I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Rainbow Dash, the rainbow haired pegasus asked her friend skeptically.
"For the fifth time Rainbow Dash, no I'm not." Replayed Twilight Sparkle, the last free Alicorn said in frustration to her impatient friend. "But we don't have much of a choice. Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance have all been captured and we don't have the Elements of Harmony." Twilight said will continuing her work with a magic circle.
"Twilight's right Rainbow Dash. Have some faith in the plan." Pinky Pie the pink earth pony said as she bounced around the library giggling. But then she stopped. "What was the plan again?"
"What… Pinky Pie it was your plan." Applejack said a bit exhausted from her turn at night look out for the town of Ponyville, which had quickly became the last free town in Equestria. Of course without one of the older Princesses to raise the sun it was always night. "Remember, the call for help plan?"
"Oh yeah." Pinkie Pie said happily.
"You don't remember at all, do you?" Rarity said what everyone had already guessed. Pinkie Pie only giggled to confirm it. Rarity sighed. "We are going to summon a hero to Equestria to help us."
"Wait, so it's a pony from outside of Equestria? Then where do they come from?" Pinkie pie asked.
"I don't know and Celestia forgive me, but I don't care. The texts aren't very specific. People haven't used the summoning ritual in a long time since it was made forbidden, it's only to be used in the most dire of circumstances." Twilight said as she put the finishing touches on the circle.
"Wait, forbidden, why is it forbidden?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously.
"Don't know, the text said something about ethical reasons. I think it is looked down on to call someone to fight your battles for you, but no one involved with the spell gets physically harmed though and we really are desperate. It's only been two weeks worth of night and things are already looking really bad. I don't know how much longer we can hold out at this rate." Twilight said but there was a slight note of guilt. "Now if you all don't mind being quiet I need to concentrate on this. This is a ten year spell so if it messes up we're sunk."
Twilight walked slowly counterclockwise along the outer rim of the circle slowly closing in towards the center of the circle with each cycle. Twilight's horn glowed bright purple and the grow spread throughout her entire body to even the tips of her wings.
She reached the center and a brilliant light shot out in all directions blinding everyone in the room. As the light dimmed and everyone regained their senses they looked eagerly to the center of the room to see what the hero would look like. To their shock and disappointment, there was nothing there.
"What, don't tell me the spell failed!" Rainbow Dash said frantically looking around the room.
"Calm down Rainbow Dash. The spell didn't fail." Spike the baby dragon said as he started to clean up the mess that the magical wind had made.
"Might want to get your eyes checked little guy, there ain't any hero here." Applejack said a little disheartened.
"That's because the spell calls them to Equestria, it was never perfected so I can't call them to this exact spot." Twilight said before sitting down and taking a breather. The summoning spell had used a lot of her magic. "But the spell definitely worked."
"So… how are we supposed to… find him?" Fluttershy asked softly.
"Don't worry about that. I'll get the ingredients for the locator spell in a moment." Spike said bringing Twilight a glass of water. "It will tell us where he is and let us see him."
"I wonder what he's going to be like." Rarity said excitedly. "I do hope he is a tall and handsome stallion." She had a far off look in her eyes.
"How's about we just hope that they can help us out." Applejack said rolling her eyes.
Spike brought out a wide bowl of silvery liquid and placed it in front of Twilight. "You sure you're ok enough to keep using your magic?" He asked the friend that had been there for him since the moment he had hatched.
Twilight gave a weak smile at the baby dragon. "Don't worry Spike. I'll be fine." She got up and moved over to the bowl. Her horn began to glow again and the ripples in the pool began to take form and color began to appear until they had an image of a small forest clearing with a pond in the middle of it. All the girls moved in and stared at the image.
"You have got to be kidding me." Rainbow Dash was again the first to find her voice.
"He… he's just a little colt." Fluttershy said looking wide eyed at the figure of the small pony that was looking into the pond. They couldn't make out many of his features, but he was clearly very young.
"He doesn't look any older than Sweetie Bell." The disappointment was audible in Rarity's voice.
