The Seventh

The Grand Galloping Gala proper had finally come. All the catering staff had finished their share, all the routines had been perfected, all but a few of the seats were filled, all costumes completed, all sets made, all lights ready, and everyone was eagerly awaiting the performances that were to be put on this night. It was all going as planned, without a single issue, even for the princesses at the moment. And it was only getting better as the night advanced through its festivities. The race around the grounds had already taken place about two hours ago, so Applejack was the only one of the main six currently taking her seat in the crowd currently in the Gala Stadium, and was eagerly awaiting the festivities to get started.

First on was the aerial stunt show which the Wonderbolts, as well as the widely regarded “Best flyer in Equestria” Rainbow Dash, were putting on.

The show was amazing, with many flying colors and daring aerial maneuvers being used to wow the audience. Rainbow Dash even pulled off another massive Sonic Rainboom for the crowd to see, which was getting increasingly easier for her do. And to make it even better, it was all part of the main performance of the night, a, for once, entirely fictional play to be put on for the guests; and because of this the stunt show was set to an amazing, sweeping, and dramatic orchestral score. It went on for about fifteen minutes before the music ended, the crowd stood as tall as they could, and applause erupted throughout the stadium.

Next came the bulk of the performance, the rest of the play. It was set up as a musical, with many different ponies, griffons, dragons, and other species taking part in it, and all with great costuming, beautiful staging, amazing special effects, and even more amazing lyrical and instrumental numbers, all with brilliant musical composition. The final number was by far the crowd favorite though, with a wide range of moods, and a large majority of the cast members getting to play a part in the lyrical sections.

After the performance was finally over and the crowd had finished its applause, Celestia took the stage and announced that the last part of the Gala would proceed as it had previous years, with the guests free to roam the Stadium and do as they please, within implied guide lines. Everyone there had a great time during that part of the Gala as well. Many of the performers left to the dressing rooms backstage to change and, of course, meet with the many who would be eagerly awaiting them to get autographs and photos. Meanwhile, the rest of the guests went into the rest of the stadium, including the now open field with a newly positioned dance floor, to enjoy the rest of the night. For the time being, the incidents with the dreams were in the back of the princesses’ minds, which made it easier to enjoy themselves at the event.

Even the main six, who had all had large roles in this year’s festivities, were now having a great time. Rainbow was still going around and conversing with the Wonderbolts that had participated in the stunt show, sharing stories of the many adventure the two parties had been through respectively; she was also able to introduce a few of her own friends to them. Pinkie had decided to go over by the DJ stand and help out in the music department with one of her many DJs she had stashed across the land. Applejack was all over the place, speaking with many of the other guests, hanging out at the concession stand, and participating in the many games that had been set up all around; as well as, of course, occasionally attempting to sell a few small things. Rarity was speaking with some of the higher class mares and stallions that had attended, who had all stated that they had loved the work she had done with the costumes she had made, with some even stating they’d be looking to her for their own wardrobe I the future. Fluttershy was sitting at a table with a few of her friends, namely: Tree Hugger, Discord, and her new friend Crissy Flowery; the four were discussing many things, mainly the grounds flora and fauna, however occasionally straying onto other topics such as how Fluttershy had ever been able to deal with Discord the way she did, or how Tree Hugger’s therapy was going after the occurrences of the Grand Galloping Gala about one year ago.

Twilight was still with the other princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. All four of them were attempting to put on a look of enjoyment, which was becoming easier as the night advanced until they had completely forgot it was an act. Even still, Twilight was still constantly reminding herself that an attack could come at any moment now, if only mentally; and Celestia continued to do the same, although for both it quickly faded into the back of their minds. They all thoroughly enjoyed the festivities, all finding games to play, guests to converse with, and a wide range of other activities to engage in as the night wore on.

