New Dawn

  I pried my eyes open and winced at the brightness of the sun as it stung my eyes. I finally adjusted to the light and sat upright. My back popped and crackled loudly. I let out a deep groan before looking to my right and almost dropped dead. Laying next to me was the dark blue mare, with a flowing mane and a symbol of a moon on her flank. I found Luna, sleeping beside me with a small smile on her face. I pondered the things she could be smiling about. I shook my head and felt a feeling overcome me, my chest felt odd and I couldn't help but, lay back. I face leveled with the mare's and I stared at her. I quickly looked to the ceiling and sighed.

What the hell is wrong with me? I thought.

Chapter 5: Disaster and Destruction

  I heard couple of sleepy groans come from beside me and I look back to Luna and saw her sit up and stretch out her hooves and wings. She yawned and looked over at me. She did a quick double take before blushing profusely. I just stared, wide-eyed at the alicorn as she scooted away from me. She eventually fell off the bed, making a loud thudding noise, waking the other three mares. Rainbow Dash shot up out of her bed with a frightened yelp.

"Whoa! What's happening?!" She yelped.

"Nothing," I calmly replied, "don't give yourself a heart attack, that's the last thing I need right now. So what're we going to do today on our wonderful adventures in Equestria?" I asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Well, we were gonna go back to Ponyville, but, unless you wanna stay." Twilight said.

"I'd love to go to Ponyville. It'd be nice to meet other peo- uh, sorry, ponies." I replied.

  Luna stood up from the floor and looked at me with a shocked expression.

"You're leaving already?!" She pouted.

  All eyes were on her in an instant. She blushed lightly before walking towards the door. She brushed past everyone and walked through the doorway, but before she did, she flashed a smile towards me. I don't know what that meant, but there was no way that Twilight, Rainbow, or Fluttershy could have caught that. I mentally shrugged it off and looked back to the three mares.

"Shall we be going?" I asked.

"Not quite yet." Twilight replied.

"What do we have to do?"

"Well, we must first check in with Celestia as soon as possible. She might require something of us." She answered.

  I nodded and turned towards the closet. I quickly put on my armor and looked at my helmet. I picked it up and placed it on the table and followed Twilight to the throne room. We turned the corner and entered the throne room. Clestia was pacing back and forth by the large window with a worried look on her face. She saw us and let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank goodness your awake." She said.

"Whats wrong?" Twilight asked.

"The Changelings, there's something wrong with them, I don't know if it's another invasion, but they've gotten much stronger than before. They've destroyed a small part of the forest and made a nest out of it near Ponyville. Please go and try to negotiate with them." Celestia said.

"Changelings?" I asked.

"They're bug-like ponies that can take on the form of anypony, they get their energy and strength by feed off of the love of other ponies."

Bug-like? I'll have to see how they look before I get any notation of The Unknown coming here. I nodded and turned thowards the door.

"Well, lets get going." I said.

  Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy quickly caught up with me and followed. On the train ride I observed the forests that were passing by, trying to figure out if it was the Unknown or simply the Changelings that Twilight and Celestia were talking about. The train came to a sudden halt sending my flying forward. I fell flat on my face and slid forward as if the train were being tilted.

"Whoa, whoa!" Rainbow shouted.

  She darted towards me and caught me and brought me back up. She placed me on the back of one of the seats. She seemed to be scared out of her mind.

"What's going on?!"

  I quickly hushed her by putting a hand over her mouth. I looked out the window on the other side of the train, but couldn't see anything. I jumped from one side to the other to get a better look. The train was a complete wreck, it hung from the other side of the rails crashing into a few trees, smoke rose from the front and all of the train's passengers were in a panic.

Hope nopony got hurt... I thought, but what could have done this?

  I crawled back to Rainbow Dash and sighed. I looked over a the cyan mare and felt a bit worried. Her hair and wings were disheveled and her eyes were wide and her pupils were dilated. She stared out the window in utter horror. I couldn't blame her, I don't think she's experienced this much disaster or destruction. I leaned over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her glance shot towards me in reflex.

