Fall of Day

[Time: 11:27am, Location: Fillydelphia]

TUESDAY

The day was like any other. The city roared with car horns and ponies talking. Everyone having fun, enjoying the day. There’s no doubt that downtown was the same as any other day. Walking down the side walk among the large crowd of ponies, was a white mare. The way she walked had many stallions stop and stare when she walked by. Her curly purple mane, her luscious curves, her crystal blue eyes, there’s no doubt that she just oozes confidence everywhere she went.

This mare, sporting a light blue blouse with a purple skirt, was Rarity. Rarity was one of Equestria’s biggest fashionistas, but since the economy fell out and the crime rate rose, there hasn’t really been a huge market for anything clothes related in years. But she does still make outfits in her spare time.

“Ugh Goodness Gracious,” she said sitting on a bench near the fountain. “I really forgot how exhausting shopping could be.”

She fanned her face as little beads of sweat fell down her face. She let out a sigh, finally relaxing. Rarity has been out since around 7, but to her she felt like she had been out since sunrise. She closed her eyes, letting the sun’s warmth become a blanket, slowly nodding off.

Then her phone rang. The loud ringtone startled her awake, almost so that she almost fell off the bench. Clutching her heart and trying her best to regain the large amount of oxygen she lost, she reached for her phone with a look of anger slowly growing on her face getting ready to give whoever was calling her a piece of her mind. Looking at the ID it was Pinkie Pie calling.

“Hey Rarity! Whatcha doin’?” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“Well I was enjoying a nice nap until you called.” Rarity replied with some passive aggression to her tone. But knowing Pinkie, she wouldn’t get the slightest hint of anything in anyone’s voice even if she tried.

“Oh that sounds fun! I haven’t had a nap in like FOREVER! Actually I don’t think I’ve slept in the past few days only because I’ve been out going places and also helping some ponies in the region trying to...” Rarity stopped paying attention at this point.

She face palmed her blood slowly starting to boil. Once Pinkie starts rambling, it would take more than the kitchen sink to make her stop.

“PINKIE PIE!” Rarity finally yelled. But as fast as she lost her temper, she quickly regretted it looking around to see some ponies staring at her with confused looks. A blush formed on her face as she sunk down a bit on the bench in embarrassment. “W-What did you call for dear?” She said letting out a sigh to calm herself, a little shake in her voice.

“Oh that’s right! We’re meeting at the cafe in a few minutes, you coming?” Rarity mentally face palmed. With all the shopping and walking around she’d done, she completely forgot about the meet up.

“Oh yes, I nearly forgot about that. I’ll be there in about...five minutes,” Rarity said.

“Okie dokie! I’ll let the others know. See you then!” Pinkie hung up with a cheerful goodbye. Rarity putting her phone away, sighed. Even though it had been a couple weeks since they last saw each other, it would be great to see them again. She smiled and started heading towards the cafe.

[Time: 11:52am, Location: Fillydelphia Train station]

“Now arriving at Fillydelphia!” The conductor yelled over the intercom as the train came to a stop.

As the doors opened, crowds of ponies going on and off, meeting friends, family, or waiting around. But out of the sea of ponies at the train station, one particular pony stood out. From the train ride to now, he’s been getting a lot of stares from ponies. Well maybe because this pony wasn’t a pony...it was a human. He was tall, possibly past 6 feet, dreaded Brown hair with some slight muscle tone to him. He walked towards the gate where there was a pretty long line forming.

“Who’s that?” a pony next to him whispered to her friend some fear shown in her eyes.

“That’s the first and only human in Equestria,” her friend responded, “nobody knows his name, because he hasn’t been in the public for years. In fact a lot of ponies even forgot he existed at one point.”

They both stared at him, a little bit of fear in their gaze. Noticing their stares, the human turned his head to meet their eyes. His tired gaze, the lack of care in his brown eyes, he looked unpredictable. The longer they looked in his eyes, the more and more fear they started to gain.

