It was just about midnight, the stars were shining radiantly in the night sky as the moon glowed lightly reflecting across the puddles left by the Autumn showers. The streets were very dimly lit and had but a few stalls and carts left outside it was truly a beautiful night nothing in Equestria could possibly disrupt the beauty of it, an arriving train producing picturesque smoke as it rolled along the tracks towards Ponyville’s train station added to the beauty of the night which was barely appreciated by many ponies. Aboard this train was a mixture of Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies the carts lights reflected gently off of the windows while the passengers were preparing to exit at their destination, tired from the long journey they had sat through. Amidst the crowd of tired travellers were 6 ponies by the names of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity; these ponies, without knowing it, were about to discover something that would change the fate of Equestria for better or for worse.
As the train slid to a halt there was an ominous few seconds of silence aboard the train as the sound of a conductors whistle echoed through the carts as the doors opened. The silence was then disrupted by the idle conversations of the many ponies aboard the train, Twilight led the other 5 ponies through the crowds of ponies eagerly awaiting the arrivals of passengers from various places.
“This way girls” proclaimed Twilight as she approached the exit
“I can see you know” replied Rainbow Dash as she hovered above the crowd of ponies and followed behind the others. As they passed the exit they had an odd mixture of feelings come across them: Fear at first, followed by doubt and then slight anger – a mixture of emotions that not many of them had experienced before – Twilight turned to her friends about to question if anyone else had experienced the peculiar feeling that she had
“Did anypony else just feel that?” Asked Applejack looking around the group
“If you’re talking about that sudden sensation then yes” Replied Rarity nervously
“W-what could have caused that?” Stuttered Fluttershy nervous of the feeling they had all shared and with that they all turned to Twilight as if she knew what had just happened. Twilight rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, once again being the one that everypony turned to for answers, after she had finished her silent complaining she thought for a moment
“Well... it kind of reminded me of when we were fighting Discord” Began Twilight, thinking aloud “But Discord has been sealed in stone and I don’t think he would have made an appearance in the hour we’ve been travelling from Canterlot and furthermore...” Twilight was interrupted by what looked like a shooting star soaring above them
“Woah! A shooting star this low! That’s so amazing!” Exclaimed Pinkie Pie at an incredibly fast pace, she was about to go on a tangent but the sound of a crash near the everfree forest disrupted her. Fluttershy began to shake, she didn’t like the idea of this at all first a strange mixture of feelings and then a shooting star crashing? What could such a thing mean?
“I’m gonna go check it out!” Blurted Rainbow Dash shooting off into the distance after the shooting star and towards the sound of the crash
The immediate area where the star had crashed caused mass devastation to the landscape, there was a huge crater that had made many trees fall over and the road towards the everfree forest had been sunk into the crater. Rainbow looked at the scene, deciding that the only way that it could have caused this kind of devastation is if the shooting star kept going even when it hit the ground, but that didn’t matter to her at the moment; she was more determined to discover the source of this mass destruction and so she began a slow advance towards the rim of the crater, the area hole was extremely deep, probably deeper than ghastly gorge she thought. The descent into the top area of the crater was at least not that steep, she managed to navigate a majority of it without her wings and only used them when she deemed it completely necessary to do so. Taking a quick look around to check her progress she found that she was on one of the steps of the craters shape. She approached the centre of the crater, a thousand questions flooding into her mind as she neared the shooting star itself. Upon approaching the centre of the crater she was met by an extreme heat and was almost forced to halt her advance towards the cause of all of this, there was a sudden surge of magic from the centre and she was sent flying back a short distance and into the jutting wall of the crater.
“What in Equestria was that...” Muttered Rainbow as she stumbled back to her hooves, an unexplained feeling of fear overwhelmed her and caused her to shudder slightly.
Should I really be doing this? She thought as the approached the centre a second time Should I really be risking my own life to find out the cause this?
The feeling of fear left her and she found herself pondering upon this question still, was this really worth it? She closed her eyes for a moment
“This thing could be dangerous... I could be saving lives” Rainbow muttered to herself as she braced herself for the oncoming wave of heat, she was instead met by nothing and was able to approach the centre this time successfully but had her vision obscured by the steam coming from the earth below. She looked into the centre at the source of all of this and recoiled violently at what she saw. Dashing away out of the crater and back towards her friends one thought raced through her mind
“Was that a pony?!”
