A Distant Light, A Close Calling

“Wake up! Wake up, everypony get up!” Starstride screamed at the top of her lungs.

Twilight and the others jumped out of their beds, frightened by the sudden outburst. They all hurried to the living room, where Starstride was.

“Wh-what’s the matter, da-darling?” Rarity asked, barely managing to keep her eyes open.

“Hoofsdale is under attack!”

The seven gasped at this, in complete shock and horror. Rainbow Dash was going to say something, but stopped herself almost immediately. Twilight’s mouth hung open, she had nothing to say, she was speechless.

“Well, we have ta’ do something, right?” AJ said open-mindedly.

They all stood there for a brief moment, then all narrowed their eyes, and nodded seriously. Starstride walked over to the door, and said:

“Alright everypony, let’s work together as a team, we have no idea what we’re up against, or what caused this, everyone ready?”

They all nodded, all except Fluttershy, who shuddered with fear and squeaked. Starstride opened the door, and they all galloped outside, and their eyes, went wide with awe, and uncertainty. There were dark, huge, ominous clouds overhead, there was thunder and an unsettling breeze in the air. The sky was painted a ruby red; lightning was colored a sparkling ruby red, and lit the sky up.

The town before them resembled nothing of Hoofsdale, there was rubble, broken signs, carts, and others. Cottages were broken, shattered, or on fire. Some of them even had missing rooftops. Starstride stepped in front of all of them, and beckoned them to move on.

They galloped towards the town square, when suddenly..

“AUGGHH!” Twilight cried in pain, falling to the ground, shaking violently.

"…Twilight-light…" Said multiple voices, echoing like shouting atop a mountain.

"This is your last night Twilight, you and your friends will…die! You and your pathetic attempt to out-run me has failed, the Elements will cease to exist..Hahah, I will make you feel true pain.." A dark, voice said.

Twilight let out a scream, there was an agonizing pain in her head. Her whole body seemed numb. Her memories of her friends, family, studies, and much more passed through her mind vividly. She let out a tear, a single tear, and continued screaming in agony. She lied there, and in the corner of her eye, she saw a group of dark figures in the distance.

“Twilight? Twilight, say something!” Pinkie begged.

Twilight let out a slow groan.

“Uh-oh, looks like we got some company!” Sunspeed said nervously, pointing a hoof over to the North.

Seven hooded figures stopped about twenty feet from the mane seven. Suddenly, a loud boom of thunder pierced the air. A surface of tension seemed to close in around them all. It started to rain lightly, and the wind got worse. One of the hooded figures, stepped up and mentioned in a low, brash tone:

“Give up Elements, or you will die, like the others before you!"

“OH, you wanna do this the hard way? We’ll do this the HARD way!” Dash yelled bravely, gritting her teeth, snorting and stamping her hooves together.

“I guessed as much.” The hooded figure said quietly.

Then, the seven hooded ponies galloped towards them, letting out a battle cry. The other six Elements, gritted their teeth, and charged forward, leaving a trail of dust behind them.

“Hold them off, I’ll get Twilight to safety!” Starstride said quickly.

Then, with a crash, Rainbow tackled one of the attackers. AJ bucked one in the face, before getting a nasty hit to the side. Rainbow suddenly got thrown off of the pony, and hit the ground with a thud. Two of the enemies threw themselves on top of Rainbow, and began to beat her senselessly.

Fluttershy smacked one in the face, leaving a purple gash on the side of his cheek. Her opponent growled, and flipped her to the ground and start hitting her, hard. She cried in pain with every blow, and she managed to grab one of his hoofs, and twisted it forcefully. He screamed, and fell backwards, clutching his hoof. Fluttershy let out a squee of victory.

“Hey, will somepony help me out!” Rainbow pleaded.

Rarity levitated a piece of rubble with her magic, and threw it towards Rainbow’s attackers, they turned, eyes widened, and hit the ground. Rainbow let out a sigh of thanks, which Rarity nodded in return.

Pinkie stood across from her opponent; he was carrying a razor sharp piece of glass, he lunged towards her in an effort to cut her. She managed to dodge the 1st slice, but it narrowly missed her, and cut off a couple inches of her mane from her head. She tried to kick his hooves, but in the process, got cut three times on her front left hoof. Gritting her teeth and narrowing her eyes in sheer pain, she kicked him down onto the ground. As he was getting up, Pinkie said:

“Say hello to the PARTY CANNON!”

Firing it almost directly at him, he flew back, and hit the ground, rolling backwards until coming to a stop in the middle of the street.

