Shadow of Fury

Chapter 2

What An Interesting way to Meet

Shamrock was running through town square when he heard the noise. He had been running through town, searching for someone to befriend. That gold pegasus looked promising. But that was all interrupted when he heard the roar. He immediately recognized it.

"No," he said, "Not here."

But unfortunately for him, the beast of his fears had found itself in Ponyville.

As he watched in horror, the ground shook. Then a tree collapsed. Ponies screamed in fright. They ran. And then it appeared.

Standing 15 stories into the sky was a very large, very old, and very angry ursa major.

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Willus had just stepped out the front door when he saw the ursa. At first, he assumed it was just a hallucination caused by any leftover craziness, but realized it was real when he saw ponies running in fear from it. Also, it taking a bite out of a nearby building helped.

He immediately set to work. He ran with the other ponies and tried to calm them down. Unfortunately, few ponies take comfort from a known psychopath.

"What's going on?" He asked a random pony.

"What does it look like? We're under attack!" they shouted back.

'Well that seemed a tad rude,' Willus thought as he watched the pony run off. Now what was he supposed to do?

Luckily for the confused unicorn, things seemed to get brighter right at that moment. In fact, a lot brighter. That would be because of the lightning bolt that had just struck the ursa major. He saw a rainbow-maned pegasus sitting on a cloud, who had apparently been the cause of the lightning. The ursa roared in fury, and swatted the cloud away. The pegasus was sent flying, and she landed next to Willus with a painful-sounding thump. Soon after, an orange coated earth pony wearing a steson showed up.

"Rainbow Dash," she said to the pegasus,"Twilight wants us to group together to fight this thing. And that's not easy when you are out trying to take it down by yourself!"

The pegasus apparently named Rainbow Dash looked offended. "Well, excuse me, Applejack," she said to the cowpony, "I'm afraid I didn't get the memo!"

"Ugh, let's just go!"

And with that, the two mares ran off as well.

Willus, on the other hoof, was fairly confused. Those two mares were going to fight an ursa major? Alone? Just saying it sounded ridiculous. Sure, they had mentioned a third member, but there was no way in tartarus that was enough. Perhaps they could use a little help. He ran in the same direction he thought he saw the two mares go in, and began to make a plan.

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Twilight Sparkle shuffled on her hooves anxiously. She, along with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie were waiting in an alley for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. As the ursa rampaged through the town, she needed to come up with a plan. And fast.

"Twilight! We're coming!" She heard Rainbow's voice shout.

'Finally,' she thought. She watched the ursa major as it proceded to knock over a nearby house.

"I don't understand," she said, "Normally ursa majors hate to go anywhere near ponies! Why did this one suddenly just decide to attack us? It doesn't make sense!"

"It doesn't need to make sense, far as Ahm concerned, Twilight," Applejack replied. "What matters is that we stop this thing."

"Well that's all fine and dandy, but how?" Rarity asked.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"I don't know," was all Twilight could say.

For a moment, everypony present felt an uncontrollable fear, and the desire to just join everypony else and flee. But something stopped those ponies. Perhaps it was their incapability to abandon one another. Perhaps it was the urge, the need, to help everypony else get to safety. Whatever it was, those six friends made up their minds then and there that they would stop this thing. No matter the cost.

"Alright everypony. Here's the plan."

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And so it was decided. Fluttershy and Rarity were to organize the evacuation efforts. They would help ponies get out of the town, and provide whatever help they could for anypony that needed it. Pinkie Pie would attack the beast with her party cannons, and try to trip it up with the confetti. Applejack would help Pinkie, and use her lasso to try and trip the ursa over. Rainbow would use all of the storm clouds she could find to shoot the ursa with lightning bolts. And finally, Twilight would shoot the ursa major with spells, and provide assistance and guidance to the others.

And so, the ponies waited. And waited. And waited. What was taking this thing so long?

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The ursa was taking a long time because of a very annoying pegasus. A golden one, with the cutie mark of a wing made of lightning on its flank. If one has ever been annoyed by a particularly pesky fly, one that could somehow dodge all attempts to swat it, then they would understand how the ursa felt right then.

When Lightning Hawk had realized an ursa major was attacking, he immediately sprung into action. It was as if the universe was sending him some sort of cruel joke. Just as he found the perfect place in which to settle down, what happens? A giant beast of the Everfree attacks. Wonderful. Just wonderful. So, upon seeing this monstrous creature that should've - and did - sent ponies fleeing in terror, he did the logical thing. He flew right up in its face and punched it.

The effect was similar to a bee sting, only from the perspective of the bee. Immediately the ursa major was infuriatd that a lowly pony would even consider attacking it, let alone actually do it. The beast roared its displeasure, and swatted at Lightning. Luckily for him, he saw it coming and was able to dodge it in time.

It was around that time when the other ponies showed up. He didn't know any of them, but seemingly from nowhere, four mares appeared underneath him. One was a pink earth pony, bouncing along with a pink cannon in tow. Another was a rainbow-maned pegasus flying above the rest, bringing with her a whol arsenal of storm clouds. Then there was an orange cowpony wearing a stetson, and finally, a lavender unicorn, who seemed to be leading the group.

