Meanwhile, somewhere nearby...
Raine stopped her engine at a nearby park, where she took off her goggles and sighed.
"Hey toots." A voice said behind her, which belonged to a greaser-looking man smoking a cigarette, "You wanna have a good time? Because with a body like that I can show you..." He then winked at her.
"Fuck off, pigfat." Raine snorted without looking at him, getting off her bike and striding over to a vending machine.
"Tch." The man replied, flicking away his cigarette and walking off, "What a bitch..." Within an instant, Raine was suddenly up close to the man, who was clearly startled by her approach.
"Oh, I can be a bitch if I want to, 'toots'. Just try me." She mocked, which she then turned around and started to walk away. Little did she know, the street lights around them started to flicker and burn out.
"...with pleasure..." The man snarled, revealing a set of gnashing, sharp fangs as the air around him shimmered as he started to change behind Raine's back. It happened so quickly, that when Raine turned around, the man had an insectivore-look about him: Wings of a dragonfly, green eyes, and his clothes changed to become battered and hole-ridden.
"Shit...!" Raine muttered, backing away from the man-thing in front of her, which had started to rise into the air, and let out a bellowing roar, causing a rift to open in the sky above them from which more man-things descended from. "Changelings! Where did they come from...?" Without hesitation, Raine dashed for her motorcycle, started up the engine, and sped off, with the changeling horde far behind her in pursuit.
From inside the garage, I heard a bellowing roar echo from somewhere in the distance, followed by a series of green lights flashing through the windows.
"Ah," the woman in front of me purred, "The cavalry has arrived. But that's her problem." In one swift motion, she reached out and grabbed me by my shirt collar and pinned me to the wall. "Oh, I remember this! It was in your...nightmares, right?" She then lifted her other hand and brought it down upon my arm, causing an intense burning sensation to emit from the area. I yelled in pain at the feeling and when the woman removed her hand, an imprint of a eyed-moon was literally burned into the skin of my arm, almost like a tattoo. It was so bad, that blood seeped from the area of the mark.
"What did you do to me?" I asked, clutching my horribly given, 2nd degree-burned arm and wincing in pain.
"I claimed you as mine, what else?" The woman answered, her snake like tongue sliding across her sharp teeth as she stepped back away from me. "Well, I got what I wanted from you, so I will take my leave and let you die here."
"Wait, what?" I stammered, my back hitting the wall as a surge of pain coursed through my body originating from my arm. The woman didn't say anything, and instead faded into the darkness, completely disappearing from existence. As my body hit the ground, I felt myself become weaker and weaker, until the darkness around me closed in and took over my senses. Soon, I blacked out completely.
Raine sped down the street and noticed the house where Jonathan lived. And also a strange, blue-winged woman fly from the roof of it. She then knew exactly who that woman was, and what had just possibly happened.
"Oh no..." Raine muttered as she drove into the driveway a little too fast and burst through the garage door, splintering it in two pieces.
"Jon?" She called out, getting off her bike, "You okay?" It was then she noticed him: lying motionless underneath the fuse box, a bloody mark branded on his arm. His eyes were lifeless and still. "Oh shit..." Raine said as she ran over to him, shoving over junk and boxes in the process that littered the garage floor. She struggled to pick him up, and dragged him to her motorcycle, where she heaved him on the backseat, wrapped his arms around her waist and sped off through the newly-made entrance.
"Jon?" A voice called to me from the distance, "Are you awake?"
"Who's there...?" I called, opening my eyes to see six women standing over me, one of which had a purple-glowing hand on my arm. "What the fuck?" I said, looking at the girl holding my arm.
"There," The girl clutching my arm said, "That should stop the effects of the poison. Fluttershy, could you please go get the bandages?" A pink haired girl just nodded and hurriedly walked off.
"Where...am I?" I asked, clutching my head and trying to stand up. A familiar face pushed me back down.
