fault. Twilight’s eyes widened, her mouth dropped.
Her fault. That’s what this was. This massacre, this slaughter, all this anarchy. It was her fault. She should have waited to ask Princess Celestia if she knew anything about this but no. She let her curiosity get the better of her, and now she alone is responsible for the damage. Unable to handle this realization, she burst into tears, wailing at the top of her lungs. She didn't care if those things out there heard her, she didn't care if anyone heard her. She just needed to let it all out.
“Twilight!?” Spike shouted, startled by Twilight’s bawling. He ran up, dropping his knife and hugged her. “What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”
“Everything. E-everything i-is wrong.” Twilight choked out between sobs. “All of this i-is b-because of m-me. I-I just h-had to t-try s-some s-pell I knew n-nothing about. And now!” She screamed, pushing Spike away and pointing to the window. “Everything is ruined beyond belief because of me!” Now she was feeling angry. Not at Spike, and not at anypony but herself. She had only herself to blame, and she hated herself for it.
Spike looked at her worryingly, “Twilight, you need to calm down. It’s not your fault you didn't know what would happen. Besides, we can’t let those things hear us or…” Before he could finish, Spike was interrupted by a sudden hard knocking at the door.
“Now who the fuck could that be?” Twilight growled. Since the last visitor left her an apocalypse-bringing spell book and a rock, she wasn't in the mood for anypony’s bullshit.
“Ah!” Spike gasped, “That must be our guy! The one I was telling you about. I told him to come back when you wake up. He must have heard you crying. Wait here, I’ll go and get him.”
Twilight shook her head, wiping her tears away for what must have been the fourth time so far. She felt a little better after crying like that. “Nuh-uh, I’m coming down with you. I want to meet this guy and find out what he’s supposed to help me with, and I need to see that letter you mentioned. Want to find out what the Princess had to say to him and me.”
Spike Shrugged, “Suit yourself.”
“Um, Spike, I need to ask about the knife,” Twilight pointed to the knife on the ground. “Is that green stuff what I think it is?” She hoped it wasn't what she thought it was.
“Oh, this?” Spike said, picking up the knife. “Yeah, some of those head-huggers teleported in here, but it’s okay though, I took care of them.
“Wait,” Twilight cringed, her suspicions confirmed. “You mean they’re coming in here? Oh no.” Twilight had hoped that the library would have been a safe place to hide out but if they were teleporting in here that means that they were most likely finding their way into other buildings. That meant no place was safe.
“Yeah,” Spike continued. “But it’s fine. There’s no need to worry. There were only two of them, they teleported in over an hour ago, and I killed them bo-”
Spike was interrupted by more knocking, even louder and harder than before.
“Well,” Spike shrugged. “Let’s not keep him waiting.”
When they got downstairs, Twilight was appalled by the scene she saw. Books, burned and torn, were all over the place, and all the windows were boarded up. Twilight noticed by the door two mutilated corpses of those head monsters Spike had killed, lying in a pool of their own blood.
“Gross.” Twilight cringed. She looked at the rest of the library one more time and sighed. “So much for reorganization.”  
“Yeah I know, it’s gross”, Spike said, walking over to the door and unlocking it. “But at least they’re dead.”
Spike had barely opened the door when a pegasus pushed his way in, knocking Spike over, and quickly slammed the door.
“Spike!” He yelled, “It’s about time! I heard crying! That must mean she’s awake! We need to move now before we’re too…” His tirade was interrupted when he took notice of Twilight. Staring at her for a few seconds, he cleared his throat. “Hello ma’am, you must be Twilight Sparkle, am I correct?”
“Um yeah,” Twilight took a good look at him. He was a relatively young looking pegasus, about her age, with a yellow-orange coat and sapphire blue eyes, mane and tail. He was wearing golden armor that was dented in a few places and covered with blood, some green, some red. “Who are you, exactly?”
He smiled, “The name’s Sentry. Flash Sentry.”

> Meeting for the First Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight stared at the pegasus quizzically. “Flash Sentry huh?” She was interested in this one. While he didn’t show it, he had an aura of benevolence to him that she didn’t see with many other ponies, let alone guards and soldiers. His voice was kind and inviting, a pleasure to hear,  atypical of any other soldier or guard she’s met, who usually had rough and gravelly voices. “Are you supposed to be the one that’s going to help me out?”

He nodded, “That’s correct Miss Sparkle, I’ve been instructed by princess Celestia herself to assist you in resolving the matter out there,” He said, motioning to the door. He let out a sigh, “Unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?” Twilight wondered what he meant by that.

“It’s just that,” He started. “I don’t know why she picked me of all ponies to help you. I understand why she would pick you for the task.” He looked back at Twilight. “I am well aware of your well above-average abilities in magic, so it makes sense why she would have you try to clean this mess up. But me, I’m just a normal Canterlot guard. Yeah I might be a royal guard, but that’s not a whole lot better. I have no special talents. I’m don’t have the skills or qualifications necessary for a job like this.” He lamented. “Regardless,” He smiled. “As a royal guard, I will perform the Princess’s bidding and help you in anyway I can.”

“Oh, well, um thanks, Twilight replied awkwardly. She kind of felt bad for the pegasus. She recalled that Spike mentioned that the reason he was here in Ponyville was to visit, meaning that he normally would have been in Canterlot and he had the extremely bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.Regarding his qualifications, while Twilight didn't say it to his face, she thought that he was speaking the truth when he said he was unqualified for this. If someone was to accompany her in a situation like this, Twilight was hoping for a bigger, tougher looking soldier. Flash Sentry, to be perfectly honest, didn't fit the description. While he wasn't exactly scrawny, he wasn't nearly as big or tough looking as she had hoped for.

