1:46.
At first we had a lot of trouble with what to call Them. For a while, they were Shufflers, somepony wanted to call them Hoof-draggers, but pretty soon they became, simply, Them. As in, "It's Them!" or, "I'll handle Them!" or, "They got Pinkie Pie!"
And for a while, that really was our biggest problem with Them. We have pegasi, after all, so the "flight" in "fight or flight" is a totally viable choice. Cloudwalking spells helped us evacuate everypony to the drifting cloud-city of Cloudsdale, which we anchored over a wide-open, high-visibility area, Quick thinking and good teamwork really helped us out on this one. I guess the spot they decided to anchor us was some kind of rock farm, although I'm not sure why you need to farm rocks, they don't grow, but when They came, fending them off was as simple as "pick up a rock, fly over to Them, drop it on Their heads."
While some unicorns could maintain their own cloudwalking spells, and even provide spells for others, the majority of ponies ended up earthbound again. We had them go and collect stones, build walls, forage for food. I think it was Rarity who had some kind of search spell, and she became one of the regular scavengers that provided for our new town. Of course, we had plenty of medical ponies on hoof. You don't really think about it until you get everypony all together like this, but we have a lot of medical ponies-- and Ponyvillians are probably way more clumsy than we'd like to admit. Fluttershy was part of the nurse-team, and also spent a lot of time foraging. Applejack was put on the wall-building force, and ponies look up to her as a strong, dependable leader, even if she isn't leading anything. I let her take the credit. It makes my life easier anyway. The weather team and I went into overdrive, protecting the new town, rationing supplies, and of course, managing the weather. You used to call us lazy? Ha. Nopony will ever call us lazy ever again.
Twilight Sparkle. What do I say about Twilight Sparkle? She organized the whole evacuation, powered most of the cloudwalking spells in the escape, oversaw the initial functions of our new town. And then she was leaving to go right back to her library, Spike bouncing up and down on her back. It took all of our wit and a whole lot of promises to get her to stay with us-- on the condition that we escort her back to her library when she needs another book. And so, Twilight Sparkle is our only wildcard, our biggest risk, but maybe our best hope, too. There's so much danger in those library runs, but if there's even a chance that she can return our lives to normal...
Although, I'm not sure we can go back to normal life after this. Our morale took a huge hit right at the beginning of the whole thing. Oh yeah, that's the other wildcard. Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie is always Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie never changes. Even though she's one of Them now, I've seen her through the windows of Sugarcube Corner on library runs, dancing and sharing cake with Them. She wanted to welcome the new ponies to Ponyville in the same way she always did-- and then one of Them took a bite out of her. Of course, she has changed, because I've also seen her leap over our walls and suck the flesh from bones, like swallowing a cake whole. Except now, the cake is a pony's head. She at least seems to be cheerful, in all of this-- but I wonder if it's actually helping Their spirits. The best thing to do when we see Pinkie Pie coming, is to scatter and hide, to try to minimize losses. But she knows all the hiding places, somehow.
"Silly filly, didn't you know I'd find you here?"
2:36.