"I… I don't understand. I did the spell perfectly." Twilight said moving to the book and scanning the pages. "Why… why did we get some child instead of… of a… of a hero." She said and nearly through the book to the floor in frustration. "I… I failed. All of Equestria needed that spell to work and I messed up." Tears were coming to her eyes.
"Come on Twi, you gave it your best shot. No one could have done better than you." Applejack said trying to comfort her friend. "Why don't you rest now and you can give that bronco another go later."
Twilight looked at Applejack and shook her head. "No Applejack, I can't give it another try. No one can. That spell leaves a trail on Equestria that won't fade for ten years. And until it's gone the spell won't work. That's why it's called a ten year spell."
"Oh come now Twilight it isn't like we are any worse off than we were before." Rainbow Dash said. "Don't you worry, we haven't lost this yet."
Well the other girls had gone to try and comfort Twilight, Pinkie Pie had stayed by the bowl watching the little pony. "Guys, you might want to see this." Pinkie Pie said slowly.
The other looked up and approached the bowl, but none of them were prepared for what they were about to see.
Danny had woken up after being hit by a blinding light to find himself laying face down in grass. His hands and feet felt numb and his whole body seemed to not want to follow his instructions. He looked up to find that he was in a small forest clearing. He could just make out the stars and the moon in the sky.
'That's odd. There shouldn't be any stars or moon in the Ghost Zone.' He thought as the eerie calm of waking still lay heavy upon him. He turned his head and saw a pool of water nearby. His throat felt parched from the bright light that had transported him to the field. He began to craw towards the pool and stuck his whole head in and pulled it out again to wash the drossiness out of his eyes. When he looked back down to get a drink his eyes widened.
As the ripples in the pool began to settle Danny got a good look at himself in the water. "What the heck." He said as he saw the image of a pony in the water. He had a light yellowish coat with a raven black mane and the same crystal blue eyes that he had always had. He could actually see much of his old appearance in the water with his hair style. He looked back to check if he looked like a pony outside of the pond and saw that he had a black spot on his coat in the shape of a rocket on his right flank.
His reaction was not the same as you would find in most people that had woken up to find that they were suddenly a small horse. "Well this is the fourth most inconvenient thing I have ever been turned into." He muttered as he staggered up onto all fours. "Right after Jell-O, an ant, and Poindexter, man that one was a drag." Within moments he was shifting his weight and hoping back and forth in order to test the new body.
He was starting to get used to the body when he heard a twig snap behind him and he spun around. "Who's there?" he shouted dropping into a stance as best he knew how.
Danny's ears shoot up on his head before he silently cursed his luck. He could hear the soft snickering of what must have been a dozen creatures that had him surrounded just out of sight. "Look at what we have here boys, a little pony so far away from home." A grave voice said and into the clearing came a dark furred hound that had a scar over its right eye. Danny could smell the dirt and filth on the dog. It had jagged teeth and a collar with some kind of black jewel on it.
Danny sized up the dog finding him to be more than twice his size. Danny could smell the fight coming like the stink off the dog. Reaching into himself he grabbed a hold of his ghost core to pull out his powers. But he found the core unstable and unresponsive. 'Just my luck.' The thought looking around as one by one the dogs that had been hiding moved out.
"If you want to sneak up on someone you really should take a bath. I could smell you coming." Danny said his eyes darting around. He was completely surrounded and cornered against the pond. He was willing to bet that dogs could out swim ponies.
"Oh great, a wordy little pony. Well, they never are very wordy after King Sombra gets through with them." The lead hound said bearing his teeth at Danny. "Diamond Dogs, get him!"
The group of hounds rushed forwards in threes but catching a ready Danny Phantom is no easy matter, even if he is in an unfamiliar body and without his powers, he was a skilled and practiced fighter.
Pressing forward Danny moved underneath an outstretched arm and kicked the owner in the jaw as he went. He passed by two more dogs by jumping to the side when they had too much momentum to quickly change directions and so Danny broke through the ranks of the dogs and headed into the thicker woods.
Danny had ran a little when he turned back lightly panting. The dogs were now more spread out and were coming in ones and twos with time in-between instead of all at once. The dogs were large and brutish and not experienced fighters, they were unable to coordinate together or keep up with the young hero.