“Anyway, what was that crying about? Was that you, Miss Sparkle?” He asked with a hint of worry in his voice. “If you were, it’s okay. You can tell me.” He smiled reassuringly. 

“Crying? I didn't hear any crying.” Twilight lied. She dare not tell him what she was really crying about. She couldn’t risk telling him and have him tell everyone else. She looked over to Spike, who had just gotten up after Flash sentry had knocked him over. 

“Nope, I didn't hear nothing.” Spike said innocently, going along with the lie. “You must have been hearing things Flash, with all that going on.”

Flash Sentry scowled. “Yeah, I… I guess it was just my imagination.” He mumbled. 

Twilight smiled, glad that she got away with the lie and convinced Flash that he imagined it. “Anyway, do you know what it is that Celestia wants us to do.” She was hoping she could finally get some answers.

Flash Sentry raised his eyebrows. “You mean you don’t know?” He turned to Spike. “Spike, didn’t you tell her about the letter?” 

Spike shrugged. “I told her about the letter, but it was addressed to her, and she was unconscious, and I didn’t want to intrude on her privacy...”

Flash Sentry facehoofed. “Really Spike? Just, really? Did you not consider that the letter might concern you too?” He asked, vexation in his voice. 

“Well, no.” Spike answered, smiling to look innocent. 

Flash groaned. “Forget it.” He turned to Twilight, “You at least have the letter right?”

“Yeah, Spike said he left it on the podium. Right Spike?” She said, turning to the dragon. 

“Um yeah, let me get it.” Spike replied, walking to the podium. 

Twilight watched him for a second before turning back to Flash. “So tell me, how bad is it out there? She gulped. She didn’t want to know the answer, but she felt it was important to know the severity of the situation. 

Flash Sentry looked to the ground. “I don’t know the full extent of what’s going on. I’ve been too busy killing these things to take notice. But what I have seen and heard isn’t good. A few of the other soldiers I talked with told me that when they got to Ponyville, there were 200 soldiers. Now,” He gulped. “There’s probably less than half.”

“Oh no.” Twilight put her hoof to her mouth, trying to hold back tears. This just kept getting worse and worse. If that many soldiers were gone in just two hours, that meant they won’t last much longer. 

“It gets worse though.” Flash said solemnly.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, afraid to know what could make this worse.

“What I mean is that these things just keep coming. The headcrabs, the bullsquids, the houndeyes. They keep teleporting in here to replace the ones we killed.. There’s just no end to these damn things,” He groaned, stamping his hood into the floor.

Twilight was perplexed, headcrabs? Bullsquids? Houndeyes? Where those supposed to be the names of the creatures out there? “Um Flash, what were those names again?

Flash chuckled. “Oh those, those are the names the soldiers gave to the things out there to make them easier to refer to. The headcrabs are the ones that latch onto heads, hence the head, and  probably because they look a little bit like crabs.”

“Not really.” Twilight remarked. “In fact, they don’t look like anything I've seen before.”

Flash shrugged. “I didn't come up with the name. Anyway, the giant lizards with the tentacles on their faces are called bullsquids because their aggressive behavior reminds us of of a pissed-off bull, hence the bull, and the tentacles remind us of a squid’s tentacles, hence the squid.”

“Okay.” Twilight replied. At least that name made more sense than headcrab. “What about 
houndeye?

“Well, we call those weird bug-eyed things houndeyes because some of the soldiers noticed that when they’re not attacking, they’re kind of curious and playful, like a dog, and they have that one huge eye. 

“Playful?” Twilight inquired. From what she had heard about them, playful was hard to believe. 

“Like I just said, when they’re not feeling threatened.” Flash replied. “We usually noticed them looking around at their surrounding and acting friendly with any animals that didn’t run away from them.”

“Until they’re attacked or feel threatened?” Twilight asked.

Flash nodded. “Correct, that’s when they unleash those shockwaves. They hurt like a crazy at first, but they’re predictable. They take a few seconds to charge it up and they curl themselves up to do so, letting you know it's about to attack so you can kill them before they try to kill you.” 

“Sorry I took so long you guys.” Flash and Twilight turned to see Spike walking back with a rolled up parchment. “Had some trouble finding it among all the other papers.” 

“That’s alright Spike.” Twilight grabbed the letter with her magic and unrolled it. “Let’s just see what the princess has to say.”

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

As you already know, the town of Ponyville has come under attack by strange and monstrous creature that are teleporting into the town. These creatures originate from a dimension called Xen. It is a strange world filled with terrifying and dangerous life forms. They are coming in through a portal that’s teleporting them into Ponyville.  I have already teleported everyone to Canterlot for their safety except for you, Flash Sentry, your assistant Spike and the soldiers. As you might have guessed, I left the soldiers behind to fight off these creatures for the time being. You, Flash Sentry, and Spike, however, will have the most important role. 

“The most important role?” Twilight wondered to herself. What could they have to do that the soldiers couldn't do? She continued reading.

