Warm morning sun filtered through the circular shutters, the ring of light slowly inching across the rustic floor.
The room was normally filled with life but today it was a shade of its regular self. A deathly silence permeated the home.
A gentle breeze found its way past the doorway that had been left ajar, flowing through the cottage; rustling leaves on the natural wood furniture and causing some majestic pink strands of hair to sway ever so slightly, but it was enough.
Terror, as the wispy tip of her mane tickled the newly awoken pony’s nose that was the only emotion dominating her mind, a wail pierced the still air.
The pure horror caused her to launch herself upwards at an almost supernatural pace. But those emotions were quickly replaced however, by the sight of the rapidly approaching ceiling.
“Fluttershy?”
A familiar voice filled her ears as she stirred from her insentience. Eyes flickering open they were greeted by cyan blue.
“Rainbow Dash… what are you doing here?...”
Cut off by the sharp pain in her nose she recoiled with a squeal.
“I let myself in after you didn’t answer the door, seeing as it was open n’ all, what happened?”
Struggling to her hooves with one covering her nose Fluttershy assessed the situation. “I’m not too sure…” But her priorities shifted quickly however, once she noticed the two of them are alone.
“Where is everypony?”
Noticing the confused tilt of Rainbow’s head she elaborated.
“All of my little animal friends, they can’t all still be sleeping. What time is it?”
“It’s about midday” Rainbow Dash stated, observing all of the little empty homes filling every corner of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“They’ve probably gone to help clean somepony’s house or something but you can worry about that later, we’ve got a problem in Ponyville only you can help with.”
Taken aback Fluttershy instantly assumed the worst.
“Oh dear! What’s wrong? Is it bad? What can I do to help!?” She asked in the most urgent voice she could muster.
Surprisingly Rainbow’s response was one of embarrassment rather than urgency as she turned her head and lifted some of her multi-coloured mane to reveal four scratch marks over one eye.
“It’s Opal, something spooked her this morning and she climbed to the top of the carousel boutique. I tried getting her down but that cat had more fight in her than I thought.” She replaced the mane over her damaged eye and a faint red glow appeared on her face.
“I… I hope she’s ok, but…” Fluttershy paused, unsure of what happened to all of her fluffy housemates.
“Angel never forgets to wake me up in the morning, where could he be?” She started drifting around the cottage peering into each tiny home in an attempt to locate any of her companions, but as the number of vacant homes increased she started to become distressed.
A glimmer of light by the doorway then caught her eye, floating over to inspect the object she recognised what it was, Angel’s pocket watch. Distraught at the discovery fear overcame her and she rushed through the door in search of her beloved friend, leaving a rather bemused pegasus hovering in her front room.
The crowd around the boutique had grown to half-a-dozen.
“Where are Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they should be here by now.” Twilight Sparkle muttered to herself whilst looking on hopelessly at the immovable and slightly demented feline.
Feeling that a plan B was in order Twilight consulted the small group. “Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get her down safely?”
After a short while one voice broke the silence.
“Erm, we could get a” but the sudden sense of clarity was quickly interrupted by Twilight.
“No, Derpy we’ve already told you there aren’t any ladders large enough. Even if we did have one, that still doesn’t fix the problem of how we would bring her down without her or anypony else getting hurt; you saw what happened with Rainbow. Any other ideas?”
A pony sitting at the back of the group then spoke up.
“Maybe we could make a giant hand on the end of a stick and…” the voice quickly subsided however as a navy blue and pink haired mare standing nearby could be seen glaring furiously at her.
The subsequent awkward silence was interrupted by Twilight clearing her throat.
“Okay… as I see there are no more ideas, plan B looks to be in order. I have to lower her down with magic.”
A slight grimace appeared on Rarity’s face at the suggestion. “If you do try darling, please be careful not to mess up her fur, or hurt her.”
“I don’t see why you’re worrying so much; I use this spell all the time. She’ll be fine.” Twilight readied herself and with a spark her horn began to glow. A purple aura surrounded Opal and an invisible force began attempting to pry her from the pole atop the boutique.
The cat however, didn’t budge and continued clutching to the pole.
The strain on Twilight’s abilities was obvious as she continued the magical assault on the cat. “This isn’t right… I’m putting all of my strength behind this simple spell… why won’t she let go!?” she uttered through gritted teeth.
Finally she couldn’t keep the spell intact and flopped onto the ground exhausted; Opal seemed to be utterly unscathed by the spell and continued to grip tightly to the pole with an outright vacant look on her face.
The worried crowd rushed to Twilight’s aid, their mind-set solely on her welfare. After briefly checking on the exhausted pony, Rarity couldn’t help but glance away from Twilight to witness the status of her beloved pet, but Opal was no longer there.
This was normally one of the more entertaining tasks, flying across the sky with the wind gushing through her mane.