However the festivities couldn’t go on forever, and soon the end of this year’s Grand Galloping Gala had come. It surprised everyone, especially those who had participated in the events on stage, how fast it had all gone by this year, despite the theoretically longer length of this year’s version of the celebration. But it had come none the less. The main six, as well as Celestia, Cadence, and Luna, were to give the few short closing speeches, with the order of speakers being: first Applejack, then Fluttershy, followed by Pinkie Pie, then Rarity, with Rainbow Dash being put last before the four princesses in the order. The speeches they were to give were all fairly short, with only about three paragraphs each, save the four princesses’ far longer speeches, which in Rainbow Dash’s eyes was good, considering the fact that they were mostly all the same things reworded over and over again. Things like “we’re so honored you could all come tonight” and “we’d like to personally thank you for coming”. It was a bit too sappy for Rainbow’s tastes, but, then again, a lot of things were, so it didn’t exactly surprise her. Still, she decided to go with it none the less.

Apple jack stepped up to the mic, happily beginning her portion of the ending speeches. “Hella’ there everyone! I’m Applejack, and I’d jus’ like ta…” The rest was a blur to Rainbow, as was the case when things like this got too repetitive for her. “Fluttershy, ya’ got somethin’ ta add?”

One after another, the six mares stepped up to the small microphone that had been set up on stage for them to use, it went by rather quickly and wasn’t overly dramatic in any sense of the term. However, that all soon changed for the princesses, as well as Rainbow Dash.

She stepped up to the mic, confident, and determined to make it through the short blocks of text, when suddenly, they started coming back to her. She thought she had forgotten about that already, but no, they came back. The memories. All of the terrifying dream she had had the night before, they all started rushing back to her. She remembered the sounds, the visuals, everything. All reality became a blur as the images began moving before her eyes, like a sick, twisted movie.

She had seen four small sparkles in the sky. She had at first thought nothing of it, but had come to realize that that was a huge mistake as they came rushing to the ground faster than she could react and erupted in a huge, fiery explosion. She had been thrown back and had lost consciousness, but could still hear the sounds of ponies screaming and explosions going off in the background. When she had finally come to, all that was left to see was fire, debris, and death. It surrounded her on all sides. The sight had been horrible, and had been made even worse when she had realized her own condition. There had been a large pool of blood forming around her, and she could feel nothing but unbearable pain running through her. She had begun to lose consciousness again, "most likely for good this time" she had thought…

The images flashed before her eyes repeatedly for what seemed to her like an eternity. It was all a bit fuzzy, but she still knew exactly what they were memories of, although it hadn’t all come back to her yet. It filled her with a strange feeling that she hadn’t felt ever before, at least not as strongly as this. She wanted to make it all stop, right here and now, and before she could stop herself, she started screaming.

“RUN!” she yelled into the mic, startling the audience that had reformed, as well as her friends behind her, “GET OUTTA HERE NOW! IT’S NOT SAFE!” She couldn’t stop, it was almost impulsive at this point. She just couldn’t get the thoughts out of her head. “PLEASE, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME! JUST RUN!”

“Rainbow Dash…?” she turned to see a frightened Twilight staring at her, “Um… are… are you okay? Do you just want to-”

“NO!” she replied, “I don’t know why, but I have to do this.”

“Rainbow Dash, please, calm yourself.” Now I even the other three princesses looked worried, as if they all thought she had gone insane. Maybe she had, she just couldn’t get the images out of her head. Although Twilight seemed to switch from a fright toward her friend to another thing.

“If thou art… freighted… or do not wish to continue…” Luna stated, “…We could always just move on to Princess Twilight’s—“

“NO! PLEASE!” Rainbow Dash and Twilight both shouted in unison at the others. The other three princesses, as well as the other four members of the main six stared back at the two.
“Just… please…” Rainbow urged.

“Rainbow... Just don’t. We don’t want to see this contin—” Celestia cut herself off as the other princesses and her suddenly remembered to earlier that day, before the festivities. They had been told by Celestia herself that the dream had become a dangerous one, and had put the grounds under a subtle yet effective lockdown. They suddenly joined in.

“Rainbow Dash is right!” Celestia told, speaking firmly into the mic, “The grounds are no longer safe…”

Luna stepped up to the mic. “GUARDS! BEGIN EVACUATION!”

