Humans. They were the once dominant species of Terra, but now the fair citizens of many countries had changed into something new, something magical. For some humans, these alterations were the beginning of the end, 'Judgement Day', as many fanatics called the start of the new era.

Still, magic changed this view, too. Members of the newly arisen races were infused by basic knowledge about themselves, the foundation of a new culture. The original fear of the former humans was erased by the magic of their planet. They started to embrace it in all its forms.

The remains of mankind had to choose; to adapt in this new world, or to live further in illusions and ignorance. Luckily, many chose the first option. In some cases their own form of magic awoke, with a basic understanding of how to use it. But they had no tutors and were forced to experiment a lot on their own.

Needless to say, more than a few unfortunate souls died horribly in magical accidents and innocent bystanders had to pay the price many times too often as well. Other humans couldn't use their own magic, but were interested in this new energy and its possibilities. They all tried to manage their new fate in their own way. They wanted to live in peace with the other races and tried to build relationships with them. Indeed, the brave men and women wanted to discover and to experience the wonders of a new world.

It all would need time.

But sadly, as always, a good share of people couldn't, no, they didn't want to see reason. For them, this was unfair. Why did that have to happen to them? What kind of cruel entity decided to punish them? To take their livelihoods, their hard work, away from them? Why should they simply accept these changes when they could fight them instead? They were their own masters, tamers of a whole planet, and wouldn't surrender this easily. They would gain victory once more in the end and win, like mankind always did.

Then there were humans, who refused to live in this ‘twisted’ world. There existed various paths they picked the most.

For one, they couldn't live with these forced and sudden changes and took their own lives. A great wave of suicides were committed. Some of them did it not, because they couldn't handle their new reality, but because they were completely sure this was all just a very bad dream, a hallucination, a trip caused by poisoned alcohol, drugs or lastly, a coma. So they thought they could wake up with killing their dream-selves, the results were all the same.

A deadly mistake.

Or they thought that everything was caused by some biological weapon of the military or aliens. In both cases they started to kill everyone who didn't look like a human. A lot of insane and extreme humans lived out their darkest emotions and ways of thinking. Xenophobes, humans, who thought that mankind would in the end endure and would always be superior to others and everything as the master race. Terrorists, who wanted to erase the plague, these heretics, in the name of their God. Then there were militarists, who simply wanted to take back their home from the invaders.

This self-proclaimed 'last resistance' didn't last for long, in most cases, because the magic took away most of the weapons the humans once owned. Animals, plants, elementals, the land itself, creatures of death and decay or the occasional pissed off member of the other races who was attacked, fought, hunted and killed them in their own ways. One of the newly founded troll tribes developed the disturbing habit of collecting scalps from their victims and made it a tradition to wear them around their necks. Many of these trophies were from the humans who went berserk.

There were even people, who killed other humans, just because they could use magic. They had to be killed off in their eyes, to clear their world from these ‘monsters’, these ‘freaks of nature’.

Third. They completely shut down and decided to live in their own world. An illusion made of the former. When something happened outside of this bubble, then they thought of a ‘logical and scientific explanation’. A fully grown dragon could land right in front of them in all its glory and they would admire the ‘special effects’ in response. Until the very end they would refuse to see the truth, no matter how painful their demise.

Men were creatures of habit, after all.

Fourth. Many assembled themselves in groups of ‘fellow humans’, took everything what was still of use and emigrated to find a new place, where only humans would live in peace and quiet. They were not aggressive by any means, but their mind was set to remain pure of other races. Not out of hatred for them, but in remembrance of their former world, as a monument to human history, sort of.

Fifth. Because most governments over the world broke apart and social rules could no longer be kept up and punishment be distributed for criminals, many saw their new situation as a Carte Blanche. They could kill, torture, hurt, rob, rape and organize themselves in groups of raiders and had no fear of laws to order them around, at least in their opinion.

The magicians themselves had to go into hiding, because they were feared, tried to help others or organized and founded magic-friendly societies.

Many country names were altered by their new inhabitants. For example the former country of Zebrica was now called Jin'Thala, because most of the former humans were now Trolls there. The new name was an idea from their new mother tongue, they learned because of the magic, Tro'ju.

Greece, now inhabited by minotaurs, was now called Magoth. A similarity to Equus was their own language. It was the same like the language from the minotaurs of Taurien, Minon.

The land, formerly known as Neighico, to the south of the USA, was now the land of the dwarves. It was now called Oriom, as their language was named Irom.

It happened all over the world, but some recreations were closer than others to Sunset and her team, still unknown to the group.

Later in history, the first days of the new era were known under many names, but most translations resulted in the titling: ‘The Dawn of Magic’.

In a cold country, north of Amarerica, were the merciless lands called the Frozen North. Only the most adventurous humans lived there. A little over 80,000. Many less than in their southern neighbor's country. Now their inhabitants were solely transformed into orcs. The Frost Orcs, to be exact. Their new culture was shaped by the ways of honor and war, true warriors. The orcs called their lands these days the Glacial Tundra, because they thought it fit perfectly.

A normal orc was taller as a human, around 6'2” feet to 7'5, they all had the same steel blue skin color in different shades, from pale to dark in their range. The male orcs were much more muscular than humans in general, male and female orcs both, but the later not by much. It would still be foolish to underestimate the orc women. They had less strength than the men, but weren't worse off in any sense. They were born for the tundra; they learned to hunt the new animals and avoided the most dangerous of beings and places. They nearly didn't feel the biting cold at all. Furthermore, their teeth were sharper and a little longer, but they still looked more human than the teeth of a wild predator. The orcs also largely kept their previous intelligence, though didn't necessarily have reason to flex it overmuch.