But with her failure to bring Fluttershy back to town all Rainbow Dash could think of was how in Equestria they were going to get that cat down from the building safely, considering the only pony with the ability to entirely empathise with animals just flew off.
After a minute of watching the extensive apple orchard below her whiz by, her mind wandered to thoughts of payback for the injury the cat had given her. Scenarios flashed through her head involving small rain clouds and lightning giving her stern face a slight grin.
She could see it now, the boutique on the far side of town. But there was something strange ahead, a small blue glow rapidly approaching.
As Rainbow Dash paused and hovered in the air to try and get a better look at the unidentified flying object, what came into focus dumbfounded her.
It was the cat.
Suspended in the air by what looked like a blue ball, Opal hovered past the stunned Pegasus. Questions flooded into her mind about such a bizarre spectacle and she decided to follow the floating feline.
Confused by this type of magic Rainbow kept her distance whilst attempting to grab the animal’s attention, it wasn’t long however until she recognised her efforts were fruitless. The cat’s deadpan face gazing into the distance showed that there was no recognition; it was time to take action.
She swooped into grab the cat from its prison but was met by a solid object, her hooves clanging against the bizarre material.
Taken by surprise it took some time to regain her composure. “I think I’ll just stick to following…” she thought whilst rubbing her sore hoof.
After a short while she noticed that the scenery was slowly changing below them, apple trees were giving way to open plains and in the distance, the edge of the Everfree forest.
“Please, for the love of Luna don’t fly in there…” she thought to herself, but as the cat slowly started gliding into the trees she realised that it was useless to wish for such good luck today.
Staying close behind the blue orb she pursued it into the forest, becoming engulfed in the sinister darkness of the woods.
A splitting headache welcomed Twilight back into the conscious world, sitting up with one hoof massaging her temple.
She drowsily trotted to the edge of her bedroom to see Spike fast asleep in his basket.
“I wonder how long I was out for.” She wondered to herself as she slowly descended the stairs into the library; she then proceeded to the kitchen to pour a drink before heading back to bed.
“Hi Owlowiscious.” She said passing the study, listening out for his “who” she paused in the doorway before turning around to check his perch, but it was empty.
“He must be out hunting.” Twilight thought whilst she closed the window next to the perch, but as she went to lock it what could be seen outside flabbergasted her.
A seemingly endless line of blue orbs formed a convoy crossed the sky, all hovering south towards the Everfree forest.
It took her a moment to comprehend what she was seeing, it didn’t take long however for her to recognise the spectacle.
Rushing over to the slumbering Spike she attempted to wake him up “Number one assistant” she whispered urgently to him. “I need your help finding a book.”
It was no use, the dragon remained asleep.
“Again with the plan B…” she grunted to herself.
Using her magic she lifted the basket up and tipped the snoozing dragon out onto the floor.
After hearing a groan of consciousness she continued “Spike I need you to find the book titled “An intuitive guide to incantations, its important!”
Still flat on his face Spike lifted an arm off the ground, pointing it at a bookshelf before it landed with a slap next to him as he nodded off again.
“Thanks Spike” Twilight whispered, making sure not to wake the baby dragon a second time.
Sure enough the book was right where he pointed and Twilight started searching through it immediately.
“Arcane charms… Enchant: power torrent… aha! Found it! Good thing I decided to read all of this and not just the part on banishing the Ursa.”
On a page covered with illustrations of the same spheres currently hovering above Ponyville the title read “Arcane Domains: Convenient prisons for the feeble of mind.”
Skimming the text seemed to create more questions than it answered for her, “Who would bother making them?” Twilight strained her mind thinking of who would have the power and motivation to send these orbs to Ponyville, but to no avail.
“I guess I could follow the orbs to see where they go…” she thought to herself. But as soon as she started mentally elaborating the idea flashbacks of being turned to stone by the Cockatrice haunted her, she never visited Zecora’s home in the forest alone anymore.
“I… I guess tomorrow would be a good time to find out what is happening.” She whispered to herself whilst backing away from the book. “It would be foolish to travel in the forest at this time anyway…”
Climbing back upstairs she couldn’t help but feel curiosity tugging at her, but fear proved to be a stronger force and she continued to bed.
Scooting under the bedcovers she attempted to get back to sleep. “I will tell everypony else about it in the morning… yeah…” were the last thoughts she that went through her mind before closing her eyes in an attempt to get back to sleep.
A sudden realisation then dawned on her. Opal disappearing after her attempted rescue? Owlowiscious not being on his perch at night for the first time since the two met? And now prisons designed for small animals?!
Breaking out of her lethargic haze she leaped out of bed and charged outside into the dark streets to get a better look at the luminescent orbs, and surely enough she could see they were occupied.
“Oh this is bad… really bad.”
It wasn’t the first time she had ventured into the forest alone, but that didn’t make it any less disturbing. Motivated by the need to find her friends Fluttershy continued tentatively making her way through the maze of trees.