“Is there a problem?” He finally said, his deep almost raspy voice cutting through the long silence.

The mares snapped out of their stares and shook their heads, as they started to shrink back in their rising fear. Without a word, he scoffed, turned and walked forward. As he walked, the two mares behind him still looked at him with fearful eyes as he approached the front.

“ID?” the gate worker said. He handed the worker his ID without a word. “Hmm, Myles huh?” The worker said no looking up. “You that human ain’t ya?”

“Yeah, why is that important?” Myles asked.

“It’s not,” The worker said handing his ID back, “just that ain’t no one seen you in years.”

“Your point is?” Myles asked losing some patience, he began to walk past the old stallion worker. Then the worker grabbed his arm before he could walk through.

“Just make sure you don’t cause no trouble here, I won’t hesitate to call the guard to take you down,” He whispered harshly in his ear.

Myles snatched his arm away from the old worker, still keeping his tired look and walked away. It wasn’t the first time he’s been greeted like this from other ponies. Myles has lived in Equestria since he was fourteen, and was taken in by Princess Celestia. Once he lived in the castle for a couple years, he joined the royal guard. It was a questionable move, but one that many seemed to tolerate. But other than appearing at events, Myles never really went in public that much. He did face the disapproving stares, and occasional gossip from the nobles; but he didn’t seem to mind. Living with the Princesses will do that.

Other than Canterlot he lived in two cities his whole life; Appleloosa, and Seaddle. He doesn’t like to talk about his experiences, since they were all the same. The human moves in, everypony is scared of him, some try to pick a fight. He eventually moves out without a word. Some sympathized for Myles, and would try to help him, but he would never accept it. After leaving Canterlot, he didn’t care about what other ponies thought of him, but they did always wonder why he would leave as suddenly as he appeared.

Myles stood in front of the station looking at his phone with his earbuds in. He looked around, not wondering where to go.

“Well this is just great, they didn't even tell me where the building is,” he thought to himself. Just as he finished his thought, his stomach growled. “Sheesh when was the last time I ate? Wonder if there’s any food places around here?” He thought walking away, “Well I won't find out by standing around here.”

[Time: 12:20pm, Location: Fillydelphia- Starswirl Cafe]

“THERE SHE IS!” Pinkie yelled from the table pointing at Rarity, who had just walked through the door. Rarity waved and headed to the table. There sat her friends Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and of course Pinkie Pie; all smiling and waving.

“Hey girls, you cannot believe the day I’ve had,” Rarity said sitting down.

“Please can’t be any worse than you other days,” Applejack said with a smirk. She was wearing a flannel shirt with jeans, and her signature hat. “Unless y’all encountered a bank robbery on the way here, with all that sweat,” Her comment making the girls laugh. Rarity scowled at AJ, making her take a sip of her drink nervously.

“Well I assure you Applejack, that it is VERY hot out today. I couldn’t find shade for even a second,” Rarity said fanning herself.

“I wonder why it’s been so hot lately? Maybe theres some unexpected weather patterns popping up,” Twilight wondered, sporting a light lavender long sleeve shirt.

“Ooooh no, there’s nothing wrong with the weather,” Rainbow spoke up, with her feet on the table. “If there was anything surprising with the weather, I would know about it,” she said confidently sipping the water in front of her, “Nothing gets past me.”

“Just like how you let Cloud Chaser get past you in that race?” Applejack’s comment made Rainbow spit out her drink, causing the table to erupt in laughter. Dash almost falling out her chair, punched Applejack in the shoulder.

“It was one race AJ!” Dash said with a small blush on her face, “She cheated anyway, I should’ve won.”

“Whatever you say Dash, you could’ve won that race against me if ya crotch wasn’t iching,” another eruption of laughter from the table, caused Rainbow to almost sink completely under the table in embarrassment.