They had problems with use of electricity, because fossil fuels disappeared after the changes in their land and generators died for a, to them, unknown reason, so they used their newly found abilities. And candles. A lot of candles.

Their mages were called shamans, who could call upon the power of the five elements, but they could only summon lesser elementals. The orcs didn't know it yet, but more intelligent elementals could only be summoned with a lot of effort and they only used enough magic for the lesser versions, as that was all they needed. And they could only summon lesser elementals who weren't bound to a master. It was a blessing for them. Otherwise the Elemental Lords would find them. Besides that, they had warriors, hunters and warlocks as forms of military, all with their own kinds of abilities. Other orcs were ‘civilians’, with normal jobs, but all were anything but defenseless.

The capital of their land was now called Gorion and after a month of fighting and searching for a worthy ruler they found one. Or more precisely, her.

As a human she was formerly known as Chrysalis, leader of the Changeling Syndicate, an organization which was known for its cunning and their ability to train spies, who could infiltrate enemy territory perfectly. The syndicate was infamous and had an old history in the world, but that was unimportant nowadays after everything changed. The syndicate was disbanded to give the former employees time to understand their situation and to choose a new path in life. Chrysalis was bestowed with the powerful abilities of a warlock and in the end she could kill every opponent in highly viewed battles for the position of the leader, king or queen of their kind.

It was glorious.

She survived and was now called Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Frost Orcs. She was very tall, even for an orc, at 7'6”. Her skin was a very dark shade of steel blue and she wore sturdy pitch black robes and elegant shoes. Over the robes rested dark purple armor, covering her shoulders, arms, and chest. It was made of a new mineral the orcs found in their land in mines. She had emerald green colored eyes and was a little more muscular than other orc women, a testimony to her fitness. Chrysalis's hair stayed the same dark shade of green, like it was the case during her former life as a human. It reached down to her lower back in a very smooth form.

She founded the Honor Guard, her personal elite soldiers, who were trained as an elite force and followed her every order. Her subjects wanted to conquer new lands. Not much, but enough to expand their territory beyond the Glacial Tundra and to have a better defensible front with a high wall. After the changes of the country, parts of the frozen land defrosted. These were places where the orcs could build upon the hard earth. They created there farms, fortresses and bunkers, made of steel, stone and other materials.

But until now they could only be built around their capital. Some places were still too dangerous for building something bigger, because of the local wildlife. They managed to construct a lot in the last two months. It helped, of course, that they had more endurance and strength than humans, even with still-existing machines. The warlocks and shamans could summon demons and lesser elementals to help with the construction work, but they were summoned as familiars and couldn't hurt anyone, even if they wanted to.

Soon enough, Queen Chrysalis, also known as Queen Icefang in the language of the orcs, would build an army, but only after all preparations were finished. Then they could take more land for themselves, more earth to farm food and they would gain honor, respect and victory in battle.

Diplomatic relations with the USA were always difficult in the past, because their politicians didn't see any bigger advantages and looked at funding for projects as a waste of money in the so-called ‘Frozen Wastelands'. Since the start of the new era, economical relations were partly disrupted. Not only between their countries, but all over the world, from what her last information claimed, before everything stopped working. For her and her fellow orcs, it was time to visit their friendly neighbours and to show them the might of the Frost Orc Clan.

Indeed. One day.

The Pie Family was always able to pull through. Igneous Rock Pie, the patriarch of his family, was sure of that. He and his wife, Cloudy Quartz, sold diamonds, rare stones and other kinds of minerals and sculptures made of stone in their own shop, their emporium. His children helped sometimes, in their own ways.

Maud Pie, his eldest daughter, studied geology, visited her family frequently during the holidays and searched for good rock samples in her free time. She was always calm and coolheaded.

Limestone Pie, his second eldest, went to college and helped most in the family business, her only problem was her tendency to get angry. Very easily.

Marble Pie, his youngest daughter, visited middle school, was very shy and soft-spoken and she loved to help them, but had trouble making eye contact with customers. Sometimes at all.

Lastly, there was his second youngest daughter, Pinkamena Diane Pie. He was proud of her, like he was proud of all his children, but she didn't like to work in the family business and wanted to concentrate her energy into parties and backing. It was her decision in the end and he would support her, like a good father should.

He was kind, but strict. His daughters had to be prepared for all situations in life and he would protect them with all his being. Occassionally Pinkamena worried him. She acted very fragile when she couldn't make a person smile. It hurt him to see her like that. He always hoped her employment in Sugarcube Corner would teach her important lessons for life. He really hoped his little Pinkie Pie, as she wanted to be called, was still alive.

The day started like always, opening the emporium, preparing for customers. Marble, Maud and Limestone would help their parents and the work could start. In the early lunchtime they heard them from the distance, screams. Agonized screams of torment. They ran outside and saw them, these... things. Living flames invaded Canterlot, burned down everything in their path and killed the citizens in gruesome ways.

He wondered in this moment if Pinkamena was right all along when she always told them about the ‘magical adventures’ she had with her friends from Canterlot High School. Igneous Rock thought that those events were fantasy and nothing more than wild imaginings of her innocent mind. The business was his life's work, but his family came always first, so he decided.

Marble was paralyzed by fear and Limestone tried to appear brave. He ordered his family to go back into the house and to take everything important with them. His wife was scared and confused, but followed his orders. His eldest, Maud, surprised him. She didn't look frightened, but determined. She helped her siblings to grab only the most important things. Water, conserved food, very little clothes, money or papers and they took off. He managed to take the big tent on his back and they all ran to the family car. It was big enough to hold everything. He immediately drove his family to safety, or so was his plan. Pinkamena was safe, at the moment, in Camp Everfree. He hoped so anyway.

