You Can't Change Nature

They cower, we carve.

Twilight smiled happily as she trotted towards the Ponyville train station, humming to herself as she approached her destination. She had slept well last night, for once not waking up due to nightmares or strange feelings. She had only been roused from her sleep by the sound of two stallions shouting, which she had quickly discovered were coming from her brother and Sergeant Shield, both of whom seemed to be screaming blue murder at the fresh recruits arrayed in the castles courtyard.

Twilight let out a soft chuckle as she reached the platform, sitting down on one of the benches to wait for the train from the Crystal Empire. Shiny was certainly right about what he had said yesterday, the recruits really hadn’t known what had hit them.

She was wrenched out of her thoughts by a rapidly approaching screeching, quickly getting louder, to the point where Twilight had to cover her ears, finally stopping as the huge train pulled into the station. Letting out a sigh of relief, Twilight got back to her hooves, trotting towards the door as it slid open.

There was the usual contingent of guards leaving first, taking their position around the door, before finally Cadence appeared, smiling as she walked towards Twilight.

“Oh Twilight,” she beamed, before jumping forward slightly. “Sunshine sunshine, lady bugs awake.”

“Clap your hooves and do a little shake,” Twilight laughed, finishing off the rhyme, before wrapping her forehooves around Cadence’s neck. “It’s good to see you Cadence.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Cadence smiled back. “We really must try and meet more than a few times a year, and actually act on it this time.”

“Yes, we never seem to get enough time to ourselves, what with these,” Twilight spread her wings out. “Maybe for once we can meet without something going…”

“No, don’t jinx it,” Cadence cut in with a giggle. “For once I’d like to have a day without the usual sort of things happening.”

“So would I,” Twilight nodded with a soft chuckle.

“Well then, I guess we should be getting off the platform, we don’t want to get in the way of the other ponies.”

Twilight nodded, keeping pace beside Cadence as the two walked through the town, chatting about what they had been up to since they had last met, and occasionally stopping at a shop or stall of some description, including the ponies in their good mood, and being sure to leave those who they had spoken to in a better mood than they had been when they started.

“Even after all these years I can’t wrap my head around your magic,” Twilight smiled as they left yet another pony smiling broadly. “I mean, especially as you were a Pegasus before you became an alicorn. Even I can’t handle sentiment spells quite like you can.”

“You mean there’s a school of magic that you haven’t mastered yet?” Cadence faked a gasp. “By Celestia, this will not do. Quickly, call Spike, get to the li…brary.”

Cadence trailed off as she mentioned Golden Oaks, looking ahead as she saw where Twilight had been walking subconsciously, her eyes falling on the ruin of the tree. Cadence looked across at Twilight, the younger mare letting out a sigh as a small smile worked its way onto her muzzle.

“It was hard to come to terms with it at first,” Twilight admitted. “But things have got better, and I’ll always have a piece of it in my new home to remember it by.”

“How so?” Cadence asked, putting a wing around Twilight.

“Come on, it’s easier to show you rather than to explain it,” Twilight slipped out from under Cadence’s wing as she spoke, breaking into a trot as she headed towards the outskirts of town where her castle was clearly visible. “Plus this will be as good a time as any to show you around. You showed me around your palace, it is only fair that I return the favour to you.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Cadence smiled. “Lead on.”

I crashed to the floor for what felt like the hundredth time in the last minute, my vision swimming in and out of focus as I stood up once more, swaying unsteadily for a moment before walking forward once more, my sword carving out a large gouge in the land as I dragged it behind me.

I remembered this feeling well, the one that usually came after a feast in the Packs feasting halls, but unlike those times I didn’t have the solace of the party to remember, only the throbbing headache that I was living through now.

Pausing, I sniffed the air, trying to differentiate between the smell of my own blood and the distinct spell of the two creatures I had seen running from the cave. One was a soft smell, a mixture of scents from different animals, while the other was an incredibly sweet one which I could not put my finger one, while at the same time being a mismatch of other scents. It was mostly that scent I was tracking, it being so far removed from anything else I had ever smelt that even I in my current state couldn’t miss it.