Cadence began to fly up to aid in the evacuation procedure, all the while urging that “Everything will be fine, we just need a moment.”

“SEE!” Rainbow began shouting again, towards the few ponies that remained, “YOU NEED TO—” She paused to look up from the mic in front of her, and she saw the now small audience’s terrified looks, but she needed to do this. She was just about to continue, when all of a sudden she saw four small sparkles in the sky. She wasn’t about to be fooled by that again, and at the sight of them she, almost instinctively, sprung backwards as fast as she could, with anypony on stage following suit. They raced towards the ground and the place she had been standing erupted in a fiery explosion. The force of the blast was incredibly powerful, throwing her backward several feet, but she hadn’t taken the full force of the blast. It was all happening exactly like in the dream. Could it really have been a glimpse of the future? It was just too far-fetched to say that all this was a mere coincidence. However nothing could have prepared her for what they all saw next.

The smoke rising from the blasts had blocked the sky from view, but it didn’t stay that way for long, as it was all cleared when a huge mass of metal appeared in the sky above. No one had ever seen anything like it before, however it was all too clear that, based on how it was built, it was a battleship. It had large cannons lining its edges and deck, a large dome at the top that they all could only assume was some sort of control center, brightly glowing search lights in the front, and large tube shaped structures in the rear of the ship that were spewing what looked like blue fire. The lights were now glaring down at them as the massive ship floated overhead, blocking out the light of the moon almost entirely. Then the bottom of the ship opened, like a large door, and released many metal constructions, all standing upright with what looked like small cannons on their right arms, as well as a small craft that floated down to the mane six, finally stopping when hovering directly in front of them. The top opened, revealing a stallion inside, more specifically a pegasus.

“Ah,” he said as he rose to his hind legs, still firmly inside the hovering mass of metal, “a pleasure to meet you at last, princesses of Equestria.” He was a stallion, colored a dark shade of yellow, had a bright white mane, was wearing a large pair of glasses that reflected so brightly it made his eyes disappear from view behind them, and had placed a large, thick, square shaped bandage over where the cutie mark would be, most likely in order to hide it based on him entrance. “You may refer to me by my codename of ‘Unknown’, as my REAL name is not of importance to any of you, I assure. I have come here tonight on behalf of the ‘Order of Rebirth’, and seek to take from you the ‘secret’ to this land’s power that is of the utmost importance to our cause. You, of course, know that I am speaking of the Elements of Harmony!”

“…Unknown,” Celestia replied, in an extremely angered, and yet terrified tone, “as one of the head rulers of this land, I must ask, what authority do you have to attempt to harm our guests and us, as well as to attempt to steal the ancient artifacts that have been so important to this land?”

“…hmph… very well. If you would like a demonstration, then I’d be happy to give one.” With that, he picked up a large sheet of metal. His fore-hooves lit up with a blue aura as the sheet was lifted high into the air, surrounded by the same aura.

“Wh… what the?!” A surprised Twilight spouted, “Is… that…”

“Magic?” Unknown finished, “Why, yes.”

“But… how is that…?”

“I am sorry, but my patience has grown much too thin to answer such a simple question. Now, my minions… DEMONSTATE OWR POWER!” he shouted at the constructs. The metal constructs sprung to life, aimed the cannons on their arms up towards the floating sheet of metal, and opened fire. Hundreds of small spheres of metal were shot from them, flying up to and tearing into the metal above with pinpoint accuracy. It went on for about three seconds before the shout of “CEASE FIRE!” was heard, after which the now completely and utterly destroyed metal sheet was allowed to fall to the ground in front of two terrified princesses, and an even more terrified mane six. “So, princesses, how is that for ‘authority’?”

They looked at each other, and nodded reluctantly, “Very well, we shall abide by your demands.”

“Good, I knew you would come around eventually, it was just a matter of when.”

“Although…” Twilight stated, “We don’t exactly have the Elements of Harmony anymore. They’re all within the Tree of Harmony now…”

“Oh, I knew that,” Unknown stated condescendingly, “I did not come for the gems. I came for the six who controlled them. Heheh…”

“You… wish to take these six as hostages?!” Celestia asked, still in shock as to the stallion’s display of power.