An eerie layer of mist covered the ground; spindly branches creaked in the chilling breeze whilst a variety of unknown creatures called out from the darkness. It was enough to make anypony’s coat stand on end.
Keeping her head down and using her mane as a makeshift shield against the outside world she carried on her trek.
The idea of rushing back home to find help crossed her mind frequently; it is never a good idea to travel in these woods by yourself, but she was lost. Hoping she would be able to see the town if she had a better view she flew above the treetops to attempt to obtain some bearings.
All she could see however were trees. The top of the forest spread out in all directions with anything beyond that obscured by fog, it was at that point Fluttershy started regretting blindly flying off into the forest as fast as she could in order to try and find Angel and the others.
She then noticed a faint azure glow through the haze, and almost like a moth to a flame she started drifting towards it. In the few occasions she had traversed the forest she never seen anything like this.
As she drifted closer to the ground the surroundings started to become more familiar. After passing a wide river and a grove of twisted trees she recognised where she was heading.
Surely enough she reached the edge of a large crevice with a hastily repaired bridge crossing the misty depths.
The mist was not as thick as the last time she was here, allowing her to clearly see the ruins where Princess Luna was redeemed and the fact that they were engulfed in the luminosity she witnessed from the sky.
Her curiosity was quickly waning at the sight of this unknown force. The trembling pony began slowly withdrawing.
“Erm… maybe I should come back another time with the girls…” she thought to herself.
“Maybe Twilight will have some idea of wha”- Cut off by the most alarming sensation, she was suddenly rear-ended by what felt like a giant floating marble. Frozen still with pure horror the orb effortlessly nudged her over and she landed with a thud on the ground.
Rainbow Dash popped her head out from the undergrowth and scanned the surrounding area.
“I could have sworn that stupid orb went this way…” she mumbled to herself.
It was then she saw a rather static Fluttershy lying on the ground. With a gasp she rushed out to help.
“Fluttershy! Are you alright!?” Landing in front of the statue-like pony she was greeted with a disturbing sight.
Fluttershy’s face was a mask of sheer terror. Gazing upon the ugly spectacle Rainbow was unsure of how to make sure she was okay.
After a few moments of planning she decided to do what any other rational pony would do and she poked her friend with a hoof.
As if she were an unexploded bomb Fluttershy let forth a harrowing cry that echoed through the nearby forest. The unforeseen detonation startled Rainbow and she was launched backwards onto her back. Both ponies now lay on the floor struggling to catch their breath.
“You… you really have to stop… doing that…” Rainbow Dash managed to utter through staggered breaths.
After a short while the two managed to regain their composition.
“Sorry...” Fluttershy apologised, clearly embarrassed. “I came here looking for Angel and my friends… but ended up at these ruins instead.”
Rainbow looked over at the glowing structure. “Hey I recognise that place, let’s go investigate. I bet 20 bits that those ruins have something to do with the orbs.”
The notion was exactly what Fluttershy was dreading Rainbow would say. But before she could object the cyan Pegasus was already flying towards the remnants of the destroyed building. Sheepishly, Fluttershy followed.
The two arrived at the main gate of the ruins, at first glance the pair couldn’t spot anything extraordinary looking about the area from the last time they visited the structure other than the buzz of magic in the air that indicated something was afoot.
Rainbow gently pushed against one of the large wooden doors leading into the ruins, it opened with a creaking that caused both of their manes to stand on end.
Poking her head in to inspect the grand room beyond Rainbow gave the all clear and the two pegasi hesitantly crossed the threshold.
The hall seemed far more intimidating than the last time they ventured here; being in no rush they had plenty of time to inspect their surroundings.
The tattered remnants of navy blue flags hung from the ceiling and above the vacant windows. Gloomy shadows engulfed the corners of the room, receding only from the areas close to the moonlight.
Rainbow flew to the middle of the room. “Nope, nothing nasty in here.” Turning around expecting to see Fluttershy accompanying her, she instead saw the shuddering pink and yellow pony crawling slowly along the floor. She crossed her arms, waiting impatiently for her friend to reach her.
A loud rustling then broke the silence; whipping around to see where it came from Rainbow was met by a pair of glowing blue eyes. Startled, she darted back to Fluttershy, who was now cowering behind a wall of pink hair.
After a brief stand-off the blue eyed creature hopped into Rainbow’s sight from the darkness. “… Angel?” at the mention of his name a pair of eyes appeared through Fluttershy’s mane. It didn’t take long for her to rush to her newly discovered friend, locking Angel in a tight hug.
“I missed you so much! I didn’t know what I was going to do without you! I…” After realising the bunny wasn’t hugging her back it befell her that something wasn't right. Holding Angel at Hooves length she was met by a blank expression from the rabbit. “Angel, what’s wrong?”
Without warning he leaped from Fluttershy’s grasp and sprinted towards an open door on the opposite side of the hall. This her floating empty-handed in a state of shock. Rainbow Dash however didn’t hesitate to pursue the fleeing cottontail.
