Equestrian Humanity

Not so Unusual Day in Ponyville

It was a peaceful afternoon in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle sat on the upper balcony of her treehouse with an open book laid out in front of her. It was the latest addition of her favorite adventure series, "Daring Do and the Temple of Gloom".

Though, for some reason, she was having trouble concentrating. A very rare occurrence for the unicorn.Not that the book was bad, it was actually a very invigorating read. Though no matter how hard she tried to focus on the pages, Twilight's thoughts continued to wander. Her mind now turned to the events of the Grand Galloping Galla

The event had taken place about three weeks prior. She had thought it ironic at the time that the events that had occurred were pretty much what the Princess had intended. "Trollestia strikes again!" as Spike had put it...

Since then, nothing really noteworthy had happened, beyond her usual friendship reports at least. And while she would normally enjoy the quiet atmosphere, Twilight found that this was not currently the case. It seems she had grown accustomed to the exciting and random situations she'd often find herself in when spending time with her closest friends.

'Oh well,' Twilight though to herself, returning to her book. 'I might as well relax. I mean, it's not like an adventure is just going to fall out of the sky-'

Her thoughts were broken when a sound similar to a sonic boom  shattered the calm afternoon air of the small town. The young mare raised her head from the book to find a truly outlandish sight.

A large white object could be seen overtop of the nearby Everfree Forest. The object itself seemed to be on fire, a streak of smoke trailing it as it fell.

The unicorn had seconds to react before the object crashed into the forest. The impact sent a shockwave coursing through the earth. The ground started to shake , causing her to lose her footing, and sending her tumbling down the stairs into her room.

Twilight shook off the rough landing and made her way downstairs to the main area of the library. The shockwave caused the library shelves to eject their contents into heaps on the floor. The purple mare grumbles to herself. It's going to take Spike and her an entire day to reorganize this massive mess. Wait a minute....

"Where's Spike?" The librarian started digging through piles of books in search of her assistant. "Spike!" She cried out desperately. "SPIKE!!"

"MMMPPHHH!!" A muffled cry resonated from a pile of books. Twilight turned to the pile to see a small clawed arm sticking out from the heap. She wrapped her magic around the appendage and pulled, freeing the dragon from his prison.

The unicorn gently set Spike onto the ground asking if he was okay. The dragon was dazed, but alright. He explained that he was putting away books when the ground started shaking, then he, along with the rest of the books, fell.

The baby dragon rubs his head before looking up to his guardian. "Twilight, what was that?"

The mare frowns. "I don't know, but I as sure as Tartarus am going to find out," she says with determination. "Send letters to the others telling them to meet me at Fluttershy's cottage as soon as possible," she instructs.

Twilight then fills her saddle bags with parchment, quills and any books she might need. Taking a deep breath, she ventured into the streets of Ponyville.

To say the town was a mess would be an understatement.

The shockwave had caused stalls and carriages to tip, trees to fall, and even the parts of some buildings to collapse. Anyone who wasn't hurt or panicking, were helping those who were injured or in danger to safety. Twilight wished she could stop and help, but she had bigger matters to attend to.

"Twilight!" The mage stopped when she heard a elegant, yet distraught, voice call her name. She turned to see a white unicorn mare with a well groomed and stylized blue mane approach her. It was none other than her close friend Rarity.

Rarity approached her friend, the confusion clearly written on her face. "Twilight, what on earth is going on?" The mare questioned. "I was just working on one of my designs, when all of a sudden I heard this loud boom. At first I thought it was Rainbow Dash practicing one of her ridiculous stunts. But then the ground started shaking and my fabrics started to fall off the walls. Oh it was just dreadful!"

While normally Twilight would be slightly annoyed with the fashion designer's drama, now seemed like a perfectly reasonable time for it. "It'll be fine Rarity," she assured her friend. "I'll try to explain as best I can to everypony once we get to Fluttershy's." And with that, the duo continued the trip in relative silence.

After about twenty minutes of walking later the two found themselves at the cottage. A small wooden sign on the path read; 'Ponyville Veterinary Care and Pet Sitting', advertising the business Fluttershy ran from her home. The clearing that the property was sat, normally filled with animals of every shape and size, was now empty. Now, only four ponies could be seen by the bridge leading to the house.