“Did I not MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!?!” Unknown shouted back, “BECAUSE IF I HAVEN’T, THEN I SHALL MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR NOW! BRING THEM TO ME THIS INSTANT, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!”

There was nothing else they could do, lest they risk themselves and their guests being ripped to shreds by these beings of metal. The main six all stepped forward, some having been urged by the other three princesses to do so, and with Rainbow Dash the most visibly frightened of them all. They formed a line in front of the craft.

“Hehehehe… This way,” the stallion said, motioning towards a now open hatch in the small craft he was standing in, “if you please.”

They began to walk silently forward, heads hung low, when suddenly a deafening sound rang through the entire area. It was a sound that Rainbow Dash knew very well, a sonic boom, and it was accompanied by a massive cloud of debris that blew throughout the stadium as the sound’s source passed. Then, at that moment directly after the sound was heard, she froze mid-step as the final memories of the dream she had had came back to her.

Just before she had blacked out, a figure had appeared before her seemingly out of nowhere. She could make him out clearly, despite the blurriness of the surroundings; he was a stallion, more specifically an earth pony, which was colored a bright shade of gray, had a bright red and messy mane with orange streaks running through it like fire, and bright green eyes. His cutie mark had looked like an alicorn wing with a thick black outline and shattering patterns forming to its left side, and was colored with dark black and glowing silver. However her train of thought had interrupted when the scene all started to go blurry again, and soon it all disappeared into an endless darkness. That's when she had woken up, still shaking from the fright.

She began looking around frantically, similar to nearly everyone else, hoping both that it was that stallion, and at the same time that it wasn’t, all before finally seeing the source of the sound. And as the source appeared, she thought to herself, “That dream… it had been so… unbelievable.” But now it was real.

Streaks of gray, red, and orange started swirling around them and the air did the same. The air was spinning and swirling so fast that some could have sworn it would start up a tornado of sorts. The colored streaks grew in size and opacity as they drew closer and closer to the group, before finally stopping and disappearing into thin air as the mysterious stallion appeared before them; standing on top of one of the many short, alter like stone pillars that had been placed in many places around the area for the current Gala event, as well as for staging during the play’s finale.

“So,” he said, standing on his hind legs, and with a smirk on his face, “how’s THAT for snazzy performance?”

“It’s… y… you… It can’t… can’t be…!” was all Dash could muster at the sight of the stallion from her dream.

“What the…! No… you…!” Unknown said, sounding almost as surprised as Rainbow, “So… you’ve come…”

The stallion turned towards Unknown. “Who? Me? Yeah, I came.”

“Heh… it seems you don’t… Ah, never mind,” Unknown raised a fore hoof, and shouted out, “FIRE!” The constructs began firing once more. Their aim was pinpoint, but even that was no good, as the stallion jumped into the air and began to jump from one construct to the next, almost as if he was flying. He weaved and dodged through the bullets, knocking each construct down to the ground upon landing on them, although he purposely left the last remaining one standing, before landing on the ground and knocking it over with a light tap from one of his fore hooves. He ran back to the group on the center stage.

“Hi there!” he said, in a very snarky tone, “Name’s Shatterwing! An honor to meet you all at last.”

They looked at the two stallions in awe. Somehow the stallion closest to them had managed to break the sound barrier, take down all of Unknown’s metal constructs, and had done it all almost as if it was for fun; and it seemed that Unknown could use magic, despite being a pegasus. “How?” they all wondered as they stared at the stallions in front of them, “How was it even possible?” However the moment was short lived, as Shatterwing turned to face the current threat.

“Now,” he said as he pointed a fore hoof at Unknown, “as for you.” His tone had remained unchanged from the snarky and slightly condescending tone he had introduced himself with, although a look of horror grew on Unknown’s face.

“You… you were not this powerful... not this agile... before… before…” Unknown’s voice was quiet, with the ponies below being to only just barely hear him, “What happened to…”

“Excuse me!” Shatterwing shouted out, “If you don’t mind, I’m getting bored, and would really like it if you would be so kind as to give me something of yours to blow up already.”