When the six arrived the crater was still smouldering from the impact of the fallen pony. As they approached the centre they could clearly see the pony, Fluttershy was as cautious as always and hid at the back of the six as they advanced.
The pony was revealed to be a male Unicorn with a tattered black cloak wrapped around him, his mane and tail were dark red in colour and he had a brown coat.
“What... this is crazy... how can a pony cause this much damage to the landscape?!” Burst out Twilight baffled by the situation, and then it started to rain
“Why did it start to rain?” Asked Rainbow Dash in a confused tone “It wasn’t forecast... and I didn’t see any Pegasi moved the clouds!” the six bunched together, looking around hurriedly to find a reason behind all of this. Suddenly there was movement from the centre, the unicorn had arisen and was now looking at the six with one of the most confused looks that they had ever seen. It stumbled as it stood, unable to maintain its balance as a large gash on its stomach became visible
“Who... are you...” he managed before collapsing into the dirt.
By now of course the fact there was a huge crater near the everfree forest had attracted more attention than the six could have ever anticipated and the rain made all the ponies become extremely uneasy.
Was this someponys idea of a sick joke? And if so how were they managing to pull it off without showing themselves? No-one had arrived at the crater yet but they were on their way
“Uh, Twi” began Applejack “There are a few ponies headin’ this way...” there was the sound of hooves on dirt sounding throughout the scene. Twilight took another moment to compile her thoughts before formulating a plan of action.
“We’re going to have to get this pony away from the crater... and we’re going to have to do it in secret” Stated Twilight “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, you two try and remain unseen and carry this Unicorn somewhere away from here where we can try and tend that wound”
“On it!” Replied Rainbow Dash, grabbing the unicorn’s front legs “Come on, Fluttershy!” suddenly Rainbow Dash noticed something, an aura around the unicorns horn.
Could that be what was causing the sudden change in weather? She shook her head, it didn’t matter right now. She could ask questions later when they had gotten away from this crater. Fluttershy hesitantly trotted over and held the back legs of the unicorn as they began to make their way to Fluttershy’s cottage.
“Pinkie and Rarity, try and make an excuse for all of this while Applejack and I cordon off the crater” Continued Twilight, Pinkie bounced off in the direction of the crowd of ponies heading towards them whilst Rarity followed behind slowly.
******
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had finally arrived at the cottage and placed the injured unicorn inside while they began to look at the wound that was on his stomach, surprisingly it wasn’t very deep and was probably caused by the impact of landing in a rocky area at that speed. Rainbow Dash was sure that it was faster than she could fly, although she would never admit that.
Fluttershy was still worried about whether this mysterious unicorn was a friend or a foe, Rainbow looked at the unicorn’s horn again, the aura was still there but appeared to be fading. Good, she wasn’t just imagining seeing it.
“I think this unicorn is bad news...” Murmured Fluttershy nervously, Rainbow Dash turned and looked at the nervous Fluttershy
“If it wanted to do anything it would have tried whilst it was stood in the pit, it’s fine” Replied Rainbow Dash reassuringly “And besides, you’ve got me here if it tried anything!” Fluttershy took some comfort in this, there was a knock at the door and Fluttershy, eager to get away, hurried to the door and opened it to reveal Twilight and the others standing in the rain outside
“How’s the unicorn?” Asked Twilight as she walked inside
“He hasn’t woke up yet... but the wound is from the impact we think...” Replied Fluttershy now relaxing as the others entered behind Twilight, Rarity giving Applejack a dirty look when she forgot to wipe her hooves on the mat to which Twilight shot them both an angry look making them stop almost instantly.
“Stop arguing” Stated Twilight “Let’s go and see this Unicorn” the others agreed and they turned to the stairs.
During the others entry Rainbow was sat puzzling over the aura surrounding the unicorns horn, it was an orange colour and was still rapidly fading. She was growing impatient of the others and paced around the unicorn and periodically looked out of the window into the rain which had appeared so mysteriously.
The rain... she thought about how it could be possible to summon rain without a Pegasus to move the clouds and begin the rain after all Discord did it with chocolate rain and candy floss clouds but that was different, he was a spirit and this was a pony, she glanced back to the unicorn only to see the aura had now vanished and she glanced back out the window, the rain had also stopped.