“YOU KNOW AS WELL AS ME THAT YOU PUT ITCHING POWDER IN MY SHORTS!!!” she shouted as the laughter started to die down.

“Anyway, what you all have planned to tomorrow?” Applejack said wiping a tear from her face.

“W-Well I’m probably just going to stay inside tomorrow,” Fluttershy said, taking a small bite from her pastry.

“Eh just more training,” Dash sighed stretching her arms, "gotta stay in shape for the next race soon."

“I’m going to a party!” Pinkie Pie enthusiastically said almost knocking over her chair.

“What about you Rarity?” Twilight turned to her.

“Well-” Before Rarity could finish, an explosion rocked the building. Almost instantly, ponies start fleeing the area. “What the hell was that?” Dash yells looking out the window. Looking at each other, the girls zip from the table and head outside. Once they were outside, what they saw in the distance made their hearts sink. A giant cloud of smoke from a giant raging fire of a building, and a sea of ponies rushing the opposite direction. Among the smoke and fire, a figure emerged from it. An earth pony stallion with torn and burnt cloth and a mask, in his hand...two long and jagged knifes.

“Why run ponies?” The stallion said with the most wicked laugh, “The fun’s just getting started!”

“Who the hell is that?” Applejack screamed through the continuous roar of screams from other ponies.

“Hollow Shade,” Twilight said, “He’s one of the biggest low life criminals in Equestria.” Twilight’s description gave a massive chill over them.

“Look!” Rainbow yelled, snapping the girls out of their frozen trance. They all moved their heads to where she was pointing. “There are injured ponies in there!” The sight they saw would make any individual pony sick to their stomachs. Ponies stuck under walls, one pony impaled, it looked like something out of a horror movie. Horrified the girls didn’t know what to do. They were just frozen.

“Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie!” Rarity yelled, getting their attention from the horrifying sight. “Help get the injured ponies somewhere safe! Me, Rainbow, and Applejack will try to subdue Hollow Shade.”

They glanced at each other wordlessly. Rarity still focused on Hollow, could feel their uncertainty.

“If we don’t move now, more innocent ponies will possibly be killed. We have to move now!” She said. Taking another glance at each other, the girls nodded and sprung into action.

[MEANWHILE]

“I guess Fillydelphia does have the best donuts,” Myles said walking out of a bakery, “I need to find a place to stay before it gets too dark,” he thought, “The food here may be good, but I need to focus on why I’m here. But this is definitely a place to visit when I get the chance.”

He walked down the sidewalk eating the delicious donut he bought, but it wasn’t met with a few stares. He didn’t care about the ponies staring at him, hell it was a surprise to everyone if they seen him back out in public.

“Hey!” A male voice called out. “Hey you!” Thinking it was someone trying to get their friends attention, Myles kept walking. Then someone grabbed his shoulder. “Hey human!” Myles was startled by this.

“What do you want?” he said shaking the pony's hand off his shoulder.

“Wow, it really is you! The first human in Equestria in person!” This took Myles off guard, he was never met with a genuine smile from anypony since he lived in he lived in Appleloosa. Though he never liked how the ponies in that town smiled seemingly 24/7.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Myles said with a tone of annoyance, "if that's all you wanted to say, move. I'm not giving autographs." His statement catching the pony off guard, but not deterring his persistence to bombard the human with questions. They were walking for only a minute, Myles ignoring the ponies questions. He stopped paying attention to him after his first three questions, and started to zone out; aimlessly weaving throughout the crowded sidewalk with nowhere to go. Myles stopped and sighed, knowing he wasn't going to shake the enthusiastic pony by just ignoring him.

“Hey weren’t you apart of Celestia’s guard?” The pony asked, the question cutting through Myles’ thoughts causing his stomach to drop. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Myles said his back still turned to the stallion.

“Come on you were the Princess’s personal guard and then out of nowhere you just disappear, what happened?” Myles felt his frustration rise at the question, but he tried his best to not explode at the pony.