I crashed through the undergrowth as I stumbled forward once more, barely noticing as the dense tree cover began to thin out, until eventually I was able to walk at full height without knocking into tree branches, and then, just shortly afterwards, I found the abrupt end of the forest.

I was hesitant at first, looking out at the land beyond. Since I had arrived in this forest, I had stayed within its confines. Now though, I had the opportunity to leave it, and yet I felt like going forward would pitch me into even more trouble than going back in to face the beasts once more.

I almost turned tail then and there, content to simply lick my wounds and follow the scents another day, but a new smell hit me, snaking its way into my nostrils and pulling my head back round. Instantly drool began to fill my mouth and leak out of the sides in big drops as I breathed in once more, filling my lungs with the heavenly smell, before heading towards it. There was only one thing that smelt that good.

Cooked flesh.

“Well, it’s certainly impressive,” Cadence whistled softly as she and Twilight finally finished the tour of the castle, stopping just outside of the doors to the main hall.

“That’s one word for it,” Twilight nodded. “I saved the best till last though.”

With that, Twilight threw open the doors with a pulse of magic, allowing Cadence to see inside, before the pink alicorn gasped in amazement. “Twilight, is that…”

“Part of Golden Oaks,” Twilight smiled happily, trotting towards the suspended branch and looking at the gems hanging beneath it. “Each one of the gems holds a memory of my old home. It made settling in here much easier.”

“Your friends’ idea?”

“With a little help from Spike, yes,” Twilight nodded happily.

“He must have grown up a lot to suggest something like this,” Cadence looked around as she spoke. “Where is he anyway? I half expected him to be in the kitchen making another gem cake.”

“No, he’s off with Sweetie Belle at the moment,” Twilight chuckled. “I think he finally realised that he and Rarity had too much of an age and maturity gap. He seems happier though, which is the most important thing.”

“I’m glad he’s enjoying himself then,” Cadence nodded. “Young love is such a beautiful thing. Even when between two species as different as a pony…”

“Twilight? Are you home?” Spike called out, his voice echoing around the halls of the castle, before he poked his head around the door. “Oh, hey Cadence.”

“Your ears must be burning,” Twilight teased. “Where’s Sweetie? I thought you were spending the day with her?”

“He is,” Sweetie Belle piped up, hobbling around the corner behind Spike.

“Oh Sweetie, what happened?” Twilight asked, hurrying over towards Sweetie Belle and taking a closer look at her left foreleg, the usually white fur singed and blackened, and in some place burnt away completely, revealing angry red burns beneath. The smell was repugnant, but Twilight was actually used to it by now, coming with the territory of growing up with a dragon. “Spike? Did you do this?”

“Yeah,” Spike groaned, looking down at his feet. “I was trying to show off and…”

“It’s my fault,” Sweetie Belle butted in. “I was asking Spike about being a dragon and asked him to show me his fire. I got a bit too close, and well…” she winced as she held up her hoof.

“It’s fine,” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Spike, take Sweetie Belle into the kitchen and run some cold water for her. I’ll go and find some bandages.”

Nodding, Spike lead Sweetie Belle out of the room towards the kitchen, leaving Twilight alone with Cadence, the younger mare sighing and rubbing her temple with a forehead. “I knew it was too good to be true, this day has been far too quiet. Do you mind waiting here while I go and…”

“Twilight?!” Pinkie Pie shouted, appearing in front of Twilight in next to no time, the door still swinging as she pushed past it. “Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!”

“Pinkie?!” Twilight shouted to make herself heard, putting both hooves on Pinkie’s shoulders and forcing her to stop bouncing. “Calm down, please.”

“Calm? Calm?!” Pinkie shouted, shaking Twilight. “How can I be calm when I keep doing this?”

