EVERFREE: A Post-Skaian Story

Celestia stood at the balcony that led into her room, tired from a long day of work. She had elected to stay up a little late in order to enjoy Luna's weaving of the night sky, as a little treat for herself. She stood vigil over the landscape before her, sipping idly at her cup of white lotus tea, watching the skyline with a simple joie de vivre.
Then, there over the Everfree forest, a bright green portal appeared above the Everfree, and Celestia witnessed unwarranted disaster unfold before her eyes. First, it unleashed an object that careened into the earth, landing with a loud explosion, as if it had been travelling at speeds not seen outside of Rainbow Dash's stuntwork.

By this point, Celestia had moved to her telescope to get a better look at the situation.
Next, four objects flew out from the portal, hovering in an idle circle Celestia's fur prickled as she observed their forms. Grotesque statues that were combinations of flesh and metals, pulsating as they hovered a ways above the Everfree. They scattered off in four perpendicular directions, leaving trails of putrid smoke in their wake.

And finally, monsters. Monsters of all shapes and sizes burst out from the gate, some not quite making it in time and being visibly bisected by the portal's departure, where they burst like piñatas and dropped some strange looking objects she couldn't quite make out in the dark of the night. After a minute or so, they emerged from the woods in four directions, moving along the paths that the strange bio-mechanical objects left behind. Unfortunately, this meant that a wave of monsters was dead set upon Ponyville, and it wouldn't be long until they struck. She took a deep breath, and then moved with haste into the castle.

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It wasn't long until the entire population of Ponyville was roused from their sleep. They were initially shaken awake by the explosion from the Everfree, followed by the strange blood-red creatures that emerged from the woods and began to cut a swathe of havoc as they made their way into town. Initially, it was only little imps that could only more or less get into dangerous mischief, but soon, massive alien ogres and basilisks began to wreck property with the intent to harm. Ponies scrambled to avoid being hurt, shrieks and croes of fear ringing across town.

The Elements of Harmony were barely able to handle a bugbear together, and despite their relatively strong power when combined, they were not making a dent in the invasion. Too many small fries, backed up by dangerously big fries, and it resulted in the group being split up.

Fluttershy was alone in the middle of a destroyed thoroughfare, fleeing for her life. She seemed to at least the ability to hold sway over the imps the same way she could talk to animals, but that barely mattered when she had been trying to avoid being crushed by a cyclops brandishing a tree. She shrieked, and tried to get away, hiding behind a house that the giant clumsily gripped its hands around to try and find her. She landed onto her hooves with a running start and scurried across the street, only for the cyclops to throw the tree in her path. She stumbled to a stop, and turned to see the beastly monster staring her down with its massive eye.

"FLUTTERSHY! GET DOWN!"
Without question, she followed the command ducking as far down as her body would allow, and suddenly a torrent of arrows flew sailing over her and into the monster, a few piercing its eye, to which it screamed in sudden rage and agony. A bottle, stuffed with cloth and lit on fire, arced above the ogre's face, and one last arrow hit its mark and set the other arrows aflame as it exploded upon the monster, engulfing it in fire, where it exploded into large chunks of strange material objects.

"Sick shot CD!" A new voice cried out.
A set of hooves jumped over the tree and landed by her with heavy thuds. She turned to thank her savior, whoever this marksmare was, only to find separate pairs of legs, standing a bit tall in front of her. Once crouched down, startling her somewhat, and her fear only grew stronger when she saw this creature covered in blood, staring directly at her with ice-blue eyes.
"Fluttershy, are you hurt?" the creature asked.
"N-n-n-no, I'm okay."
"Cool. We'll take care of the big fuckers, you should regroup with your friends at-"
She stopped and looked around, trying to find where the nearest landmark would be.
"I guess where the Library used to stand. Commune with any imps you find along the way, they'll help you fight back the big shits. Okay?"
"O-okay.." she responded, confused. Fluttershy's eyes flicked to the other creature, and noted that both of them looked eerily similar. Like twins, or something. The other one was lighting up another bottle of that potently flammable liquid. Then she realized something.
"W-wait. How do you know my name..?"
"Ask later. We got shit to kill. I'm sorry." The first one replied, and scurried off, carrying a weirdly complex archer's bow with her as she ran deeper into the town. Fluttershy shuddered, and got moving.

