A Near Miss

Somepony was being awfully rude.

Long Shot was being violently shaken awake as she heard a loving voice beg, "NO LITTLE ONE! IT IS NOT YET YOUR TIME! YOU MUST NOT PERISH!" At this Long opened an eye to find a dark blue alicorn with starry hair holding her. Long Shot relaxed her quivering leg muscles before falling back asleep. If it was important, she could deal with it later.

Near Miss was abruptly shunted into consciousness by strong, frantic hooves shaking her. Blearily gazing around, Near saw she was being held by an alabaster alicorn, while a blue alicorn shook and shouted at Long Shot nearby, behind whom a somewhat familiar purple unicorn was casting several spells at once while giving orders to a group of guards. Near swung her head back around and finally saw Spleens being held carefully by a crying purple alicorn.

Near blinked several times before looking around again.

With a start, Near realized that she was being held by Princess Celestia as, nearby, Princess Luna continued to shout at and shake Long Shot, behind whom stood Starlight Glimmer, issuing orders to guards and using her magic to secure the caravan. Near swung her head back around to see Spleens gently cradled by a softly sobbing Princess Twilight Sparkle.

"This is an awfully strange dream," Near Miss thought, "I'm going back to sleep."

Ten minutes earlier

With the quiet smashing of an ancient skull had come the much louder crack of an old spell ending, as long tendrils of unnatural magic vanished in an instant.

Within a few kilotrots the change would have given anypony a splitting headache. Within a hundred kilotrots, unicorns casting spells briefly faltered as they adjusted to the slightly different flow of magic around them. Five hundred kilotrots away most unicorns looked around them as if somepony had called their name without using words. At a thousand or more kilotrots away from Wren's Anomaly, only highly adept magic users noticed the change, and only four of them correctly guessed what it had meant.

There was another crack as three alicorns and a unicorn appeared on the scene, accompanied by a group of bewildered guards, some of them looking like they had been in mid-conversation before arriving. The three alicorns rushed towards the collapsed ponies and changeling as the unicorn started giving orders to the guards and securing the area with her magic.

After securing the area, the unicorn disappeared for a few seconds, before returning with several doctors and nurses, all of whom promptly set to work.