Earth, 06, 23, 2012, Tucson, Az. 3:05 P.M.

"Huh, last day of school. Yay." To say that I was thrilled to finally be done with school was an understatement. In all honesty, I was really going to miss this place. Most of my fondest memories were of this school and of the people I've met while studying here.

"Hey, John." Someone called out my name. I turned around to see Taylor, one of my best friend's running to catch up with me. I gave him a wave as he caught up to me. He was huffing a little bit but when he got his breath he threw me a smile and raised his fist for a bump. I returned the gesture and we started walking again.

"So what are you going to be doing this summer?" He asked kicking a rock along as we walked down the street to my house. I thought about it for a little while. Shaking my head I gave him a shrug.

"Don't know. Now that I'm 18 my parents want me to go look for a job. So I guess I'll try that. Can't be any worse than doing nothing all summer long." I said with a sigh. Taylor gave me a somber look.

"So how are thing's going with you and Sera?" He asked an impish grin highlighting his face. I just rolled my eye's.

"How many time's do I have to tell you that nothing is going on between us," I said as I made my way around the block. I turned and gave him a smile. Trying to get my mind off of my non-existent love life I did one of the few thing's that gave me some form of joy in this world. I challenged Taylor to a competition.

"Wanna see who's get's home first?" a small glint in my eye. He chuckled and nodded his head.

"Sure. But you  know I'm going to win like alway's right?" He said shaking his head. I just smirked.

"Hey, you never know I could alway's pull out a rabbit or two from the old hat," I said as I started to jog in place getting the blood flowing throughout my body. He just chuckled.

"Ok, ok fine. Why so eager to lose?" He asked. I just readjusted my glasses and waved a hand at him. Taylor was one of the track team's best but he had one fundamental flaw about how he ran. He didn't know how to pace himself. Sure he could outsprint most people but he could only hold that speed for a few minutes at most. Me on the other hand, I had no speed but I had taken up jogging around the track in P.E. whenever I could. Over the summer I had trained my body to be able to run several miles without over exerting myself.

"Here," Taylor said lifting up his hand.

"I'll set a timer." As he fiddled with his watch I felt something strange. The air itself began to feel warmer all of a sudden. I could feel the hair's on the back of my neck stand on end. Something was definitely wrong here. My brain went into overdrive trying to figure out what could possibly cause a localized ionization charge like this. The only thing's to come to mind were either,

A. a potential lightning strike.

B. a small scale solar flare.

C. Some random act of god only know's what.

A was not likely because there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. B was off the table because Taylor was still fiddling with his watch. So C it is. Some random act of nature or some such. Shoving my concern down I instead focused on our little race to come.

"Ok, I've got it!' He said as he held out his hand.

"Set the timer to count down from ten," I said.

"Way ahead of you there." He said. He wiped his hand up to his face.

"All right on your mark's." He said getting into his trademarked running position, knee's bent right leg in front of the other and his hand's resting on the ground. I just snickered and copied his position.

"Get set!" He said with glee. I could hear the timer going down.

Beep...Beep...Beep.

"And!" Beep.

"G-" BOOM! Tayler's announcement was ripped from his mouth as a horrendous thundering tore the sky asunder right above his and john's head.    Taylor was driven to his stomach by the force of the blast and he was forced to cover his head as the ground began to shake violently. When all of the noise and motion stopped Tayler peaked out from underneath his arm's.

"Holy shit dude this you feel that?" He asked. When he didn't get a reply he looked over to where John was only moment's ago. He gasped in shock as the only thing left of his friend was a pile of clothing and whatever else his friend had on him at that point.

"Dude! John! Where are you!?" Taylor screamed as he frantically looked around. John Was nowhere to be seen.

Equestria, 06, 23, 2012, Ponyville. 10 Minute's ago.

"It's over Discord!" Twilight shouted as she covered her friend's in a protective bubble, canceling out The lord of chaos's foul magic. Discord meanwhile was laughing. "Oh that's what you think." Discord just snickered at Twilight and her friend's.

Little did they know Discord had a plan. A devious plan. A truly diabolical plan. A plan so evil he could only cackle in glee as he set it into motion. With a snap of his finger's time stood still freezing the six mare's in there track's.

He knew he couldn't defeat like before not now. However, he could do something far worse in return. Sure they would encase him in stone once more but he would get his revenge. His face practically split in two as he laughed with pure hysteria. He snapped his finger's once more and a small orb of purple energy formed in his hand's.

"Time to have one last bit of fun." With his plan coming to fruition he gave the space-time continuum a little shift and through the ball of chaotic power into the void.

"Oh, this is going to be so great." Discord said as he cackled with mad glee. He stitched up the hole in space-time and then with a snap of his finger's the flow of time continued as normal. Twilight and crew wore grim face's as there element's lit up with power. When Twilight was done casting the spell the combined power of the six element's shot into the sky like a rocket. Discord smiled as the prismatic beam of friendship began to arc back to the ground.