They looked like some kind of warriors, in his opinion, with their armor. Some of them saw their car and attacked the family with fireballs. He could dodge every shot for the longest time until beyond the borders of the city, except the last one.

Their back tire on the right was hit and he started to lose control over the car because of the little explosion. He nearly couldn't stop in time, because Igneous Rock didn't look at the street for a few instants. The road was blocked by a fallen tree and behind them the fiery beings closed the distance between their groups. They had to escape on foot.

The Pies used the time and took as much of their remaining belongings on their back and in their hands as they could and started to run. The problem was that some of the beings were much faster than others and one managed to catch up. It just missed them, but the attack surprised Marble too much and his youngest fell from shock.

Igneous Rock Pie was ready in this moment to save his daughter's life, even if it would kill him in process. But Maud was faster. She ran at high speed to her sibling and positioned herself between the creature and Marble. He saw it in his eldest's eyes, an unholy fury he never witnessed before. She was ready to bring suffering to every being, who would harm her family, he felt it. Then it happened.

Maud's entire body, but mostly her hands, began to glow in a brighter shade of grey than her skin and she started to concentrate. He wasn't sure what she planned. His daughter looked like she just had an insight of some kind. The earth under the fire spirit began to crumble away and it fell into a deep hole, after that, Maud let a giant boulder fly above the being as it tried to climb out. It was too late. Maud released the boulder upon it, directly into the hole and smothered their pursuer. One could hear how the armor was destroyed by the stone's weight. The entity was no more.

The patriarch of the Pie Family was never prouder of his daughter.

After everything calmed down, Maud explained her family that something awoke inside of her. She called it, Stone Magic. Before another of these living flames could come for them, they took off with their belongings and ran into the direction of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. They needed to find their last family member. The only bad thing was that none of them seemed to have a phone connection to call their Pinkamena.

"Velvet, I fear we are lost," Twilight Velvet's husband, Night Light, said, clearly exhausted.

"Don't be stupid. We will find our children and if that's the last thing we do. I know they are both OK. A mother feels things like that, trust me. Twily should return soon from Camp Everfree, that's why we are going into this direction. Her school bus has to take this route if they want to return to Canterlot. Shiny is a smart boy and a young police officer, I'm sure he will find us or we will find him, but you know how our Little Star is when something happens and she can't find an explanation," Velvet lectured her husband.

"Don't remind me. She can be very special sometimes.” He laughed in amusement, “But I want to find our children as much as you do and I'm sure Shining is searching for Cadence right now. He always wanted to be her knight in shining armor, no pun intended. It is sad that those creatures destroyed our car first. I didn't even make the first payment. It was new!" Night Light fumed.

His wife looked greatly worried, "I just hope Twilight won't get a heart attack when she knows about that. I mean, living beings made of flame? That sounds like something from a fantasy book. I should know. I write in this kind of genre. That is nothing you could explain with physics, more the opposite."

Night Light chuckled at the memories of their daughter as a child. Kindergarten was surely an interesting time, "I'm proud that she finally made friends, Velvet. I was always concerned that her thirst for knowledge would prevent her from making real friends. After the Friendship Games, Twilight was like a new girl, but I can't shake the feeling that she is hiding something from us. Something important. She was very vague about the games at CHS."

He looked down on his phone, "I can't understand why our cellphones don't work. Then we could at least call them." Both parents were confused at why they never had any connection.

"Well, at least we could save our cards, money and important papers before everything went to Tartarus. Where could we build a new home? I heard Fillydelphia or Baltimare were nice places to live," Velvet mused.

Many things went through their heads, but first they had to find their children.

Moondancer was in Ponyville, she needed to process the information she found. She felt unwelcome in their group and excused herself, but in reality she followed them curiously and listened to their conversation in the barn. She heard every single word. She heard Sunset's explanation in the living-room, too, but that wasn't planned by her at all. Really!

As she saw their very one-sided fight with this Commander Raga, Moondancer decided to come to Ponyville and to look for more information on the internet. Her problem was only that she couldn't get any connection on her phone either. Still, magic? Really? Moondancer didn't want to believe that, but she had no choice. The fire elementals proved it existed more than enough and she knew when she had to accept something.

The others returned to the house, but Moondancer took her car and drove to Ponyville immediately for research. She wouldn't be useless. She would help. She went into the internet café, but there was a big sign in front of the laptops:

"Seriously?" Moondancer feared a pattern. It couldn't be a coincidence that the internet didn't work anymore for several different receivers all at once.

"Moondancer? Is that you?" She turned around and saw the face of a girl she didn't like that much, because said teenager liked to bully Twilight a lot when she was still a student of Crystal Prep.

"Fleur De Lis, you are alive?" The cream colored scholar was sincerely surprised.

"I love you, too,” Fleur deadpanned. “And to answer your question, yes I am alive. It is summer break after all and my parents and I own a summer house here in Ponyville to relax from the big city. Tell me, is it true? Canterlot, I mean? We heard it from people who came here with cars in tears and terror. That, well... things of living fire were the attackers. That was a joke, right?" She was very concerned about the truth of what they said about Canterlot City.

Moondancer felt a little ashamed for how she acted and pulled herself together, "I'm so so sorry Fleur. Everything is true. I saw them, the fire elementals I mean, that's what they are called. They attacked the city without mercy, killed anyone and destroyed anything in their way. I-it was horrible." Her eyes were wet from tears.