Pinkie let go of Twilight as her entire body shook violently enough for her to rise off the ground, and continuing for almost ten seconds before she fell back to the floor, groaning and holding her head. “Oh make it stop.”

“Is she alright?” Cadence whispered, moving closer to Twilight.

“It’s her Pinkie Sense,” Twilight explained. “Don’t try and figure out how it works or you’ll drive yourself crazy. Just accept the fact that Pinkie can sometimes predict the future.”

Twilight turned back to Pinkie, helping her back to her hooves. “Are you ok Pinkie? That looked like a pretty big doozy.”

“It was,” Pinkie nodded, her face stony. “Something big is going to happen soon.”

“You’ve had a doozy before, and you were happy about that,” Twilight pointed out.

“Yes, but this time it’s different. This time it’s going to be something bad.”

“Bad how?” Cadence asked in a concerned voice. “We had Sweetie Belle come in a few moments ago with some bad burns. Could that be what this doozy is about?”

“No way, hosay, this is going to be something huge,” Pinkie shook her head so quickly it turned into a blur for a few moments, before she stopped, her eyes still spinning in her head. “Mark my words, this will…”

“Twilight! Please tell me you’re home,” came the familiar voice of Discord.

“Oh, what now,” Twilight groaned in exasperation. “I’m in here, Discord, what do you…want?”

Twilight trailed off as Discord entered the room, her eyes instantly falling upon Fluttershy, shaking violently as Discord held her tight. More worryingly however was the fact that both Discord and Fluttershy were covered in blood and dirt, and that Discord himself looked gaunt at whatever he had seen.

“F-Fluttershy? Are you ok?” Twilight stammered.

Fluttershy didn’t answer, not looking around straight away, before finally forcing herself to look at Twilight through tear filled eyes and giving her the tiniest of nods, before burying her face back into Discords body. Taking up the question, Discord looked down at Twilight, his signature humour devoid from his voice in a tone Twilight had only heard him use once, when he had been betrayed by Tirek.

“We were looking for that creature in the Everfree Forest. We managed to go in deep and find the Cawing Cliffs quickly, and Fluttershy saw a dead manticore just outside of a cave. I…I tried to stop her going into the cave to the cave, but she wasn’t listening properly. She tripped and landed in a pool of blood from another Manticore, she hasn’t said a word since.”

“Oh Fluttershy,” Twilight gasped, wrapping her hooves around Fluttershy and pulling her into a hug, not caring about the blood she got on her own fur. “It will be ok, I…”

“There’s more,” Discord cut in. “I don’t know what it was that killed the manticores, but I saw a shield on the floor, and a sword was through the back of one of the manticores.”

“You mean somepony did this?” Cadence gasped. “They could be hurt, we need to go and find them too.”

“It wasn’t a pony,” Discord shook his head. “I’m not as smart as I once was, but the cave and the clearing bore the marks of a warrior, or a monster, much bigger than a pony. And worse, I think it followed us.”

Twilight and Cadence stiffened at Discords words, the colour draining from their faces, before Twilight managed to find her voice, keeping it level as she forced herself not to panic. “Discord, please take Fluttershy upstairs to the bathroom and was the blood off her, then take her to my room, make sure she’s comfortable. Cadence, go and find Shining Armour, I think we should call out the guard, just in case.”

“Where are you going?” Discord asked as Twilight headed towards the kitchen, cadence disappearing out of the back of the main room towards the training yards.

“To find Spike,” Twilight replied. “The princesses have to be informed about this as soon as possible. The Tartarus gate is in that forest, and if it’s a monster like you said, it could be from there. Who’s to say that it was just Tirek that escaped when Cerberus disappeared?”

With that, Twilight took off at a gallop, her hoof steps echoing throughout the halls as Discord hurried towards the stairs, making sure not to jolt Fluttershy too much, not wanting to traumatise her any more than she already had been.

