My Little Pony: Magic Ripped Away

The walk to Ponyville would usually be a simple, short walk back with no negativity to be felt. Usually. However, today was anything but a usual day as the six ponies walked back to the town, each injured in different ways, affected differently mentally, and even unconscious in Fluttershy’s case. The walk back was almost completely silent, with not a pony raising their voice with the atmosphere so tense and yet so still. But the silence wasn’t to last as a loud boom suddenly rocked the air as a plume of black smoke rose from Ponyville, which was much closer than before, causing everypony to jump, except for Fluttershy.

“What in tarnation was that!?” Applejack looked up at the rising smoke, her face twisted in concern and confusion. Rarity matched this expression as Twilight turned toward them.

“Whatever it was, it can’t be good. Now, like I said before, we’ll stop by my castle first, and then after that, we go to Sugarcube Corner,” Twilight said as she looked at Pinkie Pie, “then the Carousel Boutique,” she looked to Rarity, “Then finally Sweet Apple Acres.” She finished by looking at Applejack, who nodded and sighed.

“Explosions mean nothin’ good, and if it’s changelings again… well, we’re mighty screwed aren’t we?” Applejack said in a less-than-confident tone, but Rarity chipped in.

“There’s always the chance that the changelings don’t have magic too, darling,” She commented but looked back at the rising smoke. “Thgouh, I suppose that doesn’t help explain… that.”

“Standing around won’t help anypony! C’mon, let’s go!” Pinkie said, beginning to walk again as the rest followed, Rainbow Dash sticking behind.

Upon entering the town, they noticed the similarly eerie quiet that had descended upon the town, no winds blowing, no ponies speaking, and no animals heard. They all slowly trotted down the streets, peering down alleys, around corners, and into houses as they all made their way toward the large crystal castle in the not-so-far distance.

“Where’d everypony go?” Twilight asked, not expecting an answer, but needing one anyway. She felt her heart rate increase at the overall sense of wrongness in the air, a far cry from the almost poisonous joy that the town usually exuded.

“I don’t see anypony in their homes either,” Rarity said, standing on her hind legs to peer into a house, squinting her eyes into the darkness before falling back onto four hooves and joining the group again. “I’d think this was another one of Pinkie’s parties if it weren’t for the fact that, well, she’s here.”

Pinkie Pie looked over at Rarity, a confused frown on her face. “My parties usually don’t involve taking everypony’s magic away or large explosions.”

“I have to disagree on the large explosions part,” Applejack said with a smirk, causing Pinkie to giggle.

They all continued to walk, occasionally passing by areas that they knew usually had many ponies around but now lay completely bare, not a soul to be seen nor heard.

“Do you think everypony left?” Pinkie Pie looked to Rarity, who frowned in thought.

“Even if everypony did… why would they? What could’ve caused everypony to leave, much less cause such a horrible explosion?” Rarity asked, looking over her shoulder at the mostly faded column of black smoke.

“Usually, I’d have an answer… but right now, I don’t have a clue. What could take away our magic? The only creature I know of that could do that is Tirek, but he’s locked away in Tartarus, and besides, he couldn’t do something like this at this scale.” Twilight sighed to herself, looking down at her hooves as they walked. “I don’t know what to do after we go through Ponyville.”

“Well, I say we use every book that we have, Twi, and then we could find some ancient piece of script that could tell us exactly what we need,” Applejack said, trying to restore some positivity. “It’s happened before, and sure, we’re all, hurt, but it could all be a super simple solution, like… flipping a switch in ancient ruins? Or, hay, even finding our magic in some large ball of magic!”

“But what if it’s not so simple? What if this is all some pony’s evil plan to plunge Equestria into inconsolable chaos!? Because… it’s working so far!” Twilight grits her teeth, looking up as they enter another alley.

Applejack sighed and shook her head. “Well, we’ll see when it comes down to it, I suppose.”

The walk continued in mostly uncomfortable silence, not another pony seen for most of the walk toward the castle. However, as Twilight turned the corner of a house that led onto a main street, she spotted… something, certainly not a pony. It took all of her willpower to cover her mouth to not scream.

In the middle of the street was a dark, shadowy being, its body consisting almost entirely of a dark, flowing substance, but its form was all wrong. It seemed like a snake, but it had arms and legs… too many arms and legs, 50 arms and legs like a centipede. Its mouth was full of hundreds of sharp teeth, each similar to a shark’s teeth, and it was currently devouring a pile of ponies. Horribly mutilated ponies.

“What’s wrong, Twi-” Rarity went to speak but was harshly shut up by Twilight covering her mouth with an injured wing and shaking her head.

“Don’t… speak…” She whispered quietly, her eyes wide as she backed away from the corner. Pinkie Pie, however, needed a look of her own, which would end up being a horrible mistake.

Upon peeking around the corner, she caught sight of the horrible being of darkness, her ears flattening as she comprehended what she was seeing, but unfortunately, the creature spotted her as well, its head sharply turning toward her, all 16 bright green eyes on its head locking onto her. With a reverberating twisted screech that sounded like a mix between a dragon and a tiger’s roar, it suddenly whirled around, its body coiling around itself as it darted toward the corner, causing Pinkie to shout,

“RUN!”