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"A portal?!" Luna shrieked.
"Above the Everfree." Celestia replied, donning her armor. "Things flew out of it."
Night court had been cancelled swiftly when she heard the news, and guardsponies were already gearing up for a major battle. Celestia held her breath and gave a silent prayer as she, her sister, and the available barrack's worth of pegasi soldiers took flight into the night towards Ponyville.
"What things, sister?" Luna shouted above the wind.
"I'm not sure. And I believe discretion may be in order, Luna. If it was what I fear it was.. A Skaia gate."
"Say it not so! Do not tell me that the end of days hath reached our world!"

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Rarity was trying desperately to save her sister from the disaster. She had managed to find Sweetie Belle, along with some of her more valuable fabrics, and stuffed the latter into a random saddlebag. She didn't have much time though, as massive claws burst from the windows and reached for Sweetie Belle. In a very unladylike gesture, Rarity swooped in and bit the claw as hard as she could, making the offending monster scream outside.

She scrambled out of the shop with Sweetie Belle, who screamed in fear when she saw a giant, salamander-looking creature crawling over the exterior walls, its many tongues flitting across the panelling of the boutique. She fired little sparks of magic at it, trying hard to hurt it from a distance, but her lack of magical control and a clear weak point meant she had power, but no precision.

"GO FOR THE EYES, KID!" A voice shouted at Sweetie Belle. She momentarily paused to see her who messenger was, which unfortunately allowed another basilisk enough time to sneak up on the unicorns from behind. Sweetie Belle yelped, and blasted the thing in the eyes with a column of magical energy. It flailed and scurried away, and Rarity turned to face the one that was still on her shop. A two-legged thing jumped and scrambled up the wall of the Boutique and onto the basilisk. She cracked a large wine bottle against its head, stunning the thing, with glass digging into its red skin. The stranger then grabbed the shard of glass, and shoved it in the throat of the beast. It wriggled and writhed as it found itself suddenly unable to breathe.
The stranger flipped off somersaulted from the creature, onto the ground, and then threw a lit bottle of alcohol at it, the creature catching bright fire. The monster shrieked and hissed, and threw itself off the building in an attempt to escape, only for the fire to consume it.

Rarity spun in rage at the stranger, and shrieked, "You ruffian! You nearly burned down my shop!! Who do you think you are, throwing bottled flame around like that you, you.." She trailed off, and observed the cyan ichor on the stranger's bare skin. "Are you bleeding?" She asked.
"Hmm?" The stranger looked at the blood stains on her face and outfit. "Oh, yeah, forgot about that. Don't worry about me dear. Go find your-"
"Oh, no, if you're the one that saved our lives, the least I can do is repay the favor. Here-" She magically wrapped some of the fabrics she had collected and wrapped them about the body of this person.
"It's hardly sanitary, but until you can see a proper medical professional about it, the least I can do is staunch the flow, less you pass out while trying to help us."
"Oh, dope! Thanks, dear. If you see any more ponies, tell them that the uh.. Elements? Are gathering at the ex-Library. Where the big tree used to be, whatever the hell you call it."
"Oh! Splendid, thank you, Miss..?"
"Delta Carol. Let's hope this isn't the last time we meet, yeah? Later!" She waved goodbye with her strange hoof, and ran down on the street on her weird legs.

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The rest of the Elements found themselves saved serendipitously by those strange two creatures, and soon, thanks to their regrouping and planning, they had established a safe zone from the monsters. Ponies from across town kept showing up in the area, explaining that the 'weird tall thing' saved them and told them to meet at the place.
Celestia nearly careened into the crowd in desperation to find her protege. Ponies were shocked by this sudden lack of decorum, but bowed as was tradition. Celestia called them off politely, and requested to speak to Twilight and her friends.
Her frantic heart settled down a touch when Twilight and her friends approached, relatively safe and sound. Soldiers quickly got to work tending wounds and moving out to scout the town and take it back from the monsters.

"Thank goodness you're alright." She said softly while she nuzzled her Faithful Student, who gladly reciprocated the gesture.
"Do you know what's happening, Princess?" Twilight asked as the hug came to a close.
"I believe I have an idea, but I would like to confirm my hypothesis first. Has anypony strange or unusual arrived in the town since this began?"
"Oh!" Twilight spoke up, "Now that you mention it, there's somepony who's been helping! Well, not somepony... But I managed to get a quick sketch of her before she ran off to help more ponies."

Celestia peered down at Twilight's sketch, and narrowed her eyes. Her right eyelid twitched, just a little, but it was enough for her star pupil to notice.
"Princess..? What's the matter?"
"I am afraid rough times may be ahead of Twilight.." She turned, and announced to the guards ponies, "If you see this human, apprehend her immediately and bring her to me. She has a lot to answer for."