I was running through a dark haze. “Dusk? Fire?” I caleld out to my friends. I was scared, and I needed someone to be there with me. I hate being alone. Then I saw a shadow in the distance. It looked like a unicorn, about my size. “Hello? Twilight, is that you?” I called out. The shadow extended a pair of big wings. An Alicorn? “Celestia? Luna?” I guessed. The shadow stepped forward, and I saw the scariest thing ever: Me. I was HUGE! I had to step back a bit. It was me, but somehow, it carried an evil aura. It’s eyes were dark as a void in space. His mane flowed along with an imaginary breeze, making it look like black and blue flames. It was cool, but scary all the same. “Like what you see?” It asked menacingly. I could feel my whole body shaking.“Welcome. To your future.” With that, my evil doppleganger leaped at me. I was too paralyzed in fear to move. I closed my eyes and braced for impact. Then, there was nothing.

~~~~~

I opened my eyes, to see that I was lying in bed. My head was turned, and I was looking out of the blacony window in my room in the castle. I sighed in relief. Just a nightmare, Luke. You’ve had worse. My headache from the previous night subsided but something felt wierd. I remember coming to when still at the club, and still dancing around like I was okay, and then drinking more, but that’s all I remembered. I tried to get up, but something prevented my from raising my body. I looked down at the covers. There was a huge, pony-shaped, breathing lump that was right next to me, and I could feel a head on top of my chest. It shifted a little, and some dark blue hair peeked out a little.

My eyes widened with uncertainty as I uncovered myself. Luna was snuggling against me, and her head was unconciously nuzzling me. WHAT THE BUCK HAPPENED LAST NIGHT? My mind was going crazy until I heard a voice in my head say, So you’re finally awake. It was Luna’s voice. It was just like the time she did so in the market the day before. Luna’s eyes opened, smiling up to me. Then she realized that she was cuddling me. She immediately pushed away. “Sorry.” She was blushing. I had no doubt I was blushing, too. “Hey, Shadow!” I heard a familiar voice call by the balcony. The balcony door opened and in entered Raziele. His eyes landed upon the princess next to me in bed. Before Luna or I could explain, the pegasus just started laughing his wings off. He sobered up after a while. “I needed that today after that harsh hangover. I came back to check on you guys, and I was passing you two in the hall. You didn’t even see me. I remember watching Shadow going into his room, then Luna sneaking in after.”

“I must confess,” I heard the indigo alicorn say. “I did sneak in. But I didn’t do anything! I was just too drunk to teleport, let alone walk, back to my own room, so roomed with you.” And then my day got even better. “Yo! Shadow!” Dusk Star entered the room. And like Raziele, he started laughing. “I KNEW IT!” I started refuting his ideas, but he kept insisting upon me and Luna as an item. With that, I got out of bed, cantered over to the unicorn, and bopped him of the back of his head.

“Luna? Where are you?” I heard Celestia’s voice nearby. All of us immediately turned extremely quiet, and Luna teleported, most likely to her quarters. Celestia peeked in my room a second after. “Pardon me, Shadow, but have you seen my sister?” She asked. We all shook our heads. She thanked us anyway and left. “That was close.” I said, lying back in relief. “Why are you still in bed?” Raziele asked. “Too busy snuggling?” Dusk joked. I shot him an glare, and he took as a message to leave, which he did with his eyes downcast. I could tell he was still laughing on the inside.

“You see Raze, I’m the kind of pony that hates waking up early. And it takes a while for me to get out of bed.” I responded. I’m always cranky. I’m not a morning person. Or pony. Neither is Zack. But Lara is definitely one. She would be awake an hour before us, cooking and cleaning at 7:00 even on a Saturday. “Let me rephrase.” Raziele had a serious look on his face. “Why are you still in bed when you know we have training to go through?”

“Oh.” I completely forgot. Curse these ponies, they cause me so much stress.“Let’s go.” He yanked off my bed sheets completely. He took my front leg, and started dragging me to the balcony. Once we got there, he stepped up onto the rail that bordered the balcony. “Join me up here, will you?” He said. I did so. It took a while, but finally I managed to balance myself on the rail.  “Good.” Raziele commented. “At least you’ve got balance.” Then he looked straight into my eyes and gave me a mischevious smile. “Now let’s check reaction time.” With that, he shoved me off the railing casually.

Have you ever had a moment where you think and say something at the same time? Well this was one of those moments. What was I saying and thinking, you ask? This: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!!!!” The ground started to become closer with every breathe I took. Then I realized: I’m an Alicorn! Flap your darn wings! I willed my wings to extend. My descend slowed drastically. I started to glide in a straight line in the direction of Ponyville. I heard Raziele beside me, yelling. “Good job! Celestia said you might be a little rusty at this.” I smiled and nodded. “Where are we going?” I yelled back. He was about to respond when a voice yelled, “Did you two forget us?” I turned to my other side and saw Fire Storm and Rainbow Dash. “Oh...hey there Fire Storm.” Raziele greeted sheepishly. An idea popped in my head. Why was he being shy all of a sudden?

