The Janitor - Cleaner of the Everfree

Everything was in flames. Ponies of all shapes and sizes were galloping through the streets of Ponyville while dodging lasers and bullets. A few were unfortunate enough to get hit by one or the other, but thankfully, none of them were killed from the shots, though the agony that they felt quickly made them wish they were.

The shots were coming from tall humanoid bipeds. Some ponies addressed them as aliens, while others called them "humans", though even they were unfamiliar with the mixtures of metal that these humans' limbs were replaced with. Without any other ideas for names, they decided to give them the same names as the fictional "metal-pony hybrids"... cyborgs.

There were also floating monitors with several different kinds of guns attached below them. They flew in the sky and caused the pegasi to fall to the ground for safety, due to the lack of protection from above.

From inside a red barn, a western family were trying to fight off the cyborgs... but unfortunately, these cyborgs were too powerful for them. Eventually, they had to retreat by the protection of a group of guards who burst through the doors shortly after hearing their cries for help.

From inside a boutique, a pair of white-coated, purple-maned unicorn mares were hiding in a cabinet from the glowing red eyes of the cyborg ninjas who each carried glowing red katanas with them. One was just a little filly, while the other was a fully grown adult. The sound of the front door bursting open and the guards' yells was the only chance that the unicorns were able to take in order to escape the boutique... they took it without hesitation.

From inside a bakery, two mares were battling the cyborgs and flying robots; a mare with a pink coat and mane, and a cyan-coated pegasus mare with a rainbow-colored mane. There was another pegasus mare with a yellow coat and a pink mane, but she was hiding underneath the cabinet in the kitchen. The pink mare fought with a cannon that was filled with explosively modified confetti and silverware, while the pegasus mare fought with her bare hooves while relying on her super-fast speed to evade and counter any attacks thrown at her. When the cyborgs' arms were replaced with chainsaws, however, the mares didn't want to go with that kind of risk and ran away while taking the other pegasus mare with them.

From inside a library, a lavender unicorn mare with a purple mane constantly blasted the cyborgs and robots with a magic beam while protecting a young purple and green drake from danger via a pink shield bubble. Despite her success at striking her targets, they only seemed to brush her magic off, and eventually the entire library was swarmed at every angle. Seeing no other options, the mare engulfed the drake and herself in a spell that made them teleport out of the library, and luckily out of the cyborgs' and robots' sights.

The chaos continued for several minutes. Eventually, though, most of the ponies were captured and carried towards the Everfree Forest. Those who weren't captured, however, cried at the sights of their friends being taken away by Celestia-knows-what.

The first of the cyborgs only made it a single step before a black fog materialized from the distance, and flew towards it at a blinding speed. Then, once the fog was directly over the cyborg, a pure white hand materialized from the fog and punched directly through the cyborg's chest, allowing the blood to spray at an alarming rate, as the cyborg looked at the damage before dropping the pony in its hands and falling to the ground.

The pony weakly looked up, only to see nothing but a fog with a pair of glowing green eyes move towards the next of the cyborgs. Then she passed out.

From cyborg to cyborg, the fog continued to stream through them and leave nothing but unconscious ponies and cybernetic corpses in its path. The robots began scanning the fog, but mere seconds after they began their scans, the fog was already after them.

The lavender unicorn, having been completely unaware of the giant muscular cyborg wearing samurai armor standing behind her until the shadow loomed over her, turned around and gasped when the cybernetic behemoth lifted its massive hammer in the air over its shoulders.

It was only able to lift the hammer behind its back when a laser shot from the sky and vaporized its head. When the lavender unicorn looked towards the source of the laser, her eyes widened when she saw the shadow of a bipedal figure sitting on top of a flying robot while forcibly turning its laser towards the other robots and androids. Then, after the robots and androids were all taken care of from outside, he forcefully ripped the laser out of the robot and shoved the barrel inside its screen, causing whatever core it used to break, as the robot began to fall. The figure turned into a mist again before the unicorn could catch a good glimpse of it. All she was able to see was the pair of glowing green eyes that the figure had.