Bursting through the doorway she followed Angel down a stone spiral staircase. “How is that damn rabbit so fast!?” she shouted to herself.
Without warning the rabbit leapt through another doorway and sprinted down an extensive passage. Close on its tail Rainbow pursued it around the corner only to slam on her air brakes when she witnessed what was at the end of the corridor.
“Well that’s interesting.” Azure light from the entrance at the end of the passageway flooded the room. “Hey! Fluttershy! You better come and see this!” she yelled up the stairway.
After a brief wait the top of Flutter’s head poked into sight. “W… wh… what’s that?” she inquired, her voice laced with fear.
“I chased your silly rabbit down here and he ran into that room.” She gestured to the glowing archway. Rainbow landed for the first time since the two met up and they both tentatively trotted towards the aura, upon reaching the doorway they both poked their heads around the corner to investigate what the room held.
Angel was in the centre of the large room, its walls adorned with shelves housing thousands of books of all shapes and sizes. What drew the pair’s attention however, was the figure standing before Fluttershy’s once faithful companion.
A silhouetted figure of a hooded pony was facing away from them, tendrils of magic emanating from it. It appeared to be listening to a string of squeaks from Angel, then nodded and swung around to meet the gaze of the two eavesdropping mares.
Not a single sound was exchanged, the bright white eyes of the unknown pony piercing through them and before the two pegasi could react they were set upon by a horde of fluffy animals and dragged away from the archive.
“GET OFF ME YOU DUMB ANIMALS!” Rainbow Dash tried her best to break free from her tiny abductors but to no avail.
“Stop Rainbow, you might hurt the poor things.” On the contrary Fluttershy almost enjoyed being swept away by the gathering of animals.
“Are you mad! These stupid things are dragging us off to Celestia knows where and you’re telling me to let them!? No chance!” As she continued to struggle against her captors the creatures halted and a familiar toothless alligator plodded up to them.
“Oh gummy am I glad to see you!” Fluttershy’s face turned into a beaming smile, but cutting this delight short the reptile slapped a couple of chloroform soaked rags onto their faces and the pair quickly lost consciousness.
Almost every pony in Ponyville had assembled around the town hall despite it being late at night. Mayor Mare was adorned in her dressing gown and had her mane in curlers as she attempted to settle the crowd that was becoming ever more restless but to no avail.
The realisation that every pet and critter in the town had disappeared troubled the masses and consistent chattering emanated from the gathering. Some were hit harder than others however, at the front of the crowd two steams of tears could be seen sprouting out above the heads of others.
“Now now Rarity, i’ma sure Opalescence will be just fine n’ dandy once we find her.” Applejack attempted to calm the distressed pony, whilst somehow containing the feelings over her own missing canine.
The chattering subsided when Twilight took to the stage. “Everypony, as you may already be aware of we are in a state of emergency. All of the pets as well as the wildlife in town have been abducted during the night.” The statement was followed by cries from the crowd, but they are almost drowned out by Rarity’s weeping.
“The first thing we need to do is understand who or what is doing this. And I think I know where to start…” She then proceeded to explain what she saw earlier that night as well as what was written in the tome she read. “We are dealing with a very powerful magic here, there is no way any of us would be able to create as many of those orbs as I saw.” Her stern expression indicated the gravity of the situation.
“But Twi, what do y’all suppose we do?” Applejack inquired from the crowd.
“I will take a small group with me into the Everfree Forest to look for whatever is creating these orbs.” She scanned the large number of ponies before her, looking for those she would take. Twilight already had a good idea of the five she was going to choose.
However she could only count two of her friends in the crowd, Applejack and Rarity. “Has anyone seen Pinkie, Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy? They will be of paramount importance in this plan.”
“I dunno Twi; we ain’t seen um since all this here magic malarkey started.”
After a silent pause speculation began to spread throughout the onlookers. Above other theories Roseluck shouted from the rear of the crowd, “Perhaps they were taken by the orbs too!”
The mayor’s attempts to call for order continued unheeded as the idea sent out a refreshed wave of panic.
With the din loudening Twilight knew she had to bring some calm to the situation if any progress was going to be made.
Unsure of how to get everypony’s attention she resorted to casting one of the spells that she had been practicing the most recently, although she had never used it on such a large scale before.
Channelling her energy she charged her horn and an almighty flash of light swept over the crowd. The mass of arguing equines fell silent as they were engulfed by the spectacle.
After the lightshow subsided it revealed the numerous dazed ponies mostly unharmed, apart from the fact they were now all donning magnificent moustaches.
“Now that I have everypony’s attention.” Twilight muffled though her moustache to the confused but now silent audience. “Oh… whoops.”
Magically removing her own facial hair she continued. “There is no way those three could have been taken, I took the liberty to read about these orbs and it described that only simple minds can be affected. That means only our pets are at risk.”