I gave sly smile to my soldier friend, and got a glare in return. I started laughing. “We need to head back!” Rainbow Dash finally spoke up. “Anypony up for a race?” Raziele and I were too tired to, and we both leaned left to casually glide back to the castle grounds. Fire was up for it. “What?”I looked at her incredlously. She just stuck her tongue out at me in response, and then started rubbing her front hooves together furiously. Shen then raised them to the sky. Rainbow was skeptical, so she went ahead at an average pace. I was going to ask her what she was doing when she turned and asked me, “Some juice, please?” I smiled and used my magic to summon  lightning to strike her upraised hooves. I thought she was joking, so I made it miss her on purpose, but she flew right under the bolt at super-pony speeds and lifted her front hooves to it. Upon contact, her hooves erupted in flames.

“Whoa!” I was seriously scared by that. “Are you okay?” “Remember when I told Sweetie Belle about my Cutie Mark?” She asked. I nodded. “I just proved it to be true.” Before I could start lecturing her about how dangerous that was, and how close she to death or injury, she flew with top speed after Rainbow. As she flew, the fire spread all of her body, including her wings, mane, and tail. And like she described to Rarity’s sibling, she looked exactly like a flaming arrow. I must admit that it was SO AWESOME!!!!!

*Lara’s Perspective*

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was cruising past Rainbow LIKE A FREAKING BAWWSSSS!!!!

I could feel the fire tickling my entire body, the wind flowing through my mane. When I passed by Rainbow, all I heard from her was, “Whoa!” I turned to see her right next to me a second later. “That’s pretty cool, Fire Storm!” I smiled at the compliment. I was racing and was being complimented by my favorite pony!

*Zach’s Perspective*

I saw something like a comet zooming towards my direction. I was in the Canterlot Gardens, right next to the castle. I was helping Twilight catalog some stuff, and we had Spike to help us as well. I wasn’t paying attention much, so, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.

“Dusk.” I heard Spike calling me. I turned to see him looknig at the same thing I was previously. “Is that comet? And what’s that behind it?” “WHERE?” Twilight ran in front of me with a magically levitation microscope. “That’s cool! That can’t be a comet. It’s too close to the ground. Wait a minute, that looks like...” She looked intently through the microscope. “GET DOWN!!!”

Spike, Twilight, and I were suddenly pushed back by a strong gust as Fire Storm and Rainbow Dash zoomed past. Then Rainbow stopped, and watched Fire go off into the sunset.I saw Raziele and Shadow Blitz coming behind her, who looked like they were arguing.

*Returning to default narration (Shadow’s perspective)*

"You like Fire Storm.” “No, I don’t. “ “Yes you do.” “No.” “Yes. “No!” “Just admit that you like Fire Storm and I’ll lay off.” “I don’t admit to false ideas.” “Dude, you became Fluttershy when you saw her. Explain that.” “I...I’m just not good with new ponies.” You’re a guard. You guard the princesses and escort them to foreign lands. You meet new ponies all the time. Your argument is now void. I win.” “No. You lose. I don’t like Fire Storm.” “Do you hear that, Raziele? Because I do.” “Hear what?” “THE OVERBEARING SOUND OF DENIAL. Ooh, the scary guard look, whatever shall I do?” “Stop assuming things, Blitz” “Start admitting things, Raze.”

We argued like that ever since Fire Storm and Rainbow Dash were out of earshot. For once, I could make fun of him in revenge of laughing at me this morning. I saw Dusk Star waving at me. He was standing next to Twilight (I was laughing on the inside. Twilight was Zack’s favorite pony, can't wait to see how that plays out). I was about to say something to him when I was cut off by Fire Storm’s crash. She crashed, laughably, into Raziele. When they fell to the ground by Twilight and Dusk, I started laughing at the pegsus duo. Rainbow Dash joined me, but probably just because she thought the collision was funny.

Rainbow and I landed next to Twilight, and soon enough, the rest of the Mane 6 had arrived for a little social gathering. I talked to Applejack and Fluttershy. I liked talking to Applejack a lot, mostly because of her accent. Also because I had a farmer’s background. We shared our ideas in growing and tending to gardens and whatnot. Fluttershy was, well... shy of course. She wouldn’t talk to me, probably because it was my phone that she was scared by in the Everfree. In the end, we got into a nice conversation about animals. I love animals, and even had a few pets in my youth, so I was glad to share my stories about them with Fluttershy. Suddenly, there was a loud blaring noise, like a call to arms. Raziele immediately stopped talking to us, and listened intently to the alarm. “That...does not sound good.”