"Stay down, egghead." Raine informed, "You're still recovering from Nightmare-Toxin, and that shit is pretty damn dangerous. A moment too late and we would have lost you." The woman clutching my arm lifted her hand from the spot where the mark was, and I saw that the image of the eyed-moon was fainter than before, however the area around the mark was caked in dried blood and blisters, both ruptured and not. Just as she did so, the one dubbed "Fluttershy" came back with a handful of bandages, and handed them to the one tending my arm.
"What did you do to me? And who are you?" I asked the girl dressing my wound with the bandage, trying to sit up, but kept being pushed back down by Raine.
"Call me Twilight," The girl answered, not looking up from her current task at hand, "and I used my magic to detoxify the effects of the poison caused by the mark branded on your arm. Though it will sting and hurt for a few days, it won't cause any further harm." As she tightened the bandage, I felt a surge of pain course through the spot, causing me to wince and yelp in agony. "Sorry." Twilight apologized, readjusting the bandage to make it more loose and overall comfortable. "That better?" She asked, removing her hands from my arm. I turned my arm over a few times, examining the bandage.
"Y-yea..." I answered her, "Thanks." Raine and the others then gave me some space as Twilight extended her hand to help me up. As I grabbed her hand with the bandaged arm, I felt pain course through it again, and groaned.
"Take it easy, Jon." Twilight assured, "Recovering from Nightmare-Toxin takes a while, even after administering an antidote with magic." I looked around at the group in front of me, which was a pretty diverse one to boot. I was about to ask them their names when a flushing of a toilet was heard behind me. As the bathroom door creaked open, a pink-fluffy-haired girl walked out. As soon as she spotted me, her eyes lit up.
"YAY HE'S AWAKE!" She squealed, running up to me and tackle-hugging the living shit out of me, causing my arm to hurt again in the process. "How are you my name's Pinkie Pie but you can call me Pinkie for short wow you are pretty built and muscular for a human by the way what's your name?" God damn she talks too fast... I thought to myself. Ranie grabbed Pinkie's shoulders and yanked her off of me, then shook the girl violently.
"Are you insane?!" She asked Pinkie.
"Actually, yes!" Pinkie answered cheerfully.
"I mean about tackling a cripple!" Raine shouted.
"Hey!" I shot back, getting up with the help of a curly-purple-haired girl, "Who you calling a cripple?"
"Well, you ARE the only one here with an injury..." Raine explained.
"Well at least my hair isn't colored like a god-damn Pride Parade!" I insulted. Pinkie gasped.
"Ooooooo what's a Pride Parade?" Pinkie asked curiously, her eyes widening with wonder and excitement, "Do they have a good time parading? I LOVE to parade!"
"GIRLS!" Twilight shouted above all of us, making us fall silent for a bit and cease arguing, "Can't you see we are in the middle of a crisis? We STILL don't know how in Celestia's name we are to get back, and Equestria could be in grave danger at this point! There are Changlings flying around, Nightmare Moon is back, and to top it all off, our charge almost DIED!" No one said a word after that statement, until I spoke up.
"I did receive an amulet from someone..." I suggested, showing the six girls the dragon's head amulet that I received at my house from the package given to me. Twilight gasped.
"...Where did you get that...?" She asked me, her voice in a shocked tone.
"I got it from a package from someone named 'Anonymous Helper', whatever that means..." I asked, folding my arms and letting the pendant drop to my chest again. As soon as it did however, it started to glow blue again.
"Um," The country-girl of the group spoke up, noticing my amulet, "Aint yer amulet thing-a-roo s'posed ta be not, ya know, glowing...?" Twilight walked up to me and examined it further, her hand glowing and outstretched in front of it.
"I'm detecting something inside of it..." She said, moving her hands in front of the pendant, "Something extremely ancient. Something...something..."
"...that's trying to help, perhaps?" The amulet spoke, it's glow pulsating with the ringing of it's metallic, male voice. This caused all of us to jump, and Fluttershy to squeal in terror and run out of the room.