Ponyville was quiet, not in the calming way but the eerie almost disturbing way that always got to Twilight Sparkle. It was night at the Golden Oaks Library and she knew something was wrong but couldn't place her hoof on it. But she couldn't just walk up to a guard and say, 'Hay I'm here to say that I think something bad is going to happen. I don't know what but something bad that's for sure.' It would just sound crazy. Anyway, she had better things to do. She had invited her friends over for dinner to help take her mind off the fact that something was wrong. They had reassured her that everything was alright, but something was telling her that everything was not alright and no pony was going to quell that. She sighed inwardly and thought I don't know what it is but something is going to happen...
As the thought was going through her head she heard the door to the kitchen open. There before her was the familiar purple and green dragon. He was holding a tray with seven bowls. Six were cheese and bell pepper salads and the seventh was a ruby, sapphire and emeralds salad. The ponys looked at the tray with longing. Even Twilight couldn't help but gawk at the salads with hunger. Everypony (minus one dragon) in the room couldn't help but wonder how does he do it. But their musing was cut short by a knock at the door.
A unanimous groan was heard throughout the room. "Come on, we don't need to answer it, do we?" Rainbow Dash said, her annoyance evident.
Rarity shook her head and said, "Tsk tsk Rainbow, we need to be polite to ponys. Besides, it's probably just the mail."
"At seven in the afternoon?" Twilight asked confusedly.
Applejack was the first to respond, albeit sheepishly, "The mail mare is, eh, how do ya say..." She was trying to be as polite about the situation as possible. But her attempts to be tactful were lost on Rainbow, who was now hovering just above her confused as to why she was taking so long. Rainbow grew fed up with waiting so she rudely interjected:
"She's a stupid wall-eyed mare with nothing going for her," Rainbow said rather bluntly, eliciting a facehoof from Applejack.
"Rainbow!!!" Applejack said with a 'what in the name of Celestia are you doin?' look which was received with a sheepish shrug from Rainbow Dash.
Twilight was fiddling with her hooves. She never liked it when her friends fought.
Oookay I've got to go get the door before they start an all-out hoof fight.She thought while backing toward the door. She turned to the door and carefully opened it with her magic. The doorknob was enveloped by a familiar pink aura as it slowly creaked open as if reality itself was slowing. But when the door finally opened to the figure in the tall black robes accented with gold and silver everypony in the room turned their head. They gazed upon a pony in an ominous cloak. Its face was covered by a white porcelain mask with slitted eyes encircled by black lines and one small hole where its mouth should be.
A black aura emanated from the form. The effect of the mysterious figure left everypony in the room slack-jawed. Even Rainbow Dash was shocked enough to glide to the floor and stand there in silence.
"Which one of you is Twilight Sparkle?" It asked with an echoey voice that ever-so-slightly whistled and reverberated.
The voice made everypony in the room visibly jump at the sound. To be fair nopony had expected such a menacing voice much less a voice at all since the creature looked more like a monster than a pony.
The shock intensified for Twilight when she realized that the pony was talking to her. Twilight, trembling, asked , "M..me.w..w..who are you..?" She was terrified of the pony that had come for her ... and her specifically.
The figure let out a satisfied, demonic chuckle, clearly pleased at Twilight's reaction. "Good. Very good. I am afraid that you're going to have to come with ME," he said as he grabbed her with his fore hooves much to her protest. But her struggling was cut short by a punch to the head. She was knocked out instantly.
Rainbow and Applejack tried to get to their friend but were swatted away by his titanic strength. They were sent flying into a bookshelf then fell to the ground with a thud. At least three of Rainbow's ribs broke. Applejack's lung collapsed. Rarity and Fluttershy cried out as their friends hit the floor. They ran to them to make sure they were okay. Fluttershy was visibly angry and not the least bit scared of the mysterious figure that had single-hoofedly taken out both Applejack and Rainbow Dash -- the most athletic ponys in Ponyville. Fluttershy was angry, more angry, than she had ever felt. She confronted the cloaked thing that had caused them so much harm in under ten seconds flat and spoke, huffing out each word with ire:
"HOW DARE YOU! YOU THINK JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT SOME STUPID MASK THAT MAKES IT OKAY TO HURT MY FRIENDS, DO YA EH? WELL, YOU'RE GOING TO APOLOGIZE FOR HURTING MY FRIENDS OR ELSE!!"
No response.
"GOT IT?"
Still no response.
"I'M READY. HOW ABOUT YOU?" screamed Fluttershy.
The pony shrugged.
Fluttershy used her 'stare' but nothing happened.