"A-and our classmates? Did you see anyone from our class who... didn't make it?" Fleur, too, had tears in her eyes now. They even started to flow down her cheeks.

Moondancer began her tale in a shaky voice, thanks to the things she had to see. She didn't want to talk about it, but Fleur deserved to know the truth, "I'm sorry, I couldn't see much. Crystal Prep was one of the first places they attacked, for whatever reason. There was an evacuation for the summer classes and activities because of an earthquake earlier that day. We gathered at the entrance and waited for the police and the fire department. Our teachers ordered us to wait for further instructions. Suddenly t-they came..." Moondancer sobbed lightly.

Fleur was not into comforting others, but the confirmation of the rumors and the honest despair in her classmate's eyes were more than enough. "I-it's fine. It's not your fault."

The pale teenager continued with a half-smile, "T-the fire elementals shot flames into the rows of the students or charged directly. There were so many screams, people ran over each other in blind panic and terror. I just wanted to flee, so I did, I ran to my car to escape. I think I saw two from our classes... Upper Crust and Trenderhoof." Moondancer shuddered violenty, embracing herself as if it was freezing. "I will never forget their horrified faces when they burned. I always thought of them as snobs, who only cared for themselves, but they never deserved such a cruel death.” She cried, heavily this time.

“I-in the end I just tried to save myself, but many streets were blocked or destroyed by the elementals. On the way I picked up the five girls who represented Crystal Prep together with Twilight in the Friendship Games. You know, Indigo Zap, Lemon Zest, Sunny Flare, Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet. We drove to Sweet Apple Acres, a big farm between Canterlot and Ponyville. Our group is resting there, at the moment, catching our proverbial breaths. The Apple Family is there, too," Moondancer finished her tale, just feeling exhausted and sad.

She thought briefly about mentioning the others from CHS, but decided against it. Some of her fellow students who could escape and witnessed the Friendship Games, blamed the Rainbooms after what happened. Thinking that these fire elementals were somehow enticed by the girls or otherwise somehow connected to each other.

Of course it was a foolish sentiment, but in the end they needed a scapegoat to blame for what they had to endure. No, she wouldn’t risk that Twilight’s friends ended up as targets.

"If I hadn't seen Sparkle's transformation into that thing with my own two eyes at the Friendship Games, then I would call you insane, but many people said the same about what happened in Canterlot, so it has to be true. That is... much to take in, you know? To think, that magic and mythological creatures are real and now these elementals, too. The world really is down for the count." Moondancer never heard Fleur, one of the most beautiful and most popular girls of their school, speaking in such a depressed voice.

Wait... "What do you mean by mythological creatures? I know that there are such beings now out there, but how do you know?"

Fleur was confused by the question, "Didn't you read about the Everfree Massacre? Well, when the internet still worked that is, but my point is that more and more people went missing and the police from Ponyville never found a clue.”

“A-are you serious?!” Moondancer whispered in shock.

Fleur nodded shortly, “Then, a week ago, they finally found traces and followed them into the Everfree Forest. The police went in there with 30 people and only seven came back alive. These seven were survivors, some of them severely injured and all were terrified. They told everyone here how they searched and followed the tracks deep into the forest, finding a giant cave where some of the victims were found and they swore there were manticores, at least three. The first group, which found the cave, entered without backup, because they thought it would be safe.” She paled.

Moondancer gulped nervously, “W-what happened next?”

Fleur shook her head to get a grip before she lost it herself, she saw one of the victims. The sight brought her nightmares, “The rest of them found their first team... brutally slaughtered by those animals In their shock and surprise about what they saw, the officers didn't react fast enough and were attacked by them, too. Before they tried to shoot them, at least four more died, but the manticores had some kind of hard skin, because the bullets of their pistols didn't hurt them at all, only angered the animals. One of them was a cub and the parents were very angry. They had to retreat, but the parents hunted them down one by one, after some time they managed to lose them, but not without suffering more casualties. The police decided to leave the forest and reform anew, but they were ambushed by 10-15 timberwolves. Like real wolves, but made of wood and even more dangerous. In the end, only seven managed to escape the forest." She ended her tale in a for her unusual calm and somber tone.

Ok, that was a lot to take in. Moondancer didn't read any news in the newspaper this morning and she didn't like internet sources. She preferred the printed information, especially books. These were very hard news, indeed.

But why was the internet not working? Wait, she remembered the story from, how was her name? Ah, yes, Sunset Shimmer, that the magic of this world changed literally everything and erased what it deemed as not needed anymore.

The young scientist really hoped that she was wrong with her theory. There was just one way to test it, "Fleur, do you have by any chance a modern version of a sat phone, with internet?"

This kind of sat phone got its signal from the satellites in the orbit, so it should give her internet and the possibility to call someone. Both things were impossible for her since this morning with the normal cellphone. But a sat phone tapped, with help of the satellites, into every mobile station. That would convey to public telephone networks and servers, which provided internet to the entire world. If that wouldn't work...

The young beauty raised an eyebrow in confusion, but decided to play along with her classmate, "Uhm, OK? My parents gave me one, but I am not allowed to use it without a very good reason. Why?" Fleur was slightly worried.

Why would Moondancer ne-then she understood. Of course! Why didn't she think of that?! Her sat phone would do the job!

She took it out of a special pocket in her jacket and gave it to Moondancer, "Be careful, it was very expensive," she warned, reminding more of her normal, snobbish self.

Moondancer activated the sat phone and clicked a few buttons. Fleur helped her with the password. She tried for 15 minutes and her fears were only confirmed further.