“I don’t want to talk about it, maybe another time” he said calmly starting to walk away. Just as he was walking away, the stallion grabbed his arm to get Myles to stop. “Sir there had to be a reason to wh-” In almost a flash, Myles shook his arm away and pinned the pony against the wall. Anger shined in his eyes.

“I SAID I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!” He shouted, causing the stallion to shrink in fear. But as this was going on, he didn’t notice that everyone around him was running away. Once his anger calmed a bit, he finally noticed the situation. Letting go of the terrified stallion, he started heading towards what they were running from. Confusion and curiosity running through his mind.

He could tell he was getting close as he began to see smoke fill the sky. And not only that he began hearing sounds of gun fire. With everypony running away, he couldn’t get a good view of what was going on.

Myles jumps on a table near a now abandoned café, to assess the current situation. And in the distance there indeed was a fight going on.

“NOW RD!” Applejack called. Rainbow Dash tried to shock Hollow with lightning, but he was quick enough to dodge the attack. “Shit! How is he that fast?” Rainbow said to herself.

In an instant, Hollow knocked AJ to the floor. Before she could comprehend what happened, she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. Applejack grimes in agony, holding her shoulder.

“Applejack!” Rarity screamed. And as she did that, Hollow zipped behind her, and sliced her back. Rarity screamed in pain falling face first.

"Rare...I can't move!" Applejack yelled, seemingly frozen on the ground in the same position. Hearing this, Rarity had a look of surprise and confusion. And to her horror she found that she as well could not move.

"Neither can I!" She yelled back, also struggling to stand to her feet. Hearing all of this from a far, a look of nervousness starts to form on Myles' face, as he starts to feel every muscle in his body start to tense up seemingly locking him into place.

“What the fuck?” Myles thought to himself in shock, “If he keeps this up then more ponies are definitely going to die.” He looks around to see the two mares still on the ground, and Rainbow zipping around in the air, still trying to shoot at him. “Soon she’s gonna run out of bullets, and then he'll have a perfect window to strike,” He wanted to move, but his conscious prevented him to do so. “I can't just leave then to deal with this...but what can I do? I don’t have magic, wings, or a fucking gun,” He thought. Myles knew that he couldn’t do anything, with his mind was telling him to run away to safety with everypony else. But even with his brain screaming at him to run, he jumps off the table and sprints towards the fight.

Stopping in front of the mayhem, Myles starts to go over his possible options. “I can’t stand here or I’ll either become his next victim...or hit in the crossfire. She’s firing at a wild rate, I could get hit by a stray,” While mulling over his options, Myles spots the debris from the explosion and manages make his way there without being seen, “I could use a steel rod to try to hold him off until she gets a clear shot, or I could use this chair to try to knock him out.” Debating on what situations could be possible for stopping him, a light bulb went off in his head.

“Hahaha wow for a pegasus you are a very shit shot,” Hollow says still effortlessly dodging the shots.

“NGH SHUT UP!” Rainbow shouts still firing off rounds and missing every shot. Then the bullets stop raining. “Huh?” Rainbow confused continued to try to fire off a shot, no luck.

“Aww looks like you’re out of ammo there sweetie,” Hollow said, “Look that was fun and all, but you’re making me bored with all this running around, so let’s hurry this up and-OW!” Hollow grabbed his head and looked around. There on the ground in front of him was a rock. “Who the hell threw a rock at me?!”

“Over here bitch!” Myles yelled seemingly answering the psycho’s question. Rainbow and Hollow looked over confused.

“Who the hell are you?” Hollow yelled.

“Don’t worry about it!” Myles replied, juggling a second rock in his hand.

“Look dude, I don’t know what you’re doing but I’m in the middle of a-OW!” Hollow was cut off when Myles hit him again with another rock. “You’re starting to get on my nerves kid.” Hollow said gritting his teeth, his blood starting to boil.