My slow loping stride slowly broke into a haphazard run, adrenalin coursing through my system and making me forget my pain in favour of the idea of cooked meat. Eating food raw was all well and good, and I would be lying if it wasn’t gratifying, but cooked food? The smell, the taste, the texture, it was better in every way, and I would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to get some of it, regardless of what stood in my way.

It was not long before I finally crested a small hill, the smell of meat growing stronger with each step, and allowing me to look down into a valley, laying eyes on the cluster of buildings nestled within. Almost immediately I shied away, covering my eyes and snarling as the bright colours assaulted my senses.

Finally, I cracked my eyes open once more, glaring down at the offending colours and snarling once again. The buildings were almost painful to look at, and the faint smells weren’t much better. What really caught my eyes however were the inhabitants.

Never in all my life had I seen anything quite like these creatures, even back home. The closest I could get to them were the four legged creatures that some of the humans occasionally rode into battle to allow them to keep up with my kind, but they were much larger, as well as much less stupidly coloured. Pink, blue and every colour in between were displayed bellow me, as well as some more interesting differences, namely the odd horns some of them sported, while others bore wings upon their backs.

For a moment I was stunned, before a gust of wind brought the scent of meat back to my nose, and I let out a loud, bellowing roar.

Before my cry had died in my throat, I was running once more, sheathing my sword and switching onto all fours. In the forest I had wanted my sword ready at a moment’s notice, even if that meant sacrificing speed, but these creatures in the village did not look like they would pose any threat.

My roar rolled around the surrounding hills, and as I got closer to the town I could hear screaming breaking out as the creatures scattered before me. I barrelled past the first ones, knocking those who didn’t get out of my way in time aside without breaking stride, before my ankle gave out for a second, sending me crashing through a building.

Dazed, I managed to push myself to all fours again, grabbing hold of what was left of the wall and pulling myself out. I could smell smoke as I got up, but I ignored it, and the strange screams of the creatures as I sniffed the air once again.

It was not hard to discern the smell of meat from the disgustingly sweet smells that surrounded the rest of the town, and my eyes eventually settled upon a strange castle, shaped like a tree, on the far side of the town. Licking my lips, I headed straight for it, my vision narrowing in until all I could see was the castle.

Spike blew a puff on green fire on the scroll Twilight had hastily written, the parchment turning to pure magic and quickly flitting out of one of the open windows, heading towards Canterlot.

“And now, we wait,” Twilight sighed, looking at Sweetie Belle. “How are you feeling?”

“It hurts,” Sweetie winced. “I don’t suppose you have anything for the smell, do you, Princess?”

“Sadly, no,” Twilight shook her head. “Spike, keep an eye on her. I need to go and check on my brother and Fluttershy.”

Ducking out of the room, Twilight trotted out of the room, heading towards the training yard and looking out from the balcony above it, quickly catching sight of Cadence and her brother and spreading her wings, landing beside the pair.

“How is the training going, Shinny?” Twilight asked, looking at the twenty or so ponies milling around the yard.

“I told you Sergeant Shield would get them into shape, and I meant it,” Shining Armour nodded. “Now what’s this about you wanting to deploy them now? They’re nowhere near finished, you know that right?”

“I do, Shinny,” Twilight nodded. “But if Discord is right then we could come under attack at any moment from a monster. The princesses have already been informed but the common ponies deserve to see that we can protect them.”

A roar echoed across the training yard as Twilight finished speaking, unlike anything that any in the yard had heard, and causing Twilights fur to stand on end. A few seconds later, the screams of ponies joined the howl, breaking Shining Armour and Sergeant Sentinel Shield from their shock at almost exactly the same time.

“Right you lazy dogs! Pick up your weapons and strap up your armour!” Sentinel roared, slipping his own helmet one and turning to Shining Armour, the white Stallion slipping his own purple helmet over his head. “Prince Armour, we march at your command.”