Sunspeed took a blow to her haunch, making her lose her balance and fell. She bucked the enemy in the chest before he could stamp his hooves on top of her. She quickly ripped off the bandages that were on her wings, and she flew into the sky. She yelped a bit from the pain of flying. I guess I haven’t fully recovered, it has only been four days since that fall. She thought. Suddenly, she gasped as a Pegasi tackled into her, both crashing into some rubble.

Sunspeed hacked and coughed; her vision was blurry, and she was in a lot of pain. In the corner of her eye, she saw her bright mane soaked in blood, and a pool of it was underneath her. She gazed her eyes to some figure standing before her. She couldn’t figure out who it was. The figure took his two front hooves and bucked her in the face.

Applejack was twirling her lasso around, and flung it towards her opponent. He shrieked as it caught onto his leg and struggled to get loose. Applejack turned, to see the others finishing off their attackers.

Rarity was throwing rocks at her opponent. Her opponent dodged them and charged forward, he tackled into her, making her run into the side of a cottage. Rarity let out a sharp gasp, and snarled at him. She punched him in the side, then kicked him near the eyes.

He yelped as one of her blows hit his eye. He retaliated, and pointed his horn towards her. She muttered to herself, and dodged the first strike he made. He then struggled to get his horn out of the wall, which was lodged deep into it. Rarity bucked him in the side twice, and his horn gave way as he fell to the ground.

Rainbow looked around as the others all gathered around. Rainbow examined the wounds her friends took. Applejack got a black eye and some scratches on her flank. Pinkie had deep cuts in her hoofs and a large cut on her face, going from her eyebrow, to her mid-cheek. Fluttershy had some cuts on her wing, and on her face. Rarity had some dust on her mane, and had some bruises. Man, I took some nasty blows, I have cuts all over my face and side, and I am limping really bad. Rainbow thought.

Hmm, Sunspeed has…wait, where is Sunspeed? Dash thought.

“Where’s Sunspeed?” Dash asked in fear.

“Well, I don’t-There!” Rarity yelled, pointing a hoof towards some rubble and a broken cottage.

They saw a pony standing over a bright light blue/orange figure. The pony had a pointed piece of metal, levitating above Sunspeed’s body. Rarity quickly took a big rock, and shot it towards him with her magic. It hit him directly in the face and the metal fell onto the ground with a clang.

Sunspeed made a quiet groan, and she slowly opened her eyes to see her friends crowd around her limp body. She looked around slowly, and gasped for air, and clutched Rainbow’s hoof.

Oh my, sweet Celestia. Sunspeed has a deep, large, open cut wound on her side, and has purple bruises and scratches and gashes everywhere. Fluttershy thought in sorrow.

“I-I need..” Sunspeed started.

“What? You need what darling?” Rarity insisted.

“…medical attention..” she finished.

“Quick, we must get her to Starstride, does anypony know where she went off to?” Fluttershy said nervously.

“I think she went over to that building over there.” Pinkie pointed to the east.

The five nodded, while Sunspeed groaned in approval. Rarity levitated her onto Rainbow’s back, and they hurried their way over to Starstride and Twilight. As they walked past a few cottages, they noticed Twilight and Starstride hiding behind a wall.

They trotted up to her, Fluttershy said:

“Starstride, Sunspeed is badly injured, she needs help!”

“That’s not good, I will look after her, the rest of you must go and help the townspeople. Don’t worry about Twilight, she is doing okay, she is still having problems in her mind. But please, go, I will take care of them!” Starstride explained.

The five nodded, and started to gallop towards the town square. As they came closer to it, they saw a citizen defending off an attacker. They all glanced at one another, nodded, and galloped towards their enemy. As they ran towards them, a Pegasi flew from the sky and tackled into Rarity.

“Rarity!” The four others called.

“Go, I will be fine, secure the town square!”

Rarity struggled to break the hold of her attacker. She hovered a board of wood that was nearby, and hit her opponent in the side with it. He let out a cry, and toppled to the ground beside her. She got up quickly and ran towards a cottage that had its roof torn off.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The four other ponies ran up behind the defender. AJ ran up and bucked the townpony’ attacker in the face. The townspony looked at her, and smiled.

“Thank you.” She said.

“No need ta’ thank me miss.” AJ replied.

“Oh, I didn’t properly introduce myself, I am-" She started.

“Look out!” AJ yelled, her eyes widening.

AJ pulled the Earth pony down with her, as a ball of flame whizzed by her. They turned to see one lone unicorn. The unicorn snorted and charged forward. AJ grabbed her lasso and spun it around quickly, and before he could pierce her with his horn, she caught his two front hooves with the lasso.

“Now that is how we do it on the farm!” She said happily.

“Quick, let’s go find Rarity, we have to get her, and then get out of here, this was no mere attack, we are the ones they’re after, it’s the SDEH!” Rainbow explained.