Fleur was confused. Moondancer looked much paler than possible, her dark white skin color brightened to snow white.

As she wanted to ask what was wrong, Moondancer cut her off, "Thank you very much, Fleur. You helped me a lot. Now excuse me, I have to return to the others! Bye!"

The intelligent, but untrained, girl ran back to her car in what Fleur guessed was pure panic. She even let her phone fall onto the ground. She picked it up. Seriously, she told Moondancer to be careful, especially because her sat phone was her only possibility to go into the internet now and to talk with her friends in MyStable.

She seriously needed to calm her nerves. Maybe there was something that would let her relax.

The last thing Fleur De Lis saw before she fainted was the screen of her sat phone. The display showed the status for the satellite, internet connection and signal strength for calling someone. It showed in big letters, in form of three messages:

"No internet server found!"

"No mobile station online!"

"No satellite activated!"

The Great and Powerful Trixie was bored. Very bored and annoyed, "OK, Trixie has enough from this farce! Vice-Principal Luna punished Trixie for the anger of others. She has decided to tell her Trixie’s great and powerful opinion about that!"

The enraged teenager left the barn and stormed in the direction of the house. Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, Derpy, Bulk Biceps, Flash Sentry, Snips and Snails followed her. And made a note to watch out for Trixie's temper.

This encounter was certainly disappointing for Sunset Shimmer. She knew she couldn't hurt Commander Raga, because her fire abilities wouldn't make any damage to him, but that their group was this unprepared? Celestia hit him at full force, because of her anger, but he just shrugged it off and got annoyed, not hurt at all. Not even a scratch was found on his armor.

For her, that meant that they still had a long way to go. They had to learn control of their magic and to get stronger, for when they seriously wanted to defend themselves against stronger foes. But Sunset guessed that the outcome was still the most possible one, because the commander had much more experience than them.

At least nobody died.

After he used his magic to stand above them, she felt the energy he started to concentrate in himself. At that moment she was sure that he would kill them all. Instead, without any reason, he just stopped. Did he really want to scare them, or did he just not want to waste his power on them, like he claimed? Sunset found that unbelievable. Why should he show them mercy all of the sudden? When his order was to destroy and burn down the city, then it meant that he had to kill every human he would encounter too, right? Something rubbed Sunset the wrong way about his behaviour before he disappeared through the portal.

Cadence, Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, the Rainbooms, the Shadowbolts, Granny Smith, Big Mac and this time, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, all sat around in the living room to discuss further plans for the future. Most importantly, they wanted to discuss their encounter with Commander Raga.

The three children were now allowed to be in this meeting, because Granny Smith demanded it so, saying that they may be children, but they had to know the truth about the world and its dangers and it shouldn't be hidden from them. Much to the older siblings' and Rainbow Dash's protests, who already had to talk with the girls about the terrible things they saw in Canterlot City. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom slept together with their older sisters since they returned from the town, because of the nightmares.

A long sigh escaped Indigo’s lips, “That was much too close, I really thought he would kill us all.”

"Yeah, I second that. I mean, come on! Ms. Celestia totally shot this guy with her awesome attack and he just didn't care at all," Rainbow Dash supported, annoyed.

"I think we were lucky nobody died in this encounter. He clearly toyed with us and never used his full strength." Cadence looked at Rarity during the first part of her sentence, who sat comfortable on a sofa with her foot on a pillow in bandages.

Luckily for the fashionista, her foot was just sprained and not broken, from what Granny Smith could see, "I absolutely agree, Darling. I certainly thought that that brute would be my demise. Sunset, I could never thank you enough that you saved my life in the way you did. I will repay you in some way, I promise." Rarity smiled gratefully at Sunset. Her sister, Sweetie Belle, hugged the young mage with a tearful smile to show her agreement.

"Oh! Oh! That was amaaaazing! Rarity was like, ‘Ahhhhhh, my ankle!’ and Sunset was like, ‘No! You won't kill any of my friends!’ and Rarity was like-" before Pinkie Pie could continue, Applejack put a hand on her mouth.

"Sugarcube, calm down. We were all there." Applejack looked now at her amber friend, "Ah have to say, that was the plumb craziest thing ya ever did, cowgirl. What in tarnation made ya do that? Ah'm thankful that ya saved Rares 'n all, like we all are. But how could ya know ya would survive?" The young farmer was honestly confused and the others had that question, too.

The transformed Unicorn blushed a little from the attention she got like she was insane after Sunset risked her life in such a way, "Well, I talked with Amara about the magic of a phoenix and she mentioned something about their ability to absorb flames with their body, so I wanted to test it out. Of course, I could have died, but I didn't really think about it in the heat of the moment, no pun intended. I just had the feeling that it would work, you know?” She faced the part time diva, “I couldn't let you die, Rarity, I would have jumped in for any of you," Sunset ended her explanation with a warm smile.

"Awwww!" the teenage girls and Cadence said, touched. Fluttershy, who stood beside the her, gave Sunset a hug, too.

"Still, Ms Shimmer, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't do anything like that again without having proof for a theory or feeling before you do something stupid. In the end it was the right thing to do, but for the future, please keep in mind to be more careful," Luna lectured Sunset in a half-serious tone.

The addressed magician nodded her head to her former vice-principal.

Shining Armor saw Celestia's thoughtful expression and asked politely, “Ms. Celestia, is something on your mind?”