“Then what are you waiting for, Sergeant?” Shining asked, drawing his sword with his magic. “I will be with you presently, deploy the men to the streets and hold back whatever is attacking.” He then turned towards Twilight and Cadence. “Cadence dear, I would like you to stay in the castle, ensure that Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy are safe. Twilly…”

“Get my friends and help,” Twilight finished for him, before spreading her wings once more. “Good luck, big brother. Sergeant, leave two unicorns with me.”

“Good luck, little sis,” Shining nodded, before galloping out of the courtyard after Sentinel and the other soldiers.

Twilight watched as her brother left, before lighting her horn, a purple shield encompassing the castle completely, and turning to the two guards. “This is a simple shield spell, a disruption spell will allow things to pass through it. I’m going to send every pony here, let them in.”

“Of course, Princess Sparkle,” one of them nodded, before Twilight took to the skies, angling towards the rising smoke that was coming from Ponyville.

I roared as I knocked a creature aside, this one wearing golden armour and carrying a tiny sword that would have only just been a dagger in my paw. The majority of them looked terrified and were clearly inexperienced, while two of them were cut from a different cloth, one wearing purple armour and the other wearing a simple gun metal grey armour, both of whom were avoiding my blows, although they were not able to get any of their own in in return.

“Wasting my time!” I roared as another creature tried to dart towards my bleeding ankle, only to have my other foot slam into his armour, denting the metal and sending him skidding across the grass.

Raising my head I looked back to my destination, before snarling. The castle was now surrounded by an odd purple bubble that certainly wasn’t there before, and considering the fact that a bird was furiously pecking at the inside of it, I assumed I wasn’t going to be able to just walk through it.

Not that that minor detail was going to stand in my way, and with another roar I leapt forward, the creatures attacking me scattering out of the way as I bounded forward. Just before I reached the bubble I dug the claws on my back paws into the ground, skidding slightly as I drew back a fist and slammed it into the shield.

It was like punching stone, and I howled in pain as my paw crumpled against its unyielding surface. Glaring down at my paw, I could see blood leaking from within my fist, and whenever I tried to move it a new lance of pain shot up my arm.

Staggering backwards I felt another stabbing pain in my foot, and saw the creature wearing the plain metal armour had used my pain to his advantage, driving his word through my foot. Screaming in rage and pain I leant down, grabbing hold of the creature with my one good hand, slamming my head into it, letting it flop in my paw.

My access to the cooked meat was now cut off, but my ability to make more wasn’t. I could smell the smoke in the air, and turning around, I quickly saw a fire blazing in the building I had crashed through earlier. Twisting my mouth into a snarling smile, I set off once again, easily outpacing the creatures around me as I headed for the fire, the unconscious one clutched tightly beside me. Large blobs of drool leaked from my mouth as I neared my prize.

Shinning Armour coughed painfully as he pushed himself back to his hooves, gingerly touching his head and wincing. He knew he was going to have a massive bruise there come the morning, but right now that was the last thing on his mind.

“On your hooves, now!” he bellowed, picking up his sword again. “That monster has got Sergeant Shield, he is not keeping him. Time to shine colts.”

“Sir, yes sir,” came the bellowed response, the soldiers quickly falling in behind Shining Armour as he galloped after the beast.

The world seemed to run quiet as Shining Armour sprinted after his stolen comrade, giving him an open mind in which to think clearly, putting the current situation in context. This creature had been living in the Everfree Forest. In that time it had killed two Manticores, and potentially a host of other creatures as well. From the looks of things it had not been easy, as the creature had been limping and trailing blood before any of the guards got to grips with it. All of this bore the trappings of a beast, and normally Shining Armour would have categorised this thing as just that, but he also didn’t know of any simple beasts that wore armour, and carried and Sword and Shield. Whatever this thing was, it was potentially intelligent, or at least able to work a forge, even while it seemed to be driven only by a very basic instinct, to eat.