“Are you sure about that Twilight…?” Mayor Mare asked, pointing at the spectacle unravelling before them.
“Yes, I am one hundred per cent… sure…” Twilight fell silent with her mouth agape as Snips and Snails slowly hovered past the pedestal in a pair of blue orbs.
**********
Moisture glistened off the dark stone walls of the dungeon. A rapid clanging of metal echoed through the halls.
“Could you please stop Rainbow? That is starting to hurt my ears.” Fluttershy begged. Normally passive of other pony’s actions the seemingly endless rattling started to take its toll on her.
“Urgh… Fine!” Rainbow stopped running a hoof along the metal bars of their cell and sat forcefully on the ground with a most irritated expression covering her face.
“Thank you.” Fluttershy mumbled quietly, afraid any attempt at communication will simply aggravate the rainbow haired pegasus even more.
The pair sat in silence for a short while, the crackling from the flame of a nearby torch was the only audible sound.
“I can’t take this anymore! I need to get outa here before I go insane!” Rainbow Dash hated being forced to stay still, and this was the longest time she had spent stationary since she offered to help Rarity with that irritating dress of hers.
Rattling the door of the cage she attempted to break it off its hinges but to no avail.
Lying in the corner of the cage with her hooves covering her ears Fluttershy pleaded once again “Please stop…” her voice could barely be heard over the rattling of the cage.
“I’m not just gonna sit here and wait! For all we know we might be left in here…”
“FOREVER!!!!!”
Caught off guard both of the trapped ponies retreated from the cry and fled to the corner of their cell huddled together.
“Hi! What are you two silly fillies doing in a cage?”
Unsure if what she was witnessing was a hallucination Rainbow rubbed her eyes before taking another look at the sudden burst of colour standing outside their prison.
“Pinkie?! What are you doing here? How did you find us?!”
“I’m down here looking for Gummy, he’s really good!” Pinkie Pie had begun looking around the corridor, peaking under the slabs of stone that made up the floor and in-between the cracks in the walls.
“What do you mean “he’s good”? He was the one that threw us down here in the first place!” Dash started getting aggravated; all she wanted was to be free from the Celestia forbidden cell trapping her and Pinkie’s usual randomness wasn’t helping.
“Don’t be silly! Gummy wouldn’t do something like that; he would be too busy playing hide and seek anyway!” Pinkie seemed utterly oblivious to the situation at hand as she continued searching.
“It’s true; he was working with them… just like angel was.” Tears started to well up in Fluttershy’s eyes at the thought of her beloved friend turning against her like he did.
This struck a chord with Pinkie, if there’s one thing that she dislikes more than someone breaking a pinkie swear it’s seeing one of her friends sad. After tilting her head to one side and listening to Fluttershy’s claim Pinkie Pie’s mood changed dramatically.
“Okie Dokie…” Pinkie’s eyes turned to slits as she stopped searching the hallway. Picking up a small stone and tasting it she pondered for a second before walking back in the same direction she appeared from.
“Wait! Pinkie! Let us outta this stinkin’ cell first!” Rainbow cried out after Pinkie as she disappeared around a corner. “Great…”
“Don’t worry Rainbow, I’m sure she will be back to free us soon.” Comforted by Pinkie’s arrival Fluttershy made herself comfortable in the corner of the cell, awaiting the pink pony’s return.
“She could have tried to get us out of here first at least! Now we have no idea where she’s… wait… what’s that noise?”
Rainbow and Fluttershy both perked their ears up to listen out for the mysterious sound.
“Is it… getting closer?” Fluttershy asked puzzlingly, unsure of what direction it was coming from.
“It sounds like it’s coming from above. Watch out!” Rainbow Dash quickly swept Fluttershy from the corner of the cell causing them both to land hard on the floor.
“WHOOOAAAAHHHH!!!!!” A trap door in the ceiling of the cell flew open and Pinkie Pie tumbled out and crashed landed on the spot where Fluttershy was resting a few seconds ago.
“Pinkie!” Both onlookers cried in unison as they rushed over to her as she lay flat on the floor.
Their concerns grew as moments passed looking at the motionless mare, but as soon as worry was about to overcome them Pinkie Pie lifted her head off the floor and with a massive grin on her face yelled “Found them!”
Angel and Gummy then proceeded to poke their heads out of Pinkie’s curly mane with a distinct lack of glowing blue eyes.
**********
On the edge of town within sight of the Everfree Forest a number of ponies gathered around Twilight.
The group consisted of those that refused to return to sleep before sunrise and were reluctant to leave before helping in some way. Three rather exited fillies jumping up and down with excitement could also be seen in the crowd.
Twilight began announcing the somewhat smaller crowd than before. “Listen up everypony. Rarity, Applejack and I will scout the forest to look for any signs of our missing friends. We will hold a large search to look for them in the morning when it is safer.”