There is a dome of magical energy surrounding Ponyville and the Everfree forest that is preventing Luna and I from entering the town and closing the portal. This malicious force also appears to be keeping the portal open, allowing more and more creatures to pour in. Since you are the most talented with magic in the town, I need you to find the force behind the dome and portal and stop it, bringing the dome down and closing the portal. Since the creatures will try to kill you, I’m having Flash Sentry and Spike accompany you for protection. The rest of the soldiers will be more than happy to help you out. I recommend bringing the element of magic with you, as it can grant you more power when you need it, but try not to drain its power. The portal will most likely be by the edge or in the Everfree forest. I warn you now, whatever is maintaining the portal and dome will be hostile and might try to kill you so be careful. Best of luck Twilight Sparkle and don’t let us down.
Princess Celestia

Twilight tried to wrap her head around what she just read. A dimension called Xen? Portal? Evil force keeping the town isolated? She had to find this force and stop it so the portal is closed and the dome can come down? “Holy Shit.” She groaned. Strange, her head was starting to ache again, and her vision blurred a bit.

“So now you know.” Flash Sentry said flatly.

“Yeah.” Twilight answered, struggling to look at Flash with her distorted sight. “There’s some force keeping the Princesses from entering the town and closing the portal, and since I have the most magical capabilities, she wants me to find the force behind this to close the portal and bring down this magical barrier.” She replied, rolling up the letter and handing it to Spike. 

Flash chuckled. “I could hardly believe it either. It sounded so crazy. Xen dimension, the barrier around the town, some malevolent force keeping the barrier up and portal open. I didn’t want to believe it, but the Princess wouldn’t lie.” 

“Is that what the Princess wrote to you?”

“Yup.”

“Woah woah woah.” Spike interrupted “What is this about some Xen dimension, magical dome, force keeping this portal open. What’s going on.?” 

“We’ll explain later Spike.” Flash Sentry interrupted. “But first, we need to get you some armor. If you’re going out there, you’re going to need some protection.”

“Alright.” Twilight responded. He was right after all. She didn’t want to face these creatures without any protection. “Spike, get the Elements of Harmony

“What?” Spike asked. “For what?”

“The Princess said we should bring them with us.” While Celestia said that only Magic was necessary, Twilight felt that she should bring all of them. She had a feeling she would need them. 

“Alright, I’ll get them, they’re hidden in one of these books.”

“Work on that Spike." Flash Sentry said to Spike as he walked to the bookshelves. “And Twilight, I’ll also need find you a weapon for you. Have you used a weapon before.”

“Well not exactly, but I’ve had combat experience, with Discord, Nightmare Moon, the changelings, and Sombra.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard out about that. Anyway, I’ll be back. There should be some clean and undamaged armor and hopefully a sword or something at one of the barracks. And Twilight listen, if I don’t come back in an hour, go without me. I’ll probably be dead or something. Grab some armor and weapon from a dead soldier and go with Spike.There’s no reason to wait for me.”

“Okay, got it.” Twilight bit her lip. “Flash, please be careful. Don’t die out there.” She had only known the pegasus for a few minutes but she already felt attached to him, probably because, besides Spike, he was the only other non-hostile life form she had spoken to so far and he was just so friendly, kind, and likable. It would be such a damn shame to have him die and lose him so quickly.

He smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, but remember, in case I don’t come back…”

“I know.”

“Alright, see you soon. Hopefully.” With that he opened the door and left, shutting the door quickly.

“Stay safe.” Twilight whispered, lowering her head. 


The city of Canterlot was rife with activity. All the citizens of Ponyville, and several Canterlot citizens who were awakened by the commotion, were gathered in front of the castle, discussing the recent events as of late. Everyone was confused and frightened by what they had experienced and what they were hearing. Rumors were spreading that the creatures in Ponyville were sent by an old villain, such as the likes of the changelings or Discord, or that they were some new undiscovered species somepony brought into Ponyville, or some creatures some evil unicorn with sufficient magic might have created. Regardless of the origin, the entire city was in a panic, with many of the Canterlot citizens afraid that the creatures would find their way to Canterlot. The royal guards were doing their best to keep the civilians calm, but could do little to allay their fears. 

Meanwhile, Princess Celestia deep in thought over the events that had unfolded earlier. After she had addressed the crowd, stating that the events in Ponyville will be sorted out and taken care of and that there was nothing to fear anymore, she returned to her room to think about what had gone down. She looked down at the hysterical crowd and sighed. She wish she hadn’t told the crowd that the situation would be under control. In all honesty, she didn’t know what she was going to do. Someone or something was keeping the portal open and had set up a barrier to prevent Luna and her from entering the town to close the portal, and stopping those monsters, those aliens. She already knew all about those vile creatures and where they came from. She knew all about the horrid dimension Xen and the variety of dangerous fauna it possessed. She knew of the houndeye, the headcrab, the bullsquid, the vortigaunt, the grunt, the tentacle, all of them. Worst of all, she knew of what happened the last time a Xen portal had been opened, and how it ravaged and ruined a little blue planet called Earth. That’s what scared her the most. The thought that the events of Earth could happen again, but in Equestria this time. That they would detect the dimensional rift and come and conquer Equestria. Celestia shuddered. She was well aware of that odious empire and what its actions. On several occasions in the past, she had used a spell to look into other dimensions to observe this empire. What she had seen would drive most ponies mad with grief and fear. The atrocities committed by this empire were the most depraved and down right evil things she had witnessed in her one thousand years of ruling Equestria. The slaughter of billions of innocent lives across countless races, the destruction of worlds, and the empire’s sadistic methods of indoctrination that they used on the populations they chose to spare. She vividly remembered watching their invasion and domination of Earth and the enslavement of the human race a mere sixteen years ago. She recalled seeing how even with the humans’ technology and weaponry, which was vastly superior to Equestria's in every way, they were outmatched by the enemy’s more superior technology and weapons and conquered in just seven hours. Seven hours. That’s how long it took a technologically superior race to the ponies to be conquered by that empire. As the ruler of Equestria, she rarely ever felt fear in the face of evil or adversity, be it Discord, Sombra, the Changelings, or when her own sister became Nightmare Moon. But now, now, she was scared beyond belief. If the empire found Equestria, they’d have no chance. Millions would be slaughtered and enslaved, Luna and her most likely killed, and they would suck up and consume all the resources of Equestria like the parasites they were until there was nothing left but a dry, barren rock.  Her only hope now was Twilight Sparkle. Her most talented and gifted student was their only chance of closing the portal before the empire found them. She can’t fail, she had to succeed for the sake of Equestria and its inhabitants.