The dogs had no idea what to do. They were used to just surprising, out running and pouncing on the ponies that they spied. But the small raven-maned pony didn't move like anypony they had ever encountered. Instead of the steady galloping and straight lines, he jumped back and forth as he ran moving more like an antelope than a horse. And he spun and turned in the air like a mountain lion and used the surrounding trees to change directions quickly.
Danny had cut the enemies number in half and the remaining six were sporting blackened eyes and limps when their leader had had enough. "This is ridiculous. It's just one pony!" He screamed. "That is it, call the Manticore."
One of the dogs pulled out a whistle out and blew down hard. Loud crashing came through the forest. Danny had to dodge splinters of wood as a tree exploded as a large creature moved in. "Come on. Out numbering me wasn't good enough for you?" Danny said panting heavily. He tried another pull at his ghost core but the energy fizzled out. It was definitely there, but it felt like he had been hit by a Plasmius Maximus and out of sync with his body.
The huge creature towered over Danny nearly seven times his size. It had the head and body of a lion with bat like wings and a long scorpion tail that danced around over its arched back. Danny resisted the instinct to back away, instead taking the moment of confusion from the beast's entrance to move closer in to be too far inside the monster's attack range to get hit. Danny hugged close to the body, elbowing it and kicking it well moving out of the way of any attempts that the Manticore made at catching him.
But Danny might as well been trying to tenderize a two foot thick sheet of metal for all the good it did him. The Manticore reared up and pumped its wings savagely, blowing Danny back. Danny was now outside the area close to the lion like creature's body that it couldn't hit. Danny had to jump to the side and push himself over the Manticore as it pounced at him by using a nearby tree to redirect himself. But as Danny sailed through the air the Manticore's tail whipped out and struck him over the right foreleg.
Danny hit the ground hard and he tumbled several feet before rolling back up onto all four hooves. But his injure right leg began to jerk violently and he had to shift all his weight off of the leg in order to stop himself from falling. He felt a wave of nausea as the venom from the Manticore's stinger seeped into him. 'This isn't good.' He thought struggling to clear his vision as the Manticore approached.
'I don't have much time until I'll be out cold.' Danny thought. 'I need to finish this quick… but how can I get him. None of my hits are any better than a bee sting.' His eyes shot up to the scorpion tail and he knew what he had to do.
He ran as best he could without the use of his right foreleg to steady him and when the Manticore made a swipe at him with a claw Danny jumped as hard as he could up and over the Manticore's head. He kicked off of the back of the Manticore's head and to a tree behind it. Rebounding off of the tree he grabbed the Manticore's tail him his mouth and dragged it down into the creature's own back.
The Manticore howled and began to trash about but Danny held the tail in. The Manticore slowed as it was overpowered by its own venom and fell to the ground unconscious.
Danny grinned like a madman as he rolled off of the creature. But the smile faded when he remembered that there were six more of the Diamond Dogs waiting for him. The hounds circled around him and his vision blurred making it seem like there were twenty of them. Danny tried to give another push forward but couldn't even get up. The venom of the Manticore overwhelmed his small body and he lost consciousness as the dogs grabbed him.
"That… was… awesome." Rainbow Dash said slowly as they watched the Manticore fall.
"I ain't never seen no pony move like that before." Applejack said equally amazed.
"I guess Twilight really did summon a hero." Spike said grinning. The small pony was like nothing they had ever seen before; he had the speed and strength of Rainbow Dash and Applejack, the precision and grace of Rarity and Fluttershy, and the careful planning of Twilight with the same instincts of Pinkie Pie.
But there grins fell away when the small pony collapsed and was dragged away by the Diamond Dogs. "And now he's being dragged away by the Diamond Dogs to King Sombra." Twilight said depressed again. "I dragged a child into this and now he is going to suffer because of me." Twilight said a tear coming to her eye again. "I should have never used that spell."
"That poor little colt." Fluttershy said quietly looking at the pool before they all went to comfort Twilight. The little princess had tried so hard but she didn't have any faith in herself and thought that everything she did only made it worse. Little did she knew, that the Diamond Dogs were taking the young hero exactly where he needed to be.