A lemon yellow pegasus with a flowing pink mane sat on the bridge. A orange earth pony with a blonde mane stood nearby, a Stetson hat on her head and a piece of grain being chewed absent-mindedly in her mouth. A second earth pony who had a pink coat and a hot pink, excessively curly mane stood next to the others. Despite the situation she still had a smile on her face. Overhead, a sky blue pegasus with a striking rainbow mane hovered above the others, a look of frustration clearly written on her face. The four, who's names were Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, saw the two unicorn's and gestured them over.

Twilight and Rarity approached their friends and asked if they were alright. Each confirmed that they were fine, and began to tell of their experience that morning.

Applejack explained that she and her brother, Big Macintosh, were finishing up the spring harvest in the apple orchard, when the ground started shaking. "Then all a'sudden," the farm pony explained, "th' apples started to fall off th' trees. Nearly got buried under th' darn things." After that, she received Spike's message and made her way here.

Pinkie had a similar experience. " Oh it was just so weird! I was getting the supplies ready to start baking a cake, because the Cakes got a really BIG order this morning. So as I was getting the flour and the flowers out of the cupboard, I heard a boom. Not the kind of boom you get if you accidentally drop mentos into your soda and then screw the top back on, but a BIGGIE BOOM boom! At first I thought Dashie had preformed another Sonic Rainboom. But then my tail started twitching! And this one was REALLY BAD! I thought my tail was going to pop off my rump and walk away! It was actually starting to hurt! Then the ground started shaking, and ALL of the cooking ingredients just started throwing themselves on the ground! And then when it stopped, I got another Doozie!" The pink pony then started shuddering violently. "You see? There it is again! What ever this is about, no one here is going to expect it!" Now, anyone else would be questionable about this behavior, but Twilight had become used to it. But the fact that Pinkie was having a Doozie about this, it didn't exactly bode well.

Fluttershy explained that she was caring to her animals when she had pretty much the same experience. The animals were frightened by the loud noise and ran off. The shy pegasus looks into the forest with worry. "Oh I hope no one is hurt in there."

Rainbow Dash was the only one not on the ground when the incident occurred. She had been assigned to clearing the clouds that drifted in from the Everfree. This had to be done periodically to keep the rogue clouds from drifting into Ponyville. If they were left to their own devices the storms the clouds would cause would flood the water systems and roads, and cause massive amounts of damage with wind and lightning. The weather pony shuddered at the thought. Could there be any weather more chaotic than that? Doubtful...

"So I'm just kicking clouds y'know. Just minding my own business," she continues, "when all of a sudden I hear a really loud boom. I thought it was thunder, so I'm looking around for storm clouds, so I don't get my tail fried." The pegasus gestures with her hooves, apparently acting out the scene. "So I turn around and see this... just this big blue and white thing coming toward me. It had these large fin-looking things coming out of its sides, kinda like wings I guess."

"Wait," Twilight interrupted. "You saw it?"

The pegasus rolls her eyes. "Oh course I saw it! It almost took me out! I barely got out of the way in time!" Rainbow's look changed to one of concern. "But Twilight." The unicorn raised her head back to her friend. "That thing was trailing massive amounts of smoke. If the fire that's producing it spreads to the other forests...."

".....it would easily burn Ponyville to the ground," Twilight finished.

"Well what are we waiting for? We've got to do something," Pinkie spoke up.

"But what about the ponies in town?" Rarity argued. "Twilight and I passed many ponies helping each other on our way here. There may be more that need help."

"There isn't going to BE a a Ponyville for much longer if we don't get that fire out!" Rainbow countered.

Fluttershy took the opportunity to speak up. " But what about the forest? There may be animals-even ponies-who were hurt in the crash."

"But whut about those outside th' forest?" Applejack countered. "We can't be th' only ones who came to investigate. Others might get hurt."

The argument continues. Twilight is listening, but just barely. By now her accelerated mind has already started analyzing the situation. Within seconds, she has already formulated the beginnings of a plan. It's time to do what she does best.