“Don’t care!” Myles said. He glanced up at Rainbow Dash, who was still confused on the event unfolding in front of her.

“Kid you are interrupting a fun game I was playing, and now its ruined becau-OW! STOP THROWING ROCKS!!” Hollow shouted.

“Do something about it!” Myles taunted. Hollows eye turned red, he leaped in front of Myles in a blink of an eye. It looked like he didn’t even take a step, and he was already in Myles’ face. Then in one lightning quick motion, Hollow raised swiped his knife at Myles, and missed.

“What the-”, Hollow looked confused and shocked, looking around to see where Myles could've went.

“Yo! Over here a slowpoke!” Myles called out behind him. Did he just dodge the attack? There was no way, we saw how quick Hollow moves against gunfire and melee combat.

“UGH THAT’S IT KID!” He screamed slashing his knife at Myles once again...another miss, “HOW THE HELL?”

“Damn for a killer who could move that fast, you’re pretty damn slow!” Myles yelled at him again. He was...at his left? How was he doing this?

“NGH I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!” Hollow screamed and lunged to attack. Hollow and Myles looked like they were moving at light speed. Hollow attacking every millisecond, and Myles still somehow dodging them.

“How is doing that?” Applejack asked still on the ground holding her shoulder, "It's like he's just as fast as Hollow himself." Rainbow was stunned at this. She stood there staring at the unbelievable sight.

“He’s not that fast,” Rainbow said.

“What?” Applejack asked.

“It’s not that he’s as fast as him, he’s timing his attacks perfectly. Hollow has to be attacking every millisecond, with every time he swings, he’s moving his body to avoid the attack. So to us he’s moving at light speed, but in reality he’s moving at normal speed,” Rainbow Dash explained. Rarity and Applejack looked mesmerized. Somepony with these reflexes should be a unicorn or a pegasus, but seeing a creature like him making someone as fast and quick as Rainbow Dash seem slow, is unbelievable.

“HOW. ARE. YOU. STILL. ALIVE!” Hollow yelled with every swing, still trying to land a hit on Myles.

“Your attacks are reckless, it makes it easy to predict,” Myles said not losing his focus on the attacking villan.

“UGH THAT’S IT!!” Hollow screamed. He jumped once again for an attack, and again Myles avoided his attack, Hollow tossed one of his knives back, slicing Myles’ cheek. Myles falls to his knees holding his face. The girls gasp in shock. Myles tries to get back up, but finds that he can’t move.

“What the hell? Why can’t I move,” Myles thought as he falls to his face. He continuously tries to move to no avail , as Hollow picks up his discarded weapon and walks towards him.

“Well...you definitely were faster than I expected, I’m...impressed...really,” Hollow said through pants. “But now that I got you right here.” Hollow walks up to Myles licking the blood off his knife. “I think it’s time we stop this little game.” Hollow kicks Myles on his back, his action getting a groan of agony from the fallen human. As Myles looks up at , his eyes still red with anger. “It’s a shame too, you had to die on such a beautiful day.” He says while lifting his knife for one final attack, “Say goodbye kid.” He swings the knife down, getting ready to plunge the sharp and jagged weapon into Myles' chest. But just before the tip manages to graze him, Myles with a painful breath shouts one word.

"NOW!!”

A giant flash of lightning blinds the area, obscuring the view from everyone. As the light dies down, Myles opens his eyes to see Hollow's smoking body starting to falling on top of him. Myles groans in pain as the burnt body falls on his chest. Slowly he starts to regain control of his muscles, and starts to lift Hollow off of his chest. Rarity and Applejack rush over to Myles to help him up. Myles stands to his feet, dusting himself off from the ground. His arms and legs are screaming in pain, but he manages to set aside the pain for the moment to stay on his feet.

“My goodness sir, are you okay?” Rarity asked in shock.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Myles said wiping his arm.