“Please Twilight,” Celestia whispered. Don’t let us down.”

At that moment, she heard a knock at her door. She groaned in annoyance. With all that was on her mind at the moment, she really didn’t want to be disturbed. 

“Come in.” She curtly. 

The door opened to reveal that the pony knocking was none other than Princess Luna. “Sister.”

“Oh hello Luna, what brings you here?” Celestia asked bluntly. 

“Just checking to see how you’re holding up.” Luna replied with a note of concern in her voice. “You’ve been holed up in here for the past two hours.”

“I’m just worried,” Celestia said turning to face Luna. “With all that’s going on.” 

Luna smiled. “Celly, you need not worry. We’ll be fine. Twilight is your best student. You know she can and will  close the portal and the barrier. 

“I hope so, but you’d understand if I had my doubts.” Celestia answered back. “Twilight may be my best student, but she’s only one unicorn, and they’re a lot more of those things in Ponyville  with more and more coming. Even with the help of Flash Sentry, Spike and the rest of the soldiers at her side, she might not be able to.”

“But she has to!” Luna countered, worry in her voice. “If she doesn’t…”

“I know,” Celestia finished. “The portal will get bigger, spread to other parts to Equestria, unleashing even more…” Celestia clenched her teeth. She didn’t even want to think about it let alone talk about it. “Besides, even if she does close the portal before others open, there’s still the chance that… they might find us.” 

“NO! Don’t say that Celly!” Luna shouted fearfully, knowing very well what she was talking about and acting as if just talking about them would alert them of their location. “That can’t happen! If it did…” Luna shook her head. “Oh, I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Neither do I Luna, but we must face facts and accept that the possibility is very real.” Celestia said somberly.

“What can we do?” Luna asked. “We have no real defenses against them. They’ve conquered and destroyed countless races with superior technology and weapons. We’d have no shot in winning, even with our combined power and the Elements of Harmony. 

“All we can do now,” Celestia sighed. “Is hope for the best.” She knew it sounded foolish, but in a time like this, with an enemy like this, that’s all they could do.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand though.” Luna said, curiosity in her voice. 

“What’s that?”

“What triggered the portal? Portals between dimensions aren’t spontaneous. They’re always triggered by someone who usually intends on opening one. That means that someone in Ponyville caused this to happen.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes it’s true that interdimensional portals are almost always planned, but from what we gathered, witnesses saw a bright green flash and heard a loud buzzing near the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight’s home, and that’s when the first of them appeared, a headcrab. One pony, a mare named Carrot Top, made the mistake of getting too close to it and got attacked. It latched onto her head and took control of her body. She attacked a stallion, Time Turner I believe his name was, and broke his jaw before a soldier killed her. There’s no evidence that anypony opened the portal.”

“Wait, if it happened near Twilight’s home, you don't think…”

NO! Absolutely not! Twilight would never do something so foolish!” Celestia interrupted, raising her voice. She refused to believe that Twilight would be so reckless and cast a spell like that without letting her know first.

“But what if she did?” Luna argued. “You know how intent Twilight is on learning and trying out new spells. She might have discovered a spell to open a portal and cast it unknowingly. 

“Twilight is not stupid Luna, and like I said she would never do something so heinous and stupid without asking me about it. Besides, there was only one spell that could open a Xen portal and that spell has been lost to the ages.”

“Alright, alright,” Luna conceded, realizing she won’t be winning this argument. “Anyway, what happened next?”

“The reports say that more and more of the creatures of all kinds were teleporting in and started to attack everypony in sight. It was lucky that one of the soldiers sent a letter to me as soon as that green flash occurred or else I wouldn’t have been able to rescue everyone in time.”

“Besides Carrot Top, has any other pony,” Luna gulped. “Died?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, the worst were some nasty lacerations and broken bones, but the Canterlot doctors patched those up.”

“Okay good.” Luna said, breathing a sigh of relief. “By the way, I need to know.  Why Flash Sentry? He’s only a guard and he’s supposed to be on vacation. Why did you ask him to accompany Twilight Sparkle and not somepony else?

Celestia smiled. “I chose Flash Sentry because I felt that he would be the best match for Twilight and would cooperate best with her. There’s a chemistry between them that will be best suitable for this type of work.”

“Uh huh.” Luna didn’t really understand what Celestia meant but chose not to ask her to elaborate.

There was a few seconds of silence between the sisters before Luna spoke up.

“You do believe Twilight can do it, right sister? She can close the portal before they find us right?”