"You there!" this last one called. "Stop!"

Lightning looked at the ponies quizically, and flew down to where they were located, a small alley in between two buildings.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be running like the others?" He asked.

"We could ask you the same thing," the rainbow pegasus shot back. "What do you think you're doing? Did you honestly believe you could take on an ursa major by yourself?"

Lightning felt stupid. "Well, yeah, I guess."

The unicorn face-hoofed. "Look, that doesn't matter right now. What matters, girls, is that we have somepony ready and able to help us fight this thing. No matter how flawed his logic might be."

"Um....thank you?"

It was then that they heard a voice.

"Wait! Stop! I want to help too!" Everypony turned their heads to the source of the voice. Running towards them was a brown unicorn colt with a messy, unkempt black mane.

"Who are you?" The cowpony asked.

"Willus Word, at your sevice," he said with a dramatic bow.

As if this random addition wasn't enough, they were suddnly interrupted by another pony. This time, it was the green unicorn from before.

"I want to help as well. Call me Shamrock."

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Reaper had just stepped out of his house when he saw the ursa. He groaned in discontent.

"It's gonna be one of THOSE days, isn't it?"

Sputnik walked up behind him, and saw the creature as well.

"OOHH! A giant puppy!" He shouted.

"Here," Reaper said, giving his hat to Sputnik. "Hold this."

Sputnik grabbed the hat and ate it.

Under normal circumstances, Reaper would have been mad, but by now he was used to it.

Reaper turned, and saw town hall. A huge chunk of it was missing. It was an architectural wonder that it was still standing. He walked up to the building, and placed a hoof against it. He pressed his weight against it, and clicked his tongue in approval. It would hold.his weight. He turned to look at the ursa. At present it was swatting at a golden pegasus. What an idiot, fighting an ursa major on his own. Reaper turned back to the ruined city hall. He sighed. Time to show these ponies how to lead a military manoever. He began to walk vertically up town hall.

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While the group of ponies planned their attack, they introduced themselves more formally. They now knew each other's names, and this made planning things a whole lot easier. Which was good, considering the ursa major was approximately three yards away from their hiding place.

And so the plan was put into action. Rainbow and Lightning fired electricity from the clouds at it. Twilight, Willus, and Shamrock fired spells at it. During all this, Applejack and Pinkie Pie attempted to tangle its legs.

The ursa major was not amused. It was difficult to tell if their combined assault was having any effect on the creature. It swiped a starry paw at the nearest pony, Unfortunately for Applejack, 'nearest pony' meant her. Luckily, Shamrock saw it coming. His horn glowed green, and a small glowing orb floated over to Applejack. It was absorbed into her immediately before the paw came down. "Applejack!" Twilight shouted in alarm. When the paw lifted itself back up, everyone feared that they would see their favorite farmer reduced to a bloody pile of flesh and bone, but instead, she stood just where she had been before, albeit she appeared to be incredibly confused.

"What just happened?" She asked.

"I gave you my good-luck charm," Shamrock replied. "It's a spell unique to me. It gives you abnormally good luck for about two hours."

Everyone looked at him blankly. "WHAT?"

"What?" He asked, slightly confused.

"Don't you think that might have been a little helpful to know back when we started?" Rainbow asked sarcastically.

"Well, nobody asked...."

Rainbow face-hoofed.

As the fighting continued, Shamrock began to bless all of the other ponies with his good-luck charm. The ursa major was becoming more obviously infuriated now. Its inability to kill these pesky creatures that were running about its feet was driving it mad. It roared and brought down another paw, this one narrowly missing Lightning Hawk and Rainbow Dash.

And slowly, but surely, the ursa major weakened. And weakened. And weakened. Yet it would not fall.

"At this rate," Willus said, "we're gonna need a star from the sky itself to fall and beat this thing!"

Nopony noticed a small, black dot climbing the town hall in the background.

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Reaper finished his ascent of the town hall. He stood on the tip of the spire on top, looking over the epic battle taking place a few miles away. Now, there appeared to be multiple ponies fighting the creature.

"Hmmph. Fools," He muttered. He turned his head up and looked into the sky. "Been a while since i did this. Let's hope I still got it."

Reaper then began to fly up into the sky. Higher and higher he went, until eventually the ursa seemed so small he could hold it in his hoof. Then he drew up his magic, and formed a cocoon.

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To the amazement of everypony present, a cyan light appeared in the sky. Then it grew brighter. And brighter. Until they realized it wasn't getting brighter. It was getting closer.

It was a comet. A great, cyan comet. And it was streaking down towards the ursa major. The thing was weakened to the point of not noticing the growing light until it was right in front of its face. It seemed as if Willus' prophecy had been fulfilled, as a star fell from the sky and struck the ursa major square in the forehead. With a final roar of defiance, the great nocturnal predator collapsed.

As everypony walked up to examine the fallen ursa, it began to disintegrate. As it finally disappeared, a changeling with a cyan backplate fell the short distance to the ground from where it had been sitting (what was once the ursa's head) with a thud.

"Ummm..."He said awkwardly. "Hi?"