Operation: Udder Chaos

The bell on the gate rung again, for what must have been the twentieth time that night, and Jezail groaned as she woke up again. She slumped over to the slit that was all that she could see out of the guard tower from. "Who goes there?" she said, fighting back a yawn.

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry to awaken you, miss," said a sonorous voice down below, and Jezail groaned inwardly. More bulls. The rest of the squadron would never believe this nightmare night. "We're here to call on our cousins in the city."

"Very well. Step into the light, please," she ordered, as she continued to look down. Another routine check, and she'd be dead on her hooves the next day. Night duty at the gate was the worst, but at least it was only once a month.

As the cattle stepped into the light of the lantern swinging down below, she started counting. Five...ten...twenty cattle. Fifteen bulls, five cows. And... There was a large crate, being carried by the cows. She groaned. That meant she would have to inspect it. Things were just getting better and better. "What is your name?" she asked, writing down on the record list the details she already had.

"My name is Longhorn. I have already told you our reason for visiting. May we enter?" replied the same bull as before. Technically, they did not need to give a reason. The city was not on alert. Even if the reason was a little strange, who even cared? Just check the crate, let them through and she could go back to sleep.

"Yes, yes. I just have to inspect the crate. One moment," she said as she turned to the stairs to head down. She knew these stairs like the back of her hoof, and that was what proved the unicorn's downfall. She took the stairs with no light, and when a step was no longer there, she stumbled and fell. At the bottom of the stairs, she groaned in pain.

"I'm sorry, dear, but we can't have somepony interfering today," said a different voice, and she looked up. Someone was there, in the darkness, but she could not see anything, until a swinging impact broke the horn from her head, and sent her hurtling in a flare of uncontrolled magic energy down into the abyss.