Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony, I'm just a fan amusing myself
It had all begun with Megan. Although the ponies hadn't realised it at the time, they had set themselves on a slippery slope bringing her over the rainbow. And of course, after Megan had come Molly and Danny, all harmless and a novelty for the ponies. Then the human children had found a way to come over the rainbow without the assistance of the Pegasus ponies. In hindsight the ponies realised that they should have been more alarmed at this development but at the time it had been exciting and they would never have passed up the chance to spend time with their friends. But hindsight is a privilege only for those in the future and is a long way off when the decision is made.
It was getting hard for the adult ponies to call Baby Lofty and Baby Northstar "babies" anymore. Their legs were long and elegant, their soft baby fluff long gone, replaced with sleek shining hair and their wings had developed from short feathery stumps to being strong and powerful, with arching feathers that lifted them high into the sky. Like all young pegasi they often travelled far from Dream Valley, testing their strength, speed and agility to its limit, soaring wingtip to wingtip over the surrounding countryside.
On this particular flight with a strong westerly wind behind them the young ponies had travelled much further then they had ever ventured before. With the sun beating down on Lofty's coat of yellow and Northstar's of pink they were swooping happily over a forest, occasionally looping the loop out of sheer joy of being alive. Baby Lofty, seeing a clearing in the dense wood, dropped down to land, Baby Northstar closely following her friend. The floor of the clearing was cool grass, scattered with wild flowers and rays of the hot sun filtered through the over hanging leaves, causing a dappled effect on the ground and the ponies coats.
"Whoa, did you see my double loop the loop? I am so fast!" Lofty declared as she kicked up her heels and pranced on the grass.
"Yeh, you're fast, but I'm faster." Northstar was hovering just above the grass smiling.
"No way! If we didn't have that tail wind there was no way you could have kept up with me today 'Star," Lofty rose into the air to look Northstar in the eyes.
"Wanna bet?" Northstar's eyes glinted as her grin got wider, "Well I'll race you back right now, into the wind, and we'll see who gets back first shall we?"
"Well, I'd feel awfully guilty leaving you behind," Lofty teased, "Anything could happen to you if I wasn't around."
"You?! Leave me behind? I think it would be you that would be watching my tail disappear over the horizon if we had a race! Are you scared Loft?"
"Scared? Me? Pah! You know that..."
Lofty was cut off as a loud explosion rocked the woods. Birds that had been settled in the treetops took off in shock at the sound and flew squawking and shrieking over the youngsters' heads. Lofty, her Pegasus flight instinct taking over started to rise with the birds but Northstar tackled her to the ground and they cowered side by side until the noise had died down. Lofty lifted her head and looked at her friend, her heart still racing and her breathing shallow and fast.
"Why push me down? The birds fly when they're scared." Lofty wasn't quite sure why she was whispering but she didn't want to speak any louder.
Northstar also spoke in an undertone, "Wind Whistler advised me that when we are further away from Dream Valley it's best not to draw attention to ourselves when we are faced with things we don't understand. He says that in some places there may be times when it is best to stay earthbound and sometimes we should fight our instincts to take to the air." Northstar paused and took a few more sharp breaths as she nervously looked round the clearing, "He said a lot of other things but I can't remember them all."
Lofty snorted softly, "Sounds like Wind Whistler." There was another pause as the ponies strained their ears for more sounds.
"Well it sounds like it's safe now." Lofty said as she rose to her feet. "But what was it?"
The pegasi stood touching each other, their ears pricked and flicking in all directions their eyes desperately scanning the clearing for any sign of danger, their breathing still rapid and their hearts pumping so quick it felt they would burst. There was a shaking in the bushes opposite them and they both cowered, frozen with fear to the spot.
What burst into the clearing was monstrous to the ponies eyes and Lofty let out a small scream. There before them, blood caked and limping with crazed eyes and one wing ripped from her delicate body was a pale green flutter pony. She gasped and rasped, struggling to drag air into her lungs and froths of foam around her muzzle were tinted with flecks of blood. The flutter sank to her knees in the centre of the clearing her glazed eyes not seeming to acknowledge that the pegasi were even there. Northstar made a hesitant movement towards the horrendously injured pony at which point she raised her head and focused on the young ponies.
"Run!" she struggled to speak, "Get away, don't let them see you." The flutter pony collapsed onto her side with the final effort of speaking. As she crumpled onto the ground the trees on the far side shook with a number of explosions the same as the first but much, much closer.
Northstar felt that the air had got thick as the sound filled her ears and although she had never heard the sound before it filled her with terror, all she wanted to do was fly and run, just get away from whatever it was that was causing it. She put her head down shaking it to try and rid herself of the fear that had taken over, her ears flat against her skull, her eyes bulging from the side of her face. Without thinking she turned and dived into the trees away from the sound.
Lofty, also filled with panic had half risen in the air and was ready for flight when she saw Northstar plunge into the thick forest. Even in her half-crazed state a thread of sense prevailed in Lofty's brain and she dropped back to the ground and galloped madly after Northstar.
Once in the trees the forest was a very different place from that in the clearing. The thick impenetrable canopy of the branches above meant that no rays of sun reached the ground. Dead branches, which had perished from lack of sun, had grown sharp and hard, they scraped at Lofty's skin as she pushed her way through. The ground was no longer blanketed in new grass and wildflowers but was a pulpy mess of dead leaves and mud. Lofty saw Northstar stumble ahead of her on a root that had risen like a gnarled hand to grab at her. In the few moments that it took Northstar to recover her footing Lofty had reached her and they dashed forwards together.
The pain that whipped through Lofty's body was sudden and unbearable. It felt like the flesh and bones on her flank just below her wing had exploded. She let out a heart-wrenching howl of pain that stopped Northstar in her tracks. The pink pegasus looked at her dear friend in shock as Lofty staggered to keep herself upright. It was obvious to Northstar that her friend couldn't outrun their pursuers' and their frightful weapons that caused such effortless maiming of a pony's body. For a moment she was torn between the conflicting desires to stay with and protect her friend and her own self-preservation instinct to flee. But the moment passed and Northstar's anger on behalf of her friend took over, she wanted to cause pain to whatever it was that was following them, visions of the dying flutter pony were in her head as she half-galloped and half-flew at the hunter's behind her. Taken by surprise they had no time to prepare their weapons as Northstar descended on them fighting with all four hooves and her bared teeth, muscular wings pounding the air, causing the debris on the ground to fly in their faces and the sharp branches to tear at them. In the chaos Northstar barely had chance to be register that she was fighting humans.