Inside the Carousel Boutique, the guards lied in agony as their enemies overpowered them drastically. The cyborgs then prepared to deliver the final strikes when the black fog flew inside and disarmed them of their weapons. They turned around to fight their opponent, but were quickly dealt with by the foggy warrior. The guards were only able to see the green eyes, as well as the pale white flesh of the tall biped that the fog was constantly hiding. They were able to get a glimpse of that after the figure snapped the neck of one of the cyborgs and removed its head entirely. Then they passed out from a mixture of pain and disgust.

Inside the now burning barn, a huge group of pony guards lied on the ground, either unconscious or dead. They were all scattered out and about by another behemoth of a cyborg, though this one didn't wear any armor. It just wore a camouflage outfit with a pair of black boots on its feet. Its hands were made of metal, and on its head it wore a beret.

Across the room was an unconscious red stallion with a yellow-coated filly with a red mane and a pink bow on the back of her mane crying and trying to shake him awake.

"C'mon, big brother! Wake up!" she cried as the behemoth walked closer to her, ignoring the flames and the falling wooden debris behind it. "Please! Wake up! Please!"

The filly looked up at the behemoth with terror in her eyes, as the behemoth raised its iron fists in the air to deliver the finishing blow.

Suddenly the black fog appeared from behind the behemoth. Instead of materializing partially, however, the figure leaped out of the fog as a whole, planted its feet onto the behemoth's back, gripped onto its head, and opened its mouth, revealing a pair of alarmingly sharp fangs in its mouth. Then the figure growled before biting into the neck of the behemoth and ripping a huge chunk of it out, which caused the behemoth's blood to spray out and cover the filly, her brother, the behemoth itself, and the figure from the black fog. Finally, the behemoth choked out and fell on its back, while the figure jumped into the air and landed on the behemoth's head; crushing it, and spewing even more blood out behind them.

The filly's eyes widened at the bloody figure that she was certain to have nightmares from seeing. Though completely soaked in blood, it was clear the figure was wearing blue denim jeans with a bandage behind it that raised just below its belly. By the way how its body was shaped, the figure appeared to be a male. His feet were bare, and he only had three toes that were undeniably sharp at the tips. His hands were completely red from the things he just killed in mere minutes. His mouth was covered in blood from his recent stunt, and his eyes, like from within the black fog, glowed bright green, though the right one was covered from his long black hair at the angle that he was looking at her from. Over his neck and chest he wore a torn black cloth that partially covered his left arm, while completely covering his right arm, but failed to cover his stomach completely.

She was only able to see him for a second before he was covered in the black fog again. This time, however, the fog came towards her, and caused her to scream at the top of her lungs, as she felt the bloodied hands grip her and lift her from the ground, with her brother next to her.

An orange mare with a blonde mane and a stetson hat galloped through the corpse-filled orchard towards the burning barn with tears in her eyes. Behind her an elderly-looking mare with a green coat and a white mane breathed through a paper bag while a medic started treating the injured along with several nurses from Ponyville.

"APPLE BLOOM! BIG MCINTOSH!" the orange mare shouted at the top of her lungs as the burning building started to collapse. A pair of guards had to restrain her while she tried to get to the building.

"THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO! THE PLACE IS COLLAPSING!" one of the guards shouted, while another guard near him gasped and pointed towards it. When the first guard turned towards the barn again, his eyes widened as he saw the shadowy biped leap from a window with the ponies in question in his arms. Just outside the barn, the surviving soldiers from inside were already scattered outside the entrance.

The biped quickly placed the filly and the stallion on the ground before fading into the black fog, and quickly floating towards the Everfree Forest before anyone could get near him.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING

Princess Celestia could not believe her eyes. As soon as she received a letter explaining the situation from her faithful student Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn from the library, she prepared a chariot to bring her to the town at once. Once she got there, her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in disbelief.