Organize.

"Enough!" The you g mage calls out. Her friends stop arguing and turn to her. She points a hoof at the weather pony.

"Rainbow Dash. Get as many members of he weather team together and use the clouds for tomorrows storm to put that fire out." The pegasus gives her a salute before zooming off. "Applejack, you stay here and watch the border of the forest. Unless the princesses themselves show up, don't let anyone through."

"Yes ma'am," the farm pony confirms with a tip of her hat.

"Rarity and Pinkie Pie," she states turning to them. "You two go back into town and help anypony you can." The two respond with a nod. "Fluttershy and I will go into the forest to see if anyone has been hurt there." With that, the rest of them went their separate ways to preform their tasks, leaving the librarian and the caretaker standing next to each other.

Twilight turned to her companion. "Do you know any paths through the forest the will take us close to he crash?" Any sign of her usual shyness gone, Fluttershy nodded and led them through the forest.

After a short time the pair could see a break in the tree line. Beyond it, they could see the vessel lying in a clearing. But... they could see something running towards them. It wasn't a pony, it was running on two legs.

They didn't get time to get a closer look however. Because at that moment, the air was shattered as the vessel exploded with an enormous roar!

Up above, Rainbow Dash shielded her face from the heat of the fireball that just erupted from the crash beneath. She looked down to see that the fire had spread immensely from the explosion.

"We're gonna need a bigger cloud," she mumbled to herself. She  turned to the pegasus nearest to her. A blue stallion with a cutie mark depicting a breeze blowing. He had just joined the weather team a few weeks ago. She couldn't remember his name.

"Hey Rookie!" She called out to him. He responded by turning to her, having gotten used to the nickname by now. "Tell he others to get as many clouds from over the forest as they can."

"But I thought you cleared them already!" He countered.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "C'mon. This is me we're talking about. I'm fast at everything, except work."

The Rookie rolled his eyes. "Alright then come on," he urged, flying past the

tom-colt "Let's see if this fire can stand up against monsoon level rain."

Twilight and Fluttershy watched in horror as the creature was flung into the air by the explosion's force. It smacked into a tree and landed hard on the path. It didn't move.

"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed before galloping towards the creature. Twilight paused for a second before following. She stopped on the other side  of the creature, her friend already having rolled it onto it's back.

Twilight had no idea what she was looking at. The creature was tall, and had no fur on its body except for on its head. It only had one set of legs. The limbs closest to its neck had appendages on their ends similar to a minotaur. It also appeared to be wearing clothes, something quite abnormal.

"He's hurt pretty badly." Fluttershy announced. She nudged the creature gently. "Can you hear me?" The creature moaned in response. "It's ok," the pegasus eased. "I'm here to help you. Do you have a name?" The creature mumbled something Twilight couldn't make out.

She was pulled away however when she felt an uncomfortable heat. She turned to see that the explosion had caused the fire to spread in their direction.

"We need to leave Fluttershy," she urged.

The pegasus nodded. "Help me get him up," she instructed, gesturing to the creature.

"Are you crazy?" The unicorn responded. "We don't know what this thing is! or where it comes from. What if its dangerous?Heck, for all we know it could be responsible for this!" During one of her research binges, Twilight had studied texts about the creatures of the Everfree Forest. The fact that she didn't know what this being was... scared her.

Never the less, the caretaker would not back down. "It may be true that we don't know anything about him. But what I do know is that he's hurt, and he needs my help. And if you think that I'm just going to run home and leave him here then you have another thing coming!"

In all her time in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle had not witnessed the famous 'Stare' used in action. Now, it was in full force, and directed at her.

"Now," the yellow pegasus continued, "you can help me get him to safety. If not, then back off and let me do my job."

Twilight shook her head. Currently unable to find words she simply nods in response. Summoning her magic, she wraps the creature in a bubble.

"Careful!" Fluttershy warned. "I don't know how badly he's hurt."

Taking extra care not to move it too much, Twilight lifts the creature off the ground. Her concentration is almost broken however, when a burning tree falls onto the path behind them. Realizing their situation, the two gallop down the path back towards the cottage...