“Wait? How did you know it was the SDEH?” Pinkie questioned.

“Look at his cutie mark, it’s the same symbol we saw on the first two we encountered, when we found Sunspeed.” Rainbow continued.

“Oh, I see it now. Sweet Celestia your right, we have to get going!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Let’s go find Rarity, and fast!” Pinkie exclaimed.

The four ponies started to head towards Rarity’s last location, Rainbow limping behind.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Rarity gasped for breath as she stopped at the 2nd floor of the cottage she was in. There was a large gap in the floor. Half of the level was missing; Falling off the 2nd floor onto the 1st would not be such a great idea. Rarity thought. Suddenly, she heard hoofsteps behind her, she gasped, and turned to see a different pursuer, a unicorn.

Rarity gritted her teeth, and the two unicorns charged towards each other, and their horns locked against each other in a vigorous battle. Rarity’s attacker released his force on his horn, and ducked and moved to her side and shoved her. Rarity was surprised by this, and fell to the ground, sliding near the edge of the floor. Her opponent walked up to her, and raised his two front hooves.

“No, you wouldn’t-“ She started.

Before she could finish her sentence, her enemy sent his two hooves into her face, and she fell down to the first floor. Her body caught and banged against several objects, and landed with a loud thud. She gasped for air, and tried to crawl away. As she was crawling slowly, she saw a shadow looming over her, she turned over to see the unicorn, towering over her.

“Hahah, now to finish you, Element of Generosity!” He laughed evilly, pointing his sharp horn towards her.

“No no, no, you wouldn’t dare, don’t you dare stab me with that horn you little ruffi-AHHHH!” Rarity pleaded, then yelled in pain and agony as he plunged his horn into her stomach. He twisted it, and she screamed even more. He pulled it out, and was readying for another thrust.

Out of nowhere, a piercing light shined, then a flash of blue struck the unicorn, and sent him to the ground, unconscious. Rarity lied there, gasping for air and clutching her stomach, when Rainbow appeared before her.

“Rarity, oh my, we have to help you! Come on, I’ll carry you, we have to get out of Hoofsdale!”

Rarity let out a yelp of pain when Rainbow picked her up. Rainbow exited the building, and regrouped with the others.

“Ra-Rain-Rainbow D-Dash, wh-what was that light?” Rarity said, choking on blood and air.

“Starstride used some cool spell to give that sucker what he deserved!” Dash grinned.

“That’s n-neat.” Rarity replied slowly.

“I will teleport us back to my house, everypony stick close.” Starstride said.

Everypony except Twilight, Rarity and Sunspeed, who were all being carried, all huddled close to Starstride. A bright blue essence was resonating from her horn, and a beam of light protruded from it, and with a loud boom, they were back inside her house.

“You all have to leave now, Hoofsdale is not safe anymore.” Starstride said quickly.

“But Starstride, We all are badly hurt, especially Rarity, and Sunspeed, there is no way we’ll make it without recovering a bit, it’s not possible!” Dash argued.

“I know, but you cannot linger any longer, you have to get out of here while you still can!” Starstride said, raising her voice slightly.

“Starstride, we can’t do it, it won’t be possible, trust me.” Dash reasoned.

“Fine, I will put up a spell to shield us from the SDEH, but you will leave first thing at Dawn tomorrow.” Starstride sighed.

“I will go grab some provisions we’ll need.” Fluttershy said.

“I’ll go help her.” Pinkie jumped in.

“Okay, we’ll leave tomorrow at Dawn.” Dash said.

“Thanks for understanding Starstride.” Dash added.

“Your welcome, but you have a long journey ahead of you, you all must muster your strength, you all are going to need it for tomorrow.” Starstride noted.

“I am aware of that, for now, we must rest and recover.” Dash said, looking out the window at the still dark red sky.

“I will attend to your friends, go ahead and relax.” Starstride said.

Pinkie and Fluttershy finished gathering the provisions they needed for the long journey for tomorrow, along with extra in-case they lose some. Pinkie and Fluttershy walked into the living room, and asked Starstride:

“Need any help cleaning those wounds of theirs?” They both asked, looking at Sunspeed and Rarity.

“No, I will take care of them, and I will put them to bed after they are all bandaged up. You both must do the same, then go to bed.” Starstride said as she was bandaging Sunspeed’s sides up.

“I will also see to Twilight, but she will be just fine, I know it.” Starstride added.

“Okay.” They both responded.

The other four ponies cleaned their wounds, and all went to bed. In all of their minds, the seven ponies feared the thought of what may happen next; they all worried if Sunspeed and Rarity were going to make it. They all wondered if Starstride would come along. All they could do was hope. They all put their troubles and questions aside carefully, and all eventually went to sleep.