Celestia closed her eyes, “I hope so Luna, but even Gordon Freeman, as remarkable as he was, wasn’t quick enough to close the portal aone ve Earth from the Combine, so I don’t know.”


> Heading Out 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Thirty minutes had passed since Flash Sentry left to get some armor and a weapon from the barracks and Spike was growing impatient. He had been pacing in circles for the last ten minutes before he stopped and groaned. 

“What’s taking him so long? It’s been half an hour!” He turned to Twilight, who was going through the few books that weren’t destroyed. “What do you think Twilight?”

Twilight turned to him. “Spike, chill out. He said to wait an hour at the most before we go on our own and it’s only been half. Just be patient.” With that, she went back to her books. 

Spike groaned. “The world’s ending all around us and this is what you’re doing? How and what can you be reading at a time like this Twilight?”

“I’m researching, Spike,” Twilight said, as she continued to read. “I want to see if I can find anything regarding this “Xen dimension”, I’ve never heard of anything like it before and any information I find might be instrumental in our work.”

Spike sighed, “Have you found anything that’s even, like, close to relevant.”

It was Twilight’s turn to sigh, “No, none of these books have anything we can use. The closest I got to anything relevant was a book whose author who speculated and theorized about the existence of alternate universes and dimensions where boundless worlds and wide varieties of life could exist, but he said that their existences weren’t confirmed and it was just all “theoretical.”" 

Spike chuckled, “I guess it’s more than just theoretical, huh?”

“There’s just one thing that’s been bugging me since Flash Sentry left.” Twilight said, putting the book back into its shelf.

“What’s that?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know, I just feel like I’m forgetting someth-” Twilight’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Owlowiscious! She forgot about her owl companion in all the confusion. She looked around hastily and her suspicions were confirmed. He was no where to be found. 

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Spike asked.

“Spike, where’s Owlowiscious?!” What happened to him?!” Twilight asked frantically. 

“Owlowiscious?” Spike said, scratching his head. “I don’t know. The last time I saw him was before you cast the spell. He must of flown out the window during the confusion.”

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, this is bad,” Twilight muttered, shaking her head. “He couldn’t have lasted long out there, he probably injured or de-”

“Twilight,” Spike interrupted, looking her in the eyes. “Relax, Owlowiscious is probably fine. He might be an owl, but he’s not a stupid owl. He’s probably hiding in the Everfree forest, waiting for all of this to die down.”

“I hope you’re right Spike, but if anything happened-”

Before she could finish, Twilight was interrupted by a loud banging at her door. Her ears pricked up. Flash Sentry! 

“Flash!” Twilight exclaimed, turning to the door. “He's back!”

“About time.” Spike mumbled.

Twilight ran over to the door and opened it, thrilled that Flash Sentry had made it back. To be frank, she was starting to get worried about Flash Sentry herself, afraid that he wouldn’t make it back and that she would have to embark on her own. 

“Flash! I’m so glad you’re back. I was starting to get worried that yo-”

But before she could finish, Flash pushed Twilight out of his way and onto the floor knocking the wind out of her. When Twilight regained composure, she was shocked by what she saw. Flash Sentry as covered in cuts and bruises from head to hoof, with a nasty gash in his left shoulder. in his mouth he was holding a large burlap sack that was on his back. The most prominent feature, however, was his eyes. His eyes were wide and fiery, filled a raging fury Twilight had never seen before. He released the sack from his mouth, letting it fall to the floor, and gritted his teeth. 

“EAT THIS, YOU SON OF A BITCH!” He screamed as he unsheathed a dagger that he had concealed under his armor. With a swift throw, he flung the dagger at whatever he was fighting and slammed the door shut. 

Flash Sentry took a few deep breathes before turning to Twilight, who was trembling in fear by what she saw. 

Flash smiled, his eyes taking on a more favorable tone. “Sorry I took so long.” 

Spike rushed up to Flash, getting right up into his face, anxious to learn what happened while he was gone.

“Woah!" He started. "Damn, Flash, you look like crap. What happened to you out there? ” 

Flash smiled. “Easy  there, Spike. Settle down. It’s nothing; I just ran into a little trouble getting back from the barracks.”

“Wh-what kind of trouble?” Twilight asked as she got up, brushing herself off..

“Oh, it’s nothing.” He responded. “You don’t need to worry, Twilight, and sorry for knocking you to the ground like that. Was kind of in a hurry.”

“Flash, don’t you think it’s necessary for me to know what happened to you so I know what I’m up against?” Twilight asked impatiently. 

Flash sighed, “True, you’ve got a point.”

“So what happened?” Spike interjected. “Was it one of those squid things or those face bugs or something? Come on, come on, tell us!” 

Twilight got a little tense hearing him go on like that. He seemed so excited to find out what happened to Flash, to find out what was going on outside, but why? Twilight never imagined Spike to be the one to seek out action like this, especially one the situation was so severe and grim, but he seemed so ready to get out there and tackle it head on. Twilight shook her head. Maybe it was nothing to get too worried about. Spike was a dragon after all, maybe it was inherent for him to get excited like this despite his other “undragon-like” qualities. 

“Alright, here goes.” Flash sentry voice took on a pensive tone and he became stone-faced. “While I was making my way across town to the barracks, I got ambushed by a couple of bullsquids and just barely managed to fight them off. He motioned to his right shoulder where his shoulder pad was missing and a nasty gash was in its place. “One of the little bastards gave me this.” Twilight took a better look at the laceration. The laceration was thick and crimson red running across the length of Flash’s shoulder. Fortunately, the wound had stopped bleeding and appeared to have dried out, although heavy bleeding was evident with all dried blood around it.