The three little ponies suddenly stopped their jubilation upon hearing the plan. “But Twi! How else are we goin’ to get our pony savin’ cutie mar-“ Applebloom was interrupted by Scootaloo shoving her out the limelight. “Rainbow Dash and the others are in danger! We need to help you save them!”
“Sorry girls but it Is far too dangerous for fillies like you to travel in the Everfree Forest.” Twilight had no intention of taking anypony other than her closest friends, especially not three overexcited crusaders.
“You heard her Applebloom, go get some shut eye and y’all will be able to search with everypony tomorrow.”
“You too Sweetie Belle! You shouldn’t even be awake at the moment! Now go and get your beauty sleep.”
The fillies hung their heads and sadly started trotting back to town.
Their mood changed once they were out of sight however.
“Hey girls, you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?
“Sure are, let’s follow them!” Scootaloo was more than eager to get their new plan underway.
Sweetie Belle on the other hand was less than enthusiastic.
“I’m not sure about this girls… Don’t you two remember what happened last time we went in there?” She attempted to talk some reason into the others, but their disapproving stares quickly showed that her concerns were being voiced on deaf ears.
“Enough talk already! Let’s go before we lose them.” Scootaloo lead the way back to the edge of town where they witnessed the crowd of ponies dispersing and the three mares on their way to the forest to rescue their friends.
The three fillies quietly followed in tow, keeping their distance and using whatever they came across as cover to avoid being spotted.
**********
The sound of a harmonica had replaced the rattling of bars in the cell; as the melody reverberated through the corridors it dissipated some of the grim atmosphere.
The three captive ponies remained in their prison but the mood had lightened up to an extent with the addition of a couple of small animals. Fluttershy rested in silence cuddling Angel, Pinkie sat playing her instrument with gummy still poking his cockeyed face out from her mane and a rather grouchy Rainbow Dash was slumped in the corner with her arms crossed displaying the most disgruntled face she could muster.
“Why do you even have a stinkin’ harmonica anyway?” Rainbow wasn’t amused by the music that had begun grating on her ears; in her current mood anything other than silence would irritate her.
After finishing the tune she was playing Pinkie swung around with her usual cheery grin on her face. “I always keep it on me; you never know when you might need one!”
“I really like it. It makes this place feel less nasty.” Fluttershy spoke up for the first time since she huddled down with her newly reunited pet.
Rainbow opened her mouth to voice her own opinion on the matter but was cut short by the sound of a slamming door down the hallway.
“Ooh! I wonder who that is!” Pinkie jumped at the idea of more company, however the other slightly more rational ponies in the cell were anxious of whatever was approaching.
The sound of trotting hooves reached the cell, solidifying Pinkie’s hopes of company but striking alarm into the other two for fear that the hooded pony may be drawing closer.
The pair that walked around the corner however confused them all.
Snips and Snails plodded into sight. They were armed with makeshift armour and spears made from wood, their faces void of emotion and their eyes glowing just as the pets’ were before. Both marched into position in front of the cell and stood to attention.
An awkward silence followed as the trio waited for some sort of recognition from their new guards. After a few seconds Pinkie decided it was time to finally break the silence.
“Hi! What are you two doing here?”
The explosion of sound was followed by dead silence.
“HellooOOooo!” The pink pony stuck a hoof through the cell bars and waved it in front of their faces.
After a brief pause Snips responded.
“The Great one does not want us to talk to the prisoners.” His voice was as void of emotion as his face.
“You just talked to them; we’re not supposed to talk to them eh.”
“How were the prisoners supposed to know that if I didn’t tell them?”
And so began the most unemotional argument in the history of ponykind.
The dispute continued for a lengthy portion of time, at which point Rainbow Dash lost her cool. “You have to shut those two up somehow Pinkie, do whatever you did to Gummy and Angel on them or something!”
“I can’t!” Pinkie replied smiling and sounding far too enthusiastic considering the situation at hand.
“Why not!? It couldn’t have been too hard looking at how fast you rescued these two!”
“Because I just gave Fluttershy my last cupcake!”
“Mmrrph!?” An extremely confused Fluttershy with a mouth full of cake shot her head up in confusion at the comment, fearing that she may have just cost them their freedom.
“… huh?” Rainbow Dash felt she should have expected as much from Pinkie, but that didn’t stop her from being just as confused as her cupcake eating friend.
Looking on from Fluttershy’s embrace Angel facepalmed and decided to take matters into his own hands.
Wriggling out of the cuddle he hopped over to the bars of the cell and slipped through effortlessly, he then proceeded to snatch a bundle of keys that was hanging from Snips’ belt before returning to the cell.
The three captive ponies sat silently looking on in disbelief as Angel handed the keys silently to Rainbow Dash.
After comprehending what just transpired before her the cyan Pegasus didn’t hesitate to rush over to the door of the cage and begin unlocking it.