"How did you know Rainbow would be there?" Rarity asked, helping him dust himself off.

"I didn't," he started, "I just gave her a look and hoped she understood." The look they shared from earlier. When he glanced at Rainbow while he was talking to Hollow, it was a way of him saying 'be ready for the signal'. And while Myles had Hollow distracted, Rainbow managed to grab the cloud she used earlier to shock him And made sure to stand by, out of sight, for Myles' word.

“Well, thems was some reflexes you have mister,” Applejack said sweeping a piece of glass off his shoulder.

“It was nothing really,” Myles said.

“Nothing? Are you kidding me, that was SO COOL!” Rainbow said quickly flying up to him, “The way you kept dodging those attacks, it was so badass! Where’d you learn those moves?”

“Hol’ on there RD,” Applejack said pulling Rainbow away from him by her tail, “Give em some space.”

“But I just have to know," Rarity started taking a step towards Myles, "Why did you put yourself in danger like that?” she asked. Myles stood there in thought, trying to rack his brain for an answer.

“Well, I didn’t really think...I just went for it,” he shrugged, “I saw your pegasus friend there being reckless. So I looked at my surroundings and just thought of a plan on the spot,” Myles explained wiping his brow slightly.

"HEY!" Rainbow shouted, puffing out her cheeks in embarrassment. Her outburst getting a little giggle out of Rarity and Applejack.

“Well you got a good brain on ya partner. That was impressive what ya did there,” Applejack said putting her hand on his shoulder, “Thanks for helping us out back there.”

Myles scoffed and rolled his eyes at the compliment , “Like I said, I was nothing.” Myles looked back to the group to see Rarity starring at him. She looked like she was examining him, the stare was starting to make him uncomfortable.

“Oh Darling look at your cheek!” Rarity exclaimed. On his right cheek was a gash right under his eye from here Hollow had hit him. It was bleeding quite a bit, covering his entire right cheek in blood.

“It’ll be fi-”

“No, we can’t have that!” Rarity cutting him off, “You will come with us at once to get this sorted out.”

“I’m fine, I don't need your help!” Myles shouted, turning to try to walk away. But the moment he tried to take his first step, he immediately doubled over in pain, his legs shaking as they scream pain. Applejack and Rarity rush over before he tried to take another step.

“Woah there partner! You’re in no shape to go anywhere right now,” Applejack said taking his right arm over her shoulder.

“Applejack is right, you’re not going anywhere until we help you heal,” Rarity added taking his left arm over her shoulder

"I said I'm-"

"No butts darling." She said cutting him off once again, “Is there any chance you have a place to stay tonight?”

“No,” Myles said gritting his teeth, trying his hardest to stay on his feet.

“Then it’s settled!” Rarity said a twinkle in her eye, “You’ll be staying with us while you heal.”

“What?! I didn't agree to-,”

“Nonsense! It’s the least we can do after helping us out today,” Rarity said cutting him off yet again.

Myles scowled in annoyance, knowing she wasn't going to stop being persistent in her offer. With a huff in defeat he had no choice but to take her offer, “fine.”

Rarity smiled as they slowly started walking, “Rainbow Dash, could you call the others and tell them to meet us at the ship?” She asked.

“Sure thing Rare,” Rainbow said as she flies above them.

“Did she just say a ship?” Myles thought to himself. Every step he took was agony, but it was a good thing Rarity and Applejack were there for support. As much as he hated having people help him, this was something that Myles hadn’t experienced since his time in Appleloosa. Ponies who were actually willing to help him out without any fear. He didn’t pay attention to the three mares talking around him, he was too overwhelmed with pain and exhaustion. But the one thing he could feel, was a sliver of gratefulness, and a small unnoticeable smile creeped onto his face. Letting out a small chuckle he knew that it didn't matter what he said, they were going to be so annoyingly persistent in helping him. And even though it was something he hated, he had no choice but to come to terms with it.