It was when that thought crossed his mind that sound returned to the world as a sudden realisation about what the beast may want, and what they were heading towards.

“Double time it!” he bellowed, pushing himself even harder, despite the protests in his muscles. Shining Armour quickly began to outpace the new recruits, his newfound drive and determination pushing him harder than he thought possible.

“What’s the situation?” a familiar blue Pegasus asked as she quickly kept pace beside him.

“Bad, Rainbow,” Shining Armour grunted. “The creature has a pony, and I think he means to eat it. We’ve got to…”

“Say no more, I’ll round up the girls and…” Rainbow cut in, only to be cut off by Shining Armour once more.

“No! You and the girls are to stay away from this. That is an order.”

“No offense Shining, but we don’t take orders from you, and this is our town,” Rainbow replied, before flaring her wings and vanishing from Shining’s sight, heading towards the town hall.

Shining Armour would have liked to turn around and ensure that Rainbow Dash didn’t do anything brash, or to drag her friends into doing the same, but he didn’t have time to waste as the beast was getting closer, finally stopping by a burning building and holding a weakly struggling Sentinel Shield

“Let go of me!” he screamed, flailing a hoof wildly, but only managing to draw a roar from the creature, spit covering Sentinel. His screams of rage soon began to turn to screams of pain as the creature thrust him closer to the flames licking the building, quickly beginning to heat his armour to the point where it burnt his fur beneath.

“Beast! Release him!” Shining Armour roared, hurling his sword forward and watching it stick into his back.

The beast roared again, this time in pain, before turning to face Shining Armour, pulling Sentinel out of the fire slightly. The beast snarled, slowly reaching for its sword with its free hand. It was clearly in pain as it drew the blade, and would probably be much slower to attack, but Shining Armours own blade was still sticking out of his back, putting him at even more of a disadvantage.

Tensing up, Shining Armour lit his horn, preparing himself to fight.

I let out a sharp laugh at the folly of the tiny horse, scraping my sword against the stone ground and causing a few sparks to join the fire burning behind me. I could feel my fur beginning to singe, but it was offset by the smell of the creature behind me beginning to cook, his struggles getting weaker and weaker.

Then, I felt myself flying through the air, both the horse creature and my sword falling from my grasp as I crashed through the remaining wall of the burning building, coming to a halt on the other side. My head throbbed painfully, threatening to send me spiralling into unconsciousness, while my chest felt like I had been hit by one of Reyna’s bolts of pure magic, my skin bubbling and warping under the intense arcane powers.

I let out a small cough, watching as blood spurted from around my bitten tongue and broken gums, before my eyes focused of a group of the small horses making their way through the ruins of the house towards me, the flames seeming to wither and die with every step they took, until eventually they were arrayed in front of me.

It was hard to make out how many there were, or indeed what they looked like in my current state, but I could make out two purple blurs, one from the armour it wore, the other looking like it was its actual fur colour, while a third looked like it was a light blue. I was dimly aware of words falling from their mouths, but whether that was because of them speaking a language that I did not understand, or because of the spinning in my head I couldn’t say.

A flash of steel caught my eye, and I saw a sword hovering above one of the creatures. In an instant I was alert, and forced all my remaining strength into my legs, my mind pushing the pain as deep down as it could as I surged forward, seeming to catch the creatures before me off guard as I bounded forward once again, pausing only to scoop up my sword, before heading towards the forest, a trail of blood following behind me.

Twilight was stunned for a second, not even bothering to get up from the sprawled out position she had been thrown into when the beast ran past, her mind still working furiously to catch up with the events of the last few minutes. She had quickly found Rainbow Dash after she had left the castle, and between the pair of them and Pinkie searching on the ground, they had quickly found Rarity and Applejack, meeting up again in the centre of town, just in time to see the beast hurtle past them, a kicking and swearing pony clutched in its paw.