“...”

“Hello!? Equestria to obviously evil scientist with cliché reflective glasses! Anyone there!”

“I’m sorry. But I do believe that I have… overstayed my welcome. I’ll be leaving now. Don’t follow and nopony gets hurt.” With that, Unknown’s craft started to fly off.

“Ha! You’re not gonna get away that easily!” Shatterwing jumped high into the air, jumping from pillar to pillar, and then up onto the barrier between the stands and the stage. Finally, once landing, he immediately entered a ready stance, and another sonic boom was heard as he rocketed off with a sudden burst of speed, jumping directly onto Unknown’s escape craft.

“Hey! Get off of there, this is a delicate machine!”

“As if I’m listening to you! Besides, that just makes me more determined to break it!”

“Then I will just… have to force you off!” The craft started to spin, growing faster with every passing second. It was dizzying to even watch the event, even from so far way, as the craft continued spinning; before, finally, Shatterwing lost his grip on the craft and was thrown unceremoniously back down to the ground. The craft rose back into the huge battle ship that had cast a shadow on the scene the whole time, but Unknown wasn’t about to leave without causing even more chaos.

“What the!?!” was the resounding shout heard, as large cylinders of metal with sharp looking points began to fly out of the side and deck cannons and down to the ground. But, before they could reach it, Shatterwing saw an opportunity.

“Let’s hope this works!” he shouted, proceeding to jump into the air towards the metal cylinders. He grabbed onto its side, flipped around, and planted his fore legs on the same side, before kicking off in the direction of the next closest to him. He began flying from cylinder to cylinder, each time kicking it with such a force that it went spinning into the ones near it, all erupting in fiery explosions on contact. It was truly amazing how agile the stallion was, as he continuously rose up the stream of explosives originally heading down for the Gala grounds, eventually landing on the deck of the ship and disappearing from sight. The cylinders ceased firing from the sides, however more explosions could be heard, as well as some of the larger ones being seen on the deck.

“Is this what I had been hearing in the dream?” Rainbow Dash asked herself.

Suddenly though, the explosions stopped, as they saw a much smaller craft leave the ship, seemingly in a hurry. It disappeared from sight in an instant; as a sparkle was seen in the sky where the massive ship stood for a second, before the entire thing was blown apart in a series of massive explosions, with large pieces a debris falling towards the Gala grounds. Everyone started to run as fast as they could away, save for Rainbow Dash, who simply stood there frozen with fear and confusion. But she was soon pulled away from this trance by the sight of the gray and red streak landing atop one of the highest points in the grounds, on top of the highest point in the stadium. She looked up at him, mesmerized by what she was seeing.

The stallion had gone to a quadruped stance, and his hind legs were now an unrecognizable blur of bright gray. This continued for but a few seconds, as a light gray glow began to emit all around him, before, finally, Shatterwing uttered a phrase that she had heard many times before, and yet knew that, given the circumstances, she’d never forget this time it was heard.

“LET’S DO THIS THING!” he shouted as loudly as possible.

He flew forward with a massive burst of speed as a large, dark black, circular pattern of cracks and breaks, as well as a similar looking trail, was left in his wake. It was only just barely visible against the backdrop of the night sky, but was still visible to the point of astounding the on-lookers. Its sound was clearly heard by everyone there as all of reality seemed to shake. Within a single second it had disappeared, then reappearing later as Shatterwing rocketed to the ground, landing in the quadruped stance he’d started the maneuver in, all with a similarly patterned shockwave going out from him as he landed. The large debris had stopped falling, but were now suspended in midair; suddenly they began to form visible cracks, and to fade from their regular colors to a glowing white. The sound was like that of breaking glass as the cracks quickly grew larger. Shatterwing stood again, turned, and flicked his right fore-hoof as it all ended with them breaking apart in a spectacular fashion, and then disintegrating into nothingness.

“That… was… awesome…” Rainbow Dash said in complete and utter shock.