“That cut looks pretty nasty.” Twilight said worryingly. “ We’ll need to patch it up.” 

Flash nodded . “Good idea. You got anything?”

“There should be a bottle of tonic that can clean that cut and some bandages upstairs.” Twilight turned to Spike. “Can you go and get it Spike?” 

“Sure.” He replied. “Just hold on.” With that, he headed upstairs to find the potion and bandages. 

Twilight turned back to Flash Sentry. “What else happened out there?”

“Well after that… um...” Flash stopped. His lips started to quiver before he pursed them. He looked left and right nervously before he looked at Twilight. His demeanor changed from one of credence and relaxation to one of nervousness and desolation. 

“Flash? Is everything alright?” Twilighted queried. She didn’t like the look of Flash. It appeared that something out there had really shaken him up, even more than the monsters and aliens did. 

“Ye-yeah, everything’s alright.” Flash Sentry stammered, trying his best to make it look like nothing was wrong. “So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah after I fought off those bullsquids, I continued to make my way to the barracks. In between, I had to fight off some other aliens, a couple of houndeyes, a few headcrabs. Had to wrestle one of those little bastards off a fellow guard's head.”

“Oh no.” Twilight interrupted, putting her hoof to her mouth. “Is he alright"

Hearing Flash say that brought back memories of the earth pony guard she saw getting attacked by one of those headcrabs. The memories of the blood, his screams of agony, and the monster that took his place came rushing back to her. 

“Don’t worry, he’s fine. I managed to pull it off before it could gain any hold on his head.”

Twilight exhaled a sigh of relief. “That’s good.” Funny, it felt really good to finally hear some good news, despite all the bad. 

“Anyway,” Flash Sentry continued. “After that I finally got to the barracks. A couple soldiers and I tore the whole place up looking for armor that would work for you when I finally found a set hidden under a staircase. With that, I made my way back as fast as I could.”

“Terrific.” Twilight smiled. “Let’s see it.” 

Flash Sentry nodded and turned the sack over with his good foreleg, emptying it of its content. A set of armor fell out of the bag. Twilight was puzzled by the pile in front of her. The armor appeared to be your typical set except that it was… 

“Orange?” She looked at the armor, a bit perplexed. She knew that standard issue armor was almost always a golden brass, except for certain exceptions like her brother’s. She had never seen orange armor before. She took a closer look and noticed by the texture that the armor wasn’t made to be orange, but was painted by somepony.

“Um, yeah.” Flash Sentry scratched the back and smiled. “This set just happens to be the one that a certain pink party pony decided to “decorate” 

“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight groaned. While she thought that the hyperactive party pony should know better than to vandalize property, at the same time it didn’t surprise her that she would do this. 

“A couple of us caught her in the act earlier yesterday,” Flash Sentry continued. “But by that time it was too late. When we deman- er, asked why she did it, she just smiled and said her “Pinkie Sense” told her that it was necessary. She didn’t say what it was necessary for or what the heck a "Pinkie sense" is but that it just was. We decided that there was no point in punishing her for a somewhat minor offense and that we could let her go but not before warning her that if we caught her doing anything else like that, there would be consequences.”

Twilight shook her head and sighed. “That’s just… that just sounds like Pinkie Pie.” She looked back down at the armor and front of her and noticed something was amiss.

“Where’s the helmet?” Twilight inquired, looking up at Flash Sentry, whose mind was somewhere else.

“The what?” Flash asked, looking back at Twilight. 

“The helmet.” Twilight repeated, a bit irritated. “There should be a helmet here, but I don’t see one. Where is it?”

“W-wha-” Flash Sentry stuttered before looking at the pile. He groaned. “Crap, I was in such a rush to get back here after I found it that I didn’t even bother to check to see if everything was there.” He slammed his hoof into the ground. “Shit! Damn it, I feel so stupid!”

Twilight grimaced. "Flash, it's okay. It's just one piece of armor. We can improvise." She sighed. The truth was that it was not okay. She wondered how could he have forgotten something as necessary as a helmet but decided not to say much about it. "Well," she thought. "He said he was in a rush and there are monsters everywhere and at least he got most of this armor anyway " 

Flash sentry shook his head. "No, no, no. It's not okay. Damn it, how could I forget the most important part of any set of armor."

"Flash, really, it's alright. We can find another helmet off one of the guards." 

"Yeah I guess, but anything we find will probably be dirty, covered in alien guts or something."

Twilight smiled. "That'll be fine. Besides, getting covered in enemy blood is better than my own."

Flash chuckled. "Not even out that door yet and you're already talking like a soldier."

"Twilight!" The two looked up to see Spike at the top of the staircase with a purple vial and bandages in his hands. "Is this it?" 

"Yeah, that's it. Bring it down." 

"Spike walked down the stairs and handed them to Twilight, who picked them up with her magic.

"Now listen Flash." Twilight said, turning to Flash Sentry. "This stuff is gonna sting and I mean, it's gonna sting. But it'll clean up the wound quickly and take care of everything."

"Um, okay." Flash sentry said, a bit daunted. "Whatever it takes I guess.”

With that, Twilight used her magic to unscrew the cap off the bottle and poured a bit of the tonic, a bright purple liquid that glimmered in the light, onto the bandage. 