"Don't worry. We're gonna be fine. Now let's find everyone else." I said.

  Rainbow seemed to calm down a bit. She gave me a light nod and got up from her seat to follow me. We walked down the aisle slowly, just in case the thing that did this was still here. My heart was pounding through my chest, and my worries of the Unknown being here were growing. The further we walked down the aisle I began to hear whimpering, but the whimpering sounded familiar. I quickened my pace down the aisle slightly before I found the source of the whimpering. My stomach fell at the sight I saw.

  A small, sweet, kind, and poor yellow mare, laid on the ground... with a piece of metal impaling her stomach. My mind went to panic as I rushed over to Fluttershy. I slid down next to her and tried to examine her wounds further. Blood slowly flooded from the wound, making Fluttershy's cries of pain louder. I scooted next to her face and tried to calm her down.

"D-don't worry Fl-Fluttershy, we're gonna get you out of here. I promise." I said sincerely.

  Fluttershy did her best to nod, only to whimper in pain. I couldn't begin to imagine what she's going through. I examined the metal that pierced through Fluttershy. It went deep, but now to deep to harm any of her vital organs, or any organs at all, but she was still in pain, and I wasn't going to let another person die today. I looked over to Rainbow Dash somberly and said,

"Rainbow... hold her down..."

  Rainbow's eyes flooded with tears as she witnessed her best friend dying before her. But she obeyed and held Fluttershy down.

"Don't worry Flutters, you're gonna be okay, Xavier's going to help you. I promise." She said shakily.

  Rainbow looked up at me and nodded. I nodded in reply and placed my hand on Flutterhy's stomach. My hand wrapped tighter around the metal and I began to pull on it while I pushed on Fluttershy. She winced in pain as tears streamed down her face. About halfway, the metal fragment popped out, squirting blood everywhere. Fluttershy screamed in utter agony as her wound was now opened and blood began gushing from it. I began to panic even more.

"Xavier! D-do something!" Rainbow shouted at me.

  My mind was flustered on what to do. I looked up and saw a suitcase. I quickly grabbed it and opened it up. I took the first towel I saw and balled it up before putting it down on Fluttershy's wound, making her scream. Then I remembered something...

"Rainbow, keep pressure on this towel, I'll be right back." I told her.

  She nodded in response and held the towel down lightly. I stood up and ran backwards to go find Twilight, because I knew she could help. I looked around everywhere, calling her name, but I couldn't seem to find her. I found one of the train cars closed, and opened it to see if Twilight was in there. And to my luck, she was.

"Twilight!" I shouted.

"Xavier! What's wrong?!" She asked.

"It's Fluttershy, she's hurt, badly. Me and Rainbow need your help!" I replied.

  We both ran down the aisle back to Rainbow and Fluttershy. Twilight gasped at the sight of Fluttershy, but stayed calm and began to help. She moved the towel allowing a little blood to flow through. Twilight winced and sighed before standing up. Her horn began to glow as well as Fluttershy's wound. Without warning, Fluttershy began screaming and shouting bloody Mary as her wound began to close slowly. Rainbow Dash and I held her down as best we could. After a few more moments, the wound finally closed. I looked down at Fluttershy to see that she had fainted from the pain.

"We should go back to Canterlot." I said.

"Y-yeah. Come on." Twilight replied.

  I nodded and picked up Fluttershy gently. We found the nearest door and exited the train. The sight we saw was devastating to look at. We all saw smoke and flames rising from the train, but there weren't any bodies. Perhaps the rest of the passengers made it out alive... hopefully. I turned and followed Twilight with Fluttershy in my arms as we made our way back to Canterlot and find Fluttershy some help. But as I carried her, I looked down at her and felt an unfamiliar feeling, I felt my eyes growing watery. And I felt pain in my chest... I didn't want to lose this mare, nor did I want to lose anyone else.