Evil Rising

The five untouched ponies looked on in horror at their new surroundings. Ponies, at least, if they still were ponies, began to surround them from all sides. Delta began breathing heavily uncontrollably, feeling overwhelmed by this unknown force he could feel surrounding him.

"....What do we do?"

Dreamweaver focused his energy and closed his eyes in focus, surrounding them with a small blue bubble shield that would allow them to all teleport. In a bright flash, they all found themselves in a field in the outskirts of Fillydelphia. "What... the hell.... just happened?" Silver Cloud gasped as he lay on the ground. "Those ponies... something is very wrong here..." Iron panted as she also struggled to get up. Delta was quiet, not able to think straight. Dreamweaver sighed in hopelessness. "I feel like I remember something like this happening before, but not to this extent..."

"What do you mean?" Crooked questioned, looking over at him in confusion.

"Do any of you remember a few months back when there was that big storm and the whole sky was black? There was green lightning?" Dream continued.

"Yeah..." Iron replied, still shaking. "I was in Canterlot a few days before, I remember seeing something in the news about Chrysalis returning."

Dream explained, "I was in Canterlot at the time, and I saw Chrysalis from inside the hotel. There was a lone changeling fighting her, and then another mare. I wasn't even sure it was even her at first..."

"Why's that?" Delta replied, finally coming into the conversation.

"Because she looked.... awful. As if she was rotting. She looked less like a pony and more like a monster. It looked like the face of... pure evil. I saw that same face, that same expression of bloodlust again in Fillydelphia just now. Whatever it is, I feel like its the same cause as what happened several months ago."

"So do you know anything about what's going on?" Iron asked.

"Not a clue... what we do know is that that black muck in the food somehow caused it, so I hate to say this, but we may be going hungry for a while." Dreamweaver said gravely.

Delta lowered his head slightly, unable to believe it was all really happening. It felt more like a nightmare than reality. "What happens now?" He thought to himself. "How many thousands of ponies have become... whatever they are... within only the past few minutes? How can there be any hope? Today... today is Doomsday. This is a nightmare..... I have to wake up." He then promptly smacked his own jaw with his hoof as hard as he possibly could, immediately reeling back in pain with a sharp yelp.

"Brother, what are you doing?!" Iron shouted in surprise, helping him up.

"I fell asleep on the bus, remember?! This is a dream, and I have to wake up! Don't try to stop me! I'm still asleep.... I'm still asleep..... I'm...." Breaking down into tears, Delta continued hitting his face repeatedly with his hoof, hoping that the shock would wake him. His cheekbone felt completely sore before he finally stopped, collapsing in self-defeat on the cold ground. Iron Heart then rolled him over on his back and got on top of him, hugging him as tightly as she could. He looked up at her and blushed a little at the situation; Iron nuzzled her brother comfortingly.

"I'm sorry brother, but this isn't a dream. This is very real. I don't know what will happen, but I do know that we will make it through this a long as we stay together. All of us. We'll survive, trust me. We'll find a way."

Delta hugged his sister back and both of them stood up facing the others. "All right," Silver spoke up, "is there anywhere we can go for safety?"

Delta looked to a point on the horizon. "Canterlot. That's our best option."

"Canterlot!?" the others said in disbelief. "Delta, do you have any idea how incredibly far away that is?" Dream exclaimed.

"Yeah, but you have magic, you can just teleport us there." Delta replied bluntly.

"My magic isn't THAT powerful, I can only teleport a certain distance, and I become tired immediately afterwards. It'll be about 24 hours before I can even teleport the distance we just did again."

"How far away was that?"

"About five miles. Canterlot is fifty miles away. How about another plan, genius?"

"We'll just have to walk while you regain strength after each time you teleport, simple as that. That should be fine, right?"

"Fine, but you're all walking at my pace when I'm tired, I'm not getting left behind to be eaten or infected by those things. If you leave me to die, I'll haunt you forever."

They all had a laugh before they began walking as a group through the seemingly empty valley towards Canterlot, where they would be well-protected against the mysterious new evil.

"No, seriously. I will."

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Princess Celestia looked somberly out the window of her majestic fortress of Canterlot, her once beautiful magenta eyes now tired and weak, with a slight hue of dark grey. "Sister," she called out to Luna in a raspy voice.

"Yes, sister?" Luna responded as she arrived by her side with concern in her voice.

Celestia spoke as a single tear fell from her eye. "Even my magic cannot resist him forever.... he will eventually overcome me.... and all I am capable of doing is waiting for it to finally happen. When the time comes, my dearest sister, I do not want you to hesitate to do everything you can to end my life."

"Understood."