Clash of the Legends

Scorch, despite his best efforts, had gotten lost. About 10 minutes before, he was cowering in the dirt from a hundred of his clones who were trying to KILL HIM. He noted to himself to get mental help at some point, and began poking about in the forest. It was nearly impossible to see anything, murk and gloom encased everything beyond 5 metres of his vision. He could hear the rustle of leaves as he gingerly slipped through plants and crawled under fallen logs. This part of the Everfree was...creepy. The other, more accessible points in the forest had much more light, as little as there was, and there was NEVER a thick green bank of fog that impeded vision. Just as he thought of these abnormalities, he smacked his snout on something. Silently yelling in pain, he held onto his maroon nose and looked forwards to see what he had walked into.

Not a foot away from him, there was a fence of iron bars, that seemingly disappeared into the fog either side. Signs in an old and almost forgotten language were covering it. Luckily, in his few days studying Ancient Equestrian in Griffonia, he could slightly grasp what it said.

"Avoid...here....Not....safe....by....order of Canterlot....military?" Scorch muttered to nopony in particular. "Unsafe? I'll show you bucking unsafe..." he trailed off, a determined expression returning to his face as he swiftly vaulted over the fence. Almost a flawless jump, save for the part where he caught a hoof on the fence, flipped over, and smacked face-first into the dirt below. He tried laughing it off, but then he discovered he didn't like laughing much. After a simple shrug and equipment check, he continued his trek across the forest into unidentified zone.

Twilight Sparkle stopped hyper-ventilating long enough to see what was on the screen. The corner of the screen now said 'Lt. Scorch-Mane' instead of her brother's name, and the scenery had changed majorly. Instead of a forest clearing with a psychopath slowly getting up after being shot, the camerapony was now in an unidentified part of the Everfree Forest, in front of an iron-cast fence. On the fence were some signs written in Ancient Equestrian. She was just about to run home and get a translation book, but was beaten by the stallion on screen.

"Avoid...here..." Began the voice. "Not...safe....by order of Canterlot....military?" he sounded confused. Twilight immediately knew who this stallion was. Her brother often wrote about his antics during his letters, and Scorch-Mane was occasionally written of. Mostly because he kept being incessantly set alight for no reason. She smiled. At least she could go find out what was over that fence. With that thought in mind, she slipped out of the town hall relatively unnoticed before going at full trot towards the library. The Oak Tree still had one light on, the kitchen light, meaning Spike was still awake. She frantically hammered the wooden door with her hoof like a zombie trying to get in, in the hopes of satisfying hunger. Her hunger was for knowledge, and she never starves. After 30 seconds, the door creaked open, a drowsy Spike stood half-asleep on the other side. He looked up, and was suddenly rejuvenated when he saw Twilight smiling down at him on the other side.

"So?" he eagerly asked, "Are you here to tell me to come and watch? Is it cool? I heard cheering a few minutes ago, was that for-" he was cut off by a purple hoof into his mouth.

"No, Spike." Twilight rolled her eyes, nudging past the baby dragon. "It's a slight gory."

He cocked his head at the word.

"Gory?" he asked. Twilight stopped looking through books.

"Bloody?" she replied.

He shook his head.

"Gruesome?"

More head shaking.

"Filled with blood and pain?"

Spike emitted a quiet 'Aaah...' of realization, and headed off upstairs unnoticed by Twilight. She continued rummaging through shelves, cabinets, and nooks to find the right book. After 10 minutes, she finally found it.

"Here we go," she said aloud. "'Everfree Secrets: a Tourist's guide'." She did a quick scan of the contents, before darting to the section titled, 'The Fenced Off Zone'.

"Upon finding this fence, turn around." She read. "There is an as-of-yet unidentified entity patrolling this zone. Upon its discovery, 57 Lunar Stallions were sent out to analyse the threat. After several days, only one of them returned. This guard promptly died." Twilight reeled back in horror, dropping the book and running out of the door and heading back to the town hall. She had to tell somepony. Somepony had to know there's something about to happen.

Celestia mumbled to herself as her vision began to return. Through the blurs, she could make out a brown Pegasus with a white mane stood over her, a worried expression on his face. She couldn't tell if he was going to attack, so she slowly sat up from the position she was in. She must have been sleeping in hay, as yellow strands flaked off of her fur. Her armor had been removed, and was lying against a wall across the room. She began to panic. 'Has he really...? On live cameras? Oh my...' she thought to herself, attempting to get up before being pushed down.

"Calm yourself," Aerlion said as he attempted to hold her down, "You're in no state to move." She stopped at his words. 'Of course. Cadence went a bit crazy, so I may well be wounded. "I had to bandage your wounds. A lot of soot was on your armor and it had dented into your chest as well, so I put it over there." He pointed at her blackened armor set lying in the corner of the room. She finally lay back.

"Thank you." She sighed. "For saving me. That's a kind hearted thing to do, saving a member of the other team. Well done." she smiled at him, causing him to blush slightly and look away. "Have you seen the other two princesses? Either of your team-mates?"

"No, not yet." He replied as he began to remove his armor. "Last I heard, your team has begun to shatter, Luna has Scorch-Mane in some kind of hypnotic trance, Shining Armor...I don't know, and Cadence attacked you." He grinned at her as he started on his boots. "And you still want to gather your team?" Celestia's ears drooped.

"Y-yes..." she mumbled.

"Either way, you won't be going anywhere with those cracked ribs. Must have been one tartarus of a shot." Aerlion continued, pointing down at her. She followed his hoof and saw her lower and upper torso. There was a grey bandage running around her upper torso, spiralling down before tying off at her stomach. "Still, this place isn't the Canterlot Hospital, and I'm no Steady Hoof. You might want to get those checked out. After this ends, that is."

"Yes," she winced as she tried to force a laugh. "I can't see myself flying off to Canterlot right now."

"Oh, by the way, what DID Luna do to Scorch?" Aerlion enquired. He had finished unclipping his gunmetal-grey chestplate, which he was mounting on the wall.

"Well..." Celestia began. Her magenta eyes looked up as she remembered what Luna told her. At least she had company to tell this tale to, even if he WAS a member of the opposition. She could think of one pony who wasn't going to be able to speak to anybody for a while.

Luna had finally found a ride. As unreliable as it was, a MKII 'Lumbervan' 4X4 Oil Vehicle was still faster than on hoof, and less tiring. The keys were in the ignition still. After spending a second to commend the unicorns who designed this replica of Equestria, she made sure nopony was looking before diving into the jeep. Due to cartoon physics, she popped up in the driver's seat, and began to look over the dashboard. Her ears drooped when she realized what she had overlooked; she had no clue how to turn it on, never mind drive it. Rubbing a hoof on her chin, she began craning her neck around the driver's compartment, in a futile attempt at activating it. After around 20 minutes, it was getting dark, but she had thankfully found out that turning the keys would activate it. Smiling smugly, she span the keys and the motor roared to life. Lights sparked on and emitted a dim light that cut through the darkness in the alleyway. Success. She thought to herself as a sudden urge told her to slam the pedal into the metal. She did just that, and the engine growling like a beast willing to serve it's master, the vehicle motored backwards and slammed into a wall. She tried laughing it off, but realized her new challenge:

Make it go FORWARDS.