Immediately, all of them, sprinted for their lives, including Rainbow Dash, who’d finally snapped back into reality just as the creature rounded the corner, its immense size crashing into the side of the building, the wood snapping and splintering with the impact, drawing a wail from Rainbow as she quickly followed the group.

All six of them ran as fast as they could, ducking into alleys as the creature pursued, and despite its immense size, it could slip in between buildings with surprising ease, each of its limbs propelling its dark body forward with uneasy, horrifying grace. This was also the time that Fluttershy woke up, her eyes fluttering open to the sight of the creature running behind them, her body still balanced on Applejack’s and Rarity’s backs. She screamed loudly and the creature screeched back, its body suddenly lunging forward, its mouth missing the three by mere inches.

“W-W-WHAT’S HAPPENING!?” Fluttershy cried out, not daring to move in the worst case that she’d imbalance her carriers.

“It’s a dream, just close your eyes darling!” Rarity yelled out over the chaos of wood snapping and galloping hooves.

“Close my eyes! Close my eyes… close my eyes…” Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to drown out the sound of the creature's many limbs impacting the ground and walls of houses. Then with a cry, she opened her eyes, tears welling up. “I can’t do it!”

“Then just hold on!” Applejack grits her teeth, pushing her injured hooves to the absolute limit, her legs roaring with pain.

“We’re almost at the castle!” Twilight said, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie running slightly in front of her as they exited the alley they were in, coming into view of the now much closer crystal castle. The creature also exited the alley, the two houses exploding into wood and mulch as it let out its twisted call, its rage tearing up the ground underneath it as it crept ever closer. However, as they ran, Twilight suddenly began to slow down, her legs starting to give out under her, and as the creature approached her, she let out horrified pants as she attempted to push harder, to no avail.

As Rainbow Dash got to the castle, she pushed open the doors, letting the others rush in, but as she looked back, she saw Twilight lagging behind, the creature right behind her, its many arms suddenly reaching out.

“TWILIGHT!” Rainbow screamed, and without thinking, her body acted, darting forward and grabbing Twilight, pulling her away from the creature’s arms, one of the sharp claws clipping Twilight’s face. Then, she pulled Twilight into the castle as the creature surged forward and slammed into the doors of the castle, unable to enter, its form slightly too large to fit. It slammed against the crystals, its roars echoing through the crystal halls.

Rainbow Dash fell to the floor, panting harshly as she looked back at the creature, her entire body tensing in fear as she saw the eyes of the creature that had just nearly killed Twilight and herself. However, her eyes then trailed down to Twilight, who was covering her face with her hooves, blood leaking freshly onto the floor.

“Twilight! Shit!” Rainbow Dash crawled toward Twilight, biting her hooves in worry as she looked back at the rest of her friends, who had turned to look at Rainbow, Twilight, and the creature. “Somebody! Get a first-aid kit or something! Twilight’s hurt!”

They all gasped at the proclamation, but Applejack nodded resolutely, knowing where exactly to look since she was the one, after all, to tell Twilight to get a first-aid kit. “I’m on it.” She then galloped off into the crystal halls.

Fluttershy was curled up on the cool crystal floor, curled up in a ball, her ears covered with her hooves, and her eyes squeezed firmly shut to drown out the creature’s angry roars. Pinkie Pie stood next to her, looking between her and Twilight.

Rarity rushed over to Rainbow and Twilight, looking down at the blood seeping onto the floor with a grimace. “Twilight, dear, you must show us the wound.” She said grimly, watching as Twilight let out a shaky wail.

“It hurts… dear Celestia… it hurts so much…” But, her hooves slowly fell away from her face, causing Rainbow and Rarity to let out shocked gasps at the severity of the injury. Her entire right side of her face had one horrible gash down the side, her right eye having been terribly disfigured, blood spilling out of the entire wound, bone visible through the torn flesh and blood.

“Oh my…” Rarity let out a shaky sob, her hoof flying to cover her mouth. “Applejack, hurry!!” She cried out as she turned around just in time to see Applejack galloping toward them with a large red box in her mouth. Upon seeing Twilight’s injury, her face paled and she put the first-aid kit down.

“It’ll be alright, Twilight,” Applejack reassured shakily as she opened the box, looking through the expensive medical equipment. “It’ll be alright… trust me.”

Rainbow Dash sat to the side as Applejack got to work stopping the bleeding and applying disinfectant and gauze, her eyes wide and her mind in turmoil. What had happened in Equestria to let this happen? To let something so horrible enter? Her eyes flitted over to the doors, where the creature still sat, silent now, its sixteen sharp green eyes glaring at them through the doorway, causing her blood to turn ice cold. Nothing was alright anymore… nothing at all…

As Twilight was slowly patched up, the creature outside never left, glaring at them through the open doors, its two frontmost sharp hands gripping the doorway, its maw opened wide, revealing the numerous sharp teeth drenched in blood. Pony blood. In an already horrible situation, everything had fallen deeper into an abyss that none of them had even expected to be a possibility, and now, they would have to learn. To adapt. To live in a magicless world with a creature as malicious as that… and maybe more.