Several houses and businesses were burnt down, multiple injured ponies were being treated by doctors and nurses even outside the hospital, and countless fillies and colts were crying in their parents' hooves. Guards were examining buildings, doctors were carrying unconscious ponies from inside the buildings while others were zipping the fallen in body bags.

Needless to say, this was worse than a nightmare... and Princess Luna, her sister who was already there before the sun even rose, felt the same. Whoever could've done this was, by all means, an enemy that would be judged with a punishment far worse than banishment... execution.

When Celestia trotted up to Luna, Luna nodded her head at the mare who she was talking to and turned towards her sister. "We have yet to know the full story of the events that transpired late last night... but we shall not rest until we do!"

Celestia wrapped her sister with a wing before shaking her head with a saddened expression on her face. "Dearest Sister, please don't overwork yourself. You need your rest!"

Luna glared at her before breaking from the hug. "Nay, Sister! We shall not rest until the cause of this catastrophe has been discovered!"

Celestia sighed before closing her eyes and looking away from her angry sister. If there was anything she could remember about Luna, it was that her decisions were always written in stone. Then she nodded her head and asked, "Very well, then... have you learned anything from any of the locals? Have we at least figured out who the heroes were that stopped the menace?"

Luna closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her snout. "We... have only heard rumors... though the rumors sound far from truthful... perhaps a hallucination from either the enemies, or the smoke and fire?"

Celestia tilted her head in confusion. "Hallucinations?"

Luna nodded her head and turned towards the Town Hall where she received her information from... more specifically, the mayor, herself. "Indeed. The mayor received multiple reports of a strange 'Black Fog' that just simply 'appeared from The Everfree Forest', and killed the monsters that, according to other witnesses, came from the same location."

Celestia rubbed her chin in thought. "A black fog? Was that all that they reported?"

Luna shook her head before replying, "Nay... there were glowing green eyes within the black fog."

Celestia's eyes widened at that statement. "Y-you mean, like... the results of Dark Magic?!"

Luna nodded her head and replied, "Indeed... but to hear of one that could harness the powers of Dark Magic and keep their sanity is far from possible, as even We couldn't control it... and We are certain that thou can remember the results as well as We do."

Celestia nodded her head again and looked towards the stallion that broke from the crowd, rushing towards them with a pair of guards standing in-between to keep him from getting too close to the princesses.

When he was close enough for them to hear him he dropped to the ground in a bow before saying, "P-Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! We... we've found somepony who knows what the figure inside the 'Black Fog' looks like!"

The princesses looked at each other with wide-eyed expressions before following the stallion towards the location he came from... the remains of Sweet Apple Acres.

When they made it, the entire family was under medical attention. Several of their relatives from near and far were starting to show up to help them rebuild, and perhaps help the injured when needed.

One of the family members, however, was sitting up on a makeshift hospital bed with a sketch pad in her lap and a piece of black chalk in her mouth, guarded with a cloth to keep the powder from getting on her teeth, lips, and/or tongue... the yellow-coated filly. By the time the princesses showed up, she was already finished, and looked up to see the princesses headed her way.

"Apple Bloom... did you see what the strange creature looked like?" Celestia asked in as calm of a tone as she could muster up.

Apple Bloom nodded her head but said nothing. She then shakily lifted the sketch pad and offered it to the princesses, who took it while thanking her. As Celestia stared at the drawing, Luna sighed and looked away from the shaken-up filly with an even sadder expression on her face. "Poor little filly must be feeling traumatized... I only hope she can sleep easier soon."

Celestia, however, didn't reply. Luna raised an eyebrow before turning to her silent sister. She then noticed Celestia's mane and tail were no longer flowing... a sign that she was distressed about something. "Sister? What is the matter?"

Celestia lowered the sketchpad and pointed at the drawing. When Luna looked at it, her eyes widened in shock at the monstrosity within.

"What in Equestria is that?!" Celestia finally asked in a panicky tone.

Luna shook her head before replying, "I... do not know... but whatever it is..." she looked towards The Everfree Forest and concluded, "... it is not of this world."

The two of them eyed the sketch with worried expressions on their faces.