After hearing the unmistakeable clink of the lock Rainbow proceeded to silently push the door open and the five captives managed to sneak past the arguing guards who had conveniently turned away from them to argue.
By the time their captors noticed what had happened the escapees were already making their way up the stairwell.
“The powerful one commands you to stop eh!” Snails was barely audible as the echoed yell reached them.
Dragging Fluttershy in the air behind her Rainbow Dash burst through the main gates of the castle, outside they were met with a refreshing wall of cool night air. Pinkie followed closely, somehow managing to keep up with her usual joyful bouncing.
“Finally, let’s get back to town!” The relief of escaping that cramped cell gave Rainbow a new lease of life.
“Erm… girls?”
Turning around to see what Fluttershy wanted, any joy Rainbow had was quickly replaced with fear as she saw hundreds of small animals flowing out of the ruins in pursuit.
**********
“Are you sure about this Twilight? We could have always brought some of them with us; they did seem rather enthusiastic to help.” Rarity voiced her concern as she avoided some particularly muddy looking puddles.
“Definitely, as I said it would be far too dangerous to bring any of them. Odds are not a single one of them has been in the forest before.”
“Yeah I’ma gonna go with Twilight on this one, ain’t safe bringin’ them out here. Especially at this time’a night.”
“I guess you two are right… But I don’t see how that makes this any safer for us.” The forest was eerily quiet that night only adding to Rarity’s distress. The shadows were devoid of the usual ambience created by the nocturnal creatures that dwelled there.
As the last three members of the elements of harmony ventured deeper into the depths of the forest they were utterly unaware of the trio that had decided to follow them.
The three fillies kept a distance between themselves and those they were stalking, using the trees and foliage littering the area to keep a low profile.
There was no way they were going to be seen; however chances were high that they would be heard without the usual sounds of the forest to muffle their movements.
Applebloom lead the way by diving into a nearby bush causing it to rustle violently. She was swiftly followed by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, both causing just as much of a racket.
“Did y’all hear that?” Applejack said as she swung around, paranoid of the thought that something might be stalking them.
“It was probably just the wind AJ, if anything dangerous was nearby odds are we would know about it.” Twilight made a point to miss out any information in her reassuring statement about how she was ambushed by a cockatrice; the three of them together should be enough to handle anything that small… right?
The members of the search party dismissed the idea of any threats, but as soon as they turned their backs three pairs of eyes could be seen peering from a nearby shrub.
“That there was too close, we need to be a lil’bit more quiet girls.” Applebloom spoke in a hushed voice hoping not attract the attention of her sister again.
The other two crusaders nodded in agreement before breaking their cover and tip-toeing over to the next bush.
Applejack noticed the rustling of plants nearby yet again but silently dismissed it. However instead of subsiding quickly the rustling became more intense and the ground began to rumble slightly.
“Erm, Twi? I don’t think that’s the wind this time.”
Rarity was also starting to become alarmed. “Quite… the last time I felt the floor rumble like this it meant…”
“STAMPEDE!” Just as Rarity was about to finish her sentence Rainbow Dash and her pastel pink and yellow luggage flew past at breakneck speed.
Dash was quickly followed by Pinkie Pie who joyfully greeted the group as she passed. “Hi girls! You better start running! Otherwise…” is all they heard as she bounded out of earshot.
To say that the search party was taken by surprise would be an understatement. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack barely had time to look at what the others were fleeing from before they were swept away by the flash flood of small animals.
The wave of creatures rampaged through the forest channelling through the spaces in-between trees, thankfully avoiding the bush that contained the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“What in tarnation is going on!? You two ok!?”
Twilight somehow managed to form a response “I’m okay! Where’s Rarity!?”
Just then a white pony burst through the surface nearby screaming and waving her hooves in the air. “AHHHH MY COIFFURE!!!” is all she managed to yell before disappearing under the fluffy waves once again.
Rainbow had already made good headway against the flood but knowing that there was almost no way that her friends would have made it to safety in time she had to check on them. Glancing back she witnessed two of the three unlucky mares struggling to keep their heads afloat.
“Don’t worry guys I got ya!” Dash stopped on a dime and flew back to rescue her friends. This sent Fluttershy soaring forward at the same velocity straight into the greenery of a nearby tree.
Not noticing how the pony she was towing continued on without her, Rainbow Swooped down and grabbed Twilight’s outstretched hoof.
Try as she might the unicorn wasn’t going to budge, not even her powerful wings could overcome the many grasping paws.
Without warning Twilight was sucked into the mass of fur and dragged the unfortunate pegasus with her.
Fluttershy could only look on helplessly from the branch she was slumped over as her friends disappeared out of sight in the seemingly endless river of animals flowing below.
“That looks pretty fun!” Looking up Fluttershy saw Pinkie clinging to the trunk of the tree she was in.