He began to cackle even more and in one last ditch effort of defiance, he struck a bold pose as the beam hit, forever freezing him with his demented laughter etched onto his face. When the whole of his body was encased in stone he fell from his throne and with a thud landed upon the cold dark earth unmoving and unfeeling.

"Oh thank Celestia that horrible ordeal is over." Rarity said as she and the other's descended to the ground after firing off the powerful spell the element's had used to imprison the lord of chaos.

"Yippee!" Pinky squealed as she did a cartwheel around her friend's. "Now that mister grumpy pant's is out of the way we can throw an awesome party!" She said jumping into the air, throwing confetti as she hung there for a few seconds. As the group of pony's all gathered around Discord they were snapped out of their happy thoughts by a bright flash of light. As soon as the light dissipated the whole group bowed before their ruler Princess Celestia who gave them all a soft nod.

"Now, now, no need for that," she said in a soft voice. The grin on her face disappeared as she looked upon the defeated villain. She hung her head and sighed.

"It's back to the garden for you discord," she said as she hefted the statue up with her magic. She smiled once more as she looked upon the six.

"Well, Twilight it appears that Equestria owe's you and your friend's another debt of gratitude." She said as Discord's statue winked out of existence. Twilight just blushed and nodded her head.

"Thank you, Princess. It wasn't easy facing down Discord but in the end, our friendship prevailed." She said giving her friend's a supportive smile. The whole group huddled together and shared a big group hug. Celestia beamed at the warm display of affection. Then she cleared her throat. All attention was once again upon her.

"Then I would like to welcome you all back to Canterlot tonight for a ceremonial banquet in honor of your victory." She said as her horn began to light up. the group was whisked away to the mountainside castle and all were deposited in the Great hall. It was a grant entrance to the inner working's of the castle's interior and was usually a bustling hub of movement to and fro. At this time, however, it was empty due to the Princess's declaring a state of emergency since Discord's escape.

"Now dear friend's let us discuss the night's festivities in greater detail," She said leading the group to the dining hall.

Equestria, 06, 23, 2012, Canterlot, 8:00 P.M.

Cold. A deep dark cold penetrated the very fiber of my being. I couldn't see or think. The only thing I could do is feel the overwhelming cold seep into my bone's and chill every part of my body. The only thing I could do was wait for all this torment to be over. Then as suddenly as it had come in a flash it was gone. My body had the feeling come back to it as I impacted the hard earth, the green grass doing nothing to soften my fall. Luckily I wasn't that far up in the air. Unluckily as feeling began to come back so did other less pleasant sensations. My whole body ached and throbbed in agony.

"he-l-p." I tried to cry out but my voice wasn't trying to cooperate. In fact, it felt like someone had taken sandpaper and blasted my vocal cord's with the stuff. I tried to move but a bolt of hot fury lanced through me so I decided to stay there wherever I was until the pain subsided. As my mind began to calm down I only had one thought go through it.

"What in the everloving fresh smelling scented hell happened to me?"

Meanwhile...

Twilight and her friends were enjoying their much-needed break from the party currently going on in the grand ballroom. The small group made their way out to a balcony overlooking the financial district of canterlot's elite. Twilight sighed and looked over at her friend's.

Rarity was looking out over the horizon already planning out her newest line of fashion wear. Pinky was hopped up on sugar and rapidly vibrating in place. Apple Jack was leaning against the wall to their left her stetson covering her eye's as she contemplated how she was going to make this whole ordeal up to her family when she got back. Fluttershy was laying on the cool stone of the balcony floor thinking of her animal friend's and how she was going to take care of them after all that had happened. Finally, Rainbow Dash was resting on a cloud she had happened to wrangle over and was lost in thought of how close they'd come to failing Equestria today.

Right now she was really glad that she and her friends were able to just sit back and relax. The day had been very hectic from start to finish. She looked over and saw Twilight's gaze drift her way.

"So Twi what's on your mind?" She asked rolling over and dropping to the balcony floor with ease landing on her hoof's like a cat. Twilight was snapped out of her examination and she looked over each of her friend's once more. She shook her head.

"Oh, you know just thinking about today." She said diverting her gaze back to the now star-studded, moonlit sky. Fluttershy piped up.

"Wandering how today could go from perfectly normal to really really scary?" She said walking up to the edge of the balcony with the rest of her friend's. Twilight nodded.

"Yes. Today started out just like any other, but then Discord show's up out of nowhere and start's wrecking the place." She said shaking her head. Pinky just giggled.

"Now come on miss frowny face." She said pulling Twilight over to her. She grabbed ahold of Twilight's face and contorted it into a frown.

"Now isn't the time for sadness." She said rearranging Twilight's face to now show a forced smile.