Nothing...
Nothing...
Nothing...
Then something happened. It was fast, faster than a sonic rainboom. There was a loud *smack* and Fluttershy was flicked to the floor a few feet from the figure. To add insult to injury, the pony tilted his head and shrugged. He turned his head to Twilight and slumped her over his back. He then walked slowly out the door. Rainbow, who had originally watched with a grin that would make the Chesire Cat feel uncomfortable, was now slack-jawed once again. She had seen Fluttershy's 'stare' work on a dragon before. She was flabbergasted. A now enraged Rainbow's mind was working a-mile-a-minute thinking HOW THE FUCK DID THAT NOT WORK? HE JUST SHRUGGED IT OFF LIKE IT WAS NOTHING. HOW THE FUCK DID IT WALK OFF LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED? I SAW THAT STARE WORK ON A DRAGON! A FULL GROWN DRAGON! A. FULL. GROWN. FUCKING. DRAGON!! I NEED TO GET UP. I NEED TO. HAVE TO. MUST GET UP. HAVE TO SAVE TWILIGHT.... oh shit. It took Twilight. HOW DID THAT THING TAKE TWILIGHT? I HAVE TO SAVE HER. MUST SAVE FRIEND. I DON'T CARE IF EVERY BONE IN MY BODY IS BROKEN. I. WILL. SAVE. TWILIGHT. Oh no. Wait. Applejack, Fluttershy. Oh crap. I have to choose. No no no no no no no. What would Twilight do? Think think think.
While Rainbow was having a fit of anger, realization, anger, realization, and panic, Pinkie was staring out the door where Twilight was just moments ago.
Pinkie felt tears but did nothing to quell them as the situation set in.Twilight. Why, why, why didn't I help? I just sat here and watched that Meanie McMeaniehead take you. I..I..I'm just useless. I did nothing. What is wrong with me? I...I...I failed again. After that, all that Pinkie could do was try and comfort Spike by slowly petting him with her limp hooves and tell him everything was alright... but,she didn't believe it herself.
Meanwhile, Rarity was doing nothing. She was empty. She realized that she had done about as much as Pinkie aside from running around screaming for her friend. All that mattered was Applejack. Sure they had been butting heads lately but Applejack was her best friend. It wasn't that Applejack was her favorite...Rarity the white unicorn didn't have favorites (part of her generous nature.) But Applejack and her were the best of friends. And her motherly traits along with her generous ones were not helping the situation. Rarity also was fairly certain Applejack had a collapsed lung and was becoming more frantic by the second.
Calm down, Rainbow, just calm down. Okay, what would Twilight do? Right. She would get everypony together and sort things out. First, from the sound of it, Applejack needs medical attention right now. Top priority Rainbow thought. She cleared her throat and began, "Okay everypony, I need you to listen. We need to get the doctors here NOW so that we can get help for Fluttershy and Applejack. And we need to get the guards here so that we can figure out what the fuck just happened!" she half shouted, but the pain of her broken ribs was getting to her.
The ponys and dragon that listened included a frantic Rarity, a scared Spike, and a depressed Pinkie. In short, anypony who was still conscious. Pinkie ran to the hospital, Rarity used her magic to stop Applejack from dying a slow death, and Spike and Rainbow wrote a letter to the princesses. Nearly two minutes after Spike sent the letter detailing the events to the princesses, lo and behold, the two alicorns popped into existence which nearly caused Rarity to lose the spell that was helping Applejack. But just as they did Pinkie arrived with stretcher-weilding doctors and helped lift Fluttershy and Applejack on to them. The doctors didn't bow to the princesses. That was one of the perks when on duty in the emergency wing of the hospitals. They didn't want to waste precious time bowing when a valuable life was at stake.
Celestia stopped. She could sense....something. Something wicked. It felt as something was gnawing at the roots of the world. It was evil and terrible in every sense of the word. But to her horror she knew the familiar sensation. She slowly turned her head to Luna and spoke: "Luna we have a problem. A big, big problem. Please tell me you don't feel it."
Celestia had clear terror in her voice which made all guards present gawk at their level-headed leader. To talk as if she was scared? Oh, but she was scared. So, so scared. She hadn't felt so scared in a long time.
Luna turned to her sister with an equally scared look on her face: "'Tia, we must act quick!!!"
That was all Celestia needed to hear before the Elements of Harmony appeared hovering around her. Her fear was replaced by rage and determination. She took off towards the hospital where Twilight's friends were. She was dead-set on doing anything and everything to help Twilight...and to stop the Will of seven.