“Alright, here goes…” Twilight said, levitating the moistened bandage, and with all the speed she could muster, she wrapped the bandage around Flash Sentry’s wound and tied it up. 

Flash Sentry’s eyes widened, “AH SHIT!!!” He toppled over, landing on his wounded shoulder.

"Flash, please" Twilight said pleadingly, helping Flash back up on his hooves. "I know it hurts a lot, but the pain will pass."

Flash stood up staggering a bit and breathing heavily. "Y-yeah, I feel better now." He looked at Twilight. "Thanks." 

“You’re lucky. If you had squirmed around too much, you might have messed up the bandage and I would’ve had to apply again.”

“Now you tell me…” Flash grunted.

"You guys alright?" Spike asked, a bit uneasy. 

"Yeah Spike, we're fine." Twilight responded. "And I think we're ready to head out now just after I put on the armor. Right Flash?" 

"Yeah" Flash answered. "Let's not waste anymore time."

A few minutes later and Twilight was putting on the last glove. With a bit of trouble and help to go along. Twilight managed to get all the armor on. She shivered. The armor felt frigid and uncomfortable on her body and she felt naked without a helmet. Like Flash said, each piece of the armor was slathered with a bright orange coat of paint. The only spot that deviated from this norm was the breastplate. On it was a peculiar looking circle painted with jet black ink and surrounded by a circle. Twilight was familiar with many symbols from Equestria’s history and contemporary life, she she had never seen this one before? It looked an X that was missing one of its top legs missing. The remaining top leg was shorter than the bottom ones, and it, along with the leg it was connected to, was bent at the ends. 

She continued to gaze at the symbol, pondering its meaning or purpose? “Where did Pinkie see this symbol?” She thought to herself. “Better question is, why did she bother putting on this armor or paint the entire thing orange for that matter?” She shook her head. No time for those kinds of questions now. 

“Well, how does it look?” She turned to Flash and Spike, looking for their opinions. 

Flash smirked. “Not bad.” He began to circle Twilight, his head bobbing up and down to get a better look, his smirk stretching into a childish looking smile. “Not bad at all.”

Twilight nodded, paying no attention to Flash Sentry’s gawking. Spike noticed Flash, chuckled, and walked over to him to nudge him. Flash snapped out of his gaze and looked down at Spike. 

“Save it for later, tough guy” he said, smirking. 

“Right…” Flash said, face red with embarrassment.  

He walked over to the door and put his hoof on the door knob when he looked back to Twilight and Spike. "Now listen you two." He said sternly. "I have no idea what's on the other side of that door but whatever it is, it’s probably big, scary, slimey and it wants to kill us, so get ready."

Twilight and Spike tensed up, readying themselves for the worst. Twilight took a fighting stance, prepared for whatever could attack. Spike raised his knife and starting growling. 

Flash took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing..." With that, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open as fast as he could. 

The three of them looked upon the carnage and ruin that law before them. The battered corpses, the ravaged and demolished buildings, and the general turmoil the town was suffering. From the distance they heard the shouts of the guards communicating with each other and occasionally, the wail of someone or something dying. Twilight's stomach churned. From up close, the destruction looked much worse. Spike stopped growling and lowered his knife; his fighting spirit dissipated and the look of rage in his eyes turned to one of fear. 

Out of the darkness they heard a deep throaty growl. Each one of them focused their to the area it originated from. 

"Did you hear that?" Flash sentry whispered to Twilight and Spike. Both of them nodded in unison.

"Good." He muttered. "I'm not going crazy." 

The source of the sound revealed itself as a bullsquid as it stepped out from the shadows into their line of sight. Twilight took a step back. From her window in the library, the creature resembled a grotesque amalgam of lizard and squid, but from up close it really was a sight to behold. Its sickly green skin looked slimy yet coarse with its back sowed with black spots of various sizes that ran from from head to tail. It’s legs were bulbous, masses of flesh and muscle that ended with two ebony claws on each leg. It’s eyes pale white globes stuck on the sides of its head. They looked almost lifeless, devoid of any energy or vitality that the creature had. The part of the creature that Twilight paid the most attention to was its tentacles. A series of them were arranged around what Twilight assumed was the creature’s mouth. They swayed around haphazardly as the creature observed its surroundings.

“No one make a sound.” Flash Sentry whispered to Spike and Twilight. “It doesn’t seem to know we’re here so maybe we can sneak attack it.”

Twilight nodded in agreement. It was better to sneak attack these things than outright fighting them as the sounds of a fight might attract the attention of more of these things, a scenario Twilight would much rather avoid.

With that, it immediately turned its attention to the party and eyed of them for a few seconds. It continued to growl as drooled some of the same green liquid Twilight saw earlier.

“Just my damn luck.” Flash sighed. 

Twilight tensed up, trying to anticipate the creature next move. Would it strike? Would it run away? Maybe it would get distracted and leave? Twilight gritted her teeth as sweat dripped from her brow. She had studied and read up on many of the countless species of flora and fauna that lived in Equestria, but none of that knowledge did her any good now. She had no idea what to expect from a creature of the likes of this. As far as she knows, it’s capable of anything. But from what she had seen earlier, it was safe to assume the worse. 

“Let me handle this one for now. I have a pretty good idea on how they act and fight. They’re at their most dangerous up close, but all you have to do is keep your distance. What you need to look out for is its slime-”

The creature must have known what Flash was thinking in advance for at that moment, It shot a putrid ball of its slime at them. 

