Harmony Reborn

John awoke to the sound of flames. Not the soft flickering of a fire in the fireplace, the sound of a roaring house fire. Multiple house fires. He tried to get up, but that started a throbbing in his head, and he collapsed. Mustering all his remaining strength, he got up on his knees. What he saw nearly petrified him.

A village. Going up in flames. He remembered a technique that could smother a roaring fire, but it took some energy. Energy that John didn't quite have just yet.

he decided it was best to wait for the throbbing pain to die down, which it eventually did, thanks to a rather taxing healing spell, and soon he had enough strength to attempt to put out the fires. He set off at a brisk pace, soon breaking into a run. Then a dead sprint. After what seemed like hours, but in reality was about 30 seconds, he had arrived at the burning village.

What he saw there was more shocking than the flames. Instead of people, there were small, pastel colored horses running madly through the streets, and some had horns, and some had wings, and they all had unique tattoos on their flanks. Also, they were screaming. They were being chased by what looked like an army of Swiss Cheese had been fused with jet-black versions of the horses (of which he now assumed to be ponies, because of their size and seemingly adult voices, which he confirmed my seeing smaller ponies, of whom he immediately labeled as foals, screamed with children's voices) and insects. They looked menacing enough, though. So John did the one thing he did best.

He attacked them.        Big surprise, I know

Using his techniques, he promptly took down dozens of the creatures, of which had now started to attack him (which slightly relieved him, because it meant that the ponies would be alright) He fired fireball after fireball, swung a magic sword. More and more of the creatures dropped dead before him.

Some of the braver ponies stopped to watch, as idle curiosity and awe swept over them as this mysterious, bipedal creature, clad in unusually bland attire, using magic to defeat the swarms of his opponents.

Soon, his adversaries wised up, and, because of their sudden drop in numbers, decided to retreat.

Seeing an opportunity, John started to gather the energy of the things around him (mostly the ponies, because they were the only living things in the area, besides the creatures, but he didn't want to risk corruption, which occurs when energy is not positive). John worked best with the energy of those with high morale, but since that wasn't the case, he had to make do with whatever positive emotion he could find.

Using his signature attack, which he dubbed "The Laser" (which is the magical beam of energy attack) he took down around 75 of the retreating creatures, causing the survivors to not waste a second, and flew off at a speed almost unimaginable.

When all was over, the ponies were feeling a mix of emotions. Fear, awe, happiness, curiosity, and a number of others. They also felt rather tired (a side effect of having your energy used).

John didn't waste any time. he immediately went to the burning houses, and magically doused them. A foal ran out of one of the houses. It had a burn on it's thigh, but it wasn't serious. A mare, whom I assumed to be it's mother, ran up to it, tears forming in her eyes. She embraced the young foal, before turning to John, and said:

"Thank you."

That did it. John had become almost certain he was dreaming now. But still, he couldn't forget his manners.

"It was no trouble, ma'am."

Now all the ponies were staring at him. Chatter went through the crowd. John could make out statements like:

"Did it really just speak?"

"It can talk?!"

But John wasn't going to let an opportunity to commute with the locals, though. John didn't want to waste another second. He wanted answers. And he wanted them now.