“Heh… I aim to please,” Shatterwing responded, with a smirk on his face.

Everyone else simply stood still, unable to say or do anything. Even Celestia was unable to comprehend what had just happened, this stallion had looked like just another regular earth pony after all. “How was it even possible for him to have all these special abilities?” was all anyone could think at that moment. But before anyone could ask anything, he spoke one last time.

“Well, it’s been fun, but I gotta go. You know, places to be and stuff,” he entered his quadruped ready stance, “See ya!” With that he sped off, leaving behind not only a large cloud of dust, but also a small note that he had apparently been carrying with him during the fray. The note read: Don’t worry, I’m here to help. I’ll see you all later. And it had a semi-decent recreation of the stallion’s cutie mark drawn on it in the lower right corner, seemingly as a signature.

There was silence, as everyone attempted to process and interpret what had just occurred. The Gala had gone from peace to complete and utter chaos in a matter of seconds; and now, just as suddenly as it had all started, it was all over. They had witnessed some crazy things, not to mentioned all been in grave danger for a second there, and hadn’t had time to figure anything out yet. But soon everyone, including the mane six and the princesses, began to leave, all filing out the entrances of the Gala grounds with the eerie silence still lingering. It would take a while to understand what exactly had happened, and they all needed a rest after the events that had occurred.

“Ugh…” Rainbow Dash muttered.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh… sorry…” Rainbow responded as she and the rest of the main six walked back to their rooms, “I’ve just had a… really bad headache since… the… well, you know…”

“Yeah…” Pinkie Pie responded quietly.

“Don’t worry, it’s… probably nothing. I’ll be fine by tomorrow…”

The others turned to look at her, looking confused and partially worried. “Are ya’ sure you’ll be fine…?” Applejack asked.

“Yes… I’ll be fine… Just gotta rest it off, right?”

“…Okay…” came the response.

Soon the group had arrived at the building in which they were to reside for the next night before leaving for Ponyville again. They said their goodbyes went their separate ways.

Dash woke up suddenly.

“Argh… another one…” She had had another, smaller dream.

It hadn’t been nearly as long as the previous one, and was a lot less clear cut, but had still managed to be just as disturbing as the last one. She had seen nothing but darkness for the longest time, before images of long, metallic corridors had begun to flash before her, accompanied by sounds of struggling and screaming, before finally ending in a large circular room with a flash a bright blue light and the sounds of screams again. The room hadn’t looked out of the ordinary, besides the obvious metallic look; but she found herself still unable to understand it.

“Ugh… why can’t I get a break already…?” she thought to herself, “First the dream about what just happened at the Gala last night, and now some weird room. I mean…” She let out a sigh, and tried to get back to sleep. “Why me?” she thought to herself as she drifted back to sleep. She could have sworn she had heard a response, but wasn’t sure when morning came.

The next day the main six were to return to Ponyville via the train just as they had done to get there. They woke up, packed up their belongings, and made their way out to the station, which was still just as beautiful to them as the first time. The train arrived, the passengers filed off and on as they would in all other circumstances, and the train left in the same way it usually did. It, along with the rest of that morning, were as uneventful as always, which came as a nice change compared to last night’s events. It made its way out into the fields that lay beyond Canterlot and the mountain on which it resided, speeding to its next destination of Ponyville. Usually Rainbow Dash would have stuck around, would have stayed with the others until they reached the station, but today was different, for some reason Rainbow was in more of a rush to get back, so much so that she made a decision that had never even crossed her mind for the longest of times, the decision to leave her friends behind. She didn’t want to, but something was pushing her to, too much for her to bear any longer. She got up from the seat silently and walked slowly into the isle.

“Rainbow Dash!” her frightened friends screamed, she had opened one of the doors in the train car, letting in a large amount of wind as the train sped along the tracks, and had unfolded her wings, “What are you doing?!?”

“Sorry…” she replied reluctantly, “…there’s just… something I need to do…” With that, she jumped out of the car and took flight, making sure to close the door tightly behind her, speeding ahead of the train in the blink of an eye as she left a rainbow trail behind her.

--To Be Continued--