“MOVE!” Flash yelled in command, shoving Twilight to the ground to avoid the slime. Spike rolled out the way. diving behind some bushes to evade the the monster. 

Flash Sentry got off of Twilight and looked at the thing with the disgust. He lowered his head to Twilight who was sheltering her head with her hooves.

“I got this one.” he whispered before unsheathing his sword and walking slowly towards the monster. The monster stood in place as it drooled slime and squealed. Flash Sentry tightened his grip on the sword in his mouth and eyed the beast as he approached it. Spike peeked out from behind the bushes to watch the confrontation. 

The beast didn’t wait for Flash to get to it before it lunged at him. It spread its tentacles out to reveal the interior of its mouth, a grotesque tunnel of teeth and slime. It wailed with a sound that was foreign to this world . Flash was ready however. With lightning fast reflexes he jerked his head to his right, swinging the blade of the sword towards the monster. He struck at the perfect time, slicing off two of the creature’s tentacles. It toppled over onto its back, withering and flailing in pain. The stumps where its tentacles were once attached were gushing a neon green blood. Flash Sentry approached the monstrosity as it struggled to gain its footing. He wasted no time in plunging the sword right into the monster’s head right between the eyes. It screamed even 
louder before it went limp. Flash gritted his teeth. 

“Good riddance, you piece of shit.” 

He returned his sword to his sheath and returned to Twilight Sparkle who had gotten up during the scuffle. She gazed upon the corpse of the creature, paying special attention to its severed tentacles and the hole Flash made in its head. She shuddered. The fear she felt towards her situation was more powerful than ever. 

“Miss Sparkle, are you alright?” He inquired. “You’re not hurt, are you? 

“I’m fine, Flash.” She lied. She wish she could have meant that but the reality of what was happening hit her like a runaway cart. Just an hour ago she never even acknowledged that what the princess was asking her to do could kill her. She never realized that her failure might result in death. But seeing the dead monster opened her eyes. She might not get out of this alive. There was the very real possibility that she will not survive to fulfil what is asked of her. There were past events where the possibility of her death was real, like the Changeling invasion and Sombra’s return, but during those times she always had at least a good amount of help on her side, whether it be her friends and the elements of harmony or the royal guards. Besides there was never really any guarantee that any past villains would have tried to kill her. They might have tried to imprison her or such but killing seemed beyond their scope of evil. The odds never felt like they were too stacked against her. This was different. She was dealing with a threat she could scantily understand that was actively trying to kill her. She was cut off from any outside help and the help she did have was slowly being overwhelmed. She only knew that to stop the incursions she would need to close a portal that she only knew was in the vicinity of the Everfree forest. But before she could do that, she would need to stop whoever or whatever was keeping the portal open and isolating the town. The odds of success looked non existent to her. 

“Nice kill, Flash.” Spike said stepping out from behind the bush, knife still in hand. 

“Thanks Spike, but it was nothing. Just doing my job.” He answered back. He looked to Twilight now. “But now we need to figure out our game plan. The only entrance to the Everfree forest is near you friend Fluttershy’s cottage, right Twilight?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, that’s correct.” 

“Alright, so that’s where we’ll enter. Do any of you have a map of the forest that we can take with us?” 

“We do, but I don’t it’s still intact.” Spike interrupted. “Even if it’s still in one piece, it would take too long to find it.” 

“Dammit.” Flash grunted. “Well, I know that my commander has some maps of the area with him, He set up camp on the other side of town. We should head there first before we go in. 

“Good idea.” Twilight responded. The Everfree forest is huge and is very easy to get lost in. A map would let them mark off areas that they’ve investigated so their search doesn’t take longer than it needs to. 
Just as the three finished conversing about their plans, some of the bushes near the one Spike hid behind were rustling. The three turned their attention to the bush, anxious of what could be hiding. 


“Not again.” Flash Sentry muttered, taking out his sword. Spike raised his knife to eye level baring his teeth as he eyed the bush, preparing for whatever came. Twilight tensed up, her eyes locked on the bush. What was it this time? Another bullsquid? One of those houndeyes? a pony zombie? 

A second bullsquid revealed itself by jumping out from the bushes. Each one of them took a step back. This one was even bigger than the last one, its tentacles were longer and from the glimpses that Twilight could get of its mouth, its teeth were even longer. Flash and Spike both began to take slow small steps towards the creature. The creature growled and shook in place splattering its drool around.  

“You take it from the left, I’ll take it from the right. It can’t fight both of us at the same time.” Flash whispered through his teeth to Spike who nodded in response. 

It seems however, that the creature heard their little plan of attack because at that instant, it lept at Spike with agility that none of them thought was possible for an animal as bulky as it was. 

“OH NO!” Spike yelled, dropping his knife and raising his hands to shield his face. 

“SPIKE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!” Flash screamed. He turned to run to Spike, but by then it was too late. The bullsquid had already leaped into the air to pounce on Spike. 

But in that instant, a bright pulse of purple light, zipping right past Flash Sentry’s head, struck the beast in its stomach before it could touch down on Spike. The blast was of such power that it tore apart the bullsquid, making it explode and rain its blood on Spike and Flash. Spike uncovered his eyes and saw the mess around him. He looked to Flash Sentry who was staring at someone behind him. He had a look of surprise in his eyes, mixed with awe. He turned to where Flash was looking and saw Twilight who had taken a defensive posture. Her horn was glowing a dim purple and she was panting and sweating heavily. 

“Eat… that…. you… son.. of a… BITCH!”