The Gramophone

Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. Blood covered bipeds with strange metal objects and wooden poles with golden ends. When Twilight had received a letter from Princess Celestia early that morning, detailing a strange energy source coming from the Smoky Mountain she had initially thought that the dragon they had kicked out had returned and was not happy; dragon's tended to give off large amounts of energy when they where in a rage. After gathering her friends,one in particular not wanting to get up  considering just how early it had been, they set off on their journey, unaware that something was following them. When they arrived in front of the mountain, with Applejack letting do of Fluttershy's tail, having had to drag the petrified mare behind them, Twilight addressed the group.

"Alright we've done this before, we just got to find where the dragon is,and hopefully we can get him to stay out. The stare worked last time, it should work again." Applejack gave Fluttershy a glance, who was hiding in a bush behind them, shaking like a leaf. The orange mare turned her gaze to Twilight, giving her a hard look.

"Um Twi, do ya really think its a good idea to send little ol' Fluttershy in with an angry dragon?" Applejack raised an eyebrow

"Well we need to end this with peaceful negotiations-" Rainbow Dash cut her off

"Peaceful negotiations?!" The cyan pegasus asked incredulously. " Twilight, You cant negotiate with a pissed off dragon! I say we just give him the boot, you know...again. Dash chopped her hooves together in midair.

"Oh silly dashie." Pinkie chided with a smile." You cant kick something out when you're only as big as one of its teeth." Dash grumbled something about "Awesome ponies can do anything.

" Girls you're  getting ahead of yourselves" Rarity chimed in. " Twilight already said she wasn't sure if it was the dragon."  Rarity gave her fellow unicorn a nod.

"Thank you Rarity. Alright I'll perform the spell, then we will know for sure what it is." The mare pulled up her mental spellbook and closed her eyes. Sifting through the mess, Twilight readied the necessary spell. Her horn began to glow a bright violet and the tip glowed blue. In her mind's eye, the mountain was black with the edges glowing softly. The mare 'looked up' expecting to see a large blue shape in the form of a dragon. To her confusion, the top of the mountain remained  black. She scoped out the rest of the mountain, finally noticing a small brightly glowing blue square shape under ground. flicking the spell off, the mare regained her bearings eyes adjusting to the larger array of colors. Turning to her friends the, the mare told them of her findings. The lack of a dragon seemed to calm Fluttershy and she exited her bush cover.Twilight told the others to follow her, leading them to a small section off the mountain. With strange circular patterns in the wall. Twilight charged her horn and directed the energy on the wall, blasting it open to reveal a tunnel.

" The energy source is down here." Twilight said aloud, begining to walk down. The others followed. Rarity was at the back and before entering the tunnel she turned around. The  alabaster unicorn looked around, her keen eyes trying to make out any thing misplaced. She turned around slowly before running down the tunnel to catch up with her friends. She couldve sworn she felt something watching her. The tunnel was short, maybe a few feet down. At the bottom was a chamber, large enough for the six mare to fit. At the back was a Pulsating black portal, just barely visable in the soft glow of Twilight's horn. Around the portsl was a frame made of dark rocks. Rarity was about to walk up to get a closer look when four strange creatures fell out of the portal. The white mare jumped about a foot back. Rainbow Dash and Applejack dropped into crouched postures on instinct, Fluttershy hid behind Rarity. Twilight just stood there, eyeing the strange, bloodstained bipeds. They were completly covered in the red liquid. The six mares adopted shocked, horrifyed expressions. The four bipeds on the ground groaned and coughed loudly, dropped their strange metal objects on the ground. The group of disoreintated creatures looked up, disbeleif on the faces. One of the four had scratches coveringh it's lower half and it's upper body had burns on it. The biped next to this one spoke for the first time.

"Wha...What the fuck!" The creature spoke in a rough, garbled language. It's eyes widened for a second before it grabbed one of the metal objects. This one was large. Larger than the others, with a sideways cylander on the side of it. It lifted the thing up pointing the end at he ponies. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood their ground, while the other four backed up. In the midst of this silent standoff two of the bipeds stood up grabbing their metal devices. The injured one remained on the ground, but pulled a weapon similar to another one of the creatures and pointed it at the ponies. The silent standoff was broken by a very familiar laugh outside of the tunnel

All of the ponies pupils shrunk and their faces adopted dread. Twilight summed up everypony's thoughts.

"Oh buck!"