"Hmm? Oh, I just thought about the end of our ‘fight’. Raga dominated us the entire time and didn't use much of his power, let alone fought us very seriously at all, I fear. As his last attack happened, I felt it. He would have destroyed us with that, but he didn't. The question I have now is, why?" the former principal clarified thoughtfully.

"I agree with you, sister. For whatever reason, he stopped his strongest attack because... what? A sudden change of heart? I don't believe that." Sunset, Cadence and Sunny Flare silently supported the statement with various gestures, sharing the siblings’ opinions.

"Maybe he remembered that he forgot something in his stove?" Pinkie added happily, the others groaned.

"Maybe this dude was really bored, like he claimed, and didn't want to kill us anymore?" Lemon Zest said hopefully.

"I don't think so. Something stopped him, but we have no idea what it was, exactly. We can only guess. Nothing more. And we won't know any better in the end. We shouldn't be too ungrateful. We are all alive and that is the most important thing," Sugarcoat mentioned in a well-known monotone voice.

Sunset decided to voice her opinion, "Yes, his behaviour was a little strange, but maybe we are just paranoid.” She sighed. “It's just so frustrating-" she had everyone's attention, "-that we couldn't harm Raga even a little bit. He literally just played with us. I thought after we got these new powers from Equestrian magic and the geodes, we would be able to handle everything better from this point on. Then the invasion of Canterlot happened and the Everfree Forest, Ms. Celestia, Ms. Luna and I got our own magic from this world and I thought after all that it could only go uphill. Again, the meeting with the fire elemental taught us better. That we had nothing on a stronger and more experienced enemy. We have to learn how to use and control our abilities better. Maybe-"

Sunset couldn't continue, because she was suddenly interrupted by someone, who was more level headed until now; Sunny Flare, "Oh, boo hoo. Guess what? You are not the only one with a problem here! You, your friends and your school could adapt to the concept that magic actually was more than a fairy tale for children!”

Lemon tried to calm her down, “Sunny, relax.”

The enraged teenager snorted in contempt, ignoring her classmate, “I won't say the end of our city hit us harder than you, but you have at least a chance to do something, because except for you guys and the former principals, we are all magicless here. How should we handle something like a magical monster? With a nice talk? You can't hold our hands forever or stay in sight the whole time and I refuse to play the helpless 'damsel in distress'!" Sunny ended her emotional rant.

Tears flew down her cheeks and everyone was shocked by her sudden outburst. Cadence walked up to her and embraced the girl, whispering inaudible words of kindness into her ear.

"Don't think too negatively about her outburst, please! We talked about the whole 'magic business' and Sunny doesn't show it, but she is very distraught that she isn't able to fight on her own and instead is forced to watch from a safe distance," Indigo Zap tried to defend her friend, loyally.

Sunset recovered from the surprise and smiled sadly, "Don't worry, I know where she is coming from and I-" Trixie stormed into the house, followed by the others.

"What is the meaning of this?" Luna demanded to know.

"Trixie is sorry, Vice-Principal Luna, but The Great and Powerful Trixie wishes to talk with you! Oh, and the others behind me, too," Trixie explained in a friendly voice, because the others had forced her to act politely.

"What Trixie wanted to say is that we never had the intention to hurt Sunset Shimmer or blamed her for anything, but we didn't voice any objections to the violence, because we couldn't handle the truth at the moment," Octavia tried to convince Luna with diplomacy.

"She is right, and we are sorry, Sunset. We were just shocked from the recent events and it was kind of too much at once. Even though when magic was a common thing at Canterlot High already," Lyra apologized.

"We had to accept that our friends and family were possibly dead, injured or missing, Still, I didn't voice any objections, either. I'm sorry, Sunset." Flash Sentry said with a guilty frown.

"Guys, it's OK. We are fine. I never blamed you for what happened. Some of the other students reacted like this, not you." Sunset looked at the lunar knight, "Ms. Luna, could you pardon them, please?"

"Hmm. When Ms. Shimmer accepts your apologies and you behave, then you can go and return as much as you like. But only as long as we are here and Mrs. Smith is fine with that," Luna reasoned.

"No problem dearie. We haven't enough places for every young 'un here, but they can come and ask questions or for food," Granny Smith agreed pleasantly.

"Now," Celestia started, looking at the students in concern, "What happened during the fight with the other students? I heard some of them went missing."

"Hmph. Most of these cowards hid themselves in their tents, like it would save them. But three took off in blind panic. I have no idea where exactly, I just know that they ran like headless chickens to the west of Sweet Apple Acres," Bon Bon answered her question is disdain.

"That is bad. I'm still angry that they tried to attack and blame Sunset, but there are many unknown dangers now. I fear they won't survive outside for very long," Twilight commented worriedly.

"I think we should search for them. Nobody deserves to die just because a person said something awful out of anger and nothing bad happened in the end," Fluttershy quietly pointed out.

She gave a slight glare in Bon Bon's direction. The kind girl didn't like metaphors where animals were mutilated.

"Well, we have to stay here for at least three days anyway before we can go further, because Rarity has to favor her ankle and should rest," Sunny Flare said, who was calmed down from Cadence's words of support. Regret could be heard in her voice, "I wanted to apologize, Sunset. My outburst was uncalled for. My frustration from the last events just got to me and the encounter with Raga just made it worse. I just felt so useless."

The magician stood up from her chair and put a comforting hand on the teenager’s shoulder, "There is nothing to forgive. I fear I would react in the same way if I would be in your situation."

It got boring fast, in Sunset's opinion. So many wanted to apologize to her for different reasons. They couldn't talk about the important things when the time was wasted with apologies for everything. Still, she was thankful and glad. Thankful that they had her back and glad, because nobody here blamed her for anything.