"Now it's time to have fun! We beat mister old grumpy pant's so let's go and celebrate!" she said bounding off back to the party. Twilight scrunched up her face as she rubbed it to get the feeling back. She heard more snickering coming from behind her and turned around to see Rainbow on her cloud once more laughing into her cloud. Twilight soon started to giggle as well. Pretty soon the whole group was laughing up a storm and making their way back to the festive night if only so they could not make the princess look bad by not attending their own party.

Equestria, 06, 23, 2012, Canterlot, 10:00 P.M.

The pain had finally subsided but in its place came exhaustion. I could do nothing more than stare up at the beautiful night sky and shiver as I got even colder. Now that the pain wasn't there to dull my sense's I could feel not only the cold, however. I felt almost like someone had wrapped me up in a soft wool blanket. It was nice and comforting against the cold even if it did little to counter the low temperatures.

"Oh god please let somebody find me." I prayed as I let my mind drift off to sleep.

Dream's came to John as he lay there in the fields of Canterlot. And like all those who dreamt under Luna's sky his dreams were no secret to her astute eyes. As she went about her nightly routine of dream monitoring she heard a soft cry for help come from the city's outskirts. Not being one to shirk her duty's she followed the cry for help to its source. Laying there exposed to the very force's of nature was a creature as strange as the very dream's she felt emanating from him.

Luna could not make out its gender from the air but from the masculine voice sounding out in its dream's, she guessed it was a male. He was just laying there not budging an inch huddled up in a fetal position his body desperately trying to conserve its heat.

"Who is this?" She asked herself. Swooping down to get a better look at the poor dear she touched down with practiced ease and went to get a closer look at the mysterious? Stallion she guessed. As she reached him she continued to scan his dreamscape. She couldn't make head's or tale's of half the stuff he was dreaming about so she just assumed that whatever he was, he had a wild imagination.

"Very peculiar." She mumbled to herself. Without a moment's hesitation, she scooped the sleeping creature up in her magic, slung him across her back and headed off to the castle. She had lot's of questions and she wanted answers.

Canterlot Castle.

Rainbow's had to turn in for the night. She watched as Pinky Pie continued to party her little heart out and laughed.

"She's going to crash so hard in the morning." She mumbled. As she turned to go to her room, however, she was stopped by a pair of Sable colored eyes.

"Wow!" She said as she leaped back to keep herself from running over the unfortunate pony. The pony, another pegasus by the look's of his wing's which shot out in surprise backed up a few paces.

"I am so sorry!" They both said in unison. There was a small awkward silence that followed but was cut short by the stallion as Dash got a better look at him now cleared his throat.

"So sorry about that-" He stopped as he fully realized just who he had almost bumped into.

"Dash?" He asked ash he looked at her with wide eyes. Rainbow for her part drew a blank. Then she got a good look at his coat.

"Wait a minute? Yellow coat, red mane, and a tail with both color's." Her brain jumped.

"Hot Shot!" She said giving him a warm smile. He returned it and the two gave each other quick hug.

"Wow Dash long time no see huh?" He asked as he began to make his way to the guest towers. Seeing that they were going the same way Dash decided to accompany him till she got to her own room.

"Yah long time." She said remembering her day's at junior speedster flight camp. She chuckled.

"So still the fastest mare in Equestria?" Shot asked as the two walked down the hallway. She smirked.

"You bet I am." She said striking a pose. Shot snickered at her antic's and rolled his eye's.

"And apparently still the attention grabber." He tacked on. She laughed and nodded. The two caught up with each other and by the time they had made it to Rainbow's room they had almost gone over there whole life's up till this point.

"Wow, so you're the head weather pony in ponyville?" Hot Shot said looking at Dash with interest. She nodded her head.

"You bet. It's a pretty easy gig once you get used to it." She said grabbing her door knob. She let out a long yawn which Hot Shot returned.

"Wow, Dash you seem to be full of surprise's." He said looking back to down the hall. He shook his head and sighed.

"Well it's been fun catching up with you," Dash said as she leaned on the door frame. Hot Shot chuckled and nodded his head.

"Yah it was." He said looking a tad bit nervice. "Hey, Dash are you doing anything tomorrow?" He asked looking a little flustered. Dash was too tired to notice but she gave him an answer anyway.

"No. Not much. Just going to chillax after handing Discord his own flank." She said nonchalantly. Hot Shot's eyes went wide.

"Wait, what?" He asked looking stunned. Rainbow waved it off.

"Ehh I'll tell ya more about it tomorrow. See ya." She said walking into her room and shutting the door. Hot Shot stood there and then he slowly began to make his way to his own room. Then he began to tremble in excitement.

"Yes!" He said pumping a fist into the air. He was going to go to bed with pleasant dream's tonight. Next Chapter: Chapter 1: Stranger in a strange land. Estimated time remaining: 57 Minutes