~~~~~

Within a matter of minutes, we cantered the Royal Sister’s audience/throne room. The two Alicorn princesses were there, talking to each other sternly. They looked up to see us approach them. “Twilight,” Celestia began. “We have an emergency crisis on our hooves.” Before she could get into any more detail, Luna cut in. “There’s an Ursa Major on the loose. Not a Minor like that Trixie pony fled from, but a full grown Ursa Major. We’ve sent out soldiers, but there is to no avail. It seems to have special powers that they cannot get past.

I looked to Dusk. His eyes were wide with fear. I read a fanfic involving a magically powered U. Major, and how it destroyed all of Ponyville. It was one of those Grimdark stories that weren’t as bad as Cupcakes, but still had a mark on our brony minds. I take it he remembered reading it as well. “Dusk?” Twlight waved a hoof in front of Dusk’s scared face. “Dusk, are you in there?”

“Uh...” The unicorn started, then looked back with focus to Twilight. “How are we going to take it down if even the guards can’t take it?" Celestia and Luna looked to each other with extremely worried expressions. "We were hoping you three could help Twilight and her friends with the monster, supporting them whilst using the Elements of Harmony.The only problem is..." Celestia paused. Hooray for dramatic effects.

"What?" Twilight asked. "What's wrong Princess?" Luna answered for her sister, "The Ursa Major is making its way to you library home, Twilight, where the Elements are being kept." At this, the Mane 6 looked at each other with disbelief and horror. The only things that could help them save the world was the target of a strong, malevolent creature. "We'll..." Rainbow Dash began. Then she swallowed her anxiety, and said a little more confidently, "We'll do our best, Princesses! We WILL take down that monster!"

And with that, Celestia's horn lit up with magical aura, and a second later, we were outside Fluttershy's cottage, on the outskirts of Ponyville, at the edge of the Everfree Forest. 'Sorry,' I heard Luna say in my head. 'The Ursa's wierd power won't let us place you any closer to the Elements. Please, be careful, and may the odds be ever in your favor.'

We made our way into town, or at least, what was left of it. Only a few ponies were left, and they were the ones evacuating. Then, the ground shook underneath us, making us jump. We heard an evil laughter, which sounded eerily familiar to me. We turned and saw the Ursa Major: huge, purple, starry, and covered in menacing dark, shadowy armor. Riding on its helm was a pony, who was surrounded by a dark blue aura, and riding along the aura... were the Elements of Harmony. Next Chapter: Enter Meet-The-Villain and Almost-Killed Chapter Here Estimated time remaining: 31 Minutes