She usually prided herself on self-control, but when she had seen the beast actually trying to cook another pony alive, a surge of anger had over taken her, just like it had done when Tirek had destroyed her library.

Now, as then, she had acted purely on instinct, her horn almost working ahead of her as it fired off a shot of pure force. She hadn’t tried to cast any particular spell, and the result had been instantaneous, hurling the beast back with enough force to destroy the remains of the home that had been burning. She made a mental note to find out whose home it had been, before she became aware of a voice calling to her.

“Twilight? Twilight, wake up!”

Nodding, Twilight focused on Rainbows voice, slowly pushing herself to her hooves and taking in the scene around her, her eyes quickly catching sight of the trail of blood leading back towards the Everfree Forest.

“Did…did we win?” she asked, rubbing her head and groaning.

“Easy there Twi, you took quite a smack to the head back there,” Applejack cautioned her. “But yeah, ah think we did.”

“If you can call it that,” Shining Armour grunted tersely from the side, barely looking up from Sentinel Shield as he quickly stripped him of his armour. “Sentinel Shield was one of the bravest ponies I knew, one of my closest friends, and one of the best guards I ever had the honour of serving with. He’ll be lucky if he walks again, let alone fights.”

“Don’t…count…me…out…Shinny,” Sentinel wheezed, flashing the girls a toothy grin and revealing how many teeth he had lost in the fight. “Take more than…an overgrown dog…to put me down.”

“Like not staying still with a potentially broken spine,” Shinning pointed out. “Now, be quiet and lie still.” He turned to the girls, scanning them over with a practiced eye. “Are any of you hurt?”

“No, although it may take me a while to get the soot out of my mane,” Rarity pouted as the others simply shook their heads, before withering under a venomous glare from Shining Armour. “I mean, no, not at all.”

“Good. Twilight, you and the girls are to take Sentinel Shield to the Hospital, then help with crowd control,” Shining began again. “When Celestia and Luna arrive, inform me and meet me in the castle.”

With that, Shining Armour turned and galloped back in the direction of the castle, leaving the five girls and Sentinel Shield alone by the smouldering house.

“Since when does he call the shots around here?” Rainbow asked no one in particular.

“I believe considering the fact that we were just attacked means that this is a matter best commanded by someone with military experience,” Rarity countered. “He seems like the most qualified in this situation, no offense Twilight darling of course.”

“None taken,” Twilight shook her head, starring after her brother. “I’ve never seen him like this before, I’m worried. Still, he gave us a job to do, let’s get to it girls.”

Lighting her horn, Twilight carefully surrounded Sentinel Shield in a purple aura of magic, making sure to be as careful as possible as they began to take him towards the hospital. It didn’t take them long to reach their destination, Sentinel Shield being whisked away from them by a host of nurses and doctors almost as soon as they stepped hoof inside the building, leaving Twilight and the others slightly shocked in the atrium.

“Do you think he’ll be ok?” Applejack asked, grimacing slightly as she looked at the number of occupants in the waiting room.

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie bounced up and down. “I mean, did you see him after the fight? Shining was all like ‘oh he’ll never walk again’ and he was like ‘just watch me sir’, and then Shinning was all like ‘be quiet you. Girls, take him to the hospital’, then we were like…”

“Yeah, we get the picture Pinkie,” Rainbow rolled her eyes, before looking at Twilight. “Twilight? What was that thing?”

Twilight suddenly felt very self-conscious as all the noise in the room died down, all eyes turning to look at her. For a moment none of the onlookers said anything, before a small voice piped up.

“Princess Twilight? Do you know what that thing was?”

“What are we going to do, Princess?”

“Are we still safe in Ponyville?”

“Are there more of those creatures, Princess Sparkle?”

Twilight slowly raised a hoof, silencing the slew of voices as she finally organised her own thoughts. She didn’t speak quickly, instead considering every word that came out of her mouth, not wanting to incite panic if she could avoid it. More ponies had crowded towards the hospital doors now, until it seemed that the entire town was watching and listening to what Twilight was about to say.

