An elderly stallion held his hoofwatch close to his face, squinting forecfully and adjusting his glasses. Realizing it had stopped counting the time, he let loose a tired sigh and twisted the knob at the top several times. With a quick tap of his hoof the watch resumed its duty of calling out the seconds by name.
Tick. Tick.
How wierd it was that all the seconds had the same name. The gentlecolt smiled and let out a weak huff. He returned his gaze to the parade.
*CRACK*
The sound reverberated between the tall buildings of Manehattan, reaching out to the otherwise preoccupied ears of ponies in the central square. The sun looming straight overhead flickered. Birds took from their perches high in the skyscrapers and scattered.
Tick.
Cheers of excitement quickly vanished, replaced by looks of confusion.
Tick.
Processing the sound, ponies that had traveled from all corners of Equestria, and even as far as Stiroupe and Neighsia, began to murmur amongst themselves. But before their conversations took them very far, a blood-curdling scream made itself heard from one portion of the crowd, prompting many others to follow.
Tick.
Mass hysteria broke out within the square. The newly formed mob poured into the streets. Others ran into storefronts out of fear of being trampled. Riot control materialized from seemingly nowhere to contain the rampaging equines.
Pegasi flew up to survey the situation, and returned to inform their companions. More and more hooves pointed towards the motorcade.
*CRACK*
Another gunshot. Now, anypony that wasn't panicking in some way or another before, was panicking. A quick surge in volume from the crowd assured that fact.
---~x~---
All across Equestria, programs of My Little Human: Friendship is Technology, Top Pony: Trottingham, and Ponýmon were disrupted, much to the dismay of the viewers.
A pale beige pegasus wearing a white hoodie with black and red stripes was particularly enraged.
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" jumping up from the couch, wings flared, and flinging the remote to a far corner of the room where it slid under a side table. He groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Now what?" The new voice belonged to the unicorn roommate of the first, who just walked into the den. He had a dark blue coat and unkempt red mane. On his face was a look of amusement.
The pegasus fell back onto the couch dejectedly, forelegs crossed. "Well, Ix, I was THIS close to the end of the season finale, but now the TV is all fucked up." He positioned his hooves close together to represent a miniscule amount. Ixi looked towards the TV and twisted his mouth in thought. The TV showed nothing but a few colored bars and made a high-pitched noise.
Ixi smirked and bent his neck slightly to find the remote in its usual hiding spot. With his magic, he fished it out and carefully examined it for damage. "Try not to break the remote again," he said in a joking, yet serious tone. He levitated the remote over to the pegasus, who swiped at it. Ixi jerked it out of the way and, feeling creative today, swirled it around his friend's head.
"Gimme that, you ass!" The pegasus grasped wildly for it.
"Alright Gottvich, you win," Ixi hovered the remote over to the tip of his friend's snout.
As Gottvich reached in cautiously for his beloved remote, his hoof suddenly began to glow blue and plowed its way into his own face. Ixi fell onto his back, laughing at the expense of his roommate's anger.
The pegasus peeled his hoof from his face and adopted an unamused look; desperate to stop falling for the traps Ixi kept setting for him.
The TV suddenly flashed, catching the corners of the pair's eyes. A well-dressed stallion stood stiffly behind a podium. There was an air about him that sang of solemnity. He cleared his throat and spoke, "A national emergency has been declared."
The stallion paused to collect his thoughts. Ixi held a hoof to his chin and looked slyly over at the pegasus.
Summoning his best imitation of a newsanchor, Ixi announced, "International remote serial killer, Gottvich, has laid claim to yet another victim."
Gottvich swung his hoof around and bonked Ixi in the back of the head, catching him off-guard, "Shut up and listen." He turned back to the TV. Ixi shrugged.