“Oh Pinkie am I glad to see you, I thought me and Angel were going to be left here alone and…”
“Cannonball!!!!” Pinkie Pie then proceeded to dive from the tree and landed with a splash that sent multiple critters airborne. She re-emerged nearby and after spitting out a hamster yelled “Come on in, the fuzz is fine!” as she was swept away with the last of the wildlife.
The forest was dead silent once the wave subsided, leaving one stunned Fluttershy with Angel clinging on to her hanging tail and a very scared but unscathed bush-full of Fillies.
**********
The sky above Ponyville began to lighten as a new day started; a rosy hue tinted the clouds showing that Celestia had started her duties over in Canterlot.
It was at this time that birds would usually begin their songs to welcome the arrival of the sun but today the town remained silent. A few homes saw some movement as the early risers began their day.
One front door creaked open and a rather tired Lyra Heartstrings trotted out, levitating a mug of coffee in front of her she let out a large yawn before setting it down and turning her attention to the morning’s milk delivery.
That was when the rumbling started.
The rippling of her warm beverage was the first warning, as it caught her curiosity the tremor worsened. The bottle of milk standing on the floor before her began wobbling about on her doorstep and soon fell over.
Bringing a hoof up to her eyes to protect them from the rising sun she looked over towards the road into town, what she saw sent her coffee mug crashing to the floor.
The army of woodland creatures and pets had reached town, dotted with hundreds of blue glowing eyes the mass charged downhill and over the small bridge into Ponyville.
It did not take long for the streets to become covered in the brainwashed creatures. Homes were overrun in seconds; animals bursting through locked doors and using their sheer numbers to sweep up those inside.
Before long the population of Ponyville found themselves captive in their own homes. Assorted critters patrolled the streets making sure that escape was not a possibility for the residents. In the centre of town five ponies had been singled out from the rest, held in a makeshift wooden cell hastily constructed by the invaders they sat resentfully.
“Again! Trapped in a stupid cage!” Rainbow Dash was not best pleased with the current state of affairs, being held captive multiple times in one day wasn’t her idea of fun.
“Again? When else did you get locked up?” Twilight and the others were still in the dark about the happenings at the ruins, being taken prisoner by a tidal wave of creatures wasn’t the best time to catch up on the day’s events.
“Yeah… Me and Fluttershy went after those orb things and ended up being taken prisoner in some castle by these fur balls.” Rainbow said gesturing at the rabbits standing guard outside.
“A castle? Did you happen to see anything that might explain what is causing all of this? My books said that it would take a massive amount of magic to cast a spell on this scale.” Twilight knew that if they found out who or what was behind the spell their chances of stopping it would increase tenfold.
“All I saw was some weird hooded pony before gummy knocked me and Flutters out.” Rainbow only described the most important details, the less she had to talk about the whole situation the better.
“A hooded pony? Only pony I know that fits that description is Zecora, and I doubt she would do anything like this… Wait did you say Gummy?!” The three less informed ponies became startled at this development and looked over at the cockeyed reptile standing in the corner of the cage.
“Oh don’t mind him!” Pinkie was quick to defend her pet, holding him up to show them he was perfectly normal. “He’s fine now! That meanie bamboozled him like the others but it’s nothing his favourite food couldn’t fix!” She then fed Gummy another cupcake she had somehow conjured up, his toothless jaws making quick work of the treat.
“Hold on… the cure for the mind control is cupcakes?” Yet again Pinkie’s answer for a problem perplexed Twilight.
“SILENCE!”
A booming female voice hushed the caged ponies and prompted the multitude of animals guarding their prisoners to salute in unison. Silhouetted against the rising sun the mysterious pony trotted towards the centre of town escorted by Snips and Snails who were still donning their guard uniforms.
Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate at the sight of her captor. “Let me at her! When I get my hooves on her I’ll… I’ll!” Flying into the side of the cage in an attempt to reach her target she flailed her hooves through the gaps of the cage wildly.
“Whoa nelly! Hold on there RD!” Biting onto Rainbow’s tail to hold her back Applejack attempted to restrain the fuming pegasus. “She’ll deserve everything that’s coming to…!” Without warning Applejack lost her grip on Rainbow’s tail causing the entire cage to topple onto its side sending all the ponies within flying.
As she looked on over the pile of pony in the cage in front of her a smirk could be made out on the cloaked mare’s face. “I see you incoherent bunch are still as pathetic as last time. Not that I expected any better!”
“Is that who I think it is?!” Recognising her jailer’s voice a mixture of shock and confusion swept over twilight.
“I believe so…” A rather angry Rarity lifted herself up from the ground, distain seething from her eyes. “I will never forgive what did to me you ruffian!”
“Ha-ha! I knew you untalented fools wouldn’t forget me. Indeed, who could forget…?” The pony flung the hood of her cloak back, revealing a flowing silver mane.
“The great…”
“And powerful…”
“TRIXIE!”