The door opened again and this time Moondancer stepped in. She looked very nervous and they wondered why.

The red and violet-haired girl thought on her way back about how she could tell them about her findings without the need to tell them that she spied on their conversations. She came to the result that she needed to tell the truth. Otherwise they would lose their trust in her.

"Hey… uhm, there are things I have to tell you. First, I, well, spied on you, twice. But the second time was a complete accident! I swear!" Moondancer was nervous about their reactions and as she feared, they started to laugh. Wait, what?!

"Sugarcube, we're no dark cult. Ya can always listen, come to talk, or voice yer opinion," Applejack replied while chuckling.

"Jackie is right, silly. We can have more fun when you are here and don't hide, only when you play 'hide-and-seek',” Pinkie said joyfully. Then she added, “Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me! I want to be it! You can hide and I will seek, or I will hide and you seek me out! Or maybe we could hide together and we seek the perfect hideout, or we-" Rainbow Dash put a hand on the party lover’s mouth.

"Pinkie Pie, we get it!" the athlete exclaimed.

Moondancer blushed for causing a scene, "T-thank you for the offer, but there is something very important I have to tell you. As you all know, the magic in this world changed, or still changes, everything into something new that it likes and erases everything the magic dislikes from the 'old world'."

The ex-student explained her findings in Ponyville and the story of the 'Everfree Massacre', much to their shock and the children's disgust. She earned herself an evil eye and promises of a later talk in private through eye contact from Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, for that.

Afterwards, she told them about her meeting with Fleur De Lis and her theory about the cellphones and the internet, followed by the proof through the sat phone. The reactions ranged from terror to utter confusion, or from disbelief to anger. Except one person. Moondancer didn't tell them about the things she saw in Canterlot. She didn't like to talk about her fears and nightmares with so many strangers.

Most of them already wondered why their devices and the internet didn't work anymore in the last hours. But to have the proof that the magic of this world completely erased satellites from the orbit, internet servers and mobile stations? It kicked the humans back to the old times, when you still had to communicate from person to person. When you had to write actual letters in your own handwriting or read newspapers and real books and couldn't just contact everyone, everywhere, every time.

Preposterous! Social media, e-mail, SMS, MMS, gone!

Rarity knew exactly how to express nearly everyone's feelings, "Of all the things that could possibly have happened this is the WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!" she fainted on the couch. Snips, Snails, Trixie and Lyra did the same on the ground.

What nobody thought about, one of the biggest reasons for the young girl's reaction was much more severe, at least for her: no more online shopping.

"Seriously?! I heard enough from magic-induced alterations and I would try to handle them, but this is just ridiculous!" Sugarcoat expressed her displeasure. This time with the most emotion many of them ever saw from her.

"Oh my..." was the only statement Fluttershy could give.

"It will make things much more difficult, as I feared. Without any means of better communications, we will have problems in coordinating ourselves and we have no possibilities to reach each other in time. If the magic of our world already decided to render simple cellphones completely useless, then I fear how other communication devices like walkie-talkies or radios may have been affected," Cadence said, massaging her temples in annoyance with her hands.

"Walkie-talkies are already useless. I had two of them in my camp equipment, just in case. And they were brand new and worked perfectly. Lyra and I tried them out this morning and they didn't work at all. Not even one little sound. Like they were worse than dead," Bon Bon explained in a deadpan voice. This news shattered one option for a better way of communication.

"Come on! Yes, every country has its own problems and all, but TV still works, right?" Rainbow Dash sounded very desperate. "They still can give us news over it, don't you think?"

"Does this answer your question?" Scootaloo asked in awe and fear.

Everyone in the room looked in the direction Scootaloo pointed and what they saw murdered the last remains of hope. For the first time, they witnessed how the magic of this world decided to erase things it didn't like in the new world. In this case, the TV. A pure white aura manifested around the machine and in a white bright light it literally began to dissolve into nothingness before their eyes, like sugar in water. After this amazing and terrifying event the humans looked devastated, but not the former Unicorn.

"Meh, could be worse," Sunset simply stated with a smile, much to the shock of the others.

"What do you mean, 'could be worse'? Are you crazy?! We are kicked back in a backwater age and you think that's funny?!" Sour Sweet screamed. All who were present looked at Sunset like she was on something.

The former Unicorn groaned, “Alright, I guess I have to come clear with the rest of you guys in some points. First, I originated from a parallel world of magic. I was once a Unicorn. Yes, Flash, that is a thing. Sorry. At home, we didn't have such devices like here at all. We communicated with letters, magical flames for instant teleportation of documents, with each other in person, scouts and a post system. That is all. No fancy technologies in the area of communication. But hey, we have older cameras and trains, so that is a plus”

“Lucky you,” Sugarcoat muttered to herself in thick sarcasm.

“Don't misunderstand me, I certainly liked the inventions you humans had here. But I can easily live without them. I mean, come on guys. Do you really want to tell me that you will break down just because you lost some of your inventions? That the world ends, because you can't use cellphones anymore? You can always communicate in person with each other, that won't change. We can choose scouts or communicate with hand-written letters, maybe we can even find a possibility to use magic to communicate, like in Equestria with magical flames,”

“Magic flames for communication between two separated parties? That sounds amazing!” Twilight added giddily.

Sunset nodded briefly, “It really is. Now, if you would excuse me, I'll come back in a few minutes when you've calmed down." After her little lecture, she left them to find the bathroom.

The humans looked at each other, perplexed at their friend's bluntness and shook their heads in resignation. Sunset was right, maybe, but she would never fully understand their plight.

