BridgeWorld

[994AB Day 257]
She stood up and looked about her, blinking in the darkness, as her vision soon adjusted. Her ears alerted her of the approach of creatures at one end of the alley.

"Who's there!?" a masculine voice loudly demanded, as an intense light suddenly lit up that end.

Immediately, she turned and ran.

As she approached the other end of the alley, however, she spotted some creatures up ahead. And then something caught her eye about what she was seeing:

There were four vaguely equine shaped figures. From what she could see, there were three (perhaps) adults and a much smaller (probably) juvenile. But one of the adult figures stood apart from and was facing the other three. This one had a horn that was glowing a light blue and between it and the other three, there was what appeared to be a crossbow, also surrounded by a deep blue glow.

The other two adults seemed to be poised as if they were being accosted by the lone adult, with the juvenile cowering behind one of the other two adults. These three had clothing, and it looked as though their garments were well made, while the slate-gray unicorn with the crossbow had no clothing at all other than a quarrel containing several bolts for the crossbow.
That's when she noticed there was a bolt suspended in the air, the tip of the bolt about to strike one of the clothed adults, despite what it looked like the other clothed adult was trying to shield the one that would be hit by the b—

Wait! she suddenly realized, That arrow is still moving!

Immediately, she rushed forward and reached out to grab the bolt from the air.

At that moment, the creatures suddenly came to life, reacting to the one who had fired the cross bolt.

"—ive me those pearls!" the unicorn was shouting.

"—n't shoot!" one of the adults was shouting.

"—omas!" the other screamed.

"Dad! Mom!" the juvenile yelled.

Then they all reacted to her.

The four equines all screamed in shock. And, based on what the juvenile shouted, she suspected those three were a family.

"Wha—who the bronk are you!?" the unicorn angrily demanded. She saw that the crossbow was cocking itself and a new bolt was floating up from the pouch he wore, also now surrounded by a blue glow.

Angrily, she let go of the bolt she had caught and rushed forward, slamming both her paws into the base of the unicorn's throat. Instantly, the creature went flying back through the air, trailed by the crossbow and bolt, only to crash into cluster of trash bins in the alley, whereupon the glow of the unicorn's horn vanished, and the crossbow and bolt clattered to the ground beside the creature, also without the glow they previously had. At the same time, the bolt she had dropped finally clattered to the ground in front of the other two adult creatures.

"Y-you saved us!" one of the creatures shouted at her.

"What's going on out there!?" the voices from the other end of the alley demanded.

She smiled at the three.

"Sorry about your troubles, but I think I have to be going," she apologized to them before running off.

As she ran out of the alley, she instantly saw that life in the city appeared to freeze again for her. There were more of the strange-looking equines populating the street: unicorns, pegasi, and somewhat more-normal horses. But they were still, in her vision, many in the process of taking a step, the pegasi all paused in midair hovering over the street, an ordinary horse-thing performing a juggling routine before what looked to be another family, but the balls were likewise frozen in the air. Still, she kept running, hoping she could get away from what she assumed were some sort of guards coming to arrest her for some reason….

"Wh-where did she go?" Tom Mane exclaimed, looking around.

"Everypony stay where you are!" one of two city guards shouted as they came out of the alley and skidded to a halt before the scene.

"What happened here!?" the guard demanded.

"That unicorn was trying to rob us!" Tom Mane told him, pointing at the comatose figure laying among the disrupted garbage bins. "He had just shot at my wife when some bipedal creature just suddenly teleported in and grabbed the bolt out of the air and kept it from hitting her. Then the creature knocked him out and teleported away. But I've never seen a teleport like that before."

"What sort of creature was it?" the lead guard asked, taking out a notepad and pencil to take their statement.

"Well, it was bipedal, as I mentioned before," he explained. "Looked to be a blend of Diamond Dog and some sort of feline. Female, I think, there wasn't much time to see it—uh—her? Tall, perhaps as tall as Celestia, but very thin, although she had quite a large barrel of her chest. Thin waist, long thin, but well-defined muscular limbs, and a long tail. She was furred, tawny with small black spots, but with a white throat, belly, and inner thighs. She did have distinctive teardrop black markings from the inside corners of her eyes down around her muzzle…."