“I don’t know. What I do know however is that Ponyville has been through worse than this a lot of times, and we’ve always come through it, together. If we just…”

“We’ve never almost had a pony die before,” a soft voice croaked out from within the crowd.

The words were softly spoken, but their effect was like throwing a pebble into a pond, ripples spreading out through the crowd as ponies began to whisper in hushed, scarred tones, until finally, somepony screamed.

That was the final straw, and almost as one, the screams of panic were taken up by the rest of the crowd, ponies beginning to run wild as the reality of this new villain besetting the town set in. Twilight and the others exchanged worried glances, before trying to raise their voices above the crowd, struggling to be heard over the din of terrified ponies.

“…please calm down.”

“Everypony stop shouting and listen…”

“If you would all just…”

“Can Everypony please…”

It was no use, and Twilight watched as ponies continued to run to and fro, bringing back painfully familiar memories of how they had reacted during the parasprite invasion or the smartypants fiasco.

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!”

The words had an instantaneous effect on the ponies, and many stopped exactly where they were, even if that was mid-stride, causing a few to fall over and crash into one another, while others looked up into the sky, shielding their eyes from the almost blinding light that was descending towards them.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight beamed happily as she ran forward, stopping just in front of her old mentor. “You got my message then?”

“Indeed we did,” Celestia nodded. “And I came as fast as I could. Luna will be here shortly, she is just gathering ponies to assist us.”

Celestia quickly turned back to face the assembled, and still frozen, ponies before her, lowering her voice to a normal level this time. “Citizens of Ponyville. I understand that you may be scared, but that is no reason we must abandon our good senses. My sister is on her way as we speak, Princess Cadence is here visiting from the Crystal Empire, and my faithful student is here, just as she always has been. Whatever has beset you this day, I can think of none finer than her to help you overcome it. All I ask of you is to not panic, and to work together in harmony as I know that you can.”

Twilight watched with a smile as the ponies slowly began to move again, no longer cowed by their terror and by the appearance of Princess Celestia. Slowly, the crowd began to disperse, many returning to the hospital, while others returned home or moved towards the damaged buildings, helping the occupants in any way they could.

Satisfied that her words had had the desired effect, Celestia turned back to Twilight and her friends, her reassuring smile shifting into a concerned frown.

“I read your message, Twilight, and I came as soon as I could.”

“Thank you Princess,” Twilight nodded, before gesturing towards her castle. “I think if would be best if we spoke inside.”

“Quite,” Celestia nodded. “I am not sure that my little ponies would like what I am sure you are about to tell me.”

“Probably not,” Twilight sighed, before turning to the others. “Come on girls, let’s move out.”

“Speaking of the girls, where is Fluttershy?” Celestia asked, looking around as they began to walk towards the castle. “Or Cadence for that matter?”

“Ah was kinda wonderin’ the same thing Twi,” Applejack nodded as Pinkie and Twilight exchanged worried looks.

“Both of them are in the castle already,” Twilight answered, a soft tinge of irrational dread creeping into her stomach. “Along with Discord, Spike and your sister, Rarity?”

“Sweetie Belle is there?” Rarity asked in surprise. “Did she come to see you?”

“No,” Twilight shook her head slowly, looking at Rarity with a slightly confused look. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know what darling?”

“Nothing, never mind,” Twilight brushed the question aside. If Rarity truly didn’t know, then it was not her place to tell Spikes and Sweetie Belles secrets, and if she did know, then there was no harm in not telling her for five minutes. “Come on, we should hurry.”

“Agreed,” Celestia nodded, a dim light surrounding her horn for a second, before vanishing once more. “My sister is on her way as we speak, with members of her guard to help ease the public’s nerves.”

Nodding in thanks, Twilight broke into a trot, the others doing the same as they headed towards the castle.