Three students tried to escape from Commander Raga as he attacked Sweet Apple Acres. One of these students was the normally very relaxed Sandalwood. He didn't know the two others, but he freaked out as he saw that strange, scary looking creature. It was too hardcore, in his opinion, he was sure of it. Sandalwood hoped that the others could escape, too. Fighting that being would be madness.

They ran for a long time and arrived at the forest known as White Tail Woods. But they were safe here.

All of a sudden, they heard branches crack and bushes started to move. Then they came from the top of the trees. Two giant, yellow, orange striped spiders. They were at least 1.8 meters tall, 6 meters in diameter, with glowing brown eyes, big chelicerae to inject poison and the body structure of a bird-eating spider, broad and hairy.

They all screamed and took off. Sandalwood was the fastest. He heard the tormented screams of the others. He was too curious and turned around. The young student with the green dreadlocks wished he didn't. The spiders weren't slow. They caught up to them in a heartbeat and pumped their victims full of venom. Sandalwood ran away in fear. The last things he heard before he was out of their reach were the death screams of the others, as the venom liquefied their organs and the spiders could drink their easy meal.

He ran at full speed, filled with fear and adrenaline, but Sandalwood didn't see the end of his way behind the bushes and fell down a steep hill into a valley.

His entire body hurt from the impact and he fell wrong on his left leg; it was broken. He groaned and opened his tear-filled eyes, still under the effect of the recent events and opened them. But what he saw before him was worse than any nightmare. Spiders like the ones who killed the other two students, but in a much bigger number He guessed he found their nest, or more like their colony!

Sandalwood looked around himself. The valley was full of webs and their producers. The center was formed like a giant downward spiral, full of sharp rocks, strange green ores were hanging around it like some kind of exotic decoration, tons of spider webs and it got darker when he looked down into the depths.

Of course, the arachnids had already noticed the intruder, or to be more accurate, their prey. He knew he would die now. He just hoped nobody would come into this forsaken forest to share his fate. Sandalwood thought one of them would attack, but a loud screech let them freeze in place, he wondered why.

The doomed man didn't have to wait for long, because she came; the matriarch and leader of the spiders.

Her body had a height of 10 meters and a diameter of 32 meters, including her long, thick legs. The coloration wasn't yellow-orange, but a brilliant white, mostly, with black stripes on the eight legs and light blue eyes. Worse, in his opinion, she could speak in a distorted, croaking voice in perfect English.

He wondered in the back of his mind why these spiders lived together in such an organization. Normally a spider hunted alone on its own.

"What do my eyes perceive here? A little human? A little meal, not more, than an appetizer," the matriarch announced, slightly amused.

"Ho-how i-is that po-possible? Yo-you shouldn't exist like that! Spi-spiders can't grow this large!" He was terrified and tears streamed down his face in despair.

The arachnid chuckled mockingly, "Ah yes, I nearly forgot. You humans didn't believe in higher powers and always tried to find an explanation for everything that would fit in your dense worldview. How utterly narrow-minded most of you are, but don't worry I will release you from your existence."

When Sandalwood didn't close his eyes immediately after he was finished talking and hoped for a quick death in his mind, he would have heard the malicious undertone in her voice. The matriarch of the spiders, she called herself Arachne, was a sadist and loved it when her prey screamed in agony before she killed them. So she punctured his skin with her venomous fangs very carefully, but pushed him down with enough force into the ground to immobilize him. Now her fun began. She injected him with her deadly poison, but very controlled and very slowly to prolong the liquefaction process of his inner body as much as possible.

The poor soul suffered the most agonizing torment before the sweet embrace of death consumed him.

After the meeting, everyone went off to go after their own business and to process the news from Moondancer, if still reluctantly.

Sunset's friends, except Rarity, the Shadowbolts, Shining Armor and the principals, wanted to go with her after she volunteered for the search-and-rescue mission, but the young woman told them that predators would find them more easily in big groups. She just mentioned to them the Everfree Massacre. Nobody could say more in protest to her point. They agreed after some discussion that everyone should have a fair chance to contribute.

So they decided to send only two more people with Sunset, but everyone wanted to accompany her. Pinkie Pie got an idea and vanished into the kitchen, much to their confusion, and came back in a few seconds with a glass and 13 little pieces of paper. She told them that she marked two pieces with a cross and whoever picked one would go with Sunset.

Everyone agreed to her idea.

In the end they had the following group: Sunset Shimmer, who had the most control and knowledge about magic in their team, Shining Armor, who decided to tag along for safety measures and lastly Sunny Flare, who wished to do something on her own and to help, instead of staying behind. They formed the team who would search for the three missing students.

"Sunset Shimmer, are you sure you three want to do this?" Luna asked carefully. She and Celestia decided to train their magic control and abilities in the meantime, if possible, in the safety of the orchards before they would move on.

"Yes. We will be fine. We will go, save the three students and return. Just wait for us." Sunset tried to sound convinced, but she had a foreboding feeling. It didn't matter; they had to find them.

Before she could shoulder her luggage, her friends gave her a group hug she gladly returned.

"Please be careful," Fluttershy whispered, worried.

"Don't worry." Sunset looked to Shining Armor and Sunny Flare, who said goodbye to Cadence, Indigo Zap, Lemon Zest, Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes Sunset, where do you want to look for them first?" Sunny Flare inquired curiously.

Sunset closed her eyes in thought and opened them again before she answered the question, "White Tail Woods."

Author's Notes:

Greetings my avid readers!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Now with 20% more character introduction. And spiders.

Thank you very much for reading and stay tuned!